Now let's turn back in our Bibles
to Isaiah chapter 51. Isaiah 51. Now the Lord God of Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, the Lord God of the covenant, the Lord God
of the promise, the Lord God of salvation and righteousness
continues here through the prophet Isaiah to comfort the people
with the promise of future deliverance. Now, as we've always seen as
we study through Isaiah, this has a two-fold application. First
of all, to the people of that day, Isaiah's day, for example,
and later on when they would be in captivity, that God would
deliver them out of that physically as a nation and bring them back
to their homeland. But what we're concerned with
in our day And what the main application of this promise of
deliverance refers to is the eternal salvation that God promises,
has promised, through the Messiah, through the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is another prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the first
eight verses here, the Lord, through the prophet, keeps telling
Israel, listen to me. That's what that word hearken
means. Hearken. Now you listen to me. The Lord
has something important to say. One thing that you may have noticed
as Brother Ron read through these first eight verses is how righteousness
and salvation are mentioned together throughout these passages. Righteousness
and salvation. Because if you have one, you
have the other. Salvation and righteousness. We have some idea of what salvation
is. We can speak of salvation, as
you know, in the scriptures, it's a very big term. We can
talk about eternal salvation in the purpose and mind of God
before the foundation of the world, wherein He chose a people
in Christ and put all of the responsibility of our salvation
on Him. The scripture says, as Paul mentioned
that in his second letter to Timothy, he spoke of the salvation
which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began.
And then we speak of salvation in the realm of redemption, wherein
at that given appointed time the Lord sent his Son into the
world. to put away our sins by the sacrifice of himself, salvation
by the cross. Everything in eternity and time
is suspended on the cross. And what Christ, the God-man
did, would do at this time, but has done in our day, to accomplish
our salvation and establish righteousness. For in the establishment of righteousness,
which is the entire merit and value and worth of Christ's obedience
unto death as the substitute and representative and satisfaction
for his people. In establishing that righteousness,
he established our salvation in time on earth. And then we
could speak also of salvation in the new birth. Our Lord said
you must be born again, and that new birth is the giving of spiritual
life to spiritually dead sinners. And that's the fruit and the
result, the effect. of God's purpose and Christ's
work on the cross. And then there's a future salvation
that we can talk about, and that's our final glorification. And
in between our new birth and glorification, there's preservation.
So you can see, that term can apply to a lot of different things.
But here, I believe he's referring to the whole of it, and mainly
pointing to the establishment of righteousness on the cross
that is to come in this day, because that is the salvation
of God's people. And so I've entitled this message,
Salvation and Righteousness Forever. Remember, he says here that his
salvation will be forever and his righteousness shall not be
abolished. In other words, he's speaking
of a greater deliverance than the deliverance of a nation from
another nation. That's just a temporary thing.
God is going to deliver His people, the physical seed of Abraham,
from their captivity later on in the land of Babylon. He's going to deliver them from
that. He promised to do that. He was not going to be finished
with that nation at that time. He was going to deliver them
out and bring them back to their homeland. But that's going to
be temporary. That's just an earthly thing. There's going to come an end
to that. But now the righteousness and salvation that he's speaking
of here will be forever and forever and forever. And there he's speaking
of eternal salvation for spiritual Israel. There was some so-called
wise man, and I'll say so-called wise man, and you'll understand
when I read you the quote, who said something very simple that
we all may repeat sometimes when we're talking about certain things.
And he said this, he said, nothing lasts forever. But he didn't
know what we know from God's Word. There is an eternity to
spend. And some things do last forever.
Well, what does? Well, God says here, salvation
lasts forever. Righteousness lasts forever. Now, we need salvation. We need
righteousness. Where can we find it? Now, listen
to God here. Hearken to Me, He says in verse
1. And He first starts off here with the pursuit of righteousness. Listen to what He says in verse
1. Hearken to Me. You that follow after righteousness. Now that word follow means to
pursue it. This is no casual looking for
something. This is no game that you play,
trying to play hide and seek. This is a pursuit. This is a seeking to lay hold
of righteousness. This is something that you really
want, right here. This is something you desire.
