verse 4, and give you a word
on verse 4 from the most respected, dependable commentary that I've
ever encountered, and that is Dr. John Gill's commentary on
all the scriptures. It's the best. He writes on this verse 4, Let's
read it. Who hath wrought and done it?
All this that we've been talking about. Calling the generations,
the whole story, the generations from the beginning. Generations
of men, of nations, from the beginning. Who hath wrought it?
Who hath done it? I, the Lord. The first and the
last, I'm He. Now listen to this. Who hath wrought and done this,
calling the generations from the beginning? I'll tell you,
it's even He who knew them from the beginning, from all eternity,
before they were. It is even He who can call them
all by name. It is even He who calls all things
that are not as though they were. It is even he who calls them
into being at his appointed time, both physically and spiritually.
It is even he who calls them by his grace into his kingdom
and rules over them by his power, his providence, and his grace.
It is I, the Lord, the first and the last. I am he, the immutable
Jehovah, Jesus Christ our Lord. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning
and the end. This is our Savior who came into
the world by the Virgin's womb, who suffered death on the cross
of Calvary, who was buried and rose from the grave, who is the
first and the last in the Father's thoughts, in the Father's purposes,
In the Father's decrees, in the covenant of grace, and in the
creation of all things, He's the first and the last. He is
all in salvation. He is all in justification. He
is all in sanctification. He is all in adoption. He is
all in the glorification of His people. He is the head of the
church above and the church below. All hail the power of Jesus'
name. That's who hath wrought this.
All right, verse 5. And the islands, nations, that's
who he's talking about. All the islands and nations.
They saw it. What did they see? They saw the
works of God. Psalm 19 says that there's no
language in which his voice is not heard. There's no nation
that hasn't seen the work of God. They saw and heard Abraham
back in Abraham's day. The nation saw Abraham. They
saw his family, and they saw God's mercies and blessings upon
him. They saw the hand of God on Moses. The whole known world at that
time knew Moses, even over there in Jericho. They had the harlot. who ran the local inn on the
walls of Jericho. She says, I've heard of you.
I've heard of Moses. I've heard of Joshua. I've heard
of Israel. I've heard how the Lord delivered
you. They heard it. They saw the works of God. All
these heathen nations saw the works of God. They saw the power
and kingdoms of David and Solomon. Do you not know? Do I not know
that these nations knew of David's kingdom and God's blessings on
it? The greatest kingdom ever to
exist on the earth at that time. The Queen of Sheba, she set out
that half has never been told about this man Solomon and his
kingdom and the way God's blessed him. She had so many questions
to ask him. She saw it. The islands saw, they saw. And
they saw the Son of God when he came into this world too.
Those men, those wise men over yonder in another country saw
his star. We've seen his star. We've heard
about him. Paul said to one of those great
kings, this wasn't done in a corner. He said, I'm persuaded you know
about Jesus Christ and his miracles and his works and his words and
his death and his resurrection. The King knows these things,
all of them knew it. They know it now. They saw, they saw, and they,
look here at verse 5, they saw, the islands, the nations saw
this, and they feared. What did they fear? Did they
fear God? No, sir. They feared that he was a threat
to their false religion, and the end to their idolatry. and
the end to their tradition, and to the end of their covetousness,
and the end of their profitable religious institution, they saw
he was a threat to their way of life. And he is. He'll change
your way of life, or he'll condemn you. He's a threat. You can't
go on in error and works and unbelief and have him. That's
it. That's exactly right. They saw
and they feared him. The ends of the earth were afraid.
They were afraid. So they drew near and came. Did
they come to worship Him? They came to kill Him. They came
to destroy Him. The Islams, are they coming to
this country to learn about the grace of God? They're coming
to destroy the grace of God, and the churches of God, and
the people of God, and the way of our present life. That's exactly why these people
came. Turn with me to John 11. They knew these things. In John
chapter 11, listen to this. These religious Pharisees, they
had the scriptures. They read the scriptures. They
searched the scriptures. They were looking for a Messiah.
But not this way. Not this kind of Messiah. Not
a suffering Messiah, not a redeeming Messiah, not a Messiah of grace.
