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He Is God! – part 4
Isaiah 44:24-45:25 (45:20-25)
April 14, 2024

Tonight we come one more time to Isaiah 45
Where we are learning to understand what it means
That God is God and we are not.

The backdrop to the chapter is God’s revelation
• That He has selected and raised up the pagan ruler Cyrus to be the deliverer of His people.
• God even refers to Cyrus as “His anointed”.
• It is confusing and baffling to say the least.

And it would seem the main reason God chose to reveal this truth
Is to force us to come right up against
Our understanding of His sovereign authority.

The entire chapter is filled with the reminder that He is God and there is no other.
• It is meant to remind us that we are subject to Him and not the other way around.
• It is meant to remind us to trust His sovereign control and not seek to lean on our own understanding.

What we have been looking at is 4 truths that you should know
To help you respond rightly to God
When you face confusing circumstances.

This life will often give you things you can’t explain and don’t understand,
Remembering these 4 things
Will help you rightly honor God when you face such moments.

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

This is where God actually named Cyrus and called him “His anointed”

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

Just know that God works in mysterious ways.
Do not expect Him to always do what makes sense to you.

Get used to the reality that
God’s ways are not your ways nor are God’s thoughts your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

The quicker you cross that bridge
• And submit to the fact that He is God and you are not…
• And submit to the fact that He will never answer to you, but you will answer to Him…

The sooner you’re going to rightly handle those confusing circumstances.

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

Here we learned that no matter how confused we are regarding what God is doing, that should never lead us to grumbling or quarrelling with God.

We are dirt, He is the Creator.
We are clay, He is the potter.

We do not have the right to question Him.
Instead, we should “Cease striving, and now that [He] is God.”

We should not question Him, we should trust Him.
Don’t resist God’s will, submit to it, even in your confusion.

#3 GOD’S REVEALED WORD
Isaiah 45:15-19

This we saw this morning

While God certainly does things that we do not comprehend,
That DOES NOT MEAN that we travel this world
In absolute confusion and darkness.

What we do have is GOD’S REVEALED WORD.

Concerning the things that God has chosen to reveal to us,
HE HAS DONE SO WITH UNMISTAKABLE CLARITY.

(19) “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.”

In the midst of our confusion we stick to what God has revealed to us.
Namely that He has promised to save His people
And to save them forever.

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

We may not fully understand what God is currently doing,
But we do know where it is headed.

He “causes all things to work together for good for those who love Him.”

WE CLING TO THAT.

WELL, TONIGHT WE COME TO THE FINAL POINT
We need to know when God does things we don’t understand.

And this 4th point runs very closely to the third.
This morning Isaiah told us to cling to God’s revealed word;
To trust what God has clearly spoken.

So tonight we might follow verse 19 by asking: “Such as?”

What are some of these promises of God?
(beyond the eternal salvation of His people)

What are some things that God has clearly revealed that will happen?

Let’s look at that answer tonight.
#4 GOD’S UNCHANGING WITNESS
Isaiah 45:20-25

What we mean by this is that
God has had a consistent witness since the beginning.

We haven’t always known what He is doing in every circumstance,
But regardless of our understanding,
God has been absolutely consistent about some things.

You can take these to the bank even in confusing times.
You can take these to the bank even in dark days.

Let’s break this down into 4 consistent witnesses of God.

1) HE WILL SILENCE ALL RIVALS (20-21)

“Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”

This statement almost feels like a broken record.

Here we have God…AGAIN…calling out to idols
And asking them if they have any input whatsoever
That will benefit their followers at all.

“Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old?”

You may think it’s strange that God would raise up Cyrus and anoint him as a savior, but did any other god even know that is what God was doing?

No one else even had a clue.
Those idols don’t know anything.

And how often have we seen that?

Isaiah 41:21-24 “Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says. Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place; As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome. Or announce to us what is coming; Declare the things that are going to come afterward, That we may know that you are gods; Indeed, do good or evil, that we may anxiously look about us and fear together. Behold, you are of no account, And your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.”

Isaiah 43:9 “All the nations have gathered together So that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this And proclaim to us the former things? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified, Or let them hear and say, “It is true.”

Or we remember that long story in chapter 44
• About the man who cut down the tree
• Burned half of it in the fire
• Then prayed to the other half
• All it could do was sit there or burn.

The Psalmist said:
Psalms 115:4-8 “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of man’s hands. They have mouths, but they cannot speak; They have eyes, but they cannot see; They have ears, but they cannot hear; They have noses, but they cannot smell; They have hands, but they cannot feel; They have feet, but they cannot walk; They cannot make a sound with their throat. Those who make them will become like them, Everyone who trusts in them.”

Did God not mock all the Egyptian gods through the Exodus?

Has He not eradicated all the gods that were so prevalent in the Old Testament?
• Where is Baal or Molech or Ashtaroth?

What about the New Testament:
• Where is Artimus of the Ephesians?
• Where is Zeus or Hermes?

Oh, I know today
• We deal with other false gods like Allah or Buddha or the Hindu gods,
• But their fate will be like all the rest.

GOD HAS BEEN CONSISTENT FROM THE BEGINNING.
There are no other gods and any who claim to be will not last.

And God here speaks that truth to the nations.
“Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations;”

God calls to the other pagan slaves of Babylon as if to say: “Thus far you have failed to recognize that I alone am God…but you will.”

You will see that “there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”

It has always been true.
And it always will be.

Some day ever false god will be cast aside.

Isaiah 2:17-21 “The pride of man will be humbled And the loftiness of men will be abased; And the LORD alone will be exalted in that day, But the idols will completely vanish. Men will go into caves of the rocks And into holes of the ground Before the terror of the LORD And the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble. In that day men will cast away to the moles and the bats Their idols of silver and their idols of gold, Which they made for themselves to worship, In order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs Before the terror of the LORD and the splendor of His majesty, When He arises to make the earth tremble.”

Isaiah 30:19-22 “O people in Zion, inhabitant in Jerusalem, you will weep no longer. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry; when He hears it, He will answer you. Although the Lord has given you bread of privation and water of oppression, He, your Teacher will no longer hide Himself, but your eyes will behold your Teacher. Your ears will hear a word behind you, “This is the way, walk in it,” whenever you turn to the right or to the left. And you will defile your graven images overlaid with silver, and your molten images plated with gold. You will scatter them as an impure thing, and say to them, “Be gone!”

Isaiah 31:6-7 “Return to Him from whom you have deeply defected, O sons of Israel. For in that day every man will cast away his silver idols and his gold idols, which your sinful hands have made for you as a sin.”

GOD HAS BEEN CONSISTENT.

We think even to the end.
We have read about the great harlot of Revelation.

Revelation 17:1-5 “Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the judgment of the great harlot who sits on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth committed acts of immorality, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her immorality.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast, full of blasphemous names, having seven heads and ten horns. The woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and precious stones and pearls, having in her hand a gold cup full of abominations and of the unclean things of her immorality, and on her forehead a name was written, a mystery, “BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.”

She represents all false religion.
• She started at Babel where men first tried to work their way to God and she has continued ever since.
• But God will crush her and put an end to her.

In fact, He’ll use the anti-Christ to put an end to her.
Revelation 17:16-17 “And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the harlot and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. “For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.”

And then God will put an end to the false religion of the anti-Christ.
Revelation 19:19-21 “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse, and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

And then Christ alone will be worshiped and exalted.
Revelation 20:1-4 “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time. Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.”

And God has been consistent about that too!

Zechariah 14:9 “And the LORD will be king over all the earth; in that day the LORD will be the only one, and His name the only one.”

So you may not know what God is doing.
It may seem strange that God would exalt a pagan.
You may wonder what that means.

Well I’ll tell you what it doesn’t mean,
• It doesn’t mean that Cyrus’ pagan gods are real
• And it doesn’t mean that they will win.

God has been consistent from the beginning
That only He is God
And He will absolutely silence every rival.

2) GOD WILL SAVE REPENTANT SINNERS (22)

“Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other.”

Another thing God has been totally consistent about since the beginning.
HE SAVES SINNERS.

