If you would turn back this morning
to our reading there in Isaiah 43. Isaiah 43, where we read
those first seven verses. I've entitled this message, A Word to Those Precious. You see, these words are words
from God to a particular people. As a matter of fact, the whole
Bible is. They are described as His covenant
people. They're called His elect. His church, His children, And they are a people in Christ. They are those who He has brought to believe
the truth. But they are also described here in verse 4, as those that are precious in His sight." Precious in His sight. And though like that nation Israel,
they are despised by this world, They're constantly assaulted
by Satan, and they're often found disobedient
and failing. But to God, in His sight, they're precious. And that word precious that is
used here is defined by words like esteemed, prized, to be highly valued, costly, valuable, Appraised as such. Rare. And the root word actually means
something like heavy. Just like the heavy metals such
as gold. He calls us precious. And they are that because He's
made us so in the Lord Jesus Christ. And all He has done for these,
or ever will do for these, is because
of His love for them. Because they're precious to Him. And they are pictured, as is
illustrated in this book, they are pictured as a whole by this
nation Israel. And what God says of this nation
is more spiritually applicable to them. He writes through Moses, The
Lord did not set His love upon you, nor choose you, because
you were more in number than any people, for you were the
fewest of all people, but because the Lord loved you. And because he would keep the
oath which he had sworn unto your fathers, hath the Lord brought
you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you out of the house
of bondmen from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt." What he did in
a picture for this nation. He does for that holy nation
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And they are obviously all sinners. And for this reason, we read
in Matthew's Gospel, for this reason, Jesus is called Jesus. It is because He shall save His
people from their sins. He will save these sinners. And God, as He did with Israel,
He never hides the fact of what they are in themselves. He never
glosses over our sins and our weaknesses and our failures and
our disobedience. As a matter of fact, He doesn't
just illustrate this people by the nation of Israel as a whole,
but also individually by that man from which that nation's
name came." He speaks of Jacob here. And he speaks of Israel
here. And in truth, they were one and
the same man. Jacob means what we are by nature. conniver, supplanter, tricksters. And Israel, what he makes us
by grace, a prince with God. Precious to God. So he begins
in this first verse with a butt, which is one of those butts of
grace. After these people have faced
all these judgments, all these things have been brought to pass,
so as it would appear that they would surely all perish from
off the earth. But that statement begins with
but. But. But now. He says, thus saith the Lord. And when I read that, after having
read it here and other places more times than I could number,
it struck me what grace it would be to us. If we could be brought
to cease from hearing what men say. Cease ye from man whose
breath is in his nostrils. If we could just forget what
men say and think what he says. Thus said the Lord. And in the final analysis, in
that great day, when all stand before God, all of these proud
opinions of men and women, all their philosophies, all their
ideas, all their natural thinking, it will be not only of no count,
but it will be against them. And the only thing that will
stand then is the only thing that really stands now, the only
thing that will ever speak peace to our hearts and give us hope. And that is, thus saith the Lord. What he says is all that is true. What he says is the only thing
that will count or matter. And when you come to this text,
he says, but now, thus saith the Lord that created thee, O
Jacob. In other words, this is what
is natural of Jacob. This is what man has fallen to
after the creation. But look at what it says in the
next statement. Because when it speaks of us
as Israel, he says, "...and He that formed thee, O Israel." And that word formed there is
a word that has reference to the work of a potter. We are just clay. We are, as the Apostle says in
that first Adam, all of the same lump. We all are in ourselves
and by ourselves, and anything we could do, just a total, unorganized,
ugly mass of sin. But if we're Israel, it's because
He formed us. In other words, the Scriptures,
make reference to this language, and not only here but other places,
make reference to being molded by a potter into different vessels. You see, when God describes Himself
in the book of Jeremiah, He describes Him and His absolute sovereignty,
and the absolute sovereignty of His grace, being gracious
to whom He will, He describes Himself like a potter. Turn over to Jeremiah, in Jeremiah
chapter 18. In Jeremiah 18, it says, "...the
word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord saying, Arise and go
down to the potter's house." And that is desperately the need
of us as sinners. It is to be taken down to the
potter's house. In other words, this is not my
illustration. This isn't my idea of how God
