Going back to Isaiah 63. Isaiah 63. I titled this message, Who is
this? Who is this great person? When Frank read this, I've read
this several times. I felt like standing up and raising
my hands. I got the answers. I can tell you who this is. It's
like as he read it. Did not your hearts burn within
you? You know. And then I thought of this scripture. Blessed are your eyes for they
see, and your ears for they hear. You know who this is. Without
me, before I even get into these verses, you know who I'm going
to talk about. And that is a blessing of God, that He's revealed the
gospel to you. He's revealed the Lord Jesus
Christ to you. Not just knowing some things
about Him, but to know Him. To know Him. Now back in chapter
62, at the end of that chapter, there's a proclamation made to
Zion. He says in verse 11 of 62, Behold,
the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye
to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh. Behold, his reward is with him.
Thy salvation is a person because he speaks immediately after that
of a person. His reward is with him and his
work before him. It is a real salvation that we
are speaking of here. A real salvation from sin. Most want to be saved from hell. Few people want to be saved from
sin. A few want to be saved from sin. And it's a real salvation
and it comes through a person. This one who's coming, whose
work is before him. It comes through a person. And
it leads to holiness. They shall be called, it says
there in verse 12, a holy people. And it is a salvation, listen,
by redemption, by purchase. We are a purchased people, bought
and paid for. You and I are bought and paid
for. And it's a complete salvation,
sought out and not forsaken. And he said, he's coming. He's
coming and he's worked before him. And then he starts out this
chapter with a question. And these verses, I'm telling
you, I know I'm not adequate to handle what's before me. He starts out and he says, who
is this? Who is this person? Speaking here of a person now.
Who is this glorious person? Let us first find out and know
this person. Who is this mighty conqueror?
We will not make any progress in salvation until we come to know this person,
until we come to know Him. Many saw Him. He walked on this
earth. Many saw Him. Many reached out
and just touched Him as He walked by. Many heard Him. But they didn't know Him. They
didn't know Him. I want to know Him. I want to
know who this person is. I want to be well acquainted
with Him. I want to be united to this person. Because salvation
is being joined to the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, I know whom
I have believed. I know Him. And then he said
in another place, O that I might know Him. I know Him. And O that
I might know Him. You cannot exhaust that. That's
why we can never preach too much of Christ. He's the wisdom of
God. You can't exhaust that. Who is
this? Well, I know this. He's no ordinary
man. This is no ordinary man. This is the captain of our salvation. This is Emmanuel, God with us. That's who this is. This is Emmanuel. This is Jesus Christ, the Son
of God. That's who He is. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Basra? Who is this glorious person
coming out innocent? Who is this one coming out of
the land of our enemies? Edom. That was the land of the
Edomites, which were the descendants of Esau, which were the enemies
of Israel. They were always against Israel.
Basra was the capital city of Edom. Who is this person coming
out of the land of our enemies with his garments dyed red? I'll
tell you this. This person, this person is none
other than God Almighty. This person is none other than
the Almighty God of heaven and earth. That's who He is. Who
is this long person coming from there? It's not, who are they? You know, when Cyrus went in
and fought against Babylon and set
Israel free. He went in with an army, didn't
He? He had a great host with Him. The Lord Jesus Christ did
it alone. He came into the land of our
enemies and by Himself purged us from our sins. By Himself. He didn't have a host with Him
helping Him. He did it by Himself. Purged us from our sins. Our
Lord Jesus came into this world of sin to redeem His people and
destroy His and our enemies by Himself. Who is this lone person
coming out of Edom? Dyed with red garments, as it
says there. Dyed red. What it's portraying
here is He's dyed red with the blood of His enemies. He's gone
into the land of our enemies and He's conquered them. And
it uses the metaphor down here as the wine fad. You know, back
in those old countries, they put grapes in the wine fad and
then they would get in and they would stomp those grapes. Is
there anything easier to stomp out than a grape? This world's no challenge for
him. This world's no challenge for our mighty conqueror. His
garments are dyed red, but I tell you this, it was not a problem.
