All right, brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah 66. For the ladies, Melinda has prepared
a little something for you back there, and be sure to pick it
up on your way out. She was feeling a little crafty,
and so she did a little something for you. I think it turned out
real nice. I do pray, I've been praying
this morning that the Lord would give me the message to preach to you,
the words and re-bring things back to my mind and to my memory
today. If you could have been standing
by my bedside all through the night and heard the message being
preached on my pillow, you'd have heard some message. The
Lord was just giving me this, I mean, just things coming to
my heart all night long. I just pray I hadn't preached
it out. I pray He'll do that for me now. Let's read verse
14, Isaiah 66, verse 14. And when ye see, when you see this, your heart
shall rejoice, and your bones shall flourish like an herb. And the hand of the Lord shall
be known toward His servants, and His indignation toward His
enemies. Now, I'm going to jump right
into my first point here. The Lord says, when you see,
when you see. And we're going to do some reviewing
here from last week. I think it's needful. We had
more traffic in here than I-95. I was having trouble preaching
and I know some of you were having trouble concentrating. There
was so much moving back and forth and going on. And I want to review
the message from last week, because it all has to do with what he's
saying we're going to see. When you see, now this sight
we saw this morning is by God-given faith. This is not just something
you're going to see naturally. A lot of men saw this with natural
eyes, but it had no effect on them whatsoever. Just like men
saw Christ with natural eyes, they rejected Him. with a natural
heart. This is eyes of faith. When you
see, when God gives you eyes to see, and you see, this is
what you're going to see. This is what faith sees. You see what God's done, you
see what He's doing, and you see what He shall do. In short,
you see salvations of the Lord. That's what you see when He gives
you faith, that you see God. You see Him working out salvation
for His people. You see salvations of the Lord.
And he said, when you see, now what are we going to see? Well,
Lord, back up in verse 1 of chapter 66, he said, the heaven is my
throne and the earth is my footstool. Where is the house that you are
going to build me? Where is the place of my rest?
This is all a prophecy concerning the time whenever Christ came
And he put an end to all the old natural Israel and the old
covenant and all those sacrifices and all of that. He put an end
to all of it. Because that wasn't his house. Men didn't build his
house. Men didn't build his temple.
Men weren't making his sacrifices. Christ makes the sacrifice and
he's the sacrifice. Christ builds his house. He's
the temple and he makes his children living stones. Christ is the
Lamb. He's the high priest. It's His
blood that saves. He's the one that God's presence
is the holiest of holies. And He enters there as our High
Priest with His blood having obtained eternal redemption for
His people. The house God builds is built
by God. It's not built by us. And so
he's saying here to those who thought Israel, natural Israel,
was something, and that was going to be God's way, and that was
how it was, and that was the real temple, and that was the
real Israel, and that was the real chosen people of God. God's saying, you're not building
me the house. That house is fixed to be done
away with, he's saying. That's not my house. My house
is built by my son. Built by my son. All the things
that were used in that, I made all those things. He said, well,
you can't offer me anything. The offering is going to have
to be made by me, God said. It's going to have to be made
by my son. You remember, he's been talking about how he's the
one that makes the new heavens and the new earth. He's the one
that makes his people new. And he says there, he says there
in verse 2, all those things of my handmaid, all those things
have been, saith the Lord, but to this man will I look, to him
that's poor and of a contrite spirit and trembles at my word. You see, that's a man that's
been created by God. Only God can give that heart.
To make you poor and broken, see yourself as such a sinner,
you can't even lift your eyes up to heaven. To make you so
poor and contrite, that you tremble to hear God's Word. You tremble.
You want to hang on every word, and you want to hear what God
says, and you want to believe God, and trust God, and follow
God. That's got to be created by God. He makes His people living
stones, built up a spiritual house in whom He dwells through
His Spirit. He brings us together here. This
is a house right here. I'm not talking about the walls.
I'm not talking about the floor or the ceiling. I'm talking about
His people. It's a house built up by Him. His Spirit dwelling
in each of us individually and in us collectively when He's
gathered us here together. And He's done that so that you
offer up spiritual sacrifices. Not physical lambs, and not physical
offerings, and not physical things that they did under the Old Covenant,
but spiritual sacrifices. The calves of your lips. Praising
God, glorifying His Son, worshiping Him. proclaiming His praises
and His glory and His grace and His redemption and all things
that He's accomplished. These are the sacrifices God's
pleased with and that only comes from a broken and contrite heart.
