Okay, now Isaiah, Isaiah 46. And I'm entitling the message
from what is said in verse nine. And this will sound real familiar
to you because it's stated six times in Isaiah 45. Look at verse nine. Remember, remember, remember. We're so forgetful, aren't we?
Remember, remember this. Remember this, show yourself
man or act like men. Verse eight, bring it again to
mind, O ye transgressors. Remember this, remember the former
things of old. Remember this, I'm God, I am
God and there is none else. I am God and there's none like
me, there's none like me. Our God is a true and living
God. This statement is repeated at least seven times, six times
in chapter 45, and then again here in chapter 46, seven times. Seven is a number of completion,
isn't it? Not that the Lord need to declare
anything more than one time, but that we might be sure we
get the message. He repeats it seven times. I
am God, beside me there is no other. We know that God reigns
over all things absolutely, sovereignly, and eternally. Aren't you glad
that God is God? That he rules all things after
the counsel of his own will? That's our message. Turn a few
pages over to Isaiah 52. This is quoted in Romans 10. Isaiah 52 verse 7, how beautiful
upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings,
that publish peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publish
salvation, that saith unto Zion, God's church, what do we say?
Thy God reigneth. God reigns. God reigns. You know the word, we use the
word sovereignty all the time. The actual word sovereignty is
not in the Bible, but the truth of it is, right there it is,
thy God reigneth. And the sovereignty of God in
salvation is taught in Romans chapter five, verse 21. Grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. God reigns absolutely, eternally,
sovereignly over everything, over everything. I was standing
out here in the yard this afternoon and my neighbor over here was
hauling some big rock put in over here on the spillway. I was standing out there with
a shovel. working a little bit and waiting on him to bring another
load. And I just stood there and looked
at the leaves. The leaves were blowing out of
the trees. And they were just fluttering around everywhere
and finally they would hit the ground. And I thought to myself,
every leaf that falls from the trees lands exactly where God
decreed it to be. That's the absolute sovereignty
of God over all things. Every leaf, right where He determined
it should go. Absolute, He reigns over all
things. In this chapter, the Lord declares
unto us the deliverance of Israel from Babylonian captivity by
a man by the name of Cyrus. He was the king of Persia, but
he declares this deliverance unto them, and he names this
man before they were ever taken into captivity. You remember
in chapter 44, verse 28, that saith of Cyrus, this is said
200 years before he's born. He is my shepherd, shall perform
all my pleasure, even saying unto Jerusalem, thou shalt be
built. Why was it gonna be built? Well, when the Babylonians came
in, the Syrians came in, and Babylonians came in, they destroyed. They destroyed the temple. They
destroyed Jerusalem, devastated it. Read about it in the last
part of Jeremiah in the book of Lamentation. But God raised
up this pagan king. The king's in the hand of the
Lord. The king's heart's in the hand of the Lord. He turns it
with us, whoever he will. He raised this man up by the
name of Cyrus. And Cyrus came in and conquered
the Babylonians. And you know what he did? He
made a decree. He said, all the Jews free. After 70 years, he
said, if you want to go back to Jerusalem, you're free to
go. God raised him up to deliver his people. God declared the
name of the deliverer 200 years before he was born. God declared
that Cyrus shall be victorious before the battle even started.
He declares the end from the beginning. That's the God that
we serve. And here's a gospel application
where Cyrus is a picture of the victorious Lord Jesus Christ.
Cyrus is a personal type of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord Jesus
Christ is victorious over sin, death, hell, and the grave. He
said, I'm he that liveth and was dead. Behold, I'm alive forevermore. God has declared the deliverance
of his elect from the bondage of sin before Adam ever fell. Think about that. Before there
was a sinner, there was a savior. Before there was a fall, the
Lord Jesus Christ stood as a surety of that eternal covenant. You
remember in the Revelation study, he's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. He stood as a lamb slain. Now,
God purposed the lamb to be slain before sin ever entered into
the picture. He declared the end from the
beginning. God named the Redeemer before
he was born, like he did Cyrus. He named the Redeemer long before
he was born. Call his name Jesus. He shall
save his people from their sin. You remember Isaiah 9, 6. I think
we'll look at this in our Isaiah study. Unto us a child is born,
a son is given, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
Go back to Isaiah chapter 7, verse 14. A virgin shall be with
child and bring forth a son. Call his name Emmanuel, he shall
be called Emmanuel. What does that mean? God with
us, God with us. So we see how all that is a picture.
God declared that Christ had finished the work of salvation
before he was sent to finish it. God said, it's finished. Well, God is my King of all working
salvation in the midst of the earth. All this shows us that
God, our God, shall accomplish his eternal purpose, which he
purposed in the Lord Jesus Christ. He worketh, you remember Ephesians
chapter one, verse 11, he worketh all things after the counsel
of his own will. And his eternal counsel and will
is an eternal purpose. He works everything according
to the eternal purpose. which he purposed in Christ Jesus
the Lord. Everything that he has purchased.
All this shows us our God is God. His will, His purpose shall
be done. It cannot be frustrated. God's
foreknowledge is always based upon His decrees. When we talk
about the foreknowledge of God, a lot of people have the false
notion that God looks down through the telescope of time and sees
what his creatures will do and then decrees that upon what their
act is. That makes the foreordination
of God based upon the will of men and not the will of God.
God knows all things because he has decreed all things. His
foreknowledge is based upon his eternal foreordination of all
things. God is omniscient because he
knows all things. Known unto God are all of his
works from the beginning. God's foreordination and predestination
is that his deliberate act. Deliberate act, it just doesn't
happen. It's the deliberate act of God.
Let me just read this to you. You're familiar with this. In
Romans 11, verse 33. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable are
his judgment and his ways past finding out. For who hath known
the mind of the Lord? Or who hath been his counselor?
Who hath first given to him and it shall be recompensed unto
him again. For of him and through him and
to him are all things. That covers all the bases, doesn't
it? Of him, through him, to him are all things, to whom be glory
forever and ever. And he said, amen. Amen. God's full ordination and
predestination is God's eternal, sovereign, deliberate act. Things that come to pass in time,
they were decreed from all eternity. Nothing sneaks up on God. Did
the fall of Adam and the sin of Adam sneak up on God? Did
he say, uh-oh, we messed up, plan B? No, it's always been
plan C, Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. So in this chapter, the
Lord contrasts himself between the idols of men and the true
and living God. All false gods, all idols are
nothing but miserable failures. Verses one and two of this chapter,
Baal and Nebo, they have to be carried about by the carriages,
carried about by the weary beast. They could not. They could not
prevent. They could not deliver themselves.
Themselves, he says, are gone into captivity. Gone into captivity. Verse six and verse seven, they
lavish gold out of the bag. They waste silver in the balance
and hire a goldsmith. And he make it there to God.
They fall down. Yeah, they worship. They bear
him upon the shoulders. They carry him. They set him
in his place. He's standing. From his place
shall he not be, shall he not remove? Yea, one shall cry unto
him, and he cannot answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Dead, cold, they have eyes, but
they don't see. Ears, they don't hear. Mouths,
but they can't speak. Hands, but they can't handle.
Feet, but they can't walk. Idle, any God that's dependent
upon the creature, needing creature help and aid of man is no God
at all, you see. Baal and Nebo were unable to
prevent the invasion of Cyrus and the victory that God gave
him. Now how is that relevant to us
today? A God that is preached for most
purpose today is as helpless and impotent as Bale and Nebo. Did I ever tell you the story
about the little boy with the hammer smashing the idols? Did I tell you about that? Let's
see if I can remember. Brother Walter Gruber tells us
the true story. He was our missionary in Mexico
that we supported for over 50 years. His wife Betty is still
there in in the Cancun area of Mexico, Merida. But Brother Walter
tells a story about a young man who heard the gospel and was
converted. Of course, down there in Mexico,
Catholicism is just everywhere. And they're big on idols. They're
big on idols. And this little boy told his
grandfather, this little young man, young person who was a believer,
was converted and believed the true living God and he would
visit with his grandfather and his grandfather had all these
different little idols all around the place and his grandfather
was so enamored with his idols. But one day when he was visiting
his grandfather, the grandfather went off somewhere and that young
person took a hammer. and smashed all them idols. All
them idols, he smashed them up but one. He took that hammer
and laid it down by that idol. Well, grandpa came back. He walked
in there and said, who smashed all my idols? Little boy said,
see that idol right there? The hammer? He did it. He did it. The old man said,
silly boy, those idols can't do anything. And the young man
said, that's what I've been trying to tell you. Those idols, that
idol, that hammer, they're dead. They're useless, aren't they?
