(Christ in Isaiah) Part 2 — Tom Orr

Christ’s Glory in John’s Gospel and Isaiah

A short reading, and I want to turn to John's Gospel, Chapter 12, and where we have been in a previous night's reading. But it's because we use this verse night by night that I want to refresh your mind with it.

It's John Chapter 12. We read 37 through to 41, and we get a better connection. John 12, 37. But though he hath done so many fairy-tales before them, yet they believe not on him. That the same of Isaiah the prophet mighty foretold, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed on the Lord, and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?

That's Isaiah 53, of course. And God willing, we shall be returning our fourth and final night for a special study on the one chapter mainly, that is the 53rd chapter. And this is how you remember it begins, according to our translation of the Old Testament.

And we were looking in to see who it is was speaking, and why they were speaking, and when. But at 39, therefore they could not believe, because as Isaiah said again, you see how false this man is unto Isaiah, John here, in his Gospel.

Therefore they could not believe, because as Isaiah said again, he hath blinded their eyes, and heartened their hearts, that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their hearts, and be converted, and I should heal them.

These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. Now we have a number of us that are hidden together. I always think to tell you to settle down after the day, and into the heart and core of the meeting, and we turn to number 628, number 628.

One of the things that I have always been careful of is the introduction to the study, or to the subject, and that may vary in length, or otherwise from time to time. But one of the things that makes me careful of the introduction is a very simple remark that a sister present in the Bible class said to me one night after the meeting.

She said, you know I enjoy those little introductions very much, and very often the introduction would just be something that I was bringing you up to date with where my own personal devotion or experience was concerned.

Coveting the Best Gifts and Excelling in Christian Experience

Now I have another little introduction tonight for you. And I want you to turn over to where I turned over earlier this morning actually, and it's into the Corinthian list. We're into 1 Corinthians, and I want you to look at above at the end of chapter 12.

But before I do that, just to refresh your mind on other little introductions, and I think these are messages that rhyme from the past. Some of you may remember 1 Corinthians 14 and verse 12. Even so ye, for as much as ye are zealous of spiritual gifts, think that ye may excel to be a divine of the church.

And some of you may remember that I have drawn attention to five words in that verse more than once. The five words are cheat that ye may excel. In fact I took that up I can well remember as an opening message to the study on the book of Daniel.

Cheat that ye may excel. Now there's a young lady out of the mission field in Spain tonight. Young lady by the name of Laura Sandler. She has been here in that school at meetings. And when I mentioned this first years ago in the time for church, God really blessed that to her.

I have known her to mention this some years later when she has been speaking personally to me. That is a great motto for a young woman or a young man or as at any stage in Christian experience, cheat that ye may excel.

But now the one I want you to look at in introduction for a moment here tonight is found at the end of 1 Corinthians 12. Let's read the verse. But covet earnestly the best gift, and yet show I unto you a more excellent way.

Now this morning, no later than this morning, I don't know how these verses shoot into the mind. But I tell you what did shoot into the mind. There were certain words dropped away completely from my mind at that moment.

And I was left here with three words. And I'll show you what the three words are. Covet the best. Now get hold of those three words tonight. Covet the best. And if you put those two sentences together, cheat that ye may excel, and covet the best, you will have got a powerful motive for the future that you will only keep by those who live by it.

Can I not say this in passing? All these years I have sought to do that in some little measure, I feel, before God. One can only go simple, Lord, no other way. I discovered this that I could clutter my shelves, for example, for instance, with second-rate materials and stuff.

And if I clutter my shelves with second-rate stuff, then I'm going to clutter my mind with second-rate stuff eventually, and I'm going to waste a lot of time. I didn't want second-rate material on my shelves.

I coveted the best, and I'll show you how I was gained the best. I often mention this, I don't think I've ever shown you my precious little volume, but here it is. It's quite dilapidated and stuck together, but it's commenting and commentating my teenage version.

And in that he lists no less than about 1 ,500 books, right from the early fathers, about the 4th or 5th century, right up to 1876 when he put it to the press. Now, when I go through that, I notice he has all the books for days that authors check out in three types of print.

