Let us turn once again to God's Word in the portion of Scripture we read in Isaiah 26 and those last two verses, the place where we concluded the public reading of God's Word, verses 12 and 13. Isaiah 26 verses 12 and 13, Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us the Lord our God are the lords beside thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name you will recall those who were present last Lord's Day evening that we were considering the previous verses, verses 8 and 9 where we considered something of God's purpose in His judgments upon His people.

The words that we have there then at verse 8 and verse 9, Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee? The desire of our soul is to thy name and to the remembrance of thee. With my soul have I desired thee in the night, Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. For when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. And amongst other things we observed how those verses begin with judgments and end with judgments. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. And how when God deals with his people in that way, the way of judgment, the way of trial, testing, justicement, the purpose is to move his people to prayer.

And so we have that portion in the heart really of those two verses, that waiting upon the Lord with my soul have I desired thee in the night. Yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early. how God's dealings are intended to move his people then to such seekings, such earnest longings and desirings after himself. Those are some of the things we were considering last Lord's Day evening. As I said, I want to turn now to verses later on in the same chapter, and these verses are verses 12 and 13.

We need to Be mindful, of course, of the circumstances in which God first gave this word. Isaiah was the Lord's prophet round about the year 700 before Christ, ministering in those decades around about that particular period. About a hundred years then before God will visit judgment upon the nation of Judah. when the Babylonians would come and Jerusalem would fall and the people would be removed to Babylon for 70 years.

What a terrible judgment was that that came upon them. And what would the prayers be then? They'd be prayers in many ways for restoration. That God might yet be pleased to restore them. And that was his purpose of course, he was not going to utterly destroy them.

We know that the northern kingdom of Israel with its capital there of Samaria had been scattered previous to that. Around about the time of Isaiah's ministry the Assyrians had come and the northern kingdom of Israel had been destroyed and scattered. Judah was spared at that time. that the time would come, as I said, a hundred years later when God's judgments would come and there would be, therefore, a need for prayers for restoration.

And isn't that what we have really in the words that I've read for our text this morning? Lord, thou wilt ordain peace for us, for thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord, our God, are the Lords beside thee, have had dominion over us. but by the only will we make mention of thy name. And as we come to consider this particular part of the chapter I want to consider this prayer then for restoration and just to approach it really in a twofold fashion to say something with regards to what we have here in the way of the confession of their sin but at the same time to also observe how they have confidence in their gods and so we don't only have confession and repentance we also have confidence and faith to be discerned in the words that we have these remarkable words in verses 12 and 13 and first of all to look at their confession What do they say here at the beginning of verse 13? O Lord our God, are there lords besides thee of our dominion over us?

And observe the plural, not another lord, but other lords. If we think of this as a prayer that they might make at the time of the Babylonian captivity, as they are seeking that the Lord would yet restore them and return them to the promised land that there would be the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It's not just that now they're under the lordship of the great Babylonian emperor. No, we read of lords in the plural. O Lord our God, other lords besides Thee have had dominion over us. It was at least a twofold servitude. Well, they were under the Babylonians. There's no doubt about that.

That's the real burden, isn't it, of the ministry of Isaiah, although he's ministering a hundred years previous to that captivity. Yet, when he receives his call, remember, back in chapter 6, we have the account there of the remarkable vision that he saw when he was in the temple and the king Uzziah had died and he sees God's throne and God calls him to his office as a prophet. What is he to minister? Well, we learn something of the content of his ministry really at the end of that sixth chapter.

Remarkable words really that the Lord speaks to him. Go and tell these people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not, and see ye indeed, but perceive not. And then their hearts heavy, their eyes shut, they're so ignorant, what is God going to do with them? He's going to send them into captivity and He speaks of the captivity. In verse 11 then said, I, Lord, how long? And the answer is, until the cities be wasted with that inhabitant. when the houses without man and the land be utterly desolate, and the Lord hath removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land." God will preserve the remnants as we see in the final verse.

