Brethren, let's connect now to
Isaiah 43. I'll make a few comments as I
read until I get down to my text. Isaiah 43 verse 8. The Lord said, bring forth the
blind people that have eyes, the deaf that have ears. Some
think that God here is speaking to unregenerate men and women
who are like their idols. Remember the Lord said about
a man's idols, He said, eyes have they but they see not. They
have ears but they hear not. He said, they that make them
are like them. so is everyone that trusteth
in them. So it could be saying that to the unregenerate men
and women of this world who worship the works of their hands, bring
forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears.
But since the Lord just declared in verse 7, He said, everyone
that's called by my name, I've created him for my glory, I formed
him, yea, I made him. And that verse, this blind people
that have eyes and deaf that have ears, that certainly describes
God's people. We're blind by nature. And the
Lord gave us spiritual sight. We're deaf by nature. The Lord
gave us spiritual hearing. He formed us. He made us. He
gave us life and sight and hearing. And then God issues a challenge
to all people, all religions, every race. God says in verse
9, let all the nations be gathered together and let the people be
assembled. Who among them, what idol God
among them can declare this? Would God among them ever gave
sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf? Think about it,
brethren. You hear men talk about their
gods that they worship. Their God don't give sight to
the blind. hearing to the deaf. Him alone, they did something
to help him. God's the only God that His people
bear witness and say, no, I was blind. He did it all. He did
it all. He gave me sight. I was deaf.
He gave me hearing. He said, let everybody be gathered
together. He said, who among them can declare
this? What God are you going to bring forth that declares
He's done anything like this? He said, and show us former things. Show us things before they come
to pass and then bring them to pass exactly like He said He
would do them. When you think about the gods
that men speak about, none of the gods of this world in the
various religions of this world, and not even the God that men
call Jesus in Christianity, He doesn't determined in from the
beginning. Let them bring forth their witnesses
that they may be justified. This is just a fair trial. God says, bring forth your witnesses
that you may be justified. Or, God says, let them hear and
say His truth. Then God speaks to His people
and He speaks of Christ his servant, and he says, you are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, and my servant whom I've chosen, that you may
know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there
was no God form, neither shall there be after me. I, even I,
am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. I have declared
and have saved and have showed when there was no strange God
among you. Therefore, you are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it? Who shall turn it back? The whole
world is divided into only two kinds of people. There's just
two kinds of people in this world. I know there's different races,
and there's different sex, and there's different classes, and
there's a lot of different religions. All mankind's divided into two
people. Those that believe on the true
and living God, and those that do not. All religion is divided
into two religions. Works and grace. Cain and Abel. All can be reduced to just two.
Everything else falls under the heading of works and is false,
and then there's the true and living God who saves by grace. Now to them that believe not,
to those that trust in the God of their imagination, God says,
what idol, what God did any man ever imagine? What God of theirs
has ever made a sinner a new creation and God did the whole
thing? God did it all. Or what God ever
declared beforehand, what He would do in the future and then
brought it to pass exactly like He said He would do it. You know
why no man has imagined a God that does that? Because man can't
do that. And man's God is just like him.
Man's God can't do anything above what he can do. You ever heard
the old saying, water can't rise above its source? A man's God
can't get any higher than a man. Let them bring forth their witnesses,
God said, or let them hear and say truth. Now I want to preach
to those that do not believe this morning. And you that do
believe, you'll be blessed by it. But I want to preach to you
that do not believe this morning, because that's what God's doing
here. He's calling unbelievers to His bar and He's bringing
forth His witnesses. God says to you, this is what
God says to you that don't believe. He says, bring forth your witnesses.
If you have a God better than the God I'm going to declare
to you this morning, that does more amazing things than the
God I'm going to declare to you this morning, bring him forth. Let's hear about him. And let's
see some of the works he's done. Hear this word this morning and
bow to God and say His truth. He's the true God. And cast your
care on Him and believe on Him. All right, first off, only the
true and living God is the solitary God. What does that mean? He's solitary God. If you ever
play solitaire, what does that mean? You're by yourself. He's
all by Himself. He's all by himself. Verse 10,
before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after
me. Verse 13, yea, before the day
was, I am he. No God of man's imagination can
make that claim. You won't hear that claim made
in false religion of any kind. Idols are formed by men and no
idol can claim to be God because none existed before the true
God. He said, before me there was
no God formed, neither shall there be after me. Think about what that means.
That means before He made anything, there was no God. There was no
idol God formed. He hadn't made a man, and man
hadn't fallen. That's where idols come from.
Idols come from me and you. And God says, when I'm finished,
and I've saved all my people and I've burned up the heaven
and the earth, there won't be another God after me." He said,
when it was just me, I was the only God. And he said, when I'm
finished with this world and save my people, there won't be
another God after me. That's the true God. That's the
true God. God's before the day. He's before
the day. He said, before the day was,
I am. Look at Genesis 1. Genesis 1. Genesis 1.1 says,
In the beginning God. You know, actually there was
a beginning before that. In John 1.1 it says, In the beginning
was the Word. And the Word was with God and
the Word was God. That's before this beginning
right here. That's when God was saying, There
is no God but Me. But now let's talk about, he
said it, but I'm before the day. Look here, how did the day come
to be? In the beginning, God created
the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and
void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit
of God moved upon the face of the waters, and God said, let
there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light,
that it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness,
and God called the light day, and the darkness he called night.
And the evening and the morning were the first day. There's where
the day came from. Who was before that? Who created
the day? God. And He said, before me,
there was no other. He was all by Himself. So God
says, bring forth your witnesses. Is there anybody here that can
lay claim that they know of a God that was before every other God? Before the day? And that when
He gets finished with His work of salvation and destroys everything
that's not His new creation, when He's finished, there will
be none but Thee, God. If you've got a better God, let's
hear about Him. That's what God's saying. There
is not a better one. There is no better one. And if
that's so, then say truth. Believe Him. He said, verse 11, I, even I
am the Lord and beside me there is no Savior. There is no Savior. Alright, here is the second thing.
The true God determined the end from the beginning and by that
I don't mean He just purposed what the end was going to be.
I mean, He is eternal and when He thought it, it was finished.
It was done from the beginning. Then he made time and he chronologically
did it. But before when God thought it,
it's done, it's finished. Look at verse 12. I have declared
and I have saved and I have showed when there was no strange God
among you. You know when the strange God
started? When Adam said, let me take these
fig leaves and make me an apron. That's when strange gods began.
They began with man. Before that, God said, I have
declared, I have saved, and I have showed before there was one strange
God among you. Before a fallen man ever invented
the first idol God, before he ever invented one idol God, the
true God had determined the end from the beginning and the works
were finished. Before God created man, God said,
I've declared, I've saved, I've showed. In eternity, God chose
His Son to be the Christ. He speaks here to My servant.
That's who He's talking about. He's talking about Christ. He
said back there in Isaiah 42, Behold My servant. He chose His
Son to be the Christ. He anointed Him the Christ. Well,
you can't have a Christ, you can't have a mediator between
God and fallen men without already knowing man's going to fall.
Can you? We're talking about we're in eternity when there's
nothing but God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. He chose His Son to be the mediator
between God and His fallen people. And anointed Him the Christ and
Christ agreed to come forth and save. Well, that also means there
was a people that God chose and gave to Him. This is what Peter
said, you know you weren't redeemed with the corruptible things of
silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot who verily was foreordained
before the foundation of the world. Before God made anything,
God ordained him. Alright, and then he chose a
people. He chose a people and gave them
to His Son. God said, verse 10, You are My witnesses, saith the
Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and
believe Me and understand that I am He. Well, when did He choose
you? He chose us back there in eternity. There are some people
in this world that preach and teach that when a man believes,
that's when God chose him. Or that God saw you believing,
that's why God chose him. God says in eternity, He said,
I chose you that you might know Me and believe Me and understand
that I am He. I chose you that I might give
you an understanding of who I am. Not because you had an understanding
or because I saw you would. I chose you that I might give
you an understanding. By choosing His people in Christ
and setting Christ up to come forth and save His people. In
eternity God saved His people. Verse 12, I have declared and
have saved and have showed when there was no strange God among
you. Can I support this with Scripture?
Hebrews 4.3 says the works were finished from the foundation
of the world. Finished. Revelation 13.8 says,
For His elect God wrote our names in the book of life of the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. When Christ entered
charity ship for His people and entered covenant with the Father
to go forth and redeem us by laying down His life, Christ
was slain right then. In the purpose, mind of God,
in the will of God, it was done. There was no possibility it would
never come to pass in time. He's a lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. Paul told Timothy, He saved us
and He called us with a holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given
us in Christ Jesus before the world began. Are you saying He
called us and saved us before the world began? That's exactly
what I'm saying, because that's what Paul is saying. You read
Romans 8. Whom he did foreknow, them he
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. Whom
he did predestinate, them he also justified. Whom he justified,
them he also glorified. Whom he called and whom he called,
them he justified. Whom he justified, he glorified.
