All right, brethren, let's turn
in our Bibles to Isaiah 47. Our messages this morning are
going to go together, and we're going to see a contrast, I hope. I pray the Lord will make us
to see this. Both messages have to do with
confidence. The first message is Babylon's
vain confidence. The second message is our confidence
in the Lord. And I hope you'll see the contrast
here in these two different confidences. Babylon is false religion. All
false religion. And it includes those who are
irreligious. All men are religious by nature,
whether they're in organized religion or not. God declares
in our text that Babylon's problem is pride. Her problem is pride. Pride makes sinners have confidence
in self. Now we're just going to go a
little at a time here. We saw some of this last time.
We're going to pick up in verse 7. Isaiah 47, 7. The Lord is speaking to Babylon.
He said, And thou saidest, I shall be a lady forever, so that thou
didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember
the latter end of it. God warns men before he sends
judgment. He warns his enemies as well
as his elect. God sent Isaiah declaring this
160 years before Israel was even taken captive into Babylon, before
Babylon ever even treated them so harshly and showed them no
mercy, 160 years before. He sent Jeremiah declaring the
same message 50 years before. And then he sent Daniel when
judgment was on their doorstep. And they did not lay it to heart.
Our Lord has sent us this word today because judgment is coming. This national judgment on Babylon
is just a picture of spiritual judgment that's coming on this
whole world. He sent his warning to us today.
He's coming to judge Mystery Babylon. Now, will we heed God's
word? Will we flee to Christ right
now while he may be found? This is very needful, and I pray
the grace of our Lord make us do that. Those that have never
trusted Christ, I pray today the grace of our Lord make you
hear this message and believe Christ. Judgment's coming. Our
Lord is coming again. And only ones that will be safe
are those that are found in Christ's righteousness alone. Now first
of all, prosperity made Babylon presumptuous. It made Babylon
presumptuous. She thought she would reign forever. Look here in verse 7, it says,
Thou saidest, I shall be a lady forever. so that thou didst not
lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter
end of it. Lady here is a vernacular for pride. That's what's being
shown us here. She thinks herself superior to
all others and that she would be forever. Notice back in verse
five, he says, sit thou silent, get thee into darkness, O daughter
of the Chaldeans, for thou shalt no more be called the Lady of
Kingdoms. That's, you know, she's above
everybody. In 2008, I was sitting at the
end of my driveway, and I was talking with a city worker, and
he told me, he said, this is the United States of America.
We're the wealthiest nation that's ever been. We've got the most
powerful army that's ever been. Nobody will ever be able to defeat
us. And I said to him, that's what
Babylon said. I said, where's that nation today?
He was saying, the USA is a lady and shall reign forever, to be
the lady of kingdoms forever. About a week later, the bubble
burst and Wall Street bankers were jumping out of buildings
a week later. Reverend Pride, is just emboldened
by prosperity. Riches and honor, especially
if it lasts a long time, it just puffs men up in pride and leads
to false security. Prosperity makes men give no
thought to God and no thought to the latter end when we will
face God. If men have what they need now,
what do they need with God? And prosperity is a dangerous
thing. I've heard it said And I've seen it come to pass now,
many times. Prosperity makes more people
leave the gospel than anything else. Prosperity. Look over at
Psalm 49. Psalm 49. If the Lord gives you prosperity,
be thankful. But I tell you, when he does
that for his child, he also gives them a heart to give and support
the gospel and provide for his people. I've seen that, and he
does that. And if he gives you prosperity,
pray that he gives you that kind of a heart. Look here in Psalm
49.6. He says, they that trust in their wealth and boast themselves
in the multitude of their riches, none of them can by any means
redeem his brother nor give to God a ransom for him. For the
redemption of their soul is precious and it ceases forever. He can't
ransom a brother or himself that he should still live forever
and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die,
likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their
wealth to others. Their inward thought is that
their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to
all generations. They call their lands after their
own names. Nevertheless, man being in honor
abideth not. He's like the beasts that perish.
