Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 63. The Lord has given me an awesome,
but a very pleasant task this evening. Comfort and encourage
the hearts of his people by praising his loving kindness. The title
of the message is the loving kindnesses of the Lord. You remember
these first six verses we looked at last week. Isaiah is described
seeing Christ coming to his people. He's traveling in the greatness
of his strength. He's coming from destroying his
enemies in Edom. His garments are stained with
the blood of his enemies because he's crushed them in the winepress
of God's wrath. And now he's come to his people.
He's not come to destroy his people, but he's come to spare
them. And that's his choice to do.
to do as He will. He can save whom He will, and
He can damn who He will, because Christ the Savior is mighty to
save, and He's mighty to damn, and He's just when He does both.
He's just when He saves, and He's just when He condemns. Now,
what do you have to say about that? That's the truth. But what
do you have to say about that? The church, the people that God
has saved, they say, I'm going to praise the Lord. I'm going
to give thanks for His loving kindnesses. His loving kindnesses,
plural. Whenever I was typing my notes,
my word program kept telling me loving kindnesses is not a
word. It kept trying to correct me. Oh, loving kindnesses is
a word. It is if you know the Lord. We'll praise Him for His loving
kindnesses. Look here at verse 7. I will
mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord and the praises of
the Lord. according to all that the Lord
hath bestowed on us and the great goodness toward the house of
Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies
and according to the multitude of his loving kindnesses. Isaiah
says, when I think about the Lord who is mighty to save, when
I think that he chose to save me, that he came to spare me
and not destroy me in the winepress of his wrath, the only thing
that I can do is mention His loving kindnesses. That's the
only reason He saved me. That's the only reason He chose
me. That's the only reason He spared me is His loving kindnesses. And Isaiah said, when I think
of that, I just got to praise Him. I got to praise Him for
who He is and what He's chosen to do for me. And that's what
I pray that the Lord will enable me to do this evening. I want
to mention the loving kindnesses of the Lord so that we leave
here praising His name. Now the loving kindnesses of
the Lord, those are all the Lord's acts of goodness to his people.
And Isaiah says there's a multitude of them. He says loving kindness
is plural. And then as he keeps writing,
it's just like saying loving kindness is not enough. He says
there's a multitude of the Lord's loving kindnesses. There are
too many of them to count. There are more than the Sands
which are by the sea. For the believer, This is what
we're going to find. Eternity won't be long enough
to praise the Lord for all of His loving kindnesses. We just
won't run out of loving kindnesses to praise the Lord for in eternity. But tonight, I just got about
40 minutes. So I'm going to confine myself
to five of these loving kindnesses that Isaiah mentions in his text.
The first loving kindness of the Lord is election, verse eight. For he said, surely, They are
my people, children that will not lie. So he was their savior.
The Lord says these loving kindnesses and this multitude of his mercies
and grace and tenderness to all this goodness of the Lord, he
says, is for my people, my people, the people that I made mine.
Well, who are these people that belong to God? Well, they're
God's elect, the people he chose to make his, the people he chose
to save in eternity. That's what election is, God
choosing a people before the foundation of the world, before
anything was created, God chose a people to save out of Adam's
fallen race. And once we understand what election
is, when there's no debate, election is a great loving kindness, great
loving kindness, because nobody deserves to be chosen by God.
Just the opposite is true. What we deserve is God's wrath.
We deserve to be that one crushed in the winepress of God's wrath
because of everything that we are and everything that we've
done. But in great love, God chose a people to save out of
Adam's fallen race. God chose those people to belong
to him. He chose them and he took ownership
of them. They're my people. If you're
one of God's elect, you belong to Christ. You belong to God.
And he made that choice in great love. God didn't just choose
a people to take ownership of. Like, there's a friend of mine,
Danny Belcher. He buys and he raises cattle
and buys and sells cattle. And he raises those cattle all
year long and takes them to wherever they go to sell them. And somebody
buys those cattle from Danny. They buy them. Well, they're
just their cattle to them. They're just livestock. But now,
when they give Danny the money, Those cows belonged, whoever
it is that bought them, they're his. That's not how God chose
his people. That's not the way he takes ownership
of his people. The relationship that God has
with his people is a loving relationship. It's the relationship of father
to a child. God made the people that he chose
to be his children. He said, they're children, they
will not lie, they're my children. And those people that God owns,
he loves them as a father loves his children. God is our father. Believer, God is our father.
We're his children. Now that's a special loving relationship. And we praise God for that loving
kindness. God chose to make rebels like
us his children. And when we praise God, let's
always be sure of this. Be sure we're not just praising
God for what He's done for us. But let's all always praise God
for who He is. The character of God is love. That's why He could choose sinners
to save. The character of God is love. That's why He can save
sinners. That's why He did save sinners.
That's worthy of our praise. The loving kindness of God's
electing love. The second loving kindness of
the Lord is redemption. God chose a people to make his.
So he says at the end of verse eight, he was their savior. Now
you know this, you've heard it many times. Election is not salvation. Election is unto salvation. God
chose a people to save. He gave them to his son in the
covenant of grace. In the fullness of time, the
father sent his son into this world to be the savior of those
people. And those people are saved because
God saved them. God the Son saved them. And do
you want to know how he did that? Do you want to know how he accomplished
the redemption of his people? God saved his people by making
his Son to be the substitute for his people and sacrificing
his Son for their sin. Look here at the beginning of
verse 9. In all their affliction, he was afflicted. And the angel
of his presence saved them in his love and in his pity. He
redeemed him. Isaiah says in all their affliction,
he was afflicted. God saved his people by afflicting
Christ our substitute with all of the punishment that our sin
deserves. The father made Christ sin for
his people and then he afflicted him with all of his holy fury
against that sin. And that's the way salvation
must be. Salvation must be an act of justice. Any salvation that God provides
must be just, because God's just. Does that make sense? God is
holy, so God can't ignore sin. He must punish sin. And by punishing
Christ as the substitute for his people, God provided a just
salvation that satisfies the holiness of God. That just salvation
is also an act of love. That's where people in our day
have gone wrong doctrinally. Salvation is not only an act
of love. It's an act of justice and love. And you see God's love more clearly
when you see the justice of God in salvation. Just salvation,
where Christ is punished as a substitute for his people, is an act of
great love. The angel of his presence who
saved his people is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he saved his
people in great love. What love? An indescribable love
that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Holy Son of God, would agree
to be made sin for his people. That didn't happen against his
will. No, he went into that willingly because he loved his people.
The thought of it nearly killed him in the garden. It was so
abhorrent to his holy person it nearly killed him just the
thought of being made sin. But he did. He went into it willingly
because he loves his people. What love that the Lord Jesus
Christ would agree to suffer all of the wrath of God against
the sin of his people. That he would agree for the father
to turn his back upon his son and desert him. so that he could
put away the sin of his people. And then what love? That the
Lord Jesus Christ, life itself, would agree to die. After he
suffered for the sins of his people, he would agree to die
in the last act of obedience to put away the sin of his people. Christ did that in love and pity
for his people who could not save themselves. That act of love is worthy of
more praise than we can produce. We're just not capable of producing
enough praise worthy of that act of love. But I tell you what,
let's give it everything we've got. Let's praise Him with everything
we've got. There is no greater act of love
than Christ sacrificing Himself for the people that He loves,
what He had to endure to accomplish that redemption. but he did it. And we praise him. Now, I know
it's not as much as it should be, but we praise him for the
love that caused him to do it. And we praise him for his perfect
person that made him the sacrifice that could put away the sin of
this world. And we're praising him for his loving kindness of
redemption. Then third, the loving kindness
is the Lord giving his elect a new nature and the new birth.
