Finish that. Good evening. We're going to open tonight's
service singing number 70 out of the hardback, number 70, Holy,
Holy, Holy. Early in the morning our song
shall rise to Thee. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three Persons, blessed Trinity. holy, all the saints adore thee,
casting down their golden crowns around the glassy sea. Cherubim and seraphim falling
down before thee, which word and art and evermore shall be. Holy, holy, holy, Lord, the darkness
by thee, though the eye of sinful man thy glory may not see, Only
Thou art holy, there is none beside Thee, perfect in power,
in love and purity. God almighty. All thy works shall praise thy
name in earth and sky and sea. Holy, holy, holy, merciful and
mighty, God in three persons, blessed Trinity. Our second hymn will be 352.
352, Jesus, lover of my soul. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide. ? Till the storm of life is past
? ? Safe into the haven, God ? ? O receive my soul at last
? ? Other refuge have I none ? ? Hangs my helpless soul on
Thee ? Leave, ah, leave me not alone. Still support and comfort
me. All my trust on thee is stained. All my help from thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy wing. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Cathedrally is my name. I am all unrighteousness. All sinful of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenteous grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, ? Make and keep me pure within ? ? Thou of life, the
fountain of life ? ? Freely let me take of thee ? ? Spring thou
up within my heart ? ? Rise to all eternity ? Thank you. You may be seated. I'd like to read from John chapter
4. beginning with verse 7. There cometh a woman of Samaria
to draw water. Jesus saith unto her, Give me
to drink. For his disciples were gone away
unto the city to buy meat. Then saith the woman of Samaria
unto him, How is it that thou, being a Jew, askest drink of
me, which am a woman of Samaria? For the Jews have no dealings
with the Samaritans.' And Jesus answered and said unto her, If
thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee,
Give me to drink, thou wouldst have asked of him, and he would
have given thee living water. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
thou hast nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. From whence
Then hast thou that living water? Art thou greater than our father
Jacob, which gave us the well, and drank thereof himself, and
his children, and his cattle? Jesus answered and said unto
her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again. But
whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never
thirst. But the water that I shall give
him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting
life. The woman saith unto him, Sir,
give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw. And Jesus saith unto her, Go,
call thy husband, and come hither. The woman answered and said,
I have no husband. And Jesus said unto her, Thou
hast well said, I have no husband, for thou hast had five husbands.
And he whom thou now hast is not thy husband, In that saidst
thou truly. And the woman saith unto him,
Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. Our fathers worshipped
in this mountain, and ye say that in Jerusalem is the place
where men ought to worship. And Jesus saith unto her, Woman,
believe me, the hour cometh when ye shall neither in this mountain
nor yet at Jerusalem worship the Father. Ye worship ye know
not what. We know what we worship, for
salvation is of the Jews. But the hour cometh, and now
is, when the true worshipers shall worship the Father in spirit
and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. The woman
saith unto him, I know that Messiah cometh, which is called Christ,
and when he is come he will tell us all things. Jesus saith unto
her, I that speak unto thee am he. Lord, we come before you. We
ask that you would be gracious to us tonight, that you would
reveal yourself to each one of us, just as you revealed yourself
to the woman of Samaria. We ask that you'd give us the
ability to worship you in spirit and in truth. We ask that you'd
be with Brother Eric as he brings the message. We ask that you'd
give him everything he needs to declare the gospel. We ask
that you'd be with those who couldn't be with us tonight,
that are sick, we think of Ken, who is sick, and Scott, who is
recovering. We pray that you'd be with them
and anyone else that we don't know of. We ask this all in the
name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. Okay, brethren, let's turn to
Isaiah 44. Isaiah 44, we're gonna pick up
at the last verse, 28, and then we're gonna work our way into
Isaiah 45, up to verse three there. All right, so when we're looking
at the text tonight, What I want us to realize is that there are
two things, two ways, two perspectives that we see or recognize here. There's the historical perspective,
what we see happened historically, and then there is the spiritual. what this historical account
is really pointing to for our benefit, right? So from the historical
perspective, we know that anyone can learn some things, right? Just reading the history of it,
there's things that anyone can pick up. We can learn of Israel
and Israel's history. We can learn how the Lord is
able to use carnal men men, just any man, and turn him and use
him for his own purposes and his own glory. And because of
that, there are many professors, and by professor, I mean college
professors, right, and scholars and theologians, so-called, that
study the history. They can study the Bible and
feel like they're getting something out of it, something relevant,
something helpful. And they see it typically in
a as a book of morals and ethics and codes by which we should
live our life. And so in that sense, they understand
it, but really that's just a dead letter understanding. That's
just a scholarly approach to what the Lord is revealing here.
