Isaiah 49, be turning there with
me. We're going to look at the last
three verses, 24, 25, and 26. And we're going to notice, going
to behold, the remarkable and glorious deliverance of God's
elect. The remarkable and glorious deliverance
of God's elect. Look at verse 24, starting this
morning. Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty, or the lawful captives delivered? But thus saith the
Lord, even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and
the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. For I will contend
with him that contended with thee, and I will save thy children. And I will feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their
own blood, as with sweet wine. And all flesh shall know that
I, the Lord, am thy Savior and thy Redeemer, the Mighty One
of Jacob." We start this morning with a question. A similar question
throughout this book, as it is stated by other writers, but
a question that Isaiah poses. He says, shall the prey be taken
from the mighty, or the lawful, the lawful captive delivered? Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty? A similar question was asked by one in Job in the 25th chapter. It says, Can man who is born
of a woman, man who is born unclean, can he be made clean? Can you
stay here in Isaiah and let me read that passage in Job? How then can man be justified
with God, or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Behold,
even to the moon, and it shines not, yea, the stars are not pure
in his sight, in God's sight, how much less man that is a worm,
and the son of man which is a worm. It's a similar question, it's
stated different, it's worded different, but the question is,
shall the prey, shall God's people, who are termed here prey, Can
they be taken away from the mighty? Can somebody come in, can save
them? Or those who are also termed
lawful captives, because the law has us captive. From birth,
nature and practice, we're born in sin. We're born, as it were,
prey. But we're God's people. Before we even knew it, before
the fullness of time, before the foundation of the world,
God had the people. The question is, can they be taken from the mighty? Will God ever forsake us? Will God ever leave us? Can Satan,
sin, or our own corruptions, can they ever take us out of God's hands? Can the lawful captors, the law
holds us fast. Can we ever be delivered? Before
I answer that question, I like the way this is worded. We are
worded, we are termed prey. Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty? Prey. That is a term used for God's
people in this particular passage. When I see that, it reminds me
again, once and again, when you think of prey, I like birds of
prey, hawks. I was driving yesterday and Karen
and I were running around and we was going through Jackson
and then to the house out in the country and I saw at least
three different types of hawks. And one of them was scoping something
out pretty big time. He was going to pounce his prey. Weak. When I think of the word
prey, I think of weak. I think of one without escape. Sure death and one who's trapped. And is that not a fit description
of us outside of Christ. We, I know that we think that
we have an ability. I know false preachers and pastors
around this area and around this country and in this world speak
of man's supposed free will. I'll even say, okay, if you want,
if you, I'll give a person, I'll give these preachers, these hucksters,
I'll give them that man has a free will. But if he does, he doesn't,
but if he does, It is so weak, it cannot even cure a cold. It can't even do the lesser,
let alone do the greater, and that which would be come to God.
We're weak. Without escape, our sins and
our corruptions and Satan hold us fast. No escape. No escape. Thirdly, when I think
of the word or the term prey, I think of sure death. Sooner
or later, that hawk was going to find its prey and was going
to pounce on it. Sure death. And when we're born, we're born
in sin. We're born out of the way. We're
not born right and good and then go out of the way. I was talking
to Pastor Tommy Robbins, and I said I got to noticing something
I hadn't thought about in a while, but most Religionists most people
most preachers You whatever wherever whoever they represent where
they come from there's a difference between what they're saying and
what's being said here there's a difference between what they
think this book says and what this book actually says and that
is they think that I'll take an example that I heard this
week directly from the mouth of a minister that the young
people have gone, you know, it's kind
of hard to keep them in the right way because there's so many things
out there. You keep them busy in the church, you keep them
doing things because there's so many things out in the street
where they lose their way. That was the term, lose their
way. And I'm thinking, what? That person is saying is that
boys and girls, high school, grade school, whatever, that
what they're saying and what he's saying and the time and
hour we're talking about, he says, oh yeah, that's what, when
you listen to the television ministry, that's what's said all the time.
