So we're going to be reading
in Isaiah chapter 22 and also a verse from Revelation chapter
3. A couple of weeks ago we saw
how the Lord Jesus Christ was given all authority by his Father. How he was given authority to
rule and to reign over this world. he was called to the government
of this world. Not in the sense of a president
or a prime minister's government and his cabinet, but as a verb,
as the actual one who ruled and who governs the affairs of our
lives and the circumstances of this world. This is Christ's
God-man office. It is an office that he was called
to, an office that was laid upon him. And you'll remember perhaps
that we read the prophecy together from Isaiah chapter nine and
verse six, that the government shall be upon his shoulder. And that shoulder reference speaks
about the Lord Jesus Christ bearing responsibility for the task. There's a reference in the book
of Genesis, I think, to one who bowed his shoulder to bear. And that was a picture also of
the Lord Jesus Christ. because the Lord Jesus Christ
bowed his shoulder in order to bear that government that his
father laid upon him. He willingly, voluntarily came
into this world with the design that he would serve his people
and that he would obey his father. His obedience was to do his father's
will. His service was to save his people
from their sins. Now a little bit later in the
book of Isaiah, that was in, the reference that we had there
was Isaiah chapter nine, verse six, but a little bit later in
Isaiah, we meet a man whose name is Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. Now I suspect that very few of
us know very much about Eliakim, son of Hilkiah. Not a lot is
said of this man. We are told that he was raised
up by God. And in fact, that is what his
name means. Eliakim means raised up by God. It's a name that sounds as if
it should be in Star Wars or something like that, Eliakim. But it means raised up by God. and he is called God's servant
and that name or attribute given to him indicates that he was
a good man and that he was a faithful man and that he was obedient
unto the call and the claims of God. So here is this man Eliakim,
son of Hilkiah, raised up by God and a servant of God. And I want to read a couple of
verses about this man from Isaiah chapter 22. So if you have your
Bibles there, turn with me please to Isaiah chapter 22 and look
at verse 20. Isaiah chapter 22 and verse 20. It says here, And I will clothe
him with thy robe. and strengthen him with thy girdle. Did I say 20? I did. Let me read
verse 20. And it shall come to pass in
that day that I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah
and I will clothe him with thy robe and strengthen him with
thy girdle and I will commit thy government into his hand
and he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and
to the house of Judah. and the key of the house of David
will I lay upon his shoulder so he shall open and none shall
shut and he shall shut and none shall open and I will fasten
him as a nail in a sure place and he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. Now this story, this narrative, this description
of this man Eliakim the son of Hilkiah is in the context of
another man, a man called Shebna being deposed and replaced by
Eliakim. And I'm not going to dwell on
Eliakim too much this morning, despite having introduced you
to him. I simply want to remark that
he is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now I'm sure you remember
what a type is. It's a picture, it's a figure. I was thinking about it in the
context of some of the things that I know and I was thinking
about a typewriter and then it dawned on me that actually a
lot of people nowadays don't even know what a typewriter is
because we're all using laptops and computers. But a typewriter
was, I've probably used the example before, it had a little arm and
a little letter on the top and you flicked that letter against
a piece of band or a ribbon that had some ink on it and it made
a mark on a piece of paper. And so whatever it said on the
arm, the typeface, was represented on the paper after you flicked
that button and the arm went up and hit the ribbon onto the
paper. And that was how a typewriter worked, and that's how people
used to write letters before the days of computers. But it's
just a picture, and that is the idea of the type, that it looks
like what made the mark. And some people cannot see the
Lord Jesus Christ in the Bible except if he's mentioned by name. But in truth, if we see all the
types of the Lord Jesus, all the pictures and representations
of him, we will discover that he is all through the Bible.
We will see him everywhere if we can look for him carefully.
And that is the case as far as this man Eliakim is concerned.