is or my idea of what He does. This is His illustration of Himself. He said, Arise and go down to
the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear My
words. In other words, what God says
about Himself, what He says about us, is all represented by what
He shows Himself to be in the potter and us as the clay. Jeremiah says, "...then I went
down to the potter's house, and behold, he wrought a work on
the wheels." And the vessel that he made of clay was marred in
the hand of the potter. So he made it again another vessel,
as seemed good to the potter to make it." Do you see that? It was not the vessel that made
itself. It was not the vessel that determined
its shape or its use. It was the potter who took the
clay and by his hand, and his hand alone, shaped and molded
and made that vessel to be what it was in his sight. As it seemed good to the potter
to make it. And that will be the final say
on everything. Not only in what we each and
everyone are as recipients of His grace and mercy, but in everything. Everything is, as so it seems
good, in His sight. Man boasts of a so-called free
will. But he cannot by his will change
anything, and most especially his own self and his own nature. And though he fails at it, time
after time after time in his blindness, he still thinks he's
free to do what he wants to. But that's the problem. The problem is his want to. The
problem is that nature and heart of sin that wants anything and
everything but God, will believe anything and everything but the
truth of God, will find and seek out every way except the way
that leads to life. Then the word of the Lord came
to me saying, O house of Israel, cannot I do
with you as this potter, saith the Lord? Behold, as the clay
is in the potter's hand, so are you in mine hand, O house of
Israel." We can fight that as long as we want to, but the right
of God to do what He will with us is still at the very foundation
of knowing who God really is and acknowledging Him. He can do with us what He will. And this is not some stretched
view of this text. If you turn over to Romans 9,
in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul is led by the Spirit of
God and he takes up the same thing. In other words, it is
God who formed us Israel if we are Israel. We are all Jacob's
in ourselves, but if by God's grace we are found to be these
Israelites, these true Israelites who are not such outwardly, but
inwardly, these precious ones in God's sight, it's because
in His grace He just would. So Paul writes in Romans chapter
9, In verse 21, he takes up that same theme. He says, "...hath
not the potter power over the clay of the same lump?" God's people don't come from
a better lump than other people. We have the same fallen parrots. We have the same fallen head
of our race, the first Adam. We are all of the same lump,
none better than the other. None more able to do for God
than the other. None more able to believe God
than the other. And so, if we're ever precious
in His sight, It will have to be because of His free, sovereign
choice and grace. He gives Pharaoh as an example. He says, as just every vessel
lives, can I not do with my own what I will? And so it says,
He hardened Pharaoh's heart. All he had to do that was leave
him to himself. He hardened Pharaoh's heart,
and then he says this in verse 18, Therefore hath he mercy on
whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardens. You say, God can't do that. He says, I've already done it.
I'm the potter. I'm the one who makes the vessels."
He says, "'Nay, but O man, who art thou that replies against
God? Shall the thing formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?' You know, that's the mark of
every sinner. To blame his sin, to blame his
wickedness, to blame his disobedience on God rather than to take the
responsibility of it to his own self? Shall the things formed say to
him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the
potter power over the clay? Who's running this world? Who's
running this universe? Men may, as one said, shoot arrows
up to heaven, but they'll just fall back on our heads. We can
defy the throne. We can rebel against the throne,
but not successfully. Never successfully. There was an old song that said
something like, I fought the law and the law won. That would
be a truth concerning all that rebel against God. You can fight
Him, but you won't win. And if He doesn't win, If He doesn't
win over you, if He doesn't conquer you, if He does not bring you
down, if He does not open your eyes, open your heart, quicken
that deadness in you and bring you to life and faith, you'll
perish. He says, "...hath not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel under
honor and another under dishonor?" Can the potter take the clay
that belongs to him, all of it, do with it what he will, make
a vessel of one kind and a vessel of another? What if God, willing
to show His wrath, somebody said, well, God's a God of love. Doesn't
sound like it to me. Not outside of Christ. What if
God, willing to show His wrath and to make His power known,
endured with much long sufferings the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction? He's not going to save these. He's left them to themselves.
He's left them to their wickedness. He's left them to be justly punished
for their sins. And they go on in this world.
