Okay. Isaiah 51 this evening. I'm taking the title for the
message from what is said in verse 3. Let's read verse 3. Isaiah 51 verse 3. For the Lord
shall comfort Zion. Zion here is another name for
God's elect, the church of the firstborn. He will comfort all
her waste places. And we need comfort. That's what
it says in Isaiah 40, remember? Comfort you, comfort you, my
people. And He, that is Zion, and He will make her, that is
the Lord, will make her wilderness like Eden. You remember the woman
in Revelation chapter 12 that fled into the wilderness? And
the Lord prepared a place for her and fed her? That's what
led me to this verse here. He will make her wilderness like
a garden, like the garden of Eden. Imagine the garden before
Adam sinned, before they sinned, and before sin entered in. We
look at God's creation now and it's a marvelous thing, isn't
it? Even though the creation groaneth and travaileth, But
imagine the creation in what the old timers called the pristine
estate. No sin. How beautiful it must
have been. And that's what the Lord gives
us in Christ. A garden like unto Eden. With
no sin, no sorrow. And her desert? We're in a desert
wilderness. It'll be like the garden of the
Lord. and gladness shall be found therein, and thanksgiving, joy,
and gladness, and thanksgiving, and the voice of melody." Turn
back, hold your place there, and you remember back over here
in Isaiah 35. You remember this verse in Isaiah
35? We brought a message from this
chapter several times. Isaiah 35, verse 1, the wilderness
and the solitary place shall be glad for them, And the desert
shall rejoice and blossom as a rose. It shall blossom abundantly
and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The desert shall rejoice
and blossom as a rose. And that's what we have in Christ.
He's blessed us so abundantly. The Garden of the Lord. That'll
be the title of the message. The Lord makes our wilderness
journey here. Like, like unto the garden, the
garden of Eden. He blesses us abundantly. He
makes our desert places be an abundance of blessings, blessings
unto us. We studied in Revelation 12,
the woman, you remember was a picture of God's church, fled into the
wilderness where she had the place prepared of God that they
should feed her there, It's the garden of the Lord that he prepares
for us. The church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is the garden of his planning. When you put out a garden, most
of you put out some kind of a garden, there's a little bit of planning
that goes involved in the putting out your garden. Well, the garden
of the Lord Jesus Christ is the garden of his planning, his planting. The ground is his. He plants
the seeds thereof. He roots out the tares. His garden
is cultivated by His sovereign love, watered by His divine grace,
visited by God the Holy Spirit, and it is a most fruitful garden.
It's always blooming, it's always bringing forth fruit. The Lord
said, I'll build my church, I'll build my garden, and the gates
of hell shall not prevail against it. The fruit of the Spirit is
Love, joy, peace, long-suffering. He's the fruitful garden. The
Lord plants it, prepares it, purposes it, blesses it. He waters
it. He cares for it. He cultivates
it. It's His garden. His church is
called the planting of the Lord. Turn over here to Isaiah 61.
You remember this verse, Isaiah 61? Isaiah 61, look at verse 3, "...to
appoint unto them that morn in Zion, to give unto them beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified."
You see, we're trees of righteousness, we are the planting of the Lord. Now, as we consider these verses
here, we're going to look at the first eight verses thereabouts. One thing I noticed in reading
this chapter, the Lord says at least three times, He says, Harken,
listen to Me. Look at verse 1. Harken to Me,
ye that follow after righteousness. Again, He says in verse 4, Harken
unto Me. Hearken to Me, thus saith the
Lord." Boy, we ought to be ready to hear a word from the Lord.
Hearken unto Me, my people. And then again, down in verse
7, He says it again. We must be hard of hearing. He
keeps repeating it. Hearken, listen, pay attention. Hearken to Me, ye that know righteousness,
ye that seek the Lord, hearken unto Me. From our study in the
revelation of Jesus Christ, you remember those letters written
to the seven churches? In every one of those letters
written to the seven churches, the Lord commands, He said, He
that hath ears to hear, remember? Let him hear what the Spirit
saith unto the churches. What a privilege the Lord has
given unto us to have an eager desire to hear Him, to desire
the sincere milk of the word that we might grow thereby? As
James says, let us be swift to hear, swift to hear him and slow
to speak, slow to speak. Over in the book of Proverbs,
let me read this to you in Proverbs chapter eight. Hear instruction
and be wise, refuse it not. Blessed is a man that heareth
me, that watches daily, waiting at the post of the door, for
whoso findeth me findeth light, life, and light, life. Blessed is a man that heareth
me. Oh, to hear a word from the Lord. Wouldn't that be something?
