I've got a couple of passages
I want to read if you want to turn with me. The first one is
found in Romans chapter 15 and verse 12. Romans chapter 15 and verse 12. And again Isaiah saith, There
shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise to reign over the
Gentiles, and in him shall the Gentiles trust. Now I want you
to turn to that passage over in Isaiah chapter 11. Most people
attribute this quote to the 11th chapter
of Isaiah. In verse 10, Paul may have changed
this verse just a little bit. We're not for sure if this is
even the verse he quoted, but most people say it is. Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 10,
And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, He shall stand
for an enzyme of the people. To it shall the Gentiles seek,
and His rest shall be glorious. Paul said, In Him shall the Gentiles
trust. And he stopped there. Our text
is just a little bit different one from another. But one thing
is no doubt who this verse is speaking of. The root of Jesse. The Lord Jesus is sometimes referred
to the root of Jesse or the root of David, Jesse's son. He's often
referred to that in the Bible. And here in verse 1 of my text,
in chapter 11, the prophet uses this picture. You get a picture
in your mind, and all of us have seen this in our lifetime. He
gives us this picture of an old tree that's been cut down. The
stump is rotted away. And out of this stump, this old
rotted stump, comes this stem, this shoot. And it flourishes
into a branch. Look at how He says it here in
verse 1. And there shall come forth a rod. The word means a
shoot or a twig. Out of the stem or stump of Jesse,
and a branch shall grow out of his root." Now here we get a
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ being of the descendant of Jesse,
out of the stump of Jesse. Jesse's house was a famous house
in Israel. David was Jesse's son and he
was anointed king of Israel. A famous man and a famous family
in the children of Israel. And not only did David the king
come out of Judah, but there were several kings out of David's
lineage, out of Judah. The tribe of Judah came through
David. So he was a very famous family. And the Lord Jesus descended
from David. He was of the tribe of Judah.
But when the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, The kingdom
of David, the house of David, was just like a rotten stump. They were little thought of in
the land of Israel. As a matter of fact, Mary was
of the family of David, and so was her husband, Joseph. But
they were poor people. They were not even recognized
as being anybody. They lived up in Galilee and
nothing good ever came out of Galilee. They were poor in the
family of David. And the Lord Jesus was born into
this family, this poor family, the house of David. And He was
just like the text tells us here, like a tender shoot. He was like
a tender branch. coming up out of that old stump
in a dry ground, but the Word tells us here that he became
a branch. In other places, we find out
that he became fruitful, and he prospered, and he became the
tree of life. Everywhere in the Scriptures,
we're told that he's the tree of life. The Lord Jesus was writing
to one of the churches in Revelation 2 and listen to what He says
concerning Himself. To him that overcomes will I
give to eat of the tree of life which is in the midst of the
paradise of God. And when John saw that vision
of heaven and he saw the pure river of water of life running
out of the throne and of the Lamb, And he said there was a
street there and in the midst of this street was the tree of
life. And it bore its fruit in its
season and the leaves were for the healing of the nation. Now I wonder who that tree could
be. What tree is it that we can eat of and live forever? And
what tree is it that has its leaves, as it were, for the healing
of the nation? Who is it and what is it that
can heal our soul's diseases but the Lord Jesus Christ and
His merits? And the Scripture says there
that it was in the mist. In the mist. So often when you
read of the tree of life, it's in the midst of the paradise
of God. It was in the midst of the streets. And that's where the Lord Jesus
is. Wherever you find Him, He's always in the middle, isn't He?
And every eye is looking to Him because He has the preeminence. He's the preeminent one. when
John was getting this vision of heaven in Revelation chapter
5, and he saw this book in the hands of an angel. But it was
so sealed that it couldn't be opened. Nobody could open it. An angel in heaven or anybody
in the earth was not found worthy or able to open this book. And
John began to weep because he knew if this book was not opened,
then the eternal purpose of God could not come to pass. So he
just wept and there's tears running down his eye, his beard, and
ran down upon the skirts of his garment. And finally the angel
came to him and said, John, cease your weeping. We found one able
to open the book. Well, who is he? He's of the
line of the tribe of Judah. And he's the root of David. He's
David's descendant. And he's prevailed to open the
book. And John said, where is he? Can
I see him? And he says, yonder he is. And
John said, I looked, and there he was in the midst of the throne. Now, brothers and sisters, who's
in the midst of that throne? That's God, isn't it? There's
but one that occupies that throne, and that's God. And John said,
I saw one in the midst of the throne. But listen to this, and
in the midst of the elders." Now who's that? He's a man. He
saw this God-man. And he says, it's One that has
been slain. And He's there in the mist. That's
Christ, ain't it? But that's Christ in our humanity. That's the God-man. The root
of David. And He's prevailed to open the
book. He's God and He's man. in our humanity, the Lamb of
God. Another place in the last portion
of this book, in the last chapter, you'll remember reading about
where the Lord Jesus is describing Himself, and He says, I am the
root of David, and I'm the offspring of David. Some commentators read
that, and I think this is right, and they say, I am the source
of David, and I'm the offspring of David. In other words, I'm
the life of David. I'm David's life. I gave David
his bed, and yet I'm the son of David. Now how in the world
could that be? Well, the Lord Jesus Himself
gives us a hint, doesn't He? Remember in the 22nd chapter
of Matthew, the Pharisees and the scribes and the Herodians
and the Sadducees, they all came to ask the Lord these questions.
