Let us turn again to the Word
of God and to that portion of Scripture that we were considering
earlier today in the 55th chapter of the Book of the Prophet Isaiah. In Isaiah chapter 55, and I'll
read verses 3, 4, and 5. Incline your ear and come unto
me here and your soul shall live, and they will make an everlasting
covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have
given him for a witness to the people, a leader and commander
to the people. Behold, they shall call a nation
that they knowest not, a nation that knew not thee shall run
unto thee because of the Lord thy God and for the Holy One
of Israel, for he hath glorified Well, earlier we considered more
particularly what we have there in verse 3, and I spoke of the
everlasting covenant, as it is said before us here, in terms
of the sure mercies of diving. This, of course, is that new
covenant, it is the covenant of Christ that is being spoken
of, very different to that covenant that God gave to the children
of Israel at Mount Sinai. And all the terrorists that came
with the giving of that holy law of God. Well, we remember
how the law is that that stops the mouths of men, brings them
in guilty before God by the law is the knowledge of sin. But considering the sure mercies
of David this morning, we saw something of the grace of God
in this everlasting covenant. Well now, I want us to consider
what follows in verses 4 and 5 and they're significant verses
because each of them opens with the words, Behold! Behold! And you know the force
of that word, the idea being that the fixing of the eye, careful
and intensive look, the close examination of what is being
said. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not. The nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God. and for the Holy One of Israel,
for He hath glorified thee. And what we have set before us
here, of course, is the calling of the Gentiles. This is the
wonder of that new covenant. It is not salvation just for
Israel, it's salvation for the nations of the earth and It's
that theme that we can see back at the beginning of the previous
chapter there. In the opening verses of chapter
54, sing, O barren, thou that didst not dare break forth into
singing and cry aloud, thou that didst not travail with child.
For more are the children of the desolate than is the Gentile
nations and the children of the married wife Israel, saith the
Lord. in the nicer place of thy tent.
Let them stretch forth the curtains of thy inhabitation, spare not.
Lengthen thy cords and strengthen thy stakes, for they shall break
forth on the right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall
inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited."
Or what we saw this morning in that 54th chapter I remind you
of, we have that great promise of God's which comes of course
even to these Gentile nations remember there in verse 5 thy
maker is thine husband the Lord of hosts is his name and thy
redeemer the holy one of Israel the God of the whole earth shall
he be called thy redeemer and it's that lovely word Goel the
kinsman Redeemer, the part that Boaz played for Ruth Kinsman
to redeem her inheritance, the very word that's used by Job,
I know that my Redeemer liveth, and in the last day he shall
stand upon the earth. Oh, it's a reference then to
the Lord Jesus Christ and the salvation that comes, a promise
of salvation that will come even to the nations of the Gentiles. And we did touch on this in some
measure last Lord's Day in the evening when I sought to preach
from those words in Psalm 37 and verse 3, taken as a theme,
the food of faith. So shalt thou dwell in thy land,
in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. And I spoke then
about Israel in the Old Testament is a typical people and the land
It was promised them as a typical land, not so much a type of heaven
came, but more especially it is a type of the gospel. It was a land flowing with milk
and honey. It was rich, it was fertile.
And remember here in Isaiah 25, we read of that feast of vaccines
that God has made provision of upon Mount Zion under the gospel
of the grace of God. And I think of some of the words
that we find in other of the prophets, which are so often
misunderstood. People want to take them off
and see them as literally still referring to the nation of Israel,
but surely these promises belong to that spiritual Israel, which
is the Church of God. Look at the language there in
Ezekiel 36, at verse 25. Following, God says, then will
I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean. From
all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse
you, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I
put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your
flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit
within you and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall
keep my judgments and do them, And you shall dwell in the land
that I gave to your fathers, and you shall be my people, and
I will be your God. And the temptation is, because
of what's said there at verse 28, that these promises are for
ethnicists, are they not? It's all for spiritual Israel.
