Brother Russ was sharing with
me this morning that he passed by a church building going into
Sacramento, down in the Rancho Cordova area. The name of the
church was First Covenant Church. Russ said, well I don't want
any part to do with that. And I don't either. If they knew
what that First Covenant represents, That's the old covenant, that
covenant of works, that covenant that's under the law. And we
just sung that song. Jesus Christ has set us free
from that. He has provided a perfect sacrifice
for the sins of His people that enlightens us to the fact that
Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left
a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Brothers,
sisters, listen. Not one thing can be laid to
the charge of God's elect. We're free from the law. The
law has no hold whatsoever on a believer. Those who are led
by the Spirit of God are not under the law. We're under the
law of love to Christ. We're under the law of Christ,
but not the law that was given to Moses on that mount way back
yonder. There's a curse pronounced under
that law, that covenant to those who do not keep the law perfectly. But Jesus Christ has set us free
from that curse, being made a curse for us. For it is written, cursed
is everyone that hangs on a tree. Aren't you thankful? Aren't you
thankful for the redemptive work of Christ, our Savior, that has
made us acceptable in God's sight? Oh, how thankful we should be.
Turn to Isaiah chapter 11, if you will, please. through this
book in a verse-by-verse study, and it's just been a rewarding
experience for me. I trust it has been for you as
well. As an introduction to this morning's message, I want to
read an article by Pastor Charles Pennington that's in this morning's
bulletin. And in reading it, in reading
his article, I want to stress a very important truth that all
of God's ordained preachers are very well aware of, and most
of God's children who've been enlightened by the Holy Spirit
are aware of this as well, and if they're not, they will be
as they grow in grace. We're aware of this truth that
the Bible from cover to cover speaks about Jesus Christ, His
redeeming work for His own chosen people who were given to Him
in Christ before this world was created. And the Old Testament
is full of types and shadows and pictures of the coming of
Jesus Christ and His perfect redeeming work, the shedding
of His precious blood that paid the ransom price in full for
all of His elect, His substitutionary death that satisfied the holy
justice of God for those Christ laid down His life for. All our
iniquities were laid on Jesus Christ. And our suffering Savior
endured the wrath of God in our room and in our stead. We are
free from the wrath to come. And Pastor Charles Pennington
illustrated this very truth in this article I am about to read
in your hearing. And he used a passage of scripture
from Genesis 45 to draw our attention to the one who loved us and gave
himself for us. So follow along with me as I
read this article he titled, Christ the Greater Joseph. Pastor
Pennington said, after Joseph revealed himself to his brethren
in Egypt saying, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into
Egypt. He sent them back to their father
with specific instructions of what they were to tell him. that
God had made him Lord of all Egypt, of all his glory in Egypt,
and all that they had seen. It is instructive and comforting
to note that they were not told to tell their father what they
had done, not even their sin of selling Joseph into Egypt,
nor is there any indication that it was ever brought up in the
presence of their father or by Joseph. It is even so with the
greater Joseph, our Lord Jesus Christ. He graciously, lovingly,
and savingly reveals Himself to His brethren with their sin
in full view. But He not only forgives our
sins, He forgets them. They will never be brought up
in the presence of the Father. His blood so thoroughly and completely
cleanses us from all sin that God remembers them no more. He
presents us to the Father, holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. And all of His brethren speak
of what they have seen, Him, Christ our heavenly Joseph, and
His glory. I hope that blessed you. The
Old Testament is just full of the Gospel. One foolish Bible
college professor audaciously said that Christ is not in the
Old Testament. He's as blind as a bat when it
comes to spiritual things. I told my wife just a couple
of days ago, the Lord's Apostles got their text for their messages
from the Old Testament. Just imagine how thrilling and
how exciting It must have been for those enlightened saints
of God to hear the gospel preached by those early New Testament
preachers as they went into the Old Testament and proved that
Jesus was that very Christ, the one that was crucified, the one
that all the Old Testament prophets spoke of, that should come, that
would come, and He did come. And He fulfilled all of that
which was written concerning Him in the whole of the Old Testament. So follow along with me as I
read our text Isaiah 11 verses 10 through 12. It says, and it shall come to
pass in that day, no, and in that day there shall be a root
of Jesse which shall stand for an instant of the people. To
it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious. And
it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his
hand again the second time to recover the rim of his people
which shall be left from Assyria and from Egypt and from Pethros,
and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath,
and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign
for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather
together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the
earth." Now, I've titled my message this morning, The Outcast of
Israel. We read that term in verse 12. Let me give you the meaning of
the word outcast. It means to push down. It means
to chase, to drive away, to overthrow. Abel was an outcast when the
eyes of his wicked brother came. Noah and his family were outcasts
in the eyes of a world of ungodly people. All through the history
of man, God's chosen blood-bought people have been hated by the
ungodly, unregenerate people of this world, pushed down, driven
away, outcast. Things haven't changed in our
generation. Those who live godly in Christ
Jesus shall suffer persecution. We're outcasts in their Christ-hating
eyes. When God delivers one of His
chosen blood-bought children, we don't have to ask our ungodly
friends to remove us from their social list. They'll be glad
to do that for themselves. They don't want us in their presence.
