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The Savior Of The World – Part 1
Isaiah 42:1-25 (1-4)
February 25, 2024

It is quite possibly the first verse that many of you ever learned as a child.

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.”

It is a tremendous statement made by Jesus.

Unfortunately it is often misconstrued and distorted.
It is important to know what this verse does not mean.

For one, it is not teaching UNIVERSALISM.
While Jesus rightly focuses on the love of God here, He DOES NOT SAY that God sent His Son “that everyone would be saved.”

• That is clearly not the message.
• There is a limitation in the redemption.
• It is limited only to those who believe.

But this verse is also not teaching PROVISIONISM (Arminianism).
Those who reject God’s sovereign election like to use this verse as their text to say that, if the offer is for “whoever” then election cannot be true.

• This verse does teach that whoever believes is saved.
• But it says nothing about why they can believe, or where faith comes from.
• Jesus actually answered that question earlier in the chapter when He said it is only those who have been “born again” who have this capacity.

So we don’t use this verse to teach universalism
And we don’t use it to teach provisionism or Arminianism.

SO WHAT DOES THIS VERSE TEACH?

This verse teaches the whole world
About the matchless and marvelous love of God
Whereby despite their rebellion, God has sent the world a Savior.

He didn’t send multiple saviors, He only sent one.
He didn’t send just any savior, He sent His Son.

God would have been perfectly just in simply destroying humanity for their rebellion.
• He could have ended it all in the garden.
• He could have ended it all at the flood.

But instead God loved the world
And chose to offer salvation to it through His Son.

And the use of the word “world” is important in John’s gospel
• Jesus reminds us here that He is also NOT ONLY the Savior of Jews,
• But that in fact He is the entire world’s Savior.

John calls Him
John 1:9 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.”

Jesus reiterated this in:
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

In his epistle John also said:
1 John 2:2 “and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins; and not for ours only, but also for those of the whole world.”

This does NOT INDICATE that Jesus has in fact propitiated all the sins of every person, if that were true, no one would go to hell.

What it does teach is that He is the Savior of more than just Jews. He is the whole world’s Savior.

Paul based his ministry upon it:
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Jesus is not the Savior of Jews only.
He is not only the Redeemer of Israel.
JESUS IS IN FACT THE WORLD’S SAVIOR.

When God sent Peter to Cornelius and they were saved and received the Holy Spirit, the Jews then consented:
Acts 11:18 “When they heard this, they quieted down and glorified God, saying, “Well then, God has granted to the Gentiles also the repentance that leads to life.”

When debate broke out about circumcision and whether God was saving Gentiles apart from them converting to Judaism, James stated:
Acts 15:15-18 “With this the words of the Prophets agree, just as it is written, ‘AFTER THESE THINGS I will return, AND I WILL REBUILD THE TABERNACLE OF DAVID WHICH HAS FALLEN, AND I WILL REBUILD ITS RUINS, AND I WILL RESTORE IT, SO THAT THE REST OF MANKIND MAY SEEK THE LORD, AND ALL THE GENTILES WHO ARE CALLED BY MY NAME,’ SAYS THE LORD, WHO MAKES THESE THINGS KNOWN FROM LONG AGO.”

When Paul wrote to the Ephesian church he reminded Gentiles of what Jesus had done for them as well as the Jews.
Ephesians 2:11-13 “Therefore remember that formerly you, the Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” by the so-called “Circumcision,” which is performed in the flesh by human hands— remember that you were at that time separate from Christ, excluded from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Jesus is the world’s Savior.

Jesus Himself said:
John 10:16 “I have other sheep, which are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will hear My voice; and they will become one flock with one shepherd.”

And so His saving call goes out to the entire world.
John 1:9-13 “There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

Anyone who will call upon Jesus will be saved whether they are Jewish or not.
Romans 10:11-13 “For the Scripture says, “WHOEVER BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on Him; for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

Jesus appearing on this earth in such a capacity
Is a tremendous testimony to the love of God.

Our God delights in saving sinners.
He sent His Son to be the world’s Savior.

And you might be saying, that’s absolutely true,
BUT WHAT DOES THAT HAVE TO DO WITH ISAIAH 42?

If you will remember what we covered last week in Isaiah 41
We saw a “Town Hall” meeting with God.

• God addressed “the coastlands”
• They were people filled with anxiety and fear because Cyrus of Persia was on
his way.
• God told those people that Cyrus was coming at His command,
• That should have led those people to seek God in repentance similar to what
the King of Nineveh did at the preaching of Jonah.

However, instead of seeking God and seeking mercy,
The coastlands sought idolatry.

The decided to work hard and make a god who might be their deliverance.

This was a foolish decision and God even told them so,
For unlike the God of Israel,
These gods they made had no knowledge of anything.

• Israel’s God had promised to be with them in Chaos.
• Israel’s God had promised to help them in Conflict.
• Israel’s God had promised to answer them in Crisis.

And then God looked at those nations with their idols and asked, “What has your god promised to do for you?” And there was no answer.

God pronounced judgment upon those impotent little carvings.
Isaiah 41:24 “Behold, you are of no account, And your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.”

Everything in that statement is true.
• Idols aren’t worth anything.
• Idols can’t do anything.
• And everyone who chooses to worship idols instead of the living God is in fact an abomination and deserves judgment at the hand of God.

As our youth have been studying in Romans 1:
Romans 1:18-25 “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 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. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.”

• If you suppress the truth about the true God of creation
• And instead choose to give His glory and honor to some carved image
• Then you absolutely deserve every ounce of judgment that you will receive.

God deserves honor and gratitude
Those who give it to some hunk of stone instead of Him
Deserve to be punished.

IDOLATRY IS AN ABOMINATION.

THAT IS WHY God went on to say that
He was sending Cyrus of Persia to meet out judgment.

Isaiah 41:25 “I have aroused one from the north, and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My name; And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, Even as the potter treads clay.”

• Cyrus will come and he will crush you.
• He will trample you under foot.
• He will walk on you like gravel.

And God asks if any other god is going to be able to stop him?

Isaiah 41:28-29 “But when I look, there is no one, And there is no counselor among them Who, if I ask, can give an answer. “Behold, all of them are false; Their works are worthless, Their molten images are wind and emptiness.”

• No one helps.
• No one delivers.
• No one can save.

All of your idols are false and worthless and empty.

AND THAT IS HOW THE CHAPTER ENDED.
God telling the coastlands that on the day Cyrus arrives
They are going to be sorely disappointed in the saviors they have made.

And we know that God WOULD BE TOTALLY JUST if He just said, “See ya, good luck with the coming judgment!”

But what did we learn about God in John 3:16?
“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.”

Even though they have rejected Him.
Even though they have become an abomination.
Even though they have given the glory He deserves to idols.
God still loves humanity.
And God still offers them salvation.

And that is what we read about in Isaiah 42.
We find here an invitation from God to the world
To come to Israel’s Savior.

Jesus is not only the hope of Israel, He is the hope of the nations.
He is the hope of the coastlands.
He is the Savior of the world.

And now, after having revealed to the nations that their plans of salvation won’t work, God offers to them the Savior who will.

Let’s look at this amazing invitation of God
Which is given even to an idolatrous, pagan, Gentile people, who do not deserve it.

5 points here
#1 THE SAVIOR ANNOUNCED
Isaiah 42:1-4

I hope as we read these verses you have something in you that is saying, “That is familiar, have I seen that before?”

Because you have.
TURN TO: MATTHEW 12

I wish I had the time to fully develop for you the entire setting that prompted Matthew to quote this passage, but here is a quick synopsis of what you need to know.

The first 11 chapters of Matthew’s gospel primarily do 2 things.
• They reveal Jesus as the Messiah (lineage, birth, coronation, miracles)
• They reveal how badly man needs Him (Sermon on the Mount)

Most of the first 11 chapters of Mathew’s gospel
Are very convicting if not totally condemning.

It reveals man’s unrighteousness and unwillingness to hear the truth.

In fact, it is in chapter 11 where Jesus announces that
Israel is unwilling to hear what He has to say.

• That is where He pronounces judgment upon Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum
• Saying that even Sodom, Tyre, and Sidon would have repented if they had received the amount of truth these cities had seen.

Jesus was living among stubborn sinners who hated the truth.

But it was at this time that Jesus offered the great invitation of the book.
(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.”

It is an invitation, NOT TO the strong OR TO the righteous,
BUT TO the broken and the meek and the exhausted.

He promised to remove their burden and give them rest in exchange.
It is all bound up in His ability to fulfill the Law on behalf of sinners and impute that earned righteousness to their account.
• He will do the work for them.
• He will pay off their debt.
• They will go free and can now enjoy rest from their labors.

It is the glorious invitation of Jesus
To save those who know they cannot save themselves.

We love that about Him.

We do, but the religious leaders did not.
They just hear Jesus declare free all of those people they had spent a lifetime enslaving.
• Remember they were the ones who tied up heavy burdens on people?
• Remember they were the ones who kept people in bondage under their added commands?

Jesus coming and declaring men free did not set well
In chapter 12 the battles began to break out.

• You see the Pharisees attack Jesus and His disciples for supposedly working on the Sabbath (1-8)
• You see the Pharisees bring a man with a withered hand into the synagogue to test to see if Jesus will break their Sabbath rules. (9-14)

And it ends ultimately with the Pharisees seeking to destroy Jesus.
He was setting all their prisoners free, they had to do something.

And then we get to verse 15.
(READ 15-21)

We see that Jesus withdraws.
• He doesn’t stay to debate the hard-hearted religious elite,
• He withdraws to continue to share the gospel to others.
He continues to work miracles.
• Unlike the Pharisees He actually demands to be kept in anonymity.

He’s not looking for earthly popularity or power,
• He is looking to save those who need saving.

And as Matthew sees this humble Savior,
Willing to save anyone who is broken, anywhere and anytime,
It clicks with Matthew.

(17-21) “This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “BEHOLD, MY SERVANT WHOM I HAVE CHOSEN; MY BELOVED IN WHOM MY SOUL is WELL-PLEASED; I WILL PUT MY SPIRIT UPON HIM, AND HE SHALL PROCLAIM JUSTICE TO THE GENTILES. “HE WILL NOT QUARREL, NOR CRY OUT; NOR WILL ANYONE HEAR HIS VOICE IN THE STREETS. “A BATTERED REED HE WILL NOT BREAK OFF, AND A SMOLDERING WICK HE WILL NOT PUT OUT, UNTIL HE LEADS JUSTICE TO VICTORY. “AND IN HIS NAME THE GENTILES WILL HOPE.”

Matthew quotes Isaiah 42:1-4

He is the One Isaiah talked about.
• The One who would save anyone, even Gentiles.
• The One who would save the broken and hopeless.
• The One who unlike the false saviors came to set sinners free not bind them

Matthew, like Isaiah, reminds that Jesus is the world’s Savior.
He saves sinners from every people tribe and tongue.

THIS IS THE LOVE GOD IS OFFERING
Even to these pagan coastlands
Who thus far have preferred a hunk of molten metal to God.

So let’s look at this competent Savior whom God has sent to the world.

I want to break this down into 5 facts about him.

1) HIS CALLING (1)

“Behold, My Servant, whom I uphold; My chosen one in whom My soul delights. I have put My Spirit upon Him; He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

If you want to talk about a fully loaded statement, this is it.
How many ways can God endorse Him?

• He is “My Servant” – the One who is with Me.
• He is the One “whom I uphold” – the only One I’m supporting.
• He is “My chosen one” – the One I have selected.
• He is the One “in whom My soul delights” – the only One I’m pleased with.
• “I have put My Spirit upon Him” – the only One I have equipped.

How many ways does God have to say it?
JESUS IS HIS CHOSEN AND APPROVED SAVIOR OF THE WORLD.

In all the conversations that are had about competing religions today…
You know someone says “There are many roads up the same mountain”.

• People like this so-called god because of this reason…
• People choose this so-called savior because of that reason…

But continually overlooked by these people
Is the one question they ought to be asking.

You ought not ask what Savior you are willing to accept.
You ought to ask what Savior God is willing to accept.

We talk about this in the book of Hebrews with the conversations regarding the High Priest.
Hebrews 5:1-4 “For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins; he can deal gently with the ignorant and misguided, since he himself also is beset with weakness; and because of it he is obligated to offer sacrifices for sins, as for the people, so also for himself. And no one takes the honor to himself, but receives it when he is called by God, even as Aaron was.”

• We have a man here whose sole purpose is to mediate between God and man.
• He is selected to take the sacrificial offering before God to appease His wrath.
• He is presenting the offering for his sin and for your sin.
• But key to the understanding is the statement, “And no one takes the honor
to himself, but receives it when he is called by God”

That is to say, the priest will do you no good if God won’t deal with him.
You must use the priest that God has agreed to deal with.

And how true must this also be of the Savior.
It is of little consequence if you like him
If the God to whom you must be reconciled does not.

