Alright, Isaiah chapter 11. Now,
this time that we live in right now is just a tumultuous time all over
this world. And nothing comforts me in times
like this as when God in His Word declares the sure and certain
glorious rest of His people. This rest, this assurance, this
glorious rest and peace for believers is Christ Jesus the Lord, the
Son of God. And when the nation of Israel,
or Judah specifically, was in a situation there where they
were in such civil and political unrest, the Lord God sent forth
Isaiah with the one message that He always sends His messengers
forth with, And Isaiah came with the only message that would reassure
his people, and that message was concerning Christ Jesus the
Lord. The 11th chapter of Isaiah begins in verse 1 with the account
of the descent of the Son of God from heaven's glory to dwell
among his people as man, the son of David. And then verse
2, Isaiah declared that the man Christ Jesus would be equipped
by the Lord to fulfill his office as judge and king in a manner
that would be preeminently better than any other man. And then
in verses 3 through 5, he tells what manner of government this
man would exercise, and how it would be a peaceful reign, and
how it would be an equitable and a righteous reign. And then
in verses 6-9 he described the peace that this man would effectually
work amongst their people. So think of how the saints in
Judah must have received Isaiah's word at this time when he came
forth preaching this gospel. You think we got it bad. They
were, that kingdom, that twelve sons of Jacob, who were the original
twelve tribes of Israel, were divided. And there was Judah
and the half-tribe of Benjamin to whom Isaiah was sent with
this message. And then against them are the
other ten tribes and the other half-tribe of Judah. And they're
bound and determined, they would just like to wipe Judah off the
map, their own kinfolk, and just destroy him. That's a good description
of this world in our day. And so they hear this gospel
come forth and they hear this message that from the tribe of
Judah, from the house of Jesse, from the house of David, there's
coming a man. that's going to reign like this,
and it's going to restore this kingdom to its glory that it
had before, and that this will not go on forever. He's going
to bring about peace. And they had to have heard that
and thought, oh, it just said in that day. It didn't say tomorrow. It didn't say the next day. It
didn't say how long. It gave no time frame. It just
said in that day. It could be tomorrow, they could
think. And He'll come and He'll restore
this kingdom. And He'll bring peace in this
kingdom. And He will give us rest in this place. And then
Isaiah is moved by the Spirit of God to include this 10th verse. And he says, And in that day
there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign
of the people. To it shall the Gentile seek,
and his rest shall be glorious." Our Lord and our Savior and all
the blessings that we have in Him are spiritual. They're not carnal. They're spiritual. They're not carnal. Our Lord
and our Savior is spiritual. The gospel we preach is spirit
and life. The church and kingdom of our
Lord and Savior is spiritual. The rest our Lord and Savior
gives is spiritual. Now I want to show you those
four things here today from this 10th verse of the 11th chapter. First of all, our Lord and Savior
is Spirit. And by that I mean our Lord,
our Savior is God. He's a man, but He's God. In
Revelation 22.16, you can turn there if you like, Revelation
22.16, We read this, I, Jesus, have
sent my angel, my messenger, to testify unto you these things
in the churches. And here's the statement he makes,
I am the root and the offspring of David. In Isaiah 11, in verse 1, and
then this word here in verse 10, they're worded differently. It says, and there's two truths
here that I think are suggested in this different wording. Let
me show you a few things. Look at verse 1, Isaiah 11, verse
1. It says, sets forth the humble
birth of the man, Jesus, as the offspring, the son of Jesse. The child that would be born
in Jesse's house and we read there and there shall come forth
and there shall come forth a rod a branch out of The stem what's
left the stump that's left of the house of Jesse there's gonna
come something out of that stump and There shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch now look at this
shall grow out of Jesse's roots. And then in verse 10, it says,
and in that day, there shall be no coming forth, no out of
the stump of Jesse, no growing out of Jesse's roots, but there
shall be. And in that day, there shall
be a root of Jesse. Not a root out of, not a branch
out of the roots of Jesse, but a root of Jesse. Jesus said,
I am the root of David and the offspring of David. How's that
possible? What comes first, the root or
the offspring? What comes first, the root or
the tree and the branches? The root. And then the branch
that comes up from the root, it comes afterwards, doesn't
it? Well, our Lord and our Savior,
Jesus Christ, is both God and man. That means He came through
the tribe of Judah, through the house of Jesse, through the house
of David, and He's therefore called the branch out of Jesse's