Now there are a number of things said about this man Eliakim,
even in these few verses that we have read. But I want to just
draw three things that are said about him from these verses that
we read together, which I think stand out. They are these. First of all, government would
be placed in his hand. And that is true for the Lord
Jesus Christ also. We read that in Isaiah chapter
nine and verse six. The second thing is that he would
be given the key of the house of David. It would be laid upon
his shoulder. And the third thing that was
said of Eliakim is that he would be fastened as a nail in a sure
place on whom all glory would hang. Now these three things
spoken by Isaiah of Eliakim are actually characteristics or aspects
or descriptions of our Saviour. You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
is so wonderful, so marvellous, so glorious, so full, so infinite,
that we cannot get the fullness of His work his person, his character,
his accomplishments, simply from looking at those things which
are said of him and revealed about him in the gospel narrative. We have to look beyond that.
We have to see that there are pictures of him and the great
work that he did. in all the scriptures and in
the way God dealt with his people down through the ages, whether
that was as individuals or whether that was as nations, and they
all point to different aspects of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
certain it is that the Lord takes and embraces many of those things
in his life as we see him living and working and accomplishing
his ends. But there's a fullness and a
richness comes to us if we discern him as we tried to do this morning
earlier in the Psalms or in the prophets, or in the wilderness
journeys of the children of Israel, because they all point to the
wonder and the glory of our Saviour Jesus Christ. And these things
are revealed to us for our encouragement. They're presented to us in scripture
for our blessing. That is why the Lord Jesus Christ,
on the road to Emmaus with those two disciples, taught them about
himself, not from the New Testament scriptures, but from the Old
Testament scriptures. And these are the very scriptures
that the apostles took and unfolded and spoke to us of Christ from. This morning I want us to get
some blessing from this man Eliakim as we see the Lord Jesus Christ
represented in these characteristics that are attributed by Isaiah
to this man. So we know that this is a picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. And you might
say to me, well, you know, how is it that you know that? Why
is it that you're able to draw these Old Testament statements
and apply them to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, we are told that
we are to rightly divide the word of truth, and that means
that we search the scriptures in order to find these pictures
of the Saviour. But actually in this case, it's
even easier than that. Because in this case, the Lord
Jesus Christ has personally told us that these characteristics
of Eliakim actually refer to Christ himself. And that's why
I wanted you to put your finger in your Bibles there at Revelation
chapter three, because I want to read verse seven, or part
of verse seven to you. I want you to look at, Revelation
chapter 3 verse 7 and see what it says there concerning the
Lord Jesus Christ. The verse says, These things saith
he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David,
he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth and no man openeth. Who is that that we're speaking
about there? Oh, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
These were messages that came from the Lord Jesus Christ to
John the Apostle to be delivered to a group of churches, and it
is Christ himself that is speaking. He calls himself that one who
is holy, that one who is true, and we can only be speaking about
the Lord Jesus Christ there And then he goes on to describe himself
as he that hath the key of David. He that openeth and no man shutteth,
he that shutteth and no man openeth. That's exactly the reference
that Isaiah laid upon Eliakim. This man who was raised up by
God, according to the meaning of his name, was a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who was also Eliakim, who was also raised
up by God. And so here is this man, a servant
of God, one who was faithful to the commands of God, Eliakim,
representing in picture form all those years ago, he who is
holy. And he who is true, who hath
the key of David, that openeth and no man shutteth, shutteth
and no man openeth. This is Christ being represented
here, the Lord Jesus Christ, holy and true, because this is
his nature as God and as man. As Eliakim was clothed with a
robe and strengthened with a girdle, so the Lord Jesus Christ was
enrobed in a body prepared for him by his Father. We read that
in Hebrews. He was raised up, he was given
a body, a body was prepared for him that he might go and serve
his Father in the great work of salvation and redemption.
He was fitted for that task of redemption because no one else
could perform that. And it is true that the Lord
Jesus Christ governs in heaven and upon earth. We made that
point a few weeks ago. He governs in the affairs of
this world and that's why as we look around at all of the
trouble and disruption and uncertainty in the world, we can be calm
and we can be at peace. But especially here in this message
in Revelation chapter three, we are being told that the Lord
Jesus Christ is establishing and emphasising his government
of salvation, his government of that plan of salvation, that
covenant purpose. It is that which is in view.
