The price of redemption has been paid, but if you don't come get it, you don't get, well we understand that. If you're one of those people that play lottery and you hit the lottery for a large amount of money, come see me. You have to go get it. You have to redeem it. You have to take that ticket and say, my numbers match. Or else you don't get it. But how come when it comes to God, we can't accept that?
Because of the blindness that Satan has put on people. Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. But for now, let's join Pastor Rick in the book of Isaiah chapter 44 with today's edition of Cross Reference Radio. Isaiah chapter 44. Redemption on God's Calendar.
That's the title for this message. And talk about redemption, it's basic Christianity. To redeem is to make something acceptable in spite of its negative qualities, when talking about salvation for sure. In society, however, redemption means to buy something back that is given, like if you take it to a pawn shop and you go and get it back.
Maybe you cash in on some refund that goes along with the purchase. In the Old Testament days, as opposed to society, in their society, if an Israelite sold himself into bondage, into slavery, which he could do, there were laws covering that, he could be bought back. He'd be redeemed.
And sometimes they found themselves in debt and needed to be helped. A redeemer, such as the case of Naomi and Ruth. And the redeemer had to be one that was willing to pay the price and was capable of paying the price to save someone from their condition.
And the plan called for a near relative who was willing, and that would have been Boaz in that story. The most famous mention of a redeemer in the Old Testament to the Christian is what Job said in Job 19 verse 25. I know my redeemer lives, and he shall stand at last on the earth.
And then he adds, and I will see him in the flesh. What a remarkable prophecy. Job, probably the oldest book in the Bible, and the events that took place in Job's day were likely in the time either right before or around the days of Abraham. By the time we get to the New Testament, our understanding of redemption has developed a lot more. Of course it refers to salvation from sin, from death, from the wrath of God, which is real. Revelation talks about the wrath of the Lamb, which is the wrath of God. We know about God's love, but there's that judgment side of him.
There's no nonsense. And why salvation and redemption is so beautiful is because God spares us the wrath, those who would come to him, those who desire to have God real to them. And for the Christian God is real. Even though we go through times where he seems too far away, he's real to us. In the letter to the Romans, Paul wrote, For we know that the law is spiritual, things of God, his rules. But I am carnal, sold under sin. But I have a problem. In spite of all God's word, the beauty that goes with it, it's too much for me.
It's a high standard and it doesn't lower. And I need a redeemer, someone who can afford to cover the damage and someone who is willing and that of course is Christ. In this section of Isaiah, going over it, I was very pleased with just what I was getting from it. And I hope that anytime I come into the pulpit, I'm simply sharing what blessed me first.
I think that's how it should be. That which I first received, I gave to you, as Paul said. In this section, God is telling the Jewish people that redeeming sinners sold under sin has been on his calendar.
It's not something that just popped up. It's not something he was not prepared, he was prepared to redeem them long before they knew about redemption. Long before they understood they had a need for redemption as a people. The Old Testament Jews understood the role of the redeemer, the goel, Boaz. But since Christ has come, available to us is a better understanding of all that went into the book of Ruth and all that went into the prophecies concerning this coming anointed one, as we know as Jesus of Nazareth.
We have a greater understanding. God knew from creation that he would have to act to redeem sinners or else he could have just walked away from the whole thing. To create, God only had to speak in the beginning and physical creation became. Spiritual creation was already in existence.
We don't know how long before but we know it existed before. All he had to do in creation is speak. But to redeem man, he had to suffer. He had to bleed. No blood on creation.
Love and blood are on redemption. This now gives us a better understanding of who God is. And there were others who did not have our understanding and loved God just as much as we do.
They did not have the prophecies we have stacked up. And God was real to them. As Jesus said, you know Thomas, it's a nice thing. You've seen some things and it blessed your heart.
