Thank you, Art. I appreciate
that very much. Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
54. Isaiah 54. Isaiah 54 is written to the church
which is Christ's bride. His bride. The church is made
up of individual elect sinners chosen of God in Christ, redeemed
by Christ. Some have already been called
to faith in Him, and some shall be called to faith in Him. They
were yet lost or not even born yet. They'll be called as well.
Look down at verse 17, Hebrews 54, 17. He says there in the
second part, of all the things He said in this chapter, He says,
this is the heritage, the inheritance, the portion, the possession of
the servants of the Lord. And their righteousness is of
me, saith the Lord. This is who he's writing to.
You know, there are some professing believers who find less comfort
in the Word of God than others. And one of the reasons is because
they're looking for the wrong thing in the Scriptures. Especially
when it comes to prophecy. Men look into the Scriptures
and they get to prophecy and they think that prophecy In prophecy,
God is speaking, especially in the Old Testament here, that
He's just speaking to Israel, the temporal Israel, carnal Israel,
and that His promises are carnal, they're temporal, they're literal,
earthly promises, and that's all. That's what folks think
when they look into the Scripture. Look for Christ in the Scripture.
When you read the Scripture, look for Christ in the Scripture.
And hear Christ speaking to us who are who were chosen and redeemed
and called and kept and preserved by God's grace. That's who the
book is written to. Whenever God spoke in the Old
Testament, He spoke in two ways. He spoke to natural political
Israel and He made natural political promises, temporal promises to
them and He fulfilled those promises to them. But at the same time,
He was speaking spiritually to Israel within Israel. There was
a true people in Israel who was the elect, chosen Israel of God. He was speaking to them. And
He was making promises to them. There's a church. Men call the
church everybody who professes Christianity. Well, there's a
church within the church. There's the true church. There's
the elect of God that God calls out and He speaks into their
hearts by grace. And that's who the book's written
to. For instance, whenever Israel sinned against God, political
is for sin against God. God turned them over to Babylon
and they were in captivity in Babylon. He promised all earlier
chapters of Isaiah, he promised he was sending a deliverer, a
mediator, one that's going to ransom them. And he did. He sent
Cyrus. And Cyrus delivered them from
bondage. But in the time of our text,
they were still living in Babylon. They hadn't come out. They were
free. They were free to go. Cyrus had set them free. But
they still lived in Babylon. And so the word here is somewhat
to them in a temporal way, saying God's going to bring them out,
He's going to give them an inheritance, and they're going to go into
their own land. But at the same time, brethren,
this is what Christ has done for you and I. He is that belief. He has come. We were in sin,
we were in bondage, we were in Babylon, and Christ came. Christ
the mediator came. And He's redeemed His people.
He's ransomed us from the fall. He's delivered us out from the
bondage of our sin and corruption. But as of yet, we're not fully
delivered yet. We still live in Babylon. We
still live surrounded by mystical Babylon, by the great harlot
of religion. We still live here. So this word
is God's promise to us. It's Christ's everlasting covenant
to us that that He's called us and He's going to call the rest
of His elect and He's going to keep us and He's going to deliver
us into that promised land, into everlasting glory with Him. And
so He makes this promise to us right here in verse 4. Fear not,
for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou confounded. For
thou shalt not be put to shame. You won't be ashamed and you
won't be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth. That's important. Thou shalt
forget the shame of thy youth. And shalt not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood anymore. What's he mean? The shame of
our youth and the reproach of our widowhood. Now he gives us
three reasons why this promise is sure. Let's look at it. Verse
5. For, it means because, here's the first reason, thy maker is
thine husband. Thy maker is thine husband, the
Lord of hosts is his name, and thy redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth shall he be called. It
is the second reason we can be sure this work shall be accomplished.