That makes a good illustration, doesn't it? Idols can do nothing.
They can't save. You remember over here in Isaiah
45 verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come,
draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nation. They have
no knowledge, yet set up wood of their graven image. And they
pray unto a God that cannot save. Why have a God that cannot save?
That's useless, isn't it? How is this relative to us today,
relevant to us today? A God that is preached to most
pulpits today is as helpless as Baal and Nebo. They say things
like, God wants to, but you won't let him. God wants to save you,
but he's hindered by your sin. Unable to deliver you, unable
to save you, unable to redeem you, unable to keep you from
falling back into sin, unable unless you let him. Well, in
that scenario, who's really in charge? The creature rather than the
creator. They made God dependent upon the sinner rather than the
sinner dependent upon God. Those preachers who promote such
an idea of God have never met the true and living God who is
able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him,
who's able to do above all we ask or think according to the
power that works within us, who's fully persuaded, believers are
fully persuaded of all that God has promised He's able to perform,
He's able to save us and keep us and present us faultless before
the presence of God's glory with exceeding joy. Those who have
seen Him, you know what they speak of? They speak of His glory. Our Lord Jesus make mention of
Isaiah. He said, when Isaiah saw His
glory, he spake of Him. And that's what we speak of.
We speak of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is God our Savior, God over
all things. The God of the Bible is no failure
at all. One of my favorite verses, turn
back two pages. In the book of Isaiah is Isaiah
42 verse 4. I hope you got this marked. Isaiah
42 verse 4, he shall not fail. He shall not fail nor be discouraged
till he have set judgment in the earth and the isle shall
wait for his law. That's one of those exceeding
great and precious promises. He cannot fail. 7,478 promises
God made. And none of them are going to
fail. I can't tell you. The God of the Bible is not a
failure. Failure is not even a remote possibility. The pagan
idols had to be carried around by the people. Our God is in
the heavens, he has done whatsoever he has pleased. The true living
God carries his people from the womb to the tomb, from the cradle
to the grave, from the bondage of sin to the heights of glory.
He gives us all grace now and glory forever. He said, I will
carry you. What it says there in verse three
and four. Isaiah 46, hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, all
the remnant of the house of Israel, which are born by me from the
belly, which are carried from the womb. Before we knew him,
he knew us. The foundation of God standeth
sure, having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Even
to your old age, I am. Even to whore hairs, white hair,
I will carry you, I've made, And I will bear you, I will carry,
I will deliver you. That's the God that we can worship. The only place a sinner will
really worship is at the throne of the almighty sovereign God.
That's right. The true and living God carries
his people from the womb to the tomb. He said, I will carry you.
Look back at Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, verse 11. He said,
I will carry you and bear you, Isaiah 40. Isaiah 40, look at verse 11.
He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the
lamb with his arm, carry them in his bosom, and shall gently
lead those that are with young. He carries us. We don't carry
him. He carries us in his bosom, on his shoulder, and in his heart. I will carry you. I will bear
you. He said, I've made you. I will
deliver you. The Lord Jesus Christ, he's our
deliverer. Who needs a deliverer? Sinners.
Who needs a Redeemer? Sinners. The Lord Jesus Christ
is no impotent Savior. He is what He's called. He shall
save His people from their sin. He is the Redeemer that redeems
all His elect. He is Redeemer who actually redeems
us from all our sin. He is the just God and Savior
as we studied last week. He said, I am the only just God
and Savior. Now look unto me, all the ends
of the earth, and be saved. He's the just and the justifier
of the ungodly. He's the just God and Savior.
There is none like Him. You kind of got the idea, don't
you? To whom will you liken me, verse 5, and make me equal and
compare me? that we may be like. You can't
compare anyone, anyone to the almighty God. There is none like
our God. There is none like our God. As
it says in verse eight, remember this and show yourselves, men,
bring it again to mind. Oh, you transgressors. That's
us. Oh, you transgressors. You're
a bunch of transgressors, aren't you? I am too, but the good news of
the gospel is the Lord Jesus Christ came to save sinners.