The other thing I paid close attention to in this chapter
is how many times he mentions salvation and righteousness.
Salvation and righteousness are mentioned In these first eight
verses, I counted at least eight times he mentioned salvation
and righteousness. Isn't that the very heartbeat
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ? Two things that we desperately
need to stand before God. One is salvation from our sin.
We need our sin put away. I can't do anything about putting
my sin away. You can't either. Sin is very
difficult to put away. But the Lord Jesus Christ appeared
once in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice
of Himself. So we have salvation from our
sin. That is, the Lord Jesus Christ
took care of that sin question for us. And we also need not
only salvation, but we need a justifying righteousness to stand before
God, cleared of all guilt. Both are fully accomplished by
the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Both are freely given
unto us through the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel, I love that
word freely, don't you? We're justified freely by His
grace to redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. He that
spared not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall
He not with Him also freely give us all things? All things are
freely given. And Isaiah 55, remember he says,
he says, oh everyone that is thirsty, come ye to the waters,
he that hath no money. Come buy and eat. Buy wine and
milk without money and without price. You see, it's free. That's
the economics of the Gospel. It's free. He freely blesses
us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, let's look at verse 1 and
down through verse 5, and then we'll make a brief comment on
verse 7 and 8. Here we see a description of
the Lord's people, His sheep, His elect, His jewels. He says,
Hearken to Me, ye that follow after righteousness. God's people
are followers. They're not following a man.
They're not following the domination. They're following the Lord, our
righteousness. They hearken to the Lord, they
follow the Lord, they seek the Lord, and then they have a remembrance
of the pit of sin from which the Lord found them and had dug
them out of that pit. His sheep, remember? Our Lord
said in John 10, my sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they
do what? They follow me. They follow me,
and I give them eternal life. We're going to study in Revelation
chapter 14 where he describes the people as those who follow
the Lamb. Hearken to me ye that follow
after righteousness. The believer resting in Christ
alone is not going about to establish the righteousness of his own
doing, his own hand. but rather is resting in that
righteousness of God revealed in the Gospel. Remember when
we studied through the book of Romans, I pointed out how many
times it said the righteousness of God. Paul said, I'm not ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ, for it is a power of God unto salvation
to the Jew and also to the Gentile, to everyone that believe it,
for therein is a righteousness of God revealed from faith to
faith. He's talking about the righteousness
that's revealed in the Gospel, and that righteousness is the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself. What did we read just a moment
ago in Romans 4? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord imputeth righteousness with out works. He freely imputes
it to his people. I need that righteousness, don't
you? So, believers, because God has given them life and ears
to hear Him, They follow the Good Shepherd. As David said,
the Lord is my shepherd. Ye that follow after righteousness. We're not going back to establish
one of our own hands, are we? No! We're looking to Christ. You see, it must be perfect to
be accepted. We don't have any perfection in our hands. You
remember Isaiah 64, what it talks about? about our righteousness. You remember, our righteousnesses
are always filthy rags in His sight. But we're following after
righteousness that's the one that's provided for us, and that
righteousness is a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. And then furthermore,
he said, you that seek the Lord. We are seeking the Lord. We're
seeking the Lord. The believer does in his heart,
before the Lord, we do seek Him. Now by nature, left to ourselves,
we are like all, it says over here in Isaiah 53, we all like
sheep, everyone have turned to his own way, we all like sheep
have gone astray. By nature we don't seek the sheep,
seek the shepherd, do we? By nature we're lost sheep, we're
dead sheep, we're dumb sheep. The believer does in his heart,
because God has called him by His grace, the believer does
seek the Lord. I like what it says in Psalm
27. When the Lord says, Seek ye the Lord, my heart said, The
Lord I will seek. When the Lord says seek Him,
we'll seek Him. Grace. Our Lord said in Matthew
chapter 6, Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. There's that righteousness again.
You can't get away from that, can you? Seek ye first the kingdom
of God and His righteousness. And all these other things be
added. How do we seek the Lord? We seek Him earnestly where He's
found. We seek Him in His Word. Our
Lord said to those Pharisees, you are they which search the
Scripture, they are they which testify of Me. So we seek the
Lord when we're reading the Scripture. We're just not reading the Scripture
just to say, well, I read three chapters today. I read the book
of Job last week. We're not reading the Scripture
just to be reading. We're seeking the Lord when we're
reading the Word. We read the Word to see in the
book revealed the Lord Jesus Christ. We seek Him where He's
found, in His Word. We seek Him in the Gospel of
Christ, in the preaching of the Gospel. We seek the Lord in the
hearing of the Gospel, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of the Lord. It pleads the Lord through preaching.
Preaching what? The Gospel, to save them that
believe. And we seek the Lord where He's
found, in His Word, in the Gospel, in the preaching of the Gospel.
And we seek the Lord among His people. Our Lord said, where
two or three are gathered in My name, I'm in the midst of
them. I want to be where the Lord is,
don't you? He's where His people meet together in His name. And
then, look what it says there, the last part of verse 1. Remember
where the Lord found us. Remember where the Lord found
us. And this rock He mentions here is not the rock of ages.
It's the rock hardness of our dead heart. Remember the rock
from which you are hewn out. And that word hewn there is chiseled
out. God found us dead in sin, like
a dead old rock, and He had to take the chisel of His grace
and chisel us out. And to the hole of the pit from
which you were digged, He digged us out of the pit of sin and
guilt." Remember where the Lord found us. Where did He find us? Dead, dumb, dirty, sheep, lost,
guilty, vile, wretched. In the pit of sinful corruption
and ruin, the Lord had to come to us and chisel us out of that
rock-hard place of sin, because he said, no man can come to me
except the Father which sent me draw him. The Lord had to
reach down unto us in the pit of corruption and total depravity,
or we never would have believed the gospel. No man believes the
gospel by his own intellect or own doing. Faith is not something
that is native to this wicked heart. Faith is something that
Arthur Pink said is exotic. That is, God gives it. It doesn't bloom there by nature. God gives that to us. The gift of faith, God gives
it. to us, we only believe according
to the working of His mighty power. You remember in Acts chapter
13, as many as were ordained to eternal life? You only believe
the gospel because God ordained you to it. That's right. Now, He gives us an example of
that in Abraham. He said, look unto Abraham, or
we can put it this way, remember Abraham. Where did God find Abraham? In the house of idolatry, in
the era of the Chaldees, his father was an idolater, and Abraham
was an idolater, and so was Sarah. Abraham was 75 years old, lived
all his life in idolatry, and God called him one day and said,
Abraham, get out of the country. Get out of your house. Go to
a place where I will show you. And Abraham went out. Remember
Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bear you." God blessed
Abraham and Sarah to have that special son Isaac, and from Isaac
came the humanity of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Isaac shall
all be blessed, and Christ shall all be blessed. Well, I called
him alone, I blessed him alone, and I increased
him alone. Remember, God told Abraham, I'm
going to make your people like the stars of the sky and the
sand of the sea. God has a people ten thousand
times, ten thousands and thousands and thousands redeemed. We read
about it in Revelation chapter 5, remember? The Lord uses Abraham
as an example, as a pattern of the Lord's sovereign calling
and fetching. I like that fetching mercy, fetching
grace, don't you? Story of old Mephibosheth, you
remember? Go down to Lodibar and fetch old Mephibosheth
and bring him here, David said, right here for Jonathan's sake. Consider the case of Abraham
and Sarah. Oftentimes we just think about
Abraham and forget Forget about Sarah, but when God called Abraham,
God called Sarah too. Because it says in Hebrews 11, she judged God faithful who promised. Sarah believed God too. She too
was called out of idolatry as was Abraham. I called him alone
and passed all others by. God said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. There's a good example of God's
sovereign mercy. God blessed Him alone and passed
others by. Who made you to differ from another?
What do you have that you didn't receive of God? God increased
Him alone and left others to justly perish in their sin. I
was looking at this scripture earlier today. Don't turn, let
me read it to you. You're familiar with it. when Abraham returned
from rescuing Lot in Genesis 15, after these things, the word
of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear not,
Abram, I am thy shield and thy exceeding great reward. I am
everything to you, your shield, your refuge, and I am that great
reward. Christ is our reward. He's our
inheritance. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Now look at verse 3. The Lord shall comfort Zion. Zion is God's church, God's elect,
His jewels, when He makes up His jewels. The Lord shall comfort
Zion. He will comfort all her waste
places. Boy, we have a lot of waste places,
don't we? He'll comfort all of our waste
places. He will make her wilderness like Eden, like a special garden,
and her desert like the garden of the Lord. And because of all
that the Lord does for us, we have joy, we have gladness shall
be found therein, we have thanksgiving, we have the voice of melody,
singing, singing unto the Lord. You remember verse 11, Isaiah
51 verse 11, therefore the redeemed of the Lord shall return and
come with singing. How many times in the book of
Psalms when we studied the Psalm that David writes about Sing
unto the Lord. Oh, sing unto the Lord. He hath
done great things for us. Come with singing unto Zion.