It was not a problem for him. No, he was able. He's a mighty
conqueror. He's the mighty God. Here he comes out of this land
of Edom. He was in a great battle for
our souls. I tell you, it won't be until
then that we will have some real true comprehension of the battle
that our Lord fought for our souls. For us to be in His presence.
to capture us and take us home. He came to get His redeemed and
save them from their sins. Who is this glorious, He said,
in His apparel? The prophet sees Him coming.
And as he gets closer, he notices His apparel. Even His battle
garments, stained with the blood of His enemies, was glorious. He said, Who is this glorious
in His apparel? Stately. Stately in his going. He didn't come back with his
head hanging low. Stately as a mighty conqueror
all by himself coming out of the land of the battle. This
is a spiritual battle written in language that we can understand.
He went in and did battle with our enemies. He conquered them. And it says here, traveling traveling
in the greatness of his strength. Oh, I tell you, when they looked
at him, they saw a poor man. When he came to this world, they
saw a root out of dry ground. They saw a man whose beauty that
you wouldn't desire. They saw him as a weak man. My
friend, all the time, All the time He walked on this earth,
He traveled in the greatness of His strength. All the time. When He was in the wilderness,
40 days, 40 nights without water and without food. And Satan came
at Him at that point. Tried to get Him to make stone
into bread. Tried to get Him to fall down and worship Him.
He said, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world. We see Him in Gethsemane. Sweating great drops of blood.
We see him at Calvary. No doubt the enemy looked and
they said, we won. We have finally won the battle. We've done him in. No, he's traveling
in the greatness of his strength. That's what he's doing. Hanging
there on the cross, he's traveling in the greatness of his strength.
That's what he's doing. Look at Him. Oh, my soul. He's
the mighty God. He's the mighty conqueror. Jesus
Christ defeated all principalities and powers hanging on that cross. He's traveling in the greatness
of His strength. He's able to save. This one here
is able to save unto the uttermost. Then come unto God by Him, seeing
He ever lives, make intercessions for Him. He's the great and mighty
God. That's who this is. Who is this? Who's this One? I that speak in righteousness,
mighty to save. You know what that's saying?
The Word of God. Who is this? It's the Word of
God. Look over in Revelation 19. Revelation
19. Let me read starting in verse
11. And I saw heaven opened, and
behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called
Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire,
and on his head were many crowns, and he had a name written that
no man knew but He Himself. And He was clothed with a vesture
dipped in blood, dyed red. And His name is called the Word
of God, I that speak in righteousness. That's who it is. The Word of
God, that's who it is. Incarnate. That's who it is. Over in John chapter 1, he said
the Word was made flesh. and dwelt among us. Who is this?
I that speak." It's the Word of God. It's Jesus Christ. And
it says, "...and the armies which were in heaven followed him upon
white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, and out
of his mouth doth a sharp sword." It's a spiritual battle. He's
not going to fight with our weapons. All he needs to do is speak.
That's all he needs to do is speak. with 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 wide press of the fierceness
and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and
on his thigh a name written, King of kings and Lord of lords.
Who is this? It's the King of kings and it's
the Lord of lords. Mighty to save. My idea is to
say, not just from hell. That's what preachers for many
years, before I heard the gospel, before I heard Henry, our pastor,
preach. God's wanting to save you from
hell. He saved me from my sins. I don't have to worry about that.
You don't have to worry about the prison house if you're acquitted. If there's nothing against you,
you don't have to worry about it. People are worried about
the wrong things. They're concerned about the wrong
things. And most of that's a fault from the pulpit. They're trying
to scare people with a place called hell and they're not preaching
what we are by nature, sin. Take care of that problem and
you don't have anything to worry about. He's mighty to save through His blood
and righteousness. He's able to save. You know,
it doesn't say He's mighty to destroy. We know that. But here's
the comfort for Zion. He's mighty to save. He went
down and He conquered the enemies. And He's mighty to save us from
our sins. There's some people who, we're
all sinful. We all have the same wretched
nature. God just lets some go a little farther than others.
