We're in Isaiah chapter 51, and
we're going to read from verse one. Hearken to me, ye that follow
after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord. Look unto the
rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence
ye are digged. Look unto Abraham your father,
and unto Sarah that bare you, for I called him alone, and blessed
him, and increased him. For the Lord shall comfort Zion,
he will comfort all her waste places, and he will make her
wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the
Lord. Joy and gladness shall be found
therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody. Hearken unto
me, my people, and give ear unto me, O my nation, for a law shall
proceed from me, and I will make my judgment to rest for a light
of the people. My righteousness is near, my
salvation is gone forth, and mine arms shall judge the people,
the isles shall wait upon me, and on mine arm shall they trust. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look upon the earth beneath, for the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. But my salvation
shall be for ever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished. Hearken
unto me, ye that know righteousness, the people in whose heart is
my law. Fear ye not the reproach of men,
neither be ye afraid of their revilings. For the moth shall
eat them up like a garment, and the worm shall eat them like
wool. But my righteousness shall be forever, and my salvation
from generation to generation. Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord, awake as in the ancient days, in the generations
of old. Art thou not it that hath cut
Rahab and wounded the dragon? Art thou not it which hath dried
the sea, the waters of the great deep, that hath made the depths
of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over? Therefore the redeemed
of the Lord shall return and come with singing unto Zion,
and everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain
gladness and joy, and sorrow and mourning shall flee away.
I, even I, am he that comforteth you. Who art thou that thou shouldst
be afraid of a man that shall die, and of the Son of Man, which
shall be made as grass? And forgettest the Lord thy Maker,
that hath stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations
of the earth, and hast feared continually every day because
of the fury of the oppressor, as if he were ready to destroy? And where is the fury of the
oppressor? The captive exile hasteth that he may be loosed,
and that he should not die in the pit, nor that his bread should
fail. But I am the Lord thy God that
divided the sea, whose waves roared. The Lord of hosts is
his name. and I have put my words in thy
mouth, and I have covered thee in the shadow of mine hand, that
I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations of the earth,
and say unto Zion, Thou art my people. Awake, awake, stand up,
O Jerusalem, which hast drunk at the hand of the Lord the cup
of his fury, thou hast drunken the dregs of the cup of trembling,
and wrung them out. There is none to guide her among
all the sons whom she hath brought forth, neither is there any that
taketh her by the hand of all the sons that she hath brought
up. These two things are come unto
thee, who shall be sorry for thee? Desolation and destruction,
and the famine and the sword, by whom shall I comfort thee?
Thy sons have fainted. They lie at the head of the streets
as a wild bull in a net. They are full of the fury of
the Lord, the rebuke of thy God. Therefore hear now this, thou
afflicted and drunken, but not with wine. Thus saith thy Lord
the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of his people. Behold,
I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the
dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt no more drink it again.
but I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee, which
have said to thy soul, bow down, that we may go over, and thou
hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that
went over. Amen. May the Lord bless this
reading of his word. Isaiah has previously spoken
of those who fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant. This was a name that he gave
in the previous chapter. So he'd previously spoken of
those who fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant. When we speak of fearing the
Lord, we do not mean fear in the sense of terror or dread,
at least not usually. We sometimes wish that people
did fear the Lord. because they understand how fearful
it will be to fall into the hands of God without a saviour. However, of such, the Bible says
in Romans 8 verse 13, there is no fear of God before their eyes. So it is not that the carnal
man has a fear of God because of dread of the judgment to come. What we are rather thinking of
when the prophet here speaks of those who fear the Lord is
that here are a people who view God with a sense of wonder. who have towards God an awareness
of admiration and awe. We mean, when we speak of having
the fear of the Lord upon us, that we approach Him with a reverence
and humility because we are aware of His worthiness and His glory. and our own unworthiness and
our need. Actually, that word worthiness
is a very useful and significant word in this context because
it means worship. The word worship means worth-ship. It's when we understand the worth
of God, that we worship Him properly. It's knowing that we worship
Him because we honour Him, we admire Him, we appreciate who
He is and what He has done for us in Jesus Christ. When we come
to worship We come with an awareness of God's glory. It's not true
worship if we have not an awareness of the glory of God and an awareness
of his majesty, an awareness of his dominion. And we come with a sense of privilege,
being able to approach him at all. So this is the sense that
we have of the fear of the Lord. It's in this sense, the more
we know of God, the more we fear Him and the more we revere Him. So when Isaiah speaks of those
who fear the Lord, he is speaking of sinners who come to God by
faith who trust in Christ to make us fit for his presence,
who come with a sense of unworthiness and need. And that's where we begin this
chapter today. It is coming with a sense of
unworthiness and need. In the last chapter, Isaiah was
speaking of those who fear the Lord, God's elect, men and women,
boys and girls of faith who trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. who
know something of the cleansing power of Christ's blood. And
here in the opening of chapter 51, we read these same people,
these who fear the Lord, are described as those who follow
after righteousness and seek the Lord. This is what it is. to fear the
Lord. It is to follow after righteousness
and seek the Lord. It's characteristic of the same
people. It's characteristic of God's
people. Who are God's people? What are
God's people? God's people are those who follow
after righteousness and seek the Lord, who have a sense of
awe and wonder, who have a fear of the Lord in their souls. and come before the Lord aware
of their need. We follow righteousness because
we know we have a need of righteousness. We have a hunger and thirst after
righteousness. We seek the Lord because we know
we have a need that he alone can satisfy. We seek him where
he is to be found. We seek him in the scriptures.
