REFORMCON2016 | LIVE STREAM! (Day 1)

Opening Banter and Conference Logistics

Test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, test, one, two, one, two. Okay.

To ReformCon 2016, are you guys excited? This is not my real hair, I promise. If you don't know who I am, my name's Luke or the Bear from Apologia Radio. We're so excited you guys are all here. I'm going to be emceeing tonight.

A couple things. I just wanted to again thank everybody for coming here. Again, I wanted to remind everyone that the purpose of this event, other than discussing reform theology, is to raise money for our church plant in Kauai, which we are working on.

If you're watching a live stream now, and guys here, please go to ApologiaKauai .com or go to the live stream. You can also donate there. Before I introduce Jeff, they also asked me to let you guys know that there's snacks out back.

If you didn't see those, water, there's coffee. They made organic cotton candy, and it's incredible. There's a Bananas Foster's one that is stupid good. So be sure to buy some of that. And then they also wanted me to remind you that, or let you guys know in the morning, they're actually going to be serving breakfast here and lunch for tomorrow and Friday.

So if you guys can come in here and eat here instead of going somewhere else, all the proceeds again go to our church plant, so we'd appreciate that. And also we've got shirts in the back. We're asking for $20 donations for those.

Again, all this goes to the church plant. And so Jeff did want me to remind everyone that this is not a typical church service, clearly. I'm wearing sort of a costume and holding a cigar, so it's not really church service.

But we're going to have fun, right? We're going to have a costume contest tonight, which it looks like I'm the only one that dressed up, so I might win. But, yeah, so we've got that going on. So please have fun.

We have in that corner, if you did bring your kids, we have a cry room. So if they get a little crazy, feel free to take them back there. And I'm assuming you guys all got these super awesome pamphlet program things.

They look amazing. So feel free. There's a notepad in there to take notes. And so right now I'm going to introduce Jeff, who most of you probably all know. He's super, super awesome. And so I'm going to read his bio real quick.

Jeff Durbin is the pastor and elder of Apology Church, along with myself, and also the co-host of Apology Radio and Apology TV here in Tempe. And he has worked for many years as a hospital chaplain. He has participated in outreach to various different religions and has engaged in public debates against atheists.

Jeff was featured on a series for the History Channel called The Stoned Ages about the Christian approach to drugs and alcohol. Jeff hosts a weekly podcast called Apology Radio, which I mentioned. He also hosts Apology TV, which I also mentioned, which can be seen on the NRB network.

Jeff is a world champion martial artist with five black belts. Jeff has been married to his wife, Candy, for over 16 years. They have four kids, Sage, Imogen, Sailor, and Stellar. So, that being said, Jeff, there he is.

Come on up.

Sovereignty of God and Sola Scriptura in the Reformation

Thank you, Pastor Luke. Welcome, everybody. Thank you guys for coming. It's a treat and a gift and an honor to have everybody here. And I just apologize for the weather. I'm sorry. Some of you guys came from Colorado and Indiana, and you guys left wonderful weather to come and enjoy this mess.

And so, some of you guys are like, it's not so bad. It's not a very big deal. I want to check in with you again on Saturday, okay, when it's 117 degrees. So, I guess I'll do a little bit of an opening as well, just sort of describe things the way that they are.

This is our opening night for the conference, and people are still getting into town, and it's all the way through till Saturday. It's just a real blessing to be able to have teachers like Dr. White, John Sampson, Dr. K. Scott Oliphant.

It's a tremendous gift to me. I don't know if I did this conference really for you or for me. So, you guys are just kind of hanging out, so it's more maybe for me. But the conference itself, this is not an official church service.

This is a gathering of Christians from across the nation. It's being actually live streamed now around the world to talk about the doctrines of the Reformation. We're going to talk about Reformed theology, the importance and necessity of Reformed theology.

