Sermon
# 160 Series: Isaiah
Title: Don’t Ever Forget!
Text: Isaiah 51:1
Subject: A Needful Reminder of What
God Has Done For Us By His Grace
Date:
Sunday Evening – August 29, 1993
Introduction:
The
title of my message tonight is Don’t Ever Forget! I know that Paul admonishes us to forget those
things, which are behind and reach forth unto those things, which are
before. Certainly in a sense we must do
that. We must forget past experiences,
past works and past religious feelings, services, and sacrifices. In so far as our hope before God is
concerned, in so far as our assurance of a saving interest in Christ is
concerned, we must forget the past altogether.
Trust Christ now, as if you had never trusted him before. Seek him now, as if you had never sought him
before.
Yet,
there are some things we must always strive to remember, some things we must
try to always keep vividly before our hearts and minds. There are some things we must never forget.
Proposition: In our text tonight the Lord God himself calls us to
remember where we were, what we are by nature, and how that he has saved us by
his almighty grace – (Isa. 51:1).
I. Here is A Very Needful Call
That Should Never Be Needed At All! – “Hearken to Me!”
The
One speaking in this text is the Lord God himself, our Savior. He is calling for us to pay attention to
him, to listen to him, to remember him and to remember what he has done for
us. What a sad fact this reveals! You and I, who should always be filled with
vivid, living, relentless, ever-increasing thoughts of Christ, have a terrible
tendency to neglect him and become indifferent to him! (Song 5:2).
If I
speak falsely against you, forgive me.
But I find that it is the common lot of God’s people in this world to
experience much of this spiritual languishing.
Few live on mountain tops. Most
of us spend much time in deep valleys, walking in darkness (Isa. 50:10).
We
should never neglect our God and Savior; but often we do. So he says, “Hearken to me!”
II. The Lord God here Describes
and Identifies His People.
“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord!” By these two things God distinguishes his people from all other people. These two things separate true believers from mere religious professors.
A. The Believer is A Person Who
Follows After Righteousness.
1. He does not follow after the righteousness of the law, because he knows that righteousness can never be found in or attained by the law (Gal. 2:21).
2. We seek the righteousness of God in Christ and pursue that, without which we cannot see the Lord (Heb. 12:14).
· Imputed Righteousness.
· Imparted Righteousness.
· He who has righteousness seeks and follows hard after righteousness – He who has no righteousness presumes that he has everything he needs – (Phil. 3:8-14).
3. The believer follows a path and a career of righteousness – That is the direction in which his life generally flows. Believers are the servants of righteousness (Rom. 6:18).
· The Rule by which we live is The Word of God.
· The Example we Follow is Jesus Christ – (John 15:13).
· The Test by which we seek to determine our actions is the Glory of God and Love for Our Brethren.
B. The Believer is a Person who Seeks the
Lord.
We presume nothing!
We have not yet attained! We
have not yet apprehended that for which we have been apprehended. We have not yet gotten what we desire. We have not yet arrived. We
Seek the Lord Christ!
1. We know our need of him.
2. We know that all fulness is in him.
3. We seek him for salvation and life, grace and strength, righteousness and peace – All Things!
4. We Seek him earnestly, where he is to be found.
· In His Word!
· In His House!
5. We seek His Communion, His Fellowship, and His Favor and Approval.
III. Our text also Describes the Saving
Operations of God’s Grace.
Notice how God describes the salvation, which he performs.
A. We were Hewn From The Rock of Human
Depravity, By The Hammer of Omnipotent Grace.
· We did not break ourselves from the rock. God broke us from it.
· We did not fall from the rock. We were hewn from it.
· We did not gradually evolve from the rock. We were hewn from it, with the violence of God’s omnipotent hand!
B. We were Dug From The Pit of Human
Corruption, Death, and Degradation by the Hand of God’s Irresistible,
Immaculate Mercy.
· Genesis 6:5
· Jeremiah 17:9
· Mark 7:21-23
Your heart and mine is by nature as black at the heart of Judas. Whatever sin there is, has been or shall be in this world is in your heart and mine by nature. The germ of all evil is in us all. It does not matter who your parents are, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Corruption brings forth corruption. It can never give birth to purity!
C. The History of Our Race, When Honestly
Read, is a History of Corruption and Depravity.
· Wars!
· Persecutions!
· Ambition!
· Greed!
· Debauchery!
D. Things have not changed in our day of
enlightenment, education, and reason!
If you care to see how far we have advanced above the cannibalistic barbarians of New Guinea, read today paper! It reads like the chronicles of a barbaric society.
· Self-serving Politicians and Preachers.
· Adultery, Fornication, and Rape.
· Rioting, Murder, and Abortion.
· Homosexuality, Pedophilia, and Cannibalism.
· These reprobate practices men and women want to protect and promote by law, while they fret about protecting frogs, trees, and worms!
E. Take a good look at eh state and condition
you were in when God saved you by his grace.
1. Many of us prodigals were saved from the hog pen of corruption.
2. You who were less vile in practice were no less vile in heart – Providential Restraints kept you from behaving as you desired.
Illus: The Caged Lion
F. Look at the pit in which the lost and the
damned now suffer the wrath of God.
1. There I would be tonight, had God not saved me by his grace.
2. You would be in hell now, if the Lord had not kept you from destruction.
G. But the Most Vivid Reminder I Have of the
Rock From whence I Have Been Hewn and The Hole of the Pit From Whence I Have
Been Dug is the Present Corruption of My Depraved Heart!
I thank God for his forgiveness of my sin and for the imputed righteousness that is mine in Christ. I thank God for a new nature, a principle of grace that he has established in me, causing me to truly love him and love righteousness. But there is a real warfare in my soul. (Rom. 7:14-25; Gal. 5:17).
V. Now, looking to
the rock whence we are hewn and the hole of the pit whence we are digged, I want us to Learn some things by the Grace
of God.
I pray that God the Holy Spirit will teach us these lessons and seal them to our hearts.
A. You and I ought to be A Humble People.
Pride ought not exist in us. God hates pride! We have nothing about us that is more despicable than pride.
· Pride of Race!
· Pride of Place!
· Pride of Grace!
B. This look ought to Encourage Us!
· With regard to Our Own Salvation.
· With regard to the Souls of Others.
C. We ought to be Kind and Tender to Others.
· To Our Brethren in Christ (Eph. 4:32).
· To Our Brethren in Adam (Rom. 10:1).
D. We Ought to be Faithful to Christ, Our God and Savior (Rom. 12:1).
Application:
1. No sinner is beyond the reach of God’s Almighty Arm.
2. Remember what God Has Done for You!
Illus: My Remembrance Room!
Don’t Ever Forget!