chapter 22 Isaiah chapter 22
and let me express my gratitude and Shirley's for everyone that
came and worked yesterday of course I didn't get here real
late but they got this place big and span appreciate everyone
who came and Shirley I know is very very grateful you know two
weeks from today will be the last two services of our conference
that's how close it is we'll just be finishing today Joe Terrell
and Bruce Crabtree will be preaching. There's time two weeks from today,
Lord willing, God willing. And we had the best time in Mexico
that I've had in, the meetings was the best I was involved in
down there. It was just absolutely wonderful,
absolutely wonderful. So Isaiah 22, I'm going to read
down verse 15 down to the end of the chapter. Thus saith the
Lord God of hosts, Go get thee unto this treasurer, even unto
Shebna, which is over the house, and say, What hast thou here? and whom hast thou here, that
thou hast hewed thee out of sepulchre here? As he that heweth him out
of sepulchre on high, and that craveth inhabitation for himself
in a rock. Behold, the Lord will carry thee
away with a mighty captivity, and will surely cover thee. He
will surely violently turn and toss thee like a ball into a
large country. There shalt thou die, and there
the chariots of thy glory shall be the shame of thy Lord's house. And I will drive thee from thy
station, and from thy state shall He pull thee down. And it shall
come to pass in that day that I will call my servant Eliakim
the son of Hilkiah, and I will clothe him with thy robe, strengthen
him with thy girdle, and I will commit thy government into his
hand, and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem
and to the house of Judah. And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open and none shall
shut, and he shall shut and none shall open. And I will fasten
him as a nail in a sure place, and he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. And they shall hang upon him
all the glory of his father's house, the offspring and the
issue, all vessels of small quantity from the vessels of cups even
to all the vessels of flagons. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, shall the nail that is fastened in the sure place be
removed and be cut down and fall, and the burden that was upon
it shall be cut off, for the Lord hath spoken it. Blessing
they are, what a great blessing. All right, back here in Isaiah
15, excuse me, 22 in verse 15. My subject is a nail in a sure
place, Nail in a sure place. But let me give you the setting
here. God is talking to Shebna. Verse
15, the Lord God of hosts, go get thee unto his treasurer,
unto Hezekiah's treasurer. Shebna is over the house of Hezekiah. He was the treasurer, the ruler
of Hezekiah's palace. He was over all the king's provisions. All that was the king's he put
into this man's hands. And then Isaiah was sent to say
something to this man. And he asked him two solemn questions
here. This man was a proud, vainglorious
man. This treasurer was. Proud, vainglorious
fellow. And he starts by asking him two
solemn questions. What have you here? What have
you got? What are you doing here? What
have you got that belongs to you here? And what is it that
you're doing? What are you occupied at? And
when he asked, whom hast thou? Who are you? And it tells us
here that he's seeking a sepulcher on high. He's trying to make
himself a habitation in a high rock. He's trying to make a name
for himself, trying to have a lasting name and a lasting reputation. He was interested more in his
glory, interested in his reputation, interested in what he accomplished
more than the glory of God. And God said, this is what I'm
going to do with you. This is what I'm going to do
with you. He says there in verse 17 through 19, behold, the Lord
God almighty will carry thee away with a mighty captivity
and it will cover you. And then he's going to take you
and pick you up like a big ball. And he's going to throw you up
in the air. You think you've got some power, and you think
you've got some glory, and you think you've got all this prestige
and that, and you're trying to set yourself real high? He said,
I'm going to pick you up like a big ball, and I'm going to
toss you into another country, into a large country, toward
a country. And he says, that's where you're
gonna die. And there the chariots of all your glory shall be the
chain of thy Lord's house. And then God said, I will drive
thee from thy station, the position that you have, and from the state
that you're in, this great vainglorious thing, and he shall pull thee
down. He shall pull thee down. And down in verse 25, it says
this, and in that day, saith the Lord of hosts, shall the
nail that's fastened in the sure place be removed and cut down
and fall, and the burden that was upon it shall be cut off,
for the Lord has spoken it. And what he means by that is
that everybody that trusted you and put all their eggs in your
basket, they're coming down with you, your family and everybody
else. But also in verse 20, look what he says now. And it shall
come to pass in that day, when I do all this about you, that
I will call my servant Eliakim. You know what his name means?
My God shall establish. Eliakim means my God shall establish. And then he's the son of Hilkiah.
