Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program this morning.
I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along
in your Bibles, I'm going to be preaching in the Old Testament
today in the book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah, chapter 45. And the title of the message
is Salvation in a Look. And it comes from verse 22 of
Isaiah 45, where the prophet, speaking as the prophet of God,
speaking the word of God, he says, look unto me, and this
is God speaking through Isaiah, look unto me, not to look unto
Isaiah, but to look unto the Lord, look unto Christ, Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else. Now I wanna show you the context
of that commandment, but that's speaking of the look that brings
a sinner to salvation. Salvation in a look. And this
looking here is not just a mere glance. or just like a passing
glance. This is a gaze. It is an intent
looking, gazing at the Lord Jesus Christ as the salvation of His
people. And it's not a mystical look.
It's not seeing a vision in the clouds or a shape in some object. It's not a dream. It's nothing
like that. It's God the Holy Spirit revealing
to a sinner the glorious person and the finished work of Christ
through the Word of God. Looking at Him as He is revealed,
as He is identified, as He is distinguished in the Word, God's
Word from Genesis to Revelation. And of course, the New Testament
wasn't written at this time, but the prophet Isaiah was bringing
the Word of God. And Isaiah, he had to deal with
false preachers who dealt in visions and dreams and mysticism
back in Isaiah chapter 8. In verse 20, he says this, To
the law and to the testimony, if they speak not according to
this word, there's no light in them. And so whenever you hear
a preacher and he says, I've had a dream or I've had a vision
or I've gotten a word from God, if anything that he tells you
is not clearly and profoundly based upon what God has revealed
in his written word today from Genesis to Revelation, There's
no light in Him. There is no new revelation. Now
God gives us new light on what He has already revealed. But
this is the look of salvation. Look unto salvation. Salvation in a look. And what
brought Isaiah to say this? Isaiah prophesied in Jerusalem
about 700 years before the Lord Jesus Christ actually came to
earth. You know, the book of Galatians
talks about that. In Galatians 4, for in the fullness
of the time, God sent forth His Son made of a woman, made under
the law to redeem them that were under the law. And that's speaking
of the coming of Christ in His first advent, His incarnation,
His birth, And about 700 years before that was the prophet Isaiah. He was preaching, prophesying
in Jerusalem, in the city. And Isaiah had much to say. His main message was the gospel.
the good news of salvation by the free and sovereign grace
of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, whom Isaiah knew and
preached as the one to come in the future, the Messiah. And
Isaiah had so much revelation from God concerning, again, the
glorious person, the finished work of Christ. He preached Christ
as the salvation of his people. all who would be brought to faith
in Christ. He preached the person of Christ.
In the book of Isaiah, we have a revelation of Christ as God
manifest in the flesh. God, for unto us a child is born,
a son is given. Over in the book of Isaiah chapter
nine and verse six. The child is born, that speaks
of Christ's humanity. The son given, that speaks of
his deity. He is God manifest in the flesh. And Isaiah spoke of Him as the
one who would establish judgment and justice in the earth and
bring forth an everlasting righteousness. Just like Jeremiah, he said the
same thing later than Isaiah, later on. And he spoke of Christ
as the Lord our righteousness, just like Jeremiah. He spoke
of Christ as the righteousness of God. That's what is revealed
in the Gospel. The gospel is the revelation
of the righteousness of God. And what is that righteousness?
It is the entire, complete, meritorious work, the merit of Christ's work
as God-man in His obedience and His death on the cross is the
surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of God's people, God's
chosen people, the elect. And Isaiah also had a word of
judgment for idolaters. Now, there were many idolaters
in Israel at that time, but there were also idolaters among the
Gentile nations. And back over here in verse 15
of Isaiah 45, he says, Verily thou art a God, then hidest thou
thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. In order to see God in
His reality, in His nature, as both a just God and a Savior,
as both a righteous judge and a loving Father, He has to reveal
Himself. And He does not reveal Himself
through idolatry and lies. And so in verse 16, Isaiah says,
they shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them, They
shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. Now
what is an idol? Now you might think of an idol
as a statue or a painting or some kind of an amulet or a piece
of jewelry or a wooden carving that people bow down to. But
you need to understand that idolatry, those things are just the outcroppings
of idolatrous thinking. Idolatry begins in the mind.
