Now let's return to Isaiah 45. My text this morning is that
very last verse of this chapter, this prophecy. This is a prophecy
of Christ and the establishment of his kingdom. The title of
the message is the seed of Israel justified. The seed of Israel
justified. Look at verse 25. The prophet God speaks and he says, in the
Lord. Now notice probably in most of
your Bibles, I think just about every one of them, the name Lord
there, the title Lord is capitalized. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. Now what I'm going to
do is just simply take each phrase of this one verse and break it
down. And I want to identify the seed
of Israel, those who are justified. He says, all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory. Well, look at that. But let's
just take this. This is speaking of salvation.
This is speaking of the justification and the sanctification of the
seed of Israel, the people of God. Back over in verse 17, he
said, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. So we know this salvation that
he's speaking of here is not temporary. This is everlasting. He's talking about eternal life.
He's talking about the certainty of glory. Heaven's glory for
his people and everlasting salvation. And the first thing we need to
understand about this everlasting salvation, which the seed of
Israel will partake of and participate in and be blessed with, is that
all of it is in the Lord. Verse 25. This is number one.
In the Lord. Now, as I said, in most Bibles,
that title Lord there is capitalized. If you read through the Old Testament,
you'll see that quite a bit. There's several Hebrew words
and Greek words that are translated Lord. One simply means master
and Christ is referred to as the Lord, our master in that
way. But this title here is something specific and something very special. This title Lord here is what
we transliterate in the English language as something like Jehovah. Jehovah. If you read any commentaries
or any comments on that word, you might see them transliterated
as Yahweh. You've heard that term Yahweh.
And they add the vowel points there because in the original
Hebrew there were no vowel points. But we transliterate it Jehovah.
It doesn't matter. What matters is what it means.
What it means. And what it means is this, this
is identifying and distinguishing the God of salvation. This is identifying and distinguishing
the covenant God, the God of all grace. That's what this means,
Jehovah. You know in the Old Testament
and in the New Testament you'll see various combinations with
this name. We speak of Jehovah-Jireh, Jehovah-Shaman. They all mean something different
because this is the one true and living God who cannot be
described by just one term. He has many names. He's one God
with many names. And these are the names that
identify Christ as the God of salvation. The I am statements
of John and other places speak of him as Jehovah. I am that
I am. These things. He's the self-existent
one. He has no being. There's nothing
that adds to him and nothing can take away from him. He is
the Lord of salvation. And so this is identifying him.
Look back up at verse 20 of Isaiah 45. This is a call for Israel
in Isaiah's day. In Isaiah, he prophesied about
700 years before the coming of Christ into the world. And he
called the people of Jerusalem, the people of Judah, to repentance
in light of the promise of the coming of Messiah, the coming
of Christ. And he says, assemble yourselves
and come, verse 20, draw near together you that are escaped
of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Now what Isaiah's point there
is this, if you're not praying to the Lord here, Jehovah, the
God of the covenant, the everlasting covenant of grace, the God who
saves sinners by grace, then who are you praying to? You're
praying to a God that cannot save. Now, you may not carve
out wooden images or stone images or anything like that. But see,
those images, where did they begin? They begin here. They
begin in the mind. So any sinner who's not coming
to this Lord, this Jehovah, this God of salvation, for salvation,
is praying to a God that cannot save. And then he begins to identify
himself. Now listen to this. He says,
tell you and bring them near, verse 21, yea, let them take
counsel together. Now what he's saying here is
you think about what I'm telling you. You discuss this. This is worth your time and energy
here. this issue that I'm bringing
up. This is something you ought to set your mind to. I know you
got a lot on your mind. I do too. We all do. Got a lot
of things to do, don't we? But I want to tell you something.
If you ever give your time and your thoughts and your research
to anything, right here's something that's worth your while. This
is salvation. This is eternal life. I know
we spend a lot of time preparing things, doing things for this
life. But this life, it's very brief compared to eternity. And
so he says, take counsel together. Now, here's what he says. He
asks in the form of rhetorical questions, who hath declared
this from ancient time? Well, who's revealed this from
eternity? It wasn't man, was it? It's God. This is the gospel of God we're
talking about. This is the word of God. He says,
who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? Now look
at the word Lord, there's the same thing. That's Jehovah, the
God of grace, the God who's saved by grace. And then he says, there's
no God else beside me. This is the only God there is.
