Two Journeys

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Psalm 139:1-18. The main subject of the sermon is how God cherishes individual human lives.

Well, today is Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. This is a day for us annually to celebrate the gift of God's grace in human life, the astonishing work of God in crafting human beings in his image and bestowing his constant care and love on us in ways we can scarcely imagine. To celebrate that, to celebrate just the goodness that it is to be human, and to celebrate that for one another, to be able to look at another person, another human being and just realize the significance of the fact that they are human. But it's also a day for us to grieve at the constant attack on the image of God in some very clear ways in our day and age. For us to grieve over those attacks and for us to gird up our strength and to gird up the loins of our minds to protect our minds concerning these issues. So we're going to be looking at some specific ways that the sanctity of human life is connected to current events and some issues that we face today.

Now, the sanctity of human life, the idea of the sacredness of human life, is responsible for some of the most heroic moments in human experience. This past year, I don't know when, but I saw a YouTube video, some of you have been... maybe have seen these YouTube videos, “People are Awesome,” and they do these unbelievable things like with gymnastics and frisbees and parachutes and all this stuff that just boggles the mind. But there's one that hit me a whole different way, it was under the same heading, but it showed actual footage of people doing extreme things to rescue other human beings from death. Just amazing.

And by the time it was done, I was literally weeping. I was weeping at just the poignancy of these closed-circuit camera videos of people falling in front of trains, or literally being pushed by others in front of trains, or one young woman who was suicidal and up on the fourth story of a parking garage, and at any moment ready to jump, and some guy swings down and kicks her into the garage and hugs her and holds her and just starts talking to her, trying to persuade her not to kill herself, etc., and just all of these videos, one after the other. There was one, a video of a car mostly submerged. It was a flood situation and it was just a raging torrent, there was a car just maybe eight to ten feet offshore and people just standing there helpless, and some guy dives in, swims out in the current, opens the door and pulls somebody out, and the car, soon after, they get swept away downstream. And you're seeing all of these things. 

I saw one of some coastguardsmen that were just rappelling down from a helicopter on some wire, reaching down to some people on a barge and just getting them up right before it sinks. I heard in other stories, I was researching all of these, of some park rangers, I think in the Grand Tetons somewhere, and there's a severe electrical storm with wind and rain, and somebody had been already struck dead, but a number of others were trapped 60 feet down from the top on some ledge and they were desperate, and these rangers came down again, there's a helicopter involved, there were some people that rappelled down and they got everyone that was still alive back up. One person critically in need of care and they saved his life. 

So as I looked at all of those things, those amazing stories, I realized the sacredness, the sanctity of human life is woven into the very fabric of our beings, just intrinsic, inside we see... we understand the value of human life. What do we mean by the sanctity of human life? Well, the word sanctity means sacredness, set apart unto God as holy or special or different, that's what we mean by sanctity, and the idea is that human beings are set apart from the rest of creation. Why is that? Right from the beginning in Genesis chapter 1: 26-27. Very familiar, but just listen to these verses again. "Then God said, 'Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the Earth, over all the creatures that move along the ground.' So God created man in His own image, in the image of God, He created him, male and female, He created them." Even though in the subsequent unfolding of redemptive history, we know that sin entered the world and had devastating, a devastating effect on humanity, still we are in the image of God, and that image is sacred and holy and set apart. The Bible supports sacredness in many, many places.

Now, Jesus said, for example, we are worth more, worth more than many sparrows, or of how much greater value is a man than a sheep, he makes arguments about Sabbath regulations on just the clear supremacy of human existence over animals or anything else. As a matter of fact, one verse really captures this, I think, better than any of them. In Matthew 16:26, Jesus said, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?" So that means our souls are worth more than all the material possession, possessions in the entire world. God cherishes human beings. And not only that, he desires an intimate relationship with each one of us, specifically because we are created in the image of God. 

Now, that desire for an intimate relationship is captured in many, many places in Scripture, but in the psalm that you just heard read, that Walter read, Psalm 139, it really does a great job of capturing God's heart to desire an intimate relationship with us, and then the desire that we have once worked on by the Holy Spirit for the same with God. Now, this is not an exposition of Psalm 139, this is a topical sermon. I'm gonna be focusing on all of those topics, but I could with delight just spend the rest of the time in Psalm 139. I really would enjoy it. So let's do some of it, shall we? Let's just look at some of these verses because it's just marvelous how much the psalmist, David, captures the intimacy he feels with God. 

Look at it with me, if you would. Psalm 139:1 says, "Oh Lord, You have searched me and You know me. You know, when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar." What's interesting in this Psalm is the dynamic of you and me, Oh Lord, you and me. You see it in just about every verse. You, me, you, I, etc. There's this relationship between the psalmist and God. So “Oh Lord,” he addresses the Lord, “You have searched me and You know me. You know, when I sit and when I rise. You perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down. You're familiar with all of my ways. Before a word is on my tongue, oh Lord, You know it completely.”

And so this intimate knowledge that God has with us and we could easily say, "Why would you even give me a passing thought, oh God? I mean, you sit enthroned above the circle of the earth and the people are like grasshoppers to you! Why would you even care what I do? Why would you care about my going out and my coming in? Why would you care about a single word that's on my tongue before it comes out? But God does. He has an incredible concern for us. He yearns to know us, to have a relationship with us, and he's aware of everything that we do. Verse 5 says, "You hem me in behind and before. You've laid Your hand upon me." I was talking to a dear sister earlier this week about this psalm, and she said she felt like it's like a kangaroo pouch thing. I thought that was great. I thought of a kind of a hug, but I like the kangaroo pouch a little better. You're hemmed in by God, hemmed in by his love, hemmed in by his knowledge, his intimate concern for you behind and before. And you have laid your hand on me. you put your sovereign hand, your kingly hand on me for my help and my benefit and my protection and care. 

And then he says, verse 6, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.” It's too lofty for me to attain. I can't capture this fully. I can't fully understand this. In the next section, he talks about God's omnipresence and how it relates again to him relationally. It's not just a doctrinal concept of God's omnipresence. Look what it says, verse 7, “Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there. If I make my bed in the depths, you are there. If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.”

So the omnipresence of God in relationship with us, you can't get away from this God. And the omniscience of God, the fact that he just completely knows everything about our lives. And Job said at one point, "Will you never turn away from me for a moment, oh watcher of men?" No, he won't. Not for a moment. Now, there are times, and you only admit this to your closest friend, you'd like God to turn his gaze away from you, and David seems to imply that even the darkness isn't hiding what I'm doing, you see everything for darkness is as day to you, oh God. You remember how Jonah tried to run away? Literally, it says from the presence of the Lord, that can't be done. He tried to go to the far side of the sea, and God is there in the center of the sea, sovereignly orchestrating every circumstance to bring him to repentance and back to a right relationship with him. And so it is with you. In Christ, God is sovereignly orchestrating the circumstances of your life when you're wandering into sin, if you're a Christian, He is sovereignly going to bring you back, probably give you a spanking on the way, but he's going to bring you back. He knows you, he loves you, he has an intimate relationship with you. 

Now we get to these verses that are so familiar on Sanctity of Human Life Sunday. Let's look at them again, “For you created my innermost being, you knit me together in my mother's womb.” Here we have, in this verse, the direct activity of God in the womb of a woman, the direct activity of God, the marvelous activity of God in knitting together every human being that has ever been born. Direct activity. “I praise you,” [verse 14] “because I am fearfully and wonderfully made, your works are wonderful. I know that full well.” We can't understand ourselves, the complexity of our brains, the complexity of our organs and the systems, even the most intelligent medical researchers admit just the astonishing complexity of human life, the human body, that we're fearfully and wonderfully made, and God deserves praise for it. He deserves to be worshipped for how complex we are.

And he says in verse 15, "My frame was not hidden from you when I was in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body." And so here the psalmist is saying, "You were directly involved in putting together all of my vital organs and everything about me. Oh God, you did that." And then he says, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be." That will trip the circuits of your brain the more you meditate on it, it's just amazing. The sovereignty of God, the providence of God, that God has such a book, and that everything about our lives, even the smallest details are written in that book before any of those days came to be. And so he says in verses 17-18, "How precious to me are your thoughts, oh God! How vast is some of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand — when I awake, I am still with You." Again, that intimacy, that relationship that God desires with each one of us.

And so at the end of the Psalm, he says in verses 23-24, "Search me, oh God, and know my heart." He said at the beginning of the Psalm, "You have searched me and You know me." At the end, he says, "I want You to search me and know me. I want You to know me. I want You to have an intimate relationship with me." I frequently use this in quiet times when I know that I'm feeling distant from God and there's probably some sin issues, and I just literally, sometimes physically lay down on my bed and spread out my arms and just quote this verse, "Search me, O God, and know me, show me my sins. I don't wanna be alienated from You, I know that Christ shed his blood for me, I know that there's forgiveness and cleansing for me, but I wanna know what my sins are, so please show me what they are. See if there's any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Psalm 139 pictures a sovereign God, a powerful God who is directly active in human life from the beginning, from the very beginning of our conception, knitting us together and then watching over every step of the way.

Now, conversely, the reason that this is a day for grieving and a day for courage, is because Satan hates the image of God and has been warring against it from the very beginning of human history. He hates us, it says in John 8, that Jesus said, Satan is a murderer, was a murderer from the beginning, and he has nothing but murder in his heart toward the human race. And so we see some of these powerfully vital topics and current events that are addressed by this issue of the sanctity of human life. We need to stand against the devil's schemes and against this false thinking and all of that, so that we can be godly in this issue of the sacredness of human life. 

Five topics are in front of us: abortion, euthanasia, racism, terrorism and slavery, and this morning I wanna show briefly just very briefly how the sanctity of human life, meditation on that, can bring us to healing and to a right way of thinking and living in each of these five. We don't have time to go into them in depth. But I'm gonna put it this way, because God cherishes human life or because human life is sacred, we, five things, first, we love the pre-born and we stand against abortion. 

The reason we're having Sanctity of Human Life Sunday today in January is because we are commemorating in a very sad and thoughtful way, the terrible and wicked Roe vs. Wade decision 1973, January 22nd, which made abortion, opened the door for abortion to be legal in all 50 states and resulted ultimately, so far has resulted in the death of 56 million infants, 56 million. Nine times the Holocaust affected on the Jewish people in World War II. It is vital to remind ourselves every year of this ongoing scourge.  It’s vital because it's easy to get numb to this, it's the law of the land, it's status quo, and we just think, "What can we do about it?" But that's the way Satan wants us to think. It's easy to give up the fight on this, which I consider to be the greatest social injustice that there has ever been in the history of our nation. Nothing else even close.

Now, we should be encouraged, we should continue to find encouragement at how God's grace is winning aspects of this battle in our culture, how hearts and minds are being persuaded on a case by case basis, how certain laws are being enacted that continue to uphold the implied personhood of the pre-born. There are various things that are happening. We should be giving thanks. Now, the fundamental issue on abortion is the personhood, the humanity of the unborn or pre-born. We need to hold that up. We believe that the pre-born baby is human from conception. That's the central issue in abortion, the humanity of the preborn. We do not have the right to take the life of an innocent person, we don't have the right to do that.

"The fundamental issue on abortion is the personhood, the humanity of the unborn or pre-born. "

 And this also addresses the gnarly ethical issue of how a human being is conceived. How a human being is conceived. The worth of a human being has nothing to do with who your father or your mother was, it has nothing to do with that. It has nothing to do with how you're conceived, the circumstances of that conception, nothing whatsoever. It doesn't matter how you're conceived. A baby conceived by fornication is worth every bit as much as one conceived in a godly marriage. A baby conceived by rape or by incest is worth every bit as much as one conceived in a godly marriage. The worth is intrinsic to being human. It has nothing to do with the circumstances of the conception. That's why we stand against all abortion in any and every case, including rape and incest. It has to do with a simple, clear-headed thinking about the personhood of the unborn. We can't compromise on that because once you give in on that, why, you're gonna go right quickly to the other view. There's no way to stop it. Then it just becomes a pragmatic argument, it doesn't have to do with the personhood of the unborn. 

A six-year-old who was conceived by rape or incest is clearly protectable under the laws of the state, even if he or she is an incredible burden to his mother or father. It doesn't matter at all, still protectable. This is something that God gives. Now, what scriptural proof do we have this? Well, Psalm 39 I think it would suffice, but there are others that stand very, very clearly. We see God's activity in the womb in Job 10, verses 9-12, he says, "Remember that You molded me like clay? Did you not pour me out like milk and curdle me like cheese? Clothed me with skin and flesh, and knit me together with bones and sinews. You gave me life and showed me kindness, and in Your providence, You watched over my spirit.” Clear indications of God's direct activity and putting the baby together inside the mother's womb.

Theologically, very strong argument for the personhood of every baby from conception is Psalm 51:5. There David says, "Surely I was sinful from birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." Look, sinfulness is intrinsic to humanity, we don't think of sinful rock, sinful trees or sinful cats or dogs, though I'm occasionally tempted in that direction, or sinful guppies, you know? But we think of sinful human beings because of the sin of Adam from the very beginning that you're human, you have Adam sin on you, and so this is intrinsic to humanity, from conception, sinful. So therefore, human from conception as well. 

I think for me, the strongest scripture is in Luke 1. You remember that whole story in which Jesus is conceived in his mother's womb. Gabriel comes and announces it to Mary and she's just days into that pregnancy, and she goes and visits her cousin Elizabeth, who has herself a miracle baby, though not so miraculous, so amazing, but still amazing. In her old age, they've been barren and she is bringing John the Baptist to term. And so you have two mothers, two babies in the womb, and they have this incredible encounters. See what it says, "In those days, Mary arose and went in haste into the hill country to a town of Judah, and she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leapt in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, 'Blessed are you among women. And blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me? Listen, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy'."

So there you have double proof of the personhood of the pre-born. Pre-born John was filled with joy in the presence, really, of Jesus. That's just the way it was, through the Holy Spirit, and so he's filled with joy. Joy is part of humanity, part of personhood, he's a person. But even more significantly, Jesus just days or weeks after his conception, already Mary is called a mother, Jesus is called Lord, Elizabeth acknowledges he's the Lord, and he is just early in his development within the womb. To me, I think that's essential. There are other indications, proofs, fetal development, we could go through that I'm not gonna stop right now and do it, but just look it up. The astonishing knitting together that medical science has proven there is no line medical science can ever draw that says not human. Human from conception. And the proof is there, and by the way, one of the greatest tools in this pro-life fight are the 4-D ultrasound techniques that GE and others have developed, where you can actually see like a little movie of your baby, and it's amazing, the stats of women who are struggling with the issue, then they see that and they just know that they can't do it. And so we love raising money and giving it to crisis pregnancy centers for that kind of equipment because it's really, really helpful. 

And then there's just the schizophrenia of our laws, which have laws protecting fetuses if they're desired by the mother, but then not, if they're not. It just doesn't make sense. It reminds me of what Abraham Lincoln, he said, "A house cannot forever remain divided. A house divided against itself will fall." It's schizophrenic, either it's human or it's not. And the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which was signed into law in 2004, consistently refers to the embryo and the fetus as a child consistently. But humanity isn't ascribed by culture, it's not ascribed by a mom or a dad, it's intrinsic. And so therefore, for all of these reasons, we love the pre-born and stand against abortion.

Now, always I yearn to speak a word of comfort and grace to those who feel very guilty about this issue. Inevitably, there are people that have just astonishing feelings of guilt about this and the beauty of coming with all of that to the church, is you come to a place where the gospel can be preached, is preached plainly and clearly to sinners. And we are all sinners, all of us, and just the sexual freedoms that's going on in our land, there's just so many, they're tempted and in moments of temptation and sin, they give in, and then they find themselves in a crisis pregnancy and they're overwhelmed and they make bad decisions. Both men and women in that situation make bad decisions. 

It's amazing the number of times when I used to be involved in a pro-life ministry in Brookline, you've got these men with these strong arms around, these terrified looking women, and they're just almost dragging them into the abortion clinic 'cause the men just don't wanna be involved, they don't wanna father the child that they genetically fathered, they don't wanna be a father to. And so there is... there's so much guilt to go around. All of us feel guilty about the issue in general. Am I doing enough? Am I praying enough? Should we be more involved in legislative action? Should I be down at Operation Rescue? It's just easy to feel guilty. Dear friends, the grace of God is infinite and immeasurable. And where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more. And if you feel guilty about this, it's probably 'cause you are guilty by the law of God, but the grace of God has come in Christ and he takes sin on himself, and his blood shed on the cross is sufficient for sinners of any type of sin, any pattern, so flee to Christ and find forgiveness there. 

Secondly, and more briefly on these other four, we because of the sanctity of human life, because God cherishes human life, we love hope and we stand against euthanasia. Now, you know the story in 2014, probably the most famous case of euthanasia in recent memory in our country, the case of 29-year-old Brittany Maynard, who was diagnosed with an inoperable fatal brain tumor, and chose very publicly on the cover of People magazine to declare that she was gonna kill herself at a certain date, you remember all that? It got pushed back a few days, but I remember crying when I found out she had actually done it and she had killed herself. On November 1st, 2014, she took her own life with the assistance of a physician. It’s legal in Oregon because they have a death with dignity law there; she moved there to do it. Well, because of our commitment to the sacredness of human life, we stand against euthanasia and especially against all quality-of-life arguments that make this kind of thing doable ethically in their minds. You see, that's the way she was arguing, quality of life. Same thing, by the way, works at the beginning with selective abortions where Down’s Syndrome and other folks are weeded out because of the quality-of-life argument.

"Because of our commitment to the sacredness of human life, we stand against euthanasia and especially against all quality-of-life arguments that make this kind of thing doable ethically in their minds."

So it is at the end of life with people who have inoperable tumors, who are maybe even Alzheimer's, dementia, things like that, the euthanasia movement is strong, and we as Christians need to stand against it and say, human life is sacred, right to the end. The sanctity of human life is above any life circumstance. Jesus said this in Matthew 6:25, he said, "Therefore, I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you'll eat or drink or about your body, what you'll wear." Listen to this, "Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?" NIV puts more important, but let's just keep it simple, it's more. It's a higher ethic, it's a higher thing. And so therefore, your existence as a human being is a greater issue than the circumstance in your life, including your clothing and your food, so we reject all quality-of-life arguments. Also we know that suffering and eventually even death can give us as Christians an opportunity to put the gospel on display in amazing ways. I've seen this done. I've seen brothers and sisters who have suffered greatly in the final months of their lives, shining with the hope that non-Christians don't have. Euthanasia is a hopeless act. But we want the hope of the resurrection to shine in the midst of suffering. We yearn for that.

Euthanasia is also an arrogant act because we take on ourselves a role that we do not have. We don't have the right to end life. God gives it, he's the only one that can take it back. As Job said, "The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, may the name of the Lord be praised." And in Deuteronomy 32:39, God says this, "See now that I am, I, even I am He, and there is no God beside me. I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is no one who can deliver out of my hand."

So when we take on ourselves the decisions to end life and all that, physicians do that, individuals, we are taking God's place and that should not be done. John Piper, writing about Brittany Maynard said this, "Brittany Maynard sweetened her last days with trips to the Alaskan glaciers, and the Kenai Fjords, and the Grand Canyon. In one sense this is totally understandable. We were made for beauty, but in another sense, it is puzzling. For there's one thing that's standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon does not do for you, it does not enhance your sense of autonomy. It makes you feel small and vulnerable in the presence of such greatness and majesty, and that is a good thing, for we are small and we are fragile and we are not autonomous, we were never meant to be. Beauty, yes. Joy, yes. Greatness, yes, but all of it outside of us filling us, it's because of God, that human beings are sacred, because of him."

Thirdly, because human life is sacred, we love all people and stand against racism. Tomorrow is Martin Luther King Jr. Day, and we rightly celebrate the courage and vision of one of the great leaders in American History. The entire platform of his mission against institutional racism and Jim Crow laws and segregation was the essential equality of all races in the eyes of God. It was all founded on sanctity-of-human-life arguments and convictions. All people are created in the image of God and sacred to him. Racism is an arrogant denial of that basic biblical fact. We are all descended from one man. Racism should seem preposterous, the more you meditate on that. It doesn't make any sense. It says in Acts 17:26, "From one man, he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole Earth." Secondly, all Christians are atoned for the same way by the blood of the same Savior. We all stand on level ground before the cross, we're all equally sinners, and we're all redeemed by faith in the blood of Christ. As it says in Ephesians 2, "For he himself is our peace who has made the two one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by abolishing in His flesh the law, with its commandments and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace. And in his body, to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility.”

So the cross of Christ puts to death racism, puts to death the hostility. Now, 2014 saw racism as one of the hottest issues of our time. Several famous incidents in our country in which African-American people had confrontations with police officers resulted in weeks and weeks of discussion of racism that continues to this present time. Now, many of our African-American brothers and sisters relate real incidents in which they were singled out unjustly for harsh treatment by police and others in society for no apparent reason other than the color of their skin. Whether or not that happened in this case or that case, or the other case is not really ultimately important. It is helpful when cases are clear and then justice can be brought down, that is true. But even in the absence of this, what do you do with all the testimonies of brothers and sisters that say what happened to them or their father or their uncle or their brother or friend? We must stand against all such racism, all of it.

Now again, my vision for this urban church comes from John 17:23, Jesus’ prayer about a unity pattern after the Trinity. As the Father and the Son are one, he says, “Father,” praying to the Father, “I in them in the church, and they in me, may they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them, even as you love me.” So the process of becoming more and more united, killing racism, killing all the other things, and becoming just stunningly united in a way that makes Durham say, "What's going on at FBC, what's happening there? I wanna be a part of that," is good for the gospel, and I wanna see that happen here.

Fourthly, because of the sacredness of human life, we love peace and stand against terrorism. Again, 2014 saw terrible acts of violence by terrorist groups against innocent people. We think about the rise of ISIS in Syria and Middle East and beheadings of children, and they show how terribly hardened hearts these vicious people have and their clear willingness to sacrifice human lives to achieve their religious and political agenda.  Even very recently, attacks in Paris by two masked gunman resulted in the deaths of 17 people and that group was coming from Al-Qaeda. Many of these terrorist attacks come from those that have a zeal, the desire to show their zeal for Islam and for Muhammad. The sanctity of human life holds that such attacks are immoral and repugnant to God. 

Christianity, and I mean, true Christianity, not the Christianity of the Crusades. That's not true. I could talk about that for a long time. I don't know what the Crusaders were thinking and how they got those weird ideas, but true Christianity has always advanced not by killing, but by dying. Not by killing, but by dying. That's how it advances. And Jesus set the pattern, and he said very plainly in John 12:24, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself a single seed, but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit." And so as Tertullian put it, "The blood of martyrs is seed for the church." I believe that brothers and sisters are gonna go to the 10/40 window to Muslim countries, and they're gonna be willing to shed their blood, have their blood be shed, so that elect can be brought from Muslim nations into a sweet faith in Christ. That's how Christianity advances. And so we stand against terrorism.

"True Christianity has always advanced not by killing, but by dying. "

And fifthly, because human life is sacred, we love freedom and stand against slavery. Now, you may think, "What is this? Isn't slavery a thing of the past?" No, it decidedly is not. It is not. Human trafficking is a form of modern slavery, where people profit from the control and exploitation of others, traffickers use force and fraud and coercion and other means to draw people into generally sex issues or labor issues against their will, and they end up being trapped in those patterns.

The International Labor Organization estimates that there are 21 million victims of human trafficking globally, including 5.5 million children, 55% of all of them are women and girls. It's 150 billion dollar industry worldwide, and it's going on in our nation, too. David Platt, President of the IMB, talked about experience that he had going in villages in Nepal, and he was able to find out what the traffickers do there. They come in and they promise these poor families money if they'll give up their nine-year-old girls and they give them more money they've ever seen in their lives and they say, "We're gonna provide good jobs for them, we're gonna provide housing and all that, we'll be sending you checks," and all that sort of stuff, and then they're trapped and they can't get out. One of our church members, Amanda Halbrooks, has been laboring in East Asia for several years now on this very issue, and very soon you'll get a chance when she comes back to talk to her about her efforts in freeing young girls, young women from sex-trafficking. So we stand against these things because we love freedom.

