I want to call your attention now to Isaiah 55. And we're going to consider verse seven. Isaiah 55. Since we are. Beginning verse seven in the middle of a thought, let's go back to verse six and read. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord. And he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. We took this sentence and. Began to consider it last time from verse six, and we want to conclude the sentence here in verse seven this morning, these are some very rich and full verses. Verse seven. Is the conclusion of the. Sentence, and it is a very beautiful verse, it is a verse of tremendous symmetry. There are several pairs of thoughts here, and we will point them out as we go along. These two verses together form one of the clearest Old Testament texts that show the responsibility of every sinner, the responsibility to repent of sin and the privileges that those who do repent will enjoy. This text reminds me somewhat of the New Testament passage in Acts chapter 17, which tells us that God commands all men everywhere to repent. And we have here in verse seven, this call to repentance, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts. Before we look at The call to repentance, however, let us notice, first of all, a description here of our natural character. And there are two terms that are used to describe us, us all in our natural character. First is the word wicked and second is the word unrighteous. This describes us where we begin. This is where God finds us in Adam, fallen. This is what we are by birth. This is what we are by experience. This is what we are through and through. Wicked. Wicked means to be Far from God, it means to be a criminal in the eyes of God. Though many do not realize it, that is the truth. It is the reality. It is what God says is true of us, and therefore it is and must be true of us. And though some do realize it and try to deny it, It is nonetheless true that we are criminals in the sight of God. We are guilty of crimes against the true and living God. We are lawbreakers. And we deserve nothing but his wrath against us for our crimes. And so before we go any further, I want to ask you this, do you see yourself as a criminal against God? Or do you flatter yourself as anything better than that? Those are the only options. God sees us as criminals, and the sooner that we come to agree with Him and to admit and confess that that is truly what we are, The sooner the remedy may be applied to us and the sooner we may be reconciled to God in our own hearts. And so let us face the reality of what we really are. Another term that is used here is unrighteous man, let the unrighteous, let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, let the unrighteous man forsake his thoughts. And in the margin of your Bible, the unrighteous man is literally translated the man of iniquity. The man of iniquity. Iniquity being trouble. And the idea here of the word iniquity or trouble seems to be that we exert ourselves and we trouble ourselves in vain. We trouble ourselves with our sin. It's very closely related to the whole concept of idolatry. What does an idolater do? Well, he troubles himself to serve his idol, to please his idol, to sacrifice to his idol. And it is all for naught. It is all a waste. All in vain. A man of iniquity. That's what we are. We worship our idols. Idols that we no longer call idols. No doubt the chief idol that people in our civilization worship is self. The idol of self. And just living for self And just doing what comes natural and taking the course of least resistance and doing what seems right in our own eyes is nothing but the serving of self, serving the idol of self. There is a way that seemeth right unto a man But the end thereof are the ways of death." We can be guilty of high crimes against Jehovah simply by ignoring Him. You don't have to Take up arms of warfare, at least in your own thinking and in your own understanding, to be guilty of being a great enemy against God simply by ignoring Him, simply by denying Him the place that He rightly deserves and denying Him the worship that is His due. A man may become a criminal. A man does become, indeed, a criminal and a man of iniquity in the sight of God, refusing Him the throne of your heart. How many people acknowledge God? They will say, yes, I'm not an atheist. I know there is a God. I know that he is the God of the Bible. I know that he is a three in one God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I know he's a God who sent his son to redeem sinners. I know all that. I know. I know. I've heard it. But they are still living for themselves and not for him. and they refuse Him the throne of their hearts. That is still to be an idolater. It is still to be a man of iniquity. It is a great sin. It is a sin of omission, failing, failing to worship and serve Him as we should. Yes, the unrighteous man is the man of iniquity. He not only wastes his life. He does much more, he does much worse than that. It would be bad enough just to waste life. But he wastes it on what is worse than nothing, he wastes it on what is wrong, what is against God, what is worthy of the wrath of God and that is why the grace and mercy of God that this verse speaks of is so tremendously great. When we think that God in mercy has taken upon Himself to reconcile rebels like ourselves, such open enemies or such covert enemies Whatever the case may be, whatever our particular approach to sin and idolatry may be. We see what great depth of grace and mercy there is on the part of God to reconcile us, to redeem us. And to pardon our sins, this is our natural character. But now let us see what is given to us here in this verse as our duty. Now, we've been seeing this through really the whole chapter here thus far. The things that we are invited unto, to come and to buy and eat and to live, to enter into the blessings of saving grace. Well, it is put in this verse in this way. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. Now, we saw in verse six our responsibility in these terms to seek the Lord and to call upon him. And though the. Terms here in verse seven are not such strong imperatives, They have the effect of an imperative or a command. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. This is simply the counterpart of seeking the Lord and calling upon him. We have here in these two phrases. A description of repentance and faith. It's that simple. Repentance. Well, repentance in this first part of the verse and faith in the part that says, let him return unto the Lord. Here is the turning and the returning, the turning away, the turning from and the turning to and turning toward. So let's take these things one at a time. Repentance here, the word forsake. Captures the The principle of repentance. Very clearly, there is something to forsake, there is something to turn from, there is something to give up, there is something to abandon. And what is it? Our way. and our thoughts. Notice again, two items here, two things to forsake our way and our thoughts. This is what repentance is. It is a change of mind. Thoughts. That brings about a change of action. Which is our way. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts. The way here, first of all, is our course, our whole direction, our habit. I think it refers especially to our actions as contrasted with our thoughts in the next phrase, which are the source and the spring of our actions. Our thoughts being our plans and purposes, desires, these inward motions that determine. The way the course. Here is such a very complete description of repentance, a change of mind, a change of thought that results in a change of our way, a change, of course, a change of direction. And it is a forsaking of these things that repentance involves. Not merely seeing that our ways and thoughts are wrong. Not merely confessing that our ways and our thoughts are wrong. but actually turning and forsaking, leaving, abandoning. It's that about face, it's that radical turn that is our duty and that we are called upon here to do. Proverbs tells us, he that covereth his sins shall not prosper, but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy. There must be not only the confessing. Not only the acknowledging, but the forsaking. And until that forsaking is a reality, our confession of our sins is really only empty words. In other words, we cannot go our own way and go God's way at the same time. They are opposite directions, facing opposite ways. They are mutually exclusive. We cannot think our own thoughts and think God's thoughts. It must be one or the other. We will either be guided by our own foolish wisdom or else be guided by the true wisdom of God. One way will win out over the other. One thought will win out over the other. Mr. Bunyan describes a man who pretends to go both directions as Mr. Facing Both Ways. Well, and you know which way he really ended up facing. You can't face both ways. You'll tear yourself in half trying to do so. You have to go one way or the other. We must submit our way to God's revealed will. We must submit our thoughts to God's Word. And I cannot emphasize that over much. that we need to submit our intellect to the wisdom of God. In our sinful state, we think we know everything. We think we are so wise, so intelligent. Remember, it was the promise of knowledge That was the occasion of the fall of the human race. That was the temptation. Knowledge. Knowledge. And we're told here that we must forsake our own thoughts. Oh, we think we've got it all figured out. No, we come to God's Word and we submit to what He says because He has it figured out. We don't. Left to ourselves, we know nothing as we ought to know. And so we must forsake our own way and forsake our own thoughts. And what else? And let him return unto the Lord. Let this wicked, unrighteous man, as he forsakes his way and forsakes his own thoughts, return unto the Lord. Now, what's that? That's the counterpart of repentance. That's the kindred grace. of faith. Faith and repentance are like two sides of the same coin. They are graces that operate always together. As we repent, we believe. As we believe, we repent. And as we forsake our own way and forsake our own thoughts, we return unto the Lord. There is not only something to turn from, but there is something to turn to, or really someone to turn to. And he is mentioned here under two titles or names, the Lord and God. Let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Let me just say a word about each of these words. The name Lord. In capital letters here is the word Jehovah in the Hebrew. which speaks of His eternal self-existence. He is the I Am, the eternal I Am, the One who exists independently and eternally and upon Whom and by Whom all other beings exist. In Him, we live and move and have our being. He is the only self-existing One. the One on whom our existence depends. And He's also called God here. This is the word Elohim, which speaks especially of His being the Judge, the Supreme Authority. And it is to this One that we are to turn and to return. In sin, we turn from Him. In sin, we departed from Him. In redemption, we return to Him. In repentance and faith, we return to Him. Oh, what folly it is to refuse, to oppose Him. To oppose the One who is the Supreme Judge? To oppose the One by whom we draw our next breath? And yet that is the very foolishness of all of us in our sinful state, our