It was as though God said, well, you
will worship idols, you will turn away from
me, you will follow after these false gods.
I'll give you idolatry for breakfast, dinner, and
supper.
Let you see how you like it.
And so down they went to Babylon, and
there they suffered for 70 years under the
awful conditions of that idolatrous kingdom.
And when they came back to the land
of Palestine, they went through with idolatry, but
never again did an idolatrous people.
They, to this day, abhor idols of every
description, and that's one reason why the Christian
Church in the Medieval Church, and that which
came out of it, the Roman Catholic, and
the Greek Catholic, and the Greek Orthodox, and
other branches of the Catholic Church, have had
such difficulty in impressing the Jew.
Because, if the Jew even looked inside one
of their churches, to him it was just
a heathen temple.
There were all kinds of icons, and images,
and people burning incense to them, and burning
candles in front of them, and bowing down
to them.
For the Jew, that is perfectly abhorrent.
That's idolatry.
They hate and detest everything of the kind.
Only when a pure Christianity, apart from all
that, is presented in loving kindness to the
Jew that one is likely to make any
impression upon.
Of course, I do know this, that all
down through the centuries there have been Jews
who have been converted to Romanism, but very
frequently that conversion has been just a pretext
in order to escape persecution, as in the
case of the Jews of Spain and so
on, who outwardly conformed to the Church of
Rome, and yet had their hidden services when
they carried on a synagogue worship as they
had done of old.
But, where there's a real new birth, and
the Jew becomes a true Christian, he turns
away from all this idolatry because it's something
that is very soul-abhorrent.
Well, God foretold, on the rise of King
Cyrus, he was to open the way for
the return to Jerusalem, but of course this
was just to be a partial return.
There are those who insist that all the
prophecies connected with the return of Israel have
been fulfilled already, and that, therefore, we're not
to look for any future fulfillment of them.
But, God says in this very book of
Isaiah, I will set my hand a second
time to recover my people, and that's what
he's already beginning to do, and what he
will do shortly when he'll gather them back
as a people to their own land.
Well, now, following this revelation, this prophecy in
regard to King Cyrus, God comes back to
the subject that had occupied him before, emphasizing
man's littleness, and man's frailty, and man's lack
of merit, and emphasizing his own majesty, and
power, and glory in contrast to the idols
to which the people have turned.
I'll ask my wife to let me read
another portion.
Yes, verse five.
I am the Lord, and there is none
else.
There is no God beside me.
I good see, though thou hast not known
me, that they may know from the rising
of the sun, and from the west, that
there is none beside me.
I am the Lord, and there is none
else.
I form the light, and create darkness.
I make peace, and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all this.
Now, that's very striking right there in connection
with what I said a moment ago.
Some people have thought of the Persians as
dualists, because in their sacred writings of Zend
-Evesta, for instance, they give the primary place
to Ormus, the God of light, the one
true and living God, and then Arimin occupies
a very large place as the supernatural foe
of God.
He's the spirit, the power of darkness, and
according to their thought in the Zend-Evesta,
which I can't give you in detail, for
I was only 14 years old when I
read it through, and I've forgotten it since,
but I do remember.
I read it that time, and I do
remember this, that in the Zend-Evesta, God
is presented as in constant conflict with Arimin,
Ormus and Arimin, in constant conflict.
One is the God of light, and the
other is the evil spirit of darkness.
One is the God of peace, and the
other is the spirit of conflict, and so
on.
One is the God of goodness, and the
other is the spirit of evil.
So, here, in the answer to this, God
is no addressing to each other.
He says, now, I'm the one true and
living God.
Beside me, there's no other.
I create peace, and I create evil.
I create light, and I create darkness.
There's no other power that can share omnipotence
with me.
I create peace, and I create evil.
What does that mean?
You know, some of our friends, extreme high
Calvinists, generally known as super-lapsarians, that's my
big mouthful, they insist that God has foreordained
everything that takes place in the earth, and,
therefore, that it's God himself foreordained that man
should sin in order that he might have
opportunity to display his redemptive grace.