And that land, as I said, is a typical land, it's a type of
the gospel. And so here, in Isaiah 54, and
again at the beginning of this 55th chapter, We have that promise
of God to the Gentile nations. And that's only the promise,
as I said this morning. What is that provision that God
has made in the everlasting covenant? Besides the promise, there's
also the teaching of God. Verse 13, there in chapter 54,
All thy children shall be taught of the Lord, and great shall
be the peace of thy children. And in the New Testament, there
at John 6, 44, Christ says, no man can come to me except it
were given to him of my father. It is written in the prophets,
and they shall be all taught of God. Every man that hath heard
and have learned of the Father cometh unto me. Christ himself
then makes it so plain that these words here at verse 13 belong
to the gospel ministration. And as it is the teaching of
God so also of course what we have here in chapter 55 is the
great invitation of the gospel. Oh everyone that thirsteth, come
ye to the waters and ye that have no money, come ye, buy and
eat. Yea, come, buy wine and milk
without money and without price. This is the invitation that God
gives This is the call that God makes in the Gospel. And we referred again this morning
to that gracious call of God, as we have it here at verse 6
in chapter 54. The Lord hath called thee as
a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy God. They're words addressed
really to the Gentile nations. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, says Christ. And he that cometh to me I shall
in no wise cast out. Well, as we come tonight to consider
in particular these words in verses 4 and 5 of chapter 55,
I want to speak of the caller and the called. Behold, I have
given him for a witness to the people, a leader and a commander
to the people, this is the one who calls. Behold, thou shalt
call a nation that thou knowest not, a nation that do not thee
shall run unto thee because of the Lord thy God, and for the
Holy One of Israel, for he has glorified thee. Those are the
call. Following then this simple twofold
division, first of all, the caller who is spoken of here in the
fourth verse. And who is this one? Well, it's
that one who is referred to at the end of verse three as David.
We have the sure mercies of David, the everlasting covenant. Remember
those statements there at the end of that third verse are parallel
statements. It's one and the same thing that
is being spoken of. The everlasting covenant that
is equal to the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given
him, that is this David, for a witness to the people, a leader
and a commander to the people. Who is this David? It is, of
course, not that man who was the great king in Israel, but
it is David's greatest son. Oh, it is the Lord Jesus Christ,
made of the seed of David. according to the flesh. And here we see something of
his office, or his offices we might say, in terms of that covenant. He is the mediator of the covenant.
But as he is the mediator, so we see also here that he is that
one who is a witness. He is the witness. What does
the Lord Jesus say to Pontius Pilate as he endures that awful
mockery of betrayal? And we have something of the
detail there in the Gospels in John 18, for example. In verse
37, to Pilate the Lord says, To this end was I born, and for
this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto
the truth. Everyone that is of the truth,
heareth my voice. Oh, he is that one who is a witness
of the truth, a witness to the truth. And that's how he is spoken
of on occasions when we come to the book of the Revelation.
The opening chapter where John sees the glorified Christ has
that remarkable vision upon the Isle of Patmos. And who is it
that he beholds? It's Jesus Christ who is the
faithful witness. And how does he declare himself
later? in chapter 3 and verse 14 is the Amen, the faithful
and true witness, the Amen. That's a transliteration of the
Greek word, Amen. That's the word that is usually
translated as either truly or verily. And think of how repeatedly
in John's Gospel, the Lord is always prefixing his teachings
with a verily and a double verily, time and again. He is the Amen.
He is that One who is the Way, the Truth and the Life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by Him. He is the Amen, the Faithful
and True Witness. And what is it that the Lord
does? Why He is that one who comes to bear witness against
sin. He's spoken of here at the end
of the Old Testament Scriptures in the book of the prophet Malachi.
Look at what we read there in Malachi 3, 5. He says, I will
come near to you to judgment and I will be a swift witness
against the source of and against the adulterers, and against false
swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling in his wages,
the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger
from his right. And fear not me, saith the Lord
of hosts, for I am the Lord. I change not, therefore ye sons
of Jacob are not consumed. This is Jesus Christ, the same
yesterday and today, and forever the unchanging. And he says,
I will come near to you to judgment and will be a swift witness.
How he bears his witness against all that is contrary to God,
all that is sinful. And there, in the context, the
immediate context of our text tonight, we see him as that one
who is the witness of the covenant. will make an everlasting covenant
with you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have given
him for a witness to the people. He is a witness then to the blessed
truth of that covenant. Again, in that third chapter
of Malachi that we just referred to, the opening verse, we read
of the messenger of the covenant. Behold, he shall come. It is
so evident that there the prophet Malachi is speaking of Christ
as that one who is the messenger of the covenant. That one who
as he comes bears witness against sin. This is the ministry of the Lord
Jesus Christ and the mediator. The mediator of a better covenant
we're talking about. that is, a covenant that is better
than that that was given at Mount Sinai. And ought to be those
who are brought to look to him and trust in him, to believe,
to believe in him. John tells us in his first general
epistle and there in the last chapter, he that believeth in
him has the witness in himself. Well, we have to examine ourselves
and prove ourselves and know ourselves how that Jesus Christ
is in us. Except we be reprimanded. And
he is in us as a witness. He will witness against all our
sins, but he will be a witness also to the grace of God where
sin abounds. Grace does so much more abound.