John 11, verse 47. Listen to this. Then gathered,
they came, they gathered together, the chief priests, the Pharisees,
and the council. And they said, what do we? What
are we going to do? This man did many miracles. One
of their own crowd said to him, you've got to be from God. No
man can do what you do except God be with him. That didn't
change him. When Christ died on the cross,
Nicodemus was still with these fellows, meeting with them. Wasn't
he? Still meeting with them. Now
here they said, verse 48, if we let him alone, people are
going to believe on him. If we let him alone, people are
going to believe on him. And the Romans are going to come
and take away our place, our authority, our rule over the
people, our institutions, and our covetous ways. We're living
on this religion thing. We're profiting by this religious
thing. We're puppeted by idols. We're
selling idols. We can't have this. We've got
to get rid of him." So they got together and turned to Acts 4.
They got together. He was a threat to their way
of life. He was a threat to their false
religion. He was a threat to their prosperity. So in Acts chapter 4, verse 26,
Acts 4, 26, the kings of the earth stood up. and the rulers were gathered
together against the Lord, against his Christ. We cannot have this. And that's what's going on today. They're getting together and
ganging up on, against the Lord God and his Christ. And you can't
have the Lord God without his Christ. You can't have Christ
without the Lord God. He that hath the Son hath the
Father, and he that hath not the Father hath not the Son,
hath not the Father. got to have. Read on. So the
kings of this earth were gathered against the Lord and his Christ,
and of a truth against the holy child Jesus, whom thou hast anointed,
Herod, Pontius Pilate, the Gentiles, and the people of Israel. Now
that's a crowd, isn't it? King Herod, Pontius Pilate, the
Gentiles, and the Jews were all gathered together gathered together,
verse 28, but thank God, they were gathered together to do
what they wanted to do, to destroy him. But they were gathered together
to do whatsoever God's hand and God's counsel determined before,
from the beginning, who calls generations from the beginning
to do what he had before determined to be done. That's right, in
verse 6, look at this. And they helped one another.
They helped one another. The opponents of this righteous
man from the East, those who were against the Lord and his
Christ, they were brought together in an alliance, in a one purpose,
against the Lord our righteousness. Now these people were religious.
But it's a false religion. They helped everyone, his neighbor,
and everyone said to his brother, now be a good cheer, be a good
courage. We know there's a God. Most everybody
believes there's a God. Call Him by different names,
Allah, Allah, and man upstairs, and somebody up there, and call Him different names. And
most people believe it's life after death, a heaven to gain
and a hell to shun. But what they're against, they're
against and opposed to the fact that this man, the Lord our righteousness,
called of the Heavenly Father, ordained of the Heavenly Father,
sent of the Heavenly Father, to be crucified, buried, risen,
ascended to the right hand of God, and through his perfect
obedience And through his precious blood, you and I, and all who
believe, and all who will believe, have everlasting life and shall
never perish. That's the issue. What think
ye of Christ? That's the issue. You see, turn
with me to Galatians. This is what Paul is declaring
in Galatians 2. Turn over there just to Galatians
chapter 2, verse 20 and 21. I'm crucified with Christ. Nevertheless,
I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which
I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God.
I live by the faith of the Son of God, not by my works, not
by my deeds, tradition. I live by the faith of the Son
of God who loved me and gave himself for me. And I do not
frustrate the grace of God, the gospel of God, the way of life. If righteousness come to the
law, if a man can gain heaven any other way than through Christ,
if a man can reach glory, a woman can be there in the company of
the redeemed, in the kingdom of God, in the presence of God,
the glory of God he read about a while ago. If he can get there
some other way, Jesus Christ died in vain. That's exactly the way Paul feels,
that he died in vain. That's the issue. And he says
here in verse 7, listen, these people, they saw the work of
God, and they came to destroy it. They helped Eberwon, his
neighbor. Verse 6, Eberwon said to his brother, Be a good cheer,
so the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith. And he that smootheth
with the hammer, him that smote with the anvil. And all of them
worked together. They built an idol, you see,
to worship. It is ready for the sovereign. They fashioned it
with nails that it should not be moved and put their false
gods and their false way of life and their false savior in a place
where it couldn't move and nailed it down and told people, come
worship him now. Come worship him. It's religion. Religion. I want us to look at a few verses
of scripture. Now here, this is what thinking
of Christ. That's the foundation. And I
want you to turn to some scripture, three or four scriptures. First
of all, John 3. Is Christ the only way to glory? Is he the only way of salvation?