Here He reminds those pagan fugitives of Babylon of that truth.
That if they will turn to Him, He will save them.

And: HE IS THE ONLY ONE WHO CAN.
“For I am God, and there is no other.”

How consistent is this?
How clear is this in Scripture?

From the time Adam and Eve fell in the garden
God has put Himself on display as a Savior.
• He clothed them in skins…
• He promised to crush the serpent’s head…
• He saved Noah in the ark…

And certainly the most obvious point was when God took on human flesh
HE CAME IN THE FORM OF A SAVIOR.

John 3:17 “For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.”

Matthew 9:11-13 “When the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, “Why is your Teacher eating with the tax collectors and sinners?” But when Jesus heard this, He said, “It is not those who are healthy who need a physician, but those who are sick. “But go and learn what this means: ‘I DESIRE COMPASSION, AND NOT SACRIFICE,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

Matthew 18:11 “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost.”

Matthew 20:28 “just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”

Luke 19:10 “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

John 12:47 “If anyone hears My sayings and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world.”

Paul even said:
1 Timothy 1:15 “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am foremost of all.”

And we are familiar with the promise:
Romans 10:13 “for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

How fitting and familiar it is to us to hear the words of Jesus:
Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

While we don’t know everything God is doing,
We do know that God is saving repentant sinners.

And it doesn’t matter who they are or what they’ve done.
• He saved the thief on the cross.
• He saved the tax collector in the temple.
• He saved Zaccheus
• He saved the woman at the well
• He saved the woman of ill repute in the Pharisee’s house
• He saved Mary Magdalene
• He saved Saul of Tarsus

God has never waivered here.
He’s been totally consistent on this point.
John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Acts 10:34-35 “Opening his mouth, Peter said: “I most certainly understand now that God is not one to show partiality, but in every nation the man who fears Him and does what is right is welcome to Him.”

You may not know everything God is doing.
You may not know what it all means.

But some things are clearly revealed in His word.
1. God will silence all His rivals.
2. God will save repentant sinners.

That’s really good news if you find yourself under God’s judgment.
That’s really good news if you deserve the circumstances you are in.
GOD IS A GOD WHO WILL SAVE YOU.

It has been a consistent and unchanging witness of God about Himself since the beginning.

3) GOD WILL SUBDUE EVERY ENEMY (23-24)

“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”

We’ve heard that one before haven’t we?

Philippians 2:9-11 “For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

WE KNOW THIS.
God has never waivered on this truth.

He has clearly spoken from the beginning
That His King will reign over all men and none will resist Him.

Psalms 2:7-9 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

Isaiah 9:7 “There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

Rebellion will cease.
“I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.”

It doesn’t matter if you are in heaven, on earth, or in hell below,
All will be engaged in the same activity.

All will bow to Jesus Christ.
And God has never waivered on this.
It has been His consistent witness.

“They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.”

That is to say, there is no other Savior.
Acts 4:12 “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”

Molech couldn’t save, Baal couldn’t save, Zues couldn’t save, Buddha couldn’t save…
They are all silenced and Jesus alone is glorified.

“Men will come to Him”

We see this too:
Revelation 5:8-10 “When He had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one holding a harp and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “Worthy are You to take the book and to break its seals; for You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. “You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth.”

John 6:37 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out.”

God has never stuttered about this.
He hasn’t told us everything, but this He has been clear on.

And:
“all who were angry at Him will be put to shame.”

Jesus said it:
John 7:32-36 “The Pharisees heard the crowd muttering these things about Him, and the chief priests and the Pharisees sent officers to seize Him. Therefore Jesus said, “For a little while longer I am with you, then I go to Him who sent Me. “You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come.” The Jews then said to one another, “Where does this man intend to go that we will not find Him? He is not intending to go to the Dispersion among the Greeks, and teach the Greeks, is He? “What is this statement that He said, ‘You will seek Me, and will not find Me; and where I am, you cannot come’?”

John 8:21-24 “Then He said again to them, “I go away, and you will seek Me, and will die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come.” So the Jews were saying, “Surely He will not kill Himself, will He, since He says, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come’?” And He was saying to them, “You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.”

There has never been any confusion here.
It has been the consistent message of God from beginning to end.

1. He will silence all rivals…
2. He will save repentant sinners…
3. He will subdue every enemy…

How do we know this?
He has said it clearly and openly and repeatedly since the beginning.

Yes, but how does He know He can accomplish all this?
HE – IS – GOD

Therefore we have no reason to doubt it.

One more thing God has been consistent about:
4) HE WILL SATISFY ALL BELIEVERS (25)

“In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”

He calls them “the offspring of Israel”

We see them as the children of the covenant.
We see them as the children of the promise.
We understand them as the true heirs of Abraham.

Galatians 3:6-9 “Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “ALL THE NATIONS WILL BE BLESSED IN YOU.” So then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer.”

All those who have trusted in Christ are “the offspring of Israel”

And here is yet another consistent promise from God.
We “will be justified and will glory”

Romans 10:11 “For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

WHAT A STATEMENT!

JESUS CHRIST
• Has come and promised that He fulfilled the Law on our behalf.

• He has promised to forgive all those who believe in Him as He will bear their iniquities on the cross.

• He has told us that if we will believe He will clothe us in His righteousness and we will be counted as righteous before God.

• He has told us that our sins are washed away and in His blood we find forgiveness of all our sins.

AND THIS IS WHERE WE HAVE PLACED OUR HOPE.

That even though we are sinful men and women
That when we stand before God
He will count us righteous and welcome us in to live with Him.

IT IS QUITE AN AMBITIOUS HOPE WE HAVE.

We have read:
Psalms 15:1-2 “O LORD, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, And speaks truth in his heart.”

We know:
Revelation 21:27 “and nothing unclean, and no one who practices abomination and lying, shall ever come into it, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

And we are putting all our eggs in that one basket.

But here is the glorious good news.
GOD HAS NEVER WAIVERED ON THIS…NOT ONCE!

He has a consistent witness throughout His word
That He justifies sinners by faith through the work of His Son
And they will not be disappointed.

“all the offspring of Israel will be justified”

“and will glory”
• We will celebrate!
• We will sing!
• We will rejoice!

We will be totally satisfied in our reigning King!
• Every earthly discomfort…
• Every earthly loss…
• Every earthly encumbrance…
• Every earthly pain…

Will all whisk away when we step into His presence.
And God has never stuttered on that fact.

SO…

You live in a world where you don’t understand what is going on.

• How could God let a pagan ruler sit on the throne?
• How could it be God’s plan to bring a pagan to power?

How can we look at all the evil in the world today and say,
“God is sovereign over all things”?

We can say that because: HE – IS – GOD

1. And we know that He works in mysterious ways.

2. And we know that it is not ours to question what He does.

3. And we know that while we don’t know everything we do know what He has spoken in His word regarding our salvation.

4. And we know that in the end:
• His rivals will be silenced…
• Sinners will be saved…
• His enemies will be subdued…
• And we will be totally satisfied…

For Jesus will be King and there will be no other.
Every knee will bow to Him.

• I can’t tell you what God is doing with Joe Biden or Donald Trump…
• I can’t tell you the purpose of the conflict in Israel…
• I can’t tell you why it appears that sin is winning in the world…
• I can’t tell you why there is such suffering and hardship…

But I can tell you that HE – IS – GOD
He will always be God.
He has chosen to be our God.
And one day every knee will bow to Him as God.

We don’t know everything, but we do know that.
God has been faithfully consistent to those points over and over and over.

Rest there until we know fully.

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

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

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

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

Paul spoke of a failure to honor God as God.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can you honor God as God then?

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

Can you honor God then?

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

Can you honor God then?

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

Can you honor God as God then?

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

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

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

AND IT ALL SEEMS WRONG.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Only the last option is acceptable.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We saw that Sunday morning.

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

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

Both Job and Elijah did this.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

We actually touched on this point previously.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Look to God’s revealed word.

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

1) ISAIAH’S CONFESSION (15)

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

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

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

“You are a God who hides Himself”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

ISAIAH has now come to that conclusion as well.