And all it shows is that they have a head knowledge of God,
and they're just mere carnal professors. But we know by experience
what is it that blesses our heart. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. It's
seeing how in all the scriptures, the Lord blesses his people and
in revealing Christ to them, our hope and our salvation, our
comfort and our joy. And that's really the difference
between a carnal head knowledge and a spiritual life and fellowship
with God, rejoicing in him, even as our brother was reading there
in John four. God is a spirit and he seeks,
he seeks his people to worship him in spirit and in truth. And so that's what he's going
to do for them. He's going to give them spiritual
life whereby they know him through the revelation and power of Almighty
God revealing faith in them. And so by faith, looking to Christ,
by that faith which he gives us, we behold Christ, our Savior,
our Lord, our God, revealing and fulfilling all the promises
of God made unto the children, made unto his people. And that's
even what we saw recently in Romans 15, verse eight. In the beginning of verse nine,
we read, now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the
circumcision, he came to the Jews, for the truth of God to
confirm the promises made unto the fathers, and that the Gentiles
might glorify God for his mercy. Because if this was just to the
Jewish people, what will we have to rejoice in? But we see how
these are pictures and types and shadows of Christ the Savior
of all his people, Jew and Gentile, and how he fulfills these promises
of God to his people, he fulfills them to us in his own person,
in himself, in what he's done. And let me just add this as well
before we get into it, that the more we live in the hope that
we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, and we look at this world and
what's going on about us, we see more and more of what Paul
was speaking of when he said to the churches, for example,
in Ephesians 6, Verse 12, and he was speaking of our standing
against the wiles of the devil, right? His craftiness and what
he's doing and working here in the earth so that there's trials
and confusion and the midst of darkness all about the people
that dwell here. And he said in Ephesians 6, 12,
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. And so, you know,
I think this is good, even in light of what we see politically. And one thing that we know, that
we understand, we're not going to have a political solution. We know that. There's not going
to be a political solution that's going to satisfy or heal the
problems that we're facing. And that's because the problems
that we face, they arise out of our Adamic nature. They're because of what we are
in Adam. We're corrupt. dead sinners. We bring forth
works that are very self-gratifying and good for ourselves, but are
often harmful for others. And we know this, Paul said in
Romans 5.12, wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the
world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men, for
that all have sinned. And so the corruption and the
the self-serving and the deceit that goes on in politics in our
day, you know, that we see it's a result of the bondage that
we're in by nature, right? It's a result of our bondage
to sin and this corrupt nature, all right? And so, Paul would
say in Ephesians 2-2, wherein in time past, right, he tells
us this and we understand it, with the knowledge that we have
of what Christ has saved us from, wherein in time past he walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the
children of disobedience. And so man is just taken captive
by the evil one and he does evil things as a result until the
Lord steps in and and either turns that man delivering him
from his bondage and saving him in Christ, or he uses him to
his own purpose and glory to fulfill some good in his kingdom
for his people. But what it tells us, what we
see there of sin and just the prince of the power of the air,
no man's gonna deliver himself. No man's gonna get himself out
of his trouble. The more he works at it, typically
the worst he's going to make it. And it's going to produce
some other evil fruit. But there is one who does save
his people. There is one whom the Father
has sent to deliver his people, to provide salvation and liberty
in Christ, to deliver us from sin, corruption, and that bondage. And it's the Lord's anointing.