And He waits. He tolerates. He hears their
rebellion. He sees their wickedness. He
knows exactly why they do what they do. Why does He wait? Why
does He put up with it? Why doesn't He bring His justice
and wrath on them right now? is because He might make known
the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy." They're vessels of mercy. He
waits with longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
that He might make known the riches of His glory. What is
that? The riches of His grace. the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto glory, even
us whom He hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the
Gentiles." In other words, God in sovereign mercy, out of this
massive lump of fallen humanity, He has a chosen people. He has
prepared for these to be vessels of mercy. A people from among
the Jews and the Gentiles of which this nation we're talking
about represents. And because of this, He says
to these precious ones, fear not. Fear not. He says, look to Me. He says,
confess your sinfulness. He says, repent of your dead
works. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and trust Him alone for all things. And fear not. Thus saith the Lord that created
thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not." Isn't
it amazing? Isn't it amazing that God would
say to these precious ones who deserve so much ill from Him,
that He would say to them, Fear not. Don't fear. Because he that hath fear hath
torment." You know, it doesn't matter how much bravado we put
up. It doesn't matter how much we
tell people, we're not afraid of God. We don't even believe
in God maybe. That doesn't change His existence
one bit. Doesn't change it one bit. And John said, there is no fear
in love. For perfect love casteth out
fear, because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. How can I stand before such a
God and believe what He says? Fear not. Fear not. But he doesn't just say this
out of mere sentiment. He doesn't just say this out
of some kind of mushy feelings like men and women make God to
be. He says it based on fact. He says it to men on a just basis. He says so in righteousness because
the next phrase is this, "...for I have redeemed thee." Those not redeemed have every
right to fear Him, to be afraid. Those redeemed by Him, they have
no need of fear. I have redeemed thee. What is redemption? What is redemption? Well, redemption, one sense of
it means something like this, to buy back as of a slave from
the slave market. That was the picture God gave
in the nation of Israel under the law. When an Israelite would
sell themselves into slavery, when they would fall into poverty,
whatever would happen to them whereby they lost everything,
all their possessions, and came to be servants to somebody else, they could be redeemed. They
could be redeemed. Redeemed like a slave off the
slave market, just like Hosea went down and redeemed Gomer. Why did he do that? Because she
was already his wife. She was precious to him. Or as
Boaz, who is a picture of what in Scripture is called the kinsman
redeemer. who was not only able, who was
not only a near kin to Ruth and Naomi, who was not only one who
was willing to go down there, but who actually went to the
gate, satisfied every claim, and redeemed them. He said, I've redeemed you. He
didn't say, if you will believe, I redeemed you. He said, if you'll
do this, I'll redeem you. I've heard preachers say that
all the time. If you'll do this, that or the other, God will redeem
you. No, He says, I've redeemed you.
I've redeemed you. The cost of redemption from sin.
The cost of redemption from the curse of the law, the cost of
redemption of sinners such as we are, is such it's impossible
for a sinner to pay. You can't pay it. I couldn't
pay it for you. Psalm 49, it says, none of them
can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for
him. I can't redeem the dearest ones
that are to my heart in this world." He says, I've redeemed you. How
is that? What could be of such infinite
worth and value so as to be able to redeem this multitude of sinners
chosen of God from among Jew and Gentile, a numberless number
which no man can number, but that God numbered so He could
redeem them." What could be so valuable? Peter says, you are not redeemed
by silver and gold. You're not redeemed by these
things. You're not redeemed by the things
even that pointed to this redemption. You're not redeemed by the blood
of bulls and goats and all these sacrifices. You're not redeemed
by that coin that represented a set price of redemption. You're
not redeemed by any of these things. But by what? The precious
blood of Christ. The Lamb without blemish? The
Lamb without spot? The only man ever to live in
this world who was a sinless, perfect being? Spotless Lamb
of God, no blemish? God in perfect human flesh. Precious. His blood. is precious. And that's what's
taking place on the cross, this redemption. It's called eternal
redemption. He made manifest on that cross
this eternal redemption. He redeemed all His people from
the curse of the law because He made a curse for them in their
place. He redeemed us. I can't say that
to your heart, make you believe it. I can't say that to you, knowing
that you personally were such. But I know this, I know that
the Lord can say it to your heart. He can speak louder than your
own heart. He can speak louder than the
voices of all of these men and women saying what they will,
and He can say to your heart, He can manifest His love in your
heart and convince you, I have redeemed
you. And when we're brought to that
point, to know our unworthiness. Lord,
You know what I am. I try to be what I'm not, but
You know what I am. You know my sins. You know my
awfulness, my vileness, my corruptions, my wicked thoughts. You know
them. There's no way I could be among Your redeemed. He says, but I've redeemed you. You couldn't redeem yourself.
But I've redeemed you. I've bought you back to myself.
I've paid that price. I've satisfied every claim. And on that cross, the Scripture
says we are redeemed by Christ in whom we have redemption. Forgiveness. Redeemed in Christ. Redeemed
by Christ. He finished the work. He completed
that work of redemption. He accomplished it. And God accepted
it. So that's the good news of the
Gospel. Fear not. Fear not. You see, because He's
precious. If I'm in Christ, I have to be
precious to God. Because He's precious to God.
