Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen. Thus saith the Lord that made thee, and formed thee from the womb, which will help thee. Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and thou, Jeshurun, that's a name of endurement, enduring name, endurement for Israel, and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring. And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses. One shall say, I am the Lord's, and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself by the name of Israel. Thus saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts. I am the first and I am the last, and beside me there is no God. And who as I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order for me since I appointed the ancient people, and the things that are coming and shall come, let them show unto them. Fear ye not, neither be afraid. Have not I told thee from that time and have declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God. I know not any. They that make a graven image are all of them vanity, and their delectable things shall not profit. And they are their own witnesses. They see not nor know that they may be ashamed. Who hath formed a god, or molten a graven image, that is profitable for nothing? Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen they are of men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith with the tongs both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth it with hammers, and worketh it with the strength of his arms, He's talking about making an idol, obviously. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth. He drinketh no water, and is faint. The carpenter stretcheth out his rule. He marketh it out with a line, he fitteth it out with planes, and he marketh it out with a compass, and maketh it after the fashion of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He heweth him down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth an ash, and the rain doth nourish it. That shall it be for a man to burn, for he will take thereof, and warm himself. Yea, he kindleth it, and baketh bread. Yea, he maketh a God, and worshipeth it. He maketh it a graven image, and falleth down thereto. He burneth part thereof in the fire, with part thereof he eateth flesh, he roasteth meat, and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself, and saith, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire, and the residue thereof he maketh a god. even his graven image. He falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. They have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding, to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, yea, also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten thereof, and shall I make the residue thereof an abomination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feedeth on ashes. A deceived heart hath turned him aside, that he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant. O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens, for the Lord hath done it. Shout, ye lower parts of the earth. Break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein, for the Lord hath redeemed Jacob. and glorified himself in Israel. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, and he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad, that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish, that confirmeth the word of his servant, and performeth the counsel of his messengers, that saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited. And to the cities of Judah, ye shall be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof, that saith to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers. that Seth of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid. So far we read God's holy word. The text for the sermon is verses 21 and 22. Remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for thou art my servant. I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel. Thou shalt not be forgotten of me. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed thee. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the text starts, remember these. Remember these things, O Jacob. And the things to which the text points are the first 20 verses of this chapter. In this introduction, the first 20 verses, God contrasts His saving power with that of the idols. The first eight verses, God speaks of His power. He addresses His people, very first verse. Hear now, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. He announces blessings of salvation that will be seen in the children and in the grandchildren, that they will gladly confess the name of God. God will give his spirit to their children and to their grandchildren, and he will gather his church from them. He shows them that He is able to perform these things. He alone is able to redeem them. In contrast with that is the folly and the powerlessness, the impotence of the idols. Verses 9 through 20, they are nothing but the work of men's hands. Perhaps it is a craftsman who deals with metals and he fashions an idol, but even he gets weak if he doesn't have enough food or water, and yet he's making a god for them to worship. And