Now remember, this Sunday we're
just going to have the one service at 10 o'clock. So those who are
not here, you might want to tell them, Henry Dorsey, see them.
They may show up on the second service and we won't have one.
So we want to make sure we pass that on. Isaiah 50. This chapter here has to do with
the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is Christ speaking throughout
this chapter. This is our Lord speaking here,
not just Isaiah, but this is our Lord speaking here throughout
this chapter. And He's going to answer an accusation that
the Jews have made of being cast off. They're claiming that they
have been cast off, especially after His resurrection. You know,
the Roman army came in and pretty much just decimated Jerusalem
and destroyed it. and scattered them. And this
is a charge that God has forsaken them. He's cast them off. So
our Lord is speaking here in this prophecy in chapter 50.
He says, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement? In
other words, produce the papers that says that I divorced you. Produce the document that says
that I have cast you off. You know, back in that day, if
a man was going to divorce his wife, he just gave her a bill
of divorce and of writing as to why he divorced her and sent
her on her way. I mean, they would get a divorce back then
over just about anything. I mean, a man just didn't, if
he didn't like the way she dressed or whatever, he could just send
her on her way. And that's what he's saying here. He said, produce
the paper or the documents that says, I sent you away, that I
have divorced, that I have separated myself from you. You produce
that paper. And to which of my creditors have I sold you? Who am I in debt to? Who am I
in such debt to that I have sold my children into slavery to satisfy
that debt?" He said, who am I in debt to? The root of the problem
here, and he addresses the root of the problem, here it is, your
inequities. You sold yourself. He said, let's
get this matter straightened out. You sold yourself. Here's
the problem. Here's the root of the problem.
You sold your iniquities and your transgressions. For them,
you've sold yourselves. As it says in Isaiah 59, your
sins and your iniquities have separated you from your God.
The problem is not with me, God. It's with you. He says it's with
you. It's with man. Man has no one
to blame but himself, does he? No one to blame but himself.
For all his troubles, all the troubles in the world, man has
no one to blame for but himself. People want to blame God for
their troubles or they want to blame the devil. And it's us. Where's the us? The devil gets
blamed for a lot of things he doesn't do. It's our human nature. I'm telling you, we do things
just by our human nature, or what we are, that Satan has nothing
to do with. It's us, or they'll either blame
God. But I'm telling you, it's hard
to get someone to say, I'm guilty. It's the hardest thing in the
world to get a man, go to prisons. The prison's full of innocent
people, isn't it? Everyone in there has an excuse as to why
they do what they do, or they got framed or something, but
try to find a man that says, I'm guilty. I am that man's God. That's the work of God to do
that. Adam and everyone since has forsaken God. He said, you
sold yourselves. The problem is with you. Wherefore,
when I came, when I came in the flesh, when the Son of God, God
Almighty, became incarnate and He came in the flesh, He said,
there was no man. There was no man waiting on me.
There's no man looking for me. There's no man listening to me.
There was no man. He came in mercy and none wanted
mercy. He came in truth and no one wanted
to hear the truth. No one wanted to hear it. Christ
came into the world and it rejected Him. He came unto His own and
His own rejected Him. That's right. He was the most
rejected man that's ever lived in this world. The most rejected. The Old Testament says, someone's
coming. And when he came, he was despised
and rejected of men. Now listen, no one was glad to
see him but those that he made glad. No one was willing to bow
to him but those whom he made willing. If he did not make us
willing to bow to him, no one would. We'd all turn thumbs down
on him. We'd all run him off. If He didn't
make us willing, if He didn't make us glad, He's the one that
has to do it. And when I called, was there none to answer? He
says, none. He says, none. He called to the marriage feast,
and you know what they said? I've got married. I've bought
a piece of land. I can't come. I've got a new
wife. I've got to stay home. I've got
busy. Too busy. Too busy to listen
to God. Too busy to pay attention to
God. Too busy to listen to His Word. That's what they say. I'm
too busy. Just too busy. When I called,
he said, you were too busy. He said this, oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
how often would I have gathered you together as the hen gathers
her brood, and you would not. You wouldn't have anything to
do with me. He called by the Gospel, but
none would happen. except those whom he made willing."
Those disciples that he went around and he chose, and he said,
come follow me. They were made willing, and that's
the reason they followed him. And that's the only reason they
followed him. But he says, when I came, there was no man. When
I called, no one would answer. No one would answer me. No one
wanted anything to do with me. Is my hand shortened that it
cannot save? Or have I no power to deliver?