But, that's not what's involved in this.
When he says, I create peace, and I
create evil, it's evil in the sense of
calamity.
In other words, if there's a thunderstorm and
great damage is done, God says, I take
full responsibility for it.
If everything is fair and beautiful as today,
God says, you get it from me.
If there's a great earthquake, God is behind
that.
Whatever it is, I the Lord create peace,
I create evil.
And so, in another scripture we'll read, in
one of the minor prophets, shall there be
evil in a city, and the Lord hath
not done it.
God takes the responsibility for everything that occurs,
but it isn't always that God is working
directly himself, but that he permits others to
work.
As, for instance, he permitted Satan to tempt
Job, and so on.
So, the point that's brought out here is
that there are not two great powers in
the universe in conflict with each other, both
of whom are God.
That is, a good God and an evil
God, but there's just the one God.
So, there is an evil power working against
us.
Woe on him that striveth with his labor.
Let the prostrate strive with the prostrate of
the earth.
Shall the claim so to him that fashioneth
it, what nature's file, or by words he
hath no hand, beginning with 2222.
Assemble yourselves in sum, draw near together, ye
that are states of the nations.
They have no knowledge that set up the
wood of their graven image, and pray unto
a God that cannot save you.
Tell ye, and bring them near.
Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient times?
Who hath told it from that time?
For not I, the Lord, and there is
no God else beside thee.
A just God and a Savior, there is
none beside thee.
Look unto me, and be ye saved.
O the ends of the earth, for I
am God, and there is none else.
What a marvelous declaration this is, you know.
God making himself known way back in those
old testament times as a just God and
a Savior.
A God who will deal in absolute righteousness
with the sin question, and yet who himself
has found a way consistent with his own
infinite holiness and the righteousness of his throne,
whereby he can be the savior of the
sinner who turns to him in repentance and
faith.
A just God and a Savior.
I've often drawn attention to the remark made
by Socrates to Plato so long ago, when
they were arguing one day about the question
of forgiveness.
And Plato, and Plato, and Glaucus, and all
the rest of those men that you know
so well, were bringing forth their various ideas,
and finally they turned to Socrates himself.
And I can just see him, you know,
twisting up that little funny snub-nose of
his as he turns to Plato and says,
well Plato, it may be that God can
forgive sins, but I don't see how.
That's a remarkable thing, you know.
There was a what we think of as
a pagan philosopher, but he certainly had, to
a very large extent, had his eyes open
to divine reality.
It may be, Plato, that God can forgive
sin, but I don't see how.
What do you mean by that?
Well, if God is the moral governor of
the universe, and if God is a righteous
judge, and all men are to come before
him to be judged for the deeds done
in the body, how can he forgive sin?
It's not the problem for the judge to
forgive criminals, it's the business of the judge
to pronounce sentence upon evildoers, and it seems
that that sentence is carried out.
How, then, could a righteous God forgive sin?
Ah, but way back here in Isaiah, who
lived two centuries and a half before Socrates,
God declares in Israel that I'm a just
God and a saint.
And, in the Epistles to the Romans, written
nearly five centuries after Socrates, we're told how
God can be just, and the justifier of
him that believeth in Jesus.
This is a wonderful gospel passage.
Look unto me, all the ends of the
earth, and be ye saved, for I am
God, and there is none else.
We see God revealed now in the Lord
Jesus Christ, and these very same words can
be used in connection with him, because he
has said, I am the way, the truth,
and the life.
No man cometh unto a father but by
me.
There's no other name, says Peter, under heaven
given among men whereby we must be saved.
Look unto me, all the ends of the
earth, for I am God, and there is
none else.
What does it mean to look to him?
To look to him.
People make difficulty, you know, out of such
simple things.
God has used such simple terms in order
to show people how easily they may come
into direct contact with him through grace, and
yet people make difficulty.
They make difficulty out of the word believe,
and they make difficulty out of the word
look.
I've had people say, well, I just don't
get it.
