Okay, in Isaiah chapter 14, if
you'll turn there in your Bibles with me. Now, before we begin reading
our text, I want you to look back at Isaiah chapter 7. And
I want to bring you up to Isaiah 14 and point out a couple of
things. Now, I keep rehearsing with you and reinforcing with
you that the things that were transpiring around Judah in the
day that Isaiah was sent to preach the Gospel are just like the
things we see happening around us in our day. wars and rumors
of wars and strivings with one another, political inroads and
men in powerful, influential positions trying to accomplish
peace through law and legislation and through confederacies with
other nations, things that we see going on in our news every
day. And yet in the midst of it, the
Lord sent forth a man with the gospel. And his message is the
same as the message I preached to you this morning. And his
message was this. He came to King Ahaz. His message was the same to the
king as it was to the children of Judah. He came to the king. And in Isaiah 7-4, he said unto
him, Take heed. and be quiet, fear not, neither
be faint-hearted. Look down at Isaiah 7, 7. Thus
saith the Lord God, It shall not stand, neither shall it come
to pass. Look down at verse 7, 14. Why
not? The Lord himself shall give you
a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and
shall call his name Immanuel. Look back up at Isaiah 7, verse
9. The last phrase. If you will
not believe, surely you shall not be established. That's my
gospel. Don't fear, don't tremble, don't
be faint hearted. Thus saith the Lord. The strivings
and the warfares going on around you shall not stand. Neither
shall the plans of this world and the evil that enemies of
God come to pass." Why? Because of Christ Jesus, our
Emmanuel. If you won't believe, you won't
be established. Now that's the Gospel. Then over
in Isaiah 8 verse 12, he says to them there, Say ye not a confederacy
to all to whom this people shall say a confederacy, neither fear
ye their fear, nor be afraid? Sanctify the Lord of hosts Himself,
and let Him be your fear, let Him be your dread, and He shall
be for sanctuary." Look down at verse 20. And if anybody tells
you to look anywhere else but Christ, to the law and to the
testimony, what do we see in Romans 3 this morning? The law
and the prophets bear witness. That's what this word law and
testimony mean. To the word of God and to the gospel I'm preaching
to you right now. He said if they speak not according
to this word, it's because there's no light in them. Look at Isaiah
9.6. For unto us a child is born,
unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his
shoulder. And His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Of the increase of His government
and peace there shall be no end upon the throne of David and
upon his kingdom. To order it and to establish
it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever.
The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Now that's
our gospel. Isaiah declared that the conflicts
between men and men, nations and nations, would increase.
But he declared that the enemy nations were nothing more than
a rod in the hand of God, a rod to destroy his enemies, and a
rod of loving correction to his people. And he declared this
throughout the time that King Ahaz was reigning. And then King
Ahaz died. And in the year that King Ahaz
died, just as people tend to, you know, nations get a little
fearful if somebody goes out of office unexpected and a new
king has to come in. Well, they're in the midst of
some severe trials with Assyria. Assyria is coming in and taking
over. And in that year that he died,
Isaiah was sent forth by the Lord with this word in Isaiah
13. The burden of Babylon is what
it was called. It's the judgment of God Almighty
upon this world and upon those who trust in the strength of
their hand, the strength of their own righteousness. That's what
they were doing. In verse 11 of Isaiah 13 tells
us that this that he was talking about a prophesying of with the
nation of Babylon and between the Medes and the Persians was
just a small foretaste, a foreshadowing of something God was going to
do to the whole world. And he says it in verse 11. The
Lord says, I will punish the world for evil, and the wicked
for their iniquity. And I will cause the arrogancy
of the proud to cease, and will lay low the haughtiness of the
terrible. But now in our text, in Isaiah
14, 1. To those who were under the sound
of Isaiah's voice, who were the vessels of God's mercy, This
is the Lord's Word to them. This is why all of this burden
of Babylon is coming about. You think Assyria is bad. Babylon is going to come in and
do something far worse and establish a kingdom far greater than Assyria.
But the Medes are going to come in and they are going to destroy
Babylon. Completely wipe them off the map. Why is all that
going to happen? Isaiah 14.1 says, For the Lord
will have mercy on Jacob. and will yet choose Israel. The title of our message is,
The Lord Will Have Mercy. I want to show you three things.
