or compares the tribe of Judah,
the house of Jesse, the house of David, the nation of Israel, all sinners, as dry ground. So you have Christ as the root
and sinners as dry ground. I want to show you that Christ
is the root and all sinners, including God's elect, are dry
ground. We're dry ground. We give nothing
to Christ the root. We give nothing to Him. But the
root gives all to His people. Alright, let's look first of
all that Christ is the root that is before the dry ground. He's the root that's before the
dry ground. You know a root comes first.
You have a seed and then you have a root and then you have
a a tender plant, and then you have a sapling, and then you
have a mighty oak that grows up. The root comes first. The
root is before the branches. Well, that's Christ. Christ is
first. You know, Christ is called in
Scripture the seed of Abraham, meaning that according to the
flesh, Christ came through Abraham. He came through Abraham. He came
through Isaac. He came through Jacob, who is
Israel. He came through the tribe of Judah. He came through the
house of Jesse. He came through the house of
David. Joseph and Mary were of the house of David. And He came,
according to the flesh, that way, so that He is of that dry
ground, but He was before that dry ground. Look at Revelation
22. Revelation 22. Christ Jesus was
the Son of David. according to the flesh. That's
what the scriptures say. He came through the lineage at
David's house. So Christ was born of the lineage
which the Old Testament said he would be. But now we'll look
at this in Revelation 22 verse 16. I, Jesus, have sent mine
angel to testify unto you these things in the churches. I am
the root and the offspring of David. the bright and morning
star. Christ indeed was the root that
came from David as the offspring of David in the flesh, but Christ
as God the Son is the root from who David came. He's the root
that David came from. Look at Matthew 22. Matthew chapter
22. And you'll want to hold your
place in Matthew. We'll come back here a little later in the
message. Matthew 22. One day the Pharisees were talking
to the Lord. He's the self-sufficient God. That's who He is. He is life
that sustains His people. All people, all creatures have
their life from Him. We're just saying that. And they
all do. The Scripture says that in Him
we live and move and have our being. He's the root from whom
we get life, just natural life. Now look here in Matthew 22.
David was born from Christ the root. That's what I'm trying
to show you. Now look, verse 41. While the Pharisees were
gathered together, Jesus asked them, saying, What think ye of
Christ? Whose son is he? They say unto
him, The son of David. and he saith unto them, How then
doth David in spirit call him Lord, saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then call him Lord,
how is he his son? And no man was able to answer
him a word. You know how he is his Lord? He's the root. He's his God. He was David's
God. Look at Romans 11 now. Romans
chapter 11. And let's look at verse 16. Look at the second part of verse
16. If the root be holy, so are the
branches. Now some will say that Paul is
speaking here of Abraham being the root. And that might be true,
but Christ is the root of Abraham. The vine, the olive tree, who
bore Abraham is Christ. He's the root. Christ said, I'm
the vine, you are the branches. So Christ is holy and His people
as branches born from Christ, grown from Christ, the root,
they're just like Him. They're holy. That's what it
said. The root's holy, the branches are holy. Verse 17, And if some
of the branches be broken off, the natural children of Israel
were rebellious, they were branches that God broke off. They were
suckers. You ever have a sucker on your
tomato plants? They look just like branches off of the vine,
but they're not. And the way they prove it is
they don't bear fruit. They're not really united. They're
not really getting the sap from the vine that makes them bear
fruit. And that's what the natural sons of Abraham, the natural
children of Israel were. They were not connected to Christ
the vine. They just appeared to be. They
may have looked like others, But Christ said, every branch
that's in me that doesn't bring forth fruit, I cut them off because
they weren't really His. They weren't vitally united to
Christ. Alright, look here now verse
17 at the second half. He says, And thou, being a wild
olive tree, were grafted in among them. You see, us sitting here
now who are Gentiles, who were given life and faith and made
righteous by Christ because God chose us from the beginning,
we were grafted in like wild olive branches. We were grafted
into Christ the root and the olive tree. Now look at verse
17. And with them we partake of the
root and fatness of the olive tree. You see, all God's elect
called out from among Jew and Gentile are called out and they're
made to partake together of Christ the root, of Christ the vine. And we're branches in that vine
and we all partake of it just like it would happen if you took
some wild branches from some domesticated plant and you graft
them in, they'll grow in that plant just like the natural branches
that came from that plant will. That's what Gentiles are. We've
been grafted in with those who were the elect children amongst
Israel so that we're all partaking of Christ the root. Look at verse
18. Boast not against the branches,
but if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee. We can't boast against unbelieving
Jews broken off because of unbelief because we were just like them.
