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A Message For The Nations
Isaiah 49:1-7
May 5, 2024

If you were with us last Sunday night you know that
We have made a major shift in the message of Isaiah.

Isaiah spent 9 chapters talking to us
About how God was going to deliver His people out of Babylon.
• We learned that God had raised up Cyrus
• Cyrus would free God’s people, send them home, and rebuild their temple without cost.
• We learned all about how God had redeemed them and they were His.

But it was last week when we encountered
That reoccurring stubbornness of the people of Israel.

For when the rubber met the road,
We found out that they didn’t want to leave Babylon.

God called them phonies.
God called them stubborn and obstinate.
God called them treacherous rebels.

And God told them that they were leaving Babylon
Whether they liked it or not.

But it was in verse 16 of chapter 48 that something remarkable happened.

In Isaiah 48:16 the second person of the God-head chimed in.

Isaiah 48:16 “Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

We know that wasn’t God the Father speaking,
• For it was “the Lord GOD” who “sent Me” the speaker says.

And it wasn’t the Holy Spirit doing the talking
• Since “the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

The only option left is Christ.
JESUS CHIMED IN.

He revealed to these refugees who were hesitating to leave
That this story was about more than just them leaving Babylon.

THIS STORY WAS PROPHETIC IN NATURE.

We already knew that Cyrus was a prophetic type of Christ.
• Both in rescuing refugees
• And in judging Babylon

Now we begin to understand that this story of the return from exile
Was also prophetic about Christ binging His salvation.

This whole story hasn’t just been a history lesson for us.
• This story has been a prophetic picture of the second Cyrus coming to save
His people from their oppressors.

And is this not what Jesus said when He came?
Luke 4:16-21 “And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. And the book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to Him. And He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “THE SPIRIT OF THE LORD IS UPON ME, BECAUSE HE ANOINTED ME TO PREACH THE GOSPEL TO THE POOR. HE HAS SENT ME TO PROCLAIM RELEASE TO THE CAPTIVES, AND RECOVERY OF SIGHT TO THE BLIND, TO SET FREE THOSE WHO ARE OPPRESSED, TO PROCLAIM THE FAVORABLE YEAR OF THE LORD.” And He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”

This whole event was always about Him.
That is why God called Cyrus His “anointed”

Cyrus was a picture of Christ.
Babylon was a picture of the world.

Just as Cyrus came to deliver those slaves from Babylon,
So Christ would come to save us from an evil world.

From this point on in the book of Isaiah we are only talking about Jesus.

Isaiah is leaving the shadow behind and moving on to the substance.
It is no longer about Cyrus, it is only about Jesus Christ.

John wrote that Isaiah saw the glory of Christ.
John 12:41 “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.”

So from Isaiah 49-66 it is Christ we are going to discuss.

And it begins with an announcement of
THE GLORY AND SCOPE OF HIS SALVATION.

There are 5 points we want to see about Christ in our text this morning.
#1 HE WAS CALLED
Isaiah 49:1

“Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.”

The recipient of this first announcement is clear,
Even if it is a little surprising.

When Christ starts describing His ministry through Isaiah,
He does so by addressing an audience that we did not expect.

Christ does not begin by addressing Israel.
He begins by addressing the “islands”
Whom He calls “you peoples from afar”.

• He begins by addressing Gentiles.
• He begins by addressing the nations.

The reason will become clear as we study through these final 18 chapters,
It is because Christ is speaking from the vantage point of the end.

These 18 chapters will include events like:
• Christ’s coming and incarnation.
• Christ’s rejection and crucifixion.
• God’s hardening and breaking off of Israel.
• Christ’s call to Israel to repent and return.
• God opening Israel’s eyes to return to the Christ they rejected.
• The ultimate millennial glory of Christ’s reign once Israel returns.

We are listening to a Christ
Who could very well be speaking from our day.

You will see that as He speaks
• He already speaks of having come and having been rejected by Israel.
• He will speak to Israel about their current state of rebellion and their need to
repent and return.

JESUS COULD BE PREACHING TODAY.

That makes these final 18 chapters very interesting to me.

Isaiah wrote it 2700 years ago,
But from the vantage point of an eternal Christ who is not bound in time,
It could be the message of today.

THAT MAKES ME WANT TO KNOW IT EVEN MORE!

Christ is speaking to the nations (the Gentiles) here
Because today, that is who is being saved.

ISRAEL HAS REJECTED HIM
And they live under a state of stupor which God poured upon them.

And here is Christ’s message to the Gentile world.
Here is Christ prophesying about Himself to the nations.

“Listen to Me, O islands, And pay attention, you peoples from afar. The LORD called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.”

THE MESSAGE IS CLEAR.
I am the LORD’S called and appointed Savior.

Jesus says that God “called Me from the womb; From the body of My mother He named Me.”

When John told us about Christ, there is a word that John liked to use.

John 1:18 “No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

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.”

John liked the word “begotten”
It is a word that speaks only of sons or daughters.

It reminds us that though Christ was born of a woman,
He was in fact the Son of God.

Psalms 2:7 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You.”

Luke 1:35 “The angel answered and said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; and for that reason the holy Child shall be called the Son of God.”

It is God who begot Him.
It is God who sent Him.
It is even God who named Him.

Matthew 1:21 “She will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.”

What we have here is Christ referencing “The Incarnation”.
• That the second person of the God-head took on human flesh and entered this world as a human.
• He was sent by the Father, through a woman, and under the Law, that He might come to save His people.

And this is Christ’s announcement to the nations.
And Christ tells us to “Listen to Me” and to “pay attention”.

THIS IS IMPORTANT.
I am the One God sent.
I am the Savior God called.

You can abandon every other religion & every other savior
I am the One whom God called and sent into this world.

Luke 2:11 “for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

This is Christ testifying of Himself.
He was called by God.

#2 HE WAS CONCEALED
Isaiah 49:2-3

“He has made My mouth like a sharp sword, In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me; And He has also made Me a select arrow, He has hidden Me in His quiver. He said to Me, “You are My Servant, Israel, In Whom I will show My glory.”

You see the wording in there twice.
Christ refers to Himself as a sword,
• But says that “In the shadow of His hand He has concealed Me”

Christ refers to Himself as a select arrow
• But says, “He has hidden Me in His quiver.”

WHAT DOES ALL THAT MEAN?

Isaiah will spell it out for us in a few chapters.
Isaiah 53:1-3 “Who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him. He was despised and forsaken of men, A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; And like one from whom men hide their face He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”

He was concealed wasn’t He?
• He was hidden behind a veil of human flesh.

How many times did He work miracles and someone say, “Where did this Guy get this power? We know His parents and His siblings.”

He was God, but God concealed in human flesh.

He didn’t split the heavens in glory and come down.
He didn’t enter on a white horse with the armies of heaven.

Philippians 2:7 “but [He] emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.”

He was not easily recognizable through physical eyes.

His glory was evident, but not the way we are used to seeing it.
John 1:14, 18 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth…No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”

And we understand that.