That's why David said, broken and a contrite heart, O God,
you won't despise. That's the sacrifice of God.
One that comes bent down, bowed to God, worshiping God, believing
God, glorifying God. He's not butting, he's not butting,
he's not rebutting, he's not saying but, but, but, and what,
what, what, and I want to do it my way and this and that.
He's bowed to God and said I'm going to do what God says. God
creates that house. He creates that temple by His
making, by His blood, by His righteousness. And He says now
there was a whole bunch of people though, verse 3 and 4, there
was a bunch of people that when Christ came, They ignored the
one of whom the whole old covenant and all natural Israel and all
of that was to typify. They ignored him who is the express
image in which all those shadows and types pictured. They hung
on to the shadows and the types. They hung on to sacrificing their
physical ox, and sacrificing their physical lambs, and going
to their natural manly priest, and going to their man-made temple,
and going through all those old covenant rituals. They continued
with all that. And there's a host of people today in religion doing
the same thing. Ninety-nine percent of religion
today worships religion. They worship their worship. They
worship their building. They worship their offerings.
They worship their congregation. They worship their way of doing
things. They worship their traditions. They worship their preachers.
They worship their worship. And here's what God said about
it. Verse 3, He that killeth an ox is if he slew a man. They
might as well be committing murder, He said to me. He said, he that
sacrifices the lambs, if he cut off a dog's neck. He that offers
an oblation, as if he offered swine's blood, that forbidden
blood. He that burns incense, as if
he blessed an idol. He said, yes, they've chosen
their own ways. They said, we won't have Christ,
we won't have this man reign over us, we won't have anybody
tell us, we won't have Christ tell us. This is how you're going
to be saved. This is how you're going to worship
me. This is how we're going to do it right here. They won't
have that. Man in his heart says, I won't have this man reign over
me. God says, so they chose their
own ways. And he said, therefore, he said they sold the lights
and their abominations. And he's not talking about, he's
talking about folks that was in his temple in Jerusalem doing
everything God told them to do in the Old Testament. The problem
was they were doing that when Christ had come now and said,
I've put an end to it and I'm the end of it. He said, it's
all an abomination. They've rejected me. They're
not serving me. Remember, they took Christ down
off the cross in order so that they wouldn't break a Sabbath
day. There's Christ the Sabbath, there's the Sabbath, there's
the one the Sabbath rest at the Sabbath day typified, and they
take Him down off a cross, just killed the Sabbath rest God provided
for His people, took Him down off a cross, so they go back
to observing a day. Men will look Christ in the face.
He said, go forth and baptize My people. They look Him straight
in the face and say, we're just going to sprinkle them instead.
Well, He didn't say sprinkle them, He said immerse them. Bury
them, because the old man's got to be buried. And there's a whole
host of ways men look Christ in the face and tell Him, we're
not going to worship that way, we're going to worship this way,
because we're going to glorify God. We're going to do this glorifying
God. They did that, took Christ down
off that cross, got Him out of the way, went back to observing
that Sabbath day, calling on God and saying, we're glorifying
God. That's the corruption of the
human heart. depravity of man, right there, brethren. And God
said, they've chosen their way. He said, verse 4, I will also
choose their delusions, and I'll bring their fears upon them.
Because when I called, they didn't answer. When I spoke, they didn't
hear. But they did evil before mine eyes, and chose that which
I delighted not. Christ stood there one day, and
He said, I'd have gathered you like a chicken gathers her hens
under her wings, and you wouldn't do it. You wouldn't have it.
