in the 11th chapter of Isaiah's
Gospel and verse 11. The prophet of God was inspired
to write these words. The Lord shall set his hand again
the second time to recover the remnant of his people. That's my subject this evening.
The Lord shall recover the remnant of his people. Of this fact,
we are assured throughout the word of God and assured repeatedly. God will save his elect. God is saving his elect. Everything God does is for the
salvation of his elect to the glory of his own great name. Now you can mark this down as
a matter of absolute certainty. Not one sinner chosen by God
in eternal election shall perish at last. Not one sinner redeemed
by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be brought
under the curse of God's law and the wrath of God in everlasting
judgment. And not one sinner regenerated
and called by God the Holy Ghost shall perish in eternal death. Every elect redeemed sinner at
God's appointed time shall be born again by the irresistible
grace and omnipotent power of God the Holy Ghost. Being affectionately
called by the Spirit of God to life and faith in Christ, every
chosen redeemed sinner shall believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. as the result of God's election,
as the result of Christ's redemption, as the result of the Spirit's
call, all who are born of God believe on the Lord Jesus. And not one sinner who believes
on the Son of God shall perish at last. Not one sinner who believes
on the Son of God The scriptures do not promise everlasting life
to strong faith or to great faith. The scriptures promise everlasting
life to faith in Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. That's the message of Isaiah
chapter 11. Let's read these 16 verses together
and then we'll come to our text in verses 10 through 16. Here is our Savior, verse one.
There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and
a branch shall grow out of his roots, and the Spirit of the
Lord shall rest upon him, and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and of
the fear of the Lord, and shall make him a quick understanding
in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge after the
sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
This one who is Christ our Savior, the Christ of God, is he who
has given the Spirit of God without measure. Here's his work, verse
4. With righteousness shall he judge
the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth. And
he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth. and with
the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. Everyone
shall be conquered by the King of glory. Everyone shall be conquered
by the Lord Jesus Christ, either conquered by the word of his
grace and the spirit of his mouth in the new birth, or conquered
at last in the day of judgment. Here is his work, again, as the
basis of it, verse five. This is the basis of everything
he does. and righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and
faithfulness the girdle of his reins. Everything he does in
mercy and in judgment, everything he does in grace and in wrath,
everything he does in bringing sinners to heavenly glory and
in casting sinners into everlasting damnation, he does with righteousness
and with faithfulness. Now here's the result of that
work. When a sinner is born again, he's changed. Where Christ reigns, things change. The wolf also shall dwell with
the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the
calf and the young lion and the fatling together, and a little
child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall
feed. Their young ones shall lie down
together. And the lion shall eat straw
like the ox. And the sucking child shall play
on the hole of the asp. And the weaned child shall put
his hand on the cockatrice's den. Well, that can't happen. It's dangerous. They shall not
hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountains. For the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the
sea. When grace comes, grace makes
people dwell together in peace and causes people who are themselves
but just sucking children, just babies, to be perfectly safe
walking in his grace in this world. Now here's our text for
tonight. But Isaiah's message hasn't changed.
He's still telling us exactly the same thing. As the result
of God's election and Christ's redemption and the Spirit's call,
all who are born of gain believe God and all who believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ are saved in the Lord with everlasting salvation. Verse 10, and in that day, There
shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of
the people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall
be glorious. And it shall come to pass in
that day that the Lord will set his hand the second time to recover
the remnant of his people. which shall be left from Assyria,
and from Egypt, and from Patras, and from Cush, and from Elam,
and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.
And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble
the outcast of Israel, and gather together the dispersed Judah
from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim
shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. Ephraim
shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim, but they
shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the
west. They shall spoil them of the
east together. They shall lay their hand upon
Edom and Moab, and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And
the Lord shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea.