Now, the cross of Jesus Christ displays the highest conviction that God has in the sanctity of human life. "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." I believe that that in general is God's stance of love for the human race, in general, displayed in his electing love and saving His chosen people from every tribe, language, people, and nation. But he has a general stance of love toward the human race. It says in Hebrews 2, "For surely it's not angels he helps, but Abraham's descendants." They have flesh and blood. He loves human beings and sent his son to die, Jesus Christ came and his death on the cross, he showed the value, the worth, the esteem that God has for human beings in that he died in our place, and he cherishes human life and that he raised Jesus from the dead as human. So he's still human. He said, because I live, you also will live.

Well, friends, how can we live out a conviction to the sanctity of human life? Well, first, just meditate on what I just said, embrace the cross of Christ by faith. Find your worth and your value in this. You’re created in the image of God and redeemed by the blood of Christ. Not in what you achieve, not on what your body can do on the athletic field, or what your mind can do as shown in grades or professionally in your career. No, your worth and value comes from this, created in the image of God, redeemed by the blood of Christ. But I need to ask you, have you been redeemed by the blood of Christ? Have you? Have you found in Christ a savior? Have you found forgiveness through faith in Christ? Ask yourself that, do I know? We sang earlier, how do I know that I've been forgiven? How do I know I'm going to Heaven?

And next, we also need to embrace other people's sanctity, embrace that every person you will see this week is in some sense sacred and that they're human. C.S. Lewis in his sermon, “Weight of Glory”, said this, “There are no ordinary people.” Think about that. You've never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization, these are mortal. Their life is to ours like the life of a gnat, but it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit. Immortal as in immortal horrors or everlasting splendor. Every person you meet is either gonna spend eternity in hell or heaven. 

We have the gospel, let's be bold and share the gospel with them. Let's treat them with dignity. Hold doors for people, hold doors for people. Look around you and see needs and meet them. Speak respectfully to people, don't be rude, acknowledge that people are human beings and embrace these five issues. There's so many things I could say about it. Out in the North Tower Resource Center, there are books specific on pro-life. The price is $5 each, it's a great price, so grab some resources that you can get there and close with me, if you would, in prayer.

Father, we thank you for the opportunity we've had to look at these issues. Father, we acknowledge that we're sinners, we may not sin exactly in all these ways, but Lord, we all sin in some ways, none of us is exempt, and so we need your forgiveness and your mercy. And I pray that you would speak a word of grace to each of the people here. I thank you, oh Lord, for the sacredness of human life and the chance we have to proclaim it and celebrate it today, and especially, we thank you for Jesus who died in our place and shed his blood that we might be forgiven. In His name, we pray. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 52:1-12. The main subject of the sermon is the rescuing of God's people from the world as well as God's sovereignty.

The Bible gives us many different images for the church, the people of God that it called out. It does that because just as it gives us many different images of God, the whole picture is complex, and so not just one image will do for understanding what the church is. For example, the Bible reveals that the church is a family that God is our Father, and that we are all brothers and sisters, we have been adopted into a family, we are children of the living God. It develops that image, or the church is sometimes said to be a body that Christ is the head and we are all members of the body, and we are joined and held together by supporting ligaments and by a circulatory system and all that. We're like a body.

Or the church is like the bride of Christ, the bride, and Jesus is the bridegroom, and we have adorned ourselves with beautiful garments and with jewels. We'll get that image later in Isaiah but, that we are to be in a marvelous and mysterious way wed to God through Christ. The Bible also reveals that we are a temple, a temple, a living temple and we are all living stones in that temple, and that we have in some amazing way, been quarried out, of Satan's dark kingdom and we have been moved over and put like living stones into the walls of this spiritual structure that's rising and getting bigger and bigger to be a place in which God dwells by His Spirit.

Very similar to that image, is the image of a city. We are the city of the living God, and that there's this incredible, vast city with walls and with glorious buildings and with adornments and gates and all of that that just is getting bigger and bigger all the time. And as we come to Isaiah 52, we come to a word that links into that image across scripture and that's the word Zion. We come to the image of Zion and here we have the picture of a vast city of God. Now it's mentioned the word Zion is mentioned 158 times in the Old Testament, interestingly only seven times in the New. And four of those seven are direct quotations of Old Testament passages, like the one we're looking at today. Now, in the Old Testament, Zion is the city of Jerusalem, it's a city of David, literally the physical city of Jerusalem, which you could fly into by a jet plane today, that place.

It was a Jebusite city that David conquered and established as the capital of his kingdom, the combined kingdom of Israel and Judah, it was all one in those days, and he was the king there in the city of David, in Zion, Jerusalem. And so, again and again in the Old Testament when you see Zion you can almost put the word Jerusalem right in there. It's just about equivalent. Occasionally in Psalms, it gives you a sense of something more lofty, something not just merely physical but generally speaking you just think Jerusalem when you see Zion, physical city. But when we come over into the New Testament, we have the fulfillment of that image, we have the flourishing and the perfection of the idea of Zion. And there are a lot of different verses but there's one in particular that I have in mind. In Hebrews Chapter 12, the author to Hebrews tells those Jewish Christians, "You have not come now to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire," talking about Mount Sinai, "but you have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem…"

So I want you, as we look in Isaiah 52 today, I want you to keep that image in mind. You have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. We're going to try to understand that and he goes on there, the author of Hebrews the church of the first born so he goes, Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the first born. Those are just images that he strings together there. The perfection therefore, in my opinion, the perfection of Zion is Revelation 21, and that is this beautiful city, this new Jerusalem, which has been being prepared now for 2000 years. It's a work in progress, it's under construction. And little by little, it's getting more and more glorious, and more and more finished and perfect with these living stones, same images, the sanctuary of temple image. It's getting built up, and it's almost ready. Dear friends, I don't know what almost means to you or to me, but Jesus says, "Behold, I'm coming quickly."

And so he's in the process of building this glorious new Jerusalem that's heavenly Zion, and at some point, it's going to descend from heaven to earth and that's the consummation of all of the redemptive history of the Bible. And it's going to be a perfect place where he will dwell in direct face-to-face fellowship with his people and there'll be no more death, and mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away, and he has made everything new and he's going to dwell there and he's going to wipe every tear from our eyes, and will be there forever. So the Zion below is the physical city of Jerusalem. The Zion above is that heavenly work that God is doing through redeeming sinners by the gospel and putting them together, building them together into this vast amazing city. And in the end those images come together.

Now as we're in Isaiah, as we're following the chapters of this very complex and beautiful book, we're coming to an amazing series of chapters, Isaiah 52, 53 and 54. Isaiah 52 and 54, the strong images will be Zion, the building of this incredible city of the living God. This holy bride that's going to be lifted up from the dust and the degradation of sin and to holy readiness for her wedding day. It's a powerful thing. We're going to come to it again in Isaiah 60 through 66, Zion made beautiful, made radiant, made ready, beautified by the streaming of the nations, the glory of the nations streaming into the city and making it beautiful. So we're going to get that image uploaded and we're going to think about it in Isaiah 52 and 54, in the middle, is Isaiah 53, the single greatest prophetic chapter in the Bible, concerning the atoning work of Jesus Christ. So, the way I put all that together as you get the beauty of Zion in Isaiah 52 and 54, and we get what it costs God to make it happen in Isaiah 53, the blood of Jesus Christ shed for his bride, shed for the city. That's where we're going. So, in Isaiah 52, the idea of Zion is a prophetic picture of the true Jerusalem being built. It's like the animal sacrificial system. It was real, physical, it really happened, but it pictured something higher, something more spiritual, and perfect. And some day the physical would pass away and be perfected in the spiritual, and that's why we don't do animal sacrifices anymore. In the same way, the idea of Zion as the earthly Jerusalem, gives way in the new covenant to the heavenly city that's being built by the Gospel.

Now, in Isaiah, we still have a transition in the words, and so we're still concerned about the physical city, and the picture, the type or shadow, the prophetic picture, the actual city and the things that are going on there. But keep in mind, it's just a picture of the final work of redemption that God's doing in the church, and so here's Zion defiled, despised, rejected, sitting in the filth and degradation of sin, and the dusty rubble of wrath and judgment from God, being called on now to rise up out of that and be cleansed from all that and to be exalted by the grace and power of God, the time of judgment is over and the time of glory is at hand.

And so the rising up and cleansing is a picture of the redemptive work of God in Christ, for all of us, that we're called on to get up out of the muck of sin, and the rubble of judgment, and to live a life glorifying to God. So that's where we're going.

Now, let's look at the verses carefully verses 1 through 6, God, exalt Zion from the dust of exile. So Zion in verse 1 is awake and then clothed with holy garments. Look at the verse, "Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and the defiled will not enter you again." So Zion again, Jerusalem, the Holy City, is pictured here asleep or like it is dead perhaps in judgment, under the wrath of God and also having been defiled by unholy men. God calls on Zion, to awake, he says it, he repeats it "Awake, awake, O Zion."

Similar to Jesus calling to Lazarus, "Lazarus come forth." So it's like a resurrection message here, "Wake up from your sleep of death." Defiled by uncircumcised unholy Babylonian soldiers who ran through the City of Jerusalem with tortures that took axes in the Holy of Holies, stripped it of all of its gold, and chopped its beautiful carved panels with axes and turned that precious aromatic wood into kindling fuel for the fire. Now, the time of that defilement is over. It's done. Zion, Jerusalem, the holy city, is called on to rise up out of that and clothe herself with strength and garments of splendor and God makes a fascinating promise here to Zion. The promise that the uncircumcised and defiled will never enter her again.

Now, the immediate piece of Jerusalem, when it was being rebuilt after the exile was done under Cyrus the Great. And the decree that the city and the temple would be rebuilt was a mere foretaste in the beginning of the journey of the fulfillment of this prophecy. It's not the perfection of it. Frankly, that decree from the Persian kings was contested in court, just about every step of the way. When you read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah, they have to go send lawyers and advocates to go argue with these Persian kings to prove that the decree had even ever been given, they had to rummage through all dusty libraries, they didn't have the database search systems we have now. I can picture some guy with a candle down there going through like scrolls trying to find Cyrus's decree about the rebuilding of Jerusalem.

It was contested every step of the way and Nehemiah had to rebuild the walls of the city out of rubble with a sword in one hand and a trowel on the other, it was contested every step of the way. Ezra rebuilt the temple, but its glory was greatly diminished and reduced from that of Solomon's temple it was completed under Haggai. And you read in Haggai that the sound of weeping couldn't be distinguished from the sound of joyful celebration. The old timers remembered what Solomon's temple looked like and this isn’t it. And they were grieved over it and they said, "Is this what we're down to now? It's all we can afford?" And so after the Greeks conquered the Persians, then later Greek rulers defiled the temple and the Holy of Holies with extreme defilements worse than any that have been measured up to that point. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek ruler that succeeded Alexander the Great, came a number of a century or two later, he defiled the Holy of Holies by sacrificing pigs in the Holy of Holies in the year 167 BC.

Look at verse 1 again, "Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, the uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again." Huh? Question mark, how is that true? And given that six centuries later, the Roman army did finally and completely, what any of these other Gentile armies had only begun doing, they completely leveled the city of Jerusalem and it's been, the temple has never been rebuilt. Just see if it's recorded, just how bad it was and how many died and the blood bath there was then. It just leaves you wondering. Look at verse 1, "Put on your garments of spender, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, the uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again." So what is this talking about? This is a prophecy that hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's not been perfected yet.

And I think we have to jump ahead to the end of the Bible and don't turn there, but if you were to jump up to Revelation 21:25-27, and there it's talking as I said about the glorious new Jerusalem that's coming down. This beautiful city with these gates and walls and splendor and glory, it is just amazing and this is what it says about that city. Revelation 21:25-27, "On no day will its gates ever be shut." You don't need to shut the gates anymore. Why? No more enemies, "On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it." Now, here's a key verse, Revelation 21:27, "Nothing impure will ever enter it nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." So that's the perfection of Isaiah 52:1, "The uncircumcised and defiled will never enter you again." That's what we're looking forward to.

Isaiah is saying there's going to come a day when the city of Zion will be completely free from all enemies and completely glorious, radiant in holiness, that day has not come yet, but it is coming. The rebuilding of the literal city of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah was a mere foretaste of the future glory of the new Jerusalem. Now, let me ask you a question. What about you, dear friend? What about you? Created in the image of God, living a human life, you're here today, will you be able to stream into the nations with, into the gates at that point and bring your glory in the city, or will you be in the lake of fire? Those are the options.

The uncircumcised and defiled, those who are the un-redeemed, those who are the outsiders, those who are the sinners, the rebels, those that hate God and his people, they'll be gone, they'll be in the lake of fire. What about you? If you repent, you trust with what Daniel was just saying, "If you trust in that gospel, you trust in Christ crucified and resurrected, you'll be allowed to enter in for your name will have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life."

Zion Arises from Bondage and Sits Enthroned

Now, in verse 2, Zion arises from bondage and sits on throne, "Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion." Now Jerusalem is pictured here as dusty and enslaved, defiled, here God causing her to rise up gloriously and sit enthroned, free from all chains of captivity. Once again, the immediate fulfillment of the exiles leaving Babylon and re-populating Jerusalem is only a deemed prophecy. It's acted out, it's important, but it's not complete. For one thing, the captive daughter of Zion could not sit enthroned in Jerusalem, while it had to ask permission from Gentile kings for everything. It was the time of the Gentiles, Jesus called it. She had to go cap in hand to Gentile kings like Cyrus and Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and Alexander, and Antiochus, and Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius.

You have to go ask for things ask permission. So how is Zion sitting enthroned in that condition? No, no, the true final enthronement of Zion awaits. Think about this: Revelation 3:21, "To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I [Jesus speaking] overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." I heard one preacher say, "Lap in lap, in lap," so Jesus sitting in the Father's lap, we're in Jesus's lap, that's enthroned. We'll be on the throne of the universe at that point, or again, Revelation 4:4, we have a picture of these thrones surrounding the throne, the central throne, there's a main throne, the throne of God, and then there's 24 other thrones and seated on them are 24 elders and they're dressed in white and they have crowns of gold on their heads. Or again 2 Timothy 2:11 and 12, here's a trustworthy saying, "If we died with him, we will also live with him, if we endure, we will also reign with him." That's the fulfillment of this enthronement of Zion image. That's the future. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, someday you're going to sit on Jesus's throne, like Jesus is sitting on his Father's throne.

Zion Redeemed to Know the Lord

And then in verses 3 through 6, it speaks about the redemption of Zion. Zion is redeemed in order that they may know the Lord. Look at the verses, "For this is what the LORD says: 'You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.' For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them. And now what do I have here?' declares the LORD. 'For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,' declares the LORD. 'And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.'"

So God here speaks to captive Zion in chains like a slave, he says, "Look at you, you are sold for nothing." She gave herself in enslavement to other gods and goddesses and to sin and wickedness. And what did she get back? She got nothing for it. Sold for nothing into their chain. So it is with us. Paul puts it this way in Romans, "What benefit did you reap at that time from those things you're now ashamed of?" What were your wages in serving sin? It's death. You're sold for nothing.

So Isaiah here recounts Israel's history of bondage, at first bondage in Egypt, lately in exile the Assyria, he doesn't mention exile of Babylon, but it's the backdrop of all these chapters. This exile of God's chosen people has resulted in her captors mocking him, blaspheming his Holy Name. There's a lot of this. Even in the Psalms, I'll sing one of those songs of Zion here in Babylon, and the psalmist can't do it. By the rivers of Babylon, we wept. As they couldn't sing one of the songs of Zion there in a foreign land, and so there was mocking and blaspheming going on because God had lost the battle, so they thought. He's not very powerful after all. God's name is linked up with his people and he can't let his name be defamed, he can't let his name be blasphemed.

And so he must redeem his people and he does so. Just as they were sold for nothing without money, they will be redeemed. Amen, isn't that sweet? Think about that, without money, redeem. God doesn't owe her new masters anything, he doesn't owe them anything but destruction. He's going to destroy those masters. And without money, God's going to redeem her. And we all know how don't we? I love 1 Peter 1, it says, "You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or defect." That's what redeemed you. We're going to get to it in the next chapter in Isaiah 53.

If you look just at the end of this chapter, look at verse 15, it says, "so will he sprinkle many nations." Sprinkle them with what? With his blood? And then in the next chapter, Isaiah 53:5, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." Or we could say redeemed, but the blood of Jesus were bought back out of this, our slavery to sin, without money. In a couple of chapters in Isaiah 55, we're going to have this call. Ho! Was one of the translations. "Ho!" Or "Hey everyone! All you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat…Without money and without cost." So you just come to Jesus, free, you don't need to bring anything, he doesn't want anything from you, he wants to give something to you. And so freely you receive forgiveness and salvation without money, without price, just as a gift from God. You couldn't afford it anyway and neither could I. And so don't try to pay for it. It's an insult. Accept it as a gift.

And so the end result of this redemption without money will be that Zion will know that it is the Lord, that did it, we're going to get to heaven, and we'll have no doubt about the sovereignty of God, and salvation. There's all kinds of debates about it now. Oh, back and forth. The debates go on God's sovereignty and salvation. There'll be no debate in heaven. We will know it was the Lord that did it. Amen. From beginning to end, we'll give him the glory and the credit and the praise. We will know that God foretold it and he brought it about.

Now, in verses 7-12, we have the missionary part of this. Do you notice how often we keep bumping into missionary themes? It keeps happening again and again. Look what he says in verse 7 of beautiful feet of messengers that are bringing this good news, he says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, your God reigns." The image here I get is of messengers who have traveled a long distance and they are breathless, they are just out of breath. They did barely had enough strength to get to Zion and they're traveling to Zion, and they have an incredible message to give. They traveled over the mountains to bring the message. They're willing to travel over dangerous and difficult roads to get to Zion. They're going to Zion. Now, again that's the earthly image of the earthly city of Jerusalem, but ultimately the people of Zion, the elect who need to hear this message that you got to keep both of them in mind.

So you could picture like some straggling small pathetic remnant of Jews that was left behind in Jeremiah's day to kind of scrape out a living, people of the land and all that, and they suddenly the messenger comes over the hill, and he says, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen all, the images of her gods are crushed in the dust and some exiles are coming back and they're going to rebuild this city. Oh, what good news. What good news." But if Zion is the spiritual city, the idea is of elect people scattered, chosen before the foundation of the world, but scattered all over the surface of the planet. They're all over the place, they're in distant mountains and valleys and villages and they're in major urban areas and cities, and they're everywhere, they're all over the place. And they're not converted yet and they're elect, and they're waiting for some messengers to go.

The messengers come and they're so filled with energy, and they're so filled with joy, and they're here to tell the people, your God reigns. Salvation is for you. Paul actually quotes this to speak of the missionary endeavor. Any of you know Romans, you know you've heard this before. Isaiah 52:7, it's very familiar to you. And Paul picks it up right out of Isaiah 52. And he drops it into a defense for the whole missionary and enterprise of the church. Romans 10:12-15, he says, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile-- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" Paul is pulling straight from Isaiah 52:7.

So Paul is defending the missionary enterprise that he himself was on. The apostle to the Gentiles, traveling on boats and across roads to bring the Gospel to gentiles so that they could hear it. So both Jew and Gentile are Zion here in Romans 10. If they hear the Gospel with faith, they are Zion and they're hearing that God reigns and he's going to save them from their slavery to sin, and he's going to release them and rebuild the city. And so, as missionaries travel over the sea and ships to the islands of the South Pacific or through lofty mountain passes to get to remote tribes in Nepal or Tibet, or even as a college student sees another student sitting alone in the cafeteria and uses his or her beautiful feet, okay, to walk 35 feet across the cafeteria and sit down and have a conversation with a total stranger, fulfillment of this verse, as you share the gospel. We must take the initiative, that's our job. We have the good news, we must go out with that good news. There are people in countries to the ends of the earth that need to hear this.

Beautiful Feet?

Now, what does it mean how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. You might say a bit odd. Why the focus on feet? Well, feet especially in the days of sandals are dirty and repulsive. You say, "Pastor, these are the days of sandals, didn't you know that?" I mean lots of people wear them, alright. Well, let me ask, "What's the condition of your toes?" How are they? Don't tell me, I don't want to know, alright. Dirty, repulsive. Slaves don't wash the feet of their masters, they provide bowl, basin, towel and water and soap and here you go master enjoy I'm going to leave now, let me know when you're done I'll clean up afterwards. But Jesus washed his own disciples feet and dried it with a towel that was around his waist, a picture of servanthood and John the Baptist said of Jesus, he said, "I'm not worthy to get down on the ground and untie his sandals," that's how much greater he is than me.

Mary Magdalene showed her repentance by weeping and washing Jesus's feet with her tears and drying it with her hair, so the feet you could think about like the most repulsive part of someone's body. The point is if even their feet are beautiful, how much more their mind and their heart and everything that brought them to our village to preach the gospel. So beautiful, it's just beautiful knowing you, dear friend, that you brought me this Gospel message, how beautiful even your feet that you brought... That brought you here to me.

The Good News: Peace, Goodness, Salvation Because God Reigns

And look what it says. The good news, peace, salvation, the message it just flows. It brings good news, proclaims peace, brings good tidings, proclaims salvation and says to Zion, "Your God reigns." Now this is immediately fulfilled in the fall of Babylon and the decree of Cyrus that exiles should return, but even more the triumph of Jesus Christ over Satan, over sin and death, the grave and hell, that's the real fulfillment, that's the real victory that God has won. Rejoice, death has been defeated. Rejoice, sin has been paid for. Rejoice, you are liberated from your chains. Rejoice, you're adopted into the family of God and you'll live forever. That's what the good news is, the peace.

And all it does is in verse 8 and 9 produce shouts of joy, "Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. [Good news.] When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem." And so we get together every week to do this. And I mean Daniel and his team just do a great job and we sing songs together, and that's the fulfillment of this image. All we can and should be doing is just celebrating what Christ has done and God's goodness in saving us, but we're going to have the fullness of that in heaven, worshipping forever.

And so verse 10, the salvation, this salvation displays God's power. Verse 10, "The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." The Gospel is a display of God's power. He's laying bare his holy arm here, power. Now, when you think of power, we think of two things: Position, the right to make a command. You're the emperor of all the earth, you can say how it's going to be, you're in charge. He has the power to do it, he has the power to declare wicked people not guilty of all their sins based on what Jesus had done. He has that power.

And he has the power to take history and sovereignly orchestrate it to deliver the Gospel message to every elect person all over the earth. He has the power to do this, he's going to lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations and so the cross is a display of power. First Corinthians 1:23-25, "we preach Christ crucified: A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." This is a display of power, the cross is.

Therefore: Depart in Holiness and Journey Safely to Zion

Verse 11 and 12, therefore it's time to move out. Depart, leave, leave there, leave Babylon honestly, and make the pilgrimage, make the journey back to Zion now. That's what he's telling them to do, look at the verses, verses 11 and 12, "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard."

So here we have this image of the exiles, they're living in Babylon, and now the message has come, it's time to leave, time to get out of here. So depart from there, get out of Babylon, we've seen again and again, Babylon is a symbol of the world and all of its idolatries and wicked lusts and wicked passions and sins, all of the gods and goddesses, and it's defiled and filthy and nasty, and the call here is get out of there now, come out of there. And don't touch those unclean things anymore.

And so he calls on the people of God to be pure and to begin a journey to go to Zion and rebuild it. So that's what he's calling them to do. And he says, "You who carry the vessels of the Lord." What is that talking about? Well, if you look at Daniel Chapter 1, don't do that, but you remember in Daniel 1:1 and 2, it talks about how at the time of the exile in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar came to Babylon or king of Babylon, sorry, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Listen to this, Daniel 1:2, "And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim King of Judah into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia, and put in the treasure house of his god."

So here are these gold and silver, cups and plates, and candlesticks and different things that were used for worship. And they were carried off as a symbol of the triumph over Yahweh. And they are put in this treasure house of the God of Babylonia. Well, we meet up with them again in Daniel Chapter 5, you remember that Belshazzar's feast.

And Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, who I think didn't have Nebuchadnezzar's conversion experience, a wicked man, is having a drunken feast with all of his nobles, and he gives word and they bring the vessels, the cups, the gold and silver cups from the temple and they drank from them, toast to the gods of bronze, iron, wood and stone, and they're defiling them. And God's holy anger is kindled, his zeal for his name is kindled and a hand, a disembodied hand shows up and starts to write on the plaster of the wall, "Belshazzar, your days are numbered, your kingdom is gone. You're dead, you're a dead man."

And so that very night, Darius took over Babylon and the thing fell and the Babylonian Empire was over and soon after that Cyrus gave the edict including these gold and silver cups. Do you think Cyrus wanted them? Why don't you take them back to Jerusalem when you go, please? And so, take these gold and silver cups, and they're listed for us in Ezra 1. I won't describe the inventory, but it's kind of weird. There's this inventory of cups and plates and saucers, and you're like, "What is the Bible? I don't understand this. Why do we have this list of 5400 gold and silver articles?" They're a symbol of the worship of God on Earth, the holy worship that he set up. And they're being transported from Babylon back to Zion as a picture of the renewal and the perfection of true spiritual worship.

It's physical, it's real stuff, but God wanted them re-established under the Old Covenant sacrificial system as a symbol of his restoration of worship there. And so, they carried them back. Now, they have a problem. If you're Ezra and you're going back along the Fertile Crescent along the road, you may get stopped by some oases and all that, and you've got 5400 very valuable gold and silver things. What are you worried about? Highway robbers. You're worried about other armies, you've got valuable stuff. And so, in Ezra 8, he says, "There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, and all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road because we had told the king, 'The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.' So we fasted and petitioned God about this, and he answered our prayer."

In the text we're looking at here, God has said, "I'm going to go before you like the pillar of cloud and fire and I'm going to be your rear guard, I will take care of you, I'll keep you safe."

Now you're like, "What does this have to do with us?" Well, it's a picture of the spiritual journey that we make out of sin in Babylon to heaven. And you are, in some ways, you are the sacred vessels, you are the valuables and the enemies, the highway robbers, is Satan and demons and wicked people who want to attack you every step of the way, you're in enemy territory. And God has promised, "You're not going to leave in haste, it's going to be a long journey for you, but I'm going to protect you and I'm going to tell you to come out from there and be pure, and be holy." Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 6. And God is saying, "Don't touch those things, and don't make covenants together and be unequally yoked because I'm calling in you to come out of Babylon and be pure. And I'm going to get you there. And I'm going to filter your temptations.

And no temptation will seize you, except what is common to man, but God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But with the temptation, he will make a way of escape, he's going to protect you and none of you will be lost. And so he's going to go ahead of us, and be our rear guard. So we've been weaving applications all the way through, but let me just say a few as we finish here.

First and foremost, can I just urge you to delight in the future of Zion? It's glorious. Read about it in Revelation 21. That city is big. It's like from here to the Mississippi River and up to the Great Lakes. And apparently goes up into the stratosphere as high as it is wide, and long. It's like this perfect cube. You're like, "I don't get that. That's a really big city. It's going to throw the orbit of the Earth. I don't know, I don't know how that's going to work, but it's a really, really big glorious perfect city. Amazingly huge and glorious. And it's made up of people, living stones like us, who have heard the Gospel and being quarried out. Look forward to that, it's beautiful there. There's no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain.

And as a result of that, it's called the home of righteousness, nothing impure, unclean will ever enter into it. So we need to be pure and holy. Be very careful how you live. Be very careful what you look at on the internet, be very careful what captures your heart, what kinds of things you love, and what you eat and what your habits are. Be careful. Because we're under enemy attack all the time on this journey. And God, he's gone before us and he is our rear guard, but he wants us to fight and to put on the spiritual armor, and be holy. It says in 2 Peter 3, "Since everything would be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be?" You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed, it's coming.

So, that's the internal journey of holiness. Ask God to purify you from the Babylon of our age. Ask him to cleanse you from sins. Ask him to purify your perspective on the unbelievers of this age, don't be unequally yoked with them. For Christians not to marry non-Christians, but more than that, don't be in covenant relationship with non-Christians. Understand this world system, this setup, it's dominated by Satan, the God of this age, it is no friend to your faith, you're under enemy territory.

And look forward with longing to the day when there'll be no more sin, no more temptations, yearn to be as holy as you can be. And then the external journey of missions, it's so clear. We are to yearn for this, we are to be a church that sends out missionaries, we are to be a church that supports those missionaries. We are, I think, we've either made or very close to making our Lottie Moon goal. Isn't that awesome? Praise God. It was a great December, financially. But it'd be great to have a great 11 months between now and the next December, amen. Let's be generous financially with missions year-round.

Let's pray as we've never before prayed for missions. Let's be active in unreached people group missionary, missions. Let's send as many missionaries out as we can over the next 10 years, amen. And support them, and love them through emails and Skype and short-term mission trips. And let's have our beautiful feet really active here in the Durham area, amen. Let's go out into the city, out into the workplaces, workplace evangelism, evangelism on the college campuses, there are a lot of lost people, we love to see baptisms. More and more people brought to faith in Christ, yearn for that. Let's make this place a mission launching pad.

Next time I preach in Isaiah, we're going to be looking at how God paid for all this. These are some of the greatest, these are some of the greatest chapters in the Bible, it begins in 52, but on into 53. Come ready to hear. Now, next week, I believe Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, but it maybe two weeks from now. So bring visitors in a couple of weeks to hear Isaiah 53. And I want to make one final appeal, if you are lost, if you're on the outside looking in, don't leave this place without trusting in Christ. Talk to me or anyone else that want to be on the inside. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 51:1-23. The main subject of the sermon is that we can look to the past to have assurance of what God will do in the future.

Amen. Well, God has called us as Christians to an astonishing work of worldwide and eternal significance in the Gospel. We are called on to be witnesses to Christ and we're called on to share the gospel and to be part of the advancing church of Jesus Christ. Satan is very skillful at wrapping invisible spiritual cords around our hearts, cords of fear that keep us from proclaiming the gospel plainly and boldly. I think every one of us in this room, we know what that feels like. You feel tied down and you feel bound up by fear of man, fear of what people will think. And so we are unable to fulfill the works, the good works that God has gone ahead of us, to prepare in advance that we should walk in them because we're bound up with these invisible cords, these chains. Now, the word of God has power, it is sharp, it is living and active, and it can cut through those bonds, it can cut through those chains, those invisible chains on our hearts and make us free and make us bold to be witnesses for Christ.

Thursday, October 31, 1991, Halloween night. 1991 was a night that I will never forget. It was the night of a hurricane in Massachusetts. Halloween hurricane. There was a movie made later about it, about that storm and starring George Clooney. It was called The Perfect Storm. It's a true story of a triple storm system that came together, collided, and whipped itself into a massive frenzy. The storm lashed the east coast of the United States with high waves and coastal flooding. Waves as high as 30 feet crashed into the eastern seaboard, including Massachusetts, where Christy and I were living at the time. Now, the previous year in 1990, at Halloween time I had led an outreach, an evangelistic outreach to Salem, Massachusetts. Salem, of course, is the place of the famous Salem Witch Trials. But what many people who don't live in Massachusetts, don't know is that it's also a center of real witchcraft now and that people, registered witches from all over the country, indeed all over the world go and live there, so they can be together. It's a very spiritually dark place where Satan has a throne.

And so the year before in 1990, I had led an outreach there and we brought tracts, and we went, especially this one place. Laurie Cabot's House, Laurie Cabot was named by Michael Dukakis, who was Governor at that time, as the official witch of the state of Massachusetts as though our state needed an official witch. But we had an official witch, her name was Laurie Cabot and her house was a real focal point for college students in the area on Halloween and they would go and party and she opened up her house like a little bit of an occult museum and people are interested and they'd line up outside her house. So, perfect opportunity for us to witness, so I thought. And so we went and we were sharing the gospel, we were passing out tracts until Laurie Cabot's daughter came out and came right at me, asked what I was doing and I told her, and she spun on her heel, went back in and called the police, and the Salem police came and talked to me, found out what we're doing, etcetera, and then said, "Look you're not doing anything wrong, but this is a really busy night for us, would you mind just moving on."

And we were done, we passed out all of our tracts, it was time to go home. Well, I figured the next year, even better time for ministry and outreach, and so I wrote a little tract on the occult in the Bible and we printed out a bunch of those and I got a team ready and we were going to go. But as the day drew near for that outreach, I started becoming more and more fearful about it, about what had happened the week before. I mean, a year before, the persecution, the things. You know what I'm talking about, that satanic fear that starts coming over your heart, like these invisible chains. And then the storm came along, this epic storm. Unlike any I'd ever seen in my life. That Thursday was one of the longest days I can never remember. I was not a pastor, at that point. I was working as an engineer and just getting through the work day was so hard and I was talking to Christi and I was saying, "I think I'm just going to call it off. Nobody's going to be there. And storm and wind and rain and all this." And she said, "I think you need to go, alright. There's going to be college students there, you know that." And so she really convicted me. But what really convicted me was I was doing scripture memorization in Isaiah 51, the very chapter we're in today.

I think in some ways I've been waiting for more than two decades to preach this sermon today. Because I was going over verses 12-16 that day. And I want you to look at it with me. You just heard Gary read it. But I felt like every word was speaking right to me. Have you ever had that happen before with scripture, where everything in this text is talking to you, this is what it says, to remind you. "I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal men, the sons of men, who are but grass, that you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor, who is bent on destruction? For where is the wrath of the oppressor? The cowering prisoners will soon be set free; they will not die in their dungeon, nor will they lack bread. For I am the LORD your God, who churns up the sea so that its waves roar-- the LORD Almighty is his name. I have put my words in your mouth and covered you with the shadow of my hand- - I who set the heavens in place, who laid the foundations of the earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'"

That was the text I was memorizing that day, seemed relevant to me. Look at the points of contact. I was living in terror of what people would do to me or think about me. I was forgetting about God's amazing power. I was more fearful of man than of God, so that I didn't want a witness. And here was God churning up the sea so that its waves were rowing like I'd never seen before in all my life, and God was going to rescue spiritual prisoners through us and God had put His words in my mouth and he was going to cover us with the shadow of His hand, and I must go and lead that outreach. I must go.

Well, that night was one of the most incredible of my life. We witnessed to tons of college students that were, in fact, there. Christi was right about that. They were going to be there. And so, they were. And I witnessed to a Native American man, who was blind, what we would call an Indian, was blind. He had a leather vest, and all of these weird talismans hanging on his vest and he had two beautiful women, one on each arm, and he debated me for a long time, about the Bible and the occult and a huge crowd of people gathered around while this debate went back and forth, and our team members were sharing the Gospel with them, and a several of them came to faith in Christ.

See that college night is a night of recruiting for witchcraft. The witches actually recruit college students, male and female into their religion. But we were recruiting them into Christ, and numbers of them came to faith in Christ. But the most amazing part of this whole story was yet to come. A day later we went on a church retreat to Cape Cod. The ocean was still heaving and churning. I remember seeing this, we drove by the ocean, it was still just amazing and we got to the retreat center, it was dark and it was a small church, we were there, and a young woman who was in our church named Heather came. She had been involved in the occult before she was converted, and she was very anxious to talk to me.

We weren't particularly close, but she was asking where's Andy and she wanted to know if I was okay, in particular. I said, "Sure what's up." Well, she asked if I'd gone to Salem the night before, had we done the outreach and she was very anxious about that. I said, "Yeah, it went great. We had a great time." I said, "Did you hear anything about it?" She said, "No, I didn't even know if you went. But I had a dream about you, the night before and I just wanted to be sure you're okay." I said, "Well, what was in the dream?" She said, "Well, in my dream, I was in the town hall," that's where we met for worship, the top hill town hall second floor, it's a Victorian era building. Very creepy. Except on Sunday mornings, okay? Then it wasn't creepy. But it was night time and the moonlight was coming in through the windows, in her dream and she was there with Satan, and Satan was tormenting her. I mean, things from her past probably.

And I came in, again, we weren't close and I wasn't a pastor, but I came in and I told Satan to be gone and he crashed through the window, and he was gone, and she was so filled with this fear about this dream and specifically about me and she said, "It was weird, too. I knew it was Satan, but he was dressed up like a blind American Indian." I said, "Have you heard nothing about our outreach?" She said, "No." It was like each of us had two parts of a puzzle that fit together. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. It would never have happened if I had given into the fear that Satan was putting around my heart, and not done that outreach. It would never have happened.

I am afraid for our church that we are too concerned to protect ourselves and keep ourselves safe and not risk things in evangelism that we miss some of the greatest stories that God has set up in advance, for us to live in because of our fears and Isaiah 51 has the power to set us free, has the power to set us free. Basically, the message of Isaiah 51 is, look back at what God has done to gain strength and courage and hope for what God is yet to do in the future. That's what's going on in this chapter. The basic idea is this, despite all appearances, God will most certainly finish this incredible plan of salvation in this sin-cursed world and He will bring about perfect righteousness, and He will bring about salvation for his sinful people, resulting in eternal joy and celebration and any doubts we may have about this should be, instantly, swept away when we consider God's astonishing track record. The same God who created a nation from an elderly man and his barren wife can create a righteous nation, out of nothing. The same God who made a way through the sea can make a way through vicious enemies to establish Zion for all eternity. Look to the past to know that the future is staggeringly bright.

The immediate context is powerful, God is speaking a word of comfort across a century and a half through Isaiah the prophet to Jews who would be in exile in Babylon to comfort them for all the suffering they were enduring and to give them courage and strength. Keep in mind that Nebuchadnezzar, King of Babylon, had not yet even been born when these words were first written but through the prophet, God looks beyond the time of His wrath and judgment on his people. He addresses His remnant as if he were actually looking backward on the events of the exile, and the judgment of God that happened at that time, he addresses his remnant at that point, he speaks in verse 3 of the Lord comforting Zion, that's Jerusalem, restoring her waste places making them like the Garden of Eden. These words would mean nothing if God were not going to make Zion, into a desert by destruction. He speaks in verses 17-20, directly of the destruction that God is going to bring on Jerusalem as a display of His righteous wrath against the Jews for their sin., Jerusalem will be drinking to the bottom, to the bitter dregs, a cup of God's judgment because of their sins. A remnant will be all that survives. But in this chapter God addresses that remnant. They're tormented by the memories of that slaughter, of the destruction of their beloved Zion. After that, they're tormented by the taunts and threats of their captors. Verse 7, verse 12 and 13, verse 23, all mentioned mocking terrifying tormentors.

God is promising that these mere mortals, He calls them in verse 12, will soon be drinking the same cup God's righteous wrath and judgment for their sins, verse 23. By contrast, God is making some amazing promises to His chosen people. He will repopulate that godly nation, He will establish again His people in their beautiful homeland but the promises of this chapter soar beyond just that. God will populate the heavenly Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, with people from all over the earth. He will destroy the entire universe. Heaven and earth will be destroyed, verse 6, wrapped up, like an old garment, and He will create a new heaven and a new earth, not mentioned in this chapter by clearly mentioned in Isaiah 65 and 66, in which His chosen people, will dwell eternally with great joy. God's going to do that. Until that happens, or as God is working out that plan to make that happen. God wants His people filled with joy, confidence, hope and power.

Despite the taunts of their oppressors and the apparent impossibility of these grand promises being filled, so that they can actually do the work of evangelism and missions that's going to be essential to making all of this happen. He wants us filled with confidence, and courage and power, so He calls on them again and again to awake and listen to Him. Shaking off weariness, sadness, fear, depression, shaking those things off in order to be confident of the future, God's people must look to the past as recorded in scripture. The same God who created the first Heavens and Earth will create the new Heavens and the new Earth. The same God who first called the people out of nothing from Abraham and Sarah will again create a people for His pleasure, to dwell in righteousness for all eternity, the same God who led Israel through the Red Sea and slaughtered Rahab the sea monster, symbol of death frankly, slaughtered that will bring them through that, through death, resurrection into eternal life. The same God who built the earthly Zion through King David will build the heavenly Zion through King Jesus. Look to God's actions in the past so you can look ahead with hope to the future. Then you can look on your tormentors unafraid, you can look at your persecutors unafraid, unimpressed.

So that's an overview let's look at it carefully now, verses 1-6, listen to me, the God of Abraham will again create righteousness from nothing. Verse 1 and 2, "Are you seeking righteousness? Are you seeking the Lord? Look to Abraham and Sarah, listen to the verses. I would urge you just look along in the copy of the Bible if you would, I'm going to just be following through the words of the text or just listen to me, verse 1 and 2, "Listen to me you who pursue righteousness, and who seek the Lord, look to the rock from which you are cut and to the quarry from which you are hewn, look to Abraham your father and to Sarah who gave you birth, when I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many."

So God calls to the godly His people in every generation, first the exiles in Babylon, and then beyond them to every one of his people in every generation in church history. To those he says who pursue righteousness, and who seek the Lord, those are believers in Christ right? We pursue righteousness and we seek the Lord. He calls on them to listen and to look, Listen to me, He says, by hearing the words of the prophets. Look by faith to the rock from which you were cut in the quarry from which you were hewn. Look to Abraham and to God's faithfulness to His promise to Abraham. Now Abraham in the Book of Galatians is called in Romans 2 our father in faith, if you're a Christian, a believer in Christ, Abraham is your spiritual father. Galatians 3:7 says that those who believe in Christ are children of Abraham." Romans 4 says speaks of all Abraham's offspring. Not just those who are of the law but also those who are of the faith of Abraham, he is the father of us all, as the Scripture says, "I've made you a father of many nations." He is our father in the sight of God, the God in whom he believed, the God who gives life to the dead and calls things that are not as though they were.

Look to Abraham our father in faith. Look to the supernatural circumstances of the beginning of the Jewish nation. A barren couple, no hope of children, God made a promise to him and he believed it, there wouldn't have been a Jewish nation, if it weren't for the miracle that God did with Abraham and Sarah verse 2, "When I called him he was but one and I blessed him and made him many." So you exiles to Babylon, do you think that the Jewish nation is over, all hope is lost? Well think again, the same God who raised Isaac out of that barren womb, will raise up a nation out of this seemingly death penalty. Now beyond that, you Christians, you aliens and strangers in this world, do you think God cannot redeem the elect from every tribe and language and people and nation? He can't redeem His elect people from closed countries, Muslim countries, He can't redeem His elect in communist countries or totalitarian regimes in the 10/40 window, He can think again, the same God who raised up Isaac is able to raise up His elect and populate the eternal Zion, He can do it.

Zion Will Be Transformed: From Desert of Sin to Paradise of Joy

Verse 3, Zion will be transformed from a desert to a paradise of joy. Verse 3, "The Lord will surely comfort Zion and look with compassion on all her ruins, he will make her deserts like Eden, her waste lands like the garden of the Lord, joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the sound of singing." So again Zion equals Jerusalem, the City of God where God dwells in fellowship with his people, generally just the physical city of Jerusalem, God at that point was not finished with the physical earthly city of Jerusalem. He would comfort Jerusalem, and he would look with compassion on all her ruins, Jerusalem would be destroyed ruined, turned to rubble by the cup of God's wrath that he was going to give them.

But that's not the end of the story. The image again is of a desert that's made to bloom like a garden, like the Garden of Eden, the sounds of celebration of worship and Joy will fill the streets once again. It's going to be a populated place. It's the exact same image and vision that Zechariah has in Zechariah 8:4-8, don't turn there but I'll just summarize what it says there, there the prophet Zechariah again before the exile, saw the streets of Jerusalem will once again be filled with old men and women watching streets filled with boys and girls playing there. So you picture these old people sitting on their stools and watching the little kids play like you would at a park. It's just going to be filled, and he says there in Zechariah 8, you think it's impossible but God can do it.

God will save his people from the east and the west, and gather them to live in Jerusalem, and they will be His people, and He will be faithful and righteous to them as their God, Zachariah 8:4,3. Exact same image here but better than the restoration of the physical Jews, to physical Jerusalem to rebuild the physical walls, and have a physical life there? Better than all of that is the ultimate purpose of God in building a heavenly Jerusalem, Heavenly Zion, through the spread of the gospel of Jesus Christ, God's going to call the children of Abraham spiritually from every tribe and tongue and language and nation to the heavenly Jerusalem to live there forever, and the new Jerusalem will be far better than the Garden of Eden.

God's Salvation Goes Forth and Will Outlast this Universe

Now, I know that we're on the right track. If you just look at the next verses 4-6. "Listen to me my people, hear me my nation, the law will go out from me, my justice will become a light to the nations, my righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way, and my arm will bring justice to the nations. The islands will look to me and wait and hope for my arm." Oh dear friends, this is missions language. Do you see it? My justice, a Light to the Nations, my righteousness, my salvation, justice to the nations, the islands will look to me and wait for me and hope. This is the language of missions, it's gospel language, the light to the nations is Jesus Christ and the Gospel of Christ. This message of the gospel is the message of God's righteousness for the whole world.

And so Paul says in Romans 1, "I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes, first, for the Jew, then for the gentile, for in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, the righteousness that is from faith to faith just as it is written, 'the righteous will live by faith.'" That's the Gospel. That God, sent His son, the Lord Jesus Christ by the Virgin Mary we just celebrated his birth, his incarnation at Christmas time and that Jesus lived a sinless life, and Jesus did astonishing signs and wonders, and taught amazing things, but most especially, He died on the cross in our place as our substitute, under the wrath and judgment of God for our sins. God made Him who had no sin to be sinned for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. And that if we just believe in this Christ crucified and resurrected we'll have eternal life.

That's the message, that's the good news in verses 4-6, that God's going to send to the islands, to the distant lands. God's righteousness is drawing near speedily. His salvation is coming, it's on it's way. Now, if I could just stop here and say, I don't know all of you and I don't know why you're here today, but it could be that God brought you as a lost person here just for this moment to hear this gospel. In the ancient words of Isaiah 51, to hear that Christ is a great savior flee to Christ, flee to Christ. The God of Isaiah 51 is a terrifying enemy but a great and loving Savior. So flee to Him, flee to Christ, don't leave this place unconverted. If you don't know how to trust in Christ, if you don't know what to do, come and talk to me afterwards, or any of the leaders of the Church or any church member. Church member that you get talked to, please share the Gospel with that person when they come.

But this is the place where you can come to have all of your sins forgiven, you don't have to walk out under the burden of your sins, but this is the message of verses 4-6, the distant islands are going to look to the same God and trust in Him.

John Paton, a Scottish missionary in the 19th century, got on board a boat and sailed a long, long distance to the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific and there he went specifically as a missionary to some cannibals that he knew had killed and eaten the last missionary that was sent there in full view of the ship that had brought that missionary. And he went there anyway, and he led them to Christ, he established a Church there.

Don Richardson went to the island of Dutch New Guinea. He was from Calgary, Canada, and went to Dutch, New Guinea to the Sawi people. They also were cannibalistic head hunters, and they revered treachery. When they first heard the gospel story, they thought Judas was the hero because he had been tricky and treacherous and they loved that. How do you reach a people like that? But Don Richardson found something in their culture, something called the peace child, an analogy of the Gospel where warring kings would trade children and each of them would hold on to a child as a pledge concerning the other of peace between the two peoples, and he pounced on that as Christ as God's peace child to us. And as long as the peace child lives, there'll be peace between the entities and he used that to lead them to Christ.

Now listen, all of this missionary success to the distant islands was predicted in the Old Testament. Was predicted in the Book of Isaiah, we've been seeing it in Isaiah 42, it says, "In his law, the islands will put their hope." Again, same chapter Isaiah 42:10, "Sing to the Lord a new song. His praise from the ends of the earth. You who go down to the sea and all that is in it. You islands and all who live in them." And then Isaiah 49, remember this one? "Listen to me, you islands; hear this, you distant nations," and in the Lord, or God speaking to Christ saying, "It's too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept., I will also make you a light for the gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." So, in Isaiah 49:1,6, its islands and ends of the earth and Christ is coming there. He's the light for the world.

