Brethren, let's turn to Isaiah
chapter 53. Let's pray together before we
begin. Our gracious Father, we thank you for gathering us here
together this morning. It's only by your hand of mercy
that we came here safely and with a desire to hear a word
from you. Lord, we pray now that you'd
indeed open our hearts and teach us. We won't have it if you don't
teach us. We won't know it if you don't
teach us effectually. And we pray that you'll do that
now. Lord, help us to have our minds cleared and our thoughts
set on Christ and Him crucified. We ask it in His precious name. Amen. I learned a valuable lesson
this week, this past week when I was up in Montana and I went
to see a friend there and I walked in and the first words out of
his mouth was, to be absent from the body is to be present with
the Lord. And he began to preach. And it'd take about a minute
for him to get a sentence out. But he went at that statement
from every angle, with every scripture, exalting Christ the
whole time. And he told me, he said, I'm
82 years old, and he said, it takes me a while to talk now.
And he said, but I'm like the woman who memorized the poem
and could recite a poem about Christ, but then when it got
down to her older years, all she could say was Him. And He
said, all I can really think about is Him. I don't want to
ever waste your time with anything else but Him. I don't want to
waste your time by telling you something else and spending forever
to get to Him. I want to get to Him right away. So let's get to Him. Isaiah 53.10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He has put Him to grieve. On the darkest day of this world,
that this world has ever known, God fulfilled His will in Christ
Jesus and took away the darkness of His people. It says, verse
10, When thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. There's
been many men and women who've been, by grace, been able to
suffer martyrdom. But not one sinner that's ever
died in the cause of Christ has ever died for even one sin of
his own, much less for the sin of a multitude. And yet the Lord
Jesus Christ, who knew no sin, took all the sin of a multitude
no man can number and made an end to that sin and brought in
everlasting righteousness by His one offering. Look at the
next thing there, it says, He shall see His seed, He shall
prolong His days. God saw Christ, his seed, and
was pleased. And he raised him from the dead
to his throne in glory, prolonging his days forever. And Christ
saw his seed raised, and their days prolonged forever when he
raised. And he shall see every one of his seed, born the first
time and born again by his grace and brought to faith in him.
The infant who dies, dies by his appointment and goes to be
with him immediately. And the believer who lives, or
the sinner who lives on, lives on by his appointment until that
day when he's appointed to cross their path with this gospel and
quicken them and give them faith. It's by his appointment. But
you notice here it doesn't read the Lord Jesus has followers.
It says he has a seed. His seed was in him. When he
obeyed God, when he fulfilled the law, when he went to the
cross and laid down his life, his seed was in him. Just like
Adam's seed was in him. We did what Adam did because
we were in him. Well, we did what Christ did because we were
in him. And now his seed, his life abides in you who believe. And we're conformed to his image
in the new man and one day in glory we're going to be perfectly
conformed to his image. This is his seed. Now here's
our text, verse 10. And the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hands. Now this statement is itself
the one thing I want you to get from this message. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in Christ's hand. Now first let's
get a good understanding of what this statement means. What are
we to understand by this phrase, the pleasure of the Lord? What
does that mean, the pleasure of the Lord? What does it mean
when it says that it shall prosper in His hand, the pleasure of
the Lord? This term pleasure expresses God's purpose to glorify
himself. The triune God to glorify himself
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ in the salvation of all
his people. The salvation of a people chosen
from Adam's fallen race. If you had a group of folks in
a raft going down a rapid river and about to go over a waterfall
and die. And you reached out and saved
a couple of them because you could. They would be grateful
to you. And the ones that weren't saved,
it was your choice to save who you grabbed and who you saved.
And those that were saved, they would be ungrateful to come to
you and say, well, why didn't you save those others? God saves
whom He chooses out of the fallen race of mankind. And he does
it through faith in Christ. And that's what his good pleasure
is. In general, this term pleasure includes the glorification of
God in every aspect of our salvation. From Christ redeeming his elect
on the cross, to the spread of the gospel throughout this gospel
age, to Christ making that gospel effectual in the heart of His
people, to the establishment and the increase of God's kingdom,
His church, to the carrying out of their salvation, to the final
glory in heaven with Him. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in His hand. Now, why is this work the pleasure
of the Lord? Why is it called the pleasure
of the Lord? Well, because it's the triune
God's free and sovereign eternal purpose and grace in Christ.
