Let's turn this morning to the
book of Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 46. Isaiah 46. We are told repeatedly in the
scriptures to remember. Our pastor, a week ago Wednesday,
had a great and comprehensive message on remembering. And I
counsel everybody who wasn't here or didn't get to hear it
to look on Sermon Audio and hear it. It's a great message. Hundreds
of times in the scripture, we are counseled and commanded to
remember. Our Lord said, remember Lot's
wife. Why? That's who we are by nature. And our Lord said of the bread
and wine, do this in remembrance of me. We must always remember
Christ. Why must we be continually told
to remember? There's two simple reasons. Number
one is we're so prone to forget. One of the things we all lost
in Adam's fall was our ability to remember certain things. We have great difficulty remembering
anything that's spiritual, remembering anything that's true, or remembering
anything that's God-honoring. It's not in our nature. We've
got to be told again and again and again. And the second reason
we're told to remember is that if we are to know what God will
do, we must remember what He has already done. Why? God never changes. Whatever He
has done or has said He will do is what He will do. Because
that's always what's for His greatest glory. God's glory is
preeminent. It's most important to Him. This
is an embarrassing illustration of this, but I was a sophomore
in high school. And I was like the second or
third string quarterback and second string defensive back.
And we had an early game that year. And, you know, the game
was going along fine. I was standing over there watching.
And all of a sudden, one of the fellows who's the first string
defensive halfback gets hurt. And they go bringing him off
the field as the other team got ready to punt the ball. And all
of a sudden, the coach realizes, wait a minute, we only got 10
guys. And he turns around, and I learned real early, stand near
as the coach as you can get, because you just might get put
in the game. And he turns around and says, you, go in there. And
I go running out there. Well, back then, they had two
halfbacks to receive the punt. And as I run out there, I'm about
5'3 and maybe 115 pounds. And the guy next to me is a high
school All-American. He's 6'3 and 195 pounds. He's going to play for the University
of Missouri next year. There's no doubt in my mind who's
supposed to catch the ball and run it back. But you know, as
these things go, this guy kicks this line drive punt right between
us. It bounces, and footballs do
funny things. And as we both turn around and
start back, the ball just keeps bouncing at me. And I keep thinking, come get
it, Roger, come get it. And finally, he goes, take it,
coffee. And I go, OK. And as I pick it
up and turn around, Man, this wave of guys in the other team
are coming, and I'm thinking I'm toast. Well, good old Roger
comes across there. He knocks about three of them
flat out, and here I go. And I'm running for my life,
and I return this thing about 40 yards. And I come running
off the field, and the coach is looking at me like, who are
you, and where did you come from? And I'm thinking the same thing.
Now, get serious a minute here. Why do I remember that so well? Why do I remember that like it
was yesterday? I mean, I can play the reel in
my mind. You know why? That's part of my glory. You say, is that the best you
got? Pretty much, pretty much. Yep, that says about the best
there is about my glory. But do you get the point? We're told to remember Lot's
wife. You know why? I'm just another
pillar of salt and so are you. And if God removes his hand from
me, my glory won't do me a bit of good. It's so insignificant. When I remember Christ, now that's
glory. You see, He's all and in all,
and He can do all for me. He can do all I need. Remember
Him. Now look at Isaiah 46 verse 8
a minute, and you see that's what this is. Remember this,
and show yourselves men. Bring it again to mind, O ye
transgressors. The scriptures repeatedly and
always tell natural men, remember who and what we are. And this
remember in verse eight refers to the preceding seven verses.
And the context of these verses is from the book of Daniel. From
that, we know that a guy named King Nebuchadnezzar was going
to sweep down from the north and conquer Israel during King
Jehoiakim of Judah's reign. And He was going to take Israel
captive, all the people, all the treasure, even the vessels
of the temple, and take them back to Babylon. These verses are a prophecy.
And you say, well, wait a minute, this was all recorded many, many,
many years before any of this would happen. Why did God record
it here? So that His people who were in
captivity would know. that somebody was coming. We'll
see here in a minute, there was a king that would come out of
the north, or out of the east, and would, his name was King,
he was the king of Persia, and would one day come and conquer
Babylon, and set the Jews free, and take them back to Israel.