roots. But because He gave life to Judah,
and to Jesse, and to David, just as he does to all of his elect
children, because he's God. It says here, he's a root of
Jesse. Not a root out of Jesse. He's
a branch out of Jesse's roots. But he's the root of Jesse. Now,
turn with me to Matthew 22, verse 41. David said, the Lord said
unto my Lord, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right
hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool. In Matthew 22,
41, it says, While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus
asked them, saying, What think ye of Christ? Whose son is he? Whose offspring is he? And they
say unto him, he's the son of David. David is Jesse's son. And the same thing that was stated
in Isaiah 11, he's the son of Jesse. And he wasn't denying
that he's the son of David. That's not what he's doing. But
he's making a point to it here. He saith unto them, how then
doth David in spirit call him Lord? saying, The Lord said unto
my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. If David then called him Lord,
how is he his son? He's backing them into a corner
to where the only way they can answer this is to say, Because
you're God. And what did they do? And no
man was able to answer him a word, neither does any man from that
day forth ask him any more questions. The Jews murmured at him one
time because he said, I'm the bread which came down from heaven.
And you know what their argument was? They said, is not this Jesus
the son of Joseph, the son of David, the son of Jesse, whose
father and mother we know? How is it then that he saith,
I came down from heaven? Jesus therefore answered and
said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to
me except the Father. which hath sent me, draw him,
and I'll raise him up at the last day." You see, here's why
it's important. You know when you're in sales,
they teach you to tell the people, now what this means to you is,
well, here's what this means to you. What this means to you
is, is how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through
the eternal Spirit, offered himself without spot to God, purged your
conscience from dead works to serve the living God. Turn to
Hebrews 10. Hebrews 10, this will go along with something
else we'll see in a moment, but let's read this in Hebrews 10.
It means that this one who's eternal, and man, who as man
offered himself to God as the lamb required to bring his people
to God, is also God who offered himself eternally so that his
offering is an eternal offering with eternal accomplishments
and eternal effectual results that are everlasting. Now that's
good news. Now look at it here in Hebrews
10.1. For the law having a shadow of good things to come and not
the very image of the things can never with those sacrifices
which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto
perfect. For then wouldn't they have ceased
to be offered? If they'd have made them perfect,
wouldn't they have stopped? because the worshipers once purged
should have had no more conscience of sin. They don't have to worry
about sin anymore, it's gone. But they came every year, why?
But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of
sins every year. And he says, it's not possible
that blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. Wherefore,
even so, when he cometh into the world, he saith, sacrifice
and offering thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared
me. Then said I, Lo, I come in the volume of the book that is
written of me. And he came and verse 9 says, when he said, Lo,
I come to do thy will, O God, and taketh away the first. He took away all the law, every
bit of it. He took it away that he might
establish the second grace. By the witch will, by him doing
the will of God, we are sanctified through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ One time. One offering. So all those priests
that Paul said they keep on daily offering these sacrifices, they
can never take away sins. But this man, after he had made
one sacrifice for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of
God from henceforth expecting until his enemies made his footstool
because he's God. and He's man. It's an eternal,
effectual, full, complete accomplishment that works over. His people have
been made righteous. Brethren, that's good news to
a person who's a sinner, that our God is sovereign, that He's
eternal, and therefore our salvation is eternal. So that's the first
thing. They begin to be told here by
Isaiah as he begins to preach this message is, this man's God. He's not only coming as a branch
out of Jesse, but he's the one who gave Jesse life. Now, second
thing, the gospel we preach is spirit and life. The gospel we
preach is spirit and life. Verse 10, Isaiah 11, 10. And in that day there shall be
a root of Jesse which shall stand for an ensign to the people. Now, let's consider this word,
ensign. Art, when you was over there
in the desert, what was always flying the whole time you was
there? The flag, wasn't it? And you could look at any point
where you were, you could look and see the flag flying. The
enzyme is the banner. It's the flag that's flying.
