Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
11. Isaiah chapter 11. Now in verse 10, the Lord Jesus
Christ is spoken of here. And the Lord tells us what He's
about to show us in the remaining verses of this chapter. He says,
"...And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign to the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and His rest shall be glorious." Now, if you'll look with me at
Romans chapter 15, we don't have to speculate as to who or what
the Lord is declaring to us in this passage. We look over at
Romans 15, and we read there in verse 8, Now I say that Jesus
Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of
God, to confirm the promises made unto the fathers." In other
words, he came to minister to the Jews, to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel. Why did he do that? To confirm
the promises that he made unto the fathers. That's what we're
reading here in Isaiah, the promises he made. He said, I'll do this.
And we're going to see how he'll do it. So he started with the
Jews, and verse 9 says, and that, he did that, that the Gentiles
might glorify God for His mercy. Now look at verse 12 there. Paul
actually quotes the verse that we're looking at in Isaiah 11.
And again, Isaiah saith, there shall be a root of Jesse, and
he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles, in him shall the
Gentiles trust. Now be sure you get that. Verse
8. Jesus Christ was a minister prophet preacher of the circumcision
of of the lost sheep of the house of Israel of Jews for the truth
of God That he might confirm the promises made unto the fathers
and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy now back in
Isaiah 11 Now God is declaring to us how He's going to call
in the fullness of the Gentiles and finish His work of salvation.
And I want you to get this. I hope that by the end of this
message you will see that just as surely as Christ came, the
Son of Jesse, the Son of David, and put away the sin of His people,
and brought in everlasting righteousness for His people, now He has ascended,
the Ensign, in Heaven's glory, and He is working this work. in the midst of this earth just
as sure and as certain as when He walked this earth. And it
will give you great confidence and assurance so that no matter
what, you'll be like those He sent out and said, now go out
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He said, don't worry
about whether you've got money or whether you've got clothes
or shoes or anything. Just go on and go preach My Word. And it will give you the assurance
and confidence that you can You can go out and declare Christ
and He'll do this thing. He'll do the work. Let's see
it now. We begin here in verse 11. And my first point to you
is this. Christ the Lord is gathering
His elect as He sits at the right hand of God. He's gathering His
elect from His throne in glory. Now verse 11 says, And it shall
come to pass in that day. This is the day that the Lord's
risen. that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time
to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left from
Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush,
and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the
islands of the sea." Now, he's going to set forth his hand again
the second time. When did he set his hand forth
the first time? Well, my first thought was when
I looked down at verse 16 and I read there that like as it
was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of
Egypt. I thought, well, he's pointing them back to Egypt,
to that deliverance, to point them forth to show them how he'll
deliver. And that's true. It is. And that day that he delivered
them out of Egypt, he sent forth his prophet Moses and his high
priest Aaron, and he declared to Pharaoh that he's king. And
in the day that he sent forth Christ, He came forth as the
prophet priest and king, king of kings and lord of lords. The
first time He provided a lamb, and when He saw the blood, He
passed over that house. Well, they can look forward and
see that when Christ comes, He would be that lamb, the Son of
God, the Lamb, Christ Jesus. And when you're found under His
blood, God says, I'll pass over you. And then the first time
that sea was dried up that they might go across. And so it is
with our Lord Jesus Christ. He dried up the sea of God's
justice that we might go across. And then That first rest was
temporary, but this second rest, we just saw that this rest is
glorious. It's a glorious rest. It's not
a temporal rest like He delivered them to in that first time. So
on one hand, He's pointing them back to see Egypt so that they
can look forward and see what God's going to do spiritually.
