In the fourth chapter of John's
Gospel, as our Lord ministered to the Samaritan woman and those
Samaritans who learned who he is and taught him the worship
of God, he said, God is spirit. That's a remarkable statement.
God is spirit. He is infinite. incomprehensible,
all-comprehending Spirit. He has no body, no parts, no
members, no passions, no change. God is Spirit. And the only way
we can know God, who is Spirit, is by the God-Man, our Savior
Jesus Christ the Lord, the Word that was made flesh and dwelt
among us. But God condescends to speak to us in such a way
as to make us understand something of His person, His work, His
greatness, and His glory by using human terms to speak of Himself. Terms that we can identify with,
the hand of the Lord, the mind of the Lord, the ear of our God,
the heart, the eye of God. He has none of those members,
but those things we can identify with, and by those things he
communicates to us something of his great grace and mercy
towards sinners in Christ. I want, by the Spirit of God,
to try to preach to you tonight on a subject I've never tackled
before, but I've been seized with it for weeks now. You'll
find my text in Isaiah chapter 9 and verse 7. The prophet here
speaks of the zeal of the Lord. Zeal. That's not an attribute
that's commonly attributed to God. Zeal implies passion, fervency,
something that's stirred up, something that's awakened, something
that's bursting inside you, something that's a driving force within
you. This phrase, the zeal of the
Lord, is used only three times in Holy Scripture. All three
times it is used to speak of God's accomplishment of the salvation
of His elect and the glory of His Son accomplished by their
salvation. All three times. He says the
zeal of the Lord will perform this. You don't need to turn
there and look at them, but there are two other places where this
is used. In 2 Kings chapter 19 in verse 31, The Lord God says,
out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape
out of the Mount Zion, the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do
this. Then in Isaiah 37 verse 32, he
states exactly the same thing. Out of Jerusalem shall go forth
a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion The zeal of
the Lord of hosts shall do this. Now in Isaiah 9, 7, Isaiah is
talking to us about the incarnation of our Redeemer and the accomplishment
of redemption and salvation by him, by his obedience unto death
as our substitute. Of the increase of his government
and peace, there shall be no end. Upon the throne of David
and upon his kingdom to order it, and to establish it with
judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. Now think for a
moment about the works of God, the mighty, mighty works of God. Creation was a great wondrous
work of God that continues to this day to baffle the minds
of men. The triune Jehovah by the mere
word of his power created all things. He made 10,000,000 worlds
and filled space with such ponderous orbs that their dimensions still
stagger human imagination. It was no small work for God
to make the world. with all its splendor and beauty,
with all its magnificence and minute detail, with all its order
and stability. You stop and think about just
this planet on which we live, just this planet, the magnificence,
the splendor, the order, the beauty, the minute detail of
everything that holds everything as it should be, God's work,
God's work. The morning stars might well
burst forth in singing as the first light shone upon this planet
that God called Earth. But when reading about creation
throughout the book, first three chapters of Genesis, where it's
spoken of in other places in scripture, we never read anything
about the zeal of the Lord in connection with it. The Lord
God did it all. With the great ease of infinite
wisdom and infinite omnipotence, in six days, he finished the
whole thing. He could have done it like that,
but it took six days for a reason. And in six days, he made the
earth. Here we see the wisdom of God,
but not the zeal of God. In creation, we see the power
of God, but not the zeal of the Lord. There is such boundless
wisdom and power in God that all he created is but a drop
in the bucket before him. The whole creation, not just
this earth, but the whole creation, all the nations of the earth
are like just a small dust in the balance when put in his scale.