It abounds in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the one who calls
then in the Gospel. A witness. but also a leader. I have given him for a witness
to the people, a leader, it says. And what does this mean? Well,
the word that's used here literally means the one who goes before,
the one who goes in front. And that is how the Lord ministers
to his people. He is the good shepherd. And
as I'm sure you're aware, the Eastern Shepherd doesn't drive
his sheep. The Eastern Shepherd would go
before them and lead them in the Word. Oh, remember how we have him
spoken of in Scripture. You are familiar, all of us are
familiar with the beautiful language of the Psalmist. There in the
23rd Psalm, And what comforting words they
are, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me
to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still
waters. He restoreth my soul. He leadeth
me in paths of righteousness. For his name's sake, yea, though
I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear
no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff, they comfort
me. Thou preparest a table before
me in the presence of mine enemies. Thou anointest my head with oil.
My cup runneth over, surely. Goodness and mercy shall follow
me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of
the Lord forever. Oh, here is that one, you see.
David says he leadeth me beside the still waters. Though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,
for thou art with me. He is that one then who is a
leader to his people, and he leads them as his sheep. Again, we have the language of
the New Testament there in the 10th chapter of John. John 10,
for when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them.
And the sheep follow him, for they know his voice, and a stranger
will they not follow, for they know not the voice of strangers."
Oh, for that discernment that we might ever discern the voice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what we want to hear in
the ministry of the Word. We don't want to hear merely
the words of a man, we want to be those who are favored to know
that voice. My sheep hear my voice, he says.
and I know them, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal
life, and they shall never perish. No man is able to pluck them
out of my hand. My Father which gave them me
is greater than all. No man can pluck them out of
my Father's hand. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
that one who is the leader, who goes before, and has he not even
now gone before his people into heaven itself. The forerunner
is for us entered even Jesus, made and high priest forever
after the order of Melchizedek. He has gone to prepare a place
for his people and he will come again and receive them to himself,
he says, that where he is, there they may be also. He is that
one then who calls. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and a commander to the people. And what we have here is the
idea of a military man, a military commander, a conqueror. He is
the captain of the Lord of Hosts. Oh, remember back in the in the
book of Joshua, there at the end of chapter five, when Joshua
is confronted by a strange man, and Joshua wants to know on whose
side he is. Well, it's an appearance of Christ.
So they offer those strange happenings that we read of in Old Testament
scriptures. It's Christ appearing to a man as it were, in anticipation
of the fullness of the time when God would send forth his son,
made of a woman, and made unto the Lord. And he appears and
declares himself to Joshua as the captain of the Lord of hosts. The same person that Paul speaks
of, Hebrews 2.10, the captain of salvation, made perfect through
sufferings. Oh, he has accomplished all the
Father's goodwill and pleasure. He has gone forth conquering
and to conquer. O death, where is thy sting?
O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. What sufferings!
What sufferings! And we have them, of course. Just a couple of chapters previous
we read of him as the the suffering servant of the Lord, in chapter
53. And what are we told there at the end? Verse 11, he shall
serve of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his
knowledge shall my righteous servant justify men, for he shall
bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoiled with
the strong because he hath poured out his soul unto death, and
he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bared the sin of linen,
and made intercession for the transgressors. This is that one
who is the commander, and how he has stained his garments in
blood, the shedding of that precious blood, or that one then who has
vanquished all the powers of darkness, overcome sin, himself
and now he's exalted. He must got exalted with his
right hand to be a prince and a savior, to give repentance
to Israel and the forgiveness of sin. So he is spoken of here. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the peace, a leader, and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not. The nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
thine. Well, having sought to say something
with regard to the one who calls, I want us in the second place
to consider those who are the call. And the Korah is spoken
of here in verse 5. And we read of a nation and nations. A nation and nations. And what is the reference here? It's to the Gentile nations.
