Let's turn to Isaiah chapter
1 together. Isaiah, the first chapter. In the first part of Isaiah's
prophecy in chapter 1, God has shown us five things distinctly. First, he shows us the universal
depravity of all the human race. Utterly corrupt. Utterly defiled. From the top of our heads to
the soles of our feet, there's no soundness in us. Altogether dead and trespasses
and in sins. Then in verse 9, having declared
the utter depravity of humanity, Isaiah declares to us the certain
salvation of God's elect. A remnant. He said, if the Lord
had left us a remnant, we would have been like unto Sodom and
like unto Gomorrah. But bless God, there is a remnant,
a remnant in every age in time, a remnant in every part of the
world who must and shall be saved. These are God's elect. God will
save his elect. He is saving his elect. He has
saved his elect. That's what God does in time,
in the work of his grace, in the hearts of men, calling them
out by the power of his word and the power of his spirit.
And then in chapter one, verses 10 through 15, Isaiah tells us
the utter uselessness of religion without Christ. God declares
that your prayers, your sacrifices, your deeds of worship, your deeds
of religious devotion, all of these things are vanity and obnoxious
to him. He's, I won't have them. I won't
have them. You see, religion without Christ
is useless and damning. Religion without Christ is useless
and damning. The only thing that makes our
gathering here of any value, the only thing that makes our
reading the word, our prayers, our worship, our songs of praise
of any significance is that Christ is our Redeemer. We come to God
by the mediator Jesus Christ, by the merit of his blood, by
the merit of his righteousness. The Lord Jesus declares where
two or three are gathered together in my name. That doesn't mean
we come together and say we're coming together in Jesus name.
That means, Bill, we have been gathered here by God's providence
and by his spirit, by his grace, gathered here trusting Christ,
his blood, his righteousness, his intercession, his grace.
Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am
I in the midst of them. We come to God, trusting the
Redeemer. We sing his praise, trusting
the Redeemer. We gather to worship him, trusting
the Redeemer. And that is what makes our worship
and our service acceptable to him, Jesus Christ the Lord. Then
in verses 16 and 17, the prophet tells us, God tells us by his
prophet, the impossibility of self-salvation. Wash and make
yourselves clean. Learn to do good, cease to do
evil. That's an impossibility. That's
not going to happen. God demands perfection. God demands
righteousness. God demands holiness. You can't
do it. I can't perform it. And then
in verse 18, the Lord God promises eternal salvation to all who
come to him by faith in the Lord Jesus. Come now. 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. Now let's look together at verses
25, 26, and 27. I will turn my hand upon thee, and purely purge away thy dross. That is,
with pureness I will purge away thy dross, and take away all
thy tin, and I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy
counselors as at the beginning. Afterward thou shalt be called
the city of righteousness, the faithful city. this place that
the prophet said if God had left us a remnant, we would have been
like Sodom and Gomorrah. We would have been just like
Sodom and Gomorrah. He now says, when I turn my hand upon you,
then you should be called the city of righteousness, the faithful
city. Zion shall be redeemed with judgment
and her converts with righteousness. What will it take to save you?
That's the question I want to consider tonight. What will it
take to save you? The answer is found many places
in scripture. It's given in different words,
but the answer is always the same. I know this, it will take
more than I have been able to do for you. It will take more
than my praying, my preaching, my pleading with you, my reasoning
with you. It'll take more than I can do
for you. It'll take more than your friends and relatives can
do for you. It'll take more than this church
can do for you. It'll take something more than
you can do for yourself. Salvation is of the Lord. And if ever you're saved by God's
grace, If you and I are brought into a saving union of life and
faith with Christ, it will be the work of God alone. It will
be the work of a divine resolution, a divine redemption, a divine
regeneration, and a divine restoration. Let's look in the book of God
and see what Isaiah says here. First, I know this. No one can
ever be saved without a divine revolution. that he be saved,
a divine resolution, not a human resolution, a divine resolution,
a divine purpose, a divine intent, a divine will. Our text speaks
not of man's resolution to turn to God, but of God's resolution
to turn his hand of mercy upon his elect remnant. The person
speaking, of course, is the Lord God himself, our Savior. The
ones he's speaking about are his elect, that elect remnant
that must be saved. And the thing he describes is
his salvation. Let me show you this purpose
of God as it's given in Romans chapter 9. Here is God's resolution,
God's will, God's purpose, God's determination. Romans chapter
9. The children being not yet born,
verse 11, neither having done any good or evil. Now, those
words are not put there just to fill up space. The children
being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that is
to tell us God's purpose, God's determination, God's will to
save, God's resolution has nothing to do with what we are or what
we do. The children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. Any other doctrine, any other
doctrine than salvation wrought by God, bought by God, purposed
by God. Any other doctrine is salvation
by works. God's done things this way that
it might be according to election and not of works, but of him
that calleth. Verse 12, it was said unto her,
the elder shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's before Jacob was born
and before Esau was born. That was before Jacob or Esau
had done anything good or bad. This was done before ever they
came into the world, representing what God has purposed for us
from eternity. He said, Jacob have I loved,
but Esau have I hated. People say, well, that's not
right. The Holy Spirit anticipated that. What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with
God? How dares a man set in judgment over God? How dares a man even
think about sitting in judgment over God? Is there unrighteousness
with God? God forbid. Verse 15 For he saith
to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I
will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. Moses
said, God, show me your glory. He said, all right, here it is.
