We've been blessed by two beautiful
duets today, haven't we? This morning and this evening. I'm grateful for folks that use
their gifts that God has given them to be a blessing to the
Lord's people and for the wise selection of the songs that they
sing. and give honor and praise to
our Lord. Well, let's go back to Isaiah
chapter 46. And that is the portion that
our brother read to us earlier. Isaiah chapter 46. Let's ask for God's blessings again. Lord, we gather for your honor
and glory to set forth the gospel of your grace, the gospel of
your loving kindness to the undeserving through the doing and the dying
and the person of your only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It is indeed our great privilege
to sit under the message of redeeming grace. And we thank you that
you, according to your eternal purpose, you caused our paths
to be crossed with that message of truth. You sent us someone
who was honest with us. and set before us the very word
of the Lord concerning the salvation of the undeserving by your own
free and sovereign grace. We are heard of Him who is your
equal, who came into this world, and who by His life and His obedience
unto death, He saved your people from their sins. And as a reward
for His faithfulness, you have exalted Him to your own right
hand. We bless the name of Christ Jesus,
Father, and we give Him honor and we give Him glory. Help us
this evening to rejoice in Him, to worship our Lord in spirit
and in truth. These things we ask in the name
of our Savior and for His sake. Amen. Well, today is July 4th, and
today we do celebrate the independence of our country. We give thanks
to the Lord, all of us do, I'm sure, for the blessing of living
in this nation where we enjoy freedom to worship God as we
understand that He is to be worshipped. There are multitudes in foreign
nations who don't have this kind of privilege. They're not blessed
with this. In the earlier days, even of
the Jewish nation, as we trace their history up through the
years after our Lord's crucifixion, after His resurrection and ascension,
we find that many of the people of God had to meet in caves. They were threatened. martyred. That's gone on for
hundreds of years in certain places, but not here. And it's a wonderful privilege
that God has given us that we can meet together like we have
met this morning and we're meeting this evening. And we have freedom,
to sing the songs that we feel led to sing, open God's Word,
and seek His face as we exalt His darling Son through the preaching
of the Gospel. Let's don't ever take these mercies
for granted. There is a part of me that is
troubled as I see some of the liberties that we have being
eroded. And I'm sure it's troubling to
you. But our God still reigns, and He still governs all things. And if indeed things have become
more difficult for the people of God, that will be okay. The Lord has in the past used
persecution in order to purge his church of those who are just
mere pretenders. God has his way of getting rid
of the excess, those who merely make a profession and have no
possession of grace in the heart. But it is a wonderful privilege
to be here, and it's by God's sovereign determination that
we have been born into a country that has the liberties that we
enjoy. And I'm so very grateful to Him,
and I'm so very grateful to those of our ancestors, our forefathers,
who, being directed by divine providence, entered into a union
together as they sought independence from the cruelty of and the bondage
of, as it were, of another nation. And then, of course, the fight
was yet to go on. But they made a declaration of
independence. and they signed that document
on July 4, 1776. Well, since that's the subject
on our minds today, the subject of the Declaration of Independence,
that's exactly my subject. I want to speak to you on the
Declaration of Independence, but not our nation's Declaration
of Independence. I want to speak to you on God's
Declaration of His Independence. You see, all of us, and I understand
what that Declaration of Independence of our forefathers, I understand
what they were saying, but really, really, We are not independent
people. We're very dependent. We're dependent
upon each other. You're dependent upon your neighbors.
You're dependent upon, to a degree, the government. And in all things,
we're dependent upon God. Only God is totally independent. Only our God is absolutely, absolutely
free. He is bound by no will and no
law and no ordinance but his own everlasting purpose. And
he owes us nothing except that which he himself has put himself
under a covenant to perform. But that covenant is absolutely
free. And God in His sovereign determination,
He chose a people unto salvation with no regard for the works
of those people. or what they would do, what they
would say, what they would think, with no regard for the works
that they would perform, God merely out of His own sovereign
will and purpose, He chose a people unto salvation in Jesus Christ
before He ever made this world. In fact, these were people that
He has always loved. They've always belonged to Him. They've always been His people.
