The following message is a presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches where we're proclaiming the sufficiency of scripture for church and family life. More information about the NCFIC is available at www.ncfic.org. Is available at www.ncfic.org. Well it is with great pleasure that we come to present these things to you, the various speakers who've come here to preach, have great desire to come and speak about these matters, and it really is a happiness to me that we can all expend our energies now to bring this whole subject of holiness to you. We've gathered for one supreme objective, and that is that We want to draw you to consider the beauty of holiness, that we would somehow be given help from heaven to proclaim the perfections of Jesus Christ and of His Father and of the Holy Spirit.
We want to try to draw you into His glory. We know that we are not fit for that task, but God through his Holy Spirit is fit for that task. And so there've been many prayers. We've been crying out to God for this. You know, you, we've been crying out in anguish, many of us have, because we realize that we begin as absolute failures in declaring the holiness of God.
It's an impossibility. We are like sand fleas on the beach in California trying to describe the Himalaya mountains. It's absolutely astonishingly difficult and impossible for us. We realize that. At the same time, we do know that we have been called to declare the beauty of holiness with all of our hearts in the ways that we're able as being enabled by the Holy Spirit and in the ways that you have been enabled by the Holy Spirit to hear.
These are the things that we hope for. There are 12 things that you need to know about holiness. My job in the next few minutes is to try to give you an introduction. And in a way, consider it like an on-ramp. There's going to be a slow movement toward the subject matter.
But as I've spent the last year considering the subject of holiness, and have studied, read a number of things, and have tried to cry out to God. There are a number of things that I want to share with you, and there are 12 of them. And the first is that we must pursue holiness. Hebrews 12, 14 makes this very clear that we ought to pursue it, that we should pursue holiness without which no one will see the Lord. And What we learn from this is that a Christian must understand something.
If you are not holy, you will not see the Lord. The context makes it very clear here that the writer of Hebrews is not simply referring to positional righteousness and being clothed with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, but he's also talking about holy desires that bring forth holy living, set apart living. And so the pursuit of holiness is perhaps the most urgent matter for any person in the world. Any church, any family should consider that this is the most urgent matter in their whole lives because if you do not have this holiness, you will not see the Lord. And so the seriousness of this matter is so significant and there are few messages more vital for the health of the church compared to this one.
You know today many Christians are terrified of being accused of being too holy. And we hope to somehow give understanding to some of those terrors that we might have. But we need to understand this, that without holiness, we will not see the Lord. The second is this. The essential purpose of God in salvation is holiness.
Ephesians chapter one, verse four, says it this way. Just as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. Why did He choose us? He chose us so that we might be made holy. Everything that God is doing in our lives is really for the purpose of holiness, and He saved us for that purpose.
This was the purpose of Christ's sacrifice for sinners, and this is the will of God that we would be sanctified by the holiness of the Lord Jesus Christ in all the ways that He works His holiness into our lives. And so salvation's whole design is holiness and it shows what a tragedy it is when people try to separate doctrines, particularly they try to separate justification and sanctification, because the holiness of God is the motive for sanctification, and it is the holiness of Jesus Christ that secures our sanctification. It's the work of the Holy Spirit that governs the whole process of our sanctification. And so whenever you're preaching the gospel, You're always preaching about the God who makes holy. And so we cannot simply say that God is holy and he regards me as holy.
We must be made holy in the very practical everyday matters of our thinking and all of our living. And then thirdly, the entire objective of salvation is to undo the unholiness in our lives. First John chapter three, verses eight through 11 declare this, and it's very clear, for this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. And here we learn that the purpose of the Lord Jesus Christ's manifestation in the world, the word becoming flesh, was in order to rectify this problem of ours, to to mortify the flesh, to crucify the works of darkness that are in that are in us. And He is destroying the works of the devil, and he's remaking us.
And what does that mean? It means, fourthly, that holiness is the most important thing in the world. We're considering such a grave subject and we need to recognize that this is the whole matter of life, of all of life. And this is why Jonathan Edwards said it this way, he that sees the beauty of holiness, sees the greatest and most important thing in the world, which is the fullness of all things, without which all the world is empty, no better than nothing, yea, worse than nothing, unless this is seen, nothing is seen, and that this work, that this worth, that that is worth the seeing, for there is no other true excellency or beauty. Unless this is understood, Nothing is understood that is worthy of the exercise of the noble faculty of understanding.
Holiness is the most important thing in the world because all is lost without holiness. It's a loss of all good, all love, all justice, all morality, all peace, all harmony, all restoration, all reconciliation. Everything of value is lost without holiness. Holiness is the only healing, it's the only happy-fying force in the world because all is gained by holiness and by holiness alone. Fifthly, holiness is not like any other doctrine.
