Let's go to Isaiah chapter 25
today. Isaiah chapter 25. And I'm going to focus on verse 6. May the Lord enable me to speak
to you on a feast of fat things. But let me make a few comments
on the first five verses of Isaiah 25. Isaiah speaks with great
confidence of the Lord Jesus. He says in the first verse, O
Lord, thou art my God. O Jehovah Jesus, Thou art my
God. If God has given us faith in
the Savior, we will confess first of all His deity. He's God. He's my God. I know He's my God because He
made me, certainly. He's my God because He stepped
forward in the covenant of grace to be my surety, to be my shield,
to be my Savior. He's my God. He's also my God
because by the Spirit's leadership, I've bowed to Him and I've said,
You're my God. You're my Lord. I receive Him. Faith receives
the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith receives Him as prophet,
priest, and king. He's my teacher. I learn from Him. That's what
He said. You take my yoke upon you and
learn of Me. I want to learn of Him, don't
you? That's what I want to do this
morning. I want to learn of Him. I'm at His feet. That's the best
place to be. At the feet of the Lord Jesus.
Oh Lord Jesus, if you teach me, I will learn of you. I'll learn
of you. I'll learn of your deity. I'll
learn of your work of redemption. And if you instruct me, I'll
bow to you and I'll say to you like old Thomas said years ago,
my Lord and my God. I say without any apology and
I say with whatever degree of boldness God can give me this
morning, Jehovah Jesus is my God. He's God over all, blessed
forever. He's the Word who is with God. He's the Word who was God and
is God. If He's not God, He can't help
me and He can't help you. If He's not God, He couldn't
put our sins away by His substitutionary death. If Jesus of Nazareth was
only a man, then we have no hope. But if he was God Almighty in
the flesh, and he was, then all that he did has a value to it
that none can measure, for he is God incarnate who by himself
put away our sins and brought in everlasting righteousness.
Jehovah Jesus Isaiah said, Thou art my God. That's what I say
this morning, don't you? I say to the Son of God, Thou
art my God. I bend the knee to you. I worship
you. I adore you. Thou art my God. Isaiah says, I will exalt Thee,
I will praise Thy name, for His name is above every name. His
is the name to whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall
confess that He is the Lord to the glory of God the Father.
He says, for Thou hast done wonderful things. And I know He's done
wonderful things throughout creation. But I bring this a lot nearer
to me. I say, He's done wonderful things
for me. For me. What has He done for
me? Well, in old eternity He stood
for me. As my representative. He accepted
me as a gift from the Father. He said, Oh, Father, I received
James Ferguson Byrd to be my own. I take him into union with
myself. And all of his transgressions
and iniquity and his sins, Father, charge them to me. Put them on
my account. Whatever he owes, I'll pay it
in full. I'm good for it. I will save
him, Father. I will rescue him. I will reconcile
him. And Father, someday I'll bring
you safely home unto thyself to the praise of the glory of
your grace. This one, he's done wonderful
things for me. For me. He washed me in his blood. He has robed me in His righteousness. I am absolutely complete in the
Lord Jesus Christ. I need nothing else save Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. He's done wonderful things for
me. He raised me from a spiritual
grave. One day he sent the gospel my
way, that message of glad tidings of tis done. Poor sinner, the
transaction's been done on the cross of Calvary. And that message
of good news of Jesus Christ and Him crucified came home to
my heart. And the Spirit of God said, look
to Him, poor sinner. Look to Him, Jim. He's the Savior. He's the Keeper. He's the Preserver. He's the only one who can make
you accepted before the Father. And I looked, and by God's grace,
I've been looking ever since. He's done wonderful things for
me. He's kept me by His grace. He's kept me looking unto Jesus,
the author and the finisher of my faith. Oh, if I could have
fallen away from Him, if any sinner could fall away from Him,
I would have fallen a thousand times already. But He keeps me. He preserves me. I'm safe in
the palm of His hand. He carries me as His poor lost
sheep. He found me and He put me up
on His shoulders. He's carrying me all the way
home. I was like the lost coin falling into the dust, dead in
trespasses and sins. I wasn't looking for Him. He
came looking for me. And when the day of grace arrived,
as Ezekiel said in Ezekiel chapter 16, the Lord said to me, it's
the day of love. And God said to me, live. And
when He said to me, live, I came alive. I came alive. And He gave me eyes to see Jesus
only. He gave me ears to hear His voice. He gave me a heart that beats
for His glory. And I've been preaching His gospel
for a few years. This gospel has never grown old
to me. And I don't get tired of it.
