Isaiah chapter 11 verse 1, there
shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch
shall grow up out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall
rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the
spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. And shall make him of quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord, and he shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
But with righteousness shall he judge the poor. And reprove
with equity for the meek of the earth. And he shall smite the
earth with the rod of his mouth. With the breath of his lips shall
he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the
girdle of his loins. Faithfulness the girdle of his
reins. The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb. And the leopard
shall lie down with the kid. And the calf and the young lion
and the fatling together and a little child shall lead them.
And the cow and the bear shall feed. Their young ones shall
lie down together. And the lion shall eat straw
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp. And the weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor
destroy in all my holy mountain. For the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. And
in that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for
an ensign of the people To it shall the Gentiles seek, and
his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people which shall be left from Assyria, from Egypt,
from Pathos, and from Cush, and from Elam, from Shinar, from
Hamath and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up
an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel and gather together dispersed of Judah from the four corners
of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall
depart and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim
shall not envy Judah. Judah shall not vex Ephraim.
But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the
west. They shall spoil them of the east together. They shall
lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon
shall obey them. And the Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea. With his mighty wind shall he
shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven
streams, and make man go over Drashan. and there shall be a highway
for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria,
like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the
land of Egypt. You remember these references
to Assyria take us back to chapter 10 where we saw how God would
sovereignly use the king of Assyria and of course the armies of Assyria
to afflict his people. But when he got done with him,
he would himself punish the king of Assyria and the wicked men
of Assyria for the very thing he used them for, for evil against
his people. And here we see how in chapter
10 he uses this king and uses him in his bold and proud ambition. You saw the language of the king
of Assyria, how he said, I'll rise up and I'll destroy you
like I've done Everybody else that's ever faced me And you
won't be able to do anything about it. He was proud and boastful
And he uses him to afflict the nation of israel because of the
sinfulness the idolatry of the people This is a common theme
in isaiah so far in every chapter it seems But as often also is
the case the chapter ends with god judging israel's enemies
Speaks of the remnant that shall return and shall be saved That's chapter 10 and also we
saw that here in this one in chapter 11 speaks of why and
how that remnant shall be saved It tells of the Savior Clearly
prophesied here Branch From the root Jesse And
you'll be the salvation of his people. He's the champion. And
not only of that remnant spoken of, then we see a remnant mentioned
here, but of the remnant of God's people in every age. We see it
all through the scripture. God always has a remnant left
over scraps. That's what it's just what it
sounds like a scrap. It's the cloth that's left over when you've
done what you wanted to do. And it's just to be thrown away.
That's how this world thinks of God's people. But God has
a world because of the remnant. And this is their salvation,
this one, this man, this person. A rod of the stem of Jesse, a
branch shall grow out of his roots. And he refers to him later,
the root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people.
And the Gentiles will seek after him, and his rest will be glorious. It's a lot of talk of war and
unrest, affliction, trouble, but in him is rest. And so we
see that in this remnant, as I said, in every age. Listen
to Romans 11, one. Paul said, I say then, hath God
cast away his people? God forbid, for I also am an
Israelite of the seed of Abraham. of the tribe of Benjamin, God
hath not cast away his people, which he foreknew, what ye not,
what the scripture saith of Elias, how he maketh intercession to
God against Israel, saying, Lord, they've killed thy prophets and
dig down thine altars, and I'm left alone and they seek my life.
But what saith the answer of God unto him? You see what he's
saying here is because Paul was preaching how that not all Israel
are Israel, And so he asked the question that may well have been
on their minds. He says that Israel as a nation
now has never found God. They've never honored God. They've
always rebelled against God. And they're going to be judged
for it. And the question that he imagined, and rightly so,
would be on the minds of the Jews, then what about the promises?
