All right, we're going to look
at Isaiah chapter 45, and the title of the message is this. It's Israel shall be saved. Israel shall be saved. Now, I
took that title, you may recall here as I read from verse 17. Let's look at verse 17 by way
of introduction here. It says, But Israel shall be
saved in the Lord. And one of the questions that
we'll have to deal with in this passage and then in the coming
passages of Isaiah, and in reality as we study the whole Bible,
is who is Israel? Who is Israel? Now, the easy
answer and the most common answer given to that question is, well,
certainly he's talking about the physical descendants of Abraham. Well, is he? Is that who he's
referring to here when he says, Israel shall be saved in the
Lord? Well, certainly there is a physical application to the
nation Israel concerning the prophecy that Isaiah is giving
as God gave him this word for their physical deliverance from
the Babylonian captivity, which would come many, many years later.
But the Israel that is being spoken of ultimately here in
verse 17 is not national Israel, but spiritual Israel, and I'll
show you that. First of all, he says, but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord. That is, the Lord is going to
be their salvation. They cannot save themselves.
They have no means to save themselves. They have no power to save themselves.
And they have no goodness to save themselves. They shall be
saved, but in the Lord. And then it says, with an everlasting
salvation. That's an eternal salvation.
You see, what is this salvation that he's talking about? What
the book of Isaiah, as well as other passages of Scripture,
teach us as we compare Scripture with Scripture is that this salvation
is much more, infinitely more, than a mere one-time physical
deliverance from an earthly nation. This is the salvation that is
of the Lord. It is everlasting and it is eternal. He's talking about God's grace
in saving sinners by the Lord Jesus Christ. So whoever this
is really is, they're going to be saved forever by the grace
of God. Now, back in verse 9, the statement
is made, Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker. Now, we see that
national Israel, the people of Judah and Jerusalem, during these
times of testing, during these times of the prophecies, that
they continually strove with their Maker, mainly in two ways. Number one, in the issue of how
God delivers them. Or we might say, how God saves
sinners. You see, God has his way. God
has his time. God has his method. And it's
all according to his power, his mercy, his goodness, his wisdom,
his knowledge, everything that he is. And God's ways are the
only right ways and good ways. And you might say that's the
first point of this message. God's way is the only right way
and the only good way. Any way that we could come up
with, according to our own wisdom and knowledge and power, would
be a terrible way that would not ultimately deliver any of
us, either physically or spiritually. God's way is the only way, but
Israel They strove, they complained against their Maker over how
God does what He says He's going to do by way of deliverance.
Well, that's the natural man. The natural man always strives
with his Maker in the matters of salvation. By nature, we all
think we have the best way, the better way. And it's always a
way that exalts the flesh. It's the way of work salvation.
Cain, he heard God's way. But he decided to have his own
way. What was he doing? He was striving with his Maker,
just like Israel, when they heard God's way of delivering them,
and they didn't like it. Man by nature will always strive
with his Maker. Now, the second thing that Israel
strove with their Maker over is not only how God saves, how
God delivers, but who God saves and who God delivers. And they
just could not accept that God would save Gentiles, especially
the same way that he'd save a Jew. And we'll look at that. Now,
that's really important to understand these passages. So, first of
all, God's way is the only right and good way. And that's what
he's showing them beginning at verse 9 and going all the way
to verse 16. Now, listen to this. We know
that God has promised to save the nation Israel from their
Babylonian captivity in the future. Now, he's made that prophecy,
spoken a lot about that. Now, how's he going to do it?
We're going to be put in captivity. That's what the message of Isaiah
was for the people of Judah and Jerusalem. Later on, you're going
to see, we can see as we read the book of Jeremiah, that was
Jeremiah's message to the people of Judah and Jerusalem. The only
difference was, is Isaiah was a couple hundred years before
it, and Jeremiah was right when it began to happen. And Israel
was going to be punished for their sin, for their unbelief,
for their idolatry. But God says that he was not
going to forsake that nation. He wasn't through with that nation.
