Isaiah 43

I will get me honor upon Pharaoh. But especially he has made the godly for his glory, they are the living organs of his praise (Isaiah 43:21). This people have I formed for myself, and they shall show forth my praise.

2. He is free in the manner of worship; he has God's free Spirit which makes him free and cheerful in his service of God; he is joyful in the house of prayer (Isaiah 56:7). 2. God adopts us to a state of dignity: God makes us heirs of promise; God installs us into honor (Isaiah…

To contest with him, is as if the thorns should set themselves in battle array against the fire; or as if an infirm child should fight with an archangel. If the sinner be once taken in God's iron net, there is no escaping (Isaiah 43:13). There is none that can deliver out of my…

Response 1. Obedience makes us precious to God; we shall be his favorites (Exodus 19:15). If you will obey my voice, you shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people; you shall be my portion, my jewels, the apple of my eye, I will give kingdoms for your ransom (Isaiah 43:…

Resp. If you see your sins, and loathe yourself for them, yet God will take you into covenant (Isaiah 43:24): You have wearied me with your iniquities; I, even I am he that blots out your transgressions. As the sea covers great rocks, so God's covenant-mercy covers great sins.

Quest. 6. Wherein lies the dignity of such as have God for their Father? Resp. They have greater honor than is conferred on the princes of the earth; They are precious in God's esteem; (Isaiah 43:4) Since you were precious in my eyes, you have been honorable; the wicked are dros…

5. That there is a God, appears by God's unlimited power and sovereignty. He who can work, and none hinder him, is the true God; but God can do so (Isaiah 43:13). I will work, and who shall hinder it.

God does not cover sin in the Antinomian sense, so as he sees it not, but he does so cover it, as he will not impute it. 3. To forgive sin is to blot it out (Isaiah 43:25): "I am he that blots out your transgressions." The Hebrew word Mecha, to blot out, alludes to a creditor, w…

Q. How is he King over all creatures? A. In sustaining and disposing of them all by his providence, as may be for his glory, and the good of the elect (Hebrews 1:3; Colossians 1:16; Proverbs 8:15-16; Isaiah 43:14-15). Q. And how is he King of the visible Church?

Q. What Scriptures do prove that Adam and Eve did fall from that state of innocency and purity wherein they were created? A. Many, but most especially the third chapter of Genesis, Ecclesiastes 7:29, Isaiah 43:27, Romans 5:12, 18, 19, 1 Timothy 2:14. Q. Who did fall?

So also in Ezekiel 36:22, 32: 'For my name's sake, and not for your sake.' And in Isaiah 43:25: 'I am he that blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and will not remember your sins.' For his name's sake he blots out transgression and pardons.

It will be no otherwise with all those confusions and disorders that the world is filled withal at this day, though we can see nothing of the ways and means of their tendency to such an end. 2. There have been and are to be such seasons wherein God will dispose of nations and th…

He does indeed make use of witnesses to confirm his word, that is, to testify that such promises he has made and so he will do. So the Lord Christ was his witness, Isa. 43:10. You are my witnesses, says the Lord, and my Servant whom I have chosen.

I intend therefore such an omission of duties as is general; where men do seldom or never perform them but when they are excited and pressed by outward accidents or occasions. That this may befall professors the Prophet declares (Isaiah 43:22, 23). And it argues much hypocrisy i…

And that appears thus. (1) If it were from servile fear only, they would in time grow weary of God's [illegible]ways, as many do (Malachi 1:13 & Isaiah 43:22). It is true, there is often some, yes much servile fear in a child of God, and there is also a weariness in spiritual wo…

He sets them as a Seal upon his Breast, Canticles 8.16. He will give Kingdoms for their Ransom, Isaiah 43.3. which shows how near they lie to his heart.

