I don't know about many of you,
but growing up in a Christian home and being in church your
entire life, there were two celebratory days of the year that really
engaged the Christian faith. And they were Easter and Christmas. And throughout the history of
my two decades in pastoral ministry, we've served in some mega large
churches. And in these mega large churches,
the week before Easter was never Holy Week for the church staff. It was more like Holy Cow Week. What are we going to do? How
are we going to get this done? There were extra bulletins, there were
extra services, there were extra songs, there were more people
involved and there were, I don't know, birds in the air. But it never failed. It always
packed up, packed the house, always packed the house because
there's something innate within us as a society, as Americans
that press onto the, the idea that we've got to honor the Lord,
at least on those days. Now, the irony is, is that neither
of those days are biblical holidays. People, historians and theological
historians, they don't really believe that Jesus was crucified
during this time of year. And they don't really believe
that Jesus was born during the December month. So where do we
get those holidays from? Well, the good Holy Roman Church
decided that they would take everything that they could put
their hands on that was somewhat pagan. That's where we get Halloween,
Saint Hallows Eve. That's where we get Easter. That's
where we get Christmas. That's where we get all sorts
of things. The idea of Lent comes from an Orthodox and a Roman
position. And we get all of these things,
and they decide, well, we're going to take all these holidays
that worship everything else, and we're going to put Jesus
right on top of them. And that's where we ended up today. And
some of you in conscience can celebrate Christmas. That's great.
Some of you in good conscience can celebrate Easter. Some of
you, it would kill you to do so. Some of you in good conscience
can celebrate or I don't know how you celebrate, but I mean,
uh, reformation day or all hallows Eve. I don't think it was a coincidence
that Martin Luther chose that day to, uh, tack his theses on
the chapel of Hittenberg. I thought, here's a holy holiday.
Let's stir something up. There'll be out in their festivities.
Everybody be on the streets. Let's do it. Let's stick it up
here. That's not historically accurate,
but I feel like that's what he was doing. He was a rebel. But
here we are today, and all over the world, all over our world,
everybody is at least tuned into the idea that there's a holiday
today. And this holiday is known as Easter, and for most Christians,
we call it Resurrection Day. But beloved, every day is Resurrection
Day for the church of Jesus Christ. Every day is the day that we
get up and we breathe our breath. And the first thing that we do
is we contemplate the glory of God after we go, oh my gosh,
is it time to get up? But we contemplate the glory
of God through Jesus Christ that he has given us life through
his death and resurrection. I mean, that is part of the gospel.
When Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15 that this gospel which we
preach to you do not depart from it, this is it. That according
to the scriptures, Jesus was what? Died. And according to
the scriptures, Jesus was resurrected. So the good news is that Jesus
lived a worthy life, died a worthy death, and was raised to life. So we have hope, beloved, because
God has purposed life in Jesus Christ. And now we're in sort
of in between things. I am a terrible topical pastor,
preacher, preaching and pastor interpret things that go hand
in hand. I'm a terrible topical preacher because I just want
you to know everything. There's 17 points this morning.
I want you to know everything. And everybody's got something
cooking on the stove and you're thinking, I am tearing out of
here when you pray. I'm telling you that. I'll open my eyes and
the room will be empty. But all jokes aside, we are here
to worship. We are here because we desire
to be together with God's people. We are here because the church
is an intimate being created by the Lord, created through
the work of Jesus Christ, by the Spirit of God, through the
Word. He created us, beloved, that
we may be in fellowship with him. And indeed, our fellowship
is with each other. There is no such thing as a Christian
who is not in fellowship with other Christians. And I find
it very troubling to my spirit sometimes when I see people who
struggle in life, struggle with sin, struggle with all sorts
of things without ever having peace. And one of the main reasons
that I believe that they're that way is because they're not in
the Word and they're not in fellowship with the Word with God's people.
And I don't know if you realize this, but we're not talking right
now. You're listening. I'm blabbing on. So this is not
communication from a two-way perspective. This is not intimacy
from a conversational perspective. God's Word, by the Lord's grace,
is going to be taught, and the truths about who God is going
to be taught, and you're to think about it. But what you do with
it after this hour is the most important thing beyond this hour.