He had a greater purpose for that nation. It was to keep them
together under the terms of the covenant that he'd made with
Abraham until the time of reformation, the time of the Messiah. And
then he'd be through. So God had a purpose. And he
was going to deliver them. He was going to deliver them
in a powerful way, not according to their power, but according
to his. He was going to deliver them because of His promise made
to Abraham, not because of their goodness, not because they were
going to repent. But He was going to do it because
of His covenant promise made to Abraham. And that's the picture
of how God saves us. He's going to save us because
of His covenant promise made to His Son before the foundation
of the world, the Lord Jesus Christ. Not because of our goodness,
it's not because of our power. And God has a set, prescribed,
certain way that He's going to do it. Well, now, He's going
to deliver Israel from the Babylonian captivity. Now, how's He going
to do it? I'll tell you how He's going to do it. He's going to
use a Gentile conqueror to do it, named Cyrus. What? Are you kidding me? You mean
God's not going to raise up some mighty warrior within the ranks
of Abraham's descendants? To stand firm and conquer the
enemy? No, he's going outside of Jerusalem,
outside of Judea, and he's going to find an idolater, a warrior,
a Gentile named Cyrus, and call him his shepherd and his anointed,
and use that Gentile conqueror to deliver Israel from the Babylonian
captivity. Now, Israel, and think about
this. This Gentile conqueror, he's
going to allow, he's going to let Israel go back to their homeland
and rebuild the temple. Now, Israel wanted to go back
to their homeland. They wanted to return, but you
know they wanted to return as a sovereign, independent nation. But you know what? That's not
the way God was going to do it. God has his way. He's not going
to do it the way they think it should be. Isaiah's prophecy
actually taught them or told them, whether or not they learned
it, but it told them that they were going to live, they're going
to be delivered from the Babylonians, but they're going to live under
Gentile domination. Did you know that? And you know
what? The rest of their existence as
a nation, they lived under Gentile domination. So God's plan and
prophecy to use this Gentile conqueror named Cyrus was not
fully welcome. That wasn't welcome news. The
deliverance would be welcome, but not that way. Not that way. So the people felt they could
improve on God's plan. A plan that did not appear wise
in their eyes. In their eyes. A plan that did
not exalt them to the position that they believed they should
have. The position they believed they had earned. Or it didn't
take into account their goodness. And it did not take into account
their righteousness. So Israel preferred that all
Gentile nations fall at their feet and be dominated by them
instead of the other way around. That's what they wanted. And
these verses are God's answer to those kinds of complaints.
That's what he's talking about. Look at verse 9. Woe unto him
that striveth with his maker. God's our maker. We don't argue
with God. That's what he's saying. Woe
to them that do. He says, let the pot shards strive
with the pot shards of the earth. You know what a pot shard is?
It's a broken pot, the shards. And that's what man by nature
is, just a pot shard. Just a broken pot in pieces that
can't put himself back together. Can't hold water. It's good for
nothing. So he says, those who strive
with their Maker, they're just shards of pottery, broken, and
they're of no use. So let them strive with other
pot shards. That's all that is. When man
strives with his maker, all it is is just a bunch of broken
pots getting together and trying to rise up above their use. And
they have no use. And then he asks this question.
He says, He says, shall the clay say to him, the fashioner, what
makest thou, or thy work he hath no hands? That would be ridiculous
to think of a clay pot being formed by the potter and the
clay pot looking up at the potter and say, why have you made me
this way? That would be ridiculous what?
Not as ridiculous with a man, a sinful fallen man, looking
up at his creator and arguing and striving and asking him the
same question. That's right. He says, what make
us thou or thy work? He hath no hands. Huh? What's
he saying there? He's saying that the pot shall
not argue with the potter. And he goes on, verse 10, he
uses the analogy of a father and a child and a mother and
a child. What woe unto him that saith unto his father, what beginnest
thou? It's almost like he's saying,
what do you think you're doing in my case? Or to the woman,
what hast thou brought forth, you see? Every bit of this. He says in verse 11, Thus saith
the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. This is Messianic language here
now. And this is leading to the greater spiritual application
concerning Christ and how God saves sinners. And he said his
maker, man's maker. He says, Ask me of things to
come concerning my sons and concerning the work of my hands, command
ye me. Needless to say, God did not
return Israel to its former national state. Israel was pretty prominent under
David and under Solomon, and they wanted to return to that
kind of prominence politically in the world. His people became
those who learned to live in the world, as I said, under Gentile
powers. Here they were going to be under
the Babylonian captivity. Later on it was going to be the
Persians, the Medes and the Persians. At the end of that empire, here
comes Alexander the Great, and they're under his power, his
authority. And then after him, who comes
but the Romans. And they lasted up until A.D. 70 under Gentile domination. And again, it was because of
their sin and their rebellion, but it was also because of God's
purpose. God had a purpose. Do you know
that, as I told you last time, that most nations back then did
not last? They're all ancient civilizations,
but Judah and Jerusalem lasted until God was through with them,
and it was through these captivities that God kept them together.
