All right, we're gonna be reading
in Isaiah 22. That'll be our text, Isaiah 22,
verses one through 25. And our text here, In this text, the Lord sends
his prophet, Isaiah, and he's sent to discover to them, to
discover to Judah and to Jerusalem their sin to them. He's making
it known to them their sin, how they've sinned against the Lord.
And the Lord deals with their sin by honestly telling the people
what their sin is. He makes it known to them, and
he removes the root of their issue. we'll see that he removes
a man named Shebna. And because Shebna pictures our
flesh and Satan and that carnal counsel that we all are familiar
with by nature. And then he sends to them a savior. And that Savior pictures the
Lord Jesus Christ. It's seen in this man Eliakim. Eliakim. And our title is, The
Fastened Nail Removed. The Fastened Nail Removed. And
so first we'll look at the sinfulness of man. Then we'll see this removal
of the flesh's reign. And then we'll see how that Christ
rules the house. Christ rules the house. Alright,
so let's first look at the sinfulness of man. And we who sit under
the gospel, we're familiar with this truth that all men are sinners. Every one of us is a sinner and
none of us can stand above another and say, I'm no sinner like you. I'm not evil like you. We're
all sinners and none of us can stand before God and claim to
be righteous before It says in Romans 3.10, as it's written,
there is none righteous, no not one, there is none that understand
it, there is none that seeketh after God. And then he goes on,
Paul says, and he notes that all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But God, even though we are sinners,
notice how that God is faithful. He's always faithful to send
a preacher. He sends a preacher to make known
to the people what they have need of hearing. And in this
case, he sends the prophet Isaiah to the people. He sends them
Isaiah and Isaiah is there and he's interpreting the times for
the people. He's making plain to them the
thoughts and the intents of their own hearts. He's making it known
to them what's going on in their heart and he's bringing to light
the actions that they're doing and he's making, he's shining
a light on it so that they understand what you're doing and why you're
doing it. These are your motives and what you're doing. And so
in that he's discovering to them their sin and iniquity. And what we'll find is that the
sin of Judah is that they forgot the Lord. They forgot the Lord.
They weren't seeking the Lord. And they began to speak foolishly. Not only did they forget the
Lord, they actually went so far as to speak very foolishly against
the counsel of the Lord. And we'll see that tonight. And
so Isaiah begins speaking to Judah and he calls this the burden
of the valley of vision. The burden of the valley of vision. Isaiah 22, verse 1. And that makes sense because
Jerusalem was situated in a valley. It was surrounded by mountains. And so, as a result, it's in
a valley in between those mountains. In Psalm 125, verse 2, it says,
as the mountains are round about Jerusalem. So the Lord is round
about his people from henceforth even forever. So it even declares
that it's in a valley surrounded by mountains, okay? And because
it's called the Valley of Vision because the Lord gave this people
vision. He revealed to them these truths
that other nations were not given. They didn't have prophets. They
didn't have preachers that came to them and revealed to them
the Word of God and made known to them what God's will is for
them. And if you recall last week in
Isaiah 21 verse 1, what did he say? He called it the burden
of the desert of the sea. and he was referring to Babylon,
because Babylon had no vision. They were just a dry desert.
They had no vision, no revelation of God, no understanding of God,
and it wasn't until the day of their destruction that God raised
up or sent Daniel in there, and Daniel made known to them this
very night your kingdom is delivered into the hands of the Persians
and Medes." And the king, Belshazzar, died that very night. So they
had no vision, but here it's the valley of vision because
they're situated between the mountains and they're given pastors
and preachers and prophets to preach and declare the Word. And so God sends Isaiah to them
and he asks them, in verse 1, Isaiah 22, verse 1. He says,
What aileth thee now that thou art wholly gone up to the housetops? And so God had stirred up the
people. He stirred them up to become
aware that there's trouble at the doorstep. They're now made
aware that there is indeed trouble assembling before them in the
form of a great army that's coming to destroy them, to overtake
them, to enslave them, and to bring them into captivity. And so they hear these things
and they go up to their housetops because that was the thing to
do. They went up to the housetops and they're looking out over
the walls to see if these things are so that they're beginning
to hear are coming upon them. And verse 2 says, Thou that art
full of stirs, a tumultuous city, joyous city. So he's saying a
tumultuous city and a joyous city so that there's confusion.