It's almost like he's saying you see it as life and death,
you who follow after righteousness. Now, he says, listen to me, as
I said three times, God speaks, but we won't listen. We won't
listen, will we? That's the nature of man in sin
and depravity and unbelief. We will not listen. Israel would
not listen. But God brings His people to
listen to Him, and He says, you who follow after righteousness,
you who pursue righteousness, the pursuit of salvation, He
says, the pursuit of heaven. Somebody says, I want to go to
heaven. Is that your case? When I die,
don't know when I'm going to die, but when I die, I want to
go to heaven. Now, people make fun of that.
So-called intelligent people will make fun of that. They'll
talk about pie-in-the-sky religion. They'll talk about pipe dream
religion. They'll talk about, they'll make
fun of people who talk about streets of gold. And I know people
take that too far because what they do is they talk about streets
of gold more than they do Christ. I want to go to heaven because
Christ is there. Let me tell you something, the
light of the Son of Glory is going to eclipse all the brilliance
of gold. The Bible uses language, symbolic
language, to describe heaven that way just to give us, in
our puny old minds, some idea of how great and glorious and
valuable it is. But it is so only because the
Son of God is there, and we want to be with Him. Somebody said,
how do you describe eternal salvation in heaven, whether it's to be
with Christ forever and ever and ever. Then how do you describe
everlasting hell? It's to be alienated from Christ
forever and ever and ever, whatever that is. But you who want to
go to heaven, you who want to live forever, I heard a young
man say one time, as he was in a drug-induced stupor, ready
to take his own life. And his last words, he says,
I want to live forever. But you see, drugs won't bring
that to you. Won't get you there. He said,
I want to live forever. I want to live forever, don't
you? I don't want to live forever like this, in this old corruptible
body. But I want to live forever in
an incorruptible body. That's what he's talking about.
You that follow after righteousness. That's what you're pursuing.
You're not just trying to be good, as it were, for goodness
sake, as they say, but you're following after a goal. And this
must be the pursuit of righteousness. Now, men by nature pursue righteousness. But the problem is, is that none
of us by nature pursue it the right way. Now, let me show you
that. Look over at Romans chapter 9.
Here he speaks of Israel. He's speaking of physical descendants
of Abraham, and that's important for the context of this message
in our passage tonight. He says in verse 31, and we'll
be referring back to this too, so if you want to, after I finish
these two verses or a few verses, keep your finger there or mark
it. But he says this, listen, he says in verse 31, but Israel
which followed after the law of righteousness, now the law
of righteousness there is the law of Moses. How can it be called
the law of righteousness? Because it was a law given, a
word given by God that showed sinners how to pursue righteousness
and how to find it. And they followed after the law
of righteousness, but it says here, they hath not attained
to the law of righteousness. They didn't make it. They pursued
righteousness, but they didn't find it. Now, what a sad commentary. Would you like to go through
all of your life in the pursuit of righteousness, in the pursuit
of salvation, only to come down to the end to find out that you
didn't find it, you didn't make it? The Lord spoke of some in
Matthew chapter 7. who pursued righteousness. They
said, Lord, Lord, haven't we prophesied in your name? Haven't
we cast out demons? Haven't we done many wonderful
works? And he said, depart from me, ye that worketh iniquity,
for I never knew you. They pursued it. They didn't
find it. The rich young man said to the
Lord, he said, I've kept the law from my youth up. He hadn't,
but he thought he did. He was pursuing righteousness.
He thought he'd made it. When our Lord spoke the parable
of the Pharisee and the publican, He spoke that to those who considered
themselves righteous and despised others. They thought they had
made it and others hadn't. So what's He saying here? They
didn't make it. Why? Verse 32. Why didn't they make
it? Well, because they sought it
not by faith. They didn't seek righteousness
by faith. How did they seek it? Well, they
sought it as it were by the works of the law. They were pursuing
righteousness but by their works, by their doing, by their deeds
of the law. Now, is that the way to pursue
righteousness? Well, look back at Isaiah 51. Well, obviously not if they didn't
make it. He says in verse 1, hearken to
me, you that follow after righteousness. What's the next line here? What
is it? Ye that seek the Lord. Now in other words, what he's
saying here is very simple. It's not complicated at all.
But he's simply saying this, if you're going to pursue righteousness
and find it, you've got to pursue it where it is, not where it
is not. Now that's pretty simple, isn't
it? That's not complicated. It's not hard to understand.
