Brother Larry brought up last,
what a couple weeks ago I think it was, Isaiah 45. And thought we might look at
some verses here in Isaiah 45 this morning. Particularly if
you would turn over Really, the whole chapter is
an amazing chapter, but my thoughts this morning kind of began about
verse 20, reading down. Isaiah chapter 45, starting with
verse 20. It says, Assemble yourselves
and come. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient
time, who hath told it from that time, have not I the Lord? And
there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior, there
is none beside me. Look unto me and be ye saved
by all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none
else. I have sworn by myself the word
has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return. That unto
me every knee shall bow. every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say in the
Lord, have I righteousness and strength? Even to him shall men
come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, shall glory. Now as I mentioned, the 45th
chapter here is a very rich chapter as this whole book of Isaiah
is a very rich book. I've always said that Isaiah
is the Romans of the Old Testament. In this portion of scripture,
I mainly want to look at the fact of the Lord being our righteousness. I preached on that phrase, the
Lord our righteousness, months back. I don't remember exactly
how long it is. But it's a reoccurring theme
throughout scripture. Matter of fact, it is the very
heart of the gospel itself, I would say. Part of the gospel is the
Lord is our righteousness. Our righteousness is from the
Lord. Our righteousness is not something
that the Lord gives us to do. Our righteousness is not a set
of rules as we just sung in the hymn a minute ago. It is not
a list of legal rules that we have to abide by. That's not
what walking in righteousness is. Walking in righteousness
is walking looking unto Jesus, trusting on Christ Jesus, hoping
in Christ Jesus, who himself is our righteousness, who has
worked out all righteousness on our behalf. And so that is
the heart of the gospel, I believe. The heart of the gospel is not
you accepting Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, The heart of
the gospel isn't Jesus or God loves everybody, Jesus died for
everybody. That's not the heart of the gospel.
The heart of the gospel is the substitutionary work of Jesus
Christ on our behalf. I know we harp on that week after
week after week, but brethren, we can't preach the gospel without
preaching the fact that men can do nothing and Christ has done
everything for us. Now, I would say at the outset
here, and especially in light of what we see before us as it
pertains to the 25th verse, in the Lord shall all the seed of
Israel be justified. Again, we come back to these
issues of is this talking about physical Israel or is this talking
about spiritual Israel? And again, we see that this,
again, is a foreshadowing or a type of the true Israel, which
is the true Israel. The Israel that Christ has come
to redeem, the Israel that is the one who is his bride, is
the people of God from every nation, language, tribe, and
tongue. Not just those of ethnic Israel,
but those of the Jews and the Gentiles. That's who the true
Israel is. Now we see this says in the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. Now we know this isn't talking
about physical Israel because not all of physical Israel were
justified. They were not part of the new
covenant. There were the elect. out of
Israel, as Paul so clearly puts it in Romans chapter 9, that
not all that are of Israel are Israel, meaning that not all
that are of physical Israel are of that true and spiritual Israel.
Only the elect among Israel have obtained the promises of Abraham,
as does the Gentiles. The elect among the Gentiles.
God has an elect out of every nation, out of every tribe. And
those elect out of all of the four corners of the earth make
up the one true Israel. And so that's what we see in
view here, is the Lord, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified and shall glory. Now I know this is the last verse
in the passage that I just read, But that's what I wanted to start
with because I believe that is the foundation for everything
that we've seen before that. The salvation of Jehovah by the
work of the Messiah was always, from the very beginning before
the foundation of the earth, was always intended to be of
both Jew and Gentile. The salvation of Jehovah and
the Messiah's work as Redeemer was never intended to be just
for the Jews. Now I know that's the mindset
of a lot of people. I know that's the mindset still
of the Jews. Is that that's their Messiah and that's their salvation
and they're going to be brought back into this thing. But that
is not the work and the outflow of the New Covenant. The New
Covenant has always encompassed people from every generation
and from every nation, okay? And so I believe this is a foundational
statement here and I think we can see the outworkings of this
throughout the passage. Number one, we see, matter of
fact, before I move on to that, I just want to put forth Yes. Behold my servant whom I
uphold, my elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I have put my
spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. So we see here that the Gentiles
was to be included in the covenant with the Jews. Of course, we
can go to several places in the New Testament and we can see
where under the New Covenant, in the Kingdom of Christ, there
is neither Jew nor Gentile, there is neither rich nor poor, there
is neither male nor female, meaning that there is no distinctions
of one above the other or anybody in particular in the elect true
Israel of God, that we are all one in Christ Jesus. We are one people. If you would
have it, one nation, one city, one people. And so in the Israel
