Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. As we consider what God has to say to His people in Isaiah 54, an image of His heart emerges clearly. God brings His people from shame into honor, from emptiness to abundance.
He is a God of relationship, redemption, and restoration. Because of Christ, we move from lonely despair into the tender care of our Heavenly Father. Let's listen to this message from the series titled, Behold Your God.
This is part two of a message which was first preached on July 14, 2013. The reason why we are able to come back to Him is because chapter 53 is in Isaiah. And that is the Son of God, the Lamb of God, as John says, who takes away the sin of the world.
It is the remedy for us. We have an imagery here in chapter 53. You have noticed it, particularly in the first three verses. But it's an imagery of restored relationship by means of the suffering servant in chapter 53, like the branch grafted back into the tree. But it's the idea of a broken rejected wife restored in kindness by her husband, by the husband of her youth. We have something like this in the minor prophets in the book of Hosea.
Remember Hosea? God instructed him to do something very odd. And it's just God was going to use his marriage relationship as an illustration of God's relationship with Israel. And he says, Hosea, go marry a woman, not just any woman, a prostitute. And they had children.
And then she left him. Folks think about this for a moment. Do you know how God thinks about you? The tenderness of God's thoughts towards you are the tenderness of a young husband toward his new bride. And the depth of the sadness that God can experience would be the depth of this husband whose new bride chooses to walk away from him and find her pleasure somewhere else.
Think about that. And God says to Hosea, now that she's out in the marketplace and she's finding, she thinks she's finding her pleasure somewhere else. And she gets used and abused and then she gets thrown to the side. And God tells Hosea, go back, pay the price for her and bring her back to yourself and marry her again.
In tenderness, bring her back to you and love her and care for her in kindness. That's the imagery that's used here. We see something very similar to that in the parable of the prodigal son, where the son, what does he do?
This is in Luke's gospel. He's living with his father. He's taking his father for granted. He thinks he wants something more. He thinks he wants something else. He doesn't want his father, he wants what?
His father's stuff. You and I are born with that problem. We don't want the father, we want his stuff. And we're born spoiled rotten brats. And that's what God wants to rescue us from. And the prodigal son, he gets the father's stuff and he goes off and he lives a prodigal life. That word prodigal means a lavish life. And then it's all spent and all of a sudden his friends are what?
Gone. And what does he have to do? He has to compete with pigs for dinner. And then he realizes, I want dad. I had all his stuff, but really what I want is dad. I want him so bad I'm willing to go back and be a slave in his house. That's how bad I want him. And he goes back to dad and what does dad do?
He runs to him and he throws him a party and puts a robe on him and a ring on his finger. Do you understand that that's how God thinks about you? That's how God thinks about you. You see, that's his nature. That's the why of creation, because it is his intent to lavish all of his goodness upon you.
He wants to do that. And yet he lets us stray off and pursue what we think is better and live with the consequences of it. I want you to notice what it says in verse 17 of Isaiah 54, middle of the verse. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their righteousness is for me. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. This is what he has in store for us.
In three phrases I'm going to describe it here. What God has is because he's allowed us to go after those broken cisterns, those mud pits that are dried up that can't hold any water. We have forsaken the fountain of living water for these dried up mud pits. And he says I'm going to let you experience that for a while and then I'm going to let you see, I'm going to provide remedy for you to go from that back to me. That's Isaiah 53. And I'm going to take you from emptiness to abundance.
That's the kindness of God. From the barrenness of unbelief to the satisfied life of trust. Listen to those words. Know those words. The barrenness of unbelief to the satisfied life of trust.
I challenge you to prove that statement wrong. There is barrenness in unbelief but a life of trust is a life of satisfaction. And he takes you from being the fruitless broken branch to being a fruitful living branch. That's the kindness of God.
So that you can do what you were designed to do. That's the sense of what we have in Isaiah 54. From shame to honor. The heritage of the servants of the Lord is to go from shame to honor. Like the prodigal son. What was his shame? After he had spent all of his wealth and he was competing with pigs for his dinner.
He goes back to dad and dad puts a robe on him and a ring on his finger and he slaughters the fatted calf and throws him a big feast. God draws us back to himself in his kindness and his goodness. We see that portrayed in the New Testament. Paul says to the Romans, what fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed for the end of those things is death. But you see where he takes us? 1 Peter 2, 9, but you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people.
What is that? That's honor. Because we are his. And that's what he wants to lavish upon us is that honor. Read once again Romans 8 verses 31 to 39 and understand God's intent towards you. He who did not spare his own son but gave him up for us all. That's the depths to which he would go.
What does it say next? How shall he not with him also what? Freely give us all things. Do you realize that your maker is bent on blessing you?
It's his nature. You see that's the why of creation. We were created so that he could bless us and lavish upon us his goodness by enjoying him.
This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord. Lastly, he takes us from lonely despair to eternal love. And this brings us right back to the imagery that we have in Isaiah 54 of that abandoned young wife who had strayed, who had been unfaithful, who had gone searching for pleasure and satisfaction in other places. He takes us from the strained narrow-eyed embittered woman who had broken dreams and shattered hopes.
She went out looking for her pleasure and satisfaction. And when she was done being used and abused, then God says let me bring you back to me. And you go from a strained narrow-eyed embittered woman to a laughing bride with dancing eyes in the kindness of God.
Because the imagery is of a young wife who had been abandoned by those who used her to being in unending tender care. And you and I are in the unending tender care of the one who knows you best. Which is why God says with everlasting kindness I will have mercy on you. My kindness shall not depart from you.
Both of those, the word chesed, loving kindness. This is God's intent for you. It is so important for us to know God for who He really is. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in Him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 p.m.