Well, the beauty of this passage is that
God mentions from the beginning that this coming servant is
His chosen, approved, acceptable, even delightful Savior.

Jesus is endorsed by God.
John 5:36-37 “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. “And the Father who sent Me, He has testified of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time nor seen His form.”

God not only ACCEPTS Him, God ENDORSES Him.

God UPHOLDS Him.
“My Servant, whom I uphold;”

• Do we not see God protecting Him in infancy?
• Do we not see God sending angels to ministry to Him after His temptation?
• Do we not see God testifying to Him through His miraculous power?
• Do we not see God strengthening Him in all hardship and suffering?

God DELIGHTS in Him.
“My chosen one in whom My soul delights.”

• Did God not speak audibly at His baptism that “this is My beloved Son in whom I am well-pleased”?
• Did He not audibly testify again at His transfiguration?
• Did God not raise Him from the dead?

God EMPOWERS Him.
“I have put My Spirit upon Him”

Certainly in His deity Jesus is omnipotent, but in His humanity
He had to be clothed with power from on high.

And God did that.
• The Spirit descended upon Him in the form of a dove.
• And Jesus went in the power of the Spirit doing all manner of miraculous works that could only be attributed to God.

This is God’s Savior.

And about this Savior God says:
“He will bring forth justice to the nations.”

First we see the guarantee: “He will”
There is no chance that He will not succeed.

Your pathetic idols that sit there not tottering
Can’t even speak let alone deliver.
THIS ONE WILL SUCCEED.

He will succeed in bringing “justice”

• Do you moan and grieve over the injustice of this world?
• Do you grieve corruption?
• Do you grieve suffering?
• Do you grieve death?
• Do you grieve hunger, sickness, poverty, cruelty?

All those things are here because of the idolatrous heart of man.

But God’s Savior will bring “justice”
And not just to the Jews, but to “the nations”.

HE IS THE WORLD’S SAVIOR.

So all of you coastlands
• Who are languishing under the load of a created idol that can’t do anything except not fall over…
• Who are terrified at the prospect of Persia coming in and trampling you under foot…

WHY NOT LOOK TO GOD’S ENDORSED SAVIOR?
He is the Savior whom God sent to save the nations.

That is His Calling
2) HIS COMMUNICATION (2)

“He will not cry out or raise His voice, Nor make His voice heard in the street.”

It is a simple way to speak of His gentleness and compassion.
• He is not a bully.
• He is not a carnival barker.

When this verse is quoted by Matthew in the New Testament he uses a couple of interesting words.

Matthew quotes this verse as “He will not quarrel or cry out”

“quarrel” translates ER-ID-ZO and it means “to wrangle” or “argue”.

One commentator noted that, “used to describe the calm temper of Jesus in contrast with the vehemence of the Jewish doctors wrangling together about tenets and practices”
https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g2051/nasb95/mgnt/0-1/

In other words, where you might see doctors arguing or complaining about what a pain all the patients are and fighting over the best ways to treat them, not Jesus.

• We think of that hemorrhaging woman who had endured so much at the
hands of the doctors and had only grown worse.

• We think of the synagogue official who actually scolded the woman who was
bent over double for coming to be healed on the Sabbath.

And Jesus is nothing like that.
• If you come to Him for SALVATION He won’t attack you, He will save you.
• If you come to Him in your INFIRMITY He won’t belittle you, He will heal you.
• If you come to Him in your SIN He won’t mock you, He will forgive you.

He is a Savior, not a carnival barker.

The other word Matthew uses is “cry out”
“cry out” translates KROW-GAD-ZO it actually means to “squawk like a bird”

Some ancient Greek writings use it for people who cry out in the theatre, we might think of it as a roaring crowd at a football game.

IT IS THE OBNOXIOUS CRY OF THE FAN.

That is not Jesus.
• He isn’t trying to manipulate you or exploit you.
• He isn’t trying to use you.
• He is content to save you without making a big deal about it for everyone to see.

• He didn’t parade the woman at the well, she did that on her own.
• He didn’t walk Matthew through the streets boasting about how powerful He was.
• He didn’t use Zaccheus or the woman caught in adultery as website headlines to garner attention.

He didn’t come to bully.
He didn’t come to threaten.
He didn’t come to exploit.
He didn’t come to enslave.
HE CAME TO SAVE.

His Calling, His Communication
3) HIS COMPASSION (3)

“A bruised reed He will not break And a dimly burning wick He will not extinguish; He will faithfully bring forth justice.”

We know what “a bruised reed” is.
• If you take one of those reeds like a cane pole you fish with,
• Once you bend it in two there’s no supporting it again, it’s broken.

We know what “a dimly burning wick” is.
• It is a candle wick that is no longer flaming, it’s just smoldering.

THE FIRST IS a broken person who has nothing left that the world sees of value.
THE SECOND IS a hopeless person who feels as though they have nothing left to give.

One is cast off by the world the other is cast off by themselves.

JESUS CASTS OFF NEITHER.
• Mary Madalene had 7 demons…
• The woman at the well had 5 husbands…
• Matthew and Zaccheus had ruined reputations…
• The woman in the synagogue had been bound for 18 years…
• Countless others had physical liabilities…

AND JESUS HAD TIME FOR THEM ALL.

He wasn’t like a typical world ruler who only wanted to surround Himself with the strongest and most obvious victors.

He saw the broken, the cripple, the lame, the exhausted, and the hopeless
And He welcomed them.

In fact, He offered mercy to them.
• Who could forget the woman of ill repute in the Pharisees house?

Luke 7:44-50 “Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. “You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. “You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Where the world sees only people they can use for their advantage
Jesus was filled with compassion.

He didn’t come to use people, He came to save people.
• Even broken people.
• Even people who seemed to have no value.
• He doesn’t reject the outcast.

And God even announces a promise here at the end of verse 4
“He will faithfully bring forth justice.”

If you read the translation Matthew gives in his gospel it says, “until He leads justice to victory.”

WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?

It means He will totally succeed in His mission
And actually save everyone He came to save.

He will not fail in His mission for one single person He came to save.

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

• He will do it.

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

• He didn’t come to potentially save some, He came to actually save them.

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.”

• Again, to actually save sinners.

Isaiah 53:12 “Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great, And He will divide the booty with the strong; Because He poured out Himself to death, And was numbered with the transgressors; Yet He Himself bore the sin of many, And interceded for the transgressors.”

• He actually bore the sin of many and brought salvation to them.

Do you see that Jesus didn’t come to potentially save?
He came to actually save, and “He will faithfully bring forth justice.”

John 6:37-39 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “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.”

This compassionate Savior will actually save the broken and the outcast.
If you are broken and weary, then I have good news for you.
He is a real Savior who actually saves.

His Calling, His Communication, His Compassion
4) HIS COMMITMENT (4a)

“He will not be disheartened or crushed Until He has established justice in the earth…”

This verse is omitted in Matthew’s quotation, but Matthew certainly believed it.

What do we make of it?
• He won’t quit before He is finished.
• He won’t stop when it gets hard.
• He will push through and accomplish it all.

Certainly we see this in years of ministry…
Certainly we see this in that prayer in the garden…

But if there was ever any doubt as to whether or not Jesus would endure and go all the way, it is settled in one verse.

John 19:30 “Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

While Jesus was on earth the enemy threw everything he had at Him.
• He tempted Him with every temptation.
• He persecuted Him with family and religious leaders.
• He attacked Him at every turn.
AND JESUS NEVER QUIT.

Even when facing the eternal wrath of God for sin He did not commit,
JESUS ENDURED.

• Sweating drops of blood in the garden, JESUS ENDURED.
• Being wrongfully arrested by the Romans, JESUS ENDURED.
• Being tried and beaten, mocked and scorned, JESUS ENDURED.

“faithfully He bore it, spotless to the last, brought it back victorious, when from death He passed.”

5) HIS CONSUMMATION (4b)

“And the coastlands will wait expectantly for His law.”

Or as Matthew quotes it, “In His name the Gentiles will hope.”

That is to say again,
He is not just the savior of the Jews, He is the savior of the world.

1) These coastlands were facing judgment
• To try and alleviate it had decided to build idols to save them.

2) God told them it was foolish
• And pointed out that trusting idols only leads to ruin.

3) And then God introduced the one Savior who could save us all.

He reached beyond the lineage of Jews
And offers salvation to all the nations.

“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.”

JESUS IS THE HOPE OF THE NATIONS.

He saves rebellious sinners
He saves broken sinners
He saves seasoned sinners
He saves weary sinners
He saves Gentile sinners

Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners…sinners like us.

This morning, we celebrate that the best way we know how in the church,
With the taking of the Lord’s Supper.

We eat this bread and remember the body God gave Him in which He fulfilled the Law of God and earned the righteousness He imputes to us.

We drink this juice and remember the blood He shed as a payment for the sins which we committed.

And we partake in gratitude and in faith that Jesus did this for us,
Even Gentiles, even the broken and outcast, even unworthy sinners.

HE CAME TO SAVE US.

This morning we’ll have a TIME OF PREPARATION
And then partake of the Lord’s Supper.

LORD’S SUPPER

• Deacons come forward

1 Timothy 1:12-15 “I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because He considered me faithful, putting me into service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent aggressor. Yet I was shown mercy because I acted ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord was more than abundant, with the faith and love which are found in Christ Jesus. 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.”

• Give bread to deacons
• Deacon prayer
• Deacons pass out bread

Matthew 26:26 “While they were eating, Jesus took some bread, and after a blessing, He broke it and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is My body.”

• Take bread

Luke 19:8-10 “Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. “For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

• Give juice to deacons
• Deacon prayer
• Deacons pass out juice

Matthew 26:27-28 “And when He had taken a cup and given thanks, He gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you; for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins.”

• Take juice

• Deacon Prayer
• Parting Hymn

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How To Face An Uncertain Future – part 2
Isaiah 41:1-29 (8-29)
February 18, 2024

Let’s dive back into our study of this chapter tonight.

You know now the background of the chapter
• Babylon is bracing for a Medo-Persian invasion.
• They are all experiencing anxiety over Cyrus of Persia.
• To address the situation God in effect calls for a town hall meeting.

#1 GOD’S CONVERSATION
Isaiah 41:1-4

God asks the people who is behind the Medo-Persian conquest
Then He answers that it is Him.

(4) “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.’”

And our simple point was that
• If you knew God’s judgment was falling on your land wouldn’t you think it wise to seek Him and find out how to appease His wrath?

• Wouldn’t you want to do what the king of Nineveh did in the days of Jonah and beseech God’s mercy?

Well, that’s not what the people of Babylon did.

#2 GOD’S OBSERVATION
Isaiah 41:5-7

Instead of humbling themselves and seeking God they went to work.
• It was their objective to figure out a way, by their own strength, to alleviate God’s promised judgment.
• Their plan was to build a new god who could deliver them from the coming judgment.
• And they declared it good.

It is the folly of man to think that they can satisfy the righteous requirements of a holy God through their own human efforts.

And at this point we just noticed
The horrible condition that the sinners of Babylon are in.
They are headed for judgment and nothing they have done will stop it.

But then we came to the comforting part of the chapter.
While God’s judgment is falling squarely on Babylon,
God takes a moment to make sure His people understand
That His wrath is not focused on them.

#3 GOD’S CONSOLATION
Isaiah 41:8-20

God is NOT sending Medo-Persia to conquer His people.
His wrath is reserved for the pagans who do not trust Him.

And so we started looking at the message that
God has for His people even as they live in uncertain times.

This is a great message for you church as we live in uncertain times.

• We can see God’s obvious wrath on our nation.
• We can see that God has given our society over to idolatry, homosexuality,
and depraved thinking.
• God’s wrath is evident.

But we also are reminded that it is not His people that He is angry at,
Nor is it His people that He is judging.

God has not destined us for wrath.
There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.

So we get a section of tremendous comfort.
4 promises of God to His people in an uncertain future.

1) I HAVE CHOSEN YOU IN COVENANT (8-9)

The foundational point here is that
God has a completely DIFFERENT DESTINY for His people.

“My servant”
“whom I have chosen”
“My friend”

And it carries the understanding with us that
• If God sent His Son to redeem us by shedding His own blood on the cross to save us from wrath, do you suppose that God is going to then turn around and judge us anyway?

Would God so waste the sacrifice of His only Son?

NO, WE ARE HIS.
He watches over us, He has chosen us, He calls us friend.

Certainly that was true for Israel,
But it is also TRUE OF US GENTILES
Who have been adopted into fellowship with God.

Ephesians 2:13 “But now in Christ Jesus you who formerly were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”

Ephesians 2:19 “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household,”

Paul lays it out so wonderfully in Romans 8:
Romans 8:29-32 “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?”

While the world should most certainly live in absolute dread of the coming wrath of God, the church has nothing to fear.

WE ARE CHOSEN.

Not only that, but look at verse 9.
(9) “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.”

This speaks to the great lengths from which God called His people.