I want to show you the ground of our salvation, the grounds
of our salvation. Secondly, I want you to see the
Savior of our salvation. And thirdly, I want you to see
the end of salvation. First of all, the grounds of
salvation is mercy. Verse one says, For the Lord
will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose Israel. Now this nation of Israel is
typical and it's representative of the kingdom of God, God's
people, God's chosen people. We who believe are sons of Jacob. We are the Israel of God. The
people of God's covenant. Look over at Galatians chapter
3 with me. Galatians chapter 3. And while
you're turning there, let me read something to you from Romans
chapter 3 verse 28. You recall that Paul said, He's
not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is circumcision which
is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly.
Circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, not in the letter,
whose praise is not of men but of God." God makes a man His
child. God makes a sinner His child.
We don't do that. Now look at Galatians 3, 7. It
says here, Know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham. And the Scripture, foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen, the Gentiles, through faith,
preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, Indeed shall
all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. They are the sons of Abraham,
those who believe on Christ. Now, Galatians 6.15, Galatians
6 verse 15. Paul says here, he ends this letter to the Gentiles
here, and he says this, For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision
availeth anything nor uncircumcision. It doesn't matter if you're a
Jew or a Gentile, under the law or without the law. What matters
is being made a new creature. And he says, and as many as walk
according to this rule, peace be on them and mercy and upon
the Israel of God. This is who the Israel of God
is. This is who the true children of God are. We are the circumcision. We're the true children of Abraham
who worship God in the Spirit, who rejoice in Christ Jesus and
who have no confidence in the flesh. That's the work of God,
the Holy Spirit in the heart to make us behold all our salvations
in Christ the Lord. By faith, that's how you are
a child of God, the Israel of God, the Jacob of God. Now, while
you're there in Galatians, look over at Galatians 4. Back there
at Galatians 4, verse 6. We don't become children of God.
We don't become the house of Jacob or the house of Israel
by our believing, but by the grace of God. We become the children
of God by the grace of God, and we're made to believe as the
result of His grace. Look at Galatians 4, 6. Because
ye are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your
hearts, crying, Abba, Father. Do you see that? Galatians 4,
verse 6. All right. having chosen us in
Christ in eternal election. Look at Isaiah 49. We sing it
there with that song by Top Lady. Isaiah 49 verse 16. Because we are the sons of God.
He says, verse 16, Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of
my hands. Thy walls are continually before
me. Thy children shall make haste.
Thy destroyers and they that made thee waste shall go forth
of thee. Lift up thine eyes round about, and behold, all these
gather themselves together, and come to thee. As I live, saith
the Lord, thou shalt surely clothe thee with them all, as with an
ornament, and bind them on thee as a bride doeth. For thy waste
and thy desolate places and the land of thy destruction shall
even now be too narrow by reason of the inhabitants, and they
that swallowed thee up shall be far away." In the midst of
the judgment that he pronounces upon Babylon, He comes here to
Isaiah 14.1 and he says, all of this has taken place. All
of my wrath and my fury is being poured out on the world. The
stout-hearted and the proud and the arrogant are being brought
low because the Lord will have mercy on Jacob and will yet choose
Israel. Now, who is it that's going to
do this great work of salvation? Who's going to do this great
work of destroying our enemies and saving us? This is the second
thing. The Savior of salvation is Christ
Jesus the Lord. Look now there in Isaiah 14,
1. Who is it that will have mercy? The Lord. Who is it that will
yet choose Israel? The Lord. Who is it that will
set them in their own land? The Lord. Who is it that will
cause the strangers, the Gentiles, to be joined with them and they
shall cleave to the house of Jacob? The Lord shall do it.
Now, let me ask you a question. The Lord says here that I will
set them in their own land. Now, He's talking about every
Child that He chose before the world began and put in Christ,
who make up the house of Jacob. Jew and Gentile, the fullness
having come in, they make up the whole of Israel. He's talking
about them. What land is it? We see here
with the children, the remnant in Israel and of Judah, they
were carried away. So, He says here, I'm going to
set them in their own land. Now, the first question I have
is, what land is it that they were in? that He's going to take
them from out of. Well, look back up at Isaiah
chapter 13 and verse 19. Babylon, the glory of kingdoms. Now let me describe Babylon to
you. You know, when you hear Babylon, and we've read Revelation,
and we know that Babylon is, the nation of Babylon was representative
of the harlot of false religion. Everything false in this world.
