I try to get to the point of
the message as quickly as I possibly can. You might die before this message
is over. And the part of my message this
morning is this. When our God and our Savior,
our King of Kings and Lord of Lords, Christ Jesus makes us to understand that He
alone is the one who fixes the things that we think are broken. When He makes us to understand
that, He will make us cease trying to fix those things, and He will
make us to be instruments in His hand, instruments in His
hand, which He uses to speak the Word by which God Himself
fixes what's broken. This is who He says He is. In
Isaiah 44 verse 6, Thus saith the Lord the King of Israel,
and Israel's Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and
I am the last and beside me there is no God. And who as I shall. That's our subject. Who as I
shall. This is God speaking. The one
who has the hosts at his bidding, enemy and friend. the one who
is the king over his Israel and the redeemer of his Israel, the
one who is the first and the last, the alpha and the omega,
the beginning and the end, the author and finisher of our faith.
This one says, who as I shall. Who as I shall call, who as I shall declare it, who
as I shall set it in order for me, Since I, he says, am the
one who appointed the ancient people. These are the ancient
people, more ancient than any people. These are the people
whom God loved and put in Christ before the world began. He said,
I appointed the ancient people. And he says, and who is I shall
call and shall declare and shall set in order for me the things
that are coming and shall come." And he says, let them show unto
them. From Isaiah chapter 43 and verse
1, all the way down to Isaiah 44 and verse 7, the Lord God
says to you and I who believe Him, to you and I who have been
called by His grace, the Lord God says over 30 times, over
30 times. God has and God will. God has and God shall. He says
that over 30 times to us. And he ends here with this proposition
for us, saying to us that God alone shall make each of his
children personally to know and believe and rest in him to save
as only God can save. Now, if you have some understanding
of that truth, if you have some understanding of that fact, you're
going to be taught it more and more by God. We're going to be
taught it more and more by God. God alone shall make each of
his children personally to know and believe and rest in him to
save as only God can save. The true and living God brings
each of his children personally themselves to rest in God's mighty
hand more and more by revealing three things in our hearts over
and over. These will be our divisions.
He shows his child personally our sin in light of his love. We're not going to see sin until
we see it in light and we're not going to see sin until we
see our sin in light of his love. He's going to declare to his
child personally that his grace toward his child. And thirdly, God's going to bring
his child to reason correctly. God's going to do that. He's
going to do that. Those three things. He's going
to make us personally see our sin in light of His love. He's
going to declare to His child personally His grace toward His
child. And He's going to bring His child
to reason correctly. Correctly. Let's see this first
thing. He shows His child personally
our dullness, our sin, in light of God's love. Concerning our
prayer to God. Look at Isaiah 43.1. 43.1. Now thus saith the Lord that
created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, fear
not, for I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name."
He said, Who is a God? Who is I shall call? And he said,
And I have called you by your name. I have called you by your
name. Thou art mine. Now look at verse
22. This is what God reveals in the
heart personally of His child. But thou hast not called upon
Me. The first chapter tells us that
there was many that could be found in Isaiah's day in the
temple and they appeared to pray. They came into that house that
God says is a house of prayer, and they appeared to pray just
as God told them to pray. They appeared to do so. But God
looks past the outward form and He looks to the heart. This is
the problem. This is the issue. This is the
problem. He says, Thou hast not called
upon Me. Not in the house of the Lord,
not in secret prayer, not in the heart. This is what the Lord
said, This people draw nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth
me with their lips. Their mouth is always saying
many prayers. Their lips are always speaking
and saying their prayers. But their heart is far from me.