See, that's the problem. Man, by nature, pursues righteousness
where it is not. He pursues it in his works. And
the Bible says, by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in
God's sight. You see, this is righteousness
by God's standard. It has to be in His sight. You
say, well, let's go and see what Mama thinks about me. Doesn't
matter. She'll tell you you're righteous
maybe. I don't know. She may think you're the best
thing that God ever put on this earth. You may be the worst thing
in everybody else's eyes. But see, it doesn't matter what
I think, Mama thinks, or you think. If you're not pursuing
righteousness where it is, you will not find it. Where is righteousness
to be found? It's not in me. It's not in you. Listen, it's not even in the
people of God. The Lord doesn't even put trust
in His saints, the Scripture says. We're still sinners, but
we're sinners saved by the grace of God, but we're still sinners.
You may have somebody in mind, you say, well, I wish I could
be like him or her. It's not going to work. Where
is it to be found? Here it is. Ye that seek the
Lord. That's Jehovah there. Now who
is Jehovah? That's God our Savior. In other words, he's speaking
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to find righteousness,
seek Him. If you want to find salvation,
seek Him. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation. God's salvation. That's what
Simeon said. Here He is. The Lord God of glory, Christ
our Redeemer, Christ our surety, Christ Jehovah Shidkanu, the
Lord our righteousness. If you want to find gold, don't
go look somewhere except where gold is. You're not going to
find it out here in the parking lot unless somebody dropped a
coin or two. But that's not the source. If
you're going to find oil, go where the oil well is. If you're
going to find food, go where the bread is. Don't go where
it's not. Don't look within, don't look
to other people, don't look to your works. You'll be like the
Jews who sought after righteousness but didn't find it by their works. And he says, you that seek the
Lord, seek Christ. Look back over at Romans chapter
9. Now, he's very specific here. It's amazing to me how sometimes,
and I used to do this too, and I have to guard myself from doing
it even now, but people will read the Bible, And then they'll
look up from it and start thinking, instead of just reading it in
its context and seeing exactly what it says specifically. But
he's telling us specifically now, these are the instructions
of God, and he says, listen to me, listen to me, listen to me,
he says. And here's what he says, he says,
verse 32, why didn't they find it? Well, they didn't find it
because they sought it not by faith. but as it were, by the
works of the law." Now, immediately, a lot of people will look at
a verse like that, and they'll say, well, now that means that
if I believe enough, I'll be righteous. Or if I have enough
faith, I'll be righteous. Or there's righteousness in my
faith. That's not what this verse is
teaching. You've got to read on, you say. Now, Christ taught
that in the parable of the mustard seed. You see, if you had faith
even as the grain of mustard seed, you could move mountains,
He said. In other words, what He says is not how much faith
you have, it's the quality of that faith, it's the object of
that faith. But what is it to seek righteousness by faith?
Well, Isaiah has already told us that. He says, seek the Lord.
Seek Christ. And here's what he says, look,
for they stumbled at that stumbling stone. Now, what is he speaking?
Well, that's a prophecy from Isaiah 2. Also, it's Isaiah chapter
8 and Isaiah chapter 28. The stumbling stone here, what
is that stumbling stone? Because I don't want to trip
over that stumbling stone. Actually, what it means, they
get trapped. And he says in verse 33, "...as it is written, Behold,
I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock of offense, and whosoever
believeth on him shall not be ashamed." That stumbling stone
is a him, it's a person who performed a work. What is it to seek righteousness
by faith? It's to seek it in Christ. That's
what it means. What is it to seek salvation
by faith? It's not in my faith, it's in Christ, and my faith
is in Him. You see the difference? And that's
an important difference. Down there in chapter 10 and
verse 4 of Romans, he says, For Christ is the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believe it. Do you believe
in Him? You see, we don't have faith in our faith. We have faith
in Christ. There's a difference there. A
lot of people today have faith in their faith. They think it's
their faith that makes the difference. No, it's Christ who makes the
difference. Now, believe in Him. That's important. Now, look back at Isaiah 51.
Now, watch this. He gives us instructions. Now,
in order to seek righteousness and find it, you have to seek
the Lord. What happens when you seek the
Lord? Well, look at the next line here in verse 1. He says,
Look unto the rock whence you are hewn, and to the hole of
the pit whence you are digged, You see that? Look unto Abraham,
verse 2, your father, and unto Sarah that bare you, for I called
him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. Now what he's
talking about here is beginnings, origins, how we start out. Okay? Look at the rock from which
you were hewn. Where did you come from? All
right? And here's the glory of this.
