Let's pray together. Merciful Heavenly Father, we
come before thy throne of grace in the name of thy dear son,
thanking thee that we have an advocate, one in whom we find
acceptance before thee, one in whom we find all our righteousness
and all the hope of our salvation. You've promised father to send
your Holy Spirit where two or three are gathered together in
thy name. I pray father that you would. Bless us with the
fulfillment of that promise tonight. That you would. Cause us to see
Christ lifted up. And that we would be drawn to
him. And that our affections would be set. On Christ. Who seated at the right hand?
Whoever lives to make intercession for us. We ask it in His name,
Amen. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Isaiah chapter 22, Isaiah chapter 22. It's good to have
Eugene and Natalie and Jason and Dennis and Rochelle from
Charlotte. They drove up just this afternoon
to be with us. They're very dear friends of
ours and we love them and so glad they're here and get to
spend a few minutes with them. The hope that God's people have
is in the God who cannot lie. His precious promises must be
fulfilled. and His Word is full of them.
The Scripture says that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself is the yea
and amen of all of God's promises. All the promises of God are yea
and amen in Him. And so when we open God's Word,
and if He's pleased to bless us with His Spirit and enable
us to believe, then we can hang the hope of our eternal souls
on the fulfillment of His promises. Here in Isaiah chapter 22, the
Lord says in verse 20, and it shall come to pass in that day. That's my hope. This is an Old
Testament prophecy speaking of what would come to pass in the
person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ who is typified by a man
by the name of Eliakim here in our text. When God says it shall
come to pass, you can hang your soul on it. There's no way that
it can't come to pass if God says that it shall. And so what
is it that the Lord has promised would come to pass. It's a precious
promise. It's as full as the promise that
David hung his hopes on when he said, although my house be
not so with God, yet He has made with me an everlasting covenant. This covenant is ordered in all
things and it's sure It's the sure testimony of God. It's a promise that will not
leave us disappointed. Many are hanging the hopes of
their salvation on lies. And they're going to find that
they were leaning on a teetering wall. and that they're going
to be sadly, sadly disappointed in the day of judgment. Not so
with the promises of God. David said, this is all my salvation. This is all my desire that the
Lord would make his promises that way to us and that we would
see them fulfilled in Christ. And we know this book is all
about the Lord Jesus Christ. The scripture says in the volume
of the book, it is written of me. When the Lord Jesus Christ
rebuked the Pharisees, he said, you search the scriptures. You're
very diligent about it. You're very committed, very religious,
very, uh, uh, very, very thorough. He said, you search the scriptures
because you think in them, you have eternal life. You think
by memorizing the Bible, You think by making the precepts
of the Bible, your rule of life, that therefore you found the
key to eternal life, but you've missed the key. You've missed
the truth of the scriptures for these are they which testify
of me. If we don't see Christ in the
scriptures, then we haven't properly understood the scriptures. Once
you love that story in Luke chapter 24, when the Lord is walking
along the road to Emmaus with those two disciples and their
hopes were gone. They thought that the one that
they had hoped would be the prophet of God was now crucified. They
didn't know he was walking right along beside of them, talking
to them. And beginning with Moses and
the prophets and the Psalms, he expounded unto them those
things concerning himself. I wonder if this passage in Isaiah
22 may have been one of the passages that he spoke to them about.
When they got to their house in Emmaus, you remember, in the
breaking of the bread is when their eyes were opened and they
saw that it was the Lord Jesus Christ. And what did they say?