And what it is, it's wrong thoughts about God. Now, some people claim
to have many gods. They're called polytheists. And we know that the Bible teaches
there's one God, and there's one mediator between God and
men, the man Christ Jesus, who is the God-man. There's not many
gods. Now, I know the people of Islam,
And some others accuse those who believe in the Trinity of
being polytheists, as if we believe in three gods, but we don't.
There are not three gods. The Trinity, the triunity of
God, is a mind-boggling truth. We believe it because if you
read the Scriptures, you can't get away from it. God the Son,
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. But that's
not three gods, that's one God who subsists and reveals himself
in three distinct persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But it's
one God. Here, O Israel, the Lord God
is one God. You shall not have any other
gods before you. So people either pervert pervert
themselves and lapse into idolatry by worshiping what they see as
many gods, you know, in the ancient cultures, the God of the sun,
the God of the moon, the God of love, the God of war, you
know, you've studied all that or read about all that. And that's
foolishness, that's idolatry. And the revelation of God as
a just God and a savior is hidden to them because they refuse to
see. Their minds are blinded. But then there's a more subtle
idolatry. And that's people who claim to
believe in and know and worship the God of the Bible, who reveals
himself in Genesis to Revelation, but they either deny or are ignorant
of what the Bible says of this God of the Bible, this one God. For example, many people really
don't believe in the sovereignty of God. The Bible says He is
sovereign. The Bible says that God is the
God of electing grace. He chose a people before the
foundation of the world and gave them to Christ, conditioned all
of their salvation on Christ. And many people say, well, I
don't believe that. Well, that's what the Bible says. Many people
have wrong thoughts of God, and they do like one old preacher
used to say, they reason from the ground up instead of from
the heavens down. And what that means is, is they
think of God as being like themselves. They know human attributes, and
they know something about themselves, and so they project themselves
and create a God who is likened to themselves, and that's just
a subtle way of worshiping self. God must reveal himself from
heaven downward, and that's what he's done in the Bible here,
in the book of God's revelation. Who is God? What is he like? What does he do? Don't speculate
on that. Don't go around and get the opinions
of men and women on that. Read the Bible. Know what he
says. And so he says, those who worship
and make idols, they're gonna be confounded. But verse 17 of
Isaiah 45 says, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, world without end. Now Israel's going to be saved.
And they're going to be saved in the Lord. That word Lord there
is the word that we transliterate into our English language as
Jehovah. Now the name Jehovah, as it's
spelled out like that, is not literally in the Bible. It would
be more like Yahweh, something like that, because there were
no vowel points, but that's the way we pronounce it. But what
it's talking about is the God of salvation. And so he says,
Israel shall be saved in the Lord, the God of salvation. And mainly what it's talking
about is the God who saves sinners, not good people, good people
don't need salvation, but God who saves sinners by His grace,
unearned and undeserved through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
through the righteousness of Christ. the righteousness of
God. And that's who the Lord is. And
so Israel, whoever Israel is there, they're going to be saved
in the Lord. And not only that, they're going
to be saved with an everlasting salvation. This is not going
to be a temporary matter. This is going to last forever
and ever and ever. So we're talking about salvation
from sin, which brings eternal life. Now the Bible tells us
very plainly, Romans 5.21 for example, that as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And so that's the salvation
that he's talking about. And he says, you shall not be
ashamed nor confounded, world without end. In an eternal existence,
you won't be ashamed. Now think about it. In myself,
I have a lot to be ashamed of because I'm still a sinner. I'm
a sinner saved by grace. But I'm in a struggle with sin,
the flesh against the spirit. And my works just do not meet
up to the perfect standard of righteousness, which can only
be found in Christ. Many times I give in to the flesh
and I have to be brought by God to godly sorrow and repentance. I have a lot to be ashamed of.
