Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah 50. This chapter of 11 verses sets
forth two major points dealt with throughout these verses. Number one is a vindication of
God's judgment and wrath upon those who will not believe. who
will not obey his word and believe his gospel, a vindication of
God's wrath. And the second thing dealt with
in this chapter, thankfully, is a declaration of God's abundant,
abundant mercies to all who believe and receive the Lord Jesus Christ. And verse 1, let's get right
to the text. a vindication of God's judgment. Thus saith the Lord, Where is
the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom I have put away? What is
that talking about? When a person among the Jews
had this bad practice, divorced his or her maid, Moses said,
Give them a paper. declaring the rejection, a bill,
a paper, proof. Our Lord dealt with that era
of the people over here in Mark, if you'll turn to Mark chapter
10. It's very fitting that we look at this because divorce
is becoming so prevalent and popular in our day, regrettably,
even among church people. It says here in Mark 10, verse
2, And the Pharisees came to him and asked him, Is it lawful
for a man to put away his wife? Is that lawful? Is that all right
with the Lord? Tempting him. And he answered
and said to them, What did Moses command you? And they said, Moses
suffered, Moses allowed us to write a bill of divorce a paper
and give it to her and send her away. And Jesus answered and
said to them, For the hardness of your heart, he wrote this
precept, because you were hard of heart, rebellious against
the law of God. That's why he gave you this permission.
Verse 6, From the beginning of creation God made them male and
female. That's the only marriage, male
and female. From the very beginning, God
made this arrangement. This is marriage, male and female.
God set that up. That's the only way it can be.
And for this cause shall a man leave his father and mother and
cleave to his wife. There's a new home that's come
into existence, been brought forth by God's will and permission,
arrangement, and ordination, and the love of two people. And
for this cause a man leave his father and mother and leave that
home and establish his own home and cleave to his wife. And when
there's a conflict between his father and his wife, he stands
for the wife. When there's a conflict between
mother and the husband, that bride stands with her husband,
not her mama. She don't go home to mama or side with mama or
daddy. This is my wife. This is my family. That was my
family. This is my family. That's the
way God arranged it. And these two shall be one flesh,
not two people fighting and fussing and carrying on, one person,
one person. So there are no more two, they
are one person. And what God hath joined together,
let no man put asunder. So for believers there ain't
no such animal as a bill of divorce. Not for believers, not two believers. Well, brethren, what if both
are my believers and they're just irreconcilable differences
that may arise, I don't know, say there is such a situation,
arises between two confirmed and loving people who love Christ,
that they're just irreconcilable? All right, turn
to 1 Corinthians 7, verse 10. If such a situation should arise,
here's your scripture. 1 Corinthians 17. Unto the married I command, not
yet I, but the Lord. This is the Lord's command. It's
not Brother Paul, this is the Lord. Let not the wife depart
from her husband. You have a conflict and people
do that sometimes. We're going to separate. We're
going to separate for a while. But if she does, if such a situation
should arise and do separate, let her remain unmarried, never
marry again, or else be reconciled to her husband, rebuild that
home. And let not the husband, this
applies to him too, put away his wife for any reason. But
if he does, let him remain unmarried. Paul said, that's not me, that's
the Lord speaking. But over here in our text, and
this is what I'm dealing with this morning, this Bill of Divorcement,
and what the Lord is asking these people, he says, where is your
Bill of Divorcement that says, I put you away, I forsake you,
I rejected you? And then he asks this question,
of which of my creditors is it to whom I sold you? What was
this practice? Well, when these people got so
deeply in debt that they couldn't pay, they'd sell their children. to the creditor, the man to whom
they owed the money, said, well, I'll give you two of my sons,
and you cancel my debt, and they'll work for you the rest of their
lives. That's wrong, wasn't it? Of course it was, just like the
other. But the Lord is using an illustration here to prove
a point to these people. I didn't forsake you. I didn't
divorce you. And I don't have any creditors.