Verse 6, 4, Because the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken,
and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou wast refused,
saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
This is how we can be sure this promise is certain. And then
verse 9, he says, this is the third reason, for, because, this
is as the waters of Noah unto me. For as I have sworn that
the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth, so have
I sworn that I would not be wroth with thee, nor rebuke thee. For
the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
This is the everlasting covenant made by God in the hearts of
His people when He calls us to Himself and makes us to know
that our salvation is entirely of the Lord. That's what this
promise is. Now, first of all, a word about
our calling. Verse 6 says, The Lord hath called
thee. The word means recalled thee,
recalled thee, called you again. As a woman forsaken, a woman
forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth when thou
wast refused, saith thou God. The Lord has called us again.
He's recalled us to Himself. That's true of you who believe.
Like a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit. Like a wife of youth
when thou wast refused. It's like a woman who was espoused,
engaged to be married to a husband, to a man. But she committed fornication
and he justly forsook her. He left her alone. Or like a
wife of youth who committed adultery against her husband. And he refused
her. He refused her. And so she was
grieved, wounded in spirit. That word means to the very heart. To us it means dead in sins. Dead in trespasses and sins.
Wounded in our spirit. But it was only for a little
while. It was just for a little while. It was just for a moment. The husband in great love recalls
his wife who was his from the beginning. And he calls her to
himself to be his bride. That's the picture he gives here
for us. Now that's God's description of the church. That's his description
of every child whom he saves. Our calling by Christ our husband
was a recalling. It was a calling again. because
we were called the first time by God the Father in eternity.
In eternity. Turn to Romans 8. Romans chapter
8. You're going to need a Bible
this morning because I've got a lot of scripture I want to
read to you and I'm pretty much going to read scripture more
than preach. Romans 8. We were espoused to Christ, His
bride from eternity. We were called. Those God saves
were called from eternity. Romans 8. In verse 27, or verse
28, he says, We know that all things work together for good
to them that love God, to them who are the called. Called. They've been called by grace
that they know, believe Christ. And this was according to purpose.
To God's purpose. That purpose that began in eternity.
And here's what God did in eternity. He did all this in eternity.
Watch. For whom He did for know, That's
what He did in time. He foreordained His people to
everlasting life. He also did predestinate us to
be conformed to the image of His Son, that His Son might be
the firstborn among many brethren. His Son was the cause of this,
of His predestinating His people to be conformed to Christ. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate, then He also called. He did this in
eternity. Now, He does this in time, but
He did it in eternity first. Whom He did predestinate, them
He also called, and whom He called, them He also justified. You mean
He justified us in eternity? Yes, He did. Them He also glorified. He glorified us in eternity?
Yes, He did. This is some more of that eternal
language, brethren, that you and I get flipped for a loop-de-loop
on. Just like He said the Son of
Man came down, but yet He's in heaven. He does this stuff in
time, but God the Father did all this for us in glory. Give
me another scripture on that. Ephesians 3, 1. God our Father
blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
according as He chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world. All these blessings, every blessing God could give, He gave
in Christ before the foundation of the world. having predestinated
us according to the good pleasure of His will, to the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ according to the good pleasure of His will.
That's that purpose we read about. That's why we're called in time
according to that purpose from eternity. And when He called
us the first time, He made us accepted in the Beloved, wherein
He hath made us accepted in the Beloved. Well, what happened
to us? We were espoused to Christ. We
were engaged to be married to Christ. We were the wife of His
youth, the wife from the beginning, the wife from eternity. What
happened to me and you, brethren? What did we do? What did we do? Thy maker is thy husband. He
made us when He called us in Christ. He made us accepted in
the beloved. He made us from the beginning.
What happened to us? Turn to Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. Now I'm going to preach the truth
to you, and I'm going to preach this to you with spiritual discernment. And
we have to have spiritual discernment to understand this. But like
that woman that the Lord told us about, He illustrated it with
Israel. He called Israel. He decked Israel
out. He decked her out. He decked
her with jewels. He decked her head to toe. That's
what God did in eternity for those He chose in Christ. He
decked us with jewels from head to toe. And then God put Israel
in a garden, in a well-prepared place, hedged about, that He
had made, that God had made. He cast out all the enemies and
He put them there, just like He put us in the garden in Adam.
