in our Bibles to Isaiah chapter
61. Isaiah chapter 61. The world of religion has a saying
that Christ has no hands but your hands and no feet but your
feet. But the truth of the matter is
God's believing child has no hands and no feet but Christ.
That's the truth. That's what we're going to see
today in our text. In Isaiah chapter 61 and verse
4, Christ is speaking. And He's speaking of His people,
His church. And He says, And they shall build
the old wastes. They shall raise up the former
desolations. And they shall repair the waste
cities. the desolations of many generations. Verse 11, for as the earth bringeth
forth her bud, and as the garden causes the things that are sown
in it to spring forth, so the Lord God will cause righteousness
and praise to spring forth before all the nations. Now the blessings
that are declared here physically happened whenever God sent Cyrus
the king and he delivered Israel out of Babylonian captivity and
they went back to Jerusalem and they rebuilt Jerusalem and the
temple and the walls and that sort of thing. It physically
happened then. But this is a prophecy of Christ's
work in these last days in which we live, in these days in which
the gospel is going forth at the hand of Christ Himself. These
last days started when Christ came into this world through
the womb of a virgin. And when Christ began to call
out His apostles and His disciples and establish His church and
send forth His gospel. Now this is what I want us to
see in this passage. Our Lord and our Savior began
this work when He called His first disciples. And He continues
to do it in our day. And He's doing it through His
church. And He shall not cease till all His redeemed are called
to faith in Christ so that there are none lost. He started this
work with His disciples when He walked this earth and He called
them, preaching to them personally. He continues this work now as
He preaches through His preachers in this world. And He will continue
this work until He's called every single one of His redeemed children
to faith in Him. That's what we'll see. First
of all, we're told that they will do something here in verse
4. It says, they shall. Who is this
he's referring to as they? They are God's helpless people. They're God's helpless people.
He describes them in verses 1 through 3. Go back up there for a review. We saw this some time ago. Verse
1, here's who they are. They're the meek. whom the Lord
has made meek by His grace, whom He's preached His gospel to and
made it effectual. Verse 1 says, the Lord, Christ
is speaking, the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek. You want to hear these good tidings?
You're not going to hear them with your chest poked out, arrogant,
thinking you know everything. You're only going to hear it
when Christ Himself has made you a little child that'll sit
and listen to what He has to say. Here's who they are, verse
1. They're the brokenhearted whose
hearts Christ first broke and then bound up. Look, He hath
sent me to bind up the brokenhearted. Here's who they are in verse
1. They are those who were captives in sin with no way to free themselves,
who Christ freed through the preaching of the gospel. He says,
He sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. Only Christ can set us
free. Only Christ can free us from
our sin-bidden heart and from the bondage of Satan and in self-righteousness. Only God can do that. Christ
does that. Verse 2. They are those Christ
has restored in the acceptable year. That year of Jubilee. He says there, I'll proclaim
the acceptable year of the Lord. I'll proclaim Jubilee. I'll proclaim
restoration accomplished. Restoration. All the debts cleared.
All the debts paid. That's who They are. They've
been forgiven all their debts and restored more than what they
lost. And on not only that, the vengeance
of God has been satisfied towards them because it was poured out
on Christ. He says there in verse 1, I mean
verse 2, they are they for whom the vengeance of God is eternally
satisfied. eternally satisfied. The day
of the vengeance of our God is accomplished by Christ at Calvary. And then verse 3, here's who
they are. They are trees of righteousness,
the planting of the Lord that He might be glorified. You see,
here's who they are. They are us who are dead, Helpless,
powerless sinners for whom Christ has done everything. That's who
they are. God chose us in Christ. That's
the only difference. God's grace. He chose us in Christ
before the foundation of the world. God the Son came and redeemed
us by His blood. That's the only difference. And
Christ not only redeemed us by His blood, Christ came and preached
this Word in our hearts. That's what He's dealing with
here, how He preached the Word in our hearts and made it effectual
in our hearts. So that by Christ, righteousness
and praise, there's a two-fold word, righteousness and praise
have sprung forth in the earth. By His cross work and by His
work in the heart through this Gospel. The Holy Spirit regenerated
us and gave us faith in Christ. This is what we're talking about.