Did our hearts not burn within us as he spake with us along
the way? That's my hope. That in the breaking
of bread, the Lord would be pleased to reveal to us the fulfillment
of His promises in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and
give to us the faith to hang our souls, the hope of our salvation,
all our life on Him doing what He said He would do. The testimony of Jesus, the Scripture
says in the book of Revelation, is the Spirit of prophecy, the testimony of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The characters, particularly
in the Old Testament, are types of Christ. In chapter, Isaiah
chapter 22 at verse 20, and it shall come to pass in that day,
Isaiah was speaking 700 years plus before the Lord Jesus Christ would leave
glory, take on the flesh of a man, be born of a woman, be born under
the law to redeem those who were cursed by the law. He was made
in the likeness of sinful flesh. And Isaiah is making reference
now to what he would do when he came. And he says in that
day, I will call my servant. Isaiah later in Isaiah chapter
42 says, Behold my servant, mine elect. He's speaking of Christ
and he's telling us, look to Christ. Look to Christ. It's really not an oversimplification
of every gospel message to say that the message is in its conclusion,
in its sum and substance. Look to Christ. Come to Christ. Trust Christ. He's our all, and
He's in all. And so now the Lord says, I will
call my servant Eliakim. Eliakim's name means God raises. God raises. And that's exactly
the Lord Jesus Christ is the first born among many brethren. That's a reference to his resurrection.
And when Paul said, Oh, that I might know him and the power
of his resurrection, the fellowship of his sufferings, that I might,
that I might be more able to believe that when God raised
the Lord Jesus Christ from the dead, who he could not allow
to see corruption, he could not allow him to remain in the grave.
Why? Because he had satisfied everything
the father sent him to do. The father was obligated to raise
the Lord Jesus Christ because of his accomplished work. And
when Christ raised from the dead, all those for whom he died raised
with him. And so when Paul said, Oh, that
I might know him and the power of his resurrection, that I might
be more thoroughly convinced by the spirit of God that when
Christ raised from the dead, I raised from the dead that when
Christ ascended into glory, I send it into glory, that all the blessings
of God for me are in the heavenlies, in Christ, in my substitute,
right this very minute. And so Eliakim now is a type
of the Lord Jesus Christ who God raised from the dead. And
this promise is for those who would be raised in him. And so
he says, it shall come to pass in that day that I will call
my servant Eliakim, the son of Hilkiah." Hilkiah's name means,
my portion is Jehovah. What a glorious description of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What he did on Calvary's cross
was not an offer of salvation for us, he was doing business
with the Father. When Abraham said, God will provide
himself a sacrifice, That's exactly what he did on Calvary's cross. God did the providing and the
sacrifice was to God and it was by God. God was doing business
with God on Calvary's cross. And here, Hilkiah's name means
the Jehovah is my portion. The reason that I'm doing this
is to please my father, to satisfy him, to fulfill the purpose that
he sent me on. And so it is with us. The Lord
Jesus Christ is our portion. God said to Abraham, I will be
thine exceeding great reward. We're not looking for a reward
outside of Christ. He's our reward. He's our reward. And he's so much more of a reward
than we can possibly imagine. How glorious it is to know that
one day we'll shed this flesh. We look through a glass dimly
now, don't we? We see him in types and in pictures. We see him through the eyes of
faith. But in that day, we'll see him face to face and we'll
be made like him. And the corruptible will be made
incorruptible and the mortal will be made immortal. Here's
our hope. Here's Eliakim and Hilkiah representing
for us what the Lord Jesus Christ has promised he would do. I'm
going to do this. I will, look at verse 21. I will clothe him with thy robe. Now Isaiah is speaking to the
priest. And he's saying to the priest,
God's going to clothe Hilkiah with the priestly robe. First, we can't even think of
the robe of the Lord Jesus Christ without thinking of that robe
of righteousness, the robe that he gives us. John saw the saints
in glory and they were all dressed in a robe. And the Lord Jesus
Christ said, though your sins be as scarlet, they should be
made white as snow. And he washes our robes and makes them white. It's his righteousness. We have
no righteousness of our own. We're completely, we're naked
before God. We're like our father, Adam.
