Let me draw your attention to
the 46th chapter of Isaiah. I've titled this message, God's
Eternal Purpose. Have you ever wondered how intelligent,
rational, adult human beings can make an idol out of gold
or silver or any other precious materials, including wood? make
that and then set it on some kind of a pedestal and fall down
and worship something they made with their hands? Actually, that's the kind of
God they want. A God they can control. A God
that can't do anything. A God that's just an imaginary
God. They hate the God of the Bible
and we were just like them. We had no love for God. We came
into this world with that old black stoning heart that's enmity
against God, not subject under the law of God, neither indeed
could we be. But let me ask you this, is there
any difference between an idol that men foolishly and simply
make with their hands and the God of the Armenian free world
religionists? There's no difference. They bow
down to a Jesus, who did not establish a righteousness for
them. They believe in a Jesus who did
not redeem them. Their worship is in a phony Jesus
that can't do anything unless they allow him. Actually, that
kind of a worship is worse than an idol made with hands because
they do use some scripture, misuse I should say, in their foolish
attempt to not only worship a Jesus that doesn't exist, but deceiving
others with their foolish, sinful ideas of a Jesus that they have
just concocted up in their minds. Now, God's preachers point this
out as we preach the glorious gospel of God's amazing grace,
but we really don't have to because They manifest their beliefs openly. They declare their foolish imaginary
Jesus from their pulpits. Intelligent, rational, adult
human beings assembled together by the thousands and listen to
the prophets of Baal talk about a Jesus that does not even remotely
resemble the Christ of the Holy Scriptures. God does not hide the truths
concerning himself. In Romans 1, verses 18-23, you
don't have to turn there, but we read these words, The wrath
of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness, because that
which may be known of God is manifest in them. manifest in them, for God hath
shown it unto them, for the invisible things of him, of God, from the
creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the
things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse, because that which they because
that when they knew God they glorified him not as God neither
were thankful but became vain in their imaginations and their
foolish heart was darkened professing themselves to be wise they became
fools and changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an
image made like to corruptible man and to birds and four-footed
beasts and creeping things wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness
to the left of their own hearts, dishonored their own hearts,
dishonored their own bodies, between themselves, who changed
the truth of God into a lie, and worshiped and served the
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen."
Now that's the Word of God. That's what He says about these
foolish sinful religionists. So God does not hide Himself.
Now, not only does creation declare the glory of God and the firmament
show His handiwork, even His eternal power and Godhead, so
that they are without excuse, God has given us a record of
Himself in His Holy Word that is not obscure. The imaginary
God of the freewill Armenian works religious doesn't even
come close to the God of the Bible. The Jesus that is in the minds
of most professing Christians is not my Jesus. Uncongenerate people have no
problem understanding what the Word of God says. They just don't
believe it. So they come up with new translations
and their Producing these new translations, they take the scriptures
they don't like and they're eventually going to get a Bible that they'll
just approve of universally and it's going to be worded in a
way that their religious beliefs are found in a new translation.
Pastor Don Fortner said this in one of his articles, which
I agree with 100%. He said, the problem is not that people do
not understand the language of the Bible, The problem is that
they do and they don't like it. So preachers and religious leaders
have done their best to come up with a translation of the
Bible that makes God look weak and man look good. A translation
that makes redemption accomplished look like redemption attempted
and makes God's operation of grace appear to be God's offers
of grace. Sinners do not need a new translation. They need a new birth. Amen.
Now, Let me preface this message by saying that I am aware of
the historical meaning of this 46th chapter of Isaiah. God not only declared the deliverance
of Israel from the Babylonian captivity they were in, He named
the man that would be the instrument in delivering them, Cyrus, and
He named him a couple of hundred years before Cyrus was born,
way before Israel went into captivity the prophet of God not only declared
their deliverance way before they went into captivity he also
gave specific details of how that deliverance would be accomplished
isn't that interesting? and then at his own appointed
time God himself made sure that what he had purposed came to
pass. Now folks listen to me, if all
we get is the historical meaning of what is written in the Old
Testament, we've missed the message. The deliverance of Israel from
Babylonian captivity is a picture of the salvation of God's elect
Through the perfect, redeeming work of Jesus Christ, our blessed
Savior, what He accomplished for us was purchased by God before
a star ever twinkled in the sky. That's why He created everything.