All that's in the past tense. And the good things that he's
been working together for his people since he started the first
tick of time is to bring all those things to pass in time.
But in eternity, when God purposed it, God's not a creature of time
like us. It's finished. Before there was
any strange God among you, before you fell and started creating
these vain gods, God said, I already saved and called before the world
was made. In the great day of judgment,
Matthew 25.34, in the great day of judgment, Christ the King
is going to say to them on His right hand, Come ye, blessed
of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation
of the world. Already prepared. Already prepared. And then He said, and I've showed
from the beginning. Once He made creation, God's
been showing from the beginning how He's going to save His people.
And in all ages of time, He's just been bringing to pass everything
He said He would do. That animal that as soon as Adam
and Eve sinned, The Lord came and He slew an animal and He
made coats of skins and He covered their nakedness with that animal.
God said, I showed from the beginning. What's He been showing? That
was a picture of Christ. Abel's lamb? Why did God receive
Abel? Because he came by faith. That's what the scripture said.
By faith, Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain.
He came by faith. He came through the blood of
a lamb. He came owning to God that he deserved to die and had
to die in a substitute. That's why God received him.
And that's a picture of Christ. Christ's blood speaks better
things than that of Abel's. Noah's ark. What's that typify? All God's people were in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Just like Noah and his family
was in that ark. And the flood of God's justice
came down upon Christ Jesus just like the flood came down upon
that ark. But that flood didn't touch Noah and his family. They
were delivered out the other side of that flood to a brand
new heaven and a brand new earth. And that's what's going to happen
for all His people. We were in Christ, He bore the
justice of God, He justified His people, and He's going to
deliver us to a brand new heaven and a brand new earth. Already
has. We already arose in Him and sat
down in Him at the right hand of God. God declared to Abraham
over 430 years beforehand, He told him that he's going to have
children. Abraham didn't even have children yet. And God told
him he's going to have some children, and they're going to be a great
nation, and they're going to go down into Egypt and end up
in bondage. And God said, I'm going to come
and I'm going to redeem them out of bondage. and deliver them
into the Promised Land. What was God showing by all that?
He was showing how from before the foundation of the world,
long before any of this ever came to pass, God determined
the end from the beginning. God determined His people would
fall in at Him, and we would go into bondage just like Israel
did, and then God would send forth Christ, the Passover Lamb,
and who would lay down His life and redeem us out from bondage,
and Christ would keep us the rest of our days through this
wilderness and deliver us into the Promised Land. He has been
showing us all along through the ages. And you know, the thing
is, God is so sovereign, He used nations to show us these things.
We will sit down with our children and we will take some building
blocks or something and we will construct something and give
them a little illustration of something we are trying to teach
them. God used nations. God used men. God used kingdoms
to show how He saves His people. God told David long after he
was dead, he said, your seed is coming through you. And he
said, and he's going to build my house and he's going to establish
my kingdom and he's going to make your throne to last forever. Solomon didn't do that. Solomon
was a picture of the one who did it. But Peter stood up on
the day of Pentecost and he said, ìLet all the house of Israel
know assuredly that same Jesus whom you crucified.î He said,
ìDavidís dead and buried and his sepulchre is with us to this
day.î And he said, ìDavid said, ìThee, Lord, said to my Lord,
sit thou on my right hand, so that I may make thy enemies thy
footstool.î He said, ìDavid was told by Christ.î And he said,
ìAnd let it be known to you This same Jesus, God has made Him
both Lord and Christ. He's reigning on David's throne,
and David's throne will last forever. God's been showing it
all along. Showing it all along. Look back
at Isaiah 40. Listen to what He said. Isaiah
40, verse 21. Have you not known? Have you
not heard? Have they not been told you from
the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth,
it is He that is set up on the circle of the earth, and the
inhabitants thereof are His grasshoppers, that stretches out the heavens
as a curtain, and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in? that
bring princes to nothing, He makes the judges of the earth
as vanity. They shall not be planted, yea,
they shall not be sown, yea, their stalks shall not take root
in the earth, and He shall blow upon them, and they shall wither,
and the whirlwind will take them away as stubble. To whom then
will you liken Me, or shall I be equal, saith the Holy One?" There's
none like God. None like God. He really is God.
He really is the Savior of His people. He said, there's no other
Savior but Me. Well here's the third thing. So hear what God
says. You got a God that's, anybody
here that's an unbeliever, everybody's got a God in their imagination.
