Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
51. Isaiah 51. Let's read verses 9 through 11 together. Isaiah 51 verses 9 through 11. Awake! Awake! Put on strength,
O arm of the Lord. It's a way of saying, Come, O
arm of the Lord, come, make your strength known to us in our midst. Awake as in the ancient days,
in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab, that's Egypt, and wounded the dragon, that's Pharaoh? Art
thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great
deep, that hath made the depths of the sea away for the ransomed
to pass over? Therefore, the redeemed of the
Lord shall return, and come with singing unto Zion, and everlasting
joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain gladness and
joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away. This is a prayer. This was a prayer that just broke
forth. For several chapters back, Isaiah
has been preaching. He's been preaching. And it appears
to me he's been preaching one sermon for a long while. But
Christ was the one speaking. Christ was the one speaking in
that message. And this is what was produced
by Christ right here. They broke forth into this prayer.
and began to cry out for him to come and do these wonderful
works. True prayer is the fruit that
Christ produces by the revelation that he gives through his gospel.
So many times people relegate the gospel to just a few minutes
in a church service and dedicate so much time to prayer. But like
Paul said, how can you call on Him of whom you've not heard?
I'm saying, how can you pray to Him of whom you've not heard?
The true prayer is the fruit that Christ produces by the revelation
that He gives through His gospel. I want to show you three fruits
which truth produces. First of all, submission, the
prayer of submission. Secondly, He produces the prayer
of praise. And thirdly, the prayer of assurance. Submission and praise and assurance. This is what Christ produces
in our hearts so that we cry out to Him. And He does this
through His truth. I've titled this effectual gospel,
effectual prayer. I want you to see this. First
of all, truth produces prayer of submission. Look at verse
9. Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. Arm here means
power and wisdom. It means power and wisdom. The
arm of God is Christ Jesus. Look over at Isaiah 53-1. Isaiah 53-1. Who hath believed
our report? Our doctrine, our hearing, the
hearing, the Gospel. That's what it is. Who's believed
our report? And to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Look at the next word. For He
shall. You see, the arm of the Lord.
It's He, it's Him. The Gospel itself, the report
itself, Paul said it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth. It's the dynamite unto salvation
to everyone that believeth. For therein is the righteousness
of God revealed. The arm of the Lord's revealed
through the Gospel. He told us over in 1 Corinthians
1, he said to the Jew, the preaching of the gospel is just foolishness.
Just the actual preaching itself is foolishness to him. Because
he doesn't need it. The self-taught, self-righteous
man don't need the gospel. The philosopher, the Greek, it's
foolishness to him. Utter foolishness to him. But
to us who are called, Christ is revealed. And to us who are
called, Christ is the power and the wisdom of God. Therefore,
the Word, presented through the preaching of the Word, is made
known in our hearts, and we see Christ, the power of God, and
the wisdom of God, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed. Now all this broke forth, this
prayer broke forth, because they heard this wonderful message
set forth. of what Christ had done and what
He was doing. Look back at Isaiah 48, 16. Let's
just start there. Let's go through this and look
at some of the highlights. And I want you to see Christ
is speaking here. They're in Babylon in bondage. Now look at this. Look at this. He sends Isaiah and Isaiah preaches. But it's Christ speaking. Look
at Isaiah 48, 16. Come ye near unto me. Hear ye this, you know there
was some there who probably just heard Isaiah say that. But Christ
is speaking, and those He spoke to in their hearts, they heard
Him speaking. Look, He says, I've not spoken
in secret from the beginning. Now know who Christ is saying
that. He said, I've not spoken in secret
from the beginning. And now the Lord God and His
Spirit hath sent me. Thus saith the Lord. He's God,
the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. I'm the Lord thy
God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way
that thou should goest. And He's the way. Look at Isaiah
49.1. He says, Listen, O Isles, unto
me. You see, He says, Listen to me.
