Last Sunday morning, a friend
of mine I haven't seen or heard from in a long, long time, retired
from pastoring, pastored a Presbyterian church in Orlando, Florida. He
was preaching at that church. And after talking a little bit
about when the time comes, when the Lord will take him to heaven,
He suddenly dropped dead in the pulpit with a heart attack. As
far as I know, it always been strong and helped. It was just
God took him. When I read about it, I thought,
that's a pretty good way to leave this world. George Whitefield, once after
he had finished preaching, pronounced God's blessings upon his people
and stepped out of the pulpit and stepped up into glory. But
for now, I'm still here. And I have sought, and I believe
God's given me a message for you. Turn with me, if you will,
to Isaiah 50. In chapter 49, at verse 26, the
Lord God, our Savior, declares, I, the Lord, am thy Savior and
thy Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. Then, in the 11 verses
of this 50th chapter, our Redeemer describes Himself for us in the
glorious work He was sent here to accomplish. Let's look at
these 11 verses together. We'll look at them one at a time.
And I want you to hear and listen as our Redeemer describes Himself. Now the first thing that is set
before us clearly in verse one is this fact. All the woe we
experience in this world, all the sorrow, all separation from
God, all judgment, all wrath, comes to us as sinful men because
of our willful unbelief and rebellion. All judgment, all wrath, all
the everlasting sorrow of God's eternal wrath upon the damned
comes because of man's unbelief. It comes because men and women
will not hear His voice, will not believe Him, and will not
bow to Him. Look at the first verse. Thus
saith the Lord, where is the bill of your mother's divorcement,
whom I have put away? In the Old Testament, if a man
were to divorce his wife. He was required by law to give
her a piece of paper stating that she was divorced. He's put
her away. But the Lord God says, where's
the paper I gave you? I never put you away. I never
put you away. And then he says, or which of
my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? might be brought into such poverty,
so overwhelmed with debt that he sells his children into slavery
to satisfy his creditors. But the Lord God says, I don't
owe anybody anything. I haven't sold you. I've not
abandoned you. I've not turned from you. Read
on. Behold, stop and pay attention
to this, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves, and
for your transgressions is your mother put away. You see, many
try to silence the accusations of an accusing conscience. by
laying the blame for their sins and for their sorrows at the
feet of divine sovereignty. And they talk like this. I'm
in the shape I'm in because God's sovereign, and this too is his
will. When the Jews were in Babylon,
this is what they said. The Lord has divorced us. The
Lord has sold us into bondage. But the fact was they had sold
themselves into bondage. They had forsaken God. And the
same is true of all men. Our troubles in this world are
the results of our own disobedience and unbelief. Our sorrows are
the children of our sins. Our undoing is the result of
our unbelief. The scripture speaks plainly,
behold, your iniquities have separated between you and your
God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not
hear. This is what I want to state
emphatically and state clearly. I wish I could get folks to pay
attention to me. We must never charge God with
that which is the result of our own depravity, our own guilt,
and our own unbelief. God did not forsake Adam, Adam
forsook God. God did not leave Israel, Israel
left God. Now we recognize, we rejoice
in, and declare with no apology God's glorious absolute sovereignty. He made all things, He owns all
things, He rules all things, and He disposes of all things
exactly as He will. God Almighty is absolutely sovereign. But we dare not lay the blame
of our ruin, the ruin of our race, or the ruin of any man
on God's sovereignty. I recognize, folks, the unbelieving
man who tries to get this book figured out with his own reason.
He said, well, if God's absolutely sovereign, he predestinated all
things. And if men go to hell, God sent them there, and they're
predestined to hell, and that's the reason for it. Never is it
presented in such a way in this book. Rather, it is presented
exactly as Matthew Henry put it. All who are saved are saved
by the prerogative of grace, but those that perish are cut
off by an act of divine holiness and justice, not of absolute
sovereignty. In other words, if you go to
hell, it will be the result of what you do in your willful rejection
of the light God gives you. If you're saved, it's God's work
alone. If you're lost, it's your fault alone. Turn to Ezekiel
33. Ezekiel 33, verse 11. I want
you to see this. Hold your hands here in Isaiah
50. Here in Ezekiel 33, the Lord speaks to his prophet, his watchman,
who's called of God and sent of God and responsible before
God to warn men of judgment and wrath. He says, say unto them,
Ezekiel 33, 11, as I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure
in the death of the wicked. I have no, it doesn't give me
any delight or satisfaction to punish the wicked, but that the
wicked should turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye from
your evil ways, for why will you die? I ask you, why will
you die? Why will you die? If you die, it will be because
you willfully, deliberately choose to eat the fruit of your own
ways, and that you shall have. If we are blessed of God with
his presence, his power, and his goodness, it's his work.