It's His purpose. It's His grace toward His people
in Christ. That's why it's His pleasure.
Ephesians 3.11 says, according to the eternal purpose which
He purposed in Jesus Christ. It says, 2 Timothy 1.9 says,
Who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according
to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And then
it's called His pleasure because it's God's will. God's will is
His pleasure. Ephesians 1.5 says, He predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will. His will is His pleasure. Having
made known unto us the mystery of His will according to His
good pleasure, which He purposed in Himself. It's called God's
good pleasure because this work of salvation magnifies and honors
God's holiness and His righteousness. And whatever magnifies God's
character, pleases God. He says in Isaiah 42, 21, the
Lord is well pleased for His righteousness sake. He shall
magnify the law and make it honorable. And then also it's called the
pleasure of the Lord because it's the accomplishment of His
will by Christ His Son. And He delights in His Son because
He accomplished this. Psalm 32, 27 says, Let them shout
for joy and be glad that favor my righteous cause. Do you favor
God's righteous cause? I do. I like it. I like His righteous
cause. Well, He says this, Yea, let
them say continually. Here's what He says for us to
say continually. Let the Lord be magnified which hath pleasure
in the prosperity of His servant. And His servant is His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look at Isaiah 42. I'll show
you that. Isaiah 42. Behold My servant, whom I uphold,
Mine elect, in whom My soul delighteth. You know what Matthew 12, verses
17 through 21 tells us? It says that's about the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's that servant that God chose. He's that elect servant God chose. He said, a voice from heaven
spoke and it said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased. Now another reason, if you look
at Isaiah 62, I'll show you another reason it's called His good pleasure.
It's because this work of grace, by this work of grace, God delights
in those that He saves by His Son. He delights in his son and
he delights in those he saves. Look at Isaiah 62 and verse 4. Thou shalt no more be termed
forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate.
This is talking about you and me, believer. Listen to this. But thou shalt be called Hepzibah
and thy land Beulah, for Hepzibah means the Lord delighteth in
thee. That's what it means. And Beulah
means thy land shall be married. God delights in His people. Psalm
147.10 says, He delighteth not in the strength of the horse.
He delighteth not in the legs of a man. He takes no pleasure
in the legs of a man. It's not of him that willeth.
It's not of him that runneth. It's not of mighty strength.
The Lord takes pleasure in them that fear Him. In those that
hope in His mercy. And then it says in Psalm 149,
4, the Lord taketh pleasure in his people. He will beautify
the meek with salvation. How are we going to be beautified?
With salvation. He'll beautify the meek with
salvation because he takes pleasure in his people. You see, the thing
that displeases men about the gospel is is it's all God's will,
and it's all God's purpose, and it's all God's good pleasure,
and it's all God's delight, and God's doing it the way He purposed
from eternity to do it. And nobody can stop Him, nobody
can question Him, nobody can get in His way. He's just doing
His will. He made this place to do His
will in. And that just infuriates the little old fire ants like
us. We just get so mad. You can't
do anything about it. He's going to have His way. He's
going to save His people. Well, what part does Christ Jesus
have in this work? It says there, the pleasure of
the Lord shall prosper in His hand. What part does the Lord
Jesus have in this work? All of it. All of it. Every bit
of it. All of this work's been in Christ's
hand since God the Father chose His Son and entered into covenant
with Him entrusting all His people into the hand of Christ Jesus.
God the Father first trusted Christ with His chosen people.
Look over Genesis 43. I'll show you this. Genesis chapter
43. This is that picture. You remember of Judah. He went
back from Joseph and he went to his father Jacob and he was
going to bring Benjamin back with him. He's going to bring
Benjamin back to see Joseph in Egypt. And Jacob was afraid Benjamin
would die. Something would happen to him.
