Alright brethren, let's turn
to Isaiah 65. Our subject this morning is very
heavy, very weighty. The subject is reprobation and
salvation. Reprobation and salvation. Our division will be just two
points. These are the two points that
we're trying to understand from God's Word. Here's one point. Salvation is the gift of God's
grace. And it's justly given because
of Christ's works. Salvation is the gift of God's
grace justly given. And that word justly is important. We're going to see how this is
just in salvation and reprobation. Salvation is the gift of God's
grace justly given because of Christ's works. Because Christ
worked for His people. Now look in verse 1. I am salt. of them that ask not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not." Isn't that strange? How do you find somebody you
don't seek? I said, behold me, behold me
unto a nation that was not called by my name. Now that'll be one
point. Salvation is the gift of God's
grace justly given because of Christ's works. And then here's
another point. Reprobation is the wage earned
by the sinner. Reprobation is a wage earned
by the sinner. And it's justly given by God
because the sinner earned it by his own works. The sinner
earns reprobation by his own works. Let's read verses 2 through
7. I have spread out my hands all
the day unto a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts, a people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face, that sacrificeth in gardens,
and burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among
graves and lodge in the mountains, which eat swine's flesh and broth
of abominable things as in their vessels, which say, Stand by
thyself, come not near to me, for I'm holier than thou. These
are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day. Behold,
it is written before me, I will not keep silence. but will recompense,
even recompense into their bosom. Your iniquities and the iniquities
of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense
upon the mountains and blast-famed me upon the hills. Therefore,
for that reason, because it was justly earned by the sinner,
therefore will I measure their former work into their bosom. Now, in verse 1, God declares
He would call out His elect from among the Gentiles by His free
and sovereign grace. That's what verse 1 is speaking
of, the Gentiles. He'd call them out by free grace.
Verses 2 through 7, God is declaring that He would turn political
Israel, the natural sons of Abraham, over to reprobation due to their
iniquities. Now when we talk about Israel,
I think it's important to understand we're not talking about the political
nation that exists there now. God didn't form that nation.
Men formed that nation and voted on that nation being called Israel. The nation we're talking about
is the nation God created back there when He called them out
of Egypt. That nation God destroyed in 70 A.D. and He's done with
it. Done with it. And that's what
he's talking about here. I'm going to destroy them, the
natural son, the rebels who wouldn't turn to me because they earned
it. But in both of these verses,
we're seeing what God's people are by nature and what God does
to us all by grace. This is true of you. If you're
the elect child of God, whether you're a Jew or a Gentile, all
this is so of us. Now look over at Romans 10. I
want you to see that this is speaking of the Jew and the Gentile.
This is what Paul said there, Romans 10, 20. He said, Isaiah, he's very bold,
and he said, I was found of them that sought me not. I was made
manifest unto them that asked not after me. But to Israel he
saith, All day long I have stretched forth my hands unto a disobedient
and gang-saying people." So he tells you there that verse 2-7
is speaking to natural Israel. Conversely, verse 1 is speaking
to the Gentiles. Now, I want us to understand
salvation and reprobation according to the Scriptures. Now listen
to me carefully. Salvation is God's work of justly
saving His people from our sins by God's free grace, by Christ's
work of righteousness on our behalf, by the call of the Holy
Spirit. You see, it's the triune God.
Salvation is the work of the triune God in Christ. And we're
going to see this in God's calling His elect from among the Gentiles.
And then reprobation. What is reprobation? What do
you mean by reprobation? Well, this is God's work of justly
hardening a sinner in his sins. And this is just because it's
due to a sinner's willful rejection of God. And we're going to see
this in God's reprobation of those who willfully rejected
Him in political Israel. Now, the point I'm making to
you about salvation and reprobation is this. The Scripture says,
the wages of sin is death. You see, a wage is something...
you work for a wage, you're earning a wage. The wages of sin is death. The reprobate gets what he justly
earned. But the gift of God, salvation,
is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's all by
grace, worked out by Christ for His people. Now, we're going
to begin with reprobation. We'll begin in verse 2. And again,
let me repeat the point. Reprobation is the wage earned
by the sinner, justly given from God because of the sinner's works.
Alright? I will give you five reasons
God turned rebellious sinners over to reprobation in political
Israel. I'm going to show you five reasons
here that God gives that He turned sinners over to reprobation.
This was the sinner's fault. Number one, when He turned them
to reprobation, it wasn't the fault of God. The fault was all
in the sinner. Now, God does ordain from the
foundation of the world. They were before of old ordained
to this covenant nation. But that ordination is just because
the sinner earned it in time by his works. Let me show you
this, verse 2. It's not God's fault. He said,
I've spread out my hands all the day. See, God doesn't prevent
anybody from coming to Him. We shouldn't ever present sovereign
election and God choosing some to save out of this pool of sin. We should never speak of that
as God preventing the rest from coming to Him. Because that's
not what election is. Election is just God's act of
choosing whom He's going to save in Christ. God doesn't prevent anybody from
coming to Him. God's hands were spread out to
those in political Israel, to the natural sons of Jacob. Paul
said they had more advantage over everybody because of what
God did in giving them His Word and everything, you know, the
law and the ceremonies and all, the temple and all that He gave
to them. And yet they wouldn't seek God. These rebels in Israel
wouldn't seek God and they wouldn't worship God. Why? God says there in verse 2, because
they are a rebellious people, which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts. And you can put right there for
thoughts, you can put this word, after their own will. That's
what he's talking about, after their own will. Now by nature,
sinners boast in their free will. by nature. Men come into this
world loving their so-called free will, boasting of their
free will, and they hate for anybody to violate what they
think is their free will. Don't tell me I'm not free to
choose what I will and what I want. And therefore, that's why the
Spirit of God said that when Isaiah declared this in his day,
he was very bold. to say it, because this is offensive
to men. One reason it's offensive is
because this truth declares to sinners, to every unregenerate
sinner, that your will is nothing but obstinate rebellion against
God. That's all your natural will
is, obstinate rebellion against God. And yet, the sinner's will
is, he's walking in a way that's not good. But according to his
own thoughts, according to his own will, he thinks it's good. He thinks it's the right way.
Well, this is just what I think. Don't bow to what you think.
Bow to what God says. Don't wait to find that out the
hard way, because it will be painful. Find that out now. Bow to what God says, not what
you think. Now, here's the warning. If you
go on in your rebellious will, Eventually, God will let you
have your way. Eventually, God will turn you
over to that will. Reprobation is God giving a man
over to his sin-depraved will. He went through life saying,
don't violate my will. And eventually, God says, alright,
I'm not going to violate it. You can have it. You can have
it. Number two, God gives sinners
up in reprobation because they will not worship Christ, believe
on Christ alone to save them from their sins. That's number
two, the reason for reprobation. Look here at verse three. He
says, there are people that provoke with me to anger continually
to my face. How did they provoke God to anger?
God established one place, He'd meet with them over the mercy
seat. One place he'd meet with them.
It was a picture of the one place God will meet with a sinner,
that's in Christ alone. That's the one place God will
meet with a sinner. One place. God declared the sacrifice must
be the sacrifice He chose. And that sacrifice must be offered
by His high priest that He chose. And that's a picture of God's
chosen high priest, Christ the Lord, and God's chosen spotless
Lamb, Christ the Lord. God chose him. And yet, rebellious
sinners did what they would, where they would. They offered
what they would, what they willed, where they willed. Look at verse
3. Here's why God was angry. Why they angered God continually
to His face. They sacrificed in the gardens. They sacrificed what they would,
where they would. Alright? God declared their offering
was to be offered upon God's altar, and it was to be made
out of earth, and if it was made out of stone, it was not to be
hewn stone. A hammer and a chisel was never
to touch it. And that pictured Christ, who was made flesh, and
dwelt among His people, who willingly, not by coercion of the hammer,
He willingly obeyed God, And he willingly takes all our sacrifices
and offerings of faith and brings them to God perfect and righteous
and accepted by God. Because it's offered upon Christ
our altar. But the rebellious sinner willfully
offers upon the altar of his own making. Look at verse 3.
