Let us turn again to God's Word
in that portion of Scripture we began to consider this morning.
Here in Isaiah 54, I'll read verses 7 and 8. I want us to
concentrate on these words presently. Isaiah 54, 7 and 8. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee in a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. As I say earlier, we were looking
at the previous part of the passage and what's said there at verse
4 through 6, the fear not. We have in verse 4, fear not
for thou shalt not be ashamed. Neither be thou confounded, for
thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt forget the shame
of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach of thy widowhood
any more. For thy maker is thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name. And thy Redeemer, the Holy One
of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be called. For the Lord hath called thee
as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused saith thy God. And so we were thinking
of these opening verses here from verse 4 through 6 and considering
the ones who are being spoken to. Those who are spoken to in
verse 4 and again in verse 6. Those that the Lord will call
unto himself, but in particular I really concentrated on the
one who is spoken of, the one spoken of here in verse 5, and
what he said with regards to him, thy maker, thine husband,
the Lord of hosts is his name, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel, the God of the whole earth. And I said then, in particular,
I was thinking of what he said concerning those words at the
beginning of verse 5, thy maker is thy husband, thy maker is
thine husband." And thinking of the significance of God who
is the creator of all things, the one who has made us, not
we ourselves, that He declares Himself to be the husband of
His dear people. We remarked on union. I said this morning how I was
really drawn to the passage when I was reading, I was reading
a sermon earlier in the week, not so much on the words that
I've concentrated on today, but really the text that was being
preached from in this sermon was on verses 9 and verse 10,
verse 9 in particular, the waters of Noah. But a reference was
made to this idea of union and a verse was quoted in the New
Testament there in 1st Corinthians 6 that he that is joined to the
Lord is one's spirit. He that is joined to the Lord,
the believer, joined to the Lord, is one's spirit. And I said,
amongst other things, that it's a remarkable statement, but it
shows that that is the most intimate of any relationship that a human
being can ever know. More intimate than the union
between a man and his wife. we're told aren't we concerning
the man and his wife there at the end of generation 2 a man
is to leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and they
shall be one flesh but either is joined to the Lord is one
spirit that's a wonderful thing isn't it the most intimate of
all our relationships is that that we can have with the Lord
and that he should be as it were our husband. And we try to say something then
with regards to all these various names that are given to him here
in verse 5, the ones spoken of and the ones who are being spoken
to concerning this glorious person. No wonder the text begins in
verse 4, Fear not, for thou shalt not be ashamed, neither be thou
confounded, for thou shalt not be put to shame, for thou shalt
forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood any more." Oh, it's the gospel, that gospel
that comes to those who in their very natures are alienated from
God, and enemies in their mind by wicked works. But the Lord
hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God. So those really were the words
we were looking at previously, but I want, as I said, to continue
in the same passage, and in many ways continue with the same theme,
but now to turn to these words that we have in particular at
verses 7 and 8. And again, the one that he's
speaking here, very closing words of verse 8, saith the Lord thy
Redeemer, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Who is this one? He's the Redeemer. But more than
that, he's the Lord. And it's the covenant name, it's
the covenant name that we have. It's that One who is Jehovah,
the Great I Am, that I Am, the God who has entered into an eternal
covenant with His people. And He's faithful to all the
promises of that covenant. And as He is the covenant-keeping
God, so He is the One who is the Redeemer of His people. The Lord thy Redeemer, it's amongst
those names that we were considering this morning. There in verse
5, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. And I said then, the
reference here is to the kinsmen. The kinsmen Redeemer. that provision
that's made in the Old Testament law Leviticus 25 and verse 25
and then again in Deuteronomy 25 and verses 5 and 6 if a man
in Israel loses everything, sells his possession why there is one
who can redeem his possession and his place and his name amongst
the people the one who can do that for him is the near kinsman
the kinsman redeemer and we see that principle so strikingly
in the book of Ruth and the relationship that Boaz has with Ruth here
she comes she is bereft of everything Ruth was married to Marlon Marlon
had died and now she has returned with her mother-in-law Naomi
She was a Moabitish woman but she was married to an Israelite
and so she was very much a sojourner amongst the Jews and the law
applies to the sojourner as it does to the Israelite. And so
there is one who can redeem the name of Manan in Israel. Who is that one? Well it's Boaz. who's a near kinsman, the kinsman
redeemer. We've looked in times past at
that remarkable book and what's recorded there in chapters 3
and 4 and how Boaz is pleased to do the thing that Ruth requests
and to spread his skirt over her and to take her to himself
as his wife. He is the kinsman redeemer. But it's all really typical,
ultimately it's pointing us to the Lord Jesus who is the great
kinsman, Redeemer. That one of whom Job speaks,
I know that my Redeemer lives and shall stand at the latter
day upon the earth. Oh how the Lord Jesus is that
one, he's our kinsman. bone of our bone, flesh of our
flesh, for as much as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
we're told how we likewise took part of the same, how he was
made in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin. How he takes
not upon him the nature of the angels, he's made lower than
the angels, for the suffering of death in order to redeem his
people. The world's end that we have
before us today are very much Gospel words. There's no doubt
about that fact, although there is, as I said this morning, and