So the power here in the wisdom is not of us. The power and the
wisdom spoken of here in they is Christ the wisdom and power
of God. Isn't that different from what
you hear preached in this world? Now this we saw Thursday night
with the Apostle Paul. He told us when he came and preached
he was in weakness and fear and trembling, and his preaching
wasn't with enticing words of man's wisdom, it was in what?
Demonstration of the spirit and of power of Christ the power
and wisdom of God. And it was so, so that your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.
You see, Christ in our text is looking forward to these last
days. And so He's speaking in the future
tense, and He's saying, this is what I shall do. The Apostle
Paul stood up and he said, this is what Christ did, and this
is what He's still doing. Do you see it? Alright, now,
why is that such good news to me and you? Us weak nobodies
with no power to do anything. Why is that such good news to
us? That it's Christ's hands and Christ's feet and Christ's
power and Christ's wisdom by which this work is being accomplished.
Because Christ shall not fail. And that means you and I, helpless
vessels in the hands of our Redeemer, shall never fail. We'll never
fail. Oh, it looks to us like your
church is sick and weak, and your church is just an unhealthy
church, and you need us to come in and set everything right and
teach you how to be a healthy and profitable church. Thank
you very much, but we'll just depend on Christ for that. We'll
just depend on Christ for that. All right, secondly, what is
this work spoken of in our text? What is this work that they,
these helpless sinners, shall do? by Christ's power and wisdom. Look at verse 4. And they shall
build the old wastes, and they shall raise up the former desolations,
and they shall repair the waste cities, the desolations of many
generations. Alright, now think with me here
just a moment. Whenever God created Adam in
the garden, in Adam, God created His people a beautiful city. We were a beautiful temple in
Adam. We were a beautiful building
in Adam. We were a beautiful vine in a
beautiful vineyard in Adam in the garden. That's what we were.
We were like Jerusalem was whenever God created Jerusalem and did
everything for Jerusalem to picture this. and to picture our sin
and rebellion in the garden. But see, we sinned in Adam. And when we sinned in Adam, God
took the hedge down off the garden, from around the garden. All the
defenses were taken down. And so by our sin, and by our
oppression, and by our unjust and unrighteous dealings, we
tore down that beautiful building which was us. and we destroyed
the places that God had erected and left it just a heap of nothing,
left it just an overgrown wasteland that once was a beautiful building
of God's creation. That's you and me, brethren.
That's us in our sin, each of us individually. Waste places,
desolations, desolated by sin. Totally, you picture that, when
after that bomb had fallen over there on Japan and what it looked
like. That's the picture he's describing
here of every sinner he's going to save. Which make up collectively
the whole church of God. That's the picture of his church
right here in Adam and what happened in Adam. Go back to Isaiah 1. Let's just see a few places where
it's described like this. Isaiah 1. Now don't just think of Jerusalem,
although Jerusalem's the picture used here, but he's talking about
his church, his true Jerusalem. What happened to us in Adam?
And by our own sin and rebellion, look at verse 21, Isaiah 1, 21.
How has the faithful city become a harlot? It was full of judgment. That's what we were in Adam.
Righteousness lodged in it. But now, murderers. Thy silvers
become dross. Thy wine mixed with water. That's
the truth. The truth has become just old
dross now. It's just wine mixed with water.
Watered down by men. The princes are rebellious and
companions of thieves. Everyone loves gifts and follows
after reward. That's the sum and substance
of man-made Christianity right there. Give the preacher his
reward and he'll give the people their reward. He'll preach you
up, you just support him and pay for everything so he can
not have to work. That's the bargain. Look, they
judge not the fatherless by preaching the truth, neither doth the cause
of the widow come unto them, Therefore saith the Lord, the
Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will ease me of
mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies, and I will
turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take
away thy tin. I'll restore, I'll restore, as
at the first, he says. This is God's work. This is Christ's
work to take these desolated places. Look now at Isaiah 5.
Here's another picture of it. Isaiah 5, verse 1. Now will I
sing to my well beloved a song of my beloved touching his vineyard. My beloved hath a vineyard in
a very fruitful hill. Who's the beloved? It's Christ.
