Now, Isaiah was sent by the Lord
with a message of comfort and encouragement for the Lord's
children, for His chosen remnant in Judah in a time of great unrest,
great distress. And the message was that God's righteous ruler, was not
to be found in those false prophets and false priests
and false kings that were leading them in that day. And as I thought
on that, the thought occurred to me, since the fall of Adam,
when has there ever been a time in this earth when the Lord's
people could ever find any rest in anything or anyone in this
earth. Has it ever been the case? You might say, when our Lord
was here, that's the only time. Well, during certain seasons,
God graciously reminds us that this world and everything in
it is a vapor that's fading away. And he does so reminding us that
the kingdom of God, which the believer belongs to, is enough,
this world. Neither is our prophet, our priest,
or our king. The Lord said that. Look with
me at John chapter 8. The Lord said, you're from beneath,
I'm from above. You're of this world. I'm not
of this world. Look at John chapter 8 there.
You remember when Pilate came to Him? Pilate said, Thine own nation,
John chapter 8 verse 35. He said, Thine own nation and
the chief priests have delivered Thee unto me. What hast Thou
done? And listen to how the Lord answered
him. Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world. Jesus answered
him and said, the chief priests that have delivered me to you,
they're not my priests. They're not of my kingdom. He said, it's not my nation.
If my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight that I should not be delivered
to the Jews. But now is my kingdom not from
hence. That's good news. That's good
news to the believer. The Lord sent Isaiah to deliver
this message to the Lord's people in his day that God's prophet,
priest, and king is not of this world and his kingdom is not
of this world. And the message that I'm sent
to tell you is that same message today. as we behold the leaders of this
world, religious and secular leaders of this world, causing
this people to err. That's what Isaiah was sent to
declare in Isaiah chapter 9. And we see it in our day. They
cause this people to err, and as we behold those who are led
of them being utterly destroyed. That's what Isaiah's message
was. Believer, listen, draw fresh encouragement and hope and assurance
and security and rest from the fact that your prophet and your
priest and your king is seated in the third heaven executing
judgment and justice in the earth just as surely as he executed
justice and judgment in this earth when he walked here in
person. just as real. He's doing the
same now. Well, the false prophets and
the priests and the kings of Judah were proud and stiff-necked
and they were rebels against God. They used the law of God
to oppress and to bind and to frighten men in Israel. And they
appeared very zealous for God's law. by this oppressive yoke
they put upon men. They appeared very zealous for
God's law and yet then they would turn around and compromise with
the heathen nations and receive their gods and call them their
own gods, manifesting that they really had no zeal for the law
of God whatsoever. And as the Lord of hosts brought
judgment upon the nation through the king of Assyria, This gospel
of Christ goes forth at the same time promising sanctuary to those
who seek refuge in the Lord God alone. But God's way and the
way of those, the false rulers of this earth is totally opposite.
We saw this last time. The vain rulers of Judah were
called high ones of stature. They were called haughty, full
of pride, cedars of Lebanon, oaks of Bashan. Now that's not
necessarily how they would appear if you could see them. That's
how God saw them in the heart. That's what God looked at and
that's what God called them in their heart. But the king of
heaven and earth, the king, the prophet, priest, and king of
heaven and earth would come in a totally opposite way. Read
verse 1, Isaiah 11 verse 1, And there shall come forth a rod
out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow up out of
his roots. Isaiah 53 to says for he shall
grow up before him as a tender plant as a root out of a dry
ground He hath no form nor comeliness and when we shall see him There
is no beauty that we should desire him She brought forth her fourth
her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and
laid him in a manger Because there was no room for them in
the end And there's the prophet, priest, and king of God's people. Nothing about him to make you
look at him and say, now there's the prophet, priest, and king.
Totally contrary to man's way, man's religion, this world's
way of self-exalting, visual, carnal, physical religion. It's all about what you can see.
But this one came forth in an altogether different way. And
this one is anointed, God's prophet, priest, and king. That's the
first thing we see here in verse 2. And the Spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon him, the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord. What a word of comfort and assurance. You know what this tells us,
first of all? It tells us, first of all, Christ's kingdom is not
of this world. It's spiritual. It's a spiritual
kingdom. It's not temporal. The administration
of his office of prophet, priest, and king is a spiritual administration. It's not temporal. It's not physical.
It's not earthly. Therefore, he was anointed, how?
