We'll read our text together
this morning, beginning in Isaiah chapter 1, verse 21. How is the faithful city become
a harlot? It was full of judgment, righteousness
lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver is become dross, thy
wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious and
companions of thieves. Every one loveth gifts, and followeth
after rewards. They judge not the fatherless,
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Therefore
saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, I will
ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies. And I will turn my hand upon
thee, and purely purge away thy draws, or according to pureness,
in a right and just way, purge away thy draws and take away
all thy ten. And I will restore thy judges
as at the first, and thy counselors as at the beginning. Afterward
thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful
city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment,
and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors
and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord
shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of
the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for
the gardens that ye have chosen. For ye shall be as an oak whose
leaf fadeth, and as a garden that hath no water. And the strong
shall be as toe, and the maker of it as a spark. And they shall
both burn together, and none shall quench them." Our text
begins with the Lord's Word concerning the false religion of the day
in Isaiah's day. If you could have turned on a
TV and watched 5 o'clock news in Isaiah's day, it would look
like it does in our day. In fact, this prophecy speaks
to this age in which we live. Historically, it was an accurate
account of what was taking place in Isaiah's day. Prophetically,
it speaks to our day and age. The land was full of rebels against
God, morally and spiritually corrupt. Just as a soldier deserting
his own country and his own army The people were deserters from
God, gone away backward. The description God gives of
the people is of dead men walking from the top of their head to
the bottom of their feet, wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. Some believe this was during
the reign of King Ahaz whenever Judah was invaded by the kings
of Syria and by Israel. And you can picture a war-torn
country. That's the description the Lord
gives. Smoke rising up from the cities that have been burned
and desolated by the foreign armies. And the religious and
civil leaders of the day, along with the people, are addressed
as Sodom and Gomorrah, passing laws to support the people's
desires to live in the same rebellion and the same lewdness as those
two evil, immoral cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. And the people
loved it to be so. I'd say that's a pretty good
description of our day. I'd say that's a pretty accurate
description of the age and time in which we live. The God of
heaven and earth is both just and merciful. He's just and He's
merciful. Whenever He put Moses in the
cleft of the rock and He passed by Moses and He declared His
glory. He said that He keeps mercy for
thousands. He forgives iniquity and transgression
and sin and that He'll by no means clear the guilty. For all who cast their care upon
God, they'll find mercy. They'll find mercy. But for those
who rebel against Him, and continue in an obstinate way, stubborn,
refusing to bow to Him and trust Him alone, they shall receive
judgment. Let's see what God says here
about this false religion in that day. It begins with a great
word of astonishment and lamentation. How has the faithful city become
a harlot? It was full of judgment, Righteousness
lodged in it, but now murderers. Thy silver straws and thy wine
mixed with water. The rulers, those who were supposed
to lead the people in righteousness and in truth were rebellious.
Robbers, thieves, loving gifts, and robbery. And the Lord says,
I'll ease me of mine adversaries. I'll avenge me of mine enemies.
False religion. is apostasy from the gospel of
Christ. False religion is apostasy from
truth, is what it is. That's what we see here in verse
21. It was full of judgment. Righteousness lodged in it. We
began with God in the beginning, in truth, in judgment, in righteousness. But when we went away backwards
in Adam, murderers entered in, and it's a population of murderers.
a population of thieves and robbers. Paul told the Thessalonians,
he said, let no man deceive you by any means. You mean a man
would want to deceive another man? For that day shall not come except
there come a falling away first. And that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition, who opposeth and exalteth himself above all
that is called God. He is speaking about religion,
or that is worship, so that he is God. As God sitteth in the
temple of God, showing himself that he is God. This is a description
of false religion, apostasy from true religion. False religion
tries to pass itself off as true religion. Look here in verse
22. Thy silvers become dross, and thy wine mixed with water.
You see, They brought a multitude of sacrifices unto the Lord.
They didn't bring torn or lame beasts. They came with the fat
of fed beasts, the Lord says here in this chapter. They came
with the best of the best sacrifices. They didn't omit even one observance
of new moons or Sabbaths or appointed feasts contained in the law,
in God's law, in His Word. They observed every single one
of them, even appointing more feasts. And they didn't perform
their religious services in those high places or in the groves
of idolatry, at least not physically. But the Lord said, you tread
My courts. They came to His courts. At first
glance, the silver and the wine appeared to be true silver and
true wine. It appears to be that which is
true worship of the Lord. They used the Word of the Lord.
