Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 63. Parts of our text will be very
familiar to you. We commonly quote some of these
verses, especially verse three, telling about how Christ suffered
alone for his people. He accomplished their redemption
all by himself as he suffered alone on Calvary's tree. I have trodden the winepress
alone. We often quote that referring to Christ at Calvary. And I have
no doubt that there is some reference to that there. But primarily,
these verses are talking about the second coming of Christ.
They're not talking about his first coming. They're talking
about his second coming, primarily. If these verses were primarily
referring to Christ suffering for his people, Christ would
be the grape being crushed in the winepress. But here, he's
the one crushing the grape in the wine press. And those grapes
are pictures of his enemies that he is crushing in his wrath. And that's what he's going to
do when he comes a second time to judge the world in righteousness. He was going to destroy his he'll
crush his enemies, those who refuse to believe on him. The
other reason I'm confident that this is primarily referring to
the second coming of Christ, when he comes to judge the world,
Isaiah says that Christ's garments are covered with blood, but they're
not covered with his blood. They're not covered with the
blood of his sacrifice. They're covered with the blood
of his enemies that he has crushed. If you look in Revelations chapter
14, I'll show you the apostle John and his book of Revelation
refers to this. Revelation 14, giving us the
same prophecy and vision that Isaiah had. Verse 18, And another
angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire, and
cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying,
Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine
of the earth, for her grapes are fully ripe. And the angel
thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine
of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath
of God. So that's referring to what's
going to happen when Christ returns to the wicked. and that day of
judgment. And Isaiah gives us the same
prophecy. And it's one of the things about
Isaiah that we call his gospel that we love. The gospel according
to Isaiah. We call it that because no other
prophet in the Old Testament wrote so clearly of the person
and work of Christ as Isaiah did. Isaiah tells us about the
incarnation of Christ, how God who's going to become a man to
be the redeemer of his people. For unto us, Isaiah said, a child
is born and unto us a son is given. His name should be called
Wonderful, Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father,
the Prince of Peace. God became a man. Isaiah told
us about that. Isaiah told us about the sacrifice
of Christ for his people to put their sins away through his sacrifice.
Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows Yet we
do esteem him stricken, smitten of God and afflicted. But he
was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him and by his stripes
were healed. This is where we learn from Isaiah
that Christ is going to be sacrificed for his people. And all throughout
this book of Isaiah, he's given us many different pictures of
Israel being set free from their enemies, different enemies, Babylon
and all these different enemies. And all those are pictures, are
given to us as pictures, how Christ will set his people free
from bondage to our sin. And then this chapter tells us
specifically that Christ is coming again. He's going to come the
first time and he's going to come again. After he dies and
is buried and raised again, he is going to send back to heaven
and he's going to come again. And when he comes, he's going
to destroy every spiritual enemy. He will destroy all those who
refuse to believe. who refused to bow to him. Now,
as we've been going through, particularly the last number
of chapters, we've seen prophecies of how God's going to set Israel
free from Babylon. We've looked at those as pictures
of how Christ sets us free from bondage to sin. But this chapter
63 has got nothing to do with Babylon. It's got nothing to
do with Israel being set free from Babylon. Babylon lies to
the north of Israel. Here, this one coming from Edom
is coming from the south. Edom and Basra, they lie to the
south of Israel. So this doesn't have anything
to do with Babylon. This is purely a prophecy of how the Lord will
damn his enemies and spare his people when he comes a second
time. I've entitled the message, Mighty to Save and to Damn. Now here in verse one, the church
meets Christ returning from battle. And it's the church speaking,
who is this that cometh from Edom with dyed garments from
Bozrah, this that is glorious in his apparel, traveling in
the greatness of his strength? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Now the church, Isaiah, asked
this question, who is this one coming from Edom? Well, the one
returning from battle here is the Lord Jesus Christ and his
people see him. When they see him, they notice
this. He is glorious in His apparel. Here He is returning from this
battle. And He's like a general. You've seen those generals. They've
got all their ribbons and medals and all those things they've
got covering their coat that they've received for great victories
that they won or valor or whatever. That's how the Savior's coming.
Glorious in His apparel. And if you look in Revelation
chapter 19, I'll show you what makes His apparel so glorious. is that his name is written there.
That's what makes his apparel so glorious. Revelation 19, verse
15. And out of his mouth goeth a
sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and
he shall rule them with a rod of iron. And he treadeth the
winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. That's
him destroying his enemies. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written. King of Kings and Lord of Lords. That's who it is returning from
battle. The King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. And he's returning
from this battle. It was a great battle. He won
the battle. He defeated all of his enemies.