BUT WHAT DOES THAT SWORD REFERENCE?

“He has made My mouth like a sharp sword”
“He has also made Me a select arrow”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

We know that upon His glorious return that sword will come out of His mouth
And with it He will strike down the nations,
But that’s NOT what He’s talking about here.

So what does He mean that He was “like a sharp sword” or “select arrow”?

Well listen to Jesus:
Matthew 10:34-39 “Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. “For I came to SET A MAN AGAINST HIS FATHER, AND A DAUGHTER AGAINST HER MOTHER, AND A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW AGAINST HER MOTHER-IN-LAW; and A MAN’S ENEMIES WILL BE THE MEMBERS OF HIS HOUSEHOLD. “He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. “And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

WHAT DID JESUS COME TO DO?
HE CAME TO EXPOSE.
• He came to lay the heart bear.
• He came to reveal the corruption of the heart of man.

Hebrews 4:12-13 “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do.”

The word of God is a person.
“And there is no creature hidden from His sight”

As a double-edged sword He exposed the hearts of men.

John 9:39 “And Jesus said, “For judgment I came into this world, so that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may become blind.”

John 15:20-22 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.”

Even at His birth Simeon told Mary:
Luke 2:34-35 “And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, “Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed— and a sword will pierce even your own soul—to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”

This is Christ explaining His own earthly ministry.

• I was called by God and begotten of Him in My mother’s womb.
• He concealed My glory and hid My majesty
• As He used Me as a sword to expose the hearts of men.
• I was His select arrow to pierce the heart and expose the conscience.
• I came concealed and I came to expose the hearts of men.

And you see this in the responses to Him.

Matthew 7:28-29 “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

John 4:29 “Come, see a man who told me all the things that I have done; this is not the Christ, is it?”

John 7:45-46 “The officers then came to the chief priests and Pharisees, and they said to them, “Why did you not bring Him?” The officers answered, “Never has a man spoken the way this man speaks.”

You saw that in His ministry didn’t you.

And what is Christ’s point here to the nations?
• I am the called and sent One of God.
• You might not know it by looking at Me,
• But you’d know it by listening to Me.
• I am the Savior.

Called, Concealed
#3 HE WAS CONCERNED
Isaiah 49:4

“But I said, “I have toiled in vain, I have spent My strength for nothing and vanity; Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD, And My reward with My God.”

And boy did we see this one too!

As He walked those streets of Galilee and Judea
He was absolutely covered up by crowds that wanted healing
But they wanted nothing to do with the righteousness He was preaching.

AND WE SAW HIS GRIEF.

Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

Matthew 23:37 “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling.”

This ministry in which He came to seek and to save the lost sheep of the house of Israel, appeared to have ended in utter failure.

From the Jewish perspective,
The story doesn’t end with Jesus sitting on a throne,
The story ends with Jesus hanging on a cross.

• His people who He came to save rejected Him
• And asked for Him to be crucified
• While they cried out, “We have no king but Caesar!”

It must have looked like a failure of a ministry.
Even after His resurrection and ascension
We find His followers all gathered together in the upper room
And it is a modest 120 people.

THAT DOESN’T SEEM LIKE MANY
For a man who fed the hungry by the thousands, virtually eliminated sickness, leprosy, and demon possession everywhere He went,
And preached relentlessly for 3 years.

From a human perspective it must have felt very futile.

But Christ never stopped, Scripture says He entrusted Himself to God.
“Yet surely the justice due to Me is with the LORD, And My reward with My God.”

1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”

And this sums up the ministry of Christ to His people.

He came to His own and His own rejected Him.
John 1:11 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”

And this is what the Gentiles saw as well.
• The King of Jews was crucified by the Romans.
• The Messiah of Israel was rejected as a heretic and executed.

To an outside world, to a Gentile world, it just looks like a Jewish tragedy.
To an outside world He simply looks like a failure.

But that is why Christ is preaching to Gentiles today.
That is why Christ is preaching to you today.

He is preaching that you might understand
The bigger work that was being accomplished by God.

Don’t let the rejection of Israel fool you.
This was all part of the providential plan of God.

What do you mean?

#4 HE WAS COMMISSIONED
Isaiah 49:5-6

“And now says the LORD, who formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him (For I am honored in the sight of the LORD, And My God is My strength), He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations So that My salvation may reach to the end of the earth.”

Here Jesus tells the world exactly what was going on
In the sovereign prerogative of God when Israel rejected Him.

Jesus says, “Yes, I was sent to save the Jews.”
He “formed Me from the womb to be His Servant, To bring Jacob back to Him, so that Israel might be gathered to Him.”

That is who I am.
I am Israel’s savior. (And He still is)

But notice that there was another plan involved as well.
(6) “He says, “It is too small a thing that You should be My Servant To raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved ones of Israel; I will also make You a light of the nations so that My salvation will reach to the end of the earth.”

DID YOU CATCH THAT?
According to the sovereign plan of God,
Simply saving Israel was “too small a thing”!

It was the objective of God to save “the nations”
So that His “salvation will reach to the end of the earth.”

It was too small to simply be the Savior of Israel.
It is God’s plan to be the Savior of the World.

Well how did Israel rejecting Christ work into that plan?

Listen to what Paul says about Israel’s rejection:
Romans 11:11 “I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.”

Paul says that God is using their transgression.
Paul says that God is using their rejection of the Messiah.

HOW?
“by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles”

Later in verse 12 Paul says:
Romans 11:12 “… their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles…”

To further understand this, all one has to do is read the book of Acts.

Paul’s ministry in particular reveals this issue over and over.
• He goes to a city
• Enters the synagogue
• Preaches the gospel
• Gets rejected
• And says from now on I’m going to the Gentiles.

To the blaspheming Jews in Pisidian Antioch
Acts 13:46 “Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”

To the blaspheming Jews in Corinth:
Acts 18:6 “But when they resisted and blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.”

To the blaspheming Jews in Rome:
Acts 28:28 “Therefore let it be known to you that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will also listen.”

It was the Jewish rejection of Christ
That led to gospel being taken to the Gentiles.
“by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles.”

And so we learn about the coming of Christ
That what may have initially looked like a failure…WASN’T!

God used the rejection of Israel to drive the gospel to the nations.

And this was always the plan!
Isaiah 9:1-3 “But there will be no more gloom for her who was in anguish; in earlier times He treated the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali with contempt, but later on He shall make it glorious, by the way of the sea, on the other side of Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles. The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil.”

It was always the plan that Christ would be the light of the world
Even for Gentiles.

It was always the plan that every nation tribe and tongue
Would be gathered around His throne in glory.

And part of the wisdom of this plan was that Israel would reject her King, be broken off, and Gentiles would be grafted in.

That DOES NOT MEAN it’s over for Israel, we’ll see that tonight.
Nor should Gentiles get some sort of inflated ego of our own importance.

Romans 11:17-18 “But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.”

And again later:
Romans 11:23-24 “And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?”

But you see how God was using their rejection to save the nations.

