I want to preach a message this morning and try to keep it very short, but I want to give us God's promise. This is God's promise to us. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter 60. Isaiah 60. I'm going to pick up in verse 9. We're gonna just go verse by verse down to verse 14, but let's just read this one verse for now. Isaiah 60, verse 9.

God says, surely the isles shall wait for me and the ships of Tarshish first to bring thy sons from far their silver and their gold with them unto the name of the Lord thy God and to the Holy One of Israel because he hath glorified thee. This is God's promise to us who are his church. The text begins with arise, shine, thy light has come.

God has given you his glory and he's speaking to those he called out when Christ came and he began calling the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He called his apostles, and he assembled them, and he gave them the gospel to preach the gospel. That's who he's speaking of, and he's talking about what he would do since then, and what he's been doing since then. And, you know, sometimes the Lord calls home his faithful pastors. We see that happen, and we begin to wonder, is the Lord going to raise up more faithful pastors?

We are in a midst of a world that doesn't believe God. We're a remnant. And there's so many more in false religion. And it can be discouraging if we look with the natural eye. But we have God's promise. And this is what is all our hope right here, what God promises his people. There's no maybes here. Everything is spoken in absolutes and shalls. The Lord is telling us what he shall do, what he shall do. And he tells us why. He tells us why.

So when he called them and he not only gave them the light of Christ to know and believe Christ, he glorified him in this sense. He gave them the privilege to preach him. And so they began preaching Christ. Now here God tells us what he shall do and why. First thing he tells us, he's gonna call his people to the name of the Lord, to the name of the Lord thy God, and to the Holy One of spiritual Israel, and here's why. Because Christ justified his people.

Verse 10, he said, in the sons of the strangers, If you are here and you believe God by his grace and you're a Gentile, that's you and me. We're sons of the stranger. He said, they're going to build up your walls. He made us living stones. We are the wall. And this is God's promise. Why does he make this promise?

He said, their king shall minister unto thee, for in my wrath I smoke thee. but in my favor have I had mercy on thee. Now the picture was God delivered the children of Israel into Babylonian captivity. Then he sent King Cyrus and King Cyrus delivered them out of captivity back to Jerusalem. But the gospel that he's declaring here is God sent his son and he smote his son. And when he smote him, He smote you and me. He smote his people when he smote his son.

This is why God promises, that why he says these promises are sure. Because I smote thee in my wrath. And that was my favor, God said. That was my grace to you and my mercy to you. Now God is absolutely just. He's holy. He's righteous. And everything God does is done in perfect righteousness.

And you and me, every child of Adam, have earned the wages of sin, which is death. Eternal condemnation is what we've earned. We have earned the wrath of God. And this is the fact of the matter. God will not clear the guilty. God will pour out justice on every sinner. Every sinner shall bear the just condemnation of God. Everyone shall.

But the good news is, for those God chose in Christ, he sent his son. And our Lord Jesus came, and it was an absolute substitution. The Lord Jesus became his people. He's the one faithful, perfect, holy man who is perfectly faithful to God. He's the one. And God only looked to his son, and his people are in his son.

Now, when our Lord Jesus came, I want you to go with me to Hebrews 2, Hebrews 2, verse 17. Hebrews 2, 17. The Hebrew writer had said, Christ who sanctifies and those who are sanctified are all of one, for which cause he's not ashamed to call us brethren. He's telling us why Christ came down, why he came down, why he was made flesh. Here's why, verse 17.

He says, in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Now, when I say an absolute substitution, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.

The Son of God came down and was made of a woman. He was made of a woman. In John, Apostle John's day, there was a thing called Gnosticism. And the Gnostics believed that because all men are sinners that If Christ would have been made of a woman, made flesh, then he would have been a sinner.

And so they said it was as if he was. You can look this up. That's what they preach. That is exactly what John is dealing with by the Spirit of God when he said, every spirit that confesses not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God. He's Antichrist.

The Lord Jesus was made of a woman. just exactly like his people, the only one that God looked to. And then the scripture tells us he was made under the law. He is God the lawgiver. In what grace, what favor? He came down and took the form of a servant made under the law. He did this for his people to manifest the righteousness of God. First and foremost, the important reason, the main reason Christ came was to manifest God's righteousness, to reveal God is righteous. That's why he came.

And the scripture says the gospel is the power of God for therein is the righteousness of God revealed. And the righteousness of God's not manifest by something we do. Paul said, now the righteousness of God without the law, without us doing anything, it's manifest, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets bear witness of this righteousness of God. And this righteousness of God is by the faith of Jesus Christ. It's by his faithfulness. unto and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God.

It has to be by the righteousness of Christ. Christ came forth to manifest how God is just and the justifier of his people. This is the righteousness he came to reveal. So he was made under the law to honor and magnify the law for his people. And because he's holy, from the womb, sinless perfection, perfect, the spotless lamb of God, God would not pour out wrath on him. Not when he's innocent, that would not be just.

So the Lord, 2 Corinthians 5.21 says, he hath made him sin for us who knew no sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Was he made of a woman? Yes. Was he made under the law? Absolutely. Was he made sin? Yes, he was. And when he was made sin, then God made him a curse. Those are two different things. To be made sin is to be made to bear the sin. And he bore all the sin of his people. And then, justly, in perfect justice, God made him a curse.

God said, to you and me who he chose, he said, I smoke you. Paul said, I am crucified with Christ. When God smoked Christ, he smoked all his people in Christ. And this is all our hope, brethren, because Christ entirely satisfied the justice of God. He magnified and honored God's law, and God is pleased with his son. He satisfied God's law, glorified him to the highest, and in the process, God said, that was my favor to you. That was my mercy to you.

