Isaiah chapter 25. We will be
looking at the first nine verses in this chapter. Isaiah chapter
25, verses 1 through 9. And the title of the message
this evening is, The Worship of God and Its Cause. The worship of God and the cause
of worship. The cause of it. Isaiah begins this portion, this
chapter here, in verse 1 saying, O LORD, Thou art my God. I will exalt Thee. I will praise
Thy name. For Thou hast done wonderful
things, Thy counsels of old, our faithfulness and truth. The prophet begins this chapter
here with a heart of praise, a determination to praise and
exalt Jehovah who he claims is my God. My God. The Lord is my God. He's saying
regardless of what men think, regardless of the opinions of
the world, regardless as to what others are going to do, as for
me, as for me, I will extol, I will exalt and praise my God,
my God. It's a determination. And the psalmist, one of the
psalms in Psalm 147, verse 1, the psalmist rightly says this,
Praise ye the Lord. Why? For it is good. Isn't that a self-evident truth
to you who are believers in Christ, that praise is good? Praise is
good. It's good to sing praises unto
our God, for it is pleasant and comely. Can you think of anything
in the world that is really pleasant or comely, that is really satisfying
and fulfilling as praise? There's a lot of things that
fulfill the flesh, but that only lasts how long? Until you're
wanting something else. There's no fulfillment there,
there's no joy there. All the world promises, they
said, this is good, and then you take it, and then you find
out it's not good. They said this is pleasant, and
you take it, and you find out, well that's not pleasant at all.
The world is vain and empty. But for the righteous, there's
only one pleasant thing, only one good thing for us. this life
and that is praise to our God remember when Mary was sitting
at the feet of our Lord and Martha was busy she was preparing a
dinner for God that's something isn't it that's it that sounds
like a good task that sounds like a good good job and what did he say when she
wouldn't come here She said, Oh no, she wanted the good thing,
and it's not going to be taken. For she was sitting at His feet,
praising Him, hearing His Word. She desired the praise of God,
therefore is to the believer comely. As Paul said in Romans
12, it's just reasonable, isn't it? Praise of our God comes from
the heart by the power and grace of God, the Holy Spirit, and
is the most pleasant and good experience that any believer,
any one of us, could ever have. And yet there is much confusion
about worship, is there not? How many people say, I'm going
to worship God? Well, if you are, that's good.
But what is worship? If it's good to extol our God
and exalt our God, then we should know what it is. We should be
able to recognize it. In religion, people are confused
as to what worship is. They confuse worship with emotionalism. They think if they're stirred
up in their flesh, that's worshipping God. And if you're not stirred
up, if you're not crying, if you're not weeping, if you're
not jumping up and down, if you're not excited in the flesh, then
you're just not worshipping God. Well, that's confusion, because
that's not true. That's not true. And so this is why they need
big bands and they need entertainment, because they have to stir up
the flesh. They've got to stir up the flesh in order for them,
they've got to weep and they've got to wave their hands. They
cry and they dance and they sing and call that worship. But, when that man, after all that
hoopla is over with, when a man stands up and he begins to preach,
you'll be able then to determine whether it was true worship or
not. Because true worship always has a cause. Cause. And what is the cause of true
worship? One thing. It is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And if a man stands up and does
not preach the gospel of God's free grace in Christ, whatever
they have done is not worship. Not worship. If he preaches the freewill works
religion of this day, that just proves that their gospel is another
gospel, their Christ is another Christ, and their spirit that
generated all that worship is another spirit. Another spirit. Now, what I'm not saying is this. I don't say that God's people
are without emotion. That's not true. God's people
are truly emotional. These things really affect us
in our very soul. And so we are not without emotion. No. Surely we do, and with all our
hearts, love God. I love God. Do you love God? I love Him. And you know what? I want to love Him more than
I do. I truly believe Him. Oh, but I long to believe Him
more. We bow ourselves and we present
ourselves even now as I'm preaching the Gospel. What are we doing
in our hearts? We are bowing down before God
in our hearts. We are longing to hear His voice. We want to sit at His feet. We
want Him to touch our hearts. We want Him to touch our minds.
