Let's turn together to Isaiah
44. God is sovereign. Now what does that word mean,
sovereign? God is sovereign. I'm going to say this and I'll
put it in the bulletin so you can read it again. God has the prerogative, the
right, and God has the power to do as He will in heaven and
in earth using all men, good and evil, all things, good and
evil, all powers, principalities, and rulers of the darkness, seen
or unseen, good and evil. God turns all in the way which
pleases God for the purpose of bringing the gospel to chosen
sinners whom he has purposed to bring out a spiritual death
to eternal life in Christ Jesus, His Son. That's a mouthful, isn't
it? When God is suffering, there's
no one and there's no thing that God is not all powerful over. God can do just as it pleases
God. Our text shows us three ways
that God is suffering. We see here that God is sovereign
in creation. We see, secondly, that God is
sovereign in providence. And we see, thirdly, that God
is sovereign in salvation. And it's in particular to the
sovereignty of God in salvation that God's directing our attention
in this passage of scripture. I want you to notice how this
word of His sovereignty is right away connected with His redeemed. Look at Isaiah 44, 24. Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer,
and He that formed thee from the womb. The Lord's speaking
to you who He's formed from the womb, formed in divine election,
formed in the redemption of Christ Jesus his son, formed by his
sovereign regenerating grace. This is comfort for his people. God is sovereign in creation. Look at verse 24. I am the Lord
that maketh all, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that
spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. God had no help. Absolutely no help. He needed
no help from anyone, not from man, in making all things. He said that He stretched forth
the heavens alone. He spread abroad the earth by
Himself. He did that. The heavens and
the earth. Where was man when God stretched
forth the heavens and when He spread the earth abroad? You think about the solar system.
Everything in our solar system, all the bodies in our solar system
revolve around the sun. The maker that made it designed
it that way on purpose. He designed it that way on purpose.
Every time we see the sun go up, every time we see the sun
go down, we're reminded that everything God has made revolves
around the son of God and his full complete accomplishment
of his people's salvation. Even the history that we're looking
at in this passage tells us that. Notice God says, I am the Lord
that maketh all. I am the Lord that maketh all.
Proverbs 16 verse 4 said, The Lord hath made all things for
himself, yea, even the wicked for the day of evil. God's elect
remnant in Israel were taken captive in Babylon. That's what
our text is referring to. God made Babylon and He made
Israel. And when it pleased God, when
it served His purpose to make His glory known, God took His
restraints off Babylon and He allowed them to take His elect
remnant captive. And it was the wicked hands of
the Babylonians that did it. But they did only what God took
His restraints off, when He took His restraints off. And Isaiah
37, 26, He said, Has thou not heard long ago how I have done
it? And of ancient times that I have
formed it, now have I brought it to pass that thou shouldest
be to lay waste defense cities and to ruin us heaps. They thought
they did it themselves. He said, In Habakkuk 1.6, I raise
up the Chaldeans, that bitter and hasty nation which shall
march through the breadth of the land to possess the dwelling
places that are not theirs. But how would God show His glory
in that? How would God show His glory
in allowing Babylon to come in and take His elect remnant captive
in Israel, His elect remnant in Israel captive? How would
He show His glory? by delivering them out of that
captivity all by Himself. That's how. It was for the same
purpose that Satan was allowed to take God's elect captive in
sin in the garden. Very same purpose. So that God
might manifest His sovereign name in the salvation of His
elect by the blood and righteousness of His Son. You see, everything
in the creation of God does revolve around His Son. It does revolve
around the Son of righteousness. There's no one, no thing that
is out of God's direct control. If it is, then God's not in control,
and that's no God at all. God is God. He said, look down
at Isaiah 45, 7. He said, I form the light and
create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I the Lord do all these things. How we find rest? Don't you find
rest in the absolute sovereignty of God? Do you feel like You brethren sitting here, do
you feel like that you're burdened? Do you feel like that you're
in some captivity, some captivity in some trials or some various
things in your life? Do you feel like your hands are
tied? You can't free yourself. The
God whose hand was big enough to stretch out heaven and earth,
declares to us right here that He's big enough to deliver you
from all your sin and to keep you trusting Him alone. That's
what He's showing us. God won't be frustrated in providing
all for His sheep. He won't be frustrated any more
than He was frustrated when He by Himself stretched forth the
heavens and spread abroad the earth. He won't be frustrated. And over and over He keeps showing
us that. And over and over He keeps teaching us that. And every
time He does, you know what we end up saying? You know what
we say in our heart? Every time He shows us this,
over and over and over. We say, Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created
all things, and for Thy pleasure they are and were created. That's
what we see over and over. The second thing he shows us
here is that God's sovereign in providence. Now let's talk
about what providence is first before we go any further. Clay, what do you mean when you
say providence? Everything that comes to pass
in this earth. Everything that comes to pass
in this earth. Everything that comes to pass
in this earth in time is what God purposed in heaven before
time. And He brings it to pass exactly
in His time. Does that include all things?
It includes all things, yes it does. He said, the Lord said,
two sparrows that are worth any more than a farthing, just pennies. He said, one of them shall not
fall on the ground without your Father. God's not exaggerating. The Lord Jesus Christ's not exaggerating
when He says that. This is what He says in Psalm
104, 27. Psalm 104, 27. He says, These wait all upon
thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That
thou givest them, they gather. Thou openest thy hand, they are
filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they're
troubled. Thou takest away their breath, they die and return to
their dust. Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created.
Thou renewest the face of the earth. But in verse 25 in our
text, God declares He's sovereign in providence over men. over
men. And that's even better than telling
us, showing us how sovereign he is over profit and things
because it's men who believe the lie and really do think that
we are as God. Man really thinks he's sovereign.
Man really thinks he's sovereign. Look at here in verse 25. He
says concerning liars and concerning false teachers, diviners, and
all self-ascribed wise men. Those wise men are the extra
crafty, extra subtle. He said that he makes all the
signs and the miracles of the liars to come to nothing. Verse
25. This is the same Lord that stretched out the heavens and
the earth, he said, is the Lord that frustrated the tokens of
the liars. He doesn't remove the liars.
He doesn't remove their signs and wonders from the world. But
God brings them to nothing to protect his people from them.
That's what he does. God maketh diviners mad, he says
here in verse 25. That word mad, he makes them
shine. Do you remember Thursday night
when the Lord was in the temple? The Lord did two things with
his word. He healed a withered man's hand, made him to do that
which was impossible for him to do without God working, Christ
working power in him. And the other thing he did was
He made those who thought they were sovereign and thought they
were righteous by something they had done. They were filled with
madness. And they shined. They shined
like a light. They shined just like a light.
God doesn't remove them out of the earth. He doesn't remove
them necessarily out of the presence of His people. But He makes them
to shine like madmen before His people. And he says here, God
turns the wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolish.
The wise men are the extra crafty, the extra subtle. The Lord warned
us. He said, there shall arise false
Christs and false prophets and shall show great signs and wonders
insomuch that if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect. God makes the knowledge of the
wise to be foolishness to his people, so that the believers
not carried about with their craftiness wherein they lie and
wait to deceive. Look over at 1 Corinthians 3.18.
1 Corinthians 3.18. Let no man deceive himself. 1 Corinthians 3.18, let no man
deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth
to be wise in this world, let him become a fool that he may
be wise. For the wisdom of this world
is foolishness with God, for it is written, he taketh the
wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the
thoughts of the wise that they are vain. Therefore let no man
glory in men. God is sovereign in providence
over men for the direct preservation and protection of his sheep.
This is what we read in 1 Chronicles 16 31. Let the heavens be glad
and let the earth rejoice and let men say among the nations
the Lord reigneth. The Lord reigneth. He reigns. Isn't that good news? If you're
as sheep for the slaughter, if we're as sheep for the slaughter,
that's wonderful news. That's wonderful news. If we're
babies, if we're sucklings with absolutely no power in us standing
before the ravenous and roaring lion who walks about seeking
whom he may devour, that's wonderful good news, isn't it? Wonderful
good news. God is sovereign in providence,
turning the king's heart like water. Just like water. That's
all it is, is water. It don't have any stability to
it anyway, it's just water. Thirdly, now this is the good
part. This is what we're coming to. This is what God started.
He said, thus saith the Lord thy Redeemer. and He that called
you, formed you from the womb. He said all this to bring us
to this point right here, to show us He's sovereign in salvation. What do you mean by that, He's
sovereign in salvation? I mean salvation is of the Lord.
