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Life Without A Savior
Isaiah 47:1-15
April 21, 2024

This evening we come to what feels a little bit like a parenthetical chapter.

Everything God has been saying has really been for Israel.
• It is true that He has also briefly addressed some of the other nations who have refugees in Babylon, calling them to trust in Him.
• But primarily the message has been for Israel.

• Even this morning in chapter 46 we noticed how God was calling Israel to quit trusting Babylon’s gods because they had nothing in common.

• When we get to chapter 48 God will continue addressing Israel, calling them to quit giving lip service to God and to get off the fence.

But chapter 47 is sort of stuck here in the middle
And it is CLEARLY A MESSAGE FOR THE BABYLONIAN.

It is a message which not only addresses Babylon’s fate,
But explains the reason for such a fate.

We learn a lot about her fall,
Her arrogance, her false assurance, and God’s anger at her.

But without a doubt the most shocking verse of the chapter
Is the very last one where God looks Babylon in the face and says,
(15) “There is none to save you.”

Let that phrase sort of marinate in your mind for a moment.

Think of it in light of all the statements God has been making to Israel.

Isaiah 43:3 “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.”

Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.”

Isaiah 45:15 “Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!”

Isaiah 45:21 “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.”

• And that doesn’t even get in to all the references of God being Israel’s
redeemer.
• Ever since we hit chapter 40 it has really been all about God being the Savior.

But when He addresses Babylon here in chapter 47
There is no offer of salvation.

God in effect says, “You’re doomed.”

And let’s be honest here.
In our world if you embrace any semblance of reformed theology or Calvinism where you believe God elects those whom He will save.

YOU CAN EXPECT A QUICK AND CERTAIN BACKLASH.

People prefer to view God as indifferent in regard to who He saves.

By most, God is preferably viewed as a man with a bullhorn just indiscriminately offering salvation to all and the application of salvation is all up to the sinner.

• If the sinner wants it, great!
• If the sinner doesn’t want it…well God won’t violate their free will.

But such positions make a chapter like this very difficult to decipher.
• There is NO INVITATION given here.
• There is NO CALL for repentance.

In fact, as God announces their coming affliction
His advice to the Babylonian people is:

(12) “Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you may cause trembling.”

• He doesn’t tell them to abandon their sorcery.
• He doesn’t tell them to repent of their witchcraft.
• He tells them to pursue it harder…
• He tells them not to give up on it…

All the while knowing that such a practice
Will lead to a sure and certain judgment.

What could God’s point possibly be?
What could be the purpose of including such a chapter?

Very simply to make this one point to Israel.
AREN’T YOU GLAD YOU HAVE A SAVIOR?

Could you imagine how awful it would be not to have one?
Could you imagine how awful it would be if no one cared?

See, all throughout this 70 year exile
It has been God’s objective to show Israel
The benefits of having Him as a Savior.

• Israel had grown idolatrous.
• Israel had started worshiping the Baals.
• Israel needed to be disciplined and reminded of their God.

So God sent them to Babylon to teach them that very point.

Through Isaiah He has been relentlessly reminding them that:
• “You are Mine”
• “I have redeemed you”

And yet still, as we saw this morning,
Israel is halfway prone to run to Babylon’s gods instead.

So here in chapter 47 God just pulls out all the stops
To show with absolute clarity the fate of Babylon.

Here God gives us a vivid picture of LIFE WITHOUT A SAVIOR.
It is the end result for all who abandon God as the Savior.

It is certainly a wakeup call to Israel.

But might I remind you, that this is where the world dwells.
• In this world of utter rejection of God…
• In this world that mocks the Creator…
• In this world that runs into paganism…
• In this world that afflicts God’s people…

This is what they face.
This their fate.

But we do not share that fate.
WE HAVE A SAVIOR

Yesterday morning our prayer journal verse was:
Psalms 65:4 “How blessed is the one whom You choose and bring near to You To dwell in Your courts. We will be satisfied with the goodness of Your house, Your holy temple.”

How true that is!
• We are blessed to have a savior!
• We are blessed to have been saved!

Israel needs to see this.

Well tonight, let’s work our way through Isaiah 47.
We’ll break this chapter down into 4 points.

#1 BABYLON’S SHAME
Isaiah 47:1-3

The illustration portrayed in these 3 verses is quite obvious.

Babylon is here depicted as a beautiful maiden.

In verse 1 she is referred to as:
• “O virgin daughter of Babylon”
• “O daughter of the Chaldeans”

Verse 2 refers to here as:
• “called tender and delicate”

Later in verse 5 she is called:
• “The queen of kingdoms”

And in verse 6:
• “a queen forever”

Those descriptive phrases paint quite the picture for us.

We envision sort of this 15 or 16-year-old girl,

Something like a Disney princess.
• She’s fair and delicate,
• She sings and dances through her private garden
• Where birds lite on her shoulder and squirrels and racoons bring her lemonade
and mend her dress.

• Everyone loves her and thinks she is wonderful.

She is the king’s daughter and soon to be the rightful queen of the land.
• She’s never done a hard days work in her life,
• She sleeps in a giant 4 posted bed,
• And young men line up by the hundreds to try and win her hand in marriage.

I think you all understand the description here.
• AT IT’S CORE, it’s a picture of ease and comfort.
• IN IT’S REALITY it is a picture of false assurance.

She lives in a fairy tale world.
It is quite unlike anything real.
And though it feels very solid and enduring, it will not last.

And that is what we actually see unfolding here.

IN A MOMENT!
Verse 9 says, “suddenly, in one day”

This would-be queen is ripped from her palace.
• Her fancy gown is ripped off of her.
• She is dragged off by the hair.
• She is driven to a foreign land across the rivers
• And she is thrown naked into the grinding mill to do hard labor.

(2-3a) “Take the millstones and grind meal. Remove your veil, strip off the skirt, uncover the leg, cross the rivers. Your nakedness will be uncovered, Your shame also will be exposed;”

Life for her has suddenly changed.
The fairy-tale is over.

Long gone are the days of fancy parties and breakfast in bed,
Now she lives in a day of shame, labor, suffering, and exploitation.

And thus the command to her in verse 1 makes perfect sense:

(1) “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon; Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans! For you shall no longer be called tender and delicate.”

• She is called to mourning.
• She is called to weeping and gnashing of teeth.
• She is called to a life of disdain and rejection and sorrow.

And we realize how quickly the tables can turn.

And the spiritual point that is being made is that
WORLDLY SECURITY IS NOT SECURITY.

Our world genuinely believes that things like
Position and money and power are all great means of security.

Sometimes we even grow to believe that men in power
Are too rich and powerful and must be untouchable.

Tell that to Nebuchadnezzar whom God forced to lose his sanity and eat grass like a cow for 7 years.

The Psalmist said:
Psalms 49:16-20 “Do not be afraid when a man becomes rich, When the glory of his house is increased; For when he dies he will carry nothing away; His glory will not descend after him. Though while he lives he congratulates himself— And though men praise you when you do well for yourself— He shall go to the generation of his fathers; They will never see the light. Man in his pomp, yet without understanding, Is like the beasts that perish.”

Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:17 “Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy.”

And it was Jesus who reminded us that
If your hope is in gold a thief will steal it; if your hope is in garments a moth will eat them; and if your hope is in grain the rust or mildew will destroy it.

This world offers no security.

1 John 2:15-17 “Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.”

BUT HERE IN ISAIAH the FOCUS ISN’T so much on Babylon’s security found in her wealth.

The focus here is more a spiritual one.

Remember Israel’s problem was that they were tempted to trust in Babylon’s gods.

• The belief that was sort of circulating throughout the country was that Babylon would be safe from Cyrus because of “Bel” and “Nebo”.

• The Babylonian gods who had been credited with providing this luxury would most certainly rise up and defend and maintain this luxury.

Isaiah reveals here that this is a false hope.
• We saw THIS MORNING that “Bel” and “Nebo” are going into exile too.
• HERE we learn that all those who trusted in them are in a world of hurt.

We are reminded of the utter foolishness of trusting in false gods.

In days of plenty and in days of prosperity
• The worship of idols seems harmless and possibly even beneficial.
• Most people who bow to pagan deities seem to “get away with it” most of the
time.

This chapter is about the day when all that comes crashing down.

Also revealed here is WHY it all comes crashing down.

Look at that last line of verse 3.
“I will take vengeance and will not spare a man.”

Now we see why that life of ease does not last.
It is because God is a God of vengeance.

He told us:
Exodus 20:5-6 “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Paul has been teaching us in Romans:
Romans 2:5 “But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,”

There is a tab and it will come due.

Babylon seemed so strong and so enduring.
• She was so prosperous and so glorious.
• It was inconceivable that she would not endure forever.

Egypt must have thought that too until God sent Moses.
Assyria thought that for a time as well until God wiped out his army.
The Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans certainly had their day in the sun where they felt invincible.

• What about the British Empire?
• What about Nazi Germany?
• What about the United States?

It’s never as secure as it seems.
Worldly security is false security and it all leads to shame.

You see Babylon’s shame

#2 BABYLON’S SIN
Isaiah 47:4-7

We could list a lot of sins that Babylon would be guilty of and any one of them could rightly bring the just judgment of God.
• Paganism in general.
• The shedding of innocent blood.
• Crimes against humanity.

Take your pick, but any one of them could have toppled Babylon.

However, here in Isaiah 47
None of those sins are listed as the reason for God’s vengeance.

In verse 3 we read, “I will take vengeance”

Verse 4 answers the question, “Who is this ‘I’?”
“Our Redeemer, the LORD of hosts is His name, The Holy One of Israel.”

We understand the ramifications of the name “The Holy One of Israel.”

That name is forever embedded in Isaiah’s mind.
• He saw the Holy One.
• He saw the throne.
• He saw the glory.
• He saw the smoke.
• He fell in holy terror before Him.

“the LORD of hosts” is YAHWEH SABAOTH

When we sing the hymn “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”

We sing the line, “Did we in our own strength confide, Our striving would be losing; were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing; Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He; Lord Sabaoth, His name, From age to the same, And He must win the battle.”

The “hosts” are the angelic armies.
• He is the Lord of the heavenly armies.
• This is his battle name.