And all this pictures and foretells the following. The fall and captivity
Captivity of Adam and all his race is pictured in Nebuchadnezzar
coming down there and conquering Israel and taking them into captivity. That's what that picture is.
And then Cyrus coming down is a picture that Christ one day
would come and set his people free. Cyrus would sweep into
Babylon and let Israel go. Look in Isaiah 46, verse one,
it says, Bell bowed down, Nebo stooped. Their idols were upon
the beasts and upon the cattle. Your carriages were heavy laden.
They're a burden to the weary beast. They stooped, they bowed
down together. They could not deliver the burden,
but themselves are gone into captivity. Bell and Nebo are
idols of the Babylonians made out of gold and silver. And you
say, well, You know, no longer do people bow down to idols.
Yeah, they do. Get out of Mexico. You can go
back in the jungle, and here's this, there's several hundred
people living there, and here's this massive cathedral. And you
walk in, and these people are just so poor, dirt poor, living
in dirt floors and cinder block places with wooden roofs. And
you walk in this cathedral and here's this statue of Mary made
of gold. And they come in there and genuflect
and do all this. You know what? Those idols are
the same as the idols back in Babylonia. And when Cyrus came,
they loaded them up on donkeys and oxen and headed back to Persia
to melt them down. And one day there'll be no more
idol worship. When Christ returns, there'll
be no more false gods. You see in verse three, it 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, even to your old age, I am he, and even
the hoary hairs, the gray hair will I carry you. I've made and
I will bear, even I will carry and will deliver you. Those who
do not worship Christ, They have to carry their idols around with
them. It's so pitiful to see somebody with something around
their neck. That's their God. That's their
idol. And they have to carry them everywhere
they go. Just like Bel and Nebo had to be carried back to Persia
where Cyrus came from because they couldn't walk. They don't
have any legs. They can't do anything. And those
who are born of the true and living God, That word born there
means born again. And God says right there, he
says, you don't have to carry me around. He said, I'll carry
you around. Aren't we grateful for that? Our deliverance from sin is not
that we do good or we do enough so God can accept us. No, Christ
already did enough. Perfect righteousness is required
so that we're accepted by God, accepted in the Beloved. And
that's what Christ did in His life. He was perfectly righteous.
And a man may have helped the man Christ Jesus, the man Jesus,
there was a man as he was staggering up Calvary with that cross, he
couldn't carry it anymore. And there was a man came and
helped him, helped him carry it up there. I'm telling you,
that's the only time anybody ever assisted the Lord Jesus
Christ with anything. He's always carrying us. And
that man helped him carry that up there because his physical
weakness was so diminished. Not his spiritual weakness, not
his Godhood at all. But he helped him carry it up
there so they could nail him to that tree, put it in the ground,
and he could carry us one day back to glory. Because he will
have completed all this necessary. Look at verse 5 here. To whom
will you liken me, and make me equal? And who will you compare
me with, that we may be like? These idol worshipers, they lavish
gold out of a bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and they
hire a goldsmith, and he makes it a god, little g. They fall
down, yea, they worship that. They bear him upon the shoulder,
they carry him, and they set him in his place. and he standeth
from his place, shall he not remove? Yea, one shall cry unto
him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble.
He can't even cry out and say, move me from here over there.
He can't even do that. And men worship him? Well, by
nature, all men and women make the terrible, blasphemous mistake
of thinking that the true and living God is like the God's
little G that men make with their hands, or the God of our imagination. And you say, well, in our day,
people don't make actual isles of gold and silver anymore. Well,
not so much in this country, but they do elsewhere. We don't
give our gold and silver to a goldsmith. No, we got a lot bigger problem
than that. You know what we do with it? We keep it. We lavish it on ourselves. Why? Folks, in this day, we've made
ourselves into gods. Oh, gee. This do your own thing, you know
what that is? That's idol worship. It's no
better than the pagan idol. Our God, the God of most folks
in this day, in this country, do you know where they go to
see their God? They go to see him or her in the mirror. Look at verse 8. Remember this. Remember what
we just read. And show yourselves men. Be a man enough to stand up and
admit the truth. Bring it again to mind, O ye
transgressors. This needs to be brought to mind
again and again and again. Why do we meet again and again
and again in here? We need to be reminded. Why does
our pastor, every time we meet, preach the same message, Christ
crucified? Because we need to be reminded. He does it because we need to
remember, otherwise we'll forget. He does it because he's a transgressor
speaking to transgressors. He's a sinner preaching to sinners. And I like this, listen to this.
