Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth. I've put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. He shall not
cry, nor lift up, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street.
A bruised reed shall he not break, and a smoking flack shall he
not quench. He shall bring forth judgment
unto truth. He shall not fail. nor be discouraged
till they have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall
wait for his law. Then down in verse 21, he says
the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will
magnify the law and make it honorable. Now here is our text. But this is a people robbed and
spoiled. They are all of them snared in
holes and they are hid in prison houses. They are for a prey,
and none delivereth, for a spoil, and none saith restore. Who among you will give ear to
this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave
Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord,
He against whom we have sinned, For they would not walk in his
ways, neither were they obedient unto his law. Therefore he hath
poured upon him the fury of his anger, and the strength of battle,
and has set him on fire round about, yet he knew not, and it
burned him, yet he laid it not to heart. Now this was a sad state of things
in Israel at the time that Isaiah wrote this. And it is an example
of what we see going on in the world today. We are robbed. We are spoiled. And this took
place in the fall of Adam. And what we see all around us
in the world is the result of that. We've robbed and spoiled
our own selves by our own sins. amongst the fallen sons of Adam,
none saith restore. None saith restore. What does
that mean? None saith restore. Well, as
this chapter is declaring, Christ is the Restorer. He's the Restorer. And He's made restitution to
God for His people. And not only did he make restitution
to God for his people, he's made double restitution to God for
his people. He has restored that which he
took not away above and beyond what we lost in Adam. Our subject
is glorious restitution. Grace, the grace of God, God's
grace. It's for the robbed and the spoiled. That's who it's for. The robbed
and the spoiled. Those destitute in poverty. Robbed, spoiled, taken for a
prey. That's who God's grace is for.
Sinners. For sinners that cannot save
themselves. Now God demanded in his law the
restoration and the restitution for those who were the victims
of robbery. Go with me to Exodus 22. This was God's word. This was
his law. This is what nobody in Israel
had done. And it's an example to us of
how You know that when the Lord gave the law to them, they had
sinned and were worshiping a golden calf by the time Moses came down
out of the mount. When God gave the law, we'd already
fallen in Adam. We were already guilty sinners
in Adam. God gave the law to shut our mouth. He gave the law
to show us there's none righteous. We're guilty before God. But
I want you to see the grace in this law that God gave. God provided
for those that had been spoiled and robbed and those that were
poor. If a man shall steal an ox or
sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for
an ox and four sheep for a sheep. You see that restitution has
to be made. He has to restore what he stole,
but he has to restore more than he stole. And he says there in
verse three, if the sun be risen upon him, There should be bloodshed
for him, for he should make full restitution. If he hath nothing,
then he shall be sold for his theft. We're going to see in
Isaiah, what we read there, the Lord said, who turned them over? Who sold them? Who turned them
over to this? God said in his law, if he hath
nothing, then he should be sold for his theft. He said in verse
4, If the theft be certainly found
in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall
restore double. This is the law of restitution.
He keeps saying over and over, he shall restore. Look at verse
7. If a man shall deliver unto his
neighbor money or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's
house, if the thief be found, let him pay double. They didn't
pay double. God also provided restoration
and restitution for those that had fallen into poverty. You
have those that have been robbed and spoiled and how they were
to be restored, double. And then you have, God had a
law that if men became poor, they were to be restored. In the year of Jubilee, on the
Day of Atonement, a silver trumpet would be blown. It had a distinct
sound, and this silver trumpet would be blown. And when that
took place, every man who had lost his inheritance, every man
who was in debt and could not pay his debts, he had everything
restored to him. All his debts were wiped away
completely. And he had everything restored
back to him. Think about that. He's in debt. He could not pay. For seven years
he'd been in debt. And that jubilee year, all debts
were canceled. Every prodigal son who had run
off and spent his father's inheritance that he gave him and righted
his living, all his debts were wiped clear. He could go home
to his father's house and he could enjoy his family once again. And then all work ceased in that
jubilee year. All work ceased. God promised
to provide an increase in the fields so they could rest. They could rest. The poor were
either redeemed by a kinsman redeemer, their near kinsman,
or they were restored in the year of Jubilee. But either way,
God provided And two beautiful pictures of Christ right there.