But you notice he's not limping away from the battle. He wasn't
injured in this battle. He's not slowly dragging along
as he leaves this battle because he's exhausted from the battle.
No, he's not tired. He's not injured. He's traveling
in the greatness of His strength. He won the battle and it didn't
tire Him out at all. It was just nothing to Him. You
think about it, this is the Almighty going to tread His enemies in
the winepress of God's wrath and God's fury. A grape simply
can't offer much resistance to the Almighty. He crushed them
and He's not even tired by defeating them. And it ought not surprise
us that we see the Lord Jesus Christ traveling in the greatness
of his strength, because he always travels in the greatness of his
strength. He always travels. He always carries himself as
the mighty conqueror. When he first came to this earth
as a man, he appeared in Bethlehem's manger. Yes, there lay a baby
in Bethlehem's manger, but that baby was Almighty God, the everlasting
Father. There lies the Prince of Peace
in the greatness of His strength. God became a man. John said,
The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory. The glory is of the only begotten
of the Father, full of grace and truth. This man had all power
because He's God. And He showed that all through
His earthly ministry. Everywhere He went, He traveled
in the greatness of His strength. When it came to a stormy sea,
He just walked on the water. When the sick were all around
him, he just touched them and healed them, just spoke and healed
them. There's the dead. He touched them and raised them
from the dead. His enemies plotted and tried to take him how many
times? And they never one time could, because his hour was not
come. And when they finally did take
him, it was only because he gave himself to them. He gave his
back to the spiders. He gave his cheeks to those who
would pluck out his beard. Pilate was never the one in control.
The mob was never the one in control. Try and crucify him.
The Lord was. Because he went there in the
greatness of his might. And when Pilate finally sent
him to the cross, he traveled to the cross in the greatness
of his strength. The Savior did not die in weakness. When it comes time for you and
me to die, we'll die in weakness. This body will finally give out.
We'll die in weakness. Not our Savior. He didn't die
in weakness, he died in strength. The only reason he died is he
gave up the ghost. And I'll tell you why he gave
up the ghost. Because in the greatness of his strength, he
had put away the sin of his people and made them righteous. And
he gave up the ghost to die the death they deserved so they'd
never die again. He died in strength. And they
took that dead body down from the cross, took it and laid it
in the borrowed tomb of a rich man but he was just there three
days. He rose again in the greatness
of his strength. Who can explain a man raising
his own self from the dead? You talk about strength. He arose
in the greatness of his strength. And after a number of days, he
ascended back to the Father. The disciples stood and watched
him go up into the clouds. And he ascended in the greatness
of his strength. What a homecoming it was when
the Son of God appeared in glory. Victorious. And He went there
in the greatness of His strength. You know what He did when He
got there? He sat down on a throne. King. Ruling and reigning over
everything to make sure all those that He died for are brought
to repentance and faith in Him. There He sits to this day. You
know the only time we read of the Savior standing up off that
throne is to receive Stephen into glory. Other than that,
he's sitting on that throne. But one day he's going to get
up. He's going to rouse himself up like that great lion and he's
going to come a second time. He's going to come in the greatness
of his strength. He's going to gather all of his
people to himself in the greatness of his strength. Take them to
be with him forever. And he'll destroy all of his
enemies in the greatness of his strength. He's coming to accomplish
his will. And I'll tell you one more time,
and this will encourage the men here to preach. I'll tell you
another time. The Lord travels in the greatness
of His strength. It's when He comes to His people
through the power of the preaching of the gospel. He gives them
life. He gives them faith. If you want
to feel helpless and small and weak, You just attempt to preach
God's gospel for a minute. You know what gives you the confidence
to do it? God travels. The Lord Jesus Christ travels
in the greatness of His strength. He meets together with His people
where His gospel is preached. And it's there He gives His people
a new nature. It's there. Maybe they come not
willingly. Maybe their parents drag them,
kicking and screaming, they got to come. And you just maybe come
because you're trying to make your girlfriend happy or whatever.
And one day you find yourself willing that you want to come,
that you need to come to hear the gospel. What happened? Christ
came in the greatness of his strength and made you willing
in the day of his power. He comes to his people in power,
makes his people willing to come to Christ. Gives them faith to
believe Christ and trust Christ and love Him because He's given
them a new nature. Now there's no doubt this one
traveling in His glorious apparel and the greatness of His strength
is the Lord Jesus Christ because He answers the church and He
says, who is this? It's I. I the speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. Now that can only refer to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Every word he speaks is righteous. He's the word of God. He's perfectly
righteous. And every promise he's made to
both believer and unbeliever alike is going to come to pass
because his word is righteous and true altogether. Everything
he speaks is spoken in righteousness. But more than speaking in righteousness,
our Savior speaks of righteousness. He speaks and tells us how a
sinner can be made righteous. He answers the age old question
that Job asked, how can a sinner be righteous? How is that possible?