He told Jerusalem that. All that host of natural sons
of Abraham, you wouldn't have that. You wouldn't have me. You
wouldn't have me. He said, now your house is left
to you desolate. And he gave them such delusion
of mind, such delusion of heart, that to this very day, men in
religion are doing the same things, worshiping the same way, offering
the same sacrifices, and thank God's pleased with it. God said,
I'll give them their delusions. I'll set these delusions in their
heart. Because they chose their own way. Well, that's what he's
saying. He's saying, you're going to
see this happen. You're going to see this happen. You only
see this by faith. You only see this by faith. You're
going to see God, that He's the one that builds this house. And
you're going to see His indignation toward His enemies. His people
are going to see this. I don't believe His enemies even
see this, because they're blinded. They don't see it. His people
see it. He's going to give you faith to see this. He said, what
if God, willing to show His wrath, willing to be long-suffered,
why? That He might show you vessels
of mercy, what great mercy He's shown you. And He shows you how
He's passed by some and how He saved others to show you mercy
is not common. Grace is not common. He doesn't
give it to everybody. He gives it to His people. He
makes you to see how valuable grace is. He could have just
as well left you in your delusion. He didn't. He gave you faith
to see it. Well, it goes on there and He says this. He says, that
day that Christ finished His work on Calvary's mountain, without
His people doing any travail whatsoever, He said that's when
all His holy nation, His true Israel is going to be born. Look
at verse 7. Before she travailed and brought
forth, before a pain came, she was delivered of a man-child.
Who's heard such a thing? Who's seen such a thing? Shall
the earth be made to bring forth in one day? Shall a nation be
born at once? When Christ made His people a
new creation, a new Jerusalem, by His blood and His righteousness,
and He finished that work, when He came out of that grave, In
one day, His people were born. All His people, His holy nation
was born. All of them. There's some of
them that was amongst the Jews at that time. There's some of
them that were amongst the Gentiles. They were born that day though.
Born in Him. God exercised great power to
us when He raised Him from the dead, Paul said in Ephesians
1. And He set Him down in His own right hand, made Him head
over the church, that He might fill all things. And the very
next verse says, And you dead sinners, He quickened. Gave you
life. Gave you life. So He said there,
when He came out of that grave, as soon as He came out, that
holy nation was born in one day. And then He said this, Christ
is going to cause His church to prevail. To preach Christ. And when He does, He is going
to make His children to be born. We saw that happen. Verse 8,
as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth the children. On
the day of Pentecost, Christ caused them to travail by preaching
the gospel. And what happened? Christ caused
His church to bring forth 3,000 children saved by His Spirit,
by His grace. A little while later, 5,000 more
were added. And He kept adding to the church
daily such as should be saved through that gospel. He said,
I'm going to do it. I'm going to make them travail
and I'm going to bring forth my children. And then he declared
this. He said even more. He said, I'm going to send this
gospel to the Gentiles and I'm going to cause my elect children
to start being born again out of them. He said, I'm leaving
Israel desolate. That was a picture, brethren.
I wish we could get that. That was a picture. That's what
it was for. It was to picture his true spiritual
Israel, his true house, his true people, his elect, his true Christ,
His true offering, His true sacrifice was to picture Him. That's what
it was for. And when He got done with it, when Christ came and
fulfilled it all, He said, we're not going to hold on to that
shout anymore. We're done with that. And it wasn't until 1940
that that nation Israel came back into existence. A man-made
state, recognized by nations, But God so destroyed Jerusalem
in 70 AD, He destroyed their genealogies and everything. Men
today that say they're Jews, they can't tell you what tribe
they're from. They can't. I ask them. They can't tell you.
They got no genealogies to show it. That's one thing old Israel
always had was their genealogies. They could show you exactly what
tribe they came from. God's so determined that we're
not going to hang on to that, He's even destroyed the genealogies. So that you can't... Just like
before he made Israel, everybody was Gentiles. And now after he's
done with Israel, all his people are really just Gentiles. And
he's calling us out. We're all sons of Adam, fallen,
dead, depraved, that have to be given life by Christ, and
faith by Christ, and righteousness by Christ, and holiness by Christ,
and redemption by Christ, to lay hold of Him, and rest in
Him, and be brought to glory by Him. That's the same with
all of us. All God's elected that way. What would it be if God said,
okay, I'm going to turn down, I'm going to have mercy, and
I'm going to save all people that are Texans because they're
Texans? That's works. That's looking
on a people because of where they live, who they are. God
saves by grace. He said they're not just because
they're natural sons of Abraham don't mean they're my children.
My children are elect, the chosen children of God. He might call
some people out of that man-made state called Israel, but he's
not going to do it because they're in that man-made state called
Israel. He's going to do it because they're his elect. Because it's
by grace. It's by grace. So that's what
he said. Now I'm done with that. I'm going
to turn now and I'm going to send my gospel to the Gentiles.
Look here in verse 6. I'm sorry, verse 9. Shall I bring
to the birth and not cause to bring forth, saith the Lord?
Shall I cause to bring forth and shut the womb, saith the
God? Am I going to call out my children right here on the day
of Pentecost out of this, out from among these Jews, and then
I'm just going to shut up the womb of my church and not let
her bring forth the rest of her children? Not cause her to travail
and give birth and bring forth the rest of my children? He said,
sure I am. Sure I am. I'm not going to shut
that womb. I'm going to make her keep bringing
forth children. So he tells them this. Rejoice ye with Jerusalem,
verse 10, be glad with her, all ye that love her. Rejoice for
joy with her, all ye that mourn for her. There they were, that
little band. And he said, you stay right here.
You stay put right here and you rejoice with my church, with
my people. And if you're mourning for her, you just rejoice with
her because you're fixing to see something. You can't see
what I'm doing. You can't see what my power and
my mercy and my grace. You stay right here. You keep
preaching this word. He said, I'm going to make you,
verse 11, I'm going to make you suck the milk of my gospel, be
satisfied with the breasts of her consolations. that you may
milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory, with
my church, my gospel. For thus saith the Lord, I'll
extend peace to her like a river." Watch this. And I'm going to
extend the brightness of the Gentiles like a flowing stream.
He said, I'm fixing to turn to the Gentiles and they're fixing
to come in here like a river. And then you're going to suck
and you're going to be born on her sides and dabbled on her
knees. As one whom his mother comforted, so will I comfort
you and you shall be comforted in Jerusalem. And he made his
people see that. Not just with physical eyes.
He made them see it with faith. And He's made you see that. He
made you look back now. We look back on what Christ accomplished
at Calvary. We look back at what Christ accomplished
at Pentecost. We look back and what do you
see? You see the hand of the Lord toward His people, saving
His people. And you see His indignation toward His enemies. Don't you?
You see it. He said, you're going to see.
And you see. We see by His grace, by His mercy. So what God says is going to
happen when you see this. What's going to happen when you
see the salvations of God? What are you going to happen
when you see salvations by Christ, that He's the one building His
house and calling out His people from Jew and Gentile and making
them one people? What are you going to do when
you see that by faith? Here's our second point. It says
in Isaiah 66, verse 14, When you see, your heart shall rejoice,
and your bones shall flourish like the herb. Your heart is
going to rejoice. That new man is going to delight
in the Lord. And your bones, they are going
to be formed. They are going to be united.
They are going to grow up. They are going to flourish like an
heir. Let's go to Ezekiel 37. Let's see Ezekiel 37. I want to try to put this the
clearest way I know how to put it. Ezekiel 37 verse 1 says,
The hand of the Lord was upon me, carried me out in the Spirit
of the Lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley which
was full of bones. And He caused me to pass by them
round about, and behold, there were very many in the open valley,
and lo, they were very dry. And He said unto me, Son of man,
can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Christ, after He rose from the
grave, He took his people, that little band he called out, and
he said, now you go back to Jerusalem. Lord, go back to Jerusalem? They just nailed you to a tree.
They just nailed you to a cross. The Lord said, I want you to
come here now with me and look out there at Jerusalem. Look
at that. Look at them. All those bones out there, you
pass around them and look at them. Look how dry they are.
Oh, they're in the temple. Oh, they got their priestly garments
on. Oh, they're bringing their blood, and they're bringing their
lambs, and they're bringing their oxen. Oh, they're calling on
the name of God. And oh, they're going through
all the routine on the day of Pentecost. And he said, now Peter,
can those bones live? They're dead as a hammer. Can
they live? And that little band sitting
there when the Lord poured out the Spirit on them and baptized
His church in the Spirit there on that day of Pentecost, you
know what they were saying by sitting right there and waiting
on the Lord? You know what they were saying? Lord, you know. Lord,
you know. And he said to Peter, he said,
you go preach to them. This is what he told him right
here, verse 4. He said to me, you preach to these bones and
you say to them, oh you jive bones, hear the Word of the Lord.
This is what the Lord is saying to you bones. Verse 5, Behold,
I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live.
I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh upon you,
and I will cover you with skin, and I will put breath in you,
and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. That's
what he told Peter. He said, Peter, you go with that
message right there and you tell them. You stand up, you tell
those folks, he said, I'm going to give you the spirit to each
of you all to speak in the languages they can understand. Languages
you've never even learned before. And you go there and you speak
with these tongues I've given you, and you speak in their language,
but you preach Christ. You preach Christ. You preach
a known, understood language, the gospel to those people, and
you tell them, I am the Lord. You tell them you've taken with
wicked hands and crucified the prince of life, that one who
was typified by David the king, that one who is the consolation
of Israel, that one who God said, I'll not leave your soul in hell,
neither suffer my holy one to see corruption. That was talking
about Christ. He said, you go tell them that.
You go tell them that that same Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom
you crucified, God has raised to his right hand and declared
he is both Lord and Christ. He is the King and Savior of
my people. You go tell them that. And he
said, and you tell them that the only way you're going to
hear this and know this and understand this is if God gives you a heart
to know. You go tell them in short, you go tell them this,
salvations of the Lord. That very Lord you've been rejected.
That Lord you've crucified and slain so that you can go on with
this charade of religion. That Lord is the only one that
can save you. That Christ is the only one that
can save you. And look here now, verse 7, he said, so I preached
like I was commanded. And as I prophesied, there is
a noise, and behold, a shaking, and the bones came together,
bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews
and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them above,
but there was no breath in them." They began to be pricked in their
heart, didn't they? When Peter preached that message, they were
pricked in their heart, and they said, Men and brethren, what
shall we do? He said, Repent and be baptized. The Lord said,
I cause my breath to come in him. I cause my spirit to come
in him. I give him life. And he gave him life. He pricked
him in the heart. He made him fall down and worship Christ.
That's what he did. Look here, he said, prophesying
to the wind, pray son of man, say to the wind, pray to the
Holy Spirit. And said, come from the four winds, oh breath, and
breathe upon these slain that they may live. So I prophesied
as he commanded me. I prayed. And the breath came
in. And they lived, and they stood upon their feet in exceeding
great army. That day the Lord saved 3,000
people. 3,000 people. He took those dry
bones out there in that valley, going about their dry, dead,
legal worship of religion, their vain show, and He called them
out, and He put life in them, and He united them together,
and He made them one people. That's what He did. 3,000 of them that day. 5,000
a little while later. Now look here, I'm telling you,
that's what He's going to do to His... That's what He did
that day to them. That's what He's going to have
to do to all His elect among the Gentiles, because we're all
the same kind of dry bones. We're all just in that valley
of dry bones, and we're all dry bones, and we've all got to hear
this gospel. We've all got to be born of His Spirit. We've
all got to be made one in Christ. Now look here, verse 11. He said,
Son of man, I'll tell you what this is all about, what I'm telling
you here. These bones are the whole house of Israel. Not natural
Israel, not the natural sons of Abraham. These bones right
here are an illustration of all the people that I'm going to
save by my free and sovereign grace who are my true spiritual
Israel. Same thing he's telling us over
in Isaiah 66. Look here. Oh, they say our bones
are dried and our hope is lost, we cut off our parts. He said,
you preach to them. You say, thus saith the Lord
God, O my people, I'm going to open your graves, I'm going to
cause you to come up out of your graves, I'm going to bring you
into the land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the
Lord when I've opened your graves, O my people, and brought you
up out of your graves, and put my Spirit in you, and you shall
live, and I shall place you in your own land. Not natural Jerusalem. You see, carnal men just want
to look at everything natural. Natural Israel, natural sons,
natural Jews, natural land, natural Israel, natural Jerusalem. That's
not what God's telling us. God's saying, I'm going to save
my people with a new spirit, and a new heart, and a new way,
and I'm going to put them in a new land. I'm going to put
them in the land of my promise. My Jerusalem, my heavenly Jerusalem,
my church, my land, my kingdom. I'm going to put them there.
And that's what he did that day at Pentecost. And he says, Then
shall you know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have performed
it, saith the Lord. When are you going to know? When
are you going to know? When is your heart going to rejoice
and your bones going to flourish like theirs did? The Lord said,
When you see. When I've made you see. When
I've made you behold Christ and at this whole works of my hand.
That's when you're going to rejoice. That's when you're going to going
to be brought together, bone to bone, and become one body,
my church, my people, my Israel, with me as the head, Christ said. Well, our text says, the Lord
said, I'm going to do this to the Gentiles. I'm going to turn
them, I'm going to send my gospel to the Gentiles, I'm going to
call my people out amongst the Gentiles, and I'm going to make
them all, just like I made these bones I'm going to make one right
here. I'm going to make all my people
from among the Jews and among the Gentiles, I'm going to make
them one body. I'm going to make them one house.
