to Isaiah 63 and really particularly
the first six verses but I'll read the first verse as our text
this morning. Isaiah 63 and verse 1. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength,
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. It's Isaiah 63 in verse 1. In this chapter, as I said, it
gives a different view of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
and mixes up two things that naturally we don't put together.
For example, Take verse 4, for the day of vengeance is in mine
heart, and the year of the redeemed is come. Those two things don't
always sit very comfortably together in our minds. And so I want to
look at this precious passage and show the preciousness for
God's people today. So if we look first at the verse
that we've named, who is this that cometh from Edom? This is
the prophet asking a question. The prophet is clearly seeing
a vision, as it were, of this person and asking a question,
who is it? Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, that is glorious in his
apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength? So we see one
that is very powerful, one that later on we see has got blood
stained on his garments. Who is this? The prophet asked
this question. And the one who answers is the
person himself, the Lord Jesus Christ. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Here, there is this one travelling,
it says, cometh from Edom. Edom, of course, you might connect
with Esau. Esau lived in Edom. Esau was
Jacob's twin brother. And yet, proved to be quite an
enemy to Jacob. Enemy later on and was judged
very much for their pride and for their rebellion against God.
And if you think of it, Esau despised his birthright. And
that gives a view of what he thinks of God and godliness and
how important those things are. And so really we have from Edom
and garments from Bosra, this one comes from the enemy land.
And this one has clearly been in battle and been subduing his
enemies. And again, you might think we
want a gospel service this morning. We don't want to look at enemies
and people being pulled down. Perhaps you think like along
those lines, but I want to bring this together and try and expound
this passage so that it has actually a beautiful fragrance of Christ. So I want to ask a question to
you first actually is, In Matthew's Gospel we read these words. But I say unto you, love your
enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate
you, and pray for them that they despitefully use you and persecute
you, that ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven,
for he maketh his Son to rise on the evil and on the good,
and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. So we have
that in our mind that what Jesus said on the Sermon on the Mount
in Matthew 5, and then this why it doesn't sit very easily with
us when we look at vengeance and God destroying his enemies
and we struggle, I do. Well, I just want to ask you
a question. When Jesus says, love your enemies,
who did he mean? Who do we mean by our enemies?
I believe he was talking about our fellow neighbors, those around
us, the people that we come into contact with. Love your enemies
and those that do us harm and those who are against us. We
are to show them that they're made in the image of God and
we are to pray for them. We are to seek their good and
seek their salvation. Love your enemies. But then what
about all these enemies that we see being dealt with in Isaiah
63? I want to draw a difference,
you see, between our enemies, people that are perhaps unkind
to us, and the enemies of God's people. You see, what we read
in Hebrews 2, Hebrews 2 verse 14, For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself took part of
the same, that through death he might destroy him that had
the power of death, that is the devil. When Jesus said love your
enemies, he was not saying love the devil. He was not saying
love sin. He was not saying love breaking
the ten commandments. They are our enemies. And what Jesus did on the cross,
he came to destroy those enemies. And I think if you see that,
and so much of the New Testament speaks in a similar vein, if
you look in, just to give weight to this argument, Colossians
2 verse 15, speaking of the cross, it then says, and having spoiled
principalities and powers, and made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them, What was he triumphing over? It was over the powers
of Satan. It was over those things that
are against us. And so we see in what, we need to see it in that light.
And so I come alongside you this morning and say, who are your
enemies in a spiritual sense? If we come
to the house of God and to worship him in spirit and in truth, who
is the enemy that's going to stop you doing that? Well you
see it's sin, it's unbelief, it's pride, it's self-centeredness,
it's all these things that are enemies to stop us worshipping. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bosra? This that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength. We have a mighty warrior here
that is going to take on the enemies of God's people. And
by that I don't mean, now actually as said here it is truly people
that they're talking about. And of course solemnly this passage
is very much linked with Revelation 19. In Revelation 19 we have
the marriage supper of the Lamb and then we have the opposite.