The hymn writer, she's called sometimes Mrs. Alexander, Cecil
Francis Alexander, she wrote these words, and they're very
simple, but they're also profound. She said, there was no other
good enough to pay the price of sin, he only paid the price
of sin. could unlock the gate of heaven
and let us in. Only Christ was fitted for this
purpose. Only Christ was able to come
into the world at the behest of his Father, to take upon himself
the girdle and the robe and the weight of responsibility, the
government of his church and people, and fulfil the obligations
of that covenant that were laid upon him. And it is this aspect
of the governance of the church, the kingly office of Christ,
that magisterial sovereignty, if you like, in the matter of
salvation that is in view here with respect to Revelation chapter
three. Christ opens the door of salvation
and Christ shuts the door of salvation. The Lord Jesus Christ
says of himself, I have the key of David laid upon my shoulder. I have the key of David laid
on my shoulder. Now what is that? Well, it is
the references to David's house and it represents the church. because David's house speaks
of the covenant promises of God for the salvation of his people
who are elsewhere called his church. And so this key of David
is a picture of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ and Christ's
responsibility to save that church and to open the way of salvation
for them. It speaks of covenant promise
and it speaks of justification by grace for all to whom God's
righteousness is imputed, and fitting them for inclusion in
that great number who will enter into his courts. singing praises
from every tribe and nation to the Lord Jesus Christ who has
redeemed us by his blood. Now when I speak about the church,
I'm not talking about a denomination. I'm not talking about a particular
building. I'm not talking about a particular
congregation of people in a particular town or nationwide or anything
like that. This is rather a reference to
the whole number of that people who were redeemed by the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Lord didn't die for everyone
when he died upon the cross. He didn't die for all men and
women universally and it is up to them to choose him and become
a Christian and then join a church and go to heaven. That's not
what the Bible teaches in any way. Rather, the Bible teaches
that Jesus Christ came into this world to save his people from
their sins, to shed his blood to cleanse a particular people
from their sins. And that was his task, that was
his obligation, his duty even, his responsibility and commandment
from God. Sometimes we may see a mayor,
the mayor of a town or a city. We have a Lord Mayor of London.
And when that person goes to do his official duties, you often
see him with a big robe and maybe a big black hat and a chain around
his neck. Have you ever seen the mayor's
chain around his neck? Very often from that chain around
his neck is suspended a key. Because a key is symbolic of
authority. It is the key that can open the
door. It is the key that locks the
door. It is the key that opens and it is the key that shuts.
And this is the picture that we have here when the Lord says,
I have the key of David laid upon my shoulder. This was the
Lord Jesus Christ's role when he came into the world to effect
the salvation of his people and accomplish those things which
the Lord God had sent him to do. It is Christ that opens and
no man shutteth, that shutteth and no man openeth. And we read
about that many times in the Gospels. Matthew, Mark, Luke
and John have been very faithful in recording the Lord's words.
And the Lord speaks about a gate, a gate of access, a broad gate,
a narrow gate. He speaks about a way, a way
of life. He speaks about himself being
a door. I am the door, or the door of
the sheep. And all of these things are comparable
because they are all speaking about the fact that it is the
Lord Jesus Christ who enables access for his people into the
presence of God by taking their sins and making them his own,
by bearing their sins, by dying for their sins, by carrying the
punishment of their sins and by his obedience unto death bringing
upon them that righteous justification by which they are acceptable
to God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that key suggests a purposeful and a careful management of the
job that the Lord Jesus Christ was given to do. This is not
chaos. This is not confused in any way. There is a door to heaven. There
is a key of access into heaven and it is in the hand of the
Lord Jesus Christ alone. He opens and closes and no one
resists his will. And there are Bible examples
aplenty for these themes. And we could think about them.