This is my well-beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. He's precious. As a matter of
fact, Peter says of Him, "...to whom coming as unto a living
stone, disallowed indeed by men, but chosen of God and precious." That's how a sinner can be found
precious with God, in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says this,
he said, I called you by name. That means He named us. He knows
us by name, but He named us in this sense. He named us as this
Israel. He named us as His inheritance. He wrote our name in the Lamb's
Book of Life. And He calls us by His gospel
and by His Spirit and brings us to faith in His Son. He says, fear not. God has named you. If I've called
you, if I've chosen you, if I've redeemed you, if I love you,
fear not. Fear not. As a matter of fact,
the Bible says that He sends forth His Word. Do you know what it's called?
Precious seed. He that goeth forth weeping,
bearing precious seed." Oh, I do pray that that's what God would
cause me to speak. Precious seed. His Word. His Truth. Not my opinion
or notion, His Word. What thus saith the Lord? He
that goeth forth weeping, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless
come again rejoicing, bringing with him his sheaves." And He gives to them faith. Guess
what it is? He says they've obtained like
precious faith. Faith is a precious thing. We
don't have it of ourselves. We can't muster it up. If we
ever receive it, God will have to give it to us. It's given to us to believe.
That's what Paul said. Like precious faith. And we are
assured of what he calls exceeding great
and precious promises. You say, Preacher, I don't have
much assurance, or I don't have any assurance. Have you been looking and listening
to those precious promises? Are you looking to yourself,
or looking in introspection at what you've done, or this, that,
or the other? Precious promises. And he says,
and thou art mine. My. Some people don't like the idea
of being possessed of God. I love it. I love it. My wife speaks of me as my husband. I love it. I wouldn't change
it for anything. Mine. You're mine. Well, somebody
says, doesn't everything belong to God? Don't everyone belong
to God? Not in this intimate relationship
of covenant mercy and grace. You're mine. You're my bride. You're my bride. Given to Christ in that everlasting
covenant. redeemed by His blood, a purchased
possession, so that as the bride in the song of Solomon says,
I am my beloved's and He is mine. Mine. But note this also, they will
not be without trial and difficulty. Ah, they're precious in His sight.
But they won't be without trial or trouble or persecution or
afflictions. As a matter of fact, they're
spoken of as being chosen in the furnish of affliction. Verse 2, he says, and when you
pass through the waters, and they're deep waters, they're
not wading pools. When you pass through the waters, when you go through the rivers,
when you walk through the fire, You see, it's a when, it's not
an if. When, not an if. When you're found going through
these deep waters, when you're found having to go through the fire,
When you're found in that worst temptation, that greatest trial,
when you're found in that deepest trouble, when you're found in
that weakest moment, when you're overwhelmed. That's where I live
these days. Just overwhelmed. He said, I'll be with you. You're not going to drown. You're not going to be destroyed. You're not going to be burned
up. As a matter of fact, the fire will not even kindle upon
you. It will be like those three Hebrew
men. Nebuchadnezzar cast them in that
furnace to destroy them because they had defied Him and refused
to bow before His idol. And He had those men to heat
the furnace seven times hotter than it had ever been before.
And when they went to cast them into the fire, they themselves
were burned up. Nebuchadnezzar looks down in
the midst of that fire and he says, Didn't we cast three men
down into that fire?" And everybody says, oh yes, King. He says, well, I see a fourth
one in there, likened to the Son of God. And they were brought out of
that fiery furnace that had raged and blazed, Just like they were. They had bound them up head and
foot and put all their clothes on them, all the kindling to
assure that it happened to them. But they came out and the Bible
says there was not even the smell of smoke on them. Why? He said, I'll be with thee. I'll be with thee. He has said,
according to Hebrews 13, I will never leave thee, nor forsake
thee. Or as He says in Matthew, Lo,
I am with you always. None will be consumed who are
in Christ. The shepherds said, I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish. They'll feel like it sometimes
in the fire. They'll feel like it sometimes
in their own failures. Everybody is pretty sure they
will be, but they can't be. It may appear they'll be overwhelmed
by the waters of deception. They take a turn or a twist. Oh, they've gone off the deep
end. They've gone off into apostasy. Not if they're precious to Him.