He says in verse eight, surely they are my people. Children
that will not lie. Now, in eternity, when God chose
a people, He elected a people to say it. God didn't look down
through time and see who would be a good person, who would be
a bad person, and choose the good people. He didn't look down
through time and elect a people who would be honest and would
never tell a lie. If that was true, God wouldn't have chosen
anybody. Because all of us are natural born liars. That's what
we are by nature. Natural born liars. David said
it. We go astray from God as soon
as we're born speaking lies. The Apostle Paul said, let God
be true and every man a liar. Now there's the truth of the
character of God and the truth of the character of man. Let
God be true and every man's a liar. Luke, John chapter eight. By
nature, By the nature of Adam, we're all under the influence
of Satan. We're all children of disobedience. So we lie. John chapter eight,
verse 44. You are of your father the devil
and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from
the beginning and a bow not in the truth because there's no
truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, He speaketh
of his own, for he's a liar and the father of it. And because
I tell you the truth, you believe me not. There's the, the Lord
explains our nature, why we don't believe him by nature, because
we're liars and we choose to believe a lie. We're under the
influence of Satan. Well, then who are these children
that will not lie? If that's none of us by nature
and Adam, who are these children that will not lie? Well, these
are the people God's given a new nature. and the new birth. When
God gives His people a new nature, He causes them to be born again.
He causes a new man, a spiritual man, to be born in them. That
man loves God. That man hungers and thirsts
after righteousness. That man hungers to read the
Word and hear the Word prove. That man hungers to pray. He
must pray. He must come and pray before
his Father. He must communicate with his
Father. That man praises God. And that new man who's born of
God, that's going to be the man that God takes to glory when
we lay this fleshly shell down. When this shell of flesh and
sin and corruption finally dies, the new man is going to be set
free from being in this body of sin. And that's the man that's
going to go be with the Lord forever. We certainly should
praise the Lord for that loving kindness. We can never produce
that life in ourselves. That's spiritual life only God
can give in loving kindness. Now, what about this business
of children that will not lie? Does that mean a believer never
tells a lie? Absolutely not. A believer is
capable of every sin. Every sin. Because we're still
in this flesh that's fallen, that's depraved, that's nothing
but sin. But this is also true. That new man will never lie.
He'll never lie because he can't sin. That new man has the nature
of God. So it's impossible for him to
lie. He's a partaker of the divine nature. Just like children of
Satan lie because they're of their father, the devil, they're
disliking. God's children can't lie because we're of our heavenly
father. Here's about this business of the new man. That new man
will not lie about who man is. He won't lie. We're all sinners
and we need God to save us. That new man won't lie about
the character of God. God's holy. God's just. God's sovereign. God saves whom
He will. God's God. And whatever God does,
it's right just because God does it. Whether I like it or not,
it's right because God did it. And that new man will not lie
about how sinners are saved. Sinners are saved by the person
and work of Christ alone without any contribution from us whatsoever.
That new man will never lie about that. Here's his loving kindness
that God gives to his children. God entrusts his gospel, the
gospel of his dear son. God entrusts that to his children.
They will not lie. Look, 2 Corinthians chapter 4.
2 Corinthians 4 verse 1. Therefore, seeing we have this
ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. We can't
quit, but we've renounced the hidden things of dishonesty,
not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully,
but by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every
man's conscience in the sight of God. That's the way God's
people enter the ministry, not with deceit and trickery, but
in honesty, not handling the word of God deceitfully. And
God has put his confidence in his people to preach his gospel,
the gospel of his son to his people, to the whole world. He
said, go into all the world and preach this gospel. God's entrusted
that to his children to go do that. That's all of us here. That's
not just the pastor. That's every person in this room.
You are in the ministry. You're in the ministry by supporting
the ministry. You're in the ministry by attending
it, by praying for it, by doing the things that need to be done
around this building. All of us are in the ministry. And we
ought to take that very seriously. You know, it could be God has
a people in our area that he's gonna save. He has a people he's
gonna call out. It could be, it could be. Sunday
morning, there were three visitors here who'd been for months listening
on the radio before they finally decided, we gotta go hear that
man in person ourselves. You all paid for that radio program.
Would it be that's one of God's? I don't know. But it'd be just
like He, wouldn't it? And His loving kindness, wouldn't
it be just like Him to have a people He's yet to save? He's gonna
call them out through the preaching of the gospel in our area. My
brothers and my sisters, let's be faithful to preach it. Faithful
to preach it in truth and love. Could be God's gonna use it to
save His people. Here's the fourth loving kindness
of the Lord. It's sympathy in all of our trials. It says in
verse nine, in all of their affliction, He was afflicted. Now, we say
the Lord sympathizes with his people and their troubles, their
trials, their heartache. It means a whole lot more than
when you and I sympathize with each other when someone's going
through a difficult time. You're going through something
just very painful, very difficult. I'll tell you, I'm sorry. I'm
so sorry that you're going through this. I'm sorry for your I'm
sorry for your heartache. I'm sorry for all the uncertainty
and the darkness and the worry. I might know what it feels like.
Maybe I do. Maybe I've been through that
before myself. Oftentimes, I don't know just what it feels like.
You're going through something I've never experienced, but I
can tell you I'm sorry. And you do that. You tell me,
I'm so sorry you're going through this. We meet together at the
funeral for visitation to do no more than say, I'm so sorry.
And that's pretty much as far as we can go with it. We don't
have the ability to take the pain away. We don't have the
ability to heal the body. We don't have the ability to
comfort the heart. But our God can. And He does. He does that for His people.
There is such a close union between God and His people that God says
when His people suffer, He feels their pain. He feels their anguish. He feels it so much that he says
he suffers with all their affliction. He's afflicted. Their union is
so close that whatever happens to his people, God says it happens
to him. Look at Acts chapter nine. Let
me show you that. Whatever happens to the people
of God, our Savior says, it happens to me. Acts chapter nine, verse three.
And as he journeyed, he came near to Damascus and suddenly
there shined round about him a light from heaven. This is
Saul of Tarsus. And he fell to the earth and
heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute
my people? Now it says, Saul, Saul, why
persecutest thou me? Saul, when you persecute my people,
when you throw them into jail, and you have them stoned, you
have them killed, and you take away everything they have, when
you persecute my people, Saul, you're persecuting me. That's how close, how intimate
the relationship is between God and His people. Look at Hebrews
chapter 2. Christ our Savior, became a man. And as a man, he suffered everything
that we suffer in this flesh, yet without sin. Hebrews 2 verse
14. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that
had the power of death, that is the devil. and deliver them,
who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to
bondage. For verily he took not on him the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore, in all things
it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might
be a merciful and a faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. For
in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. Our Savior became a man and he
suffered everything that we suffer so that he is able to succor
his people when they suffer. That word succor, it means to
aid and it means to tenderly, to kindly help or relieve. Here's what that means. When you feel pain, know this,
be comforted by this knowledge. Your Savior has felt far greater
pain than you and I will ever know. And because He has endured
that pain, He can identify with our pain. The songwriter said,
He knows the pain you feel. He can save, and He can heal. I might know something about
the pain you're going through, but I can't do anything about
it. Our Savior knows the pain that you feel, and He can do
something about it. When you feel sorrow, take comfort
in this. Your Savior knows more about
sorrow than you and I will ever know. He's a man of sorrows. And He was a man of sorrows.
And because He was, He can identify with our sorrow. He knows the
sorrow that you feel. You feel sorrow over loss of
a loved one? He knows. You feel sorrow over death? He
knows. Do you feel sorrow over one of your close friends betraying
you? He knows it. He knows it. And you feel the loss of a loved
one. And you miss him so bad. You just feel like, I don't know
what I'm going to do. I can't go on. Our Savior knows
that feeling of loss. A child who loses a parent still
has a father, they're a believer. A woman who loses her husband,
she still has a husband, she's a believer. He can relieve that
pain of sorrow and loss. When you're tempted of Satan,
you're tempted, you go out in the world and you work and you
work hard, you work hard. And you see folks out there in
the world, they work hard too. Somehow they get ahead and they
get all the riches of the world and they've just got everything,
the heart, the desire, and my goodness. And you think, I'd
like to have some of that, you know. Maybe if I'd compromised
the way I was doing things or if I moved off to a place where
the gospel wasn't preached, I could have me some of that. That's
Satan tempting us with the riches of this world. You're tempted
to be drawn away from Christ and that's a thing that scares
a believer to death. because we know we will leave
him to you if he don't stop us. When you're tempted of that,
you rest in this. Our Savior knows that temptation.