And as Martin Luther stated, this “Lord of hosts” is on our side.

He is “Our Redeemer”
• He is the One who is coming to rescue.
• He is the One who is coming to deliver.

We saw it in the last line of the chapter this morning:
Isaiah 46:13 “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”

He is coming to save His people.

And now we realize the implication.
YOU DONE MESSED UP AARON!

LISTEN PRINCESS!
• God is coming to rip you out of your fancy bedroom
• And thrown you naked into a foreign grinding mill
• Because that’s what you did to His bride!

Psalms 137:8-9 “O daughter of Babylon, you devastated one, How blessed will be the one who repays you With the recompense with which you have repaid us. How blessed will be the one who seizes and dashes your little ones Against the rock.”

Jeremiah 51:34-36 “Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon has devoured me and crushed me, He has set me down like an empty vessel; He has swallowed me like a monster, He has filled his stomach with my delicacies; He has washed me away. “May the violence done to me and to my flesh be upon Babylon,” The inhabitant of Zion will say; And, “May my blood be upon the inhabitants of Chaldea,” Jerusalem will say. Therefore thus says the LORD, “Behold, I am going to plead your case And exact full vengeance for you; And I will dry up her sea And make her fountain dry.”

You did what should not have been done.
• You afflicted My people.
• You messed with the wrong Man’s wife.

SO…
(5) “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called the queen of kingdoms.”

• God tells her to hide.
• God into a dark closet and be as quiet as you can.
• But even then I am coming and you will not survive.

But I thought it was God who raised up Nebuchadnezzar?
• I thought it was God who gave him dominion?
• I thought the exile was God’s plan for His people?

It was.
(6) “I was angry with My people, I profaned My heritage And gave them into your hand. You did not show mercy to them, On the aged you made your yoke very heavy.”

Does that spell it out for you?

We see the same thing in the book of Zechariah.
Zechariah 1:15 “But I am very angry with the nations who are at ease; for while I was only a little angry, they furthered the disaster.”

Let’s say you send your kids to school
And your child does something
Disrespectful, disobedient, and deserving of punishment.

The principal calls you and says, “Your child has been very disrespectful and disruptive, they have broken the rules, and we believe that they need punishment. We would like to give them licks with the paddle.”

• Because learning to submit to authority is important,
• Because principals have the right to maintain order in the school,
• Because your not a foolish parent who thinks your child is incapable of wrong,

You hand your child over to the discipline of that principal.

But when your child comes home from school, they have two black eyes, a bloody nose, and noticeable limp, and a broken arm.

You got it.
YOU DONE MESSED UP AARON!

That was NOT the intent.

This pagan kingdom,
• Whom you graciously allowed to exist,
• Whom you entrusted with the discipline of your people,
• Has done the unthinkable and attacked your child or your bride.

And the whole time, while they were beating God’s child:
(7) “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’”

You just felt invincible in your cruelty.
• You invaded My city and burned My temple.
• You killed My people and murdered their infants.
• You enslaved the survivors and were terribly cruel to them.
• You tried to brainwash them in Babylon and paganize them with unclean foods and pagan names.
• You built that golden tower and demanded they worship.
• You threw those who would not into a furnace of fire.

And you thought no one could stop you.

But you forgot whose people you were messing with.
• You forgot who their Redeemer was.
• You forgot that they had a Savior with a long track record of saving.

“These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.”

You didn’t think about the Exodus did you?
You didn’t think about 185,000 dead Assyrians did you?
Well you should have.

When you mess with God’s people you are inviting God into the battle.

2 Thessalonians 1:6-10 “For after all it is only just for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to give relief to you who are afflicted and to us as well when the Lord Jesus will be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, dealing out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, when He comes to be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all who have believed—for our testimony to you was believed.”

Babylon’s Shame Babylon’s Sin

#3 BABYLON’S SECURITY
Isaiah 47:8-11

And this is the real fallacy of the world.
THIS IS WHY when they invite you to trust in their gods or their reasons for deliverance you should run.

It is because they have totally overestimated their certainty of salvation.
• This world is so certain that they will be a queen forever.
• They are so certain that their financial plans and military power are strong.
• They just know they will always exist.
• They are so confident that “Bel” and “Nebo” know what they are doing.

And they are so pompous about it
That they often times tempt God’s people to jump in with them.

And sadly we sometimes see God’s people
Start buying into the system of worldly security.

We see God’s people start bowing to the pagan deities
That seem to be so effective for the world.

Look at their confidence here.
(8) “Now, then, hear this, you sensual one, Who dwells securely, Who says in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me. I will not sit as a widow, Nor know loss of children.’”

That’s confident.
• No one will ever touch me.
• I’ll be here forever.

You see it again in verse 10
(10) “You felt secure in your wickedness and said, ‘No one sees me,’ Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you; For you have said in your heart, ‘I am, and there is no one besides me.’”

They just don’t think it can fall.

But it is so important here that you recognize the source of their security.

In verse 8 we read, “Who says in your heart”
• You see it again in verse 10, “You have said in your heart”
• It was their own heart that convinced them they were safe.

In verse 10 we read, “You felt secure”
• It was all emotional, a trick of the mind.

And God is clear when He says, “Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you;”

I hope you understand the difference between
False assurance and genuine assurance.

False assurance is that which is based upon a feeling, a wish, a hope, a piece of human logic and reason.
• It is to feel secure because that’s what you want.
• And if you tell yourself that enough you start to believe it.
• That is not real assurance.

Real assurance is not based on a feeling,
• It is based on the finished work of Christ.
• It is based on the sovereign work of God.

But the unredeemed don’t have that assurance so they create their own.
They just tell themselves that they are confident they will be fine.

We also see that they felt secure in
• (9) “your many sorceries”
• And “the great power of your spells.”

There was a mysticism there.
• Witchcraft and spirit mediums and astrologers and medicine men, etc.
• They believed what they wanted and they employed mystical charlatans to
support their claims.

They had itching ears and they gathered teachers to scratch them.
And they just knew it would all work out.

And God has a rude awakening for them.

(9) “But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day: Loss of children and widowhood. They will come on you in full measure In spite of your many sorceries, In spite of the great power of your spells.”

I don’t care how many mystics you employ
Or how many likes you get on social media.

When God says it won’t last, it won’t last.

(11) “But evil will come on you Which you will not know how to charm away; And disaster will fall on you For which you cannot atone; And destruction about which you do not know Will come on you suddenly.”

I still remember Kenneth Copeland in all of his Satanic pomp in March of 2020 staring into a camera and declaring that COVID-19 was over.

• Fortunately for him COVID-19 wasn’t near as bad as we were initially being told and it played itself out on its own over the course of a few months.

But God has a promise here:
• I’m going to bring something Kenneth Copeland can’t rebuke.
• I’m going to bring a plague Egypt’s magicians can’t duplicate.
• I’m going to bring disaster that “Bel” and “Nebo” have no answer for.
• God will bring a judgment that YOGA is powerless to defeat.

And God says it will come suddenly.
This is what Babylon is facing.
Here security isn’t as secure as she thinks.

Babylon’s Shame Babylon’s Sin Babylon’s Security

#4 BABYLON’S SAVIOR
Isaiah 47:12-15

Here is that peculiar advice from God we spoke about at the beginning.

We would almost expect here for God to now say, “Repent! And turn to Me”

But that is NOT what He says.
“Stand fast now in your spells And in your many sorceries With which you have labored from your youth; Perhaps you will be able to profit, Perhaps you may cause trembling.”

Instead of telling them to drop the insanity and to repent and trust in Him,
God decides to play the role of an Elijah.

He stands beside the prophets of Baal as they endlessly leap on their altar
And tells them to try harder, jump higher, cry louder.

1 Kings 18:27 “It came about at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Call out with a loud voice, for he is a god; either he is occupied or gone aside, or is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and needs to be awakened.”

That is what God is doing.
• As He sends judgment He tells them to try harder in their man-made religion.

And of course nothing is happening.
• The “spells” and “sorceries” don’t seem to be working…SHOCKER

But God still DOESN’T tell them to repent.

(13) “You are wearied with your many counsels; Let now the astrologers, Those who prophesy by the stars, Those who predict by the new moons, Stand up and save you from what will come upon you.”

God just says,
• “I know you are tired, but keep going!”
• Call those astrologers!
• Get those new moon preachers!
• Come on, surely they have a plan to save you!

But you and I know the outcome, and God announces it.
(14-15) “Behold, they have become like stubble, Fire burns them; They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame; There will be no coal to warm by Nor a fire to sit before! “So have those become to you with whom you have labored, Who have trafficked with you from your youth; Each has wandered in his own way; There is none to save you.”

WHAT IS THE VERDICT?
Those are not saviors and you will not be saved.

I really like those last two lines of verse 14
Where God points out, “There will be no coal to warm by nor a fire to sit before!”

That is a nod back to that story He told us in chapter 44.
• Remember that man who cut down the tree and burned half of it in the fire and the other half he made into a god?
• And we said that the only thing that god could do was sit and burn.
• But here God says, they can’t even do that.
• They can’t even keep you warm in the day of your calamity.

There is no savior for you.
Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.”

Isaiah 45:21 “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.”

And it is such a fitting message even to the world in our day.

Men think they have their own saviors.
They think they are secure in their own ideas.

• Some turn to false deities.
• Some trust in their good works.
• Some trust in financial systems and political leaders.
• The list is seemingly endless.

All of them are in agreement that they don’t need Jesus to be their savior.
But they are overlooking one very important question.
WHO IS GOING TO SAVE YOU FROM JESUS?

Remember Cyrus is a prophetic type of Jesus.
He is God’s “messiah” sent to crush Babylon and bring His people home.

And there was not a single god, prophet, sorcerer, witch, or astronomer
That could save Babylon from God’s deliverer.

You may not think you need Jesus to save you,
But who is going to save you from Jesus?

What do you mean?
Jude 14-15 “It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.”

When Jesus comes
• To judge the living and the dead
• And the sword comes out of His mouth
• And He strikes down the nations
• And throws them in the wine press of the wrath of God
• And tramples them under His feet.

WHO IS GOING TO SAVE YOU FROM HIM?

WELL THE POINT BECOMES PRETTY CLEAR TO US NOW.