He provided for the poor and not only did he provide for the
poor, he helped the one who provided for the poor. He provided for
the one who provided for the poor. That's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ who's made perfect atonement for the sins
of his people with God and who restores his people freely to
God. In the year of this Jubilee,
you shall return every man unto his possession. That's what God
said in Leviticus 25, 13. He said, You shall eat your bread
to the full and dwell in your land safely. I will give peace
in the land. You shall lie down. None shall
make you afraid. I will rid evil beasts out of
the land. Neither shall the sword go through
the land. See, they could have had all
of that, if they had just obeyed God. God made a full provision of
everything if they just obeyed God. Even if they fell on hard
times, God had made full provision for them. And our text shows
something that happened that was very different in Israel
in Isaiah's day. It says there in Isaiah 42, 22,
but this is a people robbed and spoiled. They are all of them
snared in holes. They are hid in prison houses.
They are for a prey and none delivereth for a spoil and none
saith restore. That declares none believe God.
None believe God. None went to God to assault God. And instead of restoring the
poor, they oppressed one another. They exacted of one another.
In doing so, they robbed God of His glory. And they robbed
one another. And they caused one another to
fall into captivity. And so what happened is God turned
the whole nation into captivity and let them be spoiled of an
enemy. That's what happened in the fall.
That's what happened in the fall. God gave us a perfect garden. He made Adam upright just like
he provided everything for them. God had done all this for man
and gave one commandment. You can have any of these trees
in this garden except for that one. Just that one. that represented
God's authority, that represented, that would be the indication
when man stopped giving glory to God and honoring God and when
man started trying to rob God whenever that one commandment
was broken. And because we broke that one
commandment in the garden, we come into this world like Israel
was already when God gave the law. They were already sinners,
they were already guilty. That's how we come into this
world. And we hear the word, we hear the law of God, and we
think we can keep it, and we say we'll keep it just like Israel
did. And where do we end up? Where
have we ended up? We see it in our nation all around
us. We see it all through the world. The love of money is the
root of all evil. If you want to know why things
are happening the way they're happening, People are spoiled. They're being spoiled. They're
taken for a prey. They're being robbed. And somebody's
getting rich. Because the love of money is
not money is the root of all. Money is just a thing. Just like
other things are just things. The sin's not in things. The
sin's in us. sins in us. It comes from a depraved
heart, robbery and oppression. And false religion is the very
worst. False religion is trying to teach men to make brick without
straw. False religion is trying to get
you to go back to that law and start not oppressing and not
robbing people and thinking you can come to God because you haven't
done that and all you're doing is still robbing God by that. Listen to Isaiah 58, 6. Go there
with me. Isaiah 58, 6. It is not this
the fast that I have chosen, God said, to loose the bands
of wickedness. The bands of wickedness. Those
wicked bands of trying to make somebody else do or to take from
others. to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, that
you break every yoke. Is it not to deal thy bread to
the hungry, and that thou bring the poor, their cast out to thy
house, when thou seest the naked, that thou cover him, and that
thou hide not thyself from thine own flesh? But this is a people, God said,
robbed and spoiled, and they are all of them snared in holes,
and they're hid in prison houses, and therefore pray, and none
delivereth for a spoil, and none saith restore. You see, the thought
in the fleshly heart is this. If I'm going to get gain, I'm
going to have to get it at all costs. No matter what, if I have
to hurt somebody else, or I advance, or somebody else is hurt, then
natural way of thinking is, well then they'll just have to be
hurt. Because I'm going to have to get mine. And that ends up
in everybody doing the same thing, and it ends up in robbery, and
oppression, and spoiling. Sinners being sinners, and sinning,
and sinning against one another, and being captive. That's all
that results in. But now hear the Word of God.
In free, sovereign grace, before sin ever entered into this world
in eternity, God chose a people in the Lord Jesus Christ and
trusted the Lord Jesus Christ to do everything He commanded
in His Word. He gave that law to show us not
only our sin, but to show us something of how Christ has fulfilled
everything that God commands. Everything. Jeremiah 30, let's
go there, Jeremiah chapter 30, and look at verse 17. Let's read, let's read a little
bit. Let's read verse 15. Why cryest thou for thine affliction? This is, you know, us murmuring
about how bad everything is and why everything is the way it
is. God said, why cry? Thy sorrow is incurable for the
multitude of thine iniquity, because thy sins were increased.