But, you know, really the first time that the Lord set forth
His hand is when Christ came. That's when Christ came in the
true sense of this word. It was when Christ came and he
lived on this earth and he fulfilled the law of God and delivered
his children that were under that law from under that law
and he delivered all the children of God from the curse. And then
the second time, though, is when now that he's gone to heaven's
glory. and it says, and he set forth his hand now a second time. And that's what we're reading
here, and what you'll see as we go here is that this has to
do with what Christ is doing once He's risen, and He sets
forth His hand now a second time. This word, recover, says it all
because it means to buy, to possess, to redeem. It's really the same
word we use as redemption. And this word really says it
all because Christ Jesus the Lord came to where we are and
the first time that He set forth His hand, by His own blood, He
purchased a people. He bought them out of sin and
death. by His own blood. You can read
that with me if you'll turn to Acts 20, verse 28. Acts 20, 28. It says, Take heed therefore unto
yourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost
hath made you overseers to feed the church of God which He hath
purchased with His own blood. And then if you'll look at Ephesians
1 verse 13, He redeemed a remnant, He purchased them, He recovered
them the first time that He set forth His hand. But it says here
He's going to set forth His hand a second time and redeem them,
recover them. What does that mean? Look at
Ephesians 1 verse 13. Ephesians 1.13 says, "...Ye were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise." Look at verse 14,
"...which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption
of the purchased possession, unto the praise of His glory."
In other words, He's purchased His people. He's bought them
and they belong to Him. And now He's poured out His Spirit,
which is the earnest of the inheritance, until He purchases them again,
redeems them again into Heaven's glory with Him. Now this second
time begins when He sends forth His Spirit through the preaching
of the Gospel and gives us the earnest of the Spirit in our
hearts. That's the setting forth of His hand the second time.
This redemption into heaven's glory begins then. We have the
earnest now. We know it's going to happen.
And so then we're waiting for the redemption of our bodies
and to go with Him in glory. And that's the key to it here.
Now, let's notice something about the nations from which the Lord
promises to deliver the remnant of His people. These nations
that are listed here in verse 11, they actually describe who
God's elect remnant is. Let me show you what I mean.
The Assyrians were the descendants of Asher, the son of Shem, the
grandson of Noah. The Cushites were the descendants
of Cush, the son of Ham, the grandson of Noah. The Elamites
were the descendants of Elam, the son of Shem, the grandson
of Noah. When you look back We learn that
all of these were born of one. They were born of Noah, who had
passed through the sea of judgment. Now look ahead. Who's his elect
remnant? They're all born of one. Christ Jesus, the Lord, who has
passed through the sea of judgment. That's who his elect remnant
are. And then by looking at Pathros in Upper Egypt, and Shinar in
Babylon, and Hamath in Syria, the islands of the sea, those
were the nations such as Greece, and Italy, and Spain, and America,
where we live. We learn that this is the uttermost
part of the earth. where the Lord Jesus sent His
disciples to be witnesses of Him when He said, go forth into
the uttermost parts of the earth. In Acts 15.23 we read, they wrote
letters by them after this manner. The apostles and elders and brethren
send greeting unto the brethren which are of the Gentiles in
Antioch and Syria and Cilicia. How did they end up going to
Hamath? Because He said way back there,
I've got an elect remnant that are going to be scattered in
Haman. They're going to be born of one. One who's passed through
the waters of judgment. One who's setting forth His hand
the second time to give them the earnest of the Spirit that
they might know that they've been purchased by God Almighty,
by His own blood, and that they shall be redeemed to be in heaven's
glory with Him in the end. And so the Lord's not speaking
only of the Jews here. He doesn't say the remnant of
the house of Israel or the remnant of the house of Judah. He says
the remnant of my people. He's speaking of both Jew and
Gentile. Listen to what John heard in
the book of Revelation. He said, I saw another angel
fly in the midst of heaven having the everlasting gospel. to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God,
and give glory to Him, for the hour of His judgment is come.
And worship Him that made heaven and earth, and the sea, and the
fountains of waters." I grew up in an area that had a lot
of tornadoes. And when we would have a tornado
come through, I mean, Right where my parents lived, there's been
tornadoes go through a mile north and a mile south and never come
through right there where they are. But we could go up a mile
north and a mile south after one had come through and began
to see the devastation. And I mean it's devastating.