I'm going to make them one temple. I'm going to make them one people.
I'm going to make them one land. I'm going to make them one city.
I'm going to make... All that is imagery to show us how God
makes us one in Christ. So read on now. Verse 15, the word of the Lord
came again to me, saying, Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one
stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of
Israel, his companions. Remember Reuben and Simeon this
morning? That was all those children that
was born of Jacob in the land of promise. Judah is a picture
of Christ. He said, I'm going to save my
elect Jews by the line of the tribe of Judah, Christ Jesus.
Look here. And then take another stick and
write upon it, for Joseph, the stick of Ephraim. And for all
the house of Israel, his companions. All his elect Ephraims. from
under the house of Ephraim. Where were they born? Outside
the land of Promise. They were born in Egypt. They
were alienated from the commonwealth of Israel. They weren't sons
with Reuben and Simeon brought up with him. But what happened?
Jacob adopted them, made them his own. And he's saying here
now, Son of man, said to his son, the Lord Jesus Christ, Son
of man, you take one stick, which is my elect people, out of the
Jews, O Lion of tribe of Judah, you take that stick which is
Judah and all the house of Israel, his companions, mine elect from
among that fold, and you take this other stick which is Joseph
and Ephraim and all mine elect from among the Gentile people
that were born in Egypt and were alienated from the commonwealth
of Israel, you take these two in your hands, son, go to that
cross and redeem them. Take out that middle wall of
partition that's dividing them. You know the only thing that
divides us is law. That's what law does. You know
why? That's what it does with a dead
man. You know why? We take it and we say, I've done this better
than you have, so I'm better than you. That's what the Jews
were doing. They were saying, we got this
law. We're keeping this law. Those Gentile dogs are just heathen
dogs is all they are. And there wasn't anybody in Israel
keeping that law. And those Gentiles were over
there, and they had their laws, and they had their idols, and
they had all their stuff, and you know what they were doing?
They were saying, we got all this, and they got all them lambs,
and killing, and all that blood, and look at all that. We're so
much better now. People do it with race. Wonder
what makes us think the color of our skin makes us better than
somebody else? Wonder why? People do it with
place. I'm a southerner living in a
and a cultured northeast Princeton area. I reckon why God put a
southern river right up here in the midst of this. Maybe He
did it to say, I ain't impressed with that culture. The cultured,
the highly educated cultured folks is just as dead and in
need of Christ as the rednecks in the South. Ain't a bit of
difference in them. And if you lived in the South,
you'd say so, because if you lived in the South, they'd be
looking down on you just like they do me. I've told you all
before, it doesn't matter where you are. I've lived in the South,
I've lived in the Mid-South, and I've lived in the North.
Wherever you go, for some reason, people that live North of whoever
lives South of them, they think those people who live South of
them are a little bit beneath them. What do you think about the folks
in South Jersey? Be honest. They're just not as cultured
as folks up here, aren't they? Well, somebody North of you is
saying the same thing. I guarantee it. I've seen it everywhere.
Pride of race. Pride of place. Pride of face. Oh, I've got so much makeup on,
you can't even see what I really look like. I'm so much prettier
than she is. Take it off and find out. Pride of grace. That's the worst
of all. My religion is better than your
religion. You know what Christ did? He came and He took all
of that and nailed it to His cross, took it out of the way
to make all His people see. Jew and Gentile don't matter.
Rich or poor don't matter. Educated and uneducated don't
matter. I've made my people won by my blood and my righteousness.
