It builds beyond the water's
sum, and you can see where sinners dwell. The guilty pair are never
cared for. of this day. The blood of God, how rich and
pure, how measureless and strong, it shall forevermore endure the
saints' and angels' song. And he won't stop, he'll never
give up. Oh, love of God, how rich and
pure! How measureless and strong! It shall forevermore renew The
saints' and angels' song. Oh, hear my plea, the earth shall
fill The march that we made, where every stone on earth a
pillar, and every man a scribe by trade. Thank you may be seated as we
take our bulletin here. And it's up to you just as I
am. And in His body on the cross
there died to save from Adam's claws. God to bleed his people from
their sin, to save from death and get them from the rain. As crucified, God's wisdom known,
His holiness and love now shown, His mercy, truth, and righteousness
in Him, How meek and sweet He is! Thy crucifixion has always been
my all before the world began. Each death I have stood in my
place in everlasting Calvary. Christ crucified, the gospel
cry, to news for sinners such as I. And since He made me hear
and see this one, this work is all I dream. My God and conscious just divine,
You never shall bring it, never deny, My better soul, this Christ
crucified. Welcome everyone this morning
and we're grateful to God's grace and mercy that's brought us through
another week. Made us to enjoy the blessings
of God that we do not deserve. Be kept by him even while we
were not always conscious of him. To know his grace to us
in every day. I want to read to you this morning,
or read us, we read together Psalm 111. Psalm 111. As we pray this morning, I want
us to especially remember the family of Brother Job Terrell, passed from this life this week, died in the purpose, at the time,
by the means, and all that God ordained before the foundation
of the world. Men never die prematurely. They die according to God's time
and purpose. They die according to His wisdom. And we pray for that family,
and we ask the Lord's mercies upon them and the churches involved,
the people in the churches involved. This morning, Stephanie wanted
us to continue to pray for her. She's in a rehab and physical
therapy facility in Wilmington this morning. Seem to be improving. We want to remember Sister Betty's
granddaughter, Christian, who will undergo more cancer treatments
in the coming days. Jerry Malthus, we want to remember
him. Brother Joe Schwartz, Roger,
Vicki. And I guess you can tell by looking
at me, I need you to remember me. Remember me. Psalm 111. I read this psalm
this morning and I thought how majestic, how wonderful is the
Lord our God. Praise ye the Lord. I will praise
the Lord with my whole heart in the assembly of the upright
and in the congregation. The works of the Lord are great,
sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. His work is honorable and glorious,
and his righteousness endureth forever. He hath made his wonderful
works to be remembered. the Lord is gracious and full
of compassion. He has given me unto them that
fear him. He will ever be mindful of his
covenant. He has showed his people the
power of his works, that he may give them the heritage of the
heathen. The works of his hands are verity
and All his commandments are sure. They stand fast forever
and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. He sent redemption
unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever. Holy and reverend is his name. The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. A good understanding have all
they that do his commandments. His praise endureth forever. And worthy to be praised he is. Our Father, we come into your
presence this morning always with fresh reminders that
our ways are not your ways, and that your ways are far above
the heavens, far above our understanding,
or even ability to understand. And the only thing that would
cause us to rest in these days is to know that you are working
all things after the counsel of your own wise, gracious, sovereign
will. and we bow our hearts before
you this morning and pray as you taught us to pray. Thy will
be done on earth as it is in heaven. We know as Abram knew and believed
that the judge of all the earth and all things shall do right. And we know right only by that
which you do, and by that which you tell us, by that which you
command. But we ask that in these times
and days, and for these that we'll pray for this morning,
that you would remember mercy that you would cause us to rest
in these things that we are taught and believe, that we might in
all things ascribe glory and praise to your name. That praise
would endure in this hour and forevermore. We pray for this
family We pray for their broken hearts. We pray for all families
concerned in churches. We ask that you might cause each and every one to rest in
the hands of the God of all comfort, the faithful God whose everlasting
love and in whose unchanging character and faithfulness ever
abides true and present. We pray this morning for these
that we've mentioned. We ask that you would help them
according to your will, that you would do that which will
be for their spiritual and eternal good and for your glory. We pray that in all things you
would help them, and not only these but many more, and especially
your sheep as they are scattered on this earth this day. We pray for your people in these
various churches that you've ordained, that you've caused
the gospel to be preached in, that you've given your spirit
to, that you've gathered by your spirit That you grounded in your
truth and given hope in the Lord Jesus Christ. We praise his name this morning. Thank you that he is that friend
