You'd like to turn with me to
Isaiah chapter one. We'll be in Isaiah both hours
this morning. And if you'll notice when you get there, that we're
about halfway through in the pages of the scripture. We determined
early on, for those of you who don't know, to go through every
book of the Bible and try to have two or three messages from
each book of the Bible. And now if you just, if you were
to hold it up and look, we're about right in the middle of
all the pages. I find that time, flies by. It's certainly gets faster. It
seems like the older I get, but I'm thankful it's the Lord's
time. And I'm thankful for the time that he's given us thus
far. And he's kept us faithful unto him thus far. I pray that
he'll continue to do so. We're in Isaiah chapter one.
And I, I initially had written down to tell you to turn to the
gospel according to Isaiah, because it is certainly, uh, the gospels
on page after page in this blessed book and this that the Lord give
to Isaiah. I hope the Lord will cause us
to see his face in Isaiah this morning. Isaiah's name means
salvation is of the Lord or the Lord will save. Now understand
it's his salvation. David said when he had sinned
with Bathsheba in Psalm 51, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation.
So he recognized where salvation came from, salvation is of the
Lord. It was bought by him. He chose to redeem and he successfully
did. Salvation is the Lord's. And
Isaiah's name means salvation is of the Lord or the Lord will
save. Isaiah 43 tells us, I have created
thee, I have formed thee, I have redeemed thee, I have called
thee by thy name, thou art mine. And so we see in chapter one,
the Lord is speaking to individuals that are his. We see from the
very beginning who he's speaking to, and we know that it is the
Lord's people that he is speaking to. There is only one elect bride
of Christ. In religion, men believe in dispensationalism
and other things that are contrary to scripture, and they believe
that the Israel of the Old Testament was a blood people, not realizing
that there's only been one Israel ever, and it's by faith. It is
by the faith of Christ. And so the Lord's people in the
Old Testament are the same as the Lord's people in the New
Testament. It's not a bloodline. Yes, he did promise that through
the bloodline of Abraham, a redeemer would come, but this redeemer
was for the salvation of the soul, not the flesh. That's why
the children of Israel rejected Christ, is because he didn't
save the flesh. He didn't set up an earthly kingdom,
but his kingdom was not of this world, was it? So Isaiah's burden
is the same as all the other burdens, and it's to preach the
gospel to the people. It's for the salvation of the
people. So we see here us, we can definitely
see our reflection in some of these words, and we can see that
nation Israel is a direct Reflection of these words as well. Look
in verse 5. So the Lord's telling us Our circumstance, our situation
into the children of Israel circumstance and situation in this is they're
full of putrefying sores. There's nothing good in them
whatsoever. He goes on to tell them, you have wearied me with
your sacrifice. He says, I don't want your sacrifices
of iniquity anymore. Everything that you're trying
to do to fix it, I don't want that anymore. I don't desire
sacrifice from you because it's iniquity. So we see ourself that
we cannot bring anything into the Lord that he would be pleased
with just as the children of Israel here. We can't fix it. And he tells us what he requires
in verse 16. Look with me there. Wash you,
make you clean. Put away the evil of your doings
from before mine eyes. Cease to do evil. Learn to do
well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for
the widow. Come now. Let us reason together, saith
the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white
as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.
If you be willing, He tells us what's required, doesn't he?
Wash you, wash you, cease evil, learn, etc. What is he saying
unto us? He's telling us what He requires
from us is perfection. But the issue that we have is
that we know that we are in verse five and six already full of
wounds and putrefying sores. How are we to heal ourselves?
How are we to wash ourselves? How are we to make ourselves
clean? How are we to learn anything? We're dead in trespasses and
in sin. doesn't give me any hope if someone says, well, all you
have to do is this. You have to wash yourself. All
you have to do is this. You have to learn this. Or all
you have to do is this. You have to cleanse yourself.