It was a terrible judgment that came upon them. And what He's got doing is punishing them for their sins. It's a consequence of their foolishness before God, their disobedience, their idolatrous ways. Again in chapter 5 and verse 13 we read these words, my people are gone into captivity because they have no knowledge. They have no knowledge of God. They've forgotten God. They've forsaken God.

They want to be like the nations round about them. But how does God speak of them? He speaks of them as His people still. Even here at the end of this 26th chapter, He says, come my people. Even when they're taken into captivity, they're still His people. Turn to chapter 45, and the language that we have there, and God is calling upon them as His people. In chapter 45 and verse 13, I have raised him up in righteousness, I will direct all his ways, he shall build my city and he shall let go my captives.

Not for price nor reward saith the Lord of hosts. Who is being spoken of here? Well the reference here of course is to Cyrus. as we see at the beginning of that 45th chapter. And it was Cyrus, the Persian emperor, who had overthrown the great might of the Babylonians, and passes a decree that the children of Israel should return to the land, as we see in the beginning of the book of Ezra.

They are my captives, God says. They are my people. What is the Lord doing with his people? He is chastening them. He's correcting them. He's not casting them off forever. This is the way of the Lord with his people. He will deal with them in severe fashions at times. And what are they to do in the midst of all these things? Surely to try to discern something of the Lord's hand and the Lord's dealings.

And isn't that what we see here in the words of the text? Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord our God, are the lords beside Thee of our dominion over us? But by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. They will come, they will call upon the name of the Lord yet.

And this God who has dealt with them in the way of judgment, in the way of chastening, will grant peace and recovery those words at the beginning of the 12th verse Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us all they look to God in his sovereignty to do for them that that they could never do for themselves he who punishes is the God who also grants peace and when he brings his people to their senses and that's what he does of course by taking them into captivity when his people are brought to their senses and recognize the folly of their sins then they will side with God they'll recognize that God is just and right and equitable in all his ways and we see it don't we in that remarkable prayer that Daniel is moved to make when he comes to understand that God has never accomplished the 70 years of exile. That lovely chapter in Daniel 9 where we see the Prophet as a result of reading in the book of Jeremiah the Prophet and seeing that the Lord would accompany 70 years in the desolations of Jerusalem and then he sets his face and how he prays, what does he say? He makes confession Verse 5, we have sinned and have committed iniquity and have done wickedly and have rebelled even by departing from thy precepts and from thy judgments. And then at verse 8 he says, O Lord, to us belongeth confusion of faith, to our kings, to our princes, to our fathers, because we have sinned against thee.

To the Lord our God belong mercies and forgivenesses, that we have rebelled against him. What a prayer! He recognizes that God is right and make confession. All the Lord's ways are good. All God's ways are equitable. Yea, in the way of thy judgments, O Lord, have we waited for thee. Those words that we were looking at only last Lord's Day evening. So we see them coming here making their confession.

Yes, other lords besides the true God had had dominion. They'd been under the yoke of the emperors of Babylon until Cyrus had come and defeated them and then passed that decree. But it's all under God's sovereign decree that Cyrus should do such a thing. That's so evident in what we read there in that 45th chapter that I just referred to. But it's not only a confession of what they got to endure under the Babylonians, is it not also a confession of the terrible dominion of sin? Why was it that the Lord sent them into that place, brought them under the domain of the Babylonians?

It was a consequence of their bondage, their bondage to sin, their bondage really to idols. Those were the Lords that had that dominion over us. Or they wanted so much to be like the nations all around them. Those nations who knew not the Lord God. They saw their idols and they wanted those things. strange people they were to forsake the Lord the living God and to look to idols. But God is not mocked. And so God deals with them in the way of judgment. Think of the language that we have in the New Testament in Galatians, Be not deceived, God is not mocked. What a man soweth that shall he also reap. He that soweth to his flesh shall reap corruption of the flesh. He that soweth to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap spiritual life everlasting. And these people had sown to the flesh.