But God himself is gathering his outcasts, those who are hated
by this world, under the preaching of his gospel. So let's look
at these verses. Verse 10 says, And in that day
there shall be a root of Jesse, which will stand for an ensign
of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. Now we took a brief look at this
first part of verse 10 last Sunday. And in that day is a prophetic
statement concerning the gospel age that we have been in ever
since Christ came into this world and finished the work our Heavenly
Father sent Him to do. The root of Jesse clearly points
to Jesus Christ. The ensign, which we'll look
at a little closer, Lord willing, next week. The ensign is the
banner that flies joyfully over the heads of all of God's enlightened
children. That's pointing to Jesus Christ.
His banner over us is love. It is to Him and only to Him
The enlightened saints of God, Jews and Gentiles, a very small
remnant, will seek. And we seek Him because He first
seeks us. We read in the book of Romans,
the third chapter I think it is, there is none that seeketh
after God. In our unregenerate state, we
don't want God in our hearts, in our minds, in our thoughts,
in our presence. We don't want Him. We hate Him. There's enmity
there that cannot be taken away except by the power of God the
Holy Spirit when He gives us a brand new heart. And that old
nature is still there. We'll rear its ugly head in a
moment's notice. His rest that we read about in
our text is the rest of Jesus Christ. And it's glorious. It's
so glorious that it just cannot be put into words how glorious
that rest is. And we experience that when we
enter into His rest. Now as a footnote, God's preachers
know our text is referring to the gospel age. This isn't speculation. This is clearly set forth in
the holy inspired words written by the Apostle Paul in his epistle
to the Romans. We read these verses in the book
of Romans. Now I say that Jesus Christ was
a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm
the promise made unto the fathers and that the Gentiles might glorify
God for his mercy. As it is written, for this cause
I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy
name and again he saith rejoice you gentiles with his people
and again praise the lord all you gentiles and laud him all
you people and again isaiah saith there shall be a root of jesse
and he that shall rise to reign over the gentiles in him shall
the gentiles trust now the god of hope fill you with all joy
and peace and believing that ye may abound in hope through
the power of the holy ghost so we have the writings of the Apostle
Paul who was inspired by the Holy Spirit to quote Isaiah,
the very passage of scripture that we're reading about in Isaiah
chapter 11 to confirm that he was speaking about the gospel
age that we're living in today. In that day, in verse 10 is referring
to the gospel age, and if it is, and it most certainly is, And it shall come to pass in
that day and verse 11 is also referring to the gospel age.
We must consider the spiritual meaning of these verses or the
new man of God that he has created in us will be robbed of the spiritual
blessings that God has reserved for us in studying the scriptures
through the eyes of Christ our Savior. I take the liberty to
quote Pastor Don Fortner from verse 11. Brother Don said, It
shall come to pass in that day, in the day appointed and ordained
by God from eternity, In the day of His grace, in this great
dispensation of the grace of God, it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord shall set His hand again a second time
to receive the remnant of His, or to recover the remnant of
His people. This is what God is doing in the world today.