Upholding all things requires the power of omnipotence. We read much about laws of nature. Laws of nature are nothing but
the exercise of God's sovereignty, upholding all things with the
word of his power. But I find nothing in the book
of God giving any connection between the zeal of the Lord
and the upholding of all things. He who made the stars of heaven,
and called them each by name. He gave it his infinitely wise,
wise work. And with great infinite power,
he performed it. Arcturus, Maserat, Pleiades,
and Orion were hung in space. He hung them out there. He just
hung them out there. But we find nothing in them that
awakened the zeal of the Lord. When the angels of God were created,
we're not told. The scriptures don't tell us
when they were created. But there's nothing said about
the zeal of the Lord in connection with the creation of those holy
and pure creatures of the Almighty. Even when God created Adam in
the garden, and placed him in the midst of the garden, and
made Eve out of Adam's side, and brought Eve to Adam to be
his wife. As the Lord God put Adam and
Eve, our first parents, in the garden, there's all display of
God's wisdom. of God's might, of God's power,
but there's nothing said of the zeal of the Lord in connection
with our first parents. Think about God's providence.
All the wonders of providence wrought upon the earth. How great
they are. How great they are. You and I
just see specks. I mean, just little specks. Consider
the whole history of providence. Oh, how great a work. Our God,
sovereignly from everlasting, works all things together in
perfect unison and order. He works all things together
for good, to them that love God, to them who are the called according
to his purpose. And yet he does so with great
gentleness and ease. As it's given to us in the scriptures,
it seems to be no exercise at all. God sits upon the throne
and sovereignly manipulates everything by just the exercise of his will. Nothing more. How infinitely
great our God is. Look at the splendid work he
performed at the Red Sea. This work, God himself seems
to have selected as his masterpiece of skill and power. Even in heaven,
they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God and of the
Lamb. Sing unto the Lord, for he hath
triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider hath
he thrown into the sea. But how did he accomplish that
stupendous work? Thou didst blow with thy hand. The sea covered them. They sank
like lead in her mighty waters. No enthusiasm, no stirring up
of strength, no zeal, just the tender breath of his mouth and
all was done. Pharaoh and his armies drowned
in the middle of the sea and Moses and the children of Israel
delivered by the hand of God. But when we read in the book
of God about the salvation of his chosen, by the doing and
dying of his own dear son. Three times we are told the zeal
of the Lord will perform this. The zeal of the Lord. To have a race of beings surrounding
him. A race of men and women who should
know both good and evil. To have a race of people who
know evil by having fallen into it and becoming themselves the
embodiment of evil. That's what we are. To have a
race of creatures who know good by the experience of his goodness
and his grace. Being made good by him. Made righteous by him. made holy
by Him, by the goodness, righteousness, and holiness of His Son, the
Lord Jesus Christ. In order to have a people forever
around Him, in union with Him, the source of all goodness by
overwhelming obligation of love. In order to have a people for
Himself as His own peculiar treasure. A people who have washed their
robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb, world
without end. That thought, that thought, to
have such a people, if you'll permit me to use such language,
seems to have awakened in God's zeal. Oh, my soul, if that doesn't
shake you with joy, I don't know what will. To have a people. Like us, saved by his grace,
in union with him, zeal awakes in God. And he declares the zeal
of the Lord of Hosts will perform it. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts. What's that talking about? The
fervency of his love. The energy of his omnipotence. The fire of his grace. The zeal
of the Lord of Hosts utterly devoted to the salvation of His
people for the glory of His Son. The zeal of the Lord of Hosts
is utterly devoted to the salvation of His people for the glory of
His Son. How we ought to be devoted to
the salvation of His people for the glory of His Son. The Lord
God from eternity, before ever the earth was made, purposed
