Alright brethren, let's go to
Isaiah chapter 43. Now when the Lord here in this passage,
you know when He speaks to Jacob, He's not talking to that man
Jacob, When He talks to Israel here, He's not talking to that
nation Israel. He's talking to His elect, you
who are His, you who are Jacob in your flesh, and yet Israel,
by the new man Christ has created in you, by God's electing grace,
by His redeeming grace. He said in Romans 9, they which
are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of
God. But the children of the promise are counted for the seed.
That's the children of God's covenant, the ones He chose and
trusted to Christ to save, the children of promise. That's who
God counts as His children. They which are of faith, the
same are the children of Abraham. That's who He's talking to here.
When He begins, He says, verse 1, But now thus saith the Lord
that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not. Now, if your only hope is Christ,
if your only salvation is Him, then hear these words that are
spoken to you. We saw these first few verses
last time. These are His promises. These
are reasons we have not to fear. Verse 1, He says, For I have
redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. Those are three different reasons
you have not to fear. And so He says, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. There's another reason.
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. And now He's going to give us
some more reasons we have not to fear. This is our text, verse
3. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Seba 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." God's covenant,
His promise is, He is yours and you are His. That's God's covenant
promise to His people, and it's unbreakable. That's what he's
talking about in verse 3. He's talking about his covenant.
He said, I am the Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. In Scripture, when God's assuring
His people of His covenant promise, when you're reading Scripture,
you mark this down. When God's assuring His people
of His covenant promise, He always refers to Himself as the Lord
thy God. Everywhere you'll find that.
And that's what He's saying here. I'm the Lord thy God. And He's
assuring us, and He always assures us of His covenant promise by
His holiness. He says, I'm the Holy One of
Israel. That's assuring you His covenant
is certain and true and sure. Listen, I love God's sovereignty. I am thankful that God is Almighty. I am. But I love something even
more than His sovereignty. That's His holiness. You know,
if he was all sovereign and all powerful but he wasn't holy,
that would be a dangerous being right there. But he is all sovereign
and all powerful and holy to do what is right. Holiness is at the top of all
his attributes. Holiness is the almightiness
of his character. God's holy. He's the Holy One. All three persons in the Godhead
in the one Christ Jesus is the Holy One. And there's only one. His name is Holy. He said, I
dwell in the high and holy place. Revelation 15 verse 4 says, Thou
only art holy. Hannah knew it. She said, there's
none holy as the Lord. There's none beside thee, neither
is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceedingly proudly,
she said. There's none holy but our God.
And so what he's doing here is he's saying, I'm the Lord thy
God. I'm the holy one of Israel. He's confirming and guaranteeing
that his promise is sure. He said in Psalm 89, 35, once
I have sworn by my holiness, I will not lie unto David. And
that's what He's doing. That's what He's doing here.
He sent redemption to His people. He has commanded His covenant
forever. Holy and reverent is His name. You're going to find His holiness
connected when He makes His promise. Because that's where He's guaranteeing
you His promise can't be broken. I'm the Holy One of Israel. God
is assuring His people of that. He's assuring you that He's the
Holy One. He's the Holy One. His promise
won't be broken. And here's why He'll do everything
that He tells us He'll do for us right here. He said, for I
am thy Savior. I am thy Savior. Now you hear
that, you sitting here that believe Him, you hear that word. It's being spoken only to you.
You hear it just like as if you was the only sinner in this world
that needed salvation. Because that's how personal it
is. When He speaks here, He is speaking to His people. He said,
I created you. I formed you. He said, I have
redeemed you. He said, I have called you by
your name. He said, you are mine. I will
be with you in the trial and I will bring you through it and
you will be better for it. He said, I am the Lord your God,
the Holy One of Israel, of you. I am your Savior. Now listen
to this next word. Listen to this next word. He
says, verse 4, since thou was precious in my sight, thou has
been honorable and I have loved thee. Therefore will I give men
for thee and people for thy life. God declares that you who he
has called and redeemed, that you're precious, honorable, and
loved by him. Precious, honorable, and loved. And that'll be our divisions.
That's our subject and that's our divisions. First he says,
you're precious. God promises you, who He is,
that you're precious in His sight. He said, verse 4, since thou
was precious in my sight. Now mark what it does not say.
It does not say, since there was something precious in you.
It doesn't say that. There was nothing precious in
you. It doesn't say, since I was precious
in your sight. It doesn't say that. God didn't
find grace in Noah's eyes. Noah found grace in God's eyes.
God says, since thou was precious in my sight. Precious means to
esteem, to be prized, to be appraised as costly and valuable. Can you believe holy God says
that about you and me? You were precious in my sight.