Their heart is far from me. Well, how is God going to put
prayer in my brother or my sister's heart? The important thing to understand
is God's going to do it. God's going to do it. He's going
to show His children, His child, He's going to show you, He's
going to show me personally that we have not called upon Him after
He has called us by name and saved us. and thereby He's going
to bring us to have a prayer in our heart and to bring forth
that prayer to Him. To Him. Then He tells us something
concerning our worship of God. Back at verse 2, Isaiah 43, 2. He said to us, when thou passest
through the waters, I will be with thee. He said it again in
verse 5, fear not for I am with thee. And yet in verse 22, he says
in the second part, but thou hast been weary of me, O Israel. Thou hast been weary of me. You
know, the eye never seems to grow weary while we're hearing
or reading about bad news. But as soon as we start hearing
or reading about the good news, the eye starts to get heavy,
the eyelids get heavy. Every obstacle can be crossed
to get us to the entertainment, to get us to the ballgame, to
get us to whatever. Every obstacle we can seem to
cross. But you let the cloud fill the
Sunday morning sky and the Sunday morning highway looks just a
little bit too treacherous to make the trip. The video game never seems to
get cold. I didn't have to coax Will and
John to play the video game one time this week, and they had
a video marathon. And yet the Bible lays on the
table and never seems to be warmed by our touch. Well, how's God going to create
this strength in the inner man so that we're not weary of worshipping
Him? We're talking about worshipping
God. Have we grown weary of worshipping Him, of hearing of Him, of hearing
about God's salvation accomplished by His Son? The apostle to the
Hebrews was in the middle of speaking these great and wonderful
and glorious, this glorious good news to the Hebrews, and right
in the middle he said, he said, when you ought to be teachers,
he said, you have need that somebody teach you. And he said, the reason
is we've become dull of hearing, weary of God, weary of God. How's God going to fix that?
Well, the first thing that he's going to make you to understand
is God's going to fix it. He's going to fix it in you,
He's going to fix it in me. He's going to do so by making
us see His love for us. I'll be with you. He's going
to make us see our sin in light of that love, but you've been
weary of me. Then concerning our thankfulness
for all that God has given to us in His Son, so freely, so
bountifully, Isaiah 43, 3, he says, I am the Lord thy God,
the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I gave Egypt for thy ransom,
Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. I gave for thee. He says, since
thou was precious in my sight, Thou hast been honorable, honored,
and I loved you. Therefore will I give men for
thee. I will give for thee. And people
for thy life. He said, I will give for thy
life. He's done that in his son. He
sent forth that which is good, but he didn't send forth that
which was cheap. Not at all. He sent forth His
own Son, His only begotten Son. He came forth, and this is what
He says to you and I who believe Him. Verse 23, Thou hast not
brought Me, Thou hast not brought Me the small cattle of Thy burnt
offerings, neither hast Thou honored Me with thy sacrifices."
He said, you were precious in my sight, so I honored you. And he says, yet thou hast not
honored me with thy sacrifices. Look at verse 24. Thou hast bought
me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled me with
the fat of thy sacrifices. Small cattle and sweet cane and
the fat of sacrifices, it represents offering to God our very best,
our very best. Under the law, God required the
people to pay a tithe, a tithe. And the people who worship God
and were under the law, not born of his spirit, not given faith,
made to be under grace and not under the law. You know there
were some people back in the Mosaic times, under that old
covenant, they were not under the law, they were under grace.
That's so. If it's ever been so about a
sinner after Christ came and finished the work, it was so
before. And there were some who made to see that they weren't
under the law, they were under grace. And you know what they
did? They weren't satisfied with bringing
a tithe to God. Of their own accord, with their
own money, by their own willingness, they went above and beyond and
they went and bought sweet cane with money, which was used to
make incense to burn on the altar to the praise of God. God's people
have always done so. And God will see to it that we
do so. He'll see to it we do so. Look
back at 2 Samuel 24, 24. You remember this, there's a
beautiful picture here of what Christ accomplished. And David
knew what Christ accomplished. Here's one of those children,
one of those babes that was not under the law. He wasn't under
the law. He was under grace. Here's what
he said, 2 Samuel 24, 26. Let's see. Oh, I've got to get in the right
place. I wonder, you can't find 2 Samuel 24 when you're in 1
Chronicles. 2 Samuel 24, hold on just a second,
let me get there. 2 Samuel 24, now look at verse
24. And the king, this is David,
Arunah said to David, he said, He said that he was going to
give him a threshing floor so David could build an altar. And
he was going to give him the sacrifices to sacrifice on the
altar that David was about to build on that threshing floor.
He was going to give all that freely to David, this one was. And the king said unto Arunah,
No, verse 24, but I will surely buy it of thee at a price. I will buy it from you at a price.