Sometimes we say things like, “I’m grateful to have been born in a nation where Christ was readily accessible.”

And that is a wonderful opportunity,
But the reality is that if you are God’s chosen
He’s coming to “the ends of the earth” to “its remotest parts” to get you.

There was no where Israel could go that they were beyond God’s reach.

They were his.
So are we.

And God reiterates, “I have chosen you and not rejected you.”

It’s the truth that you’re His, by His doing, according to His will,
And therefore you do not need to fear His judgment.

WHAT A COMFORT
When you live in a world that is earning God’s judgment by the second.

I have chosen you in covenant
2) I AM WITH YOU IN CHAOS (10)

“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.”

We think of all the things that are broadcasted throughout our airways and so many of them are DESIGNED TO MAKE US AFRAID.

FEAR IS A GREAT MANIPULATOR.
I don’t watch it anymore, but I remember several years ago turning on Shawn Hannity on Fox news and he opened his segment with the words, “Why you need to be afraid…”

That’s what they pump at us. They sell chaos and tell us to be afraid.

That’s what is going on here for these people.
One can only imagine the talk at the market about Cyrus and Persians.
Anxiety would be running high.

But that runs absolutely contrary to the message of Scripture
Where God tells His people, “Do not fear”.
And the reason is because, “I am with you.”

The circumstances may be scary, but remember I AM THERE.
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.”

• Do we need the reminder about that 4th man in the flame?
• Do we need the reminder of who shut the lions mouths?
• Do we need the reminder of Jesus saying, “Surely I am with you always…”?

And He reiterates it:
“Do not anxiously look about you”
Why? “for I am your God.”

Never forget THE GOD FACTOR.
He makes all the difference.
And He promises to be with His people.

Philippians 4:6-9 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

And that is certainly a good reminder even to us today
Who dwell in an anxiety loving uncertain world.

WE HAVE GOD AND HE IS OUR GOD.

And the promise again pointed out.
“I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

Whatever the challenge you face, I’ll give you the strength to meet it.
When the trials come, He will hold us.

Jude 24-25 “Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling, and to make you stand in the presence of His glory blameless with great joy, to the only God our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.”

He keeps us from stumbling.
He makes us stand.

We have a great High Priest “who is able to save forever those who draw near to God through Him since He always lives to make intercession for them”.

When you hear that anxiety causing news,
Remember that the news never tells you about
The presence of God in the midst of your trial.

God reminds His people, I am with you in chaos.

3) I WILL HELP YOU IN CONFLICT (11-16)

(11-13) “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.”

Here God puts a special spotlight on the literal enemies of His people.
• Maybe it was the Babylonians still…
• Maybe it was other refugees…
• Maybe it was the Persians…

What is true is that
It doesn’t matter because God is bigger than all of them.

• God promises shame and dishonor for all those who are angry at His people.
• God promises all those who contend will perish.
• God says you’ll actually go out looking for your enemies and won’t find them.

WHY?
“For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’”

How many conflicts do we read about in the Old Testament when Israel went out to battle and should not have been victorious?

• How did they get out of Egypt?
• How did they defeat Jericho?
• How did Gideon defeat the Midianites?
• How did Samson handle the Philistines?

There was one constant, God was with them.

We sometimes face difficult jobs or projects
And we think it might too much for us, but then another brother says, “Need some help?”

AND WE ARE ENERGIZED because what was impossible by ourselves
Becomes possible with a little help.

Well what is impossible if God is your help?
There is nothing that can’t be accomplished if He is in the midst of the battle.

And it’s not just because of what He can do for you,
But even what He can do through you.

(14-16) “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. “Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges; You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, And will make the hills like chaff. “You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, And the storm will scatter them; But you will rejoice in the LORD, You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.”

I hope you caught the transformation.
• God starts out by calling Jacob “you worm”.
• And that is not far off.

But notice what God says in verse 15, “Behold, I have made you a new, sharp threshing sledge with double edges;”
• A threshing sledge was like a wooden pallet pulled over the top of the grain.
• It twisted and ground the grain and separated the grain from the stalk.
• It was a tool meant specifically to damage and separate.

Back in Isaiah 21 we were told that in Babylon the children of Israel would be a threshed people.

Isaiah 21:10 “O my threshed people, and my afflicted of the threshing floor! What I have heard from the LORD of hosts, The God of Israel, I make known to you.”

They were going to get pummeled in Babylon for a season.

Isaiah 28 reminded however that threshing wasn’t mean to last forever.

Isaiah 28:28 “Grain for bread is crushed, Indeed, he does not continue to thresh it forever. Because the wheel of his cart and his horses eventually damage it, He does not thresh it longer.”

We remember Isaiah telling his people not to be a tough nut to crack.

But now we find, here at the end of the exile that
God is actually going to make Jacob the threshing sledge.

Previously he was the worm, being pulverized by the sledge,
Now he is the sledge and he is doing the pulverizing.

A contemporary analogy would be when people say, “Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug.”

Well Israel is now going from bug to windshield.

“You will thresh the mountains and pulverize them, And will make the hills like chaff.”

Your enemies will not claim victory over you,
You will have victory over them.
Certainly a Millennial Promise, but a certain promise of God.

God says, “You will winnow them, and the wind will carry them away, and the storm will scatter them;”

What is impossible for man is only possible when God is your help.
• You will succeed where success does not seem possible.
• You will win where victory seems impossible.

And at the end:
“you will rejoice in the LORD, You will glory in the Holy One of Israel.”

God is teaching His people that point which Jesus made:
“With people this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Remember that church.
• We face scary times…
• We face difficult times…
• We face overwhelming times…
• We face mountains of fear and anxiety…

But God is our help in conflict
And He is a mountain moving and mountain leveling God.

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.”

Let sinners be terrified, but let God’s people be at peace.
God is for us.

And there is one more reminder God has for His people.

4) I WILL ANSWER YOU IN CRISIS (17-20)

“The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, As the God of Israel I will not forsake them. “I will open rivers on the bare heights And springs in the midst of the valleys; I will make the wilderness a pool of water And the dry land fountains of water. “I will put the cedar in the wilderness, The acacia and the myrtle and the olive tree; I will place the juniper in the desert Together with the box tree and the cypress, That they may see and recognize, And consider and gain insight as well, That the hand of the LORD has done this, And the Holy One of Israel has created it.”

We certainly are NOT SAYING that there may not be difficult times for these Jewish people if Persia attacks.

• Certainly there are physical and political ramifications.
• Scarcity of food can be universal…
• Loss of utilities can be universal…

And so there can be some common suffering
That affects even the people of God during difficult times.

We see that even today.
It’s not like non-believers are the only people dealing with inflation.

But what God reveals here is that
He will answer the cry of His people when they are in need.

(17) “The afflicted and needy are seeking water, but there is none, And their tongue is parched with thirst; I, the LORD, will answer them Myself, As the God of Israel I will not forsake them.”

• Are you afflicted? Ask God.
• Are you thirsty? Ask God.
• Are you hungry? Ask God.

He says, “I…will answer them Myself…I will not forsake them.”

And then you see God working supernaturally to meet the needs of His people.

In verse 18
• He will bring water from places where water doesn’t exist.
• Like water from a rock and fountains in the desert.

He will bring so much water that in verse 19 it will grow cedars and myrtles and olive trees.

And it will become apparent to all that God has done this.

He promises not to forsake the cry of His people.
He promises not to ignore the needy among them.

Didn’t Jesus tell us not to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear?
Didn’t Jesus demonstrate on more than one occasion that bread was not an issue for Him?

Our God brought bread from heaven and water from a rock.
And He promises provision for His people.

While the nations are busy stock-piling and hording and prepping,
God has already told us that our security is not in our storehouse,
But in His promises.

HE IS FOR HIS PEOPLE.

So while the world is building idols and putting all their trust in them.

God is busy promising His people that He will care for them.
• He has Chosen them.
• He will be with them.
• He will help them.
• He will answer them.

Jesus does not forsake His own.

Listen to His prayer the night before He was crucified.
John 17:11-15 “I am no longer in the world; and yet they themselves are in the world, and I come to You. Holy Father, keep them in Your name, the name which You have given Me, that they may be one even as We are. “While I was with them, I was keeping them in Your name which You have given Me; and I guarded them and not one of them perished but the son of perdition, so that the Scripture would be fulfilled. “But now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world so that they may have My joy made full in themselves. “I have given them Your word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. “I do not ask You to take them out of the world, but to keep them from the evil one.”

I don’t know what kind of judgment God might bring on the land.
Famine, war, blackout, whatever.

Romans 8:35-39 “Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “FOR YOUR SAKE WE ARE BEING PUT TO DEATH ALL DAY LONG; WE WERE CONSIDERED AS SHEEP TO BE SLAUGHTERED.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I don’t know what kind of judgment God might bring on the land,
But I do know that His children need not fear it.

GOD CARES FOR HIS OWN.
That is God’s reassurance to His people.

So here we are at this town hall meeting.
• God has announced that He is the driving force behind Persia.
• He in effect asked the peoples how they were going to respond
• They decided to turn to their own homemade gods.
• God then announced what He will be doing for His people.

And that brings us to the next point.
#4 GOD’S EXAMINATION
Isaiah 41:21-24

This one is an all-out challenge by God.

I just told you what I am going to do for My people.
What I want to know is what your gods plan for you?

So here God calls those idols that were made to the center of the room.
I’d like to hear from you.

“Present your case,” the LORD says. “Bring forward your strong arguments,” The King of Jacob says.”

I have chosen My people.
I am going to be with them.
I am going to help them.
I am going to answer them.
What are you going to do for your people?

(22) “Let them bring forth and declare to us what is going to take place…”
In other words, have your idol prophesy about what is coming. (crickets)

Ok, well, let’s regroup.
“As for the former events, declare what they were, That we may consider them and know their outcome.”
If you don’t want to divulge the future, why don’t you help us make sense of the past? Why don’t you tell us what you were doing through all of that.
(crickets)

“Or announce to us what is coming;”
Just give us some sort of assurance about the future even if you aren’t going to get specific about events.
(crickets)

(23) “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.”

DO SOMETHING!
SAY SOMETHING!
Don’t just sit there not falling over.

• Give us some insight.
• Make some promise.
• Give encouragement, give a threat, give insight, something.
(crickets)

Throughout the entire cross examination
It appears their fancy little graven image chose to plead the 5th.

And so God gives His thoughts.
(24) “Behold, you are of no account, And your work amounts to nothing; He who chooses you is an abomination.”

• “no account”
• “nothing”
• “abomination”

How foolish is it to trust in some other savior.

And we can’t help but think of the world’s would-be saviors.

Do you know how many in our country right now think Trump is a savior?
(Oh, they’ll say he’s not a savior.)

But
• I’ve heard promises that he is really in control even though you can’t see it.
• I’ve heard prophecies that he is coming back.
• I’ve heard prophecies that when he comes back he’ll restore wealth and
prosperity to the land.
• I’ve heard about other nations and religions bowing to him.

For someone they say isn’t a savior they sure treat him a lot like Jesus.

Others see their storerooms and gun vaults
As their source of security and protection.

Me, I’ve got 14 chickens.

“no account” “nothing”

Do you see how foolish it is to trust in anything other than God?
• Who else has promises like His?
• Who else has power like His?
• Who else can do what He does?

It is so foolish that these nations in Babylon,

Even when given the opportunity to trust in God and find “new strength”

They would instead choose to run to an idol that does not totter,
But that does nothing else either.

And that leads to the final point of the chapter.

#5 GOD’S DECLARATION
Isaiah 41:25-29

At this point all has been heard.
• God has announced that He is the One sending Cyrus
• He has announced what He is going to do to protect His people in the midst of it.
• He has also observed that instead of trusting Him, the nations have determined to build for themselves gods who literally know nothing.

SO NOW COMES THE FINAL DECLARATION OF GOD
TO CONCLUDE THIS TOWN HALL MEETING.

He reiterates the facts.
(25) “I have aroused one from the north, and he has come; From the rising of the sun he will call on My name; And he will come upon rulers as upon mortar, Even as the potter treads clay.”

• Cyrus is coming and I am the One who sent Him.
• And He is going to run over this place.

(26) “Who has declared this from the beginning, that we might know? Or from former times, that we may say, “He is right!”? Surely there was no one who declared, Surely there was no one who proclaimed, Surely there was no one who heard your words.”

• I am the only One who knows this.
• I am the only One who has a solution for this.
• I am the only One worth listening to on the subject.

(27) “Formerly I said to Zion, ‘Behold, here they are.’ And to Jerusalem, ‘I will give a messenger of good news.’”

God reminds the nations that He is in total control of the situation
And His people will be fine.

But the same cannot be said for the coastlands
Who refuse to listen to Him.

(28-29) “But when I look, there is no one, And there is no counselor among them Who, if I ask, can give an answer. “Behold, all of them are false; Their works are worthless, Their molten images are wind and emptiness.”

