Well, we're turning back to Isaiah.
It's chapter 42 this morning, and the first nine verses. And
the reason we read Matthew earlier is because Matthew quotes some
of these verses. So, Isaiah chapter 42 and the
first nine verses. Now, I know I say this a lot,
but I cannot underline it and stress it enough. There's a total
misunderstanding about concerning the Scriptures. What's the Bible
for? And you will find religion, you
will find Christendom, you will find the so-called Christianity
of the world's religions. As far as they're concerned,
the purpose of the Bible is God's instructions to mankind to teach
us how to live so that this world will be a better place. And if
only we would all follow the example of Jesus, then we'd create
a heaven on earth and it would be a wonderful thing. That is
not the primary purpose of Scripture. Now, don't misunderstand me.
Of course, if everybody followed the example of Jesus, it would
be a better place. It would be a place that didn't
have the sin and corruption and selfishness that is in it at
the moment. But that is not the primary purpose of Scripture.
You must look at this book, if you are to derive the truth from
it, as God's declaration of salvation accomplished. God's declaration
of salvation accomplished. Now, I always like to try and
make sure that everybody listening to me understands the words I
use. And so when I say salvation,
I imagine if I asked Luca what the word salvation meant, he'd
go a little bit blank. Oh, don't worry, I'm not asking
for an answer now. It's a hard word, isn't it? Salvation,
what does it mean? Well, I'll try and give you a
simple definition. It means being rescued. Rescued. If you're talking about
salvation at sea, it means you've fallen overboard and they come
and rescue you out of the sea. The salvation of God is being
rescued and made safe from the dreadful consequences of sin. What is sin? Sin is that moral
corruption of being that everybody in the flesh, all of us without
exception, have. Sin means to fall short. It's
an archery term. When the arrow sins, it falls
short of the target. We fall short. All have sinned,
says Romans. All have sinned and fall short
of the glory of God. That's what it means. We're in
a state of satanic enslavement ever since the fall in the Garden
of Eden. We're in a state of satanic enslavement
because that trait is in us of sin, that trait of rebellion
against God, that trait of disobedience to God is in every single one
of us. In me, said Paul, that is in
my flesh there dwells no good thing. Spiritually We have no
spiritual life, naturally. Spiritually, we are blind. We
know nothing of the things of God. We have not the wisdom of
God. We have not a natural understanding of the truth of God. For the
natural man, as you know, doesn't receive the things of the Spirit
of God. He can't. He cannot understand them, because
why? They are spiritually discerned.
Where do you get spiritual discernment? You don't go to a college, you
don't go to a seminary, you don't read a book. It's the gift of
God. God, the Holy Spirit, comes and
gives that sight of the soul to see and understand the things
of the living God. And sin is that which separates
us from God. You see, God is perfectly righteous. God is the very definition of
what righteousness and holiness is. God is pure. The terms used
in Scripture are that He dwells in unapproachable light. He cannot
sin. He is of purer eyes than to behold
iniquity. Our God is perfect in holiness,
and that which is sin is completely contrary to His nature. People will say, God can do absolutely
anything. I tell you, that's not right.
That's not what this book says. Should I tell you one thing God
cannot do? God cannot tolerate sin. God, by the very nature
of His being, is incapable of tolerating sin. He cannot tolerate
sin. Sinners and a holy God are completely
unable to coexist. Completely unable. You know like
you get two substances that are fundamentally incompatible and
they will not mix. However hard you try and shake
them and get them to mix, they will not mix. They will always
separate. That's God and sin. God and sinners. But go on existing, they must. Go on existing, they absolutely
must. The sinful soul? The sinful soul
goes on existing in the eternal hell of separation from God. Oh, you say, Preacher, that's
a hard thing to say on this lovely Sunday morning. Why are we getting
into that? Because the Scriptures do. Because
Jesus said more about hell in actual fact than he said about
heaven, because he was warning people. The sinful soul goes
on existing for eternity, in the eternal hell of separation
from God. And the righteous soul in the
eternal heavenly bliss of intimate communion with God who is holy. And you know, there is a chasm
between the two. Jesus told an allegory, if you
like, of the rich man and Lazarus, the beggar at his gate. It's
divers and Lazarus. I don't know where the name divers
came from, but people have given him that name, the rich man.