I mean that God purposed it. I mean that God designed everything
in His eternal counsel. Meaning that He chose whom He
would save. Meaning He chose who would do the saving, His
Son Christ Jesus the Lord. Meaning that He trusted everything
into His hand to honor His glory and fulfill all righteousness.
Meaning that He came forth and accomplished it. Meaning that
He has risen again and all power in heaven and earth is His. Meaning
that He is the one who's ruling and reigning in the earth right
now. Meaning that He's calling out His sheep affectually in
the heart and bringing them to Himself. Meaning that He will
keep them and preserve them and bring everyone of them home to
Him and not one shall be lost. And that every one of His sheep,
not one of them, not one of them will point to themselves and
say, I have anything to glory in. Every one of them will say,
He alone accomplished my salvation. God is sovereign in the salvation
of His people. Look at verse 26. He says, He's
God that confirmeth the word of His servant, and performeth
the counsel of His messengers, that saith to Jerusalem, Thou
shalt be inhabited. This is the word. This is the
word of His servant. This is the counsel of His messengers.
This is what His messengers and His servants say. They say to
Jerusalem, Thou shalt be inhabited. and to the cities of Judah you
shall be built and God will raise up the decayed places thereof. They say to the deep be dry and
he says and I'll dry up thy rivers. The messengers of God are his
witnesses. They're folks he's already born
of his spirit and given his word and sent them forth to bear witness
of him alone. That's who his messengers are. Those that God
sent before Christ walked this earth, as well as those after
Christ walked this earth, they're his messengers. And those that
walked this earth while Christ walked this earth. Isaiah and
the prophets declared They came forward and they said that Israel
would be taken captive in Babylon. Isaiah has been saying this from
the very beginning. Because God's people were... It was their own fault. It was
no fault of God's whatsoever. They went away backwards from
God. That's what we did. That's what we did in sin. We
went away backwards from God. And Isaiah has been declaring
from the beginning that that Israel would go into Babylonian
captivity. And the Lord confirmed and performed
every word that He said. Every word. And Isaiah is saying
right here to us that Jerusalem is going to be inhabited again.
And the cities of Judah will be built. And the decayed places
will be built up. And the Lord did everything Isaiah
said. He did. He brought them right
out of Babylon. He brought them right down the highway he said
he'd provide. He brought them right back to
the city Jerusalem. He had the temple built again,
walls built up, and that city established again, just like
he said he would. Just like he said he would. The
Lord's apostles preached the gospel, and the Lord confirmed
every word that they spoke, performing miracles and converting sinners. Look over at Hebrews 2 verse
3. Hebrews 2 verse 3. How shall we escape if we neglect
so great salvation? which at the first began to be
spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with different miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to his own will. The Lord confirms
his gospel in our day, performs this very same thing in our day
by his operation of grace in the hearts of sinners who were
dead in trespasses and in sin. Thou, you who hath he quickened,
who were dead in trespasses and in sin." You were dead in trespasses
and in sin. There's no power, absolutely
no power to confirm, there's no power to perform, no power
to quicken, no power to make the word effectual in God's messengers. They have no power to do it.
His messengers have absolutely no power in us to make anybody
believe. Not at all. We might as well
stop acting like we do. There's absolute power in God
who sends the messengers though. Absolute power in Him. God sovereignly
performs the counsel of His messengers because God's messengers only
declare what God says in His Word. You want to appear brilliant?
You want to appear just brilliant? Don't tell needy sinners anything
but what God says He does for needy sinners. Don't tell any
sinners, robbed and bankrupt, in their dead, dying, decayed
flesh, don't tell them anything but that salvation is of the
Lord. that God saves whom He will and passes by whom He will. And you'll see God confirm and
perform His Word. If all we say is what God said,
we can be sure it'll be confirmed and performed. That's brilliant,
isn't it? It's just amazingly simple, isn't
it? Astoundingly simple. Well, we see here heavenly Jerusalem
He said will be inhabited. His local assembly shall be built
just like Judah. As the gospel goes forth, His
dead and decayed elect are each one raised up in regeneration
by the Spirit of God just like those decayed places in Jerusalem
and Judah. That's what He's showing us here.
He's not just telling us all this so you can look back on
Babylon and Israel's interaction with one another and have some
idea of what took place in history. He's showing us how He saves
sinners. The salvation of God's elect
is sure because Christ Jesus is the great shepherd of his
sheep. He is the servant. That's what we see pictured here
in Cyrus. Christ is the sovereign savior.