He was Called, He was Concealed, He was Concerned, He was Commissioned

#5 HE WILL BE CROWNED
Isaiah 49:7

“Thus says the LORD, the Redeemer of Israel and its Holy One, To the despised One, To the One abhorred by the nation, To the Servant of rulers, “Kings will see and arise, Princes will also bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen You.”

Here is God’s promise to this Christ who came and suffered.
• Here is God’s promise to this One who subjected Himself to ridicule and shame that He might save the world.

“Kings will see and arise, Princes will bow down, Because of the LORD who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel has chosen You.”

Paul told the Philippians that “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

Every nation will bow to Jesus.
Every king will bow to Jesus.

He is not just the King of Israel,
He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

That is Christ’s announcement to the nations here.

Do you want to know what Christ would preach if He were to stand in the street today?

THIS IS IT!
• He’d tell the Gentiles that God sent Him into the world as a Savior.
• He’d tell the Gentiles that He was rejected by His own, but that was all part of the plan.
• He’d tell the Gentiles that He came to expose the hearts of men and call them to repentance.
• He’d tell the Gentiles that because of Jewish rejection that it is now the time for Gentiles to be saved.
• He’d tell the Gentiles that one day the whole world will bow to Him.

Look at the very next verse:
Isaiah 49:8 “Thus says the LORD, “In a favorable time I have answered You, And in a day of salvation I have helped You; And I will keep You and give You for a covenant of the people, To restore the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritages;”

Do you recognize that verse?

Paul quoted it:
2 Corinthians 6:2 “for He says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”

Paul quoted it to say today is the day to be saved.
THAT IS THE MESSAGE OF CHRIST TO THE NATIONS TODAY AS WELL!

The door is open, the time is now.
• Israel is currently in a state of God-ordained stupor and blindness.
• God has hardened their hearts and darkened their understanding.
• God has broken them off that you might be grafted in.

But this is a temporary time.
• One day very soon the pendulum will swing back,
• The fullness of the Gentiles will have come in
• And God will open the floodgate for Israel to return.

But today the message is for you.
Today the offer is for you.

Jesus extends the offer of salvation to you.

This One who was God in human flesh.
• This One who was born of a virgin and born under the Law.

He lived a righteous life that He might fulfill all of God’s righteous commands.
• He earned a righteous standing before God.

But then this Righteous One submitted Himself to death on a cross.
• On that cross He bore the full wrath of God for sins He did not commit.
• He paid the debt of all the sin of all the elect who would ever believe in Him.

Based upon His righteous life and His atoning death
He has all authority to offer you salvation.

AND THE OFFER IS THIS:
• Believe in Him.
• Confess Him as your Lord.
• And you will be saved.

Romans 10:9-10 “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; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.”

When you place your faith in Him,
God reckons that your sin is imputed to Christ and Christ bears all the punishment for the sin you committed.

When you place your faith in Him,
God reckons His righteousness to be imputed to you and you enjoy all the blessing He has earned.

But you must leave your sin and yield your life to Christ.
He is the Savior of the World.
He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

And this is what WE CELEBRATE HERE THIS MORNING
With the taking of the Lord’s Supper.

We have here two elements, the bread and the juice.

They are NOT going to turn into the body or the blood of Jesus.
• Jesus does not have to come down and enter the elements and suffer again for your sin.
• He suffered one time and that was sufficient.

These elements are symbols.
• The bread symbolizes His body in which He fulfilled the Law of God and perfectly obeyed every command.
• It was in His body that He earned the righteousness that He imputes to us who believe.

• The juice symbolizes His blood which He spilled as a payment for our sin.
• It was through His death that He satisfied God’s wrath on the sin we committed.

We eat the bread and we drink the juice as a symbolic gesture
That what Christ did, He did for me.

I needed His righteousness.
I needed His atoning death.

We do it by faith, we do it in gratitude,
And we do it as an act of worship to the One who saved us.

Even Gentiles.
Ephesians 2:11-13 “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

For us, this is a holy sacrament.

This is why we also mind how we partake.

Paul said:
1 Corinthians 11:27-32 “Therefore whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner, shall be guilty of the body and the blood of the Lord. But a man must examine himself, and in so doing he is to eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For he who eats and drinks, eats and drinks judgment to himself if he does not judge the body rightly. For this reason many among you are weak and sick, and a number sleep. But if we judged ourselves rightly, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are disciplined by the Lord so that we will not be condemned along with the world.”

We don’t make a mockery of this ordinance, we revere it.
• We do that by examining ourselves.
• We do that through a spirit of repentance.
• We do that in reverence.
• We do that in gratitude.

What we celebrate here today is life and death of Jesus Christ
And that He opened this offer of salvation up even to us.

We praise Him for saving…even me!

We will have a time of preparation and then partake of the table of the Lord.

LORD’S SUPPER

Acts 11:9-18 “But a voice from heaven answered a second time, ‘What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.’ “This happened three times, and everything was drawn back up into the sky. “And behold, at that moment three men appeared at the house in which we were staying, having been sent to me from Caesarea. “The Spirit told me to go with them without misgivings. These six brethren also went with me and we entered the man’s house. “And he reported to us how he had seen the angel standing in his house, and saying, ‘Send to Joppa and have Simon, who is also called Peter, brought here; and he will speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and all your household.’ “And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as He did upon us at the beginning. “And I remembered the word of the Lord, how He used to say, ‘John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.’ “Therefore if God gave to them the same gift as He gave to us also after believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God’s way?” When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

• Give bread to Deacons
• Deacon Prayer
• Deacons pass out bread

1 Corinthians 11:23-24 “For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus in the night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”

• Take bread

Ephesians 3:4-6 “By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Christ, which in other generations was not made known to the sons of men, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit; to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel”

• Give juice to Deacons
• Deacon Prayer
• Deacons pass out juice

1 Corinthians 11:25-26 “In the same way He took the cup also after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes.”

• Take juice

• Parting hymn

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Go Forth From Babylon – Part 2
Isaiah 48:1-22 (3-22)
April 28, 2024

We began this chapter this morning.

It is God addressing the people of Israel who are living in Babylon,
Whom He is rescuing, but we have hit a snag.

They don’t want to leave Babylon.

Now we looked at those first 2 verses this morning
Because I thought it to be an important reminder to the church.

#1 HYPOCRISY EXPOSED
Isaiah 48:1-2

We only looked here
Because it gave us a chance at some really good self-evaluation.

Here we had people who talked a good game,
• But when the “rubber met the road” they proved themselves to be nothing but shallow hypocrites.

“they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel”

That is to say
• They embrace the name “Jew” after the city Jerusalem.
• And they love to talk about their faith in God.

But on the day when God called them to exercise that faith,
Leave Babylon and return to the city they claimed to love, they balked.

It is apparent that their boast was an empty one.

God said they “swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness.”

The equivalent today would be
• Those who claim to be citizens of heaven and who profess to know Christ,
• But when the rubber meets the road they refuse to leave the world.
• They won’t forsake their possessions or comforts.
• They won’t forsake their earthly inheritance.

