Ago I read about a lady who lived
in Wales. Samuel Rutherford, the great
Scotch preacher, would come to preach. She would go hearing. Rutherford, of course, preached
in English. And this was an older Welsh lady, and she only spoke
Welsh. And someone asked her, said,
why do you go to hear that man preach? You can't understand
a word he says. She said, no, I can't understand
anything he says except one word. And that's the word Christ, and
he mentions him so often when he preaches, it does my heart
good to hear it. Well, if I didn't understand anything else in the
book of Isaiah, it would do my heart good to read this book,
because it is full of Christ. Turn with me to Isaiah's prophecy,
and we will begin to look at the prophetic books of the Old
Testament. As you know, the prophetic books,
like the rest of the Bible, do not appear in chronological order. That is, they do not appear in
our Bibles in the order in which they were written, but rather
they are arranged by divine providence in the order they are, to give
us the message they give us in the order in which the message
is given. There were some sixteen prophets, holy men of God, who
were inspired by God the Holy Spirit and wrote, being chosen
of God for this purpose, as they were led or moved by the Spirit. And their writing covers a period
of more than 500 years. So by the time you read Isaiah
chapter 1 and get over to the end of Malachi, you have read
the prophecy of God to his people covering a period of more than
500 years. That's a large space of time.
Isaiah's name means salvation of the Lord, or the Lord will
save. His prophecy is placed prominently
at the beginning of the books of the prophets, possibly because
it is a book all about redemption. The prophets are looked upon
by many women of the world, of the religious world as well as
the secular world, as men who preach gloom and doom all the
time. The prophecies have much concerning man's sin, and the
certainty of God's judgment upon sin. But the prophecies are not
gloom and doom. The prophecies are hope, and
mercy, and grace. For in the midst of man's corruption,
depravity, rebellion, and sin, as God Almighty pronounces the
certainty of judgment and wrath visited upon man, both in time
and to eternity, because of sin, He speaks constantly of redemption
and grace through Christ the Lord, and calls us to repentance
and faith, believing his Son. The prophecies that Isaiah gave,
as Brother Larry read just a little bit ago, were given during the
period of the reigns of four kings in Judah. Uzziah, Jotham,
Ahaz, and Hezekiah. He spoke primarily to Judah prior
to the time of their exile, prior to the time when they would be
banished for a while from their land. And in this vision he tells
us plainly that he's speaking primarily to Judah and to Jerusalem. That is, he is speaking to those
representatives of God's church and his kingdom. His prophecy
is a prophecy to God's people and about God's people, and it
was a prophecy given in the darkest, most troublesome times of Israel's
history. Never was there a time when idolatry
had reached such a height. Never was there a time when many
women who professed to know God had sunk so low in religious
superstition and idolatry. And Isaiah was called of God
to be a prophet to his people in that time. Now let me define
a prophet for you in the very strictest sense of the word.
A prophet is a man who receives a message from God for his people
and delivers it, just as he gets it. In that sense, every true
gospel preacher is a prophet. He seeks a message from God.
I'm here to give you a survey of the book of Isaiah, but I
am not interested merely in reciting to you facts and figures and
statistics and chapter divisions and history and such as that.
I have sought, and I believe God's given me a message you
need this hour. A prophet is a man with a message.
A message from God that must be delivered. Now these prophets
we are reading beginning here in Isaiah were inspired prophets. They were prophets in an official
capacity. They had this special office
just as God has given a special office in the church today of
pastors. These men were prophets. And
the prophets is that man who brings a message to God's people
in the day in which they live. So when you read Isaiah's prophecy
and these other prophets, be sure you understand that he was
speaking to God's people in that day long ago. But the prophet's
message must be understood also to be a word from God infallibly
declaring that which God has purposed to do. When God reveals
his will, he reveals it by his prophet. When God declares what
he will do in time to come, he declares it infallibly. You want
to test whether or not a man's a prophet of God? Let's see what
did he say. All right, now let's see. He
said he was going to come to pass tomorrow. Tomorrow, yep, came to pass.