But God had a higher purpose, and His higher purpose was to
send His Son into the world to save His people, His elect people,
Jew and Gentile, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation.
And all of this that they were going through under their Gentile
conquerors was preparing the way for how the church, the true
church, the people of God, spiritual Israel, now exist over the world,
beyond the boundaries of Israel, and now, as he said back in verse
6 there, from the rising of the sun, that's from the east, to
the setting of the sun, to the west, all over this world. You see, God has a people, and
they're not confined by geographical, cultural, racial, barriers. He'd already prophesied of the
salvation of the Gentiles throughout this book. But here we see another
prophecy of that. Look at verse 12. He says, I've
made the earth and created man. You see, God didn't just create
Israel. He created the whole earth. He's the God of the whole
earth. He's not just the God of the Jews. He's the God of
man. He's the God of the universe.
You see, his throne reigns over the whole Kit and Kaboodle. And he says, I made the earth
and created man upon it before there ever was an Israel, before
even Abraham, you see. He said, I even my hands have
stretched out the heavens and all their hosts have I commanded.
This is God's realm, not just one place. It wasn't like the
Gentile heathen Kings thought that, well, here's a God over
here, and here's a God over here, and let's let these gods fight
it out and see who wins. If I come over and conquer you,
your God is God, but my God's bigger. Reminds me of that commercial,
they say, my dog's bigger than your dog. You know, that's what
they do. My God's bigger than your God.
No, there's only one God, and he's the God of the whole earth.
And whatever army it is, And whatever they're doing, ultimately
it's going to work to the glory of God and the good of his people.
He says in verse 13, I have raised him up in righteousness, and
I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city, and he
shall let go my captives, not for price nor reward, saith the
Lord of hosts. Now he's speaking of Cyrus here.
He raised up Cyrus. You know, you can imagine someone
saying to the Lord, who do you think you are? Or what do you
think you're doing? Or what right do you have to
do this? Could you imagine somebody saying to God those things? Well, here's his reply. I'm the
creator. I'm the creator of the host above.
I'm even the creator of those who complain. He has full rights
over his own work. And he simply repeats what he's
going to do. He says, I will, I will, I will. No one can do anything about
it. None can stay his hand. Remember Nebuchadnezzar had to
learn this lesson later on. None can stay his hand. What
does that mean? That means nobody can stop him.
Or even say unto him, what doest thou? We cannot hold God accountable. That's what that means. Now,
God can hold us accountable. And He does. That's why He commands
you, seek the Lord. Don't wait another moment. You
are commanded to. You don't have a choice. Seek
the Lord and He may be found. All who seek Him shall find Him.
And so He holds us accountable, but we can't hold Him accountable
because He's God. And it's sad that Israel was
slow to accept His explanation that God was raising up Cyrus
for the sake of Israel. He raised up this man for Israel
to deliver them. And He said, I've raised him
up in righteousness. In other words, Cyrus is going to do God's
just bidding. He's going to do what's right,
not because Cyrus believed God, not because Cyrus himself was
right, but because God is. You see, he said, I've raised
him up in righteousness. And Cyrus not only set the exiles
free, he'd do it without motive of some gain for himself. There
in verse 13, when it says, not for price nor reward, Well, what's
being taught there, you know, it's not saying that Cyrus had
some kind of a noble higher motive in what he was doing, because
he didn't. His goal was to further his own
kingdom, his own wealth, his own prestige. But you know what? Cyrus, when he set Israel free
and sent them back to their homeland and allowed them to rebuild their
temple, that was unusual for a conqueror to do. Usually when
a conqueror came in and conquered a nation, they made the people
slaves and scattered them out. They wouldn't let them live together
in one country because they were afraid they'd band together and
rebel and they'd be a sore spot in the empire. So they'd scatter
them out throughout their empire and make them slaves. But Cyrus
had no political or economic reason to let Israel go back
to Jerusalem and rebuild that temple and rebuild that city.