The man, if you just look at it perhaps, Revelation 19 and
verse 11. And I saw heaven open, and behold,
a white horse, and he that sat upon it was called Faithful and
True, and in judgment he doth judge and make war. And his eyes
was a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns, and he
had a name written on it that no man knew but he himself. Verse
13. And he was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, and his name was called the Word of God. And
it goes through and he's actually going to destroy all his enemies
and he's going to send them with Satan into that lake of fire
and brimstone. So yes, ultimately this does
speak of judgment of God's enemies and God's enemies ultimately
will be those people who know not God and will be ultimately
destroyed if they know not God as their savior. When we look at what happened
at Calvary, the New Testament, as it were, puts a different
slant on the enemies that are being addressed. And the enemies
are much more focusing on the spiritual enemies. the spiritual
enemies. And so it gives us no joy, as
it were, to gather around this morning in Hope Chapel and remember
that God is going to judge the nations and those people that
are far off from God. Naturally, we're sad about that,
in a sense. They haven't come to hear the gospel. They're lost,
and we are no different than them, but they have gone to eternal
destruction, and who make us to differ? We can't glory in
those things. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of the redeemed is come." But if you
think of the vengeance that is being spoken of here as a vengeance
against the enemies, the true enemies of God's people, the
world, the flesh, the devil, unbelief, pride, the lust of
the flesh, and all those things. Then the Lord's people come back
this. The day of vengeance is in mine
heart. and the year of the redeemed
is come. You take the situation in Egypt. You had the children
of Israel were under Egyptian slavery. They were redeemed. There was the Paschal Lamb. There
was a bringing out of Israel, out of Egypt, Egyptian bondage. There was liberation. But there
was another side. There was punishment for Egypt. Pharaoh, you think of all the
plagues, they weren't nice for the Egyptians, were they? The
death of the firstborn, it wasn't a nice thing for the Egyptians,
when they went into the Red Sea and then they all perished in
the Red Sea, it wasn't nice for the Egyptians. It was vengeance
on God's enemies, they were physical people there. But remember the
whole Bible is pictorial of something spiritual. And the bringing of
Israel out of Egypt was a picture of God's people being brought
out of the power and the clutches of Satan. And when they're brought
out of the clutches of Satan, you see, then Satan is judged. And like Jesus said, if you want
to spoil a strong man's house, you first bind the strong man,
and then you spoil his house. And you see the binding of the
strong man is the vengeance. And so you see for the day of
vengeance is in mine heart and the year of the redeemed is come. I hope perhaps in your mind perhaps
those two can sit a little bit happier together. That the vengeance
of God is a good vengeance. It's a vengeance against evil.
Satan is evil. We don't want to be... When Jesus
says, love your enemies, he's not saying love Satan. No, he
isn't. No, no, we're never to love Satan. But we're to have
that love to those who are our enemies as people made in the
image of God, able to be saved like Saul of Tarsus, which is
an enemy to the church of God. But of course, God called him
by his grace and brought him into the liberty of the gospel.
They're the enemies that we're to love, but not Satan. Who is this that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bozrah, this that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength?
That's what the prophet's asking, who is this? And then Jesus answers,
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. You see, he's
come to deliver his oppressed people. And that's, you see,
where I try to say that there's comfort for the Lord's people
today that are in the fight. The world, the flesh and the
devil, they've been through another week of time. They've had the
old man banging at their door, seeking to bring them down and
seeking to take them off captive into living a life of selfishness
and self-centeredness. But you see here a picture of
a glorious saviour. As I say, it's a very different
picture than Isaiah 53. They're perfectly complementary.