Because He's done wonderful things for me. He's still doing wonderful
things for me. And I have His Word that He will
always do wonderful things for me. And one of these days He
is going to take me out of this body of flesh into His immediate
presence and I shall see Him face to face. And He will embrace
me. He will kiss me on the cheek
and say, Welcome home. Welcome home. This is all for
you. Enter ye into the joy of the
Lord. I'll see him face to face and that will be my everlasting
delight to just gaze on him and worship him and serve him and
adore him with a perfect heart. He's done wonderful things for
me. Thy counsels of older faithfulness
and truth. Everything He's ordained to do,
He's faithfully done. He truthfully carries out His
eternal purposes. Well, what has the Lord done
specifically that Isaiah makes mention of? Verse 2. He's brought
Babylon down. Isaiah looks with the eye of
faith and he says, For thou hast made of a city and a heap, of
a defense city of ruin. This great palace of strangers
is now no city at all. It'll never be built, never be
rebuilt. Isaiah looks forward to the day
when Babylon, when all the false religion will come crumbling
down. And he says this is what God
has done. He'll bring an end to everything
that's opposed to him. And then verse 3, therefore shall
the strong people glorify thee. The city of the terrible nation
shall fear thee. We're a people weak in ourselves,
but we're strong in the Lord Jesus. And this is what we do. This is what we always endeavor
to do. Glorify thee. That's why we meet
today, is to glorify the Lord. Verse 4, it says, for thou hast
been a strength to the poor. To the poor. Those who are brought
low by sin. Those who are impoverished. Those
who are in desperate need of help. I looked up this word needy. It also means to be abused by
the enemies of our souls. We are an abused people. Satan
has abused us. Sin has abused us. The world has abused us, but
bless the name of our Savior, He's our strength. He's our strength. He says you're a strength to
the needy in His distress. When we're afflicted, when we
have troubles and sorrows, He's our strength. Oh, child of God,
That one here this morning who is afflicted, who is sorrowful,
that child of God today who is weary, who bears heavy burdens,
listen, He is your strength. Lean on Him. The arm of flesh
will fail you. Ye dare not trust your own, but
look to Him who is Jehovah Jesus our God, and find in Him strength,
grace sufficient for your every need. He's a strength to the
poor, to the needy, a refuge from the storm. Oh, Jesus is
a rock in a weary land. Our refuge in the time of storm. He's a shadow from the heat.
The shadow that shades us from the wrath of God. From the burning
anger and vengeance of our God. Christ Jesus is our shadow. And the branch of the terrible one
shall be brought low. Drop down to verse 5, sorry.
Verse 5, Thou will bring down the noise of strangers there
as a noise to us, but they can't hurt us. As the heat in a dry
place, they'll try to dry us up, but we'll never lose our
moisture because Christ Jesus is the water of life. even the
heat with the shadow of a cloud. The branch of the terrible one
shall be brought low. God is our Savior. God is our
Preserver. Jehovah Jesus. He will keep us
safe. And then he says this in verse
6. He says it with great confidence. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. Not merely a meal, but a feast. A feast of fat things. A feast
of wines on the lees. Of fat things full of marrow. Of wine on the lees, well refined. Let me talk to you about this
feast. First of all, the location of
the feast. in this mountain. In this mountain. Now, by this mountain may be
literally meant the mountain upon which Jerusalem was built,
where we find Mount Calvary. For you see, this feast is a
spiritual feast. And on this mountain, our Savior
suffered, bled, and died for His people. It was there in the
thick darkness of three hours that He was made a curse for
us. It was on that mountain where Jews and Gentiles together stood
against God's Christ and crucified Him. It was there where God the
Father delivered Him up to be a ransom for all of His people. And as a result of what happened
on that mountain, there is a feast of fat things for us. A feast
of fat things. You see, the gospel feast was
foreordained in the council chambers of the Lord our God. And in this
mountain, Christ Jesus laid down His life. And as a result of
His substitutionary sacrifice upon the cross, this feast is
brought forth for poor, famishing, starving sinners like you and
me, the gospel feast of mercies. Our Lord Jesus, He is the resurrection
and the life. In Him we're justified, we're
adopted, we're made secure. Every drop of life and joy that
we drink flows from His blood and from His righteousness. The
Lord's feast came forth from Calvary's mountain. Just as God
had appointed Jerusalem as the place where He would reveal His
glory in the temple, so He appointed this mountain as the place where
He would reveal His greatest glory, the salvation of sinners
by the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And as a result
of that sacrifice, there is an abundant feast for us to feed
upon, a feast for our souls. You see, we were like Isaac.