And they burn incense upon altars of brick. Not stone that's not
been hewn, no, upon brick. But that's something they made.
Now, we talk about idolatry, and it comes in a lot of different
forms. You see some of the forms of it here. But what it boils
down to is, idolatry is worshipping the God of your imagination the
way you will worship Him, the way you imagine He is to be worshipped. That's idolatry. That's the worship
of self, what that is. Everything a man worships by
nature, he invented himself. Everything about it. And God
won't receive that. The only way God will receive
a sinner is to come bowing to Christ. Come in the blood and
righteousness of Christ alone. Alright, number three. Why does
God turn sinners over to reprobation? It's due to their vain superstitions
and their curiosities. Verse four. He said, they remained
among the graves and they lodged the monuments. Why would people
be among the dead and lodging in these monuments? Rather than
looking to God for true revelation, for God to give you divine revelation
from the Holy Spirit, the natural man attempts to communicate with
the dead himself. He wants to communicate with
the spiritual world himself. How does he do that? He goes
to witches, and he goes to sorcerers, and he goes to astrologers, and
he goes to fortune tellers, and he reads his horoscope, and all
that stuff. That's where man lodges by nature,
right there. God said, go on in that, go on
in your superstition, go on not seeking true revelation from
God's Word, from God's Spirit. And he said, and I'll turn you
over to that. You'll be left in that. He left
in that. And here's the fourth thing.
They do this, sinners do this, willfully disobeying God and
His law. Look here, verse 4. They eat
swine's flesh and broth of abominable things is in their vessels. These
were dietary laws that God gave. And what these laws did was they
distinguished those in Israel from every other nation in the
world. Every other nation in the world ate swine and ate ate
these things that God says was an abomination. Why did God do
that? Why did He give them these laws
to distinguish them from everybody else in the world? Here's the
reason. It was a picture of the fact
that God's the only one who sanctifies His people from the rest of this
world. God's the only one that does that. He does that by writing
His word in our hearts and He brings us out from this world
and makes us follow Him. God's the only one that can do
that. That's what that pictured. But, these rebellious sinners,
they didn't understand anything about God's law. They didn't
understand what it declares, and they wouldn't ask God what
it declares. They wouldn't bow to what it
declares, because that's part of the enmity against God. Man
won't bow to God's law, and he can't bow to God's law, because
he hates God. Hates the lawgiver. And here's
five, God turns men over to reprobation because the chief way that they
willfully break God's law is using all these different things
we've looked at here to exalt themselves over other sinners
in self-righteousness. That's our number one offense
other than rejecting Christ is that we take all this false religion,
this vain religion, And by nature, we try to exalt ourselves over
other sinners because of these things. We do. Look here, verse
5. They say, Stand by thyself, come
not near to me, for I am holier than thou. Sinners are sanctified
by the triune God in Christ our Lord. That's how we're sanctified.
That's how we're made holy. Christ is our sanctification.
He's made unto you sanctification. And every chosen, redeemed, regenerated
child of God is holy. Find me one place in the scripture
where God says, I'm saying where God says it, where God says that
one of his sanctified children is more holy than another. Find
me one place where it says it. You'll search in vain. God never,
God never declares one of his children to be holier than one
of his other children. God makes us holy. God may grow
us at different places in that state of holiness so that, you
know, some might have a greater measure of faith than others.
But we're all still sanctified out of this world into the Kingdom
of God, into Christ our holiness, and we're holy. We're holy. We're not more holy than another.