How can I look to one that I
haven't seen?
If you stood up there and said, look
unto me, I can look to you.
I understand what you're talking about, but when
it says, when a non-seen God says,
look unto me, and be ye saved, I
can't understand it.
I generally use little illustration like this.
I say, well, suppose, for instance, here's a
family, and they're buying a home, and they
have a mortgage on the home, and they've
been able up to a certain time to
keep up their payments, and then they find
themselves unable, and finally the one who holds
the mortgage, the note against them, serves notice
that if everything is not cleared up by
a certain date, he's going to foreclose on
it, and the homeowner goes around from bank
to bank, and home loan agency to another,
and tries to get a loan, maybe goes
to the tries to get a G.I.
loan if he's been in the service or
something, but he fails at every point, and
he doesn't know how to do it, and
the wife and the little children are utterly
broken-hearted to think they're going to have
to lose their home, and then one day,
perhaps when it's just a day or two,
maybe we'll say that the note has to
be taken up on Monday, and this is
Saturday afternoon, he's going down the street, utterly
melancholy, and sad, discouraged to think that he's
going to lose everything, when he meets an
old friend of his, man who knew him
well, and they were chums, perhaps, in years
gone by, but this old friend has prospered
financially in a way he hasn't, and his
friend meets him, and he calls him by
name, I don't know what name he'll give
him, any name will do, he says to
him, why George, well what makes you look
so blue, something troubling you?
Well, he says, yes, something is troubling me,
he says, you know, I'm afraid on Monday
I'm going to lose my home, I've struggled
so hard, but I couldn't keep up the
payments, and the note is going to be
called, and I can't pay it.
Well, have you tried to get somebody else
to take it up?
Oh, yes, I've been to bank after bank,
and what have you, nobody will do anything,
and he says, well, look here, George, you
know me, you know I'm well able to
look after that, so I want you just
to look to me.
When does it have to be paid?
Well, they demand that I pay it, that
I meet them at the bank at two
o'clock on Monday, and settle the thing,
and if not, they're going to foreclose.
All right, George, don't worry, look to me.
Now, what does look to me mean?
That's all.
He goes, the other goes home, you know,
and he comes in, and his step is
different, and his face is bright.
Oh, the wife says, have you got the
money?
No, she hasn't got a cent.
Oh, I thought to look at you that
you were going to tell me that you
had the money to pay the loan.
That's all right, all's going to be tended
to, but I haven't got a cent.
Well, what do you mean?
Well, I met so-and-so, and you
know, he's well able to tell it.
He told me to look to him, and
not to worry about it anymore.
She begins to cry.
She says, oh dear, I thought at first
there was something to it, but how on
earth can I look to one that I
can't see?
I don't understand her at all.
You think any woman would be cool enough
to talk like that?
Yes, people talk that way in regard to
eternal things, but they would both understand that
look to me meant trust in me.
I'll be there to meet the notes when
it comes to you.
God says to poor lost sinners who are
utterly bankrupt, look unto me and be ye
saved, for I'm God in this matter.
I'm a just God and a savior.
What a wonderful gospel message in the Old
Testament that is.
Well, with that we've come, haven't we, to
the end of chapter forty-five, and so
we turn to chapter forty-six.
We'll read the middle verses four through nine
out of forty-six.
Even to your old age I am giving,
and even to whole hairs will I carry
you.
I have made and I will bear, even
I will carry and will deliver you.
To whom will you liken me and make
me equal, and compare me that we may
be like?
They ladish gold out of the bag, and
weigh silver in the balance, and hire a
goldsmith, and he maketh it a god.
They fall down, yea, they worship, they bear
him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and
send him in his place, and he stands.
From his place shall he not remove?
Yea, one shall crown him, yet can he
not answer, nor save him out of his
trouble?
Remember this, and show yourself to men.
Bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors.
Remember the former things of old.
For I am God, and there is none
else.
I am God, and there is none like
me.
Notice both the irony here, and the wonderfully
precious promise that's brought before us.
