Isaiah chapter 46. And the title of the message
is, The Power and Promise of God. The Power and the Promise of
God. Now the scripture says here,
Bael boweth down, Nebo stoopeth. Their idols were upon the beasts
and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy laden. They were burdened to the weary
beast. They stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver the burden,
but themselves are gone into captivity. Hearken unto me, O
house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which
are born by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb,
and even to your old age. I am he, and even to whore hairs
will I carry you. I have made, I will bear, even
I will carry and will deliver you. God is here speaking through
the prophet Isaiah to the nation of Israel, to His elect and chosen
people, which we know are a picture of all of God's elect, all of
God's chosen people, you who are born of the Spirit of God.
You, who were chosen of God, redeemed of Christ, are the Israel
of God. And so then, God's message is
to you. Hearken unto me. Who? O house of Jacob. House of Jacob and all the remnant. It's a wonderful word, isn't
it? The remnant, we know, is the remnant according to the
election of grace, the remnant of the house of Israel. And what should Israel and Jacob
hear? What is God teaching in this
message? He says this, I want you to behold
that the gods of men are powerless. to save. And he uses these two
gods, Baal and Nebo. Now I want you to understand,
he is prophesying of gods that have not yet been known to them.
These are the gods of Babylon. These are the gods that were
to come by that nation, Babylon, and to take them into captivity.
These gods were the Sun God and the Moon God that they had set
so high above the nation and God is already declaring their
fall. He's already declaring their
demise of the nation of Babylon. And what is He declaring about
these gods? He declares about all false gods.
They all have this characteristic, all false gods. They are powerless
to save. All false gods must be carried
by men. And they are a burden to men. Not a help. Not a help, but a
burden. And what does he say about himself?
He is contrasting them to himself. And what does he say? I am the
God that is not to be carried by you. I am the God that carries
you. You are not to carry me. I am
the only true and living God that can save. Now then, If we
desire to know, if we worship the true and living God, then
we must know His nature, His character, His person. Who is God? Who is God and who is not? This question must be then asked.
Is salvation of God or is it of man? Is salvation of the power of
God or is it the power of man? Is it all of man or all of God? Because it will not be mixed. God's already told you that.
He said it's either grace or works. It can't be a mixture
of the two. Otherwise, they lose their whole
meaning. Now, any God that needs man in
any part to save him is no God at all. No God at all. Salvation is not a burden that
any of the sons of Adam's race can bear. It is not a burden
that any of us can bear. Why? Because righteousness is
the standard. The standard of salvation is
absolute, total perfection. Without sin, that is the standard
to be accepted by the true and living God. Now, all other gods
may accept you based on how you are, because they're nothing.
They don't even have a standard. You give them a standard. Isn't
that what they have to do with these gods? These gods have no
standard. Men give them a standard. But
God's standard is high. It is a burden that you and I
cannot bear. It is righteousness, holiness,
perfection, and nothing less. The Scriptures are clear. Cursed
is everyone that continueth not, continueth, continueth daily,
constantly, perpetually, moment by moment by moment by moment,
daily. that continueth not in all things
written in the book of the law to do them. Therefore, because we are all
unrighteous, the Scriptures are clear by the deeds of the law,
by the deeds of the flesh, by the deeds and works of man shall
no one be justified before God. Now you can justify yourself
to a false god. That's easy. But you cannot justify
yourself before a true and living God. Righteous God. The price of sin is death, which
no man can satisfy the justice of an eternal God. The soul that
sinneth, it shall surely, what? It shall surely die. And so is Nebo and Baal, so it
is with all the false gods. These gods, they bowed down,
they stooped. What does that mean? They are
fallen. Those gods that they thought delivered Israel into
their hands, when it came time for Israel to be delivered from
them, they saw by the falling of their gods that their gods
were no gods at all. They pulled those gods down.
And what did they do? They broke them in pieces and
put them on the beasts. And the beasts were so burdened
with these large images, that the beasts themselves began to
stoop and bow because they could not bear it. This is a picture. This is a picture. Anybody that
worships a false god cannot bear the weight of his salvation.
Why? Because the image itself could
not save itself and it cannot save you. Who is this false god in our
day? It is the God of free will works religion. That is the God,
that is the Baal and the Nebo of our day. The God of free will
works religion, and doesn't matter what denomination
you belong to, if your God loves all men without exception, if
your God is sent to die for all men without exception, yet He
depends upon you to perform some act of will or works to save
yourself. And that God is no God at all. That man that believes in such
a God is carrying his God. He's carrying his God, and his
God is powerless to save. And any God that is powerless
to do what he determines to do is no God at all. If God determined
to save you but can't, then that God is no God at all. I need
a God that can save me. I need a God who does all the
work, because I know that I myself am a sinner incapable of doing
anything to please God. And so look now and see, hear
the contrast that God gives of himself against these false gods. Look at this in verse 3. Here's
his contrast. Those gods are fallen, those
gods are powerless, those gods are a burden to men. And so he
says, Harken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant
of the house of Israel. This is the first point. That
the true and living God is a God of sovereign election. a God
of sovereign election. He says, hearken unto me, who?
House of Jacob and all the remnant of Israel. The true God surely
is a God of all creation. Is that not right? The true God
is one who made all beings, all men. God made all things by the
word of His power and all people, beasts, devils, angels are subject
to Him. All of them. Yet we know this. It's a fact.
Not all His creatures bow to Him. Not all of them. They should.
They should bow. They should worship Him. They
should serve Him. But because of the fall, because
of the fall of man, all Adam's race were born dead in sin. so depraved by nature that we
would prefer to worship a God made of wood and stone rather
than worship the God of heaven. We would rather worship a God
that we make up in our own mind, that is satisfying to our own
selves, rather than bow to the true and living God as He has
declared Himself in His Word. That is the proof of total depravity. Isn't it utterly insane to bow
to a God you made? You remember the story of that
Catholic man who made those crosses? He was the finest crossmaker
that ever lived. He was renowned in all the Catholic
Church. And upon his deathbed, he was
laying there facing eternity, and the Catholic priest came
with the cross, and he said, Behold thy God! and the man in
horror looked up and said I made that and died how depraved is man to worship
a god he makes how fully depraved as it is to
worship a god we may get god display of His sovereign power
and grace hath made the world, but He had also chosen a people
that He would love and save by His Son." We know this through
this many scriptures. Ephesians 1 is one of the clearest. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who had blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ. According, here's
the blessing, according, as he hath chosen us in Christ, before
the foundation of the world, For what purpose? That we should
be holy, and without blame before Him, in love, in love having
predestinated us unto the adoption of children. How? By Jesus Christ
unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to
the praise of the glory of His grace, He hath made us accepted
in His beloved. Who are then these this Israel of God. Who are they? These people elect
before the foundation of the world are always in the Old Testament
Scripture pictured by the nation of Israel. They're pictured by
the nation of Israel, by Jacob in his person. We read this in
Romans chapter 9, the Apostle Paul says, not all those that
are of the seed of Abraham are sons of God, are children. And so then Israel is not one
carnal, but one spiritual. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. And Jacob is a picture of who?
All of the elect. All of God's chosen race. And
so then God, the God of all grace, the true and living God, is the
God of Israel. The God of Israel, the God of
His chosen people. So all He speaks of to Israel
All His covenant promises and salvation that He has promised
in the Old Testament truly belong only to His elect people. He tells them in Deuteronomy
7, He says, I will save you, Israel. I will save you. I chose
you not because you were the most. I chose you because I loved
you. Because I would choose you. Over in Isaiah 44, in verse 1,
he says this, "...Yet now hear, O Jacob, my servant in Israel,
whom..." What? "...I have chosen." 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 Jeshron, whom I have chosen." So what is the true
and living God but a God of sovereign election? A God of sovereign
election. Behold the grace of our God who
hath chosen, listen what he says in our text, a remnant. All the remnant. You know that
refers, we can see that in Hebrews 11. that God hath by Elijah said
this, I have chosen for myself, reserved for myself seven thousand,
have not vowed the need to bail, even so at this time there is
a remnant according to the election of grace. And this remnant of
Adam's fallen race, God has purposed to save. Now, is God's purpose a mere
wish? A mere desire that He may not
be able to fulfill? Is that what purpose means? No.
We know this. God says, I have purposed it,
I will also do it. Whatever God purposes, He will
also perform it. What has God purposed for His
elect? That you should be holy and without blame before Him
in love. That you should be His sons. How? by Jesus Christ. By Jesus Christ. Now listen,
any God who has left salvation to chance or to the will and
work of man is no God at all. But rather he is a burden to
the souls of men, too heavy for them to bear. You don't see this in work religion.
They're burdened. Enough is never enough, is it?
Why do you think you have multiplied books of traditions? Why? Because it started out with one
thing, and that one thing wasn't enough, so they had to add another
thing. They had to specify what that one thing that you had to
do, they had to specify what that was. Then they made rules
regarding whatever that one thing you had to do. And pretty soon,
it is a vast ocean of books and traditions by which you must
perform to be accepted. It's a burden too heavy to bear. Isn't that what Peter said about
the law? He said, you know, you put these
burdens on the Gentiles that we ourselves could not bear.
That we would not touch. What the Jews did in Christ's
day. But the God of Israel has left nothing to chance. He has left nothing to the work
or will of man, for it was God who chose His spiritual Israel,
it was God who loved and purposed to save them from the beginning,
and He not only chose them to salvation, He not only ordained
us to salvation, but also purposed the means by which we should
be redeemed and called to this salvation. There's nothing left
for us to do. Nothing. That we should be saved and called
and should receive it. I think that The text in 2 Thessalonians is
such a wonderful summation of that. 2 Thessalonians 2, 13,
"...we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you..." Listen, "...to salvation." Through. Now here's the means. Sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth whereunto He called you by our gospel to
the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. You who are sanctified by the
Spirit believe on Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You should
rejoice for our God is not born of us. He is not carried by us. We are carried by Him. We are carried by Him. Our God is not born of us, nor
carried or moved by us, but our God is He who bears and carries
us, His elect, His Israel. upon His shoulders from eternity. The second truth about the living
God is that He bears us. That's what I just said. He bears
us. He bears Israel. Listen to this. He says this in our text. He
calls to the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by
Me. which are carried." In other
words, the weight of all of them, He bears. He carries. He is elect isn't that what he
said when he put us in Christ. That's exactly what it means
When he God the Father chose us and put us in union with Christ
It is from if I could even say that from that time from that
time he Bore us he carried us on his shoulders Unto us a child
is born unto us a son is given and the government shall be upon
his shoulders." The government is his church, his kingdom. The
salvation of his people shall be on him. He shall bear the
weight of them. The first thing he bore He bore us as a representative. A representative. It was the
Father who chose us. It was the Father who chose us
and chose Christ to be our surety. And what does that word surety
mean? Guarantee. Guarantee. It was the same with
Judah, that picture of Judah and Benjamin, when they were
about to starve to death and Judah comes to his father and
he says, let me bear the blame. I'll take Benjamin and bring
him back to you. And if I bring him not again,
let me bear the blame." He took responsibility for Benjamin. Even so has Christ, before the
Father, taken responsibility to bear His people, to be their
representative. And this was done before the
world began. That is the same as He is being
chosen to be our High Priest. That's another way of seeing
it. He is not only our surety, He is our High Priest. What does
a priest do? What was the purpose of the priest?
He was to represent, he was to mediate the sacrifice between
God and Israel. He represented Israel to God
and God to Israel. And so what he did is he offered
the sacrifice for Israel, brought it into the presence of God,
sprinkled it on the mercy seat, so that Israel should be atoned,
their sins should be atoned. Even so is Jesus Christ that
eternal High Priest. He said, for thou art a priest
forever after the order of Melchizedek. And you remember that priest
as he went in there, I like to see this picture, he had that
breastplate, beautiful breastplate with all those twelve jewels. And on them were inscribed the
names of all Israel. And he bore it on his chest, which meant it was close to his
heart. Even so did Christ come with
the names of His children inscribed upon His heart. So that when He came as our High
Priest, He came to offer gifts and sacrifices to God that we
could not bear to offer. He came and the flesh and honored
the law of God. I like this. You realize He did
this without your knowledge or consent? He didn't ask you if He could
represent you. He represented you of His own
sovereign will. He didn't ask for our consent.
We didn't have our knowledge. He did it without our merit,
without our works, without our will, without the will of all
of His people. And through Him, what have we
obtained? Righteousness. Romans chapter
3. It says in verse 21, Romans 3
and verse 21, it says, But now, the righteousness with
God, without the Law, is manifest. It's manifest when Christ came
into the world. He is the manifestation of the
Law of God. Being witnessed by the Law and
the Prophets, He was witnessed by the Law and the Prophets that
He should come. Even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith
of Jesus Christ. By the faith of Jesus Christ. So how did this righteousness
come to us? It was merited by our representative
man. By Jesus Christ. And not only did he bear us to
yield righteousness, He also bore our sins in His own body on the tree. Look now, friend, 2,000 years
ago, the Son of God, who is the eternal High Priest, came down
from heaven and was made flesh to fulfill the law of God for
His people. He honored the law, so did all
of His people honor it through Him and in Him, and yet He was
nailed to a tree. The sinless, spotless Son of
God had taken all our sins, all of them. all our sins God hath made him
to be sin for us who knew no sin this is what it means when he
said I have borne thee I have borne not only your person
I have borne your sins in his own body And what else did he bear? He
bore the wrath of God. He bore you. He bore your sins. He bore the wrath of God. That's what happened when he
was made sin. The justice of God fell on him. The reproaches
of them that reproach thee have fell on me. They fell on me. He must have suffered and endured
the wrath of God. So therefore, look at the example
in Noah's ark. Look at the ark. Noah was in
the ark, and yet it was the ark that bore the justice of God
in order to bring Noah safely to shore. And so it is with us,
we who are in Christ. He bore the wrath of God so that
He might bear us to glory. carried us. And when He satisfied
justice, He made it known to everyone. He said, it is finished. Justice is satisfied. The true,
eternal God has chosen us in grace and having borne us in
power upon His shoulders. Therefore, the whole work of
salvation is accomplished and finished, for Jesus is God. is of God, made unto us wisdom,
righteousness, sanctification, and redemption." So then, what
is left for Israel to do? What is left? What is left to do? What can
we add to such a perfect work of such a surety and high priest? This is why Jesus said to you,
come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and you shall find
rest unto your souls. For my yoke My burden, my yoke
is easy, and my burden is light. How light is the burden and yoke
of the Son of God? What is this yoke and burden
that we are to bear? Faith, hope, and love. It is a light burden. It is a
light burden. Therefore, Israel, our God, the
sovereign God of electing grace. Our God is the God of power that
bore us in Christ to the accomplishment of our salvation. And thirdly,
our God is a sovereign God of providence and regeneration. Look back at your text. He said,
"...you are born of Me," listen, "...from the belly, which are
carried from the womb even to your old age, I am He, And even
to the whore hares will I carry you. I made you. And I will bear
you. Even I will carry and deliver
you. Our election and redemption was
before our natural birth. It was before our natural birth. We were no different than any
of Adam's fallen race. We loved the God of our imagination,
didn't we? We loved the sin of our flesh
and despised the God of grace. But He who chose us in eternity
and bore us in the flesh as our High Priest is now risen to the
throne of glory and now the sun is over all the events and circumstances
of time and eternity you not realize that your natural birth
was ordained of god who you were born to when you were born the
circumstances you were born in who did that god did your god
who you did not know who you did not love and yet he allowed
you by his mercy to enter into his world and breathe his air.
And yet what did we do? We sinned against him. We rebelled
against him. But yet, what did He do for you?
He kept you all that way, didn't He? All your life, He allowed
you to live, He kept you alive, He sustained you, He kept you
from danger. Yes, you went into your sin and
distress, but know this, God allowed it. For what purpose? To what end? That you should
not only be born physically, but that you should be born spiritually. I know it's amazing. J.D. and I talk about this quite
often. He's asked this question a hundred
times. What if I didn't come there that night? What if I didn't
hear? I said there's no chance of it. There was no way you would
miss it. just as sure as you were born
physically. So sure is your spiritual birth. God ordained the time, the place,
the circumstance, the preacher, the message, the Spirit. Everything
was ordained of God and you should not miss it. Listen to what He
said, "...I have borne you," when? "...from the belly and
carried you from the womb." Not just physically, but spiritually
He has carried us from the womb. As a child is being formed in
the womb as God is forming it, so was God in all our providence,
shaping and molding us so that we should be carried forth. Not spit out, but carried. That's
a sign of love and affection. You were brought forth with such
love and grace that you couldn't miss it. You couldn't miss it. This is not true of us, believer.
That as we by faith received Him, surely it was by His power
and will. Surely. It was by His grace. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right to become the sons of God, which were born,
not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God. You know the picture, that is
Hosea and Gomer. Over in Hosea chapter 2, God says this, He
said, I will allure her to the wilderness. And do what? Speak comfortably
unto her. And give her her vineyards. And give her a door, give her
the valley of Achar as a door of hope. What did God do to us
when He called us forth? Did He not expose our sins and
then allure us into the place of solitary confinement where
we had no hope, no joy, no peace? The world could not provide anything.
Our gods were nothing to us. We had nothing, no hope. He allured
us to such a place to do what? Speak comfortably to us. and
give us our vineyards, our inheritance that He had chosen us for, that
He had purchased for us, which is by the door of hope, that
valley of Achar, you remember Achan, that wicked man that died
in the stead of Israel, so that Israel might go forth in victory. Christ is being pictured there. In that valley of Achar, where
Achan died for Israel, even Christ has died for us so that we might
go forth and conquer. Have you been so carried from
the womb of the morning by the power of God's grace in Christ?
You see, faith is the only evidence of grace. Faith in Christ is
the only evidence of election and redemption. Do you believe
on the Son of God? Then know this, the sovereign
God that chose you, the sovereign God that redeemed you and bore
you, the sovereign God that called you to life and carried you from
the womb of the morning, listen to what He says, I'm going to
carry you the rest of the way. I have born you, I'm burying
you, and I shall bury you. I'll bury you all the way to
the grave and to glory. I'll bury you all the way. Listen
to what he says. He said, I carried you from the
womb even to your old age. Listen to this. I am He. Oh, believer, when we were saved
we were changed, weren't we? I'm not talking about the flesh.
The flesh wasn't changed at all, but you were changed. You had
a new nature, a new heart. And even now, as we have this
perfect nature, yet we still, in these graces of God, still
grow. Is that not right? We still are
not fully experienced the perfection of what Christ has accomplished
for us. We grow. growth necessitates that something's
changing. In other words, my faith becomes
stronger. My hope becomes clearer. My love for God becomes stronger. But one thing about it is God
doesn't change. The one that bore you, the one
that chose you, the one that carries you is still the same.
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. Behold, I am God, I change not.
Therefore, you sons of Jacob, are not consumed." Believer,
see this, that the true God, the true God, still carries us. He still carries us. He still
loves us. He says, I am the changeless
God who purposed your salvation. I will also do it. Finish it! Well, finish it! You remember that parable of
the lamb? He said, if a shepherd, if a man had lost a sheep, had
a hundred sheep, if he lost a sheep, would he not leave the ninety
and nine and go and find the one that is lost? And when he
hath found it, what does he do? He puts it on his shoulders and
brings it home. Now today, we become very weak. We are very weak and feeble people. Miserably weak. And the more
I grow in grace, the more I understand my weakness. Isn't that it? We
don't understand more of our strength, we understand more
of our weakness. We understand more of His strength as we grow
in grace. But as we grow in grace, we understand
more of our weakness. So we are constantly fainting,
constantly falling, constantly failing and unfaithful, constantly
unbelieving. But what then is our hope? I am on His shoulders. He is carrying me and all my troubles. But I want you to understand
the power of His strength Because He's just not carrying you alone. He's carrying the whole church. If He can carry the whole church,
surely He can carry me. If He bore the sins of all His
people, surely He bore my sins. Listen to what God says, and
I'll close. He said this, I have made you. Who made who? God made you. And He said, because
I've made you, I will bear you. He bore our sins, bore our person,
and when He calls us, He says this, I will carry you. How long? All the way. Why? He doesn't
change. You realize His power is not
diminished as He carries you? The further He carries you, He's
still the same. His power doesn't diminish. I will deliver you. One day these tents in which we abide will be folded
up and in that day you will experience
all that you believe you will be fully delivered from
every enemy and you will arrive safe and what will be the song in
that day. Worthy is the Lamb who was slain and hath redeemed
us out of every tongue and nation and kindred and people Worthy
is the Lamb to receive honor and power and wisdom and glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. And what do we do? We sing
it again. And again. And again. With just as much love and zeal
and passion as we sang it the first time. Without sin. That's my God. I don't carry
my God. My God carries me. Baal and Nebo will stoop. They
will bow. They will break their burden. My God is no burden. He bears
the burden. I pray that God will give you
such comfort of this so that you can rest. rest in here.