What you do with what you're given through the Word of God
is what living out the Christian faith is all about. What you
do with the truths of who God is, whether you wrestle with
them, which I believe you should, whether you don't like them at
times, you come to the realization that they're glorious, or whether
you love them with every fiber of your being by the power of
His grace. I want you to work in this life that you live to
not try to take the Word of God after church service and go,
okay, my Christian duty, though I'm going to be Christ-like and
honorable and moral and ethical, Monday, are you going to be Spirit-filled
Monday? It's the Word of God in your
heart that it might be on your mouth and on your lips and on
your mind Monday. Has the Word of God shown you
something about who He is to the degree that you may have
to call in sick from work because you cannot fathom facing the
mundane of life because this new revelation of who God is
has overwhelmed your soul? You ever been there? I have. And my experience may not be
your experience. Some of us are so easily to accept things like,
wow, but when you grow up like I did, with Christers, Christmas,
Easter, you know what I'm saying? When you grow up, what I did
with all the pomp and all the things, you lose sight because
what you want is that grand, I mean, imagine a hundred people
singing acapella the song we just sang. And it would fill
the rafters of this old building and it would sound so good and
the hair would stand on the back of our necks, we'd get chill
bumps. We would just feel like, oh my Lord, the Lord is here.
But I get the same feeling when I hear an orchestra tune. When I hear the breath of the
oboe. When the conductor raises the
baton. Is that what chills thinking about now? That's ridiculous.
Because there's this piercing beauty that comes from the composition.
And there's a piercing beauty that comes with the composition
of people assembled. Whether they're weeping or laughing or
playing or singing glorious worship to God. But beloved, I want us
to move past the feel and get to the facts. I want us to move
past the specialness of it and get to the Holy Spirit. That
may not make sense and it may not even be accurate to say it
that way. Friends, the Word of God moves
us because God is alive. Christ is alive. We are not learning
here through an old text. This is not an old text. This
book is not this ancient book that was prepared. There are
66 separate individual writings that were written different times
in different parts of the world by different people, assembled
together by God. And His Word is truth. Do you
know what happens? You know why it is that so many
people want to celebrate a couple of times a year? Because they
feel compelled to do something. We feel in our nature, in our
culture, compelled to do something that's right by the Lord. And
so we feel like if we can come to church on certain times, that
we've given it our best. Well, let me give you a newsflash. It's not about being in church.
It's not about serving in missions. Not everybody's called the vocation
of ministry. Which the word means calling,
by the way, vocation. Divine calls, what it means.
We think it means job. Not everybody's called to the
pastor. Not everybody's called to the
teaching of the Word over the church. But every one of us,
if we are in Christ, we're called to life. We're called to believe. And the Lord, as we saw last
week in dealing with the idea of repentance, we saw that God
commands every human being to repent and believe the gospel.
It's not an offer for you today. Jesus isn't standing at the precipice
of time going, I want you to believe in me. Can you please?
He's commanding you to believe in him. He's commanding you to
see him. He's commanding you to be holy.
And we cannot do either of the three. Except that God has done
a mighty work through Jesus Christ. And that's what I want to teach
to you today. You know, some of the most frustrating aspects
of our lives as believers is when we feel like the Lord is
not with us. I mean, just by a show of hands, how many of
you would confess that you felt that in the last year, that God
has sort of left you? You felt that way in your emotions.
How many of you know that's absurd? Same hands. Okay, good. So we
do not judge our faith and the truth of God by our experiences,
nor do we judge them by our feelings. But we judge them by the truth
of what Scripture teaches, which is the only means to which God
will reveal Himself. You hear me say week in and week
out, beloved, that we must be in the Word of God in order to
stand firm. because it is the promises of
God that we stand upon. It doesn't matter what storm
is blowing our way, we know the master of the wind. It doesn't
matter how deep things may seem that we cannot get to the surface
to take a breath, because we know that He is the master of
the sea. We know that all the troubles and the trials of life
give us no harm and give us no cause to fear, for God Almighty
is sovereign over them. We, especially Grace Truth Church,
we understand what it means to say we believe in the high sovereignty
of God. That sovereignty is a display
or an active display of His supremacy. So that God's rule and God's
authority is subject to no one. If God is sovereign, there is
no one like Him. I remember being a teenager thinking,
man, I wish I could just be like Peter. I wish my life could be
like Peter. Because I was sort of like Peter.
I like to pop off at the mouth and get in trouble. I am like
Peter. What am I saying? Not sort of.
But I've got enough people around me now to go on the back of the
head. Don't say that. Simmer down, please. But Peter
was a zealous man, he loved the Lord, even when he didn't even
have the truth and didn't even figure it all out, he knew, he
did know that he had it. Oh, you are the son of the living
God. Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah,
for man has not revealed these things to you, but my father
who is in heaven. Yeah, he's like, hot dog, I got
it now. I'm the man. Hey, weren't you
with Jesus? No, I don't know him. Weren't
you with the way? Weren't you with that group?
