I love that hymn. You know, you
might be sitting there saying, well, you say that every time
somebody gets up and sings. And really, I do, but that's
just a good testimony that our special singers know how to choose
them. And I thank you, Sonny. We enjoy
it when you come and visit with us. You do know, though, that
one day you're going to come back here to visit, and we're
just not going to let you go home. We'll just put up a barricade.
That's right. Good. Okay, let's turn in our
Bibles to Isaiah chapter 43, the passage that Brother Colan
read. Now, tonight I'm going to be
talking about God's witnesses. God's witnesses. In fact, I had
Brother Colan just read the verse 17, but the whole last part of
Isaiah 43, is concerning the issue of God's witnesses. And I want you to pay close attention.
I want you to understand, number one, that Christ himself is called
in Revelation chapter 1 and verse 5, the true and faithful witness
of God. For he is the, capital T-H-E,
witness. The true and faithful witness,
the perfect witness of God. whenever the scripture reveals
Him and describes Him as the Word of God, the living Word
of God, the incarnate Word of God. There's all kinds of ways
that we can view that, but one way is this, He Himself is the
communication of God to His people. You're not going to know God
savingly as a loving Father and a righteous Judge, but through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, our Lord said that in Matthew
chapter 11. He said, No man knoweth the Father
save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son revealing. And He said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by Me. So we look to our Lord as the
perfect witness. And then we're going to see in
Isaiah 43 that God Himself is His own witness. In fact, if
you remember what Brother Colan read there in verse 8, bring
forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf people that
have ears. That's a pretty tough thing to call people who are
blind and deaf to be your witness, isn't it? And so we see God begins
first by speaking for himself. Well, how does he speak to us?
Well, he speaks in creation. He speaks of those things that
he formed. The heavens declare the glory of God. The elders
of old. obtained a good report because
they had faith. They had God-given faith that
God framed the world, that the creation itself tells us something
about his power, his goodness, his wisdom, and even his way
of dealing with issues in Providence. So we see those things. But now
this is an amazing thing here that Isaiah the prophet is speaking
of. to Jerusalem and Judah and then
ultimately in a spiritual and eternal way to us today, the
church, the new covenant church made up of God's elect out of
every tribe and nation and to us right here in Ashland, Kentucky
tonight. God calls his people his witnesses. Now that's an amazing thing.
Do you realize what a great and awesome privilege and responsibility
that it is for you or me to be called a witness of Christ? Now,
that is something. There's no higher calling. I
don't care what it is. There is no higher calling for
any human being on the face of God's green earth to be a witness
for Christ. The Bible teaches that the gospel
of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness
unto all nations and then shall the end come. Now, one thing
I know about the second coming of Christ, I can't give you the
day or the hour specifically, but I can tell you this, before
he comes again, it is his purpose and his power and his providence
to have witnesses in every nation on earth. Now, that's an amazing
thing. So this is a huge witness. Now,
that doesn't mean that the people of God are going to outnumber
the unbelievers, not at all. But it does mean that this witness
is going to go forth in the power of God whereunto he sends it,
in his word. And you know the Bible teaches
us in Isaiah 55 that the word of God is not going to return
void. It will accomplish the purpose for which God sends it.
No matter how small the witness, no matter how large the witness,
no matter what color, no matter what, no matter what language
they speak, God's witness is going to go forth and Christ
is going to bring his people into the kingdom. He's going
to call them in. In the book of John chapter 1
and verse 7, it speaks of John the Baptist and how it describes
him as a witness. It says, the same, that is John.
came for a witness to bear witness of the light. What does a witness
of Christ bear witness to? He bears witness of the light.
He bears witness of Christ. And John did that. And he says
that all men through him might believe. We want to point sinners
to Christ. We're like signposts. I've used
that analogy quite a bit, but it's such a good one, isn't it?
