Oh, Lord of all. Third verse. Let every kindred,
every tribe on this terrestrial ball, to Him all majesty ascribe
and crown Him Lord of all. You can be turning to the book
of Malachi, chapter three. Malachi three. Although our text
is found in the book of Isaiah, we'll get there in just a minute.
And while you're turning to Malachi, let me read something from the
book of John, Gospel of John, chapter 17, a verse or a statement
which our Lord made in his prayer to the Father. One which we quote
quite often. John seventeen three is that
familiar to you, Mrs. Holland. This verse has been
taught to our children. And years ago, even when our
mothers now who were children, I believe Jennifer could probably
quote this now. John seventeen three, our Lord
said this, he said, This is life eternal. The Lord Jesus Christ said that
this is life eternal. That is, this is what it means
to be saved. This is life eternal that they
might know thee the only true God. The only true God. God. Now, why would the Lord say that
the only true God? Well, the Lord, did you read
with me in Isaiah, how many times he said, I am God, there is none
else. And he talks about himself, what
he's like. How he does things. But the Lord said, this is life
eternal. And over in 1 John 5, the next to last verse, the Apostle
John says this. He says, we know that we are
of God. He's talking to God's people.
We know we are of God and the whole world lies in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
is come and have given us an understanding that we may know
him that is true, the true God. He said this is the true God
and eternal life. That is God who is God. Now, let me make a bold statement,
OK, and I and I want to preach this message with compassion
and not be. Not sound mean or hard on. People, but let me just state
some facts, OK? This is a fact. Most people do
not know. Nor believe the God of the Bible. Most people merely think they
do. How do I know that? Because when you declare the
God of the Bible, when you just read his word, people get mad and they take
issue. I acknowledge, like Paul said
in Romans 10 about his religious neighbors and kinfolk, he said,
I bear them record. They have a zeal of God, a zealous
of their God, but it's not according to knowledge, he said. They're
ignorant. Most people, now again, this
is just a fact. taken from Scripture. Most people
have a form of godliness, that is, a religion, a belief, but deny the power thereof. That's what the Lord said through
Peter. They deny the power thereof.
In other words, what they say about God their religion what they say
about God denies God's power. When they say things like God
is not all he can do now it's up to you that's denying God's. Denying the power of God's Holy
Spirit who does as he will. When they do what they do All
of the fleshly tactics and things like business schemes and tactics,
you know, what all they do to try to bribe people and try to
get people in and all of that. They deny the power of God. Is not God able to bring someone? Is not God able to give people's
ear? You see what they deny? They have a form. of God in the
future, but do not. Well, let me let me just and
you've heard all this before and you hear constantly, but
we in in this day. Today, now more than ever has
never been a more blasphemous generation ever has never been
there never been more Bible, but yet so little truth. And what I'm about to tell you
right here is what. Nine out of ten professing Christians
believe about God. And the Bible. This is it I listen
to what it's almost universal belief. About God at least. I'm talking about so-called Christianity
that God loves every human being without exception. That means
he loves Pharaoh who slaughtered his people indiscriminately. He loved Nero who just butchered Christians. He loved Adolf Hitler. He loved
him. God loved him. He loved Genghis
Khan, and on and on it goes. Just name
any notorious figure ever to live, and God loves them. And God wanted to save them,
but could not. He wanted to save them, but he
could not, because man, didn't he? This is what people believe.
Man is a free moral agent. That's what they said. that God
can do nothing but hope that men will let him have his way
in their life. But evil runs rampant. Satan
is having his will with whoever he will. But God can't do anything. That men, women, and children
Satan is having his way. Evil runs rampant. God can't
stop it. He's a bystander. Men, women,
and children, bad things happen to them. Bad things happen to
them, and God can't stop it. And preachers say, God didn't
want that to happen, but he couldn't do a thing. That's what they
say. So they sent, and almost everyone
believes God sent his son to this earth to try to convince
men and women how to live right. If they just listened to him. And then he died on a cross because
he loved them so much. And if they will just accept
that. what he did for them, somehow. It will atone for their sins,
but maybe it won't. If they don't quit their standing,
they won't. And now this Jesus. Is standing
outside every single person's hearts door, just knocking, hoping
they'll let him in. and hoping they'll let him have
his way and somehow make him Lord of their life, somehow make
him Lord of their life. But it won't do any good if they
did, because bad things will happen to him anyway. He can't
do anything. Because they're free morally. That's it. In a nutshell. That's right. Almost universally,
that's what people believe about God, about this Bible. and about
Jesus Christ, and that is not in this book. None of that! We're going to read, we already
have read, what God says about himself. And our Lord said this, and I'm
not going Lord, don't let me get mean, please. But most everybody in here believes
that, by God's grace, you do. As I said, that is modern man's
conception of God. But that's no God at all, folks.