the one whom he's anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so tonight
in our text, we're given a type of Christ in this man, Cyrus,
right? This man, Cyrus here in the text
is what Isaiah is writing about. And he's just a pagan king, the
king of Persia, but He would be used by the Lord to free the
Jews from their captivity in Babylon. He would release them. He didn't take the Jews into
captivity. That was Babylon. But when he
conquered Babylon by the will of God doing that, when he overcame
them in the time when the Lord stirred his heart, he he decided
to let the Jews that were in captivity go free if they wanted
to. They were allowed to return back to Jerusalem and to build
the temple of the Lord. And so we see there that it wasn't
through political will, right? It wasn't man coming together
to affect this good that we see there and the Jews returning
because it It preserved the body and it was the body through which
Christ would come forth. But instead, rather than man's
political will doing it, we see the sovereignty of God overcoming
the will of man, overcoming the corruption of man and working
his will in the earth as it pleases him. And I was reading in some
of the places where this historical figure Cyrus is spoken of in
Ezra 1.1, it says, now in the first year of Cyrus, king of
Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah
might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus,
king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all
his kingdom. And that proclamation was, if
you want to go, if you're one of the Lord's people, of the
God of Israel, and you wish to return, go for it. You can go. You have the king's permission
and blessing, and in fact, we'll give you riches to go and build
your temple. down there. So we see it's all
the hand and the will of the Lord stirring up the heart of
this king. It wasn't a political man's political
movement. And so in looking, though, at
this description of Cyrus, we see how that the Lord Jesus Christ
fulfills all these things for his people. He's the deliverer.
He's the anointed one. He's the one who delivers his
people from their captivity. So I've titled this God's Anointed. God's Anointed. Now our text
begins in Isaiah 44 verse 28. All right, that saith of Cyrus,
this is the Lord speaking by the mouth of the prophet long
before Cyrus was born, he says of Cyrus, naming him specifically
200 years before he was born, he says, he is my shepherd and
shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou
shalt be built and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid. All right, and so this is the
king, the king of Persia in his first year, The Lord stirs his
heart up, and he releases the captivity of Israel to go back.
Now, he's a pagan king, all right? He's not a godly king. He's a
pagan king, and he's used by the Lord to do his will, to deliver
God's chosen children, all right? Pictured in national Israel there. And he sends them back to Judah. He gives them permission, he
gives them letters to go there because they're going to face
trouble and trials. If you read Nehemiah and Ezra,
they come into hardships there. And eventually they'll build
the temple unto the Lord. And that's because, historically,
if a kingdom was conquered, if a city was conquered, they weren't
necessarily allowed to rebuild it. could just do that if the conquering
king didn't allow because he may prevent them knowing that
there are very rebellious people and are just going to rebuild
it to rebel against him and stop paying their taxes or fruits
or whatever they agreed to pay him, their sheep or something
like that. So He gave them permission. Now, He did speak well of the
Lord in 2 Chronicles or in Ezra 1, verses 2 and 3. They're very
similar. But at the very end, the last
verse in 2 Chronicles 36, 23, It says, thus saith Cyrus, king
of Persia, all the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of
heaven given me. So he says some nice things about
the Lord. And he hath charged me to build
him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among
you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him,
and let him go up. And so I'm just mentioning this
because he did say some nice things. Even pagan historians
who were speaking of his life recorded that at the end of his
life, when he was about to die, he made sacrifice to Jupiter
and the sun and thanked them for giving him a good life and
taking care of him in his life. So he was all over the place,
right? Very much like you hear people,
you know, at one moment they say nice things about Jesus,
right? Jesus Christ, and they'll say
they believe in him, or they'll speak of God, and then they're
also speaking at another time of very foolish things, just
talking of very, of just very, just weird things, and of other
gods, or just speaking of karma, or something like that, and they're
just all over the place, and that's where this man was as
well. However, he is a type of Christ,
Even this carnal, wicked man is a type of Christ. And so we see how, you know,
people can have a certain level of understanding about God and
yet have no knowledge of Him. Even a very good knowledge of
the Bible and be able to quote scripture or claim to follow
the law, you know, the Ten Commandments, they might be very moral people.