I don't want to go over that ground again, I mentioned this
morning, there is an historical context of course. The Prophet
is ministering to a very real situation in Israel, or a situation
that will come to pass in God's appointed time. But ultimately,
the whole passage is to be understood in a gospel sense, because the
words that we have here at the beginning of the chapter are
taken up by Paul in the New Testament. Remember when he's dealing with
the Judaizers there in the church at Galatia, who want to bring
Christian believers under the law. It's not enough to have the gospel
of Christ, but these men want to bring Gentile converts into
subjection to the law of Moses. Now where did we are to the very
idea of works? It's part of our Nature, of course,
is the descendants of Adam. God had entered into a covenant
of works with Adam. We're wedded. We like the idea
of rules and laws to be kept. But what does the Apostle say
writing to these legalists there in Galatians 4? Tell me, ye that
desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is
written that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bond made,
the other by a free woman, speaking of course of Ishmael and Isaac. But he who was of the bond woman
was born after the flesh, but he of the free woman was by promise,
which things are an allegory For these are the two covenants,
the one from Mount Sinai, which genereth to bondage, the law,
which is Agar. For this Agar is Mount Sinai
in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem, which now is, and is in bondage
with her children, ethnic Israel. But Jerusalem, which is above,
is free, which is the mother of us all, for it is written,
Rejoice thou, barren, that bearest not, break forth and cry thou
that travailest not, for the desolate have many more children
than she that hath a husband." He quotes there from the opening
verses of Isaiah 54. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was,
are the children of promise. So he continues there at verse
28. But as he is quoting from Isaiah 54, we are right to interpret
the chapter in a gospel sense. And of course, we see the connection
with what has gone before in chapter 53, which is a remarkable
account of the sufferings of the Lord's righteous servant,
the Lord Jesus Christ, who is indeed the Redeemer of his people. And here we have it at the end
of this long text that I announced this morning, the text running
from verse 4 through to verse 8. And right at the end it's
the word of the Lord, Thy Redeemer. And it's a word that's addressed
to the sinner. Oh, we see the sinners here under
the conviction of their sins. Verse 6, For the Lord hath called
thee as a woman forsaken. and grieved in spirits. And the
wife of youth, when thou wast refused, saith thy God, for a
small moment have I forsaken thee, but with great mercies
will I gather thee. in a little rot i hid my face
from thee for a moment but with everlasting kindness will i have
mercy on thee saith the lord thy redeemer and so continuing
as it were in this line this this gospel interpretation the
right interpretation of the verses before us tonight i want first
to say something with regards to the sinner's condition is
being described in the language and the terminology that's used
in these verses. Verse 6, we see one forsaken
and grieved. The Lord hath called you as a
woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, a wife deserted. how awful the condition. It's
a figure that's used here. It's not dissimilar to a figure
that's also used of the child that's forgotten and forsaken. We have that previously of course
in chapter 49 and there at verse 14. Zion said,
the Lord hath forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me. Can
a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion
on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will
I not forget thee? The forsaken wife, the forsaken
child, and of course we have it so strikingly in that portion
that we read, we referred several times this morning too, the language
of Ezekiel 16. And what do we read there? This
description of Jerusalem. Verse 4, As for thy nativity
in the day thou wast born, thy navel was not cut, neither was
thou washed in water to supple thee, thou wast not salted at
all, nor swaddled at all. None eyed pitied thee to do any
of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee. But thou wast cast
out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the
day that thou wast born, the rejected child. the deserted
woman. And what is it? What is it that
the Prophet is doing in that remarkable chapter, that very
long chapter? There's a purpose in the words
that are being spoken as we see at the beginning. Again, the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her abominations. that's the word that comes is
to make Jerusalem know her abominations and God does cause his people
to know what they are and to know where they are we never
sometimes have those thoughts who am I? you know I remember
when I was young I suppose I don't know maybe it's part of adolescence
teenage years and you think, well, who am I really? What's
everything about? Why am I here? Why the parents
that I have? And so on. All these sort of
troubling questions that come into young minds. Well, God will
make his people know what they are and where they are. He makes them grieved in spirits. The language that we have then
here. concerning this woman, forsaken, she's grieved, grieved
in spirit. She's refused. We might say she's refused and
divorced, so rejected. The wife of youth, when thou
wast refused, saith thy God. one immediately thinks of the
language of the book of the prophet Hosea if you've ever read through
that book of Hosea it speaks doesn't it of Israel as the adulterous
wife whom the Lord has to deal with and yet how the Lord is so loath
to put away. Oh, we sang it just now in that
hymn of John Keynes. He hates to put away. He hates
to put away. Not only in Hosea, it's also
here in this book. Look at the language of the prophet
later in chapter 62. Verse 4, Thou shalt no more be
termed forsaken, neither shalt thy land any more be termed desolate. but thou shalt be called Epshibah,
and thy land Beulah, for the Lord delighteth in thee, and
thy lands shall be married." Epshibah, my delight is in her,
we're told, the interpretation of the Hebrew. Beulah, that is
marriage. Oh, the Lord, you see, He will
deal graciously with His people. The Lord, the God of Israel,
says that He hateth putting away. When God deals with us then to
show us what we are and what our sins are, and how great is
the distance between God and us, because we are alienated.