By the Spirit of the Lord. Is it earthly? He was given the
spirit of wisdom and understanding. He was given the spirit of counsel
and might. He was given the spirit of knowledge
and of the fear of the Lord. And by this anointing, our prophet
and our priest and our king won the victory over our enemies.
We're flesh and blood and we live in a physical realm of flesh
and blood in fact We were made of the dust of the earth. We
have a natural inborn affinity for all things earthly We do
we just like this earth. We were made from we like it
and since the fall brethren all that we can see By the natural
eye, all that man can see is the temporal and the carnal.
Reality to the natural man is just what he can see. That's
it. But the Lord tells us this, Ephesians
chapter 6. Look here with me, Ephesians
6. Ephesians 6.11. Put on the whole
armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. Can you see him? Can you see
him? You can't, can you? Verse 12, For 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. You see, all the suffering
that the Lord's people were under in Isaiah's day, they could see
it all around them. They could see these crooked
politicians. They could see the false prophets
who stood up and claimed to be coming in the name of the Lord.
They could see those that were oppressing them to offer sacrifices
and yoking them, and yet at the same time compromising with false
religion. They could see that, every bit
of it. And then when the king of Assyria came into the land,
they could see the king of Assyria. And he's coming in and he's just
cutting down the tree. He's burning off the vineyard
as we saw last time. And so they could see these things
and they were shaken by these things. But there was something
far greater, far more strong and far more powerful that was
taking place that they couldn't see. And the same goes for today. Something far more powerful taking
place that they couldn't see because their warfare wasn't
flesh and blood. Their warfare wasn't carnal.
Their warfare was spiritual. And so Isaiah is sent forth here
to declare that the accuser of the brethren, the dragon, as
he's called in Scripture, and his tailed, who are the false
prophets. Let me show you that. Look back
at Isaiah 9. Isaiah 9, verse 14. This was the problem. It always
begins with the gospel. It always begins with those that
claim to be walking in the house of the Lord and in the name of
the Lord. Look here, verse 14. He says,
Therefore the Lord will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch
and rush in one day. Who is that? The ancient and
honorable he's the head, and the prophet that teacheth lies
he's the tail. For the leaders of this people
cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.
Therefore the Lord shall have no joy in their young men, neither
shall have mercy on their fatherless and widows, for every one is
a hypocrite and an evildoer, and every mouth speaketh folly.
But God declared that this spiritual warfare wasn't going to be won
by them. It was going to be won by one
who was going to come and was going to remove the oppressive
yoke of Satan and his messengers and was going to deliver them
spiritually. Look at Isaiah 10.27. How is
that going to happen? How is that going to come about?
Isaiah 10.27. And 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." Because of the anointing. Well, Isaiah,
what do you mean by that? if a man broke the law, and it's
men whom the Lord God would save. Therefore, it's going to have
to be a man who obeyed the law and answered to the justice of
God's law, so he could take away sin, purge his people, and thus
take away the only power the devil had and his messengers. The only power they had is sin.
If you took sin You know why in the places where the false
prophets, the tale of the dragon are raging this morning, you
know why they continually accuse men of sin? If they took away
sin, they got nothing else. They got no power. They got no
yoke at all. But the law wasn't made for a
righteous man. The man who's been made righteous
in Christ Jesus, whose sin has been put away, the law's got
absolutely nothing else to say to that man. The law says, That
man's dead. That old man that was full of
sin, he's dead. I got nothing to say to him.
Case closed. But now he's under the rule of
someone far higher and far more superior to even the written
law that was given to Moses. He's under the power and influence
of the one who gave that law. Really and truly in the heart.
You believe that? Do you believe that God actually,
as He sends forth a man just to preach His gospel, that He
actually enters in and reproves and rebukes and strengthens and
does it all through the preaching of His gospel and disciplines
and corrects and edifies and builds up and brings down and
does everything needful for His people, that it is actually Christ
the Lord in spirit doing it through His gospel? That's what He says. And so Isaiah goes forth here
and he says, this man is the rod of the stem of Jesse, the
house of Jesse, the branch that will grow up out of his roots.