but it doesn't mean they have a personal relationship with
the Lord Jesus Christ, or that they hope in Him for all their
righteousness. Because a lot of people don't
realize what sinners we are by nature, and just how corrupt
we are, and how vile we are, how vile our nature is, our fleshly
nature is to holy, righteous God. And He's perfect and holy,
and we must be perfect and holy to stand before him, and that
perfection is found in Jesus Christ. And so just a casual
knowledge of the Lord, or even a good knowledge of the Lord
and of his Bible, of his word, is not salvation, right? Being
good church members is not salvation. Salvation is in a person, the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's in him and him alone. So
Cyrus, he's a type of Christ, and the Lord says, he's my shepherd. Well, we know he pictures the
great shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so when all the world
is raging against you, you that hope in Christ, and when you're
troubled about the many things that can trouble us, the Lord
reveals to you, he would have you to know that your hope, the
Lord Jesus Christ, he's a great shepherd. He is the great shepherd
and he cares for you just as a shepherd cares for his flock,
right? You that have animals, the Lord's
given you a heart to care for them. I don't necessarily love
animals, but I have chickens and I care for them. I go out
there every day just to make sure that they're okay and that
they have food. And if they are getting low,
I just check on those things. Because, I mean, we're going
to do that. They can't take care of themselves.
They're dependent on us. And so like if we do that and
we're sinners, how much more the Lord Jesus Christ, who is
the great shepherd, he knows your needs. He knows you perfectly.
And everything he does is a perfect provision for you. And he cares
for you. All right. He tells us that.
and his word, and he shows it to us in our lives. And so he'll
never leave you to be devoured by the beasts of this world that
would tear us apart and rend us and destroy us. Turn over
to John 10, John chapter 10, and go to verses 11 and 12, and
then just stay there, because we'll look at two more verses
shortly. So John 10, 11 and 12. Here, this is our Lord speaking
to the Jews and it's for our benefit. It's for our benefit. And he says, verse 11, I am the
good shepherd. The good shepherd giveth his
life for the sheep. We already know that he cares
for us because he laid down his life. That's how much he loves
you. that he's revealed faith in you,
that's how much he loves you, that he's given his life. He
allowed himself to be taken and brutally, mercilessly treated,
right? And so he was shamefully treated
and put to death when he did nothing deserving of death. But
he that is in hireling, he says, and not the shepherd whose own
The sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the
sheep, and fleeth. And the wolf catcheth them, and
scattereth the sheep. And so the Lord, he's provided
the great shepherd for you. And as your shepherd, he gives
you an under shepherd, one to preach the gospel, one to to
care for you, right? He speaks to his angel of the
churches and then the angel speaks to the churches what the Lord
has revealed to him, what he's given to him for you, his people. And so he cares for you. And
remember that because not every body has a pastor, right? Not every body has one. Many
people are listening on sites like Sermon Audio or are getting
what they can, right? And many waste their time going
to false churches and where the gospel isn't preached or where
it's confusion being preached, right? But the Lord's blessed
you to hear the gospel, which should comfort you and remind
you even when days seem hard, that the Lord cares for you,
right? Because we're strengthened and
nourished by the gospel. That's how we stand against the
wiles of the devil. not because we're so wise and
cunning and crafty ourselves, but he strengthens us, nourishes
us with the gospel so that when you hear what another person
says by the spirit, hearing that word as well testifies to your
spirit, either that's true or that's a lie, right? How many
things, awful things do you hear throughout the day and the week
that you know, that you discern and say, that's not true? I know
that my God liveth. I know that he reigns and that
he's keeping me. That's the spirit that testifies
to your heart what is true or false because it either aligns
with the gospel or it does not. And so the Lord, he's providing
for you. And so this one, the great shepherd,
he shall perform, just stay there in John 10, he shall perform
all God's pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built. He shall build you, his people,
you're his people. And so in verse 26 now of John
10, John 10, 26 and 27, he says, but ye believe not, because ye
are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice,
and I know them, and they follow me. And I just say that in relation
to Christ building the temple, because he knows you that are
his. And that's why he's called you
out. He's gathering his stones out from the mass of all the
inhabitants of the earth who know not God. He separated you
out of precious stones, revealing, making you lively stones, living
stones as one coming unto the living stone, the Lord Jesus
Christ. And so he separated you out. calling you by his gospel,
revealing faith in you, and giving you that hope in him. And that's
his work that does that because he loved you eternally. You were
given to him before the mass of humanity was ever created.
