Thank you, Joe. Go back to Isaiah
45. Many years ago, we were in, several
of us were in Cherokee, North Carolina. Brother Tim James had
a Bible conference in October, just a little later in the month
of October than it is now that we're what's today, the 8th,
a little later in the month of October. We had it every year.
Every Monday and Wednesday night, Brother Fortner and Brother Scott
Richardson preached. And then every Tuesday and every
Thursday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, Brother Mahan and I preached. And that started in, I think
it was, 78. and continued to, I don't know, 91, something like
that. But years ago we were sitting
around at a motel talking to Brother Mahan and Brother Richardson,
us young preachers trying to listen, pick their brains a little
bit. And I remember from Brother Scott
Richardson, He said this, he said, I'll tell you fellas what
real preaching is. That got my attention because
I want to do some real preaching. That was my goal. It still is
my goal to do some real preaching. He said it's when you receive
a message from the very heart of God into your heart and then
you deliver that message directly from your heart to the hearts
of your hearers." He said, and that's real preaching. I endeavored to do that always. I'm sure there are times when
that hasn't happened. But I would say to you guys who
speak from time to time from this pulpit, let that be your
aim. Ask God to give a message from
his heart to your heart. I know we preach to the heads
of people. I mean, we preach to the mind.
I can't get into your heart. But God can. And God has to, if any good's
to be done. And I ask the Lord regarding
The message this morning and the message again tonight. If
he would give me something from his his heart. To my poor heart. And then enable
me to deliver it. To your hearts and I. I hope
he's giving me something I believe he has here from Isaac 4517.
And. Here's what I entitled this message,
Israel Shall Be Saved. It's a definite statement. Israel
shall be saved. He says in verse 17, but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. Ye
shall not be ashamed, ye Israel, You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, he says, world without end. I want to get right into
the message and ask you five questions. I'll ask the question,
then I'll do the best I can to try to answer the questions. Number one, who is Israel? The
word Israel ends in E-L, which is God. So we know that Israel
has got something to do with being the people of God. Literally,
it means God prevails. You'll remember when the Lord
changed the name of Jacob to Israel. The Lord, that is the
very Son of God, wrestled with Jacob. He initiated this session
with his servant. And then the Lord said to him,
let me go. Just release me. And Jacob said,
I'm not going to let you go until you bless me. And the Son of
God blessed him. And he says, your name's not
going to be Jacob from now on. It's going to be Israel. You
have prevailed with God. And you are yourself a royal
person with God. You're a prince with God. And that's what the word Israel
means. A prince with God. One who has
prevailed with God. Because that's what the Lord
said. His name is Jacob. And now it's Esau was Jacob and
sometimes it is used as Jacob because lots of times he was
acting true to his nature, his natural demeanor. But oft times
the Lord would address him as Israel because he was a prince
with God. And here The Lord says of Israel,
meaning all the seed of Israel, all the generation of Israel.
When He says Israel here, all Israel shall be saved, exactly
who is He speaking about? Well, he's not speaking about
physical Israel or the literal nation of Israel that is very
much in the news, if you've been watching the news the last few
days because of so many rockets that have been fired into Israel. It's not talking about that literal
nature, nation of Israel. It's talking about a spiritual
people, the posterity of Abraham, and Isaac and Jacob. It's talking
about the true people of God. Now, how do I know that? I know
that because these people are going to be saved. They're going
to be delivered. Hold your place, put a ribbon
or something there in that passage in Isaiah 45. Turn to Romans
chapter 11. Look at Romans chapter 11. I know he's not talking about
all of natural Israel because all of the physical posterity
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob have not been saved by the grace
of God. Many perished. Many perished. You can read in Hebrews chapter
3 and chapter 4 that many of them died in unbelief. You read
about the Israelites going across the wilderness and so many of
them didn't believe God. They were rebellious against
the Lord and they died in unbelief. They couldn't enter into the
land of promise. They heard the gospel, we read
there in Hebrews chapter 4, they heard the gospel of good news,
the pictures of our Lord Jesus, that is, in the sacrifices that
they offered, they heard of Him but they didn't believe Him.
Because the gospel that they heard was not mixed with faith
in them that heard it. So all of the nation of Israel
wasn't saved back then and they're not going to be saved now. There's
a remnant according to the election of grace within the nation of
Israel. Now look here in Romans chapter
11. It says, and I'll pick up at verse 5. Even so then at this
present time also there is a remnant according to the election of
grace. And if by grace, then is it no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. And then he says, what then?