We want Him to touch our spirits. We do. We want to feel His presence. Every believer does. And at times
we are. How many times have we been lifted
up as though we were in heaven itself hearing the gospel preached? As though Christ walked in and
just reached down and touched us. Oh, what a joy those privileged
times are. But our praise and worship does
differ from those who worship only in the flesh. For their
spirit is anti-Christ. All who preach a works religion,
their spirit, though it's very moving, though it's very active,
is a spirit of devils, and not of the Spirit of God. And so then when you hear another
gospel being preached, no matter what went before, If it's another
gospel, mark it down, it's another spirit and it's another worship
of another God. Why? Because the gospel is the
cause of our worship. The gospel is what moves believers
to praise. It is hearing the Word of God. It is hearing of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. You remember our Lord was speaking
to that woman at the well concerning worship. He first exposed her
of her sin. And then she, like most all of
us, become very confused as to what to do. That's what happened
to that Philippian jailer. What must I do? He didn't know. He was confused. And when we're
exposed, what do we know? We know this, we must stand before
God. And this woman, understanding
this, she exposes some confusion here. She said this, I know this,
our father said to worship in this mountain, and you Jews,
you say there's something wrong here. I'm confused. Which is
it? Which is it? I know I've got to worship God.
I know my sin is exposed. What do I need to do? The woman was confused. And Jesus
answered her and she said, He said, Believe me, the hour has
come and now is when you neither shall worship in this mountain
nor in Jerusalem. Worship the Father. Now you don't know what
you worship. He said, your people are so confused,
they're so far off, they missed everything. They didn't miss
the mark, they missed the whole wall, they missed the whole dartboard.
You missed it. Now the Jews, they understand
the manner of worship, they understand the place of worship. The problem
with both of them is, neither one of them worships. Neither one of them worships
God. One doesn't know anything. The
other knows some things and still doesn't know anything concerning
the righteousness of God. But the hour cometh and now is
when the true worshippers shall worship the Father. How? In spirit
and in truth. Oh, there it is. in spirit and
in truth. God is a spirit and they that
worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth. I was
looking up these in one of the translators translated this scripture
this way. I thought it was very enlightening.
He said this. They that worship him must worship him with the
spirit and with the truth. Listen, without the spirit of
God, none of us can Except we be born again of the
Spirit of God, you cannot worship. You cannot. That is a necessity.
Without the Spirit, we cannot be born again. Without the Spirit,
we cannot know Christ. We cannot know our sin. We cannot
know our need. We cannot feel after Him. We must be born of the Spirit.
And so all who are born of the Spirit, whose hearts are made
willing to worship, we know the only way of worship is to be
accepted. I think of that Esther. You remember she was to come
before the king and there was a law that the king must yield
the scepter. She must be accepted or die. And so the sinner, being quick
and knows this, he must be accepted or die if he is to come and worship. He must come either accepted
or he will die. And the only way to be accepted
is how? By the truth. Jesus Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by me. This is how we worship. In spirit. With the spirit. And the truth. Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. And how do we do this? By stirring
up the flesh. By getting sights and sounds
and smell as the religion does to stir up the man to religious
frenzy? Is that how we worship? No. There's
only one thing that will ever stir your heart to worship, and
that is what the Spirit uses. It is the gospel. It is the gospel. And so then I have three things
in this text. Three things in this text that
we should see concerning the cause of worship. What stirs
the believer's heart? It is the gospel. And these three things here are
mentioned in this text. Look at this, what Isaiah said.
He said, I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name. Here's the cause.
Four. Thou hast done wonderful things
And the counsels of old are faithfulness and truth." Two things here,
his work and his counsel. This is what stirs his heart.
This is what made Isaiah long to praise God. He was stewing
on these two things, his work and his faithful counsel. And so that by that I want us
to see these three things then three things concerning this.