Is this true? John 3, verse 18. Is this true? Is this true? I'm asking you.
He that believeth on Christ is not condemned. He that believeth
not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name
of the only-forgotten Son of God." Is that true? That's what
scripture says. Look at verse 36. Verse 35. The Father loves the Son, hath
given all things into his hand. That's life, salvation, redemption. And he that believeth on the
Son hath everlasting life. And he that believeth not the
Son," whatever he believes, he hath, shall not see life. The
wrath of God abideth on him. Is that true? 1 John 5. Let's turn over to 1
John 5. This is all the way through the
scriptures. 1 John 5. Verse, let's begin reading with
verse. Verse 9, John 5, verse 9. If we receive the witness of
men, and that's what these people receive, is the witness of men.
But the witness of God is greater. And this is the witness of God,
this is the testimony of God which he hath testified of his
Son. He that believes on the Son of God hath the witness in
himself. And he that believes not God
hath made him a liar. because he believes not the record,
the truth, the gospel that God gave of his Son. And this is
that record that God has given to us, eternal life. This life
is in his Son. Now, is that true? And if the
life is in his Son, you can't get it anywhere else. But why not come to the Son?
It's free. It's free for all who come. to show mercy. He's plenteous
in redemption. No one who ever came to Christ
with a need walked away empty. No one. He that hath the Son
hath life, he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Is
that true? These religious people are in
opposition to the gospel. They saw God work in Abraham
and Moses, Israel, David, Solomon, and the coming of Christ, the
death of Christ, and the message has gone all over the world. The Bible has been printed in
every language in there. But in opposition to the gospel
of the grace of God, they encourage people to trust other gods, other
messiahs in other ways. And they say, well, we're all
going to heaven. Everybody who's religious and
sincere, they're going to heaven. Just traveling different roads.
And that subject's debated everywhere. But I'm persuaded beyond a shadow
of a doubt. That's the reason I preach it. Christ is the only way. Now there's a conversation took
place that's interesting. I'm going to tell you a little
story. I bought Doris a book a couple
of weeks ago. She thinks a lot of our First
Lady, Laura Bush. So I bought her a book called
George and Laura, the story of an American marriage, the portrait
of an American marriage. It's written by one of the most
outstanding writers in our nation. He wrote that bestseller, Jack
and Jackie, the day Diana died. three books in 20 languages worldwide. He's recognized as one of the
most prominent, best-seller authors we have in this nation. His name
is Christopher Anderson. And I give you all that information
to let you know of the truthfulness of this conversation, the truthfulness
of it. He wrote in the book, I read
the book, he wrote in the book a discussion that took place
in the White House 12 years ago. When George Herbert Walker Bush
was President of the United States, his wife Barbara was the First
Lady. Their son George, who's now President, on a visit to
the White House, he and his mother, Barbara, began arguing about
who's going to heaven. That's a good subject now. I'm
glad they discuss it in the White House. I wish they'd discuss
it in all of our places of government. So he and his mother, he's 42
years old now, and his mother is the first lady, and they're
arguing about who goes to heaven. And George proclaims this, I'm
reading verbatim, George proclaimed that the Bible left no room for
misinterpretation. Only Christians go to heaven.
those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Only Christians
have a place in heaven. He said, Mother, all I can tell
you is what the New Testament says, and that's what it says.
His mother replied, and this is that way all people take. Surely, son, now surely, son,
God will accept others. You know he will. Surely you
know that. Don't you know that, son?" George replied, no, mother. Here's
what the Bible says, and he began to leap through the Bible like
I did a while ago, finding these passages where Jesus Christ is
the way to heaven. All the appropriate passages.
His mother picked up the telephone. He said, what are you doing?
She said, I'm calling Billy Graham. The first lady said to the operator,
you get me Billy Graham. And in two minutes, this officer
said, Billy Graham was on the line. And Barbara Bush posed
the question. George says, only Christians
who believe in Jesus Christ have a place in heaven. Is that right? Hold your seat there now. Mr. Graham conceded that he agreed
with the Son. He said, I agree with George.
The New Testament is our only guide. And I'll tell you this, if you
agree with the New Testament, You have to agree with George.