that his only son, our Lord Jesus Christ, would come into this
world and take into union with himself our nature, that in our
flesh he would bring in everlasting righteousness by his obedience. that in our flesh he who is God
would suffer and die for our sins for the satisfaction of
divine justice and put away the guilt of his chosen. He purposed
that by the power and grace of his spirit he would make his
redeemed ones new creatures in Christ. forming an everlasting
union of life between His Son and His people. God purposed
to form an everlasting union of life between His Son and His
people, making His Son, the Lord Jesus, partaker of our nature
in the incarnation, and making us partakers of His nature in
the new birth. Now, turn over to Romans chapter
six. Romans chapter 6. The zeal of the Lord will perform
this. The fervency of his love, the
energy of his omnipotence, the fire of his grace, the zeal of
the Lord is utterly devoted, to use the expression of the
serpent himself, to having a people who shall be as gods, knowing
good and evil. God was determined from everlasting
to have a people who shall be as gods doing good and evil. That's exactly what the Apostle
Paul by divine inspiration speaks of here in Romans 6, 17. God be thanked, God be thanked
that ye were the servants of sin, but have obeyed from the
heart That form of doctrine, that is the gospel of God's grace,
which was delivered you. It requires the zeal of the Lord
to perform this. This could not have been done
by the mere power of God, or the mere wisdom of God, or even
by the love of God. but rather all the attributes
of the triune Jehovah must be brought together and brought
forth and put into exercise to accomplish this great work. The
zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this. For myself, if
I know anything of my own heart, I hope I can truly say I hate
sin. mine more than anyone's. I hate what I am. I hate what
I am. I would not for the world commit
sin, period. I loathe myself and my poor fallen
sinful nature is a part. Sin becomes more and more bitter
to me. the more precious Christ is made to me by the grace of
God. Having said that, I would rather
be a sinner saved by grace, knowing both the goodness of God in his
grace and the evil of sin in the experience of it, than to
be as the heavenly angels who never knew sin. or to be as Adam
in the garden who never knew sin until the fall. The words
of Romans 6, 17, as they stand in our translation, are precisely
accurate. They're in exact agreement with
the Greek text. I've looked it up carefully.
Nothing can be added to the words of the apostle and nothing taken
from those words in this verse of Scripture without utterly
changing its meaning. Here Paul thanks God that we
were once the servants of sin, but now we are in obedience to
Christ. He thanks God that we were once
lost, but now saved. That we were once unregenerate
and are now regenerated by his grace. that we were once dead
in trespasses and in sins, but now live in union with his son
in everlasting salvation. Most people read Romans 6, 17
like this, God be thanked that though you were the servants
of sin, that's not what it says. Paul says by divine inspiration,
God be thanked that you were the servants of sin. but ye have
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
you. Now you might ask, can it be
imagined that Paul would thank God that we were once in the
drudgery of sin and ungodliness and Satan and filth and violence? Surely he doesn't thank God that
we once were like that. Paul gives his answer clearly. If it is for the glory of God
to be advanced, if sin is overruled by him to show forth his greater
glory, we must indeed and delightfully do say with him, God be thanked. You were once the servants of
sin. God be thanked. You have been made to be brought
in obedience to Christ. You've been brought to life and
faith in Christ, who were once the servants of sin. How can
this be best? How can this be best? More than
40 years ago, I was very sick with cancer, as you all know.
And it was just at the time when they were beginning to use chemotherapy,
they were still using cobalt for radiation, and the doctors
were real concerned about the consequences of the treatments. I had to go for a good while.
And they injected my body regularly with poison that could kill you.
And they blasted my body regularly with cobalt. I still have the
tattoos where they made little big lead blocks to try to keep
it from my spine and heart and lungs. And they blasted my body
regularly with cobalt. And I was sick. I was sick. I spent a year hugging a commode.