There he is. Didn't come to pass. I don't
care what excuse he gives. I don't care what formula he
gives for a mistake, I don't care how he tries to justify
it, he's not of God. Satanic. Isaiah's prophecy is
precise. It'll do you good, a world of
good, to sit down and cross-reference the prophecies he made concerning
Christ, his incarnation, his accomplishments, his performance
as our Redeemer, his exaltation and his glory as our resurrected
Lord, and see how they're fulfilled in the New Testament, and fulfilled
exactly when he said they would be fulfilled. I mean to the letter. But the Prophet's message is
more than a word to God's people long ago, and more than a word
by which the Prophet declares things that God will do in days
to come. It is a message intended by God
Almighty for his people in every age. In other words, Bobby Estes,
this word is just as much to you as it was to those fellows
a long time ago. The message contained in this
book is for us. Now Isaiah's vision is where
we'll begin, in Isaiah chapter 6. I want us to read these eight
verses together, and this will sort of form the springboard
for the message. Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. Now we know without a shadow
of doubt that the one Isaiah is speaking of here is the Lord
Jesus Christ. having finished the work of redemption,
having been exalted to the Father's right hand in resurrection glory,
seated upon the throne, sitting on the mercy seat where God promised
to meet with sinners, Christ Jesus is sitting there on the
throne of God, the throne of grace, the mercy seat, the incarnate
God, as it were a lamb rising up out of the midst of the throne.
We know that because our Lord said so in John chapter 12. All
right, let's read then. In the year that King Uzziah
died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne. Not pacing, sitting. Sitting in the blessed serenity
of total sovereignty on a throne. Lots of continued thrones in
this world. This is the only throne there is. The only one. The only place of absolute dominion
there is. He's sitting on the throne high
and lifted up, exalted, magnified, honored. And his train filled
the temple. I don't have any idea what that
means, but it's something important. They're setting forth his majesty
and his glory, his greatness, his immensity. Above it, above
the throne. Now you have this picture back
in the Old Testament when God gave directions concerning the
building of the tabernacle and the furniture and the mercy seat.
The mercy seat was to be made all of one piece with these cherubs. Here they're called seraphim,
only cherub. Above it stood the seraphim. Each one had six wings,
and with two, with Twain, he covered his face in humility.
With Twain, he covered his feet in shame. And with Twain, he
did fly quickly to do his master's will. Who are these seraphim? Who are these representatives
looking down on the mercy seat, always bowing at the throne,
with their eyes always on the blood, always on the sacrifice? Who are they? Revelation chapter
4 makes it clear they are these living creatures, gospel preachers,
whose eyes constantly own the sacrifice, who seek a word from
God and fly swiftly to declare it to men. Let's see if this
is not what Isaiah saw. And one cried to another, these
preachers, these seraphim, these servants of God. They said, holy,
holy, holy, thrice holy is the Lord of hosts, the God of all
creation and of all creatures. The whole earth is full of his
glory. Oh, what did Isaiah say? He saw
exactly what is declared throughout this book. Everything in this
world magnifies and honors God. I can't see that yet. I can't
either yet, but soon I will. I don't see how everything honors
him yet, but soon I will, and I am absolutely certain that
it does. Everything shall at last be down
to his praise, his honor, and his glory. And at this the whole
temple shook, the post of the door loomed at the voice of him
that cried, and the house was filled with smoke, wonder and
adoration. This is a great mystery. Then, when I saw Christ, the
crucified Lamb of God, sitting on his throne, God over all,
having accomplished redemption, having satisfied everything typified
in that tabernacle, in that ark of covenant, in that mercy seat,
having satisfied it all, when I saw him, I said, Woe is me,
for I'm undone. I'm a man of unclean lips, and
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. I see what I
am. I'm helpless. And when he says,
I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, he's not offering
an excuse for his corruption and his helplessness. He's saying,
I'm utterly helpless. None of you can help me. You're
all in the same shape I'm in. Woe is me! I know this, for mine
eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Now watch this. Then flew one of the seraphims
unto me, having a live coal in his hand. You see, our Lord's
redemptive work is finished, but it's not over. He has accomplished
redemption, but his blood is efficacious still. His blood
still avails to the saving of lost sinners. A live coal he
brings in his hand, which he hath taken with tongs from off
the altar, and laid it upon my mouth. And this is what he said,
Lo, this hath touched thy lips. and thine iniquity is taken away,
and thy sin is purged. That's what happens when God
reveals Christ in a sinner. He causes the word of the gospel
to be effectually applied to your heart by the power of his
spirit. You're made to see as soon as you're made to see what
you are before him. As soon as you see Christ in
his glory, he comes and speaks peace and pardon to the soul,
and he does it by the word of the gospel. And as soon as a
sinner, as soon as a sinner experiences the wonder of grace through a
crucified substitute, he becomes forever the willing, voluntary
servant of God. Also I heard the voice of the
Lord saying, Whom shall I send? Who will go for us? Then said
I, Here am I. me." He doesn't say, who shall
I send to do this or that. He doesn't say, who shall I send
to Papua New Guinea or to Sao Paulo, Brazil or to Mexico or
the Ivory Coast of Africa. He says, whom shall I send? Send
for what? Whatever you have in mind. Whatever is needed. Wherever
you would have me, here I am. Send me. All right? Throughout this prophecy, Isaiah
speaks as a man who has seen Christ, who has seen him in all
the fullness of his redemptive, saving grace and glory. In these
66 chapters, we have multiplied, multiplied portraits of our Redeemer. And I can't begin to just give
you the highlights of them. But I want us to go through this
evening, and I can't think of a better way to give you the
message of this book than simply to show you many of the ways
in which Christ is portrayed here. Now the first four chapters,
really, are introductory to the rest of the book. They might
even be looked upon as a preface to the book. In chapter 1, which
we read a little bit ago, we see our need of a Redeemer. A Redeemer who can take sinful
men. wounded with an incurable wound,
sick with an incurable disease, with a plague in their hearts,
identified as being a corruption from the sole of our feet to
the crown of our head. There's no wholeness, no soundness
in us, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, nothing
but rebellion, nothing but corruption within us. That's our nature,
refusing constantly to acknowledge our God, but ever living in rebellion
to him. And that's how we're described
in the first chapter. In the 9th verse, he gives us
hope, for he tells us that there is a chosen remnant who must
and shall be saved. Except the Lord of Hosts had
left us a very small remnant. God's elect are always looked
upon as a remnant. If there had not been a remnant
of Adam's fallen race, a remnant in this world, this world would
have been destroyed long ago. Someone says, well, why doesn't
the Lord destroy the world right now? Because he's still got a
remnant. And he's going to save them according to his purpose.
And it is the long-suffering of God to do it. In verse 18,
after giving instructions that are impossible, he says, all
right, you wash yourselves and make you clean. You cease from
doing evil and do good. Preacher, I can't. Okay, look
at verse 18. Come now, come to me. That's what faith is, it's coming
to God. Come now and let us reason together,
saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as warm. Well, how do you come? Any way
you can get to Him, come home. So we have to feel this, we have
to go through that. No, no, no. Come to God by faith
in Christ. And coming to him, you have been
made perfectly righteous by his grace. And your coming is the
evidence of it. And then in verse 25, we're assured
of the certainty and efficacy of Christ's redeeming, saving
work. Now look at verse 27. We've got to move along. Zion
shall be redeemed. with judgment, justice, and her
converts with righteousness, God's elect shall be saved, they
shall be redeemed, and redeemed in a way that utterly magnifies
and honors God. Isaiah tells us that the church
and kingdom of our God shall be established, and established
according to God's decree, and that the word of His grace will
go out of Zion into all the world, calling God's elect out of every
nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. I can't tell you how many things
I've read just today. where folks kept trying to say
that Isaiah has nothing to do with the age in which we live.
