Alright brethren, let's go to
Isaiah 43. Now, we've been in Isaiah 43
for a while. And we've seen here that the
Lord is speaking to His saints. He is speaking to those that
He's regenerated, those He's given faith in His Son. He's
speaking of those that Christ has redeemed. He's speaking of
those that he's called, that he's made holy in the new heart
in Christ, sanctified, righteous. He's writing this to God's holy,
believing saints. He promises us we have no reason
to fear. He said in verse one, he said,
Now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, neither
formed thee, O Israel. Fear not, for I have redeemed
thee. I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine. Speaking
to God's people, God's saints. He promises to be with us. He
told us there in verses two and three, he said, when you go through
the waters, they won't overflow you. When you walk through the
fire, you'll not be burned. Neither shall the flame kindle
upon you. He said in verse three, for I'm the Lord thy God. I'm
the Lord thy God. The Holy One of Israel, thy Savior,
I gave Egypt for your ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for you. Since
you were precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable, and
I've loved thee, therefore will I give men for thee and people
for thy life. He promises to you that are holy
by his grace, by Christ, by God, what he's done for you. He promises
you he's gonna use us to preach this word and call out his people.
He said there in verse five, fear not, for I'm with thee.
I will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the
west. I'll 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, even everyone that's called
by my name, for I have created him for my glory. I formed him,
he hath made him, and that includes you who he's already called.
I created you for my glory, I formed you, I made you. He promises
us we're his witnesses. He says you're his witness. He
said in verse 10, You're my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant,
whom I've chosen, that you may know and believe me, and understand
that I'm he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and
beside me there's no Savior. I've declared and have saved,
I've showed when there was no strange God among you. Therefore,
you're my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I'm God. Yea, before
the day was, I am he, and there's none that can deliver out of
my hand. I will work, and who shall let it? Who's gonna turn
my hand back? He declares to you and me that
he gave his son for his elect, and that Christ came forth and
has redeemed his people, and he is the way in this wilderness,
and he will continue to give us the water of life and keep
us and lead us all the way to God our Father. He said there
in verse 19, behold, I'll do a new thing. Now shall it spring
forth, you shall know it. A virgin conceived a man, compassed
a man. Christ came into the earth, a
new thing sprung up. Righteousness sprung up. Christ
our righteousness. He's the way in the wilderness.
He gives us rivers in this desert. He said, even the beasts of the
field are going to honor me, the dragons and the owls, because
I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give
drink to my people, my chosen. This people I formed for myself,
they shall show forth my praise. That means he's not going to
lose you. He's going to keep you. And Christ is the way. He said, there's no other way
to the Father but by me. These are God's precious promises
to you and me that believe. To you that he's chosen, to you
Christ shed his blood for, to you that he sent the gospel to
and regenerated, this is God's precious word to us, his promises
that cannot be broken to us. Now hear this next word to you
and me. You holy saints of God, whose
only hope is Christ, hear this next word to you and to me. Verse 22. But thou has not called
upon me, O Jacob, but thou has been weary of me, O Israel. Where Jacob in our flesh and
where Israel in Christ. God sends painful providence,
sorrowful providence, a brother falls in sin, and we get so caught
up in worrying about somebody else's sins that they've committed. And God says, this is our sin
of omission, something we've omitted. You're not called upon
me, O Jacob. Thou hast been weary of me, O
Israel." Oh, we don't get weary of watching March Madness. We
can just stay wide awake and watch it for hours. Just pick
up God's Word and start studying it. And I just get so weary. My eyes get heavy. Oh, we say our prayers, but often
that's just what we do. We just say prayers. He said,
but you have not called upon me, O Jacob. We wouldn't charge
God with doing wrong. We wouldn't charge God with anything
negative concerning his providence. But that's what we do when we
complain and murmur about the situation we're in. Now it's been weary of me, O
Israel. God's not put us under old covenant
law. He didn't save you to bring you
back under the law. He's not required us to bring
sacrifices here and sacrifice lambs and calves. You don't have
to feed them at home and then put them up, make sure they're
without blemish and bring them here and do all that. He just
says, come to my house, hear my son preach, sing praises to
me, support the gospel, He says, this is what he said, he said,
in accordance to how I've blessed you and my son, he said, let
that be your rule for how much you give and sacrifice for me. In your service and in the things
you give, let that be your rule. It's not the tithe, the tithe
was a tax that required a 10% payment. God didn't say that,
he says, You figure out how much I've
blessed you, and what I've done for you in redeeming you, and
you give according to how I've blessed you. And then he says
this, verse 23, you've not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt
offerings, neither hast thou honored me with thy sacrifices.
