We're in Isaiah chapter 63 and
we're going to read the whole chapter. Hi to Kathleen, good
to see you. We're going to read the whole
chapter beginning at verse one. Who is this that cometh from
Edom with dyed garments from Bozrah? This that is glorious
in his apparel, travelling in the greatness of his strength,
I that speak in righteousness, mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, and thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine-fat? 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. For the day of vengeance is in
mine heart, and the year of my redeemed is come. 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. And 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. I will mention
the loving-kindnesses of the Lord, and the praises of the
Lord according to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us, and
the great goodness toward the house of Israel, which he hath
bestowed on them according to his mercies and according to
the multitude of his loving-kindnesses. For he said, Surely they are
my people, children that will not lie, so he was their Saviour. and in all their affliction he
was afflicted. And the angel of his presence
saved them in his love and in his pity he redeemed them and
he bared them and carried them all the days of old. But they
rebelled and vexed his Holy Spirit. Therefore he was turned to be
their enemy and he fought against them. Then he remembered the
days of old, Moses and his people, saying, Where is he that brought
them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock? Where
is he that put his Holy Spirit within him? that led them by
the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the
water before them to make himself an everlasting name, that led
them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they should
not stumble. As a beast goeth down into the
valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest, so didst
thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name. Look down from heaven and behold
from the habitation of thy holiness and of thy glory, where is thy
zeal and thy strength, the sounding of thy bowels and of thy mercies
toward me? Are they restrained? Doubtless
thou art our Father, though Abraham be ignorant of us and Israel
acknowledge us not. Thou, O Lord, art our Father,
our Redeemer. Thy name is from everlasting. O Lord, why hast thou made us
to err from thy ways and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return,
for thy servants' sake, the tribes of thine inheritance. The people
of thy holiness have possessed it but a little while. Our adversaries
have trodden down thy sanctuary. We are thine. Thou never bearest
rule over them. They were not called by thy name. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word. Once again, as often before as
we have made our studies through this book of Isaiah, this prophecy
of Isaiah, we find ourselves reflecting upon just how much
detailed understanding was given to the Old Testament remnant
people concerning the coming Messiah and the accomplishments
of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life and ministry. Isaiah often supplies glimpses
of the suffering servant, but his writing also emphasises the
glory and the success that would follow Christ's death. What to human eyes seemed like
failure, the taking and the judgement and the beating and then the
crucifying of the Lord Jesus Christ. It seemed like a failure
at the end of his ministry to those who observed, to those
who witnessed. What seemed to human eyes like
failure, Isaiah is telling us in the divine purpose was complete
success. That's what this chapter, this
passage is about. Yes, the Lord would suffer and
die. And yet in death, there would
be victory. In suffering, there would be
triumph. And the Old Testament people
were appraised of this fact. Christ's own disciples assumed
that Christ's death was the end of the road for their activities
with him. Peter told the others that he
was going back to the fishing. He went back and got his boat. After three years travelling
around with the Lord, he went back and got his boat. They all
thought that Christ's death was the end of the road, when in
reality it was just the opening up of a new and living way. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 20 says,
a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us Through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh. Because of his death,
because of his dying, he opened up, he successfully opened up
a new and living way. And here, Isaiah, having written
of Christ's death, now speaks of Christ coming forth as a conquering
warrior from the land of Edom. his garments red with blood. Nor, indeed, is Isaiah alone
amongst the Old Testament prophets in seeking to convey to these
Old Testament believers the victory that would ensue from the Saviour's
sacrifice. These believers understood so
much of the coming, or at least they had it at their fingertips
in the manuscripts, in the testimonies, in the writings of these prophets.
