Sermon #5 Series: Isaiah

Title: God’s Word To You

Text: Isaiah 1:18-20

Subject: God’s Call To Fallen Men

Date: Sunday Mornings - April 4, 1989

Tape #

Introduction:

Here are two things I cannot possibly exaggerate, overstate, or fully describe. I cannot exaggerate our sin, our utter depravity and our lost, helpless, ruined condition by nature. And I cannot exaggerate God’s great grace. God in great grace has given his dear Son to be a great Savior for great sinners for the glory of his own great name. I want you to know both the greatness of your sin and the greatness of God’s free, sovereign, saving grace in Christ.

· God chose to save a people from eternity and chose the people whom he would save in everlasting love (Eph. 1:3-6).

· God, in infinite wisdom, devised a means whereby he could glorify himself in the salvation of guilty sinners - substitution. (Job 33:24).

· God, in eternal love, gave his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, to be the sinner’s Substitute, even before the world began (Rev. 13:8).

· God the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit entered into covenant agreement to accomplish the salvation of that elect multitude whom he loved (Jer. 31:31-34).

· In the fullness of time, God sent his Son into the world to fulfill all the conditions and stipulations of the covenant by his obedience and death as the surety of the covenant (Rom. 5:19).

· And today God sends preachers, armed with the authority of his throne, the power of his Spirit, and the gospel of his grace, to proclaim the good news of redemption and righteousness in Christ, urging them to be reconciled to God (II Cor. 5:18-21).

· All of this he has done for the undeserving creatures in the universe, fallen, guilty, helpless, condemned sinners like you and me.

Will you hear me now? God’s grace is great beyond description. But it can be seen only upon the black background of man’s depravity and sin. No one will ever see or have any appreciation for the grace of God until he sees and owns his own sin. The prophet Isaiah describes you and me in painfully vivid and accurate words in the first chapter of his prophecy. Let me speak to you personally, each of you. Hear me as though we were sitting in a room alone. I am speaking to you.

1. Your personal depravity is great beyond description (vv. 2-6). How can I describe your sin? Before God you are a thoughtless, thankless rebel. Iniquity is in your heart. Sin is in your hands. Transgression is in your path. You have forsaken God from your youth up. And you daily provoke him to anger.

2. All your acts of righteousness, religion, and morality are perverse and abominable in God’s sight (vv. 10-15). I do not doubt your sincerity. But you are ignorant of God’s character, your own character, and of God’s requirements. In all spiritual matters your judgment is perverted. Until you are born again by God’s almighty grace, you cannot see the kingdom of God, much less enter into it.

3. You are in great danger of reprobation and eternal condemnation (v. 5). How often God has spoken to you! But you will not hear. Your conscience has been pricked. But you pacify it. Though God has stricken your heart with fear and your mind with terror, you revolt more and more. The time may soon come when God will leave you alone (Hosea 4:17; Pro. 1:23-33). And if God leaves you alone, you shall be forever lost!

4. And there is nothing you can do to change your lost and ruined condition (vv. 16-17). God commands you to be clean. But you cannot make yourself clean. God commands you to put away your sin. But you cannot hide your sin from his eyes. God commands you to cease from doing evil. But you cannot cease from sin. God commands you to obey his law. But you have no ability to obey. Your inability is as total as your depravity (Jer. 13:23).

Do you see the greatness of your sin? You are totally depraved. You are spiritually ignorant. You are in immediate danger of hell. And there is nothing you can do to help yourself. Unless God himself intervenes you must be forever lost. But, blessed be his name, God does intervene. “Where sin abounded grace did much more abound.”

I preach to you with no affect. I have preached to some of you for years. You know the sound of my voice, the expressions of my face, the gesture of my hands, and doctrine I believe. You have heard my sermons. And you have heard my prayers. But you are unmoved. Suppose you were to hear God speak? Would you hear him? If God were to speak directly to you, would you obey him? Would you? - I am asking you. Answer me. Before this hour is over we will find out. What I am about to read is God’s word to you (Isa. 1:18-20).

These are not my words, or even Isaiah’s words. This is God’s word to you!

Proposition: God commands you to come to him by faith in Christ and promises the full forgiveness of sin to all who obey his command.

Divisions:

1. To whom is this command given?

2. How can sinners come to God?

3. How does God reason with man?

4. How can a sinner reason with God?

5. When can I come to God?

6. What is promised to those who come?

7. What is promised to those who refuse to come?

I. To whom is this command given?

The gospel is not a bare invitation, which may be accepted or refused, as you may choose, without impunity. It is a command, a summons from the throne of the most high God. When God says, “Come”, he does not mean, “Come if you please.” He means “Come!” You cannot disobey an invitation. But those who refuse to come are judged as disobedient rebels (Rom. 10:21). This is a gracious command, a very gracious command. But it is a command. And you are responsible to obey it.

Now hear what I say - This command is addressed to you. It is addressed to all sinners everywhere, without qualification. I know many would-be Theologians frown at it, many will cry, “That is not consistent Calvinism. Bro. Fortner’s theology needs to be more precise.” I care nothing for that. I want everyone who hears my voice to know this - God commands you to come to Christ.

Many will place qualifications in front of the word “sinners,” implying that before you can come to Christ in faith you must meet certain conditions. They try to sneak works into the scheme of grace by making works sound like humility. They say, God commands “sensible sinners” to come, or “seeking sinners,” or “thirsty sinners,” or “hungry sinners,” or “weary sinners,” or “lost sinners,” or “convicted sinners,” or “penitent sinners,” or “broken sinners.” But this is God’s word to you, sinner, without qualification or condition. In fact, in the context, those to whom God is speaking were sensible of nothing. They did not feel any need of a Savior. They had no sorrow, or remorse for sin. They were not broken at all. A more graphic description of utter godlessness, depravity, and spiritual death could never be found. Here is thick darkness, without one ray of light. Yet, to these hard-hearted, spiritually dead sinners, God says, “Come.”