He put us there in Adam. But we are a woman, as Scripture
says, forsaken and grieved in spirit, wounded in spirit, dead
and trespassed in sin, a wife of youth that He's refused, What
happened to us? What happened to us? Well, here
in Ezekiel we read what we did and what we are in our flesh.
This is what Israel did. And this is what we did. Israel
is just a picture of his true Israel, his spiritual. This is
what we did, brethren. And when I read this, some of
you sitting here are probably going to say, that is just too
scandalous to be read in mixed company. Because it's bad. It's
bad stuff. But shame on our pride if that's
how we feel. Because God told Ezekiel, you
make Jerusalem know her abomination. And what God says here is not
pretty. What God says here, God is saying
this, this is what we did when we sinned in Adam in the garden. This is what we did by that one
transgression. All this I'm going to read, we did in that one transgression.
This is the greatness of that sin in the garden. And this is
what the The elect of God did all through the history, all
through history. This is what you and I did in
all our days of rebellion. Brethren, this is what we still
are in our flesh. But now watch this. This is what
we did. After decking us with perfection
in the garden, like as He decked Israel, God said, Your renown
went forth, for it was perfect through My comeliness which I
had put upon thee, saith the Lord God. We were perfect in
the garden. Now here's what we did. Verse 15, Ezekiel 16, 15. Thou didst trust in thine own
beauty, and playest the harlot, the harlot, because of thy renown,
and pourest out thy fornications on every one that passed by.
Christ it was, your beauty was my son's from the beginning.
And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckest thy high places
with different colors, and played the harlot there. The like things
shall not come, neither shall it be so. These things won't
stand, God said. Thou hast also taken thy fair
jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madeest
to thyself images of men, images of men, and didst commit whoredom
with them. We committed whoredom with everybody.
That's the way he's describing it. Well, read on. "...and took
thy broided garments and covered them, and thou hast set mine
oil and mine incense before them." You've made gods for yourself.
"...my meat also which I gave thee, fine flour and oil and
honey wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them
for a sweet savor, and thus it was, saith the Lord God. Moreover,
thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters." It wasn't enough
that we had our false religion, it wasn't enough that we set
up our false gods, We gave our children to Him. Look. Moreover,
thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast
borne unto Me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to
be devoured to your God. Is this of thy whoredoms a small
matter, that thou hast slain My children, and delivered them
to cause them to pass through the fire for them, for these
fake gods that you have made? And in all thy abominations and
thy whoredoms... He just keeps calling us a whore.
Thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth. You didn't
remember who you were espoused to from the beginning. You didn't
remember who God chose you in from the beginning. When thou
was naked and bare and was polluted in your blood, you didn't consider
that we turned from Christ our husband. Look at this now. We
never considered we sinned in a federal head and that we got
to be redeemed by a federal head. Verse 23, And it came to pass,
after all thy wickedness, Woe, woe unto thee, saith the Lord
God. He said, After all this wickedness, thou hast also built
unto thee an eminent place, and has made thee a high place in
every street. What does this sound like? It
sounds like churches in our day. Not only have you made up your
false gods and cast your children to them and played the whore
with me, but you've built these high eminent places on every
street. Now watch this. Verse 25. Thou hast built thy high place
at every head of the way, at every street, and hast made thy
beauty to be abhorred. And here's what you've done in
these places. You've opened your feet to everyone that passed
by and multiplied your hoardings. This is us, brethren, all our
days right here. Now look. Thou hast also committed
fornication. with the Egyptians thy neighbors,
great of flesh. They love fleshly things. And
you've increased your whorehoms to provoke me to anger. Behold,
therefore, I've stretched out my hand over thee and have diminished
thine ordinary food and delivered thee unto the will of them that
hate thee. That's what he did in the garden.