They meet in a building that looks like a church building.
They assemble themselves under the sound of someone that stands
up and preaches, as God declared He would save His people by preaching.
They do many, many wonderful works that appear righteous.
It appears like it's true silver. It appears like it's true wine.
But the Lord said, but your wine has become dross. and your silver
has become dross and your wine mixed with water. It's watered
down. The silver, the shekel of the
sanctuary was a pure shekel just like a coin from the U.S. mint.
That's the Word of God. That's the truth of God. Just
like a coin, when it comes from the mint and it goes into circulation
and the edges become rounded off and it rubs together with
other coins, And it loses its true weight. And it becomes not
the true weight of the shekel of the sanctuary, because it's
gone into men's hands and it's corrupted from what it was when
it came out of the press. That's what the Word of God,
the Lord said, you've corrupted it. You've corrupted it. And
the wine that was once pure, you've mixed it with water. It's
a little more palatable now. It goes down a little more easily,
but it's no good to anybody. It's no good to anybody. If I
took a Crayola marker and a piece of paper and I drew out a green
Crayola crayon and I drew out a picture of a hundred dollar
bill and tried to replicate a piece of money just as just as clearly
as I could, wrote everything on it in God We Trust and everything,
you know, and I took it down to the bank to try to cash it,
to get it changed, to get money for it. They'd say, you're crazy. It's counterfeit. It doesn't
even look like real money. The Lord said, that's what's
happened. That's what's happened. They
didn't come dressed in a red costume with horns and a forked
tail and a pitchfork in their hand. They came preaching the
Word. They came declaring, this is
the word of the Lord. This is the will of God. And
he said, it's all falsehood. And the Lord openly manifests
why sinners love this false religion. Verse 23, thy princes are rebellious. Those that are set to lead the
people in truth, to preach the gospel, they're rebellious. And
they're companions of thieves. Everyone loveth gifts, and followeth
after rewards. They judge not the fatherless,
neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them. Look with
me over at Jeremiah chapter 6. Jeremiah chapter 6. This is what the Lord said, verse
13. For from the least of them even
unto the greatest of them, everyone is given to covetousness. And from the prophet even unto
the priest, everyone dealeth falsely. They've healed also
the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace,
peace, when there is no peace. Calling folks righteous when
they're not righteous. Calling folks accepted of God,
when they are not accepted of God, because they are coming
in another way. Were they ashamed when they had
committed abomination? That is what he calls it. Nay,
they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush. Therefore
they shall fall among them that fall. At the time that I visit
them, they shall be cast down, saith the Lord. Thus saith the
Lord, Stand ye in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths,
where is the good way, and walk therein, and you shall find rest
for your souls." But they said, we will not walk therein. Also,
I sent watchmen over you saying, hearken to the sound of the trumpet.
That's the gospel. But they said, we will not hearken.
We will not hearken. Paul told the Philippians, he
said, there's many that walk of whom I've told you often,
and I now tell you, weeping with their enemies of the cross of
Christ, whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly. They
want bribery and rewards, whose glory is in their shame, who
mind earthly things. Who do they speak of? Who do
they speak of, the Lord said? They speak of what man needs
to be doing, or they speak of what Christ has done, what God
has accomplished, And then the Lord calls these rulers of the
people his adversaries and his enemies. Look here in verse 24.