We're here to fellowship. We're here to get to know God together. We're here to learn. And really, I think what makes ReformCon different in our minds, what we wanted it to be was an opportunity to have a gathering of Reformed folks from across the country to get into some solid teaching, to be encouraged, to fellowship, to network.

And then, again, what makes it unique, I think, is we actually have people coming in to speak that are experts in areas that we really need to get into as Reformed believers. So, media, film, TV, writing, those sorts of things.

We actually have breakout sessions and main stage sessions specifically in the area of media. And my hope is, just so you guys know where I'm at, I'm going to be totally transparent. My hope is that through ReformCon, we provide an opportunity to herald and to revel in and to delight in the doctrines of the Reformation, and we go back to our communities and we spread these truths into our neighborhoods and our churches and our communities, our states.

That's really the goal of ReformCon, is not just to come and be taught about the doctrines of the Reformation, but to figure out how we can work together to spread these doctrines into the world. Amen?

That's the goal, okay? And so, some of you guys are Presbyterian in here? How many Presbyterians? Who got a Presbyterian here? Okay, Presbyterians. Oh, you're actually outnumbered today. Sweet. Baptists?

All right. Okay. Reformed Baptists? Very good. Okay. So, Presbyterians, you guys might feel a little awkward this week with the Baptists present as we yell out and say amen and things like that. Just don't run away.

Don't think we're heretics. We just get very excited, okay? Sort of charismatic, a bit. Spiritually and biblically, Reformed, okay? So, I was assigned the topic of... Well, two topics, the necessity and importance of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God and the necessity and importance of the doctrine of sola scriptura.

So, very excited about that. And so, we're going to open our Bibles right now, and we're going to get right into it. So, if you would, if you have your Bibles in front of you, or if you need to turn your screens on, turn to Psalm 115.

Psalm chapter 115. Hear now the words of the living and true God. Not to us, O Lord, not to us, but to your name give glory. For the sake of your steadfast love and your faithfulness. Why should the nation say, where is their God?

And here is the substance of the Reformation. Our God is in the heavens. He does all that He pleases. Let's pray. Father, I want to thank you so much for this opportunity. God, the grace that you've given to us.

Lord, the people that you've brought from across the country, the people who are watching this live stream now, literally around the world. Thank you, God, that you have saved us in Jesus Christ. Thank you, God, that you are the sovereign.

Thank you, God, that though men and women attempt to thwart your purposes in the world and in history, God, you remain God. You remain the one who wields history for your purposes. God, we all come to you, and we're just grateful that you've given to us this opportunity to come together, to fellowship, to learn.

Thank you, God, so much, most of all, that you've saved us in Jesus, and we've got nothing to do with that. God, we only boast in you, and we thank you, God, that you are the sovereign who, before the world began, chose us in Jesus Christ, not according to works that we would ever do, but according to your mercy, your love, and your grace.

Thank you, God, that you set your love upon people that do not deserve it, not now, not ever. God, we acknowledge you first and foremost as God. We boast only in you, and God, I ask that you would, Lord, in this time right now that you've given to me to open your word, I pray that you'd get me out of the way.

God, speak through me to your people. I pray that you would open the eyes of the blind, and I pray that you would lift up your people. Lord, grant to us courage to speak the truth. Grant to us, God, affection, God, and love for you and the world, and give to us, God, the grace and power needed, God, to serve you.

Lord, I pray that you would, through this conference, use it to the glory of Jesus Christ, to his exaltation, to the spread of his fame and name to the ends of the earth, so that all the families of the earth would return and worship you, God.

In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. So Psalm 115 .3, to me, one of the most powerful single verses when it comes to the sovereignty of God. When we talk about the sovereignty of God, we're talking about God, the thrice holy God, the only God, none before, none after.

One God, the creator of all things, always existent. Psalm 90, verse 2, from eternity into eternity, you are God. And Psalm 115, verse 3, packs a punch to the heart and mind of any haughty, prideful creature.

