I have entitled this message,
What I Am to the Lord. Now, this is true regarding every
believer, what I am, what you are to the Lord. Now, whatever
the most significant person in our life tells us that we are,
we have a tendency to believe that that is what we are. Now,
catch that, the most significant person in our life, the person
that we esteem the most highly. And quite often, parents can
pretty much mold how their kids think about themselves, because
you're the most important person in your child's life. And quite
often, Whatever the most significant person in our life tells us we
are, that is what we believe ourselves to be. Now, I'm going to try to talk
about what every believer actually is to the Lord. Now, quite often, I've done this,
you've probably done it with your kids, sometimes parents
to try to boost their children's self-esteem will tell them all
kinds of wonderful things about themselves, which are not necessarily
true. You ever done that with your
kids? Well, some of you probably haven't. Some of you have made
them out to be worse than they are. You know, I mean, that happens
too, you know. And that's not good. That's not
good. I want to try to talk about what
we really are to the Lord, not what, not hype, not hype, but what we really
are to the Lord. Now, I made this statement last
week. I'm going to make it again. When
I think of what the Lord actually thinks of me personally, when
he looks at me, I'm talking about looking at Todd Nybert. When
I think of what the Lord actually thinks of me, personally, I think
of somebody that He tolerates for Christ's sake. Now, that's how I think of Him
looking at me. Somebody that He merely tolerates
for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have a real hard time
Thinking of Him seeing me as holy and beautiful and absolutely
desirable. You know, we were reading that
passage of Scripture. in Isaiah 62. And it says in verse 5, For
as a young man marries a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee.
And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall thy
God rejoice over thee. And my mind was brought back
to September 11, 1982, my marriage day. And I can remember after I was
married, we went to Lynn's house, we opened up our gifts and everything,
and I can remember being in the alley, getting ready to go off
on our honeymoon, you know, to Berea, of all places. You know,
I mean, we were going from Ashland to the Boom Tavern, and I'll
never, and then after that, we ended up going to Gatlinburg,
and I mean, I thought it was a good place, but evidently it
wasn't as much as I thought it was. But at any rate, I can remember
so clearly being out in the alley, looking at this beautiful woman
in this brown dress, standing by that Volkswagen, and I'm thinking,
I've got it made. This is too good to be true.
I'm going to be with this woman for the rest of my life. I can
remember rejoicing. There's never been any rejoicing
like that in my life. You know, I was so happy, so
amazed that I This is my wife now. I mean, just rejoicing. You've experienced that. You
know, no matter, every married couple, you know, I've, I've
married some people that they don't end up being real happily
married. Some of them even, you know, it hadn't worked. But I'll
tell you what, when you get, when you get married, everybody
I've ever seen get married, they're googly-eyed over each other.
They love each other. I mean, they're just so happy
to be married. Now, can you imagine you think
of that feeling of marriage and the anticipation and so on and
the beauty you see in that one you're marrying? Can you imagine
the Lord looking at you? And having those feelings. Now, I personally have a hard
time hearing that. I have a great deal of difficulty
comprehending the Lord actually loving my person, seeing me as
literally holy, not as if I were holy, but I mean, he sees me
as holy without sin. He sees me as beautiful and desirable. He sees me as his beloved bride. It's hard to enter into it. But did you know, if you think
that way also, the way I'm talking about, that we're totally wrong
in thinking that way. That's the fruit of unbelief.
That's all it is, the fruit of unbelief. I hope this scripture
will bear this out, but let me remind you before we begin looking
at that passage of scripture, the Lord said in John chapter
17, verse 23, of every one of his people. Thou, talking about
the Father, Thou hast loved them as Thou hast loved me. Now that, what can I say about that? Regarding
every believer, Thou hast loved them. What does the Father see
in His blessed Son? What beauty What perfection does
the father see in his blessed son? That is precisely what he
sees in you. Now, isn't that amazing? What
I am to the Lord. In verse one, we read, and this
is God speaking. If it would be Isaiah speaking,
it's still God speaking through Isaiah. And here's what he has
to say in verse one. For Zion's sake, that's the church,
that's his bride, that's every believer, for Zion's sake will
I not hold my peace. And for Jerusalem's sake, I will
not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness
and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. For Zion's sake, for the church's
sake, for all of the elect, each individual, for Zion's sake,
God says, I will not keep quiet and I will not rest. Now, here's
something I want you to think about. The Lord Jesus Christ,
and I'm saying this to every believer, you listen real carefully. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, would be incomplete without you. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? Will He have a main body? Is any part of your body not
important to you? What if you lost your little
finger? It's just a little finger. You don't think that way, do you?