In pursuit of righteousness, see, in seeking the Lord, you
must consider who you are and where you come from. That's what
that means. And there's two points here.
There's a two-fold application. First of all, consider this.
Consider your ultimate origin in Adam. That's the rock from
which we were here. That's the hole of the pit from
which we were digged, Adam, when Adam fell. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory. But we fell in Adam. We're Adam's
seed, spiritually and physically. We're spiritually dead, you see. And that's what he's talking
about. We don't have any righteousness. We're born in sin. That's what
total depravity is all about. The doctrine of total depravity
is not just a big term that we can throw around and go around
and talk about how we're this or that denomination. The doctrine
of total depravity is right here. Look unto the rock which you
are in and the hole of the pit from which you are in. The doctrine
of total depravity shows me my need of Christ. That's what it's all about. I
mean, you can preach and teach total depravity until you're
blue in the face, but unless you teach it in such a way to
show a sinner, including ourselves, our need of Christ and His righteousness,
His blood, God's grace, we haven't said a thing. So look first to
the fact that we're not righteous. No righteousness has ever come
out of Adam. Listen to me, and this is important
for this. He says here to the prophet,
or through the prophet, he says, My salvation shall be forever. My righteousness shall not be
abolished. You know, Adam, in his original
state before the fall, had righteousness. But you know what? It was still
the righteousness of a creature. And he fell. And it was abolished. And he lost it. So here's what
I'm saying. I don't need the original righteousness
of Adam. That wouldn't do me any good.
Because, you see, Adam lost it. And I guarantee you, Adam is
a better man than I ever hoped to be. And you too. In his state. Original state. What I need is
an everlasting righteousness. One of infinite value that can
never be abolished. That's what I want. Now where
am I going to get that? That's the pursuit of righteousness.
So look to the pit, the rock from which you were hewn in Adam.
None righteous, no not one. None good, no not one. Sinners
who deserve nothing but death and hell. That's right. And by
deeds of law we cannot be made righteous. Even our best, pick
the best of the best of the best that ever has lived, is living,
or ever will live, and He cannot make us righteous. That's the
point. But now there's a second origin
here. And this is the glory of this passage. Look at it. Verse
2, Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you,
for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him. There's
another beginning. It's a new beginning. It's a
beginning that's connected with a man named Abraham. And you
know what it is? It's the beginning of God's people. It's the new beginning of God's
people in grace. Grace by the righteousness of
another, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he's speaking of
here. Look to Abraham. Now, here's what we've got to
ask. Now, do I have any connection with Abraham? Now, the Jews had
a physical connection with Abraham. And by that, they were partakers
of some physical blessings, great blessings, marvelous blessings,
earthly blessings, temporary blessings as a nation. They had
that. But you see, the problem was
that that did not necessarily filter down to a spiritual, eternal
connection with Abraham. In fact, It had nothing to do
with a spiritual connection, eternal connection with Abraham.
Nothing at all. Now let me show you that. I want
you to turn first of all to Romans chapter 4. And here's what I'm
saying. There are those who were physically
connected with Abraham, but who were not spiritually connected
with Abraham. Now, there were those who were
physically connected with Abraham, and spiritually connected with
him. Now, who were they? They were
Jewish believers, born again by the Spirit, who knew Christ.
But their physical connection with Abraham had absolutely nothing
to do with their spiritual connection with him. That's what Paul meant
in Galatians 6 when he said, God forbid that I should glory
except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world
is crucified unto me and I unto the world. For in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything. What he's
simply saying there is my physical connection with Abraham as a
Jew has nothing to do with my spiritual connection with Abraham
in Christ. And hold your finger there Romans
4, let me read you a passage before I go to that. In John
chapter 8, the Lord proves this too. In John chapter 8 when he's
talking about the truth, you shall know the truth and the
truth shall make you free. And the Pharisees, physically
connected with Abraham, they said, well we're Abraham's seed.
And he says in verse 37 of John 8, he says, I know that you are
Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me, because my word hath
no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father, and you do that which you have seen with your
father. And they answered and said unto him, Abraham is our
father. And Jesus saith unto them, If you were Abraham's children... Didn't he know they were physically
connected with Abraham when he made that statement? Yes, he
did. But he's talking about a spiritual connection. He's talking about
salvation, eternal salvation and everlasting righteousness.
