Alright brethren, let's turn
back there to Isaiah 53. I just want to read one statement
in verse 11. He shall see of the travail of
his soul and shall be satisfied. This is an amazing statement. This is a comforting statement. Until a sinner gets hold of what's being said here and relies
entirely upon the one being spoken of, they have no gospel and they
have no salvation. This statement declares that
Jehovah's servant Our substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ, accomplished
the work the Father sent Him to do, and that He shall be satisfied
with His finished work. We're going to reference some
of the other verses around this today, but our main focus is
just going to be that one statement. And for our divisions, we'll
just simply take each word in that statement. The first word
we have here is He. Whenever Philip came upon the
eunuch out in the middle of the desert, the eunuch was reading
the 53rd chapter of Isaiah and he asked Philip, he said, I pray
thee of whom speaketh the prophet this? Of himself or of some other
man? Well, Isaiah was used of God
to write the words, but the words are the words of God Jehovah
Himself. And He's speaking of Christ Jesus
the Lord, the Son of God. He refers to the Christ who is
the Son of God. He is the second person in the
Trinity. Now be sure you get this part
right here. Be sure to get this part right
here. In order for salvation to be of God, in order for salvation
to be of the Lord, in order for God to receive all the glory
and all the praise in salvation of sinners. The work must be
done by God Himself beginning to end. Beginning to end. God must be the author and finisher
of our faith. Isaiah 42, verse 8. Look back
there with me. I want to show you this. Isaiah
42, verse 8. He's telling us here that He
chose Christ and He sent Him and that Christ shall not fail.
And here's why He chose Christ. Verse 8. I am the Lord, that
is my name, and my glory will I not give to another, neither
my praise to graven images. Look at Isaiah 43 verse 7. Everyone
that is called by my name, that is a true believer, everyone
that is called by my name, I have created him for my glory. I have formed him, yea, I have
made him. Look at Isaiah 48 verse 11. Here he is talking about refining
his people. And he says in verse 11 why he
does it. He says, For mine own sake, even
for mine own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? And I will not give my glory
unto another. Salvation is of the Lord. Jonah was taught this, salvation
is of the Lord. Now, the chief purpose for which
Christ came into this world was to declare the righteousness
of God. Paul said in Romans 3.26, to
declare I say at this time His righteousness, that God might
be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. God is just, God is justifier,
God is the giver of faith. of him that believeth in Jesus.
All the glory goes to him. Now since all men sinned in Adam,
there is no possible way that any sinner, any son of Adam could
declare the righteousness of God by our person and our work. There's no way it could be done
because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And
therefore, God's righteousness could only be declared by one
who is righteous, by one who is perfectly righteous. How righteous
does a sinner have to be? He has to be as righteous as
God is. And how righteous did the substitute for sinners have
to be? As righteous as God is. The scriptures, notice there
in the second part of the verse in Isaiah 53 11, God refers to
Christ as My righteous servant. my righteous servant." You see,
God is just and every sinner that He saves has to die. God carried out in full His justice
upon His Son in the place of His people so that God can show
His people mercy and yet remain just. This is the gospel. This is the This is the Gospel. You haven't preached the Gospel.
You haven't believed the Gospel. Do you understand how a man can
be just with God? How God can be just and yet justify
a sinner? How can God show me mercy and
still be just? It's because God did it. God
did it. Therefore, our substitute is
God Himself. And since He is God Himself,
that means God is also Himself. the justifier. He's just because
he's upheld his law by this work. And he's the justifier because
he's the one that did it. Sinners are being told in our
day that when they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, by their
act of believing, they're justified. And that's not true. That's a
pollution of the truth. That's not true. It's a perversion
of the truth. The truth is what is stated right
here in verse 11. By His knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. God does the justifying. He does
the justifying. What faith receives is justification
already accomplished. We receive justification already
accomplished. That takes the boasting away
from man. But if a man is taught that by
his act of believing, he has a part in his justification,
that gives him room to boast. And God will not give us room
to boast. Salvation is of the Lord. He
said, I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen
shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I
have laid upon them. And so first of all, The he here
refers to God the Son, the Son of God. And then he refers to
Christ who is also the Son of Man. Turn to Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2. Adam was the
first head. He was the first head. He was
the first representative man. What Adam did, all those, now
catch this, all those born of Adam did as well. What Adam did,
all those that would be born of Adam, they did the same thing.
