Good evening. All right, we're
gonna be in Isaiah 44, and tonight we'll just look at verses 21
through 23. Now, in the passage that we've just
been coming through here in chapter 44, The Lord's just exposed to
us. He's made known to us what idolatry
looks like and the folly of idolatry. And he's also shown us in this
passage, going back at least to chapter 43, how that he is
the believer's salvation. Our sovereign God is the believer's
salvation. And what we see here is that
the most distinguishing mark from the true and living God,
from the idols of man, is that God alone is the salvation of
his people. and that salvation is done, it's
accomplished. Christ has finished the work. There's nothing yet hanging in
the balance that depends on you or I to do. Everything was accomplished
by Christ and therefore all things necessary are accomplished in
and by Christ for his people. And There's nothing to fear there. Now, the idolater, on the other
hand, he attributes his salvation to something that he must do. His idol God requires of him
a righteousness of his own. He's got to do something. He's
got to pull together his works. He's got to repent from his sinful
things that his idol God declares are sinful. and he's, or he's
looking to his will, right? He's looking to his will, that
his idol God is requiring of his will to make a good decision
for his God. And so either by his works and
his will, or it's in conjunction with God, And in those cases,
when it comes down to man having a part in his salvation, the
Lord is revealing this to us, telling us this, so that we recognize,
oh, that there, that's idolatry. As soon as they turn you away
from glorifying your God and his salvation, and they turn
you to you and your works and your will, you know, oh, that's
an idol God that they're speaking of. They're not speaking of the
true and living God. They're not speaking according
to his word. And if you don't understand the
gospel, if you've never heard of the sovereignty of our God
who saved his people, then what I've said sounds strange to you
because religion is very much focused on your will, right? They focus your attention on
your will, your free will decision to follow Christ. And they say,
that's what gets you saved, right? And that's why when we hear the
gospel, it can take time for us to be like, well, wait a minute,
I thought there's something I got to do. Don't I have to have faith?
Yes, you do. And the Lord God, by His sovereign
power and glory, reveals that faith in you. You will believe
on Christ, but that's not a faith of your flesh that the idol maker
declares. That's the power of God. That's
revealed. That faith is the fruit of the
Spirit revealed in you. That's why you believe. We must
believe, but it's his work because he shall not fail. He cannot
fail. He's accomplished salvation for
you. And so what we see here is that
man doesn't get himself saved, right? There's nothing man can
do to get himself saved. Salvation is the work of sovereign
God alone. And so that's the difference
between the salvation of God and that lie that is in the right
hand of the idol maker. There's a lie in their right
hand. They're trusting their works their will what they've
done and so their salvation is not a salvation at all and our
Lord reveals to his people that We're created of him. He's our
maker and we're we're saved by sovereign Grace, and he shows
us how that he's purchased us by blood redemption He's done
everything necessary to secure our salvation, to ensure that
we shall be forever with the Lord. And so because he's done
all this, he's never going to forsake us. He'll never leave
us. And he teaches us with spiritual understanding from him so that
we know these things and we give him praise and thanks for his
salvation. We're gonna have an understanding
that he's our salvation. I've titled this Remember These. Our Lord, as our gracious God
and Provider, has affirmed to us that He is Sovereign God. And then he went through from
verses 9 through 20. He exposes the works of the idolater,
making that known to us to show us what idolatry looks like. It's not just whittling out some
wood. It's not just making an idol
god of a stump of wood, but that it's any false lie about God
that doesn't align with who he's revealed himself to be. in his
word and we see that man's image in his God. It's man's image
in the God that he's making and he's looking to his works and
or his will to save him. And so the Lord says in verse
21, Isaiah 44, having revealed this to us, he says, remember
these. Remember what I've taught you. Don't forget what I've taught
you, O Jacob in Israel, for thou art my servant. This is why you
know these things. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. All right, so here's the main
driver of this passage here, that all of religion, whether
it's true religion or false religion, they have this concept of salvation,
of deliverance. It always seems to be blended
in with all religions of being saved. saved and delivered from
destruction, saved and delivered from the wrath of God. All right. And so in all false
religion, that salvation must be accomplished by man. He's got a part in it. All right.
