Isaiah chapter 41, reading from
verse one. Keep silence before me, O islands,
and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near,
then let them speak. Let us come near together to
judgment. Who raised up the righteous man
from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before
him, and made him rule over kings? He gave them as the dust to his
sword, and as driven stubble to his bow. He pursued them and
passed safely, even by the way that he had not gone with his
feet. Who hath wrought and done it,
calling the generations from the beginning? I the Lord, the
first and with the last, I am he. The isles saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid,
drew near and came. They helped every one his neighbour,
and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage. So the carpenter
encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer,
him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the soldering.
And he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.
But thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen, the
seed of Abraham my friend. Thou whom I have taken from the
ends of the earth, and called thee from the chief men thereof,
and said unto thee, Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee,
and not cast thee away. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee. Yea,
I will help thee. Yea, I will uphold thee with
the right hand of my righteousness. Behold, all they that were incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. Thou
shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended
with thee. They that war against thee shall
be as nothing, and as a thing of naught. For I, the Lord thy
God, will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I
will help thee. Fear not thou Warram Jacob, and
ye men of Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy
Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold, I will make thee a new,
sharp, threshing instrument, having teeth. Thou shalt thresh
the mountains, and beat them small, and shalt make the hills
as chaff. thou shalt fan them, and the
wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them,
and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord, and shalt glory in the
Holy One of Israel. When the poor and needy seek
water, and there is none, and their tongue faileth for thirst,
I the Lord will hear them. I the God of Israel will not
forsake them. I will open rivers in high places,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the
wilderness a pool of water, and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness
the cedar, the shitta tree, and the myrtle, and the oil tree. I will set in the desert the
fir tree, and the pine, and the box tree together, that they
may see, and know, and consider, and understand together that
the hand of the Lord hath done this, and the Holy One of Israel
hath created it. Produce your cause, saith the
Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons,
saith the King of Jacob. Let them bring them forth, and
show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things
what they be, that we may consider them, and know the latter things
of them, or declare us things for to come. Show the things
that are to come hereafter, that we may know that ye are gods,
yea, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed, and behold
it together. Behold, Ye are of nothing, and
your work of naught. An abomination is he that chooseth
you. I have raised up one from the
north, and he shall come. From the rising of the sun shall
he call upon my name, and he shall come upon princes as upon
mortar, and as the potter treadeth clay. who hath declared from
the beginning that we may know, and before time that we may say,
He is righteous. Yea, there is none that showeth. Yea, there is none that declareth. Yea, there is none that heareth
your words. The first shall say to Zion,
Behold, behold them, and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth
good tidings. For I beheld and there was no
man even among them, and there was no counsellor that when I
asked of them could answer a word. Behold, they are all vanity,
their works are nothing, their molten images are wind and confusion. Amen. May the Lord bless to us
this reading from his word also. The comfort of the Lord's people
in this world, the comfort of the Lord's people in this world
is the central feature of all the Lord's dealings with his
church. Satan is a deceiver. Sin is a
destroyer. And the shame of what we once
were and still are, distresses us in this life until the Lord
comes to apply his blood to our conscience and to comfort our
hearts. Christ indeed sent us the great
Comforter when he returned to heaven. He sends his preachers
to comfort the souls of his people with constant reminders of grace. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people,
saith your God. As believers, our election is
fixed. Our redemption is sure and unalterable. Heaven is not going anywhere
soon and our mansions are already prepared. The only open question
for a believer is the duration of our pilgrim journey here upon
earth and what troubles remain until we enter God's glory and
our eternal rest. And here is what I can tell you. For the duration of those days,
however long they may be, the Lord will have you comforted
with regular news of Christ's gospel and foretastes of his
victories and successes, so that we might be at ease, secure and
content under the banner of our Saviour's love as we make our
way home to glory. Our time here lasts only as long
as our work requires. and we will serve our master
under the best terms and conditions imaginable. Like David of old,
the psalmist, in his songs of degree, or his hymns of ascent,
which is another word, another way of describing the hymns or
the songs of degree. Like David, a believer progresses
towards glory, under a sense of personal unworthiness and
trial. It is a feature of our continued
existence in this fallen flesh. So that David opens his songs
of degrees, his hymns of ascent in Psalm 120 saying, in my distress
I cried unto the Lord and he heard me. And I'm going to be
bold today and suggest that these moments, when the Lord hears
our cries, our distressed cries, are the moments of greatest blessing
for believers. So that whatever our predicament,
the Lord Jesus whispers in our ear, Let not your heart be troubled. Ye believe in God, believe also
in me. And today we shall continue to
discover examples of how our Lord God actively encouraged
the Old Testament saints using Isaiah's prophecy and how the
words of this faithful seer, this faithful preacher still
comfort the church in our own age, still comfort individual
believers like you and me. So my headings today are These,
and they're probably not the slickest or the most memorable
headings that you've ever heard, but here they are nevertheless.