• Israel, you’re living in captivity in Babylon and Cyrus is on the way.
• You are afraid and are tempted to fall in with the Babylonians to worship their
gods and trust in their counselors.

DON’T!
They have no savior.

But you do have a Savior!
• The LORD of hosts is His name.
• He is your Redeemer.
• He is the Holy One of Israel.
• He is the Lord Jesus Christ.

He is coming in judgment, but He is coming to save you.
This is an act of vengeance, don’t take sides with the world.

Isaiah 35:4 “Say to those with anxious heart, “Take courage, fear not. Behold, your God will come with vengeance; The recompense of God will come, But He will save you.”

Church, you have a Savior.
TRUST HIM.

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To Whom Would You Liken Me?
Isaiah 46:1-13
April 21, 2024

This morning we come across a chapter that can be
Either convicting or comforting, depending on where your faith rests.

And it really stems from your belief as to WHO IS YOUR SAVIOR?

Now, in the church, when we talk about the Savior,
• It is obvious we are talking about Jesus Christ
• But most of the time the scope of our conversation is limited to His ability to
save us from sin and God’s judgment.

But at times we are also tempted
To compartmentalize Him only to that battle.

LET ME ILLUSTRATE:

Last Saturday evening I was on social media reading posts about the Iranian attack on Israel.
• Several were posting about the attack.
• Many were declaring it the start of WWIII.
• Many were speaking of the horrors of war and doom and escalation and things
such as that.

As I scrolled through the comments, the same statements just kept being repeated over and over.
• “I wish Trump was in office”
• “I wish we could move the election up”
• “If Trump was in office this wouldn’t have happened”
• Even some bold enough to say things like, “Only Trump can save us”

Now, I feel certain that if I contacted any of those people
• And asked them of Donald Trump could save them from sin
• Or if Donald Trump could save them from hell or from the wrath of God,

I’m pretty sure the general consensus would be, “No, of course not.”

I’m fairly confident that the majority of those on my feed would still say, “Jesus Christ saves us from sin. Jesus Christ saves us from hell.
Jesus Christ saves us from the wrath to come.”

So what was that crowd talking about on social media?
• They see Donald Trump as the savior of political America.
• They see Trump as the man who can save us from a war.
• They see Trump as the one who can save us from China or Iran or inflation
or some other political problem.

And so what tends to happen is
We try to compartmentalize our saviors.

If we have a sin and judgment problem then our savior is Jesus.
• If we have a political problem then we run to Trump.
• If we have a health problem then we run to our physician.
• If we have a marriage problem then we run to our friends or a counselor.
• If we have a grief or a guilt problem then we run to a psychologist.

YOU SEE WHAT I’M GETTING AT.

We have no problem seeing Jesus as the savior from sin,
But we all too often then want to run to other saviors
To deal with our other problems.

This is precisely what is going on with the people Isaiah is confronting.

REMEMBER,
• He is speaking prophetically to a people who live over 100 years after him.
• They are a people who have been taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar and
carried into Babylon.
• They have lived in Babylon for nearly 70 years.
• For all intents and purposes they are pretty much Babylonian.

Sure, they have maintained their Jewish ethnicity.
Yes, they have maintained their Jewish worship.

But Isaiah is revealing to us here that
While they maintain a certain level of Jewish worship,
They are also prone to compartmentalize the saving ability of God.

Because when Cyrus threatens to attack Babylon
The Jews aren’t running to Yahweh,
They run to the same saviors that the Babylonians are running to.

They start running to “Bel” and “Nebo”

“Yahweh is a fine savior when we are talking about sin.
But here we are talking about Cyrus attacking Babylon,
For that we go to a different savior.”

We call that PLURALISM
It is the propensity to believe in and trust in multiple gods for salvation.

Now we don’t tend to think of ourselves as pluralists
Because we know that Jesus is the only way to the Father.

BUT LOOK,
• If you are trusting in Jesus to save you from sin,
• But Trump to save you from Iran,
• And your doctor to save you from COVID,
• And the government to save you from hunger, etc.

DO YOU NOT SEE THE PLURALISM IN THAT?

And in effect what we are doing is reducing God
From being THE savior to being A savior.

We begin to put other saviors on the same level as God
And to trust in them when we should be trusting in God alone.

THIS IS THE ISSUE THAT ISAIAH IS CONFRONTING.

• These people were afraid of the Persian invasion.
• These people were afraid of Cyrus.
• And since it appears that Babylon’s gods made them strong.
• They are running to the Babylonian gods to save them.

ISAIAH HAS BEEN CONFRONTING THIS RELENTLESSLY
• It was not the Babylonian gods who gave victory to Babylon, it was Yahweh, Israel’s God who did that.
• And it is not the Persian gods who are giving Cyrus his victories, it Yahweh, Israel’s God who is doing that.

And the whole point then is for Israel to learn
What God has been saying over and over and over and over.

Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.”

Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.”

Isaiah 45:5-6 “I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God. I will gird you, though you have not known Me; That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other,”

Isaiah 45:18 “For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else.”

Isaiah 45:21b-22 “And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

And even again in our chapter this morning:
(9) “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”

ARE YOU GETTING THE POINT?
THERE IS NO OTHER SAVIOR!

• Quit compartmentalizing Me!
• Quit making Me equal with all the others.

• I am not just your savior from sin, I am your savior from all things.
• I am the sovereign God who has redeemed you.

You should not look to other saviors in other circumstances,
You should look to Me in all circumstances.
I AM YOUR ONLY SAVIOR.

THAT HAS BEEN THE POINT.
• Is it a spiritual problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a political problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a physical problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a financial problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a social problem? Look to Christ
• Is it a marriage problem? Look to Christ

He is not “A” savior.
He is THE SAVIOR – the only one.

NOW I’M NOT SAYING that God never uses men like your doctor or your friend or Donald Trump, clearly God is using Cyrus.

But the difference is who you think is actually doing the saving.

And just to follow on the illustration,
To say things like “If Trump was in office this wouldn’t have happened”

Is to be blindly ignorant of the sovereignty of God.

I would remind you:
• The reason Trump is not in office is because God is sovereign.
• Nothing happens outside of His sovereign control.
• God is saving His people, and He is not bound to use some politician to do it.

And to all of that pluralistic thinking:
And God would ask, “To whom would you liken Me..?”

This is the point that Isaiah is driving into our minds here.

AND THIS MORNING HE CONTINUES.

Here God commands His people to pay attention.
1. The exiles in Babylon were intending to trust in the Babylonian gods for deliverance from Cyrus.

2. God is going to reveal how foolish this is.

3. He is going to compare those gods to Himself.

4. He is doing that so that you and I will come to our senses and learn to trust Him alone in all things.

There are 3 distinctions God will make
Between Himself and the Babylonian gods in this chapter.

We would do good to extend these observations
To any other would-be savior that we might be tempted to trust.

#1 I’M NOT A BURDEN, I’M A BEARER
Isaiah 46:1-4

The chapter starts for us with tremendous visual imagery.

(1-2) “Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast. They stooped over, they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”

As I mentioned, “Bel” and “Nebo” are Babylonian gods.
• You are familiar with men like Nebuchadnezzar and Nebuzaradan, and Nabopolassar (men all named after “Nebo”)
• Or men like Belshazzar or even Daniel who was given the name “Belteshazzar” names following after “Bel”

These are Babylonian gods and those
Which were credited with Babylon’s power and sovereignty.

These were the gods the Babylonians were turning to
When they heard of the rise of Cyrus.

WHAT WE LEARN IN ISAIAH 46 IS THAT
Apparently the Jews in exile there were turning to them too.

And that doesn’t surprise us.
• Throughout Israel’s history they were prone to worship pagan gods.
• This is where Baal worship came from.

So these are the supposed saviors of Babylon.
These are the gods who are expected to deliver Babylon from Persia.

But God here gives tremendous imagery.
1. Isaiah reveals “Bel” and “Nebo” bowing down as in defeat and submission.
2. Isaiah reveals them packed up on the back of camels and donkeys.
3. Isaiah reveals them being carted off into captivity.

The gods that supposedly took other men captive
Are themselves now being carted off into captivity.

(2) “They stooped over, they have bowed down together, They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”

And the issue of them going into captivity is certainly bad enough,
But that is NOT the main point of God here.

THE MAIN POINT IS THAT
In a time when you need your savior to deliver you,
Your savior has actually become a burden to you.

“Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast.”

IMAGINE THE SCENE…
Someone has infiltrated the city and is threatening your safety.
THE DECISION IS TO FLEE.
• You are frantically gathering your family.
• You are frantically gathering your essential supplies.
• You are loading them on your donkey so that you can flee in haste.

But you realize that you don’t want to go without your god.
You’ll need someone to deliver you and protect you on your journey,
So you want your god to go with you.

But if he is going to go, you’re going to have to pick him up,
Put him on your donkey, tie him down, and let your donkey carry him.

Your savior is nothing but an added burden.
• He can’t go if you don’t take him.
• He won’t be there if you don’t carry him.
• He is a burden.

And God responds very quickly by saying, but that is nothing like Me!

(3-4) “Listen to Me, O house of Jacob, And all the remnant of the house of Israel, You who have been borne by Me from birth And have been carried from the womb; Even to your old age I will be the same, And even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; And I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

Do you see all the references to God bearing you or carrying you or delivering you?

What we see here should not be bizarre.
What we have is a Savior functioning like a Savior.

You didn’t create Me, “You have been borne by Me from birth.”
You aren’t carrying Me, “[You] have been carried from the womb.”
• “I will bear you!”
• “I will carry you;”
• “I will bear you”
• “I will deliver you”

DO YOU SEE THE DISTINCTION?
THIS IS WHO GOD IS

Consider the Exodus:
Exodus 19:4 “You yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles’ wings, and brought you to Myself.”

And what has God promised to these refugees in Babylon?
I have not changed!

Isaiah 40:31 “Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

DO YOU SEE IT?
God is not a burden, He is a burden bearer!

Psalms 55:22 “Cast your burden upon the LORD and He will sustain you; He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.”

Psalms 68:19 “Blessed be the Lord, who daily bears our burden, The God who is our salvation. Selah.”