But there are others who are going to believe without seeing what you have seen. Titus, Paul wrote to Titus. Titus was a disciple of Paul and became a pastor. He said, speaking of Jesus, who gave himself for us that he might redeem us from every lawless deed. Every law. So if you try to name, okay, here's one that God can't redeem me from, you'd be wrong. Every lawless deed.
Not some of them, not most of them. And then he adds, and purify for himself his own special people. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. That's how we become pure of what he has done and what we have accepted. And then it adds, zealous for good works.
That's the outcome. Appreciation. Thank you. God has to be real to you to be zealous for him. There are some folks that are zealous for God, but really they're in their own strength. Look what I can do.
Look what I can give. And there's a humility that is missing. So what God is doing in this chapter is God is telling the Jews through the prophet Isaiah that their temple is going to be destroyed. Their beloved temple, Solomon's temple, the first temple.
As much as they love their church, their national church, it's going to be destroyed. Let me bring that up in verse 28 again. He's not the only prophet that was doing this. Jeremiah will repeat it. Jeremiah ridiculed the Jews.
It was, oh the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. He said it's going to be wiped out. The Jews would go to Babylon, Isaiah was telling them, again 120 years before it happened.
He won't live to see these things. But he prophesied them with such conviction and conviction in the sense of he was convinced with a conviction that it can only come from the touch of God. He also said that God would redeem Israel from their captivity. He would even have Gentiles be a part of rebuilding their temple, their second Jewish temple. There's a third to be, it's not yet. Isaiah then told them in verse 15 of chapter 46, and he mentions it here in this chapter too, that God had long been, or may I put it this way, God had long had this on his calendar to redeem the Jewish people from their captivity in Babylon, from the loss of the temple, and there's a final redemption of the Jewish people as a nation and as individuals that's still going to happen.
Not happening yet, but the stage is being set, and you know if you have ever been part of a theater, you know when they start changing the scenery, you can get an idea of what the next scene is going to be. There's one other thing about what is happening here in this chapter, and that is that Isaiah was telling the people and the prophets were, the Bible, the Old Testament was telling the Jewish people and any of those who would come into Judaism, that God had left a greater meaning to redemption than what they understood in their law and as a people. And that goes back to what I said, quoting Job, I know my redeemer lives. Job wasn't Jewish.
He was a Gentile. And Job had this word from God, and he shall stand at last on the earth and be killed, he leaves that about, we know that, our greater understanding, he'd be killed on Calvary and rise again. I have no problem with God rising, doing anything he wants to do. Miracles aren't supposed to go, huh, how'd he do that? It's a miracle.
God did it. I mean, it's something that are just beyond you. And you know, you get folks, they try to explain how God rolled back the sea and how you cannot. There are laws that we don't know about, and that's nothing new. Who knew about the laws of, well we knew that there were laws of aerodynamics, I know I use this one a lot, and it's a good one.
And I use it, maybe you can use it when you share the faith. The law of aerodynamics, it existed, man knew that, he could look at birds to see they're flying, you know, flight is possible. It wasn't possible for men. The law of aerodynamics for people was a long way off. And what you have is the law of gravity and the law of aerodynamics overcoming gravity. So there are other laws, and this is across many fields of life. There are other laws.
But they're not contradictory laws, they're complementary laws. Well now we look at verse 21, now we got an idea where the prophet is going with this, he's going to tell the people you're going to Babylon as prisoners, your temple will be destroyed, God's going to bring you back, this is not new to him, it's on his calendar. Oh and by the way, you New Testament Christians, the Holy Spirit says through the prophet, I have a greater redemption coming for all mankind.
All mankind is redeemed, but not saved. You have to come and get it. It's available. The price of redemption has been paid. But if you don't come get it, you don't get, well we understand that. If you're one of those people that play lottery, and you hit the lottery for a large amount of money, come see me. You have to go get it. You have to redeem it.
You have to take that ticket and say, my numbers match, or else you don't get it. But how come when it comes to God, we can't accept that? Because of the blindness that Satan has put on people. Now look at verse 21 if you would at Isaiah 44, Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant, O Israel. You will not be forgotten by me. Well before we get to that punch line, you will not be forgotten by me, because we want to hear that when we're suffering.
