Alright brethren, let's turn
our Bibles to Isaiah chapter 43. Isaiah 43. We're going to
begin in verse 14. I'm going to read a little bit
as we go to get down to my message. Verse 14, Thus saith the Lord,
your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Now zero in here who's
doing the speaking. This is the Lord, capital L-O-R-D,
that's Jehovah. That's Jehovah God, and He says,
You're Redeemer. Jehovah is the Redeemer of His
people. He's the Redeemer. You see Him
in the man Christ Jesus. That's who Christ is. He's the
God-man. He said, The Holy One of Israel. He is the Holy One of His elect
Israel. And he says in verse 14, for
your sake I have sent to Babylon and have brought down all their
nobles and the Chaldeans whose cry is in the ship. Last week
I made a comment that, you know, we'll take some object, little
small objects and we'll use them to illustrate what we're trying
to teach our children or grandchildren or what have you. Well, God uses
whole nations, whole empires. And He used the nation Israel
to typify His elect scattered throughout all the nations of
the world. And He used Babylon, the Chaldeans, to typify the
spiritual Babylon, which is all falsehood. Go over with me to
Revelation 17. I'll show you who Babylon is. Revelation 17, verse 1. There came one of the seven angels,
which had the seven vows, and talked with me, saying unto me,
Come hither, I will show unto thee the judgment of the great
whore that sitteth upon many waters." She sits on many waters,
see this? "...with whom the kings of the
earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth
have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication." So
he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness, and I saw
a woman sit upon a scarlet-colored beast full of names of blasphemy,
having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in
purple and scarlet color and decked with gold and precious
stones and pearls. She's attractive, you see. and
having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness
of her fornication. And upon her forehead was a name
written, Mystery, Babylon the Great, the mother of harlots
and abominations of the earth." That's who Babylon represents.
The mother of harlots and abominations of the earth. Everything false,
especially false religion. And I saw the woman drunk with
the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs
of Jesus. She kills God's people. And when
I saw her, I wandered with great admiration." Look over here at
verse 14. Now all those horns and the beast,
they all mean different things, but it basically talks about
her ruling everybody whose name is not written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. It's who Babylon represents. Everybody that God
doesn't save is drunk with the wine of her fornication. But
here's what we do know about everything included there. It
says, verse 14, these shall make war with the Lamb, with Christ,
and the Lamb shall overcome them. For he is Lord of lords and King
of kings, and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and
faithful. And those waters that she set
on, the waters which thou sawest where the horse sitteth, are
peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. Everybody,
she's deceived, the false, you know, the true church is a chaste
virgin. That's what the true church is
described as. The false church and all vain
vanity in this world is considered a harlot before God and that's
what's represented here. Everybody that's not His is represented
here by Babylon. Now hold your place here in Revelation,
we're going to come back But God says this in our text, He
said, for your sake, talking about His elect now, He said,
for your sake, I've sent to Babylon and I've brought down all their
nobles and the Chaldeans whose cries in the ship. We saw there,
the lamb, they'll fight with the lamb, but the lamb's going
to win. And God said, for your sake, for the sake of my elect,
I've sent and I've brought down Babylon. God sent forth a man
named Cyrus. Historically, just as far as
the earth is concerned, He let Israel go into Babylonian captivity.
And He sent a man named Cyrus, who was king, and He delivered
Israel out of Babylonian captivity. And that's a picture of Christ,
God sending forth Christ to come and by His blood and His righteousness
delivered all God's elect out of Babylon and now He's sending
forth the gospel and He's calling His people out of Babylon. He's
calling them to Himself and He's carrying us through this world.
Look back there at Revelation 14 and verse 6. He said, I'll
bring down Babylon. This is what John saw, this is
a spiritual application, Revelation 14, 6. I saw another angel fly
in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach
unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred,
and tongue, and people. See, this is our one weapon in
this warfare, the lamb and this harlot. It's all falsehood or
fighting, but this is the one weapon is the everlasting gospel.