We seek him under the gospel. We seek him in the message of
free sovereign grace because we have found him here in the
past. And he has done our souls good. And Isaiah calls on us to listen
again to the word of God. which is something that those
who fear the Lord gladly do. We come listening. We come trusting. We come to know God's purpose. We come desiring that He will
show us more of Christ in this scripture, to comfort us, to
strengthen us, and to learn of Him. The Lord here calls this
people my people. He calls us my nation. All who fear the Lord come near
to hear the word of the Lord, to seek the Lord's blessing for
their souls. And what I'm going to do today
is take three signposts, three pointers from these verses that
are before us and I'm going to ask the Holy Spirit to use them
to point us to the Saviour that we all might be supported and
helped in the trials and challenges of our Christian life and our
pilgrimage here. The first thing I want us to
notice then is that in verse five, the prophet tells us that
Christ is near to us. Christ is near to us. My righteousness, says God, is
near. My salvation is gone forth, and
mine arms shall judge the people. The isles shall wait upon me,
and on mine arm shall they trust. This verse is telling us that
Christ is near his people. This is a verse for the Lord's
elect the very people of whom we have been speaking who fear
the Lord and who seek his righteousness. The Lord tells them that his
righteousness is near. The Lord says, righteousness
is near, my salvation is gone forth. And I think one of the
great gospel revelations to these Old Testament people and these
Old Testament scriptures is the realization that the Lord is
our righteousness. Yes, they had the law given to
them. Yes, they had the typology, they
had the symbolism. But they saw through all of that. They understood that it was not
a self-made righteousness, but that the Lord is our righteousness. God's people in the Old Testament
never imagined themselves to be justified in their own righteousness. They knew, whether it was Adam,
whether it was Abraham or whether it was Moses or whether it was
David or Isaiah or Jeremiah, they all knew, all the Lord's
prophets, that righteousness was God's free gift and salvation
was by grace. They knew The Messiah that was to come
was the source and giver of righteousness and hence they looked eagerly
for his coming. They knew that what they were
by nature was unworthy of God's presence. They knew that they
had been hewn from a rock of adamant rebellion and digged
from a pit of miry clay. They knew that they had nothing
to offer God but their sin. but the Lord says to them, my
righteousness is near. To these Old Testament saints,
there was a comfort and consolation granted, a gospel preached to
them that said, my righteousness is near. Do you feel a need for that righteousness? Do you feel a need for the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord our righteousness? He is near us today, just as
he always has been near his people. Jacob, old Jacob, could say in
Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, Genesis, he could
say, I have waited for thy salvation, O Lord. And what does the Lord
say to Isaiah? My salvation has gone forth. Do you desire God's salvation? It is here. It is in Christ. It is near. He is close at hand. Do you feel guilty? Do you feel
guilty of sin? Do you feel anxious for your
soul's well-being? Are you doubtful? Are you weary? Christ is near. The Lord says
in this verse, verse 5, What does that mean? It means simply
this, Jesus Christ who is the righteousness, Jesus
Christ who is the salvation, his arms shall judge the people. Jesus Christ is the only way
of salvation. Mine arms shall judge the people
is a statement of exclusivity. It is a statement of uniqueness
and distinctiveness and particularity. Christ says, my arms, my strength
shall judge the people. He is our perfect Samson. The world can kick against this
all it likes. It can say, oh, there's many
ways to God. Oh, there's many ways to live your life. But the
Lord tells us here that the sole criteria for salvation is the
work of Christ's arms. What he has done. And whether
or not we are safe in Jesus' arms is whether or not we are
saved for eternity. Are you safe today in Jesus'
arms? Look further at what this verse
tells us. It says this, the Lord is speaking. It says, the isles
shall wait upon me and on mine arm shall they trust. Christ
is near and he is the only one who brings salvation. But he
tells us in this verse that the Isles, that is the Gentiles,
shall wait upon the Lord and they will trust in his salvation. The Isles are the nations of
the world and here it means particularly the elect amongst them. The Lord
was promising these Old Testament Jews that his coming as the Messiah
would be the opening of righteousness and salvation for sinners to