And when you go into war, that flag flies. And in ancient times,
the soldiers would be fighting on a field of battle, not too
distant from where that banner's flying. So anywhere they are
on that field of battle, they can look back and see where that
flag is to keep their bearings and know where they are on that
battlefield. And then the Ensign was where
the soldiers gathered together. They returned to that flag, they
returned to that banner. They would go out on their mission
and they would come back and they would return to that banner.
And then what is the first thing, the first thing soldiers do when
the war is won? They raised that flag. They raised
that flag. I was asking the men, I was thinking
of that picture, you know, of Iwo Jima where they're raising
the flag on it. Victory. Victory. They're raising
that banner. Well, the verse says here, in
that day there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand for
an enzyme to the people. You see, first of all, this enzyme,
this one was raised up on the cross. Our Lord in John 3.14
said, As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Why was that serpent lifted
up in the wilderness? Because serpents is what was
biting the people. And so God said the remedy, the
cure for the snake bite is going to be a serpent. that is going to be made just
like what it is, it's biting you. And Christ came and He who
knew no sin, God made Him sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. So it was a necessity that He
be lifted up just like that pole, that serpent in the wilderness
was lifted up. And then this enzyme was raised from the dead
where He's now seated at God's right hand. I don't like the
way I have this ordered here so I'm going to break from it.
Let me show you something here. Let me draw this out for you
like it's a battle. Alright, He's gone to the cross
at Jerusalem and He's lifted up on the cross. Look back at
Isaiah chapter 10 and look at verse 28. This is speaking of
the enemies. This is speaking of the enemies
of the children of Judah and of God. And it says, He's come
to Aoth. He's passed to Migron. At Migmash,
He's laid up His carriages. They're going over the passage.
They've taken up their lodging at Jeba. Ramah's afraid. Jebiah
of Saul has fled. What He's picturing is this great
host. He called them Oaks of Bashan
earlier in Isaiah. Our Lord, when He In the psalm,
when he's praying, he calls them bulls of Bashan. But they compassed
me about. And he draws a picture here of
this battle raging, and they're coming up to Jerusalem. Remember,
the scourge shall overflow all the land, the Lord said. But
it'll stop at the neck. It'll stop at Jerusalem. It won't
destroy My people completely. Now look here, down here at verse
32. And yet shall he remain at Nob
that day, and He shall shake His hand against the mount of
the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem." There's the old
serpent. There's Satan and his enemies,
and his army, and they're gathered around Jerusalem, and there Christ
hangs on the cross, the end Zion. There He is, the banner, our
banner is hanging there on the cross, and Satan is shaking his
fist at Him, shaking his fist at Him, shaking his fist at Him,
because he thinks, I've won the victory. It wasn't enough that
I came into Israel and I destroyed Israel because God allowed me
to. I'm going to go on up to Jerusalem and I'm going to take
God off His throne, this one thought. Well, look back up there
at verse 27. Because Christ was the anointed
of God, this is what was taking place in that time. It shall
come to pass in that day that his burden shall be taken away
from off thy shoulder and his yoke from off thy neck and the
yoke shall be destroyed because of the anointing. That's what
this one's accomplishing there on the cross. And then, but look
what's going to happen when this enzyme lays down his life on
the cross. Look back up at verse 17. And
the light of Israel shall be for fire. That's Christ. And
His Holy One for a flame. And it shall burn and devour
His thorns and His briars in one day. You know, here he's
talking about the thorns and briars of the king of Assyria.
But God's calling them His thorns and His briars. Because even
though Satan and all his army think they're doing what they're
accomplishing, they're still God's thorns and God's briars.
And He'll burn them up when He gets ready to burn them up. So
are all those that hate God in this world who will not bow to
Him. They're thorns and briars, but they're God's thorns and
briars. And He said, My Holy One, He's going to burn them
up. Can I not do with mine own whatsoever I will? Now, and He
shall consume the glory of His forest. and of His fruitful field,
both soul and body. That's what our Lord did at Calvary.