First of all the eternal counsel of God. This is what stirs our
heart to praise the first thing. The second thing that stirs our
heart is this the fulfillment of that council the fulfillment
of what he purposed to do. which is salvation by Jesus Christ. And third, the third thing that
stirs us is the revelation or the fulfillment of this counsel
in us. That's good to know God has a
purpose and God saves the elect. But what stirs my heart is I'm
one of them. That stirs my heart. So these
things should stir our heart. Let's see the first one. The
eternal counseling covenant of God. Isaiah said, I will praise
thee for thy counsel. And let us remember this That
all the works of God all that God has done All that God is
doing and all that God shall do is according to what? His
Counsel means will his decree what he has determined what he
has purpose we use different words for that His counsel Isaiah
46 he said remember the former things of old for I am God and
there is none else I am God There's none like me what separates God
from everyone other God We got how many churches before you
get here how many churches Most likely is not many churches as
you've passed. There's many gods Many gods they
all may claim to be Jehovah, but you listen a little while
you find out that there's nothing better than you are They're as
helpless as you are. What separates a true God from
a false God is this, will. Sovereign will and power to perform
what he said he would do. That's what separates a true
God from a false God. The false gods of men, they want
to do something. But they cannot do anything except
their worshippers help them. Except they give them permission
or allow them to do something. That is a false God. Listen to
what my God says. That stirs my heart to worship.
My God says declaring the end from the beginning. That stirs
me. That helps me to know that my
God, whatever my God says, He does. declaring it from the beginning
from ancient times of things that were not yet done saying
my counsel my decree my eternal will shall stand and I will do
all my pleasure counsel and will of God are the same as the nature
of God their eternal immutable changeless decree changeless
our God is a Sovereign God an omnipotent God and not only does
he will before Everything before it happens. He says this I'm
gonna do it So not only do I have will but I have power I have
power And seeing that God is all wise
what could surprise him how many things surprise you you want
to do something and And you think you've got it. You've planned,
and you've worked, and you've tried to remove every obstacle
from the way, and all of a sudden, something comes in you can't
handle. You can't stop it. It just throws your plans all
off. Listen, everything that happens
is included in the plan with God. So nothing surprises Him. We know this. You can see this
illustration by Judas Iscariot, right? Judas Pilate the Jews
all of them wanted to get rid of Christ and God says No, what
you're doing is exactly what I determined to be done You're
gonna do what you wanted to All the while thinking you're throwing
off my chains, but in actuality you're just doing whatever it
is. I determine you to do God is sovereign and he did this
for our salvation and It was a sovereign will of God
in a covenant, therefore, of God to do this one thing. Here it is. You want a summation
of all of history put together. Here it is. The salvation of
His people. That's what God's doing. Everything
that's happening is for that purpose. To move toward that
purpose of saving Israel, His people. This is what God before
everything determined. Determined everything that's
going to happen before it happened to have to work toward that Purpose
to save his people it was a sovereign will of God and a covenant of
free grace That chose a people that set his love upon them as
vessels of mercy to give them to his son Jesus So that he should
save them Blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus
Christ Isn't this praise now what Paul's doing he starts out
that letter with praise doesn't it? Blessed be the God and father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why Paul for his counsel? According as he had chosen us
in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be
holy Without blame before in love having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ by Jesus Christ
The way is determined Unto himself Having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according
to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Now
listen, all the Old Testament Israel, that nation, was a picture
of these people. We see this time and time again.
Paul says it in Romans chapter 9, you can see it later, that
not all Israel are of Israel. Israel is spiritual. And so the
Old Israel is a picture of the true Israel. Now look at verse
2. He says, For thou hast made a
city a heap, of a defense city a ruin, a palace of strangers
to be no city. It shall never be built. Now
you know what he's talking about here? He's talking about Babylon. You see, he's talking about the
destruction of a city that hasn't even risen up yet. The nation of Israel had not
even been captive yet. And yet God says this, you will
be captive in this city. But God here is not just speaking
of their captivity, He's speaking of their liberty. He promises
their liberty before their captivity. Now you see how this relates
to you and me. By nature we were ruined. By
nature we were captives. held captive. We were born dead in sins. Our
wills were in bondage. Our hearts were ruled by lust
and rebellion and enmity against God. But God says even before
it happens, thou hast made the city a heap, a defense city,
a ruin. This is the promise of God, the
will of God concerning the salvation of his elect. Look at verse four. In verse four, he says, for thou
has been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his
distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat when the
blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against The wall. Here God promises something to
a group of people. Who are they? The poor and the
needy. That's His people. God decreed
what we should be. We should be poor and needy. But God purposed that Jesus Christ
should be our strength, our life, and fulfillment of all our needs.
