Let us turn to God's Word in
that chapter that we read, Isaiah chapter 43. Just last Thursday evening we
were in Isaiah in the previous chapter. There in chapter 41
we observe something of that cluster of fear nots There in chapter 41 at verse
10, Fear thou not, for I am with thee, be not dismayed. For I
am thy God, I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee,
yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
And then again at verse 13, For I the Lord thy God will hold
thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not, I will help thee. And at verse 14, Fear not, thou
worm Jacob, and ye men, or as the margin says, ye few men of
Israel, I will help thee, saith the Lord, and thy Redeemer, the
Holy One of Israel. We remark there now, there are
so many fear nots to be found, particularly in this book of
the prophet. Why so? Because God's people
are fearful. They are such a feeble folk.
They are like those cones of whom Solomon speaks in the book
of Proverbs. And they have to hide themselves
in the midst of the rocks. God's people are often afraid. It is the Lord himself who must
come and comfort them. And he does that. He speaks time
and again. such comforting, such gracious
words, these many fear nots. And we have fear nots again here
in this particular 43rd chapter. There in the opening verse, as
I says, the Lord that created the old Jacob and he that formed
the old Israel, fear not. For I have redeemed thee, I have
called thee by thy name, thou art mine. And again at verse
5, fear not, for I am with thee, I will bring thy seed from the
east and gather thee from the west, and so forth. How God speaks,
so many fear not. The amazing thing when we come
to Holy Scripture and come in particular to this remarkable
book of the prophets, the evangelical prophet as he is often called
because he really says so much that is the language of the gospel.
It's more like a New Testament book than part of the Old Testament. Besides the Fear Nots, we also
hear in Isaiah find a multitude of promises. And it is one of
those promises that I want us to consider in particular tonight. And it's the words that we find
towards the end of this 43rd chapter in verse 25. Isaiah 43
verse 25, I, even I, am he that plotteth out thy transgressions
for mine own sake. and will not remember thy sins
what promises God gives even at the beginning of course we
have those great promises familiar words when thou passest through
the waters I will be with thee and through the rivers I shall
not overflow thee when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not
be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee For I am the
Lord thy God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Saviour. I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. How the Lord
God takes a delight in His people and has redeemed them, has paid
a great ransom price. And so their sins have been dealt
with, their sins have been all together blotted out. And what we have here in the
text at verse 25 is a great promise. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sin. And all the promises of God we
remember are confirmed by God's oath when he gave promise to
Abraham, we read in Hebrews chapter 6, because he could swear by
no greater, he swore by himself. How he has magnified his word
above all his name. Why, his name is himself, his
name is the declaration, the revelation of himself. And if
his words should fail, God has failed and God is no more. God has confirmed the promise
with an oath. God has sealed that promise also
in blood, in the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here
is our comfort then. Will the Lord help us as we come
now for a little while to consider the content of this promise in
verse 25 of Isaiah 43 two things I want us to consider from the
verse two basic points I want to take up first of all to consider
something of God's determination and then secondly to look at
God's invitation first of all God's determination J.J. West a high Calvinistic minister
in the Church of England in the 19th century, made the observation
that the grammar of the Bible is full of meaning. The grammar
of the Bible is full of meaning. We believe in the verbal inspiration
of Holy Scripture. In other words, we understand
that the very words as we have them in the original languages,
the Hebrew of the Old Testament, the Greek of the New Testament,
the very words are the words of God. It's not just the ideas
behind the words, and these men, as it were, expressing themselves
in their own words, as they're inspired in their thinking by
the Holy Spirit, but no, it's greater than that. The Scripture
is plenary. inspired, inspired in all its
parts, verbally inspired. The very words are the words
of the Holy Spirit. And how significant that is.
