Alright, let's look back there
to Isaiah 42. Promises, promises, promises. That's what we say when somebody
will say they're going to do something. We'll joke with them,
you know, and say promises, promises, promises. During election time, we hear
lots of promises. Lots of promises. When men promise,
it doesn't always come to pass. That's not so with God. When
He promises, He not only promises what shall come to pass, it shall
come to pass because He brings it to pass. And He doesn't depend
upon you and I to bring it to pass. He brings it to pass. And so, whatever God promises. And that's what salvation is.
Salvation is by promise. The problem with unbelief is
just that. It's not believing God's promise. What God has promised. Now, Last
week we heard the Lord God's command to us to behold Christ
in verses 1-4 of Isaiah 42. Today we're going to hear the
Lord God call His Son in righteousness and send Him on His great mission
of mercy. I want to look at five things
here. The calling of Christ in righteousness. Secondly, Jesus Christ, the covenant
given. Thirdly, the sure results of
his grace. Fourthly, why God saves this
way. And then fifthly, how can we
be sure? Christ was called by the Lord
in covenant righteousness. Now we're talking about covenant
today. That's what promise is. A covenant
is an agreement between two or more parties. In this case it's
between two parties. And there are certain promises
made and there are certain obligations that have to be fulfilled in
order for each to get what they agreed upon. Now, God made a
promise, a covenant with Adam, who is the federal head of all
mankind. And Adam broke his side of the
covenant. And when either side of a covenant's
broken, all the covenant's broken. Everything is forgotten. It's over with then. There's
no obligation. from the other party to fulfill
the promises he made. But God made this covenant with
his son, Christ Jesus, before that covenant with Adam was ever
broken. And this is what we have before
us. In verses 1 through 4, the Lord had said, Behold, my servant
whom I uphold. This is Christ who I'm setting
forth, my servant. He's my elect whom I've chosen.
Now today, he's talking to Christ Jesus, and this is what God says. I want you to see this. This
is where we begin. Even the covenant that was made
with Christ, and the covenant which the Son of God made with
the Father, this covenant was made in righteousness. It was
made in pure truth, called in righteousness. Look at verse
5. Thus saith God the Lord, He that created the heavens and
stretched them out. He that spread forth the earth
and that which cometh out of it. He that giveth breath unto
the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein. God
is the Lord that created the heavens and stretched them out. All the planets and all the solar
system and all the He stretched all that out. He made it. God
is the Lord that spread forth the earth and everything that
comes of it. He made it. God is the Lord that
gives breath unto the people that live on the earth and spirit
to them that walk therein. He did it. He says, Thus saith
God the Lord, this God who made all these things, verse 6, I
the Lord have called thee in righteousness. This is God who
can swear by no greater, swearing by himself to himself, that is
to the Son of God, Christ Jesus. This is God the Father making
covenant with God the Son. And he said, I've called thee
The sole privilege, the sole right given to establish and
mediate all the covenant promises of God to his people was given
to Christ alone. He said, I the Lord, I God the
Lord have called thee, he said. One of the reasons why this was
right for God to call His Son to do this is because God tells
us plainly down in verse 8, I am the Lord. That's my name. My glory will I not give to another. This glory of saving His people
is given to His Son alone. This was right for God to call
Him. Lawful for God to call Him. Faithful
for God to call him to this work because he alone is the one to
whom God would give this glory. And then God called his son in
faithfulness. This word righteousness means
faithfulness. It means, right, I've called
thee in righteousness. You notice here when he called
him, he makes some promises to the Lord. I the Lord have called
thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand. And we'll keep
thee. That's what he means. When you're
reading the scriptures, when you read a text, a verse like,
I will hold thine hand, and you wonder what does that mean? Read
the next phrase. And we'll keep thee. And give
thee. When we behold the righteousness
of God's faithfulness in His covenant promise, when we behold
that everything He promised His Son before the world ever began,
when His Son came into this earth, God the Father did everything
that He promised His Son He would do. Because He called Him in
righteousness. God's faithful, He's right, and
He will perform everything that He promises to perform. Now,
I want you to think about this, how the Lord says that I've called
thee in righteousness. He starts out and he says that
he is the Lord who created everything. He says, thus saith God the Lord. This is, this is God. You can
picture a man standing and he's holding up his hand and he says,
I, Clay Curtis. And he, God says, I, thus saith
God the Lord, that created the heavens and stretched them out,
that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it.