And they both die. And Lazarus, the poor man, is
taken to heaven, and is in bliss, in the bosom of Abraham, it says.
And the rich man is in hell, and is tormented in hell, and
he has such a concern. Don't worry, this isn't, although
Jesus told this, it was to illustrate other things. It isn't to teach
us the doctrine of heaven and hell, but it's to teach us truths
about it. From his position in hell, the
rich man cries out to Abraham in heaven, please send somebody
to my brothers, send somebody to tell them how terrible this
is because if only they knew they would repent and they would
turn to God. And you know the answer came
back, this. Between us and you, those in heaven and those in
hell, there is a great gulf fixed. So that they which would pass
from here to you, from heaven to hell, cannot. It's impossible. Neither can they who are in hell
pass to us in heaven, that would come there from that place of
hell. It's impossible. There's a great
chasm fixed. No, it's impossible that you
cross that chasm. If you had the merest glimpse
of the horror of hell, all of you, whoever's listening, if
you had the merest glimpse of the horror of hell, you would
be desperate to be saved from it. You would be desperate to
be saved from it. You would cry out like that Philippian
jailer, what must I do to be saved from that because the prospect
of it is dreadful. And so you maybe think, well
maybe I can reform. Maybe I can stop sinning. I'll
be determined that I'm not going to sin tomorrow. From now on
I'm not going to sin anymore. Answer, too late. Too late. From birth you're a sinner. In
the very nature of your being, as a child of Adam, you're a
sinner. We are all sinners. All have
sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Sinners in our
very nature. How can we save a sinner like
that? How can we save a sinner? Never
mind how can we save one sinner, you or me, How can we save a
multitude of sinners? For the scripture says that God
has saved a multitude. A multitude that no man can number,
of every tribe and tongue and kindred, that He gave to Christ
before the beginning of time, that He would save that multitude
from their sins. How to save even one sinner is
incomprehensible. How to save a multitude? Sin
is so rife, isn't it, in humanity? Sin is so rife. If there was
no sin, I wonder what the news bulletins would be like. I wonder
what the newspapers would look like. If there was no sin. It's
the story of this world, isn't it? Sin. Sin where? In thought,
in the things that we think constantly, in the flesh. Men and women,
boys and girls, we are sinful. In the words that we speak, we
are sinful. In the deeds that we do, we are
sinful. We were looking last Wednesday
night at Romans chapter 3, where it says, there is none righteous.
This is quoting from the Old Testament scriptures. And in
Romans 3, Paul quotes it. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There's none that does good.
Their mouth is an open sepulcher. you know, a horrible place because
of what comes out of it. They've got, their feet are swift
to shed blood. This is mankind. This is the
indictment against mankind. And that's all of us without
exception. For all have sinned and fall
short of the glory of God. What can make even one soul the
righteousness of God? For the righteousness of God
is what we must be if we're to go to his heaven. If we're to
be in his heaven, we must, you must, I must be the righteousness
of God. I must have that holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. How is it going to happen just
for one, never mind a multitude? How is a multitude that no man
can number going to be saved from their sins? You might have,
I remember as a teenager there was a TV program that I loved
watching every week. It was Mission Impossible and
then they made a series of movies out of it. And the idea was that
there was this mission that was given to some secret agent to
do certain things and In its conception, it was a mission
impossible. Because you thought about it
and you thought, well there's absolutely no way this can be achieved.