then the carpenter who selects a fine, sturdy tree and cuts it down, and from that tree Part of the wood will go into the fire to warm a man on a cold day. And part of the wood will go into the fire so that he can bake bread. And with part of that tree, he makes an idol. And he falls down in front of it and says, thou art my God, deliver me. We can see the folly of it, utter folly. But that's what people were doing, worshiping idols. There is no hope of salvation. It's like the ashes that are left after the wood is burned. There is no hope there whatsoever. Remember these things God says. He says that to Israel with good reason. Israel is in captivity as these words are addressed to them. Though they were spoken by Isaiah long before the time of captivity, yet from chapter 40 to the end of Isaiah, it's all addressed to the captives who would be in Babylon. Comfort ye my people, God started chapter 40, and that's what these verses are intended to do, comfort the captives, but they also needed to be called away from their sin. Israel had been put into captivity because of their sins, and particularly because they had turned from the one true God unto the idols of the heathen around them. They needed to be called to repentance. And even now, as they are in captivity, many of them have not turned. And their lives were being conformed to Babylon and the wickedness of the people of Babylon, their idolatry and their vile corruption. To them, then, God says, remember these things. The promise of God is that Jerusalem will be rebuilt. The temple will be built again, though they are far away. They know Jerusalem is laid waste. The land of Canaan is decimated. But God says, you will go back. You will go back and rebuild. You will inhabit the land again. But your hope for that is not in your idols. Don't look there. Look to me. I'm the only one who has the power. I'm the only one who is able to bring you back. So that you can live in Jerusalem in the land of promise. God reminds them their hope is in God who has formed them. Forgiveness of sins is only to be found in him. Idols cannot do that. In fact, in the text, as we'll see, God reminds them, I have already redeemed you. I've already redeemed you. Forgiveness is only with me. So return unto me. Let's consider this text in connection with the Lord's Supper this morning, the call then to return to Jehovah unto the theme and exhortation to Jehovah's servants return unto me. Notice, first of all, the valued servants, secondly, the great redemption, and thirdly, the divine command to return to Jehovah God. The text makes it clear that the people God addresses are valued servants. Twice in verse 21 already, God refers to Israel as my servant, my servant. What does it mean to be a servant of God? Well, the servant, first of all, is really what we would call a slave. He is not a mere hired hand. He is not not a live-in maid, but it is one who is the possession of another, a servant under the yoke. He is not his own man. He belongs to someone else. He cannot go where he wants. He cannot do as he pleases. He cannot speak whatever he wants to say. He is to obey the commands of his master. He is to know the wishes of his master and to do his bidding and to seek his best interest, not his own. He lives to please his master. speaks of Israel as his servants, clearly, though he is referring to them also as his covenant people. And that comes out with the names, O Jacob and Israel. These are not two different groups of people, but one in the same, viewed slightly from different viewpoints. Many places in scripture, Jacob and Israel are used interchangeably, because Jacob refers to the man born to Isaac and Rebekah, But he's the root, as it were, from a organic, from a human point of view, the root of the nation. God changed his name from Jacob, Peniel, from Jacob to Israel, Prince of God. And it would be from Jacob that the nation of Israel would grow forth. He's like the root. And the whole nation is like an organic whole, a tree. But God had already established his covenant with Isaac, rather with Jacob, with Isaac and with Jacob, with Israel. And therefore now God's covenant is not merely with the first man, but with the nation of Israel. God addresses Israel as a nation, as one organic whole with Jacob at its root. The emphasis is that this is the elect people of God. That's how the chapter started out. Hear, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. God's chosen people are his elect people. So as God speaks to this nation, this group of people who are united organically by family, by blood, He addresses the nation, and yet the promises of salvation, as always, are only to the elect in the nation. Not to every single Israelite, but to the elect in the nation of Israel. These are servants, covenant people. And there's a couple of things in the verse that make it clear that these are valuable servants. God highly values them. In the first place, the emphasis in the text that these people are God's possession. God's possession. My servants, he says every time, not merely servants, you're mine. And then he emphasizes that by saying, I have formed thee. I have formed thee. chosen in eternity, each and every member