Or even if it's a slow suffering, which is miserable in life long term. But anyway, the prophet, he has said these things already. He has been saying them. He's going to continue to say them.
He's always going to add a little something more, driving these points home. As the writer to Ecclesiastes Solomon said, the words of a scholar are like well-driven nails. The prophet is reminding his audience once more of their true identity, of who you are. A lot of Christians don't know who they are. That's why they think they're Jews. They think they live in the old tale, we're ministers of a new covenant. We're not Jews. We're Christians. And Jews can be Christians equal with us.
We're with them. There's no longer Jew nor Gentile, slave nor free, barbarian, Scythian. Just those walls of division are gone. They existed for a reason.
But they're not there anymore. They were Israel, the servant of Yahweh. The one that said in the beginning, God created. The one that met Moses on Mount Sinai. Formed by God and never forgotten by him.
No matter what. God has never forgotten the Jewish people. Even in their worst days when they were rebelling against him and building little statues to fake God's abominations out of hell, God, he didn't write them off. While the heathen were fashioning those gods and then some of the Jews, God was trying to shape Israel, to fashion them. And he says that, remember these, O Jacob and Israel.
It goes back to their original identity, how they came to be who they are. You are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant.
He drives that home. O Israel, you will not be forgotten. And he says this to the New Testament Christian, you are my servants.
The servant is not above his master. They persecuted me, they're going to persecute you. And likewise, Paul reminds the Christians about their identity. 1 Corinthians 6, he's talking about first, immorality in the church. Christians were doing things that were forbidden.
And they're rather flaunting them, boasting about how liberal they were. We're so gracious over here. It doesn't matter that we have all of this sin. And Paul comes in and says, no. All of these sins that you're thinking is no problem, God's going to judge you for this.
You better deal with it. That will avoid the judgment, even if you struggle with it. And then he says to them, and such were some of you.
When he lines up all of the, you know, homosexuals, thieves, liars, whatever it is. He says, such were some of you. Don't forget that. When you go ministering to people that are lost, remember you too were once lost. But that doesn't mean that somehow God's rules don't count.
It means they count more. And such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified.
You were set aside. You were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. That's the forming, as God formed and shaped Israel, does that to us.
We're clay in the potter's hands. Now, justified, of course, that's salvation. It's basic Christianity. Justification is salvation. When you come to Christ, when you say, Lord, I am a sinner. I repent. I want to turn from my sin.
I turn to you. I want you to be Lord over my life, to forgive me. I don't deserve the forgiveness. I just need the forgiveness. And you're the only one that can do it, and I come to you.
That's justification. At that instant, you're saved. But that's also salvation, but not salvation 1.1.
It's salvation 1. You're set aside. Sanctified means you're set aside. So you have those who have not repented and the sanctified ones who have repented.
Justified, sanctified. But then there's part two to sanctification, and that's the development of your Christianity into the Christ-likeness state. We are disciples of Christ. This is an ongoing process of maturity, working out our salvation. We will be like Christ when we die, not his deity, but his morality. John, in his first letter, in the third chapter of that first letter, I have never found 1 John in 2 Peter.
I'm just saying. Beloved, we are children of God, and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be. Now, this is glorification. But we know that when he is revealed, and when we actually see him, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.
Things will change. So, justification, you're saved. Sanctification, you're set aside, and while you're set aside, you're developed into a Christ-like character. You pursue righteousness.
And then glorification is when you leave this life. You will never be tempted to sin ever again. You will not sin ever again.
Those things will be gone. You will not die. You will not suffer pain. Oh, that's not heaven. God promises heaven, there is no pain, nor sorrow, nor tears, nor death, for the former things have passed away.