And we got to keep our children busy and keep them off the street
because we don't want them to go lose their way. What that
premise is, is that those children are good and fine and they're
okay. And then if some bad influence
like meth or alcohol or whatever, then they kind of stray. That
was another term. They stray from the path. What
we're saying is we're not even on that path. We are prey. We're weak and without escape.
Sure death. We're trapped by our sin. We're
on the broad road which leads to destruction. Unless God plucks
us, like he says, from a bran from the fire, and he has to
place us on that narrow path. And there's a lot of difference
there. One supposes that there's some good in everybody, and the
scripture says there's, what did you read? So you get mad
at me, you get mad at what's being preached, you get mad at
this book, but the book says, there's none good, no, not one. And John and Betty and Mary,
from the things out there, it's all over, it's in the nursing
homes, it's in the senior citizens, it's the same thought. From listening
to your conversations that you have with people, that there's
some good in everybody. And then they just kind of get
off track. No, there's none good. No, not one. He has to do everything for us.
Or we will stay in that way. The way, the broad way which
leads to destruction. Secondly, we're worded, the notation,
the term is lawful captives. We're bound by God's righteous
law. We're sentenced to die a thief's
death. We have no righteousness of our
own. We have no power or ability to clear our conscience or our
sentence. May the lawful captive be delivered. This is who we are. This is what
we are. And it's the most that we can
attain by the power of our will and the worth of our character.
Pray. and lawful captives. The scripture
says we're sinners, lawbreakers, corruptors, God-haters, and self-righteous. And I've struggled with this,
this week. This is a rough week. If you
get a bulletin, you'll see what I mean. This is a rough week
this week, emotionally. Not so much physically, but emotionally.
It was just the emotions. I got bombarded with so much
stuff. And the old nature just wants to keep elevating itself.
But come back and you see in this book that we are nothing
without his super abounding grace. We must have his grace. But if the passage doesn't end
here, that's the question. Shall the prey be taken from
the mighty? Can anybody pull us, pluck us
from God's hands? And we who are captive by even
God's own righteousness, His requirements, can we be delivered? Is it possible? In verse 25,
we have that word, but. That blessed word, but, again. But thus saith the Lord, even
the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and that is, shall
be delivered. They're going to be. And the
prey of the terrible shall be delivered for I this God Almighty
says well I will contend with him that contends with thee and
I will save thy children Christ he says I'm with us to the father
he says I will save your children father that word blessed blessed but
which leads to a blessed deliverance turn to Ephesians chapter 2 we
see the same A connecting conjunction? If
I start talking English and grammar, I really got to do my research.
I don't know. I think it's a connecting conjunction.
But if it's not, it's a blessed but. We'll just say that. Ephesians
chapter 2. You have the same concept, the
same thought, the same biblical truths. Ephesians chapter 2,
starting verse 1. And you, pray, lawful captives,
Hattie Quicken, who were dead in trespasses and sins. You see,
everybody starts from zero or negative because we can't keep
God's law, we're lawbreakers, God-haters, so we don't even,
we're not even at the, we're not, we're level because we're
all sinners. Even God's elect, who were dead
in trespasses and sins, were in time past, And God's people
agree with this. They know this is what we did.
There's no argument. In time past, you walked according
to the course of this world. free religion, free self-righteousness,
self-worth, thinking our ability to save ourselves, to redeem
ourselves, to the Romans road of grace, to one, two, and three
steps to God, all these things, that's according to the course
of this world. And also according to the prince
of the power of the air, Satan has us under his domain. He has
us under his control without any problems. I know people think
they're more powerful than Satan and they can tell them what to
do and where to go. They can't. That's just a delusion, a deception.