Satan tempted him the same way that he overcame him. Satan came
to him and found nothing in him. And he's able to keep you from
that wicked one too. And if you belong to him, he
will. He will take comfort in you.
Even when it comes time for the death of this body, You take
comfort in Him. Your Savior's already suffered
that. He's already suffered death too, and He'll be able to comfort
you in that time. And then after the death of this
body, when we've finally laid this body of sin down in the
ground, the Savior Himself is going to welcome you in the Lord.
And one day, He's going to raise your body. He's going to raise
it, but it's not going to be like in the vile body we're in
here now. No, it's going to be in a perfect body, a sinless
body, just like his body that was raised from the dead. And
in that body, you will be forever with the Lord. I believe that
to be all I want. He already took the sting of
it away. There's no fear in death for the believer. The sting of
death is gone because Christ died for his people and he rose
again from the dead. He's the first fruits of them
that slept. And since he's the first fruit, that means there's
gonna be many more to follow. Isn't that something we can praise
the Savior for? What a loving kindness. And because all this
is true, look at Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four, verse
14. Seeing then we have a great high
priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus the Son of God,
let us hold fast our profession. We have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. No, he feels
the feeling of our infirmities. In all of our affliction, he
was afflicted, but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Now, what's the logical conclusion
to that? The logical conclusion that we
have a high priest who is tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin, and that he's able to succor them that are
tempted. What's the logical conclusion of that? logical conclusion is
run to Christ the High Priest. Verse 16, let us therefore come
boldly under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and
find grace to help in time of need. Why is it that we can come
boldly before the throne of grace and find grace to help in our
time of need when we're hurting and sorry and we need someone
to succor us? Therefore, because Christ Christ,
our Savior was afflicted. When we're afflicted, He's afflicted.
He feels the suffering and the sorrow and the anguish of His
people. That's why we can come to Him and find grace to help
in time of need. Now that is something we can
praise God for, isn't it? Can we praise God for that? The
throne of heaven is always open to God's children to find grace
to help in time of need. Because through our Savior, Then
here's the last one, the fifth loving kindness of the Lord.
He will carry his children all the way home. At the end of verse
nine he says, and he bear them and carry them all the days of
old. Now God chose a people to save. He gave those people his
son to redeem. Christ came as a man, he accomplished
their salvation by his life of obedience, by his substitutionary
death, he redeemed his people from their sins. In the fullness
of time, the Holy Spirit comes. He gives those people faith.
He gives them life and the new birth. Points them to Christ. But now there's a long road.
A long road between here and there. A long road. There are
going to be many dark paths. There are going to be many dark
nights. There are going to be a whole
lot of rocky roads. And I know this about myself. I don't have
the stamina to go all that distance. I don't have the strength to
cross all those rocky roads. I don't have the sense of direction
to go to the right way in the darkness. How can I know I'm
going to make it all the way to heaven? How do I know I'm
going to awake in glory His likeness? Will you take Clinton? When God
saves His child, He doesn't take him and save him and put him
down and pat him and say, all right, go on now, go on. You're
going away and you can get there and I'll see you when you get
there. He doesn't do that. No, our Savior
never leaves nor forsakes his people. But more than just going
along with them, along the way, holding our hand. We went on
a walk last night and I was holding my nephew's hand, making sure
he didn't get on the road. More than walking along, I'm holding
my hand. More than just leading us along,
showing us the way, you know, he shows us the way we still
gotta walk our own selves. More than that, he carries his
people all the way home. And he does it in great love,
great tenderness. He carries his people all the
way home. When our girls were little, we
took them to Disney World. Remember the first time we took
Savannah was about three? And we prepared for the trip,
right? And we told her, now, we go to
Disney World. There's a lot of walking. You're
going to have to hoof it. They'll be asking us to carry
you. You're going to have to walk your own. So we've got enough
to carry in our stuff and walk in our own selves. You've got
to walk your own self the whole way. And they said, OK, OK, OK.