You see, our salvation didn't come to us without a price being
paid. It came free to us, but a price
was paid, a dear price was paid. Christ came and He bought the
threshing floor. Christ is that sacrifice who
came and laid down His life for His people. That's the price
that was paid. It cost Him the silver of His
sweat and the gold of His blood. And He said this, Neither will
I offer burnt offerings unto the Lord my God of that which
doth cost me nothing." So David bought the threshing floor and
the oxen for 15 shekels of silver. Christ bought the threshing floor
and he bought all the oxen. every one of his children for
a great sum, a great price, his own blood. And David did the
same. He followed the Lord. And David
built there an altar unto the Lord and offered burnt offerings
and peace offerings. Look at this next word. So the
Lord was entreated for the land and the plague was stayed from
Israel. That's how the plague was saved
from you and I, because Christ came and offered the sacrifice
to God. It came up to him a sweet-smelling
savor, a sacrifice well-pleasing and acceptable unto God. And
he says, now, I've done that for you, because you've loved
me, I've honored you by giving the best I could give. And he
says, thou hast not brought me the small cattle of thy burnt
offerings. Neither hast thou honoured me with thy sacrifices.
Thou hast bought me no sweet cane with money, neither dost
thou fill me with the fat of thy sacrifices. David said this,
O Lord our God, all this store that we have prepared to build
thee a house for thine holy name cometh of thine hand and is all
thine own." It all came from him and it's all his. Now look
back at our text, Isaiah 43, 23. How is God going to fix that? He's going to fix it. He's going
to. He's going to reveal this in
the heart of His people. His great love that He's shown
for His people and our lack of devotion to Him. And He's going
to make this thankfulness in the heart of His people and bless
His people abundantly by grace in the heart so that His people
return thanks abundantly by giving unto Him in all the store that
He's given to us. Look at verse 23, he said, I
have not caused thee, the second half there, he said, I have not
caused thee to serve with an offering, nor wearied thee with
incense. You know that the Lord doesn't
require, he doesn't make his children do anything. He said,
I've not wearied you with an offering, nor wearied you with
incense. I've not said you have to give anything, he said. God's
children are free. Look at verse 24. He said, but
thou hast made me to serve with thy sins. Thou hast wearied me
with thine iniquities. What are those sins and those
iniquities? The sin of not calling on God. Isn't that an easy, free
access He said He's given us through the blood of His Son?
And He said, call on Me. It's the sin of being weary of
worshiping Christ who deserves all our devotion. It's the sin of thinking we've
given enough to God who gave His only begotten Son. He said,
I've not caused thee to serve with an offering nor wearied
thee with incense. I was recently, Eric and I was
talking about this just a minute ago, but I'm trying to find things
to talk to my children about and show them the gospel more
in the everyday things that we we do. Emma has been making me
coffee. I'm gonna embarrass Emma. She's
been making me coffee and getting it ready for me. So it'll be
programming it. So when I get up early in the
morning, I'll have coffee. I smell it when I wake up. She's
If I ask her to make it, she goes in there and makes it. And
yesterday when she did that, I was in the kitchen and I pulled
her next to me and hugged her. And I said, you know why I'm
hugging you? She said, because you love me. And I said, you
know how, you know what I see in what you're doing? I see my
love to you reflected back to me. How many times have you gotten
real firm with your children and made this statement to them
or thought this statement? I don't want you to serve me
because you feel like you have to. I want you to serve me because
you want to, because you love me. That's what God says to his
children. I've not wearied you with incense. I've not laid a burden on you.
I've taken all God says He's taken all the burdens off, all
of them. And He says, now, come and call
upon Me. Come and worship Me. Come and
give abundantly of everything I've given to you. And He brings
this question home to the heart of His child. He says in our
hearts and makes us think in our hearts, is our religion Only
a fig leaf to soothe our conscience and cover up our sin so we can
go on in rebellion, hiding in the trees from the God who is
righteous. I pray that's not so, but this
I do know. God who alone can speak effectually
into the heart of his child, and God who alone speaks effectually
into the heart of his child personally, shall call, and shall declare
it, and shall set it in order for himself." And he said, there in verse 7, who is I shall? Who is I shall? Well, how is He going to make
us to do this? That's the first thing He's going
to do. He's going to show us our sin. our dullness, our lukewarmness
in light of his great love for us. Then he's going to do this
when he's brought us to see how truly we don't really need to
be talking about our love and our devotion that we've been
talking exceedingly proud when he brings us to see that he's
going to do this. He's going to declare His grace
to His child. No sooner has He said to us,
you've wearied me with thy sins, you've wearied me with thy iniquities,
He says this in verse 25, I, even I, am He that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy
sins. When was God omnipotent? He said,
you've wearied me with your sins and with your iniquities. When
was God omnipotent, heavy laden and burdened with the sins of
His chosen people? When did that happen? It happened
when the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. It happened
when the God-man came and served under the law for His children. It happened when the Lord laid
on Him the iniquity of every one of His elect people, all
His sheep. It happened when He had made
Him sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in Him. That's when He was burdened.
That's when He was laden. That's when all our sin was rolled
off of us and put onto His shoulder. And he said, I, even I, am he
that blotteth out thy transgressions. The picture here of blotting
out the transgressions is the picture of like a ledger book,
you know, where you keep an account of everything that's owed. And
when everything's been paid, you blot it out. You just take
ink and blot it out. That's paid. No point in that
being in the books anymore. It's paid. It's blotted out.
Well, the Lord says to us that He has actually paid. He has blotted out. And He says,
and I'm He that blotteth out. There can't be a sin put in the
book of God's remembrance. Because He blotted out our sins
and He blotteth out our sins. Our sins have been forgiven and
our sins are forgiven. He that cometh to God and confesses
his sins, God's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.
How can that be so? Because He said, I do it for
mine own sake. Because we have an advocate with
the Father. His own. His own Son. His own Christ. His own Redeemer. His own purpose in creating this
whole world. The one for whom He made the
world. By whom He made the world. The
one for which He gathers His children out of the four corners
of the earth and has this gospel declared unto them. The one whom
we are gathered to adore and to worship. His own. And He says,
and for mine own sake I do this. And he says, and I will not remember
thy sins. When we forget something, you
know why we forget it? Our memory fails us. That's why
we forget something. It's an infirmity for us to forget
something. Our memory fails us. How does
God not remember my sin? How does he not remember the
sin of the children that Christ has redeemed? God forgets in
the sense that He remembers the merit of His Son rather than
our sins. He always is before His face. He always has been since the
day He put a people in Him that we might be holy and without
blame before Him in love. He never saw anybody but His
Son. When His Son walked this earth,
He saw His Son. When His Son did all that pleased
Him, He saw His Son. When His Son honored and magnified
the law, He saw His Son. When His Son went to the cross
and laid down His life, even when God turned His back on His
Son, It was for the sake of His own glory for His own Son. And
right now, seated in glory, we have an advocate with the Father,
and God sees His Son, and He will not remember our sins. He forgets our sin because He
remembers only the merit of His Son instead of our sin. I said
to you that it's an infirmity when we forget. It's not an infirmity
for God to forget. It's His glory. He's boasting
in this. He says, I, even I, am He that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not
remember thy sins. He expresses this forgiveness
in the heart that He's made new with utmost pleasure. God does. With utmost pleasure. With utmost
joy. God says, I, even I, am He that's
done it. He says it to us and He glories
in it. He says it to us because it's
the honor of His name. He says it to us because it's
how God truly makes His child to delight in Him. David knew
this and he said, there is forgiveness with thee that thou mayest be
feared. See, the first thing He's going
to do is He's going to make us see our sin, our dullness in
light of His love. The second thing He's going to
do is He's going to speak into our heart and He's going to say,
I, even I, am He that has blotted out your transgression for my
own sake and will not remember your sin. And then God does something
else. He's going to bring His child
to reason correctly. This is so important. So important. You see, He says here in verse
26, after He speaks this statement, After he does this work, he says
now, put me in remembrance. He says, put me in remembrance.
Let us plead, the word there is reason, let us reason together,
and he says, declare thou that thou mayest be justified. Do
you see the tenderness of our Heavenly Father to his children? This is God whom we've sinned
against. This is God whom we show such a lack of of devotion
to God who's done everything for his own sake for us, for
his children. And this is great tenderness
for him to come now when he's done this work and he say to
us, now put me in remembrance. He condescends to come down to
our level and says, now let us reason together. This is not
God begging. when he says, let us plead together.