What is holiness anyway? I'm not going to attempt in this session to give a comprehensive definition of holiness because we have many, many messages that will define this doctrine. But there are some things that we ought to say at the outset about this whole idea of holiness. And first of all, it's that God's holiness is inexplicably higher than any human goodness. God's holiness is nothing like any holiness that we might seem to possess.
The holiness of God is different. It's not a separate thing that you can isolate in a category. It's not like the doctrine of the perseverance of the saints or heaven or hell. But the doctrine of holiness is found in absolutely everything that is good. It is the irreducible principle from which everything proceeds.
Holiness is embedded in every doctrine. It's in His love, it's in His law, it's in His judgment, it's in His mercy. And so, holiness is higher and deeper and wider and longer than all the doctrines. It's as if holiness has swallowed up all of the other doctrines, and all of them are just simply an expression of it. And so isolating the doctrine of holiness is an absolute impossibility, because it's described in thousands of ways.
It's the epicenter of love. It's the headwaters of all good. It's the fountain of all happiness. It's the beginning and end of all things. It's the purpose of salvation.
And it's the end for which God created the world, that there would be this world of holy love that rules and reigns for all eternity. And every doctrine draws its beauty from holiness and from holiness alone because it is the holy that has created all the rest. This is why that hymn writer said, "'The love of God is greater far "'than tongue or pen can ever tell. "'It goes beyond the highest star "'and reaches to the lowest hell.'" And so we don't wanna make the mistake to think that holiness is just another doctrine. It's not just another doctrine.
And then sixth, There's no hope for the church without holiness. Churches are lost without holiness. You know, we live in a day today when all you really need to do to have a church is a person who's a gifted communicator and a good administrator. That's really all you need. But the Bible gives us a completely different kind of world.
That the Church is only what it ought to be when it is a holy Church. And if it is not a holy Church, is it possible that it is not a Church at all? There's no hope for the church without holiness because the carnal mind is enmity against holy things and holy people and holy families and holy churches and holy men who lift up their hands and holy women of God. Number seven, there's no hope for your family without holiness, without true admiration of God's holiness. Families are emptied of the beauty and the love and the happiness that proceeds from God and His Holiness.
Jonathan Edwards believed that Holiness was first of all beauty but it was also happiness. Holiness is happiness. And for our corrupt minds, we find ourselves thinking that maybe holiness is some kind of a bad deal. Holiness is the best thing that has ever been released in the world. There is no hope for your family without holiness.
Number eight. Holiness is essential for revival. The essential element of revival is the exaltation of God's holy name, His holy Son, His holy Spirit. And this of course is true for every individual and every family and every church and every nation as well. Holiness is essential to revival.
You know, we've always prayed that our gatherings like this at these conferences would somehow be used of the Lord to be sources of revival in our land. And this is the purpose of this gathering, and it really is the purpose of every gathering we have ever had. We so desire to deliver an accurate and uncompromising call to love the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength. This is the heart of all revival. When you have a heart that is changed and is truly hungering for the holiness of God to replace the worldliness of a life, You have the beginnings of a revival.
You know, we live in a time where unholiness seems to be washing over our culture in waves like we've never ever seen. And we're all very, very disturbed about it, but let's be very clear about one thing. The most important thing for us to do now is to consider any unholiness in ourselves. We should look to ourselves. We can complain and explain all the difficulties that our nation is facing now because of this dramatic wave of unholiness that's washing over the culture.
But let's be very clear. God works in small ways. God is small in many ways while He is infinitely massive. At the same time He is so small and He works within an individual and he works in a little family, and he works in a little church. Maybe you come from a little church.
Don't underestimate the power of holiness in a little church or a little family or a little you or a little old me because holiness is the essential for all of revival. Holiness is also, number nine, essential for averting natural disaster, or rather national disaster. Jeremiah 18 speaks of this. This year I preached a message on every book of the Old Testament and it was so striking to me that every one of the prophets of the Old Testament make this very clear that God judges nations by one single standard. He judges nations by His holy word.
He doesn't have one standard for the nation and another standard for the church. He has one single, pure, holy standard, and it is His holy word and God disassembles nations who lose a sense of holiness. Nations devolve into immoral totalitarian regimes and then what happens to them? They are obliterated. Look at history.
Where are the nations? Where are the ungodly nations? They're destroyed. Go back in time, read the history books. They're all destroyed.
God brings them all down without exception. He will destroy the unholy nations of the world. He has always done it and he will continue to do it until he brings down all darkness in the world and takes his church into heavenly glory. There has never been a nation to beat the system on the holiness of God. It has never happened and it's not going to happen to America either.