And he had a vineyard in a very fruitful hill. And he fenced
it. And he gathered out the stones thereof. And he planted it with
the choicest vine. And he built a tower in the midst
of it. And also made a winepress therein. And he looked that it
should bring forth grapes. And it brought forth wild grapes."
You see the picture here? It's a vineyard. Defensed, got
a wall around it to keep out the foxes and to keep out those
men who are enemies that would tread down the vines. And he
planted a winepress in it and a tower in it, a watchtower.
All these things were done. Look what he says. Verse 3, and
it brought forth wild grapes. And now, O inhabitants of Jerusalem
and men of Judah, judge, I pray you, betwixt me and my vineyard.
What could have been done more to my vineyard that I have not
done in it? Wherefore, when I looked, that it should bring forth grapes,
brought it forth wild grapes. Why was that? He gave us our will. That's why. In Adam, He left us to ourselves,
and all we brought forth was wild grapes. In Jerusalem, when
He built it up in Jerusalem, He left it to them to show and
again what we'll do if left to ourselves, and it brought forth
wild grapes. Now watch this. We had every advantage in the
garden and in Jerusalem. But now watch this. Verse 5,
Now go to, I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard. I'll
take away the hedge thereof, and it shall be eaten up, and
break down the wall thereof, and it shall be trodden down,
and I'll lay it waste. And it shall not be pruned nor
dig, but there shall come up briars and thorns. I will also
command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it, for the
vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel." Now,
it speaks truly of the national house of Israel, but more importantly,
it speaks of the spiritual house of Israel. This is what happened
to us when we sinned in Adam. And the men of Judah, his pleasant
plan, and he looked for judgment, behold, oppression for righteousness,
but behold, a cry." So you see, these old waste places, brethren,
these former desolations, these waste cities, these desolations
of many generations, they're not literal buildings and they're
not literal vineyards. They're me and you who are God's
elect, God's people. So God sent forth His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He proved that you and I will
do nothing but bring forth wild grapes. All we'll do is tear
down the structure. We'll tear down the buildings.
We'll just waste and desolate and destroy everything if we
touch it. And once He proved that, He sent
forth Christ His Son to glorify His Son. And He came into this
earth preaching. The gospel that He alone is the
one who builds these old waste places and makes them entirely
new. Christ came into this world preaching
that in His righteousness and in His holiness, by His precious
blood, He would buy each and every stone that was going to be used and
that would be this building. You see, there was a project,
a building project, and Christ came as the architect, as the
builder, as the foundation, as the chief cornerstone, as the
life of every living stone. And by His blood, He bought every
stone for the building. He bought every vine for the
vineyard. He bought the plowman that's
going to till up the fallow ground. He bought everything, lock, stock
and barrel, that would be needed to build this new heavens and
this new earth, which is His people. That's what Christ came
preaching. And as He preached this good
news, you know what Christ did? He effectually worked in the
hearts of those to whom He preached. When He walked this earth, He
affectionately said, follow me. And there was a living stone
built up into this house and followed him. He walked to another
one and said, leave your father's nets, leave your father, leave
everything that you hold dearest to you and follow me. And they
left it all and they followed him. There was another plowman
brought into this vineyard. There was another branch brought
into this vine. There's another stone built up
in this wall. There's another stone built up
in this spiritual temple. And Christ was the one building
it from the very beginning. preaching what he would accomplish,
preaching his word, preaching his righteousness, preaching
his holiness, preaching his redemption. He never preached that you and
me can do anything to build this building. And men today are going
around preaching that and they think they're building a beautiful
building and it's like them old western sets of movies, you know. All it is is a facade on the
front. If you look behind it, it's just a studio. It's just an act. It's not even
a real building. That's not how Christ does it.
Christ does it all. He does it all. But when he does
this, when he makes his apostles and his disciples, when he made
them living stones, then he sent them forth with this gospel,
preaching this gospel, and he said, and I'm going forth with
you as you preach this gospel, because we couldn't make it effectual.