The books he heartily commends are in big black print, the name of the writer is. The Wanderers of Notre Dame, with his eyes, is in small print, and not black. And then those, the least, are in very tiny print.

I have thought to go after the ones in black. I don't say that I've always been able to confound myself to that, because in some places they can be very scarce. But what I would say is this, and repeat it again, there is the best, and you can go after the best, and if you covet the best, you'll get.

God has promised to do that for you. Now, I mention that in the introduction tonight, because where we are in the book of Isaiah, for this month, or for the four nights, actually, together is too much, where we are, we are under the very best.

Because as I said to you, there's no one in all the Old Testament far more of Christ than Isaiah did. He saw more of Christ than any other man. And for my part, I'm sure along with you tonight, we would want to sit under the man who's in no Christ than any other man.

Who wouldn't? So that is why we have come, and together we're devoting ourselves to the book of Isaiah, and we are wanting to seek it. Now, the first night, remember, we used the word we read from John 12.

These things said Isaiah, when he saw his glory, and take of him. And I have come through four places there where he saw him, and what he saw. Now, I have four more, and we're going to see it tonight, thanks to Aaliyah Bradley.

And we're coming through from Isaiah chapter 22, and we're coming through to Isaiah 14, now together in a step. So let's come straight away to number one, and that is through Isaiah chapter 22. I think we'll read first, and we come here to this place.

Christ’s Supremacy and the Key of David

And it shall come to pass on that day, that I will call my servant Eli, of him the soul, the son of Miltiah. And I will clothe him with my robe, and strengthen him with my girdle. And I will commit my government into his hand.

And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to the heart of Judah. And the king of the heart of David will I lay upon his shoulder, so he shall open, and none shall shut, and he shall shut, and none shall open.

Now, if your memory is good, and your knowledge is sufficient, you'll remember that's Christ. Because, you'll see in a moment or two, when I turn over to Revelation chapter 37, that I will reach back into Isaiah 22, as we know it, and claim those words for himself.

And said to the church of Philadelphia, that he was the one who had the king of David, and he would open, and none would shut, and he would shut, and none would open. Now, the words I use, the key words tonight, one of the key form, we're going to make the record in a moment, one of the key suggests, the key suggests authority.

Whenever a young man or woman was said to get the key years ago, they had come to the age of responsibility and authority. And though I'll use the fast word tonight, the word supremacy, and what we will be staring at tonight, with both eyes, is the supremacy of Christ.

He saw the supremacy, chapter 22 and verse 22. Now, Bible's over there in chapter 22, and let's see if we can gather up the story together. They, and then it says in verse 20, and it shall come to pass in that day, I will call my servant Eliakim, the son of Mosiah.

Now, here's the story, and I'll gavel up for you this day. There was a man by the name of Shem, you see his name, verse 15, as you look, and he was the treasurer, according to verse 15. In other words, he had the charge of the treasures and the riches of the house of David.

Now, of course, David was long dead by this time, had retired on another king and come in his grave, but he was still moved to God as the house of David. And the house of David, the royal house, was of treasures and rich.

Now, Shem left happy hunting, and God said he was going to remove Shem there, and he was going to bring in another man called Eliakim, verse 10. And he was going to take the key and lay it upon his shoulder.

Now, what does that mean? Well, I think that was a kind of him putting into the office of the treasurer. In other words, he brought his investiture. And so, the key was laid on his shoulder, investiture into the office.

But what we want out of this is here, the key that was taken and laid upon his shoulder, so Robert is speaking of responsibility, suggests that this man had the key. And he could open, and he could close.

Now, this was the treasure of the house of David and riches. But the vision for us, for an effort tonight, that here was a man, and he had the key, and he could open, and he could close it with. Now, come with me.

Into the book of the Revelation here. And we come now to chapter 3, and we see that verse in Isaiah 22, over in Revelation chapter 3 and verse 7 and 8. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, These things have he that is full, he that is holy, he that hath the key of David.