Just this morning I was reading Jeremiah 18 and verse 8 says this, If that nation against whom I have spoken turns from its evil, I will relent of the disaster that I thought to bring upon it. And the instant I speak concerning a nation and concerning a kingdom to build and to plant it, if it does evil in my sight so that it does not obey my voice, then I will relent concerning the good with which I said I would benefit it." And the prophet Jeremiah declares this and then He tells us that they would not turn from evil. And then in verse 15 in that chapter he says, they walk in pathways and not on a highway. Not on a highway. And what highway would that be?
It would be that highway of holiness. It would be the way of all purity and goodness and love. It would be the highway of holiness. This is the highway that the nations must walk upon or else they will be absolutely obliterated, as they have always been. Number 10, you cannot draw holiness from yourself.
It comes from God alone. You cannot manufacture it from your own wisdom and goodness. You can't get it together It originates only from God It proceeds from him you might be able to mimic whole holiness You might be able to become sort of an ape for holiness, but that's all you'll ever be, a counterfeit ape. That's all you can ever have if it does not come from God. How easy it is to shine the outside of the cup and make people think holiness.
But the truth is holiness only comes from one place. It proceeds from God and from God alone. Number 11. The pursuit of holiness is the pursuit of the likeness of Jesus Christ. And what we learn from the Bible is that at the end of the journey on the highway of holiness, we shall be like Him.
John says, Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us, that we should be called the children of God. Therefore the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now we are the children of God and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. But we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.
Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. The pursuit of holiness is the pursuit of the likeness of Jesus Christ. No one can be made holy in the way that God speaks of it without beholding the face of Jesus Christ and being transformed by the renewing of your mind by looking at the face of Jesus Christ. His face is our only hope. And then number 12, finally.
The most important thing you must know about yourself is your relation to the highway of holiness, because there are only two paths. There are paths and there is the highway, the highway of holiness. And I'm here to say that if any of us are not on a trajectory of holiness, there should be no expectation that you're headed for heaven or that Christ has saved you. No expectation at all. And here at this gathering, we're crying out to God that He would be a hound of heaven to chase any down, to wrestle any into submission, to make them know what they must know.
Are they on the highway? So where would any of us be regarding that highway? This is the most vital question that's before us. If you look at holy things, the things that God has said are holy with disdain. Having reservations about going with the way of holiness, or are offended when charged to seek His holiness or to be identified with holiness, then a person must face that truth.
Do you want to be on that highway? Do you want it? Do you long for it? Are you sure of it? The only way you can be sure is by what you love.
The only way you can know is that you are pursuing holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. And I pray that all who come to these speaking platforms would be what the Apostle Paul said that we could be, ambassadors for Christ. As he said in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 20, Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf. Be reconciled to God, for He made him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him." And so this is our great heart's desire.
There are always two things that you must speak of when you speak of holiness. And the first is that you must speak of the beauty of holiness. Because no one can love a holy God without seeing His beauty, without seeing His superiority, contrasted with the bankrupt and unprofitable ways of this world. The only reason anyone can ever turn away from anything that is defiling, whether it's pornography or greed or self-congratulations, whatever it might be, there's really only one way and that is when you see the beauty of holiness and that is what motivates you. Your accountability group won't do it for you.
Your tearful commitments cannot. But the beauty of holiness can. And so we have as a great objective in the hours that are ahead to declare the beauty of holiness. We want to describe it in 100 different ways. The men here who've come here, some of them have come, they've come terrified to try to even speak of this because of the gravity and the greatness of the subject.
And yet at the same time, even in the midst of the terror and the sense of being belittled and frustrated on the one hand, and then even while they're preparing, you know, taken to soaring thoughts of love and beauty and happiness, they've been in this tension world. And so this is the world that we must present. First of all, the beauty of holiness. You'll find that as an emphasis of the conference. We'll spend more time trying to declare the beauty of holiness, the beauty of God, the beauty of Jesus Christ, the beauty of the Holy Spirit, the beauty of the Church, all these matters of beauty that God has laid before us.
We want to somehow, in human language and in voice, to declare the beauty of the Lord. That you would somehow go away from here and you would see his beauty like you've never seen it before. At the same time, to be terrified by the purity of His Holiness. To see the great danger there is, to see the heartache, to see the broken life, to see the things that come as a result of turning away from holiness. The hardship, the insanity, the depression, the trouble, the broken relationships, all these things that arise out of preferring the things of this world.