He's the only way. He's the only way. That's a true
story. Now, did I tell you this? I told
one of the men, there's not a whole lot of capitals today where they're
discussing that thing, but I wish there would. I wish there would. The prophet Isaiah insists, if
they speak not according to the word of God, there's no light
in them. And if you speak according to the word of God, you've got
to say this, only those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ will
be in heaven. But surely, son, God will accept
others. We're accepted in the beloved,
nowhere else. Now write that down. Back to my text. All right, Isaiah
41, verse 8. Now that's what the world's doing. They're finding other ways. They
don't want to be put out of business. They don't want to honor the
Son. They don't want to bow to Christ. They don't want Him to
have the glory. They want the glory. But God speaks to Israel. Here, He speaks to His people,
Israel. The Lord says, But thou, Israel,
you must serve Him. You must serve Him. You must
serve Him. Who is this Israel He's talking
about? Well, they're not all Israel who are of Israel. He's
not a Jew which is one outwardly, he's a Jew which is one inwardly.
A true Israelite, the true Israel of God, is one who has been born
of God, redeemed by Christ, and is a child of God by faith. That's
true Israel. Whom I have chosen, I have chosen
them like I chose Jacob. They are the seed of Abraham.
Who is the seed of Abraham? Who's God talking to here? Well,
let's turn to Galatians again. Galatians 3. Who is this seed
of Abraham? Here it is in Galatians 3, verse
16. Who is this seed of Abraham?
Israel, whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend, God
said. Galatians 3, verse 16. Now to
Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He said, not into
seeds as of many, but as of one, to thy seed which is Christ.
The promise of life was made to Christ on behalf of those
who believe on him. Look at verse 28, 27, 26, Galatians
3, 26. You are children of God by faith
in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been
baptized into Christ And you're not baptized into Christ appearing
as water. You're immersed and submerged
into the body of Christ by the Spirit of God, by the power of
the Spirit of God. We're baptized into the body
of Christ. This is just a confession of what has happened when the
Spirit baptized us into the body of Christ. Read on. And there's
neither Jew nor Greek. There's neither bond nor free,
there's neither male nor female, you're one in Christ Jesus. And
if we're not in Christ Jesus, we're not one. And if you be
His, then are you Abraham's seed, and you're an heir according
to promise. My friend, I'm not being fanatical and radical and
narrow-minded, I'm being truthful. That's all, just truthful. Now,
let's read on this. Thou Israel, my servant Jacob,
whom I've chosen, the seed of Abraham. Thou whom I have taken
from the ends of the earth, God's called out a people for his name
from the ends of the earth in every nation, tribe, tongue,
kindred unto heaven. I've called you from the chief
men thereof. One writer said instead of the
chief men, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wise are
called, but foolish things. And I said to you, you're my
servant, I've chosen you. And I'll never cast you away. I'll never cast you away. All
that my Father giveth me will come to me, and I'll never cast
him away. I'll never cast him out. We read
that a while ago. So verse 10. Fear thou not. You know, fear is a common thing
to all people. Fear is a common thing. Because
fear came into me, and when sin came into me, in the garden,
first words Adam said, what's the first words he said when
God came walking in the cool of the day? He said, Adam, where
are you? What's the first thing he said? I was afraid. I was afraid. I hid. Fear came
when sin came, and fear continues in us because sin continues in
us. If you and I could arrive at
perfect faith in Christ, and perfect confidence in Christ,
and perfect trust in Christ, and perfect love for Christ,
we'd have no fear whatsoever. No fear. I see these young people
sign, no fear. They're whistling by the cemetery,
what they're doing. There's only one person, perfect
love cast without fear, nothing else. Perfect love. If you could
love him perfectly, believe him, hold him completely, you'd never
fear anything or anybody. The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is
the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid? That's
the only place. Fear finds plenty of things in
us on which to feed. Fear looks within us and finds
weakness, feeds on it. It looks within us and finds
sin, feeds on it. It looks within us and finds
doubts and infirmities and feeds on it. It looks without and sees
sickness and pain and old age and feeds on it. It looks at
the grave and gets scared. The strongest of God's servants
have experienced fear. David was so afraid of, I forget
that king's name, but he was so afraid he made out like he
was crazy. You remember that? He acted like
a crazy man. And the king knew who he was.