He that openeth, and no one shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth. In other words, now our Lord Jesus steps right into the picture of the scene, and says, Aventress, I am the true Eliatim. I am the real Eliatim.

I am the one who has the key. I am the one which can open. I am the one which can close. I have the authority, and the power, and the systemity, that that man, Eliatim, has in the days of Hezekiah the king of Judah.

So, we've got, I think, a connection. And I think we've got a little more. We've got an understanding and a meaning about what this key was. It was suggesting this man has the power, Christ has the power, to open and to close.

Not with the exact and routine person. The next thing that I wanted to notice here is how our Lord addressed this church. First of all, here he says to this church here of Philadelphia, Versailles, I know thy works.

Behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. But thou hast a little strength, and has kept my words, and has not denied my name. Now, I can see two things there. And I can see a lot in the two things.

First of all, can I say here, this church had but little strength. It was a small church. In other words, the Lord is addressing the few. Because that is all we hear. They have little strength, they were not a few.

But look again, they have kept his words, and not denied his name. They have been faithful. So, put the two words together, and what do you got now? A familiar expression. Here were the faithful few. And our Lord is addressing the faithful few to them.

This is all connecting now. He says here, behold I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it. What do you mean by that? Well, those who have done the work and research, and those of us who come later, we call the end of it.

But those who have done the work, tell us that this church is further down to your still position. That it had access to the cave, and it had access right up the great valley of way out into the heart of Angelina itself.

And other words, there was before us a vast open door for service and blessing. Now, what is the Lord saying to this church? He says, I'm setting before you this open door. I'm going over the avenues of service for you, and for a blessing as useful as Christ.

Because you have been the faithful few, is rewarding the faithful few. The faithful few, he addresses them and says, I set before you an open door, vast, unreached, unframed, religious, and precious for me.

Well, I'll tell you dear people in this class tonight what I did. And I'll tell you openly. I bowed my head at that point in my study. And I said, Lord Jesus, I thank you for this, but then you've always been doing it.

You've always been rewarding the faithful few. And it's to the faithful few that you open the door, unframed, honestly, spiritually for God. You're wanting blessing then tonight? Are you wanting the Lord to open doors to you for service and for blessing and for a future?

Remember this. He only does it for the faithful few. And those who are not faithful, even though there's only you, the Lord never opens doors for them. They just sit with it sat for a lifetime. But for the man or the woman that will prove himself or herself to be amongst the faithful few, the Lord will come straight away and say, I set before you an open door, vast, unreached, religious for me.

And that's how we reward the faithful few. All I say to you tonight, don't be discouraged. All you have to be is amongst the faithful few. And you see, as the Lord will reward you, well, a reservation of doubt.

Keep faith. So, I want you to notice two things and hear the game. Something that I only caught hold of preparation for our class tonight. You are looking here at one set of keys in chapter three, aren't you?

It says here, I have the key of Galen. Can I open a door? And I thought, you know, that key was the key that was to do with the ancient and the present. And it was opening up there and then for them here in this world, church, and masses, and birds, and any grief for them.

Go back into chapter one, see another set of keys. Revelation chapter one, and we come here now to verse 18. I am he that liveth and was dead. I like to read that with far more emphasis than that. I am he that liveth and was dead.

In other words, Christ is saying here, I was dead. And I don't want my children to read this that he did with John here and say, I was dead. I'm alive. I'm alive forevermore. And now he says, and have the key.

Here's another set of keys. Have the key of hell and death. But what are those keys to do with? Not with this world. Those keys are to do with the next world. Those are the keys of hell and of death. The first set of keys in chapter three are to do with this world.

And the second set of keys I mentioned are to do with the next world. In other words, the Lord has the keys. And he has the key for this world to open up for you and me the future and success and blessing and hope.

And then for the time, constantly during this long, he has the keys for the next world to open up the way for me here. So whether it's this world or that world, here and I'll be here. He's the key. And if it's the next world, he is the key.

In other words, we have here our Lord's absolute supremacy. And that's why I called out for you to sing with me tonight an opening word. Jesus is Lord. Jesus is Lord. Come with me now for a second thing.