The reality is that they love this world and they want to keep it.

That is exactly who these Jews were
And God exposed them right off the bat.

WE FOCUSED ON THAT THIS MORNING
Because it is a reality we must deal with.
• It is a danger we must protect ourselves from.
• It is a sin we must repent of.
• It is something that sinful men need to be saved from.

We understand that.

WELL TONIGHT, we move forward in the text.
And based on the hypocrisy we saw in the first 2 verses,
The next point is not surprising.

#2 FRUSTRATION EXPRESSED
Isaiah 48:3-8

The frustration here is obviously God’s frustration.
And who can blame Him?

• He shows up to save His people with His mighty right arm
• And when He gets there He finds that they don’t really want to be saved.

• They love their sin and they want to keep it.
• They love the darkness and reject the light.

You’re obviously seeing a parallel here with the coming of Christ.

John 1:11 “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him.”

They wanted a Messiah to come and reign,
But they didn’t want one who required them to let go of the world.

We saw the frustration of Christ in His earthly ministry
And we see that same frustration from God here in Isaiah 48.

He is dealing with a people, whom He came to save,
Who don’t want to be saved.

And here God’s frustration comes pouring out.

And the point of Isaiah here is this:
GOD IS NOT SURPRISED BY YOUR HYPOCRISY,
IN FACT HE PLANNED FOR IT.

What do you mean?

God is going to talk about two ways He has worked on Israel’s behalf.
• The first is through PROPHECY
• The second is through MYSTERY

And He did both because of the sinful hypocrisy of Israel.

Let me show you.
FIRST we recognize that God worked through prophecy.
(3) “I declared the former things long ago And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them. Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.”

Let’s think about the Babylonian captivity for a moment.
• Did God speak about this long ago?
• Did God proclaim them in former days?

Listen to what God said through Moses:
Leviticus 26:27-31 “Yet if in spite of this you do not obey Me, but act with hostility against Me, then I will act with wrathful hostility against you, and I, even I, will punish you seven times for your sins. ‘Further, you will eat the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters you will eat. ‘I then will destroy your high places, and cut down your incense altars, and heap your remains on the remains of your idols, for My soul shall abhor you. ‘I will lay waste your cities as well and will make your sanctuaries desolate, and I will not smell your soothing aromas.”

God said if you don’t obey Me then I will bring judgment on your cities and make your sanctuaries desolate.

Or how about this?
Deuteronomy 28:49-50 “The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand, a nation of fierce countenance who will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young.”

God absolutely prophesied that He would send His people into exile.
Jeremiah spoke of it specifically in the days in which it occurred.

But God also prophesied that He would bring them back from the land of their oppression.

Leviticus 26:44-45 “‘Yet in spite of this, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not reject them, nor will I so abhor them as to destroy them, breaking My covenant with them; for I am the LORD their God. ‘But I will remember for them the covenant with their ancestors, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God. I am the LORD.’”

Deuteronomy 30:4 “If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back.”

So this whole Babylonian exile thing is nothing new.

And of course we could read more passages from Moses
Or read several prophecies from Jeremiah where we see these things promised.

AND THE POINT IS THAT the exile and return
Where spoken by God in prophetic fashion long before it happened.

And the immediate question we have now is:
WHY DID GOD DO THAT?
• Why did He prophesy it ahead of time?

(4) “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew And your forehead bronze.”

I told you ahead of time because you are stubborn and hard-headed.

God told Ezekiel:
Ezekiel 3:4-8 “Then He said to me, “Son of man, go to the house of Israel and speak with My words to them. “For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate. “Behold, I have made your face as hard as their faces and your forehead as hard as their foreheads.”

You are a stubborn people.

What does them being stubborn have to do with God telling them ahead of time?

(5) “Therefore I declared them to you long ago, Before they took place I proclaimed them to you, So that you would not say, ‘My idol has done them, And my graven image and my molten image have commanded them.”

God says, “I knew how stubborn and hard-headed you were. I knew that if I just delivered you, then you give credit to your idol instead of Me. So, I told you ahead of time so as to leave no doubt that it was Me who did it.”

And then God says,
NOW, WILL YOU NOT ACKNOWLEDGE IT?

(6a) “You have heard; look at all this. And you, will you not declare it?”

Will you not now admit that I am the One doing it and will you not tell everyone that this is Me!

I’m not surprised that you don’t want to leave Babylon,
You’ve always been a stubborn and hard-headed people.

I’ve known that from the beginning
That is even why I have to spell everything out to you before I do it
So that you will believe it.

You can feel God’s frustration there can’t you?

Do you wonder why God has told us so many things ahead of time?
SAME REASON.

Because as sinful human beings we are prone to credit the wrong things for what God is clearly doing.

But prophecy is not the only way God has worked with His people.
God has also employed MYSTERY.

(6b-7a) “I proclaim to you new things from this time, Even hidden things which you have not known. They are created now and not long ago; And before today you have not heard them,”

Now God is referring to the specifics of His plan;
• Namely the exaltation and commissioning of Cyrus to conquer Babylon.

God spoke long ago that He would send His people into a foreign nation and then deliver them from it.

But until recently the people did not know that
The nation was Babylon and the deliverer was Cyrus.

And as is common with God, while He does make promises for the future,
He doesn’t give us all the details ahead of time.

Here God reveals why He didn’t tell them everything until recently.

(7b) “So that you will not say, ‘Behold, I knew them.’”

This is NOT just like that “know it all teenager” response where you tell them something and they say, “I already knew that.”

This speaks more of a person
Who disdains and mocks the truth that is given.

The Hebrew word there is YADA
Ever hear the phrase “yada, yada, yada”

What God speaks of here is when He does reveal His plan
And then He has to listen to all the debate and disagreement
And pundits sit and tear that plan apart.

God says, “That’s why I don’t tell you everything early, you just argue with it.”

(8) “You have not heard, you have not known. Even from long ago your ear has not been open, Because I knew that you would deal treacherously; And you have been called a rebel from birth.”

That is to say, “If I tell you too much about My plan and you have time to think about it, then you assume you know everything and refuse My plans.”

So we have God here who knows exactly what it is like
To deal with stubborn, obstinate and treacherous people.

You tell them part of the plan ahead of time Or they won’t believe you did it,
But you can’t tell them too much of the plan because they’ll reject it.

God knows what it’s like
To deal with stubborn and treacherous people.

Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

So, when He does finally reveal His plan
To save them from Babylon and send them home through Cyrus,
He is not surprised to find that they have rejected it.

“you have been called a rebel from birth.”

God knows what it is to deal with sinful and stubborn people.

Furthermore, God knows how to save sinful and stubborn people.

This, incidentally, is what makes things like
Unconditional Election and Effective Call so important.

It’s the only way rebels will ever be saved.

So we understand the setting.
• God has sent Cyrus to save.
• Israel doesn’t want to be saved.
• God exposes their hypocrisy,
• But in frustration admits that He is not surprised by it.