Didn't he promise to bless his people? And what Paul is teaching
here is he wasn't talking about the earthly nation of Israel
when he promised that. He's telling who he is talking
about. And he harkens back to the time of Elijah, when Elijah
said, look at your people, Lord, they're all idolaters. They've killed your prophets,
they've digged down your altars, and I'm the only one left that
honors you, look at them. And so Elijah is basically saying
what they, this hypothetical question that the Jews would
pose, that Israel is a waste. It's a disaster. The whole nation
is a bunch of idolatry. And so has God forgotten his
promise? What sayeth the answer of God unto him? I have reserved. God hadn't forgotten his promise. His promise never was to save
the earthly nation of Israel. His promise was to save his spiritual
Israel from all nations. The nation, the earthly nation
of Israel being a type of them, typical of them. I have reserved
to myself 7,000 men. It's not like you think it is
about you. It looks like a complete waste, a complete disaster, a
complete loss. Looks like the whole nation will
have to be dropped into hell. No, they won't. And the reason
they won't is because I've done something about it. I've reserved
them to myself. They have not bowed the knee
to the image of Baal. They're not all idolaters because
I have reserved them. I have restrained them. I've
kept them by my power. And then Paul said, even so at
this present time, at the time he was writing Romans 11, even
so at this present time also, there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Who is this remnant? The ones
that God chose. That's what election means. It
means to choose. And so, we see a remnant in our
chapter in Isaiah 11. Paul speaks of a remnant in Elijah's
day, and as he does so, he says, even now, today, there's a remnant. And we know that that's true
now. In this age, it looks like a law of complete falsehood.
Who hath believed, I report? To whom is the arm of the Lord
revealed? Well, the Lord has reserved some. We know that from
the Word of God and we know that from experience. And by the grace
of God, He's chosen a people and they will never bow to Baal,
not ever again, once they know Him. And so we see this remnant
is always there. God always has a remnant according
to the election of grace, a people whom He's reserved Chosen restrained
from worshiping false gods and keeps by his power unto salvation
Isaiah 11 tells of their Savior and how he saves them Their Savior
won't be an angel Won't be a great mortal and Not even God will
save them by some impersonal act directly from his throne
Their Savior is going to be born of Jesse. He's going to be a
man. Jesse was David's father. And
the Lord Jesus Christ is called the son of David. Same thing,
son of Jesse, because David is Jesse's son. Remember, Bartimaeus
said, oh, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. He knew who he was. Bartimaeus
knew he was that promised child, that promised root, that promised
branch. that shall grow from the root
of Jesse. Their Savior is going to be born.
As he said in chapter 9, a child is born. And when that child
is born, that's a son. That's a son being given by God. A gift. What could God give us that could be any more wonderful
And his only begotten son, a son given, the son given. Great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh
and that was prophesied here in our chapter. He's going to
be born of Jesse. Turn to Jeremiah 23. Jeremiah 23 verse 1. Jeremiah 23. Woe be unto the
pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith
the Lord. Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of Israel against
the pastors that feed my people. You have scattered my flock and
driven them away and have not visited them. Behold, I will
visit upon you the evil of your doings, sayeth the Lord. And
I will gather the remnant of my flock. See that word again?
The remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have
driven them. You remember all those countries
mentioned at the end of our chapter? They're all, they're going to
return. The remnant shall return. I'm going to gather them. They're
not going to wake up and return on their own. The prodigal son
didn't wake up and return on his own. He woke up and returned
because the Lord gathered him. We just don't see that part. They shall be fruitful. I will
bring them again to their foes. Last part of verse three, and
they shall be fruitful and increase. And I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them. And they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed. Neither shall they be lacking,
saith the Lord. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch. There he is. Jesse, David, and
so on. That lineage from that lineage.
And what's he going to do? He's going to gather the remnant.
That's not as clear in our verse as it is right there. But now
that we saw that, our chapter is clear, isn't it? That remnant,
he said, is going to return. How? The Son of David is going
to bring them home. He's going to gather them. He's
going to save them. He's going to champion them. And the King
shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and justice
in the earth. And in His days, Judah shall
be saved. That's what God's doing in all
of this with the King of Assyria and all that. Well, God's punishing
His people. No, He's saving His people. That's
what He's doing. In his days, Judah shall be saved,
and Israel shall dwell safely. And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Verse two of our
chapter, and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the
spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear, of the Lord and we
see that in the New Testament as we look at our Lord Jesus
Christ and his life and his ministry and all of his deeds. We see
this, don't we? The Spirit shall rest upon him.