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

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

Here Isaiah consents to that.

2) ISAIAH’S CONVICTION (16-17)

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

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

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

THIS IS ISAIAH’S CONVICTION.

NOW FIRST I JUST WANT YOU TO SEE THAT.

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

AND Isaiah believes that their salvation is secure.

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

That is a great statement.

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

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

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

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

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

HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?

3) ISAIAH’S CONFIDENCE (18-19)

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.”

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

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

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

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

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

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

THAT IS INTERESTING.

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

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

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

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

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

How does Isaiah know that?

“I am the LORD, and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.”

IN OTHER WORDS:
God may not have told us everything, but what He did tell us, He was crystal clear about.

“I have not spoken in secret…”

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

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

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

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

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

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

WHY?
BECAUSE GOD HAS SAID SO.

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

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

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

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

HE HAS MADE IT CLEAR HASN’T HE?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

I HOPE YOU GET THE POINT.

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

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

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

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

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

WE DO KNOW THE END

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

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

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

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

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

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

CLING TO WHAT GOD HAS REVEALED

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

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

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

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

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

Rest in that church!

download here

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

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

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

God specifically says that 7 times in chapter 45 alone.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

WE MENTIONED HOW

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOD IS GOOD.

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

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

“I am the LORD who does all these.”

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

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

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

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

NO, GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL OF IT.

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

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

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

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

It is because God ordained it to be so.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

God will ultimately bring this about.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Can you swallow that?
Can you submit to that?

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

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

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

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

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

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

SO GOD HAS A WARNING.

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

Talk about a loaded passage!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It is just unthinkable arrogance and insubordination.

AND YOU’VE HEARD IT BEFORE.

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

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

Oh how men hate that passage.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOD DOES THIS.

But how does man respond?
They quarrel.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DO YOU GET THE POINT?
Learn your place.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Exactly!
I didn’t!

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

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

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

HE – IS – GOD!

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

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

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

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

JUST ASK JOB.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?
HOW CAN WE RESPOND?

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

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

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

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

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

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

SO ASK HIM.
Not “Why?”, but “What?”

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The question is: WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH CYRUS?

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

God says that “I have aroused him in righteousness”

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

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

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

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

Well he will.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

SO WHAT IS GOD DOING?

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

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

You can’t.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

download here

He Is God – part 1
Isaiah 44:24-45:25 (44:24 – 45:7)
April 7, 2024

This morning we return to our study of the book of Isaiah.
As you know, we are in the second segment of the book
In which Isaiah is speaking prophetically to the refugees in Babylon.

He is speaking of a time around 100 years after his ministry,
But the truths revealed are remarkable.

To begin this text, I would start by calling your mind back to an issue that God already announced earlier through Isaiah.

Isaiah 41:1-4 “Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength; Let them come forward, then let them speak; Let us come together for judgment. “Who has aroused one from the east Whom He calls in righteousness to His feet? He delivers up nations before him And subdues kings. He makes them like dust with his sword, As the wind-driven chaff with his bow. “He pursues them, passing on in safety, By a way he had not been traversing with his feet. “Who has performed and accomplished it, Calling forth the generations from the beginning? ‘I, the LORD, am the first, and with the last. I am He.’”

I hope you remember that.
• We said it was sort of a “Town Hall Meeting” that God called with all the
nations who were fugitives in Babylon.
• Nebuchadnezzar’s conquest saw him capture more than just Jews.
• He took prisoners from many nations.

God called them all together
Because news was spreading of a new conqueror on the horizon.

Currently in the world was a new leader named Cyrus.
• He had conquered the Medes and his sites were set on Babylon.
• Certainly there was unrest and anxiety as people awaited his arrival.

God revealed in ch. 41 that the conquest of Cyrus was His doing.
God revealed that He was the One who had aroused Cyrus.
God revealed that He had delivered nations up before him.

And then followed several chapters from God
About how despite this Israel should not fear for He had redeemed them.

AND WE REJOICED IN ALL THAT TRUTH.

Well now, at the end of chapter 44
Isaiah is returning to this announcement of Cyrus.

And here, something remarkable happens as Isaiah calls him by name.
• (28) “It is I who says of Cyrus…”
• (45:1) “Thus says the LORD to Cyrus…”

Isaiah’s ministry ended in 681BC
• Cyrus wouldn’t conquer Babylon until 538BC (143 years later)
• Cyrus wasn’t even born until 600BC (81 years later)

You have Isaiah here naming this guy
At least 80 years before he was even born.
That in and of itself is remarkable.

But that is NOT what is the most shocking about the naming of Cyrus.

THE SHOCKING THING is the TERMINOLOGY God uses for him.
• (44:28) “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’”
•
• (45:1) “Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the right hand…”
•
• (45:2) “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth…”

So in this segment we have God not only naming “Cyrus”,
• But calling him, “My shepherd”
• And “His anointed”
• And promising to “make the rough places smooth” before him.

Does any of that sound remotely familiar to you?
It should, that is MESSIANIC LANGUAGE.

Remember back in chapter 40?
Isaiah 40:3-4 “A voice is calling, “Clear the way for the LORD in the wilderness; Make smooth in the desert a highway for our God. “Let every valley be lifted up, And every mountain and hill be made low; And let the rough ground become a plain, And the rugged terrain a broad valley;”

• Remember that is what John the Baptist did for Jesus.
• The King is coming so you clean up the road before He travels down it.

And then the names “My shepherd” and “His anointed”?

Do you know what the Hebrew word for “anointed” there is?
(MA-SHEE-AH)
• Remind you of a word? “Messiah”

In the Septuagint, which is the Greek Old Testament (the one the apostles read) that word for “anointed” is: KHRISTOS which is the word for “Christ”

So you’re telling me that God uses Messianic language to speak about this Cyrus who is coming?

That’s exactly what he does.
And that is BEYOND SHOCKING.

WHY?
Because Cyrus is a pagan.

Well didn’t he let Israel go home and pay to rebuild their temple?
Yes

So maybe he was a believer in God then?
Nope.
• Cyrus did that for every nation Babylon had captured.
• Cyrus did that for every religion represented in Babylon.
• He was trying to gain the favor of all the gods.

Beyond that God specifically says of Cyrus
In verse 45:4 and again in 45:5 “you have not known Me.”

SO LET’S GET THIS STRAIGHT.

We have God raising up a man named Cyrus.
A man who is a pagan pluralist who appeals to every would-be deity.
• God raised him up,
• Allowed him to conquer the world,
• And even calls him his messiah.
• GOD IS NOT JUST SENDING HIM, GOD SEEMS TO BE ENDORSING HIM.

And somewhere along the way the Jewish people have to be wondering:
WHAT IS GOD THINKING?

• This can’t be God’s will.
• This can’t be what God is doing.
• You can’t raise up a pagan and bring him to power.
• You certainly can’t treat him like a Messiah or a savior.
• That would be wrong, even blasphemous.

Can you see the dilemma it brings to the table?

LET ME ILLUSTRATE.
What if someone walked in this morning and spoke about Donald Trump being the “savior of America”?
• What if they called him “God’s anointed”?
• What if they used the term “Messiah” or “Christ” and applied it to him?

Would that shock and offend you?
IT SHOULD!

• Some would speak of his pagan past.
• Some would speak of his childish behavior.
• Some would say his religious claims are only to find favor with the Christian
community and gain their votes.

To call him a savior or a messiah or christ…
• We would rightly see that as blasphemous.
• We would rightly see that as sacrilegious.

And indeed, you cannot attribute titles like that to him.

DO YOU UNDERSTAND now why this was so shocking for God to say this about Cyrus?

Now look, DO NOT go reading this chapter and assume I’m talking about Trump being America’s Cyrus or anything like that.
• If you go home or get online and try to use Isaiah 45 as some sort of biblical
support for Trump being God’s savior of America you have abused the text
and missed the point.

I’m just trying to show you how shocking it is
That God would point to a man like Cyrus as a savior to Israel.

But here, Cyrus was a Messianic-Type
Here, Cyrus was a prophetic type of the coming Christ.

HOW?
Because Cyrus would set the captives free.
• He is not “The” Christ.
• He is not “The” Messiah.
• But he is a prophetic type of the Christ because God uses him to deliver his captive people out of their bondage into their promised home.

So what we see in Isaiah 44 & 45 then is a time in which we see
A pagan man, doing pagan things, conquering nations,
And God makes it perfectly clear that He is the One causing it.

AND YET SOME WOULD STILL BALK AT GOD DOING SUCH A THING.

And we are confronted with the overwhelming POINT OF THE CHAPTER.

Do you think God is wrong to use Cyrus?
Do you think God is wrong to anoint Cyrus?
Do you think God should not have done this?

If so, you have forgotten the very foundational bedrock of your theology
AND IT IS THIS:

HE – IS – GOD

• As God, He is sovereign over all things.
• As God, everything He does is right and good and true.
• As God, He is beyond our evaluation and judgments.

He is not presented before us for our evaluation.
• We are not called upon to measure the wisdom of His plans.
• We are called to submit to Him.

The reason God reveals that Cyrus is His chosen instrument
Is NOT so that anyone can give their opinion on the matter.
God reveals it to show that He alone is God
And He can do whatever He wants.

Take a quick walk through the chapter.
• 44:24 – “I, the LORD, and maker of all things…by Myself…all alone”
• 45:3 – “so that you may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.”
• 45:5 – “I am the LORD, and there is no other; Besides Me there is no God.”
• 45:6 – “there is no one besides Me, I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
• 45:7 – “I am the LORD who does all these.”
• 45:12 – “It is I who made…I stretched…My hands…I ordained…”
• 45:14 – “Surely, God is with you, and there I none else, No other God.”
• 45:18 – “I am the LORD, and there is none else.”
• 45:21 – “And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”
• 45:22 – “For I am God and there is no other.”
• 45:23 – “to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance.”

DO YOU GET THE POINT OF THE CHAPTER YET?
GOD IS SAVING ISRAEL.
• He is doing it in a way no one would expect.
• He is doing it in a way perhaps no one would approve.

And the reason is so that at the end of the day
Everyone will acknowledge that He alone is God
And He does whatever He wants.

CAN YOU DRIVE THAT POINT INTO YOUR MIND THIS MORNING?

HE IS GOD.
• He’s not asking for your approval.
• He’s not asking for your advice.
• He’s not surveying you or feeling you out.
• He doesn’t need your help.
HE IS GOD.

And His call is for you to LEARN THAT FIRST.

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.”

THAT IS FIRST.
• You had better learn your place.
• You had better learn that He is God and you are not.
• He does whatever He wishes because He is God.

NOW, HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS.
As the God who can do whatever He wants…He wants to save His people.
He is not obligated to.
He is not required to.
He has chosen to.

The God who can do whatever He pleases, is pleased to save His people.
That is good news.

And He is pleased to save them in a way
That they would never have conceived on their own
So that He alone is glorified for saving.

His salvation is unlike any other salvation.
It does not follow the thought of man.

And certainly this points ultimately to the cross.
We learned last week:
Acts 2:23 “this Man, delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God, you nailed to a cross by the hands of godless men and put Him to death.”

• God’s ultimate plan of salvation was the crucifixion of His own Son.
• No one would have conceived of such a plan.
• No one can after the fact take credit for it.

God saved in a peculiar way.
1 Corinthians 1:21-22a “For since in the wisdom of God the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well-pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe.”

God saved in a way that was foolish to the world.
And it only highlights the fact that He alone is the Savior.

And that is the same thing He is doing here in Isaiah 44 and 45.
He is revealing His plan to save.

It is such a peculiar plan that when it occurs
The only fitting conclusion is that God did this, alone,
Without any input or help from any other person or god.

HE ALONE IS GOD

That is THE POINT of the passage we begin studying here this morning.

We are going to break it down into 4 main points.
Each of these 4 points are something you need to know if you are to rightly respond to the only true God.

Each of these 4 points are designed to set your mind right and to, in effect, “put you in your place” before the only true God of the universe.

So let’s start looking at them this morning.

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

This segment begins with some basic reminders about God.

(24-26a) “Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, “I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone, Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back And turning their knowledge into foolishness, Confirming the word of His servant And performing the purpose of His messengers.”

There are many titles and realities there to be remembered about God.

He is “the LORD” that is His covenantal name of Yahweh.
• He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
• He is the God who chose Israel and entered into a covenant with them.
• He is the God who gave them their land and promised to bring them home to it.

He is “your Redeemer” and we have studied that recently.
• He is the One who purchased Israel.
• He bought her from Egypt, she is His.

He is “the one who formed you from the womb”
• He made a nation out of them.
• He took them from one old man and one barren woman and made them as numerous as the sand of the sea.
• He is intimately acquainted with them in every way.

He is “the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself and spreading out the earth all alone.”
• Obviously the Creator and One who needed no help doing it.
• He is alone at the beginning of all things with no one to advise Him, help Him, or correct Him.

All of that we are well-aware of regarding God.

BUT HE CONTINUES.

(25) “Causing the omens of boasters to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back and Turning their knowledge into foolishness,”

That is an interesting reality about God.

Have you ever had someone make a prediction?
Have you ever heard them lay out the evidence of what was going to happen?
• Some do it scientifically…
• Some do it instinctively…
• Some claim to do it supernaturally…

Have you ever then heard their prediction be wrong?
ALL THE TIME.

Why is that?
• It is because God causes them to fail in their predictions.
• God makes them fools.
• God humiliates them in their prophecies.

God has set it that only He has the ability to predict and declare what is coming.
• He won’t let other men have that ability.
• He won’t let other deities have that ability.
• He holds that ability for Himself alone.

Isaiah 46:8-10 “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, 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’;”

Only God is omniscient.
Only God is sovereign over the course of human history.

And God continually humiliates
The so-called wisdom of men and false deities.

AT THE SAME TIME:
(26a) “Conforming the word of His servant And performing the purpose of His messengers.”

Just as surely as God humiliates the predictions of men,
God upholds the message of His messengers.

Just as we see hoards of men who get their predictions wrong,
In Scripture we saw some who got it incredibly right.
• How did Isaiah know Cyrus?
• How did Isaiah know about a virgin birth or a substitutionary atonement?
• How did Jeremiah know about 70 years in Babylon?
• How did David know about the process of crucifixion or the resurrection?
• How did Ezekiel know about the pouring out of God’s Spirit?
• How did Daniel know about Greece or Rome or anti-Christ?

Those men were staggeringly accurate in their predictions, WHY?
Because God caused their predictions to succeed.
God told them what to say and then confirmed what they said.

And the simple point here is this:
GOD IS SOVEREIGN OVER ALL EVENTS

CAN YOU SEE THAT?
God causes to happen what He wants to happen.
And He tells who He wants about it before hand.
• Other men can make predictions…
• Other men can make plans…
• Other me can strive with great power…
• And God just stops them.

But God does what He wants, when He wants and He tells His servants about it ahead of time so that everyone will know that it is God who did it.

And so we know then that all of human history is God’s history.

All that has happened, is happening, and will happen,
Is by God’s sovereign decree and will.

EVERYTHING.

And you can just file that away in your theology bank.
That is what it means to be God.
• He is in control of all things.
• He determines the course of human history.
• He is sovereign.
• History will follow His plan

Well, that bring a question to the forefront of our minds:
WHAT IS HIS PLAN?

That is what we see in verses 26-28.

(26b-28) “It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘They shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again. “It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up!’ And I will make your rivers dry. “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”

3 times you see the same statement:
“It is I who says…”

God is here outlining His plan.
You see 3 parts to it.

1) JUDAH WILL RETURN

(26b) “It is I who says of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be inhabited!’ And of the cities of Judah, ‘The shall be built.’ And I will raise up her ruins again.”

Judah will be called to return to her home and rebuild her cities and Jerusalem and even the temple as you will see in verse 28.

And the reason this will happen is because God said it would happen.
• He determined to make it happen.
• He wants her to go home.
• He wants her to rebuild.
• So she will.