And he says, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works
of Abraham. Now, whenever you hear that term,
the works of Abraham, what do you think of? You think of how
good of a person Abraham was? Well, you better go back and
read about Abraham. in your Testament. I'll tell
you what you should think of. You should think about trust
and faith in the promised Savior. What God promised, Abraham believed. Now, we know that that was by
the power of God. And Christ says that. He says in verse 40
of John 8, But now you seek to kill me, a man that hath told
you the truth, which I have heard of God. This did not Abraham. Later on there, he says that,
verse 56 of John 8, he says, Your father Abraham rejoiced
to see my day, and he saw it and was glad. Now, there's the
works of Abraham. It's the work of God, isn't it?
Well, look over here at Romans 4. Now listen to what he's saying
here. He says in verse 1, "...what
shall we say then that Abraham our father, as pertaining to
the flesh, hath found?" Now Abraham, he was the father of the Jews,
you see, physically. And the covenant of circumcision
to that nation, the physical circumcision, was given through
Abraham and all the physical promises. Now here's what Paul
says, well, what did Abraham actually find? You know, he was
pursuing things just like we are. What did he actually find
according to the flesh? His Jewishness. His nationality. Well, verse 2, he says, for if
Abraham were justified, what does it mean to be justified?
It means to be declared by God not guilty. Not guilty. It means to be declared by God
to be righteous. This person is righteous. Now,
if Abraham were justified by works, He hath whereof to glory."
He'd have room to brag about his works. He could say, I'm
better than you, because look at my works. But not before God. The Holy Spirit says, Paul, you
write this, not before God. He'd already said in Romans 3,
by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
So not before God now. Now, we can sit here and brag
about Abraham, but we'd better not brag about Abraham before
God. Now, I'll tell you what we'd better do, and I'll tell
you what Abraham would want us to do. He'd want us to brag on
his Savior. Right? Brag on Abraham's Savior, because
he rejoiced to see the day of Christ. And so he says in verse
3, "...for what saith the Scripture..." Now, Paul takes it back to the
Jewish Scriptures. He says, Abraham believed God.
This is recorded in Genesis 12, Genesis 15, Genesis 17. Abraham believed God, and it
was counted unto him for righteousness. Now, what is the it there? Well,
it says Abraham believed God. What did he believe? He believed
what God promised. That's what he believed. Whatever
God promised Abraham, that's what Abraham believed. What did
God promise Abraham in the context of what we're studying here in
Romans 4 and Isaiah 50? He promised him salvation by
grace. He promised him righteousness
through another. That's what He promised Abraham.
So Abraham believed God. And what God promised was counted,
reckoned, that's the same word, imputed to Abraham. for righteousness. What God promised Abraham was
credited to Abraham. It was laid to his account for
righteousness. What did God promise him? He
promised him Christ and salvation by his obedience unto death.
And so he goes on, he says, now, verse 4, to him that worketh
is the reward not reckoned of grace but of death. Now if Abraham
had to work, For God to count him righteous, then it's not
grace. Now, let's stop talking about
grace. It's work, it's debt. It's what God owed him. It's
what he earned. But he says, verse 5, now listen
to this. This is a great verse here to
define grace. But to him that worketh not.
Now, he's talking about people who work not. Now, somebody of
me that comes and says, wait a minute now. Aren't we supposed
to do good works? Aren't we supposed to work hard?
Yes. We're created in Christ Jesus unto good works, but not
for salvation. And listen to me. Get this thought
in our heads. I pray, Lord, get it in my head.
Not for righteousness. I cannot work my way to being
righteous. All right? And so he says, but
to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth,
declares not guilty, declares righteous, the ungodly, those
who have no righteousness, those who are guilty by nature and
by practice. His faith is counted, imputed
for righteousness. Now, what was Abraham's faith?
Christ and Him crucified. You see, God is not teaching
here that Abraham was a sinner and he couldn't be made righteous
by his works and therefore he accepts faith as a lesser substitute. That's what a lot of people think.
