Alright, let's turn to Isaiah
43. Isaiah 43. Titled this message, Save from
the Bartenders of Babylon. This is a word that is to God's
believing children right here where we live today. It was delivered
by Isaiah from the Lord to God's elect remnant in Isaiah's day. They were in the midst of the
nation Israel, and God had given over Israel to curse and reproach
in Babylonian captivity. God promised to deliver them
through a deliverer named Cyrus, which He did. But this message
is of God's Israel, His church, and of Christ, our deliverer.
First of all, the Lord declares to us the problem. Isaiah 43,
27. Thy first father hath sinned,
and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Look with me over
at 2 Thessalonians 2. It is the same word that the
Apostle Paul warned us about. 2 Thessalonians 2, verse 3. It says, let no man deceive you
by any means. And they will use many means
to try to do it. Let no man deceive you by any
means for that day shall not come except there come a falling
away first and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. who opposeth and exalteth himself
above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that
he, as God, sitteth in the temple of God, showing himself that
he is God." The teachers in the temple, in Isaiah's day, in Paul's
day, in churches all over this world, or this nation today,
are not openly saying the words, I am God. but boasting that they
have done that which is the glory and honor of God only to do. Offense, the offense is ascribing
to sinners the glory and the power that belongs to God only. That's the offense. Boasting
that a sinner can make himself born again. Jesus Christ, the
wisdom and the power of God said it's the spirit that quickeneth
the flesh profits nothing. I speak unto you words, and they
are spirit, and they are life. And he said, therefore said I
unto you that no man can come unto me except the Father draw
him. They boast that Christ laid down his life for all men, and
it's up to a sinner to make Christ's blood to have saving efficacy,
to have accomplished that which God said it accomplished. Christ
didn't say, I laid down my life for all men. He said, I laid
down my life for the sheep. And he put away their sin and
he reconciled them unto God. And therefore, it is not our
place to boast that the sinner makes himself the elect of God
by his choice of God, by our believing on God. Men will say,
you believe on God, that'll make you a sheep. The Lord Jesus Christ
said, you believe not because you are not my sheep. Not, you're not my sheep because
you don't believe. You are, you don't believe because
you are not my sheep. Gloring in self-abasement. And
that's what all religion, most all religion is, is glorying
in self-abasement. Abasing self. It is cunningly
defies fables which declare all kinds of ways conversions came
about. Oh, I just saw a preacher coming
to me and my daddy ran out to him and he fell down and he was
saved. Nobody ever said a word. Fable. Fable. It's not according
to this word right here. It's a fable. boasting of increasing
themselves in godliness. Paul said in Colossians 2.19,
And not holding the head, from which all the body, by joints
and bands, having nourishment ministered and knit together,
increaseth with the increase of God. The increase comes from
the head, who is Christ. He gives it. It's exalting man,
man's worth, man's will, man's works above all that is called
God or that is worshipped so that men who call themselves
Christians, who call themselves children of God, sit in God's
house and show themselves to be God. That's exactly right. If we don't live in that day,
I don't know what it is. 2 Thessalonians 2 verse 11, he
says, For this cause God shall send them strong delusion that
they should believe a lie, that they all might be damned who
believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
Now look at what God told Isaiah to declare to the people in Isaiah
43 verse 28. Therefore, he said, first of
all, thy first father hath sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed
against me." They did that in the temple. You see, the judgment
that has come upon our nation didn't start in the brothels.
It didn't start in the back alleys. It didn't start in the bars.
It started in churches where the bartenders of Babylon have
been dealing out this filth and corruption and falsehood. That's
where it started. And judgment begins in the house
of God. God turns men over to a reprobate mind beginning in
the house of God where they can't hear the truth anymore. And then
the whole nation. And God said, verse 28, therefore
have I profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given
Jacob to the curse and Israel to reproaches. What does it look
like when a nation encounters that? I'm just going to give
you some of what Romans 1 says. When God gave that nation over
to vile affections and a reprobate mind, they supported same-sex
marriages, They supported fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness. They were full of envy, murder,
debate, deceit, haters of God, proud, boasters, disobedient
to parents, covenant breakers, without natural affection, unmerciful,
lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God. And yet in the
midst of every bit of it, they have a form of godliness, but
deny the power thereof. That's the offense, denying the
glory, the power that belongs to God alone. God alone chooses
whom he will. God alone redeemed his people
from their sin by Christ's one offering. God alone sends forth
his gospel in truth. God alone is able to regenerate
and quicken and make new the heart. God alone is able to keep
and preserve his people. God alone is the one who shall
resurrect his people in the final day. And God alone is the one
who shall be praised for saving his people from their sins in
Christ Jesus the preeminent. because it pleased God that he
have all preeminence. Now, that's what was going on
in Isaiah's day. That's what was going on in Paul's
day. That's exactly what's going on in our day. Exactly. Now,
here's comfort to God's remnant. This is the second thing. He
gives comfort right there in the midst. He gives comfort to
his remnant, to those whom God preserves in the midst of Babylon.
