Take your Bibles and turn with
me to Isaiah. Isaiah chapter 1. The text will be found in verses
24 through 27. And the title of my message is this,
in the form of a question. Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 24. or 27 will be my text. The question
is this, what does it take to save a sinner? What does it take to save a sinner? The scriptures there say, 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. I
will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and
take away thy tin. I will restore thy judges as
at 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 My way of introduction,
I want us to see the first part of this chapter. The first part
of this chapter is glorious. In this chapter we are given
several great and blessed doctrines by the Lord. In verses 2 through
verse 8 of this first chapter, you can see the total depravity
of man. Look what he says here. He says,
Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth, for the LORD hath spoken,
and hath nourished up, and brought up a children, and they have
rebelled against Me. He said, The ox knoweth his owner,
the ass his master's crib, but Israel doth not know. My people
doth not consider a sinful nation. God here is describing man by
nature. As Israel is, so are we by nature,
we have rebelled against God. We are more ignorant than an
ox and an ass. That's what God says about us.
Ox knows its owner, an ass knows where its crib is, but my people
don't know anything. This is what the fall has done. He says, Sinful people laden
with the nick with the seed of evildoers, children of the corruptors
that have forsaken the Lord and provoked the Holy One of Israel
to anger have gone away backwards. You can't beat, in the next verse
he's saying, look, you can't beat them out of it. You'll be
stricken more and more. I can put plagues on you, I can
do anything, and that ain't gonna do a bit of good. That's how
wicked we are. He said you can't heal yourself.
All are covered with leprosy of sin and there is no goodness,
no righteousness and no ability to please God. And look at this, we see the
election of grace in verse 9. Except the Lord of hosts had
left a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and
we should have been like unto Gomorrah. We'll visit this one
in just a minute, but this is definitely speaking of God's
sovereign election. Had God not reserved a people
to save, we all would have been as Sodom and Gomorrah. In verses 11 through 15 you see
the contempt of God for all free will works religion. Hear the
word of God, you rulers of Sodom. Now listen, he's talking to Israel.
He's talking to religious people. He's not talking to the people
outside Israel. He's talking to the religious
people. What does he call them? Sodom. You rulers of Sodom, give ear
unto the law of our God and you people of Gomorrah. What purpose
are the multitude of your sacrifices to me? I am full of burnt offerings,
and rams, and fat of fed beasts, and I delight not in the blood
of bullocks, and of rams, and of he-goats. Now, what is God
saying? He said, I don't want your sacrifices. Isn't that what
we read in Hebrews 10? Hebrews 10, He says, Sacrifice
and offering, and burnt offering, thou wouldest not. All your works. Because we by nature are covered
with sin and have no righteousness, all of our works are covered
with sin. They're not acceptable unto God. God has contempt for those sacrifices. He has contempt for our works. If we're trying to earn our favor
with God by works, God says, I'm contemptful of that stuff.
Don't give me that. And 17, God shows the means of
conviction. Verse 16, He says, Wash you and
make you clean. Put away the evil doings from
before your eyes and cease to do evil. Learn to do well. Seek judgment. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for
the widows. What is He telling you to do? Be holy. That's what God says. Stop giving
me sacrifices that are unholy and go be holy. All sinners are commanded of
God to go wash themselves, and yet we can't. We are commanded of God to cease
to do evil and do good, but we can't. But one that is brought under
the conviction of God sees the impossibility of this. When God
commanded me, go wash yourself, I found out I had no place to
wash myself. I had nothing to offer God. This
was a means of conviction. But I cannot save myself. We by nature are only able to
do evil and all we do is mix with sin. The fifth thing we
see in verse 18 is the promise of God to the convicted sinner. God says this, Come, let us reason
together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. God says let's do some divine
reasoning. I'm going to give you some divine
mathematics. Something you can't figure out.