He is recovering the remnant of His people by the right hand
of His grace. The theologians and commentators
have written many different opinions about the historical event referred
to in this passage. It may have reference to the
time of Hezekiah's reign. It may allude to the deliverance
of God's elect from Babylonian captivity. Without question,
that was typical of the redemption of God's elect. But Hezekiah
and Babylonians have been dead for a long, long time. So we
do not need to be concerned about them. The prophet's eye here
looks beyond Hezekiah to another far greater king, even the king
of kings and lord of lords. Isaiah looks past the deliverance
of Israel from Babylon to the deliverance of God's elect from
the bondage of sin. He looks here for the coming
of Him whose name is called Jesus who shall save His people from
their sins. The passage before us is an inspired
prophecy concerning the person and works of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our great Savior. We know that it is because the
Holy Spirit tells us so in Romans 15.12, a part of that scripture
I just quoted just a moment ago. Pastor Forerunner ends this little
article I'm sharing with you by saying, this passage of scripture
is a prophecy of the sure and certain salvation of God's elect
throughout the world through the merits of His Son and the
gracious operations of His Spirit. And I say, Amen. And brethren,
we're part of that. We're part of that great deliverance.
If our faith is in Jesus Christ, if He has come to us while we
were filled with hatred for Him, if He has come to us when we
were dead and trespassed in sins, when we were spiritually blind,
spiritually deaf, unable in and of ourselves to do anything about
that, terrible lost condition we were in. If He has come to
us and has raised us from that horrible pit that we were in,
then what we're reading about here in Isaiah 11 applies to
us. And we, as God's enlightened
children, have the honor and the privilege of meeting together
on a regular basis to worship the one who loved us and gave
himself for us. And like I said earlier, don't
take this lightly, please. This is not only serious as far
as our relationship with God is concerned, it's also a wonderful
opportunity and an honor that God has allowed us to be a part
of. Verse 12 of our text says, and
he shall set an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the
outcast of Israel and gather together the dispersed of Judah
from the four corners of the earth. Now I've mentioned that
we'll look at the subject of an ensign, Lord willing, next
Sunday. But the outcast of Israel And
the dispersed of Judah is referring to God's elect, his remnant from this whole world, from the
four corners of the earth. His outcasts are his chosen people
who fell in Adam when he willfully, willingly transferred his close
relationship with God right over to the devil. He went into that sin with his
eyes wide open. He knew what he was doing. But
even that is a picture of Christ. I don't know if you've ever considered
this or not, but Adam loved his wife so much, he was willing
to die for her. The Lord said to Adam, In the
day that thou eatest. Now he didn't say if you eat
in that day. He said in the day. He knew that
Adam would eat that forbidden fruit. He said in the day that
thou eatest, dying thou shalt surely die is the way it's worded
in the original. He knew what he was doing. Adam
had to command it. But he loved his wife so much
he was willing to die for her rather than to be separated from
her. Isn't that a picture of Christ?
He loves us so much that He willingly went to that cross to lay down
His life for us. Willingly allowed Himself to be separated from His Father, rather than to be separated from
us for all eternity. And if He had not gone to the
cross and accomplished the redemptive work for us, there would be no
hope for any of us. So we fell in Adam. When Adam
sinned, we fell in him. When we came into this world
with Adam's fallen sinful nature, with no divine nature, we had
no hope, we had no spirit dwelling within us to give us that hope.
We had no way of delivering ourselves from that awful condition, but
God in His infinite mercy through the merits of Jesus Christ our
Savior, was pleased to come to us when we were running from
Him and arrest us by sovereign love and bring us under the preaching
of His gospel and then bring us into a living union with Himself
when He quickened us by the power of the Holy Spirit. What a wonderful
God! What a wonderful God to express
His love for us in such a way that He sent His Son to die for
us, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. And we quote this scripture often,
but it bears repeating. Here it is, love. Not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation. That word means the sin-atoning
sacrifice for our sins. And of God's who loved us, brethren,
we also. to love one another. Now please
don't miss the way our text is worded. Oh how important it is
to believe the word of God as it is plainly set forth for our
learning. Verse 11 tells us that God himself shall set his hand
upon his elect. That God himself shall recover
the remnant of his people. Verse 12 plainly states that
it is God who shall assemble the outcast of Israel. That God
shall gather together his people from the four corners of the
earth. Absolutely nothing is mentioned about man's doing because
man can do absolutely nothing to merit God's favor. If one
stitch of the robe of righteousness, one thing of man's doings in
the matter of salvation, the salvation of God's elect, if
one thing enters in that man does, It destroys the whole meaning
of the word grace. So it is not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the
washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit. And folks,
this whole world is filled with professing Christians. I'm not
talking about the Buddhists. I'm not talking about those who
are involved in Eastern religions. I'm talking about those who profess
to be Christians. The whole world is full of them
who deny the gospel of God's amazing grace. They turn a deaf
ear to the truth. They just cannot let go of some
little something or another that they can offer to God in exchange
for their eternal soul. It's alright to believe on Jesus,
but don't take that too far, they say. You can't take that
too far, I say. It's either all of Christ or
nothing. And God's enlightened children
not only love the truths of the gospel, not only hate the very
idea of works, We abhor any doctrine that teaches salvation by the
works of man, and we have no part with that. We come out from
among them. Now turn over, if you will, to
Acts chapter 13. And I'll use this passage of
scripture as a closing passage for this morning's message. But
let me share some thoughts with you while you're turning there.