And now, here again in Isaiah 51, look at Verse five, "My righteousness draws near speedily, my salvation is on the way and my arm will bring justice to the nations, the islands will look to me and wait and hope for my arm." God is working an amazing salvation even for the distant islands to trust in Him, and the end of the story is nothing less than a new creation, a new heavens and a new earth. Look at Verse six, this is awesome.

"Lift up your eyes to the heavens, look at the earth beneath. The heavens will vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment, and its inhabitants will die like flies, but my salvation will last forever, my righteousness will never fail." This is a clear prediction of the end of the world. Verse six, Isaiah 51:6, A clear prediction that everything you see with your eyes, all of this physical stuff will wear out like a garment and disappear some day. All of it, all of it. 2nd Peter 3 he says that the day the Lord will "bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise, we are looking forward to a new heaven and new earth, the home of righteousness."

Revelation 21. "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city a New Jerusalem coming down out of heaven like a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband."

In verses 7-11, God calls on His people to listen to him. The God of the Exodus will again make a way for His people. Look at verses 7-8, he says, "Do not fear the taunts of men. God's salvation is going to outlast all of them." Verse 7, "Hear me you who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts. Do not fear the reproach of men or be terrified by their insults for The moth will eat them up like a garment, the worm will devour them like wool but my righteousness will last forever, my salvation through all generations." God calls on His people, His godly in every generation." Again, look what he says, "You who know what is right, you people who have my law in your hearts... " That's regeneration language, where God takes out the heart of stone and puts in the heart of flesh, he writes his laws on our minds, in our hearts. That's the new covenant. So he's calling to you, what is he telling you to do, listen to him, "listen to me," He says, "Hear me, don't fear your enemies, don't be afraid of those who reproach you or taunt you or insult you."

Now, Nehemiah faced that when he was there rebuilding the rubble filled city of Jerusalem, rebuilding the wall, remember that and they started making progress and some enemy Sanballat and Tobias. You remember those guys and they started to mock the work. They said, "Why, if even a fox jumped up on this little wall they are building it, it would tumble down." So they're just pitching insults and mocking. The same happens with evangelists and missionaries. People would go out in faith, to share the Gospel mocking starts happening, opposition, persecution, taunts. We're going to have to face reproach, we're going to face insults for the name of Christ. Jesus told us to rejoice.

I had lunch recently with Jonathan who's a church member and serving the Lord in Central Asia and he told me that a Kazakh man there said to him. "I hate you." Can you imagine that being said straight out to you, right to your face. "I hate you, I hate everything about you, I hate what you're here to do, I hate that you've married a woman from our people. I hate what you're trying to do to our culture. I hate you." Jonathan filled with the Spirit said, "Well, I love you. I'm here because I love you, I want you to know Christ." But this is the kind of opposition. And they had a long conversation at the end of that. The man said, back to him. "Just the final words I want to say to you, is I hate you" and he walked away. Well, that's terrifying, intimidating, sad, hurtful. I shared with him at that moment Matthew 5:11-12 where Jesus said, "Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you."

But it still hurts. And what this text says is if these enemies don't repent, a moth is going to devour them like wool and their worm will never die, and their fire will never be quenched. It says later in Isaiah, but God's salvation will shine like the sun for all eternity. So do not fear the reproach of men, he says.

Now in Verse 9-10, Isaiah speaking for us calls on God, to wake up. "Awake O Lord," he says. Look at verse 9-10, "Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength o arm of the Lord, awake as in days gone by, as in generations of old. Was it not you who cut to pieces, who pierced that monster through? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep? And who made a road in the depths of the sea so that the redeemed might cross over." The redeemed, in every generation, call on God to wake up, why? Because God sometimes seems like he's asleep, sometimes it seems like God isn't doing his plan.

Like, where is God in all of this, where is God in all of this, and this is prayer, they're calling, we're calling on God to move with His mighty strength like he used to do. "Do in our generation what we heard you did in the past? Move O mighty arm of God." That's what we do in prayer, we ask. In intersession, we say, "Oh God, build your church. Oh God, thrust out missionaries. Oh God, make us evangelists. Oh God, lead us to people here in this community who are ready to hear the Gospel."

The same God who pierced the monster Rahab through. What is this? It's like some kind of a mythological sea creature, I guess something like that, all kinds of interpretations of this, but I think it simply represents the death that the depths of the sea pose to us, the terror of the depths of the sea, the sea monster, it just kind of equals death to me and God killed it. God pierced that monster through.

Now, it's interesting, the next time we're going to see that word pierce is in Isaiah 53. We'll get to that in a few chapters. But, he pierces and kills death by the piercing of his son Jesus. And He made a way through the sea. "Moved out O arm of the Lord. Oh mighty God do in our day what you did in the past." So this is a simple application. Pray like this. Pray like this. Pray for God's church to be established here in the Raleigh/Durham area. Pray like this, pray for God's church to be established in unreached people groups. Say, "Move out O arm of the Lord."

Verse 11, the ransom will sing eternally. "The ransom to the Lord will return. The will enter Zion with singing, everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them and sorrow and sighing will flee away, salvation songs for all eternity, everlasting joy. Think about that, think about that phrase, everlasting joy crowning your heads, sorrow and sighing fleeing away."

Can't you see this cannot be fulfilled in the mere rebuilding of the walls of Jerusalem, and the rebuilding of the city. There's no way. It's not everlasting joy, and sorrow and sighing never to be seen again. They're still surrounded by enemies. They're still under Gentile Domination. The Persians will give way to the Greeks, will give way to the Romans. No, no, this is about heaven. This is about the new Jerusalem, when the gates will always stand open, because there are no enemies, left and there'll be no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away. Everlasting joy will crown your head and sorrow and sighing will flee away forever.

Now, in verses 12 through 16, some of the most convicting words I've ever read on fearing people. It really just cut... It cut me to the heart that day, that Thursday. How dare... That's the tone I get here. "How dare you fear mortal men, more than you fear me. How can you do that?" God is saying to us. He's convicting us here. Look at the verses, "I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you that you fear mortal man, the sons of men who are but grass? That you forget the Lord your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth, that you live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. For where is the wrath of the oppressor?" God challenges his weak, small, feeble, frail, children in every generation, not to fear man not to fear human opposition. He reminds them that he is the one who comforts them especially by the redeeming work of Christ. By Christ's death and resurrection, oh be comforted dear people. Be comforted.

And He commands them to fear God more than they fear men. It greatly dishonors God, if we fear men more than we fear God and disobey God as a result, that's just a great dishonor to God. Now, we do not minimize the suffering of our brothers and sisters in Christ who are being persecuted in other places in the world. We don't minimize it. We don't minimize the fact that brothers and sisters are presently being imprisoned, tortured, beaten and killed for the faith. We're not minimizing that. We do not minimize the sufferings of those who are beheaded by ISIS or their families that fled from ISIS and grieved for their losses. We don't minimize that. We don't minimize our brothers and sisters who are being detained for questioning by the religious police in Iran. We don't minimize the suffering of house church pastors in China who are detained just for doing ministry, or ordinary ministry, in house churches and imprisoned.

But all of them and us must learn to fear the Lord infinitely more than we fear anything that man can do to us. Jesus put it very plainly, He said, "I tell you my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. I'll tell you the one to fear; Fear the one who after the death of the body has the power to destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear Him." That's Luke 12. Fear God, the God who created heaven and earth.

Now, American Christians, generally, do not face that level of persecution as we try to be faithful in evangelism. We generally are going to face horizontal societal rejection. Some insults, snide comments you might be held back at work, you might not get a promotion or a raise. You might even get a bad haircut. Okay, that happened to me once, as I was witnessing to a woman at Great Clips. And the next time I witness at Great Clips took more faith than the previous time because she said my hair cut was done and that was that. So that may happen and again, I'm not making light of it, but these are things that amazingly are still effective at keeping us from sharing their faith. "I might get a bad haircut." Yes, you just might but the Lord will reward you on Judgment Day.

So just ask yourself right now as an application, how does fear of man hinder you in being faithful in evangelism? What are you afraid of? Think of someone right now you would like to share your faith with. Think of someone. Thinking, thinking, thinking of someone. Ah a person, Okay. A lost person, just popped in your mind, I hope. You'd like to share with him or her, but you're afraid what will happen. Cut through the invisible bands of fear and be faithful and witness and share the Gospel with that person. Now, when we think about ISIS we think about vicious persecutors, we think about these words, Verse 13,14, "You live in constant terror every day because of the wrath of the oppressor who is bent on destruction. For where is the wrath of the oppressor?" The cowering prisoners will soon be set free. They will not die in their dungeon nor will they lack bread."

God's going to set all the prisoners free. He's going to set his own children free from incarceration, but even better, more significantly, he's going to set his elect unconverted children free when they hear the Gospel and they get out of Satan's kingdom by repentance and faith, he's going to set them free. Those are the cowering prisoners that were set free that night in Salem. Luke 11, Jesus said this, speaking of Satan, "When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe but when someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides up the spoils." Jesus is stronger than Satan and he's taking Satan's stuff, that's people, and he's plundering Satan's dark kingdom through the gospel, and that's awesome.

The Lord Who Rules the Sea Will Use You to Establish Eternity

Verse 15-16, the Lord who rules the sea will use you to establish His eternal plans. "I am the Lord your God who churns up the sea so that it's waves roar. The Lord Almighty is His name. I put my words in your mouth, I've covered you with the shadow of My hand. I, who set the heavens in place who laid the foundations of the Earth, and who say to Zion, 'You are my people.'" This is a direct reminder of God's splitting of the Red Sea, by a powerful east wind. For me, personally, it's a reminder of the perfect storm. Perfect storm, the triple storm system and the churning and the 30-foot waves and a God who can do that can do anything. What am I afraid of? What am I afraid of? Only thing I should fear is dishonoring him. We need to please God and advance the Gospel. Satan will use intimidation, he'll try to cow us so we stop preaching the gospel.

So wake up, verses 17-23, the time has come for your tormentors to fall. God is going to hand to Jerusalem, still in the future in Isaiah's day, a cup of wrath and they're going to have to drink it. Verses 17-20 talk about that. "Awake, awake, rise up O Jerusalem, you have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of His wrath. You have drained to its dregs the goblet that makes men stagger. Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her, of all the sons she rear there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come upon you, who can comfort you. Ruin and destruction, famine and sword, who can console you. Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street, like an antelope caught in a net. They're filled with the wrath of the Lord and the rebuke of your God."

That's a description of the judgment that's going to come on Jerusalem, the cup of wrath handed into the hands of Jerusalem and they're going to have to drink it to the bottom, to the dregs. But verse 21-22, those days are now over, those days are over. Therefore hear this, you afflicted one made drunk but not with wine. This is what your sovereign Lord says, your God who defends his people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand, the cup that made you stagger. From that cup, the goblet of my wrath you will never drink again. There's going to come a time... First of all, for us as Christians, all condemnation is gone, because Jesus died. No fear of hell, no fear of condemnation. We're done. Tribulation and suffering is not done yet, and that's the cup we're drinking now. Some day even that cup is going to be taken and we'll never drink it again, we'll be free from death, mourning, crying, and pain.

But for our tormentors who never repent, who never find faith in Christ, verse 23. I will put it into the hands of your tormentors, that cup. Who said to you, fall prostrate that we may walk over you and you made your back like the ground like the street to be walked over. Some day God is going to judge them.

Alright, I've sprinkled applications throughout the sermon, I just want to give you a few final ones and we'll be done. The basic message of Isaiah 51 is look to the past to gain hope for the future. Look to what God has done in the past. So do it. Do it. Okay? So much of this book, so much of the Bible is history, so much of it is. Even ancient history. It's written so that we can learn the character of an unchanging God. God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He'll never change. So he'll do different things in every generation, but he himself is the same, he never changes. So this book was written to give us hope and faith, we feed on it, read these stories be in the Word every day in 2015.

Can I just urge you? Read through the whole Bible in this year in 2015, there's so many different programs and plans. I use every day in the word with the ESP Bible and it takes about 12 to 15 minutes per day, and you get through the whole Bible in a year. Read through the Bible in a year and then add to it. Big faith step, memorize one verse a day. You can do it. I know you can. It can be done. 365 and 1/4 verses, pastor? No, just 365 verses, we're not in a leap year. So just 365. Just memorize Scripture, hide God's word in your heart. Build your faith. Now, especially look to what God's done in your life and in the Scripture in the past and be encouraged. Say, "Look at all the faithfulness God showed me." And look back to Christ crucified and resurrected. Keep your eyes on Christ, remind yourself that you are forgiven and strengthened by Christ. By Christ crucified. So trust in him, look to him. Believe in him for future grace.

Thirdly, marvel at how specifically God predicted missions in Isaiah. It's very, very clear. Isaiah 42:49-51 again and again, talking about the Islands. When Christ rose from the dead, he went to the upper room and he met with his disciples. In Luke 24 it says, "He opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures." Then he said, "This is what is written, that Christ will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness of sins will be preached in His name to all nations beginning at Jerusalem." That's what was written. Well friends, it's written in Isaiah. So what does that mean for us? Let's be more missions-minded than we've ever been before in the year 2015. That's what God is doing in the world.

Let's give more money. I'm encouraged by Lottie Moon. We're not there yet, we're at 96,000, I think. But we've got money coming in. I would like to see missions giving 12 months a year, amen. Not just December, but 12 months. I would love to see more people going on short-term mission trips. I'll like to see more passionate prayer for unreached people groups. Get an app, joshuaproject.net, or something like that, and pray for an unreached people group every day in the year 2015. And especially, let's be active in evangelism. Let's seek people we can share the Gospel with. Let's risk things. Let's risk persecution. Some great stories are ready out there waiting to be told. Push through the fear and find those great stories. Find a neighbor, a co-worker, a total stranger, frequent a restaurant, go to that one place and build relationships for the sake of evangelism. I yearn to see more people converted, genuinely converted, baptized and then discipled by our church than ever before.

Fourth, look forward to the new heavens and new earth and new Jerusalem. Yearn for it, delight in it, read about it. Look for the day when it's going to come and speed its coming. And ask God specifically until that time comes to fill you with hope and deliver you from fear of man. Close with me in prayer.

Well, Christmas is a time of journey, it is a time of moving around from place to place, many of you are going to be traveling this week, I know of some of you who have traveled to get here, to be with family, and maybe you are guests or visitors. And so we know this a time of moving around, a time in which people move. They travel to be with family, they're willing to pay elevated air fares or to bear the traffic around urban centers. They're willing to just get in a car packed up with all kinds of gifts or whatever and drive long distances to be with family, and just to sit and to enjoy that family time together. I picture in my mind's eye: a crackling fire in the hearth, that we haven't had one in years but I just love that picture and the tree right there, hopefully not too close to the fire, but just the enjoyment of being with family and friends, it's a time of moving around.

I also picture sometimes, this is a time of the year after Christmas in which people go to missions, conferences, I know a year ago we went to the cross-conference and traveling through the hills of West Virginia or Western North Carolina, seeing the snow and all that. It's a great time. A time of movement. Christmas has always been associated with journeys, if you look at the very beginning, in Luke chapter 2, when Caesar Augustus issued his decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. And that meant movement. It meant populations moving around within Palestine, as each of the Jews went to their home area to their tribal - their place of tribal ancestry - and they would go there to register, and we know that that's what moved Joseph and Mary to go to Bethlehem, where the prophecy had said that the Christ was to be born. After Jesus was born, shepherds moved a very short distance from the hills outside of Bethlehem to see this incredible thing that the angel had told him about as the angel descended, and who told them, "'Today in the town of David, a Savior is born to you, who is Christ the Lord.'" And so they said, "Come, let's go see what the angel has told us about." And they left the sheep and went to see, and it was just what the Lord had told them would happen. And of course, we know the story of the Magi, we don't know how far they traveled, but they moved from distant lands and they were following a supernatural light, a star that moved and was able to stop over at the place where the child lay, and they traveled from their great distances because of the birth of Christ. And these long journeys were caused by the coming of Christ into the world. And so people since that time have been traveling also, because Christ came into the world. The entrance of Christ into our sin cursed world, result in massive movements of people, providentially. God has been moving people around to achieve His sovereign goals. I think especially of missionaries who have left their own homes and have gone long, long distances to bring the news of Christ, the coming of Christ and of his birth, of His death and resurrection, to those who have never heard his name.

John Paton was a missionary from Scotland in the 19th century. He traveled probably farther than any missionary in history, I don't know that this is true, but I can't think of anyone that traveled farther. From Glasgow, Scotland to Tana in the New Hebrides Islands in the South Pacific. A distance of 9987 miles as the crow flies. Don Richardson, who wrote the missions book, Peace Child, traveled from Calgary, Alberta to Papua New Guinea, a distance of 6167 Miles. William Carey, for him, the distance from London to Serampore, India was 4934 miles as the crow flies, but he had to actually navigate around Africa to get there, an additional 5000 miles.

So many people have traveled long distances to take the Gospel of Jesus Christ to those who have never heard his name. In 1993, Christie and I boarded a plane with Nathaniel and Jenny. Our two children that were alive at that time - please don't think we left the other three behind, they just weren't born yet, they were in the mind of God. But we took those two and they came with us to Japan, and for us that distance was over 7000 miles and our desire was to bring Christ to what was at that time the largest unreached people group in the world, the Japanese, that they would hear the gospel.

Yet I would say that of all of these journeys, no journey is as vast and immeasurable, even indeed infinite as the journey traveled by Christ Himself, in the text that we're going to look at today, in Philippians Chapter 2, it's an infinite journey. The coming of Christ from Heaven to Earth, to the cross, to the grave. No one has traveled so far. Look again at the words of Philippians 2, "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." So in this Christmas sermon, we're going to trace out the words from the words of the text, Christ's stunning and amazing journey. Where Christ began in divine and heavenly glory, how Christ traveled downward into human form, how He traveled further downward to human humility, how Christ traveled infinitely downward at the cross. How then God exalted Christ upward in resurrection glory. How God exalted Christ even further to heavenly glory at His right hand. And now, how God through the Spirit has been exalting Christ to worldwide glory, that's the journey we're going to follow. Down and back up again.

And so we're going to start with where Christ began, divine and heavenly glory. Look at verse 6, "Who being in very nature God, speaking of Christ, who being in very nature, God did not consider equality with God, something to be grasped." Some of the translations have, "Did not think it robbery to be considered equal with God." So before the incarnation, Jesus existed eternally in heavenly glory, He was not created by God the Father. He was eternally begotten as God the Son and received from Him equal glory and equal worship from the heavenly angels. Now, as we've been studying in the book of Isaiah, we realize that He does not share His glory with any created being. Remember how we saw in Isaiah 42:8, The Lord says this, "'I am the Lord, that is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.'" There is an infinite gap between God as the creator and all created beings, the creature.

A.W. Tozer put it this way In his classic Knowledge of the Holy, he said, "We must not think of God as the highest in an ever ascending order of beings starting with the single cell and going on from there to the fish, to the bird, to the animal, to man, to angel, to cherub, to God. This would be to grant God eminence, even pre-eminence, but that is not enough. We must grant him transcendence in the fullest sense of the word. Forever, God stands apart. In light, unapproachable. He is as high above an archangel, is above a caterpillar. For the gulf that separates the archangel from the caterpillar is but finite, while the gulf between God and the archangel is infinite." End quote. In that quote from Tozer, there is 1 Timothy six, 15 and 16, which says, "God, the Blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who dwells in unapproachable light whom no one ever has seen or can see." That's God. But Jesus shared God's glory equally. He shared his position in the universe as Almighty God equally. We know that, because as his work was nearing an end the night before He was crucified, He asked in John 17:5, "'Father glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began,'" which would be infinitely bold for him to ask if He were not almighty God.

So Christ was equally God, equally glorious, equally worshipped. It was not robbery, as one of the translations has, for him to be considered equally God. Another way to look at it is He didn't think it was something He had to grab hold of, to be God or something to hold on to, all the trappings of divine glory. There's different ways to look at that. But He didn't consider it robbery to be considered equally God. It was not arrogance, it was not idolatry, it was not presumption, it was not wickedness. In Isaiah 6, in the call of Isaiah, we have these unforgettable words. "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. And above Him were seraphim, each with six wings. And with two wings, they covered their faces. And with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. And they were calling to one another. 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty. The whole earth is full of His glory.'" Now, in John 12, the apostle John says, Isaiah spoke about Jesus's glory because he saw him. He saw Jesus's glory and spoke about Him. He said, Jesus's glory, so I think his definitely having in mind Isaiah 6. And so he sees Christ in throne before the incarnation. Jesus's glory was so brilliant before his incarnation that the holy angels couldn't bear to look on him. They'd never committed any sin, they were holy and pure, morally perfect and yet, they're covering their faces. Because Christ dwelt an unapproachable light. 100 million angels, Daniel 7, gives us the implication of a 100 million angels worshipping Christ. That's hard to even fathom what that would have looked like. And so Jesus did not think it robbery to be counted equal with God, it was not robbery to be as divine as God the Father, as omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, righteous, just, loving, wrathful, eternal. All the attributes you can think of when you think about God, they are equally true of Christ before his incarnation. It was not robbery to be as glorious as the Father. He was as brilliant, as radiant, as terrifying to the holy angels, as was God the Father.  And it was not robbery to be worshipped like God the Father, there was nothing wrong and everything right for the son being worshipped by those 100 million angels.

That's where Jesus was when he began his downward journey - the pinnacle of glory, the pinnacle of deity and worship - but then the downward journey begins, to earth, to servanthood and to the cross. First, we must understand the Father sent Him and he obeyed. 1 Peter 1:20 says that "He was chosen before the creation of the world" to be our savior. The father sent him from his side into the world 40 times in John's Gospel. It is said of Jesus that the Father sent Him. He is the sent one. Again and again in John's gospel, it stresses this, that the Father sent Him. For example, John 6:38 and 39, "'For I have come down from heaven. Jesus said, not to do my own will, but to do the will of Him who sent me, and this is the will of Him who sent me that I shall lose none of all that He has given me, but raise them up at the last day.'" Friends, by the way, John 6:38, 39 too are the most encouraging verses in the whole Bible. The Father sent the Son into the world to save his children, and he will not stop until He raises you up on the final day. And isn't that encouraging? But again, clearly, the Father sent Him. Or again, John 8:42, he said, "'I came from God,'" this is Jesus speaking, I came from God and now I'm here. "'I have not come on my own, but He sent me.'" So it is clear that the Father sent Jesus on a mission into the world. The Father sent Jesus to become a baby.

The father sent Jesus to seek and to save the lost, but Philippians 2 emphasizes Christ's own decision in the matter. His own will in the matter. In his pre-incarnate state, he chose to enter the world. He willed to do it. He was delighted to do it even. He chose to become a human being. Look again at verses five through seven, "Jesus: who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing taking the very nature of a servant being made in human likeness." You see the willfulness of it, the choice of it on Jesus's part. He is choosing to do this, it was His will to leave heavenly glory, to make himself nothing. It was his will to become human, to be made in human likeness. And the phraseology here, he was in very nature, God, is the NIV's translation. He became in very nature, servant. I've meditated on it. He was as much servant as he ever was God. He didn't play at being a servant, act at it, he truly to his core was a servant. And the essence of that is he became human in order to do it.

Now once made human, he chose a downward journey from there. God ordained for the birth of Jesus to be noteworthy in its humility and noteworthy in its poverty, actually. It was extremely poor, the circumstances of his birth. Unusually poor, very few babies in the world are born into as degrading circumstances as was the son of God. You know the story, of course, no room in the end, and so Jesus ends up being born in a stable, it might have been a cave outside Bethlehem, it might have been one of those barn type things that you look at. But it was a degrading situation, surrounded by animals. And then after His birth, He was wrapped in cloths by His mother Mary, who apparently, had no help at all. I'm not trying to be insulting to Joseph, but he was probably no help at all. There were no midwives, there were no nurses, there were no OB-GYN, there was no NICU standing by in case there was a problem with the baby, no one took his Apgar score, I don't think any of that happened. And then he's laid in a box of feeding trough for animals. I mean, you think of all the efforts made at Duke or at UNC to keep new-born babies free from any infections at all and free from viruses, and that's a laudable effort, and I know some of you are involved and I praise God for your work. And it's well done too because the infant mortality rates are - it's just a terrible tragedy, I get that. But none of that was there for Jesus, none of it. He's born into abject poverty. I mean, think about 2 Corinthians 8:9, "For you know the grace of our lord Jesus, that though He was rich, yet for your sakes, He became poor. So that you, through His poverty might become rich." So the vast majority of the world's population is poor, below a certain line of poverty, and Jesus, by being born in this way, identified with their poverty.

He willingly chose by his humble birth circumstances, but then once he became a man, he made more and more of the same kind of conscious choices. Verse 8 again, "Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient." He was obedient, he always did what the Father told him to do, He was constantly obedient. We talked about that last week with Isaiah 50. The Lord gave him an opened ear, and he was not rebellious, He didn't draw back, He did everything the Father commanded him to do. He humbled himself and served the father. And at the horizontal level, He humbled himself and served anyone and everyone who came to him for anything. I mean, do you read an account of someone coming to Jesus for something and not getting what they came from for?

It's amazing how humble He was to people who came and needed something from him. Think about Matthew Chapter 8, "When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. 'Lord', He said, 'My servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.' Jesus said to Him, 'I will go and heal him.'" Matthew chapter 9, the very next chapter, "…a ruler came and knelt before him and said, 'My daughter has just died, but come and put your hand on her and she will live.' Jesus got up and went with him." Matthew 14, "When Jesus heard [that John the Baptist had been executed], He withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place." All He wants to do is be alone and pray to his father. He was grieving. He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering, and He was grieving over the death of John the Baptist, his friend. And so He just wanted to be alone, but the crowds wouldn't let him be alone. When He landed on the other side of the sea, a huge crowd was waiting for him. And when He saw them, “He had compassion on them and healed them” and taught them many things and fed them. And so He fulfilled his own words. Mark 9:35, "If anyone wants to be first, He must be very last and the servant of all." So, Jesus humbled himself and became obedient.

But Jesus's obedience and his humbling went to the infinite level. So let's finish the thought, "And being found in appearance as a man", Verse 8, "He humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross." The cross was His perfect act of submission and obedience to His Heavenly Father. He said, "The world must learn that I love the Father, and I do everything the Father has told me to do. Including dying." And so He said in Gethsemane, "'Not my will but yours be done.'" He drank the cup for us. Now, the cross was infinitely degrading to Jesus. You cannot measure it, you cannot understand how degrading it was. Isaiah 52:14, which God willing we'll get to soon, it says this, "Just as there were many who were appalled at Him, His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and His form marred beyond human likeness." Now that's got to be talking about Jesus's death on the cross. And then in the very next chapter, Isaiah 53, it says, "He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities, the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." No one can possibly imagine, fathom how infinitely degrading and humiliating it was for Jesus, the Son of God, the Holy Son of God, to bear our sins, our defilements, our iniquities, our wickedness on himself like swimming in a swamp of un-holiness covered with the muck of our lusts and murders, and thefts and blasphemes and corruptions. And then being justly with him as our substitute, crushed by God the Father, suffering the infinite wrath of God for us as our substitute. This was the very reason why He became human. This is why He took on a body that He might lay that body down in our place on the cross, that was the nadir, that was the bottom of this downward journey that we have been tracing out here in Philippians 2, from Heavenly glory to death, even death on a cross, and then to burial in the grave.

But now, we begin the infinite upward journey as well. Resurrection, ascension, and enthronement. Look at Verse 9, "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name." God the Father glorified Jesus in His bodily resurrection from the dead. At Christmas time, we celebrate the commitment of God the Son to be human, that is eternal, it's perpetual, he's still human. He took on a body because we humans, we have bodies. He died and laid that body down. God raised him from the dead in a resurrection body to show his perpetual commitment to Christ as human, as our mediator. And so, God glorified Jesus in His resurrection. Verse 4 of Romans Chapter 1 says, "Through the spirit of holiness, Jesus was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord." So this, just glory as God raised Him from the dead.

And then God glorified Jesus in His Ascension to Heaven. I love that moment in Acts 1 verse 9, where Jesus after he'd spent 40 days with His disciples. Teaching them many things about the Kingdom of God took them out to the Mount of Olives. And it says in Acts 1:9, "He was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight." I remember at one time, a number of years ago, one of my kids got one of those free balloons from Kroger and - a helium balloon - and it wasn't properly secured around the wrist. You know those moments. You ever seen that? And then off it goes, we step out, and it just goes, and I just stood there watching it go higher and higher and higher, thinking about the Ascension of Jesus Christ. It's funny my child wasn't thinking about the Ascension of Christ at that moment. It was a moment of great sadness and sorrow, but I was just thinking, what would it have been like to stand there on that hillside and see Jesus as He went higher and higher until finally, a cloud hid Him from their sight. It must have been an awesome sight. And you get the picture of the apostle just standing there staring and like the world. Their lives have ended. They're just there now. And they're immobile. And so God has to send an angel to say, "Come on, let's move along, now. Go back into Jerusalem. The Lord's going to come and give you the power of the Holy Spirit. Don't stand here waiting. He's coming back some day." But what an awesome glory that was to Jesus to ascend. But the book of Hebrews tells us that even the cloud hiding from the sight. That wasn't enough. Jesus, it says, "Has moved through the heavens," So you can imagine like circle upon circle of heavenly reality and exaltation and glory, and Jesus is going higher and higher and higher, even within the heavenly realms.

It says in Hebrews 4:14, "We have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens. Jesus, the son of God, and then God glorified Jesus in His enthronement at His right hand." Mark 16:19 says, "After Jesus had spoken to them, He was taken up into Heaven and sat at the right hand of God." Psalm 110 verse 1, "The Lord said, to my Lord, Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." Ephesians 1:20-22 kind of captures all of this upward journey that we've just covered so quickly. Ephesians 1:20-22 says this, "That God raised him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way." So that's the upward journey from the grave to a resurrection, to ascension, to sitting at the right hand of God over everything there is in the universe.

I also want you to notice the link between verse 8 and 9. By the word, therefore, the downward journey was the causal relationship to the upward exaltation. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. No one has humbled himself as much as Jesus, and therefore no one is as exalted as Jesus. There's a connection. Therefore God raised Him from the dead and seated him at His right hand. Therefore, He exalted him to the highest place.

There's a link there. And then it says, Jesus is given "the name that is above every name." Well, that simply is God, He's given the name God or any name that we could refer to God, God the Son, Almighty God, omnipotent, powerful ruler of Heaven and Earth, the one who sits in throne above the circle of the Earth and all its people are like grasshoppers. He is the sustainer of everything in the universe. He is the judge of all the Earth. Any title that could be given that's glorious. Jesus has those titles.

And Christmas results in a greater glory to Jesus than He would have had if He had not come to Earth. He ends up with more glory because of what He did. Revelation 5:9, it says, "They sang a new song in Heaven, singing to Jesus, You are worthy to take the scroll and open its seals because you were slain and with your blood, you purchased men for God from every tribe and language and people and nation." They're celebrating his atoning work, and so He is in Heaven, and He is glorified and exalted. But there is a remaining glory yet for Jesus, and that is a worldwide worship. Look at Verses 9-11, "Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father."

Now the glory of Christ has been spreading and increasing since His resurrection and ascension. It's been getting greater and greater every day, every single day. On the night of His resurrection, Jesus came to where his disciples were in the upper room where the doors were locked for fear of the Jews, and Jesus came and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you," and they were stunned when they saw him and filled with joy, and He showed them His hands and His side. The marks of His atoning work. And again, He said to them, "'Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, even so, I am sending you.' And then He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" And with the coming of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, the church started moving out, started that external journey that we talk about, just pouring out of the Upper Room to those thousands of pilgrims who had come there for the day of Pentecost and began preaching the Gospel beginning in Jerusalem, a church started there, it grew to 3000 baptized that first day, and it just continued to grow in Jerusalem. Persecution broke out, it spread throughout Judea and Samaria, and they preached the Gospel in that area. It was taken down to Ethiopia by that eunuch that Philip witnessed to out in the desert from Isaiah 53; we will get to all that.

It spread to the Gentiles by Peter's witnessing to Cornelius and his family. It spread to Cypress and then throughout Asia Minor by Paul and Barnabas as they went on their first missionary journey. And then it spread across to Macedonia and Thessalonica, and down to Athens and Corinth by Paul and Silas as they were called there by the Holy Spirit. It was taken in chains by Paul to Rome, the center of the Roman Empire, but God's word was not chained, and a church was growing up there in Rome and spreading, and everyone in the Roman world heard about that. It continued to spread after the apostolic era through the Roman empire by the blood of martyrs, seed for the church, and our brothers and sisters willing to die for their faith so that the Gospel might spread and Christ might get more and more glory and honor.

As the Gospel spread throughout the Roman world, it continued to spread through the barbarian tribes of Europe, it spread to Germania and Britannia, by early Roman missionaries continued little by little to conquer Europe, spread eastward to the vast rolling hills and valleys of Russia, the distant, mysterious kingdoms of India and China in those early centuries, under the Nestorian's, spread along the Silk Road into the steps of Central Asia. Explorers started taking banners of their Christian kings and queens to the New World, but genuine missionaries came too and started sharing the Gospel among those that were already living in the new world, and the Gospel continued to spread.

The last three centuries have seen an explosion of missions to India, Burma, China, distant islands of the South Pacific. After World War II, the unreached people groups began to be isolated and focused on, and more and more turning to the Gospel that they're hearing as this thing relentlessly spread. You know how it says, there's more joy in Heaven over one sinner who repents than 99 who don't need to repent? Everyone person who turns to Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit under the true Gospel, that's more glory for Jesus up in Heaven. Amen.

That's awesome. And every saint that dies and is "absent from the body, present with the Lord" and sees his or her Lord face-to-face and is instantly transformed and made holy and perfect in every way, more glory for Jesus, and there is yet more glory to come, there's more and more work to be done. The Gospel is going to continue to spread. We're going to continue to evangelize right here in the Durham area and to be involved in missions to the ends of the Earth. And it's going really, really well. It's exciting, actually. This is a great time to be alive.

I read an incredible article in World magazine written by David Garrison. The name of the article was the rising tide of Muslim converts to Christianity. And David Garrisons is an IMB missionary for 25 years, PhD from the University of Chicago. He's written a book called, A Wind in the House of Islam. A Wind in the House of Islam. He believes - and in that book, he does research and relates the results of his research - he believes, based on his research, that somewhere between two and seven million former Muslims have converted to Christianity in the past two decades. He says there's been lots of upheaval in the Muslim world, but some of that has actually loosened the grip of Islam on the hearts of people living in Muslim countries. Key example is Iran. Garrison says that The Ayatollah Khomeini has been one of the greatest evangelists for Christ that Iran has ever seen. He didn't mean to be that way, but that's been the outcome. What do I mean? What did Garrison mean? Well, because of his overwhelming dedication to enforce the Islam that is actually taught in the Quran, hear me carefully, it's not extreme Islam, it's genuine Islam, and he desired to enforce that in Iran, thousands and thousands of Iranians don't want any part of it. Don't want any part of it. They're leaving Islam in record numbers. Tens of thousands and probably hundreds of thousands in Iran are now brothers and sisters in Christ.

And Jesus's glory has increased as a result of that. That's happening on a grand scale in many places. Garrison said this; there are movements of Muslims to Christ. And by that, I mean not just individuals, but movements of at least a thousand within a single community who have been baptized or 100 churches planted over the last two decades. Those are his criteria from one end of the Muslim world to the other, so from West Africa to Indonesia and everywhere in between. He said Muslims are having their sleep disturbed by visitations and by answered prayers as well. He said we've talked to a number of folks who just talked about how they tested God. They said, "If this is real, I'm just going to pray, and if you're really there, Lord, I want you to hear this." And Jesus began to reveal Himself through His faithfulness in amazing ways, and they realized that to follow Christ was not to follow a 2000-year-old dead prophet. It was to follow the living Lord. That, for them, was the turning point. Garrison said this, "I traveled more than a quarter of a million miles into the Muslim world, and in every corner I interviewed people, I would never have imagined I'm talking about Sheikhs and Imams and Mullahs, leaders in the Islamic community who gave testimony to having been baptized after having met Jesus and knowing that in doing so, they were saying, "I am willing to die because they knew very well that Islamic law did not allow for conversion from Islam to anything." "Over the next... The course of the next couple of years, as I began compiling lists," said Garrison, "What I discovered was that in the whole course of Muslim-Christian interaction, there have been 82 times, 82 movements of Muslims to Christ of at least a thousand baptisms or 100 church plants over the last two decades," 82 times. Now, here's what's striking, 69 of those have occurred since the year 2000, we're in the midst of the greatest turning of Muslims to Christ in history.

I don't think the Church of Christ is aware of this. Now, even though it's minuscule, when you look at 1.6 billion Muslims, it's less than 1.5% of Muslims have been touched by the Gospel at all. Yet we're seeing 84% of all the movements that have ever happened in the history of missions right now among the Muslim world, and that's exciting. By the way, all of that's in a book written by David Garrison. It's on my desk, in my office. I will give that book after worship is over. I'm going to go to the back of the church to the first person that promises that they'll read it sometime in the next three months. I mean, all of it. If you make me a promise that you'll read the whole book, I'll give it to you for free. Moving on.

Jesus deserves to be worshipped and glorified as God. Verse 10:11, "At the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in Heaven and on Earth and under the Earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father." Simply put, people are saved. They're saved from their sins when by the power of the Holy Spirit, under the hearing of the true Gospel, they confess the deity of Christ. And when they do, Christ's glory increases that much more. This human baby that we're celebrating at Christmas time recognizes fully God and their own savior by the power of the Holy Spirit.

So, therefore, Christmas leads to Missions. Amen. It leads to missions. This is a completely appropriate emphasis of Southern Baptist churches across the nation. The Lottie Moon Offering $120,000 for our goal, 175 million nationwide, if you happen to have 175 million lying around somewhere, give it to The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering or less is fine to consider the widow who gave two copper coins, and we're told she gave more than anyone, whatever God calls you to do. But more than that, lay yourself on the line in 2015 to grow in your commitment to evangelism and missions. You're commitment to seeing Christ's glory expand more and more, that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess. That should be the passion of our hearts.

So some final applications, first just celebrate with great joy. Christmas time, enjoy yourselves in a Christian way, enjoy yourselves. Have a good time with your family. But let's be sure that we remember Him who gave everything that we might have all of these gifts. Let's make Him the center of our celebration. Amen. I know we mean to, but often we forget. We've got our own family traditions, etcetera.

Don't forget. Don't forget, and I mean, just literally like the text says, bow your knees to Jesus, get down on your knees on Christmas morning, and thank Him for dying for you and rising again. Worship Him as God. I'm going to especially challenge fathers, okay? Lead your families on Christmas morning with the Bible, read scripture, Colossians 1, John 1, Hebrews 1, or the accounts that were so familiar with in Luke and Luke 2, and in Matthew 1 and 2. Focus on Christ and worship Him.

Secondly, imitate Christ's downward journey in your own way. We cannot travel as far as he traveled, but the same downward upward journey is commended by Paul to all Christians in Philippians 2. That's the reason why he's even talking about it. He wanted the Philippian Christians to get along and to serve one another. And so take to heart what he says in Verses 2-5, "Be like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility, consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interest but also to the interest of others." Have this mind in you, which is also in Christ. Think like He did, who went that downward journey.

Thirdly, missions. The exaltation of Christ has continued now for 2000 years. God has sent people on long journeys to win the ends of the Earth. Ask God to make you more attentive than ever before to missions, learn more about it, ask him to give you a heart for missions, embrace church members who are serving overseas, who are presently there in the field now. It's actually pretty lonely to be on the field at Christmas time. It's a strange feeling. In Japan, they celebrated Christmas in a purely secular way. There was nothing Christian about it, in that way, similar to the US, but without churches and people assembling together. Other places, it's just another day. There's no difference at all. Pray for our brothers and sisters who are serving on the field. Young people, I just believe that God is going to be calling some of you to go and lay down your lives to the unreached people groups. I'm talking about high schoolers, college students. What is God doing with you? What is He calling you to be and to do? I just would love to see FBC as a launching pad for unreached people group missionaries. And so if you're young, you might be in elementary school and you just, your ears are perking up. You might be in middle school. You might be in high school, college, or just out of college. What do you want to do with your life? How do you want to sacrifice and serve? Could this be something God is calling you to do? Consider it.

And then, finally, if I could just say if you're a visitor here, you were invited here, and you know you're on the outside looking in, and you've never given your life to Christ, today is the day for you. Repent and believe. Give your life to Christ, trust in Him. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus is Lord, and you believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for this time of celebration that we have, this time of year, in which we get to rejoice and delight in the gift of Jesus Christ for us.

Father, I pray that we would... That we would not think too highly of ourselves. As we're opening gifts, Lord help us to not feel I deserve this, or we deserve this. So Lord, help us to realize that you have lavished grace on us contrary to what we deserve. Thank you for Jesus, who is God in the flesh, and who gave Himself fully for us, and thank you for His bloodshed on the cross. I pray in Jesus name. Amen.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 50:1-11. The main subject of the sermon is how God saves sinners through a perfect savior despite their disobedience.

The scripture says, "I will praise you, O Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." And as I was thinking about Isaiah 50, I focused specifically on the capacity of hearing. The human ear is a stunning marvel of God's creation. It is just incredible what we can hear. The range of decibel levels of very quiet sounds like you could imagine a quiet whisper or the breathing of a newborn on the chest of a mother or a father, just those tiny sounds that you can hear all the way up to something deafening, like a jet airplane flying right overhead. My father grew up in a house in Miami, Florida, and somewhere in there they built Miami International Airport, about a mile from my father's childhood home. And I remember sleeping or trying to, in that house and the jets would be about 100 feet over that house. And the rattling of the windows and things falling off the walls. I guess they learned after a while not to put things that would fall off the walls on the walls, but just the deafening roar of the jet airplanes.

And so, the range of human hearing is just astonishing. One of the most amazing aspects of the ear is its ability to selectively hear certain sounds. Like you could be in a crowded room with music playing and all kinds of conversations going on and you're able to zero in on one person and their conversation and hear specifically what they're saying to you. Or a mother at a crowded playground can hear her child crying over the din of all kinds of play and laughter, and all kinds of things. Even in the middle of a conversation she may be having with another mother, she's like, "Wait a minute." And she's listening and she can hear the child crying. And I find that amazing. We can zero in, or you could listen to a symphony orchestra, and there are just dozens and dozens, maybe even 100 instruments and you can focus on a specific instrument and listen to just that melodic line from the oboe or from a trumpet, or something like that, or the base and it's just beautiful.

God made the ear to hear. And the wide range of the sounds that we can hear from the general rustling of leaves that a breeze makes, all the way up to the awesome power of a thunder, lightning storm, it's just incredible. Now, you heard Kurt say just a moment ago, this incredible verse, Romans 10:17, God has ordained hearing as the way by which the saving message of the Gospel enters our lives. "Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." But we are able, sadly, to tune out God's word and not listen to it. It can come to us so powerfully and we're still able in some very tragic way, to turn a deaf ear to what God is saying. Now the unifying theme, I believe, the angle I'm going to take today from Isaiah 50 is that of hearing.

We're going to see how God again and again, spoke to the nation of Israel but they didn't listen. He called out to them and they didn't listen. And because they would not listen, he sent them away into exile. And this is the very thing that God had told the prophet Isaiah would happen. You remember back in that famous chapter Isaiah 6, the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord in that whole calling of Isaiah into ministry, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" "Here am I, send me."

"Alright, well, what's the mission? What's the message?" He said, "Go and tell this people: 'be ever-hearing but never understanding, be ever-seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.'" Isaiah was told that the nation's refusal to listen to God, would result in the total destruction of their country. In Isaiah 6, 11 and 12, he said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered, "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant. Until the houses are left deserted, and the fields ruined and ravaged. Until the Lord has sent everyone far away." That's exile.

So, their failure to listen to God's word would result in the destruction of their land and exile. Now we're going to see in Isaiah 50, this problem is addressed. Only now, God is speaking across 100 plus years to the remnant that's there in Babylon, explaining again and making very clear how they came to be there, why they were there. And he zeroes in on the fact that their ancestors refused to listen to God. But in the middle of this incredible chapter, someone pops up and the connection between verse 3 and 4 is not so clear. But out of nowhere, someone pops up and speaks to us directly in the first person. And this individual characterizes himself as one who perfectly listens to God, who listens to everything God says and obeys everything he tells him to do.

And he's willing to listen even if it means terrible suffering for himself. Even being beaten on his back and having his beard plucked out. And he would do this to save a people from their own failure to listen to God. Those people would be saved out of their hardness of heart into a whole new pattern of obedience to God in the pattern that he displayed for us. Their hearts of stone would be removed, their hearts of submissive yielded-ness to God by His Spirit would be given to them and everything would change. Instead of spiritual deafness, they would be characterized as he was by perfect listening to God and perfect obedience to him.

So Isaiah 50 is about listening, because it ends in the last two verses, with a challenge. The text brings us to a fork in the road and says, "Who are you going to listen to? Are you going to fear the Lord and listen to His servant, Christ, or are you going to walk by your own lights and by your own wisdom? And if you do, you will lie down in torment." That's the whole chapter. So now let's look at it in detail. And I pray and I already have prayed and I will continue to pray that God would give you ears, to hear. How many times did Jesus say that? He who has ears, let him hear, he wants you to listen today. So I pray that this would hit you in a way that would be memorable and would transform you.

So at the beginning in verses one through three, we have a nation who refused to listen sent into exile. And it begins with this question in verse 1, this is what the Lord says, "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins, you were sold, because of your transgressions your mother was sent away." So God is speaking here, through Isaiah the prophet across 100 plus years to the exiles in Babylon, explaining how it came to be that they're there and not in their own promised land.

And he uses this image of marriage and divorce which will be very familiar to those of you that have read a lot of the prophets, the Old Testament, the image of Israel as God's wife. And in some way, God had married Israel, but Israel was adulterous, Israel was unfaithful to her husband. He's using this image of marriage. In Jeremiah two, he says there, "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me in the desert." Israel was holy to the Lord. Many times in the prophets we have this image.

But God is saying that Zion, her mother, Israel's mother, the ancestors, were sent away, put away, by her husband because of their wickedness and because of their sins. He also uses the image of slavery, "To which of my creditors did I sell you?" He says. So they are, as though they were a wife put away there, as though they were children that were sold into slavery to pay a debt. But it's interesting how he asks, "Can you rummage and go find the certificate of divorce? You're not going to be able to find it. And actually, I didn't sell you to anyone. You're still mine. I didn't owe anybody anything, and I can bring you back any time I want. And I can renew our love relationship, any time I choose."

That's what he's saying, but what he's doing is he's cutting off a self-righteous, forgetfulness and a self-pity among these people saying, "Understand you are there because you sinned. You're in the trouble you're in because you sinned." You know There's a proverb that says, "A man's own folly ruins his life, but his heart rages against the Lord." Does ever characterize you? You do some really stupid or perhaps even immoral sinful things, you get into deep trouble because of it, and you're raged that God doesn't love you. It's not true, your own sins have caused this problem for you, that's why you're in the problem that you're in. And then God goes to say, "Look, it happened specifically because you refuse to listen to me."

Israel Refused to Listen to the Sovereign God

Look what he says in verse 2, "When I came, why was there no one? When I called why was there no one to answer?" God goes into the issue that Israel would not listen to Him, when He spoke to them. They refused to listen. "I called out to you, and you didn't answer me. Why were you so spiritually deaf? When I summoned you why didn't you come and obey me?" Now, how did God do that? Well, he spoke to His people through His servants, the prophets, and again and again, God sent prophets to Israel and again and again, they refused to listen. At the end of the whole history of this as Israel is about to be sent away, or was being sent away in the Babylonian exile in 2 Chronicles 36:16-17 it says that the Lord sent word to them through His messengers again and again because he had pity on them, but they mocked God's messengers, they despised His words and they scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord was aroused, and there was no remedy. And so he brought against them, the king of Babylon.

