Verse 7, Thus saith the Lord,
the Redeemer of Israel and His Holy One, to Him, to Christ,
whom man despiseth, to Him whom this nation abhorreth, to a servant
of rulers. Kings shall see and arise. Princes
also shall worship because of the Lord that is faithful and
the Holy One of Israel. and he shall choose thee. He's
speaking to Christ, he shall choose thee. Thus saith the Lord,
in an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation
have I helped thee. And I will preserve thee, and
give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth,
to cause to inherit the desolate heritages. that thou mayest say
to the prisoners, go forth. To them that are in darkness,
show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways,
and their pastures shall be in all high places. They shall not
hunger nor thirst, neither shall the heat nor sun smite them. For he that hath mercy on them
shall lead them, even by the springs of water shall he guide
them. And I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Behold, these shall
come from far, and lo, these from the north, and from the
west, and these from the land of Sinai. O sing, O heavens,
and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing, O mountains,
for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will have mercy upon
his afflicted. Now, the salvation of every believer,
every elect child of God is sure. It's certain. And our assurance
is found in these two places right here in verse 7. It says,
because of the Lord that is faithful. That's what I titled this. Don't
you love the way that's worded? Because of the Lord that is faithful. That's the assurance a believer
has. And here's the other in verse 8. God says of Christ,
I will give thee for a covenant of the people. The assurance
of the child of God, those God draws to put all their trust
in Christ, is the infinitely unalterable faithfulness of our
triune God in Christ Jesus. You know that before God made
anything, before He made anything in this earth, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit entered into a covenant
of grace and peace. And in that covenant, they entered
into this covenant to save an elect multitude that no man can
number, out of every tribe, nation, kindred, tongue under heaven,
to save an elect multitude. in a way that brings all the
glory to God. And that way is Christ. And so
Christ, the Son of God, agreed to come into this earth as Jehovah's
incarnate servant. His children were flesh and blood.
He agreed to take flesh and blood like his children for this purpose,
that he might live as their representative under the law So that there's
just one man God's looking to. He's looking to Christ, the God-man. So He lives as a man under the
law, as their representative. So that what He does, they do.
And then He goes to the cross as their substitute to justify
them from all their sins. And so All of these promises
here that we see that are made are made by the three persons
in the Godhead to Christ. They're all made by the three
persons in the Godhead to Christ. Now these are promises that God
has fulfilled and continues to fulfill in Christ. These promises
now are going to be our focus. It's what we're going to look
at. Because in this message, this is what I want you to see.
I want you to see God's faithfulness, the faithfulness of our covenant
God to save all His elect, you who've been called by His grace.
I want you to see God's faithfulness to save us by seeing God's faithfulness
to fulfill the promises that He made to Christ. You see Christ,
when we look at Christ here in this message, we're looking at
Christ as the man, the faithful man. And all God's promises to
Him as He's going about this work and we're going to see God
fulfill all these promises that He made to Christ. And that gives
us all this assurance that He's going to do the same for us.
That trust Him to do so. Alright, here's the first promise.
God promised to exalt Christ above all. You see at the end
of verse 7 there, He says, He shall choose thee. He shall choose
thee. God promised Christ He was going
to make it manifest before this whole world that He chose Christ. He's going to exalt Him. Now
you know that Christ is God the Son. And as God the Son, He's
the Creator and the Upholder of everything. And He needs nothing. He's equal with God. But when
He came into this earth as a man, He came to depend upon the Father
Himself. That's what He did. He came to
glorify the Lord by obeying Him. He came to glorify the Lord to
finish the work that's required of His people to be made the
righteousness of God in Him. That's what He came to do. And
as He did it, I know this is kind of hard to get in our little
minds, but all three persons in the Godhead upheld Him as
He did this. All three persons, God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, upheld Him in His manhood. Now look at this with me. We
see it in this verse 7. All three persons in the Godhead
fulfilled these promises to Christ. We're in Isaiah 49, verse 7. First of all, we see God the
Father here. Verse 7 says, Thus saith the
Lord. And then we see God the Son,
the Redeemer of Israel. And then we see God the Holy
Spirit and His Holy One. And here's who they're speaking
to. They're speaking to Christ. Look at verse 7. To Him whom
man despiseth. Man despises Christ because God
chose Christ. He chose him to come and work
the works required to save his people from our sins because
we couldn't work those works. And for that very reason, men
hated him. Men hated him. Look at verse
7. To him whom the nation abhors. The nation abhors. You know,
but with God there's only two nations. in this earth. There's only two nations. There's
that holy nation, as Peter called it, made up of all God's elect.