There are explicit ones. For example, when the Lord Jesus
Christ drove Adam, the fallen man and woman, from the Garden
of Eden and barred the way. He shut that door and he put
a cherubim in the way with a sword that turned every way. And he
said, no, this door is shut. There is no way back now. Men
had sinned. They had fallen short of God's
glory. That became the nature of all
men. And that way back into the presence
of God, that tree of life was barred forever. No man could
open that way again. He installed those cherubims
to keep the way of the tree of life. The Lord Jesus Christ,
God closed the door of the ark in order to keep Noah and his
family safe. and all the men of that age out
from the ark. There was no way of opening that
door because God had shut it. He shut the lion's mouths in
order to preserve Daniel, but he opened the same mouths in
order to consume the enemies. He opened and he closed. He closed
the wombs of many women. and then opened them according
to his will and purpose when the child would be born. And
whether we're thinking about other examples like God making
a way through the Red Sea and then closing the waters in against
the Egyptians or driving the nations out of Canaan when Israel
was to possess the promised land, he opens ways of escape and he
shuts up the mouths of the enemies. He sends judges and prophets
and gospel preachers to some, opening up to them the way of
life, and he withholds that from others, keeping them in darkness
and not allowing even the very gospel message to be declared
in their hearing. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
exhibits and typifies his power to open. He opens here and he
shuts there and his will is his own. And the history of the Bible
is the revelation of God's purposes being fulfilled in this way. And that is why we see that when
it comes to grace, grace of God and when it comes
to glory, the glory of God, when it comes to preaching and the
gospel witness and when it comes to the reception of that witness
by men and women and boys and girls, Christ retains the key
to the house of David. Christ is the one who opens the
door or shuts the door. Hebrews tells us indeed that
the Lord Jesus Christ in chapter three, verse six, it says, because
Christ has a son over his own house, whose house are we? Yes, he has the key to the house
of David, but he has made that, as David's greater son, he has
made that house his own, which is the church. and he brings
into the church all whom he will and he keeps that door shut to
all who are without. This is his own house and it
is Christ's own key and he opens and he closes. He gives access
and none can withstand his will. Now, these few comments in themselves
should silence anyone who would preach a free will gospel, but
it ought also to embolden us who preach sovereign grace. Because it is not the will of
man, but the will of God and the Lord Jesus Christ that determines
entrance. It determines the entrance of
God's word into the heart and it determines the entrance of
a soul into glory. God in the Lord Jesus Christ
is accomplishing his will, opening hearts and no man shutteth. Shutting hearts and no man openeth. And that's great encouragement
for Christ's church and his people. And it's a great encouragement
for preachers. And it must have been, I suggest
to you, even for the Church of Philadelphia here, to whom John
brought this letter from Christ. Because what it tells us is that
in a world where men's hearts are hard, where they have no
interest in the things of God, where they are opposed to the
things of God, where, according to Scripture, we are told they
are at enmity with God, enemies of God. Here the gospel comes
with power, a power beyond the eloquence of a preacher, a power
beyond the reasoning ability of the finest debaters, a power
which comes and by its own energies, transforms and converts and enables
those who are dead in trespasses and sins to come to a knowledge
of Jesus Christ as Saviour. That is what happened with Lydia.
That is what happened when the Lord opens a heart. That's what
he did when Paul preached the gospel. We are told that the
Lord opened her heart. And once it was open, it was
open to stay open. This isn't the free will of the
individual. This isn't of him that willeth or him that runneth.
This is God's will. And it is God, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who opens hearts and no man can close. Now maybe you'll
ask, well, Preacher, if you had just read a little bit further
down in the chapter, you might have read Revelation chapter
three, verse 20. Do you remember that verse? Let
me read it to you. Behold, I stand at the door and
knock. If any man hear my voice and
open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and
he with me. Now someone might say, Preacher,
does that not suggest that man's will is free to choose? That Jesus isn't opening that
door. He's standing at the door. He's
knocking at the door. He's waiting for man to open
that door. Well no, that doesn't suggest
man's free will because you are purposefully misinterpreting
the meaning of that verse. This verse is not speaking to
those who are unbelievers, it is speaking to those who are
already believers. Now it is true they are lukewarm
believers. There is some stirring up to
be done here in this church. But this is the church that the
letter is written to. These are already believers.