We were dry ground, just like them. We were unfruitful branches
too. Who made the difference? God
did. Boasting is excluded. We're branches. We don't bear Christ. Christ
bears us. He's the root that comes before.
Dry ground gives absolutely nothing to the root. The root gives everything
to the dry ground. Okay? So you see, Christ is the
root. He's divine, He's the olive tree,
God the Son, the life by whom His people are born. He's the
root that we're talking about. Now secondly, Christ is the root
that came from the dry ground. Alright, our text says, as a
root out of a dry ground. Christ came according to the
flesh, just like the Scripture said He would. He came from the
nation of Israel. He came from the specific tribe
of Judah. He came from the house of Jesse. Jesse was David's father. He
came from the house of David, just like the Lord said He would.
Well, when He came, that dry ground, it was dry. It had none
of its former glory when He came. That former glory was gone. Why?
Why was that glory gone? Look back at Isaiah chapter 1.
This will help us be a review of Isaiah. We'll see here why
that glory was gone. Isaiah chapter 1. Look at the first verse. Who's
this book written to? This is the vision of Isaiah,
the son of Amos, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. Now this is the ground that this
book's about. It's about Judah and it's about
Jerusalem. Now look at the second verse.
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the Lord hath spoken. I have nourished and brought
up children. and they have rebelled against
me." You see that? They rebelled against me. Now
he said, I've nourished them, I've brought them up, and they've
rebelled against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and
the ass his master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people
does not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors,
they've forsaken the Lord, they've provoked, now watch this, the
Holy One of Israel to anger. They're going away backward.
The Holy One of Israel is Christ the Root. He's God the Son, the
pre-incarnate Lord Jesus Christ, the One to whom the work was
given. by God the Father, the one to
whom the elect of God were given, handed to, to do this work. The
rebellious were those natural branches. They were those natural
branches. Not all Israel are of Israel. Just because they were born of
Abraham doesn't mean they're the sons of God. Doesn't mean
they're necessarily God's true elect. They were not truly, vitally
connected to Christ. But that's also a description
of every son of Adam. Every son of Adam, you and me
and our flesh, all God's elect included, we're dry ground, brethren. Christ has created a nation here
and he's showing you and me what we are in this nation. Look here
at verse 5. Why should you be stricken anymore?
You will revolt more and more. The whole head is sick and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even
into the head, there's no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, they've not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your cities are burned with fire.
Your land, strangers devour it in your presence. It is desolate
as overthrown by strangers. Now, if God's elect are the same
as these natural sons of Israel, then who makes the difference?
Who makes the difference between us? Look at verse 9. Except the
Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should
have been as Sodom and should have been like unto Gomorrah.
Except God by His grace chose a people in Christ Jesus before
the foundation of the world and gave them to His Son. Just like,
except he had a remnant right there in Israel. He had a remnant
there in Israel. So for that remnant, you know
what he wouldn't do? He wouldn't destroy the nation utterly. You
know why God didn't destroy the world utterly the moment Adam
sinned in the garden? Because he had an elect people
that was going to come through Adam. That's why he didn't. That's
why he didn't destroy them. It's God that makes one sinner
to differ from another. It's God that chooses whom he
will. and passes by whom He will. Now look, the nation is an example
of all sinful fallen man. The root formed that nation.
God the Son, we just read about Him. There's nothing you can
see anywhere around that He hadn't created. And He created that
nation. And God the Son formed them.
