Isaiah chapter 50, we're just
going to look at verses 1, 2, 3, and 4. And in here we see the sinner's foolish
charge against God, and then God's declaration through
His Son. foolish charge in his declaration. Now most sinners will try to
blame God before they ever will acknowledge their own sinfulness
and this is exactly what we see in verse 1. Thus saith the Lord, where is
the bill of your mother's abortion whom I have put away? Or which
of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have
ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother
put away." The people, the Jewish nation is upset with God. They are accusing
God of putting them away and they are accusing him of selling
them like they had at times sold their children to creditors. In Exodus chapter I can't They
didn't write it down, but over in Exodus, I think it was chapter
12, I'm not sure, and there's different places in the Old Testament
where if a family didn't have the money to pay their creditors,
they would sell their children. They would do that. And the accusation
here, that's what the Lord is asking them. He says, where is
that bill? You're accusing me. You're accusing
me of divorcing you, putting you away. And secondly, you're
accusing me, Jehovah God, of selling you to creditors. But God asks two questions to
this first point, the sinner's foolish charge. God asked two
questions to show the rebellious and self-righteous Jews, and
therefore all men by nature, all of us by nature are rebellious
and self-righteous. He asked them two questions to
show their folly. You say that I have abandoned
you like divorcement, and you also say that I have sold you
to creditors. But first of all, God is, this
book says that He is near to every one of us. He has not abandoned
us, we abandon Him. The Jews forsook God, God did
not forsake them. He does not move away one iota,
He does not change, and He cannot be charged with error, folly,
or sin. And the second thing God has
no creditors. You sold us to a creditor. You sold us like that to your
creditor. God doesn't owe anybody anything. So the fault never lies with
God. Yes, we believe and preach God
is absolutely without Hesitation totally sovereign in everything. Yet he cannot be charged with
error. He cannot be held responsible
for our sin. And that's what they were trying
to do. And you talk to people When John read that passage this
morning in 2 John, I would say the New Testament, the Old Testament,
the New Testament, I would say the believers throughout this
book had no problems with using and talking about the word elect,
election, remnant, chosen. It has appeared up there several
times in that book that John read, those short verses that
he read, the word elect appeared several times. When you speak
of God's free, sovereign, electing grace, you get people who We'll
throw it right back at you. Well then, if that's the case,
then we're not responsible. If that's the case, then God,
when we sin, He knows it and He did it and all these other
things. No, God deals with this and answers this question in
the first verse. Because my first thought, as
I mentioned, was the sinner's foolish charge against God. If he's on the throne and he
knows everything and does everything, is omniscient, omnipresent, all
these things, then why are we held responsible? Well, that's
the same question that Paul dealt with in Romans chapter 9. The
Lord deals with this in Isaiah 50, and he answers it, secondly,
God's answer to these groundless charges. We find it in the latter
part of the first verse. Behold, your iniquities. For your iniquities have you
sold yourselves. I didn't give you a bill of divorcement.
You did it. And for your transgressions is
your mother put away. The answer to our problems and
our sins, the accountability of our sins, the reason behind
that is you, you, you, or me, me, me. Turn to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59. There's another answer. Another
answer from this holy book to these groundless charges. Isaiah
59. Actually, the answer is found
in verse 2, but let's look at verse 1. Because it's the same
thought as we're going to see here in the following verses
in this section we're in now in Isaiah 50. Isaiah 59, look
at verse 1. Behold, the LORD's hand is not
shortened, that it cannot save, neither his ear heavy, that it
cannot hear. Here's the problem. The power,
the ability, the fault lies not in God. The fault lies in us. Look at this, verse 2. But your
iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins
have hid His face from you, that He will not hear. That prayer that that lady prayed
at that wedding, if she doesn't know Christ, it didn't even make
it to the ceiling. It wasn't her. It wasn't her. Why? Your iniquities, my iniquities,
have separated between you and your God and your sins have hit
his face from you that he will not hear. We are the only guilty
party ever. In this thing, this relationship
between us and God, we are the only guilty party ever. This is one, at least one, thing
which is missing from most pulpits today, and that is the total
depravity of man. Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. I know we were here months ago in Bible class, but Romans
chapter 3. Romans 3, starting in verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands,
there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way, they are together become unprofitable, there is none that
doeth good, no, not one. Now that's just not, I'm not
preaching to you, I'm preaching to myself and to you, to all
of us here. There is none righteous. No,
not one. And in order for us to be accepted
in the eyes of a thrice holy God, we must have a righteousness. Moral, we must have Christ's
righteousness or God will not accept us. The problem is, we
don't have a righteousness. We've got no, not one. No, there's none righteous, not
one. There's none that understand. There's none that seek after
God. And this is one of the things that God does when He begins
to bring you and bring me into the fold when He begins to reveal
us through the preaching of the gospel that we're not righteous
and that we never understood Him and we didn't seek after
Him. And most people get upset when they hear that. We did not. Now, we thought a person or a
thing we thought was God was a little g. And we thought we
had somewhat of an understanding of who God is, what he required,
but we don't. We do not. We don't have a clue
because we're all gone out of the way and we are together becoming
profitable and there is none that does good. No, not one. Turn to Isaiah, or excuse me,
Psalms 51. Psalms 51. David says it in another way. Psalms 51. Let's just start reading verse 1, go
all the way down to verse 10. Look at how this is worded. Under
inspiration, by inspiration of God, upon one who knew his sinfulness,
felt it, the weight of his sin upon them, he says, have mercy
upon me. One who is out of the way, who
doesn't understand, who has no righteousness. Oh God, according
to thy loving kindness, according to the multitude of thy tender
mercy, blot out my transgression. Wash me truly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. This person, this is not the
wording of somebody who's arguing with God like in Isaiah 50. Who's
saying you're the one that left us. You're the one that divorced
us. You're the one that sold us to the highest bidder. This
is not the language of that. This is the language of one whose
heart has been ripped open by the sovereign grace of God and
sees his need for blood sacrifice. This is a guilty sinner crying
for mercy. Verse 4, against thee and thee
only have I sinned. You'll quit worrying and arguing,
well I've sinned against the government, I've sinned against
my mom, my dad, those things will concern you, but the main
issue is I've sinned against God, and He can annihilate me,
or He can save me. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when you speak, and clear when you judge." We're
on God's side. If you damn me, you're correct.
If you judge me right now and I'm found wanting, you are right,
and I am wrong. Look at verse 5, I was shaped
in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me." Oh, there's
fighting words there. That is what we call the total
depravity of man, born in sin. Now how can that little child,
as lovely and beautiful as that child is, as he's being sprinkled
with water, Now, come on. He's... No. There's innocence
there. No, there's iniquity and sin. And that's the best that we can
attain to. Because it puts all of the saving
work in God's hands through Christ alone. Behold, verse 6, thou desires
truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part, thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. Purge me with this. And I shall
be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me. Hear how this is all
things that he's asking to be done from outside of himself
because he's born in sin. He's full of transgressions.
He's full of sin. That's the best we can attain
to. So he's asking to be these things
to be done to him from the outside. Purge me with this. Wash me,
make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast
broken may rejoice. Hide thy face from my sins, and
blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew a right spirit within me." We do not have that
heart that we were born with. Is born wicked, totally depraved,
and we have absolutely no ability nor the willpower to move one
step towards God. This is who we are by nature
and this is the highest mark we can attain to outside of a
supernatural work of the grace of God in our hearts. That's
totally depraved. We cannot, I cannot, Back to
our text, Isaiah 50. I cannot preach man too low,
too sinful, or too vile as far as God and this book is concerned. When he says there's none good,
no not one, that's what he means. Death begets death, not life. How can something that is dead
create itself into life? Death begets death. Only God
can create life. Well, there's the charge. There's God's answer to these
groundless charges. Then we see in verse 2 and 3,
a declaration by God himself. He says, Wherefore, when I came,
was there no man? When I called, was there none
to answer? Is my hand shortened at all that
it cannot redeem? For have I no power to deliver? Behold, at my rebuke I dry up
the sea, I make the rivers a wilderness, their fish stinks because there
is no water, and dies for thirst. I clothe the heavens with blackness,
and I make sackcloth their covering. Here's God's declaration. I am completely and totally Sovereign
and reign over all things. And you think that I am not powerful
enough or able to redeem or to save? I can speak and dry up
the seas. Therefore, I can also speak and
give a sinner a new heart. No man, he says in this verse,
he declares that when he spoke, no man came, no man answered.