And they asked Him all kinds of questions. And when they were
finished asking Him, He said, Now let me ask you one question. Christ, what think ye of Him?
What do you think of Jesus Christ? Whose Son is He? Well, they said
He's the Son of David. He said, alright then, let me
ask you another question. How does David in spirit call
Him Lord? If He's David's Son, how can
He be Lord? David's Lord. And they couldn't
figure that out. But you know the answer to that,
don't you? You know how he can be David's Lord. David got his
life from him. Who is he? He's the Son of God. He's God, and yet he's David's
son according to the flesh. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh. There he is, that old stump,
the seed of David. The family that had gotten so
poor, no more kings were coming out of them. But now here's this
shoe. in a dry ground has risen up
the root of David, David's son. And now he's going to prosper.
He's going to grow into this tree of life, a life-giving tree. But Paul didn't stop there. He's
not only the root of David according to the flesh, but he's declared
to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness
by the resurrection from the dead. So there He is. There He
is. He's the God-man. He's the Son
of God and yet He is the Son of David, the Son of Mary. And
our text says, In that day there shall be a root of Jesse that
shall stand for an ensign of the people. Now that word ensign
means a banner, a flag. You and I, when you and I here
today, rally around the flag. Don't we hear that sometime?
9-11, remember 9-11 when that happened? We all rallied around
the flag. And sometimes when our men go
off to war in another country, they fight under the banner of
the United States of America. Well, that's what this means.
He is standing for our banner. We rally under the Lord Jesus
Christ. He's our flag. He's our banner. So he says here, there shall
be a root of Jesse, and he shall be for an ensign of the people. To him shall the Gentiles seek,
and his rest shall be glorious. Now Paul quotes that just a little
bit different. And here's the difference that
he makes. And I love when you read the Old Testament. Come
over to the New Testament and let it interpret the Old Testament
for you. You can read and see what it says in the Old Testament,
and that's what it says. And you get good meaning out
of it. But the New Testament sometimes sheds a little light. And here's the way Paul quotes
it. There shall be a root of Jesse, and he shall rise to reign
over the Gentiles. I love that, don't you? And in
Him shall the Gentiles trust. Isaiah said that, but Paul just
made it a little bit clearer. And I love the way he says it.
He shall rise. Where did He rise from? The dead. The grave. And what's He doing
now? He's reigning He's reigning in
heaven at the right hand of God. And you know something? There's
a host of gentile people that have sought Him and that trust
in Him. Jesus Christ is the sovereign
Lord. There's no doubt about that.
We find that everywhere in the Word of God. All power is given
to me in heaven and in earth, He said. But this word reign
here means more than just sovereign authority. This is speaking of
grace. He reigns in grace. Sovereign grace. And He reigns
in mercy. What kind of grace is it going
to take to save some of you this morning? What kind of grace is
it? Have you ever thought of that? Is it just going to take a general
grace that we sometimes talk about? This God give me a chance,
like my poor neighbor, if God would give me another chance,
there's going to be some changes. That won't save you, will it?
What kind of a grace is it going to take to save you? It's going
to take sovereign grace, ain't it? It's going to take free,
unmerited mercy to save you. And if you're saved at all, dear
soul, God has taught you something about salvation. If there is
one harsh breath of your salvation dependent upon you, you are going
to be lost. When you hear that grace reigns,
reigns over sin, reigns over flesh, reigns over hell, reigns
over this earth and this world, this wicked world, you say, that
is the grace I need. I need grace to come to me and
save my poor soul. What kind of mercy do you need?
Jesus Christ reigns in mercy. We read about sovereign mercy.