Because his people were in the physical realm and they were
flesh and blood, he said, therefore, this one's going to come. He's
going to be flesh and blood. He's gonna come, but he's not
gonna come in any shape, form, or fashion looking like these
fellas. He's not gonna come looking like these men that call themselves
kings, and call themselves prophets, and call themselves priests,
and call themselves religious. He's not gonna look like them
at all. In fact, you're so used to thinking you know what religion
looks like when you see this one, there's gonna be no form
of comingness about him that when you'll see him, you'll even
say, that's the prophet, priest, and king. unless He gives you
grace to see Him. Unless you're born from above,
you can't see the Kingdom of God, He said. Well, no prophet,
priest, or king in Israel was qualified to do their work until
they were anointed. Do you remember when they took
that ointment and that oil and they put it on the priest's head
and it ran down his head and in his beard and all over his
garments and all over him? That's what was being pictured
there. But this one is not anointed with just an oil and a type and
a picture. Psalm 45, 7 says, Thou lovest
righteousness and hatest wickedness. Therefore, God, thy God, hath
anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows. And look at John 1. Look over
there at John 1 with me. John bear witness. This was how
John was told he would recognize him. And John bear witness. Look
over there. John won 32. And John bare record saying,
I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode
on him. It rested on him. And I knew
him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same
said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the
Holy Ghost. And I saw and bare record that
this is the Son of God. John said, I saw him. What does
Matthew tell us the first thing happened after the Holy Spirit
rested upon him? You know what Matthew says the
first thing occurred after the Holy Spirit descended upon him?
Listen to this. Lo a voice from heaven said this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. This is my beloved son whom I've
been telling you about since the garden. All the prophets
have spoke about him. And here he is, and I'm well
pleased with him. And the very next thing that
happened, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. This warfare is not carnal. It's
spiritual. There's a warfare that is spiritual. It's not carnal. It's not of
the earth. And you and I can't fight it.
Look at Acts 10 with me. Acts 10, verse 38. The devil and his messengers,
the tale of the dragon, they went forth and oppressed people
using God's law, turning them from Christ, making them think
they were righteous and thus making them twice dead. twined in a two-fold darkness
than what they were in. Because now they not only were
sinners, but now they had added self-righteousness to it and
thought they were righteous by their offerings and their sacrifices
and their observance of days and months and times. And look
what the Lord did though. Acts 10.38, Peter speaking here
says, We're telling you how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth. You see that word Nazareth? You
know over there in Isaiah when it says branch, the word is netzer. And netzer, it was these trees
that grew in Nazareth. He's really saying that he's
going to come from Nazareth. He says how God anointed Jesus
of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power. And what did
he do when he was walking this earth? He went about doing good.
How's that? What did he do? all that were
oppressed of the devil. For God was with him, and we're
witnesses, and now where is he? Look at verse 40. Him God raised
up the third day and showed him openly, not to all the people,
but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us who did eat
and drink with him after he rose from the dead. He said, we ate
and drank with him before he went to the grave, but we ate
and drank with him after he rose. And it says, and he commanded
us to preach unto the people and to testify that it is he
which was ordained of God, the judge of those he's quickened
and the dead. To him, give all the prophets
witness that through his name, whosoever believeth in him shall
receive remission of sin. It's by this anointing that all
judgment was committed to Him and by which He executes judgment
perfectly and in righteousness. God's man. This is God's man. This is His King. This is His
judge. This is His prophet. This is
God's priest. Isaiah 42.1 says, Behold my servant
whom I uphold. This is God the Father. He said,
Behold my servant whom I uphold. Saul, he wasn't your servant.
These unrighteous rulers that are trying to run roughshod over
you, they're not my servants. Behold my servant whom I uphold,
in whom my soul delighteth. How is it manifest? I have put
my spirit upon him. And what's the result? He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He said this when He was on this
earth, The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment
unto the Son, and hath given Him authority to execute judgment
also, because He is the Son of Man. Marvel not at this! For the hour is coming in which
all that are in the grave shall hear His voice and shall come
forth, and they that have done good..." How does He say that?
How do you do that? He said, This is My beloved Son
in whom I am well pleased. Hear Him. Believe on Him. And you'll have remission of
sin. The best thing you can do, the only thing you can do, the
only good work that you can do is trust His Son. If there was some other work
that God would accept that you do outside of Christ, there would
have been no reason for Christ to come. God said, Believe on
Him. I'm looking to my Son. And if
you've done good, He says, then you will be resurrected to life
eternal. And he says, but they that have
done evil. What's that? Lord, didn't we
do many wonderful works in Your name? Didn't we cast out devils
in Your name? Didn't we? Didn't we? Didn't
we? Didn't we? He said, that man will receive
the resurrection of damnation. Because God's committed it all
into His hands. Every bit of it into His hands.
