Sermon # 227 Series: Isaiah
Text: Isaiah
63:7
Subject: God’s Acts of Lovingkindness toward
His Elect
Date: Sunday Evening - November 26, 1995
Tape # R-98
Scripture Readings: Office - Ron Wood
Auditorium - Rex Bartley
Introduction:
The prophet of God was ravished and
overwhelmed by the marvelous works of grace revealed to him. When he realized
what the Lord God promised to do for his chosen, as he beheld the coming of the
Lord Jesus Christ, the accomplishment of redemption by him, and the coming
triumphs of the Savior, as he thought upon what the Lord had done for his
people and what he promised to do in the preceding verses of this chapter,
Isaiah felt that he had to speak a word of praise to the glory of God. He writes
as though he were speaking to a crowd of people, and says, "I will
mention the lovingkindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according
to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us, and the great goodness toward the
house of Israel, which he hath bestowed on them according to his mercies, and
according to the multitude of his lovingkindnesses." Anticipating the
future, he remembers the past. And, remembering the past, he encourages himself
and us to believe God for the future.
1st, The prophet of God directs our attention to the fact that everything
God does to us and for us, everything he bestows upon us is according to his
lovingkindness toward us. "I
will mention the lovingkindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD, according
to all that the Lord hath bestowed on us. He means for us to understand that...
· Everything
God does is a revelation of his love for his elect.
· Every blessing bestowed upon chosen sinners
is a matter of free and sovereign grace. Nothing is earned, merited, or deserved
by us, except the wrath of God.
2nd, Isaiah tells us that this fact, that "all things are of
God" and that all reveal his love and grace to us, ought to inspire
our hearts to give praise to him alone. "I will mention the
lovingkindness of the LORD, and the praises of the LORD." We
ought to give unceasing praise to our God with unabated joy. We would never
have time for complaining, if we were as busy giving praise to our God as we
ought to be.
· For His Being!
· For His Grace!
· For His Providence!
· For His Promises!
3rd, The prophet then reminds us of the uniformity of all God’s works. Notice the next line of our text: "according
to all that the LORD hath bestowed on us." "In everything give
thanks" because everything flows to us from his lovingkindness. We
must not pick and choose our subjects for praise. God is to be praised when he taketh
away just as fully as when he giveth. We must never bless the Lord
for one thing and murmur against him because of another!
4th, Our text displays the grandeur of God’s goodness to us in Christ. Isaiah speaks of "the great goodness toward
the house of Israel." He speaks of everything God does as being great.
Would to God we had such faith in him! Nothing God does for sinners is small!
Ingratitude makes great things seem little. But gratitude makes the smallest
thing great. Our God is a great God full of great mercies for great sinners
through Jesus Christ our great Savior!
5th, God’s goodness to us is altogether undeserved by us. It comes to us, not according to our merit, but
"according to his mercies." Thank God for mercy! He deals with us
in mercy. He has mercy on whom he will have mercy. He has compassion on whom he
will have compassion. And he has willed to have mercy and compassion upon us!
6th, Notice this, too - God’s lovingkindnesses are a great multitude. Isaiah
speaks of "the multitude of his lovingkindnesses." His
lovingkindnesses are more than can be numbered. Like the stars of the heavens
and the sands of the shore, they are beyond human measure. They come to us in
all shapes, at all times, and from every direction. Therefore, the man of God
says, "I will mention the lovingkindnesses of the LORD."
· I will mention them to the Lord in
thankful praise.
· I will mention them to you his people,
inspiring your hearts to worship, thanksgiving, and loving devotion to Christ.
· And I will mention the lovingkindnesses of
the Lord to you who are yet sinners, lost, and without Christ. May God
the Holy Spirit be pleased this hour to give you life and faith in Christ,
drawing you to him by his own lovingkindnesses.
Proposition: The lovingkindnesses of the Lord
are his acts of goodness, grace, and mercy toward his people, by which we are
saved and kept in grace, and by which God makes an everlasting and glorious
name for himself.