Hilkiah means the portion of Jehovah. So he said, I'm gonna
raise up in that day a man named that my God shall establish.
And his father's name is the portion of Jehovah. his portions
of God himself. And then look what he says, and
I will clothe him with your robe, I'm gonna take everything away
from you, and I'm gonna strengthen him with thy girdle, with all
the prestige you had and all you thought you had, and I'm
gonna commit thy government into his hand, and he shall be a father
to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Now
watch this now. So we know this is talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder. Now a key is used for two things,
to open and shut. Keep people out, let people in.
And he said, I'll lay upon his shoulder and so he shall open. When he opens, ain't nobody can
shut it. God opens the door, Christ opens
the door, nobody can shut it. And then look what else he says.
And he shall shut And ain't nobody nowhere can ever open it. So
he says, I put everything in Christ. And what he does is going
to be forever. If he opens, the doors open.
Nobody can shut it. And we opened it for us and who's
going to shut it on us? Who's going to shut it on us?
And then when he shuts it, ain't nobody in this world can ever
open it because it's in the hands of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
so He comes on to say here that, and I will fasten him, this one,
this house has the key of David, Eliakim, Jehovah God shall establish,
and I will fasten him as a nail, the Lord Jesus Christ as a nail
in a sure place, and he shall be a glorious throne to his father's
house. and they shall hang upon him
all the glory of his father's house, the offspring, and the
issue, everybody that's begotten of him, and all vessels of small
quantity, from the vessels of cups even to the vessels of flags.
But now here's the first thing, here's my first point. Before
the Lord Jesus Christ, before Eliakim was fastened as the nail
in a sure place, you know what has to happen? Shebna has to
come down. Shebna has to be pulled out. And when Christ comes, someone
else got to be overthrown. When Christ comes to save a man
and start working in a man, there's got to be a battle. There's going
to be a battle going on. Shebna's got to come down It's
gotta be the downfall of one before the other one's enthroned.
And that's just always the way it is. There must be an overthrow
of Shebna's glory when Christ comes in. When that nail is put
in there, that other one's got to be pulled out. When that Christ
is glorified, then Shebna's gotta fall down. And that's the way
it always is. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
in, there's gonna be something start happening. Before the Lord
Jesus ascends the throne of a man's heart, there's a battle. Never
has God, ain't never saved a man. Christ has never come in a man's
heart and never established himself in a man's heart that there ain't
a battle first. And you know what the battle's
over? Whose righteousness you gonna trust in? Whose hope you
gonna have in? And that's the thing right there.
Man always, the last thing to go from him is his own righteousness. That's the last thing that's
given up. And I tell you, that's the last thing that Paul the
apostle gave up. Everything that a man has, he
puts all of his eggs in that. He trusts in that. He trusts
in his righteousness. Todd was talking about when he
first, the first place that he started preaching in, he called
it Grace Chapel, and he moved into, they rented a storefront
in the worst part of the city of Lexington. And he said there
was drunks everywhere and prostitutes walking up and down the street.
And he said, you know that we go out and witness to them, and
every single one of them was self-righteous. and their self-righteousness
was in, at least I'm not a hypocrite. I'm not a hypocrite, I pay my
own way. But every man has a righteousness,
and that's the last thing that's got to go. It's got to come down.
And one thing I do know about the grace of God, and when Christ
comes into a man's heart, Christ's gonna win that battle. Christ's
gonna win it. And here's the thing about it,
when the Lord Jesus comes in and starts dealing with a man,
he has to reach and take one thing after another away from
that man. And the last thing to come from that man is his
own righteousness. Man goes about to establish a
righteousness, and he'll stand up and fight with God himself
About his righteousness our Lord our Lord Jesus said in that day
He said thou many be many say unto me. I Have I not? Have I not? Have I not? And you
know what our Lord says? Depart from me. And never one
of them said, we've done it in the name of the Lord. And he
says, depart from me, you workers of iniquity. I never knew. There's
out doing something for Jesus. And our Lord said it was iniquity.
And all being by nature have some kind of self-righteousness.
You know why? God doesn't save a man because
he's too bad. The problem with man is that
he's too good. And God's got to make him bad.