Whose king is the prince of the power of the air, who lead people,
the sinners and the blind and the deaf and the dumb, spiritually
blind, deaf and dumb, and keep them in bondage. We're going
to see next week in Hebrews 2, from Isaiah 14, that Satan ascended. The king of Babylon is said here
to want to try to ascend to the throne of God. Hebrews 2 tells
us that Christ came to destroy him who had the power of death
and deliver them who through fear of death were all their
lifetime subject to bondage. That fear of death, that bondage,
that power of death, the devil had and was using. And we'll
see that next week and how he delivers. But Babylon is a picture
of that. And when we hear about Babylon,
we think about evil. We think about sinful, foul,
gross thing. We think about red devils with
forked tails and pitchforks and things like that. Let me describe
Babylon to you. Babylon was formed, one of the
earliest cities of the king of Babylon was formed in Babel. It was formed by Nimrod, who
was, you know, Noah had a son named Ham, that son who discovered
his sin and called everybody in to look at his father, who
was, his son was cursed. He had a son named Cush, and
Cush had a son named Nimrod, and Nimrod was a mighty hunter,
and he started this place called Babel. Well, it was situated
in a large plain in the desert, fertile plain, about 250 miles
northwest of the Persian Gulf, modern day Persian Gulf. So you
can pretty much picture about where it is. Iraq, Iran, Baghdad,
that area. But it was a fertile, large,
beautiful plain. And the soil was fertile, very
fertile. It was on the Euphrates River.
Now Babylon, was secured behind a wall 200 cubits high and 50
cubits wide, each wall, which formed a perfect square to protect
this city. So that if you started out to
walk this wall and go all the way around it, to go all the
way around it, you'd go 60 miles. That's a pretty big place. 60
miles. And then on each wall, on the
top of each wall, were towers, watchtowers, guard towers, that
were one story tall on each of these walls. And the walls were
wide enough at the top that four chariots could run side by side. You could put four chariots side
by side, they could run side by side, and it was wide enough
that they could turn around these four chariots and go the other
direction if they wanted to, along just the tops of these
walls. And then the walls on each side in each wall that ran
along were 25 gates made out of solid brass. 25 gates to protect
this place. And from each gate ran a street. And a street that was 150 feet
wide was how wide the street was. And there was 50 streets
that ran from these, the walls are square, there's 25 wall,
and these streets ran from these gates, from gate to gate, north
and south, east and west, so that they made perfect square
city blocks. 676 city blocks. And along the
streets, If you walk this street, along
the streets are three to four story tall beautiful homes facing
the streets. Three to four stories tall. and
stately homes, and at the back of these homes they faced out,
just like our homes do, they faced out along the block so
that in the middle of these perfectly square blocks was all just green
garden and leisure area for families to come out at the back and play
and have a good time and enjoy one another's company and what
have you. And then the main attraction of this babbling was you could
see an eight-story tall tower. And this tower sat on a base
which was a quarter of a mile square around this thing. And
that was where the temple was, a beautiful, beautiful temple. They had priests, they had sacrifices,
they had services there. It was a beautiful, wonderful
temple to go worship in. Not only that, they had a big,
beautiful palace where the king was. I picture the street leading
up to the White House, you know, a beautiful, beautiful palace. And then they had these well-renowned
hanging gardens there where you could go to that was kind of
like what we would like in the, what's the center in New York
City up there at a big, big, what is it? Times Square. Not
Times Square, but the gardens. Central Park. Yeah, Central Park.
And so that, you know, this big masterpiece of garden in the
midst of all this city. That's Babylon. That's Babylon. So you can imagine when you read
about some of the folks who, when Babylon was destroyed, some
of them didn't want to leave Babylon. Some of the Israelites
had been carried away into Babylon, liked it in Babylon. Babylon
was a pretty nice place to be. They liked it there. Well, Isaiah
13 verse 19 says this, Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty
of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew
Sodom and Gomorrah. It shall never be inhabited,
neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation,
neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there, neither shall the
shepherds make their fold there, but wild beasts of the desert
shall lie there. Their houses shall be full of
doleful creatures, owls shall dwell there, satyrs shall dance
there, and the wild beasts of the islands shall cry in their
desolate houses, dragons in their pleasant palaces. Her time is
near to come, and her days shall not be prolonged." Now that was
the land where they were. That's the land where they were.
Now how did they get to that land and end up in that land? And where is it that God is going
to deliver them? When He delivers them from there, where is He
going to bring them to? Well, turn over to Genesis chapter
3. We could say they were driven from the land of Canaan. And
true enough, that's the land of promise. That's where God
had taken them, was the land of Canaan. But let's go back
a little further than that. And it always helps me when I
start looking into prophecy and looking into what God's going
to do and how He's going to deliver His people. It helps me to go
to two places in Scripture. Go to the first Adam and see
how we got in the mess we got into, and go to the second Adam.
And if you go to those two, go to the cross and go to that first
garden, and it will help solve a whole lot of issues about what's
Isaiah talking about right here. Well, here's the land that they
were driven from, Genesis 3.22. And the Lord God said, Behold,
the man has become as one of us to know good and evil. And
now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of
life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore the Lord God sent him
forth from the garden of Eden to till the ground from whence
he was taken. So he drove out the man, and
he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and
a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life. Now the Garden of Eden is far
more than a physical garden somewhere on this earth. Even as Canaan
is more than a physical place on this earth. Eden represents
communion and acceptance with God Almighty. Who drove Adam
and Eve from the garden? Who drove Adam and Eve from God's
presence? Who drove man from his land? God did. God did. God drove him
from that land in judgment and in justice. Because God could
not commune with Adam after he sinned. Neither could He commune
with you and I after we sinned. He drove us from the garden in
Adam. From our land in Adam. And we
ended up in this world of Babylon. We ended up in this world as
pleasant and as beautiful and as appealing as we think it is. And we think it's far more appealing
than we should. We're in this Babylon, just like
that place that they were driven to. And they were so content
to stay there, that unless God had mercy on them and bring them
out of that place and bring them back to their own land, they
would have been content to stay right there in that Babylon.
Because, after all, It had nice square city blocks. It had a
place to go to a temple. It had a good king. It had a
good ruler and a palace. They ate good. It was a fertile
place. It had a river running through
the middle of it. Everything they wanted was right there.
That's the case with every chosen child of God whom God must give
eyes to see, to behold, that we live in Babylon. That we live
in the midst of the defiled, wretched, foul place called Babylon. And it's not our land. This is
not our land. And until God makes us to see
that this is not our land, we'll be happy and content to stay
right here in Babylon. But that's what God would do.
And He's going to bring them, the One who drove them from their
land is the only One who could deliver them back into their
land. into the presence of God, into
the communion and fellowship with the thrice holy God. The
only one who could bring them back into fellowship with Himself
is the one who drove them away into Babylon. You know here we
see that the Lord said two things at the entrance to the garden.
He said, cherubims, and He said, a flaming sword. And these two
things were placed there to keep the way of the tree of life.
Now we know that the tree of life is Christ Jesus our Lord. He's the way, the truth, and
the life. And this flaming sword represents
so much more than we can comprehend. It is indeed the person and finished
work of Christ Jesus our Lord. It's the sword of justice that
must slay It must destroy any who would come near God who are
like Adam was when he was cast out of that garden. He's got
to be killed before he can be brought back in. That sword of
justice has got to be pierced into him and thrust through him
and he's got to die. Because that's what the law requires.
That's what's got to happen to him before he can be brought
back into the presence of God. This sword represents the gospel
that we preach. Because the gospel we preach
is of Christ and Him crucified. This gospel is the two-edged
sword of God's glory that cuts the sinner, the old man, and
kills the old man, and at the same time heals and creates life
in the new man. This is the gospel sword. And
perhaps these cherubims are angels of the Lord. They're the messengers
sent forth to herald this proclamation that the only way we can be brought
back into the communion and presence of our God is through the sword
of God's justice. Just as Isaiah said here declaring,
the Lord's going to destroy Babylon. He's going to destroy all the
enemies. He's going to... killed everyone that has sinned against
God. Every last one so that Babylon
is at last destroyed and wiped from off the map and her walls
are brought down to stand no more and she shall never again
be inhabited. Every one of them is going to
die because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
All must die. All must die. He says here, all
must die. This is the message. It was the
Lord God who in holy judgment had drove out the man from the
garden from God's holy presence. And that's how he ended up in
this Babylon. So it's God, only God, that's going to deliver
him out of Babylon and bring him back into his land. The Lord
God only. Now how is it that the Lord's
people will be set back in their own land? Well, back in Isaiah
chapter 13, And I'm going to go ahead and
just say this. I expect that I'm going to make too much of
pictures and types for somebody who hears this. Somebody invariably
is going to hear this and say, well, he's stretching things.