He cast us out. He delivered us to the will of
them that hated us. The daughters of the Philistines,
which are ashamed of thy lewd way. Boy, that's a... hard word
to us. He says, the ones that hate you,
they are even ashamed of your lewdness. He says, Thou hast
played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast
insatiable. Yea, thou hast played the harlot
with them, and yet could not be satisfied. Thou hast moreover
multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea,
and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith. How weak is your heart! He's saying, how grieved, how
wounded in spirit are you? He's saying, how dead in trespassing
sins are you? Look here, saith the Lord God,
seest thou seeing that thou doest all these things, the work of
an imperious, whorish woman. in that thou buildest thine eminent
place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in
every street. Now watch this. He says, but
you've not been a harlot in some ways, because you've scorned
higher. A harlot, she gets paid. He said,
you don't even get paid. Look at this. But as a wife that
commiteth adultery. That's what we are. Like a wife
that commiteth adultery, which taketh strangers instead of her
husband. We exalt sinners instead of exalting
Christ's will. We exalt sinners' choice instead
of exalting God's choice. We talk about us making Christ's
blood effectual instead of Christ making his own blood effectual.
This is what he's talking about here. This is what we did. This
is what we worked. Now look here. They give gifts
to all whores. This is how whores operate. But
thou givest thy gifts to all thy lovers. and hires them that
they may come unto thee on every side for thy whoredom. This is
what men do to make proselytes. You give them, you hire them. You make them hirelings to come
and walk on every side. You put the will and the purpose
and everything in their hand. And they come and flock around
you. Now look here, verse 34. And the contrary is in thee from
other women in thy whoredoms, whereas none followeth thee to
commit whoredoms. He's saying, you're above all
other whores. That's what he said. Nobody know
you. Ain't another whore like you. He said, and in that thou
givest a reward. And no reward is given unto thee. Therefore thou art contrary.
Now mark your place here. Keep your place right here. We're
going to come back. Now in our text, that's the kind of woman
God says we are. He says, you're a woman forsaken,
grieved in spirit, a wife of youth when thou was refused.
These whoredoms that we read about are what we committed when
we transgressed against Christ in the garden, what we transgressed
when we were born, what we transgressed all our days till Christ called
us. We all had our false god. Somebody said, I didn't worship
a false god. You're a liar. You worshiped you and some still
are. Still are. That's how we come
forth. We did the same thing all our days. Now hold your place
there. Go back with me now to our text. Isaiah 50, 54. So when God cast Adam out of
the garden, He cast us out. Just as God cast Israel into
the hands of her enemies. Look at Isaiah 54, 7. It was
for a small moment. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
It was for a small moment. It was from the Garden of Eden,
from when we fell in our first head till our last head, the
last Adam came, Christ Jesus, and went to the cross. It was
till then. We were as a woman forsaken,
a wife of youth refused. In a little wrath, he hid his
face from us for a moment. For a moment, from that garden
until Christ came to the cross. It was a little wrath because
Christ stood as our servant. He stood willing to bear the
wrath of God, the full, unmitigated, full brunt of God's wrath for
us. Now look, when God cast out Adam, God cast all his spiritual
Israel to the four corners of the earth. That's right. All
of Israel was cast to the four corners of the earth. And ever
since the voice came walking in the garden and called Adam
out of the trees, hiding in his fig leaves, then he went to Enoch,
he called him out, or to Abel, and then to Enoch, and then to
Noah, and then to Abraham, right on down the line to us, brethren.
Ever since then, Christ, the Redeemer, has been calling out.
that woman forsaken. He has been calling us out all
along, the whole time. When He made Israel and cast
them to the four winds, He was just showing us a picture of
it. And when all Israel is called in, when He has gathered the
last one in, then all Israel is going to be saved. They are
all going to be saved. He has been doing this from the
garden, brethren, from the garden. That's why He tells us in Isaiah
43, 5. He says, Fear not, I'm with thee. I'll bring thy seed from the
east. I'll gather thee from the west. I'll say to the north,
give up. To the south, keep not back.
Bring my sons from far, my daughters from the ends of the earth. This
is what He's been doing from the beginning. He's been calling
out His people. And He's still doing it. Now
secondly, let's see our great husband and our Redeemer. Now
we saw us. We saw what we are. We're the
harlot. We're a woman forsaken. And now,
and He recalled us. Now let's go, let's look at our
Redeemer here, man, our Husband. He tells us here in Isaiah 54,
He says there that in the verse 5, He said, here's our assurance
that we're not going to be ashamed or be put to shame. Your Maker
is your Husband. He's the Lord of hosts, that's
His name. He's the Redeemer, thy Redeemer,
the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth shall it be
called. And he said there in Isaiah 54, 7, With great mercies
will I gather thee. And he said, With everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.