The best we can do is try to cover our nakedness with our
own hands and how futile that is. God has to slay a lamb. Can there be any doubt, though
the scripture doesn't tell us for sure about what animal that
was, but can there be any doubt that perhaps that animal was
Adam's pet lamb that God took and slew right before him and
shed his blood and took the skin of that lamb and covered his
nakedness To show that it's only through the sacrifice of the
Lamb of God that we can have the shame of our sin covered
and our nakedness covered and have acceptance before God. When
the Lord Jesus Christ went to Calvary's cross, the scripture
says that they divided up his possessions. That was one of
the rewards that the Roman soldiers would get for that particular
duty that they had to perform. And they would get whatever the
person they were crucifying had, it was theirs. And so they divided
it up. And when they got to his robe,
The scripture says that one of the soldiers recognized that
the robe was very unusual in that it had no seams. It had
no seams. I don't know how they made that
robe, but I know what it represents. You know, our clothes today have
seams, and the clothes back then certainly had seams. They were
stitched together, pieces of fabric, in order to fit the body.
This was one robe, and what did the soldier say? He said, don't
rend it. Don't rend that robe. Don't tear
that robe. Don't separate that robe. We'll
cast lots for it. And in fulfilling the prophecy
that God made, they cast lots for the robe of the Lord Jesus
Christ because it could not be rent. And so it is with the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't rend the robe of the
righteousness of Christ. It's to be received in its fullness. It's not a peace, a peace to
righteousness. We don't take, we don't take
patches and put on our, our sin, do we? We, we, the Lord made
a parable of that, didn't he? He said, you, you don't take
a piece of fabric that has a hole in it. And so a new unshrunk
piece of fabric over that hole. Otherwise what'll happen when
that new piece of unshrunk fabric shrinks, it's only going to make
the hole that you were trying to cover up bigger. And so it
is with. the way man tries to cover up
his own sin. Oh, this robe that the Lord promised
to give Hilkiah and Eliakim, it's the robe of righteousness.
It's the robe of the Lord Jesus Christ. It cannot be rent. And
by itself, it covers our nakedness before God and makes us accepted
in his presence. What a glorious promise. How
else are we going to stand before a holy God? How can a man born
of a woman be clean before God? It can't be. Apart from him imputing
to us the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the scripture
says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And so here's
the here's the double transfer. This is the double blessing.
that God placed on the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross as
our sin bearer, all the shame and all the guilt of our sin.
And by his grace imputed to those for whom he died, the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is our robe and every, every
child of God is going to be wearing it. The Lord told us, told a
parable about a King who gave a feast. And there was a servant
at the door giving everybody that came into the feast a wedding
garment. And the king found a man in the
feast that didn't have a wedding garment on. Now, why do you reckon
he didn't have a wedding garment on? I'll tell you exactly why
he didn't have it on. Because when he got to the door,
he'd looked at his own outfit. He said, I think my clothes look
better than that wedding garment. I'll just wear these. And the king found him and kicked
him out. told him to cast him into utter
darkness. It didn't have the reason that men refuse the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because they think that their own garments
are satisfactory. I've worked hard and getting
these garments. I've cleaned myself up pretty
good. And the King, when he finds you, cast you into utter darkness. What a glorious promise. I will clothe him with thy robe. And I will clothe you with his
robe. It's the only hope we have. What
a glorious promise to hang the hopes of our salvation on the
righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what he says. I mentioned this is the robe
of the priest Aaron, and the scripture says that when Aaron
was anointed as the priest, that the oil, the anointing oil was
placed on his head. It came down his head, down his
beard, down his robe and dripped off the garment, the edge, the
hem of his robe. It's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ being anointed by the Spirit of God. That's what Christ
means. It means the Messiah. It means
the anointed one. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world in the full power of the Spirit of God to accomplish
the mission that God sent him on, which was to do what? To
save his people. Is there any way he could fail?
No. His robe of righteousness was
accepted before God, and the reason it was is because everything
he did, he did it as our priest, as our intercessor in the full
power of the Spirit of God. He was anointed with the oil
of gladness above his fellows. He came in the full power of
the Spirit of God. The Lord gives us just little
measures of His Spirit, doesn't He? We just, we get little glimpses
and, and, and, and light just, just, oh, we want so much more,
don't we? And so we're caused to, to believe
that promise that the father, that the Lord gave us when he
said, if you be an evil, know how to give good gifts unto your
children. How much more will your heavenly father give the
Holy spirit to them who ask him, Oh Lord, give me your spirit.