They'll be kept by the power of God unto salvation through
faith He gives. He said, I'm with you. I'll be
with you. And furthermore, they're so precious
to Him, That whatever it takes, whatever in this world it takes,
as a matter of fact, He's made everything in this world, He's
doing everything in this world, He'll use everything in this
world for them. He saved this nation. brought
them out of the bondage of Egypt, and destroyed everything that
was left behind, including Pharaoh and his army. He delivered a poor failing lot,
but yet still righteous lot, out of Sodom. And when he had
delivered him out, rained fire and brimstone on all the cities
of the plain. He says, I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. He's our only Savior. He's all
our salvation. But He says this, I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. Since thou wast
precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and I have loved
thee. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life." Fallen humanity is not nearly
as valuable as you think it is. God has slain a multitude you
couldn't even begin to number. in the salvation and defense
and protection of His people. His people. He's the eternal
God. And He's our Savior. And He said,
I love Thee. Do you know that most of the times
in the Bible when God speaks of His love to His people, it's
always in the past tense? I've loved you. I've loved you
with an everlasting love. This isn't a new fickle romance. I'm not a Johnny-come-lately
suitor. I'm the eternal God, and I'm
your Savior, and I've saved you because I love you. I love you. Jeremiah said, The Lord of old
hath appeared unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved you with an
everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness
have I drawn thee. To this Jacob in the flesh, God said, I am the God of Jacob.
Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Paul says, in all these things
that come up against us. He says, nay, in all these things,
the sword, whatever it is, in all these things, we are more
than conquerors through Him that loved us. I know this, if God loves me
right now, He's always loved me. That's only half of it. If He loves me right now, He'll
always love me. Not one of His children. Not
any of these who make up this bride will ever hear those foolish
words that characterize marriage in our generation, I don't love
you anymore. It won't ever happen. He said, I've
loved you. But God who is rich in mercy
for His great love, wherewith He loved us, John says, herein
is love, not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent
His Son to propitiation for our sins. Why? Verse 4. Sins. Sins. Inasmuch as you are precious in my sight. I can't imagine being precious
in anybody's sight. Sometimes, especially of late,
the things you've done for me, I'm just... I'm overwhelmed. I'm thinking to myself, I'm not
worth that. I don't deserve that. But he says, since you were precious
in my sight. And so is every justified sinner. So is everyone to whom he imputes,
as Paul says, righteousness without works. So is everyone who is
in Christ Jesus. So as everyone made the righteousness
of God in him, how could we not be? How could we not be precious
to him in Christ? So in verse 5, he says it again. Fear not. Fear not. You're precious in my sight." We're still evidently prone to
fear, aren't we? Or he wouldn't say it so many
times. We're prone to fear. And as we move through this life,
we are prone to fear, and as false religionists and preachers
And men and women of all kinds try to make us afraid, and as
our trials come, and men persecute, and afflictions, and all things,
even death, he says, fear not. When his people lay down in that
hour, whether it is sooner or later, The Scripture says, precious
in His sight is the death of His saints. That means two things. Of course,
it means that actual death. But it means more than that.
The fact is, their death is the death of Christ. They died in
Christ. They already died. And in that sense, they'll never
die. Never die. When you see the priest described
in Scripture, when he goes in to represent Israel, wears a
special garment. He wears a special golden breastplate. His breastplate are insignias
symbolizing His entire people, twelve stones that represented
the twelve tribes of Israel on His heart. Do you know what characterized them?
They were all precious stones. Precious stones. And when John
sees the bride, Coming down out of heaven adorned with precious
stones. Why? Because they have to be.
They're precious to Him. Precious to Him. And He'll save
them all. He's going to save all this precious
people to Him. They all feel like that they're
just the exact opposite. But he said, they're precious
in my sight. He gave His Son for us. He gives
nations and people for us. He expends all the resources
of earth for us. He says, fear not, verse 5, for
I am with thee. I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather them from the west. I will say to the north,
give up, and to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from
far and my daughters from the ends of the earth." They're coming. And they're all
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Even everyone. Everyone that is called by My
name, for I have created Him for My glory, I have formed Him,
yea, I have made Him." In other words, He will be glorified in
us. Grace is just like a brilliant
diamond. A many-faceted diamond by the
hands of a master stonecutter laid on that piece of black velvet
to show off all the glories. Here are these people on the
black background of fallen humanity, and they're going to shine and
sparkle and be made everything pleasing to God in the Lord Jesus
Christ, and to be precious. Thou was precious in my sight. These are words to those precious. Our Father this day, we are amazed that such could
ever be said about us. We are amazed at your grace,
so free, so mighty, so saving, so glorifying to you, so just
and righteous through the cross death of Christ for our sins. so perfect that we are made the
righteousness of God in Him. Thank you for making us precious
in your sight. We thank you and pray in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.