When you hear of you having some part in your salvation, it's
idolatry. It's it's false religion. And so You know, they make it
sound like, you know, God is on the sidelines with popcorn,
just watching to see what we'll do, hoping that someone's going
to make a good decision to believe on him, right? That's how sometimes
it manifests itself. Sometimes it's more of a cooperative
effort, you know, between God and man, and God doing little
things to help him along here and there, but it still comes
down to man's will his choice and his decisions to get himself
saved. Otherwise he cannot be saved. All right. And that that's what
we see here. And so what we, what the Lord
brings us to know though, is that, well, you know, salvation
is, is a thing deserving of glory and the maker, the maker is the
one who receives the glory for the salvation. The maker is the
one who receives the glory for salvation. And for the child
of God, God is his maker. That's who made us. And so he
receives all the glory because he's the one who brings salvation. He's the one who delivers his
people. And in the gospel, our Lord declares
that You know, he has a people, an elect chosen people whom he's
determined to save. And so he predestinated us unto
this salvation. Our God determined this for his
people that he chose in Christ before the foundation of the
world. And because he predestinated us, he had to deliver us because
we were plunged into sin. When he created us, we all fell
in Adam. But he loved us from eternity.
He determined to save us. And so Christ is the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world. He purposed to save his people. And he did that through blood
redemption. He sent his son, Jesus Christ,
to take upon Him the likeness of our flesh. It was truly the
flesh of man, but without sin, not born of Adam's seed. And
Christ came and fulfilled all righteousness. And having fulfilled
all righteousness, He went to the cross, bearing the sins of
His people in His own body, and there made a sacrifice of Himself
to the Father, where our Father poured out His wrath against
our sin upon His Son. who stood in our place, who took
our death and bore the wrath of God in himself and we in him
so that the wrath of God was poured out upon us in our Savior
Jesus Christ. And when he died, we died so
that the law has nothing more to say to us because he satisfied
the law of God perfectly. He put away all the wrath of
God for his people And when He rose again, we rose in Him unto
eternal life, so that now His inheritance is our inheritance. And what He is to the Father,
so are we, because we come in the Son whom He loves. And He's
teaching us, revealing to us, that that's all finished. Everything
necessary shall all be fulfilled and worked out just as it was
all fulfilled and worked out in Christ So we shall be called
and and and being brought under the sound of the gospel. We're
gonna hear it He's gonna give us a spiritual ear. We're gonna
receive it and believe it and follow Christ It can't be any
other way. Our God receives all the glory
for that because it's accomplished It's already done in Christ. Now, for the idol maker, who
makes who? When it comes to the idol maker,
who's making who? Well, man makes his God, doesn't he? He's the
idol maker, and so who gets the glory? The maker gets the glory,
and so he's the one in his religion It glorifies man, the maker,
because it's focused entirely on his will. They talk about
some things that God did to make it possible, but it still comes
down to your works and your will. You got to get your life straight.
You've got to bring your free will to bear and make the good
decision for the Lord, right? And so it's all about doing rather
than what's been done. And there's no salvation isn't
finished for the idolater. It's still an open-ended thing.