The spirit that now works in the children of disobedience I think they're out there. I
think the messages from Donny Fortner's conference are out
there, or Donny Bell's conference are out there. But I think it
was Tim James preached a message called Demon Possessed. If it's
out there, get it. It's good. Because people think
there's demon possessions. Oh, one here, and they hear more,
and you know, they hear more about them in Ethiopia. But what's
this passage say? the spirit that now works in
the children of disobedience. If you don't know Christ, if
you don't believe in Him, demon-possessed. Among whom also we all had our
conversation, time passed, in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. No difference. We don't
think for one minute in the Spirit of God that we are any different
or any better than anyone else. We know in the eyes of God, if
it's not for His blood, we are as loathsome and vile as anybody
else. Anybody else. Here's that but
God, verse 4. But God. It has to start with
Him. He's the start, the middle, the
end. It's grace, grace, grace. We've just read four verses of
what we're like. And in one verse over in Isaiah,
what we're like. But God, who interposes, intercedes,
steps in on our behalf, who is rich in mercy for his great love
wherewith He loved us. Even when we were dead in sins,
have quickened us together with Christ. For by grace, you said,
you cannot make yourself more savable. You cannot make yourself
more palpable to God. You and I are a stench. We're vile and corrupt before
a holy God. That's where he finds us. Religion
will have you put on the cloak of self-worth, put on your easy
believism, put on your catechisms, put on your confirmation, put
on your baptism, put on all these things to make yourself presentable
before God. But the book says, even when
we were dead in sin, that's where he found us. That's when he quickened
us. I told you this time and time again. My older brother
in St. Louis said, when I'm ready to come, I'll come. He was going
to try to work him. He was going to fit himself for
God. He was going to build himself
the Tower of Babel to try to approach God. He was going to
do like Cain. The best that he could do, he
was going to bring before God. And I said, if that's the case,
you'll never come. When I'm ready to come, I'll
come. You'll never come. Never come. And I would never
come. And I'll tell you what, we have enough trouble just with
our own flesh. And then you throw in false religion,
and false hopes, and false peace, and it's all got to be shattered.
It's all got to be shattered. Because I'm telling you, and
Don Fortner and I were talking about this, we've got to quit
working. That's the hardest thing to do, is to stop. Because at
work, you want to be the best you can, and you should be. Your
neighbors, you want to put your best foot forward, you want to
do all this, and you should. But somehow we get that all crossed
over religion that we think because of what we do are our abilities
God's going to accept. No. The best thing to do is to
own up to what we are and what we're capable of and what we
have been when we are dead in trespasses and sins, and raised
us up together and made us to sit together in heavenly places
in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come, he might show the
exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness towards us through
Christ Jesus. You see, if there's something
that we have to contribute or we contribute to salvation, then
he doesn't get all the glory, he just gets most of it. And
God, which we'll see in the latter verse here, And back to Isaiah
49, he gets all the glory. Blessed but. And I like how it's
worded. Look again at verse 25. Notice
that he repeats the phrase twice. But thus saith the Lord, even
the captives of the mighty shall be. And the prey of the terrible
shall be. Two shall be's. Thus, we shall
be led away by grace and delivered by sovereign mercy. It has to
be. And the prey, the terrible, shall
be delivered. For I will contend with him that
contends with thee. Deliverance, he says, they will
be delivered. They shall be delivered. Well,
that word delivered, deliverance, to me implies three things. Outside
assistance. Outside help and outside grace. Totally away from ourselves. Somebody comes from the outside
to help. You got somebody in a building
that's on fire. And the firemen come to deliver
them, to rescue them. Well, if they can get out themselves,
why call? What do they need it for? Deliverance
shows and implies Everything is done from the outside. And deliverance, in God's terms,
would be redemption by the death of His Son. Christ, who knew
no sin, was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Christ. Redeemed, delivered, implies
redemption by the death of Christ. It implies regeneration by the
enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. We who were dead now have life. That's regeneration. Where there
was no life, there's life now. And thirdly, deliverance implies
quickening by impartation. We were all sin and now we have
something in us that we never had before, a new nature. The
nature of Christ. This book says Christ in you,
the hope of glory. You want to know why there is
such a struggle? If you know what I'm talking about, you want
to know why there's such a struggle that goes on in your soul? Why
you try to do some things that would please and honor God and
you desire to do them and you can't do them? Because there's
that struggle. There's always that struggle.