I have done these things unto thee, God said. Therefore, all
they that devour thee, now catch this, he permitted them, just
like he put Adam out of the garden, he put Israel out, and they're
being devoured amongst one another and by enemies. And he said,
but all they that devour thee shall be devoured. Now he's talking
here to his particular people. And all thine adversaries, every
one of them, should go into captivity. And they that spoil thee shall
be a spoil. And all that pray upon thee will
I give for a prey. Now watch this. For I will restore
health unto thee. I'll restore you. I'll restore
you. I'm going to restore health to
you. And I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord, because
they called thee an outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no
man seeketh after." Christ Jesus is the Restorer. He's the Restorer. He promised God an eternity. struck hands with God, entered
covenant with God, that he would be surety for his people. And
God never looked to you and me, he looked to his son. Everything
God ever did since he created this world was to magnify and
glorify his son. That's what he said in Isaiah
42. He said, this is my servant whom I uphold. This is my servant
in whom I'm well pleased. He will bring forth judgment.
He shall not fail. I'll be magnified in Him. He'll
satisfy my law. He'll magnify my law. I'll be
honored in Him. That's what the whole purpose
of this world is about, to show Christ Jesus in His glory, to
show God's glory in Christ. Now look with me at Psalm 69.
Did the Lord accomplish what He came to accomplish? Psalm
69, when our Lord Jesus came, what we've been seeing in John
19, you know what we did to our Lord Jesus when He came? We oppressed
him and spoiled him and took him for a prey and robbed him.
We did to him just what men do to one another and have since
the fall. And look here in Psalm 69, he
said, verse 8, I have become a stranger unto my brethren,
an alien unto my mother's children. Mary had a lot of other children
besides just just the Lord, and a lot of them didn't believe.
And I'm an alien to them, not to mention, speaking of Israel. For the zeal of that house had
eaten me up. They were zealous, but not for
God. The reproaches of them that reproached
thee are found on me. When I wept and chastened my
soul with fasting, that was to my reproach. I made sackcloth
also my garment, and I became a proverb to them. Now look here
at verse 4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of my head. They that would destroy
me, being my enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. The Lord Jesus is the only one
who could say that. He's the only one who could say
they hate me without a cause. He's the only one who could say
they would destroy me being my enemies wrongfully. But He restored that which He
took not away. See, we robbed God of His glory. We robbed God of His honor. We
robbed God of the obedience due unto Him, the worship due unto
Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ took the place of his people. He came
into this world and he took the place of his people. And when
he bore the sin of his people, he bore all our oppression, our
sins of oppression. He bore all our sins of robbery
and all our sins of spoiling and all our sins of taking advantage
of others. He bore all those sins. And he
stood there before God, before the law and justice of God, as
the one who robbed God. That's how fully he took our
place. The law and justice of God looked upon him as the one
that had robbed God. He had done nothing wrong. He
had not taken away these things. But he stood there to bear all
the sin of his people. If he's going to restore us who've
been robbed, that's what he had to do. If he's going to honor
and magnify God's law, he's restoring us. That's what he's doing. So
he was willing to bear the sin of his people and stand before
the law. We're the guilty sinners who robbed God. But he made full
restitution on behalf of his people. He made full restitution
to God. Full restitution of God. He paid
to God what we owed to God. What was that? His blood. We
owed God death. We had to magnify the law. We
had to honor the law. We owed it death because we sinned,
and he gave the law full restitution. He paid the law, everything we
owed. He's restoring to God everything we owe. Before God, on behalf
of his people, he restored what all his elect did in robbing
God by our sins. He restored to God everything
that we took away in robbing God of His glory and His honor
by our sins. He gave to God the perfect faith
and the perfect fidelity that we owe to God. He gave to God
perfect obedience. He gave to God perfect love for
God and for His people. He gave to God perfect satisfaction
to everything the law demanded and even the justice the law
demanded. Perfect, perfect restitution. He restored that which he took
not away. He restored that which he took
not away. But he did more than that. He