That's the vain teaching of men. That's what these men were doing.
Now let's hear what God says about it. God said, verse 5,
these are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day.
That's the only place in Scripture you'll find where one sinner
is saying, I'm holier than another sinner. And it wasn't God saying
they were holier than others, it was a sinner saying he was
holier than others. That's the doctrine of men who
want to say they're getting more and more and more holy and less
and less and less sinful by their works and what they're doing.
God says, that's like you going out and burning a bunch of garbage
in a dump and the smoke of it going right in my nose. That's
what that's like to me. You know why? Because that's
saying we sanctified ourselves rather than saying God did it.
And God did it perfectly. That's how God does it. Now listen
to God. Listen to God. He's going to
declare here that when He turns a sinner over to reprobation,
It's the just recompense of that sinner's willful rebellion against
God. Look here at verse 6. Behold,
it's written before me. This was ordained of old. I will not keep silence, but
I will recompense. Even recompense into their bosom. Your iniquities and the iniquities
of your fathers together, saith the Lord, which have burned incense
upon the mountains, and blast-fumed me upon the hills." Do you see
this? If you don't worship God upon His holy mountain, in Christ
alone, by grace alone, through faith alone, by His work alone,
He says, it's blaspheming me. That's what it is. It may look
good, it may be in a crystal cathedral, and it may be appealing
to men, and men of this world may flock to it and praise you
and lift you on high. God said, every bit of it is
blaspheming me. And now watch, therefore. Brother Henry used to say, when
you see therefore, find out what it's there for. He just told
us, it's because they rejected Me in their rebellion. Therefore,
will I measure their former work into their bosom. Now get that,
I'm going to measure this iniquity into their bosom. They filled
up the measure of their iniquity, rejected Me. God says now, I'm
going to, into their heart, in their bosom, I'm going to harden
them. Remember Pharaoh, he rejected God, wouldn't hear Moses. He
hardened his heart, the Scripture says. And then the Scripture
says, and God hardened his heart. He wouldn't hear God. God made
it so he couldn't hear God. Alright? Now heed that word.
This is a warning from God, brethren. If you insist on having your
way, if you refuse to trust Christ alone, if you go on in vain superstition,
if you willfully thumb your nose at God and His law, if you exalt
yourself in self-righteousness, Eventually, God will justly turn
you over to reprobation. The wages of sin is death. You'll learn it. Turn over to
Proverbs 1.22. I want you to read this. It's a long passage, about 10
verses, but let's read this together. How long, ye simple ones, will
you love simplicity? Proverbs 1.22. And the scorners delight in their
scorning, and fools hate knowledge. A scorner is somebody that hears
this word and just ignores it. Says, I don't want to have any
part in that. I don't believe that. That's a scorner. He's
a fool who hates knowledge. Turn you at my reproof. Behold,
I will pour out My Spirit unto you. I will make known My words
unto you. But God says, because I've called
and you refused, I've stretched out My hand and no man regarded,
but you've said it not, all My counsel, and with none of My
reproof, I also will laugh at your calamity. I will mock when
your fear cometh. You mock Me, God said, I'm going
to mock you. When your fear cometh as desolation and your destruction
cometh as a whirlwind, when distress and anguish comes upon you, then
shall they call upon Me, but I will not answer. They shall
seek me early, but they shall not find me, for that they hated
knowledge." See, they earned this, and did not choose the
fear of the Lord. They would none of my counsel. They despised
all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of the
fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices.
For the turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity
of fools shall destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me
shall dwell safely. and shall be quiet from fear
of evil." Now that's our second point. That last verse there,
whoever turns to me shall dwell safely. Here's the second thing. Salvation is the gift of God's
grace and it's justly given because of Christ's works. Reprobation
is justly given because of the sinner's works. Salvation is
justly given because of Christ's works. Now look here in verse
1. I am sought of them that ask
not for me. I am found of them that sought
me not. Now according to the Apostle
Paul, this is speaking of God's elect among the Gentiles. That's
God's elect. The Gentiles were God's elect
outside of that political Israel. That's you and me, brethren.