I've not caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied
thee with incense, Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with
money, neither hast Thou filled me with the fat of Thy sacrifices. But Thou hast made me to serve
with Thy sins, Thou hast wearied me with Thine iniquities. Children of God, you who are
holy, you who are righteous, you believing children of God,
can you say this word's true of you, can you say that's me,
that describes me? If you can declare that to God,
if you can go to God and declare this is your sin against him,
then this next word is especially for you and it is particularly
for you. What would you expect God to
say next? After He said to you how you've sinned and you've
not worshipped Him, you've not been thankful to Him, not given
Him near in proportion to what He's done for us, wearied Him
with our sins and our iniquities, do you think God's next word
will be a word that says of condemnation, a word that says He's going to
cast you off forever? This is His next word to His
people. Verse 25, I, even I, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not
remember thy sins. God's ways are not our ways. I want to talk about the subject
of God's forgiveness of sins. God's forgiveness of sins. Now
God requires but one thing of you and me who He has justified.
He requires one thing of us. When He brings you right here
to hear this, He requires one thing of you. And you know, we'll
only do this when the Spirit of God, when Christ our prophet,
priest, and king speaks affectionately into our heart through this gospel.
This is the only time we'll do this. Here's what He requires
of you. Verse 26, put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Some people think that the Lord
is saying here, if I've got this wrong about you, then present
your case and plead your cause and justify yourself. That's
not what God's saying. That's what the Pharisee did
in the Lord's parable He went into the temple and stood and
prayed with himself and told how good he was and all the things
he had done and how much better he was than the publican. That's
not what the Lord's saying there. He's not saying, you present
your cause and you plead your case and prove me wrong and justify
yourself. That's not what he's saying.
Do you remember why the publican went down to his house justified? He hid his face. and smote upon
his breast and cried to God, Lord, be merciful to me, the
sinner. No sinner will hear God declare
this free forgiveness of our sins until we're brought to confess
to God that we are the sinner. truly from the heart mean we
are the sinner, and that everything we've ever done, even our good
things, even our worship, and our singing, and our praise,
and our giving, and whatever sacrifice we've done in the service
of God, even confessing that our very best deeds are sin. We'll never hear God declare
this forgiveness of sin till he's brought you to his feet
to confess that and to confess that you need mercy and you ask
God to receive you in none but the Lord Jesus Christ. Receive
till you believe on him as your wisdom, your righteousness, your
sanctification, your redemption. That's when you'll hear God declare
in your heart I've forgiven you. So long as we think we're good,
so long as we think that we do some good things and God's pleased
with our good things, so long as that's the case, brethren,
we'll never hear of God's free forgiveness. So long as we presume
we're righteous, So long as we presume there's something in
us good, we'll never hear God declare, I will remember your
sins no more. You see, this good news that
God declares to his people, it's only for sinners. I'm talking
about holy saints called of God, given faith in Christ. It's only
for sinners. Only for sinners. who come to
God confessing we're the sinner and we must be saved by mercy.
The only one. Now how is God's elect, how are
you who believe, how are we gonna be brought to confess this to
God? For you that he's called and
you've been in the faith a while, how are you gonna be brought
to come to God and confess that that you're the sinner and you
need to be found in Christ alone. Well, it's in this first 26.
First of all, Christ speaks into the heart. No, you're not gonna
hear an audible voice, but I'll tell you what, he really does
this in such a way that it's louder than an audible voice.