And Judah entered into surety ship with his father for this
boy Benjamin. Now this is what Christ said
of every elect child given to him of God the Father in eternity. This is what Christ said in eternity
of all his people. Right here. Genesis 43, 9. I
will be surety for him. Of my hand shalt thou require
him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. That's suretyship. God never
once depended on his people to ever fulfill anything. When we
enter into a suretyship, we go to a bank and we cosign on a
loan for our children. That means if Robert gets in
a wreck, wrecks his jeep, I'm going to pay for his jeep for
him when he can't pay for it anymore because he can't get
to work. But that's not what God did. God said, they can't
pay it. And Christ said, I know they
can't pay it. I'll be sure to fund it. I'll pay it. I'll pay
it. He never looked to us to pay
it. And that's why it's all in His hand. Now here's the last
thing about this. I want you to get this statement
now. Look back at our text, Isaiah 53.10. Notice this statement gives us
full assurance that this work shall prosper in the hand of
the Lord Jesus. Look at verse 10. The pleasure
of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. There's no maybes about
this. It shall prosper in his hand. Look on down through those next
couple of verses. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and he shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall
divide the spoil with the strong, because he has poured out his
soul unto death, and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he
bare the sins of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
In many places in Scripture it tells us there's not a remote
possibility that Christ will not succeed. Look back to Isaiah
42. I want you to see this again. Isaiah 42. It's talking about
Christ there being his servant. Now look at verse 1 at the end
of verse 1 there. It says, He shall bring forth
judgment to the Gentiles. Look at verse 3 at the end. It
says, He shall bring forth judgment unto truth. Look at verse 4. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till He has set judgment in the earth. Look at verse 9. Behold,
the former things do I declare. Before they spring forth, I tell
you of them. Do you think God who cannot lie
would tell us what is certain to happen if there was a possibility
it wouldn't happen? He's telling us Christ shall
not fail. Why is it men preach universal
atonement? Why is it men preach universal
redemption? They would rather have a Christ
that failed. I don't want a Christ that failed.
Why do you preach particular redemption? Because I believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ who succeeded. I believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ who accomplished the eternal redemption of His
people. I believe in a Christ who by Himself purged our sins. I believe in the one whose name
is Jesus for He shall save His people from their sin. It's not
contingent upon you. He did it. He did it. If you
have faith to believe it, you're receiving what was already accomplished
by Him. And the reason you have faith
to receive it is He accomplished that in you. He gave you that. See, this whole work is His.
It's His. Look at Isaiah 46 in verse 10. He just told us before, these
new things I'm declaring to you before they spring forth, I tell
you of them. Look at Isaiah 46 in verse 10. declaring the end from the beginning,
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 executeth my counsel,
and from a far country, yea, I've spoken it, I will also bring
it to pass, I've purposed it, I also will do it. Does that
apply to everything? Well listen to this, Psalm 135
verse 6 says, Whatsoever, whatsoever the Lord pleased, that did he
in heaven and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places. So
yes, it applies to everything. He's going to have his way. It's
his good pleasure. Now secondly, in our text, for
our second division, let's see each particular pleasure that
shall prosper in Christ's hands. Now, March of last year, we looked
at these things, but it's been a long time. And I doubt anybody
here remembers them. So, we're going to be reminded
of these. I want you to see these things. I'm not going to say
much on them. They don't need much said on them. I just want you
to turn to them and look at them. First of all, right here in Isaiah
53.10, it says, Please the Lord to bruise him. Now he made his
soul an offering for sin, and when he did that, he effectually,
finally, fully, forever, freely, for his people, put away the
sins of his people. Totally, completely, never again
to be brought up. That means they can't break the
law and have sin charged to their charge. Now we break the law
continually. I'm not saying that, but I'm
saying before God we're justified. Before God we're righteous. Alright? We're righteous before him. Now,
because Christ accomplished this and God's pleased with Him and
He satisfied God, He made atonement for God for all of these for
whom He died, then that means that all these other things are
going to come to pass because these people have got to be caught
out of darkness. They've got to be saved. So all
these other things shall come to pass. Alright, turn to Colossians
1.18. Colossians 1.18. Here's the first
thing. Colossians 1.18. Christ, are you there yet? I'll
give you time. Colossians 1.18. Christ is the head of the body,
the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead,
that in all things He might have the preeminence. For it pleased
the Father. There's his pleasure. It pleased
the Father that in him should all fullness dwell. And having
made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile
all things to himself. Christ shall have all preeminence.
