He Is God! – part 4
Isaiah 44:24-45:25 (45:20-25)
April 14, 2024
Tonight we come one more time to Isaiah 45
Where we are learning to understand what it means
That God is God and we are not.
The backdrop to the chapter is God’s revelation
• That He has selected and raised up the pagan ruler Cyrus to be the deliverer of His people.
• God even refers to Cyrus as “His anointed”.
• It is confusing and baffling to say the least.
And it would seem the main reason God chose to reveal this truth
Is to force us to come right up against
Our understanding of His sovereign authority.
The entire chapter is filled with the reminder that He is God and there is no other.
• It is meant to remind us that we are subject to Him and not the other way around.
• It is meant to remind us to trust His sovereign control and not seek to lean on our own understanding.
What we have been looking at is 4 truths that you should know
To help you respond rightly to God
When you face confusing circumstances.
This life will often give you things you can’t explain and don’t understand,
Remembering these 4 things
Will help you rightly honor God when you face such moments.
#1 GOD’S MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Isaiah 44:24-45:8
This is where God actually named Cyrus and called him “His anointed”
More than that, God said:
(7) “The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”
Just know that God works in mysterious ways.
Do not expect Him to always do what makes sense to you.
Get used to the reality that
God’s ways are not your ways nor are God’s thoughts your thoughts.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”
The quicker you cross that bridge
• And submit to the fact that He is God and you are not…
• And submit to the fact that He will never answer to you, but you will answer to Him…
The sooner you’re going to rightly handle those confusing circumstances.
#2 GOD’S IMPORTANT WARNING
Isaiah 45:9-14
Here we learned that no matter how confused we are regarding what God is doing, that should never lead us to grumbling or quarrelling with God.
We are dirt, He is the Creator.
We are clay, He is the potter.
We do not have the right to question Him.
Instead, we should “Cease striving, and now that [He] is God.”
We should not question Him, we should trust Him.
Don’t resist God’s will, submit to it, even in your confusion.
#3 GOD’S REVEALED WORD
Isaiah 45:15-19
This we saw this morning
While God certainly does things that we do not comprehend,
That DOES NOT MEAN that we travel this world
In absolute confusion and darkness.
What we do have is GOD’S REVEALED WORD.
Concerning the things that God has chosen to reveal to us,
HE HAS DONE SO WITH UNMISTAKABLE CLARITY.
(19) “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.”
In the midst of our confusion we stick to what God has revealed to us.
Namely that He has promised to save His people
And to save them forever.
(17) “Israel has been saved by the LORD with and everlasting salvation; You will not be put to shame or humiliated to all eternity.”
We may not fully understand what God is currently doing,
But we do know where it is headed.
He “causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him.”
WE CLING TO THAT.
WELL, TONIGHT WE COME TO THE FINAL POINT
We need to know when God does things we don’t understand.
And this 4th point runs very closely to the third.
This morning Isaiah told us to cling to God’s revealed word;
To trust what God has clearly spoken.
So tonight we might follow verse 19 by asking: “Such as?”
What are some of these promises of God?
(beyond the eternal salvation of His people)
What are some things that God has clearly revealed that will happen?
Let’s look at that answer tonight.
#4 GOD’S UNCHANGING WITNESS
Isaiah 45:20-25
What we mean by this is that
God has had a consistent witness since the beginning.
We haven’t always known what He is doing in every circumstance,
But regardless of our understanding,
God has been absolutely consistent about some things.
You can take these to the bank even in confusing times.
You can take these to the bank even in dark days.
Let’s break this down into 4 consistent witnesses of God.
1) HE WILL SILENCE ALL RIVALS (20-21)
“Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”
This statement almost feels like a broken record.
Here we have God…AGAIN…calling out to idols
And asking them if they have any input whatsoever
That will benefit their followers at all.
“Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old?”
You may think it’s strange that God would raise up Cyrus and anoint him as a savior, but did any other god even know that is what God was doing?
No one else even had a clue.
Those idols don’t know anything.
And how often have we seen that?
Isaiah 41:21-24 “Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. Behold, you are of no account, And your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.”