Something you can't do for yourself. Something we can't understand
by worldly wisdom. This is the reasoning of God
to convicted sinners, come to me and I'll wash you. Come to
me and I'll cleanse you. And so all who see their need
of being washed, all who come with no righteousness will be
made righteous. Look at verse 20. If you be willing
and obedient, you shall eat of the good of the land. Come, I'll
give you the fat of the land. I'll make you righteous. But
notice this in verse 20, all who refuse and rebel shall be
devoured with the sword for the mouth of the Lord has spoken
it. All who will not come to him for washing, reason this,
you shall die in your sins. You shall die in your sins. And
verses 21 to 24, I like the way God condescends to speak to us. God marvels. God marvels. What does He marvel at? He marvels
at the ruined state of man. Look what He says. He said in
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, and thy wine is mixed with water. It is though God looked upon
His creation of man that He made upright, that He made righteous,
and God marvels at how far we have fallen. He marvels. at the ruined state
of his creature, how has he become so vile? That which I have made
righteous, how has he become so vile? How has the silver that I have
made become nothing but dross? Once great value, but now worthless. And the result is, God says this,
the result of this in verse 24. God says, therefore, because
of this ruined state, therefore, saith the Lord of hosts, the
mighty one of Israel, ah, I will ease me of mine adversaries and
avenge me of mine enemies. I will cast off and avenge my
holy law everyone who will not obey. Now let me ask you this,
are you outside of Christ? If you are outside of Christ,
I want you to understand, you are an enemy of God. For the carnal mind is at enmity
against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. If you are outside of Christ,
you are without righteousness. All the works of religion are
nothing but filthy rags, You must be washed, but you have
no ability to wash yourself. You must be righteous, but you
have no ability to be righteous. But if you do need cleansing,
if you do need righteousness, if God has convicted you of your
need of these things, then I have a great message for you. I have
a great message because all that we need, all that we cannot provide,
God himself has provided. This is the gospel message. You
have nothing and God has provided everything. And so the question
is, what then does it take to save a sinner? Let me give you
the answer. It takes the power and grace
of God alone. This is all that can save a sinner.
There is nothing else. Nothing else can save a sinner.
God's Word is very plain. Salvation is of the Lord. If you are to be washed, God
must do it. If you are to be righteous, God
must do it. If you are to believe on Christ,
God must do it. And you who believe on Christ,
you know this. If you are to continue to believe
on Christ, God must do it. God must do it. Are you getting
the picture that salvation is all of God? I hope by the end
of this you get that message because that's what I'm conveying
here. I've got four divisions, four divisions of this message. What does it take to save a sinner?
First of all, divine resolution, divine will. Second of all, divine
redemption. Thirdly, divine regeneration. And fourthly, divine restoration. First of all, a divine resolution. In our text, look about your
text at verse 25. God says this, I will turn my
hand upon thee and purely purge away thy dross and take away
thy tin. In our text we see first of all
the resolution of God. He said, I will, I will. God here declares that he will
avenge himself of his enemies, but he has purposed also to show
mercy. I will turn my hand upon thee. Who is he speaking about? He's
speaking to those he mentioned in verse 9, the remnant. The remnant according to the
election of grace. God's determination is not for
every man. God did not determine to save
every man. If He did, every man would be
saved. But God's determination is for
the remnant. And the thing that is determined
is salvation. So the Holy Spirit is here instructing
us that salvation begins by the will of God. That's where salvation
begins, the will of God. Go to Romans 9. Romans chapter
9. Paul here is showing us that
Israel in the flesh is not the Israel of God. The Israel of
God is spiritual. The Israel of God is made up
of the elect and this is what he is conveying here in verse
11. He said, not yet being born,
neither having done good or evil, that the purpose of God, according
to election, might stand not of works, but of him that calleth.
It was said unto her, The elder shall serve the younger, as it
is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated. Now what was the purpose of God
in revealing this? God revealed this to their mother. He revealed this to Isaac. He
revealed it to them. What was the purpose? Why did
God say He loved Jacob and hated Esau before they were born? What
was the purpose of that? To establish this doctrine of
election. To establish this truth. God
hated Esau before he did anything evil and God loved Jacob before
he did anything good. He established this to establish
election. purpose of God according to election
might stand. That His sovereign election therefore
is not based on the works of man. God did not choose us because
of anything He saw in us. That's the purpose. That sovereign
election is not based on the works or will of man but the
sovereign will of God. That's what it's based on. What shall we say then? Is there
unrighteousness with God? This is always the objection.