Look at verse 28. He saith of Cyrus, 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.
Cyrus, this word is going forth, he was chosen and foretold of
his coming over 200 years before he ever arrived on the scene.
200 years before. Christ Jesus is the one God chose
and of whom all the prophets bore witness. He chose him from
eternity. Long, long, long, long before
200 years ago. Long before 2,000 years ago.
God who at sundry times and in different manners spake in time
passing to the fathers by the prophets. He's the one that all
the prophets were speaking about. That's who Isaiah's talking about.
And he, God, was speaking and talking about his Son, and he
hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath
appointed heir of all things, by whom he also made the worlds. He's the one by whom he made
the worlds. That's how long ago he was anointed
and chosen to come forth. Cyrus came down from distant
mountains down to Babylon to deliver God's remnant out of
Babylonian captivity. Christ Jesus is the Son of God
come down out of God's mountain, out of heaven itself into this
Babylon in which we dwell to deliver His elect children out
of Babylon, the sinful Babylonian captivity of our sin and rebellion
in this world. Cyrus here, his name signifies
son, S-U-N. That's what his name signifies.
Christ is really the light. He is really the son, S-U-N,
of righteousness. He's really the one of whom the
whole world revolves. Cyrus was called of God, my shepherd. Look there. He saith, he's my
shepherd. He's my shepherd. God the Father
chose Christ. He chose His Son. He's God's
shepherd. God's shepherd to shepherd His
flock. God's shepherd to deliver His
elect remnant out of sin and captivity. God says here, and
He shall perform all my pleasure. You know what Christ did? He
fulfilled all righteousness. Look over at Isaiah 53. He laid
down his life for his sheep. He put away the sins of his people
by the sacrifice of himself. He made full satisfaction of
God for the sin of his people according to God's good pleasure.
Look at verse Isaiah 53 10. It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. It made satisfaction to God to
bruise his son. He hath put him to grief. When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. The
pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He's the shepherd. He's the anointed shepherd. He's
the one who did all God's pleasure. And look back now at our text,
verse 28, and God raised Him and God set Him on His own right
hand and He is in the heavens right now and all power is His.
And He sends forth His messengers and confirms all the word that
they declare. Verse 28, even saying to Jerusalem,
thou shalt be built and to the temple thy foundation shall be
laid. Christ is our foundation. He's
the solid rock. He's our wall. He's our high tower. He's our
bulwark. He's our defense. Christ is.
He goes forth on his white charger and out of his mouth goes that
two-edged sword, conquering and to conquer. He's not trying. He's not frustrated. He's not
begging and pleading and hoping you're going to let him do something
for you. If he came into this earth and did something for you,
you can be assured he's going to do something for you. You
can be assured of that. He's going to come and he's going
to do something. Is he doing something for you?
Is he? He adds to the church daily such
as should be saved. The Lord added to the church
daily such as should be saved. That's what we read in Acts,
right there in the very beginning. Where was Christ? You didn't
see Him there, did you? You didn't look around and see
His presence there. But He was there. And He was
the one doing the adding. He was the one calling and saving. Every living stone. He says thou
shalt be built that temple. It's gonna be built the foundation
shall be laid He laid the foundation and that temples gonna be built
Every living stone is gonna be put in place by him through the
Holy Spirit of God And they not one of them gonna be left in
Babylon Not one is gonna be left in Babylon not one You know why? You know why? because our God
The God who by himself alone stretched out the heavens and
made the earth. The God who makes the subtle
and wise and crafted men that we are. That made our very craftiness
and our very subtlety to be absolute thorough madness to us. so that what we once loved we
now hate and what we once hated now we love. That same God who
turns away backwards all the wise and the mighty men of this
world and makes them known unto us and preserves us, he's sovereign
to do that because this God is sovereign in salvation. Look
down at verse six. We'll look at this more next
time, but this is why he did everything he did. That they
may know from the rising of the sun, from the east and from the
west, from one end of the earth to the other, that there's none
beside me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. Can you say amen to that? That,
Jamie, I just, Joe, every sinner here that's been
called by him, that just settles us and makes us to know we're
going to be all right. Everything's going to be fine,
isn't it? Amen.