the ends of the earth. So the gospel was preached to
Isaiah's age. The good news of salvation was
available to these Old Testament people as it is available to
us today. It would be preached to the nations
as it was preached to the Jews and many would trust in His strength
for righteousness, His arm to save. Christ's redeeming work
for eternal life and for salvation would be the source of life for
their souls. And I want us to remember this. I want us to realise this. This
is the loveliness of the continuity that we have between the people
of faith of a bygone age and our service here today with all
of this amazing technology that we've got. Our presence here
today, our connection, our fellowship, our union, our engagement with
the Lord and these spiritual truths is part and parcel of
this great work of salvation that has endured for hundreds,
indeed thousands of years. Our presence here today as the
Church of Jesus Christ confirms the nearness of the Lord's salvation. to the Old Testament Jews and
the Isles that waited in the days of the Old Testament until
the Messiah came and sent out his disciples, his apostles with
the gospel at the time of his ascension. This activity upon
which we are engaged today is the precise fulfilment of Isaiah's
prophecies. So the Lord is near. That's the
first pointer that I want us to note. The Lord is near and
his righteousness is amongst us. The second one is is this. It's the reference that we have
to this cup of trembling and I want us to just reflect on
this for a little while as well because I think it is another
important part of Isaiah's teaching that was particular perhaps to
the Jews of his age but has a relevance that touches the experience of
all of God's people. and it's a part of our Christian
life that ought not to be ignored or lightly passed over. The Lord's people, though gloriously
righteous in Christ and heirs of the salvation which he has
accomplished and all the promises of life that that brings, must
nevertheless yet pass through this sinful world and in our
passing endure the valley of tears and trial. There is a portion
of tribulation, there is a cup of fury and trembling that is
dispensed to the children of God in this life. and it is as
well that we know about it, it is as well that we are prepared
to endure it, because it will be part and parcel of our experience
here upon earth. Let us not imagine that our lives
will be charmed to go through our life's experience without
facing trial and without tasting hardship. We must endure persecution. We must suffer loss. We must
experience the bitterness of sin. We must engage in the battle
of this flesh and we all must ultimately taste death in these
bodies. And I know I know that this little
group, this little group that gathers week by week, this little
fellowship that perhaps there is a core and perhaps there are
those further out on the edges, but this group face trial and difficulty and
problems. Some of us who are older right
now are dealing with this reality. Some have lost near ones and
dear ones. Some are anxious about their
children's health and wellbeing. Some are conscious about the
illnesses, the frailties of their own body, and they are considering
right now their own mortality. But let us, in considering this
cup of trembling that we all must face, let us note two things. One, forewarned is forearmed. The Lord has graciously informed
his people about our weaknesses and our troubles that we might
draw upon the helps that he has prepared and supplied for us. These helps include prayer and
fellowship together, preaching and Scripture reading, the comfort of the Holy Spirit
with us, tokens of the Father's love that we experience day by
day, the promise of the closeness, the near presence of the Lord
Jesus Christ in dark times, whether we are aware of it in the moment
or not, He will never leave us nor forsake us. there is purpose and there is
usefulness in these times of trial for us. They teach us our own weakness. They keep us humble and they
bring us to our knees. They exercise us as they exercise
the need that we have and our dependency upon the Lord in practical
matters day by day. We would never discover the nearness
of the Lord, the closeness of the Lord, the help of the Lord,
were it not for this cup of trembling, were it not for these problems
that we face. They hurt. but they are profitable
for our soul and they are necessary for our growth in grace. They
give us an empathy for our fellow believers. They encourage a sympathy
for unbelievers. and they earn for us the opportunity
to witness for Christ in a fallen world with all its suffering,
with all its pain, with all its hardship, with all its trials.
An opportunity that we might not otherwise have if we did
not experience the pains and the troubles and the trials of
this fallen flesh. So the first thing I want us
to take as comfort and consolation is that forewarned is forearmed.