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. to say that salvation is by the
determination of man's will, by the choice of man's will,
by the decision of man's will, is to declare that salvation
is by works just as much as if you said you're saved by doing
good. Oh no, so then, it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that
showeth mercy. That clearly is the doctrine
of Holy Scripture. Now, election alone is not salvation. Yes, that's true. Election alone
is not salvation. The works were finished from
the foundation of the world. God's purpose is God's accomplishment. God's will is God's doing. Having willed to save us, he
saved us. Having purpose to save us, he
saved us. But election alone is not salvation. Yet without election, no one
would ever be saved. Look at Isaiah 1 verse 9. Except
the Lord of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant We should
have been as Sodom and we should have been like unto Gomorrah That which God purposed for his
people they will experience in time but our experience of grace
in time and in no way affects God's purpose in eternity. That
which God purposed in eternity, God will perform in time. But
what God performs in time is exactly according to his purpose
in eternity. And all who know God, all who
know God are happy to know that's the way it is. It is not of him
that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth
mercy. Tis not that I did choose thee,
for Lord, that could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, hadst thou not chosen me. My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing, if I love thee,
thou must have loved me first. Salvation is not by the will
of man, but by the will of God. It's not by the works of man,
but by the works of God. Salvation doesn't begin with
man turning to God. Salvation begins with God turning
to man. Salvation begins with the will
of God. God says, I will turn my hand
upon thee. Salvation is accomplished for
us by the omnipotent hand of God's irresistible grace. That's how sinners are saved.
Not by the hand of affliction and chastisement, though I have
no question God uses those things. Not by the hand of vengeance
and wrath, though we recognize God's hand in judgment. Those
things never bring repentance. Those things never bring salvation,
but rather that hand which brings salvation. is the hand of omnipotent
mercy, efficacious, sovereign, irresistible grace. Blessed is
the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee. Well, there and I were discussing
this this morning. Works done, yes, but must be
done. And those who are saved from
eternity in the purpose of God are saved in time by the power
of God, for God causes us to approach to Him. He does that
in the beginning. And it does that through the
days of our lives so that he brings us to Christ and keeps
bringing us to Christ. He causes us to trust Christ
and keeps us trusting Christ. He causes us to know our need
of him and keeps us aware of our need of him. Salvation is
all together by his work. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. In the beauties of holiness from
the womb of the morning, thou hast the dew of thy youth. Sinners
are converted and turned to God when God turns his hand upon
the sinner. You'll be converted. You will
come to Christ when he turns his almighty hand upon you. How
does God save sinners? He snatches them as brands from
the burning. We run headlong into hell. Our determination is to have
our will and our way. Some run this way, some run that
way, all running with determined opposition to God, headlong to
hell until God steps in the way and stops us in our mad rush
to hell and plucks his elected brands from the burning. He snatches
his redeemed from the power of Satan. and turns the hearts of
his beloved to himself. How does he do that? When God
comes by the power of his spirit, when God lays his hand upon the
sinner, he breaks him. He breaks him. Many of you will remember Brother
Bob Lips. For the first few years I was
here, was still here in the church, and they owned a horse farm out
on Airport Road, and they raised show horses. And one day I was
asking Bob about the horses. I forgot exactly what question
I had. And he said, oh, we don't want to break them. We don't
want to break them. We want to gentle them. You don't
want to break the spirit. You don't want to break the spirit.