There's no other God. Men try to make other gods that
resemble themselves, but there's no other god. Every other god
is an idol. Worthless. Useless. And if you
haven't underscored this next phrase in your Bible, do so.
Because I want to tell you something. This phrase here, I believe, is one of those unique things
that sets Christianity, true Christianity, apart from all
other religions. And it's grounded in an identification
and distinction of God and who He is. He says, there's no God
else beside me, a just God and a Savior. A God who is both just
and saves. Now that strikes at the very
heart of the gospel issue. of how God can be just and justify
the ungodly. How can God? You see, the Bible
teaches that God is holy, that God is just, that God judges
according to truth, He's righteous, He will not pervert justice,
and He must punish sin. In God's court, my friend, you
can rest assured The punishment will always fit the crime. And there is no mercy, no love,
no grace from God apart from justice being satisfied. He's
a just God. So the question comes, I'm a
sinner. What does that mean? That means
I deserve damnation. I deserve death. So how can God
be just and save me? That's the issue here. And this
is how God identifies himself and distinguishes himself from
idols. Now, no other religion has this. I'm telling you. I've
been there. I've studied. No other religion
deals with this issue. It's not even a question. I even
had a person who claimed to be a Christian say, well, why is
that important? Well, the reason it's important is the glory of
God is involved here, see. His glory is the issue of salvation. That's why the Bible says that
when we truly come to Christ and see Christ, we see the glory
of God in the face of Jesus Christ. How can God be both a righteous
judge and judge according to truth and be true to himself
and still save a sinner like me in mercy, in grace. We talk
about our courts today. Well, we want to judge the judge
was merciful to this criminal. Well, that just means he let
him off, but justice was not served, was it? Now think about
it. This God here is a God of mercy,
but not without justice. Now, His salvation is always
connected with His justice. In fact, salvation is first and
foremost a matter of justice. And listen to what He says. Look
at verse 21. He says, A just God and a Savior,
there is none beside Me. And then He says in verse 22,
Look unto Me. and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth." This goes out throughout the world. This is
a call of the gospel throughout the world. For I am God and there
is none else. He said in verse 23, I have sworn
by myself. That is God promised, He swore
an oath. That's what that means. And He
swore it by Himself. You know, Hebrews chapter 6 deals
with that subject. You know, talking about how men
swear an oath to each other and they always swear by something
greater than themselves. And that sort of binds their
word. or it's supposed to, but that's what the issue is. Well, God, when he swears an
oath, who's he gonna swear by? There's nothing greater than
God. So he swears by himself. Now, what that means is this.
It means God engages himself, his nature, his character, his
reputation in this oath. His reputation is at stake here. You see, so he swore by myself. He says, the word has gone out
of my mouth in righteousness. In other words, whatever word
that I'm going to tell you, whatever word that goes out of God's mouth
in this sense, it's not going to pervert righteousness. It's
going to be in righteousness and shall not return. It will
not fail. That's what that means. It will
not fall on deaf ears. It will not go on accomplished. that unto me every knee shall
bow and every tongue shall swear. Now you know, that's repeated
in Philippians chapter 2 when it's talking about the glorification
of Christ himself as God-man. He humiliated himself, he condescended,
and he was given a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus Christ every knee should bow and every tongue
confess that he is Lord. So this is directly connected
now with the Lord Jesus Christ. And then he says in verse 24,
look at it. Surely shall one say in the Lord, there it is
again, in the Lord, have I righteousness and strength. There's only righteousness
and power in Christ. That's what he's saying. How
can God be just and justify the ungodly? There's not but one
way, through a substitute, a surety, through his promise to send a
Messiah. One who God appoints, one who's
qualified, and He is qualified, how do you know? He's God in
human flesh. He's Emmanuel, God with us. He's the Word made flesh. And
one who's willing. And He's willing because of the
glory of His Father and His love for His people. Even to Him shall
men come. If you want the righteous judge
to judge you righteous, And so that you can call him Abba Father,
Loving Father, where are you going to have to go? Don't go
to religion. They won't help you. Don't go
to other men. They won't help. They can't help
you. Don't go to baptism. Don't go join a church. Go to
Christ. That's what he's saying. And
all that are incensed against Him, all who do not believe in
Him and rest in Him and trust Him and submit to Him, the Lord
Jesus Christ, shall be what? Ashamed. I want to show you something
that's real interesting. Turn back to Genesis chapter
49. And I want you to see this. I'm just going to read one verse
out of this, but it's important that you see this. Verse 18. Genesis 49 verse 18. Here Jacob
is on his deathbed. He's blessing his sons, the 12
tribes, you might say. He gives us really in this whole
thing is a picture of the sinfulness, the fall and the sinfulness and
the depravity of man as well as God's promise of salvation
in Christ. I'm not going to go over all
that though. I don't have time. But in the middle of his blessing
his sons, and he had already, remember he blessed Judah over
there in Genesis 49, 10. That's when he said, the scepter
shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh come. That's a prophecy
of Christ. Look at verse 18. He says, I
have waited for thy salvation. Now, waiting there, waiting in
the scripture, you know, it says wait on the Lord. That means
to believe in Him and trust Him. That's what that means. And he
says in verse 18, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. See the title, Lord, there. That's
Jehovah. That's the God of grace. All
right? And understand it. See, it's
all of grace. And it never stops. Grace at
the beginning, grace at the end, and grace all the way in the
middle. All of grace. All right. There in Genesis 49,
18, that is the first time in the Word of God that the term
salvation is used. Now, it's not the first time
that salvation is revealed. That's revealed at the very beginning.
