Isaiah chapter 17, Isaiah chapter
17, my text will be found in verses 10 and 11. The scripture says, because thou
hast forgotten the God of thy salvation. and has not been mindful
of the rock of thy strength. Therefore shalt thou plant pleasant
plants, and shalt set it with strange slips, or seeds, foreign
seeds. In the day shalt thou make thy
plant to grow, and in the morning shalt thou make thy seed to flourish. But the harvest shall be a heap
in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. Now we know this, that the Word
of God is clear, is very clear concerning the lot and circumstances
of men in this world. When Adam sinned and judgment
fell on him, in that very second he ate of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, he and all his posterity died. This is a certain fact according
to the Word of God. Wherefore, as by one man sin
entered into the world, and death by sin, so death passed upon
all men, for all have sinned. When? When Adam sinned, we sinned. When he died, we died. And as he ran and hid from God
when he heard His voice, even so do men by nature run
from God, hiding from Him and despising the living God. We will not despise the God of
our own making. Man doesn't despise that God.
He despises not the God of his own making, A god of our own perverted imagination,
even because man has power over such a god to manipulate him.
Why do you think man makes images and idols out of wood and stone
and all such things? Because they can move him. If they don't want him to move,
they nail him to something. God says, those gods that can
be moved by you are an abomination. or an abomination. He makes fun
of them. If you read through Isaiah and
you can't see the humor and satire in what God is saying, you're
missing it. He is saying, you burnt a piece of wood for your
supper, you took that burnt log, you made it a god, you set it
up on an ox, now you burden the ox with that stupid idol. It
can't do anything. This is man's God. But the carnal
mind is enmity against the living God, and is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. Therefore, the only hope,
this is the only hope then for such men, such sinners as Adam's
race, is Jesus Christ. He is the only hope given to
us by God, in the Word of God. As we shall soon see. And I want
to show you this. And believer, I'm going to show
you some things here, and it's going to discomfort you, but
I want to first comfort you. I want to first settle you. Before
we go into this text, I want to first settle you with this. That as soon as a person sees
and believes on Jesus Christ, We know this, that He alone has
redeemed us to God by His blood. And we, because we believe on
Christ, know this for sure, we are the elect of God. And all
who rest upon this solid rock, this eternal rock as a sure foundation,
listen, you shall not be ashamed. You got that? You who believe
on Christ, you shall not be ashamed. The Scriptures say it plainly
in Zephaniah chapter 3 and verse 11. In that day shalt thou not
be ashamed. Ashamed of what? Ashamed for
all thy doings wherein thou hast transgressed
against me. What are all our doings? They
are transgressions against God. Yet God promises to His people
in that day. What day? In the day you approach
unto the throne of God. In the day you go to meet God,
you shall not be ashamed of your doings. Why? Because I will take
them away. I have taken them away. Where have they gone? They were
laid on Christ. They were imputed to Christ.
They were charged to Him. He was made sin for us, who knew
no sin, that we, through Him, might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. He has taken them away. And believers,
we confess that our doings and transgressions before God, we
confess them, readily confess them. But our God has removed them.
You should know that. You should be assured of that.
As far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed
our transgressions from us. Therefore, we who come before
the throne of grace are not disappointed. We're not ashamed. We shall be
received and shall receive the full inheritance that Christ
has merited with His blood. Everything Christ earned, we
shall receive. It is sure. This is not wavering. Our salvation is not wavering.
It's sure. It's made sure by the death of
Jesus Christ. And whether we go to Him, in
death, or He returns to us before we die, we know this, we shall
be received of Him. This is our hope. This is our
confidence that we shall not be ashamed in His presence because
Christ has taken away our sins. You know what He shall say to
us on His right hand? Come. Come, you blessed of my
Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you before the foundation
of the world. Fear not, little flock. It is
your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. It's His
good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Believer in Christ,
you born again, rejoice. You should rejoice. You should
rejoice in who? In Christ. You who believe on Christ, you
should always be what? Looking to Christ. So where then is the source of
our joy, the source of our comfort, the source of our peace? In Christ. In Christ! In Christ! And Christ
alone. No other place. Is there any
joy, any comfort, any peace in anything else but Christ? And
so, believer in Christ, you are sure of glory, not based on your
merits, praise God, But based on the merits of the Son of God,
I am assured that I'm not going to be ashamed. Now with that
in mind, let us also realize that until that day comes, we
must be mindful of where we are. We must be mindful of where we
are. In this world, our Lord Jesus
told us, you shall have tribulation. You shall have it. It's not a
question, it's not a maybe, it's not an if. It's not a matter
of if, it's just a matter of when. We shall have tribulation
in this world. Because of Adam's sin, not only
was man's soul cursed to death, but the world was cursed for
our sake. He said, Cursed is the ground
for your sake. In sorrow shalt thou eat of it
all the days of thy life. Thorns and thistles shall break
forth unto thee, and in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy
bread. What are these thorns and thistles?
