Now, I want you to look back
at the book of Micah, chapter 5, and tonight I'm going to preach
on this subject, Christ's work of redemption. His work of redemption. Now, the Apostle Paul, in two
places in the book of 1 Corinthians, made this statement. He actually
made it in different different words in different places, but
he said it out in these words in 1 Corinthians 1 and 2, that
we preach Christ and Him crucified. And so we know from that that
in our preaching and in our faith that we preach and believe in
a person, a specific person who's identified and distinguished
from the Word of God. In other words, our faith in
him is not notional, it's not subjective in the sense that
you can think what you want to think and I can think what I
want to think. Everybody's got their own opinions.
This isn't politics. This is objective, solid, foundational
truth. Paul wrote in the book of Ephesians,
he said, our faith is built upon the foundation of the prophets
and the apostles. In other words, we preach the
same doctrine, the same truth, the same glorious message of
grace in Christ that they preached. So our faith is in a person,
and we preach a person. Who is Jesus Christ? Well, we
read last week in Micah chapter 5 and verse 2 who He is. He is
God in human flesh. He's the one who came out of
Bethlehem, the city of David. He's connected with an everlasting
covenant, the covenant of grace, the covenant of redemption made
before time. That was confirmed in Abraham,
confirmed in David, and according to the flesh, our Savior, the
one in whom we trust, he was of the line of the kings of Judah,
according to the flesh, yet he was not born of man. He came
out of Bethlehem, Ephratah. that little insignificant place
called Bethlehem, the house of bread, called the place of fruitfulness
and abundance. And though Bethlehem was little
among the thousands of Judah, yet out of these shall he come
forth. It says there in Micah chapter
five and verse two, who, the one who is to be ruler in Israel,
the one whose goings forth have been from old and from everlasting,
speaking of his deity. His humanity and His deity. That's
who He is. Our faith is in the God-man. Our faith is in the one true
Savior, the one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,
but not a mere man, the man who is God. And then our faith is
also in His finished work. Because you see, if Christ just
came down here to this earth, and existed as God-men without
doing that great work that he was commissioned to do according
to the covenant stipulations, requirements, and conditions,
and that he, because of his love for his father and for his sheep,
God's elect, agreed to do voluntarily. If he hadn't done that work,
there'd be no salvation. And so Paul said, we preach Christ. And him what? Crucified. I strive
to know nothing among you, he said, save Jesus Christ and him
crucified. I've heard men say, we don't
preach, we don't trust his finished work, we trust him. Well now
listen, that's just splitting hairs is all that's doing. That just sounds good on paper.
But if who he, listen, if Christ just came to this earth and didn't
do that great work of redemption, there'd be no salvation for you
or for me. He came here to do a work. He told his disciples, he says,
for this cause came I into the world. And so we trust his finished
work. Paul wrote it this way in Galatians
6.14, we'll be looking at that in just a moment. He said, God
forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now the cross there, he's talking
about his death. His obedience unto death. which
is the putting away of our sins and the establishment of the
only righteousness that you and I have before a holy God. So
we do trust his finished work that he accomplished and that's
what the rest of Micah chapter 5 is all about. It's built upon
the foundation of who Christ is. Who is Jesus Christ? Well,
we've seen that. What did he do? Well, he saved
his people from our sins. Why did he do it? He did it to
glorify his father, which is in heaven, in order that God
might be just and justify of the ungodly, of them which believe
in Christ. Where is he now? He died. Where's his grave? Don't know. Doesn't matter. I know they think
they know, but it doesn't matter. He's not there. He's risen. And
he's ascended into the heavens. He's seated at the right hand
of the father, ever living to make intercession for his people. Now in Micah, let me show you
how all that works out here now in the history and in the prophecy
of Micah, Christ's work of redemption. And this is all prophetic of
that. Micah prophesied of the Messiah to come. We've talked
about him as the shepherd king, back over in chapter four. We're gonna talk about him as
the shepherd king again. He's the Messiah king, Messiah
meaning he's the anointed one. He's the one promised from the
very beginning, set up from everlasting, promised from the beginning,
the anointed one. You remember in order to be a
proper savior and redeemer of his people, He had to meet those
three qualifications. He had to be, number one, appointed
of the Father. He had to be God-appointed. That's
pictured in the earthly priesthood of Aaron. No man could take that
upon himself, you see. He had to be born of Levi. And
so Christ is appointed of the Father to be a priest after the
order of Melchizedek, not after that earthly order. He was appointed
to be the savior of his people. In Isaiah, I believe it's chapter
42, he is even called God's elect, mine elect. God chose his son. The father chose the son, in
essence. Second person of the Trinity,
the Alpha and the Omega. So he had to be appointed. Secondly,
he had to be able to do the task. It does no good to appoint someone
to do a task if they're not qualified and able to do it. If you appointed
me to do a particular task such as fix your car, you'd be just
beating the air. Because I can't fix your car.