they should be seeking the Lord, but they're still acting in a
strange way for the things that they're hearing. They're not
broken, they're not sad, they're not seeking the Lord at all. And he says, Thy slain men are
not slain with the sword, nor dead in battle. And so, they
hadn't even fought a fight yet, and already men were dying for
fear of the things that were coming upon them. And it reminded
me of what it says in Luke 21-26 where it speaks of men's hearts
failing them for fear of looking after those things which are
coming upon the earth. And I'm just reminded of how
Isaiah is such a picture over and over again of preparing us
and preparing the people to be aware and to know and ever be
mindful in seeking the Lord because there's always these afflictions
and trials and troubles and afflictions that are coming upon the earth
as birth pangs, you know, birth pangs. It's always coming and
the people are humbled and reminded of the Lord and He saves and
redeems His people, but every generation over time it just
They forget and they get cocky and arrogant and they go back
to their ways and the Lord destroys them again and eventually it'll
all be wrapped up one day and it'll all come to an end. And
then Isaiah says in verse 3, all thy rulers are fled together,
they are bound by the archers, all that are found in thee are
bound together which have fled from far. The picture there is that the
archers that are in the army of the Assyrians, they're so
great in number that they're able to cut off all the places
that the rulers and the people that could escape and have the
means of escaping, they can't escape because if they tried
to escape there would be a hailstorm of arrows being rained down upon
them so that they would be chased back into the city. They couldn't
get very far before they would be taken out. And so now what's
beginning to happen is the people are beginning to understand. They're beginning to get a clue
as to the severity of what's going on. And the only thing,
you know, what I was thinking of today, you know, in our day
is, you know, we've all heard various things, you know, this
is going to happen, that's going to happen, and, you know, it's
just natural for us to say, well, that's, I don't know, I don't
see it, I can't imagine it happening. I've lived for four, five, six
decades, and all things continue as they've always been. So it's
hard for us to really believe that there's going to be a change. But imagine if you had heard
some things and then all of a sudden boxes began to be checked off
for you. And you're saying, wait a minute, I've heard about that,
and I've heard about that, and that. Eventually, at some point,
there would be a waterfall effect and it would just start coming
down like an avalanche, and then before you know it, you're in
it, and everything you've heard that was coming to pass comes
to pass. That's where Jerusalem is today. All of a sudden they've
heard things, they've heard warnings, they've heard various whispers,
and all of a sudden it heats up real fast, and they're in
it, and they're going up to the housetops and saying, uh-oh,
everything I've been hearing is coming upon me now. What would happen is that there
would be people in the towns that are surrounding Jerusalem,
that they would be leaving their towns ahead of the coming army,
and they'd be flowing to the chief city, to Jerusalem. And
they would be carrying with them news that right behind us there's
an army from Assyria, or somewhere wherever they thought they were
from. But there's an army, and they're coming. And so we're
coming into the town. So the people are beginning to realize,
all right, there is trouble brewing. There's trouble on the horizon.
All right, now in verses four and five, Isaiah the prophet,
he understands full well what's going on because God's revealed
it to him. And he says, therefore said I, look away from me, I
will weep bitterly. Labor not to comfort me because
of the spoiling of the daughter of my people. And then Isaiah
makes it known to the people who it is that's bringing this
upon them. He makes known to them This isn't
just some random person. This is the Lord's doing. He's
bringing this upon his people. It says, for it is a day of trouble,
verse five, and of treading down and of perplexity by the Lord
God of hosts in the valley of vision, breaking down the walls
and of crying to the mountains. Right? They're crying out to
the mountains to save them, to save them and protect them and
provide safety for them against their enemies. And then we find
in verses six and seven the tool, the instrument that the Lord
is using to bring this affliction upon the people. Verse six, and
Elam bear the quiver with chariots of men and horsemen, and Kir
uncovered the shield, and it shall come to pass that thy choicest
valleys shall be full of chariots, and the horsemen shall set themselves
in array at the gate. And so Elam, as if you remember
from the last chapter, that's the Persians. the Elamites. That's
the Persians, and Kyr is a city in Media, and so that's the Medes.