Therefore saith the Lord, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one
of Israel, I will ease me of mine adversaries and avenge me
of mine enemies. What a sad description of this
world. What a sad condition to which
mankind has fallen. What was it that kept God from
destroying the whole land in Isaiah's day? What is it that
keeps Him from destroying the whole world in our day? There is one reason. Look there
in Isaiah 1, verse 9. Except the Lord of hosts had
left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom,
and we should have been like unto Gomorrah. In a day when
the world appeared to be totally consumed in religion, when they
went from house to house trying to convert everyone, when
those who swept over the land in the name of the Lord, the
Lord said, they are corruptors attempting to corrupt the whole
land. devours, devouring the land like locusts. And he said,
if it wasn't for this very small remnant on whom I've set my affection,
my free affection, because I loved them, because I chose them, because
I put them in my son and determined to save them for myself to the
glory and praise of my name alone, because of that very small remnant,
I'm not going to destroy this people. I'm not going to destroy
this land. This remnant, the Lord's not
willing that any of this remnant should perish, not a one of them,
but that every one of them should come to repentance and faith
in Christ the Lord. And therefore, because He's not
willing, He's long-suffering, He patiently deals with this
evil world we live in, and with us, with this remnant that He
might bring us to Christ to behold Him. Now let's see how He does
that. Secondly, the Lord promises salvation
to this chosen remnant. And He tells us exactly how He's
going to bring it to pass. Look at verse 25. And I will
turn My hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross, and take
away all thy tin. The Lord turns His hand upon
thee in grace upon this remnant. because He turned His hand upon
His own Son in judgment. You'll be turning to Zechariah
chapter 13. When the Lord said, I reserve
mercy for thousands and that I by no means clear the guilty,
He means that because He's a God of justice and a God of mercy,
He will not show mercy at the expense of His justice. The people
that He is going to redeem, the remnant that He is going to bring
to Himself are going to have to be judged. They are going
to have to pay the wages of sin. The wages of sin are death. There
will be nobody in glory, nobody in Heaven's glory that has not
died under the penalty of God's justice. Not a soul. Not a soul. Look here with me in Zechariah
chapter 13. He says, Verse 7, Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd. Who is that? That's the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's His own Son. He came to
this place and He went to the cross the lamb without spot and
without blemish, perfectly righteous, made under the law, perfectly
righteous before God. And He went to the cross a fit
sacrifice, a fit lamb, a fit to go and bear the judgment of
His people, that His people deserve. And the Lord said, Awake, O sword,
the sword of justice, against My shepherd, against the man
that is My fellow, his own son, said the Lord of hosts. smite
the shepherd, and the sheep shall be scattered. And I'll turn My
hand upon the little ones. And it shall come to pass that
in all the land, saith the Lord, two parts therein shall be cut
off and die, but the third part shall be left therein, that remnant. And I'll bring the third part
through the fire, and I'll refine them as silver is refined, and
I'll try them as gold is tried. And they shall call on My name,
and I will hear them. And I will say, It is My people
And they shall say, the Lord is my God. He's going to bring
everyone that He saves through the fire of justice in the person
of His Son. He passed through that fire and He put away the sin of His
people. He satisfied justice on their
behalf and completely answered the law. And when He died, we
died. When He died, His people died.
fully died. He said, I'll purge away all
your draughts. And then He says here, and I'll
purely purge away all thy tin. I'll take away all your tin.
You see, the Lord not only did something for His people at Calvary,
but He does something in His people when He comes to them
in His power and His grace, because we The believer, right now, would
tell you that just like these people, this religious, rebellious,
evil generation to which Isaiah was sent to preach, just like
them, that's what we are by nature. And that's what we love. Ten looks like silver, doesn't
it? But it's worthless. Not worth
anything. And that's what we walked in.
We walked in our own self-righteousness. We walked in what we thought
was a good way. We walked in what we thought
was honorable to God, what was acceptable to God, what He would
be pleased with. And God said, I'm going to take
away every bit of that from you. I'm going to take it all away
from you. I've purged you of all your sin. I've taken away
all your sin in My Son. And He says, now I'm going to
take away all your ten. all your self-righteousnesses,
all those things you looked upon and thought were pleasing to
me. He tells us that in Hebrews 1.
He says the Lord Jesus Christ, His own Son who came, the brightness
of His image, the express image of His person who upholds all
things by the word of His power, He said He by Himself purged
our sins. When Adam didn't have any sin,
before he had any sin, before he fell in the garden. What was
he? Righteous, wasn't he? Without
sin. When Christ purged the sin of
His people by Himself, that means He put it away. You know what
that means? They have none. They are reconciled
to God. Their made atonement has been
made for by Him. And He says, How much more, then,
shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered
Himself without spot to God, also purge your conscience from
dead works to serve the living God? Just as He purged us at
Calvary from all our sin, He'll come in power and He'll purge
our conscience, recreate us anew, regenerate us, rebirth us, that
we may behold Him in truth and in righteousness. that we may
behold all that He's accomplished for us and stop looking to the
works of this filthy flesh. You know what sanctification
is? You know what growing in sanctification is? It's beholding
that in us, in our flesh, is absolutely nothing good whatsoever. It's growing more and more in
the knowledge of our absolute worthlessness of our flesh, and
at the same time, growing more and more persuaded that all our
holiness is Christ Jesus the Lord. He said, I'll give them a heart
to know Me, that I'm the Lord, and they'll be My people, and
I'll be their God, and they'll return unto Me with their whole
heart. their whole heart. Thirdly, the Lord declares how
he'll bring his remnant into this blessed union with himself.