They had delivered to them the insights and understandings of
these works of Christ. Hosea, for example, says in chapter
13 and verse 14 of his prophecy, these words, I will ransom them
from the power of the grave. I will redeem them from death. O death, I will be thy plagues. O grave, I will be thy destruction. Repentance shall be hid from
mine eyes. So as Isaiah sees the coming
of the Lord Jesus Christ, as it were, red with blood from
the land of the enemies of Israel. And as Hosea and other Old Testament
prophets saw that the Lord Jesus Christ would be a plague on death,
that he would destroy death. So we understand that these Old
Testament saints were given the whole gospel. concerning the
coming Messiah. And it will do us, even today,
no harm to realise how all-encompassing the death of the Lord Jesus Christ
was, in first securing and then supplying to us, to his people,
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places. Paul tells us that because
the Lord Jesus Christ died, we have redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. But
then he goes on to say that because he rose again, death is swallowed
up in victory. So we can say with Paul, O death,
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? And Isaiah is here presenting
to the people of his age and to us the success and achievements
of the Saviour in what is revealed in these opening verses. Neither
Isaiah nor the remnant believers among the Old Testament Jews
to whom he wrote were ignorant of the breadth of the accomplishments
of the one for whom they looked and for the Messiah in whom they
placed their trust. Our chapter here today divides
neatly into three, I suggest. And I propose simply to take
a view of the saviour from each of the three sections. The first one from verses one
to six. the second one from verses 7 to 14, and the third one from
the final section from 15 to the end of the chapter. I'm going
to particularly speak about verse 4. verse eight and nine, and
then lastly, verse 17. And draw some truths, I trust,
from these verses that will point to the Lord Jesus and his success
within his sacrifice. So may the Lord give us eyes
to see the Saviour in these passages. The first thing I want to draw
your attention to is verse four and it says this, for the day
of vengeance is in mine heart and the year of my redeemed is
come. So what are we seeing here? We
are seeing that not only was this a time for redemption, but
it was also a day of vengeance that was being spoken of by the
Lord. In shedding his own blood, the
Lord Jesus symbolically shed the blood of his enemies as well. Now, I've used the word symbolically
there and I need to explain that. I say symbolically, not because
the victory over the enemies of God was less than real, it
was a real victory, but because the Saviour did not fight against
physical foes. For example, when the Lord Jesus
Christ was dying, his victory over his enemies was not a victory
over the Jews or over the Romans or over the peoples that these
Old Testament believers would have known, the Babylonians or
the Assyrians. It wasn't that kind of victory. The Lord Jesus Christ really
and truly shed his own blood, but the blood of the enemy was
the spiritual enemies. The spiritual enemies of Christ,
the spiritual enemies of his people, the spiritual enemies
of his church, who must be divested of their claim of dominion over
his church and people. You see, Satan felt that he had
a claim to our flesh, to our bodies, to our lives, even to
our souls because of the fall of Adam. And though the Lord
Jesus Christ suffered and died under justice and judgement of
God, for our sins. Satan too had to be relieved
of the prize that he claimed and the Lord went to battle with
our spiritual enemies on the cross as well. He who bore our
sins and carried our sorrows secured our redemption by his
death, and was raised again for our justification. The Lord Jesus
Christ had laid upon him the iniquities of us all. And under that weight of sin
and guilt, the Lord Jesus suffered and bled. Under the condemnation
of the law, he died. He settled our debt, he paid
our ransom, he redeemed our souls, he washed us from our sins in
his own blood. And this sin-atoning, substitutionary
death was a key aspect and element of Christ's work on the cross. but let us realise it was by
no means the full extent of Christ's work on the cross. There was
much more to it even than that major aspect of the substitutionary
atonement of the saviour for his people. Christ's death also glorified
God's holiness. It satisfied divine justice. It placated divine wrath. It honoured the law. It realised
God's promises. It vindicated the Old Testament
prophets. It fulfilled all the types and
symbols. It supplied all the spiritual
needs of God's elect. It brought liberty to the captives,
joy to the sorrowful, peace to troubled hearts, beauty to the
spoiled and marred of soul. It won for all Christ's people
a covering of perfect righteousness. It gained for us holy garments
fit for glory and the presence of God, pure white robes. It manifested the glory of God. It revealed his love, his mercy,
his grace, and his truth. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
taught, taught the Lord obedience, by which we mean that the Lord was brought to
experience things in his human nature such as sin and guilt
and conscience and death which he would not otherwise have known. and we could go on and endeavour
to enumerate all the aspects that are encapsulated and encompassed
in the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, I suspect that
when we get to heaven, part of our activity there will be discovering
new things accomplished at the cross and praising the saviour
for them and all that he achieved there. Not least of all these accomplishments
was the defeat and the destruction of the Lord's foes when he was
suffering on the cross. This is what he calls the day
of vengeance. As Christ was suffering to save
his people from their sins, he simultaneously crushed and defeated
all our enemies with an everlasting destruction. So that Christ on
the cross was both a victim and a conqueror. In dying, the Saviour
entered the strongman's house spoiled his goods. He triumphed
over sin, Satan, the world, death and the grave. He defeated every
spiritual enemy of his and ours, especially the devil who leads
men captive at his will. Christ spoiled and triumphed
over Satan, over his principalities and powers, leading captivity
captive. This was the work of Christ on
the cross and though Satan bruised Christ's heel, Christ crushed
the serpent's head. Now someone might say to me,
Well, are not all these enemies that you say Christ defeated
on the cross, are they not all still active? Do we still not
know about the power of Satan and the temptations of this world
and death and the grave? Are these things not still pertinent
and relevant to us in this life, in this world? Are they not still