Your idols are worthless and useless and emptiness.
• They can’t counsel you.
• They can’t enlighten you.
• They certainly can’t deliver you.

It reminds of how Jude spoke of false prophets in the church.
Jude 12-13 “These are the men who are hidden reefs in your love feasts when they feast with you without fear, caring for themselves; clouds without water, carried along by winds; autumn trees without fruit, doubly dead, uprooted; wild waves of the sea, casting up their own shame like foam; wandering stars, for whom the black darkness has been reserved forever.”

And yet this is who the nations are trusting in.

SO NOW, WHAT IS THE POINT?
What is it that we are supposed to learn from a chapter like this?

Even in our world
We understand what it is to have anxiety about the future.
We have all developed a sense that things may be getting worse.
• We hear rumors of recession.
• We hear rumors of war.
• We hear rumors of corruption.

We don’t really know what is true and what isn’t,
But there is no shortage of information that might cause us anxiety.

But what God says here speaks directly to such concern.

• If you are God’s child you have nothing to fear.
• God is sovereign over all of it.
• He does not forget His children.

So if you are a child of God,
Take a deep breath and rest in Him.

I’m NOT telling you that you have to bury your head in the sand and totally ignore all external news, I’m just telling you to listen to it in the right mindset.

Know that God is in control of all of it,
And even if God is bringing judgment upon our nation,
Know that His judgment is not on His children.

He has chosen us.
He is with us.
He will help us.
He will answer us.

TURN TO: PSALMS 135

What a great reminder for the people of God.
Our God has always been a deliverer of His people,
And as His people we have nothing to fear.

It is those WHO DO NOT KNOW GOD who should be concerned.

It is those who are putting their trust in their own efforts
Or in some politician or in some system
Or in some hoard of supplies or goods that should be concerned.

None of those things can save you in the day of God’s judgment.

And so the call of God to unredeemed sinners is clear.
(1) “Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength;”

God will give that same “new strength” and hope to you
If you will stop your arguing, stop your striving, and start listening to God and submit to Him.

Trust Him and He’ll save you too.

Acts 17:29-31 “Being then the children of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and thought of man. “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”

And that is the message for the unredeemed.
• Don’t think God is anything like the false gods of this world.
• He is far more glorious.
• And the true God demands repentance from you before the judgment comes.

So in light of troubling times.
• If you are a child of God then rest in Him.
• If you are not, then repent and run to Him.

It is the only way to survive in light of an uncertain future.

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How To Face An Uncertain Future – Part 1
Isaiah 41:1-29 (1-8)
February 18, 2024

This morning we move into the 41st chapter of Isaiah.
• I remind you again that Isaiah is speaking prophetically to a group of people 100 years after his time.
• He is speaking to those refugees who are now living in Babylon in what we call “The Exile”.

And in this chapter Isaiah is addressing an event
That has everyone in Babylon just a little terrified.

That event is “The Medo-Persian Invasion”.

• Though Nebuchadnezzar did terrorize the known world and conquer many kingdoms and take many captives, Nebuchadnezzar is now dead.
• Following Nebuchadnezzar Babylon had a host of instability in their leadership.
• Several assassinations and short reigns.
• The last ruler of Babylon would be Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar’s grandson, whom you see in Daniel 5.
• He’s the one who received the handwriting on the wall and was killed that very night.

The point being, as Isaiah writes, Babylon’s days are numbered.

You have two world rulers who have united:
• Darius the Mede
• Cyrus of Persia
• And they have set their gaze on Babylon.

And as the reality of the coming invasion sets in,
The level of fear and anxiety in Babylon begins to rise.

IT IS FEAR FOR ALL WHO LIVE THERE
• Will the Medes and the Persians spare anyone?
• What do we do?
• How should we respond to the news?

THINK ABOUT IT.
• You are living in a nation that has been designated by God for destruction.
• You know that the nation God has ordained to conquer you is on its way.
• How do you handle it?

This isn’t so far-fetched even in OUR DAY.

If you are willing to read Romans 1 honestly and accurately there can be no doubt that our nation is currently suffering under the wrath of God.

When we read about God giving a nation over to
idolatry, homosexuality, and depravity of thinking…
Only a blind fool would fail to see our nation in this list.

Romans 1 says that when a nation is given over
To such ideology and behavior
That this is evidence that you are under God’s wrath.

It’s like the old revivalist Vance Havner used to say, “It’s Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve and if God doesn’t judge America He’s going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.”

WE KNOW THIS.

In some ways we feel like Habakkuk.
• He was the prophet whose soul was tormented by the evil in his day
• And he was grieved that God wasn’t seemingly doing anything to stop it.

Habakkuk 1:1-4 “The oracle which Habakkuk the prophet saw. How long, O LORD, will I call for help, And You will not hear? I cry out to You, “Violence!” Yet You do not save. 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. Therefore the law is ignored And justice is never upheld. For the wicked surround the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted.”

• Habakkuk was frustrated with God for seemingly giving over his land to immoral
paganism.
• Habakkuk wanted God to so something.

God responded:
Habakkuk 1:5-6 “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days— You would not believe if you were told. “For behold, I am raising up the Chaldeans, That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs.”

God’s response to Habakkuk was, “I am doing something, I’m about to send Babylon in to destroy your nation.”

At the end of the prophecy Habakkuk recounted
The type of anxiety and fear this revelation caused.

Habakkuk 3:16 “I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble. Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.”

I think we understand that type of feeling,
Though perhaps not yet as intensely as Habakkuk did.

Well now we are about 60 or 70 years after the time of Habakkuk.
• Babylon did come and they did destroy Judah.
• But now it is Babylon who is under God’s judgment
• They are waiting for the Medes and the Persians to come and destroy them.

AND THERE IS FEAR AND ANXIETY.

It is the type of fear and anxiety that you might be prone to have
When you consider what the future of our nation might be.

As I said…
I don’t think it’s hard at all to put ourselves in their shoes.

So here we have a people living in tension,
Waiting for the day of invasion to come.

And in the midst of this terrifying scenario
God calls for a town hall meeting.
• He calls for all to come as God seeks to have a discussion with them all.
• He wants to speak to pagan Babylonians
• He wants to speak to other refugees from other nations.
• He wants to speak to the Jewish captives of Babylon.
• He wants to address them all.

What God has to say is remarkable,
And again it is meant to bring comfort to His people.

We’re going to break this chapter down into 5 points.

#1 GOD’S CONVERSATION
Isaiah 41:1-4

You notice first that Isaiah is addressing the “Coastlands”.

This is his way of speaking to everyone who is currently in Babylon.
• This is a general audience.
• This is a message for all peoples.
• Everyone in Babylon is invited to come and hear what God has to say.

As I mentioned, it is a town hall meeting of sorts.

“Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength;”

I hope you see THE GRACIOUS INVITATION that is taking place here.

We just learned at the end of chapter 40 a very valuable truth.

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

We saw it last Sunday night that God offers “new strength” to those who will wait on Him.
• If you will place your hope and trust and expectation on God…
• If you will look to God for your salvation and deliverance…
• Then God will supply you with “new strength”

It is a supernatural strength, beyond human ability,
That allows you to face hardship and to continue to endure.

In many ways it is like “hope” that drives you for another day.

And the point of Isaiah 40:31 is that this hope or “new strength”
Is the immediate benefit of placing your trust in God.

That was the offer Isaiah made to Israel in chapter 40.

But now, we get to chapter 41 and we find that
God is extending that offer to all in Babylon, not just the Jewish refugees.

“Coastlands, listen to Me in silence, And let the peoples gain new strength.”

Here is that same offer.
Only this time God uses different language as to the requirement placed upon the people.

• Where as chapter 40 told Israel to “Wait for the LORD”
• Here the coastlands are told to “listen to Me in silence”

That is to say, “You need to stop following your own logic, and you need to pay attention to what I’m saying without argument.”

James gave similar counsel:
James 1:19-20 “This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger; for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

• Be quick to listen to what God has to say.
• Be slow to speak in opposition to it.
• And be slow to get angry when God tells you something you don’t want to hear.

It speaks of a heart that is eager and open and submissive
To what God has to say.

That is God’s invitation to all the peoples of Babylon.
• Cast aside your own thinking…
• Cast aside your own logic…
• Close your mouth and listen to what I have to say.

The end result of heeding and obeying My word is that you will also “gain new strength.”

So FIRST, you need to come and listen to Me.

Then “Let them come forward, then let them speak; Let us come together for judgment.”

This is NOT God saying, “Come here so I can judge you.”

This IS God saying,
• “Gather to Me, listen to what I have to say,
• answer Me when I ask you,
• and then you can make a decision based on what I have said.”

So let’s listen to what God has to say in this town hall meeting.

He starts with a question:
(2) “Who has aroused one from the east Whom He calls in righteous to His feet?”

We don’t see his name yet mentioned.
• That won’t happen until 44:28,
• But God is referring here to Cyrus of Persia.

And God is asking, who got Cyrus all stirred up?
• Who is behind his rise?
• Who is the One motivating his conquest?

We ask questions like that in our own political climate.
• Who is calling the shots?
• Who is really in control?
• Whose agenda is pushing all of this?

And then God gives a little news report
On exactly what this Cyrus is up to.

(2b-3) “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.”

God recounts that Cyrus is A FORCE to be reckoned with.
• He conquers kings and make them like dust.
• He scatterers people like chaff.
• He pursues his enemies while he seems to travel in some sort of protection.

And again the question is:
Who is behind all of this?

Who is sending and empowering and protecting Cyrus that he would be so successful in his conquest?

(4) “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.’”

GOD IS BEHIND IT.
“I’m doing this”, God says.

We just learned in the last chapter that the power of nations belongs to God.
Isaiah 40:15-17 “Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, And are regarded as a speck of dust on the scales; Behold, He lifts up the islands like fine dust. Even Lebanon is not enough to burn, Nor its beasts enough for a burnt offering. All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”

• God is the One who causes one nation to rise and another to fall.
• God appoints the length and glory of their reign.
• It’s all on His calendar for His purposes.

And now He announces that He is bringing Babylon to an end
And bringing Medo-Persia to the forefront.

Again, we know this about God.
Romans 13:1 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

Not so long ago it was God who was raising up Babylon.
Jeremiah 25:8-9 “Therefore thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘Because you have not obeyed My words, behold, I will send and take all the families of the north,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will send to Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, My servant, and will bring them against this land and against its inhabitants and against all these nations round about; and I will utterly destroy them and make them a horror and a hissing, and an everlasting desolation.”

• That is what God told Habakkuk too.

And before Babylon it was God raising up Assyria.
Isaiah 10:5-6 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation, I send it against a godless nation And commission it against the people of My fury To capture booty and to seize plunder, And to trample them down like mud in the streets.”

You see it.
Daniel announced that Medo-Persia isn’t even the last.
• God has plans for Greece to topple them
• And then Rome to topple them,
• And that holds true down throughout the ages.

And it will be of great help to you today church
If you will see the current political landscape
Through the same lens.

I know it is hard to wrap our minds around such truths.
AFTER ALL,
• Tiglath-Pileser of Assyria was a vile godless pagan.
• Nebuchadnezzar was a vile godless pagan.
• Darius the Mede is going to require everyone to pray to him and no one else.
• Cyrus is no worshiper of God.
• Alexander the Great is a pagan
• The Roman emperor’s were not godly men

And yet, we see that throughout history
God used them and brought them to power on the world’s scene.

And that trickles even to our own day and the current world leadership.
• It is hard for us to come to grips with a reality where it is God who put Joe Biden or the corrupt around him into office.

They love abortion, they love homosexuality, they love money,
They love deceit, they think backward about everything.

AND WE WONDER: How in the world it could be God’s will for such godless people to be in power?

That was Habakkuk’s question when God told him that He was brining the Chaldeans.
Habakkuk 1:12-17 “Are You not from everlasting, O LORD, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O LORD, have appointed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to correct. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor. Why do You look with favor On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they? Why have You made men like the fish of the sea, Like creeping things without a ruler over them? The Chaldeans bring all of them up with a hook, Drag them away with their net, And gather them together in their fishing net. Therefore they rejoice and are glad. Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net; Because through these things their catch is large, And their food is plentiful. Will they therefore empty their net And continually slay nations without sparing?”

It’s a hard reality to process.
That God would use and even bring to power the wicked.

UNLESS you come to grips with the reality that
They could in fact be God’s judgment.

We see it in the Bible that one of the ways God judges a nation
Is by giving that nation foolish leaders that lead it to ruin.

BUT THE POINT OF GOD HERE is that judgment is on its way and I’m the One doing it.
• I am the One “who has performed and accomplished it”
• I have decreed this “from the beginning”
• This is all part of My plan.
• The rise and fall of nations is My prerogative.

NOW YOU WOULD THINK that there is one question that should be circulating in this town-hall type meeting.

• If it is God who is sending Cyrus…
• If it is God who has orchestrated this coming invasion…
• THEN WHAT DOES GOD WANT FROM US?