We see in once, this one here is strong. And you see it's the
same as we have the lion of the tribe of Judah. A lion is known
as the strongest of the beasts. They're the most fearful of the
beasts. But he's also the Lamb of God, he's both. And we need
to know God as both. And it's for the comfort and
the salvation of God's people that he is both. Because if you
had somebody who was so meek and lowly and yet weak, then
they couldn't deliver you, could they? Pharaoh was no pushover. Pharaoh said, I will not let
them go. I don't know the Lord and I will
not let them go. And if you had somebody come
to himself, please let them go. No, I don't know who God is and
I'm not going to let them go. That's the end of it. But we
have here, who is this that comes? Traveling in the greatness of
his strength. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. We have some, you see here, there's
salvation here. There's judgment and salvation.
And these two go together and you see, sometimes in today's
Christianity there can be a separation between these two aspects. They
love to think of of Jesus as being meek and lowly and, as
it were, loving his enemies, which is true in some respect.
But they don't like to think him as a fearful judge, destroying
the nations. And the picture here, if we go
through it, is very graphic, very graphic, very disturbing,
to be honest. Jesus answers and says, I that
speak in righteousness might it save. Then in verse two, the
prophet asks another question. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, and thy garments like them that tread in the wine fat?
So the picture is here, Israel was very much of a nation that
knew vines and vineyards and you have red grapes, don't you?
And the way they made, when they had the vineyard, they picked
the grapes, they put them into a big vat, a big container area,
and they trod on the grapes to squeeze out all the juice to
make their wine and other things. And so that's the physical picture. And the prophet says, wherefore
art thou red in thine apparel? and thy garments like them that
treadeth the wine-flood. If you're treading all day red
grapes, your clothes are going to have stains on them, aren't
they? They're going to be stained. Well, this one who was travelling
in the greatness of his strength had loads of red on his garments. Well, in verse 3 the Lord answers
the question, I have trodden the winepress alone. The Lord Jesus says that I've
trodden the winepress alone and of the people there was none
with me something he does on his own. If you look in the judgment
in in Revelation this was single handedly the Lord that one that
who was on the white white horse that king of kings and laws of
the laws that had many crowns. For I will tread them in mine
anger and trample them in my fury and their blood shall be
sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain all my raiments. So we're used to thinking of
the blood of the lamb, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as he
bore the curse of his people. And that's absolutely right.
I'm not come to undo anything of that. But here this is not
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is not the blood that he
has shed for his people. This is the blood of the enemies
that have been trodden down by this mighty conquering king. I've trodden the winepress alone.
He did it single-handedly. And I would stain all my raiment
for the day of vengeance is in mine heart. and the year of the
redeemed is come. So you see that there's a different
side. And when we think of the, as
we had set before us on Tuesday, all the sufferings of Christ
and the benefits to his people. But there's another aspect, you
see, of the Lord Jesus of Christ that is so precious here. If
we look in Psalm 24, which is, if you like, the Lord Jesus returning
to glory after what happened at Calvary. We have these words,
Lift up your heads, O ye gates. This is Psalm 24, verse 7. And
be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors, the King of glory shall
come in. Who is this King of Glory? A similar question like
Isaiah's asking here. Who is this King of Glory? The
Lord strong and mighty. Similar picture here to what
we have in Isaiah 63. The Lord mighty in battle. So we have a picture here you
see of a great battle. And it's a very different scene
isn't it? It's a very different scene. But it's, they're beautifully
connected. They're both aspects of our Lord
and Savior Jesus Christ. If I can look at a couple of
characters in the old, or a couple of events in the Old Testament
that give a picture of this physically. First of all, I want to speak
of the city of Ai. Do you remember Ai was the second
city that the children of Israel tried to conquer in the land
of Canaan. The first city was Jericho. They
went round the walls many times, if you remember, and the walls
fell down and they had a conquest. But then sadly, Achan, one of
Israel, disobeyed and took some of the goods that was meant to
be consecrated to the Lord and took it for himself. And as a
judgment of that, when they went to take the next city, which
was Ai, they failed. But then Acham was dealt with
in the valley of Achor and he was stoned with stone there was
a solemn judgment on that occasion. But then in Joshua chapter 8 Joshua then
goes to take Ai again under God's direction and he was told to
put an ambushment at the back of Ai. So a whole load of his
men went and hid the other side of AI. And he was this side with
his men, and when the people of AI saw that they'd come to
fight them again, remember they'd beaten them last time, they came
out to fight with them again. And then as soon as they came
out of the city, Joshua started retreating as if they were being
beaten. They started retreating more
and more away from the city of Ai and they drew all the people
out of the city of Ai following Israel and they were glorying
in another conquest. Joshua once again is going to
be overcome. But what was really happening?
