I did not tell you that years
ago. You didn't come. But I know I love all these men. They all are wonderful preachers.
God's blessed them. And they're going to declare
what God's taught them, what they've seen and heard. Brother
Bruce, you come. Bring the Lord's message further. Turn this on for you. Thank you,
Donville. I'm glad he got that mic fixed.
He had a napkin or something. Is it still there? When I preach, the sound system's
got to be perfect. I have such a precise grasp of
the English language. Everything's got to be just right. Oh, it's good to see everybody.
Boy, this will make you forget your troubles, won't it? Coming
here to worship. We have come into this house,
gathered in His name to worship Him. See old friends we haven't
seen for a while. Friends we've just seen. I honestly
thought, but I didn't think about this quick enough, but I honestly
thought if I'd have had time, I'd have probably Preach the
message tonight on some things that we've heard from this pulpit.
Through the years, some messages that we've heard from this pulpit.
Man, we've heard some messages from this pulpit. I often think of Brother Henry,
Brother Mayhem. He's so feeble now, he can't
come. But man, he's preached some messages
from this pulpit. Went home to the hearts of the
people here. Brother Scott, I remember me and Brother Albert Blalock
sitting over there and I heard Scott Richardson preach, they
shall see his face. Oh my, it made you want to see
his face. I remember his last point on
that message. What will it mean to see his
face? And he said, it means we finally made it. Oh, we finally
made it. Remember another Mahan fellow
that preached here a few years ago on David recovered all. Oh
man, that's some good messages that one. Good messages. I want
you to turn with your Bibles if you'd like to read with me
in my text this afternoon, and I hope you will. I hope you brought
your Bibles, and I hope you turn with me to my text in Isaiah
chapter 44. Just two texts of scripture,
mainly one verse, but Isaiah chapter 44. In verse 21 and verse 22. Thank you, Brother
Donnie, for... insisting on me coming. Thank
you, your dear friend, good pastor. He's a good preacher, but he's
the best pastor that I know. Best pastor that I know. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant, I have formed thee. Thou art my servant,
O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as
a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Isaiah prophesied probably more
years, probably lived to be older than any of these prophets in
this portion of the scriptures, prophesied to at least four kings. Don't know how old he was at
this time, His country, the Jewish nation at this time, was in an
absolute mess. Wasn't long they were going to
be carried away by Assyria. They were bringing six sacrifices
to the Lord. You read in the first few chapters
of this book and it just, whoa, whoa, whoa. The holy city had
become a harlot. The Lord wouldn't accept their
sacrifices. The master knows, the ox knows
his master's crib, but you fellas don't know me, the Lord said.
You don't consider me. And it was a mess. But somewhere
around the 40th chapter of Saul, this man began to look beyond
the troubles of his present situation. even beyond the captivity and
return under this man that the Lord declared Cyrus would raise
up to let his people go, he began to look to the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ. When the Lord himself would come
and declare, He hath sent me, the Father hath sent me, the
Holy Spirit hath sent me, He's anointed me to preach the gospel
to the poor, to set the captives free, And he begins on that and
he can't get away from it. He's always coming back to the
coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the 53rd chapter, that wonderful
chapter that we all love, he shall grow up before him as a
tender plant and a root out of the dry ground. And he describes
what happened to all of us. All of us like sheep have gone
astray. We've all turned his own way
and God has laid on him. the iniquity of us all. And then
he told the effects of him burying our sins. He suffered for them. God smote him in our room, in
our place. And he told the effects of that.
God said, I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied with that. And
by his knowledge, my righteous servant shall justify many, for
he shall bury their iniquities. And then there in the very next
chapter, he tells the church, He says, you better pull off
these cords and you better broaden your tents because I'm getting
ready to bless the church. And Isaiah looked to it. He looked
to that day when the Lord Jesus would make the atonement for
the sins of his people and would ascend to heaven and send back
the spirit of promise. And there in Acts chapter 2,
Boy, they found out what that prophecy meant. They had to pull
up their stakes and lengthen their cord because God blessed
his church. And even though he got a little
bit sack-tracked on some other things, he was always coming
back to the coming of the Messiah, the coming of Christ. And this
verse here, especially my text in verse 22, he speaks of the
gospel days. the kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He confronts us with gospel language. When the sins of the Lord's people
had been blotted out. I want to see four things in
verse 22. First of all, I want to look
at why sins are compared to clouds. I have blotted out as thick clouds
thy transgression, as clouds thy sin. And secondly, I want
to Look at who's included in this invitation, in this command,
in this exhortation. Return unto me. Who's he speaking
to? And then thirdly, on what grounds
are they to return? For I have redeemed thee. I have
blotted out thy transgressions, therefore return. And then, just
for a minute, this mysterious condensation. Oh, the condescending trial in
God. that would humble himself and
say to any son of Adam, return unto me. That's my four points. If the Holy Spirit would help
me just for a few minutes. First of all, then let me compare
clouds to sin or sins to clouds. Why would he do that? Why are
our sins compared to clouds? Well, let me give you three or
four things. First of all, for the number of For the number
of them, we have had a wet two or three weeks, and I mean every
day. The blue sky will be there for
an hour or so, and all of a sudden, here comes the clouds. And man,
it's been raining, cloudy, all for two or three weeks now. And
one day, I got it in my head that I wanted to count the clouds.