I would vomit all day long, just sick as I could be. Just as sick
as I could be. But the poison they put in me,
was intended to result in my good health and by the blessing
of God did. Poison is sometimes used as medicine
for our bodies and the sickness of the body is often made a means
of health for our souls. Even so, the sin and fall of
our father Adam and our sin and fall in him laid the foundation
for something that could not otherwise have been. Our sin
and fall in Adam, our experience of iniquity, our experience of
the wrath and judgment, the wrath of God upon us, our experience
of the terror of divine justice laid the foundation for the revelation
of God to us and in us, in the sacrifice and accomplishments
of his darling son, that we might know him. That we might know him. The glory of God, are you listening? The glory of God could not be
known by Adam in the garden The glory of God could not be known
by the holy angels of heaven. The glory of God could not be
known by man except as his glory is revealed in the face of Jesus
Christ. The Lord God Almighty ordained
all this to accomplish the revelation of his glory in his son in the
salvation of his people. The Holy Lord God by infinite
wisdom and grace has made our sin and misery the occasion of
our greatest possible blessedness. Oh, what great reason this is
for thanksgiving and praise to God that no one misunderstand
my words. I offer no excuse for any man's
sin. and God is my witness, I offer
no excuse for my own. We do not attempt by any means
to escape responsibility for our sin. We do not in any way
charge God with sin. God cannot be tempted with evil,
neither tempteth he any man. But our great God in so great
infinite wisdom, in his marvelous grace, turns our greatest misery
into our greatest good and sovereignly overruled sin, our sin, to make
it an occasion for our everlasting blessedness. That's called where sin abounded,
grace did much more about. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. Divine wisdom found a way by
which the sinner might not only escape being everlastingly miserable,
but a way to make the sinner happier than before he sinned. To make us more blessed, more
happy, and himself more gloriously revealed if we had never sinned. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
performed it. By the redemptive work of Christ,
the sins of God's elect are turned into a means of accomplishing
greater happiness, joy, and everlasting glory than we could ever have
known otherwise had we not sinned. I am saying that God in infinite
wisdom ordained the fall of our father Adam and overrules our
abounding sin that his elect might forever enjoy the superabundance
of his matchless free grace in Jesus Christ the Lord. Sinful
man, fallen man, is brought into a dearer and nearer union with
God in the person of Christ our substitute than we could ever
have enjoyed had we not known sin. The fall of our father Adam
in the garden was not an accidental thing. It did not take God by
surprise, but was part of that great plan Ruth just sang about
just a little bit ago. Had we never sinned, Christ would
not have been our surety. He could never have been our
substitute. But now God has assumed our nature in the person of his
son. We are members of his body. Christ is our brother and our
husband. And you and I are made in him
to be the sons of God. Our temporary separation from
God by sin has been made the means of our eternal union with
God in Christ by redemption. So that the Lord Jesus says,
Father, the glory you've given me, I've given them. And now
I ask my Father that you will cause the world to know that
thou hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Loved in union
with Christ. Embraced in union with Christ.
Accepted in union with Christ. All by the purpose of God. The
zeal of the Lord of hosts performed this. Man by reason of sin. Are you listening? Man by reason
of sin. has a greater, fuller knowledge
of God, His glory, His grace, His justice, His holiness, and
His love than he could ever have possessed had he never sinned. Oh, I'm flabbergasted to think
of it. By our knowledge of sin, We have
a greater, fuller knowledge of God than we could ever have otherwise. The zeal of the Lord of hosts
performed it. This will be the theme of our
heavenly praise forever. Read Revelation 1. The saints
of God gathered around his throne seeing his praise. You loved
us. You gave yourself for us. You've
made us, you've washed us in your blood. You've made us kings
and priests unto God. We'll reign with you forever.