Listen to what John the Baptist said about him in John chapter
3. Let's turn over there. John 3
with regard to the Spirit being upon him. And I want to read
a broad context here of one particular verse where he references the
spirit being upon him, because I want you to see what that all
included. What happened because of that?
What our Lord did, what was true of him with regard to the spirit
resting upon him. John 3, 28. You yourselves bear me witness
that I said I'm not the Christ. but that I am sent before him.
He that hath the bride is the bridegroom, but the friend of
the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him rejoiceth greatly
because of the bridegroom's voice. This my joy therefore is fulfilled. I'm just glad to be at the wedding. He must increase, but I must
decrease. He that cometh from above is
above all. He that is of the earth is earthly
and speaketh of the earth. But he that cometh from heaven
is above all. And what he hath seen and heard,
that he testified. And no man receiveth his testimony.
He that hath received his testimony hath set to his seal that God
is true. For he whom God hath sent speaketh
the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. You see that? He speaks the Word
of God because the Spirit of God rests upon him immeasurably,
without limit, infinitely, perfectly. The Father loveth the Son and
hath given all things into his hand. That came with that too,
with the Spirit resting upon him. and causing him to do and
giving him power to do what he did and to speak with the very
power of God. God has given everything into
his hand. You remember where we saw he
laid help on one that's mighty, that's equipped, that's capable,
that's anointed. The Father loveth the Son, and
hath given all things into his hand. He that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not in
the Son shall not see life. But the wrath of God abideth
on him. You see the importance of the Spirit resting upon him.
We have the Holy Spirit. God's people all have the Holy
Spirit. We bear the fruit of the Spirit,
but in a measured way. The gifts that believers have
to preach or to teach or other things are gifts of the Spirit.
We don't have that by nature. We don't have any ability to
speak for God by nature, or to do anything, to worship Him at
all, to give or anything in true faith and honor to God. So we have the Spirit and we
have those gifts by the Spirit, but we're limited in those things
by our sin and just by who we are. We're not Him. We weren't
given the Spirit without measure like He was. But when he preached,
we're gifted to preach, but when he preached, they said nobody
ever spoke like this man. Nobody. And the fruit of the
Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
and so on. And we have those. We bear that fruit, but just
kinda. We kinda do, don't we? But his
love is infinite. When he loved his own, he loved
him to the end. Imagine a man who can love like
that. Love them with that love which
is the greatest. Greater love hath no man than
this that a man can lay down his life for his friends. And love described, the love
of Christ described in Romans 5, 6, for when we were yet without
strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die. You might be willing to
die for somebody you thought was worth it. Yet, peradventure for a good
man, some would even dare to die. But God committed his love
to us, and when we weren't worth it, we were worth it to him. While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Now I'm gonna slide. A man, a man spoke with the wisdom
of God himself. That's what it says, the spirit
of wisdom will rest on him. A man, it says the spirit of
power Talks about his might, his ability that a man healed
and commanded the elements by the power of the Holy Spirit. John, John it says in Revelation,
he was in the Spirit on the Lord's day and he was able to write
the book of Revelation. Even just a mere man in the Spirit
was able to write down and record the word of God But Jesus Christ,
our Lord Jesus Christ, did always those things that pleased his
father. And you know what it takes to
please the father? Absolute, infinite perfection.
