He prophesied into the reign
of Hezekiah, King Hezekiah, who was a good king, but God left
him, the scripture says, God left him to himself to triumph
concerning ambassadors that came from Babylon. Isaiah was healed,
you remember that, not Isaiah, Hezekiah was healed and He received
those ambassadors from Babylon. He showed them everything that
he had, all of his riches and everything that he as a king
had accumulated. And here, Isaiah is speaking
to Hezekiah in chapter 39, beginning in verse 3. Then came Isaiah
the prophet unto king Hezekiah and said unto him, What said
these men, these ambassadors? What did they say to you? And
from whence came they unto thee? And Hezekiah said, They have
come from a far country unto me, even from Babylon. Then said
he, What have they seen in thine house? And Hezekiah answered,
All that is in mine house have they seen. There is nothing among
my treasures that I have not showed them. Then said Isaiah
to Hezekiah, Hear the word of the Lord of hosts. Behold, the
day is come. that all that is in thine house,
and that which thy fathers have laid up in store until this day,
shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left, saith
the Lord. And of thy sons that shall issue
from thee, which thou shalt beget, shall they take away, and they
shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon. Then
said Hezekiah to Isaiah, Good is the word of the Lord which
thou hast spoken. He said, Moreover, for there
shall be peace and truth in my days. Hezekiah had a son by the
name of Manasseh. We all know the story of Manasseh. He was probably the most wicked
of all the kings that Judah had. And he was captured by the Assyrian
king and taken into Babylon. But there in Babylon, he repented. He prayed unto the Lord God of
his fathers, and God had mercy upon him and restored him to
his kingdom. And then later, I believe it
was about his great-great-grandson when Nebuchadnezzar came and
carried Israel away into Babylon, into captivity for sure. Seventy years they were to be
in captivity. So beginning with Isaiah chapter
40 and through these chapters we've been looking at the last
several Sunday evenings, Isaiah is prophesying of their deliverance
from Babylon. There's no question about that,
but we're not emphasizing or looking at that so much. as how
it pictures God's redeeming His people, His spiritual Israel,
from captivity and bondage and sin. If you turn back to Isaiah
44, The one sin of the nation of
Israel, which above all their other transgressions and sins
caused God to chastise them and send them into captivity, was
the sin of idolatry. And that may be one reason, that
may explain why we have several passages in these chapters that
speak to us of the absolute foolishness of idolatry. Notice here in chapter
44, beginning with verse 9, we read, They that make a graven
image are all of them banished, and their delectable things shall
not profit. And they are their own witnesses.
They see not, nor know that they may be ashamed. They make a God
that doesn't see, doesn't hear, doesn't know, and is ashamed
that a man worship a dead stock, whether
it be made of precious metal or of wood or whatever. Who hath formed a god or bolt
in the graven image that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his
fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen thereof men. Let
them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall
fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith, with the
tongs both, worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers,
and worketh it with the strength of his arm." There's the blacksmith,
putting that steel or iron or whatever metal it is into the
fire, heating it up, and beating it with the hammer, fashioning
it into some image of whatever. And the man who does this, he's
hungry, and his strength failing, he drinketh no water and is faint."
That's a man who does it, a weak man. A man in Mexico, in Yucatan,
told me one time, a believer in one of the churches, he had
been brought up in idolatry and every pueblo has a different
saint that they ascribe power to and worship. And he said, he told me this,
he said, I went to a fiesta. They all have a fiesta every
year, worship that saint, and that's the way they raise money
for the church there, the local church. But he said, I went to
another city, a larger city than where he lived, and someone from
his city said, while you're there, buy me a saint. Of course, he ran a knife. Buy
me a saint. And he said, I went into the market to buy this person
a saint. And he said, I saw that man making
that thing. And he was fashioning it with
plaster of Paris or something like that. And he said, at the
same time, he was smoking a cigarette and fashioning that thing. He
said, I realized that thing was nothing. It was nothing. How could that be anything to
worship? But God opened His eyes, because
thousands, if not millions of people around the world tonight,
today, have bowed down to some dead image, some lifeless image. Idolatry. And that was a sin
that Israel, Judah, was especially guilty of, that God chastised
them for in sending them into Babylon. Notice the next verse,
verse 13, that carpenter stretcheth out his rule. He pulls out his
ruler, measured it so many inches this way, so many inches this
way. He pulls out his rule, he marketh
it out with a line, he fitteth it with planes, and he maketh
it out with a compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man.
According to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house,
he heweth him down cedars. taketh the cypress and the oak.
These are woods that would last, that would endure hard wood.
He makes his image out of a tree like this, which is strengthened
for himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth an ash,
and the rain doth nourish it. Then shall it be for a man to
burn, for he will take thereof. You see, the irony, the foolishness,
that God is preaching through Isaiah the foolishness of idolatry,
of worshiping some dead, lifeless stock that man has made. He cuts down a tree and it says
he will take And then he's hungry, so he's
going to use some of it to cook some bread with, make some bread. He maketh it God, and worshipeth
it. He maketh it a graven image,
and falleth down thereto. Now notice this. He burneth part
thereof in the fire. That's to form himself. With
part thereof, he eateth flesh. He uses part of it to cooking
some food. He roasteth his roast, and is
satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself, and
saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. And this is what
I want you to notice especially. And with the residue thereof,
he maketh a God. That word residue means what's
left over, doesn't it? He just has some left over. So
what's better to do with this which is just left over after
I've used part of it for myself than what's left over? With that,
I'll make myself a God. And I bring this out to us tonight
because I'm convinced this is a way that many people try to
serve God, try to worship is left over, my time, whatever's
left over after I've done everything to satisfy myself, then with
that time, the residue thereof, I'll give that to God. The talents
that God has given us, rather than dedicate our life, our all
unto God, first ourselves and then the residue, what's left
over. God's Father. You see what I'm
saying? The Lord Jesus Christ said, If
any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and
wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own
life also, he cannot be my disciple. wife and we're to love our wives
as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. We're to
love our parents and reverence them. He's not saying we're not
to love these that are close to us. He's not saying that at
all. But in comparison with our love
for He must be first, just like God
told the nation of Israel when He delivered them out of Egypt,
gave them that covenant at Mount Sinai, Thou shalt love the Lord
thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy
mind. Have you ever wondered why does
God command us to love Him? He does. He certainly does. That's the first commandment.
That's the great commandment. And the second commandment is
like unto it. Thou shalt love thy neighbor
as thyself. Why then? Because he's worthy of love. We are to love him because he
is worthy of all our love. He's such a perfect being. We ought to love Him with all
our heart, all our soul, and all our being. Now, you know,
we cannot do that, but thank the Lord we have a surety who
did. And in Him, we love Him with
all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind. So Isaiah,
in these chapters, he foretells that they're going to go into
captivity, and then he gives them these promises that would
sustain them and encourage them and give them hope while they
were in captivity, that they're going to be redeemed, and God
is not going to leave them and desert them. And so that brings
me tonight to my text. Verse 21 through 23. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. No, God's never going to forget
one of His own. The Scripture says our names
are inscribed upon His hands. Can a nursing mother forget her
child? Yeah, they might. They might. But I'm not going to forget you,
even in captivity. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant. I have formed thee. Thou art
my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of
me. I have brought it out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
and as a cloud, thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord
hath done it. I want to mention four truths
about our redemption, redemption of the Lord of His covenant people.
First, the Lord is our Redeemer. Notice the word, I have redeemed
thee. The end of verse 22, For I have
redeemed thee. Now, you've got to go all the
way back to verse 6 to find out who's speaking here. Who is this
that says, I have redeemed thee? Who is this? Well, we see that
it is the Lord. It is Jehovah. Thus saith the
Lord. And you know, you recognize by
the way the term Lord, the title Lord is written in capitals,
this is Jehovah. This is Jehovah, and that is
His name, which especially reveals unto us His self-existence. There was a, and I use this word,
time, because that's the only word I can think of, but there
was a point, there was a time when only God existed. Only God existed. There was nothing.
There was no darkness, there was no light, there were no angels,
there were no men, there were no stars, there was nothing! And he needed nothing. His self-existence. He's called the blessed God,
and there weren't blessed sometimes The Blessed God, when there was
nothing else, He was blessed, happy, the Triune God. He needed nothing. We had nothing
to Him. In Psalm 16, even the Redeemer,
the Lord Jesus Christ, Jehovah, the Self-existent One,
the Eternal One, the Covenant God. All of these are suggested
by that term, I, the Lord, I have redeemed thee. You know, there are several compound
names of Jehovah in the Old Testament, and we could go through them. Such a blessing. I believe there's
at least eight. The Lord is my shepherd. That's
one of them. What a blessing that is. But
the first one, the first one is found in Genesis chapter 22
and verse 14. And that's when God had commanded
Abraham to take his son Isaac and offer him up as a burnt offering. And you know the story well.
As they start up the mount, Mount Moriah, there's Abraham, an old
man. There's his son, his only beloved
son, Isaac. They've got the wood, they've
got the fire, and they've got the knife. And Isaac says, Father,
where's the lamb? Where's the lamb? And Abraham
responded, My son, the Lord shall And he called that place Jehovah-Jireh,
the Lord will provide. The Lord will see to it. And
didn't he see to it? As Abraham lifted the knife to
slay, to obey his God, God stayed his hand and told him, showed
him, there's a ram caught in the thicket. Take that ram and
offer it in the stead and in the place of your son. Isn't
that a beautiful picture of what God did for us? He took his son,
his only beloved, begotten son, and in our stead he was punished. He suffered. He died. Jehovah-Jireh, I have redeemed
thee. There is a verse in Job, and
I would point this out to us in Job chapter 33 and verse 24. The verse goes like this, Then
he, he, and I believe that he is God. Then he is gracious unto
him. He is the God of all grace. For
by grace shall ye save, through faith, and that not of yourselves,
it is the gift of God. Not of works lest any man should
boast, for we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. Then
he is gracious unto him, he is gracious unto men, and he says,
Deliver him from going down to the pit. Deliver him from going down to hell, to eternal
separation. Deliver him from going down to
the pit, for I have found a ransom." And that word, he found a ransom,
he is gracious in finding, that is, in providing, just like Abraham
told Isaac, the Lord shall provide himself a land. He's gracious
in finding and providing the ransom to deliver us from going
down to the pit. That's the first thing here about
redemption. Our Redeemer is the Lord. The
second thing that we see is that the blood of the Redeemer is
the redemption price. The blood of the Redeemer. The scriptures speak loud and
clear on this subject. They speak loud and clear from
Genesis to Revelation. It is the blood. I have given
thee the blood to make an atonement for sin. In Psalm 49 and verse
8, the psalmist said, For the redemption of the soul is precious. Precious. In other words, it's
costly. It's valuable. And Peter tells
us that the redemption price is not with corruptible things
such as silver and gold. That's what men prize, isn't
it? That's what men look for and work for and put the most
value on, silver and gold. But if you have this whole building
full of gold, It might be worth millions, maybe possibly billions
of dollars, but it could not redeem a sinner. All of it together could not
pay for one sin, could not remove one sin. No, the redemption price
is the blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. It's valuable. It's costly. He is the Lamb without blemish
and without spot, not redeemed with corruptible things such
as silver and gold from our vain conversation received by tradition
from our Father, but with the precious blood of Christ as of
a Lamb without blemish and without spot. Third, the redemption I
have redeemed thee. Who's the Redeemer? Jehovah.
What's the redemption price? The blood of His incarnate Son. Third, the redemption secures
complete forgiveness. Notice the text. I have brought
it out as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and as a cloud,
thy sins. We know that they're brought
out, have you ever, this is back in the old days, before most
of you were born, I mean most of you, but you used to go to
a merchant and they just had a book there, just a common book,
you know, like kids use in school. And they'd have at the top of
the page whatever your name was, and the next page someone else's
name, and the next page someone else's name, and you'd go in
there and charge, you need some coffee, you need some flour,
or you need some cotton seed, and they'd write your name down
there, what you had charged. And then, when you came in, after
you got a good crop in, or got paid a payday or something, you'd
go in and pay the man, and he'd bought it out. He just marked
through it, gone. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. John Gale, his comment here,
he said the true idea would be expressed by rendering it, I
have made them to vanish as a thick cloud. And he goes on to say
the sense is, as the wind drives away a thick cloud, however dark
and frowning it may be, so that the sky is clear and serene. So God had caused their sins
to disappear and had removed the storm of his anger. I have
blotted out thy transgressions as a thick cloud. Here are three
truths about God's forgiveness, which is brought about by His
redeeming blood. And these three things are easy
to remember. They all begin with the letter
F. His redemption is free. Free to us. We can't even begin
to imagine what it cost Him. being made flesh, though he was
rich, yet for our sakes he became poor, living a perfect, obedient
life to his law as God, the law of God, and then suffering the
penalty of that broken law, which was death. His redemption is free. Number two, his redemption is
full. Full. His blood, now you're not
partly redeemed tonight. You know that, don't you? Those
of you who trust and believe in the Lord Jesus. You're not
halfway forgiven. You're not three quarters forgiven. You're not ninety-nine and nine-tenths
percent forgiven. HIS FORGIVENESS, HIS REDEMPTION
IS NOT ONLY FREE, BUT IT IS FULL. FULL. AND NUMBER THREE, HIS REDEMPTION IS FOREVER. IT'S FOREVER. NOW I HEARD A PREACHER
SAY THIS ONE TIME YEARS AGO. And I've never read this anywhere.
I can't vouch for sure that it's true, but it sounds like something
that probably could have been true. But you know, Paul in Romans
1 said, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for
this is the power of God unto salvation unto everyone that
believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. I heard
this preacher say that Caesar, the Roman ruler, At times, he
would send word down to the prison and tell the prisoner, you're
free. You're free. Take off. And that prisoner,
my, that's good news. That's good news. And he starts
on his way home, but he doesn't get very far before the arresting
soldiers come and take him back to prison and tell him Caesar
was just joking. He didn't really mean it. No,
God forgives. It's forever. It's forever. I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
the good news. This truly is good news. When He forgives, His forgiveness,
His redemption is free, it's full, and it is just forever. And fourth, notice the text now
in closing. Redemption is to be the theme
of our praise. Sing, O new heavens, for the
Lord hath done it. Redeemed, how I love to proclaim
it, redeemed by the blood of the Lamb, redeemed through His
infinite mercy, His child and forever. May the Lord bless these
words and this message. You know, I think sometimes about what Charles Spurgeon's
grandfather told him one day, or said about him one day. Charles
Spurgeon was such a successful minister in the sense that many
thousands of people came to hear him. and he was used of God in
the salvation of many people. His grandfather had been a pastor
for many years. Of course, he was a faithful
man, pastored a block of people. But he said this one time, he
said, my grandson Charles, he may be able to preach the
gospel better than me, but he cannot preach a better gospel.
He cannot preach a better gospel. No. Oh, no. There is no better gospel than
the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord. I ask the man, if you will,
and we're going to observe the Lord's table again tonight as
we have the last several times, and that is We'll have you come
by. You know how we've done it. That's
the way we'll do it again. If you are going to take the
Lord's table, you'll come by.