Isaiah is all about the Old Testament, the Old Testament saints in Judah
and Jerusalem. It had nothing to do... He specifically
tells us here in the very opening of the book that the word of
the gospel will go out into all the world. So that when he addresses
God's people, he's addressing a people to be identified by
spiritual terms, not physical terms, a people chosen by him
who will be saved from the four corners of the earth. Then in
chapter 3, he gives a blessed word of promise. Oh, children
of God, hang on to it, hang on to it. Look at verse 10. Say
ye to the righteous that it shall be well with him. It was yesterday, it is today,
and it will be tomorrow. I have a very dear friend, some of you know her up in Newcastle,
Indiana, with a gene, our sister gene Whitehead. She's been suffering
with lupus for a long time. I was talking to her pastor by
the crag tree today. It doesn't look like she's going
to get up and walk away this time. She may fly away soon,
but she's not going to get up and walk away unless God intervenes. And he reminded me of something
I'd forgotten. Oh, I've known Glenn and Gene,
their family, for 25 years or better, I guess. And this guy,
I've been suffering with this all that time. All that time.
You know what I've never heard from her? Never. Never. I've never heard a complaint
about anything. Not one time. Not one time. I said, him, it's amazing. Folks
who seem to constantly suffer, buried with such contentment
while we grumble and gripe about hangnails. She's learned, Larry, it's well
with the righteous. It always has been, is now, and
always shall be. Always. The righteous, not those
who perform righteousness on their own. You don't, I don't.
Certainly Jesus doesn't. Nobody does. No man does. But
what's it talking about? Those who have been made righteous
by God's amazing grace, imputing the righteousness of Christ to
us, giving us the righteous nature of Christ in salvation, and it's
well with the righteous, for they, they shall eat of the fruit
of their way. They'll eat the fruit of their
doing. How can you say then it's going
to be always well with Bobby Estes? Because you're going to
eat, you do now, you have, you will tomorrow, and forever of
the fruit of what you have done in a substitute, whose name is
the Lord, our righteousness. You understand that? He's earned
it. And God's going to do us well
because of it. Chapter 4 declares the result of all this. It is
the exaltation and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the everlasting
perfection and righteousness of God's elect in him. Look at
verse 2. In that day shall the branch
of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the
earth shall be excellent. and comely for them that are
escaped of Israel. It shall come to pass that he
that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem,
shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the
living in Jerusalem, when the Lord shall have washed away the
filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood
of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and
by the spirit of burning." Now, look at chapter 5. Isaiah's prophecy
begins here in this fifth chapter with this remarkable, remarkable,
perfect title for our Savior. Now I will sing to my well-beloved
a song of my beloved, touching his vineyard, his church, his
people. My well-beloved has avenged me
in a very fruitful heel. Oh, what a blessed, blessed privilege
to lift your eyes to heaven and say with honesty, he's my well-beloved, my well-beloved. He is the lover
of my soul, and He is the one my soul loves. He is my well-beloved,
because everything revealed in this book about Him, everything
I know concerning Him, everything I've experienced of Him, everything
I've heard from Him, everything He is and everything He's done,
I love it just like it is. I wouldn't change it if I had
the power to. Nothing. Nothing. And then in
the 6th chapter we saw that picture we read earlier where Isaiah
saw the Lord Jesus sitting on his throne high and lifted up. In chapter 7 verse 14 he's described
as the virgin born incarnate God. Therefore the Lord himself
shall give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son, and shall call his name God with us." He's described
again in chapter 9, if you want to look at it, verse 6, where
this virgin-born man is described as the mighty God. For unto us
a child is born, unto us a son is given. That's not a play on
words, that's deliberate. As the man Christ Jesus, he was
born. As God the Son, he was given
and could never be born. For unto us a child is born,
born of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were
under the law, given as a son, the Son of God, and the government
shall be upon his shoulder. What government? All government.
And his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty
God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. Now look
at chapter 8. Our Lord Jesus, who is the sanctuary
of salvation, the sanctuary to all who believe. You hear about
places being sanctuaries. We have churches all across the
country that are sanctuaries for illegal immigrants. And there
is a law of the kind that recognizes the church to be a place of sanctuary.