You were chosen of God and predestinated unto the glory and the grace
of God in Christ Jesus, our Savior. All right, and so with these
stones, he's building his temple. He's assembling them together
as local bodies, which is a picture of his entire body, the whole
body of Christ, the whole temple of God. And so we're built and
established upon him and given his gospel, whereby we're fed
and strengthened so that we're not all over the place. As once
we were, being turned and and confused and troubled by the
various things that we heard of religious persons or things
in the world. Now we know that it's all of
Christ, all of Christ, and He settles us in Him, and we're
thankful for that, joyful for that. He accomplishes this work
as the sacrifice of his people. He laid down his life for them.
It's not as Scholars would teach us, Bible
scholars as they would teach us. It's not that Christ is a
good man and came to set an example for us to follow and that if
we just do our best, if we just set the 10 commandments on our
wall and look at them every day and do our best to follow them
and remember what the Lord did and do our best to follow him
as our example. No, that's not enough. We're
never going to to please the Lord looking to the law, because
the law is going to declare we're sinners. We always come up short
under the law. But by the grace of God and the
Lord Jesus Christ, he is our righteousness, because he came
and fulfilled all righteousness for his people and went to the
cross making a sacrifice of himself unto the Father to put away our
sin, and to make us righteous by himself. He is our very righteousness. We're not now looking to him
and trying to repeat it as best we can for righteousness. He
is our righteousness to stand before the Father, holy, unblameable,
accepted of God, perfect. entirely perfect in Jesus Christ
and in him alone. And so we're thankful for that,
all right? He did that, he accomplished
that for you, his sheep, there on the cross, all right? He made
sacrifice of himself. Isaiah 53, five and six, Isaiah
would say, but he was wounded for our transgressions. He was
bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement of our peace, that
which should have fallen on me, fell on him. The stripes which
should have been mine and yours fell on the Lord Jesus Christ,
so that with his stripes, which he took, we are healed. God is pleased. His law satisfied. His righteous justice has been
satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ for you who are his, for you
whom he's revealed faith in you. believing on him and trusting
him for your righteousness. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way and the Lord had laid on him the iniquity of us all,
all his sheep for whom he laid down his life and died for them
and rose again, rose again, right? Now let's pick up in Isaiah 45
verse one. Here we read, thus saith the
Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden
to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of
kings to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. All right, so Cyrus is called
the Lord's anointed here. All right, this is speaking of
this man, Cyrus, he's the Lord's anointed. And let me just address
a few of these things that are mentioned here, and we'll come
back to him being anointed. You know, this description of
the fearful kings, this happened historically, right? In Daniel,
he records it. In Daniel 5, verse 6, he records
that time when Belshazzar, King Belshazzar of Babylon, was partying
it up and having a good time, and he was drinking from the
the instruments that were taken from the temple in Jerusalem.
There M was made fearful when he saw that hand of God writing
and scribing on the wall declaring he was judged. When he saw that
hand it said the king's countenance was changed and his thoughts
troubled him so that the joints of his loins were loosed and
his knees smote one against another." So that's true. Of Media and
Persia and their armies, the kings were made fearful, just
like this king here at the moment when God declared, you're done. You've been weighed in the balance
and you're found wanting. You're going to be destroyed,
all right? And then the opening of the two
lead gates, It speaks of the conquests of Persia, right? It speaks of all the nations
which they conquered, and they conquered a lot, many, many nations. I'm not going to list them all,
but there were many nations and kings that were subdued by Persia. And then it said, the gates shall
not be shut. And that seems, most agree that
that seems to indicate how it was that Babylon fell. Babylon
had thick walls and strong gates of brass and iron that couldn't
be easily conquered. But Babylon was never under siege.
It never was locked down and hunkered down under a siege.
