May I please Almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in His Word. Let
us turn to the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 63, and we'll read the
first verse. Prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 63,
and reading the first verse. Who is this? that cometh from
Edom, with dyed garments from Bosra, this that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength,
I that speak, in righteousness mighty to save. The prophecy of Isaiah is, of
course, a wonderful prophecy and how much it contains of prophecy
with reference to the Lord Jesus Christ. And we today, of course,
have the wonderful benefit of the New Testament and are able
to understand many things which the people who lived in Old Testament
days would not have had the benefit of. But nonetheless, there were
these prophecies which God ordained for the benefit and the profit
of the Church of God. And so, here we have a statement
really in this chapter with reference to the Saviour, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the question put is, who
is this? that cometh from Edom, with dyed
garments from Bosra, this that is glorious in his apparel, travelling
in the greatness of his strength, I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. So we see the gracious and wonderful
answer of the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, who says through
the prophet here, I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Well, the Lord was mighty to
save in Old Testament times, and the Lord is mighty to save
in New Testament times. And surely it is a wonderful
blessing that we have a God who is mighty. We as sinners on the
earth have no ability to save ourselves. Because we have offended
a holy God, we have disobeyed the holy God. And therefore,
relying on our own righteousness, there is no hope. Indeed, we
are told all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. But what
a blessing it is to have a wonderful Saviour, who we are told I that
speak in righteousness. Indeed everything the Lord spoke
and does speak is in righteousness. All his words are right. All
his words are pure. All his words are good and profitable
and beneficial. What a mercy then it is to have
such a God and then to have the wonderful evidence that this
God has stretched out his hand to save us. Save us from our
sins. Deliver us from the wrath to
come. That kind and gracious and compassionate
and merciful God, who is indeed so great and so mighty to save. And as we read through the Word
of God, of course we have the many occasions where the Lord
saved his people in a natural way. There were many times when
they were in deep, difficult situations and the Lord appeared
for them. We only have to think, don't
we, of the Israelites in Egypt. There they were, enclosed there,
not able to free themselves. Pharaoh and the soldiers kept
them very much captive. And there they were, laboring
day by day on behalf of the Egyptians. And how hard it was, what bondage
they were in. But the time came. The appointed
time came, which had been prophesied, and it was prophesied way back
in the patriarch's time. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that
they would go down into Egypt, that little company of 70 souls. And now, after 400 years, they'd
grown to a great multitude. And that great multitude was
there now in bondage. But God knew what he would do. My friends, today, God knows
what he will do. your life and my life. He knows. He knows what he will perform.
And so it was in the case of Israel. And what a mighty act
that was to save Israel. How glorious it was. And how
significant it was when we think of the plagues. Nine plagues
which were carried out demonstrating the power of God. But none of
them really moved Pharaoh to free the Israelites until the
last plague, when the Lord took the lives of all the firstborn
of the Egyptians, all the firstborn of their cattle. They all died
on that very solemn night. And yet, we must not forget that
the Lord was mighty to save. And on that time, on that night,
there was the institution of what we refer to now as the Passover. Of course, that which has been
superseded in the New Testament with the Lord's Supper. But nonetheless,
for hundreds of years, the Passover was remembered. as the time that
Israel were freed. And so gloriously significant
in that was that lamb that was slain, roast in the fire, the
blood taken and placed in the doorposts and the lintel, so
that when the avenging angel passed through all the houses
in Egypt, He passed over where the blood was on the doorposts
and lintels. And all those Israelites who
were inside those dwellings were safe. They were saved. Mighty to save. What a work that
was. What a solemn work it was. What
a confirmation that the Lord was indeed mighty. And of course
it didn't stop there. We know that The Lord then led
Israel across the Red Sea. Another wonderful miracle, wasn't
it? No way, every way hedged up. The Egyptians behind them, the
Red Sea before them. How were they to escape? Mighty
to save. The Lord knew what he would do.
And therefore the Red Sea opened up before them. And Israelites
went over on dry land, everyone. And as we know, the Egyptians
tried to follow, but they were all overcome in the depths of
the Red Sea and were all drowned. The judgment of Almighty God.
Mighty to save. And then, traveling through the
wilderness. It's good, you know, to read
the history, which we can do in Exodus really. There are many other parts, but
principally in Exodus we have the life of the Israelites in
the wilderness and how God was mighty to save them on many occasions,
deliver them. I remember just one instance
when they were bitten by those fiery serpents. Yes, they disobeyed
God, which they often did. And the Lord came and sent these
serpents which bit the Israelites. And all those Israelites who
were bitten, they died. And the cry went up to Almighty
God to deliver them, to save them. And Moses was instructed
to cast that brazen serpent, to put it on a rod, to hold it
up, and to instruct the Israelites who were bitten to look to that
serpent on that pole. And all that looked lived. Almighty to save. And of course,
the picture for us today is so wonderful because we really are
all bitten by that poison of sin. And we're all therefore
on the downward road to eternal death. And yet you see, what
is the remedy? Mighty to save. To look, not
to a brazen servant, but to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessing for us tonight,
if we look to this wonderful saviour. This wonderful saviour,
who is mighty to save. And he can save every one of
us. What a blessing that is, isn't it? What a mercy. The worst of sinners. The worst
of sinners. Yes, we have examples in the
Word of God. We have the example of Manasseh,
a king. A very wicked king. A very evil king, the son of
Hezekiah. a most godly king. And yet, you
see, eventually the Lord had mercy upon him. He prayed unto
his God. He prayed unto the true God.