You were highly valuable, costly in my sight. Throughout the scripture,
God compares His people to costly things. He compares us to treasure. He said in Psalm 135.4, the Lord
had chosen Jacob unto Himself and Israel for His peculiar treasure. That's His highly esteemed, valued
treasure. That's what His people are to
Him. He said in Exodus 19.5, when He gave the law, He said,
now if you will obey My voice indeed. This is when He gave
the covenant, the law. He said, if you will obey my
voice indeed and keep my covenant, obey my voice and do everything
I've given you to do in my law, he said, then you shall be a
peculiar treasure unto me above all people, for all the earth
is mine, and you shall be a kingdom of priests. You'll be all priests
and all kings in my kingdom. A kingdom of king priests is
what you'll be. and you'll be a holy nation."
We have never in any generation in this world ever seen a holy
nation. Never. But God said, if you keep
His law and you obey His voice, you will be His holy nation.
That's what He promised us when He gave the law. Well, the problem
with that was we'd already fell in at him when he gave the law.
And we'd already become ungodly, vile, wretched, hell-deserving
sinners when he gave the law. So we couldn't obey his voice.
Does that mean that promise is null and void? Oh, I was trying
to show you in the beginning, God said, I'm the Lord thy God.
I'm the Holy One of Israel. I'm thy Savior. That's His covenant
promise. He's the covenant and He's the
fulfillment of the covenant. Oh no, that didn't make His promise
null and void. Christ Jesus came down. He came
down, the precious one, the holy one. He came down and He took
flesh and He was made of a woman like unto His brethren. He was
made under the law that cursed us and condemned us. And all
the way from his mother's womb, he was the Holy One. He came
forth speaking the truth of God. We came forth speaking lies,
he came forth speaking the truth of God. We came forth going astray
from the womb, he came forth doing all things that pleased
his father from the womb. We came forth cursing and not
having to be taught to lie, just loving to lie and sin and rebel
and didn't even have to be taught it. You that, Ben, Sarah, you
watch. You're not going to have to teach
them kids to disobey you. You are not going to have to
teach them to lie and try to get away with stuff. They already
know how to do it. They're born knowing how to do
it. And that was me and you, brethren. but not Christ. Christ
came forth from His mother's womb, speaking the gospel, speaking
the truth. He was 12 years old in a temple
and Mary and Joseph got off down the road and they realized, we
don't have Him with us. We're going to run off and left
Him. And they went back, found Him in a temple and He was there
confounding doctors of divinity in a temple. They couldn't believe
how smart He was. He's wisdom. personified. That's who He is. He wrote the
scriptures they spent all their life studying. He's the incarnate
Word. Who is the Word? Who the Word
speaks about? Of course He knew what He was
talking about in the scriptures. He said in Matthew 13.44, look
there with me, Matthew 13.44, Here's why he came forth. He
said his people, his elects, his peculiar treasure. And here's
what he said the kingdom of heaven is like, Matthew 13, verse 44. He said, The kingdom of heaven
is like unto treasure hid in a field, the which, when a man
hath found it, he hideth, and for joy thereof goeth, and selleth
all that he hath, and buyeth that field. Christ beheld all
His elect scattered about in this field, in this world, over
all time, His treasure. And for the joy
set before Him, for the joy of having His people, His treasure,
He came forth and He sold all He had. He laid down His life. He poured out His blood. And
He bought the whole field. with His treasure in it." Sure did. And then it says again,
verse 45, "...the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant
man seeking goodly pearls, who when he had found one pearl of
great price, went and sold all that he had and bought it." You
see, He owns everything. Everything is
His. Because He laid down His life. He can do with it what
He will. But in the midst of this world, He's got a treasure. He's got some individual chosen
people who are goodly pearls to Him. Like goodly pearls. And He came and found this pearl
that He says is a pearl of great pride. You that are His. And
He sold all He had and He bought you. It cost Him His precious
blood. to buy these goodly pearls, and
he bought them. And he's going to have his string
of pearls. They're not going to slip away from him. You're
a pearl of great price to Christ. You're a precious treasure to
Him. He said, I redeem thee, thou
art mine. That's what he said in our text.
When the Spirit of God revealed Christ in us, He declared Christ
has made us what God said we would be back there at Sinai. God said, if you'll obey my voice
and you'll keep my covenant, keep all my law, you'll be a
peculiar treasure to me. He said, you'll be a peculiar
treasure above all people in this earth. He said, you'll be
a kingdom of priests and you'll be a holy nation. Peter said
in 1 Peter 2 verse 9, he said, you are a chosen generation,
you are a royal priesthood, that means you are kings and priests
by what Christ has done for you. You are a holy nation, you are
a peculiar people, that means you are His treasure, you are
His goodly pearls. That you should show forth the
praises of Him who has called you out of darkness into His
marvelous light. I want you to think about this.
Christ came and did all this for you, his people, for this
one reason. This is all he tells you to do.
