Well, I thank you for that. That
was a blessing. And I think of the thief who said to the Lord Jesus, remember
me when you come into your kingdom. And little did that man know,
he had been remembered since before the foundation of the
world. And God's people were never out
of His memory. He always is with us. And He
always remembers us. He remembers to show mercy. Always. Go back to Isaiah chapter 45.
At the end of chapter 44, Isaiah introduces someone who
had not yet been born. In fact, he won't be born for
a couple of hundred more years. A man's name was Cyrus, who would
be the king of Persia. We know that Judah was going
to fall into Babylonian captivity because of their idolatry, because
they forgot the Lord. He didn't worship him in spirit
and truth anymore. And God took them captive by
the Babylonians. But the Lord would raise up a
man, this man Cyrus, and he would be the deliverer of the Lord's
people off in the future. Now these things hadn't even
happened yet. They hadn't even gone into captivity yet. In fact,
when Isaiah wrote this, things were sort of good. They were
sort of good financially, sort of good politically, sort of
good economically. But God announces through Isaiah
a time of captivity. They would fall into bondage
to the Babylonians. But God wouldn't leave them there.
He's going to raise up this Deliverer. And this Deliverer is a picture
of our Lord Jesus. Look at the last couple of verses
of chapter 44, if you would. Verse 28. Well, just verse 28. Just one verse. That is, God
saith of Cyrus. Well, what does God say about
Cyrus? He says, He's 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." This man Cyrus, he's an interesting
fellow. His uncle was Darius, who was
king of the Medes. And both this man, Cyrus, and
Darius, they were the ones who conquered over Belshazzar, king
of the Babylonians. You remember the story about
Belshazzar over there in the book of Daniel. Do you remember
how due to his arrogance and his defiance of God in taking
the vessels from the temple that he had stolen, of course, And
he brought him, he said, bring him to the party and he drank
wine out of him. And then he saw the hand of a
man, there was no body there, but he saw the hand of a man
writing on the wall, Mene, Mene, Tikal, Upharsin. You've been
weighed in the balances and found wanting. Daniel interpreted that
for him and said, tonight your kingdom is going to be taken
from you. And let me say this, we're all going to be weighed
in the balances, and by nature we're all found wanting. The
balance is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
we're going to have to balance out with His beauties, with His
perfection, in order for God to receive us into His everlasting
Kingdom. Weighed in the balances. I remember
years ago, going with my granddaddy to an old store, and they still
put flour on the weight. They put like a five pound weight
on it. Here's the balances. They put
a five pound weight there, and they'd keep on adding flour or
sugar or whatever to bring it up to where it balanced out.
You've got to balance out with God, right? And the Lord said
to Belshazzar, you've been weighed in the balances and you've found
wanting. Are you found wanting? Or are
you in Christ Jesus? Is He all of your hope of glory? dressed in His righteousness
alone. That's the only way we're going
to stand before God, isn't it? We've got to be robed in His
righteousness. His perfection, His righteousness
must be imputed to us. We've got to balance out. Because
God is a God of just balances. And He's not going to adjust
the scales. weighed in the balances and found
wanting. And that night, his kingdom was
taken from him by King Darius and by this man Cyrus. They both
took the kingdom from him. So this man Cyrus, he's a man
that God has ordained to deliver his people from their captivity,
from their bondage. And of course, he's a wonderful
picture of our Savior. Our Savior sees us in our bondage,
and He has come to our rescue. He's come to deliver His people.
And He does it by Himself. Nobody aids Him. Nobody helps
Him. Nobody says, well, we will assist
you in this. No, it's a work he had to do
by himself. He said, I've trodden the winepress
alone. And by himself, he offered unto
God the one sacrifice for sins forever that put away our guilt
and justified us before God. brought in everlasting righteousness. This is the one who delivers
us from bondage and from captivity. You notice there in that 28th
verse, He will say to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built. Thou shalt be built. And you
remember the words of our Savior, Thou art Peter. And upon this
rock, I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. He is building His church. And
one by one, He goes out into the world, into the mine of the
world, and into the quarry. And He digs out stones. And He fits them for the spiritual
temple. and He makes them alive. We're
said to be in 1 Peter 2, living stones. And He fits us into the
temple. I tell you, He is building His
temple. And all the gates of hell shall
not hinder Him from doing His work. The Lord says of Cyrus, He's going to build the temple.
And watch this. and thy foundation shall be laid."