of God, there isn't going to be these distinctions that people
want to make. Right now, they're looking for
a kingdom where there is the Jews that are going to be elevated
and the rest of the nations. That's not a new covenant. teaching. That is not a fuller revelation
teaching that Jesus and the apostles brought forward. This teaching
that we are looking at this morning encompasses Jew and Gentile alike
because there is now the middle wall of partition has been broken
down and that all the blessings of God are yea and amen in Christ
Jesus therefore everyone who is in Christ Jesus and we find
in the New Testament we see that everyone who is of the faith
of Abraham is in Christ Jesus, is a part of the promise, is
the children of the promise. So that goes to the Jew and to
the Gentile. And so we see that Christ came
not only as a judgment for the Jew, but as a judgment for the
Gentile. And so his work of redemption,
his work of obedience, and his work of payment under the law
for sins was not only for the Jew but also for the Gentile. Now we see here it says back to our
passage it says in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. It's in the Lord that we're justified
brethren. We aren't justified by anything that we do. We've
talked about that quite extensively here. We speak of it all the
time. Justification is a work that
is done outside of us, apart from us, no conditions upon us
to be justified. And I know that there are many
of those, even among sovereign grace circles, that talk about
justification being tied to our believing. But justification
isn't about our believing. As far as the legal work of removal
of guilt or removal of sin, the legal transaction of substitution,
the work of assurity, the taking away of the guilt that is ours. Truly, we have the guilt, we've
sinned, right? We have that guilt. We are guilty
of sin. Therefore in our ledger, in our
column, there was sin there. But because of Christ Jesus being
our surety and the imputation of righteousness, what's stamped
in our column is not guilty. Even though in reality, we are
guilty. But yet we are declared, we are
considered, we are reckoned not guilty. Although all the guilt
is there, we are reckoned before God as not guilty and it's because
of the substitution of Christ Jesus on our behalf and the imputation
of his righteousness to us. Not the impartation, the imputation. The word imputation is a legal
term that means that's just laid to one's account. It doesn't
mean that he has made us actually righteous in ourselves where
we no longer sin or no longer have the capability of sinning
or have the capability of doing righteous works. That is not
what that means. Imputation is merely a transactional
word that means that we are counted as. His righteousness is whenever he looks at us, he sees
us in the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So our justification
before God isn't by any work that we do, whether it be an
actual walking in rules and regulations, or whether it's believing on
him for all of our salvation. That's not what justifies us.
Now, the fact that I believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ is
justification that I have been justified. So the justification
before men that I have been justified is seen in the work of believing. Whenever I believe, whenever
I hope in Christ Jesus as my only righteousness and everything,
that is a justification that I have been justified already
by God. So justification isn't something
that comes in onesies and twosies. Justification was a transactional
thing over all the people of God at one time. We were all justified and it
says right here, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel
be justified. If you look at Isaiah 53, I'm
going to turn over there quickly. says in 53, 11, he shall see the travail of his
soul and shall be satisfied by his knowledge, shall my righteous
servant justify many for he shall bear their inequities and bearing
their inequities, the many are justified. So that's
why we believe in a particular redemption. We don't believe
in a universal redemption. We don't believe in a universal
atonement. We don't believe that Jesus died
for everybody. We believe that Jesus died for
only the ones that Christ gave him from the foundation of the
world. And the reason we believe that is because we just want
to say, Jesus loves us and He doesn't love you. That's not
the reason. The reason we say that is because
of what Scripture says here. Because everybody for whom Jesus
died, they're justified. Justification comes as the result,
not a condition to be worked up, but it came as a result of
the death of Christ. That was the transaction. The
death of Christ was the transaction that made God the just and the
justifier. He could justify sinners because
Christ died on their behalf. So therefore, justification by
faith is not by your faith, by your believing, my believing,
it was by Christ's faithfulness, His faith. That is what justified
us. Because that is what is imputed
to us. His faithfulness. We were in Him. This is why verse
25 says, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. We're only justified in the Lord.
We're not justified by words. In fact, the Bible says, By the
deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified. No flesh is ever
going to be justified by the deeds of the law. I take kind
of a different understanding of that than some. Some mainly
look at that as that by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be
justified because nobody can keep the law. And that is true. And I believe that that is part
of what that is saying. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. So that means there is no ability
for anybody of Adam to be justified by law keeping. No matter how
much you think you're keeping it, you're not keeping it because
by the deeds of the law, no flesh is going to be justified by that.
