Isaiah chapter 48. Now the love and the grace of God towards
His elect never changes. The purpose of God according
to election shall stand. And it shall stand because the
grace of God is not based on any works performed by the objects
of His love. His grace is according to His
unchangeable will, is according to His immutable grace. That's
how Jehovah God calls. Now those are God loved from
everlasting, He loves everlastingly. And those that God chose by His
grace in that sovereign love will be His forever because His
love is sovereign, unchangeable love. He said in Psalm 94 14,
the Lord will not cast off His people, neither will He forsake
His inheritance. Now our text in Isaiah 48, the
Lord's telling what He's going to do before He did it. And here's
what He was doing. God took Israel. that nation
Israel, in whom were His elect remnant that He chose to save.
And God took them and He delivered them over to the hands of the
Babylonians to take them captive. And He did that for their sin.
He did that not to destroy them in His wrath. He did that to
refine them by His mercy. But when He did it, it looked
like God had changed It looked like God had changed His favor
toward them. It looked like His grace had
gone away backwards, that He was not going to be gracious
to them. But that's not so for God's people. That's not so for
God's people. There's nothing in us to merit
God being gracious to us. The description of the people
here, we saw this last time, but I'll briefly state it. Verse
1, it shows there that they called themselves by the name of Israel.
were descendants of those who came out of the waters of Judah.
They swear by the name of the Lord. They made mention of the
God of Israel. But they didn't do it in truth and righteousness.
He describes them in verse 4. He said, they're obstinate, their
neck was an iron sinew, and their brow brass. He said in verse
8 that they were dealed very treacherously and were called
transgressors from the womb. Now if you can put yourself in
that place and say, that's me, that's a description of me right
there. That's a description of me. If you can, I've got some
good news for you. Because why is it that God would
show that elect remnant in Israel mercy when they fit that description? And why would He show us mercy
when we fit that description? Why would He do that? Verse 9,
He says, for my names sake for my name's sake. I've titled the
message why God saves by grace. And here's the point. Here's
what I want you to get from the whole thing. God saves his Children
in mercy and love and grace, even though we married fully.
anything but His mercy, love, and grace. But He does it for
His name's sake. I'm going to read the text. It
will be verses 9 through 11, and I'm going to show you our
divisions as we read the text. First of all, He does it for
the righteousness that His name is. Verse 9, He says, For my
name's sake will I defer mine anger. The last of that verse
says that I cut thee not off. Secondly, he does it for the
praise due to his name. The second part of verse nine,
he says, and for my praise will I refrain for thee, that I cut
thee not off. Thirdly, he does it to declare
his name as our faithful, loving, and wise father. He says in verse
10, behold, I have refined thee, but not with silver. I have chosen
thee in the furnace of affliction. Fourthly, he does it for the
holiness of his name. He says, verse 11, for mine own
sake, even for mine own sake will I do it, for how should
my name be polluted? He does it for his holiness.
Then fourthly, he does it for the glory of his name. Verse
11, and I will not give my glory to another. Those would be our
divisions for the message. First of all, it tells us here
that the Lord saves for the righteousness of His name. Verse 9 says, He
says, For my name's sake will I defer mine anger that I cut
thee not off. Turn to Isaiah 53. God deals
in mercy with His children and He doesn't cut us off when our
sin is fully married to be cut off. that we deserve to be cut
off. And He does it because of Christ,
our righteousness. Look at Isaiah 53, 8. Isaiah
53, 8. God deferred His anger from His
elect and He put it on Christ who bore our sins in His own
body on the tree and was cut off for our iniquity. Look at
Isaiah 53, 8. He was taken from prison and
from judgment. And who shall declare His generation?