Well, that's all right. I'll load their gun for them. And maybe if they repeat what
I say, maybe for the first time the gospel will come out of their
mouth. But here's what we see here in Isaiah 13, verse 13. The Lord said, therefore I will
shake the heavens and the earth shall remove out of her place
in the wrath of the Lord of hosts and in the day of his fierce
anger. Now let me ask you a question.
When is the day of God's fierce anger? When was this world judged? When was the prince of this world
judged? when Christ Jesus the Lord hung
on the cross at Calvary, bearing the sin of His people in His
own body. The heavens and the earth were shaken by the fierce
wrath of God Almighty poured out on His own Son. And in that
day, truly, that's when justice was satisfied. That's when judgment
passed. There's coming a judgment, all
right. There's coming a judgment where everyone's going to be
brought into judgment. But the judgment has happened. The judgment has taken place
at Calvary. And what's going to take place
in that last day is it's going to be made known. That judgment
was carried out to the fullest extent in Christ Jesus the Lord. Now, it says, And it shall be
as the chaste row and as a sheep that no man taketh up. They shall
every man turn to his own people and flee everyone into his own
land. We read in the Scriptures in
Zechariah 13, 7, Awake, O sword, that sword that turned every
way and kept the way of life. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
and against the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts.
Smite the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. He says here,
it shall be as the chaste row and as a sheep that no man taketh
up. They shall every man turn to his own people and flee every
one into his own land. But in Zechariah the Lord says,
and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. I'm going to
smite the shepherd and the sheep are going to be scattered, but
I'm going to gather them. I'm going to go out and gather
every one of them. Look at verse 15. Everyone that is found shall
be thrust through, and everyone that is joined unto them shall
fall by the sword. Just as our Lord slays the rebellious
out of Babylon and brings them to death in the dust, to never
live but to suffer the second death and to be cast into eternal
judgment and eternal suffering, He's going to slay also every
vessel of mercy. Every one of them. They've got
to be slain too. Everyone that He loved before
the world began must be sought out. They shall be found and
they shall be thrust through with this same sword of the Gospel. They've got to be pierced. They've
got to be thrust through. And everyone of His redeemed
who once stood by the power of His own might has got to fall
by the sword of the Gospel of Christ. He's got to be brought
down, every one of them. Verse 16 says, their children
also shall be dashed to pieces before their eyes, and their
houses shall be spoiled, and their wives ravished. Oh boy,
we had so many children, so many fruits of our own production
that we loved so much. Loved them more than we loved
our own children. That's true. What did they do
to that blind man when they brought him in the synagogue? His parents
said, he's old enough, let him talk for himself. They said,
we'd sooner forsake our own child than give up our place in the
synagogue. These are our children. This
is the children we love, the works of our hands, and the works
of our righteousnesses, and the works of morality, and putting
away sin far from us, and telling all that would come near us,
don't come near me, I'm holier than you are. God said, I'm going
to thrust them through and I'm going to dash every one of those
children to pieces right in front of their eyes. Oh, we had houses. And we were living in our stately
three- and four-story mansions in our walls of security in Babylon. And we had everything safe and
secure and nice and tidy. And Christ Jesus came and He
bound the strong man that had us bound. And He entered into
the house and He spoiled our house. We had a bride too. We were married to that great
harlot in Babylon. We were married to that harlot
of false religion and we considered her to be lovely and everything
about her was attractive. And he said, and I'm going to
ravish her right before your eyes. Then we come here to Verse
17, Behold, I will stir up the Medes against them, which shall
not regard silver, and as for gold, they shall not delight
in it. Their bows also shall dash the young men to pieces,
and they shall have no pity on the fruit of the womb. Their
eyes shall not spare children. Under this name of the Medes,
the Persians have got to be included. You know why? Because it was
Cyrus the Persian who was sent by the king of the Medes against
Babylon when Babylon was taken and Belshazzar was slain. So
when the Lord says the Medes here, He's got to be talking
about the Persians too. He's got to be including them in this
because it was the Persian king that came in and did the work
under the direction of the Medes. Now who's that Persian king?