I want to see more of Christ. I want to see more of his effectual
work. I want to see more of his grace,
more of his love for me, more of his accomplished glory right
now, seated at thy right hand. And the Lord gives us just as
much as we can bear. The Lord Jesus Christ came in
the full power of the third person of the triune God. anointed with
the Spirit of God. Here's his robe soaked in oil. Could he possibly fail in what
he was sent to do? Could he? Men speak of Jesus
as if he was a failure. What is the What is the popular
opinion of religious people who say they believe in Jesus Christ?
I'll tell you what it is. It's God loves everybody. Christ
died for everybody. God wants everybody to be saved.
You've got a free will. The Bible is a rule book for
Christian living. And now, you know, God's done everything he
can do and it's up to you. That's not the one who came clothed
in the robe. That's not the Eliakim in the
Hilkiah that I read of here. That's not the one who came,
look at the next phrase, strengthening him with thy girdle. Now in Ephesians chapter six,
the scripture speaks of those who stand against the evil of
this world with their loins girt about with what truth with truth. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
truth. Everything you said is true.
Everything you did is truth. He said, if you know the truth,
the truth will set you free. And I am the way, the truth and
the life. He's not showing us the way to
the truth. He's not a portion of the truth.
He is the truth. And here God says, I'm going
to send him. I'm going to send him. He's going
to have the robe of the priest soaked in oil. He's going to
have the robe of righteousness. He's going to accomplish. The
purpose for which I send him and he's going to come with the
truth, the truth about who God is. The fact that that he is
the glorious self-existent I am. I am. He's not like us. He said, oh,
you thought that I was altogether as yourself, but he's not like
us at all. We fashion in our imagination
idols and caricatures of what we think God is, but he's not
like us. The word holy means other. He's
other than we are. He's beyond our comprehension. Strengthen him. With that girdle,
the girdle of truth. He said, if you've seen me, you've
seen the father. Try and the father one. The Lord
Jesus Christ, all will ever see or all will ever know about God
Almighty will discover it and know it for all eternity. in
the person of his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the fullness
of the Godhead bodily. He's sovereign over the salvation
of his people. I see he's got his he's got his
belt of truth on and he reveals the truth and the truth is not
it's not debatable. It is as God has spoken it. The
truth about who he is, the truth about who we are. dead in our trespasses and sins,
unable to believe, unable to save ourselves. The truth about
how God saves sinners, electing them in the covenant of grace,
redeeming them through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
regenerating them by the power of his spirit, making them willing,
drawing them to himself. giving them the gift of faith,
causing them to believe, keeping them from falling and present
them faultless before His throne in glory. It's salvations of
the Lord. That's the truth. And any message
of salvation that denies Him, His glory and salvation is just
another gospel. And what does the scripture say
about another gospel? Let them be accursed. Let them
be accursed. Now, as hard as this might be
to send that hard to hear as it is, that phrase means let
them go to hell. If they preach any other gospel
than this gospel, let them go to hell. Now, that's what God
says. That's strong language, I know,
but it's God's language and it's the language that God's people
hear and believe and rejoice in the truth. They would not. They had no love for the truth.