all active and fearsome to us? Well, yes and no. Yes, they are active insofar
as they are at Christ's disposal as tools in his hand to be employed
for his own will and purpose. Are they fearsome? No, no. sin, death, hell, the grave,
even Satan can do us no harm. They cannot touch the Lord's
people. With this caveat, except it is
for our good. And all of these things All of them will ultimately serve
the Lord in bringing us to glory in the best possible way. As the mediator, the Lord Jesus
Christ fulfilled many roles in the covenant of grace. He undertook
to fulfill whatever justice sought. whatever righteousness required
in order to satisfy every demand of holiness upon his people and
to secure every blessing and protection for us. And under
the terms of the everlasting covenant, Jesus alone answered
all the sacred objectives. thereby accomplishing his own
and his father's will in bringing many sons to glory. So this is
the first point that I want to leave with you today. Isaiah
prophesied Christ's death and he prophesied Christ's victory
in death. Here's the second point that
I want to address. And this drawing principally
from verses eight and nine. That little passage says, for
he said, this is speaking again about the same person, the Messiah,
the Lord Jesus Christ. For he said, surely they are
my people, children that will not lie. So he was their saviour. In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them. In his love
and in his pity he redeemed them, and he bared them and carried
them all the days of old. So my second thought points not
only to our redemption by Christ, not only his victory, but his
continuing assistance for us. In the covenant, Christ looked
upon that people that God had elected, that people that his
Father chose in love and predestinated to be conformed to the image
of his son, that elect people that were committed into the
hand, committed into the care of the Lord, set apart in Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ looked upon them and he said, surely
they are my people, children that will not lie. Christ owned
us as his own possession and he determined to provide for
us a holiness and a righteousness that would be imputed to us by
God his Father. The Lord Jesus Christ committed
to us in the covenant of grace. owning us as his possession,
bound himself to us to be our saviour and to do us good. And
though it is true that we fell in Adam and sinned in our own
bodies according to our own passions, yet Christ entered with us into
our afflictions. so that we can say with certainty
and with assurance that we have a sympathising friend in Christ. We have a loving father in Christ. We have a pitying brother in
Christ. who understands our weaknesses,
empathises with our struggles and comforts us in our times
of trial and suffering. He himself took our infirmities
and bare our sicknesses. He himself is touched with the
feeling of our infirmities. being in all points tempted,
in all points tried, in all points persecuted, in all points hurt
and suffering, like as we are. The Lord Jesus Christ knows everything
that we experience, everything that we endure, and much worse. But as far as our own trials
are concerned, he is in those trials with us. yet without sin. That's the only difference. that
is made. Our Lord understands. Our Lord
cares. Our Lord feels and undergoes
our afflictions with us. There's no dark valley that we
have to pass through. There is no stormy crossing that
we must make in the night time. There's no fiery trial. There's
no furnace. There's no lonely pathway. that the Lord does not see and
know and travel with us. The death of the Lord Jesus Christ
and the suffering that he endured is our key to every needful comfort
when we feel that we can't go on. Listen to the words that
are used in these verses, verses eight and nine, verse nine it
is. Listen to the words that are
used. Loved, pitied, borne up, carried. They all describe the
Saviour's care for those he came to save and protect. Let us remember. See, this is the thing about
this passage. Isaiah is writing to an Old Testament
people who are yet to go through the Babylonian captivity. These
words were going to go with them into exile. They were still years
from their nation being overrun and then being sent to a foreign
country to be slaves and to be servants to a foreign owner. Physically, they faced death,
they faced loss, they faced abuse, they faced separation, sadness
and pain. Physically, that would be their
lot, wherever they would be sent. They would be separated from
their friends, from their family. Spiritually, they wondered if
their faith would last. They wondered if it would endure. They wondered if it was real. Was their hope, their hope of
a Messiah, their hope of Jerusalem, their hope of worshipping in
the temple, all these things that they had learned as they
had read Moses and David and the prophets, was it built in
pipe dreams? Was it a mistaken hope? What
was the reality? The reality was Jerusalem was
destroyed. The walls were in ruins. The
temple was razed to the ground. Their enemies had pillaged their
wealth and taken it all away and spent it on their lusts and
their wickedness. How could the Messiah possibly
fix this mess? How could he ever restore the
nation's fortune? And do we not, in our own day,
in our own life's experience, often feel like this? Either
personally, in our own circumstances, or for the state of the church
in our day? Think to yourself, how can this
ever be improved upon? How can this ever be fixed? Isaiah
reminded the people about Egypt and he reminded them about the
Red Sea and he reminded them about Pharaoh and he reminded
them about the wilderness and he said, he who delivered us
before will do it again and we must have faith. Brothers and
sisters, we can trust in the faithfulness of God to do all
these things for us as well. Our Saviour knows exactly what
we are going through, and exactly what we need, and exactly how
much we can bear, and exactly how he is going to bring good
from this experience, and we can trust him. Here's the third point I want
to leave with you. So it's verse 17. That little verse says, So
this is my final thought. This last section of the chapter, from verse 15 to the end of the
chapter, it continues into chapter 64, but that we will leave for
another day. But this final few verses of
this chapter, 63, begin a prayer for help and for comfort in the
midst of our troubles. It's a call for the Lord to exercise
his power and come down for the deliverance and vindication of
his people. However, it's one particular
point that I want to draw upon and enlarge upon a little bit
and leave with you, this thought. It is Isaiah's way of reminding
his own age and us, that despite all God's goodness and all of
his grace and all of his accomplishments for us, we are still in ourselves
poor sinners. And we do well to remember that.