The root formed that nation. And just like He made Adam at
the very beginning, But just like Adam rebelled, this nation
rebelled. And just like those in Israel
fell, we fell in Adam. Every one of us did. And we became
as a garden that has no water, a dry ground. That's what we
are. Look at the next, down at verse 28. Isaiah 1, 28. And the destruction of the transgressors
and of the sinners shall be together. And they that forsake the Lord
shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed...
Now watch this part. They'll be ashamed of the oaks
which you have desired. And you shall be confounded for
the gardens that you have chosen. That was... He's talking about
places where they worshipped. Places where they worshipped.
For you shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth and as a garden that
hath no water. A dry ground. God's never been
unjust toward a sinner, ever. In the beginning, He put Adam
in a perfect environment and created him upright. It was Adam
who went away from God, not God who went away from Adam. And
the same is true of Israel. He gave them A nation set apart
from every other nation. He was the provider for this
nation. He cared for this nation. Just like you do a garden. He
cared for this nation. He sent them his prophets. He
gave them his gospel, his word. He gave them his scriptures.
He gave them every advantage they had. And they wouldn't even
draw near to just simply have God to teach them something.
Oh, they took on a form of religion, like many of us did, and they
went through some motions, but their heart was far from God.
They were not worshipping God in spirit, and they just would
not draw near to God in sincerity. They couldn't make themselves
do it. Now listen. God's given you these same advantages.
He's given me these same advantages. He's put us in a nation where
we have freedom of religion. He's given us His scriptures.
He sent His prophets. Now listen, learn from Israel. Learn from them. Learn from what
God did there. He says, you shall be ashamed
of the mighty oaks that you have desired. You'll be ashamed of
the places that you would rather go other than to my courts where
my word is proclaimed. Do you despise coming here? Does
anybody despise coming here? Do you have no desire to walk
in the light that God has given you? Learn from Israel. Listen. They wouldn't walk in
the light God gave them. I'm talking about, well, I hope
God will give you a heart to pick up the Bible. Won't you
just reach out and pick it up and read it? That's the light
God gave them. He said, you wouldn't even walk
in that light. And for that, He made it so they
couldn't. He made it so they couldn't.
Turn over to Isaiah chapter 6 and look at verse 8. This is where Isaiah saw the
glory of the Lord. In verse 8, Isaiah 6, 8, And
also I heard the voice of the Lord saying, Whom shall I send?
Who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I, send
me. And he said, Go and tell this
people. Now listen to what he's going
to say, Go tell this people. Hear ye indeed. Oh, you hear
all right. But understand not. And see ye
indeed, but perceive not. Now watch what he tells him to
do. Make the heart of this people fat, make their ears heavy, and
shut their eyes. Lest they see with their eyes,
and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart,
and convert and be healed. Hold your place here just a minute.
Who fulfilled this prophecy? Who fulfilled this? The Root
fulfilled this prophecy. The same as He did in Isaiah
53. Let me just read this to you
from John 12, 37. Though He, Christ, had done so many miracles
before them, just like He had done in Israel there, though
He had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on Him. that the saying of Isaiah the
prophet might be fulfilled, which he spoke. It said, Lord, who's
believed our report, and to whom has the armor of the Lord been
revealed? That's Isaiah 53. And then it says, therefore they
could not believe, because Isaiah said again. You see, the first
part it says, they would not. Though they saw all these miracles,
they wouldn't believe on him. But now it says, and they couldn't.
Why? Because, as Isaiah said again,
right there what I just read to you. He hath blinded their
eye and hardened their heart that they should not see with
their eyes nor understand with their heart and be converted
and I should heal them. These things said Isaiah when
he saw his glory and he spake of him. He was speaking of Christ.
Isaiah was in his text. He's the one that fulfilled it.