Our text in Isaiah 11 verse 10 says, His rest shall be glorious. That of course is speaking of
the rest of our Lord Jesus, the rest He entered into when He
laid down His life for His chosen people. It would have said, their rest shall
be glorious if it was referring to the rest we enter into when
the miracle of the new birth is performed in our lives, but
it says His rest shall be glorious. And when our Lord, when He made
that profound statement that we refer to often, it is finished. Just before He laid down His
life for the sheep, He uttered those words. And when He did,
when He laid down His life, He entered into His rest. The work
of redemption was done. He entered into eternal rest. He entered into a perfect eternal
rest, completely satisfied with what He had accomplished. He
knew, our Lord knew, the promises made to Him by His Father concerning
the salvation of those He purchased with His own blood could not
be disannulled, could not go unfulfilled, Our Lord Jesus knew
He had saved His people. He knew He had reconciled us
to His Father when He laid down His life for us. And He knew
He had paid the ransom price in full for all of our sins,
that He had redeemed us from all iniquity, that He had purged
our sins from God's sight forever. Now before I read this closing
passage of Holy Scripture from Acts 13, I address each one of
us with these heart-searching personal questions. Do we believe
God? Do we take Him at His Word? Do we believe Jesus Christ is
the God-Man, our Creator? Do we believe He's our risen,
sovereign Lord? Do we believe that Jesus Christ
is our Savior? that He did save us by His perfect
obedience to the will of God the Father, by the shedding of
His blood, by laying down His life for us? Do we believe we
have a full pardon from God for Christ's sake? Do we believe
that Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses, that He was
raised again for our justification? Do we believe that all power
in heaven and earth has been given to Jesus Christ, the God-man? That all things are under his
feet? That he rules over this whole universe and everything
in it? For the glory of his name and for the good of his people?
Do we believe that Jesus Christ is our blessed surety? Who has
gathered us to himself under the preaching of his gospel?
who will, by His own sovereign power, keep us from falling from
grace, keep us from falling from His loving arms, that He is able
to keep us from falling and to prevent us before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy? Do we believe that He which hath
begun a good work in us will perfect it until the day of Jesus
Christ? If we believe these wonderful
truths that are clearly set forth in the Word of God, True saving
faith finds perfect rest in Christ and His finished work. We not only rest in Him, we cease
from our own works as God did from His on the seventh day. He created everything in six
days and the Word of God says on the seventh day He rested.
Now God never got tired. The work of creation was complete. He ceased from his works of creation. Well, if we believe the gospel,
we lay down our weapons of warfare against God. We refuse, by God's
grace, we refuse to be, like I said earlier, any part of a
religious organization that teaches works for salvation. We have
ceased from that. We have entered into the perfect
rest that Jesus Christ has given to us through what he has accomplished
for us at Calvary 2,000 years ago. Now follow along with me
as I read these scriptures in Acts 13 starting at verse 38
and make a few comments. Paul is preaching, and like I said
earlier, he took his text from the Old Testament every time
he preached. And he says in verse 38, Be it
known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this
man, through the God-man, through Jesus Christ, is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins. That's what we preach. We preach
that through Christ, He gives His people the forgiveness of
sins. Not through Christ plus what
we do, not through Christ plus anything, but through Christ.