That's not what he's saying at all. His faith was counted for
righteousness. It's not that faith took the
place of righteousness. Faith looked to Christ and rested
in Him for all righteousness. That's what it means. And that's
the difference. He goes on to David, verse 6,
"...even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputeth righteousness without worth." David knew it
too. David had the same connection here as Abraham had. And he said it when he said,
"...blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not charge
sin." Who did he charge it to? He charged it to Christ. And
Christ took it to the cross, and he drank damnation dry. What
a gospel we have. Well, verse 9, "...cometh this
blessedness then upon the circumcision only." Does a physical connection
with Abraham have anything to do with this blessedness? "...or
upon the uncircumcision also." Can a Gentile have it too? That's
what he's saying. For we say that faith was reckoned
to Abraham for righteousness." Now, what was Abraham's faith?
He looked to Christ. And so he says, how was it then
reckoned? When he was in circumcision or in uncircumcision? Not in
circumcision, but in uncircumcision. You see, this righteousness was
reckoned to Abraham before he was ever considered a Jew. Before he was circumcised. It
had nothing to do with it, you see. And so he says he received,
verse 11, the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of
the faith. And that's a great translation
of that verse. The faith. That is the body of doctrine.
The promise that God gave him. The promise which he had yet
been uncircumcised that he might be the father of all them that
what? Believe. All who believe the
gospel. Now there's the connection with
Abraham. to those who pursue righteousness and salvation,
who look to the Lord, who seek the Lord. Though they be not
circumcised, has nothing to do with it, that righteousness might
be imputed unto them also." You see that? Look over at Romans
9. Look at Romans 9. You see, when he says, look to
the rock which you are hewn, and to the hole of the pit which
you are dug, that does apply to our connection with Adam in
sin, but my friend, it applies to our connection with Christ
in righteousness. He is the rock from which God's
elect are hewn. And the hole of the pit from
which we are digged has to do with the humiliation that he
suffered on the cross. He came down. He went down into
the hole as it were, but he came out. He was raised again the
third day. Why? Because of our justification. He made his people righteous.
Look here, Romans 9. So he says in verse 6, "...not
as though the word of God had taken an effect, for they are
not all Israel, which are of Israel." Neither because they
are the seed of Abraham are they all children, but in Isaac shall
thy seed be called." Now, Isaac was the son of promise, the miracle
baby, born of Abraham and Sarah in their later years, when they
were beyond childbirth and childbearing, and it was through Isaac that
the Jewish nation came, not Ishmael. So there was a physical connection
in this promise, but it was also through Isaac, ultimately, that
the promise of the Messiah would be fulfilled. And that's what
Paul's applying this to in Romans 9. This is a prophecy of Christ. In Isaac, "...shall thy seed
be culled." Look at verse 8. That is, "...they which are the
children of the flesh," these are not the children of God,
"...but the children of the promise are counted for the seed." Now,
what promise? Chapter 10, verse 4, "...for
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness." to everyone
that believeth." You see, the fulfillment of the physical promise
of Isaac ultimately worked out to the promise of the Messiah
coming. He came of the seed of David
according to the flesh. Now go back to Isaiah 51. That's
what Isaiah is saying here. Yes, we have an origin in sin
and depravity, rottenness, unbelief, spiritual death, But look, verse
2, unto Abraham your father. Abraham's the father of all who
believe. That is, he's the archetype. God's our father. But Abraham
was the supreme example of how God justifies the ungodly. And Sarah that bare you, through
that line came the Savior. And He bore us. We're born again
by the Spirit because of what Christ did on the cross. And
he said, I called him alone. This was a specific promise given
to a specific person for a specific people. And he said, I blessed
him and I increased him. And all who are children of the
promise are children of Abraham. And so he says in verse 3, For
the Lord shall comfort Zion. There's Zion again, the church
called of the Lord. And He will comfort all her waste
places, and He will make her wilderness like Eden, and her
desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness shall
be found therein, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." All
coming out, you see, through His grace. The Scripture says,
"...blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled." Christ said, but seek first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you. The Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 14, 17, for the
kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. How? He leads us to Christ. Seek Him. In verse 4, he shows
the provision of righteousness. Look at verse 4. He says, listen
to me, hearken to me, my people, His people. He owns them. He
chose them. He redeemed them. He justified
them. He'll call them. Give ear unto
me, O my nation, for a law shall proceed from me. What law? It's
talking about the gospel here. Some people say, well, that's
the law of Moses. Well, what was the law of Moses? It was
a schoolmaster to lead sinners to Christ. It was the gospel
in type and picture and prophecy. And he says, a law shall proceed
from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light unto the
people. When did he make his judgment
to rest for a light of the people? When he sent Christ into this
world to go to the cross and die for our sins. The preaching
of the cross. the preaching of the death of
Christ, His blood for the forgiveness of all my sins, and His righteousness
for my complete right standing before a holy God. He says, My
righteousness is near, verse 5, and my salvation is gone forth,
and mine arms shall judge the people, the isles shall wait
upon me, and on mine arms shall they trust. You see, we who are
saved by God's grace in Christ, we were judged by the power of
God in Christ on the cross. Did you know that? If your sins
were laid upon Christ, then you've already experienced judgment
in Him. You won't have to appear before
God to be judged for your sins. If you do, you know what that
means? It means you don't have a Savior. That's why Christ said,
now is the prince of this world cast out. When he went to the
cross, he went there not for his own sins, but for our sins
credited to him. Just like Abraham had the credit
of Christ's righteousness to him. And let me tell you something.