If any other deity wanted it, forget about it.
But the God of the universe wants it, so it will happen.

2) A WAY WILL BE REVEALED

(27) “It is I who says to the depth of the sea, ‘Be dried up! And I will make your rivers dry.”

I’m sure Judah was going home was an encouraging promise,
But the “realist” in the crowd would have likely had some questions.

“It’s good and all that God wants to send us home, but I’ve been going over the logistics of what that would require, and I just don’t think it’s possible.”
• How is a nation of slaves going to just walk out of Babylon?
• How is a nation of slaves going to travel safely back to Israel?
• How is a nation of slaves going to dispossess the people who now live there?
• How is a nation of slaves going to be able to afford to rebuild?

It’s a nice thought and all, but I just don’t see that it is a feasible plan.

And to that God reminds:
• How do you think the slaves left Egypt and settled this land to begin with?
• How do you think they crossed the Red Sea?
• How do you think they crossed the Jordan?
• How do you think they dispossessed the nations?
• How do you think they built it the first time?

I am not only the all-wise God who declares what will happen,
But I am the all-powerful God who fulfills what I declare.

If I have to dry up the sea to make it happen, I will.
If I have to stop up rivers to make it happen, I will.

Don’t forget who you are dealing with.
I am NOT some phony man-invented deity carved out of a tree.
• I am the God of the universe.
• I am the God who ordains all things.
• I am the God who sits sovereign over all things.

I said you are going home to rebuild and that is what you will do
Even if I have to move heaven and earth to bring it about.

Well that is certainly encouraging!

3) A PAGAN WILL RISE

(28) “It is I who says of Cyrus, ‘He is My shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.’ And he declares of Jerusalem, ‘She will be built,’ And of the temple, ‘Your foundation will be laid.’”

• I said you are going home.
• I said I will make it happen.

AND THE WAY I WILL MAKE IT HAPPEN
Is by raising up a man named Cyrus who will issue an edict for you to go home, rebuild your city, and rebuild your temple.

• This is God at work through pagan men.
• This is God at work, on behalf of His people, through pagan governments.

Now this may not be that shocking.
We have seen God work through pagan governments before,
(Although mostly in a negative sense.)

• We saw God harden Pharaoh so that he would resist the plagues and God would be able to demonstrate His power.

• We saw God raise up Assyria as “the rod of My anger” to afflict and discipline Judah.

• We saw God raise up Nebuchadnezzar to come and destroy Judah and to burn the temple and exile them because of their idolatry.

• We will see God use Herod and Pilate and whomever the anti-Christ will be…

We are accustomed to God raising up evil men
And using them for the purposes of judgment.

BUT WHERE THIS STORY IS PECULIAR
Is because here God is using a pagan for salvation.

And then comes the really shocking part.

(45:1-3a) “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: “I will go before you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. “I will give you the treasures of darkness And hidden wealth of secret places,”

As we said at the beginning.
God actually calls him “His anointed” (literally His messiah or His christ)
• God promises to hold his hand.
• God promises to “subdue nations before him”
• God promises to “open doors before him”
• God promises to “go before” him
• God promises to “make the rough places smooth”

And this is where, as we said, WE BALK A LITTLE.

We know a thing or two about political leaders in our day,
And we have a tough time thinking
That God would honor any of them as a savior.

We might see them as agents of God’s judgment, but as agents of salvation?

WHY WOULD GO DO THIS?

In verse 3 He answers, “so that you [Cyrus] may know that it is I, the LORD, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name.”

God says, the reason I am using Cyrus and naming him long before it happens is because I am showing Him that He didn’t do it, I did it.

God is putting Himself on display as the Savior.
The Savior who saves in a way that no one would have expected.

And that is not all.
(4-5) “For the sake of Jacob My servant, And Israel My chosen one, I have also called you by your name; I have given you a title of honor Though you have not known Me. 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.”

I am also doing it for the benefit of My people so that they will know that it is Me.
• 140 years from now, when Cyrus tells My people they can go home, I don’t want them thinking it was Cyrus or some other phony god who did it.
• I want them to know that it was Me who did it.
• So I am announcing this long beforehand so that they will see it.

I am saving My people, by his hand, and I want them to know it is Me.

And not just them.
(6-7) “That men may know from the rising to the setting of the sun That there is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

And now we hit the mother load!
• It’s not just so that Cyrus will know I am God…
• It’s not just so that Israel will know I am their God…
• It is so that the whole world will know that I am God.

God is going to do the unthinkable and the impossible.
He is declaring it beforehand
So that the only possible glory to be handed out will be for Him.

Now, as we said, this seems a little DIFFICULT TO SWALLOW.

Why wouldn’t God raise up a righteous warrior inside of Israel to overpower the Babylonians and lead his people home?

I mean we saw Him do that plenty of times in the book of the Judges.
• We saw God raise up Gideon and Barak and Jephthah and Samson and
Samuel and others.
• He raised up men of faith, to call the people to repentance, and then
empowered those men to victory over overwhelming odds.

So why not give Daniel extraordinary power inside Babylon?
• Why not let him organize an army?
• Why not let him lead a revolt and lead Israel home with a mighty hand?

THAT WOULD MAKE SENSE.
• But instead God chose to raise up a pagan to deliver Israel.
• He chose to operate in a way that does not make sense.

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

NOW PAY ATTENTION HERE.

Often times in our lives we like to
Attribute earthly occurrences to different sources.

• Men like to say that everything good comes from God and everything bad
comes from the devil.
• And men like to see the two sort of pitted against one another in this cosmic
battle taking place.
• And sometimes good things happen and we say, “God wins! God is good!
God did good for me!”
• And then something bad or negative happens and we say, “That wasn’t God’s
will, Satan did that. God never intended for that to happen.”

And men say that because they’re trying to sort of save God’s reputation.
• We don’t want men to think that God causes bad things to happen.
• We don’t want men to think God would bring about pain and suffering.
• We want men to think God is good.

So everything we perceive as good we attribute to God
And everything we perceive as bad we try to ascribe to the devil.

We expect God to behave according to
Our logical assessment of right and wrong, good and evil.

The obvious flaw in such a theology
Is that if you’re paying attention to the world you’ll end up thinking Satan is more powerful than God because we see a lot of suffering in this world.

But what does God say about Himself here?

God says that He is “The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these.”

• I cause the light and the dark.
• I cause the well-being and calamity.
• The happy and comfortable and things you call “good” – that was Me!
• The hard and sad and tragic things you call “bad” – that was Me too!

• Who caused the flood? God
• Who rained fire on Sodom and Gomorrah? God
• Who confused the men at the tower of Babel? God

You say, yes, but those were acts of judgment on evil men.

How about these?

When Moses complained that he couldn’t go to Pharaoh because he stutters.
Exodus 4:10-11 “Then Moses said to the LORD, “Please, Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither recently nor in time past, nor since You have spoken to Your servant; for I am slow of speech and slow of tongue.” The LORD said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Or who makes him mute or deaf, or seeing or blind? Is it not I, the LORD?”

When the disciples saw the man born blind:
John 9:1-3 “As He passed by, He saw a man blind from birth. And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?” Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him.”

Or who allowed Job’s sons and daughters to be killed or his livestock to be stollen or his body to be afflicted with sores?

Who predetermined the cross by His own foreknowledge?

CERTAINLY GOD IS NOT EVIL, nor is God influenced or affected by evil.
Nor does God approve of evil.

But God uses evil and allows evil
And sovereignly ordains the existence of evil
To His glorious purposes.

EVEN USING A PAGAN RULER AS A DELIVERER OF HIS PEOPLE.

Now we are running out of time this morning, and part of me wishes I could go on and perhaps sooth your curiosity and concerns a little.
But part of me is also happy to stop here with a little bit of tension.

See, one thing you are going to have to learn in this life is that
• God is God whether you like it or not.
• God is God whether you agree or not.
• God is God whether you understand or not.

You don’t get to sit in judgment of what God does.
You don’t get to tell Him if He is right or wrong to do something.
He doesn’t operate by your definition of good or love or just or holy.