For He was cut off. That's why God doesn't cut us
off. That's why he doesn't cut off
his elect people. Before we know him and after
we know him. Before he comes to us in his
grace and reveals himself in us and after he does. The only
reason he doesn't cut us off is because in our room instead
he cut off his own son. In the unparalleled, unsearchable,
unfathomable out of the little depths of his wrath, he poured
it out on his son. For the transgression of my people
was he stricken. It was for our transgression
that he was stricken. How can God not cut me off? How can God not deal with me
in the full stroke of wrath and justice that my sin deserves
and still be just and still be righteous? It's because Christ
bore that full smiting that I deserve. He bore that full cutting off
that I deserve. So that now God's righteousness,
the very righteousness that God is, that righteousness that declares
He's just and that He is the justifier, that righteousness
that declares His very name as being right in everything He
does, that very righteousness demands now that God deal with
his children in mercy. And that's the whole reason he
sent forth his son to do the work that we could never do,
that he might deal with us in mercy and be right to do it,
be righteous to do it. Now, when you think about this,
it's because of the righteousness of his name that God's merciful
to his children. And I've got one son, And I've
got one son, my name's gonna be manifest in him, carried on
in him. He's my namesake. And truly Christ
Jesus, the son of God, is God's namesake. And for Christ his
son, he will not smite his people with the full justice we deserve.
He chastens us, but he doesn't smite us in anger of a judge. We see this pictured in the Scriptures
quite often. Let's go over to Exodus 32. Don't
you place it there in Isaiah 48. Let's look at Exodus 32. You remember whenever the Lord
called Moses up into the mount to get the log, to bring it back
down. And no sooner had he gone up
there than the children of Israel turned from the way God had commanded
them. And they made them a golden calf.
And they started dancing around that calf and worshipping that
calf, that golden calf. And the Lord said this to Moses
when he was in the mount. He said, verse 8, they've turned
aside quickly out of the way which I commanded them. They've
made them a molten calf and have worshipped it and have sacrificed
thereunto and said, these be thy gods, O Israel, which have
brought thee up out of the land of Egypt. God knew the whole
thing. He knew exactly what was going on. He knows exactly what's
going on with us. And the Lord said unto Moses,
I've seen this, people. Behold, it's a stiff-necked people.
Now, therefore, let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against
them, that I may consume them, and I'll make of thee a great
nation. And Moses, standing there before, between God and that
sinful people, a picture of Christ our mediator. Moses said, Why
doth thy wrath wax hot against thy people, which thou hast brought
forth out of the land of Egypt, with great power and with a mighty
hand? Wherefore should the Egyptians speak, and say, For mischief
did he bring them out, to slay them in the mountains, and to
consume them from the face of the earth? Turn from thy fierce
wrath and repent of this evil against thy people. Remember
Isaac, Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swearest
by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your
seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have
spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit
it forever. And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought
to do unto his people. That's what Christ does continually
in the presence of God for his children. That's why the Lord
God doesn't smite us as we deserve. There's another picture of it
in David. When Solomon transgressed, God made him a prince all his
days. Solomon, for one reason. He said, for David, my servant's
sake. David's a picture of Christ.
He said, I'm doing it for David, my servant's sake, whom I chose
because he kept my commandments and my statute. And that's why
the Lord is gracious to us because Christ has come and in our room
has said he's kept the commandments, the statutes of God for us. And
for his sake, he says, I'll defend this city to save it for my own
sake and for my servant David's sake. That's what John's declaring
to us in 1 John 1. In 1 John 1, 9, he says, if we
confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. How can he deal with us in that
mercy? How can he be merciful to us
like that if we come and we confess our sins? You think about it. If you have somebody that has
something against you, an adversary, in every other area in life,
in the law of this land, and you agree with them, and you
plead guilty with them, to them, you know what happens? You get
judgment, you get justice. You know what happens when you
agree with God our adversary, with Christ our adversary, and
say, Father, I have sinned against you. You know what happens? He forgives us. He forgives you
and cleanses you of all unrighteousness. How can He be just to do that?
I can be just to deal with a sinner in that way because of the righteousness
of His name. Look at 1 John 2.1. My little
children, these things write unto you that you sin not, and
if, and you can put there in big bold letters, and when, and
when, and when you sin, and when you sin, We have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He's the propitiation
for our sin. He's the reason God deals with
His children in mercy. It's because of His righteousness
sake. Christ our righteousness. I like
this in Psalm, you don't have to turn there, but in Psalm 106,
speaking of this particular account here with Israel and Babylon,
it says, nevertheless He regarded their affliction when He heard
their cry. He brought them to cry to Him,
His elect there. And He says that He regarded
their affliction when He heard their cry. And He remembered
for them His covenant. His covenant. And repented according
to the multitude of His mercies. Because that covenant's been
satisfied. That covenant's been written in the blood of His Son.