Psalm 115 .3, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. And the powerful thing about, I think, this passage is that in the context of the passage, it is about God getting glory. It is about God's love, his faithfulness.

God is at the center of this. And there's this question, why should the nation say, where is their God? And it's really a powerful thing because that is the thing we confront all the time. You confront it all the time with atheists in our society today, secularists, people who are on mission to destroy the message of the gospel, the light of the knowledge of God in Jesus Christ in our culture.

They say no to God, yes to their autonomy, their self-professed autonomy. And we face this often. We face it in theology. We face it in apologetics. And it's a charge against God. Where's your God? Where is your God?

You hear it today, oftentimes in debate, public debate between atheists and Christians, the problem of evil and suffering in the world. And the question is asked often like that. They'll say, where's your God?

It happened actually last year in my debate at the Bonson Conference in California. The atheist, Bruce the atheist, threw up on the screen all kinds of examples of evil things that happen in the world.

You know, this guy that went on a shooting rampage, this person that did this, and all these people dying of sickness and cancer and hunger in the world. And the question comes out, where is their God?

Where's your God? And oftentimes Christians, we get so emotionally wrapped up in that charge, and we ought to because we have God as our foundation. Because we have God, we feel the weight of that claim and that charge.

When we see evil and suffering in the world, we know who God is. We know about the image of God in man, in men and women. We know the inherent value and dignity in people as image of God. And so when we see evil and suffering in the world, it automatically affects us because we're emotionally wrapped up in that.

So when someone says to you as a challenge in today's culture, where's your God with the sick kids dying in a cancer hospital? Where's your God with the kids who don't eat today? Where's your God with the people on the streets, the families on the streets with no money?

Where's your God in the emergency room? Where's your God? We feel the weight of that, and the amazing thing is, it nails the unbeliever between the ears and in the chest. The answer from Scripture is, our God is in the heavens.

He does whatever he pleases. It takes down the pride of human beings to hear those words. Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. Now it can seem like such a cavalier claim, right? I mean, think about it for a second.

There's a charge that comes out, where's your God? And the answer from God is, our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. It seems kind of flippant, right? It seems kind of cavalier, like a really callous kind of response.

Our God is in the heavens. He does whatever he pleases. But the answer is, if you know this God, if you know the true and living God, if you know the God of this revelation, the one who spoke and the universe leaps into existence, the one who spoke and Theanostas breathed out these very words, if you know him, our God is in the heavens.

He does whatever he pleases, is the only answer that will do. Because God is just. God is good. God is holy. God is love. This is the God that you want running the universe. It's foundational. You know, I think that you cannot, you cannot do a conference on Reformed theology and the importance of Reformed theology without veil against it.

Jesus came. Jesus said that he was the king. Jesus said that he brought the kingdom. He said that his church would come in and that the gates of hell would not prevail against it. And you see, in church history, as the gospel went forth from that very limited number of disciples to growing all over Rome, Paul says in the first century, in the letter of the Romans, he says that their faith is being proclaimed throughout the whole world.

The gospel was moving forward in history. And as you see history, you see great moments of triumph in the church and in the kingdom of God with the gospel. And you see moments of slipping. You see triumph and slipping.

Triumph and slipping. You see grand moments where whole nations come to Jesus Christ through God's gospel. They're transformed. You see Scotland and John Knox. You have the story of Ireland and St. Patrick.

You have these moments in history where you see God sovereignly ruling in history, bringing his gospel and his light into the world. People being saved and knowing God. And you see moments of darkness.

And the famous claim, cry, after the Reformation was after darkness, what? Light. After darkness, light. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in that whole entire movement where darkness had crept in.

Doctrine had been eroded. The importance of self and self-boasting and our own works had crept in to the church and to the world. And there was so much corruption and decay in doctrine and in the world.

And after darkness, there was light. You see the sovereignty of God is bound together with the Reformation. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is really bound up with every great movement of the gospel in history.