As soon as they were all out the city, the ambushment came
in and moved into the city of Ai, set the whole place on fire,
and suddenly the people of Ai realized that they were defeated. Instead of their glory in the
destruction of Joshua, the type of Christ, they were defeated
themselves. It's a picture. something like
a picture of what was happening at Calvary. The powers that be
were glowing. They had got the Lord of life
and glory. They had falsely accused him. They had had their way with him.
They'd spat at him. They'd mocked him. They had scourged
him. And now they crucified him. And
now they were going to laugh at him and ridicule him. And
anybody looking on would say that they were on the winning
side. They were the ones that were
in the powerful seat. And Jesus Christ, he was looking
as if he was helpless and that he was losing. But was he? He wasn't, you see. Actually,
he was gaining the victory. And you see, we had that in what
we read in Hebrews. He himself likewise took part
of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had
the power of the death. That is the devil. You see, the
Lord Jesus in his work on the cross was actually putting a
death blow to his enemies. And here we have, you see, so
we have a different side. We look in Isaiah 53 and we see
so much of the sorrow and the suffering of the Lord Jesus Christ,
although at the end there is shadows pointing to the greatness
of Christ as well. But here we focus much more on
his ability to deal with his enemies. And when I say the enemies,
remember, think of it in the New Testament terms of those
enemies. that are really our enemies,
the enemies that want to put us in eternal lake of fire with
Satan and his hosts. They're the real enemies. They
are the real enemies of your soul. They are seeking to bring
you into captivity eternally. They are the real enemies. But
here we have one that is declared, I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Another Old Testament character
that has a shadow on this as well, I believe, is Samson. Samson,
if you remember, had made many wars single-handedly like Christ. I trod the winepress alone, Jesus
says here. Samson was one that fought all
his battles alone. He never fought with an army
from Israel. He always did it always on his
own. And as you know, they took Samson
and took out his eyes and he was grinding in the prison. And
then when they had one of their special festivals, their feast
days, they brought Samson out as this blind man and they made
him sport. They laughed at him. They, as
it were, played jokes at him. They laughed at his expense. He was the ridicule. of all those
thousands of the Philistines. They were gloating over the fact
that their great enemy Samson had been captured and now they
could do what they want with him. They could ridicule him
as much as they wanted. They were in control. But what
actually happens? Samson calls upon his God. He
puts his two hands on those pillars and asks for strength that he
might be able to give one last blow to his enemies. And he pushes
those pillars apart. And all those lords of the Philistines
were killed at that very time that they thought they were in
control. Another picture of a victory. And we have these salient words
at the end of Samson's life. So those that he slew in his
death were more than he slew in his life. Another picture
of Christ. Yes, he dealt blows to Satan's
kingdom during his life, but oh his death. What he accomplished
at his death. This is the great accomplishment
and so here we have in Isaiah 63 a different view of the same
person, the one who made himself of no reputation, the one who
took upon him the form of a servant, the one who took upon him the
sins of all his church and paid their price and yet this one
who was gaining a glorious victory over Satan, sin, hell, and the
grave. And so as we gather around God's
word this morning, We have these words before us. But may we see
something precious in them. Look at verse three. I have trodden
the winepress alone of the people there was none with me for I
will tread them in mine anger and trample them in my fury and
their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments and I will stain
all my raiments. So this is the this is how it's
pictorial. But it's saying this is what
God is going to do to his enemies. Yes, the nations that forget
God in one sense ultimately at the last day at the second coming
of Christ this will happen. All those nations that forget
God, those nations that have despised him will ultimately
be judged in person in this way. This was a prophecy of that.
