Isaiah chapter 44, verses 21 and 22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have farmed 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. If I can get my throat cleared.
If I can't, you'll have to put up with me. It's not too pleasant to hear
me anyway. I want us to... I know John... I'll give John time to say that
then. Don't ever give John an opening. Here in the book of
Isaiah, Isaiah prophesied for probably longer than any of the
other prophets. We're not for sure how old this
man was when he died. Some have predicted probably
110, even 120 years old. He prophesied through at least
four kings. You find that written there in
the first chapter of this book. And he mainly prophesied and
preached to these people around Jerusalem and Judah. That's who
his ministry concerned. And it was usually a ministry
of wool. Here at this time he was getting
rather old. The Assyrians had already came
in and taken many of the cities of Judah captive and taken them
off to Assyria. His heart was broken about that.
He tells us in this chapter that he knows that they're going to
be carried away captive. A man that's never been barred
yet, Cyrus, is going to let them return and rebuild the temple.
So he's looking at his nation that will be devastated. And
he's saddened about that. His heart is broken about it.
But beginning sometime around chapter 40 of this book, he begins
to look beyond the trouble of this nation, the sin of the nation,
and even the restoration of this nation. And he looks to the time
of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, the kingdom of the Messiah,
a spiritual kingdom. Jerusalem won't be a natural
Jerusalem, but a heavenly Jerusalem when the Israel of God will be
the believers in the Lord Jesus Christ. God's Israel. He makes
mention of that in Isaiah chapter 62. Turn there with me just for
a minute and see that. The time of the conversion of
the Gentiles. Look here in chapter 62 in verses
1 through 3. His heart seems to be caught
up with this. He says here in verse 1 of chapter
62, For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem's
sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth
as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth. And the Gentiles shall see thy
righteousness, and all kings thy glory. And thou shalt be
called by a new name." That's a new name. New Jerusalem, which
is above, is free. "...which the mouth of the Lord
shall name, and thou shalt also be a crown of glory in the hand
of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hands of our God." So,
he looks to a better time. He looks to the gospel time that
you and I now live in. And verses 21 and 22 that I read
to you is gospel language. This is gospel language. Some
people call this the gospel of Isaiah. And I think we rightly
can call it that. But he speaks here in my text
in gospel language. He says this, I have blotted
out As a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins, return
unto me, for I have redeemed thee. And that's what I want
to look at verse 21 or verse 22 with you this morning. I want
to see four things here. First, I want to see why sins
are compared to clouds. Then secondly, I want to see
who is included in this invitation, in this command, in this exhortation,
return unto Me. Who is included in that? And
then thirdly, I want to look at the grounds upon which they
are told to return. I have blotted out thy transgression. I have redeemed thee, therefore
return unto Me. Then lastly, and just for a few
minutes, I want to look at this mysterious condescension of the
triune God, that He humbles Himself, as it were, to declare, Return
unto Me. So first of all, let's begin
with the first point, why sins are compared to clouds. And the
first reason, I imagine, would be because of their vast numbers,
the vast number of sin. The last few days I've been thinking
about this and I even mentioned it to the granddaughters. I asked
them if they could count the clouds. The last few days we
have had several clouds. And someone said, why no, it's
impossible to count the clouds. And it is. Have you ever tried
to do that? Why it's impossible to do it.
You start looking closely and especially on a cloudy day and
some little clouds you can hardly see. And sometimes the little
clouds will hide behind the big clouds, and sometimes one cloud
will integrate right into another cloud. It's hard to distinguish
one cloud from another. And I've noticed almost all week,
especially Thursday and Friday, that I've noticed there's been
clouds that seem to cover the entire canopy of the sky. If you look to north or south
or east or west, it seems like they begin at the horizon and
come all the way overhead. And it's impossible sometimes
to count the clouds, isn't it? And isn't that the way our sins
are? I've often said this, if we stood
on Virginia Beach, out of Virginia, there on the East Coast, and
we walked to San Diego, California, to the West Coast, and every
time we made a step, we confessed our sin. We confessed one sin
with every step. We would run out of room before
we run out of sins to confess. That's how many our sins are. Now sometimes you may not know
that. But I tell you, when the Lord opens our hearts and lets
us see what's in there, I'm telling you, brothers and sisters, the
sin, the clouds, seems to magnify. Our sins are so many that somebody
said only God Himself could count them. From the sins of our youth,
sins of our thoughts, sins of our omission, sins of commission,
Sins of motive? Who can always discern the sins
of the motive? Why we do what we do? Why we
abstain from doing what we do? Sins of desires? Sins of words? Sins of deeds? Dear old Horatius
Bonar wrote that song. All my iniquities crimson have
been. Infinite, infinite sin up on
sin. Who can count sins? Nobody but
the God that we've sinned against. He knows them. He sees them.
Because the heart where these sins originate, He sees the heart. The heart is naked and open in
the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. Our heart's a little
incubator, isn't it? It's a little manufacturing place
where sins are produced. And the Lord sees them there
in their infancy as they're born. He counts the sins. He knows
them. He sees them. When the Lord Jesus was there
eating dinner with Simon the Pharisee, there was a lady there
that was a sinner in the town. And the Bible says that the Lord
looked upon that woman and said, Her sins, which are many, are
forgiven her. How did He know they were many?
Because He's God, isn't He? And He knows these things. He
knows sins. And sometimes clouds represent
to us the sins that we commit. Oh, He can name them. He can
number each of them because He knows them. I've said before,
I can't remember my first sin. Can you remember the first time
you sinned against God? I'm sure I was unconscious of
it. Before I was ever conscious of sinning against God, I did
it. I can't even remember my last sin. But I'm sure that my sins, if
I saw them, would be like clouds in the sky. Thy clouds are sins. Secondly, these clouds representing
to us are sins. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud because The darkness sometimes are just a thick cloud like we
have this morning, and it blots out the shining of the sun, doesn't
it? Sometimes thick cloud, it hides our eyes from the sun,
and sometimes it hides the sun from us. We can't see it, and
it can't see us. The nature of sin is a darkening
thing. It blinds the eyes that we cannot
see The Son of Righteousness. Did you ever have sin so blind
your understanding that you can't look up? Oh, you try to look
up, but it seems like the heavens are so dark that you can't see
through the clouds. The Lord Jesus is there. He never
leaves us. He's always shining just as sure
as the sun is shining above those dark clouds. But we can't see
Him, can we? Old Job said during his trial,
he said, Oh, that I might know where I could find Him. I've
searched for Him, but I can't perceive Him. Why? These clouds
sometimes cover the skies. But it's even worse than that,
isn't it? The Bible says sometimes these clouds hide the face of
God. He hides His face. Listen to
what He says. The Lord's hand is not shortened
that it cannot save. His ear is not heavy that it
cannot hurt. But your iniquities have separated
between you and your God, and your sins have hid His face. Sometimes sins causes God to
hide His face from us. Thirdly, think about this. Sins
like clouds or threatening things. We saw, I looked out yesterday,
Colleen said they mentioned Springport on the radio yesterday. And she
said we must have been getting a storm indeed if they mentioned
the little community of Springport on the radio or TV or whatever
it was. But I looked out yesterday and
I thought, man, what a threatening cloud. I was in a little store
and the guy was having trouble waiting on me and I couldn't
pay for it. And I saw that cloud coming and I thought, man, if
you don't hurry, I'm in trouble. And there he said, punching on
those buttons, here the storm came. And I got wet. And it stopped
for a while and I went out for a walk and got a long way from
home and here it come again. And I looked up and I thought,
oh no, we're going to get a storm out of this. And I got wet again.
Threatening clouds. Have you ever seen a dark cloud
coming? And boy, you could tell, here's danger coming. I wonder,
the first time that any clouds ever come over this world of
humanity was all the way back there in the book of Genesis.
I wonder what humanity thought when the West grew dark. And boy, this cloud, I mean the
dark cloud, they never seen anything like this. They thought, what
is this? And when they could see the clouds begin to churn,
and flashes of lightning that almost blinded their eyes come
out of those dark clouds, and the thunders shook their chest,
I bet you they began to get afraid. And then when the drops of rain
began to come, and when the whole canopy of the sky was nothing
but this dark, threatening cloud, and began to pour out this water
from heaven, and the waters began to rise for forty days out of
this threatening cloud. I often wonder when Noah left
that ark, the next time it rained, can you imagine the next time
he saw a threatening cloud come? Oh, the dread that filled his
conscience. Is it coming again? Don't you imagine he'd look for
that rainbow in the sky? The promise of God that He'd
never send a flood? The clouds are threatening things. They're threatening things. I
think if people, this poor wicked world, saw sin in its true nature
and how a vengeance of justice was rising to punish it, I don't
think men would sin as easy as they do to you. I don't think
men would sin against God all day, then lay down in sleep as
easy as they do if they saw their sins ready to bring the threatening
vengeance of God's justice upon them. But fourthly, think of
this. When we think of sins represented,
clouds represented to us sin, this is a wonderful thought.
Nobody but God can clear the clouds from the sky. Nobody but
God can clear the clouds. No man can do that. It's impossible. Take all their instruments and
all their fans and all their jets together, flying through
the air, and they'd just make a mess out of things. can take away the clouds and
leave the sky so beautiful and blue. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. Why did
He do it? Nobody else can. Only the blood
of Jesus Christ can blot out sin. Only the winds of the sovereign
Spirit of God can come and remove the clouds from our conscience
and leave the sky clear and beautiful. The Bible talks about the different
ways that sins are purged. It talks about on the cross,
doesn't it? Hebrews 1.3 says, when He had by Himself purged
our sins. You know where our sins were
purged. Dear child of God, remember this. Don't ever forget this.
Where your sins were purged, there at the cross, the sins of every child of God,
even before He committed them, were purged. Can I understand
this? No. This is a mystery to my heart,
and all I can do is believe it. He by Himself purged our sin. I left the pulpit the other day
and Brother Wayne said something to me that just thrilled my heart. He said something like this.
He said, you know, the joy of the gospel is not explaining
it. It's just proclaiming it. And
that's all we do, isn't it? Before we ever committed a sin,
it was purged. It was put away. And then another
way the Bible talks about the purging of sins is purging the
conscience. How much more shall the blood
of Christ purge your conscience from dead works? There's where
the clouds arise, isn't it? It's in our conscience. And what
can clear away those clouds? The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins. And there's such a thing as a
clear manifestation of these things in our hearts to know
that He's purged them, to know that He's forgiven them. And
this is what David was talking about in Psalm 51 when he says,
Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the bones which thou hast
broken may be healed. The Lord Jesus
said to Simon the Pharisee there when that lady was at his feet. He looked at Simon the Pharisee
and he said to him, Simon, her sins, which are many, are forgiven
her. But you know she needed to hear
that from him. So he turns to her. Now here's
the mystery of this, and I can't get a hold of this, but I believe
it. Her sins had already been forgiven her. He said so. He said, Simon, her sins, which
are many, are forgiven her. But yet she was there weeping
over her sins. She needed to know it, didn't
she? And oh, there sometimes we live with these clouds in
our conscience, the knowledge of sin. And we just can't believe
that they've already been blotted out, that they've already been
forgiven. But there is such a thing as
the Lord Jesus giving us assurance to make us know for certain that
our sins are forgiven us. So He turns to that woman and
He says to her, Thy sins are forgiven thee. And then He said,
Go in peace. I reckon. I reckon. If He said that to you, could
you not go in peace? If He took all the clouds and
left your sky blue, could you not go in peace? I remember years
ago, not long after the Lord saved me, we used to all gather
round up front and pray. And sinners used to come and
pray. listening to a poor guy seek
the Lord. He was a lost man seeking the
Lord. And there was this preacher standing there by him. And he
said, I never will forget this. I told him how ridiculous this
was. And he said to that young man, he said, the Lord told me
to tell you that He had forgiven you your sin. And I thought to
myself, why don't He tell him? Why tell you? You don't need
to know it. It's Him that needs to know it.
There's no sense in going down here to St. Anne's and getting
up before a priest and confessing to him and asking him to absolve
you and him telling you to go in peace. There ain't but one
that can do that, is there? And that's the Lord whom we've
sinned against. Only one can clear the clouds,
brothers and sisters. Only one. That's my first point. Sins are likened to clouds and
only God can purge away the clouds. Secondly, who's included in this
invitation from the Lord? Return, return unto Me. Somebody needed to return, didn't
they? Who's He speaking to here? Well, let's consider three or
four people. Those who have come to the Lord Jesus and left Him. They've come to Him and left
Him. Not completely. Not to ever be lost again. That can never be. What then? They've left their first love.
The Lord Jesus was writing to the Ephesian church and He commended
them. He said, You've labored. You've
been patient. You've stood for the truth. You've
examined these false apostles and failed them to be liars.
But then He says, I've got somewhat against thee because you have
left your first love. The sweetheart love that they
had for the Lord Jesus, they left it. They were being true
to their outward profession. They never quit praying. They
never quit witnessing. They never quit reading. They
never quit going to public worship. But they lost their sweetheart
love for the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything now was outward and
wasn't here to labor to them. I've been there, I know. It's
a labor then, isn't it? It's just a duty. You do your
duty. You pray because you know you
should. You read because you know you should. You keep coming
to worship because you know you should. But the love is gone,
isn't it? Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. It's like a woman that married
her husband and she loved him to death and she loved waiting
on him. And she still does it. She washes
his clothes. She cooks for him. She cleans
the house. But she don't look at him and
smile at him. She don't enjoy doing it for
him. It's become a habit. She does it because she knows
she should. And it's her labor. Remember when the Lord first
saved you? Boy, you couldn't wait to get
along with Him, to seek His face. I mean, you meditated upon Him. If you had five minutes on your
job, you opened this Bible, and oh, it was the sincere milk of
the Word, and you thirsted for it. And every word you read,
it just went to your heart. And if there was a meeting 300
miles away, you'd drop everything and go to it. Oh, your heart
burned with love and warmth for the Lord Jesus Christ. It was
a blaze for Him. But how is it now? How is it
now? The Lord Jesus said, Remember
from which thou art fallen. Remember how much you used to
love Me and seek Me with a warm and glowing heart. Remember and
return unto Me. Oh, this is the passage for you,
isn't it? Return unto Me, for I have redeemed
thee. Let's go one step further. This
Scripture is for those who have fallen. They've been overtaken
in a fault. If any man be overtaken in a
fault, maybe pride has overtaken him. Maybe ambition has overcome
him. Maybe some lust of the flesh
has overcome him. We're living in a day where it
seems like it doesn't matter, does it? Men just get overcome
all the time by things. But it just doesn't matter anymore.
It's just not important. Anything goes. We're living in
that kind of a day. But that's not Scripture, is
it? That's not Scripture. When a true believer is overtaken
with a fault and he falls and he's injured and he's wounded,
And none can heal his wounds but this one. And that's the
Lord Jesus. Here's the word to you. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. But it couldn't be worse. Let's
go one step further. That someone have gotten so slothful
and neglectful and deceived by sin. By all outward appearances,
they have left the Lord altogether. They can't even pray anymore.
They haven't read their Bibles for quite some time. It merely
sits upon the shelf. They never darken the door of
the place where they used to go and worship the Lord in spirit
and in truth. Could this happen to a true believer?
One of the saddest stories in the Old Testament is concerning
the wisest man in the Old Testament. The Bible says that Solomon loved
many strange women. And when he was old, they led
his heart away. Can you imagine that? They led
his heart away. He left the Lord. Maybe somebody's
here like that. I tell you, I've seen people
like this, and I've heard of it. And it's only been by the
grace of God that any of us have escaped such an awful, awful
fall. But here's the message. Thank
God there's a message of grace. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Where may a true child of God
wind up when they leave their first love and start down that
slippery slope of sin? Wherever it winds up, here's
the message to them. return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Thirdly, consider this. On what
grounds are they told to return? And then we get right back on
this grounds. I can't understand this, but I believe it. And here's
the grounds they're told to return. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud by transgression, and as a cloud by sin, return unto Me,
for I have redeemed thee." I don't know of anything that will re-break
a hardened heart, a straying child, more than this, to hear
that their sins have already been blotted out. Return unto
Me, you hard-hearted one. For your sin of a hard heart
has already been blotted out. Return unto me, you straying
one, because your sin of straying has already been blotted out."
Isn't that wonderful? David committed those awful sins
with Bathsheba, had her husband killed, and went for a whole
year. And the prophet went to him and
said, David, you're the man. And David said, I've sinned against
the Lord. And what did Nathan tell him
immediately? Listen to this. Thou shalt not
die. The Lord hath put away thy sins. The Lord hath put away. When
did the Lord put David's sin away? Was it before he ever committed
it? As soon as he committed it? I
don't know. But this is the grounds on which
David returned. He hath put away thy sins. Brothers and sisters, you don't
hold a child of God over hell with redness. You just can't
do it. It's not lawful to do that. You
can tell him about the chastening hand of the Lord that's going
to fall on you. You can tell him that. The Lord's going to
deal with you severely. But I tell you, the best way
to deal with an errant child of God is the way the Holy Spirit
deals with it here. This is more apt to break his
heart than anything else. Return. Return to the Father,
for He's already blotted your sins out. That prodigal returned
to the Father, and what did the Father do? Did He threaten him
and say, You've got to work so long? And then I'll see about
forgiving you. He fell on His neck to me as
soon as He returned. And I'm telling you this morning,
dear child of God, wherever you find yourself, it may be an awful
predicament this morning, but return unto Him and you'll find
you're welcomed. You're welcomed because all has
really been blotted out. You're a redeemed soul. When
did Christ put away your sin? Those poor apostles were in the
upper room hiding out. They had denied the Lord Jesus.
They had forsaken Him. And boy, now they were scared
to death. They were afraid. They were afraid
of the Lord. They were afraid of God. That's
sin. And they were crying. They were weeping. And suddenly
the Lord Jesus came there and said, ìLook at my hands and look
at my side. Peace be unto you.î And those
poor disciples found out that the sin they had been so concerned
about and weeping over and afraid of had already been purged. Isnít that wonderful? All these clouds that were hanging
over their heads had already been blotted out. They just needed
to find out about it. And I'm telling you this morning,
come home. Come back to the Lord. Come to
the Father's house. Return unto Me, for I have redeemed
thee. Fourthly and lastly is this.
Look at this great condescension on God's part. Here somebody
has left Him, and instead of letting them go or striking them
dead, He condescends to them and says, ìReturn unto Me.î Isnít
that amazing? God who holds their very breath
in His hands, their very being. Look what He says down in verse,
chapter 44, and look in verse 24 and 25. This is the God here
that is speaking. Thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer,
and He that farmed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that
maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that
spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. I frustrate the tokens
of liars, I make diviners mad, that turn wise men backward and
make their knowledge foolish." He is God, isn't He? He's the
Sovereign Lord. And here He is condescending
to speak to the strayed ones, returning to Me. Paul, in 2 Corinthians
5, down around verse 20 and so, Paul brings this out about God
condescending. And he said, It is though God
did beseech you by us. God is beseeching you by us. Can you believe that God is speaking
through me this morning, through these poor lips, and He's saying
to the straying ones, I beseech you, return unto Me. We pray
you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. If God is
a God that you've got His hands tied, alright. If that's the
kind of God He is, there's no mystery in this. If He can't
do anything unless you let Him, all right. There's no mystery
in this. But if God is who He says He
is, and He's the Creator and Sustainer of all, and it's Him
that condescends to beseech you to return, that's a mystery,
isn't it? It's not like He can't do anything
else. He can do whatever He wants to.
But what love! What tender mercies for God,
the triune God, to beseech us to return unto Him. Don't that
break your heart? Don't that make you want to turn? The Lord Jesus said, Come unto
Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I'll give you
rest. That's what the Lord Jesus said.
He says that. The sovereign, redeeming Lord.
Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly
in my heart. What kind of a heart does God
have? One of meekness. You don't find that in kings. You don't find that in the great
men of this world. You find pride and you find arrogance. You can't approach them to them.
But the eternal God opens up His heart and He says, return
unto Me. Why? I've loved you and I've
redeemed you. Return unto Me. And you know,
if that don't break a straying heart, I don't know what will. If drawing us with the cords
of love doesn't break us and lay us at His feet, weeping as
David did over his sins, I don't know what else will. Looking
upon Him whom you pierced, if that doesn't break our hearts
and bring a confession out of us, if that doesn't secure our
volunteer obedience to return, I don't know what will. But I
think it will. I think it will. One last thing. Maybe this could apply to you
this morning. If you're here and you say, Bruce,
I've never come to the Lord Jesus Christ. I've never come to Him
at all. I've never saw Him. I've never
believed on Him. I can't return. He's not talking to me. Well,
let's stretch this text just a little bit. and say, didn't
you go astray in Adam? You did go astray in Adam. You
left God in Adam just as sure as Adam did. You did. Well, why don't you return? Return and then you'll prove
my text. I have redeemed thee. Return
to Him and you'll prove my text. I have blotted out your sins.
And wouldn't it be amazing? Oh, wouldn't you leave here this
morning leaping that your sins have been blotted? You may go
outside and the sky is still dark with threatening clouds,
and you can't see the sun, but oh, in your conscience, between
you and God, there's nothing but a blue sky. And you can look
up and see His smiling face, and He looks down upon you and
He says, And you look up to Him, and you can say, You're my God.
You're my redeeming God. And all the clouds are gone.
And you have peace. Peace with God. The Lord bless this message. Let's
pray.