And how faithful the translators of our authorized versions are
when they come to translate. As you know, their practice was
to give as literal a rendering as was possible, but not always
was that an easy thing to do, so they make use of italics,
where they have to introduce additional English words to bring
out the proper sense, to make the language flow properly in
our English translation. And here, in this verse, you
will observe there are certain words in italics. And if we omit
those words, because they're not really part of the inspired
words, if we omit them, we get some idea of the force of the
language that is being used. Look at the opening part of this
25th verse. And see how the emphasis so much
falls upon these three pronouns. I, even I am He. Literally, God says, I, I, He. And that is full of meaning. It's
not the first time that we see it in this chapter. We have it
previously, verse 11. Again, you see the italics? Literally
it says there, I, I the Lord. Beside me there is no savior. There is such an emphasis concerning
the person who is speaking these words. This is God's promise
that we have, and what a promise it is. And what does it concern? It concerns man as a sinner,
a man's great need and deep need as a sinner. I, I, he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. Oh, this is the great work of
God, to blot out transgressions, to forgive sins, for mine own
sake, he says. and will not remember thy sins. See how sin is spoken of here
in this particular verse. And two words, two quite different
distinct words are used and the one word reminds us of those
sins of omission and the other word reminds us of those sins
of commission. There are those things that God
commands us to do and we fail to do. We omit doing what God
has commanded. But then on the other hand, so
often we are guilty of doing the very things that God has
not commanded us to do. There are sins of omission and
that certainly is the basic meaning of this word that we have at
the end of the text. I even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions, he says for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins." And the words, the verb to sin, has that basic
meaning of to miss, to miss the mark. We said before that the
Hebrew language is very different to Western languages. It's an
Eastern language. And the tendency is that they
think in more concrete terms, and so the language is more concrete. It's a language of pictures in
many respects, whereas, I know I'm generalizing, but Western
languages are those that are more abstract. The language here,
you see, is so remarkably pictorial. And this word, to sin, it has
that meaning, to miss, to miss the mark. We read in the New
Testament, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Here's the idea, you see, of
sin being that that's coming short, falling short. We could
imagine archers at their practice and they're aiming their arrows
at the target. But they're never reaching that
mark. They're always falling short of the mark. They never
manage to hit the bull's eye. That's sins of commission. The failure to do the very things
that God has commanded us to do. And sins of commission are
great sins. Sins of omission, rather, are
great sins. if we fail to do what God has
commanded. But then also here we have this
word, transgressions. I, I, he says, he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. And again, this word has the
idea of rebellion, rebelling against God. Whosoever committeth
sin transgresseth also the law. says John 4, sin is the transgression
of the law. What is that transgression? It's
overstepping the mark. It's a compound word that we
have here really. It's the overpassing all the
bounds. God has set certain bounds. But
we're not staying within those boundaries that God has set.
We're overstepping the mark. And that's sin. and it is a terrible
thing to gain if we are not only guilty of omitting to do what
God has commanded but when we're stepping over the lines and transgressing
and rebelling against His laws. Of course our great comfort is
that we're sin abounded. Grace did much more abound. I do like what we have in that
first hymn that we sang this evening, that lovely hymn of
Isaac Watts on the sufficiency of pardon. What does he say here in the
hymn? But though your numerous sins
exceed the stars that fill the skies, and aiming at the eternal
throne like pointed mountains rise, What though your mighty
guilt beyond the wide creation swell, And as its cursed foundations
laid, love as the deeps of hell, Sea, here an endless ocean flows
of never failing grace, Behold her dying Saviour's veins, the
sacred flood increase, it rises high, and drowns the hills as
neither sure nor bound, nor if we search to find our sins, our
sins can ne'er be found. Oh, where sin abounds! Where
sin abounds! Christ doth so much more abound. And here we have this remarkable
grace of God. He blots out transgressions and
He will not remember sins. He is so good a God, so gracious
a God. And yet, how few have any sense
of their sin. Remember, the language of one
of those old Scots divines, how he said, sin is of the creature.
Sin is of the creature. But the sense of sin is of God. And few have any sense of their
sin. Few have any sense of their real need before God. Even when
they come to the end of their days and they might be sorely
afflicted in their health, nothing seems to awaken them to their
great need before the One who is their Creator, that God who
is the Holy One. We were speaking of it in the
vestry just now, previous to the service. So, few have any
real sense of what their need is before God in need of this
pardon of sins and that glorious sufficiency of pardon that is
in the Lord God Himself. Of all the sinners in God's sight
there are but few so in their own. Your life from Him we must
receive before for sin we rightly grieve, says the hymn writer.
But what does God say? The language again that we have
in that first general epistle of John, if we say that we have
no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His words is not in us. O God, grant that
we might be those who would not make God a liar and come and
acknowledge our sins. Think of the language again of
David, there in that remarkable 51st Psalm, how he's brought
to acknowledge his sin. He had sinned, grievously sinned.
sinned with Bathsheba, sinned against Bathsheba, certainly
sinned against her husband Uriah. He was an adulterer. He was a murderer. And there
he comes before God and what does he say against thee? The
only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight. The language again, the vocabulary
that he uses, he uses another word there, he speaks of evil. done this evil, evil in thy sight."