Look here, Isaiah chapter 1 verse 26. He promises to restore faithful
pastors for his people. He says, verse 26, I will restore
thy judges is at the first, and thy counselors is at the beginning.
And afterward thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the
faithful city. You know, we've seen throughout
our study in Acts how that the Lord always brings His messengers
to His elect people. He always does it. He always
does it. And if God doesn't save in judgment
and convert His people in righteousness through the preaching of the
true and living God, through the preaching of Christ, by the
man whom He's raised up and filled with His Spirit and filled with
knowledge and understanding and that He's sent by His power.
If He doesn't save that way, He counts every martyr that ever
preached the gospel, the truth of God, and was destroyed by
lying, filthy liars. He counts their blood nothing.
Spits in their face. Kicks them while they're... kicks
them and just rejects them. if he saves one sinner without
the man that he sent in his own power and his own grace. Martin
Luther said of Romans 10, 13 and 15 through 15, where it says,
How shall they call on him in whom they have not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall he preach unless
he be sent? He said it is impossible for
a man to call on the Christ that he has never heard preached.
And it's impossible for a man to preach the Christ unless God
has raised that man up and sent that man Himself. Impossible. Before King Jesus comes, the
One who led captivity captive, the One who gave gifts unto men
in the form of pastors and teachers, before He comes, He's going to
send an ambassador before Him announcing His arrival every
time. Every time. because it pleased
God to save sinners that way. It pleased God to save them that
believe through the foolishness of preaching. That's how He's
going to do it. And just as He would count the blood of those
that die for preaching the truth as vanity, if He doesn't save
that way, He counts Christ's vanity too, if He saves through
another Jesus, another gospel. It's polluted bread, He said.
Now, look with me at 1 Samuel 12. 1 Samuel 12. These pastors and these princes
the Lord said that were existing in Isaiah's day. He said they
take reward and bribery and all these things. Look here what
Samuel said. 1 Samuel 12 verse 3. Behold, here I am. This is when
Samuel is about to die and he says this to the people. Witness
against me before the Lord and before his anointed. Whose ox
have I taken? Or whose ass have I taken? Or
whom have I defrauded? Whom have I oppressed? Or of
whose hand have I received any bribe to blind mine eyes therewith? And I will restore it to you.
And they said, Thou hast not defrauded us, nor oppressed us,
neither hast thou taken all of any man's hand. And he said unto
them, The Lord is witness against you, and his anointed is witness
this day, that ye have not found all in my hand. And they answered,
He is witness. Samuel said unto the people now
listen to this it is the Lord that advanced Moses and Aaron
and that brought your fathers up out of the land of Egypt Who
brought who who gave them Moses and Aaron who gave them his messengers
the Lord did Now therefore stand still that I may reason with
you before the Lord of all the righteous acts of the Lord The
Lord redeems in judgment and converts His people in righteousness.
Now look here. He says, let me tell you all
the righteous acts of the Lord which He did to you and your
fathers. When Jacob was coming to Egypt and your fathers cried
unto the Lord, then the Lord sent Moses and Aaron which brought
forth your fathers out of Egypt and made them dwell in this place.
And when they forgot the Lord their God, he sewed them into
the hand of Sisera, captain of the host of Hazar, into the hand
of the Philistines, and into the hand of the king of Moab.
And they fought against him. And they cried unto the Lord
and said, We have sinned because we have forsaken the Lord and
have served Balaam and Ashtoreth. That is what will happen. Every
time you and I are left to ourselves, we are left under the preaching
of false prophets. That is why God raised up Isaiah.
to go to these people and preach this message to these people
in truth because they didn't have anybody to tell it to them, declare
the truth to them. And he says, but now they pray,
but now deliver us out of the hand of our enemies and we'll
serve thee. And what did the Lord do? He sent some false prophets? Or he saved them with some of
those false prophets under whom they worshiped? No. The Lord
sent Jeroboam and Badan and Jephthah and Samuel and delivered you
out of the hand of your enemies on every side you dwelt saved. Do you think God can raise up
pastors after His own heart that will feed us with knowledge and
understanding? It is much a denial of the power of God to say that
He saved some other way. Look over at Jeremiah 23. He is going to save in righteousness
and in judgment, not in falsehood. Look here, Jeremiah 23. Verse 1, Woe be unto the pastors
that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture, saith the
Lord. Therefore thus saith the Lord
God of Israel against the pastors that feed my people. Ye have
scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited
them. Behold, I will visit upon you
the evil of your doing, saith the Lord. And I will gather the
remnant of my flock out of all countries, whether I have driven
them, and will bring them again to their folds, and they shall
be fruitful in increase. And I will set up shepherds over
them, which shall feed them, and they shall fear no more,
nor be dismayed, neither shall they be lacking, saith the Lord."