When we're born into this world, We're born dead in trespasses
and sins, we're enemies in our minds. The carnal mind, the natural
mind, is not subject to the law of God, says Paul, neither indeed
can be. What we are by nature, when God
begins to show us that, oh how grieving it is. How our spirits
feel, something of what we are in that awful natural condition.
But when God does come to punish and to punish in a sense for
our sins when He comes by His chastenings or as it was here
historically with the children of Israel He was going to reject
them in the sense that He was going to send them away into
exile He would use the Babylonians even Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel
us to confess and acknowledge how the heavens rule that God
does according to his will among the armies of heaven and the
inhabitants of the earth and none can stay his hand even that
man that great Babylonian emperor was an instrument in God's hands
in punishing the children of Israel for all their adulterous
ways for all their idolatrous ways how they so much wanted
to be like all those nations round about them. Remember how the Prophets speaks much of their
idolatries. In chapter 46 there's an example.
To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me
that we may be like? This is the word of God through
the mouth of the Prophets. They lavish gold out of the bag. and weigh silver in the balance,
and hire a goldsmith, and he maketh it a god, and they fall
down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder,
they carry him, and set him in his place, and he standeth. From
his place shall he not remove, yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. All remember
this, and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, all you
transgressors. And then God speaks of himself,
I am God. there is none else, declaring
the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. They
were so idolatrous, they were so much fornicators, spiritual
fornicators and adulterers. And God deals with them, and
God deals with them in the way of chastening, by taking them
away from Jerusalem They have to witness the desolations of
the temple of the Lord and they are taken into captivity. And
yet, that is not a work that God delights in. That's not a
work that God delights in. The Lord, the God of Israel says,
He hateth putting away. What is that work that God is
doing then when He causes us to see the folly of sin when
he brings us to that place of spiritual conviction, when we
feel grieved in spirit because we realize what we are and that
we can do nothing in any sense to save ourselves, to make amends
to God. By nature we're so lost, our
condition so utterly helpless. It's God's work, this work of
conviction. But, what sort of a work is this
that God is doing? Well, in chapter 28 and verse
21, we read these words at the end of that verse, that he may
do his work, his strange work, and bring to pass his act, his
strange act. Here in chapter 28 I say verse
21, that's what he speaks of, his strange work, his strange
act. When God is dealing with his
people in the way of chastings, when he's dealing with the children
of Israel to show them their folly, when he's bringing us
to that place of the conviction of sin, the work of the Spirit
when he has come, he reproves the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment, says the Lord Jesus, remember. But how... it's a strange work to the Lord
God. It's not the work that he delights in. And so we have the
Lamentations, Jeremiah ministering at the time of the captivity.
We not only have the prophecy of Jeremiah, we have the Lamentations,
that short book, that remarkable book, what is it, just four chapters?
And what does he say? Just five chapters in Lamentations,
not four, five chapters. But what does he say there in
chapter 3? The Lord will not cast off forever,
that though he cause grief, yet will he have compassion according
to the multitude of his mercies. For he doth not afflict willingly,
nor grieve the children of men, to crush under his feet all the
prisoners of the earth. He doth not afflict willingly. And the margin tells us the Hebrew
literally is, he does not afflict from the heart. Oh, it's his
strange, it's his strange work. He delights in mercy, you see.