He shall lay the foundation. Other foundation can no man lay
which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Here's Cyrus. God says to Isaiah, way off in
the future Isaiah, I'm going to raise up a man because these
people are going to fall into captivity. Just like we fell
into captivity. We fell into bondage in Adam. But before we ever fell, before
there was ever any bondage, God had already appointed a Deliverer. There was already a Savior before
there was ever a sinner. Before the world began, God made
all of the arrangements. He did everything necessary to
ensure His people would be brought out of captivity, would be redeemed
by the blood of a suitable lamb, a perfect lamb without spot and
without blemish, would be regenerated, awakened from our sleep of death,
and brought to believe on this blessed Savior and bow to God's
way of saving sinners. and would be preserved and finally
glorified by God's power. God arranged it all before we
ever fell into bondage, before we ever became captive to sin
and to Satan. God had ordained the salvation,
the deliverance of His people by a greater than Cyrus, even
our Lord Jesus. Well, then you get into chapter
45. Thus saith the Lord, and he speaks
to Cyrus, whose right hand I am holding, he says, to subdue nations
before him. I did a little bit of reading.
to this afternoon. Historians say that this man
Cyrus, there was never a nation he went to conquer but what he
wasn't successful. Nobody could hold him back. In
fact, there's a verse, let me see, look over at Daniel chapter
8. Let me show you this. Daniel
chapter 8, and by the way, Daniel served this king. But look at
Daniel chapter 8. Daniel is speaking of Cyrus.
Daniel chapter 8. I'll give you a few seconds to
find it. Daniel chapter 8 verse 3. Then
I lifted up mine eyes, and saw, and behold, there stood before
the river a ram which had two horns. Now we know the horn is
the symbol of power. and authority, and dominion. This ram has two horns, the Medes
and the Persians. And the two horns were high,
but one was higher than the other, that Cyrus, king of the Persians. And the higher came up last,
And I saw the ram, watch this, now the ram's in the east because
the Lord has raised up a man from the east and that's Cyrus.
So this ram, Daniel said, I saw this ram pushing westward and
northward and southward. So that no beast might stand
before him. Neither was there any that could
deliver out of His hand, but He did according to His will
and became great." That's Cyrus. Isn't that a picture of our Lord
Jesus Christ? He presses on in His conquest
of sinners. And no man shall stop Him. None
shall hinder Him. None shall thwart Him. He will
conquer all men, listen, He will conquer all men by His free and
sovereign grace or by the rod of His wrath. But all will fall
before Him. Our brother read to us from the
book of Philippians chapter 2, that every knee shall bow to
Him. Every tongue shall confess that
Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. By grace, some
of us have bowed now. We bow willingly. We bow adoringly. We bow in worship. We bow in
praise. We bow in adoration to King Jesus,
who deserves to be the King, for He has brought in righteousness
by His death. He's done the work the Father
gave Him to do, and the Father has exalted Him. And we say,
bless the name of the King. We believe the King. We worship
the King. We adore the King. We submit
to the King. We bow to the King. But if God doesn't make you bow
by His grace, He'll make you bow with the rod of His vengeance. Because every knee is going to
bow to Him. That's what you read there in
Isaiah 45. That's what you read there in
Philippians the second chapter. This King. And He's ever pressing
forward. And He's conquering. Have you
been conquered? I've been conquered, haven't
you? By His grace, I've run up the white flag of surrender.
I surrender to King Jesus. He's the Master. He's the Sovereign. He's God over all, glorious forever. I bow before you in submission,
and I worship only you. Is that your testimony? Cyrus. Oh, how God's going to
use this man. And what a beautiful picture
He is of our Savior. Go back to Isaiah. There in chapter
44 in that last verse, the Lord said of Cyrus, He's my shepherd. He's my shepherd. You know what
that means? The Lord's got some sheep. He's
got some sheep. Our Lord Jesus is the shepherd
of the sheep. He is the great shepherd in covenant
grace. His blood is the blood of the
everlasting covenant. He's the good shepherd who laid
down His life for the sheep. He's the seeking shepherd who
goes forth and finds the lost one and brings them home rejoicing.