And if we were God,
We might just grant their wishes and leave them in Babylon.
• You want Babylon, fine stay in Babylon.
• I’ll just judge and destroy you along with the Babylonians.
• That would certainly be just.

But it is not God.

#3 RESTRAINT EXPLAINED
Isaiah 48:9-11

God should just go ahead and judge them, but He won’t.

WHY?

(9) “For the sake of My name I delay My wrath, And for My praise I restrain it for you, In order not to cut you off.”

You certainly deserve to be left in Babylon, but I won’t.
And I won’t because My glory is at stake.

God has promised to save these people.
• God has made a covenant with them that He will not break.
• They deserve judgment, but He gave His word to their forefathers.
• God will not defile His reputation.

We remember it in Ezekiel 36 when He outlined the new covenant.

Ezekiel 36:22-23 “Therefore say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went. “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD,” declares the Lord GOD, “when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.”

Ezekiel 36:32 “I am not doing this for your sake,” declares the Lord GOD, “let it be known to you. Be ashamed and confounded for your ways, O house of Israel!”

It is like when God told Moses
After the incident of the golden calf that He was going to destroy them.
• Moses interceded that God spare them for the sake of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,
• And God spared the people.

It was for His reputation, not their merit.

God has never saved sinners because they deserve it.
God saves sinners for the glory of His name.

AND HERE IT IS TO DEFEND HIS NAME.
Instead of sending them to Babylon, God should have destroyed them,
But He made promises to them.

(10) “Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver…”
• To refine silver you pass it completely through the fire and burn it until all that is impure is gone.

God says, “I haven’t done that to you, or else none would have survived.”

“I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For My own sake, for My own sake, I will act; For how can My name be profaned? And My glory I will not give to another.”

You deserved destruction, you received sanctification.
I should have cut you off, but I made promises to your forefathers

We are continually blown away by God’s sovereign election.

Look at it here:
• I have come to save you!
• We don’t want to be saved!
• Well I’m saving you, but not because you deserve it.
• I’m saving you because I said I would, and I am no liar!

We see the same with Israel even today.
Romans 11:28-29 “From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Today we see a new rise in Anti-semitism.

The past few weeks has seen numerous college campuses embarking on segregation of Jewish students and faculty.

I’ve even seen multiple evangelicals insist that we should not stand with Israel because they are an immoral and corrupt people.
• They mention the homosexuality that runs rampant through Israel.
• They mention the hostility toward Christ that is in the nation.
• They mention their secularism and corruption.
• And they say, “Israel is pagan they are corrupt and we should not side with
them, they are not God’s people.”

And my answer would be:
WHAT ELSE IS NEW?

That’s not just who they are, that’s who they’ve always been.
And yet God made promises that He will not break.

Salvation has never been by merit.
• You proving to me that Israel is corrupt does not convince me that God won’t save them,
• It only enforces what I have always believed; namely that God will save them by pure grace.

He made promises and He will keep them.
For the glory of His name.

So you may not want to leave Babylon.
But you’re leaving.

And I for one am so thankful for this sovereign willingness of God.
I am so thankful for His effectual call.

People love to defend this so-called “Free Will of Man”.
They say things like,
• “God will never violate our free will.”
• “The Holy Spirit is a gentleman, He’ll never make you decide.”
• “Jesus is knocking, oh won’t you let Him come in.”

But Jesus said, “All that Father has given Me will come to Me.”

I am thankful He is faithful to the glory of His name.
He said He would save His people
So He will not let them stay in Babylon, but He will save them.

#4 INVITATION EXTENDED
Isaiah 48:12-16

3 times in this segment we see the command to “Listen” (12, 14, 16)

God is speaking to this stubborn people
Whom He has already determined to save
And He calls them to pay attention to what He has to say.

All three of these commands to listen revolve around:
GOD’S EFFECTUAL CALL

You see in verse 12, “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called”
• You are Mine because I called you to be.

You see in verse 13, “Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.”
• The heaven and earth exist because I called them to be.

You see in verse 15, “I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him”
• Cyrus is coming because I called him to come.

The commands here to listen
Are NOT God giving His people the option to respond or not.

This invitation is for them to get it through their heads
That He is doing this by His sovereign decree.

So you realize that you are Israel because I called you.
And you realize that creation exists because I called it.

So we see that first call to listen:
(12-13) “Listen to Me, O Jacob, even Israel whom I called; I am He, I am the first, I am also the last. Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together.”

LISTEN: My call in the past was perfectly fulfilled.
• Creation happened
• You are My people Israel.

No one could stop it.
Pay attention to what I’m saying!

Then we see that second call to listen:
(14-15) ““Assemble, all of you, and listen! Who among them has declared these things? The LORD loves him; he will carry out His good pleasure on Babylon, And His arm will be against the Chaldeans. “I, even I, have spoken; indeed I have called him, I have brought him, and He will make his ways successful.”

This is His current calling and it too will be fulfilled.

I know if you read the MacArthur study Bible
The notes say that this cannot be Cyrus, and it must be Jesus.

I’m going to disagree here.
• I’m not going to remove from this chapter the immediate application for the
people it was written to.

God is talking about Cyrus here.
Is it peculiar that God says He loves him? Yes.
• But it is peculiar that God would call him a messiah too.

God is here reiterating that, like it or not, Cyrus is the plan.

Just like creation, and just like with Israel;
God says (15) “indeed I have called him”

HE IS COMING.
• I raised him up.
• I am going to use him.
• He will carry out My plan.
• He is going to deliver you.
• He is going to send you home.
• He is going to rebuild My temple.

This is going to happen.
You need to get that through your head.
I AM NOT LETTING YOU STAY IN BABYLON.

Then we see that third call to listen:
(16) “Come near to Me, listen to this: From the first I have not spoken in secret, From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

This is the future call that is also coming.
• Here is the prophetic part.
• Here is the presence of Christ.

Verse 16 introduces us to a 3rd speaker.
“now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit”

Some believe it is just Isaiah interjecting
That He has been sent by God to deliver this message.

The translators of the NASB obviously believe it to be a reference to Christ and that is why they capitalized the word “Me” in the verse.
And I think they’ve got it right there.

From the beginning God has not tried to hide at all that
Cyrus is a prophetic type.

This is why God called him “My anointed” back in chapter 45.

All the while we have sensed that
The message is more than just a message for those refugees in Babylon.

THIS IS MESSAGE FOR ISRAEL TO LISTEN.
Not just about what God did in choosing them.
Not just about what God is doing in sending Cyrus.
But also to what God will do in sending them Jesus Christ.

“From the time it took place, I was there. And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit.”

Christ is interjecting here to Israel.
Christ is joining the call for Israel to listen.
“You can’t stay in Babylon and you can’t keep the world.”

IT’S LIKE CYRUS IS A TEST
“You must learn to follow Cyrus out of Babylon because soon you’re going to heave to follow Me out of the world.”