And what that's saying is it wasn't that Persia and Media,
they weren't at the top yet. They're still subservient to
Assyria at this time, just as Babylon's subservient to Assyria
at this time. So these are the guys that are
making up their army, and they're now coming in the army of the
Assyrian surrounding Jerusalem. And the purpose of this, the
reason why the Lord is bringing this upon them and why he's bringing
this tool, this instrument of the Assyrian army upon his own
people, it's to discover the covering of Judah. And that's
what he says there in verse 8, and he discovered the covering
of Judah. Now literally what this is referring
to in the literal sense is, like I said earlier, those outlying
cities that are surrounding Jerusalem, these fortified and defensed
cities, we're seeing that this great army is coming, they're
not going to be able to stand up to it, they're leaving and
going to Jerusalem. And it says in 2 Kings 18.13,
I'll read it to you. Now in the 14th year of King Hezekiah did
Sennacherib, king of Assyria, come up against all the fenced
cities of Judah and took them. He took all those fenced up cities
that were before him, he took them. And now he's coming up
to the Nakdus, like we read earlier in Isaiah, if you remember, when
Isaiah told King Ahab hear the Lord, the Lord will
deliver you. And he refused the Lord and he said, all right,
well, the Lord, he's gonna bring Assyria, you're trusting in man,
you're trusting in Assyria, he's gonna bring them right up to
your neck. And he's gonna come right up to your neck to chasten
you, to chasten the people so that they know what they've done.
All right, now, here's what Jerusalem did in response. Look at verse
eight. Isaiah 22 8 and he discovered the covering of Judah and thou
didst look in that day to the armor of the house of the forest
you have seen also the breeches of the city of David that they
are many and he gathered together the waters of the lower pool
and he have numbered the houses of Jerusalem and the houses have
you broken down to fortify the wall he made also a ditch between
the two walls for the water of the old pool and And what they
did was they were using the lumber that they had from the forests
in Lebanon. And they were going and finding
the weapons and dusting those things off. And they looked over
the weaknesses that they could see in the walls. And the way
they would repair them is with stone from a quarry and with
mortar that they would make. And they'd slime it into place. And so they fixed up what they
could. And then they numbered the houses
that they didn't need. And because it takes time to
go to a quarry, and dig that stuff out. They'd take apart
the houses and take those stones and use them to fortify the walls. And then the lower pool was known
to flow out of Jerusalem. And so rather than that just
going out and nourishing the Assyrian army that's coming against
them, they blocked it up within their own walls. And then they
could use that for their slime and mortar and to make a moat,
if you will, and to drink themselves. They had things for themselves.
So they had this. That isn't necessarily a problem. You know, seeing and recognizing
that there's danger and trouble coming, that wasn't the issue
at hand. But the Lord tells him in verse
11, but ye have not looked unto the maker thereof. All these
things which you have who made them, you haven't even looked
to him, neither had respect unto him that fashioned it long ago. And the Lord, you know, had provided
all those things that they're making use of now. He provided
them long ago for them. And they're not even looking
to Him who provided for them long before and who told them
that this would happen as well long before. And You know, just
in thinking of that, what we see there is the time to pray
certainly isn't after you've made provision. When you see
that there's trouble and you've done all that you can do and
made your provisions and done as much as you can do, in your
flesh. That's not the time for us to
pray. And really, the time for us to
pray isn't even after we hear of the calamity. Before we begin
our preparations, that's not even really the time to pray. The time to pray is to always
be in prayer. Always to be mindful that our
God provides for us, and He's near us, and He's our God, and
He loves us. and he cares for us and he provides
all things for us and we're to be seeking him always because
when the calamity comes the heart is fearful and in terrors and
afraid and and very perplexed and the mind scatters and it's
really hard to even be still and to pray. I mean certainly
usually that's when we pray is when we're most afraid and fearful
but we're ever to be praying to the Lord because Because the
calamity is always right around the corner. Turn over to Proverbs
3, Proverbs 3 verse 5. Proverbs 3, 5 says, Trust in
the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. in all thy ways acknowledge him
and he shall direct thy paths. Be not wise in thine own eyes,
fear the Lord and depart from evil. It shall be health to thy
navel and marrow to thy bones." So we're ever to be in prayer
because those trials are just moments away from every one of