I've been in the, when I was younger and I'd be hunting back
in the woods, I'd be way back in the woods. And I would find
valuables in the woods that had been just dropped by a tornado. But after these tornadoes came,
you would find people that would be out the next day searching
through the debris, going and looking through the debris. because
their valuable possessions were there. Their inheritance was
there. It was scattered about out through
the woods and the trees and what have you. And they went out and
looked for them because they were valuable to them. Well,
God smoked the nation of Israel and He scattered His elect remnant
throughout the nations of the earth. Just like that mighty
wind, that mighty tornado. But then he said, but I'm going
to go forth and get them because they're my possession. They're
valuable to me. I'm going to set my hand a second
time and I'm going to gather them to myself. And so that's
what we see here. And there are people out of every
nation and kindred and tongue and people under heaven. Now,
Christ is doing that from His throne in glory. He's setting
His hand the second time and He's gathering them. Now, how
does He gather them? He's gathering His elect from the four corners
of the earth through the preaching of the gospel. Now hang with
me right here because this is where it gets good. You've got
to see this now. Verse 12, And He shall set up
an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of
Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four
corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall
depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they
shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the
west. They shall spoil them of the east together. They shall
lay their hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon
shall obey them. Christ's witnesses bear witness
of Christ only. Now, we saw last time that the
ensign is Christ Himself. He's our banner. The ensign's
a flag. The ensign's a banner like the
stars and stripes. It's a flag. Now, the Lord, it
says here, set His hand to gather His people. for a purpose, and
that's to hold up the ensign, to hold up the banner. The remnant
of these people are scattered throughout all the nations, and
He gathers the people at first together to hold up this ensign
and to declare this Gospel of Christ so that those that are
scattered about will rally to Christ and to His holy hill where
Christ is, where He's seated in Heaven's glory. You remember
we saw that illustration of Moses holding up the rod. And as long
as he held up the rod, Joshua went out and he fought against
the children of Amalek. And as long as that rod was held
up, that gospel trumpet, that rod, which said, look to the
enzyme. As long as it was held up, Joshua,
picture of Christ the Lord, went forth, picture of Him going forth
through the Holy Spirit, and He conquered, and He won the
victory in defeating Amalek. And who did Moses attribute it
to? Jehovah Nisi, the Lord our banner. The Lord our banner did
this. That's what we're doing through
the Gospel. But now, who's the Lord going to use to do this
work? Where's it going to start? If
you ask man, man gets things backwards because we've gone
away backwards. And what we tend to do is, what
a lot of folks are looking for right now is they're waiting
to see something transpire over in the Middle East and they're
going to be jumping up and down because now the Jews are all
being called in. Christ said, I'm going to start
with the Jews. I'm going to start with the house of Israel. Watch.
Verse 12. And He shall set up an enzyme
for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." This is who He's going to use to build this enzyme.
This is who He's going to use to gather together to begin to
declare this gospel. The outcasts of Israel and the
dispersed of Judah. Now that's a description of all
God's elect in Adam. We're outcasts and we're dispersed. We were kicked out of the garden
in Adam. We lost all spiritual connection
with God in Adam. And we've been outcast. And we've
been dispersed. But this specifically speaks
to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. To the lost sheep
of Judah and of Israel. His elect in that nation. Israel
and Judah. Let me read this to you. You
be looking with me at Matthew 10. But let me read this as you're
turning there. In Jeremiah 50 verse 6 it says,
My people hath been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them
to go astray. They've turned them away on the
mountains. They've gone from mountain to hill. They've forgotten
their resting place. Now, in Matthew 10 and verse
5, We read this in the Gospel age, that great shepherd of the
sheep that's gathering his lost sheep. He began with 12 apostles. And this is what he said to 12
apostles in Matthew 10, 5. These 12 Jesus sent forth and
commanded them saying, go not into the way of the Gentiles.
Not yet. Don't go into the way of the
Gentiles yet. But into the city of the Samaritans enter ye not,
but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. And as
ye go, preach, saying, The kingdom of heaven is at hand. So he began
with his twelve, the outcasts of Israel. and of Judah. And
then He gathered 70. And then on the day of Pentecost,
He gathered 3,000. And then the number after Pentecost.