God now is still contrasting himself with idols,
and he says in the beginning of the
chapter, these idols fell down down, feeble, stupid.
They can't do anything to save themselves.
When at last Cyrus was to attack Babylon,
and the city was to fall, the gods
of Babylon couldn't save themselves.
What did happen?
Why, the priests of Babylon got busy, and
they loaded their gods upon carts in order
to wheel them away, and set them up
somewhere else.
Gods who couldn't deliver their own people had
to be delivered by the people from absolute
destruction, and God says, I'm altogether different to
that.
These gods had to be carried by their
makers.
I undertake to carry you.
I've brought you hither to, and I'll continue
to carry you through.
Even down to old age will I carry
you.
When whoreheads adorn your brow, when you come
down to gray hairs, I'll be there to
carry you, and sustain you, and sing you
through.
Then he goes on to ridicule, just as
he had done before in connection with the
making gods out of the trees of the
forest, he goes on to ridicule those who
make gods out of the various metals.
The goldsmith, and so on, takes a piece
of metal, and he fashions it, and works
over it, and then he sets it up,
and says this is a god.
But when he sets it up, it's immovable.
It can't walk, it can't see, it can't
hear, it can't do anything, and in time
of danger, it needs somebody to protect it.
What a god!
But God says, oh how different have I
acted toward you, Israel.
How could you ever turn aside to such
senselessness as idolatry when you've known how wonderfully
I've sustained and cared for you through the
centuries?
Look back over the past, and see what
I've done, and I promise to care for
you just as wonderfully in the future.
I've things in store in the future than
you've ever known in the past.
This really is the message of chapter 46.
So, chapter 47 brings us to the downfall
of Babylon.
Come down and sit in the dust, O
virgin daughter of Babylon.
Sit on the ground.
There is no stone, O daughter of the
Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be cold,
tender, and delicate than when you came twelve
to the end of the chapter.
Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the
multitude of thy prostrates, bearing thy slaves and
thy youth.
If so do thou shalt be able to
profit, if so didst thou mayest prevail.
Thou art weary with the multitude of thy
counsel.
Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly
prognosticators, stand up and save thee from these
things that shall come upon thee.
Behold, they shall be in trouble.
The fire shall bring them.
They shall not deliver themselves from the power
of the flames.
There shall not be a coal to warm
at, nor fire to sit before it.
Thus shall they be able to be consumed
on its labor, even thy merchants from thy
youth.
They shall wander as they want in their
quarrel.
None shall praise thee."
When we were engaged in the first part
of this quote, we drew attention to the
fact that Babylon was the very fountainhead of
idolatry.
According to the best records that we have,
all idolatry began at Babylon.
If you want a fuller proof as to
that, you should never examine a book called
The True Babylon.
I would suggest that you read it.
There are two or three copies in the
library.
I know I put a couple of copies
there myself, so unless somebody's copped them, they're
there still.
But Babylon, by her sorceries, her enchantment, is
said to have bewitched the nation.
Nation after nation followed her in the practice
of idolatry.
She herself was recognized as the Lady of
Kingdoms.
Her wealth, her riches, her culture, and all
this surpassed that of any of the nations
around.
But God, looking far ahead to the time
when Cyrus and his army would come up
against them, says, I shall no more be
called the Lady of Kingdoms.
The day was coming when they'd be stripped
and made bare, and all their treasures destroyed,
everything taken away from them.
And God would prove that their idols had
absolutely no power.
But his word should stand.
He speaks of the folly of their turning
for confidence to the stargazers, the astrologers, the
monthly prognosticators, and so on.
You know, wherever you get people turning away
from the one true and living God and
refusing the word of God, they're always ready
to turn to other things.
It's been a characteristic thing down through the
centuries that when men, when leaders, great leaders
gave up confidence in God and his word,
then they readily became the prey of all
sorts of charlatans.
Take even the infamous Hitler, the tyrant whom
God destroyed so lately.
He had a special, what do you call
it?
I'd say magician, but that isn't the word.