Israel, Israel, now which Israel is he talking about here? He's
talking about the natural seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He's talking about the physical
group of people called Israelites. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. That is, within the nation of
Israel, there's an elect people. There's a chosen people. An election
has obtained that which so many people in Israel sought after,
but they didn't obtain it. What did they seek after? Well,
they sought after righteousness, but they sought after righteousness
by their own works. They sought after salvation.
They sought after acceptance with God, but they did not obtain
that which they sought for. But some did. Some did. Those who were the elect, they
obtained salvation. They obtained righteousness.
They obtained salvation with God, acceptance with God. Look
back in chapter 10. In my Bible, it's just right
across the page. Look in chapter 10. Look at verse
one. Here's what Paul says. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. Which Israel is he talking about? He's talking about his fellow
countrymen. Brothers and sisters and aunts
and uncles and cousins and nephews and nieces, people who were physically
kin to him, and people within the nation of Israel. Brethren,
my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
might be saved. He says, for I bear them record
that they have a zeal of God. They are zealous. The men who
crucified or saw to it that our Lord Jesus Christ was crucified,
wouldn't you say that they were zealous? When we read in the book of Acts
that Saul of Tarsus was on the war path and he goes to Damascus
to arrest anybody who believed in the way, the way of grace,
the way of Christ Jesus, wouldn't you say that he was zealous? And wouldn't you agree that he
was a very sincere man? And he was serious about his
religion, but his religion was all wrong because it wasn't based
on grace, it was based on works. Look at the next verse, verse
three. Well, verse two, let me read all of it. For I bear them
record that they have a zeal of God, but not according to
knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.
And that's what the Israelites, the physical descendants of Abraham,
that's what most all of them did except for those who were
saved by God's free and sovereign grace. They sought righteousness
by their own works, by their own deeds, by something that
they did. And then he tells us this in
verse 4, 4, Christ is the end. He is the fulfillment. He is the goal for righteousness
to everyone that believe it. So there are two Israels in the
Bible. There's the nation of Israel,
the physical descendants of Abraham, And they're the spiritual descendants
of Abraham, and we're called the children of Abraham. These literal, physical descendants
of Abraham, so many of them sought righteousness, salvation, and
acceptance by their own works. And most people you know today
are seeking salvation and righteousness and acceptance also by their
own works. And that's really what false
religion, all the false religion comes under that heading. They're
trying to establish righteousness, acceptance, and salvation by
their own works. I read something this week by
Charles Spurgeon that was really good. He's speaking about preachers. He said, nine out of ten errors
in a preacher's quiver ought to be shot at the sinner's works,
for these are his worst enemies. Your worst enemies are your own
works if you look to them for justification, for righteousness,
for salvation, for acceptance, and even for sanctification.
If you look to your works for anything to put you in a better
standing before God, your works are your worst enemies. You need
to know that. And your works stand in direct
opposition to the free grace of God to sinners through the
Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Paul says they have
not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God. And
the reason is because a proud man, a proud woman, wants to
have something to do with their salvation. Let's be clear. If you want to
be saved, And I wouldn't ask you for a show of hands, but
I'll tell you what, I want to be saved. I want to be saved. If you want to be saved, you
must go before the Lord as an undeserving, hell-deserving,
poor, contrite sinner. and take your standing before
God only upon the footing of the Lord Jesus Christ and His
righteousness, His sacrifice, and plead for the grace of God
on that footing only, not upon anything you've ever said, thought,
or done. Because if you rely on anything
you've said, thought, or done, you're going to perish. You will perish. And it's the
most difficult thing for anybody to understand and believe, and
they won't believe it or understand it unless the Spirit of God shows
it to them. If you go to heaven, if you're
accepted with God, if you're righteous before God, it's only
in the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you
can't rely upon anything you've ever done. You see, the Savior is our righteousness. And we receive His righteousness
by faith. Now, faith doesn't establish
His righteousness. His obedience unto death established
righteousness, but faith receives his righteousness. Faith says, yes, this is the
only way I can be accepted, is through the righteousness
of somebody else, through the works of somebody else. through
the mercy and the grace of somebody else. But the moment you look
to your works for anything, you're in deep trouble. And I
understand, and if you have a real awareness of this issue, you'll
understand why Spurgeon said nine out of 10 errors in your
quiver ought to be shot at works. Because if you look to your own
works, deeds, thoughts, tears, repentance, even faith, if you
look to anything you've ever thought about or done for acceptance,
righteousness, salvation with God, you don't have salvation. You've got a false hope. And
I pray that God will knock the props out from under you if you
have a false hope. We've got to be like Brother
Toplady said in his great hymn, Rock of Ages, nothing in my hands
I bring. Don't bring anything. Don't bring
anything to God. Don't bring your tears. Don't
bring your prayers. Don't bring your repentance.
Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to thy cross I cling. Naked, I come to thee for dress. Helpless, I look to thee for
grace. Foul, foul, I till the fountain
fly. I'm foul, I'm dirty, I'm filthy. Wash me, Savior. I can't even
wash myself. You wash me, I shall be whiter
than snow. So I know that this passage over
here in Isaiah 45 is not talking about physical Israel because
all the physical Israel is not saved. Judas was an Israelite. He was a Jew. Was he saved? He
wasn't saved with an everlasting salvation. And there are a whole
lot of other Jews, national descendants of Abraham. Well, most of them
have despised the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you another reason
why this is not national Israel. I know it for another reason
because This portion of scripture is
interpreted, and on the surface this is correct, it's interpreted
as being a deliverance of the Israelites from Babylonian captivity. Now we have been talking about
the captives coming back from Babylon in our messages on Zechariah. And you see, Isaiah and Jeremiah
and Ezekiel, they prophesied before the captivity. Before
Nebuchadnezzar came in and took over Jerusalem and ransacked
the temple and all of that, before that ever happened, Isaiah, Jeremiah,
and Ezekiel, they prophesied this was coming as a judgment
of God because of idolatry. And because they didn't believe
God, they didn't look forward to the Messiah. And Isaiah prophesied,
he prophesied that the time was going to come when there would
be deliverance for physical Israel from their captivity. Now that
is accurate. And they would be delivered by,
look at the last part of chapter 44 of Isaiah, if you're back
there. This God who, in verse 27, chapter
44, sorry, chapter 44 and verse 27 of Isaiah, that saith to the
deep, be dry and I will dry up the rivers, that saith of Cyrus,
who is Cyrus? Remember, Cyrus is that Persian
king who rose to authority After the Medes and the Persians had
taken over, they conquered the Babylonians. And then Cyrus rose
up in power, and the Lord laid it upon his heart to release
the Israelites from their captivity in Babylon, and let them go back
to their homeland and rebuild the walls, rebuild the city,
and rebuild the temple, and resume the offerings, the sacrifices
to God. So the Lord said, verse 28, that
saith of Cyrus, he's my shepherd. and shall perform all my pleasure,
even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built." And we're right
in the middle, we're in the 12th chapter of Zechariah, finished
up chapter 12 this morning. And we already know they came
back and they're rebuilding the city. Now, remember Isaiah is
writing before any of the captivity happened. Zechariah and several
of the other minor prophets, they're writing after, after
the captivity happened and after the release happened by order
of King Cyrus. Isaiah says, prophetically thou
shalt be built into the temple, thy foundation shall be laid.
And that's what we're seeing in the study. You can see how
the scriptures are all coming together here. But though Israel
was delivered from Babylonian captivity, and in that sense
we could say that was a salvation from captivity, it wasn't an
everlasting salvation because they lived to go into captivity
again. Right? You know that. It wasn't
long before the Romans took over. And in the days when our Lord
Jesus Christ came, the people of Israel were in bondage to,
though not literally captive to, but still under the authority
of Caesar. that deliverance that they enjoyed
for a short period of time was not an everlasting salvation. That's how I know this is not
just meant for physical Israel. Who has an everlasting salvation? The true people of God, the true
Israel of God. So, who is Israel? Israel is a spiritual people
chosen in grace unto salvation, redeemed by the blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Their righteousness, our righteousness,
has been brought in by His sacrificial death. and by the work of the
Spirit of God we have been regenerated, that is, born again, born from
above. We've received new life, new
attitude, new will, new heart. We have looked by faith and we
continue to look by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ for all
things. Those who believe the Son of
God They constitute true Israel. And if you are a believer, you're
among God's Israel. You're royalty. You're a member
of the family of God. Well, here's the second question
I want to answer. So now we know who Israel is. When it says here in our text,
but Israel shall be saved, we know what Israel he's talking
about. He's not talking about physical Israel. It'd be ridiculous
to make that statement because a lot of the Israelites died
in unbelief. They were buried in unmarked
graves going across the wilderness. In fact, only two men who were
20 years old and above entered into the land of promise. The
rest of them couldn't enter in because of unbelief. Joshua and
Caleb were the only two that entered in. Well, so we know who Israel is. Second question is, what shall
happen to Israel? What shall happen to the people
of God? Well, it says, Israel shall be
saved. Don't you love the Lord shalls? Doesn't say Israel might be saved
or perhaps, perhaps Israel should be saved. If they do thus and
so, But God Almighty says, through His inspired prophet, Israel
shall be saved. And actually, the correct way
to read this, if you write in the column of your Bible, the
correct way to read this is, Israel is saved. Robert Young. not the actor who
played a doctor years ago. But Robert Young, who wrote Young's
Concordance, which is very good, and I wholeheartedly
recommend Young's Concordance. The difference between Strong's
Exhaustive Concordance and Young's Analytical Concordance is that
When you read Strong's concordance, he includes a and and and the,
it's exhaustive. Young, Robert Young's concordance
that he wrote back in the mid-1800s doesn't include those words.