They've always been His sons and daughters. They've always
been His children. They've always been the sheep
of His pasture. And these sheep have always had
a shepherd. We were given to the shepherd
of our souls, the Lord Jesus Christ. back in the everlasting
counsels of God. He's always been our Savior.
He's always been our surety. He's always been that appointed
sacrifice who in time would come and pay our debt and rid us of that awful thing
called sin. He Himself obligated, He obligated
Himself to enter into this world and establish for us a perfect
righteousness that God demanded that we could never produce. God determined who He would save. He determined before that who
the Savior would be. And He determined how the Savior
would save. He would save by His own bloody
death upon the cross of Calvary. Our God in salvation, as in all
things, is absolutely independent of all of His creatures. No one can hold God to account. God doesn't give any account
of His matters to the sons of men. He owes us no explanation
for what He does. He's God. He's God. Being God, He does His own will. Being God, He exercises His own
purpose. Being God, He works always the
counsel of His will in all things, be it in creation, All things
were made by Him and for Him, and without Him was not anything
made that was made. In divine providence, He's conducting
all things to the end that He has already predetermined. Nothing moves at random. Nothing moves accidentally. Everything, every single thing. Big things and little things. Great events and what seems to
us to be insignificant events. God purposed them and God is
bringing them all to pass in order to fulfill that which he
himself ordained before the world began. I rejoice to know that
nothing, nothing moves according to fate Luck has nothing to do
with it. God. God rules. God governs. God directs in all
things to bring everything that He has determined right to the
point that He has predestinated. And everything in the end will
be found to work out exactly, just exactly the way God ordained
it. Isn't that wonderful? And in
your life, and in my life, I know we have our lives take twists
and turns that we can't understand. Ups and downs. Ins and outs. Difficult times. Every once in
a while we have smooth sailing, but lots of times we're sailing
through choppy waters, and lots of times we're encountering the
storms of life. But back behind all of them is
our God. And He's governing all things
in your life. Every single thing is according
to the purpose of the Lord. And as He rules in creation and
as He rules in providence, so He rules in grace. Grace. God has a people to whom He's
already been gracious. He was gracious to us from old
eternity. Grace is everlasting. Grace never had a beginning.
Grace will never have an end. The grace of God goes on and
on because God goes on and on. Grace cannot be hindered. Grace
cannot be in any way frustrated. because God can't be hindered
and God can't be frustrated. Grace goes forth as a mighty
king and grace conquers. It conquers everyone that God
has appointed unto salvation. Grace comes after us and grace
won't take no for an answer. Grace interferes with our lives,
with our souls that seem to be headed toward hell and death
and hell. And grace says, no, not you. You're not going to perish. Listen
to me. We will all perish if we can. If we can, we'll perish. If left
to our own wills, if left to our own understanding, we will
perish. Because we'll seek a refuge in
our own works and in our own self-righteousness. We by nature
go after a refuge of lies. But there's only one refuge that
really saves, and that's Christ the Lord. And grace will make
sure that we learn who Christ is, what He did, and grace will
bring us in to the fold of salvation. Because grace is always triumphant. Grace can't be defeated. Oh,
it's always victorious. Right here in Isaiah 46, our
Lord, He makes a declaration of His independence. Look at
verses 9 through 11. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God. and there is none like me." What
are you like, God? Well, declaring the end from
the beginning. From the beginning, He declares
what the end will be. And this is not a declaration
of His omniscience. The omniscience of God is His
knowledge of all things. This is not a declaration of
His omniscience. The reason He, from the beginning,
declares the end is not because He knows what the end is going
to be. It's because He's predestinated
the end. This is not mere foreknowledge
of God. We thank God for His foreknowledge,
but that's for the nation. It's loving for the nation. God
knows from the very beginning what's going to happen in the
end because He's already ordained it. God's making no new decisions. He's not exercising a new will
of old. He ordained everything that will
ever come to pass. So He says, declaring the end
from the beginning. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done. but they will be done. He says, my counsel shall stand. You're talking about a declaration
of independence. Here it is, my counsel shall
stand, my purpose shall stand, my will shall stand, and I will
do all my pleasure. He says in verse 11, calling
a ravenous bird from the east, He called those birds to come
and feed Elijah. And here they come. Here they
come, bringing breakfast and supper to the Lord's servant. And the man that executed my
counsel from a far country, who's that? A man by the name of Cyrus
from Persia. You see, this is two to three
hundred years before the Jews will be taken into Babylonian
captivity. They haven't been taken into
captivity yet, but they will be. And God announces that He's
going to raise up a man who's going to execute My counsel.
His name is Cyrus. He's a picture of our Lord Jesus. Over in chapter 44, God says,
He's my shepherd. I'm gonna raise up a shepherd.
And He's gonna reestablish worship in the temple. When I wait, all
of that hadn't happened yet, but it will happen because God
ordained it. And this man named Cyrus, He's
going to be a Savior to the captives in Babylon. And He is a picture
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And of course, this is hundreds
of years before the Savior comes into this world. But He's going
to execute God's counsel perfectly. He's going to save a people from
their sins, a people in bondage, a people in captivity, a people
who cannot get themselves out of the miry clay in which the
fall of man has plunged us. But this man, oh this man that
God's going to raise up, He's gonna execute the counsel of
God. He's coming from a far country.
Where is he coming from? He's coming from heaven above.
That's where he's coming from. He's gonna free the Lord's people. Well, what guarantee do we have
of this? Look at this. Yea, I have spoken
it. God said, I said it. I'll also bring it to pass. I
have purposed it. I will also do it. This is God's declaration of
independence. Let me just show you a few things
down through this chapter as we go through. I'll give you
four or five points as time allows us. Number one, I want you to
see false gods will fail those who trust in them. There are
a lot of people in false religion today. They believe in false
gods. They can't help you. They can't help you. Look at
the first two verses. False gods will fail those who
trust them. Baal boweth down. Baal was a... The male god, supreme male god
of the Phoenicians and of the Babylonians. In fact, they love
to name people after this god Baal. You remember they even named
Daniel after Baal. Baal Teshazzar, they called Daniel,
because he was like the Lord of knowledge. He could interpret
dreams. And that's what Baal means, Lord. Lord. This is the God of the
Babylonians. But he says, Baal boweth down. Literally, he's leaning. What
does that mean? Well, read on and I'll get to
that. And Nebo, stupid. Nebo was another god of the Babylonians
and the Phoenicians. Nebo. He was a god of learning. And they loved to name people
after Nebo. Neb, like Nebuchadnezzar, was
named after him. but these were just idols. And
the Lord is saying to Israel, the day is coming when those
two great idols of the Babylonians, they're gonna be taken captive
right along with the Babylonian people. When this man Cyrus comes
in to free the Lord's people, to liberate the Lord's people
from their captivity. And Baal and Nebo, they'll be
carried away on carriages. And Baal will lean to one side
on the carriage. He can't even straighten himself
up. Here the carriage drops down in a hole and Baal kind of leans
this way. Well, if you are God, how come
you can't straighten yourself out? Come on now. Well, he can't do that because
he's dead. He's dead. This is the God of
all false religion. He's really no God at all, just
a figment of man's imagination. God says, I am God. These are just dead idols. That's all they are. And we bring
this accusation against most religions today. They're merely
worshipers of, might as well be, Baal and Nebo. They call
Him Jesus, they call Him God, they call Him the Savior, but
in reality, they're no better than, they're no stronger than
Baal and Nebo. They carry Him around. Poor,
pitiful idols. That's all they are. Their idols
were upon their beasts and upon their cattle. Put those idols up on the cows
The beasts, the four-footed beasts. Verse one says, the carriages
were heavy laden. They're a burden to the weary
beast. You're God's mighty weak if he's
got to be carried around, I'll tell you that. He says in verse
two, they stoop, they bow down together. They could not deliver
the burden. They couldn't deliver the people.