The Lord came and saved him. Yes, we're told he prayed unto
the Lord and he was entreated of him. You see, such words like
that should be so encouraging for all of us, for the whole
Church of God, because we've all sinned and come short of
the glory of God. And what a wonderful blessing
to know that we have such a saviour, who is mighty to save. Indeed,
as we can read in Hebrews, he saves unto the uttermost. Everything, everything he delivers
us from and saves us from. What a blessing and what a mercy. So just continuing the natural
deliverance which the Lord did might it to save remember in
the days of Jehoshaphat a godly king fighting battles the enemy
was all around him was in a great state didn't know what to do
what did he do? he prayed unto God he told God
he said, neither know we what to do but our eyes are upon Thee
what a good place that is if we don't know what to do and
it is so sometimes in our lives we don't know what to do well
may we look to Jesus keep our eyes on Jesus now it appeared that there was
going to be a great battle But what happened? Well, there
was a prophet, raised up by God, who came and told Jehoshaphat,
you won't need to fight in this battle. Battle's not yours, but
the Lord's. Well, that seems, doesn't it,
an impossibility. Not have to fight the enemy that's
surrounding us all around, Mighty to save. That's what our
God is. And so what happened? Well, first
of all, Jehoshaphat had faith to believe that that would come
to pass. And he instructed the people
to begin to praise the good Lord God. Well, there was no victory.
Nonetheless, They began to praise the Lord. And when the Lord,
when they began to praise the Lord, the Lord began to bring
about the victory because they fought one another. And the Lord
appeared and there was a great victory. Mighty to save. Well, isn't it good to be able
to read such accounts in the Word of God? And then, of course,
we have other cases. We have the case of David himself,
again, eventually a king. But, of course, when he was a
young man, he wasn't a king. He was really a nobody, leased
in his father's house, looked after the sheep. But there was
that occasion when again the Israelites were fighting the
Philistines and the Philistines had that great champion Goliath
who taunted the Israelites and demanded that one of them come
and fight him and whoever won the battle their nation would
serve the other well it happened that when David had taken some
food to his brothers the three eldest brothers who were fighting
in the battle Goliath the giant came forth
and spoke these words and David spoke of him as the uncircumcised
Philistine And he said that he would fight him. Well, he went
to the king and told the king that he would fight. And the
king, first of all, thought he wasn't able to. And then he said, David remembered and told the
king what had happened in his life, how he'd been able to kill
a lion and kill a bear. A wonderful deliverance. The mighty God had enabled him
so to do. And he said, and this Philistine
will be as one of them. And the Lord graciously came
then and was with David. And David then, the king gave
him his armor to put on, but he Didn't fit him, and he said,
I haven't proved it, and he took it off. And instead, he went
and chose five pebbles from the brook. And he said, this God shall deliver
me. His confidence was in this mighty
God, mighty to save. I'm sure you'll remember. He
went forth. and slew a stone from his sling
and he entered into the temple of Goliath and he fell down dead. And David went and cut off his
head to show the wonderful deliverance that this mighty God had given
to him. So we should conclude from that
that nothing is too hard for the Lord. Still today And let's
not forget, we have a mighty God, mighty to save. And then turning to, we might
say the more important side, and that's our spiritual deliverance. Our spiritual deliverance. Well,
we have wonderful examples of spiritual deliverance. We have
the case of the Apostle Paul. who was a great adversary of
the Church of God. And he was committing the Christians
to prison and to be executed. And he thought he was doing God's
service. But of course, what was he? He
was an enemy at that time. But God knew that this man, Paul,
would go so far And then the Lord would put forth his hand. And there he was on this Damascus
road. And the Lord cut him down. There was a great light shone
from heaven above the brightest of the midday sun, as he tells
us, when he gave an account of his conversion. And why persecutest
thou me? And he asked, Who art thou? I am Jesus, whom thou persecutest. Well, perhaps that's been so
in our lives. We walked contrary to our God. And yet the time has come when
almighty God, this one who is mighty to save, has looked upon us. He knew where
Paul was. He knew where he was exactly
on that Damascus road. He knows where we are in our
life. He knows the chapter in our life
where we are. He knows the very page in our
life where we are. What a great blessing it is when
there is a day, an appointed day, a glorious day, when the
Holy Spirit comes and touches our heart. That's what happens
in the Apostle Paul. And that's what happens to all
the children of God. And all have to confess, and
all have to agree, this great God is mighty to save. Again, quoting the words in Hebrews,
unto the uttermost. No one has gone too far away
from God. The Lord's mercies are great. The Lord's mercies are wonderful. Can we not praise God for it? And we have characters in the
word of God. May the Lord have wonderful mercy
upon. Remember that jailer, that Philippian
jailer? Yes, there he was. Beaten. The Apostle Paul and his colleague
Silas. Put them in the stocks in prison.