If we lack those things, it's our mischief. We read in the
scriptures places where he did not many wonderful works among
them. Why? Because of their unbelief. The
disciples came and said to the Lord Jesus concerning man possessed
of the devil, said, why couldn't we cast him out? And the master
said, because you didn't believe me. Because of your unbelief. If we are used of God for the
salvation of sinners, It's by His grace. It is His work in
us and through us. If we're not used, it's because
of our unbelief. If we're blessed of God with
the revelation and knowledge of His glory in Christ, it is
the result of His blessing. If we do not see Christ and the
glory of God in the face of Christ, it's because of our unbelief.
Our Master said, said I not unto thee, that if thou shouldest
believe, thou wouldest see the glory of God. The fact is the
cause of man's separation from God is found in his own heart,
not in the heart of God, not in the throne of God, not in
the sovereignty of God. Brother Don, I can't reconcile
those things in my mind. Honestly, it doesn't matter whether
you can or not. It just doesn't matter. I've got real good news
for some of you and real confusing news for others. God's bigger
than you. He's bigger than you. He's not
going to fit in your box. He's not going to be shaped into
your mold. The Lord God speaks plainly. Salvation is his work. He delighteth in mercy. But your
iniquities have separated you from your God. The truth of the
matter is this. All responsibility for man's
ruin, spiritual death, and slavery lie at his door. The Lord God
stretched out his hand, and you regarded it not. That means that
sinners in their rebellion and ungodliness are not to be pitied,
but blamed. Blamed. Blamed. Oh, brother Don, a man can't
believe unless God gives him faith. Yeah, I know that. If
you would, you could. If you would, you could. But
you will not come to me that you might have life. O Spirit
of God, arrest the hearts of many women determined to go to
hell. Blessed is the man whom thou
choosest and causest to approach unto thee. But now look at verses
2 and 3. Isaiah 50 verse 2. Here our Savior describes himself
as God, mighty to save. Oh, rejoice, oh, my heart. Though I have sold myself into
ruin and can do nothing to help myself out of the mess I have
made, the Lord Jesus Christ is God, able to save, able to save
unto the uttermost all them that come to God by him. First, our
Savior tells us here and tells us plainly that salvation is
His work, His work alone. He said, Wherefore, when I came,
was there no man? When I called, was there none
to answer? Now hear me, it matters not whether
we're talking about the salvation of our souls, the eternal deliverance
from sin and Satan and death and hell. Or whether we're talking
about salvation and deliverance from any earthly woe, from any
earthly trouble. I just received a lengthy email
earlier this morning from a dear friend who's going through a tough time. Tough
time. And I plan, before I go to bed
tonight, to write her a letter and let her know that salvation
is of the Lord. Deliverance from tough times
is His work. Only His work. And He is able
to save. Able to save. Look at this. Wherefore, when I came, was there
no man? When I called, was there none
to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that
it cannot redeem? Do you think there's something
wrong with me? Do you vainly imagine there's some weakness
in me? Or have I no power to deliver,
to save? Behold, at my rebuke, I dry up
the sea. At my rebuke, I dry up the sea. God says, to bring you out of
Egypt, I simply willed it and rebuked the Red Sea and dried
it up. Rita, I make the rivers a wilderness. Joshua brings the children of
Israel right up to the Jordan River. Right over yonder on the
other side is the land of Canaan. God promised it to him. God said,
this is yours. Oh, but the enemies. Oh, but
the mighty men. Oh, but... In order to perform
his promise, the Lord God dried it up. He made it a wilderness,
freedom. Their fish stinketh, because
there is no water, and dieth for thirst. Now, I clothe the
heavens with blackness, and make the sackcloth their covering.
Remember what God told Moses? He said, Moses, stretch out your
rod. And he turned the heavens into
blackness and covered the sun with sackcloth in the land of
Egypt to make the people of Egypt fearful of Him to deliver His
people. The fact is He came unto His
own. But his own received him not.
He called men to himself, but there was none to answer. He
would have gathered Jerusalem's children, but they would not,
because they knew not the things pertaining to their happiness
and their everlasting good. When God calls men, and they
will not answer, they are justly left to themselves. But let no
one ever imagine that men and women perish for want of power
in our Redeemer, He's the omnipotent God. He who stretched out the
heavens is able to save. He who dried up the Red Sea and
dried up the Jordan River is able still to save. He who spread
out sackcloth over the heavens and turned them into darkness
is able to save. He is indeed mighty in his great
salvation. This one who's sovereign over
all the elements of the earth. God who speaks and the sun shines. Who speaks and the heavens are
darkened. God who speaks and causes a raven
to carry food to his hungry prophet. He who has power over all things
is able to save. In these days, preachers and
religious people make man a whole lot more than he is and make
God a whole lot less than he is. But this book knows nothing
of a weak, pygmy God who can't do as he will. It knows nothing
of a frustrated, helpless Jesus who wants to save but can't.