• He is good by His definition – which is the right one.
• He is love by His definition – which is the accurate one.
• He is holy by His definition – which is the true one.
• He is just by His definition – which is the appropriate one.

This morning, I think it is good to just stop
And let you wrestle with the reality of who is God and who is not.

We’ll end without having to make it all make sense.
• He created the light and the dark.
• He caused the well-being and the calamity.

Now, you honor Him as God
Who has every right to do that which is well-pleasing in His sight.

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But God Raised Him Up Again
Acts 2:22-36
March 31, 2024

This morning we gather as the church
To celebrate the high day on the Christian calendar.

• It is resurrection Sunday.
• It is the pinnacle day of Christianity.
• And for us, it is everything.

This morning we celebrate the fact that
After Jesus was crucified at the hands of evil men,
God raised Him from the dead.

And the resurrection matters so much to us primarily because
It is the ultimate validation that His work on the cross was effective.

Romans 4:25 “He who was delivered over because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.”

We know the crucifixion worked because God raised Him.

John MacArthur wrote:
“The resurrection is the crowning proof that God accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Without it, His death becomes the heroic death of a noble martyr, the pathetic death of a madman, or the execution of a fraud.”
(MacArthur, John [The MacArthur New Testament Commentary: Acts 1-12; Moody Press, Chicago, IL; 1994] pg. 64)

BUT JESUS WAS NO FRAUD.
• He was the only righteous man who ever lived.
• He was crucified to pay for sins He did not commit.
• God verified this by raising Him from the dead.

We celebrate because those sins He paid for were ours.
It was my debt He paid.

THIS MORNING the church gathers to celebrate that reality
And to give all glory and honor and praise to Jesus Christ for what He did.

The way we are going to do that this morning
Is by studying this text from Acts 2.

You may immediately recognize that Acts 2 is not an “Easter sermon”.

The only recorded Easter sermons in Scripture are contained in the 4 gospels and most of them are preached by angels at the tomb.

For example:
Matthew 28:5-7 “The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified. “He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying. “Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”

There is one recorded sermon by Jesus that was given on Easter found in John 20 when Jesus enters the upper room and encourages the disciples and offers them peace.

And there was one Easter sermon given by Jesus that was not recorded and I really wish it would have been:
Luke 24:25-27 “And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken! “Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?” Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.”

• We know one of those guys was named “Cleopus” and when I get to heaven I’m going to ask him why he didn’t take any notes.

But the sermon we look at this morning was not an Easter sermon.
It was a Pentecost Sermon.

Pentecost was a Jewish feast.
• Also known as “The Feast of Weeks”
• It occurred 50 days after the Passover
• It was one of 3 Jewish feasts that every Jewish man was required to attend.
• It’s the feast celebrated at the end of harvest when all the crops had come in.

And on this day we see that the harvest started coming.
By the end of the day there will be 3,000 new believers
And the church will be off and running.

The reason we are looking at this sermon this morning is because
• What Peter has to say to the Jews here is not only highly evangelistic,
• But is of great encouragement to the church.

And in our dark days,
I believe the church needs all the encouragement she can get.

Well first, let me give you THE CONTEXT.

• As noted it has been 7 weeks since Jesus was crucified.
• He has since risen from the dead and ascended to heaven.
• But for 7 weeks the church has been in hiding.

There is only about 120 people represented in the church
And they are sticking close together. It is a turbulent time for them.

But on this day Jesus will send them
The “power from on high” that He had promised.
He will send them the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:1-4 “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire distributing themselves, and they rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit was giving them utterance.”

This WAS NOT the mindless, blasphemous, phony gibberish that is associated with tongues today.
• These believers were speaking actual known human languages.
• That becomes evident as you read on in the chapter.

It WAS miraculous because
• None of these people had ever learned the languages they were speaking.
• The Holy Spirit had caused this and they were “speaking of the mighty deeds of God”.

HOWEVER, the Jews in Jerusalem didn’t understand what they were saying and accused them of being “drunk”.

And Peter, now filled with power from the Holy Spirit,
Stood up to correct their faulty thinking.

Peter reveals that
• This is a fulfilled promise of God found in the book of Joel
• And that what they are witnessing is pouring out of God’s Spirit upon men.

So you have the backdrop of the day.
And then Peter takes the opportunity
To deliver the sermon we want to study this morning.

We want to break Peter’s sermon down into 4 points.
#1 JESUS’ IDENTITY WAS OBVIOUS BUT IGNORED
Acts 2:22

Peter starts his sermon with what they know.
And what they knew, whether they wanted to admit it or not is that
JESUS HAD WORKED A TON OF MIRACLES.

• He turned water into wine
• He healed the synagogue officials son
• Cast out thousands of demons (over 5,000 from one man)
• Healed Peter’s mother-in-law of a fever
• The miraculous catch of fish (twice)
• The cleansing of multiple lepers
• The paralytic lowered through the roof
• The cripple at the Bethesda pool
• The man with the withered hand
• The bleeding woman who touched His garment
• The Centurian’s servant
• The man born blind
• The man with dropsy
• The woman bent double for 18 years
• The two blind men on the Jericho road
• He raised Jairus’ daughter
• He raised the widow’s son
• He raised Lazarus
• He calmed the storm
• He fed 5,000 and then 4,000 miraculously
• He walked on water
• He healed the man whose ear Peter cut off

And of course following that we throw in the mention of John what wrote:
John 21:25 “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”

Many of His miracles just say things like, “many sick arrived and He healed them all…”

BUT YOU GET THE IDEA.
Jesus had worked many miracles and demonstrated His power everywhere and this was common knowledge.

In fact Peter says, “just as you yourselves know”

When Nicodemus came to question Jesus, he said:
John 3:2 “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”

What Peter points out is that it was clear that
GOD WAS ATTESTING TO THE VALIDITY OF JESUS.

God was working miracles through Him to prove that He had sent Jesus.

Even the blind man could see that:
John 9:30-33 “The man answered and said to them, “Well, here is an amazing thing, that you do not know where He is from, and yet He opened my eyes. “We know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is God-fearing and does His will, He hears him. “Since the beginning of time it has never been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a person born blind. “If this man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

Jesus Himself said:
John 5:36 “But the testimony which I have is greater than the testimony of John; for the works which the Father has given Me to accomplish—the very works that I do—testify about Me, that the Father has sent Me.”

IT WAS OBVIOUS.

“Jesus the Nazarene [was] a man attested to you by God with miracles and wonders and signs which God performed through Him in your midst, just as you yourselves know.”

The problem was not the obvious nature and source of His power;
The problem was the stubbornness of the Jews who ignored it.

For example:

Matthew 9:32-34 “As they were going out, a mute, demon-possessed man was brought to Him. After the demon was cast out, the mute man spoke; and the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “Nothing like this has ever been seen in Israel. But the Pharisees were saying, “He casts out the demons by the ruler of the demons.”

Matthew 12:22-24 “Then a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute was brought to Jesus, and He healed him, so that the mute man spoke and saw. All the crowds were amazed, and were saying, “This man cannot be the Son of David, can he?” But when the Pharisees heard this, they said, “This man casts out demons only by Beelzebul the ruler of the demons.”

John 10:37-39 “If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do them, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, so that you may know and understand that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father.” Therefore they were seeking again to seize Him, and He eluded their grasp.”

John 11:45-48, 53 “Therefore many of the Jews who came to Mary, and saw what He had done, believed in Him. But some of them went to the Pharisees and told them the things which Jesus had done. Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation…So from that day on they planned together to kill Him.”

This issue WAS NOT a failure on God’s part to attest to Jesus,
The issue WAS that the Jews didn’t want to see it.
They ignored the obvious fact that Jesus had been sent from God.

But make no mistake, God sent Him and it was obvious.
• Can you see that?
• Have you acknowledged that?

Are you willing to look at the life of Jesus and unequivocally state that “Yes, Jesus was sent by God”?

Jesus’ Identity was Obvious but Ignored
#2 JESUS’ DEATH WAS DETERMINED BUT DESPICABLE
Acts 2:23

All through Jesus’ ministry
We saw the stubbornness surrounding Him and a wholesale refusal on the part of the Jews to believe in Him.