That fruitful field that He planted in Israel, the end of that whole
kingdom and that nation and everything stopped when our Lord went to
the cross. It's done. It's over. But look
what happens when this one was enzyme on the cross lays down
his life and they shall be as when a standard bearer fainted.
You know what a standard bearer is? He's the enzyme bearer. He's the flag bearer. He's the
one that holds up the flag. And when he faints in the battle,
what happens? They don't see the flag anymore.
The soldiers on the battlefield don't know where the enzyme is.
They don't know where he is anymore. They don't know where to run
to, where to gather to, where to return to. I will smite the
shepherd and the sheep shall be scattered. The Lord said,
you'll all be offended at me this night and you'll be scattered.
And that's exactly what happened. They became as when a standard
bearer fainted. And this on one hand, all the
enemies of Christ, they think they've won the victory. And
that little flock of His thought they had won the victory, thought
that their enemies had won the victory. Where is our Ensign? Where is He? He's gone now. We
don't see Him anymore. Oh, but our Lord said, And if
I be lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men unto me. And this is the second lifting
up. He was raised from the dead. This one was raised from the
dead. Because way back there in Genesis, the word was, the
scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between
his feet until Shiloh come, and unto him shall the gathering
of the people be. You know that word shallow means
quiet, it means peace, it means prosperity, it means he whose
it is. The scepter, the crown rites
won't depart from the tribe of Judah. That's why the house of
Jesse is spared. That's why the house of David
is spared because out of his roots is coming an offspring.
And the crown rites won't pass until him whose it is has come. Until him to whom the crown rites
belong comes. Nor a lawgiver, nor a governor
from between his feet until he who is the governor has come. And so this one came and he went
and he laid down his life, and they scattered. But the first
thing he does when he rises, you know what he does the first
thing? Look here in verse 11. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall set His hand again the second
time to recover the remnant of His people. He had gathered His
disciples, a little bitty remnant, just twelve, He gathered them.
He went to the cross and it had grown. He had gathered His elect
from Israel and from Judah from the four corners. He began to
gather them. And it had grown a little bit as He walked this
earth. And then He goes to the cross and they don't see the
end sign anymore and they scatter. And the first thing He does when
He's raised a second time is He gathers them. He brings them
back in and gathers them a second time. And then at Calvary, he
pours out his spirit and three thousand are saved that day.
He gathers some more. And then a little while later.
Two or three thousand more gathered. He gathered some more. And he
creates this body of his elect remnant from them. And then eventually
the Apostle Paul comes and he says, Now, Paul, you're going
in to the Gentiles to declare my name. And so Paul turns from
the Jews and goes to the Gentiles and begins to declare his name.
And these scattered sheep, just as he said, if I be lifted up
from the earth will draw them all to me. And he sets his hand
the second time and they go forth now with the trumpet. And when
that battle is won, when the war is won, you go forth with
a trumpet. And you blow that trumpet so that all the soldiers
out there on the battlefield stop what they're doing and they
look. And when they look, they see the enzyme flying. And when
they see the enzyme flying, they say, The war's over. We're going home. The war's over.
It's done. The victory's won. And so this
trumpet that's set forth to be blown is, Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sin. So you go forth and you blow
this trumpet. And our text says here in verse 10, and in that
day, this root of Jesse shall stand for an enzyme. He's the
one that we look to. He's the one, like that serpent
lifted up, looking live. He's the one we look to. I'm
just sitting here forth to blow the trumpet, to tell you, look
to the enzyme. Look to the banner. The victory's
won. The war's over. We can lay down
our shotguns now. We can lay down all our fighting
and all our paraphernalia we've been using to fight against God
with. The victory's won. The battle's over. You can pour
water on your gunpowder now. You don't need it anymore. And
because Christ sends His messengers, and because the Spirit blesses
the Word preached, this Gospel that we preach, because it is
totally, only, thoroughly concerned with Christ our enzyme, Christ
our banner, this Word we preach is Spirit and it's life. It's
Spirit and it's life. It is the Spirit that quickeneth,
the Lord said, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you, they're Spirit and they're life. But all you see
is a man speaking, isn't it? All you see is a man speaking
to you. That's not who's speaking to you if God's speaking to you.