He said, The Lord hath called me from the womb, called him
from the womb of the morning, called him from eternity, and
called him from the womb of Mary. God the Son came forth and took
our flesh. And he says in verse 3, And he
said unto me, Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified. In verse 8 down there, he tells
us that the Lord God gave him, he says there towards the end
of verse 8, for a covenant, for a covenant of thee people to
establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. Verse 9, he says, to say to the
prisoners, go forth. Verse 11, he says, and I will
make all my mountains away. and my highways shall be exalted."
Look at verse 16. He said, Behold, I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hands. You see, this is Christ speaking.
Verse 24, Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful
captive delivered? There's going to have to be a
price paid for that. Justice is going to have to be satisfied.
Righteousness is going to have to be brought in. Christ is going
to have to shed his blood. And he said, but thus saith the
Lord. Thus saith Christ, our God, our Savior. Even the captives
of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible
shall be delivered. For I, I, he said, will contend
with him that contendeth with thee. And I will save thy children. Verse 26, he says, I am the Lord,
I the Lord am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the mighty one
of Jacob. Look at Isaiah 50 and verse 1.
Thus saith the Lord. Same one speaking. It's God,
our Redeemer, the arm of the Lord. That's who's speaking.
Verse 2, over there in verse 2, he says, Is my hand shortened
at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up
the sea." This is Christ speaking. He said, I dry up the sea. I
make the rivers a wilderness. Look at verse 4. He says, The
Lord God hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should
know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He says
in verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair. He's speaking in past tense. It's done already even though
He hasn't been to the cross yet. He's eternal God, our Savior.
This is Christ speaking. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting. Verse 7, He said, I set my face
like a flint Verse 8, he said, this is why I did it, because
my Father is near that justifies me. Who will contend with me,
Christ said? Who's mine adversary? Let him come near to me. Verse
10, now he says to you and I who get weary, who among you is among
you that feareth the Lord? that obeyeth the voice of his
servant." That's who's speaking. The voice of God's servant speaking,
Christ the Lord. And he says, "...that walks in
darkness and has no light." Anybody here? Anybody here that gets
weary and finds that we have darkness and no light as we fight
this fight, as we wage this war, as we go forth in this battle?
Here's what Christ says to us. "...Let him trust in the name
of the Lord. You know who the name of the
Lord is? It's Christ our King. It's Christ our Lord, the faithful
and true witness. He's the name of the Lord. He
said, for my name's sake, I'll do this for you. For Christ's
sake, He said, I'll do this for you. And He says, trust in Christ
and the arm of the Lord and stay upon His God. That's what He
says. Do stay upon God. Trust Him. Look down at Isaiah 52.1. This
is a glorious, see what I'm saying? It appears like this has just
been one message. I'm sorry, Isaiah 51, 1. He says, hearken to me. See,
he says it again. He just keeps saying it. Hearken
to me, ye that follow after righteousness, that seek the Lord, that follow
the Lord, your righteousness. He says there in verse 2, I called
Abraham along. He says Christ did that. and
blessed him and increased him. In verse 3 he says, and I shall
comfort Zion. He's the one that will do it.
He's going to comfort Zion. And I'll make her wilderness
like Eden. He's talking about his church.
Verse 4, he says, hearken to me, my people. This is his church. This is his
people. He says, the gospel shall proceed
from me. It's coming from me. and I'll
make my judgment, my verdict, my covenant to rest for a light
of the people of mine elect. My righteousness is near, he
said. Paul said, in thy mouth and in
thy heart, that is, the word of faith which we preach. Verse
6, he said, the heavens shall vanish away like smoke and the
earth shall wax old like a garment and they that dwell therein shall
die in like manner, but My salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness
shall not be abolished. Give verse 7, hearken unto me. Ye that know righteousness, whose
righteousness? It's Him who's speaking, it's
Christ who's speaking, the Lord our righteousness. Hearken unto
me ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law. and whose heart is my covenant, my everlasting covenant
of grace. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, but my righteousness
shall be forever and my salvation from generation to generation."