That G-O-D is no more powerful than you are. Right. As a matter of fact. If you just rationalize that
you have more power than he does. You're doing according to your
will is free. His is bound. He can't do what
he will. Yours is free, though. You can have your way. He can't
make you do anything, but you can make him learn. And Satan is doing what he will.
I've often wondered why men aren't praying to Satan to leave them
alone, not God. Well, this sounds blasphemous
to the world. What I'm saying sounds blasphemous
to the world. And what I'm doing is like Elijah
did, Elisha did on Mount Carmel. Remember when he was making fun
of their God? 1 Kings 18? All of the prophets got together
and he said, call on your God. This was the man who won one
felon among eight hundred and fifty false prophets. One true
prophet. And he said, call on your God.
And they called. Daylight till dark, you know,
looked just like one of these Pentecostal meetings, jumping
up and down, screaming and carrying on, jumping up on the altar,
cutting themselves, talking. And he said, call louder, maybe
he's sleeping. The God of Israel doesn't sleep. Our God doesn't sleep. He said,
call out, or maybe he's, uh, maybe he's had to relieve himself.
That's what Elisha said, and it made them so mad. You're making
fun of our God. That's exactly right. Because
I'm here to glorify the God of the Bible. The only true God. See, that's no God at all. I've
just told you about a God who wants to be God and can't be
God, because men are God. But now, enough of that, OK? Now we're going to talk about
Him who is God and just might let us do something. Just might. It's up to Him. Totally. Look at Malachi 3. Now, it's
imperative that we look at this first, Malachi 3, because almost
universally, once again, almost universally, so-called Christians
think, listen to me, so-called Christians think that God changed
from Malachi to Matthew. That in the New Testament, God
is different. Almost universally, this is what
men think, that God changed in the New Testament. It's not the
same God in the New Testament as the old. That's what they
almost universally believe. And God, now look, God, before
He wrote the Old Testament, right before He wrote the Old Testament,
He said, now listen to me. Look at it. Malachi 3, verse
6. Do you see the significance of that?
That it's in the last book of the Old Testament, nearly the
last chapter, that he says that. I change not. In other words,
the God of the New Testament is not a different God than the
Old. That's imperative that we understand
that is. James said this and James one
verse seventeen, he said, We received everything from the
father of lights with whom is no variableness nor shadow of
turning. No variable has changed one bit. Not even a shadow, not even the
slightest hint, shadow of a doubt that he's different. And I've said this before, that
the reason most so-called preachers don't read or preach much from
the Old Testament, especially Isaiah, is because it's too clear
who God is. It's too plain. You know, that's
just too plain. That's the reason that changed
from the King James to other perversions. The book of Isaiah
is quoted more than any other book in the New Testament. except
Psalms look about it. That's my design. Because this
is eternal life. To know the only true God. Look at Isaiah 43. This is what
he says with Isaiah 43. This is what God says. Go back to Isaiah 43 as I and
again, I said, I hope you have a Bible and hope You follow along
closely, because I'm not telling you what I think. I'm not telling
you what John Calvin thinks. Now, look at Isaiah 43, verse
8. Isaiah 43, verse 8 says, Bring
forth the blind people who have eyes, and the deaf that have
ears. Bring them here. The Lord said, you know, the
Lord says this over and over again. Having eyes, they see
not. Ears, they hear not. What does
that mean? It means that the average person
can look at this and see it and not see it. I mean, it can be plain as day.