He's the nourishing shepherd He takes the tender lambs up
in His arms and He caresses them. And He loves them. And He provides
for them. He shall feed His flock like
a shepherd. And He is the Chief Shepherd
who will come again and receive us unto Himself and give to all
of us a crown of glory. God says of Cyrus, he's my shepherd. I made him shepherd. I made him
shepherd. And you see what it says that
next line in verse 28? He shall perform all my pleasure. He's going to do my will. That's exactly what Christ did. So we read in Isaiah chapter
53, the very pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in His hands. Prosper. In that sense, we do
preach a prosperity gospel. Because it prospers in the hands
of King Jesus, who will not fail. Isaiah chapter 42 says, He cannot
fail. He shall not fail. Because He
is Jehovah Himself. And He won't be discouraged till
He has said, judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait
for His law. Let me walk you through chapter
45. Now at any of these verses, we could just preach a whole
message. But we'd be here too long tonight. So I'm just going
to make some statements. Let me just draw your attention
to some statements in this chapter that are just absolutely glorious. Number one, here's a statement
about the singularity of God. And it's made to Cyrus. Look at verse 5. I am the Lord. Chapter 45 now,
verse 5. I am the Lord. And there is none
else. This is the singularity of God. There is no God beside Me. I girded thee. I clothed you
with honor and with strength. Though thou hast not known Me, I'm the Lord. Let all men know
there's one God. The Lord our God is one God,
revealed in the Trinity of His persons, Father, Son, and Spirit. But there aren't many gods. There's
one God. And that one God has revealed
Himself in one glorious person, Christ Jesus the Lord. And I'll
tell you this, all of God you will ever see when you get to
glory is the man Christ Jesus. We will see God face to face. And we'll fall down before Him
someday, literally, as we fall down by faith now and say like
Thomas, my Lord and my God. Here's the singularity of God. Look it down at verse 18. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens, God himself that formed the earth and made
it. He hath established it, he created
it not in vain, not in desolation, not in waste. He formed it to
be inhabited. Now this is what he says, I am
the Lord. All capital letters. I am Jehovah. I am that I am. Our Lord Jesus
called, referred to Himself several times as, I am. I am. That's how God identified Himself
to Moses. The Lord said to Moses, you go
and lead my people into freedom. Well, who shall I say has sent
me? You tell them, I am that I am
hath sent me. I send you Moses. The great I
am. The covenant God. This is His
covenant name. Because he is in a covenant relationship
with all of his people by everlasting love. Look at verse 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all ye ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. There's the singularity of God.
Here's the second statement I want to show you. See, I'm going to
try to move along. Look at this in verse 7. Go back
to verse 7. The second statement is about
the origin of good and evil. Verse 7, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I the Lord do all these things. There's a popular idea in the
world that there are two powerful independent forces at work in
the world. Good and evil. Light and darkness. perfection and sin. And most people think that these
are constantly at war. When good is winning the war,
that's when good things happen to people. When evil is winning
the war, that's when bad things happen to people. That was the belief of Cyrus,
by the way. That was the belief of the Persians. And the belief of every man by
nature. But the Lord says, that's not
right. That's not right. I form. Listen to it. He says, I form
the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil. I form the light. Physical light. Moral light. Spiritual light. God forms it. And create darkness. Physical darkness. He withdraws
the sun, causes an eclipse. He causes darkness. Spiritual
darkness. Reprobation. And then He says, I make peace. I make peace. How did He make
our peace? With Him. By the blood of the
cross of Christ Jesus. We didn't have anything. Did
we have anything to do with that? We've been at war. We've been
at war with God. Now we're at peace with God.
Who made that peace? Christ Jesus. How did He make
the peace? By the blood of His cross. He
settled the issue. He makes peace between man and
man. Peace in the heart. He gives
us a peace that passes understanding. He gives peace in the church.
Peace in the world someday. There's not going to be any peace
in this world until the Prince of Peace comes back. Don't you
look for peace in this world. There's always going to be wars
and rumors of wars as long as the earth stands. Why? Because it's inhabited by sinners,
that's why. You say, I don't see why everybody
can't get along. You listen to some of these people
and say, let's just all get along. There's no way. And the reason
men are not going to get along, they haven't got along in the
past, they're not getting along now, and they're not getting
along in the future is because of S-I-N. That's the reason. And only when sin is done away
with in this world, that's when there'll be peace and righteousness
from sea to shining sea. And that's when the Prince of
Peace comes back. And then he says, and I create
evil, I create mischief, things that are disagreeable. Amos 3,
6, Shall a trumpet be blown in the city, and the people not
be afraid? Shall there be evil in a city,
and the Lord hath not done it? And we know that when calamities
happen in this world, people say, well, if it's like a tornado,
something like that, it's a hurricane, Mother Nature did it. But you
don't talk that kind of foolish talk, do you? The Lord takes
care of those things, and He does those things. You think
about Job. You know the patience of Job,
James said. Job lost everything he had, and
then he lost all ten of his children. His wife said, why don't you
just cuss God and die? And we know God used Satan. God uses Satan. Satan doesn't
use God. God uses Satan. The Lord initiated all of that
because our God, He's the first cause of all things. That's exactly
right. But even though Satan was instrumental
in the loss of everything Job had, Job said, the Lord gave
and the Lord hath taken away. He didn't say, the Lord gave
and the devil has taken away. Satan has taken away my faith.