He does that because he's a man. He's a real man. He's not looking
for the path of least resistance. He's not looking for a bigger
congregation. He's not looking to raise any monetary gain. He's not looking for a bigger
house, a better car, or the approval of men, no matter the consequences. Our pastor is going to tell us
the truth, who we are, sinners, transgressors, and who Christ
is, the only Redeemer. That's a real man. These guys
on TV just make me sick. I'm sorry. And I know, but for
the grace of God, that's what we be too. But I'm thankful we've
got a real man to preach Christ to us. He's going to tell us
over and over and over, bring the gospel to mind. Okay. Remember
who we are and then remember who God is. That first remember
is in verse eight is remember this about idols. In verse nine
it says, but also remember the former things of old. For I am
God and there's none else. I'm God and there's none like
me. Again, why must we be continually
told to remember? I can illustrate this for everybody
who's got kids. How many times do you say to
them around the dinner table, don't talk with your mouth full? What do they do? Give it maybe
five to seven minutes. Don't talk with your mouth full.
What's the problem? They'll go, I forgot. I forgot. Don't interrupt me when I'm talking.
Do they keep doing that? Wait your turn. Do your homework. Why do they have to be reminded
of that? They forget. At least that's what they say. They're told to share. They're
told to be nice. How about brush your teeth? Wow. I forgot. I forgot. God's command
to remember is instruction to His children, His little ones. He knows that we'll forget if
He doesn't remind us. And it's for correction to His
children. God knows we still have a rebellious nature as well
as the new nature. Why has God recorded and preserved
in a book some of what He's done? He knows otherwise we'd soon
forget. And God in mercy has preserved
former things, old things. Young people hate old things.
They hate it. I'm trying to quit reminiscing.
My kids look at me like I'm from Mars. I understand. It's not,
the young don't care about the old. We must not do that. God's from eternity past. We
need to learn what he's done so we'll know what he's going
to do. We want to study former things
and old things, so we might know that our God, this God, the God
of the Bible, He is God. He's the only true God, and there's
none beside Him. There's nobody like Him. You
see, verse 10, He says, I declare the end from the beginning, and
from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying,
My counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure. Let
me see if I can illustrate that for you. Let's consider for a
minute all this turmoil that's going on in the Middle East.
Let me ask you some questions and answer them. What's really
going on over there? I don't have a clue, but God
knows what's going on over there. Who's going to end up having
their way in this? Will it be the Egyptians, the
terrorists, the Iranians, the Israelis, the U.S.? ? You know
who's going to have his way? God's going to have his way over
there. Who will be in charge when the
smoke clears? The same one who was in charge before the smoke
started. God's in charge over there. Whose counsel is needed
here? The U.N. counsel? Congress's
counsel? Whose counsel is needed? God's
counsel is needed because only His counsel will stand. What's
going to happen? I don't know. Whatever God determined
from the foundation of the world is what's going to happen. Who's
going to be pleased with the outcome? God will. Why? He says, I'll do all my pleasure. Whatever happens is His pleasure.
Read verse 10 again, declaring the end from the beginning and
from ancient times, the things that are not yet done, saying,
my counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure. Get closer to home. What about
the economy? Will business get better? God's
business is doing absolutely according to His plan. Will I
go broke or will you? I don't know, but God's not going
broke. Everything is His. The riches
of Christ are called unsearchable. If you and I can't provide for
ourselves, that'd be a trial, but God will provide all his
children's needs according to his riches and glory. Will the
housing market get better? I don't know. I know this, Christ
is already gone to prepare a mansion and glory for his people. Is the stock market going up?
Is it going down? Is it soaring or is it crashing?
Who knows? God knows, but we'd be wise to
commit all we have, even our soul, to the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? He's the same yesterday,
today, and forever. God either planned everything,
or He didn't. God's in charge, or He's not. God's almighty, or He's not. God knows everything, or he doesn't. Now which is it? Which is it? What about this presidential
election? God's already appointed the victor.
That's not the question of the day. Folks, the question of the
day is what about the election in this book? The day will arrive
where every candidate for every office They would gladly trade
their high office in order to be part of the high calling of
God in Christ, to be part of the election of grace. Oh, to
be chosen. Oh, even as the least of all
the saints. It's so easy to get this all
out of perspective and all out of whack, isn't it? Turn over
to Isaiah 49. Just a page or two over. Our pastor referenced this scripture,
but it's worth looking at again. I've got a question for you. Who among you would entrust the
entire future well-being of one of your little children, one of your little bitty children,
to the child? Brad, would you guys just one
day walk out of the house and leave Jasper there and say, take
it over, pal. It's all yours. You're on your
own. How about Henry? That'd work good for him, wouldn't
it? We wouldn't do that. You say that'd be a disaster.
The child would kill himself. He'd do himself terrible harm. You say nobody would do that.
Now be careful here. Be careful. Remember Lot's wife. Have you got Isaiah 49 verse
15? Look at verse 14. But Zion said, the Lord hath
forsaken me and my Lord hath forgotten me. Is that possible?
Verse 15. Now, can a woman forget her sucking
child that she should not have compassion on the son of her
womb? Could you could you ladies actually forget one of your children
and just could you just Let them be. Boy, the answer to that is
three letters there. It says, yay, yay. You might forget. You say, oh
no, we wouldn't. Oh, remember Lot's wife. That's
what we are. We would by nature. But then
look at the next question. You may forget, yet I will not
forget you. You know how God remembers, how
the Lord Jesus Christ remembers His children? Not that he needs
this, but I've used this illustration before back in the football field. It was a week or two later. I
was playing defensive back in the game, and some big fullback
comes through the middle of the line, and I run up there, and
I'm going to tackle him. Well, he knocked me fanny over tea
kettle, put one set of cleats across my chest and the other
on my arm as he went by for a touchdown. That's not part of my glory,
by the way. But I've got a remembrance of it. You know what it is? About
a week later, my forearm was so swollen up, it was like this
high off my arm, and my mother finally took me to the doctor,
and they lanced it. It was awful. And he stitched
it up, and to this day, I have a hole in my forearm where they
lanced that boil. That's my remembrance. You say,
how will Christ not forget us? You know how? He's got a hole in both hands,
in both feet. You see it here in verse 15 of
Isaiah 49, verse 16. He says, behold, I have graven
thee upon the palms of my hands, thy walls, you are continually
before me. He won't ever forget you. He
won't forget His children. We might, but He won't. God chose children from Adam's
fallen race. He doesn't leave them alone.
Listen to what He's done. He sent His Son to do for them
everything that they needed to be done. He sends His Holy Spirit
to watch over them, to care for them, to comfort them, until
His Son returns to gather them up, to take them where He is
now. That was the plan from the beginning. It's the plan now,
and it will always be the plan. How do I know that? God wrote
it in a book and preserved it for us to see. So we know the
truth when it's revealed to us. So we believe the truth when
it was told to us. So we'd remember the truth until
he comes and faith gives way to sight. These poor people of
God down here in Babylon had been slaves to the Babylonians
for years and years and years. And God, in his mercy, recorded
this in Isaiah years and years and years before so that when
they were up there going, this is awful. How are we going to
get through this? And what's going to happen to
us? They could read this and go, there's a man coming and
he's going to deliver us and take us back to where we want
to be. They would need this prophecy.
They would need to remember the promise of God during their captivity
in order to have hope that one was coming to set them free.
We need the same hope, don't we? Do you sit here and go, I'm
so weary of being a captive of sin, a slave to my own self. Lord, come soon, come quickly. Well, Look what God promised
him. In verse 11, he says, calling
a ravenous, and that's a swift bird from the east, the man that
executed my counsel from a far country. This is a prophecy that
a swift bird would come down. You say, what's that mean? Wait,
this is amazing. I read all these old writers
and you know what they said? That Cyrus, he had the swiftest
army in the world. They almost all rode on horses
and they would sweep down and conquer a people like that just
almost overnight. You know what their banner was?
All these horsemen carried a spear and on it was a banner. And you
know what was on the banner? A golden eagle, the swiftest
bird there was. Imagine that. How much evidence
do we need? God planned this from the foundation
of the world. Just like He plans one day, we're
miserable in our sin down here. One day Christ is coming, swiftly. And then He'll take us back. Just like Cyrus swept in there,
set them free, sent them back to their home. This all repictures
the return of Christ. Set His people free. Look at
the second half of verse 11. I have spoken it. I'll also bring
it to pass. I purposed it and I'll also do
it. I've spoken it. How do we know
that? It's written in the book. Thousands
of years ago it was written and it's preserved. He said, I'll
bring it to pass. How do we know that? It's recorded
in the book. Whatever God purposes. That's
what happens. And we'd be wise to read the
word of God so we know the truth when we hear it and recognize
the absence of truth or a lie when it's told to us. Now look
at the warning in verse 12. Hearken unto me, you stout hearted
that are far from righteousness. Stout hearted here means double
hearted or stubborn hearted. This is not a good thing. You ever had a conversation with
somebody and you're really trying to make the point and you're
looking them right in the eye and you're doing your very best
to get across your point and all of a sudden you realize you
might as well be talking to yourself. They're just glazed over. If
you've never experienced that, you ought to be up here sometime. And listen, if I put you to sleep
or caused you to zone out, I apologize for that. I've been down there
too. I know your frame. I had a tough
night and I'm gone too. That's not the point of what
I'm saying. But you can tell, you can tell when somebody's
not listening. when somebody doesn't want to
hear it. That's what a double hearted,
stubborn hearted person does when they hear the gospel. And
I counsel you, don't do that. Don't do that. Oh my, rejecting
the truth of God's word. God knows the difference between
hearing the word and needing to be reminded. He knows our
frame, but there's a difference in that and hating God's word,
stubbornly refusing the truth. And then look at verse 13. I
bring near my righteousness. It shall be not far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry. I will place salvation in Zion
for Israel my glory. Why did Christ come to this earth?
To bring His people a righteousness they didn't have and couldn't
create for themselves. It's no longer out of our reach,
it's in Christ. If we have Him, we have all the
righteousness we need. Why did Christ come? To bring
salvation. And notice whose salvation it
is. Do you see the two little letters
in front of that? God says, it's my salvation. Oh, it's ours to have in Christ,
but it's not ours to do or to accomplish. He's not tarrying. or waiting in heaven to see who
accepts it or who accepts him. No, it's done. He finished the
work at Calvary. He placed salvation and Zion
and his people in their hearts, their new hearts
by the Spirit of God. Notice the word my appears three
times in that one verse. It says my righteousness. You
and I have no righteousness of our own, but God gives his righteousness,
the righteousness of Christ to his people. Remember that. Notice
it says, my salvation. You and I have no salvation.
We can't save ourselves, but God gives his salvation, the
salvation found only in Christ through his blood to his people.
Remember that. And then he says, my glory. You
and I have no glory of our own. They're all just silly and foolish
memories like mine. Vanity of vanities. But His glory,
God's glory, His glory, He says, did you notice it says, in Israel? It's in His people. It's in His
children. Now you say, that's hard to get
a hold of, Bob. You're saying God's glory's in
us? In His people? It's hard to get
a hold of until we realize this one thing. He loves His children
so much. He loves us, those whom He has
redeemed, so much. He made us just like Christ. Now I see why He might love me. Now I see why I might be part
of His glory. And that's the good news. Folks,
if we're in Christ, it's all going to be all right. It's going
to be better than all right. It's going to be perfect right
now and always will be. Oh, you and I, we're a mess.
I'm like Lot's wife, remember? But in Christ, I'm as perfect
as God's own son. It couldn't be any better than
that. Remember Lot's wife and then remember Christ. That's
the best I know to tell it. Okay, have you got a closing
ham pick for us?