It's more powerful. I'm sitting here preaching in
an audible voice and sometimes that just, people fall asleep. But when he speaks this word,
It'll be effectual. He says in verse 26, put me in
remembrance. That's the first thing that has
to happen. Our great substitute gave that bread, that broken
bread, he broke it and he gave it to his apostles and he said,
this broken bread represents my body, which is broken for
you. And he took that cup of wine
And he said, this wine represents the New Testament absolutely,
totally fulfilled by my blood, the law fulfilled by my blood. And then he said, this do in
remembrance of me, in remembrance of me. And from the very first
time he calls his child, the rest of our days, The way we're brought to confess
our sin and our need to be saved by Christ alone is Him speaking
into the heart and saying, put me in remembrance. No sinner is going to see our
sin. We won't see that the best of
our deeds, the very best deeds we can possibly do. We'll never
see that they are absolutely, totally, thoroughly sinful until
He comes and speaks this and turns us to behold Him, to behold
the Lord Jesus Christ. That's when we'll behold it,
when He turns us to behold Him. And that's so the first hour,
and that's so all our days, brethren. This is what he said in Zechariah
12.10. He said, I will, I will pour upon the house of David
and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem. I'll pour. You know what he's
gonna say in Isaiah 44? He's gonna say, I'm gonna pour
water upon them that are thirsty. This is how he brings us to do
it. He said, I will pour upon the house of David and upon the
inhabitants of Jerusalem the spirit of grace and supplications. And they shall look upon me. They'll look to Christ. And he
says, whom they have pierced. And they shall mourn for him. as one mourneth for his only
son, and shall be in bitterness for him as one that's in bitterness
for his firstborn, in bitterness desiring him, in bitterness desiring
to be found in him, in bitterness desiring God to only receive
us in him and for his sake. He said, that's what they're
gonna do. They're gonna see me. You know, our Lord said, blessed
are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.
What did God's people mourn? David said, my sins are ever
before me. You mean David? Holy and righteous
David, the man that God said, this is a man after my own heart?
What did we see at the very last verse of Psalm 119? He said,
Lord, save me. He said, I've gone astray like
a lost sheep. When our great prophet, priest,
and king first calls us, when he first comes to us, but not
only then, when he keeps speaking into our heart through this gospel, when we start looking at ourselves,
and our worship, and our singing, and our giving, and our sacrificing,
and we start looking at these things, and we begin to think
too highly of ourselves? Or when we, have you ever thought,
have you ever got up on Sunday morning or start thinking about
coming here Thursday night? Have you ever had this thought,
I just need a break? I need a break today. A break
from who? From Christ? A break from God? That's what's so amazing when
men start boasting about their free will. My will's free! Free
from who? Free from God? When that happens, we're weary. We're not renewed in heart for Christ and
we're weary. burden with Him and we're burdening
Him with our sins and our unfaithfulness. The Spirit of Christ puts us
in remembrance of Him. He comes and He brings us to
behold Him and that's what's going to make you and me mourn
our sin and our lukewarmness in not giving to Him what is
His due. God the Father chose His people
and He trusted us to Christ to make us righteous and holy. And
you see, by God's grace, when Christ makes you behold Him by
faith, this is what we behold. The only one who served God in
perfection is our Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one. He's the holy one who served
God with whom God is well pleased. That's what you see when you
look to Christ. How are we going to see that
our love is nothing wherewith we can be justified. How are
we going to see that our faithfulness is utter unfaithfulness? How
are we going to see that our very best deeds are full of sin
and nothing but sin? It's going to be beholding the
faithfulness of Christ and how he served the Father in perfection. Christ is the sacrifice God's
pleased with. He said, you've not even brought
me the small cattle. He's the sacrifice. Christ is
the sacrifice God's pleased with. He came and satisfied the justice
of God by his obedience. From the womb. He was holy, and
every moment of His life when He walked this earth, Christ's
whole life was a burnt offering to God. A burnt offering is a
thank offering. A burnt offering is thanking
God for what He's done for us. Christ's entire life was a praise
to God the Father, a thank offering to God, and especially His obedience
unto the death of the cursed cross. When He went to that cross
on behalf of God our Father and on behalf of His people and laid
down His life and suffered the wrath of God to satisfy justice. He satisfied God. That fire came
down upon Him in place of His people. And you know what went
back up to God? When they had to burn offering,
they had to offer the fat and the incense was the sweet
cane they burned, and that went up to God as sweet-smelling savor. Christ is that sweet-smelling
savor. He's the sweet cane, and He paid
the price of His own precious blood. Christ is the fat. He's the sweet-smelling savor
unto God by what He did. He filled God. God said, you
haven't filled me. What do we give to God? Isn't that what it says in Job? If you obeyed God, what have
you given to God? But Christ filled God with his
offering. He satisfied God. He pleased
God with his offering. It's only when the Spirit makes
us put Christ in remembrance and we behold Him and see His
faithfulness and His perfection who justified His people and
made us righteous and holy by what He did. And when we see