But I think there's another side to that. It never was intended
to justify. The law was never intended and
was never given to justify anybody that God never, ever, was going
to justify anybody by law keeping. Those of Adam. He surely justified
us through the law keeping of Jesus Christ. But he never intended
for those of Adam to ever be justified by law. So not only
do we have the inability, but the law was never given for the
purpose of justifying. The law, the purpose of the law
was given to make guilty. to show and manifest the sin
that was in us. That's what Romans 5 and verse
20 says. The law came in that the offense
might have been bound. The law came in to show us our
inability, to show us our sinfulness, to show us that we cannot achieve
the righteousness that God requires, that we cannot be perfect as
He is perfect, that we cannot be holy as He is holy in and
of ourselves. Therefore, because we who are
enabled, who have not perfection, who have not a righteousness
of our own, The only way that we can be accepted of God is
for a foreign righteousness, an outside righteousness, an
outside obedience, an outside law keeping be given to us and
placed on our account and be considered as if it was us doing
it. That's the only way that God
can be just and the justifier of them who are sinful and evil
and wicked. Because the Bible says that God
will not justify the wicked. He will not acquit the wicked.
He's not going to turn a blind eye to sin. He's not going to
turn his head and just under the table say, all right, we'll
let them in because they're Jews. Let them in because they did
this or did that. Whatever your condition you want
to put on it, whether it's ethnicity, whether it's anything, God's
not going to turn a blind eye because He is a just God. That's
why that verse says He is both the just and the justifier. He
is just in His judgment, and He is the justifier of those
who are evil and wicked who have been given to Christ, and because
of what Christ did on their behalf, He can justify them because someone
paid their penalty and someone lived the obedience for them.
They lived in perfection. They died the death that was
theirs to die. Therefore, those people who were
given to Christ, whom He substituted, are counted as those who lived
and died. Therefore, He can justify and
still be just because His righteous justice was satisfied. God was satisfied. That's why
he's saying, he's seen the travail of Christ's soul and was satisfied
with that on behalf of those that he justified. I can justify
those people because a just payment was made. I can look on those
people as fully obeying the law because a just righteousness
has been established. And as their representative,
as their surety, as their proxy. Everyone for whom He died, everyone
for whom He lived is just. That's why it says, in the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified. But it goes on,
it says, and shall glory. We shall be justified in Him,
but what is the language, what is the heart, what is the worship
of those who are justified? It is to glory in Him. We don't
glory in ourselves. We don't glory in our pedigree. We don't glory, you know, you
see, matter of fact, brother, if you look, a lot of the Protestant
reform beliefs about covenantism and the Jews are really close
together. The Jews believe because they're
descendants of Abraham, they have the promise given to them,
where the Protestant reform They believe if you're a child of
a Christian then your kid's automatically brought in, which came from Catholicism
as well. But it's not got anything to
do with anybody's pedigree. Not of the flesh, not of the
will of the man, not of anybody. Has nothing to do with that. We don't glory in anything except
the Lord. Do I continue to preach these
things week after week after week after week? Because our
glory is in the Lord. I can't ever glory in Michael
Smith. If I tried to glory in myself,
I would quickly, quickly find myself falling short. Therefore,
there is no glory due to my name. If I gloried in any one of y'all
here, I would soon be let down. Because every one of us are going
to fall short. That's why the Bible says, for
all have sin. That's why the Bible says that's
why God has consigned all Jew and Gentile under sin. So that
no tongue can boast. So that no one can raise their
hand and say, I got it because I. I got it because we. I got it because they. We can't do that. The only thing
that we can say is what has made me to differ is Christ Jesus. That's the only thing that's
caused us to differ. The only thing that makes me different
than those people across the street over there is that Christ
has made me to differ. Look if you would with me to
Isaiah chapter 65. Again, this is Jew and Gentile
alike who are part of this. Verse 65, it says, verse 1, he
says, I am sought of them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. Now, I could take that in a couple
of different directions here. We could talk about Jew-Gentile
again, I'm sought by them who are the Gentiles. And I think
if I'm not mistaken, brother, you can correct me or someone
can. There's New Testament passages that even make that distinction. I was sought by them that did
not. And that is attributed to Gentiles. But this right here
could talk about every child of grace. Every one of us, we're
not seeking after the Lord. None of us were asking for the
Lord. He says, I am son of them that
ask not for me, I am father of them that sought. Now, before
I go on, let me just make a clarification, because there's going to be some
smart aleck, I'm sure, somewhere, that's going to say, well, that's
not true. I was asking of the Lord. I sought
after the Lord. What about all these people that
are seeking the Lord? Well, don't the Bible say, seek
and ye shall find? Asking it shall be opened up
to you. Brethren, listen. We've got to take the Bible in
its full context. Absolutely, there are those who
seek and find. There are those who ask and it
was given. There are those who do that.