That's his nation, the holy nation. That's his spiritual Israel.
And then there's all the other nations, which are just one nation. They're the ungodly rebels against
God. So when Israel, natural Israel,
joined together with Rome, there was just one nation joining together
abhorring, hating Christ. They joined together. All right,
now look at verse 7. Christ is called a servant of
rulers. The one who made everything,
the one who held the waters in the hollow of his hand, came
to this earth and became a servant of rulers. This is showing us
his humility, how low he came. He became a servant of rulers. He obeyed the law under Jewish
rulers. He paid tribute to Caesar, told
him to pay taxes to Caesar, to whom tributes do. He was a Roman
ruler. He even, at the time when it
was time for him to lay down his life, he even submitted himself
to be scourged by the order of Pilate. All of this he did, submitting
himself, abasing himself, that he might exalt his people, that
he might raise his people up. The scripture says, you know
the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, how that though he was rich,
yet for your sakes he became poor, that you through his poverty
might be rich. We ought to remember that when
we feel like we're abased, when we feel like we're brought low,
when we feel like We're under the dominion of everybody. We
ought to remember how Christ abased Himself, that He might
exalt us. And He did all this trusting
the Father. He did all this trusting God
to exalt Him just as God had promised He would do. And God
did. He did. Look at verse 7. Kings
shall see and arise, princes also shall worship. This was
one of those promises made to Christ. The Scriptures tell us
in 1 Corinthians 1.26, you see your calling brethren, how that
not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble
are called. But it doesn't say any. It doesn't
say not any are called. God the Holy Spirit is able to
bring down the proudest sinner there is. He's able to bring
them low. He's able to bring them down from their earthly
throne down to the foot of Christ to trust Him. And look at verse
7. Why will He do this? Because
of the Lord that is faithful, the Holy One of Israel. You remember
in 1 Corinthians 1 when He says He chose by the foolishness of
preaching to save them that believe? And then it says why He did it
was that no flesh should glory in His presence, but that those
that glory might glory in the Lord only. This is why He's doing
this the way He's done it. Because to show that the Lord
The Lord God is faithful, that He gets all the glory for salvation
to show that He's the Holy One of Israel. That's why He saves
the way He saves. You see, the salvation of a believer
is not dependent upon our faith. We're going to be saved through
faith. Without faith, it's impossible to please God. But we depend
upon God and His faithfulness to keep us trust in Him and believe
in Him and to save us Himself. Faithful is He that called you
that will also do it. That's what we're seeing here,
the faithfulness of God. Our salvation is sure because
of the Lord that is faithful. Alright, now look at the next
thing there in verse 7. And He shall choose thee. Look
over at Philippians 2. The Lord promised to make it
evident that He had chosen Christ to be the Savior and Redeemer
of His people, and He made it evident. How did He do it? Look
at Philippians 2. He says in verse 9, Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted Him, and giving him a name which
is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee
should bow of things in heaven and things in earth and things
under the earth and that every tongue should confess that Jesus
Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That means everybody
Everybody that's ever walked the top side of this earth from
the beginning of time to the end of time is going to bow the
knee and confess Christ as Lord of Lords and King of Kings. Going to either do it by His
grace, by His saving grace, or going to do it in the day of
judgment. But all are going to bow and confess it. Now, having
heard this, what does Paul tell us to do with this? What does
he tell you, believer, to do with this? Listen to what he
says, verse 12. Wherefore, my beloved, as you've
always obeyed, not in my presence only, but now much more in my
absence, Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, for
it's God that works in you both to will and do of His good pleasure."
What's he mean, work out my salvation? He means you and I as a church
together in this earth, whatever we do, verse 14, do all things
without murmurings and disputings. You don't have to yoke me and
I don't have to yoke you. You know why? Christ our King
whom God has exalted to the throne, He's going to turn our hearts
and keep us. That's why we can trust Him to
do that. So we can do everything in this
earth without murmurings and disputings. That you may be blameless
and harmless, sons of God, without rebuke in the midst of a crooked
and perverse nation among whom you shine as lights in the world,
holding forth the word of life. That's what He's telling us to
do. I had a call come in one day Somebody called. I didn't know the person. And
they were looking for one of my brethren. They wanted a phone
number to one of my brethren. And I was going to get it for
him. I didn't know who this person was. And as I got to talking
to them, I realized that they were wanting to call up one of
my brethren to talk to them about corruptions in the government
and just all kinds of corruption in politics and why the church
ought not be submitting to civil government and all this stuff.