I'm not a mechanic. I don't have that kind of skill
or knowledge. And I'll say this, I don't have
that kind of intelligence. So, he's got to be able. Well,
what was the Father sending him to do? To save his people from
their sins. Well, Christ is able. He's able
to save to the uttermost them that come unto the Father by
him. Paul said, I know whom I have believed and I'm persuaded that
he's able. to keep that which I've committed
on him against that day. When those blind men, you remember,
I believe, it's in Matthew, I think it's chapter nine, but you look
it up. Those blind men came to him and said, Lord, heal us.
And the question the Lord asked him, he said, well, do you believe
that I'm able? You believe I can do that? Because if you don't
believe I can do it, then it's useless for you to ask me to
do it. And that's what he's saying there. And they said, yes, Lord,
we believe you're able. What'd that leper say? Lord,
if thou will, thou canst make me clean. I know you're able,
but here comes the third qualification. He had to be willing. And he
was willing because of his love for the Father and his love for
the people. So that's why he did it. That's
where he is now. All of this, you see. Now, the
salvation. Now, how does that apply here
in Michael? Well, the salvation and the restoration and the preservation. of Israel was ensured by the
promise of God to send the Messiah, the Messiah King, the Shepherd
King, who is Christ the Lord, the one who's identified there
in verse 2 of Micah chapter 5, the one who would come out of
Bethlehem, who'd be ruler over Judah, the one who is perfect
man, yet God, God in human flesh. And this salvation, now listen
to this, now this salvation, and the prophets made this clear
to the people, this salvation and this restoration and this
preservation that was ensured by the coming of the Messiah
would be accomplished not by earthly means, not for an earthly
kingdom, not in an earthly covenant, an earthly priesthood, earthly
sacrifice. You understand what I'm saying?
Not by the works of men. Not by the will of men. And that's
made clear in Micah chapter five here. In fact, it tells you right
here very clearly that all of this doesn't wait on the will
of man. It doesn't wait on man at all.
It's like the dew and the rain. If I had my way about it, it
wouldn't have been raining today, so it didn't wait on me. So it
doesn't wait on man, you see, not by earthly means, not by
man's works, but it would be accomplished in a remnant according
to the election of grace made up of elect Jews and Gentiles
all under the redemptive work and headship and care of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's how the salvation
was gonna be accomplished, the restoration, The preservation,
it would be a spiritual kingdom. Not geographical. You can't put
borders and boundaries around this kingdom. It's out of every
tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. Every ethnic group all over the
world. So how does that apply? Well,
the first thing, now this person that he identifies and distinguishes
in verse two here. And you can't apply these things
to anybody but Jesus of Nazareth. Those things identify him and
distinguish him. The first thing that this person,
this glorious Messiah King, was going to do is he was going to
shepherd his flock. He's going to shepherd his flock. Now, how's he going to do that?
Well, first of all, look at verse 3. The first thing he's going
to do, and it may sound strange now, you know, the works of God,
they do sound, they seem strange to us. Somebody says, well, this
isn't the way I would do it, you know. Well, the way you'd
do it would fail. The way I'd do it would fail,
but the way God does it is the right way. First thing he's going
to do, look at verse 3, he says, therefore will he give them up. Now you know what the sense of
that phrase is? The sense of it is almost like
this, now, and we won't take this to the nth degree because
listen to what I'm saying. It almost means like he's saying,
I'm gonna abandon them. But now you know that God has
never totally abandoned his people. Because he's always seen us and
cared for us in Christ. Even before we were born. Even
when we were rebels, the Bible says when we were enemies, he
what? He loved us with an everlasting love. Like Hosea's Gomer. Gomer never totally. Now he let
her go her own way for a while. And it was a way of sin and depravity
and debauchery, wasn't it? But he never took his love from
her, he never took his hand of care, and that's the way it is
with God. So the phrase here actually, what he's talking about
when he says, therefore will he give them up, he said, I'm
gonna let them go their own way for a little while. In a temporary
span of time. Now, apply this physically to
the people to whom Micah's preaching. The Northern King, now he's mainly
preaching to the Southern Kingdom, but he has words for the Northern
Kingdom too. They're about to be destroyed
by the Assyrian Empire. They're gonna be destroyed and
scattered throughout the world. That's what's gonna happen to
them. The lost tribes, they're never gonna be found again in
that sense, not in that ethnic sense. But the Northern Kingdom
will be destroyed by Assyria. God's gonna give them up. The
southern kingdom will be attacked by the same Assyrians, but they'll
be delivered. We read about that over in 2nd,
or I can't remember which one, 2nd Chronicles 32 is the one
that comes to mind, but it's in one of the kings too. You
remember when Hezekiah, when that Assyrian king wrote that
awful letter blaspheming God, and he sent it to Hezekiah, and
Hezekiah took it before the altar. And he prayed to the Lord who
dwells above the cherubims, above the mercy seat. And you remember
what happened? How God struck that Assyrian
army dead before they even drew the swords from their scabbards.