He that giveth breath unto the people on it, spirit to them
that walk therein. Now you think God is declaring
His faithfulness, He's declaring His righteousness, He's swearing
by His own name, by His own power, by who He is. that all that He's
promised His Son shall be performed in righteousness. And He's showing
us that everything He does is done in righteousness. Righteousness
is a big word for right. It means what God does is true.
What God does is right. What God does is just. What God
does is the way that is truthful in accordance with His holy character. Now, you think about all these
things that God said He created. He made the heavens and everything
that's in it. Do they work? The laws of nature. He made the earth and everything
in it. He made the human body. He gives breath to it, spirit
to it. Do these things work? and are they held in place and
do they go about all the rotation of the planets and does the law
of gravity and of all the laws of physics and the laws of the
human body. He gives life, you have it. He
takes it, you don't have it. Gravity works, it holds you down. Inertia works, pushes you out. Because God did it and His laws
don't work partially and halfway and maybe this way and maybe
that way. They work exactly like God made
them to work because He said, let it be so and it is. Well,
everything that God does in salvation is done the same way. God does
all in righteousness. He does all in truth. He does
all in judgment. He brings all to pass effectually. He doesn't do it in ambiguity. He doesn't do it in yes and no
and maybes. But He does it in yes and amen
because God is righteous. And God is Powerful to do it
He's all-powerful This one that created heavens and earth and
man and gives life and upholds all things by the word of his
power this one does Save his people just like he saves his
people in this word because he's of power to save his people and
Just like he says he does it in his word. He wouldn't have
written it if he wasn't righteous to do it Just like he says he
will do it He says he saves he says Christ is going to come
forth and he's going to magnify and honor my law it had to be
so because God God cannot justify anybody without His law being
magnified and honored. It's going to be upheld. And
Christ came forth and did that. He says it pleased Him to save
by the foolishness of preaching. It's a foolish thing. I know
that men all over this world think and make fun of preaching
and preachers and think that's the most ridiculous thing. Why
in the world y'all going to hear a preacher? Well, God said, I'll
give you pastors after mine own heart which shall feed you with
knowledge and understanding. The will of man, preaching the
will of man, that's not after God's own heart. Preaching universal
atonement, that's not after God's own heart. Because that's not
how God saves sinners. God gives pastors according to
his own heart. Not because he has to save this
way, because he's pleased him to and he's a power to do it.
He does everything in truth and judgment. He regenerates to life
everybody that he chose and put in Christ and that Christ redeemed
because it's right for him to do it. His justice demands they
be brought to spiritual life. So he does that for them. He
gives an unction to the believer so that we know all things. Listen to this passage in 1 John
chapter 2. Listen to this. Verse 27. I'm going to start
in the middle of the passage. As the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth. and is no lie, even as it hath
taught you, ye shall abide in him. This is the God of truth. This is the God of judgment.
This is the God who is able from the youngest to the oldest to
teach us from the very beginning, salvation is of the Lord, salvation
is by His grace, salvation is apart from any works or will
or addition of man's flesh. A man may be weak in faith and
he may think that he's going to eat and drink and do these
different things, But as Paul said, but he that does it in
faith is doing it to the Lord. He's doing it because it's honoring
to the Lord in his heart. But he doesn't know he doesn't
have to do those things, that the kingdom of God's not meat
and drink. But he still knows that his Lord
is all his salvation. He knows that all salvation is
by grace. He knows that all salvation is
in Christ Jesus. He knows that he's complete in
Him. He's just doing what he's doing
because he thinks this is more honoring to God to do it that
way. Every believer worships God in
spirit and in truth because it's God who creates spiritual life
and teaches his children himself. And this same God, this omnipotent
God who's able to create heaven and earth. He's able to set judgment
in the earth. He called His Son in righteousness.
That's how He's going to call His people, in righteousness.
He was able to set judgment in the earth by His Son, in righteousness. And He's able to set judgment
in the heart of His people, in righteousness. This same God
who made heaven and earth. Oh, we do well to listen. We're
standing on His earth. We're breathing His air. We look
at His stars at night. and everything is held in place
by Him. We do well to listen to how He
saves sinners and not listen to fables of men. Christ calls in righteousness. He fulfills His promises in righteousness. Now here's the second thing.