The Savior gives that answer. We know we can't be made righteous
in anything. We do. Sinners are made righteous in
Christ through his obedience imputed to us. Sinners are made
righteous by Christ being our righteousness. Look at Romans
chapter three. Here our Savior speaks of righteousness. Here's how a sinner is made righteous.
Romans 3 verse 25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time, his righteousness. That's how God might be just
and the justifier of him which believe it in Jesus. That's the
Savior. He speaks of how He is the righteousness
of His people. We're righteous in Him. And then
He tells us that He is mighty to save. This mighty conqueror
coming from defeating His enemies, from just crushing them like
a grape in the winepress of God's wrath, says He's also mighty
to save. He cannot fail to save His people
from their sin because He's mighty to save. Now you know that can't
refer to anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ. That's who's
speaking here. Now remember that, mighty to
save. We'll come back to that in just a minute. But I told
you that Isaiah, the church, the person they're seeing is
Christ our Savior returning from battle. Here's why I say that,
verse two. Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine vat?
Now the church asks this question. Why is this one who's traveling
in the greatness of His strength, who's mighty to save, why is
He covered with blood? Now He's the Savior. And there
was a time we saw the Savior covered with blood, didn't we?
At Calvary we saw Him covered with His own blood, the blood
of His sacrifice. But then when we saw Him again,
He rose from the grave. He rose in white, glistening
garments, The scars were still there. The scars of that blood
flowing out of were still there, but the scars were closed up.
He wasn't bleeding then. The blood's already been shed.
The blood's already been offered. So what the church is asking
is, whose blood are you covered in now? It can't be yours. The
blood doesn't need to be shed again. Your blood doesn't. So
whose blood are you covered with? Now, someone who would tread
grapes in the wine press, By the time the job was done, their
garments, if they wore those robes or whatever, the bottoms
of their robe would be stained with the grape juices. They'd
stomp those grapes, you know, the juice is going to splatter
up on them. What the church is asking is why is the Savior himself
covered in blood like someone who spent all day squashing grapes
in the wine press? Well, he looks that way because
that's exactly what he was doing in Edom. Verse 3. He says, I
have trodden the winepress alone, and of the people there was none
with me. For I will tread them in mine anger and trample them
in my fury, and their blood shall be sprinkled upon my garments,
and I will stain all my raiment. Now, as I said, these verses
primarily refer to Christ the judge who's treading down his
enemies. He's destroying them and his
fierce wrath against sin, and it's their blood who stained
his garments as he judged them and destroyed them. The picture
here is of Christ who's crushing his enemies, crushing those who
would not believe him, crushing those who would not bow to him
and their blood. He is destroying them in such
fury against sin and rebellion and unbelief that their blood
is just splattering up all over him. That's what's being prophesied
here. The Savior, when the church sees
him, is coming from Edom, covered in the blood of his enemies from
Edom. Well, where is Edom? Well, Edom is where the descendants
of Esau lived. They were the enemies of Israel.
They always were the enemies of Israel. They were the enemies
of the Lord. Just like their father Esau, they rejected the
birthright. They rejected salvation by grace. So when Christ came again, he
came to destroy them. And that's exactly what he did.
He went to the place of unbelief and he destroyed them for their
unbelief. And you know, the judgment of unbelievers is not something
that God is going to do half-heartedly. The Lord says he's trampled his
enemies in his fury against their unbelief of him. Look here at
verse six. I will tread down the people
in mine anger and make them drunk in my fury, and I will bring
down their strength to the earth." In his fury against unbelief,
against self-righteousness, in his fury, he destroys them. And that fury is a righteous
fury. Because this one who speaks of
righteousness, everything he does is righteous. This judgment
is going to be righteous. In that day of vengeance, the
unbeliever, those who have refused Christ, are going to receive
exactly what they deserve. No more, no less. The cup of
God's fury against their sin, their unbelief, is going to destroy
them. They won't be able to drink it. Now that day is a real day. It's a day that's coming. It's
a day that's already been appointed from God. Just like he appointed
a day that Christ would be born in Bethlehem, he's appointed
a day for Christ to return a second time. And that day will surely
come. Verse four, for the day of vengeance
is in my heart and the year of my redeemed is come. That day
of vengeance, the day when Christ comes to judge the earth, it's
already fixed and he's coming. He won't be one day late. And in that day, every enemy
is going to be destroyed, utterly destroyed by the Savior. And
he's going to do that work by himself. Verse five. And I looked
and there was none to help. And I wondered that there was
none to uphold. Therefore, mine own arm brought salvation unto
me, and my fury it upheld me. Now this is the church speaking
at the first part of the verse asking, I looked and there was
none to help. I wondered that there was none
to uphold. Well, it's really no wonder at all, is it? First
of all, we're not able, you and I, we're not able to help God
do anything. There's none that can help God.