And with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river
and shall spite it in the seven streams and make men go over
dry shod. And there shall be an highway
for the remnant of his people, which shall be left. A highway
for the remnant of his people, which shall be left from Assyria.
like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the
land of Egypt. It shall come to pass in that
day, in the day appointed by God from eternity, in the day
of his grace, in this day that is called the dispensation of
the grace of God. It shall come to pass that the
Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the
remnant of his people. Now listen to me. That's what
God is doing right now, today. That's what God is doing right
now, today. He is recovering the remnant
of his people. The Lord God daily adds to his
church such as should be saved. In all that he does, in providence,
and all that he does in the arrangement of the decrees of kings and nations,
and everything he does in the dispensations of providence within
a nation, everything he does in your life and mine, everything
in heaven, earth, and hell. is sovereignly manipulated by
our God so that at the appointed time of love, daily, he adds
to his church such as should be saved. Daily, he is recovering
the remnant of his people by the right hand of his omnipotent
grace. And when we read chapters like
Isaiah 11, the theologians and the commentators have a lot of
opinions, and they offer lots of different opinions about the
historical events that are referred to in such passages. It may be
that Isaiah 11 refers to the time of Hezekiah's reign. Perhaps
that's the case. It may be that Isaiah 11 refers
more specifically to the deliverance of God's elect from Babylonian
captivity when Israel was taken into Babylon for 70 years of
bondage. Without question, in either case,
that was typical of the redemption of God's elect, the salvation
of God's people by his grace. And that is the message of the
chapter. Both Hezekiah and the Babylonians
have been dead for a long, long time. So frankly, I'm not terribly
interested in either Hezekiah or the Babylonians. I'm very
interested in what God is doing today. So we shouldn't be terribly
concerned about men who have died a long time ago. What does
this passage say to you and me? What is its intention by the
Spirit of God? What is the message God has for
us in the passage? The Lord shall recover his remnant. That's the message. The Lord
shall recover his remnant. Everything is alright. Everything is all right. Now, we use those words in the
midst of trouble and difficulty. We attempt to comfort one another,
comfort our friends when they're going through real trial. And
you say, everything's all right. Or everything's going to be all
right. Listen to me. Everything really is all right. And everything really shall be
all right. Because everything God does is
for the saving of his people. Now just exactly what is it you
would like to change? How would you do things differently?
The Lord shall recover the remnant of his people. The prophet's
eye here looks beyond Hezekiah to another far greater king,
even the king of kings and the Lord of lords. This whole prophecy
has been talking about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Isaiah
looks beyond the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. to the
deliverance of God's elect from sin and death and judgment and
wrath and everlasting hell. He looks beyond Hezekiah. to
one whose name is called Jesus, who shall save his people from
their sins. So this passage before us is
an inspired prophecy regarding the person and work of our Lord
Jesus Christ, our great Savior. We know that because God the
Holy Ghost tells us that in Romans 15 and verse 12. Whatever things
were written before, All those things written aforetime were
written for your consolation, that you might have hope in the
Lord Jesus Christ. This passage of scripture is
a prophecy of the sure salvation of God's elect throughout the
world. Salvation that comes to us by
the merits of His Son and by the power of His Spirit. And
let me call your attention to several things here. I look at
just seven things I pull out of these 16 verses, or these
six verses, verses 10 through 16, and remind you of things
that you know, but things you need to have constantly on your
heart. First, Christ the Messiah, our
Redeemer, is the eternal, almighty God. That's what we have in verse
10. Here he is called the stem of
Jesse and the branch which grew out of his loins. What does that
mean? He is both the stem from which Jesse came and the branch
that grows out of the loins of Jesse. Hold your hands here and
turn to Revelation chapter 5. Revelation 5, let me show you
this. I keep stressing this. Our Redeemer
must be a man. A man must obey. A man must satisfy. But if Jesus Christ were just
a man, we could not trust him. Faith in him would be ill-founded
faith. We believe him who is the God-man. who is able both to suffer and
to satisfy, able by his obedience through his infinite merit as
God to bring in everlasting righteousness and justify and redeem his people. He is God and man. This is referred to throughout
the scriptures. You get back here to Revelation
chapter five as the chorus in heaven sings his praise One said,
one of the elders said to John in verse five, weep not, behold
the lion of the tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed
to open the book. He is that one who is the root
from which David springs, God Almighty. And He is that one
who springs from David's roots as a man. Look at chapter 22
of Revelation, verse 16. The Lord Jesus says, I, Jesus,
have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the
churches. I am the root and the offspring
of David, the bright and morning star. I am God through whom David
lives. And I am a man who comes to you
as the offspring of David, great David's great son. Here's the
second thing, again in verse 10. The Lord Jesus has been set
up from everlasting and forever stands as an ensign for sinners. This word ensign doesn't merely
refer to a military rank. It refers specifically here to
a banner, a sign, a flag displayed around which soldiers are gathered
for battle. It is a sign for encouragement
and preparation. It's a rallying point for warriors
on the battlefield. and it is a banner of victory.