Isaiah 43:9 “All the nations have gathered together So that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this And proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”
Or we remember that long story in chapter 44
• About the man who cut down the tree
• Burned half of it in the fire
• Then prayed to the other half
• All it could do was sit there or burn.
The Psalmist said:
Psalms 115:4-8 “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.”
Did God not mock all the Egyptian gods through the Exodus?
Has He not eradicated all the gods that were so prevalent in the Old Testament?
• Where is Baal or Molech or Ashtaroth?
What about the New Testament:
• Where is Artimus of the Ephesians?
• Where is Zeus or Hermes?
Oh, I know today
• We deal with other false gods like Allah or Buddha or the Hindu gods,
• But their fate will be like all the rest.
GOD HAS BEEN CONSISTENT FROM THE BEGINNING.
There are no other gods and any who claim to be will not last.
And God here speaks that truth to the nations.
“Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;”
God calls to the other pagan slaves of Babylon as if to say: “Thus far you have failed to recognize that I alone am God…but you will.”
You will see that “there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”
It has always been true.
And it always will be.
Some day ever false god will be cast aside.
Isaiah 2:17-21 “The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.”
Isaiah 30:19-22 “O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”
Isaiah 31:6-7 “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.”
GOD HAS BEEN CONSISTENT.
We think even to the end.
We have read about the great harlot of Revelation.
Revelation 17:1-5 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”
She represents all false religion.
• She started at Babel where men first tried to work their way to God and she has continued ever since.
• But God will crush her and put an end to her.
In fact, He’ll use the anti-Christ to put an end to her.
Revelation 17:16-17 “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.”
And then God will put an end to the false religion of the anti-Christ.
Revelation 19:19-21 “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”
And then Christ alone will be worshiped and exalted.
Revelation 20:1-4 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”
And God has been consistent about that too!
Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”
So you may not know what God is doing.
It may seem strange that God would exalt a pagan.
You may wonder what that means.
Well I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean,
• It doesn’t mean that Cyrus’ pagan gods are real
• And it doesn’t mean that they will win.
God has been consistent from the beginning
That only He is God
And He will absolutely silence every rival.
2) GOD WILL SAVE REPENTANT SINNERS (22)
“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”
Another thing God has been totally consistent about since the beginning.
HE SAVES SINNERS.
Here He reminds those pagan fugitives of Babylon of that truth.
That if they will turn to Him, He will save them.
And: HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN.
“For I am God, and there is no other.”
How consistent is this?
How clear is this in Scripture?
From the time Adam and Eve fell in the garden
God has put Himself on display as a Savior.
• He clothed them in skins…
• He promised to crush the serpent’s head…
• He saved Noah in the ark…
And certainly the most obvious point was when God took on human flesh
HE CAME IN THE FORM OF A SAVIOR.
John 3:17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”
Matthew 9:11-13 “When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
Matthew 18:11 “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”
Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”
John 12:47 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”
Paul even said:
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”
And we are familiar with the promise:
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”
How fitting and familiar it is to us to hear the words of Jesus:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
While we don’t know everything God is doing,
We do know that God is saving repentant sinners.
And it doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done.
• He saved the thief on the cross.
• He saved the tax collector in the temple.
• He saved Zaccheus
• He saved the woman at the well
• He saved the woman of ill repute in the Pharisee’s house
• He saved Mary Magdalene
• He saved Saul of Tarsus
God has never waivered here.
He’s been totally consistent on this point.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”
Acts 10:34-35 “Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”
You may not know everything God is doing.
You may not know what it all means.
But some things are clearly revealed in His word.
1. God will silence all His rivals.
2. God will save repentant sinners.
That’s really good news if you find yourself under God’s judgment.
That’s really good news if you deserve the circumstances you are in.
GOD IS A GOD WHO WILL SAVE YOU.
It has been a consistent and unchanging witness of God about Himself since the beginning.
3) GOD WILL SUBDUE EVERY ENEMY (23-24)
“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”
We’ve heard that one before haven’t we?
Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”
WE KNOW THIS.
God has never waivered on this truth.
He has clearly spoken from the beginning
That His King will reign over all men and none will resist Him.