And as they went forth, these powerless Vessels these new living
stones, and they preached this word Christ through his power
made it effectual and called out other living stones and added
them to this building fitly framed them in this building and They
all went forth together with the others preaching this word
and he called out more living stone And he added another layer
to this building And he just keeps on doing it like this,
and keeps on doing it like this, and he'll keep doing it like
this until all these old desolated places, until all this old wasted
city has been made totally, thoroughly, created anew in the righteousness
and holiness of Christ. That's what he's doing in this
world right now. Turn to Zechariah chapter 4.
It's pictured all through the Scriptures. This is the hidden
wisdom, though, that God's hidden from the wise and the prudent.
Men read stuff like this and they'll teach you a real nice
moral lesson from it. But they miss the Gospel in it,
because it's hidden to them. But Christ Jesus is Zerubbabel. He is the Zerubbabel of His people. Now look here in Zechariah 4,
6. Then He answered and spake unto
me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel.
He had just seen a golden candlestick. He had just seen a big old vat
of olive oil. And he had just seen these tubes
filling, keeping that olive oil supplied completely. And all
that is a picture of his church and his gospel and Christ keeping
the oil of the Spirit going in and keeping the gospel being
preached. And now he is declaring the work he is going to do through
that church. Now watch this. This is the word to Zerubbabel.
This is the word to Christ, our Builder. It's not by might, God
said. It's not by power, not by man,
but by my Spirit, saith the Lord. This is a spiritual work. Who
art thou, O great mountain? We got any great mountains here
today? Every one of us, God says, was a great mountain at one time.
Oh, we thought we were. We were strong and mighty and
powerful, weren't we? Well, that's not how it's going
to be built. What's going to happen to that great mountain?
Who art thou, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel, before Christ,
thou shalt become a plain. You're going to be leveled. You're
going to be leveled. Watch this. And he shall bring
forth the headstone. He's going to bring forth the
headstone of this building. And what's he going to be shouting?
Grace, grace unto it. Look, verse 8. Moreover, the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, The hands of Zerubbabel
have laid the foundation of this house. Christ on the cross laid
the foundation of this house, brethren. He brought the first
stone and He'll bring the last stone. He's the builder, and
he's going to be crying grace, grace unto every one of them
he brings right up to the last one. Watch this. He laid the
foundation of this house, his hands shall also finish it. And thou shalt know that the
Lord of hosts has sent me unto you. That's who's building it. I tell you this often, and this
is a subtlety in our day that's not being declared. You see,
Christ must receive the glory not only for his work that he
accomplished on the cross in making his people the righteousness
of God, Christ also must receive the glory that is his alone for
sending forth his gospel to his people and making it effectual
so that they praise and glory only him. Both those works are
his, and he's going to receive the glory for both of them. Now
you can be a mighty mountain if you want to and think that
you're mighty and strong to do it some other way. You're going
to either become a plain before Christ in grace or in judgment.
But either way, He's going to level you. You can mark that
down. He's building this building.
Alright, now thirdly, go back to our text Isaiah 61. Now we get some other metaphors
that come in, but now watch this. Now he's declaring this to his
elect among the Jews at the time that Isaiah is declaring this.
And Christ, when he first came forth, he came and preached.
He was a minister of the circumcision, that is, to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. He only came and preached to
his elect in Israel. That's the way he started with
the Jews. They got the first preference
because God said they would. He started with the Jews. Everybody
in our day thinks he's going to end with the Jews. He started
with the Jews. called out his elect among the
Jews. But he's saying here that then he's going to have his elect
called out from among the Gentiles also. Now look here in verse
5. And strangers, strangers shall stand and feed your flocks. And
the sons of the alien, the sons of the foreigner, shall be your
plowmen to break up the fallow ground, And they're going to
be your vine dressers to work on those branches, prune those
branches on that vine. I got some tomato plants in the
front of my house. And they'll get these little
suckers that grow out in between the vine and the branches. And
they look just like the branches. They look just like they're part
of the vine. But they ain't part of the vine. They will never
produce fruit. And the vine dresser's job is
to go in there and take that little sucker and pull that little
sucker off. Get him away from there so that
it don't interfere with the true branches getting the sap from
the vine. You mean you can prune away somebody
like that? No, not me. But through the preaching
of this gospel, Christ will. Christ will. Men will come in
and they'll sit down and I was telling Adam this Thursday night,
fellas that come in and sit down and just listen. Usually it's God working a work
of grace and they'll end up staying there. They'll end up believing.