I don't owe anybody anything, so I didn't sell you. Well, what
happened? Well, here's what happened. He
said, Behold, for your iniquities you sold yourselves, for your
iniquities you sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is
your home divided and your mother put away. It's our fault. It's
our responsibility. We're responsible for our condition,
ruin lies at our door. We can't blame God. for our situation,
for our circumstances, for our troubles, sin. That's where it
is. Somebody said the Jewish nation
and leaders are the cause of their blindness. Our Lord Jesus
Christ came unto his own and they received him not. The Gentile
nations have refused the gospel. He made the world, he was in
the world, the world knew him not. The thief on the cross spelled
it out for us loud and clear. He said to the other thief, don't
you fear God, seeing we're in the same condemnation, and we
indeed what? Justly. We indeed justly. We're receiving the due reward. We're receiving the consequences.
We're receiving the fallout. We're reaping the fruits that
we planted with the seed. It's our fault. That's what he
established. God vindicated. In whatever judgment
he puts upon us, in whatever troubles we endure, we caused
it ourselves. Because we rebelled against him.
I didn't forsake you, you forsook me. I didn't sell you, you sold
yourself in slavery. Like he sold a bull for a bowl
of beans, we sold the birthright. He says, when I came, verse 2,
when I came to the earth, there was no man, no one believed. They said, he's a carpenter.
Nothing good can come out of Nazareth. He's a winebibber. He's a friend of sinners. Crucify
him. We'll not have this man reign
over us. I came. I came. I came in person. I came as a man. I came and spoke
to him. But they didn't hear me. They
didn't hear me. I called. I said, Come unto me
all ye that labor and have an aid, and I'll give you rest.
But nobody answered. I said, Ho, every one that thirsteth,
come to the water, and out of your belly or soul flow rivers
of living water. No one answered. I came, and there was no response. I called. There was no answer. Well, here's a question followed
by an answer. The Lord says, is my hand shortened
at all that it can't redeem? Does that mean that I'll have
no people? Is my hand short that it cannot save? Is my hand weak
that it cannot redeem? Have I no power to deliver? And the Lord answers the question
himself. Listen. I dried up the sea. When Israel
came to the Red Sea, with armies of Pharaoh pursuing them, and
they had no way out, I said to Moses, lift up your eye and tell the people to stand
still and see the salvation of the Lord. And I dried up the
sea. I literally dried up the sea.
And Israel walked through, not in the mud, on dry land. I dried it up. Where there was
water and mud, I dried it up and they walked through on dry
land. And then when they were on the other side and the Egyptians
started through pursuing them, I covered them with the water. It's my hand short that it can't
save. that I can't break the hard heart of a sinner, I can
dry up the sea, and I can break the hard heart of the sinner,
too. I can make water flow in thirsty, dry land, too. I made the rivers a wilderness.
What's he talking about there? He turned them into blood. He
told Moses, said, you touched the Nile, the rivers of Egypt,
with your rod, and Moses touched it. And the rivers and the sea
became a blood. And the scripture says over in
Exodus that the fish all died and there was a stink, a horrible
stink all over the land. That fish stinketh because there's
no clear water, no clean water, and they died of thirst. He's my arm's short that he can't
save. Who is this God that wants to encamp? that wills to save
everybody is not able. Where is this God? Who is He?
This God that's knocking on your heart's door and can't get it
open unless you open it. Who is this God? I don't know
this God, do you? This is no God. Our God dried
up the sea and His people walked over it, covered over the enemy
and they drowned. Our God touched the rivers and
turned them into blood, killed all the fish. And God turned out the light.
I want you to read this. This is a terrible thing. Exodus
10. Let's listen. Listen to this.
Exodus chapter 10. Exodus 10 verse 21. And the Lord
said, Moses, stretch out your hand toward heaven. Stretch out
your hand toward heaven and there'll be darkness. No sun, no moon,
no stars. There'll be darkness over the
land of Egypt. Even darkness you can feel. I've never been
in a place that dark. You can feel it. Moses stretched
forth his hand toward heaven. There was a thick darkness over
all the land of Egypt for three days. And they saw not one another. Nobody arose. Neither rose any
from the place where he sat for three days. He couldn't. All the children of Israel had
light in their dwellings. Now, what kind of God is this
that can shut the light out for every unbeliever and keep it
on for every believer? Well, I just expect if there's
anybody in this congregation that he will to turn the light
on for you, the light of the glory of God in the face of Christ,
I just bet he could turn it on. And just anybody here that in
their rebellion and unbelief, that he wanted to put him in
darkness that can be found, he put him there. Now this, he's
telling this, he's saying this is who I am. Is my arm short that it can't
save? It can't reach. The sinner farthest away, deepest
in the pit, farthest gone. Am I here or have you can't hear?"
He sent old Jeremiah down to the potter's house. You remember
he said, go to the potter's house. And Jeremiah went down and the
potter was making something on the wheel and he spotted it.
And so he just threw it away and started all over. The vessel
he made was marred in his hand, so he made another vessel. Seemed
good to the potter. And Jeremiah said, what are you
teaching me, Lord? O house of Israel, cannot I do with you
as this potter? Behold, as the clay is in the
potter's hand, so are you in my hand, saith the Lord." It's
our God. And he said, I make sackcloth
their covering. This is going to happen in Revelation
6, one of these days, when God hangs sackcloth over the sun.
And men cry for the rocks and mountains to follow him and hide
him from the face of him that sitteth on the throne. Then in
verse 4, the Savior speaks of himself. This is good news now
in his work. He says in verse 4, And there
is no Old Testament scripture that more accurately describes
and sets forth the person and work of our Lord in redeeming
his people than this passage right here. He says in verse
4, the Lord God, this is Christ speaking, our Lord Jesus Christ
speaking concerning himself as the God-man, the Messiah, the
Christ. The Lord God has given me the
tongue of the learned. He's that prophet. He said, the
Lord God prepared a body, sent me into the world, and gave me
his word to preach. He hath ordained me to preach
the gospel to the poor, to declare the acceptable year of the Lord,
to set the captive free. God spoke to the prophets, and
I speak for his son. That's who he's talking about.
That's the Lord speaking here. He gave me the tongue of the
lamb. that I may know how to speak a word, a word of truth,
the word of God, when? In season, at the right time. Oh, that's the time I pray for.
Live for, yearn for, is when we speak a word in season, at
the right time, like Philip to the eunuch, like Paul to Lydia,
like Peter to Cornelius, like Paul to the jailer. a word in
season, at the right time, when the ground is prepared, when
the Lord is near, when the Spirit is moving. I know how to do that,
Christ said. The Lord God gave me the tongue
of the learned to speak a word of truth and light and life in
season. To whom? To the weary To the
person who really is like Lydia, weary, weary with the world,
weary with the loneliness, weary with the sin. To the person like
the jailer, what must I do to be saved? I'm in a mess, lost
and dying and undone. That's in season. Cornelius,
he said, I've sent for you now, I've sent for you and I'm here
and all my friends are here to hear what God has to say to us.
This is in season and I'm weary. Boy, when those three things
come together, the one ordained to speak, the time to speak,
and the condition of the one to whom he's speaking, I'm sick,
I need healing. I'm lost, I need to be found.
I'm naked, I need to be clothed. I'm tired. Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden. If you're not willing, just keep
on going. If you're not thirsty, just pass me by. If you're not
weary, just lie in your rebellion. But if you're weary, and hungry,
and thirsty, and tired of sin, I got a word for you, in season,
to him that's weary. And he'll waken morning by morning.
It won't go away. It won't go away. He'll be with
you tomorrow. I had folks come and Well, I
was a good sermon preacher. A man said to me at a funeral
one time, the funeral director, who sits through funerals all
the time and hears all these preachers and carrying on and
everything, that I had some power one day at a funeral. And after
the funeral, he came up to me and said, you almost converted
me today. Brother, do you believe he was
really moved? No, hadn't heard from him since. No. He was scared. He wasn't weary. He wasn't troubled.
He wasn't in darkness. Didn't need the light. He went
on by. But a person who is really broken
of the spirit, contrite of heart, needing the Savior, hungry for
salvation, when that word comes in Caesar, That truth in season
by the voice of Christ. My sheep will hear my voice.
They'll hear it tomorrow too. Morning by morning by morning. That's right. He'll hear. He waketh my ear to hear as to
learn. They'll learn of God. No man
can come to me except my Father draw him. And he'll be taught
of God. He that hath been taught of God
and learned of the Father, he'll come to me. He hath given me the tongue of
the learned, that I may know how to speak a word of truth
in season to him that's weary. And he'll wake morning by morning,
my ear to hear as a man that's learning something. You can sit
there for four years and not learn anything. The hearing ears
of the Lord, the seeing eyes of the Lord. And when people
are learning, They come into Christ as an evidence
and a fruit that a work has been done. And he says in verse 5,
the same Redeemer, the same Messiah, the Lord hath opened mine ear,
and I was not rebellious, neither turned away back. What's this
talking about? Well, over in Exodus, I've told
you this many times, people were sold into slavery. And the Jewish
law was they served seven years. And then they go free. That's
seven years they've got to serve because of the sentence. And
then they go free. But the scripture says, if a
man loves his master, and there has been during that seven years
born to him children and a wife given to him, he loves his wife
and children, loves his situation, loves his new home, he can go
to his master and say, I don't want freedom. I want to serve
you as long as I live. So the master takes him down
to the priest and they bow his ear with an awe. And he becomes
a bond slave. Not an unwilling slave, but a
willing slave. Not a rebellious slave, but a
loving slave. Not a slave out of fear, but a slave out of devotion.
And that's what Christ is saying here. He opened my ear. He bowed
my ear. I'm a willing, loving servant
of my Father. as the man Christ Jesus. I came
to do a work, and I love it, and I love my master. And in
doing this work, verse 6, I gave my back to the smiters. You remember
our Lord was scourged? This is written hundreds of years
before he came. He's a servant, behold my servant,
in whom my soul delighteth, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I gave my back to them who scourged
it. I gave my cheeks to them that
plucked out the beard. And I hid not my face from shame
that spit in his face. Let me read that scripture. It's
over here in Matthew. Matthew 27. Let's look at it
together. All three of these things are
here in Matthew 27. Gave my back to the smiters. and my cheeks to them that pluck
out the hair, and hid not my face from shame and spitting."
Matthew 27, verse 25. Then answered all the people, his
blood be on us and our children. Then released Heberabbas unto
them, and when they scourged him, he gave his back to the
scourges. They scourged him and delivered him to be crucified.
Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the common hall,
gathered unto him the whole band of soldiers, and they stripped
him, and put on him a scarlet robe. When they had plaited a
crown of thorns, they put it upon his head, and a reed in
his right hand. They bowed the knee before him
mockingly, and said, Hail, Jesus, King of the Jews. And they spit
upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. and
slapped him and said, Prophesy, who hit you? Well, this is our Lord in his
person and word. All right, verse 7, let's look
at verse 7. Now read this verse 7, 8, and
9, let's read it all and then I'll come back to it. The Lord
God will help me, therefore I'll not be confounded, I'll not fail,
I've set my face like a flint. I know I shall not be ashamed.
He's near that justifies me. Who will contend with me? Let's
stand together. Who's my adversary? Let him come
near to me. Let him speak up. The Lord God
will help me. Who is he that shall condemn
me? Lo, they all shall wax old as a garment. The moth shall
eat them up. Knowing there's no contradiction here of his
deity. Now, Christ is God. He's God, he's true God, with
all the divine perfections and power. But for a time on this
earth, our Lord took upon himself human flesh and the weaknesses
that go with human flesh, and the trials and suffering. In
his human nature, the scripture says, he was crucified through
weakness. That's why in the Garden of Gethsemane
he cried, my soul is sorrowful unto death. If it be thy will,
let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but
thy will be done. And at that time, the angels
of God came down and strengthened him. That's what he's saying
here. Through this trial, through this agony and suffering and
humiliation and the death of the cross, now God's going to
help me. He's going to sustain me. He's going to lift me up. He's going to give him his strength.
That's what he's talking about here. You know when he says he
set his face like a plant? Let me show you that scripture.