I have no hope because I can't do anything spiritually. You
can't do anything spiritually in and of yourself. It takes
an act of God to be washed, doesn't it? It takes an act of God for
our wounds to be mollified, the ointment by His Spirit to be
put on us, the blood of Christ. It's not what we do. It's what
He has done, and it's what He does for His people. We don't
have the capacity. We don't have the ability. We
don't have the capability of washing ourselves, do we? How
are you gonna apply the blood of Christ to your heart? How
am I gonna apply the blood of Christ to my heart? Can't be
done, can it? It's silly for men to even believe
that they can attempt to do something of such magnitude. It's by His
grace, isn't it? It's according to His will. It's
by His mercy. And thanks be to God, He gives
this grace and mercy to His people. Everything required. Everything
required for salvation Christ Jesus successfully accomplished.
We must be clean in his sight. We must have perfection, not
better morality. We must have perfection. We must
have holiness, not just be better, but be perfect in his sight.
If the issue was that I'm sick, I could get a doctor, right?
I could go see a doctor. Now, Christ is the great physician.
He said, I come not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.
They that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. But he's talking about a spiritual sickness, isn't he? And only
those who have sight to see come to Christ with the legs he's
given them, asking to be healed. So if we had a physical issue
that we needed to be cleansed of, such as sickness, we would
go see a doctor, wouldn't we? But our issue is not a physical
issue. It's a spiritual issue. We're
dead. Those that are dead need not a physician, do they? They
need to be made alive. Do we see that? If our issue
was morality, a good dose of religion would fix it, right?
But all of our works are iniquity in his sight, as we just heard.
Everything that we do is iniquity in his sight. Nothing is good
that we produce. Man cannot produce anything that
pleases God, period. Nothing, nothing. It takes the
faith of Christ bestowed upon his people for him to be satisfied
with them. It takes his blood being applied
to them to be washed and made clean. We produce nothing that
pleases him and he produced everything necessary. And by his glorious
grace, he bestows it upon them that he died for. I thought about how religious men
will preach a message as if we're nearsighted or farsighted and
we need to make the choice to get glasses. That's what men
are preaching. All you have to do is make a choice. All you
have to do is start wearing these glasses, but we're blind. Glasses
won't do any good for a blind man. Did you know that? Of course
you know that. No glasses will help a blind man because they're
blind. They have to receive sight, don't
they? We have to receive sight. If our problem was dirty, we
would bathe. We would bathe, wouldn't we? But we're utterly
polluted is the problem. He must wash us. He must cleanse
us. He must mollify us with his precious
ointment. We must be made clean. Well,
how does he do that? Look in verse 18. Come now, 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 wool. Now, the word reason together,
what it does not mean is negotiate. The Lord doesn't say, come and
I'll negotiate with you. That's not what he's saying at
all. The word reason together means to prove or to correct
or to show to be right. The Lord's not saying, do your
part. The Lord's saying, I'm going
to show you what I have done for you. I have taken your sin
that's like scarlet and made it white as snow. I have taken
your sin that's like crimson and made it as wool, as white
as wool. That's what he's saying here.
He's saying, I'm going to show you what I've done. Best thing I can do as giving
you an example of what the word come means here is I have three
daughters, as most of you probably know, and sometimes we may do
things for our children, say, okay, come on, let's go to the
store, I'm gonna buy you a toy. That's a pretty simple example.
And I apologize for it being not very, it doesn't have a lot
of depth to it, but it's a good example. Come with me, we're
gonna go to the store and I'm gonna buy you something that
you've been wanting for a long time. That's what this word come
means. The Lord's, it's not just an
invitation, it's a, see, it's the Lord speaking. It's directly
to the individual as a command, come. and I'm gonna show you
something. And what do we do whenever we
hear this command? We come. But just as my daughter would
be willing to come, the Lord's made us willing to come unto
Him as well. Now, it's a weak example of what
the Lord has done for His people in saying come, because He didn't
just give us something that we wanted from the store. He bought
the whole store. He bought the world. The whole entire world is His,
purchased by His own blood. Now, I understand that if it
belongs to him, he has the ability at his disposal to give unto
his people that which he chooses to do. It's his, the earth is
the Lord's and the fullness thereof. He purchased it by his own blood.