And it's by this anointing also that he fulfills his office as
the prophet of God. Now, what was a prophet sent
to do? A prophet was sent to declare
the gospel of Christ. You see, what I've been trying
to show you, what I've been trying to make clear to you as we go
through Acts, and we've looked at Acts and how that the Paul
was sent by the Holy Spirit and how that word was made effectual
in the heart of Lydia by the Holy Spirit. That's Christ doing
it. The persuasion of the preacher.
gifts that the preacher may have or no matter how low you turn
the lights and no matter how pleasant the organ music gets,
no matter how you yoke them and oppress them and try to scare
the hell out of them, it won't do any good until God comes in
the heart and gives life and he preaches the gospel to us
in the heart. He's the one that's going to
receive the glory for it all. And God's been telling us that
since Moses' day. This is what He said, I will
raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto
thee, and I'll put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak
unto them all that I shall command him. And you know what He did?
He came forth. He said, The Spirit of the Lord
God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. What do you think His messengers
are going to do that He sends forth? Same thing He did when He came
forth. They're going to preach the words He gives them to preach. Is He going to give them words
that makes Him out to be a failure? Is He going to give them words
that makes Him out to be a little helpless Jesus that wants to
save everybody but can't unless some little fickle man gives
his mental assent to it? No. Why would He do that? Why would he do that? That's
not who he is. You know, this was practical
instruction for the brethren to whom Isaiah went. And it is
for us too, brethren. Our warfare, it really isn't
with the leaders of this world. You know, if you want to... can talk to one another and all
it takes is just a little mention of what we're seeing on the news
or what we're hearing, reading in the papers, anything. And
we can just all of a sudden go to, we'll just go off the deep
end explaining how it needs to be fixed and how they're wrong
and what to do. Listen to me. They're not fixing it. They're
not fixing it. Man broke it. Man can't fix it. Man broke it. All the glory we
got is to say we broke it. We're not going to get the glory
in saying we fixed it. Christ is the one that fixed
it. He's the one that came and put away the sin of His people. And He was raised to His throne
and sat down at the right hand of God where right now He's sending
forth His Gospel and He's doing the work. He's doing the work.
Well, let's see here about Him. Now we come to the manner in
which he governs. How does he do this work? Well,
because the anointing is upon him, it says verse 3, it shall
make him of quick understanding in the fear of the Lord. And
he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove
after the hearing of his ears, but with righteousness shall
he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth. And he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth,
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked, and
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness
the girdle of his reins. Now this word in verse 3, he
shall make him a quick understanding in the fear of the Lord, The
word there has to do with smell. In other words, you know how
iniquity, sin, hypocrisy, it's referred to in Scripture as abomination. It stinks. It just stinks. And what to God. And what it
means is that He's able to discern and He knows the hearts of men.
He knows the hearts of men. He said, He needed not that any
should testify of men for He knew what was in man. And it
says, and in the fear of the Lord, it shall make him quick
understanding in the fear of the Lord. It means that this
judge judges according to the Lord's standard of holiness and
not man's. It means when he says you're
a liar, it's because God says you're a liar. When he says you're
a hypocrite, it's because God says you're a hypocrite. When
he says your righteousnesses are as filthy rags, it's because
God says your righteousness don't measure up to the righteousness
of God. He judges in the fear of the Lord. He said, I can of
mine own self do nothing. As I hear, I judge. I thought
he said he didn't judge according to the ear. Listen to what he's
talking about here. My judgment is just because I
seek not mine own will but the will of the Father which hath
sent me. I judge according to what my Father says, not according
to what men say. He shall bring forth thy righteousness
as the light and thy judgment as the noonday. You know, we
got our father-in-law. My father-in-law bought us one
of those high-definition TVs. Some of those folks on TV look
real pretty under just regular TV. They don't look near as pretty
under HD. It shows everything. You can
see every wrinkle and every blemish and everything about them. You
can see it. Well, He said, He'll bring forth
thy righteousness as the light and thy judgment as the noonday.
And it says here, And He shall not judge after the sight of
His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears. Look
back at Isaiah chapter 1 with me. You know the Lord said this
in Exodus. He said, Thou shalt take no gift. Why not? For the gift blindeth
the wise and perverteth the words of the righteous. Talking about
a bribe. You don't take a gift from somebody.