The old man and new nature. We have a new heart that beats
after righteousness, that desires to glorify Him, that desires
to hear the gospel, that desires to be where His people are. And
then that old man who is never, and I have to learn this every
week and every day, the old man, he's never going to get better.
You know, we talk to him, we try to doctor him up, we try
to plead with him, he hates Christ and he's never going to get better.
But thanks be to God for that blessed butt. He doesn't reign
over us. He doesn't rule us. Oh, he's
a thorn in the flesh. Thanks be to God that we have
redemption, regeneration, and a quickening by impartation. He imputes his righteousness
to us and imparts that nature to us also. But note the battle. Note the battle that's going
on. For I will contend with him that
contends with thee. I will contend with him that
contends with thee. It's not anything easy. It's
a battle. Satan, the law, our own corruption cannot stand against
almighty reconciliation and the salvation which is found in Christ
Jesus. I'm so thankful because that
our sovereign Redeemer contends with the very things that struggle
and cause us hurt and harm daily. Turn to Luke chapter 11. Here's
a picture of this struggle, this battle. And it's not ours, it's
within us. We do struggle within, but the
battle for our deliverance, the battle for our redemption, not
only is it won, because he says in the latter part of that, he
says, I will save thy children, the son, the son he says that I will save thy
children so we know the battle is won
the victory is won but there is a struggle turn to Luke chapter
11 and look at verses we start verse 14 and Christ was casting
out a devil And it was dumb. And it came to pass when the
devil was gone out, the dumb spake and the people wondered.
But some of those people, they said that Christ cast out devils
through Beelzebub, the chief of the devils. They were insulting
and mocking him again for this beautiful, glorious, good work
that he had done. And others, tempting Christ,
sought of him a sign from heaven. But Christ, knowing their thoughts,
said unto them, Every kingdom divided against itself is brought
to destruction, desolation. And a house divided against a
house falls. If Satan also be divided against
himself, how shall his kingdom stand? Because you say that I
cast out devils through the devil. And if I by Beelzebub cast out
devils, by whom do your sons cast them out? Therefore shall
they be your judges. In verse 20, But if I with the
finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is
come upon you without excuse. Now skip to verse 24. He's talking about the demons
in a person and being possessed and all these different things.
When the unclean spirit is gone out of a person, a man, this
spirit walks through the dry places seeking rest, finding
none. He says, I will return unto my house, that person, which
I came out. And when he comes, he finds it
swept and garnished. That's religion. swept and garnished. That's all religion without Christ
and religion without the gospel. That's all it is. Are they good
people? Absolutely. Are they doing good things for
the community? Absolutely. Are they helping people keep
them off the streets? Absolutely. What's the end of that kind of
ministry going to be? Read on. Then goeth he, the spirit, and
takes him seven other spirits, more wicked than himself, and
they enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first." Reese, if I've got my memory, had probably
stated it better than any other pastor I've ever heard. He said,
for all the good that these other churches do, he said, I'm thankful.
He says, but the end is going to be horrible. the end, their end is going to
be horrible. All the good things, all the
programs, all the basketball teams and soccer and all the
sponsorships, all these things that they're doing, that's fine.
Humanly, worldly speaking. Spiritually, the state of those
people is going to be worse than the first. And this is how you
and I were. Just like this. But let's back
up, and right in the middle, there's two verses dealing with
this possession, Satan, these people, like you and I, verse
21 and 22, which is going back again to our text. We're lawfully
captive. We're a prey taken. Can they
be taken from the mighty? Look at verse 21. When a strong
man, armed, keeps his palace, His goods are in peace. When
Satan, he's a strong man. He's armed. You cannot overthrow
him. He keeps his palace. It's a person's
heart. Your heart. My heart. By nature. His goods
are in peace. He's not worried about us walking
away. He's not worried about us getting
on the straight and narrow because we can't do it ourselves. But,
look at verse 22. But when a stronger than he,
when a stronger than Satan, when a stronger than that wicked one,
shall come upon him and overcome him." There's salvation. There's regeneration. He takes
from him all his armor, where he trusted, and he divides his
foe. He just wipes them out. Christ
is that stronger, nay, strongest man, who by the power of his
abounding grace and electing love, casts out Satan, conquers
our hearts, and redeems our souls. This is exactly what he's saying
here in Isaiah, back to our text. Thus saith the Lord, even the
captives of the mighty shall be taken away, shall be delivered,
and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered. For I will
contend with him that contends with thee, and I will, because
he said I shall, I will save thy children. The outcome is
never in doubt. It is with us. We don't know.
But not with him. He says, I will save thy children.
This is what the obedient son says to the majestic father.
He obeyed, Christ obeyed the covenant between he and the father.
That was before the foundation of the world. He said, I will
save your children because I'm going to obey that covenant.
That covenant of your grace. I'm going to satisfy the decree
that you set down. The soul that's in it, it shall
die because your righteous law demands perfection. But I, the
perfect, immaculate, pure, holy, harmless, undefiled Son of Truth,
will come and voluntarily lay down my life, satisfying all
your decrees, and then absolutely, thirdly,
reclaiming all of your elect, all of your church, all of your
bride, because they will now have my righteousness upon them
and in them. So he obeys the covenant, he
satisfies the decree, and he absolutely reclaims all his chosen
bride, which is the church, the elect, and his remnant. Now I ask in closing, why does
he do such things? Well, the answer is found in
verse 26. And I will feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh. Now that's the sure destruction
of the wicked. And they shall be drunken with
their own blood, as with sweet wine. So he promises he will
deliver his people and crush his enemies. And this is why.
That all flesh shall know three things. Three things, excuse
me, four things. All flesh, church, or not, elect
or not, his bride or not, Cain or Abel, Jacob or Esau, everybody's
gonna know that he is the Lord, he is his people's Savior, he
is our Redeemer, and he is the Mighty One. There'll be no question
about it. Turn to Philippians chapter 2.
Now, I don't know whether this will comfort you or not. This
is my opinion. However, all the elect are ransomed. and God's enemies are destroyed.
However, that's going to be brought to pass. We know that the elect
are going to be saved through the preaching of this truth. Now, I don't know
how all of God's enemies are going to be destroyed, but I
do know that He will absolutely be glorified in it, and these
four things will be seen, that He is Lord, that He is the Savior
of His people, He is the Redeemer of His people, and that He is
the Mighty One. I don't believe that this world
is going to come to an end due to a nuclear holocaust. I don't
believe this world is going to come to an end in case you're
worried about these kind of things because all the Muslims are going
to take over all the Christian cities. You know, I mean, I know
there's big political struggles and fights about Islamic religion
and Christianity and they hate us and they're going to kill
us with all these things. What are we to do? I know this. According to this
book, Every event is going to take place, all his elect are
going to be saved, and all his enemies are going to be judged
in such a way that there will be no questions that he did it. Not those evil Muslims, not the
KKK, not even those Sovereign racers. Oh, they're
a sneaky bunch. Turn to Philippians chapter 2,
look at verses 9 and 10. Paul said the same thing. Wherefore
God also hath highly exalted him, that is Christ, and given
him a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus
every knee, that sounds like it doesn't matter what denomination
you're at or from or wherever, every knee is going to bow of
things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth
that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to
the glory of God the Father. I'd say people who don't know
are going to know. It's in judgment. And praise
God, if you know, and I know today, if we know Him in mercy,
it's because He showed us that He was our Savior and our Redeemer,
and we bow to Him as the Mighty One of Jacob. Shall the prey
be taken from the mighty, and the lawful captive delivered? He can. He's able. David, is your God able? Yes, He's able. Where's your
God at, David? He's in the heavens. And He has
done whatsoever He has pleased. Can these dry bones live? Yea,
Lord. You know they can. And what are
we supposed to do? We come here a couple times a
week. Encourage one another, hear the
gospel, tell others that we know and love and care for. That's
it. We speak of Him, glorify Him,
and tell of the great things that He has done, that He will
do, and that He shall do. John, would you close us for
a minute? I ask that you go with her.