Don't talk to me. I don't know what you're talking
about. I'm not that guy. Hey, there's Psalmon Peter. He was
the guy that was with Jesus. Man, get out of my face. I don't
know Jesus, love Jesus, care to talk about Jesus. Man, that
dude's dead. Let him die. That was the same
man. The same man. So I don't really
want to be like Peter because his life ended in martyrdom.
Man, maybe it was like Paul, really high academic. He knew
everything. He was real smart. I want to be smart. But the Bible
says I need to be a fool. How about Joseph? Let's forget
the New Testament. Let's talk about the Old Testament.
I want to be used like Moses died in the desert. Walked around
40 years. That should have taken six days. Okay, I don't want to be Moses.
How about David? No, that was bad. But he was
a man after God's own heart. Joseph, think about Joseph for
a second. What is Joseph's story? I mean, Joseph began to get visions
from God, dreams, where his brothers would bow down to him. Now, what
is a little brother going to do when he hears that kind of
stuff? Exactly what Joseph did. And we see in Genesis account
that Joseph went and told his brother, Hey, y'all, God, show
me a vision. So I'm going to bow down to me. I'm going to rule
over you, which was true. And then that incited jealousy
because his father already loved their father, already loved Joseph
greatly, deeply gave him special jackets, coats and all sorts
of trinkets. And so they decided they got
to get rid of this little punk because he's really bothering them and
they're tired of it. So they go and they throw him
in a hole until they can decide what to do with him. And they
tell his dad he's died and here's his bloody jacket. And then they
go back the next day and they sell him into slavery, into Egypt.
And you know, Joseph tries to honor the Lord in everything
he does. He lives up rightly, he eats up rightly, he worships
rightly. We know all these, we know all
these stories. We know all this narrative of
history. But the grandest thing that we see. Is that in Genesis
45 verses seven and eight. When the brothers of Joseph are
standing there. And Joseph is the co-regent of
Egypt. What's that mean? He rules it
while the king does whatever he wants to do. Joseph is basically
the acting king. Through much fire. And his brothers are heartbroken
to see that that's their brother because they did him so wrongly.
And Joseph says, it's OK. God put me here ahead of you.
You didn't do any of it. He did it all. You see that? How quick are we to say, Oh,
look at this bad. Look what those people have done
to me. Look how this circumstances, look how this situation, look
at this, look at that, look at how bad it is. Listen, God has
it in his hand and everything about it is coming to an end
for your good beloved. Isaiah 46. I read it all this morning before
we began, but I want to read starting in verse eight and focus
in on these things this morning. The first seven verses teach
us that the false gods of Babylon cannot hear the cries of their
people, nor bring them out of trouble, nor be there with them,
that actually they have to be carried around. Now here's the
contrast. You see the picture? Somebody has to make your god,
and then you've got to carry it. And when you put it down,
it can't get up. But remember this, verse 8, and
stand firm. Bring it back to your mind, the
Word of God says. You transgressors. What is he
saying? You sinners. You disobey me. You continually
disobey and transgress my holiness. Remember the former things of
old. Now, what is he talking about? Everything. Remember how I created. Remember how I gave life. Remember
the covenant of promise I gave Adam and Eve. Remember. that
I created you out of nothing. Remember. Remember how I saved you over
and over. Remember how I provided for you
over and over and over. And yet here you are in the place
of your own doing by my hand. Now, remember these and remember
that I am God. Listen to what he's telling.
Remember, I am God and there is no other. And I want to talk
about that for a second. The word God is not a name. The word God is a very convoluted,
expressive transition to a term that means most high. We don't
know the name of God except Jesus the Christ. Yeshua, Yahweh saved,
that's his name. Joshua, if we were to translate
it into English, if we translate the Greek into English, it's
Jesus. And there's a lot of people in the world today who confess
the name of Jesus in a lot of languages. Oh, I believe in God. Well, listen, everybody believes
in God. Every human being that's ever
born and has ever lived or ever will live has believed in God.
Because Jesus, excuse me, Paul says in Romans chapter 1, that
every human being is without excuse, for God's existence is
clear to them, for His divine attributes, namely His power
and creation, is clearly seen. So for them to say there is no
God, there is no highest being, there is no maximally great entity,
is foolishness and the only way they get away from continually
knowing that this is true and being able to profess that it's
not true, what does Paul say? It's by works of unrighteousness
whereby they suppress the truth. How does that suppress the truth?
Because God turns them over to reprobation. To do the things
that ought not be done. And I preached on that months
ago, remember. There is no other God, beloved.