Everybody has made a statement or will make a statement in their
lifetime that doesn't believe God. They will say, well this
is how I think God is. It don't matter what you think
God is. What matters is what this book
says. And God says, if you can bring forth your witness and
show a God more majestic and more holy and more sovereign
and more powerful to save His people than this God, bring Him
on. Bring Him on. Or else bow to God and believe
Him today. Believe Him today. Here's the
third thing. Only God regenerates His chosen
and gives us spiritual understanding to know and believe Him. He's
the only one who does this. Look here in verse 10. You are
my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen,
that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. He not only does these things on
a grand scale, then he takes each individual chosen child. We come into this world, He orders
everything so that we're born the first time, and we're raised
up by our parents, and at some point in our life, He's going
to cross your path with the Gospel. He said, I chose you that you
might know, and believe me, and understand that I am. And He
crosses your path with the Gospel, And the Spirit of God enters
in unseen, unknown, without observation, and quickens you. And that description
at Pentecost is a good description. He pricks you in your heart. And when He does and He starts
revealing what a sinner you are, a prick is a good illustration
because it's like a balloon. When you prick a balloon, all
your air starts coming out. and you start deflating and stop
being so proud and you come down, down, down, down. Because He
shows you what a sinner you are. He shows you that by showing
you how holy He is. And He starts to give you spiritual
understanding that you may know and believe and He gives you
faith to believe and He shows you what a sovereign redeemer
Christ has been and how He came and put away all the sin of His
people. He's the only one who would call us. He's the only
one who would give us the knowledge of Him and give us an understanding
and make us know Him. But that's why He chose His people. He said in Isaiah 44, 7, Who
is I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order for me
since I appointed the ancient people. There's nobody else that
could do it but Him. The things that are coming and
shall come. Who else is going to show them
to them, He said. The world right now is in total ruin. Listen
to this. I watched that State of the Union
the other night. And I thought, well, we got it
made now. I started singing that old Merle
Haggard song. We're going to all be drinking that free bubble
up and eating that rainbow stew. It's done. We got it made. Men are going about to try to
save the climate and can't even save themselves. How proud and arrogant are we
by nature? We're going to save the world
and the atmosphere and we can't even bring ourselves to bow the
knee to the God of glory. Do you see the Antichrist all
around you? stands in the temple of God,
stands in his whole cathedral that he has made in creation,
boasting that I am his God. That is what the Antichrist is.
Boasting he can do things that only God can do. Antichrist is all around you. Everybody is in an uproar, blaming,
casting blame. Everybody is so self-righteous.
So self-righteous. How dare you offend me? Somebody so deserving of so much
honor and glory, how dare you offend me and get so mad and
just cast in blame? Now let me ask you this. In the
middle of all this, how is God's child going to have peace? How are you going to have peace?
How are you going to be just settled? How are you going to know when
God in His providence turns your world upside down by the things
He does and puts you in a position where there's nothing you can
do about it whatsoever? How are you going to have peace?
You can't fix it. God comes and speaks into your
heart and reminds you, I'm God. Before I made anything, I was
the only one that existed. I created it all. He's in control
of it all. He's bringing His eternal will
to pass through it all. He's glorifying His Son through
it all. He's saving His people through it all. There's not one
moment out of order. There's not one thing coming
to pass out of order. It's all coming to pass exactly
like God ordained from eternity. He's bringing it all to pass. Is God that big? God's that big. And He reminds you of this and
at the same time reminds you, I've already paid my blood for
you. I've already put away your sin.
You're seated here with me right now. I'm just bringing you through
and teaching you more and more of who I am so that you trust
Me and stand still and see the salvation of the Lord and stop
trying to work out your own salvation. And He just settles you down
at His feet and you know there's not anything wrong. You pop open a bottle of bubble
up if you want to and eat your own stew. Everything is good. Nothing is out of order. We know that the Son of God has
come and has given us understanding that we may know Him. That's
true and we are in Him. It's true. Even in His Son Jesus
Christ. This is true God in eternal life. Man can't do a thing to God's
people. Well, my brother strayed and he's run off and he's not
with me now. What am I going to do? Have you asked God? And then when you ask God, have
you believed Him? Have you believed His Word? He
said, I won't lose one. He said, I engraved you on the
palm of my hands. I'm not going to lose one. Have you waited on him? Well, but I've waited. I'm just
tired of waiting. That's unbelief. Keep waiting
on him. He's not going to do it in your
time. He's going to do it in his time. Why? Because he's going
to teach us to wait on him and going to teach us to trust him.
