Doug McMasters: Good morning, beloved.
Doug McMasters: I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Doug McMasters: And I see that you survived Black Friday, so that's a good thing.
Doug McMasters: Let's take our Bibles and go over to the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: We're going to continue our Thanksgiving theme even as we move through the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: We'll be in chapter 56, the last part of 56, and all of 57.
Doug McMasters: And if you need a Bible, there's one in front of you in the pew.
Doug McMasters: And you can find our text on page 653, 653.
Doug McMasters: In 1830, a man by the name of George Wilson was convicted of robbing the U.S.
Doug McMasters: mail in Pennsylvania.
Doug McMasters: And it wasn't just a petty theft.
Doug McMasters: It wasn't something like the porch pirates that uh take our boxes off of our uh off of our porches.
Doug McMasters: It was a violent crime that endangered uh the mail carriers.
Doug McMasters: And in 1830, to rob the U.S.
Doug McMasters: mail was seen as an attack against the U.S.
Doug McMasters: government itself.
Doug McMasters: And so the trial uh came, the jury brought in the verdict, and justice was served.
Doug McMasters: Wilson was pronounced guilty.
Doug McMasters: And the punishment for that crime was to be sentenced to death by hanging.
Doug McMasters: But something remarkable happened.
Doug McMasters: Some friends of George Wilson petitioned President Andrew Jackson for a pardon and pleaded for mercy.
Doug McMasters: And against all expectation, President Andrew Jackson granted a pardon to George Wilson.
Doug McMasters: Imagine in a moment, on a piece of paper was the freedom of this man.
Doug McMasters: But instead of receiving the pardon, George Wilson refused it.
Doug McMasters: And to his friends' astonishment and shock, uh, they tried to find a way for this pardon to actually be enforced.
Doug McMasters: And so they brought it to court.
Doug McMasters: And it went from one court to another until it went all the way up to the Supreme Court.
Doug McMasters: And the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, John Marshall, said this: a pardon is a deed, to the validity of which delivery is essential.
Doug McMasters: And delivery is not complete without acceptance.
Doug McMasters: It may then be rejected by a person to whom it is tendered.
Doug McMasters: And if it be rejected, we have discovered no power in this court to force it upon him.
Doug McMasters: Think about that.
Doug McMasters: Here is a man who was sentenced to death, was offered freedom, and he rejected it.
Doug McMasters: Grace was extended to him, but he refused it.
Doug McMasters: And so George Wilson remained under the sentence of justice that the jury handed down, and he was hung for his crime.
Doug McMasters: The story of George Wilson reminds us that a pardon offered is not a pardon unless it's received.
Doug McMasters: Well, this week we've celebrated Thanksgiving together.
Doug McMasters: We've paused to count our blessings.
Doug McMasters: We've stopped to remember God's goodness and to remember all of the things that God has provided for us with family and friends and church and salvation and food and plenty and all the many things.
Doug McMasters: God's mercies to us, seen and unseen.
Doug McMasters: And at first glance, when we look at the passage that we're going to look at this morning, thanksgiving doesn't come immediately to mind.
Doug McMasters: The passage that we're about to look at is filled with corruption, it's filled with idolatry, and it's filled with the sobering reality of God's wrath.
Doug McMasters: And yet, woven in the midst of this is a golden thread that God extends to people who deserve wrath, mercy.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't give them what they deserve.
Doug McMasters: In fact, he gives them what they don't deserve, and that is grace.
Doug McMasters: And so this morning we're going to discover that.
Doug McMasters: And we'll discover that God's mercy and grace are seen in its highest fulfillment in Jesus Christ, as the one who bore the judgment on our behalf, to grant us not only a pardon, but a welcome into God's eternal presence without condemnation.
Doug McMasters: And like George Wilson, we will face a question: Here is this pardon.
Doug McMasters: Will it be ours or not?
Doug McMasters: And so as we walk through this passage, I want to see it in three movements.