And then he says, though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be white as snow. So once he shows us, once he
says come, he shows us that he has purchased us and he has washed
us and he has cleansed us and he has nullified our wounds. David said, purge me with hyssop
and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. The plea of the Lord's people is purge me, Lord. Cleanse
me, Lord. Teach me, Lord. Cause me, Lord. Make me, make me, Lord. If you
don't make me come unto you, I will reject you. This flesh
hates God and everything about God. The only way we will come
unto him is if he says, come. And then we come to him, don't
we? Because he said, seek ye my face. He's put that desire
in the heart of his people to come unto him. He's given, he's
made us labored and heavy laden, hasn't he? He showed us our sin. He showed us our depravity. He
showed us where we are in verse five and six. And then he says,
come unto me and I will give you rest. And the Lord's people
come. We know that if we do, it's going
to be because he's made us do it. Now, he talks about two different
reds here. He talks about scarlet, which is a bright red, and he
talks about crimson, which is a darker red. This led me to
the thought that the scarlet red would be what you and I can
see, what others can see in us, the sin that we do, the things
that we do. But the crimson is what we are.
It's down deep. If you get a cut and it's a shallow
cut, you're gonna bleed bright red. But if it's a deep cut,
it's gonna be dark red. Why? Because all the way down,
is where we need to be cleansed. It's not a surface issue. It's
that it's a depth of depravity. It's a depth of needing a savior
and a substitute in every single fiber of our being. We need a
substitute. There's nothing good about us.
So if there's nothing good and we are red, how do we change
red to white? We can't, can we? We can't. All we can do is throw more red
on it. ever spilled anything on a white t-shirt, you know
as well as I do, especially wine or something that's red, anything
with a dye in it, it's difficult once that's dried to get it out.
Now you might try to put bleach on it or whatever else, but you
definitely aren't going to throw more red on it to try to get
the red out, are you? It's just not going to happen. But that's
exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did. He put his red blood upon
you and I and washed us whiter than snow. Now I've heard men
try to explain that through different way, talking about holding up
red upon red to the sun and whatever else. I'm not worried about those
kinds of things. I'm here to tell you the miracle
is, is he used red blood to wash away your red sin. And now you're
seen as perfectly white in God's eyes. That's the miracle. Now in verse 19, he tells us,
if you be willing and obedient, And that's what I've titled this
message, Willing and Obedient. If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land. But if you refuse and rebel,
you shall be devoured with the sword. For the mouth of the Lord
hath spoken it. If you be willing, what does
willing mean? Has the Lord given you a need? You know, the Lord's
people, we're needy. We need him. We have been made
to have one need and it's Christ. And only those who have been
given that need are willing. willing to come to him. They
have been made willing because they see their need of him. If I need something, oxygen is
a great example. I need oxygen to live. Do you
think that I'm not going to breathe? I don't need oxygen. I'm okay.
I'll live anyways. That's silly, isn't it? And what
greater magnitude is it the Lord being our need as our life, as
the life giver and sustainer of all life? We need him, don't
we? We're willing because he has
made us see our need of him. And then he says, obedient. Who's obedient? Well, first of
all, to be obedient, you have to hear, don't you? It doesn't
do me any good to fuss to my children whenever they have headphones
or ear muffs, they don't hear a word I say. I'm like, take
those off. I'm speaking to you. This is
not an issue in my house. Don't worry about it. I'm just
using that as an example. Take off your headphones. That's what
I tell them. Take off your headphones. I'm going to tell you something.
And they take them off and I start speaking to them. Then they can hear.
Well, the only way they can obey what I say is if they have ears
to hear. See, we're deaf by nature. Only those that can obey the
voice of God are those that heard the voice of God. And the only
way that you hear is through and by the faith that the Lord
Jesus Christ bestows upon his people. Once that's given, you
cannot not hear God. Whatever he says, we say truth,
Lord, I hear you. I hear what you're saying, and
I will obey you. We're made willing in the day of his power, the
scripture says. We obey because we've been given ears to hear.