DO YOU UNDERSTAND THE INVITATION HERE?
1. We have people who call themselves Jews but who have no interest in returning to Jerusalem.
2. They frustrate God, but He is not surprised, they’ve been this way from the beginning.
3. They actually deserve to be destroyed, but He has determined to save them for the glory of His name.

And now He approaches them and tells them to “Listen…listen…listen”

Quit being stubborn and listen.
Quit arguing and listen.
Quit rebelling and listen.
STAYING IN BABYLON IS NOT AN OPTION.

And you’d better learn to figure this out now
Because the real Savior is coming later
And refusing Him is not an option either.

#5 SUBMISSION EXPECTED
Isaiah 48:17-22

God starts out with a reminder
Of where a lack of submission has gotten them in the past.

(17-19) “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. “If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. “Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.”

It was not a good idea, obviously.

God speaks of the reality that caused the Babylonian Exile to begin with.
• Had Israel simply obeyed Him and honored their half of the covenant then God would have blessed them.
• Instead, they landed themselves in this mess by being stubborn and rebellious.

THAT IS NEVER A GOOD IDEA.
And now we come to the present.
Now the rubber meets the road again.

(20-22) “Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.”

You can either
Submit to My plan and follow My deliverer and be at peace and enjoy My sustenance.

Or you can
Try to reject me and stay in Babylon, but there will be “no peace” with that decision.

SO CHURCH, ARE YOU UNDERSTANDING THE POINT?

Surely we understand it for them.
• They would have been crazy to resist the salvation of Cyrus in favor of destruction in Babylon.

But they were a crazy people.
• They didn’t like to trust God.
• They liked to evaluate and debate everything.
• They were slow to submit.
• They were stubborn and obstinate and treacherous and rebellious.

And such a mindset will not work.

Church, we live in Babylon.
We live in a pagan and evil world system.

We are citizens of heaven and we are waiting for a Savior
To deliver us from this place and take us home.

He is coming because God said He was coming.
Do not fall so in love with this world that you reject Him when He calls.

STAYING IN BABYLON IS NOT AN OPTION.

God is saving His people.
• Be among His people.

God is pulling His people out of the world.
• Be one of those people.

God is crucifying His people to the world and the world to them.
• Let Him!

Christ is calling people to deny themselves and follow Him, do it.

Christ is calling men to love Him more than
• Father and mother,
• Brother and sister,
• Son and daughter,
• Houses and farms and lands
• Even more than your own life.

DO IT!

He is saving you.
• Don’t question it.
• Don’t debate it.
• Don’t argue with it.
• Don’t rebel against it.

Submit to Him.
God knows what He is doing and He is doing it for His glory.

Submit to Him so that you do not find yourself destroyed
Along with the rest of Babylon.

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Go Forth From Babylon – Part 1
Isaiah 48:1-22 (1-2)
April 28, 2024

You know the backdrop of the story.
• Israel sinned against God by seeking out other gods and by shedding much innocent blood.
• As a punishment for this sin and as a means to purify them from it, God exiled them to Babylon for 70 years.
• That time is now up and God is arranging the means by which He will save them and send them home.

That plan of salvation is Cyrus of Persia.
He is A PROPHETIC TYPE OF JESUS because
He has been appointed by God to release the captives without cost.

But Cyrus is also a prophetic type of Christ’s second coming
Because Cyrus will deliver God’s people by crushing their enemies

Cyrus is being sent to reign judgment on Babylon.

As we saw last Sunday night:
Isaiah 47:5-7 “Sit silently, and go into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, For you will no longer be called The queen of kingdoms. “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. “Yet you said, ‘I will be a queen forever.’ These things you did not consider Nor remember the outcome of them.”

God is judging Babylon for the cruelty inflicted upon His people.
And He is using Cyrus to do it.

So we have in Cyrus a picture of both of Christ’s comings.
• His first coming in the rescue of prisoners.
• His second coming in the destruction of their enemy.

He is coming to save and he is coming to destroy.

BUT WE HAVE A PROBLEM
Many Jews in Babylon don’t want to go.
• As I have told you, for most of them Babylon is all they know.
• And they have grown comfortable there.
• For many of them, the thought of uprooting and heading out to the land of Israel seems like a hard, dangerous, and unworthy journey.
• They like Babylon and though they might not appreciate the slave status, they are willing to endure it just to stay there.

And chapter 48 addresses them.

The point is not hard to see.
(20) “Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.”

God’s will in the matter is clear.
• LEAVE!
• GO HOME!

You should embrace redemption,
You should leave Babylon and return to the land of promise.

THAT IS THE COMMAND.

FOR US THE APPLICATION IS OBVIOUS.

• Babylon is representative of the world and it’s evil system.
• Babylon represents the current evil generation which we must be saved from.

And we are told not to love it or cling to it or store it or trust it.

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.”

James 4:4 “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”

Even in the book of Revelation
we hear those same words from John the apostle:
Revelation 18:4-5 “I heard another voice from heaven, saying, “Come out of her, my people, so that you will not participate in her sins and receive of her plagues; for her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her iniquities.”

The very call of Jesus was that you and I would leave this world, Deny ourselves, and choose His kingdom over any worldly one.

• He called us to leave father and mother.
• He called us to leave houses and farms.
• He called us to leave treasures and security.

He called us to follow Him.
Matthew 10:39 “He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it.”

And yet, we know that this calling has proven too great a cost for many.

We actually see this tension throughout the New Testament.

Paul lamented Demas:
2 Timothy 4:10 “for Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica;”

Jesus warned us with 3 staggering words regarding the second coming:
Luke 17:32 “Remember Lot’s wife.”

We saw people who wouldn’t follow Jesus out of fear of losing this world:
John 9:20-22 “His parents answered them and said, “We know that this is our son, and that he was born blind; but how he now sees, we do not know; or who opened his eyes, we do not know. Ask him; he is of age, he will speak for himself.” His parents said this because they were afraid of the Jews; for the Jews had already agreed that if anyone confessed Him to be Christ, he was to be put out of the synagogue.”

John 12:42 “Nevertheless many even of the rulers believed in Him, but because of the Pharisees they were not confessing Him, for fear that they would be put out of the synagogue;”

Perhaps the most famous example is the Rich Young Ruler
Matthew 19:22 “But when the young man heard this statement, he went away grieving; for he was one who owned much property.”

We have seen it over and over.

ON THE OTHER HAND the genuinely redeemed
Have often times been marked by their willingness
To leave or forsake this world in order to follow Christ.

Philippians 3:7-8 “But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ. More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,”

Commenting again:
Galatians 6:14 “But may it never be that I would boast, except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.”

After the Rich Young Ruler left Jesus, Peter asked:
Matthew 19:27 “Then Peter said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?”

And of course we remember that famous epitaph of the saints of old.
Hebrews 11:13-16 “All these died in faith, without receiving the promises, but having seen them and having welcomed them from a distance, and having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own. And indeed if they had been thinking of that country from which they went out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God; for He has prepared a city for them.”