I Jacob have I love, but Esau have I hate. I don't see it that
way. No, blind men doesn't. I mean, plain as a nose on your
face. Deuteronomy 32, 39, I am the
Lord, I kill, I make alive, I kill. Things don't kill, I kill, God
said. All souls are mine, he said. I kill, I make alive, I
wound, I heal. I raise up, I catch that. Can
you read that? I don't see it that way. No,
he's blind. Bring forth the people who have
ears. I hear you, but I decide. I don't believe that. No. Unless the Lord, you see,
the hearing ear and the seeing eyes of the Lord. They're hearing here. Nobody's
going to hear God's Word as plain as it is. They're not going to
hear it. They're going to turn. Paul said in 1 Timothy, he said,
they're going to turn away their ears from the truth. They'll
turn away their ears. I hear you, but I don't want to hear
that. We all do that in our nature, don't we? We don't want to hear
the truth. In our nature. You hear it? They'll turn away their ears
from the truth unto fables, he said. But God said, now the hearing
ear and the seeing eye is of me. My people are going to hear
my voice. They're going to hear me speak
and they're going to say, that's right. My people are going to see. See
what? See my glory. That I am God. And there's none
else. None else. The word God, the
name God, the title God, just the very name, the title,
means absolute sovereign. Now, I'll give you a little English. Lesson here, absolute
means. Unchangeable, undeniable, irrefutable,
cannot be changed. That's the way it is. Nothing
anybody can do about it. Absolute. Sovereign. There can only be
one. Sovereign means one who reigns
over everything. There can only be one God. The
word God means absolute. That is, nobody can do anything
about it. reign and rule. Only one. There can be only one.
Control. Absolute control. The name God
means that. Now, God keeps saying over and
over again, I am God. There is none else. There's no
one else in any control. Any control. to the believer in here, this
is peace, this is rest, this is joy, this is comfort, this
is salvation. That our God reigns and rules,
and nothing can happen except what he has ordained. Well, the world argues with that.
He says, let the pot shirt strive in the pot shirt. God's people, they love it this
way. They know themselves. They have
eyes to see their own inability, their own weakness, their own
sinfulness, their own frailty. They have eyes to see that. God
gave it to them. Isaiah 43a, he says, bring them.
Verse 9. Who did he say that to bring
them? Who did he tell, bring them? Who brought you? I know that a lot of people tried
to bring me for years, tried to convince me for years. I know who finally did. My parents forcibly brought me
up until I was about eighteen, and then, phew, see you later,
Jack. I'm free! Now I'm an old man, now I can
really live without killing myself. And I know who brought me back.
I know who brought me. Bring them. He said, Stay under the four
winds. Who's the wind? The wind that bloweth where it
listeth. So is the Holy Spirit. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God. God says to
the Spirit of God, Bring them! And, buddy, they'll be brought.
These blind people, these that have ears and can't hear, bring
them. They're going to see and they're
going to hear. Let all the nations be gathered
together, verse 9. Let the people be assembled.
He's sort of poking fun at them. He says, Who among them can declare
or show us former things? Who can tell the future, that
is? Isaiah is saying, What God is telling me is absolutely going
to come true. And it did. It is said that Cyrus
read this and was just profoundly overcome by it. His name was that. God said what
I would do 200 years before I did it. He must be God. It's the
only way that could happen. Verse 9, he says, let them bring
forth their witnesses that they may be justified, or let them
hear and say it is true. Paul said something similar to
this. Paul said, where is the wise man? Where is the scribe? Where is the disputer of this
world? Bring him on. And he said, God hath not God
made foolish the wisdom of this world. Does not God's word make
foolish what men say about their God today? Like Elisha. His God was God when their God
was a pathetic failure, just a peon at their disposal. Their God was at their disposal
while we are at God's disposal. And now look at this verse. And he said, let them say what
they will, bring forth strong reasons, or else let them listen
and say, this is the truth. Let's see whose God is God. Like
Elijah said, Moshe said, whose God is God. Who reigns and rules. And whoever
it is, that's God. Come on, he said, bring them
on. Tell them, let them bring forth their strong reason. All right, now he says in verse
10, speaking to his people, you are my witnesses, saith the Lord,
and my servant, whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe
me. Not believe anybody else, not
believe what some fellow tells you. Are anybody what your grandmother
said your father's father said not believe that but believe
me leave my work. You know most people believe
what's been handed down to them by their fathers and their father's
fathers and so forth their religion. That's what they take up. But
God said now for his people you're my witnesses that you may know
that I've chosen you. See who did the choosing. The God of the Bible does the
choosing. He doesn't wait on men to choose him. He chooses
them. That's right. Whom I have chosen.