He gives the word of comfort, verse 1, Isaiah 44, verse 1.
Yet now hear, O Jacob my servant, in Israel whom I have chosen.
Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee. He says, Fear not, O Jacob, my
servant, and thou, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. Jeshurun
means the upright or the righteous people. That's what it means.
Upright and righteous, not because we did anything to make ourselves
upright and righteous, but because God chose us in Christ. And when
He did that, blessing us with all spiritual blessings in Christ
in heavenly places, God made and formed us from the womb of
the morning. upright and righteous not because
our works are righteous but by the righteousness and blood of
our Lord Jesus Christ who by his one offering has perfected
forever all his people upright and righteous not by any willingness
in us to come to God and let God do something for us but because
God made us to be born of his spirit of incorruptible seed
and he made us by his divine power and glory to worship God
only, Christ only. The Lord says here, yet now hear. He's speaking to His people,
to His children, to those He has redeemed. He says, yet now
hear. Do you think when God speaks
His Word and He says to His child, hear, do you think there is any
possibility that the child to whom He speaks will not hear
Him speak? Do you think there's any possibility
of that? I want you to look over to Genesis chapter 1, verse 9.
Genesis chapter 1 verse 9. God had spoken the heaven and
the earth into existence. And then we read here on the
third day that God spoke again. Genesis 1 verse 9 says, and God
said, and God said. God spoke. This is His word.
God said, let the waters under the heaven be gathered together
unto one place and let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth,
and the gathering together of the waters called he seas. And
God saw that it was good, and God said, God spoke again. He said, let the earth bring
forth grass, and the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding
fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the earth,
and it will sow. And the earth brought forth grass
and herb, yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding
fruit, whose seed was in itself after his kind. And God saw that
it was good, and the evening and the morning were the third
day." Turn over to Isaiah 55 now. From that time that God
sent rain upon the earth, he has sent rain and he has sent
snow, Isaiah 55. He has sent rain and he has sent
snow and it has never once returned to him until it has watered the
earth and has made the earth spring forth and bud. And thereby
God has provided seed for the farmer and bread for the eater
to eat since this day that he spoke it. And God says likewise,
Isaiah 55 10, As the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh
it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out
of my mouth. It shall not return unto me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereto I send it. Christ is the Word. Christ is the seed who yields
seed after His kind through His Word. And when He yields seed
after His kind, children after His kind, after the image of
God created anew in righteousness and true holiness by His glory
and His power they go forth and they sow seed. He gives them
through His gospel bread who He is to eat and they go forth
and they sow seed by which He makes His word to take effect
in the hearts of His children whom He shall call and when He
does they spring up just like the The bud and the seed springs
forth out of the earth because His Word never returns unto Him
void. It always accomplishes the thing
where to He sent it. If you hear God speak this hour,
if you hear Him speak to you, it's going to be because the
Word that goes forth out of God's mouth never does return void. It always prospers. Let me ask
you a question. Do we speak half-truth when we're
talking truth that can be taken any which way that the hearer
wants to take it. Do we speak like that when we're
talking to our banker or to our accountant? If it's important,
we say it as clearly as we can possibly say it, don't we? If
it is important to us. If it's not, we'll just mealy
mouth around because we don't really care if anybody hears
what we say or not. But if it is important, we say it as clearly
as we possibly can say it because it's very important to us. If
we could, if we had the power and the glory to do it, we'd
make the one who hears us to hear exactly what we're saying.
Well, God is that divine power and wisdom, and He is able to
make His words go forth effectually and accomplish life in His children,
which He sends it forth for. So yes, when He says, hear, His
children shall hear. He says to us, fear not, verse
2. Thus saith the Lord, Isaiah 44,
2. Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee, fear not. This is what He said. This
is what He said when He said, yet not hear, yet hear. Fear not. Now every believer
sitting here knows the fear that they knew in Isaiah's day. We
know the fear that Paul knew in his day. We have the same
fear right here in our day. Babylon came in. God turned the
nation over to Babylon. And they had sons and daughters,
they had husbands and wives, they had mothers and fathers,
family friends whom they loved dearly, who were worshipping
the God of Babylon and calling it, worshipping the true and
living God. Men don't worship idols and call
it worshipping idols. They call it worshipping God.