And God's going to win that battle. And you know what becomes of
our righteousness? When Christ comes in that we
have to say all of my righteousnesses, all of my, and that's what it
says, it's in the plural. All of my righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. And we have lots of them. We have lots of them. And all
it's got to become is filthy rags before the Lord Jesus Christ,
before he'll set up that throne. And I'll tell you what, and if
they ever become filthy rags, they never get any better. Never
get any better. Every stone must come down. All foundations has to be destroyed
before you'll ever, ever rest on that foundation that God laid,
the Lord Jesus Christ. We talked to several folks down
there, and we asked them, how did they come to know the gospel?
How did they come to start coming here in Cody to preach the gospel?
And almost exclusively, every single one of them was brought
out of false religion. They would hear him witnessing
somewhere, or hear somebody, you know, Joseph Berger, somebody
preaching, or somebody that heard the gospel, they would go and
bring somebody else to come in here, but almost exclusively. There's a preacher down there.
And the first thing he said, I was a preacher. And when I
heard this gospel, and I tried to find a place to rest, but
he said, when I heard this gospel, I became nothing. My preaching
became nothing. Myself, my hope for myself became
nothing. And he used Paul as an illustration. He said everything that was gained
to me that make me look good in men's eyes, that make me look
good in my own eyes. Everything that ever I thought
I'd ever accomplish, everything that was gained to me, I counted
it lost. Inside of Christ, it's nothing,
it's lost. It don't amount to anything.
And he said, I want Christ, I want Christ, and I wanna be found
in him, in his righteousness, not in my own. And I tell you,
men, and this is so dangerous, resting upon ceremonies. You
know what a ceremony is? Anything you do, raising your
hand, coming to an altar, baptism, resting on a ceremony that you
went through. Resting on your baptism. Oh,
what a flimsy thing to rest your eternal soul on is a baptism.
Rest your soul, rest your soul on taking the Lord's table. Upon
going to church. Oh, I go to church. Oh, I love,
you know, I just go to church. And you know, never, never involved
in gross sin. Don't rest in that. Don't rest
in being scrupulous and honest in your dealings. Oh, listen,
I'll tell you what, I'm very honest and I'm a hard worker
and I'm very scrupulous. That's wonderful, you ought to
be that way. But surely, surely that don't mean nothing before
God, huh? Well, I'm a good husband. You
ought to be a good husband. But surely you're not trusting
the Lord for that, are you? Well, I'm a good neighbor. Oh,
you're not resting in that? Surely you wouldn't rest in that.
Oh, what flimsy reasons to rest your soul up. Adam. He said,
listen, Eve, we got to cover up our nakedness. We got to figure
out how in the world we gonna cover up our nakedness before
God. I don't know what, there's some great big fig leaves here.
Let's take your fig leaves off there and let's take some bark
and things like that and let's sew these things together and
let's cover up our nakedness. That's all in the world, any
of those things are, is fig leaves if you go face God on them. And
you know the thing about a fig leaf? It's just as quick as you
pull it, it starts dying. So you're gonna have to always
be getting fig leaves, fig leaves, fig leaves. And I tell you what,
in fig leaves, they have to, even that there's covered with
fig leaves, and God come to him and says, why are you doing,
he said, because I was naked. Who told you you was naked? And
I tell you what, the only covering that God will accept is the robe
of His blessing. So He said, I'll put His robe
on you. His robe on you. Your righteousness
in Christ cannot ever go together. There's no mixing it. He will
not share in our salvation, share in our salvation. We're not gonna
share. He's gonna do it all, or we're
not gonna have it all. He's gonna give us everything,
or we're not gonna have nothing. He's gotta do, he by himself
purged our sins. Look in Isaiah 63. Look over
here in Isaiah 63. He by himself, And oh, this idea, this idea
that it's a cooperative effort between God and the soul. That
it's, you know, God, God does his part, then I do my part.
This idea that I've got to do something to get something from
God. Old Scott used to say all the time, it's not what you do
for God that salvation is what God does for you. God does it
all. God does it all. I mean, what
he does today, he's got to do it all. You get up to preach,
and all we got is words, and if the Lord ain't pleased to
bless the gospel, that's all we'll have here that day is words,
if God don't bless it. But look what he said here in
Isaiah 63 and verse three. Our righteousness in Christ,
they can't ever go together, it's gotta be all his. He said,
I've trodden the winepress alone, done it by myself. Get in here
and help me. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people, there was nobody with me, nobody with
me. And I'm gonna tread these grapes,
I'm gonna tread the winepress in my anger, and I'm gonna trample
them in my fury. And then the blood. The blood,
their blood, shall be sprinkled upon my garments, and I'll stain
my garments. And that's what he means by his
substitutionary death, that everything that we was, he became that.
