Isaiah chapter 25. You're looking, the Lord willing, at
the first three verses of this chapter. And the title of the
message is, The Day and the Song of Salvation. The Day and the Song of Salvation. The prophet here says, in that
day, this song shall be sung in the
land of Judah. Here's the song. We have a strong
city. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. open ye the gates, that the righteous
nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect
peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in
thee." And let's go ahead and go to verse 4, "...trust ye the
Lord forever." For in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength. That could be translated rock
of ages. For in the Lord is what? The
rock of ages. The rock of ages. Now here in
this opening verse of this chapter of Isaiah, we see this a very
specific day is mentioned. in that day. And we see a very specific song. This song, not just any song,
this song shall be sung, and not just anywhere, in the land
of Judah. In the land of Judah. In that day, this song shall
be sung in the land of Judah. Now, I've read this recently,
that in Isaiah, this phrase, in that day, in that day, is
mentioned over 53 times. And in every instance, it is
talking about the gospel day. That day of the dispensation
of God's grace in Christ. That day when Christ would come
and fulfill all of the Old Testament prophets, types, shadows, and
figures, and usher in that great day of grace where the shadows
are now fled away and the bright and morning star has come. Listen, you walk into a dark
room. Whatever's in that room has already been there, right? And then when you cut on the
lights, what? It's revealed. You see, salvation has always
been the same. The gospel has always been the
same. From the beginning, the gospel has always been the same.
Yet, God had showed it to us in types and shadows and pictures,
but in that day. God cuts on the light and you're
able to see more clearly than before that Christ is all Christ
is all God's salvation. All of those things pointed to
Him that day when Jesus would come and fulfill all the salvation
of His people. That's the day that is spoken
of here. That day when He fulfilled all
the prophecies and types. And behold, now that day has
come. This day that he was speaking
of in Isaiah was yet a day future. But listen, that day has already
started. That day has already come. Jesus
Christ has come into the world. And all those that the Father
loved from eternity, He gave to the Son. And the Father who
purposed their salvation trusted all their salvation to His Son. That passage in Ephesians 1,
where Paul said, Who first trusted in Christ? He's not talking about
himself. He's talking about God. God is
the one who first trusted Christ to fulfill the covenant promises. God trusted in Christ, His Son,
to accomplish everything in that day. In that day. And so, when
Jesus came into the world as our representative man, As our
High Priest, He by Himself had accomplished all our righteousness
and redemption by His obedience and blood. By His obedience and
blood in that one day. Isn't that amazing? How many
sacrifices were made over the centuries? And yet none of them
did what that one day did, that one sacrifice did in that day. He accomplished everything And
so all the apostle wrote of him in Hebrews 10 when he said this. Go over to Hebrews 10. Let's
read this together. It's a beautiful passage, Hebrews 10. Look at verse 5. He says, this
is speaking of that day we're talking about, He says, Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, in that day, when he cometh into
the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. In burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin thou hast had no pleasure. What does this mean? It means
that God was never satisfied with our works. He was never
satisfied with men's religion. You can do all you want to for
God and claim it's for God. I remember this one passage.
God said, who told you to do it? Who told you? You go out
there and do all these things for me. Who told you to do it?
You're making this stuff up. God didn't want your works. He
don't want your sacrifices. They have no value to Him. Everything
we do is mixed with sin. Even this verse, the plowing
of the righteous is what? Sin. The plowing of the wicked is
sin. That's what it is. We're just, everything we do
is sin. Plowing itself is not evil just because we did it.
It's tainted. It's tainted with everything.
God doesn't want our sacrifice. Therefore He prepared a body.
For who? His Son. He prepared a body in
the virgin's womb for His Son. And His Son came into the world. He said this, "'Lo, I come!'
In the volume of the book it is written to me." You know what
this book is? Somebody says it's a hymn book. It's all about hymn.