They call it worshipping the true and living God. And that's
exactly what they were doing. What makes a child of God, who
sees this all around us with the ones we love so dearly, what
makes us not just give up and give in? Verse 2, Thus saith
the Lord, I will help thee, fear not. That's the only reason. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, He
that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. He that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me. He said, If any man come
to me and hate not his father and mother and wife and children
and brethren and sisters, yea, his own life also, he cannot
be my disciple. Why not? Why not? Because true love, true love,
do something to show me you love me. True love, true love, true
love that is born of God is to have our conscience sprinkled
from the evil of lies and half-truths. It's to have our conscience sprinkled
from vain works so that we love as we have been loved, so that
we go forth honoring the Son who has made us worthy to be
accepted of the Father by speaking that which honors the Son. And
as much as we love mother and father, as much as we love son
or daughter, as much as we love brother and sister, God by His
grace has made us to love our Redeemer more than them. And
that is the greatest act of love God could ever have done for
those that we love. To make us love him more than
them. Not only that, he's made us to
love him more than our own selves. Because whenever we start to
declare the truth and stand for the truth, I know this from a
fact. The man who was my dearest loved
one when I was a child, endured hard arrows and hard barbs and
fiery words that came from me repeatedly, telling him, I will
worship, I will go with you if we could go someplace besides
this place because I don't think that God is God. And because
God had put love in the man's heart, and strengthened him to
stand and tell me the truth, he would not be moved, and he
loved God his Father more than he loved me. He loved Christ
who redeemed him more than he loved me, and more than he loved
his own self. So that he bore those arrows,
and he bore those barbs, and he bore that kicking and screaming,
and he took it and he absorbed it upon himself. just like the
Redeemer that redeemed him from all iniquity, took it all upon
himself and showed, laid down his life and showed the greatest
love a man could show. He did that, my dearest loved
one, did that showing me the love that man truly shows when
he sets forth the truth and will not be moved from that truth.
That's the greatest love a man could show to another man, to
another sinner. The glory and power of God, the
truth of the Word of Christ and Him crucified is the only hope
for those we love. I want you to read a sad verse.
Micah 2. Micah 2. One of the saddest verses
in all Scripture. Micah 2. They had a bunch of
dear loved ones who wouldn't endure sound doctrine. They were
after their own lust. They wanted teachers who preached
smooth things. And they would say this, this
is what the Lord said they were saying, Micah 2, 6, Prophesy
ye not, say to them that prophesy, they shall not prophesy to them
that they shall not take shame. O thou that art named the house
of Jacob, is the spirit of the Lord straightened? Is it shortened?
Are these his doings, to tell men not to speak the truth of
God? Do not my words do good to him? Micah 2, 7. Do not my words do good to him
that walketh uprightly? Do not my words go forth and
prosper in the thing whereto I say it? Do they not make a
man to stand up and tell the truth about God to be my witnesses?
Do they not? He said, but of late my people
has risen up as an enemy. You pull off the robe with the
garment from them that pass by securely as men averse from war. The women of my people, this
is the saddest verse, the women of my people have you cast out
from their pleasant houses. From their children have you
taken away my glory forever. How'd they do it? just by giving
them what they wanted. Just by giving them prophets
who would speak smooth things to them and not tell them the
truth about God. He said, you have taken away
my glory from these children forever. That's a sad story. That's a sad word. Hear this
word, the word of the Lord this morning. Hear the word of the
Lord this morning. You who are called You have been
called by Christ the power and wisdom of God, who have fathers
and mothers, husbands and wives, sons and daughters, family and
friends who are yet drinking from the harlot's golden cup,
who are in churches being served the intoxicating wine which makes
the nations mad by the bartenders of Babylon, God not only gives
us the privilege of standing steadfast in faithfulness, of
holding forth the word of life in the midst of a crooked and
perverse nation, but God promises to be our strength. He promises to be our strength.