This is it. This is why he has left you in
this world. He made you a keenly priesthood. You're His royal
treasure. You're His peculiar people. You're
His holy nation. And He's called you so that you
should show forth His praises, who called you out of darkness
into His light. He says, just go forth and praise
Me and tell others about My glory. That's all He says to do. Just
go tell people about Me. Go tell them what I did for you.
I say he's a yoke, isn't he? To go tell Him what a great Savior
we have, what a great Redeemer we have, and give Him all the
glory and all the praise in our lives and in our words and in
everything we do. He said, since you were precious
in my sight, He said, He won't lose you. He won't lose
you because you're His treasure. Listen, Malachi 3.17, He said,
They shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when
I make up my jewels. And I'll spare them as a man
spares his own son that serves him. He said, I'm not going to
lose these pearls. I'm not going to lose this precious treasure
I bought. The Lord's portion is His people.
Jacob's the lot of His inheritance. He's not going to lose you. Precious.
Now secondly, here's the second word. He said, since you've been
precious in my sight, you've been honorable. You've been honorable. Would you like to come to God?
Would you, just in yourself, would you like to come to God
and stand before God and say that you've been honorable by
anything you've done? There ain't a child of God that
would say, I want to come before God on my own and say, Lord,
by what I've done in this world, I've been honorable. But no, but the Lord says, since
you were precious in my sight, you have been honorable. You
have been honorable. And the word there means honored. You've been honored and you've
been made honorable. We've been honored by Christ
fulfilling all righteousness on our behalf. What did it say
back there in Isaiah 42, 21? It said, the Lord is well pleased
for His righteousness sake. He will magnify the law and make
it honorable. And the Lord looks at you for
whom Christ died. And he sees you having done everything
commanded in his law, and he says, you've been precious in
my sight, and therefore you've been honorable. It's all in Christ. It's all in Christ. Psalm 111-2,
the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have
pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious,
and His righteousness endures forever. He's made His wonderful
works to be remembered. The Lord's gracious and full
of compassion, ever mindful of His covenant. It's His work that's
honorable, but because because He put you in Christ, and because
Christ is precious in His sight, and because Christ magnified
and honored the law, you've been precious in His sight, and you've
been honorable. He said, I receive not honor
from men. That's what the Lord said. How can you believe? This is what He asked the Pharisees.
How can you believe which receive honor one of another, and seek
not the honor that cometh from God only? This honor he's talking
about comes from God only. You know what religion is about? I'm talking about vain religion. It's all about trying to get
honor from men. Some of you have been in it.
That's what it's about. The Pharisees couldn't believe
on Christ because all they were concerned about was getting honor
from men. The Pharisees said, you better
not believe on Him. And those men said, we better
not believe on Him if we want to stay in the honor of these
Pharisees. And so they wouldn't believe on Him. And Christ said,
how can you when you want that honor and you don't want the
honor that comes from God? Men don't leave the gospel because
they're trying to stay in the honor of men rather than suffer
for Christ's sake and have the honor that comes from God. And we did that all our lives
until we were born of the Spirit of God. And then He makes you
see it's only being found in Christ that God gives you honor. That's honor that comes only
from God. Remember when He said in Romans 2, He said circumcision
is not that in the flesh, it's of the heart. He said whose praise
is not of men, but of God. And you know what He's talking
about there. He's saying those that God has created anew in
the heart, God says, that's my workmanship. You've been honorable
to me. You're precious in my sight.
You've been honorable to me. That's the honor that comes from
God. But He only praises those He creates in His righteousness
and His holiness. That's the honor He's given us,
brethren. He took you from the same lump of all these fallen
sinners and made you a vessel of honor. Had not the potter
power over the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto
honor and another unto dishonor? He chose you and He made you
a vessel of honor. That's what Christ did. What's
the honor that comes from God alone? By the Holy One making
us holy in Himself with the Holy One dwelling in us, we've been
made holy so that we're honored by Him He says, I'm not ashamed
to call you my brethren. I tell you brethren, that right
there, that ought to just make you want to jump up and touch
the ceiling. God, holy God says, I'm not ashamed
to call you my brother. That's what holy God said. Both
he that sanctifieth and they that are sanctified are all of
one, for which cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren.
And for the same reason, God is not ashamed for you to call
Him your God. That must mean that God must
be ashamed of some people calling Him their God. Well, He is not
ashamed of His people calling Him their God. He said, He said,
his people show they desire a better country that's a heavenly country.
They believe him. He said, wherefore God's not
ashamed to be called their God, for he hath prepared for them
a city. He's not ashamed to be called your God. That's the honor
he's given us. Not ashamed to call us brethren
and not ashamed for us to call him our God. It's all because
Christ was precious and honorable and robed you. He robed you in
His righteousness. He imparted His holiness to you
within. And here's the honor. Look at Psalm 45.13. Here's the
honor. Psalm 45.13. So, on the outside, you're wearing
Christ's righteousness that's been imputed to you, and He really
made you righteous by His works. He really imputed that to you.