And not just an abstinence from that which is dishonoring to
God, not just an absence from sin, but positively glorifying
him and honoring him infinitely in everything that he did, in
every thought, in every word, in every deed. He always pleased
the Father. And he was obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross, and saved his people from their
sins, accomplished an unthinkable work, an unspeakable victory,
because the Spirit rested upon him without measure. You see the word counsel there
in verse two. the spirit of counsel and might. That word might, as I said, refers
to his power in the Holy Spirit to say to the winds, be still. But also counsel, Isaiah had
already written that his name shall be called Counselor. Counselor. What is the counsel? You think
about that. I thought about this. He is the counselor. And with
the spirit upon him without measure, He counsels with the wisdom of
God. I kind of want to know what his
advice is. Wouldn't you want to know what
his counsel is? You know what it is? Come to me. That's what he said everywhere
he went, wasn't it? Come to me. Believe on me. Bow to me. Honor me. God has done all, the father
did everything he did that all men might honor his son. So honor
me. Believe on me. Come to me. I'll set you free. You'll be
free indeed. That was his advice, isn't it? I don't have much advice
else than that. Do you? Come to Him. Hear of Him. Worship Him. Honor Him. Believe on Him. We see the word rest also in
our text, don't we, in verse 10. And we won't skip that down
that far yet, but he knows what he said that day. There should
be a root of Jesse, which will stand for an incident of the
people to it. Show the Gentiles seeking his
rest. His rest to be glorious. What
would you say? What was his advice? Come to
me and I'll give you rest. Give you rest. Rest unto your
soul. Talk a little bit more about
that in a minute. Because the spirit was upon him
without measure, because the spirit of wisdom was upon him.
They said nobody ever spoke like this. Because that's true. That's why this is true. Man
shall not live by bread alone. You can't live without his word,
without his counsel, without that spirit of wisdom that rested
upon him and that he declared and put forth. You can't live
without it. You can't live on just bread
and water and meat and drink. but by every word that proceedeth
out of his mouth. The sweet and perfect counsel
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse three, and he shall make
him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, and he
shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall
he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins. You see his character here. Quick
understanding. He feared his father. He respected
and honored his father in all things. And he didn't depend
upon the senses of the flesh to judge matters like we do.
We look and we see some things happen and we hear something,
you know, through the grapevine or whatever. We make judgments.
And usually they're wrong, at least to some extent. He don't judge that way. He has
understanding from God Almighty. A man. This Savior is flesh. We saw that. He's human flesh. He's born of Jesse, of David.
the son of David, but he won't have to rely upon the senses
of the flesh, the limitations of the flesh. He won't be limited
by those things as we are. He will judge with the very word
of the judgment of God. He said, the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit and they are life. Thus he is judge
of life and death by the very words of his mouth. You see that? That if you're going to have
life, If you're going to have the spirit at all, like he had
it without measure, if you don't have it at all, he's going to
have to say something. As he said, my words, their spirit,
their life. And he judged among men by the
very words of his mouth. And he did so perfectly in righteousness. He was perfectly faithful to
his promises in his obedience to the father. in the performance
of all the work that the Father gave Him to do. And that's how
the remnant is saved. Keep it in that context. He's
talking about saving His remnant. How's He going to do it? Son
of David, from the root of Jesse, a branch, a righteous branch,
and my Spirit will dwell upon Him and rest upon Him without
measure, so that when He speaks, it's the Word of God. And when
He acts, it's the power of God. And when He judges, it's the
righteousness of God. That's how the remnant is going
to be saved. That's how we are saved. Now, today, in this generation,
not by what we do, but because God sent us a Savior. He said,
I'm going to gather my remnant. I'm going to send Him to do it.
And He's going to get it done. He said, if I be lifted up. How
is He going to do it? If I be lifted up. lifted up
between heaven and earth on a cross and he said, I'll draw all men,
all manner of sinners unto myself. That's how he's gonna do it.