They fell in a night. They were conquered immediately
because when they came up to Babylon, what happened was, where
the river was, there was, I guess, water flowing alongside, because
it was right along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, if I'm not
mistaken, and it was well situated for protection, but there were
gates under the city going from the water, and that night, those
gates were left open. They were not shut. They were
left open, and the armies just went right on in, and took over. And that night, that very night,
the king was slain, all right? And so we see historically all
these things were very true. But concerning this anointing,
it doesn't mean that he was anointed with oil in the way that the
kings of Judah or Israel were anointed there. There was no
oil like that. And it doesn't mean that he was
anointed with the Holy Spirit in the way that you, which believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, the way that you're anointed, right,
by the Holy Spirit. But that word anointing is used
to describe Christ. It's the very word that declares
Christ and describes him. Over in Psalm 2-2, we read of
Christ, it says, the kings of the earth set themselves and
the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against
his anointed. Against his anointed, they're
warring against the anointed, which is another declaration
that we'll never have a political solution. There's never going
to be peace that man creates. And when he creates it, it's
a false peace and it's built upon vain, corrupt promises,
right? And deceit. And so there's not
going to be this, this political solution there. And we know when
he says in his anointed, this is the same scripture that Peter
declared to the Jews when he was preaching Christ and him
crucified and the Lord saved many. It says in Acts 4.26, the
kings of the earth stood up and the rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against his Christ, his anointed, his
Christ. And so that's the word there
that the same word that's speaking of Cyrus here. And so Cyrus was
raised up of God for this purpose, to do this very job, this very
work that he purposed for him to do. And it would be for Israel's
benefit to release them and let them go back to Judah and form
a nation again. And so what we see in all this
is that it's picturing our salvation. It's a picture of our spiritual
salvation and our deliverance from the bondage and corruption
of sin that we can never deliver ourselves from. If it's not our
sin, it's the evil one. If it's not the evil one, it's
our sin. We're corrupt and not going to do those things that
please God. We can't change our, like a leopard
can't change its spots, an Ethiopian can't change his skin, Neither
can we cease to do sin, which drink iniquity like water." We're
full of sin. And so Christ, the anointed of
God, he accomplished it for his nation of people, his people
from every tongue, tribe, and nation. And he did this as setting
them free as their king. And he blesses them with his
riches. He gives his riches to his son
as their inheritance, and we are blessed in Christ our Savior
and our Lord. And so because of his great love
for you, brethren, he accomplished our salvation in Christ, establishing
his gospel so that his gospel goes forth in his power and glory,
calling us out of our death, out of that head knowledge and
just vain dead religion calling us and gathering us to himself
to behold the servant of God and to believe on him and to
trust him for all things, being comforted and reminded of these
things continually because we get so hard and so forgetful
and so numb to the dead things this world right and so Peter
would say of Christ in Acts 10 38 when he's speaking to Cornelius
he says God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost
and with power who went about doing good and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil for God was with him right and so
our Savior did that he delivered us from our oppression and our
captivity and and gives us deliverance in Him. And we know it by His
power. He makes sure that we know it,
that we rejoice in Him. All right, and now to that point,
verse two, back in Isaiah 45, verse two, I will go before thee
and make the crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron. And so the Lord
led Cyrus to tremendous success. If you ever wonder, well, why
is that person so successful and I'm not? Well, because the
Lord's done it. He's purpose to. lead them to
success and it's not necessarily a good spiritual ending, right? But he's given to them what he's
given to them and he's given you your lot and we're to be
thankful in it because the Lord is working good for all his people. It's all for our good, right?
What you have or don't have, it's all in the hands of the
Lord and we trust him for that because he's going to use us
specifically and purposely as he will use us and we'll have
our various experiences and our various troubles. and in our
various successes even, all that we will be in the right place
at the right time when the Lord intends it, to bear that fruit
that he's purposed that we bear in him, giving him all the praise
and glory. And even the wicked, it's so
of them, though they give him not glory, yet his people will
glorify him in that day. We may not recognize it here
in this life, maybe we will, but maybe we won't, will praise
him and glorify him in that day, all right? And so the Lord was
with Cyrus and gave him success. And so it is that our God gave
his son great success in what he did. He accomplished our salvation. It is finished. Nothing else
is left undone. And he said back in Isaiah 42,
verse six, I, the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will
hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant
of the people for a light of the Gentiles." So nothing prevented
Christ and nothing shall prevent Christ and everything he's purposed
to do for you it shall come to pass. Already much has come to
pass for for our good and our salvation and our comfort And
He shall continue that until the end, right? And even in the
day of our death, He'll give us the grace and the faith for
it, to be glad in it. Like those brethren in Hebrews
11, right? That chapter of faith who didn't
want to be delivered. They were glad to give their
lives for the Lord, all right? So nothing shall prevent him.