But the context is this. There are none that do that naturally. The only ones who do that, do
that spiritually. They do that because they have
been spiritually given to do so. See, those who are dead in
trespasses and sin, those who have not the Spirit of God in
them, those who have yet to be born of God, do not seek after
God. Now, they seek after a God, and
they seek after a Jesus, and they seek after a religious system,
But the God, Jesus, Gospel of the Bible, they don't seek after. They don't seek after the particular
redemption. They don't seek after the sovereign
God who controls all things, including sin and evil, who has
predestinated all things, including sin and evil. They don't care
about the God who says, I won't accept anything that you do,
but only what He has done. See, they don't like that God,
they don't like that Jesus, they don't like that gospel. That's
not the gospel. Brother James Guglio made a quote
earlier this week and I reposted on there. It says, everybody
loves Jesus until we start talking about the real Jesus. Once you
start talking about the real Jesus, once you start talking
about the God of the Bible and the salvation of the Bible, the
gospel of the Bible, and all of a sudden people aren't too
interested in that. They want the Armenian religion, they want
the Armenian outlook, and I don't care if you're Hindu, if you're
Muslim, if you're New Age, or if you're quote-unquote Protestant
Christian, whatever it is. All of it is based in a free
will, all of it is based in a decision, All of it is based in some sort
of a conditional works salvation. People want that because that's
our default. But they do not want God. But
the people of God, those who sought Him and asked for me not,
and found them that sought me not, I said, behold me, behold
me unto a nation that was not called by my name. I have spread out my hands all
the day unto a rebellious people." Now again, this is talking about
Israel actually in context here. God called Israel out of all
the nations. They weren't looking for him.
Abraham was not looking for God. He was an idolater in Ur of the
Chaldees. He was an idolater. He wasn't
looking for anything. wasn't seeking after God, and
the people was not. As they began to form as Hebrews,
they did not. But he says here, I have spread
my hands out all the day to rebellious people which walketh in a way
that was not good after their own thoughts, a people that provoketh
me to anger continually, to my face, that sacrifice it in gardens
and burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among
the graves and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh and broth
of abominable things as in their vessels, which say, Stand by
thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. These
are a smoke in my nose and fire that burneth all day. Behold,
it is written before me, I will not keep silence, but will recompense,
even recompense into their bosom. Your iniquities and the iniquities
of your father together, said the Lord, which have burned incense
upon the mountains and blaspheme me upon the hills. Therefore
will I measure their former work into their bosom. Thus said the
Lord, as the new wine is found in the cluster and once said,
destroy it not. for a blessing is in it. So will
I do for my servants' sake, that I may not destroy them all. I
will bring forth a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an inheritor
of my mountains, and mine elect shall inherit it, and my servants
shall dwell there." Now, we see that God has brought
out a people for himself. Not only out of the Jews, but
out of the Gentiles. We were not called, or we were
not seeking, we were not coming, but notice, if you would, it
is not only of the Jews, but of the Gentiles in John chapter
one. In John chapter one, verse, verse 29 John the Baptist says
the next day John see if Jesus coming unto him and says behold
the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world and
he's not talking about again we got to keep in context you
know the word world is used many ways the word cosmos is word
is used many ways in this New Testament and each context or
each passage has to be seen within its context and we see that Jesus
didn't die and take the sin away from all the world. If Jesus
took the sin away from all the world, meaning head for head,
every man, woman, and child, then that means every man, woman,
and child's sins has been removed and there is no condemnation
towards them. All of them were saved. See,
that's why I've always mentioned that I actually have more respect
for the universalist who believes that everybody is going to be
saved. Then I do it for the Armenian, who believes that Jesus died
for everybody, but not everybody is saved. That there's something
that's going to be in hell that Jesus died for. At least the
Universalist understands that Jesus Christ's death is effectual,
meaning that it has an effect. The people for whom he died are
saved. But see, neither one of those
are true according to scripture because we know that Jesus died
for specific people that God had given him. And that those
people, and the word world there means from every nation, out
of the world, out of all the world, Christ has an elect that
he has died for. Therefore, all the world is representative
in the elect of God. This is here that he has taken
away the sin of the world. So this salvation that Christ
has done, this salvation of Jehovah, this work of Messiah, is a work
that has been done on behalf of Jew and Gentile alike, and
that is the removal of sin. Well, if there is a removal of
the condemnation of sin, then that means there is a justification.