Everlasting joy shall be upon their head. They shall obtain
gladness and joy. Sorrow and mourning shall flee
away. Flee away. We rejoice in our blessed Lord. The Lord does promise blessings
upon his gospel Zion, his church. Notice the Lord shall and the
Lord will comfort his people. Isaiah 40, I mentioned it just
a while ago. You remember Isaiah 40? Turn
back here if you want to, if not, just listen to me. Listen
to this scripture. Isaiah 40, verse one. Comfort
ye, comfort ye, my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, crying to her that her warfare is accomplished,
that her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the
Lord's hand double for all her sin. Boy, that's comfort, isn't
it? Comfort, comfort, comfort ye my people. The waste places,
the wilderness, the desert shall be like the garden of Eden. The
garden became a waste place because
of sin when Adam sinned, didn't it? Sin brought death. judgment, guilt, and condemnation. Through one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. Through the obedience of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the waste places, the wilderness, the desert,
have become a pleasant, fruitful garden. Through the obedience
of another, shall many be made righteous. Many shall be made
righteous. Where grace Where sin abounded,
grace does much more abound. Grace reigns through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. And notice the fruit
of this garden. It's the garden of the Lord.
We have joy, gladness, thanksgiving, and the voice of melody, the
voice of singing. Oh, sing unto the Lord, unto
Him who loved us and washed us from our sins. In His own blood
to Him be all the honor and glory both now and forever. We have
joy in our Lord Jesus Christ. We have being justified by faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ whereby we joy in Him. Rejoice in the
Lord always and again I say rejoice. And we have gladness of heart.
Gladness of heart. He makes our heart glad. What better or greater thing
could we have or enjoy than to know in the Lord Jesus Christ
dwells all the fullness of a Godhead bodily and we stand complete
in Him. Complete! Nothing lacking. Everything that God demands of
us has been fully provided in the Lord Jesus Christ and we
have joy and gladness. And then the third thing he mentions
there is Thanksgiving. Boy, those are three good things,
aren't they? Joy, gladness, thanksgiving. Can everything give thanks? For this is the will of God in
Christ Jesus concerning you. And then we have the voice of
melody. Singing unto the Lord. Singing unto the Lord. I've got
this reference if you want to turn with me. Isaiah 44 verse
23. God said, I blotted out as a
thick cloud thy transgression. Return unto me, I have redeemed
thee. Isaiah 44 verse 23. Sing! I have redeemed you, I
have blotted out your sin. Now sing, all you heavens, for
the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth in a singing. Ye mountains, O forest, and every
tree. Therein for the Lord hath redeemed
his Jacob. and glorified Himself in Israel. Remember what we read in the
Book of Mormon? Delivered for our offenses and raised again because
He justified us. Sing unto the Lord. Sing unto
the Lord all we have so much to be thankful for. Now look
at verse 4. Isaiah 51 verse 4. Again, He
says, listen, pay attention. Listen to the Lord. Hearken to
Me, My people. We are His people. Remember,
we're called the people of his pasture, the sheep of his hand.
My people, hearken to me, my people. Give ear unto me, O my
nation. Remember when you were little
and growing up and when you were misbehaving and your mom and
dad would correct you? You remember what they'd say?
Now listen to me. Remember what they'd do? I knew I was in trouble when
my mom or dad said, Thomas Allen, you listen to me now. Hearken
unto me, my people, my people. You see, because we are his people,
because he chose us, because he redeemed us, he says now,
you listen to what I have to say. Listen to me, my people. Give ear. Give ear unto me, O
my nation. For a law shall proceed for me,
and I will make my judgment to rest for the light of the people. Call his name Jesus, he shall
save the people from their sin, his people from their sin. Hearken to the Lord. Give ear,
my people. These are his chosen, redeemed,
called out of darkness to his marvelous light. He gives us
two reasons we should pay close attention to his doing and to
his words. Number one, he said, his law.
His law is preceded from me, or the principles of the gospel
of Christ shall go forth from him, proceed from him. The gospel
message we preach is not of man. The gospel is the gospel of God. concerning the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the testimony of the Lord. It's the gospel of God concerning
our blessed Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. You hearken to my gospel, my
word, my law, my law. And then the second thing he
mentions, I will make my judgment to rest, or it will be a light
of or for the people. This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ fulfilled for us at Calvary. I'll make my judgment
to rest. Where did it rest? Upon the Lord
Jesus Christ that He was made sin for us. The wrath of God
fell upon Him. Judgment fell upon Him. And He
put away our sin being made sin for us that we might be made
what? The righteousness of God in Christ
Jesus. You think of that. Think of what
God has purposed. The Lord Jesus Christ takes all
the sin of God's people to Himself. God made, laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And then, having fully put away
our sin, He gives us His righteousness. Can it get any better than that?