It is. From cover to cover, it is about
Christ. And the moment we move from Christ,
we move from this book. This is why we determine not
to preach anything but Christ and Him crucified. I tell you,
that takes effort. It takes a lot of effort to determine
that, because our flesh wants something else. And so every
time I go to this book, I have to say, no, no, I'm not preaching
on that. I'm preaching Christ and Him
crucified. Why? Because that's the whole book.
The volume of the book is written to me to do what? To do thy will,
O God. Above when he said, a sacrifice
and offering and burnt offering, for sin thou wouldest not neither
had pleasure therein, which are offered by the law. He's not
satisfied. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is the
knowledge of sin. That's all the law can do is
expose sin. It cannot save you. Cannot save
you. Then said He, Lo, I come to do
Thy will. Why? He taketh away the first.
He established the first so that He might establish the second. Taketh away the first. How? By
His obedience. By His magnification of the law.
By His righteousness. He established that law. Honored
it. And by doing so, now then He
may save by grace, by mercy. He said, I come to do thy will,
and notice this, by the witch will. By God's will, we are sanctified. How? Through the offering of
the body of Jesus, listen, once for all. Get it. In that day, he fulfilled
the will of God and once for all settled our salvation. It's
settled. It's done. Everything's done. There's nothing left to do. That's
why we as preachers say what? All is ready. Don't bring anything. Come now, come as you are, everything's
ready. And God's people do. They come. They come. Therefore now seeing
that Jesus in that day once for all by His one offering perfected
forever them that are sanctified. Oh, I'm so glad that I don't
sanctify myself. What a crock that is. That's
a made-up man's religion. You need to sanctify yourself.
No, if God don't sanctify you, you ain't sanctified. We don't sanctify ourselves.
Men do that to puff up their flesh, to make them feel more
righteous. Listen, if you're made holy by
Christ, can you get any holier? No. sanctified, those who are set
apart by Christ, made holy by His one offering. He perfected forever them that
are sanctified. And so then those who are in
our text are who He's talking about. Look back at your text. Who are the ones sanctified here? Judah. He didn't sanctify everyone. He didn't die for everyone. He
died for Judah. He died for Israel. He died for
His elect people. He, in that day, accomplished
the salvation of all that the Father gave Him. Not one more
and not one less. Everyone the Father had given
Him. He did sanctify them. He did, in that day, perfect
them. All his elect people, the whole
church of God. And because of this, what is
the response of the church because of that day? In that day, listen,
this song shall be sung. Rejoicing. There is rejoicing
for those of us who are in this people, who are of this people,
Judah. There is rejoicing. There is
a very specific song. It's not a song that's frivolous. Religion, their songs are so
frivolous. They're chants more than anything
else. They're just trying to well up the flesh to make it
look religious. And so they have chants. I don't
want chants. I have a very specific song that
the righteous sing. You know what their song is very
plainly revealed in our text. Here it is. Here's our song.
Because of what Christ did in that day, listen, we have a strong
city. Judah, the elect, those who are
in Christ, are in this city of God, this church of God. And listen, we have a very strong
city. All who are born again of the
Spirit of God and trust now in Jesus Christ are given and put
into union with Christ. And listen, back then this is
how they, these cities, they were always constantly under
attack and there was no real, borders were constantly moving,
kingdoms were very fragile things. And what secured those kingdoms
then was the strong city. If they had a walled city, that
was some place that they fled when they were under attack.
And they would have to trust in those walls Those fortified
bulwarks in order to protect them. And so it is with us. We have fled to a city, a city
of refuge. We, like in the Old Testament,
are being chased by the avenger of blood, God's wrath. We were
guilty of innocent blood, and we fled to the city of refuge,
Jesus Christ. And you that have fled, I want
you to understand that you've got a strong city. You've got
a strong city. We rejoice and praise God for
this city was not haphazardly put together. This was not a makeshift city.
Our city, friends, was an eternal city. One whose builder and maker
is God. That's the city we dwell in.
Our salvation, our defense, our refuge is this city. This city that it was prepared.