The Reformation gave to us the pillars of the Reformation. Amen? Reformed folks especially, you've got at least one shirt in your closet that says sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. Right, sola Christos.

It's the pillars of the Reformation. And wrapped up in the pillars of the Reformation is the sovereignty of God. Sola scriptura. Scripture alone is the only infallible rule of faith and practice. That's God the sovereign speaking above any other standard, above any other person.

God is the one who rules. He is the sovereign. Sola gratia. We're saved by grace alone from beginning to end. It is God who does the work and it's not based upon anything in the creature. Sola fide. We are saved through faith alone.

In what? Christ alone. Because of what? His work alone. God is the sovereign. It's wrapped up inside there. Sola Christos. God in Christ is our representative. We are saved. We are justified. We are forgiven because we are bound up together with Jesus.

We are in Christ. And the final and I think most glorious cap to the end of it is what? Soli Deo Gloria. To the glory of God alone. The sovereignty of God is packed in there. It's underneath that. All of it is to the glory of God alone.

No boasting in us, in our works, what we have done, are doing, or will do. It is to the glory of God alone. That's a recognition in the pillars of the Reformation of the sovereignty of God. The Reformation gave to us reformed epistemology.

That is, how do you know what you know? And the answer is ultimately, not because the church says so, not because the Pope says so, not because this person says so, not because I think so, but because God fundamentally has spoken.

He's the sovereign. He's the one who rules. He's the one with all power, all knowledge, wisdom. This God has condescended and spoken, not only in creation, but specially through his word and in his son.

You have men like Hermann Bavink, and if you don't have Bavink in your library, shame on you. You're supposed to be reformed. Get some Bavink into your life. Read that. I agree with Dr. Oliphant. Read Bavink and be changed forever.

The Reformation gave to us covenant theology and reemphasis on covenant theology and wrapped up in the doctrine of covenant theology or that truth of covenant theology ultimately is the sovereignty of God.

God coming into covenant. God actually bringing people into relationship with himself. And of course, the thing people love most about the Reformation, right? The doctrines of grace. It's everybody's favorite.

The doctrines of grace. Tulip, T-U-L-I-P. Total depravity. The doctrine of the sovereignty of God is wrapped up in total depravity. What do we recognize? That human beings are in the imago dei, in the image of God, but we are fallen, and we are not just sick.

We are corrupt to the core. We are dead in our sins and trespasses, Paul says in Ephesians chapter two. Jesus says in John 6, 44, no man can come to me unless what? Unless the father who sent me draws him and I will raise him up.

There's the sovereignty of God right there in that doctrine of total depravity. It must be God, the sovereign, who acts to save sinners, rebels, who are not sick, are not in a fight with God. They are at war with their creator.

They are at enmity with God. It's not a small fight. It's a war. We are haters of God, hostile towards God, helpless sinners, the Bible says. The ewe and tulip, unconditional election, the sovereignty of God is packed up tightly into that doctrine.

What is unconditional election? That God elects, not based upon anything in the creature, not foreseen faith, not foreseen repentance. God, before the world began, tells us that our names are written in the Lamb's book of life when?

Before the foundation of the world. That God has a plan. The triune God of Scripture has a plan, the Bible teaches us. The Father predestines, the Son comes into the world to save His special elect people.

He sets His love upon them and He accomplishes everything necessary for their salvation and glorification. And the Holy Spirit of God applies that salvation, indwells believers, brings them to life. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in unconditional election.

Limited atonement or definite redemption, again, right there, the sovereignty of God wrapped up in that doctrine. That God is the one who saves, provides redemption, and when He saves, He saves perfectly.

I think the glory of the Reformation and what the Reformers said about the atonement is actually making the atonement mean something. The Reformed doctrine of the atonement, that God actually accomplished salvation for His people is one of the most beautiful truths, I think, about the Reformation.