I even I am the Lord, and besides me there is no Savior. And, I am the Lord the God from the land of Egypt, and you shall know no God but me: for there is no Savior beside me (Isaiah 43:11; Hosea 13:4). 2. There must be a proportion between the sin of man and the punishment of s…

See what high thoughts God has of the righteous, he looks upon them more excellent than others, and his judgment is best worth prizing; the saints have low thoughts of themselves, they overlook their own worth, like Moses who knew not that his face shined (Exodus 34:29). The eye…

By Thomas Watson, Minister of the Gospel. Isaiah 43:4. Since thou wast precious in my sight, thou hast been honorable. Isaiah 60:15. I will make thee an eternal excellency.

Free grace acts upon the same terms. All God's motives are taken from himself, from his own bosom: For my own sake, says the Lord (Isaiah 43:25). There may be a difference in the creature, John and Andrew may be otherwise tempered and disposed than Paul and Peter: but God's moti…

How then shall I be able to bear the burning of my whole body tomorrow?' And yet when that tomorrow came, he could go cheerfully into the flames with that Scripture on his lips (Isaiah 43:1-3): 'Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; you are mine. Whe…

The glory of God's attributes is centered in Christ in a higher manner than in the creation, and in that work did excel themselves in what they had done in the framing of the world; and the Church being the glory of Christ, all those attributes which are glorified in Christ, do…

For there may, through the power of temptation, be a prevalency of this evil in believers for a season. So God complains of his people (Isaiah 43:22), You have not called upon me, O Jacob, but have been weary of me, O Israel; that is, comparatively, as to the fervency and sincer…

Gen. 19. 22. Haste thee (to Zoar) for I cannot do anything till thou become thither. The Saints are the excellent of the earth, Psal. 16. 3. Precious and honourable, Isa. 43. 4. and for their sakes God may yet be entreated to be propitious to us. 2. Another seed of hope is, that…

Oh it is a sad expression, what Israel! a vessel employed and received to empty out excrements! [1. Israel were a people precious and honorable in the eyes of God (Isaiah 43:4). [2. An holy people to the Lord (Deuteronomy 14:2). [3. They were God's peculiar people above all nati…

That's the note from hence: it's God's favor that makes a man. You have an excellent scripture for this in (Isaiah 43:7): I have created him (says God) for my glory, I have formed him, yes I have made him. Here's these three words together.

Third, in urging this doctrine more hardly upon the people, to cause them not to rest on the letter of the law, but seek to the promised Messiah, in whom only was their righteousness — as young heirs and minors are kept under tutors while their minority expires. But, first, who…

Verse 27: "But these my enemies that would not that I should reign over them, bring here and slay them before me" [illegible]. These to me seem to be allusions to Israel's wearying of the Lord of old (Isaiah 43:23): "I have not wearied you with incense" (Jeremiah 2:5); "What ini…

An everlasting name (I confess) is more than a name. (Isaiah 43:4): Since you were precious in my sight, [illegible] you have been glorious, or honorable. (1 Chronicles 4:9): And Jabez was more honorable than his brethren; the same word, and way, Verse 10: And Jabez called on th…

You are (head, or member, or of which the Prophet spoke, it is all one) in the mouth of God, by name from eternity, John, Anna, etc. Isaiah 43:1: O Israel fear not, for I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are mine. So the Lord points them out with the finger…

So God calls them (Malachi 3:17): made precious to him out of his love. So (Isaiah 43:4). So that God loves us as jewels chosen by him, but much more when he beholds us set and presented to him in the breastplate of Christ's heart and prayer.