And so they were delivered at that time, but eventually they,
even the Southern kingdom was going to be destroyed. And it
was by Babylon down in verse six, you know, that it mentions
the land of Nimrod there in verse six, that's a reference to Babylon. Nimrod was a warrior. a conqueror,
a warrior king, a killer of men. Most people, when you see these
movies, what they call biblical movies, and they portray Nimrod,
they portray him as a hunter of animals. Nimrod was not a
hunter of animals. He was a slaughterer of men.
That's what he was. But out of that, in that context
came the Tower of Babel and then Babylonia and all of that. So
that's what he's talking about there. Talking about Babylon.
They're going to come along and they're going to destroy later
on, about 150 years later, they're going to destroy Judah. And that
is a testimony. God giving them up here, letting
them go their own way, is a testimony of His justice to punish sin. You could view this as a picture
of our fallen Adam. God chose us before the foundation
of the world, but for a time. He gave us up. He let us go our
own way. The way of our sin. The way that
we've earned. The wages of sin being death.
The way of our deserving. We fell in Adam. We're people
of a cursed race. The race of fallen men in Adam. But now this giving his people
up is only temporary. Look at verse three. Therefore
will he give them up until until the time that she which travaileth
hath brought forth. Now Judah, we know, even later
on, 150 years later after this, when they were destroyed by the
Babylonian Empire and then taken off into captivity, we know from
the prophecy of Jeremiah that that was only gonna last about
70 years. And then they were going to be delivered from the
Babylonian oppression. But the nation would then sink
into obscurity. Think about it. And essentially
deadness. And be conquered time and time
again. After the Babylonians, it was the Medes and the Persians.
After the Medes and the Persians, it was the Greeks. After the
Greeks, it was the Romans. And so at all that time, even
though they had somewhat of a small window of time there where they
came back and had a little bit of freedom under Zerubbabel and
Nehemiah and Ezra and all that, they still were given up and
they were under oppression. And you know what that was? That
was God's providential message to that nation. His message to
show them that you're sinners. You cannot deliver yourself.
That's the message of God to all men by nature. We're sinners. We're unable to save ourselves. We can't save ourselves. We can't
redeem ourselves. We cannot make ourselves righteous. We're in bondage to sin and Satan
by nature and under the curse of the law. in ourselves as we're
born in Adam, as we're given up by God. And therefore, that
message goes on to show us that we are not to... Israel and Judah,
they were not to look for deliverance in their in their own works,
in their own power, in their own goodness, in the physical
means of a humankind. And that's the same message to
us. We're never to look for salvation in a physical nation or the old
covenant, nor to our works and our efforts. Micah was telling
Judah here, look to the future. Well, what future is there? Well,
look at it again, therefore will he give them up until the time
that she which travaileth hath brought forth. What's he talking
about? Well, that's a direct reference
to the virgin birth of Christ. It's exactly what that is. Isaiah
spoke of it. He was a contemporary with Micah.
In Isaiah chapter 7 and verse 14, when he spoke of the Assyrian
devastation of the northern kingdom, he interjected this prophecy
in Isaiah 7, 14. It goes like this, therefore
the Lord himself shall give you a sign. A sign to do what? A sign to look to the future.
assigned to look to the promise that God had made of salvation
by grace through the coming Messiah. How do you know it was in reference
to him? Well, listen to it. It says, Behold, a virgin shall
conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel. And you
remember when the Lord Jesus Christ came upon the scene in
his birth? The angel came to Joseph and
said, here's the name of the child. His name shall be called
Jesus, Matthew 121, for He shall save His people from their sins.