And we see this in the salvation which he's wrought in us and
how he's called us out of darkness, right? Treasures that were hidden
in darkness, kept shut up to the things of God until the day
of his appointing in which he called us out and brought us
into the family of God, our Savior, all right? And so we give him
thanks. You know when a brother or sister
is indeed called of the Lord, a true brother or sister, because
they're giving God all the glory, and they continue to give God
all the glory. And if they don't, the Lord will
correct them, because He's able to make them stand, and He'll
reveal to them, even to them, that He is their salvation. If
indeed they're His, we shall confess that He is our God and
Savior. All right, we'll boast of him.
And that's what we see in verse three, these vessels that were
marked out for honor. All right, it says, verse three,
and I will give thee, speaking to his son, I will give thee
the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places
that thou mayest know that I, the Lord, which call thee by
thy name, am the God of Israel. And so that's what our Lord did.
He called us out and even by revealing to us the light of
his salvation. I like that beautiful scripture
in 2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. And so we behold him that he
is all our salvation. And so I pray that you see the
hand of your God, that he has worked and is working salvation
in you. He continues to provide for you
and to keep you. And that even if there's a political
reprieve that we should experience, it's all going to be by the hand
of God. It's not going to be by our works or by the works
of man. A man's heart may be stirred
up to do things, but it's all by the will and the power of
God to bring about His will and His purpose in the earth, because
He's a God of purpose. And what He does, He does on
purpose and with purpose for His glory, right, and for our
good. So set your eye upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's God's anointed for this
work. You set your eye on Him. Forget
about what carnal man is doing, and you look to the Lord Jesus
Christ, because you that hope in Him, that's our comfort. He's
our peace. He's our promise, and He's fulfilled
all the promises made unto the fathers, and we Gentiles may
rejoice in Him, because He's called us to it. So, I pray you
bless that word to your heart, and that you rejoice, even in
these historical accounts, that we see Christ in it, and always
see Him. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious
God, Lord, we thank you for that you are so mighty and so wonderful
a God that you should take thought of us. Lord, what are we that
you should be mindful of us, that you should care for us who
are sinners and who rebelled against you and were by nature
at enmity against our God, just enemies, deep rooted hatred against
you in ourselves, in our nature. Lord, we thank you for your grace
and mercy to deliver us from our captivity under Babylon and
the Prince of Babylon. Lord, that you should set us
free, that you conquered him and let us go free in the Lord
Jesus Christ and have given us a heart and a hope and faith
in him that these righteous fruits should be born in us by your
spirit. Lord, we pray that you would
keep us ever looking to your anointed, the Lord Jesus Christ,
and that you would help us to walk in faith and in love to
him and in service to our brethren. And Lord, that we would not be
carried away with the wicked inhabitants of this earth, but
that we would remain faithful even in the great deception which
will come and deceive many. But Lord, that you will keep
us and that you would help us in the faithfulness which you
work in us, Lord, that you would call out your sheep out of darkness
and that you would gather your people together and build your
temple It's in the name of Jesus Christ that we pray these things.
Amen. Our closing hymn will be number
449. To God be the glory. 449. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done, so loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
who yielded His life in atonement for sin, and opened the life-gate
that all may go in. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. O perfect redemption, the purchase
of blood, to every believer the promise of God. The vilest offender
who truly believes, that moment from Jesus a pardon receives. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father, through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done. Great things He hath taught us,
great things He hath done, and great our rejoicing through Jesus
the Son. But purer and higher and greater
will be our wonder, our transport when Jesus we see. Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord,
let the earth hear His voice. Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
let the people rejoice. O come to the Father through
Jesus the Son, and give Him the glory, great things He hath done.