Get in the church and everything is all right, the law can't touch
you. Well, that may or may not be so in various But here is
a sanctuary. Get into him, and the law can't
touch you. Get in Christ, and all is well. He is a sanctuary of salvation
to all who believe. And he was long ago declared
to be a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense to the self-righteous
and unbelieving, to those who will not find refuge in him. And he shall be for a sanctuary,
but for a stone of stumbling. and a rock of offense, to both
the houses of Israel for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants
of Jerusalem. And many among them shall stumble
and fall, and be broken, and shall be snared, and be taken."
The Apostle Paul refers to this in Romans chapter 9, verses 33
and on, where he describes the Jews who stumbled at the stumbling
stone. stumbled and tripped over the
foundation, because they went about to establish their own
righteousness, and would not submit themselves unto the righteousness
of God. Not submit themselves to the
righteousness that God is, or righteousness that God requires,
but the righteousness that God has established by the sacrifice
and obedience of his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. They said,
no! We can make ourselves righteous. And for that, they stumbled over
the stumbling stone. Then in chapter 9, Verse 2, our
Lord is described as the light, the light of the world. He is
the light that shines in darkness, the light of life, the one who
is the light of the glory of God. The only light there is
in this dark, dark world is Christ the Lord. The people that walked
in darkness have seen great light. They that dwell in the land of
the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined. That's
what he did for me. I was sitting in darkness, blind
as a bat, living in the shadow of death.
Death in my soul and death in my heart and death on my mind
and death before me in the light And God calls the light of the
glory of God to shine in the face of Jesus Christ on this
sinner's heart. And so the word of Isaiah 49.6
is fulfilled. To me, he says, I'll give you,
God says to his son, I'll give you for a light to the Gentiles. Now look at chapter 12, chapter
11 rather, verse 12. Our Lord is here portrayed in
a lot of ways in these few verses. He's portrayed as the root and
branch of David. He's portrayed as an instant
to whom the chosen sinner must be gathered. He's portrayed as
that one by whom we have both the Spirit of God and the glorious
rest of faith and God's salvation. Look at verses 1 and 2 first.
Let me just read them. And there shall come forth a
root out of the stem of Jesse. Jesse's house almost withered
up. It can't be until Christ comes. And the branch shall grow
out of his roots, and the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
and the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, and the Spirit
of counsel and might, and the Spirit of knowledge and the fear
of the Lord. Verse 10. And in that day there shall be
a word of Jesse, which shall stand for an instant. A better
translation in our day would be a banner. Stand for a banner. have troops go into battle, you
raise up the banner, and all the troops rally around the banner.
This is the picture. He'll stand for a banner of the
people, and to it shall the Gentiles seek, and his rest shall be glorious. His rest that he gives us is
glorious to us, and his rest he's obtained for us is his glory. Verse 12. And he shall set up
an ensign, a banner for the nations. and shall assemble the outcast
of Israel. and our salvation, the Holy One
of Israel in the midst of us. Isaiah chapter 12 verse 2. Behold
God is my salvation. Verse 6. Cry out and shout thou
inhabitant of Zion, for great is the Holy One of Israel in
the midst of thee. I never will forget the first
time I heard a man make this statement. He's preaching for
me at lookout, little Watson Dufault. He was a good friend. He's standing in the pulpit,
preaching from Philippians, from Colossians chapter 1, and he
said, now I'm going to say something that will shock you. I'm going
to say something that will shock you. You've probably never heard
a man say it before. Jesus is God. And you know I've
never heard a man say it before. I've never heard men say it.
Oh, I've heard folks say, he is God incarnate. I've heard
them say that he is the God-man. I've heard them say that Jesus
Christ the Lord is the Son of God. I have never in my life
heard anybody say, Jesus is God. Will you hear me? That man who
died on the cursed tree 2,000 years ago is himself God. And he's seated right now in
heaven's glory, and that God who dwells in human flesh is
my salvation. He's my Savior. As I said, we
can't go through all of these pictures. But in chapters 13
through 21, our Lord is described as the one who is the breaker
of Babylon. He is the Lord of Lucifer, not the rival of Lucifer,
the Lord of Lucifer. He's the master of Moab. He says
Moab is my washpot. No need to be worried about my
enemies, he's my washpot. He's the destroyer of Damascus.