I've preached this for many years and this is always the objection.
That God is somehow unjust to do that. Is there unrighteousness
with God? Well, that's just not fair. I
always tell them this. You want fair, everybody dies. That's fair. I don't want fair,
I want mercy. Because I need mercy. Justice
is what you're clamoring for. I need mercy. That's always the objection.
Paul says this, God forbid. Don't say anything like that.
That's just foolishness. In no way is God unjust in His
sovereign election of some and the sovereign rejection of others. And the evidence is what God
gives to Moses. Look at that verse 15. He said,
This is my evidence right here. For he saith unto Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Okay, mercy by definition is
undeserved. Isn't that right? If it is deserved, it is not
mercy. God says, I will have mercy.
Oh man, you see that rings like a like a heavenly sonnet in the
ear of a sinner. One who needs mercy. One who
needs mercy. I will have mercy. Oh, you will?
You'll have mercy? I'm gonna have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. Rightly so. Rightly so. I have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. And what's the conclusion? So
then. Here's the conclusion of it. It is not of him that willeth. Listen to that. It's not of him
that willeth. What about running? No, it's
not of somebody running. It's of God that showeth mercy.
But of God that showeth mercy. So this mercy that is based in
the will of God. See, salvation begins with divine
resolution. God willed to save a people. That's it. He willed to do it. He willed to show mercy. And
again, He uses the ultimate reference of Holy Scripture that gives
us another example. Verse 17, He saith to Pharaoh,
Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might
show my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout
the earth. hath he mercy on whom he will
have mercy, and whom he will be hardened." I just say, Amen. What can you say against it? Yet men do. They don't like it. We know that election, well,
we know this, that election itself is not salvation. But if there
were no election, there would be no salvation. Had God not
purposed to save, none would be saved. We would have all been doomed,
had God not left a remnant. Isn't that what he just said?
As a matter of fact, Paul uses the very verse in Romans 1-9.
He uses this again. Look at verse 27 of Romans 9. Isaiah, he crieth concerning
Israel, though the number of the children of Israel be as
the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved. For he will finish the work and
cut short in righteousness, because a short work will the Lord make
upon the earth. And Isaiah said before, except
the Lord of Sabbath had left us a seed, we had been as Sodom
and been like unto Gomorrah. We sing this hymn, and this is
true. Everyone who has received mercy,
You know this, you did it, you received it because God willed
you to receive it. "'Tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord, that could not be. "'This heart which still refused
thee hast thou not chosen me? "'Thou from sin that stained
me hast cleansed and set me free. "'Of old thou hast ordained me
that I should live to thee.'" So we see first of all that salvation
is by divine resolution. Second of all, I want you to
see this, that the resolution of God is salvation. The means
of this resolution is the salvation accomplished by God. Notice this,
I will turn my hand upon thee. This hand is not the hand of
chastisement nor judgment, but it is the hand of mercy. It is
the hand of mercy. In the scriptures in Zechariah
chapter 13 and verse 7, this is speaking of the death of our
Lord, and he says, Awake, O sword. Awake, O sword, against my shepherd,
against the man that is my fellow. Say it, the Lord. Smite the shepherd. This is the means of God's determinate
will to save his people by the death of Jesus Christ. And notice,
when he is smitten, the sheep shall scatter, and I will turn
My hand unto the little ones. This is a hand of mercy, a hand
of kindness. God has purposed to turn His
hand of mercy toward His elect people. God swears that all that
Christ had died for, He will turn His hand to them, and God
promises to gather them and to save them. Turn to Isaiah chapter 63. Isaiah
chapter 63. And look at verse 4. God says, The day of vengeance
is in mine heart, and the year of my redeemed has come. Behold, God's resolution is the
year. He said, The year of my redeemed
has come. That is the time of the salvation. of those that the Redeemer would
represent. And God looks at them in pity. And He says, I looked, I looked,
and there was none to help. I wondered that there was none
to uphold. Therefore, what? My own arm brought
salvation unto me. My fury, it upheld me. Look, there God looks upon His people with
such compassion and mercy and tenderness. All those that God
purposed to save, He looks upon them with great compassion. He looks and says, look, there's
one of mine wandering around in the desert. There's one of
mine lost and dead in his sins. There's one of mine ignorant.
