Our text is Isaiah 41, and we're
going to be looking at verses 1-4. Really, this message is a continuation
from what we've been seeing in Isaiah chapter 40, which is a
message of comfort to the people of God. All of Isaiah 40 is a
message of comfort because the Lord has told his people that
they're going into captivity. They're going to be led into
exile by a foreign king, a foreign land in Babylon, and he begins
to comfort the elect of his people. They're the ones that are going
to hear it. Many hear it, but to those without the Spirit of
God, it's just another man's opinion. It's just an opinion
among many opinions, and they're still just going to listen to
what they want to listen to and what they want to believe. But
to the people of God, they'll be humbled, and they will hear
the word of the Lord. And so, in the midst of all the
confusion that is us in this flesh, in our minds and in our
works and what we think and our opinions, our God speaks to us
in power and in authority, and he says, behold your God. Behold your God. to me, I'm your
God, he says, look to me. All right, now, the people, as
we've seen in Isaiah throughout, the people are taken up with
idolatry, taken up with idolatry, and they were going after many
of the gods of their neighbors around them, and they had a false
understanding of their own God. and they thought, he can't hear
or see, he's just like these other dumb idols and so we're
just gonna do what we wanna do. And so the Lord sent his word.
And when we think about it, their idolatry is really no different
than our idolatry today. It's just like we are, in the
flesh today, and we have many foolish thoughts of God, and
we have many foolish thoughts about ourselves. We think too
low of God and too high of ourselves, very often, in the flesh. And so, in Isaiah 40, we were
seeing how that Isaiah asks them first, in Isaiah 40, verse 18,
to whom then will ye liken God? or what likeness will you compare
unto him? In comparison of what all your
idols look like, and what do they do? And how do they compare
to the true and living God? And then the Lord himself asks
them, right? The voice of the prophet fades
away, and now the people, having been brought near by the spirit
of God, they hear the voice of God asking them in verse 25,
to whom then will ye liken me and shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? Does your idol God, the one that
you're trusting in, does he compare to me? Can he do what I do and
what I've exposed to you, how all the idols of man are foolishness
and unable to save you? They're the works of your own
hands. You think this is your righteousness and your salvation.
How do these things compare to me, who am God, who have raised
you up and done all these works before you? How do they compare
to me? And so, this is what the Lord
does for His people. As He's making them His own,
He's revealing this truth to us, right? He's showing us what
we are by nature. He's showing us what we're clinging
to and trusting him so that we see this is what I thought was
my righteousness. This is what I was really hoping
in, but now I see that this is the true and living God who saves,
right? And I can remember, and I'm sure
many of you remember how that in religion, as we went about
our ways and doing things and the things that we trusted in,
we thought we were serving God. We thought we were doing truth
until the Lord stripped us of those confidences because when
we were made honest, we saw I was trusting in my righteousness
and I was trusting in the fact that I could come to God because
I was a pretty good person, I was doing what I was supposed to
do, so now I could call upon the name of Jesus, in honesty,
right, without hypocrisy, not realizing that I was still a
hypocrite. And so, the Lord strips us and
breaks us, brings us to nothing in ourselves, so that we begin
to cry out to him and say, Lord, I'm beginning to see just how
the how far the depths of my own wickedness and my own heart
goes, and how easily I'm led astray after idols and false
gods and thinking these are my salvation. And so, at the expense
of our false gods, at the expense of our idols, he slays. these things, and he slays our
flesh, he cuts us down and brings us low in ourselves that we might
find our all in him who is our salvation. And in so doing, he
delivers us from the body of this death, right? And all the
body of Antichrist and all that opposes God, both in this flesh,
in this heart, as well as this world and its systems and ways,
our God is delivering us from the body of death. And what he
does is he brings us then face-to-face with none but our Savior, with