There's no doubt. He shall have all preeminence.
As long as anybody stands in this pulpit, he's going to have
preeminence in this pulpit. That's for certain. God keeping
me, he will. And he's going to have preeminence
in this world. He's going to have preeminence
in the day of judgment. And he's going to have preeminence forever.
Because in him dwells all fullness. All fullness of wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification and redemption. All fullness of salvation for
his people. The fullness of the Godhead bodily
dwells in him. Everything God is and has to
say about himself is in Christ Jesus. And everything he is for
his people is in Christ Jesus. All fullness dwells in him. All
right, let's go to... Well, you don't have to turn
here. You know this one well. I'll just give it to you. 1 Corinthians
121. Christ is going to call out His sheep using the gospel.
Using the gospel. 1 Corinthians 121 says, For after
that in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God,
it pleased God. There's His pleasure. It pleased
God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. I've
been reading Scriptures to you and showing you Scriptures through
the Old Testament, through the New Testament, That God says
of the false prophet, I didn't send them. These people won't
prosper you. I didn't send them. So God, you
know, God says by truth. He's a God of truth. By truth
iniquity is purged. It's by truth that God begot
you again by the word of truth. The word of truth. So God says
I'm going to give you pastures that will feed you with knowledge
and understanding. Knowledge of God's divine election.
that of the things I've been telling you here today, that
God's will shall be done, knowledge of particular redemption accomplished
by Christ, knowledge of irresistible grace, knowledge of Him keeping
His people, knowledge of Christ, true knowledge of Him. And to
say that God's will is frustrated over this bad thing happened
and to say God didn't have anything to do with that, that's not knowledge.
That's foolishness, that's ignorance. To say that Christ died for a
people that's going to be in hell, that's not knowledge, that's
foolishness. I hate that. Scott preached a
message to you, suddenly there's a time to hate. That's the time
to hate, when you hear that message. Because it declares Christ a
failure. I'm telling you right now that
God saves His people and He's going to call them out with the
word of the gospel, with the truth. The pleasure of the Lord
will prosper in His hand. And then at the appointed time,
Christ is going to call each elect, redeemed child to faith.
Let me just give this to you. Galatians 1.15 is an example. Paul said, when it pleased God.
When it pleased God. There's the pleasure of God.
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother's womb, He
called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. When does God
reveal His Son in a sinner? Mamas and daddies can want their
children to know the gospel. They can plead with their children
to seek the Lord. They can plead with them to come
to church services and hear the gospel preached. And you ought
to do that. But you know when they're going
to hear it? If they're going to hear it, they're going to hear it
when it pleases God at the set time. I can't make them hear
it. I want them to hear it too, but I can't make them hear it.
It's going to please God. When it pleases God at the time
appointed, that's when His people hear it. And all that the Father
giveth me, Christ said, shall come to me, and him that cometh
to me I'll in no wise cast out. They're all going to believe.
Because the Hebrew writer said, without faith it is impossible
to please God, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is,
and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
You cannot come to God except through faith. So Christ shall
call them, the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand.
Look at 1 Corinthians 12, 18. This is one I didn't include
before, and I just saw this one this week when I was studying.
Christ is going to set each individual member of his church in his church,
in his body, exactly as it pleases God. Look here at 1 Corinthians
12, 18. He says, Now hath God set the
members, every one of them, in the body as it hath pleased him. You know, you can look at your
church and you can say, well, boy, y'all need to do some more
to get the word out or something because y'all a shabby bunch.
But you know what the New Testament said after the day of Pentecost? He added Christ Jesus added to
the church daily such as should be saved. He sets them in the
church exactly where they're supposed to be, exactly when
they're supposed to be there. Right on time. You just imagine,
when you came out of the womb, imagine if you had a big old
giant muscled up arm and the rest of your body like a baby.