Is my hand withered? Is my hand weak that it can't
save? Is man in the state that he's
in because of the lack of power in Christ? Is that the reason
that the whole human race is in trouble? Is it because Christ
doesn't have the power to deliver man? Is that why? Did Adam fall? Did Adam fall because Christ
could not save him? Because Christ did not have the
power to deliver him from Satan's attack? Is that the reason? No. No, he said, listen, he said,
it's not a lack of power in me. Behold, at my rebuke, at my word,
he said, at my word, I dried up the sea. No, he said, if you want to talk
about power, If you want to talk about a lack of power here, he
said, let's look at my power. I dried up, I split the sea. I divided the sea. I dried up
the river. He dried up Jordan. He said,
I made their fish to sink. He said, I made it all dry. I
had the power. At my what? At my rebuke. At
my word, they obeyed me. There's no lack of power in God.
It's not from a lack of power in our Lord, not at all. Scripture
says, Come, behold the works of the Lord, what desolations
he hath made in the earth. I tell you, you look at some
of this. You go look at the earth and look at the Grand Canyon.
Look at these things that God's made. Look over history at the
desolations, at the countries and stuff that God has destroyed
and wiped out and exists no more. All that is at His rebuke, at
His word. Don't blame God. Don't blame
God for your troubles. He said, I've got the power. The trouble is sin and man and
the sinfulness of man. That's the trouble. At His word, man's situation
is not from a lack of power on Christ's part, but it's because
of sin on man's part. That's the truth. He said that's
the truth. It's because of sin on man's
part. He says this in verse 3. I close
the heavens. He continues with his power.
He continues here taking our minds off of these things and
putting them on his power. I close the heavens with blackness. And I make sackcloth their covering.
In Egypt for three days it was darkness, wasn't it? Just three
days of total darkness. You know who created that darkness? The Lord Jesus Christ. That's
who did it. The Lord Jesus Christ. He's the
one, the one they rejected, the one they despised, is the one
who closed the heavens with blackness. And he said, and sackcloth was
their covering. Sackcloth. Christ is able by
His Word to cover the heavenly lights. Can you imagine that? We can go over here and turn
the lights out in here. He can turn them out in heaven. He can
cover the sun as great as it is. He can cover the face of
the sun, and this earth wouldn't have light at all. The Lord Jesus
Christ can do that. He can do that. When Christ died
on the cross, there was darkness over the land for three hours,
right in the middle of the day. There was darkness over the land. Oh, He said, I clothe the heavens
with blackness, and I make sackcloth their covering. And then he describes
himself, after telling them of his power, of his ability. And he says here in verse 4,
the Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned. This is Christ
our prophet. Now he's speaking of himself
as the prophet. He's that prophet that Moses
spoke of that should come, that they rejected and despised. If
we know anything of God, if we know anything at all, truly,
of who God is, it'll be through Christ. It'll be through the
Lord Jesus Christ revealing Him to us. No man knows the Father
save the Son. And He too, soever, the Son will
reveal Him. He said this, As I hear, I speak. As I hear, I speak. I have the
tongue of the learned. I speak not of myself, but I
speak the words of him that sent me. He never spoke. Our Lord never spoke an idle
word. I mean, I speak a lot of idle
words. You could probably take half
my conversation every day just throwing it in the trash. Well,
you could probably take more than that. You could probably
take about 90% of it. You really could. I mean, that's serious.
You could probably take about 90% of what I talk about every day and
toss it in the trash. Not a word came out of his mouth that wasn't
full of wisdom and truth. I just can't comprehend that.
Every word that dropped from his lip had eternal meaning to
it. He said, I have the tongue of
the learned. The best teacher is the one who
has learned the lesson that he's teaching. That's the best teacher.