We think of the wise King of Nineveh
Jonah 3:6-9 “When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes. He issued a proclamation and it said, “In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. “But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth; and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands. “Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish.”

This ought to be the next leg of the conversation.
God’s announcement should be met with
Humility and repentance and seeking God’s face.

Well, let’s see how this town hall responds…

God’s Conversation
#2 GOD’S OBSERVATION
Isaiah 41:5-7

Here is the response of the coastlands.
(5) “The coastlands have seen and are afraid; The ends of the earth tremble; They have drawn near and have come.”

Well that’s not a terrible start.
• At least the people showed up to hear what God had to say.
• At least they are rightly grasping the severity of the situation.

I mean we saw Israel ahead of the Assyrian invasion
Totally disregarding the danger:
Isaiah 22:12-13 “Therefore in that day the Lord GOD of hosts called you to weeping, to wailing, To shaving the head and to wearing sackcloth. Instead, there is gaiety and gladness, Killing of cattle and slaughtering of sheep, Eating of meat and drinking of wine: “Let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we may die.”

That was a terrible response to God’s announcement of judgment.

So at least they are listening and are serious minded.

So, now that you have heard the revelation of God, what do you have to say?

(6-7) “Each one helps his neighbor And says to his brother, “Be strong!” So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, “It is good”; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter.”

Well that was a terribly wrong response!
• Instead of telling God they were sorry.
• Instead of asking God for guidance and forgiveness.
• Instead of calling for a fast or repentance.
• The each turn to their neighbor and say “Be strong!”

God calls to submission and repentance and instead
These people do what false religions have done for years…
They determine to work harder to fix the problem themselves.

Instead of looking upward to God, they look inward to their own strength.

It’s the tower of Babel where men have a plan to save themselves through their own ingenuity and human effort.

You can fill in the blank of all the different types of works men have tried to do over the years to save themselves, but here it shows up in idolatry.

• These men hear that God is sending judgment
• Instead of repenting and crying out to God for His “new strength”
• They tell each other to “Be strong!”

Don’t seek God’s strength, find your own!
And use that strength to make the best idol you’ve ever made in your life!

“So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil…”

It is an entire community of men steeped in religious work
And all encouraging the other to do well!

And then when the idol is completed,
They look it over and say, “It is good”

That is a blasphemous statement.
• It is to mimic God’s good creation.
• There is none good but God alone.

These men worked really hard to make a god
That they put on the same level with God.
IT IS A DEFIANT BLASPHEMY!

And again, don’t miss THE IRONY that Isaiah loves to throw in there.
“And he fastens it with nails, so that it will not totter.”

• It continues to be the universal power that all of these idols have.
• It is the one thing they can actually do; stand upright without falling over.
• I can’t tell you what a big help that is going to be when Persia arrives.

If you think this is not the mindset of OUR CULTURE
Then you are not paying attention.

I can tell you that
• God is judging the United States and that our corrupt leaders are evidence of
that.

Even secular news agencies will warn
• Of potential wars or potential blackouts or potential pandemics or potential
economic collapses.

But what do men do upon hearing such warnings?
• Do they run to God?
• Do they repent in dust and ashes?
• Have you seen revival break out in our land; in our churches?

No, they organize a political campaign to change it.
They stockpile supplies to survive a blackout.
They buy gold or silver or precious metals to store under their mattress.

Instead of addressing the source of the judgment
They work hard to figure out a way to beat it on their own.

That is missing the point!

But that is the observation of God.
He told them He was sending judgment but instead of reconciling with God they trust in their own efforts and ingenuity.

BUT LISTEN, THAT IS THE UNREDEEMED.
That is how the unredeemed respond.
And they are in very grave danger before God.

But that is NOT true for
Those who have determined to wait on the LORD.
Those who are trusting in Christ.

And that brings us to the third point.

God’s Conversation
God’s Observation
#3 GOD’S CONSOLATION
Isaiah 41:8-20

We just learned that
• The coastlands are in very grave danger before God.
• Their refusal to listen and repent is going to get them eternally judged.
• And that is a dark piece of information.
• That is gloomy news.

But that news is NOT universal.

We love how verse 8 begins, “But you, Israel…”

What is true for them is not true for you.
I have a different plan for you.

God’s people need not fear the judgment of God.
1 Thessalonians 5:3-4 “While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief;

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.”

We remember Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares.
The fate of the wheat is nothing like the fate of the tares.

Matthew 13:30 “‘Allow both to grow together until the harvest; and in the time of the harvest I will say to the reapers, “First gather up the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them up; but gather the wheat into my barn.”’”

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

And yes church, you today can take this to the bank as well.
• It may certainly be true that God is judging the United States.
• It may certainly be true that our corrupt leaders are part of that judgment.
• It may certainly be true that a greater and more comprehensive judgment is
coming.

BUT YOU DON’T HAVE TO FEAR IT!
• While the church does suffer persecution at the hands of godless men.
• While we are pursued and attacked by Satan.
• While we do suffer in this sin-stained vile environment.
• Those sufferings are because we are hated by the god of this world.

But what we are looking at here is the coming judgment of God
And the children of God do not need to fear that judgment.

Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

Every ounce of wrath that God had toward us was settled on the cross.
• We have been reckoned righteous through the life and death of Jesus.
• Our sins have been removed from us as far as the east is from the west.
• We now have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

THE PEOPLE OF GOD DO NOT NEED TO FEAR CYRUS.

And how true this will prove to be.
• For Cyrus will destroy Babylon,
• But he will issue a decree for Israel to be able to go home and rebuild her temple.

AND THIS IS WHERE THE COMFORT COMES FROM.
THIS IS THE SOURCE OF OUR CONSOLATION.

In this world of corruption and evil that God will most certainly judge,
You do not have to fear that judgment.

GOD HAS A DIFFERENT MESSAGE FOR YOU.
And we want to begin looking at it this morning.

In verses 8-20 there are 4 promises of God
That are meant to console His people in the face of the coming judgment.

• 4 promises that were true of Israel and that are now true of us.
• You can hang your hat on these
• Even as you live inside the borders of a nation under judgment.

1) I HAVE CHOSEN YOU IN COVENANT (8-9)

“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.”

Just start out and look at the list of titles and realities that God lists here.
• “My servant”
• “Jacob whom I have chosen”
• “Descendant of Abraham my friend”
• “You whom I have taken”
• “I have chosen you”
• “and not rejected you”

It is two verses of straight reassurance.

Let’s start with the statement, “Israel, My servant”

This is NOT a title of disdain, it is rather a reality that God has taken responsibility for the well-being of Israel.
• She is under His protection.
• She is under His provision.
• She is God’s responsibility.

When Jesus spoke of servants,
• He called them the greatest among you.
• And we find His particular interest in how they are cared for and treated.

Matthew 24:45-51 “Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his master put in charge of his household to give them their food at the proper time? “Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. “Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions. “But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

A wise man does not injure them or harm the Lord’s servants.
The vengeance of the LORD will be swift on those who do.

We also see the phrase, “Jacob whom I have chosen,”

What do you mean chosen?

• Well certainly we remember God choosing Abraham from all the families of the earth and promising to bless and multiply his descendants.

• We should remember that Abraham had two sons, Ishmael first and then Isaac, but Isaac was the one God chose to bless.

• Jacob had two sons in the womb, the elder Esau and the younger Jacob, but it was God who chose Jacob over Esau in the womb.

Paul comments saying:
Romans 9:11-12 “for though the twins were not yet born and had not done anything good or bad, so that God’s purpose according to His choice would stand, not because of works but because of Him who calls, it was said to her, “THE OLDER WILL SERVE THE YOUNGER.”

And it is Moses who reminds the people:
Deuteronomy 7:6 “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God; the LORD your God has chosen you to be a people for His own possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth.”

Out of all the peoples and all nations, God chose you to be His people.

Moses continued:
Deuteronomy 7:7-8 “The LORD did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any of the peoples, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but because the LORD loved you and kept the oath which He swore to your forefathers, the LORD brought you out by a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”

• It wasn’t because of their intrinsic value that God chose them.
• It wasn’t because they were bigger or stronger or smarter.
• Their selection was nothing but pure grace.

Those whom God chooses,
He chooses out of grace, not because they deserved it.

We see the same in the New Testament:
1 Corinthians 1:26-29 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God.”

Jesus said it:
John 15:16 “You did not choose Me but I chose you, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you.”

God’s people are God’s people
Because God wants them to be His people.

IT’S NOT LIKE
• We came and talked God into accepting us,
• And even though He really didn’t want to, He let us come.
• And even though we kind of irritate Him, He lets us stay.

No, God desired you.
God chose you.

And part of that choosing requires the payment on your behalf.
GOD HAD TO REDEEM YOU.

There was a monstrous sin debt that had to be satisfied.
Atonement had to be made.
AND GOD DID THAT!

We remember that story of Hosea and Gomer.
She was the unfaithful wife, but Hosea was sent to redeem her.

Hosea 3:1-2 “Then the LORD said to me, “Go again, love a woman who is loved by her husband, yet an adulteress, even as the LORD loves the sons of Israel, though they turn to other gods and love raisin cakes.” So I bought her for myself for fifteen shekels of silver and a homer and a half of barley.”

The fact that it took all of his money and part of his grain indicates the enormous cost.

AND WE ALSO:
1 Peter 1:18-19 “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers, but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”

THIS IS WHY GOD’S PEOPLE SHOULD NOT FEAR.
• You are not in danger.
• I have chosen you to be My servant.
• You are mine.
• I have redeemed you.

And more than just a servant.
“Descendant of Abraham My friend”

It all points to the reality that God views His children differently.

Now, there is a lot more to be said here and we will return to it tonight,
But this morning let’s just close with this reassuring thought.

IT IS TRUE – Sin has infested this world and God is judging it.
• What is more, He is coming to judge it even more thoroughly.
• Sinners will weep and languish over what God is bringing upon them.

BUT… His judgment is not for His children.
• He has chosen us
• He has redeemed us
• He calls us friend

Church, you do not have to fear the coming judgment of God.
All the judgment you deserved
Was already poured out on Christ on the cross.

So while this world is in chaos
And is scrambling to create a god that will help them overcome,
All you need to do is trust in God.

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

download here

Here Is Your God – Part 6
Isaiah 40:1-31 (27-31)
February 11, 2024

So tonight let’s GET TO THE HEART of the matter.
We know the purpose of the chapter, that was made clear at the outset.

(1) “Comfort, O comfort My people,” says your God.”

GOD WANTS HIS PEOPLE COMFORTED.
• This is a message to the troubled children of God.
• This is a message to the child of God who is in despair.
• This is a message to the child of God who feels neglected, abandoned, and confused.

And the reality is that life has a way of doing that to us, even as believers.
We face trials. – We face struggles. – We face adversity.

These things are promised to us in life.
• Partly because of the sin-stained world in which we live.
• Partly because God uses it for our sanctification.

The problem occurs when
We as God’s children don’t know how to handle it.

Isaiah 40 represents people in that boat.
• Exiled to Babylon.
• Having spent decades there.
• They feel neglected and abandoned.

And here has been the kicker for the entire chapter.

THEIR DESPAIR IS THEIR FAULT.
It is the direct consequence of
Having forgotten who God is and what God does.

Isaiah has been commissioned to
• Stand on a high mountain
• Remind God’s people who He is.

We’ve already seen the first two realities that these refugees forgot.

#1 GOD’S PROMISES
Isaiah 40:1-11

• Namely that God forgives His children
• And He will send a glorious Shepherd King to deliver them.

#2 GOD’S POWER
Isaiah 40:12-26

Namely that God is nothing like:
• Men – He’s infinitely wiser
• Nations – He’s infinitely larger and more powerful
• Idols – He’s actually present
• Rulers – He’s got real authority
• Universe – He’s a reliable guide

And the implication that we left off with this morning is that

If God so intimately cares for the stars,
Many of which no one even knows exist but Him.
How much more will He care for His children whom He has redeemed?

Romans 8:32 “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?”

God has made you PROMISES
God definitely has the POWER to bring those promises to fruition.

Well tonight, let’s look at the 3rd thing these disillusioned refugees forgot.
#3 GOD’S PERSEVERANCE
Isaiah 40:27-31

When we speak of God’s perseverance we mean it in the sense that
God never gives up on His promise or His people.

2 Timothy 2:11-13 “It is a trustworthy statement: For if we died with Him, we will also live with Him; If we endure, we will also reign with Him; If we deny Him, He also will deny us; If we are faithless, He remains faithful, for He cannot deny Himself.”

That is the same thing Paul meant when he reminded that:
Romans 11:29 “for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

Or earlier in that chapter.
Romans 11:1-2a “I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew.”

It is that final doctrine of grace that we love so much.
• The standard TULIP refers to it as “The Perseverance of the Saints”,
• But it is more rightly understood as “The Preservation of the Saints”.

It is not so much a focus on the saints ability to endure
As it is on the reality that
God will accomplish the salvation that He promised.