Doug McMasters: I want to see, first of all, that leaders deserve judgment, but God offers mercy, that idols deserve collapse, but God gives refuge.
Doug McMasters: And that sinners deserve wrath, but God gives peace.
Doug McMasters: And each one of these will speak to us.
Doug McMasters: It'll honestly expose sin, but it will also lift our hearts to gratitude to God for his mercy and for his grace.
Doug McMasters: And so let's take a look, first of all, at this first movement: leaders deserving judgment, but God giving mercy.
Doug McMasters: And in chapter 56 and verse 9, we discover the start of this with this horrible indictment, this sobering picture.
Doug McMasters: It says here in verse 9, all you animals of the field and forests, come and eat.
Doug McMasters: Well, speaking to the nations in this sort of form, talking to them to come and devour Israel because our leaders have failed.
Doug McMasters: And the description follows of what those leaders are like.
Doug McMasters: All of them.
Doug McMasters: They know nothing.
Doug McMasters: All of them are mute dogs.
Doug McMasters: They cannot bark.
Doug McMasters: They dream, they lie down, and love to sleep.
Doug McMasters: These dogs have fierce appetites.
Doug McMasters: They never have enough.
Doug McMasters: They're shepherds who have no discernment.
Doug McMasters: All of them turn to their own way, every last one of them for his own profit.
Doug McMasters: Come, let me get wine.
Doug McMasters: Let's guzzle beer.
Doug McMasters: Tomorrow will be like today, only far better.
Doug McMasters: What a devastating indictment this is to the leaders of the nation of Israel.
Doug McMasters: These ones who had the responsibility to be discerning are here described as blind.
Doug McMasters: Those who have been sh should have been feeding the flock are instead indulging themselves.
Doug McMasters: And instead of protecting the people, they are actually consuming the resources of the people for their own appetites.
Doug McMasters: And instead of sounding the alarm, they're silent.
Doug McMasters: And instead of leading with wisdom, they are chasing pleasure and profit.
Doug McMasters: Israel is under that kind of leadership and deserves judgment.
Doug McMasters: They have abandoned their calling.
Doug McMasters: And they are causing the people to suffer for it.
Doug McMasters: This lays out for us this maxim that leadership matters a lot.
Doug McMasters: That when shepherds fail, sheep scatter.
Doug McMasters: When watchmen sleep, danger goes forward unchecked.
Doug McMasters: And when leadership without holiness leads to ruin.
Doug McMasters: And the failure of leadership is talked about all over in Scripture.
Doug McMasters: Ezekiel chapter 34, for instance.
Doug McMasters: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who've been feeding themselves.
Doug McMasters: Shouldn't the shepherds feed the flock?
Doug McMasters: Jeremiah 23, woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture.
Doug McMasters: And the failure of leadership is not only found in the Old Testament, it's found in the New Testament, where Jesus in John chapter 10 contrasts himself with the hired, the hired ones who abandon the sheep when danger comes.
Doug McMasters: And in Matthew 23, condemning the blind guides who are leading Israel astray.
Doug McMasters: And so reverberating all through Scripture is this idea that the leaders deserve judgment because of their sin.
Doug McMasters: And the failed shepherds of Israel are pointing us, and certainly to them, to the need of a perfect shepherd, the one who would alone preserve the people.
Doug McMasters: And that's why we get these prophetic statements in Ezekiel and other places that talk about a leader, a shepherd who's going to come.
Doug McMasters: Ezekiel 34, God says this, I will save my flock.
Doug McMasters: And I will judge between one sheep and another, and I will establish over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will shepherd them.
Doug McMasters: He will tend them himself and will be their shepherd.
Doug McMasters: Bethlehem Ephraim.
Doug McMasters: For me.
Doug McMasters: His origin is from antiquity, from ancient times.
Doug McMasters: That's verse two, but verse four says this.
Doug McMasters: Where Israel's leaders failed.
Doug McMasters: The scriptures tell us that God was going to send forth one shepherd.