Now, He may use us as instruments to accomplish His purpose, but
you and I can't do anything to help God. So it's no wonder when
we looked there was none to help. And second, it's no wonder when
we looked that there was none to help, that rather God doesn't
need any help. Now God needs no help from you
and me. Everything He does, He does by
Himself, by His power, by His will. And when it comes to this
work of judgment, he's going to do the work of judgment by
himself. He's the Almighty. He has all
power. This is going to be no problem
for him to accomplish this. And when he finishes the work
of destroying his enemies, he's not even going to be tired because
he's traveling in the greatness of his strength. Now that's some
view, isn't it? This one coming from battle,
this one glorious in his apparel. I have a question. He went and
destroyed everybody in Eden. Now here he comes to Israel. Why isn't he coming to destroy
Israel too? Huh? If you want to see God's greatness
most clearly, I'll tell you where you see it. God's greatness,
His unspeakable greatness is seen most clearly when he shows
mercy to the smallest, weakest, most miserable, most insignificant
people. That's where you see God's greatness
most clearly. And that's the reason he's not
coming to destroy Israel. His greatness, the greatness
of his mercy, the greatness of his love for his people. Eden,
that was the place Esau's descendants went and settled. But if you
think about it, There's no difference between Jacob and Esau, is there?
No difference between Jacob and Esau or their descendants. Esau
and Jacob were conceived at the exact same moment, same mother,
the same father. They were born at the same time.
No difference by nature in them whatsoever. Then what made the
difference between Jacob and Esau? What's the difference?
Why was Esau's descendants destroyed and Jacob's spared? One reason. God's electing love. The only
reason Jacob was spared, his descendants were spared, is God
said, Jacob have I loved, and he saw I loved. The only difference
between those two men is God's electing love. And since God
loved Jacob, you know what God did? He sent a redeemer for Jacob. He sent one who had paid for
Jacob's sin with his own blood. God loved Jacob. Jacob couldn't
could not perish because God loved him. So you know what God
did? God sent a substitute who would bear the punishment that
Jacob deserved. He would suffer and die in Jacob's
place. You see, not only is this savior
we see coming from Edom, he is mighty to damn his enemies, but
this one who's coming from battle is mighty to save. That's how
he identified himself. Mighty to save. Look at 2 Thessalonians
chapter one. Apostle Paul here gives us this.
Good commentary, what we see going on here in Isaiah chapter
63. Second Thessalonians. Yeah, one verse six, seeing it
as a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to
them that troubled you and you who are troubled rest with us.
When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his
mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that
know not God, and they that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction
from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power.
When he shall come, or let's stop here at verse nine. I got
carried away. See, that's what the Lord is going to do with
the unbeliever. And that day he returns, they're going to
be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord. What will the believer do in that day? This is what
will happen to the unbeliever. What about the believer in that
day? What's the believer going to do in that day? The believer
is going to be spared and he's going to admire our Savior. We're
going to admire the one who died for us. Now, verse 10. When he
shall come to be glorified in his saints and to be admired
in all them that believe because our testimony among you was believed
in that day. God's elect are going to be spared.
in the Day of Judgment. You know why? Because the Lord
Jesus Christ is mighty to save. Mighty to save His people from
their sin and to make them righteous in Him. And I tell you how He
did it. There was a day when the Lord
Jesus Christ, our Savior, He traveled in the greatness of
His strength to become a man so He could be the representative
of His people. And as a man, he went through
his earthly ministry, traveling in the greatness of his strength.
And it was more than performing miracles and doing those things.
He did what no mere man could ever do. He obeyed God's law
perfectly. He established a perfect righteousness
by his obedience to the law. And then in His greatness, in
His might to save, He gave, freely gave that righteousness to His
people. Made them righteous in the end. And then He took the
sin of His people. And He made it His sin. He's
so great, He could bear all of the sin of all of His people
at one time. The Father made Him sin for us.
