I invite you to open your Bible tonight to Isaiah chapter 44. We're going to begin with chapter 43, verse 24, and then we'll read through 44, verse 8. We've been doing a small series here on these wonderful chapters in Isaiah where God speaks to Israel about their sin but constantly reminds them of His grace and His love and His faithfulness to them. Let's begin Isaiah chapter 44, let's actually start in verse 22 of Isaiah 43, sorry. Isaiah 43, we'll start in verse 22. This is God's word as he speaks to his people through his prophet Isaiah. Yet you did not call upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with frankincense. You have not brought me sweet cane with money or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices, but you have burdened me with your sins. You have wearied me with your iniquities. I am he who blots out your transgression for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. And then we have a brief courtroom scene. Put me in remembrance. Let us argue together. Set forth your case that you may be proved right. Your first father sinned and your mediators transgressed against me. Therefore, I will profane the princes of the sanctuary and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling. But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen. Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you. Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen, for I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. I will pour my Spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. They shall spring up among the grass like willows by flowing streams. This one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob. And another will write on his hand, the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel." Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. Who is like me? Let Him proclaim it. Let Him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come and what will happen. Fear not, nor be afraid. Have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses. Is there a God besides me? There is no rock, I know not any." Let's ask the Lord's blessing. Our Father, I thank You that in these words to Your people so long ago, You have a message for us as Your New Testament people. And we pray, Lord, You give us ears to hear it and hearts that respond with faith and joy. and loving obedience. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. The title for my message tonight is, A Savior for Covenant Sinners. One of the things I love about the book of Isaiah is that it contains wonderful messages of comfort for God's sinful people, His sinful children. This is not a message about God's dealing with the world at large. It is primarily a message directed specifically to Israel and to Israel in her sin. And God is very clear in the book of Isaiah about Israel's sin. And there will be discipline because of Israel's sin. But discipline is not the ultimate word, it's not the final word. This is ultimately a story of God's sovereign mercy and grace and love for his people. And that's a relevant text for Christians, I think for believers of any age. Because there's an interesting wrinkle about being a Christian, I think it's, easier for us to imagine that God would show grace to sinners outside the church. then He would show to grace, or He would delight in those inside the church. If we think about the sinners out there, we rejoice when they come to a saving knowledge, and it's easy for us to imagine God rejoicing as He gathers them in. And it's easy for us to God, easy for us to think that God feels maybe a little differently about His people. about people in the church, for after all, those outside have not received all the privileges and all the advantages of grace that so many of us have received from our childhood. Those on the outside didn't have godly parents to pray with them and tell them about Jesus, and so many of us did. Those outside weren't raised under the preaching of the gospel, and so many of us were. Those outside haven't rebelled against knowledge and love and grace. And we've done all of those things. Our sins have not been in ignorance. We've sinned against what we've confessed to be true and against love and grace that we've received. And that just makes our sins more grievous. And we might be quietly wondering if God is still willing to love us. Is He still affectionate towards us? I mean, just think about it. To whom would you be more willing to show grace? To an impoverished child who stole from you because they were just hungry and wanted to eat? Or the wealthy child down the street who stole just for the fun of it, not a sheer rebellion? You can sense the problem. You see, our sins are in the second category. Our sins are in the context of the wealth of God's grace to us in Jesus Christ, and our sins flow from just rebellion. God has not failed us in some way so that we could point to God's failure as a cause or reason for our rebellion. But what I love about Isaiah is that he writes then to the church. He writes to sinful people of God to remind them and assure them of the affection and the steadfast love and mercy of God. And tonight we're going to be looking just at the three points if you're taking notes. First, covenant guilt and then covenant mercy. and then a covenant God. Covenant guilt, covenant mercy, and a covenant God. Our text is part of a larger text dealing with the guilt of Israel. God is pointing out to them their failure. They have not satisfied Him with the fat of their sacrifices. They've brought their sacrifices, but it was empty show. Their hearts were far from God. They were sacrificing to God and sacrificing to their pagan idols. And God says, you've burdened me with your sins and have wearied me with your iniquities. Well, that's exactly what we had feared. That's a hard thing to hear God say. You've burdened me with your sins and wearied me with your iniquities. We fear that God maybe has lost patience with us. We could easily imagine that He would. And in verses 26 and 28, God establishes the reality of their guilt as we have here, sort of a courtroom scene. God says, let us argue together. That's legal language. It means to argue a case at law. So God invites His people to approach the bench and make their case, present their argument, show their innocence. Put me in remembrance, He says. Maybe I've forgotten all the righteous deeds that you've done. Remind me of your covenant obedience. Remind me of your covenant faithfulness. Show me that I've gotten it wrong. Remind me so that I see the error of my ways, that you're actually not deserving of divine rebuke. Prove that you're innocent of the charges, right? Set forth your case so that you may be proved right. That's the invitation. And of course, it's an impossible task. If you were the defense attorney for Israel, what are you gonna plead? They didn't know any better? They're the whole law of God given to them uniquely and specifically that clearly lays out what covenant obedience looks like. What defense are you going to raise that would explain and justify Israel's idolatry and their perversion, their greed, their formalism, their empty worship? You can't plead ignorance. You can't say that God has failed them somehow as their covenant head, that therefore, yes, they failed, but God has failed as well, and so let's just call it a wash. You can't argue that. God's been nothing but absolutely faithful to His covenant. And so you see, Israel is completely guilty with no excuse. And the same is true for us. There's no explaining or excusing our sin against God. We can't plead ignorance. We can't plead neglect somehow on God's part. We've known what we were doing, and we sinned anyway. We violated God's covenant with us. And so we're guilty. We are actually, in truth, guilty. And God, before He renders the verdict of 28, He summarizes the case against them. He says, your first father sinned. That might be a reference to Adam, or it could be Jacob, the father of the twelve tribes of Israel. The point is the same, that they're guilty all the way back. And their guilt is not just personal and private, but their guilt is corporate and even generational. Amatuer says that in biblical thought, each generation takes over from the last in cumulative guilt, and each new generation fills up the measure of its predecessor. And so you'll find in the prayers of confession of the Old Testament, they'll begin with, we've sinned and our fathers have sinned. We belong to a community, generations of sin. Jesus says in Matthew 23, thus you witness against yourselves, speaking to the Pharisees, that you are the sons of those who murder the prophets. Fill up then the measure of your fathers. Fill up the measure of their sin. God says to Israel, your sin is not just personal and private, but it's corporate. It's generational. And your mediators transgressed against me, he says. The priests transgressed the covenant. They led the people in false worship, either to pagan idols or to empty formalism. And they promised the people all along that it didn't matter, that God would never punish them, there would be peace. And God says there is no peace. But that guilt of their leaders belongs to the body as a whole. And the point is just that Israel's guilt is corporate, it's endemic, it's whole, it's communal. It's not just a private, personal problem. Their guilt is tied to their being as a nation, not just their acting. And again, a very similar case is true for us. We are guilty not just because of our own things that we do and say, we're guilty in Adam. We're guilty as we belong to a nation that is corrupt and perverse. Now, of course, America isn't God's nation and people in any sense like Israel was, but we do belong to a nation that commits grievous, atrocious crimes against God. We're guilty. Worthy of condemnation in truth not just because of what we do but because of what we are and and and so that Corporate sense is what Isaiah is after he went when if you remember in Isaiah chapter 6 when when Isaiah sees God in his holiness on his throne he Senses his sin. Woe was me I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips there's just filth and perversion all around and That's the guilt that God points to as He rebukes His people, and consequently, the sentence of verse 28 is perfectly just. That's the sentence. The case has been proven. The verdict has been rendered. The sentence is pronounced. Israel is guilty of violating their covenant with God and God is perfectly just to then bring on them the covenant punishments the judgments reserved for covenant breakers But Judgment is not gonna be the final word. And that's the beauty of this text. In the middle of it, we have this wonderful proclamation. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. In the context of Israel's guilt, in the irrefutable reality of their sin, and the justness of their judgment, God stands and declares himself to be a God who forgives, who does not remember sins, We have in chapter 44 verse 1 then a reminder of covenant mercy. I hope those words, but now, jump out. They're all through the Bible. It's the wonderful proclamation of God that our sin and our guilt and God's wrath against that sin, it's not the last word. But now, those are gospel words. Against the backdrop of the reality of guilt, we have God intervening with the reality of His grace. and letting His children know that their identity and their future is not formed by their failure, but formed by His forgiveness and by His love and grace. And so God begins, as He starts this portion, He talks to them in explicitly covenant language. I am the God who's chosen you. That's who He is in relation to them. And so they are not simply Jacob who sinned or Israel who is guilty. They are, in God's mind, Jacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen. That's how He sees them. Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen. That's their identity, their covenant identity before God. He says, I am the God who made you and formed you from the womb. In other words, God had chosen them and formed them and entered into covenant with them before they were born. Now, why does that matter? Paul says that, right? We were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world. Why does that matter? What's the benefit of that knowledge? Well, this is the comfort of election. It's the idea that God has made covenant with His people before their sin and irrespective of their sin. So if you look at Romans chapter 9, where Paul speaks about God's election, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated, and he says that God makes this decision while they were still in the womb before either of them had done anything, either good or evil. God makes His covenant prior to sin and irrespective of sin and chooses His people there, and sin, which comes later, can't break that covenant reality, can't break that bond. That's the benefit of it. You see, you can trace Israel's guilt and our guilt all the way back to Adam. But you can trace our covenant identity back further still. You can trace love and mercy and grace back into the eternal counsel of God, where He loved us and chose us in Jesus Christ. And since God's election is irrevocable, our status as His children is unbreakable. That's the comfort of the doctrine of election. God's love precedes our life and precedes our sin, and guilt cannot separate us from the love of God in Christ. God reminds His people of this covenant reality then, this covenant bond, who they are in relationship to Him, so that they will have the assurance of His help. I am the Lord who formed you and will help you. He will help them even in the midst of their discipline. Even though they have grievously sinned, God is still their faithful God, and God is still their loving Heavenly Father. The covenant stands, the mercy endures, the fatherly affection continues. You see that in the phrase, fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen. That word Jeshurun, it's a name of affection. The un at the end there is a diminutive of affection. It's like saying my little Bobby, my little Sarah. My dear little one, that's the idea. God is affectionately speaking as a father speaks to his young child. Don't be afraid, my dear little one. It's an affectionate term. And that's what we can so easily doubt when we sin. We can maybe believe in a generic way that God's willing to forgive us, but does He like us? Does He love us? Is His heart toward us? Is He for us? And the answer is yes. He loves His children even when they sin. And He promises blessings even when we've erred and violated the covenant. Notice in verse 3, the blessing God promises, I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground. How did the land get… How did the heart get so thirsty and dry? It's because of sin. My people have committed two sins. They've forsaken me, the spring of living water, and chosen broken cisterns that can't hold water. When we walk in paths of sin, we become dead and dry, and God says, I will refresh you. I'll pour water. I will pour my spirit upon your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. In the world of that day, as it is still today, but particularly in Israel, it's mostly, it's dry, it's arid. But water is the miracle that makes things grow, brings things to life. And God says, I'm going to give you the miracle of my Holy Spirit that's going to revive you and bring life into your dead, thirsty, dry heart. I'm going to pour my Spirit upon you to do that work." Oh, that's just such a wonderful blessing, the greatest blessing. God responding to our sin by promising nothing less than His own Spirit, His presence, His power, His saving power. It's just been striking me over and over again as I'm going through the Bible how often we're pointed to the Spirit of God as the power of sanctification, the power that can turn our hearts. I had a conversation with a friend a while ago who has fallen into grievous sin and confessed that where he is right now, he knows it's sin, but he doesn't grieve it and thinks he might go back to it. His heart is just hard. And I called him just to encourage him. Brother, ask for the Holy Spirit. Ask for the Holy Spirit. The Spirit pours fresh water and wakes up a dead heart. The Spirit will give you a God-honoring grief of your sin. The Spirit will give you a wonderful assurance of forgiveness and lead you in the path of repentance. Ask for the Spirit. Turn me and I shall be turned, the psalmist says. Created me a new heart, David prays. Don't take your Holy Spirit from me. People of God, I just encourage you, if you find that there's dryness and deadness in your life, ask for God to pour this blessing upon you. Jesus, remember, says, if you being evil can give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him? Let's be intentionally asking for God to grant the Spirit. Now it's a wonderful, wonderful thing for God to say to His rebellious children. It's not something we would have expected, that God would meet our intransigence, our rebellion, our sin, that God would meet us, even though we've wearied Him with sin, that He would meet us with such love and promise to bless us with His own life-giving presence. And that presence of the Spirit has transformative power, as we see in verse 4. where God says that Israel's descendants will spring up like willows by flowing streams, vibrant and healthy, strong. Even more significant, notice verse five. This one will say, I am the Lord's. Another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, the Lord's, and name himself by the name of Israel. It just means that when the Holy Spirit comes, two things happen in the lives of sinful people. When the Holy Spirit is poured out, the first is there is a renewed dedication to Jesus. I am the Lord's. There's a new desire to serve him, to belong to him, to follow after him. To write the Lord on your hand is to say, everything that I do is for His glory. It's all dedicated to Christ. All for Jesus, all for Jesus, all my being's ransom powers. And the second thing that happens is not only a rededication to God and to Christ, but it's a rededication to the Lord's people. Notice, they will call on the name of Jacob and name himself by the name of Israel. So they don't simply take God to be their God, they take God's people to be their people. They embrace the covenant community. That's what happens when the Holy Spirit is poured out. There are people today who say, it's becoming popular to hear people say, I love Jesus, I don't love His church. Well, whatever is driving that, you can be confident it is not the Spirit of God. Whatever spirit is behind that, it is another spirit, it's not God's spirit. Because God's Spirit will move you to delight in God's people. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the house of thine abode, the church, our blessed Redeemer, saved with His own precious blood. For her my tears shall fall, and for her my prayers ascend. To her my toils and cares be given, till toils and cares shall end. We love the church of Jesus Christ. We're frustrated by it sometimes, and we've been wounded by it. But it's the church of Jesus Christ. And when the Holy Spirit is at work, there's a delight. And you name yourself by the name of Israel. And so we've seen covenant guilt, and covenant mercy, and finally covenant God. Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and the last. Beside me there is no God. And the point here, friends, is very simple. As God speaks to us, it's that if there's no other God than our God, then there's no power in earth or heaven that can stand in the way of our ultimate salvation. If God has no rivals, and He doesn't, then we have no reason for fear. If God is for us, who could be against us? If God is our King and our Redeemer, He's purchased us, if Christ has done this for us, Well then, we're saved to the uttermost. And if Jesus is the captain of the army of the hosts of heaven, that's where we read, the Lord of hosts. You think of the vast armies of heaven all at the beck and call of King Jesus. Well, what can separate us then from Christ? The God to whom we belong is the God who proclaims and declares and appoints every event in human history. And so God says, fear not, nor be afraid. It's an intentional repetition. Have I not told you from of old and declared it, and you are my witnesses? Is there a God besides me? There is no rock, I know not any. Everything that God has promised, he has fulfilled. All that he promised in Adam has been fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The seed of the woman has crushed the serpent's head. Everything he promised through his prophets has been fulfilled, he has done it. The virgin has conceived and bore a son. The man of sorrows has received our iniquities, carried our sorrows. With his stripes we have been healed. And we are witnesses of this. We're witnesses of the great salvation of God. Who else would be better witnesses than those of us who've received it? We testify, you see, to the faithfulness of God. That in spite of all of our sin, God has been faithful. God has loved us. God has kept us. We testify to the sufficient atoning work of Jesus Christ for sinners even like us. And we testify, friends, as we come to the table of the Lord. We come here to receive the grace as Jesus reminds us of what He's accomplished, but we testify too. We proclaim the Lord's death as we come to the table of the Lord. We testify as those who've been the recipients of this grace. Those who've been purchased with this blood. Those who've been made alive by the Holy Spirit of Jesus. Those who now belong to Him. We testify as the church. This is our Lord. We write it on our hand. We belong to Him. We're not our own. But body and soul, we belong to our faithful Savior Jesus Christ. And because of Jesus, you see, we will not be dealt with according to our sin as grievous as it is, but we will be dealt with according to the steadfast love and mercy of our heavenly Father who loved us and gave His Son for us. May that be our testimony tonight as we come to the table. Let's pray. Oh God, our Father in heaven, thank you so much that you are God of grace. And Father, we pray that Your Holy Spirit would open the eyes of our heart that we might know the love and grace that is ours in Jesus, that we might grasp how high and wide and long and deep this is, to know the love of Christ for us that surpasses knowledge so that, Lord, our hearts are softened and repentance comes freely and humility comes easily and gentleness and kindness flows from us because we are rooted and established in love. Father, I thank you that you have grace for your sinning children. And I pray, Lord, that we would testify to that grace as we gather around the table and experience that grace as you minister through the sacrament your love and your grace to us. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. I'd like to invite the elders to come forward