You see, in eternity, in eternity, God the Father in His great wisdom
chose a people in Christ and the Father right then made Christ
His arm. He made him His arm. And He made
Him the mediator and the head of those people He gave to Him.
And thus He gave Christ as God the Son, He's God with all power,
but right then and there He gave Christ all power and dominion
over all His works. And God the Father rested from
His works. He gave them to His Son to do. And so Christ began
by creating all things, everything you see. You mean Christ did
that? Yeah. Colossians 1.16 says, By
Him were all things created that are in heaven and earth, visible
and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions, principalities,
powers. All things were created by Him
and for Him. He made them all. And He's before
all things. And by Him all things consist.
By the arm of the Lord. That's who He is. And then to
picture Himself being the last Adam, He created the first Adam
and He gave Him dominion over all that He had created. But
Adam sinned and we all came under the curse because of the first
Adam. That didn't change anything. That was according to wisdom,
the wisdom of our God, according to Christ our wisdom. That's
why he says in Isaiah 40.10, he says, Behold, the Lord God
will come with strong hand, and his arm shall rule for him. Behold,
his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed
his flock like a shepherd, and he shall gather the lambs with
his arm. and carry them in His bosom,
and shall gently lead those that are with young." It was God the
Father's purpose, which He purposed in Himself before the world was
made, for Christ to redeem His elect by His obedience, by His
blood, by His arm. For Christ to dispense every
spiritual blessing that God the Father gave to His people. For
Christ to dispense all those blessings Himself to every one
of His elect by His arm. For Christ to gather His elect
in one body under one head by His arm. That was God's purpose. And therefore when Christ sends
His Gospel, He declares this in our hearts. And He speaks
by His Spirit. And He says, let there be light.
And there's light. And when there's light, we behold
that this thing's been in His hand from the beginning. We behold
the power and the wisdom of God in the face of Christ Jesus.
We behold the harm of the Lord is what we behold. And the effect
that produces is this. We hit our face, in our heart,
we bow in adoring submission to Him. And we say, verse 9,
awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord. That's what
He produces. That's the prayer He produces
through the Gospel. You see, He don't need us to
ask Him. We're not going to make Him do what He's already purposed
from before the foundation of the world to do. But thus saith
the Lord, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of
Israel to do it for them." You see, he does, through the gospel,
He does through prayer the same thing He does through the Gospel.
He brings us to confess our utter inability and our nothingness
to Him. To cry out to Him so that no
flesh or glory in His presence and that all glory will be given
to the Lord. And He brings us to cry out and
say, Lord, all I care is in Your hand. Put on strength, Lord. Put on strength. I can remember
my father's arm when I was a child. It was big. His arm was big. He was a butcher and he carried
big sides of beef. This was like old time butchering.
Not like it is today. You don't have a butcher today.
We don't have butchers today. Everything comes pre-packaged. He started out when they actually
shot the cow and butchered it and carried whole sides of beef.
And then after years later, they still got it all in boxes and
had to cut it all up and carry those heavy boxes around and
all that. And he had some guns on him. I remember looking at
his arm and his arm was big. And he had some power. And I
saw that power. I saw it. And because I saw that
power, if he was with me, I never was afraid. I wasn't afraid of
anybody. And if I got in trouble, He's the first one I called.
Because He got big arms and He could handle it. He could take
care of it. Christ is the arm of the Lord. And His strength
never diminishes. It just gets stronger and stronger.
The more we diminish and the weaker we get, the stronger we
see His arm get. Christ's eye of pity makes His
child look to Him. Christ's gracious ear makes us
cry to Him. His loving heart melts our heart,
and His strong arm makes us cast all our care into His hands.