Folks that come in with a thousand questions and want to talk questions
after the message and questions through the week and questions,
questions, questions, won't ever stay. Christ is walking with
you right now and He's teaching you right now a lesson right
here, right now, today on what He's doing. And they're like
little kids that's got Attention deficit disorder and they running
out there and and then looking at every other thing under the
Sun saying tell me about this and tell me about that Christ
is not talking about that right now. He's talking about this
right now sit down listen to this And until a man can made
to be a child sit down and hear what God's teaching him now He
won't hear what God's gonna teach him tomorrow you get what I'm
saying That's how he prunes the vine. He does it Now watch this. And he says, they're going to
be strangers. They're going to be sons of the alien. But ye,
verse 6, that is, all of you whom God calls, whether He called
you from among the Jews or He called you from among the Gentiles,
but ye, all of ye, shall be named the priests of the Lord. And
men shall call you the ministers of our God. You see, Christ says
that once He's called us, He's saying here, once He's called
us, we all, whether we were among the Jew or the Gentile, all His
elect shall be used in Christ's hand. All His children that He
calls shall be used in Christ's hand to feed His flocks and plow
His vineyard and dress His vines. That's what Christ is saying
here. Look, and thus every believer, verse 6, shall be named the priests
of the Lord. And men shall call you the ministers
of our God. Priests in the hand of our great
high priest. Ministers in the hand of our
prophet, priest, and king. Do you get what he's saying?
We're all going to be called this. Christ took away all the
old covenants. When that veil ran into and Christ
cried, it's finished, everything that had to do with natural Jews
and natural Israel and all that was done with, brethren. That's
what he was declaring. That's over with. That picture
has run its course. I've done what I'm going to do
with it. I'm done with that now. The real thing's here now. The
real thing is here. And now, all God's people that
are called out Spiritually, we're all Jews. We're all Jews. We're the spiritual Israel of
God. Look at Romans 2.28. Romans 2.28. You see, not only is He building
these waste places, but He's also going to bring all His people
together so that we're all one. Praise and one. Christ the Lord. Watch this. Now we're Jews. We're
true Jews. Romans 2.28. He's not a Jew,
which is one outwardly. Just because he's born of Abraham,
just because he tries to keep the law, just because he was
circumcised in the flesh and all those things, that's not
a Jew. There's going to be some physical
Jews surprised one day. You know that? That's not a Jew. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. That ought to end men doing this
corrupt error that they're calling modern day circumcision by baptizing
babies and all that junk. Because that don't even have
a thing to do with what circumcision typified. Circumcision didn't
have a thing to do with baptism. Period. It had to do with God
giving a new heart. Watch. He's a Jew which is one
inwardly. Circumcision is that of the heart
in the spirit, not in the letter, whose praise is not of men, but
of God. Listen to Paul in Philippians
3. We are the circumcision. We are the true Jews. Now here's
the traits of a true Jew, which worship God in the spirit. We're not worshipping God in
the letter. We're not worshipping God in the flesh. We're not worshipping
God in these carnal outward shows that religion's doing. We worship
God in spirit. And we rejoice in Christ Jesus. Not in ourselves. Not in what
we do or what we make others do. We rejoice in Christ Jesus. And here's the third. We have
no confidence in the flesh. Now, that's a true Jew. Now,
look with me at 1 Peter 2. And yet, though we're all made
one in this building, and this is one building, and we're all
made true spiritual Jews, now there's no more physical Jew
and Gentile. You know what we are? We're one
holy nation. And everybody in this one holy
nation, there's not just a Levitical priesthood now. It's not just
the Levites, and they're the only ones now that can go into
that physical temple, that physical holy place. Now, we're one holy
nation. We're the holy Israel, God's
elect people. And everybody in this holy nation
is a king and a priest unto God. in Christ. And we can all, in
Christ, go through the veil, that is, through His flesh. We
can enter now into the holiest of holies, into God's very presence,
by what Christ has accomplished. Because He's made us one in Him.