That's why God was dealing with them in such a desperate fashion. All their idolatrous ways. And Isaiah speaks, doesn't he, of the folly of their idols, time and again. We have the language there in the 40th chapter, for example. at verse 18 and the following verses. To whom then will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare unto him?

The workman mounted a graven image, the goldsmith spreadeth it over with gold and casteth silver chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation chooseth a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven image that shall not be moved.

Have ye not known? Have ye not heard? Has he not been told you from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth. And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in, that bringeth the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea, they shall not be planted. Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth. And he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble.

To whom then? Will ye liken me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One? How God challenges them. that follow the foolishness of their idolatrous ways. Now God describes them again through the language of the prophets in chapter 44 at verse 9. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit, and they are their own witnesses. They see not, nor know, that they may be ashamed, who have formed a god or molten and graven image that is profitable for nothing. Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together.

O God, speak to them plainly then of the following, of these Lords, that they have been subject to God. He is a jealous God. God is a jealous God. What does He say back in the days of Moses, there in Exodus 34? They shall worship no other God, for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.

And this is why God deals with them in this fashion. They must come and recognize the folly of their sins. They are to confess then something of the power that this sin has upon them. That's the root of their matter. Sin is an awful foe, a terrible master. O Lord our God, of the Lords beside Thee, of Thy dominion over us, is the confession that Thou to make. Iniquities prevail against me, says the psalmist. What do we feel? That iniquities prevail against me. He goes on, as for our transgressions, thou wilt purge them away.

But how many times we see the psalmist conscious of the awful lordship of sin in his own soul. Think of a psalm like Psalm 38 and the language that David is there using. This is a man after God's own heart. And yet it's so false, Psalm 38, of all the darkness, the deadness, the awful authority that sin had in the heart of that man. My iniquities are gone over my head, he says, as a heavy burden. They are too heavy for me. My enemies are lively and they are strong, he says.

And when the Lord deals with his people to bring them to that, to confession, to repentance, isn't it then that we understand something of the awful thrall from really that comes through the Lord of God. The law says Paul in Romans 7 hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth. The Lord hath dominion, that ministry of the Lord to stop the mouths of men. As we see in Romans chapter 3 that every mouth may be stopped and all the world become guilty before God And this is what they are brought to, you see, to make their confession. Other lords beside the earth, he's the lawful one, he's the creator, he's the sustainer of all things, he's the only living and true God, but other lords, our sins have had dominion over us.

This is a confession. It's a terrible thing, and of course, even when we're brought to know the forgiveness of sins when we experience the grace of God and there's a deliverance. Sin shall not have dominion over you, says the Apostle, you are not under the law but under grace. But even then the believer still discovers something of the reality of what he is in his fallen nature. We have the record, don't we, of the experience of the Apostle. And thank God we have it there in that seventh chapter of the Epistle to the Romans. What a chapter it is.

This man who is a pattern to believers and he speaks of the awful conflict that he still has in his own soul by the grace of God. You know, the language that he uses there verse 18 of Romans 7 I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but how to perform that which is good I find not for the good that I would I do not but the evil which I would not that I do and later he says I delight in the Lord of God after the inward man But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am! You shall deliver me from the body of this death.

And then he says, I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. There's the sinner's only hope, the Lord Jesus Christ, the grace of God. So then with the mind he says, I myself serve the Lord of God that's the real me that's the true apostle Paul I myself with the mind serve the Lord God but with the flesh the Lord of sin or to see sin smarts but slightly to own with lip confession is easier still but oh to feel cuts deep beyond expression says Joseph Hart how true it is how true it is and David knew it in his great psalm his penitential psalm 51 against thee thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight you see it's not so much that they're under the yoke of the Babylonian emperor who's lord over them it's that sin that is the cause of all their trouble the lordship of sin in the old nature.

But let us turn from their confessions to what we see really in these verses is their great confidence in God. What faith we have here expressed in the words of these two verses. Lord and that of course is the covenant name Jehovah the great I am that I am the God of the covenant of grace, Lord, Thou wilt ordain peace for us, for Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. O Lord, our God, are the lords beside Thee of our dominion over us, but by Thee alone will we make mention of Thy name." And it's the language I say of faith. It's their confidence, their real trust in God.