But he did. And you want to know why? Because
God made it so. God put it in his heart to do
so. Cyrus, he set the exiles free,
but he did it without motive for himself. So said the Lord
God Almighty who controlled Cyrus's actions, words, and motivation
concerning Israel. And so he was controlled by the
Lord. But also when it says not for
price nor reward, it's showing that there was no merit in Israel
to deserve or to earn. this deliverance, this captive.
Well, what is this teaching? What is the ultimate lesson of
this truth? It's how God saves sinners. You see, Israel complained against
God about how they were going to be delivered, this Gentile
conqueror. Well, what does man by nature
complain against God? How God saves sinners. Isn't
that right? How God saves his people. by
his mighty conqueror, whom he raised up in righteousness, the
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God the Father directed
all his ways, for our Lord said, I do the will of my Father. And
who built the city, Christ laid, he is the foundation, and he
laid the foundation of the church, the city of God. He said, upon
this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. And he let all the captives go
free, for by his death on the cross he set us free from the
bondage of sin and Satan and the curse of the law, under the
shedding of his blood where he paid our debt in full so that
we could go free, and makes us willing, loving bondslaves of
Christ. He gave us his righteousness
in return for our sin. And so our salvation and deliverance,
like Israel's deliverance from Babylon, was not for price or
reward. In other words, it had nothing
to do with our earning or meriting anything. It had nothing to do
with any conditions that we met. It was totally by the power of
God in Christ to deliver us from our sins and save us eternally. Look over Romans chapter 9 with
me. I told you before that these
passages in Romans are key to understanding the book of Isaiah
because there's so much that is quoted here, but I want you
to look at Romans 9. Look at verse 30 of Romans chapter
9. There's a lot of quotations in
Romans 9 from Isaiah. He's talking about the remnant
of Israel and the remnant of the Gentiles. And he's spoken
here, and I'm going to be turning to several scriptures here, and
I'll probably just list them for you. And I don't want you
to think I'm just proof texting here. You know what that is.
That's when somebody gets an idea in their head and they just
look up verses to support it. And that's not what I'm doing
at all. I want you to see the context here. But here he's talking about,
in Romans chapter 9, how that God has promised to save his
people. God made that promise. And he
made that promise to Israel. Yet the majority of the nation
Israel had forsaken God and died in unbelief. And even when the
Messiah himself came, the nation as a whole rejected the Messiah
and turned against him, crucified the Lord of glory along with
the Gentiles and the kings and all. And so if God promised to
save all Israel, Then what happened? Did God forget His promise? Did
God go back on the promise? Was not God able to keep the
promise? And that's what Paul's addressing
when he comes to this issue of the sovereign purpose and power
of God in Romans 9. That's the basic issue now. It's
not just saying God chooses whom He will, when He will, how He
will. That's true. But there's a purpose here that
he's saying that. And what he's saying here, and
we're going to come back to Romans 9 in just a moment, He's saying
here that God has never gone back on a promise that He's made.
God has never forsaken one of His people. God has never failed
to save even one of His people. And so God has a people. And
that people is made up of His chosen people out of every tribe,
kindred, tongue, and nation. They're known as spiritual Israel,
which we'll look at in a moment. And there is always a remnant.
Where you find this mass of people that reject Christ and reject
God's way and strive with their Maker, there's always a remnant,
he says. Later on in Romans 11, he calls
them a remnant according to the election of grace. So what are
we going to say to all of that? Well, look at verse 30. What
shall we say then? That the Gentiles, which followed
not after righteousness, Now, in the context here, what he
means by that statement is this, the Gentiles did not seek righteousness
by the law of Moses. That's what he's saying, as did
the Jews. Now, that doesn't mean they weren't
religious. All men by nature are religious. It doesn't mean
that they weren't trying to work their way into God's favor, which
is idolatry. But they didn't have the law
of Moses, so he says that the Gentiles, which followed not
after righteousness, have attained to righteousness. Now, these
Gentiles who he's speaking of here, they attained to righteousness. What does that mean? It means
they were justified before God. It means they were sinners saved
by the grace of God. Now, we know he's not talking
about every Gentile without exception here. And he's already dealt
with that over in the first part of Romans 9. He's talking about
all the Gentiles who attained righteousness. And he says, even
the righteousness which is of faith. They attained righteousness,
but it was not the righteousness of works, of their own works. It was not the righteousness
of the law. It was the righteousness of faith. Now, what is the righteousness
of faith? Well, most people think today That that means, well,
they couldn't keep the law, so God kind of felt sorry for them,
so he said, I'll set faith in its place. And that's the righteousness
of faith. Absolutely not. No, sir. You have to read it in the whole
context. I don't have time to go back to all of it. What is
the righteousness of faith? Now, hold your thought there
and look on. He says in verse 31, look at
it. He says, But Israel, which followed after the law of righteousness,
they sought righteousness by their works of the law. That's
what that means. Not like the Gentiles. They hath
not attained to the law of righteousness. Wherefore, now that means why?