That's why He populated this world. That's why things came
to pass. All of this was according to
God's eternal purpose. for that great salvation that
our Savior accomplished for his people 2,000 years ago so that
we, God's elect, his enlightened children, those who are brought
out of darkness into his marvelous light would give him all the
praise and all the glory for all eternity for what our God
was pleased to purpose and to do by his own sovereign power
at his own appointed time. So as we go through This 46th
chapter of Isaiah, I pray that God will help us to realize that
the historical meaning is one thing, but the spiritual meaning
is what God wants, and what God will make sure that his and my
children understand, so that our Savior, the Lord Jesus, gets
all the praise and all the glory. Look at the first two verses,
verses 1 and 2 of Isaiah 46. It says, Bell bowed down, Nebo
stooped. Their idols were upon the beast
and upon the cattle. Their carriages were heavy laden.
They are a burden to the weary beast. They stooped. They bowed
down together. They could not deliver the burden,
but themselves are gone into captivity. Now Bell and Nebo
were the names of the great gods of Babylon. Idols made with men's
hands. And when the Persians came against
them, the Babylonians tried to save their God. Can you imagine
that? What a contrast between their God and our God. Our God
is mighty to save. They tried to save their God.
The Jesus of the free will believers can't save anyone without the
sinner's cooperation. It's the will and the purpose
of their Jesus to save sinners, but their God just can't accomplish
His will. Their Jesus does not have sovereign
control over all things. Like Bell and Ego, the Jesus
of free will believers doesn't even exist. Now I'm choosing my words deliberately. Let me share a story with you.
Years ago, and I've shared this, but it's been a long time. Years
ago, I took my family up to a little lake north of us called Black
Butte Lake and I put my boat in the water and got all our
things that we wanted to take with us and the family loaded
them aboard the boat and we had to cruise out of the harbor because
people were swimming and it was a five mile an hour speed limit
and there was a man coming in and by himself in a boat without
a steering wheel so he was sitting in the back using the teller
on the motor to steer himself. And the bow was way up in the
air. Looked like, you know, he was
about to sink in the back end. Doing five miles an hour, that's
the thrust, is what caused the boat to look like that. And my
wife said, why is his boat like that? Well, my motor was making
noise and couldn't explain to her the thrust. I just said,
he's in a light aluminum boat. And she just reached over and
slapped me upside the shoulder and I said, now what was that
for? I heard what you said, he doesn't have his wife in the
boat. That's not what I said. I said
it's in a light aluminum book. So being misunderstood can be
dangerous sometimes. I don't want to be misunderstood. Our God is not only minded to
save, He has already saved His chosen people through the perfect
redeeming work of Christ our Savior at Calvary 2,000 years
ago. And if you want to be technical,
it was a done deal that God purposed before a star ever twinkled in
the sky. We read these words in Romans 8.31, if God be for
us, who can be against us? Turn those words around and point
the guns of gospel truths toward the enemies of God and word it
this way, if God be against you, who can be for you? You know,
thank God that He's for us. And if He is for us, and He has
always been for us, then who can be against us? Verses 3 and
4 of this 46th chapter of Isaiah says, Hearken unto me, O house
of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which
are born by me from the belly, which are carried from the womb,
and even to your old age I am he, and even to her hairs will
I carry you. I have made, and I will bear,
even I will carry, and will deliver you. And what a contrast between
our God And between the God of this religious generation, our
God tells us, He assures us that He will carry us, that He will
be our God. From the whole time of our conception
in our mother's womb to the last breath we take on this earth,
God promises to carry us all the way. We have His pervenient
grace, His preserving grace, and his persevering grace. You say, well, what's prevenient
grace? And that's grace going for grace.
Let me explain it this way. I have a son by the name of Daniel.