We will, we will, we will. Well, that weekend we got there.
First thing we did is we got into town there, and we went
to the church at Apopka. It was meeting in a flower shop
at that time. First day I ever met Greg Ellicott. Never laid
eyes on a man before. And listened to him preach two
great messages. And then we all went out to eat
together. Told him what we were doing there. And he said, well,
he said, let us take you over to Disney Village. You can kind
of see the sites. And we'll all go over and have
a good time. I said, OK. So we all go over to Disney Village.
And we're walking around. Well, guess what three-year-old
Savannah does after we've been there a few minutes? I'm tired.
I can't walk anymore. And her daddy was like, oh, you're
going to walk. And Greg said, no, she doesn't. And he picked that kid up and
put her on his shoulders. And there she went the entire
time we were there. And I told Greg, look, this is
the first day I've met you. You're already making me look
bad. And he said, shoot. And that kind of tenderness and
compassion for his children Our father's never the hard one,
says, you've got to walk. You know, in great tenderness,
he carries his child all the way home. Even when we don't deserve it.
Look at verse 10. But they rebelled and vexed his
Holy Spirit. Therefore, he was turned to be
their enemy and fought against them. He wasn't their enemy,
but he seemed like he was their enemy. Because when God's children
turn against him, rebel against him, vex his Holy Spirit, he's
going to chastise him. He's going to lay the rod, but
he's not going to forsake him. Look at verse 11. He remembered
the days of old, Moses and his people saying, where is he that
brought them up out of the sea with the shepherd of his flock?
Where is he that put his Holy Spirit within him, that led them
by the right hand of Moses with his glorious arm, dividing the
water before them to make himself an everlasting name? that led
them through the deep as a horse in the wilderness that they should
not stumble. As a beast goes down into the
valley, the spirit of the Lord caused him to rest. So didst
thou lead thy people to make thyself a glorious name. See, because of God's covenant,
because he's so jealous of the glory of his name, he always
leads his people safely. He always gives them rest. It's because of this covenant
because of who He is, not because of who we are. As a child of
God, weary and worn by everything going on in this life, you take
comfort. Your heavenly Father carries
His children on His shoulders all the way home. If you're on His shoulders, reckon
you're safe. Isaiah described the government
of creation being upon the shoulder of Christ. If He's carrying us
on His shoulders, I reckon we're saved. I reckon He's got the
strength to carry us all the way home. Our Savior gently,
tenderly carries His children all the way home. He doesn't
grab them by the arm and sling them up in the air. No, He gently
carries them in His arms just like a mother tenderly carries
that newborn baby. And like a shepherd who went
looking for the one sheep he's lost when he left the 99 in the
fold, he finds that one and he carries that sheep all the way
home. That's what he's going to do for you. That's what he's
going to do for me. That's what he's going to do
for everyone who believes his name. That's how we're going
to make it all the way home. It's by his strength, by his
character, by his loving kindness. character of the Savior guarantees
it. Did he praise you for that? I
reckon he could. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank you for
this precious portion of your word. We thank you for these
precious promises of the multitude of your loving kindnesses. And
Father, we do praise your matchless name. We praise you for who you
are. Only God, such as you, could
or would save sinful men and women such as we are. And we
praise you. We thank you for all of your
loving kindnesses. We thank you for how you rule
this world. You rule well, doing all things
well. Father, we thank you. We pray in your loving kindnesses,
your tender mercies to your people, that you would apply your message,
this message from your word to the hearts of your people, to
comfort our heart. This is, you know well, this
is a dark, difficult land in which we journey. We pray you
to apply your word to our hearts to comfort us, to give us assurance
because of Christ our Savior. It is in his precious name, for
the glory of his name we pray and give