He's the root that fulfilled this. You see, they wouldn't
simply take the word of God and come to God and ask God to just
teach them. They wouldn't do that. They had
a lot of religion, they had a lot of other things going on, in
addition to all their sin and rebellion, but they just would
not turn from all of it and sincerely ask God to teach them. And so
God made it so they could not be taught. He turned them over
to what's called judicial reprobation. Their time was up. They couldn't
believe it. They could not believe. Now I'm
showing you that Christ is the root from which the house of
David came, from which Israel came. And I'm trying to show
you that by the judgment of God, the house of David became a dry
ground. They became a dry ground. That's
what all sinners are. And this is why Christ came and
this is why he's called a root out of a dry ground. He came
out of these people. Now let's read on here in Isaiah
6. Look at verse 11. Then said I, Lord, how long?
How long do you want me to go and do this? And he answered,
until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without
man, and the land be utterly desolate. And the Lord hath removed
men, the Lord, until the Lord hath removed men far away, and
there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." So this
land is just a dry ground. And he said, but yet in it shall
be a tent. And it, this tenth, shall return
and shall be eaten as a till tree and as an oak whose substance
is in them when they cast their leaves. So the holy seed shall
be the substance thereof. I think I've told you this before,
and I don't know if you've paid any attention to it or not, but
But on up the hill from my house, if you're sitting right in front
of my house, looking at my house, and you go left on up the hill,
there's a stump right there in my neighbor's yard. And they've
cut this thing down to the ground. But when I moved in there, it
was a little tree coming up out of it. It's a pretty good-sized
tree coming up out of it now. It's growing up out of it. Well,
that's what God did. He cut Israel down. Just cut them down. God did.
But in it was a tent, a remnant that God had reserved. And through
that remnant, the root was coming of that dry ground. Christ was
coming. Just like that sapling that came up out of that stump
that's cut down in my neighbor's yard. Okay now the Lord all the
while he's telling this he's assuring them he's telling preaching
the gospel to them and he's assuring them but now Judah's not going
to be destroyed until the law a scepter is not going to depart
from Judah until Shiloh come until Christ come the scepter
is not going to depart from and he said here's how you're going
to know a has said oh I don't want to ask a sign attempt the
Lord and he said a has I'll give you the sign here's how you're
going to know a virgin shall conceive and shall bring forth
a child, bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel." God
with us. The root's coming. God's coming
to where you are. Now look at Isaiah 10 verse 15. And I'm going to give you just
a little preview. We just read there that there
was a great forsaking in the land. You know what's going to
happen before Christ comes back the second time? He says through
Paul in the New Testament, there can be a great forsaking, a great
falling away. Perilous times will come, men
will be lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God, they'll be
boasters, they'll be disobedient to parents, they'll be covetous,
they'll be proud, they'll be truce breakers, all of these
things. Well, have sinners always been
that? Yeah, but the difference is they'll have a form of godliness. Ah, we live in a day right now
where people are the most God-hating, God-dishonoring, impious, irreverent
God-haters there are. And yet, they're so dead-gum
holy, you can't stand to be around them. But they deny the power
thereof. You know what the power is? I'm
going to show you this for long. The power is the gospel. That's
what they deny. They deny the gospel. All right,
now let's go here to Isaiah 10, 15. I'm telling you this because
we're not far from Christ coming back. I don't know when he's
coming, but it wouldn't surprise me if it's real soon because
it's just like it talks about. But here's the thing to know.
If you see that, all the while he kept telling them the gospel.
He kept preaching the gospel to them. And you know what happened?
They shut up their ears and he blinded them so that when Christ
came, They couldn't even see Him. They didn't even know He'd
come. Wouldn't it be awful for Christ to come back in all His
splendor, in all His glory, and you not recognize Him? Look at
Isaiah 10, 15. The enemies that God used were
like an axe in God's hand, and they boasted, just like we'll
boast when we overcome a nation, they boasted that they'd done
something. And look at what God said in Isaiah 10, 15. Shall
the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith, or
shall the saw magnify itself against him that shakes it? Look
down at verse 33. He's cutting his tree down. God said, I'm the one cutting
the tree down. Why are you boasting? You're just an axe in my hand.