The one who's learned by experience the lesson that he's going to
teach. That's how he can speak a word
in season. He said here that he can speak a word in season
to him that's weary. That's how he can do it. He can
speak the gospel of peace and power to the sin-weary soul. He can do that. He's the God
of all comfort. He's the God of all grace, the
Lord Jesus Christ. He experienced, I can't say this,
but Christ will say this, He experienced Everything, every
lesson he taught. Every lesson he taught, everything
he spoke, he experienced it. He knew it by experience. That's
how he can comfort. That's how he can be touched
with the feelings of our infirmities. Because he experienced everything
he taught. Every lesson. And listen here. He wakeneth morning by morning. He wakeneth my ear to hear as
to learn. God is saying this. God the Father
woke me up every morning. My Heavenly Father woke me up
every morning and instructed me. I wish I could say that. He woke me up early, I'd say
before anyone else in the house was awake. He was being instructed,
even as a child. Morning by morning, as a child. You know, when he was 12 years
old, he was standing in the temple just dumbfounding those scribes
and Pharisees. They were just dumbfounded. Morning
by morning, he was instructed and taught by the Father. What
a teacher. What a teacher. That's what happened. When I read this over in Proverbs,
it just caught my attention over here today. Let's go back over
here to Proverbs chapter 3. I never thought about this before,
but let me see if I can find it again. It's just a thought that came
to me this evening before I was leaving to come here. He said,
My son, forget not my law, but let thine heart keep my commands. Reply that to Christ, the Father
speaking to Christ. That happened with him. My son,
forget not my law. He didn't. He obeyed the law
perfectly, didn't he? Every day he was reminded of
the law. Every day he was mindful of it. Every day. For let the
days of long life and peace shall they add to thee. Where is he
at now? Seated at the right hand of God. Seated there. Let not mercy and
truth forsake thee. They didn't. In fact, they kissed
at the cross. Bind them about thy neck. Write
them upon the table of thine heart. This is God. This is the
Father instructing His Son. I've never seen it like that
before. This is the Father instructing
His Son. He said He opened my ear morning
by morning. Boy, when I started seeing that
today, and I look at Proverbs, I look at the Proverbs in a whole
different light. He says, so shalt thou find favor
and good understanding in the sight of God and man. And he's
finding that now. Look here sitting. Look here
sitting. Here are men and women bleeding.
Men and women that's not rejecting Him now. He's found favor with
us. Why? Because He's given us favor.
That's why. Trusting the Lord with all thine
heart. Who did that perfectly? Christ did. And lean not into
thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him,
and He shall direct thy path." Who did that perfectly? He did. He did. I don't think I'm misapplying
that. He said, He's waking up with
me morning by morning. He instructs me. Out of His Word,
He instructs me. God the Father was His teacher,
not man. Not Joseph, not Mary. I know they taught him some things.
He taught them more than they ever taught him, I guarantee
you. But the Father, the Heavenly
Father was His teacher. He learned early from a child.
He learned. He's that prophet. He's that
prophet that learned of God and revealed Him to us. And listen. He wakened me morning by morning.
He wakened my ear to hear as to learn, and I was not rebellious.
Have you ever woke up your children and told them what you're going
to do? Say, I need you to do this, this is what you're going
to do today. Especially when it gets to be
teenagers. You just shoot them. I'll tell you, you just soon
don't wake him up, really. You just soon let him sleep. You
can get it done better if you just stay asleep, and you do.
You know I'm telling you the truth. If you've raised teenagers.
But he was waking every morning, morning by morning, instructed
by his Father. And listen, I was not rebellious. Obedient son. What an obedient
son. He submitted to the instruction
of His Father. And I tell you this, none of
us will ever have to do and endure what He was instructed to do
and endure. Never. He's a willing Savior. Christ loved His Father. And
He loved His people, us, His elect. And He loved to do the
will of His Father. He said, My meat! When he woke up in the morning,
he was eager to do the will of his Father. I was not that. I wasn't eager
to wake up and do that. My dad could tell you that. Boy, he was. He was eager to
do the will of his Father, which included great suffering. Suffering that you and I will
never suffer who believe God. and cannot ever comprehend, really,
the suffering that he suffered. And he says this, I was not rebellious.
I gave my back. Here's the instructions. Son,
you're going to be the substitute. You're the redeemer. This is
what you're going to have to endure. This is the suffering.
This is what's going to have to happen. And he says, I gave
my back to the smithers. The same one that parted the
sea, the same one that clothed heaven with blackness and sacked
off at its covering, the same one who spoke at his rebuke,
at his word, he said, the sea parted. The same one gave his
back to the spiders. Same one, same person. He said
in the Scriptures, a body hath thou prepared for me. A body
to suffer and die in. That's what he prepared for him. A body that I could suffer and
die in for my people. His back was made for the Sniders. His back. Now, our backs weren't
made for that. His back was made for that. Here
it is, have at it. Here it is, have at it. That's
what it was made for. It was made for that. Because by His
stripes, by the stripes on His back, by the lashing and the
whipping and the sufferings He took, we are healed. We are healed. His cheeks, He
says, for them that pluck off the hair, How painful that had
to be. He said, I grew this beard. This
beard is for them to pluck out. This body is for suffering. This
body that I have come into, this body that I have taken, this
body of humanity that I have assumed is for suffering. That's what it's for, isn't it?