He was made a curse for His people. He was made a curse as the substitute
for His people. And in that great day of vengeance,
in that hour of ours, Christ our Savior suffered on the cross
in the greatness of His strength. In that day of vengeance, Christ
went into the winepress of God's wrath against sin, and He was
defrost by the justice of God. The punishment for all of the
sin, the hell that all of the sin of His people deserved, was
all poured out upon Christ our substitute and Christ our Savior. Traveling in the greatness of
His strength, He endured all that punishment. That eternal
punishment that would have destroyed you and me, He bore up under
it. He bore it all and put it all
away. No believer has to worry about
the fury of God against their sin. No believer has to worry
about drinking this cup of God's fury and being destroyed by it.
Because Christ our Savior already drank the dregs of it dry. He
tipped it upside down and drank it dry. God has no fury left
for any of His people because Christ took it away. He drank
it all dry. By His suffering, By his death,
Christ made an end of sin, put it away so that it's gone. He
destroyed the sin of his people forever. So now everyone for
whom Christ has died is free from sin, completely free. We're free from the punishment
of sin, free from the condemnation of sin, free from the ruling
power of sin. And one day Christ returns. And this day that Isaiah is writing
about here in chapter 63, And that day Christ returns, we're
going to be free from the very presence of sin forever. Because
Christ, our Savior, suffered for us as our substitute. He
trod that winepress alone. That winepress at Calvary, He
endured all that suffering alone. With the eye of faith, you look
at Him there at Calvary. He's alone. There is nobody with
him. His friends, his disciples, all
deserted. Peter swore, I'll die with you.
Peter's nowhere to be seen. Then his father deserted him.
His own father turned his back on him because of sin. Deserted
him and left him alone to do the job of redemption alone. You know what? That's all right.
He's up to the task. He doesn't need any help. He
was there in the greatness of His strength. He was left all
alone. That's alright. His own arm brought
salvation to Him and brought salvation to His people. His
zeal for His people, His love for His people is so deep, so
rich, that it gave Him zeal to cause Him to endure the suffering,
shame of the cross, so that He could make His people righteous.
And he did that in the greatness of his strength. You know what
that means? That Christ on a tree wasn't
trying to do anything. He wasn't trying to save anybody. No, in the greatness of his strength,
he saved everybody he died for. He didn't die in weakness. He
died in power. Christ's death was a death of
power. His death purchased the eternal
redemption of his people. He didn't try to save his people.
He saved them from their sin by his substitutionary death
for them. He put their sin away. He saved
them. He made them righteous. But here they are still on this
earth. One day he's coming to get them. When he returns, it
will be a day of damnation for the unbeliever. It will be a
day of damnation for those who refuse to believe on Christ. But that day is gonna be the
day of ultimate salvation, ultimate glorification, final redemption
of his people. Look how he refers to it here
in verse four. He says, for the day of vengeance is in my heart.
But he describes that day as the year of my redeemed has come. That day is a year for his redeemed. I looked at that and I believe
what Isaiah is referring to here is the year of jubilee. That
day is going to be the beginning of the year of jubilee, the eternal
day of jubilee for everyone that Christ died for. It's going to
be a day of freedom, an eternal day of rest in Christ. It'll
be the day that begins in eternity, worshiping Christ face to face,
perfectly. It's going to be the day when
He comes to gather all of those people that He set His love on
in eternity, that He died for at Calvary. He's gonna bring
them all together, gather them all together to Him for eternity. You see, both the salvation of
the consulate and the damnation of the unbeliever are sure because
Christ the Savior, He's mighty to save, mighty to save. He's
mighty to damn, but He's mighty to save. I pray the Lord be pleased
to grant us faith in Him. He's mighty to save. There's
no reason for us not to trust Him, is there? May God be pleased
to give us faith in Him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how we thank You
for Your Word. How we thank You for the many promises that we
read in Your Word that You are coming again to gather Your people
to Yourself. Father, we long for the day.
And until then, how we pray that You give us faith, faith to believe
Your Son, to rest in our Lord Jesus that You give us the faithfulness
to constantly and only preach Him. You give us the faith to
be taken up with the Lord Jesus Christ, to be taken up with His
cause. Father, I pray You'd bless Your Word as it's been preached, that You'd not let Your Word
fall on deaf ears and hard, stony ground, but that You'd cause
Your Word to fall upon soft ground that's been prepared by your
Spirit to receive the Word. In your Word, your people might
be able to see Christ traveling in the greatness of His strength
and in His majesty and glory and cause us to worship Him,
to look to Him and rest in Him and Him alone. While the world
has gone crazy around us, how thankful we are to know Our Savior
is on the throne. He's ruling and reigning everything
according to His divine purpose and will. And when it's time,
He's going to wrap this thing up and come to gather His people
to Him. Father, we thank You. Bless us
now.