You see that? That's the first thing. Now doesn't
that make you, when you hear that, doesn't it make you that
know the Lord? Doesn't it make you sorrowful
over your sin? As a child of the Father, doesn't it make you
sorrowful? Doesn't it make you repent from your sin? Doesn't
it make you say, I don't want to sin against Him? And doesn't
it make you cry out and thank Him and say, Lord, I can't praise
You enough for what You've done for me, for being merciful to
me. Well, that's the second reason He does that is for His praise.
that God saves by His grace with the praise due to His name. Isaiah
48 verse 9. He says there in the middle part,
and for my praise will I refrain for thee that I cut thee not
off. You know, it's not judgment that's going to bring your children
to praise you. I've been thinking a lot about this. It's not just
the disciplining belt that's going to make them praise us.
It's not. That has to come, but it's not
going to be that alone. It's the judgment together with
the grace and mercy of God. That's what turns his children
and makes us love him and praise him for what he's done for us.
That's what Paul said in Romans 2, 4, despise us thou the riches
of his goodness. and forbearance and his long-suffering,
not knowing that the goodness of God leads thee to repentance.
That's what leads us to repentance. You can let folks go around and
boast all they want to about how they're praising God, you
know. And the same folks that are making their boast of how
they praise God and have all their praise sessions are the
same folks who are boasting about what they did for God and how
they let God save them and how they consented and let God do
something for them. Those folks aren't praising God.
You know who really praises God? The sinner that knows something
about what a foul... loathsome thing we are before
Him and what we deserve before Him and yet see how graciously
and lovingly and long-suffering and how good He's dealt with
us in mercy. That's who praises Him. That's
who's brought to repentance to praise Him. Did the law ever
work repentance in a man? The law worketh wrath. The law
makes a man angry. The law makes a man I mean, evil
just heaps upon him condemnation and condemnation and bondage
and bondage that he cannot get out from under. And he legally
tries and tries and gets himself in a worse mess and a worse mess.
It's when God comes in power and he sanctifies that truth
in our hearts and makes us say, yes, we're vile. Yes, you are
guilty. Yes, you do deserve the deepest
depths of hell. But then God whispers and says,
but I've sent forth my Son and saved you by my grace and therefore
I'm dealing with you in mercy, in goodness. That's what brings
a sinner to repentance. That's what brings him to cry
out to God. If there's one of God's lost sheep here this morning,
I guarantee you this, if he calls you by his grace, if he makes
you alive and calls you by his grace, what he's gonna make you
see is you hadn't been seeking God. He's going to make you see
He did the seeking. He's going to make you see that
you haven't done anything righteous before Him. He's the righteousness
you've got to have. He's going to make us see we
haven't done anything to make ourselves alive, to make ourselves
repent, to make ourselves believe, to do anything that merited God
showing us any favor whatsoever. He's going to make His child
see that. And He's going to show you that He's done it all. And
you're going to find all the reason for God's mercy is in
Himself. It's all because He would be
merciful. And all that merciful dealing that He deals with us,
when He elected us in Christ, when He predestinated us to be
conformed to the image of Christ, in His adopting us to Himself
by Christ, in His redemption through Christ's blood, in His
calling and keeping us by His grace, it's all, every bit of
it, for His praise. that we should be to the praise
of His glory and what He did, His workmanship, the trophies
of His work, what He has done, what He's done by His hand, what
He's built, what He's accomplished, what He's done. That's what a
true sinner is praising Him for, that He's done it all. This is
what we cry out. We cry, save us, oh God, of our
salvation and gather us together and deliver us from the heathen
that we may give thanks to thy holy name and glory in thy praise. And that's what's going to happen.
Every one of God's children, all Israel shall be justified.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall
glory. That's just a fact. That's a
fact. Here's the third reason he does it. Why is God gracious?
Why does he show grace? Why does he deal with us in mercy?
