Alright, brethren, Isaiah 62.
Isaiah chapter 62. In our day, the world calls God's
people by a lot of unflattering names. But here are four names
that God says His people shall be called. Isaiah 62, verse 12,
And they shall call them the holy people, THE holy people,
THE redeemed of the Lord. And thou shalt be called sought
out, a city not forsaken." Now, this has been so from eternity.
This is so now, and this will be so when Christ completes this
work of calling out all of His elect out of this world into
His church, into this heavenly city. All of His people should
be called these names that God gives to His people. They shall
call them the holy people. the redeemed of the Lord, and
thou shalt be called sought out, a city not forsaken." Now let's
just take these four names and look at them a little more closely. First of all, they shall call
them the holy people. Do you know what holiness is?
Holiness, sanctification, saints, children of obedience, these
words are synonymous in the scripture. They mean the same thing. And
this is one of the most misunderstood doctrines of the whole doctrine
of grace. Men who get it all the way up
to sanctification miss it on sanctification. They bring sinners
back under the law and try to teach them that the way you are
made holy and more holy and more holy is by your obedience to
the law. That's just not so. That's not true at all. I want
to show you that. I want to show you three different
scriptures. Holiness is the work of God. Somebody said there's
no such thing as an imparted sanctification, no such thing
as an imparted holiness or an imparted righteousness. If there's
not, you don't have spiritual life. Because spiritual life
is holiness and righteousness. That new man that's in the believer,
created of God, Christ in you, is righteous and holy, because
that's what Christ did. And he's the life, and he's the
holiness. This thing of all these works and all these names are
going to be because of Christ and by what He's done. That's
what verse 11 tells us. It says, Behold, the Lord's proclaimed
unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold,
thy salvation cometh. He's salvation, and He's not
salvation just in a little bit, and then He's going to leave
a little bit for you to do. No, He's salvation. If you're in
the sea drowning with no way to save yourself and somebody
comes out there and plucks you out of that sea and takes you
to the ship and takes you to the shore and puts you in the
hospital and gets you back to health and does everything, they've
saved you. You didn't do anything. And that's
salvation. It's from beginning to end. And
He's the salvation that's promised. He's come and He's coming again.
And look, behold, His reward is with Him. The reward of what? Scott just read it. The reward
of his inheritance. It's his inheritance. It's his
to give. And it's his to give to whom
he will, who he redeemed. And his work is before him. Now,
that means it's God that does all this work and gives us these
names. And that's so of holiness. That's
so of holiness. Go to Jude chapter 1. First of
all, God the Father made his people holy. Jude 1. It says here, first verse, Jude,
the servant of Jesus Christ and brother of James, to them that
are sanctified, that means made holy, by God the Father. You see that? God the Father
did it. And preserved in Jesus Christ
and called. You see, that's telling you God
the Father separated His people. When He chose us in Christ, there's
where He preserved us, in Christ. And then in time, He called us
right then, but then in time, He calls us effectually. But
it's because He separated us. God the Father separated us.
That's what Ephesians 1 chapter 4 says. He separated us that
we might be holy. Not in order that down the road
we're going to be holy, but His separating us by divine election
made us holy. Holiness means to be separated
out. To be separated out from the lump. And to be made His
vessel, His special vessel for His own holy sanctified use. And that use is to glorify Him.
He can get all the glory. So first of all, God the Father
did this, and then God the Son did this. Turn to Hebrews 2,
just a couple of pages to your left. Hebrews 2, verse 11. God the Son makes us the holy
people. Here we're talking about Christ coming and suffering in
the place of His people. And it says in Hebrews 2, 11,
both He that sanctifyeth, that's the Lord Jesus, and they who
are sanctified. That's those he has made to be
holy. Christ who is the sanctifier
and all God's elect who are sanctified are all of one. For which cause
he's not ashamed to call them brethren. Would God call us brethren
any other way than if we were holy? No other way. No other
way. And that's what Christ did for
his people. On the cross He made His people
the holy people. He separated us by redemption.
And then God the Holy Spirit makes us holy. Look at a few
pages to your left to Titus. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5. So God the Father by election,
God the Son by redemption, and God the Holy Spirit by regeneration. By creating that new man within
us. Look here, Titus 3.5, not by
works of righteousness which we have done, and you could put
in the place of righteousness right there, you could write,
not by works of holiness that we have done. You could put that
there too. But according to His mercy, He
saved us. He saved us by the washing of
regeneration. The washing and renewing of the
what? the Holy Ghost. Do you think
the Holy Ghost makes anything but what's holy? That's all He
creates is what's holy. And that new man He's created
is holy. If you can get to 1 Corinthians 6, I'll give you another scripture
on that. 1 Corinthians 6, 9. Now, here's what we are by nature.