What does it mean to refuse and rebel? I need to know that I'm
not refusing and rebelling. We have this old man strapped
to our back, don't we? Those who believe the gospel,
we're in a warfare between our new man and our old man. And
my old man hates the things of the Lord, and it will refuse
the things of the Lord if the Lord don't restrain it. I will
refuse him if he allows me to. I don't want to refuse him. My
new man cries out, no, Lord, have mercy upon me. Save me. I'm not strong enough to save
myself. I can't wash myself. I can't cleanse myself. I've
been given a need. I want to obey you. I want to
come to Christ as all. So what does rebel and refuse
mean? It literally means devaluing the blood of Christ. Saying that
it's not sufficient enough for salvation. Saying that it's not
good enough. That it didn't really please
God. I have to do something still to please God. That he wasn't
good enough. That's what devaluing Christ
is. That's refusing and rebelling. And the Lord's people don't do
that, do they? Lord's people say Christ is all, his blood
is all. The father was pleased with Christ,
I am pleased with Christ. And if I come into him, it will
be because he's given me the faith to believe him and come
to him. We know that it's not our obedience
at all, is it? That saves us. If it was up to
you and I and our obedience unto him, We know that hell would
be our eternal home, don't we? We can't obey the voice of God.
We're contrary to him in every way. And it's not because we
are doing sin, it's because we are sin in his sight. We can't
purge ourself because it's iniquity when we try to. We come into
him fleeting the blood of Jesus Christ alone by his obedience.
Scripture says, for as by one man's disobedience, all, all
were made sinners, period, all. So by the obedience of one shall
many be made righteous. It's his obedience, isn't it?
That we cling to. It's his works that we cling
to, not our own. It's his faithfulness to the
father and keeping the law perfectly, not our keeping of the law. It
is not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy hath he saved us. Turn over to Philippians chapter
two with me. We've been made to know. When Adam died, we died, and
when Christ lived, we lived in him. And we had no part in either
one of those. When Adam died, we were not there
making a decision, were we? We weren't. But when he died,
we died in him. When Christ was there making a decision to please
his father and die for his people, we weren't there either in body. We were there as him being the
center substitute, bearing our sin in his own body, but we were
not there making a decision, were we? We've been made that
we have no part in this whatsoever, that it is all of grace, or there
is no salvation. Philippians chapter two, verse
five, speaks of the mind of Christ, and that's exactly what it's
talking about. Think like he thought. Well, how did he think?
Look to the father, honor the father. What is pleasing unto
the father? This is my beloved son, with whom I am well pleased.
Hear ye him. He's pleased with his son. Look
in verse five. Let this mind be in you, which
was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, thought
it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation,
and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the
likeness of men, and being found in fashion as a man, humbled
himself and become obedient unto the death. Obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. Did you know you and I are death?
Our death is not sufficient for our salvation. I would remind
us of Judas this morning. Judas thought that he could make
things right whenever he sold the Lord. for 30 pieces of silver. He sold him. When he couldn't
give the money back to the high priest, they said, no, it's blood
money. We can't take it back. There's no undoing this. He tried to fix it, didn't he?
That's what men do. That's called iniquity, when we try to fix
our own mistakes and not look to Christ. So what did he do?
Did he go out and beg for mercy from God? No, he offered himself
up unto God, didn't he? That's what suicide is. It's
offering up ourself unto the Lord. That's exactly what he
did. Was the Lord pleased with Judas? No, he's the son of perdition. He was not pleased with Judas.
Judas is in hell right now because he did not look to Christ as
all in salvation. He did not value the blood of
Christ. He thought, I can fix this myself. But Christ's obedience
unto death is what pleased the Father. That's what we cry out,
isn't it? Lord, I'm pleased with Christ
because you're pleased with him. Lord, make it be so that when
he died, I died in him, that his death is sufficient because
I know if I offer up myself, you're not satisfied with me.