This is not God begging. This is how God himself gives
repentance in the heart of his child of grace and makes us reason
correctly, brings us to our senses, which is his sense put in us. This is how he does that. You
see, the problem is sometimes, I don't know if you've ever done
this, anybody here, but sometimes the child pushes back against
the father. Anybody ever done that? Sometimes
the child pushes back against the father. Even when everything
the father has said and everything the father has done and everything
the father has revealed to us makes perfectly good sense. In
our ignorance, in our bad sense, we push back. We push back. We rebel. We push back. And sometimes
the child of God pushes hard against the chastening hand of
God our Father. Pushes hard against Him. Even
when everything that God has said is so clear and so true,
we push back hard. And this is what we do. We try to justify ourselves by
blaming everything that God has said
about us on somebody else. And that's not putting him in
remembrance. That's putting somebody else
in remembrance. That's looking at somebody else.
Perhaps it was our first father that we blamed. You ever thought
this thought? Ever said this thought? Well,
I can't be blamed for doing what I'm doing. I died in Adam and
I'm a sinner. That's all I'm ever going to
be. My first father sinned. I can't be blamed for this. you
ever look back at your first father in this earth, the one
that you know first in time, the father who, by whom you're
born into this earth, you'll ever look back at your father
and said, well, if he hadn't raised me that way, I wouldn't
be this way. If he hadn't set that example for me, I wouldn't
be walking in his steps. Have you ever looked at, we ever
looked at, made those kinds of excuses? Have we ever, maybe
we've looked at teachers who taught us falsely and who profaned
the word of God. And we said, well, if they hadn't
have taught me this, I wouldn't have believed it. But I'm too
far in now to turn back. I can't turn back now. I believe,
I'm gonna stick with this. I'm gonna stick with it. And
we try to justify ourselves. And God says, Indeed, your first
father hath sinned, and indeed your teachers have profaned my
sanctuary. Verse 27, Thy first father hath
sinned, thy teachers have transgressed against me. But now God's telling
us this, I'll deal with them. What is that to you? I will deal
with them. I'll deal with him." And he says,
I have. Verse 28, Therefore I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary,
and have given Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches. But
now listen. Listen very carefully. Now hear
very carefully. When this word is being delivered
to the children, to the elect remnant in Israel, the Lord is
not delivering this message through one of those profane teachers.
Uh-uh. He's delivering this message
through Isaiah whom God sent. He's not delivering this message
in a lie. In a lie, God's speaking to the
truth of His grace. And He's speaking it in truth. And God says to His child personally,
Come, let us reason together. Put me in remembrance. I, even
I, put me in remembrance. He says, this is your God, your
Redeemer, your Father. And He says, and I'm speaking
to you, my child. You remember the spies in the
land of Canaan? We like to blame others for everything, justify
our rebellion by blaming others. It's sin. I'm not making an excuse. That's exactly what our first
father did. Remember, Adam? First thing he said when God
came to him, he said, if you hadn't given me this woman, I
wouldn't have done this. It's your fault, Adam said. That's
our fault. That is our fault, blaming God. And that's who we're blaming.
That's who we're blaming. We take all the other factors
between Him and us out of the way and the only one we really
blame is God. But we like to blame somebody
else. I like how God is able to manifest that fact to us. Remember when the spies came
to Canaan? They got to the land of Canaan and they went in and
they spied out the land. And they went in and spied out
that land. They came back and they said it is exactly as God
said it would be. It is exactly like He said it
would be. But they saw some giant people in that land, some giants,
and they said, and it scared them. And they came back trembling
in unbelief, and they said, we can't go into that land. We cannot
go into it. And Caleb tried to reason with
them. God reasoned with them through Caleb. But they pushed
back hard. They pushed back hard. And they
said, nope, no. Moses, you're going to lead these
people into error. We can't go into that land. Don't listen to Caleb. He's just
a dog. Don't listen to him. But he's
God's faithful dog. Don't listen to Joshua. His mama named him Savior. And
that's what he thinks he is. Don't listen to him, they said.