Understand this. This thing of imputation and
crediting, it's real. Don't let any preacher tell you
that that's a fake thing, or that's not real, or that just
does... Yes, we have to be born again.
But my friend, how could we be born again if we're not righteous
before a holy God? It's because we're made righteous
before God in Christ that we are born again. In fact, our
justification before God in Christ is what demands that we be born
again. It's what provides that life,
you see. Well, our sins were judged at
the cross. Christ, the one Redeemer, died for our sins one time and
accomplished our redemption. He was judged in our place. And
the sins of all of God's people, Abraham's sins, Noah's sins,
Abel's sins, David's sins, all the Old Testament believers,
and the sins of all the New Testament believers were put away completely
by one Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. at one time on the cross
of Calvary, and by one sacrifice, the offering of Himself to God
for our sins charged to Him. Christ and Him crucified, that's
all it took to put away my sins and establish all the righteousness
that I need, all the righteousness that God requires of me, and
all the righteousness that He provides. And he says, the isles
will wait for me, for the arrival of the Messiah to do his great
work, and they shall trust him. That's Jew and Gentile. Verse
6, he says, Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look upon
the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax or grow old like a
garment. And they that dwell therein shall
die in like manner. But my salvation shall be forever,
and my righteousness shall not be abolished. The heavens and
the earth as they now exist are going to burn up. And those that
dwell therein, those who are attached to this world, who follow
not after righteousness by seeking the Lord, who reject Christ,
shall die. But my salvation, God says, shall be forever. My
righteousness will not be abolished. Do you realize that if you are
in Christ, you have a righteousness that will never be abolished,
never diminish? Why would you want to appear
before God and plead your own filthy rags when you can stand
before God pleading the perfect robe of His Son. The garments of salvation, the
righteousness of Christ is an everlasting righteousness of
infinite value. And then lastly, verse 7, here's
the people of salvation and righteousness. Hearken unto me, you that know
righteousness. You see here? First, they're
pursuing righteousness. Then God provides righteousness.
Now, who are the people of God? They know righteousness. Now,
you know why they know it? Because He teaches them. He reveals
it to them. He shows them their sinfulness
and His glory in Christ. The people in whose heart is
my law. He writes His law on their hearts.
How does He do that? By causing us to look to Christ,
who kept the law, who established the law. And he says, fear ye
not the reproach of men, neither be ye afraid of their revilings.
They're going to persecute and revile and reproach you. But
that's all right. Don't fear that. Don't fear those
who can kill the body. Fear him who has the soul. And
verse 8, for the moth shall eat them up like a garment, and the
worm shall eat them like wool. But my righteousness shall be
forever, and my salvation from generation to generation. You
see, this is the people. of righteousness, persecuted
by the world, but secure in Christ. And all who are incensed against
Christ and His people shall be destroyed. We who know Christ
are secure in Him, and we can never be lost because His salvation
is forever, and His righteousness shall never be abolished. And
knowing that the righteousness and salvation of the Lord are
permanent, and the opposition and mocking of the wicked is
temporary, then we should be strong in the faith, resting
in Him, enjoying peace. You see, that's something we
need to listen to. That's why he said, listen to
me. We need to listen to Him, don't we? We don't even need
to listen to ourselves. We need to listen to the Lord.