And the high ones of stature who think they're so godly and
so entitled to every blessing, he
says, they're going to be hewn down, and the haughty shall be
humbled, and he shall cut down, he shall, he shall cut down the
thickets of the forest with iron, and Lebanon shall fall by a mighty
one. And that mighty one's Christ
the root. And there, now watch this, and when he's done this,
he said, Verse 1, And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem
of Jesse. He's saying a tender plant out
of the stump of Jesse that's coming forth. And a branch shall
grow out of his roots. That's Christ. And the Spirit
of the Lord shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. Look at verse 10. And in that
day there shall be a root of Jesse. That's Christ which shall
stand as an ensign, as a banner, the Lord our banner. And he says,
an ensign of the people, to it, to that banner, to Christ shall
the Gentiles seek. And his rest shall be glorious
rest. Not temporal rest. Glorious rest. Spiritual rest. Better than temporal
rest. Verse 11. And it shall come to
pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the
second time to recover the remnant of his people which shall be
left. Now watch where they're left. You can't tell that these
people are his elect from among the Israel anymore because they're
from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
islands of the sea. They just look like everybody
else now. They're just His elect now. He's calling them out. And
He says, "...and He shall set up an ensign for the nations,
and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together
the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." That's
what He started doing when He came. And that's what He's still
doing right now. Furthermore, Christ came forth
as a root out of the dry ground of Joseph and Mary. Not only
the dry ground of that nation, but the dry ground. Let's get
more personal now. The dry ground of Joseph and
Mary. You see, Christ came just like the Old Testament said he
would. And Mary was chosen before to
be the one in whom the body of God the Son would be formed.
That body God prepared for him. in which God the Son would inhabit.
He chose that it would be in Mary, and he chose Joseph to
be the one who would be the instrument that God would use to provide
for the infant child, Jesus. But our God's spiritual. Our
God is... Our Savior is God. And so while it looked like that
Joseph and Mary were giving to the root, remember, We don't
give to the root. We're a dry ground. The root
gives to us. And while it looked like they
were giving to the infant child Jesus, the infant child Jesus
was giving to them. Now look at this. He protected
them from their youth up. That's what Christ did for us.
Why do you think you're sitting here now and God hadn't killed
you already? John, why do you think God hadn't
killed you already? He's got every right to. You're
a sinner. I'm a sinner. He's got a right. I can tell
you there was a bunch of times I came close to dying when I
was young. Why didn't he? Because God was
going to form Christ in me before I died. That's why. You ever
thought maybe that's why you haven't died yet? Christ was formed in the womb
of that virgin. And when he did, when the Holy
Ghost came and spoke to Mary, you know who came with the Holy
Ghost? The one that was going to inhabit that body being formed
in her womb. God the Son came with her. And
the reason that he had to be formed of the Holy Ghost is he
could not be conceived of the corrupt seed of Joseph like you
and I are conceived in our mother's womb of the corrupt seed of our
sinful father. Because he's going to be the
sinless, spotless Lamb of God. He's going to be the high priest
of his people without sin. And in order for him to be the
Lamb of God, he had to be spotless. Before he could take the sin
of his people upon himself, he has to be the spotless Lamb.
Turn over to Matthew 2 with me just a second. I'm trying to
show you this one who's the root. We're the dry ground and the
root, he's before us, he's God before us and he came out of
this dry ground but he's providing for everybody. He saved them,
he saved that dry ground and that remnant so that he could
come forth of that dry ground and of that remnant and save
that remnant. that he spared their lives all
that time. Now look here in Matthew 2. It
appeared Joseph and Mary were protecting the infant Lord Jesus.
But remember, the dry ground gives nothing to the root. The
root gives everything to the dry ground. And we know this. We know the reality is that the
root was providing and directing them. Christ was. We know this.
You know why? Because Christ said this plainly.
Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets. I am not come to destroy, but
to fulfill. Christ came to fulfill them.
Christ came to fulfill them. The root came to fulfill everything
that was written before. Alright, look at Matthew 2.13.
Every move Mary and Joseph made was Christ fulfilling that which
the prophets wrote. Matthew 2.13, When they were
departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in
a dream, saying, Arise, take the young child and his mother,
and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word.