that stick it closer than a brother. We thank you for your mercy to
us in him. daily mercies new every day. And we pray that we might be
faithful to him, that we might in all that we say and do honor
him, that he might keep us and abide with us, that we might
have fellowship with him and therefore fellowship with you
and with each other. We pray this morning for the
one that will come and speak to us. How we value. His friendship. How we thank you for him. And
his faithfulness to preach. Christ crucified. Christ alone. True grace alone. And we ask
that you might, not only this morning, but maybe especially
this morning, bless Him and enable Him and anoint Him by your Spirit
to preach to these of us who have been gathered by your grace
today. We pray for you as dear wife,
Nancy, we thank you for. We thank you for all your people,
and we pray that in all things, in every life, you might have
your will accomplished, and then we'll be gathered together at
the feet of your throne, free from all the cares of this life,
free from all the burdens and sin indwelling in us, free from
all things, to worship you forever, to enjoy that eternal inheritance
forever, and to be your children forever. We thank you for these
that you gathered this morning, We pray for those that are sick,
who had to be away. For all your sheep. And we praise
their great Shepherd, the Lord Jesus Christ. We ask everything
in His name. Amen. In your hymnals, once again,
hymn number 510, he giveth more grace than brother Tim if you
wait on the congregation. standing for strength when the
labors increase. To end affliction, we manifest
mercy through all the blood. His love has no limit, His grace
has no measure, His pow'r has no number, Ain't no one to fear. For I listen to convictions in
Jesus, He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again. When we have lost all hope to
wonder us, Where did our lovers break this way? Where did the
players have gone? ? For resources, our possible living
is only begun ? ? His love has no measure, His grace has no
measure ? ? His powerful offering, no one can measure ? Great Church in Jesus, be given,
be given, and give it a name. It's a beautiful piece. the the the the the the the the the so Okay. the the the the the I am with you, says the Father,
through the floods I come and keep. Waves surround you, ice around
the water deep. In the long run, in the desert,
you'll never be alone. Trust in your pride. You are precious. You are mine, my very own. I am with you, says the Savior,
even to the ages end. Never leaving, nor forsaking,
I'm your ever-present friend. We've got someone who I promote,
Love can pull you from my hide. Trust me, love, love, I am constant, nothing can change
what I have learned. I am reduced as a spirit that
is older. hear my weakness. And I bliss her, even in New
Orleans. the the I'll be ready, says the Master,
in your glorious disguise. I will stay with you, in your
journey, we will be in paradise. We will go on, though I promise, I was sure you'd quickly come. Trust in God, know that I'm close,
and I'll bring you safely home. We're so fortunate and so blessed
of God to have as our speaker this morning
Brother Jim Burr. He's the pastor of the 13th Street
Baptist Church in Ashland, Kentucky. And we're just anticipating hearing
what the Lord has given him for us this morning. He's my dear
friend and and only for longer than either of us want to admit,
because it would make us older than we want to admit. He's faithful,
and I love him. Come on, preach for us, Jim. It's good to be here with you.
Open your Bibles to the book of Isaiah. Chapter 45. Isaiah, Chapter 45. I appreciate the good music,
excellent selection of all the hymns. I appreciate the song you wrote,
wonderful lyrics, and the special music we just heard. Good to
hear Janice play the piano. Our dads were good friends years
ago. And I don't know, they met back
in the 60s sometime as well. I preached for her dad several
years back in the 70s, I think that was. But it's good to see
them and good to see all of you. And I'm thankful to be here. And I see that I felt like I'm
among the walking wounded. A couple of brothers here that
are kind of ailing together. I don't know what one's trying
to outdo the other. One's trying to get more sympathy
than the other. But I tell you, I hated the both
of you. But these things come according
to purpose. of our Lord and we know that
all things are good. Okay, Isaiah 45, let's go to
work here. And I first of all got to read
a verse that's kind of right in the middle of the verses that
I want to deal with. So I'll read the 22nd verse of
Isaiah chapter 45 and endeavor to speak to you on the subject
of escape in order to look. Escaped in order to look. Verse 22, and you know this verse. Probably most of you know it
by heart. Our Lord says, look unto Me.
Not look to the church. Not look to the ordinances. Not look to the commandments.
Not look to the preacher. Look to Me. Not look within. Not look at your faith. Not look
at your experience. Not look at your repentance.
He says, look unto Me. Look unto Me, He says, and be
ye saved. Well, how extensive is this?
All the ends of the earth. Anybody who looks. Not a casual
passing glance. But anybody who fixes their attention
on the Lord Jesus Christ. a passing interest or a fleeting
look, you focus on Him. And those who focus their own
souls and the eyes of the soul upon the Lord Jesus Christ, the
promise is you'll be saved. You'll be saved. Look to the
Lord Jesus Christ. Look to the Savior. Nobody else
can save you. Nobody else can forgive you.