But somehow we would hate the world more than we did when we came. And yet at the same time, the love of God would be shed forth in our hearts like we've never seen it before because none of us have arrived at this matter and so we have gathered to contemplate the beauty of holiness Please open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 35. And as we enter into the unsearchable and matchless treasures of the wisdom of God that we find in Isaiah 35 where we're taken to a highway. It's the highway of holiness. Please stand as we read the Word of God.
The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice, even with joy and singing. The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it, the excellence of Carmel and Sharon. They shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees.
Say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong, do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With the recompense of God, He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the death shall be unstopped Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing. For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness, and streams in the desert.
The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals where each lay. There shall be grass with reeds and rushes. A highway shall be there and a road, And it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing with everlasting joy on their heads they should shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Please be seated.
This passage of scripture represents some element of every single message that will be preached at this conference. And we're beginning this conference with a view of holiness from a certain perspective that's given in Isaiah 35. It's the perspective of the earth. It's the perspective from the highway, looking at the highway. So we begin with the earth, but then after this first message We take you to the highest heavens where God dwells in eternal glory We will take you behind the curtain and show you where it all comes from what's behind it And where does it begin and where is it all going?
But Isaiah 35 is a helpful beginning because it speaks of the earthly matter of holiness, the beautifying power of holiness. And what we learn here in this chapter is what God does when He transforms sinners and He turns their wasteland into a garden. Now one thing you'll notice about Isaiah when you read him is that Isaiah paints pictures. This book is so full of pictures, it's astonishing. Isaiah is not systematic, but he's rather pictorial.
He's not strictly chronological, but he's rather biographical. And at once you find him pictorial and then didactic and then historical. And he draws from the past and then he'll take you to the present. He'll take you to the far future. He'll take you to heaven itself.
And Isaiah is constantly painting these pictures. And almost every chapter is like that. It's a picture that contains the beauty of holiness. And in this chapter at once, he takes you to a wilderness wasteland. And then he turns your head to a people who are glad, and then there's a desert that's blossoming, and then there are people singing.
He takes you to Lebanon, then he transports you over to Carmel, and then he takes you to Sharon, and then he shows you weak hands, and he shows weak knees, And then He takes you into the depths of a person's heart, into the depths of a fearful heart. He shows you the vengeance of God and then the blind and the deaf and the lame and the dumb and a pool. He takes you to jackals. He takes you to despicable, undesirable animals. He shows you beasts and lions and prisoners set free and singing and everlasting joy on your head.
How does that work? How do you get everlasting joy on your head? Isaiah takes you there. And then he also, at the very end, he takes you into the inner recesses of a person's heart where sorrows are there, where sighing is there. And there, in the place of sorrows and sighing, something is happening to those sorrows and all of that sighing.
And they're just fleeing away. Isaiah paints pictures. And the picture that we have here before us tonight shows you the beautifying power of the love of God through His holiness. You know, you think about, you know, if you have children, how do you explain the gospel to children? Take them to Isaiah.
He'll take you to heaven and back. He'll take you to every meditation of the heart. He'll take you to a road. He'll put you into a political scheme. He'll take you everywhere in order to show you the beauty of God, His majesty and His holiness.
So, from this text, I would like to give you six pictures of holiness. And the first picture is found in verses 1 and 2. And that picture is a picture of the glory of God and how it transforms the wilderness. We read, the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as arose. It's a picture of God's intervention, and the desert becomes a garden, and what's it like?
There's gladness, there's rejoicing. The word that the Lord uses through the prophet Isaiah is a word that means to circle around. To circle around and rejoice, to declare it, to feel it in the way that it happens in normal people's lives. When something really fantastic has happened, you just want to jump and dance around. And this is what it means to know His presence.
And what are they glad for? Surprisingly, they're glad for desert animals and the wasteland itself. And here we find a picture of God's holy transforming power to turn the desert of a person's life into a garden. This is the whole message of Isaiah. It's a prophecy of the new creation.
And we know how it became a wilderness because the Bible tells us, So how does anything become a wilderness? It becomes a wilderness through disobedience, through rejecting the law of God. Jeremiah speaks of it in Jeremiah chapter 23, where he says that the land is dried up. Why? Why did it dry up?
Adultery. The land itself was affected by the hearts of the people, and it dried up because of the adultery that was there. But something here is happening in this desert. It's blossoming, it's growing, it's flourishing. And it says the desert is glad for them.
And he's talking about those who draw near, those who have heard the word of God and they have loved the pathway of God. But it also refers back to those in chapter 34, in the previous chapter, where there's a picture of desert desolation and palaces overgrown. These despicable animals are among the ruins. You have the owls and the jackals and you have this bombed out land which speaks of what happens when you reject God. God makes hearts empty and he terrorizes them.