And God declares here in our text, this is why the gospel's gonna continue. It's because he smoked his son in place of his people and justified us. Now look at the second thing he says here. He promises that this is sure to us, he's gonna call everyone for whom Christ died because God's justice is satisfied. And so here's what he said, verse 11.

Therefore, he said, I smote you, and that was my favor and my mercy to you, therefore, Thy gates shall be open continually. They shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their kings may be brought. God says he will continue to provide pastors according to his heart. He will keep the doors of the church open because his people have been justified and they must be called to believe on the Lord Jesus.

They must be called He said, when he smoked the shepherd, he said, the sheep will be scattered. And he said, but he will turn his hand upon the little ones. And he said, when he is refined them, he said, they shall call on my name, and I will hear them. And I will say it is my people, and they shall say, the Lord is my God.

That's why you and me believe. The Lord sent us the gospel, put us under the gospel, and made us hear what he had done for us. He revealed to us the gospel. That's why he was made a curse for us. Scripture says that the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise. That's what we're talking about in our text, that we might receive the promise of the spirit through faith.

That's why it was made of a woman, made under the law, redeemed them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. And because you are, God sent forth the spirit of his son into your heart, crying, Abba, Father. You're no more a son, no more a servant, but a son. So Christ is going to provide pastors according to his heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

That's his promise from Jeremiah 315. All right. And he's going to save all kinds of sinners, all kinds. This chapter talks about him calling folks from Midian and Ephah and Sheba. That's Arabs. That's sons of Ishmael. It talks about him calling Gentiles. It talks about him calling kings.

And when you're talking to people about the Lord working his will and fulfilling his promise and calling his people, people are going to say things like, but God wants all men to be saved. The scripture says God will have all men to be saved. But if you read what Paul is saying to Timothy, he's saying pray for all kinds of sinners, kings, people in authority.

He said, I've been ordained a preacher of the Gentiles. It shall be testified in due time that the one mediator ransomed all his people. He died for all his people and accomplished their justification and it must be testified in God's predestinated set time that they've been redeemed. That's the people he's talking about.

Right now, this world's held in store because God is long-suffering, not willing that any of his people perish. He's long-suffering to his people for the sake of his people. That's why this world's held in store. What God is willing to happen happens because God brings it to pass. And he says, so you account that the long suffering of the Lord is salvation. It will end in the salvation of everybody Christ died for, every one of them.

Now, lastly, as we're in this world together, as this little flock of sheep preaching his name, be sure to understand that every nation in this world is serving us. That's his promise. Isaiah 60 verse 12, he says, for the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish, yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

Everybody in religion, false religion, thinks that's talking about political Israel. That's why they act like we got to bend the knee to political Israel. That's not talking about political Israel. That's talking about spiritual Israel. Every nation in this world, is serving the Lord's church, his people, everybody. And the Lord is bringing his purpose to pass. We might not understand what he's doing. We may not see it, but the Lord is using everything that he's bringing to pass to serve the needs of his church.

That's his promise. And he says here, verse 13, the glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee. They were known for these big, mighty cedars. And he said, the glory of Lebanon should come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box together to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious. Again, these different kinds of trees are referring to him saving all kinds of sinners. But the thing about every one of these trees is they're evergreen.

This is the record. God has given to us eternal life. And his life's in his son. We're evergreen because of what the Lord did. And all the beauty that we have before God is Christ. All the beauty is of him. He glorifies the place of his feet. Isn't that wonderful? He walks amongst the candlesticks. He walks in the midst of his church. It's a place of his feet. And he said, everybody that's called, he gets the glory, because he planted us.

He said in Isaiah 61.3, he said, I was sent to preach the gospel. The word shepherd means pastor. He's the chief shepherd. He's the pastor who is God and who makes his word effectual. And when he does it, he plants his people, just like a tree. And he said, that they shall be planted, and he said that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he might be glorified. He did the planting.

He gets the glory. And all the beauty is him. Isaiah said in chapter 61, 10, I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God, for he hath clothed me. with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. All of the adornment is from Christ.

As he is, so are we in this world. What is that? You are complete in him. God sees his son, and he sees all of his people. just exactly like his son. That's all I hope. That's why this promise is sure, brethren. And this is what he will do. He said he's going to keep the place of his feet glorious, wear his footstool. Solomon had a throne with solid gold, and it had a footstool fastened to it. Christ has fastened us to him. He has united us to Him inseparably, and we'll never be separated from Him. Nothing will separate us from Him.

So, right now, we're looking for a city. You notice there at the end of verse 14, they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel. We're the city of God, and we're looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. And so, Paul said this, he said, our citizenship, Our conversation, our citizenship is in glory. Our citizenship is with our Lord, and we're looking for him.

We're waiting for him to come, and he's going to change our vile body, and it'll be likened to his glorious body by the power where he's able to subdue all things to himself. That's what we're waiting on. We come here tonight, or this morning, to hear these promises again. because this is how he keeps feeding us, how he keeps strengthening our faith, how he keeps us looking only to him.

And so I say to you what Paul said, all these promises, they're yes in Christ, they're amen in Christ. He gave us the cup of wine and he said, this is the New Testament in my blood. That's how sure it is. It's written in his blood. And so Paul said to this, he said this, he said, Therefore, my brethren, dearly beloved, and longed for my joy and my crown, so stand fast in the Lord. Stand fast, and he will make you stand fast. He'll keep you. You cost him his blood, and he bought you, and you're his purchased possession. He will make you stand fast in him. That's all I hope, the promise of God. All right, brethren.