Nobody else can make you righteous. Nobody else can present you to
God. Nobody else can pardon you of
all your transgressions. Only our Lord can. Only the Savior
who lived and died for sinners. Only the One who by His cross
death has satisfied every demand of God. That's the One you look
to. It's not a look to the church. It's not a look to the baptismal
waters. It's not a look to anything else
or to anybody else. It's a look to Him. Our message
is all about Him, right? It's all about Him. That's what
the Bible's all about. And anywhere you look in the
Word of God, you're looking for Him. You're looking for the Savior. And our Lord says, look unto
Me. He just says in the previous verse, I'm a just God and a Savior. He doesn't try to save. He doesn't
make an effort to save. He does save. He saved us really
in old eternity. He saved us when God put us in
Christ Jesus before the world began, and that was as eternal
as God Himself. Our God has always viewed us
in our great surety, our Savior, the Son of God. We were saved
then. Somebody says, how long have
you been saved? I've been saved forever. I've
been saved as long as God's been God. Is that okay? As long as
God's been God. And I was saved when the Lord
Jesus took all my burden of guilt upon Himself and endured the
wrath of God and He washed my sins away. He saved me by His
bloody sacrifice. His name is Jesus, which means,
Thou shalt save your people. He will save His people from
their sins. I've been saved ever since He
died for me. We say, you didn't know anything
about that. Well, of course I didn't. I wasn't born back then. But
that's when I was made the righteousness of God in Him. That's when God
was satisfied. That's when the wages of all
my sins were paid for. It's when the Lord Jesus laid
down His life for me. When He drank the bitter cup
of the wrath of God dry for me. There's never been any wrath
for me. There's never been any condemnation
to the people of God. God's always viewed us in His
blessed Son. I was saved when He died for
me. When He arose for me, He arose because I've been justified
by His death. I've justified in old eternity. I've justified when our Lord
Jesus died for us. Romans 5, verse 9 says, I've
been justified by His blood. And I found out about who God
is and who Christ is when the Spirit of God came to me in regenerating
grace, when I heard the Gospel with not only these ears, but
with the ears of my heart, when I heard the Gospel deep within,
when the Spirit of God quickened me and revealed the Savior to
me. I was saved then. And I say to anybody here who
has no confidence of their salvation because you haven't looked to
Christ Jesus, I say look and live! Look to the Savior. And may the Spirit of God impress
upon you right now. In His sovereign, effectual grace,
may He lead you to the Lord Jesus Christ, upon whom guilty sinners
have been looking for thousands of years, and everybody who has
looked has been healed of their impermanence. Look to Christ. The Spirit of God enables us
to look. And one of these days, we're
going to look on Him in Heaven's wonderful, majestic setting. And we'll see Him face to face.
He says, look unto Me and be ye saved. All ye ends of the
earth. Whoever you are! Whoever you are! You see, the hearing ear and
the seeing eye, the Lord gives them both. You say, well how
do I know if I've been given the hearing ear and the seeing
eye? You look! And you hear what he has to say.
He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me,
he hath everlasting life. You hear what God says, and you
look to the Son of God. Well, what's the basis for this?
tremendous announcement and direction. Well, because who speaks it?
This is not just Isaiah, although the words of Isaiah that he wrote,
they're inspired. And just as true as if they came
forth from the lips of the Son of God, right? But to further validate this,
the one who speaks this says, I am God. I'm listening to it now. If God Himself's got something
to say, Lord, give me ears to hear what you've got to say. I am God. And he said, there
is none else. Look. Look. Well, let's consider the context,
shall we? And I want you to go back I'm
just going to go back to verse 20, and then I'll continue through
to 25. But beginning at verse 20, and
actually a few verses before this, the Lord leads Isaiah to,
he makes a great contrast. He contrasts the wicked from
the righteous. And he draws another contrast,
he points this out, the God who is unable to save, and the God
who does save. So he draws contrast. Look at
verse 20. Assemble yourselves, he says,
and come. Well, who's he talking to? He
says, draw near together. Who's he speaking to? You that
are escaped of the nation. Now, you can read the commentaries
on this and go ahead and get all kind of confused if you want
to, but here's what I see here. The ones who are escaped of the
nations are the remnant of God's electing grace and mercy from
among the Gentiles. And the Lord says, gather yourselves
together I want you to draw near and hear what I've got to say.