He said, I will do it. And if He says, I will do it,
He'll do it. And nobody is going to stop Him
from doing what He says He'll do. Thou watchman shall lift
up the voice, He said. He speaks in certainty. And with
the voice together shall they sing, for they shall see eye
to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion." Why does the Lord
promise, I'll give you pastors according to my heart? Why does
He promise that? Because He said this in Jeremiah, He said, Thou
shalt call Me my Father and shalt not turn away from Me. And all
the way that's going to come to pass if the truth is preached,
if the gospel is preached, if Christ is exalted before men. Because verse 27 of our text
says, Zion shall be redeemed with judgment and her converts
with righteousness. You mean God would choose a people
in judgment and righteousness. He'd elect a people unto salvation
and put them in Christ in judgment and righteousness. He'd send
forth His Son, made of a woman, made of the law, and buy them,
purchase them from sin, Satan, and hell. in judgment and righteousness. He'd send forth the Holy Spirit
to regenerate them and give them new life in Christ Jesus the
Lord in judgment and righteousness, and yet He'd save them under
a lie. That wouldn't be judgment and righteousness, would it? The Lord's pastors are called
judges because they declare the judge of the whole earth who
redeems His people in truth. They're called counselors because
they speak only of Christ, our Counselor, who converts His people
in righteousness, who executes judgment and justice in the earth.
They're called shepherds because they feed the Lord's sheep with
knowledge and understanding, standing judgment and righteousness
of our Lord Jesus Christ, because Zion shall be redeemed with judgment
and her converts with righteousness. That's the Word of the Lord.
Anybody that denies it, wants to be stubborn, You're not being
stubborn against me. You're stubborn against God.
That's what He said. Alright, verse 28. Because when
the Lord converts a sinner, He turns us from idolatry which
we once called life. You see here in verse 28, where
it says the destruction, that word means breaking. The breaking of His people, this
remnant, is going to be a lot like It's the judgment of God.
It's going to be a lot like the judgment of God in the day when
those that forsake Him enter into judgment with Him. He's
going to send somebody in truth preaching Christ that Christ
might be exalted. That His holy name might be exalted
above heaven and earth. And He's going to do that. And
when He does, He's going to do something very painful in the
heart of His people. He's going to do something that
goes against everything. It's just contrary to our our
old Adamic nature. He's going to strip us of all
of our self-righteousness. He's going to make our religious
duties and our religious activities and all those things we call
righteous, He's going to make them appear to us as filthy rags. He's going to make us let them
go, cast them away and say we don't want to have anything else
to do with those again. He says here, He says that They
shall be ashamed of the oaks which ye have desired, and ye
shall be confounded for the gardens which ye have chosen. For ye
shall be as an oak whose leaf fadeth, and as a garden that
hath no water." When we hear about Christ Jesus, and we hear
about how He has completely made you complete by what He has accomplished. That when He was raised, He completely
justified you. That the Holy Spirit has come
and you've been born of the incorruptible seed of the Word of God, of Christ
in you, the hope of glory. Being made a partaker of the
divine nature. We're going to become so ashamed
that we ever look anywhere but Him. Like that oak tree that
you see that's out there flourishing right now. It's all green and
vibrant. It's like the song we just sang. That's how we are. until Christ comes. And when
He comes in power, we fade like a leaf, strips us of all our
false covering, of all those leaves, those fig leaves that
are no good and worthless. And He robes us in Christ's righteousness
and makes us ashamed of those idol gods we worship. and confound
when He comes with the living water, when He comes with the
water that quenches the thirst of a guilty, guilty, vile, wretched
sinner who thirsts and hungers for satisfaction and for peace
and wants to rest in Christ and He gives that living water. You
ever been really thirsty? You ever been just thirsty? There
was a road that went, it was just over from my parents' home
when I was growing up and we used to ride our bicycles. And
we'd ride five miles over to this main highway and back. And
there was this one road you could take, and it was a gravel road,
and it's kind of hard pedaling your bicycle, you know. This
was out in the country, way out in the country. And you'd come
around and we'd start getting a little closer to this one spot
we had in mind. We'd be thirsty, be hot, 90 degrees,
100 degrees outside. We'd be hot, sweating. scorched
in the sun, you know. We know around that next corner
up there, boy, we dropped those bicycles and we'd take off running.