When Israel was in bondage in Babylon, here's the picture.
They were in bondage in Babylon. It was a picture of all God's
elect in bondage in our sin. That's what it's a picture of.
God gives the whole nation to show me and you a picture of
us personally in our sin. and of Christ's bride. This is
who it was, Christ's bride, the elect of God. That's who she
was. It appeared our God had divorced His bride. When we fell
in Adam and He cast us out and we were in bondage in Babylon,
mystical Babylon in the world in sin and death, it appeared
that God had forsaken us. But God hates putting away. Christ
never divorced His bride. He never forsook His bride. Look
at Isaiah 50. Look back at Isaiah 50, verse
1. Thus saith the Lord, Thus saith
the Lord, Isaiah 50 verse 1, Where is the bill of your mother's
divorcement, whom I have put away? Where's the writing that
says, I divorced your mother? God said. God hates putting away.
God didn't divorce His bride when He cast Adam out of the
garden. No, no. When we fell in Adam, we were
still secure in Christ. We were still espoused to Him.
Though we appeared to be forsaken of God. That's right. It appeared God had sold us to
our creditors. Look at verse 1. Or which of
my creditors is it to whom I've sold you? But God wasn't in debt. And God's never been in debt.
God didn't sell his bride to any of any creditors. He has
no creditors to sell them to. The fault was our own. Look at
verse 1. Behold, for your iniquities have you sold yourselves. You
sold yourselves into debt. And for your transgressions is
your mother put away. You see, we sold ourselves by
our own iniquities against God. We sold ourselves into debt. We owe the law a righteousness
we couldn't pay. We owe the law justification
that we could not pay. Our sins had to be put away.
Not only do we have to give it a perfect righteousness, we couldn't
pay and satisfy justice. We couldn't pay the wages of
sin, which is death. We owe God perfection. We couldn't
pay Him that. We couldn't. Satan has lawfully
taken his people captive, and Satan has got to be crushed,
and we couldn't pay him what he deserved. We couldn't. We sold ourselves. Our iniquities
separated us from God. And all through history, Christ
our husband came to His bride. He came to His bride through
His prophets. And then He came to His bride
in person. And now He's coming to His bride
through His preachers. And here's what's the case with
us, brethren. If God leaves us to ourselves, this is the case
with us. He says, verse 2, Wherefore,
Isaiah 50, verse 2, When I came, was there no man? When I called,
there was none to answer. There was no man that was righteous,
they were all in bondage, and there was nobody to answer me.
That's what we are if God leaves us to ourselves. That woman forsaken, grieved
in spirit means she's dead in sin. It means she can't, she
can't, she got no way of getting her husband back. She sinned
against him. And she sold herself, and she's
made herself to be forsaken of her husband. And she can't have,
she don't have any power to get that husband back at all. Period. There she is, cast out. That's
us, brethren. We didn't have any way to put
away our sin. We didn't have any way to justify ourselves.
We had no way to return to Christ our husband. This is us. So what's
going to happen? Look at verse 2. This is our
faithful husband. He says, Is my hand shortened
at all that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?
Behold, at my rebuke I dry up the sea, I make the rivers a
wilderness. Their fish stinketh because there's
no water, and die for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I make sackcloth their covering. God said, there's nothing I can't
do. The Lord God, verse 4, hath given
me, Christ, the tongue of the learned. that I, Christ your
husband, should know how to speak a word in season to him that's
weary, to him that's grieved, to him that's dead in trespass
and sin. He wakeneth morning by morning.
He wakeneth mine ear to hear as to learn. The Lord God has
opened my ear, Christ's ear. And I was not rebellious, neither
turned away back. I gave my back to the smiters,
and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair. I hid not my face
from shame and spitting. Here's what took place, brethren.