You know, in that last day, Jesus will say to His people, He said,
Come, you blessed of the Father, inherit the kingdom, what? Prepared for you. from before the foundation of
the world. This city was prepared, this
city was desired, this city was purposed of God from before the
foundation of the world. Believer in Jesus Christ, we
in this world are as sheep among wolves. A sheep among wolves is a very
defenseless creature. A sheep, you know what his defense
mechanism is? Lay down and die. That's it. When he's attacked, he doesn't
run, falls. He just lays down. He's defenseless. He's weak. He's ignorant. Yet this is where God has placed
us, His people, in this world. We are as sheep among wolves,
in ourselves, weakness personified. We are helpless. Our foes are
too numberless to count. They are too strong for us. The
world is filled with darkness and trouble and sin, and we are
oppressed and hated and despised by the religion of this world
and by the world itself. And not only are we afflicted
on the outside, we also have enemies within our own selves. I know my worst enemy and foe
is myself. What a wicked being resides in
my own breast. And daily we are at warfare with
our own selves. Though we were chosen of God,
though in that day we were forever redeemed by the blood of Christ,
though we now have the Spirit of God dwelling in us to give
us life and faith, yet we are not exempt from the suffering
and troubles and even the sin of our old nature. We are not
exempt from these things. And because we are not exempt
from these things, we need comfort. We need assurance. We need something
with which we can hold to and find rest in the midst of wolves. And here it is. We have a strong
city. Though not visible to man, by
faith it is very visible to us. We have a strong city. Don't
you know this, that you are protected from every side? Underneath are what? The everlasting
arms. Surrounded is what? The walls
and bulwarks of His salvation and blood. What is above us? It is the throne of God who rules
over all providence and men. Though it appear We're in danger. This is our song. I have a strong
city. A refuge. A refuge. In the midst of our sorrows,
when all appears dark and the promises of God's love and care
for us cannot be felt because of the painful circumstance we
find ourselves in, it is then we must look to that
day. We must look and see that we
dwell as citizens of a strong city, whose bulwarks and walls
are not made with brick and stone. Friends, our salvation is not
made by our own hands. If it were made by our own hands,
then we should have great cause to fear. If your salvation is
made by your own hands, you have every reason to be afraid. But our salvation, because it
was accomplished in that day, when Jesus Christ finished it,
when He accomplished it. Listen to the text. He said,
in that day we shall sing a song of Judas. We have a strong city.
And here's the proof. Salvation will God appoint for
walls and bulwarks. This salvation was appointed
of God. It was appointed of God. It was
built of God. It was purchased by the blood
and righteousness of His dear Son. I know, look over a few
pages of Psalm 48. This is speaking of this city.
This city we sing of. Psalm 48. Look at verse 1. I'm in the wrong place. Here we go. Psalm 48, verse 1. Great is the Lord, and greatly
to be praised, where? In the city of our God, in His
church, in the mountain of His holiness. Beautiful for situation. The
joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion on the sides of the north,
the city of the great king. Why? God is known in her palaces
for refuge. Oh, believer, I want you to know
how beautiful your situation is. I want you to see how beautiful
it is. It's wonderful. It can't get
any better. You got that? It can't get no
better for you. I don't care what's happening on the outside.
It can't get no better for you. Why? You are surrounded by walls
made by God Himself, wrought by the work of Jesus Christ.
It is a mountain of holiness. Don't you know you don't have
a hill of holiness? You have a mountain of holiness.
His holiness. Little city Jerusalem in Zion
set up on top of that hill and surrounded it on every side were
nothing but mountains. Why? Nobody could get in from
any side except one. What? The side of the north.