And he's calling his people out of every nation and kindred and
tongue and people saying with a loud voice, fear God and give
glory to him for the hour of his judgment has come and worship
him that made heaven and earth and the sea and the fountains
of waters. And there followed another angel saying, Babylon
is fallen, that great city because she made all nations drink of
the wine of the wrath of her fornication. So, what God is
teaching us in our text is everything that has come to pass and everything
that is coming to pass, the Lord is doing it in the earth for
the sake of His elect, for those He wrote in the Lamb's Book of
Life, for the foundation of the world. And Christ is going forth
with this everlasting gospel and He's calling His people out
of Babylon. And when He's called the last
one out of Babylon, then He's going to judge Babylon. and she's
going to be completely brought down. She's already been judged
in Christ in that He saved His people, justified us, but she's
going to be judged at the last in the great day. Now listen,
that's everybody outside of Christ. It's Babylon. You don't want
to be found outside of Christ. You want to be in Christ. What
I'm preaching to you could all be verified in history. This
all happened. Israel went into Babylonian captivity
for 70 years. Then God sent a king named Cyrus
and delivered him out of Babylonian captivity. What was God doing
with that? He was drawing you and me a picture,
illustrating for us what He's doing in the salvation of His
people. This gospel is true. These things
we read here in these scriptures, these things happen. You go to
school and you learn in the man's history books and what they teach
you in college and in schools. And man has to put his own slant
on history. And you read God's history. And it's all to glorify Christ
and God's glory in saving His people. But you can see these
things are true. These things happen. And that
tells you what God's teaching us here is so. He's the one that
created everything. And it's all going to come to
an end one day. And we're going to stand before God. And you
don't want to be found standing with the whole Bible. And you
want to be found standing in Christ. So He does all the talking
on your behalf as your advocate with God. Now, I want to show
you four things God's doing for our sake that's right here in
our text. And it shows us this is what
He's doing for our sake. Here's what He's teaching us
through the gospel. Alright, first of all, back in
Isaiah 43, He's teaching us that our great Savior is the only
one to be worshipped. That's the first thing He's teaching
us, is He alone is to be worshipped. That means let nothing come between
the worship of our Lord and you. Nothing. Nothing ought to keep
you from coming and hearing the gospel. Nothing ought to keep
us from serving Him and following Him and looking to Him alone.
Nothing. And if we're His, when anything does start to come between
us and Him, He will remove it. I promise you, He will remove
it. Because He's not going to let something separate you, who
He is, from Him. He's just not going to let that
happen. He'll separate that thing from you, or persons from you,
but He will not let you be separated from Him. Look now, He's teaching
us, He allows us to be worshipped. Verse 15, Isaiah 43, 15, I am
the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King,
He's teaching us, I am the Lord, Christ Jesus, the man Christ
Jesus is capital L, capital O, capital R, capital D. He's Jehovah.
The Lord, our righteousness, that's who He is. He's God in
human flesh. Colossians 2, 9 says, in Him
dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. He's God. And when He calls His elect,
He makes us know, I'm your Holy One. That's what he said, I'm
your holy one. What does that mean? Well, to
come into the presence of holy God, we have to be holy. How
did you get separated? Did you separate yourself? That's what sanctification means,
to be separated. The Pharisees were called the
separate ones, but they boasted that they separated themselves.
God's people don't boast we separated ourselves. This is us who were
in Babylon. We couldn't separate ourselves.
God's sending forth and He's calling His people out of Babylon.
He separated His people. He separated us into Christ in
eternity in divine election. Christ came and He separated
us, sanctified us, made us perfect and pure by His one offering
at Calvary. He sanctifies us unto Him and into Him when He
regenerates us. And one day He's going to completely,
thoroughly separate us from all Babylon whenever He glorifies
us in heaven. He creates all things new. He
said here, I'm the creator of Israel. He's the creator of Israel. Just like He created that political
nation. We wouldn't even know about a nation named Israel if
it wasn't for God creating them. And just like He created that
nation, He created His elect Israel. He did. Chose His people,
sent forth Christ to redeem us. Christ created us when He shed
His blood and His body was broken in place of His people. The Spirit
creates a new creation within you when you're born of God.