My three headings today are, let me show you what I've done. Let me show you what I'm going
to do. And let me show you what it means
for you. So these are my three headings
today. Let me show you what I've done,
let me show you what I'm going to do, and let me show you what
it means for you. So the first one is this, let
me show you what I've done. And you've probably guessed already
that this let me show you is important, and it is. Because
the whole argument here in this chapter, the whole, argument
that the Lord brings before us in the words of Isaiah, and it's
the Lord God Jehovah who is speaking here. The Lord wishes to bring
forward evidence of his deeds for the comfort of his people.
And this is not a new thing, or a surprising thing, or an
unusual thing. We discover from the beginning
of the scriptures that the Lord would have his glory revealed. He would show himself to his
people. He would tell his people of the
works of his hand. Indeed, you'll remember we've
been studying quite recently in the book of Joshua. Joshua
says in Joshua chapter four, when he took the children of
Israel across the river Jordan, he set up memorials for this
reason, that all the people of the earth might know the hand
of the Lord, that it is mighty. You see, the glory of God, the
might of God, the accomplishments of God, God would show to his
people, and indeed show to all the world, as he will do, the
Lord God is mighty. Paul, the apostle, many years
later said of Christ's ministry, this is not a thing done in a
corner. This is not a thing done secretly. This is not a thing that the
Lord Jesus Christ had accomplished in coming into the world and
preaching his gospel of the kingdom and performing his miracles and
being seen of men and going to the cross. This is not a thing
that was done in a corner. The ministry of Jesus was public. His miracles were done openly. His suffering and death on the
cross, instituted as it was by the Jews and conducted by Pilate,
was notorious in the age and infamous. Christ's resurrection
from the dead was a well-attested fact. And equally, the preaching
of Christ's gospel to Jew and Gentile was widely known. Christ's work is to be openly
declared. We are privileged today to be
actively engaged in that same process. This goes back all the
way to the days of the apostles. We preach publicly, we preach
with an open door, we preach wherever and however using the
facilities and the technologies that are available to us to all
who will listen. We send it into the world. We
broadcast it as widely as possible because by it, by this gospel
preached and declared, by the works of Christ set before men
and women of this world, the Lord our God gathers his elect,
confirms believers in their faith, and condemns the unbelieving
world. This is the double-edged sword,
just as Ehad had a double-edged dagger, so this scripture, this
gospel, this preaching is the double-edged sword that both
confirms and condemns as it is declared. So when the Lord says,
let me show you what I've done, It is to confirm and encourage
and once again to comfort his people that they might discern
the Lord's hand in creation and in providence and in the unfolding
history of salvation. What has the Lord done? Well,
he tells us here in the opening part of this chapter, he raised
up the righteous man. And I mentioned in yesterday's
little introduction some different suggestions as to the identity
of this person. Some writers with good reason
think that he's referring here, Isaiah is referring to Abraham.
Some think it's a reference to Cyrus. the King of Babylon. Some think that the Apostle Paul
is in view here, and some say, perhaps more properly, that it
is the Lord Jesus Christ. Whoever it is that is meant,
and Isaiah does not tell us, and the Holy Spirit leaves it
open, the point is this, that it is the Lord God Jehovah who
raised up this man. God indeed called Abraham from
out of the Chaldees and shows us that there was an election
of grace, there was a purpose of salvation right back at the
very beginning of the establishment of this nation of Israel. The
Lord God did indeed choose Cyrus from Babylon and cause him to
send the people back from their captivity and to restore the
kingdom of Israel and the city of Jerusalem. Paul was called
from the inner circles of the Pharisees in order to preach
the gospel in foreign lands. and Christ was called in the
very inception of the covenant of grace, the everlasting covenant,
in order to fulfil all the purpose of the Lord God, Jehovah, in
the salvation of his beloved people. Christ was called, Christ
was placed in that covenant role in order to fulfil the salvation
of God's elect. to do the very will of God. to establish the family of faith,
to maintain the line of promise, to enlarge the kingdom of God
through the preaching of the gospel. All these things are
accomplished by men and women chosen by God and all under this
great first choice of the Lord Jesus Christ as surety of the
covenant of peace. Who did all this? Who hath wrought
and done it? To use the words of Isaiah here. Who hath wrought and done it? Who's worked all these things? Asks the Lord. I have called
generations from the beginning. I the Lord, the first, and with
the last, I am He. This is a work of the eternal
God, and God is saying to His people by Isaiah, setting before
them in these words in this chapter, Look at what I have done. It
is the Lord's enduring purpose and gracious plan to gather his
people from the beginning of time and fulfil his covenant
purpose of saving his elect from their sins. And the Lord did
all the work, leaving nothing outstanding and no more to be
done. And also the Lord, Jehovah, speaks
to the Lord Jesus Christ in this passage, addressing him as Jacob
and Israel. Again, I refer to this briefly.