Islam, the God of Islam is not the God of Isaac, Abraham and
Jacob. They may say, well, we just call him Allah. It doesn't
matter if you call God father. The Jews called God father and
they had the oracles of God and Jesus says their father was Lucifer.
Satan. But they did not know the one
true God. We must understand that there
is no open, broad, universalistic mindset in Christianity. That
Christianity, by definition, according to its own revelation
of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, is that Jesus, when
He says, I am the way, and the truth, and the life, and that
no one, what does that mean? No one can come to the Father
except what? Through me. that there is a very explicit,
myopic, and minute place whereby one can know the one true God
salvificly, and it is only through Jesus Christ the Son. It is not
through religion. It is not through church membership.
It is not through baptism. It is not through prayers. It
is not through even Bible studies. It is only through Jesus Christ
through whom which we learn from the written Word. In the beginning
was the Word, and the Word was God, and the Word was with God,
and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. And we have seen
God's glory in Jesus Christ. There is only one God, church. And you may be saying, well,
I know that, but don't be deceived to think that just because someone's
good works makes them seem so-called Christian, that they are Christian. Benevolence and kindness and
morality is not proof of salvation. The proof of salvation is that
you believe on the one who gives you righteousness, who is Jesus
Christ, the God of heaven. And everything else is moot. Well, doesn't God produce? God
does what God wishes, when God wishes. Remember Christmas morning,
the sermon I preached? John three. I can't wait to preach
that again because it'll be like nine weeks instead of one hour. There is one God and it is the
God of the Christian faith. It is the God of this holy writ.
And when we add to it any sect of people who use the scripture
and then turn around and say, but and now we've got this article
or this exception or this edition or this letter or this decree
or this proclamation or this holy book like the Koran or the
Hadith. Or the Pearl of Great Price.
Or the Book of Mormon. Or the revelations of the cults,
the false religions, or the plates and a hat. It's all a false truth. It's
all a false God. And if those of you who have
been tracking with us in 2 Thessalonians and Revelation, you see that
God says that there are many who will come to deceive the
nations. And they do so by pretending to be of the light, but they're
really of the darkness. and there is none like Me." And look how God shows His strength,
shows His uniqueness, shows His power and His supremacy. Look
what He does. He's not just saying, there are
no other gods that are as good as Me. He's not saying, there
are no other gods that are as powerful as Me. He's saying,
I am the only High One that exists and that any other god exist
by my command, by my decree, by my purpose,
by my intention. Verse 10, declaring the end from
the beginning. What does that mean? It's easy. What's it mean, kids? If I declare
the end from the beginning, start to finish, alpha and omega, A
to Z, what does it mean? Children understand that. That
means everything that happens from the beginning to the very
end, you've declared it. You ever read a comic book? When
I was a kid, you could buy anything here. You never had to leave
the city limits of Claxton. You can buy everything. And I
always look forward to that time of the month when the new comics
were released. And I read several different
titles, four to be specific. Comic books give a declarative
narrative that is really absurd. There's two guys duking it out,
or there's two, there's the hero and the villain, and the villain's
going to tell the hero exactly how it's going to go down. Well,
I'm going to punch you, and then I'm going to kick you, and then
I'm going to burn down your building, and then I'm going to tie you
up to the roller coaster track, and then we're going to run the
roller coaster over you, or the train, sorry, the train over you. And then the hero goes, well,
I'm going to do this, and I'm going to, and it's silly, you know? That's sort of like what Facebook
is today. I'm going to the bathroom, Great. Glad to know I'm leaving
for three weeks. Good. I'll burglarize your house
while you're gone. Appreciate it. Glad for the update. That's
not what God's doing. But in a sense, we need to understand
that God has declared everything. And I'm going to go into detail
on that in a few minutes. And he wants to make sure that the
reader here, that the hearer, does not just mistake it as God's
declaring the ending from the beginning on this matter. Oh
yeah, so God has declared how we're going to be saved and how
we're going to escape captivity in Babylon. God has declared
all this. And so, okay, no. God goes on
to say, from ancient times, things not yet done. What does that show us? That
shows us that God's reign and God's supremacy is exercised
over the entire narrative of history. That God has decreed everything
that comes to pass. But see, why does that matter?
Why do we need to know that? Because it's taught everywhere
in Scripture. And beloved, if we don't have the hope of a sovereign
God who supremely exercises His decrees in our lives and we have
no hope because if we are thinking that we have the ability and
the umption and the drive and the zeal and the passion and
the strength to stay in the love of God, we have already lost. We cannot stay in the love of
God in our own doing. We can come to some cognitive
idea to go, yeah, that sounds good, I believe it. I heard a
testimony yesterday by a missionary in Korea and it made me sick.