did even more than that. Go to Isaiah chapter 40. God's law said that the person
who had done the robbing not only had to restore, he had to
restore double. Our Lord Jesus came and he took
the place of you and me as the one that had done the robbing
and he restored what he took away and he made full double
restitution. He went above and beyond what
we stole. He says here in Isaiah 40 verse
1, Comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem. Cry unto her that her warfare
is accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received
of the Lord's hand double for all our sin. Double restitution. above and beyond, even you and
me who did the robbing and who did the oppressing. This is so
of all those God will save, Christ restored to us more than we lost
in Adam. He brought in perfect righteousness,
eternal righteousness. He brought in perfect sanctification
that can in no way be marred whatsoever. He brought in eternal
redemption that can never again Be undone. We cannot fall away
from God ever again because he eternally accomplished the salvation
of his people. Above and beyond. Not only did
he take away our sins and give full satisfaction and obedience
to God, he gave to you and me above that which we lost in Adam. You think about Joseph's brethren,
they came down there, they were poor, they didn't have anything,
and they come down there to Egypt, and they don't know Joseph. But
they know he's the head over the storehouses. The word Jesus
Christ is over the storehouses. and come to Christ like they
came to Joseph. But they came there to Joseph,
and the scripture says, Joseph commanded to fill their sacks
with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and
to give them provision for the way, and thus he did unto them. Our Lord Jesus Christ has restored
all. He's paid all the debt His people
owe to God. He's restored us more than we
lost in Adam, and He's given us a full provision for the way. That's... It don't get any better than
that. That's salvation. A to Z, beginning to end, every
moment, constantly, continually, freely, fully, forever. That's
what that means. Think of how that poor, robbed,
indebted man felt when he heard that jubilee trumpet blow. There
he is, he'd been in bondage. He's been that six years there,
that perfect bondage, number of man, he's perfectly ruined,
he's in debt, he don't have anything to pay, and all of a sudden he
hears that Jubilee trumpet blow. And it had a distinct sound.
When you heard that Jubilee trumpet, you knew that was the trumpet
of Jubilee. And when he heard that, you just
imagine what his heart felt like when he knew, today's the day. All my debts are gone. I've restored
everything I've lost. I can start over. I can start
completely new today. Everything's done. Anybody here
got any credit card debt? I hope you don't, but if you
don't, I'm surprised. This country's full of it. Imagine
every debt wiped clean. Well, it's better than that,
brethren. We're talking about all our sins. We're talking about
perfect righteousness before God. We're talking about freedom,
accepted of God, never again to be rejected of God, always
kept by God, full provision for the way. Do you hear this jubilee
trumpet? This is the jubilee trumpet. God is able by His sovereign
hand. sovereign over all things in
this world to bring his child under the good news of this gospel
and he's able to make us hear it in our heart and to restore
to us and make us see we've been restored. Christ restored that
which he took not away. Now lastly, when Christ speaks
this good news into the new heart, he makes his child a restorer.
He makes his child a restorer. When we say we've been the robber,
we say we've been indebted, and you see what Christ has done
for you. Toward God, the sinner that's called by God's grace,
now listen carefully to me. We don't give God anything but
what he's already given us. That's so beginning and end.
I know when our Lord talked about forgiving 70 times seven, He
must have detected something in the apostles. They asked him
to increase their faith. Maybe he detected them thinking,
well, if I forgive 70 times 7, I'll be something. You know,
it's common today, people are taking ice baths, and it's supposed
to shock you and make you stronger, you know, whatever. Well, the
Lord gave them a good ice bath. He said, if you forgive 70 times
7, you only did it by my grace, and you only did what you should
have done. We don't give Him anything but
what He's already given to us. And we only give to Him what
He's given to us. We come to our Lord with nothing
but the Son of God, the Lamb that God has provided. That's
who we come in. We come in Him, trust in Him
who restored us. He gives you faith. What does
faith do? You give it right back to Him.
You believe Him. He grants you repentance. What's
repentance? Repentance toward God. You go
straight to Him and confess you're absolutely nothing and He is.