He's God's man. God sent him. be a picture of
Christ our Savior. They said, we can't go in. And
they were blaming everybody. Everybody. The giants they blamed
in the land. They blamed Caleb. They blamed
Joshua. They blamed Moses. They blamed everybody. We can't
do this. You're preventing us from doing
what we would otherwise do. We're going to stay in this land.
So God sent Moses to them with this word. I forbid you to go
in. You can't go in. And they poked
out their chest wide and they said, you don't prevent us from
doing anything we want to do, Moses. If we want to go into
that land, we'll go right into that land right now, right this
minute, and nobody's going to stop us from going into that
land. And right there, God manifest to them that it wasn't anybody
else stopping them from going in there in the beginning. Nobody
but themselves. Nobody. God removes our vain
reasoning. Is it really another who has
prevented me from calling upon God? Is it another who's made me weary
of worshiping God? Is it another who's prevented
me from giving to God what God has given to me? Is it another who's made me weary
God with my thoughtless sins and iniquities? Is it another
that's made me do these things? When God calls His child and
gives us good sense and corrects our reasoning and makes us reason
together with Him, God makes me confess my sins. He shows me my sins in the light
of God's love and kindness. He takes away all my vain self-justification,
and He graciously brings me to reason correctly. And He says,
now declare thou that you might be just. God's so gracious. He says, now would you declare
that you might be justified. And when God penetrates the heart
that He's made, and when He's by that made His child to be
converted and to really become as a little child. I like the
illustration Brother Scott gave to you last weekend. My father
said the exact same thing to me. You used to do what I told
you. When you were a little child,
you did what I told you to do. God makes us little children,
and when He makes us little children before His hand of correction,
He says, now declare to me that you might be justified. And this
is what we declare, against thee and thee only have I sinned. And done this evil in thy sight,
that thou mightest be justified when thou speakest, and be clear
when thou judgest. And He brings us to say, Lord,
purge me with hyssop. You see, He brings us to pray.
This is prayer. He brings us to pray. He brings
us to give that offering and that sacrifice that He's called
us to give. He brings us to offer up that
thankfulness that He's called us to offer up. And we cry out,
Lord, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and
I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. And we say,
Lord, hide thy face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Justified. You're justified,
my son." But I just came and confessed everything to him I
was and told him I was guilty. And he said, son, you're just. I, even I, have blotted out all
your transgressions for mine own sake and I will not remember
your sins. That's what God says. That's
what God does. And he answers that petition
in that way. And He says to the bones that
He's broken. Look in Isaiah 44 verse 1. He says to the bones
He's broken. Are you yet sitting there with
these broken bones but yet pushing back against God? Pushing back
against the Father? Pushing back against Him? Not
come to good sense yet? If we're His children, we will.
We'll come. He'll bring us to reason correctly.
But this is what He says, verse 1, Yet now hear, O Jacob, My
servant, and Israel whom I have chosen, thus saith the Lord that
made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee."
Are you one God's chosen? Do you need help? Are you thirsty? Are you dry ground in need of
the flood of His Spirit? Nobody else to look to. Nobody
else to blame. Nobody else to try to justify
anything before. Are you? Are you? This is what
he says to you. If you are, this is what he said.
Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou gesturing whom I have
chosen, for I will pour water, I will pour upon him that is
thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground, not just a little,
pour out floods. What's He talking about? I will
pour my Spirit upon thy seed. He'll pour it upon the seed of
Christ Jesus to His children. He will pour out His Spirit upon
His children. And all of our children, our
seed, our brethren, He will do this. Do I have to fix it? Nope. Do I have to put my hand
to it? Nope. God said, just show it,
just declare it, just set it forth. And he said, I'll do it. What do we see Thursday night?
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings, the most dependent,
helpless, strengthless ones they are, thou has perfected praise. God has ordained strength. Why? For this purpose. That thou,
through their word, through that word of these babes, that thou,
God himself, mightest steal the enemy and the avenger. This is
what God teaches us. Quit trying to fix it and just
be settled in here in this gospel, rejoicing in it, and speak this
truth to your brethren and God will fix it. God will fix it. Our poor floods upon the dry
ground, my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring.