There has to be a justification to remove sin. The only way that
a just judge can remove the condemnation of sin is for there to be a justified
reason for doing so. And the reason for God removing
the condemnation of sin that is over all His elect's head
is the fact that it has been removed and it was removed in
the man Jesus Christ. If you're still there in the
New Testament, look if you would at 1 Corinthians. 1 Corinthians chapter 1. I'm going to start reading in verse 17. Paul here writing to
the Gentile Corinthian church wrote this. For Christ sent me
not to baptize but to preach the gospel. That doesn't mean
that Paul didn't baptize. We know Paul did baptize. So
Paul isn't saying here that that's not my job to baptize. Necessarily
that I never baptized anybody. Yeah, that's not what Paul was
saying. He's saying that I am and I For Christ sent me not
to baptize because passage before that he talked about baptizing
the house hold of Stephanus So we know that he baptized we said
for Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the gospel Now
just a side note on that. I believe that he's making a
distinction there that he as the apostle he was not a pastor
of a church and therefore was not involved in the daily affairs
and the daily workings of the church local churches that he
was a apostle called to go preach the gospel to the people of God
and to establish the churches in the faith as revealed by Christ
Jesus okay That's what he told the Galatians, that all those
things was revealed to him by Christ and that he is establishing
them. The Galatian church was established
in the faith because of what Paul had been revealed by Christ
Jesus, as did the other apostles. That's why it's important for
us to understand that whenever Jesus came and began to teach,
he began to teach that fuller revelation of the things that
is contained in the Old Testament that were hidden in mystery,
that were hidden in shadow. Christ became the teacher of
the things that were the fuller revelation of what those meant
spiritually in his spiritual kingdom to his spiritual people.
And therefore, that's why he had the apostles, who he says
was laid as the foundation of the church, and then the church
that he began to form upon that foundation, him being the chief
cornerstone, the Bible says is the pillar and the ground of
truth. Therefore, the faith is once delivered unto the saints,
and that was at that time, and therefore, the church has perpetually,
through generation after generation after generation, perpetuated
that faith, that body of doctrine, that fuller revelation of the
gospel and the kingdom of Jesus Christ, has began to perpetuate
that through every generation. Not necessarily in a chain-linked
succession of churches, The people of God being gathered
in every generation as God has saved them and brought them to
knowledge and grew them in the knowledge of the Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. The church is the pillar and the ground of the
truth. But Paul writing to these says, oh, back to the baptism. It was
those who were saved were baptized among the people in that congregation.
So Paul wasn't sent to to do the baptizing. He wasn't in charge
of baptizing, he was in charge of preaching. The church baptized
the people as the Lord added to the church. Or as the Lord
brought in the disciples. He says, For Christ sent me not
to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words,
lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect. For the
preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness,
but to us which are saved it is the power of God. Notice it's
the power of God to those who are already saved, not to get
them saved, but already saved. For it is written, I will destroy
the wisdom of the wise, and I will bring to nothing the understanding
of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the
scribe? Where is the disputer of this world? Hath not God made
foolish the wisdom of this world? For after that, in the wisdom
of God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believed." Now, who
are the ones that are saved by the preaching of the Gospel?
Them who already believe. Those who are already believers.
So what is this salvation talking about? Saving them from error.
Saving them from false doctrine. Saving them from wrong teaching.
They're being saved from hearing the wrong doctrine. That's what
this is. God was pleased that God, by
the foolishness of preaching, would save them from those erroneous
things. For the Jews require a sign,
and the Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ crucified,
under the Jews a stumbling block. It's still a stumbling block
to them today. And under the Greeks, it's foolishness. Why?
Because they believe that everything is done by wisdom and smarts. But unto them which are called,
notice, to them that are called. Who are the ones who are called?
The ones who were elected before the foundation of the world.
The ones who in 2 Timothy chapter 1, verses 9 and 10, the Bible
says, who are called, who have saved us and called us with a
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before
the world began. That is who we're talking about,
the called, the elect of God, those whom the Father gave to
Christ before the foundation of the world. But unto them which are called,
both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom
of God. Because the foolishness of God
is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.
For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after
the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God
hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the
wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound
the things that are mighty. And base things of the world
and things which are despised hath God chosen, yea, and the
things which are not to bring to naught things that are. Why? Why has God done it this way?
So that no flesh should glory in His presence, but of Him. See, we're going back to our
passage again in 45. In the Lord there is righteousness,
and the people of God that receive that righteousness, to their
account, glory in it. But of Him Are ye in Christ Jesus? See, we didn't get into Christ
Jesus by our believing. That's what the Reformers teach. The Reformers teach that we are
put into Christ in our faith, by faith. We are united to Christ. Okay? We are in Christ Jesus
before the foundation of the world. Ephesians chapter 1, I
think, is very clear on that. That we are put in Christ Jesus.