It will pervert your words and it will pervert wisdom. It will
blind you. Well, look how these fellows
were ruling. Look how these fellows were running
the show here. Isaiah 1.23. Thy princes are
rebellious, and companions of thieves. Every one loveth gifts,
and followeth after rewards, and looking for rewards. They
judge not the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come
unto them. Therefore saith the Lord, the
Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, I will ease me of
mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies. You know
what the devil did with him? He took him up on a high mountain,
and he showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee,
and the glory of them, for that is delivered unto me, and to
whomsoever I will I give it. If you will worship me, all shall
be thine. He offered him a gift. He offered
him a reward. What do you think these fellows
in Israel would have done? Exactly what they were doing.
He offered them the same gift and they took it. He offers natural
man the same gift and natural man says, I'll take it. I'll
take it. I'll take the bribe. Can I be
my own savior? Can I have this power? I'll take
it. I want to be the one that has
the power over all the kingdoms of the earth. What did the Lord
say? Jesus answered and said unto
him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. On
another occasion, the Pharisees sent their disciples with the
Herodians, and they came to him. Listen to what they said now.
Here's a gift. Here's a gift. Master, we know that thou art true. Man, I'm going to tell you what,
if somebody comes to you and they start buttering you up like this,
you better get ready for a knife in the back. It's coming. It's
coming. Master, we know thou art true, and teachest the way
of God in truth. Neither carest thou for any man,
for thou regardest not the person of men. Tell us, therefore, what
thinkest thou? Is it lawful to give tribute
unto Caesar or not? But Jesus perceived their wickedness
and said, Why tempt me, ye hypocrites? Everything you just said is totally
contrary to what you think about me in your heart, He said. Everything
you just said about me is totally contrary to what you think about
me in your heart. And the unregenerate, ultra-religious
Pharisees condemned Him for healing a man on the Sabbath day. And
what did He say to them? Judge not according to the appearance,
but judge righteous judgment. Where's a man going to get that?
Where's a man going to get that righteous judgment? The Lord calls it what it is.
You know that? He calls it what it is. You know, what the people
do in our day, they've always done. What sinful religious men
and women do in our day, we've always been this way. We've always
been this way. and Isaiah's day, the same ones
who were taking the bribes and who followed after rewards, who
were oppressing the people and yoking them, using God's law
to bind them. If they didn't come to the temple
with the sacrifice when they were supposed to come to the
temple, it was trouble. If they didn't show up at the
appointed time that they were supposed to be there, they'd
go to them. They'd give them a phone call, and they'd rule
their life, wanting to know where you've been, what you're doing,
why weren't you here, why are you doing that, why are you watching
this, why are you speaking this way, why are you doing this,
why are you doing that. It's not according to God's Word.
You need to become offering the sacrifices God said offer. And man, if you
looked at them, you'd say, now they're zealous for God's law.
There's a man right there that wants to walk in holiness. Well,
then they turned around and said, you know, the Philistines in
the east, We believe God's got brethren among them. We need
to be gracious to them. We need to show compassion on
them. Their gods are our gods. They just, they just, they haven't
come to the place where they understand God like we understand
Him. But they're still brethren. Now that's being gracious to
be that way. You know what God said? In Isaiah
2.6, He said, Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the
house of Jacob. And here's why. Isaiah 2.6, Because
they be replenished from the east. And they're soothsayers
like the Philistines, and they please themselves and the children
of strangers. You know what He says there when
He says they're replenished and they please themselves? All this
graciousness really came down to The Philistines could give
them something. The Philistines could bring a
reward. They could bring a gift that they followed after. And
so therefore they said, now, with you folks who are supposed
to be bringing these sacrifices and bringing these gifts according
to God's law, you know better, so you better be doing it. But
now those Philistines, they're brethren too. Because they could
bring a gift. And God said, it's hypocrisy. It's utter hypocrisy. You don't
believe me. You're after filthy lucre. You're
after a reward. God calls it what it is. But
look here what He says in verse 4. Isaiah 11, 4. But with righteousness shall
He judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth. That's good news right there.
That's good news right there. You know why? There was some
people sitting there in that land and they trusted God. They saw that that lamb that
was brought represented the blood of the Holy One that God would
provide to put away their sin. How do you know they saw that?