It can. And that's the light in which
we rejoice and walk in. Christ redeemed us from the curse
of the law being made a curse for us. I will make my judgment
to rest for a light because the law of God has been satisfied
and honored in the Lord Jesus Christ. He commands the light
to shine and we see in Christ crucified all of our sin put
away. The law of God honored in Christ
for us. Now look at verse 5. My righteousness
is near. My salvation has gone forth.
It's my righteousness. The Lord speaking here is the
Lord's righteousness. It's near. My salvation has gone
forth. My arms, my power shall judge
the people, and the isle shall wait upon me. We wait upon the
Lord. And my arm, my power, shall they
trust. God has decreed from all eternity
the salvation of His elect. That is the unspeakable, irrefutable
truth of the Scripture. God had chosen a people unto
salvation from the beginning of the world. He chose a people.
But the Lord has not only declared the end and predestinated the
end, He's also established the means whereby He would accomplish
His end. carrying out, carrying this out
to the glory of his own holy character, whereunto he calls
you by the gospel. My righteousness is near, my
salvation has gone forth, my arm, my power shall judge the
people, And the isle shall wait upon me, and my arm shall they
trust." We trust the Lord who put away all our sin. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem
them that were under the law. And they shall trust. Who do
we trust? We trust the power of the Lord to put away our sin,
to establish righteousness, and to bring in everlasting salvation. The last part of verse 6. My righteousness, verse 5, is
near and my salvation is gone forth. We have righteousness
established in Christ, crucified, and we have salvation accomplished.
Salvation accomplished. And we trust Him who accomplished
all our salvation. Lift up your eyes, verse 6, unto
the heavens. The Lord said, Look unto me,
and be ye saved. Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
and look upon the earth beneath. For the heavens shall vanish
away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment,
and they that dwell therein shall die in like manner. It's my salvation. You see, what he's saying here,
the fashion of this, the heaven and earth is going to pass away.
He's going to make a new heaven, a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness. He said, you look upon the heavens and you look
upon the earth, the heavens shall vanish like smoke and the earth
shall wax old. These environmental people, they
can squawk and cry all they want. and trying to save Mother Earth,
Mother Nature and Mother Earth. They're trying to do their best
to save this planet when it's marked out for destruction. It's
marked out for destruction. But my salvation shall be forever
and my righteousness shall not be abolished. You see that? You
see, He saves us. You remember back over here,
turn to Isaiah 45, 17, I believe it is. You see, His salvation,
He saves us with an everlasting salvation. You remember, I quoted
Daniel 9, Sunday morning, where it talks about the Lord bringing
in everlasting righteousness. That's what he does. And he saves
us when he saves us, Isaiah 45, 17, but Israel shall be saved
in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
nor confounded world without end. He gives us an everlasting
salvation. He gives us an everlasting righteousness. Now he says, And verse 7, hearken to me, ye
that know righteousness, the people in whose heart my law,
the people in whose heart is my law, my word. Now he said,
fear not, fear not. Fear not. Now, he says this repeatedly. Let me show you a few places.
Turn to Isaiah 41. I'll let you go with this. I'm
going to wind this up. Fear not, because my salvation
is forever. My righteousness has been established.
Now, he says thus, fear not. Isaiah 41, verse 10. You remember
this verse? I told you it's one of my favorite
verses. Isaiah 41, 10. Fear thou not, for I am with
thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy
God. I will strengthen thee, yea,
I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand
of my righteousness. Now fear not. Same chapter, Isaiah
41, look at verse 14. Fear not. Thou worm Jacob, ye
men of Israel, I'll help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel. Fear not, fear not, I am with
thee. Look at Isaiah 43, verse 1. But now, thus saith the Lord
that created thee, Isaiah 43, 1. O Jacob, he that formed thee,
O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed thee, I've called thee
by thy name. You're mine, you're mine, I'll
be with you. I'll never leave you, I'll never
forsake you. Isaiah 44. Last one. Isaiah 44. Verse 1. Yet now hear, O Jacob,
my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. Thus saith the
Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will
help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant,
and now Jeshurun is another name for Israel, whom I have chosen."
Fear not. The Lord is with us. Because
we fear Him, we don't need to fear anything else. Fear not.