Doug McMasters: And so Jesus himself spoke and said that he is the good shepherd who gives his life for the sheep.
Doug McMasters: He's not blind like these men were.
Doug McMasters: But notice the mercy that's found here.
Doug McMasters: In the midst of this indictment of these false leaders, these failed leaders, God steps in and says, even though they are falling under this utter, utterly horrible leadership, God will preserve them and bring them to peace.
Doug McMasters: This is mercy.
Doug McMasters: Mercy in the midst of corruption.
Doug McMasters: And God is preserving his faithful ones.
Doug McMasters: And though the righteous ones might be overlooked by the world, God doesn't overlook them, he takes care of them.
Doug McMasters: I sent this verse over to Kevin Cooney just a few days ago.
Doug McMasters: In the middle of the corruption that he's dealing with, he and Matt, as they're trying to find a way forward, they needed some encouragement and hope.
Doug McMasters: And this passage tells that even though wicked people may not count them at all of any significance, God does.
Doug McMasters: God cares for them.
Doug McMasters: And I will not abandon them.
Doug McMasters: The righteous might be swept away from in the eyes of men, but they're not ever separated from the eyes of God.
Doug McMasters: In fact, he's going to sweep them into peace.
Doug McMasters: God will not expose his own to the wrath that he's going to give these failed leaders.
Doug McMasters: He's going to give them peace, he's going to give them rest, and he already has given them his presence.
Doug McMasters: The night before Christ was crucified, he spoke to his disciples, and he told them some words very similar to this.
Doug McMasters: He said, I've told you these things before, so that you might have peace.
Doug McMasters: You will have suffering in this world.
Doug McMasters: But be courageous, for I have conquered the world.
Doug McMasters: And in John chapter 17, he prays for his people to be preserved and protected and full of peace.
Doug McMasters: This passage reminds us that leadership matters deeply.
Doug McMasters: That when leaders fail, consequences ripple outward.
Doug McMasters: But it also reminds us in God's mercy.
Doug McMasters: Reminds us that God's mercy is greater than human failure.
Doug McMasters: Even when shepherds sleep, God doesn't.
Doug McMasters: Even when watchmen are blind, God sees.
Doug McMasters: Even when they run away, God preserves.
Doug McMasters: So we can be thankful people.
Doug McMasters: Even in the midst of this declaration of judgment, that God has sent that one shepherd who would rule his people and he would be their peace.
Doug McMasters: That we have over us a faithful Lord who never fails, who's always watching, always caring, always giving, always preserving, and who will bring us into peace.
Doug McMasters: And we can be thankful that our Lord will not allow us to receive the wrath that lay upon those who rightly deserve it.
Doug McMasters: And so as you give thanks this week, let's remember this.
Doug McMasters: Now this brings us to our second point, verses three to thirteen.
Doug McMasters: And in this second point, the Lord speaks about the idols that deserve collapsing, but offers himself as a refuge.
Doug McMasters: Verses 3 through 13 shift the lens from these corrupt leaders to the people themselves.
Doug McMasters: And the indictment is sobering.
Doug McMasters: Because the problem isn't just failed leadership, the problem is the failed heart of all the people.
Doug McMasters: Listen to the prophet's words in verses three to five.
Doug McMasters: But come here, you sons of a sorceress, offspring of an adulterer and a prostitute.
Doug McMasters: Who are you mocking?
Doug McMasters: Who are you opening your mouth and sticking your tongue out at?
Doug McMasters: Isn't it you, you rebellious children, you offspring of liars who burn with lust among the oaks, under every green tree, who slaughter children in the wadies under the clefts of the rocks?
Doug McMasters: Isaiah doesn't soften his language, and I haven't even given the most the most salacious of the words that are in this passage.
Doug McMasters: He calls idolatry for what it is, spiritual adultery.
Doug McMasters: And the people here have abandoned their covenant faithfulness to Yahweh and have lusted after the false gods.
Doug McMasters: They've bowed under the trees, they've sacrificed in hidden places, and they've even offered their own children and sacrifice to these idols.
Doug McMasters: Their sin is shocking.
Doug McMasters: And God's exposure of their sin is uses language that is equally shocking.
Doug McMasters: It's a horror.
Doug McMasters: We live in a horror our day where convenience slaughters millions of children.
Doug McMasters: Jeremiah 7, verse 31.
Doug McMasters: They've built the high places of Tophith to burn their sons and daughters in the fire.
Doug McMasters: We don't burn them with fire, we burn them with chemicals or cut them with sharp knives.
Doug McMasters: But kill them we do.
Doug McMasters: And here comes the verdict.
Doug McMasters: Verse 13.
Doug McMasters: The wind will carry them all off.
Doug McMasters: A breath will take them away.
Doug McMasters: There's no hope.
Doug McMasters: Whatever you give them, you give away just to empty yourselves and to find nothing in return.
Doug McMasters: And Paul warns us in 1 Corinthians that idolatry is not just an ancient action, it's a present history.
Doug McMasters: Anything that we trust more than God is an idol.
Doug McMasters: Paul claims it covetousness, which is idolatry.
Doug McMasters: Think of it this way: imagine yourself looking at a wall, look secure, and you go to lean against it, and as soon as you put any weight on it, it collapses.
Doug McMasters: That's idolatry.
Doug McMasters: That's covetousness.
Doug McMasters: But here, God is promising to be a fortress that is immovable.
Doug McMasters: And the entrance into that fortress is security from all things seen and unseen.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 13 again, because in the same breath he speaks of the vanity of idolatry, he speaks about the refuge of himself.
Doug McMasters: When you cry out, let your collection of idols rescue you, the wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away, but whoever takes refuge in me will inherit the land and possess my holy mountain.
Doug McMasters: You can't get to stronger contrast than that.
Doug McMasters: The idols are blown away like the dust in the wind, but God Himself is a refuge, a stronghold, and he places you in the most holy of places where his presence is seen and felt.
Doug McMasters: These false idols indeed collapse.
Doug McMasters: But God never does.
Doug McMasters: And this is why the psalmist could say the Lord is my refuge, my fortune.
Doug McMasters: My stronghold.
Doug McMasters: So the significance of this passage is clear.
Doug McMasters: Idolatry is not just an ancient problem, it's a people problem of all ages.
Doug McMasters: It's a human issue.
Doug McMasters: And we may not bow down to physical idols, though some in our world still do.
Doug McMasters: But here we can bow down to our careers, we can bow down to our wealth, we can bow down to our reputation, we can bow down to our relationships, thinking that somehow in them we're going to find meaning and security and identity.
Doug McMasters: But when the wind blows, they will fly away.
Doug McMasters: And we'll find ourselves more empty than we were before we started to worship them.
Doug McMasters: But God remains.
Doug McMasters: And he offers himself as a refuge.
Doug McMasters: And so the application here can go two different ways.
Doug McMasters: And I think one is not as we might expect it.
Doug McMasters: We can be thankful that God exposes idols for what they are.
Doug McMasters: I mean, think about that.
Doug McMasters: Would you rather have a friend who just pampers and pleases your every thought and word and says, oh, that's just wonderful.
Doug McMasters: Oh, you, and doesn't say anything true to you at all?
Doug McMasters: Or would you rather have a friend who says, hey, buddy, that's going to ruin you?
Doug McMasters: Well, our Lord is taking up that role here.
Doug McMasters: You're not going to find any help or hope in those things whatsoever.
Doug McMasters: And so we can be thankful that the Lord is exposing our idolatry because that's mercy.
Doug McMasters: He's doing it to show us the things that cannot deliver and cannot save and cannot fulfill and cannot give us hope.
Doug McMasters: He tears them down so that we might find the place where true hope is found.
Doug McMasters: And that's the second thing to be thankful for.
Doug McMasters: And God offers himself as a refuge.
Doug McMasters: And he promises us to give us his holy mountain, to give us his inheritance, to give us his presence.