1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

What an important truth to consider as you look for a savior.

So go back to our initial analogy.
“If Donald Trump was in office, he would fix this.”

Those are interesting thoughts.
• Just the other day I received an email from the Donald Trump campaign
asking me for money to help him get elected.
• Many times between now and November he will ask me for his vote.

Jesus has never asked me for campaign funds.
Jesus has never asked me for a vote.

Political leaders want to be in charge
They want you to load them on your donkey and carry them there.

JESUS IS JUST THE OPPOSITE.
He is no burden to His people, He is the burden bearer.

EVERY OTHER SAVIOR WILL EXHAUST YOU

Remember the Pharisees?
Matthew 23:4 “They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger.”

Luke 11:46 “But He said, “Woe to you lawyers as well! For you weigh men down with burdens hard to bear, while you yourselves will not even touch the burdens with one of your fingers.”

• That was the religion of self-help.
• That was legalism where they required you to do something to help them save you.
• They put the burden all on you.

BUT WHAT DID JESUS SAY?
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.”

Every other savior will offer salvation but expect you to carry them.
Only Jesus will save you and pull the entire load Himself.

• Only Jesus came to this earth for you.
• Only Jesus fulfilled the Law for you.
• Only Jesus bore your sin.
• Only Jesus intercedes for you.
• Only Jesus will return for you.

Every other Savior will ask you to do something for them.
Their cry is “Help me help you!”

Jesus simply says, “Come to Me and I’ll do all the carrying.”

God is not a burden, He is a bearer.

#2 I’M NOT DECORATIVE, I’M DECLARATIVE
Isaiah 46:5-11

Here we move from the function of these saviors to their appearance.

And God begins with an important question.
Indeed, it is the theme of the chapter:

(5) “To whom would you like Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike?”

The burden comparison alone is enough to make the answer obvious.
• “Bel” and “Nebo” have nothing in common with God.

BUT GOD HAS A SECOND COMPARISON
And notice the way God describes them.
Purely as a decorative ornament.

(6-7) “Those who lavish gold from the purse And weigh silver on the scale Hire a goldsmith, and he makes it into a god; They bow down, indeed they worship it. “They lift it upon the shoulder and carry it; They set it in its place and it stands there. It does not move from its place. Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress.”

Notice again that ALL THE VERBS of this sentence are not being carried out by the savior, but they are being carried out by men.

It is men “lavish gold” and “weigh silver”
• That is to say, the full cost is assumed by the worshiper, not the idol.
• You provide for them, they don’t provide for you.

And it is men who “hire a goldsmith” and who “makes it into a god”
• They have to create the god, the god doesn’t create them.

And when it comes time for this newly formed god to spring into action
And do something remarkable on behalf of his people,
WELL, IT WILL NEED A LITTLE HELP.

“They lift it…”
“carry it”
“They set it in its place”

It can’t do anything.
“Though one may cry to it, it cannot answer; It cannot deliver him from his distress.”

You know what we call that?
A STATUE
• It is nothing but decoration.
• It is ornamental.
• It is art.

It may have value based upon the amount of gold on it.
It may be pretty based on the skill of the sculptor.
It may be functional as an accent piece in a room.

But as far as doing any real saving it is pointless.
• “it cannot answer”
• “it cannot deliver”

AND THAT IS WHAT YOU COMPARE TO GOD?

That is what you call a savior?
That is what you put on the same level as the God of the universe?

And as you might notice,
God is not amused by the comparison.

(8-9) “Remember this, and be assured; Recall it to mind, you transgressors. “Remember the former things long past, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me,”

You notice first of all that
God has a title for these Jews in captivity who are trusting in other gods.

God calls them “you transgressors”
• What is a transgressor?
• What is the difference between that and other sin?

A transgressor is one who violates a covenant or an agreement.
It is a sin of betrayal.

God made the terms of His conditions very clear at Sinai.
Exodus 20:1-6 “Then God spoke all these words, saying, “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. “You shall have no other gods before Me. “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Part of the agreement was:
• You don’t worship other gods.
• You don’t compare Me to other gods.

But that is exactly what they have done.
By trusting in other saviors they have in effect
Put those false gods on the same level as the true God.

AND THE TRUE GOD IS NOT AMUSED.

So three times in two verses he calls for them to check their memory.
• “Remember”
• “Recall it to mind”
• “Remember”

Remember what?
“the former things long past”

You need to stop and go through your spiritual and historical rolodex
And think about all that I have done.

Creation, the flood, the choosing of Abram, the Exodus, manna, parting the Red Sea, miracle after miracle, giving the Promised Land, and on and on and on.

You won’t find any of these gods who ever did anything like I have done.

So you need to go through your memory
And when you do, you will “be assured”.

Be assured of what?
That “I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is no one like Me”

• You have forgotten that there are no other gods.
• You have forgotten that there are no other saviors.
• You just go about crying out to them like they can save you, and they can’t!

And once again God calls to mind
HIS ABILITY TO SOVEREIGNLY CONTROL ALL EVENTS.

(10-11) “Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things which have not been done, Saying, ‘My purpose will be established, And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’; Calling a bird of prey from the east, The man of My purpose from a far country. Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass. I have planned it, surely I will do it.”

THERE IS A CONTRAST FOR YOU.
Your god can’t answer and your god can’t deliver.

But I on the other hand, not only know the answer,
But I am the sovereign One who decreed what is happening.

I not only can deliver,
But I am the One who is delivering by sending Cyrus that “bird of prey from the east, the man of My purpose from a far country.”

Not only do I know what I’m doing.
Not only do I know what is going on.
I am the One declaring it!
I am the One delivering you through it!

DO YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE?
• They are decorative, but I am declarative!
• They are nothing but art, I am the sovereign orchestrator of all things.

Can you name a political leader who will answer your questions?
Can you name a political leader who knows how to fix this?

If we’ve learned anything over the last 4 years,
We know what it is for a man to be in a position
That is nothing more than a decorative position or a token position.

Does anyone really believe that our president is in control of all things?

They are not saviors, stop trusting them.
God is the only true savior.

They are a burden, He is a bearer.
They are decorative, He is declarative.

#3 I’M NOT CARRIED AWAY, I’M COMING NEAR
Isaiah 46:12-13

We saw it up in verses 1-2
“Bel has bowed down, Nebo stoops over; Their images are consigned to the beasts and the cattle. The things that you carry are burdensome, A load for the weary beast. They stooped over, they have bowed down together; They could not rescue the burden, But have themselves gone into captivity.”

Those false gods were loaded up on donkeys and carried away into exile.

A lot of help they turned out to be.
• Just when you needed them, they were conquered.
• Just when you needed them, they were nowhere to be found.
• Just when you needed them, they lost an election.

BUT THAT IS NOT GOD!

(12-13) “Listen to Me, you stubborn-minded, Who are far from righteousness. “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”

Again the command to listen.
And this time an accusation of being
• “stubborn-minded”
• And “far from righteousness.”

BECAUSE THEY ARE!
BECAUSE WE ARE!

When God said that men “go astray from birth” and that “all their thoughts are only on evil continually” He knew what He was talking about.

We are so prone to run after other saviors.
And what is worse, we continue to run after other saviors
Even though they never seem to save us.

Politician after politician; doctor after doctor; advisor after advisor…
Their track records are terrible,
But we keep running to them like this time they will figure it out.

And then we have God who has never failed,
But we seem to never want to trust Him.

WE ARE SO FOOLISH.
1. Earthly saviors are nothing but burdens,
2. Earthly saviors are powerless
3. When you need them, they are in court fighting for their own salvation.

THEY AREN’T ACCESSIBLE TO YOU.
When is the last time any politician listened to you about anything?
• They AREN’T NEAR.
• They AREN’T ACCESSIBLE.
• They are CARRIED AWAY.

BUT NOTICE HOW OUR GOD IS SO DIFFERENT.

“I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off;”

What a great statement!

Paul wrote:
Romans 10:5-9 “For Moses writes that the man who practices the righteousness which is based on law shall live by that righteousness. But the righteousness based on faith speaks as follows: “DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, ‘WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?’ (that is, to bring Christ down), or ‘WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?’ (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead).” But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

Could you imagine:
If obtaining righteousness and salvation depended on you climbing up into heaven and convincing Christ to come down to earth to fulfill the Law and die in your stead?

Could you imagine how impossible it would be if that was required?

Sort of like trying to get in touch with your congressman
And convincing him to act on your behalf?

Could you imagine:
If your salvation or righteousness depended on you going down into the grave and taking possession of the crucified Christ and raising Him to life and bringing Him up from the grave?

How impossible would salvation be if that is what was required?

Sort of like trying to get a carnal and depraved politician
To change his view on some moral issue?

How miserable would it be if that is what was required?

If you had to get to your savior and convince him to save
And then you had to go to him in his defeat and rescue him
While he was trying to save you?

HOW PATHETIC!
And yet, that is what we do every time we turn to another savior.

But God isn’t distant like that, He came to us.
“But what does it say? “THE WORD IS NEAR YOU, IN YOUR MOUTH AND IN YOUR HEART”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;”

• It is called the incarnation where He took on human flesh and entered our world.
• It is called the resurrection where He secured our victory by rising from the dead.

You didn’t do it for Him, He did it for you.

And look at what God says here in Isaiah.
(13) “I bring near My righteousness, it is not far off; And My salvation will not delay. And I will grant salvation in Zion, And My glory for Israel.”

Who is God bringing near?
Who is coming for Israel?

THE ANSWER: CYRUS

But now, one more time, what did God call Cyrus?
Isaiah 45:1 “Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:”

• Is Cyrus the Messiah? No
• Is Cyrus the Christ? No

But he is a prophetic type of the Messiah or Christ who is to come.

CYRUS IS A PICTURE OF JESUS.
• He is the One whom God raised up to go and set the captives free without cost.
• He is the One whom God sent to save His people form their oppressors and to
usher them safely home.

HE IS A PICTURE OF JESUS.

And the obvious question God has for the Jews in captivity Is:
Would you rather have His savior or the ones the Babylonians are using?

1. Do you want a savior who is a burden or one who bears burdens?
2. Do you want a savior who is decorative or one who is declarative?
3. Do you want a savior who is carried away or one who is coming near?