You, his gesturen, who he's made to love the Lord Jesus Christ
more than our loved ones, yea, more than our life also, he says,
thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the
womb, which will help thee. Fear not. Fear not. That's a
word of comfort. I need that. I need that. I'm
experiencing what that's like and I will experience what that's
like more. I need that. I have dear loved
ones, who say just do something else. Do something else to show
me you love me. God help me. God be with me. God strengthen me. I will do
nothing else but what I'm doing right here for you today. What
I've done every day this week that I have been away and that
is labor to bring forth the word of life for you. And if God has
not made you to understand that is the most loving thing anybody
can do for you. A man don't know the love of
God. Talk about it all he wants to.
That's so. That's so. And I love you for
doing what God has called you to do. doing all in the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ to support the work, to keep the work going
for your own children and for my children and for those our
Lord shall call. I thank you. I thank God for
you every day. Well, there's a third thing he
says. He makes a promise to us. He told us the problem and he
comforted us and said, I'll help you if you're not. Now he makes
a promise to us. God shall save all our children. Michelle, God
shall save all our children. God shall save every single one
of our offspring. That's a big, broad brush. That's
true. Verse 3. This is why he says,
fear not, for I will pour water upon him that is thirsty and
floods upon the dry ground. I will pour my spirit upon thy
seed and my blessing upon thine offspring. Every believer hopes,
every believing mother or father, every believing brother, sister,
son or daughter, hopes that this will be our immediate loved one. We hope this will be our immediate
children. We hope it'll be those that are
nearest and dearest to us. We hope so. But this is the sure
and certain promise we have of God Almighty. Every one of our
children, every one of our offsprings shall be saved, every one of
them. It might not be those in our own house, but everyone who
is God's true child shall be saved. And those are our true
children and our true offspring. It's so because the one that
God is speaking to here when He says, thy seed and thine offspring
is first and foremost His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they
are all His seed and His offspring. And they all must be called unto
Him because He's redeemed them and reconciled them unto God.
Therefore, they must be reconciled to God. They must be brought
to behold what Christ has done for them. and they shall. Who
are our true offspring? Verse 3 says they're thirsty
and dry ground. That's what they are. A farmer
knows that absolutely nothing is going to grow out of a dry
and thirsty ground. Nothing's going to grow out of
that ground but weeds, that's all. Nothing good and profitable
is going to grow out of that ground. And so the farmer, James
5 says, James 5, 7, the farmer waits. he waits. Be patient,
therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the
husbandman, the farmer, waiteth for the precious fruit of the
earth, and hath long patience for it until he receive the early
and latter rain. Be ye also patient. Establish
your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. The Lord
who told us, who brought forth the actual trees and herbs that
have seed in themselves, that spread forth seed so that more
trees grow and give bread to the eater and seed to the sower."
He says, my word's going to go forth and it's going to accomplish
the thing wherein to I sent it just like the snow and the rain
does. And he says to you and I now, fear not, stand still,
stand strong, I will save all your seed and all your offspring. I will save my true sons and
daughters. How so? He says, I will pour
water upon him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.
God's going to do that. He promises to pour, to flood,
He says, with my spirit and my blessing. Where is that water? Where is that flood coming from?
Look at verse 8. When it says there at the very
end, He says, is there a God beside me? He says, yea, there
is no God, a no, not any. If you have a marginal reference
in the King James translation, it says, there is no rock like
me. Do you know where the water came
from in the wilderness? Do you know where the water,
where it came from when they were wandering through the wilderness?
It came out of the smitten rock. That's where it came from. How
sure can we be that this God's going to pour waters out upon,
meaning His Spirit and His blessing, upon all His children, all our
offspring, all the offspring of Christ? Because He looked
to Calvary's cross, that's our assurance. because he spared
not his only son, because he smote him with a rod and justified
his people from all their sins, because he laid upon him the
iniquity of us all and put that iniquity away. Therefore, out
of that smitten rock shall come the waters upon the dry ground."
You look at the day of Pentecost and you see it. And Peter said,
he's the one that shed forth this which you now see in here.
He sent forth the men who spoke it, He blessed the word they
spoke, and He poured water upon the dry ground." Let me ask you
something. I realize that the Pope has abused
the fact that God's going to use men to preach the gospel. I realize he has. Do you think
I'm saying what the Pope has ever said? Do you think I'm saying
what popes who stand in reformed churches and bring sinners back
under the yoke of the law and tell them that the only way they
can be sanctified is by keeping the law. Do you think those popes
are saying what this man right here is saying to you? I'm not. I'm not at all. What caused men
to reject Christ? I'll tell you one thing, it was
you transgressed the tradition of our fathers. I don't give
a rat's patootie about the tradition of your fathers. I really don't.