He took and took the fierceness of God's winepress, and he tread
it by himself. Oh, nobody's gonna help him.
And self's gotta come down. Christ's gotta go up. If you
go up, Christ goes down. Joe Terrell used a wonderful
illustration one time. Everybody knows what a seesaw
is. Used to have them in all the, you know, great big old
long seesaw, and you'd get on one end, and you'd bounce up
and bounce down, bounce up and bounce down. You get somebody
big on the other end, and if he don't want you to bounce down,
you're up there. You can't even touch the ground. Well, if we're
up there, and Christ is down here, We're on the wrong end.
You know, when we go down like this, then Christ is up. And
we want Christ to always be up. And oh my, we must give up all
confidence in our resolutions, in our vows, even in our endeavors
for the future. You know, rest our future. Rest our future. Let God help
us to rest our future in the Lord Jesus Christ. Not any resolutions
that we make. Not any promises that we make.
Not any vows that we make. Not anything that we try to do.
Let our future rest only on the nail in a sure place in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Somebody might say, well, I know
I've slipped and fell in the past, but I'll be able to stand
in the future. I'll be able to stand on my own
in the future. Can they do it? Well, I've just resolved that
I'm going to change. I know that I can do good or
I can do evil. For right now, I choose to do
good from now on. For right now, I choose to do
good from now on. What about all the bad you've
done before you start doing the good? Well, who's going to deal
with that? Who's gonna deal with it? If you resolve today that
I'm gonna start living for the Lord, you say, I'm gonna start
living for the Lord. I'm gonna change what I do and
how I live, and I start doing that today. And if you could
do it, and you went on the rest of your life doing that by your
own power, if you could do that, then what in the world's gonna
happen to everything that happened to you before you got there?
Who's gonna take care of all the sin that you had up until
that time? That's what's wrong with people,
you know, when they start telling you, oh, listen, you got to start
living this way and living that way and living another way. And
I tell you, self-sufficiency, oh, self-sufficiency, what a
pitiful, sorry, sufficiency it is. I remember the first time
I ever resolved to do good. I remember the first time. I
was about six years old. I was down in North Carolina.
There's a big Southern Baptist church up on this hill. And my
grandpa, they lived there on Phillips Street and lived on
a little hill. And you'd get out of the house,
you walked up this hill, turn the corner, big old huge Southern
Baptist church, big white pillars in the front of it. Well, he
took me up there one time, and they gave me a little New Testament.
And boy, I got home, and I thought, boys, oh boy. I said, buddy,
I'm going to start being a good boy. I'm gonna start, I'm gonna
really be a good boy. I'm gonna be the best boy that
ever was. You know how long that lasted? That didn't last long enough
to, but I can remember that vividly. I remember that vividly. And
I remember one time back when I was, they called us hippies
in those days. Long hair, long beard and all
that stuff. I mean, you know, and I resolved
there that I was gonna start following Jesus. If I could ever
find out who he was. I said, I know he's a good teacher. I know that everybody ought to
follow his example. So I was gonna start trying to
follow Jesus' example. I didn't last very long either
because nobody ever told me who he was. I kept trying to figure
it out myself, and I could never figure it out. That's a sorry,
sorry way to try to live in this world, but people do it all the
time. What a pitiful, sorry thing self-sufficiency
is. It'll always fail. You'll always
fall. But when a soul comes to know
the Lord Jesus, when he comes to know Christ and learn of Christ,
you know the second thing he learns? He learns something about
himself. You can't learn of Christ without learning about yourself.