All those who would fight against him, he shall destroy them. He's
the executioner of Egypt. He's the watchman's judge, the
one before whom all watchmen are accountable. Now let's move
on to chapter 22. Still, I can only pick up the
highlights. Our Lord Jesus is the Sovereign King of the Universe. His will and dominion to those
who know him is like a nail in a sure place. I'm not talking
about now a Navy driving to an oak board and they ask, can I
pull that out? No, no, no, no. I'm just talking
about in the midst of storms with his ship tossed here and
there. breaking over your ship, and
everything seems to be crumbling around you, and you lay hold
of one thing in the ship, a nail in a sure place, that's the only
thing you've got to hang on to in the midst of difficulty. Christ is the only thing you've
got to hang on to. That's all. Remember verse 22.
The key of the house of David, the key is on top of his shoulders. Strange place for a key, unless
you're undisturbed. So he shall open, and none can
shut. He shall shut, and none shall
open. Impossible for a man to open
when he shuts, impossible for a man to shut when he opens.
And I will fasten him I will fasten him, I love it, not his
doctrine, not even his righteousness, not even his blood, not even
his sacrifice, I will fasten him as a nail in a sure place. And he shall be for a glorious
throne to his father's house. Isn't that great? He shall be
for a glorious throne. Now look on. And they, they,
who's that? That's the folks hanging on to
the nail. That's the folks who got nowhere to go. They shall
hang upon him all the glory of the Father's house. All of it.
He's got it all. There's a verse, chapter 28,
verse 5. The Lord Jesus is the crown of glory and the everlasting
diadem of beauty for his people. Folks argue about degrees of
reward. I get letters or calls almost
incessantly. I can't tell you how many times
in a year I'll get letters or calls. Somebody wants to argue
what I've had to say about Believers all having the same glory, all
having the same blessedness, all having the same inheritance
in Christ. I don't want to be upset. I don't want more than
what you want. Verse 5, Isaiah 28. be for a crown of glory. And what kind of crown was it
that you were looking after? What kind of crown were you hoping
to attain for yourself? He shall be for a crown of glory. What was the beauty you were
hoping to have? He shall be for a diadem, a sparkling jewel of
beauty. To whom? The best of the people. to the residue of the people. That's the rest of us. Well,
that's self-explanatory, isn't it? All right, look at verse
14. Our Savior is the foundation
stone laid in Zion for his people.
These said they'd made a covenant with death, and it'll not come
near them, God says in verse 16. Behold, I lay in Zion for
a foundation stone, tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure
foundation. He that believeth shall not make
haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plummet, and the hail shall sweep
away the refuge of lies. But he that He who is built on
this foundation stone shall not make haste. This is a tried foundation. Precious foundation. A sure foundation. And all who are built on this
foundation stone. This word make haste is translated
variously as it's used throughout the scriptures. They're not getting
any hurry. Because they're not about to
be moved. They shall not be confounded. They shall not be confused. It
doesn't matter what comes down the pipe. They're not going to
be confused by it. They shall not be confused. They shall not
be ashamed. They shall not be put to shame.
They shall not be moved. They are built by the hand of
God himself on the foundation stone. Then look at chapter 32. Our Lord Jesus is here described
as the only safe refuge, and sure hiding place for our souls.
And I love the way Isaiah puts it. I shouldn't say Isaiah. Well,
that's all right. He wrote it, but God the Holy
Spirit inspired it. He says, Behold, a king shall
reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a
man, a man. A man shall be as a hiding place
from the wind. and recovered from the tempest.
A man who has felt the wind and pulled his coat up around his
ears and arched his back and braced himself and walked against
it just like you did. A man, a man who's been in the
storm, a man who has walked in the midst of tempest, a man who
has Experience all that you can know that causes your heart trouble.