We find that in John, you don't have to turn there, but we find
that in John chapter one. It's almost a direct quote from
what Christ said. He was in the world and the world
was made by him and the world knew him not. He came into his
own and his own received him not. It would be the same today. If Christ came to Jackson, he
would come into the world which he made and the world knew him
not. He'd come to his own and his own received him not. Religious
or not. The only way that we would understand
who He was and what He was about is if He opened our eyes and
ears and our heart and understanding to know Him, just like He did
those disciples so many years ago. Our God is able to save, He's
able to redeem, He's able to deliver. None can turn Him away
when He sets His power and grace upon any sinner. That's what
He's saying in these two verses. Is my hand shortened at all that
it cannot redeem? Have I no power to deliver? Many
can make promises, but may or may not have the ability, that
is, the arm, the power to make good. Many talk a good report
and lesson, but only God has the authority to back up His
word of truth in the salvation of sinful men and women. A lot
of people talk a good talk. Somebody was asking, you know,
this is when hunting season started yesterday. And the people I deal
with and the different shops, the different garages, there's
hunters everywhere. And I've been around it a long
time when I worked for the city. And I always have people say,
because the way I talk, they go, do you hunt? And no, I don't
hunt, but I can talk a good hunt. I can talk a good hunt. I can
talk a good hunt as you thought I was out there hunting. And
I just kind of laughed at myself. I thought, yeah, you talk a good
hunt, but I don't hunt. People talk a good salvation.
People talk about a God that does this and does that, and
he can't do it. But this book and this gospel, not only does
it talk a great God and a glorious salvation, but he's able. He's
able. And I just started, it just hit
me the other day. And I thought, isn't it really
interesting the way the Bible class started going this morning?
I said, Lord, the other day, send a revival. Send a revival in
this area. This area's got more churches,
eating places, and banks per square foot. I thought, Lord, send a revival.
And I thought it was very fascinating, very interesting. How the Bible
class went about us speaking for his name, telling about him.
Maybe the Lord sent a revival. I thought if not, I would love
to see that. But I thought about some of the
older members here. Before the Lord takes us home,
it would be nice to see this place packed. We're waiting to
hear from another company about adding on. Wouldn't it be nice
if that wasn't going to be enough? Man, we need to sell this place.
We need to find someplace bigger. I mean true, genuine revival. Start, I said, Lord, start right
here. Start revival right here. Within and without. Pray with
me that the Lord, if He's able, He's able. He says right here,
our problem is we think, well, it's this or that or I work too
many hours or I got to do this or I do that. No, let's just
get with it. If it happens, it happens. But
let us pray that he, because he said, is my hand shortened
at all that it cannot redeem or have I no power to deliver?
He can speak and the rivers will dry up. He closed the heavens
with blackness, verse three, and he made sackcloth their covering.
There's nothing too hard for him. Not a single thing. And he gives us the proofs in
verses 2 and 3. That he speaks and whatever he
says, whatever it is, obeys him. Well then look at verse 4. Now,
not only does God rebuke the foolish thoughts of sinners,
And it gives them proof that He can do as He pleases. Now
the Son enters the conversation here and seals this very declaration
of the Father. Look at verse 4. The Lord God
hath given me. Who? Christ. The blessed Son. The only begotten of the Father,
full of grace and truth. The One in whom the Father is
well pleased. This One in whom has the keys
to life everlasting. What does He say? The Lord God
hath given me One. First, the tongue of the learned.
The tongue of the learned. Turn to Matthew 11. Matthew chapter
11. He's given him the son, the tongue
of the learned. Look at verse 29 of Matthew 11. Christ is speaking here. He says,
take my yoke upon you and learn of me. Learn of me. God has given his son the tongue
of the learned. So I tell you and I tell myself,
learn of him. Learn of him. For he is meek
and lowly in heart, and we shall find rest on your souls. His
yoke is easy, and his burden light. He has given the son the
tongue of the Lord. His tongue, this tongue, this
thing which he has learned, speaks like no other man. For we saw
in the New Testament, we saw in the Gospels, that never a
man spake like this man. No man contained this little
member, says James. But this man, the God-man, not
only controls, but uses the tongue for good and blessing towards
his children. He has words of truth and mercy,
love and joy, speaking peace and forgiveness, speaking pardon
and hope, speaking of full satisfaction and perfect righteousness through
his substitutionary death. That is, the tongue of the learned. He says also in our text, he
says that I should know how to speak a word in season to him
that is weary. God hath given to him the tongue
of the learned in order that he should know how.