In fact, I believe the creation of the world is a type and picture
of God's salvation. He said, let there be light,
and there was light. And remember Paul, I think he
backs that up in 2 Corinthians 4, 6 when he says, For the God
who commanded the light to shine out of darkness has shined in
our hearts to give unto us the light of the knowledge of the
glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Our creator, our maker
is our redeemer, Isaiah said. But this is the first time that
the term salvation is used. Now again, salvation is revealed
all the way through, from Genesis to Revelation. But here's the
term, the word, all right? If you would translate that word
back into the original Hebrew, you know what it would be? It
would be Yeshua. Yeshua. Now we transliterate
that in the English language as Joshua. Joshua. And in the Greek, that is the
term, the name Jesus. And that's what salvation is.
So it's always in the Lord here, this God of grace is always connected
with Jesus Christ, the anointed one. It always has been. Salvation
is of the Lord in Christ. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. He said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Here he is. That's what salvation
is. When Simeon picked up the Christ
child, he said, mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I've seen Yeshua. I've seen Christ. He is salvation. He's the only
way. It's through His blood that God
can be just and still save sinners like us. It's through His righteousness
and His righteousness alone charged us that God can be just to save
sinners like us. Let me show you one more. Look
over at Exodus 14. In fact, here's the second time in the Bible
that the word salvation is used. Again, I want to emphasize, I
don't want people going out here saying, well, Parker says that
salvation didn't even show up until Genesis 49. No, no. It's
all the way through. It begins in Genesis 1. But I'm
talking about the Word now. And he says in verse 13, now
here's the children of, the Hebrew children standing on the shore
of the Red Sea after they've been delivered out of Egypt and
they look back and Pharaoh's army is pursuing them. You remember
how the Lord brought the pillar of fire by night and the pillar
of cloud by day to protect them? And they began to murmur. You
know, up there, look at verse 10 of Exodus 14. When Pharaoh
drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and behold,
the Egyptians marched after them, and they were sore afraid. And
the children of Israel cried out unto the Lord, and they said
unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou
taken us away to die in the wilderness? Wherefore, or why hast thou dealt
thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? And then they begin
to complain, is not this the word that we did tell thee in
Egypt, saying, let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians?
For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians than that
we should die in the wilderness. What faith? That's man by nature,
isn't it? Well, listen to verse 13. Moses
said unto the people, fear ye not, stand still. And I think
in the archaic way of speaking, that's just another way of saying
shut up. Shut up, stand still and see
the salvation. Yes you are. That's talking about
Jesus Christ. See the salvation of the Lord
which he will show you today for the Egyptians whom you've
seen today you shall see them again no more. The Lord shall
fight for you. Notice the term Lord there. Shall
fight for you and you shall hold your peace. Now that had a physical
application to those people there. But the spiritual ultimate eternal
application for God's people throughout all the ages is salvation
resting in Christ. in the Lord. Go back to Isaiah
45, in the Lord. Outside of the Lord, no salvation,
no grace, no mercy, only justice. Somebody said one time, said,
when I stand before God at the judgment, I don't want justice,
I want mercy. And when I heard that, the thought
shot through my mind, I said, well, too bad, buddy. You're
going to get one or the other. It's going to come both. If you're
a child of God, you know what you get? You get mercy based
on justice in Christ. Without Christ, it's nothing
but justice, which means damnation. So Isaiah says here, he says,
in the Lord, in Jehovah, in the God of all grace. Now, here's
the second thing. He says, in the Lord, secondly, shall all
the seed of Israel, all the seed of Israel. Now, who is this seed
of Israel? Well, let's turn back to Psalm
22. Psalm 22. I'll show you several
passages here, not too many, but several. Psalm 22, you know,
they call that the Psalm of the Cross. Because it is a direct
prophecy tied in to the Lord Jesus Christ, the suffering Savior. You have several passages in
the Old Testament like that. That not only prophesy of His
coming into the world and His death, but actually describing
His death on the cross. Isaiah 53 is another one. We'll
look at that in just a moment. But this is the one that starts
off in verse 1. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Remember
in Matthew 27, he quoted this, the Lord did. He quoted it in
the original language. Eli, Eli, that's God. My God, my God. Lama sabachthanah,
why hast thou forsaken me? Of course, that's his substitutionary
death. Suffering under the guilt of
the sins of his people charged to him. Well, I want you to look
over in verse 22. of Psalm 22. Now all this is
talking about the death of Christ and what he would accomplish.