The sacrificial knife was ready to take our life. But the Lord
found a substitute and said, He'll die in your stead. That
ram died in the stead of Isaac. Christ Jesus died in our stead. And you know where it happened?
In this mountain. In this mountain. And then by
this mountain is meant the church of our Lord. This is Mount Zion.
The Lord's feast is in this mountain. This feast is designed for, it
is spread out for God's church. This is the church of the redeemed. The redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb of God. And the feast is the gospel.
I said before you a great feast today. I haven't provided the
feast. Understand that. I had no hand
in preparing the feast. I merely direct you to the feast
of the gospel that God Himself has accomplished. This is a feast
of fat things and it is a feast for a particular people, the
people whom God calls His mountain. This is a chosen people. A people set apart in old eternity
to dine at this feast. These people were destined to
be with Christ Jesus and like Christ Jesus. These people were
bought with a price, that of the precious blood of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The feast is for the mountain.
It's in the mountain. And this mountain is going to
be exalted above all hills. Look back in Isaiah the second
chapter. Throughout the book of Isaiah,
and in the Psalms as well, and in other locations, we'll find
the people of God likened unto Mount Zion. In fact, we're called
Mount Zion. Isaiah chapter 2, look at verses
2 and 3. We're the mountain. And it shall
come to pass in the last days, Isaiah chapter 2 verse 2, it
shall come to pass in the last days that the mountain of the
Lord's house shall be established in the top of the mountains.
This is God's church, God's kingdom. and shall be exalted above all
hills, and all nations shall flow into it." Listen, people
from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue flow into this mountain,
flow into the church. God is calling a people from
everywhere. before the world began. He chose
a people under salvation in Jesus Christ of every nation, every
kindred, every tribe, every tongue, and throughout the years God
has been sending forth His gospel, drawing these people into this
mountain. They are coming from everywhere.
It says, the mountain of the Lord's house shall be established
in the top of the mountains, shall be exalted above the hills,
and all nations shall flow into it. And many people shall go
and say, Come ye, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
to the house of the God of Jacob, and He will teach us of His ways,
and we will walk in His paths. For out of Zion shall go forth
the law, the word of the Lord, from Jerusalem." Here's the mountain.
Here's the mountain. God has made the feast for His
mountain. And into this city of God multitudes
are being brought. Did not our Savior say, I will
build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it? And they're flowing into this mountain. They're coming
from everywhere. Oh, I know at any given time
we're a little flock. We're a little flock gathered
together here today. Little flocks are gathered together
all over the world. But one by one, God's calling
His elect into the mountain. And they are coming. They are
coming. He makes His people willing in
the day of His power. They're flowing into the mountain.
Here they come. Maybe somebody from this congregation
is going to come this morning. Brought by effectual grace. You'll
come to the mountain. You'll come into God's kingdom
brought effectually by the Spirit of God to dine on the feast that
God sets before you. Well, here's the second thing
I want you to look at back in our text. We talked about the location
of the feast. Let me talk to you about the
provider of the feast. And in this mountain shall the
Lord of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things. The Lord
who is the sovereign over all things. Who is He? He is the
Lord of hosts. He is the Lord of heaven. He
is the Lord of the earth. The Lord is the maker of this
feast. Surely we have learned this,
that the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord and of the Lord
only. You must not attempt to bring
a dish to this feast. This is served up by one host. One host alone. This is the Lord's
feast. He takes care of everything. Do not insult Him by attempting
to bring something to the feast. You'll be rejected. What if one
of you ladies invited Nancy and myself over to your house and
you said, I want you to come for supper about 5 o'clock. And all you got to do is bring
an appetite. And before we get ready to leave,
Nancy says, you know, I think I'll take some butter. I think
we'll take some butter with us, because probably she'll have
bread. So you go in and you offer her butter. She said, no, what
are you bringing? I told you not to bring anything.
That would be insulting, wouldn't it? Or bring a pot of beans. Well, I thought I'd bring a pot
of beans. You insult whoever it is that's feeding you. Our
God says, I take care of all of this. All we bring to the
feast is an appetite. And you know what? He gives us
that. He gives us an appetite for this
feast to dine on spiritual things. You see, anything that you would
bring to the Lord's feast is rotted and spoiled and would
be insulting to Him. For this feast is fully provided
by our God. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable
gift. He gives the best. I ask you,
what feast ever had such a host? What feast ever had one who provided
something like this? Look with me in the book of Proverbs
chapter 9. Proverbs chapter 9. You know in the book of Proverbs,
when you read of the word wisdom, most of the time you can just
read Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ who is made of God
to be unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. He is the wisdom of God. He is
the power of God. Look at Proverbs chapter 9 and
verse 1. Wisdom hath builded her house.