But he's going to save his people. And it's not going to happen
in a moment. It won't happen in a moment out
of his timing. He said, who's going to turn
my hand back? Who's going to stop me from working
my will? That's what he said. He's given us the spirit of wisdom
and revelation and the knowledge of him. The eyes of our understanding
have been enlightened to know Him. He's shown you what the
hope of His calling is. You'll be with Christ one day.
He's shown you the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints. He's shown you the exceeding greatness of His
power to His people. How did He show me that? Paul
said, by the exceeding mighty power by which He raised Christ
from the dead. and set Him in His right hand.
Do you believe your Savior is risen and seated at God's right
hand? Well, not only did God exert His almighty power by that,
He gave the God-man that same power. He said He exalted Him
and gave Him a name above all principality and power and might
and dominion and every name that's named, not only in this world
but in the world that's to come. He's put all things under His
feet. And listen now, gave Him to be the head over all things
to the church. He's the head. You think He's
going to let one of His little toes be lost? Or one of His little
fingers? Or any member of His body? That's
what you are. You know Him. He's not going
to lose one. Your body, His body, that's what
you are, is the fullness of Him. And He's the one that filleth
all in all. So we don't have a thing to worry
about, brethren. That's what I'm trying to say
to you. But I'll tell you what He's going to bring you to do.
He said, you're my witnesses, saith the Lord. You're my witnesses. And he's going to bring you to
stop and stand still. and see and know and understand
that if all hell fighting against His Son couldn't stop His Son
from redeeming His people, if all hell couldn't stop Him, all
these ages bringing to pass His will, the devil and all the evil
wicked angels that fell trying to stop Him from doing His will,
if the powers and principalities and rulers of the darkness couldn't
stop God from working His will, couldn't stop His Son from fulfilling
the law and saving His people from our sin, Nothing can stop
Him now. And He said, you are my witnesses
of this. Man's idol is not sovereign. Man's idol is not immutable.
He changes. He loves today and then casts
men in hell tomorrow. He is not omniscient. He doesn't
know all things. He's not particular in His redemption. He's not even just. He died for
all men and in turn for how to punish His men and throws them
in hell for not believing. That's not God. The true God,
brethren, the true God says, there's none that can deliver
out of My hand. I will work and who shall let
it? That's God. That's God. Now He says this, He says, Unbeliever,
he says, bring forth your witnesses. If you've got a better God that's
worked mightier works, bring him on forth. Let's hear about
him. But if not, he says, be like
that Syrophoenician woman. She came there and said, Lord,
I need mercy. And he looked at her and he said,
ìItís not fit to give the childrenís bread to dogs.î She hid her face
before him and said, ìTruth, Lord. Truth.î Thatís what he
said right here. He said, ìIf you canít bring
forth a better God thatís worked mightier works and a mightier
work of redemption, then bow down at His feet and say, ìTruth,
Lord. I believe you.î And cast your
care on Him.î And believer, stand still. Stop working. Stop trying to save you or save
somebody else. You can't save, you can't keep
yourself from getting a cold. You can't work anything else
out. Stand still and see the salvation
of the Lord. And you'll be His witness that
He did it. That's what witnesses are. Witnesses
tell what they've seen and heard and experienced. And He said,
you're my witness. So that you know and see and
understand. And He's going to make you wait
and He's going to show you and you're going to see it and then
you're going to testify and bear witness. The Lord did that. I
didn't do it, the Lord did that. And we're going to give thanks
to Him because He's made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance.
with the saints in light, and we're going to glorify Christ
in whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness
of sin. And we're going to praise Him for sovereignly doing everything
He ever did in our life exactly like it should have been done.
You mean even that stuff that caused you so much pain and made
you cry such bitter tears? Especially that. Especially that. He'll bring you to say, it's
been good for me that I've been afflicted, that I might learn
your statute, that you might learn to rest in Him and trust
Him like He commands you to do. Father, we thank you for this
word. Pray, Lord, you bless it. Cause those that don't believe
you to bow down and say truth. And Lord, for those that do believe
you, cause us to bow down and say truth. Save us, Lord. Save this country. Save your
people wherever they are. Forgive us our sins. Glorify
your holy name. Glorify our redeemer, your dear
son. Lord, just make us know he's
all we need. Make us wait on you. Thank you,
Lord. In Christ's name, amen.