Him with whom we have to do, the one who sits upon the throne
of God, the one whom we're going to stand before in that day and
give an account of what we are in Him, thankfully. We're going
to stand in not our own righteousness, but in the righteousness of Christ,
if he's our hope, then he's the one that reveals that hope in
us. All for whom he loves, he reveals
that in us. And so, he brings us to hear
his word and to see, yes, Lord, you're right. And we'll even
take sides with God against ourselves, confessing, Lord, you're right,
you're just. and I've got nothing to boast
in, and we're gonna know it's not me that did it, but it's
your grace and power, Lord, that did this in me and for me. Thank you, Lord, thank you. All
right, so I've titled this message, God's Means of Strengthening,
God's Means of Strengthening, How God Strengthens His People. All right, that's what we're
gonna look at tonight. Now, remember that the salvation of God isn't to fill his people with
lies. Much of, certainly a good portion
of religion that's prevalent in America and probably the world
is to make you feel good about yourself, to give you peace in
yourself and that what you're doing is right and pleasing to
the Lord. And men, rather than preaching
Christ and bringing us to see our need of Christ, that we're
the sinners, they'll tell you lies like God is rooting for
you. He wants you to do what's good
and right and he's doing all he can to help you. And they
just try to rah-rah motivate you to get you to do more works
and thinking that this is what God is pleased with and what
God is satisfied with. but that's the opposite of what
the Lord shows us. He's showing us that He alone
is our salvation, that He's the one who makes His people righteous,
and He's gonna reveal that to us, right? So instead of showing
us how that our ways can be improved and made better by our commitment
and our making vows and determining to be better husbands and wives
and better friends and neighbors and brothers and sisters, right?
Rather, better than fathers and mothers, better than that, right?
Rather than that being our hope, our God brings us to see our
need of him and to look to him. and to seek Him to help us serve
one another and serve the Lord, all right? Because man's always
gonna come up short, and we're always gonna be found to be liars
and to be insufficient in ourselves, all right? And so, because of
that, what our Lord says to us first here in verse one, Isaiah
41, verse one, He says, keep silence before me, O islands. Keep silence before me, O islands. Now, we've become familiar with
that term islands or isles, right? We know that in scripture, that's
a term that the prophets often gave to those Gentile lands far
out, far away. And it usually meant that they
required to get into a ship into the ocean and sail over to those
faraway lands. It wasn't just their neighbors
in the immediate vicinity of them. They went out to these
Gentile lands. And so it was those that were
far away, far, far away, all right? Now in the context here,
I believe that what the Lord's doing here is speaking to all
his people, all his people who are yet in darkness and in sin
and in bondage, whether Jew or Gentile. Whether Jew or Gentile,
he's speaking to his people. Now, that word isles or island,
it's a description for that which is far off, far off, way out
of the way. And that's why I say the Lord's
speaking to his people, who are yet in darkness and in sin, far
off. They're in their own world, in
their own mind, worshiping their own idol gods, doing what they
think is right and pleasing to God, just groping about in blindness
and in dead religion, trying to find God and to please God
and to get some some quietness, some peace in their screaming
conscience. And all it is is just foolish
ways. And so the Lord says, keep silence before me, oh islands. Stop talking and making promises
to me and boasting of what you've been doing for me. Don't talk
about yourselves. Don't talk about what you're
doing. Be silent before me and be still. Let the people whom I foreknew
come to me." Let them come and renew their strength. Now, when
he says, be silent, that doesn't mean that we say nothing, but
I'm making the point to say that we stop boasting in ourselves
and glorying in self, and in our silence, in our waiting upon
God, we're actually confessing, Lord, I need you. I need your
help. Lord, have mercy upon me. Lord,
help me. Remember me, Lord. Don't leave
me to myself. Don't leave me in this darkness. He's calling us to behold your
God, look to me, seek me, all ye ends, of the earth. And so,
he says, be silent and let the people renew their strength.