It was David. He said, this man's mad. Get
him out of my sight. And David escaped. But he didn't. He feared. Elijah feared. He stood on Mount Carmel and
faced 350 prophets of Baal, and then he heard Jezebel was after
him, and he ran like a scared dog. That's exactly right. He
ran. He did, didn't he? He said, Lord, these other fellows
might deny you. I never will. And he sat down
by that fire, and one of the servants came and said, he's
one of the disciples. And he scared him. He said, no, I'm
not. So the best of men are men at
best. At best, only men, I thought.
The best of men are, at best, only men. The strongest are helpless
if the hand of God's withdrawn. So he says to us, fear not. Fear not. Why? Why should I have
any encouragement not to fear? Well, he gives me five reasons.
Fear not. I'm with you. I want you to notice this. I
saw this reading somebody. The pronoun thou is in this verse
five times and the pronoun I is in this verse five times. Every
time you say thou, you say I. Look at it. Hear thou not, I
am with you. Be not dismayed, I am thy God. I will strengthen thee, I will
strengthen thee, I will help thee, I will uphold thee, thee
and thou and thy and I. I tell you, every time he uses
you, he uses you. And that's the only reason in
this world you've got no cause to fear. That's right. First, I'm with you. Fear comes
when we're alone. When we feel alone. I remember one time when I was
a child, we lived down in Alabama, lived on the railroad. and close
to the railroad, not on the railroad, we lived close to it. And my
mother sent me next door to borrow a cup of sugar. It was dark outside,
no moon, no stars, it was dark. And I had to walk 100 yards up
behind the house to the railroad track, and 100 yards down that
railroad track over to Mr. and Mrs. Starr's house to borrow
a cup of sugar. I must say, eight, nine years
old. I came back from their yard and
started walking down that railroad track and somebody or something
jumped out from behind a tree. I've never known fear like that.
My hair stood on end, my skin crawled and broke out in all
kinds of bumps, and I ran. I set a world record around that
fence and down to my house. I don't know what happened to
the sugar. Or the cup, or anything else. But I was a scared little
boy. Why? My daddy wasn't with me.
If my daddy had been with me, if he had only been with me,
I'd never experienced that. I remember that to this day.
Still scared. But if he had been there, I'd
had no cause. And the Lord says, don't you
fear, I'm with you. Wherever you go, and whatever
you encounter, I'm with you. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. He has said, I'll never forsake
you. Therefore I can say he's my help.
I'm with you. I'm your God. I'm your God. And my God shall supply all your
needs through his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I'm your God.
I'm your shepherd. I'm your father. And I'll strengthen
your soul. My grace is sufficient, and I'll
help you, and I'll uphold you with my hand. Where the child
is, the father is. Where the sheep are, the shepherd
is. Where the body is, that's where the head is. Now watch
verse 11. Behold, all that are incensed
against thee shall be ashamed and confounded. They shall be
as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish. And one
of these days you'll seek them and not find them, even them
that contend with thee, that war against thee shall be as
nothing, as a thing of naught." You know, I'm sure that many
of our fears are unfounded. They have no real cause. I'm
just sure of that. I'm just sure that many of our,
most of my beliefs, of our fears are without substance. Somebody
told me one time, said, I'm scared of lightning. I said, you ever
been struck by lightning? Never have. Well, why are you scared
of lightning? Another friend I know that when it storms outside,
this person goes and gets on the bed. I'm scared of a storm.
And I want to ask him, has your house ever been destroyed by
a storm? No. Well, why are you afraid of it? The fire has taken
care of you so far, hasn't it? How many times have you been
struck by lightning? How many times has your house
burned down? How many times have you had a burglar in your house?
How many times? Well, he's doing a good job,
isn't he? How many times have you been without food? Ever gone to bed hungry? We ought
to, but we don't. How many times have you been
out without shelter, without clothing? My children never feared. I don't believe my children were
ever afraid. I don't remember them ever experiencing panic
or fear. Trusted the parents. And I don't have any reason to
panic or be afraid because I've got a good father. And that's
what he said. I'm with you. I'm your God. I'll
help you. I'll oppose you. Don't fear. He didn't say don't fear much.
He said don't fear. He didn't say don't fear too
often. He says do not fear. I'm with you. Conquered by the
presence of the Lord. Alright, I hope that's a blessing
to you. I hope it's been a good day.