I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Ain't that the mercy
we need? We need grace to save us and
we need mercy to keep us saved. And Jesus Christ is reigning
in mercy. I'll tell you one of the most
confident thoughts should be a confident thought for lost
people who are seeking the Lord. But one of the most confident
thoughts for believers as they work their way through this life,
one of the most confident things to them is to know this, that
above everything else, the temptations of the devil, the weakness of
their flesh, above everything else, mercy is raining. And nothing can stop God from
having mercy upon a man if he's pleased to do so. Some people
read Romans 9 and they get all stirred up about this and that,
and talking about God has the right to withhold mercy. Well,
that's not a mystery to me, is it you? He's got a right to withhold
mercy. What makes me marvel is that
He gives mercy, that He shows mercy. It's no marvel to me if
He should say, Bruce, I will not have mercy upon you. I don't
blame Him. I marvel that I'm not in hell
already. But what marvels me is when He says, I will have
mercy. That's a marvel, isn't it? And
I tell you, when He does that, the devils throw up their hands
and say, boys, you might as well go back to hell. It's over with.
This is a saved sinner. The Lord's going to have mercy.
That poor old leper came to Him, full of leprosy. His nose was
rotted off. His body was wracked with fever. He knelt there at the feet of
the Lord Jesus and said, Lord, if You will, You can make me
clean. And you know what He said? I
will. I will. And a man that was full of leprosy
had the skin of a little baby. And you lie for that dying man. That's why it's important for
us to know What Paul said here, that He shall rise to reign in
grace and in mercy. No, you may be an ungodly sinner. There is grace in Christ to save
you. You may have never sought Him before, but I am telling
you this morning, dear soul, there is mercy in Christ to save
your soul. Oh, unto Him shall the Gentiles
seek. And Paul said here they trust
Him. They seek Him and they trust Him. I guess seeking Him and
trusting Him is just about the same thing. They sort of go together. What Isaiah calls seeking, Paul
calls trusting. Trust Him. He's approachable. You can seek Him. Seek that eternal
life which is by Him. He's the tree of life. Seek that
free grace and mercy that will save your soul and keep you along
and bring you to heaven. Trust Him. Depend upon Him. Rely upon Him. Rest upon Him. Dear old watchers to say, Here,
Lord, I give myself away. If anybody here knows anything
about giving yourself away, you dear sisters that has husbands
should know that. You gave Yourself up to Your
Husband, didn't You? You even gave Your Name away
and took His. Here, Lord, I give Myself to
You. Whatever I have of my own, whatever
I've ever trusted in, Lord, I give Myself to You. I give Myself
away. I trust in You. I trust in You. Unto Him shall the Gentiles trust. And notice what He says here
in my text, And His rest shall be glorious. our rest of glory,
our glorious rest in place. They've got trouble defining
this word glorious or glory. The old Hebrew definition means
weighty or heavy in a good way. It's heavy in splendor and honor
and excellency. His rest shall be glorious. Now some people describe this
rest of the Lord Jesus Christ He entered into it after His
resurrection and ascension. And others apply it to these
Gentiles who are seeking the Lord. Their rest shall be glorious. And one says it's this one and
one says it's that one. But I just take the best of both
worlds and say, why can't it be both of them? The Lord Jesus
entered into a glorious rest. And when we come to Christ, don't
we enter into rest? And is it not glorious? The Lord Jesus had two works
that He had to finish. And usually rest comes after
labor, doesn't it? After some hard work comes rest. One of His works was this. He
said in John chapter 17, Father, I have glorified Thee on the
earth. I have finished the work which
Thou gavest Me to do. Now that was before He went to
the cross. What work was He talking about?
Well, He came to do a work by living, not just by dying. He had to be born of a virgin,
and then He had to live His life. And you know something, dear
child of God? He not only died for you, He lived for you. We
often think about His death, and we praise Him for it, and
we trust in Him that He put our sins away, but first He had to
live the life. And he said, ìYour law is within
my heart. My meat is to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work.î And there in John
chapter 17 when he was praying to his father, he said, ìFather,
I finished the work.î And he looks back over his life from
the time he was born of his mother Mary until that day, and he had
perfectly honored God. Every thought was God-honored.
Every motive, every word, every deed. There was no guile in His
lips. And the Father looked upon Him
and said, Son, I'm so well-placed in You. My Father, I've finished
the work. I've glorified You on the earth.
That's the first work He finished. But upon the cross, here's another
time He says, It is finished. And He gave up the ghost. What
was that? Well, His agony was finished. His suffering was finished. But you know, eternal redemption
was accomplished. We know that every aspect of
our redemption has not taken place yet. But I'm telling you
the foundation of it was laid there at the cross. There's where
sin was put away. There's where it was atoned for.