Not that salvation and the atonement is a possibility. Not that salvation is ultimately dependent upon people and their decisions and their will, their moving towards God, but that God provides in Christ a perfect atonement.

And that when God determines to save, He saves perfectly. Amen? The angel says about Jesus, call His name Yeshua. Call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up there.

Irresistible grace. One of the distinctives of the Reformed faith over against other, I think, man-made philosophies and systems is that God, when He wants to do something, gets to do it. Seems simple enough, right?

It sort of sounds like our God is in the heavens and He does what? Whatever He pleases, all that He pleases. Irresistible grace. That God comes into a sinner's life as the sovereign. They hate God. They're at war with God.

They don't want God. They're enemies of God and God comes into their life and He loves them so much that He refuses to leave them in the state that they're in. He comes into the life of a dead sinner who is hostile towards Him and He chases the rebel.

He does for them what they could not do for themselves and would never want to do for themselves. He comes into their lives as the sovereign and He brings them to life. The sovereignty of God is wrapped up in irresistible grace.

And finally, the preservation of the saints. It should be obvious. The sovereignty of God wrapped up in the preservation of the saints. Because what does it say? Not that we believe in Jesus Christ and pray a magic prayer and we walk away from Jesus after He punches our tickets.

The preservation of the saints teaches that God as the sovereign saves people perfectly. Brings them to life and dwells them and, watch this, causes them to persevere in the faith. God promises that He will conform us to the image of Jesus Christ so we know the hope we have in the gospel is completely miraculous.

That God accomplishes all His will for His purposes and glory. Why is this controversial? Doesn't this sound delicious? Like, theologically speaking, right? It's wonderful, right? Every Christian in the world should be saying to reform theology, yeah, yeah, right?

It's amazing, right? It's beautiful. So, why are people resisting these truths? Now, I'm not all knowing. I don't know the answer to what's going on in every single person's heart, but when I contemplate why anybody would argue with these beautiful truths, I can only imagine that it has something to do with that fall we've been talking about.

That in the fall, people don't want God telling them what to do. They don't want God being the sovereign. Think back to our first parents at the beginning of the creation. When God creates His image in the garden, the jewel in the crown of creation, the image of God, what's that first fight?

It's ultimately over whether or not God gets to say, whether or not God gets to tell us, here but not there. You see, that goes back to our first parents. In the fall, we want to determine for ourselves what is good, what is evil.

We don't want God telling us what to do. Reformed theology strips human beings. Reformed theology strips us of our pride, our boasting, our haughtiness before God. Reformed theology ultimately makes God look very, very big, and it makes us look very, very small.

Dr. White often talks about when he presents Romans 9 to people, God who mercies, God who hardens, giving grace and mercy to whom he chooses and pleases. He often remarks that when he tells people that, people will often say, I will never worship a God like that.

I would never worship a God like that. I think Dr. White is right when he tells them, that's right, you never will until God changes your heart, until God comes into your heart and removes stone, until God comes into your life as a sovereign and removes your pride and your haughtiness, you would never love a God like this.

Now, to start here, talking about the sovereignty of God in the Reformation and the importance and necessity of it, we have to recognize that in the Reformation there were certain foundational truths that were just on everybody's lips.

This is what everybody was talking about. So if we're going to have a Reformation in our day, in the Christian church in the West, in the world, in the 21st century, we need to be talking about and meditating on and dwelling on the things that they were talking about.

Because theology matters. Amen? Hashtag theology matters. Make sure you put that out there. That's a good one, okay? Theology matters. Things don't happen in the world in a vacuum just cause. Things happen in the world because of certain beliefs, worldviews, things that are foundations to what does happen in the world.

And if we're going to have a Reformation in our day, if we're going to have change happen in our day, we need to be talking about the things that Christians were talking about when there was darkness and light broke in.

Two central themes of the Reformation. They focused in upon God as He is. That's what they were talking about. God, what's He like? They had a strong doctrine of God. The triune God. They talked about God's holiness.

They talked about God's justice. They talked about God's power. And they talked centrally about God's sovereignty. The next thing was in the Reformation foundational, the fact that God has spoken. God has condescended.

How do we know what we know? Well, it's because God talks to us. Every fact is a fact of God. All of creation shouts to us about God, and God, the sovereign, has condescended and He's talked to us. How can we rebel against Rome and the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church and their dogmas?

How can we rebel against their doctrines over their soteriology and how a person is saved? Answer, the Reformer said, because God says. He's the sovereign. God has told us the way things are. God has told us what He's done in Christ.

Here's how we know. God says. That was foundational. So God as He is. What were the Reformers talking about? Central. There is only one God. There is only one God. Isaiah 43, 10. Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

God says in Isaiah 44, 6 and 44, 8. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God. The prayer of Jesus and every Jew, what they would have said in the morning and evening prayers, Jewish people say it today.

If you see a little Jewish boy running around in the mall with a little yarmulke on his head, I've done this before. Be careful doing this, okay? But ask them, can you say the Shema? Can you quote the Shema to me?

And they'll do it even today. Deuteronomy 6, verse 4. Shema Yisrael, Yahweh Eloheinu, Yahweh Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. There is only one God. And Jesus said that as a central affirmation.

Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and soul and mind and strength. There is only one God. Deuteronomy chapter 4, verses 35 and 39. He is God alone in the heavens above and on the earth below.

There is no other. The Reformers were heralding the holiness of God, that God is holy, holy, holy. Isaiah chapter 6, the vision of Isaiah before the throne of God, the angels shouting out, holy, holy, holy.

Isaiah getting confronted with God, this holy God, the most righteous man in Israel from our perspective. More disciplined than you and I. More righteous in his behavior outwardly. He gets a glimpse of God's holiness and his response in the presence of holiness is to cover his mouth essentially and say, God killed me.

Woe is me is a way of calling down the curse of God upon yourself. The prophets would often say, woe to you, to pagan nations and civilizations. They would say, woe to you, woe to you, woe to you. But in Isaiah's case, when he's faced with the holy God, he says, woe is me.

He catches a glimpse of his own sin and depravity. He says, I'm a man of unclean lips. He's immediately aware of his own sinful mouth. Contrary to what he says in Isaiah 53 where he says about Mashiach, the Messiah, he says there is no deceit in his mouth.

He knew the difference. He says, I'm coming apart at the seams and the reformers focused in upon the holiness of God. He's the only God. He's the holy God. He's the sovereign God. That was the essence, brothers and sisters of the Reformation.

This is not a side issue. This is not merely an in-house debate. Are Christians wrong in this area? Yes. So was I. I didn't come into the kingdom of Jesus as a hardcore pipe-hitting Calvinist. I am one now, but I didn't come in like that.

Now, is it possible to be a Christian and be wrong about the sovereignty of God? Absolutely. It's faith in Jesus Christ that saves. But it is a deadly error to believe falsely regarding the sovereignty of God.

It destroys the grace of God in the gospel. It destroys us and our apologetic when we get this wrong. It destroys our ability to effectively minister to people when we get this wrong. The sovereignty of God is central.

And if we want a reformation in our day, if we want change in our day, I believe it first comes with repentance in the church over our sin. But I believe that we need to believe and teach and herald, proclaim the sovereignty of God in all things.

God is sovereign over the church. God is sovereign over me. God is sovereign over the family. God is sovereign in the world, over every area of life. When we find in our own minds and hearts a love for this doctrine of the sovereignty of God, it changes everything.

It doesn't just change us. It changes the world, I believe. But the sovereignty of God, again, was a central theme for the reformers. And amazingly, if you want to get worked over in this area of the doctrine of the sovereignty of God, I encourage you guys to go to Isaiah 40 -46.