This is proving ground. This is how you get to there, by faith. And so, the identity of who we are is critical to sharing our faith. For that to happen, for a Christian to lay hold of their identity, Christ has got to be real to them, not somebody else's God.
Not my dad's God, not my mom's God, my God. I have to meet him. Now, we live in a day age where Satan is corrupt, he corrupts everything. He's trying to corrupt people identifying these lunatics, and hopefully not such for some of you. Someone who identifies with, and it's always a noble creature, identify with a lion.
Why not a tick? Why don't you identify with a bloodsucker? So they pick and choose, okay, I'll go along with that on one condition. All the creatures that you identify with, all of them have to unanimously agree you are one of them.
And we can prove this, we just go right down to the zoo, throw you over the wall, and see what the apes do to you. Anyway, that's my little thing on this identity crisis that Satan is really pulling off here. People just insisting that they can be other than who they are.
You can do that and you're just lying. For the Christian, we're supposed to be telling the truth. I identify with Christ, I belong to him. Clumsy as I may be in pulling off the faith, as many times as I fall, I still identify with the mercy he gives.
Which is new every morning, and aren't we glad. Verse 22, I blotted out, here it comes. Like a thick cloud, your transgressions, and like a cloud, your sins return to me, for I have redeemed you. Now we've gone over this, these promises, these superlative words towards Israel apply to Christians. We went over that, so I'm not going to revisit that.
You have to listen to previous messages. Start at Genesis. Anyway, this presupposes that they were sinners and that the sin they committed had to be blotted out.
It was there. Remember, Satan did not start out damned. He was a high-ranking angel of God, a cherub. And the Bible gives an indication that he even, you know, was a musician. And that's not a slight against, to me, not all musicians, just the ones you don't like.
So, and that's true with everything, is it not? Because you could say, well Judas was a pastor. He was, in the sense that God sent him out, and he did miracles. And so Satan, he did not start out damned, and Judas Iscariot did not either.
He was given every chance to not be who he became. Both got themselves blotted out, not their sin, them, the soul. One sinned in heaven, in the spiritual realm, and the other sinned on earth. Because sin violates the will of God. To become sin, what do I have to do for it to be sin? You have to go against what God said. You violate God.
We covered his rights of creatorship already. Psalm 51, this is David writing, after he committed just a terrible sin, murder was involved. And just horrible sin. And he writes to God, hide your face from my sins, blot out my iniquities. And God did that. Because David didn't get up in God's face, yeah well everybody's doing it. Or you know, how do I know you're God? He just repented, eventually.
It took him like a year. Psalm 25, again David, remember not the sins of my youth. We have a song like that, remember not the sins of my youth. Nor my transgressions according to your mercy remember me. Not according to your law. When I stand before God, I'm not going to, I want justice.
The trap door would open. I want mercy. And grace. And he is abundant in those two things. Had God not done so, who could survive? I have blotted out like a thick cloud, verse 22, your transgressions. What if he did not do that?
Then there'd be no hope. Psalm 130, verse 3 and 4. If you, Yahweh, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who could stand but forgiveness is with you? So this makes us love Jesus so much. This is why we sing songs to him and get emotional over things of Christ.
Because he's real to us. And as the years go by, of course, you may get a little, develop a little bursitis on the, you know, spirit with your little, your fighting being jaded. If you fight being this jade experience, it will pass. And you will mature. And just, you're just mellow, at least that's my, I think I've mellowed.
You might disagree, I don't want to know because I'm not that mellow yet. Anyway. Return to me, he says here in verse 22, for I have redeemed you, I have bought you back. Again, the greater meaning of redemption is coming. Bought off the slave block with holy blood for us. This is the, going to the New Testament, we've really covered the Old Testament understanding of redemption. And what he's saying to them, you will be taken to captivity to Babylon, but I will bring you back. It's going to be me. It's on my calendar.
It's not going to be this, Ooh, look what happened. We escaped Babylon. No, you were delivered from Babylon.
God called it long before it happened. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new additions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