And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the
water courses. Now everybody listening to me
this day, I want you to turn to Isaiah 118. God tells us plainly
what everybody here is going to do. One of two things is going
to happen to everybody that hears the word of the Lord. Isaiah
118. He says, come now, let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. If you be willing and obedient,
you shall eat the good of the land. But, if you refuse and
rebel, go on blaming somebody else. Go on blaming God. He says you should be devoured
with the sword. You want to fight with that sword? Be devoured by it. For the mouth
of the Lord has spoken it. Do you see how God is able to
produce true worship in His people? Do you see this? If all these transgressions were
mentioned without God graciously and tenderly, mercifully reminding
us that He's blotted out our sin and won't remember it anymore,
without God bringing us to let go of all our vain excuses and
He brings us into remembrance of Him and causes us to confess
what we are, to declare what we are, that we might be justified
by His grace and not by our own vain, ignorant excuses, If He
had just done that without, just told those sins without giving
all this work of grace and doing all this work of grace. You see,
I could come up here and tell you all those things, tell you,
you ought to give more, you ought to do all, and tell you all those
things, and pray more, and you ought to do. I could come up
here and say, we ought to do it more, when in my heart what
I'm really saying to you, you ought to do it more. But I can
stand here and tell you this is how God saves and preach this
gospel to you and God will do it. And God will do it. He will
affect disobedience. Otherwise, we'll just mend our
ways and patch up our fig leaves and go through the motions and
go to hell. Verse 7, Who as I shall. God said. I'm the first and the
last, he said. Who is I shall call and shall
declare it and set it in order for me since I appointed the
ancient people. Now, I want to end with this.
The Lord said there, put me in remembrance. Whenever our Lord
Jesus established the Lord's table, he said, this do in remembrance
of me. Do you see how loving Christ
is to us? He gives us something as simple
as an ordinance of simple bread and wine. He gives this to the
believer. He gives this to his children
because he loves us. And knowing what we are, knowing
that we will not reason correctly without his grace, knowing that
we forget him constantly, he gives us this simple ordinance
and he tells us, put me in remembrance. Remember me. He gives us this
gospel for that purpose. Every time we come together and
hear this gospel preached, we break this bread. Though we may
not take up this table every time, we break this bread and
drink this wine. Every time His people gather
together, where He's gathered them, in our houses, at our tables,
visiting with one another, and talking about these glorious
truths with one another, rejoicing with one another, we're breaking
bread and drinking this wine from house to house. And we come
together now to really break this bread and drink this wine,
and we do this in remembrance of Him. He said, put me in remembrance. If He didn't love us, He wouldn't
tell us, put me in remembrance. If He didn't love us, He wouldn't
do all the things we saw that He does right here. But He does this that we might
remember His unchanging love toward us. that we might remember
His everlasting covenant of grace that He made with His Son on
our behalf. He's done this that we might
remember that there is no God like Him that calls and declares
and orders everything for Himself so that it's sure. It's sure. I'm so glad he didn't leave it
in. I'm so glad for my own sake and my own house's sake that
he didn't leave it in your hands. And I'm so glad for your sake
and your house's sake that he didn't leave it in mine. We'd
rip and tear one another apart. But he's done it. And he brings
us to remember that all the promises that he's given us, All the promises
He's given us are yes, and they're amen in Christ Jesus to us. Can you say that? Can you let
go out of your hand everything that you've been trying to use
to fix things, that whatever it is in your hand that you've
been just worrying the fire out of your brethren with, called
making yourself miserable and them miserable too, Can you just
drop it and just sit down and hear God's message preached and
rejoice in Him for yourself and find out and watch and wait and
see that God really does what He says? He really does what
He says. If you can, it's by His grace. If He's given you faith so that
all your worthiness is Him, He says, come to this table. And
He says, as you take it, remember Me. And if you can't, if you're
still trying to justify yourself and make excuses, you don't know
God. You don't believe God. You need
to be converted either first of all by His grace or either
you're in sin so far backwards that He's got to come and call
you out again and show you, make you a little shout all over again. But to you, who He has done that
to, He says, Find all your worthiness in me and remember me. Amen.