Wisdom hath hewn out her seven pillars. Wisdom hath killed her
feasts. Wisdom hath mingled her wine. Wisdom hath also furnished the
table. Wisdom has furnished the table.
Look at verse 3. Wisdom hath sent forth her maidens,
and wisdom cries from the highest place of the city. Whoso is simple,
let him turn in hither. And as for him that wanteth or
needeth understanding, wisdom saith unto him, Come, eat of
my bread. This is bread that I provide
for you. And drink of the wine which I
have mingled, which I have produced. It's his bread, It's His wine,
it's His supper, it's His feast. Christ Jesus calls us by His
effectual grace to come to this. After all, He is Himself the
bread of life. And the wine of the gospel comes
forth from our Savior. Did not our Savior say, I am
the vine, year the branches? Well, where did the grapes come
from? They come from the vine. Where does the wine come from?
From the vine, from the grapes. Our Lord Jesus provides the feast,
the bread and the wine. That's what He manifests to us.
That's what He gives to us. The wine of His blood washed
away our sins. We received that wine, the forgiveness
of our transgressions, it all flows from the vine. I say to
you again, what feast ever had such a host? Here's His body
broken and His blood shed. And in this feast, He serves
us one course after another. It's never ending. It's never
ending. Here's complete justification
by the imputed righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
is full forgiveness of our sins. Here is eternal adoption into
the family of God. Here we find we're an object
of God's everlasting love. I mean, there's just one course
after another. There's no end to this. And listen,
you can eat of this feast over and over and over again. And
the more you eat of it, the more wonderful it tastes. It's a bountiful
supply. Our Lord Jesus, by His death on the mountain,
He prepared this feast for us. It's a feast of fat things. Which
brings me to this, go back to Isaiah 25, a description of the
feast. And here is a feast worthy of
its host. Our Lord so often likens the
gospel to a feast. Our brother read to us from Luke
chapter 15, there was the prodigal son, he was out eating a meager
fare, starving to death, eating with the hogs. And he goes home
and the Father sets before him the very best food. And that's
what the Father has done for us. He sets before us the best
food. We go through life and we're
feeding our souls on mere husks. And then we are brought by the
Spirit of God to flee to the Lord. And we come to Him and
He embraces us. And He kisses us. And He puts
a robe of righteousness around us. And He puts the ring of sonship
on our hands. And He gives us the gospel of
feet to stand upon. And He says, now come and feast.
Feast. Feast on the fatted calf. Feast
on that One who has died for our sins according to the Scriptures
and He's been raised again from the dead because of our justification. The Gospel feast. It's not just
a common meal. It's a feast. It's a feast. A couple of weeks ago, Nancy
and I were invited over to somebody's house. And I won't call the name
of the lady who invited us. She's seated over here on this
side about halfway back. I won't call her name. Not quite
halfway back over to the side over there. But anyway, she said,
I want you to come for soup. Well, that's good. Come in lunch
for soup. I love soup. I love broccoli
soup. That's what you were going to have. Oh, I'm trying. I don't
want to identify anybody, Darlene. But she said, I want you to come
over for broccoli soup. And I said, that sounds really
good. I love broccoli soup. So we go in and there's an aroma
of food in the air when we walk into her house. And Cora, she's
laughing. And we go into the kitchen. Baked steak. Gravy. Potatoes. Beans. dessert, I go in expecting an
ordinary meal. And lo and behold, it's a feast. It's a feast. Food fit for a
king. You see, the very word feast,
it says to us this is more than a common meal. A feast conveys
the idea of that which costs a lot. An abundance. That which is very costly and
that which is in abundance. Listen, we're justified freely
by God's grace, but it's through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Now listen, this feast, it's
free to us. It's free to us, but it's an
expensive feast. Oh, it costs a lot. It costs
the Savior's blood. That's what it costs. It costs
Him His life. We're redeemed with the blood
of the Lamb of God. And there's a great abundance
here. It's the best food. You know, God feeds us with the
best. It's called a feast of fat things. Now, under the law,
the Jews could not eat fat. Did you know that? Under the
law, the Jews couldn't eat fat. So this passage has its fulfillment
in the gospel age. This is a rich, rich message
that we have to proclaim. It's a feast of fat things and
full of marrow. As marrow gives strength and
nourishment to your bones, this feast gives strength and nourishment
to the hearts of God's people. This is a very choicest of food. It's God's free and sovereign
grace. And when we sit down at this
table, we always understand this. This is a table the Lord has
spread. And it's loaded with the best
foods for your poor soul. Eat to your heart's content. You can't eat too much of this
buffet. It's a banquet for sinners. That's
what it is. And every time we come into this
house, we sit down again at the feast that the Lord has prepared,
and we eat this feast of fat things. The gospel will do you
good. It will do you good. You say,
well, this is the message that the lost man needs, but what
about the believer? This is the message the believer
needs. This is a feast of fat things. It delights the palate. It tastes
good to us. In fact, anything else has a
bad taste to us. We eat this feast. And every
time we come here, we expect to have the same fare, the same
food, the same feast set before us. The gospel of God's free
and sovereign grace. We have the best food and we
have the best drink. We drink the gospel of God's
grace that's likened unto wine in the Scripture. Look at the
last chapter of the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 31. Proverbs
chapter 31. Proverbs 31, look at verses 6
and 7. Look at verse 6, Proverbs 31,
6. Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish. Give
him the gospel. Listen, you are ready to perish.