And I started to try to count the clouds. And I started in
the north, and I would count them. And after a while, I noticed
there were some clouds hiding behind some other clouds. There
were some big clouds, and there were some little clouds sneaking
in behind the big clouds. And I would try to count them
all, but I got to noticing where one cloud ended, another cloud
would pop up. And after a while, my eyes got
to hurting. And I said, I can't count the
clouds. After a while, it was just a canopy, a whole canopy
of clouds. Is our sins not that way? Is
our sins not like the clouds? The numerous clouds? Can you
remember when you first committed a sin? I'm sure I can't remember
when I first sinned. I'm sure I was unconscious of
the first sin that I ever committed against God. Because the Bible
tells us that we begin to sin and lie as soon as we're born. I don't even know the last sin
that I committed to you. Oh, the sins that we commit,
brothers and sisters, the sin that's secret sometimes, the
motives in our hearts, sometimes the thoughts, sometimes the words,
sometimes the actions, sins against God, sins against the Son of
God, against the law of God, against light, Could you count
your sins? Could you number your sins? I've
often said this. If we went over to the East Coast,
they're around Virginia Beach. They're on the coast somewhere.
And we walk from there all the way to the shores there at San
Diego, California. And every time we took a step,
we confessed to sin. We'd run out of area to walk
before we run out of sins to confess. Is that not so? Our sins are so many, they're
like clouds, and only God knows our sins. Only He can count the
sins that a man can commit. And just like those clouds I
was trying to count, I would get up in the sky just a little
ways, and I noticed some more popping up. That's the way our
sins is. They just pop up, just pop up
everywhere. But only God can know them. I think old Barnard had it right
when he said, all my iniquities, crimson has been, infinite, infinite,
sin upon sin, just piled up like mountains, sin upon sin, sin
of not loving thee, sin of not trusting thee. I was talking
with a lady the other day and she said, almost every day I
am so anxious. Then I said, every day you're
sinning because you're not trusting Him. That's sin. Oh, our sins
are like clouds, brothers and sisters, because they're innumerable. Only God can number a man's sins. That poor woman that came and
got down at the feet of the Lord Jesus. And he looked at her and
said, Thy sins, which are many. How did he know that? He's God,
isn't he? He knows where they originate
at. He sees them when they come from this incubator we call the
heart. He sees them when we conceive
them they're in the heart. He knows them. Sin is like clouds. And oh, there's so many. Secondly,
think of this with me just for a minute. Sins, like clouds,
sometimes darken the sun. They darken the light, don't
they? Thy thick clouds. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud. Boy, sometimes we're out, and
I was coming home the other night, and I love the rain. I love the
clouds. I love that kind of clouds. But
I was coming home, and man, I saw the darkest cloud I ever seen
in my life. The sun was shining and all of a sudden this deep,
dark blue cloud come over and it got black and it just went
black. The street lights were coming
on. That's the way sin is, isn't it? Sin is a darkening thing. It darkens the understanding.
I tell you what it'll do. It'll shut out the sun of righteousness.
Sometimes we go on and we've sinned, and we don't even know
it. And we continue on in that sin.
And sometimes then we're awakened to it. And then what happens? We say, oh, my soul, what have
I done? What have I been doing? And this
dark cloud comes over our conscience, doesn't it? Oh, and we can't
see our Redeemer. Sin is a darkening thing. But
I tell you what it does worse than hiding our eyes from us.
You know what sin does? It hides God's eyes. It hides God's eyes. He's too
holy to look upon sin, is He not? My hand is not shortened. My ears are not heavy that it
cannot hear. But your sins have separated
between you and me. Your iniquities have hit His
face. He won't see you. He will not
look upon you. I wonder sometimes why hell is
said to be a place of outer darkness. I think it's depicted that way
and described that way because all that's there is sin. Those
that's there can't see out of the place because sin's darkened
everything. And the light of God's countenance
will not shine there because he cannot, because he hates sin. He's holy. Oh, sin is a darkening
thing. like these clouds. Sins like
clouds are sometimes threatening things. They're threatening things. I wonder if the old world, never
seen a cloud, was a mist coming out of the ground and watering
the earth. First clouds they ever saw came rising out of the
west. And I wonder what they thought.
After a while, they become very threatening. And lightning began
to come and strike the trees and the mountains. The breast
began to shake with the thunderclouds. Then it began to rain out of
those clouds. And it never stopped raining
for 40 days and 40 nights until the highest mountain was overflowed
with those muddy waters. And I wonder after the flood
ceased. and the Lord let Noah land that
ark and get out. I just wonder what he thought
the next time he saw a cloud coming over here. Don't you think
he was searching for that rainbow? Oh, is it coming again? Oh, look
at that, that cloud, how threatening that it is. Cloud sins are threatening things,
aren't they? I don't think men would sin so
easy and sleep so well. if they saw the justice of God
threatening their iniquities. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and a horrible tempest. This is the
portion of their cup. But they don't see that, you
see. They don't see that. As I was coming over here just
a minute ago, I thought of another way sins are represented by our
class. I was coming over and the sun
was shining and up in the air I saw some of the most beautiful,
white, fluffy clouds I ever seen in my life. And I thought, there's
sin. There's sin. Clouds, white clouds,
look so pure and white. Oh, that's those white sins,
ain't it? Yeah, those are sins too. I fast twice a week. There's those white sins, ain't
it? I pay tithes of all that I possess. There's those white
sins. I'm not like other men. I'm better
than everybody else. I go to church. I read my Bible.
I give tithes. I do so many good things. Who
is it that stands on the day of judgment and in the face of
God's Son says this, open to us. We deserve to be here. We've
done many wonderful works in your name. That's white clouds. but they're sins, white sins,
devilish sins. Oh, fifthly is this, only God
can clear the sky of clouds. They never made a machine and
I doubt they ever will that will clear the sky of its clouds.
Only God in heaven can clear the sky and make it blue. Only
the Son of God, when He arises with healing in His wings, can
clear your skies. Only the blessed Holy Spirit,
that sovereign Spirit who blows where He will, can make your
skies blue. Only He can do it. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgression. And you know something? The sins
of every elect soul was blotted out when the Lord Jesus Christ
said, it's finished. All of them. He said upon the cross, in Hebrews
chapter one in verse three, when he lifted up his voice and said,
it's finished, he by himself purged our sins. When was the sins of God's people
purged? 2,000 years ago. Outside the
city walls of old Jerusalem, Jesus Christ, the blessed Son
of God, purged their sins. The past sins, the present sins,
and their future sins. I don't understand what I'm about
to tell you. I really don't. I just believe
it. I lived 23 years in sin. And when the Lord called me to
Himself, He made me feel the guilt of those sins. He made
me feel responsible for those sins. And yet all the time, they'd
been put away. I was preaching this one time,
and I stepped down from the pulpit, and one of the dear brothers
there at church, and he's come up to me, and he said, Brother,
that's what I love about the gospel. You don't have to explain
it. Just proclaim it. Just proclaim it. That's a mystery,
isn't it? That's a mystery. Sins are also
purged from the conscience, are they not? He purged them upon
the cross, and then they are purged from the conscience. How much more shall the blood
of Jesus Christ, God's Son, purge your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God? And you know something? There's
a clear manifestation. to that to the heart. The Holy
Spirit that can make that manifest to your heart that He has purged
your sins. And that's what every one of
us want, is it not? That's what every one of us want. That poor
woman came to the Lord Jesus there in Luke chapter 7. She
was a sinner in the town. got down at his feet, and began
to wash the master's feet. And the Lord Jesus looked at
Simon, that Pharisee, and he said, Simon, her sins, which
are many, are forgiven her. He seemed like he told Simon
that before he ever told her that. I remember one time that
you met, you may have been there, I don't know, back when we used
to have our altercals. You remember that? This one fella,
This one, two guys sitting there, one of them was praying, the
preacher talking to him, and I heard him say this. I heard
him say this. He said, the Lord told me to
tell you that he had forgiven you all your sins. And one fellow
said, well, that may be so, but she needs to hear it from him. He told Simon the Pharisee, but
she needed to hear it. Did she not? So He turns to her
and He said, Woman, listen, I know every sin you've ever committed. But all of them are forgiven.
Your sins, which are many, are forgiven thee. Go in peace. Go in peace. I reckon, I reckon,
would you go in peace if He spoke to you and said that to you?
If you're near your sins, all the way from your youth up to
this very night. And you looked at them, they're
like clouds threatening you, ready in your own apprehension
to bring the wrath of God down upon your head. And the Son of
God said to you, they're all forgiven. Wouldn't you go in
peace? Oh, yes. That's wonderful, isn't
it? I have blotted out as a thick
cloud by transgression. and only he can do it. And oh,
and bless his name when he lets us know that he's done it. I
have blotted out. Secondly, who's included in this
invitation of the Lord? Return unto me. Well, let's consider
some of them. Those who have seemingly left
him, return unto me. They've left him. Well, let me
make sure that you know that I don't believe nobody that's
ever come to Christ leaves him never to return. No saved person ever leaves the
Lord Jesus Christ to be lost again. He may fall, but he'll
never fall away. But you know, it's possible to
leave Christ. How do we do that? Well, we're
told about some in Revelations 2, who have left their first
love, aren't we? The Lord said, I know you. I
know your patience. I know how you've labored. I
know that you try those who say they're apostles and you found
them to be liars. But he said, I got somewhat against
you because you have left your first love. You remember when
the Lord first saved you? Oh my, wasn't that wonderful?
Man, you couldn't wait to get along with him and talk with
him and pray to him. Your meditations of him was sweet.
If you heard of a meeting 600 miles away, you'd try to think
about how I can get there. Is anybody here tonight? Your meditations of him maybe
is not sweet. Oh, you still read your Bible.
You're here tonight. But you're just going through
the motions. Maybe that's where you are. I hope you're not, but
you could be. Others have been there. I've
been there. It's like a lady that marries
a man and she loves him to death. And she delights to cook for
him and wash his clothes and keep a clean house. She can't
wait till he gets out of bed to make it for him. But then,
what happens? She begins just to go through
the motions. Oh, she still does. She does it. She does it because
she's expected to do it. But it's a burden to her. It's
not the delight of her heart. She's not thrilled to do it.
Remember that? Remember when your love was a
flame for the Son of God? Remember from whence you are
fallen? Well, here's a blessed, here's a blessed verse from the
Lord, our lover, our redeemer. And here's what he says. Return. Have you left your first love?
Return unto me. I have redeemed thee. Maybe some
year tonight, maybe one year tonight has been overtaken in
a fault. Doesn't that happen to us sometimes?
We get overtaken in a fault. Some lust gets on our heels and
we can't shake it. And at first we can resist it,
but boy, after a long enough time, it gets us down, it overcomes
us, and we yield to it, and we've sinned. We've been overtaken
in a pleasure, a fault. The world's got to us. You ever
been there? Here's a wonderful invitation,
is it not? Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Maybe let's go one step farther
down. Could this possibly happen? Could it even be worse? Could
somebody have so left the Lord Jesus Christ tonight that they've
gotten so slothful and neglectful and sin has so deceived them
that by all appearance they've left Christ altogether? They
can't even pray anymore. They've laid their Bible upon
the shelf. Through the week they never open it anymore. And sometimes
you may go for weeks or months and they never darken the doors
where their Lord is worshipped. Could that possibly happen? Oh,
how many times have we seen something like this happen? And if it hasn't
happened to you, it's only because of God's grace that's helped
you up and kept you from it. What will happen to a poor child
of God when he leaves his first love? And he begins to go down
that slippery slope of sin. Where will he wind up? I think
the saddest story in the whole Old Testament is this. And it
happened to the wisest man in the Old Testament. Solomon, when
he was old, loved many strange women. And they led his heart
away. You don't know the heart, do
you? Where's the heart that gets led astray? Where's your heart,
dear child of God? I don't know where it may be,
but listen, wherever it is, if it's gone astray, if it's astray
a long ways, here's the master and he sends this message, return
unto me. How many children have left home
and the parents missed them so bad, they took out ads in the
newspaper and said, son, daughter, If you read this, I love you,
come home. All is forgiven. Well, if you're
straying tonight, dear child of God, dear daughter of God,
here's an invitation from the lover of your soul. Return unto
me. One of the best messages I ever
heard preached in my life. Return unto me, oh Israel. You
remember preaching that? Return unto me, oh Israel. Oh
my. Have a wonderful Savior, don't
we? What a wonderful Savior. Thirdly, consider this with me
just for a minute. On what grounds are they told
to return? I have blotted out. As a thick
cloud thy transgression, as a cloud thy sin, return unto me, for
I have redeemed. This is amazing. What a miracle
this is. What a mystery this is to me. I don't know of anything
that will re-break a hardened heart. But to be told, it's already
forgiven. Oh, my sin of straying, my sin
of coldness and love, return, child. It's already blotted out. It's already forgiven. I can't understand that, can
you? When Nathan went to David and David committed those awful
sins of adultery and murder. And Nathan said, you're the man. David said, I'm going to die.