That's all we are, just signposts. We're not trying to draw attention
to ourselves. A good witness of God is not
trying to draw attention to himself. He's not trying to make a name
for himself. He's not trying to build a monument
to himself. And like the Apostle Peter, when
he wrote in his old age, knowing that shortly he would be martyred
for the faith when he wrote the book of 2 Peter, He said, it's
my desire that you remember the things of God's grace in Christ,
not that you remember me. So he wasn't there trying to
promote himself. It says in John 1 and verse 8
that John the Baptist was not the light. He was not the light. But he was sent to bear witness
of that light. Now, the Scripture in the book
of Ephesians calls the people of God, and in the book of Philippians,
light. We are the light. What is that
speaking of? Is there contradiction in scripture?
No. Christ is the light. But he shines
through his people. That's what that's teaching.
We reflect his glory. We testify of his glory and his
truth. We confess him. We testify of
him and his finished work on the cross to save his people
from their sins. And we're only the light in the
sense that we point sinners to the light, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Down in verse 15 of John 1, it says, John, bear witness of him
and cried. Here's what John the Baptist
said. Here was his witness. This was he of whom I spoke.
He that cometh after me is preferred before me, for he was before
me. And John's not just speaking
of in time. Now, in time, Jesus of Nazareth
in his humanity came after John. John was born first. But John
even recognized that this one who came after him in time was
actually preferred before him. Now, what does that mean? That
means Christ must have the preeminence in our witness. So that when
we preach, when we tell sinners about how God saves sinners,
who's to have the preeminence? Christ! Christ is to have the
preeminence, and that's what John meant. And in his ministry,
you see such a beautiful progression of that. I've often said to people,
if I was going to start a preacher school, I believe I'd call it
John the Baptist University, JBU, because John the Baptist
had the best method of teaching how to be a good witness. He
started out, he said, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh
away the sin of the world, beareth away the sins of his people all
over the world. He said, The one that come after
me is preferred before me, for he was before me. He said, I'm
not the light. Don't look to me for salvation.
I'm trying to point you to the light, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then he said, I'm not worthy to stoop down and untie his shoelaces. That's where my worthiness is.
He's worthy. Worthy is the Lamb. And then
he told his disciples to follow Christ. He said, follow him,
don't follow me. Look to him, don't look to me.
In the book of Acts chapter 7 and verse 44, Stephen, when he preached
that message over which he made a lot of people mad to the point
that they stoned him to death. And we realize it was the Lord's
purpose to take his servant out of the world at that time and
bring him into the bosom of his glory. But here's what Stephen
said about the Old Testament. He talked about the tabernacle.
The tabernacle of old that was in the wilderness. And here's
how he described it in Acts 7.44. Listen to this. He said, our
fathers had the tabernacle of witness in the wilderness. There was a witness even in the
wilderness. You see, they didn't have to
build a big cathedral. They didn't have to sink a lot
of money into a piece of real estate. It was just an old, old,
outwardly common-looking tabernacle. But it was a tabernacle of witness
in the wilderness, and it says, as God had appointed, speaking
unto Moses, that he should make it according to the fashion he
had seen. Now, what did it witness of? The glory of God. In fact,
the old writers called it the Shekinah glory of God. And that's
just simply a way of saying it was the greatest witness of God's
glory on earth at that time. And all of it was a picture of
Christ. Every bit of it was a testimony of Christ. Every piece of furniture
in that tabernacle, every measurement in that tabernacle, every piece
of metal, every fabric, and every priest and their office was a
picture and a type and a foreshadowing of Christ who was to come, the
promised Messiah, who would come and put away the sins of his
people by the shedding of his own blood. So that those people
had this witness even back then. Don't look to the blood of animals.
Don't look to a human priesthood. Don't look to an earthly tabernacle. But look beyond those things
to Christ and Him crucified who is to come. For He is our salvation. In the book of Acts chapter 10
and verse 43. I believe it was the Apostle Peter there who said
to him, all the prophets witness that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive the remission, forgiveness of
sins. Forgiveness of sin is through his name and his name alone.
What is his name? His name is Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sins. His name is Emmanuel, which being
interpreted, God with us. Don't look to anyone, anything
or any act. For the forgiveness of sins,
look to the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ
for the complete forgiveness of all sins. I'm going to baptize
two people tonight. They're going to pronounce in
that in that ordinance of witness that their hope of salvation
and forgiveness and righteousness and justification before God
is based upon the person and finished work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. You see, they're already forgiven,
aren't they? Right now, before they even get
into the water, they're already forgiven. They're already washed
in the blood of the Savior. That's their witness in baptism.