And we can easily answer for them.
• They’d be dumb to cry out to “Bel” or “Nebo”.
• They’d be foolish to trust in those useless gods.
• That is a “no-brainer” to us when we look at their predicament.

WELL LOOK AT OUR PREDICAMENT
• Look at today.
• Look at your sin.
• Look at the calamity of our day.

1. Do you want a savior who is a burden or one who bears burdens?
2. Do you want a savior who is decorative (ceremonial) or who is declarative?
3. Do you want a savior who is carried away (distant) or who is coming near?

Friend, you want Jesus Christ.
• He is the only Savior.
• He is our only hope.
• He sets captives free.
• He delivers prisoners.

Determine today not to trust in other saviors, but to put your trust in Jesus Christ in every area of your life that needs saving.

download here

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.

download here

He Is God! – Part 3
Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25 (45:15-19)
April 14, 2024

Recognizing the SUPREME AUTHORITY OF GOD
Is one of the clearest expectations of humanity throughout Scripture.

In fact, when the apostle Paul wants to point out the undeniable sinfulness of the worldly pagan, before listing any other sin, Paul says:

Romans 1:21 “For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened.”

Paul spoke of a failure to honor God as God.

This is the calling of humanity.
How much more is it the calling of those whom He has redeemed!

We are aware of the calling to honor God and to treat Him as God.

And we have ways in which we are accustomed to do that:
For example:

Singing
Psalms 135:1-5 “Praise the LORD! Praise the name of the LORD; Praise Him, O servants of the LORD, You who stand in the house of the LORD, In the courts of the house of our God! Praise the LORD, for the LORD is good; Sing praises to His name, for it is lovely. For the LORD has chosen Jacob for Himself, Israel for His own possession. For I know that the LORD is great And that our Lord is above all gods.”

Giving
Malachi 1:10-11 “Oh that there were one among you who would shut the gates, that you might not uselessly kindle fire on My altar! I am not pleased with you,” says the LORD of hosts, “nor will I accept an offering from you. “For from the rising of the sun even to its setting, My name will be great among the nations, and in every place incense is going to be offered to My name, and a grain offering that is pure; for My name will be great among the nations,” says the LORD of hosts.

Or we think about obedience or faithfulness or holiness, etc.

Certainly in all those things we strive to honor God as God.

Here in Isaiah’s 44th and 45th chapters
We are confronted with another area in our life
Where we are called to honor God as God,
And this may be one of the most difficult areas.

We are talking about honoring God
When God does that which we do not understand,
Or perhaps even agree with.

So long as God does what you expect…
So long as He behaves in a manner that you agree with…
So long as God stays inside your box of acceptable action…

It is easy to give Him credit and glory and honor.
It is easy to worship Him and proclaim Him.
WHEN GOD OPERATES AS YOU EXPECT

But what about when God does something that you deem as wrong?
What about when God operates outside of your comfort zone?

What about when God allows Satan to have all your camels and donkeys stolen, your children killed, and you afflicted with sores from the top of your head to the soles of your feet? (Job)

Can you honor God as God then?

What about when God allows you to be the only prophet in the nation that you know of and allows for the evil queen to put a bounty on your head? (Elijah)

Can you honor God then?

What about when God allows your brothers to sell you, your boss’s wife to falsely accuse you, your jailor to ignore you, and your friends to forget you? (Joseph)

Can you honor God then?

Or, what about when God raises up a pagan ruler and grants for him to conquer the nations and then speaks about this pagan as His messiah or christ? (Cyrus)

Can you honor God as God then?

Well that last one is what was happening in this prophecy.

Isaiah 45:1 “Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To open doors before him so that gates will not be shut:”

• God states that He has selected a deliverer.
• God has selected the man whom He will use as His savior.
• God calls this man “His anointed” which is the Hebrew word MESHEAH.
• And we find out that it is none other than the pagan Persian Cyrus.

AND IT ALL SEEMS WRONG.

And we were forced right up against the question:
DOES GOD HAVE THE RIGHT TO DO WHATEVER HE WANTS?
(of course He does)

IS GOD BOUND TO OPERATE IN A MANNER THAT SATISFIES YOUR EXPECTATIONS OF THE TYPE OF THINGS GOD SHOULD DO?
(of course He is not)

And this is the issue we are forced up against here in Isaiah 45.
• When nothing makes sense, can we trust God?
• When nothing goes as we expect, can we obey God?
• When God fails to give us an explanation, can we honor Him?
• When God operates outside of our comfort zone, can we be faithful?

If this life has not yet presented you
With circumstances beyond your control or understanding,
Then just give it a minute, because it will.

And when those circumstances arise
You immediately have a decision to make.

1. You will either attribute those circumstances to someone other than God.
2. Or you will attribute them to God and then get angry at Him.
3. Or you will attribute them to God and honor Him as God.

Only the last option is acceptable.

God is sovereign over all things,
Even the things we see as negative things,
And He deserves and demands to be honored in all of them.

Isaiah 45:6-7 “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

And that is what we are dealing with here in the 45th chapter of Isaiah.

In this we have said that there are 4 points to be made here.
There are 4 things you need to know
That will help you honor God rightly
In the midst of peculiar circumstances.

#1 GOD’S MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Isaiah 44:24-45:8

Many a man has said it, “God works in mysterious ways”.
He does things that do not necessarily make sense to us.

• Why send Israel into Egypt just to bring them out?
• Why send them into Babylon just to deliver them later?
• Why use a pagan to do it?

• Why allow Job to be afflicted?
• Why allow Elijah to be persecuted?
• Why allow Jesus Christ to be handed over to evil men and crucified on a cross?

We must simply understand that God knows what He is doing
And does not feel the need to explain Himself to us.

We are simply called to know that
God may not always do that which you expect,
But you are still always called to honor Him as God.

We saw that Sunday morning.

Sunday night we saw the second thing we needed to know:
#2 GOD’S IMPORTANT WARNING
Isaiah 45:9-14

When you walk through circumstances that don’t make sense to you,
One of your first temptations will be
To QUESTION God or to ACCUSE Him of wrong-doing.

Both Job and Elijah did this.

Here God speaks through Isaiah as though to say, “On that day when you are tempted to grumble about Me…DON’T.”

(9) “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?”

Again we are reminded to know our place.
• The clay doesn’t get to argue with the potter.
• The dirt doesn’t get to grumble against the Creator.

It was made very clear to us that in the midst of confusing times
God is not asking us to understand, He is asking us to trust.

Psalms 46 “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride. Selah. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, The holy dwelling places of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved; God will help her when morning dawns. The nations made an uproar, the kingdoms tottered; He raised His voice, the earth melted. The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah. Come, behold the works of the LORD, Who has wrought desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire. “Cease striving and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.” The LORD of hosts is with us; The God of Jacob is our stronghold. Selah.”

What a great reminder!
“Cease striving and know that I am God.”

• You don’t have to understand.
• You must not grumble.
• You cannot fix it.
• Just stop and recognize that God is God over this entire situation.

This will help you rest in uncertain times.
• It doesn’t make sense.
• It may never make sense this side of heaven.
• But you simply are called to trust that it makes sense to Him.

So if you can get those to points down, you’re going to be way ahead of the game when you are confronted with peculiar circumstances.

1. If you can remember that God often works in mysterious ways.
2. If you can remember that God is calling you not to grumble but to trust.

Then you are already a long way down the road
To honoring Him as God in the midst of your confusion.

This morning, let’s look at the 3rd point of Isaiah.

God’s Mysterious Ways
God’s Important Warning
#3 GOD’S REVEALED WORD
Isaiah 45:15-19

We actually touched on this point previously.

FOR EXAMPLE last Sunday night as we talked about how God was at work in a mysterious way in His selection of Cyrus,

We did note that even in the confusion
God made it clear what the end result would be.

That END result was spelled out in verse 8
(45:8) “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.”

Even though the current climate might be confusion,
God has never waivered on what the end result would be.

The end result is that it will all end in righteousness.

We saw it AGAIN in verses 13-14
(45:13-14) “I have aroused him in righteousness And I will make all his ways smooth; He will build My city and will let My exiles go free, Without any payment or reward,” says the LORD of hosts. Thus says the LORD, “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush And the Sabeans, men of stature, Will come over to you and will be yours; They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains And will bow down to you; They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.’”

It may be peculiar that God would use an unholy and unworthy vessel,
But again notice where God says it is heading.

• It will result in the return and salvation of His people.
• It will result in the nations streaming to Israel.
• It will result in the global worship of Israel’s God.

We might not know how today fits into the plan,
But we do know where the plan is going.

GOD HAS REVEALED THAT.
And this is the 3rd point to be emphasized this morning.

When you go through troubling and confusing circumstances that cause you to question what in the world is happening…

In those moments look past the present and look to the promise.

Fix your eyes, not on what God might or might not be doing,
But rather fix your ears on what God has said He will do.

Look to God’s revealed word.

Let’s break these 5 verses down a little further this morning.

1) ISAIAH’S CONFESSION (15)

“Truly, You are a God who hides Himself, O God of Israel, Savior!”

I love this confession of Isaiah because it gives us comfort that
We are not the only ones who may not understand what God is doing.

Isaiah is the chosen mouth-piece to announce God’s plan
And here even he confesses that he doesn’t have a clue.

“You are a God who hides Himself”

You don’t always make Your plans or purposes known.

And how many of the righteous saints throughout Scripture would join in with Isaiah and say, “Amen!”

After the children of Israel built the golden calf and God declared that He would destroy them:
Moses asked:
Exodus 32:11 “Then Moses entreated the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does Your anger burn against Your people whom You have brought out from the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand?”

Later when the people were weeping because they wanted meat:
Moses again asked:
Numbers 11:10-12 “Now Moses heard the people weeping throughout their families, each man at the doorway of his tent; and the anger of the LORD was kindled greatly, and Moses was displeased. So Moses said to the LORD, “Why have You been so hard on Your servant? And why have I not found favor in Your sight, that You have laid the burden of all this people on me? “Was it I who conceived all this people? Was it I who brought them forth, that You should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom as a nurse carries a nursing infant, to the land which You swore to their fathers’?”