That little finger is my little finger and it's important to
me. Every member of the Lord Jesus
Christ's body is of infinite importance to Him and He would
not rest. into your salvation. This is
speaking of every believer. He would not rest. He would not
stop until your salvation was finished. Completed. That's why He sat down. You know
why He sat down? Nothing else to do. He sat down
because the salvation of every believer was completed. And he
said, I will not rest until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as the lamp that burneth.
Verse 2. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness. Now what's interesting before
I go on reading this verse, It seems like he's speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ himself. And you can also see where he's
speaking of the church. He's speaking of every believer.
And what is so glorious about the gospel, this thing of union
with Christ, whatever you say about him, you say about the.
Let me repeat that, whatever you say about me, you say about
him and whatever you say about him, you say about the. one with
Christ. That's my hope, union with Christ.
Now, look at this verse in light of that. And the Gentiles shall
see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt
be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall name. And you know what that name is.
What name comes to your mind when he speaks of you? Talking
about the church, talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. You can't
separate the two being called this new name. I know the name
that automatically came to my mind, Jehovah Zedekiah, the Lord,
our righteousness. This is the name where with he
shall be called the Lord, our righteousness. But it also says
in Jeremiah 33, this is the name where with she shall be called
the Lord, our righteousness. This is every believer. Verse
3 says, Thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand of the Lord,
and a royal diadem in the hand of thy God. This is said of every
believer, a crown of glory and a royal diadem, which is a mitre
or a headdress. That is how precious every believer
is to Christ, a crown of glory and a headdress. And surely it's
the hand of God that makes us that way, but that's what we
really are. Nonetheless, that's this is not what I am. Pretend
this is what I really am. This is not what I am forensically. In just a legal way, although
it is a legal way, I wouldn't take away from the importance
of that, but this is what I am, a crown of glory in his hand. a royal diadem, his headdress,
his bride, his precious bride. Verse 4 says, Thou shalt no more
be termed forsaken, neither shall thy land any more be termed desolate. And wouldn't those two words
describe what we are by nature? Sinful and unlovable. desolate and forsaken, nothing
to delight in, nothing to attract. But here's what we are in Christ.
He says, Thou shalt no more be termed forsaken, neither shall
thy land any more be termed desolate, but thou shalt be called Hesaba
and thy land Beulah. For the Lord delighteth in thee,
and thy land shall be married." God delights in every single
one of his people. He delights in me. He looks at
me, me personally. I'm talking about this fellow
talking to you. He looks at me. And this is said of every believer.
And the God of glory delights. Delights. Now, that almost runs
contrary to our experience. How can that be? You know, Paul
the Apostle did say in Romans chapter 7, I know that in me,
that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Now, I know that's
the truth concerning me. I know it's the truth concerning
you. In my flesh dwelleth no good thing. But let me remind
you of something. The flesh is the old man. He's already been
judged. He's already been condemned.