There is where the perfect sacrifice was offered and accepted. The
Scripture says this man, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, he sat down on the right hand of God. He
rested. He rested. Christ finished His
work of making a perfect atonement for sin, and the evidence that
He did it, He has entered unto rest. at the right hand of His
Father. One man said this, there he dies
no more. Death has no more dominion over
him. There he is possessed of that joy that was set before
him when he endeared the cross. There he sees his seed and prolongs
his days and the pleasure of the Lord prospers in his hand.
There he always sees the travail of his soul and is perfectly
satisfied. Therefore, the suffering of death,
he was crowned with glory and honor, and all angels and principalities
and powers are subject to him, and he has a name that is above
every name. And because of all of this and
more, he is resting, and his rest is glorious." What do you
do when you finish a job? You rest, don't you? We're going
to come back to this subject this afternoon and look at just
a little bit about God finishing His work in Genesis chapter 1. Remember that? He finished the
work and looked at it and said, It's very good. And God rested. Why did He rest? He wasn't tired.
But the work was finished. So He looked around and He said,
My soul, what have I done? Look at this. And He rested. Now when Jesus redeemed us, it
was more than just saying, let there be, let there be, and there
was. It took agony. It took blood. It took sweat. It took groaning.
But I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, when He says it's
finished, He entered into His rest. And nobody can add anything
to that. Wouldn't it have been strange
if some presumptuous angel When God said, it's finished and He
rested, and here some angel stood up and said, well, I think I
can do something, surely, to add to this. There's a little
twinkling star that you missed. No, it's finished. And how presumptuous
of a poor sinner to hear that Christ has finished the work,
that He's put away the sins of His people, and then turn right
around and say, well, I need to do just a little something.
If you want to see a piece of work, have Greg to show you his
guitar that he made. We were over at my house, New
Year's Eve, and Greg brought his guitar over there, and Greg,
it's the finest guitar I ever had on my lap, I'll be honest
with you. It ain't so beautiful, you don't have it all decorated
up with a bunch of stuff, but when you look at the grain, and
the balance of it, and the way it plays, and he made it himself. He made it Himself. I wonder
what Greg would have said if I'd have went in my utility room
and got my little tool box and come outside with my hammer and
my little tube of grease or tube of glue and my screwdriver. Greg, I see something. Yeah,
you know what he'd have said? You lay a hand on that bud and
you're in trouble. I'll eat it and you too before I let you
put your hand on that. How much more the Son of God?
when He says it's finished. Greg takes pride, as he should,
in building that guitar. The Lord Jesus says about His
cross, that's My glory, and My glory will I not give to another. It's finished. And we don't work,
and we don't do, but we trust that the work is finished. It's
finished. And he rested. I'm telling you,
brothers and sisters, he wouldn't be resting if the work wasn't
finished. What a tremendous work. But it's
completed. It's done. What encouragement
for seeking Gentiles. For dead dog Gentiles. What encouragement. The work is done. Quit thinking
about doing anything. It's done. Start trusting Him. That's applying to the Lord Jesus.
We can apply this also to those who come to Christ. Christ entered
into a glorious rest. But don't we enter into rest
when we come to Him and trust Him? That's why the Lord Jesus
said this. Come unto Me, all ye that labor
and are heavy laden, and I'll give you rest. Take my yoke upon
you and learn of me, and you shall find rest for your souls. Let us therefore fear, lest the
promise been left us of enter into His rest. Any of you should
seem to come short of it. We who have believed, we enter
into His rest, that rest. The greatest rest a sin-burdened
conscience could enter into is to see that his sins have been
put away by the blood of Jesus Christ. The only sure rest from
a sense of God's wrath is to believe that Jesus has already
bore that wrath in His own body upon the tree. Only trust Him,
the songwriter says. Only trust Him. Only trust Him
now. A couple of Scriptures I want
to show you, then we'll close and we'll pick this up this afternoon. But I want you to look over in
a book, and you probably can't even spell it or pronounce it.