A man shall be a hiding place from the wind. A cupboard, a cupboard you can dust into
in the midst of the tempest. As rivers of water in a dry place,
as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land. That's the man,
Christ Jesus, our God and Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ is described
in chapter 35 as the giver of all grace. He will recompense
and he will come and he will save. Again in chapter 35 he
is described as the highway, the highway in which there is
no unclean thing that passes over it. He's the way to God,
and the only way you can go to God by him is if he has made
you perfectly clean. He's made all perfectly clean.
Who trusts in him? And in this way there's no lying.
There's no ravenous beast. But the redeemed of the Lord,
every one of them walk in this way. And the ransomed of the
Lord, they return and come to Zion this way. Every one of them. of a preacher, I meet with lions
and ravenous beasts every day. No, no. They just look like lions
and roar like lions and they act like ravenous beasts, but
they got no claws and they got no fangs and they got no power.
They can't hurt you. They can't hurt you because we
walk in the King's way. In the King's way. Look in chapter
40 verse 11. Our Lord Jesus is described,
this one who sits on the throne. this God on whose shoulder lays
the keys of the kingdom. He sits upon the throne of universal
monarchy. He rules and disposes of all
the universe and all things in it for the good of his sheep,
for the salvation of their souls. He shall feed the flock like
a shepherd. He'll gather the lambs with his arms and carry
them in his bosom. and shall gently lead those that
are with you. And he'll never drop one. Look
at the text again. Chapter 41, verse 14. The Son
of God calls himself our great Redeemer. He says, Fear not,
thou worm Jacob, ye men of Israel. I will help thee, saith the Lord,
thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Now, I spent enough time
on that Sunday morning, you won't have to Look at it too much more. Chapter 42. I redeem her as Jehovah's
righteous servant. Chosen to be our Savior. A servant
who shall not fail. Now look at this. Behold God
says my servant. My servant whom I uphold, mighty
wrath, in whom my soul delighteth. I put my spirit upon him, he
shall, not he going to cry, he shall bring forth judgment, justice,
righteousness, truth to the Gentiles. And he'll never be frustrated.
He shall not cry, nor lift up his voice, nor cause his voice
to be heard in the streets. He's not going to beg for help.
A breezed reed shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment to the earth. He shall
not fail. I told you, this man is God Almighty,
and failure is an impossibility with him. Did he set his heart
on you to save you? You're good as done. He set his
heart on you to redeem you, you redeemed. He set his heart on
you to bring you to glory, you're as good as there. Indeed, already
there in him. Look in chapter 43. This great
Savior is our ever-present Lord and protector. Now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not,
I've redeemed you, I've called you by your name, you're mine.
When you pass through the waters, I'll be with you. When you pass
through the fire, I'll be with you, neither shall the flame
kindle upon thee. I am the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, thy Savior. Now if you can't believe just
what I said, believe what I've done. I gave Egypt for your ransom. I sacrificed Ethiopia and Cebu
for you, because you were precious in my sight, therefore you're
honorable. I've loved you, therefore I give
men for thee and people for thy life. Now fear not, I am with
thee. Chapter 45, verses 21 through
22, Jesus Christ our God is that just God and Savior, who bids
sinners everywhere to look to him and look unto me, and be
ye saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there
is none else. Look away from yourself to me. Look away from every refuge to
me. Look to me! And looking to me
as Israel looked to the serpent in the wilderness, looking to
me! Everybody who looks lives. Chapter 53. That perhaps is the
most familiar passage in the book to you. Our Lord Jesus is
described as our substitute, who shall see of the travail
of his soul and shall be satisfied. When he gets done, every sinner
for whom he made contact with the Father in eternity every
sinner for whom he suffered the wrath of God, every sheep he
sought out with his arm and brought to his bosom, he will have with
him in glory, and he'll see the travail of his soul, and smile
forever in the glory of infinite satisfaction. And when that's
done, look at chapter 65, verse 17. When that's done, When that's done, oh, when that's
done. Behold, he says, I create new
heavens and new earth. I've tried in times past to explain
what that means. I believe we'd better just leave
it alone and mull it over.