We are united to Him. in union with Him with an eternal,
vital union before the foundation of the world. It says, but of Him are ye in
Christ Jesus. Well, that definitely excludes
any boasting on our part, right? Excludes any glorying in the
flesh because if we are in Him because of Him, then that means
it wasn't because of us. But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God here it is, is made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption, so that according
as it is written, he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The justified ones, the righteous
ones, the ones who are the Lords, the elect, the Israel of God,
They see that their righteousness is the Lord and they glory in
Him. That's why we preach Christ and
Him crucified. We don't preach the continuation
of the Old Covenant. We don't preach the freewillism
and the decisionism of the Arminian. We don't preach the pull yourself
up by your own bootstraps Gospels, the easy-believe-isms, We preach
Christ and Him crucified. We preach a foreign righteousness.
We preach something that is freely given to us. Now, with that being
said, let's turn now back to the book of Jeremiah. I want to show you something here
that I mentioned way back when when I preached on the phrase,
the Lord our righteousness. Something that I find very intriguing
as it pertains to our union in Christ Jesus and why we glory
in it. Jeremiah chapter 23 and look
if you would Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. Now, we know that this righteous
branch is speaking of Christ, Jesus Christ. Jesus is the righteous
branch of David. Now these terms are, it doesn't
mean that he's a physical descendant of David. Okay? It means that in position, as
king, he is the king of Israel. Meaning spiritual Israel. Right? Now he's the king of all things,
but particularly as it pertains here, he is the king of Israel.
He shall reign and prosper and execute judgment and justice
in the earth. Brethren, that has already taken
place now. This isn't something that we're looking for in the
future. Christ ascended David's throne
in his resurrection. Acts tells us that. The book of Acts tells us that
the ascension of David or Christ to David's throne was the foreshadowing
of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. So we got to let the
New Testament dictate to us, this full revelation dictate
to us what we see in the Old Testament. Now, that was in Acts chapter 2. Look if you would at verse 29.
This is Peter speaking. Men and brethren, let me freely
speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and
buried, and his sepulcher is with us unto this day. Therefore,
being a prophet and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to
him that the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would
raise up Christ to sit on his throne. He, seeing this before,
spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not
left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption. This Jesus
had God raised up Wherefore, we all are witnesses. Therefore,
being by the right hand of God exalted, and having received
in the Father the promise of the Holy Ghost, he hath shed
forth this which ye now see and hear. For David is not ascended
up into the heavens, but he said himself, The Lord said unto my
Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thy foes thy footstool. Let all the house of Israel know
assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye crucified,
both Lord and Christ." So we see here the ascension of Christ
to David's throne. was in His resurrection. Verse
6, back in Jeremiah again, 23. In His days, Judah shall be saved. Now we know that Judah speaks
of all the believing ones of God. That's what the term Judah
is referring to, is all those who believe on Christ. In His days, Judah shall be saved
and Israel shall dwell safely And this is his name whereby
he shall be called the Lord our righteousness. So we see that
Christ here is seen as the Lord our righteousness. But if you
would look with me at chapter 33 and beginning in verse 15, the Bible gives us another glimpse
of this union in Christ Jesus and His righteousness. Jeremiah
33, look at verse 15, it says, In those days and at that time
will I cause the branch of righteousness, that's Christ, to grow up unto
David as a king, and he shall execute judgment and righteousness
in the land. In those days shall Judah be
saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. Now this is basically
saying the same thing what I just read, right? in verse 23. But
now look what it says here. And this is the name wherewith
she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. Now notice
it went from speaking in Jeremiah 23 to Jeremiah 33. It went from
speaking of Christ being the righteousness to now our name
being the Lord our righteousness. But that seems to be contradictory
because the Bible says there is none righteous, no not one,
as it speaks of those of Adam. There is none righteous. They
have all gone astray. They have all went out of the
way. They are quick to shed blood. They are evil. Their heart is
continually evil always. There is none good. But yet here it says that this
people, these particular people, who was saved when? In the days
of the branch that was brought up. So that tells me that it
is Christ who is the one who did the saving. It is the Christ,
it is based upon the work of that man and that they are saved. It isn't a future thing. that we are waiting for, that
it was done judicially by this man, in this man, corporately
for all of those within Judah, within Israel. Then will I cast
away the seed of Jacob Oh, I'm sorry, I'm in the wrong spot.
Fifteen. In those days, shall Judah be
saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this is the name
wherewith she shall be called the Lord. Our righteousness. Says, for thus saith the Lord,
David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the
house of Israel. That means that David shall shall
never have a want of having a king. At that time there was kings
that came and went, came and went, came and went. Some were
good, some were bad. Some were good, some were bad.