You know who's directing him? The one who God said would fulfill
the prophets. How do you know that? Look at
verse 15. And he was there until the death of Herod, that it might
be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Out of Egypt have I called my son. That's how I know Christ
was doing everything. Because he was fulfilling the
Word. He was fulfilling what he said he would fulfill. And
then the Lord told Joseph to go back to Israel. Look at verse
22. In about the middle part there
it says, And being warned of God in a dream, he turned aside
into the parts of Galilee. He was warned of God in a dream.
and he turned aside into the parts of Galilee, and he came
and he dwelt in a city called Nazareth, that it might be fulfilled
which was spoken by the prophets, he shall be called a Nazarene." This is God, this is God the
Son, this is Christ doing this. He was before, He was the one
who came before the dry ground and He came out of the dry ground.
And He bore Joseph and Mary and He blessed them just as He has
us today, brethren. The dry ground doesn't give a
thing to the root. Now here's the point. Christ
is the root out of a dry ground, out of a poverty stricken family
and nation with none of its former glory. And here's the point.
On purpose. On purpose. It was on purpose
that he came this way. It was on purpose. God chose
base things of the world. He chose things which are despised.
He chose things which are not to bring to nothing things that
are. Natural eyes would have desired a king that came forth
in great pomp and great glory. And so Christ didn't come forth
that way. He came forth as an infant, but
He was the king the whole time. Natural eyes would have looked
upon Christ if He'd have been rich, and they'd have followed
after Him if He'd had His name on the front of His car. But
He didn't come that way. He came poor. Although the whole
time he looked like he was poor, he's the one that created everything,
upheld everything, and was the proprietor of everything that
exists. Even though he looked like he
didn't own a thing. He didn't use political leaders. He didn't
use famous movie stars. He didn't use popular athletes.
He didn't use rock and roll music. He didn't use anything that appeals
to the base, carnal nature of a sinner. Nothing. Nothing. He chose fishermen to speak for
Him. He chose prostitutes and publicans that men despised,
who He made righteous and sent them forth to declare His name.
He chose the foolishness of preaching to spread forth the gospel. He
chose a cruel Roman cross on which He would hang, stripped
naked, with His visage marred more than any other man. Because,
here's why, when you'd look upon Him, There would be nothing about
him that would cause you to desire him. And that's why. Because
he must give the desire. Because if he don't, you'll brag
that you did it. That's why. That's why. Thou
barest not the root, but the root did. The root did. The root came to give life to
chosen sinners who were dead dry ground He came to work out
a righteousness and establish a righteousness and give that
righteousness to sinners that He gave life and faith and all
things that pertain to godliness that He did it. And this is why,
because thy people also shall be all righteous, perfectly righteous. They shall inherit the land forever,
the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may
be glorified. You see, the root came forth
so that the root would be perfect and holy and do a perfect work
and finish that work and that all the branches that come out
of him would be just like him. Because he made them. Now let's look at this third
thing. Substitution. The root took the place of God's
elect who were just dry ground. That's what the rest of Isaiah
53 tells us. It tells us Christ became a substitute
and He took the place of God's elect. The justice of God had
to be upheld. His elect must pay eternal debt. Now this is the gospel. This
is the key. Christ is eternal God. So He
could satisfy eternity. And Christ is man so He could
die to do it. Now, so the spotless lamb actually
did what was typified in the shadows in all those ceremonial
lambs that were brought. They were tip types, they were
shadows, they were not the very image of the thing. When Christ
came, He's the very image of the thing and He willingly bore
the sins of His people. Verse 6 there at the end in Isaiah
53 says, The Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all. He took the iniquity, the sin
of all of His elect people. Now listen to this. I'm going
to read you some scriptures. And I want you to see how that
these scriptures describe the dryness that Christ suffered
on the cross. Now listen to these Psalms. Psalm
102 verse 4 says, My heart is smitten. My heart is smitten. He poured out His soul unto death.
He said, My heart is smitten, withered like grass, so that
I forget to eat my bread. Over and over and over, the closer
He got to that cross, the more He was troubled. The more His
soul was troubled. And He says there, My heart's
withered like grass. That's what me and you are. Listen
to this. Psalm 22, 15. He says, My strength
is dried up like a potsherd. It's dry. It's dry. He says,
My tongue cleaveth to my jaws. Thou hast brought me into the
dust of death. You see where Israel was brought
to? Because they rebelled against God and they were a dry ground.