He does it that we might know his name as our father, as our
faithful father, as our loving father, as our wise father. Verse
10. Behold, I have refined thee,
but not with silver. I have chosen thee in the furnace
of affliction. His name's faithfulness. And God, our Father, is faithful
to correct His child when we turn from Him. He says there,
verse 10, Behold, I have refined thee. He is going to chasten
His child. God promises that He remembers
our sins no more because of what Christ has done. He promises
to believe of that. But this is true. There's nothing
that you and I do, brethren, in this world that is sinful,
that is unclean, that is unholy. There's nothing we do in that
regard that's pleasing to God. It's not pleasing to Him. And
because He is a faithful Father, He does what faithful fathers
do when we turn from Him. He corrects us. He chastens us. He brings us back to Him. And
when He does that, He's showing us the love that His name is. Not only the faithfulness of
His name, but the love of His name as our Father. He's doing
it because He loves us as a Father. Hebrews 12, 6 says, For whom
the Lord loveth, He chasteneth and scourgeth every son whom
he receiveth. That means He refines them. He's
going to do that. And if you endure chastening,
God dealeth with you as with sons. For what son is he whom
the father chasteneth not? Everything about this world's
against God. Everything about this world's against God. You've
seen the latest report about how the, and they gave a whole
list of name study scientists and psychologists and everybody
else that said now that if you whip a child, you're going to
cause them to grow up and have mental problems and being drug
addicts and everything else like that. Everything's against God. God says right here, I'm a faithful
father. And what a faithful father does
is he chastens his children. He does it because he loves his
children. If we want to create a nation
of children who don't think their parents love them and who want
to go through life just looking for somebody to love them and
just being as rebellious as they can be till they get somebody
to show them some kind of love, Don't lay a finger on them, and
that's what you'll make, that's what you'll create. But God's
a faithful father and he loves, and every father that loves his
children chastens them, he corrects them. And he does it for our
profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. I can't count
on both these hands. I can't count enough how many
times I've took off on my way thinking, boy, this is going
to be the way that's going to be prosperous. This is going
to be the way that's going to be the best thing for me. This is
going to be the way that's the best for my family. I can't tell
you how many times this happened that God hadn't made it a dead-end
street for me and turned me around and brought me right back to
Christ that I might continue with Him and His people under
the preaching of the gospel. And you know, when it takes place,
it's not pleasant. When God's doing it, it's not
pleasant. But it's not meant to be pleasant. Chastening is
not meant to be pleasant. It's not meant to be fun. If
it was, it wouldn't be chastening, would it? It's meant to get our
attention. That's what it's meant for. But
God shows us the wisdom of His name in that too. He says, verse
10, behold, I've refined thee, but not with silver. I've chosen
thee in the furnace of affliction. He says, I've refined you, but
I haven't done it as one would do it alongside silver, beside
silver, with silver, like as you would refine silver. When
you put silver in a furnace, you heat that heat up to where
it's just There is nothing that is between that silver and that
heat. It's just heat. And you heat
it up, and it melts the dross away. Well, brethren, if God
did that to us, there wouldn't be anything left. There wouldn't
be anything left, because all we are is dross. All we are is
draws. But He will refine us. But He
does it not in that fierceness. He does it where He tempers that
fire. He tempers that chastening hand
so that He does it gently and in measure and in mercy. Oh,
it's still strong to us. It's still just like when your
father, when they give you a spanking and you feel like, oh, he is
going to bring me to the end of myself. That's how it feels
when God chastens you. It's meant to be that way. But
it's nothing compared to what Christ bore in place of his people.
It's nothing compared to what his son did to redeem us that
God might deal with us gently and in mercy. It's never the
flames of strict justice. It's meant to humble us. It's
meant to keep us ever dependent. It's meant to bring us back to
be partakers of Christ Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith, the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. That's
what it's done for. And, you know, we were talking
about this in the back, and I thought this might be a good illustration,
but you know when you're being chastened, when your father,
your earthly father is spanking you, have you ever tried to get
out from under it, you know? You try to move your rear end
like this, and you take a few steps, and you try to get away
from it, and it don't work. It don't work. He can get you.