He makes them jackals and they have to exist with demons. He fills them with fear in the same way that the Assyrian army did when they came. The picture in 34 is Edom. And the message is that this world this world will destroy you. Of course the Edomites came from Esau and he is telling the Edomites they ought to expect the wrath of God because They despise the inheritance of God for a massive pottage.
If you like the taste of the world, if you like this pottage, if you prefer it over the holiness and beauty of the Lord, then the consequences are not very hard to depict. And there in verse 11 in chapter 34 you have the pelican and the porcupine are there, the owl and the raven dwell in it. And the ruins are there, the varmints are there. There's the line of confusion, the stones of emptiness that prevail in the hearts of those in that city. There's this deconstruction that has happened, these stones of emptiness.
I have to do with the confusion and the destruction, the formless and void. He uses the very same word in Genesis that everything was formless and void. Sin always turns a paradise into chaos And that's what has happened there. In verse 12, the nobles are not there. There's no one to lead.
In verse 13, the thorns have come up in the palaces, nettles and brambles in its fortresses, and it shall be a habitation of jackals, a courtyard for ostriches. There used to be parties and gatherings and Pomp and power and pride and now the palaces are empty and they're filled with foul animals And it's nothing but ruins. This is the picture that Isaiah is speaking of here. The arrow snake is there and these animals there are dwelling in desolation. But God is so kind to the despicable jackals of the Gentiles, you and I, and he's not content to leave his people in desolation.
This is the whole story of Christianity that God rescues people who've been wounded by the world. They're regenerated and energized and they bear fruit and he restores the wasteland. The wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom. This is the power of holiness. It's the transforming energy of God and His holiness when a person turns to Him.
God did not create the human beings so that they would be empty like a desert, but that they would bear fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ was so clear about this. In John 15, 16, he said, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you, that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you. This is the effect of God. He makes you glad.
He makes you rejoice. And then he gives six analogies to help us understand. Isaiah never tires of analogies. He wants you to see his love in every imaginable picture and vision. And so here there are six.
The first is a blossom. They blossom abundantly. It's fulfilled in the Lord Jesus Christ who said, I came that they might have life and they might have it more abundantly. Then there is singing in verse 2, even with joy and singing. This is a happy people who are a singing people.
And then there are mighty trees in verse 2, the glory of Lebanon. This is the strong and the stateliness of these gigantic and beautiful cedar trees. They're symbols of power and productivity in the same way that the redwoods are to those who live in the United States. And what he's saying is that until you love the glory of God, you cannot have the glory of Lebanon by being satisfied with this world. Notice too that it's a gift of grace.
Look at these words. It is given to it. God gives it. He is the one who turns the heart. He is the one who makes all things beautiful in His time.
And then he takes us to the glory of Lebanon and then the excellence of Carmel. And these are images of fruitfulness and gardens and well-ordered cultivation. What God does to you when he enters into your soul and he begins to reorder your whole life. He reorders your thinking, he changes your paths, he changes everything. And notice, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the excellency of our God.
This garden happens for one reason and for one reason alone. The glory of God. The glory of God is the chief transforming agent. And the people who are beholding His glory are always beautified by His glory. This glory indicates a visitation by God.
The Lord Jesus Christ of course fulfills this when we read, We beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth. This is the excellency of our God. And what this means is that the singular, most important occupation of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, or a family, or a human heart, is the glory of Christ. His glory is our only hope. The second picture from the Highway of Holiness is found in verses 3 and 4.
The people of God will strengthen one another. Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. He will come and save you.
Now notice in these verses there are three imperatives which outline the manifestations of the beholding of the glory of God. They are literal commands and they are manifestations and they are performed in the church. This means that one of the means of sanctification of God's people is the church and those members of the church who speak to one another. This is a picture of people speaking to one another. And God uses his people to bring about this beautiful transformation of holiness.
This blossoming, this desert becoming a garden. It's a picture of God's design for the kinds of relationships that God desires for us to have with one another in his church. It's a picture of a holy church. And there's strengthening, the sinking down, strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. These are two very specific members of the body, the hands and the knees.
The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12-12 quotes this, giving its fulfillment that he speaks of the trials that the Hebrews are experiencing and he says, you have not resisted unto death yet and he applies this verse to the New Testament believer to strengthen the hands and the knees. The condition of having these hands is important to see. The word that Isaiah uses is the word to drop down. And it has to do with your hands just kind of going limp. It has to do with the people who are feeling their weakness and their hands and knees feel the impact of it, the strength that they so desire is denied them from their perhaps disheartenedness.