The Gentiles attained it, the righteousness of faith, but Israel
did not, the righteousness of faith. Why? Because they sought
it not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law." They
didn't seek it by faith, but they sought it by their works
of the law. Now, what is it to seek righteousness
by faith? What is the righteousness of
faith? Well, read on. And here he quotes from Isaiah
chapter 28. We've already studied that. And
he says, "...for they stumbled at that stumbling stone." Now,
who is that stumbling stone? Look at verse 33. As it is written,
Behold, I lay in Zion. That's the church. A stumbling
stone and rock of offense. Who is that? And whosoever believeth
on him. H-I-M. That's a good translation
of that. That tells you that the stumbling
stone is not a thing. It's a person. Now, who is that
person? That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Him shall not be ashamed. What is the righteousness of
faith? It's the righteousness of Christ. It's the righteousness
that He was faithful Himself to come and bring in by His obedience
unto death. That's the only righteousness
that I can plead before a holy God. And it's the righteousness
that I receive in my conscience and in my heart by God-given
faith. My faith is not my righteousness.
My faith is in Christ who is my righteousness." That's what
he's saying. So what's the difference here?
He says the elect people among the Gentiles, they looked to
Christ. They rested in Him. They saw their righteousness
established and completed in Him. But the Jews who refused
to believe that, they kept seeking righteousness by the law. We'll
look at verse 1 of chapter 10. He says, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. Now he's talking about national Israel there, the lost.
For I bear them record, they have a zeal of God, but not according
to knowledge. For they being ignorant of God's
righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness,
have not cemented themselves unto the righteousness of God.
Now what is the righteousness of God? Same thing as the righteousness
of faith. Verse 4, look at it. For Christ
is the end or the fulfillment, the finishing of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. You see, they didn't
have faith in their faith. They had faith in Christ. And
that's what he's talking about back here. That's the whole issue. Now look over at Romans chapter
11. Look at verse 1. Now remember what I said. He's talking about God promised
to save Israel. That's the title of the message.
Israel shall be saved. Let me tell you something. Israel's
going to be saved. But who's Israel? So they ask
this question. Well, if Israel's going to be
saved, And the majority of that nation, the physical descendants
of Abraham, perished in unbelief, which the book of Hebrews says
they did. Then has God cast away his people? Look at verse 1 of
Romans 11. I say, then, hath God cast away
his people? Well, look at the answer now.
God forbid. No, God has not cast away his people. Paul said, for
I also am an Israelite. Paul was a physical descendant
of Abraham, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God
hath not cast away his people which he foreknew, foreloved,
his chosen people. He says, What ye not, that means
know you not, what the Scripture saith of Elias or Elijah, how
he maketh intercession to God against Israel, saying, Lord,
they have killed thy prophets, and dig down thine altars, and
I am left alone, and they seek my life. Elijah was saying, I'm
the only one. Let's turn to the Lord. But what
saith the answer of God unto him? Verse 4, I have reserved
to myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to
the image of Baal. Did you notice the language there?