Christ is the covenant that's given of God. He is the covenant. There are many names to convey
to the believer who Christ is. Look at John. Look at John. Lots of names to convey to God's
elect who Christ is. His name shall be Jesus for He
shall save His people from their sins. That's why His name is
that. It means Savior. He shall save His people from
their sins. In John 1.29, John seeth Jesus coming unto
him. And he said, Behold the Lamb
of God which taketh away the sin of the world. He is that
Lamb promised that takes away the sin of the world. His people,
Jew and Gentile. Look at John chapter 6. Look at verse 35. Christ said,
I am the bread of life. We all know what bread does,
don't we? Fills you up, gives you life, sustains you, makes
you live. I'm the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger. He that believeth on me shall
never thirst. Look at John 10, verse 11. These are names by which it's
communicated to us who Christ is. John 10, 11. He said, I'm
the good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life. I'm sorry, John 10, 7. He said, I am the door of the
sheep. We know what a door is, don't
we? You can go in and out a door. Just simple language to where
we know. Verse 9, I am the door. By me, if any man enter in, he
shall be saved and shall go in and out and find pasture. There
in verse 11, he said, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd
giveth his life for the sheep. Verse 14, he said, I am the good
shepherd and know my sheep and am known of mine. In John 11,
25. John 11, 25. He said to Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die. Do you believe that? Do you believe
this? Believe Him? He's the resurrection.
He's the resurrection. Look at John 14, 6. He said, I am the way. He said, I am the truth. And I am the life. No man cometh
to the Father but by me. He said. In our text in Isaiah
42, God the Lord says, He's my servant. And He said, He's mine
elect whom I've chosen. But here in our text, Christ
is called something else. It says there in verse 6, I the
Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy hand and will
keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people. Christ is the
covenant of the people. the light of the Gentiles. How are we going to know the
promise that God has made? We are going to see Christ. Christ is going to be formed
in our hearts. That's when God writes His law
on the inward parts. When Christ is formed in you,
that's when you have the hope of glory because His glory has
shined in. And we have this promise so that
we know what God has promised is yes and it's amen. And Christ
is the one, truthfully, He's the one who mediates all this
covenant between God and His elect. He mediates the whole
thing. On one side you have Christ,
who is God, and He is, God was in Christ, the scripture said,
and Christ is God fulfilled all the conditions required for God
to remain holy and yet save sinners. And on the other side, in this
one person, Christ is man. And He fulfilled all the covenant
obligations required of man. He obeyed in every precept the
law, and He went before under the justice of the law in answer
to the penalty of it so that God is just and just to justify
to show mercy and you and I he's just and to justify us and he's
because in Christ Jesus we have really done everything that's
necessary for God to receive us everything Job, I want you to
read this. Look at Job 9, 32. We know what an umpire is. You
watch a ball game and Will plays baseball. He likes to play baseball. We go over there and at this
age right now, they don't even have umpires on the field. But time's going to come and
it's not very far away because it's getting competitive already
and everybody's competing and everybody is that competitive
nature is coming out. And there's going to have to
be an umpire. There's going to have to be somebody that's going
to represent both sides and bring both sides together. Job in his
trial, he cried out and he said in verse 32, God's not a man
as I am, that I should answer Him. And we should come together
in judgment. Neither, he said, is there any
daisman, that word can also be translated umpire. There is no
umpire between us that might lay his hand upon us both. Let him take his rod from me
and let not his fear terrify me. Then I would speak and not
fear him. But it's not so with me. I can't
talk to him right now because I'm afraid of him. But there
is a Danceman. There is one Christ Jesus, the
Mediator of the Covenant. And He laid His hand upon God. That is, He fulfilled all the
conditions required by Holy God for God. He's God in human flesh. And He laid His hand upon every
one of those God gave Him. He laid down His life for the
sheep. He did what He did for somebody.
that God gave him. And he effectually accomplished
everything necessary for them. He accomplished everything so
that he brings the two together in harmony. And it's Christ himself
who manages all this and who dispatches all this business
of the covenant. There is one God and one mediator
between God and men. the man, Christ Jesus. For this cause, He's the mediator
of the covenant, of the new covenant, the new testament. For this cause,
that by means of His own death, by His own death, for the redemption
of the transgressions that were under the first testament, that
all those transgressions we came under in Adam, for the transgressions
of those he, by his own death, might cause us to receive the
promise of eternal inheritance. All right, here's the third thing.