The barriers and the obstacles in the way are just such that
it can never ever be achieved. It's just so difficult. What
is the chance of lining up all those enormous great improbabilities
against this? Is it not the case that the salvation
of a multitude of sinners from their sins, that they might be
made the righteousness of God, and fitted for heaven, is that
not the most colossal mission impossible? Do you know how impossible
it is? When Jesus was speaking to the
rich young ruler who came to him and asked him, what must
I do to be saved? And he told him, and the man
went away sorrowful because he loved his possessions. And Jesus
said to the disciples, he said, look how hard it is for a rich
man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And he said, I tell you of a
truth, he said, it's easier for a camel to go through the eye
of a needle. You know what a camel is, don't
you? Isaac, you know what a camel is, a great big, great big, have
you seen one at the zoo? And have you seen a needle, a
tiny, tiny little needle? Grandma's got some in her sewing
box there. And there's a little tiny hole in it, that's the eye
of a needle. Could that huge great beast go through that tiny
little hole in that needle Impossible, isn't it? And the disciples all
said, well, it's impossible. How is it possible for anybody
to be saved? If it's that hard to be saved,
how is it possible for anybody to be saved? It's mission impossible,
isn't it? Jesus said this to them, Matthew
19, 26, he said, with men, this is impossible, oh indeed, with
men, but with God, all things are possible. How is it possible
for a multitude to be saved from their sins? Answer, by the person
and work of the Savior that God has set forth. God points to
a Savior. Look at verse one of Isaiah chapter
42. Look at the very first word. Behold. Look. Look. Look. Behold my servant, he says. Behold my servant. God's servant. Who is God's servant? God's servant is God. Let me
tell you why. It's revealed to us explicitly
in the New Testament in John's Gospel, John's Gospel chapter
1 and verse 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word, the capital W. In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was
with God. You say, I'm confused. So am
I, but this is what God reveals. I've got too puny a brain to
understand it, but I've got a heart of faith to believe it. The servant
of God is God. In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was
in the beginning with God. By Him all things were made.
By this Word all things were made that were made. And without
Him was nothing made that was made. He made everything. He
is the one through whom God made the worlds. He is the one. Here
we have the mystery of the Trinity. The Trinity. One God. God speaks
to Israel back in the Pentateuch, back in the first books of the
Bible. The Lord your God is one God. There's only one God, but
that one God is manifested in three persons. Father, Son, Holy
Spirit. Father that no man can see or
has ever seen. The Son is the Word who manifests
the essence of God to mankind. He is the servant, the one by
whom God is manifested. You know, it says in John 2 that
the Word became flesh. That Word, which was God in the
beginning, the servant of God, that Word became flesh. And John
and the other disciples, they say, He dwelt among us. And we
beheld his glory. Behold my servant. We beheld
the servant of God. We beheld his glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. No man has seen God at any time. No man. No, the essence of God,
the Father, nobody has seen Him. The only begotten Son, who is
in the bosom of the Father, the servant of God, He has made Him
known. He has manifest Him. He has revealed
Him. It says in 1 Timothy chapter
3 and verse 16, great is the mystery of godliness. And it
is. Don't worry if you don't understand,
but believe. Worry if you don't believe. This
great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. God was manifest in a body like
ours. Behold, it says, look at him. Sense him. Sense him. Hear what
he says. Hear when he speaks. Sense him.
Look at him. Look at him with the eye of faith.
Sense him. Trust him. All the Old Testament
patriarchs saw this servant when they saw God. You know, it says
many times, no man shall see me and live, and yet we read
again and again in the Old Testament of people seeing God. Who was it? It was the mother
and father of Samson, I think. I might have got that wrong,
but the details don't really matter too much. But, they got
this message from God by this angel that came. And they became
convinced that that was God. You know in the scriptures where
you see the Lord, and Lord is written in small capital letters,
as it is in this chapter several times. That's Jehovah, that's
the unknowable essence of God. and then you see it with small
letters, L-O-R-D, and that means the Christ, the one by whom the
Lord is manifested. They saw that God, that's the
one they saw when they saw God, that's the one who appeared to
them. Look at Isaiah 40, we looked at it a couple of weeks ago,
And look in Isaiah 40 verse 5. Isaiah 40 verse 5. The glory
of the Lord shall be revealed. shall be made known, shall be
shown. And all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of
the Lord has spoken it. All flesh shall see it, the glory.
We beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the
Father, full of grace and truth. Look at verse nine. Oh, Zion
that bring us good tidings, get thee up into the high mountain.
Oh, Jerusalem that bring us good tidings, lift up thy voice with
strength. Lift it up, be not afraid. What are they to say? Say unto the cities of Judah,
Behold your God. Behold, the Lord God will come. will come into our experience,
into our existence, with a strong hand, and his arm shall rule
for him. Behold, his reward is with him,
and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like
a shepherd. He will come amongst his people.
He shall gather the lambs with his arm, and carry them in his
bosom, and gently lead those who are with young. This is what
it's talking about. Behold my servant, says God. Behold him. He will come, He
will save His people from their sins. God's servant is the one
by whom He will save His people. What was the angel's message
to Joseph betrothed to Mary when Mary was found to be expecting
a baby? And she said, but I've known
no man. How is this? And the angel said, the Holy
Ghost has come upon you and the Holy Spirit will overshadow you
and that which is conceived in you will be conceived by the
Holy Ghost. So that he's a real man because
he's got a woman for a mother. but his father is not a man with
that trait of Adam and of sin in him. He's sinless, he's sinless. But he said to Joseph, who was
betrothed to Mary, he said, don't leave Mary, stay with her, but
you shall call this baby's name Jesus. And he says, why? For
he shall save his people from their sins. Jesus Jesus is the
Greek name for the Old Testament name Joshua, which means saviour,
saviour. So God is manifested in the flesh. God is made known in the flesh.
Behold my servant, whom I uphold. God the Father says he upholds
God the Son in his mission of coming into this earth. He's
God who's coming, but nevertheless, He is the Son who is coming.
And the Father says, I will uphold Him. Why will He uphold Him?
Because for a little while, He is made lower than the angels,
as Hebrews 2 tells us. For a little while, for His 33
years of His human life, He is made a little lower than the
angels. He who shared eternal glory with
the eternal God laid that glory aside for a short season that
He might come. Why did he do it? That he might
come in the flesh of the children, that he might redeem the children
from the curse of the law, that he might come in a body, that
that body might be broken and that blood might be shed, because
that is the price of divine justice for the salvation of his people.
Let this mind be in you, says Paul to the Philippians, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God. But he laid all of that
aside, and became obedient. He humbled himself as a servant
and he became obedient. Obedient even unto death. And which death? The most cursed
death. The most shameful death. He came
and was obedient unto the death of the cross. It says in Romans
8 verse 3, God sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh. He sent his son. God became fashioned
in a body that looked like ours. Those Pharisees didn't see a
holy person floating around with a halo around. They saw a man
that they hated, who was speaking things that they thought was
going to undermine their system. He just looked like an ordinary
man. There was no comeliness that we should desire Him, says
Isaiah 53. And He came in the fragility
of flesh. Look at Hebrews, well I'll turn
to it, Hebrews chapter 5, and listen to verse 7. This is speaking
about the Lord Jesus Christ, who in the days of His flesh,
for this little time when he became a man in flesh, when he
had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard
in that he feared. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered." As God was contracted
to a span in the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, as that baby
as that baby in a real body, in the likeness of sinful flesh. In that experience, though he
were God, yet he thirsted. It says he came to the place,
you know his friend Lazarus and the two sisters, Mary and Martha,
and Lazarus got sick, and Lazarus died, and they said, oh, if only,
Lord, you had been here, he would not have died. And he comes to
the tomb of Lazarus, and he's in there dead, and he's going
to raise him from the dead. He's going to raise him in that
moment from the dead. And when he comes to the tomb,
although he's God, and he knows what he's going to do, Jesus
the man, what do we read? As he stood at the tomb of Lazarus,
it says, Jesus wept. The man wept. He cried over Jerusalem,
O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how often would I have gathered you as
a hen gathers her chicks, but you wouldn't. As a man, he had
this anguish of spirit because of the sin that was in the world
and the sin he was coming to deal with for the justice of
God, for the sake of his people. In the fragility of his flesh,
he needed to be upheld. His father upheld him. In Gethsemane,
the night of his betrayal, before he went to the cross the next