And there are two reasons, of course, set before us in the words here, with regards to their God, the true God, when they're brought to see the folly of what their idols amounted to. Two things, God is the Saviour, and God is the Sovereign here. God is the Saviour. those words at the end of verse 13 by the only will we make mention of thy name all thy name thy name isn't that a reference to the way in which God reveals himself that's how God reveals himself when he comes to deliver his people remember the great deliverance that they knew of course when they were brought out of the bondage that was Egypt a greater bondage in many ways than what they experienced in Babylon and when Moses is called there in Exodus chapter 3 what does he say? to the Lord in verse 13 of that chapter.

Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you, and they shall say to me, What is his name? Mark that. They shall say to me, What is his name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I am that I am, and He said, Thou shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I am hath sent me unto you.

Oh, He goes in the name of Jehovah. That's the very name that of course is derived from what God says of Himself. He says, I am. And we say, He is. And that really, in a sense, He is, is the meaning of the name Lord. Lord literally means He is. He's the unchanging God. He's the faithful God of the covenant.

That is the name in which Moses undertakes that great work committed to him of bringing the children of Israel out of Egypt, through the wilderness, even to the very borders of the promised land. and of course we see Christ as that one who is truly the great I am that I am remember what we have there at the end of John 8 when the Lord is speaking to the Jews long chapter John 8 but he's speaking to the Jews who were many who did not believe on him there was some who did believe on him but to those who were in their awful unbelief, he says, before Abram was, I am. Oh, the Lord Jesus, he's that great, I am.

The same one, of course, that appeared to Jacob at Peniel, there in Genesis 32, where we have Jacob resting with the angel, the angel resting with Jacob. The angel of the Lord The Theophany and appearance really of the Lord Jesus Christ before the Incarnation. We have these incidents spoken of in the Old Testament. And Jacob asked Him and said, Tell me thy name. Oh, he wanted to know the name. The name of Him who was wrestling with Him. What was that name?

It's the same with Manoah, isn't it? We may mention of it last Lord's Day in the evening. Those things spoken of in Judges 13. The parents of Samson. And the appearance again of the angel of the Lord to Manoah's wife, but he's unbelieving. And then the angel comes and appears to Manoah himself. And Manoah says what?

What is thy name? And he says, why askest thou after my name, seeing it is secret? Seeing it is secret. The margin says, seeing it is wonderful. Why askest thou after my name, Manoah, seeing it is wonderful? And the angel does wonderful things. He ascends with the smoke of the offering. Read there in Judges 13, but again, it's the name. the name of that one who appears to him. It's secret, it's wonderful.

Well, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, surely. That child born in Isaiah 9, that son given, his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor of the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. God's name, time and again, is a declaration of Himself, a revelation of Himself, and Christ is that one who is truly the image of the invisible God.

And what is His name? Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. By the only will we make mention of Thy name, all that name Jesus, that speaks to us of salvation, What is that salvation? Look at the beginning of verse 12, Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us. What has Christ done? He has made peace through the blood of His cross. That's what He came to do, to accomplish salvation, to reconcile the sinner to God, that sinner who is in a state by nature of enmity, alienated from God.

That's where we are by nature. alienated by our wicked works. How are we born? We're born dead in trespasses and sins, without God, without Christ, without hope in the world. That's where we are by nature. And the Lord Jesus comes to reconcile the sinner unto God. That's His great work, is it not? Neither is there salvation in any other. None other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. Oh, look at what he goes on to say in verse 14 concerning those idols. "...Other lords beside thee have had dominion over us. They are dead. They shall not live. They are deceased. They shall not rise.