And I don't want to scare you with five points. These last
three are going to go pretty fast. Pretty fast. Here's the
third thing. The effectual result accomplished
by Christ, by our covenant head, is this. This is why He was given. This is the glory that belongs
to Him, that God gave to Him, and this is what He does. Christ
Himself, who is this covenant given. He's given verse 7 to
open the blind eyes to bring out the prisoners from the prison
and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. That's
what everyone is whom God gave to Christ. They're blind, they're
in prison, they're sitting in darkness in the prison house
of our own sin dead hearts. But when the Spirit of God calls
us, when Christ the covenant is made in our hearts so that
light shines. This is what He does. Isaiah
49.9. Isaiah 49.9. He said in verse
8, He said, I 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 pasture shall be in all high places. They won't hunger
or thirst, neither shall the sun smite them. He'll have mercy
on them and lead them. Even by the springs of water,
he'll guide them. This is the glory given to Him.
He said, I've given you for a covenant, for a light of the people, to
the Gentiles. Of the people His Jews is elect
among the Jews, and of the Gentiles His elect among the Gentiles. He said, I've given you for this
purpose. Has God made this promise in
your heart? Has He shined this light in your
heart? When you have this promise, When
you have, when God makes His everlasting covenant in the heart,
it's not just stuff. It's all ordered and sure in
Christ. It's all yes and amen in Christ. When we are made to behold Christ,
we behold the very essence, the very sum and substance of God's
covenant, of His righteousness, of His holiness, of His every
promise to save us. And we've got, there's some promises
that are yet to be given. You know, He says here, I'll
hold your hand, this is what He said to Christ, and keep you.
God's promised to hold the hand of everyone He calls and keep
us. And He's given this glory to
Christ, to hold our hand and keep us. To call us, to send
the truth to us, to call us, to regenerate us through the
Spirit of God, to call it to lead us. And He's promised, I'll
do that. And He's promised that I'll resurrect
you. and give you glory with me." How do we know He's going
to do that? If we have Christ, we know. If
we see Christ, we know. If we behold Christ, we have
the promise. We know. We have the assurance
in our heart. And He seals us with the Holy
Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto
the redemption of this purchased possession Christ has purchased.
Why does He save sinners the way He does? This is the fourth
thing. First of all, He calls in righteousness. He called Christ
in righteousness. Everything He does, He does in
righteousness. God saves in truth. That's the
only way He saves. And secondly, Christ is that
covenant Himself. He's the sum and substance of
it. He's the mediator of it. He's the testator of it. He's
the establisher of it. He's the one who is the covenant
written in our hearts. When Christ is formed in us,
that's when we behold all God's promises are yea and amen. And
Christ is given this glory to open the blind eyes and to lead
the prisoners out of the prison house and to bring us to Him. When are you going to come to
Christ the light? When he says, show yourself. Then we'll come
out into the light. We'll step out because he doesn't
say it in anger and judgment and like he's going to break
the bruised reed and snuff out the smoking flax. He says it
to us in the loving kindness of a one who's done everything
for us. Come to the light. Come, come
to me. He said, come. You'll find forgiveness. Come! And all your burdens will
be rolled off of you. Come! And you'll have understanding. Come! I'll teach you. Why does
God save this way? Why does God do it this way?
Verse 8, He does it that no flesh should glory in His presence.
He says, I am the Lord. That is my name. In my glory will I not give to
another neither my praise to graven images." God's not going
to share His glory with us. He's not going to give the praise
that's due unto Him to us. If there's any one thing that
I do to save myself, that's one thing too many that I'm trying
to get glory for and take the praise of. All the glory and
all the praise is to God in God alone. Every bit of it. He won't
give His glory, His praise to any of the vain idols of man's
imagination. He will not do it. He will not
do it. He says, He that glorieth, let
him glory in the Lord. I love to hear from Isaiah chapter
40 all the way through the rest of Isaiah. If you can't preach
Christ, you don't know Christ. Because it's just, it's just
on every page, every verse, every, behold and it's, he tells us,
comfort ye, comfort ye my people. That's how it started. And he
says, behold your God. Here He is. Here's our salvation.
If you want a glory, you want to praise somebody, glory and
praise Him. This is another reason that's
keeping us from Christ. This is what keeps sinners from
Christ. We want to have some glory. We want to have some praise. We don't even understand that.
We don't even really understand how it is we want glory and praise. But that's what men want by nature.
Glory and praise. Didn't we do many wonderful works?