That's the message. And it's the very thing that Jesus taught about in Matthew 21, you remember? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who planted a vineyard and he built a watch tower in it, and a wine press and put a wall around it and then he rented the vineyard to some tenant farmers and he went away. And in due time, he sent some messengers to the tenant farmers to collect the fruit, but they seized the messengers, they beat them and killed them. So he said, "I called out to you, and you did not answer, you did not listen." But yet, even still, God is every bit as powerful as he ever was when he established them in the Promised Land.

He hasn't lost his strength, he hasn't lost his power, he can still do all of the same things. Look at verses two and three, he says, "Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea. I turn rivers into a desert, their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering." God is omnipotent, he can do anything. He's bringing their minds back to how God made a way through the Red Sea, or how he made the fish die during the plague, you remember how he turned the water into blood and all the fish died there in Egypt? God can still do all of those same things. He can go to war on behalf of Israel and rescue them. God is every bit as powerful now as he ever was.

And his arm is not too short to ransom us. That's an image. A number of years ago, I heard a black preacher back in the 19th century, whatever, said, "Your arm's too short to box with God." Think about that. You ever picture like a world-class heavyweight champion and there's some six-year-old who's really mad at him and he wants to get at him and he's got him like by the forehead just holding them there with a smile on his face. And here's this little kid trying to do this, trying to punch this big man and the man just smile and hold him off. Your arm is too short to box with God.

What does that mean? You lack the power. God is omnipotent. How could you try to take God on? Well turn it around, He said, "My arm's not too short, I can do anything I want. My arm is not shortened at all," and is sovereign power. He can still do anything and everything that he willed to do. "So why is it you're not listening to me? Why is it you're not calling on me in the day of trouble?" That's what he's saying to them.

Now, suddenly, right in the text, in verses 4 through 9, we have this suffering servant pop up. And it's kind of like that's the way it was in history, too. Jesus just popped up in history. In the fullness of time, when God said it was time, he just came. And so it is, I believe, Isaiah 54 through 9 is talking about Jesus. And actually it's not even talking about Jesus, it's Jesus talking to us. He's speaking in the first person.

Now, I know it's possible you can read this as though this is Isaiah, the prophet, speaking and I know that Isaiah was faithful and listened to God, and all that, and all the prophets were and I accept that. But in that way, Isaiah was just a type and a shadow of Christ's perfect obedience to the Father. Jesus is the perfect prophet fulfilling all of those prophetic images. So ultimately, this is Jesus speaking to us. And he speaks in verse 4 of his perfect obedience. Look what he says here. "The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me, morning by morning awakens my ear to listen like one being taught." So here we have a direct contrast between Israel that's hard of hearing, people of God, who aren't listening to God and this servant that's perfectly listening to him.

Israel was sent into exile because they refused to listen to God. And when later, he would return them from the exile and bring them back to the promised land, they would still be characterized by the same hardness of hearing. So God must send a Savior, the suffering servant, to listen to him on their behalf, and to obey God on their behalf and to suffer on their behalf and die on their behalf. And at the center of the suffering servant's life is a listening ear and a submissive heart. That's the center of Christ saving work, a listening ear and a submissive heart.

Jesus is speaking to us in verses 4 through 9, we hear his word centuries before he was born of the virgin Mary, and was wrapped up in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Centuries before any of that happened, before he was presented to Israel as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, centuries before any of the ministry of miracles, and incredible teachings, and before he died on the cross and before he rose again, before any of that, he's speaking to us. And these verses give us as no other verses do, you're not going to find anything like this, even in the Gospels, an amazing insight into the intimacy of Jesus' relationship with his Father, of his love relationship with his Father. Verse 4 says that God the Father has given him an instructed tongue. Jesus' words were a perfect medicine for a world sick with sin. Jesus said the Father taught him what to say. Specifically the word that would sustain the weary. Is that you today? Do you need a word from Jesus? Are you weary? Are you weary and heavy-laden? Are you weary and struggling? Jesus knows the word to sustain you. And he learned it from his Father, the Father taught him what to say to sustain the weary.

And we go beyond this to look at the details of Jesus' private devotional life. He says the Father wakens him morning by morning, wakens his ear to listen like one being taught. And now we come to the infinite mystery of the incarnation. Here we have the perfect submission of God the Son to God the Father. In heaven, God the Son, neither slumbers nor sleeps, ever, doesn't need to sleep. On earth, he had to be wakened morning by morning. In heaven, Jesus knows everything, always has and always will.

Like I said, a number of months ago in another sermon, I love this statement. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing's ever occurred to God? I love that statement. God doesn't have anything pop in his head. It was already there. That's what omniscience is all about. Jesus is omniscient, in heaven, he doesn't learn anything in heaven. But the infinite mystery of the incarnation is that Jesus learned things on earth. There were things he didn't know. So when he was an infant, he was what he appeared to be, an infant who couldn't say a word, wrapped in swaddling cloths laid in the manger completely powerless. And he had to learn things. It says in Luke 2:52, Jesus  "grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men." So he's just throughout his life, he's learning things, he's growing in his understanding. It says also in Hebrews 5 that although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. So that directly connects Jesus with the verb learn. He learned things.

That should blow your mind, circuit breakers just popping off, that's the mind-blowing circuit breakers. Just I can't understand how can he be God which means omniscient and learn things? I don't know. But that's what we're celebrating at Christmas time, isn't it? The incarnation and the mystery? And so, he's learning things and this gets into the practicalities of even his daily quiet time. If you looked at Mark 1:35 later, but this is what it says, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." So that's his morning quiet time, very early he goes to a private place where he can listen to his father, and his father talked to him and shared things with him predominantly from Scripture, but also what he would face that day.

And Jesus' enemies were astonished at His teaching, and at His learning. I remember how in John 7:15-16, Jesus' enemies were amazed and said, "How did this man get such learning?..." He never studied at our university? We looked through the enrollment records and he was never there. So how did he get all this advanced learning?" Jesus said these words, "My teaching is not my own. It came from Him who sent me." Do you hear that? The father taught me all the things that I know. In John 14:24, He said, "The word you hear is not mine but it is from the Father who sent me." No one in history ever spoke like this man, no one. Do you remember the time that the temple police went off to arrest Jesus? I love that story. And they come back empty-handed and dazed, amazed, right?

I think they might have gotten his autograph if he gave it, I don't think he would give it, but they were just amazed. They said, "Where is he?" They said, "No one ever spoke like this man." In direct fulfillment of verse four of this chapter, his words were amazingly comforting to broken-hearted sinners. For example, he said to a paralyzed man who had faith, he said, "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." Isn't that comforting? How would you love to hear that from the judge of all the earth? "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." In the same chapter, to a woman had been chronically ill with bleeding, he said, "Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you."

He knew the word that sustained the weary, especially this one, most famously, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." So every morning, the father awaken Jesus is here to listen and he would be trained what to say to bring comfort and consolation to sinners. And so there's this beautiful summary statement of all this in John 12:49-50, he says this, "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me, commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that His command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." So Jesus literally was given his script by the Father, and He says in John 6:63, "The words that I speak are Spirit and they are life." So as we listen to Jesus speaking these words, they are spirit and life for us. And so Isaiah 50, verse four, ushers us into a secret chamber of Jesus' quiet times and how the father taught him what to say to broken-hearted sinners. But verse five and six talk about his obedience to that.

The Servant Speaks of His Humble Submission to Abuse

Look at it again, "The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious, I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." Not only did the Father give Jesus' words to say but he also gave him works to do, and Jesus did all of them, all of them. So verse five shows Jesus' submission to obey the Father's will. "The Lord has opened my ears," that's an obedient heart. "I have not been rebellious, I've not drawn back." I did whatever the Father told me to do, that's what I did.

He was a servant to the Father and he did the works the Father gave him to do. I love at the end of his ministry, before he goes to the cross, but in anticipation of his own obedience at the cross, he says in John 17:4 directly to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing all the work you gave me to do." Wouldn't you love to be able to say that to God for just one day? Just one day, "I have brought you glory today by doing everything you told me to do." I'm still looking for that one perfect day, maybe you are too. Jesus had a perfect life, he was obedient to everything the Father told him to do. He says in John 8:29, "The one who sent me is with me, he's not left me alone for I always do what pleases Him." Now, the ultimate degree of that was his willingness to suffer for us, to suffer in our place as our substitute.

He was not rebellious, he did not draw back. And the perfect picture of this was Gethsemane. You remember how in Gethsemane Jesus is brought right to the brink of the cross and the Father metaphorically offering him the cup of wrath, the cup of judgment, the cup of death, he says, "Will you drink it?" "Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and He prayed, 'My Father if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.'" That's the spirit of this. "I was not rebellious. I didn't draw back. I drank the cup you gave to me." A couple verses later, it says he went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may your will be done."

And so the prophecy here in verse six speaks plainly of the suffering that Christ would have to go through to save us from our sins. He didn't refuse the suffering, he offered his back to those who beat him, he offered his cheeks to those who plucked out his beard, he didn't hide his holy face from mocking and spitting. Here, we have the humble savior led like a lamb to the slaughter. All of this abuse would come to him and it was all part of his atoning work. Jesus took our sins on Himself, and with it came all of this abuse that sinners deserve, and he did not refuse it, but humbly submitted to it, and no one in history has ever been more obedient to Scripture than Jesus.

Perfectly obedient. Do you remember how Peter tried to rescue him with his sword and he was going to fight and he says, "Put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" Listen to the next word, though, "But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" "Scripture mandates that I die, and therefore I will die. I was not rebellious. I did not draw back. I went forward and died."

And it says beautifully in Romans Chapter 5, "Just as through one man's disobedience, that many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience that many are made righteous." Find your salvation in Jesus' perfect obedience to what he heard from the Father to do.

The Servant Speaks of His Vindication by God

Now, verses seven through nine speak of Jesus' vindication by God, "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other. Who is my accuser? Let him confront me. It is the sovereign Lord, who helps me, who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment, the moths will eat them up."

So, the ultimate end of the suffering servant is not disgrace, but total complete absolute vindication by Almighty God. Isn't that awesome? Vindication, not shame or disgrace, absolute vindication. The circumstances described in verses six show an astonishing level of abuse which would sum up with abject degradation. People spitting at you, plucking out beard, stripping you, beating your back. But the servant refused to be ashamed. Think about Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of Heaven." Now what does despise mean? Is that I thought little of it, it's nothing to me, the shame is nothing to me, I get to win a people for God, I get to save them from hell and therefore the shame is as nothing compared to that.

And so he says, "I'm not going to be ashamed." He sets His face like flint and he goes to the cross and God totally vindicated Jesus by His glorious resurrection from the dead. The tomb was empty on the third day, that's his vindication by God. And He raises him up through the clouds, through the sky, through the heavenly realms, up to the very highest pinnacle of power, and sits Him down at the right hand of Almighty God. Now who is ready to accuse Him at that place? Who's going to stand in front of Him and bring any accusation against God, at that point?

Who's going to accuse him? They're going to wear out like garment, the moth will eat them up. Now, isn't it amazing that the Apostle Paul borrows these exact same words and applies them not to Christ, but to us? He applies these same words to us, God's elect. Listen to what he says in Romans 8:33-34, he says, this should sound very familiar to you, this is Romans 8 now, not Isaiah 50, "Who will bring any charges against those whom God has chosen?" That's the elect. "It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." All of this honor, and security and protection that we have in our forgiveness comes from Christ's atonement and resurrection because we are in His exaltation.

We are in Christ, and therefore we are at the right hand of God in Him, and we are protected and no one can accuse us and therefore, there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, that's awesome. And so His resurrection is our vindication. It says in Romans 4:25, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." It's an interesting verse because it links our justification to Christ's resurrection, not death there. And so, we are vindicated completely by Christ's resurrection, and that's awesome. So, to sum up verses four through nine, we have presented very clearly for the first time in Isaiah the suffering of the servant. He's perfectly obedient to His Father, He knows the word that sustains the weary and he doesn't hide his face from mocking and spitting or his back from beating. This is the suffering servant.

Now we are brought to a fork in the road in the text. The key question for you, who are you going to listen to? Are you going to listen to the servant of the Lord, as He speaks to you, or will you listen to yourself? Those are the options. So look what he says in verse 10, "Who among you fears the Lord, and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." So it all comes down to this, do you fear the Lord and will you listen to his servant as he speaks to you? As his servant, Christ speaks the Gospel to you will you listen to that and be saved? Romans 10:17 says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Christ is speaking the kingdom to you, he's speaking forgiveness to you, he's telling you to repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15, "Will you fear the Lord and listen to his servant?"

Apart from Him, we are walking in the dark. Apart from Him, we have no light, apart from Him, we're lost, we're in sin and we need a savior. Do you know this to be true of yourself? If so, God's already worked grace in you, he's already shown you who you are. Come out of darkness into the light of salvation. Jesus said in John 8:12, when Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life." Colossians 1:13 says, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us over into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son." Rescued from darkness.

So listen to the word of the servant and come, or, you can do verse 11. And what does verse 11 say? "But now, all you who light fires and provide yourself with torches, flaming torches, go, walk in the light of the torches you have set ablaze." Go ahead and do that, go ahead, light your own fires, walk by your own lights, walk by your own wisdom, figure it out on your own, don't listen to the servant, don't walk in the light of Christ, just do your own thing, be confident in your own righteousness, say, "I don't need a savior." I saw a bumper sticker about two months ago, that said, "Born right the first time." Wow, immediately it was like a slap in the face, but not for me. Whoever put that on was slapping their own self in the face. You must be born again. But this person said, "No, I don't need that, I don't need that, I'm fine." So, this text is odd in that it's commanding you to go ahead and do that then. "I'm going to give you over to it, go ahead and walk in the light of your own torch. Go ahead and figure it out on your own, go ahead and save yourself. This is what you'll get from my hand. You will lie down in torment." That's the final word of Isaiah 50, it's a warning to us. I can't read this except to hear Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths."

So what should we do with this text? Well, can I urge you, be very, very careful how you listen to the Word of God. Jesus said that in Luke 8:18, "Consider carefully how you listen." Your soul depends on how you listen to God's Word. Remember the parable of The Seed and the Soils? Are you the rocky soil, the hard soil, are you the thorny soil, or you're the good soil, what are you? What do you do when you hear the word of God?

Secondly, thank God that Jesus obeyed, listened to the Father on your behalf, thank him for that, worship him during this Christmas season, Oh, believer, Oh, Christian, just say, "Thank you for listening to the father for me, for my salvation. Thank you that in you, no one will bring any accusation against me. Thank you that I'm free from condemnation, I'm free from Satan standing to accuse me, I'm free from that. Your vindication has become my vindication. Thank you Jesus, thank you for that."

Thirdly, have a quiet time, like Jesus did. Can I just use a how much more argument? If he needed a quiet time, how much more do you? He wasn't messed up, like we are, we're messed up. We could argue we needed even more than he did, but he had them even better than we did. So very early in the morning, a great while before dawn, am I pinching on you a bit here? A great while before dawn, what would that be about 5:00 AM? A great while before dawn? Okay, when it's quiet, when it's dark, when there's no one going to bother you, have a quiet time. Get the Scripture open and listen like one being taught, like Jesus did. And don't be merely a hearer of the word, but like Jesus in verse six, do what it says, even if it hurts you, even if it costs you something.

And if I can just plead with you if you're here outside of faith in Christ, if you're lost, can I just plead with you not to walk in the light of your own intellect, in your own salvation, in your own righteousness? Can I plead with you to take that torch you lit that you consider your own guiding light and throw it down into a bucket of water or into the ocean and say, "I am lost. I'm lost. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what's going to happen to me when I die, I need a savior. Jesus, be for me the light of the world. I need your light." Call on Him and He will save you.

Don't leave here in the darkness. And finally let's be willing as a church, to suffer, to not hide our face from mocking and spitting and beatings, for the sake of the gospel. Let's be willing to evangelize lost people. There are people surrounding us every day like the person who put that bumper sticker on the car, people surrounding us thinking these thoughts, they need a savior. And they are among the hardest to reach on earth, because they've heard it so many times. We are here to reach them. Let's be willing to suffer as Jesus did, lower level, but let's be willing to suffer.

Let's be willing to suffer financially, what Kurt said, "Let's sacrifice financially, as never before, for the sake of missions." Let's not know that there are brothers and sisters fully-trained ready to go, but they're not going because of funding. That might actually be the clearest application of 2nd Peter 3, "Looking forward to the day of God, and speed it's coming," how? Give money because those folks will be unleashed and unreached people groups will hear. Let's walk in the light of the Lord, as He's given it to us in the scripture, close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 49:1-26. The main subject of the sermon is Christ's mission to save not just Israel, but to save people even to the ends of the earth.

So we come to Isaiah 49, and we come to one of the greatest missionary chapters in the Bible, for it takes us into the secret counsels of Almighty God, the Triune God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and the discussion that they have, the Father and the Son have had for the extension of the glory of God to the ends of the earth. That's a missionary theme. Here, God the Father tells the Son that it's not enough glory for him just to save the Jews. We're going to talk about that. Now, that mission is unspeakably glorious. The restoration of the Jewish nation, unspeakably glorious, unspeakably difficult, but it is given to Jesus to do it, and I praise God for that, but it's not enough. It's insufficient glory. God has commanded Jesus Christ also be the light for the Gentiles, that He may bring God's salvation to every tribe and language and people and nation. So at present, the glory of Jesus is indescribable, He sits at the right hand of Almighty God in radiant glory and the kingdom is advancing, but I say to you that his glory is insufficient at present time. It's not enough. And I yearn to just kindle inside my heart and your hearts a desire for greater glory for Jesus. Amen?

You want to see more glory for Him. You want to revere Him more yourself than you ever have before. And you want to see more people brought into the kingdom. And so, my desire is to do that through Isaiah 49, to say, "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together." Meditate on that, what can we do to God to make him bigger? Answer, nothing. He's already infinite, but let us magnify Him together, because he is too small in our own hearts, He's too small in this church, He's too small in our community, in our nation, and in our world. And so we want to see His glory extended, we want to see more and more glory coming. This chapter also brings us face-to-face, as a sub-theme, to the constant disappointment that laborers will have concerning the Kingdom of God, about that very smallness. The fact that we look at it, and it just seems so disappointing, and so discouraging. And to face that discouragement head-on, as I think Jesus does in this text, and to say, "Yes. At present, it's small. It seems to be insufficient, but God is at work and the end will be glorious, and that we have to face that.

Now, we could say, like it says in verse 4, "I have labored to no purpose, I have spent my strength in vain, and for nothing." We're going to feel that. Yet, the reward is in God's hand, and it's going to come.  And so, I just meditated much on this "too small" theme, "too small." It is too small a thing for Christ to save the Jews alone. Later in the text, Zion is going to say that the physical city of Jerusalem is too small for all the people that are coming, it's too small for all the work that God is doing to the ends of the earth. Amen? That earthly Jerusalem is too small, God has something bigger planned, a new Jerusalem. And we're going to talk about all of that. So, enough introduction, we have 26 verses to get through. That's a minute and 41 seconds per verse, alright? So let's go, and you're shaking your head, but I'm going to do it, I promise. We're going to get through all 26 verses, so buckle your seat belts. Here we go.

In verses 1-7, Christ is unveiled as God's salvation to the ends of the earth. We come immediately face-to-face in this chapter with the servant of the Lord, the servant of Yahweh. This is the second servant song after Isaiah 42, the first, this is the second. The question immediately comes to us, who is this individual? Just like the Ethiopian eunuch asked it of Isaiah 53, "Who is this Chapter talking about? Who is the servant of the Lord?" Scholars have given different answers. Some say it's Isaiah himself, but it doesn't fit, it just goes beyond anything that Isaiah would claim for himself. The most common alternate explanation is that the servant is Israel. It says it right in the verse 3. We'll talk about that, but that this is the nation of Israel and the nation of Israel is meant to be a light for the Gentiles. The problem with that theory is verse 6, because it says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept." How can Israel save Israel? How can Israel save Jacob? It doesn't make... It doesn't line up. There's someone else that it's talking about here, and I believe it's talking about Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, son of Mary, the Son of God.

This is Jesus talking, and actually we get to hear him speak, and we get to hear the Father speak to him right in this text. So, this is an amazing text. How do I know that? Again, it's that idea of the "light for the Gentiles." After Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary, shortly thereafter He was taken by Joseph and Mary to the temple in Jerusalem to be circumcised according to the Law of Moses. While he was there, He met a man named Simeon. Now, Simeon was a prophet, he was a Godly man, and he was waiting, it says, for the consolation of Israel, that means he was waiting for the Messiah. And it seems to have been revealed to him that he would not die before seeing him. That's a special revelation, isn't it? "The Messiah will come in your lifetime, just wait for him." And so, he was waiting. He thought the temple, the area would be a good place to wait, and Joseph and Mary bring Jesus, and he is moved by the Spirit, and he comes over and he looks at this baby, he takes him in his arms, and he praises God, saying, "My eyes have seen your salvation, which you have prepared in the sight of all people. A light of revelation for the Gentiles and glory for your people, Israel."

So, he's paraphrasing Isaiah 49:6. Jesus is the "light for the Gentiles." And then in Acts 13, Paul and Barnabas in the Synagogue... They're in Pisidian Antioch explaining why they're about to go preach the Gospel to the Gentiles, which the Jews are very angry about, explaining that, quote this chapter exactly. In Acts 13:47, "For this is what the Lord has commanded us." Very interesting word, 'us.' "I have made you, [singular] a light for the Gentiles that you, singular, may bring salvation to the ends of the earth."

So, they believe that Jesus is the light for the Gentiles that brings the salvation into it. They're not it. Paul and Barnabas weren't it. But the command from God the Father to God the Son, that that was his mission, became their mission. And so, God has commanded us to make sure that Jesus is the light for the Gentiles, isn't that awesome? That's a missions verse right there. And so, that's why I believe we're talking about Jesus here.

The Servant of the Lord Calls to the Nations

Now, if this is Jesus, then right away, we have Him speaking to the nations. Verse 1, "Listen to me, you islands. Hear this, you distant nations. Before I was born, the Lord called me from my birth, He has made mention of my name." So here in the words of Isaiah, the Prophet, 7 centuries before Jesus was born, we have Jesus addressing the world. "Hear this, you nations, you distant islands. I have something to say to you all." So this is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, talking to us, the human race. That's awesome. In verse 1, "Listen to me you islands, hear this you distant nations."

He is calling to the distant nations, the farthest, remotest people groups on the face of the earth, the Inuit people up in the Arctic region of Alaska and Canada. The cave dwellers, the semi-nomadic people in Papua New Guinea. He's calling to them, to listen to him. Blond-haired descendants of the Vikings who live in Norway, and in modern cities in Norway, He's calling to them. The tall Dinka people in Africa, the tallest... Genetically, the tallest people on the face of the earth. All these distant lands are summoned by Jesus Christ, the King of kings, the Lord of lords. He's summoning them to listen to him. And He wants them to know of his origin, where He came from. It was by the call of the Father that He was born. From before He was even born, the Father called Him and chose Him and made mention of his name.

And so, in 1 Peter 1:19-20, this is an encouraging word to us as Christians, we were redeemed. You know, you were redeemed, you were bought out of sin, out of slavery, you were redeemed. "With the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.  He was chosen before the creation of the world, but was revealed in these last times for your sake." So Jesus is the pre-existent one, the called one, The Chosen One, who is chosen by God the Father before God said, "Let there be light," to be the redeemer for the nations.

The Servant of the Lord Concealed and Prepared

Now in Verse 2, the servant of the Lord is concealed and prepared. There's a concealing language here in Verse 2. "He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of His hand He hid me." He is the Father, He, God, God the Father made me a certain way. He shaped me, he prepared me, he got me ready. He made me... "He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me." There's that hiding language. "He made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver." So there are two different... Hiding, concealing. Jesus was concealed in the mind of God. He was concealed in the purposes of God. And then little by little over redemptive history, he started to pay out more and more of the Jesus truth, that Christ was coming. He's paying out more and more through the prophets.

Through the curse on the serpent, "The seed of woman is going to crush your head." And then little by little, he's paying out more and more truth about the coming Savior. I think about, for example, Balaam, that prophet for hire, remember him? Interesting character. But he's there, and he's there supposedly to curse Israel, but instead he blesses them, and in the middle of it he gives a prophecy about Jesus. And in Numbers 24:17, he says, "I see him, but not now. I behold him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will arise out of Israel." So, he's distant, I see him, it's just murky, it's far away, but I... He's coming, though. So, he was concealed in the mind of God, and then paid out a little at a time. Isaiah gives us some of the biggest "paying out" that happened about Jesus before he was born. And then he was concealed in the incarnation, and yet revealed. Amazingly, he's both concealed and revealed. The incarnation was a form of concealing. And Charles Wesley's Christmas hymn, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, one of the verses says this, "Veiled in flesh the Godhead see. Hail, the incarnate deity." So, "Veiled in flesh." He's hidden in flesh.

So you look at him, and He doesn't look like God. And it's actually a stumbling block, because he's just so ordinary in every other way. He's born in the normal way. He ate food, slept, you know, his hair grew, his fingernails, got tired, slept, just normal, normal. And so, we're going to come to it, God willing, Isaiah 53:2. "He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him." There was nothing... You looked at him, you didn't see God in the flesh, you didn't see that. Now on the Mount of Transfiguration, he paid out some of that glory, remember? He took Peter, James, and John with Him up the mountain, and then took the dimmer switch... Not to 100%, alright? No one could see that and live. But His clothes became radiant as light, and His face shone like the sun, and they were just overwhelmed. And a cloud came, and "This is my son." And this revelation of the glory of Jesus, that He had laid, "Mild he lays his glory by." He laid His glory by. And so, He's veiled, He's concealed. He was concealed, especially, at the cross. Don't you see it?

As you look at the cross, it's like, "How could this be God? How could God die?" It just made no sense. It was a stumbling block to people. And so He was concealed at the cross, and He was concealed after His glorious resurrection. You would say, "You know, I would have appeared to everyone." I bet you would have.  Our ways are not His ways, His ways are better than our ways. And so instead, He gives the world people like you and me as witnesses.  That's a concealing. So he sends missionaries to villages and they're just ordinary people, they're sinners like anyone else, and they come with a message. That's a concealing, but also a revealing. And that's the thing.

And Jesus, there's weapon language used here. He made his... "He made my mouth like a sharpened sword. I was a polished arrow hidden in His quiver." That's fighting language, that's weapon language. Jesus is a weapon from God the Father, and against what? Against evil, against the contagion of evil that has encroached in His beautiful universe. And he unleashed Jesus to destroy the evil. And what he does with the elect, the sharpened sword is like a scalpel, a surgeon's scalpel, cutting out the tumor of sin out of your heart, saving your soul. His word is like a sharp double-edged sword, it's able to penetrate and convict and to bring healing. And so, He is the physician who uses His mouth to heal you from sin. But not so with His enemies. The second coming of Christ, Revelation 19, He comes with the armies of heaven, and there's a sword coming out of His mouth, and He will slay the nations, though... All His enemies, all the rebels who would not bow the knee to Him. He will overcome them with the breath of his mouth. And so, "He made my mouth like a sharpened sword," Jesus says, "And in the shadow of His hand, he hid me."

The Servant of the Lord Is Called “Israel”

And then, in Verse 3, comes this challenging Verse. He calls him Israel. Now, you told us this is Jesus, how can we call him Israel? Well, I already said it can't be Israel in verse 6, so we've got to find some way to harmonize this thing. It's easier, I think, to understand how God the Father would call Jesus "Israel" than to understand how Israel could save Israel. So, I think Jesus is called Israel here in verse 3. Why? Well, Israel was... Jesus was everything Israel was supposed to be, perfected, personified. He was what the Son of God should have been on Earth. Remember how Moses said to Pharaoh, "Say to Pharaoh, 'this is what the Lord says, Israel is my first-born son.'" Did you hear that? Well, no, not really. Actually, Jesus is his first-born, over all creation. He's the only begotten. But in some way, there's a connection between Jesus and Israel, the people of God, such an intimate connection. And so, in Hosea 11:1, the prophet there says, "When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my Son." Then Matthew, in Chapter 2, ascribes it directly to Jesus, that exact quote, " Out of Egypt, I called my son."

So He's identified in Matthew 2 as Israel, in some way. So, how does that work? Jesus is the perfection of what the people of God should have been. He perfectly obeyed God, He perfectly obeyed the laws of Moses. He was the perfection of what Israel should have been, He radiated the glory of God in this world. And now in the church, believers, etcetera, through the Spirit, we are the body of Christ, He's the head. There's this intimate connection. And so, we are called by His name, and He by ours. It's like a beautiful marriage in that way. And so, I think that's the way I understand this word, Israel.

The Servant of the Lord Apparently Discouraged

Now, another challenging verse, in verse 4. If this is Jesus, how do we hear verse 4? How do we understand Jesus saying, "But I said, I labored to no purpose, I have spent my strength in vain and for nothing"? That's a head-scratcher. So maybe you say, "Wait a minute, we're going to kick out of the Jesus interpretation, just for that part, and then back in in the rest of the verse." Well, we really can't do that, so I'm sticking to it and saying Jesus, in some way, could say this. That's the way I would say it.

There seemed to be evidence of failure connected with Jesus. Do you not see it? I mean, think of this, Jesus nailed to the cross, the end of the only sinless life there's ever been on Earth. The only perfect preaching ministry there's ever been, the only perfect river of miracles there's ever been displayed. Abundant evidence of the power of God. And he's calling people, "Come unto me, and be saved." He's calling to them. At the end of all of that nailed to the cross, He's got one Apostle, John. He's got his mother, she's going to go wherever He goes. And some friends of the family who were disciples, and that's it. Wouldn't it have seemed like he could say these words at that moment? "I have labored to no purpose. I've not saved Israel. I've not saved Jacob. I've not... " You know, you could say that. Now, I think there's language like that. It was tempting to look at that moment as a failure. But understand, the verse doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop there. "Yet," He says, "What is due me is in the Lord's hands, and my reward is with my God." So, "Yeah, I understand that thought. I know you might think this whole thing was a failure, but it's not."

Because as he died, you remember, he said, "Father into your hands I commit my Spirit."And with that, he breathed His last... Can I just kind of expand that and just thematically say, Father, into your hands, I commit my ministry. Into your hands I commit this death on the cross. Now do something with this. And the father says to the son, oh, I will. You sit at my right hand and you watch what I will do with this. You did everything I told you to do. You can't measure, it's impossible to conceive of the zeal the father has to do something with Jesus' death. You didn't labor for nothing. Your reward is in my hand, and I will pay it out to you over 20 plus centuries of people coming to faith and worshipping you as God for what you did. And so, there is a zeal. I want you to feel it in your heart. I have a hard time sometimes not getting emotional at this moment. I taught this in Bible studies, and at this moment I start to choke up and I was like, "Can I even conceive of how committed the father is to make sure the son gets what he deserves?"

"Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a foot stool for your feet," he says. This is the zeal of the father has. And the zeal, the Holy Spirit has. That's his special office in the world to come to you individually and make you worship Jesus. Thank God the Holy Spirit, he did that for you, if you're a Christian today.

It's incredible to me how often I, as a pastor and I hear stories, how often we come face-to-face with discouragement in ministry. It happens a lot. It happens a lot. You're like, wow, I mean, you know, it seems like things are going well. It's like, look... It's... You know, I think the church, not just FBC but the church should be bigger, better, brighter more awesome, more obedient, more, more, more, more of everything if Jesus really was a son of God. Don't you see that? Don't you feel that? And I'm not the only one that's felt that. Martin Luther, I've told this story before, stopped preaching for 18 months in Wittenberg. He was a professor, so he wasn't a pastor, he didn't have to preach. He's like, "I'm not going to preach to you people anymore, because my preaching doesn't seem to do anything. You're still the same drunk Germans you were before the Reformation." He didn't say that, but it was kind of like that. You're the same, you were. Nothing's happening. I'm done. I'm going to go back to be a professor with my books and we're finished. And Melanchthon and other friends did everything they could, and he was intractable for over a year, a year-and-a-half. Finally he got back into preaching. Discouragement. I've labored to no purpose, I've spent my strength in vain and for nothing.

You know the story of missionaries like Adoniram Judson that dug his own grave and waited for God to strike him dead, because his wife is dead, his child was dead, and he had no converts after seven years. It's like, "Did I leave Salem Massachusetts? Did I get on that boat for this?" What are you doing God? I don't understand this. Why, after all this time, is there so little to show? And yet, when he died, a government survey done by the Burmese government showed 210,000 Burmese claiming to be Christians, 210,000 by the end of his life. Labor to no purpose. Pastors can feel that way as they look at the church. Parents can feel that way as they look at their families. College students can feel that way as they try to be light shining in a dark place at their fraternity, their sorority, trying to reach a roommate and everything seems for nothing.

You do some Bible studies, and the person... People don't come to Christ. It's so easy to face, but don't stop in the middle of the Verse. Yet, what is due me is in the Lord's hand, and my reward is with my God." I trust you O Lord, I want to be faithful and leave the rest to you.

The Servant of the Lord Prepared to Restore Israel

Verse 5, the servant of the Lord prepared to restore Israel. "And now the Lord says, He who formed me in the womb to be his servant, to bring back Jacob to himself, and gather Israel to himself, for I'm honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength." Alright, so the Lord says this to me. He says, He formed me in the womb, He knit me together in Mary's womb, and my mother's womb gave me a human body for the purpose of restoring Israel. If you know anything or about redemptive history, about the Bible, that is a big job.  Getting the Jews at last to turn away from idolatry, to turn away from sin, and wholeheartedly to worship Yahweh, that's Jesus' special glory. That's what he was sent in the world to do, and that was the focus, the narrow focus of his mission on earth for three years.

You remember he went up to Syrophoenicia area, up there and there's this woman coming and asked for a miracle and he didn't even answer, he just walked right by, odd moment. And she finally, I think... I think she literally stood right in front. You know, a mother's love. We'll get to that later in the text, but a mother's love, like, do not ignore me, my child needs healing. So he says, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to their dogs." "Yes Lord," she said, "but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table." Do you remember that? But what did he say before that? "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." But by the time of His resurrection, that was done to the Jew first, what? And also to the Gentile. He sends out His Apostles to the ends of the Earth. And so, he says, "Look, that was the first mission, but now, the mission is to the ends of the earth." And friends, please don't go into those theological systems that tell you there was a plan A and that failed, now we're in a plan B, and the church is God's plan B. Have you ever heard that before? Some of you have, it's outrageous and ridiculous. God doesn't have a Plan B, God doesn't need a plan B.

He knows exactly what he's doing. And so, to the Jew first and now the time has come and the Gospel gets unleashed to the ends of the earth.

The Servant’s Mission to the Ends of the Earth

Look at Verses 6-7, he says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I've kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth. This is what the Lord says, the redeemer and a holy one of Israel, to him who is despised, and abhorred by the nation to the servant of rulers, kings will see you and rise up. Princes will see you and bow down. Because of the Lord, who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you." So this is awesome, this is an inter-trinitarian conversation. Father speaking to the Son. And He says, it's too small a thing, literally too light a thing in the Hebrew. Too light. It's too lightweight for you to only do that. Now, the Hebrew word for glory is Kavod, it's related to massiveness, a massive weight of the glory of God. He says, "Therefore, it's insufficient glory for you only to save the Jews. That's too light for you."

He is also the light for the Gentiles to bring God's salvation to the ends of the Earth. The people walking in darkness will see that eternal life, light. They will see the glory of God. And the mission will be successful, isn't that awesome? We will succeed. We're on the winning team. Kings will see and they will rise up out of their thrones like the king of Nineveh. Remember when he got up out of his throne, took off his royal robes and got... Put on sack cloth and abased himself before God? The kings are going to see you and get up out of their thrones and princes are going to see, and they're going to bow down to you.

We'll see this again in Isaiah 52:15, where it says, "so will He sprinkle many nations" with His blood, sprinkle them "and kings will shut their mouths because of him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand." So this Gospel is going to go out to Kings in Africa, kings in Europe, kings in Asia, they're going to hear these things, and many of them are going to get saved.

Now Verses 8-13, God's day of salvation for the exiles. We come in Verse 8 to God's day of salvation. Look at Verse 8, "This is what the Lord says, 'In the time of my favor, I will answer you, and in the day of salvation, I will help you. I will keep you and I will make you to be a covenant for the people, to restore the land and reassign its desolate inheritances." Well, Paul quotes this Verse, Isaiah 49:8, in 2 Corinthian 6:1-2, to the Gentile believers in Corinth. This is what he says, "As God's fellow workers we urge you not to receive God's grace in vain." What he's saying is the Gospel's come to your town, I'm pleading with you that it would not have come in vain. And then he says in 2 Corinthian 6:2, "for he says, 'in the time of my favor, I heard you, and in the day of salvation I helped you.' I tell you, now is the time of God's favor. Today, now is the day of salvation."

So this gives a sense of urgency to all of this. Do you not see it? I think about this Verse every time I witness. And I get to the end of a time in which I'm saying, God sent his son into the world. He lived a sinless life, perfectly obeyed the laws of God, died an atoning death in our place on the cross. Rose from the dead, physically on the third day and appeared to eye witnesses, and he stands now ready to save anyone who repents and believes in him. Will you believe in Him? Will you trust in him? If that individual says, "You know, the things you're saying make a lot of sense. I'm going to think about that. I'm going to think about that." As a matter of fact, I actually had one individual tell me that they're planning to become a Christian right before they died. They're going to live a fun life, they're going to do what they want to do, the money, the different things. They got all that planned out, all of that, they got the whole life planned out and then right before they die, they're going to become a Christian. I said, "Well, that's... There's a lot of things wrong with that, but you know, how do you know when you're going to die?" You have someone right now that God sent to sit next to you on this plane and tell you about Jesus. You may never get another chance. More than that, you find the things I'm saying compelling and you feel yourself pulled, you may never feel that again. Today is the day of salvation.

Now, one last detail look at the Isaiah text, alright, this is interesting. "This is what the Lord says." We've been following that, it's God the Father who's he saying it to? To Jesus. So we got to continue that, he's saying this to Jesus, not to sinners, he's saying it to Jesus. "In the time of my favor, I will answer you" Jesus. And "in the day of salvation, I will help you." I will keep you Jesus and I will make you Jesus to be a covenant for the people. To restore the land and reassign its desolate inheritances. Well, why is that important? Well, here's the thing, in 2 Corinthian 6, it's applied to the sinners. So if you hear God speaking to you, call on him and then in the day of salvation he'll hear you. No, no, in the day of salvation, God the Father will hear the son, call to the son, and he's your mediator and he'll go with your name to the Father and the Father will accept you. That's powerful.

He's not going to listen to you, apart from Jesus, He's not going to circumvent Jesus. Go to Jesus, call on Jesus' name, and He will save you. So just stop for a minute. Are you saved? Have you trusted in Christ? God brought you here today to hear this. Do you know that you are saved? Do you know that your sins are forgiven? Today is the day of salvation, you may never hear the Gospel again. You don't know how long you're going to have to die. Now, I'll say this, if you're a Christian, and God has given you... You know, He's given all of us this work of evangelism and missions. Use this urgency to spur your cell phone, don't postpone the work of evangelism and missions. Be urgent inside yourself and when you're sharing, there should be a sense of urgency, say, "Please, come to Christ. I'm pleading with you." I mean, even make it a little socially awkward. You're like, "But why?" Because it's not okay for them not to believe in Jesus. It's like, Well, that's okay, just let me know what you think and hey, get back to me, next six months is fine. Don't do that. Say, I am going to pray that you will not even be able to sleep tonight, because this thing is weighing on you so much. I've said that to people.

The Restoration of the Exiles from the Distant Lands

They look at me, think... But it makes sense with the conversation we're having. So in Verses 8-12, The Lord has promised the restoration of the exiles from the distant land. And God says, "I will make you to be a covenant for the people to restore the land and reassign its desolate inheritances, to say to the captors come out and to those in darkness, be free. And they will feed beside the roads and they'll find pasture on every barren hill. And they will neither hunger nor thirst, nor will the desert heat or the sun beat on them. And He who has compassion on them will guide them and lead them to sites of springs of water. I will turn all my mountains into roads, and my highways will be raised up. And behold, they will come from afar. They're going to come from the north and some from the west and some from the region of Aswan. Which scholars tell us is Sinema or China. They're going to come from distant places, and they're going to come back and rebuild. So the image here is of a journey and God promises to protect them on their journey and to bring them back.

And the Promised Land, Jerusalem pictured here is a desolate inheritance of rubble-filled city and God promises to rebuild the city with exiles and to gather them from very distant lands. And this would be physically fulfilled literally fulfilled under Ezra and Nehemiah when the exiles came back and they rebuilt the city of Jerusalem, and resumed Jewish history under Gentile domination then. But that's not all these Verses have in mind.

Why did God do that, why did he want the physical literal city of Jerusalem rebuilt? Well because... I want you to picture here's an illustration, imagine a... The producer of Broadway musicals, that wants to go around to other major cities in the US and put on major musicals and he's got one in particular, he comes to a major urban area and he finds an old theater that used to be really popular and well-known and all that, but it's run down now and he chooses that one and refurbishes it, and fixes the seats up, and gives it a new paint job, and cleans all the rubbish out and especially gets the stage ready. And he gets the curtains ready and he gets the lighting ready, Why? For the musical that's going to come there.

And so God is getting Jerusalem ready for the greatest drama there ever has been or ever will be in all of human history, for the sending of Christ to Jerusalem, to be despised and rejected by his own people, to die on the cross and to rise again, in that Jewish setting that's why he's doing it. So it's not an end in of itself, but the exiles are coming back a steady stream, resulting verse 13 in tremendous praise and joy, shout for joy oh heavens rejoice oh earth, burst into song oh mountains, for the Lord comforts his people and will have compassion on his afflicted ones.

In verses 14 through 21, despite all appearances, the exiles will return. "Zion speak", Zion is the city of God Jerusalem, the place where God dwells with his people and Zion says, "The Lord has forsaken me, the Lord has forgotten me." This is similar to Jesus in verse 4. Is it even possible for all the exiles to come back? Can it even happen? It's too hard. And so Zion, the city of God is personified and speaks here saying this... I don't see how this can even happen. God has forsaken me and forgotten me, but look at verses 15 through 18, "Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne, though she may forget I will not forget you. Behold I have engraved you on the palms of my hands, your walls are ever before me, your son's hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you, lift up your eyes and look around you, all your sons gather and come to you, as surely as I live declares the Lord, you will wear them all as ornaments, you will put them on like a bride." It is impossible for God to forget Zion, he uses this analogy of a mother's love for her nursing baby, you think of a mother holding her baby right here, and the love that she has for that child, what wouldn't she give to protect her child? .

It maybe in some ways the greatest love there is on earth, the greatest human love there is, think of just the image of a mother's committed love for her children, she'd die for them. And so if she can't forget, I can't ever forget Zion ever. And he says, "Though she may forget," look there are some women that do forsake their children, there are some women that selfishly save their lives rather than their children, it happens and even godly mothers there's a limit to their love. You mothers know exactly what I'm talking about. And your kids push you close to that limit, more regularly than you might want to admit, but you still love him, but he's saying, "Even though she may forget my love for Zion is infinitely greater than any mother's love for her children. I have engraved you on the palms of my hands. Your walls are ever before me, I will never forget what I'm intending to do with you."

So I'm going to rebuild and despite all appearances, the exiles will return. Verses 17-21, "Your sons hasten back, and those who laid you waste depart from you. Lift up your eyes and look around; all your sons gather and come to you. As surely as I live," declares the LORD, "you will wear them all as ornaments; you will put them on, like a bride. Though you were ruined and made desolate and your land laid waste, now you will be too small for your people, and those who devoured you will be far away. The children born during your bereavement will yet say in your hearing, 'This place is too small for us; give us more space to live in.' Then you will say in your heart, 'Who bore me these? I was bereaved and barren; I was exiled and rejected. Who brought these up? I was left all alone, but these-- where have they come from?'"

That's language of joy, of rich lavish joy at Zion's children. Now what is all this talking about? Well physically the exiles are going to come back, and they did come back, 42000 of them came back under Ezra and Nehemiah and they came back and rebuild. But I believe this is talking about both and, not either or, but both and. Yes this is prophesied, yes God would be their rear guard he would go before them, He would level the mountains, He would make sure they had enough to drink, he would get them there.

But the big picture goes back to Verse 6, God has made Jesus to be the light for who? , the Gentiles that he may do what? Bring God salvation to the ends of the earth. And the beautiful thing in the New Covenant is you don't need to go to Jerusalem, you don't need to go to the literal physical city of Jerusalem. God has moved on. The text itself says it's too small, if every believer in Jesus on Earth went to Jerusalem right now, I mean the physical city of Jerusalem what would that be like? That would be interesting around the Dome of the Rock, wouldn't that be an interesting moment? .

All of the Christians making a pilgrimage. Millions, hundreds of millions place is too small. So this is ultimately talking about the advance of missions and the streaming of spiritual exiles who are coming to the true new future Jerusalem, the one that's getting ready up in heaven, the heavenly Zion that some day when it's done will descend like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and we the living stones in her walls set in place we are through evangelism and missions, being set in this new Zion, this new Jerusalem is getting built and it is glorious. That's what these verses are talking about.

Final section, the Gentiles will aid this process or they're going to be destroyed. Verse 22 and 23, "This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'See, I will beckon to the Gentiles, I will lift up my banner to the peoples; they will bring your sons in their arms and carry your daughters on their shoulders. Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow down before you with their faces to the ground; they will lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD; those who hope in me will not be disappointed.'"

Here's what I make of this, as the Gospel spreads, more and more gentiles are going to become basically spiritual Jews and they're going to see that salvation comes from the Jews, and they are glad to be grafted into a Jewish olive tree and to think like Jews and to consider themselves sons and daughters of Abraham, and they're going to say surely, to the Jewish heritage, God is with you. And I want to be part of that.

And so these kings and queens will actually literally use their positions of power and their influence to spread the Gospel and to advance and hasten the building of this Heavenly Zion. It's going to happen. But some of them, verses 24 through 26, will resist and oppose. Verse 24, “Can plunder, be taken from warriors or captors rescued from the fierce?" Yes. The Lord says, "Yes, Captors will be taken from warriors, plunder retrieve from the fierce. I will contend with those who contend you and your children I will save, and I will make your oppressors eat their own flesh and they'll be drunk on their own blood as with wine, and then all mankind will know that I, the Lord am your Savior, redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob."

So what's going on here? Some gentiles will use their positions of power and influence to resist and oppose the building of the heavenly Zion. They're going to try to oppose it, just as Sanballat and Tobias used their positions in the book of Nehemiah to try to stop the rebuilding of the wall. They use their position to hinder the work of God. And there are some kings like that. Some kings like Xerxes and Ahasuerus helped the building. Some of them, they'll resist and oppose. So it's non-Christian leaders, non-Christian senators, non-Christian congressmen and women, non-Christian Supreme Court Justices, non-Christian President of prestigious liberal arts universities and professors at those universities, and non-Christian local officials who used their positions and dictators and premiers and kings and emperors using their position to hinder Christ and the building of his Kingdom, and to oppress his people and incarcerate them, and beat them, and kill them. God says in these verses, "I'm going to deal with them, I'm going to judge them. Read about it on book of Revelation.

26 verses friends  Many of the applications I've given you all the way through but just briefly, magnify the Lord with me. Make Jesus greater in your own heart. Make Him greater. Go back over verses one through seven and find things to praise Jesus for. Exalt Him in your life. Through your personal holiness, magnify Him. Through your evangelism and missions, magnify Him.