It still hangs in the balance based on what you do or don't
do. And so whatever the idolater
does, it's for his own glory. It's for his own glory. He's
the one who's glorified in his mind. And so the Lord makes his
people to know that's not how it works. I'm sovereign. I'm
almighty God. I'm your savior. You're not saving
yourself. All the glory is mine, and I'm
blessing you with glory in the heavens in my son Jesus Christ,
and you'll rejoice forever in him." Right? Titus 3, 5, and
6 says, it's not by works of righteousness, which we have
done. Right there, that knocks down all the nonsense religion
that you hear men speaking of, right? On the street, in the
store. people you work with, people you meet, right? Online
or, you know, listening to TV or radio or whatever, this is
what they say. It's all about motivating you,
right? To do, do, do, to do more, to
get yourself saved, right? But Paul said, it's not by works
of righteousness, which we've done, but according to his mercy,
he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus
Christ our Savior. And so He reveals this truth
to us so that we recognize that what that person's saying there,
speaking of my works or my will, that's idolatry. That's idolatry. Remember these. Remember these
things. The Lord says that you hear it
and you don't go after a false god. You don't follow the idolaters. All right? And so we don't need
to be confused by the mist of religion, you know, and the fog
of religion. Oh, he talks, you know, he quotes
from the Bible. Or, oh, he speaks of Jesus. Am I sure he's not, you know,
a Christian? Am I sure that he's, you know,
that he's not saying good things? Well, is he pointing you to your
works? Is he talking to you about what
you need to do in trying to persuade your will to believe on Christ
or is he preaching the truth of God, declaring what God has
accomplished for you in Christ and you believe it? Which is
it? Is he telling you what you need to do or is he declaring
what has been done and faith is being revealed in you? Right? That's really, so that's how
we see that Which one is, you know, who's the true God? And
we can hear what's idolatry when it's being declared in our ears.
So just remember, you know, who's getting the glory? Which maker?
Is it God, the maker of his people, the one who forms his people?
Or is it the one who's made an idol and pointing you to him
and pointing you back to yourself? Remember what the Lord says.
Now in verse 21, he continues there. He says, for thou art
my servant. And here's another good thing
to remember. Whenever the Lord is speaking to us, notice here,
he says, for thou art my servant. And we know, he said earlier,
behold my servant, whom I uphold. And we know that's Christ. And
remember, our Lord always speaks to us in Christ. We never outgrow
Christ. We never get to a point where
now we're just equals with Him and we come in our own power,
in our own goodness, in our own glory. It'll never happen. It'll
never happen. We'll always, always be represented
in Christ. He's our advocate. He's our Savior. He's our substitute. He's our
everything. He's our husband. We're always,
for all eternity, represented in the Son, Jesus Christ. And
so when he says, for thou art my servant, he's speaking to
the Son first, right? He's dealing with us in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We may, you know, have hard times,
we may stumble, we may fall, we may grow weary and weak and
have times of unbelief. But our God does not change toward
you, his people, because he doesn't change toward his son. He loves
the son. And we stand in the son. And so the son, he'll recover
us. We that are truly his will never
fall away. And I'm not saying that we believe
and then you can walk away forever and deny him. You that are his,
he keeps you. He's not gonna let his work fall
apart that he's begun in you. All right, he says in Malachi
3.6, I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob
are not consumed. All right, because we always
come in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's only those who come outside
of Christ, who come with their own works and what they've done
and their idol gods, they are the ones who are gonna hear those
frightening words, I never knew you, I never knew you, but you
that have no hope and no confidence in the flesh and keep coming
to Christ, you'll hear those blessed words, well done thou
good and faithful servant, enter thou into thy rest. All right,
because we enter, because everything Christ did is ours, his righteousness
is our righteousness, his works are our works and he bears his
righteous fruit in us. We do those things which he's
ordained for us to do all right So haven't spoken to us in Christ
his word comes to his people then I have formed thee thou
art my servant o Israel right and we saw recently in Genesis
2 7 when the Lord said That he formed man of the dust of the
ground and he breathed into his nostrils the breath of life right
and so our Lord same way he's created us and He's formed us
by the seed of Christ. He's given us his spirit, which
is the breath of life, all right, whereby we breathe and behold
him. We're born of Christ's body.
We're bone of his bones and flesh of his flesh. We're of him. We're
one with him, all right? And so salvation is, it's not
man's work. Salvation is not man's work,
but the Lord's work for the sinner, and it's apart from our works.
He says in Romans 9, 15, and 16, he said to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I'll have mercy, and I'll have compassion
upon whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth. Not your free will, and it's
not your hard works. It's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. So therefore, whom he will, he
has mercy on, and whom he will, he hardeneth. He hardeneth, just
like Pharaoh, who was passed by. Christ passed him by, and
he was represented in his own works. And anyone coming in their
own works will always come short of the glory of God. And so we
rejoice in Christ. And our Lord, you know, he's
so merciful to us, because he doesn't deal with us In that
we were dealt with in Adam in Christ when our when our Savior
came and represented us and we were in him when he went to the
cross, right? And so we're represented in him
now, no longer in Adam, right? And so our Lord, he shall complete
that work. It shall not be undone. Now,
he says to us, thou shalt not be forgotten of me, right? So our Lord's never going to
leave us to our enemies. He's never going to let us be
destroyed by our enemies. We're not going to be ashamed
in that day. You that believe on Christ shall
never be ashamed. Though this flesh have trouble,
and though there be hard times, he's not going to forsake you.
And when you stand before him, you shall have a blessed and
a happy entrance into heaven where your father and your husband,
your beloved, is. So you'll be with him forever
right he said for he hath said i will never leave thee nor forsake
thee hebrews 13 5 all right now our lord says to you remember
these oh jacob and israel right and and because what you're going
to find when you know this truth there's always a distinction
to be made. There's always a distinction
to be made between the false idol gods, which sound good to
the carnal ear. It sounds so loving, so peaceful,
so nice, so gracious. Oh, it's okay if you don't believe
on Christ. You believe something, you have
some kind of faith, you have a Disney faith of the heart,
it's okay. No, it's not okay, because that's
not what what our Lord teaches us. And so there's always a distinction
to be made between God who revealed himself in his word as the sovereign
God who saves his people versus the idols of man who requires
your work and your will to save you. We're always gonna be making
that distinction. So remember these, he says. All
right, so the hope we have in Christ, It's a sure hope because
it rests entirely upon Christ. In Hebrews 4.3, for we which
have believed do enter into rest as the scriptures declare the
works were finished from the foundation of the world. All right, it's already been
done. And this is what he declares in the next verse 22. He says,
I have, right, past tense, I have blotted out as a thick cloud
thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. All right, so all our
sin, all our filth and rebellion, all our unbelief, everything
that we are in Adam has been blotted out, covered over by
the blood of Jesus Christ. He's made atonement for you his
people." And when he says, I have blotted out, he's signifying
to you the completion of the work. It's done. It's not waiting. I have a blotting for you if
you just come. No, no, no. He says, I have blotted
out. It's already been done. So there's
no question about it. There's nothing that prevents
it from being done for you that hope in him. because it is, it's
accomplished in Christ. It rests upon Him, all right? And so when that time of love
comes, and that's such an encouragement to us for those of us with children
and those with friends and loved ones and family members that
you care about, in the time of love, the Lord is able, is able
to effect His grace and glory and power in them when he's determined
to save them and to call them and draw them, right? And so
then he says at the end of verse 22, return unto me for I have
redeemed thee, right? Israel was born under the law.
They were taught the law and yet, you know, they still, they
fell into all kinds of folly. As a nation, they fell into all
kinds of sin. But the Lord always had a spiritual
people. And so while they were circumcising,
we see that man, all he can do is circumcise the flesh, right?
All he can do is cut the outside. He can only circumcise the outside
of the flesh. but the Lord and the Lord alone
is the one who circumcises the heart. And so he does that for
his people. And so all of Israel, right,
as a nation, they were idolaters. And so the Lord calls out his
people from that idolatry. And he says, return to me for
I have, past tense, redeemed you, right? He's done that work.
And so that's what he's doing. He's calling out. his people
out of that darkness and that bondage. He has a people that
are to return to him, that are being called out by his grace,
by the Lord Jesus Christ, whose word comes to us and is made
effectual to us through the preaching of the gospel. He does that for
us. It's by his regenerative power,
and he comes to his seed, giving them life, enabling us to hear
it and to believe and follow him. Man's religion, again, they
focus on what you need to do, whereas the true religion focuses
on what's been done. Man's looking to what he needs
to do to get saved, and God's standing there declaring what's
been done. And all who believe, all who say, yes, Lord, that's
exactly what I need because I can't do it. I need the Savior who
has done the work and completed it because I have no righteousness
of my own. I can't save myself. Lord have
mercy on me. And he's merciful to all who
come to him seeking mercy. You know, there's a lot of people,
they do speak of Christ. Many will say, you know, I'm
a Christian, you know, I've given my life to Christ and I'm a Christian,
but it's okay, you know, if you have something else, you know,
something else that you believe in. So they speak of Christ,
they diminish him by making him just one path or one way among
many paths. Those who speak like that, the
Lord's telling you here, they're liars and they're deceivers.
And don't go after them. Don't follow them because they're
not speaking according to my word. They're not declaring to
you the God who declares himself to us as our sovereign God, sovereign
in salvation, sovereign over all things. And he shall not
fail. And so stop looking to the idolaters,
all right? It's because, you know, they're
spiritually dead and they don't have the Holy Spirit. If they
had the Holy Spirit, they would testify of Christ. They would love Christ and exalt
Christ. Because this is what our Lord
said in John 15, verse 26. He said, when the comforters
come, the Holy Spirit, whom I will send unto you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth, which proceeded from the Father, he
shall testify of Christ. All right, so that's how you
know who's speaking by the Spirit. Just because they open the Bible
and quote a lot of scripture from the Bible, just because
they sprinkle in the name of Jesus once in a while, but it's
all an emphasis on your works and your will and what you're
doing to save yourself or to keep yourself saved. When that's
the focus, they're not speaking, they're not testifying of Christ. And so you know they're not speaking
by the Spirit. They're not speaking by the Spirit,
they're an idolater. Now sometimes we say stupid things
and we don't keep saying those things, but the Lord teaches
us and corrects us. I'm not saying just because one
thing, I mean that's not the Spirit that's flying out of your
mouth there, but the Lord corrects you and teaches you, but those
that continue in that idolatry and boast of their works and
of themselves, that's not the Holy Spirit speaking there. And
so that's two very different salvations. That's two different
gods being talked about there. And so the Lord is never going
to forsake his people that believe on his son because the father
loves the son and he receives all who come to him in the son,
right? And we know that we that come
to him, we come because the father is drawing us. He's drawing us
to Christ. He's bearing witness of Christ,
and he's showing us that he is all that I need, and he's all
my salvation. And he teaches us and keeps us,
and we learn of him, all right? Now, because it's done, the people
of God are given a new song, a song of salvation whereby we
praise the Lord, and that's seen in verse 23. Sing, O ye heavens,
for the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the
earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every
tree therein. And so we see there that the
praise and the glory goes to the maker, the one who saves
his people. We're glorying in the Lord, and
we're singing of what he's done. The Lord hath done it. He hath done it. And so, we're
rejoicing in Him, we're serving Him, we're speaking of Him and
declaring Him, because that's what He reveals Himself, that's
who He reveals Himself to be in His Word. Over in 1 Samuel,
chapter 12, verse 24, 1 Samuel 12, 24, we'll just look at a
few scriptures together. He says, only fear the Lord and
serve him in truth with all your heart, for consider how great
things he hath done for you. Consider how great things he
hath done for you. And the idolater, they can't
sing that song. That's not their song. That's
not their salvation. They can't sing of what God has
done for them because it's all coming down still to their works,
and to their will, all right? And so the Lord, the distinction
there is God hath done it. It's already accomplished in
my Savior, all right? Now, our salvation, it's completed
in him. It says, for the Lord hath redeemed
Jacob and glorified himself in Israel, all right? It's because
he's created us through that blood redemption. We are created
of the Lord Jesus Christ by his work. redeemed us, and therefore
he receives all the glory, the praise, and the honor. Now, I'm
gonna read three passages. First one's over in 2 Timothy
1.9. They'll all be from the New Testament here. 2 Timothy
1.9. And every one of these, notice
that it's declaring the finished work of Christ. The Lord's declaring
his finished work in his son for us. 2 Timothy 1.9. who had
saved us and called us with an holy calling, not according to
our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And it's
already done, it's already accomplished. Look over in Revelation 1. Revelation 1, and we'll look
at verses five and six. And from Jesus Christ, who is
the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and
the prince of the kings of the earth, unto him that loved us,
and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made
us kings and priests unto God and his father, to him be glory
and dominion for ever and ever. Amen, right? So again, we see
this is an accomplished work. He's done all this in himself. There's no ifs, ands, or buts,
or maybe mights, or possibilities of this failing. Not at all.