You trust Him alone to save you. He gives you love in your heart.
What do you do? You love Him. Everything you
have, He gave it to you. You're just giving Him what He
gave to you. We're like Mephibosheth. David
said, go get him and bring him. Fetch him to my table. He's lame.
He couldn't even come to the table. David brings him to that
table. This is what David told him.
Fear not. Don't fear anymore. And think
about it. Mephibosheth didn't have a thing
to fear the rest of his days. Fear not, for I will surely show
thee kindness. For your sake, Mephibosheth,
uh-uh. For Jonathan, your father's sake. God says, don't fear. He says this to a child. I will surely show you kindness
for Christ, your everlasting father's sake. You're the last
Adam who represented you. I'll do it for his sake. Don't
fear. I will restore thee all the land
that saw thy father and thou shalt eat bread at my table continually. That's what God makes you know.
I've restored you, you eat at my table from now through eternity. God's grace makes the restored
believer restore toward other poor sinners. How so? By giving them only what God's
given to you. And we give them these unsearchable
riches through the preaching of the gospel. That's how, it's
Christ that's going to do the restoring. This is how he restored
you and me. And this is the means he uses
to restore. And so we give him what he's
given to us. We give him the gospel of Christ
and him crucified. And if you have a brother, you
have a sister that's fallen, go to Galatians chapter 6. What
do you do? Brethren, verse 1, Galatians
6, 1, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore, restore. Restore such a one in the spirit
of meekness, considering thyself, lest thou also be tempted. Bury
ye one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.
That's the whole, that's the whole, why restore somebody that's
fallen? In the parable the Lord gave
when he was teaching Peter, what did the Lord say to the servant?
Should not you have shown pity after all that pity that I showed
to you? Just reasonable. Should not you
restore after I've restored you seventy times seven? In the year of Jubilee, the children
of Israel were required by law, but they would not. But in the
Gospel of Jubilee, the love of God in Christ for sinners like
you and me makes us love those begotten of Him, because we see
what He's done for us. It makes us show mercy to those
who are yet robbed and plundered in sin. Because we know what
it is to be poor. We know what it is to be the
stranger. We know what it is to be robbed and spoiled. We
know what that is. Now we know what it is to be
freely restored. Freely restored. Our Lord sent
His Apostle out. He said, freely you receive,
freely give. Shaken down, running over. Double restoration. Christ Jesus,
that's what we're given. The gospel of Christ Jesus and
everything God's given to us is the motive of our heart. And the best is yet to come.
It's good now, but the best is yet to come. There's coming a
day when our Lord is going to return when the last jubilee
trumpet is going to blow. And it's called in Acts 3.21,
the restitution of all things. The restoring of all things. And when that happens, brethren,
1 Corinthians 15.52 says, In a moment, in the twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump, the trumpet shall sound, and the
dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. Nothing
about us right now Everything causes us misery and sorrow and
sin we despise and want to be free from. It'll be gone. We will be able to worship God
perfectly. We'll be able to know Him perfectly. We'll be perfectly conformed
to Him. We'll be able to do what we want
to do now in our heart. We'll be able to worship Him
perfectly. Eye hasn't seen it, ear hadn't heard it, it hadn't
even entered the heart of man. What God's prepared for them
that love Him. This is because God restores. He restored all in Christ. Perfect,
glorious, liberty and rest because He said, I restored that which
I took not away. Glorious restoration. All right,
brethren, let's go to Him. Father, we thank you. God, we
truly are unprofitable servants. We fail constantly. We need you
to restore us on a day-by-day basis. Lord, we're Mephibosheth sitting
at your table. Now we do thank you that you
command us not to fear. Thankful, Lord, that you have
restored us, and you continue to restore all. Lord, we're looking
forward to that day when there's that full restitution of all
things. Lord, help us to know we have
everything of your hand. Help us to know that we can be
restorers because you fully provided everything for us and shall. Lord, grow us in faith to believe
this. Grow us in faith to trust you. Grow us in love to honor you
and to love one another. We have absolutely no reason,
no reason to do anything less. Lord, thank you for your mercy.
Thank you for your free, constant, continual grace. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen.