The longer I know it, the more I know about it, and the more I experience it, the more completely astonished I am of it, and hope I never do. I want to talk to you tonight about God's Astonishing Grace! I am truly, overwhelmed and astonished by these things.
1. God chose to save me!I am not at all surprised that God should save sinners. That is what I expect from such an One as he is! He is gracious and good. "God is love!" But I am astonished that he should chose to save me!
2. The Lord Jesus Christ loved me and gave himself if for me.3. God the Holy Spirit has come to me and taken up permanent residence in me in his irresistible, regenerating grace!
When I would not seek him, the Lord sought me. When I would not and could not come to him, he came to me. When I could not trust Christ, he gave me faith in Christ.
4. He keeps me in his grace!My text tonight is Isaiah 57:18. I want to pick up right where I left off last Sunday night, and show you what God says about his mighty operations of grace toward and in his elect.
I. First, the Lord God says, "I Have Seen His Ways."When I read this chapter's description of Israel's horrible wickedness, realizing that the children of Israel were but representatives of all God's elect. I am astonished to hear God say, "I have seen his ways, and will heal him." When God announces, "I have seen his way, he is showing us that his grace is infinitely magnanimous. God is fully aware of the unworthiness of those sinners whom he has chosen as the objects of his saving grace. It is the glory of God's grace that he bestows it upon the most unworthy objects.
Read this chapter again, and see how God describes the sins of his people. When he says, "I have seen his ways, "he wants us to understand that nothing has been hidden from him.
A. God's Omniscience Observes Sinners In The Practice of Sin.God has observed us and still does, in the practice of sin, not merely in the outward deed, but in the imagination of evil, the thought of wickedness, the plot of sin, and in the open acts! Having observed our ways, yours and mine, God has found nothing good, but only evil continually. Notice how God describes what he had observed of Israel's ways; and remember their ways are here recorded to remind us that God observes our ways. Israel's ways were:
1. The Way of Senseless Indifference (vv. 1-2).B. Not only is it true that the Lord God has observed our ways by his omniscience, but He Has Also Displayed His Wrath And Justice Against Our Sin.
Let no one imagine that God is indifferent to sin. God's elect remnant was guilty of the very things for which the nation of Israel was destroyed. And you and I are guilty, in ourselves, of those very crimes for which untold millions suffer the wrath of God in hell tonight!
II. Secondly, God declares, "I Will Heal Him!"That is simply amazing, astonishing grace! Though God has seen the ways of his people, he says, "I will heal them!" In these blessed words I see…
A. A Divine Purpose that Cannot be Altered or Defeated! B. A Promise of Free, Unconditional Grace! C. A Complete and thorough HealingIllus: It is as senseless for men to talk of free grace promoting sin as it is to talk about a cancer hospital promoting the spread of cancer! "With his stripes (by the merit of his blood) we are healed!"
III. Thirdly, the Lord declares, with regard to his elect, "I will Lead Them Also!"
All of God's elect are led by his Spirit. "As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God (Rom. 8:14). If God has healed you by his grace, he will lead you by his Spirit – (Ps. 37:23).
God begins by destroying all our false comforts and all our false peace. But once he has led us to Christ he gives us comforts of grace and "peace that passeth all understanding!" The Comforts of…
I take that to mean that those who have mourned for chosen sinners, seeking God's grace for them shall be comforted when God saves them!
*