Look what Satan has done. Oh, Satan is loose and he's done
all of this to me. That's not at all what Job said.
He said, this is what the Lord's done. Blessed be the name of the Lord. He worshipped God. Yeah, these things happen by
divine appointment and by divine control. But there's more intended
by evil and darkness than just hurtful things and disagreeable
things. And right here we're confronted
with the problem of sin. Even the origin of sin. And I'm
not here to solve all the problems. I know God is not the author
of sin. God doesn't force anybody to
sin, God doesn't make anybody. Sin cannot originate with God. And I also know that all things
are of God. And had God ordained it, Adam
would not have, could not have sinned. But God didn't ordain
it that way. So I conclude the very existence
of sin in this world is somehow or another in a mysterious way
that's far above my understanding, is all taken care of and in the
purpose of God Almighty. Because God is using that thing
called sin to magnify His greatness in the removal of it. If there were no sin, there would
be no need for salvation. And salvation is God's greatest
glory. So it's against the backdrop
of the blackness of our sin that the diamond of God's salvation
shines so brilliantly and gloriously. And God controls it all. Because if He doesn't control
it all, we're all in trouble. And we may as well close our
Bibles up and head out into the world if God doesn't control
everything. Woe be to that people who think
and who believe in their hearts that there's something God Almighty
doesn't have sovereign control over. How can you ever get any
rest? How can you have any peace? We
believe in God's absolute sovereignty. And the root word of sovereignty
is reign. We're simply saying God reigns. He reigns. The perfections of
God could never have been so gloriously revealed as they are
now in Christ Jesus had evil never entered into the universe. Had sin never existed, how could
the justice of God be seen in the punishment of sin? You'd
have never seen justice. Had evil never come into this
world, how could the wisdom of God be seen in justifying the
ungodly through the death of a suitable substitute? It wouldn't
have been seen. Had sin never entered into the
world, how could the goodness of God and the mercy of God be
made manifest in forgiving our sins and washing us in the blood
of His Son? It couldn't have been seen. Had there never been any wickedness
in the world, how could the power of God be revealed in subduing
sin? I can't explain the existence
of evil and of darkness and of sin and of Satan, but I know
this, our God reigns over all. I just bow to Him, don't you?
I bow to Him. It's all under God's authority
and God's control. Surely the wrath of man shall
praise thee. The remainder of wrath thou shalt
restrain. The evil, the wickedness that
would happen in this world, if it doesn't work into the purpose
of God, God will stop it from ever happening. And the greatest illustration
of God's absolute authority over evil is the death of his son. That's the worst thing that's
ever happened in the history of mankind. Innocent, pure, perfect,
spotless, without blemish, Lamb of God, crucified by men. Well, who had control of that?
Satan? The Romans? The Jews? Acts 4, 26 says, the kings of
the earth stood up. The rulers were gathered together
against the Lord and against His Christ, 27 and 28. For of
a truth against thy holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed
both Herod and Pontius Pilate with the Gentiles and the people
of Israel, were gathered together for to do whatsoever thy hand
and thy counsel determined before to be done. And everything happened
just exactly according to God's eternal purpose. Not only in
the death of His Son, but in everything else too. That's good news for believers,
isn't it? That gives us some comfort. That God's going to
take all these things that happen in life, grief and sickness,
disappointments, and troubles and trials. And He takes those
pleasant things too. And He mixes them all together. And it all works out for our
good. Isn't that encouraging? That just helps my poor soul
to know that. And then here's the statement
of God's absolute sovereignty. Look down at verse 9. Woe unto
him that striveth with his What does that word striveth
mean? He that contends with his maker. He that registers some
kind of complaint against his maker. Well, let the potsherds strive
with the potsherds of the earth. What's a potsherd? A worthless
piece of broken clay. That's you and me. Let the worthless
pieces of broken clay strive with the worthless pieces of
broken clay. But don't you strive with your
maker. Don't you fuss about what God
does. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, say to the potter. Because that word fashioneth
is the same word, comes from the same root word as potter.