And I watched him. He and his daughter they get
up where those horses and they gentle the horses so they could
control them But they didn't want to break their spirit and
as I watched them and I said to him on one occasion Thank
God That's not how he breaks the wild ashes cold Job said
Have pity upon me Have pity upon me for the hand of God had touched
me when God comes in saving power He throws on you the saddle of
His grace and He rides you until He rides you in the ground and
you're glad to have Him doing it. He thoroughly breaks the
center. He causes the sinner to be glad
to bow to him, to be glad that Christ is Lord. He changes him
as he wrestled with Jacob and smote the hollow of his thigh.
And as he, as he pictures the restoration of his own, he restores
the center like Hosea restored Gomer after she had fallen. The
objects of salvation. are God's elect. God says, I
will turn my hand upon thee. The objects of his saving grace,
his saving purpose, his saving purchase, and his saving power
are the same. If God turns his hand upon you
to save you, that's the proof that he purposed to save you.
That's the proof that he purchased you with his blood. That's the
proof that has come to you in his grace. So salvation begins
with the divine resolution. But that's not all there is to
salvation. It takes something more than
God's resolution to save us. Our sins must be punished. God can't take you to heaven
without punishing your sins. We left out that good verse in
that song, judgment is coming. All will be there, each one receiving
justly his due. Each of us will receive exactly
what justice demands we receive from God. God sends folks to
hell because justice demands it. And God takes folks to glory
because justice demands it. Justice demands that our sins
be punished. And if our sins are punished
in a substitute, we enter into glory. If our sins are found
on ourselves, they must be punished in us. Justice must be satisfied
and righteousness must be appealed. So here's the second thing. The
salvation of sinners requires a divine redemption, a divine
redemption. You hear folks these days talk
about people messing up and say, well, I believe in redemption.
A man can redeem himself. Well, you might can redeem yourself
from debt, and you might can redeem yourself from any obligation
to me, and you might even redeem yourself from any offense you
cause to your neighbor, but you can't redeem your soul. The redemption
of the soul is God's work. Redemption before God is God's
work, a divine redemption. Before the holy, just, and righteous
God can save fallen guilty sinners, our sins must be purged away. Look at our text. The Lord God
says, I will turn my hand upon thee and purely purge away thy
dross. If you have a marginal reference
in your Bible, you'll notice that the text might read this
way. I will purge away thy dross according to pureness or according
to righteousness. Now turn to Malachi chapter three.
This is a prophecy of the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. A prophecy
of his redemptive work. Look at Malachi three, verse
one. Behold, I will send my messenger
And he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you
seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of
the covenant This one who comes the messenger of the covenant
is the Lord who will suddenly appear in his temple This is
the Lord Jesus Christ God our Savior whom you delight in. Behold, he shall come, now watch
this, saith the Lord of hosts. The Lord speaks of the Lord and
says, he, the messenger of the covenant, shall come. The triune
Godhead sends Jesus Christ the mediator, the messenger of the
covenant, who is himself God the Lord. But who may abide the
day of his coming? And who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire,
and like a fuller's soap, and he shall sit as a refiner and
a purifier of silver, and shall purify the sons of Levi, and
purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the
Lord an offering in righteousness." Dross represents iniquity, transgression,
and sin. Before God saves any man, the
dross must be purged. The iniquity, the transgression,
the sin purged away. And it's a very difficult thing
to do that. Not all the sacrifices, not all
the ceremonies, not all the rights of all the days of Old Testament
legal worship could put away one sin. You stop and think about
the sacrifices. Brother Moose Parks, a priest
here, about that high priest who sat down and he told you
how many millions of sacrifices were offered. But the blood of
bulls and goats could never take away sin. They were many, they
were costly, they were divinely ordained, but all those sacrifices
ordered in a precise way and ordered to be sacrificed in a
precise way at specific times. All of those sacrifices only
pointed to one who would come, who is God's sacrifice, who would
take away sin. Lord Jesus said, lo, I come to
do thy will, O my God, by the which will we are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. The Lord Jesus, God's darling
son, has completely purged our sins. When he had by himself
purged our sins, he sat down on the right hand of the majesty
on high. Purged our sins. Purged our sins. Washed away the stains. Not only
remove the horrible blots, the horrible stain, but every trace
of the stain purged away by his blood. Because he, by the sacrifice
of himself, put away our sins. Our sins were made his. And he, as our substitute, was
punished to the full satisfaction of divine justice. And in him,
we who are gods, we whom God purposed to save, we whom God
has redeemed by the blood of his son, we who believe on the
son of God have our sins completely purged away because we were punished
in him to the full satisfaction of justice. Turn to first Peter
chapter four. First Peter chapter four, won't
you see this? I want you to see how intimately connected God's
elect are with God's darling son. First Peter chapter four. As far as the east is from the
west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Look
here, first Peter chapter four, verse one. For as much then as
Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, Arm yourselves likewise
with the same mind, for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath
ceased from sin." Now, clearly, that's talking about our Redeemer.