These names were typically reserved for God's people. Jacob and Israel
are often used typically to refer to the elect of God, the remnant
people, the people of faith, the people that God has chosen
from the foundation of the world. But here, intriguingly, it is
applied to the God-man himself. In order to emphasise the union
that we have with Christ and Christ with us, that Christ has
with all for whom he stands as surety and substitute. With no diminishing of equality
with the Father and the Holy Spirit, with no diminishing of
the essential glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, he became a servant. to fulfil and do the will of
God. He stood up in his covenant role
for his bride, in his covenant office, represented her, even
to the taking of her name and adopting her identity under the
law. So that when the law came, when
judgment came, when the wrath of God came, searching out the
elect of God that they might be punished as they deserved,
it saw Christ And he, bearing her guilt and punishment unto
death, stood as substitute for her. And here too we learn how
the Lord Jesus Christ was chosen by the Father to meet every righteous
demand against His people. Our Lord Jesus Christ was from
all eternity chosen to this service, and in the fullness of time,
his Father sent him to accomplish it. And his Father supported
and upheld him in it. So too, all those represented
by Christ were chosen in Christ, in the eternal council, set apart
from the rest of Adam's race, in the purpose of God for grace
and ultimately for glory. Every promise made to Christ
devolves from him to Christ's bride. All support given to the
Saviour on the cross is dedicated also to the support of His bride
in this life. In every way that our Redeemer
was upheld in His sufferings, we shall be upheld in ours. Each
of us can take and hold this promise given by God the Father
to his son and take it for our own personal comfort. What is
given to Christ as head of his church is given also to his people
in him as his body because of our union together with him. We, the Church, have a concern
and an interest in God's every promise to his Son, in every
gift and grace bestowed on our betrothed. We, as heirs and joint
heirs with him, may claim every blessing. And not only has the
Lord done this for our surety, and for us, he promises us more. He says to us, let me show you
what I've done, and then he goes on to say, and let me show you
what I'm going to do. Because here we see another part
of God's comforting resolve for his chosen people. Not only has
Christ obtained victory for us through his successful representation,
our Lord God has chosen to employ his church as a means to gather
his elect from the kingdoms of this world and from the ends
of the earth. Verses 15 and 16 explain this
in pretty amazing language. He says there, behold, I will
make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. What a description that is, right
in the heart of Isaiah. I will make thee a new sharp
threshing instrument having teeth. Thou shalt thresh the mountains,
and beat them small, and shalt make hills as chaff. Thou shalt
fan them, and the wind shall carry them away, the whirlwind
shall scatter them. And thou shalt rejoice in the
Lord, and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel. This is a
description of the church. It is described as a piece of
agricultural equipment designed to thresh the crops and separate
the grain from the chaff. The good from the waste. This
is the church's role in evangelism, in preaching Christ to men and
women and boys and girls, that faith may be worked in the souls
of sinners and men and women brought to repentance and faith. And yet we see from what the
Lord says here, While the church is the tool, the design of that
tool, the manufacture of that tool, its purposing, its success
of the labour is the Lord's own work. As the prophet Jonah says,
salvation is of the Lord. It always was and it always will
be. And yet the Lord graciously employs
the church as this new sharp threshing instrument having teeth. This is our gospel preaching
role. The Lord's people don't take
pride in their accomplishments beyond gratitude for being called
to serve their master. There's no boast for the Lord's
True Church in big congregations or more baptisms or increased
membership. That's not what the Lord's True
Church is about. Rather, it rejoices to thank
God that salvation comes by His grace and that He should be willing
to use us and choose us and employ us for his glory, that we might
view his mercy and his grace and rejoice in it. Thou shalt
rejoice in the Lord and shalt glory in the Holy One of Israel,
to be about this business of preaching Christ crucified. When the poor and the needy seek
the pure water of grace, the Lord shall hear. The Lord will
open rivers in high places and fountains in the midst of valleys. He will make the wilderness pools
of water and the dry land springs of water. You see what this is
saying? This is saying that as the Lord takes the message of