But as I stand before God in Christ, washed in His blood,
clothed in His righteousness, I don't have a thing to be ashamed
of. I'm justified. I'm forgiven. Not by anything
I've done, not by anything I've deserved, or not by anything
that I choose. But I'm forgiven because of the
blood of Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
me from all sin, washes them away. And what that means is
my sin debt has been paid because my sins were imputed. My sin
debt was imputed, charged, accounted to Christ. And He put it away. He did away with it. And so when
I look to Him, it says, look unto me and be set. That's who
I'm looking to. I'm looking to the God who saves me by His grace
through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. My
salvation was never conditioned on me, it was conditioned on
Christ. And Christ fulfilled those conditions.
And so as I stand before God in Christ, I'm forgiven. My sins
cannot be charged to my account. I'm a sinner. My sins are real. They're before me every day.
God knows my sin. He knows my frame. He sees my
heart, my thoughts. But He does not impute, charge
those sins to my person. The Bible says that. It said,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. And God has imputed, charged,
accounted the righteousness of Christ to me. Over here in verse
24 of Isaiah 45, and I'm gonna come back to these verses now.
He says in verse 24, surely, surely shall one say in the Lord
have I righteousness and strength. I don't have any righteousness
in myself. You know what righteousness is?
It's perfect satisfaction to the justice of God. And nothing
I do has ever equaled that. The Bible says we've all sinned
and come short, missed the mark of the glory of God, the glory
of God in Christ. But as I stand before God in
Christ, Christ as my surety, meaning my sins charged to Him,
His righteousness charged to me. Christ, as I stand in Him
as my substitute, He died for me, was buried and arose again
the third day because of my justification in Him that He accomplished.
Christ, as I stand in Him as my Redeemer, He bought me lock,
stock, and barrel. He paid my debt in full. Jesus
paid it all, all the debt I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it white as snow. As I stand before God in Christ,
I will not be confounded. I will not be shamed. I will
not be confused. I am perfect in God's sight because
of what Christ has accomplished on my behalf. I stand before
God in Him. So the Israel here, in verse
17, has to do with sinners saved by grace. Israel here, he's not
talking about national Israel, because the vast majority of
national Israel were not saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. Many of them, in fact, the Bible
says most of them perished in unbelief. Isaiah himself, back
over in chapter one, spoke of the sinfulness of the people
of Israel. And he made this statement. He
said, if it were not for a remnant, a small portion of the people,
we would be just like Sodom and Gomorrah, which means if it weren't
for that small remnant of people who were looking unto Christ,
salvation in a look, you see, If it weren't for that small
remnant who were by the grace and power of God brought to believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, look to Him as the future Messiah
and repent of their dead works. If it weren't for that small
remnant, the whole nation 100% would be wiped out totally. But
there was an elect remnant. Paul spoke of that over in Romans
chapter 11. Listen to what he says here.
This is Romans 11. And he talks about the prophet
Elijah. Elijah came before Isaiah. And
at one point in Elijah's life, he wondered, am I the only one
that knows the true and living God? There's so much rejection,
so much idolatry, so much sinfulness in Israel. And here's what God
told Elijah. This is Romans 11 in verse four.