And he'd heard the gospel, and he'd heard the gospel, and he'd
heard the gospel. No, I don't want to believe. No, I don't
want to believe. And finally, he says it, and I quote, this
man sat me down and he told me about Jesus Christ and that all
I needed to do was pray and that God would save me. And I asked
him, I'm suffering. I'm hurting. If I accept Jesus,
will He take away my pain?" And this man replies, yes, and He'll
give you so much more joy. So I did it. I received Christ. That's what he said. And some
of you may say, well, that sounds fairly familiar. I pray that
it's not your testimony. Because this man negotiated the
terms of the gospel that if God would give him joy out of his
pain, he'd come to Christ. That's not coming to Christ for
who Christ is. That's coming to Christ for the
bread that perishes. That's coming to Christ on a
humanistic term. That's coming to Christ that
says, I'm the creature and I will tell you why I will believe and
when I will believe and for what reasons I will believe. I will
give you the consequence of you saving me. I will give you the
contingency. Why are you so mad? I don't want
you to think that this is just some narrative of academics. I don't want you to think that
I'm just up here teaching you something that you can take a note on and
go home and go, well, I learned something. I want you to hear
it. I want you to know that it's life eternal in the balance.
I want you to understand that it's the glory of God either
in your redemption through Jesus Christ or through your reprobation
and wrath and judgment eternally in Jesus Christ. It's not something
to dismiss. It's something to hear. So here,
beloved, here, it is about Christ alone. It is through Christ alone. God is saying that everything
that has come to pass, I have declared not only the end of
it, but all the means therein. Look what he says there. My counsel
shall stand." And you New Testament scholars, you should understand
that. Ephesians should be ringing in your ears right now. Romans
should be ringing, 9 especially, should be ringing in your ears.
I do that which I wish. John 3 should be ringing in your
ears. The wind blows where it wishes. God does all that He wants to
do. Nothing thwarts the plan of God. Nothing stops the hand
of God. Nothing slows the hand of God. Mother of all bombs. It's all
over the internet, right? It's all over the television.
Pundits and commentators and prophets. Oh, this is it. It's
the end of time. Oh my goodness. Hallelujah! Praise
the Lord! Bring it on! Take me home! I'm
tired of it. Don't think I'm going to be in
despair when I see on the news one day the world has six hours. I'll be like, praise God. Boom! All you scientists who think
it just boomed into existence are going to see it's going to
boom out. But yeah, that statement makes
me a fool. My counsel shall stand. and I
will accomplish all my purpose." Do you know that Paul says to
the Colossians that everything that exists is created by Jesus
Christ? Powers, kingdoms, rulers, authorities. All of it. The United States
of America did not elect Donald Trump as president. God declared
him president. United States and Nazi Germany
did not come into existence because of the zeal and the expressed
power and control that was given some weird, oh, poet, terrible
painter. I feel pity for Adolf Hitler
when you know his story. It is impossible that he did
what he did, except that God declared it from the beginning
to the end. Why? The same reason God declared
to put Israel in Babylonian captivity, in Egyptian captivity, in Assyrian
captivity. The list goes on and on. Well,
that's a little hard to say. No, everywhere we look, Scripture
says that God, God says, I am sending the Babylonians as my
hand of correction. And Ezekiel, Israel had not come
to any place of repentance or change of mind or change of heart
or change of faith. They haven't believed on God
at all, but God in His absolute kindness and because He had decreed
from the beginning of time to preserve Israel until the time
is right to reveal the Christ. He says, Not for your sake, beloved,
am I about to act, O Israel, but for my great name, which
you have defamed among the nations. See, if our progeny defames our
name, we're glad they're not in the picture. Oh man, I'm glad
he moved up wherever. I'm glad they got that new Mars
program. We'll send those like bad, bad, bad children up there. And nobody will know they belong
to us. But here's all these bad children
of Israel worshiping idols, defaming the name of God, making a mockery
of the decrees of God. And God goes, I'm going to save
you despite of you. I will accomplish all my purpose.
My counsel shall stand. It shall stand. Now, there are
some other areas in Scripture where we start to see where God
relented or God repented, which means a change of mind. Remember
what we learned last week, even though it wasn't but 27 minutes. These are things that show God's
relationship to his revelation to man. God's not up there going,
I'm going to do this. Oh man, now I'm going to do this.
It doesn't work like that. The scripture teaches exactly
the opposite. The Scripture shows us that God's
decrees are yes and amen and that nothing can stop them. Nothing
can separate God's plan from His power. He says He will accomplish all
of His purpose. You know, that was no greater scene than the
cross of Christ. Even John writes about that when
Caiaphas, the high priest, declares it is better that one man die
than for the whole nation to perish. And the gospel writer
goes on to say he did not realize it, but he was prophesying by
the Lord. What's that mean that God put
those words in his mouth? What? Yes, God put those words
in the mouth of Caiaphas. Of his own volition, he spoke
these things. And it is better that one man
should perish than all. And that one man is Jesus Christ.
A mighty fortress is our God. A bulwark never failing. When
I sing that song a cappella, I can't play it. It's aggravating. Who is this man? Jesus Christ.
God established. In Isaiah 53 we see, it pleased
the Lord to crush Him. Do you hear that church? The
death of Jesus Christ was not an obstacle in God's redemptive
history. The resurrection of Jesus was
not a reaction to His death. It was the plan all along that
God the Father, as Paul says in Romans 3, put Jesus to death
as propitiation. That means to satisfy to satisfy
his wrath and judgment. God did it. Judas turned him
in because God decreed that he would. I see the next argument
that people give it, well, wait a minute. So God made you to
sin? No. He did not. God decreed it. Well, I can't
understand that. You got it. Hallelujah. You got it. Because when we exit
out of what Scripture teaches us, that God is sovereign and
decrees all things and that man is culpable and liable for their
own sin, freely rebellious. We can take it a step further.
As we see and as I'll show you in a second, that God does decree
that some will be lost. They are not mutually exclusive.
But in our human thinking, that's called philosophy, we try to
argue and work it out so that it makes sense. Guess what? The
more we philosophize about this thing, the dumber we sound. And
one thing has to give. Something has to compromise.
Either the sovereignty of God or the responsibility of man.
And God says they both stand perfectly. And in Romans 9, Lord
help if I got into that today, but in Romans 9 it says, who
are we to blame God then? Because that's the question.
Paul asked that question. So what are we to say? That God's
at fault? That we sin? No. Who are we to
say who God is and what He's done? Who are we to ask the potter
why He made the clay this way? Who are we? See, the difference is, church,
When we're born of God, when we're converted by the gospel,
we see and savor and love and cherish God as He is. When we live in our flesh, we
don't want that God, do we? No man who is not born again
wants to believe in God. Think about it. When I believe on Christ, He
doesn't make me new. Christ makes us new, and then
we believe. Some people might say, well,
that's puzzling. That's what we believe. It's what's written
in every aspect of all of our doctrinal statements. That's
what we mean when we say sovereign. That's what we mean when we say
election. How does that happen? Hearing of the Word of God brings
to life the undead. or the dead, makes them alive. I will accomplish all my purpose. He even says, call in a bird
of prey. What little things do we see? Well, the scripture says,
what does Jesus teach us about? The gaze of God in the supremacy.
The scripture says that God knows the number of hairs or lack thereof
on our head. He can tell when one falls to
the ground. He can tell when a sparrow falls to the ground.
He knows the number. How many species of birds are
there? And friends, we can call that hyperbole, but God is just
that supreme. And you know what's crazy? He
doesn't look and observe, thereby He knows. He knows. God does
not learn. He does not look into the future
of what we will do. And therefore, no, he's not a
genie. He's the most high. His decrees
are yes. His decrees are true. His counsel
and purpose shall stand. And if God wants an eagle to
fly from the east to eat a rabbit, it'll happen. Or a man of my counsel from a
far country. He says, I have spoken. and I
will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do
it." Is this troubling for you? You
know, we learn about, even in our statement of faith, what
we learn about the decrees of God, that God has decreed of
His own volition, of His own desire, of His own pleasure in
Ephesians chapter 1. And then we have attained an inheritance,
having been predestined according, what? How do we have the inheritance
of God? How do we have eternal life?
Having been predestined according to the purpose of Him who works
all things according to the counsel of His will. Hebrews 6. So when God desired
to show more convincingly to the heirs of the promise, the
unchangeable character of His purpose, there is my life pulse,
the immutability of God. It makes me sleep at night. He
guaranteed it with an oath. God's unchanging plan began before
the world did. God's decree of everything that
was to happen was put in place in eternity. and the philosophers of the world,
and humanists of the world, well, that's determinism. No, it's
not. It's sovereignty. Determinism says it doesn't matter.