And I know people pervert it. People take it and they make
it what it's not. But I'll tell you, it's a witness, it's a testimony
of the grace of mercy of God in Christ. That's what it is.
In the book of Acts chapter 14 and verse 16, I believe it was
the Apostle Paul who spoke of those who in time past, or God,
how he in time past suffered or allowed all nations to walk
in their own ways. But he said in verse 17, nevertheless
he left not himself without witness. in that he did good and gave
us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with
food and gladness." Even then, even when the nations were left
in their ignorance, God was still a witness of himself in creation. And then I think about Hebrews
chapter 12. Right after Hebrews 11, when
he gave us the list of what we call the Hall of Faith, the Old
Testament, And in verse 1 of chapter 12, he identified them
this way. He says, wherefore seeing we
also are compassed about, we're surrounded. That's what he means
by that. With so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside
every weight in the sin, which does so easily beset us and let
us run with patience the race that is set before us. Now, how
are we to run that race? Well, look at the witnesses.
How did they run the race? And he identifies that in Hebrews
12 and verse 2. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith. Looking unto Jesus. And then
in Revelation chapter 11 and verse 3, in the end times, the
Lord identifies symbolically His witness over the world by
two witnesses. And a lot of people argue and
fuss and debate over who exactly those two witnesses are. But
I believe what is simply teaching, he says, they shall prophesy
a thousand, two hundred, three score days, clothed in sackcloth,
that is lamenting in sorrow over the unbelief of the world. And
what I believe is just a symbolic way of God saying, this is my
witness. And that's how everything was
established in God's way by two witnesses, two or three, but
he said at least two. Now, here's my question. What
is it to be God's witnesses? What is it to be a faithful witness?
Do you want to be God's witness? Do you want to be a faithful
witness? Well, as I said, what do God's witnesses testify of? That's what a witness does. He
or she testifies. What does that mean? Does that
mean we're going to have a testimony meeting where everybody's going
to stand up and talk about how good they had it this week or
brag on what God's done for them? You say, well, you sound kind
of sarcastic there. Well, most of the time I do.
I've been to those meetings, and I've walked away empty. Yes,
we do testify. But what do we testify of? Well,
we testify, as I've been saying, of the power and the grace and
the glory and goodness of God in salvation by Jesus Christ.
Isaiah had spoken of this back in chapter 42. In verse 1, he
says, Behold my servant whom I have told. There's God's witness
of his Son. Just like John the Baptist said, Behold the Lamb
of God. He testified of it in verse 16 of chapter 42. Look
at that with me right there. He said, I'll bring the blind
by a way they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they have not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. There's witness of God's mercy,
God's power, God's grace, and God's preservation. He said,
he won't forsake us. He gave his witness in verse
21. Look down at that in chapter 42. He says, the Lord is well
pleased for his righteousness sake. He will magnify the law
and make it honorable. Now, how did he do that? He did
it by sending his son into the world to keep the law and to
go under the judgment of his law on the cross to satisfy justice
for our sins. That's what he did. And here
in Isaiah 43, he brought that forth. In the first three verses
he did, he spoke of the Lord of creation, the God of Jacob,
the God of Israel who called us by name, his elect, his elect
people, his chosen people who he placed in Christ. And he said
he will go through trials and troubles and tribulations, the
waters of affliction, the fires of testing, but the waters will
not drown us, the fires will not burn us up and consume us.
And then he says, why, verse 3, for he is the Holy One of
Israel. He's the Lord thy God, the Holy
One of Israel, my Savior. That's who he is. That's who
God is. Now, the first thing, and what
I want to do, look at verse 8. Now, I'm not going to be able
to get through this whole chapter tonight. I didn't intend to.
That's why I had Colin just read up to verse 17. But there's five
things given here about God's witnesses. So let me just take
them one at a time. In verses 8 through 13, the first
thing we learn about God's witnesses is this. God's witnesses must
present their case. Now, if you're a witness, you
have a case to present. You're going to testify something
you have seen or something that has happened that you know by
first-hand experience. This is not hearsay. For example,
if you were called as a witness in a court of law in a criminal
trial, You would be called there because you witnessed the crime,
or you have an alibi for the person accused. You know that
they couldn't have committed that crime because they were
with you, or you knew where they were. And it's the same thing
in God's court. He calls forth witnesses to testify,
and they must present their case. Now listen to what he says here,
verse 8. He says, "...bring forth the blind people that have eyes,
and the deaf that have ears." Now, that may sound strange,
but you see this, the nations and the people here of Israel
are called to either prove their case or believe God. Even Israel
had forsaken the Lord. Even Jerusalem had forsaken the
Lord. Even Judah had forsaken the Lord.
And so they have gone off to other gods. Or they were caught
up in sham, outward ceremonial religion with no heart and no
grace. One of the two. And so God calls
on them to present their case. Bring out the blind people who
have eyes, he says. Back over in Isaiah 42 and verse
19, listen to what he says here. The Lord spoke of his blind and
deaf servants. He said, who is blind but my
servant. He's speaking of Israel there. God chose them. God brought
them out of Egypt, God established them as a nation, God gave them
the law, and yet they didn't believe. Yet they didn't listen. They were like people who had
the light, but they couldn't see. Why? Because they're blind.
He said, or deaf, as my messenger that I sent. They had the Word,
but they couldn't preach it. They couldn't testify of it,
because they wouldn't hear it. So he says, who is blind is he
that is perfect, literally he who is in covenant with me, and
blind is the Lord's servant. So here the Lord speaks of his
blind and deaf servants who had willingly closed their eyes and
closed their ears to his truth and to his ways. So now God tells
these blind and deaf servants, come forth, come forth with all
the nations and who will be gathered together there. Now what do they
come together for? Well, he says, who among them,
listen to this, Who among them can declare this and show us
former things?" Let them bring out their witnesses. Look at
verse 9. Let all the nations be gathered together. Let the
people be assembled. Who among them can declare this
and show us former things? Can you put together? You know, we study history. Ron
was a history teacher for a lot of years, weren't you? And you
look at it. And we know some facts, and we
try to interpret it, and we try to learn from it, but you know
the only one who can really tell us the meaning, the reason, and
all of the facts of history is God Himself. Man cannot do that. He can't do it. And that's what
he's saying here. Do you think you can look back
into the past and interpret these former things that have gone
on? He says, let them bring forth
their witnesses that they may be justified, that they may be
vindicated. It's like God saying, you're
not listening to me. You're not hearing me. You're listening
to your leaders. You're listening to other gods.
You're listening to yourself. All right. Let's see if you're
vindicated in that. See if you're justified. He says,
or let them hear and say it is true. Tell me what the truth
is. Isn't that something? How God's calling them forth.
So God invites both his blind, deaf people and the nations either
this, what he's saying, either prove me wrong and yourselves
right in your rejection of me, or reject those false gods and
follow the true and living God. It's like Elijah and the prophets
of Baal. How long shall you halt between two opinions? If Jehovah
be God, serve him. If Baal be his God, then serve
him. Well, what happens? Well, you can't have blind people
and deaf people as witnesses. If you're going to call somebody
in court to testify for you, hoping that they will be for
you to tell what they see, you're not going to call a blind person
in, are you? They didn't see anything. Or if you're going
to call a person in to testify for you to tell what they've
heard, you're not going to call a deaf person in, are you? Because
they can't hear you. I want somebody who can see and hear. So what
does God do? Well, he commissions his witnesses. Look at verse 10. He says, You
are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen. God has his chosen witnesses.
His servants are his witnesses. Not rebels, but his servants.
And he says that you may know and believe me. If you know God,
you believe him. And if you believe him, you know
him. He says, and understand that I am he. I'm the one you
see. He's saying that can go back
to the former things. And he says before me, there
was no God form. Now somebody said, well, God
himself wasn't formed. Well, if you look in your concordance,
what that literally means is this before God, there was nothing
formed of God. In other words, there was a time
when there was nothing but God himself. This world didn't exist.
This universe didn't exist. It was only God. And nothing
was formed. And he says, neither shall there
be after me. Nobody's going to form anything.
Man's not going to be able to create anything. He never has
been, never will be. He may be able to rearrange the
elements in a test tube for a while, but he can't create anything.
Man can't create life. I hear these people talking about
creating life in a test tube. I want to tell you something.
That's foolish. You can't create life. I don't care who you are.
I don't care if you're Albert Einstein. You cannot create life.
Man cannot do that. Only God can. Now, what does
that mean to us? Well, man cannot save from death. Only God can save from death.
Only God, who creates life, can be our salvation. That's why
we must have Christ, the ever-living one. That's why he stood and
told Martha. He said, Martha, I am the resurrection
and the life. That's why he told his disciples,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. Without Christ, all there is
is death. Now, you may be breathing tonight,
but if you don't have Christ as your only hope, you're a walking
dead person, spiritually speaking. Isn't that right? That's the
walking dead. And it will come to full fruition
when this body dies, and you're eternally dead. But this is the
Lord's witnesses. Look at verse 11. He says, I,
even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no Savior. There's
no other Savior but Christ. Think about this. He tells them,
he says, you're my witnesses. God's people have a witness of
the greatness of God. And if only Israel would have
remembered the great things God had done among them, they'd see
each wonderful work of His as a witness to the truth that He
is the only way of salvation. All idol worshipers have nothing
to say as witnesses, and you know why? Because their gods
can do nothing. When they testify of an idol,
they testify of a God who's at man's beck and call, man's bidding,
man's mercy. He can only do what you'll let
him do. Let me tell you something, that's
a dead God. A God who can only do what you let him do is a dead
God. But the people of God are witnesses
to his greatness and his power in the salvation of a sinner.
based on the blood and righteousness of Christ. You know why? Because
we've seen it and we've experienced it. We've beheld the glory of
God in the face of Jesus Christ. I've got something to testify
of, you see. I can present you my case. That's what God's witnesses do.
I've experienced the grace of God in my life. He's brought
me from the dead. He's raised me from the dead
spiritually. I am His chosen servant. because
I know and believe Him." You see, a witness is an observer
of what someone has done. And Israel, they'd seen the great
works of God. But they were more than passive
observers. God called Israel to be His servant.
And that was why they were chosen, not to sit around in glory in
their election, but to serve the Lord, to trust Him. to rest in Him and to worship
Him, to know the Lord and believe Him in every way that He revealed
Himself. And that's why he says, before
me nothing was formed and there shall be nothing after me. He
only is the Creator. He only is the Savior. Beside
Him there is no Savior. Only He has declared it and only
He has saved. There is no foreign God among
those people that would have done them any good. When he preached
after he had healed an impotent man, he said this in Acts 4,
verse 12, he says, Neither is there salvation in any other,
for there is none other name under heaven given among men,
whereby we must be saved. Now, we know the Lord has mercy
on whom he will have mercy. And he is gracious to whom he
will be gracious. That's the Word of God. But he
says here, I've chosen you. I've chosen you to know me and
understand this, that I'm God." What grace that is. Why would
God choose any of us? He said, this is glory, that
you know and understand me, that I'm the Lord, that exercise loving
kindness and judgment and righteousness. And he says, indeed, therefore
you are my witnesses, living, breathing, walking testimonies
to his glory, to his power, to his grace, and to his love in
Christ. My only reason for existing is
the glory of God in Christ. My only hope of salvation is
the glory of God in Christ. And indeed, before the day was,
God said, I am he. You know, God's credentials come
before time itself. Before there ever was a day,
God was, God is, God ever will be. So His strength is infinitely
greater than anyone else's. He can rightly say, there's no
one who can deliver out of my hand. And when God does something,
no one will reverse it. Look at it, verse 12. He says,
I've declared and I've saved. Now listen to this. He said,
I've showed when there was no strange God among you, a foreign
God. Therefore, you are my witnesses,
saith the Lord, that I am God. Yea, before the day was, I am
he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will
work, and who shall let it? What that means is who's going
to reverse it. Did you hear that? He said, none can deliver out
of my hand. Now, you who know Christ, That's
a comfort for you, isn't it? Christ said about His sheep,
He said, I and my Father are one. And He basically was saying
this, He said, the sheep are in my Father's hands. And He
said, no one can pluck them out of His hands. No one. No one. We're safe in the hands of our
Father through Christ. And when He works, He said, I
will work. Who's going to reverse it? The ultimate fulfillment
of that great work is not the deliverance of Israel from Babylon. That comes. That comes later.
And that was a great work. And when God worked it, it couldn't
be reversed. When God destroyed Babylon and
delivered Israel, delivered Judah out of the Babylonian captivity,
they were there for 70 years. And it was 100 years after Isaiah.
But they were there 70 years. And God sent an instrument of
his judgment to destroy the Babylonian empire, and he delivered his
people. When God did that work, it was a great work, and it was
a work that Israel did not deserve and didn't earn, and nobody could
reverse it. There's no way. This was not
a contingency plan, see. It was God's purpose. Well, the
ultimate fulfillment of that is the work of Christ on the
cross. What a work there. Look at verse 3 of chapter 43. When he says, I am the Lord thy
God, the Holy One of Israel, thy Savior, he said, I gave Egypt
for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Sheba for thee. That's for national
Israel. In other words, he destroyed Egypt and spared Israel. He destroyed
Ethiopia and Sheba and spared Israel. So, in a sense, he gave
those nations as a ransom for the people of his choice. Well,
let me ask you this, people of God, spiritual Israel, spiritual
children of Abraham, those who believe in and rest in Christ,
what did God give for you? What did He give for me? Who
did God give for you? Who did God give for me? I'll
tell you who He gave. He gave His Son. God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. He gave
His Son, and He that spared not His own Son, His only begotten
Son, how shall He not with Him freely give us all things? Think
about that. And when Christ came and finished
His work, what was His work? He had to obey the law perfectly. He had to be a perfectly sinless
substitute and sacrifice, and nobody can reverse that. Not
even a preacher. I don't care what he says. He
was the sinless substitute hanging on the cross for sins that he
did not commit. Sins that he had no personal
interest in as far as his committing them. They were laid to his charge.
He had a personal interest in them because he loved his people.
But they were laid to His account, charged to Him, put to His account.
And He died on that cross to satisfy God's justice for those
sins. He paid the dead in full. He
drank damnation dry. And that was the greatest work
that has ever been done in time, in eternity, on earth. What Christ
did on that cross. He said it's finished. And when
He said it's finished, nobody could reverse it. Not even the
ones for whom He died. You couldn't reverse it either.
You see, you didn't come to Him of your own will. He brought
you. That's right. The Holy Spirit convicted you.
He called you. He made you willing in the day
of His power. Even our unbelief could not reverse
the great work that Christ did on the cross. Because, you see,
He died for our sins, including our unbelief. He satisfied justice. His righteousness demands our
eternal life and glory in heaven. And that's why we can sing that
hymn, My Hope is Built, on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness.
Christ showed this of Himself. You know, He stood before the
Pharisees and He said this, He said, Before Abraham was, I am. You see, we have something to
testify of. We have someone to testify of. We can speak of Christ. And let
me conclude with this. Look at verse 14. Here's the
second thing. God's witnesses, first of all, they are to present
their case. What is my case? Here's my case. Christ died for me. Here's my
case. I'm a sinner saved by the grace
of God. I have no other plea, no other
hope, no other salvation but the shed blood and imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's my case. And I'll present
it before all men as God gives me opportunity. But here's the
second thing now. God's witnesses are judges against
the enemies of God. Judges against the enemies of
God. Now, what do I mean by that?
Well, first of all, we know that God Himself is the judge of all. We are not the judge. But what I'm saying is this.