He just keeps on chastening you with that rod of correction.
But if you hug up to Him, if you go right to Him and you just
hug up on Him with everything you've got, cling to His leg,
hug up on Him, that rod is, it's difficult to reach that rod when
you're coming right down like this and He's right up against
you. That's the purpose of the rod, is to bring us to Him, to
cling to Christ and beg His mercy. And when He does it, He shows
us His wisdom. Look at Isaiah 27, verse 8. So He tempers it. Let me show
you this. His wisdom. Isaiah 27 verse 8. In measure, when it shooteth
forth, thou wilt debate with it. He stayeth his rough wind
in the day of the east wind. By this, therefore, shall the
iniquity of Jacob be purged, and this is all the fruit to
take away his sin, when he maketh all the sons of the altar as
chalk stones that are beaten and sundered, the groves and
images shall not stand." He brings that rough wind, but he stays
that rough wind with the east wind so that it doesn't destroy
us. It does what it's purposed to
do. It brings us to Christ. It brings us to Him. Look at
Psalm 103. Psalm 103. I want you to see
this. Here's what I'm trying to show
you. He shows us the faithfulness, the love, and the wisdom of His
great name in the way that He corrects us. Not in the flames
of silver, but He does it in the furnace of affliction. Look
at Psalm 103, 10. This is what He brings us to
see. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. He hadn't given us what we deserve.
No, no. For as the heaven is high above
the earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. Like as a father pitieth his
children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him, for he knoweth
our frame. He remembereth we are but dust. I don't say that every trial
is due to our turning away from God, but most of it is. Most
of it is. And if you are experiencing the
correcting hand of God, listen to Him. Heed His correction. Make straight paths for your
feet to Christ. Confess your sins to Him and
follow Christ. Follow Him, the author and finisher
of our faith, whatever it is that is coming between us and
Him. He's going to seek to it. It
gets refined and gets removed out of the way. Well, here's
the fourth reason He shows us mercy. He does it for the holiness
of His name. Back in our text, Isaiah 48,
11. He says, For mine own sake, even
for mine own sake will I do it. For how should my name be polluted? His name is holy and He's not
going to allow His name to be polluted. He's not going to allow
His name to be counted as common. He's not going to allow His name
to be counted as any other name. He's not going to allow it among
the heathen. He's not going to allow it among His own children.
He's not going to do it. Let's look at Ezekiel 36. I think
it's the best commentary on what this means. Ezekiel 36. And look at verse 19. He says in Ezekiel 36, 19, I
scattered them among the heathen, and they were dispersed through
the countries. According to their way and according to their doings,
I judged them. And when they entered into the
heathen, whither they went, they profaned My holy name, when they
said to them, these are the people of the Lord, and are gone forth
out of His land. You see, they came even when
they got to Babylon. They just joined in with Babylon
and said, well, these are the people of the Lord. They came
out of His land. And they joined in with him.
And he says, but I had pity for mine holy name. See, he dealt
mercifully. Why? For his holy name, which
the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they
went. Therefore say unto the house
of Israel, thus saith the Lord God, I do not this for your sakes. I'm not saving you from yourself
and from polluting my name for your sake. O house of Israel,
but for mine holy namesake, which you have profaned among the heathen,
whether you win. And I will sanctify my great
name, which was profaned among the heathen," he said. And he
says, which you've profaned in the
midst of them. And the heathen shall know that I'm the Lord,
saith the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their
eyes. For I'll take you from among
the heathen, and gather you out of all the countries, and will
bring you into your own land. And I'll sprinkle clean water
upon you, and you'll be clean from all your filthiness and
from all your idols while I cleanse you." You see that? He says,
I'm doing this for my holy namesake. He's not going to let his name
be profaned. Doesn't that give you great joy? You know what
that gives me great joy? When it says that He corrects
us in Hebrews 12, it says He does it that we might be partakers
of His holiness. Now there we are. There we are
turned away. We've gone over and we've sunk
our hands up to our shoulders in mud. And we're just filthy. We've read back and we've dove
in like you would a swimming pool. We've dove in to the hog
trough with all our might and dug in and just cover ourselves
completely so that we're polluted. How are we going to be made partakers
of his holiness? All just start cleaning yourself
up. No, he's going to come and he's going to draw us out and
he says, I sprinkle clean water upon you and I make you clean. I put a right spirit within you.