So we sinned in Adam and we died in Adam. And being born of Adam,
we received his corrupt nature as well as having Adam's sin
imputed to us. So there's a work of sanctification
that has to be wrought, that inward work that makes us to
be created in righteousness and holiness, and there is that outer
work that Christ had accomplished to make us righteous before the
law of God. Both have to be totally accomplished. But thankfully,
God put a people in Christ before He made the world. And Christ
came and what Christ the last Adam did, what the last head
and last representative did, all those that shall be born
of Him did that as well. That's what a representative
is. All those that shall be born of Christ did what Christ did,
whenever Christ did it. Look at Hebrews 2 verse 14. Here's
a two-fold work, two-fold reason why Christ came as a man. It
says, verse 14, For as much then as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same.
Here's the first reason. That through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver
them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject
to bondage. Where are you and I in that statement? We're in bondage. That's where
we are. Who did the work? Christ did
the work. Who gets the glory? Christ gets the glory. Now, it
says this is what He came to do. Either He did this or He
failed. There's no middle ground. Either
He accomplished this or He failed at this. He accomplished this
work. This is what He came to do. Now
watch. It says, verse 16, For verily He took not on Him the
nature of angels, But He took on him the seed of Abraham. Why didn't it say He took on
him the nature of Adam? Or the nature of man? Why does
it say the seed of Abraham? Because Romans 9.8 says, The
children of promise are counted for the seed. They're the seed
of Abraham. He took upon him the nature of
the children he came to save. And it says, verse 17, Wherefore,
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. Number one, that he might be
a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God to make reconciliation for the sin of the people. This is
what he did when he crushed Satan's head and delivered us from the
law. He reconciled his people unto
God. And then, number two, this is
why he came as well. For in that he himself had suffered
being tempted, he's able to succor them that are tempted. Because
he's experienced the weakness of our flesh. He's experienced
the feeling of our infirmities. He's able now comfort and help
and support you and I from first-hand experience. Therefore, He is
one He who came to save His people from our sins. He is none other
than the Son of God and the Son of Man. He is the God-Man and
one united glorious person. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God and the Word was God. And then 1
John 1.14 says, And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among
us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. Now somebody will
say, I can't comprehend how He could be both God and man. I
can't comprehend that. Well, without controversy, great
is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the Spirit. How can... justified? Our Savior was justified? Yeah,
justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up in the glory.
This is not in chronological order. He is preaching to the
Gentiles right now. That's what he's doing right
now in this room, this minute. He's preaching to the Gentile.