Christ is all. Christ is all. That's what He
said here. Now I'm going to take these two
sticks. Now watch this. Verse 17. Join them one to another
into one stick and they shall become one in Thine hands. One
in thine hand. Whose hand is that? That's Christ's. Now watch this, verse 18. When
the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt
thou not show us what thou meanest by this? He said, You tell them
this gospel right here. Say unto them, Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is
in the hand of Ephraim, There's whose hand it is. I will take
that stick. I'll take my elect from outside
of the promised land and the tribes of Israel and his fellows
and I'll put them with him even with the stick of Judah, even
with my elect among Judah. I'll do this, God said, and I'll
make them one stick and there'll be one in my hand, one in Christ's
hand. And the sticks whereon thou writest
shall be in thine hand before their eyes. It's in Christ's
hand what I'm saying. He's made us one I watch and
say unto them thus saith the Lord God behold I will take the
children of Israel from among the heathen Whether they be gone,
that's all his elect people wherever yet I'll take them He says, "...whether
they be gone, and I will gather them on every side, and I will
bring them into their own land." My land, His heavenly body, His
heavenly church. "...And I will make them one
nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel." Spiritual Israel,
His holy mountain where Christ sits. "...And one king shall
be king to them all." And they shall be no more two nations,
neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at
all, neither shall they defile themselves any more with their
idols, and with their detestable things, with all their vain religion,
nor with any of their transgressions, but I'll save them out of all
their false refuge, their dwelling places. And wherein they've sinned
and will cleanse them, so shall they be my people, and I'll be
their God. And watch this, and David my
servant shall be king over them. You know who that is, don't you?
That's Christ the King. He'll be king over them, and
they'll all have one shepherd. And they'll walk in my judgments,
and they'll observe my statutes, and they'll do them. And they'll
dwell in the land that I've given unto Jacob my servant, wherein
your fathers have dwelt, just like I've saved all my people
the same way. And they'll dwell therein, they and their children,
their children's children forever, that is all his spiritual offspring. And my servant David, Christ
our David, will be their prince forever, for eternity. Moreover,
I'll make a covenant of peace with them That's what he does
when he calls us and it'll be an everlasting covenant with
them and I'll place them and multiply them and I'll set my
sanctuary in the midst of them forevermore and my Tabernacle
also will be with them and yea I'll be their God and they should
be my people and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do
sanctify my true spiritual Israel I make them holy I set them apart. I make them righteous I save
them when my sanctuary should be in the midst of them forevermore
my church and my holy redeemer and my people gathered together,
that's when they're going to know I'm the one that does the
work. Did you see the picture there? That's exactly what he's
telling us in our text. I'll give you a clearer picture.
Go to John 10. John 10. Christ put it this way. Here's
that one shepherd right here. Here's that one king right here.
And he stood there that day in Israel, and he said this, I'm
the good shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I'm known of mine. As the Father knows me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. That's
how my nation's going to be born in one day. and other sheep I
have which are not of this fold. You've heard my voice, I've called
you out already, I've made you one. Other sheep I have which
are not of this Jewish fold, them also I must bring and they
shall hear my voice and there shall be one fold and one shepherd."
That's what He just said in Ezekiel. That's what He's telling us in
our text. Now go back to Isaiah 66. See, I'm going to give them
faith, He said, and I'm going to make them see. Make them see
salvations of Christ. Make them see He is building
a temple. Make them see He is making His people one. Make them
see He makes His people to have life in their dry bones, and
He puts the bones together, and He makes them stand up, makes
them be His people. He said, I am going to show them
that that is brought by My hand, and I will make them one in My
hand. And He said, and when you see that, verse 14, your hearts
shall rejoice and your bones will flourish like an herb. You
are going to be alive. Doesn't it make your heart rejoice
to see Him and see that salvation is all of Christ? He is still
doing the same thing today. He is still making you see it
today. You see it today. You see Him in this gospel. You
see Him doing this in your heart, in your life. You see Him doing
it with His people today. Here we are. Think of how many
different people we got represented in this room right here. From
all different backgrounds, all different people. When you're
hearing Christ preach, and He's taken you in His hand, and you
in His hand, and this dry bone, and that dry bone, and He's put
His Spirit in you, and He's brought you together, and He's made you
one in His hand, none of that stuff matters, does it? Not any
of it. You see, this world's not going
to be united with Black Lives Matters and Blue Lives Matters
or Red Lives Matters or Pink Lives Matters. It ain't going
to be made one by that. That don't do nothing but divide.
It's going to be made one. And the only ones it's going
to be made one is the ones he makes one by hearing this gospel.
Don't get caught up in all the Trump and Hillary bull. Don't
even get caught up in it. Vote if you want to vote. Hold
your nose and vote. But don't get caught up in it. God's going
to put his person where he's going to put them. But don't
get caught up in all the protesting and all that junk. It don't matter.
God makes his people won by this gospel right here. That's right. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds, he said. I'm going to make my people won.