It's accomplished in Christ. Now I'm gonna read in Ephesians
one, I'm just gonna read the main parts from verses three
to six that highlight this past tense accomplishment of the Lord. Verse three, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. Verse four, he hath chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Verse five, having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to
himself. And verse six, he hath made us
accepted in the beloved. All right, so idols can do nothing
to save you, right? Your idols aren't going to save
you. You that are trusting your will and your works, you're holding
onto an idol, and you're that man in, was it verse 17, that
speaks of their deliverer being their false god, but what is
it, verse 20 there, is there not a lie in my right hand? They
never say that, but to you that hear the Lord, look in your right
hand and you see, wow, all this time I've been trusting my own
works, my own will to get myself saved. And I've been troubled
and upset and worried because I keep looking to me rather than
the Lord's salvation and trusting Him and Him alone. And so He tells us this because
He's comforting His people. He's declaring to you what He
has done. And so verse six, he hath made us accepted in the
beloved. And so it's all accomplished
in him. It's all accomplished in him.
And so remember these, remember these, remember the idolatry
of man. cannot save them, right? It's
two salvations. It's all coming down to salvation
and deliverance. And one is glorifying man, the
maker of his own God, his own salvation, but it cannot save
them. And the other declares our God,
our Lord Jesus Christ. And now he has saved us. He's accomplished it and we are
delivered and saved in him. So Rejoice and be glad in him
and give him praise and thanks especially when when he reveals
that to you by by Experience by keep continuing to show you
your need of him and how he's so kind and gracious to us So
I pray you bless that word to your hearts Let's close in prayer
Our gracious Lord. We thank you father for your
mercy. We thank you Lord for your the grace that you've shown
us in your son, Jesus Christ, and that you have already accomplished
the work, and that you're not looking to us to do a work, to
force our will or the will of another. Lord, it's not us who
gets ourselves saved. Our salvation is in the Lord
Jesus Christ alone. And so, Father, we ask that you
would Indeed, cause us to hear this word, cause us to rest in
your salvation, to believe him. Reveal that faith in us, Lord,
that beholds your servant and believes that you have done all
things necessary for our deliverance and our salvation. Lord, we pray
for our brethren. Lord, we pray that you would
be with your people, that you would comfort us and settle us.
And Lord, keep us ever looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. Help
us to encourage one another and to be helpers of one another's
joy. It's in the Lord Jesus Christ
that we pray these things. Amen. Our closing hymn will be from
the hardback book number 466, Christ Liveth in Me, 466. Once far from God and dead in
sin, no light my heart could see. But in God's word, the light
I found. Now Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. O what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me! As rays of light from yonder
star, the flowers of earth set free. So life and light and love
came forth from Christ living in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. ? As lives the flower within
the seed ? ? As in the cone the tree ? ? So praise the God of
truth and grace ? ? His spirit dwelleth in me ? ? Christ liveth
in me ? ? Christ liveth in me ? O what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me! With longing all my heart is
filled, that like Him I may be. As on the wondrous lot I dwell,
that Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Christ liveth in me. Oh, what a salvation this, that
Christ liveth in me. I just couldn't get the transition. Oh yeah, I know. It's a little
tough. Just that right in there. Yeah, I got a rough start anyways.
But yeah, it's pretty too. I was saying you're still pretty
good for me there in that course. Yeah. Yeah, I know.