And there's a new man. It's all together lovely to the
father. And he delights in us and sees
us so attractive that we are the ones he wants to marry the
lamb's wife. He sees his bride as without
spot. The scripture says in Ephesians
five without spot or wrinkle or any such thing. A perfectly
beautiful bride. Colossians 122. calls His people
holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. Now, I might not
be that in your sight, but I am in His sight. And His sight is
the sight that counts. You know what? Anybody else thinks
it really doesn't matter. If I'm that in His sight, that's
what I am. I love that Scripture in Romans
6, 11 where He says, Reckon yourselves to be. dead indeed to sin, and
alive unto God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if God tells
me to reckon myself to be dead unto sin, am I not, but I'm just
supposed to pretend that I am? No. If God says I'm dead to sin,
but sin has nothing to say to me that I'm justified from sin,
that's because I am. He says, your bulla, The Lord
delights in thee, and thy land shall be married. This is speaking
of the Lamb's wife. You know, we call the President
of the United States, his wife, the First Lady. But what is she
in comparison to this First Lady? The true First Lady, the Bride
of Christ, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb's
wife. Turn with me to Revelation 19 for just a moment. You know, this passage of Scripture
gets bigger to me every time I read it. I think, well, I know
what that means. And then it just gets more glorious. Verse
5 of Revelation 19, And a voice came out of the throne, saying,
Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small
and great. And I heard, as it were, the
voice of a great multitude. And it's the voice of many waters
and it's the voice of mighty thundering saying, Alleluia for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and
give honor to him for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife. Has made herself ready, she's
getting ready for this glorious wedding piece and to her was
granted freely given that she should be arrayed, dressed in
Fine linen, clean and white. You want to talk about a spotless,
white, pure wedding dress? Oh, this wedding dress is like
no wedding dress you and I have ever seen. We've seen some beautiful
wedding dresses, but nothing compares to this one. And look
what it says regarding this wedding dress, this fine linen, clean
and white. This fine linen is what? I want you to say that with me.
The righteousness of the saints. Now, you know what is amazing
about that? I used to look at that passage of Scripture, and
I'd stop at that one, and I just, boy, the righteousness of the
saints. Is that talking about the good
deeds of the saints and the righteous works of the saints? Is that
talking about even the things that they've been enabled to
do by grace? Is that what that's talking about? Is that the fine
linen, clean and white, the righteous works that you've been enabled
to do by the grace of God? Well, name me one. Which one
is clean and wise and can be described thusly? Can you name
any? Not me. What is the righteousness
of the saints? The righteousness and merits
of Jesus Christ. The law-keeping. The obedience
of Jesus Christ. His righteousness is mine. Fine linen, clean and white.
This is the righteousness of the saints. This is why she is
Hephzibah and Beulah. Not forsaken. Beautiful to the
Lord. Mary. Back to our text in Isaiah
62. Verse 5, For as a young man marrieth
a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee. Now, this is talking about
the church's desire for the Lord Jesus Christ, just as that young
man marries that virgin. And oh, he's so excited with
anticipation of his wedding night. He's so excited about being with
this woman and spending the rest of his life with this woman.
That's the way the sons of Christ come to him. And that's the way
they enter the church, desiring the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this
is this is what all of God's elect have in common. This is,
to you which believe. I love this passage of Scripture.
1 Peter 2, 7. 1 Peter 2, 7. To you which believe,
He is precious. To you which believe, He is precious,
isn't He? And He says, and as the bridegroom
rejoices over the bride, So shall thy God, the God of glory, he
shall rejoice over thee. He says in verse 6, I have set watchmen upon thy
walls, O Jerusalem. And this is a reference to the
true preacher, somebody that God has set. I have set watchmen
upon thy walls, O Jerusalem, which shall never hold their
peace, day nor night." You can't shut up a true preacher. And
I'm not talking about yakking all the time. Have you ever been
around preachers you wish they would shut up? I bet you have. I know you have. I have, and
I bet somebody's thought that about me, too, plenty of times. I'm sure of it. But that's not
what this is referring to as far as, you know, This is saying
they'll preach the gospel continually. You can't stop them from preaching
the gospel. The message that I preached when
God first saved me, that's the message by His grace that I'll
be preaching when I'm dying. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ. No modification of this message. No improvement of this
message. No changing of positions. The
same gospel. He's going to set watchmen upon
thy walls which shall never hold their peace. Look what it says
next in verse 6. Ye that make mention of the Lord,
keep not silence, verse 7, and give him no rest till he establish,
until he make Jerusalem a praise on the earth. We are also called
upon to give the Lord no rest, to be importunate is what this
means, in asking Him to give us what He said He would. Now,
this is what true importunity is. Now, the only thing that
I can have confidence in just begging the Lord about, and there's
a lot of things I beg the Lord about. And I don't know how many
times this scripture has caused me to continue praying. I think
of that widow where the unjust judge says, I'm not going to
answer because even of what she's asking, but lest she weary me
by her continual coming, I'll give her whatever she asks. Now
that's our attitude in prayer. I'm not going to stop. I'm not
going to give up. I'm going to ask him to do what
he said he would do in his word. Now that's what I hold on to.