You know what he said? Read on. He says that you may
know and believe me. Believe me. Nobody else. David
said, I said in my haste, all men are liars. Let God be true
and every man a liar. That's what all of God's people
say. I don't care what John Wesley said. I don't give a big flip
what John Wesley said. I could care less what he said.
What does God say? Right, Ed? But you may believe me. Read
on. And understand that I am He. There's no way I'm going to be
able to preach this without raising my voice. If the Scripture says,
lift up your voice with strength, He said, say unto the cities,
behold, you're good. But the average preacher wants
you to let Him be God. They don't raise their voices
when they say that. They can get out on peace softly while the
choir is singing, while this organ is playing. Let Him be
God. He says to His preachers, lift up your voice with strength.
Tell everybody He's good, and He might let you do something.
Ask Him. He might, but He doesn't have
to. That's because He's good. That's what makes him God. What
makes him God is his divine prerogative and right to do what he will,
with whom he will, because he will. That's God. Anything less than
that is not capital G, capital O, capital D, absolute reign
in a ruling. He, God says, I love this, don't
you? Anybody who loves God as God
loves to hear God glorified. That's right. All lovers of God
love to hear God glorified and man abased. Why? Because in this
day, as never before, man is being glorified and God is being
abased. Got men on the throne, and God
standing outside in the rain wanting in. As I've said to you, the only
throne man rightfully belongs on is made by American standard
plumbing. And it's by design that every
human being, even kings, have to sit on it. That right there,
God Almighty, proves to man his utter nothingness. Kings and Queen. Well, look at this. He says,
You're my witnesses, that you may know and believe me and understand
that I am he. Before me there was no God formed,
neither shall there be after me. I am he. Speaking to Jacob, remember back
there in verse one says, O Jacob, Jacob have I loved, he shall
have I hated. He says to Jacob, his chosen,
his elect. Now what he said in chapter forty-five,
didn't he say that? Verse four, Jacob my servant's
sake, Israel my elect. Didn't he say that? That's what
God said. I don't believe that, and you don't believe God. Because God said it. Well, that's Israel talking about
the people of Israel. No, no, no. Romans 2. Romans 2. People
have revealed that they don't know the Word of God. That's
what Christ said to those Pharisees. He said, You do err not knowing
the Scriptures or the power of God. He made them so mad. Romans 2 says he is not Israel,
they are not all Israel which are of Israel, neither is he
a Jew which is one outwardly. Not talking about the nation
of Israel at all, talking about God's elect, spiritual Israel. That's what he said. Well, he says to Jacob, to Israel,
you are my servant whom I have chosen that you might know me.
Verse 12, he said, I have declared, look at this, this is wonderful.
I have declared and I have saved. I said it and I did it. Back in chapter 42, verse 9,
he says, Behold, the former things are come to pass. That is, what
was prophesied happened. New things do I declare before
this spring forth, I'm telling you. Over in chapter 44, verse
7, he says, And who as I shall call and declare it and set in
order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? I appointed."
It says, remember the former things
of old. Just look back at what happened
to the children of Israel and what happened to Egypt. And God
said that you may know I put a difference between the Israelites
and Egyptians. I put the difference between
them. He says you can clearly see that, can't you? Look at it with me. Chapter 46,
verse 9. He says, remember the former
things of old. Think back. I am God. There isn't who else. I am God. There's none like me. He says, to whom will you compare
me? He says, verse 10, declaring
the end from the beginning, ancient times, things that are not yet
done, saying, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure. This is the God of the Bible
in the Vicki pattern. He says, you're my witness, Vicki.
I've chosen you that you might know me and understand that I'm
He. Bless God for that, Vicki. He said, My counsel shall stand,
I'll do all my pleasure. You could say with David of old.