I don't like to suffer. I'd avoid it. I'd avoid suffering
like a plague. If I can, I will. But he came
meeting me head on. He knew that's what he was here
for. They pulled the hair out of his face. And you really have
to hate somebody to do that, don't you? You really have to
hate someone to reach over, just like me reach over and grab Luke's
beard and just rip it out of his face. That's what they did.
That's what they did. He must suffer this way in order
to save sinners. No other way. No other way. He must endure our punishment
and our suffering. And listen, I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. Spit in the face of the one who
clothed the heavens. Spit in the face of the one who
parted the sea. Spit in the face of the one who
gave them the ability to do it. Spit in the face of the one who
gives them their daily bread. Spit in his face. That's probably
the lowest of the lowest. I was watching TV once and they
was program on and they was shooting everybody and people getting
shot and killed. I was sitting there watching
and a guy spit in a man's face. I went, ooh. I didn't do that
when they were shooting everybody. But I thought, oh man. To me,
that's just worse than getting shot. I mean, I had more reaction
off of that than I did from people being shot. They spit in his
face, cleared their throat. I'm not trying to get gross here,
but they cleared their throat, and you know what it says? He
didn't turn his face. Knowing this is God. This is
God who knows all things. He knows every minute thing that's
going to happen. He knew before they ever cleared
their throats that they were going to do this. And He didn't
turn His face. He stood right there and let
it happen. Let it happen. He knew they'd spit in His face
and He didn't turn from it. He endured the cross and despised
the shame, but He didn't turn from it. He did not turn from
it. Not one time did He back down. Not one time did He back down.
And here's His strength. Here's why He didn't back down
also. He says in verse 7, For the Lord God will help me. This
should always be our strength in trouble right here. The Lord
God will help me. He will help me. As a man, listen,
as a man, he trusted God perfectly. He trusted God perfectly. And
even that is laid to the account of God's elect. His perfect faith. We are saved by His faithfulness.
If we want to talk about faith, if you really want to talk about
faith, let's talk about His. It was perfect. He said, the
Lord God will help me. And the hour could not have been
any darker. You and I will never see a dark
hour like he saw. And he never once doubted God. Not like these Jews who are accusing
him of cashing him off. He said, well, then produce the
divorce papers if that's so. He never doubted God in the darkest
hours. When he said, my God, my God,
while Thou forsaken me, he still at that hour did not doubt that
he would get help. He didn't doubt. And he knew
that though he suffered shame, he knew that he would not be
ashamed when it's over. He knew that. He says there,
I know that I shall not be ashamed. I know that. And he says here, because of
this, I have set my face like a flint. Boy, that's determination,
isn't it? Satan tried to turn him. Satan
got him in the wilderness when he was hungry for 40 days without
food or anything. And he came at him with full
force. You and I, I said this the other day, you and I have
never, ever, ever dealt with the full force of Satan. Christ
dealt with the full force of him. And he never wavered. He never buckled. He never backed
up. He never showed even an ounce.
Even when you read the Scripture, he never shows an ounce of weakness,
does he? Never. He said, I've set my face like
a flint. I tell you this, if a person
believes in what they're doing, you'll do it. Even in the natural
realm. You go out here in the natural
realm, you come up against somebody that really believes they can
do it? Well, you've got something on your hands. Even in the natural
realm. He believed. Determined. Here's
what he was. Determined to get the job done.
This is why most people fail at what they do. They're not
determined. They don't have the determination
to see it through. When the road gets a little rough,
they quit. It's always easier for humanity to take the least
path of resistance. Our Lord met the roughest road
and never looked back. Never looked back. And then here
in verse 8 he says this, He is near that justifies me. He kept
His eye on God, didn't He? all the way through this whole
process of redeeming and suffering. He never took his eye off of
God, his Father. He never took his eye off of
Him. He is near, he says, that justifies me. And if God justifies
me, who can condemn me? Anybody above God? He said if
He justifies me, who can condemn me? Nobody. No man is going to
condemn me. God's the one I have to be concerned
with. He's the one I have to be concerned with. God, He says,
will vindicate me in the end. When this is all said and done,
God's going to vindicate me. Who will contend with me? Who
can stand and look me in the eye and charge me and make it
stick? Let all the adversaries and enemies
come and take me on. Step in the ring. That's what
I get here. Step in the ring. Step in here. Anybody can charge me. Anybody
can think they can make this stick. It's He that justifies
me is near. He that justifies me is near.