I've got to find a promise in the scriptures that gives me
the right to ask for it. And I love that scripture where it
says be careful for nothing. But in everything, by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving, let your request be made known
unto God. Give him no rest. Give Him no
rest. You know, you're going to be
importunate. And that means a shameless persistence. You're not going
to quit. You're not going to stop. You're going to keep coming.
You're going to keep coming. You're going to be importunate
about that which is important to you, aren't you? Now, if it's
important to you, you'll be importunate about it. You won't stop. You won't give up. He says, Give
Him no rest till He establish until he make Jerusalem a praise
in the earth." Lord, do what you said. You said you'd make
Jerusalem a praise in the earth, and I'm not going to give you
any rest until you do what you said you'd do. Verse 8, the Lord
has sworn by his right hand and by the arm of his strength, surely
I will no more give thy corn to be meat for thine enemies,
and the sons of the strangers shall not drink thy wine for
that which thou hast labored. But they that have gathered it
shall eat it, and praise the Lord, and they that have brought
it together shall drink it in the courts of my holiness." Now,
this is the promise of His grace with Israel. It was these temporal
blessings. With us, it's these spiritual
blessings. I'm going to give you these things. This is the
promise of the gospel. Verse 10, go through. Go through the gates, prepare
ye the way of the people, cast up, cast up the highway, gather
out the stones, lift up a standard for the people. Now, here's the
job of the church and the preacher of the gospel. This is the responsibility
of every believer. It's to get the stones and the
stumbling blocks out of the road. And there's a tradition. You've
all heard of the cities of refuge. There were six cities of refuge
in the Old Testament. They all had different names
that signify different aspects of the salvation of our God.
And if you had killed somebody accidentally, the nearest of
kin to that person had the right to kill you. He's called the
avenger of blood. And if he got to you, you had
it. He'd kill you and he was within
the bounds of justice. Now, God appointed in his mercy
six cities of refuge, which represent and typify the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And if you could get into one
of those cities before he got to you, you were protected. And
you were protected until the high priest died. That's how
long you were protected. You were staying in that city.
Now, one of the glorious things about our city of refuge is that
our high priest will never die. That's how long we're protected
in this city of refuge. Now, there were different robes
to these cities of refuge. And do you know that through
maliciousness, there might be a sign, the city of refuge this
way, and somebody through means would turn it over and have it
pointed this way. And there were people who through
maliciousness put stumbling blocks and rocks and so on in the road
to impede people in gaining their entrance into that city, just
the meanness. And what's the job of the preacher and what's
the job of the people of God? It's to get rid of the stumbling
blocks. It's to make sure the signs are pointed in the right
direction. It's to preach the gospel clearly and simply and
get rid of the stumbling blocks. And there are so many stumbling
blocks and stones in the road that we just come up naturally. We'll think things like, we'll
hear the gospel and we'll think, well, how can I come to Christ
if I'm not one of the elect? You ever thought that? How in the
world am I going to come to Christ if I'm not one of the elect?
I mean, accident. Your job is not to figure out
whether or not you're one of the elect. Your job is to look
to Christ. And you can just count on that. If you're trying to
figure out whether or not God has chosen you, you're doing
the wrong thing and you're going to stay in fog and darkness.
Your job is to look to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you
find out you are one of the elect, in looking to him. Well, I'm
afraid my experience is not deep enough. I'm afraid I don't know
enough. I'm afraid my repentance is not
deep enough. I'm afraid I don't have enough
of a conviction of sin. And we use all these things,
which are nothing more than self-righteousness. That's what they are. Bottom
line, it's self-righteousness. I'm looking to myself. I need
this. I need that. All you need is the Lord Jesus
Christ. You look to Him. Now, cast away and throw away
every stumbling block, everything that would cloud that issue.
There's one thing I need. One, I need. You know, Greg Helmquist,
I was talking to him today, and his brother fell, he was a construction
worker, and he fell off of something right on his head and was in
a coma. And he was on a life support system, and they said
there's no way that he's going to live through this. And he
just died a couple of days ago. And Greg said, I was in there
with him when they undid the life support system. He said,
I was holding his hand. He said, I'll never, I'll never
forget this. I watched that man within 15
minutes. He died. He was looking at me.