That's you and me and everybody that God shall call outside of
that nation. outside of that nation. This
was our natural born state while we were dead in sin. We asked
not for God. We did not seek God. That was
our natural state. We were the people we just read
about. No different from them. Listen
to the scripture. Ephesians 2.12 says, At that
time you were without Christ, You were aliens from the commonwealth
of Israel. You were strangers from the covenants
of promise. You had no hope and you were
without God in the world. We were not asking for God. We
weren't seeking God. We didn't seek righteousness
from God because we didn't think we needed God and His righteousness. That was our natural born state.
In fact, we weren't any different than those natural sons of Abba.
No different from them. We've before proved both Jews
and Gentiles, Paul said, that they're all under sin. It's written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that understandeth,
there's none that seeketh after God. That's true of Jew and Gentile,
every child of Adam. And that's where we were. And
yet now God says this, I'm sought of them. And He says there, and
I'm found of them. I'm sought of them and I'm found
of them. Well, who made the difference? Who made the difference? Well,
we just got to a point where we changed our mind. We changed
our will and we decided that we wouldn't be enmity against
God anymore. You know that's not so. God said, can the Ethiopian
change his skin? Can the leopard change his spots?
Then may you also do good that are accustomed to doing evil.
You can't change your nature. I can't change my nature. The
natural man doesn't receive the things of the Spirit of God.
They're foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them because
they're spiritually discerned. Only God made the difference.
And He made that difference by His grace. Look at verse 1 again. Here's how we came to seek Him
and find Him. I said, Behold Me, Behold Me,
unto a nation that was not called by My name. In Romans 10.20,
Paul quotes Isaiah like this. Listen to this. He says it this
way. I was made manifest unto them that ask not after me. That's how we're made to have
a will to seek God. And that's how we're made to
find God. It's through the preaching of the gospel by a God-sent preacher. That Christ Himself, through
the Holy Spirit of God, speaks into the hearts of His children.
And this is what He says. Learn the doctrine of election.
Learn the doctrine of predestination. Learn the doctrine... It's good
to learn those things and understand how God declares those things,
but this is what He says into your heart. Behold Me. Behold
Me. The key to understanding all
doctrine is to behold Christ. Behold Christ. How am I going
to understand this? Well, what gives Christ all the
glory? You want to know how I go to God's Word, study God's Word?
When I look at a passage and I try to figure out, well, does
it mean that or does it mean this? First question I ask is,
which one gives Christ more glory? That's the truth of it. He's
the key to understanding all the Scriptures. Which one abases
the sinner and gives Christ all the glory? Behold in Christ we
behold that the triune God made all the difference. The only
difference between us and other sinners, and He did it by grace.
What do you behold when you behold Christ? When you behold Christ,
you behold that it was in Christ that God our Father chose us
and ordained us to salvation. Did He do that without looking
to a work at all? It was before you and I did any
good or evil. That's to declare, brethren,
that it wasn't based on our works, but it was based on a work. You
know, salvation is unconditional. Election is unconditional as
far as it not being conditioned on anything in us. But its condition,
it does have a condition. And that condition was on Christ
coming and fulfilling the covenant of God, fulfilling God's law
and making us righteous and just before God. That was a condition. So that's what you behold when
you see election. It's God purposing to make Christ
the firstborn among many brethren. He's coming to save His people
from our sin. And then when you behold Christ,
you behold Christ that went to that cross and perfected that
work. He's there on that cross loving
God and His brethren as Himself. He's on that cross. That's righteousness,
He said. He said to love God and your
neighbor as yourself. That's what He was doing for
God and for His people on that cross. That's the positive side
of the law. And He did it by fulfilling the
negative side of the law. By giving Himself to be made
sin for His people and to bear the judgment of God and to justifies
and put away our sin. So there you have the full fulfillment
of the law, in positive and negative, in what Christ did by laying
down His life on that cross. And then, when you behold Christ,
you behold that it was in Christ and by Christ and for Christ's
sake that He sent the Holy Spirit to us and gave us life, spoken
to our hearts and said, behold me. so that we could behold this
and see all these blessings that are given freely to us by God.