But he also wrote a literal translation of the scriptures as he was very
knowledgeable of Greek and Hebrew and Aramaic. And I love to read his translation
because it is very accurate. He wrote it in 1860-something. It's when he took the Greek and
the Hebrew and the Aramaic. transcribed the scriptures, he
translated the scriptures. See, most of these things coming
out today are called a transliteration. In other words, it's what somebody
thinks it means. I'm not interested in what somebody
thinks these words mean. I want somebody that knows the
meaning of the words. And Robert Young, Robert Young
was such a man. And he actually, you can buy
it, you can buy it on Amazon. I looked it up today. You can
buy practically anything on Amazon, wait till the 10th and the 11th
or something like that. That's prime days, probably get
it cheaper then. But he has a literal translation
of the scriptures. And Robert Young, he translate
this verse as, Israel hath been saved in Jehovah, a salvation
age enduring, ye shall not be ashamed or confounded unto the
ages of eternity. That's a really good translation
of this verse. Israel hath been saved in Jehovah,
a salvation age enduring, Ye shall not be ashamed or confounded
unto the ages of eternity. Israel hath been saved. How can
it be said that Israel, God's true people, God's chosen people,
how can it be said that we have already been saved? Well, in
the same sense that the scripture says Christ is the Lamb who was
slain before the foundation of the world. How long has Israel,
true Israel, been saved? Forever. Forever. We have been saved. And it's
accurate to say we have been saved, we are being saved, and
we shall yet be saved. Now is our salvation nearer than
when we first believed. But in the mind and eternal purpose
of God, Israel hath been saved. We've been saved forever. Whenever God chose us, which
was eternity past, when God chose us unto salvation and He entrusted
our safekeeping to the Lord Jesus Christ, to the very Son of God,
our surety and our Savior, our substitute, God's sacrifice for
sin, when God entrusted us to Him, we were saved then. And I know people say, well,
I just got saved. No, you didn't just get saved.
If you're truly saved, you've always been saved in the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is what's going to happen
to true Israel. We're going to experience that
which God purposed from before the foundation of the world.
We're going to experience it individually and on purpose. Because God, in His election
of grace, He included each of us who are brought to faith in
the Lord Jesus Christ. And when the Son of God poured
out His blood, He didn't spill His blood. He didn't accidentally
die. He's the Good Shepherd who giveth
His life for the sheep. When He died for us, He redeemed
us. We were saved. And the Spirit
of God comes to us in great power and reveals to us that God loved
us from old eternity and Christ has died for us. He put our sins
away. He brought in everlasting righteousness. We're accepted in the beloved
by God even from before the foundation of the world. That's what's gonna
happen to Israel. It's what's already happened
to Israel. We have been saved. Here's the third question. Well,
how is it that Israel shall be saved? How is it that we were
saved? Key words, in the Lord. In the Lord. Not in yourself. Not in the church. Not in your
works. Not saved by the clever, manipulative
powers of a soul winner. Not saved by the preacher, but
saved by the Lord, literally in the Lord. We're saved in the
Lord. In Jehovah, our Savior, in Christ
Jesus, we're saved. Were we chosen unto salvation? Certainly, in Christ. We're saved
in the Lord. Were we redeemed from the bondage
of the law of God? Certainly, we're redeemed in
Christ. Were we justified in Him? Absolutely,
made righteous in Him. People say, well, would you define
some of these words for us? Justified, it means to be righteous,
to be made righteous. We're made righteous in Christ.