If God's speaking to you, He's speaking to you. And the words
He's speaking to you are Spirit and life. You hear me? Look at
1 Peter 1.23. I like this word. In that day
there shall be a root of Jesse which shall stand. That takes
out all the maybes. It shall stand. It shall stand.
What's that mean? Here's what Peter said it mean.
1 Peter 1.23. You're born again. not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever, which shall stand. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof fadeth away, but the Word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the Word which by
the Gospel is preached unto you. This is the Word, the Ensign,
Christ Jesus the Lord, which by the Gospel is preached unto
you. And that Word comes forth by
the Ensign, by the banner, into your heart. And He says, in the
words I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. This thing
don't have nothing to do with carnality. It don't have nothing
to do with temporal thing. This thing's spiritual. It's
spiritual. Now, our Lord and Savior is the God-man. He's seated
in the heavens. Spirit and our gospel are the
words of spirit and life. Now look at this third thing.
The church and kingdom of our Lord and Savior is spiritual
as well. Look here in verse 10. to it,
to the enzyme, to Christ Jesus the Lord, the root and offspring
of David, shall the Gentiles seek." Now, if I'm sitting there
in Judah, and I know God's law tells me I can't have anything
to do with the stranger, I can't have anything to do with those
people outside of the camp of Israel, outside of the tribe
of Judah, and I hear that this man is coming to rule in this
kingdom is going to be sought by the Gentiles? That tells me
that this kingdom is not a temporal carnal kingdom. It's not a temporal
carnal kingdom. There's more to this than God
coming and restoring just the nation of Israel to peace. There's
more to it than that. This thing has to do with with
the people all over this world. Christ's church and his kingdom
is spiritual. It's made up of a spiritual people
saved from among Jews and Gentiles. And so they're told here that
this righteous ruler will save a people out of every nation
and kindred and tongue and tribe under heaven. Not that He's going
to save every nation, tribe, kindred, and tongue under heaven.
He's going to save a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe,
and tongue under heaven. And you know this, that even
after the Lord Jesus Christ came to His disciples, after He was
risen, He came to His disciples, you know His disciples still
thought, they still thought that's what was going to happen. That
He was going to restore temporal peace and prosperity and the
kingdom. Look at Acts chapter 1. Acts chapter 1. And I love how it's just so gentle
and just the way the Lord answers them. Acts 1.6, When they therefore
were come together, they asked of Him, saying, Lord, wilt Thou
at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? And He said
unto them, It's not for you to know the times or the seasons
which the Father hath put in His own power." He don't even
talk about the kingdom. He don't talk about the weather. He don't answer them that. He
just says, times and the seasons are not for you to know. But
look, but you shall receive power after that the Holy Ghost has
come upon you. You know what He told them before
He went to the cross, what we saw last week? Well, right after
what we saw last week in John, I forget what chapter we was
in, John 14 or John 16. He said, when the spirit of truth
has come, he will guide you into all truth. You fellas got some
boats. They'd like to go out in your
boats, you know, when you come in and your boats are valuable
to you. You come into that slip and you know what you do? You
guide that boat into that slip safely. So no harm comes to it.
So you get it in there and you tie it down and you anchor it
down and it's safe in that slip. The truth is the slip. The Holy
Spirit comes and He guides His vessels of mercy into the truth,
into all truth, carefully guides them right in the truth so that
they're safe and secure and tied down in the truth. He said, when
He comes, He'll convince you and you shall be witnesses unto
Me both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria. He's going
further and further out. And unto the uttermost part of
the earth. They still don't understand it.
But then when Peter's called down there to Cornelius' house
and the Spirit falls out on, baptizes Cornelius and his household
who are Gentiles, Peter begins to see. The Spirit of God begins
to guide him into the truth that this thing is spiritual. It don't
have anything to do with carnal. It's spiritual. Now let me show
you one other place, Ephesians 2. I think this verse says it.