God said, I have reserved to myself. God has a people, a remnant out
of that nation. So he says in verse 5, even so,
then at this present time also there is a remnant according
to the election of grace. And he says, and if it's 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. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for. Those national, physical descendants
of Abraham, they didn't attain what they were seeking for. What
were they seeking? Righteousness by their works. They didn't make
it. And you know what? You won't
either. Neither will I. And neither will the best of
us. Pick them out, the best person you can think of. I don't care
who it is. The best Jew, the best Gentile. The best Baptist,
the best whatever. Pick them out. If they're seeking
righteousness by their works, by their feelings, by their... If they're waiting to be struck
by lightning, it's not going to happen. What are you going
to do? Seek Christ. That's it. Seek righteousness in Him. He's
the only one who has it. That's why Christ said, except
your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the kingdom
of heaven. You need something that no man on earth can give
you, not even yourself. You need something that one from
heaven has and will give freely and willingly to all who seek
after him. Why do you wait? What keeps you
from coming to Christ? Let me tell you something. Now
listen to me very carefully here. Whatever it is that keeps you
from coming to Christ and resting in His blood and righteousness
alone, it is evil. Am I telling you the truth? It's
wicked. It may sound okay. Religious
people may promote you in it. But whatever it is that's keeping
you or me or any sinner from coming to Christ and resting
in Him and what He's accomplished at Calvary for the salvation
of His people's spiritual Israel." It's evil and it's wicked. It's
no good. Come to Him. Beg for mercy. God,
be merciful to me, the sinner. Are you a sinner? Well, do you
think that He's not powerful enough to save the chief of sinners? Paul said, this is a faithful
saying, worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into the
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. You think you can
do something so bad that Christ can't save you? You're not looking
to the right Christ. Am I telling the truth? My friend, you can't out-sin
this Savior. That's just it. Come to Him. That's what he's talking about.
But he says in verse 7 here of Romans 11, "...but the election
hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded." God judicially
blinded them because they wouldn't have it. But the election obtained
it. Now who are the election there?
That's spiritual Israel. That's God's people. That's sinners
who fall at the feet of Christ and beg for mercy. That's what
they are. There's nothing special about
them. Nothing special about any of them. We're all in the same
boat. You say, but you don't know my case. No, but He does.
He does. Look back at Isaiah 45. Look
at verse 14 now. Remember this. It's not for price.
It's not for a reward. It's not based on feeling. You
may not feel like doing it. But I want to tell you something.
Whether you feel like it or not, you need Him. Am I right? You
need Him. You may have a cancer in you
right now that you don't know about, and you may feel like
you're on the top of the world, but you know what you need right
now? If you've got that cancer, you need a doctor who's got the
cure. And I'm telling you, we all have the cancer of sin. And
there's only one remedy, and that's the Great Physician, and
the only ointment that He can give is blood and His righteousness. Don't wait another moment. Now,
in verse 14, here's a prophecy of the conversion of the Gentiles.
You remember I told you the Jews, they strove with their maker
and natural answer rises on how God saved sinners. The unbelieving
Jews did not like God's way of doing that by grace. They wanted
their works to count for something. They wanted their heritage, their
pedigree, to count for something. That's why John the Baptist,
when he began preaching to them, he said, don't think in your
mind to say that we're Abraham's seed. He said, the ax is going
to be laid to that root too. That's not going to help you.
Whatever it is you're thinking of in your mind that's going
to recommend you unto God, I'm telling you, if it's anything
but the Lord Jesus Christ and His accomplished, finished work
on Calvary, it's no good, it's wicked, it's evil. It's the righteousness
of works and not the righteousness of faith. But look here. They not only strove with him
over how he saves, but who he saves. But look here. He says
he's going to bring some Gentiles into this kingdom now. Now, this
is important. Look at verse 14. Thus saith
the Lord, the labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and
of the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over unto thee. He
uses these three countries, these three cultures. to signify how
Gentiles are going to come. He'd already said it in other
passages. I could take you through about
15, 16 different segments of the book of Isaiah that we've
already studied, where he talked about the islands are going to
come to him, the nations, the isles. They're from the east
to the west, north and south. The Gentiles are going to, some
Gentiles are going to be brought into this kingdom. And you know,
after Isaiah 45, he keeps on harping on that and eventually
got him killed. That's why they hated the prophets.
Because the prophets preached not only how God saves sinners
by grace through the promised Messiah, but that he's going
to bring in some Gentiles into this kingdom. Now, every one
of us here tonight ought to say, thank you, Lord. Isn't that right? And this is what he's saying
here. This is what he's revealing here. Who God saves, his elect,
Jew and Gentile, spiritual Israel. So here he says, they're going
to come over unto thee, that is, to Israel, spiritually speaking,
and they shall be thine. In other words, they're going
to be part of your household, part of your nation. And they
shall come after thee, to the Jew first, but also to the Greek. You see, Christ, when He came
into the world and He established the new covenant, it was to the
Jew first, wasn't it? In time. But then here come the
Greeks. or the Gentiles. And they'll
come in chains. Yes, they'll come in chains.
Chains of grace. Chords of love. Captive by our
Lord. But you know what he said? He
said, my yoke is easy, my burden is light. It's not a burden.