One who he consulted with constantly, you know,
as the lucky days and unlucky days when
he was to attack nations and all this
kind of thing.
Huh?
Ah, that's another time.
He had an astrologer.
He went to look into the map of
the stars, and so on, to see what
was indicated.
Well, all that began at Babylon.
Way back there, centuries ago, they had their
astrologers, their stargazers.
Of course, there's a great deal of difference
between an astrologer and an astronomer.
Astronomy isn't exact science.
Astrology is just fraud and a fake.
And yet, how many people there are that
give heed to it.
You take our papers today, many of them
contain astrologers' reports from month to month, and
a lot of people are foolish enough to
believe that there's a whole lot in.
In fact, some of the biggest dealers on
the market in New York City, Erling Olson
told me, never do a thing without consulting
an astrologer when it comes to making big
deals, and so on.
Men still believe in these kind of things.
They turn away from the word of living
God, but they're turned to the paper.
We were driving along here somewhere the other
day, weren't we, when we saw by the
roadside a tent, and a big sign up
that there was a woman in there who
would foretell the future, and show you how
to get riches, and so on, if you'd
only come in and consult her.
Somebody remarked, well, it doesn't look as though
she's made much of a success of it
for herself, unless she was in a poor,
miserable place, and yet I suppose there wouldn't
be a day go by but what lots
of people could stop and hand their money
over to a charlotte like that in order
to have her look into the future for
them.
But thank God the believer doesn't need anything
of that kind.
He's got something absolutely sure and certain in
God's own holy work.
Some of you maybe have heard me tell
a little experience I had years ago.
This runs me off the line, but some
of you fellas are going to sleep, it'll
wake you up.
See, I'm beginning to see better than I
was.
I was down, I was going down, I
was in Los Angeles years ago, and I
was going down one day on the electric
line from Los Angeles to Long Beach just
to have a little relaxation on the Saturday.
I was all worn out with so many
meetings, and I'd hardly taken my seat when
one of these queer-looking dames came along
with a dress that looked like her dress
had been made out of a lot of
red bandana handkerchiefs sewed together, and she had
some spangles across her brow and long braids
of black hair.
She's a Bulgarian gypsy, and she slipped before
I knew what she was doing, she slipped
right down beside me to hold in my
hand.
I'm not used to ladies grabbing me like
that.
I was rather surprised, and then she said,
she said to me, gentlemen, gentlemen, you, you
cross that palm which is hers, put your
twenty-five cents, I tell you past, present,
future.
I am servant's daughter of a servant's daughter.
I, I pour you a little I can
tell all mysteries.
Sir, past, present, and future.
Twenty-five cents, gentlemen.
I said, well, really, I'm just trying to
cut around, got a good grip on her,
and I said, well, really, it isn't necessary
because I've had that all told already.
Oh, she said, but I am expert.
I know very exact past, present, future.
Yes, I said, well, I got it from
an expert.
I have it here.
I have it here in a little book,
and I pulled out with the other hand
my New Testament turned to the second chapter
of the Epistles of Ephesians.
I said, here, I've got my past, present,
and future.
Here's the past.
You have to quicken who were dead in
trespasses and in sin, for in time past
you walked according to the course of this
world, according to the spirits that now work
amidst of this world.
Oh, oh, she said, by the whole, I
got the wrong man.
I got the wrong man.
Let, let, let go.
I said, no, I won't let go.
I didn't ask you to come down here
and take hold of me.
Now that I've got you, you're going to
stay here.
I'm going to give you the rest of
it.
Now I give you my present.
I give you my present.
But God, who is rich in mercy, with
his great love, for when he loved us
even when we were dead in sins, and
quickens us together with Christ, by grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of
yourselves, it's the gift of God.
That's my present.
Yes, that's all right, sir.
That's all right.
I got enough.
Goodbye, sir.
Goodbye.
No, I said, wait a minute.
I haven't given you it all yet.
But now here's my future, that in the
ages to come, he might show the exceeding
riches of his grace in his kindness toward
us through Christ Jesus.