And he says in verse 22, he said, I will declare thy name, that
is the name of the Lord, in the Lord, unto who? My brethren. In the midst of
the congregation will I praise thee. Now this verse here is
quoted in Hebrews chapter 2. And it's right after when the
Apostle Paul there was inspired by the Spirit to talk about how
Christ was sent of God to taste death for every man. And he's
very careful there. He lets us know that every man
there, and that's really not the best translation of that
verse, but it should be every son. But he's very careful there
to show us that the every man there does not refer to all men
without exception. But it's the many sons, the sons
of God adopted. That's sons generically. That
would include God's elect people among women too. And he says
they're the many sons and then he begins to identify them. And
one of the ways that he identifies them is this. He says in verse
22, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. Now who is the every
man for whom he died? It's those to whom he declares
the name of the Lord. And that is the effectual call
of the Spirit to bring a sinner to see the Lord in Christ, to
see salvation in Christ. And so he says in verse 23, ye
that fear the Lord, praise Him. They praise Him, they worship
Him. Fear there means to believe in God, it means to trust Him.
to respect him. All ye the seed of Jacob. Now
that word seed, alright, says over in Isaiah 45, all the seed
of Israel. What is that word seed? That
word seed means offspring. It means children. It means generation. You can translate it generation.
It means those who come out from the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
now we know that he didn't have any children physically. He was
never married. He didn't have any children.
I know movies say otherwise, but just pay your money and get
entertained and leave. Don't develop your theology around
that junk. He never had any children. Physically,
what's he talking about? He's talking about the offspring
That came out of the travail of his soul his death out of
his death comes an offspring a Generation a seed so he said
that's what that word seed means and he says all ye the seed of
Jacob glorify him How do you glorify him? You believe in him. Abraham believed God. He gave
glory to God. He believed God. And fear him,
all ye the seed of Israel. Now why does he say Jacob and
Israel? Well, you know the term Israel, what it means. It means
those who have prevailed with God. It came out of Genesis 35
when Jacob, that's the name of his humanity, his fallen humanity,
the sinner, That's what we all are by nature. Remember he said
Malachi 3, 6, For I am the Lord, I change not, therefore you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. God saves sinners. That's what
he says. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners of whom I am chief. And Jacob wrestled with
the angel there, and he overcame the angel. He wouldn't let go.
Now, that's not saying that we forced the Lord to save us. That's
just simply saying that a sinner, a person who really knows his
sinfulness, he's going to cling to Christ and he's not going
to let go. And that's by the power of God. And there in Genesis
35, he said, I'm going to change your name to Israel. From Jacob,
that is sinner, so to speak, to Israel. Those who have prevailed
with God, we say the Prince of God, we say that too about Israel. But it's those who have prevailed.
Now how is a sinner going to prevail with God? I'll tell you
exactly how. Plead Christ. Plead Christ. So this is talking
about salvation by grace. He says in verse 24, look at
this. For he hath not despised nor abhorred the affliction of
the afflicted, neither hath he hid his face from him, but when
he cried unto him, he heard. My praise shall be of thee in
the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear him." In other words, God's going to keep his promise
to those who come to him in Christ. But now look down at verse 30,
the last two verses of Psalm 22. He said, "...a seed shall
serve him a generation, an offspring, It shall be accounted to the
Lord for a generation, His people. They shall come and shall declare
His righteousness, not their own. They're going to plead Christ's
righteousness unto a people that shall be born. He's not talking
about physical birth there. He's talking about the new birth.