He's your Creator. Revelation 21.1, if you still
got your place in Revelation, look at this. Here's the end. When you talk here about New
Jerusalem, That's His people, that's His people, His elect,
made entirely new by the blood and righteousness of Christ.
Revelation 21.1, I saw a new heaven and a new earth. This
one right here, He said plainly, we saw it last week, He said,
look around, everything you see is going to be burned up. I'm
going to fold it up and do away with it. there's going to be
a new heaven and a new earth that He created in His righteousness
that will be more perfect and more stable than that first garden
of Eden that was made. They could fall. This new heaven
and earth will never be able to fall. Eternally righteous
and holy in Christ. He said, for the first heaven
and the first earth were passed away and there was no more sea,
no more division. That's what the sea does, it
divides. No more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city,
New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as
a bride adorned for her husband." That's his people, that's his
bride. See, she's prepared by Christ and adorned by Christ. She's not like the harlot Babylon. Verse 5, "...and he that sat
upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new." He's
your creator. We're talking about a spiritual
new creation. He said, write this, for these
words are true and faithful. Go back there now. When He calls
you, He not only makes you know that He's alone to be worshipped
as your Lord, as your Holy One, as your Creator, but He also
is to be bowed to as your King. He said, I'm your King. Christ
has been the King, you know, from the beginning. He's been
ruling and reigning from the beginning. The children of Israel
had a King. And they didn't want Christ their
king. They wanted a king like the other
nations had set up. And God said, Samuel was all
disappointed about that, and God told Samuel, he said, they
hadn't rejected you, Samuel. They've rejected me. Who was
that saying that? That's Christ the king. He's
been the king from the beginning. When he was born in this earth,
they said, where is he that's born king? The scepter shall
not depart from Judah. Until Shiloh come, to him shall
the gathering of the people be. He's the king who holds the scepter.
A lawgiver won't depart from Judah till the king came. And
then when the king came, God did away with national political
Israel. He's the king. That means right
now he's ruling everything coming to pass. He has been from the
beginning, he's been doing it ever since. And will until the
end. So everything here He says is
for our sake. Our fallen Adam was for our sake.
Us being carried away in the Babylon was for our sake. Every
trial He sends is for our sake. Why? To teach us that He is the
Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King, so He keeps
us worshiping only Him. That's what it's all for. All
right, secondly, Everything our Lord works and our salvation
is for our sake. To remind His people, the victory
has been, it's already been won by the Lord Jesus. It's already
been won, your warfare is accomplished. He said in verse 16, Thus saith
the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea, and a path in the
mighty waters, which bringeth forth the chariot and horse,
and the army and the power, they shall lie down together, they
shall not rise, they are extinct, they are quenched as toad. He
points us back to him bringing Israel out of Egyptian bondage.
He points us back there and he says, I'm the Lord that made
a way in the sea. I'm the Lord that made a path
in the mighty waters. He's the one that divided that
Red Sea. And he says here, and I'm the
Lord that bringeth forth the chariot and the horse, the army
and the power. Pharaoh and his army didn't suddenly
change their mind all of a sudden just on their own and decide,
why did we let Israel go? Let's go after them. That just
wasn't a Pharaoh himself. The Lord said, I brought them
forth after Israel. And we've seen it before. He
hedged them in there on all sides and he did it for two reasons.
He did it, number one, to show them they had no ability in themselves
to save themselves whatsoever. And secondly, he did it to show
them, I'm the Lord your God. I'm your king. I'm your creator.
I'm your holy one. I'm your salvation. That's why
he did it. And that's why everything that you and me face in this
world, it didn't come to pass just because men might have been
used to bring it to pass, but it didn't come to pass just because
of men. God did it. And He did it for that reason,
to show me and you we don't have any ability in ourselves that
we need Him, and to show us He is the one doing the saving.