This was the gathering of the outcasts of Israel and the dispersed
of Judah from the four corners of the earth. He said, I'm going
to start with them. I'm going to set this ensign
up to which the nations shall be gathered to. My people out
of the nations, but I'm going to do it with the outcasts of
Israel and of Judah. That's where I'm going to start
this thing. But I thought Judah and Israel hated one another.
By this time that Christ came, Judah and Ephraim hated one another. How's He going to gather them
together? How are you going to bring them
together at peace with one another? There's only one way that's going
to happen. That's through the Spirit of God giving them a new
heart and a new nature to where they behold it. I'm not better
than Judah, and I'm not better than Ephraim. We're one in Christ
the Lord. That's what Christ does through
this Gospel. Look at verse 13. The envy also of Ephraim shall
depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. He's going
to bring these two together in peace. Look over at Ezekiel 37.
Ezekiel 37. And I'll tell you something that
this typifies. Because he began in Jerusalem with Judah and Israel,
what this typifies is Christ our King seated in Heaven's Jerusalem
and from Heaven's Jerusalem the Gospel going forth out into this
world. And so he started in Jerusalem
with the outcast of Israel and Judah and then sent it forth
out into the world. Now watch this. These two, though
they're enemies, they've got to be brought together. Look
at verse 1. The hand of the Lord was upon
me, and He carried me out in the Spirit of the Lord and set
me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones. And
He caused me to pass by them round about, and behold, there
were very many in the open valley, and lo, they were very dry. And
He said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered,
O Lord God, thou knowest. Again He said unto me, Here's
how they're going to live. prophesy unto him, preach to
him, declare by word to him, just declare the gospel to him.
And saying to them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.
How on earth can some dry bones hear? How are dry bones going
to hear anything? Thus saith the Lord God unto
these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and
you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you,
and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin,
and put breath in you, and you shall live, and you shall know
that I am the Lord. And see, they'll be born of God. That's
how they're going to be made one. Now look down at verse 11.
Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole
house of Israel." When you see the word son of man and it's
speaking of Christ, the reason it says son of man rather than
son of David is it's talking about all God's elect Jew and
Gentile. When it's talking about just
the Jewish elect, it'll say the Son of David. But if he says
all of God's elect, Jew or Gentile, he'll say the Son of Man. So
when he says here, Son of Man, these bones of the whole house
of Israel, he's saying this is the common cause with all my
elect. This is how all of my elect are going to be born. This
is how they're going to be made one with one another and brought
into peace and harmony in me. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried and our hope is lost. We're cut off for our parts.
Therefore prophesy, preach to them, say unto them, thus saith
the Lord God. Behold, O my people, I will open
your graves and cause you to come up out of your graves and
bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the
Lord when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought
you up out of your graves, and shall put my Spirit in you. And
ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land. Then ye
shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it, performed it,
saith the Lord. Now here's what I want you to
see. The word of the Lord came again unto me, saying, Moreover
thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For
Judah. and for the children of Israel,
his companions. Then take another stick and write
upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house
of Israel, his companions. Two different sticks now. And
join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become
one in thine hand. In whose hand? in Christ's name. He said, I'm going to set my
hand forth a second time. This is what's going to happen.
I'm going to start with the outcasts of Israel and Judah and Ephraim. And Judah's not going to vex
one another anymore. How's that going to happen? Because
they're going to be made one in His hand through His Spirit.
And He's going to bring them into unity. Look. And when the
children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt
thou not show us what thou meanest by these? Saith unto them, Thus
saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which
is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows,
and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and
make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand." Now
look at this. I want you to see this. And look
at verse 21. Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I will take the
children of Israel from among the heathen, whether they be
gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into
their own land. And I will make them one nation
in the land upon the mountains of Israel. And one king shall
be king to them all, and they shall be no more two nations,
neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at
all. Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their
idols nor with their detestable things nor with any of their
transgressions But I'll save them out of all their dwelling
places Wherein they have sinned and will cleanse them so shall
they be my people and I will be their God Now get this and
David my servant shall be king over them and they also have
one shepherd They all shall also walk in thy judgments and deserve
my statues and do them is David gonna come now from heaven's
glory and Leave glory with Christ and come down to be king over
Judah and Ephraim That would be That would be anti-climactic
from going from this earth to be with Christ, and then turn
around and have to go back from there back to this earth? No,
he's saying, I'm going to make my people one in Christ, and
Christ, my David, is going to reign over them in Heaven's Jerusalem. But he's got to do this through
making Judah and Ephraim one. Now then, look what he does. And then after He assembles them,
back in our text, after He assembles His elect among the Jews, the
Lord Jesus uses them to preach the gospel to His elect among
the Gentiles. You ready? Verse 14. But they shall fly up on the
shoulders of the Philistines toward the west, and they shall
spoil them of the east together. They shall lay their hand upon
Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. The
Philistines and Edom and Moab and the children of Ammon are
listed here to signify the enemies of Christ. They're listed here
to signify those who are enemies and hate the Lord's people and
hate the Lord. And they're listed here as those
who are outside of the camp of Israel and Judah. Now, the Philistines,
which is Philistine, Palestine, to the West were the sworn enemies
of the Israelites. They hated the Israelites. But
it says here that they're going to fly up on their shoulders.
That means two things. One, the Gospel is going to conquer
the hard hearts of God's elect among the Gentiles. We read over
in Romans 5, I believe, and you who were enemies in your mind
by wicked works, You know in Hebrews 10 when the Lord said
He's going to make His enemies His footstool? It's not just
the enemies that's going to be made to bow and confess that
He's King of kings and Lord of lords. It's His elect people
too. They're enemies in their minds
by wicked works and they're going to be brought to His church,
to His footstool, and they're going to bow. And so that's what
we see here. And then the second thing is,
then through the Gentile believers, The Gospel of Christ is going
to fly like a bird into all the parts of the earth. Now this
is way back in Isaiah's day. The Lord is saying, this is how
it's going to happen. This is exactly how it's going
to happen. My Son is coming through the house of Jesse. He's going
to execute judgment and justice in the earth. And then there
shall be an enzyme, a root of Jesse, Jesse's Lord, and he's
going to be in heaven, and he's going to set his hand a second
time. And he's going to send forth the gospel, and he's going
to make Ephraim and Judah be one. And from there he's going
to send forth this gospel out into the nations, and he's going
to begin gathering in his Gentile elect. And this gospel is going
to fly on their shoulders into the earth, and he's going to
save his people. Well, we read a lot of places
in Acts where we, something like this, Acts 8.40, Philip was found
at Asitus. That's in Palestine. We read when Cornelius, the angel
of the Lord told Cornelius, send men to Joppa, because that's
where Peter is. Joppa was in Philistine's neighborhood. He was in Palestine. That's where
he was. And then we read about Paul. Paul said, I'm clean from
you, talking to the Jews. He says, from henceforth, I'm
going to go unto the Gentiles. That's in Acts 18.6. And you
know what you read in Acts 18 from then on? Nothing else about
the Jews from then on. It's about Paul preaching to
the Gentiles and going to these places where Christ said he would
go, this gospel would go. And this gospel flies on his
shoulders and begins to go into all the world. And then, this
work can never fail. It can never fail because it's
the work of Christ. Look here in verse 14. And they
shall spoil them of the east together. They shall lay their
hand upon Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey
them. Spoil they shall spoil them.
You know what the word, you know When you go into a country and
you do battle with a country and you spoil that country you
take out all of that country's greatest valuable treasures for
yourself Every elect child of God is saved out of this earth
God is spoiling them of the most precious treasure. He's taken
his people out from among them and And then we read here that
they'll lay their hand on them. This signifies power. Paul said,
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ because it's
the power of God unto salvation because therein is the revelation
of the righteousness of God revealed. This is that gospel as it's being
preached. It enters into the heart and
Christ is revealed in the heart. There's the power in this hand. I'm setting forth my hand this
morning as I preach, but Christ is setting forth His hand through
the Holy Spirit, and He's the one that's teaching His people
in the heart. The revelation of the righteousness of Him.
And then obedience is coming through this. He said, I'll make
mention of Rahab, Egypt, and Babylon to them that know Me.
Behold, Philistia and Tyre with Ethiopia. The Lord will say,
this man was born there. That means they were born of
God, even though they were in those places. I sent my Gospel
to them, and I birthed them again, and I brought them into obedience
of faith. I made them, not by power or might, not by the power
or might of men, not by the strength of men's hand, but by my Spirit,
saith the Lord. I've done it through my Gospel.
And I love this. You know how Peter ends his first
epistle? the church that is at Babylon,
elected together with you, salute with you." He went into Babylon
and saved some people. And the Lord went into Babylon
and saved some people. Now, here's the third thing.
First of all, it's Christ doing this from heaven's glory. Secondly,
He's doing it through the Gospel. It began with the Jews and shed
it forth through the Gentiles. Now, I said back in verse 10,
He told us what He was about to tell us, and then He told
us. Now here at the end, He's telling us, now this is what
I just told you. This is what I just got through telling you.
So look. Through the gospel of Christ, our God shall utterly
destroy all our enemies and deliver us safely out of this Egypt in
which we dwell. Now look at verse 15. And the
Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea, and
with His mighty wind shall He shake His hand over the river,
and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over
dry shod. And there shall be a highway
for the remnant of His people, which shall be left from Assyria,
like as it was to Israel in the day that He came up out of the
land of Egypt." Just a few things here, but the tongue of the Egyptian
sea It's a lot of symbolism here and there. The tongue of the
Egyptians, see? The Egyptian represents the liar and his underling
liars. All sin began in the garden with
the father of lies. It's going to be His enemies
are going to be Satan and his army. His sea is going to be
utterly destroyed. And then we read here, it's the
sea. Water in Scripture typifies the spirit, a spiritual thing.
And that's what we're being told here, that this is a spiritual
battle. This is a spiritual war. We wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And the tongue represents
the voice of falsehood. You know what our one weapon
is? the tongue. Our one weapon is the tongue
because our one weapon is the gospel. But through that gospel,
God said, I'll pull down strongholds. I'll pull down all your enemies. I'll destroy the tongue of the
Egyptian sea. How's He going to do that? Christ
Jesus the Lord. You know, this is, I gotta tell
you this, because I just saw this as I was preparing this.
You know, science, a lot of times, a great deal, most of the time
in our day, I believe, science tries to disprove the Bible.
And you watch on these different programs a lot of times and they'll
have some new theory about something in the Bible and how they're
going to disprove this about the Bible. Well, the newest theory
is, you know, they found some chariot wheels in the Red Sea. And so, right where they found
them, there's a ridge in the Red Sea. And so, they postulated,
they come up with this great theory that they thought that
a mighty storm came. and pushed the waters back. And
it really didn't part the Red Sea, it just pushed the waters
back and this ridge came up out of the water and they went across
on dry land on that ridge. Unknowingly, the exalting Christ,
unknowingly. Read this verse with me. The Lord shall destroy the tongue
of the Egyptian sea, and with his mighty wind shall he shake
his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams,
and make men go over dry shot. And there shall be a high way."
He's going to smite it with the mighty wind, and there's going
to be a high way. Exalted and we're gonna see this
again in Isaiah later when he talks about my my way shall be
exalted My highway shall be exalted the reference is to today when
Christ came out of Egypt, but this is our gospel This is Christ
setting forth his hand the first time the all-powerful Holy God
shook his hand over the river of life He shook His hand over
that man who is seven, that man who is the perfection of man. He shook His hand over him because
God hath made him sin for us who knew no sin that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. And when God, just
like when Moses came to that river and He stretched forth
His rod, when God stretched forth His hand upon Christ, He dried
up. He dried up the wrath of God
against His people. And He made a way, a highway
for them to go over dry shod. That's what He did. And then
He said, but I'm going to set forth My hand a second time.
and do this work that I'm talking about. What does He do when He
sets forth His hand a second time? He sets forth His hand
by sending forth His messengers. And I hope what you've seen here
today is that He does it in intricate detail, precision, just as He
said He would do it. He sends forth His messengers
with His Gospel and He stretches forth His hand and His mighty
wind, the Spirit of God, enters into His people and reveals to
them the highway, the exalted way. Christ the Ensign seated
at God's right hand and they behold the banner and they go
over dry shod. They go over on dry ground. Do you see that? He's the highway. Well, that's what Paul was saying
when he said, in Romans 11.25, he said, blindness in part is
happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come
in, and so, the word is, even so, or thusly, all Israel shall
be saved. It doesn't mean he's going to
bring in all the fullness of the Gentiles and then he's going
to call in all Israel. It means even so. It's the same
word that he said in John 3. Look there with me real quick.
Let me point this out to you. John 3. Verse 14. And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, there's that same word,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so,
love the world, the word so there is, even so, or in this manner,
this is how God loved the world. He lifted up His Son and made
His Son sin for His people that they might be made the righteous
of God in Him. And He's setting forth His hand that they'll look
to Him. And when they look to Him, they'll live. They'll live. Even so, this is how God saved
His people. So He says, when the fullness
of the Gentiles come in, even so, after this manner, Shall
all Israel be saved? Now, I like this. I went through my house. I told
you last week, Hal, that you've got to start by asking God to
give you the message. Lord, you know what this says.
I don't want to go to other men. I began to feel like that's like
giving other fellows preeminence over Christ, to go somewhere
else before I go to God, you know. So I asked God, Lord, give
me this message. Show me what this means, what
you are saying here in this word. And I, it was just, On Tuesday
this happened, and I couldn't write fast enough. I could not
write fast enough, and I get this all, you know, jotted down,
and not in as much detail, but just jotted out as fast as I
could. And man, I'm walking around the house, and I'm thanking God,
and I'm just, my heart's just overflowing, and I'm thinking,
Lord, thank you for showing me this. Thank you for showing me
this. And I thought, I wonder what the next verse says. And
I ran back down to see what the next verse says. Look with me. Isaiah 12, verse 1. And in that
day thou shalt say, O Lord, I will praise Thee. Thou was angry with
me. Thine anger is turned away, and
Thou comfortest me. That's the end. Even so, when
all Israel is saved, when the fullness of the Gentiles has
come in, that's going to be the end. That's going to be the end. This happens when He reveals
Christ in us, when He's put forth His hand a second time and He
recovers us and gives us the earnest of the inheritance. And
then in the end, when we're all gathered together, this is going
to be the end right here. In that day, thou shalt say,
O Lord, I will praise Thee. Though Thou wast angry with me,
Thine angers turned away, and Thou comfortedst me. This is what Paul meant in 1
Corinthians 1.21 when he said, For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. declare that
they think that it limits God's sovereignty to say that He saves
through the Gospel. When I look into a passage like
this, and I see how intricately Christ is working everything
to call out His sheep through the preaching of the Gospel,
I say it exalts Him, His absolute sovereignty altogether. It's not that He couldn't do
it, just this is why it pleased Him to do it. And He has the
power to do it in a way that pleases Him. That's my God. I'm
sold out to him. I hope that makes you see that
we can, if we have him to do this work, all we do is hold
up the banner. We don't have to worry about
whether we got food or clothing or a house to sleep in or anything
like that. Seek first this, he said. I'll add that other stuff to
you, he said. is His children, those lost children that are
out there scattered about, aren't they His kingdom? Don't they
make up His kingdom? And didn't He say, seek ye first
the kingdom of God? So let's make that our first
priority, seeking them, being, worshiping our God and being
a witness of our Lord. And He said, you just hold up
the banner and look what I'll do. Look what I'll do.