The word that he uses here has that idea of badness. He feels
himself to be a bad man, an evil man, a wicked man because of what he had done.
And then we try to cover his sin. It's an awful account that
we have in Scripture concerning David's great fall. He confesses it all before God.
Behold, he says, I was shaken in iniquity, and in sin did my
mother conceive me. So, he introduces to us another
word. You see these different words
that we find in the Scriptures, describing something of the character
of man's sin, iniquity. It's from a verb. Iniquity is
from a verb that means to bend, or to twist, and that's what
David was. He was warped and twisted. Why his son Solomon
says it in the book of Ecclesiastes, Lo this only if I found God made
man upright. But they have sought out many
inventions, all the wicked inventions of men, the warped reasonings
of men. This is the awful thing about
sin. And we have to understand what
sin is in the eyes of this God who is speaking such a gracious
promise in our text. I, even I, he says, am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not
remember thy sins. Do we have any sense of what
sin is? It is God's work to convince
of sin. Sin isn't the creature, but that
sense of sin. That is the great work of God
Himself. It's that work of the Holy Spirit.
As the Lord speaks of His coming, when He is come, He will reprove
the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, says the Lord
Jesus Christ. It is all the work of God, and
here in this chapter we certainly read of the works of God. look at the language in the opening
verse, 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 thou art mine. Why, God created
Jacob, God formed Israel, God redeemed, God called, God can
say then thou art mine. And we see it so many times throughout
the chapter. Verse 7, Even everyone that is
called by my name, for I have created him, for my glory I have
formed him, yea, I have made him. Verse 15, I am the Lord
your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King, Verse 21,
these people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth
my praise. The work is God's. All the work
is God's. Salvation is of the Lord. It is the work of God. All blessed
is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto
thy, says the Psalmist. And how does God cause a man
to approach? Well, God comes and He convinces
the man. Again He says, Blessed is the man whom thou chastenest,
O Lord, and teachest him out of thy law. It is God who has
to come and show us our sins and teach us our sins and convince
us of our sins. This is the way God works. The work is altogether of the
Lord. When we say that salvation is
of the Lord, that is salvation in every sense. It's God who
purposed it. The great electing love of God
the Father from all eternity has chosen a people, committed
them into the hands of His Son in the eternal covenant. It is
the Son who has come in the fullness of the time and accomplished
that salvation. And it is the Spirit who must
apply that salvation, make that salvation a reality. in the sinner's
soul. And now we see God to be so discriminating
here, the work is altogether His own. The promises are not
promiscuous in that sense. God addresses Himself to character.
He is speaking to those who are sinners whom He has brought to
have some real sense of their need before Him. And he is so
determined in his work, I even I, he says, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sins. All we see here, do we not, the
sovereignty of God the Saviour? Why, the sinner cannot help himself
in any sense. We see it there in that 11th
verse. I, even I am the Lord, am beside me. There is no Saviour. There's only one Saviour. There
is none other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we
must be saved. None other name. The work is
God's. God only can save. And we have
to be brought to recognize that. how the sinner has to be humbled
in the dust, how the sinner has to be brought to feel his utter
impotence, that he cannot help himself, he cannot save himself.
It's the Lord's work. Who is it that blots out sins?
I, even Isis, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions. And God says it so many times.
He says it again here, in the next chapter, verse 22 of chapter
44, I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and
as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
them. It's all of God. And yet, this
is the God of whom we read in the book of Exodus that will
by no means clear the guilty. He will by no means clear the
guilty. He cannot wink at men's sins. He is a holy God and a
righteous God and a just God. He cannot just pass by transgressions
and sins. That would be contrary to His
very nature. Sin must be punished. But what
do we read here? It's all for mine own sake. That's what it says here in the
very middle of our text, for mine own sake. Oh, it's all for
the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is in Christ that we see God
as that One who blots out transgressions, who remembers sins no more. They're
gone. When the Lord Jesus Christ comes
into this world, that's the great purpose of His coming. When the
fullness of the time was come, God sent forth His Son made of
a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the
law. It's all in order to that great
work of redemption. This is why he becomes a man,
bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh, a real man. You must die that bloody death
upon the cross. Why there in the very opening
verse of the chapter, he says, I have redeemed them. And what is his work of redemption?