I've sinned against God. And Nathan said, you're not going
to die. The Lord has already put away
your sin. I wonder when he did it. I wonder
when he did it. Here's the mystery. You find
David in Psalms 51 asking him to do it. I think there's such
a thing as the Lord has done it. And then in our experience,
he does it. It's something like that. But
Paul, I can't understand all of that. I start trying to explain
these things and I mess it all up. But I tell you this, I tell
you this, there's nothing that will bring a straying child back
home again. than this right here. I tell you what you can't do
to a child of God. I don't care how far he strayed.
You can't hang him over hell, as we say. You can't do that. You may tell him the Lord will
whip you good, and you may tell him some other things that he
may get himself into, but I tell you, I think the Holy Spirit
has the best motives returning to me. For I have redeemed you. I have blotted out your transgressions. Return unto me." Those poor disciples
in the upper room. And the Bible says they were
scared to death. They denied the Lord. Peter cussed and swore
he didn't know Him. And now they were hiding out
for fear of the Jews and probably for fear of God. We betrayed
Him. We've sold him out. In his hour
when he needed us the most, we left him. And there they were
in the upper room. Their hearts was grieved, their
eyes full of tears. And the Lord Jesus coming right
in the midst of them. He said, peace be unto you. And
he showed them his hands. And he showed them his side. And you know something? The sins
that they'd been weeping over and confessing had already been
purged away. Isn't that wonderful? I heard
one man make the most wonderful statement. He said, while a child
of God weeps over his sins and grieves over them and confesses
them, really and honestly, the only way he is allowed to consider
his sins is this, that they have been purged 2,000 years ago upon
the cross of Calvary. Boy, that'll bring a true confession
out of you. Return unto me. Return unto me. On what ground? I've redeemed
you. Lastly is this. What a condescending
God we are. Ain't this amazing? This is him
speaking. This is the triune God saying
return unto me. This is not Isaiah. This is God
speaking. And it's God speaking to people
who have left Him. And now He's saying, return. I tell you what, you do very
much to me. And I just assume you stay away from me. That's
the way I am. I try to act pretty humble and
like a pretty nice guy around people like you. But you know God is not like
me. Those that abused His mercy grieve the heart of his blessed
son, he condescends and says to them, return unto me. Paul made this statement. I can
hardly get a hold of it. He said this. We beseech you in Christ's stead,
be ye reconciled to God. He said this, we are ambassadors
for Christ. as though God did beseech you
by us. God is pleading with you. God is asking you. God is calling
you alongside of Him. God is doing that. Now, brothers
and sisters, if God is a God that you can tie His hands If
He's such a God that you can get over a barrel and He can't
do anything unless you let Him, all right then, there's no mystery
in that. But He's not like that. God's a God that does what He
wants to do. God is a God that does His will
in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of this earth
and no man can stay His hand or say to Him, what are you doing?
And you know something? He brings some people into this
world And He lets them stay in their sins and darkness and damns
them for them. He more or less leaves them to
themselves. If nothing else to show to us,
He owes us nothing. And then, when this same God
condescends to straying me, and says, Bruce, I beseech you, come
home. Come home. I've redeemed you.
I love you. You're mine. I bought you. And
Christ says to me, I've purchased you and I'll have you. You're
mine. Don't that break your heart?
Don't it make you look up to him and say, what kind of God
is this? This sovereign Lord who condescends in tender mercies
to tell me, straying me to return. Oh, I've never known anybody
like him. Have you? I beseech you by the gentleness
of Christ. Oh, if you're here tonight and
you've strayed from him, come home to him. Come home to him. That's his word to you. Come
home to him. You see some threatening clouds
in your sky? Then come home and you'll see
a blue sky again. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgression. One more thing. Maybe you're
here tonight and you say, Bruce, I've never come to the Lord. I've never come and gave myself
up to Him. I've never left Him because I've
never came to Him. Well, let me see if I can make
this scripture fit your case, maybe. You left Him in Adam. We all
went astray in Adam, did we not? Then, Maybe this scripture is
for you. Will you come to Christ? Will you come to the Lord Jesus
Christ tonight? Will you bow down to Him and
believe on Him? Then you can know this. This
scripture is for you because He has redeemed you. You're here tonight and you've
never come to Christ? Then come! Come and prove my
text. I have redeemed you. Because
everybody that he's redeemed is coming to him. They're coming. They have to. They must, because
he's redeemed them. Bless his name. Thank you, pastor.