He does not quit.
He does not stop.
He does not grow disillusioned.
He does not throw in the towel.

Philippians 1:6 “For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus.”

Or as we love in Romans 8:
Romans 8:30 “and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.”

1 Thessalonians 5:24 “Faithful is He who calls you, and He also will bring it to pass.”

It is that reality that is mentioned by Isaiah here in verse 28
When Isaiah says that God “Does not become weary or tired.”

He rested on the 7th day, but not due to exhaustion.
He rested because He was finished
He will not rest again until His work of redemption is finished.

And this is IMPORTANT FOR US TO REMEMBER,
Especially when we face circumstances that might bring us despair.

• We must remember God’s promises.
• We must remember God’s power.
• We must remember God’s perseverance to see it through to the end.

And that is where we want to land this evening
As we look at these very familiar verses.

And again, as we have done, let’s break this down a little bit further.
Tonight let’s take a closer look at the despair that prompted this chapter
And then find the remedy for it.

1) THE SOUND OF DESPAIR (27)

“Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?”

We have already referenced this verse a number of times here in Isaiah 40
As it gives us great insight into the motivation behind the chapter.

These refugees are distraught.
But what exactly is their lament?
What exactly is their complaint?

We have already discussed the implications here that perhaps GOD DOESN’T SEE.

• That is implied in the phrase “My way is hidden from the LORD”
• That is of course absurd since God is not like man or idols.
• He definitely knows what is going on.

We have also addressed the implication that perhaps GOD IS DISINTERESTED.

• Implied in the phrase “the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”
• As though God just has sort of lost interest in what’s going on in your life.
• But the God who holds the stars certainly has not forgotten His children.

We could even discuss that perhaps God is acting unjustly.

• Implied by the statement that I have not received “the justice due me”
• That was Job’s complaint.
• That perhaps God has failed to rightly reward me for the way I have lived.

We spot a bucket full of problems with that insinuation.

Now WHAT IS INTERESTING is that
So far Isaiah has NOT really directly addressed their accusation.

Isaiah has talked of God’s promises of mercy and salvation,
• But the complaint here wasn’t that God hasn’t made promises to us.
• They don’t say, “God hasn’t promised me any good.”

Isaiah has talked of God’s power over and above the powers of this earth,
• But the complaint is not that God isn’t powerful.
• They don’t say, “God is too weak to help.”

The real heart of their complaint is not that
God hasn’t promised or that God doesn’t have power.

The real heart of their complaint is that
God has for some reason forgotten, or given up, or failed to care.

THE ACTUAL ACCUSATION HAS TO DO WITH GOD NOT CARING.
• You just don’t care anymore.
• You just don’t love me.
• You have grown disinterested.
• You must have quit on me.

Why else would I still be here in Babylon with no explanation?

That is the sound of despair.
Psalms 77:7-10 “Will the Lord reject forever? And will He never be favorable again? Has His lovingkindness ceased forever? Has His promise come to an end forever? Has God forgotten to be gracious, Or has He in anger withdrawn His compassion? Selah. Then I said, “It is my grief, That the right hand of the Most High has changed.”

It is the cry of the disciples in the boat:
Mark 4:38 “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?”

It is the cry of the EXILE.
It is the cry of the PRISONER.
It is the cry of the LONELY.
It is the cry of the SICK.
It is the cry of so many in their affliction.
And it is the cry that has inspired this entire chapter.

And so now, at the conclusion Isaiah gets to the thing, perhaps they needed to remember more than anything he has said thus far.

The Sound of Despair
2) THE SOURCE OF DESPAIR (28-29)

“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth Does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.”

There it is again.
• It’s time for Isaiah to discuss something either you didn’t know or something you heard and have forgotten.

And it is all bound up in theology.
Once again you have forgotten who God is.

We already said you forgot His PROMISES and His POWER,
Well now let’s discuss what else you have forgotten.

HIS PERSONALITY
“The Everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth.”

Well there is a mouthful of theology!

“The Everlasting God”

Think on that for a moment.
It speaks of His eternal nature.

When Moses asked God what His name was
So that he could answer the children of Israel in Egypt
God answered by saying His name was “I Am”.

NOT “I Was” or “I Will Be”
God is always in the present.

He does not dwell inside of time like we do.
• Our lives our confined to milliseconds at a time.
• We can’t go back to a moment ago,
• We can’t speed forward to a few moments from now.
• We are always stuck.
• We have a past, we have present, and we have a future.

But God doesn’t dwell in any of those – HE IS.
He is the God “who was and is and is to come.”

It is INCONCEIVABLE to our minds that
God is present in the past, the present, and the future.

Psalms 90:1-2 “Lord, You have been our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were born Or You gave birth to the earth and the world, Even from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

He IS God, not was God or will be God,
But “from everlasting to everlasting, You are God.”

Now that is impossible for us to reconcile in our minds.
It is too lofty.

However, it is important that you grasp some sense of it
Because it will greatly change how you view God’s promises.

If I make my kids a promise about something in the future,
• I can have every intent on fulfilling it.
• Even something simple like, “When church is over, we’ll go home.”

That’s well within my intent.
That seems well within my power.

BUT even at that, there are contingencies that I can’t possibly know
And so even the best of plans are subject to change.

Any number of things could happen that could keep me from keeping my promise.

But when God makes a promise bout the future,
There is no possibility of some contingency changing His plan
Because as He makes that promise HE IS ALREADY IN THE FUTURE.

IT’S DONE.
• He’s not just looking ahead to the future, He’s in the future.
• He’s not just learning from the past, He’s in the past.
• He’s not just observing the present with us, He’s here.

This is what makes His promises so certain.
• There is no, “if everything goes to plan” type promise with God.
• There is no, “we’ll wait and see” with Him.
• There are no, “good intentions” or “I’ll do My best” with Him.
• It’s done. He is eternal.

So how could you question God’s awareness of your problem?
How could you question God’s plan to fix it?

God has not just promised you what He will do,
He has promised you what He has done,
You just haven’t gotten there yet.

He is “the Everlasting God”

But Isaiah also reminds that He is “The LORD”
• That is the covenantal name by which He relates to His people.

It is interesting in this sense that when Isaiah addresses these people
In verse 27 he calls them, “O Jacob”.

It is a reminder who they are to God and who God is to them.

And let’s just think there for a second
How the reality of Jacob’s life could be so relevant to their situation.

Do you remember when God approached Jacob and entered into a covenant with him?

Genesis 28:10-15 “Then Jacob departed from Beersheba and went toward Haran. He came to a certain place and spent the night there, because the sun had set; and he took one of the stones of the place and put it under his head, and lay down in that place. He had a dream, and behold, a ladder was set on the earth with its top reaching to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it. And behold, the LORD stood above it and said, “I am the LORD, the God of your father Abraham and the God of Isaac; the land on which you lie, I will give it to you and to your descendants. “Your descendants will also be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east and to the north and to the south; and in you and in your descendants shall all the families of the earth be blessed. “Behold, I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

The very promise of God to him was, “I am with you and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you.”

Do you think it is a coincidence that Isaiah now calls these refugees “O Jacob”?

OF COURSE NOT!

Even at the end of Jacob’s life as he was once again outside of the borders of the Promised Land and lay dying in Egypt.

Jacob said:
Genesis 48:21 “Then Israel said to Joseph, “Behold, I am about to die, but God will be with you, and bring you back to the land of your fathers.”

Jacob knew who the LORD was.
He was the covenantal God to them.

So often referred to as “The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”
• The One who promised to bless and care for their descendants
• And to give them this land of promise.

Here Isaiah reminds them not only of God’s ETERNAL NATURE,
But also of God’s COVENANTAL NATURE.

He is not just the eternal God, He is YOUR God!
HOW CAN YOU ASK IF HE HAS FORGOTTEN YOU?

Later Isaiah will reveal:
Isaiah 49:15 “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.”

God does not forsake His people.
Christ does not forget those for whom He died.

He is “The Everlasting God, the LORD”

And Isaiah also reminds that He is “the Creator of the ends of the earth.”

We AREN’T just talking about creative power here,
Though that is certainly in play.

“the ends of the earth” is a phrase that speaks of the far distances of nowhere. It is far far away.

BUT GOD IS THERE.

Psalms 139:7-12 “Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in Sheol, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the dawn, If I dwell in the remotest part of the sea, Even there Your hand will lead me, And Your right hand will lay hold of me. If I say, “Surely the darkness will overwhelm me, And the light around me will be night,” Even the darkness is not dark to You, And the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and light are alike to You.”

And if God is at “the ends of the earth” do you seriously think He is not in Babylon?

Do you think yourself to be outside of His jurisdiction?
In every land, in ever ICU room, in every prison cell, in every battlefield, in every fiery furnace and lion’s den.
• He is there.
• He is always there
• And He is already there.

Don’t forget who He is.
You are lamenting that somehow God must not know what is going on,
Or that if He does know He no longer cares.

Nonsense, that’s not who He is at all.
You need to be refreshed about HIS PERSONALITY.

Or how about HIS PERSEVERANCE
(28b) “Does not become weary or tired.”

• He has never known exhaustion.
• He has never had to take a break.
• He rests when He is finished not when He is discouraged.

No challenge is beyond Him
Therefore no challenge can discourage Him.

No foe is equal to Him
Therefore no foe can battle Him to the point of being tired.

Your battle may be exhausting you, but it is not exhausting God.
He doesn’t get tired.
He is always able.

Or let’s talk about HIS PERCEPTION
(28c) “His understanding is inscrutable.”

He is always wise.
Nothing stumps Him.

Psalms 147:5 “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

He knows what to do and He knows what He is doing.

When you are in a trial and you don’t know what to do,
Don’t assume that God is as confused as you.

Just because God hasn’t seen fit to explain the situation to you
Does not mean He doesn’t know what to do.

As I read this week:
“We don’t live by explanations, we live by promises.”

We don’t expect God to explain everything to us,
We just believe what He promises and know He’s got it all figured out.

Or let’s talk about HIS PROVISION
(29) “He gives strength to the weary, And to him who lacks might He increases power.”

Do you not know this about God?
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.”

IT IS INTERESTING TO NOTE
That the complaint of these refugees was that they had received no “justice”.
• By justice they meant deliverance from their slavery in Babylon.
• They thought it to be unjust, seemingly having forgotten the idolatry and sin that landed them there.

But all along instead of asking for “justice”,(i.e. “deliverance”)
They should have been asking for “strength” and “power”.

God promises these things for His afflicted people.

He is the source of such things.

And it is apparent that these refugees had forgotten all of that.

THAT WAS THE SOURCE OF THEIR DESPAIR.

They were languishing in Babylon
As though God was nowhere near, couldn’t see, had forgotten,
And didn’t care about them.

And it is easy for us as humans to fall into that error,
Especially when we think God to be like us at all.

So Isaiah strengthens their theology yet again.

GOD IS EVERLASTING,
• He is not only present in your trial, but He is standing at the end of it.

GOD IS COMPASSIONATE,
• He is the LORD, your covenantal God,
• The One who chose to save you and the One who will bring it to pass.

GOD IS PRESENT
• Even at the ends of the earth and He is certainly present with you.

GOD IS TIRELESS
• In His work and efforts.

GOD IS WISE
• And knows exactly what is going on.

GOD IS BENEVOLENT
• And eager to give you what you need in the moment.

Have you forgotten that about God?
Have you failed to take advantage of who He is?

YES YOU ARE IN EXILE.
YES IT IS DIFFICULT.
BUT
• You are NOT there because God is absent.
• You are NOT there because God lacks concern.
• You are NOT there because God is weary or tired.
• You are NOT there because God doesn’t know what to do.

And take that for a moment
And apply it to whatever circumstance YOU FIND YOURSELF in.

If you think the trial in your life is because
• God hasn’t forgiven you
• Or because God hasn’t saved you
• Or because God is absent
• Or because God doesn’t care
• Or because God is tired
• Or because God is confused about what to do.

Then you don’t know God at all.
And it’s no wonder why you are in despair.

AND AT THIS POINT we would almost expect one of those refugees or someone even today who is suffering to interject and ask:

If I’m not in this situation because God is absent or because God is unconcerned or because God is weary or because God is confused…
THEN WHY AM I HERE?

And here comes the answer.

IT IS NOT FOR YOU TO KNOW WHY,
IT IS FOR YOU TO KNOW HIM.

This chapter is addressing suffering people
Who are confused about their suffering
And Isaiah has spent 29 verses addressing their issue.

But he has not said one word about why they are there.

• He has not even mentioned the idolatry that is clearly laid out in Jeremiah.
• He hasn’t said anything about the mistake of Hezekiah to show off his treasures to Babylon.
• He hasn’t said anything about Manasseh and the way he shed innocent blood.

These people were in despair and Isaiah hasn’t devoted one word
To explaining to them why they are there.

But he has devoted 29 verses to explaining to them who God is.

When you face these trials
It is not for you to know why it is for you to know Him.