You see, here's a prophecy of when Cyrus is going to come into
Babylon. And the chief gods of Babylon
will be of absolutely no help to those people when Cyrus and
the Persians come in. Where are your gods now? They
can't save themselves, much less can they save you. Do you remember
what the Lord says? Look over in chapter 45 and verse
20. Assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together, ye that are
escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and they pray to a God that cannot
save. You know, when this man Cyrus
and the Persians, when they came into Babylon, Don't you know
that the Babylonian people went to Nebo? They went to Baal. Oh,
save us, save us. Rescue us, help us. And what did those gods do? Absolutely
nothing. They can't do anything. They're
just dead idols. And this is the big issue with
most of religion today. They're just worshiping an idol.
Listen, nobody can help us. Nobody can meet our need except
one who has authority. One who has power. One who has
all power over all flesh to give eternal life to as many as God
gave Him. He's the only one who can help
us as the Almighty Savior. Oh yeah, here's the false gods. They'll fail those who trust
Him. And I think about people who hold on to their false gods
and believe them and rest in them for years and years. And then they die. And then they find out those
idols can't help them. They can't help you when you
meet the real God. They can't rescue you when you
stand before the Lord God of glory, who is absolutely holy. He's thrice holy. And you stand
in His presence, and you stand there shivering in your nakedness
and in your shame. The only way to face a holy God,
a righteous God, is in the Lord our righteousness, Christ Jesus
Himself. That's the only way to be accepted. Can your God save, or does He
need your permission? Boy, that's a good question to
ask people. He got to have your okay for
you, He can do anything for you? Then you got the wrong God. You
got Baal, that's all you got. You got Nebo, that's all you
got. and they can't help you in that day. And here's the second
thing. Jehovah is the only true Savior. Look at verses 3 and
4. Hearken unto Me. God says, listen
to Me. You've been listening to the
wrong voices. You know, by nature, we listen to the wrong voices,
don't we? God says, now you hearken to
Me. You listen to Me. Are you listening? I remember
my mom and dad, they'd be talking, telling me something, my mind
would be about a million miles away. They'd say, are you listening
to me? And I was afraid to say no. But there's something about when
they say it in that tone of voice, all of a sudden you listen. And
I'm telling you, God has his effectual voice. And if He speaks
in that effectual voice, you'll hear Him. You'll listen to Him. He said, a hearken unto Me, O
house of Jacob and all the remnant of the house of Israel. Thank
God there's a remnant according to the election of grace. God's
always got His people. That's why I'm encouraged. Every
once in a while, people say, you get down, you get down. Well,
every once in a while, I kind of get down, but I shouldn't.
Most of the time, I'm encouraged because I know God's got a remnant
according to the election of grace. I got to hear the gospel,
and I got the gospel. We got the gospel, don't we,
Alan? And we're encouraged. It don't matter how many people
are out there, the Lord will make sure His sheep hear the
voice of the shepherd. They'll hear the gospel and they'll
believe. Because He's got a remnant. A
remnant. And the Lord says of this remnant
of the house of Israel, which are born by Me from the belly. He says, I've been carrying them.
Now these false gods, Baal and Nebo, they've got to be carried.
But the Lord says, you don't carry Me, I've been carrying
you all along. I've been carrying you, He says,
from the belly, from the womb. That which is pictured here is
a loving parent. who when an infant is born, caresses
that infant. A precious mother caresses that
infant. She holds that infant in her
bosom and she carries that one. And God says, I've been to you
as a mother and a father. I have caressed you. I have carried
you right from the beginning. I've never left you alone. When you didn't have any idea
that He was there, He was there. when you were born, when you
didn't know anything, the Lord was right there as though He
took you right from your mother's womb and He caressed you. And He's been carrying you. I
know He used your mama, He used your daddy to take care of you. Maybe an older brother, an older
sister, you've had guardians of your life, but ultimately,
it's God Himself who has caressed you to His bosom and He's been
carrying you all along. And He won't ever put you down.