Our victory has already been accomplished by Him. He put them
out. When He brought Pharaoh and that
army there, He said they should lie down together, they shall
not rise, they're extinct, they're quenched at His toe. He brought
them in that Red Sea and destroyed them. And when they got to the
other side, Moses, they started singing to the children of Israel
that all our enemies are gone. They're gone. And the Lord blew
them out. He quenched them. His toe, that
is, He blew them out. He extinguished them just like
you'd blow out a candle. Just that easy. That's why the Lord let us fall
in at Him. That's why He let the devil rage. That's why He
sends these trials. He's to teach us. He's ruling
everything. He's our Savior. and to keep
us looking only to Him. I'll show you that. Go to Romans
9, Romans chapter 9, look at verse 17. He said, the Scripture saith
unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised thee up.
Pharaoh, he just was a good political strategist. That's how he became
Pharaoh. No, God said, I raised you up.
We're going to have an election this year. You know who's going
to be the president? Whoever God raises up. That's
who it's going to be. He says, I raised you up that
I might show my power in thee and that my name might be declared
throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom
he will have mercy and whom he will he hardeneth. He didn't
raise Pharaoh up to save Pharaoh. He raised Pharaoh up to harden
him and kill him. That's what he raised him up
for. Thou wilt say then unto me, why doth he yet find fault
for who has resisted his will? You know why the Spirit of God
gave Paul that question? Because the only thing to deduce
from hearing what the Lord just declared is, is that nobody can
resist his will. It's his will being brought to
pass. And so the question is, man will say, well then how come
he finds fault with me? If nobody can resist his will,
why does he find fault with me? I'm just doing what he made me
do. Here's the answer. No, but oh man, who do you think
you are? Who are you that reply against
God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, why have
you made me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel into honor and
another into dishonor? You mean if there's a child of
mercy, God made them, and if there's a child that's hardened
and dies in sin, God made them? God made them both. And if He saves you, it's all
to the praise of His glory, and if we're that hardened vessel,
it's nobody's fault but our own. And men will say, I don't understand
that. Well, who resists His will? Nope. Who are we to reply against
God? Verse 22, what if God, willing
to show His wrath and to make His power known, endured with
much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fit to destroy? Those
people just fit for nothing but to be destroyed. What if He just
didn't put up with them for a long time for this reason? That He
might make known the riches of His glory on the vessels of mercy
which He had aforeprepared unto glory, even us whom He had called,
not of the Jews only, but also the Gentiles. You see, everything
that's happening in this world is our King ruling it. He's raising
up kings. He's raising up folks around
us and He'll harden them in their sin and He'll put them down.
And it's only to do this is to show you the only reason you
know Him and the only reason you keep worshiping Him is because
you're a vessel of mercy. That's the only reason. It's
Him. It's Him. It's Him. Thirdly, back in our
text, So for our sake, he said, this is all for your sake. For
our sake, our Lord's working all things in providence and
all things in salvation. And here's the preeminent lesson. He's teaching us our substitute
and our savior is the Lord Jesus. Now he says here in verse 18,
He parted them back to Egypt when Abram came out of Egypt.
Now he says, verse 18, remember ye not the former things, neither
consider the things of old. Don't dwell on that, he said.