And I said, I told the person, I said, I'm not giving you their
number. I said, that's just a bunch of junk. I said, my king in heaven
is ruling them all. So I'm not giving you the number
because that's just gone. So what I'm saying to you is
if men try to stir you up about politics, about the government,
about, you know, all these different things that men are saying and
teaching, don't listen to them. Don't listen to them. Christ
trusted the promise of the Father. And Christ has been exalted to
reign right now in this earth. So trust Christ. He's the King
of kings. You know what that means? That
means He's turning all the kings whichever way He will. Romans
13 says, let every soul be subject to the higher powers. For there's
no power but of God. The powers that be are ordained
of God. God's gonna use means on Tuesday
to put somebody in the White House as the President of the
United States. God's already ordained who it's
gonna be. So don't get yourself all in
a tizzy over it. Go vote. He's gonna use means
to do it. But God's already ordained who's gonna be there. This is
what Peter said about that. First Peter 5.5, be clothed with
humility. God resisted the proud and gives
grace to the humble. Humble yourself therefore under
the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. That's what Christ trusted the
father to do. And that's what the father did
for him. And he says, so cast all your care upon him for he
cares for you. Now, in his first promise, You
see Christ seated at the right hand of God, just like God promised.
You see the faithfulness of the Lord God? He did what He said
He would do for Christ. That's telling us, brethren,
He's going to do what He says He'll do for us who trust Him.
Alright, look at the second promise. The Lord God promised to hear
Christ while He walked this earth. And He did. He promised to hear
Him. Look, verse 8 says, Thus saith
the Lord at an acceptable time, Have I heard thee? In an acceptable
time means in the time pleasing, acceptable to God. He heard His
Son. Christ walked this earth and
He trusted the Father. He prayed to the Father. He walked
this earth as the faithful man, who is the faithful one God looks
to when He looks to His people. He's not looking to me and you.
He's looking to His Son. That's who He's looking to. And
His Son walked this earth as a faithful man, as a representative
of His people. And when He prayed, He prayed
trusting the Father to hear Him and help Him in His time. Remember
in the Garden of Gethsemane? He prayed, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will,
but as Thou will. Christ was heard. Hebrews 5,
7. If you want to turn there, Hebrews
5, 7. He was heard because he reverenced the faithful Lord
God. He trusted the Father. Look at
Hebrews 5.7, who in the days of his flesh, we're talking about
him as a man, when he offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save
him from death, he was heard in that he feared. In that he
feared means his prayer was in faith. It means his prayer was
in perfect obedience to the Father. He was heard. His prayer was
always this. Number one, for God to glorify
his name. That was the first thing. You
remember when he was going to the cross? And he said, now is
my soul exceedingly troubled. What shall I pray? Father, save
me from this hour. He said, before this very cause
came out unto this hour. And he said, Father, glorify
thy name. And you know what happened? The
Father heard him. You know how he made it manifest?
He spoke. And he said, I have glorified it and I'll glorify
it again. That's what it means when it
says he referenced him. He feared him. And then the second
part of his prayer was for his people. He said, Father, I will
that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am,
that they may behold the glory, my glory, which thou hast given
me, for thou lovest me from the foundation of the world, before
the foundation of the world. That was his prayer. He was heard. Just like God promised, he was
heard. God heard his son, and he's heard
right now. He's heard right now. We have
access now. You see the promise of God? He
heard Him. Now we have access to God through
Christ. We have access to His throne
of grace. And our security in this world,
in this earth, and our security for all eternity is this. God
hears His Son, and His Son is ever living to make intercession
for us. Isn't that good news? Listen
to this. He's able to save them to the
uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth
to make intercession for them. When you hear us pray, Father,
in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not just tacking
something on there at the end of a prayer. We're saying we're
coming to God through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. We can't
come any other way. And he says this, Christ has
not entered into the holy places with hands, but He's entered
into the heaven itself now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Isn't that good news? Because
He hears the Son, He'll hear us who trust Him and believe
Him and come to the Father by Him. Alright, here's the third
promise. The Lord God promised to help
Christ, and He did. Look at verse 8. Isaiah 49.8. He says, In a day of salvation
have I helped thee. Now you remember that we're talking
about Christ and His humanity here. As God the Son, He didn't
need any help. But as a man, He was sustained
in all His work by God, just like God promised Him. Now we
see this plainness at the cross. The faithful one, Christ Jesus,
went to that cross. He's going to be made sin for
His people. He's going to bear the wrath
of God. And He's going to have to give up the ghost. lay down
his life, and he's doing that trusting the Father to do as
the Father promised him. He said in Psalm 16.10, and this
is what Peter tells us that David was being moved by the Spirit
of God. This is Christ speaking, speaking of Christ. He said,
Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer
thine holy one to see corruption. This was Christ's confidence
in the promise the Father made him. He said, I'm going to help
you in a day of salvation. Look at Isaiah 50 and look at
verse 6. This is why he went to the cross.