So that brings us now to the famous passage and
THE PRIMARY POINT OF ISAIAH.

The Sound of Despair
The Source of Despair
3) THE SOLUTION FOR DESPAIR (30-31)

“Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength; They will mount up with wings like eagles, They will run and not get tired, They will walk and not become weary.”

First we recognize the often used strategy of God
And that is to put you in a situation beyond your strength.

“Though youths grow weary and tired, And vigorous young men stumble badly…”

God is not the type of God who likes to put you in situations
Which can be solved by your own strength or your own intellect.

He puts you in situations that are beyond you.
He puts you in situations that you cannot handle.

Because He is cruel? NO!
It is so you’ll come to Him.

You are not there to know WHY, you are there to know HIM.

2 Corinthians 1:8-10 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,”

2 Corinthians 12:8-9 “Concerning this I implored the Lord three times that it might leave me. And He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.” Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”

Paul spoke of the purpose of his trials.
It wasn’t to know why, it was to know Him.

And look at this glorious promise!

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

• Isaiah speaks of a reality where a person can soar like an eagle.
• Isaiah speaks of a reality where a person can run without getting tired.
• Isaiah speaks of a reality where a person can walk without weariness.

And you say, “That’s not humanly possible.”

Exactly.
• We are talking now about something beyond human ability.
• We are talking now about something that isn’t natural,
• We are talking about something that is supernatural.

We are talking about God doing something in you, through you,
And even for you that you can not do on your own.

He has not placed you in this trial so that you will see how strong you are.
He has placed you in this trial so that you will see how strong He is.

SO WHAT ARE WE TALKING ABOUT?
Isaiah calls it “new strength”.
• It is an influx of power that you didn’t think was possible.
• It is endurance beyond your normal ability.

Let me tell you what Isaiah is talking about here.
IT IS HOPE

When Paul told the Philippians to be anxious for nothing,
• He told them to pray to God
• And God would supply a peace that is beyond comprehension.
• It is a peace when you shouldn’t be at peace.

Well this is a hope when you shouldn’t have hope.
• This is a calmness when you shouldn’t be calm.
• This is assurance when nothing you can see should cause assurance.

Where does this come from?
“Yet those who wait for the LORD Will gain new strength.”

The Hebrew word for “wait” is (KAW-VAW)
It means “wait” or “look for” or “hope” or “expect”

Isaiah 5:2 “He dug it all around, removed its stones, And planted it with the choicest vine. And He built a tower in the middle of it And also hewed out a wine vat in it; Then He expected it to produce good grapes, But it produced only worthless ones.”

• It is the person who in the trial has believed GOD’S PROMISES.
• It is the person who in the trial has believed GOD’S POWER.
• It is the person who in the trial has believed GOD’S PERSEVERANCE.

They refuse to dwell upon the circumstances that they see with their eyes
But they believe God is doing what He said He would do.

They don’t fear men because God is wiser than men.
They don’t fear nations because God is more powerful than nations.
They don’t fear idols because God is bigger than idols.
They don’t fear rulers because God is more authoritative than rulers.
They don’t fear horoscopes because God is more accurate than the stars.
They don’t fear condemnation because God has promised forgiveness.
They don’t fear destruction because God has promised a Savior.

In the middle of their despair, they fix their eyes on Jesus
And out of nowhere comes this hope to endure another day.

In the middle of hardship, they focus on God and His promises
And there is strength beyond what they could have imagined.

If the hope you have is in your own ability or intelligence,
You have a miserable powerless hope.

Our hope; our strength; comes
• When we look beyond our weakness and failure to the ginormous, powerful, all-wise, eternal, omnipresent, compassionate God of the universe!

Our hope comes
• When we focus on what He has promised.

And then somehow, in a way that we cannot understand,
This great God of ours puts within us His supernatural strength
To carry on another day, and then another day, and then another day.

Poured into our hearts is a hope that we cannot explain!

It is the hope of Job:
Job 19:25-26 “As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, And at the last He will take His stand on the earth. “Even after my skin is destroyed, Yet from my flesh I shall see God;”

It is the hope of Asaph:
Psalms 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”

It is the hope of Paul:
2 Corinthians 4:8-10 “we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying about in the body the dying of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

AND IT IS THE HOPE AVAILABLE TO YOU.

Hebrews 6:19 “This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,”

Romans 8:24-25 “For in hope we have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait eagerly for it.”

1 Thessalonians 5:8-9 “But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,”

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Fix your eyes on Jesus!
Fix your eyes on the glorious promises of God!
Fix your eyes on the glorious power of God!
Fix your eyes on the glorious perseverance of God!

Expect Him to do what He has promised.
Gaze upon His mighty power.
Remember that He never grows tired or weary.
And you will find the strength you need to endure,
Even beyond what you are able on your own.
And you will find “comfort” even in your trial.

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Here Is Your God – Part 5
Isaiah 40:1-31 (18-26)
February 11, 2024

I want to start this morning with the same quote
We started with last Sunday night from A.W. Tozer.

“Let us beware lest we in our pride accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before visible objects of adoration, and that civilized peoples are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him.”
(Tozer, A.W. [The Knowledge of the Holy; Harper & Row; New York, NY; 1961] pg. 11)

And the point we made upon that quote was simply to remind that
Weak theology is idolatrous too.

Any time we ascribe to God less than He is,
Whether that be by a graven image or merely a mental one
It is to ascribe to Him less than He deserves.

That is idolatry and it is a sin.
And certainly the 70 year captivity period would be a valuable time of education for Israel to learn that God punishes idolatry.

But what Isaiah is addressing here in Isaiah 40 is
A DIFFERENT CONSEQUENCE OF IDOLATRY.

Isaiah isn’t so much addressing God’s wrath which idolatry incites, But the inevitable consequence of despair which idolatry produces

Your thoughts about God have consequences which affect your life.
• If you believe God to be a gracious God then you will rejoice in the fact that He has shown grace to you.
• If you believe God to be a loving God then you will rejoice in the fact that He has loved you.
• If you believe God to be like a cow then on the day you need deliverance you are going to be sorely disheartened because cows aren’t not known for their saving power.

And this is where the children of Israel have found themselves.

I remind you again of their despair.
(27) “Why do you say, O Jacob, and assert, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the LORD, And the justice due me escapes the notice of my God”?”

This was THEIR COMPLAINT.
More than that, it had become THEIR BELIEF.

• They actually believed that God could not see them in their affliction.
• They actually believed that their plight was hidden from God.

They were not seeing Him as the all-knowing omniscient One.

These refugees in Babylon had instead seen God as regional
And limited in His knowledge and therefore unable to help.

THE QUESTION I would bring to you again is:
WHAT CAUSED THEM TO DEVELOP SUCH LOW VIEWS OF GOD?

And the answer is: IDOLATRY
• The children of Israel had dumbed Him down.
• The children of Israel had distorted who He is.
• They had stepped into idolatry and it wasn’t long before they began to
associate the attributes of their idols to God.

AND THE INEVITABLE EFFECT WAS DESPAIR.
If your theology reduces God to something less than He is,
Then on the day that you need the glorious God of the universe
You will be in despair.

It DOESN’T MEAN that you will have succeeded in dumbing Him down.
He is still as glorious as He ever was, it is just that you will fail to see Him and trust Him,
Having forgotten who He is and what He does.

Idolatry can have disastrous effects on your life.

THE SOLUTION to that problem then is to have your theology corrected.

And this is Isaiah’s chief mission.
(9) “Get yourself up on a high mountain, O Zion, bearer of good news, Lift up your voice mightily, O Jerusalem, bearer of good news; Lift it up, do not fear. Say to the cities of Judah, “Here is your God!”

The objective of Isaiah is to climb the highest peak
And to hold up a right view of God before the people.
HE IS ON A THEOLOGY CORRECTING MISSION.

He has set out to remind these refugees of 3 things.
1. God’s Promises
2. God’s Power
3. God’s Perseverance

We spent the first 3 sermons talking about:
#1 GOD’S PROMISES
Isaiah 40:1-11

• He promises forgiveness for His children
• He has promised a coming glorious shepherd King to come and deliver
• Remember that and your despair will begin to disappear.

#2 GOD’S POWER
Isaiah 40:12-26

We started this one last Sunday night.
We might even better refer to it as God’s Preeminence.

Israel had not only forgotten that God was gracious and merciful and One who forgives iniquity and saves His people.

ISRAEL HAD ALSO FORGOTTEN THAT
God had the power to do that which He promises.

You can be merciful or gracious or loving,
But if you have no power it is an empty sentiment.

In these 15 verses God is rising up to defend His power.

Israel had dumbed Him down by comparison.

They had begun to compare God to MEN
• That in some way God’s wisdom and man’s wisdom are similar.

They had begun to compare God to NATIONS
• That in some way God’s power and the power of nations are similar.

They had begun to compare God to IDOLS
• That in some way God’s opportunity and that of idols are similar.

They had begun to compare God to RULERS
• That in some way God’s decrees and that of earthly rulers are similar.

They had begun to compare God to STARS
• That in some way God’s guidance and that of the stars is similar.

In these 15 verses God sets the record straight on each one of them.

We saw the first two Sunday night.

As God compared Himself:
1) TO MAN (12-14)

The point there obviously had to do with wisdom.
• We are so certain that we know what to do.
• We become so puffed up in our wisdom and logic.

Often times we will even ignore what God has to say
Because it doesn’t make good sense to us.

• We are prone to sit in judgment of God’s decrees.
• We are pone to question God’s directives.

All of this is a sort of THEOLOGICAL IDOLATRY.
It is to bring God’s wisdom down to the level of man.

God is not impressed.
(13-14) “Who has directed the Spirit of the LORD, Or as His counselor has informed Him? With whom did He consult and who gave Him understanding? And who taught Him in the path of justice and taught Him knowledge And informed Him of the way of understanding?”

• We have a God who created the heavens and the earth.
• We have a God who imagined the beauty of the seas and all the fish in them.
• We have a God who formed humanity and the intricacies of the human body.
• We have a God who determined natural laws like gravity or inertia.

And the simple question is: WHAT MAN HELPED HIM?
NO ONE!

Would you really seek to compare the wisdom of God to the wisdom of man?

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.”

Paul said:
1 Corinthians 1:25 “Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”

Saying God is wise like man is a foolish comparison.
HE IS WAY WISER!

Psalms 147:5 “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

Isaiah will close this chapter in verse 28 saying, “His understanding is inscrutable.” (i.e. impossible to understand or interpret)

NO COMPARISON.

We also saw last Sunday night God compare Himself:
2) TO NATIONS (15-17)

Nations were remarkable symbols of power.
• These refugees were actually held captive in Babylon.
• No one could thwart them or stop them.
• They were the “super power” of the day.

And the refugees could not imagine that even God would be able to do anything with such a mighty foe as Babylon in control.

Similar to today
• When men get so concerned about the power of Russia or China
• When men assume the United States is some unfailing power to deliver.

But again God reminded that He is not like the nations.
(17) “All the nations are as nothing before Him, They are regarded by Him as less than nothing and meaningless.”

• He called them “a drop from a bucket”
• He called them “a speck of dust on the scales”

You just can’t get more insignificant than they are.

We saw how Daniel spoke to Babylon and named not only the country who would topple them, but 2 more kingdoms after that.
• Babylon then Persia then Greece then Rome.
• They all thought themselves to be eternal in power and none of them lasted.

GOD IS NOT LIKE THEM.
If you think God’s power is no greater than the nations
You are going to be sorely disappointed.

So once again there is NO COMPARISON.
• God’s wisdom is not like man’s wisdom.
• God’s power is not like the power of the nations.
• He is infinitely greater!

We saw those last time. Let’s move forward THIS MORNING.

Next we see God’s comparison
3) TO IDOLS (18-22)

“To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him? As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, A goldsmith plates it with gold, And a silversmith fashions chains of silver. He who is too impoverished for such an offering Selects a tree that does not rot; He seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman To prepare an idol that will not totter. Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”

God begins to address the typical comparison that is made
Of God to graven images.

This practice is EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN in the Ten Commandments.
Exodus 20:4-6 “You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. “You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

The irony of this text is that
• While God was giving that command to Moses on Sinai
• Aaron was at the bottom of the mountain fashioning a golden calf.

And we pay special attention to what was said by Aaron
Upon completion of Israel’s most famous idol.

Exodus 32:4-5 “He took this from their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a molten calf; and they said, “This is your god, O Israel, who brought you up from the land of Egypt.” Now when Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made a proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the LORD.”

• The children attributed all the miracles of the Exodus to that calf.
• Aaron then proclaimed “a feast to the LORD” (to Yahweh) before it.

The children of Israel were not trying to replace God with this calf,
They were seeking to define Him.
They were seeking to represent Him or explain Him.

They wanted something they could see and touch.
They wanted something they could understand and associate with.