They'll be born again. And here's what their testimony
is. God's done this. We are His workmanship created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. This is the work of God. Salvation
is the work of God. That's what this generation is
going to declare. Now look over at Isaiah 53. That's
who this seed is. The seed of Israel. The seed
of those who have prevailed with God. How? Through Christ. In
the Lord, he said. Look at verse 10, Isaiah 53. It says in verse 10, Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. Now that pleasing there means
it satisfied the justice of God. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed,
his generation. his offspring. He shall prolong
his days. This is an eternal salvation.
And the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. God's
going to be satisfied with this sacrifice. God's going to be
satisfied, honored, glorified with what Christ accomplishes.
Verse 11. He shall see of the travail of his son. That word
travail is usually used to describe a woman in childbirth. Now Christ,
this is talking about the travail of the soul of Christ, that's
his sufferings unto death when he was made sin. He shall see
of the travail of his soul and be satisfied and by his knowledge,
now I believe what that's talking about is by his experience. Christ
actually experienced the suffering unto death made the captain of
our salvation being made perfect through suffering. In other words,
he completed the work through his suffering. He shall, my righteous
servant, justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities.
That's his seed. His seed. Let me show you one
more. Look over at Romans chapter 4. This, I think, caps it off. There's
so many other verses that we could talk about. All the seed
of Israel Here in Romans 4, he's talking about Abraham and how
Abraham was justified before God. And it wasn't because of
who Abraham was. It wasn't because of anything
Abraham did. And it wasn't even because of his circumcision.
In fact, he said, look at verse 11, he received the sign of circumcision,
a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he already had.
yet being uncircumcised. God justified Abraham long before
he was circumcised. So circumcision didn't have anything
to do with Abraham's justification before God. That he might be
the father of all them that believe. Now the father of who? Abraham's
the father of who? All them that what? Believe. What do they believe? In the
Lord. The Lord of glory. The God of
all grace. Though they be not circumcised.
It has nothing to do with it. That righteousness might be imputed
unto them also. In other words, their belief
is an evidence that righteousness, the righteousness of God has
been imputed, charged to them. All right? And verse 12, he says,
the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision
only. who also walk in the steps of that faith of our father Abraham
which he had yet been uncircumcised." Now what faith did Abraham have?
Well, Christ said it in John chapter 8. He said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day. Abraham believed God. Abraham
looked to Christ. That was Abraham's faith. His
faith was in Christ. And so he says in verse 13, for
the promise that he being the heir of the world was not to
Abraham were it his seed through the law by their works, but through
the righteousness of faith through Christ. For if they which are
of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made
of none effect. God didn't promise it based on
works, and we're not to believe it based on works. If it's by
works, then that's all made void. Verse 15, because the law worketh
wrath. The law condemns us. That's what
that means. Based on our works. For where
no law is, there is no transgression. Now look at verse 16. Here's
the verse I want to get. Therefore it is of faith. Now that's the
same thing as saying it is of Christ. That it might be by grace. To the end the promise might
be sure to all be seed. All right? All the generation,
all the offspring, not to that only which is of the law, not
just to the seed among the Jews, but to that also which is of
the faith of Abraham who is the father of us all. All who, all who believe. Now
go back to Isaiah 45. Now listen to what it says. Here's the third phrase. He said, in the Lord, Shall all
the seed of Israel... Now who are all the seed of Israel
there? Well, he says it here. All the seed of Israel shall
be justified. It's all who are justified. What's
he talking about there? Well, he's talking about a sinner's
justification before God. Think about that. Standing before
God. The God who knows everything
about us. He knows everything, listen,
God knows everything that we've done in the past. He knows every
thought we've had, every motive, every attitude. That God, standing
before that God, justified. What does it mean to be justified?
It means to be cleared of all guilt. It means not to be charged with
sin. David said in Psalm 32, Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. That's right. It means to be charged with righteousness. A sinner standing before God,
being justified, not guilty, cleared, totally cleared, totally
cleansed, no condemnation. No guilt. It's to be entitled
to all of salvation along with all of its benefits and all of
its blessings. That's what it is to be justified.
Somebody said it means to stand before God just as if I had never
sinned. That's not a good way to see
it. If you said that before, stop.
I'm telling you, it's not good. You don't stand before God just
as if. It's not an as if thing, folks.