He said, I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them
that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spitting, for the Lord God will help me. That was his confidence. Therefore shall I not be confounded. Therefore have I set my face
like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed." This
is Christ speaking. He is near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment, and as a moth shall
they eat them up. Do you recognize that scripture?
That's the scripture Paul gives to us in Romans 8, where he says
now that Christ has trusted the Father and he's justified his
people from all our sins, who is he that can condemn us? It's
God that justified, it's Christ that laid down His life, that's
risen again and set the right hand of the Father to make intercession
for us. You see, the promise that Christ had and the promise
that Christ trusted is why He went to the cross and put away
the sin of His people, making us the righteousness of God in
Him. And now He's come and He's given us this promise and He's
told us in an accepted time, in the day of salvation, He heard
me. And He raised me. My Father is
faithful. This is what He's teaching us
in our heart when He calls us by His grace. He's saying, look
there at verse 10, Isaiah 50 verse 10. This is what He says
to you, believer. This is Christ the prophet preaching
to us. Now listen. Who is among you
that feareth the Lord? That obeyeth the voice of His
servant? Who obeys Christ? Who's trusting
Christ? That walketh in darkness and
hath no light? You know the remedy to that?
Let him trust in the name of the Lord and stay upon his God.
That's what he says. Them that follow me won't walk
in darkness, he said. They'll have the light of life.
He said in Psalm 2-4, I cried unto the Lord with my voice,
and he heard me out of his holy hill. He said, I laid me down
to sleep. That's what he did when he went
to the cross. And he said, and I'll wait for the Lord to sustain
me. You see? You see the promise?
So Paul said, Paul used that back in our text there, in Isaiah
49, where it says, in an acceptable time in the day of salvation,
Paul said, now we, as workers together with Him, beseech you,
brethren, don't hear this grace of God in vain. Don't hear this
Word, just let it go in one ear and out the other. For the Lord
had made Him sin for us." Are you one of the for us? The evidence,
the effect of being one of the for us is we're going to believe
on Him. He said, for He's made Him sin for us who knew no sin
that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. And He said, so
now we've sent forth as workers together with Him and we're beseeching
you now Be you reconciled to God. Be you reconciled to God.
And He said, for He has said this, in a time acceptable, in
a day of salvation, have I heard thee, and I've comforted thee.
You see, what He's telling us, brethren, is when you see what
God has done in Christ, and you see the righteousness of God
set forth in Christ Jesus, and you see Christ Jesus raised to
the right hand of the Father, you know today's the day of salvation
because He's done this. He's promised it to His Son,
and He's accomplished it through His Son, and He'll make good
on all His promises that He's made to us. Here's the fourth
thing He said. The Lord God promised to preserve
Christ. And He did, and He still does.
Look at verse 8. Isaiah 49, 8. He said, I will
preserve thee. I will preserve thee. He preserved
Him from His enemies, from the womb to the tomb. When all would
harm Him, He preserved Him the whole way. He preserved Him when
He went to the cross. He preserved Him through death
by resurrecting Him. He preserved Him now. He preserves
Him now upon His throne. This is the promise the Father
made to Him. He said, sit down at my right hand till I make
your enemies your footstool. That's right. So brethren, Christ
redeemed, remember this now, those that he died for, those
given him as a father, those he laid down his life for, they
make up his body. If one's lost, his body's not
complete. They make up his body. So each
shall be preserved in Christ for Christ's sake, for his sake. That means when one of God's
elect children are born into this world and they go through
all their days of rebellion and all their days of wrath and enmity
against God, you know what God's going to do? Preserve them. And
when He calls them by His grace, all the days after that, through
this whole life, you know what God's going to do? He's going
to preserve them. And one day they're going to face the grave.