He's not going to help them save themselves from their sins. He's
not going to try to save them if they'll let Him or if they'll
cooperate. He shall save His people from
their sins. How do you know that's true?
Because of who He is. He's the ruler. that came out
of Judah, born of Bethlehem, Ephratah. He's the one whose
goings forth have been from old, from everlasting. He's God in
human flesh. His name shall be called Emmanuel,
Matthew 1, 23, which being interpreted is God with us. That's how we
know. That's how we know. The scepter
would not depart totally from Judah until this event. until
Shiloh, peace, Messiah, would come. But something glorious
would take place here now. Look back at verse three. Therefore
will they give them up until the time that she which travaileth
hath brought forth, speaking of the coming forth. Now, let
me say this, because if you're ever talking to somebody about
this passage, I'll give you a way to answer this. Some people say,
well, that's talking about Israel. Travailing. Well, in a sense
it is. Because Christ, the Son of God,
was born of that nation. And there is a travail there.
They were under bondage and oppression and trouble and sorrow, like
birth pains, until the Messiah come. But the direct reference
is to the virgin birth of Christ. Either way, it comes out on the
other end, it's the Messiah that he's talking about. Either way,
it's the Messiah. And something glorious is going
to happen out of this. It says here, look at verse 3,
Then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children
of Israel. Now there are four things here
in this one little verse that identify the people of God. The
first one is the word remnant. Turn to Romans chapter 11 with
me. The word remnant. Now Isaiah,
if you've got a concordance sometime, just look up the word remnant
in the book of Isaiah. And he uses it quite often. And
he's speaking of a remnant of God's people. The remnant or
the remnant as God's people. And basically, throughout Isaiah,
you get the truth that this remnant is a remnant of sinners, not
only out of the Jews, but out of the Gentiles too, making up
all of God's people. I was listening to a message
the other day by Brother Tim James on this remnant. He titled
the message, A Tiny Scrap of Humanity. And that's what a remnant
is. It's a scrap that nobody wants. Nobody can use. That's the way
the world looks upon them. But this is a remnant. Who is
this remnant? Well look at Romans chapter 11
verse 1. Now Micah said God's going to
give them up and here Paul asked this question. I say then hath
God cast away his people? Now God gave them up but God
giving them up was a temporary period of time for their deliverance
through the Messiah. It wasn't a total abandonment
of his people. So it was until that time. And so he says, God forbid, for
I also am an Israelite of the seed of Abraham of the tribe
of Benjamin. Are there any of this remnant
among the Jews? Paul's saying, well, I'm one
of them. I'm one of them. Are there any of God's elect
among the Jews? He says in verse two, God hath
not cast away his people which he foreknew. That's foreordained. Now that proves that this remnant
is not only speaking of God's elect out of the Jewish nation,
but God's elect out of the Gentile nations too. Because he foreknew
them too. Who did he foreknow? All whom
he calls. And who did he call? All whom
he justifies. Who does he justify? All who will be glorified. So
he says, what or know you not that the scripture saith of Elias,
or Elijah, how he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying,
Lord, they've killed thy prophets and dig down thine altars, and
I'm left alone, and they seek my life? But what saith the answer
of God unto him? Well, God said, I've reserved
to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed the knee to the image
of Baal. In other words, he's got 7,000
that Elijah didn't know about. And look at verse five, even
so then at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. Paul's saying, yes, there is
a remnant out of the Jewish nation, but it's a remnant according
to the election of grace. Saved, restored, preserved by
the Messiah, the Messiah King, the work of Christ. who fulfilled
all conditions and requirements of the covenant. And he says
in verse six, and if by grace, then it's no more of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it's
no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
It's a remnant according to the election of grace. That's who
that remnant that Micah is speaking of is. All Israel shall be saved. and that's the next thing now
look at back here in in mike a five members three the next
word is brethren this is the remnant of his brethren now this
one this one who is to be brought forth this one who'll come out
of bethlehem africa this one who'll come who'll come uh...
forth unto the father who's ruler in israel who's goings forth
have been from old from everlasting This one who'll be the product
of the travail of this woman, he's going to bring forth the
remnant of who? His brethren. His brethren. Now turn to Hebrews chapter 2.