No rebellion in Christ. No inherent sin in Christ. But
because Christ had the sin of His people laid on Him, Christ
Jesus the Lord bore He bore that dryness that His
people bore because of their sin. He bore it in our place. He bore it for us. Now look at
Psalm, let me read Psalm 32, 14. For day and night thy hand
was heavy upon me, my moisture is turned into the drought of
summer. You get the picture of Him becoming
a dry ground for His people, in the place of His people. Now
listen to this. I've never put this, connected this before. But over in Psalm 104, and it's
talking about, you know, God gives life to everything. He's
the root. Christ is the root. But now listen
to this. Thou hidest thy face, they are
troubled. Thou takest away their breath,
they die, and return to their dust. Now Christ hung there on
that cross, and when He did, God hid His face from Christ
in judgment. and how he was troubled by that.
It says, thou hidest thy face and they are troubled. God hid
his face from Christ and Christ was troubled. He cried out, my
God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? But now listen to this. When
justice was satisfied, not before, when justice was satisfied, he
was in control of what he was doing. And when justice was satisfied,
he himself gave up his breath. And He Himself laid down His
life, and He went to the dust of the grave. Listen, Thou hidest
Thy face, they are troubled. Thou takest away their breath,
they die and return to their dust. Nobody took His life, He
laid it down. But He went to the dust of the
grave. Why did He go there? To finish the curse. He was made
a curse on that cross, but He had to finish the curse. And
in the garden, justice said, Dust thou art, unto dust thou
shalt return. And he went to the dust for his
people. He went, he became the dry ground and satisfied justice
for his people. But he didn't stay there. He
didn't stay there. He satisfied God, he satisfied
justice. Look at Isaiah 53, 53-11. Verse 10, let's look at verse
10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He made satisfaction
to God. And look down at verse 11. He
shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. He justified them. Christ justified
them. For he shall bear their iniquity.
The Lord laid on him all our iniquities. Therefore I'll divide
him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoiled
with the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto the
dead. He was numbered with the transgressors. He was counted
a transgressor by God. And he bared the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. Now look at the
next verse. Now sing, O barren, sing, ye
dry ground. You who are dry ground, sing. Are you dry ground? This won't
be good news for anybody that's dry ground. If you're dry ground,
sing. Sing. One of the elders, John
said, he began to weep and he said, Weep not. Behold, the lion
of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, he's prevailed to open
the book to loose the seven seals thereof. Sinner, you can rejoice
because by Christ's finished work, because of what he's accomplished,
You have now been made the righteousness of God in Him. Are you satisfied
with Christ? God is. Are you resting in Him? Cease from trying to do any works
whereby you can obtain any favor with God? And now every work
that you do is motivated in your heart because of His love? That's your only motivation?
If it is, I'll tell you why. I'll tell you why you're that
way. Here's the last thing. When Christ the root is formed
in a sinner, Christ in you is a root in dry ground. That's what He is. Our flesh
provides no fertile ground whatsoever. None. It has no moisture in it.
It has no fertility in it. Our flesh contributes nothing
to our salvation. We're only dry ground. Brother
Eric said it this morning. We have to be made to confess
that. We don't want to confess that.
Dry ground, I want to admit it's dry ground. You ever seen dry
ground? I came from South Arkansas, I've
seen some dry ground. In the middle of summertime,
that hard clay ground, you can't break in it with a pickaxe. It's
so hard, parched, dried out. Well, God comes and He forms
Christ in His people. And when Christ is formed there
now, there's some life there. And when there's life there,
that's when you begin to understand, begin to see, because He makes
you to see something of the dryness of your flesh, of what you are
and I am in Adam, in our flesh. He makes us to see what we are.
And He makes us to see that all flesh is grass and the goodliness,
the very best goodliness of it is as the flower of the field.