Psalms 2:7-9 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”
Isaiah 9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”
Rebellion will cease.
“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.”
It doesn’t matter if you are in heaven, on earth, or in hell below,
All will be engaged in the same activity.
All will bow to Jesus Christ.
And God has never waivered on this.
It has been His consistent witness.
“They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.”
That is to say, there is no other Savior.
Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”
John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
Molech couldn’t save, Baal couldn’t save, Zues couldn’t save, Buddha couldn’t save…
They are all silenced and Jesus alone is glorified.
“Men will come to Him”
We see this too:
Revelation 5:8-10 “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”
John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”
God has never stuttered about this.
He hasn’t told us everything, but this He has been clear on.
And:
“all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”
Jesus said it:
John 7:32-36 “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him. Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. “You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He? “What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”
John 8:21-24 “Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”
There has never been any confusion here.
It has been the consistent message of God from beginning to end.
1. He will silence all rivals…
2. He will save repentant sinners…
3. He will subdue every enemy…
How do we know this?
He has said it clearly and openly and repeatedly since the beginning.
Yes, but how does He know He can accomplish all this?
HE – IS – GOD
Therefore we have no reason to doubt it.
One more thing God has been consistent about:
4) HE WILL SATISFY ALL BELIEVERS (25)
“In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”
He calls them “the offspring of Israel”
We see them as the children of the covenant.
We see them as the children of the promise.
We understand them as the true heirs of Abraham.
Galatians 3:6-9 “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”
All those who have trusted in Christ are “the offspring of Israel”
And here is yet another consistent promise from God.
We “will be justified and will glory”
Romans 10:11 “For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”
WHAT A STATEMENT!
JESUS CHRIST
• Has come and promised that He fulfilled the Law on our behalf.
• He has promised to forgive all those who believe in Him as He will bear their iniquities on the cross.
• He has told us that if we will believe He will clothe us in His righteousness and we will be counted as righteous before God.
• He has told us that our sins are washed away and in His blood we find forgiveness of all our sins.
AND THIS IS WHERE WE HAVE PLACED OUR HOPE.
That even though we are sinful men and women
That when we stand before God
He will count us righteous and welcome us in to live with Him.
IT IS QUITE AN AMBITIOUS HOPE WE HAVE.
We have read:
Psalms 15:1-2 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.”
We know:
Revelation 21:27 “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”
And we are putting all our eggs in that one basket.
But here is the glorious good news.
GOD HAS NEVER WAIVERED ON THIS…NOT ONCE!
He has a consistent witness throughout His word
That He justifies sinners by faith through the work of His Son
And they will not be disappointed.
“all the offspring of Israel will be justified”
“and will glory”
• We will celebrate!
• We will sing!
• We will rejoice!
We will be totally satisfied in our reigning King!
• Every earthly discomfort…
• Every earthly loss…
• Every earthly encumbrance…
• Every earthly pain…
Will all whisk away when we step into His presence.
And God has never stuttered on that fact.
SO…
You live in a world where you don’t understand what is going on.
• How could God let a pagan ruler sit on the throne?
• How could it be God’s plan to bring a pagan to power?
How can we look at all the evil in the world today and say,
“God is sovereign over all things”?
We can say that because: HE – IS – GOD
1. And we know that He works in mysterious ways.
2. And we know that it is not ours to question what He does.
3. And we know that while we don’t know everything we do know what He has spoken in His word regarding our salvation.
4. And we know that in the end:
• His rivals will be silenced…
• Sinners will be saved…
• His enemies will be subdued…
• And we will be totally satisfied…
For Jesus will be King and there will be no other.
Every knee will bow to Him.
• I can’t tell you what God is doing with Joe Biden or Donald Trump…
• I can’t tell you the purpose of the conflict in Israel…
• I can’t tell you why it appears that sin is winning in the world…
• I can’t tell you why there is such suffering and hardship…
But I can tell you that HE – IS – GOD
He will always be God.
He has chosen to be our God.
And one day every knee will bow to Him as God.
We don’t know everything, but we do know that.
God has been faithfully consistent to those points over and over and over.
Rest there until we know fully.