This verse and prayer is situated after Isaiah's amazing prophecy
about the Lord's victorious battles with his foes and with ours,
which was our first point today. We have the victory because Christ
redeemed us and overcame our enemies and yet we are still
poor sinners. This verse comes after the prophet's
reminder of the Lord's faithfulness in the past and his promises
to bear our afflictions with us, which was our second point
and the rehearsing of the experience of the children of Israel in
Egypt. So we apply that, we will be
comforted through all our trials. Nevertheless, Even after those
two points, to our shame, it is the experience of all God's
people that we doubt, that we resist, that we complain, that
we contend against the Lord despite His promises and His goodness. It is just the way we are in
our flesh. When trials come, despite all
Christ's victories, despite all his promises to be with us in
our afflictions, we complain against it. And we wonder that
the Lord needs to permit these things to befall us. And we ask
why. And we resist his dealings with
us as though he's made a mistake. And we wrestle with questions
as to why the sovereign God should deem such trials necessary. and why he who is our loving,
tender father would allow us to feel the way that we do and
struggle under his providences, even to the point of ultimately
growing cold in our fellowship with him. Why is it that the
Lord seems to withhold his grace and withdraw his presence and
leave us to the fleshy corruptions and hardness of our hearts? Why does he cause us to grieve
and allow the enemy, whom he has already defeated and who
has a tool in his hand, to nevertheless afflict us and stir up the old
man with the old temptations that cause us so much soul distress
and coldness of heart. Why do we, who are, dare I say
it, so well informed, having seen all that the Lord has accomplished,
so well informed about the Lord's dealings with us in love and
grace and mercy, so aware of his faithful care. People who do truly trust him
still exhibit so much doubt and fear. What does the Lord hope
to gain in bringing us through these valley experiences and
causing us so much trouble? Well, Isaiah knew that the Lord's
people would ask such questions and wrestle with God's providences
in this way. And yet, he does not directly
give an answer to the pleading of God's tried saints. He doesn't
give us a direct answer. He does, however, say something
very important. And I believe that he says what
he says as if to teach us humility and to remind us of God's covenant
promises. Because what Isaiah does do,
in the absence of an answer to the why, He tells us again who
the Lord is. He says, doubtless thou art our
Father. Thou, O Lord, art our Father,
our Redeemer, thy name is from everlasting. He tells us who
the Lord is. The second thing he does is he
reminds us who and what we are. He reminds us that we are the
people of God's holiness, the tribes of Christ's inheritance,
and those over whom the Lord rules. Let me put it like this. When we can't understand why
the Lord deals with us as he does, when we can't understand
why the Lord deals with us as he does. He is still who he is
and we are still who we are. He is the potter, we are the
clay. He is the potter, we are the
clay. His will is sovereign and his
ways are best. What I'm going to do now because
we've finished the sermon pretty much, what I'm going to do now
is I am going to go right into our closing hymn because I think
that Anne Steele understood this point that I am trying to make. and I can't better her explanation
as she gives it in this, our closing hymn. So I encourage
you to return to this hymn in the coming week and meditate
on its message. It's 183 in the Gadsby selection,
but just listen, just listen. It is for you who wonder why. And here's what she says. My God, my Father, blissful Name,
O may I call Thee mine! May I with sweet assurance Claim
a portion so divine? This only can my fears control
And bid my sorrows fly. What harm can ever reach my soul
beneath my father's eye? Whate'er thy providence denies,
I calmly would resign. For thou art just and good and
wise, O bend my will to thine. Whate'er thy sacred will ordains,
O give me strength to bear. And let me know my father reigns,
And trust his tender care. If pain and sickness rend this
frame, And life almost depart, Is not thy mercy still the same
To cheer my drooping heart? If cares and sorrows me surround,
Their power why should I fear? my inward peace they cannot wound
if thou, my God, art near. Amen. May the Lord bless this
to us.