It's Luke 9. Luke chapter 9. I love to see
these scriptures that are Luke 9 verse 51, that are fulfilled
and just vividly explained in the New Testament. I'll not be confounded. I've
set my face like a flint. I'll not be ashamed." Look at
Luke 9, verse 51. "...came to pass when the time
was come that he should be received up, he steadfastly set his face
to go to Jerusalem like a flint. I'll not be deterred. He came
to redeem a people, he'll redeem them." That's right. "...who shall contend with me,"
he said, "...shall the law?" He obeyed it. Shall justice? He satisfied it. Shall Satan? He cast him out. Shall the will? All of his enemies, verse 9 says,
they are wax old as a garment, like a moth-eaten garment. Been
in the closet for years. The moths have eaten it up. Take
it off on a hanger and it just disintegrates. Moths have destroyed,
just a little bit at a time, destroyed Not all of them at
once, like a moth just keeps eating moths, a whole lot of
them until it's gone. All right, verse 10. Our Lord
addresses some folks that are identified here. He says in verse
10, Who is among you who fears the Lord? It's not a slavish
fear now. This is a godly reference, who
fears the Lord. worships God, who acknowledges
that he is God and that we are but men. He is the Lord of heaven,
worthy of all praise and glory. Like Isaiah, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, and I cried, woe is me. I'm a man of unclean lips,
but I fear the Lord. Who is he that obeyeth the voice
of his servant? God has spoken to us through
his It's not Brother May talking here, this is the Lord speaking
through his word. Verily I say unto you, he that
heareth my word, my word believes on me, hath everlasting life.
My sheep hear my voice. My voice. I heard you preacher this morning,
but I heard you preach through him. That's the key. I heard
the word of God. A man fears the Lord, obeys the
voice of Christ, and walks in darkness by nature. I have no
light, you don't either. David said, Out of the darkness,
out of the pit, have I cried unto thee, Lord, hear my voice.
Lord, if you should mark iniquity, who would stand? But just forgiveness
with you, that you might be feared. So Lord, I call, hear me. walks in darkness, has no light.
Tell you what, do, let him trust in the name of the Lord. That
person, weary, fearful of the Lord, heard the gospel, walks
in the darkness, has no light of his own, can't provide any,
needs some light, let him trust in the name of the Lord. Who
is that? That's Jehovah. That's Abraham's God, Jehovah-Jireh,
he will provide. That's Moses' God, Jehovah Shalem,
my peace. That's Isaiah's God, Jehovah
Sidkenu, he's the Lord of my righteousness. That's David's
God, Jehovah Rayer, he restored my soul. Jehovah Raper, he heals
my diseases. Let him trust and let him stay. What's that mean, stay? I looked
up that word in the Hebrew. It means stay. Hey dog, isn't that profound? It means to lie still. You tell
your dog, stay. What do you mean, run around? No, you better stay. Stay. If you like, rest. Just stay there. And this is
why we say, are you one that fears God, believes the Word,
and don't have any right? You trust in the Jehovah, God
my Savior, and stay there. Stay there. Lean not to your
own understanding or anybody else's. Don't let them come along
with their smooth words and all that and run you out. You just
stay. I'm trusting the Lord, and that's
where I'm going to stay. Now you go on down the road if
you want to, but this is where I'm staying out here. But now
this fellow, these people who reject Christ and kindle their
own fire and set up their own righteousness and their own ceremonies
and duties and works for religion, encompass themselves with sparks. That's not light, that's just
sparks. That's not fire, that's not warm, that's just sparks.
Oh, it looks good. Like fireworks, you know, it's
over. That's how this religion today
looks. There it goes, that's pretty isn't it? Yeah, it's just
sparks. Well, you just go ahead and walk
in that light of your sparks, the sparks you kindle. But I
promise you this, and you can depend on it, he says, this shall
you have of my hand. I promise this now, you'll lie
down some day in sorrow. I don't, that's not my hope.
Surely goodness and mercy, what I read a while ago, will follow
me all the days of my life. And I'm not going to lie down
in sorrow. I'm going to sleep in his arms and dwell in the
house of the Lord forever. That's good news. That's good
news.