who does not consider Christ as the remedy for his soul, one
running madly to hell. And God says, therefore, because
he cannot save himself, because I have determined to save him,
He said, My own arm, My own arm brought salvation to me. The
arm is who? It's Christ. I want you to know
that God, in resolution, purposed to save a people, but He also,
in resolution, purposed how He would save them. Isn't this great? You see, I'm beginning to paint
you, I want to paint you a picture. This is all of God, all God's
doing. He not only purposed to save,
He also purposed the means, His arm, His hand, that He would
turn His hand toward us, His arm of salvation. So all the
elect that God has purposed to save. We had no intercessor,
no mediator upon the earth, no one to help. But Christ was from
eternity made to be our high priest, made to be our mediator. And it was the will of God that
he should merit all the righteousness by his obedience and satisfy
the justice of God by his blood. This was always God's purpose.
Always God's purpose. And at the appointed time, God
does come in power, just like He purposed to do. He comes in
power to every one of His elect, and He applies that salvation
that He purposed. And so you have an unwilling
people. But in the day of His power, we're what? Made willing. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of Thy power. in the day of thy power, so thankful
for his mercy to do that. Behold the grace of God's omnipotent
hand of salvation, that all who are saved are brands plucked
from the burning. I like to think of old Mephibosheth.
Remember that covenant was made with David and Jonathan before
Mephibosheth was born. And yet, when David had won the
victory, He remembered the covenant and he said, ìIs there any left
of the house of Saul that I might show the kindness for Jonathanís
sake?î And he said, ìYeah, thereís one, old lame Mephibosheth.î What did David do? He said, ìWell,
when Mephiboshethís willing to come, heíll just come.î No, he
couldnít come. I tell you this, he wouldnít
come, would he? He said, ìGo fetch him.î I always think of what Mephibosheth
thought when those soldiers rolled up to his door. He thought he was a dead dog.
It was done. It was over. When God arrested
me, that's what I thought. It was over. It was over. But
God had a different purpose. He arrested me like Mephibosheth
brought me to the feet of Christ. And I said, what is thy servant
but a dead dog that you would show mercy to me? Well, he said,
I'm not doing it because of you. I'm doing it because of the covenant
I made with your daddy. That's what he said. Why is Christ gonna
be merciful? Why is God gonna be merciful?
Because of the covenant I made with my son. Thank you. Oh, if it was Chef
Seth at that table the rest of the days of his life. Still lame,
but sit there anyway, like one of the king's sons. The third
thing God resoluted to do was to these objects of mercy. As He says, I will turn my hand
upon thee. The objects of saving resolution
and power are the same, the elect. These are the objects of God's
love. In eternity God chose and elect
people. He gave them to Christ and Christ
redeemed those people. And I know this, the Holy Spirit
is going to get those people. Who are those people? Are the elect. I don't know if
I'm one. That's really what I want to
know. I know God saves the elect and only the elect. I want to
know if I'm one of them. Do you believe? You see, every one of
his elect will all be brought in to faith and love. They will believe on the Son
of God. They will believe. Why? Because God appointed it. God
determined it. So all salvation begins with
divine resolution. Secondly, salvation requires
a divine redemption. Not only does God have to will
it, it must be accomplished by divine redemption. No man can
ever be accepted of God unless he is purged of his sins. God said, Be ye holy even as
I am holy. This is not a bendable law. This is a maxim. It is a rule. It is necessary. Therefore, God
determined and purposed that His elect should be holy. And
that would have told us in Ephesians 1, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings and heavenly places in Christ, according as He had
chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that
we should be, what? holy and without blame before
him. Here's his motivation in love,
having predestinated us unto the adoption of children, here's
the means by Jesus Christ unto himself. So God says this, I will turn
my hand upon thee, I will save thee, but how? I will purely purge away thy
dross and take away thy teeth. Turn to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi
chapter 3. We know this is speaking of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who would do this work of purging. He said, Behold, in verse 1 of
chapter 3, Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare
my way before me. And the Lord, whom you seek,
shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant,
whom you delight. Behold, he shall come, saith
the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of
his coming, and who shall stand when he appeareth? Listen, behold
his work. This is going to be his work
when he comes to his temple. For he is like a refiner's fire,
and like fuller soap, He shall sit as a refiner and purifier
of silver. He shall purify the sons of Levi
and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness. So what is this? The same as
our text. Dros and Tihon are representative
of sin. That's what it is. They're a representation of sin.