us. There's always some affliction and some trial and when they
strike that's when you realize just how cold and how hard and
how indifferent the heart is has been and just where we've
been and you're thinking to yourself wow this is really impacting
me and I wasn't expecting this and it really is you know a trial
that comes upon you and so it's You know, when, you know,
being honest, I noticed that my hope, the hope that I tend
to have from my flesh, the hope that I have in my flesh is that
there's always some idea, I'm always trusting in and hoping
in the thing that I haven't tried yet to fix or to remedy the issue. My hope is always fixed in, well,
I still can do this, and I can do that, and I can try this,
and I can try that. And so my hope is always in what
I still am yet to work out and try, And that's not hoping in
the Lord. That's not crying out to Him
and trusting Him and seeking Him for the mercy. And, you know,
I think most of you know that Michelle had a little accident
and we're doing fine and I'm doing fine and I'm thinking everything's
good. And then, you know, we hear back
from the insurance and he says, oh, it's a 90-10 split. And I'm
thinking, what? like what what is going on and
and it revealed to me where's my harp in this whole time why
is that such a shock and why is my hope fixed in in that and
not now why am i shaking and you see just how quickly it all
just changes you think everything's fine and you think you're prepared
and ready for it and then one little detail changes and you
just It throws me off, you know, and so we're ever to be in prayer
and ever to be looking to the Lord and not just when the calamity
comes. And especially not after you've done all that you can
do, but but, you know, we should always be seeking the Lord. And
so this is the hour that the people in Jerusalem have come
to, it's suddenly come upon them and they went to work, but not
in terms of seeking the Lord. They went to work doing their
own thing and what they thought they should be doing, but didn't
seek the Lord. And that's what the prophet's
saying. In verse 12 it says, And in that day did the Lord
God of hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness
and to girding with sackcloth. God made it known to them, this
is the now, seek me, seek me now. You haven't been seeking
me, you've been trusting yourselves, seek me now. And it says verse
13, and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, killing sheep,
eating flesh, drinking wine, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow
we shall die. They were mocking Isaiah. They heard Isaiah who was sent
of God to preach and declare this word and to discover to
them their sin and that they are to seek the Lord and they
are mocking Isaiah. And in mocking Isaiah, they are
mocking the Lord. And so they made their preparations,
they showed them their unbelief of God's word, and they showed
that they had no faith because what did they do? If they really
believed that this was the end and that they were going to die
tomorrow, that doesn't look good because they decided that their
final hours were going to be spent partying like it's 1999.
They're just partying and just getting in their last party together.
they're mocking Him, not believing that they're going to die, then
they're just trusting to their own preparations because they're
not even seeking the Lord. They're not even crying out to
the Lord, Lord, this is what we've done, would you please
bless it and protect us and deliver us. And so the Lord's discovering
to them their sin, either way, they're guilty. And it was revealed,
verse 14, in mine ears by the Lord of hosts, surely this iniquity
shall not be purged from you till ye die, saith the Lord God
of hosts. And so for this people, the remedy
for their rebellion was to die, God said. Until I purge you out
and destroy you, the people will never be be a pure people, that
it'll never be my people because you're just a corrupt influence,
you're just a deceitful wicked people that are always rebelling
against me and not believing. And so the lesson for us, the
lesson for us to see in this is that We're such people. We know that we're guilty of
sin. We're not perfect in our hearts.
We're not perfect in our ways and perfect in our walk. Our minds and hearts are not
always set upon the Lord, and we ever need His grace and His
mercy. And so the lesson for us is to
cry out, I'm the sinner. I'm the sinner. And unless the
Lord has mercy, I don't have spiritual understanding, and
I don't have a wall before Him, and I can't do what is right,
and I don't know what to do is right, and everything I seem
to do turns to dust and is destroyed. And actually when we see that,
that's a mercy of God, that our plans and works of our hands
don't work out as we think that they should, but they get stamped
out. Turn over to Isaiah 1, verse 4, we'll start. Isaiah 1.4. And to the best of my knowledge,
Isaiah 1 was written way at the beginning of when the Lord revealed
himself to Isaiah and began to use Isaiah way, way in the beginning. Isaiah 1.4. And what we find
is that this sounds like he's talking about this people right
here in this day. It's ever the same for the people.