Remember the former things of old. I am God, there is none
else. I am God, there is none like me. Declaring the end from
the beginning from ancient time to things that are not yet done,
saying my counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure. The
Lord asks an all-important searching question, to whom will you liken
me? Well, there's none like Him.
Who is equal to Him? None. Who can be compared unto
Him? None. God is either totally,
absolutely sovereign over all things in creation, providence,
and salvation, or He's not God at all. He is the absolute God
over all, or he's not God at all. Well, this book, and I believe
this book, this book is God's word. I believe the message of
this book, that God is God. He reigns over creation, providence,
and in salvation. He will have mercy on whom he
will have mercy. He said, remember this, show
yourselves men, act like men with courage and fortitude, remember
that God is, and remember who we are, transgressors, sinners
by nature, birth, practice and choice, and remember the Lord
has made you. He's made us a trophy of His
grace. He's made us an object of His
love. Remember what the Lord has made
you. You remember what Paul said,
I am what I am? by my free will. Oh no, I misquoted
that. I am what I am by the grace of
God. And his grace which is bestowed
upon me was not in vain. I read this scripture Sunday
in the message about God is able. In 2 Corinthians 8, 9, it says
that God is able to make all grace abound towards you. Remember? We turned and read that, I think,
didn't we? Yeah. God is able to make all grace
abound towards you. You know, oftentimes I think
about something after I've already said it. I think, why didn't
I say that? And then this scripture came
to my mind on Monday when I was going back over that message. And here's, God is able to make
all grace abound towards you. Where sin abounded, you remember
Romans 5.20, where sin abounded, grace does much more abound.
That's how God's grace abounds toward us. Sin abounded, grace
does much more abound. Remember that I am God, beside
me there is no other. There is no other. He's glorious
in holiness. We studied that in Exodus 15.
He's doing great things. Psalm 71 verse 19. God is great in all that He does,
His works. He's strong and faithful in all
that He does. He declares, as it says in verse
10, He said, I declare the end, I declare the end from the beginning. When there was nothing but God,
God has decreed the end of all things. And not only has He decreed
the end, He decreed the means to reach to that end. All things
in between. You remember in the Revelation
we studied, He is Alpha, Omega, the beginning, and the end. All
things. God declared all things from
the beginning. He declared the end of sin. before
there even was sin. The Lord Jesus appeared once
in the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself, but he only did so because he was a lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. The Lord had declared the end
of the law. Christ did the end of the law
for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Christ had declared
the end of our life on this earth. That day is fixed. We're gonna
meet it. It's appointed that man wants
to die after that judgment. He won't be late for that appointment.
It'll come the exact time that God had decreed it and you'll
take your last breath. God said, that's it. That's it. Man's days are determined of
the Lord. Man's days are determined of
the Lord. Some die young, some die old,
some die by this means, some die by other means. but God has
ordained and decreed our birth and our death. It's in his hand,
not in ours, not in ours. My counsel shall stand, he says,
I'll do all my pleasure. His counsel is his pleasure,
his eternal purpose. The demons of hell and all the
creatures of the earth cannot frustrate or change or hinder
his purpose of almighty God. Hold your place there, and let's
turn over here to Isaiah 14, about the purpose of God. God
had declared the end from the beginning. The end of the world,
he decreed that from the beginning. The end of the world. The day
the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens
shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall
melt with a fervent heat. He declared the first coming,
of the Lord from the beginning and the second the Lord shall
defend from heaven. All according to his purpose.
I told you to turn to Isaiah 14, right? Okay, the Lord, verse
24, the Lord of hosts hath sworn, saying, surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass. As I purpose, so shall it stand,
that I will break the Assyrians in my land upon my mountains
and tread them underfoot. Then shall his yoke depart from
off them and his burden depart from off their shoulders. This
is the purpose. It has purpose upon the whole
earth. And this is the hand that is stretched out upon all nations.
For the Lord of hosts hath purposed, who shall disknow it? His hand
is stretched out, who can turn it back? Sounds to me like somebody's
in charge, doesn't it? God on his throne. He works all
things after the counsel of His own will. What's involved in
God's eternal purpose? Remember our study from Psalm
135. Whatsoever the Lord pleased,
that did He in heaven, earth, seas, and all deep places. It
pleased the Lord to make you His people. It pleased the Lord
to bruise the Lord Jesus Christ for our sin. It pleased the Lord
that in the Lord Jesus Christ all fullness should dwell. It
pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to call out His
people. It pleases God to reveal Christ unto His people in His
due time. Paul writes about that. He said,
in the fullness of time, God separated me from my mother's
womb and called me by His grace to reveal His Son in me. A prime
example of that, the Lord being fully and precisely in executing all
things. In verse 11, he says in verse
10, declaring the end from the beginning for an ancient time
to things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand.