And I'm going to say, I can't understand that. I can't get
that. I can't get my mind around that. When the scriptures tell
us that faith is the evidence of things not seen, it means
not only things not seen with the eye, it means things that
we can't get our puny little feeble minds around. If you could
describe God and explain God and know everything there is
to know about God and have God all wrapped up in your neat little
package, you know what he'd be? An idol. An idol. God's bigger
than we are. But there's another reason. Look
at 1 Corinthians 1. There's another reason God saves
through faith by divine revelation. Look at 1 Corinthians 1 and verse
5. Paul said, this is why I don't
preach with the wisdom of men and the words of men. Right here,
1 Corinthians... I'm sorry, 1 Corinthians 2, 5.
That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. You see, if you could understand
everything, your faith would stand in the wisdom of men. God
makes us to stand in the power of God. Howbeit we do speak wisdom
among them that are perfect, under them that are born again
and given faith, yet it's not the wisdom of this world, nor
of the princes of this world that come to nothing. But we
speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom. You mean
it's hidden? Christ said one day, He said,
Father, I thank you that you've hidden these things from the
wise and prudent and revealed it unto babes. You see, God's
God. God can save whom He will and
pass by whom He will. This is who God is. We need to
come down. We need to come down to His feet,
down to the dust, down to our depravity and look up and find
out who God is. Because we think too much of
ourselves. Way too much of ourselves. Look at it. He says, None of
the princes of this world knew it, for had they known it, they
wouldn't have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written,
Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the
heart of man. Here's your imagination and your
mind and your ability to understand. It's not even entered into the
heart of man. The things which God has prepared
for them that love Him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by His Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. And He does it this way,
that your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in
the power of God. Sinner, believe God. Stop butting. You know who butts? A goat. Sheep
don't butt. Stop butting. And believe God. Believe God. Alright, here's
the second word in this text, Isaiah 53, 11. The second word
is shall. I'm going to be brief here, but
this word is very important. It's very important. I think
if I had the opportunity to preach in the largest church in this
country, I think I might start with this word right here, shall.
Shall. This is the language of Jehovah.
God never speaks in the language of possibility, only in the language
of unfailing, prevailing certainty. That's how God speaks, because
He's God. He's God. Now sinners can't speak this
way. We can't speak this way. We have
no absolute power to say anything that we purpose shall come to
pass. Jeremiah 10.23 says, Oh Lord, I know that the way of
man is not in himself. It is not in man that walketh
to direct his steps. And it's especially true when
it comes to spiritual things. We just saw that in 1 Corinthians.
Proverbs 16, verse 1 says, "...the preparations of the heart in
man, and the answer of the tongue is from the Lord. With the heart
man believeth, and with the tongue man confesseth unto righteousness."
Who prepares that? Who brings that forth? God does. God does. Paul said, we're not
even sufficient of ourselves to think anything of ourselves,
our sufficiencies of God. And therefore, God says to you
and me, when you start talking about tomorrow, we will go this
place and we will go that place and we'll do this and we'll do
that. He says, you don't know what shall be on tomorrow. He
says, what is your life? It's a vapor. It's here for just
a little while and then it vanishes away. He says, this is what you
ought to say, if the Lord will. If the Lord will, we'll do this
or that. And he said, but now you rejoice
in your boasting. That's what he called boasting.
To say, I will, I will. And he said, that's boasting.
And he said, and all such rejoicing is evil. It's evil. But God does
as He will. Look at Isaiah 46. Isaiah 46. You can just read the shalls
in the passage there from verse 11 and 12, but look right here
at Isaiah 46 and look at verse 8. Remember this and show yourselves
men. Bring it again to mind, O ye
transgressors. Remember the former things of
old. For I am God and there is none else. I am God and there
is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning. and from
ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far
country, yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it, I will also
do it. Ephesians 1 says he works all
things after the counsel of his own will. That's who God is.
If He wasn't doing that, then somebody else's will is being
done over His will. And that makes them God, and
it makes Him not to be God. God is absolutely sovereign to
do His will. Now false religion has this backwards.
They're all the time saying that God wants to, God's trying to,
God wants to, God's trying to. If you say that, strike it from
your vocabulary. Because God's not wanting and
trying to do anything. God does as He pleases in heaven
and in earth and in all deep places. The scripture says this
clearly. He said in Ezekiel, He said,
if a sword goes through a country, I sent the sword through the
country. He said, if pestilence goes through the country, I sent
the pestilence through the country. He said, if famine goes through
the country, I sent the famine through the country. He said
in Isaiah, has evil happened in the city and have I not done
it? The evil is of the wicked hands that did it, but nothing
comes to pass without God's consent, without God working His will
in the midst of this earth. Everything. Everything. They
say that God wants to, God's trying to, and then they turn
around and say, but the sinner has to be willing to let God. You know what Psalm 14 says this, It says, the Lord looked down
from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any
that did understand and seek God. That any that did understand
and seek God. And He said, they are all gone
aside, they are all together become filthy, there's none that
doeth good, no not one. When God cast Adam out of that
garden, Adam could not be permitted to reach forth his hand and take
of the tree of life. He could not be permitted to
do that. Because if he did, he'd have been like the children of
Israel we just read about. He would have been able to glory
that he fixed what he broke. He had to be cast outside of
the garden, and a sword had to be put at the entrance, and cherubims
at the entrance, because a man can't come to God except God
get all the glory. The sword of God's justice has
to be satisfied. The sword of that gospel has
got to slay Him and make Him alive. And it's going to be done
through the cherubim, through Christ Jesus, the angel of the
Lord Himself, through His ministers who are angels that He sends
forth to preach His gospel. And that way, when a man reaches
forth and takes hold of Christ, the tree of life, God gets all
the glory. God did it. He's got to be made
new. Got to be made new. But when
Christ walked this earth, there was nobody that could stop Him
from doing His will. Nobody. That's why the Holy Spirit
said to Mary, without any shadow of a doubt, with no uncertainty,
Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people
from their sins. No possibility He wouldn't. It's
because Isaiah 42.4 says this right here. Isaiah 42.4 says, He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall
wait for his law. I preach a victorious Savior.