This passage says it the best. And I'm just going to read this
down to verse 22. But look at the key words here,
and I'll just point them out to you and we'll move on. Ephesians
2.11. Now this is the Apostle Paul
speaking to the Ephesian Gentiles. And listen to what he says to
them. Verse 11, Wherefore remember
that ye in time past, you were Gentiles in the flesh." That's
a key phrase, in the flesh. Who are called uncircumcision
by those Jews who are called the circumcision in the flesh. In other words, he said when
you were in the flesh, there were some distinctions between
you. You were Gentiles in the flesh and there were Jews in
the flesh. And they called you uncircumcised
in the flesh. But now, look, verse 12. And
at that time, you were without Christ, being aliens from the
commonwealth of Israel, strangers from the covenants of promise.
In other words, he said, you didn't have the law of Moses.
You didn't have, you weren't under the old covenant system
of worship. It didn't even apply to you.
So you didn't know nothing about it. You see, the Gentiles never
have been under the law of Moses, ever. It just happened. That
economy applied to Israel only, not to the Gentiles outside of
it. That's what he's telling them here. How then are they
going to be saved without the law? By grace, just like everybody
else is going to be saved. Peter said, we're going to be
saved even as they are. Now look, he said, you were strangers
from the covenants of promise. You had no hope. You were without
God in the world. But now, Now something's different. Now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes
were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he's
our peace, who hath made both Jew and Gentile one, and hath
broken down the middle wall of partition between us. What was
dividing us? What was dividing us? Enmity? Hatred? He says in Christ he
abolished that. There was the Law of Commandments
that said the Jews couldn't have anything to do with the Gentiles.
He said, the Law of Commandments contained in ordinances. He abolished
that. For to make in himself of two
one new man, and so making peace. And that he might reconcile both
unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby,
he came and preached peace. The Ensign came. and blew the
trumpet and said, look at the enzyme. And to you which were
far off and to them that were nigh, for through him we both
have access by one Spirit unto the Father. Now therefore, ye
are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
house of Israel according to the flesh, fellow citizens with
the Jews according to the flesh, no, with the saints. And of the
household of Jacob according to the flesh? Of the household
of Israel according to the flesh? Of the household of Judah according
to the flesh? No, of the household of God.
And you're built upon the foundation of the apostles and the prophets,
Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone in whom all
the building, all the living stones are fitly framed together
and they grow into a physical carnal temple? a holy temple
in the Lord, in whom ye also are built together for a habitation
of God through the Spirit." You see what he's saying? No more Jew nor Gentile, no more
bond nor free, no more male nor female, but you're one in Christ.
All the distinctions that we use, they're gone. And this kingdom
and this church is a spiritual kingdom. It's called, you've
come to the spirits of just men made perfect. I see flesh and
blood right here, but I tell you what's right here, the spirits
of just men made perfect. And that's how we worship God,
in spirit and in truth. Here's the fourth thing. First,
our Lord and Savior is spiritual. The Gospel we preach is spirit
and life. The church and kingdom of our
Lord and Savior is spiritual. And here's the fourth thing.
The rest, the glorious rest that our Lord and Savior gives is
spiritual rest. It's spiritual rest. Verse 10
says, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall
stand for an ensign of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be Is it the rest that the believer
enjoys that shall be glorious? Or does this mean that Christ
our rest shall be glorious? It means both. You can't have
one without the other. You can't have any glorious rest
unless your rest is in Christ the Glorious One. Look here.
Glorious rest is rest found only in the Glorious One. Who's rest?
What's it called? His rest. Glorious rest is everlasting
rest because it's in Christ who lasts forever. Glorious rest
is in glory. Where's Christ our rest seated?
In glory. The Lord said, I'll create upon
every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her assemblies
a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire
by night. That cloud of smoke by day and
that shining of flaming fire by night is Christ, the glory
of God. And upon all, the glory shall
be a defense. What's your defense? What's your defense against this
world? The glory. And who's the glory? Christ. You know what that says? You can just rest. You can just
rest. And here's the beautiful thing.