One day each one of them is going to go to the grave. And you know
what God's going to do through the grave? Preserve them. And
in judgment, in that final day, you know what God's going to
do? Preserve them. He will preserve thee. This is
what we need. This is our assurance, brethren.
All of these promises, all of these promises that He made to
Christ, that's what we need, aren't they? I need for God to
exalt me. I need for God to hear me. I
need for God to help me. I need for God to preserve me.
And because I see that He's done all this in my representative
and my substitute in whom I'm made righteous and complete,
I know He's going to do it for me. Do you? You know that? But
we've got something even better than these promises. We've got
Christ Himself. Look here, this is the fifth
thing. He promised to give Christ for a covenant. Look at verse
8. And give thee for a covenant
of the people. Not all people, not some people,
but the people, the chosen people, the redeemed people, those that
will be born of the Spirit of God. Whenever you're born of
God and God writes His law on the inward parts, you know what
that is? That's Christ being formed in
you. That's Christ the covenant being formed in us so that we
see that in Christ all the promises of God are yes and amen. Every spiritual blessing is guaranteed.
Look at this. Christ is our covenant King and
He's guaranteeing that His people shall have our inheritance in
righteousness. Look at verse 8. He said, I've
given you for a covenant to establish the earth to cause to inherit
the desolate heritages. He establishes us in righteousness. He's the Lord our righteousness.
We're desolated in sin. And He assures us that by what
He's done, we have an inheritance reserved in heaven for us. He's
going to establish the earth and cause to inherit the desolate
heritages. Then Christ is our covenant of
redemption who frees us from the prison of sin and death.
Look at verse 9. He said, I'm giving you for a
covenant of the people that thou mayest say to the prisoners,
go forth to them that are in darkness, show yourselves. When
Christ walked this earth, remember what He told Nicodemus? He said, everyone that doeth
evil, which is every man by nature, every man born in this world,
everyone that doeth evil hates the light and will not come to
the light lest his deeds should be reproved. He's in prison.
He's in bondage to his nature. He can't come to God. He don't
want to and he can't because he can't make himself do it.
How's he going to do it? Christ is going to speak through
the Word, speak through the Gospel, and He's going to say, go forth,
show yourself. And when He says that in the
heart, then that man does truth because it comes to Christ the
light that all his deeds may be manifest, that they're all
wrought in God. That's how He's going to come.
And Christ is going to do that. He's the liberator. Look at the
next thing. Christ is our covenant shepherd.
He guarantees every one of us that He's called, that we're
going to have the full provision from His hand throughout this
life. Look at verse 9. He said, I will
give you for a covenant of the people. And they shall feed in
the ways, and their pasture shall be in all high places. They shall
not hunger nor thirst. Neither shall the heat nor sun
smite them. For he that hath mercy on them
shall lead them. Even by the springs of water
shall he guide them. And I will make all my mountains
away, and my highways shall be exalted. Do you see? This is
the promise of God in Christ. The covenant. Christ is our covenant. He is our covenant. And then
Christ is the covenant head and Savior of His church which guarantees
that none of God's elect shall be lost. Look at verse 12. Behold,
these shall come from far. And lo, these from the north.
And look, these from the west. And these from the land of Sinai,
the land of thorns. They're coming from the four
corners of the earth. He's drawing all His children. He's bringing them. How can I
be sure of all this? How can I know He's going to
do this? Christ is our covenant. We see Him risen and we see everything
God promised Him, He did. and now we have Christ our covenant
in our hearts so that we know He's going to do all these things
for us. He has, He is, and He shall. Now this is what I want you to
get. Just this one thing. Because of the Lord that is faithful,
because He's given Christ our covenant, that means for you
who trust Christ, listen to me, our present and our future glorification
in and with Christ is as certain and eternal and as unchangeable
as the oath of our triune God to Christ, and as certain as
Christ's accomplishment of all his promises for us." It don't
get more sure than that. It just don't get any more sure
than that. He exalted Christ. and He exalted
us with Him. He hears Christ, and He hears
us by Christ. He preserved Christ, and He preserves
us in Christ. He helped Christ, and He does
all for us by Christ. He gave Christ for our covenant,
and in Christ all the promises of God are yes and amen to the
praise of the glory of His grace. Brother Scott Richardson used
to say, since I heard the good news, there hadn't been any bad
news. Look at verse 13. This is what he says, to sing,
O heavens, and be joyful, O earth, and break forth into singing,
O mountains, for the Lord hath comforted his people, and will
have mercy upon his afflicted. Amen.