You see, it's not the chain of the law. It's not the whip of
Sinai. It's the cords of His grace and
His love that binds our hearts and brings us to Him. And he
says they'll come over. Come on over. That's what I say
to sinners tonight. You who have not sought the Lord,
come on over. Just come on over. Don't wait another minute. Don't
wait another second. Why wait? What's keeping you?
Come on over. And he says, they shall fall
down unto thee. That is, now what he's talking
about, they're not going to worship Israel like some people do today.
They're not going to do that. But he says, they shall make
supplication unto these saints. Surely God is in thee. And there's
none else. There's no God. No other God.
They're going to come to God. And verily, he says, thou art
a God that hidest thyself. For hundreds of years, God hid
himself from the Gentiles. The book of Ephesians chapter
2 tells us of that. You were Gentiles, outside the
commonwealth of Israel, without God, without hope in the world.
But he says, O God of Israel, the Savior, And then he says,
they shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They
shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. All
who refuse to come. All who refuse to run to Christ
and flee to Him and fall at His feet and beg for mercy. What
are they? They're idolaters and they'll
be ashamed. That's what he's saying. And
then here in verse 17, he identifies God's Israel for us. All who
are saved by God's grace in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the
Israel of God. They do not continue to strive
with their Maker. Look at it, verse 17. But Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You
shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end. This is forever
and forever and forever. This is not an earthly piece
of ground or real estate or geography. This is not a place where the
Arabs and the Jews are fighting over. This is God's eternal,
everlasting kingdom of grace. And Christ is Lord. He says in
verse 18, For thus saith the Lord that created the heavens,
God Himself that formed the earth and made it, He hath established
it. He created it not in vain. This is no gamble for God. When He created this earth, He
already had The plan and purpose of salvation set up from everlasting
in Christ. This world was created and even
fell under the sin of man in Adam because of God's already
foreordained purpose to save his people through the Lord Jesus
Christ. He didn't create this world in
vain, for nothing. It had a purpose. He formed it to be inhabited.
Now, he's talking about the new heavens and the new earth here.
It's going to be inhabited. Now he's, well, we'll back that
up. Well, here it is. I'm the Lord. There's nothing
else. Now that's enough backing. I'm
the Lord, he says. I was watching a movie one time
and a fellow was trying to get some money that had been stolen
from him from this organization. And he went in, he asked a guy
across the desk, he said, he said, how do I get my money back? And the guy said, well, we'll
have to bring it up before the committee. The guy looked at
him, he says, oh, no. He said, any organization, I
said, ultimately it all goes to one man. And I want to speak
to that man. He said, you can committee and
committee and committee all day long, but it ultimately comes
to one guy who's got to say so. And he said, let me see that
one man. And the fellow just looked at him and he said, well,
you're right. It just comes down. Well, this
is the way it is in this universe. It comes down to God's Word.
And that's it. And we don't need to form any
committees. or any counsels, God said it. That's it. That's
enough backing. Now, verse 19, and I'll close.
He said, I've not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth.
This is a public message. It's to everyone who will hear.
Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He said, I said not under the seat of Jacob, seek ye me in
vain. You notice that now? God never commanded any sinner
to seek him in vain. Somebody says, well, what if
I seek him? And I don't find him. Well, here's God's answer
to that. I never commanded the seed of
Jacob. A sinner. That's a sinner who
sees his need of Christ. Is that you? Is that me? He never
commanded any one of them to seek him in vain. He never said,
you come and seek me and you may or may not find me. You know,
some people use the sovereignty of God as a crutch, as an excuse. Have you ever heard people do
that? Well, I don't know if he's going
to save me or not. Well, what does God say? Whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord, what shall he say? Listen, if God went back on that
promise, he'd have more to lose than you and I do. Because it's
his glory that's involved. He's never commanded the seed
of Jacob to seek Him in vain. He says, I, the Lord, speak righteousness. I'm telling you the truth, He's
saying. I'm speaking justly here. I declare things that are right.
Thank God for it. Now, I've got a bunch of Scripture
that I'm going to go into as we kind of bridge this passage
here with the end of this passage, this chapter, and I'm going to
wait before I give you all that, because I don't want to get started
tonight, and we don't have enough time. But this is Israel shall
be saved. God's Israel. Come unto me, he
said, all ye that labor and heavy laden, and I'll give you rest.
All right.