Turn over with me to Isaiah 45. That king is Cyrus. And who is
Cyrus a picture and a type of? Let's begin in verse 28. Verse 26, he says, Thou shalt
be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah thou shalt be built,
and I will raise up the decayed places thereof. This is the Lord
that saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers,
that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd. He is my shepherd. and shall perform all my pleasure.
Even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built into the temple,
thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to his anointed."
That's who Cyrus is. He's anointed by God. He's God's
anointed king. whose right hand I've holden
to subdue nations before him. I'll loose the loins of kings
to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not
be shut. I'll go before thee and make
the crooked places straight. I'll break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron. And I'll give thee
the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake,
and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me." The
Lord saying, I anointed this king Cyrus. He don't know who
I am. He don't have a clue who I am.
But I anointed him as king. I say he's my shepherd. I'm going
to uphold him. I'm going to send him forth for
one purpose. This is what the king said. He
sent me forth to build him a house. That's what Cyrus said. He sent
me forth to build him a house. He's the anointed king. He's
the redeemer of Israel. He's the captain of their salvation.
He don't know God. He don't have a clue who God
is. But God said, but I'm using him to show you what my son's
going to do. What my anointed King, what the
Redeemer of Israel, what the Captain of your salvation is
going to do? How do you know? He says at verse
5, I am the Lord, there is none else. There is no God beside
me. I guarded thee, though thou hast not known me, that they
may know from the rising of the sun and from the west that there
is none beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create
evil. I, the Lord, do all these things.
Drop down, ye heavens, from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open. Let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with
his Maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioned it, What makest thou, or thy work he hath no hands?
Woe that saith unto his father, What begattest thou? or to the
woman, What hast thou brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the
Holy One of Israel, and his Maker. Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons, and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. I've
made the earth. I've created man upon it. I,
my hands have stretched out the heavens and all their hosts have
I commanded. I've raised him up in righteousness
and I'll direct all his ways. He shall build my city. He shall
let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the Lord of
hosts. That's who this King Cyrus typifies. And when Peter came,
Peter said, for as much as you know that you were not redeemed
with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation
received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious
blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.
That's who this one is. That's why when they come in,
when I stir up the meads against them, God said, they're not going
to regard silver and gold. They are coming in for one purpose
and one purpose only. To fulfill My will. To build
My house. To deliver My people. And in
so doing, He is going to destroy Babylon. Christ the Lord. That
is the anointed of God. Now, look at verse 19. And here is the result. Babylon,
the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees, excellency shall
be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. And then we come
down to Isaiah 14. and the Lord will set them in
their own land. And the strangers shall be joined
with them, and they shall cleave to the house of Jacob. And the
people shall take them and bring them to their place. And the
house of Israel shall possess them in the land of the Lord
for servants and handmaids. And they shall take them captives,
whose captives they were, and they shall rule over their oppressors."
Turn over to Ezra 1. I want to show this to you real
quick. Have y'all never heard anybody
preach to you about Cyrus being a picture of Christ? Have y'all
ever heard that? That somehow don't surprise me.
Turn to Ezra. Ezra chapter 1. Thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given
me all the kingdoms of the earth. He hath charged me to build him
a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among
you of all his people? His God be with him. And let
him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. and whosoever remaineth in any
place where he sojourneth, let the men of his place help him
with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts,
besides the freewill offering for the house of God that is
in Jerusalem. Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah
and Benjamin, and the priests and the Levites, with all them
whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of
the Lord which is in Jerusalem." Now follow the type out here.