Let them come near, then let them speak. Let us come near
together to judgment. And so, when the Lord calls us
in grace, when he begins to call us through the gospel, through
his word, before we speak, we're going to learn in that silence
that I was speaking of. Now, the psalmist in Psalm 62,
1, He says, truly my soul waiteth upon God, from him cometh my
salvation. And the margin there is truly
my soul is silent upon God. I'm not boasting of my righteousness. Lord, do this for me because
I deserve it, but I'm silent. I'm hoping in Him, in faith,
asking Him and waiting upon His salvation unto my soul, His salvation
to comfort my heart. And Jeremiah writes in Lamentations
3, 25 and 26, he said, the Lord is good unto them that wait for
him, to the soul that seeketh him. So that waiting and that
silence involves us seeking the Lord. We're looking to him. Lord, I'm never gonna find you
if you leave me to myself. I'm never gonna know you. I don't
even know what righteousness is, Lord, in myself, except you
reveal righteousness to me. and we know he'll reveal Christ
to us, right? And it is good, Jeremiah said,
it's good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the
salvation of the Lord. All right, so we learn in silence,
we wait upon the Lord, that is, we're silent of all our talking
and all our boasting and all our works, those are what's silent,
and the only thing of our silence and waiting that you'll hear
is our expression, our breathing by the Spirit. Help, Lord, help
me. Help me, I've got nothing. Help,
Lord, I need you. That's it, and that's, you're
waiting upon Him, because what else do you have? You have nothing
but what He gives us and His comfort to us, and we trust that
He's the one who reveals His salvation to us, and He gives
us His gospel whereby we are strengthened. That's how we renew
our strength. It's in the gospel. If I were
to begin driving you and beating you with works and telling you,
whipping you with the law and telling you what you've got to
do better, there's no comfort in that. Definitely if you don't
do it, and you see that you don't do it, and worse if you think
you are doing it, and that's no comfort. But it's through
the gospel of what our God has done for us that we are renewed
in strength. And not in the flesh to become
monsters and just proud boasters in our wickedness, not at all.
But in the inner man we're strengthened. that inner man which is created
of Christ and glories in him and is brought back down out
of our boasting and pride to say, Lord, yes, you are just
and right in all your ways and I need you, Lord, keep me, keep
me because I'm always going astray and I'm always looking where
I shouldn't be looking and always doing things and trusting things
that cannot save me. And so, then, having heard that
gospel and being renewed in strength in the inner man in Christ, that's
where we come, that's where we draw near to the Lord in judgment. That's where we're ready to hear
what he has to say and believe him. And we stop fighting against
him and warring against our God. Now, if you remember, the Lord
said in Isaiah 40, verse 31, the last verse, this is why verse
one carries on from it, He said, but they that weighed upon the
Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings
as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall
walk and not faint. And so we find that it's the
Lord Jesus Christ and what he's accomplished for us and what
he's doing and working in us, he's our strength. And so chapter
41 is the Lord now teaching us. He's the one teaching that us
in that promise of our rising up on the wings of eagles, our
being renewed and strengthened, we see is gonna be in Christ.
And that's what he's teaching us here. That's what he's doing
for us now. All right, so now having brought
us to wait upon him, the Lord begins to teach us in using a
question. He uses a question, and that's
verse two and three. But before we get there, I just
want you to watch. We're gonna see three things
in this next verse, verse two and three. Three things. First,
the Lord is speaking here of Abraham. He's speaking of Abraham. And when he speaks of Abraham,
he's showing that he is God. he is eternal and it's his power
that he raises up and conquers the hearts of man. Both his people who were his
enemies and then those enemies who refuse him and reject him.
And then the second thing that we see is that that it's not
man that makes the distinction, it's God who makes the distinction. It's God who calls in the election of grace,
who calls his people in the election of grace, right? So that we see
his purpose of redemption, and that redemption extends to the
ends of the earth, all right? And then third, we see in these
verses, we see Christ. We see that Abraham, because
it's the Old Testament, Abraham is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ being the one by whom
the Lord God of heaven and earth saves his people whom he foreknew,
those that he set his love upon and determined to save. All right,
so with that, knowing that that's what we're gonna see, let's see
Isaiah 41 verse two and three. He asks, who raised up the righteous
man from the east? Who did this? Who raised up the
righteous man from the east? And he's speaking of Abraham
of Ur of the Chaldees, right? and he called them to his foot.