And then he says, speak to the fearful hearted in verse 4, say to those who are fearful hearted, be strong, do not fear, behold your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God, he will come and save you. He's telling his people to say something to the fearful-hearted people, that we have something to say to one another. As we gather in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ, we always have something to say. And here he says, say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong, do not fear. What a wonderful family, what a wonderful kingdom, the kingdom of Jesus Christ has established in the world.
That he would make a new community, he would make a church, he would make a household, a family where this is what people are doing for each other. They're working hand in hand with God to deliver the people from their fears so that they might be like David who said, I sought the Lord and he heard me and he delivered me from all my fears. This command, do not fear, is the most common command in the Bible. It's the most often repeated than any other command in the Bible. Do not fear.
Why in the world Has God done such a thing? He speaks of those who are fearful-hearted. It's a word meaning hasty. It's like being jerked around. It's a word for the condition of our hearts.
Our hearts change quickly. Our heart quickly moves to fear. We hear something and our hearts are hasty to move to fear. John Gill said this word has to do with drawing black conclusions upon themselves and upon their state. Forgetting the promises of God.
Making haste to throw up your hands. And he's saying here that we should be talking to one another. We should be speaking to one another about our fears. This is one way God beautifies His church as His people rise up and they say, don't be afraid. The beauty of a fearless church is what's being spoken of here.
And there are four things that are to be said to the fearful hearted. And you should take them very personally. You should make them part of your own vocabulary in your life in the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. The first thing that you say to the fearful hearted is be strong. In other words, do the things that make you strong.
Stop doing the things that make you weak. The second thing that you say is do not fear. In other words, don't nurse your Fears. You know that song. Count your fears, name them one by one.
Count your many fears, see what... You know how that goes. And we are to actually command one another, do not fear. Stop nursing your fears. Stop obsessing about that.
Stop doing that. Set it aside. And then the third, Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God. In other words, remember who's in control. Remember that God will destroy all of his enemies and he will save you.
And this is the fourth thing. He will come and save you. The one who is in control is the one who will save you. This is why the Lord Jesus Christ said to his disciples when he was about to leave them, and they were sorrowful, and he said, let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me.
In my Father's house are many dwelling places. The Lord Jesus Christ demonstrated this and fulfilled it. And then we have in this phrase or in this verse one of the most beautiful phrases in all of the Bible, one of the most beautiful things that has ever been uttered to man. Three words. He will come.
He will come. These are the most encouraging words in the English language for fearful hearts. We ought to do this with one another. We ought to assist one another in our sanctification by saying these four things to one another. To be found saying, be strong, do not fear, behold your God and he will come and save you.
And then the third picture from this highway of holiness is found in verses 5 and 6 and this speaks of the power of God at work the demonstrable visible power of God in the life of the person who is turned to Jesus Christ and they're being beautified and part of their beauty is seen in these various images. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened. The ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. The lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb sing." Meaning your former weaknesses will recede, that God will do something to your senses, to everything that you are. He transforms All of your sensibilities, all the abilities of your body because of the beauty of holiness.
Your eyes, your ears, your tongue, your feet, all of them will be changed. You'll see and hear and everything will be different. The Lord Jesus Christ did fulfill this. In Matthew chapter 11 verses 4 through 6, John the Baptist was in prison and he sent two of his disciples to ask is he the Christ or shall we look for another and the Lord Jesus Christ answered and said to them go and tell John the things which you hear and see. The blind see and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, and the dead are raised up, and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
You know, often when I'm driving home, and I'm coming into, near my house, there'll be a deer running by the side of the road. And I always want to edge him over just a little bit because I want to see him jump over the fence it's one of the most beautiful things to see a deer leap just effortlessly over a fence this is a picture of the beautifying work of God in the life of a sinner, in the life of a jackal, an ostrich, an owl, a pelican. He takes the pelicans of this world who have so destroyed their lives, and he takes them out, and he makes them leap like a deer. This is the love of God in Christ Jesus. This is the holiness of God at work in the world.
And then the fourth picture from the highway of holiness are streams flowing in the desert. There will be streams in the desert. The parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals where each lay, there shall be grass and with reeds and rushes. Now there are some, there are those dispensationalists who say that this was fulfilled in 1948 when the Jews made an independent state of Israel and Palestine and the cultivation of the land and the Negev causes blossoming to take place I don't think that's what he's talking about I think he's I think he is speaking about the desolate deserts and the jackals and and and the snakes and the ostriches that are hiding in the ruins of the bombed out cities of this world.
And their only hope are these streams in the desert. Isaiah 43 verse 20 speaks of it this way the beast of the field will honor me. The jackals and the ostriches, because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to my people, my chosen. And here you find the despicable creatures, the despised, unprofitable creatures. Something is happening.