own foolish thoughts, our own foolish ways. Now, it says, let him return unto the Lord, let him return to our God. What is it to come to God? What is it to come to Jehovah? Well, in just very simple working terms, it is to trust in Him or to submit to Him for righteousness. It means to look to Him. To come to Him is to believe on Him. It is to have faith in Him. It is to have trust and dependence upon Him for righteousness. for that which is necessary to be right with God, to be at peace with God, to be restored into fellowship and communion with God. And to come to Him is to submit to His governance, to submit to His authority in our life. We speak in the New Testament so frequently speaks of Christ as Savior and Lord. And we shouldn't divide those things and we shouldn't even see them necessarily as separate items or separate offices, for to be a Savior truly in the fullest sense of the word Savior and deliverer is to be a Lord unto us. But his lordship must be emphasized, and especially in the times in which we live. When people. Dream that they can come to him as savior, but not come to him as Lord. No, we come to him in all that he is. We can't come to a part of Christ. We come to a whole Christ. the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. This is what it is to come to him, to submit to him for righteousness and to submit to him for guidance and for direction. It is indeed to submit our thoughts to him, to submit our way unto him. Now, now we get to the cream, and that is what the repenting Believer finds the one who repents, who forsakes his way, the one who believes, who returns unto the Lord. What does he find? Well, there are two things promised here in this text. He will have mercy upon him and he will abundantly pardon. Now, before we look at those two things, let me just say this. Some might question the order as I have just given it as far as what the repenting believer finds or what the repenting believer receives. The repenting believer finds mercy and pardon. But this is the order in which the events occur in our experience. in our perception, in our consciousness. We do not find the mercy and the pardon as long as we are insisting on our way and our thoughts and refusing to repent and believe in Christ. Certainly, In a broader sense, it is an act of mercy from God that brings us to repent. It is an act of mercy from God that brings us to believe and to return unto the Lord. But we are not aware of it at the time. What we sense and what we experience is a turning from sin and a turning to the Lord. And as we come to the Lord, as we repent and believe on Christ for salvation, then we discover these stores of mercy and pardon that he has promised to give. And perhaps subsequently, we come to see that the Lord's mercy was at work long before we realized it. But let's talk about mercy for a moment. Mercy, favor, tender compassion and love toward those that are suffering. Certainly, it is something that is undeserved, and we must emphasize that over and over. The moment that we think that we have a right to God's mercy, It's no longer mercy. When we think we have a right to His grace, it's no longer grace. And honestly, I try to think of ways of expressing these truths that will shock you and that will surprise you and that will be maybe different from the way that I said it last time. Because hearing it over and over again, we tend to become careless with it and take it for granted. And its impact upon us is not as great as it should be. And so, let the mercy of God shock you today. Imagine that you had never heard it and never heard about it all of your life. Until now, and this was the first time that you'd ever heard the word mercy and ever understood the truth and the concept of God's mercy to unworthy rebels, what good news, what amazing news, what shocking news it would be. And that is the essence of worship, to be amazed at the goodness of God. A merciful God. A God who has every right to be angry with us for our sins, our ways, our thoughts. But a God who is merciful. He doesn't have to be merciful. But He chooses to be merciful. He has to be holy. He has to be just. He has to be righteous. But He does not have to be merciful. But He has taken upon Himself to show mercy. Mercy is something extra. Mercy is something additional. Not obligatory. Something that He freely chooses to show. Mercy is not earned by our forsaking of our way. Mercy is not earned by our forsaking of our thoughts. Mercy from God is not earned by our repenting enough. We could never repent enough to earn mercy. We shouldn't even think of mercy as being earned by Christ, because it was mercy that sent Christ to this earth in the first place. Mercy that led Him to the cross of Calvary to suffer and die for our sins, to endure the just wrath of God, that was against us, that he bore in our place. Mercy sent Christ, mercy appointed Christ, mercy ordained him as our Savior before the foundation of the world. And mercy is our only hope. Mercy is the sinner's only hope. Anything less than mercy leaves us in a state of utter hopelessness. Do you recognize today your dependence upon the mercy of God and dependence upon the God of mercy? Well, this is what He has promised for those who repent and believe Those who forsake and return, he says, God will have mercy upon him. And the second thing that he promises is pardon. He will abundantly pardon. Pardon is forgiveness. Forgiveness that involves being restored. to friendly terms, being brought back into fellowship and communion with God, that fellowship and communion that Adam lost in sin that is restored in Christ. Pardon means that these crimes are put away. The crimes that we've committed against God are put away. Our offenses, our unrighteousness, is removed and in place, we come to have the righteousness of Christ, the perfection, the merits of Christ in place of all our sin and demerits. This is the good news, my friend, the work of Christ. The person and the work of Christ. We see this pardon illustrated in that prodigal son, the story of the prodigal son, which we read earlier. Here is this son. What does he do? He turns from his own way. He had on his own. Started out heading straight in a beeline for the hog pen. And so it is with every one of us in our natural state. We head to the hog pen at high speed. Oh, we think that we're heading to enjoyment and fun and a party and a great life, when in reality, we are heading away from God and for the hogpen of misery and shame and starvation. But this prodigal son came to himself. He came to his right mind. He came to his senses. He came to illumination. He was brought to see the reality of things as They really are. And he turned away from that hopeless course. That wayward way and rebellious thoughts. And he turned to his Father. He returned unto the Father. He left full and returned empty. But his father filled him again. What a beautiful picture of restoration, of repentance and faith and coming to God, coming to the Lord we have here in this parable. His sins were pardoned even as he was confessing his sins to his father. His father says, let the celebration begin. There's pardon, free, merciful pardon for all those who come to God by Christ, who look to Christ for righteousness and peace and acceptance with God. And for that prodigal son, and for you and me, there is only one other option. And that is to die of starvation. What did he say while he was in that hog pen when he came to himself? He said, I perish. With hunger. My dear friends, I set before you only these two possibilities for your life and for eternity and life hereafter. It is either to perish with hunger or to return unto the Lord and discover His mercy. This is the very terminology here of our text, Isaiah 55. Ho, everyone that thirsteth! Come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money, come ye, buy and eat! Yea, come buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you starve? Why do you spend money for that which is not bread? And your labor for that which satisfieth not? Hearken diligently unto me and eat ye that which is good. How many servants in the Father's house have it better off than I do, the prodigal son says in that hog pen. Let your soul delight itself in fatness. Our Lord himself speaks the truth so unmistakably clearly when he says, except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. And so, let the wicked forsake his way And the unrighteous man, his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Now, there's one word that I've left out that I haven't said a thing about yet. And it's the word abundantly. Comes to us here in our translation as an adverb. It is, I think the margin of your Bible probably translates the phrase this way. He will multiply to pardon. Yes. An abundant pardon, a multiplied pardon, pardon upon pardon. Pardon for every sin and sin upon sin, compound pardon. Abundantly. I think it's the most beautiful word I've ever heard. He will abundantly pardon if he didn't give an abundant pardon, if he gave a little pardon, if he gave a halfway pardon. It wouldn't be enough. We would still be lost and without hope. The only hope for great sinners is abundance of pardon. a great quantity of it. He pardons, He forgives in fullness. There is a plenty, a plenteousness about His pardon. And that tells us two things. It tells us first, that none need fear. That His sins are too many. or too great. As you read the history of. Of conversions, how the Lord. Has dealt with people in ages past, this was a very common problem to be addressed. I've heard it very little in my lifetime from anybody. But people used to say, I can't come to Christ. God would not receive me. I'm too great of a sinner. He doesn't have that much mercy. He couldn't have that much pardon. Oh, yes, he could. Because the pardon is an abundant pardon, it is a multiplied pardon. None need fear that his sins are too many or too great, too deep. too broad for God to forgive. Thank the Lord that it's an abundant pardon. But let me quickly add a second thought that this word teaches us. None should dare pretend that his sins are small. and few and rare and that he needs anything less than an abundant pardon. The problem that prevails today is not people saying my sins are too great for God to pardon. It is my sins are so few. I don't need much pardon. And frankly, I'm a bit insulted that anyone should say that I need an abundant pardon. What kind of person do you think I am? A depraved sinner? This, my friends, is the message of shallow evangelism all around us today. A little pardon for a little sin. A little Savior. And people repent a little and believe a little and only worship and follow Him a little. But our sins are more abundant than we realize. And we need a pardon that is more abundant, therefore. Christ is a slight Savior to no one. He is a small-time helper who makes no demands for no one. He is a cheap savior to whom men owe little obligation of reverence and obedience for no one. Abundant pardon is the only kind there is. Abundant pardon is the only kind that he offers. With the Lord there is mercy, and with Him is plenteous, plenteous redemption. And therefore, in this one little word, abundantly, we have at one and the same time hope for the desperate and rebuke for the proud. I urge you, therefore, to forsake your way and your thoughts and to return unto the Lord and find this abundant pardon.