Who can challenge my righteousness? Who can find the flaw in it?
Who can challenge my blood? It's the blood of God. So it
says in Acts, It was purchased by the blood of God. Who can
challenge my blood? Who can find a spot or a wrinkle
in my work? If God didn't find one in it,
nobody is going to find one in it. God is all searching. God doesn't miss a thing. I mean,
he sees every minute detail. He sees every motive of the heart. He sees every thought of the
heart. And when he looked at Christ,
he said, this is my beloved Son whom I am well pleased. Who shall condemn me, he said. And who shall condemn those whom
I died for? Nobody. Nobody can. And notice here in verse 9, His
confidence again. It just keeps coming out. And
the more He suffers, the more His confidence comes out, doesn't
it? Really, the more we suffer, the more our weakness comes out.
The more our weakness comes out, the more our character really
shows up when we start to suffer. But boy, the more He suffered,
the more His confidence, it's just like a phantom getting hold
of those gates at Gaza and just putting them up on His shoulders
and going up on top of the hill with them. The more he suffered,
the stronger he stood. He said, Behold, the Lord God
will help me. As a man, he needed his father's
help, and he got it. I mean, this is a great mystery
here. We can't explain all these things.
He's God. He's God Almighty. He's God in
human flesh. And yet, he shows his dependence
upon God. When he was hungry, Satan said,
turn those stones into bread. Not one time, not one time during
his earthly life, earthly walk on this world, not one time did
he ever use his divine power to relieve his sufferings. Not
one time. You know why? Because I can't.
I can't. And so he endured everything
that I can. I can't relieve my sufferings. I can't turn those
stones into bread. And he didn't either. He didn't either. And notice here what he says
here in verse 9. Behold, the Lord God will help me. Who is
he that shall condemn me? Lo, they all shall wax old as
the garment the moth shall eat them up. Everyone shall wax old. Generation after generation is
going to come and go, and they're all going to cast aspersions
on me, and they're going to make light of this and that. He said
they're going to be like garments. They're just going to grow old
and die. But I'm the same. I change not. His years shall
not fail, it says over in Hebrews. His years shall not fail. He
changes not. Everyone's going to come against
Him and they're going to try to condemn Him and say all kinds
of things about Him. He said that everyone's going
to grow old and die, but I'm not. I'll still be here. I'll
be here when they're all gone. I'll be here. Who is among you
now? Now, who is among you that fears
the Lord, that obeys the voice of His Son, that walketh in darkness
and hath no light? Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon his God. Who among you has been born of
God? You've been taught what sin is.
You've been taught what sin is. And you know something of spiritual
darkness. You know something of that now. And you know something of your
need of mercy. If you've been born of God, you know it. You
know it. He says, let that person, let
that person trust in the name of the Lord and stay at His confidence. Stay upon His God. You know,
the name reveals the person. Let him cast his whole self upon
me." That's what he's saying. When you cannot see for darkness,
trust Him who is light. Trust Him who is light. When
you cannot see which way to go, trust Him who is wisdom, who is infinite wisdom, who never
does any wrong, who is good and loving. He says this, Trust in God. And that's who He is. To trust
God is to trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, let that child
trust in God. And after all you, He says here
in verse 11, after all you that kindle a fire, and you accomplish
yourself about with your own sparks, And you walk in the light
of your own campfire, you may be a little fire, but you can't
get too far from that, the light doesn't last long. He said, but
you walk in the light of your fire, the fire that you made,
and in the sparks that you have kindled, this is what you're going to
have of me. When all is said and done, you're going to lie
down in sorrow. Everyone who does not trust in
the name of the Lord. Everyone who does not find Christ
to be all that they need, to find Him to be there all in all,
he said, they are going to lie down in sorrow. This is what
they are going to have at my hand. Everybody thinks that when
they die, somehow or another, they are going to make it. It's going to be alright. He
says this, Those who walk in their own fire, their own sparks,
their own religion, their own righteousness. That's what that
is. Your own righteousness, your own religion, your own understanding.
He says, they're going to lie down in sorrow. This is what
I'm going to give them. This is what they're going to have.
And you know, we've got to tell people that. We've got to tell
people the truth. Those who are not in Christ,
he said, will perish. Those who are not in Him will
perish. Those in Him? We have all that belongs to Him. We have
all that belongs to Him. Okay, Mike.