This is what he's saying whenever he says he was obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross. So what did the Lord do? Well, in verse nine, he tells
us, wherefore God hath highly exalted him and given him a name,
which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee
should bow of things heaven and things in earth and things under
the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord to the glory of God the Father. We confess that we are pleased
with what the Father is pleased with. and that is the Lord Jesus
Christ, isn't it? Matthew chapter 26 is something
often used in religion where it says, the spirit indeed is
willing, but the flesh is weak. When he says the spirit indeed
is willing, that's not a capital S there. He's not talking about
the Holy Spirit being willing, but the flesh is weak. Now, certainly
that's true. Our flesh is weak, but God's
gonna do whatsoever he will with whomsoever he will when he wants
to do it. That's who he is, he's God. That
being said, our new man, Our new man is willing to look to
Christ always. He's made it so. Our new man
wants to look to Christ all the time, but our old man is weak,
isn't it? Our flesh is weak. Our flesh does not want to look
unto Christ. It wants to take matters into
our own hands, whether it's circumstances or whether it's for salvation.
Our flesh says, I've got this. By nature, that's how men were
designed. That's what we do. Whenever the
Lord said, you shall eat bread by the sweat of your face, it's
literally saying you're going to have to do something in order
to eat. So we think, okay, well, that
applies physically. That must apply spiritually as
well. And it's not true, is it? It's so the contrary, we're dead.
So doing something is iniquity in the Lord's eyes. That's why
he said, let this mind be in you, which is in Christ. Look
to Christ as your substitute. Look to Christ as all. in salvation. We require a new birth. And the
Lord is the one that births us and his family. That's what he
told Nicodemus. It's done by the spirit, isn't it? There's a good example of this
found in Genesis chapter 38. We may turn there in a minute,
but for now I'm going to tell you about it. The account given is
Judah when he had his three sons. Judah had. These three sons. but the same
woman, and his eldest son has a wife named Tamar. Now, Judah's
first son is named Ur, and his name literally means the wicked
one, the wicked one. dies because he is wicked. The
Lord kills him. He says, he's wicked. I'm going
to kill him. And he does. The Lord takes him off the face of the earth.
So under the law that the Lord had given unto the nation Israel
at this time, it wasn't the 10 commandments that comes later
on, but the Lord had established laws, had established ordinances
prior to this. One of them was, if you, your
brother was to die and the woman he was married to had not had
children by him, your responsibility as the brother being unmarried
would be to marry her and raise up seed unto her. This was because
of the promise, this was because of the promise of the Messiah
coming through the line of Israel. You can imagine every woman dreamed
of having Jesus literally being born by them. That would have
been their dream, the deliverer, I'm bearing the deliverer. And
so every woman would have desired to have a baby. So whenever Judah
looks at Onan and he says, okay, you have to go in and to her,
you have to marry her and have a child with her. Onan goes in,
but Onan doesn't properly consummate. He doesn't properly consummate.
And therefore the Lord was angry with him. The scripture says
he spilled his seed on the ground. He didn't honor what the Lord
had told him to do by the covenant that was given. And the Lord
killed him because of it. Judah has another son, the third
son, the youngest, and tells Tamar, well, wait until Shelah
is grown all the way up and I'll give him unto you. And so we
see Tamar walking around with her widow's garments on for years,
waiting for Shelah to become of age. Judah doesn't honor what
he had said in giving Shelah to Tamar. Whenever Tamar realized
that Judah was not gonna honor this, Judah had went forth to
shear the sheep to get wool, if you will. And during that
time, Judah's wife had died. And the scripture says that Tamar
disguised herself as a harlot. Now, if Shelah hadn't been the
one to raise up seed, then it would have fallen unto Judah's
according to the rule, according to the law that was given. And
the scripture says that because she fooled Judah, she conceived. Prior to that happening, she
says, you have to give me something. And he says, I'll give you a
kid of the flock. And she says, well, where's the kid of the
flock? He says, well, I'll have to go get it later. I'll bring it to
you tomorrow. She says, well, give me a token. He said, well,
what should I give him to you? He says, she says, I want your
ring, your signet. I want your bracelet. And she
said, I want your rod. I want your staff. And he says,
okay, and gives it to her. Well, upon her conceiving, she
leaves, of course. And the scripture says, Judah
came back looking for her with the kid and say, well, here's,
but she's nowhere to be found. Time goes on. And the scripture
says that Tamar is found with child. And the same law that
said that the brother should raise up seed into his brother,
the same law says that if adultery or fornication had taken place,
then the individual would die. And Judah is brought to Judah's