You have gold and you have the tin in it. It mars the preciousness
of the silver. If you have dross in the gold,
it mars the value of the gold. In other words, they have to
be purified with fire at the old out burned out. This is the
work that Christ has come to do. To burn away our sin. purify His people, purging and
melting away our sins. This is impossible for us to
do. We could not do this. Our spiritual disease is impossible
to cure. Our sins cannot be removed by
our religious offerings or works. I don't care how sincere. Listen,
I know religious people are sincere. I do not doubt they are sincere
in their work. Paul said, I bear them record
according, he said, they have a zeal for God. What's the problem? Not according
to knowledge. Why? They're going about to establish
their own righteousness. Now is anybody going about to
establish their own righteousness? You, you're just, you're ignorant
of the righteousness of God. I'm not saying you're an ignorant
person. You may be a rocket scientist. I'm saying according to your
spiritually ignorant of this because you cannot merit righteousness
by your doings. And even so you cannot pay for
sin by obedience. This is part of our nature that
we somehow think that we can pay for sin by doing good. Hebrews 9.22 is very clear. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Behold, then the price for sin
is death. It is a high price. Death. Because we are full of sin, none
of our offerings will ever remove sin. much less the blood of bulls
and goats or our own obedience to the law. Paul says, for it
is not possible for the blood of bulls and goats should take
away sin. Consider that. God ordained these bulls and
goats to be killed. He ordained those sacrifices. Yet Paul says, by those sacrifices
no sin was removed. What was the purpose? What's
the purpose of those sacrifices? to picture the coming and dying
of Jesus Christ. That's what they were intended
for. The whole purpose of them. So no works of man can remove
sin. I thought of that, the lie of
purgatory. What a lie that is. To believe
that some men can claw their way out of hell by deeds or by
prayers. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved, eternally saved. But he that believeth not shall
be damned, shall be damned. And after a million years shall
be damned. And after a million more shall
be damned. There's no way of paying. That's why death, that's why
hell is eternal. Because there's no way that a
man could pay his way out of it. But behold, God's means of purging
our sins is by the offering of Jesus Christ. And notice this,
God says, I will purely, look at that with me. He says, purely purge away thy draws. Purely purge, completely purge. absolutely purge thy sins. How is this done? By the one
offering of Jesus Christ. Isn't that what we just read
in Hebrews 10 again? We read that, for by His one offering
He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. This was
His work. How did He do this? You see, God charged Christ with
our sin. I'll show you how he purged our,
this is what it takes. Friends, you want to know what
it takes to save a sinner, this is it. It takes the death of the Son
of God. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Look what
it took. This is no light thing. This
is no light thing. It took a divine redemption for,
verse 21, 2 Corinthians 5, 21, for He, God, hath made Him to
be sin for us. Who knew no sin? Consider the
mystery of this. He thought no sin, He felt no
sin, He did no sin. As He hung there being made sin,
He did no sin whatsoever. pure, perfect, holy, without
sin, spotless. And yet, he was very much guilty. I can't explain it. God can't punish an innocent
man. It's an abomination to punish an innocent man. It's a mystery. God made him to be sin for us. Who knew no sin? Righteousness of God in Him. This is what it takes. In Galatians
3.13, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law. How?
Being made a curse. As it is written, Cursed is everyone
that hangeth upon a tree. The apostle says he had bore
our sin in his own body on the tree. Can you explain that? I don't have to. I believe that
with all my soul. Because that's my hope. I needed
a divine redemption. Only one that the Son of God
could provide. And he did. He did. And what was the result of this?
When He died, He purged my sin away. The justice of God fully met
on Christ because of my sin and He paid it all. Paid it all. And therefore, the
psalmist says, as far as the east is from the west, so far
hath he removed our sins from us. Isaiah 43, 25, I even I am he
that blotteth out that transgression. Why? For my sake. Go look in the mirror and see
if you can see any reason why he would do that for you. I can't
find one. I see him every day and there
ain't no reason there. I despair when I try to look
for a reason inside me. I know Newton did, to his point,
I long to know, oft it causes anxious thought, do I love the
Lord, or am I his, or am I not? He said, I do it for my own namesake. Behold now the Lamb of God that
hath beareth away the sin of the world, Behold the great victory
that he hath accomplished at Calvary for all that God hath
purposed to save. I like to think of this, my salvation
was totally dependent upon him. Absolutely, he bore 110% of the
responsibility of my salvation. Isaiah 9, six, for unto us a
child is born, unto us a son is given. The government shall
be upon his shoulders. What that means, all the responsibility
belongs to him. All of it. When God purposed to save me,
the son said, I will be surety for them. If I bring them not
again to thee, let me bear the blame. And what did Christ say when
justice could ask no more, when divine redemption was fully paid? What did Christ say? It is finished. What does that mean? What does
that mean? I mean it's done. It's done. All that God willed to remove
my tin and my dross has been done. He did it. There's another aspect of this
salvation that must needs take place and that is divine regeneration. It must of necessity be a divine
will. God willed to save a people. Must of necessity Christ must
redeem them and He did. But all that God willed to save
and all that Christ saved must of necessity be regenerated. This, my friends, is the work
of the Holy Spirit. We know that God the Father's
work is the will. God the Son's work is the redemption.
But God the Spirit's work is regeneration. Go to John chapter 3, you know
this text very well, John chapter 3. See the work of the Spirit,
divine work of the Spirit. John chapter 3 and look at verse
5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man
be born of water, even of the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of heaven. Now that which is born of flesh,
what is it? Flesh. That's what it's going to be.
Live flesh, die flesh is what it's going to do. But that which
is born of spirit is? Spirit. Spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee,
you must be born again. I like this. You must be born
again. Now, I'm not telling Nicodemus something to do. I remember some
preacher one time said, he said, you must be born again. Let me
tell you how. And then he just had to shut
his mouth. He couldn't tell him how to be born again. That's
not telling him what to do. He said, you must be born again
because God willed it. You must be born again because
I redeemed you. You must be born again because
the Spirit is going to give it to you. And I'm going to show
it. I'm going to show you how. He said, The wind bloweth where
it lives, and you can hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell where
it's coming and where it's going. So is everyone that is born of,
what? The Spirit. The work of the Spirit
is the new birth. Even though the work of redemption
had already been accomplished, the work of the Spirit must be
applied in regeneration to the elect by divine power and grace. Have you been born from above?
Who did that? I did. I was going the other way. I
had no hope of ever bringing myself back. God the Spirit did
this. We have by faith have you received
Christ. This is the work of the Spirit.
Do you now look to Christ, the Son of God, for all your righteousness
and redemption? Whose work is this? It's the
work of the Spirit. As many as received Him, to them gave He
the right to become the sons of God, which were born, not
of flesh, nor of the will of the man, nor of the will of the
flesh, but of God. But of God. This is the work
of the Holy Spirit. This is the work of the Holy
Spirit to give us a new and holy nature. This is what God does. He creates in us a new nature. Ephesians chapter 4. Look at
what the Spirit of God does. Ephesians chapter 4. And look at verse 24. Here's
the exhortation. Put off the new man. Put on the
new man. Put on the new man. That's exhortation, isn't it?
Yeah. You can't put on a new man if
you ain't got one. Gotta have one to put him on. Who is he? which after God is
created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, we're also exhorted to put
off the old man. Every believer knows he's got
one of those. Gotta constantly put him off. The old man of sin
is still not removed from us. This vile nature still dwells
in us so that we are burdened daily with our sin and confess,
O wretched man, that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? Here's my hope, the hope of the new man.
Thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord, there is therefore
now no condemnation. Those are in Christ Jesus. And
so by divine regeneration He has accomplished is the removal
then of the guilt of sin. The guilt of sin is removed.
Christ bore my guilt. Christ paid the debt of my sins. I like this, one man said that
God cannot demand twice payment. First at the hand of my surety
and then at the hand of me. I'm thankful God's just. He's removed the guilt of our
sin. Christ has purged our sin, paid
for our sin, and we are no longer under the law, but under grace.
The law could only convict us of sin and guilt, but Christ
is the end of the law to everyone that believeth. Behold the divine
power that He has not only purged us of the guilt of our sin, but
yet we are purged from the power of it. Romans 6, 14, For sin
shall not have dominion over you, for, here's the cause, you
are not under the law but under grace, shall not have dominion
over you. How do I know that? I believe.
Don't you believe? Well, that's an act of grace.
That's an act of mercy. That's an act of divine power. John Gill says this, All iniquity
is cause to pass from them. They are clothed with the change
of raiment, even the righteousness of Christ, by which they are
justified from all things, and pure, spotless, and without fault
before the eyes of God. Now, not before my own eyes,
not before your eyes, truly before the eyes of God. Look what John
says about us. Go to 1 John chapter three. This
is the work of the Spirit in you, believer. 1 John chapter
three. And look at verse nine. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Ooh, wait a second. How's that possible? It's only possible because he's
talking about the new man, talking about that which God has made,
which God has created in us. He cannot sin. Now the old man
can do nothing but sin. Therefore, that's what Paul talks
about in Galatians concerning the battle within each one of
us. Constantly struggling, the spirit lusteth against the flesh,
and the flesh against the spirit. And these are contrary one to
another, so that you cannot do what you would. The flesh would
sin, and the righteous man would be righteous. It's a struggle. Look at chapter five and verse
18. John says about the same thing.
First John chapter five and verse 18. Well, if I can get out of
the book of John, that would probably help. First John chapter five and verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself,
and that the wicked one toucheth him not. Isn't this a comfort
that there is no way that you can be plucked out of the hand
of Christ? He can't touch that. He can't defile that, and neither
can you. What God has created holy, he cannot be defiled. This
is our hope. And this is because of the power
of God. And fourthly, a divine restoration.
Let's look at your text one more time. I know I'm over. Verse
26, he said, I will restore thy judges as at 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. What is God saying here? He said,
I'm going to restore what was lost. He's going to restore what
was lost. Isn't this a joy to know this?
That God has begun a good work in us and He shall perform it
unto the day of Jesus Christ. But there is coming a day, friends,
when everything is going to be restored. There's going to be a time when
there's not going to be any more sin. There's not going to be any more
pain. No more sorrow. No more grief. God has promised
to restore all things as even better than they were before. God has promised to make His
children a righteous city, a faithful city. And this is what He has
begun to do. We are restored to Christ in
righteousness and faithfulness. In this last part, notice this. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment
and her converts with righteousness. This is a promise of His keeping.
They shall be. You who are believers in Christ,
you are redeemed. You shall be redeemed. There's
nothing going to stop that redemption. And everyone that is God's people
that are even outside of Christ now, listen, they shall be redeemed.
shall be converts, and her converts with righteousness." God has
promised to not only, God has not only willed to save us, He's
not only redeemed us, He's not only called us, He not only promises
to restore us, but He will keep us until we are restored. 1 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5,
we are kept, Peter said. kept by the power of your ability. That was it? No, you're kept
by the power of God unto salvation, ready to be revealed. I hope
you get this. What does it take? It takes divine
will, divine redemption, divine restoration, divine power and
regeneration to save a sinner. In other words, salvations of
the Lord. And those who are saved say amen. You that are saved,
you know that's true. You know you were saved of him. I'm so thankful that salvations
of the Lord and not of our will or ability. We fall 10,000 times
a day would be no hope for us. But I'm so I'm so glad everything
is. Ordered. And sure. That's a covenant of grace. I
pray God bless this too. It's a stand be dismissed and
pray. Gracious Father, dismiss us with
your blessings and mercy and pour out your spirit to us and
give us grace. Praise you, strengthen us in
the inner man that you give us knowledge, wisdom, Father, to
always by faith to look to Christ. Father, I pray you'd give us
more love for each other. Love for Christ. Pray, Father,
you forgive us our sins and lead us as we go and bring us back
again. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.