We're made right with God. You have been led to believe
the gospel of God. You can never be any other way
but right with God. Because the issue was settled
by the death of the Lord Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Your faith didn't seal the deal,
the blood sealed the deal. The blood put sin away. How is it that Israel shall be
saved in the Lord? We're chosen in Him. We're redeemed
in Him. We're justified in Him. We're
represented in Him. We're sanctified in Him. We're
kept in Him. We're saved by the merits of
His bloody death. We're saved by the power of His
invincible grace. We're saved by the effectiveness
of His present ongoing intercession. That's why John says, my little
children, he says, sin not. Don't sin. You don't want to
sin, do you? I don't want to sin. But I do. But if any man sin, we have an
advocate. We have a lawyer. We have somebody
who represents us before the bar of God's justice. Well, who
represents us? Jesus Christ the righteous. And he's never lost a case yet,
and he never will. We have an advocate. We're saved
by the effectiveness of his intercession. Here's the fourth question. Well,
what kind of salvation is Israel saved with? And everlasting salvation. And everlasting salvation. Those
words are truly sweet. Lest we limit our expectations
according to what some people say, the free willers say, you
can be saved today and lost tomorrow. Don't be swayed by them. They
don't know the gospel of God's grace. That salvation that we have from
all eternity, it stretches from eternity past to eternity future. It's everlasting. It's as ancient
as God, from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. How long, how long
are we going to be Israel, safe in the Lord Jesus Christ? Forever. Because it's an everlasting salvation. This truth is confirmed on every
page of scripture. God uses the richest, richest
variety of expression to assure us of his never-ending grace
to establish our faith. Everlasting salvation is perfect,
it is perpetual, and it is complete. Nothing can be added to it, and
nothing can be taken away from it. You see, every believer can
rightfully lay claim to all that God Himself can give us in time
and eternity. We read in Psalm 84, verse 11,
For the Lord God is a shield to his people. The Lord will
give grace and glory. If he gives the one, he'll surely
give the other. Because those two twins go together. If God gave you grace in Christ,
read 2 Timothy 1 verse 9 again. When did God give us grace in
Christ Jesus? before the world began. And the
fact that He gave us grace back then is a sure indication that
He will give us glory when we die. He has appointed, He has
designated, He has granted to us grace here and glory after. To imagine that a sinner to whom
God has given grace would then be refused or lose out on glory
is absolutely ridiculous. He that believeth on the Son.
Do you believe on the Son of God? You have everlasting life. That means you can't die. You
got the life of God. The life of God. You see, forgiveness is everlasting. Justification is everlasting. Adoption into the family of God
is everlasting. Acceptance in Christ Jesus is
everlasting. Preservation is everlasting. Read Romans 11, 29 sometimes. The gifts and the callings of
God are without repentance. He never takes them back. And
the last question that I want to ask you is what will never
happen to God's Israel? Back to our text here in verse
17. Israel shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, world without end. The wicked will someday be ashamed,
when they stand before the throne of God's judgment. But when we
stand before the throne of God's judgment, we shall stand before
God then as we stand before Him now in the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's right, isn't it? We're
righteous in Him. As you look through the scriptures,
you will never find any believer who was afraid to die and meet
God at the judgment. I grew up under that legalistic
idea. that at the judgment all of the
sins that the people of God have committed, word, thought, deed,
sins of omission, sins of commission, that they'll all be brought up
that the judgment will be embarrassed, will be ashamed. That's not right. Because this
verse says, ye shall not be ashamed. You see, the judgment seat of
Christ where we shall make an appearance as the perfect, beautiful
bride of the Lord Jesus Christ. It will not be a time of shame
for us. It will be a time of glorifying
our Savior because we stand before God in the beauties of Christ
Jesus. No embarrassment. The judgment's
not going to be an enemy to us. It's going to be a friend. And
the Lord's going to say to all of us who are His people, well
done, thou good and faithful servant. Enter into the kingdom prepared
for you from before the foundation of the world. So how could the
Lord ever say that about me? He says that because you're in
His faithful, faithful servant, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that
which Christ has done, that's imputed to your count. And in
the eyes of God, you don't have any sinfulness. You don't have
any failures. And I know in our own experience,
we weep over our sins and rightfully so. And we seek to walk in paths
of righteousness. We seek to honor our God. We
seek to please Him. But know this, the Lord God is
pleased with us because He's pleased with His Son. And in Christ, He's pleased with
us. Ashamed nor confounded. And the word confounded means
disgraced or humiliated. We're not going to be humiliated
in the end. Not God's Israel. God's Israel
is going to be put on display for all the angels and devils
and unbelievers to see. We're trophies of God's grace. And all to the praise of the
glorious. of God who chose us, and Christ
who redeemed us, and the Spirit of God who quickened and called
us. Israel shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. And we won't ever be ashamed.
We won't ever be confounded. And we'll spend eternity at the
throne of our Lord Jesus Christ, blessing his name for his marvelous,
saving, sovereign grace to us. Get your hymn books and turn
to number 75.