This is the message that all of God's preachers have. We preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. He says in verse 39, and by Him,
by this man, by Jesus Christ, the God-man, all that believe. Now that's why I asked those
questions addressed to each one of us personally before I read
it. And by Him, all that believe
are justified from Read it out loud with me. All things from
which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now like
I said earlier, that law of Moses that was given to him by God
on that mount, oh so many years ago, was that first covenant. That's not the eternal covenant,
which is actually the first, but that's the old covenant of
works. And there's a curse pronounced under that. And it's not just
those who are trying to justify themselves by keeping the Ten
Commandments of Moses. It applies to all who are trying
to justify themselves by any work. By any work. Jesus Christ
has justified us from all things. All things. All of our sins were
laid on Him. All of our iniquities, past,
present, and future. We have a wonderful Savior who
knew no sin, who became sin for us, that we might be made the
righteousness of God in Him. And it was God the Father who
made Him to be sin for us. Now folks, this is very important. Because when Jesus Christ went
to that cross, when God made Him to be sin for us, God has
to punish sin. He has to, either in the individual
sinner or in a substitute. And Jesus Christ is our substitute. And when He hung there on that
cross, crying out, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?
He was enduring the wrath of God for His people. And God is a just God. He cannot
demand payment twice. First at my hand, and then at
my suffering Savior's hand. No, that's not possible. God
cannot do that. So we must run into the waiting
arms of Jesus Christ. We must believe on Him according
to how He is clearly set forth in the Holy Scriptures. If we
try to believe on Jesus in any other way, we're believing in
a different Jesus and we're still under the wrath of God. Flee
to Him. Run to Him. Embrace Him as your
only hope, as your Savior. He didn't try to save us. He
saved us. And verse 39 says, By Him all
that believe are justified from all things. All things. God Himself has justified us. That's why I said earlier, quoting
scripture, nothing can be laid to the charge of God's elect.
You ever get tired of hearing that? It's only those who are steeped
in their own self-righteous works that don't want to hear that
blessed truth. They're willing, the Bible says,
to justify themselves. They're going to rue the day
that they ever had that kind of a thought in their mind. When
this is all over, God's going to turn them into that lake of
fire which burns forever and forever. But we've been delivered
from that through the finished work of Jesus Christ our Savior.
He redeemed us. He didn't make us redeemable.
He's our Redeemer. He's our Savior. And it says
in verse 40, Beware, therefore, lest that come upon you which
is spoken of in the prophets. And they spoke of, the prophets
spoke this. Behold, ye despisers and wander
and perish, for I work a work in your days. A work which ye
shall in no wise believe, though a man declare it unto you." You
won't believe, even though God's preachers declare it unto you,
unless God performs a miracle in your life. And I never get
tired of saying this, because it bears repeating. This religious
generation and religious generations that have gone on before us,
have reduced the miracle of the new birth to a work that man
performs. God abhors that. Every hell-deserving
sinner that is brought out of darkness into the marvelous light
of Jesus Christ is a miracle of God's saving grace. And this
miracle that God performs in the hearts of His people moves
us by the Spirit of Christ that dwells in us to give Him, the
Lord Jesus Christ, all the praise and all the glory for what He
accomplished back at Calvary 2,000 years ago. That's what
He did for us and what He accomplishes by revealing Himself to us, by
revealing His gospel to us. That's what He performs in us.
It's not only what He did for us, it's what He does in us.
And Jesus Christ, the true and living God, will not share His
glory with anyone. To God be the glory, great things
He hath done. Paul, and the other apostles,
because they had been brought to a saving knowledge of Jesus
Christ and boldly preached and testified of God's amazing grace,
were the outcasts of Israel. I'm in that number, referring
to spiritual. Israel were God's elect, but
national Israel hates the Gentiles as much today as they did the
days they persecuted and killed the Gentiles, thinking they were
doing God a favor. All of God's enlightened children
are considered outcasts, are despised and hated and pushed
away by the ungodly people of this world, especially by self-righteous
religionists. But God has gathered us into
the loving arms of Jesus Christ, our Savior, And by His grace
and His power working in us, we will continue to sing of His
amazing grace for the glory of Jesus Christ our Lord and our
Savior, because God Himself has gathered the outcasts of idols
in His loving arms and will not allow anything, anyone, any evil
force of darkness separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. We're as sure of heaven as if
we're already there. I never get tired of preaching
this to you. I hope you don't get tired of hearing it. This
is the gospel. Jesus Christ our Creator became
a man and suffered the ignominious
death of the cross to redeem us from all iniquity and make
us acceptable in God's sight forever. And that article we
read about the greater Joseph is so true. Not one thing will
be brought up against us ever because of God's mercy through
Christ Jesus our Savior. Let's sing of His amazing grace.
Brother John, if you will come and lead us in our closing hymn. Thank you, Pastor Gene.