Look at verse four. Ah, sinful nation, a people laden
with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors,
they have forsaken the Lord, they have provoked the Holy One
of Israel into anger, they are gone away backward. Why should
you be stricken anymore? Why should the Lord even chasten
you anymore? Why? He just says, you'll revolt
more and more. The whole head is sick, and the
whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot, even
unto the head, there is no soundness in it. But wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores, they have not been closed, neither bound
up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate. Your
cities are burned with fire. Your land, strangers devoured
in your presence. And it is desolate, as overthrown
by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left
as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers,
as a besieged city." All right? It sounds exactly like where
they are right now, entrapped by all the archers around. They
can't get out. They're closed in like vines
of a cucumber, wrapping around them and keeping them closed
in there. And they're corrupt. They don't
even seek the Lord. And this is what Isaiah wrote.
way in the beginning. A couple kings earlier under
Ahab and so now we see where we are with Hezekiah later on.
So that's the testimony of man then and even when we read in
the New Testament Paul makes it known we're no different.
We're just like those people in Israel before God's grace
and mercy reveals himself to us and shows us that we're the
sinner and shows us that we need his gracing, can't save ourselves.
Look at Ephesians 2.2 says, wherein in time past ye 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, the scriptures, the Lord,
through preaching, through the gospel, through this word and
making this word known to us, through revealing it to us so
we understand it, that it's not a book that tells me how I make
myself righteous, but a book that reveals to me I'm the sinner,
corrupt and in need of his grace. And so he's making that known
to us, that we desperately need his mercy and that we can never,
ever, ever make ourselves righteous and cleanse our hands and make
ourselves acceptable to the Lord, but that we need His grace. We
need Him to provide that salvation for us and to make us acceptable
to Him by the righteousness which He's provided in His Son, Jesus
Christ. Turn over to Romans 6, 6. Romans
6, 6 and verse 7. What we see is that our God in
grace put us to death. We died in the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you remember in our text,
it had said, surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you
till ye die. And that's exactly what the Lord
God did in grace and mercy in putting us into the Lord Jesus
Christ, committing us to his care so that in Christ we died. and are safe and protected from
the eternal judgment of God. Alright, Romans 6, 6. Knowing
this, that our old man is crucified with him, with Christ, that the
body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not
serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. So this flesh, as we know, this
flesh is still dead. It hasn't been, Christ redeemed
us, but he hasn't come to take that, he hasn't transformed this
flesh yet. That'll be done when he returns
again. And then he'll, it uses the word redeem this body then,
but it's been redeemed by him but it's yet to be taken by Him
and transformed after His image. So that'll come in that day.
So right now, this flesh is still sinful. This flesh is still dead
because of sin. We can't reform or improve or
get it to cooperate or sanctify ourselves by things that we do
by this flesh. It's still dead. We're still
utterly, 100% dependent on the grace of God through His Son
Jesus Christ to bring us Paul continues in Romans 6 verse 11,
he says, likewise, reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed
unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should
obey it in the lusts thereof. In other words, he's saying this
flesh is still wicked, but he's giving you and me and we who
believe in him He's given us His Spirit, whereby we know Him,
whereby He's revealed to us, whereby we walk in Him by faith,
and He bears the fruit of His Spirit in us. So the fruits that
we bear are not the product of this flesh, but the product of
His Holy Spirit. And that's how we're to walk.
And it's like what Peter said to the brethren that he was writing
to, when he said, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and
pilgrims in this world, abstain from fleshly lusts which war
against the soul." Because the lusts are still there in the
flesh. It's still dead. They still rise up. They still
take our minds and try to carry us away off with them. And he
says, you have the Spirit of Christ. You're not under its
dominion and power. Before, you didn't even think
about it. But now, you cry out to the Lord and just confess
it to the Lord and look to Him and pray that He help you and
deliver you from the power and dominion of that because that's
why He came. And so we look to Christ to deliver
us and to keep us. We're already delivered from
the penalty of sin. And we look to Him to keep us
looking to Him, not just using our righteousness as a cloak
of unrighteousness. to do what we want to do in the
flesh. That's not why He saved us at all. And His Spirit teaches
us that. That's not what we're to do. I'm not to go now and sin against
you and do as I please. That's not why Christ saved me.