In Christ, and this is kind of what this, that little passage
we just read, his judgment and his power and his wisdom and
destroying the enemies of God and of his people with the very
word of his mouth and all those things, all this character and
power of his, This is what it's saying. In Christ dwells all
the fullness of the Godhead in a human body. That's what Paul
said. That's what we must conclude
here. He's God manifest in the flesh. Lord, show us the Father. Have I been with you so long
you don't know me? If you've seen me, you've seen
the Father, you've seen God. when you look into my face. So
He speaks being all the fullness of the Godhead in the body. He
speaks in righteousness. He judges in righteousness. He
doeth all things well. He loves with the very love of
God. He justifies freely all those
whom He loves with the sovereign discretion of God. His wisdom
baffled all the Jewish scholars. They said He didn't go to the
school. How can He say the thing? How does he know anything? All
the Jewish scholars that prided themselves on their wisdom and
their intellect. And when he spoke, he completely
baffled them. But when he spoke, it didn't
baffle sinners. It was as a light shining into
their very heart. And they said, where are we going
to go? You have the words of eternal life. To those to whom He gave ears
to hear, it wasn't confusing, was it? It was life. The words of life. It says He
shall be of quick understanding. Quick understanding. I was going
to have you turn to Luke 2, 41-47, but you remember that? His parents were looking for
him. Where is he? He's not here. And they went back and they found
him in the temple, didn't they? What was he doing? He was sitting
there talking to the Jewish scholars in there. And it says they marveled
at his understanding. Same word that's in our text.
I wanted to show you that, but you know it's there, and you
can look it up if you don't think so. Luke 2, 41 through 40. They marvel at his understanding.
Why? Because he's God in the body
of a little boy. In him, even then, dwelt all
the fullness of the Godhead in that body. And they marvel at
his understanding. In verses 6 through 9, we won't
look at them particularly in detail, but they speak of the
things being once again like they were in the garden of God.
Let's talk about it for a little while. The lion's going to lay
down with the lamb. That's how it was in the garden
of Eden, in God's paradise that he created for his his child
Adam and Eve. Before sin entered into this
world, there's peace, peace on earth and goodwill toward men. That's what this signifies. No
enmity, no danger. Little kids can play with snakes.
We have to warn our children against them now. Don't play
back there, there might be a snake over there. It's gonna be all
right then, when the Prince of Peace comes. There won't be any
hurt. There won't be any harm, there
won't be any danger. Those are all the effects of our sin, among
many others, and it's just symbolic of the total disaster that we've
made of God's creation. The whole creation groaneth and
travaileth in pain together until now. Why? Because of you. It's
your fault. Oh, and mine too. It's our fault, isn't it? We
messed everything up. But he's going to fix it. It's
just simple, isn't it? And not just the outer creation,
but this signifies the new creation. He's going to make us new. He
makes all things new. What was that other name, by
the way, in Isaiah chapter 9? We're talking about peace now.
We're talking about a lion laying down with a lamb and having no
desire, no predatory instinct against that lamb. His name shall
be called Wonderful, Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting
Father, the Prince of Peace. His very presence commands peace. The Son that is given to us Shall
be called the prince of peace and this is not just about animals
This is just symbolic Men instead of having enmity toward one another
and a desire to devour prey upon one another will be at peace
Ephesians 2 13. I want you to turn to this because
i'm not going to be I'm not going to be longer than that. I want
you to look at the he's talking about Picture this, you know,
the lion laying down with the lamb and these ones who have
natural enmity that we've witnessed in our lifetime. I've seen animals
eating other animals, haven't you? But now, Ephesians 2.13, but
now, and again, he's not just talking about animals here, this
is a symbol, this is a picture. Now in Christ Jesus, ye who at
one time That's what that sometimes is. At one time, we're far off,
or made nigh by the blood of Christ. Far off in spirit, far
off in enmity. They're made nigh by the blood
of Christ, for he is our peace who hath made both one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us. He's talking
about Jew and Gentile there. The greatest enmity that probably
has ever existed. You think there's prejudice of
white people against blacks and black people against white? The
Jews call the Gentiles a bunch of dogs. Not worthy to even be
in their company. But he's broken down that wall,
having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments
contained in ordinances for to make in himself of twain one
new man, so making peace. And that's peace with one another. The people of God are going to
be in unity together, but also that he might reconcile both.
Now that they're one and together, both of them are going to be
reconciled, not just to one another, but to God. There's real reconciliation,
real peace in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity
thereby and came and preached peace unto you, which were far
off and to them that were not. To the Gentile and the Jew, for
through him we both have access by one spirit unto the Father. There's no Jew, there's no Gentile,
there's no bond, no free, there's not even any male and female
in Christ, the scripture says. We're just all one. Verse seven
there in our text, look at it for just a second. The cow and the bear shall feed,
Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall
eat strong like the ox. The cow and the bear are going
to eat together? How are they going to do that? They don't
even eat the same thing. A cow eats grass and grain and stuff.