Most of you know him. He's a fine young man, 35 years
of age. He better be thankful for prevenient
grace, because if I had found out when he was a young boy what
he did, and he never told me until he was an adult, he probably
never would have reached an adult age. That's pervenient grace. God preserves him. He gave him
grace to carry him through until that appointed time of his love
when he would reveal himself to Daniel. And that applies to
all of us. From the time our mother conceived
us in her womb, until the Lord spoke to us under the preaching
of his gospel, God had his eye of love on us. And he made sure
that nothing happened to us that would prevent us from coming
into that relationship with him at his appointed time of love
which we heard last night where we would give him all the praise
and all the glory for his wonderful unspeakable gift eternal life
to Jesus Christ our Lord now folks the house of Jacob God's
spiritual Israel are those who were chosen in Christ before
the world began. A natural descendant of Abraham
has no guarantee because they are biological children of that
great man of faith. They have no guarantee that God
loves them. A Jew is not one outwardly, a Jew is one inwardly.
Circumcision is not a placement of the heart, which prays is
not a man but of God. So if we have been called out
of darkness, If God has circumcised our heart, if He has taken away
the stony heart and given us a new heart that we might believe
on Him according to the Scriptures, if we have experienced the new
birth, we're of the house of Jacob, we're God's spiritual
Israel, that holy nation made up of God's chosen people from
every kindred and tongue and tribe and nation. And we ought
to rejoice in this wonderful truth concerning God and His
choosing us. If He had not chosen me, I never
would have chosen Him. So thank God for the truths concerning
the true house of Israel when God spoke to Ezekiel showing
him that vision of all those dry bones and God told Ezekiel
to just preach to them. Can you imagine preaching to
a valley of dry bones? At the end of that wonderful
truth concerning God's power in bringing those bones together
and putting life into those skeletons, we read these words, this is
the whole house of Israel. And we're God's chosen people.
We make up, us as members of His body, we make up that wonderful
nation that He calls His holy nation. His chosen people. We were redeemed by the blood
of Jesus Christ. He paid the redemption price
in full for a particular people. And I thank God I was included
in that number that God Himself has revealed His wonderful truths
to us. Now, if God has given us faith,
if He has enlightened us, if our... and folks, it's not blind
faith. Our faith is based upon the word
of God and God himself is our teacher. So if he has given us
faith, we're part of that remnant of the house of Israel. God is
the one who is our creator. The scripture says, it is he
that has made us and not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. We've contributed nothing. to
our physical birth and we contributed nothing to our spiritual birth
we echo the words of the Apostle Paul who said writing under the
inspiration of God the Holy Spirit by the grace of God I am what
I am and God promises every enlightened child of his that he who has
made us has his eye of love upon us every minute of our lives
here on this earth below and he God himself will carry us
all the way through making sure when that The point in time of
our departure comes that we will be carried over the Jordan River,
so to speak, safely into eternal bliss, giving our God all the
praise for every step that we took on this earth, knowing that
He was with us every step of the way. God's preachers are
to comfort his people and we don't do that by encouraging
people to put their trust in their fleshly works we do that
by encouraging God's people to look to Christ only to Christ
right here in this book of Isaiah in the 45th chapter God says
look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else In the 40th chapter, God tells
his preachers how to comfort God's people. Comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith the Lord. Tell her that her warfare is
accomplished, that her iniquity is pardoned. And this is what
we're to do. We're to comfort God's people
by pointing you to Jesus Christ. Telling you that Jesus Christ
has redeemed us. Our redemption has been accomplished.
God has forgiven us for Christ's sake. Look to Jesus. God's enlightened
children are comforted by looking to Christ and owning to Christ
and bowing down to Him and receiving the truth concerning Him and
this wonderful redemption that's ours through Christ Jesus. He
by Himself purged our sins. He obtained eternal redemption
for us. By His one offering, He sanctified
all of His chosen people. And by that same offering, He
perfected us forever. I'm just quoting scripture. I'm
just quoting scripture. No wonder these modern religionists
want a new translation. They hate that truth. Now, the
rest of this chapter, God draws our attention to Himself. Sounding
out a warning not only against idolatry, but also declaring
the sinful foolishness of trying to make an image of him, or of
anything in heaven for that matter. Look at verses 5 through 8. To
whom would you liken me? and make me equal, and compare
me that we may be like. They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver in a balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he
make it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship,
they bear him up upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in
his place, and he standeth, and from his place shall he not remove.
Yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save
him out of his troubles. Remember this, and show yourselves
men, bring it again to mind, O ye transgressors. Now, I'm
just reading the Word of God. And we need to read the Word
of God with reverential fear, with awe, knowing that this is
what God is saying about Himself, about the foolishness of men
who try to worship a God made with hands. When our Lord Jesus
gave His laws to Moses, He began by reminding the Israelites of
who He is. and what he had done for them,
saying in the first two commandments, I am the Lord thy God, which
hath brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house
of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods
before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee
any graven image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven
or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth, thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve
them. For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and
fourth generations of them that hate me." And so that's forbidden
in the Word of God to even make an image of that which is in
heaven and other places that we just read about. That's forbidden. God tells us, don't do that.
You all don't have the picture A wild Bill Hickok hanging on
your wall that people say looks like Jesus. Get rid of that.
Get rid of that. We're not to have that. I remember
my second pastor, Bill Hodge, he said the church, a certain
church in Idaho, I think, had called him to be their pastor. And the first thing he did when
he accepted the call, they had a picture of that long-haired
hippie hanging on the wall in the church building and he just
took it down and threw it in the basement somewhere. And he
said nobody noticed that for several weeks. And all of a sudden
somebody looked with that picture that used to be hanging. Oh!
What a defense! He said I encourage them not
to even mention that again and they eventually did. I think
I would have told him, he's right where he has always been, on
his sovereign throne of power, ruling and reigning over this
whole universe, he's not a picture on the wall. We worship, God's
people worship our God in spirit and in truth, it's by faith.
And if you start looking at something that's made with hands, it's
not by faith, it's by sight. God gives us a description of
Himself. If you want a good description
of God, go into the book of Revelation and see what God says about Himself
to the seven churches. It's a beautiful picture. All
the attributes of God are found in Christ Jesus our Lord. And
we worship Him in spirit and in truth. We're to remember what
God says about Himself. What He says about false gods.
And we're to conduct ourselves like true men of faith. Not like
those brute beasts who demean themselves by bowing down to
idols or foolish men and women who profess to be Christians
who bow down to a Jesus of their own imagination. The songwriter
wrote these words, Stand up, stand up for Jesus, ye soldiers
of the cross. Make a stand against that which
is sinful, which opposes the truths concerning God. Even if
your own relatives turn against you, we must make a stand for
the truth. Even if the whole world turns
against us, by God's grace, we will continue. Once again, if God be for us,
who can be against us? Now listen to what our great
God says about himself in the last part of this chapter. And
delight yourself in Him and His glorious truths that can only
be ascribed to the true and living God. Verse 9 says, Remember the
former things of old, for I am God and there is none else. The
Israelites went down into Egypt. We heard a little bit about this
last night. According to God's own purpose,
He told Abraham what he was going to do. And he told, and it didn't
happen until after Abraham died, he not only told Abraham what
he was going to do, he told Abraham how long the Israelites would
be down in Egypt. And so, we're to remember these
former things of old. And the Israelites should have
remembered those things. And not only the captivity that
Israel was in, when they were down in Egypt with the great
deliverance that God gave when He brought them out of Egypt.
All of the plagues and all of those things that God did under
the leadership of His servant Moses. And how God brought them
to the Red Sea and how they feared when they saw Pharaoh and the
army coming up behind them. How God with a cloud hid the
Israelites from the Egyptians until He had parted the Red Sea.
Can you imagine? The Red Sea just standing up.