And succeed at it. Alright, thirdly. When this happens,
here's what you're going to know. He said, the hand of the Lord
shall be known toward His servants. That hand that made you one,
that hand that He said, in my hand these two sticks are going
to be made one. In my hand, I'm going to do this. He said, you're
going to know the hand of the Lord did this. Do you know that?
You know that, don't you? That's our message. Our message
is salvation is not by my hand. It's by God's hand. That's our
message. You know that now. And here's
what else you know. You know His indignation toward
His enemies. That's right. He's going to make His enemies
know His indignation one of these days. And they're going to know
it. All of them are going to know it. But right now, there's a
host of people, when they were there and He preached that gospel
at Pentecost, you know who was made to know the hand of the
Lord? Those He saved. And you know who was made to
know His indignation against His enemies? Those He saved.
Those that he was showing his indignation to, he gave them
strong delusions. They kept right on doing what
they've been doing. They kept right on in their religion. They
didn't see they were blind. They didn't have any clue. There's
people today that don't have any idea they're blind. You listen
to poor souls and you don't try to separate the tares from the
wheat. You don't try to judge who's his and who's not his.
But you, Ananask knew Salvatarsus was an enemy, didn't he? And
you know when you hear men and they talk about the work of their
hand, the work of their hand, the work of their hand, and they
talk about, and they can't understand why do you all worship the way
you do? Why do you obey Christ the way
you do? They don't understand that. You
know why? Look, look, I'll show you why.
Look back up there at verse 11. I'm sorry, verse 10. He said,
Sharon is going to be a fold, Isaiah 65, 10. Isaiah 65, 10. He said, Sharon is going to be
a fold of flocks. And the valley of Acre, a place
for the herds to lie down in, for my people that have sought
me." That's what you know by the hand of the Lord. And he
said, and those that know the indignation, look here verse
11. He says, but ye, he's talking to those to whom is indignation,
you're they that forsake the Lord. And forget my holy mountain.
You prepare a table for that troop and furnish the drink offering
unto that number. What's he mean by that? His enemies
forsook the Lord. They rejected Christ and His
holy mountain. And you know what they did? They
prepared a table of worship for the troop that came, for all
the host of people that came. And everybody came wanting to
worship God their own way. So you know what they did? We'll
have a table for you to worship God the way you want to do it,
for you to worship God the way you want to do it, for you to
worship God the way you want to do it, for you to worship God the
way you want to do it. We'll furnish a drink offering that
you can offer and a drink offering for you to offer and everybody
have a different drink offering. You ever notice in religion,
in churches, it's all about division? We come here, we gather one people,
and we hear Christ preached. You go to a religious church,
first thing you'll see is this group's going over there, that
group's going over there, that group's going over there, that group's
going over there, and that one's going over there. It's division, because
they've prepared them all a table and a drink offering to worship
God the way they want to worship God. You can't worship God the
way you want to worship Him by nature. He's got to give you
a heart to worship Him the way He says He will be worshipped.
And He said, I've given them a delusion now and they don't
even know this indignation toward Him. I've left them alone. One
day they will though. In 70 A.D. when He came in there
with His armies and He destroyed Jerusalem, they knew His indignation
then. They knew it then. And one day Christ is coming
again. This joy, this knowing His hand
and knowing His indignation towards His enemies, it comes to us one
way by the gospel. You hear it and it's a savor
of life and life to you. The enemy hears it and he goes
right back like a dog to his vomit. It's never the gospel they're
offended by. It's always something else. I
don't like the color of the carpet. So, that's just a cloak. A bad cloak. It's the offense
of the gospel. But He makes you to know that.
This same gospel that's a saver of life and a life to you is
a saver of death and a death to them. But one day they're
going to know it. He's going to come back and He's
going to make His people know. But you know what? Even then
when He does that, they're going to argue with God. Dead hearts
just always argue God Christ said they gonna say to me Lord
didn't we didn't we didn't we ain't gonna argue with him didn't
we? Go look at the rich man in hell. There's God telling him
how it's gonna be and he said no, but if you do this If you
do it this way They got my word, that's how I'm gonna do it That's
how I'm gonna say. I'm not changing it. God said
we might be made broken and contrite about how God says he saves tremble
at His Word, and then we'll unite with His people and worship Him.
I hope that's made some sense to you. I pray God will bless
you.