You are heading out into eternity. I set before you a full goblet
of wine this morning. The wine of the gospel, drink
and you will live. Wine unto those that be of heavy
heart. Do you have a heavy heart on
account of your sin? On account of your transgressions?
Are you broken before God? I say turn up this goblet of
wine and drink. It's the best wine. Look at verse
7. Let him drink and forget his
poverty. And remember his misery no more. You drink of the wine of the
gospel and listen, forget about your misery. Just drink. Just drink. Drink in forgiveness. Drink in full atonement. Drink
in imputed righteousness. Drink in everlasting life. Drink
it in. And drink and drink and drink.
You can't get too inebriated on this wine. This is a wine
that will boost your soul. It will do you only good. You
remember what Paul said to Timothy, take a little wine for your stomach's
sake? Well, I say to all of you who are the people of God, you
take a glass of wine of the Gospel for your soul's sake. For your
soul's sake. And drink to your heart's content.
That person who is intoxicated with the wine of the great is,
the Bible said, cursed in their drunkenness. But that person
who is intoxicated with the wine of forgiveness is blessed above
all people. All to be filled with this glorious
wine, which will make the heart merry. I say to the children of God,
drink your troubles away. Drink your troubles away. Look
at Psalm 104. Over in Psalm 104. Psalm 104
verse 15. In fact, in verse 14, he causeth
the grass to grow for the cattle, and herb for the service of man,
that he may bring forth food out of the earth, and wine that
maketh glad the heart of man, and oil to make his face to shine,
and bread which strengthens man's heart. That's what we need. I
tell you, in the Bible, wine and gladness are very closely
associated. See, wine that has a delicious
taste, wine that's bright as a ruby, wine that sparkles in
the glass, wine that's delightful to the eye, wine that's satisfying
to the palate, that's what the gospel is to God's people. When Abraham was coming back
from the slaughter of the kings, he met an unusual man named Melchizedek. What did Melchizedek give that
weary warrior? Bread and wine. Bread to strengthen
him and wine to refresh him. I give you bread and wine today. And this is not stale bread,
is it? It's always fresh. Always fresh. When we partake of the Lord's
Supper, what do we partake of? Bread and wine. Bread which is
for strength. Wine which is for gladness. Look
at Proverbs 15 verse 15. Proverbs 15 verse 15. All the days of the afflicted
are evil, but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast. We have a continual feast set
before us. and just keep on eating. You
don't have to watch your calories on this feast. You don't have
to worry about how much you eat on this feast. Just eat and drink
and eat and drink time and time again to strengthen you. One more thing, go back to our
text in Isaiah 25. The guests of the feast. He talks about, in this mountain
shall the Lord of hosts make this feast and it is unto all
people, people from all over the place. You know who will
come to this feast? I know who will come. Those who
are hungry and those who are thirsty. That is who is going
to come. those who are hungry, and those who are thirsty. Blessed
are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness, for what? They shall be filled. Our Lord Jesus said, on the last
day, that great day of the feast, He stood and cried, saying, If
any man thirst, let him come to me and drink, and out of his
belly shall flow rivers of living water. I said, Do you hunger
and thirst for this salvation? for this righteousness, for this
life, then this feast is for you. It's for you. It's for sinners. Jesus has the
table spread where the saints of God are fed. He calls His
chosen people to come and dine. With His manna He doth feed and
supplies our every need. Oh, too sweet to suck with Jesus
all the time. Listen to it. Come and dine,
the Master calleth. Come and dine. You may feast
at Jesus' table all the time. He who fed the multitude, turned
the water into wine, to the hungry calleth now. Come and dine. Come and dine. Oh, God, give
me an appetite for this feast. I believe I've ate a little bit
this morning. Come and dine, Master called.