When the battle is done, victory is accomplished, men bring the
flag and set it on a high hill and say, victory is done! Christ is our ensign, an ensign
of the people. He was set up from eternity as
an ensign. It is he who leads the charge
always. It is he who gathers the troops
of the army of heaven. He gives direction to his soldiers
and he and he alone accomplishes the victory. And having accomplished
the victory, he is the first to ascend into the high hill
of Zion, the king of glory. And he's the ensign, the ensign
to which all must look, the ensign which draws us to heaven. When
he was crucified, turn over, hold your hands here in Isaiah
11 again and turn to John 12, John chapter 12. When our Lord
was crucified as our substitute, he was set up as an ensign, a
banner of grace that he might gather all his own to himself. John 12, 32. And I, if I be lifted
up from the earth, will draw all men unto me. This, he spoke,
signifying what death he should die. If I be lifted up as a banner,
I'll draw like a mighty magnet, men and women out of every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue from the four corners of the earth
unto me. And coming unto me, they shall
live. He is the banner of hope for
sinners, the banner he is for all sinners who look to him,
a banner of redemption fully accomplished. and Christ the
innocent set up on high is for the gathering together of God's
elect scattered throughout the earth. We saw this this morning
in John chapter 11. Caiaphas said, he said, it's
expedient that one man die and not the nation. And God, the
Holy Ghost tells us he said this because Christ died for the gathering
together of God's elect among the nations who had been scattered
abroad by the hand of God. scattered in the Adam fall, scattered
in all the directions by the hand of God's providence, scattered
when God came down at Babel and and scattered the nations, scattered
among the sons of Noah, scattered to the four winds by trial and
war and persecution and famine, scattered by need, scattered
by fear, scattered here and scattered there by God's providence. scattered
by God that he might gather them. And Christ is the rallying point
around which they're gathered. They are gathered together around
him, his church, all rallying to him. This is the unifying
point for God's people, the common leak of all the redeemed. Christ
stands as the incident. He is the ensign, set up in the
gospel of God's grace. He is the standard. He is the
bearer, the banner. And God's servants are standard
bearers. This is what preachers are supposed
to do. Some years ago, we set up a flagpole out there. That
flagpole has just one purpose. It's not designed to be pretty
and add to the beauty of the building. It wasn't put there
for anything except one purpose. It holds a flag. That's all it
does. God make me such a preacher. That's the whole of a preacher's
work. That's the whole of a pastor's
work. That's the whole of an evangelist's
work. That's the whole of a missionary's
work. Every man called and sent of
God to preach the gospel is required to lift up Christ crucified. Like Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. That's my business. That's my
business. I will do you good only as a
standard bearer. I will do your sons and daughters
and your grandchildren good only as a standard bearer. I will
do this generation good only as a standard bearer. That's
what preachers are. And when they get engaged in
anything else, they make a mess of it. Preachers are to preach
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look back at Isaiah 11 again,
verse 10. The Lord Jesus is Himself God. He is our banner. And He is the Savior we must
trust. To it, to this ensign, shall
the Gentiles seek. In John 12, we read of some Gentiles
who came to the Lord's disciples and they said, Sirs, we would
see Jesus. Oh, what a request. Sirs, we
would see Jesus. May it please God. to call some
of you here like those Gentiles of old to seek Him. Those who
seek Him know their need of Him. They seek Him because they've
got to have it. Those who seek Him know who He
is and what He's done. They seek Him because He is God
the Savior. He's the Redeemer. He is God's
salvation. Those who seek Him, trust Him,
and they're saved by Him. Seek, our Savior said, and ye
shall find. Seek, and ye shall find. I recall
years ago, a friend of mine, first time I met him up in Northern
Michigan, and we were sitting at the table, and he had been
all his life in a works, Mongol, Congregation and been taught
to look to his faith and look to his repentance and look to
his works and he taught Sunday school there and he said to me
sitting across the table he and the pastor sitting right beside
me and He said he's I've been seeking the Lord for 20 years
I said what He's I've been seeking the Lord for 20 years I said
you've been lying to yourself for 20 years After you've been
seeking him you'd have found him Those who seek Him find Him. And finding Him, they go on seeking
Him, for we know Him and know our need of Him. But our Savior
didn't say, seek and you might find. He said, seek and you shall
find. When you desperately need Him,
when you've got to have Him, when you can't live without Him,
you'll find Him. I recall reading a story by Mr.