And so we don't do that. We serve Christ. We look to Him
and trust that He bears His fruits of righteousness and peace among
suffering and kindness and gentleness with one another. And so that's
what we're looking and praying and seeking the Lord to do among
us and in us, all right? So now in the next verse, the
last two, let's look at this removal of fleshly reign. So we see how Christ delivers
us from this rule of the flesh, all right? Let's look there back
in our text, Isaiah 22, now in verse 15 and 16. Thus saith the Lord God of hosts,
Go get thee unto this treasure, even unto Shebna, which is over
the house, and say, What is thou here? and whom hast thou here
that thou hast hewed thee out of supplicar here, as he that
heweth him out of supplicar on high? and that graveth in habitation
for himself in a rock." And Shevna, he was the chief over the king's
household. He was the one that had the access
to the treasury. He's the one that was making
these decisions of which walls were to be fortified the most
and which weapons and which houses were to be taken down and used
for fortifying. And he was a carnal man. He wasn't
turning the people to the Lord. He's the one who seems to have
been trying to strengthen the men with foolish talk, with that
foolish talk of, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. And
turning the people, rather than seeking the Lord, turning their
minds to frivolity and maybe to take their minds off what's
coming in the war and trying to make light of it. And it was
wicked, it was wrong. And the Lord was saying, Like,
no, you're supposed to be seeking me now. I'm bringing these people
up here to discover your sin to you. And you're listening
to Shebna, so let's get this Shebna out of here. It's time
for him to be removed. And so he sends Isaiah up there
and he asks them, the things that you're doing, You're basically
carving yourself out a suffocator. You're carving yourself out a
grave here in what you're doing. And the behavior and the way
you're speaking, the things you're doing, you're carving yourself
out your own grave. And why are you doing that? You're
not even looking to the Lord. who is eternal. And Shebna is
a picture of all the believers' enemies. He's a picture of all
men. He's a picture of the flesh.
He's a picture of our fallen Adam. He's a picture of the rule
of Satan over the people, the seed of Satan there. And so he's
a picture of those things. And Isaiah, in verse 17, he tells
Shebna, and all flesh that's not saved by the grace of God.
He says, verse 17, behold, the Lord will carry thee away with
a mighty captivity and will surely cover thee. He will surely violently
turn and toss thee like a ball into a large country, into the
lake of fire. You're gonna be destroyed forever.
There shalt thou die, and there the chariots of thy glory shall
be the shame of thy Lord's house, and I will drive thee from thy
station. from his position of power. And from thy state shall
he put thee down. And it was Christ's death that
accomplished the overthrow of the dominion of sin and Satan
over us. Christ our Savior is the one
who delivered us. We didn't do that. Christ did that for his
people so that Christ himself is our righteousness. He's the
glory of the believers. He's the one who came and fulfilled
all righteousness and fulfilled all that the prophets spoke of
him. He's the one that went to the cross bearing the sin and
the shame and the guilt and the price and the penalty of our
sin to put it all away so that we would not suffer and have
to pay the wages of sin, which is eternal death and separation
from God. Now we saw earlier when Paul
said in Ephesians 2.2, he had said 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 Christ is the one who
came and he severed that union, he severed that fellowship between
the seed of Satan and the seed of woman. Christ makes a difference
between the seed of Satan and those who are not his and all
those that are his precious ones and he's redeemed them, taken
them out, out from that bondage and that prison and the darkness
that they were in. It said, and Christ said in Mark
3 27, no man can enter into a strong man's house and spoil his goods
except he will first bind the strong man and then he will spoil
his house. And that's exactly what we read
that Christ did. In first John 3 8 it says for
this purpose. the Son of God was manifested,
that he might destroy the works of the devil. And that's exactly
why Christ came. God isn't looking to you, sinner,
to figure it out and to save yourselves and to get good enough
and to string together enough consistency for him to finally
have mercy on you. He sent his Son, Jesus Christ,
perfect and holy and righteous, the spotless Lamb of God, to
be the sacrifice for you who are sinners and cannot save yourselves
and know that you deserve eternal hell, that's why Christ came. And He came for you who cannot
save yourselves and need a Savior. and know that He is the Savior.