I preach a Savior who came to die for a particular people and
he accomplished the work. He came and he conquered Satan,
he crushed his head just like Genesis 3, 15 said he would. He came to purge his people of
their sin and he did because scripture says he by himself
purged our sin. Hebrews 1, 3 says that. He came
to obtain eternal redemption. Hebrews 9, 26 says when he had
obtained eternal redemption for us. He went back to the Father.
Hebrews 10 says, He hath by His one offering has perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He did that. He's victorious.
He's not wanting to. He's not trying to. He didn't
make a stab at it and hope it turns out good. He did it. He
cried out, it's finished because He did it. Now here's the next
word. The next word is, He shall see
the travail of His soul. This word travail means severe
labor, accompanied with great pain, exhaustion, vexation, sorrow,
grief, and trouble. The pains of childbirth. Remember
when Christ had told His disciples, He said, in a little while, you're
going to see me no more. He used the illustration of childbirth
to express how they were going to have joy. He said this, I
say unto you, you'll weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice.
And He said, you'll be sorrowful, but your sorrows should be turned
into joy. A woman, when she is in travail, when she is in childbirth,
she has sorrow because her hour has come. But, and what did Christ
say before He went to the cross? My hour has come. My hour has
come. And it says, but as soon as she
is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish
for the joy that a man is born into the world. And you now,
therefore, have sorrow, but I'll see you again. You know what
he's saying? He's saying there's going to
be a man reborn, a man that's going to come out of the grave.
He said, I'm going to see you again. And he says, and your
heart shall rejoice in your joy, no man taketh from you. Worse
than a woman travails in childbirth. The work of redemption required
to bring forth the glorified God-man from the dead and to
bring forth all God's elect children in righteousness in Him involved
indescribable travail in Christ's very soul. Verse 10 says Christ
made his soul an offering for sin. He said my soul is exceeding
sorrowful even unto death. Verse 12 said he poured out his
soul unto death. Now somebody said this, they
said you know a child could try to write down and understand
our national debt. But after he does he still can't
comprehend it. I can't even comprehend our national
debt. We're like that when it comes
to the travail Christ bore. We can see some of the things
that went into the cup to make it bitter, but we cannot measure
the degree of His travail. We just can't do it. But most
of all, brethren, this travail speaks of the work He accomplished
at Calvary, at the cross. Let's go straight there. First
thing involved in this travail is He bore the sin of His people. Verse 11 says, He shall bear
their iniquities. Verse 12 says, He bear the sin
of many. Paul said, He who knew no sin
was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. The Word can't be sin offering
because unless you change righteousness to righteousness offering, because
then the meaning is just obliterated. He was made sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And then in addition
to that, verse 12 tells us here, He was numbered with the transgressors,
though He never did any sin of His own, by men who were His
enemies, by the law and justice of God, but worst of all, by
God His Father, Christ personally, with the sin of His people on
Him, Christ personally was numbered with the transgressors. Counted
one with the transgressors. Being made sin for us and being
counted with the transgressors. This is that shame that He despised. He despised the shame. And then
in accordance with holy justice, Christ Reveal was bearing the
punishment from God his Father which his people deserve. Separation
from God. He cried, My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Why art thou so far from helping
me and from the words of my roaring? He said, Is it nothing to you,
all you that pass by? Behold and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow which is done unto me. Wherewith the
Lord hath afflicted me in the day of His fierce anger. This
is that sword of justice that had to be satisfied. He hath
cut off in His fierce anger all the horn of Israel. He is the
power of Israel. And he cut off in all his fierce
anger all the horn of Israel. He's drawn back his right hand
from before the enemy. He did this in front of the enemy. And he burned against Jacob like
a flaming fire which devoureth round about. That's just talking
about Jacob. That's who God's people are is
Jacob. And when Christ stood in our room instead, there was
just one that God burned against. Christ became Jacob in our room
instead. He hath builded against me and
compassed me with gall and travail. And then lastly, He bore death. Verse 12 says, He poured out
His soul unto death. You know, I know I've said it
and I keep saying it, The fulfillment of the law is
love. It's love for God, it's love
for your brethren. And what you see Christ doing
at Calvary is the fulfillment of the law. He loved God and
he loved his brethren. What does it take for me to love
God and love my brethren as myself? It takes you being forsaken of
God your Father. It takes you bearing the sin
of your people. It takes you being counted with the transgressors.
