Sermon # 155             Series: Isaiah

 

Title:  Shall The Lawful Captive Be Delivered?

Text:  Isaiah 49:24-26

Subject:  The Deliverance of God’s Elect from Satan’s Captivity

Date:   Sunday Afternoon – July 11, 1993

 

Introduction:

 

The varied stages and events in the history of Israel as they are recorded in the Old Testament, are pictures of God’s gracious, redemptive work for his church.  Israel, as a civil, political nation, is insignificant.  She is only significant and important as she has been and is used of God to illustrate and accomplish his redemptive purpose toward his elect.  It is not the nation of Israel, but the “Israel of God” that is of importance to him, not Abraham’s physical descendents but his spiritual descendants.

 

God chose Abram and passed by all others – That is a picture of the election of grace.

 

God made a covenant with Abram, securing the deliverance of his people long before they fell into bondage.  That is a picture of the covenant of grace.

 

The children of Abraham fell into Egyptian bondage.  For 400 years they served Pharaoh and Egypt – we too fell into bondage.  We served sin and satan until the appointed time of our deliverance.

 

The children of Israel, Abraham’s seed, were delivered from bondage by blood and by power.  Their deliverance portrayed our salvation by…

 

All twelve tribes of Israel entered into the Lord of Promise and obtained the rest of the Lord with Joshua.  God fulfilled every word of his covenant (Joshua 21:44-45; 24:13).  Not by the hand of Moses, but by the hand of Joshua!  So shall the whole multitude of God’s elect enter into glory by Christ (Mt. 1:21).

 

As the bondage and deliverance of Israel out of Egypt was a picture of God’s saving grace in Christ, so the Jews’ Babylonian captivity and their deliverance from Babylon was prophetic of Christ’s redemptive, saving work.  Indeed, reading the prophecy of Isaiah, it is virtually impossible to tell precisely when the prophet is talking about the one and when he is talking about the other.  Without question, the passage now before us is a clear, Messianic prophecy.  It is all about our Lord Jesus Christ and his great salvation.

 

Proposition:

 

Isaiah 49:24-26 is the great riddle of redemption proposed and salved by the Spirit of God – It alludes to a series of mighty transactions involving vast and eternal interests.  B.H. Carroll wrote, “It reveals the most astounding tyranny, the most appalling captivity, the most signal deliverance and by the most eventful tragedy known to the universe.”

 

I want to show you four things revealed in these three verses of Scripture.

 

I.  All men and women since the fall of Adam are Born Into Slavery and Captivity -  (v. 24).

 

We all like to boast of freedom.  All men love the false imagination that men are free, moral agents.  “As my friend, Bro. Harry Graham, used to say, “There’s just three things wrong with that:  Man is not free.  He is not moral.  And he is no one’s agent.

 

Our text describes us as a “prey” held in captivity by two great forces:  The strength of a mighty enemy and the strength of law and justice – (Eph. 2:1-4).

 

A.  We fell under the Curse of God’s Holy Law when we Sinned in the Garden.

B.  Being under the curse of the law, we were Held Under The Sentence of Death.

C.  The one who took us into captivity was satan, the devil, our adversary.

D.  We lived all our lifetime in bondage to satan, as the servants of sin, in chains of iniquity and legions of sin, under the whip and terror of God’s law.

 

We were not only captives, but lawful captives.  If we were only captives by conquest the only thing required for deliverance would be a mighty deliverer.  But being lawful captives more is required than power.  “Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or shall the lawful captive be delivered?”  That is the riddle of redemption.  “Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean.  “How can man be clean that is born of woman?”  “How can a man be just with God?”

 

Is there no hope for fallen, captive, condemned man?  Oh, yes!

 

II.  The Lord God Himself has Taken Up The Cause of His Fallen People – (v. 25).

 

Listen to this prophetic word of covenant grace.  It is not the word of a man, but of God.  “But thus saith the Lord!”

 

A.  “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered!”  I will Save!

 

B.  “For I will contend with him that contendeth with thee!” – I will Contend with your Adversary – “The battle is the Lord’s.” (Gen. 3:15).

 

C.  “I will Save Thy Children!”  These are the words of Christ our Surety.

·         Spoken to the Father in the Covenant.

 

III.  Having Pledged Himself To Do It, We Are Assured That Our Great God And Savior Shall Accomplish The Complete Deliverance Of All His People (v. 25; John 6:37-40; Ps. 110:3).

 

The Son of God is honor bound to do what he has sworn and pledged himself to do – (Gen. 43:9; Eph. 1:12).

 

Our Deliver is himself the mighty God, The Lord Jehovah.  The deliverance is accomplished in three stages.

 

A.  Redemption – The only way the Son of God could justly deliver his people from the ruins of the fall was by death (Isa. 53:10-12; Heb. 2:14).  By his death upon the cross he crushed the serpent’s head and satisfied all the demands of God’s holy law (John 12:28-32; Col. 2:14-15).  Not one sinner could be saved, except he be lifted up on the cross to die.  No man could be delivered from the bondage of satan not one groaning captive, not one snared prey could be snatched from the hands of the might captor, except by the death of Christ, the sinner’s Substitute.  That death…

 

·         Paid the Law’s Penalty!

 

B.  Regeneration – In redemption Christ bound satan and satisfied the justice of God.  In regeneration and effectual calling he spoils satan of his goods (Matt. 12:29; Lk. 11:21-22).

 

Grace breaks the reigning power of sin and sets the captive free!  But the work of deliverance is not yet complete.  One thing remains…

 

C.  Resurrection – (Phil. 3: 20-21).  Christ shall deliver even the dust of our dead bodies from the grave and from the consequences of the fall.

 

IV.  When the end comes and time shall be no more, All God’s Enemies and Ours Shall be Destroyed Completed And Everyone Will Know And Openly Acknowledge These Three Things.

 

A.  Jesus Christ is the Lord!

B.  He is Our Savior and Our Redeemer!

C.  He is the Mighty One of Jacob!

·         He Chose Us!

·         He Redeemed Us!

·         He Called Us!

·         He Saved Us!

·         He Kept Us!

·         He Crowned Us!