And a bear eats big salmon and meat. Fish and other animals. But they're going to feed together.
Lions and oxen don't eat the same thing they do now. They
do now. First Corinthians 10, 1. Moreover,
brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant how that all
our fathers were under the cloud and all passed through the sea
and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea and
did all eat the same spiritual meat. We all eat the same. We're different in so many ways,
aren't we? But we all eat the same thing. Spiritually. The same spiritual meeting did
all drink the same spiritual drink for they drank of that
spiritual rock that followed them. And that rock was Christ. Christ is meat and drink indeed
to me and you. Even though we're so different,
we're enmity. Enmity with everybody and everything
by nature. What is it that brings everything
and everyone together in unity and love and peace and harmony?
It's a beautiful picture of it. We're all laying in the green
pastures together without any enmity, without any fear, no
hurt, no harm, no danger, and there's a rainbow. It's just
a perfect, beautiful picture. What causes that? Verse nine
again. The last part, they shall not
hurt nor destroy. And that goes back to all of
that. The cow, they'll feed together. They'll, they'll not eat one
another. They'll have no enmity with one
another. There won't be any danger or
hurt. For the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the
Lord. What brings us together? We know
Christ. I know Christ, you know Christ. And so in every way that matters,
we're one. We're one. Galatians 3 26 for you're all
the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus brothers and
sisters family For as many of you as have been baptized into
Christ immersed into Christ have put on Christ There's neither
Jew nor Greek There's neither bond nor free There's neither
male nor female For you're all one in Christ Jesus That's what
we see in there, in that line, in that lamb laying down together.
Verse 10 in our text, and we're about through. In that day, there
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of
the people, and to that ensign, to that root, to that man, shall
the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. The scriptures
teach a lot about rest. You notice that? Our need for
rest. There's a Sabbath day. A Sabbath
day from the very start. God established it, didn't he?
From the very start. He himself, when he created this universe,
rested on the Sabbath day. What is that all about? Why?
God doesn't need a break. I need lots of it. I'm working
on something. I have to sit down every once
in a while, you know? I'm not God, so why did he rest? What
does that got to do with anything? What is he saying? What's he
teaching us? There is a Sabbath day in order
to teach us of the rest that God gives to the believer, his
people in Christ. We need rest. Think about this
rest from what? Well, we don't observe a Sabbath
anymore, but we still have days of rest now, don't we? Can't
work every day. You're going to have to stop.
We know what the Lord was teaching by that Sabbath, even though
we don't observe it now. There's six days of labor and
on the seventh day, quit it, put it down, let it go. Well, wait a minute, we've got
to get ahead of the competition. You know, if I, if I work on
the seventh day, God said, put it down. It's not just about
that. It's not just about whether you
can do it or not. We labor in this world. We want God to honor. We want to honor God, I should
say, and His Son. We want to honor the Son of God
in this world. But every week we're forced to
acknowledge the fact. And think about this. We work,
we work, we work, we work. And still, even though we don't
observe that Sabbath, we know what it was about. And even now,
our bodies need rest. We have to rest. And we remember
that God rested even on the seventh day. And all of that causes us
to acknowledge, it forces us to acknowledge the fact that
when it comes right down to it, when it comes down to the saving
of the soul, there's nothing we can do. I want to honor God
with what I do in this world, but every week I'm reminded that
salvation has nothing to do with me. It wasn't just for the regenerative
qualities of rest so that you'd be strong the next day and be
able to work again that God instituted the Sabbath. You know all of
the restrictions. You couldn't do much of anything
on the Sabbath. You couldn't walk very far. You couldn't pick
anything up. All these restrictions. You were
not allowed to do a whole lot of anything. And the word Sabbath,
do you know what it means? It means cease. Quit, stop it. And listen, there's a reason
why it means that, and there's a reason it was instituted. There's
a reason why God, who doesn't get tired, rested on the Sabbath
day. Listen, Hebrews 4.10, for he, the sinner, that is entered
into his, Christ's rest, he hath also ceased from his own works. Even now, even when we don't
observe the Sabbath, we're forced to observe all the time, every
week. That we can't get the job done.