You see Him seated yonder on heaven's throne? That man was
once made sin, Mark, and he suffered for sin. having suffered in the
flesh our Lord Jesus was buried and Justified in the spirit raised
up on the third day and seated in the heavens Because the sin
made his he ceased from it It's put away. It's gone. I read verse
2 Why is that stated? that he should no longer That
he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh
to the lust of men. That ain't talking about Christ. That ain't talking about Christ.
He never lived to the lust of men. He never lived in ungodliness. That's talking about you. Talk
about me we who suffered in the flesh with Christ We suffered
in him and we have ceased with him that we should no longer
live in the lust And in the flesh to the lust of men, but rather
to the will of God Oh, how blessed, how blessed is that union? So
that we now draw near to God, having a priest over the house
of God with a pure conscience, cleansed from guilt and sin,
purged away by the blood of Christ. Third, look back at our text
again, Isaiah chapter one. Something more is required. Our
text speaks of God's resolution. It speaks of God's redemption.
But before any sinner can ever see and enter into the kingdom
of God, before any sinner can ever see and enter into the kingdom
of heaven, he must be born again by divine regeneration. In redemption,
Christ purged away our sins, blotting them out of the book
of God's law in the court of heaven, blotting them out of
record in the court of heaven. In regeneration, in conversion,
He purges his elect from the guilt and dominion of sin. He purges our consciences from
dead works. Sprinkling our hearts from an
evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water We stand
before God now in regeneration as God the Holy Ghost gives us
faith in Christ Believing on the Son of God with God declaring
in us that we're justified having testimony from God as did Enoch
before he died so that this blessed gift of the Holy Spirit, this
blessed gift of God called life and faith in Christ is that which
is the experience of God's grace purposed for us in eternity and
purchased for us at Calvary. Justification is redemption accomplished,
justified before God. When Christ died, we were justified. He was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Sanctification, regeneration,
the new birth, holiness is redemption applied. Not according to our works, not
according to works of righteousness, which we have done, but according
to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and
the renewing of the Holy Ghost. What is that? the washing of
regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. It's ceremonially
typified in the Old Testament. In all those washings, the high
priest had to go through. Before they could enter into
the holy place, they had to wash themselves. Before they could
offer sacrifice, they had to wash themselves. After they'd
done this, they had to go out and wash themselves. Constantly
washing, constantly washing, constantly washing. We, God's
chosen royal priesthood, had been washed by his grace in regeneration. Washed in the blood of Christ
and washed by the power of his grace in the renewing of the
Holy Ghost. In regeneration and conversion,
the Lord God purges the dross of sin from his elect. Not that
he takes sin from us in our being. The sin dwells in us. And like dross, it's a heavy
burden, a dead weight upon us while we live in this tabernacle,
causing us to groan, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death? All iniquity, however, is caused to pass from us. And
we're clothed with a change of raiment, the righteousness of
Christ, the garments of salvation. by which we're justified from
all things, pure and spotless, without fault before the throne
of God. So that in conversion, God Almighty
purges away our guilt. In giving us faith in Christ,
declares us righteous before him and delivers us from the
dominion of sin. What does that mean? We are now freed from the dominion
of sin. Sin shall not have dominion over
you. As long as you vainly imagine
you can not sin. As long as you vainly imagine
that it is possible for you not to sin. you're under the dominion
of sin. And your sense of righteousness
and worth keeps you from trusting Christ. We're delivered from
the dominion of sin when we're delivered from condemnation and
the curse of the law brought upon us because of sin being
purged by the blood of Christ. Not only that, but he takes away
the 10 of self-righteousness. He removes the dross of our sin
and the tin of our self-righteousness. Tin has the appearance of silver. It just has the appearance of
it. You can feel it and know immediately that it's not. It
has the appearance of it. And our righteousness has the
appearance of righteousness. It has the appearance of nobility. We must be stripped of our righteousness
and made to trust the righteousness of our Redeemer, who said, except
your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom of
heaven. What? the Pharisees and the scribes,
those were the finest men. Those were the folks everybody
looked at and said, now there's a godly man. Boy, he's holy. If anybody gets to glory, the
one will be a Pharisee and the other will be a scribe. The Sadducees
and the scribes and the Pharisees, how They impressed men. They did things right. They fasted
twice every week. They counted out and gave a tithe
of everything they earned. Everything. They didn't eat unclean things. And when they were in the restaurant,
they always prayed and made certain everybody saw them pray. And
they'd stand in the street corner and blow a trumpet and say, watch
me now! I'm showing you what a good man
is. Showing you what a good man is.