Now look here, 1 Peter 2, 9, ye... That's that same word that
was in our text. Remember He said, you strangers
and the sons of the alien are going to do this and that? Then
He said, and ye, all of you, Ye are a holy nation, a royal
priesthood, a king and a priest. That's what you are. Revelation
5-9 says this, Christ was slain and has redeemed us to God by
His blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation. We were all divided into all
these different nations and we boasted about how good we were
and how bad they were and how better we were because of something
physical about us and about our work and about what we'd done.
He called us out of all those different nations into this one
holy nation. And it says, and he's made us
unto our God kings and priests and we shall reign on the earth."
We're reigning right now and we're going to reign forever
in this new kingdom, in this new heaven, in this new earth.
And then he says there, not only are you going to be all priests,
you're going to all be ministers of the Lord. Ministers of the
Lord. Look at 2 Corinthians 3. You
know what Christ's preachers are? Listen to this. Christ's preachers are quills. You know what a quill is that
you write with? Christ's preachers are quills
in Christ's hand by whom Christ ministers the gospel and the
Spirit of God and makes living epistles. Look here, 2 Corinthians
3. For as much as you are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ, ministered by us, Paul
said. You see, we're ministers. Does
that mean you did something? No. You're the epistle of Christ,
ministered by us, written not with ink, but with the Spirit
of the living God, not in tables of stone, but in the fleshly
tables of the heart. Isn't that something? You know
what that's telling us? When God gets done, I don't think we're going to
even have a written Word. You're going to be the Word.
You're going to be the epistle. His people are the epistle. The
Word made us one with the Word, so that all His people are the
epistle. There won't be a physical Kingdom like men think of now
there'll be a spiritual kingdom with Christ the king Who's made
all his people kings and Christ the priest who's made all his
people priests? And we all have access to God
because been made righteous and holy in Christ you see was that
this is the new heavens and new earth this is the new building
that Christ is building by his grace and every believer is a
minister and God. Listen to this. And you know
how you minister? Yes, you minister when you do
the things Brother Eric was preaching about this morning, when you
look out for the other better than yourselves, and you care
for one another in every little detail, in every little thing
in your life. But number one, It's in us all
supporting this gospel so that we can be fed this gospel by
Christ. And this is what the Hebrew writer
said, God's not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of
love which you've showed toward His name in that you minister
to the saints. And you do minister. We're ministers. We're priests and we're ministers.
But now don't miss the point. We're just priests and ministers
in God's hand, in Christ's hand. He's doing all the work. Alright,
look at this. There are no big I's here and
there are no little U's. Christ declares we're one. Now
look at Isaiah 61.6. 61.6. This is where men get all
convoluted in a passage like this. Look at 61.6. He says, He's talking about all of us,
you see. Just like He said, ye all are going to be priests and
ministers. Now He's saying, ye all shall eat the riches of the
Gentiles, and in their glory shall you boast yourselves. Well,
that means whenever the gospel goes into a foreign nation and
it takes over and Christ establishes His church and we're just going
to go in there and we're going to take away all the bank accounts
and all the gold and the silver and we're just going to spoil
those people and get all their riches from them. And we're going
to boast ourselves in glory and what we got them to do. No, of
course not. He's saying, The same riches
that those Gentile believers that are just being called out
by my grace through you being a priest and a minister of God,
through you sending forth this gospel and through Christ building
up this old waste place. That Gentile, the riches that
he's enjoying, you all are going to enjoy the same riches. They're
the unsearchable riches of Christ. And he says there, and the glory
in which we each boast is going to be the same glory as it is
written. He that glories, let him glory
in the Lord. We're going to all boast in the
same glory. The glory of the Lord. This is
the work he's doing. You see, the point, we don't
make distinctions. because of carnal riches and
because of some carnal glory in which we can say that we're
somehow better than this or that or the other. We make this boast. God alone has made us to differ
by His grace. And everything we have we receive
freely from Christ by His grace. Now let me hurry here. Now here's
our rejoicing. We rejoice that by God's grace
we're one in Christ. This is the work he's done. Verse
9. Verse 9. He says, "...their seed shall
be known among the Gentiles, and their offspring among the
people. All that see them shall acknowledge them, that they are
the seed which the Lord hath blessed." That last phrase is
the key to understanding that verse. wherever he sends this
gospel, wherever he sends these nobodies, powerless, filled with
his gospel riches, filled with the glory of God, that gospel
of the glory of God in Christ Jesus, and he calls out his people
and begins to assemble his people into his building and make us
priests and ministers unto God, wherever he does this, it's going
to be acknowledged in all the world. that you are the seed
which the Lord hath blessed. In other words, we're the seed
of God. We're the offspring born from
above. The true spiritual seed of Abraham. God's elect. That's what he's
saying. It's not going to be just in one place, he said. He
says there in verse 9, their seed should be known among the
nations, the Gentiles. It's going to be throughout all
the world, and their offspring among the people. Everywhere
they're going to be seen. You see, his spiritual Israel
is not a specific locale like that little hill over there in
the dirt in Jerusalem was, His people are a spiritual people
scattered all over the world that He's brought into His one
Kingdom that Christ has brought. And this is what we are. We're
the offspring of God. We've been born of that incorruptible
seed. We've been born of Christ Jesus
the Lord, the Spirit of our God, so that now we're eternally alive
forevermore by His grace. That's what He said. And we're
one. Look at Galatians 3.28. I get so... So people, you know,
they get a handle on the gospel, but then next thing you know,
they want to build up them old walls again. They want to bring
back in the old covenant. They want to try to distinguish
between the natural Jew and the natural Gentile and all this.
Christ put an end to all that. That's what he's saying here.
And he does it through the gospel. Genesis, I mean, Galatians 3.28.
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. Now watch this. If you be Christ's,
then are you Abraham's seed. That's who drew this rule, he
is. and heirs according to the promise. That's who God was telling
Abraham about when he was speaking of children of promise. He was
talking about those that Christ would redeem and call out by
his gospel. Listen to Romans 9.6. You want
to look there, Romans 9.6. We're not building back up what
Christ has already thrown down. What's happening now is Christ
is building up something that's eternal, and He's doing it through
this Gospel, and He's making us one. He's not making us divided.
Look at this, Romans 9, 6. It's not as though the Word of
God has taken none effect. That is, when you look at political
Israel, when you look at national Israel, you say, well, God just,
He couldn't save all Israel like He said He would. Every promise,
if you go and look in the Old Testament, every promise God
made to national Israel, God fulfilled every single one of
them physically in this earth. He didn't leave a one of them
unfulfilled. He fulfilled every single one of them physically.
But they all typified the greater spiritual promises that God has
promised His spiritual Israel, and He will not fail to fulfill
all those promises. Now watch this. No, it's not
as though the Word of God took on effect because they're not
all Israel which are of Israel. Just because a man was a natural
son of Abraham and born into that political state Israel,
that don't make him the Israel of God. Neither because they're
the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in Isaac shall
thy seed be called. And if you get what that phrase
means, you've got the gospel. If you be Christ, then are you
Abraham's seed. That's what it means. That's
what it means. They are the seed which the Lord
hath blessed. Oh, isn't it a sweet relief to
know that you don't have to go around trying to make yourself
different from anybody else? Not in God's church. God's made us one. in Christ. One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
one spirit, one righteousness, one holiness. One. One. Never to be divided again. There's four metaphors there.
I won't go into them. There's verse 4, we're a desolated
building built up. Verse 5, we're a flock of sheep.
Verse 5, we're branches. Christ gives the glory in all
of them. I'll give you some scripture to read. Read 1 Peter 2. He's
the living stone that builds us up a spiritual house. Then
you can read Isaiah 40, verse 11, He feeds His flock like a
shepherd. Then you can read 1 Corinthians
3, 5, where Paul says, Who are we, the preachers? We're nobodies.
You're God's husbandry. Christ is divine, you're the
branches, and you're God's husbandry. One preacher waters another,
one plants in other waters, but it's God that gives the increase.