Here we are, forsaken. A harlot that has cheated on
our husband, committed adultery against our husband, committed
fornication against our husband. And God says to His Son in eternity,
the only way you're going to get her back is you've got to
go to where she is. And you've got to take her place.
You've got to go to where she is and you've got to take all
the shame that she is. And you've got to bear the stroke
of my fury and my justice in her room instead. That's the
only way you can save this woman. Thy redeemer, thy maker is thy
husband. Thy redeemer. The Holy One of
Israel. That's who He is. So what did
He do? Go back to Ezekiel 16. What did He do? Look at verse
35. This is what God says to the harlot now. Watch this. I
say, Ezekiel 16, 35. Wherefore, O harlot, hear the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God, because
thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered
through thy whoredoms with thy lovers. and with all the idols
of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which
thou didst give unto them. Behold, therefore, I will gather
all thy lovers, with whom thou hast taken pleasure, and all
them that thou hast loved, with all them that thou hast hated.
I will even gather them round about against thee, and will
discover thy nakedness unto them, that they may see all thy nakedness. That's what we deserved. That's
what this harlot deserved. But Christ our husband came to
where we are. And for our filthiness, Christ
was made sin. God gathered all our lovers,
all his enemies against Christ instead of gathering them against
us. And for our nakedness, Christ was stripped. He was stripped. Read on, verse 38. And I'll judge
thee as women that break wedlock and shed blood are judged. And
I'll give thee blood in fury and jealousy. God judged Christ
as a woman that breaks wedlock and sheds blood instead of doing
it to us who actually broke wedlock and shed blood. He judged Him
as a woman that breaks wedlock and sheds blood. What do you
give to an adulterous, murderous wife? You kill her, God said. God said, you put her to death.
That's what Christ bore in the room instead of his bride, who
was an adulteress. and the fury and the jealousy
that God had, because of jealous for that glory that belonged
to Him alone, that we did not give to God when we sinned against
God. God took the fury of that jealousy
and poured it out on Christ, so that He no more is furious
and jealous with us, because Christ, in doing what He did,
He glorified God. He gave God all the glory. He highly exalted God by what
He did so that now, in Christ Jesus, you and I have glorified
God that much. And the jealousy for that glory
that belongs to God is not upon us anymore because God's satisfied
with how we've glorified God. Me and you, a harlot, a whore,
have done this. Not in ourselves, in Christ.
Read on, verse 39. And I will also give thee into
their hand, and they shall throw down thy eminent place, and shall
break down thy high places. They shall strip thee also of
thy clothes, and shall take thy fair jewels, and leave thee naked
and bare. You know who Christ is? We saw
it this morning. He's the preeminent one. He is the eminent one. And
you know what happened? He came to where we are in our
place. And all His enemies, He gave Himself into the hand of
His enemies. And His enemies mocked His divinity. They mocked His eminence. They
mocked His preeminence. They mocked Him. And they stripped
Him. And they left Him bare, hanging
upon that cursed tree. And He did this for His harlot
bride. Look at verse 40. They shall
also bring up a company against thee, and they shall stone thee
with stones, and thrust thee through with their swords, and
they shall burn thine houses with fire. All of that's a symbol
of death, brethren. They're going to stone you, they're
going to thrust you through with swords, they're going to burn
your houses with fire. And they're going to execute judgments upon
thee in the sight of many women. And I will cause thee to cease
from playing the harlot, and thou also shall give no hire
anymore. Because Christ took our... That's
what we deserve. We deserve to be stoned. We deserve
to be thrust through with a sword. We deserve for all our dwelling
places to be burned up. We deserve hell. But Christ took
our place. He came to where we are and Christ
bore the justice of God. He bore the wrath. He said, plunge
the sword through me. He said, burn me up. He said, thrust me through and
stone me to death. And because He satisfied the
justice of God, because He totally put away the sin of His people,
you know what it is now? In Christ, God has made it so
that we cannot break the law. We cannot transgress against
the law. We cannot... Christ would have
to break the law for me and you to break the law. I'm talking
about God's elect that are in Christ, that were in Christ when
He fulfilled the law. He'd have to break the law now
for us to break the law. So, what He's done is He's caused
us to harlot, bride, to cease from ever committing harlotry
again. He made it so that we won't hire ourselves out anymore
or pay others anymore. Look at verse 42. So will I make
my fury toward thee to rest, and my jealousy shall depart
from thee, and I will be quiet and will be no more angry. Because
Christ satisfied all for God, God's resting. He's satisfied
and he's no more angry toward this bride. Look at verse 43.