When they asked David, Where's your God? Over in Psalm 115. Remember? People said, Here's
our God. We got a little statue of him
here. We got a picture on the wall. We bow to him every morning.
Here's our God. She's a woman. She's holding
a baby and you know we can't beat her. We don't have any idea
why we do that, but we do anyway because we've been told to do
that. And here's our God. We let him be God every now and
then. Here's our God, and they said to David, where's your God,
David? He said, I thought you'd never
ask. They said, here's our God. He
does what we let him do. What about your God, David? He
said, my God is in the heavens. And he hath done whatsoever he
hath pleased." He hath done whatsoever he pleases. He doesn't do what
men let him do. He does what he will. And I do what he says to do. he had done whatsoever he played. This God is absolutely opposite
of the God being preached to death. Do you not see it? Sure
you do. He's giving you eyes. You're
my people, he said, my chosen. Anybody in here who loves this,
God chose you. Because we don't like this by
nature. Everybody in here sitting here can attest to the fact that
when you first heard it and you were in false religion, you hated
it. And you argued against it, but you can't kick against these
bricks, can you? You can't argue. You can't. You
can't dig and dig and dig and search and find anything that
could refute it. If you're God, you can. So you're his witness. You're
going to be his witness. Like Saul of Tarsus said, I'm going
to put this Jesus out of business. He's just a man. I'm going to
put him out of business. You see, I'm going to put him out
of business. And God took that man and put
his face in the dirt. He said, now who are you going
to let do what? Huh? And he said, who are you? I don't have a clue. Who are
you? I was out to kill Jesus and his followers. He said, I
am Jesus. He didn't say to Saul, won't
you let me be your Lord and Savior? He said, I am going to be your
Lord and Savior, right? He said, right. That's the Jesus Christ of Scripture. I've got one objective this morning.
It's to glorify the God of the Bible and of Jesus Christ of
Scripture. I wish the world could hear this.
He says in our text, chapter forty-three, he says, I have
declared and have saved. I said I would, and that's what
I did. Victim, victim. Isn't that what
he said? Call his name Jesus for what?
Why? Because it means Savior. And he said, he shall say, don't
try to won't make an attempt to won't make it possible. The
scripture says he shall save his people. Not try to save everybody. He
shall save his people. Can I say that one more time?
He shall say, I have declared it. and had saved His people
from their sins. And in the end, He's going to
say to the Father, Here they are, all My children. All that the Father gave Me came
to Me. I saved them. Here they are. Who gets the glory? Who gets the glory? Unto Him
be the glory," every one of them said. Him we didn't save ourselves.
Unto Him that saved us, who called us and loved us and washed us
and did all this for us. Unto Him, unto Him, unto Him.
Now men today, if they're not saved, they ought to blame their
little God. And everybody in heaven who is
saved gives God every bit of the glory for them being there. I'm here because he said, today
you'll be with me. Unto him be all the glory. I
have declared and have saved. I love that. Don't you love that? Man, am I having fun this morning.
Honestly, I have showed when there's no strange God among
you. God's revealed to his people
how strange. They say our God's strange. Don't
they? Paul on Mars Hill, in Acts chapter
17, when Paul was preaching to people, the average modern Greek
people, you know, at all these different gods and denominations
and all, they said, your God sure is strange. That's what
they said about Paul. He's preaching the God of the
Bible. They said, it's a strange doctrine. They said, we've never
heard anything like this. Sure you haven't. You've got
a bunch of false prophets preaching to you. You say, I'm here to
declare that God, you don't know. He's strange to you, yes, because
you don't know Him. Strange that God, what I'm preaching
now is so strange to a modern man. But this is the God of the
Bible. To those who are strangers to
the covenant. Those who don't know God, He's a stranger to
them. He says, I've declared unto you,
and no strange God among you. You're my witnesses, saith the
Lord, that I am God. Verse thirteen, I love this.
I love this. Yea, before the day was, I am
he. There's none that can deliver
out of my hand. There is none that can deliver
out of my hand." You know what he's saying? He's
saying, once saved, always saved. That's what he said in John 10.
He said, I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. All that the Father giveth me.
You see, my Father's hands, he said, are bigger than anybody's.