He said, I'm going to make your salvation dependent not on you,
but on Him. I'm going to put all the weight
of your salvation on His shoulders, and you're going to go free.
This is the purpose of God, the will of God that can't be thwarted.
And behold, Christ shall be not only your strength, and fulfill
your needs of righteousness and redemption. He shall also be
a refuge. Now refuge, what is that? That
is a shelter against this heat, this blast that he speaks of.
That's the wrath of God. He is our refuge. God determined
him to be so. Therefore, as you attempt to
worship this night, behold, behold the mediator of the covenant. has made Christ to be the surety
of our covenant. He says, Behold my servant, whom
I uphold, mine elect, and whom my soul delighteth. I will put my spirit upon him,
and he shall bring forth judgment unto the Gentiles. Well, how
is he going to do this? He says this, He shall not cry
nor lift up. Or have his voice heard in the
streets? A bruised reed shall he not break? Smoking flax? How
shall he do this? In humility. He's going to come
as a man, God says. In humility. To execute judgment. In other words, to satisfy the
justice of God. That's what he came to do. And what does God say before
it even happens? He says this, He shall not fail.
Now that's a will of God. You who believe in Christ. Don't
you know this? He won't fail. He hasn't failed. Why? That was the will of God
that can't be moved. He shall not fail nor be discouraged. This is the foundation and the
fountainhead of all worship. Without this, truly, our worship
is very limited because we would have to put some measure of this
on ourselves. But this alleviates all the burden
from God's people. What? The counsel of God. The
will of God. And notice the fulfillment of
this will. How is it fulfilled? By the coming of Jesus Christ. The Father willed that Christ
should come and fulfill this. But I tell you, according to
the Word of God, that Jesus Christ has come and fulfilled this. This passage of scripture here,
it's already been filled. He is the strength to the poor.
He is the help to the needy. He is the refuge against the
storm. Christ has come and fulfilled
the work. Now listen, what good is it to
you if you determine to do something but don't do it? What good is
it? It's no good. How many of us
determined to do something but just for some reason we just
aren't able? It's frustrating. Very frustrating. God's not frustrated. God's not
like you. God doesn't determine to do something
and then fail. No, He determines to do something and then He does
it. And I tell you what God is already determined to do, it
has already been done. It's been done. Jesus Christ
has come into the world as a representative man. He has accomplished righteousness
for us. Listen, that's what we need.
That's what the needy need. They need righteousness. And
so Christ comes in and He comes as a man and He fulfills the
righteousness of God. I like this, one man wrote this,
he said, our robe of righteousness is not made by the sheep's wool, but by the fine linen of Christ's
righteousness. We get sheared, but none of that
wool goes to any use. No use for our robe. No use for
our merit there. Christ came into the world and
did accomplish all that we need. He fulfilled that and He fulfilled
not only righteousness, but He also atoned for our sins. He has fulfilled that covenant. He hung upon the tree, being
made a curse for us, being made sin so that we, who are full
of sin, might be made the righteousness of God in Him. He did that according
to the will of God. He said, this is thy, I come
to do thy will, O God. Paul said, by the witch will
you are made holy, sanctified. this man after he had offered
himself once sat down at the right hand of god this man the
lord jesus christ he has fulfilled this fulfilled all the covenant
promises of god this stirs our hearts to worship listen we don't
worship a a defeated savior That's what most of religions worship.
They don't realize it. They don't even recognize it.
They think, they say he's victorious, but he's really a failure. But
our Savior, He didn't make salvation possible, did He? No. He actually
saved everyone He died for. For whom did Christ die? He died
for all that the Father gave Him. He died for all those that come
to Him. He said, all that the Father
giveth me, what's the mark, shall come to me. Friends, He has perfected forever
them that are sanctified. And by His omnipotent intercession
with God, God says this, I'm well pleased with His sacrifice.
I'm well pleased with his righteousness so then we see the death of Christ
was the fulfillment the fulfillment of God's council in Isaiah chapter 53
look over there real quick Isaiah 53 read this with me and see
that see if this is not been fulfilled you know it has Isaiah
53 Look at verse six. All we like
sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way, and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.
He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth.