And so God sent them a strong delusion that they would believe
a lie and they believed it. You know, the, you know, the
means by which God sends that strong delusion to cause the
reprobate to believe a lie is his word. It's his word. God's written
his word in such a way as to give those who don't want to
know the truth enough rope to hang themselves. He has. And you listen to them. They'll
quote verses right out of the Bible. And that's what they're
resting the hope of their salvation on. And God has sent them a strong
delusion that they might believe a lie. They've taken God's word
out of its context and they've rested it and twisted it and
made it to say things it doesn't say. And that's their hope. And
there's no truth to it. What hope we have. when the Lord
shows us that Christ himself is the truth. He's the truth
of God. He's the truth of what we are. You want to know what you are? Look what God had to do in order
to redeem you. That's the best way to understand
how sinful you really are. Don't go down into the deep,
dark well of your own conscience in order to try to discover the
wickedness of your sin. It's a whole lot worse than you
think it is. And the deeper you go, the darker
it's going to get. We're not trying to put men into
a state of depression in order to get them to really feel sorry
for their sins. If the Lord shows you what the
Lord Jesus Christ did in order to redeem you. You'll know that
in you dwelleth no good thing. You'll be able to say with Job,
I am vile. You'll be able to say with the
good, with the prophet Isaiah, woe is me for I am undone. I live among a people of unclean
lips. I'm a man of unclean lips. My eyes have seen the King, I'm
dead. He's gonna have to have mercy
on me. I will clothe him with thy robe
and I will strengthen him with thy girdle and I will commit
thy government into his hand. Paul put it like this in writing
to Timothy, he said, now unto the King, eternal, eternal. immortal, invisible, the only
wise God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. That's who he is. He reigns sovereign
over the armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants of the
earth. People talk about making Jesus
Lord of your life. Too late. Too late. God did it a long time ago. He
did it a long time ago. He reigns as Lord over your life,
whether you want him to or not. Why? Because the Lord has put
the governments, the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this
world are all the governments that are in his hand. You see
that? Here's the promise. I will commit
thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father unto
the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Yes, we're speaking of Christ.
Isaiah in another place in Isaiah chapter nine says that he's the
everlasting father, the prince of peace. The government should
be upon his shoulder. You say, well, that doesn't make
sense. It does if you're a believer,
it just makes perfect sense. Let me put it like this. Maybe
to say it makes perfect sense is a little overstatement because
the truth is we can't comprehend how God can be one God in three
persons, but it makes perfect sense in that we just believe
it. We believe it. We believe it because God said
it. And here he is. He's the he's the the father
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Now three things I know about
a father. A father is the cause of life in the womb of the mother. The father is the provider of
his children. The father is the protector of
his children. So he gives them life, he provides
for them, and he protects them. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
is promised by God. I'm going to make him a father
to all the inhabitants of the city of peace. That's Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah, to the house of Judah, the one house
that remained out of all the tribes of Israel, the one house
that remained faithful to the reign of the promises of God,
the lineage of David, is over the house of Judah. And all the
other tribes went astray, didn't they? There's but one faithful
tribe, and that is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. When
Paul speaks in the book of Ephesians about there being one God and
one Father of us all and one gospel and one faith, you know,
the very first thing he says in there is one body. One body. The church is one. There's not
many churches, there's one church. It's all part of the body of
Christ. Look at verse 22. And the key of the house of David,
I will lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open, and none shall
shut. And he shall shut, and none shall
open. He's got, he's like Joseph. You
remember when Joseph was down there in Egypt and Joseph was
given responsibility for the storehouses and he had the keys
to the storehouses and men would go to Pharaoh and to ask for
bread and Pharaoh said, go to Joseph, he's the one that's got
the keys. And whatever he does will be what will be done. He's
got the key, he's got access, and he's got sovereign authority
over distributing the food, the bread, as he sees fit. And now the Lord says, I'm gonna
give him the key of David. And what he opens, no man can
shut. I love that. When the Lord opens
your heart to Christ, when he gives you faith, You know, I,
I was thinking today, somebody told me recently, they said,
well, we don't want our children to go to a secular college because
they might be, uh, influenced in, uh, and, and, you know, humanism
and secularism, and they may, it may draw them away from God.