Abraham saw it. Abraham saw it. God said Christ
said Abraham saw my day when he turned around I saw that ram
caught in the thicket and that ram took his plate took Isaac's
place and Isaac got to go away free because that ram died in
his place and God had provided that lamb He saw Christ in that
lamb David saw him. David said, The Lord has said
to my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand till I make thine enemies
thy footstool. He saw him. There was folks sitting
there who knew that this lamb pictured God's Messiah, God's
Christ, God's substitute lamb that God would provide Himself.
And they saw that high priest and they knew somebody is going
to have to go into the holiest of holies and make intercession
for us. And if God accepts him, God will accept us. They saw
Christ in that, in that sacrifice, in that high priest. They saw
that they couldn't come in any other way. They saw that even
if they came to offer thanks unto God, like we saw this morning,
it had to be by him. How'd they see that? Because
God said, if you come and offer me a thank offering, you can't
bring it with leaven. Don't bring any leaven mixed
with it. Or you ruin the whole thing. Don't come half-hearted.
A double-minded man is unsteady in all his ways. Don't come to
me claiming to believe Christ and really trusting in your works.
They saw him. And they were sitting there under
the oppression of these fellas. These false prophets, these false
priests, and these false kings. And they cried out to God. saying, God, have mercy on us. Save us. Come to where we are
and redeem us. Don't cast us off forever. Don't
forget your people for your namesake, Lord. Do it for your sake, Lord. Do it for your namesake alone.
They were poor in spirit. They were meek. You can't be
meek unless God makes you poor in spirit. You can't put on meekness. You can't, you can't. There's
one of those things again that we think we know what it looks
like. We don't know what it looks like. We just don't know what
it looks like. You can't pretend meekness. God has to give you
that spirit of meekness. He has to break your heart and
bring you to see him as he is. And how does he do that? How
does he do it? He does it through his gospel.
Look at Isaiah 61.1. Isaiah 61.1. The gospel is only for those
who know they need salvation. Do you need it? Do you need it? He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous to repentance, but sinners, those that are well,
don't have need of a physician, or at least think they're well,
they don't have need of a physician. You know, a man has cancer a
long time before he ever knows he has cancer. But when he finds
out he has cancer, he goes to hunt a cure for cancer. But when
he finds out he's got it, he goes hunting it. And the Lord
said here, Isaiah 61, 1, The Spirit of the Lord God is upon
me, because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto
the meek. He hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening
of the prison to them that are bound. to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort
all that mourn. This is not just mourning because
you lost out on stock market. This is mourning over what you
are before God Almighty. This is mourning over your sin,
mourning over your unbelief, mourning over the fact that there's
no righteousness in you. There's nothing in you whatsoever
to commend you to God Almighty. He said to them, I'll comfort
them. I'll point unto them that mourn
in Zion. I give unto them beauty for ashes. You know when a man mourned over
his sin, he put sackcloth and ashes on him to make it manifest
that there's nothing good about him, nothing about him worth
looking at whatsoever. And he said, you come to me that
way, you come to me that way and I'll give you beauty What
beauty? The beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning. It's Him. I'll give you the beauties
of holiness. I'll give you the oil of joy
in the place of mourning. What is that? We're going to
see it in just a minute. I'll give you the garment of
praise for the Spirit of heaviness. What garment of praise? Is He
going to praise you? Is He going to praise you? He's
going to remind you that you're robed in that garment whereby
God says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. It's the praise of God for the
perfect righteousness worked out by His Son alone. And He
says that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting
of the Lord, that He might be glorified. Peter was thankful
for this. He was thankful that the Lord
judges the poor and reproves with equity the meek of the earth.
He denied the Lord three times, and the Lord still came to him.
He didn't judge by the eye, and he just didn't judge by the hearing
of the ear. He judged by the heart. And he came and he asked
him three times, Peter, do you love me? And Peter said, Lord,
you know, you know. Don't look at my actions. Don't
look at what I've done. Lord, you know my heart. And
the Lord said, Peter, go feed my sheep. You've got something
you can go tell them now. You've got something you can
teach them now. You know something about the spirit of humility
and the spirit of meekness. A broken heart that's been bound
up by the precious oil of gladness. You know something about the
garments of praise now, Peter. Go tell them. Go tell them. Go
tell them that it doesn't matter. If you fall a thousand times
a thousand, what matters is Christ's righteousness never changes.