WE ARE WELL ACQUAINTED WITH THIS SUBJECT.

The very crisis of salvation is often seen
In whether a person is willing to forsake this life for the sake of the next.

That is the crisis that is here represented in this call of God.

These Jews live in Babylon and God is seeking to save them from it.

But when the rubber meets the road
We find out that they don’t really want to leave.

Jesus spoke of this type of people in John 3 when He said:
John 3:19 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil.”

It is a tragic mindset.
God is confronting that mindset morning.

So we take a look at Isaiah 48 an the call to “go forth from Babylon”
And we seek to challenge our hearts
To do what these men and women didn’t want to do.

Let’s break this chapter down into 5 points.

#1 HYPOCRISY EXPOSED
Isaiah 48:1-2

We already know that we are dealing with people who aren’t really interested in leaving Babylon and returning to the land of promise.

Can we just address the obvious fallacy in that?

We have read Genesis,
• We remember God sending Joseph into Egypt.
• We remember the famine.
• We remember Jacob eventually following Joseph into Egypt.
• And we remember that Egypt had a purpose for that nation.

But even when Jacob arrived and things were glorious and great for Jacob’s family, JACOB NEVER WAIVERED.

Genesis 47:29-31 “When the time for Israel to die drew near, he called his son Joseph and said to him, “Please, if I have found favor in your sight, place now your hand under my thigh and deal with me in kindness and faithfulness. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but when I lie down with my fathers, you shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place.” And he said, “I will do as you have said.” He said, “Swear to me.” So he swore to him. Then Israel bowed in worship at the head of the bed.”

Later we have Israel divvying up his sons inheritance
By portioning out to them the land of Canaan; a land they didn’t even own.

Over and over Jacob was making the point,
“I don’t care how good Egypt is right now, this is not our inheritance!”

God has promised us the land beyond the Jordan.
That is our land.

This was actually the great sin of Esau on the day he came in famished from hunting and wanted some of Jacob’s lentil stew.

• Jacob told Esau he’d trade it for the birthright (which was Esau’s land inheritance) and Esau did so.

Moses, who wrote Genesis, summed up the transaction like this:
Genesis 25:34 “Thus Esau despised his birthright.”

And the writer of Hebrews highlighted this great sin of Esau in his letter:
Hebrews 12:15-17 “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled; that there be no immoral or godless person like Esau, who sold his own birthright for a single meal. For you know that even afterwards, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought for it with tears.”

The writer of Hebrews called Esau godless and immoral and
Was totally dumfounded that Esau would
Sell “his own birthright for a single meal.”

Esau was a graphic picture of a man
Who forsook the promise for instant gratification.

And that was absolutely horrendous!

BUT THAT SAME PROBLEM IS WHAT WE ARE UP AGAINST HERE.

These people are willing to trade the promise
For the passing comforts of Babylon.

And they really aren’t comforts at all,
• For on one hand they are mere slaves in Babylon
• And on the other hand Babylon is about to be destroyed.

What kind of person gives up their promised inheritance from God to try and hold on to a rotten inheritance that they can’t keep?

DO YOU SEE THE PROBLEM?
THEY ARE CHOOSING THE WRONG THING.

But here is what is EVEN MORE SHOCKING about this scenario.

(1-2) “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness. “For they call themselves after the holy city And lean on the God of Israel; The LORD of hosts is His name.”

Did you catch how these people who are living in Babylon and clinging to Babylon describe themselves?

Isaiah says in verse 2, “they call themselves after the holy city”

What does that mean?
• What is the name of the holy city? Jerusalem.
• What do they call themselves? Jews

Not only that, but Isaiah says they “lean on the God of Israel”

That is their confession.

So all the while as they walk around Babylon
They are very pious about who they are.

• They live in Babylon but they call themselves Jews.
• They participate fully in Babylonian culture, but they claim to be followers of “the God of Israel.”

That’s all well and good, but on this day GOD CALLS THEIR BLUFF
And He asks them to put their money where their mouth is.

• So you are citizens of the holy city huh? That’s right!
• So you are followers of the God of Israel huh? You know it!

Great! So leave Babylon
And follow God back to the holy city that you claim to love!

And with a gulp and a gasp these bold talkers shrink back and refuse.

In just a matter of seconds we found out that
Their confession was an empty one.

We’d say that they are “full of hot air”.

Paul knew the type:
Philippians 3:17-21 “Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us. For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even weeping, that they are enemies of the cross of Christ, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who set their minds on earthly things. For our citizenship is in heaven, from which also we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will transform the body of our humble state into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

Paul spoke of people who really just love this world.
• They may claim to be Christians.
• They may say they are citizens of heaven.
• But their attraction and devotion to the world tells a different story.

They are the type of people who will actually be disappointed
When Christ comes back and they see this world destroyed.

They will be among those in the world
Who are weeping and sobbing uncontrollably as Babylon falls.

Revelation 18:19 “And they threw dust on their heads and were crying out, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had ships at sea became rich by her wealth, for in one hour she has been laid waste!’”

DO YOU SEE WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT?
• It is one thing to walk around in this world and call yourself a Christian and say you are citizen of heaven,
• But what you do on the day God calls you to forsake this world and cling to Him is a much more telling story.

Luke 17:26-33 “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. “It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed. “On that day, the one who is on the housetop and whose goods are in the house must not go down to take them out; and likewise the one who is in the field must not turn back. “Remember Lot’s wife. “Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

There will be so many, even who claimed to be citizens of heaven,
Who will prove otherwise when the Lord comes to save His own.

THAT IS THE PROBLEM WE SEE HERE.
• They glory in the name “Jew” as though they love that city Jerusalem
• And they love to wear t-shirts that say, “Trust God!”

But when God tells them to leave and go to that city, they say, “No.”

The description God gives of them in verse 1 is totally fitting.

(1) “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel And who came forth from the loins of Judah, Who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, But not in truth nor in righteousness.”

I want to flesh this one out a little bit,
Because the way God names them is totally revealing.

He starts by saying, “Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel”

Now let’s pause there for a moment.
THIS IS A TELLING TITLE.

We have studied Genesis, you are familiar with Jacob.
You know that God changed his name to Israel.

You know the story of Jacob is one of salvation and sanctification.

Jacob’s name meant “heel holder” or “supplanter”
• It spoke of his birth in which he held Esau’s heal.
• It spoke of his corruption and scheming in which he secured the birthright and the blessing.

“Jacob” is a name that speaks of one who fights for himself
And uses his wits and schemes to get what he wants,
And we saw that out of Jacob in his youth.

But you’ll remember that God sent Jacob to Laban university where Jacob was taken down a notch or two.
• Deceived about his wife
• Constantly having his wages changed
• He got out-foxed by Laban at every turn
• Until finally Jacob had to tuck tale and run

The problem was that as Jacob ran from Laban he ran right into Esau
And he wasn’t sure how to win that battle.

That is the night that God approached Jacob
God wanted Jacob to trust in Him and surrender
And to let God fight for him.