Openly in sin. But He's able to save to the
gutter most. I'd like to find some gutter
sinners. He's able to do that. Then he
says here in verse 2, Wherefore art thou red in thine
apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth in the wine-fat?
Why is thy garments dyed in red? Red is not your collar. You know
what red is? It's the collar of Esau. Red is the color of the earth.
Red is the color of man. It's the color of Adam. I read
a lot of different things on this today, but this one just
came to my mind. This one stuck with me as I was
reading this. Red is not his color. Red is
my color. Go back and see what Adam was
made of. You know what it says? The red earth. I know he's talking
here about the blood of his enemies, but I want to throw this in.
Christ's color is white. As it says, whiter than no four
can make it. Righteousness, pure, holy. But in order for Him to redeem
us from our sins, He must become red. He must become a man. He must become a man. He must
clothe Himself in flesh even though it's a spiritual battle.
He must step inside the wine vat as a servant. The owners
didn't step inside the wine vat, the servants did. They stepped
in and squashed those grapes. Christ became a servant. He became a man, was found in
fashion as a servant, found in fashion as a man, and he stepped
in this wine vat. And He by Himself stamped out
our sins. Stamped out our enemies. Crushed
in this wine fat. You can picture it in your mind.
In this wine fat. All these grapes in there. In this wine fat. He
stamps out our sins, but He crushes Satan's head while he's in there.
There's a battle going on in this wine fat. Boy, that you
and I can't comprehend it in His flesh. But he steps in there
and he stamps out our sins, stamps out Satan, stamps out our enemies.
And all the while, satisfies God's justice on our behalf.
Doing the will of God. He must enter the battlefield
himself. He must come from glory and stand
on the battlefield. Because he said that this battle
is not yours, it's the Lord's. And he must come and stand on
the battlefield and take on every one of our foes and every one
of his foes and put an end to it. And he says here in verse
3, the captain of our salvation speaks. I have trodden the winepress
alone, and of the people there was none with me. He entered
the battle in this matter of salvation, in this matter of
satisfying God's justice, in this matter of putting away our
sins, he did it alone. Without our help. Without our
help. Any help from human hands. He did it alone. There were none
who was able to assist Him in this battle. We cannot assist
Him in this battle. Can't do it. I'll tell you why. Because we were enemies in our
minds by wicked works. We were shooting at Him. We were
shooting at the One who was saving us. We were shooting at the one
who was conquering. At one time, we did. He did this alone. Peter said,
No, you're not going to die. You're not going to the cross.
Peter said, Satan, get behind me. Oh, you don't know what's
going on, Peter. No. There's none able to assist
him in this battle. This battle is the Lord's because
salvation is all on His shoulders. I've laid hell before one that's
mighty. Salvation is all of God. All of it. And let me note this. It talks
about His garments being dyed with red. Not just with the blood
of His enemies, but with His blood. His blood. His own blood had to be shed
in this battle. in order to save us from our
sins. Who would have thought? Who would have thought that his greatest weapon, when they
looked at him, they saw a poor man. Who would have thought that his
greatest weapon was the blood flowing through his veins? Who
would have thought that? Who would have thought that his
greatest weapon in this matter of salvation and defeating our
enemies was giving up his own life? God's ways are not our
ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts.
We'd have never thought of that. That's why we missed it. That's
why they missed it. If we shed our blood, we die. He sheds His blood. His blood
is shed. We live. We live. And He says here in
verse 3 and 4 concerning His enemies and our enemies, He says,
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 raiments, for the day of vengeance is in my heart. In my heart, there's a day of
judgment coming. It's coming. There is a day of
judgment coming. And the year of my redeemed has
come. But this is the day of grace.
This is the day of mercy. There's a day of judgment coming.
