Come back to Isaiah chapter 44. Let me read a few verses out
of chapter 43. He says in verse 18, remember ye
not the former things, neither consider the things of old, Behold,
I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth, shall ye
not know it? I will even make a way in the
wilderness and rivers in the desert. The beast of the field
shall honor me, the dragons and the owls, because I give waters
in the wilderness and rivers in the desert to give drink to
my people. To my chosen I do these things for my people. You
know, everything, absolutely everything that's going on right
now is for you that believe the gospel. You are His covenant
people. Everything is for you. I do this, He says, for My chosen. This people have I formed for
Myself. Have I created for Myself. They shall show forth my praise."
He ensures it. He ensures that his covenant
people shall show forth his praise. He's going to see to it. But
thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, but thou hast been weary
of me. O Israel, thou hast not brought
me the small cattle of thy burnt offerings, neither hast thou
honored me with thy sacrifices. I have not caused thee to serve
with an offering, nor wearied thee with incense. Thou hast
bought me no sweet cane with money, neither hast thou filled
me with the fat of thy sacrifices, but thou hast made me to serve
with thy sins." thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities. I,
even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own
sake." Do you know why God has saved and forgiven any sinner? He's done so for Christ's sake.
Paul tells us that, to forgive for Christ's sake, because God
has, for Christ's sake, forgiven us. for us to forgive because
God has, for Christ's sake, forgiven us. He says here, I'm the one
who blocked out thy transgressions. Now do it for my own sake and
will not remember thy sins. Put me in remembrance. Let us
plead together. Declare thou that thou mayest
be justified. has sinned. Adam. Adam. The Jews, Israel, always
run their heritage back to Abraham. They need to go on back. They've
got to go back to Adam. They have the same nature that
their first father had after the fall. Thy first father has
sinned, and thy teachers have transgressed against me. Therefore,
I have profaned the princes of the sanctuary, and have given
Jacob to the curse, and Israel to reproaches." Sounds bad, doesn't
it, in that ending verse there? I profaned the princes of the
holy of the sanctuary. giving Jacob to the curse and
Israel to reproaches. Is that the way it's going to
end? Is he going to leave it that
way? No. Look at the next verse. Yet. Yet. Yet there's hope. Yet there's light and darkness. God always comforts His true
elect when He's going to chasten them. They're going to be chastened,
but He's going to give them some comfort here. But they are His. He's not forsaken them. Yet now
hear, he that hath ears to hear, let him hear. These promises
and comforts are for His covenant people in Christ. Yet now hear,
my servant. These promises are to a particular
people, His servants. Are you His servants? Then here,
listen, there's good news. If we do not fit the person described
in the promise, then the promise doesn't belong to me. But if
I fit that person, then I can take comfort in that promise. My servant. We are his servants. If we are in Christ, if we believe
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we are his servants. And this comfort,
this message is for us. It's for us. In Israel, whom I've chosen,
this message is for God's elect. The good news of the gospel is
for the God's elect. No one else will appreciate it.
No one else will appreciate it. Thus saith the Lord that made
thee. You notice the language in this.
He says, Israel whom I have chosen, you are mine. As the Lord said
to his disciples, you did not choose me, I chose you. And thus
saith the Lord that made thee, created thee, Formed thee, he
says here, formed thee from the womb. I made you from the womb. Your conception is of me. Here's something to take comfort
in, in trouble. The Lord God of heaven, who formed
all things, formed thee. Now, if I'm his, He's going to
take care of me. No matter how dark the day, how
heavy the trial, He that formed me in the womb will take care
of me. He'll take care of those children.
All you younger people who have these children here, you take
care of them, don't you? Take care of them. They're yours.
They are yours. They don't belong to your neighbors.
They belong to you, and you are going to see to it that they
get the best education, that you're going to see to it as
best you can, that they have the best of what you can give
to them. Of course, our Heavenly Father, who is infinitely wise,
gives us all things wisely, and He takes away what needs to be
taken away, and He gives what needs to be given. But He says,
I formed you. And we can take comfort in this.
Our existence is of God. It's of God. We've always been
His in Christ. He knew us way before we ever
knew Him. Therefore, seeing that He formed
us, He made us, He chose us, We are truly His children, and
therefore He says, I'll help you. I'll help thee. I'll help thee. The Word of God
teaches us, if God be for us, who can be against us? Who? It may look like the trial is
going to overwhelm you. But he's promised that it won't,
that it will not do. If God is my helper, who can
stand against me? He said in another place, no
weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper. He has put such a hedge about
his people that all the forces of hell cannot penetrate it. If you and I could see the hedge
that's about us, if we could see the angelic host that has been commanded to keep
us, surround us, protect us, if you could see, talking to
the children of God, If you could see who's riding with you every day,
you wouldn't fear. You wouldn't fear. That unseen
world is every bit as real as this one we can see. Every bit
as real. He has put a hedge about us and
nothing can penetrate it. Our Lord has no weakness in any
area. And therefore he says, Fear not,
O Jacob, thou worm, Jacob. Remember in one place he called
him a worm. Oh, he said, Fear not, O Jacob, my servant. And thou, Jeshurun, upright one,
that's what it means, whom I have chosen. This applies to the church.
He's speaking to his people. He's speaking to all those in
Christ from beginning to end. It's difficult to fear not in
this world, isn't it? It is. It's difficult to fear
not. To walk without fear. To lie down at night without
fear. You have troubles going on. You have trials. You have
sickness. Someone in the family is sick. It's hard not to have
these things. But the more we learn of the
Lord Jesus Christ, The more we learn to fear not. Fear not thy sins, they are all
taken away. Fear not men, what can they do? Fear not the curse of the law,
it's gone. Fear not Satan, he's defeated.
He's defeated. I was telling Jason the other
night, I'm saying to him, when I was just a kid, seven, eight years old, I remember
there was a family Bible. You know, everybody has a family
Bible. I don't know. I remember a family Bible out there. You
open it up, and there was this picture of what's supposed to
be Jesus, which is not. Then there was a devil with a
pitchfork and horns. And as a child, that's what I
was afraid of. I was afraid of Satan. I pray the old devil. No. He
has no power. Nothing but a bulldog on a chain.
That's all he is. The Lord said, I tell you who
to fear. The Lord said, fear him who's able to cast body and
soul into hell. He said, that's who you fear.
He's not talking about a slavish, crawl under the desk type of
fear, but he's talking about a fear of all and respect and
honor. And he says to them, fear not.
Twice he has said, you're my servants. And twice he has said,
I've chosen you. Election is a doctrine of praise. If God had not chosen a multitude
of sinners that no man could number, no one would be saved. Which of the fallen angels? Has
there ever been a fallen angel that has ever chosen to come
back. You don't read of it anywhere.
You don't read of it anywhere. And if God leave us alone, we
would not come to Him. He said, you will not come to
Me that you might have life. Come to Me. Come unto Me all
ye that labor and have ye laid, and I'll give you rest. Why don't you come here? One
will come there. But for the most part, people
like cattle. Just eating, not looking up.
Doesn't matter. All they're worried about is
filling their belly. Election is a doctrine of praise.
Thank God He chose me. If you're not, I will pour water
upon him that is thirsty." Anybody thirsty this morning? He said
here, I'll pour water upon him that's thirsty. If you're thirsty,
he's going to pour water upon you. And floods upon the dry
ground. He's going to send the blessing
when we need it. But what he's talking about here is his spirit
being poured out upon his people. He says, I will pour, in verse
3, I will pour my spirit upon thy seed. and my blessing upon
thine offspring." And we see this happen in the book of Acts
when he poured out his spirit on the day of Pentecost. But
one of the marks of God's children is that they had the Spirit of
God in them. He that hath not the Spirit of
Christ is none of his. He guides, he instructs, He comforts
by the indwelling of His Spirit. We're not left alone. He indwells us. He instructs
us. He teaches us. He leads us. He's always with us. Always. He said, I will never leave thee
nor forsake thee. Gerald Kuhn stopped over at the
shop the other day. to visit with me. I stopped and
visited him a few weeks ago. He stopped by the shop and gave
me an article he had written several years ago. A great article
on troubles and trials. But he quoted that Scripture
to me three weeks ago. He'll never leave us nor forsake
us. And then we were sitting there talking and he quoted that
Scripture again. He'll never leave us nor forsake
us. He'll never leave us nor forsake us. His blessing will always be upon
His offspring. The blessing of His covenant
will always be upon His covenant people. Always. The blessing of His Spirit will
always be shed abroad in the hearts
of His children. Always. He said in one place in the Word
of God, He will always remember His covenant. Always remember
His covenant. It may not look like it. There
are times it may not look like that as a church that we're blessed,
or individually that we're blessed. I'm telling you, if we have Christ,
we are blessed. In Christ we have all things.
All things are yours in Christ. In Him you're blessed. And listen
to this. They shall spring up as among
the grass and willows by the watercourses." Like I said, it
may look like at times that it's over, that the Lord is plain
gone. But He assures us that by His
grace, she shall spring up. He'll have
a people. And they'll grow up well watered. Well watered. And one shall say,
I am the Lord's. Are you His? Are you His? That woman in the Song of Solomon
said, I am His and He is mine. I'm His. I belong to Him. Lock, stock and barrel. He owns
me. He owns me. He owns me and he
owns all that is mine. And I'm glad to give the ownership
over to him. I'm so glad he's the owner. I'm his by election. I'm his
by purchase. I'm his by adoption. I'm his
by creation. I'm his in absolutely every way. I'm his. I'm his. There's not a particle about
me that's not His. He even, now listen, He even
made my sins to be His and put them away. Put them away. I'm glad to be His. And another shall call himself
by the name of Jacob." God will call a people who are not a people,
and they will call themselves the seed of Jacob. I'm looking. Do you believe the gospel? I'm looking
at the seed of Jacob. I'm looking at the true Israel
of God. Paul says that over Philippians
3, we are the true circumcision, which worship God in the spirit
and have no confidence in the flesh. We are the true Israel
of God. And another shall subscribe with
his hand unto the Lord and surname himself by the name of Israel. We shall call upon the name of
the Lord and call ourselves the Israel of God. We are the true Israel of God. Then he says in verse 6, Thus
saith the Lord, the King of Israel. Israel has a king. We have a king. We live in the United States.
We have an elected president. But we, the church, have a King, King Jesus. We are under a theocracy. He is our King. We seek to please
Him. We seek to do His bidding, His
bidding. Our King is our Redeemer. Thus
saith the Lord, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer. Our King is
also our Redeemer. He's the one who has redeemed
us from our sins. He's our Redeemer, who is the Lord of hosts. The Lord of heaven and earth is our
King, our Redeemer. He said, I am the first I am
the last, and beside me there is no God. There is no other
God beside me. He's the first cause of all things. Our King, our Redeemer, our God
is the first cause of all things. He's the first cause of all things
in creation. He said, let there be light.
Nothing happened until He spoke, and when He spoke, it happened. He's the first cause in providence.
Everything going on today is under the direct orders of the
King of Glory, the Lord Jesus Christ. And He's the first cause
of salvation. He's the first cause of it. All things begin with Him and
all things end with Him. He's the first and the last.
And beside me, He said, there is no God. There is only one
God. That's what I titled this. Only
one God. That's all there is. And that
God is Israel's God. And He has no competitor. We
have nothing to fear from false gods that don't exist. He's the
only God there is. There's only one. There's only
one. And who, as I shall call, and
shall declare it and set it in order." Who could do that besides
me? Who could call, declare that
it's going to happen, and then I set it in order in providence?
By the providence of God, He sets in order all that He has
purposed and declared. Who's able to call something
out of nothing? God made this world out of nothing. Who's able to call a dead sinner
to life? Who's able to declare what shall be before it happens
and then make it happen? Who is able to set in order?
Who is able to make it happen? He foretold the Egyptian bondage,
didn't he? Didn't he foretell the Egyptian
bondage? And then he made it happen. He
told about their deliverance way before it happened. And then
he made it happen. Oh, he said, who can do that?
Who can do that? No one but God. No one but Him. He makes all things happen in
providence for His glory and for the good of His people. Now,
he says in verse 7, since I appointed the ancient people, the everlasting
people, He chose His people. He called them. He established
them. Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and he's still doing it. He's
still doing it. He appointed the things that
are coming and shall come. You know, this really, I know
this gives us comfort. He appointed what's coming. He appointed all the means. And
then he's going to bring it to pass. Things are not just floating
out there in space and we're just waiting on things to happen.
These things are appointed, directed under the power, the wisdom of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if that doesn't give you
any kind of rest and comfort and peace, Nothing will. Nothing will. Everything that's coming is appointed
by our God. Everything that's coming on this
world, everything that's coming in my life, from day to day,
He appointed. He appointed me. Fear ye not, neither be afraid,
Have not I told thee from that time and have declared it?" The God of the Gentiles, and
they had many, they had many gods. They still do, still do. They've never been able to tell
what's coming. He said, but I've told you, you're
my witnesses. I told you these things. He gave his word on it. They
had the written word. And then they watched it happen.
They watched it happen. You are my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? Is
there any like me? Is there a rock? Is there any
rock like I am? He says, yeah, there is no God,
there is no rock. I know not any. If there would,
if there was, he would have told us. Christ said, I go to my father,
in my father's house there are many mansions. If it were not
so, I would have told you. If there is, is there any God
beside me? If there were, he would tell us. The Gentiles worshipped many
gods. And today, the world over, there
are many gods worshipped. But there is only one true, living
God. The God of Israel. The God and
Father of the Lord Jesus Christ. The God of creation. The God
of providence. A God of salvation. There's only
one God. That's why he's telling them.
So don't be afraid of something that does not exist. Just trust
me. Trust me. God knows what he's doing. Trust
me. Believe me. Follow me. Rest in
me. Take comfort. Take encouragement. We don't have, we're not like
all these Greek mythologies, all these gods clashing and fighting.
Just one, there's just one, and everything's under his foot.
He has everything under control. Oh, how blessed we are to know
him. to know Him, to know His Son,
to believe on Christ, and you can take comfort in all these
blessings that He's promised. They're yours. They belong to
you in Christ.