But here he's talking about this king is going to be king forever. There will be no change in his
kingliness, in his kinghood, in his rule. He will be king
forever. And David won't have to worry
about is there going to be another after him that may not be righteous. Then he is going to be the righteous
king and he is going to be established forever. David shall never want a man
to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel. He is always
going to be the king of the house of Israel. Verse 18, Neither
shall the priests, the Levites, want a man before me to offer
burnt offerings and to kindle meat offerings and to do sacrifice
continually. What does that mean? Will this
righteous branch and the work that he comes to do on behalf
of Judah Israel, the Bible says here, is a one-time work that
does not have to be continually done, like the priests and Levites
did of that day, burning continually, sacrificing continually. Is that
not what Hebrews tells us? That with one sacrifice, He has
perfected them? That with His one death, all
other sacrifices have been done away with? With His one offering,
there is no more offerings? So that tells me there's not
going to be some re-institution of some sacrificial system and
Levites and priests being put back into order and doing tabernacle
service, temple worship, temple service because the fulfillment
of that was in Christ Jesus. And He brought in and established
the righteousness that all the people of God within Judah and
Israel spiritually, both Old Testament and New Testament,
would be under. His banner of righteousness is
over us. His name is over us, so much
so in union that we ourselves are called the righteousness
of God. Now brethren, I don't know about
you, but that's pretty exciting for a sinner who has no righteousness
to know that in God's economy, we are the righteousness of God. Now lastly, if you would, turn
with me the Jeremiah 51. Jeremiah 51. Verse 10, it says, The Lord hath
brought forth our righteousness. That goes right back to what
we were saying. In the Lord there is righteousness. He has made
unto us righteousness. The Lord our righteousness. The Lord hath brought forth our
righteousness. What does it say here? It says,
Come and let us declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. Why is it that we keep preaching
again these things over and over and over again? Why is it that
we keep pointing people to Christ Jesus and His work and we're
not pumping up Israel, we're not pumping up Zionism, we're
not pumping up free willism and decisionism as I said a while
ago? And the reason I'm saying that is because these are all
work systems and conditional based systems. Whether it's over
ethnicity or whether it's by personal work, these are all
conditional things that men have to be or do to receive the blessing. But all the blessings, as I've
mentioned before, are yea and amen in Christ Jesus. That means
they are unto all of us who are of the faithful seed of Abraham. Those of us who are given the
faith of Christ, those are the ones who are the recipients of
all these spiritual promises in this spiritual kingdom. And
I hope to preach about this kingdom soon. I'm studying on this now
and hopefully as the Lord gives me to speak on it, I'll speak
on it eventually. But here we see that it says,
the Lord hath brought forth our righteousness, come and let us
declare in Zion the work of the Lord our God. So whenever we
gather together, brethren, as Zion, the people of God in the
church, whenever we gather together, we are to bring forth the praises
of Him. Now I know we talk about, and
we've been discussing it before here, we're talking about church
history, we're talking about different people, and there's
nothing wrong with that. And I think that there's some
importance to that a little bit. But see, that's not where, you
know, I don't believe something because this guy said it, this
guy said it, this guy said it. This group of people believed
it, this group of people believed it. There's some chain link of
something I can see in history. That's not why we believe anything.
We believe everything that this thing says. As the spirit gives
us understanding of these things. This is the truth. Everything
else is not the truth. It can testify to the truth if
it's in accordance with the truth, but it is not the truth. This
is the truth, front to back. And so whenever we come together,
why, yes, we may talk about church history. We may talk about this
preacher or that preacher. But ultimately, whenever we come
together, it's not to exalt any of those. It's not to exalt a
denomination. It's not to exalt some program. It's to exalt Christ Jesus. He's the one that did all the
work. He's the one who is the one with all the blessings. We
exalt Him. He's the one with all the grace,
with all the mercy, with all the love. with all the compassion
that has been given upon his people. Therefore, if we are
to boast, let us boast in the Lord. And that's what he's saying
here in verse 10. The Lord hath brought forth our
righteousness, therefore come, let us declare in Zion the work
of our Lord. Quit preaching about the works
that you do. Quit preaching about the works
that somebody else has done. Quit preaching about this, that,
or the other. Preach Christ. He's the center
figure of everything in Scripture. I want to leave you with one verse
as we go here. Back in Isaiah 43. Now those were all admonitions
that I just gave you, right? I was admonishing you to do that. We believe in admonishments,
right? I believe the Bible teaches that we are to admonish one another.