the church, the message that it preaches, the message of Christ
crucified, so he will effect powerfully the work of salvation
for the blessing of his church, for the blessing of his people
and for the gathering in of his saints. The Lord will plant a
forest in the desert. He will bring into existence
what previously did not exist. He will cause it to grow and
prosper. Why? Well, what does he say? that they may see and know and
consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord has
done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it. Brothers
and sisters, do you see that all our salvation is the Lord's
work? He has created us. He has redeemed
us. He has brought us to know him
in conversion and to receive the truth. He has caused us to
dwell in the comfort of his grace. And he shall and must have all
the glory. So the Lord says, let me show
you what I've done. He says, let me show you what
I'm going to do. And then finally he says, and
let me show you what that means for you. Let me briefly repeat
what I said at the start. Seeing and knowing what the Lord
has done for his church in election, in redemption, Seeing and knowing
what he has done for us in covenant union changes us. It alters the way we think. Hearing
the gospel, the full gospel, the expansive gospel of what
God has done for us in Christ changes the way we think. seeing and knowing what the Lord
is doing right now in the world as he employs his new sharp threshing
instrument, having teeth, in order to gather his elect and
bring them to faith, sending forth preachers from Peter and
Paul onward. to confirm and encourage and
comfort his people, to discern the Lord's hand in the events
of history and salvation. These things are a comfort to
our souls. Let me ask you a question. Do
you think that there is not enough people being converted right
now? Actually, It is precisely the
preordained and God-ordained number being converted as should
be. Do you think that the world is
overpowering the church and rendering it useless? Actually, the opposite
is true. The church is ploughing the earth. It is cutting the wheat. It is
threshing the corn. It is winnowing the chaff. The
body of Christ is growing at exactly the rate it should. It is being added to according
to God's timing and design. In your estimation, Are things too small and too
slow? God has meticulously ordered
all these matters and not one of the redeemed of Christ will
be missed and not one chosen saint will be brought into Christ's
kingdom a moment too soon. Not only the number has been
specified, but the timing has been ordained. We cannot say
God is sovereign and then go and complain about what he is
doing. These facts, this evidence of
what God has done and what he will do is given to comfort us
and to encourage us not to be despondent or not to fret on
account of God's people. Christ is victorious. The battle
is already won. The redeemed are already locked
in. to the precise schedule of God
in his divinely preordained calendar that will and must redound to
God's eternal glory and his church's everlasting joy. Isaiah ends this chapter with
another critique of the powerless idols. that the men and women
of this world worship. And I suspect that he saw a lot
of these idols around about him, or he knew that they would proliferate. But we've already said this in
our young people's talk today. Let us be careful not to mock
the idol worshipper. only to commit his very sin by
denying the sovereignty and the perfection of our God's works
in this world. Brothers and sisters, be of good
comfort. God is in control. Christ is
victorious. The history of time and eternity
is being played out before us precisely on track and nothing
will prevent its accomplishment. Christ is the Alpha and Omega
that we read about in Revelation chapter 21. All our readings
are coming together. Christ is the first and the last.
He shall say to Zion, his church, he shall say to his people, he
shall say to you and me, behold, behold them. Behold who? The idol worshippers who worship
a Jesus who is not sovereign. He shall say to Zion, behold,
behold them. Behold who? The idol worshippers
who preach a man-centred gospel that is no gospel at all. He
shall say to Zion, his church, behold, behold them. The idol
worshippers who thresh wildly with no knowledge and scatter
the true wheat instead of winnowing the chaff. He says, I will give
to Jerusalem, I will give to Zion, I will give to my church
one that bringeth good tidings, Christ himself. The angel said,
good tidings of great joy. because Christ was born and that
is what a true preacher preaches. The good tidings of Jesus Christ
in the full gospel of salvation. We are not discouraged. We are
encouraged. We are not discomforted. We are
more than comforted. We are not frustrated. We rest
with confidence in the sovereign purpose of God and the successful
redemptive work of Jesus Christ. All is well. Christ is on his
throne. I am comforted in knowing this
to be true and you should be as well. May the Lord bless these
thoughts to us. Amen.