Worthy is the Lamb. And everybody bows down and says,
worthy is the Lamb. Our redemption from sin and death
by Christ Jesus. causes us to love God in a way
that we could not otherwise have loved Him. One day it will be
love brought to perfection. Won't it be wonderful? Oh, won't
it be wonderful to love God perfectly? But the believer, the heaven
born soul, the redeemed center. Those who have experienced his
grace love him now. We love him, John said, because
he first loved us. But even now, this love constrains
us. It compels us. It rules us. It motivates us. in a way that
Adam in innocence and the angels of heaven cannot be constrained,
or moved, inspired, or compelled. Great forgiveness produces great
love. Great forgiveness is the greatest
possible motivation for love, adoration, devotion, and praise. Men whose lives had been saved
by the heroic deeds of another look upon themselves forever
as debtors to the one who saved their life. They look upon themselves
forever as debtors to the one who made great sacrifice for
the saving of their lives. How much more we whose immortal souls, whose very
being had been saved with an everlasting salvation by the
heroic deeds of the Son of God, who assumed our nature, fulfilled
all the will of God for our righteousness, satisfied divine justice, not
just by a great sacrifice, but by the sacrifice of himself for
the redemption of our souls to the glory of God. The zeal of
the Lord of hosts performed him. Fallen man, saved by grace then,
has a more sensible dependence upon God than he could otherwise
have had. Adam in the garden walked with
God and God walked with Adam in the cool of the day. I have
often envied that, haven't you? Lindsay, there's no reason to
envy that. Adam couldn't walk with God like you do right now. He could not walk with God in
faith. He could not walk with God in
sweet communion as a sinner saved by grace. The angels of heaven
never knew sin. They observed it when one third
of the heavenly host were fallen, but they never knew sin. I have
often envied them. We have no reason to envy the
angels of heaven. nothing about forgiveness. They know nothing about faith. They know nothing about what
it is to trust the crucified Saviour. Did you ever notice,
turn back to Genesis 2, Genesis chapter 2, verse 17, Have you ever been puzzled by
the fact that the forbidden tree that God planted in the midst
of the garden is called by God the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil? Why is that tree there? God planted
it in the garden. And he ordained that our father
Adam eat the fruit of that forbidden tree. to taste the evil of sin,
because he had wisely and graciously determined that his elect might
know the great and glorious good of redemption and grace in Christ. God the Holy Ghost tells us that
this grace Abounding to us in and through Christ Jesus is the
greatest reason for thanksgiving and praise to our great God,
who is the God of all grace. God be thanked that you were the servants of
sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine,
which was delivered to you. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more abound. The zeal of the Lord hath performed
this. The zeal of the Lord has made
chosen, redeemed sinners the trophies of his grace. What God
calls his masterpieces. We are his workmanship, Paul
said in Ephesians 2.10. His masterpieces created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. It was the zeal of the Lord of
hosts the fervency of his love, the energy of his omnipotence,
the fire of his grace, the zeal of the Lord that brought Christ
into the world in our flesh. God became one of us. It was the zeal of the Lord that
brought in everlasting righteousness by his obedience unto death. It was the zeal of the Lord that
brought the Son of God to Calvary, made Him sin and punished Him
for sin to put away sin. It was the zeal of the Lord that
brought Christ up again from the grave and seated Him at His
own right hand on the throne of heaven, gave Him to be Lord
and King, to put the whole of government on His shoulders that
He might reign forever. The zeal of the Lord has performed
this. It was the zeal of the Lord that
brought Christ to us in the time of his love. We read in John
4 that our Savior must needs go through Samaria. He must. It was binding upon him. He was
compelled to do so because the zeal of the Lord comes to seek
and to save a Samaritan woman for whom the time of love had
come. The zeal of the Lord, arranging all things in his providence.
Stop, child of God. Stop. You who are older believers
and you who are young, stop. Just stop now and then and consider
all that God did. all that God did in the wonder
of his providence from the very beginning of time to the hour
that he called you by his grace to graciously meet you by Jacob's
well and give you the water of life. It was the zeal of the
Lord, the zeal of the Lord of hosts that formed Christ in you. The zeal of the Lord that put
you in Christ before the world was is that zeal of the Lord
that put Christ in you by his omnipotent grace. The zeal of
the Lord, the fervency, the energy of his love, his power, and his
grace has performed this. and we thank you. Oh, blessed Savior, we thank
you for the performance of this great work of grace in us. Will you do it now for some here
in this place? With all the fervency of his
being, God Almighty is devoted Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,
to the saving of his people, for the glory of his Son, that
his Son, our Redeemer, may have praise, honor, and glory forever. God, give us something of that
zeal to devote ourselves to you, to the saving of your people,
to the glory of your Son. Amen.