Christ as the Foundation and Cornerstone

He called the supremacy, Isaiah chapter 22, he called the man that is the key. The power is he and supremacy is he. Now we come into chapter 28. And we come here through verse 16. And we are getting onto a little more familiar ground here with most, I think, Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 16.

Therefore thus says the Lord God, behold I am named Zion for the foundation of stone, tried stone, precious stone, precious corn stone, a sure foundation, and he that believeth shall not decay. So the second thing Isaiah saw, he called the stone.

That is the second thing I'll study tonight. Behold, Isaiah is Zion for stone. Now one learns, and especially when you're a young man, you've got to be willing to learn. And I remember the older men used to say repeatedly, the best way to interpret scripture is to let scripture interpret scripture.

Now that's quite a thing. But there are two grounds. In other words, if you can get one verse to move right back over onto the other verse and clear it up for you, you're letting scripture interpret scripture.

Now you can't go wrong with that. And that's a great thing to do. Well, when scripture interprets scripture for this, we're over into 1 Peter here. And we come to what Peter had to say and how he reversed, referred to this very portion.

1 Peter chapter 2, Whereupon nearing the time of old malice and orgyle, and hypocrisy that envies an evil speaking, a new-born babe desires to appeal unto the Word that he may grow thereby a serving of taste of the Lord's grace, to learn cunning as unto a learning stern.

This will allow you to be chosen of God and precious. He's full of Isaiah. He's full, full of Isaiah. Ye of your lively stone, those of the spiritual heart of your mercy. Wherefore, behold, I lay in Zion, a chief quarterstone, elect and precious.

So thank you, Peter. You've helped us to understand and be sure. Was Isaiah speaking about Christ here when he said, behold, I lay in Zion a stone? This is Christ in Isaiah. Now, have a close look in here.

The first thing I want you to meet with is in verse 15. Are we ready to look in there? And we must read the letter part of the verse. For we have made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves.

Who? Well, this was God's own people. This was the Jews. This was Israel at this time. And who were they making their refuge? It was Egypt. And they were going down to Egypt for help. And how did God classify their refuge?

That was what they were looking to, at first. He called it a refuge of light. That's what he called it. A refuge of light. In other words, that's what Egypt would turn out to be to Israel if they put a cross in it.

Well, now, that's very apt, that expression, isn't it? We know of a lot of people in our land today who have nothing else but a refuge of light. And that's all that it's ending upon. For eternity, and for sheltering under a refuge of light.

And you can read a lot into that. But now, come again with me here. He says in verse 16, Thou sayest unto us, saith the Lord God, Behold! Behold! I am there in Zion, a foundation, a rubber against a refuge of light.

Something you can build on. Something you can depend upon. Not a refuge of light, but a foundation. And he tells us who the foundation is. He says, I am a, for the foundation, a stone, and I am called a stone.

And we know by Peter's letter that's Christ. So you see the scene there. It was over against the refuge of light as God came and said, I'm going to lay and tear the foundation. And he that believeth will never make haste or hurry away in fleeing.

Shall we just have a look at the stone for a moment here? We're looking at Christ. You notice, first of all, it is spoken of as a foundation stone. And that is exactly what Christ is. He is the foundation.

I'm building on Him. Everything I have, I'm building on Him. I build my house on Him. I build my future on Him. I build my foundation for eternity on Him. I'm not building anything on Him. He's the foundation.

Not only is the foundation stone, you notice it's said to be a Christ stone. Now, a dear brother in Christ went home to heaven, under sad circumstances for all evangelicals, but I honor him to this day as a great brother.

And I'm thinking of the late pastor Willie Mullins. And I remember Willie Mullins on the Christ stone. And I remember him coming through all the things that tried Christ and all the ways he was tried.

The pastor always said, in his own mannered way of preaching, that he was tested by temptation and the wilderness by the devil. And then he was tested by the king. Peter tested him. And Thomas tested him.

And the Lord tested him. Yes, he was tested by the king. And then he was tested by the tomb, wherever he was in the tomb, and lived there just for those three days. And since then he has been tested by times of the centuries of God, tested by temptation, tested by the king, tested by trial, and tested by the tomb, and tested by time.