Cyrus has gone in and he's done the work. Just as Christ the
Lord went to the cross and He bore the sin of His people in
His own body on the tree. Not for price nor reward. Not
for silver and gold. He did it. He wouldn't even regard
any works of our hands. He went and He put away the sin
of His people. The prince of the world was cast
out. The power of the devil was sin. The strength of sin was
the law. He fulfilled the law. He put
away our sin. Death has no more dominion over
us. Sin has no more dominion over
us. The law has no more dominion over us. And now Cyrus, once
he's gone in and done that, Cyrus says to the people, now, you
go and build the house of the Lord. You go and build the house
of the Lord because the Lord has anointed me to build Him
a house at Jerusalem. Now go build the house of the
Lord. How is that a picture of Christ? Christ is seated at the
throne of God and He is saying through the Gospel as it is preached
throughout all the world, come into my house, come into my house,
and build up the house of the Lord." And he's building up the
houses. And not only does he say that to those who were the
natural sons of Abraham, those elected from among them, but
he says it to those who were strangers. He said, and as many
of you, go with them. If you're sojourning in that
place, go with them and help them build. And in that day,
A bunch of those that were strangers in Babylon, they left with them
and went with some of the Jews and went back and built the Temple
of the Lord. And we find in Ezra, he sends
forth Haggai, and he sends forth Zerubbabel, and he sends forth
other types of Christ, and builds the temple. The governor builds
the temple. And it's what Isaiah has been
sent forth to him all along. The government's on the shoulder
of Christ. He's the one that's going to come, and by putting
away the sin of His people, and by calling His people out through
the Gospel, He is taking all of those out of Babylon. and
putting them back in their own land. Perfect communion, perfect
fellowship, perfect harmony with the thrice holy God. That's the
picture of King Saul. That's where we get these Medes
and these Persians that come up and do this great and glorious
work. This is the success of the Gospel here in Isaiah 14
when he's talking about And the people shall take them and bring
them to their place. And the house of Israel shall
possess them in the land of the Lord for servants and handmaids.
And they shall take them, whose captives they were, and they
shall rule over their oppressors." That's what happens with the
Gospel. When the gospel is preached, beginning with Peter and the
remnant of the Jews that he saved on the day of Pentecost, they
preached. And those that were oppressing them and that would
have held them captives through the gospel, they were taken captive. And they were made servants and
handmaids. Isn't that what you are to your
brethren? You hear that and you think, oh, I don't get to reign
over the ones that held me captive. No, no, no, no, no. They're going
to come in and help you. They're going to come in and
help further this Gospel. And it's going to be preached
throughout all the world. And I'm going to continue from
my throne of grace, as typified through King Cyrus, to build
my house, living stone by living stone, until my temple is completely
built. And I've set you in your own
land. Now here's the third thing. The end of salvation is union
with God and rest from all our enemies. Verse 3. and it shall come to pass in
the day that the Lord shall give thee rest from thy sorrow, and
from thy fear, and from the hard bondage wherein thou wast made
to serve, that thou shalt take up this proverb against the king
of Babylon, and say, How hath the oppressor ceased? The golden
city has ceased." Isaiah's message came to the
people while they were beholding great confusion all around them
in the world Just like right now what you see what we see
going on in this world wars between nations and strivings and confederacies
being made on That's not even the battle that's not even the
battle neither was this battle between the Medes and the Persians
and the use of King Cyrus and and taking them out that wasn't
the battle The battle was between powers and principalities and
rulers of the darkness. The battle was between Christ
and that old serpent who was determined to rise to the throne
of God and take his seat. And God said, this is how it's
going to come about. This is how they're going to
be delivered and set in their own land. The Lord will have
mercy on Jacob and he will yet choose Israel. That's how it's
going to take place. And the shepherd that I send
forth that I've anointed, he's going to break down the walls
of Babylon. He's going to bring every one of them that I've chosen
out, and he's going to set them in their own land. And here's
the result. One day very soon. One day very
soon. This is taking place right now
as we speak. And one day very soon, the last
one's going to be brought out of Babylon. The last one is going
to be called out of Babylon by the Spirit of God's grace. And
the last one, when He's been brought to life in Christ Jesus
the Lord, to faith in Christ Jesus the Lord, our King is going
to return. And when He returns, He's going
to take home His purchased possession, and He's going to set us in our
own land, perfectly one with our God, forever. And we're going
to praise the glory of His grace. And that's how the Lord will
have mercy. The Lord will have mercy. And that's how people will be
saved.