Because thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, but hast
fretted me in all these things, behold, therefore I also will
recompense thy way upon thy head, saith the Lord God. But instead
of recompensing upon our head, our own head, literally, He recompensed
it upon Christ our head. Now look. Drop down to verse 60. Now, not
only did He say He's our Redeemer, that's how He's our Redeemer.
He took our place. He took our judgment. He didn't
take the judgment of all men. He took the judgment of His bride.
He took the judgment of this harlot He loved from eternity.
And He satisfied God for her. But He also said, though I have
forsaken you for a little moment, He said, I'm going to gather
you with great mercy. And I'm going to gather you with
great, great mercy and great power. Now look down at verse
60. Though we despise God's covenant, God says this, nevertheless,
I'll remember my covenant. You see, we despised his covenant
in the garden. He said, you eat of that tree
and you're going to die. We said, I don't care. I'm eating
it anyway. To hell with God. That's what
we said in the garden. That's what we said every day
of our life, the whole time we walked this earth. He said, you
didn't remember my covenant, but I'm going to remember my
covenant. I'll remember my covenant. And He says, that I may with
thee in the days of thy youth. That's back in eternity, before
we ever knew it. Before we even ever knew it.
He said, and I will establish unto thee an everlasting covenant.
I will establish. I'll do the establishing. And
I'll establish unto thee an everlasting covenant. Then thou shalt remember
your ways, and you'll be ashamed. when thou shalt receive thy sisters,
and thine elder, and thine younger, and I'll give them unto thee
for daughters, but not by thy covenant. When God's established
His everlasting covenant in the hearts of a sinner, in our heart,
personally, who was a harlot to Him, When He does that, brethren,
then He makes us to see the shame of our youth. He makes us to
see the shame of our sins. He makes us to see we transgressed
in the garden, in the youth. We were the wife of youth and
we transgressed in the garden. He makes us to see we transgressed
all our days. He makes us to see all we are
in our flesh is transgression and we hate it and abhor it.
But He does something else. He says there, I'm going to make
you to do all this in the midst of you with your sisters. Older
and younger and elder. He makes us to be one with our
brethren. He said, I'm going to call you
and I'm going to keep calling you those that are your brethren. And He brings us together with
our brethren. And God won't, He says now, but
I'm not doing any of this by your covenant. It's not by your
works. It's not by your will. It's not by your way. He said,
I'm doing this by my covenant, my way. Now look at verse 62.
And I will establish my covenant with thee. That's what he's speaking
about in our text. And thou shalt know that I am
the Lord. He said, the God of the whole
earth shall he be called. That's how you're going to find
this out by him doing this in the heart. Verse 63. That thou
mayest remember and be confounded and never open your mouth in
rebellion anymore because of thy shame. When I am pacified
toward thee, satisfied, atoned for, For all that thou hast done,
saith the Lord God. Now thirdly, let's go hear the
everlasting covenant that Christ promises us in our text. Let's
go back now. We've seen that we're the harlot.
We've seen we were the woman, as a woman forsaken, a wife of
youth who was refused. But it was just for a moment.