The Bible speaks of him who is our God in other terms. He is
that one declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient
times, the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel
shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. He it is who has
mercy on whom he will have mercy and has compassion on whom he
will have compassion. So then salvation is of the Lord. It is not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Look
at verse four. Here, our Lord Jesus describes
himself as God's prophet. Now, remember, he's told us he
is God, our Redeemer, and he is also our prophet. The Lord
God has given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know
how to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He wakeneth
morning by morning. He wakeneth mine ear to hear
as the learned. Now, we might well ask of this
verse what the Ethiopian eunuch asked Philip about Isaiah 53,
of whom speaketh the prophet this, of himself or of some other
man. Without question, these words may be applied to Isaiah
or to any faithful gospel preacher, any man called and gifted of
God to preach the gospel. God's servants are men who deal
with and speak to weary souls. It is the work and responsibility
of every gospel preacher to comfort and refresh the weary. And that
they can do only by God the Holy Spirit who gives the tongue of
the learned to feed his people with knowledge and understanding,
giving to each his portion in his due season. And I can't tell
you how I pray. that God will make me such a
preacher, awakening my soul and my heart with my body every morning,
waking me to speak a word for Him, giving my ear the ear of
the learned as one taught of God, that I might have a word
for you to speak to your weary soul when you come to worship
Him and hear His word. But the text will not bear such
an interpretation. It may be, as I said, applied
to Isaiah or to any of God's prophets. But it is Christ himself
who is speaking here. And he is speaking to us about
himself. Our Lord is declaring himself
to be our great God. He's a king like David. He's a priest after the order
of Melchizedek. And he is our prophet. As our
mediator and substitute, he exercises all these offices. Moses, God
told him, said, I'm going to raise up a prophet like you.
And he will speak, and him shall they hear. This is the prophet. The Lord Jesus comes and teaches
us the will of God the way of God, the character of God, and
the work of God. He speaks as one who speaks a
word in season to them that are weary with the tongue of the
learned. God the Father speaks by us to
him. Now, that's what he did when
he came on this earth. And though he is now exalted
in glory, Blessed be his name, he still has the tongue of the
learned and he still speaks a word to the weary in due season. Because our savior learned himself
from God his father as a man. He knows how to speak to the
weary. He can speak to weary, heavy
laden sinners. A word and cease. I try. I try. We get up here and preach
and teach the word of God and we want to speak to you. But all I do is talk to your
head. I can't get past you. Ah, but if he will speak through
these lips, he speaks to weary, heavy laden sinners, to weary,
sin-sick souls, to weary, heavy-hearted saints, to weary, afflicted people. The word weary really means thirsty. And our Savior, our great prophet,
knows how to speak a word in season to thirsty souls, to weary
souls thirsting for righteousness and peace with God, thirsting
for forgiveness and acceptance with God, thirsting for his presence,
thirsting for his grace, thirsting for him. And he still speaks
today. You read in Hebrews that as a
man, As a son, he learned obedience by the things that he suffered. We often say experience is the
best teacher. How many times did you say to
your children raising them, one of these days you're going to
find out what I'm saying so. You try to teach them and they
pay no attention. You warn them, they pay no attention.