That's who He is. That's what He does through the
Gospel. Secondly, truth produces praise for what He's already
done. It produces praise for what He's already done. Verse
9, Awake as in the ancient days, Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab, Egypt, and wounded the dragon, Pharaoh? Art thou not
it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep,
that hath made the depths of the sea away for the ransom to
pass over? Now we saw there in Isaiah 50
and verse 2, Christ said, Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea. That's who did it. And now the
church praises Christ saying, are you not the one that cut
Egypt? Are you not the one who wounded
Pharaoh and dried up the sea and made the way for the ransom
to pass over? See, throughout history, this is what He teaches
us through the Gospel. He teaches us that throughout
history, Scripture, by the Scripture, He shows us that Christ has performed
for His people a definite, repeated order of events. from the beginning,
from the garden, generation after generation after generation.
Christ is the one who called Moses. He called him in the burning
bush. And he spoke to Moses and he
said, go into Egypt to Pharaoh. And he sent him there. And by
his word, preached through Moses, Christ cut Egypt with plague
after plague after plague. And by the same word, while those
plagues were going forth, you know what he did? He protected
his children in Goshen so that they were not even harmed. By
His Word, Christ wounded Pharaoh whenever he judged all the firstborn
in Egypt. But by the same Word, He put
the children of Israel under the blood so that God passed
over them when He saw the blood. Christ, by His Word, He brought
them to the Red Sea, and He spoke to Moses, and He said, Moses,
you speak to the people. And Moses turned around, shaking
in his boots, just a sinner like the rest of them, and not knowing
what was about to happen, just believing God. And he turned
around and he preached what Christ told him to preach. And he said,
Fear ye not! That's what he told them. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord, which He will show you today. And that same word
dried up the sea. And the ransom went over on dry
ground. And by the same word, he turned
the sea loose and drowned Pharaoh and all his army. You see, Christ
did it again in Isaiah's day. In Isaiah's day. He wounded Babylon. He wounded Babylon. He wounded
their king's head and he delivered his remnant out. Babylon was
beside the river Euphrates. It was beside a river too. That's
why he's talking to them and saying he's going to dry up the
rivers. He's saying, I'm the one that
dries up the rivers. He's telling them, don't be looking
anywhere else. Babylon was on the river Euphrates
and they used that river Euphrates as a defense. But Christ sent
forth Cyrus and Cyrus went forth and he dug some kind of canals
out of that river and he drained all the water out of the river
Euphrates and they went in under the walls of Babylon on dry ground
and walked right into Babylon. while the king Belshazzar and
all his nobles were in a drunken feast, just like this world is
in there, a drunken feast of religion, spiritual, mystery
Babylon. And he walked right in there
and he delivered the children of Israel right out of Babylon. That's what he did. That's what
he did. And Christ's arm When He defeated
Egypt and He defeated Babylon, that was all a picture of what
Christ did then when He came forth in the flesh and went to
Calvary's tree. When He went to Calvary's tree
and He took the sin from all His people and He took their
sin and He went to the cross, before God the Father, and God
the Father poured out justice upon Him in their place by His
obedience unto death, Christ put away all the sin of His people."
And you know what He did by that? He dried up Satan's sea. He dried up His river. That sin
was his power just like that river and that sea was the power
of Egypt and the power of Babylon. He dried it up and took his power
from him because Satan's power was sin. His power was the law
of God. He used the law of God to condemn
men and make them try to look to the law to save themselves,
and he kept making them fearful of death, and by that he kept
them in bondage, struggling and struggling and struggling to
try to do something to make ourselves righteous. That's Satan's work.
I know that's the gospel most people are preaching, but it's
not another gospel. It's Satan's work. It is. But Christ, when He took the
sin away, He destroyed him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and delivered His children who through fear of
death were all our lifetime subject to bondage. You see, He just
keeps repeating these events over and over for us. Go back
to Isaiah 48, 16. I want you to see some more of
these events repeated. This shows the power of His arm.
He gave one commandment in the garden. You remember that? One
commandment in the garden. And Adam sinned. And after that,
the world by wisdom knew not God. God sent forth His Son. And a voice came forth speaking. Whose voice do you reckon that
was? the mediator between God and men, the voice came speaking. And He called Adam and He taught
Adam. He said, you've broken the law,
Adam. And He stripped him of his fig leaves. And then He showed
him a slain lamb and He clothed him and He saved him. That's
what He did. Israel was given commandments. They were given commandments.
But Israel sinned. They sinned. And after that,
in the wisdom of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. God sent
Christ, who sent Isaiah with his gospel. And he gathered his
remnant in Israel, in Babylon. He gathered a remnant, an elect
remnant there in Babylon. In verse 16, this is what he
said to them. Come ye near unto me and hear
this. He said, the Lord God in His
Spirit has sent me. And he told them, he said, your
sins have separated you from your God. That's what's put you
in Babylon. And now God the Father sent me
to deliver you out of Babylon. And years later, years later,
showing this repeated again, years later, Israel's sin put
them in Roman bondage. There they were in bondage in
Rome. All trying to come to God by the works of their flesh.
And after that, the world, by wisdom, knew not God. God sent
Christ in person. And He came forth in person.
And Christ gathered His elect out of Israel. He gathered Peter
and John and all those, and James and all His disciples together
out of Israel. He didn't gather them all, all
Israel. He gathered His elect though. He gathered them up and
He preached this same gospel to them. Look there in Isaiah
48, 17. He said, Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy
One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God, which teacheth thee
to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest
go. He told him, you've not kept the law. He said, my father sent
me to fulfill the law. Accept your righteousness to
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You
can in no wise enter into the kingdom of God. Therefore he
sent me forth to fulfill the law, Christ said, and deliver
you from the curse of the law, and deliver you into my father's
presence. He told him, I'm the way, the
truth, and the life. Look back here now, verse 18,
Isaiah 48, 18. In Isaiah's day, Christ looked over Israel in
bondage there in Babylon. And he said, verse 18, O that
thou hadst hearkened to my commandments! Then had thy peace been as a
river. Verse 19, he said, Thy seed also had been as the sand.
His name should have not been cut off nor destroyed from before
me. That event repeated itself, didn't
it? He repeated it. Years later, he stood there with
his disciples he had gathered out. He did the same thing. He
looked over Jerusalem, over Israel. And he said, O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
thou that killest the prophets, you that stone them that are
sent unto thee, how often would I have gathered thy children
together, even as a hen gathers her chickens under her wings,
and ye would not. Behold, your house is left unto
you desolate. It's cut off. Completely cut
off. You see, sinner, it's not Christ's
willingness that's keeping you from Christ. It's your willingness
that's keeping you from Christ. You would not come unto me that
you might have life, he said. Come to him. He'll give you life.
Believe on him. He'll save you. Look here in
Isaiah 48, 20. In Isaiah's day, Christ gave
his remnant this command. He said, Go ye forth of Babylon,
flee ye from the Chaldeans. Years later, in person, Christ
commanded Peter and his elect and all that he had gathered.
He told them, he said, Jerusalem is fixing to be destroyed. In
70 years, it's going to be destroyed. I'm going to destroy everything."