Doug McMasters: So this passage where leaders deserve judgment, God gives mercy, where idols deserve collapse, and God presents himself as a refuge.
Doug McMasters: We're going to move to the third movement where sinners deserve wrath, but God gives peace.
Doug McMasters: In verses 14 to 21.
Doug McMasters: And after exposing these corrupt leaders, and after exposing these collapsing idols, Isaiah now points to the deepest reality of all: the condition of the human heart.
Doug McMasters: The problem is not just failed leadership, and the problem is just not false worship.
Doug McMasters: The problem is sin itself.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 17.
Doug McMasters: Because of his sinful greed, I was angry.
Doug McMasters: So I struck him.
Doug McMasters: I was angry and hid, but he went on turning back to the desires of his heart.
Doug McMasters: In verse 21, there is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.
Doug McMasters: This is the human condition before a holy God.
Doug McMasters: Restless, guilty, and under judgment.
Doug McMasters: And despite being restless and despite being guilty and despite being under judgment, we run back to the thing that ruins us: Sin.
Doug McMasters: But in the midst of this indictment against leaders and idols and people are some of the most remarkable words you could ever, ever imagine.
Doug McMasters: Let's look at verse 14 together.
Doug McMasters: He said, Build it up, build it up, prepare the way, remove every obstacle from my people's ways.
Doug McMasters: For the high and the exalted one who lives forever, whose name is holy, says this.
Doug McMasters: I live in a high and holy place, and with the oppressed and the lowly of spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the oppressed.
Doug McMasters: This is breathtaking.
Doug McMasters: Just giving us an imagine of trying to cast our minds with the with the best telescope ever to all of the places, not only of our galaxy, but of all galaxies, to the very edges of the universe, if there is such a thing, into the realm of the heavenlies, and to find God, the maker of all, there, high and exalted.
Doug McMasters: And yet paying attention to the brokenhearted.
Doug McMasters: To stoop down to the humble and the contrite ones.
Doug McMasters: We don't have words for this, do we?
Doug McMasters: It's so beyond our comprehension.
Doug McMasters: We're like those who've been hit with a shock.
Doug McMasters: We we don't even know how to absorb the truth of it.
Doug McMasters: But there it is.
Doug McMasters: Psalm thirty-four, the Lord is near the brokenhearted.
Doug McMasters: Psalm fifty-one.
Doug McMasters: A broken and contrite heart the Lord will not despise.
Doug McMasters: How faithful is God to these words?
Doug McMasters: In less than a month, we'll cry out the words Emmanuel.
Doug McMasters: Emmanuel.
Doug McMasters: And it continues.
Doug McMasters: It doesn't stop there.
Doug McMasters: Those are just, that's just the beginning.
Doug McMasters: Verse, verse 18 and 19.
Doug McMasters: Now I'm skipping over verse 17.
Doug McMasters: Maybe we should put it there just to give us a better backdrop.
Doug McMasters: Because of his sinful greed, I was angry, so I struck him.
Doug McMasters: I was angry and hid, but he went on turning back to the desires of his heart.
Doug McMasters: I have seen his ways, but I will heal him.
Doug McMasters: I will lead him and restore comfort to him and his mourners, creating words of praise.
Doug McMasters: The Lord says, peace, peace to the one who is far or near, and I will heal him.
Doug McMasters: In the midst of these indictments, against leaders and idols and people, against those who are so greedy for sin that despite the exposure of it, they keep running back to it, or so full of indifference to their duties that they indulge themselves with wine and get drunk and intoxicated upon their own pleasures.
Doug McMasters: To those who are sacrificing their children, to dead idols.
Doug McMasters: The Lord says, I have seen them, but I'm going to heal them.
Doug McMasters: I have seen them, but I've determined to heal.
Doug McMasters: I've determined to lead.
Doug McMasters: What do we deserve?
Doug McMasters: For wrath to be poured out against us, to be brought under the realm of destruction.
Doug McMasters: To be offered nothing but the silence of a holy God.