They heed nothing. And then they get to be our age
and they come back and say, well, you were right. I found out what
you were trying to tell me. The son of God, as a man, learned
obedience by the things he suffered. And he learned, as the God-man,
our prophet, how to speak a word in season. He's learned What
it is to wrestle with Satan's temptations and assaults. So
he can speak to the tempted assaulted soul. He learned what it is to
endure malicious slander for men. And he knows how to speak
a word in season to the slandered soul. He learned what it is to
be bereaved of someone he loves. He stood at Lazarus' tomb and
wept. And he can speak a word in season
to the bereaved soul. He learned what it is to be betrayed
by a friend. And he can speak a word in season
to one who's been betrayed. He learned what it is to carry
before God with a broken heart. an indescribably heavy load of
guilt and sin. For he was made to be sin for
us. And he can speak a word in season
to the weary, guilty, heavy laden soul. He learned what it is to
be forsaken of God. And He can speak a word in season
to you who feel that you're forsaken of God. He learned what it is
to die. And He can speak a word in season
to those who are dying. And He learned what it is to
be raised up from the dead. So that He is now able to comfort
them who come to Him with a word in season. He's able to speak
a word in season to the weary with the tongue of the learned
because He has learned everything you and I experience. Everything. He's touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. Now look at verses 5 through
9. Here our Redeemer describes Himself as Jehovah's righteous
servant, His submissive servant. He tells us five things about
himself as Jehovah's servant. First, he is the voluntary bond
slave of the Lord that was described in Exodus 21. He said, the Lord
God hath opened mine ear. You remember back in Exodus 21
when God gave the law of the bond slave? Best I can figure, there wasn't
but one reason for giving that law. Just one reason. And that was to describe our
Redeemer. He voluntarily says to his father,
I love my master, and I love my wife, and I love my children. I put myself in willing bondage
to you forever. Let's go over to the doorpost
here before everybody and you open my ear and let it be a testimony
to everybody that I'm yours to serve you forever because I want
to, because I love you, because I love my wife and I love my
children. And so the Lord Jesus struck hands with the Father
in the covenant of grace before the world began, willingly subjecting
Himself in all things in obedience to His Father's will, not because
He was in any way less than God, but He who, being the very fullness
of God, willingly subjects Himself to the will of God as our covenant
surety. And He said, Lo, I come to do
Thy will, O my God. by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one time. He
is the consecrated obedient servant. He says, I was not rebellious. When he came to his baptism,
at the beginning of his public ministry, John the Baptist said,
hold on now, I need for you to baptize me. And the master said,
now John, pay attention. You baptize me now because this
is the fulfillment of all righteousness. Not his act of baptism, but what
it symbolized. The baptism of our Lord symbolizing
the same thing that ours does. Him being dead was buried and
rose again. And he who by his obedience to
the Father died in our stead and rose again has fulfilled
all righteousness for us as Jehovah's servant. and he was persevering
and faithful. He said, neither turned away
back. I love to think about this. Through
all the ages of time, our savior never relinquished
his service. When he came into this world,
Through all that he endured, he never relinquished his service. What an example he is. Our Lord
as the servant was obedient even unto death for us. I don't know that I never thought
about this before. I thought about it while sitting up here
preparing to preach to you. Have you ever considered What he could
have had as a man in this world if he had not been a determined,
faithful servant. Satan led him up to a high hill,
pinnacle. He says, look here, look here. You bow down to me and worship
me and I'll give you everything. Everything. His disciples wanted
to make him king in Israel. The Jews wanted to make him a
king in Israel. The people flocked around him.
The Gentiles even wanted him to be a king. But he was determined
to suffer and die in our room instead, giving up purposefully. Now listen to me. Willingly,
purposefully giving up honor and riches and approval and the
pleasure of everybody around him to do the will of God and
save our souls. Now, what kind of servant are
you? What kind of servant am I? We
think it's a bother to read his word. We think it's too much
trouble to attend services in his house, gather with his people.
We think it's too much trouble to us. Oh, but I'd have to give
up something like that. If I came to church on Tuesday
nights, I'd have to get up and watch my favorite TV show. If I came
to church every Sunday, my neighbors would think I was crazy. Sometimes
I just have to do other things. What silly, selfish, self-destroying
creatures we are. Consider Him, who for the joy
that was set before Him, what joy? The joy, Bill Raleigh, of
saving our souls, it said. For the joy that was set before
Him, He endured the cross, despising the shame, that is to say, counting
the shame to be nothing in comparison with the joy of saving your soul. That's a faithful servant. Our Lord Jesus is Jehovah's servant,