His love for His people is an everlasting love. He said, I'm
God, I change not. And therefore, ye sons of Jacob,
ye supplanters that I've set my affection upon, you're not
consumed. You're not consumed because I
change not that He might be glorified. Listen. And it says here, he
shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth and with the
breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. What is that? What
is that? The Lord shall send the rod of
thy strength out of Zion. Rule thou in the midst of thine
enemies. Psalm 2, 9 says, thou shalt break
them with a rod of iron. Thou shalt dash them in pieces
like a potter's vessel. Look there at Isaiah 10. What
did he say right there? Isaiah 10 33 behold the Lord
the Lord of hosts shall lock the bow with terror the high
ones of stature shall be hewn down the haughty shall be humbled
and he shall cut down the thickets of the forest with what our With
iron and he says here. He'll smite the earth with the
rod of his mouth the rod of iron What is it? What is it? Well,
there's some of those poor, desperate sinners there in Isaiah's day.
They're tossed every which way. They've been watching CNN all
week and Fox News all week, and all they see is a bunch of crooked,
false, dealing men who love rewards, and they're just running their
nation into the ground, and they see God's judgment upon their
nation. And they went, they just sat down, and they brought a
friend or two with them. And Isaiah got up and he said,
God's going to raise up a rod, a stem out of the house of Jesse,
out of what's left of the stump of Jesse when he's done with
all this, and he's going to pour out his Spirit on him, and he's
our prophet, he's our priest, and he's our king, and you don't
have to worry about these fellows. And to some of them that rod
came forth like a rod of iron. And those that were holly and
high and lifted up that sat there and it grated against them that
God gets all the glory and they don't get any, that rod came
forth and it just broke them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
And it gave them a heart of flesh and they said, I behold Him high
and lifted up. He's my only sanctuary. And those
who Went away and said, I don't want any God like that. That's
unfair. That God don't deal in righteousness. He's not righteous
not to have mercy on everybody. Not to let everybody have a chance
to be saved. God said, by that same rod, I'll
smite them too. It's a savor of death unto death
unto some, and it's a savor of life unto life to others. You
know, the man who gets all upset and bent out of shape and calls
God unfair and that he deals in unrighteousness. You know, really the problem
is that man just had never seen the righteousness of God. He
just hasn't ever seen God's fairness. You know what it is to see God's
righteousness in his equity? It's to see that in the garden
you and me lost every right to anything but the eternal fires
of hell, separation from God, that if we could behold what
we are as God beholds what we are, we would never again let
the words come out of our mouth that God's unfair to be merciful
to whom he'll be merciful. We'd never again say it. And
if we understood anything at all about what grace is and what
mercy is, that the one we're calling unfair and unrighteous
is the very one, the only one, who we have any hope of having
any mercy or any grace whatsoever. We're shaking our fist, we're
cursing, we're blaming. Our problem is not with the doctrine
of election. Our problem is not with the doctrine
of predestination. Our problem is not with particular
redemption. Our problem is not with irresistible
grace. Our problem is with God! That's our problem. If he ever
makes us to see that, and then saves us in spite of it, Then
that person quits saying unfair and unrighteous and says, Lord,
thank you. Thank you that you've been merciful
to me, a sinner. Oh, and that's the only time
they get to that point. That's the only time. And he'll
do that in mercy. He'll do it in grace. He'll do
it righteously. Well, because righteousness shall
be the girdle of his lawns and faithfulness, the girdle of his
reign. Right now, you know what? Right
now, every one of us wished we had somebody sitting on the hill
that we could trust, that would be speaking for us, and running
the show for us, and doing what's in our best interest, that we
knew without a doubt, that one is for me. There is. There's one seated in God's holy
hill. He's seated in God's holy hill, and he's God's prophet,
priest, and king. You know what the result of his
reign is? The effectual result of his reign? Look here with
me at verse 6. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lambs, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the
calf, and the young lion, and the fatling together. And a little
child shall lead them, and the cow and the bear shall feed.
Their young ones shall lie down together, and the lion shall
eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
upon the hole of the asp, and the weaning child shall put his
hand on the cockatrice den. They shall not hurt or destroy
at all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the
knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. We may
have to go through this another time together, but let me just
point out a few things to you. Because God poured out the Spirit
on him without measure, and because it was God's purpose that in
Christ Jesus our prophet, priest, and king should all fullness
dwell. Because he's risen and has accomplished
the redemption of his people and is seated at God's right
hand, of his fullness have we all received grace for grace. Unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. And when
he pours out this spirit of wisdom and understanding, not in the
fullness that he had, but he gives us the spirit of wisdom
and understanding, you know what it is? It's not that we all of
a sudden decide that we're wise in ourselves. That's what we
thought before. The spirit of wisdom and understanding is we
behold Christ who is our wisdom. We behold Christ who is our wisdom.