And they were fellows who wore religious garments and clothes.
Everybody could see Jesus in them. Oh no. Oh no. Just a lot of religious
hooey. Ten. Ten. Accept your righteousness. Exceed their righteousness. You'll
never enter into glory. Well, what righteousness exceeds
that? Merle, a righteousness no man
can see. A righteousness no man can imitate. A righteousness no man can perform
except that man who's the God-man. Perfect righteousness. Righteousness
out yonder in everything done and righteousness in here with
a holiness of character, a holiness of nature. That righteousness
and that righteousness alone will stand us in good stead with
God. The Apostle Paul said, I count
all my religious activity, and all my religious doing, and all
my religious goodness, and all my religious heritage, I count
it just dung, just manure, so that I may win Christ and be
found in him. Listen now, not having my own
righteousness. but the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. Oh God, purge away our
dross and our tin and set us upon the footing of Jesus Christ
alone. No one will ever be saved, no
one, until he gives up all hope of personal righteousness. And
no one will ever give up his own righteousness until he's
born of God. Alright, here's the fourth thing
look at verse 26 and 27 Isaiah chapter 1 Whenever God saves a sinner There
will be a divine restoration and I will restore thy judges
as at the first and thy counselors as at the beginning Afterward
thou shalt be called that is when I have restored the fallen
city Thou shalt be called the city of righteousness, the faithful
city. Zion, I'm not talking about that
physical city over yonder on the other side of the world.
This is referring to that spiritual heavenly Jerusalem, the church
of God, the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall
be redeemed, completely delivered from the fall. Completely delivered
from the curse completely delivered from condemnation with judgment
With absolute justice and her converts with righteousness He
will purge us with pureness with justice and with righteousness
Listen to what the Lord God says when he speaks about the restoration
of his people in Hosea chapter 2 He says I will bring you into
the wilderness, and I'll speak comfortably to you. And I will
betroth thee unto me forever. Yea, I will betroth thee unto
me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in loving kindness, and in
mercies. I will betroth you to me in my
righteousness, in my justice, In my loving kindness, in my
mercy. And I'm going to do something
inside you. I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness. And thou shalt know the Lord. How does God restore his elect
to righteousness? How does he make of us the unfaithful
a faithful people? How does he make of us the unrighteous
a righteous people? How does he make of us an unclean
a clean people? He does it because he's redeemed
us with justice and righteousness. And he does it two ways, both
by imputed righteousness and by imparted righteousness. In
imputed righteousness, the righteousness of Christ is declared to be ours
in free justification. But you've got to be righteous
on the inside. You've got to be righteous on
the inside. God, remember, never plays pretend. God never plays
pretend. In the new birth, he comes and
creates in you a new man in righteousness and in true holiness. And that
new man, that new man is Christ in you, the hope of glory. And you know what that new man
does? You know what that new man does? Larry, if we could
summarize everything Christ did while he walked on this earth.
He believed God. We're justified by the faith
of the Son of God. And you know what that new man
does when he's created in you? He believes God. He believes
God. He trusts God. And trusting God has testimony
from God in his heart. in his conscience, in his mind,
that he's righteous and he pleases God because God has saved him
by his grace. Amen. Amen.