He called Abraham to stand up and to go out from his kindred,
to go out from Ur of the Chaldees. He called them to his foot and
he brought them out of that native land into the land that God would
give him. And it says, he gave the nations
before him and made him rule over kings. He gave them as dust
to his sword and as driven stubble to his bow. And so the Lord is
recalling to their mind Abraham, who is their great hero. They
love Abraham, and they love hearing about him. And hearing this,
they would probably think of Abraham, who with 318 trained
servants, went out against the four kings who had just defeated
the five kings who rebelled against him, some of them being of Sodom
and Gomorrah who were defeated. And he goes out, against those
four kings that had the victory and he defeats them. But he didn't
do it for the five kings, he did it because he loved Lot and
wanted to save his nephew Lot and his things. And so he delivered
them all. And we read in verse three, he
pursued them and passed safely, even by the way that he had not
gone with his feet. What we see there is, you know,
that's a picture of Abraham, but we also see something else
in the account of Abraham that I believe the Lord is referring
to here in this spiritual blessing in this, and that's found when
we begin to look at what Abraham is really known for. It wasn't
that he was, you know, a great military mind and victor, The
Lord said to Abraham in Genesis 13, 16, he said, I will make
thy seed as the dust of the earth, so that if a man can number the
dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered. And
then he said a little bit, and we read a little bit later in
Genesis 15, verse six, that Abraham believed in the Lord. He believed
what God said, that what God promised to do for him and giving
him seed which is Christ and God counted it to Abraham for
righteousness. He counted it to him for righteousness
so that the greatness of Abraham isn't that he's a military man
who had victories but rather he's become the father of of
the faithful, right? He's the pattern of those who,
like him, believe God, who have faith revealed in them and trust
not in themselves, but in the God who promises us salvation
in his Son, Jesus Christ. Turn over to Romans 4. Romans
4, and let's look at verse 16. And we see here that Abraham
was a man, just like us, and yet he was born of the Spirit,
not at first, but when God called him, he gave him a new birth,
just like we who believe have been given a new birth by God,
whereby we then believe God and trust him, all right? And so
he's a man of faith, and he's become the pattern of all believers,
all right? So verse 16 there in Romans 4,
Therefore it is a faith that it might be by grace, to the
end the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that
only which is of the law, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." He's writing
to believers. As it is written, I have made
thee a father of many nations, before him whom he believed,
even God, who quickeneth, gives life to the dead, and calleth
those things which be not as though they were." Not to our
sight, but they are what they are to God. Who against hope
believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations,
according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be." All right,
as thus. So Abraham, as well as all believers,
right, we understand that Abraham, as well as all believers, they're
not saved by their faith, but rather we are saved by the one
in whom our faith looks to. Christ is our righteousness. Christ is our righteousness.
It's not my faith that saves me, but rather the one in whom
it lays hold of by his power and glory. You could say my faith
saves me, but only with the understanding that It's not my work of faith,
that's just the fruit of the Spirit, whereby we believe Christ,
and Christ is our very righteousness and our salvation. So, I don't
want you to miss, though, in this passage here, that it's
Christ is the righteous man, right? He's the one that God
raised up. He's the one who calls the righteous
man for the salvation of his people. so that in this we see
that Christ is the one who came in the flesh without sin, he
preached the truth, he preached the gospel of the kingdom of
God to the people of Israel to whom he was sent. And so, he
coming without sin at the appointed time, willingly, right, having
done everything God sent him to do, he willingly laid down
his life for the sheep. He went to that cross, bearing
the sins of his people, and died as their substitute in their
place, bearing the very punishment of God that was due to them.
And as our surety, he paid the debt of righteousness that we
owed to God. Because if it was left to us,
we never would have paid off all the debt of righteousness
we owed. We'd still be in eternal hell for forever, eternity. So our Lord did that work. He
went to the cross to make atonement for the sins of the people, to
reconcile us and to establish peace between us and holy God. Us who are wandering around,
groping around in the darkness, cleaving to our idols, now have
been brought into the family and the fellowship with holy
God, all right? And so in Christ, we are made
righteous. And I like this, if you're still
there in Romans, look at Romans 9.31. Romans 9.31, and Paul there is
speaking of the law of righteousness. All right, Romans 9.31. But Israel,
he says, which followed after the law of righteousness, hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Well, what is the law of righteousness? The law of righteousness is that
if I am righteous, then God will justify me. He who is righteous
will look and say, yes, you are righteous as I am righteous.