When we're born the first time, listen to this. 1 Corinthians
6, 9, and this is what we still are in our flesh. Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be
not deceived, neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor
thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners
shall inherit the kingdom of God. You see, all those things
are not holy. That's not a holy That's not
holiness. That's not righteousness. Watch
this now. And such were some of you. Wow. You were. Now what made
the difference? But ye are washed. But you are sanctified. You are holy. You've been made
holy. But you are justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. You see
that? This work is by Christ, is by
God the Father, by the Lord Jesus, and by the Holy Spirit. Now,
I want you to get this. This will help you with holiness,
I think. Be sure to get this now. We have been sanctified
by the Spirit of God. When? We've been sanctified by
the Spirit of God when we hate our sins simply because it's
against God who made us holy. That's when you've been sanctified.
And we've been made holy by God when we cease trying to make
ourselves holy by our works and we rest in Christ because of
God. He's been made unto us sanctification. We see, that's when you've made
holy. If you can rest in Christ from
all your works, hate your sins because they're against God,
you have a heart to honor Christ simply because of what He's done
for you in making you completely holy and righteous in Him. Do
you know how separated you've been made from the rest of the
religious world? Because the rest of the religious world is
trying to make themselves holy. Now let me see if I can illustrate
this. Do you young people love your
earthly mother and father? Well, you want to honor them,
you want to obey them if you love them. If you see what all
they've done for you, raising you, you want to honor and obey
them in everything you do. Are you doing that to make yourself
be their child? To be separated out from all
other children in the world. To be made holy from all the
other children in the world so that you're their children. Are
you obeying them in order to be their children? Or to be their
children more? To be more separated as their
children? No! You're doing it because you
were born of them and you are their children. Well, listen
to the Scripture. I beseech you therefore, brethren,
by the mercies of God, By the law? So you can be made more
holy? So you can be made more righteous?
No. By the mercies of God. That you present your bodies
a living sacrifice. Listen to the next word. Holy.
To be made holy? No. Already holy. That's the
only way we could present our bodies to Christ is if they were
already holy. There's no other way. And it says there, present your
bodies one living sacrifice. How do you do that? How do we
all present, each of us present our bodies as one, just one living
sacrifice? In that one living sacrifice,
in Christ. And he said, it's acceptable
unto God. Already, Scott just read it too,
it said, what he read there said, it said, put on vows of mercies,
because you're the elect of God, holy and beloved. He didn't say
to become the elect of God, to become holy and beloved. He said
because you are. You already are. And you're going
to grow like a child grows. You know when that child grows,
he's not becoming more of a human being. He's already a human being.
And when we're growing grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we're not becoming more holy. We're already holy. We're
just growing to learn more about it. about how we were made holy. And growth, true growth in grace
is not seeing yourself as becoming so much more better and so much
more wonderful in yourself so that you get prouder and prouder
and prouder. No, it's to see your sin more and more and more
so that you're lower and lower and lower and you see Christ
higher and higher and higher. You see He's your sanctification.
So that's what we're talking about. They should be called
the holy people. Alright, now secondly, they shall
be called the redeemed of the Lord. What is redemption? What is redemption? When we sinned
in the garden, here's what it amounted to. It'd be like taking
a credit card and thinking, I can go out and buy anything I want
to with this, and I don't ever have to pay anything. And so
you just go out and you just spend, spend, spend, spend, spend,
and you get yourself into such a debt, there is no way you can
get yourself out of it. The only way you can get out
of that debt is if somebody comes and says, I'm going to pay that
whole debt off. Redemption is Christ paying all
the debt that we owe to God. We could not get out of debt
to God. When we sinned in Adam, we fell
into debt, head over heels in debt, bankrupt sinner, no way
to get out. And Christ came and freely paid
the price. What was the price? What did
it take? You've been redeemed with the
precious blood of Christ. As a lamb without spot, without
blemish. In order to redeem his people,
it took Christ giving his life in place of their life. The Pope
walked around this whole time he was here calling himself a
vicar. That means a substitute. One who stands in the place of
God, between you and God. There's only one. as Christ. He's the substitute. His death
was vicarious. He died in place of His people. And He's the one who redeemed
us. In whom we have redemption. We're not trying to have it,
we got it. In whom we have redemption, even through His blood, even
the forgiveness of sins. That's what redemption is. All
our debt's been forgiven. It's cancelled out. Debt free. Debt free. Isn't that good? Isn't it good to be debt-free?