morning, It says in the garden, he sweat as it were drops of
blood. Why? Because of the anguish of
his soul. Oh Father, if it be possible, let this cup. What
cup? The cup of the nails going through
his hands into the cross? No, no, no. As tortuous and terrible
as that was, that wasn't the thing. It was the separation. It was being burdened with that
vile thing, sin. And as the Son of God, the beloved,
blessed Son of God, being loaded with that sin and being made
sin, and justly needing to bear the penalty for that sin, under
the wrath, the just wrath of His Father, in that situation,
oh, that this cup might be taken from him. That soul anguish that
was his of bearing sins, that the Father would have to turn
his face away. My God, my God, why have you
forsaken me, he cried on the cross. This is him in the weakness,
the fragility of flesh for this season as he came to redeem his
people from the curse of the law. This is he in whom the Father
delights. Look in verse 1, in whom my soul
delighteth. God the Father says he delights
in his Son. Why? Why does he delight in his
Son? We don't understand The relationship,
how can we possibly? This is infinite God. But when
God created the heavens and the earth, you read in Genesis 1
again and again, God said, let so and so happen, and it happened,
and God saw what he'd done, and God said, that's good. God said,
that's good. but His beloved Son. He delights
in His beloved Son. This is He in whom the Father
delights. Why does He delight in Him? Because
He, His Son, the Servant, the Christ, is the one by whom God's
grace is implemented. Show me your glory, said Moses
to God. Show me your glory. What is your
greatest glory? Grace. I will be gracious to
whom I will be gracious. I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. That is God's greatest glory.
and it's manifested in His Son. This is why He delights in His
Son. And the fullness of His Spirit is on Him. I have put
my Spirit upon Him. You know, people, David said,
take not thy spirit from me. The people of God experience
the Spirit of God. We have the Spirit of God amongst
us this morning as we gather here, but it's all in measure.
It's all so much percent, if I can put it that way. But He
gives the Spirit to the Son without measure, 100%, all of it. He has everything He needs. John
3.34, He whom God hath sent, Jesus, speaks the words of God. For God giveth not the Spirit
by measure unto him. He gives him all of his spirit.
This is the Savior. And what will he do? He shall
bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. Bring forth, what does that mean?
I think what it means is this, he shall reveal and declare and
implement the gospel, the gospel good news to the Gentiles, to
those who were not by birth, by natural descent, the people
of God. In Hebrews chapter 10, we read
about it. We read what he does there, so
if I just turn over there, Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 5. Wherefore, when he, that's Christ,
comes into the world, he says, sacrifice and offering God didn't
want, but a body thou hast prepared for me. In burnt offerings and
sacrifices of animals for sin, thou hast had no pleasure, because
they didn't satisfy for the sins of his people. Then said I, the
Son, the servant of God, Lo, I come. In the volume of the
book it is written of me. There it's written of him, isn't
it? That he's coming. To do thy will, O God. Above
when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering
for sin you didn't want, neither had pleasure therein, which are
offered by the law. Then said he, lo, I come to do
thy will. He takes away the first, the
old covenant, the old covenant of do this perfectly and you
will be fit for heaven. but fail and you will be fit
for hell. He takes that away that he might establish the second.
By the witch will, the will of God, we who believe are sanctified. How? How are we made holy? Through
the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest
stands daily in the Old Testament temple, ministering and offering
oftentimes the same animal sacrifices which can never take away sins.
But this man, Christ Jesus, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, his own body on the tree, on the cursed tree.
He offered himself as a sacrifice for sins forever, he accomplished
and so therefore he sat down on the right hand of God from
henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool
for this is the crucial underlining by one offering he has perfected
forever them that are sanctified this is it he brings forth judgment
to the Gentiles he brings forth the satisfaction of justice to
the Gentiles and he does it in a very quiet way We read in Matthew
12 about his encounter with the Pharisees, and more often than
not, apart from when they just blatantly confronted him with
trying to trip him up or trying to catch him out, and then he
would give them an answer that would put them to flight. But
generally speaking, he avoided them. If you wonder why you read
of Jesus saying, don't let this be known, now is not the time.
He healed somebody. Don't go boasting this around,
because now is not the time. His hour had not yet come. Keep it quiet, because he came
gently. His ministry was a quiet ministry,
a gentle ministry, a meek ministry, not with aggression. When Muhammad
came, in whenever it was, the 7th century, he came with force
of arms. He built up an army. He conquered
the Middle East. He tried to conquer into Europe.
He came violently. He came trying to set up a kingdom
on earth with swords and spears and the instruments of war. But
Jesus said, my kingdom is not of this world. If it were, my
servants would take up arms and fight, but they don't. But the
useless Pharisees, because that's what they were, they were just
a broken reed, a bruised reed. They were a smoking flax. What's
a smoking flax any good for? If you can get one burning properly,
you might get some light from it. But this one wasn't, it's
just smoking. And you know what a smoking...
You know, have you ever tried lighting a bonfire and it's been a bad
day and it just won't go? And all you end up with is a
horrible smell down the garden, don't you? It just produces lots
and lots of smelly smoke. It doesn't actually do anything. And that's what they were like,
these Pharisees. They weren't any good at all,
as we read in Matthew chapter 12 and verse... This was the
Pharisees that were questioning him. He didn't crush them. He
didn't put them out. He wasn't a world revolutionary.
He was voluntarily obedient unto the death of the cross. Judgment
unto truth. Judgment unto truth. The satisfaction
of divine justice for the sins of his people was his sole purpose.
This is the one whom God sets forth as a savior for sinners. As Matthew 12, verse 20 says,
in his name shall the Gentiles trust. the elect of God amongst
the Gentiles. In His name, in this name, this
is the one in whom you trust. And there is a divine guarantee
of success. And I'm going to finish with
this, I'm not going to continue with the rest of the sermon after
this point, but verse 4. says this, he shall not fail. He shall not fail. In the mission
for which the father sent the servant, his son, the Redeemer,
he shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment on the earth and the isles shall
wait for his law. What shall he not fail to do? What is it that he shall not
fail to do? There are, throughout this book,
there are prophecies. It's all about Him. What did
Jesus say to them in John chapter 5 verse 39, talking to the Pharisees? You read the Scriptures, you
study the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. That's absolutely true, you do. If you want to find eternal
life, you look at the Scriptures. And Jesus then said to them,
these are they which speak of me. When he was on the Damascus,
sorry, when he was on the Emmaus road following his resurrection
and those two disciples didn't recognize him but they walked
with him and they were depressed because their Lord and Master
and all their hope had been destroyed and he'd been crucified and we
thought he was going to come and restore the kingdom to Israel
and now look what's happened. And Jesus shows them Himself,
and He, it says, expounded to them in all the Scriptures the
things concerning Himself. This book is full, the Old Testament
is full of the prophecies concerning Him. When John says test the
spirits in 1 John 4 verse 1, he says try the spirits, test
them, the preachers, test the preachers, whether they're preaching
the truth of God. Whoever confesses that Jesus
Christ has come in the flesh is of God. That doesn't just
mean like millions of religious people say there was a man called
Jesus. No, that's not it. It's this, that everything that
this book says about the Messiah, the Christ of God, who was manifested
in the Lord Jesus Christ when he came, Jesus of Nazareth in
the flesh, that that man was the very Christ of God of the
Old Testament, the promised one. That's what it is. He came to
fulfill every prophecy concerning him. Everything that this book
said he would do, he has done. What has he done? He has redeemed
his people from the curse of the law. He has redeemed a people. Which people? The people that
the Father gave to Him before the beginning of time. What's
all this about Israel in the Old Testament? Is it not supremely
a picture of God's electing grace? They are not all Israel who are
of Israel. No, the remnant according to
election were among them, but as a nation, typically and in
picture, they pictured how God chooses out for Himself, by His
grace, a people for His own blessing. This is the purpose of God. This
is the way it is. You talk to religion, it's the
very opposite of what religion believes, but Christ came to
fulfill all the Old Testament prophecies. He did everything.