As I live, saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death
of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live. Turn
ye from your evil ways, for why Will ye die, O house of Israel? This is the word of the Lord
to his people. This is God's word to his people
then. He hates to put away. What do we see here in this passage
that we've been trying to say a little of today? We see surely the compassion
of God. He's a compassionate God. The
words here in verses 7 and 8 are quite remarkable. We have such
a striking contrast throughout these two verses. In verse 7, we read of great
mercies. In verse 8, we read of a little
wrath. That's God. His mercies are great,
His wrath is little. Where sin abounds, grace does
so much more abound. That's the way of God, the aboundings
of His grace. There are so many texts in the
Book of Psalms, aren't there, that remind us of that. Just
a couple, Psalm 103, in verse 8, the Lord is merciful. and
gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy." Oh, do we
believe that? That's the God that we're so
favored and privileged to have dealings with. He is slow to
anger. And we so much provoke Him by
our sins, but He's slow to anger because He's merciful and gracious,
and He's plenteous in mercy. Again, look at the language in
Psalm 145 and verse 8. The Lord, it says, is gracious
and full of compassion, slow to anger, and of great mercy. Again, it's the same truth, isn't
it? But now it speaks also of a God full of compassion. Oh,
we see it in the Lord Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, full
of compassion. When he sees the multitudes,
filled with compassion, how he yearns over the souls of men. What a God is this. His mercies
are so great. All his wrath is very real. But
this is the day of grace. Let us not lose sight of that.
What a blessed people we are. We say it's a day of small things. It is. But it's still the day
of grace, the acceptable time. It's the day of salvation. It's
a dispensation of the Holy Ghost. All that blessed and best of
all the donations that God could give us, the Holy Ghost, the
Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of prayer. But look at the contrast
here, not just great mercies and little wrath, but then also
in verse eight, we read of a moment. and then in verse 7 we read of
a small moment and then again in verse 8 we
read of everlasting kindness interesting isn't it? for a small
moment have I forsaken thee in a little wrath I hid my face
from thee for a moment and then the but with everlasting kindness
will I have mercy on thee we contrast a moment, a small moment
with that that is everlasting everlasting kindness I will make
an everlasting covenant with thee he says even the sure mercies
of David that's the God that we deal with, who are kept by
the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time. We're in, now for a moment, or
now for a season if need be, we are in heaviness through manifold
temptations. Those words of Peter. or we greatly
rejoice, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation
wherein ye greatly rejoice. Though now for a season, if need
be, ye are in heaviness." The contrast there you see. It's
in heaviness now, that means just now, for a season, for a
little while. And it's only if need be, it's
only when necessary. You're in heaviness through manifold
temptations. But that's assurance, they're
kept, kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. Oh, what a God is this
then that we read of in this passage. How He is a God full
of compassion. He deals so graciously with men when he deals in the way of chastenings
and convictions. It is only for a little while because his mercies are so far
greater and they are from everlasting to everlasting. And so what's
the conclusion of it all? Well, in verse 6, the Lord hath
called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth when thou wast refused, saith thy God. Here is that gracious call, or
the call of the Gospel, the efficacious grace of God in the Gospel. He referred just now to that
gift of the Holy Ghost. It's the dispensation of the
Spirit. It's the Spirit who takes of the things of Christ. When
He has come, says the Savior, He doesn't just reprove of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. No, says Christ, He'll take of
mine and He'll show it unto you. And then we need the Spirit Himself
to come and minister these things. We can't just seize them with
our unholy hands. We need the Blessed Spirit to
come and make them real in our experience. To open our blind
eyes and to unstop our deaf ears so we might see what the Gospel
is and the wonders of the grace of God in the Gospel, even here
in the Old Testament, in this whole passage. What does God
say? He doesn't just call, does he? He gathers. He doesn't just call, He gathers.
End of verse 7, With great mercies will I gather them. Where does
He gather His people? Why, it's unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. Shiloh. Unto Him shall the gathering
of the people be. And as we come together, of course,
we believe in that principle of the gathered church, we gather
together. the service of corporate worship, we are not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together or we come together, we unite
in prayers, in praises to God but our gathering is unto the
Lord Jesus Christ with those who would look to Him. What is
the service of worship except the Lord Jesus Christ Himself
is in our midst. All our worship is really in
vain apart from Him and yet he is that one who is said before
us so plainly here in this prophecy of Isaiah he says so much concerning
the Lord Jesus fear not for thou shalt not be ashamed
neither be thou confounded for thou shalt not be put to shame
For thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember
the reproach of thy widowhood any more. For thy maker is thine
husband, the Lord of hosts is his name, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel, the God of the whole earth, shall he be
called. For the Lord hath called thee as a woman forsaken, and
grieved in spirit and a wife of youth when thou wast refused,
saith thy God. For a small moment have I forsaken
thee, but with great mercies will I gather thee. In a little
wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment, but with everlasting
kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer. Oh, the Lord be pleasing to own
and bless his word to us. Amen.