What are they? They are the vexations and vanity
of this world. Anybody who has lived any part
in this world has understood the vanity and vexation of everything
under the sun. And the older you grow, the more
you should realize this. Vanity of vanities, all is what? Vanity and vexation of spirit. That's my experience under the
sun. And if you are a child of God,
you know that's your experience under the sun. Everything's vanity. Therefore God, having decreed
disappointments and sorrows, none of us will escape it. I don't care how hard you try
to escape trouble, you're not going to escape it. Trouble lurks
around every corner. None of us shall escape it by
skill or work or sheer determination. Therefore, believer, you should
be wise and expect it. Shouldn't you be wise and expect
it if the Lord promised it to you? Though we have glory, sure. We have glory, sure. Salvation's
accomplished. Redemption's applied. The Spirit's
been given. But in this world, you will experience
great danger and trouble. Now, if a man were a sailor,
would he not be wise while he is in port and the wind is calm,
would he not be wise to anticipate the storm of his journey?" He
would be a wise sailor who would anticipate the storm and prepare
as best he can for the storm. Now, you take another sailor
who's a foolish sailor, and he, ah, looks clear today, everything
I guess is just going to go okay. and he does nothing to prepare. If both ships were lost, you
would pity the wise sailor and condemn the foolish sailor. Even so, believer, seeing that
sin remains in our flesh, that in this flesh dwelleth no good
thing, the world is opposed to us, Satan is opposed to us, our
flesh is opposed to us, troubles await us, would we not be then
wise to prepare? We should be wise to prepare. You know, the most cutting sorrows
that a man could feel are self-inflicted wounds. Aren't those the most
painful? Don't you suppose that the foolish
sailor, after he had returned, that it would be more painful
for him than it would have been for the wise sailor to return
having their vessels and crews lost? It would have been more
painful for the foolish because he said, Oh my soul, I did not
prepare and I lost everything. At least the other one can say,
Oh, I did everything I could. The other would be more cutting.
Both would be miserable. Both would be hurtful. But the
more painful is the self-inflicted wounds. And does not the Word of God
sting when He points these self-inflicted wounds to us? Don't turn there because I've
got plenty to go. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 17, it says, Hast
thou not procured this unto thyself? in that thou hast forsaken the
Lord thy God." Israel forsook God, and they
were only reaping what they sowed. He said, did you not do this
to yourself? He said, Thy wickedness shall
correct thee, and thy backsliding shall reprove thee. Therefore
know and see that it is an evil and bitter that thou hast forsaken
thy God. So what's the result of forsaking
God? It is bitter sorrow. And listen, forsaking God is
a self-inflicted wound. A self-inflicted wound. Believer
in Christ, this world is full of sorrow, grief, and pain. We
have foes on every side that are mighty and deceptive. Satan,
the world, and the flesh are always opposed to us, trying
to either allure us to law or away from Christ. Always. This is not a war that any is
going to be discharged from. You, believer, are at war with
yourself, with the world, and with Satan. And these are not
flesh and blood. These are principalities and
powers and rulers of darkness. These are not just mere mortals. I tell you, when your neighbor
hates you, it's really not a physical hatred. He hates your Christ.
He hates your God, and he hates your religion. We're at war. Therefore, friends, on this journey,
we should be wise. Knowing our foes, we should be
wise. What is the wisdom God is teaching?
Do not forsake God. Do not forsake thy God. Well, preacher, that's impossible.