The second one is this, they will come to an end. The Lord's
people shall overcome. We will suffer a little but it
will not be anything in comparison to the glory that will follow.
The same Lord who hands the cup of his fury to us will sustain
us through the experience and then he will take it from us.
He will not suffer us to be tried above that we are able. and he
will help us to bear, and he will bring us through. We will
endure until the time of trial is over. And he will say to us,
behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even
the dregs of the cup of my fury. Thou shalt no more drink it again. Some of us are being tested and
tried right now. Some of us can say that we have
tasted the cup of trembling. I tell you this, it will not
overwhelm you. It will not last long. The Lord
will remove it and you will be able, we will be able to testify
with Jacob Remember, Jacob, all he had, he had fled from his
father's house. He was out, he had nothing, he
was in the wilderness. The only thing he had was a rock
for a pillow to lie on. And here's what he said. When
his head was lying on a rock for a pillow, surely the Lord
is in this place and I knew it not. And we will have occasion
to say that with Jacob. And we will say, in addition
with the psalmist, I will praise thee, for I am fearfully and
wonderfully made. Marvelous are thy works, and
that my soul knoweth right well. So here is also a cup of trembling. Yes, we have the Lord near us.
Yes, we have his righteousness upon us. But there will be trials
and troubles to endure. And here's the third point, and
with this we're done. we have a message from the Lord
to this world. Look at verse 16. He says, This
is telling both the Old Testament people
of Isaiah's day and us today, we have a gospel to preach. The Lord has committed to his
church the preaching of the gospel of free and sovereign grace for
the salvation of sinners and the gathering of his people.
And that is a privilege beyond measure. Whether we preach in
a pulpit or we witness by word and action in the world in which
we live, we have the testimony of Christ in our mouth and upon
our lips. We are the means of the gospel
of grace going forth for the salvation of sinners. And this
is a tremendous privilege. Of course, we understand that
to have been evident in the time of Christ when the apostles went
forth, but it continues to this day. And the Lord continues,
he says, you will be protected, you will be enabled in the task
that I will give you. The gates of hell will not prevail
against the church of Jesus Christ. We shall be successful. so that
not one of the Lord's little ones will be lost, not one of
the Lord's people will be undiscovered in this world, because the church
has the word of the Lord upon its lips. Our God is right now
planting his garden, his vineyard, with fruitful plants. cared for
and tended according to his pleasure. And the garden of the Lord is
glorious. That's what he is telling his
people here in this verse. He says, I've put my words in
thy mouth. I have covered thee in the shadow
of my hand that I may plant the heavens and lay the foundations
of the earth. This planting, this garden is
the church of Jesus Christ. It's like the heavens because
it's glorious, because it's splendid, because it's majestic, because
it burns with the brightness of the noonday sun. It is like
the foundations of the earth because it is solid and sure
and it will endure forever. It will endure even longer than
the earth endures. And he will say to Zion, thou
art my people. through the preaching of the
gospel, through our preaching, through our testimony in this
world. When you go to work tomorrow,
when you are engaged in the activities of your daily life, when you
interact with your friends and your neighbours, when you are
about the business of living in this world, We are conveying
to those around about us the very testimony of the Lord Jesus
Christ and through that testimony, by that preaching, the Lord will
say to Zion, His church, you are my people. I think it's wonderful
that Isaiah saw all these things and was permitted to set them
before the people of his own age for their encouragement and
their believing of faith. And also these things have been
recorded and preserved for us to review and to enjoy as the
confirmation of the promises of God that were accomplished
in the coming of the Messiah and the redeeming work of His
hands. Our Lord Jesus Christ is near. His righteousness is
with His people. His salvation is gone forth. He has planted His church. for
the glory of his name. And while it is true that there
yet remains a cup of trembling to be experienced by all the
Lord's little ones in this world and for the passage of our life
in the flesh, yet all these things are working together for our
good, for the good of all those who love the Lord and are called
according to his purpose. the very tears we shed, water
the garden of God's making and gather the people of His choice. Brothers and sisters, Amid the
perplexities of life, let us remember the testimony of these
Old Testament saints. These saints who have gone before,
who have proved the faithfulness of God and are now enjoying the
promises that he gave them in glory. Soon, Heaven will be our portion
too, and we will hand the baton to the next generation if God
keeps this world going. We who trust in Him, this world
can do no lasting harm to those to whom the Lord says, you are
my people, my people that know righteousness. the people in
whose heart is my law. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.