We're to reprove and rebuke and correct with the Word of God,
right? If I'm in error, I hope to be
corrected by God's Word. I hope to be reproved. I hope
people love me enough take me aside and say, well, this is
what the Word of God says. Not what your philosophy is,
not what your creed or confession says, not what theologian X,
Y, or Z said, but this is what the Scriptures say. And if the
Spirit is kind to reveal that to be the truth, then grant me
repentance and I will turn from that error, right? That's what
our desire is, that's what our hope is. I hope that's what it
is. I mean, I don't just ask, you know, willy-nilly every week,
if, does anybody have any questions, comments, corrections, reviews,
recurring? That's not just me saying that
to look good. Oh, that guy, you know, he's
so humble. It's not that. Because I believe
that's actual part of the church. That's an actual thing. laid
that clear that in the church, that if anybody has anything
to say, let them stand up and say it. That all Scripture is
given by inspiration. And it's profitable, and it's
profitable for one thing, correction and rebuke and reproof. Training
in righteousness. Why? That the man of God may
be thoroughly furnished. That's why we ask that. That's
why we encourage that. But it has to be in accordance
with God's Word. In Isaiah 43 verse 21, it says, this people
have I formed for myself. Now remember, I'm just talking
about admonishments. We have admonishments, right? We admonish
one another. But here's the other side of
that coin. See, just like the Bible tells us to persevere,
you have to persevere. Those who persevere to the end
shall be saved. So to some people, that says,
now I have a responsibility to persevere. So I got to get after
it and lay hold of the means of grace so that I might persevere. I've got to do this or do that
so that I will persevere. But see the other side of that
persevere coin is preservation. The reason anybody perseveres
in the faith is because God is actively preserving them and
keeping them from falling. Well, in the admonishment section,
there's another side to that coin. While we admonish one another,
there's also the promise of God working in us to complete and
to do all the works that He has ordained for us to do. Look there,
verse 21. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall. While we admonish one another
to praise God for the righteousness that He has given and bore for
us, we're admonished to give Him praise, to give Him glory, to give Him the honor due to
His name. We're given the admonishment
of that. But the other side of that and the further truth of
that is that it is God who worketh in you to will and to do. The
further truth and the further understanding of that is that
those who are truly saved, who have come under this righteousness
and is unionized with the One who is righteous, who has been
born from above and has the Spirit of God in them, that Spirit will
bring them to show forth His praise. So there we know the
people of God by the praises that they're giving forth and
giving credit to where credit is due. Not to themselves, not
to their church, not to any activity, not to some bloodline. But they are given credit to
Christ Jesus. Of Him and Him only am I in. Of Him and Him only am I righteous
and given wisdom and sanctification. In Him and Him only am I accepted
and the beloved. In Him and Him only is the promises
of God, yea and amen to me. In Him and Him only is there
hope of eternal salvation. In Him and Him only is life and
knowledge and enjoyment of Christ. In Him and Him only. Therefore,
we give praise to Him. and him only. All right, does
anybody have any questions or any comments or corrections and reviews? I do mean that, honestly. Lord Jesus, we once again bow
before you this morning. The very God who in flesh has
come on our behalf and in front of all the world is displayed
as righteous. All of God, the fullness of the
Godhead, dwelling bodily, beside whom there is no other
God. We're thankful, Father, that
you have given us yourself and through the work of Christ has
redeemed us to yourself. And that whether we're rich or
whether we're poor, whether we're black or whether we're white
or any other color, whether we're smart or whether we're dumb,
whether we're of this nationality or another nationality, whether
we're male or female, it doesn't matter that you have called a
people unto yourself out of all the world and that they in their
standing in Christ Jesus have been turned righteous. Not because of anything that
we have done, but we recognize you as the only righteous one. And Father, we give glory and
honor to you today for procuring that righteousness
on our behalf, declaring us to be so, mercy and truly is love and compassion
for we don't deserve it and we know we don't deserve it. So
I pray father that week after week as I share these things
and as you lay these upon the hearts of your people and as
they study your word and as they hear other preaching wherever
it may be father that it might not become mundane that it might
not become wrote for us to hear these things, that it might not
become just something that we say, but Father, truly, we realize
and understand as the Spirit gives us knowledge and gives
us enjoyment and experiential awareness that we truly are an
undeserving people, but yet you have given us grace through the
Lord Jesus Christ. Father, I pray that the gospel
may never get old to us. And we're thankful that we can
see it from cover to cover in this Bible. That you have never,
ever, during this period of time, from Genesis until Revelation,
have ever not had a people gathered for your name. Lord, and I thank
you. And I thank you that you continue
to uphold it Thank you that you continue to look after it and
father that one of these days that we will be united with you
physically, that we will be in your presence for eternity. Lord,
we look forward to that day. We look forward to our time of
being with you and may it come quickly. Again, I thank you Lord
for these brethren that you've gathered here today and I ask
that you would give them safety and that you would sustain them as
you have promised. Lord, as you grow them in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, may their heart
and mind be even more experimentally desirous of you and glorifying
of your name. And again, we thank you for this
time together and we pray that it has been honoring to you.
In Jesus' name we pray, amen.