This their way is their folly, and yet their posterity approve
their sayings. See, la, think about that. You
know, only the Lord Jesus Christ is able to create a contrite
heart in a sinner. Only the Lord is able to create
a contrite heart in a sinner. He humbles His child. He brings
us down to the feet of Christ and makes us ever dependent on
the Lord Jesus, seeing we need Him for everything. He keeps
His saints humble trusting Him alone. That's what He does for
His people in grace. I pray He'd do that for each
of us here. Not let us trust in ourselves,
not let us trust in anything about ourselves. Babylon says,
I'll be a lady forever. Christ is the only one that makes
his bride a chaste virgin, spotless, without blame, perfectly righteous,
perfectly holy. Christ alone does that. Paul
said, I've espoused you to one husband. One husband that I may
present you a chaste virgin to Christ. The only way you and
me are gonna be found chaste before God, without spot, without
blemish, perfect, is if we're found in Christ's righteousness,
not having a righteousness of our own, but His alone, not any
works of righteousness whereby we've tried to accomplish it
by the obedience to the law, by His obedience. That's the
only way. We gotta be brought down from
the pride of thinking we can please God by our works, brethren. Not by our power, it's not by
our wisdom, it's not by our might, it's by His grace alone. His
keeping power alone. That's the only way we're gonna
reign forever by Christ. Listen to 2 Timothy 2.12, if
we suffer, And if you're a child of God, you're gonna suffer some
things in this world. Nothing like what he suffered,
but you will. But if we suffer, we also shall reign with him. If we deny him, he will deny
us. Revelation 5.10 says, Christ, by his blood, by his righteousness,
he made us unto our God, kings and priests, and we shall reign
on the earth. Babylon has a vain boast that
she's gonna reign forever. Men are thinking foolish, unwise,
ignorant thoughts to think they're just gonna reign forever. But
God, by Christ Jesus, he makes his people reign forever. You
hear the word of the Lord and consider your ladder in right
now. Listen, look at Ecclesiastes
11. Ecclesiastes 11. This is so very important. I remember this being one of
the first scriptures that my grandparents showed me. Ecclesiastes 11, 9. Rejoice,
O young man, in thy youth. This goes for the young woman
too, the young lady. You rejoice, O young man, in
thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee in the days of thy
youth, and walk in the ways of thine heart and in the sight
of thine eyes. But know thou that for all these
things God will bring thee into judgment. Therefore, remove sorrow
from thy heart and put away evil from thy flesh, for childhood
and youth are vanity. Remember now thy Creator in the
days of thy youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years
draw nigh, when thou shalt say, I have no pleasure in them. You
go on and you can read the rest of the Ecclesiastes 12. The grinders
are going to cease. Teeth are going to start falling
out. The back's going to bend. The members are going to start
to tremble. You're going to have dim vision.
You're going to hear a bird outside at night, and just a little noise,
and it's going to make you afraid. All these things are coming.
And then you're going to die, and you're going to face God.
Consider now your creator. The only way to reign forever
is in Christ the Lord. Now secondly, back in our text,
the pride of Babylon, the pride of natural man, is that she thinks
herself to be as God. This is her pride. Look here
in verse 8. Therefore, hear now this, thou that art given to
pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thy heart, I am,
and none else beside me, I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall
I know the loss of children." You see that? Babylon makes herself
to be God. She says, I am, and there's none
else. This is the heart of a natural
man. A natural man, as we come into
this world, his day-to-day life revolves around me, myself, and
I. That's all a natural man's concerned
about is self. I am. None else beside me. Look out for number one. Isaiah
45 and verse 6. Look there, Isaiah 45, 6. You
see, God's the I am. There's none beside Him. Look
here, Isaiah 45, 6. He said that they may know from
the rising of the sun and from the west that there is none beside
me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Verse 21, Tell ye, bring them
near. Yea, let them take counsel together.
Who hath declared this from ancient times? Who hath told it from
that time? Have not I the Lord? There is no God else beside me,
a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. You
see, that's the problem with natural man. That's the problem
with Babylon. She takes to herself that which
belongs to God. She puts herself in the seat
of God. I am, she says, there's none beside me. No, that's true
of God and God alone. You do not want to meet God without
Christ because then you're going to find out He's a just God. You want to be found in Christ. That's where you learn He's a
just God and a Savior. He sent the Lord Jesus Christ.
This is what it took to make His people accepted of God. God is so holy, so perfect, so
righteous. This is what it took to make
God accept His people. I get so sick of hearing vain
preachers tell sinners that are on their way to hell, why don't
you just accept Jesus? That's not the issue. The issue
is will God accept you? That's the issue. And the only
way God will accept you and me is he sent his own son and made
him sin for us. and justly spared not his own
son, but poured out his fierce indignation on his son in place
of his people. So he's a just God. He will by
no means clear the guilty. When sin was found on his son,
he spared him not, but delivered him up for all his elect people.
But now, because he did that, he's a savior. He's merciful. He's just to be merciful. That's
where you want to meet God. You want to find out that He's
a just God and a Savior. You don't want to meet Him without
Christ. You'll find out He is a just God. All the men would
listen to this. They just won't pay attention,
won't listen, won't hear God speak. And just like somebody
if they was on the edge of a cliff and they just about to fall off
into a great chasm. That's how serious this is. And
just joking and laughing and not caring what God has to say. Oh, we're going to live forever.
God said in Malachi 3.5, I will come near to you to judgment,
and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against
the adulterers, and against false sweepers, and against those that
oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow and the fatherless,
and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not
Me, saith the Lord of Hosts. God will be a swift witness against
all men found outside of Christ. He knows everything about a man,
everything about the heart. Here's the third problem with
carnal wisdom and carnal knowledge. It puffs up. Carnal wisdom, just
like riches, carnal wisdom and carnal knowledge puffs up the
sinner. Men trust in their own works
rather than Christ. Look here in Isaiah 47.10. For
thou hast trusted in thy wickedness. Thou hast said, None seeth me.
Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee. And thou
hast said in thy heart, I am, and none else beside me. Christ
is wisdom. He's wisdom. Even a natural man,
he doesn't have any understanding of natural things, except the
Lord give it to him. He's the light of all men. and
spiritual wisdom no man has until Christ has made wisdom to us.
He must give us an understanding. But sinners who make up Babylon,
they're trusting in their own wisdom, their own understanding,
and therefore they trust in their own works. He says, none seeth me. A carnal man sins, and he doesn't
think God sees him sin. But I'll tell you what's even
worse than sins, immoral, vile, wicked sin, even worse than that
is a man in his religion trying to be as moral as he can be,
trying to exalt himself over others and show that he's such
a righteous and holy man. And no matter how good those
works are, If a man is not trusting Christ alone to be his acceptance
with God, God says all those works are wickedness. He said
a man's trusting in his own wickedness. Paul said, knowledge puffeth
up, but charity edifieth. If any man think that he know
anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know. But if any
man loved God, the same is known of him. That's how we love God. We've been known of God. Known
from eternity when He chose His people. Known by Christ when
He had us on His heart, when He laid down His life for us.
Known of Him in the new birth when He enters in and reveals
Himself to us. That's how we're brought to love
God. That's when the love of God is in our heart. That's when
Charity begins to edify us. Christ, who is love, begins to
edify us. And by shedding his love abroad
in our hearts, he makes us edifying to others, because he makes us
tell others this truth about him and about sinners. But without
him, a man gets a little knowledge. It can be just earthly, worldly
knowledge. He gets a little knowledge, and
he gets so proud he knows something. And he knows nothing as he ought.
And it'll take a man to get some doctrine, some scriptural doctrine. Oh, without Christ, he just gets
so full of himself. He knows so much, can't be told
anything, can't be taught. Only Christ is wisdom, only Christ
is power. Man has no wisdom and no power
apart from Him. He's the charity that edifies
His people. He's love, God is love. He edifies
His people. And if He's going to make you
and me edifying to anybody, it's going to be by Him dwelling in
us and working in us. He's the one who makes His child
wise unto salvation. He does it by His power. He does
it in the new birth. He first loved us. That's the
only reason we love God. He first loved us. When we were
ungodly, vile, wretched sinners, He loved His people. And he came
and laid down his life for us. Even when we came into this world,
didn't know him, we were described here in this text, boasting in
ourselves, trusting in ourselves, I am, there is none else, puffed
up in our wisdom and our false security, and yet he still loved
us. Came to us and revealed himself
to us. And when he did that, he made
us see everything we were boasting in was wickedness. our own selves,
just wickedness. And he made us behold him, and
we fell in love with him. And that's when he makes you
to be edifying, to speak this good news to perishing sinners. Fourthly, pride will not let
a sinner seek God. Pride just won't let him, because
he don't think he needs God. Look here now in verse 8. Babylon
says, I am, and there's none else beside me. I shall not sit
as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children. Each time
the gospel goes forth, every time the gospel goes forth, there's
always some who hear it, and due to their sinful, natural,
pride-filled heart, they think that very thing. That's not going
to happen to me. That's not going to happen to
me. Listen to Psalm 10, verse 4. The wicked, through the pride
of his countenance, looks in the mirror. Oh, I'm so pretty. Looks at his stuff and the things
he's done. Oh, he's so beautiful. The wicked,
through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God. God
is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous. Thy judgments are far above out
of his sight. As for all his enemies, he puffs
at them. He has said in his heart, I shall
not be moved, for I shall never be in adversity. That's what
every sinner thinks by nature. They have this imaginary God
in their mind. He's just the old man upstairs. He's just the old grandfather. He'll be rough on them because
they're sinners, but I won't be in adversity. He'll save me.
Here's what God says in our text, Isaiah 47, 9. He said, but these
two things should come to thee in a moment, in one day. the loss of children and widowhood. They shall come upon thee in
their perfection for the multitude of thy sorceries and for the
great abundance of thine enchantments. The sinner outside of Christ
is always, all the time, one moment away from sudden destruction,
one heartbeat away from sudden eternal destruction. How are
they brought into desolation as in a moment they're utterly
consumed with terrors? I can't even imagine what it
would be like to close your eyes in death and open them and see
God as he is and not have a righteousness. Can you just imagine the terror
that would be? What are you afraid of? You young
people, what are you afraid of? You know, if today you knew you
was going to be cast into a prison with a bunch of just vile people
that just love every kind of wickedness there is, that would
just be terrifying, wouldn't it? But imagine if you faced
a fierce God of heaven and earth who is a just God, whose indignation
and wrath is perfect. Can you imagine the terror of
Him pouring out His wrath on you and casting you into outer
darkness. You know, the Lord can return
at any moment. He can come at any moment. And
when He comes, He's judging all sinners who refuse to believe
on Him. The Scripture says, when they
shall say, peace and safety, Then sudden destruction cometh
upon them as travail upon a woman with child, and they shall not
escape. Christ is the husband of his
church. I'll tell you what's true of
every one of his children that he saves. You have never experienced
widowhood. Never. Because Christ is our
husband forevermore. You have never experienced widowhood.
Never. I mean, true spiritual widowhood,
you'll never experience it. Christ is our husband and Christ
alone is going to make his church have many children. You're not
going to experience the loss of any children. I'm talking
about spiritual children because Christ has produced his children.
He's our everlasting father and he keeps his children. When you
die, For the child of God, you open your eyes, and you're with
Him in glory. There's the whole house of God,
the whole family of God, the heavenly city, the heavenly kingdom,
the holy nation. There you'll be, right there
in their midst, and everybody there will be giving the Lord
Jesus Christ all the praise and glory, because He is all. All
praise and glory is due to Him. He is all. Reverend, our peace is Christ,
our security is Christ, and we don't have confidence in self.
Our confidence is the Lord Jesus Christ alone. That's what we're
going to see the second hour, but I want you to get that. We're not boasting insecurity
in ourselves or anything about us. It's Christ only. Here's
the fifth thing. The moment the sinner meets God
without Christ, None of his works, none of his so-called goodness,
none of his religion, none of it is gonna be of any good to
him whatsoever. Verse 12, stand now with thine
enchantments and with the multitude of thy sorceries wherein thou
hast labored from thy youth. If so be thou shalt be able to
profit. If so be thou mayest prevail.
He said, he's saying now, when you stand before me now, stand
in these things that you trust in, if you think you're gonna
prevail in them. He said, thou art wearied in
a multitude of thy counsels. Let not the astrologers, the
stargazers, the monthly prognosticators stand up and save thee from,
let now them stand up and save thee from the things that shall
come upon thee. This is false religion. This is the religion
of man. Whether man's in organized religion
or not, it's the religion of man's works and it's just confusion. That's all it is. That's what
he's talking about here. I don't think I need to labor
the point to you that we don't trust in stargazers and astrologers
and horoscopes. But I'll tell you something else,
what most people don't understand is man's very best moral religion. Without Christ alone, through
faith alone, through the grace of God alone, without God being
the savior alone, everything a man's trusting in is the same
as trusting in astrologers and stargazers and horoscopes, monthly
prognosticators. Babylon trusts in a multitude
of vain counselors and not one can save. It's good to have a
multitude of counselors if they're all speaking by one spirit and
speaking of one Lord Jesus Christ. But a man who doesn't have the
spirit of God dwelling in him, you know what he does? He goes
from one counselor to the next till he finds the one that tells
him what he wants to hear. That's what he does. Will works
preachers with whom religious sinners labor are merchants.
He's going to call them the merchants with whom you labor. It's more
than just men and merchants in this world and all the wealth
and prosperity of this world. Men, free will works preachers
are merchants and they're making merchandise of sinners on their
way to hell to profit themselves. It's all enchantments and sorceries. When the Galatians were being
turned back to the law and to their works, what did Paul say?
He said, who has bewitched you? Who's bewitched you that you
should not obey the truth before whose eyes Jesus Christ has been
evidently set forth crucified among you? You've been bewitched.
It's sorcery. It's enchantments. It's witchcraft. That's what he was saying. All
they were doing was saying, you need to keep the law of Moses
or you can't be saved. It's okay to trust Christ, but
you need to keep the law too. Paul said, that's witchcraft.
Is it really that bad? It's really that bad. It can't
be Christ plus our works. It can't be grace and works.
It's got to be either all grace or all works. The law is not
of faith. The law doesn't have faith involved
in it. The law says, do the law, and do it all, and do it in perfection,
and you'll be saved. And no man can do that. Faith's
not even involved in works. Grace says, trust the Lord Jesus
Christ. He is all the righteousness of
his people. Anything other than that gospel
that shut sinners up to Christ only, it's witchcraft. It's voodoo. You can't describe it bad enough.
Christ alone is the counsel of his people, and he's going to
make his preacher preach Christ as all in salvation. He alone
saves. Look at verse 14. The sorcerers
that are preaching free will works religion, they can't save
themselves, much less any other sinner. He said in verse 14,
behold, they shall be a stubble. He said, you stand in them now.
And you stand with your counselors if you think they can prevail.
And God says, Behold, they shall be a stubble. The fire shall
burn them. They shall not deliver themselves
from the power of the flame. There shall not be a coal to
warm at or a fire to sit before it. Thus shall they be unto thee
with whom thou hast labored, even thy merchants from thy youth.
They shall wander everyone to his quarter, and none shall save
thee. Paul said that. He said, These
men that are desiring to make a fair show in the flesh, they're
trying to do everything to be seen of men, and so they're constraining
you to do. Do this, do that, do that. They're
constraining you to do. And he said, because they don't
want to suffer persecution for the cause of Christ. You take
somebody who professes to believe Christ, And he comes to a point
where God's going to test him. He's going to have to stand with
Christ and keep proclaiming the truth of Christ and suffer at
the persecution for somebody's tongue. And rather than suffer
that persecution, they'll alter their gospel and they'll start
preaching man's works. And he said they don't want to
suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. But he said, but they
themselves don't keep the law. They don't do what they're telling
you to do. They don't. They're wanting to
make you do something so they can glory in what they made you
do. So they can glory in your flesh.
And they want to do it before God. Lord, look what we did. Look what we produced. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. God
forbid that I should boast in any but the Lord Jesus Christ,
my righteousness. There's where righteousness is. Christ laying down his life in
perfect faith and fidelity to God, bearing the curse and condemnation
of the law to make his people righteous, to declare God just
and justifier. There's where we need the glory.
He's all to his people. The world has been crucified
to me and I unto the world. I'm dead to this world, the world's
dead to me. in Christ, by Christ, in Christ
Jesus, listen to him, neither circumcision avails nor uncircumcision. What does that mean? Don't put
any confidence in your works before the law. And don't put
any confidence that you know that you're not saved by the
works of the law. Men can be self-righteous about
not being under the works of the law. Neither one of them
is going to avail. It doesn't matter if you think
you're saved by the works of the law, or if you know you're
not saved by the works of the law, and you're trusting the
fact that you don't believe that. Neither one of those avail. What
avails? The spirit of God making you
a brand new creation in the heart, Christ being your all, and you
being found in him alone. That's all that matters. That's
all that matters. And Paul said, and as many as
walk according to this rule, That's our rule of life, brethren.
That Christ is all and in all. That he's the one who made us
a new creation. That he is the wisdom and the
righteousness and the sanctification and the redemption of his child.
That's the rule. We walk by faith. That's the
rule we're under. Trust in Christ alone, as many
as walk by this rule, Paul said, peace on them and mercy and upon
the Israel of God. Now let me say to you plainly
what I've been trying to say this whole message. Salvation
is of the Lord. From the beginning to the end,
salvation is of the Lord. And I pray God give you grace
today to stop having confidence in yourself. And if you don't
trust Christ at all, that's what's happening. You have confidence
in yourself. And everything we've just said here is true of you,
and God says it's vanity. And you're going to meet God
in judgment, and you're going to perish. Now that's as serious
as it gets. That's as serious as it gets.
I pray God make us hear this. I pray God make us bow to Him
today. None of us hear. I don't want to see, I don't
want to be there in that day and find out anybody I preach
this gospel to ended up trusting in themselves and are cast out
forever. I don't want to see that happen.
I want to see you saved. I want to see you found in Christ
and accepted of God. You that believe on Him, you
keep believing on Him, you keep walking by faith, looking to
Christ only, and by His grace, in that day, you'll be found
in Him. And none of these terrors that the Lord speaks about will
be upon you because of Christ alone. Trust Him. Trust Him. Let's go to it. Father, we thank
You for this Word. Thank You, Lord, that You've
turn your people away from having confidence in ourself and made
us to trust our Lord alone. Lord, we pray you bless this
today to those here that don't know you. Make us see how serious a matter
this gospel is. Lord, we trust you to work it
in the hearts of your people. And we pray that's what you'll
do. Don't leave us to ourselves, Lord. Don't let us go after this
world. Don't let us... Don't let us
trust in riches. Don't let us trust in any false
security, any false counselor. Keep us always looking and trusting
Christ only. Lord, we need you every hour. We utterly are dependent on you
all the time. Save us, Lord. Help, Lord. That's
our prayer. Thank You, Lord, how we do thank
You. Thank You for Your grace. Thank
You for Your power, Your strength, Your salvation. Thank You for
Christ Jesus, Your Son. Thank You for Your free, saving
grace. In His name we pray, Lord. Amen.