He was in a coma, but he was looking straight at me and I
said, I don't know what he was thinking. But they undid that life support
system and he said, within 15 minutes I watched my brother
die. He said, I hope I never lose that sight again. And he
said one thing that was very clear to me, at that time I understood
That all that mattered. It didn't matter how my kids
were raised. It didn't matter what I did or
didn't do. It didn't matter about my career, about my job, about
my relationship with any human being. All that mattered, am
I in Christ. I saw that clearly at that time.
He said, I pray that every time I preach, that's going to be
foremost in my mind. All that matters. is being found
in the Lord Jesus Christ. All that matters is my relationship
with Him. All that matters is simply looking
to Him. By grace are you saved, through
faith. And that is not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. That's
getting the rocks out of the road. Clear the road. That's the job of the church.
That's the job of the true preacher. Go through, go through the gates.
Prepare ye the way of the people. Cast up, cast up the highway.
Gather out the stones. Lift up a standard for the people.
Behold, the Lord hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, verse
11, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh. You know, our salvation is a
person. Thy salvation cometh. He's altogether a person. And his reward is with him. You
see, he's already finished the work. He's not grasping for that
reward. His reward is already with him. He's already accomplished salvation.
And yet it said his work is before him. Yes, He already finished
the work, and yes, He came into this world to do the work. Both
of those things are true. Yes, God's people and God's mind
and purpose have always been saved in the Lamb. And it's true
that God had to come in flesh and save them. And it's true
that we must look to Him and see Him as our all in salvation. His work is still before Him. Verse 12, And they shall call them God's
people. They shall call them, listen
to this definition of God's people, the holy people. How holy do you feel right now
while I'm talking to you? Do you feel pure? Do you feel
holy? Do you feel yourself to be with
that just clean and pure? Oh, what a clean heart I have.
Do you feel that way? Well, not if you're a believer,
you don't. If God says you're holy, are
you holy? If God says you are, you are. This is how real union with Christ
is. Is Jesus Christ holy? Everybody that's one with Him,
everybody that's united to Him, everybody that believes in Him,
they're holy. Holy as He is. His holiness is
their holiness. He is my holiness before God. They shall be the holy people.
And here's why they're the holy people. Look what he says next.
You shall call them the redeemed of the Lord. You know why every
believer is holy? Because He redeemed them. Particular
effectual redemption. He redeemed everybody He died
for. He didn't make redemption possible
for them. He redeemed them. He bought them. The price has
been paid. They are holy before God because
He redeemed them. They shall be called the redeemed
of the Lord. Redeemed how I love to proclaim
it. Redeemed by the blood of the
Lamb. They shall be called the redeemed of the Lord. And look what it says next. And
thou shalt be called sought out. I found the Lord. Oh, did you? You reckon it might be because
He found you? For the Son of Man is come. to seek and to save that which
was lost. And everybody he came to seek,
he found. And everybody he came to save,
he saved. And thou shalt be called sought
out. You remember the parable of the
woman searching the house? She lost one of her silver pieces,
and she searched the house, swept, until she found that silver piece.
That's God the Holy Spirit seeking out every one of His people.
You'll be called sought out. Not only will you be called sought
out, He says, finally, a city not forsaken. He said, I will
never leave thee, nor forsake thee. That's God's promise to
His people. You know why I'll persevere all
the way to the end? Because He said, I'll never leave
thee, nor forsake thee. And there'll be times when you'll
feel like you've been forsaken, but you weren't. Because He said,
I'll never leave thee, nor forsake thee. And let me tell you something
about the Lord. He never tells a lie. What a wonderful description
of God's people, chosen to be holy by the Father in election,
redeemed by the Son, sought out by the Holy Spirit, and not forsaken
by God, therefore persevering to the end. Believer, how precious,
how precious you are. to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now,
He is precious to me. I like that song we sing, He
is so precious to me. But I tell you what gives me
a whole lot more comfort than me seeing His preciousness is
the thought of me being precious to Him. Let's pray.