Everybody looked at you and thought, man, you look like something's
wrong with you. Well, imagine if he put some
big, strong, faithful, spiritually built up believer in the midst
of a bunch of babies at the wrong time. It wouldn't be good for
them, it wouldn't be good for you. each one together in the
body exactly as they need to be so that you don't have an
arm bigger than the body and a head bigger than the body and
a foot bigger and everything just fits just right. That's
what he does. Alright, here's another one. 1 Samuel 12, 22. 1 Samuel 12,
22. It's God's pleasure that Christ
shall not forsake one of His children. Look at 1 Samuel 12,
22. The Lord will not forsake His
people for His great namesake, because it hath pleased the Lord
to make you His people. Somebody will say, well, didn't
He say that to all the children of Israel? No, He said it to
the elect among the children of Israel. The others He entered
into a covenant of works with. But those that he spoke to in
their heart, he entered into a covenant of grace with them
even while they were under that political covenant under their
old covenant. That's true. He's always saved
people the same way. And not all those who are of
Israel are Israel. Not all those in the physical
political land of Israel were the true elect spiritual Israel
of God. This is true of all the elect
of God. He will not forsake His people
for His great namesake. I said this to you last week.
If He forsakes one, He loses more than we do. Because it's
His glory. It's His namesake. That's why
He won't forsake them. So He won't forsake His people.
Christ died for them. The pleasure of the Lord will
prosper in His hand. He said, all that the Father gives to
me, not only will they come to me, He said, I won't lose one
of them. I won't lose one of them. He said no man can pluck
them out of my hand and no man can pluck them out of my father's
hand. Alright, here's another one. Hebrews 13. This is a new
one as well. I didn't see this one last time
either. Hebrews 13. It pleases God to make every
believer do his will that pleases Him using the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ working in his people. And everyone is going to do his
will and do his good pleasure through the power of the Lord
Jesus Christ working in his people. Look here, verse 16 says, To
do good and to communicate, forget not. For with such sacrifices
God is well pleased. How are we going to do that?
How are we going to do that? Does God just wind us up and
let us go and then we hope we can do good and communicate?
Look at verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
that God will make you perfect in every good work to do His
will working in you, that which is well-pleasing in His sight,
and here's how He's going to do it, through Jesus Christ. The work's in His hand. Christ
is going to do it. So when you read over in Philippians
2.13, it's God which worketh in you, both to will and to do
of His good pleasure, you know that it's Christ Jesus working
in you, both to do, will and to do of His good pleasure. Look
at 2 Thessalonians. I want you to see this. This
goes along with this, but it's something to see. This is why we pray this right
here 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 11 2 Thessalonians 1 verse 11
Wherefore also we pray always for you that our God would count
you worthy of this calling and fulfill all the good pleasure
of his goodness and the work of faith with power that the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you and you
in him How is that going to happen? according to the grace of our
God and the Lord Jesus Christ. You see that? He's going to work
this in His people. Alright? Here's another one. Ephesians 1. In the end, in the
end, whenever He's called out His last child, it's God's pleasure
to gather together all His saints in heaven and all His saints
in earth together in one. And that one is Christ. Here
it is. Ephesians 1.9. having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times, that is, when the stewardship of Christ has reached its fulfillment,
he might gather together in one all things in Christ. both which
are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him." He's talking
about his saints, his elect. "...in whom also we have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,
that we should be to the praise of God's glory who first trusted
in Christ. It is the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand." Now turn to Luke 12. This is our
last one, Luke 12. This right here is absolutely
certain. This is certain. You say, well,
all of these things are good, and I see how these things apply
to me, but how is this going to apply to me overall? Well,
here's how it's going to apply to you overall. Luke 12. If you're
His, if you believe Him. Luke 12, verse 32. Fear not, little flock, for it
is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Do you
think he's going to fail? He said he won't. He said he
shall not fail. The pleasure of the Lord shall
prosper in Christ's hand. Amen.