And I'll tell you what, when he begins to learn about the
Lord Jesus Christ and he begins to see himself in the light of
Christ, Oh my, there ain't nothing to me. In light of his glory,
I don't have any. In light of his strength, I don't
have any. In light of his righteousness,
mine's a filthy rag. In light of his power, I'm helpless. And I tell you, we become, oh
my soul. And then our language begins
to change. Our language and the way we think
begins to change. Instead of talking about what
we gonna do, we say, oh Lord, save me or I'll perish. Oh Lord,
preserve me, or I'll not be able to stand. Oh Lord, if you don't
keep me, I'll fall for sure. Oh my, and that's what he comes
to say. He says, he said, I know whom
I have believed. Not what I believe, but whom,
whom I believed. And I know I've said this before,
that a lot of people say, I trust in the finished work of Christ
on the cross. I don't, I don't, I don't do
that. I do not trust in the finished
work of Christ on the cross. You know what? I trust in Him
who finished the work. That's the difference. Who did
the work? Who finished the work? That's
why Paul said, he that begun a good work in you. Can God do anything but a good
work? That's why he said, I'll establish this. I'll lay on him
everything with, you know, for whom he did for no. He also did
for no. Whom he called, he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified. Everything is about he. Oh my,
and that's why I said we know whom we have believed. And God
writes his laws upon our heart, and I'll tell you two laws that
I know for a fact he writes on your heart. He writes the law
of sin on your heart, and sin finished. You don't even become
a sinner till God makes you one. And then he writes the law of
faith on your heart. He writes the law of faith on
your heart. Faith is the law, faith is the principle, and he
comes and writes that on your heart. And I tell you what, beloved,
if any man, any man, be you or anybody, if any man be in Christ,
in Christ, not in the church, in Christ, if any man be in Christ,
what does it say? He's a new creature. And when
it says, all things are passed away and all things become new,
what he's saying is this, that the covenant is passed away,
The works has passed away. Everything that we have, but
what Paul said, he says, you know, I count all things but
lost, but done, that I may win Christ. That's the old things
that pass away. All of our hopes, all of our,
everything that we ever trusted, they all pass away and everything
becomes new. We got new natures, new desires,
a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new understanding. Everything we have becomes new.
And here's what's so blessed about it, it always stays new,
never gets old. It never gets old. Does it ever get old? No. Oh my. And I'll tell you without
a shadow of a doubt, no man, no man at any time has ever,
by his will or power, put away one sin. People say, boy, you
better quit your sinning. Wouldn't you like to do that?
Wouldn't you love to be able to do that? You know when we'll
do that? Whenever we go to glory. That's when it's gonna stop.
It ain't gonna stop till then. And oh my, no man has ever put
down one sin or one sin. You know, most almost ever, Over
in 1 John there it says, He who is born of God doeth not commit
sin. Now let me teach you something
here. But every other version of the Bible that they have,
all these other versions, says he that has the seed of God in
him and has Christ in him, he does not practice sin. When it
says he that is born of God and he that the seed of Christ remains
in, it says he cannot sin. Now let me teach you something
here. Now, beloved, we know without a shadow of a doubt that we all
are sinners, but yet that new man in us, that new man in us,
he cannot sin. Christ is in us. Can Christ in
us sin? That's what makes sin so awful
is because of our fallen nature. And that man inside of us, all
he wants is perfection. That's the one that God sees.
That's the one that Christ set up his heart in. Christ in us
is the hope of glory. And that man, that new... And
I learned this this week. When God put Christ in Mary's
womb, Christ's nature did not change, did it? He was virgin
born. And the reason he was virgin
born, had he been born of a natural man and a natural woman, he'd
have been like everybody else. He'd have been a sinner. He couldn't
have been a savior. But he was born of God in Mary's womb, in
a virgin's womb, and he became what he wasn't before. He was
a man, but he was still the Son of God. But Christ being in her
womb, did Christ being in her womb, that holy thing that's
in her womb, did that change her nature? She still had the
same nature. And when she bore that child,
she still had the same nature. And that's what happens, beloved,
even when Christ comes in us, we still have that old nature.
But we got that new nature. And that new nature cannot sin. And the old nature can't do nothing
else but. And that's why that new nature
longs to the Lord. Even so, come Lord Jesus. Old Walter said, boys, we're
at the last days. We're at the last days. The Lord's
gonna come. The Lord's gonna come. Walter said that a half
a dozen times down there. He said, the gospel has to be
preached in all the world. Then the end will come. He said,
the gospel is being preached everywhere now. There's nowhere
where there ain't a cell phone or a computer or some way that
people can hear the gospel if they'll do it. So I said, Walter,
I certainly hope you're right. I certainly hope you're right.