He did this. Every bit of it's in Christ,
brethren, all based on His work and what He would accomplish.
And now, because He said, Behold Me, that's when by His grace
He gave us a will in the day of His power to seek Him. And
that's when He made us to find Him. And ever since then, by
that same sovereign grace, by Him constantly speaking, Behold
Me, Behold Me, every time you hear this gospel preached. Brethren,
when you go to His Word and read His Word, He's saying, Behold
Me, Behold Me. And from then on, we seek Him
and we find Him more and more and more by His grace. It's all
by grace, brethren. Now lastly, let me just repeat
what we've seen here. I want you to get this. If sinners
perish in our sins, we have no one to blame but ourselves. Reprobation
is God's just recompense for our own transgressions, for our
works. But if sinners are saved, we
have no one to praise but God. Salvation is God's just gift
because of Christ's obedience on our behalf, because of Christ's
works. You're either going to be found
in your works or in Christ's works. If you're found in your
works, you're reprobate, cast out forever. If you're found
in Christ's works, you're saved. And the reason I say that is
God does not save and He does not condemn unjustly. All of
this was ordained before the foundation of the world, every
bit of it. But the wages of sin is death. So that ordination,
when these reprobates were before of old ordained to that condemnation,
it had to be inclusive of the fact that they would earn this
reprobation by the wages of sin, by their own works. But the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ. God ordained salvation
of all His people before the foundation of the world, and
it was inclusive of Christ fulfilling these works, and therefore God
justly giving this to us in Christ. You get what I'm saying? It's
just. God didn't just, He didn't just randomly say, alright, well
I'm just gonna, I'm just gonna turn that over to reprobation.
No. No. God chose the people in Christ,
looking to Christ to work out a righteousness for them. And
God ordained His people to reprobation, looking at the fact that they
would reject him and rebel against him. And it was all part of that
ordination. They're going to reject me. Here's
the point, brethren. Don't trifle with God's Word.
Don't take this Word lightly and just go on and on in rebellion
because there will come a point that God will just turn you over,
harden your heart so you can't hear Him. You won't have any
desire to come hear the Word of God. You see it happen every
day. People are raised in a church and maybe even made a profession
in a church and a time comes when they just leave the church
and they go out in the world and they just don't have, they
get up Sunday morning where they used to get up and go hear the
Word of God. Now they get up and go to the ball field. Don't
have any desire for it. Won't teach their children nothing.
And I pray God will make you hear this because I tell you
the one way you're going to be safe from that reprobation is
if Christ says right now, behold me. That's how you'll be safe
from it, by His grace. All right, let's stand together. Lord, I pray that you would help
us to understand these things. Help us to understand that whatever
comes to pass in time is what you ordained before the foundation
of this world. It's just. Nothing you do is
unjust. Everything is holy and righteous
and true. All the paths of the Lord God
are mercy and truth. Make us to understand this. Even
if we don't understand this, more importantly, just make us
believe you and trust you. There's so much we don't understand.
We don't have to reason it and logically understand it. Just,
Lord, give us faith to believe you. That's all that's important,
that you understand it, that you know it. We trust you. Forgive us our sins, Lord, we
ask you. Thank you for your grace in calling
us out. We pray, Lord, that you would
save some of your people here. We pray for that, ask you to
do it in your will and your time. And Lord, even the reprobate,
we thank you for your justice. We know it's just. We praise
you for your righteousness. Lord, we pray now you forgive
us and call us by your grace. In Christ's name we pray, Amen.