That's who He came for, to deliver His people from their sin. Alright? Now let's see this last point
here. This is how this is accomplished. Alright? Once God removes Shevna
through the work of Christ, He then appoints Christ to rule
the house. He appoints Christ to rule the
house. Now, just as I spoke about it, it's already done. It's already
done, but like we see here in the picture, in this picture
where Eliakim is now appointed That's how it is. This is revealed
to us and made known to us. Revealed by the Holy Spirit where
he gives us life and shines light upon our darkness and shines
light upon Christ and shows us what Christ accomplished for
us. That he now rules over his people. Look at verse 20 and
21. and it shall come to pass in that day that I will call
my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah and I will clothe him
with thy robe and strengthen him with thy girdle and I will
commit thy government into his hand and he shall be a father
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah." So
Eliakim is a type of Christ. He's a type of Christ and his
robe is one of righteousness and his girdle is one of truth
and strength. He rules in righteousness. He
rules in truth. He's faithful in all he does.
Look over at Isaiah 11, verse 4. we read, but with righteousness
shall he judge the poor and reprove with equity for the meek of the
earth and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth
and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. The
righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins and and faithfulness,
the girdle of his reins. And brethren, that's sweet for
us who are weak and unable to save ourselves. He's faithful.
He's a faithful savior. He's a gentle savior and he's
kind and loving and he's done this work for us who cannot save
ourselves and can't do this. And so he removes us out from
the rule of Satan, out from that dominion of sin, alright? Now back In our text, it says
verse 22, Isaiah 22, 22, and the key of the house of David,
while I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall
shut. And he shall shut and none shall
open. And so, we know this is of Christ,
and I'll read a verse in Revelation in a moment that shows that this
is Christ, this is exactly how Christ is described. This is
because Christ finished the work on that cross. He did everything
that needed to be done. Everything for your righteousness
is complete and done in Christ. And He died, and we died in Him. So the law has nothing more to
say to us. And because God accepted and
approved His work, Christ was raised from the dead. And He
ascended up to the Father. And He takes that book out of
the Father's hand who sits on the throne. And now he's opening
those seals and so that he, it's a type, it's a picture showing
us that all authority, all power is given into Christ's hands
and he is implementing the will of God, establishing his kingdom
in the hearts of his people and that gospel word's going out
and conquering all you that are his. He's making you his own
trophies of grace. of grace. He's revealing himself
to you. And so, in Revelation 3-7, that's
exactly one of the ways that Christ is described, as we just
saw there in verse 22, when it says, And to the angel of the
church in Philadelphia write, These things saith he that is
holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that
openeth, and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth.
So these words concerning Eliakim are definitely He's a type of
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's picturing Christ who overthrows
the rule of Shebna, of Satan, and this dead flesh, and he implements
the rule of Christ. Pictured in the lie, Kim. And
it says, verse 23, And I will fasten him as a nail in a sure
place and he shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house."