It takes you bearing the justice of God in that separation. It
takes you pouring out your soul unto death for God and for your
brethren. Being forsaken by all of them
all at once. And all the while never one time
having a thought that was anything else but perfect holy righteousness. That's why it's not like Christ
went down the Ten Commandments, you know, and checked off. Look at the cross. That's the
fulfillment of the law. That's why Christ is the fulfillment
of all righteousness. That's why Christ is our righteousness. And what He did, His people did.
And at the same time as he did it, this is the amazing wisdom
of God, at the same time he's fulfilling it positively for
his people, he paid our debt to justice. Isn't that amazing? And men are going around brow-beating
poor professing believers and yoking them with the law and
giving them all this checklist of morality and all these things
they ought to do, I'd like to stomp on their heads what I'd
like to do. But I don't have to. Christ did. Christ has crushed
Satan's head. And that's nothing but Satan's
doctrine. I'm trying to tell you there's
nothing you can do to please God but just throw yourself into
the arms of His Son and don't move a muscle. Stay there and
He'll do all the work. Alright now, but there's the
good news. The text doesn't end by saying
He poured out his soul unto death. The text says then, it says,
but he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. If anyone pays out some great
expense, whether it's time or it's pain or it's money or any
other cause, usually they have an end in view that makes all
of that travail and all of that pain worth it, usually. So it
was with the Lord Jesus Christ, Hebrews 12, 2 says, who for the
joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. If we would ask in what respects
Christ is satisfied, we can answer it in one word, in every respect.
In every respect. But let me divide this into three
here briefly. All the purposes for which He
died have and shall be accomplished. All of them. But let's divide
this into three. First of all, Christ is satisfied
that He glorified His Father. That's number one. That's why
He came. That's the chief reason He came,
number one, to glorify His Father. He made satisfaction to His own
justice. And with that finished work,
Christ is satisfied. Christ is satisfied. Now, the
righteousness of God without the law is manifested. And it's
borne witness to by the Law and the Prophets. He said this whole
book, all the Law and the Prophets speaks of me, Christ said. And
that Law and the Prophets bears witness to the righteousness
of God. It's manifest by the faithfulness and fidelity of
the Lord Jesus Christ. And that faithfulness and fidelity
is unto all and upon all them that believe. It's His faithfulness
and fidelity whereby the righteousness of God is manifest. He's just
because He satisfied justice. He's the justifier because by
His knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. and not
only righteousness, but all the perfection of God's character.
God's very glory is seen in the face of Christ Jesus. Paul said,
when He called us, when He shone the light out of darkness, we
saw the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. This is where you're going to
behold it, if you ever behold it. And this is what he said
when he prayed in John 17. He said, I have glorified thee
on the earth. I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do. And Christ can look over the
travail of his soul and everything it cost him and all the pain
and the suffering he endured. And he can see his Father glorified. And he says, I'm satisfied. It
was worth every moment. And secondly, Christ is satisfied
because Christ himself is glorified. Christ Himself is glorified.