Spurgeon He told it as a true story, I presume it was, if he
told it. He said there was a farmer who,
at the end of the year, taking his goods to market, and he got
all the price of his goods at one time for the whole year,
as was the case in those days. And he came home and spent some
time out in the barn, and then he went in for dinner. And when
he went in for dinner and started emptying his pockets out, he
said, oh, no. I've lost my billfold. And his
wife said, as women are wont to do, where were you when you
lost it? And he said, you know, I've got to find it. Everything's
in there. Everything's in there. And so he went out in the barn
and started turning things upside down. And he kept turning things
upside down, moving through the straw and the hay, turning things
upside down. And finally, late at night, he
found his wallet. His life was in there. Without
what was in that wallet, there was no food, no bread for the
family, no way to get through the next year. And his wife was
a believer. She had tried witnessing to him
many times, and she said to him when he came in, said, I found
it, and was beaming. She said, if you'd seek the Lord
like you sought that wallet, you'd find him too. They seek
him with all their heart because they must have him. Number four,
look at verse 10 again. Christ is the God whose rest is glorious. His rest shall be glorious. The word might be read this way,
His rest shall be His glory. Our Lord Jesus, when He had by
Himself purged our sins, Entered into heaven with his own blood
and obtained eternal redemption for us. And he sat down on the
right hand of the majesty on high. For he had perfected forever
them that are sanctified. He had sanctified us by his blood. He had brought in everlasting
righteousness. He had fulfilled all the law. He obtained glorious
rest for himself and he obtained it for us. The rest he obtained
is glorious, and the rest he gives is glorious. Listen to
his words. Come unto me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to Christ. Oh, God help you come to Christ.
And bow down under his yoke. quit trying to work, quit trying
to do and rest in him and you'll find rest for your souls. And
then he says to you and me, take my yoke upon you and learn in
me for I am meek and lowly in heart and you shall find rest
unto your souls. I call Brother Lindsey's son-in-law
whenever I get in trouble with my computer. He has that business
up there in Cincinnati. And I learned a long time ago,
the first thing you do when you got computer trouble, you who
don't know this, you'll want to remember this. The very first
thing to do, I mean, it'll take care of 95% of your trouble,
turn it off. Just turn it off. Wait 30 seconds,
turn it back on. Everything will be fine. Do you
know what's the last thing I do? I work on that thing half a day,
Rex. I turn it off and reboot. There
it is. There it is. Why are we so disinclined to believe God and bow to him? Because we're proud, arrogant,
sinful, self-centered creatures who think, I can handle this. I can work this out. And as long
as you keep trying to handle it, you're going to be disturbed
and paste the floor and bite your nails and fuss and cuss
and run here and there. And when at last, the Lord graciously
Fixes it. So that all you can do is bow. When you do, you'll find rest
into your souls. And you'll find out that that's
the easiest way on this earth to live. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light. His rest shall be glorious. That's the rest he promises us
in heavenly glory. Ah, there remains a rest to the
people of God. This rest, all the way through
the scriptures, is pointed to by the Sabbath day. Ceasing from
works. Christ came down here to do a
work. He finished his work, he entered into his rest. You and
I live on this earth trying to meet the requirements of God.