And there was a spring, just a little hole in the ground.
And it was bubbling up just the clearest, coldest spring water. I mean, just spring water. And
man, we would run in there and we'd drop down on our knees.
It just trickled out from there. It wasn't a big stream. It just
trickled out and kind of went down and was absorbed back into
the earth. But right there where it came
out, it made a little pool right there. And you had to get down
on your hands and knees and get down in there like a dog feeding
out of a dog bowl. We'd get down in there though
and just drink and drink and drink and drink. And oh, it was
good. It was, oh, it just quenched
your thirst. The Lord said, when I bring you
that living water, when I quench your desire with that living
water, those gardens that you once relished in, when you came
to My courts but your heart was far from Me, when it was in those
idle groves, in those gardens, He said, you will realize there
is no water in those. They won't satisfy you. It would
be like bending down and trying to take a big drink of sand. It won't do you any good. And then lastly, look here what
he says, the Lord promises the destruction of those who reject
Christ. He says, they shall behold the
uselessness of their idols as well, and in righteous judgment. Verse 28, And the destruction of the transgressors
and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord
shall be consumed. For they shall be ashamed of
the oaks which ye have desired, and ye shall be confounded for
the gardens that ye have chosen. The Lord says, I have sworn by
myself, the word has gone out of my mouth, that every knee
is going to bow and every tongue is going to confess. What are
we going to confess? If we don't bow to Christ in
this life, if we don't come to Him now seeking mercy and grace
from Him, we are going to come before God in judgment and we
are going to bow the knee before Him and we are going to confess
that every thing we put our hope in and put our trust in and every
work we perform and everything that we are is nothing but utter
idolatry and vain religion. And we're going to confess that
He is exactly who He has said He is in this Word. That He is
holy God. That He saves in righteousness
and converts His people in righteousness and judgment and that all His
ways are right and just, and that Christ Jesus is Lord of
lords and King of kings. I don't know about you, brethren,
but that gives me a little bit of comfort, actually. As a believer,
trusting the Lord, I can rest and be confident and assured
that vengeance is His. He's going to bring this whole
world to bow before my Redeemer bow before the Lord in whom I
have cast all my care and put all my trust, and every single
mouth, every single tongue is going to confess Him to be what
He has revealed Him to be to me in grace and mercy, that He
is King, that He is Lord. And He says the very work of
our own hand will be our shame and our confusion. the strong
shall be his toe, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall
both burn together, and none shall quench them." If we meet
God in judgment, it won't be because God's not merciful. It
will not be because God does not delight to show mercy. It'll
be because we wouldn't confess what we are, that we're sin.
It'll be because we wouldn't bow to Christ the Lord and trust
Him alone, looking nowhere else but Christ. It'll be because
We wouldn't have Him to reign over us as King because we wouldn't
let go of something that we did by our own hand. That'll be the
only reason. It'll be, as some of the old
pastors used to say, if God saves us, it'll be His fault. And if
we die and perish in our sins, it'll be our own. That's right. That's right. He says, turn you
at my reproof. Behold, I'll pour out my Spirit
upon you. I'll make known my words unto
you, because I've called, and you refused. I've stretched out
my hand, and no man regarded, but you've said it now to all
my counsel, and would none of my reproof. He said, Whosoever
hearkeneth to me shall dwell safely. He shall be quiet, and
fear no evil. He told The Lord said through
Isaiah, Oh, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he
that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and
milk without money and without price. You know, the only way you're
going to come and buy of Him without money and without price
is when you discover that you're bankrupt. When He discovers to
us that we're absolutely, totally bankrupt with nothing to pay,
nothing to barter with, No price to give. When He totally empties
our hands of everything, we'll come to Him thirsty. And He says, Who is a God like
unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever,
because He delighteth in mercy. He delights in mercy. What a
God! What a Savior that would pass
by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage because He satisfied
His own justice on their behalf and poured out free grace upon
them, delighting in His own mercy. God saves in judgment. He redeems in judgment. And He
converts His people in righteousness. No other way. Or He don't convert
them at all. Or He don't redeem them at all.
He does it in judgment and in righteousness. That's the only
way.