The grass withers, the flower fades, and here's why. Because
the Spirit of the Lord blows on it. And that Spirit of the
Lord that enters in, He begins to blow on all our goodliness.
And you know what happens to it? I don't know what they're
called, but where I grew up, there were these little things
that grew in a field. They were round like this and they were
withered and dried up. And you could stomp on them and
brown dust would just come out of them. We had all our goodliness
and all the things we thought that merited something with us.
And God just keeps blowing on it, and blowing on it, and blowing
on it, and He makes us see that until it just busts into just
brown, dry dust. And that's what we see all our
righteousnesses are. He's put it this way in Isaiah
5, 24. He said, Their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom
shall go up as dust. Christ keeps us there because
as He said in one place in Isaiah, He's going to keep you there
seeing that you're in this dry ground sin until you be left
as a beacon upon the top of a mountain. And the marginal reading is until
you're like a tree with all its branches broke off. And He'll
just keep you there, and He'll just keep you there because He
said, Therefore will the Lord wait that He may be gracious
and merciful unto you. Oh, Israel kept kicking, they
kept running, they kept fleeing, they kept trying to go to Egypt,
make a covenant with Egypt and save themselves out of the Lord's
hand. And the Lord said, I'll just
wait. Keep on kicking, wear yourself, slap out. I'm going to wait that
I may save you by grace and mercy and not of your strength. And
he says, and I'm going to wait that I may be exalted. That I
may be exalted. That you may see that Christ
Jesus the Lord is the only one to be gloried in for saving you.
And he said, because I'm a Lord of judgment. I'm going to wait.
I'm going to wait until you have worn yourself out trying to save
yourself. And then This is how, by doing
this, this is how he imparts godly fear. Godly fear is the
brokenness of the broken heart. It's the contriteness of the
contrite heart. And when he makes you to see
who God is, he makes you to see who you are. When you see yourself
in light of Christ, that perfect righteous one, that he's the
only one righteous, the only sanctificationary is, when you
behold him, that's when you'll behold you're just a bucket of
vomit. And that's all. You've got nothing
to offer to God. Nothing whatsoever. And then,
when He's brought you there and He makes you cry out in faith
like that publican that smote upon his breast and couldn't
lift up his eyes to glory, that's when He makes you to see, not
only is He righteousness and sanctification, Robert, that's
when He speaks into your heart and makes you know He's your
righteousness and your sanctification. And you know what happens then?
He speaks in a still, small voice in the heart and this is what
he says. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you
except you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. And before when he said that
to you and you heard that message, you looked at him, and our text
says there was no comeliness in him that you would desire
him whatsoever. But when He's done this work
right here in the heart, then you look upon Him and you hear
that word and you say, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there's
none upon the earth that I desire but Thee. You can't have somebody take
a sledgehammer and knock you away from Him. And you willingly confess to
the world, gladly, my old man's dead and buried and gone. And
I'm risen in newness of life with Him. And you're glad to
go into the pool of baptism and confess Him. And then you have
peace that only Christ gives. And can I tell you what that
is? The peace in believing is the
peace that Christ gives when He gives us confidence of knowing
this. that the root has been bearing
me from my mother's womb. There hadn't been a day in my
life that He hadn't been bearing me the whole time. He makes you
to know that the root has come and by Himself made you the righteousness
and holiness that God required. And He makes you to know that
the root gave me all my life and all things that pertain to
godliness. And the Root is guiding me and
He's working everything for my good and everything that's going
on around me on this earth just like He did with Israel the whole
way through. And the amazing grace of it is,
you said it to me just the other day, how on earth could He have
ever done this for me who is just dry ground? I'm just dry ground. That's all
I am. And so you never depart. And there's not anything ever,
ever that will be able to separate you from Him. Not because you've
got power to keep it from happening. Because the vine won't let it
happen. He won't let it happen. And so
you'll dwell with the King and His Kingdom forever. That's how
sinners are saved. This junk men are talking about
when they're talking about sweet little Jesus. all that junk.
I don't want a Jesus that can't do nothing. I don't want a Jesus
that's depending on me. This is the root. This is the
root who's God right here. Amen.