Our testimony of Christ and our salvation by God's grace in Christ
is a testimony of judgment against the world. Now, look at verse
14. He says, thus saith the Lord,
your Redeemer, that is, the one who bought you, Jehovah who bought
you and paid for you, paid the price. He's the Holy One of Israel. He's the promised Messiah who
would come and do this great work. He says, for your sake
I have sent to Babylon and have brought down all their nobles
and the Chaldeans. Now, the Chaldeans is just another
term for the Babylonians. whose cry is in the ships, they
had a great fleet in their warfare and in their trade. He says in
verse 15, he says, I am the Lord, your Holy One. That is your Holy
One. Now, God just being the Holy
One is glorious enough, but when He looks at His people and He
says, I'm your Holy One, what does that mean? That means His
holiness is engaged on our behalf. His holiness was engaged against
the Babylonians. And you remember the Babylonians.
Babylon represents a lot of things spiritually. It doesn't represent
idolatry. It represents false religion.
It represents worldliness. God's holiness is engaged against
all who do not look to Christ. But God's holiness is engaged
on behalf of all who look to Christ. So that when we preach
the holiness of God, we can take comfort in Christ. But we are
saying by that testimony that all who do not have Christ, who
do not know Him and believe in Him and rest in Him as all in
all, the holiness of God is a judgment against them. Why? Because they have no holiness.
We do. We have holiness. We have Christ. They have none. And so he says,
I'm the Lord, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel. God, it
was the Creator of that nation physically, but He's the Creator
of spiritual Israel. We're His workmanship. If any
man be in Christ, He's a new creation. And then he says, You're
King. Oh, don't we have a merciful, compassionate, powerful, holy
King. Our salvation And our protection
and our preservation is in the hands of our King. So he says
in verse 16, Thus saith the Lord, which maketh a way in the sea,
and a path in the mighty waters, which bringeth forth the chariot
and horse, the army and the power. They shall lie down together,
they shall not rise, they are extinct, they are quenched as
toad. The reference here, I believe,
goes back to Israel on the shores of the Red Sea. It says, God which maketh a way
in the sea. The sea was before them. Pharaoh's
army was behind them. God spoke, and with a mighty
wind, he parted the Red Sea. And his people followed Moses,
who was a type of Christ, and went on dry land through the
Red Sea. That Red Sea was their salvation. And they were to testify of that.
Brother Joe, you read in the study the song of Moses there,
and it spoke of that, didn't it? How God delivered them. You
remember how they were standing on the shore and they were murmuring
and complaining like we do? And Moses stood up and he said,
Stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will show
you this day for the Egyptians which you see now, you'll see
them no more forever. And they walked across on dry
land. The Red Sea was their deliverance, their salvation. And then when
Pharaoh's army pursued them down into the sea, what happened?
The Red Sea closed up on them. It was judgment against them.
That Red Sea. There's coming a day when God
will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to
my gospel. Romans 2.16. That's a testimony
of comfort and peace to God's people. But I want to tell you
something, it's a testimony of judgment against all who do not
run to Christ. Hebrews 11, 7 says this of Noah. By faith, Noah, being warned
of God, of things not yet seen as yet, moved with fear. He prepared
an ark to the saving of his house. And you know that ark was a picture
of Christ, our ark. And he said, by his preparing
that ark, and then we know from other testimony by his preaching
righteousness, that is, the righteousness of the promised Messiah, by the
which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness,
which is by faith. In other words, Noah building
the ark, following God's word and preaching the gospel was
a condemnation to the world. And that's what our testimony
does. Here God promises to judge Babylon. He says, for your sake
I will send to Babylon. I'm going to send judgment to
them. I'm going to make a way in the sea. I'm going to take
care of all things. And in taking care of his people,
and in delivering his people, he's going to judge all who stand
in opposition to Christ. You want to be a witness of God?
That's the way it has to be. We have to present our case.
And we have to testify in judgment against the world. He that believeth
not shall be damned. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. I've got an article on the back
of the bulletin on that passage in Mark 16, and you take some
time to read it, but we're going to perform a baptism tonight
with two people. I'm going to ask the candidates
if they'll go ahead and go back and start getting ready. Brother
Joe's going to come and lead us in a hymn while we're getting
ready.