Not without delight, witness these Scriptures, (Job 27:10) "Will he delight himself in the Almighty? will he always call upon God?" (Isaiah 43:22) "But you have not called upon me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel!" They that love God and delight in him, cannot b…

It must therefore be restrained thus: He that does wickedly, and perseveres therein to the end: He that does well, and continues in well doing, shall receive according to his works; the seeds of his former sins shall not grow up to the harvest of condemnation. For it is the priv…

Which call you by your name.] Some barely expound this phrase of speech, that Cyrus was thus called of God before he was born. But we have said heretofore, (Isaiah 43:1) that by these words the Prophet meant another thing, namely, that God calls those by name whom he chooses and…

He speaks not of God's secret counsel, but speaks after the manner of men, to set forth the mutual consent which ought to be between God and the faithful, that all those to whom he vouchsafes his presence as their father, should be ready for their parts to answer when he calls t…

David esteemed it very good logic, to argue from the victory God gave him over the Lion, and the Bear, to a confidence of victory over Goliath (1 Samuel 17:37). The use of this, we are led to (Isaiah 43:16, 17, 18): Thus says the Lord which makes a way in the Sea, and a Path in…

1 Peter 5:10: Who has called us to his eternal glory. And 1 Thessalonians 2:12: Since you were precious in my sight, and I have loved you, you became honorable (Isaiah 43). 1 Peter 2:6: To you that believe, Christ is precious — or as it is in the Greek, he is an honor to you.

Nor is there any thing directly, and immediately in it, but what belongs to that Law. Only God now made in it, an especial accommodation of the Law of their Creation to that people, whom he was in a second Work now forming for himself (Isaiah 43:19, 20, 21; chapter 51:15, 16). A…

It had been to no purpose to have declared the way, if he had not also given them light to see it. This blessed work of his Spirit, is every where declared in the Scripture (Isaiah 43:16). And by this means is he to us, what he was to the Church in the Wilderness, when he went b…

The Canonical authority of the Epistle to the Hebrews having been by some called into question, we must in our entrance declare both what it is which we intend thereby, as also the clear interest of this Epistle therein; for this is the foundation of all those ensuing discourses…

How much better than he of late, who interprets these words of Isaiah himself, to whom not one letter of the prophesie can receive any tolerable accommodation. It is the Messiah then, by their own confession, who is intended in this prophesie; who is described not on horse-back…

I should have lain still.] The word signifies to lie down in any kind, and it signifies to sleep (Genesis 19:4). Before they lay down, that is, before they went to bed: it is applied likewise to the sleep of death (2 Samuel 7:12; Isaiah 43:17). They shall lie down, they shall no…

The longer she speaks of Christ, and insists in mentioning his excellency, her thoughts draw the deeper, she sets him up the higher, and becomes warmer in her apprehensions, affections and expressions concerning him: Acquaintance with him, would make one speak eloquently of him;…

So he promised to be with Joshua (chapter 1:5), and so he was with Gideon (Judges 6:12), to bless him in his great undertaking; and so with Jeremiah (chapter 15:20). This is fully expressed (Isaiah 43:1–3): I have redeemed you, I have called you by your name, you are mine: when…

Yet if you cannot always say, that grace is yours, Christ is yours, and Heaven is yours, yet be much in the thoughts of free grace; pore not upon your vileness and unworthiness, but ponder upon that which can answer all in one word, I will have mercy, because I will have mercy,…

Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls are continually before me." The same is promised again in Isaiah 59:21 and Isaiah 43:1, 2 and Zechariah 12:2, 3. So Christ promises the same, when he says, "On this rock will I build my church, and the gates of hel…

And also consider the wisdom of God, that went to this work, and he did it alone; he had none to help him; take a man, let him set up a building, and he cannot do it of himself, but he needs somebody to help him; but the Lord did all this alone: therefore he concludes, verse 18,…

Some understand what I say: if we have not some of us had better days, we never had good days in our lives; if we have had them, why do we not stir up ourselves to look after a recovery? 4. May not God say of many of us, what he said of his people of old; You have been weary of…

Next to our care not to be a shame to the gospel, should be our resolution not to be ashamed of the gospel. You are subpoenaed by the King of Kings to appear for him in the world: you are my witnesses says the Lord (Isaiah 43:10). Do not betray this cause then by declining your…

What is there in them, or amongst them, that makes joining with them to be so desireable? First, that point we handled before, might be enough to show the reason of this: they are the excellent of the earth, Isaiah 43:4 I do not now speak of them particularly, though every Saint…