Behold, I'll do a new thing. I'll do a new thing. Now it shall
spring forth. Shall you not know it? I will
even make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The
beast of the field shall honor me, the dragons and the owls,
because I give waters in the wilderness and rivers in the
desert to give drink to my people, my chosen." Now everything that's
said right here is glorifying Christ. What's this new thing
the Lord creates? He said in Jeremiah 31.22, The
Lord hath created a new thing in the earth. A woman shall compass
a man. What's that mean? Behold, a virgin
shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Immanuel,
God with us. God's coming in human flesh,
that's what He's saying. Christ is that new thing. He
said, this new thing will spring forth. See there, he said, now
it shall spring forth. Listen, Isaiah 61.11, God said,
just like the earth brings forth her bud and the garden causes
the things which are sown in it to spring forth, so the Lord
will cause righteousness and praise to spring forth before
all the nations. Righteousness And this something
worthy to be praised? What's he talking about? Isaiah
53, 2, he said, He shall grow up as a tender plant. Christ will come up out of the
ground like a tender plant, like a root out of a dry ground. No
form, no color, and when we see Him, we'll desire Him. But here
He's the Redeemer, grew up from a holy one in the womb to an
infant all the way up to a man, all the time representing His
people the whole way through. Went to the cross and laid down
His life. He's the way. Look here, God said in verse
19, I'll even make a way in the wilderness. You see, when He
called them out of captivity in Babylon, It was a long way
back to Jerusalem through a wilderness. Just like when He called them
out of Egypt, brought them to the Promised Land, He called
them out of Babylon, they got a long way to go to get back
to Jerusalem. And God, historically, He made a way for them. He protected
them and He delivered them back to Jerusalem. He did that for
them after 70 years of captivity. Well, there's a way for His people
and His earth today. That way is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ said, I'm the way. I'm the truth. I'm the life. No man comes to the Father but
by me. See, when He calls you out of
Babylon in captivity, if today He speaks into somebody's heart
and regenerates you and gives you faith and you believe the
Lord Jesus Christ, He calls you out of Babylon just like that. But you've got a long way to
go to get to the New Jerusalem. to get to that heavenly Jerusalem.
How are you going to make it into the presence of a holy God
and be accepted? Christ said, I'm the way. No
man comes to the Father but by Me. He's the way. He's the holy
way. He's the holy way. He's going
to bring us into that heavenly Jerusalem. He's the only way.
There was no other way God could be just and justify His people. Only God could figure out a way
to kill you and give you eternal life. So in killing you, He poured
out the full sentence of the law on you and executed you in
full. You had the death penalty over
your head and He had to carry that out to remain just. He won't
sweep justice under the rug. And so Christ came forth and
bore that in place of His people. And by Him dying, And when He
came out of that grave, all His people came out. God's just and
just. He's the way. He's the only way
mercy and truth could meet together in harmony, righteousness and
peace could kiss each other. And He's the river in the desert.
He said there, verse 18, He said, I'll make rivers in the desert.
I'm sorry. Verse 19, He said, I will make
rivers in the desert. The desert is me and you. The
desert's me and you. We're just like a dry, sandy,
dead desert where there is no life. That's what we are by nature.
Rivers represent life. That's water. And it's not just
a river. It's rivers. It's abundant life. You know what the Lord said?
I came to give them life and that more abundantly. We say this,
and He's giving you life. Until He calls you out of Babylon,
you won't say this. This is why Babylon makes war
with the Lamb. Because Babylon hates this word
right here. But when He calls you, this is
what you'll confess. In my flesh dwells no good thing. I am nothing good whatsoever. If somebody calls you a sinner,
you can agree with them 100%. I'm nothing good whatsoever.
But when He forms Christ in you, He has formed life in you. The
rivers have begun to flow within you in the desert. And he said,
I do this to give drink to my people, my chosen. This is what Isaiah 32 once said,
Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness. Only one king
ever reigned in righteousness. David was a pretty good king.
But there ain't but one King ever reigned in righteousness.
There's only been one ruler ever ruled in this world from the
beginning of time that ruled in perfect righteousness. That's
the Lord Jesus Christ, our King. And He's been ruling from the
beginning of time in perfect righteousness. And it says, and
that one shall be as rivers of water in a dry place. That's
what it says about Him. He'll be as rivers of water in
a dry place. In the last day, the Lord was
standing there at that Feast of Tabernacles. And what did
He say? If any man is thirsty, where did He say go to? He said,
ìLet him come to Me and drink.î God said, ìI am going to put
rivers in these desert places for My people to have something
to drink, for My people to be able to drink for My chosen one.î
Christ said, ìIf you are thirsty, come to Me.î See, Christ, He's
not, you know, people get mad about the doctrine of election
and, well, you're saying that, you're saying that you're just
better than we are and, you know, and that's not fair and all that
stuff. Christ stood there, hands out,
anybody's thirsty, come to me. Come drink. Out of your belly
shall flow rivers of living waters, He said. And nobody came. You know why? To them, this is
really what it was like. They were engaged in a ceremony
of religion. Like folks would go to a church
house and they'll sing, you know, out of the hymn book and they
put the money in the plate and they listen to a message and
they socialize a little bit and they go home and there's a bunch
of people in places that look at all of that and think, that
gave me a little leg up today with God because I did all that.