willing to suffer all the shame due unto us for sin. Look at
verse 6. He says, I gave my back to the smiters, my cheeks to
them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face from shame
and spit it. Oh, what an amazing condescension. He who is God gave himself to
be a man to die in our stead. He became Jehovah's servant,
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. What
infinite virtue and merit there is in his suffering, for this
man who suffers is himself God. What ability and efficacy is
here this man is able to save. Now look at verses 7, 8, and
9. Here our Savior tells us that he's a justified substitute.
For the Lord God will help me. Therefore shall I not be confounded,
therefore have I set my face like a flint. And I know that
I shall not be ashamed. He is near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let
us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him
come near to me. Behold, the Lord God will help
me. Who is he that shall contend
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as doth the garment. The moth
shall eat the vine. Hear these fellows who Beat him. And spit on him. And crucify him. And the Lord
Jesus says, They ain't nothing. God's going to snuff you out
like a moth. You're nothing. He'd do it all
that he'd do it on this earth as our substitute. And yet, it
was all by his deliberate choice. He lived by faith in God. He said, the Lord God will help
me. I shall not be confounded. The
son of God was resolute in his determination to suffer and die
as our substitute. He said, I set my face like a
flint, not going to be turned away from it. And he was publicly
justified. When God Almighty raised Him
up from the dead, He was justified in the Spirit, and we were justified
in Him. He was delivered because of our
offenses and raised again because of our justification. And our
Great Servant, our Great Substitute, Jehovah's Great Servant, went
to the cross in full assurance of triumph. He said, my enemies,
they're going to be brought to nothing. Nothing. The Lord God
will help me. Now I ask you this. If He went
to the cross in full assurance of triumph, shall we not continually
come away from the cross with full assurance of the same? Who
is He that shall condemn me? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who shall separate me from the
love of God that's in Christ Jesus? Now, look at verses 10
and 11. Here are two classes of people.
Sitting right here, there are two classes of people. Every
one of us fit in one of these two categories. Every one of
us. In verse 10, he talks about the
children of light. who walk in darkness. Who is
among you that feareth the Lord, that obeyeth His voice, the voice
of His servant? Now watch this, that walketh
in darkness. Now wait a minute. Walk in the
light as He is in the light. Yes, sir. But here He talks about
folks who obey His voice, who fear Him. And He says, who walketh. walketh, continually walketh
in darkness and hath no light. You see, when a man believes
God, he recognizes and confesses that he has no light in himself. And all the days of your life,
you're going to walk through darkness, trouble, and heartache. dark times, confusing times. I'm concerned about people who
have all the answers for all the things that come down the
road. I'm afraid they walk in light, their own light. We are troubled over sometimes. We walk in darkness. You say,
well, a child of God doesn't. Do you reckon the Lord Jesus
was God's child? Did He not endure indescribable
darkness when He cried, My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken
Me? Yet walking in darkness, He commands
us to walk by faith. Let him trust in the name of
the Lord and stay upon His God. Lean hard upon His God. In the midst of His great darkness,
our Savior never ceased to trust His Father. He said, My God,
My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? Let me tell you what you
do when your soul is heavy. And you're in trouble. I mean
in trouble. In trouble. Confused, downcast, darkness
over you. You cast yourself down upon Christ
your God. Throw everything on Him. Everything. Everything. Throw it all on Him! All your life and being and wants
and trouble and need, casting all your care on Him, for He
careth for you. Now, that describes some of us. Verse 11 describes another group
of people. Here our Savior speaks to children
of darkness, walking in light. But they walk in damning light,
because it's the light of their own fire. Look at it. Behold,
all ye that kindle a fire, that compass yourselves about with
sparks. That's about all your fire mounts,
too. A little spark of emotion, a little spark of decision, a
little spark of your free will, a little spark of your good works.
Walk in the light of your fire. All right, you won't hear my
voice. You won't believe me? You won't trust me? You won't
cast your care on me? You won't bow to me? You won't
trust my righteousness, my blood, my grace, my power? You won't
bow to me? Okay, walk in the light of your
own fire. Walk in it. And in the sparks that you have
kindled. Now watch this. This shall you
have of my hand. You won't believe me? I called,
you wouldn't answer. I stretched out my hands, and
you refused. You will not believe me? OK, I'll give you what you
want. You can have yourself, and your
own light, and your own way, and your own will, and your own
fire, and your own peace, and your own security. And you shall
lie down in sorrow forever. Those who will not come to Christ
but rather depend on their own works and righteousness, they
kindle a fire and walk in the light of their own fire, and
they'll lie down in death and eternal sorrow and have judgment
at God's hand. Turn to 2 Thessalonians. Verse 11, for this cause, because they
receive not the love of the truth, you read it in verse 10, for
this cause, you've heard the message, you've heard the gospel,
you've heard the message preached, but you stick your finger in
your ear and say, I won't pay any attention. You see not the
love of the truth. All right. All right. That's
the way you want it. Okay. God shall send them a strong
delusion that they should believe a lie, that they all might be
damned to believe not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. Oh, how I thank God his word
doesn't end there. But we're bound to give thanks
always to God for you. Brethren, beloved of the Lord,
you who walk in His light. You who stay yourselves upon
Him. You who fear the Lord, who trust
in Him. Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation through sanctification of spirit and
belief of the truth. Now I have one question for you,
and I'll send you home. Will you or will you not believe my great
Savior? Will you or will you not rest
your soul upon Him and Him alone? Or will you not believe on the
Son of God? Oh, may God the Holy Spirit give
you no rest until you find rest in Him. Amen.