So our God sent his son at the appointed time to fulfill all
that the prophet spoke of him. He came in righteousness and
did everything necessary for our salvation. And Hebrews 6,
9 says, which hope we have as an anchor, like a nail fixed
in a sure place. He's an anchor of the soul, both
sure and steadfast, and which entereth into that within the
veil. And then again in Isaiah 32 verses
1 and 2, he says, behold, a king shall reign in righteousness
and princes shall rule in judgment. And a man shall be as a hiding
place from the wind and a covert from the tempest. as rivers of
water in a dry place, as the shadow of a great rock in a weary
land. And so that pictures the deliverance
that we have in Christ, that the coming judgment, the coming
destruction of this world and its ways, its religion, its falsehood,
all that the world trusts in, all that will be destroyed. But
Christ is the hiding place. He's the place, the covert from
the wind and the storm and the judgment that's coming. Flee
to Christ. Go to Christ. You who hear Him,
who know that you're sinners, why don't you believe? Why don't
you trust and just rest in Christ? Because that's why He came. You
know you can't save yourselves, and so the Lord sent Him to be
the Savior, the Deliverer for His weak and weary and helpless
people. He delights to show mercy to
those who need it. Cry out to Him for mercy. Alright,
now the prophet continues, verse 24. saying, And they shall hang
upon him all the glory of his father's house, the offspring
and the issue, all vessels of small quantity, from the vessels
of cups even to all the vessels of flagons, so that all the children
of God All the children of God, all walks of life with various
trials and troubles and tribulations, all that they have need of was
hung upon this shore now, upon the Lord Jesus Christ. It says
that He nailed to His cross, He took all those things in the
law, all that the law contained, everything that was against us
because of the weakness of our own flesh and inability to save
ourselves, that was nailed to Christ's cross. It was hung upon
Him and He put it all away, took it all away so that it has nothing
more to say to us. And we see the picture of all
His people in whom there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision or
uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bond or free, but Christ is all
and in all, so that some from every tongue, tribe, and nation
were given to Christ and committed to His care to save them and
to redeem them." So all the hope of the people is fixed, is to
be fixed in Christ. and to look there to Him and
to Him alone, not trusting to our own works, not to add to
His work, but to rest right there in Christ, to rest in Him before
God. And so Christ was sent to put
an end, to make an end of transgression and to make an end of its rule
and its power and the penalty of it against us. It says in
verse 25, In that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the
nail that is fastened in the sure place be removed, and be
cut down, and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut
off, for the Lord hath spoken him." And so here the Lord's
declaring to us, He's shown to us, I've provided salvation. I'll take that nail upon whom
I've hung everything on, and upon whom I've committed you
to His care. and I shall strike him down.
I shall smite the shepherd. I shall smite him that all you
that are in him would be saved and that all your sin and iniquity
will be put away forever." Because he's made an end of the transgression. And that's what Daniel was saying
in 924 when he said, 70 weeks are determined upon thy people
and upon thy holy city to finish the transgression and to make
an end of sins. and to make reconciliation for
iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up
the vision of prophecy, and to anoint the Most Holy." And he
tells us a little bit after that, he said, Messiah shall be cut
off, but not for himself. so that this nail in the short
place was cut off, was slain by God and putting away the sin
of His people to make an end of sin and to make an end of
transgression because the only way for us to be saved, as the
Lord said, is for you to die. And so He put us in Christ and
He slew the Lamb of God in our place that we would be made alive,
made righteous in Him In Isaiah 53, I'll just read verse 12,
it says, 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. numbered with his people. He
stood with them and bared them. And he bared the sin of many
and made intercession for the transgressors. So all, we couldn't
be healed. We couldn't be reformed. We couldn't
just be patched up and healed up a little. We needed to die.
And so God put us in Christ and slew his own darling son so that
we died in him. And the law has nothing more
to say to us. There's no more condemnation to you who are in
Christ, hoping and looking to Him and Him alone. And so that's
why He was sent, for His people, to ever put away their sin, to
make them righteous, to make you accepted by God, to reconcile
you to the Father. And so I pray the Lord would
bless that word to your heart to look to that sure now fastened
in that place that was cut down, taken down, removed for you to
forever put away your sin. Amen. Let's pray. Our gracious
Lord, we thank you, Father, for for your great mercy in sending
your son. Lord, like this people in Jerusalem
and Judah, even in Israel, Lord, we could never save ourselves.
Time and time and time again, we see how we come up short,
how we sin, how we're fools, Lord, and do not that which is
right and pleasing in your sight. But we thank you for your great
grace mercy this unspeakable gift which you've provided in
your son Jesus Christ the Lamb of God who came as a nail fixed
in a sure place and you hung all things upon him us and all
our sin and iniquity and he bear it and was cut down by you, Lord,
pouring out the wrath that we deserved poured out upon him.
As the Lamb of God, he was slain and put away our sin forever.
And we thank you, Lord, for putting us in Christ and doing this gracious,
wonderful, merciful act for us undeserving sinners. Lord, we
pray for your spirit. Help us, Lord, to look to Christ
alone, to ever be looking to Him, ever praying and seeking
Him, Lord, not for salvation, but being shown and revealing
your salvation in us, that you've done this for us in Christ Jesus,
our Lord and our Savior. We pray this in Christ's name.
Amen.