Most of us don't know what that is. If you don't have any debt,
you've at least got a house you've got to pay. Well, you're just
renting from the bank, really. But debt-free. We don't owe God
anything. Christ paid it all. Isn't that
wonderful? And then look at this, Romans
8. There's another redemption spoken of in Scripture too. We're
waiting on a redemption. You see, Christ, He's purchased
something. He's made a possession. It's
His. He bought it. Used to, you know, you could
make layaway payments on things and you would buy it. When you
got it paid off at the store, it's yours. It's there. It's
yours. And then you just go in there and redeem your purchased
possession. You take it and it's yours. You
bought it. Well, Christ has redeemed His people. He's paid the debt
we owe, and now we're waiting for the time when Christ is coming
back, and He's going to redeem our body, soul, and spirit to
God, and we're going to be with Him forever, because He's purchased
His people. Look here now, Romans 8, 18.
I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not
worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed
in us. for the earnest expectation of the creation. That's the word,
creation. He's personifying creation. He's giving them feelings in
a hand like a man. He says the earnest expectation,
that which the creation is expecting, that which it's hoping for and
looking for and waiting for, is for the manifestation of the
sons of God. for the sons of God to be brought
forth. For the creature, the creation,
was made subject to vanity, not wittingly, but by reason of God,
who subjected the same in hope." You see, God brought the creation
into bondage, too. And it's hoping, too, for this
redemption. Because the creation itself also
shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious
liberty of the children of God. Isn't that good? Glorious liberty
of the children of God. It's going to be a new heavens
and a new earth. Everything right now, I don't
want to get political, but everything that harms the world is because
of money, our love of money. Because if it benefits me, then
I've got to do it. For me and mine, there won't
be any of that in that new heavens and new earth. So that new heavens
and new earth is not going to be polluted by us. It's going
to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into that glorious
liberty of the sons of God. Look at this. For we know that
the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until
now. And not only they, but ourselves
also. which have the first fruits of
the Spirit." We've got the earnest, we've got the, you know, He's
given us the Holy Spirit to foretaste to let you know, I'm coming back.
And He says, even we ourselves grow within ourselves waiting
for the adoption to wit, the redemption of our body. We're
going to be completely without sin. We're going to be laid down
this body of death. I've been sick all week. Been
miserable. Hadn't been able to sleep. I
mean, my skin's crawling. I just feel awful. And I've been
thinking there how awful it'd be to die. There's nothing you
can do about it. You can't stop it. You can't
make it, you know, to slowly die. Because I just couldn't
get no comfort. I couldn't get out of it. I couldn't
get... But one day, brethren, it's all going to be laid aside
just like you change your clothes. And we'll be delivered from all
the sin of our flesh into the glorious liberty of the sons
of God. That makes this suffering bearable,
don't it? It makes this suffering bearable.
Alright, thirdly, and I'll be brief here. Thirdly, thou shalt
be called sought out. You're going to be called the
holy people. You're going to be called the redeemed of the
Lord. And you're going to be called sought out. Well, why
do you have to be sought out? Because you were lost. You know,
men talk about, I found the Lord. The Lord wasn't lost. You're
the one that's lost. I was the one that's lost. The
Lord found us. In Luke 14, look there with me, Luke 14. Christ, our great Shepherd, gets
the glory for seeking us out. He's going to seek out every
one of His sheep. He's not going to lose one of
them. Look here, Luke 14, verse 4. What man of you having a hundred
sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine
in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he find
it? I'm sorry. I'm in the wrong scripture. Let me just read it to you. Is
it 15? Luke 15, 4. Yeah. There you go. Luke 15, 4. Which one, if you have a hundred
sheep and you lose one, do not leave the ninety-nine in the
wilderness and go after that which is lost, until he find
it. And when he hath found it, he
lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing. And that's what Christ does.
And when He comes home, He calls together His friends and neighbors
and says to them, Rejoice with me, for I found my sheep that
was lost. I say unto you, likewise, there
shall be joy in heaven over one sinner that repents, more than
over ninety-nine just persons which need no repentance. See,
Christ is seeking out His people. He's bringing us to repentance.
He's bringing us to turn from our self and our deeds to trust
Him. to put us on his shoulders and
bring us all the way home. That's what we're waiting on.
Behold, this is all God's grace. Where sin abounded, grace did
much more bound. And it's against our natural
will. Did you know that? This is against our natural will.
We don't want to be found by nature. That's right. A man by
nature does not want to be found by God. That's what Christ said. He said, this is a condemnation.
Lights come into the world. Men hate the light. Because if
they come out into the light, then everything they are and
everything they've done is going to be exposed. And he says, therefore
they won't come to the light. Man don't want to be found. He
don't want to be found. But listen to the scripture.