When He prayed in John 17, He said, Now, O Father, glorify
Thou me with Thine own self, with the glory which I had with
Thee before the world was. God the Father raised Him from
the grave to God's right hand. He came down here as God the
Son, and He took flesh and blood, but He went back as the God-man. He went back in His person declaring
what He accomplished in His person. He made God and man one. That's
what He did. And His very person declares
the work He accomplished at Calvary. He made Him and His people one. How one? He said, just like God
His Father and Him are one. That's how one. So God raised Him. The Scripture
says, For the joy set before Him, He endured the cross, despising
the shame, and He sat down at the right hand of the throne
of God. Verse 12 says there, Therefore
will I divide Him a portion with the great. God gave Him a name
above every name. Ephesians 1.20 says, Which He
brought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead, set Him at
His own right hand in the heavenly places far above. Not just above,
far above. All principality and power and
might and dominion and ever name that's named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come. And He's put all
things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things
to the church. He did that for Christ. Not just
in this world, but in the world to come, His name is above every
name. And the end of chapter 52 tells
us that in proportion to His travail, so shall He be exalted,
extolled, and be very high. You want to know how getting
into some regard of how high exalted Christ is? Look at how
low He went on that cross. He says His visage was marred
more than any other man. He is exalted more than any other
man. He's exalted above all. Wherefore God also has highly
exalted him and given him a name which is above every name that
at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow in heaven and earth
and all things under the earth and every tongue shall confess
that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. The fruit
of His travail is that Christ is satisfied with His personal
exaltation, His mediatorial authority, and His power over all. He's
satisfied. He looks at His suffering and
He looks at this glory He's given now, and He's satisfied. Here's
the third thing. By the travail of His soul, Christ
is satisfied with His elect that He ransomed by His blood. He's
satisfied because the spoils of victory He Himself shall give
to each one. Verse 12, it says, And He shall
divide the spoiled with the strong, because He has poured out His
soul unto death. And He was numbered with the
transgressors, and He bared the sin of many, and He made intercession
for the transgressors. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. He by Himself
purged our sins. He did it. He did it. And as
the reward of His travail, God the Father has given Christ Jesus
the preeminent glory of bringing the good news to each of His
redeemed children scattered wherever they are in this world. Why was
it that so few were saved before Christ came and so many have
been called after He came? It was Him calling them before
too. The work has been in His hands since the foundation of
the world. Why did he wait until after his cross work to begin
calling so many? Why did he wait until after his
cross work to call 3,000 on the day of Pentecost? Look at Isaiah
54, verse 1. Sing, O barren thou that didst
not bear, you that did not do any work. Break forth into singing
and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child. For more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married
wife, saith the Lord. Jerusalem above is the mother
of us all. This is the church of God. The
church doesn't do the travailing to bring forth children. Christ
did the travailing. And during Christ's life, the
church appeared like she was a married wife for Christ was
here. He was here. He walked here. So she appeared married. But
there were not many converts at that time. Not as many. But
after Christ prevailed and arose, she looked like a desolate wife
now, like she's a widow. Because he's not with her anymore.
Because Christ is not visible here. But still, more are the
children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,
saith the Lord. Why? You read it. Verse 5, For thy
maker is thine husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall
he be called. By telling us here that Christ
shall be satisfied, you know what God's telling us. He's telling
us not anything will prevent the Lord Jesus Christ from bringing
the gospel to one of his lost sheep. He's telling us not anything
will prevent Christ Jesus from praying the Father and sending
forth the Holy Spirit and making, creating them anew in righteousness
and true holiness. He's telling us nothing is going
to stop Him from giving faith to each one of His children.