Justify, justify, you're perfect. And the problem with Israel was
that they thought that by the works of the law they would attain
unto the end of the law of righteousness, that they would be declared justified
by God. And so they stumbled over that
stumbling stone, which is the Lord Jesus Christ. But Christ being the only hope
of salvation for his people, God delivers us from that foolishness
and trusting ourselves and our own works for our righteousness
so that we cease trusting ourselves and look to Him who obtained
eternal righteousness for His people there on that cross. And He reveals by His Spirit
in us faith whereby we look to Him. We stop looking to ourselves
and we look to Him knowing there's my righteousness, and I have
no other hope but Him. And Lord, don't receive me in
any bit of my own righteousness, but receive me alone in the righteousness
of your Son, Jesus Christ. For there, I shall be received
and satisfied, even as you are satisfied and made perfect in
the righteousness of my Savior, Jesus Christ." All right, and
so then, God has called him to his foot. called him, and if
that's like Abraham, it's that God called Christ and sent his
son into the world to do this, to leave his place and to go
out to work this work, to bring forth our righteousness in himself. Ye know the grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes
he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich. Our Lord, our God who created
us and everything humbled Himself and submitted Himself to His
Father. He laid aside His glory and took
upon Him flesh and humbled Himself and submitted Himself to the
Father. Hebrews 5, 8, and 9, Though He
were a Son, yet learned He obedience through the things which He suffered. and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him. And that obey is, we believe
him, we follow him, we believe that, yes, Lord, you are my salvation,
you are my righteousness, you are my hope, and Lord, help me,
keep me, ever save me, don't let me go, don't leave me to
my folly and my foolishness, Lord. I have nothing but you."
And so, that's the obedience, is keep trusting Him, and knowing
that He's the one who even brings forth good works, works of righteousness
wrought in Him, which He ordained before the foundation of the
world, that we should walk in them. Alright, and so, like Abraham
it says, God gave the nations before Him and made Him rule
over kings. And we see this traced out for
us, even in Revelation 5, verse 9 and 10, where you see the church,
all the church of Jew and Gentile, all sing the same song of redemption
to the Lamb of God. And they sung a new song, saying,
thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof,
for thou was slain, and hast redeemed. purchased us by your
own blood to God, by thy blood out of every kindred and tongue
and people and nation." Right? Which includes the Gentiles far,
far away, out in the islands, right? And all those, all his
people, near and far, because we're all far by nature, and
all need to be drawn near to our God by his grace and mercy,
and has made unto us unto our God, rather, kings and priests,
and we shall reign on the earth." And so there we see that we're
kings, over whom our king, Christ Jesus, reigns over, because he's
the king of kings and the Lord of lords. All right, and so Abraham
is the forerunner of believers, saved by the grace of God through
his election, but Abraham is a type of Christ. So that we
also read, I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth. And that dust is given to his
sword and as driven stubble to his bow. We're driven to Christ,
we're defeated, we're conquered by him, gladly, willingly, thankfully
conquered by him, by his sword. And his sword, we see in Hebrews
4.12, for the Word of God, and Christ is the Word of God. He
is the double-edged sword wielded by God to save his people. It's quick and powerful, meaning
that one aspect of that double-edged sword is that he pierces us and
gives life. It's his power. that raises us
up from the dead, us lifeless dead sinners and trespasses and
sins. Our God gives us life in his
spirit so that his sword also pierces even to the dividing
asunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow and
is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. So
that we're made silent that we may hear the gospel and renew
our strength, be made informed in the inner man, born of Christ's
seed, whereby we hear our God and draw near to Him, and then
we can speak about the things of judgment, because now we're
not speaking by our own argumentative voice, now we're speaking by
the word of the Spirit, and we're in union with our God, and we
trust Him, and we believe Him, were settled in him, and so that's
exactly what we see there. Born of his spiritual seed among