who will be part of the nation of Israel, the church, God formed them in time, caused each individual to be born at the right time and in the right family and to have a place and a function within the body of Israel. I formed thee, God says. He is the potter. And Israel is the clay, and each individual member of the church is formed by God for a place in that one body. Formed they were, obviously, for Him, for God. Formed for His purpose, for His glory, if you will, for His benefit. There isn't benefit in the sense that God is somehow benefited and increased and made better by the people, but it's for His glory that they exist. Israel does not exist for the benefit of the nations around them. Israel does not exist even for their own benefit, first of all, but they exist for God's purposes and God's glory. They are chosen to do His will. They are called servants, and the term servant of the Lord is a significant term, especially in the book of Isaiah. Isaiah himself is called the servant of the Lord many times, as in Isaiah 49, verse 5, where we read, and now saith the Lord that formed me, Isaiah, from the womb to be his servant. God formed him to be his servant, Isaiah the prophet. And at times, even in Isaiah, the term servant of the Lord is applied directly to Christ, the coming Messiah, as in Isaiah 42, verse one, behold, my servant, whom I uphold, mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth, I have put my spirit upon him, and he shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles. That's not Isaiah any longer. That's Christ himself, who is the servant of God. The glory of Israel is that God says to Israel, you are my servant. Yes, Isaiah is the servant of the Lord and the Messiah is the servant of the Lord. You are my servants, chosen by me from eternity in the coming Messiah, chosen in Him to be servants of God. Clearly, they are valued servants. The second thing that shows the value of the servants is not only that they belong to God, they're His servants, but that God says in the text, I will not forget you. I will not forget you. The idea of forgetting does not have the idea that something slips one's mind. As someone says, oh, I meant to stop and get a gallon of milk, but I forgot. No, it's not that. Forgetting, the word forget here means consciously and deliberately to put something out of your mind. To put it out of your mind. Deliberately. To cut it out of your life. As Jeremiah 23 verse 39 says, Therefore, behold, I, even I, will utterly forget you, God says. I will utterly forget you and I will forsake you and the city that I gave you and your fathers and cast you out of my presence." Terrible thing to be forgotten of God. That's a deliberate act of God putting one out of his mind and out of his life. God says to Israel, I will not forget you. I will not. That's a promise. Israel, can the idols say that to you? Will the idols keep you in their minds, this stock of wood, this graven image that cannot see or think or speak? Will they keep you in their mind? You will always be in my mind, God says. Everything that I do will include you. You will be there in my mind. I will not forget you. So return unto me. You are my valued servants. Return unto me. Put away your idols. and return to me." But Israel, whose land was laid waste because of the terrible sins, now are living in bondage, in captivity in Babylon. Can they? May they return to the Lord? Is God serious about this command? He most definitely is because there is a solid basis for God's command. A solid basis is the great redemption. For I have redeemed thee, verse 22. I have redeemed thee from sin. The text brings up the sins of Israel. Transgressions. Transgressions is more literally rebellion. rebellion against God, they were created to serve God. Israel rebelled against him, turned away from God, turned instead to idols and to all the abomination of the idols. We know from the Old Testament history of Israel, they were rebels from the beginning, the beginning of their history. your transgressions, your rebellions, and your sins. The word sin is the ordinary word for missing the mark. God set His goal before Israel. Aim for this, Israel. Aim for this with all of your possessions, all your time, all your being. Aim for this to love God, to serve Him, to obey Him with all of your being. And Israel sinned, knowing the law of God. They trampled it underfoot. And they did according to all the abominations of the ungodly. Until God finally thrust them out of the land of Canaan. You have no right to dwell in my land. You may not dwell here. You have corrupted the land worse than the abomination of the heathen. And God thrust them out. And even now. The godly in Israel must have looked around and said, but look at. Look at the way we're living. We're still not devoted to God. We're still worshiping idols. They still have them set up in their homes and we're living according to the standards of the Babylonians. These sins. These sins block. the way, so to speak, to God. God is angry with sin. They needed this call. The call to return is a call that includes repent, repent, turn away from the sins that you're walking in and return unto me. God's word to Jacob, Israel, is I have blotted them out. as a cloud, as a thick cloud and as a cloud. Now to blot out means to remove, to remove. When the Bible speaks of blotting someone's name out of the book of life it means it's not there, it's not there, it's gone, not to be found. Genesis 6, when God said he would destroy every living creature with the flood, this is the word that he's using there, the word that means to blot out. He will destroy every living thing off the face of the earth, remove it completely. So as a cloud, there's two different words here used in the Hebrew, which one of them indicates a thick cloud, A heavy, dark rain cloud, that's the first word, a thick cloud. And then a cloud, the other one is a mist, is a mist. Both of them block the light of the sun. But they are just clouds. And as the morning sun comes up, it begins to burn away the mist until it is gone. And though the dark clouds come and pour out their rain, eventually the wind drives them away and there's no trace of them anymore. And the sun is out and the clouds are gone. That's the idea here. God says your sins. Yes, they are terrible. Yes, they have caused you to be thrust out of the promised land. Yes, my wrath was upon you without any question it was. But God says, your sins like a cloud that separate you from the experience of my favor. I have taken them away. Your sin, your rebellions, I have blotted them out. They are gone. There is nothing that separates you from me. That, of course, is quite something for God to say that to Israel. How can it be that sin Sin that we know in our own life when we look at it is sin against God, sin against each other, vile iniquities found in our own souls. How can those sins just be gone, blotted out, taken away so there's no trace of them? The text says, I have redeemed thee. I have redeemed thee. The word that is used when Boaz had to purchase, redeem the land of Elimelech. He had to buy it. So God says, I have purchased you. I have purchased you. It is a word that specifically means to free from bondage as a slave is under a master and is purchased out of the possession of that master and now is made free. I have redeemed you. You've been given your freedom. You serve someone else now. You don't serve that master. God had redeemed Israel. We know that in our history. Frequently, God uses that word to speak of the fact that he had taken them out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. I have redeemed you, Israel. With the shed blood of the Passover lamb, I have redeemed you. You are freed. God is also saying that to the captives in Babylon. Yes, you are captives. You are not free now as a nation, but I have redeemed you. You will be set free from your captivity. I have paid the price. You have the right to go free in God's own time. What a tremendous comfort. God speaks of that in this chapter. You may not remember that, but the very last verse all of a sudden makes reference to a man named Cyrus. God, speaking of his power, says, And that saith, God saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid. And the next chapter goes on to speak of that, of God will use Cyrus This wicked man, this ruler who will come and conquer Babylon and God will turn his heart so that he will say to the captives, go build Jerusalem. Go build the temple. God has redeemed them. But that's all typical, isn't it? That's a picture. The deeper significance is a spiritual freedom from sin. That's what is finally meant by the redemption. The cross of Jesus Christ. God is pointing Israel ahead to the true deliverance, the true redemption in the blood of the coming Messiah. There, a full redemption is made, a payment of all the sins. all the rebellion of his people. The punishment for the sins of the elect was the wrath of God that was poured out upon Jesus Christ. And because he bore the punishment, every last ounce of the wrath of God, God can say to Israel, I have blotted out your sins. They're like a cloud that is gone. There's no trace of them any longer. I have redeemed thee. You have the right to be called my servants. You have the right to be free to serve me. What's true for Jacob and Israel is true for us. God says to us, I have redeemed thee. I have redeemed thee. The singular again, not merely a group of people, but individual people. God says, I have redeemed you. I have redeemed you. I have redeemed you personally. I have purchased you. So sure is this redemption that God could even say already in the Old Testament before Jesus even came, he could say, I have redeemed thee because the counsel of God is that secure. Nothing can prevent it from being executed. So God already then could say, I have redeemed thee. But now for us standing on the other side of the cross, it is absolutely certain. God has redeemed us. What a beautiful word of promise. Your sins are blotted out in the cross of Jesus Christ. They are gone. Satan has no right to claim you. You are my servants. I have purchased you. You belong to me. You have, therefore, the right to return to me. And as my servants, you will be given power from me. I will work in you the power, the strength to come unto me. The strength of the spirit that delivers us from the power and the corruption of sin so that we do in fact return to him by the power of that spirit working in us. On the basis of that redemption and the basis of the blotting out of all our sins comes the command from God, return unto me. Not merely come to me, but return unto me. Return means we were once there, we left and have to come back. In Adam, of course, this is true. Adam knew God and loved God. He was created perfect and could do the will of God. He loved him and was faithful and obedient as the servant of God. But he rebelled and forsook his ways. And in Adam, the whole race departed from God. And this is true of Israel. God chose Israel as His own peculiar people. He redeemed them. He gave them a land. He gave them a temple where He would dwell among them. They worshipped God, but then they turned away from God. They departed from Him and went after the idols of the world around them. God says, now return. Come back to me. Turn from your evil ways. Repent of your sin. Forsake your idols. That may be a little bit hard for us to get a hold of. Do you have idols in your life that you need to forsake? None of us has a molten image of silver and gold in our homes. None of us has a piece of wood carved into the form of a person that we get on our knees or worship with incense. But as we will see in a few weeks, the Lord willing, when we come to the first commandment of the law, we have idols. That in which we place our trust. That which is so important in our life that it becomes a goal in itself. We have idols. We have gods that we set up that allow us to sin as we please. Turn our back on the God who is holy and righteous and whose law is clear before us and turn to the God that says, no, that's all right, you can do that, go ahead. God's word to us is forsake your idols. Come out from among the world. We live in Babylon. And our life is so much in tune with Babylon that they hardly even notice us. We live as they live. God says, do not be conformed to Babylon. You are my servants. Live unto me. Keep my commandments. Be a separate people. Come to God. Serve Him alone. Worship Him. Return to know His covenant fellowship. Do you think you need this command, people of God? Or are you thinking, well, if the consistory is working with someone who might be walking in a bad way, he would certainly need to hear this word returned. Or maybe the Christian Reformed Church, they apostatized and adopted false doctrine, and they certainly need to hear this word returned. But do we need it? This is God's command to you and to me. And our response must not be that of pride, that we look around us and say, well, I can see why they need it and they need it, but I have not really departed from the Lord God. I didn't kill anybody, I didn't commit adultery, I didn't steal. That must not be our response, the response of pride. There is nothing in us to be proud about. We're lowly servants, first of all, but our sins forfeit any right for us to come to God. There's sin in all our lives, every part of it. The response must be not be that of pride that, well, it's good to hear this, Good to come to the table of the Lord. I'm thankful we have Jesus, but he didn't really die for that much. As far as I'm concerned, my sins are not that many. Beloved, if that's what we're thinking, we don't have a place here. We must not come to the table of the Lord with that attitude. That I'm thankful for Jesus dying for my sins, but There's only a few that I found this past week that are really there. And for the rest, I'm far better than most people. Nor must we look at ourselves and say, well, no, I'm not going to give up my sin. I'm going to continue. I'm not going to forsake it. I'm simply not. I'll get rid of that sin and that one maybe, but this one, no. Rather, looking to the cross, we see what Jesus endured for our sin. And we find our redemption there. All the promises of God fulfilled in Jesus. And then we must come to God. We must. on bended knee in prayer, repenting, confessing, hating our sins, coming to his word, coming to the preaching of the gospel and to the scriptures and meditating on them, coming to him here to worship God and to give our alms and overflowing thanks to God and praising him and coming to the table of the Lord. Return unto me, come to me, is a call to come to the table of the Lord. Come, we must. If we refuse to come to the table of the Lord, we are saying, I'm not a servant of Jehovah. Then whose servant are you? There's only two options. You're the servant of Jehovah, or you are the servant of the devil. To refuse to come is to say I'm not a servant of Jehovah. Listen to the command of God to his servants. Return ye unto me. Yes, you have transgressed and I. Yes, we are guilty sinners. And our lives are still very, very imperfect. But God says, I have blotted them out. I have removed those sins in the blood of Jesus Christ. I have redeemed thee. Now return ye unto me. Amen. Let us pray. Father in heaven, we thank thee for the promises of thy word. astounding promises to sinners such as we are. Lord, we thank Thee for Thy great salvation, and then for the call that Thou dost issue for us to return unto Thee. We do so, Lord, with grateful hearts. We ask this all in Jesus' name. Amen.