Yes, gentlemen, I got enough.
And she was gone, and down this car
she went.
I think I got the wrong man.
But you know, isn't it amazing the foolishness
of people?
I heard, I remember reading of a couple,
of a gentleman who was riding in a
railroad train one day, and he was reading
his Bible, as I suppose most of us
often do.
I find it one of the very best
ways to get into contact with people.
And he was sitting reading his Bible, when
a rather jaffa-looking gentleman came along, he
looked at him, and he said, oh, reading
the Bible?
Yes, sir.
Well, well, you believe the Bible?
Yes, sir.
Why?
Because, you know, I had an idea that
I didn't think that any, that any educated
people believe in the Bible anymore.
He said, you look like a cultured man.
I'm surprised that you're reading that.
He says, you know, I believe the day
will soon come when people will no more
believe in the Bible than they'll believe in
ghosts and wishes, like our forefathers did.
And he said, my friend, when people reach
the place where they don't believe in the
Bible anymore, they'll believe in witches again, and
they'll believe in ghosts again.
And that's true.
Oh, how many people have turned away from
the word of God to go into spiritism
and theophany and all these various occult systems
that profess to have to do with the
dead?
Well, all that's Babylonianism, you see.
Come right down through the centuries, and God
has judged it all, and he's put it
all as it were to one side.
He says, why do men need this?
Here am I, here am I, infinite in
wisdom, power, and might, and ready and great
to reveal myself to the man who seeks
my faith.
And I will meet the law school.
Now, give me a little more.
Verse 10 of chapter 48, Behold, I have
resigned thee, but not with silver.
I have chosen thee in the front of
a bleacher.
Yes, and that covers really God's dealing to
the nation of Israel.
No other nation has suffered as this nation
has suffered, and yet it remains intact a
nation to this day, and will to the
very end.
When at last they come through all the
afflictions and tribulations and troubles, they'll understand the
meaning of this verse.
I have refined thee, but not with silver.
God will bring that nation out of all
its troubles and all its tribulations to be
to the praise of his glory, of royal
diadem upon his brow throughout the generations to
come.
Read the chapters carefully.
They tell the story in a wonderful way
of Jehovah's conflict with idolatry.
Verse 17, Thus says the Lord thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, I am the
Lord thy God, which teacheth thee to practice,
which leadeth thee by the way that thou
shouldest know, O that thou hadst hearkened to
my commandment.
Then hath thy peace been in the river,
and thy righteousness as the waves of the
sea.
Verse 20, Though you spoke of Babylon, flee
thee from the Chaldeans, for the birds of
sin declare thee.
Tell this, uttering to the end of the
earth, Pray ye, the Lord hath redeemed his
brethren Jacob, and they thirsted not when he
led them through the desert.
He caused the waters to flow out of
the mouth to them.
He cleansed the earth also, and the waters
rushed out.
There is no peace, says the Lord unto
the wicked.
And so, just as in the past God
has undertaken for Israel, so he'll undertake for
them in days to come.
And those who turn to him in repentance,
those who receive the Savior that he has
provided, will be brought into fulness of blessing.
But the section ends with the solemn words,
There is no peace, says Jehovah.
Now, here it's Jehovah.
At the end of the next section, it's
my God.
But there's no peace, says Jehovah, to the
wicked.
Jehovah who stands out in vivid contrast with
the idols to whom they had turned for
succor and help, and who had failed them
utterly.
Now, we come to what I consider a
very, very precious and important part of the
book of Isaiah.
Of course, everything in God's word is precious,
even though at first sight it may not
always seem so.
And it's all important for we're told that
all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
and is profitable.
But there are certain parts of God's word
that speak to us more loudly, perhaps, than
others do.
And the portion of which we now enter
has a very loud voice for all who
know and love the Lord Jesus Christ, because
it brings him personally before us in such
a clear, definite way.
We have just concluded yesterday the first subdivision
of the last part of Isaiah.