It's Zephaniah. If you've got a few Bibles, it's
on page 1018, Zephaniah chapter 3. And don't be embarrassed about
going to the front of your Bible. and seeing Zephaniah and looking
it up there, because it's a little bit difficult to find. Rest. Rest. A couple of more scriptures
talk about his rest, and then we'll close. Zephaniah, look
in chapter 3 and verse 12. Look in verse 16. Let's just
go down to verse 16. Zephaniah chapter 3. Did you
find it? In that day it shall be said
to Jerusalem, fear thou not, and to Zion, let not thy hands
be slack. The Lord thy God in the midst
of thee," there He is. He's in the midst. And He's mighty. He will save. He will rejoice
over thee with joy. He will rest in His love. He will joy over thee with singing. Here's a rest. Here's a rest. And it's a rest the Lord Jesus
Christ has in His own heart. He rests in His love. You know what causes turmoil
and uneasiness and unrest in our hearts sometimes? Being doubtful. Being uncertain. But the Lord
Jesus doesn't have that. Because he's not doubtful and
he's not uncertain about his love for his people. I love them,
he said. And I'm so settled with that,
I'm resting. I heard a man, his daughter must
have been giving him a lot of trouble. I heard him talking
about it. He said, I finally just had to
set my daughter down. She was a teenager. You don't
have teenagers where you have no idea what I'm talking about.
But you will have them if they come. You'll know what I'm talking
about if you don't know yet. And he said, I could not get
that girl to behave herself. And he said, finally, I sat her
down and got right up in her face and I said, young lady,
listen to me. There's nothing you can do to
cause me to stop loving you. So quit trying. And he said,
I got up and left that way. That's pretty good, wasn't it? Why do a lot of kids get upset?
Why do they act out anyway, trying to get attention? But a lot of
them do it because they think, nobody cares about me anyway.
Nobody cares what I do. Nobody's trying to guide me and
instruct me. That's what our kids think when
we leave them to themselves. They think they don't even love
me. Sometimes it's necessary for
the Lord to get right up in our face and say, listen child, I
love you. And there's nothing you're going
to do to change that. Do you ever doubt Christ's love
for you? I have. How could He love me? How could He possibly love somebody
like me? And sometimes I think if He ever
did love me, He's going to stop loving me. Do you ever think
of that? And that's when I get restless,
you see, and tormented and doubtful, because I doubt His love. So
He gives us verses like this, and He comes to you and says,
Bruce, listen, I loved you when you were a rebel. And no matter how you lived then,
you fell in with the devil. You were at enmity with Me. I loved you then. If I loved
you then, why would I stop loving you now? If the cause of His
loving you is found in you, then He may stop loving you. But if
His cause is found in Himself, He's not going to change. He's
just not going to change. He's resting in His love. He's not doubtful about it. It's
you that's doubtful and not Him. One more passage. Look in a familiar
place. Psalm 132. Psalm 132 and look
in verse 13. Psalm 132. Rest. His rest shall be glorious. Verse 13, For the Lord hath chosen
Zion. That's the church. He hath desired
it for his habitation, his dwelling place. He's desired it. This
is my rest forever. Here will I dwell, for I have
desired it. Oh my! He rests. He has a dwelling
place. You say it's in heaven. Well,
of course it's in heaven. But I tell you, he's got another
dwelling place. And that's in His church. He calls people out of darkness
into His marvelous light. Those that He has redeemed, He
calls them. He makes them new creatures.
He gives them faith to believe in His Son. He puts them in the
body of Christ, His church, and He says, right here is where
I'm going to rest. We know God is everywhere. He
fills the heaven and the earth. But I tell you, He's some places
in a very special way. He dwells in the hearts of every
child of God. He sends forth the Spirit of
His Son into their hearts, crying, Father, Father. And He dwells
in His church. And He rests there. Now, I'm
not talking about some cathedral. I'm not talking about this building
here that we sometimes call the church. We went down to Mexico,
and you go on those little Pueblo's down there, and they got these
little huts, and a lot of them got dirt floor. The people are
as poor as they can be. But you go out into the little
town, maybe got a thousand or two thousand people in them,
and the Catholic Church has built this humongous cathedral. I don't
know where they got the money. Fill it full of stained glass
and beautiful trimmings inside, and you go in and there's all
these candles lit, and they've got, looks like gold placed on
their altar. I'm not talking about places
like that. That has more to do with heathenism than anything
else. But I'm talking about those that
God redeems. I'm talking about those that
He calls them and makes them new creatures in Christ and He
brings them together. They know the Lord. God is known
in Judah. They love Him. They love His
Gospel. They worship Him in spirit and
in truth. That's where He dwells. That's
where He rests. He rests there. And it's a solemn
thought to us this morning, brothers and sisters, as we come here,
there is a sovereign, there is a gracious guest in our midst. Could He be called a guest? That's
the weakness of my poor language. But He's in the midst of us.
And He rests here. And we welcome Him, don't we? Bless His name. We welcome Him. His rest shall be glorious. We'll take that up tonight, this
afternoon, the Lord's willing.