You come in here I mean, you're not going to worship God without
coming here and hearing the gospel. And God's people want to do that.
But you coming here don't count with God. They don't count for
nothing. They don't give you any righteousness with God because
you came to a building. It's Christ who is the righteousness. But they were going through all
that ceremony and there's Christ saying, I am the life. I'm the
one God's been telling you about the whole time. Come to me and
you'll have eternal life. And none of them wanted it. They
said, we got life right here. We're going to go through this
little charade we're doing and then we're going to go home and
go do whatever else we really want to do. So it's not election that's keeping
people from coming to Christ. People don't want to come to
Christ. God said, He said, Shall you not know this? You're going
to know this. If you're elect, you're going
to know this. Because God said, I'm going to make sure you know
it. I'm going to come to you in that desert place, and I'm
going to create these rivers in your heart, and I'm going
to draw you to myself, and you're going to drink of the water of
life freely. That's what he does. He's going
to make his people come and drink. We saw last week in Isaiah 43,
he said, I chose you that you may know. I chose you so that
I'd come to you and give you an understanding and make you
know me. That's what he's doing. This is the record God has given
to us eternal life. God gave it to us. He gave us
this river of life in us. And that life is in His Son. That's right. Lastly, everything our Savior
brings to pass is for your sake, for this reason. Here's what
it is. After He's done all these things and showed you these things,
and He keeps working all these things over and over and over.
And here's what it's for, right here. This is the end purpose.
Verse 21, Isaiah 43, 21. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. See, when He brings
you to behold that God our Father in His Son determined the end
from the beginning. And He brings you to see that
He ruled the devil, He was ruling the fog when you fell into Adam,
He was ruling all Babylon and everything that's going on in
Babylon all around us all this time and doing it just for your
sake. And He comes forth and He makes you see, gives you these
rivers of water and He makes you see that Christ is your King
and your substitute. He went to the cross and laid
down His life in your room. Instead, He made you perfect
with God. So that God looks at you and
says, I don't see any sin. You see nothing but a desert,
dry place full of sin. God looks at you and says, I
don't see any sin. My son put it away. I don't even remember
it. I don't see anything but perfect righteousness. And He
makes you know that. When you're falling flat on your
face, and you see your sin, and you feel like you're no different
than Babylon around you. And He keeps drawing you back
to Him, and making you drink of this water of life, making
you know, I chose you, I redeemed you, I regenerated you, and I'm
preserving you. I'm not going to lose you. I'm
bringing you to Myself. I'm the way. And you know what
you do? You say, thank you, Lord. That's
what He did it all for right there. That's it. We're going
to spend eternity on our face before Him saying, thank you,
Lord. That's what He did it for. You mean all of this is for us
to come to our Father and say, thank you for saving me. That's
what it's for, just to come and say thank you. Father, we thank
You for this Word. Thank You for this salvation.
Thank You for our Savior. We thank You, Lord, for Your
grace, keeping us, preserving us. Lord, we thank You that salvation
is entirely of Your hand. Lord, we pray that today You'd
be pleased to call out one more of these chosen ones out of Babylon
We look forward to that day, Lord, when You call the last
one and we'll be with You forever. The Lamb will declare His victory
before all Babylon. We pray, Lord, You would work
that today. We try to praise You. We try to worship You. Pray,
Lord, you'd receive it perfectly in our Redeemer, who praised
you and worshiped you in perfection on our behalf. It's in His name
we ask it, Lord. Amen.