It's the Gentile nations. And Isaiah reminds us of these
truths here. We go back again to chapter 49.
And verse six, he said, it is a light thing that thou shouldest
be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore
the preserve of Israel, I will also give thee for a light to
the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end
of the earth. And then again, remember the
words that we have here in verse three of the 54th chapter. They shall break forth on the
right hand and on the left, and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles,
and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. Who are these called? It is sinners
of the Gentiles that are being referred to. And what do we read
concerning these characters? Well, they know not God. they know not God." There in
verse 5, "...nations that knew not God." Oh well, they were
so estranged from God. And we saw it, of course, in
the portion of Scripture that we read there in Ephesians chapter
2. Remember the words that we find
at verse 11? Wherefore remember that ye being in time past Gentiles
in the flesh, who are put on circumcision by that which is
called the circumcision in the flesh made by hands, that at
that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel and strangers from the covenant of promise, having
no hope, and without God in the world. All those Gentile nations,
they knew not God. Again, we could turn over to
chapter four and verse 18 in that epistle to the Ephesians. Having the understanding darkened,
alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that was
in them because of the blindness or the hardness, as it says in
the margin, the hardness of their hearts, that's the Gentiles.
They knew not God. What does Paul say in the course
of his ministry? He was called, of course, to
be that one who would be apostle to the Gentiles. That's what
he is saying in that third chapter of the Ephesian epistle. Well,
when he preaches at Athens in Acts 17, and he makes reference
to God's dealings with the peoples, and particularly with the Gentiles,
It says, the time of this ignorance got wintered, but now commandeth
all men everywhere to repent. And what is that repentance we
might say? It's a national repentance. That's not evangelical repentance.
And some of us lament the fact that there's been no call in
this nation to repentance, no call to prayer by those in authority,
no call to repentance in a previous day, there would have been such
a word issued from those on high. Certainly those things would
have happened in the last war, but not now with such a godless
nation. And you can think of God's dealings
with the Ninevites, that there, there was a national repentance,
and God didn't destroy the Ninevites. how his servant the prophet Jonah
rebounds against them. See, God is a merciful God. Judgments
of God's claims work. But of course, when we look to
those in authority now, they have no thought of God. God is
not in all their thoughts. All we have to plead for those
in authority that the Lord God himself would yet come and open
eyes and ears. that our rulers might be humbled
under his mighty hand. But here we see how God has a
purpose to fulfill in calling sinners of the Gentile nations.
They knew not God. But there in Romans 10 20 we
read them that sought me not, that asked not after me. These
are the ones that God calls. Those that were so far from him.
They knew not God. But then also here, we see that
God, in a sense, knew not them. Verse 5, Behold, thou shalt call
a nation that thou knowest not. The nations that do not know.
But a nation that thou knowest not. Now, God, of course, knows
all things. We speak of God as that One who
is omniscient, all-knowing. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in His sight. All things are naked and open
to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. There is that
knowledge in God that we can hide nothing from Him. As we
see in the 139th Psalm, He knows our down-sitting and our uprising.
He understands our thoughts, the far off, how fearful it is. But oh, to have that spirit of
David search me, oh God, and know my heart, try me and know
my thoughts and see if there'd be any wicked way in mine. And
lead me in a way everlasting. God knows all things. But then
there is that special knowledge that God has. And God certainly
had a special knowledge with regards to the children of Israel. And that's brought out. certainly
brought out in the language that we have in the book of Deuteronomy. And I want to refer to two passages. In Deuteronomy 7, and there at
verse 7, Moses says to the Israelites, the Lord did not set his love
upon you nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people for you were the fewest of all people, but because the
Lord loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, that the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And then later again, Deuteronomy
chapter 26 and verse 18, the last verses.