the many millions that fall by his sword like dust of the earth,
or just drawn to him, and you see that picture when it speaks
of the mountain of the Lord, and yet the people flow to the
Lord, right? Contrary to nature, It's not
down into the valley, we're flowing up the hill. We're rolling up
the hill, as it were, to the Lord, contrary to that which
is of nature, all right? And so our God faithfully is
routing out the enemy, right? He says, be silent. I don't want
to hear about your idols. Don't boast of them. Don't boast
of what you do. Look to me and glory in my son. Glory and boast in my salvation
and what I've done for you. Because Christ, verse 3, we read,
he pursued them and passed safely even by the way that he had gone,
had not gone with his feet. And so it's our Savior that initiates
salvation. He pursued them. He's the one
that pursues us. We didn't pursue God. There's
none that seeketh after God. We've all become a vile thing
and our God had to come pursue us, his bride whom he loved,
and he saves her sovereignly, all right, and all his enemies
couldn't even touch the Lord until he purposed to lay down
his life, until he allowed them to take him, and he went willingly
to the cross according to the will and determinate counsel
and foreknowledge of God. And so Christ accomplished for
the Jews but he accomplished for the Jews, he also accomplished
for the Gentiles. And though he showed himself
to the Jews and to Samaria, yet he's also now gone where his
own feet haven't tread in sending out the gospel forth to the Gentiles,
that we too should hear what he's done for us. And so, I'll
read Galatians 3, 7 and 9, know ye therefore, that they which
are of faith the same are the children of Abraham. And the
scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through
faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, Indeed
shall all nations be blessed. So then they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. And so we rest right there, just
like Abraham, we rest in Christ knowing, hoping against hope
that our God has and is saving us in his son, Jesus Christ.
All right, now in the last verse, we see that it's he that does
it. Who hath wrought, verse four, Isaiah 41, for who hath wrought
and done it, calling the generations from the beginning Was it man's
will? Is it man's works? Is it man's
righteousness? Well, did Abraham raise himself
up or did God give him the power and raise him up and call him
out? It's God. I, the Lord, the first and with
the last, I am he. So we see that our God has done
all this work and Abraham's just a type of Christ, right? He's just, he's a type, but we
see how We, like Abraham, are all idolaters, far off, far away,
and our God has determined good for us in bringing the gospel
of our salvation to us, and not just so that we hear it with
the natural ear, but revealing that faith in us whereby we hear
and receive it and believe. Just like faithful Abraham, we
are made faithful, ever looking to our God, and He is our righteousness. You believe that, all who trust
Him shall never be ashamed. He says, they will not stand
before God in their nakedness, but will stand before God clothed
in the beautiful, righteous, white robe, woven and given to
us by our Lord and Savior, our husband, our friend, Our God
and Savior, He gives it to us and He puts it upon us. So when
the Lord does that for us, we let go of those idols, right?
We'll let go of those idols that we're trusting in and bow before
Him and confess that He's our all in all. All right, I pray
the Lord will bless that word and deliver His people out of
darkness to bow before Christ and trust Him and revealing that
faith in us. Amen. All right, let's pray.
Our Lord, we thank you for your comforting word of your Son,
Jesus Christ, how you silence the roaring of this flesh and
the rebellion of man, and you bring us silently to wait upon
our God and Savior, and how you strip us down of our idols, showing
us our foolishness, and how our ways are works and paths of darkness,
and how You deliver us from bondage and death and idolatry, to see
our God and Savior, to behold Him, to feel and to see our need
of Him, and to confess it to You, Lord. Lord, we confess even
now that we're nothing in ourselves, and we have no righteousness
of our own, We come, Lord, in the blood of your Son, Jesus
Christ, knowing that He and He alone is the righteousness of
His people. Lord, receive us in Him, form
us in Him, and form our Savior in the inner man. Lord, that
Christ may dwell in our hearts by faith, Lord. And we trust
and know that your will shall be done on the earth and we pray
to be a part of that in building up and edifying your people and
your kingdom and what Christ has done for them. It's in the
name of our Lord and Savior we pray these things, amen. Okay
brethren, you're dismissed.