Therefore hast thou visited and destroyed them, and made all their memory to perish." That's what the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished by His death upon the cross. He made an end of sin, He made reconciliation for iniquity, and He brought in everlasting righteousness. All the wonder, the wonder of that work, and I know I've referred you to it many a time, but what a verse is that that we have there in the book of the Prophet Jeremiah. In chapter 50, and verse 20, in those days and in that time, that's the day of grace the last days, the day in which we are living in those days and in that time saith the Lord the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for and there shall be none and the sins of Judah and they shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve or those that the Lord has reserved for Himself, those children that He has given to the Lord Jesus Christ. In terms of the eternal covenant, Christ has paid the penalty.

He has redeemed them by the shedding of His precious blood. That's the great work. And how the Apostle delights, doesn't he? Paul speaks of it so plainly there in Colossians 2. Verse 14, blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross. And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it. Or as the margin says, triumphing over them in himself. None of the name unto heaven given amongst men whereby we must be saved. He has accomplished the work. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The strength of sin is the law.

But thanks be to God. O thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Saviour. All that that name declares. By thee only will we make mention of thy No. Here is their confidence then in God. God is the Saviour. There's no other Saviour. No other Saviour.

But how we see in the language of these two verses the sovereignty of God in salvation. It's all that God does. Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us O LORD, I have got other lords beside Thee of a dominion over us, but by Thee only will we make mention of Thy name. God is sovereign in salvation, we know that. He is sovereign in purposing salvation. Salvation is of the Lord, it has its origin in Him.

The electing love of the Father. the great plan and purpose of God in the eternal covenant of redemption. It's what the Father purposed before time was created. And then when we come to time, is it not God the Son who procures that salvation, who accomplishes that salvation? As we read there in Galatians 4, when the fullness of the time was come. The fullness of the time, two definite articles. That's God's time, precisely. When the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons.

It's not only purposed and procured and accomplished. It's also applied, isn't it? God applies it. Isn't that the blessed work of God the Holy Ghost? As the Father purposes, as the Son procures, so the Spirit must come. And that's what we read of in the verse. Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. That's the work of the Spirit, surely. He makes the sinner willing. There is that efficacious grace of God. There's that effectual call that comes by the Spirit of God.

By Thee only will we make mention of Thy Name. It's a remarkable couplet, these two verses. emphasizing divine sovereignty and salvation. Or the Lord Jesus says, doesn't He? If you believe not that I am He, you shall perish in your sins. And the He, as you know there in John 8.24 is in italics. It's introduced in the translation. He literally says, if you believe not that I am. I am the Lord. I am Jehovah, Jehovah Jesus. If you believe not that I am, you shall perish in your sins.

We have to believe that He is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. That's all we have to do. Simple as that. No other God, no other Saviour. We have to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ, the Son of the Living God. But what a salvation is that that we have then in and through the work of the Lord Jesus when it is applied by that gracious ministry of the Spirit Himself. Thou also hast wrought all our works in us. Faith of the operation of God.

We read in Colossians 2.12. That's saving faith.

It's the gift of God, it's the operation of God. and we have to be brought to that, the end of ourselves the end of ourselves so that we're completely utterly cast upon the Lord for salvation, none other and then the simplicity of that salvation to believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of the Living God and what does the Lord God say, come my people Enter thou into thy chambers, shut thy doors about thee, hide thyself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation be overpassed. We have to hide ourselves in Christ. And almost the very last words of Holy Scripture, of course, that word, come. Come, my people, enter, says the Lord. shut thy doors, hide thyself." We have to hide ourselves in the Lord Jesus. The last words of Scripture, the Spirit and the Bride say, come. And he that heareth says, come. And he that is athirst says, come. And do so well.

Let him take of the water of life freely. It's a free salvation because it's a salvation that is all of God, all of grace. It's all in the Lord Jesus Christ. or to make such a confession as we have here and with that confidence that we see in the words of the text Lord thou wilt ordain peace for us for thou also hast wrought all our works in us O Lord our God other lords beside thee have had dominion over us but by thee only will we make mention of thy name. Oh the Lord be pleased then to bless his word to us. Amen.