The Lord hath avowed thee this day to be his peculiar people,
as he promised them, and that they should just keep all his
commandments, and to make thee high above all nations which
he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour, and that
thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God, as he
hath spoken. Or he could say to them by his
servant, I must have profited you only, have I not, of all
the families of the earth. What a blessed people Oh, what
a favored people were the children of Israel. Again, think of the
language of the Psalmist there at the end of the 147th Psalm. What does he say concerning God? He showeth his word unto Jacob,
his statutes and his judgments unto Israel. He hath not dealt
so with any nation. And as for his judgments, they
have not known them. Praise you, the Lord. For these
were that people then that God did know. God knew them well. He had set his sovereign love
upon them. They were his peculiar possession. And oh, they were
blessed and favoured with the word of God, the covenants of
God. Doesn't Paul remind us of that when he speaks there in
the ninth chapter of the epistle to the Romans. Look at the words
that we have in Romans chapter 9 and verse 4, who are Israelites,
to whom attaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants,
and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises,
whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh
Christ came, who is over all God blessed forever. Amen. But there now it follows,
not as though the word of God hath taken none effect, they
are not all Israel, which are of Israel, as we've said many
a time. Many a time. There was a spiritual Israel
in the midst of ethnic Israel. They're not all Israel that are
of Israel. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not, says John. In the opening chapter of that
gospel, But as many as received him, to them gave he power to
be called the sons of God, which were born, not of blood, nor
of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. All these, you see, even these,
of whom it is said, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest
not. It's the Gentiles God will call
sinners of the Gentiles. He did not know them under the
Old Testament. But there was that mystery that
was to be revealed. And that's what we have there,
of course, in the opening verses of that third chapter of the
Ephesian Epistle. Paul writes, For this cause I
pour the prison of Jesus Christ for you, Gentiles, if you have
heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given
me to you, how that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery.
What is this mystery? As I wrote afore in a few words,
whereby when ye read ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of
Christ, which in other ages was not made known unto the sons
of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets
by the Spirit, that the Gentiles should be fellow heirs and of
the same God, and partakers of his promise in the gospel by
Christ. These are the things that the
Apostle is speaking of, the very things that are spoken of also
here in the prophecy of Isaiah. That God will cause sinners of
the Gentiles. And so, when we come to the end,
the end of this remarkable book of Isaiah, look at what we have
there in the 66th chapter, the last chapter. Verse 18. I will gather all nations
and tongues, and they shall come and see my glory. And I will
set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them
unto the nations to Tarshish, Poole, and Lund, that draw the
bow to Tubal, and Japheth to the isles afar off, that have
not heard my fight, neither have seen my glory, and they shall
declare my glory among the Gentiles. Oh, look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Now that's true. That's true
in a very real sense with regards to that mystery that was hidden
for hundreds of years to be revealed with the coming of Christ calling
of the apostles, the ministry of a man like Paul. But is there not also a truth
that we're to understand in an experimental sense when God says,
look unto me and be ye safe all the ends of the earth? Or when
the Lord Jesus begins to deal with his people, do they not
in their feelings have to acknowledge that they are as it were at the
ends of the earth? They're so far off. What hope
can there be? for the sinner. You that were
sometime alienated, enemies in your mind by wicked works. Why are those wicked works, when
the Lord begins to work conviction in the soul, do we not then have
to acknowledge and confess our separation from God? This is
what our sins have done to us. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, your sins have hid its face from you,
says the prophet. And yet this gospel is for such
sinners as this, that all have no need of the physicians, says
Christ. But they that are sick, I came
not to call them righteous, but sinners to repentance. For no
salvation for those self-righteous Pharisees, they had no need of. Well, they said that they could
see, read the words of the Lord Jesus here at the end of John
chapter 9 after he has given sight to the man that was born
blind. Now, the Pharisees and the leaders
of the Jews so despised Christ Jesus for judgment and may come
into this world that they which see not might see and that they
which see might be made blind. And some of the Pharisees which
were with him heard these words and said unto him, are we blind
also? And Jesus said unto them, if
you were blind, you should have no sin. But now you say, we see
therefore your sin remain. So that we might see and feel
what we are. And recognize our need of that
gracious revelation. To hear the voice of him that
calls his people, that effectual call. That mark of the sheep
of the Lord Jesus Christ, they know His voice. They follow Him. He gives unto them eternal life. You see, there is for the sinner
such hope in this covenant. The everlasting covenant, the
sure mercies of David. There's hope for the sinner.
Where sin abounds, grace doth so much more abound. Almighty, please the Lord then
to to bless these words today to us and to comfort us with
that saving knowledge of his only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ. Incline your ear and come unto
me. Here and your soul shall live,
and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure
mercies of day. Behold, I have given him for
a witness to the people, a leader and commander to the people.
Behold, thou shalt call a nation that thou knowest not. The nations
that knew not thee shall run unto thee because of the Lord
thy God, and for the Holy One of Israel, for he hath glorified
good. Oh, the Lord be pleasing to bless
his word to us. Amen.