Isaiah 40 -46. And while we're talking about that, I want you to go quickly for a moment now to Isaiah 46 itself and get ready at verse 5. Now, the amazing thing here in Isaiah 40 -46 is that this is the showdown between God and false gods.

Idolatry has always been a problem in human history because in Romans chapter 1, we know about human nature, what John Calvin said, that the human heart is a natural idol-making factory and it is never idle in making idols.

Our default position is, in fact, idolatry. We know God. We know the true God. He has revealed Himself to us. It says in Romans chapter 1, starting in verse 18, the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.

For that which is known about God is evident within them, for God has shown it to them. God's revealed Himself. In Romans 1, we know about idolatry that even with the creation shouting to us about God, clearly about God, we are left unapologetus.

We are left what? We are left without a defense. We are left without an apologetic. And so what do fallen people do in our own sinfulness? We don't want God in our knowledge. It says that. We don't want to know Him.

We don't want Him in our thinking. We don't want Him in our heads, between our ears. And it says what? They exchange God for an idol. It's the problem of humanity. Creating God's in our image. Saying no to God and His ways and how He says that He is.

We say no to God, yes to us, and we create all these little idols. And so in Isaiah chapters 40 through 46, God deals with it. God has a conversation about idols and false gods. And I want us to go here to see the uniqueness.

Brothers and sisters, listen. Here's what people say. Well, Arminianism and Calvinism, there's great men and women of God on both sides of the issue. And the answer is yeah, that's absolutely true. People that I admire that are Arminian in their perspective.

Okay, but watch this. Does it matter? Yes. Do the differences matter? Yes. And they matter because God specifically identifies Himself as distinct from the false gods that people have created in the area of His full sovereignty.

This matters so much because God has said that it does. And in Isaiah 46, when God talks about false gods, He says in verse 5, To whom will you liken Me and make Me equal? And compare Me that we may be alike.

Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales hire a goldsmith and he makes it into a god. Then they fall down and worship. They lift it to their shoulders. They carry it. They set it in its place.

And it stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. Now I gotta say this. I love this. I love it. I, you know, I can't catch the tone, but I get it that God is trash-talking idols.

That's really, I think, what it is. God is calling them out on the mat. And what's He saying? These people that worship these false gods, they gotta take money out of their pocket that they went and worked for and they gotta go to a guy, they gotta pay the guy so he builds the thing out of stuff that I made and he builds the idol.

And they put it there and it doesn't move. It just sits there. I love it. You make this false god, you put it up there, stuff that I made, and I'm controlling the whole process and there you are with your sin and your idol and it sits there and it does nothing.

You cry out to it, it doesn't respond. Now watch this. It gets bigger and better. And here's what God says in verse 48. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other.

I am God and there is none like me. And here we go. Declaring the end from the beginning. And from ancient times, things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.

God's counsel stands. He accomplishes all of his purpose. Now watch this. As though it was not enough that God says he declares the end from the beginning and he accomplishes his counsel, everything, his purpose.

It says calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed it and I will do it. Brothers and sisters, that is a far cry from the gods that people have created in their own imagination.

This is the God who wields the universe. He wields history. He wields everything for his own purposes. He declares the end from the beginning. This is the God that we worship. God is the sovereign. Now watch this.

One of the things that I think is important for us to capture as Christians in the area of the sovereignty of God, this is essential, is that God distinguishes himself from false gods and idols in the area of his sovereignty.

It's interesting because watch this. In Isaiah, in this specific section here, God says what makes him different from false gods is specifically his sovereignty, his decree, his ability to control history.

Think about it for a second. What separates God from false gods, watch, is that he says he can tell you the future before it happens. Now that's, by the way, that's one of my favorite things about Jesus is that everything necessary to know Jesus as Savior and as Lord is already written down for us in the Old Testament in high definition, vivid display, all the details, the who, the what, the where, the when, the why, the how, everything about Jesus laid down in the Old Testament long before Jesus touches the earth in his earthly ministry.