It don't matter how hard we work. We can't get it done. And finally,
in the end, we're going to have to sit back and watch God save
us. That's what it's about. Stand
still, cease and see the salvation of the Lord. Have ceased from his own works
as God did from his. You're not going to be saved
by his work plus some of yours. You're not going to be saved
by your work, sure enough. You're going to be saved by him
and his work, his perfect finished work of salvation for sinners.
And that's what the Sabbath teaches us. And this is glorious rest
because it's salvation from sin. If you can sure enough cease
from your own labors, you'll be saved. When you abandon your
own works as a means of pleasing God and rest in Christ and His
finished perfect work, you are saved. And it don't get no more
glorious than that. You must cease from your own
works. And the remnant, that's what
they do. Let me show you that in Romans
11, we'll be through. We're talking about the remnant.
We're talking about rest. From our chapter in Isaiah. Well,
let's see both of those things right here in Romans 11 5 You remember I quoted this while
ago, but I want to see the rest of it And see another passage
in in in the context of it Romans 11 5 even so then At this present
time also just like in Isaiah 11 There is a remnant according
to the election of grace and what did God say? He's gonna
do about that remnant. He's gonna bring them home They shall return. I'm going to send my son and
he's going to bring him home. And a remnant according to the
election of grace. And then Paul got to thinking
about that word grace. And he said, now, if it's by
grace, then that means there's no more work on your part. There's
the rest, there's the Sabbath right there. He ceased from his
own works. Otherwise, grace is no more great.
There's no such thing as grace if you're working your way to
please God. But if it be of works, then grace
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that
which he seeketh for. The nation of Israel has rejected God, and has not
been able to obtain to the righteousness that they tried to by their own
works. But the election hath obtained
it, the remnant hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded.
They're still trying to work their way to God. They still
have not ceased from their own work. They still don't know what
the Sabbath is all about, and that Christ is our Sabbath. Still
don't know that. All right? Why didn't Israel
obtain unto righteousness? That's what they were seeking
for, favor with God. That's what they understood that concept.
And that was the whole concept of the tabernacle. We need communion
with God. We need to be in the presence
of God again. We need restoration and communion with God. And they
understood that it was by those sacrifices, but they thought
that it was their performance of those things that made them
measure up and warrant communion with God, acceptance with God.
and they could never obtain unto righteousness. Why? Romans 9,
and I'm done. Romans 9, 31. But Israel, which
followed after the law of righteousness, hath not attained to the law
of righteousness. That's what they at least pretended
to do when everybody was looking, at least. You know, they followed
after the law of righteousness. But it didn't get them anywhere.
Why? Because they sought it not by faith, but as it were by the
works of the law. That's what the Sabbath is teaching
us now. You do what you do. Work, do
what you do. But then when it comes to the
salvation of the soul, cease. Put it down. Because you can't
help yourself in that. Sought it not by faith, but as
it were by the works of the law, for they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. The one who is the righteousness of the sinner. How can a sinner
do anything without working? He looks to him who did everything,
that's how. But they stumbled at that stumbling
stone. As it is written, behold, I lay inside a stumbling stone
and a rock of offense. And whosoever believeth on him
now, whosoever looks to him for their performance, for their
work, for their salvation, Should not be ashamed And then verses 11 the last part
of the chapter verses 11 through 16 show how that what we've seen
often in the Word of God how that God is going to destroy
every enemy that we have and in spite of everything in spite
of the devil and all of his Other devils and all of his men that
he had and every enemy God's going to bring us home He's going
to say to the north, south, east, and west, give them up. He's
going to be lifted up between heaven and earth. And he's going
to draw us all to him. And we're going to rest in him
by his grace. Let's bow.