How can a believer forget Christ? Is it? Now listen. It is impossible
for a believer to be separated from Christ. It is impossible
for us to be plucked out of the hand of Christ. It is impossible
for a believer to lose his salvation, seeing it was purposed of God,
redeemed of Christ, and brought to us by the Holy Spirit, and
kept by the Holy Spirit. Since salvation is of the Lord
and not of us, it's impossible for us to lose it. So if you
have it, you have it forever. But listen, it is possible for
you to forsake God. It's possible for you and I to
forget God. 2 Timothy 2, the apostle says this
about our salvation. He wants to make this very clear
to you. Even though you believe not, God will not deny Himself. He cannot deny Himself. Because
of your union with Christ, even though you believe not. Why do
you say that? Because it's possible for you not to believe. It's possible for you to forsake
God. You see, we are free from the
guilt of sin, the power of sin, but never the presence of sin
until we leave this body. Therefore, Paul warns us If any man thinketh he stand, take heed, lest he fall. And God warns us. He warns us
of this miserable, self-inflicted wound of forsaking Him in our
text. Now, I'm going to give you four
things. First of all, the forgetting of God by His people. The consequence
of forgetting God the temporary prosperity of that consequence,
and then the end of your plans, the end of your sin. So let's first see this. I want
us to see first, look at your text, and know this. God is speaking to His people.
He's not speaking to the lost. He's speaking to His people.
He said, because thou hast forgotten the God of thy salvation, and
thou hast not been mindful of the rock of thy strength." These
are not lost people, even because lost people cannot forget the
God they never knew. You can't forget somebody you
never knew. Lost men do not know God. Matter
of fact, the gospel is a mystery to the lost. And so this is for
believers. So consider, then believers,
the goodness of God. Why you should not forsake God?
His goodness to you. His goodness. Consider His loving
kindness in His salvation. Now set your minds. Set your minds on Him. Set your
minds on the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom the church is built.
See, thy salvation was no accident. You were not saved by accident.
You were saved on purpose, by design, by decree. God purposed
your salvation. And the whole heart and mind
of God is set on the salvation of His people. In Ephesians chapter
3, the apostle says this, God created the whole world for this
purpose, to the intent. What's the intent of all the
creation of God, all the providence of God? The intent is to reveal
the manifest, manifold wisdom of God to the church. To you. God has done everything to reveal
this gospel to you. Even what He purposed in Christ
before the world began. This gospel. was hid to men,
but revealed to you on purpose. And here's the gospel. That Jesus
Christ has come and redeemed you by His blood. This is the
gospel. This is the goodness of God,
that He came and redeemed you, and He shall lose none of you. Read it with me in John chapter
6. John chapter 6. John chapter 6 and verse 37. Listen to the confidence of Christ.
All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And him that
cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. For I came down from
heaven not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent
me. What's the will of Him that sent Him? By the which will we
are sanctified through the offering of the body of Christ once for
all. That's the will of God. And this is the will of Him that
sent Me, that of all He hath given Me, I should lose who? Nothing. Nothing. but raise it
up again at the last day." And this salvation that was purposed
of God was not laid on the elect. It was laid on Christ. I want
you to understand that. That's vital to you looking to
Christ, is that salvation is not on you. It is on Him. He said, they shall come to Me. And I should lose, I should lose
nothing. So who's salvation resting on?
You? No. Christ. It's resting on Christ. And you are built on Christ,
you believer. You're built on Christ. By God
He puts you on Christ. And you are on the foundation,
a solid rock. And you should not forget it.
Don't forget it. Bind it around your heart. Bind
it and hang on to it with all your might. Be wise so as not
to forget salvation is of the Lord. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say rejoice. Rejoice
in who? The Lord. At all times trust
the Lord. I put in the bulletin, when are
you to trust the Lord? At all times. How much? With
all your heart. So at all times, with all your
heart, trust the Lord. That's what we should do. Why? Because of our salvation. Because
He's saved us. Because He won't lose us. And therefore, the responsibility
of our salvation rests on Him. He's provided the robe of righteousness
and by His blood, He has cleansed us from all our sins. God in absolute righteousness
punished His Son and Jesus cried in full measure, It is finished! What? Your salvation? So what then are we to do? Nothing. Look to Him. Look to Him. What do I do tomorrow? Look to Him. What do I do today? Look to Him. Obey Him. Follow Him. Trust Him. I point you to Him. I'm always
pointing you to Him. I don't have any other place.
I got one finger and it points to Christ. That's it. That's
all I've got. And that's all you need, believer,
is to be in Him and not forget Him. Have you believed on the only
begotten Son of God? Then you be sure of this. Our
salvation is sure. And God will never forget you. Isn't that good? Isn't that pleasant? God will never forget you. If
your mind, if you go stark raving mad and you can't remember your
own name, God will never forget you. That's comforting. You should lay down on that.
You should die with that. Isn't that the best place to
die? Wrapped in the arms of Christ.
Sheltered, protected. Looking to Him. Looking to Him. God will never forget His people.