He really did redeem his people from the curse of the law. He
really did. He accomplished it. There was
nothing left to do. He shall not fail. He did not
fail. He came to establish the righteousness
of God in obedience and death. That's what he did. Where there
was no righteousness of God amongst the people that God had determined
to save, he came and established the righteousness of God by his
obedience. He was a son who was perfectly
obedient. And in his going to the cross,
he took all the disobedience of his people and paid its just
penalty on the cross. He shall not fail. He did it.
On the cross he cried out, it is finished. What is finished?
Righteousness is established. Sin's penalty has been paid to
the full. It is enough. It is finished.
There is no more to do. He's done it all that His people
might be counted the righteousness of God in Him. No, not counted,
made the righteousness of God in Him. He shall not fail in
it. He did not fail in it. It is done. Thirdly, to redeem
all his people, to buy them all back. Not one of them shall be
lost. Not one. This is the will of
him who sent me, said Jesus in John chapter 6. He said, that
of all that the Father has given me, I should lose nothing. All those pictures, the Valley
of the Dry Bones, they stand on their feet when the Spirit
of God comes upon them, a mighty army in its ranks. And as I've
told you many times before, if you go to Horse Guards Parade
on the day of the Trooping of the Colour before the Queen,
You see all the troops stood there in their ranks, perfectly
drilling, marching, turning, doing all the things exactly.
They rehearse it and rehearse it and rehearse it. And if one
of them faints because it's a hot day, sometimes we have very hot
days in June when that happens, and if one of the troops faints
because of the extreme heat of the uniform and all the rest
of it, then you don't see the 99 that are all still in line,
you see the one that's missing, don't you? You see where there's
a gap. In Ezekiel's dry bones, they all stand on their feet
a mighty army. There's not one of them missing, not one. Every
stone, every living stone is in its right place in the temple
of God. He shall not fail. He's done
it all. He will establish God's kingdom triumphant. He will save
all who come to him in repentance and faith. You say, he might
not save me because I might not be amongst the elect. He says,
come unto me, all you who labor and are heavy laden. with your
sins and with the fear of hell. Come to me and I will give you
rest. And he shall keep all of his
people into heaven, into eternity. The eternal, changeless character
of God guarantees Christ's success in his mission. I was going to
go on to look at verses five to nine, but I'm definitely not
now with just over a minute remaining of our normal allotted time,
so we'll leave that for next time, but that is the Father's
commission to the Son. Behold my servant, and then we
see as a fly on the wall in the, how can I put this? In the
secrecy of heaven, of the Trinity, We're there and we're given the
fly-on-the-wall view of the Father's commission to the Son. But we'll
save that for next time. The answer, the summary of it
all is this. What must be done to save a soul?
What must be done to save a multitude? Is it not a mission impossible?
Certainly for man. For any of us, but not for God,
the salvation of sinners from the just consequences of their
sins is a monumental task. But the eternal God has decreed
it and done everything, at immense cost. He's done everything necessary
to accomplish it, at immense cost. And now, in His Word, by
His preachers, He declares it to His people. Here's the challenge,
will you repent of your sin and believe him and trust your soul
to him? Will you trust your soul to him?
Are you persuaded like Paul? He said this, didn't he? 2 Timothy
chapter 1 verse 12, I know whom I have believed and I am persuaded
that he, God, is able to keep that which I've committed unto
him. my soul, my soul's eternal good. I've committed it into
His hands. I know He is able to keep it.
Against that day, against that day of judgment, on that day
of judgment I will be counted, I will be made, I will be seen
as the righteousness of God in Him. That was Paul's confidence.
Is it yours? Come to Christ. in faith, believing,
trusting, beholding, behold my servant whom I uphold, mine elect,
in whom my soul delighteth. Amen.