This is such a beautiful picture. What is happening? There they are in the desert among the ruins, among these other despicable animals, the snakes and the night creatures, the night demons actually is what some of this language refers to. And something happens. There's water.
The water, It's coming up around them. It's coming up around them and there's and there's Vegetation and they drink the water and they eat the foliage and they're never the same again This is the highway of holiness This is the beauty of holiness and the kindness of God to rescue those who have made such despicable things of their lives. He has compassion on the despicable And He draws them. They don't call upon Him. He calls upon them.
They don't know Him. He knows them. And He draws them. And how does He draw them? He shows them His beauty.
He shows them His living water. He gives them food to eat. This water is the representation of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of in John 7, 37 through 39, where the Lord Jesus Christ on the great day of the feast he stood up and he cried out right in the midst of that feast if anyone is thirsty let him come to me and drink out of his innermost being shall flow Rivers of living water and he was talking about the Holy Spirit. He was talking about the beautification that happens as a result of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. The Lord Jesus Christ spoke to one of these ostriches and jackals.
She happened to be a woman in John chapter 4. And he said to this woman, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to everlasting life." And then that ostrich-like, jackal-like woman, she said, Lord, give me this water. And she was just like those jackals and ostriches and pelicans in the desert in the bombed ruins of their lives. And water came and they drank it and they loved it.
And they were beautified by it. The fifth picture from the highway of holiness is found in verses 8 and 9. And here we find ourselves really at the heart of the interpretive principle of the passage. Why does all this happen? It happens because there's a highway.
And it's the highway of holiness. Verse 8. A highway shall be there and a road, and it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray.
No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it. It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. Now the first thing I'd like for us to notice is that there are two things that are mentioned here. First of all, there's a highway, and then secondly there is a road. These are two different words, and they have two completely different meanings that help us to understand this matter of the beautification that takes place, this journey that God sets you on.
The word highway is the term to cast up, to put up, and he's speaking about the physical aspects of the road, and the road is elevated. This word in Hebrew is sometimes used to exalt or to lift up, it has to do with elevation. So the first thing that he draws our attention to is that this is a road that's higher than anything else. It's built up. And then it is not just a highway, but it is a road.
This is a word that the Lord has planted in this text to refer to the journey and it's a word that speaks of treading down of your feet, the march, the movement, the direction, the trajectory, the experiences on the road, the people that you meet, the experiences that you have. So he uses these two terms. There's a highway and there is a road. You know, John Bunyan in the Pilgrim's Progress was depicting this road aspect of it. The journey and all of the different problems and temptations and all of the people that you meet, the wondrous, sometimes beautiful, other times ugly people that you meet on the road.
And this is the only way. This is what the Lord Jesus Christ was referring to in Matthew 7 when he said, enter by the narrow gate for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there are many who go in by it because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life and there are few who find it. So there is the highway of holiness and then there is the broad road, which is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. And why David said, blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful, but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in his law he meditates day and night, and what does that do to him?
It delights him. It makes him strong. It does everything that we've read about, which is why he said, he leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake. And even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. And what happens? My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord. This is the highway of holiness Now he uses a word here holiness It is The word that we encounter in Isaiah chapter 6 Where the heavenly beings are saying holy holy holy is the Lord of hosts The whole earth is full of His glory.
It's that word in Hebrew, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh, kadosh. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. It is the highway of holiness. And as we proceed in our time together, we will try to speak of God's holiness and Christ's holiness and the holiness of the Holy Spirit and every matter of holiness that God brings to our minds. And who's on that highway?
He says the unclean shall not pass. So there are some who are not on that highway. They are the unclean. Only those who have been washed, only those who have been purified, only those who have drunk the water of the Spirit and eaten the bread of life, they are the only ones. Not those who walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, as Paul says in Ephesians chapter 4 verse 17.
Not them, but the others. It shall be for others, in verse 8. This is further described in verse 10. The redeemed and the ransomed are there. The Apostle Paul spoke of them in such beautiful and graphic terms in 1 Corinthians chapter 6 verse 9 there he was and in that desert like city of Corinth with the jackals and the ostriches and the owls and the pelicans and the Arrow snakes there he was right in the midst of them and Now there's a church in that town that was so destroyed by the immorality and The pride that had so filled their hearts and what does he say?
He says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor homosexuals nor sodomites nor thieves nor covetous nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God." And then he says, But such were some of you, But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus by the Spirit of our God. That's what God does with jackals and ostriches and owls and snakes. He takes the despicable of this world of which we all are.