He won't ever say, now you're on your own now. No. Watch what He says. He says,
what you're born by Me from the belly, what you're carried from
the womb, even to your old age, I'm still carrying you. No matter how old you are, He's
still carrying you. He says, even to whore hairs
will I carry you. When your hair is white or missing,
falling out, He says, I'm still carrying you. He said, I made
you. I made you physically and I made
you spiritually. You live because of Me. You live
physically because of Me. You live spiritually because
of Me. You live eternally because of Me. I made you. I'll bury
you. What a wonderful promise to the
people of God. He bears us. He bears us. He said, even I will carry, and
watch that last statement of verse four, and will deliver
you. I'll bring you to full salvation. I'll deliver you. Don't you worry
about that. Don't you be concerned about
that. Your Savior is almighty to save. Your Savior's the one
who battled with all of the enemies of your soul and was victorious. And He ever lives to make intercession
for you. He cares you and He'll deliver
you. Someday He'll present you spotless
before the throne of His presence. And He'll do it with exceeding
joy. I reckon there'll be nobody happier
about our salvation, nobody more joyful about our salvation than
our dear Redeemer as He rejoices and He presents us to the Father. Behold, Father, I'm the children
that You gave me. Here they all are. Not one of
them's missing. Here they are. Jehovah. He's the only true Savior. Now look, here's the third thing,
verses 5-8, the foolishness of idolatry. God says, to whom will
you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be
like? Who you gonna compare me to?
What likeness would you dare to make me? God's Spirit. There is no likeness
of God. There is no image of God. He
says, to whom will you liken me? And to make me equal and
compare me that we may be like. Who can you compare God to? There
is nobody to compare God to. God is so very, very far beyond
our puny comprehension that we know essentially very, very little
about Him. I heard Brother Bill one time
say, you can't wrap your mind around God. No, you can't. He's
a God beyond our comprehension. And yet, He stoops down to save
the lowest. by His grace. He says in verse 6, they, the
idol makers, they lavish gold out of the bag. Wealthy people to fashion an idol. They waste
silver in the balance, they hire a goldsmith. He makes it a god,
they fall down, they worship it. If you've been in some of
the foreign countries, we've been to Japan, you see false
gods all over the place. But if you haven't left this
country, you still see a lot of false gods. Yeah, you do. You hear them preached about. Look at verse 7. They bear him
upon the shoulder. They carry Him. I tell you, you've
got a mighty pitiful God if He's got to be carried on your shoulder
to get around. That's a pitiful, pitiful God
right there. And they set Him in His place. And there He stands. Because
He can't move. He doesn't have any life and
He sure enough can't give you any life. from his place shall
he not remove? Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble?" Can
your God save? He says in verse 8, remember
this and show yourselves, men. Stop acting like a brute beast,
he says. You're not a four-legged animal.
You're a human being. Bring it to mind. Think about
who I am, oh ye transgressors. Stop with this foolishness. Think
about what kind of God you're worshiping. He can't do for you
unless you let Him. You're holding His will in checkmate. God wants to, but you all let
Him. Stop and think. Are you like a brute beast? Don't
you have any sense at all? That's what God's saying. Oh, you transgressors, bring
to mind. Stop and think. I tell you, people
just don't think for themselves today. They just don't think. What kind of God am I worshiping
here? That's what depravity has done
for us. Our thoughts are all messed up. That's the foolishness of idolatry. But here, fourthly, verses nine
through 11, here are the proofs of the authority and the reality
of God. Look at verse nine. Remember
the former things of old. Remember the past. God's speaking through Isaiah
to the Jews. Think of what I've done for you.