Trying to obey the law and satisfy justice. Turmoil is the result. And then at last, we quit working. we quit working. That's what
faith in Christ is. It's ceasing from work, resting
in Him. And when He's done, we shall
enter into rest. But we read of heaven's glory,
they shall serve Him day and night. Now, I don't have any
aspirations of spending eternity floating around on a cloud playing
a harp. I just don't have any aspirations
for that. God's people in the new creation
serve him day and night, but toil is over. They rest, they
rest. And faith in Christ is ceasing
to do for God. Ceasing to try to please God
by what you do, it is resting in Him. That's what the Sabbath
was all about. If a man broke the Sabbath, God
killed him. Because that Sabbath represented
God's salvation. And men and women who refuse
to trust Christ will perish in their sins because they refuse
to believe on the Son of God. Now look at verses 11 and 12. Here we're told that a remnant
according to the election of grace must and shall be saved. The Lord shall set his hand again
the second time to recover the remnant of his people. There
is this remnant according to the election of grace. There
always has been. There is now and there will be
tomorrow. At any place, at any given time,
God's elect remnant appears insignificant. So small that it's just insignificant. But when all are gathered in,
it shall be a great multitude which no man can number. The Lord God Almighty will set
his hand the second time to recover the remnant of his people, the
outcast of Israel and Judah, whom he has scattered through
all the earth. And so all Israel shall be saved. Read the 103rd Psalm and understand,
God will save his people. And God's providence is but the
working out of the salvation of his people. How can you say
for certain that God's elect must all be saved? Because the
purpose of God can't fail. The blood of Christ shall never
fail. The power and grace of God's
spirit can never be frustrated. God's people must and shall be
saved. The word of God cannot be broken. Here's the sixth thing, verses
13 and 14. In Christ, redeemed, saved, justified
sinners are united. A united kingdom and a united
church. I love these words. The envy
also of Ephraim shall depart. and the adversaries of Judah
shall be cut off. Ephraim shall not envy Judah,
and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. They'll quit fussing and fighting
with each other. They do that by nature throughout their history,
but when God saves his elect, they'll quit fussing with each
other, fighting with each other because of envy. And that's really
the root of it all, just envy. but they shall fly upon the shoulders
of the Philistines. That is Ephraim and Judah, this
little insignificant nobodies. They're not going to just find
themselves all of a sudden in a conflict, but rather they shall
fly upon Egypt and the Philistines and Judah, Edom and Moab, and
the children of Ammon shall obey them. How is that? By the gospel
of God's grace, We go into this world and preach Jesus Christ
and Him crucified and take the spoils of victory. Take the spoils of all the world. Read the latter chapters of Revelation.
The kingdoms of this world becoming the kingdoms of our God or the
kingdom of our God and all the riches of these kingdoms. All the riches of these kingdoms
flow in design so that everything of any value belongs to us. Everything of any usefulness
belongs to God's people. The grace of God breaks down
the barriers that separate men and nations. so that those who
were once enemies become a peaceful family and a peaceful kingdom
and together they shall be triumphant. That's the last thing. Verses
15 and 16. Our Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel
of his grace and his church shall be successful and triumphant
at last. If you want to understand the
book of Revelation, Understand this. You have seven visions
given to God's servant John in the book of Revelation. Each
of those visions begins with the first advent of Christ and
ends with the last or the second advent of our Savior. It begins
with his incarnation and ends with his return in glory. And
each of the seven visions has the same message. the sure triumph
of Christ and his church by the gospel. The sure triumph of Christ
and his church by the gospel. Everything that might hinder
the progress and success of the gospel, he takes out of the way. As God dried up the waters of
the Red Sea and drove back the Jordan to give his people victory
in the past, So he shall destroy every obstacle to accomplish
his purpose of grace today, tomorrow, and in the future. Look at verse
15. The Lord shall utterly destroy
the tongue of the Egyptian sea. And with his mighty wind shall
he shake his hand over the river and shall smite it in the seven
streams and make men go over dry shod. And there shall be
an highway for the remnant, for the remnant down yonder in Egypt,
over yonder in Ammon, a remnant for those down in Assyria. There'll
be a highway for them, which shall be left from Assyria, like
as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land
of Egypt. You hear us say, such and such
was miraculously saved. Oh, God wondrously saved him.
He does that with all his people. He does that with all of them.
They're saved by God taking that which is impossible. That which
men could never do. With men, it's impossible. It's impossible. But with God,
all things are possible. And it takes that one who can't
possibly get over the Red Sea. There's no way to escape Egypt. He can't possibly go into Jordan
and conquer that land. It can't be done. Wait a minute. Watch this. God, by his spirit,
dries up the sea and causes waters to stand like
a wall on either side. and Israel passes over a dry
shod. God, by his spirit, parts the
Jordan River, and Israel not only has plenty of time to walk
across the Jordan River dry shod, but to turn around, go back in
the middle of it, and erect an altar to God that stands there
for his praise. Salvation is God's work. And he uses everything and everybody
to accomplish it for his people. And he, with the breath of his
mouth, sends them across the Red Sea, possessing Canaan, across
the Jordan into glory land by the power of his grace. This
is the Lord's recovery of His remnant, and this He shall do,
is doing, and has forever done. Amen.