But the New Testament shows very clearly that there's something
else pictured here. This is something to do with
God dealing with his enemies. and our enemies, our unbelief,
our pride, our lusts, our ungodliness. I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. So this one who is able to save
unto the uttermost. And so here we have the comfort
for God's people. In verse 4, for the day of vengeance
is in mine heart, and the year of the redeemed is come. It's
interesting. The time span is different, isn't it? The day
of vengeance is a short, sharp work, but the year of the redeemed
is come. As it were, there's a felicity
in heaven. of all the benefits and the blessings of redemption.
As it were, there was that time when Pharaoh was judged one night,
when they were all dead on the seashore, on the Red Sea. It was a particular event. The
day of vengeance is in my heart, and the year of my redeemed is
come. Of course, very similar words
to what we see in Isaiah 61. that speaks about the spirit
of the Lord is upon me because he anointed me to preach good
tidings unto the meek. But if you look in verse 2 of
Isaiah 61, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord and the day
of vengeance of our God. Interestingly, when the Lord
Jesus was quoting Isaiah 61 in Luke's gospel, when he was preaching
in his own hometown in Nazareth, he stopped in the middle of that
verse. He stopped. to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord and stopped. Because ultimately this day of
vengeance of our God is ultimately Christ's second coming. We have
his first coming. He comes to proclaim salvation. He comes to make a way where
sinners can be brought back to God. But he's coming again. He's coming again, that second
time. and the day of vengeance of our
God. So we see here the seriousness
of the God that we have to deal with. A God that doesn't just
say idle words. His judgments are a tremendous
thing. The one that can send you into
the lake of fire that burns forever and ever. This is extreme judgment. This is solemn judgment. And
yet you see here, he's actually judging his enemies. Of course,
there is a point here. I have trodden the wine press
alone. We think of the wine press. Now
there's another thing that's a bit like a wine press, and
that's an olive press. That's where you press the olives
to get out the olive oil. And the name Gethsemane means
olive press. And when Christ was in Gethsemane, it was as if, you see, he was
not treading the olive press. He was the olive being pressed.
And you see how the Lord Jesus, this one who is this mighty conquest,
this one who's traveling in the greatness of his power, is also
the one that himself is trodden in the olive press by God the
Father, by, because of the wrath of God that should have been
meted out upon these people. upon his people, that he's loved
with an everlasting love, and therefore he has stood in their
place. And there he's receiving, if you like, we have Isaiah 53,
which is pointing at the olive press. He's pointing at that
place where he was despised and rejected of man. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquity.
This is the olive press, and he was the olive being pressed. And then the blood that came
from him was his own blood. And that's why we speak of the
preciousness of the blood of Christ. But in Isaiah 63, it's
not talking about his own blood. It's talking about the blood
of his enemies. This one who has gone to Calvary and made
a way for sinners. He then rises to be a mighty
conqueror. And that's the message that I
want to bring to you this morning. That one who was despised and
rejected of man is now able to deal and will finally deal with
all his enemies. You say, but I've got this unbelief,
I've got this pride, I've got all this sin which does so easily
beset me. Come and have a look at this
one. Who is it? I that speak in righteousness
mighty to save. He's able to save his people.
You see in Philippians 2 we read, for it is God that worketh in
you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. How does he
do that? By conquering your enemies. By conquering those that are
against him. Now that's not your enemies as
in your neighbors or the people in your work, your boss that's
unkind to you. Not those enemies. The true enemies
of our soul, you see, are those that were going to send us to
eternal destruction. Think of it, just, let me just
think about that in the life of Joseph. Joseph, he had his
brothers that hated him, despised him. You could say in one sense
they were his enemies. But they didn't really, in one
sense, because of God's overruling, they didn't really harm him.