And after all they had just gone through and witnessed:
• The plagues on Egypt
• The death of the firstborn
• The Passover
• The pillar of fire
• The parting of the Red Sea
• The powerful storm descending on Sinai

THE BEST THOUGHT they had in describing who God was,
WAS TO MAKE A MOLTEN CALF?
God is like a golden calf?

But this is why men like graven images.
• They are visible
• They are seemingly present
• They are simple to understand

BUT THEY ARE UTTERLY OFFENSIVE TO GOD.

“To whom then will you liken God? Or what likeness will you compare with Him?”

• We just found out that He poured the oceans from the palm of His hand.
• We just found out that He measured the universe by the span.
• We just found out that He lifts the islands like specks of dust.

No go through your room of graven images
And you tell me which one is most like Him!

(19) “As for the idol, a craftsman casts it, and goldsmith plates it with gold, and a silversmith fashions chains of silver.”

Isaiah isn’t rebuking idolatry here, he is merely explaining it.
• Man designs it.
• Man clothes it.
• Man adorns it.

This is a god made up by the thought of man.

It is a god of a man’s own choosing and design.
Designed to look and be like whatever man wants.

Now, granted not everyone can afford a golden idol with silver chains.

(20) “He who is too impoverished for such an offering selects a tree that does not rot; he seeks out for himself a skillful craftsman to prepare an idol that will not totter.”

Not as flashy, but still the same basic idea.
• It is a god designed by the thought and ability of man.
• It looks like what man intends.
• It is man’s best attempt at defining who God is.

Humorous that in both cases this new deity only has one real ability… “not totter”

That’s asking quite a lot of your god!

IS THERE ANY WONDER then whey the refugees in Babylon would have lost confidence that God would be able to come and rescue them?

They’ve spent their whole lives dumbing God down
To make Him equal with some gold covered piece of metal
Or some chainsaw carving that doesn’t fall over.

And one thing they all instinctively know while in Babylon.
THOSE GODS AREN’T COMING TO SAVE THEM!
(If God is like them, you’re toast!)

SO WHAT IS THE ATTRACTION TO MAKING THESE IDOLS?

The attraction was the visibility and the presence of the idol.
• Their god appeared present.
• Their god could be talked to.
• Their god could be touched.
• They could see him.

But with this idolatrous compromise not only did they offend God,
But they also cheated themselves out of much comfort.

Because now they have no idea just how powerful God really is.

So God steps up with His third comparison.
(21-22) “Do you not know? Have you not heard? Has it not been declared to you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He who sits above the circle of the earth, And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain And spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”

Again we get 4 questions from Isaiah.
These all come with a condescending exposure of their utter foolishness.

After all these years of being the people of God
Are you seriously going to tell me that you don’t think
God is bigger or better than those stupid little idols you forged?

“It is He who sits above the circle of the earth”
That idol might sit nicely in your living room, but God sits in the heavens!

When Jesus spoke of God and His temple:
Matthew 5:34-35 “But I say to you, make no oath at all, either by heaven, for it is the throne of God, or by the earth, for it is the footstool of His feet, or by Jerusalem, for it is THE CITY OF THE GREAT KING.”

When Paul visited Athens and saw all their temples:
Acts 17:24 “The God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands;”

When Solomon completed the temple that was actually designed by God:
1 Kings 8:27 “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold, heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain You, how much less this house which I have built!”

There is no comparison, He sits above the earth.

“And its inhabitants are like grasshoppers”

• This was one of the concerns the children of Israel voiced when they were afraid to go into the Promised Land.
• They said the land is full of giants and we looked like grasshoppers in their sight.
• That is to say, we were insignificant and posed no threat at all.

And Isaiah uses the same language here.
It is another analogy of the bigness of God in comparison to us.

“Who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in.”

If you want to conceal your idol, it’s easy,
Just put it in a closet or throw a bed sheet over it.
But it would require the whole of the cosmos to conceal God.

Are you getting the point?
THERE IS NO COMPARISON.

Here you are in Babylon
• Your little living room idol couldn’t save you.
• What is more, it didn’t come with you.
• What is more, it isn’t coming for you.
• It can’t see you and you can’t see it.
• It might not even be a god anymore at all.

ALL OF THAT IS TRUE!

BUT YOUR GOD IS NOT LIKE THEM!

Psalms 115:2-8 “Why should the nations say, “Where, now, is their God?” But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. 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.”

Jeremiah 51:15-19 “It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom, And by His understanding He stretched out the heavens. When He utters His voice, there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, And He causes the clouds to ascend from the end of the earth; He makes lightning for the rain And brings forth the wind from His storehouses. All mankind is stupid, devoid of knowledge; Every goldsmith is put to shame by his idols, For his molten images are deceitful, And there is no breath in them. They are worthless, a work of mockery; In the time of their punishment they will perish. The portion of Jacob is not like these; For the Maker of all is He, And of the tribe of His inheritance; The LORD of hosts is His name.”

If you have compared God to some idol
It’s no wonder you are disillusioned.

And notice the distinguishment Jeremiah makes there.
• He calls God “The portion of Jacob”
• He calls Israel, “the tribe of His inheritance”.

This God who dwells in the heavens, who beholds all the works of men
IS YOUR GOD.

He is present with you.
He sees what is going on.
And He, unlike your idol, has the power to fix any situation.

You say your way is hidden from God, wrong.
It is your idol who can’t see, the living God is well-aware.

Compare God to men – God is wiser!
Compare God to nations – God is more powerful!
Compare God to idols – God far more aware!

That brings us to the 4th comparison:
4) TO RULERS (23-25)

“He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble. “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.”

Even in our world we understand the effect of rulers.

We remember 2020 when we all found out the meaning of the phrase, “Executive Order”.

Rulers come not just with power, but with AUTHORITY.
And when a ruler won’t give in or change his mind
We wonder what in the world are we to do.

The refugees Isaiah addresses are in a foreign land under Nebuchadnezzar’s authority.
• They live where he lives.
• They eat what he eats.
• They face commands like “bow to this golden statue”

RULERS HAVE AUTHORITY, THEY DO WHATEVER THEY WANT.

BUT THE MISTAKE is made when we assume that
God’s authority resembles theirs in any way shape form or fashion.

God’s authority is not granted authority, it is intrinsic authority.
But man’s authority, even the highest is all derived from God.

Romans 13:1 “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”

While you may see and even lament the authority of man,
DO NOT for one second assume that
Man’s authority is in any way on par with the authority of God.

Isaiah points out the degree of authority that God has over world rulers.
“He it is who reduces rulers to nothing…”

• Ask Saul what it is like to have the kingdom taken from you?
• Or go and ask Rehoboam what it feels like.
• Perhaps Nebuchadnezzar himself would agree with this assessment after God stripped sovereignty from him for 7 years.

NO ONE REDUCES GOD.
No one takes authority from Him.
Yet He does it to any man He chooses.

Isaiah says He “makes the judges of the earth meaningless.”

While we do lament and suffer under corrupt decisions by foolish courts,
There is a part of what they do that is ACTUALLY LAUGHABLE.
• As though some human judge could determine if it is acceptable to murder
an infant in the womb.
• Or of some judge feels at liberty to redefine marriage.

They can make their ruling, but it won’t hold in heaven’s court.
Their rulings are “meaningless”.

“Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”

EARLIER He reminded us that “all flesh is like grass” and it won’t last, but God’s word “stands forever”.

HERE ISAIAH DOUBLES DOWN.

It’s not hard to pick out THE WORD OF FOCUS.
Isaiah three times uses the word “scarcely”.

This is interesting, it’s actually two words in the Hebrew.
(AF) & (BAL)

AF is a word that signifies addition.
(also, furthermore, yea, so much the more)

BAL is a word that speaks of “nothing” or “not”
(not, hardly, else)

Isaiah says here that they are “a whole lot of nothing.”
Take how much nothing they are and double it!

By comparison their authority is less than zero!
• Their decrees will fall.
• Their orders won’t last.
• Their legacy won’t be anything.
• They just aren’t as big as they think.

SO GOD ASKS AGAIN:
(25) “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.”

Which world ruler are you going to say God is most like?
• God is most like Pharaoh? – Pretty sure God can swim.
• God is most like Sennacherib – God isn’t swayed by rumors.
• God is like Nebuchadnezzar – God has never lost His sanity.

But when you reduce God to something you can understand
Then you languish thinking that He cannot deliver.

LET ME ASSURE YOU THAT GOD HAS AUHTORITY TO DELIVER.
(Just remember the Exodus)

Deuteronomy 4:32-39 “Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? “Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire, as you have heard it, and survived? “Or has a god tried to go to take for himself a nation from within another nation by trials, by signs and wonders and by war and by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm and by great terrors, as the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes? “To you it was shown that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him. “Out of the heavens He let you hear His voice to discipline you; and on earth He let you see His great fire, and you heard His words from the midst of the fire. “Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the LORD, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other.

You act like you are stuck here and there is nothing that can be done.
• Have you forgotten who your God is?
• Have you reduced Him to having no more authority than some world ruler?

Listen, your God is authority!
He acts and no one can reverse it.

Don’t compare His wisdom to mans – God is wiser.
Don’t compare His power to nations – God is stronger.
Don’t compare His awareness to idols – God is present.
Don’t compare His authority to rulers – God is sovereign.

One more comparison:
5) TO THE UNIVERSE (26)

“Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”

Stars are mentioned because astrology was huge to the Babylonians.
To them the stars were the guides.

And we’re NOT talking about ASTRONOMY where a person can get a bearing from the north star or from the southern cross.

We’re talking about astrology and the horoscopes and all of that nonsense that continues even to this day.

It is the mystical and pagan religion of looking for a sign in the heavens
To dictate what is going to happen on earth.

THE QUESTION OF ISAIAH IS THIS:
Do you really equate the direction of God to be no more reliable than that of the stars?

WE ARE NOT EQUALS!

In fact, I created these stars!
“Lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these stars”

And I don’t get My direction from the stars, I’m the One who leads them!
“The One who leads forth their host by number”

I’m their Creator and I’m the One who named them.
“He calls them by name”

Furthermore I am the One who sustains them.
“Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”

Who gives better direction, the stars or the One who created them?

WHY would you reduce the direction of God
To the level of some mystical horoscope?

• They are not accurate, God is never wrong.
• They are not clear, God speaks with extreme clarity.
• They are not dependable, God’s word never fails.
• They are not authoritative, God’s word has ultimate authority.

DO YOU SEE THE NONSENSE?

BUT YOU ALSO SEE WHY ISRAEL WAS IN SUCH A PIT OF DESPAIR.

THEY HAD REDUCED GOD IN THEIR MINDS.
THEY HAD FORGOTTEN WHO HE IS.

Because they were not faithful to keep their word,
• They assumed God was not faithful to keep His.

Because they didn’t understand what was going on.
• They assumed God didn’t understand either.

Because no nation could stand against Babylon,
• They assumed God couldn’t stand against them either.

Because their idol didn’t come with them to Babylon,
• They assumed God didn’t come either.

Because their idol wasn’t coming to save them,
• They assumed God wasn’t coming either.

Because no one could question Nebuchadnezzar’s authority,
• They assumed God couldn’t overrule him either.

Because the stars had failed to give accurate direction,
• They assumed God couldn’t give it either.

By lowering their view of God they only ended up harming themselves.

NOW HERE IS THE GOOD NEWS.
Regardless of how you may have reduced God in your theology,
Rest assured, you haven’t actually affected who He is at all.

• Just because you didn’t recognize His wisdom doesn’t mean He isn’t wise.
• Just because you didn’t recognize His power doesn’t mean He isn’t strong.
• Just because you didn’t recognize His awareness doesn’t mean He doesn’t know.
• Just because you didn’t recognize His authority doesn’t mean He isn’t sovereign.
• Just because you didn’t recognize His guidance doesn’t mean He can’t do it.

You haven’t harmed God, you’ve only harmed yourself.
And your despair is a result of having forgotten your God.

YOU HAVE FORGOTTEN
His promises of forgiveness and salvation.
His power and His ability to do that which He has promised.

SO REMEMBER THOSE THINGS AND RUN TO HIM.

Listen to Isaiah,
Who is standing on a high mountain declaring, “Here is your God!”

• And when you begin to behold Him rightly…
• And when you begin to see Him as He reveals Himself…

I promise the threat of man and nations and idols and kings and mystical horoscopes will no longer unnerve you.

BECAUSE OUR GOD IS NOT LIKE THEM.
HE IS ABOVE THEM ALL.

Stop lamenting in your pity party
That God must have forgotten or that He does not see.

Instead “Lift up your eyes on high And see who has created these stars, The One who leads forth their host by number, He calls them all by name; Because of the greatness of His might and the strength of His power, Not one of them is missing.”

And if God leads the stars, will He not lead His children?
And if God preserves the stars, will He not preserve His children?

Stop your worrying…
Stop your fretting…
Stop your whining…
See who your God is and start trusting Him!

REMEMBER HIS POWER.
We’ll finish this chapter up tonight.