And our only hope is the holiness of God, the holiness of the Holy Spirit. And this is why Jonathan Edwards believed that the heart of holiness was beauty and its chief manifestation was happiness. But then he says something kind of strange. He says, whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. Oh, wait, a fool is on the road.
Immediately, it seems so strange that fools are on this road it makes no sense and but here in this verse there is a fool on the highway of holiness. And so here we have to appeal to that hermeneutical principle that we should not just simply look at the word because this word fool is used all over the book of Proverbs for the true fool. But it's the context. And the word fool in this context has a different meaning. He is a fool who does not go astray.
What kind of fool is it? It's a certain kind of fool. He's not going astray for sure. There are godly people who are considered fools because they regard God as greater than the gods of this world. The Apostle Paul speaks of this in 1 Corinthians chapter 3 of people who build on the foundation which is Christ and those who add to the foundation wood, hay and stubble and then he speaks of the godly ones as fools.
He says if anyone among you seems to be wise in this age let him become a fool that he may become wise I believe he's talking about the fools of this world he could also be talking about those who were such fools and yet God saves the fools I'm not sure which one it is. And what is he doing? He's on the way. And then in verse 9 we learn that this is a safe road. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it.
It shall not be found there. The most common interpretation of this is that this is a picture of God protecting His people from the wolves on the road. That God will preserve you. That nothing can snatch you out of His hand. That there is nothing within us or without us or nothing in the heavenly powers God will see you through It's a protected road in that sense the devil may desire to sift you and devour you He may make you like wheat, but there's a way of escape when you're on the highway.
He will keep you on that highway. This is the perseverance of the saints that is spoken of in Philippians 1 six, he who began a good work in you will keep it. And he'll do it for your entire journey. And then they redeemed her on that highway in verse 10. The redeemed shall walk there.
And this explains how they got on the highway. They got on the highway and they were redeemed. The word that he uses here for redeemed is the word that's used in the book of Ruth for the kinsman redeemer. The man who redeems his kinfolk from destruction. And it bears witness to a picture of a tragedy.
A family member falls into hard times. He has to sell his property. He has nothing but his kinsman. A redeemer would buy the property and hold it for him. Or if an Israelite sold himself into servitude to pay his debts, the kinsman redeemer would buy him back and fulfill all of his obligations.
This is what it means to be redeemed. He's referring to Christ, our elder brother, who had lost everything. We were bankrupt. We had nothing in and of ourselves. We were dead.
And he sold and bought. And then the sixth picture is in verse 10. This happy journey home. The ransomed of the Lord shall be there. And they'll come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. Isn't Isaiah such a good illustrator for us to speak of these sorrows and sighings just fleeing away? And this is the climax of the story of sin and judgment and redemption and the jackals and the ostriches that Isaiah is declaring in this chapter. And it ends with everlasting joy. And they come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads, they shall obtain joy and gladness." And so this is What happens to those who are on the highway of holiness?
These are the things that take place. The blind see, the lame walk, the deaf hear, the jackals have good, clean, clear water and they have a home. And no longer do they dwell in the ruins of this world, but they are on the highway of holiness. And they're headed to that place. God will see to it that they will get there.
And so we've begun this time together with a picture from the highway. But we must never forget that though this is a beautiful highway that leads to such a marvelous destination, it's a happy road, but it's also a very costly road. It's a blood-bought road. It was paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, because all roads must be paid for. And if you are on the broad road, you always pay so dearly.
You pay in the hardship and the emptiness, the stones of emptiness and confusion. And then you pay for all eternity. But if you're on the highway of holiness, then your way is paid by the precious blood of the Lamb. And there's a shepherd on that road. And all your way down the road, He heals you.
He renews your mind. He refreshes you. He changes your life. And you who once were a jackal, now become a lamb. You become a son.
This is the highway of holiness. It's the only place of everlasting joy. And that's why we so desire at this conference to declare the beauty of holiness. And we're now going to sing and then we're going to bring Paul Washer up. And he's going to take us from the dust of that highway and he's going to take us to the highest of the heavens where God is, dwelling in all eternity.
Would you pray with me? Lord, I praise you for the beauty of your word, its graphic nature, its gripping imagery in order to help us to see what you are like. And you have given us so many angles on your beauty in this passage. Help us, O Lord, to drink it all in, to love it with all of our hearts as we make our way down the highway of holiness. Amen.
Thank you for listening to this presentation of the National Center for Family Integrated Churches. We invite you to visit our website at www.ncfic.org where you can keep up to date on what is new as well as find articles, videos, audio sermons, and much more at no charge. The N-C-F-I-C exists to proclaim the sufficiency of scripture for both church and family life.