Blessed is the man whom God chooses and causes to approach unto God. Christ comes to that prisoner
where you are, seeks you out, and He calls you and He says,
come forth, show yourself. We saw it this morning. He makes
you come forth and show yourself in all your pollution, all your
sin before Him, confessing, I need you to put me on your shoulder
and carry me home. And He said, that man's a blessed man. He'll
dwell in my courts. He'll be satisfied with the goodness
of my house, even of my holy temple. And when He does it,
though He does it against our natural will, because He creates
within us a new man, we're perfectly willing for Him to do it. Thy
people shall be willing in the day of thy power. See, the flesh
doesn't want anything to do with God. Your flesh and mine still
don't want anything to do with God. That's why you wake up on
Sunday morning sometimes and you think, it'd be nice to just
lay here a little bit longer. I'd really like to lay here more
than I'd like to go there. That's your flesh. That's your
flesh. But that new man said, get up!
Get up! Go hear Him. Alright, he's going
to do that. Fourthly, they should be called
a city not forsaken. City not forsaken. We're given
a lot of names in Scripture. This is one of my favorites,
a city. A city. Glorious things are spoken of
thee, O city of God. The city of God. Can you imagine
if there was a city in this earth that we knew was the city of
God? There is one. It's His church. Right here. You're in the city
of God. There is a river. You know, you look at New York
City. Why is New York City such a big and and successful and
inhabited city. It was founded on a river. Most
cities founded on a river were wealthy because they needed the
river. Well, this city of God, this church, there is a river.
There is a river. The streams whereof shall make
glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacle of the
Most High. That river is Christ. He's the one making us glad.
We have a strong city. Salvation for walls. That's Christ. Salvation for
bulwarks. That's Christ. Look upon Zion,
the city of our solemnity. This is a solemn city. This is
a serious city. We want Him to have all the glory.
We're not clapping and hooping and jumping the pews and clapping
our hands and trying to bring attention to ourselves. We want
Him to have the glory. You've come to Mount Zion, the
city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Now, I can't read
this word forsaken without thinking about Christ on the cross. He
cried out, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And he
answered it and he said, Because you're holy, and I'm a worm and
no man. And that's when Christ took the
place of his people and became his people in their place, in
their room instead, bearing their sin, God forsook him. God forsook him. That's what
it took to satisfy justice. To uphold God's justice, His
honor, His glory, His mercy, His grace, His forgiveness, His
judgment, everything that God is, it took forsaking His Son
on that cross in the place of His people. Let me see if I can
illustrate this. You know, if you go to court
and you're guilty, flat out you're guilty. And you go to court and
you ask mercy from that judge, and that judge just decides out
of the goodness of his heart, I'm going to have mercy on you,
so he lessens your fine or whatever and lets you off and has mercy
on you. That judge had no pale justice. That's mercy at the expense of
justice, because he did not uphold the law. God didn't do it that
way. God showed His people mercy by
pouring out judgment to the fullest extent, and He did it on His
Son. And now this is the case, because
He forsook Christ in place of His people. He says, you're the
holy people. You're the redeemed of the Lord.
You should be called sought out, and you shall be a city not forsaken. He said, I'll never leave you,
and I'll never forsake you. Now brethren, remember this.
Remember this. All of this that we hear, we're
not under the law, we're not mercenaries, we're not doing
anything to get some kind of selfish reward that's greater
than our brothers or sisters or anything like that. We're
saved by free grace. Because of these things, doesn't
it make you want to honor God? This doesn't make me want to
run out and say, well, I'm free from the law, so I'm going to
sin hand and foot. No. It makes me want to honor
Him more and more. Lord, give me grace. Give me
grace. Enable me to honor You. I'm going
to be full of sin, but give me grace to honor You. And this
is what Christ said. He said, you're a city, And a
city that's been set on a hill can't be hidden. The world's
going to see it. You're driving on an interstate,
some lonesome interstate at night, off in the distance. There's
that city on a hill. You can see it glowing. That's the church
of God in this world. This world's dark. His people's
that city set on that hill. And He said this, I've set you
on that hill and I've given you my light to shine my light. not to shine your light, as in
get everybody looking at you, but you to be absence, total
absence, so they see Christ the light. And he says, that your
light so shine before men that they may see your good works
and glorify your Father which is in heaven. All of this we've
been talking about is the will of our Father. He made it all. He purposed it. He sent His Son
and He accomplished it. And it'll be His. So He says,
now you go forth in everything you do because of what He's done
for you. Simply because of mercy. Because you're holy, redeemed,
sought out, and never to be forsaken. Glorify God in everything you
do. God give us grace to do that. Amen.