He said, look at all these buildings right here. There won't be a
left one of them standing. And he told them this. He said,
let them which are in Judea flee to the mountains. Leave this
Babylon, he said. And let them which are in the
midst of Judea depart out of it. And he said, and let not
them that are in the countries enter back into it. He's talking
about his Gentile elect. Don't let them come back this
way. Why? Because that political nation
and all their religion had become spiritual Babylon, falsehood,
abomination of God, and he cut them off. He cut their name off
completely. Look here in Isaiah's day, verse
20, Christ gave his remnant that he called out of Babylon, he
gave them a command to go forth and preach. Look at verse 20,
with a voice of singing declare ye, tell this, utter it, even
to the end of the earth, say ye, the Lord hath redeemed his
servant Jacob. He's done it. He's done it. And
years later, in person, Christ commanded his apostles, go ye
into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
And he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved, but
he that believeth not shall be damned. And from Pentecost afterwards,
you know who they went forth preaching to? They went forth
preaching to the Gentiles. Look how Isaiah 49.1 starts. Listen, O Isles unto me. You
see, he's just repeating what he's already done. And then look
back at verse 21, Isaiah 48, 21. As it was when Christ delivered
His elect out of Egypt, as it was when He brought them out
of Babylon, as it was when He brought them out of Jerusalem,
when He walked this earth, so it is for us here today. Look
at verse 21. And they thirsted not when He
led them through the deserts. He caused the waters to flow
out of the rock for them. The waters gushed out. Paul said,
and that rocks Christ. He's the one leading us. He's
the one that's come and delivered us. He's the one leading us.
He's the one feeding us. He's the one keeping us. And
so, the arm of the Lord repeats this work again and again. And
He does so in the hearts of His redeemed. He keeps repeating
this work again and again. Through the Holy Spirit, through
the Gospel, Christ dries up the river within. The power of the
Prince of the air that had power over us, He dries it up. He dries
up His power so He can't bind His children. And He does so
by creating new life in us, Christ formed in us, so that we behold
Christ in all that He's done and we rest in Him. That's how
He delivers us from Satan's bondage and from the bondage of our sin
nature and from the law of sin and death. He brings us out of
it and then from then on we're following the arm of the Lord.
And so by the Gospel, Christ produces praise in prayer. We say, awake as in the ancient
days. We look back and see all the
wonderful works you've done. Our great Redeemer's done it.
We say, now, you're the one who did all those marvelous works.
Would you do them for us? Do them for us right here in
our midst. And we praise Him for everything He's done already.
One of the sure ways my children have of getting me to do something
for them is to come to me and to praise the way that I'm able
to do what it is they need me to do. When they come to me and
they praise that I'm the one that in the past have done this
and they can't do it, I get up and say, I will do that for you.
And he brings us to crowd and praise him for what he's already
done. He delights in the praise of
His people. He brings us to praise Him, to
glory in Him. And He keeps doing for us. And
so here's the third thing we see. Truth produces prayer of
assurance. Prayer of assurance. Look at
verse 11. because of your power, because
of what you've done in the past, because you've shown us all this.
Therefore, this is what we know, we're assured of this, the redeemed
of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion and
everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain
gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning, shall flee away. We
know this in assurance. All those shalls there, they
shall happen. Beholding what He's done in the
garden, beholding what Christ has done in Egypt, beholding
what Christ did in Babylon, beholding what Christ did on the cross,
beholding what He's done in our hearts. We are assured of what
Christ shall do. In all of these repeated events
in history, they all got this one consistent thing in common.
You know what it is? Christ wins. and His people win
by Him. That's what they all have in
common. Christ revealed to John in the book of Revelation what
He's doing right now and what He shall do fully in the end. And since Christ has ascended
to His throne, now the Son of Man is glorified. Before, throughout
the Old Testament, He was doing this in His pre-incarnate glory. Now He's doing it He's been made
flesh and now there's a God-man in glory doing what He's doing.
Now He's put His Word together and He's doing this in a more
full way. But ever since then, like He
did in Egypt, Christ has been sending His angels and pouring
out vows of wrath on the inhabitants of this earth. That's what He's
doing. You can find them in Revelation 12 and chapters leading up to
that. But when you read them, you can't
help but to notice how much they resemble the plagues He poured
out on Egypt. They resemble the same plagues
He poured out on Egypt. But now our text here is talking
about that He cut Egypt in pieces and He dried up the rivers. So
in Revelation, let me give you this. He said in Christ showed
John one of the plagues. He said, The sixth angel poured
out his vial upon the great river Euphrates, and the water thereof
was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be
prepared. What does all that mean? It means
in the last of these last days that we're in right now, Christ
our King shall dry up all the power of all our enemies, just
like He dried up the Red Sea, just like He dried up the River
Euphrates and delivered His remnant out. He's going to dry up the
power of our enemies, of His enemies. And doing so, Christ
is preparing the way to deliver those that He's made kings and
priests. He's going to deliver us out
of this earth. We're kings of the east because
the sun of the morning rises in the east. That's Christ our
Lord. And we're risen in Him. And we're
going with Him. We're walking with Him. Anybody
that's ever done much traveling and flying, I tell you, when
you're flying east, it's easy on your body. When you turn around
and fly against the sun, it's hard on your body. And even in
that, there's a picture. When we're walking with Christ,
the Son of the morning, there's great ease and peace with our
bodies. But when we're trying to walk against Him, it's trouble. It's trouble. Our text speaks
of how Christ wounded the dragon, Pharaoh, and Babylon's king.
And so Christ showed John. He said in the end, in Revelation
20.10, He said, the devil, that's the dragon, that old dragon that
deceived the nations, he's cast into the lake of fire and brimstone
where the beast and the false prophet are and shall be tormented
day and night forever and ever. And whosoever was not found in
the Lamb's book of life was cast into the lake of fire. This is
what He's saying He's going to do for us yet. He repeated these
events all through time. He accomplished it spiritually
at the cross. He's accomplished it in our hearts
and given us faith to see. This is what He's going to do
in these last days for us. And then Christ is going to deliver
us into heaven's mountain. Look at verse 11. Therefore,
the redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing
unto Zion. It was Christ who carried Israel
to that earthly mountain the first time they ever saw that
earthly mountain. Christ carried them there. It was Christ who,
after they fell in bondage in Babylon, carried them back and
returned them back and they saw that earthly mountain again.
Christ did that. But a greater than that mountain, greater than
that earthly mountain. Christ, when He arose from the
dead, He went into that mountain, that heaven's mountain Zion. He went into that mountain and
He sat down. And when He went into that mountain,
He took every one of the elect of God into that mountain with
Him and sat down. And there by faith we see Him
seated. Christ carried us there when
He redeemed us, when He regenerated us through the Spirit of God
and gave us faith to see Him seated there. Paul said, your
life's here with Christ in God, above where He's seated at the
right hand of the Father. And we see Him seated there.
Oh, but He's going to bring us there. He's going to bring us
there. Therefore cometh the end. when
He shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, He shall have
delivered up the kingdom to God. Even the Father, when He shall
have put down all rule and all authority and all power, He created
them for Himself to put them down. For He must reign till
He hath put all enemies under His feet, and the last enemy
that shall be destroyed is death. Not just our death, He's going
to destroy death, period. So there won't be any more death.
No more death. And Christ assured us there in
verse 6. Look there in Isaiah 51, 6. He assured us there that the
heavens and the earth are going to vanish away like smoke, like
a garment. They're going to be folded up.
done away with. He said, but my salvation shall
be forever. My righteousness shall not be
abolished. And Christ showed John this in
Revelation 21. I saw a new heaven and a new
earth. And the first heaven and the
first earth were passed away. They vanished away. And He said,
I saw a new heaven and a new earth and there was no sea in
it, no division whatsoever in that new heaven and new earth.