And they're in my Father's hands. No man shall pluck them out of
my Father's hand. None can deliver out of my hand.
Now, the modern preacher in today says God has no hands. Well,
they can have that God. They can absolutely have that
God. I don't. What good is He to me? What good is a paraplegic
God to me? I've got my own hands, thank
you. I don't need any. If He doesn't have any, I do. But how you like this you're
in God's hand. He's got everything you have
everything you are everything you ever will have in R&D is
in his hand. He's too wise to err he's too
good to do evil though it may appear seem bad. God did it. He said control wait until the
end wait to see the end. Don't judge God, my present,
future, people's sins. Just wait. Because God doesn't
give an account of his matters to anybody. He doesn't stop and
say, this is why I'm doing it. He just doesn't do that. Just
wait and then. Trust God and you'll see. Oh,
my. And look at this line. I will
work. Verse 13, I will work. And he said I will do. What I play. Who's going to stop. That's exactly the opposite of
what's being said. I will work and who shall let. You know that I'm going to go
through as a forty five hundred in India. Well. Don't go over there real
quickly and let me just look at one. Verse or so OK. Isaiah forty five. We already
quoted much of this. Verse seven, he said, I form
the light, create darkness, I make peace and create evil. I, the
Lord, do all these things. And you know God's not the author
of sin. Let me just give you a statement
made by a wise old preacher years ago, a very short, concise, profound
statement on this. Evil doesn't mean moral evil.
God doesn't make people sin. Somehow or another every single
thing that was working out. And the greatest. Proof of that
is the cross. The worst moral. Most wicked
display of man's sin and the history of the human race was
when they took Jesus Christ and brutally murdered. God didn't want that to happen. God didn't make them do that.
Scripture says, Peter at Pentecost said, you with wicked hands have
taken and crucified the Lord of glory. You did what you will,
did what you wanted to. But he went on to say, but you
did what God determined before to be done. And out of the most evil thing
to ever happen in the history of the human race, the most good
came. That's God. His ways are not
our ways. Why we think the worst
is evil. Oh, this is evil happening to me. It may not be. It may
be the best thing that ever happened to me. But here's what the old
preacher said. He said, God does not have a
hand in the action where the sin is. In other words, he didn't
make a person literally do evil and all that. I'm sorry, let me get that, let
me make it clear. God does not have a hand in the
sin of the action. He does not make people willfully
sin, but he does have a hand in the action where the sin is. The results, the outcome, whatever
it takes. Or Ron, or he's not God. If he's not in control, he's
not God. If he can't do something, he's
not God. If he can't prevent something, he's not God. I say
to the people today, who say when things happen, you know,
people are killed, or people get cancer, or people this and
that and the other, and God didn't want it to happen, I say to them,
why didn't he do something? Why didn't he do something? If
he didn't want it to happen, why didn't he do something? And
here's our only hope and only help and only peace and only
comfort in all this. That's exactly what God determined
to be done. And I don't understand it all,
but we're going to see in the end why He did it. And I'm going
to rejoice. And while I think it's evil at this time, while
I think it's the worst thing that could ever happen, God has
promised that no way. He said all things work together
for good. All things. And just wait and see. Wait a
little. Wait. And you'll see. And he's going to tell it, didn't
I tell you? Old fools are slow to believe all that God said,
didn't I tell you? And so, that's a pretty good
description. God had the hand in the action
where the sin is, but not a hand in the sin of the action. That's
a good statement. Well, he says, again, tell them,
bring them near, verse 20. And when you bring them near
anybody who bows to an image and praise under a god that cannot
say. They don't know that. But he says. Look under me. Don't have got to say. And if you do when you do. you've
got all the glory you realize it was. That's the God of the
Bible. OK the thing of closing. What number. Thirteen. And number thirteen first and
last person. And with. Praise ye the Lord, the Almighty,
the King of creation. O my soul, praise Him, for He
is thy health and salvation. All ye who hear, now to His temple
draw near. Join me in glad adoration. Praise ye the Lord, O let all
that is in me adore Him. All that hath life and breath,
come now with praises before Him. Let the Amen sound from
His people again. Sadly for a we adore him. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. you