It's the blotting out of sins. We have that in the language
of the Apostle when he writes there to the Colossians. In Colossians
chapter 2 and verses 14 and fifteen, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross. And having spoiled
principalities and powers, He made a show of them openly, triumphing
over them in it. O how He has done it by that
great work upon the cross at Calvary! Again in the previous chapter,
chapter 1 of Colossians, It pleased the Father that in him should
all fullness dwell, and having made peace with the blood of
his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself. By him
I say, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven,
and you that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your mind by wicked
works, yet now hath he reconciled. in the body of His flesh who
dare to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. It is the great redeeming work
that the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished. For it is God determined
to save, determined to save. He has made that provision in
the person and work of His only begotten Son. and he doesn't
just blot out transgressions we also read here he does not
remember sins this is the omniscient God the God who knows all things
who knows the end from the beginning and he says he will not remember
the sins of his people I like the way in which it's set before
us in the imagery of the Old Testament, in the types and the
figures that we find in the book of Leviticus. And think of that
great 16th chapter in Leviticus where we read of the great day
of atonement, Yom Kippur. Yom Kippur, the day of atonement. And now there were to be those
two goats. One would serve as a sin offering,
and the other would be the scapegoat. It was the only day of the year
when the high priest was permitted to enter into the Holy of Holies,
to go beyond the vial, to go before the mercy seat, the throne
of God. And he was to take the blood,
the blood of the the sin of him, that goat that had been killed. The blood was to be taken and
sprinkled both before the mercy seat and upon the mercy seat.
He's making atonement for all the sins of Israel. But there
was a second goat and that scapegoat was to live and it was taken
at the hand of a fit man and he was to go into a land it says
not inhabited. It was to go into the wilderness.
And there in the wilderness the scapegoat was to be released.
And now it shows you see that those sins that have been atoned
for are forgotten. They're taken now into a land
of forgetfulness. All the sinner is free from all
the guilt of his sin. The imagery. It's all so typical
of the great work that the Lord Jesus Christ has done. Or what
does the psalmist say concerning the sins of the people of God? As far as the East is from the
West, so far as He removed our transgressions from us. As far as the East is from the
West, that's infinite. North and South, as we've said,
that's fixed points. That's fixed points. but east
and west, no fixed point. You can't measure that distance,
the east from the west. And yet that's how far God has
removed all the sins of his people. Again, in the language of another
prophet, in the book of Jeremiah, there
in chapter 50, And the 20th verse, in those
days, and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. And the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them
whom I reserve. Well, this is the provision that
God has marked. This is the provision. God will
not remember that sin. It's God. gone forever all that
sin that so torments us if we're the children of God I'm sure
we know something of Paul's experience there in in Romans chapter 7
how often we have to thank God that there's such a chapter in
our Bibles the good that I would I do not the evil that I would
not that I do all wretched man that I am how we feel this all
nature this sin that clings and cleaves torments us, and it's
gone. That's what God says, it's gone. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sin. God's determination, always determined
to save sinners. But then let me just quickly
say something with regards to God's invitation. What does He
say here? God's will not remember, but
God's will be reminded. He goes on in the next verse,
put me in remembrance. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together, declare thou that thou mayest be justified. This is an invitation, is it
not? When God says to his people, put me in remembrance, Previously
there is what we might term an ironic invitation. When God says
at verse 9, Let all the nations be gathered together, and let
the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this
and show us former things? Let them bring forth their witnesses,
that they may be justified. Or let them hear and say, It
is truth. He invites the nations as it
were. But then he says, as they are assembled, who among them
can declare this? Who can show us former things? It's an invitation, but what's
the point and purpose of the invitation? God will show man
something of his impotence. When he addresses men, he will
make men aware of their complete and utter inability. when he
says through the prophet Ezekiel make you a new heart man cannot
make himself a new heart, it's an ironic invitation the promise
of the new covenant is a new heart also I will give you and
a new spirit I will put within you look at the way in which
God addresses Job when we come to the end of that book Job's
Comforters have come and gone and at the end it's the Lord
God who's addressing him there in chapter 14. Look at the language. Verse 6. Then answered the Lord
unto Job out of the whirlwind and said gird up thy loins now
like a man. I will demand of thee and declare
thou unto me. Will thou also dishonor my judgment? Will thou condemn me, that thou
mayest be righteous? Hast thou an arm like God, or
canst thou thunder with a voice like him? Deck thyself now with
majesty and excellency, and array thyself with glory and beauty. This is the invitation that God
makes to Job. now he is to to gird himself
he is to come to appear before God and then we come to this
verse 14 then will I also confess unto thee that thine own right
hand can save thee for a proud man you see he might
think that he can save himself God will show man that he is
unable to save himself in any sense man will justify himself
Man would justify himself. Those two men that go to the
temple in the hour of prayer, the Pharisee and the Publican,
the Pharisee would justify himself. Would vindicate himself before
God. He's not as other men. Tells God all that he does. But
he's not the man who goes to his house justified. That's the
sort of ironic invitation that we have then previously here
at verse 9. Men cannot really answer God. God will humble man and show
man his complete inability to do anything to help himself.