You're clothed in His solid robe of perfect righteousness, and
within you, the reason you even believe Him, is He's created
a new holy nature, a new spirit, a Holy Spirit that He put in
you by Him being in you. And look at what He says about
you now. Here's the honor. Psalm 45.13, he says, the king's
daughter, that's who you are, the king's daughter is all glorious
within, her clothing, that's without, on the outside is of
wrought gold. So He's saying, within and without,
by Christ the Holy One, the Righteousness, you're all glorious. That's the
honor He bestows upon you. He says, you're all glorious.
She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework.
The virgins, her companions that follow her, shall be brought
unto thee with gladness and rejoicing. Shall they be brought, they shall
enter into the king's palace. That's honor, brethren. That's
honor. That's the honor God said He's
bestowed upon His people. Now lastly, He said, and you're
loved. God says, since I was precious
in my sight, now it's been honorable, and I have loved thee. Now brethren,
turn with me to Deuteronomy 7. Everything I've been saying here,
you all have heard the gospel, I don't have to convince you
of this, and I'm tired. So I'm going to be brief. You
know this has to be. entirely of God's grace only. Well, Deuteronomy 7, 6, he says, Thou art a holy people
unto the Lord thy God. That means He chose you and set
you apart. As you are holy, you are set
apart by God for Him. The Lord thy God has chosen thee
to be a special people unto Himself above all people that are upon
the face of the earth. The Lord did not set His love
upon you or choose you because you were more in number than
any people. You were the fewest of all people. But because the
Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He
had sworn to your fathers, that the Lord brought you out with
a mighty hand, redeemed you out of the house of bondmen, and
from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt, that the Lord has done
everything He's done for you simply because He loved you.
All of this. This thing, and I have loved
you, it really comes first before anything else. I loved you. For that reason you are precious
to me. And you have been honorable. All by what He did. All by what
He did. The Lord hath approved of old
to me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love.
Therefore, with loving kindness I have drawn you. because I've
loved you from everlasting and I've drawn you." He said, I did
this for you in the past. He said, we just read it, I redeemed
you. I redeemed you. And he said, and I'll do it for
you in the future. Now look, verse 3, Isaiah 43, 3, I gave
Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for you. I did that
in the past. I will give men for thee and
people for thy life. When you read there that God
gave Egypt for you, and He gave Ethiopia and Zebra for you, do
you sit here today, do you think God did that for you? Or do you
think that just applies to Israel? If God hadn't have done that
for you, Christ wouldn't have come into this world through
David's lineage and you wouldn't have been redeemed. When God
gave Egypt and Ethiopia and Sheba for the political nation of Israel,
He did it to preserve Abraham's posterity so Christ would come
into this world and redeem you. So yes, God gave Egypt and Sheba
for me and you. He gave up whole nations for
us. That's what He did. And He said,
and I will do it in the future. I'll give men for thee and I'll
give people for thy life. That's amazing, brethren. Now
listen. Knowing that He called you to bear witness of Him, to
just go forth and talk about Him to people. He called you
so that you just hold forth the word of life, the good news,
and tell people what He's done for you. You live for Him. He is the first thought that
makes us say, do I want to go this way or that way? What is
your first thought that is the determining factor? Christ. What He has done for you. Where
His gospel is at. This is why He has called
us. To live for Him. To glorify Him. To declare His
name. Because He is going to eventually,
one of these days, call out the last one of His sheep. And then
He's coming, and we're going to be with Him forever. Now,
our thought is, as we're going through our life, I should have
said something to them about Christ. I had the opportunity.
It seemed like that door was open, and I should have said
something. Ah, they wouldn't have believed. He said, I gave
nations for you. and I will give men for you and
people for your life. Don't be afraid to tell anybody
about Christ. Now I'm not saying be like religious
folks that go around trying to browbeat people. I don't like
that. But if the Lord opens the door
and you have an opportunity to speak to somebody about Christ,
look for an opportunity and speak about him because nobody can hurt you. Nobody can
do a thing to you, brethren. That's what he's telling us.
He said, you're going to go through fire. You won't be burned. I'll
be with you. I gave nations for you. I'll
give men for you. You're honorable to me. You're
precious in my sight. I love you. I've renamed you.
I bought you. I created you. I formed you.
You're mine. You're my witnesses. That's what he's going to say
next. And I'm calling my seed from the north, south, east,
and west. You just declare my name. Ain't that good news? All right, brethren. I'm tired. I preached late last
night, and I can't ever sleep after I get through preaching,
so I didn't go to bed until I don't know what time. And then I got
up early, so that's it. I'm done. We're going home. All
right, Brother Greg.