And our John saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, that mount Zion,
coming down from God out of heaven prepared as a bride adorned for
her husband. He's repeated these events all
through time to show us this is what he's going to do. And
then, all shall rejoice. All shall rejoice. Look at verse
11. Verse 11 says, Verse 11 says, an everlasting
joy shall be upon their head. Now something caught my attention
right here. Something caught my attention right here. I stopped
on this verse. Shouldn't that say, it's talking
about how He's going to return us to Zion, to heaven. We're
going to go into glory with God. I know men are talking about
earthly design, keep talking about that. Look, God's given
me faith to where I'm looking for a city whose builder and
maker is God. Here I have no continuing city. I'm looking
for that one. I'm looking for that one to come. A new heaven,
a new earth. But now shouldn't this say that
joy will be upon their heads? Shouldn't it say that? Well,
back in Isaiah 35.10, let me read that to you. Isaiah 35.10,
it says, The ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to
Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. It does
say heads there. He is going to bring them there
and everlasting joy is going to be on our heads. All of His
elect, on our heads. But in our text it says, everlasting
joy shall be upon their heads. everlasting joy shall be upon
our head, Christ Jesus. Our head, Christ Jesus. He's
our head. Everlasting joy is going to be
on His head when the fullness of His body is complete. Revelation
21 verse 3 says, He will dwell with them and they shall be His
people and God Himself shall be with them and be their God. That's why everlasting joy is
going to be on Christ our Head. And now it talks about us. Verse
11, And they, this is us, they shall obtain gladness and joy
as well. And sorrow and mourning shall
flee away. Revelation 21.4, he showed John,
God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall
be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Neither shall there
be any more pain, for the former things are passed away. Now back
up there in verse 3, our Savior assured us of this. Verse 3,
He said He's going to make her wilderness like Eden. Look over
at Revelation 22. He said He's going to make her
wilderness like Eden. Now He repeats these events.
He started out, you know what He did first? He made Eden. He
made Eden. Put Adam right there in Eden,
over all the works of His hands. And He gave him a bride to be
right there with Him in Eden. And there they were together,
walking with God, their head, and the bride, all together in
Eden. He gave us a picture right there, didn't He? But we sinned
and a curse came upon the whole place. We got separated from
God. But now He's not taking us back to that garden. Not taking
us back. That was a picture. But He's
going to make our garden like Eden. It's going to be a better
garden than that. Look here in Revelation 22 and
verse 1. Let me get there. Revelation
22, 1. Listen to this. He showed me
a pure river of water. and of life clear as crystal
proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. You see
there? Verse 2, he says, and there the
tree of life, there's the tree of life. That first garden had
a tree of life in it. There the tree of life which
bared twelve manner of fruits and yielded her fruit every month,
and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.
Verse 3 tells us there, he says, and there shall be no more curse,
no more curse. He says, but the throne of God
and of the Lamb shall be in it. and his servant shall serve him,
and they shall see his face." There we'll be, walking with
God. We'll be with our head and our
husband, and there the bride will be with him in that everlasting,
eternal Garden of Eden in God's presence. That's where we were
separated from. That's where we got to be brought
back to. That's why I say this is the sign I'm looking for.
You can have an earthly Zion if you want that. I'm looking
for this one. This is the one I want to be. They shall see
his face. Now let me close with this. Christ,
the power and wisdom of God, dictated these words to Solomon. He dictated these words to Solomon.
And Solomon wrote them down. He said, The thing that hath
been is that which shall be. And that which is done is that
which shall be done. And there is no new thing under
the sun. Brethren, since God the Father,
since that moment, God the Father entrusted all to Christ Jesus
His arm in eternity. These works that we've been looking
at here is what has been and shall be. Because of the arm of the Lord,
it's what is done. And it's what shall be done.
And there is no new thing under the sun. And therefore, by His
wisdom and His power, our hearts pray without ceasing. The believer's heart prays without
ceasing. We pray in submission. We pray
in praise. And we pray in assurance. Because
we have a glorious past, and we have a glorious present, and
we have a glorious future awaiting us. And this is our prayer. Revelation 22, 17. The Spirit
and the Bride say, Come. Come, O Lord Jesus. That's what we pray. Isn't that
the sum and substance of all your prayer? That was the sum
and substance of that prayer we just looked at. Awake, O arm
of the Lord, put on strength. We've seen your wonderful works,
make them known in our presence. And therefore we trust you shall. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Amen.