Jacob didn’t want to give up that control so God crippled Jacob
So that he could not fight and Jacob had to submit to God.
He starts out wrestling and he ends up begging.

That day God started calling him “Israel” which means “God prevails”

So God, in a sense, changed his name
From “I prevail” to “God prevails”.

We learned of a man who was worldly and self-sufficient,
Whom God broke down and changed into a man of faith.

So it is interesting here how God addresses these people.
He says, “Here this, O house of Jacob, who are named Israel.”

That is to say, “I know what you are called, I know what name you are going by, but I can tell you who you are acting like.”

You call yourself Israel, but right now, you are a Jacob.
God could confidently say, “I’ve seen this attitude before.”

AND THAT’S NOT ALL.
God continues by saying, “And who came forth form the loins of Judah”

Well there is another great reminder!

Having studied Genesis, you know who the uncontested worst son of Jacob was; it was Judah.
• It was Judah who had the idea to sell Joseph.
• It was Judah who raised sons so corrupt that God killed them.
• It was Judah who wronged his son’s widow by refusing her a husband.
• It was Judah who slept with his daughter-in-law thinking she was a harlot.

JUDAH WAS A THUG.

But, like Jacob, God did a work in Judah’s heart
To save him and even to make him the family patriarch
And from his line would come Jesus, the Messiah.

But to be called “Judah” is not a flattering title.
It is a reminder of rebellion and deceit and corruption.

And God has now dropped that title too.

You call yourself Jews.
You call yourself Israel.
You are Jacob and Judah if I’ve ever seen it before.

AND WE COULD ASK:
What do you mean we are Jacob and Judah?

(1b) You are those “who swear by the name of the LORD And invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth nor in righteousness.”

That is to say:
• You are corrupt liars, phonies, fakes, and frauds.
• You are hypocrites.

You take the name.
You swear by My name.
You claim to be Mine.
BUT YOU AREN’T!

That is a harsh indictment from God.

He is confronting these people who claim to be God’s people,
But when the day of deliverance came
And the opportunity to leave Babylon presented itself,
They rejected and proved their true colors.

Your confession and your commitment is
“not in truth nor in righteousness”

In fact, down in verse 4 God will say about them:
• “Because I know that you are obstinate, And your neck is an iron sinew
And your forehead bronze”

Down in verse 8 God will say,
• “Because I knew that you would deal very treacherously; And you have
been called a rebel from birth.”

THESE PEOPLE AREN’T WHAT THEY CLAIMED.

AND WE KNOW IT BECAUSE
When God asked them to forsake the world and to grab hold of salvation,
THEY REFUSED.

Do you see the hypocrisy in that?
Do you see the phoniness there?

CHURCH, we can’t help but do a little SELF-EVALUATION here.
We can’t help but do a little personal testing.

I really think that the church in America
Should be more diligent in testing this
Than perhaps any other church in the world.

Because unlike most of our brethren around the world
We actually possess the things of this world.

When Jesus warned the disciples that
“it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven”
I think every citizen of America should pay attention here.

There are so many things here that we are prone to love.
And so many things that we are prone to protect.

And look, I’M NOT trying to insinuate that you should have nothing.

But what is IMPORTANT TO TEST
Is where you think your real inheritance is.

We are bombarded in this country with that prosperity gospel
• Which will continually tell you to have your “best life now”
• And that God wants you to be wealthy, healthy, and happy.

But that is NOT at all what Jesus taught.
• He told us NOT to get too attached to our stuff here.
• He told us NOT to hold too tightly to worldly wealth.
• He told us NOT to put our trust in what we own.

TURN TO: Psalms 49:10-20

Do you see that all of this worldly security is nothing but a mirage?
• Just because a man gets rich and buys up a bunch of land, so what.
• What a horrible trade for eternity.

Should we revisit the rich man who used to live in luxury as compared to the poor beggar Lazarus who used to sit at his gate?
• Should we remember that in a moment that man left comfort for an eternal inheritance of torture and pain?

Should we remember the farmer who tore down his barns to build bigger ones so he could hoard all his wealth and live in ease and comfort?
• Should we remember that that very night his life was required and he never enjoyed a second of it?

Should we talk about Achan?
• Who forfeited the inheritance of the land of Promise so that he could obtain a few trinkets of treasure which God had forbidden for him to have and in the process lost his life and cost his family their lives as well?

Or let’s talk about Asaph,
• Who was momentarily carried away and captivated by the wealth of the world
• He nearly even renounced his faith in order to obtain it.

TURN TO: Psalms 73

YOU SEE THE POINT DON’T YOU.

We must to make sure that our confession is not an empty one
And that even though we like to call ourselves “Christians”
That our hearts are not secretly in love with Babylon.

Paul told Timothy:
1 Timothy 6:17-19 “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. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed.”

THAT IS CERTAINLY SOLID COUNSEL.

You may be “rich in this present world” and if you live in America,
I’m going to tell you the odds are good.

If so, the warning is clear.
• Do “not be conceited”
• Do not “fix your hope on the uncertainty of riches”
• “do good”
• “be rich in good works”
• “be generous”
• “be ready to share”

Quit focusing on your earthly treasure
And set your mind on your eternal treasure.

Do you know why none of the Jews in Babylon wanted to go to Jerusalem?
• Because all of their treasure was in Babylon.
• It would cost them greatly to leave it all behind in order to go to Jerusalem.

Jesus told us:
Luke 12:33-34 “Sell your possessions and give to charity; make yourselves money belts which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near nor moth destroys. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”

THAT IS THE ENCOURAGEMENT.

We’ve certainly got more to say in regard to these Jews in Babylon,
But it is fitting for us to take the example of their failure
And learn from it this morning.

What is your treasure?
Where is your heart?

On the day when God calls you to leave Babylon
Will your heart rejoice, or will it resist?

That is what we are dealing with.

But let me also leave you with a message of hope.

Even these Jews, whom God is frustrated with for their hypocrisy,
I want you to know that His invitation still stands.

We’ll get there tonight, but I want you to see this morning
That He has not written them off.

Look down at verses 17-22
“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, “I am the LORD your God, who teaches you to profit, Who leads you in the way you should go. “If only you had paid attention to My commandments! Then your well-being would have been like a river, And your righteousness like the waves of the sea. “Your descendants would have been like the sand, And your offspring like its grains; Their name would never be cut off or destroyed from My presence.” Go forth from Babylon! Flee from the Chaldeans! Declare with the sound of joyful shouting, proclaim this, Send it out to the end of the earth; Say, “The LORD has redeemed His servant Jacob.” They did not thirst when He led them through the deserts. He made the water flow out of the rock for them; He split the rock and the water gushed forth. “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.”

God still promises that
If they will leave this world behind and follow Him home,
That they will not thirst and they will have peace.

Church, you can trust Him.

Hebrews 13:12-14 “So, let us go out to Him outside the camp, bearing His reproach. For here we do not have a lasting city, but we are seeking the city which is to come.”

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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.