He said, can a woman forget her sucking child? Yes, but I will
never forget you. And because He won't forget us,
listen, because He knows our frame, that we are dust, He knows
where we are, listen, because He will not forget us, He will
also not leave off His chastisement of us. I want you to understand,
chastisement is part of His saving grace. It's part of His mercy. For if you are without chastisement,
then are you, what? Bastards and not sons. God knowing our propensity to
backslide, He said, I will heal their backsliding. He already
knows your propensity to backslide. He knows your propensity to forget
Him. He knows it. And what does He
do? He corrects us. He corrects us. Out of love and grace, He corrects
us. And so what in that is the wise
thing for us to do? Never forget God. Always keep
your eyes. Now then, look. Israel had forgotten
God. Because thou hast forgotten the
God of thy salvation, thou hast not been mindful of the rock
of thy strength. Notice what happens. This is second the consequence. When you forget God, this is
exactly what you will do. This is exactly what I will do.
Every time. What did they do? Therefore,
shalt thou plant pleasant plants, and set them with strange slips. The consequence of forgetting
God is planting our own pleasant plants, and this word strange
slips means foreign seed. Foreign seed. Now the church
of God is compared in many places to a garden. A garden. In Song of Solomon 4.12 it says,
A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse. In Isaiah 61 verse
3, We are called trees of righteousness of the planting of the Lord. So you see the church is a garden.
And behold, the seed of the gospel has fallen into our hearts as
it was prepared by the Holy Spirit. Is that not a picture of a garden?
He prepares our hearts, the seed falls in, He produces what? Fruit unto God, which is the
fruit of the Spirit. But the moment a believer leaves
off looking to Christ, he begins digging in God's garden and planting
things that don't belong. planting what is called to them
pleasant plants. These pleasant plants are sin. Sin. Imagine him over there,
there's a nice beautiful garden, but he's leaving that, and he's
looking over here in this dark section, he starts planting some
different kinds of plants. And you watch that man, he's
tenderly putting it into the ground and covering it over,
and he's gently watering it, and he's watching it, expecting
it to grow. Oh, it's going to be so beautiful.
Oh, it's going to be the best plant in this garden. Yeah, that
plant's good. But this one, this one's going
to be really great. And you know what God does with
it? It's going to be a heap. It's going to be a heap. What
are some of these pleasant plants? And you would have to search
your own heart to see. I've got just a couple, just
a few. What about the pleasant plant
of family? Isn't that a pleasant plant? A man that findeth a wife findeth
a what? Good thing. Nothing wrong with
a husband and wife. Good thing marriage is. God instituted
it. It's a good thing. Children are
a heritage of the Lord. Children are wonderful and pleasant. They're good. Blessed is the
man that hath a quiver full of them, the Scripture says. Family
is good. There's nothing wrong with family. But you let a believer take his
eye off of God, and sure enough, he'll start tending to the pleasant
plant of his family. And forsaking God. Children, husbands, wives can
be good, but they are never meant to be idols. And they can be. They can be. If we are not careful, these
blessings of family will be grief if we set them above the Lord
Jesus Christ. How easily are we seduced to
set our love on loved ones above Christ and make them idols. David
did. David did it with Beersheba.
He did it with Absalom. Eli, the high priest, did it
with his sons. Set them above God. God said,
you get in there and correct them, children. Oh, but they're my children. They died. What about Elimelech? He left
because of famine and said, Oh, my family! Oh, my family! I've got to save my family and
I'm going to get away from God and His Word and I'm going to
go to Moab. That's what I'm going to do. He and his sons died in
Moab. Lot! Lot, for the sake of cows,
left God and His Word for Sodom. How'd that turn out? How many people have set their
affections so much on their family and set aside the worship of
God for the sake of family? If you do that, you have a pleasant
plan. You have a pleasant plan. How many people determine where
they worship based on the nearness of Ken? What have you done? You
set Ken above Christ. There's no doubt about that. Believer, if God had no church
in this city, would you give all and go where there is one? Consider that. That's vital. That's important. Christ should
be all. Christ is all. If we've taken
our eyes off Christ, we've said our family is our pleasant plant.
God's going to show you how it's going to turn out. Second, business. Business. I mean, you've got
to have a job in this lazy generation. Most men don't even work anymore.
They just bum off the government. Paul said, if man don't work,
he shouldn't eat. Work is good. There's nothing wrong with work.