The Bible teaches us to pray. Why pray if God's already determined? Because, beloved, if the Spirit
of God urges you to pray, then God's caused you to pray. If
you feel convicted to pray, then God calls you to pray. But the
answer of your prayer may be to the what? To the what? To
the joy of your life? No, to the praise of His glorious
grace. See, if you want to know why God does everything that
He does, look at the end. I was just handed a book this
morning, and I just started from the back, and I just skimmed
the last chapter. I know what the book's about. I know where
it ends. I know what they want to do. So that everything that I
read up before that, as I read it this week, it'll make sense
in light of what's happening. I'll read every book like that.
That's why I'm a terrible fiction reader. Oh, well, now I don't
need to read this. The Scripture says that God created
the world that God saved His people, that God put Christ on
the cross, and that God did everything in between, both in eternity
past or in the ancient of days, things not yet done for one purpose. And this is being fought right
now at a local level like you've never seen in your life. Articles
just this week, three articles just this week has been written
on why, why God is not concerned with His glory. Let me tell you
something beloved, that is fresh off the lips of Satan. God does everything that He does
for the sake of His name being glorified. And people go, well,
that's maniacal. It's not maniacal. To whom else
shall we cry, holy, holy, holy? Who else shall we sing, worthy,
worthy, worthy? Who else is worthy? If I tell
you to bow down before me, you'll roll your eyes or walk out the
door. Why? Because I'm not worthy. If I've
got power over you and I say, if you don't bow down, I'll burn
you. I'm still not worthy. That's not God. God is worthy
of all praise. Let me give you a little newsflash.
If God and His supremacy and His sovereignty and His decrees
created the world to be one million years populated, And at the very
first day of creation, Adam and Eve sinned against God, and God
perpetuated the world and all the existence of humanity so
that He could put a gajillion people into torment. He would
be worthy of glory. That's just not the God I know. I am God. There is no other. But God became man. and took
your punishment, beloved. To the praise of his glorious
grace. That's why he does it all. I thought he loved me. He does love you. In this way
that he gave Jesus in your place. He does love you. That's why
the grace of God works for you. And when we see in the mirror
of our soul the truth that we're not worthy of such grace, that
we're guilty before God, the only thing we can do is cry out,
thank you, Father. We call Him Daddy, not Lord Ruler,
though He is Lord and Ruler. That's not our relationship with
Him, is it? As Christians, we don't live in fear, but perfect
love drives out fear, John says. We live in grace. And we live
by faith. That even in our best of days,
it's not good enough for God. But Christ accomplished it all. He lived the way we could not
live. He died the death we could not pay. And He's been raised
to life that we might be the righteousness of God. I've got to quote something out
of Romans 9. I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, I will
have compassion on whom I have compassion. So then it depends
not on the will of humanity, nor the power of the exertion
of man, but it depends fully on God comma who has mercy. That's what Paul says in Romans
9, 15, 16. For the scripture says to Pharaoh
for this very purpose, God speaking to Pharaoh, I have raised you
up that I might show my power in you, that my name might be
proclaimed in all the earth. So then he has mercy on whomever
he wills and he hardens whomever he wills. But God is not the
author of sin. He wasn't the author of. He wasn't
the producer of the sin of man. God does not tempt us to sin,
but our own flesh, when enticed, falls prey. James chapter three. I mean, chapter one. First, John
one, what is it? This is the message we have received
of him that we now declare to you. What is it? God is light
and in him there is no darkness. I will do it, I have purposed,
I will bring it to pass. Wait those last two verses to
the very end. That, as I've already said, means that no action of
man can be the cause or the consequence or the contingent factor in what
God does. Listen to me. No matter what
we do, God's purpose stands. no matter what we do. In Acts chapter 4, the disciples were arrested and
beaten, and then they were let out. Remember that? Numerous times they went to the
others and reported what the chief priests and the elders
had said to them. And then when they heard it, They lifted their
voices together to God and said, Sovereign Lord, who made the
heaven and the earth and the sea and everything in them, who
through the mouth of our father David, your slave, said by the
Holy Spirit, why did the Gentiles rage and the people's plot in
vain? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers
were gathered together against the Lord and against his anointed.