But clearly that stubbornness and refusal hit a climax
When the Jews called for Jesus’ death
And coerced Pilate to crucify Him.

That is the next event Peter calls to their attention.
Another fact they were well-aware of.

What Peter does first however, is reveal to his audience that
Just as Jesus’ miracles were part of God’s plan, so was His death.

In fact, Jesus was “delivered over by the predetermined plan and foreknowledge of God”

“delivered over” is a Greek word used only here and it speaks of someone being “handed over to their enemies or even betrayed”.

And this is what happened with Jesus.
• It was God who devised the plan.
• It was God who enforced the plan.
• It was God who sovereignly saw it carried out.

Jesus made no bones about it,
That He was sent to this world that He might die on a cross
To redeem His people from their sins.

John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

We even remember Jesus standing before Pilate.
• Pilate was amazed that Jesus wasn’t begging him for help.

John 19:10-11 “So Pilate said to Him, “You do not speak to me? Do You not know that I have authority to release You, and I have authority to crucify You?” Jesus answered, “You would have no authority over Me, unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

And there are many other places we could look to demonstrate this,
But the greater look even comes from the Old Testament.

We could read Psalm 22 Which actually speaks of the actual crucifixion
• Where Jesus’ hands and feet would be pierced,
• Where He would be offered vinegar to drink,
• Where soldiers would gamble for His clothes.

We could read Psalm 118 Which speaks of that champion
• Who trusted God even amidst a corrupt trial
• And who was surrounded by His enemies like bees.

But without a doubt the most definitive chapter is Isaiah’s 53rd.
Isaiah 53:7-10 “He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth. By oppression and judgment He was taken away; And as for His generation, who considered That He was cut off out of the land of the living For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due? His grave was assigned with wicked men, Yet He was with a rich man in His death, Because He had done no violence, Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.”

It was the plan of God to send His only begotten Son into the world.
• That Son would live a holy life and satisfy the righteous requirements of God.
• That Son would then offer His holy life to God as an atoning sacrifice for the sins of His people.

“The wages of sin is death”
And “without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness”.

So Jesus Christ was sent by the Father to die for His people.
This was the plan of God.

As Isaiah said:
“the LORD was pleased to crush Him…If He would render Himself as a guilt offering…”

But just because it was God’s plan
DOES NOT ABSOLVE His murderers of the guilt they incurred.

It was a determined plan, but it was still A DESPICABLE MURDER.

In order to fulfill His plan of atonement God “delivered over” Jesus
Into the hands of these vile and sinful men
Who did exactly what they wanted to do to Jesus all along.

They secretly arrested Him.
They corruptly tried Him.
They openly mocked Him.
They unanimously conspired against Him.
And they used the Roman government to have Him cruelly and brutally murdered.

The list of Jewish laws that were broken in this corrupt trial is staggering. Things like:
• A trial could not be held at night.
• Nor could it be held in secret, it was a public affair
• Furthermore a trial could not be held during a feast
• A man could only be condemned upon the testimony of two credible witnesses.
• Furthermore if a man was condemned, the first person to strike the blow to the condemned had to be the person who first bore witness against him.
• Furthermore the accused could not be forced to testify against Himself. Even a detailed confession was not viewed as adequate evidence to condemn a man.
• 23 votes were cast in order determine a person’s fate.
• It took 13 votes to condemn, but only 11 to acquit
• And if all 23 voted to condemn, the man was automatically acquitted since it was viewed that mercy was lacking and the court was flawed.
• When the votes were cast they voted in order of youngest to oldest so that the vote of the older did not influence the vote of the younger
• If a man was condemned, the law required that he could not be sentenced until the morning of the third day.
• And even after sentencing as the man was going to his punishment, if on the way he or anyone else remembered evidence that might deliver him, immediately the execution was stayed and the trial was re-opened.
• And if a man was condemned his property could not be seized, it passed to his heirs, in order to keep a man from being condemned for his possessions.

Also shocking were the evil alliances that were made that day as well.
• Pharisees and Sadducees becoming friends for a common purpose.
• Pilate and Herod became friends that day.

Also shocking is the gross hypocrisy from a crowd
• That on Sunday sang “Hosannah” as He entered the city
• And then on Friday cried “crucify” and begged for His execution.

It all boiled down to the fact that they didn’t just ignore God’s Son,
They hated Him. They hated Him so much they murdered Him.

They ignored Him and then they brutally murdered Him.

It was blatant, godless, evil hatred against God and His Son.
• Sort of like a president who tries to name today as a vile day of remembrance for gross immorality.
• It is more than rejection, it is hatred.

BUT HOW ABOUT YOU?
• Are you eager to silence Christ’s influence in your life?
• Would you silence His reproof and stop Him from confronting your sin?

Well now Peter moves to the part of the sermon that they didn’t know, but needed to.

#3 JESUS’ RESURRECTION WAS PROMISED BUT MISUNDERSTOOD
Acts 2:24-32

This is the longest segment of Peter’s sermon.
But the point is concise in clear.

You murdered the obvious Son of God, “But God raised Him up again, putting an end to the agony of death, since it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

What a remarkable statement!
• “God raised Him up again”
• God didn’t allow Him to stay dead.

WHY?
“it was impossible for Him to be held in its power.”

Adam was very clearly told in the Garden of Eden that he should not transgress the command of God or else he would surely die.
• Adam did transgress God’s commands, and Adam died.
• And so did all of Adam’s descendants who inherited Adam’s sinful nature and then followed in Adam’s footsteps of sinful behavior.

And since Scripture is clear that “the wages of sin is death”,
All those who sin must die and subsequently stay dead.

But Jesus was the exception.
• Jesus never sinned.
• His death could only be seen as an unjust execution.
• He had no sin of His own and death was forced to release Him.

Death has no claim on a righteous man.

And Peter proves this point by quoting Psalm 16:8-11
(25-28) “For David says of Him, ‘I SAW THE LORD ALWAYS IN MY PRESENCE; FOR HE IS AT MY RIGHT HAND, SO THAT I WILL NOT BE SHAKEN. ‘THEREFORE MY HEART WAS GLAD AND MY TONGUE EXULTED; MOREOVER MY FLESH ALSO WILL LIVE IN HOPE; BECAUSE YOU WILL NOT ABANDON MY SOUL TO HADES, NOR ALLOW YOUR HOLY ONE TO UNDERGO DECAY. ‘YOU HAVE MADE KNOWN TO ME THE WAYS OF LIFE; YOU WILL MAKE ME FULL OF GLADNESS WITH YOUR PRESENCE.’”

God could not and would not “allow [the] Holy One to undergo decay”
• He was Holy.
• Death had no right.
• Jesus must be delivered, and He was!

This was a promised resurrection and God fulfilled it.
• It was again and obvious piece of evidence that Jesus is in fact God’s Son.
• There is no doubt that Jesus is the Messiah.

But, so far the Jews had failed to ignore this fact as well.
They sort of dismissed the claims of His resurrection.

Remember how they formed a conspiracy to say that His disciples came and stole the body?

And when someone would say, “Well what about Psalm 16?”
The Jews would just answer, “That was about David.”

So Peter answers that misunderstanding.
(29-31) “Brethren, I may confidently say to you regarding the patriarch David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. “And so, because he was a prophet and knew that GOD HAD SWORN TO HIM WITH AN OATH TO SEAT one OF HIS DESCENDANTS ON HIS THRONE, he looked ahead and spoke of the resurrection of the Christ, that HE WAS NEITHER ABANDONED TO HADES, NOR DID His flesh SUFFER DECAY.”

If you think Psalm 16 is about David then we have a problem.
Namely David’s tomb and David’s occupancy inside of it.
• David is dead.
• His body is dead.
• His body is decaying.
• If Psalms 16 is about David then God is a liar and His Bible is not true.

No, Psalm 16 was NOT about David.
• David was a prophet.
• David wrote about Jesus.

And Peter says, (32) “This Jesus, God raised up again, to which we are all witnesses.”