Doug McMasters: And have our lives full of constant and enduring turmoil.
Doug McMasters: But instead of wrath, he pours out healing.
Doug McMasters: Instead of destruction, he talks with words of restoration.
Doug McMasters: Instead of silence, he said he's going to create praise.
Doug McMasters: And instead of turmoil, he said, peace, peace.
Doug McMasters: Now take a note of verse 19.
Doug McMasters: But just lock it in, okay?
Doug McMasters: Just lock it in.
Doug McMasters: The Lord.
Doug McMasters: Now notice Yahweh, L-O-R-D, right?
Doug McMasters: All caps there.
Doug McMasters: That's a signal to us who speak English that underlying that is a Hebrew word Yahweh.
Doug McMasters: Okay.
Doug McMasters: The Lord says, or the Lord proclaims, peace, peace to the one who is far or near, and I will heal him.
Doug McMasters: This is a vision of peace.
Doug McMasters: Where do we find that peace?
Doug McMasters: That's the question.
Doug McMasters: We deserve everything that this passage has talked about, but we don't deserve all the other things that the passage talks about.
Doug McMasters: And the question must drive in our heart: where do I find that?
Doug McMasters: Where can I find that peace?
Doug McMasters: Where can I find that refuge?
Doug McMasters: Where can I find that embrace?
Doug McMasters: Where can I find that healing?
Doug McMasters: Let's go to Ephesians chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: Ephesians chapter 2.
Doug McMasters: This is a great chapter, Ephesians 2.
Doug McMasters: Brings us into the truth that we're saved only by the grace of God, which comes to us through Christ alone, by faith alone.
Doug McMasters: Well, we won't read it all, but we'll start at the beginning of it.
Doug McMasters: And you who were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you previously walked according to the ways of this world, according to the rulers of the powers of the air, the spirit now working in the disobedient.
Doug McMasters: And we too all previously lived among them in our fleshly desires, carrying out the inclinations of our flesh and thoughts, and we were by nature children under wrath, as the others were also.
Doug McMasters: Boy, that doesn't sound like Isaiah 56 and 57 a little bit, doesn't it?
Doug McMasters: Well, you'll find out just how much in just a moment.
Doug McMasters: Go back to their sinful desires.
Doug McMasters: But God, who is rich in mercy, verse 4, because of his great love that he has for us, made us alive with Christ, even though we were dead in trespasses.
Doug McMasters: You have been saved by grace.
Doug McMasters: And it goes on to talk about how we are brought into that life, not because of any works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy and grace found in Christ.
Doug McMasters: And even the faith that we have to cling to Christ is not our own, that too is a gift from God.
Doug McMasters: Now, moving forward, because I want to bring Isaiah 56 and 57 into this even more deeply.
Doug McMasters: In verses 11 and 12, people are divided into two categories, Jew and Gentile.
Doug McMasters: And in verse 11 and 12, Paul dives into a vivid and still dreadful description of the status of Gentiles before coming to Christ.
Doug McMasters: So remember, remember that at one time you were Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcised, by those who are called the circumcised, by which is done the flesh by human hands.
Doug McMasters: At that time you were without Christ, excluded from the citizenship of Israel, foreigners to the covenants of promise, without hope, and without God in this world.
Doug McMasters: That's dreadful.
Doug McMasters: No God, no hope, no promise, no belonging.
Doug McMasters: But now, verse 13.
Doug McMasters: But now in Christ Jesus, you who are far away, you remember Isaiah 57?
Doug McMasters: You're going to hear it in just a second.
Doug McMasters: You who are far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ, for he is our peace.
Doug McMasters: Who made both groups one and tore down the dividing wall of hostility.
Doug McMasters: In his flesh he made of no effect the law, consisting of commands and expressed in regulations, so that he might create in himself one new man from the two, resulting in peace.
Doug McMasters: He did this so that he might reconcile both to God in one body through the cross, by which he has put the host to he put the hostility to death.
Doug McMasters: And that brings us to verse 17.
Doug McMasters: Now catch this.
Doug McMasters: The whole time Paul's been working through this argument, Ephesians chapter 2, he has been writing the awful plight of sinful humanity with Isaiah 56 and 57 in his mind.
Doug McMasters: Those are echoes of those chapters that talk about the plight of the failed leaders of the collapsing idolatry and of the never satisfied human heart that keeps running back to its sin.
Doug McMasters: But his heart is filled with Isaiah 57.
Doug McMasters: Because people, all people, Jew and Gentile, deserve wrath.
Doug McMasters: This is what we deserve.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah 57 now comes to the front when he considers the effect of the gospel of Christ on humanity.
Doug McMasters: And we see that because look at verse 17.
Doug McMasters: In verse 17, he quotes Isaiah 57, verse 19.
Doug McMasters: He came and proclaimed the good news of peace to you who are far away, and peace to those who were near.
Doug McMasters: That is Isaiah 57, 19.
Doug McMasters: Now I want to say two things about it.
Doug McMasters: One we'll only touch on, but boy, is it meaningful.
Doug McMasters: In Isaiah 57, verse 19, Yahweh will proclaim peace, peace to the one who is far and near, and I will heal him.
Doug McMasters: Here, Jesus proclaims peace to the one who is far and the one who is near.
Doug McMasters: But also, note this peace to the one who's far and peace to the one who is near.
Doug McMasters: To the people of Israel who are near to God by way of the covenants of promise.
Doug McMasters: To the people of God who were of the fleshly descent of Abraham, to the ones who had been given the promises, these he offers peace.
Doug McMasters: But also to those who are without God and without hope in the world, who are separated from the covenants of promise, who are called the uncircumcised by those who are circumcised by human hands, to those who are far off.
Doug McMasters: Peace.
Doug McMasters: More than not getting what you deserve, you get what you absolutely don't deserve.
Doug McMasters: The embrace of a holy God who offers with you eternal peace with him and punctuates your troubled life, not only peace with him, but peace from him.
Doug McMasters: A double gift of peace.
Doug McMasters: And so here we see that the promises of God are that he doesn't give up on his people.
Doug McMasters: But to those that he's never spoken to, with words of promise, he also says, Come, I want to give you peace as well.
Doug McMasters: And so to the believing Jew, they find in Jesus Christ all the fulfillment of God's mercies and grace.
Doug McMasters: The promises of God are yes and amen in Christ.
Doug McMasters: But to those who had never received the promises, now, now you are partakers.
Doug McMasters: You are welcomed in.
Doug McMasters: You are fellow members of all of these things.
Doug McMasters: All of God's promises are given to you as if you were actually born of the family line of Abraham.
Doug McMasters: From the very beginning, near the very first pages of the Bible, God promised to Abraham that through him all the nations would be blessed.
Doug McMasters: Paul writes in Galatians that that promise was made to one seed, that is Christ.
Doug McMasters: And that all who are in Christ will receive those glorious promises.
Doug McMasters: The verdict in Isaiah 57, where it says, There's no peace, says my God for the wicked, is reversed in Christ, who says, peace to those who are near and those who are far away.
Doug McMasters: In Christ, it doesn't matter if you're a Jew or a Gentile.
Doug McMasters: In Christ, it doesn't matter if you're a slave or free.
Doug McMasters: In Christ, it doesn't matter if you're male or female or rich or poor or educated or not or outgoing or an introvert or whatever you want to do.
Doug McMasters: In Christ, you have peace.
Doug McMasters: You have peace.
Doug McMasters: And his mercy is not tribal and it's not temporary.
Doug McMasters: It's found in his everlasting and global welcome.
Doug McMasters: And it's no wonder in the book of Revelation, we get an insight into heaven.
Doug McMasters: And in Revelation 7, verse 9, a vast and multitude from every nation, tribe, people, and language standing before the throne and before the Lamb, crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb forever and ever.
Doug McMasters: Yes, Isaiah 57, I will create praise.