The wrath of the Lamb is coming. Men are going to weep and wail
over their torments. I want you to turn back to Revelation
14. This is going to happen. In Revelation 14, verse 6, And I saw another angel fly in
the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people, saying with a loud voice, Fear God,
and give glory to him, for the hour of his judgment is come.
and worship Him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the
fountains of waters. And there followed another angel,
saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because
she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her
fornication. And the third angel followed
them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast
in his image and receive his mark in his forehead or in his
hand, the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God,
which is poured out without mixture, without mercy, into the cup of
his indignation. And he shall be tormented with
fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the
presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment
ascendeth up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or
night. who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever
receiveth the mark of his name." Judgment! That's really going
to happen. Judgment. But now listen. There's good news. The year of
my redeemed has come. There's redemption. There is
redemption for sinners. Today is a day of salvation.
Now is the accepted time. Harden, he says, not your hearts.
Don't do that. Like all other years, this one
will come to an end. But until then, we'll preach
the everlasting gospel. We'll preach that everlasting
gospel to sinners. And I say to sinners, come before
the close of the year. Then he said here in verse 5,
And I looked, and there was none to help. No one stepped forward. That's like John when he was
in heaven and had the book there. There was no one worthy to open
the book. And he said, I wept because there was no one found
worthy. There was no one here that could step forward and help.
He was forsaken by all when the battle begun. You remember that
night when they came to get him, Judas betrayed him with a kiss.
They all left him. They all left him. No one. And I looked. Not that he needed help. He didn't
need help. He's showing us who we are. I looked and there was none to
help. Nope, there's none to help. Therefore mine own arm. He didn't
need mine. He didn't need mine. My own arm brought salvation
unto me, and my fury it upheld me. My own power. By His power
He redeemed us. By His power He saves us. By
His power. And He went forth to battle with
great zeal. Great zeal. He says, zeal, thine
house hath eaten me up. His fury, His zeal upheld Him. Greatly desiring to do the will
of God. Greatly desiring to redeem His people from their sins. I'm not going to go through all
these verses here. He says, I will tread down the
people in mine anger. That's His enemies. And I'll make them drunk in my
fury. They'll stagger to and fro and not know what to do.
And I'll bring down their strength. I'll make them feeble. I'll bring
them down to the earth. But then listen here in verse
6, or verse 7. I'll make mention, I will mention
the loving kindness of the Lord. Oh, we see this great warrior
coming out of this battle. His clothes, his vesture dipped
in blood, dyed red. But there never was such a loving
person. There never was. such a meek and lowly person
as this one right here, who delights to show mercy, who delights to show his loving
kindness to sinners. You wouldn't think, you would
not think that such a mighty conqueror would be so loving,
would you? You wouldn't think that. And
all of this It's for His great goodness to us. It's because
of His great goodness to us. I will mention the loving kindness
of the Lord and the praise of the Lord according to all that
the Lord has bestowed on us. I tell you what, God's destruction of the wicked,
God's destruction of all unbelievers is a mercy to us. It's a display of God's loving
kindness to us. If a mad dog entered this room, it would be
a great mercy to you if I'd shoot it. When he casts a great whore
into hell, when he casts all men and women into hell, the
whole host of heaven is going to shout, hallelujah. And it will be an act of God's
kindness and goodness to us, his children. All of this is for us. As He
said there in verse 8, He was their Savior. He is the destruction of some.
He's the Savior of some. The Savior of life and the life
of some. The Savior of death and the death of some. There
are those who are going to dread seeing Him. They're going to
cry for the mountains and the rocks to fall on them and hide
them from the face of the Lamb, but they're going to be some
rejoice. I mean, He's going to be admired by all those who believe. He's going to be admired by some. Oh, He's their Savior. I'm going
to read verse 9 and I'm going to quit. In all their affliction,
He was afflicted. We have One who is able to identify
with us. merciful high priest who can
be touched with the feelings of our infirmities and the angel
of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity. He
redeemed them. Oh my. And he bared them and
he carried them all the days of old. My what a, who is this? I haven't touched and I'm telling
you I haven't touched it. Who is this mighty conqueror? Jesus Christ of Nazareth. That's who this is. Okay, Mike.