A wall of water on this side and a wall of water on that side
and enough room for the Israelites to go across. I can't remember
how many abreast. On dry ground, not getting any
mud on their feet. Going clear over to the other
side and looking back and seeing Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian
army foolish enough to go down between those two walls of waters
after all of those plants. This is the power of God. I've
said before, it would take something bigger than a man to get me to
go down between those two walls of water. Well, it was something
bigger than a man. And God destroyed Pharaoh and the whole Egyptian
army right before the eyes of his chosen people. Taking care
of the enemies. And folks, listen, once again,
if all we get is a historical account of that, we've missed
the message. This is the great deliverance that God has given
to us out of spiritual Egypt, out of blackness, out of darkness,
out of bondage to Satan, to sin, to self. God just brought us
out of that prison house of unbelief by His sovereign power. And we're
to remember those things. There's many other things we
could talk about that God, in the historical account, tells
Israel to remember. The water coming out of the rock. Enough water to come out of a
rock to satisfy the thirst of millions of Jews and all of their
livestock. Manna coming from heaven. Quail
coming into the camp. God Himself taking care of the
enemies. Under Joshua's leadership, at
least 31 kings, I believe, and this is God Himself giving victory
after victory after victory. We're to remember those former
things. This is God's doing. Our God is powerful, almighty,
and nothing can thwart His purpose. And while He has purpose, He's
going to accomplish. Verse 10 says, God declares the
end from the beginning and from ancient times of things that
are not yet done, and with very few exceptions, false prophets
dare not predict the future. Because if it doesn't come to
pass, they know that they're exposed as a false prophet. But
our God not only declares the end from the beginning, he's
the one who decreed the end from the beginning, and everything
that happens in between. And it's not this foolishness
that is coming from the lips of the prophets of Baal in this
generation that's saying God looked ahead in the future, and
he saw who would make a decision for Jesus, therefore he wrote
our names in the Lamb's Book of Life based upon those who
would do something. That's just, you know, People
who walk across the pasture where they keep bulls avoid stepping
in that kind of stuff. That's just what it is. And we
as God's children are to be aware of this. That God Himself is
the only one who can declare the end from the beginning and
bring everything to pass just exactly like He decreed it. Our
Lord Jesus Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Judas Iscariot betrayed him for
30 pieces of silver. Our Lord said, it's better if
that man had never been born. He couldn't have done anything
else. You ever think about that? That was decreed. It doesn't
justify his wickedness. But like Pharaoh, God raised
him up for that purpose. And I'm not making that up. We
read that in the scriptures. Pharaoh was raised up for that
very purpose. That God would destroy him and
manifest his glory through that man. And if it wasn't for the
grace of God, where would we be? God not only declared way
before a star took him in the sky, that we would be recipients
of his mercy, writing Our names in the Lamb's Book of Life, based
upon, and the Apostle Paul said in Romans chapter 11, even at
this present time also there is a remnant according to man's
free will. I said that on purpose. There
is a remnant according to the election of grace. And if it's
grace, it's not works. Otherwise, it's no more grace.
So we were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world.
God wrote our names in the Lamb's Book of Life because it pleased
Him to do so. We're recipients of His sovereign
mercy because God Himself determined that we would be. He's the potter,
we're the clay. He makes one vessel unto honor
and another unto dishonor. And God Himself reveals this
to His chosen people at their own appointed time of love when
He comes to us enlightening our minds. Now, it's not only Our
deliverance from a prison house of unbelief. But it's God who
has determined all of that which surrounds our deliverance. The
time when we came into this world, who our parents would be, whether
we would be male or female, the color of our eyes, everything
about us. It's God who formed us in our mother's womb. It's
God who fashioned us as it pleased Him. And it's God Himself who
appointed the time when we would come unto the sound of His gospel.
He not only appointed the preacher who would be the one who would
be preaching the gospel to us, He appointed that very purpose
where our paths would cross for His glory and for our deliverance
so that we would hear the truth. We didn't come into a relationship
with God by accident. I probably shocked a lot of people
when the Lord saved me, but I didn't shock God. I didn't surprise
God. He had purposed this. A little country church up in
Northern California, Trinity Baptist Church, where my wife
went before we were married. God started working on me. Nobody
knows when regeneration begins. Somewhere we hear some truths
and God is pleased to begin the work in us. But I wanted to go
back to that church because my own way of thinking, my wife
was what I believed to be an example of what a Christian woman
should be. And I don't think she was even
saved then. But I wanted to go back to that church where she
used to go. We had been married for 10 years.
But, in the divine providence of God, the church that was a
free will church that she attended, was a sovereign grace church,
the true gospel was being preached. I didn't know anything about
total depravity or unconditional election or limited atonement
or irresistible grace or the perseverance of the... I didn't
know anything. I didn't know Christ. I didn't know anything.
But under the preaching of that glorious gospel that gives Him
all the glory, God got a hold of me and delivered me from darkness,
delivered me from the power of darkness, delivered me, set me
free. I just think back on that, I'm
in utter amazement. All of those that I used to run
with, and Larry Glass testified this, Larry was a little older
than me, well quite a bit, but we didn't run together, but we
were in that same camp. He ran around with my older brother,
and Glass or a brother. But we were from that same camp.
And we look back now, and all those people we used to run with,
they're still in darkness. Why? Why did God do what He did
with me and not with others? Because He decreed it from the
beginning. Way back before the star tripled
in the sky. Not only my deliverance, not
only your deliverance, but all the particulars concerning that.
God's wonderful grace. I wonder what went through the
mind of Cyrus when he discovered the instrument that would deliver
Israel and how he would deliver them. Reading the particulars,
I wonder what went through his mind. I don't know. Rather, I know what went through
my mind. when I found out that God had
determined way back in old eternity that I would be a recipient of
His sovereign grace and His sovereign mercy I was just in awe and it
just thrilled my heart just filled my heart with praise to Him for
what He had purposed in sending His Son to pay the redemption
price and fall for my sins Verse 10 tells us, God Himself saying,
My counsel shall stand, and I will do all My pleasure. Folks, listen,
nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing can alter or disannul
God's counsel or even hinder Him from doing what He has purposed. He wouldn't be God if something
could hinder God. And He will do all of His pleasure.
Our Lord Jesus is in the heavens. sitting on His sovereign throne
of power, working all things after the counsel of His own
will, doing what pleases Him. And it pleases Him to do what
was decreed before the foundation of the world in giving eternal
life to as many as were given to Him by God the Father. And
it pleases Him when we, as recipients of His grace and His mercy, Bow
down to His absolute sovereign grace and sovereign power, acknowledging
Him as Lord of all. That place is our God. God tells
us in verse 11, that it was God's good pleasure to call a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executed my counsel from a far
country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Historically speaking, this refers
to Cyrus, a swift bird who came from the east to do God's will,
to do what God had purposed. But this is also pointing to
us. It's called predestination. More
than that, it's called God's predestination. That hated word. People hate that. Religious people
hate that. There's a lady in Idaho who told
a young man, you beware of Gene Harmon. He's a predestinarian.
Is that a word? I don't even know if that's a
word. But that's how much they hate that. The Word of God tells
us That at God's appointed time of love for us, He sent the Spirit
of the Son into our hearts, whereby we cried, Abba, Father. But the Word of God also tells
us that God Himself predestinated us unto the adoption of children
according to the pleasure of His own will. So this is predestination. This is God's predestination
to bring us under the sound of the gospel and then send the
Spirit of the Son into our hearts where we, by faith, are united
together with the true and living God because of Jesus Christ,
our Savior, who paid the redemption price in full for all of our
sins. Brethren, we've been ransomed. God has purchased us with his
own blood. Is that good news or what? And
thank God and praise God. Now spiritually speaking, what
we read in that 11th verse applies to all of us. God has from the
beginning chosen us to salvation through sanctification of the
spirit and belief of the truth. We read that in 2 Thessalonians
2.13. So it's under the preaching of
the truth. I heard a while ago that God is not saving anybody
under the preaching of lies. That's true. That's true. God
doesn't save anybody under this false teaching, this phony Jesus
that's being preached from most popes today. He's saving His
people under the gospel of His amazing grace as it is set forth
in His Holy Word. The truths concerning Christ,
who He is, what He has done for us, and where He is now. Brethren,
God Himself has purposed this and delivered us. 2 Timothy 1
verses 8-10 says, Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony
of our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions
of the gospel according to the power of God, who hath saved
us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was
given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, but is now made
manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who
hath abolished death, Let that sink down just for a
moment. Who have abolished death and have brought life and immortality
to life through the gospel. God just enlightens our minds,
revealing to us what he has done for us. You come to this room
on a dark night and turn the lights on and you see all the
pews and the piano and the organ and the furniture. The light
didn't put the furniture here. It just revealed, revealed what's
here. That's what God does. He commands
the light to shine in our hearts so that we might see the glory
of our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. The glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. This is by faith. But it's God
who commands the light to shine. We were once in darkness, now
we're in the light of the Lord. And God has done it. It's God
who has done it. So nothing can thwart God's purpose. We come unto the preaching of
the gospel. Thank God for His gospel. Amen? Thank God for those
who preach His gospel. But thank God for the power.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It's the power
of God unto salvation to everyone who believes. So thank God for
His gospel. I was sharing earlier with one
of the brothers, what an honor. What an honor to be entrusted
with the gospel of God's amazing grace. Verse 12, hearken unto
me ye stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. This
was a warning to those self-righteous, stony-hearted Jews who knew nothing
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. But it's also a warning
to all men and women everywhere who are ignorant of God's righteousness,
who go about trying to establish their own righteousness, and
will not submit themselves unto the righteousness of God. Jesus
Christ is God's righteousness. We have none of our own. Anything
we do with our polluted hands is just an abomination in the
sight of God. It's not done by faith, it's
sin. I said that last Sunday in my message. The things that we do in our
unregenerate state, we have no faith. We didn't come into this
world with faith. Faith isn't exotic. It comes from God. We
don't come into this world with that. It's the faith of God's
elect. It's God's gift to us. Not our
gift to God. And that faith that God gives
to us, He's the author and the finisher of our faith. That faith
is what God Himself uses to unite us together, a living union with
sinners saved by His grace, united with the true and living God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. He begat us. He's our Father. Of His own will begat He us with
the Word of Truth. We're His children. So we tell
folks, today is the day of salvation. Thou hearted false religionist,
come unto Jesus by faith. Believe on him and thou shalt
be saved. God says in verse 13, I bring near my righteousness,
it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not tarry,
and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. This was a prophecy of the coming
of Jesus Christ way before he came. God's righteousness and
God's salvation is Jesus Christ. And God's righteousness and God's
salvation is every believer. Jesus Christ is every believer's
salvation. He's our righteousness. But what
a righteousness we have. God sees us in His Son. Justifying. Just as if we had
never sinned. That's how He sees us in Christ. And thank God we're in Him, where
God sees us just as perfect as Jesus Christ
Himself. Brethren, when our Lord walked
on this earth, He walked in perfect obedience, doing the will of
God, establishing the righteousness For Mr. Wayne Boyd, for Mr. Michael Roy, for this whole country
preacher standing before you, a righteousness that makes us
as holy as God Himself. And when our Lord Jesus uttered
those words, it is finished. When He laid down His life, He
satisfied the holy justice of God for somebody. Not for everybody,
but for somebody. His chosen people, busy land.
And we stand before God, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ,
dressed in His righteousness, holy and acceptable in God's
sight, because of what Jesus Christ has done for us. God's
salvation did not tarry. Like we heard last night, when
the fullness of time has come, God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under
the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. God did
not tarry when He delivered us from the power of darkness at
His appointed time of love. Because we are sons, God sends
the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Father, Father,
Father, did you ever read that? It's in Galatians, because you
are sons. God's salvation did not tarry. It was God's appointed
time. We heard, I was so blessed last
night, Brother Don, when you brought that out. God's timing
is perfect. Always perfect. Always perfect. He's decreed all of this. And
let me leave you with this. God will not tarry as far as
our appointed time of departure from this earth. He has that
all decreed. It's appointed that the man wants
to die after this is the judgment. But we've already been judged
in our Savior. There is therefore now no condemnation,
no judgment to them which are in Christ Jesus. So be of good
cheer, my brothers and sisters in Christ. God will never leave
us. He will never forsake us. He
which hath begun a good work in us will perfect it until the
day of Jesus Christ. And we can rest assured that
God's eternal purpose was to bring us into a living union
with Himself and not one for whom Christ died will be taken
from him, all of us. At the appointed time of death,
we'll be ushered right into the presence of King Jesus, where
we'll see Him in all of His glory. And forever and forever and forever,
when faith gives way to sight, we'll bask in the warmth of the
glory of our Savior, giving Him all the praise and all the honor
and all the glory for what He purposed before a star ever twinkled
in the sky, a people of particular people who will be recipients
of His grace and His mercy through the perfect redeeming work of
Jesus Christ our Savior and will worship Him for all eternity
for what He has done for us. Isn't that so? Thank God for
His eternal purpose, what He has purposed. He said, I will
also do that. Brother John, you've got to read
this in the closing hymn. Thank you.