I always read to you Colossians 3.1. If you're risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sits on the right
hand of God. Set your affections on things above, not on things
of the earth. Listen to this. For ye are dead,
and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our
life, shall appear, Then shall ye also appear with Him in glory."
It's just glorious rest. Glorious rest. Now, here's the
application. I want you to turn to Luke chapter
12. Are you seeking Christ or are
you seeking carnal well-being? Temporal well-being. Are you
seeking Christ or are you seeking temporal well-being? Is heaven
Christ to you or is heaven streets of gold? If you're seeking carnal well-being,
temporal well-being, and that's what you're seeking, then your
idea of Jesus is the same as if you had a lucky rabbit's foot.
It's idolatrous superstition. If that's what your seeking Christ
is about, it's temporal carnal things, it's superstition. You know, when the Lord came
riding in on that Assy's colt into Jerusalem during the Feast
of Tabernacles, and they came with those palm branches and
they began throwing them down and they cried, Hosanna to the
highest. He had taken the restraints off of them so that they could
say what they thought in their heart and praise what they thought
in their heart. And what they thought in their
heart was, He's coming to restore the kingdom of Israel right now. We're going to be out from under
the Roman yoke. We're going to have all our temporal,
carnal lusts can be fulfilled just like we want them to be
fulfilled because we're going to be preeminent now in the world. And within a week, those same
mouths were crying, crucifying, crucifying. You know why? They
found out it wasn't a temporal, carnal blessing He was bestowing
on His people. It was spiritual. And you who
are seeking Him because of carnal, temporal handouts that you might
can have, When times are good, you'll say, Hosanna, Hosanna,
Hosanna. And when your little carnal temporal
trinkets are taken from you, you'll curse Him and say, crucify
Him. That's true. That's true. You
want to know Christ? Do you want to know Him? Do you
want to know Him? Seek Him. Seek Him. Seek Him. Well, I've been reading my Bible.
The Lord said, don't search the Scriptures because by reading
your Bible you think you'll have life. They are they which testify
of Him. Seek Him. Well, I go to church. Do you go to seek a carnal lesson
about how to get along in this world or do you go to seek Christ? Pastor tells me how to live and
so I try to try to do everything he says to me I didn't say Seek
to reform your life. I said seek Christ World a difference What is the difference what's
the difference I To be carnal is to be alienated
from the life of God. It doesn't have anything to do
with whether you're religious or not. You can be religious
or you can be anti-religious. It doesn't matter. It's being
alienated from the life of God. What is it to be spiritual? In
Romans 8. He said, ye are not in the flesh,
but in the Spirit. If so be that the Spirit of God
dwell in you. Now you get that now? He's exhorting
us not to be carnal. But he says, because the carnal
mind is inmate. It hates God. It can't bow to
God. It won't have anything to do
with God. It does a lot of seeking, but it don't seek God. But he
says now, but you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit,
if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. That means if the Spirit of God
dwells in me, the life of God dwells in me. And if the life of God doesn't
dwell in me, I'm alienated from God, from the life of God. And he says, verse 10, And if
Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is life because of righteousness. And He'll raise you up just as
He's created that life in your spirit. He'll raise you up, quicken
your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwells in you. And therefore,
you're not a debtor to the flesh. Don't go seeking carnal handout. Don't go seeking trinkets. Don't
go seeking a temporal carnal kingdom. Are you worshipping the God-man
or are you just worshipping the historical Jesus? Are you seeking
spirit and life from the gospel? Or are you seeking some carnal
instruction on Why seek you the living among the dead? Are you
seeking to see the ensign? Are you seeking the banner? Are you looking for this spiritual
kingdom? Are you looking above where Christ
is seated? Are you setting your affection
on things of this earth? Well, here's the Lord's Word
to you, believer. Look at Luke 12. Luke 12. And I'll just read this out as
well. Luke 12. Look at verse 22. And the Lord said unto His disciples, Therefore I say unto you, Take
no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, neither for the
body what ye shall put on. The life is more than meat, and
the body is more than raiment. Consider the ravens, for they
neither sow nor reap, which neither have storehouse nor barn, and
God feedeth them. How much more are ye better than
the fowls? And which of you, with taking
thought, can add to his stature one cupid? By worrying about
where you're going to get the food. Has that ever put food
on your table? It never put food on my table.