Think of where did I find you? In Egyptian bondage. And who
got you out of there? Did you free yourself? Did you
defeat Pharaoh and his army? No, no, I got you out by the
blood of the Passover lamb. And then when you got to the
Red Sea, who got you across that Red Sea? Did you do that? Is that your own ingenuity, your
own intelligence, your own wisdom? No, no, no, no. You are thinking
certain death here. I parted that. Remember the former
things, remember. These past deliverances. Remember
how I gave you water from a rock and bread from heaven. Remember
all those things. Remember the former things of
old. He says, now listen to me. I'm God. That's not an empty
title. He is God. He conducts himself
as God. He always will. He doesn't need
your pity. And He doesn't need for you to
agree with all that He's doing in order for His purpose to come
to pass. He will do His will. And if you
get in the way, He'll just roll right over you. I am God. There's nobody like
Me, He says. I am God. There's none like Me.
Verse 10. He declares the end from the
beginning. From ancient times, the things
that are not yet done. Saying, my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. And I'll give you an illustration
of that. Genesis chapter 3 and verse 15. The seed of the woman
is coming. That's what God said. Four thousand
years go by. Well, it hasn't come yet. Oh
yeah, but line upon line Truth upon truth, the years go
by and we have more information about this one who's coming and
where he's going to be born, the circumstances of his birth. That's coming to pass. He fulfills
prophecy. My counsel shall stand, I will
do all my pleasure. In verse 11, He'll call a ravenous
bird from the east. Even the birds of the air obey
His will. And not a one of them can fall
apart from His will. Yeah, you're much more valuable
than a little bird, aren't you? That's why He says to us, O ye
of little faith, He says, yay, I've spoken it. If I say it, it'll come to pass. I purposed it, I'll do it. And so he gets down here in verses
12 and 13, here's the everlasting purpose of God that cannot be
hindered or defeated. He says, hearken unto me, you
stout-hearted, You think you're pretty strong,
don't you? You think you can get it done, huh? Let me tell
you something, God says, you're far from righteousness. You're
a long ways from righteousness. There's nothing to you. Hearken
to Me. God says, I bring near My righteousness. That's what we need. because
all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. We all do fade
as a leaf. I bring my righteousness, and
it shall not be far off. And my salvation shall not tarry,
it shall not be hindered, it shall not be delayed. My salvation
comes at just the right time, just like the Savior did in due
time. Christ died for the ungodly.
When our dead was due, that's when He came. That's when He
came. My salvation shall not be hindered
or delayed. I will, he says, place salvation
in Zion for Israel. And you know why I'll do it,
he says? For my glory. I'll do it for my glory. And
you read Ephesians 1. Everything God does from His
electing grace and then the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus, the
sealing grace of the Holy Spirit praise of the glory of His grace. This is God's declaration of
independence. This is the God of the Bible.
This is the God we preach. This is the God we worship. This
is the God we trust. God help us to trust Him more.
Let's pray. Father, oh how we bless You for
who You are. in all of your glory, in all
of your power, in all of your omnipotence, and in all of your
salvation. We bless you, we honor you, and
I know our praise is nothing like you deserve. But someday,
with pure heart, We'll exalt you like we ought to. But even
now, our praise and our worship will come before you through
the merits of our dear Savior. And He'll make our worship and
He'll make our praise and thanksgiving to be honorable and blessed and
acceptable unto you. We honor you, we praise you as
the God of absolute independence. And we confess we're totally
dependent upon you. We're dependent upon you for
grace. We're dependent upon you for
help. We're dependent upon you for
strength. For all of our spiritual needs,
for all of our physical needs, Lord, we cast ourselves upon
You and say, Lord, supply our needs according to Your riches
in glory by Christ Jesus. Thank You for the liberty we
have to preach and believe Open the Word of God without fear
of somebody coming in here and shutting us down. Lord, if it
be pleasing to You, we would be grateful if You would continue
for us to have those freedoms and liberties. Send us away rejoicing
in our God and blessing Your name and thanking You for Your
great salvation. Through Jesus Christ our Lord
we pray. Amen.