Nothing is going to stop Him from drawing them to Himself
and bringing them to rejoice in Christ and rest in Christ
and trust Him alone for all their salvation. Nothing on this earth
is going to stop Him from keeping them and holding them and not
allowing anybody to separate them from His love and He's going
to bring each one of them to Himself. Christ shall be satisfied. He can't fail. That's right. And I'll tell you when Christ
will be fully satisfied. One day He's going to stand before
God and He's going to say, Behold, I and the children whom thou
hast given me. Every one of them, not one of
them being lost. And I'll tell you something else.
as he stands there, as the mediator, presenting all his elect to God,
because he is God, he shall be presenting it to himself, a glorious
church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and
without blemish. And then there won't be a need
of a mediator. Then there'll be God and His
people, and God shall be all in all. Christ is the one who
fills all in all, brethren. He's the one who's getting the
glory for this. Then our Redeemer will see that spiritual holy
city made up of all His saints, the foundation laid in His blood.
They'll all be standing before Him, finished, resplendent in
His glory, and perfect in His beauty, and fully, finally, freely,
forever, He shall see of the travail of His soul, and He shall
be satisfied. This God don't fail. This Savior
does not fail. Sinner, how can you not repent
from your sins? How can you not repent from your
vain imagination? How can you not repent from some
goofy decision you made and walk down an aisle and put your hand
in some slick preacher's hand 20 years ago? How can you not
repent from that vanity and cast yourself into the hands of the
Lord Jesus Christ? And believer, the Scriptures
give us a word, a perfect word that the Scriptures applies this
to us. And it's in two Scriptures. Look
at Hebrews 12. That's the first one. Hebrews 12. And then Mark, Romans 8. I want
you to get them marked so we can turn right to them. Hebrews
12 and Romans 8. Don't we have some work to do? We are clay pots. Clay pots filled
with this treasure from heaven. And we're being used of Christ
to sound forth this gospel. That's our mission. That's our
mission. And every practical thing that's said about in the
Scripture has this purpose right here, to keep all the attention
off of me and off of you and on Him. And keep all ears open
to His Gospel and not us. That's the purpose of every practical
word of instruction in Scripture. You want somebody to say, Thank
you in the day of divine visitation and just rejoice in you because
you did something nobody, no other religious person in this
world did. Do you want to? Then stay out of the way. Stay
out of the way. Try not to get anybody looking
at you. Get them looking to Christ, to Christ alone. That's right. They'll say, you didn't draw
the attention to you. You didn't draw the attention
to your church. You didn't market your alms in front of me and
tell me all the missionary efforts you did and all the humanitarian
efforts you were doing and all the things you were doing. You
didn't sound forth your prayers before me like the Pharisees
did and make sure I saw how much you pray and when you pray. You
stayed out of the way and preached Christ and crucified to me. And
God did the work and drew me to Him. And I thank you because
you preached Christ to Him. You did something nobody else
ever did. You want Christ's people? Let's read it. Hebrews 12. So
what do we do while we're doing this? How are we going to do
this work? Here's how we're going to do it. Verse 1. Let us lay
aside every weight and the sin which
does so easily beset us, that sin of immorality and that sin
of self-righteous attention-getting too. Every sin that easily besets
us. And let us run with patience
the race that God set before us. Just like He set it before
Christ. Doing what? Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. who for the joy that was
set before Him could not be turned aside from His Word. He could
not. He endured the cross. He was rejected of men. He was
despised by men. Everybody who was somebody in
religion turned thumbs down on Him and said, He's a nobody.
And He said, Leave Him alone. You leave Him alone. He endured
the crowd, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest you be
wearied and faint in your mind. Now look at Romans 8 and verse
17. For, for, at the end of verse
17 there it says, For if so be that we suffer with him, we'll
be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the
glory which shall be revealed in us." You know what Christ
did when He went to that cross? He said, the sufferings that
I'm going to endure will be nothing compared with the glory that
shall be revealed. And for that joy set before Him,
He went to the cross. And He has seen the travail of
His soul, and He's satisfied. And He shall see it and be satisfied. He won't lose one. Now He tells
us, next time you get weary and you get faint and you feel like
it's too much to have self-righteous folks say bad things about you,
and whatever else goes on, He says, consider Him. Consider
Him. Remember how He ran this race.
I guarantee you when it's over, you're going to see the travail
of your soul and you're going to say, that was nothing compared
to this glory that's revealed. Amen.