And I thought, well, if they're, if they're the Lords, it won't,
they're the Lords. It won't what he opens. No man can shut. The Lord teaches
you the gospel. Nobody's going to talk you out
of it. No slick professor, no slick preacher, no friend. Nobody's going to talk you out
of what God teaches you. What did the Lord Jesus Christ
say? Father, I thank thee that thou hast hid these things from
the wise and the prudent, and you've revealed them unto babes. They shall be all taught of God. What God teaches you, nobody
can teach you out of. Once the Lord teaches you, you
just know it's true. And you're able to say, if God before me,
the world can be against me, it's
okay. If the whole world goes the other way, I know this is
true because God has taught it to me. What he opens, no man
can shut. And what he shuts, well here's
the fearful thing. What he shuts, no man can open. You and I can't convince somebody
to believe the gospel until the Lord opens the heart. Paul went
to, to Philippi and went down by the river and he found some
ladies, some women that were having a prayer meeting and reading
the scriptures. And, and, uh, he preached the
gospel to them and the scripture says, and the Lord opened Lydia's
heart. Oh, that's what he's got to do
for you and I doesn't he? He's got to open our hearts. If he
doesn't open it, it won't be opened. What he shuts, no man
can open. You know what else is this is
true for? When the Lord opens, we're speaking of two different
individuals here now, the Lord opens the heart of his people
and no man can shut that heart. The Lord has shut the heart of
the reprobate. No man can open it. But you know,
there's a sense in which God opens and shuts something for
his people. When he opens your heart to the
gospel, now I know that open-mindedness is a highly valued thing in the
world. And everybody wants to pride
themselves in how open-minded they are. Oh, I'm open-minded. I'm not. I'm not. When God opened my heart to Christ,
he shut my mind to everything else. I'm not open-minded. In the book of Ezra, the scripture says, Ephraim
is like a silly dove flitting about from here to there. And
I looked up that word silly. It means enticed, deceived, allured,
persuaded, to enlarge. In short, it means to be open-minded. Open-minded. Don't let anyone
intimidate you for not being open-minded when it comes to
the truth of the gospel. God has shut your mind. Let them
call you narrow-minded all they want. Let them accuse you of
being pinch-brained and Neanderthal and backwoods and ignorant and
all the things that they would do to try to intimidate you.
God has shut my mind. What He opened, no man can shut.
And what He shut, no man can open. Isn't that the way it is? That's the way it is when the
Lord teaches us the gospel. This is his promise. And it's
a good thing. Because the truth is that the
world's so open minded that their brains are falling out. You know,
they just they just open minded every opinion of man and they
don't know the truth and it's going to cost them their souls.
Why? Because God hadn't shut their
mind. He hasn't shut their mind to the truth. Lord, shut my mind
to Christ. Open my heart. Look at verse
23. Oh, here's the promise. I will
fasten him as a nail in a sure place. That's exactly what God,
the father did when the Lord Jesus Christ was nailed on Calvary's
cross. And the sins of his people were
placed in his body on that tree. God fastened him in a sure place. A holy place. God put him there. And look what he says. And he
shall be for a glorious throne to his father's house. God's people. know that what
the Lord Jesus Christ did gives to him all the glory. Some people
ask, well, how do you know the difference between the truth
and the error and the true gospel and the false gospel? Just listen
to everything that's been said and ask one simple question.
Who gets all the glory? All the glory. If any of the
glory that belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ is given in any
measure to any man, it's another gospel. The glory of the gospel
is that the Lord Jesus Christ is that lamb that was slain before
the foundation of the world. He is the surety of the everlasting
covenant. He's the one who came in the
full power of the Spirit of God to fulfill all righteousness,
to satisfy the demands of the law. He's the one who suffered
the wrath of God on Calvary's cross. The sword of God's justice
was sheathed into the heart of his own dear son and put away
the wrath of God so that he is now our propitiation. God's been made propitious. There's
no wrath in the heart of God towards those for whom Christ
died. Why? Because God, Christ put
it away. He raised from the dead. He ascended
into glory. He took with him the names of
those for whom he lived and died. And he ever lives to make intercession
for them. He keeps them from, he sent his
spirit. He said, it's expedient for you
to, I go away. For if I go not away, the Holy
spirit will not come. He sent his spirit to comfort
us and to keep us. And that lead us into all truth
to cause us to rely upon Christ. He, he just gets all the glory,
doesn't he? He was the nail fastened by God
in a sure place. Turn with me to Ezra, chapter
9. Ezra. 1st, 2nd Chronicles. Ezra, Nehemiah. Ezra, chapter
9. Look at verse 8. And now, yes, right now, right
now, my brethren, right now, friend. right now and now for
a little space. Oh, don't presume upon God. Be like, be like blind Bartimaeus. They tried to shut him off and
he just cried all the louder. Son of David, have mercy upon
me. He knew that this was the day
of his salvation. He didn't have, we don't tell
people, you know, this is something you need to think about. We don't
tell people, you know, just reflect on this for a little while and
maybe in time. No, we compel men to come. Come to Christ right now. You've got no promise for tomorrow. The only hope that we have is
that right now for a little space, grace. Grace! It's all of grace. Not of works,
lest any man should boast. If it is of grace, it can no
longer be of works. Otherwise, grace is not grace.