You know, work and good are four-letter words? Both of them. They say, oh, work is a four-letter
word. So is good. Work is good. There's nothing
wrong with work. You should work. And believers should be the best
at what they do. They should be the best employees,
whether sweeping or running the nation. It doesn't matter. They
should be the best at it. Jobs are a blessing to have income
so as to support the gospel of Jesus Christ and send the gospel
forth. That is a blessing to have a
job. But I'll tell you this, it can also become an idol. It
can become a pleasant plant. So you have a man who's got a
business, all of a sudden it flourishes, it does well, and
he takes his eye off Christ. And what does he do? Make excuses.
Well, I've got to earn a living. Okay. You've got a pleasant plant.
That's what you've got. What about the pleasant plant
of self-righteousness? Well, you know, pastor, I've
not left the Lord for my family. And I've not left the Lord for
business. I'm very faithful. Oh, look at
me. You've got a pleasant plant.
And it doesn't belong in the garden of grace. There's pride of race, pride
of face, and the worst of all is the pride of grace. There is no such plant in the
garden of grace. We are saved by grace and grace
alone. May God help us with that plant,
because that is the most deceptive of plants, isn't it? And it so
easily takes root inside of us. If I thank Thee that I'm not
like this fellow over here, and I thank Thee that I fast twice
in the week, and I thank Thee I give tithes of all that I have,
what are you sounding like? You sound just like the Pharisee
who went home without justification. We should be the publican. Lord,
be merciful to me. Lord, please take these pleasant
plants and uproot them as quickly as you possibly can. That's what
we should be praying. Now then, what does the Lord
do when a believer strays and goes and plants his own garden? Look what he does. In the day shalt thou make thy
plant to grow, and in the morning thou make thy seed to flourish. What is he going to do? He'll
let you go. Is that what you want? Do you want
your family? Here you go. You want your business,
here it is. Think you're righteous enough?
Okay. I'll let it flourish for a little while. You work real
hard at it. You work all day to make it prosper. You see that family and all those
children, they're going to grow up and man, they're going to
love me and they're going to be just the best children. Oh,
I'm going to send them to the best schools and they're going
to get the best education. That business of mine is really
doing well. I'm doing really good. Everything's
going well. I'm earning. I can give more
to the church now. Well, you know, I'm just really...
I've been really studying this Word, man, and I have learned
so much. I'm just so knowledgeable. He'll let it flourish for a little
while, but notice what he does. Look. But... The harvest shall be a
heap in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow. You know
what all these pleasant plants are going to be to you are nothing
but grief and sorrow. And whose fault is it? Sorrow. When those things that you thought
would bring you happiness, when they come up as a heap, you'll
remember. You'll remember. In that day, There will be a
woe pronounced, a woe to the multitude of many people, which
make a noise like the noise of the sea in the rushing of nations."
Isn't that what happens when conviction of this comes in?
It comes in like a mighty sea roaring against you. How could
you be a child of God? Look at that plant you've planted.
Look at that wicked sin that you've done. How then could God
ever forgive you Oh, I'm going to leave you with hope. If you've
got pleasant plans, God will root them out. God will root
them out. They will be a heap. There's
no question. This is going to happen. It's
going to happen. For who? For His people. He will
do this. And when the rushing waters come
in, when the sorrows come in, look what God says He'll do.
The nations shall rush like a rushing mighty waters, but God shall
rebuke them. Isn't that good? Isn't that good? I picture that high priest, Joshua,
standing there before God in those filthy rags. He had planted
his own plants. He had married a strange woman
from another land, knowing that was against the law of God. He
did it, and he cultivated it, he nourished it, but now that
God had brought his children back, he felt the conviction
of it, and there he was to be the high priest, and he was standing
not in robes of white linen, but in filthy rags before God. And you know what he said? Why? It was his own sin. And he could say nothing. And
Satan stood up to rebuke him. And you know what? He didn't
have to say anything because Jesus Christ said, shut up. He's mine. I've died for him. Now get the best robe and put
it on him. Take the crown and put it on his head. And he turns
to Joshua and he says, if thou continue to follow my statutes. So what are we to do with these
pleasant plants when they become a heap? Throw them away. And forget not your God. Trust Him. Lean on Him. with everything you've got. I tell you, be wise to do it.
Be wise to do it. This world's full of suffering
enough, you'd save yourself a lot of suffering if you would just
trust Him. May God keep us from planting
these pleasant plants and serve our Lord. How? Faith. Trusting Him. Let's just face it, the reason
we plant those pleasant plants is because we don't trust Him. Unbelief. May God give us such faith and
love for Him. Love for Christ. I pray that God would bless this
to you, that God would help you in this. so we would avoid the
dangers of self-inflicted wounds. May God bless you. This stand
will be dismissed in prayer.