Well, who are his brethren? Who's he talking about? For whom
did Christ die? For whom was he brought forth,
and lived, and died, and was buried, and rose again the third
day? Well, look at Hebrews chapter
two. Look at verse nine. It says here, but we see Jesus.
who was made a little lower than the angels, that's speaking of
his humanity. And the reason he was made that
way is for the suffering of death. He had to die because sin demands
death. Justice must be satisfied. Righteousness
must be established. And then because of his death,
he's crowned with glory and honor. That he, by the grace of God,
should taste death for every man. Now that should literally
read this way, for every son. That's what he's talking about.
Man is not even in the original. It's not for all without exception.
It's for every son. How do you know that? Well, look
at verse 10. For it became him for whom are all things and by
whom are all things in bringing many sons unto glory. to make the captain of their
salvation perfect through sufferings." That's not talking about Christ's
inherent perfection there, his moral perfection. He knew no
sin and did no sin. He was made sin. Sin was imputed
to him as righteousness is imputed to us. But to be perfect through
suffering simply means that he completed the work by the things
which he suffered. He experienced it and he completed
it, perfected the work through his sufferings. So these many
sons, now, who's their father? God is. And he says in verse
11, for both he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are
all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call them brethren. You see there? That's his brethren,
the remnant of his brethren. That's what he's talking about.
Now who's his, and it always, when I read that verse, I'm always
overwhelmed. Because if there's any bunch
that he ought to be ashamed to call his brothers and sisters,
it's us. Isn't that right? Because of what we are. But he's
not ashamed. And you know why he's not ashamed?
It's not because of our nobility or our self-worth or our untapped
potential. It's because of the glory of
God in the salvation of a sinner through the blood and righteousness
of Christ. That's one. So who are his brethren? Well,
he says in verse 12, saying, I will declare my name unto them. These are the ones to whom he
declares his name. That's the preaching of the gospel
of God's grace wherein the righteousness of God is revealed. In the midst
of the church, well, I sing praise, they're the church, they're the
called out ones. chosen, redeemed, justified, called out, and eventually
glorified. Verse 13, and again, I will put
my trust in him, and again, behold, I and the children which God
hath given me, they are those whom God the Father gave him.
He said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He said,
this is the will of him which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but raise it up again
at the last day. So look at verse 14 now, he says,
for as much then as the children, his brethren now, are partakers
of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is the devil. And what he's talking about there
is the devil's power to charge us, to condemn us with his charges. Well, in Christ, because of his
death, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
His brethren. and deliver them who through
fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage."
That's his brethren. You remember it's recorded in
Matthew chapter 12 and he was in the house witnessing, in a
particular house witnessing the gospel and his mother came out
and wanted to talk to him. And he said this, meaning no
disrespect to his mother, but showing the importance and the
necessity of the fact that he must be about his father's business.
He said, who is my mother? And who are my brethren? And
he stretched forth his hand towards his disciples and said, Behold,
my mother and my brethren, for whosoever shall do the will of
my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother and my
sister and my mother. What is it to do the will of
his Father? It's to believe on the Son, to rest in Him for all
salvation, righteousness, eternal life. and glory, his brethren. And then we've already covered
this one, but back there in Micah chapter 5, he calls them children.
He says, "...of his brethren shall return unto the children."
They're children of God. In Romans chapter 9, they're
called children of the promise. That means they believe the gospel.
Galatians chapter 3 and verse 24 spoke of that. We're all children
of God by faith in Christ Jesus. Children of the promise. And
then he says, children of Israel, that's the fourth word. Remnant,
brethren, children, Israel. Well, who is Israel? Well, Paul
wrote in Galatians chapter 6 and verse 14, he said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ
by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
You remember that? Turn over there, just look at
that. Galatians chapter 6. He identifies Israel here, spiritual
Israel, that's who he's talking about. Verse 14, but God forbid that I should
glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that I have
no confidence or assurance or boast in anything but Christ
and Him crucified, His blood and righteousness alone for my
whole salvation. By whom the world is crucified
unto me, and I know that separates me from the world. They look
upon me as cursed, I look upon them as cursed. For in Christ
Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation. And as many as walk according
to this rule, this truth, this doctrine, what rule? God forbid
that I should glory, save in the cross. Peace be on them. They're at peace with God. How'd
they get peace? By the blood of the cross. And
mercy, God has been compassionate towards them. And upon the Israel
of God, who's the Israel of God? Those who glory in the cross. That's the Israel of God. Look
back at Micah 5, 3. Now, I know I've spent a lot
of time on those verses, so I'm not gonna get to the end of this
chapter, obviously. But I want you to look at a few
more things there. Look at verse 4. This Messiah
King, what he's doing here, he's shepherding his sheep. He's shepherding
his sheep. He died for the good shepherd,
giveth his life for the sheep. He's satisfied justice, brought
in everlasting righteousness for his sheep. Put away their
sins. And he brings them to himself. Calls them out of the world.