When Joshua led the people into the Promised Land but they suffered a defeat at the hands of Ai:
Joshua asked:
Joshua 7:6-7 “Then Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the earth on his face before the ark of the LORD until the evening, both he and the elders of Israel; and they put dust on their heads. Joshua said, “Alas, O Lord GOD, why did You ever bring this people over the Jordan, only to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? If only we had been willing to dwell beyond the Jordan!”

Job asked:
Job 7:20 “Have I sinned? What have I done to You, O watcher of men? Why have You set me as Your target, So that I am a burden to myself?

David asked:
Psalms 10:1 “Why do You stand afar off, O LORD? Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?”

Asaph:
Psalms 74:1 “O God, why have You rejected us forever? Why does Your anger smoke against the sheep of Your pasture?”

Jeremiah:
Jeremiah 12:1 “Righteous are You, O LORD, that I would plead my case with You; Indeed I would discuss matters of justice with You: Why has the way of the wicked prospered? Why are all those who deal in treachery at ease?”

Jeremiah 15:18 “Why has my pain been perpetual And my wound incurable, refusing to be healed? Will You indeed be to me like a deceptive stream With water that is unreliable?”

Habakkuk:
Habakkuk 1:3 “Why do You make me see iniquity, And cause me to look on wickedness? Yes, destruction and violence are before me; Strife exists and contention arises.”

The sisters of Lazarus:
John 11:21 “Martha then said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died.”

The disciples:
Mark 4:37-38 “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?”

I think you get the idea.
• It’s NOT a matter of being smart enough to discern what is going on…
• It’s NOT a matter of some men being more holy and just able to grasp the behavior of God…

It is a matter that God “hides Himself”.
He doesn’t always give all the info and as God He is not obligated too.

If you admit that you also don’t understand what God is doing,
That puts you in good company.

ISAIAH has now come to that conclusion as well.

Moses taught us this early on:
Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

There are things you’re meant to know
And things you’re not meant to know.
God isn’t obligated or motivated to tell you everything.

Here Isaiah consents to that.

2) ISAIAH’S CONVICTION (16-17)

“They will be put to shame and even humiliated, all of them; The manufacturers of idols will go away together in humiliation. Israel has been saved by the LORD With an everlasting salvation; You will not be put to shame or humiliated To all eternity.”

After confessing that God is doing things which he does not understand,
ISAIAH DOES REVEAL WHAT HE IS CONVINCED OF.

He doesn’t know what God is doing, but he does seem to know this.
1. At the end of the day, every false god will be proven false.
2. At the end of the day, every idolator will be covered in shame.
3. At the end of the day, Israel will be saved and her salvation will never fail.

THIS IS ISAIAH’S CONVICTION.

NOW FIRST I JUST WANT YOU TO SEE THAT.

Isaiah believes that the only people who will end up being saved
Are the people who trust in God.

AND Isaiah believes that their salvation is secure.

“Israel has been saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation;”

That is a great statement.

But before we unpack the full reality of what that means…
We have to ask HOW DOES ISAIAH KNOW THAT?

• If God works in mysterious ways…
• If God indeed is One who hides Himself…
• Then how could Isaiah possibly know what God will or won’t do in regard to Israel?

• If God is consistently at work in ways we don’t understand,
• If God is not compelled to always tell us what He is doing,
• Then how can we be convinced of anything?

How can you know God will save Israel?
How can you know that salvation is everlasting?

You just finished telling us that God doesn’t tell you everything,
And then you jump into this definitive statement
Of Israel’s guaranteed and eternal salvation.

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

3) ISAIAH’S CONFIDENCE (18-19)

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “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.”

Isaiah wastes no time explaining to you
• Why he may be uncertain about what God is currently doing,
• But is totally convinced that it will end up with the eternal salvation of Israel.

Why is he so confident?
“For thus says the LORD…”

God hasn’t told Isaiah everything,
But what God has told him can be counted on with 100% certainty.

Isaiah first reminds that God is the Creator of all things.

But in that he also reminds you
Something of the heart of God as revealed in creation.

“He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.”

THAT IS INTERESTING.

You may remember what we studied in Genesis.
Genesis 1:1-2 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.”

• Moses taught us that “the earth was formless and void”
• The Hebrew words are TOHU “formless” and BOHU “void”

But God did not leave it like that, though He could have.
• Instead God shaped into a world to be inhabited.
• And then God created man with Him He might fellowship and placed Him on it.

Isaiah knows that God desires fellowship with humanity.
Creation alone proves that.

AND ISAIAH KNOWS THAT
Regardless of what God does on this earth,
God will have fellowship with those whom He has chosen to redeem.

How does Isaiah know that?

“I am the LORD, and there is none else. 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 OTHER WORDS:
God may not have told us everything, but what He did tell us, He was crystal clear about.

“I have not spoken in secret…”

• God did not say “Seek Me in a waste place”
• That is a little misleading, it can also be translated, “SEEK ME IN VAIN”

THAT IS TO SAY, when God chose to reveal Himself or His plan
HE DID JUST THAT.
When God told us to seek Him, He promised that He was findable.

“I, the LORD speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.”
THAT IS TO SAY, “When I speak, I make it known.”

GOD DOESN’T STUTTER.
He doesn’t tell us everything,
But what He does tell us comes to us in clarity and truth.

Deuteronomy 29:29 “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law.”

AND THIS IS WHY, even though Isaiah doesn’t know everything God is doing, he does know God is saving Israel.

WHY?
BECAUSE GOD HAS SAID SO.

Isaiah 40:10-11 “Behold, the Lord GOD will come with might, With His arm ruling for Him. Behold, His reward is with Him And His recompense before Him. Like a shepherd He will tend His flock, In His arm He will gather the lambs And carry them in His bosom; He will gently lead the nursing ewes.”

Isaiah 41:8-14 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its remotest parts And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you. ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ “Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. “You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. “For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”

Isaiah 43:1-7 “But now, thus says the LORD, your Creator, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel, “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! “When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, Nor will the flame burn you. “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. “Since you are precious in My sight, Since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. “Do not fear, for I am with you; I will bring your offspring from the east, And gather you from the west. “I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ And to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from afar And My daughters from the ends of the earth, Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made.”

Isaiah 44:1-5 “But now listen, O Jacob, My servant, And Israel, whom I have chosen: Thus says the LORD who made you And formed you from the womb, who will help you, ‘Do not fear, O Jacob My servant; And you Jeshurun whom I have chosen. ‘For I will pour out water on the thirsty land And streams on the dry ground; I will pour out My Spirit on your offspring And My blessing on your descendants; And they will spring up among the grass Like poplars by streams of water.’ “This one will say, ‘I am the LORD’S’; And that one will call on the name of Jacob; And another will write on his hand, ‘Belonging to the LORD,’ And will name Israel’s name with honor.”

HE HAS MADE IT CLEAR HASN’T HE?

That is why Isaiah knows (17) “Israel has been saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; You will not be put to shame or humiliated to all eternity.”

And what a COMFORT and REMINDER this is to God’s people.

I will agree, it is hard to understand why God would use a Cyrus.
• It is hard to understand God’s purposes in such things.

• It is hard to understand why God would allow Joe Biden to be president.
• It is hard to understand why neither option is very morally or spiritually appealing.

• It is hard to understand why persecution and hardship and suffering and all other calamities occur on the earth.

• It is hard to explain tragedy and loss and the unbridled rise of immorality and depravity in our land.

• It is hard to understand our own suffering and hardships and why it feels like God isn’t doing anything to fix it.

This life is full of confusing and mysterious things God is doing.

And sometimes it seems like the more we want answers
The more He hides Himself from us.

HE’S JUST NOT INTENT on explaining everything to us.

BUT WHAT HE HAS EXPLAINED…
• What He has made crystal clear…
• What we can hold our hat on every single day…

Is that God is saving His people and saving them forever.

Romans 8:28-32 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren; and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?”

We don’t know everything, but we do know that
Because God has revealed that in His word.
• We don’t have to wonder if God is still saving us.
• We don’t have to wonder if God will save us forever.

John 5:24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, he who hears My word, and believes Him who sent Me, has eternal life, and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.”

John 6:38-40 “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”

John 10:27-29 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me; and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.”

We know the plan, He made it clear.
We know why salvation is secure.

Romans 5:8-10 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”

That speaks to the power of Christ’s resurrected life.
Well what is Christ doing in His resurrected life that will effect the security of our salvation?

Hebrews 7:23-25 “The former priests, on the one hand, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, but Jesus, on the other hand, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. Therefore He is able also to save forever those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.”

Romans 8:34 “who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us.”

God is saving us and saving us forever.
Christ is interceding for us to save us forever.

We have been saved.
We are being saved.
We will be saved.
We don’t know everything, but we do know that.

Paul was in the Mamertine prison awaiting execution and he wrote:
2 Timothy 4:18 “The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed, and will bring me safely to His heavenly kingdom; to Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”

The Thessalonians were paranoid about the coming persecution and day of the Lord and Paul reminded:
1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 “For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. Therefore encourage one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.”

I HOPE YOU GET THE POINT.

In this life you are going to face a lot of circumstances
That you may not understand.

AND IN THOSE MOMENTS
You are simply going to have to submit to the fact that God is God and you are not.

• Sometimes He works in ways that we cannot comprehend.
• And you are going to have to resign yourself to honoring Him as God
regardless of your confusion.

• You will have to resist the temptation to question Him or argue with Him are
grumble about what He is doing,
• And instead choose to trust His sovereign power and His goodness.

But it is not as though God has left us totally in the dark.

WE DO KNOW THE END

Revelation 21:1-7 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

We may not recognize the road God is taking
But we do know the destination.

And in those times of chaos and confusion hang your hat on that.
Set your gaze upon His promises.

When Martha was confused because Jesus was late, He said:
John 11:40 “Jesus said to her, “Did I not say to you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

When the disciples were grieved because Jesus was leaving:
John 14:1-3 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

Even those men on the road to Emaus who were defeated because Jesus was dead.
Luke 24:25 “And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!”

CLING TO WHAT GOD HAS REVEALED

Romans 15:4 “For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Don’t focus on what you don’t understand, focus on what you do.