attention that she's expecting. Judah had no idea it was his
own child within her. And the scripture says that she,
Judah says, bring her forth, we're gonna burn her. We're going
to burn her alive. And she says, but my Lord, before
you do, here is your staff, and here is your bracelet, and here
is your signet. And Judah said, thou art more
righteous than I am. I wouldn't give you Sheila, my
son, and didn't realize that I didn't do my responsibility
in honoring the Lord's word. And yet you have done that which
the Lord has given forth. And now you're righteous. She's declared righteous in front
of the whole congregation, the entire congregation. she bears two sons, not just
one. And the first, one of the children brings forth their hand
while they're being born and the one tending ties a red ribbon
upon the hand and then it's retracted back. And then the second child
comes forth first. And then the one with the red
ribbon on its arm comes forth second. The one that came forth
first that did not have the ribbon was called Phares, which means
a breach. They said, how can this be? This one was being born,
but the second one came before the first one did. Now I've given
you a lot of information that has physical meaning, and you
don't hear that particular account given very much in preaching
for, I suppose, obvious reasons, but it's a gospel message. It is a gospel, and we find our
hope in this, in this account. The good news of the gospel,
there's so many different dynamics to it, but the first one I'm
gonna tell you is Phares, the one that was born first. He's
the great, great, great, great grandfather of the Lord Jesus
Christ. This was ordained of the Lord before time ever began.
Now I understand that the Lord's father was the heavenly father
and he had holy blood, but he did have a physical seed, didn't
he? He was born of a woman. And so this was his great, great,
however many, great grandfather. And we see, I want to see the spiritual just
for a brief moment in this. We see that the Lord purposed
it, number one, first and foremost. We see that the wicked man, Adam,
had to die because he disobeyed God. That's the firstborn of
Judah, isn't it? We see that the secondborn could
not give this life-giving seed unto the woman. We see that that's
the law, isn't it? The law could not bring life,
could it? The law could not redeem. And then we see Judah having
to step in to be the one that brings forth the life necessary
for you and I to live. And he does. And as these two,
and as, As we're accused before him of wrongdoing, do we have? We have his signet promise. This
was his seal. This was his word. That's what
this signal signet represents. We have his seal upon us saying,
oh, this is the promise that you've given me, that I've been
made righteous because I've just honored your word by looking
to Christ and you get all the glory because you give me the
faith to do it. Then what else do we present unto him? We present
that bracelet is called a braided cord. And I have no doubt in
my mind, it's red. Now that's not in the scripture,
but it would make a perfect picture, wouldn't it? To see the intertwinings
that the Lord Jesus Christ has given, not only to you and I
in the gospel, but we are one with him. And how has that done?
By his precious blood. Lastly, we see this was accomplished
by the rod of his justice being poured out upon his only darling
son. We see that whenever Christ died, all those for whom the
father had given him in the covenant of grace, Christ successfully
redeemed. That's what this rod represents.
See, these these three tokens are the same tokens that we bring
before him. And you know what he says? Perfectly
righteous, perfectly righteous by my work, what I have done,
by what God has said and what God has accomplished. Now, these
two babies are a picture also of the gospel. We see that the
one comes forth first and has red upon its arm and it's pulled
back in. And then the second comes first.
Well, this can be no another. than whenever we are born in
sin, born in trespasses, born in a shape and an iniquity, the
scripture says, born only able to commit trespasses, I should
have said. That's how we're born, isn't it? But yet there's a second
man born later on in time, isn't it? And it's the one that's had
the red cord wrapped upon his wrist before time ever began,
before the first man was ever born. This second man has been
in an eternal covenant with the Father, the Son, and the Holy
Ghost. And the salvation that was given unto that one is shown
forth in time by the declaration of the gospel through the Lord's
spirit birthed into life. And we discovered we have that
red cord wrapped around that new man, don't we? Even though
the first one was born, now we have the second man born that
looks unto Christ, a covenant promise, the seed of the covenant
promise. That's what this is a picture
of. We also see that the only way that you and I can be born,
Pharaoh's name means a breach. The only way that you and I can
be brought into life is that the Lord broke through and became
a man for you and I, that we might be saved so that you and
I can be born. Only by the line of the tribe
of Judah, prevailing. You remember in Revelation, whenever
John is looking for a redeemer, he's looking for one that's worthy
to loose the seals of the book of the Lamb, the Lamb's book
of life. That's the book of salvation. That's everyone that the father
gave Christ in the covenant of grace is written in that book.