When he pours out the spirit of counsel and might, We behold
that all the while that we were going around saying, oh, now
that preacher preaches the full counsel of God because he spent
half his message giving lip service to grace and the other half preaching
works. We said, that's the full counsel.
The full counsel of God is everything God has to say to sinners. And
everything God has to say to sinners is Christ, Christ, Christ. That's all he's got to say to
you. That's it. That's the full counsel of God
is Christ. The fullness of righteousness,
the fullness of holiness, the fullness of redemption, the fullness
of adoption, the fullness of reconciliation, the fullness
of perfection, the fullness of salvation, the fullness of the
glory of God is Christ Jesus, the Son of God. And when He's
made that known to you, you've got the spirit of counsel in
mind. You got the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
He said, I'll give you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries
should not be able to gainsay nor resist. What is that? What is that? If you argue with
folks on doctrine, they will gainsay and resist you. If you
argue with folks on systematic theology, they'll gainsay and
contend with you. But if you declare Christ in
the fullness of His person and finished work, they can't gainsay
or resist a thing in the world you say without resisting Him.
That's what He puts in your mouth. That's the spirit of wisdom and
understanding, the spirit of the knowledge and fear of the
Lord. He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is
judge of no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ, given the knowledge and the fear of the Lord by Christ
dwelling in us. And what's the result? Where
the Prince of Peace reigns, there's peace. There's peace. You know,
before the fall, the beasts all came together to Adam to be named. They didn't eat, the lion didn't
try to eat the lamb and the wolf didn't try to eat the rabbit
and the bear wasn't against the cow or the ox or any of those
things. You know why? There was no sin, there was no
curse. That's the result of the curse.
How'd they get in the ark? I told you before, all that happened
was Noah said, here's the ark. And something had to be done
to their nature to make them all come into that small space
and live together and abide there together inside that ark. Are
you kidding me? Can you imagine putting a lion
across from some little rabbits? Unless something had happened
to his nature. Well, what God does is he shows
you Christ the ark. He enters in and he replaces
that old beastly, devouring nature, that enmity that's in us against
God and against our fellow man, where we used everything we could
to exalt ourselves over men, to make ourselves seem righteous
before men, devouring men, using everything we could. Racism. proud of grace, race, faith,
place, everything we could use to exalt ourselves. And he took
away the enmity. That's what he said in Ephesians.
Listen, Ephesians 2.14. He is our peace who has made
both one and has broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. How did he do it? Having abolished
in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained
in ordinances, for to make in himself of two one new man, so
making peace, in that he might reconcile both unto God in one
body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. And he came
and he preached peace to you which were afar off and to them
that were nigh, and through him we both, Jew and Gentile, bond
and free, have access by one Spirit unto the Father. And when
He pours out this, gives this new nature, and He calls us to
behold Christ, and calls us to enter into the ark, by faith
there's neither Jew or Gentile, there's neither bond or free,
there's neither rich or poor, male or female, wolf or lamb,
leopard or kid, calf or lion, cow or bear, we're all one in
Christ Jesus, the Peacemaker. We lie down together in the church
of God. A little child comes up and leads
us. We feed upon the green pasture
of the gospel truth. The suckling child, the newborn
babe of God's kingdom won't be harmed by that old serpent anymore,
Satan and his tale of false prophets. The weaned child weaned from
self-righteous works and from this world shall not be harmed
by the den of iniquity and self-righteous religion anymore. We're safe
and secure. in a pleasant and peaceable place. They shall not hurt or destroy
any in all my holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of
the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea." It's my prayer that our prophet,
our priest, and our king would turn you from the vanity of looking
to the corrupt leaders of this world to to the jobs, whether we have
them or we don't have them, to the money in the bank account,
whether we have it or we don't have it, to anything that we
would think would give us some stability and some assurance
of a tomorrow. that He would turn us from that
in this earth, from looking to anything in this earth, to behold
that all our safety, all our security, all our peace is in
our prophet, priest, and king who is judging right now with
judgment and righteousness and equity, reproving, correcting,
guiding, leading, teaching, and keeping those that are poor in
spirit the meek of the earth and yours, he said, is the kingdom
of heaven.