What makest thou or thy work he hath no hands. God says I'm the potter. And
you're the clay. And my friend, he will make you
into whatever kind of vessel he's purposed to make you into.
And that's just a fact. Listen to this passage. You know
it well. I can get there real fast. Romans chapter 9. Listen to what
he says. He says, What if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction,
and that He might make known the riches of His glory on the
vessels of mercy which He had aforeprepared unto glory? But
listen to these first three words in verse 22 of Romans chapter
9. What if God? What if God does
these things? What are you going to do about
it? What are you going to do about
it? Who are you going to complain to? We've already established,
God has already established the singularity of God. There is
nobody higher. You bow to this God. He's the
potter and you're the clay. And you'll bow to that or He'll
damn you. That's the truth. You'll bow
to this God? You see, there's no other God
worth bowing to but a sovereign God. And you'll only worship
at the throne of the God who's sovereign. And if you haven't
worshipped Him as the God who's sovereign, I have news for you.
Here's a news bulletin. You haven't worshipped yet. You
haven't worshipped yet. And here's a statement about
the certainty of the salvation of God's people. Look down at
verse 15 through 17. Verily thou art a God that hidest
thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. You mean God hides Himself? Oh, He does. And if He hides
Himself, I promise you, He won't be found. Look at verse 16. They shall
be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They shall go to
confusion, to reproach, to disgrace together that are makers of idols. But, Israel shall be saved. God's got his Israel. That's
his elect. This is not national Israel.
This is spiritual Israel, made up of a people from every nation,
kindred, tribe, and tongue. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord." Well, what kind of salvation
is this going to be? An everlasting salvation. If
you save yourself, you'll lose that salvation. You make that
decision, if you think you sealed it by your will, you'll lose
that. But if God saves you, He does a good job. And it's a job
that can't be undone. If you tie the knot with your
own fingers, you can untie it. But if God ties it, there's no
hand that can untie it. You're saved with an everlasting
salvation. And here's a statement of the
impotence of the gods of the heathen, verse 20. Assemble yourselves
and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot
save." Why in the world would you pray to a God that can't
save? The God we pray to not only can
save, but He does save. He does save. That's why we pray
and we say, Lord, save my brother, save my sister. Lord, save my
wife. Lord, if it be Your will, show
mercy to my husband. Lord, be gracious to my children,
if it's Your will. You know why we pray to God to
do that? Because He's the only one who can save. He's the only
one. And here's a statement about
the justice of God in salvation, verse 21. Tell ye and bring them
near, yea, let them take counsel together who hath declared this
from ancient time, who hath told it from that time. Have not I
the Lord, and there is no God beside me, a just God and a Savior? He can only be the Savior in
a just way. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? people who know the gospel and
only people who know the gospel can answer that question. We know. We know Him who justifies
the ungodly through the death of an innocent lamb, the Lamb
of God. Somebody who is altogether innocent
of our sins except by imputation. Charge to Him. God dealt with
Him in vengeance and in wrath. And we go free. Almost too good to believe, isn't
it? In fact, you'll only believe it if it's revealed to you. Because
we still want to make some kind of contribution. God won't have
it. He'll get all the glory either
in your salvation or in your damnation. He's going to get
the glory. That's a statement of the justice
of God in salvation. Here's a statement of His gracious
command. Look at verse 22. Look unto Me. That's a command. Look unto Me
and be ye saved. all the ends of the earth. Why,
why Lord, should I look to you? Because I am God. I'm the only
one who can help you. Oh my friend, nobody else can
help you but this God who is singular in Himself, who is sovereign,
who does His will in pleasure, He's the only one who can help
you. And here's a statement about
absolute certain prostration. Verse 23, I've sworn by myself
the word's gone out of my mouth. It's gone out of my mouth in
righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. This is the absolute certainty
of everybody falling prostrate before the Lord Jesus Christ.
And here's a statement of our hope Verse 24, Surely shall one
say, In the Lord, isn't this what you say? In the Lord I have
righteousness, and in the Lord I have strength. Even to Him
shall men come. Christ said, All that the Father
giveth me shall come to me. Him that cometh to me I'll in
no wise cast out. And all that are incensed against
Him shall be ashamed. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glory, glory in Him." Magnify
the Lord for what He's done. Great Savior, isn't He? Oh, let's
worship Him. And we've worshipped today. I'm
so grateful to be here, thankful that the Spirit of God has been
with us. We've been allowed to honor Him
a bit. And I'm thankful. I'm thankful.