And then it says in verse 4, he shall stand and feed in the
strength of the Lord in the majesty of the name of the Lord his God."
You might have in your concordance that word feed, you might have
the word rule, and that's literally what it is. He shall stand. That speaks of his resurrection. He's going to stand. He gives
his life, but he doesn't stay dead. He was buried, but he didn't
stay in the grave. The grave couldn't hold him.
God would not suffer his holy one to see corruption. Job wrote
this in Job 19 and verse 25. He said, for I know my Redeemer
liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.
He's gonna stand. Who shall ascend unto the hill
of the Lord? David wrote in Psalm 24 three.
Or who shall stand in his holy place? You see, that's our position
in Christ. The Bible said in Psalm 113 verse
3, if the Lord should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? None
of us, but in Christ we have a standing, a perfect standing,
a righteous standing, an everlasting standing, an immutable standing. And why? Because he shall stand
and he'll rule, he'll shepherd us. He'll protect us, He'll provide
for us, He'll feed us, He'll guide us, He'll preserve us,
and He'll do it in the strength of the Lord, not in the strength
of men, not in the strength of the church. When I read that,
you know, the first thing that popped into my head as I remember
years ago, it was popular among preachers to look out at people,
look out their crowds and they say, Now, now, you know, will
you let God do this or let God do that? You're the only hands
he has. You're the only eyes he has. You're the only feet
he has. Boy, I'm telling you something, if he stands on my
feet, he's going to have hurting feet a lot of the times, isn't
he? Tired feet. No, he's going to stand in the
strength, the power of the Lord, Jehovah, the God who saves. All of salvation is of the Lord
in the power of his might and in the majesty of the name of
the Lord his God. That's for his glory, the majesty
of his name, that which honors God and magnifies God and lifts
up God, not me and not you. You see, if we're in this to
make a name for ourselves, we're not standing in Christ. You understand what I'm saying?
We're not here to make a name for ourselves. And look here,
it says in verse four, and they shall abide. Why? Because we're in, we stand in
the strength of the Lord for his glory. Here's the reason. They shall abide, they shall
continue. They're not gonna lose their salvation. This is an eternal
security in Christ for, and this is the reason, for now shall
he be great unto the ends of the earth. In other words, there's
nothing on earth that can stop this whole thing in Christ. Nothing on earth. Look at verse
five. In all of this, you see, God's
able to save to the uttermost. And he says in verse five, he
says, and this man shall be the peace. That literally means this
man shall be peace. Christ is our peace. He's the
prince of peace, who made peace by the blood of the cross. He
is our peace, Paul said in Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 14. And so
based on that, the Messiah King will protect his flock. He says,
when the Assyrians shall come into our land, and when he shall
tread in our palaces, then shall we raise against him seven shepherds
and eight principal men, and they shall waste the land of
Assyria with the sword and the land of Nimrod, that's Babylon,
in the entrances thereof." You remember that's always a reference
of how they didn't even have to go inside when Babylon was
destroyed. He said, "'Thus shall he deliver
us from the Assyrian when he cometh into our land and when
he treadeth within our borders.'" You see, he's going to protect
his sheep. He won't let anything harm us
or take us away from him. That phrase, seven shepherds
and eight principal men, there's been a lot made of that. But
it really is just a Hebrew expression that simply means that everything
that is necessary to complete this work will be present in
the power and might of the Lord. That's all it means. Seven is
the number of completeness. Eight is the number of new beginnings. So what he's saying is that the
Lord is going to do a complete work. He's going to finish the
work so that there'll be no end to it and there'll be ever-present,
continual repercussions to it. It'll go on and on and on. It'll
never end. Yeah, they'll make war with the
Lamb, Revelation 17 says, and the Lamb shall overcome them
because He's Lord of Lord and He's King of kings. and they
that are with him are called and chosen and faithful by his
strength and by his power." Well, let me conclude there because
I'm running out of time, but that's a comforting passage of
scripture for God's people.