Doug McMasters: What God is intending to do through Christ is to create a people of praise, to create a people who know his peace, a people who can claim every one of his promises.
Doug McMasters: And they are all, yes, and they are all amen in Christ.
Doug McMasters: Yes, in Isaiah 56 and 57, the indictment is true.
Doug McMasters: We deserve death.
Doug McMasters: We deserve punishment.
Doug McMasters: We deserve the condemnation.
Doug McMasters: Those things aren't just the failed leaders then and the idolatrous people then and the and the lustful people then.
Doug McMasters: They're every one of us.
Doug McMasters: That's what we deserve.
Doug McMasters: But God doesn't give those who come to Christ what they deserve.
Doug McMasters: He gives them what they don't deserve: His welcome, his peace, his pardon, his salvation.
Doug McMasters: And so we can be thankful.
Doug McMasters: Yes, God fully sees us, but he's also determined to heal us.
Doug McMasters: That he condescends to dwell with the contrite and to revive the hearts of those that the world discards.
Doug McMasters: And that mercy can be our story and not destruction.
Doug McMasters: And that peace is offered to all, not just to the near, but to those who are far away as well.
Doug McMasters: We began this story with this sermon with a story about George Wilson.
Doug McMasters: A man sentenced to death.
Doug McMasters: A man who had been granted a pardon, but a man who refused it and died.
Doug McMasters: Mercy was extended to him, but he didn't receive it.
Doug McMasters: It was placed in his hands, but he turned it away.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah 56 and 57 shows us that same reality.
Doug McMasters: That judgment is deserved, that all that we trust in other than God will collapse.
Doug McMasters: And that wrath really does belong to us.
Doug McMasters: But God is extending here a wonderful offer of mercy in Christ.
Doug McMasters: And he's offering it to everyone.
Doug McMasters: To all, whether you're near or far.
Doug McMasters: Like George Wilson, we must receive that pardon.
Doug McMasters: Or we will face our punishment.
Doug McMasters: We must accept Christ.
Doug McMasters: To as many as received him, he gave the right, the authority to be called the children of God.
Doug McMasters: In Christ, our pardon is signed by the highest authority in heaven and on earth.
Doug McMasters: And if he has granted you pardon from your sins, there is no one can take it away if you're trusting in him.
Doug McMasters: And this is why Thanksgiving's not just a holiday for Christians, it's a posture of our heart.
Doug McMasters: It's because we know that we don't deserve any of this.
Doug McMasters: We know that all the things that we trusted apart from God really are collapsing into nothing.
Doug McMasters: But language of our heart is thanksgiving.
Doug McMasters: We're grateful people.
Doug McMasters: We sing because God has created praise in our hearts.
Doug McMasters: And every time we gather, and every time we sing, and every time we read the word, and every time we're among God's people, every time we stop alone in our in our places and remember, our hearts move to gratitude.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning and you don't know Christ as your Savior, God is calling out to the near and to the far and to people just like you.
Doug McMasters: Hear the petition, hear the proclamation of forgiveness, of freedom from sin and judgment.
Doug McMasters: May George Wilson never be another name for you.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray.
Doug McMasters: Father, thank you for this glorious passage that speaks honestly to us, but also speaks most welcomingly to us.
Doug McMasters: That gives us a sense that our sins are forgiven, that our collapsing idols are shattered, and that our hearts are healed, and that our life is secure in your everlasting mercy.
Doug McMasters: Father, we pray that the meditation of these things will stream out in our praise and will cause Thanksgiving to overflow, that it won't just be a day on our calendar, but every day of our lives.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, I pray that you'd mercifully awaken the hearts that you see who are still determined to stick by their sin.
Doug McMasters: I pray that you would arrest them.
Doug McMasters: Cause them to be so dissatisfied with their iniquity, to find everything that they've embraced as idols collapsing.
Doug McMasters: Cause them to be troubled until they find rest in you, we pray.
Doug McMasters: In Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.