Again Peter is pointing out that Jesus is in fact the Son of God.
• Not only evidenced by His obvious power.
• But also evidenced by His prophetic atoning death.
• And evidenced by His vindicating resurrection.

Jesus is the Messiah, and thus far
You have been unwilling to recognize that or submit to it.

Now, at this point we stop for some of our own INTERNAL EVALUATION.

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JESUS?

Have you acknowledged that His power is real and that He most certainly must have been sent by God?

Have you acknowledged that His atoning death is the only means of salvation for sinners?

Have you acknowledged that God raised Him from the dead because He is the Holy One of God?

The evidence is overwhelming that Jesus is in fact God’s Messiah.

Or, have you turned a blind eye to His miracles,
Playing the part of a Pharisee and trying to offer logic or even demonic power as an excuse to explain away who He was?

Or have you joined the crowd and chosen to crucify Jesus to yourself?

Hebrews 6:4-6 “For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.”

Is that you?
• Have you sought to crucify His authority over your life?
• Have you sought to push Him aside?

Psalms 2:1-3 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!”

Has that been you?

Have you failed to acknowledge that God did raise Jesus from the dead and has vindicated His saving work and testified that Jesus is God’s Son?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH JESUS?
What are you doing with Jesus?

• Are seeking Him and loving Him and trusting Him and obeying Him?
• Or are you ignoring Him, overlooking Him, rejecting His commands, and simply
doing your own thing?

That is what this audience had done.
• They had ignored His miracles.
• They had participated in His death.
• They had rationalized His resurrection.

And they were feeling pretty good about it.

Well, to that crowd Peter has one more point to make.

#4 JESUS’ REIGN WAS REJECTED BUT FULFILLED
Acts 2:33-36

Everything the Jews had done regarding Jesus during His ministry all screamed the same point. WE DON’T WANT YOU TO REIGN OVER US.

In Luke 19 Jesus told a parable
• About a man who sent out his servants giving them money to do business.

Luke 19:14 “But his citizens hated him and sent a delegation after him, saying, ‘We do not want this man to reign over us.’

• When the master returned he took issue with those slaves who rejected his
reign.

Luke 19:27 “But these enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over them, bring them here and slay them in my presence.”

Matthew 21 Jesus told a parable about the Jews.
• He spoke of a vineyard owner who tried to gather the fruit of the vineyard,
• But the tenants refused because they hated the thought of that vineyard owner
having control over them.

Matthew 21:38 “But when the vine-growers saw the son, they said among themselves, ‘This is the heir; come, let us kill him and seize his inheritance.’

• Those vineyard tenants murdered the owners son and vengeance was exacted
on them.

BUT YOU GET THE IDEA.
• They did not want to submit their lives to God or His Son.
• They did not want Christ to reign over them.
• They did not want to do what Jesus said.
• They did not want to bow the knee.

So they ignored His miracles, refused His authority, murdered Him
And turned a blind eye to the reports of His resurrection.

BUT ON THIS DAY SOMETHING HAD HAPPENED.
On this day the Holy Spirit had been sent from heaven.

IT WAS OBVIOUS. IT WAS EMPHATIC.
These people who were filled with the Spirit
Were speaking languages they did not know and had not learned.

THIS WAS UNDENIABLE.
BUT WHAT DID IT MEAN?

(33-36) “Therefore having been exalted to the right hand of God, and having received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He has poured forth this which you both see and hear. “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.” ’ “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

What it meant is that the Jesus who was crucified
And raised from the dead was now back with His Father.
And this Jesus had sent His Holy Spirit, just as He promised.

The presence of the Holy Spirit was now proof that
THE JESUS YOU REJECTED HAS BEEN EXALTED BY THE FATHER.

You may have sought to cast off His cords and prevent His rule,
BUT IT HAPPENED ANYWAY.

Psalm 2:1-6 “Why are the nations in an uproar And the peoples devising a vain thing? The kings of the earth take their stand And the rulers take counsel together Against the LORD and against His Anointed, saying, “Let us tear their fetters apart And cast away their cords from us!” He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. Then He will speak to them in His anger And terrify them in His fury, saying, “But as for Me, I have installed My King Upon Zion, My holy mountain.”

You may reject God’s King,
But there is something you should know before you do.

IT IS NOT AN ELECTION.
And God didn’t ask you.
• God selected His King.
• God selected His Messiah.
• And God selected Jesus.

Even David knew this was coming:
(34-35) “For it was not David who ascended into heaven, but he himself says: ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I MAKE YOUR ENEMIES A FOOTSTOOL FOR YOUR FEET.”

Here is what is interesting about Peter quoting that verse here.

You may remember that
• The week before Jesus was crucified, that He had entered Jerusalem on a donkey’s colt.
• When Jesus entered Jerusalem He entered the temple and drove out the money changers with whips.
• And for 3 days Jesus had control of the temple.
• And what you get are a constant barrage of debates between Jesus and the religious leaders who do not like Him acting like He owns the place.
• They grill Him about almost everything.

But let me show you the argument of Jesus that put an end to the debate.

Matthew 22:41-46 “Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question: “What do you think about the Christ, whose son is He?” They said to Him, “The son of David.” He said to them, “Then how does David in the Spirit call Him ‘Lord,’ saying, ‘THE LORD SAID TO MY LORD, “SIT AT MY RIGHT HAND, UNTIL I PUT YOUR ENEMIES BENEATH YOUR FEET” ’? “If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?” No one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare from that day on to ask Him another question.”

In Psalms 110:1 David spoke of two Lords.
“The LORD said to my Lord”

The first LORD is obviously Yahweh, God the Father.
But who is the second?
• Well it has to be the Messiah, the Christ.

And Jesus said, “If David then calls Him ‘Lord,’ how is He his son?”

And the answer of course is because the Christ is also the Son of God,
Is eternal and He existed long before David.

That was the riddle the Jews couldn’t solve and Peter comes right back to it here.

We have been looking for the Christ.
• The One whom God would send and somehow signal to us who He was.
• The One whom God would send to atone for our sin.
• The One whom God would send to conquer death.
• The son of David who is also the eternal Son of God

HAVE YOU SEEN ANYONE LIKE THAT?
I’m sure at this point you could hear a pin drop.

So Peter answers for them:
(36) “Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ—this Jesus whom you crucified.”

What is the point?
• YOU HAVE REJECTED YOUR SAVIOR
• YOU HAVE REJECTED THE MESSIAH

But here is the deal.
• Your rejection meant nothing.
• He is King whether you like it or not.
• He will return to judge whether you like it or not.

It is not for you to vote for Him.
It is not for you to elect Him.
It is not for you to keep Him in office.
YOU DON’T MAKE HIM LORD.

God made Him Lord, it is your job to submit your life to Him.
For He is “both Lord and Christ.”

What a comforting thought for the church!
• In this world of absolute chaos and corruption.
• In this world of rejection and depravity.
• We live in a post-Christian culture.
• We live in an “out of season” culture.

We see a world that loves sin and depravity and vile immorality
We live under world rulers who do everything they can to promote it and cram it down our throats.

There is a global effort to dethrone Christ
And remove God’s authority from our lives.

GOOD LUCK!

Christian it may feel like we are losing, but it only feels that way.
• Jesus Christ is King!
• He is reigning at the right hand of God.
• He is Lord and Christ!
• He is coming again to destroy His enemies and to rule this world in
righteousness.

God declared that when He pulled Him out of the grave
God confirmed that when Jesus sent the Holy Spirit.
BE COMFORTED CHURCH!

And if you are currently in a state of rebellion against Jesus, just know that it will not end well.

HE IS KING WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT.

SO WHAT DO WE DO?
What if we have been in rebellion?
(Keep reading)

Acts 2:37-40 “Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Brethren, what shall we do?” Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. “For the promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord our God will call to Himself.” And with many other words he solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, “Be saved from this perverse generation!”

Repent of your rebellion, your indifference, AND your sinfulness.
• Submit your life to Christ.
• Believe in Him as the only Savior.
• Publicly proclaim Him as Lord and BE SAVED.

Jesus Christ is King!