The stone I walk tonight has been now tested. And that's the foundation. That's what I'm on. And when I think about a long eternity in an immortal stone, I need a sure foundation, a sure foundation for me to have.

Yes, a foundation stone is Christ's stone. And then he says also here, a corner stone. And you know what that is? You've seen a lot of them. You go up there to our brother Frank, Frank Cox to Cochrane, and go down to Cochrane and come to Frank and you see him in one of those little houses there.

And he'll point out to you a corner stone I'm sure. There it is here, right at the corner, and it's out this way, and it's along this way, and the old cottage is projected out. Now what does a corner stone do in an old cottage or house?

Well, it joins all the sites together, and it's held them together, and it's just joined together, and held all together, and supported all together. Dear people here tonight, all of us as different from one another as could be, from backgrounds as varied as could be, and yet here we are tonight, and we're all one, and we're all together.

How does it come? It's that corner stone. It's the corner stone binding us all, or holding us all together. There's only one, and it joins and binds millions of living stones together. He's the chief corner stone, because Peter talks about you also as loving living stones.

You're a stone in a building, I'm a stone, we're all stones, but that's all we are. He's the chief corner stone, and so he's beneath me as the foundation stone, and he's there as the corner stone. And then he says he's also a precious corner stone, and of course that would be true, wouldn't it?

I don't think there'll be too many corner stones available putting up any building. You might as well want to select a stone, and the kinds of that. There wasn't just us, every common little stone would be a corner stone.

That stone would be precious, for so is Christ. He is precious. He's the one and only corner stone. Now, just I draw one more thing from this, and then we will weave it further. It says here, behold, I am laid, as God is treated.

God has laid this stone, and God has laid it for a foundation, and I'm on it. Now, I've got a sure foundation, I've got an unfailing foundation. He that believeth shall not be pleased. The false is horny, and panicked, and fearful.

That's the meaning there. And whenever the last hour comes, well not for running, heather, and feather, here, and there, and here, and panic, wandering, because he is said, he that believeth shall not.

He saw, this is what I may say, he that hath the key. The key of all, the key of all. He saw the stone, the chief corners. Now, let's come to the third thing. Third thing now, we'll enter chapter 32 of Isaiah, chapter 32.

Christ as Refuge, Retreat, River, and Rock

And now we come to verses one and two here. Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, as all kings should do of course, and princes shall rule in judgment, and a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a harvest on the tempest, as rivers of water in a dry place, as the shadow of a grain truck.

There'll be an impact. Well, that's sweet to your taste, isn't it? And the next thing that I take is this. He calls the fantasy, chapter 22. He calls the stone, chapter 28. Now suddenly, he calls the culture, chapter 32.

He calls the curse, and a man shall be a hiding place from the wind. Here's the hiding place. I'm not sure that this is the place where Corrie Ten Boom took her great little book from. Remember that Jewish woman survived the camps in Germany, in Nazi Germany?

And she wrote her book afterwards, The Hiding Place. Remember how one sister died in the concentration camp, and she survived? A man shall be as a hiding place from the wind. He's all the hiding place.

Question number one. Who's the king? Says here, while a king and a man. I think if the king is the man, the man's the king. But who is the king? In the first place, I think, I can suggest, and dear old Matthew Henry was to the fore here.

He says, I think in the first place, the king himself was Teddy Kyle. I think that he was the in the first place, who was a hiding place from the wind. What wind? Well, if you know the background, the Assyrians were threatening the very systems of Judah at that time.

The winds were blowing up, and they were not against the nation. And then Henry Kyle came, and he went before the Lord, and he took the threatening letter from Tenebrous, Tenebrous, and he went and spread it before the Lord, and there he was between them and the nation.

A hiding place from the wind, from the winds of persecution and threat that were blowing up. Well, a man can be a hiding place. I've had to get more than one. I was brought up, I remember well in the 30s, 1930s, and the man was a working man in those days.