He was brought as a lamb to the slaughter. As a sheep before
her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. He was taken from
prison from judgment. Who shall declare his generation?
He was cut off out of the land of the living. For the transgression
of my people was he stricken. He made his grave with the wicked
and with the rich in his death. Because he had done no violence,
neither was deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. Yet put him to grief. And now shall make his soul an
offering for sin. He shall see his seed Prolong
his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his
hand and he shall see of the travail of his soul and shall
be What What's God what is God concerning
that sacrament Satisfied You realize you can say that
about yourself God is satisfied Outside of him, but in him Therefore Paul says this about
this salvation. He said in 2nd Timothy 1 9 he
said who have saved us and what? Called us which is first And then what does he do? Let's
us know He said oh by the way Come to me And with irresistible power,
this is fulfilled in us. And this is the third reason
of our worship. Listen, what good is the understanding
of election and the understanding of even Christ's successful victory
at the cross, except it be fulfilled in us? It's no good. I have to know that I am in Christ. And if I am in Christ, if I am
in Christ, I'm satisfied, I'm content to be in Him. Listen
to this in verse 6, he says, and in this mountain, and in
this mountain shall the Lord of hosts make unto all the people
a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the lees, of fat things
full of marrow, of wine on the lees, well refined. How do we
come to know Christ? By what means? The preaching
of this gospel. Isn't this what it is? What's
the feast? What's the wine on the lees? It is the body and
the blood of Christ. It is His work, all that counsel
of God that I've just described to you, that I've just preached
to you. This is the feast. I've spread a feast for you.
It's a feast. And what do we say as preachers?
What do we declare? What are we called to say? All
is ready. Everything is ready. Everything
is made ready by Jesus Christ. It is already finished. And we
say to those who are hungry, come and welcome. Come and eat. Come and be satisfied. And worship
our God. These are fat things. These are
things that are delicious to the soul. These are fat things
as a marrow, which means there's nourishment to our souls, aren't
they? In times of trouble, what else do you want to hear besides
the gospel of Christ? We want to hear of His strength, of His
mercy, of His power, of His grace in times of difficulty. We feed
on this. And as we feed what we do, we
thank God, we praise God for His grace, for this feast that
He's given us concerning His Son, this wine on the leaves. You know, I've heard that before
and had no clue what wine on leave now it's two different
meanings in scripture it when it's talking about a man or man
it's bad when you say like Moab rested on his leaves okay he's
talking about Moab was resting on his works in order to preserve
them leaves preserve the wine that's what they do They're in
the wine, and they're as a preservative of the wine. So when it talks
about a man preserving his own soul, his own lease, it's really
bad. But when it talks about it here,
it's talking about the blood of Christ. It's talking about
His work, His perfection makes His blood preserved. And so as we drink the blood
of Christ by faith, I want you to know that His blood is continually
cleansing us, continually washing us of all our sins, even your
worship. Were there not sin in our worship
tonight? As we worship, was there not
interruptions in our hearts, in our souls? was not the flesh
moving against our worship. That's alright. His blood, His
wine is on the leaves. It's preserved. You're preserved.
You're preserved. Constantly interceding, constantly
cleansing us. And then we see this. He said
he will swallow up death and victory and the Lord will wipe
away the tears. From all their faces and the
rebuke of his people shall be taken away from all the earth.
Friends, our Savior has abolished, isn't that what it says in the
first and second Timothy one, he saved us and called us. And
he said that Christ has abolished death. he abolished death on
the cross when he died death was swallowed up and I'll
tell you what when he came to us in this moment of grace and
he gave us life guess what death was swallowed up and yet we have
this hope one day we'll experience the fullness of death when it's
swallowed up In the resurrection when He comes
again and wipes away our sin forever. And He says this, to
you who have the first resurrection, the second death shall have no
power. And soon we'll be able to experience what true worship
really is when we are in His presence. When we're done away
with this flesh. And the sign that Isaiah goes
on to say, we waited. Isn't that worship? To determine
to worship based on the cause of His counsel and His work. And what do we do? We wait for
Him to bless us. I do pray the Lord will bless
us. Bless us to worship and praise Him. That's just good. That's just
good. I pray God will stir our hearts
with his gospel. Always. Always. Let's stand and
be dismissed in prayer.