I purge you of your iniquity. I correct you. I refine you.
I draw you back to myself that you might be partakers of my
holiness, not partakers of your holiness. Most things I hear about holiness
are men bragging on how they've made themselves partakers of
their own holiness. He says, I'm going to make you
a partaker of my holiness and keep you there. And that's what
he does for his children. He brings us to cry out like
David did and say, Lord, cleanse me. Purge me. Wash me throughly from my sin. Create in me a right spirit.
You mean He even does that to a believer who's already been
created anew by His Spirit? Yeah, He does. That's what He
did in this whole thing with the nation Israel. He won't lose
one for whom Christ died. The blood of Christ can't be
shed in vain. That Holy Spirit of God can't be broken. That
seal of the Holy Spirit can't be broken so that we break free
from Him. The gifts and calling of God
are without repentance. He won't cease to love one that
He's loved everlastingly. He will not, and this is why
He won't, because He will not allow His name to be polluted. Do you see this thing? It's not
us that's getting the glory for this. It's Him. That gives me
great joy because he will keep us because he won't let his name
be polluted. He won't let us be lost. He will
hold us. He will keep us. He will keep
drawing us to himself. Can he use the whole nation to
do it? Yeah, he can. We go somewhere and we camp out
under our gourd and it's shady and it's pleasant to our flesh
and we think, boy, this is it right here. He'll send a worm
and eat it right up, destroy the whole thing. to keep you,
that thing that would separate you from Him and His gospel and
His people and His holiness and His righteousness and His Son,
to keep that thing from separating you from Him. That's what He'll
do. That's what He does. Now, we've
seen here, brethren, that God's motive in everything He does
for His mercy, for His love, for His grace towards us, it's
all for His namesake. the righteousness of His name,
the praise due to His name, the faithfulness and love and wisdom
of His name as our faithful Father, the holiness of His name, and
it's all wrapped up in this last thing right here. It's for the
glory of His name. For the glory of His name. Verse
11, he says, I will not give my glory to another. I told you before, that word
glory, that word glory, I don't know how to say what it is, but
it is those first three letters. It's the G-L-O. It's the glow. It's the glow that God is. It's
the glow of God. It's the pure light that God
is. It's the pure glory that God
is. And he says, and I'm not giving
that light to somebody else. I'm not giving it to another
that they can be praised, not our idols, not something in this
world that we look to and say, now that right there, that's
my refreshing. That right there is what's keeping
me going. That right there is what's, he's not gonna share
that glory with anybody. He's not gonna let us give that
light that's due to him, that is of him. Attribute it to something
else. He just won't do it He's gonna
make us he's gonna make us to praise his glory the praise of
the glory of his grave Now Moses has to see it. He has to see
his glory and the Lord said I'll make my goodness pass before
you I'm gonna show you my glory. That's what it is It's his goodness
and he says and I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful And
he said I'll be gracious to him. I'll be gracious and you know
where he put Moses to see that glory He put Him in the cleft
of a rock. He put Him in Christ Jesus the
rock. Because in Christ we see the
glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus. We see His glory, the
glory of God in the face of Christ. I was sitting out on the front
porch with Will one morning this week and I said, we sat there
and watched the sun come up. And I said, you think about it,
Will. I said, that sun right there, that's the brightest thing
we know. It's the brightest thing we know.
And everything in this earth right here gets its life from
it. If it wasn't there, we'd freeze
to death. If it came too close, we'd burn
up. It's that light right there that
we're getting our life from. And I said, in that light right
there, when Christ comes, the scripture says that light's gonna
go out. Like a street light, when you point a cube beam at
it, a million power candle cube beam at it, it makes it go out.
His light's so much brighter than that light. It's just gonna
make it go out, diminish it. He's the glory, he's the life,
he's the light. And God's not gonna give that
glory to another. Now his people, the Lord said,
I've given the glory you've given to me, I gave to them. that glory
to know Him, that glory to live in Him, that glory to be one
with Him, like as He's one with the Father, that glory to come
into His presence and behold that essential glory that He
doesn't share with any, to see Him as He is and be like Him.
That's what He's given to His children. And when He made it
past before Him, this is what He said, the Lord, that's His
name, the Lord, Jehovah God, We're talking about God here.
The Lord. The Lord God. That name means
the covenant God, the covenant keeping God, the covenant fulfilling
God, the God who promises and makes good on everything he promises.
The Lord God. That's his name. Merciful and
gracious. That's his name. Long suffering. That's his name. Oh, aren't you
thankful? Aren't you thinking, how often do you lose patience
with your children? Art was talking about that this morning. Got
a house full of them. I don't know how they do it.
I got two of them and I don't know how I do it. Will walked
up to me right before this message and he said, Dad, I feel sorry
for you. You got to stay awake. Long suffering. That's how he
is to us, long-suffering. His name is abundant in goodness
and truth. That's his name. Abundant in
goodness and truth. Truth. Keeping mercy for thousands. Forgiving iniquity. And transgression
and sin. And that will by no means clear
the guilty. He's just. God hates sin. He hates it. If He didn't have wrath in Him
and anger in Him towards sin, He wouldn't be perfect God. Because
everybody that don't hate sin is imperfect. That's what makes
a sin-loving, God-hating rebel imperfect. He loves sin. God
hates it. He's holy. He hates it. And He
won't clear the guilty. But by His Son and what His Son's
done, He's cleared us of all charges. And He keeps that mercy
for us and forgives us and deals with us in mercy. Now, if you've
seen His glory, have you? Is there anybody here that's
seen His glory? Something of His glory? Something of His holy
name? If you've seen it, if you've
felt His chastening hand turning you from yourself back to Him,
know this, God's purpose in saving sinners and His purpose in saving
sinners the way He does is to glorify His name. That's why,
for His name's sake. For the glory of His name, now
go and sin no more. For the glory of His name, don't
look anymore to the idol gods of this world, just look to Him.
For the glory of His name, delight to do His will. For the glory
of His name, keep yourself from everything impure and unclean. Only the grace and the glory
of God for His great namesake will effectually work in our
heart to make us to do that. That's the only thing. I want
to give you one last scripture. Turn with me to Jeremiah 3. You who don't know our Lord,
if you see Him, turn to Him. If He's called you, if He's worked
this grace, Jeremiah 3, Jeremiah 3. If He's begun this work of
grace in your heart, turn to Him. Ask Him for mercy. Ask Him for mercy. He'll receive
you. He will. I can say that without any doubt
at all. Because that's what God says.
He says if you come to Him for mercy, He will be abundantly
merciful to you. You know what that is? That's
coming to God with no merit in ourselves. That's coming to God
agreeing with God, I deserve nothing, God. I'm a guilty sinner. I'm a guilty rebel. I come to
you for mercy only. God will agree with your adversary
right now while you're in the way with him, unless he bring
you to the judge. He's the adversary and he's the
judge, and he will make you pay the very last cent to man, and
he won't clear the guilty. But if you agree with him, if
you agree with him, free forgiveness. Isn't that amazing? Well, look
here, and believer, return to the Lord. This is the truth. We're not gonna find any peace.
We're not gonna find any rest in this world's hills. No matter
how pleasant they may seem to our flesh, we're only gonna find
it in Christ under the gospel of His, the good news of His
gospel. That's the only place. Jeremiah
3.21. This is what the Lord said. A voice was heard upon the high
places weeping and supplications of the children of Israel for
they have perverted their way and they have forgotten the Lord
their God. Now listen to this word from the Lord. Return ye
backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings. Behold,
now this is the answer. As soon as he speaks that and
you hear him in the heart effectually speak, this is the immediate
answer. Behold, we come unto thee. For thou art the Lord our God. Truly in vain is salvation hoped
for from the hills and from the multitude of mountains. Truly
in the Lord our God is the salvation of Israel. Why does God save
by grace? He does it for His namesake.
He brings us to say that very thing right there and rest right
there. Amen.