Man must be brought to the end of himself. He must be humbled
in the dust. But what we have here in the
verse following our text is really an evangelistic invitation. It's an invitation that is given
to man in order to give man some hope. What does God say? Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. It's like that that we have in
Hosea chapter 14 when God says through the prophet take with
you words and turn to the Lord and say take away all iniquity
and receive us graciously God will have us come to Him taking
words with us pleading with Him. Or look at the invitation that
we have here then put me in remembrance says God put me in remembrance Can we not learn from that dying
thief upon the cross what was his prayer as he comes to the
end of his days, a sinful man. He was receiving the just recompense
of his evil doing. He deserved to be crucified.
He acknowledges it. But he says to the Lord, Lord
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Well, what
a prayer is that, to ask that the Lord would remember us, put
me in remembrance, says God. We can remind Him then, that
we're needy sinners, that we're unable to do anything of ourselves,
that we're full of folly, we're full of sin, and our only hope
is that the Lord would remember us. in all our sinful weakness. But more than that here, he says,
let us plead together. Not just asking God to remember
us, but we can come and we can plead with God and we can reason
with God. Oh, remember that remarkable
verse that we have in the opening chapter of this book this book
of the prophet Isaiah God says to his servant come now and let
us reason together though your sins be as scarlet they shall
be white as snow though they be red like crimson they shall
be as wool God will have his people as they seek him to reason
with him that's his invitation come now he says and let us reason
together or let us plead together he says here God's gracious word
of invitation and then also he will have his people as they
come to declare and to confess what they are declare thou he
says declare thou that thou mayest be justified how did the how
did the publican there in the temple at the hour of prayer
Obtain the blessing of justification. He is the man who goes to his
house justified. What does he do? Oh, he declares what he is. He stands afar off. He cannot
lift up his eyes to heaven. He smites upon his breast and
he cries, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's what he
does. If we confess our sins, if we
confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us. from all unrighteousness, O God,
be merciful to me, a sinner." Here is God's gracious invitation. Coming back to the promise that
we have here in the text, "...I, even I, am he that blotteth out
thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy
sin." What's the purpose? What's the purpose of the promise
of God? But the purpose of the promise
is salvation. The whole verse is speaking of
salvation from sin. God says, I will have mercy and
will save them by the Lord their God. This is God's promise and
all the promises of God in the Lord Jesus Christ are all Amen. They're all Yay and Amen, it
says, to the glory of God by us. Salvation. That is the great
thing that God is pleased to promise. But not only salvation,
there's also sanctification. The language that we find in
the New Testament in Peter, 1 Peter, or rather 2 Peter 1. Verse 4,
he speaks of those exceeding great and precious promises.
Isn't this text tonight one of those exceeding great and precious
promises? Peter says, "...whereby are given
unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." Well, there's the purpose
of the promise. God's people are going to be
holy people. God will see to it. All their
sins, all their iniquities, gone. In the Lord Jesus Christ they
are justified, they are accounted righteous. In the Lord Jesus
Christ they are sanctified. He is our sanctification also,
is He not? Again, the language of Paul,
like that of Peter. These men speak with one voice.
They speak the language of the Holy Spirit. there at the beginning
of 2nd Corinthians chapter 7, having therefore these promises,
Dearly Beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness
of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord. Oh, are we those who can say
we dear Robert Muddy McShine are one Prayer, our great desire
is this, to be as holy as pardoned sinners can be. Oh Lord God,
says that dear man, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can
be. Oh the Lord then grant that we
might receive some profit, some blessing from his word, from
his promise. I, he says, even I, I am He that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not
remember thy sins. Amen.