Him, that's when we see our service to Him is nothing. It's sin. Sin's mixed with everything I
do. Only beholding Christ do we own
the truth that in our best worship, our best service, our best needs,
we've omitted to God what He's worthy of. We've made God to
serve with our sins, and we've wearied God with our iniquities. So first of all, Christ will
come and say, put me in remembrance. Here's the second thing that
must happen. Christ graciously commands us,
let us plead together. Let us plead together. He's saying let us reason together. Go back to Isaiah 1 and look
at verse 18. This is so gracious. We've sinned
against God. I'm talking about in our best
deeds we've wearied God with our sins and yet He comes graciously
to us. And he says this to us in verse
18, come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord. Though your
sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they
be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land. But if you
refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword, for
the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. Though we fell in Adam, did
that stop our Lord from being merciful and loving us and coming
to us? No. Though we were formed in
our mother's womb, conceived in sin, did that make Him cast
us off? No. Though when He sanctified
you and given you faith in Him, though we still are described
here as not giving to God what He deserves of our very best
deeds being sinful, does He just say, that's it, I'm done with
you, and cast you off? No. He'll never cast anyone off
that he everlastingly loved. He'll never cast one off that
he is justified by his precious blood. Never. Years ago, there
was a religious group that were persecuting a young man. And
I defended him, because he should have been defended. And I bore a fair amount of slander
from that by this religious group quite a bit. And the young man
and his father expressed their gratitude to me for defending
him. Well, just recently, I heard
this young man's father said some pretty harsh things about
me. And he basically pretty much amounted to him saying, I've
cast him off. I'll never listen to him again.
And I was surprised by that, but I shouldn't be. He's a son
of Jacob just like I am. He's my brother in Christ. He's
a son of Jacob just like I am. There's only one who will never
cast off his people, only one. And that's God our Savior, the
only one. God told his prophet Hosea, Look
over at Hosea with me just a moment. Hosea, right after Daniel. God told his prophet Hosea to
go down into a land of whoredoms and take a bride. And so he went
down there and he took Gomer to be his bride. And she bore
him two children. She was with Hosea for probably
15-20 years. She bore him two kids and had
them outgrown. Hosea tells them to plead with
their mother. They were old enough to plead
with her. And then she went back to her
whoredoms. Did God cast off His prophet
for that? Did He say, you can't be my preacher
anymore? Did He cast off Gomer? because she went back to her
wardrobes. No, God brought Gomer down to the slave block. And
then he told Hosea this, in Hosea 3 verse 1. Then said the Lord
unto me, go yet, love a woman, beloved of her friend, yet an
adulteress. Now watch this. Here's what God
was teaching by that whole thing right there. according to the
love of the Lord toward the children of Israel who look to other gods
and love flagons of wine. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress
or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword It's written,
for thy sake we're killed all the day long, we're accounted
as sheep for the slaughter. No, in all these things we're
more than conquerors through our Hosea that loved us. I'll persuade it neither death
nor life nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present,
nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature
shall be able to separate us from the love of Christ, the
love of God which is in Christ Jesus the Lord. God loves His
elect, Brother Greg just read it, with an everlasting love. It knows no variableness. It
knows no change. And therefore, he never casts
off one that he loves, though our very best deeds weary God
because they're sin. Rather than cast us off our sinful
self-righteousness, rather than cast us off for that, rather
than cast us off for our vile immoral sins we fall into, What
does he do? Psalm 103. Psalm 103. Psalm 103, 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the
heaven is high above the earth, so great is his mercy toward
them that fear him. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us, like
as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that
fear him, for he knows our frame, he remembers that we're dust. Rather than cast us off, the
one mediator between God and His people, the one who redeemed
us in His love, He graciously comes to us and He says, let
us reason together. I, verse 11 in Isaiah 43, this
is what He makes you to know again, I, even I am the Lord,
beside me there is no Savior. He says, come now, let's reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient,
you'll eat the good of the land. And by His grace, by His Spirit,
by His power, by making us behold what Christ has done for us,
He makes us willing and obedient by His power. Now lastly, What
does he make us willing and obedient to do? What's he require? Back in our text, verse 26, he says, declare thou that thou
mayest be justified. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. Turn over to Psalm 51. Psalm
51. Our gracious Redeemer makes us
willing and obedient to declare to God exactly what the publican
declared to God, exactly what David declared to God. Right here, Psalm 51.1. Have
mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out My transgressions. You know one reason why the Lord,
why it says in Isaiah 43, the Lord says, He didn't say, come
now, let us reason together, though that's what it includes.