For truly in this city there were gathered together against
your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed both Herod and Pontius
Pilate, along with the Gentiles and peoples of Israel. Hear what
he's describing? The arrest, the crucifixion of
Jesus. To do whatever your hand and
your plan had predestined to take place. Nothing thwarts God. Acts 15, we see that known to
God from all eternity are his works. This is supposed to help
us reiterate what Isaiah is saying or what God is speaking through
Isaiah here is that there is nothing that is going to interfere,
nor cause God to change plans, nor is anything that God has
determined contingent upon how we walk. What are we going to do? What about free will? Free will
is restricted. I mean, the Bible says, can a
leper leopard, not a leper, either one of the words can a leopard
to change his spots? Can the Ethiopian change his
skin? No, it's going to have free. We can decide we want to
do something, but it doesn't mean that we have the ability
to do it. In John's gospel, as we'll see in a couple of years
where Jesus is talking about the Pharisees
and they cannot comprehend what he's saying. He uses the term
there that says they cannot because they do not have the ability
to comprehend what he says. Isaiah chapter 6, God sends Isaiah
to preach these messages to Israel. And guess what he says? You will
preach and I will not allow them to understand it. So where does that put us? That
puts us with a lot of questions, doesn't it? Where does that put you, beloved?
The saints of God. The children of the Most High.
Let's continue to read in Isaiah. Listen to me! Stubborn of heart. You are far from righteousness.
Now, I'm not going to point any fingers, but I'm willing to say
if we were all honest, we'd all fall into that category. As Christians,
as people born of God, right now, Are we not, if we measure
ourselves rightly, still stubborn of heart and far from righteousness
in our own flesh? No matter how good we do, no
matter how many times we come to church. See, God's not looking
to reward us for good behavior because there's no such thing
as good behavior in comparison to his righteousness. So we're
far from righteousness in our being. Look what he says in verse
13. I bring near my righteousness. This is Old Testament, y'all.
This sounds like something Paul should have written. And he did. But he didn't understand it.
So he had this memorized as a child. It was bar mitzvahed. They even did that then. When
he became an adult, he knew these words from memory. I will bring my righteousness
near, it is not far away. Who's bringing righteousness?
God is bringing righteousness. Who's going to declare you righteous
if there is one to declare you righteous? Only the judge of
heaven can declare you righteous, beloved. How can He declare me
righteous knowing that I am far from righteousness and that I'm
stubborn at heart? I don't want to see this. I don't
want to love this God up here. How will this be done? Through
the work of Jesus. Through the person of Christ.
By the power of the Holy Spirit. Through the hearing of the Word.
When you hear that God sent His Son to live as you could not
and die in the place of you and has been raised to life If you
believe in Christ for all that He's done and all that He is,
do you believe on Christ? Do you believe Christ? The scripture says, you are the
righteousness of God. For His salvation will not delay. He will put into Zion for Israel,
my glory, salvation. He'll put Him in there. He'll
put salvation in us. Which do you prefer? Working
your life to try to please God and to earn salvation? Or trusting
in God to grant it to you? Which do you want? And I pray
that hearing the words of God this morning, would cause you
to understand what verses 12 and 13 here teach us, a bunch
of stuff, but in closing, it teaches us that God's decrees
are effectual. What's that mean? They always
work out the way He desires them to. Do you hear the gospel today,
church? Is your hope in Christ or is
your hope in you? It's the only option. It's either
in Christ or it's in you. He cannot fail, for He is determined. What is, quote, the liberty of
second causes is taken away. What if I do this? What if it
doesn't matter? God is God and there is no other. If there's
nothing else here, beloved, I pray that you would be at peace. Because
as we struggle in our faith, as we struggle in our flesh,
as we struggle in our works, as we struggle in our own holding
to Christ and holding to this and holding to that and measuring
ourselves by so many standards, beloved, it needs to come all
the way back to the decrees of God. God has decreed before the
world began that you would be his righteousness and nothing
can stop him. You hear that? Nothing can stop
him. Nothing can take you out of the
hand of God. Nothing can snatch you away from his light. Nothing. Nothing. Let's pray. Lord, may your word be true to
each of us this day. Nothing could stop Jesus from
dying on the cross because it was your plan and purpose and
decree. Nothing could take away. Nothing could take away from
your redemption. There was no other way. And you
purposed it, that's why you created the world, that you could save
a people to the praise of your glory. to the praise of Your
grace, which is glorious. Lord, we thank You for this.
We thank You for the truth of Your Word. And Father, there
is so many things that need to be understood about Your sovereignty
and Your decrees. May this season of our church
provide more opportunity for us to learn. Father, I pray that
You would work it out that each of us could be together as we
learn these things, as we provide more classes and more teaching,
more opportunities for intimacy and for fellowship. Lord, I pray
that You would purpose that we all be together. And I pray that
any here who find themselves outside of You this morning,
Lord, that Your Word would draw them in Bring them to life. Grant them repentance. Gift them
faith that they may praise You with all that they are. Lord,
let that be the song of our hearts today. And we praise You for
Your love and for the Son who died for us. May we live by faith
in Him. In Jesus' name, Amen.