That God has promised that all those who believe in Jesus Christ
Are being saved and they are being saved forever.

I DON’T KNOW HOW
• Biden or Trump
• COVID
• Inflation
• Iran bombing Israel
• any other thing
Fits into the eternal plan of God,

But I do know the eternal plan of God is to save me and save me forever.
THAT HE IS SPECIFICALLY PROMISED

Rest in that church!

download here

He Is God – part 2
Isaiah 44:24 – 45:25 (45:8-14)
April 7, 2024

This morning we had to leave off in our discussion rather abruptly,
So I’m glad you’ve come back tonight to dive back into this with me.

We are looking at a passage of Scripture were
The overwhelming point is that God is God and there is no other.

God specifically says that 7 times in chapter 45 alone.

It is a call for men to acknowledge that He is God and we are not.

Now in order to make this point,
God has given a revelation of exactly how He has been at work in the world.

We started looking at the first point:
#1 GOD’S MYSTERIOUS WAYS
Isaiah 44:24 – 45:8

I won’t rehash it a lot, but you will remember that at the end of chapter 44 God revealed that He is sovereign over all events.

• If a man’s word stands it’s because God caused it to stand.
• If a man’s word fails it’s because God caused it to fail.

All events are orchestrated by Him.
He can do whatever He wants.

And we saw that He what He is planning to do is clear:
1) JUDAH WILL RETURN (26b)
2) A WILL BE REVEALED (27)
3) A PAGAN WILL RISE (28)

God is going to restore Israel to her land by supernatural means
And He is going to use a pagan king to do it.

That might have been shocking enough,
But what was even more shocking was the way God spoke about this pagan king.

In Isaiah 45:1 God called Cyrus “His anointed”
• It is the Hebrew word for messiah.
• It is the Greek word for christ.

God reveals that He is the One behind the conquest of Cyrus.

THIS IS SHOCKING to those who hear it because Cyrus is a pagan.

And that is when God dropped a shocking statement on us,
Which we want to get back to tonight.

(7) “The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

WE MENTIONED HOW

Men typically like to divide all events into two camps; good things and bad things.
• And they like to attribute everything they perceive as good to God
• And they like to attribute everything they perceive as bad to the devil.

And that seems like a good theology as it preserves God’s reputation from having anything bad assigned to Him.

The problem is it leaves us with no real answer for the existence of evil.

Many an atheist has liked to say that the presence of evil
Proves that God cannot be both good and all powerful.

When we run across a verse like Isaiah 45:7
Where God says He ordains light & darkness, well-being & calamity
One might think that the atheist had it right.

They would say, “Aha! See, He might be all powerful but He is not all good. A good God would never ordain darkness or calamity.”

That issue is the dilemma that we are currently wrestling with
As we strive to learn more about God.

First, let me reassure of the goodness of God.
Mark 10:18 “And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good except God alone.”

Psalms 84:11 “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; The LORD gives grace and glory; No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly.”

1 Timothy 4:4 “For everything created by God is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with gratitude;”

James 1:17 “Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.”

Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

• God is the epitome of what is good.
• God is the example of what is good.
• God is the giver of what is good.
• God is the promiser of all that is good.

Matthew 7:11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!”

GOD IS GOOD.

BUT WHERE WE MAKE OUR MISTAKE
Is in assuming then that God has no part in the expression of bad things.

And yet here God says that He does.
He forms darkness, He causes calamity.

“I am the LORD who does all these.”

And so God now is taking ownership of the circumstances of the day.
• This would include Israel’s being conquered.
• This would include their slavery in Babylon.
• This would include the rise of Cyrus.
• This would include his conquering of nations and approaching Babylon.

And the simple point we are making is that
You cannot excuse God from any circumstance that occurs on earth.

You cannot act as though anything is happening independently of Him.

GOD IS NOT LIKE A MYTHICAL SUPER HERO
Who is just flying around trying to undo evil effects on the world,
But who can’t get to all of them
And so sometimes bad things still happen.

NO, GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL OF IT.

We marvel that God delivered Israel from Egypt,
But must remember it was God who sent them to Egypt to begin with.

He even told Abraham many years before:
Genesis 15:13 “God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years.”

We marvel that God delivered Israel from the hand of Babylon,
But we must remember it was God who sent them there as well.

And if you want to really ask questions that blow the mind,
“How did Satan even get into the garden?”

It is because God ordained it to be so.

As we said this morning, this DOES NOT MEAN
That God commits evil or causes evil or delights in evil. He does not.

But we do see that God ordains the existence of evil
And that God even uses it for His purposes and His glory.

Now, before we go any further down that trail,
It is also important for you to understand THE END which God has ordained.

For while God does currently cause calamity and use evil
We are NOT left in limbo regarding His will, His plan,
Or the end which He has ordained.

The end is made clear to us.
(8) “Drip down, O heavens, from above, And let the clouds pour down righteousness; Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit, And righteousness spring up with it. I, the LORD, have created it.”

We know where this is headed.
• Evil doesn’t win.
• Evil doesn’t exist forever.

• The end result is a righteous earth.
• The end result is a creation free from the presence of all evil.
• The end result is fruitful salvation.

God will ultimately bring this about.

But He currently ordains the evil and the good for His purposes.

So let’s stop and swallow that for a moment.

Does God have that right?
Can God do whatever He wants however He wants?

See if you stop and say, “That’s not right!” or “God shouldn’t do that!”

Then you have forgotten the first fundamental.
HE – IS – GOD

Take a lesson from Job
Who, in the midst of his affliction, began to question God’s will and decision making in allowing his affliction.
God then answered Job that he was way out of line and questioning things he ought not question.

Take a lesson from Elijah who ran to the mountain of God to basically tell God He had made a massive mistake.
God then answered Elijah that he was relieved of duty and his replacement would be taking over.

Take a lesson from Peter who pulled Jesus aside to tell him that his plan of the cross was reckless and foolish.
Jesus then answered him that he was doing the work of Satan and needed step back.

AND HERE IS THAT FIRST POINT:
GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS.

You will never understand why God does all that He does.
You will never understand how God does all that He does.

And He does not approach you to get your approval first.
• He brings good and He brings calamity.
• He raises up godly leaders and He raises up godless leaders.
• He brings light and He brings darkness.
• He heals and He afflicts.
• He raises up and He tears down.
• He honors one and humiliates another.
• He chooses to save one and He judges another.

And the worst problem of humanity
Is when we demand to understand why.

But He owes us no explanation.
• We are not deserving of a reason.

We just know that God is sovereign over everything
Whether we understand it or not.

Can you accept that?
Can you submit to that?
If you can’t you’re going to be in a world of hurt.

Drop the notions of fairness.
Drop your definitions of right and wrong.
Drop your expectations of what should happen.

You aren’t here in an advisory position,
You are here to submit to the One who is God.

Can you swallow that?
Can you submit to that?

God works in mysterious ways.
And that includes raising up a pagan man, calling him a messiah,
And using him to deliver His people.

Now let’s move to the second point tonight.
God’s Mysterious Ways

#2 GOD’S IMPORTANT WARNING
Isaiah 45:9-14

The timing of this verse is obvious.
• Humanity does not like to trust that which they don’t understand.
• We don’t like to submit to that which offends our sense or right and wrong.

We don’t like the thought that God can ordain whatever He wants
And that He can ordain calamity in my life without an explanation.

And mankind since the beginning has been prone to revolt.
• Mankind has been prone to “balk” and cry “Foul!”
• Or the ever famous, “That’s Not Fair!”

SO GOD HAS A WARNING.

(9-10) “Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker— An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth! Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’? “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”

Talk about a loaded passage!

“Woe to the one who quarrels with his Maker”
If that is all the verse said it would be enough.

We are familiar with Isaiah’s usage of the word “Woe” by now.
• We remember him calling down woe upon himself when he saw the Lord.

That same woe is here applied to anyone
Who quarrels with the One who made Him.

God asked Job:
Job 38:1-2 “Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind and said, “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge?”

Quarreling with your maker is vile insubordination.
• It is evidence that you have no humility.
• It is evidence that you don’t know your place.

But it gets even worse.
“An earthenware vessel among the vessels of earth!”

Do you understand that?
Who is this that comes arguing with Me?

DIRT!?!
• Would this lump of dirt really come and take issue with Me?
• Would this lump of dirt really come to correct Me?

“Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’ Or the thing you are making say, ‘He has no hands’?”

Whoever heard of such a thing?
Whoever heard of a clay pot on the potters wheel screaming out that the potter didn’t have a clue what he was doing?

Isaiah 29:15-16 “Woe to those who deeply hide their plans from the LORD, And whose deeds are done in a dark place, And they say, “Who sees us?” or “Who knows us?” You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?”

It is just unthinkable arrogance and insubordination.

AND YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE.

Remember when Paul began to lay out for you the realities of election?

Romans 9:13-18 “Just as it is written, “JACOB I LOVED, BUT ESAU I HATED.” What shall we say then? There is no injustice with God, is there? May it never be! For He says to Moses, “I WILL HAVE MERCY ON WHOM I HAVE MERCY, AND I WILL HAVE COMPASSION ON WHOM I HAVE COMPASSION.” So then it does not depend on the man who wills or the man who runs, but on God who has mercy. For the Scripture says to Pharaoh, “FOR THIS VERY PURPOSE I RAISED YOU UP, TO DEMONSTRATE MY POWER IN YOU, AND THAT MY NAME MIGHT BE PROCLAIMED THROUGHOUT THE WHOLE EARTH.” So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”

Oh how men hate that passage.

They just hate to read the fact that God hated Esau.
• Poor old Esau, never did anything to God, and then God hated him.

Others go to great lengths to try and explain that this could not be what it means.
• It must mean something else.
• For it would be unjust for God to hate Esau for no reason.
(Well God had a reason, it was called the fall)

But none the less, men cry “foul!” and “that’s not fair!”

And Paul picks up on the argument.
He asks, “There is no injustice with God is there?”
• Are you really asking if God is unjust, just because you can’t understand why
He would do something?

Just because it offends your sense of justice,
That does not mean it is unjust.
Your “justometer” is way out of calibration.

But Paul answers that God is not unjust, and God does things like this all the time.

Take Pharaoh as an example.
• God raised him up and hardened his heart where he could not repent and then
crushed him for his lack of repentance.

And Paul says, “So then He has mercy on whom He desires, and He hardens whom He desires.”

Do you see that?
“The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

GOD DOES THIS.

But how does man respond?
They quarrel.

Romans 9:19-21 “You will say to me then, “Why does He still find fault? For who resists His will?” On the contrary, who are you, O man, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it? Or does not the potter have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one vessel for honorable use and another for common use?”

There you have it!
If God hardens a man then God does not have the right to judge him for being hard.

Really?
Who are you to tell God what He does and doesn’t have a right to do?

Do you see the issue?
It’s all about you knowing your place
And coming into submission under God’s authority.

Stop acting like God owes you an explanation.
Stop acting like God has to run His edicts past you for approval.
HE – IS – GOD

YOU KNOW MY DAD WAS A HORSE TRADER.
He was definitely not a horse whisperer.
But we trained hundreds of horses over the years.

And his training method was very simple – teach that horse submission.
• Some horses were gentle by nature.
• Some horses were rank by nature.
• Dad didn’t care.

Either way, at the end of a day he wanted a horse that was “broke”.

So the method was – find something the horse doesn’t want to do and make him do it. Then make him do it again.

And if that horse fights relentlessly and won’t do it, then you get in the loading shoot for a come to Jesus meeting where dad would say, “That horse needs his attention got.” And granted some of those methods could be a little unorthodox.

I saw him punch horses in the nose, kick them in the belly,
And even pull a pipe gate around to hit them in the nose.

And I know, any animal activist friends are cringing as they listen to this.
• “That’s not fair!”
• “That’s just wrong!”

And if my dad wasn’t already in heaven there might be some
That would like go after him for doing some of those things.

Now, since my dad was a man,
Another man has every right to question his methods.

But do you want to know who didn’t get to question his methods?
The horse.

Dad lived with a fundamental belief
• That he was sovereign over that horse.
• That horse was there to serve and submit and do what it was told,
• And even if his methods seemed unorthodox to the horse it didn’t matter.
• He was the man, the horse was the horse.

Now listen, this cuts to the heart of
The major problem plaguing so much of Christianity today.

We think God is somehow obligated
To operate by our standard of “should” and “shouldn’t”.

We want God to act in such a way
That we can logically defend Him to a skeptical world.

BUT GOD ISN’T TRYING TO PROVE HIMSELF TO A SKEPTICAL WORLD.
He is not trying to convince you.
He is commanding you to bow to Him.

HE – IS – GOD
And He owes you no explanation.

No potter ever has to argue with he clay regarding the purpose for which he will use it.

Jeremiah 18:1-6 “The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, “Arise and go down to the potter’s house, and there I will announce My words to you.” Then I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel. But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make. Then the word of the LORD came to me saying, “Can I not, O house of Israel, deal with you as this potter does?” declares the LORD. “Behold, like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand, O house of Israel.”

DO YOU GET THE POINT?
Learn your place.

This is part of what God is teaching Israel
By revealing His usage of Cyrus.

He is doing something they don’t understand
Simply for the purpose of teaching them
That as God He can do whatever He wants.

God continues…
(10) “Woe to him who says to a father, ‘What are you begetting?’ Or to a woman, ‘To what are you giving birth?’”

Now we have
• An infant being born, and as soon as it comes out of the womb it looks at the father and says, “What were you thinking?”
• And then it looks to the mother and says, “You have no idea what you are doing!”

And do we not have people arrogantly ask God,
“Why did You make me like this?”

As though God made some kind of mistake
When he knit you together in your mother’s womb.

“Well, it’s not fair that I should be short, or fat, or slow, or shy, or bald, or black, or white, or Hispanic, or…” whatever.

And God would look at you and say,
• “Do you remember when I asked you what you wanted to look like?”
• “Do you remember when I asked when you wanted to be born?”
• “Do you remember when I asked if you wanted to be male or female?”

Exactly!
I didn’t!

God made you as it pleased Him to make.
He made you for His purposes and for His glory.

And in Romans 9 Paul says
That some were made for to glorify God through their salvation
And others were made to glorify God through their destruction.

And if you cry, “That’s not fair!”
THEN GO READ VERSES 9 AND 10 AGAIN.

HE – IS – GOD!

He defines what fair is.
He defines what good is.
He is not on trial before you and He never will be.

You had better learn your place.
• This is the very beginning of what it means to have a “fear of the LORD”
• This is the very beginning of humility

It is unthinkable that the dirt would argue with God.
It is unthinkable that the created would argue with the Creator.

So before you go to complaining
Let God just stop and give you a warning real quick…DON’T.

JUST ASK JOB.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?
HOW CAN WE RESPOND?

(11-12) “Thus says the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: “Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons, And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands. “It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained all their host.”

• You cannot quarrel with God.
• You cannot question God.
• You cannot argue with Him.

BUT WHAT CAN YOU DO?
“Ask Me about the things to come concerning My sons…”

Don’t question His authority or His motives,
BUT YOU CAN ASK HIM WHAT HE IS DOING.

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call to Me and I will answer you, and I will tell you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”

God is not interesting in explaining His decision making process to you or why He uses the methods He is using,
But He will gladly reveal to you the plan He has for His sons.

SO ASK HIM.
Not “Why?”, but “What?”

God, what is Your will for Your children in this?
God, what would You have us do in this circumstance?

Feel free to ask, just maintain submissive reverence when you do.

“And you shall commit to Me the work of My hands.”

In other words, “You can ask Me, but acknowledge My work when you do.”
• Come to Me in reverence and humility.
• Come to Me in submission and faith.
• Acknowledge that I am at work
• That I am working according to My perfect wisdom,
• And then you can ask Me what I am doing.

And again we are reminded of our place and His place.
“It is I who made the earth, and created man upon it. I stretched out the heavens with My hands And I ordained their host.”

• Don’t get too big for your britches.
• Don’t forget who you are and who I am.
• You may approach Me but remember who I am.

And here God determines to go ahead and answer
The question that is on their mind.

The question is: WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH CYRUS?

And here is God’s answer:
(13) “I have aroused him in righteousness And I will make all his ways smooth; He will build My city and will let My exiles go free, Without any payment or reward,” says the LORD of hosts.”

God says that “I have aroused him in righteousness”

It DOES NOT mean that Cyrus was righteous
Or that he even had righteous motives.

It MEANS that all that God is doing through him is righteous.

God will cause him to send Israel home, rebuild their city,
And he will do it absolutely free of charge.

Are you serious?
• Nobody does anything free of charge.
• Nobody does something for nothing.
• Especially not a pagan.

Well he will.

(14) “Thus says the LORD, “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush And the Sabeans, men of stature, Will come over to you and will be yours; They will walk behind you, they will come over in chains And will bow down to you; They will make supplication to you: ‘Surely, God is with you, and there is none else, No other God.’”

God says that it will basically be the Egyptians and the Ethiopians and the Sabeans who will pay for the city and the temple to be rebuilt.

Ezra 1:1-4 “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he sent a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and also put it in writing, saying: “Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, ‘The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and He has appointed me to build Him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. ‘Whoever there is among you of all His people, may his God be with him! Let him go up to Jerusalem which is in Judah and rebuild the house of the LORD, the God of Israel; He is the God who is in Jerusalem. ‘Every survivor, at whatever place he may live, let the men of that place support him with silver and gold, with goods and cattle, together with a freewill offering for the house of God which is in Jerusalem.’”

That is a great command, but who is going to pay for it?

Ezra 6:3 “In the first year of King Cyrus, Cyrus the king issued a decree: ‘Concerning the house of God at Jerusalem, let the temple, the place where sacrifices are offered, be rebuilt and let its foundations be retained, its height being 60 cubits and its width 60 cubits; with three layers of huge stones and one layer of timbers. And let the cost be paid from the royal treasury.”

Not only did Cyrus give them permission to go home and rebuild, he paid for it out of the royal treasury.

Do you know whose money was in that royal treasury?
It was the spoil of Egypt, Ethiopia, and the Sabeans.

What you have here is God revealing that
He is in total control of the situation.

AND THAT INCLUDES A LOOK TO THE FUTURE
When Egyptians and Ethiopians and Sabeans
Will all come to Israel to make supplication to them.

This is has not yet happened, but it will.
Zechariah 8:23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

SO WHAT IS GOD DOING?

The answer is, He is saving Israel
And He is doing it in such a way that all men will know
That He alone is God.

How else can you explain
• A pagan conqueror
• Giving up his slaves,
• Sending them home,
• Rebuilding their capitol and their temple,
• And paying for it?

You can’t.

And now we realize that if we ever did question what God was doing,
WE SHOULDN’T HAVE.

He knew exactly what He was doing.
He always does.

He has never asked us to understand what He is doing,
He has asked us to trust what He is doing.

It is that simple lesson that must be learned.
HE – IS – GOD and we are not.

AND HOW APPLICABLE THIS IS EVEN TO OUR WORLD RIGHT NOW.
It is crazy out there.

We are scheduled to have an election in November.
• We have a vile immoral man in office
• Running against a man who has proven to be a pagan his entire life.

• One makes no bones about opposing Christianity.
• The other gives lip service to Christianity but some of his decisions and
behavior make us very skeptical.

I told someone the other day that
“If everything I read on the internet about Donald Trump is true then he might be the anti-christ. And my other option is Joe Biden who is definitely anti Christ.”

But what if I told you that Joe Biden is president by God’s doing?
Regardless of what happens in November, that will be God’s doing too?

HOW DO I KNOW?
Because He is sovereign over all things.

SO HOW DO WE RESPOND?
We don’t argue with God, we don’t question God, we submit to God.

AND WE DO SO WITH THE CONFIDENCE
That God has already revealed that He will save His people.

We know where it is all headed.
We know how it ends.

But it just may be that THE LESSON of the day is that we learn.
HE – IS – GOD

I want to close tonight with a very fitting Psalm.
TURN TO: PSALMS 46

And there it is.
• You may not understand all the chaos.
• You may not understand the hardship.
• But rest assured God has not abandoned His people.

So, “Cease striving and know that I am God”