You're God's husbandry. You're God's building. Now here's
the last thing I want you to see, though. I do want you to
see this. For all our shame and confusion, which we were in in
our sin, which we've been treated with since we've been called,
we're going to have double. He says there in verse 7, For
you shame you shall have double, for confusion they shall rejoice
in their portion. It means this, our light affliction
is just for a moment right now, but it works a far greater weight
of eternal glory. My flesh and my heart faileth,
but God is the strength of my heart and He is my portion forever.
And we are going to have Him. He is our portion. We have a
land promised. Look at verse 7. Therefore in
their land they shall possess the double. Everlasting joy shall
be unto them. We have it now, brethren. And
it's just going to get better and better and better. He's going
to show us the path of life. And in His presence, there's
going to be fullness of joy. At His right hand are pleasures
forevermore. He says in their land, you're
going to possess the double. Everlasting joy. Not just joy,
everlasting joy. Everlasting joy. That's a new
heavens and a new earth. Now, here's the point. How can
I be sure that Christ is going to do all this work using His
people? How can I be sure? Verse 8. Because
I, the Lord, love judgment, and I hate robbery for burnt offering.
This has to do with His righteousness. Remember He said, "...and burnt
offers and sacrifices for sin thou hast had no pleasure." He
didn't have any pleasure in your offerings and your sacrifices
and nothing they did throughout all those years. All that was
to picture Christ to come. And He says, "...but lo, I've
come to do thy will, O God." And it says, "...and by that
will, being accomplished by Christ, we're sanctified through the
offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all." It's done,
brethren. It's done. He took away that
first curse and covenant and desolation and destruction that
we did, and now He's made us an eternal habitation, the spiritual
temple of God that will never be broken down. And then look,
there's more though. Not just what He did on the cross,
His people have to be called. And He didn't leave that in my
hand and your hand either. Look at this, verse 8, I will
direct their work in truth, and I will make an everlasting covenant
with them." When he sends his preachers, he's not sending his
preacher out there and just saying, now see if you can get a message
and go find the people to preach it to. Christ said, I'm directing
everything. I'm directing everything. Last
week I thought I was going to preach from this day. The Lord
directed me from that, and I have to preach another message to
you that He gave me. Last night I was laying in bed and I was
thinking, Lord, I thought I was going to get up this morning
and preach out of Genesis 39. And I was praying, Lord, my mind's
on that Scripture, my mind's on that next Scripture in 1 Corinthians
2, my mind's on Scripture in Isaiah 61. Lord, would you just
set me on one Scripture? The Lord directed my little puny
butt right out of the bed, right in there to where my chair and
my computer was and sat me down and said, here, take note. And
I just wrote it down. And he brought me to you today
and he said, now I'm directing this whole thing, not in lies,
in truth. And when I bless it to your heart,
I'll make this everlasting covenant to you. And this will be the
result. This will be the result. Verse
10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall be joyful
in my God, for He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation.
He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom
decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself
with her jewels. Do you see two things that are
taking place there? There's a sinner decked in righteousness now by
Christ, made the righteousness of God in Christ. And there's
a sinner who's been called and made to see it, and he's praising
only God for the work that has been done. And so it shall be
till this world has reached its purpose. And its purpose is that
every one of its children be brought out. Why is it the devil
would have you believe that global warming is going to destroy all
the crops and make everything stop producing? Because then
it can be in your hands to save it and protect it. But that's
not so. That's not why it's going to
be held up, everything's going to be held in place. It's an
illustration of what God's doing through His gospel. Look at the
next verse. Verse 11, For as the earth bringeth forth her
bud, and as the garden causeth the things that are sown into
the spring forth, so the Lord God will cause these two things,
righteousness, there's His work at the cross, and praise. There's His work in the heart
of His people. The Lord will cause these two things to spring
forth before all the nations. Not a possibility. Christ accomplished. He was talking in future tense
there. Did He do the cross work? He made righteousness spring
forth. Is He going to make praise spring forth in the heart of
His people? He said there, we're going to rejoice and say, He
robed me in righteousness. He's the righteousness, and he's
the one that did the roping. I praise him. Amen.