Went off to sleep, content probably with what he'd done. But this was the appointed time. for the mighty work of Jesus
in saving souls to be wonderfully demonstrated. And so, at midnight,
there was an earthquake. An earthquake. The doors of the
prison were open. Man couldn't have done that.
God did it. But Jane, of course, thought
the prisoner had escaped, was going to kill himself, Paul told
him to stop. And what was the effect? The
effect from this almighty God to that Philippian jailor was
this. He came and said, what must I do to be saved? Oh, he realized he was a sinner. He realized he needed salvation. He came seeking and asking that
question. What must I do? That comes to
all the Church of God. Everyone comes to that place
in measure in different ways, but we all come and stand there.
What must I do to be saved? Because otherwise I'm lost because
of my sin. What did the apostles say to
him? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. And
the Lord blessed him with that grace to believe in not only
him, but all his house. It was an amazing night. It was
a wonderful night in the history of the Church of God. And what
did it demonstrate? the power of God. Isn't it good
to be able to read about the power of God? Mighty to save. And then another character you
may remember, we term the Ethiopian eunuch who was traveling back
from Jerusalem And he was a very able and important person. And
there he was sitting in his chariot. And quite amazingly, he was reading
the prophet Isaiah. Now then, God had ordained that
his servant Philip should be commanded to go into this place,
which was desert. You might think, you might say,
well, I don't see any point in going there, Lord. There's no
one there. It's just desert. But he obeyed the word of God. And so he came and he saw this
Ethiopian sitting in his chariot And the Ethiopian called him
and he asked him to come and sit alongside him. And he said
to Philip, who am I reading of? Who is this speaking of? And the apostle began at the
same scripture and preached unto him, Jesus. Well, if you are
familiar with the Word of God, you will know that the 53rd chapter
of Isaiah, again, is a wonderful prophecy with regards to the
Lord Jesus Christ. How glorious it is, again, that
there is such an amazing prophecy. And as the prophet says, as he
begins, Who hath believed our report? Well, by the favour and
blessing of God, this Ethiopian believed the report that the
Apostle was able to preach to him. He preached unto him Jesus. And this is a beautiful chapter
to read and to meditate on and to realise how it speaks from
beginning to end of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Apostle
Philip obviously preached the gospel, he preached to him about
being baptized as well, because as they journeyed on they came
to some water, and the apostle said to him, sorry, Eunuch said
to the apostle, what does hinder me to be baptized? And the apostle
said, if thou believest with all thine heart, Thou mayest. And he said, I believe. Wasn't
that wonderful? What was it? It was the mighty
God, mighty to save. And so we've there just highlighted
just a few people in the word of God. Remember. What we read in the New Testament,
the Lord Jesus came, the Son of Man is come, is come to seek
and to save that which was lost. We might feel lost. We might
feel there's no hope for us. Well, never despair, never despair,
because we have this mighty God, mighty to save. And let us not
forget what the Saviour did in order to save our souls. Well,
he loved his church, every member of his church. What a mercy to
think that he has a love to you and me. Sinners, great sinners,
a love to you and me. My friends, that love was so
great. Yes, this gracious God, who is
mighty to save, he came into this world for that one purpose,
to save his people. to deliver them from their just
desserts, to make them spiritually alive, to quicken them into life,
deliver them from themselves, enable them to look to Him, look
unto Me. That was the gracious invitation.
Again Isaiah spoke, look unto me and be ye saved. Oh what a saviour we have. Let us all be found looking unto
Jesus. Nowhere else, nowhere else he
is able to save to the uttermost. all that come unto hear God by
him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us. Again,
that's glorious, isn't it? This Saviour intercedes for us,
the Father's right hand. Can hardly believe it, can we?
The Lord will take notice of us. The Lord will hear our prayers. You seem so far off and so hard-hearted,
so rebellious, perhaps? Well, again, don't forget these
great and glorious words. The Son of Man is come to seek
and to save that which is lost. He is mighty to save. So let us never limit our God. Never think. that anything is
too hard for our God. Let us never think the Lord never
hears and answers our prayers. No, he hears. Blessed be God. He never sleeps. Blessed be God. He's always attentive. He's always
ready to hear and answer our cries, wherever we may be, whatever
situation. we may be in, he's always ready
to hear the cries of his people. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
an encouragement? Remember then, I that speak in
righteousness, this is the blessed, righteous Saviour, the one who
never sinned, came in this world to die on that cross at Calvary
to pay the price required to save our souls. And the price
that was required was the death of the Son of God. The Lord Jesus
willingly submitted to his father's will. Oh, what a mercy that is. Can you rejoice in that truth
tonight? Can you praise God tonight for
what the Lord Jesus Christ has done in saving our souls and
to believe therefore that he is now interceding on the Father's
right hand for us, each one who pleads his name. And so may we
praise God tonight for his great goodness and for his great mercy
and be so thankful for this great truth which the Lord speaks. I, the Lord Jesus, I that speak
in righteousness, mighty to save. God's word is true. Amen.