God says, but what saith the answer of God unto him? And God
says, I have reserved to myself 7,000 men who have not bowed
the knee to the image of Baal. 7,000, God said. Is that an exact number? It might
be a symbolic number. But anyway, here's what he says
about that number, verse five. Paul applies it to his day. He
says, even so, then at this present time also, there is a remnant
according to the election of grace. A remnant, a small portion
of the people. And this remnant, they were chosen
by God before the foundation of the world, all of grace. God didn't look down through
a telescope of time and say, well, now I foresee that these
people would be better than the rest of the bunch. or I perceive
or I see in the future that these people would believe in me or
they would do good. No, it was grace. Grace that
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And he says in verse six of Romans
11, and if by grace, then is it no more of works. Otherwise,
grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is
it no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. What then, verse seven, Israel
hath not obtained that which he seeketh for. Israel didn't
obtain what they were seeking for. Well, what were they seeking? Well, he tells us over in Romans
chapter nine, verses 31 and following, He says, Israel was seeking,
this is lost Israelites now, the national people, the physical
descendants of Abraham, as a majority. They were seeking righteousness
by works of the law. And they didn't obtain it. Why? Because they didn't seek it by
faith. They didn't seek it by looking to Christ. Salvation's
in a look, you see. They didn't seek it by looking
to Christ. And God does not save sinners
based upon their works. He cannot be a just God and a
savior and do that. That's how he's going to identify
himself here in Isaiah 45. So he says in verse seven, this
is Romans 11, what then Israel hath not obtained that which
he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it and the rest
were blinded. God judicially blinded them because
of their refusal. The election obtained it. So
that Israel over in Isaiah 45, who shall be saved in the Lord
with an everlasting salvation, world without end, that's spiritual
Israel. And later on here in Romans 11,
Paul makes this statement. He says in verse 26, and so all
Israel shall be saved. As it is written, there shall
come out of Zion the deliverer, that's Christ. and shall turn
away ungodliness from Jacob. That's not speaking of a future
millennium after Christ comes back. That's talking about God's
elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. We'll go
back to Isaiah 45. Now this is what we're talking
about, verse 22. He says, look unto me. In the
prior verse here, verse 21, God identifies himself as a just
God and a savior. How is it possible for God to
be both a just God, one who acts in strict justice, who must punish
all sinners to whom sin is imputed, and still save sinners in mercy
and grace and love? It's through Christ, by His grace,
through the blood of Christ. God has found a way I say it
that way because we live it in our human language. It's always
been a way because God has always known this. This is God's way. But we'll say it this way, God
has found a way that he can save sinners and not dishonor his
justice, not dishonor his law. He can have mercy and love and
grace on sinners and not dishonor His justice. How? Through the
Lord Jesus Christ. And that's where we get the term
propitiation. Christ is the propitiation for
our sins. And so that means justice satisfied
by a sacrifice. And so if you go back over here
to Isaiah 45 now, that's spiritual Israel. And he says in verse
18 now of Isaiah 45, 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. God didn't create
this world just to destroy it. We deserve to be destroyed, but
God's gonna destroy it and he's gonna recreate, he's gonna create
a new heavens and a new earth populated by people known as
spiritual Israel, who saved by the grace of God and who look
unto Christ for their salvation. Verse 18, he formed it to be
inhabited. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Verse 19, I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of
the earth. I said not unto the seed of Jacob,
seek ye me in vain. Anyone who seeks the Lord truly,
does not seek Him in vain. I, the Lord, speak righteousness.
I speak judgment and justice. And that's in the gospel too
now. That just doesn't mean God's wrath poured out upon sinners.
It also means God's wrath poured out upon Christ in the place
of His elect, in the place of sinners, so that they cannot
be condemned. Over there in Romans 8, when
it says, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?
It's God that justifieth. It's followed up with verse,
I think, verse 34. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather, that is risen again,
who is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
living, ever living, to make intercession for us. If Christ
died for my sins, I cannot be condemned. Do you understand
that? These preachers who are going around telling people that
God loves everybody and Christ died for everybody, now it's
all up to you. That is not biblical. That is not gospel. That's a
lie. If you look unto that Jesus,
you're looking unto a counterfeit. But here he says, look unto me
and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, not
just one segment of people, not just one race of people. I'm
God, there's none else. Salvation's in a look. And this
is in a look that is brought about by God the Holy Spirit
through the revelation of Christ in the scriptures. I'll pick
up here next week on this subject of salvation in a look. Hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, Write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia 3-1-7-0-7. Contact us
by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening
today and may the Lord be with you.