It's all by God's grace, isn't it? It's all by the accomplished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a free gift. You don't bring
anything to the table of salvation. You don't bring your sincerity.
You don't bring your commitment. You don't bring your works. You
don't bring your prayers. You don't bring anything. It's
all of grace. Grace has been shown from the
Lord our God to leave us a remnant, a remnant. We've got a man in
our church that's in the flooring business. I asked him, I said,
I said, you got any remnants? He said, yeah, man, I got a whole
pile of them in the corner of my warehouse. They're not worth
anything. Come get all you want. I just,
I need to get rid of them. They're worthless. Isn't that
the way we are? We're just a remnant. You know,
the world looks at the, at the whole roll and they think that's,
there's the value. And God says, no, the value is
piled up in the corner of my warehouse over there. is the
remnant. There's just a few. They don't
look like much to anybody else, but they're mine. And for a little
space, I'm going to show grace towards the remnant so that they
might escape, escape the wrath that is to come, escape the judgment
of God, escape the fear of death. And to give us a nail in a holy
place that our God might lighten our eyes and give us a little
reviving in our bondage. There's the nail. God took that
nail and he nailed it in a holy place, in a sure place. It can't be moved. Not unless
God moves it. Go back to our text and we'll
see what the Lord is going to do with that nail. They shall hang upon him all
the glory of his father, the offspring and the issue, all
vessels of small quantity and the vessels of cups, even the
vessels of flagons. Now that means that everything
from a thimble to a 55 gallon drum. Is that there from the
small cup to the flagons is he's using this to represent the children
of God. In other words, you say, well, yeah, I'm not much. I'm not much. I feel like a thimble. It's OK. That's who the nail was nailed
for. For all of God's people, regardless
of who you are, regardless of where you are, you trust Christ. This is the promise. In that
day saith the Lord of hosts. Here's what God says. And here's
what preaching is, isn't it? We don't say when we're preaching,
you know, it seems to me, we don't say, well, have you considered?
We don't say, well, you know, it might be this way or it might
be that way. No preaching is saying thus saith the Lord. And that's what I want to hear.
I don't want you. I don't want to hear a man's
opinion. His opinions go better than anybody else's opinion.
It's certainly not any better than my opinion. I want to know
what God says. Shut me up to what God says. Say to me with authority, thus
saith the Lord. This is what God says. That's
my only hope. Otherwise I'm left to the opinions
of men. And there's as many of those as there are men on the
earth. 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. That's a reference to the death
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. He was nailed in a sure
place. He was nailed in a holy place.
God cut him down and he fell that the burden that was upon
it shall be cut off. Now, what was the burden that
was put upon the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross? What was
the burden? It was all the sins of all God's
people. That's why God killed him. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. When God the Father saw our sin on the Lord Jesus Christ,
God cut him off. And the burden that was on him
was cut off and put away once and for all. And God says, I've
separated your sin from you as far as the East is from the West
and remember it no more for the Lord hath spoken it. God's spoken. He said it. The hope that we have is that
we serve a God that cannot lie. We serve a God who fulfills his
promises. We serve a God who satisfied
everything that he required for the salvation of sinners. And
he did it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a, what
a glorious picture of what he did for his people. That's true.