He had very, very little to live on, and people went with family on. And he got ten shillings a week at that time, he was well off. I was from the farming background, and they were no better. Many a farmer would go to his farm to the good man that he was.

And I remember well my father hard pressed, very hard pressed at one time. And he turned to my wife, and I was a wee nepper running around, but I could remember him. And he said, you know dear, I come in between you and the world.

I come in between you and the world. And he did. And he did what? They capped the roof over her head. Look, there's a far bigger man than Harry Cartier. Very often in these Old Testament prophets, there was a first immediate thing in their minds.

But through that, by means of that, they moved up to the races, chanting every Greek. And otherwise what is here is the Messiah. He himself said nature, to the woman of the well. He talked to all the rivers of living water.

John 7, ultimately there were more beautiful rivers of living water. In other words, Christ reached back and got hold of this, and took up his mind. That's it. And took up his mind. That's it. Why don't you look in here and see the three or four things here, and we must move through fairly quickly at that.

The first thing I want you to notice, and those who may be taking notes. Number one, you'll notice the refuge. He says a man shall be a hiding place for the wind. And we know the winds can blow. They can.

Sometimes they can do very well. Sometimes it's the cold, cheery winds of the world, blowing upon our souls. Sometimes it's country winds that are blowing, that would have you all caught on the way to heaven, but one would know where you are.

Country winds. Sometimes it's headwinds. In fact, I would almost say they're headwinds all the way, all the route. Headwinds. And some of them are very strong. Ah yes, but what happens when you go down the road, and the wind comes up, and the rain begins to come down?

You're a free shelter. And you pull in under the old bush, and the tree, or the hedge, or whatever it may be, and that's your hiding place from the wind. Well, what should you head for, Christian, when the wind begins to rush?

Run to your hiding place. There's a man, and he's the hiding place. Run to him. Look again, there's not only a refuge. Secondly, there's a retreat. I take this verse. It says, I'm covered from the tempest.

Now, do you see the difference between the two expressions? They're not similar. Notice in the first one, he's talking about wind. And the second one, he's talking about a tempest. There's the difference.

In other words, the wind has risen to tempest force. And they can do that all right. And you can be just in the midst of a real tempest. Tempest of trouble, and suffering, and turmoil, that you don't know where or what.

Yes, the winds can rise all right. They can get very rough. Well, what should you do? Let's go back to that illustration. You're going down the road, a country road, I imagine, say, for illustration. And the winds come up, and the rains are beginning to come, and you head for a hiding place.

But then the wind gets stronger, and the wind gets heavier, and becomes a tempest force. What do you do then? You get deeper in to your hiding place, don't you? You draw back into that tidy place. And that's what you should do when the winds get rougher, and come to tempest force.

Get deeper in. Oh, I've seen it happen. I've seen those with trouble, a notion of trouble. What has been to me, the more trouble, the deeper and deeper. Oh, that drags you in. Later you'll find God even for a tempest, a tempest force.

Come to the third thing. You normally have a refuge in a retreat. Third thing you have here is a river. It says, as rivers of water, not singular, plural, as rivers of water in a dry place. Well, the figure is there.

But it's Christ that's being brought before us. But let's take the dry place for a moment. You can understand that a natural way, geographical way. Again, it's a dry place. But then when you find your way, you can think of all the dry places.

This world is a dry place. Not much in it for the challenge of God. Oh, it's a dry place. You come back out, if some of you in here tonight have been in it all day. You didn't find much in it. You come back out of soot.

You feel dry. That world's a dry place. Or again, sometimes if you're on your own spiritually, you come into the meeting, you happen to look without for a dry place. You look in and you say, oh, what a dry place.

I'm dry, I'm dry, I'm dry. Or again, it may be not only the world but the souls. It may be meetings, motels, all our beings in meetings that were a dry place, dry as could be. My dear child of God, there's a man tonight, and he says to you and to me, he says, he is a ravishing man.

And you remember how he said in John chapter 7, if any man says it is a dry place anywhere, let him come on to me as a leader of me. Without him or from within him shall no rivers. There's a man, and he's the answer to all the dry places.