This is reality. I stand before God not guilty. Not just as if I'm not guilty. I'm not guilty. That's what I
mean. I'm clear. The law books of heaven
have been wiped clean, washed clean. There's no charge against
us. The seed of Israel. How is that
possible? There's not but one way. And
that's by the blood of the crucified one. The blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. The righteousness of God. That's
who Christ is. He is the righteousness of God. Romans 10 and verse 4. For Christ
is the end, the fulfillment, the finishing, completion, perfection
of the law for everyone, to everyone that believes. for righteousness. He was made sin. He stood under
the guilt of sin. Christ did. He was made guilty
because God charged it to Him, laid it to His account. He bore
our iniquities, Isaiah 53. He was bruised for our iniquities.
He actually suffered unto death. He bled and He died. And when
he finished the work, he said, it's finished. He gave up the
ghost. And the veil in the temple was
torn from top to bottom because that signifying and that was
a physical earthly symbol that the way into the holiest of all
had been made clear for the seed of Israel. We have free access
into the very holy presence of God through Christ. Now in the Lord shall all the
seed of Israel be justified. That's our justification. That's a work of God that has
nothing to do with our personal experience or our personal efforts. It's totally what Christ accomplished
on Calvary's cross by himself as our substitute in charity.
And then he says, lastly he says, they shall glory. In the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified. Who's the seed
of Israel there? All who stand before God without
sin in Christ. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn us? It's Christ that died. And they
shall glory. Now, what does it mean to glory?
Well, that speaks of a sinner's sanctification by the Holy Spirit.
That word glory there in the Old Testament, it means to shine
forth. How are we going to shine forth?
Huh? In the Lord. In Him. It means to praise. Who are we
going to praise? Him. It means to boast. That's what it means. It means
to boast. I'm going to boast a little bit today. I'm going
to brag. Who am I going to boast about? Well, some old preacher
of the past, who somebody wrote a biography, whichever of the
words, a lie. Is that what I'm going to boast
in? Am I going to boast in something? Am I going to boast in me? No,
I'm going to boast in Christ. I'm going to brag on Christ.
That's what that means. If you've been sanctified, set
apart, made alive, born again by the Holy Spirit, I'll tell
you what you're going to do. I'll tell you one of the main evidence
that you're going to brag on Him. You're going to boast in
Him. You're going to praise Him. You're going to shine forth in
Him. His light. It means to be commended, that's
another meaning of it. What's going to commend me to
God or to you? Only my standing in Christ. In
the New Testament it goes something like this, let him the glory
of glory in this, glory in the Lord. Galatians 6 and verse 14,
Paul wrote it this way, he said, God forbid that I should glory,
boast, praise, shine forth, save in the cross of our Lord and
Savior Jesus Christ. Who is the seed of Israel? Those
who glory in Him. Philippians chapter 3 and verse
3, remember, we are the circumcision which worship God in spirit and
rejoice, which means to glory in Christ Jesus and have no confidence
in the flesh. That's what it is. That's the
seed of Israel here. Let me read this verse and I'll close. We
read it at the opening. I'll read it at the end. Galatians
3. I'll go back up to verse 26.
This will conclude the message. Verse 26. For you are all the
children of God. That's the seed of Israel right
there. Children of God. How? By faith in Christ Jesus. By believing in Christ Jesus.
For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ, united
to Christ, when He died, I died, when He was buried, I was buried,
when He arose again, I rose, have put on Christ, that means
to believe in Him, that means to rest in Him, that means to
lay hold of Him, that means to recognize and submit to His righteousness
alone as my only ground of salvation before God. And he says in verse
28, there's neither Jew nor Greek. Nationality has nothing to do
with this seed of Israel here. There's neither bond nor free.
State in this life. Your state in this life. You
may be a free person, you may be a slave. Back then that had
some real application, didn't it? You see, you might be in
chains, but that has nothing to do with your standing in Christ.
There's neither man nor female. Gender has nothing to do. That
doesn't mean that God didn't create man and create woman for
their purpose and a man's to be a man and a woman's to be
a woman. It just simply means that that has nothing to do with
recommending a sinner unto God or being righteous before God.
For you are all one in Christ Jesus and if you belong to Him,
if you belong to Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. If you belong to Christ, you're
the seed of Israel. You see what I'm saying? The
Israel of God. And heirs according to the promise. What promise?
The promise of salvation by God's grace in Christ. That's the only
promise God made to a sinner for salvation. And that's it.