He says, come, let us plead together. Because while you're pleading
this, He's pleading it on your behalf with the Father. He says, come, And you come and
you say, Lord, have mercy on me. According to the multitude
of your tender mercy, blot out my transgression. Wash me thoroughly
from mine iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin, for I
acknowledge my transgression. And my sin is ever before me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, Lord, it's not just what I've done. I was shapen in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me. It's all I am, Lord. Behold, thou desirest truth in
the inward parts, and in the hidden part thou shalt make me
to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Wash me and I'll be whiter than
stone. Make me to hear joy and gladness that the bones which
shall be broken may rejoice. And then brethren, Isaiah 43. As new as it was the first day
God ever made you know this. As fresh and as new as it ever
was the first day God ever made you know this in your heart.
God says to you in verse 25, I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins. Who does it? God said, I, even
I. He said, I, even I, am God, and
beside me there's no Savior. What does he do? He said, I blot
out your transgressions. Just like you took a, got all
these transgressions written down in a book and you just took
a blotter and you just blotted them all out so they can't even
be seen. They're under the blood. Why
does he do this? He said, I do it for mine own
sake. Why'd he choose his people? He
said, because I would. Pleased me to make you my people. Why'd he call you? He said, for
my own sake. Why does he freely forgive his
people? He said, for my own sake, because
of the blood and righteousness of my son, that's why I forgive
you. Because of my glory, that's why
I forgive you. And listen, he says, I will not
remember thy sins. I will not remember thy sins. He'll never impute and charge
you with sin, child of God. If you need it, He'll show you,
just like He showed us here, that your very best deeds got
sin mixed with them. But when it comes to charging
you and condemning you because Christ already bore the wrath
of God in place of his people and satisfied justice, he said,
I will not remember thy sin. What did the Lord Jesus say about
the publican? I tell you, this man went down
to his house justified rather than the other. That's what he said there. He
said in Isaiah 43, look there. He said, come now, put me in
remembrance. He said, put me in remembrance. And he
said, I've got to find it here. Let us plead together, declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. He's not saying, Stand up like
the Pharisee and declare your case and everything you've done
that you may be justified. He's saying, you come down to
my feet and you beg me for mercy. And you confess your need of
a substitute and your need for Christ to be your only righteousness. That's what the Republican did.
And he went down to his house justified. Now I want you to
be sure to get this. Don't miss this. Mercy. and free forgiveness is only
for vile sinners. Mercy and free forgiveness is
only for those who can do nothing in themselves but sin. Just no good sinful Jacobs. That's who mercy's for. That's
who free forgiveness is for. And that includes any and every
good that God has worked in us. Because we have a sin nature,
we have to confess it's nothing but sin. When he makes us holy, the Holy
One keeps us coming to God through him, declaring, have mercy on
me, the sinner. That's a true characteristic
of true sanctification. Sounds like a paradox, don't
it? When you're really holy, you see yourself as anything
but holy. Only the grace of God humbles
us and makes us true mercy beggars. Christ said, that publican went
down to his house justified rather than the other, for everyone
that exalted himself should be abased, but he that humbled himself
should be exalted. And you and I won't humble ourselves
until the Lord comes there to you and says, come now, put me
in remembrance. It makes you see Him. And that's
when you see, it took my Redeemer. My sins put Him there. Even these
sins and these best deeds I've done, those sins put Him there. and you come and you bow down
at his feet, he humbles you, and you bow at his feet, and
you beg him for mercy, and God speaks and says, I, even I, am
he that blotted out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. Let's end with 1 John 2. Brethren, this was done from
eternity in Christ Jesus, the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. It was done when Christ said
it's finished on the cross. He made you know it the first
time He called you to faith in Him. But when He calls you and
shows you that even your best deeds are sin and brings you
to cry out for mercy ongoing, He lets you know again, I've
blotted them out. I don't remember them. Here's
what he says, 1 John 2.8, if we say that we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. If we confess our
sin, 1 John 1.8, if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves
and the truth's not in us. If we confess our sins, He's
faithful and just to forgive us our sin and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His word's not in us. Our little children,
these things write unto you, that you sin not. And when any
man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous, and he is the propitiation for our sin. What's
the result of Christ being the propitiation for our sin? God
says, I have blotted them out, and I will not remember them
anymore. That's the result of Christ.
being the sin propitiating blood atonement for his people. Free,
full, complete, total forgiveness. I pray God to keep us coming
to him. Never let us see ourselves as anything else but the sinner
in need of God's mercy, in need of being found in Christ only. Amen.