You're different. You see these other people over
here? He says this, watch. They, here's the contrast you
see in that first statement. Ye that are escaped and then
they that have no knowledge. There's the contrast. The ye
and the they. The ye and the they. The ye are those who have escaped
from the nations by the grace of God. This is the remnant according
to the election of grace. They have escaped. It's like
Lot. He was down in Sodom. The Lord said, escape for your
life. Like all of us, dilly-dallied
around, the Lord grabbed him by the hand, took him out. Escape to the mountain! And I'll tell you when you will
escape to Mount Calvary. when you will escape to the blessed
cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I don't mean the beam upon
which He hung. I mean the doctrine of salvation
by a crucified Savior. I'll tell you when you'll look.
I'll tell you when you will escape and live. It's when the Lord
God of glory takes you by the hand and leads you out by His
effectual sovereign grace. That's when you'll look. That's
when you'll escape. And you'll escape to the mountain.
You'll see by faith a suffering, bleeding, dying Redeemer. Dying to honor God's law and
God's justice. And you'll say in your heart,
by the leadership of the Spirit, this is the Savior I need. This
is the salvation that will meet all my needs. One that's all
of grace. I don't want one that needs contribution
from me, do you? Because I would never get it.
I can't make any contribution. I'm empty handed. I have nothing
to offer God. You see, He does the saving,
I do the sinning. And His part's the saving part
with no contribution on my part because you see when salvation
is all of God, all in Christ, and all of grace, no creature
gets any glory. Our God gets the glory. We have escaped. Let me show
you, Pat. Put a ribbon or keep your finger
there. Look at Job 1. Let me show you
something over here. Look at Job 1. You see, all who escape, that's
the ones who'll look. If you have escaped the nations,
the nations, their religion is altogether wrong. They're totally
out of step with the Scriptures. If you have escaped this ungodly
religious world. Like Noah and his family, they
escaped. And Noah went around preaching.
He's a preacher of righteousness. Did you know that? Noah was a
preacher of righteousness. God's righteous and you're not.
And God demands righteousness and you can't produce it. And
the righteousness that God demands is a righteousness that He Himself
must give you. And He's not obligated to give
it to anybody. And Noah said, I'm building this
ark. What are you doing that for? It had never rained. Noah,
you know it's never rained. What are you talking about? It's
going to be floodwaters. There's this great canopy around
us. We've never seen a drop of rain
in our lives. Well, he said, it's comfortable.
And this ark, it wasn't a boat. It wasn't a ship. It was an ark. It wasn't made for navigation.
It was made for salvation. It wasn't beautiful to look at.
And I'll tell you what, when God called Noah and his family
in there and God shut the door, It may not have been beautiful
from the outside, but boy, when the heavens opened up, and the
waters of the deep opened up, and that thing got to creaking
and cracking and started floating, it's beautiful on the inside!
That's where God's salvation is. That's the Savior. The world
saw nothing attractive about Him. There's no beauty about
Him that we should desire Him. Isaiah 53 says that. Oh, what a glorious redeemer.
Old Noah preached. He said, now, if you want to
escape what's coming, here's the place of escape. Right
there's the place of safety. Right there. And all who enter
in, Noah said, I got God's word on this. You'll be safe. You know who went in? Everybody
God took in. You know who didn't go in? Everybody
who didn't want to go in. He didn't go in. So I'm not interested. Well, it's not for you. It's
not for you. Knowing his wife, their three
boys, sons, and daughters-in-law, they escaped. Well, look here
in Job 1. You know the story, so I'm not
going to go through this. But look at verse 13. There was
a day when Job's sons and daughters, Job 1.13, when his sons and daughters
were eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house,
and there came a messenger unto Job and said the oxen were plowing
and the ashes feeding beside them, and the Sabeans fell among
them and took them away. Yea, they killed, they slaughtered,
they slain the servants with the edge of the sword. And I
only, I only am escaped alone to tell you. I'm the only one
that escaped. Everybody else perished. Everybody. Well, God's sovereign over the
issues of life and death. And He's sovereign over the issues
of spiritual life and death. I only have escaped. Some of
you, most likely, believe the gospel. God's rescued you. You've escaped! You've escaped!
2 Peter 1 verse 4 says you've escaped the pollution and the
corruption of the world. You've escaped the religion of
the world. That's a works-based religion.
A world that turns thumbs down on our Savior. A world that demands
live by the Ten Commandments. Put them up in your front yard.
Hang them on your wall. That's what you've got to live
by. I've got news for you. That was administration of death.
It's not administration of life. That's the religion of the world.
You see, God has enabled us to escape. He has rescued us from
the corrupt religion of the world. We've escaped! I don't know where
you were when God found you, but I know where I was. I was
in false religion. But I'm escaped! And there are
others in my family, they haven't escaped. I only, I only escaped. That's what he said. I only.
I bet that testimony is for some of you. Keep reading. Verse 16,
while he was yet speaking, there came also another and said, the
fire of God has fallen from heaven. It don't fall from heaven unless
God sends it. fallen from heaven have burned
up the sheep and the servants and consumed them. And I only
have escaped all along to tell you. I'll say this. If you've escaped by the sovereign
grace of God, you're glad to tell somebody. Say, I don't know
how to witness to anybody. Just tell them what God's done
for you. Tell them who Christ is. Tell
them what He did by His sacrifice, His substitutionary death upon
the cross of Calvary. Not what He tried to do, not
what He enabled to do, not that He did something and you add
your faith to it to kind of seal the deal. Tell them what He did!
Tell them who He is. I only am escaped alone to tell
this. Verse 17, while he was yet speaking,
there came also another and said, the Chaldeans made out three
bands and fell upon the camels and have carried them away, yea,
and they've killed, they've slain the servants with the edge of
the sword. And I only have escaped alone,
to tell thee. While he was yet speaking, there
came also another and it said, thy sons and thy daughters were
eating and drinking wine in their eldest brother's house. And behold,
there came a great wind from the wilderness and smoked the
four corners of the house, and it fell upon the young men and
their dead. And I only am escaped, I long
to tell thee." I'll tell you something, God's wind, it can
destroy or it can breathe the life into your soul. I alone didn't escape. Have you
escaped, like Peter says, the corruption and the pollution
of the world? Well, I'll tell you this. You didn't escape yourself. That
rescue was of God. And you see here in this passage,
if you'll go back to Isaiah 45, ye are escaped. Oh, bless God, we have escaped. We've escaped of the nations. But on the other hand, there's
another group of people. There's the ye and there's the
they. Well, what does he say about
the they, the wicked? They have no knowledge. They
have no knowledge of God, do they? They don't have any knowledge
of God. People don't know who God is.
They don't have the foggiest idea. They don't have any idea
of His character, of His attributes. They have no knowledge of God.
They have no knowledge of themselves. Hey preacher, I'm not so bad.
Don't call me a sinner. That's too tough. That's what
somebody said to that old steam down there in Houston. Why don't
you call people sinners? He said, that's too offensive.
That's a hard word. I believe that's what God called
us. I think it's all right if God called us sinners. It's all
right for us to say, hey, we're sinners, right? I agree with
what God said. But they don't have any knowledge.
They don't have any knowledge of themselves. That they're far
off from God. That they're alienated from God. That God's not going to come
to them and they can't go to God except through a mediator.
Because God's never going to speak to nor be spoken to by
any son or daughter of Adam except through the Lord Jesus Christ.
You can't approach Him for anything. You can't pray to Him. They say,
well, God hears everything. Well, of course He hears everything.
But He doesn't hear so as to receive, so as to get His ear. Until you come to Him through
His darling, darling Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. There's one
God and one Mediator between God and man. He's the man Christ
Jesus. I'm not going to deal with you
in mercy except through Christ. And you're not going to seek
the grace of God nor find the grace of God except through Christ. Says they have no knowledge.
Have no knowledge of God. Have no knowledge of self. They
have no knowledge of Christ Jesus. You know, they got all the concerts
and stuff in Myrtle Beach, and we went to a couple of them. And then they broke out and said,
you've got to have a religious song or two, you know. They kept
talking about Jesus. I just hung my head down. Said
something about, well, if Jesus is on the line, ask him anything
you want. I'm sorry, I'm sitting right
here right now listening to the garbage. People don't know who
God is. They don't know who Christ is.
They don't know who the Holy Spirit is. That's what that passage
you read in Psalm 111. That's the reason they call preachers
reverend. Reverend. Maybe reverend doctor. Because they don't know the one
who is holy and reverend. That's his name. Have no knowledge
of God. Have no knowledge of themselves.
Have no knowledge of Christ Jesus. Have no knowledge of what He
did at the cross at Calvary. They have no knowledge of the
work of the Holy Spirit. That the Holy Spirit comes in
upon the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ and
reveals this sacrificed, risen, exalted Savior. Christ said to His disciples,
the Holy Spirit's not going to be given because the Son of Man
hasn't been glorified yet. And these people are preaching
about the Holy Ghost this and the Holy Ghost that. Christ said
when the Holy Ghost comes, He's going to speak of me. Every once
in a while somebody says to me, I wish we had a Holy Ghost revival. I do too. That would be when
the Spirit of God leading us to exalt the Lord Jesus Christ. They have no knowledge. They
have no knowledge. Read on. He says, they have no
knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image. Now, people
in this country, we're too sophisticated and civilized to have gods made
out of wood and carved out of granite. We're much too civilized
for that. But I'll tell you, men still,
they whittle out their gods in their vain imagination and they
call him Jesus. They call him God. But he's just
a figment of their vain imagination. And they think that He is subject
to our wills. That's an idol. That's an idol. They think that God can't do
anything for us because we won't let Him. And that we have no
hands but God's hands. Or God doesn't have any hands
but our hands. He doesn't have any feet but
our feet. And our will is so powerful it can checkmate the
will of God. That's an idol. If you can checkmate,
if you can frustrate the purpose of your God, your God ought to
be spelled with a little G. Because He's sure not deity. Our God does His will among the
armies of heaven and the inhabitants of death, and nobody can stay
His will or say to Him, What doest Thou? In fact, look in
my Bibles right across the page at Isaiah 46. Look what he says. Listen to how he talks about
these islands. Chapter 46 and verse 5. He says, God says, To
whom will you liken Me and make Me equal? and compare me that
we may be alike. They lavish gold out of the bag. They waste silver in the balance.
They hire a goldsmith. Make me a God. Make me a God
I can get along with. Make me a God who's dependent
upon me. I can pick Him up and carry Him
and set Him down, and from that place He will not move. They fall down, yea, they worship.
This is my God. We've been to Japan several times. And we've been in some homes
over there. And they'll have their little
god over there. They'll put a bowl of rice in the morning and a
banana, maybe an orange. Come back in the evening, I'll
say, well, your god had me eat that orange. Can I have that?
Oh, no. I said, what do you do? We throw
it out and we put it fresh out in the morning. That's just utter depravity and
blindness. And I don't get mad at him. We don't get mad at him. That
just comes out of man's vain imagination. I know it's over
there. Our son's been in Hiroshima for
20, five, six, nearly 30 years. Years go by fast, don't it? But
we was in a restaurant, and to Buddha, they put all this money,
all kinds of coins in there. And my son David said, I think
I'll take that money. He said, Buddha's not going to
use it. I bet you Buddha's never collected
a dime. I said, by you, I wouldn't do that. You'll all be killed.
Idols. Of course, we're more refined
than that. See, we're more civilized. We
wouldn't do that. But out of our imaginations,
we do whittle out gods we can get along with. He understands. That's what people
say. I tell you, he understands far
more than you think he does. He sees the violence of your
heart. Idols. They set up wood with their grave
in it. They prayed on God and cannot say, why in the world
would somebody pray to a God who can't say? I don't know how
y'all are around here, but of course, I was up in Michigan
for nearly 20 years. Every once in a while, I'd get
a phone call and say, we're calling all the churches. on all churches
because there's a person in the community that's deathly sick.
We want all the churches to be praying for them. Really. People pray to a God that can't
save, can't deliver, can't heal. Why would people do that? Ignorance. They have no knowledge of God.
They pray to a God that cannot save. What does that watch say? Verse
21. The Lord says to Isaiah and to the ye people. He says, tell ye. Isaiah, tell
the people of God to bring these people near to listen to you. To listen to a gospel preacher.
Yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? Have any
of their gods ever predicted something hundreds of years before
it ever happened, and then it happened exactly the way He laid
it out? You see, if you read the whole
chapter, He's talking about a man by the name of Cyrus. And he
speaks of Cyrus as if he was coming immediately. That's going
to be like over 200 years in the future. And it's a picture
of Christ. In fact, the last verse of chapter
44, the Lord says, He's my shepherd because he's a picture of our
Lord Jesus Christ. He'd go to the book of Ezra.
I think Cyrus, God made him a believer because Cyrus was going to release
the Jews from their Babylonian captivity and send them to Jerusalem
and say, re-establish true worship. And that was predicted by Isaiah
over 200 years before it ever happened. Now which of your gods
can do that? See, look back again to chapter
46. Let me just finish reading this. Over in chapter 46, verse 7 says
they bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and they set
him in his place, and he's standing. And let me just inject this.
I don't carry my God. He carries me. He's carried me from old eternity. He carried me from the womb.
He's carried me to this day. He's going to carry me to the
end of the days of this earthly journey. Then He's going to carry
me to glory. I'm a sheep born upon the shoulders
and the heart of the Great Shepherd. He bears me, but I won't bear
Him. Says, he stands wherever they
put him. On his place shall he not remove,
yea, one shall cry unto him, but he can't answer. How come
he can't answer? Because he's dead. He's dead
as they are. Actually deader. Because they
got at least physical life. He don't even have physical life. And he can't save you out of
your trouble. Verse 8, remember this and show yourselves, men.
Bring it to your mind again, O ye transgressors. Remember
the former things of old. How from old I predicted, prophesied
what's going to happen in the future. Go all the way back to
Genesis 3.15. The Son of God predicted His
own death, the seed of the woman, going to bruise, crush the head
of the serpent. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God. There's none else. I am God,
there's none beside me. Declaring the end from the beginning.
So that's his foreknowledge. You know why God foreknows everything?
Because he predestinated everything. That's why he foreknows everything.
What is divine providence? Divine providence is the carrying
out of the eternal purpose of God, and it's the carrying out
by the person of our Lord Jesus Christ who sits upon the throne
of exaltation. In Revelation chapter 5, John
sees one upon the throne, and he has in his hand a book written
within and without, and on the backside absolutely full. You know what that is? And it's
sealed with seven seals. You know what that is? That's
God's eternal purpose. And they're looking around for
somebody who's worthy to just open the book. I'll tell you
what, the one who took the book and opened the book is executing
the counsel of God, and that's Christ Jesus. And from the end
of Revelation chapter 5, you get into chapter 6, it's the
breaking open of the seals of the book. If our Lord Jesus Christ,
who's been exalted to be Lord upon the basis of His obedience
unto death, even the death of the cross, He sits upon the sovereign
throne and He's breaking loose the seals of the book and executing
all of the counsels of God. Christ the Lord's doing that. And here's what God says at the
end of verse of chapter 46, my counsel shall stand, I will do
all my pleasure. I call a ravenous bird from the
east, the man that executed my counsel from a far country, that's
Cyrus, right there, that's Cyrus. Yea, I have spoken it, I will
also bring it to pass, I have purposed it, I will also do it. You see, there are two groups
of people. The ye and the they. Which group
do you fall into, by the way? I'm thankful. God has put me,
by His grace, in the ye group. In the ye group. I was in the
they group, but I'm in the ye group. I've always been a sheep,
but I was a lost sheep. I was among the wicked. God called
me out of that. There's a God that can't save
them. There's a God that can save them and does save them. I'll just go back to chapter
45 now. He says in verse 21, Who hath
told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? There is
no God else beside me. You know, there are several times
that God says there's no God else beside me. That's the singularity
of God. Over and over again, you read
through chapter 45 several times, God says, I am the Lord. There's no God beside me. People
say, well, you know, you've all got the Baptist God, and there's
the Catholic God, and the Presbyterian God, and this God, and that God.
No! There's the one true and living
God who manifests Himself to poor sinners through the eternal
Son of God, Christ Jesus the Lord. And then all the rest of
them rise. Amen. And all across this country
and all across the world, there are men and women and boys and
girls calling on God that can't save them. That's a sad situation. Calling on somebody that can't
help them. He's a just God in the saving,
because if He's going to save, He's going to have to be just.
He can't satisfy His own justice. And He did that through Christ
and His successful work of redemption. And therefore, the Lord says,
look unto Me. Look unto Me and be ye saved. All ye ends of the earth, look
to Me. These idols can't help you. Am I talking to somebody
who's still worshiping an idol? Can't help you. That idol will be such a heavy
burden around your neck, it'll sink you all the way to hell. It's not, well, you know, you
believe your way and I'll believe my way and we'll all wind up
in heaven. No, we're not going to wind up in heaven. I tell you something, if you
don't worship this Christ who is sovereign, who's saving, who
rules over everybody, who's been exalted to be the Lord of lords,
If you don't worship Him in this life, I will promise you there's
no way God's going to let you in glory. And even if He did,
though He won't, even if He did, you wouldn't be happy there because
that's a place of worship where everybody adores Christ Jesus.
You say, I get weary of this. Well, that's one thing you won't
have to be worried about when you step out of the eternity
because you ain't going to be in glory where there's nothing
but worship. Won't it be wonderful for all
the ye? For all of you who fall into
the category of the ye. Won't it be wonderful when we
get the glory? And at the very feet of our Lord
Jesus Christ, we shall see Him as He is. We've looked by faith. The Spirit of God gave us sight.
We look to Him through this life. Looking unto Jesus. That's how
you run the Christian race. Looking unto Jesus. Right? Hebrews
chapter 12, verse 2. The author and the finisher of
our faith. We look to Him for everything. And one of these
days, the Lord's going to take us out of this world, and then
we'll see Him as He is. Face to face with Christ, my
Savior. Oh, what a day that will be. Well, let me just finish up here
reading these verses. The Lord says, I've sworn by
myself the words gone out of my mouth in righteousness and
shall not return, that unto me, unto Christ, every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. See, God made him Lord. Who's
that? Kenneth Copeland or one of those
silly false preachers that give you an opportunity to make Jesus
the Lord. Ain't that the stupidest thing? How you gonna make Jesus
Lord? God doesn't meet you to it. Peter said to that crowd there
in Acts chapter 2, he said, that same Jesus you crucified, God
made him both Lord and Christ. Now I got news for all of you,
me too, whoever's watching this and listening, everybody's gonna
bow to him. In this life, it's called sovereign
salvation. You go on out into eternity Christless
and hopeless and godless, you'll still bow. The scepter of His
righteousness will force you to bow. Verse 24, it says, Surely shall
one say, In the Lord I have righteousness and strength. That's it. Where
am I going to have this righteousness? Where can I find this righteousness?
In the Lord. In the Lord. It can't be found
in you. His name, Jeremiah 23, His name
is the Lord our righteousness. Freely imputed to us. Even to Him shall all men come.
Everybody's going to come to Him someday. Some come by grace. But everybody's going to come
for Him. And all that are incensed against
Him, they're going to be ashamed. I'll tell you something about
the people of God. We're never going to be ashamed. Look back
at verse 17. I'll lighten this up. Verse 16
first. They shall be ashamed. We're
back to the they now. Not the ye. The ye's not going
to be ashamed. The they shall be ashamed and
also confounded. And all of them, they shall go
to confusion together that are makers of idols. The they. They're
going to be humiliated by God. Insulted by God? Rejected by
God? Sent away into everlasting hell
by God? God the Son, He's the Judge.
But Israel, oh, now we're talking about God's people. We're talking
about the elect of God now. We're talking about the redeemed
of the Lord, the called by the Spirit. But Israel shall be saved
in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. We're back to the
ye again. Ye shall not be ashamed. Jim, I've always thought that
when I stand before the Lord I'm going to be so ashamed of
my life. There won't be anything to be
ashamed of. I'm going to have to give an
account of everything and all my sins. God's going to put them
on a big projector and put them up on the screen. That's what
our preacher used to say. That's what I used to say. And
I'm going to be embarrassed. I'm going to be humiliated and
I'm going to be so ashamed. Well now, wait a minute. The Lord says we're not going
to be ashamed. Because we'll have nothing to be ashamed of.
Let me tell you something. All my sins, and it's more than
I could ever count, but they've been buried in the depths of
the deepest sea. They've been drowned in Jesus'
blood. They don't even exist, Gary.
They're not there. There's nothing for me to be
ashamed of. Why, even right now, I know I'm a sinner, but in the
sight of God, He sees me in the beauties and the glories of,
in the righteousness of His Son. I said, Miss Shane, no. You show
me in the Bible, and I'll quit. You show me in the Bible any
believer, any child of God, who dreaded, dreaded seeing our Lord
in glory. You won't find me. Why not? Aren't they sinners? Weren't
they sinners? Well, sure they were. But they understood what
we need to have burnt into our hearts. When we stand before
God, we shall stand then, now listen, even as we stand now,
in the beauties of Christ Jesus. In myself, I got a whole lot
to be ashamed of. There's no question about that,
Pastor. Tell you what, standing in Christ I'm as holy as God's
own Son. Whew! Man! If that'd get a hold of
our hearts, if the Lord would get a hold of our hearts, we'd
say, oh, how glorious it is that God enabled me to look to Him. You see, escaped ones, the ye,
look to Him for everything. for everything. Well, I'm done. Thank you, Brother Dan. That's
just a wonderful truth. That's great. Father, we thank
you for the precious truth that we've heard. We thank you that it is the hope
of your people, security and delight of your people, to know
that as the Lord Jesus Christ is called, so are everyone that's
in Him. He's called the Lord our righteousness,
She's called the Lord our righteousness. And as He is, so are we in this
world. We thank You for Your Son, Your
precious Son, and for the one You called to exalt Him, lift
Him up, that we might behold Him afresh. We thank You that
You are God, and there is none beside You. We thank you that
you are just a just God and a safe. We thank you for your mercy to
us as sinners. We pray that you take this word.
Bring it forth in our hearts and minds. Let it never. Escape from us. That we might know the blessings.
of your grace in Him. We pray in Christ's name. Thank
you from our hearts. Amen.