Ye meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. And our enemies,
our bosses at work, our people that are over us, our neighbours,
the troubles that come into our lives, God is able to overrule
those for our eternal good. To bring us into that suffering
pathway of a child of God, to make us conform to the image
of Christ. That does us good. But the real enemy, is unbelief. Oh thou hideous monster sin,
what a curse hast thou brought in, all creation groans through
thee. Pregnant cause of misery, that's
our enemy. That is the number one enemy
and we are not to love that enemy at all. We're not to love those
enemies, we're to hate them. You look at the language of David
in Psalm 139. Starts off with, O Lord, thou
hast searched me and known me. But look at what he says. Verse 19 of 139. Surely thou
wilt slay the wicked, O God. Depart from me therefore, ye
bloody men, for they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies
take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O Lord, that
hate thee? And am not I grieved with those
that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred. I count them mine enemies. Now
yes David may have been looking at certain individuals that characterised
the workings of the flesh but ultimately in the gospel sense
the enemies of the Lord's people are those spiritual enemies.
They're the enemies that cause them to fall in that way. If we look in 2 Corinthians 2 Corinthians chapter 10. You see, in 2 Corinthians chapter
10, in verse 3, it says, For though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare
are not carnal. So we're not to go around killing
people that we consider against Christians. We're not to do that.
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through
God, to the pulling down of strongholds. Remember Zion was a stronghold,
a stronghold that David broke down and made his kingdom. And
you see this is the part that the Lord is doing with his people.
All those strongholds of resistance, all the lust, the pomp, the pride
of life, the self-importance, the self-righteousness that we
all have by nature. He's come to make war with that. Pulling down the strongholds,
casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exhorted
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. This is the warfare. And as we see it in that light,
I hope we can be more comfortable with the language of David when
he said, I hate them with perfect hatred, I count them mine enemies.
We're not talking about a particular person here. We're talking about
those enemies which are which are satanic, which are seeking
to bring us into everlasting burnings. I have trodden the
winepress alone, of the people there was none with me. And then
he goes on, for the day of vengeance is in my heart. Oh, when you're
plagued with sin, you're plagued with the lust of the flesh. Isn't
it welcome? Wasn't Israel, as they were labouring
under the taskmasters, the idea that God would ultimately judge
Egypt was a pleasant thought, wasn't it? It was a pleasant
thought that God had the power to make Pharaoh, the most powerful
person in the whole world at that time, let his people go. Let the children of Israel go.
We need such a powerful God and this is the same God. And this
is what Isaiah 63 is speaking of. It's speaking of a God that
has liberated his people. He's died for them and made them
right with God by that death by Isaiah 53. He stood in their
place. But that's not all he's done.
He's then able to fight their enemies. and able ultimately
to bring the conquest. You see here there is ongoing
day by day, the Christian warfare is an ongoing warfare, but can
we not rejoice in this one who is glorious in his apparel, travelling
in the greatness of his strength, I that speak in righteousness,
he's mighty to save. He's come with the purpose of
salvation to judge the enemies, and your true enemies, the enemies
that would stop you getting to glory, would stop you walking
in his ways. In Sunday school, we sung that
beautiful hymn, let the beauty of Jesus shine in me. But you
see, all the time we manifest the works of the flesh, all the
time we do Satan's dictates, we're not like Christ at all.
For the day of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of the
redeemed is come. And I looked and there was none
to help. This is verse five. And I wondered. that there was
none to uphold. Here we have a similar thing
in Revelations when it says nobody was able to open the seals. And John wept because nobody
was able to do it. But here the lion of the tribe
of Judah, he is the one, he is the only one, he is the one,
like Samson was the only one who single-handedly fought the
enemies. So we have a Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ who single-handedly deals with our enemies. And so,
though we daily seem to come short and sin is mixed with all
that we do, help us to have a look up from time to time and realize
we have a mighty king. And he ultimately is going to
deal with our enemies. And ultimately we are on the
winning side. I looked and there was none to
help. I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore my
own arm brought salvation unto me. And my fury, it upheld me. So the anger against the righteous,
this isn't, see, we associate anger as a negative thing. It
always seems to be negative. Somebody's getting angry, that's
a bad thing. But the righteous anger of God is not out of control. It's not God gone out of control.
