Series: Isaiah
Title: Redemption by Christ our Covenant
Text: Isaiah 49: 9
Date: November 15, 2012
Place: SGBC, New Jersey
Isaiah 49: 8 Thus
saith the LORD…I will…give THEE [CHRIST] for a COVENANT of THE PEOPLE, [GOD’S ELECT] to establish the
earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages;
A covenant is a mutual agreement between two
parties. Certain conditions must be met
with the promise of certain rewards given. Each party must fulfill his
respective conditions in order for the reward to be given.
God made a covenant with man in Adam—but in
Adam we failed. That covenant of works is null and void. In Adam all died. None of us, born of Adam, can do anything
whereby holy God will receive us. There
is none righteous no not one.
Illustration:
Imagine someone covered in oil attempting to make a snow white wedding
dress. Sin is like oil. It blackens every sinner’s heart along with
every thought, word and deed. We cannot
put our dirty hands to the work of making the necessary wedding garment. Christ
by himself has made the wedding garment for his elect bride--THE
PEOPLE—v8 Thus saith the LORD…I will…give THEE [CHRIST]
for a COVENANT of THE PEOPLE, [GOD’S
ELECT]
Proposition: Christ
sets his people free from the power of sin and death.
Isaiah 49: 9: That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go
forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew yourselves.
Title: Redemption by Christ our Covenant
I. THE PRISONERS (read v9)
All whom Christ saves are guilty prisoners.
We did the crime and are guilty by Adam the
transgression of our first Representative and by our own sin.
In addition, all whom Christ saves are born
in a prison cell. We got our sin nature from Adam. Our sin nature holds us in
chains which no man can break. It is
like solitary confinement, complete darkness, no windows to let in light. That
is what the flesh, the sin-nature, is.
Illustration: If you
were born free and later locked away for your crimes then you would know the
difference between freedom and imprisonment. But if you are conceived and born
in prison, never knowing anything but the total darkness of your prison cell,
you would not know the difference between prison and liberty. That is the case
with all God’s elect as we are born into this world—we are conceived in sin, we
are born into a prison cell and because the darkness of solitary confinement is
all we have ever known, we do not know the difference between freedom and
imprisonment.
Sinner, you boast of your free will—that you
can accept or reject Christ at will. But listen very carefully: a sinner under the power of his sin-nature
has as much freedom as a prisoner in solitary confinement. He can tell himself and others his will is
free, that he can do whatever he wants when he wants. Indeed, he can stand, walk around, lay down
when he will but only within the confines of his prison cell. A sinner dead in sin is bound by his sin
nature. You can only do what your sinful nature allows you to do.
Jeremiah 13: 23: Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or
the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to
do evil.
Isaiah 1:5: Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will
revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
Sinner,
you are in prison on death row and too blind in sin to know it.
2 Corinthians 4: 3: But if our gospel be hid, it is hid
to them that are lost: 4 In whom the god
of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light
of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them.
But God has sent the Deliverer, Christ Jesus
his Son, to purchase liberty for those given him, his elect, loved from
everlasting.
Psalm 102: 20:…to loose those that are appointed to
death.
Isaiah 42:7: To open the blind eyes, to bring out the
prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison
house.
II. CHRIST IS THE MEDIATOR OF THE EVERLASTING COVENANT OF
GRACE.--Notice this key word in v9: That Thou MAYEST…God gave Christ for a covenant of the people, that thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go
forth. The word “can” means ability;
the word “may” means consent.
That Thou Mayest
Christ is God who “can” do whatsoever pleases
him. But God can do nothing contrary to
his holy, righteous, just character.
Therefore, Christ cannot set guilty sinners free without the full
consent of divine justice.
Illustration: In the
old western’s the bandit’s, the outlaws, would come under cover of darkness,
tie a rope to the prison bars on the window and bust their friends out.
Christ did not come to make a prison break,
to bust his elect out of prison. Christ
came to establish the righteousness of God—to perform the work to free the
guilty elect child of God in mercy but to do it legally, in perfect justice.
Christ’s Mediatorial Work
Christ is God and Man in one person who
represented God and who represented his elect who are flesh and blood.
1 Timothy 2:5: For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus;
As the Son of God he fulfilled the conditions
required so that God could be both just and the Justifier of his elect. He bore the wrath of justice and justified
his people.
As the Son of Man he fulfilled the conditions
required to make each of elect child the righteousness of God. Christ fulfilled
the law for his people then was made sin and stood guilty in place of each of
the convicted criminals God gave him to save.
By bearing our sin God justly executed the death sentence due to his
people upon Christ justifying his people from our crimes. Now all for who Christ died have been
reconciled to God. So by the finished work of Christ the Substitute, God is
just to show mercy and save his people.
Psalm 85: 10: Mercy and truth are met together;
righteousness and peace have kissed each other.
Galatians 3: 13: Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one
that hangeth on a tree:…
Now Christ has the full consent of divine
justice—that thou MAYEST say to the
prisoners, Go forth.
III. CHRIST IS THE MESSENGER OF THE COVENANT--V9: that
THOU [CHRIST] mayest SAY to the prisoners, Go forth. to them that are in
darkness, Shew yourselves.
God gave Christ Jesus the honor of bringing
the good news to each one for whom obtained atonement.
Remember, his elect are born in prison.