I'll do all my pleasure, even calling, this is how precise
he is, verse 11, even calling a ravenous bird from the east.
You remember the ravens fed Elijah? He calls
the ravenous bird from the east, the man that would execute my
counsel from a far country. And Cyrus did that. Yea, he said, I've spoken it.
That means it might come to pass. God said, I've decreed it. I
will also bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will also
do it. Isn't that comforting? That's
comforting to me. I will, I will, and you shall. Cyrus was chosen of God, raised
to be a king in Persia, and sent to conquer Babylon, and sent
to set the captives free. And we know the record of Holy
Scripture, 200 years after this prophecy was given, God accomplished
His purpose. Read the book of Nehemiah and
Ezra. Remember when we studied Ezra
and Nehemiah? And it opens up in the book of
Nehemiah about Cyrus and God instilling in him to rebuild
the city, rebuild the wall, rebuild the temple. As I said earlier, Cyrus is a
descriptive and a personal type of the Lord Jesus Christ who
came to set the captives free. as it says over here in Isaiah
61. Turn over there. Our Lord quotes
this in Luke chapter 4. Isaiah 61, verse 1, The Spirit
of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek. He has sent me to bind
up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and
the opening of the prisoners to them that are bound, Isaiah
61 verse 1, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day
of vengeance of our God, to comfort all them that mourn, to appoint
unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them the beauty
for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise
for the spirit of heaviness, that they might be called trees
of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that he may be glorified. When our Lord went to His hometown
synagogue, in Luke chapter 4, we have the story of Nazareth.
And He stood up for the read, and He read from Isaiah 61. And He handed the scroll back
to the minister, and He said, this day is this scripture fulfilled
in your ears. You remember what they did when
the Lord told them about His sovereign mercy? They picked
him up and led him to the brow of the hill, kicked him out of
the synagogue, led him to the brow of the hill, and threw him
off the cliff. Because of what? What he said. Our Lord said at one time, when
they picked up stones to stone him, they said, Why are you stoning me for good
works? He said, oh, they said, that's not the good work. We
don't mind you feeding and healing. It's what you said. You being
a man, you make yourself God. He is the one who sets the captive
free, is he not? He said, I've spoken it. Verse
11, I'll bring it to pass. I've purposed it. I will do it.
Now, what are we to do? Harken. Verse 12, you see that? Harken unto me, you stiff-necked
people, you stout-hearted people, hard-hearted people that are
far from righteousness. And that's us by nature, stout-hearted,
hard-hearted, hard-headed, stout-hearted, far from salvation. How far? Way off. Without God, without
hope, and without Christ. Thank God He didn't leave us
there. Look at the next verse. I bring near my righteousness. You can't get away from that
word righteousness, can you? That's Christ. I bring near my
righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall
not tarry. I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel, my glory. And there again, we see that
biblical truth, that salvation's of the Lord. We're stout-hearted
and dead. God must bring near salvation
to us. that God must come to us and
save us, save us by His grace. God will call a stout-hearted
man that's full of religious pride. That man is far from righteousness. Nothing, not even the wickedness
and pride of unbelief can hinder God's grace in calling out His
people. Your rebellion is no optical to God's sovereign grace. There is no such thing as an
irredeemable person. If God's purpose to save you
by His grace through the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ, it will
be done. No one can stay his hand on saying
to him, Lord God Almighty, what doest thou? This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. The Lord Jesus Christ came to
save sinners. I'm the chief one. I'm a chief
of sinners. The Lord will bring near righteousness
and salvation to His elect. The Lord will and must save His
people, and He must have all the glory." And that's the bottom
line in all that God does. It's His glory. His glory, not
ours. His glory. I'm fully persuaded of all that
God has promised. He's able to perform. He said,
I've spoken it. I've purposed it. I'll bring
it to pass. I will do it. I will do it.