He purely hates sin. You think of it like this. If
you've got a cancer patient, You've got your son or your daughter
with cancer. If you love your child, you hate
the cancer. You don't say to those cancer
cells, oh, well, we love you. Yes, you carry on. We'll give
you all the nourishment you need to grow and foster in my child's
body. No, you don't do that. You hit
it at every level, either chemically or with radioactivity or whatever
way you try and destroy those cells of cancer. because they
are not your friend. They're not your friend. Well,
we have one, you see, who has come to deal with a greater than
cancer, to deal with a league that was formed in the Garden
of Eden with Eve. The league, the union that there
was between Satan and Eve in rebellion against God. God has
come to deal with that union, and to break it, and to destroy
that union, and to bring in a new union between us and Him, that
we may be sons and daughters of the Most High, that we may
have fellowship with Him, that we may serve Him all the days
of our lives. I looked and there was none to
help. I wondered that there was none to uphold. Therefore my
own arm brought salvation unto me, and my fury it upheld me. And I will tread down the people
in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring
down their strength to the earth." If you know that these things
are against you, think of them as cancer. You're dead against
it all the way. You don't love those enemies.
Jesus, when he said, love your enemies, was talking about something
quite different. He was talking about other men and women who
are formed in the image of God that also need mercy like we
needed mercy. We're to love those. We're to
speak of Christ to those as Lord gives us opportunity. We're to
show a Christ-like spirit when they're against us that we may
not render evil for evil or railing for railing. We should do all
those things, but not these enemies. Who is this that cometh from
Eden with dyed garments from Bosra? This that is glorious
in his apparel. This is a conquering king. And
we should conquer with him, with his people, although they're
weak and they're so often overcome by Satan and all this disease
that festers inside them. there is one that has come to
deal with that disease. And one that ultimately will
bring the people of God, you see, in Revelation 19, we have
those two sides. In Revelation 19, verse 9, it
says, and he said unto them, write, blessed are they which
are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb. That's a
blessing. And they're washed, they're cleansed,
they're brought away from all the enemies. But then the next
part of that is talking about all the awfulness of being on
the other side. You see, Joshua was a great leader. Joshua was a great blessing to
Israel, but he was a formidable foe to the Canaanites. He overcame
them all, most of them. But you see our Lord and Savior,
he is ultimately going to be the judge. If you look in Acts
chapter 17, Acts chapter 17 says this very clearly. Paul preaching
on Mars Hill. Verse 31, because he hath appointed
a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness. This
is not an angry God losing control of himself. This is a righteous
anger against sin, just like a doctor aims that beam of the
radiotherapy at the cancer cell and bombards it. Meaningfully,
he's not lost his mind, he's not angry in the sense that he
doesn't know he's lost control of himself, but he sees this
as an enemy of that person, an enemy of health. Because he hath
appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness
by that man which he hath ordained. Wherefore he hath given assurance
unto all men in that he hath raised him from the dead. So
the Lord Jesus Christ that was raised from the dead, he is ultimately
going to be the judge. All that we read in Revelation
will ultimately come to pass with real people. There will
be those that are in the marriage supper of the Lamb, there will
be those that are destined for a lake of fire. This is true
people. And yet God then shows in his
great work of salvation and redemption. that what was being done at Calvary
was making war with those spiritual enemies and taking the captive,
taking captivity captive. So those that were, the people
of God were in captivity to sin, but that captivity is itself
being taken captive and delivered them. And this is salvation all
in the lamb, the lion and the lamb. this one who is glorious
in his abode. Amen.