You'll keep this clearly in mind, won't you?
There's no telling, you know, what you might
be asked on the examination day.
You'll keep this clearly in mind that Isaiah
really divides into just three great portions.
Division 1, from chapter 1 to 35 prophecies,
largely leading up to the dispersion.
And then the next is the historical portion,
chapters 36 to 39, where you have the
story of Hezekiah.
And then the last is the chapters that
deal particularly with the coming glory from chapter
40 to 66.
But then we've already gone over the first
division, of course.
I didn't try to break it up into
subdivisions or subsections.
I don't want you to be occupied with
that.
Just think of it as one great whole.
And we've gone over the historical section, and
now we are in this last great division
of the book, preferred division of the book.
And in this, we have three subdivisions that
I would like you to keep in mind.
First, as we've already had, Jehovah's controversy with
Israel concerning their idolatry.
And that's chapter 40 to 48, and that
ends, as you remember, with the words, There's
no peace, saith Jehovah to the wicked.
Then we begin this morning with Jehovah's controversy
with Israel concerning their attitude toward the Messiah,
their treatment of Messiah.
And that begins with chapter 49, and ends
with chapter 57, and it concludes with the
words, There is no peace, said my God
to the wicked.
See how aptly these endings come in.
There's no peace for the one who substitutes
anything else for the one true and living
God.
When one turns to idolatry or any substitute
for the true God, he can never find
peace.
Then, on the other hand, there is no
peace for one who rejects the savior that
God has provided.
There's no peace, saith my God to the
wicked.
Now, we want to consider, if time will
permit this morning, chapters 49, 50, 51, and
the first 12 verses of chapter 52.
The reason that I'm stopping at verse 12
is that the last three verses of chapter
52 properly belong, in my judgment, to chapter
53.
This is another instance, such as I've spoken
of several times, where chapter breaks have come
at the wrong place.
I feel quite certain that the last three
verses of chapter 52 are really part of
the great Messianic message which we have in
chapter 53, and so we'll consider those verses
in connection with that chapter when the time
comes.
Now, in chapter 49, we have Israel brought
as Jehovah's servant, but Israel as a nation
had failed terribly to fulfill the place of
a servant, and so, while it's Israel who
speaks and says, the Lord has called me
from the womb, and said unto me, thou
art my servant, and so on, it is
really the Lord Jesus Christ himself who takes
the place of Israel, the true Israel, so
that the servant all the way through here
is no longer the nation as such, though
the nation does speak in these opening verses,
but it's the Lord Jesus who takes the
place of the nation.
There are other scriptures that indicate that.
You remember in Hosea, where God is speaking
of bringing the nation out of Egypt, it
says, out of Egypt have I called my
son.
In the New Testament, that prophecy is referred
to the Lord Jesus Christ himself, who, as
a little babe, was carried down to Egypt
and brought back to the land that it
might be fulfilled, Matthew says, which was written
in the prophet, out of Egypt have I
called my son, so that though in the
first instance the son there was Israel, it
was the Lord Jesus, the true Israel, who
was actually before the mind of God.
We ourselves often use language in the same
way, substituting an individual for a whole people.
For instance, you remember, you who are acquainted
with French history, how Louis XIV, that proud,
haughty monarch, exclaimed on one occasion, France must
rule the world, and I am France.
You see, I am France, and then you
remember when Napoleon Bonaparte expressed himself with a
little bit of a Hitler-esque shake of
the head.
He said, the thought must be supreme, the
state must be supreme, and I am the
state.
And so that even uninspired men use language
in that way.
How much more has Christ the right to
take that place, to say, I am Israel,
the true Israel.
The very name Israel meant a prince with
God, and it was he then who became
the true prince.
It was manifested as the true prince, the
servant of Jehovah, when Israel as such failed.
And in this chapter, the Lord speaking then
talks as though he's reviewing his work and
the treatment he received from the nation.
He says, I have labored in vain, I
have spent my strength for naught.
You can see how those words apply to
his mission to Israel when he was here
on earth.