On the north side, there were walls, there were bulwarks, but
you know what else was there? A gate. That's Jesus Christ. Only way into this city is through
Christ. And all who are in this city, I want you to know this, and you can't be any safer. Our Lord Jesus Christ said this,
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and
I give unto them eternal life. And no man, it is though he is
defying every creature to try, it is though he is saying, try
it. I put them in the midst of wolves
and I dare you to touch one of them. Isn't that something? He doesn't have to put us in
the midst of wolves, did He? Why is He doing that? To prove
to us His love, His care, and His strength. Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. Why? I have a strong city. That's
our song, isn't it? He's my strong city. He's my
tower. He's my refuge. How many times
does David say that in the Psalms? He's my strong tower. Strong tower. What does this
mean? It means this, that not one accusation
of Satan will assail the walls of this city. How many times
a day do you accuse yourself? How many times a day do we bow
in humility because of our failures? Friends, I know sometimes we
think that laying on the floor is pious. No, faith is pious. Faith is good. We should believe
God. Why? Because He doesn't hear
any accusations against us. Isn't that something? Those who
accuse the brethren have been cast out. He's been cast out. This is our song, not one thing
shall assail the walls of His righteousness, not even the wrath
of God. Isn't that something? The justice
and righteousness of God are no longer against us. In fact,
the justice of God demands our citizenship. And will not have any other,
it won't accept any other outcome than our citizenship. God's justice
welcomes you. Why? Because Christ had put away
thy sin by the sacrifice of Himself. We were speaking about His holy
garments. Remember that hymn that Joseph
Hart wrote long time ago? With thy holy garments on, I'm
as holy as the Holy One. Oh, is that possible? Is that
possible? If you're in Christ, it is. What did he tell David when his
sin, when his grief struck him because of his sin? What gave
David hope? What gave David any confidence
at all? This is it. Fear not, the Lord
hath put away thy sin. It's gone. So therefore we are
welcome citizens of this kingdom. This is our song, that not even
the wrath or justice of God will ever approach us. Therefore behold the beautiful
situation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For in Christ Jesus
we are free from all condemnation. Is that what Paul said? There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.
Who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. What is
it to walk after the Spirit? People say, well that's just good work.
No. To walk after the Spirit is to believe in Christ. That's
the work of the Spirit of God is to have faith in Christ. The
work of the flesh is to believe in the flesh. To walk after the
flesh is to believe in self. To walk after the Spirit is to
believe in Christ. And those who believe in Christ, guess
what? You have no condemnation whatsoever. None. Alright, then who shall separate
us from this city? If God built it, God appointed
it, if God put us in there, who will take us out? Listen, if you put yourself in
this city, you could take yourself out. That's what Armenian religion
is, isn't it? They say, if you put yourself
in this, you can get yourself out. Well, that's so. If you
put yourself in, you can get yourself out. I didn't put myself
in here. God did. I didn't build this
city. God did. I didn't accomplish
my salvation. God did. who then shall separate us from
the love of God that is in Christ Jesus. Paul said, I am persuaded
that neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things, what? Present, nor things to come shall
ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ
Jesus. He who in that day accomplished
our salvation We who are now in Christ do sing, He is my strong
city, appointed of God to be my bulwark, my defense, and my
rock, my foundation. This is the song that all the
redeemed sing. I want to speak just a minute
to you who are outside. To you who have no abiding city. There is in this text a hope
for you. Look at verse 2. What is the song of this city? It's not only do we sing of our
strong city, but we sing of gates. He says, Open ye the gates that
the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Open ye the gates. The Bible
plainly declares and clearly testifies that God's church,
God has a chosen people, that Christ died specifically and
only for those people, that the Spirit of God shall come and
in effectual power save those people only. That is a clear
revelation of Scripture. Matter of fact, who's going to
enter into this? Look who's going to enter in.
The righteous. Those who in that day were made
righteous. by the blood of Christ. Those
are the ones who are going to enter in. I know that. Very thankful by God's grace
I was made to be one of them. But you know what? I don't know
who the rest of them are. I've told you this before, Charles
Spurgeon was questioned about this. He said, if God is only
going to save the elect, then why do you preach to everybody? He said, sir, if you would kindly
show me the elect, I will only preach to them. I don't know who they are. That's
why God said to Ezekiel, prophesy to the dead. This morning, if
you're outside of Christ, you're dead. And I'm preaching to the
dead. Don't sound logical to the natural
wisdom, but spiritual wisdom it is. It's spiritual wisdom.
We preach to the dead. Why? Because God has a people
among the dead. And if God ever shows you you're
dead, that's good. If you ever get a sense of what
it is to be dead, Here's something deep. Preacher
once said this, I'm stealing it so it's good. Dead is dead. To be dead is dead. What can a dead man do? If salvation were set beside
Him, and He had to do one thing, what could He do? This morning, I have set Christ before you. I have showed you what He's done. I've showed you His purpose. And listen, if it were left up
to you to receive it, you could not do it. Except the Father give you life. Friends, the gate is wide open. The gate is open. Christ is the
door. Come in and find what we have
found. Come in and sing with us. We have a strong city that none
can remove. Christ is all our salvation.
Come in. Now listen, if you don't come
in, it will be your own fault. Have I not told you? Have I not
preached it clear enough to you? Then why will you not come in? God, if He reveals that to you, He'll save you. When I say a day, it must have
been years I've dealt with this. I heard that come in. And I realized something about
myself. I could not come in. I had no power. And listen, I
had no right. One day God gave me such power
to come in. Matter of fact, I could do nothing
else. When you believe on Christ, you can't do anything else. Faith is not a choice. I did
not choose to believe, I just found myself believing. And in believing, guess what
this word says? It says, open ye the gates that
who? The righteous nation may come
in. Have you come in? If you've come
in, guess what God says about you? You are a righteous nation
that have kept the truth. What is this truth that we keep?
It is faith in Christ. That's what we keep. We hold
fast to Christ. When? All the days of our life. And what do we find? Thou shalt
keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee, because
he trusteth in thee. You know, this speaks here of
Christ more than anything else. Was there any other man that
had more peace in his mind than Christ? Did anything ever trouble
him? I mean, 5,000 men. He fed 5,000
men. It seemed like those disciples
thought, wow, this is a good start, right? Man, we've got
a group here. If one day some 5,000 people
came in this building, I would just be awed. That would be an
amazing thing, wouldn't it? And then the next day, if they
left, what would you do? What would we do? We'd be sad.
We'd be sad. Christ was not sad when they
left. Why? His mind was stayed on God. He was at perfect peace in everything. Storms come, what'd he do? He
went to sleep. That man was at perfect peace. And listen, even
so it is with us, because Christ has obtained our peace with God,
we may have peace of mind. How may we have had this peace
of mind? Fix your eyes on Christ. the moment you look at anything
else you don't have any peace look within and do you have any
peace? look at your heart, do you have any peace? look at your
actions, do you have any peace? look at your religion, do you
have any peace? God shall keep him in perfect peace whose mind
is staying on him so then what does God Tell us
in verse four, trust ye in the Lord how long? Forever. Forever. Because in the Lord Jehovah is
our Rock of Ages. Our Rock of Ages. This is my
song, Rock of Ages, cleft for me. let me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy riven side which flowed be of sin the double cure safe from
wrath and make me pure." That's a song, isn't it? That's the
song we sing in that day. Because of that
day, and in the day of His power, that's a song you'll sing. You
know? When He comes in power and He saves you, that's our
song. And how long? That song is going
to be sung for eternity, isn't it? It's the gospel song. It
is the song that makes our hearts glad. No other song does that. Somebody said Isaiah had one
string on his banjo. The gospel. That's the only string
on our harp, isn't it? The gospel. It's the only one
that touches our hearts. It's the only one I want to sing. A song about that day. And that day He took away all
our sin. And that day He saved us. And in the day of grace, He called
us. He opened the gates and He called
us in. And we trusted Him for perfect
peace. And we continually trust Him.
May God give us grace to do that. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer.