Sermon # 193           Series: Isaiah

 

Title:  Gathering The Outcasts

Text:  Isaiah 56:8

Subject:  God’s Work of Gathering His Elect

Date:   Sunday Morning – October 16, 1994

Tape #:  Q-56

 

Introduction:

 

“The Lord God which gathereth the outcasts of Israel saith, Yet will I gather others to him beside those that are gathered unto him”  (Isa. 56:8).  The title of my message is Gathering the Outcasts.  Without question, there is an allusion in out text to God’s gathering of Jews into their own land after they had been carried away into Babylon.  The Jews were often carried into captivity.  Tyrant after tyrant invaded the land of Israel and carried away captives.  But the Lord always promised to gather them again into their land.  And he always fulfilled his promise.  By marvellous power those restorations were made.  God sovereignly used pagan kings who knew him not, like Cyrus, to accomplish the deliverance of his people.  (Isa. 45:13).  Certainly, there is an allusion to God’s restoration of the Jews to the land of Israel after their long Babylonian Captivity.

 

But I did not come here today to give you a lecture on the troubles of the ancient Jews.  And that is not the message of Isaiah 56:8.  These deliverances and restorations of the Jews were nothing but types and pictures of the redemption, deliverance, and salvation of God’s elect, his true Israel, and our being gathered by his almighty grace to the Lord Jesus Christ.  God who brought Israel out of Babylon can bring his elect out of sin.  He who delivered the Jews from the tyrant’s grasp can deliver ransomed souls form the dominion of satan.  He who led his people by a way that they knew not back to the land of blessedness can lead lost sinners through the mazes of providence to Christ their Savior.

 

Proposition:  Our text speaks of God’s gracious effectual gathering of his elect to Christ in saving grace as a matter of absolute certainty.

 

Divisions:

 

  1. The Gatherer.
  2. The Gathered.
  3. The Gathering.

 

I.  First, I want to talk to you about The Gatherers.

 

The Gatherer spoken of in this text is the Lord God himself.  Hear this and rejoice, gathering is the work of God himself.

 

A.  There was a time when his work was scattering.

 

  1. After the fall, God drove Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden and began to scatter fallen men over the earth – (Gen. 3:24).
  2. After the flood, God divided the race of Adam into three large, general tribes – (Gen. 9:20-27).

 

 

  1. After the tower of Babel, God confused the languages of men and scattered them in confusion, distrust, and enmity one toward another – (Gen. 11:1-9).

 

Men built a tower by which they hoped to establish a place of unity, power, dominion, and worship, a tower that would be the center of the universe, by which they hoped to save the human race from destruction.  But the Lord would not allow it.  Infinite wisdom baffled the plans of finite worms.  God confounded their language, divided the races of men into nations which have ever since inhabited the earth, and thus, by the arrangement of unerring providence, God scattered his elect among all the nations so that he might gather them in mercy.  There was a time of scattering.  And this scattering was God’s work.

 

 

God scattered his elect throughout all the earth in judgment that he might gather them in everlasting salvation to Christ.

 

B.  This gospel age is what is spoken of in the Scriptures as the time of gathering.

 

In this present day and age God is gathering together in One, even in Christ his Son, the children of God which have been scattered abroad.  The Lord Jesus Christ who came into this world, brought in everlasting righteousness, and obtained eternal redemption for us by his death upon the cursed tree.  Now risen from the dead, ascended up into heaven, and exalted at the right hand of the Majesty on High, the God-man yonder in glory is God’s appointed Center – “Unto Him shall the gathering of the people be”  (Gen. 49:10).

 

 

1.  Christ is the only true “melting pot” for the races of fallen mankind – In him alone men and women are one (Eph. 2:13-10’ Col. 3:11).

 

·         One Hope!

 

2.  God is gathering his people everyday and will continue to do so until time shall be no more.

 

I want to say a little more about that in a few minutes.  But I mention it now because I want to pray that the Lord God will drop the magnet of his grace in our midst and gather some of his elect here today.  It is my earnest hope that some of you will be gathered to Christ today.

 

C.  The Gather is God himself, the Three Persons of the Holy Trinity.

 

1.  We are Trinitarians (I John 5:7).

2.  All Three Persons in the Holy Trinity are involved in the salvation of chosen sinners, in the gathering of the outcasts- (Eph. 1:3-14).

 

a.  They are gathered by God the Father, whose purpose and plan it was to gather together all his elect in Christ.  He promised it.  And he set up Christ to be an Ensign unto whom the gathering of the people must be.

 

 

b.  Sinners are said to be gathered by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, too.

 

 

  1. As our Surety he pledged himself to look up and bring home all the chosen.
  2. As our Shepherd he gathers the lambs in his arm and carries them home to glory.
  3. As our Savior he seeks and saves that which was lost.  Having redeemed his people, he consequently gathers his redeemed ones by his Spirit, by his grace, through the ministry of the word.

 

C.  God the Holy Spirit in regeneration grace and by the irresistible power of his effectual call, gathers every chosen, redeemed sinner to Christ at the appointed time of love.

 

 

II.  Secondly, I want you to notice briefly how our text describes The Gathered.

 

They are described as “the outcasts of Israel,” as “others,” and as “those that are gathered unto him” already.  The fact is the whole human race has been divided by God into two groups.  The division was made in eternity and is made manifest in time.  But there is a great gulf fixed between these two groups.  So that it is impossible for anyone to pass from one group to the other.  These two groups are variously described in the word of God.

 

·         The Israel of God and the Nations of the World.

 

In our text God’s elect are described as “The outcasts of Israel,” not the outcasts of literal Israel, but of spiritual Israel, the church and family of God.  And “the outcasts of Israel” are divided into two groups.

 

·         “Those that are gathered unto him “are all the elect who have already been saved by the grace of God.

 

I want you to take special notice of the way in which God’select are here described.  They are called “the outcasts.”

 

A.  God’s elect are always “the outcasts” of the earth.

 

Illus:  The Anointing of David – “This is he!”

(I Sam. 16:11-12).

 

B.  In their natural, unregenerate state God’s elect are outcast children of wrath, even as others (Eph. 2:3).

 

Before he saved us, we were far off from God, alienated from him, without God, without Christ, without hope, destitute of his Spirit, like lost sheep wandering away from God, strangers to the people of God, and aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.

 

C.  Though chosen of God and redeemed by Christ until they are called by the Holy Spirit, God’s elect appear to be outcasts, without one claim upon his mercy, love, and grace in Christ.

 

Like the infant Ezekiel describes (Ezek. 16-18), we appeared to be anything but the objects of God’s love and grace.

 

D.  When chosen sinners are convinced of their sin by the Holy Spirit they look upon themselves as outcasts.

 

·         The Publican in the Temple.

 

E.  And the people of this world look upon God’s saints as outcast, worthless people.

 

 

What fools we are when we crave the applause and approval of the world.  The only way we can ever gain the world’s approval is to have God’s disapproval!  Let the world count me an “outcast!”  What does that matter, if God counts me gathered?

 

III.  The Gatherer is God himself.  The gathered are all God’s elect.  Now, in the last place, let me talk to you for just a minute or two about The Gathering.

 

The Lord God says, “Yet will I gather others to him beside those that are gathered unto him.  “Those others are the ones I am looking for today.  They are the “other sheep” who have not yet been called (John 10:16).  They are the many who were ordained unto eternal life who have not yet believed the gospel (Acts 13:48).  They are all the rest of God’s elect, of whom Paul speaks when he says, “And so all Israel shall be saved” (Rom. 11:26).

 

A.  Here is an unconditional promise of grace – “Yet will I gather others to him.”

 

Need I pause to tell you again that the “him” to whom God gathers his elect is the Lord Jesus Christ, the God-man Mediator, our Substitute, the Son of God?  Those whom God gathers are gathered to HIM!

 

·         Not to Me!

 

Let me show you five things about this promise of gathering chosen sinners to Christ.

 

  1. It is as wide as the diverse races, nations, and families of the earth – “Others”.
  2. It is graciously encouraging – If others, why not me?
  3. It is as perpetual as time.
  4. It is a matter of absolute certainty – God will do it!

 

 

5.   This Promise is the Preservative of This World (II Pet. 3:9).

 

B.  How is God now gathering these other chosen, redeemed sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ?

 

  1. By His Wise and Good Providence

 

 

  1. By The Irresistible Power of His Saving Grace. – Psalm 110:3

 

   

       3.  By Graciously Calling His Saints Up to Glory. – John 17:24

 

             Illus: Mr. Coleman

 

C.  Then there shall be a glorious gathering together unto him in the resurrection.

 

 

Application:

 

1.  You and I who believe should ever be asking, “Where are the others?”

 

      a.  Pray for them.

      b.  Expect them to be gathered.

      c.  Be on the look out for them – After the Service – At Dinner – At Home.

 

2.  If you are yet without Christ, if you are not yet among those who have been gathered to him, this message ought to inspire you with hope and inspire you to seek him – “Others”

 

·         Other Thieves!

 

3.  Let all who know him give thanks to God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit for his sovereign grace by which he has gathered our outcast souls unto Christ!  How I thank God for fetching, gathering grace!  I am sure glad he hissed for me!