The only hope is that someone has found worthy to open, to
loose the seals, the perfect seven seals, it's perfect seals
and open the book. And we see that John wept because
none was found worthy, but the elder touched him. And what did
he say? Weep not, John, for behold, the lion of the tribe of Judah,
the root of Jesse hath prevailed and is worthy, worthy to loose
the seals and open the book thereof by his own blood begat he us. The Lord Jesus Christ is this
lion of the tribe of Judah. He died for every person in it
now by his signet promise unto his father that he would redeem
and fulfilling that promise by redeeming. You and I are seen
as perfectly righteous in his eyes. Now back to Isaiah chapter one
in closing. Knowing all this, Knowing all
this, this is how we read this now in Isaiah chapter one. Verse
16, I have washed you. I have made you clean. I have put away the evil from
your doings before mine eyes. I have caused you to cease to
do evil. I have taught you to do well.
I have caused you to seek judgment. I have relieved the oppressed.
I have judged the fatherless and plead for the widow. How
does he do that? By his glorious gospel. You remember Peter was
talking about we visit, we visit the fatherless and the widow. We do that by the preaching of
the gospel. See, we're fatherless. We don't have any father until
the Lord Jesus Christ reveals himself and his father unto us
that he is our father whereby we cry, I have a father. And
we are widows without husbands. We have no husband until the
Lord reveals that he is our husband. And this is how he's done it
in verse 18. Come now, I'm gonna show you Though your sins be
as scarlet, I have made them white as so. Though they be red
like crimson, I've made them as wool. I've made you willing.
I've made you obedient. You shall eat the good of the
land. You shall not refuse and reveal. And you shall not be
devoured with the sword because the sword of justice pierced
the heart of the Lamb of God. For the mouth of the Lord has
spoken it. If anyone wants to hear this and say, well, that's
not what it says exactly. Well, that is true, but it's
exactly what it says in Isaiah 43. Turn over there. Scripture
doesn't contradict itself. Isaiah 43. But now thus sayeth
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name. Thou art mine. When thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. And through the rivers,
they shall not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, they shall not be burned. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shall not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. You know what that flame kindle upon you means?
You won't even smell like the smell of smoke. That's what that
means. Why? Verse three, I am the Lord, thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for
thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee, since thou was precious
in my sight. Thou has been honorable and I
have loved thee. Therefore will I give men for thee and people
for thy life. Fear not, I am with thee. I will
bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west.
I will say to the north, give up, and the south keep not back.
Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. even
everyone that is called by my name. For I have created him
for my glory. I have formed him. Yea, I have
made him. Now look at verse 25 and 26. I, even I, he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy
sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. What is it that we declare in
order to be justified? We just echo whatever the Lord
has said. Truth, Lord, truth. Whatever
you have said is truth, and I am false. I plead the blood of Christ
alone. Did you know that if you come
to Him pleading that, He will in no wise cast you out? Because
He's given you the faith to believe Him, and He is pleased with the
faith of Christ. He is pleased with the blood
of Christ. We just speak what he speak. We are pleased with him. We have
now been made willing and we've now been made obedient because
he hath done it. He's made us precious in his
sight. He's made us perfect in his sight. And he says, you're mine. Does
it intrigue you to think that the Lord says you're mine? I
bought you. That's our hope, isn't it? that
I've been bought with the blood of Christ. That's my hope. Lord, make us willing and make
us obedient because if you don't, we won't be willing, will we?
But if he's made us willing and obedient, we will come to Christ
needy and we will obey by saying, Lord, Christ is all in salvation.