It was from the garden to the cross. Now here we see our Redeemer. How is your maker your husband? How is he your Redeemer? The Holy One of Israel. He came
and took our place. We sold ourselves, He came and
paid our debt. Our transgressions separated
us from God and He came and was made sin and paid the debt we
owed to God. He did. And then He called us. He called us and made this everlasting
covenant in our heart. And when He does that, and He
makes us see our sin, and He makes us see our rebellion, He
makes us ashamed of our sin, He makes us hate our sin, He
makes us see we're just a common whore, that's all we were. Then
He makes this covenant in our heart, brethren. And He's brought
us to be ashamed and confounded of what we were. And then He
says this to us, verse 4. Fear not, for thou shalt not
be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame. For thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth. and shall not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood any more." Believer, listen to me. Hear what God is
saying here. Christ Jesus is saying to us right here, forget
the sins of your past. Forget them. Forget them. God
says, I remember them no more. You forget them. Forget the sins
of your youth when you were in your rebellion. Forget the sins
that you just sinned. Forget them. Forget them. God
says, I remember them no more. Now look, he's going to give
us three reasons why, and every one of them start with a for,
a because. Here's why. Here's why he says
forget your sin. Number one, because Christ has
made us righteous and Christ has put away our sins forever
so that God remembers them no more. Verse five, for, because,
thy maker is thine husband. The Lord of hosts is His name,
and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole
earth, shall He be called. So instead of looking at your
sins, look to your Redeemer. Instead of looking at your lovers
and your sin, look to your husband. Look to him. Look to the Holy
One. Here's number two. This is the second reason. Our
assurance is because you were a harlot. We were a harlot. We were dead in sin with no power
to come to Christ, no power to put away our sins, no power to
be saved whatsoever. Verse 6, 4, 4, because the Lord
had called you again. He called thee. You didn't call
Him. The Lord had called thee as a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, as a whore, as an altruist
woman. That's what you were. He called
you out of that. And a wife of youth, when thou
was refused, saith thy God. You see, You see, while the church,
the false church, while the mystical Babylon, while she's building
her high places in every street and she's opening her legs to
everybody that comes by and bragging on men and boasting and exalting
men rather than exalting God, we're preaching that you were
a common whore, a common harlot, dead in trespasses and sins.
Why? Because this is our assurance
that God won't let us go. Because that's what we were when
He called us. That's what we were when He came
and called us to Himself and gave us this great and precious
promise that He's given us and said, I've redeemed you. You're
mine now. You don't remember your shame
anymore. You see, it's our deadness and sin. It's our total depravity
that is our assurance before God that we're going to be saved.
Because that's what we were when He called us. If when we were
enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son,
much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Do
you see? And He tells us this, that just
like He gathered you, He's going to gather the rest too. Look
at verse 4. A small moment I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. When He says thee, He's saying
I gathered you and I'm going to gather the rest of you. I
elect. In a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment, but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, I have mercy on you, I'm going to have mercy
on the rest of you. That's what he's saying. Saith the Lord thy
Redeemer. And he's going to keep doing
that until he's gathered the last one. Because Ephesians 1
10 says that in the dispensation of the fullness of time. This
dispensation means stewardship. He has a stewardship until the
fullness of time. And in the stewardship of the
fullness of time, when all has been called in, this is what's
going to happen. He's going to, that He might
gather together in one all things, all His elect in Christ, both
which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in Him. So
He's going to keep calling us until He's called the last one,
each and every one. Now, that's our number two promise.
We were a harlot. We were a harlot. First, our
first promise is, this is sure, is our Maker is our Husband.
The Lord of hosts, the Holy One of Israel is your Redeemer. Here's
the second reason. We were a harlot when He called
us. So if He called us when we were a harlot, He's not going
to let us go. And here's the number three reason. He says,
and this is at the waters of Noah to me. God promised Noah,
I'll never destroy the world with water again. He said, And
this is as the waters of Noah unto me. As I've sworn that the
waters of Noah shall no more go over the earth, so have I
sworn that I will not be wroth with thee nor rebuke thee. For
the mountain shall depart and the hills be removed, but my
kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant
of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.
Now isn't that good news? So, rather than open our mouths
in rebellion, rather than saying, I will have that God reign over
me, you know what we say? Save us, O Lord our God, and
gather us from among the heathen to give thanks unto Thy holy
name to triumph in Thy praise. That's how we're victorious.
We're triumphing in God's praise. He's the only one worthy to be
praised. He did it all. He did it all.
Oh boy. Just a bunch of harlots saved
by grace. As a woman forsaken. Amen.