It usually gets in the way of putting food on my table. If you then be not able to do
that thing which is least, do you hear that? He said, that's
least. Put food on your table, clothe
you, that's least of what I've done. Why take ye thought for the rest?
Consider the lilies, how they grow. They don't toil, they don't
spin, and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory
was not arrayed like one of these. If then God so clothe the grass
which is today in the field and tomorrow's cast into the oven,
how much more will He clothe you, O ye of little faith? And
seek not ye what ye shall eat or what ye shall drink, neither
be ye of a doubtful mind." Don't live in suspense. Don't live
like this world lives, worried and writhing, wringing your hands
because you don't know what's going to happen, what am I going
to do? He said don't do that, but rather seek ye the kingdom
of God. Where is that? It's spiritual. Huh? It's spiritual. It's Christ who
sits at God's right hand. And all these other things will
be added to you. That's not a deal. If you seek
Him first, then He'll do these other things. He's just saying
you seek Him and don't even worry about these other things. Fear
not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to
give you the kingdom. I just wanted some food on my
table and some clothes on my back. He said, don't even give
that a second thought. Seek the Kingdom. Seek the righteousness
of God. Seek Christ because it's God's
good pleasure to give you His Kingdom. To give it to you. You mean all
of us? It says you in particular. It says you. It's His good pleasure
to give it to you. Sell that ye have and give alms. Provide yourselves bags which
wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not. Where
no thief approaches, neither moth corrupteth. For where your
treasure is, there will your heart be also." He's saying,
if there's something in this life that is causing me to set
my heart on it, rather than, oh my Lord, sell it. Give it away, give it to somebody.
It'd do you much more good to just give it away to somebody.
Because where your treasure is, that's where your heart's gonna
be. And by getting rid of everything that's gonna hinder you from
beholding Christ, you're gonna help your brethren who needs
it, or a stranger who needs it, And two, it's going to allow
you to see Christ better. And two, he says, and by doing
this, you know, we take those things that we think we got to
have and we put them in a bag and keep them safe, you know.
And he said, he told the people in Haggai's day, he said, Haggai
said, you're putting it in a bag with holes. And I don't know
about you, but I wouldn't try to keep something valuable in
a bag with holes in it. Well he said, anything you try
to keep for yourself, it's a bag with holes. So just, but now
he says here, but seek the Christ and he said, and you provide
yourself bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that
faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth. Why
can't it? Because those are carnal things.
Thieves and moths and rust and all that stuff. We're talking
about spiritual treasure. And he says, verse 35, let your
loins, your most inner part be girded about, and your lights
burning. And ye yourselves, like unto
men that wait for their Lord, when He will return from the
wedding, that when He cometh and knocketh, they may open unto
Him immediately. Blessed are those servants whom
the Lord, when He cometh, shall find watching. Verily I say unto
you, that He shall gird Himself, and make them to sit down to
meet and will come forth and serve them. And if he shall come
in the second watch, or come in the third watch, and find
them so blessed are those servants. And this know that if the good
man of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he'd
have watched and not suffered his house to be broken through."
When you had those things that you were hanging on to that was
causing you to look away from Christ to this earth, You guarded
those things, didn't you? You watched those things. Make
sure no thief got them. He said, watch for Christ, no
thief, so you not be turned away from him. Be ye therefore ready
also, for the Son of Man cometh at an hour when you think not.
That's the point I want to make to you, brethren, is that this
thing is altogether It's altogether above and beyond
what you see and hear and smell and can touch and feel in this
earth. This is not reality. Just not
reality. The reality is the spiritual
thing, not the temporal. Oh, I wish we could see that.
It sure would make us get through this hoopty-doo a whole lot better
off, wouldn't it? If we could just keep that in
mind continually. Damn. Well.