I hope it's in the next few days. And people, you know, they used
to say all the time, said, oh Lord, wait, just wait, wait,
wait, wait, wait till my family gets saved. Listen, Lord Jesus,
don't wait. You come when you will. You come
when you will. I tell you, God's gonna, listen,
when our Lord Jesus Christ comes, there's gonna be a whole world
of people, billions of them, that don't know God, don't know
Christ. Oh my. And I tell you, beloved, it's
hard for a man to give up these two things, glorying in his past,
what he's accomplished, and to give up all hope for the future.
except in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's hard to be a pauper, but
that's what we are, and that's what we've become. It's hard,
you know, to be a beggar, but oh my, we're mercy beggars, and
we have to be. And this goes for everyone. Ain't
that what he says there in verse 24 here? And they shall hang
upon him all the glory of his Father's house, the offspring
and the issue. Everybody from the highest to
the lowest, from the best to the worst. Now there's decrees. You know, there's degrees in
decomposition whenever somebody dies. And we're all dead, and
Christ has to give us life. The issues of life come from
here. Let me give you, Jairus' daughter, she's 12 years old.
They went to get the Lord Jesus. By the time they got back, she
was gone. Been dead just a very few minutes. The Lord Jesus came
in, reached by the hand, raised her up, said, Peter, And the
widow's son, he'd been dead for almost 24 hours because they
had him in his casket, taking him out to bury him. Our Lord
Jesus stopped there, said, get up. He'd been dead longer, more
corrupt. And then there was Lazarus, been
dead four days and he stuck. And that's the way men are. Some
of men may not be as gross in their sin like Jairus' daughter.
Some may be dead and start and corrupt like the widow's son.
And then some is so corrupt and stinks so bad like Lazarus. But
the thing is, ain't but one person can give them life, no matter
whether they just Jairus' daughter or Lazarus. And that's the Lord
Jesus Christ. From the highest to the lowest,
from the worst to what people call the best. God's got to do
it. God's got to do it. And oh my, let me give you another
thing. Look here in verse 23 and 24
here in Isaiah. We see the true dependence of
a saved man and it's upon the person and work and righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. God said, I'm gonna lay on him
the keys of David. And look what he says here now.
And I will fasten him, fasten him, my God shall establish. God established everything in
Christ and I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And
he shall be for a glorious, now listen to this, this nail's gonna
be for a glorious throne, throne to his father's house. How can
you be a nail in a throne at the same time? It's easy if you're
God, it's easy if you're Christ. And look what he said. And they
shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's house and all
the offspring of his father's house. And all the issue, that
means all the people that come from, and all vessels, a small
quantity from the vessels of cups, even to all the vessels.
And I tell you, beloved, that's where a man, we save man's true
dependence is upon the Lord Jesus Christ. God appointed him, he
said, I'll fasten him, I will do this. And that day, I'll call
Eliakim, God shall establish him. But down here in verse 25,
God never fastened that nail. Look what it says, that's the
nail that Shebna drove in. That's the nail that Shebna had.
God said in that day, the day that he cuts off Sheba, the day
that he takes him from his station and pulls him down and throws
him out like a ball. In that day, saith the Lord of
hosts, that the nail that's fastened in the sure place be removed
and be cut down. And everybody that was hanging
on that nail is gonna go down. But what God does is forever.
He appointed His Son, Jehovah will establish. He appointed
His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Was He the propitiation
for our sins? Whatever God does, it shall be
forever. Nothing can be put to it or nothing
take from it. If God appointed His Son as a
Savior, will He really save? Did He appoint Him as a surety?
One who would come and stand in our stead, stand good for
us, take on all responsibility? That's what a surety does. Did
God appoint Him to be our substitute? To bear our sins in His own body
on the tree? To put away our sin by the sacrifice
of Himself? Did He do that? Well, if He did,
will He accomplish it? Will it be done? Will it be accomplished? Look in Isaiah 42. It says that
he is able, he is able to save unto the uttermost them that
come unto God by him. And God appointed him savior,
will he save? Well, look what it says here
in verse four, Isaiah 42. Don Fortner preached on this
years ago and boy, it was good. Boy, it's so good. He shall not
fail nor be discouraged. I fail and I get discouraged. Christ don't. Christ don't. He
never has, never will be. Until he set judgment in the
earth, until he fixes how everything's gonna be. And the isles or the
worlds will wait for his law. Oh, beloved. I remember a time,
I think I told you this. There was a man and he is a doctor. And he is telling me, you know,
he found out I was a preacher and we was talking. He told me,
he says, you know, he said, I had a, I had a real problem in my
back and I prayed for the Lord to heal it, you know, and he
quoted Isaiah 53 and said, by his stripes, we shall be healed.