Though full atonement—free justification—has
been accomplished by Christ, until born again, those for whom he did it are yet
dead in sin: in the prison cell, in darkness, shackled by our sin-nature.
In that state we don’t even know we are
prisoners much less know our need of Christ.
That is true of the spit-shined religious moralist as much as the drunk
passed out in a gutter. Unless the
Spirit of God regenerates a sinner by the Light of the gospel shining in our
hearts, we have no idea we are on death row.
Like so many in our penitentiaries, you go on
claiming your innocence, that you are wrongfully charged. Or you keep looking back to some
decision. If you have to look to anything
you have done or abstained from, rather than Christ, you need to be delivered
from the darkness of that prison. But sadly you love the dark prison cell.
John 3: 19: And this is the condemnation, that light is
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their
deeds were evil. 20: For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither
cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Note: Please don’t
misunderstand me, sinners are not passive in regeneration, sinners actively
fight against God with every fiber of their being.
Application:
BELIEVER, we so often find ourselves in captivity, too. “When I would do good, I see a law in my
members bringing me into captivity to the law of sin an death. O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver
me from this body of death.” (Rom 7)
Those of you have been made honest by grace
can say with me, that is exactly the way it is.
Let the pretenders pretend—we know it is so. “If Christ be in you the body is dead because
of sin.” (Rom 8)
But thanks be to God he has given Christ a
Covenant of the people so Christ our Light brings the light of the message of
redemption-accomplished to each of those for whom he accomplished it, drawing
us to himself. And he keeps doing it.
John 6:37 All that
the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out.
Christ Comes by the Spirit of God
Christ
prays the Father who sends God the Holy Spirit.
Thereby, Christ comes to each of his people in our dark cell of sin and
death and speaks the gospel in power, saying, to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Shew
yourselves.
There
is the evil, unjust prison warden called the Devil. He influences many to keep you in
prison. There may be evil false
preachers keeping guard over Christ’s people—the gaurd has to live in the
prison too—Christ is able to set them free.
Your fellow inmates—lost friends and family—urge you to stay in the
prison cell—urge to listen to them and ignore the gospel. Then there is your own desperately deceitful
and wicked heart. BUT CHRIST BINDS THE STRONGMAN.
By the regenerating of God the Holy Spirit
his Light creates spiritual life and light. He makes us, see our awful
condition, our need: death row, guilty, nothing we can do to save
ourselves. He brings us to cry out for
mercy—for pure undeserved mercy! And he hears the cry he put in our hearts.
Psalm 69:33: For the LORD heareth the poor, and despiseth
not his prisoners.
Then he speaks his gospel into our hearts and
it comes as the best news a prisoner on death row could ever hear.
Illustration:
Barrabas
By his own blood, Christ has obtained not
just pardon, but a complete eradication of any record of our sin. He makes us
know God is as satisfied with his redeemed as he is with his own Son. There is now no more offering for sin—Christ
has done it all! You hear the locks
open, the chains hit the floor and he gives the command: v9: “Go forth! show yourself!”
His
power makes us willing. We come trembling out of the dark, corner of our prison
cell and step into his light and he receives us gladly with rejoicing. In place of our dirty prison jumpsuit, he
clothes us in the pristine garment of his eternal righteousness. He pulls us to
his breast; he embraces us in his everlasting arms; he brings us into the sweet
liberty of his unchanging grace.
John
8:36: If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.
Zechariah 9: 12: Turn you to the strong hold, ye
prisoners of hope: even to day do I declare that I will render double unto
thee;
You hear other inmates yet in their cells,
crying unfair! But he came to you! He
did this for you. The most undeserving
on the whole cell block. Now you no
longer shout unfair because you know you didn’t deserve to be freed—we did the
crime and but for his blood, we would have done the time. So instead, you rejoice in him. And you don’t have to be bribed by the
preacher to come out of the prison and follow him the rest of your days, you
delight to follow this one who set you free.
V. THIS WILLINGNESS IS BECAUSE CHRIST HIMSELF BECOMES OUR
COVENANT. V8: I will give thee for a covenant of the people,…
Christ is our Covenant
When Christ is formed in his people, Christ
himself is ours. Oh, Selah! Believer, take time to really think about
what that means. Christ, and all that he is, is ours! Every virtue Christ is, is
ours. Every holy, righteous thought,
word and deed which Christ is, is ours. His death, burial and resurrection is
ours.
His acceptance with God is ours. His immortality and security is
ours. His beauty and glory is ours.
His peace is ours. His comfort is ours. CHRIST
HIMSELF IS GOD’s FREE GIFT TO EACH ONE OF YOU HERE IN WHOM CHRST HAS BEEN
FORMED—Christ Himself is ours eternally! Christ shall never be taken from us.
Romans 11:29: For the
gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Now we praise only him, now we cease crying
up our works and our goodness, now we cry,
Psalm 107:15: Oh that men would praise the LORD for his
goodness, and for his wonderful works to the children of men! 16: For he hath
broken the gates of brass, and cut the bars of iron in sunder.
Who shall deliver me from this body of
death! I thank God through Jesus Christ
my Lord. One day soon, he shall deliver
us into the glorious liberty of the sons of God free from all darkness into the
glory of his Light! The sufferings of
this world aren’t worthy to be compared to that!
Notice all of this because God gave his Son—v8—I will give thee for a Covenant of the
people
2 Corinthians 9:15: Thanks be unto God for his
unspeakable gift!
Amen!