And the invitations of scripture always presuppose the enabling
power of God. So the Lord Jesus Christ himself
could say in John 6, 44, no man can come unto me except the Father
which hath sent me draw him. and I will raise him up at the
last day. It will be Christ who will raise
us up in the preaching of the Gospel. It is Christ who will
open our hearts because we can't come except the Father draw and
we cannot be raised to spiritual life except the Lord Jesus Christ
bring us to himself. Rather, what this passage is
telling us is that there is a word from Christ to His own people
to come and fellowship with Him and share with Him and experience
Him. and there is a deepening relationship
with Christ. We are not always to be like
children who paddle in the shallows at the seaside, but we are to
go out into the deep and we are to engage in a deeper, more mature
experience of spiritual things with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what this verse, Revelation 3.20, is speaking about. And as I was
thinking about this, I read Robert Hawker on this particular verse,
and I thought I would paraphrase what he had to say, and then
I thought, no, I'm going to read it. And it's not exactly as Robert
Hawker wrote it, but it is generally his words. Let me, I've just
made a few changes. for the old language but let
me read it to you and the sense is true to the intention of Mr
Hawker. Here's what he says and he's
speaking about Christ inviting his people to sup with him, to
open to him and for them to fellowship together. He says this The appeals
of love from Christ to his people call us to fellowship. They show
roads and avenues of spiritual communion that are available
to us. So here's what Hawker says, ordinances, means of grace, afflictions,
wants, sicknesses, sorrows, bereavement of friends, the nearness of death
to ourselves, the Lord knocks and knocks again and again, and
rings loud peals through all the chambers of our consciences,
all which we totally disregard, We hear, but we turn from. Neither can the Lord, by soothing
or by threatening, by judgments or by mercies, have the least
effect upon our stony hearts, until he himself, put in his
hand by the hole of the door, and open it to his own entrance. You see, it takes Christ to have
the key of the door. It takes Christ to enter into
our heart. And we will not, nor ever desire
to do that until the Lord enables us. In our conversion, the Lord
Jesus Christ first opens the heart of his people by the power
of his spirit. and then he shuts us up under
the power of his grace to secure and safeguard our souls from
ever falling away. He has the key. He opens and
no man shuts. He shuts and no man opens. And there's just one final picture
about Eliakim that I want to show you that I think is clearly
fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ. We were told in those little
verses in Isaiah 22 regarding Eliakim, he would be fastened
as a nail in a sure place upon whom all glory would hang. Our lives here, in this world
and our eternal security, our eternal well-being. All creation,
all providence, all judgment belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're not our own, we're bought
with a price. And we are for Christ's glory. The fact that by divine grace
we also glory in him is a picture of God's love and his goodness
to his chosen people. A nail that is fixed in a sure
place is a nail that will not move and it is a nail that holds
and supports all that hangs upon it. that is a beautiful picture
of the Lord Jesus Christ and his work for us. We do not stand
before God in our own rights, rather we hang upon the Lord
Jesus Christ. We hang because we are incapable
by our own merits, by our own works, by our own goodness in
any way to recommend ourselves to God. We cannot be any more
than we are by Adam's fall. We are excluded from paradise. We are out of the presence of
God. And except the Lord Jesus Christ
open our hearts, except we hang upon him, that nail in the sure
place, then we must be eternally lost and we will be eternally
condemned to hell. But friends, brothers and sisters,
the Lord Jesus Christ has been given governorship over his church. He rules in his house, he opens
hearts, he closes us in to eternal salvation according to his will. His place is fixed, for he has
already accomplished everything by his death and resurrection,
every demand of holiness for our salvation, and all who hang
upon him shall share a part of his kingdom and of his glory. When the Lord Jesus Christ sent
John the Apostle with this message, with this letter to the church
at Philadelphia, it was with these words, Brothers and sisters
in Christ, can we not take heart from this? In following him, in witnessing
for him, in preaching his truth, in standing for those things
which are holy and right, in standing for the things of Christ,
in preaching his gospel, he sends his church forth with power. He has set an open door before
us. He is effectual to save. and
yet he graciously employs his church in the proclamation of
his word. Verse nine says, behold, I will
make them to come and worship before thy feet and to know that
I have loved thee. Our Lord Jesus Christ is not
yet finished gathering his church or building his glory. There
are more souls yet to be brought to worship the King. May our
blessed Saviour enable and equip us to serve His cause and glorify
His name before that open door that has been set before us.
Amen.