Didn't we cast out devils? Didn't we say, thus saith the
Lord? The Lord said in, I believe it was in Jeremiah, He said,
these false prophets that I didn't see in, He said, they come saying,
thus saith the Lord. And He said, and they try to
get others to believe that they might confirm their word. They
make others hope that they might confirm their word. You know
what believers need to confirm the Word? The Word. Because He
teaches us in the heart. He gives us this unction so that
we do have a cloud of witnesses, but as soon as the Apostle got
through giving us that great cloud of witnesses in Hebrews
11 and Hebrews 12, he said, now consider Christ. Consider Christ. This is, when we hear His Word
and truth, we know because sheep won't follow a false prophet.
We know that's not, that's a foreign language. That's not the language
of my master. When we hear His message and
His Word, we know that's Him. That's Him speaking. And we follow
Him. We follow Him because we hear
Him. and with glory in Him, because it's all of His grace that we
do so. Here's the last thing. What assurance
do we have that God's going to perform everything that He's
promised us in His covenant of grace, in His everlasting promise
to us? What assurance do we have He's
going to do everything He said He's going to do? Verse 9, He
said, Behold, the former things are come to pass, Has He done everything He said
He would? He said, before they ever came
about, I told you I'd do them, and then I brought them to pass.
Can you see that in this word, that God said beforehand what
He would do, and then did exactly what He said He would do? That's
assurance to us that He's going to bring to pass exactly what
He says He has. He's saying here through Isaiah,
somebody He sent with the truth that Christ is going to come,
and Christ is going to lay down His life, and Christ is going
to be given for a light to the people, and He's going to establish
righteousness in the earth, He's going to declare God just and
the justifier, and He's going to justify His people from all
their sin. And He's going to give the Spirit
of life. And He's going to give light.
And He's going to bring the captives out of captivity into His glorious
liberty. And God brought to pass everything
He said He would. And He's bringing it to pass
right now exactly as He said He would. And we know it because
of divine revelation. Verse nine, he said, new things
do I declare. I declare them. I'm sitting here
trying to declare some things to you, but I can't, I can't
declare it to you. But when God declares it, he'll
make everything new. New things do I declare to you. He'll make a new and living way
to you. That's right. When one makes
us to behold Christ, there is a new way to God. Altogether
foreign to the way we thought we could come to God. Altogether
different to how we thought we could come to God. And we behold
that this way is Christ and He's a living way. And we behold in
this living way that all that other way was dead. It was a
dead way. a dead way, because it was of
us. He makes a new creation. He speaks
and there's life. If you go back and compare that
first creation to the creation he makes, I think Brother Todd
preached to you all on that, didn't he? He preached about
the first creation and the new creation, compared them. Everything God did in that first
creation, this is how He saves sinners. He speaks and it is.
He speaks His Word and it is. He makes it so. He makes us new. And He looks at it and He says,
of everything He created, He is very good. Because He made
it. He makes a new relationship.
Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us
that we should be called sons of God. That's why the world
doesn't know us. The world doesn't know us because
it didn't know Him. He makes a new heaven and a new
earth. This is coming. He's promised it. And we have
all the assurance of the promises He's brought to pass for us to
know He's going to make a new heaven and a new earth wherein
dwells nothing but righteousness. And He's going to put a new song. Everybody that's going to be
there is going to be singing a brand new song. And all this is by
His declaration. It's by His divine revelation.
That's how we're going to be sure. Here's the song, verse
10. Sing unto the Lord a new song
in his praise from the end of the earth. Ye that go down to
the sea and all that is therein, the isles and the inhabitants
thereof, let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their
voice. The villages that Keter doth
inhabit, let the inhabitants of the rocks sing. Let them shout
from the top of the mountains. Look at all those places that
He just included. That means there's not one elect
child of God that He gave to Christ, that He redeemed by His
own blood, that He will not call. In all those places, He's going
to make them sing and cry out with Him in rejoicing. And this
is what He says to them. Let them give glory unto the
Lord and declare His praise in the islands. Now do you see? He called Christ in righteousness. Christ is that covenant in whom
everything is fulfilled. It's yes and amen. Christ is
the one who is giving them glory to open up light. He is the covenant. He is the
light. He said, the glory you've given
me, I've given to them. I've given them the light. I've
given them the gospel that they might know yet. Why does He do
it this way? That all the praise and the glory
is His. He won't give His glory to another.
And how can we be assured of it? He's brought to pass everything
He said He would, and we'll know it so when He speaks and defined
revelation in our heart and makes everything new. I pray this morning
God puts this song in our hearts. We'll start singing a new song.
All glory and all praise to Him. Let's sing a new song. Amen.