He said he came to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel, but we're told
he came unto his own, and his own
received him not.
So, eventually he has to say to Israel,
your house is left unto you desolate.
It looks as though his mission, in one
sense, was actually a failure.
I have labored in vain, I have spent
my strength for naught.
But now the father answers him, as you
see in the chapter, and he says it's
a small thing that thou shouldst be my
servant to raise up the tribes of Israel.
I'm going to make thee a light to
lighten the Gentiles, and he implies that through
his rejection by Israel, a greater mission would
be accomplished.
The message would go out to the Gentile
world.
I'd like my wife to just read those
verses, because I want to have them clearly
before us.
Yeah.
Verse six, and he said it is a
light thing that thou shouldst be my servant
to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and
to restore the preserves of Israel.
I will also give thee for a light
to the Gentiles, that thou mayst be my
salvation unto the end of the earth.
Thus saith the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel,
and his Holy One, to him whom man
despises, to him whom the notion of horror,
to a servant of evil.
King shall see it arise, Christ is also
shall worship, because of the Lord that is
faithful, and the Holy One of Israel, and
he shall choose thee.
Now, while of course in the Old Testament
we do not have the present age brought
clearly before us.
As I pointed out the other day, the
Old Testament prophet was like a man looking
at two mountain peaks, one away beyond the
other, and higher than the first one, that
he was unable to see the valley in
between.
So, the prophets testified of the sufferings of
Christ, that's his first coming, and the glories
that should follow his second coming, but they
do not give us any clear teaching and
outline as to all that goes on in
between.
We know now from the New Testament that
God had it in his heart from all
eternity to call out from Jew and Gentile
a people to his name who should be
the body and the bride of his son,
so that when the Lord Jesus returns to
reign in power and glory, he'll not return
alone.
He'll have a bride with him who shall
sit with him upon his throne.
Now, while all that is true, and we
don't get any clear definite instruction in regard
to the present age yet, it's very evident
that such a prophecy as that which we've
just read does cover the present age as
well as looking on to the millennium.
Of course, it will have its complete fulfillment
in millennial days, when all the kingdoms of
this world will become the kingdom of our
God and of his Christ, and when the
one whom the nation abhors.
That's a strong expression, but you know it's
not too strong to express the feeling of
Israel toward the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
whom the nation abhors.
Terms are used concerning him in Jewish writings
of the Talmud and others as the leper
and the hanged one, and such expressions as
referring to the Lord Jesus Christ, the one
whom the nation abhors.
They couldn't understand, of course, had they known,
had they known, Peter says, they would not
have crucified the Lord of glory, but they
didn't know, they didn't understand.
But now, God is going to glorify the
one whom the nation abhors, and the kings
of the earth are going to recognize him
and bow down before him.
Well, in a remarkable sense, that has been
true even during the present age, though unforeseen
by the prophets, because as the gospel went
from land to land throughout the early centuries,
whole nations were brought to professedly subjection to
the Lord Jesus, and many kings proclaimed themselves
his subjects.
And, even right down to the present time,
there are among the nations certain rulers who
confess the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ.
We think, for instance, offhand of the rulers
of Great Britain, and of the Holland, and
of Scandinavia, all of whom are professed Christians.
Now, that doesn't mean necessarily that they're all
born again, but they're all professed Christians and
acknowledge outwardly, at least, the authority of the
Lord Jesus Christ, and our leaders in this
country have been the same.
Franklin Roosevelt was a professed Christian, a warden
of an Episcopal church, and Truman is a
splendid sample of a Southern Baptist.
At least, I remember when he first became
president, some of my Southern Baptist friends said,
isn't it wonderful that God has put a
Southern Baptist in the presidential chair?
Well, I'm afraid he's been a disappointment to
some of them, but, at any rate, he
professes Christianity, professes the Christian faith, and in
that sense recognizes the authority of the Lord
Jesus Christ.
You remember, Queen Victoria was very definite in
her confession of faith when that heathen from
Africa heathen happened.