· They were senseless sinners, who would not hear (v. 2).

· They were ungrateful sinners, who did not care (v. 2).

· They were beastly sinners, who would not think (v. 3).

· They were utterly depraved sinners, without one commendable trait (vv. 4-6).

· They were a people laden with iniquity (v. 4).

· They were sinners who promoted sin in others (v. 4).

· They were hardened sinners (v. 5).

· They were the very worst of sinners, they were self-righteous sinners, who the Lord compares to Sodom and Gomorah (vv. 10-14).

Do you see what I am telling you. God’s command is to you. The gospel is addressed to sinners as sinners. The gospel net is cast into the sea of fallen humanity to catch all kinds of sinners. None are exempt from this command. None are excluded, not even you who shake in your boots fearing that you have committed “the unpardonable sin.”

Peter said, “Repent and be baptized everyone of you (Acts 2:38). Imagine the sinners who must have been in that crowd. But none were excluded, or required to meet any conditions.

The point is this - If God commands me to come to him, then I may come to him. And if I come to him in obedience to his own command, I will not be turned away (John 6:37). Therefore -

“I’ll to the gracious King approach,

Where sceptre pardon gives,

Perhaps He may command my touch,

And then this sinner lives.

I can but perish if I go,

I am resolved to try,

For if I stay away I know

I must forever die.

But if I die with mercy sought,

When I the King have tried,

That were to die (delightful thought!)

As sinner never died!”

II. HOW CAN SINNERS UPON THE EARTH COME TO GOD IN HEAVEN?

God is infinite Spirit. We are finite men. God is holy. We are sin. God is in heaven. We are on earth. We can never come to him but by a Meditator who is both one of us and one with God. And that Mediator is Jesus Christ the Lord, the Son of God (John 14:6; I Tim. 2:5; Heb. 7:25).

A. If you would come to God, you must bring two things with you, righteousness and blood.

If you draw near to God, you’ve got to have:

1. A Spotless Lamb - Christ.

2. A Blood Atonement - Christ.

3. And an Interceding High Priest - Christ.

B. This coming to God by Christ is an act of the heart.

You do not come to Christ by walking a church aisle, or by saying a prayer, or by being baptized, or by joining the church. We come to Christ by faith. And faith is an act of the heart.

This is God’s word to you (v. 18). Will you now come to God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? God commands you to come. But then he reasons with you, and persuades you to come. He says, “Let us reason together.” Imagine that, God reasoning with sinners, persuading them to come to him for mercy!

III. HOW DOES GOD REASON WITH MAN?

God is willing, delighted, and anxious to be gracious to sinners. So much so that he condescends to reason with men and women who deserve his wrath. He reasons with you from his everlasting covenant, his promise of forgiveness, and the gospel of his grace in Christ. By many things God graciously reasons with men.

A. You can never atone for sin; therefore hell is eternal.

B. You can never obey the law of God; therefore salvation by works is a proud delusion.

C. You can never change your own heart; therefore salvation by an act of your will is absurd.

D. But there is a remnant whom God has chosen to save in his everlasting covenant mercy, love, and grace (v.9).

1. God will gather that remnant; and they shall come to him.

2. All who come to him shall be saved, fully forgiven of all sin, purged of all guilt, purified from all filth, by the precious blood of Christ - “Though your sins be as scarlet (double-dyed), they shall be as white as snow (purged away); though they be red like crimson (blood red with the guilt of Christ’s precious blood), they shall be as wool (pure, white and clean in God’s sight).”

Note: That is God’s promise! Now, if you come to God by faith in Christ, you are one of that elect remnant. You are called. You are redeemed. You are forgiven. Your coming is the proof of it (Heb. 11:1).

But look at the text again. God not only commands you to come and gives you reasons to come, he calls for you to reason with him. He says, “Let us reason together!”

IV. HOW CAN A SINNER REASON WITH GOD?

What reason can I possibly offer to God why he should save me, forgive me, and accept me. I am guilty. I am sin, nothing but sin, utterly without merit, utterly incapable of doing good. Why should God have mercy on me?

A. I will put Him in remembrance and plead with Him on the basis of all that he has said and done (Isa. 43:24-26).

1. I will put him in remembrance of his covenant.

2. I will put him in remembrance of Christ’s obedience.

3. I will put him in remembrance of his promises.

4. On the basis of these things, I will plead for mercy.

B. I will seek mercy from God by the confession of my great sin (I John 1:9; Ps. 25:11).

Illustration: The Publican.

C. I will seek mercy for His name’s sake (Eph. 1:3-14; I Cor. 1:30-31).

1. I will own Christ as my only hope.

2. I will cast up praise to God for his reputation for mercy (Mic. 7:18-20).

V. WHEN CAN I COME TO GOD?

“Come, now.”

Now is now. “Today, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your heart.” Now is the time of need (Heb. 4:16). Now is forever “To whom coming.”

VI. WHAT IS PROMISED TO THOSE WHO COME TO GOD BY FAITH IN CHRIST? (v.19).

“The good of the land” is all the riches of the heavenly Canaan, the land of our promised inheritance (Rev. 7:16-17).

VII. WHAT IS PROMISED TO THOSE WHO REFUSE TO COME? (v. 20).

You shall eat the fruit of your own ways - eternal destruction (Pro. 1:23-33).

Application: If you have come to Christ, I call upon you now to do two things:

1. Give all praise, honor, and glory to God, who causes you to come (Ps. 65:4).

2. Come now and confess Christ in believer’s baptism.