Obviously, I cannot give a complete summary
of God’s lovingkindnesses. That would be impossible. As I have already told
you, they are beyond human calculation. Yet, I have no need to make a catalog
of my own. If you will hold your Bibles open on your laps, I will show you "The
Lovingkindnesses of the LORD" which Isaiah was inspired to mention in
the chapter before us. These ten acts of lovingkindness will be
sufficient, if blessed of God to our hearts, to inspire our hearts to worship
him, praise him, and devote ourselves to him in grateful love.
I. The very first thing mentioned in this
chapter is God’s crowning act of lovingkindness - THE REDEMPTION OF OUR SOULS
BY CHRIST (vv. 1-6).
What can be more suitable to head the list of
God’s lovingkindnesses to sinners than the sin-atoning sacrifice of our Lord
Jesus Christ?
· John 3:16
· Romans 5:6-8
· I John 3:16
· I John 4:9-10
"The
enormous load of human guilt
Was
on my Savior laid;
With
woes as with a garment, He
For
sinners was arrayed.
And
in the horrid pangs of death
He
wept and prayed for me;
Loved
and embraced my guilty soul
When
nailed to the tree.
Oh
love, amazing love, beyond
The
reach of human tongue;
Love
which shall be the subject of
An everlasting song!" William Williams
II. Next, Isaiah mentions God’s SPECIAL
ELECTION as an act of his great lovingkindness.
Verse 8 reads, "Surely they are my
people." Thus, they are distinguished by God himself from all other
people. But, a more accurate translation of the sentence makes the election of
grace even more prominent. It should read, "They only are my
people." As God chose Israel alone to be his people, and bound himself
to them by a covenant, so the Lord God has chosen us, you and I who are saved
by his grace, and bound himself to us by a covenant of grace from eternity. Our
election in Christ was the source and cause of our redemption by Christ. Christ
is our Savior because he chose to save us.
"Sons
we are through God’ election,
Who
on Jesus Christ believe;
By
eternal destination,
Sovereign
grace we now receive.
Lord,
Thy grace does both grace and glory give."
How ravishing is the thought of God’s eternal
love! Before the world began, he loved us. Try to think of it. Before ever
there was anything but God, you were loved of God with an everlasting love, and
chosen by him to be the recipient of his grace and his salvation!
· II Thessalonians 2:13
· II Timothy 1:9-10
· Ephesians 1:4-6
· Jeremiah 31:3
A. God’s election is the source and cause of
every blessing of his grace and mercy in Christ.
B. God’s election is the rule of his
operations.
C. God’s election is the security of our
souls (II Thess. 2:10-13; Rev. 13:8; 17:8).
III. The next token of God’s
lovingkindness displayed in our text is THE GRACIOUS CONFIDENCE he puts in us.
This is a genuinely astonishing thing. God
Almighty, who knows us perfectly, places a kind of fatherly confidence in the
people of his love. He says, "Surely they are my people, children that
will not lie" (v. 8). Those words represent the trustful manner in
which the Lord deals with us. Nothing is a more certain evidence of love among
men than trust. "Love thinketh no evil and believeth all
things." When a wife trusts her husband, without suspicion or husband
his wife, it is because love is genuine and strong. Husbands and wives prove
their love to one another by trusting one another, by restful confidence in one
another. A father, though he sees many imperfections and much fickleness in his
child, proves his love to his child by placing confidence in him, refusing to
look upon him with suspicion. That is how the Lord God trusted his people of old.
He confidently, trustfully committed to them...
· His Law.
· His Temple.
· The Revelation of His Will.
In just that same way, the Lord God has
trusted us, placed confidence in us, though he knows us. He knows how weak and
sinful we are. Yet, he also knows that his grace makes his people to be, in the
tenor of their lives, an honest people, "children that will not
lie."
A. He has put us in trust with the gospel.
The Lord God has graciously trusted this
assembly with a position of tremendous influence over the souls of many.
B. You parents have been trusted by God
with children.
Never forget, your sons and daughters are not
yours. They belong to God. He has simply trusted you with them, to raise them
and train them for him.
C. I never cease to marvel at the fact
that God has put me in trust with his Word.
"Unto me, who am less than the least
of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the
unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph.
3:8).
D. Child of God, hear this and let it grip
your very soul: God Almighty has trusted to you his name and his honor in this
world!
To every believer he says, I have made
thee a chosen vessel to bear my name. You have some charge to keep, some
talent to use, some influence to exert, some position to fill, some jewel to
hold for the glory and honor of God’s name. I can think of nothing in this
world more inspiring and more honorable than for God himself to trust me with
something for him!
Illustration: A Child to a Father - Trust
me with that.
IV. Here is another gift of God’s great
lovingkindness to us - HIS GRACIOUS SYMPATHY WITH HIS PEOPLE.
Read the opening words of verse 9 and be
astonished. "In all their afflictions, he was afflicted." Who
could ever have imagined such a thing, had not God himself revealed it?
· Zechariah 2:8
· Hebrews 2:18
Our Savior does not sympathize with us as one
man sympathizes with another. He sympathizes with us as the heart sympathizes
with the body and the body with the heart. He knows what you are going
through. He goes through it with you! The text does not say, In some of
their afflictions, but "In all their afflictions he was afflicted."
· Hebrews 4:15-16
V. THE LORD’S INTIMATE AND GRACIOUS
PRESENCE with us is another benefit of his lovingkindness toward us.
"The angel of his presence saved
them" (v.9). The children of
Israel were led through the wilderness by Christ himself. He was the pillar of
cloud and of fire that led them through the lands of their enemies. He was the
rock that followed them. Though often unseen, or unobserved by them, he was
none the less present with them unceasingly. The schekinah which blazed up
between the cherubim over the mercy-seat was Christ, the Angel of God’s
presence. In the types and shadows of that former dispensation, Christ was
with the chosen nation and made manifest his redeeming love and grace.
Now, think of this and rejoice: The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, our Redeemer
and Savior abides with us even unto this day. Did he not say, "Lo, I am
with you alway?" Did he not promise, "I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee?" "Rejoice," then. "Let your
moderation be known unto all men; the Lord is at hand."
· He was once here physically, in a real body
of flesh (John 1:14; I John 1:1-3).
· He is now with us spiritually in a way that
the world can never understand (John 14:21-23).
· He is with us in the assembly of his church
and in the ordinances of divine worship (Matt. 18:20).
· And he is with us in all our trials,
temptations, troubles, and sorrows (Isa. 43:1-5).
Have you not seen him, when you could see no
one else? Have you not known his presence, when you were all alone in this
wilderness? Have you not often looked into his face and been overwhelmed by the
fact that you could see him looking down upon you with the smile of a loving
friend, a tender brother, and an all gracious Savior? Have you not walked with
the Son of God in the cool of the day, leaned upon his arm in the rough road of
adversity, and snuggled up to his heart in times of heaviness and sorrow? How I
rejoice to know that Christ is here with me, the Angel of God’s presence!
VI. Here is another token of God’s great,
marvelous, and multitudinous lovingkindnesses - HIS GRACIOUS INTERVENTIONS AND
DELIVERANCES.
Look at verse nine again. "The Angel
of his presence saved them: in his love and in his pity he redeemed
them." As God brought Israel out of Egypt, through the Red Sea,
and into the land of promise by his mighty hand and his stretched out arm and
then delivered them time and again from the hands of their enemies, so he has
saved us, is saving us, and shall yet save us by the sovereign interpositions
of his grace.
· II Corinthians 1:10
A. It was by the sovereign intervention of
his grace that we were saved from the dominion of sin in regeneration and
effectual calling
· Ephesians 2:1-4
B. It is only by God’s wise, gracious, and
timely intervention that we are saved from our earthly troubles.
· The Secret Interventions of Providence by
which He Preserves Us
· The Secret Angelic Interventions by which He
Protects Us
· The Manifest Interventions by which He has
Raised us Up From the Bed Of Sickness
· The Marvelous Interventions of Grace by
which He has Restored Our Fallen Souls
· "Hitherto
hath the Lord helped us!"
"Here
I raise mine Ebenezer,
Hither,
by Thy help, I’ve come;
And
I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely
to arrive at home!"
VII. GOD’S SPECIAL PROVIDENCE is to every
believing soul a wonderful evidence of his lovingkindness.
Here is how Isaiah describes that special
providence to the children of Israel - "He bare them and carried them
all the days of old" (v.9).Like a mother carries an infant child, so
our God carries his people through this world. The good Shepherd, our Lord
Jesus Christ, when he has found his sheep, lays it on his back and carries it
in his bosom all the way home.
· By special providence he provides for us.
· By special providence he protects us.
· By special providence he directs us.
· Romans 8:28
VII. Moreover, our God shows his
lovingkindnesses toward his children by HIS LOVING, FATHERLY CHASTISEMENTS (v. 10).
Yes, I am saying that God’s chastening rod is
a blessing for which we ought ever to be thankful to him. Let us sorrow that we
need chastening. But let us ever give thanks to God that he does not leave us
without chastisement.
· Hebrews 12:5-11
· Psalm 119:67,68, 71
· I Peter 1:7
C. H. Spurgeon said, to his congregation, "O, my brethren, how much we owe to the hammer
and the anvil and the file and the fire. Thanks be to God for the little
crosses of every day, aye, and for the heavy crosses which he sends us at
certain seasons. He does not gather the twigs of his rod on the mountains of
wrath, but he plucks them in the garden of love, and though he sometimes makes
blue marks upon us as he smites us heavily, yet
‘His
strokes are fewer than our crimes
And
lighter than our guilt.’
Love bathes all the wounds which it makes and
kisses away the smart. Blessed be a chastening God! Set down your chastisements
among your choicest mercies."
IX. When making mention of the
lovingkindness of our God, we cannot fail to mention HIS CONSTANT COVENANT
FAITHFULNESS (vv. 11-13).
Isaiah is saying to us, As God remembered
what he had done for his people in the past, he resolved to do the same and be
the same to his people again. If the Lord God reasons thus with himself,
may we not safely conclude that he who has done so much for us, who has kept us
thus far by his grace, who has led us hitherto, will also bring us home to
glory at last? If he had meant to destroy me, would he have done so much for
us?
· Psalm 36:5
· Psalm 40:10
· Psalm 89:1-8, 24-33
· Psalm 92:1-2
God
would not have taught me
To
trust in His name,
And
thus far have brought me
To
put me to shame.
His
goodness in the past
Forbids
me to think
He
will leave me at last
In
trouble to sink.
Each
sweet Ebenezer
I
have in review,
Confirms
His good pleasure
To
carry me through.
· Lamentations 3:22-23
X. Once more, the prophet of God makes
mention of God’s lovingkindnesses toward his elect by reminding us of THE REST
HE GIVES TO HIS CHOSEN (vv. 13-14).
First, he describes the blessed rest of faith
as a matter of utmost freedom in Christ. Being set free from the law’s curse
and bondage, the believer is like a horse in the wilderness. That is how God
led Israel through the Read Sea. What exultations, what triumphs, what freedom
they enjoyed! And that is exactly what God gives every believing sinner in
Christ - The Blessed Rest of Freedom! The Lord our God gives us both
liberty and safety in this world in Christ, and thus gives us rest.
Then, the prophet compares our rest to that
of horses, cattle, or oxen going down into the valley in the cool of the
evening to rest. Standing knee deep in water, occasionally swishing their
tails, and licking their foals or calves, they seem not to have a care in the
world. They are resting. That is what faith in Christ brings (Matt. 11:28-30).
· Believing Christ we enter into the rest of forgiveness, and begin
to keep the sabbath in a spiritual sense. That is the only way we can or should
keep the sabbath. We cease from our own works and trust Christ alone for
acceptance with God. (Col. 2:16; Heb. 4:3).
· We enjoy the
rest of contentment as we trust our God and Savior with the rule of our
lives and of the universe for our souls’ good and the glory of his name (Phil.
4:12).
· We enjoy the
rest of sweet obedience as we follow our Master’s leading in all things
(Matt. 11:30).
· And, when we leave this world, when we enter
into heaven’s glory, then we shall enter into
the rest which remains for the people of God, (Heb. 4:9).
Application:
I cannot imagine a better theme for our
hearts’ meditation as we prepare now to observe the Lord’s Table again together
than "The Lovingkindness of the LORD."
1. May God the Holy Spirit use the
lovingkindnesses of our God to draw you who are yet without Christ to surrender
yourselves to him.
2. I pray that the Lord’s lovingkindnesses to
us will persuade each of us to give ourselves to him in unreserved devotion.