I do not. What I care about is what does
God say in his word. And that's what I'm telling you.
That's what I'm telling you. It pleased God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And that's how He hath
in these last days spoken to us by His Son, by whom He made
the worlds, who is the express image of the Father. This One
who by His Word upholds all things. This One who, when He had by
Himself purged our sins, sat down at the right hand of the
Father." In Hebrews 2 says then, we do well if we take heed to
Him that has spoken. Which word was confirmed to us
by them to whom He spoke. Those to whom He prayed, for
whom He prayed in John 17 when He said, I pray not only for
them, but them who shall be saved through their word, I pray for
them too. Satan always wants liars, use
liars to make the truth a lie. That's his cunning craftiness.
It doesn't matter what liars say. This is the truth. Wait
for the precious fruit of the earth. Wait for the Lord who
says, I'll pour out my blessing along with my word. and I'll
flood it. I'll flood it. It's sure because
Christ died. Christ laid down His life. The
God of truth shall do so through the truth. Paul said, he said
to the Colossians in Colossians 1.6, he said, the truth which
is come unto you as it is in all the world and bringeth forth
fruit. That's what God said it would
do. As it does also in you since the day ye heard of it and knew
the grace of God in truth. in truth. His word won't return
void. It'll make the earth, just like
it makes the earth, spring forth and bud. Look at verse 4. This
is what he'll do. He said, of your offspring, our
true children, they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows
by the watercourses. They're going to spring up. When
He calls them, they won't be ashamed of our Lord, they won't
be ashamed of our gospel, and they won't be ashamed of us.
Look at verse 5. One shall say, I am the Lord's,
and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob, and another
shall subscribe with his hand unto the Lord, and surname himself
by the name of Israel. When the Holy Ghost has created
them anew and formed Christ in them, they shall say, I am the
Lord's. They'll subscribe with their
hand unto the Lord. What does that mean? They're
going to surrender everything to Christ. And they'll say, I'm
Jacob. What does that mean? They're
going to say, there's absolutely nothing good in me, nothing worthy
of salvation in me. God did it all. And they'll surname
themselves the name of Israel. What does that mean? They won't
be ashamed to call themselves the Lord's and they won't be
ashamed to call you their brethren. God brings about a whole different
spirit in the people when He truly saves them, don't He? He
said, of all the husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, sons
and daughters who are drinking of the harlot's vain wine. and strong drink. He said, trust
me, wait on me, keep standing for the truth, keep bearing witness
of me. And he says, I will in my time
pour out my spirit and my blessing and I will cause your offspring
to spring forth just like I make the herbs and the buds spring
forth out of the earth. My word will not return void.
And how does he back it up? I'm not even going to comment
on this. I preached basically on this last time, but he backs
this up, this promise up, with the glory of His name, the glory
of His office, and the glory of His power. That's some mighty
good backup, Joe. Here it is, verse 6. Thus saith
the Lord, the King of Israel, and His Redeemer, the Lord of
hosts, I am the first and I am the last." That's who's speaking.
I am the first and I am the last. And beside me there is no God
and who as I shall call and shall declare it and set it in order
for me since I appointed the ancient people. Since I elected
my people in my son before the world began and have been calling
them by my grace through my gospel from day one, who is I is going
to do all this for me? The things that are coming and
shall come, let them show unto them. I'm sitting here today
trying to show you this to you. that nobody but God is going
to do this. Nobody but God is going to receive
the glory for doing this. There ain't a church that can
make you believe. There ain't a creed that can
make you believe. There ain't a history of a church
that can make you believe. There is not the history written
down by men and kept and regarded like it's the gospel itself that
can make you believe. There's not a single man that
can make you believe. The only one who can create his
people anew and cause them to believe is the Lord God, thy
Redeemer, the only one. And he says he will. His name's
at stake if he doesn't save everyone he purposed to save. And so the
conclusion is this. He assures us and he comforts
us one more time in verse 8. He says, fear you not, neither
be afraid. Have not I told thee from that
time and have declared it? You're even my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Yea,
there is no rock beside me. I know not any." Well, the intellectual ignoramuses
love to have an application. And God's people like to hear
what God says. So we can go home trusting God.
So I'm going to give an application. What is it? 1 Corinthians 16,
13 sums the whole thing up. 1 Corinthians 16, 13. Watch ye stand fast in the faith. Quit ye like men. Quit ye like
men. That means be strong. Be strong
like men. Amen. That's it.