And he said, I prayed for three years and finally the Lord healed
my back after three years. I said, well, if by his stripes
were healed, why didn't he heal it just like that? I said, ?If
there is power in His stripes to heal you, then you?re going
to be healed.? I said, ?Well, what took it so long for Him
to heal you?? He said, ?Well, I didn?t have enough faith.?
I said, ?His stripes will heal you. Listen, this is what He
does.? And I began telling him what that stripes meant. And
he said, I've never heard such a thing. And oh my goodness,
he went to backing up. And I said, listen, if Christ
has to wait to do something for you and dependent upon you to
do it, it ain't gonna be done. But when it says, by his stripes
we are healed, what he means is, beloved, that we are healed
from our sin, we're healed from our unacceptableness before God
by the stripes, by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If there's physical healing in the stripes of Christ, you and
I would never even get sick. That's what I told that time.
If there's healings in the stripes of Christ, then if that's physical
healing, none of us will ever be sick. Now, ain't that right? But I'll tell you one thing I'll
never be sick of again, is not being accepted of God. I'll never
be, my sins have been healed. My sins has been gone. My soul
has been healed. by the stripes of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And oh my, did our Lord Jesus
Christ pay the sin debt in full? Did he honor God's law? Did he
satisfy God's justice? Well, what in the world will
happen to those for whom he died? God said, I'm gonna fasten him.
I'm gonna fasten him. And I'm gonna fasten him as a
nail in a sure place. And that word sure means that
it's gonna happen. It's gonna happen. He's the faithful
and true. And oh, look what it says here.
A believer's life, I'm telling you, we see, a saved man's dependence
is upon the person of Christ. God put on him the keys of David. God uses him to open, God uses
him to shut. And oh, we're dependent on him.
God said, I appointed him, I will fasten him. And look, the believer's
dependence in life depends not only on Christ saving us, but
upon Christ sustaining us, sustaining us. He says there, he said, I'll
fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And I love this and he
shall be a glorious throne for his father's house. And God said
him now, God has said him now, right now, to be for his people's
glory now and their defense always, always. He shall be a glorious
throne for his father's house. And this is our glory and our
only glory is the Lord Jesus Christ. As God's children, we
have glory. The only glory we have is through
our relation to the Lord Jesus Christ. We have no glory. It's
like the moon. When you see the moon, the moon
has no light of its own. The moon has no light of its
own. Do you know where it gets its light from? From the sun.
And you and I have no light whatsoever. Where do we get any light from? And you know there's a dark side
of the moon? They'll say, this is the dark side of the moon.
Well, that's all we are, is dark sides without Christ. And oh
my, we have glory only through our relationship to the Lord
Jesus Christ. And all the wealth and all the
glory of this world is as nothing compared to our Lord Jesus Christ. And the believer's whole dependence
is placed upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, who places it there?
Who places it there? Look what he says in verse 23. And I will fasten him as a nail
in a sure place. And look what he says in verse
24. And they shall hang upon him all the glory of his father's
house. And this nail now, this pin is
hung in a palace. It's hung in a palace. And the
owner of the palace can hang on it what he chooses. It belongs
to him. The nail belongs to him. The
palace belongs to him. He fastened the nail. And he
can hang on that nail who he pleases. He can hang up gold
vessels, wooden vessels, clay vessels, little vessels, big
vessels, large vessels, and we all have different gifts, we
all have different capacities. But if the nail falls, if the
nail falls, everything on it falls with him. But you reckon
it'll fall? God hung at that. The Lord Jesus
Christ, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ has done it all. Hang
on Him, God. And look what it says, and it
says, they shall hang upon Him. They won't hang themselves. People
say, well, I could get off of it. You ever tried to get off
of a nail when you get on it? I've ripped so many shirts and
things to getting hung on nails, but listen, they shall hang upon
Him. They, the Holy Spirit, God the Father, God the Son, and
God the Holy Spirit will hang them up there. And the Lord Jesus
has done it all. The robe you have to wear in
God's presence, Christ made it all. Made it himself. Made it
himself. The fountain in which we are
washed is already filled with Emmanuel's blood. It doesn't
require a tear to make it perfect. There's a fountain open for unclean. And they, God, the Son, and the
Spirit, the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, Hang all the glory
on His Father's house. And beloved, if you're on Him,
nothing can ever take you off. But if you're not on Him, ain't
no home, no home. Rest, rest, rest in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Hang your soul on Him.