Secondly, get on board with what He's doing in the world. He is bringing God salvation to the ends of the earth. December is generally a month in which we focus on missions at FBC especially through the Lottie Moon Christmas Offering and I've been so thrilled to be part of this Church. I'm amazed, we're in the top 100 in giving in Lottie Moon nationwide among Southern Baptist Churches, that's amazing. There's like 16,000 Southern Baptist Churches. Were in the top 100. There are a lot of bigger Churches than ours. But you should know that the 135,000, I don't know the exact amount that we gave last year would not even come close to paying for all the Church members that we have overseas with the IMB.

Now, we don't have to do it alone, but just know put in perspective what we give and then the ones we're sending out, every dollar in the Lottie Moon offering goes directly to supporting missions to unreached people groups. That's where it goes towards. So be generous. Pray about what you and your family will do for Lottie Moon. And if I can go beyond that extend it, mission isn't just done in December. So, how about praying about what you can give to the great commission fund in May, or April, or August. Think about your lifestyle and how you want to live in light of the spread of the gospel.

Thirdly, understand the temptation to discouragement that we all feel concerning the spread of the gospel and fight it. Be an encouragement to the elders. Many of you are very encouraging to me personally, be that encouragement. The work of the ministry is hard. It's hard to see what's coming of all this. Be encouraging to our directors. Be encouraging to Matthew as he does city outreach. Be encouraging to Kyle as he reaches out at Duke, and State, and Central, and UNC.

Being encouraging. It's easy to get discouraged at these ministries. Be encouraging to Kevin and all. Be encouraging to those that are laboring, okay? And then as parents, be encouraged that if you're sowing good seed in your kids that you have been faithful to do what God calls you do no matter how they turn out. Be faithful and leave that to Him, fight discouragement.

Fourthly, urgency and salvation. I just, it would break my heart if the Lord would tell me through an angel or some other way that there's some un-regenerate person here that would walk out of this place still un-regenerate thinking they're going to have time to repent next week or next year. Don't leave this place lost. And again to you Christians, be urgent on evangelism and missions. Fifth, meditate on how God has promised to never forsake you ever. He cannot, will not stop loving you. It doesn't matter what you're going through. He has engraved you in the palm of His hand. He will never forget you. He will never lose you, He will never leave, never forsake you. And finally, as I did in my pastoral prayer today, meditate much on the glory of the coming Heavenly Jerusalem. Read about it in Revelation 21 and 22, feed your heart on where we're heading with all of this. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 48:1-22. The main subject of the sermon is God's mighty work to save His stubborn, sinful people.

God's commitment to save His people from their sins, and to bring them into His heavenly glory is infinitely great. It is unshakable, it is undimmed by the passage of time, it is undimmed by the greatness of our sins, it's undimmed by the relentlessness, the daily nature of our sinfulness. Nothing in heaven above or the earth beneath or the waters below can ever separate us or sever us from God's commitment to love us in Christ, to save us finally, to save us totally, to save us eternally. Paul put this in the clearest terms at the end of Romans chapter 8 where he says, "I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

God goes beyond even this in Hebrews Chapter 6, when He explains to us the certainty of our final salvation in the language of a covenant oath that He has taken and He cannot break, He will not break. There it says in Hebrews 6:13 when God made His promise to Abraham since there was no one greater for Him to swear by, He swore by himself. Because God wanted to make... It says in Hebrews 6, "Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. 18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure." So God labors in Scripture to give us sinners an incredible and unshakable assurance of our final salvation in Christ. Now the question that looms before any thoughtful person here is, and we want to say this to God, "Why are you doing all this for me? Why? Why so much grace? Why so much mercy, so much forgiveness?"

Imagine someone who risks everything they hold dear to deliver you from some grave danger. Imagine for example you're being held by some terrorists in a compound in Afghanistan, one of your legs is broken, you have a fever, you're getting weaker by the day. Imagine though one night some elderly Afghan farmer and his wife slip into your room somehow, and pick you up though they can barely carry you and somehow get you past the four men there guarding the compound there and somehow manage to get you on some wooden donkey cart and cover you up with wheat. And imagine as the sun is coming up and the day is dawning, he manages somehow to slip through road blocks set up by the terrorists and begins to carry you to safety, and he's walking at the head of his donkey; and after about an hour, he gets to what he thinks is somewhat of a safe place and pulls you out and gives you some food, gives you some water, and as you look at his face you can see the fear there, but the determination. You know that he's risking everything he holds dear, his life, his family, his home, his reputation in the community, everything he values, to rescue you and carry you hours down the road to safety.

Now the risk to him increases as your escape becomes known in the town that you were rescued from. And as more and more people are sent out in search of you and the danger increases, he somehow manages to talk his way through every challenge and get you finally in the end to safety. Now again you're just thinking, "Why would you do this for me? Why would you risk all of this for me? Why are you willing to put up with so much danger to risk so much to invest so much of everything you value to save my life?" Is it because he loves Americans so much you wonder, is it because he's hoping for a reward, maybe someone once saved his life he's trying to pay back. Maybe he's done some terrible thing in the past, he's trying to atone for his sin by good works. Maybe he hates the terrorists so much he's willing to do anything to thwart them. But at any rate, whatever the reasons you are consumed with this question, "What is your motive? What is your reason for saving me?"

Well that's just a scenario. But all of that is as nothing compared to a similar question we could be asking God the Father concerning our salvation. The scenario is even intensified if you're complaining the whole way criticizing him, wondering when you're going to ever stop to eat, saying that the wheat is a little bit itchy, don't you realize that? And that's what you're like the whole way you're being carried to safety. Friends, that's what we're like the whole way we're being carried to salvation, to eternal life, that's what we're like. And the question we ask here is to Almighty God, why are you doing all this to save someone like me? Infinitely great cost, far greater than that Afghan farmer, far greater than anyone, God the Father sent His only begotten Son who was infinitely precious to Him, became incarnate of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless life under the law of God. Did signs and wonders and miracles, all of that to end in the cross, pouring out His life blood to save sinners like you and me, delivered over to death it says in Romans 4 for our sins, raised to life for our justification.

And He put up with all of your rebellion before you were converted. He's put up with innumerable offenses and slights, and insults and acts of defiance and fits of selfishness and irritability and complaining and questioning of Him and words of blasphemy, words of unkindness, moments of stunning unbelief toward Him. And you have a long way to go until you're finally done with this journey, until He finally brings you into heaven. His holy heart is grieved by every sin you've ever committed more than you can imagine. Every sin you've ever committed, are committing right now, or will commit in the future and yet He is determined to save you. He's determined to cover all of that by His grace and will never stop working in you and around you and for you until you are finally radiantly glorious in heaven. Why? Why, all of this grace and mercy?

Well, the Bible gives many answers to that question. But there is one reason that stands out above all the others, like Mount Everest in the Himalayan mountain range as the greatest single motivator in all of this. Now, you may think that reason is that He loves you, and that is certainly a great reason. John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life." So certainly, I would call that K2, the second highest mountain in the range.

But Mount Everest is in our text today in Isaiah 48. Isaiah 48 points to the greatest reason of all, the reason why God puts up with all of His people's stubborn defiance, rebellion, the fact that our forehead is like bronze and our necks are like iron. The fact that He puts up with all of that. The reason why, it's in verses 9 through 11. Look at it. You've already heard it read but look at it. " For my own name's sake I delay my wrath; for the sake of my praise I hold it back from you, so as not to cut you off. See, I have refined you, though not as silver; I have tested you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield my glory to another."

God is putting up with you and me for His own name's sake, for His own glory. That's why. And any other motivation is lesser than that in Scripture, it's more uncertain ground. This is the commitment we have from God. He is committed to His own glory and therefore He will never let you go until you're finally saved. And that's really encouraging, isn't it? That's really, really encouraging. The reason why God has not cut us off in His wrath but instead has poured out His wrath on Jesus, the reason why God has put up with all of our smoldering obnoxious sins, the reason why God is so wisely gracious and patient with us even now, after all of this time, the reason for all of this is for His own name's sake, that He may be maximally glorified in you and me. That's why. God's commitment to save you and me is a subset of His commitment to glorify Himself, to put Himself radiantly on display, to allow the radiance of His love and His wisdom and power and kindness and justice and patience and grace, grace shine forth from the cross of Christ and the empty tomb and from the glories of the new heaven and the new earth. Alright, so that's all intro.

The Context of Isaiah 48

Now we need to get into Isaiah 48 and look at it carefully. And in order to do that, let's understand the context. Isaiah was a Jewish man, a prophet who lived about 700 years before Jesus was born. Prophets were special people. They heard from God by the sovereign Spirit. God communicated things that they couldn't know any other way. And part of that was the ability the prophet had to see the future. Isaiah was living in a time before the Babylonian exile, 100 plus years before God would judge Judah and Jerusalem, by bringing Nebuchadnezzar, the King of Babylon, who would invade in 586 BC, about 120 plus years later, would invade and destroy Jerusalem, destroy the walls, burn every building, and raze the temple and destroy it completely, and leave just a very small remnant of Jews. Who would then be sent away into exile into Babylon. But then in his prophetic eye, Isaiah looks beyond that to a time when he would raise up a man mentioned in Isaiah 48, though, not by name, Cyrus the Great who would come back and invade. He would come and invade Babylon and destroy Babylon. Babylon would be destroyed and the people of God would be told, right in Isaiah 48, leave Babylon now, and they would go back to the promised land and they would resume their history, their heritage there and rebuild Jerusalem and start their Jewish life again.

He's seeing all of this in the future, and as he looks out over what's about to come, God, through the prophet Isaiah, laments their wickedness and their stubbornness. The sins that would lead to the Babylonian destruction. The invasion by Babylon hadn't happened yet. Manasseh hadn't been born yet. Probably or maybe was born, but he wasn't king yet. His great wickedness and idolatry hadn't happened yet. And He's saying, "I know how wicked you are, I know how stubborn you are, I know how your forehead is like bronze," and all that. And He says at the end of this chapter, "If only you had followed my ways, if only you had kept my commands, then none of this needed to have happened, but you don't, you're so stubborn." And not only that, I will refine you in a furnace of affliction though not as silver. We'll talk about that in a minute. When I bring you back, you're going to be mostly the same people that you were. Your change of address from Babylon to Jerusalem, won't change your heart, and so he ends the chapter with this statement: There is no peace says my God for the wicked. So, He's warning His people concerning their own sins, and yet in the midst of all that, He tells them of His determination not to cut them off. He will bear with them, and He will be patient with them. That's what's going on in this chapter.

Now, let's look at it carefully section by section. First verses 1 through 8, The Sovereign God predicts and works history to win His stubborn people, So He begins by calling to them. "Listen, O hypocritical Israel." Verse one and two: "Listen to this O house of Jacob, you who were called by the name of Israel, you who come from the line of Judah, you who take oaths in the name of the Lord and you who invoke the God of Israel, but not in truth or righteousness." So they're hypocritical, they claim to be Jews, they're biologically descended from Abraham, but they're not living the life, they're not righteous, they're not holy, they're ungodly, they're hypocritical. They call themselves citizens of the holy city, and they rely on the God of Israel, the Lord Almighty is His name, they're very stubborn. Look what He says in verse 4, "I know how stubborn you were. The sinews of your neck were iron and your forehead was bronze." In other words, they just don't get it, you get... Just tell them the same thing, over and over and their foreheads bronze, they're hard-headed. And they're stiff-necked. We hear that about the Jews a lot, in the Old Testament. It means they just won't yield to the king, they won't take their stubborn defiant chins and drop them down in submission to the king, and so they're not yielded, they're rebellious.

Verse 8. He says, You've neither heard nor understood. From of old, your ear has not been open. Well do I know how treacherous you are. You are called a rebel from birth." So that's what he's talking to these Jewish people who just consistently in every generation will not listen to God speaking through the prophets. Now he says, I have had a strategy in communicating with you. I have predicted the future. Look at Verse 3, he says, "I foretold the former things a long ago, my mouth announced them and I made them known, then suddenly I acted and they came to pass." We've been saying this, God alone can do this, He's the only one that can do this, He's the only one that can predict the future. Not only has He done it a little, He's done it a lot. He did it through Noah, predicting the flood and the flood came, He did it through Abraham, predicting what would happen with his descendants, how they'd be in a... They'd be strangers in a country not their own, they'd be enslaved and mistreated 400 years. He's very clear predicting the future and it happened, and then after that I'll punish that nation, the Egyptians, and bring you back to this place.

All of that happened, He in the past has consistently predicted the future, predicted many things through Moses, even this Book of Isaiah, how many prophecies has Isaiah given us? Oracles about the nations, the rise and fall of various things. He's predicted what happened with the Assyrians, all of these things predicted. And what He says is, Look, I'm the only one that can do this. God alone can predict the future. I predicted it, then suddenly I acted and they came to pass. So this is a sovereign God, a God who's not sitting back idly and watching history like He's watching a movie. He's the one that has orchestrated these things, He's the one that's acting in bringing it to pass. Why does He do all that? His reason's given in 4-8, "I foretold the former things long ago, my mouth announced them and made them known, then suddenly I acted and brought them to pass," verse 4, "For I knew how stubborn you were. The sinews of your neck were iron, your forehead was bronze, and therefore I told you these things long ago. Before they happen, I announce them to you so that you could not say, 'My idols did them, my wooden image and metal god ordained them.'"

So they just are stubborn, they're hard-hearted, hard-eared, they can't hear. They refuse to listen to God, so God puts His predictions on record. Writes them down, puts it on record, and then they come to pass. And his reason is you can't tell me your idols did this, they didn't. Your wooden image and your metal god did not do this, I did it.

So He calls on them to listen and He asks them to acknowledge His greatness and to repent. "You have heard these things, look at them all." Verse 6. "Will you not admit them? From now on, I will tell you of new things, of hidden things unknown to you. They're created now, not long ago. You've not heard of them before today, so you cannot say, Yes, I knew of them. You have neither heard nor understood, from of old, your ear has not been opened. Well do I know how treacherous you are. You are called a rebel from birth." So God is saying here, "I'm going to start telling you some new things you've never heard before. Some new predictions are about to come our way."

Now, let me tell you where we're at in this book. Isaiah 40 to 48 is a section that has had it as a dominant theme Idolatry, exile, destruction of Babylon, restoration, a dominant theme. But we're about to turn a corner and in Isaiah 49 through 55, the dominant theme is the suffering servant. We're about to get introduced to an individual, the servant of the Lord, who is going to suffer for the sins of His people, And the vision for this salvation is beyond Israel. That's too small a thing, it's going to be even through to the Gentiles, even to the distant nations of the earth. And He's going to be despised and rejected, He's going to offer His back, Isaiah 50, to those who beat Him, and His beard to those who pluck it out. And Isaiah 52, His blood is going to sprinkle the nations and kings are going to hear about Him. Isaiah 53, All we like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way. That's all coming. Isaiah 55, the invitation: Come all you who are hungry. Come buy and eat. You who have no money, buy. Without money, without cost. Buy salvation for free. That's where we're going.

He ways I'm about to tell you some things you've never heard before, some new things, things that are going to be very hard for you to conceive, oh Israel, oh hard-headed, hard-hearted Israel. That God will send His Messiah and He will suffer and die. And you're going to stumble over that. But I'm going to tell you ahead of time before it even happens. That's what He's saying in these verses and that's where we're going. So verses 9-11, this patient God refines His people for His own glory and for our benefit. So, verse 9, God puts up with His people for His own sake. Verse 9, "For my own name's sake, I delay my wrath. For the sake of my praise, I hold it back from you so as not to cut you off." This is the main idea of this sermon, the main idea of this chapter, of this book, of the Bible, of the universe. God does everything for His own glory above everything else. That's the main idea. We have to go merely beyond God's delight in His own glory. God delighted in His glory before He said, "Let there be light," He was very happy as God.

Don't ever imagine God created because He was lonely and had nothing to do. Father, Son and Spirit in perfect fellowship with one another, perfectly happy with one another, wanted to share that happiness with some created beings who could understand it. And so He created us in His image, but we rebelled and we went into wickedness and sin and idolatry. Now He's redeeming us so that we can enjoy His glory along with Him, that we could be happy in Him. And so that's what it means, "For my own name's sake," it means for God's reputation's sake, for the sake of His honor, for the sake of His esteem in the world. That's why He's doing this. Like it says in the Lord's prayer, "Our Father in Heaven, may your name be hallowed. May your name be held in honor by the peoples of the earth." That's why God does everything. That was Jesus' first priority in prayer. "May your name be hallowed oh God. May people on earth revere you, may they honor you, may they love you, and cherish you, and delight in you, and fear you, and may they serve you."

So, God delayed His wrath from Israel for His own name's sake, for the sake of His praise. He was astonishingly patient with Israel over centuries of rebellion. Very patient with them. He's very slow to anger. Why? So that God's patience might be put on display. But more than that, God had in His mind before the creation of the world, a better way to display His wrath and His justice in reference to His chosen people, a better way. He could've just wiped them off the face of the earth. They deserved it. So do we. So do we. But for the sake of His glory, He delayed His wrath to not cut them off and wipe them out and make them extinct. He did it so He could display His wrath and justice at the cross of Jesus Christ. That's better. It was a better plan. And so, He delays His wrath so He can pour it out on His Son, His only Son in our place. It was better for God to do it that way.

And so it says in Romans 3:25-26, "God presented Him, [Jesus] as a sacrifice of atonement [as a propitiation, a blood sacrifice that turns away wrath, a propitiation] through faith in His blood. He did this to demonstrate His justice because in His forbearance, [that means His long patience] he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished." That links with what we get here in Isaiah 48, God delayed His wrath so He could punish Israel at the cross. Isn't that awesome? And pour out His justice and His wrath on His own son Jesus as our substitute. And concerning His own people, He had a better plan for them too. Instead of killing them like they deserve, instead of wiping them out like they deserve, He decided to redeem them and refine them. Praise God. And that's what He's doing with you and me in Jesus, isn't it? Instead of cutting us off,

God Refines His People for their Benefit

He's decided to redeem us, that means buy us back through the blood of Jesus, and refine us, purify us. Look at Verse 9 and 10, "For my own name's sake, I delay my wrath. For the sake of my praise I hold it back from you so as not to cut you off." Verse 10, "Behold, I have refined you though not as silver. I have tested you in the furnace of affliction."

So instead of wiping them out as they deserve, God would redeem them and refine them, He delayed His wrath, He deported a small number of them in exile to Babylon, He allowed them to flourish there and to repopulate and grow. And then brought 42,000 of them back under Ezra and Nehemiah, back to rebuild Jerusalem. That's what He's going to do. He says, I'm going to put you in the smelter's fire, the refiner's fire like a silversmith would do with silver ore. And I'm going to put the heat on you and the heat's going to cause those impurities to bubble to the surface. I'm going to refine you though not as silver. What does He mean by that? Well, a good silversmith isn't going to stop until all of the impurities are gone. If you look at Psalm, don't do it now, but Psalm 12:6 talks about the Bible, I love this verse. Talks about the Bible, the perfection of the Bible. And it says, Psalm 12:6, "The words of the Lord are flawless like silver refined in a furnace of clay purified seven times over." So that's what the refiner is going to do.

He said, "I didn't do that with you because you know what would happen? You'd all be dead." And do you think those 42,000 Jews who came back under Ezra and Nehemiah were perfect people? Just holy and perfect people. They've been through it, now, the furnace of affliction, now they're holy and perfect. Not at all. You remember the story about how they started to settle in and intermarry again and start going after other gods again, you remember that? You remember how Ezra reacted? He took his hands in his hair and like, ugh! How could you do this! After all that we've been through. Pulling out his own hair. Now you know, Nehemiah is a different man. He pulled their hair out. So... Some of you are the I'll pull my own hair out, and others are like, "I'm going after those guys and I'm pulling their hair out until they make this thing right." Either way it was a hair-pulling moment. Why? Because they've not been perfectly refined, the Babylonian exile didn't make the Jews a perfect nation.

God’s Ultimate Purpose in Their Salvation: His Own Glory

But God's purpose in all of this, verse 11, is clear. "For my own sake, for my own sake, I do this. How can I let myself be defamed? I will not yield My glory to another." God says it in repetition. I'm doing this, I'm patient, for my own sake, for my own sake, that's His priority structure. He ultimately does it for our eternal joy, that's second. So that we can rejoice in Him and know Him and live forever. Now, if He failed to refine Israel or if He overlooked their wickedness and acted like it didn't matter to Him or if He wiped them out entirely from the face of the earth because of their wickedness, in all of the other cases, God would be defamed. It would be said He couldn't save His people. Or He didn't care about holiness. He says, "I will not yield my glory to... " You know what He's doing, He's saving a remnant from every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, a remnant chosen by grace, He's saving them, in such a way that when they get to heaven, they will know all of the glory they see and that they are displaying themselves is from God.

He's not yielding His glory to you, He will not allow you to take any credit whatsoever for your own salvation. He's not going to yield His glory to anyone else. He will save you in such a way that you will say to God alone be the glory that I'm here in the New Jerusalem, now. And that's awesome, isn't it? Now, just an aside, but an important one. God says in this verse He will not share or yield His glory with another, meaning someone other than me. But He will share it with Jesus. He will share it with Jesus and is sharing it right now with Jesus. You remember in John 17:5, Jesus in His incarnation, He prays and He says, "And now, Father, glorify me with the glory that I had with you before the world began." Clear evidence of the deity of Christ.

Now, in verses 12-16, the eternal God will bring Cyrus to achieve His purpose. God is the I Am, the eternal, the Creator, the Ruler. Verse 12,13, "Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called, I am He. I am the first and I am the last. My own hand laid the foundations of the Earth and my right hand spread out the Heavens. When I summon them, they all stand up together." This is the second time that God has called Himself the first and the last, He was there at the beginning of history. He'll be there at the end and every day in between. He's orchestrating history for His own purposes.

By the way. Jesus says the same thing about Himself to the Apostle John on the island of Patmos, in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 1:17-18, "Then he placed his right hand on me and said, 'Do not be afraid. I am the first and I am the last. I am the living one. I was dead and behold I am alive and I live forever and I hold the keys of death and Hades.'" So Jesus is claiming to be God there, there's no doubt about it. God's own right hand laid the foundation of the universe, there is nothing He cannot do. He rules actively over the stars of the cosmos, when He gives the word they all stand up together, He says, that when He summons the stars, they do what He says. This teaches again the doctrine of God's active, direct government of the universe. There's not an instant in which the universe, even the distant stars, don't do what He commands.

God alone foretold Cyrus, and He will bring him to succeed, verses 14-16. He's been very plain about what's going to happen to end the Babylonian exile. He made it plain over a century before it happened, He would summon Cyrus to be His chosen ally, He says in these verses. A co-worker for His glory, to destroy the Babylonians, He's going to summon Cyrus and make certain that he succeeds as we've seen. Furthermore, God says, "I didn't do this off in a corner, I didn't speak somewhere in a land of secret. I did it to make it obvious to everyone. I told everyone what I was going to do."

Now in verses 16 through 22, the loving God will send another to redeem His people. In Verse 16 a mysterious sent one, anointed with the Spirit, speaks to us. Some mysterious little verse in the middle of nowhere, "And now the sovereign Lord has sent me with His Spirit."

Who is this person speaking to us? Well, an easy answer is this Isaiah the prophet. But Isaiah doesn't talk about himself that way, he doesn't call himself anointed with the Spirit, or covered with the Spirit, that's not something he does. This is the language of the Messiah. So suddenly Jesus comes in, and there's no doubt that He's the one referred to in the very next chapter. Now, these chapters are helpful. You know these numbers 48-49 and all, that's helpful, but sometimes the divisions can throw us off. We're going right from this right into the suffering servant passage within a few words. And I think he makes a little bit of an appearance here and now the sovereign Lord has sent me with His Spirit. That's a Trinity verse, the Father sent me the Son with the Spirit to minister, to redeem. We'll get to that, God willing, next time.

In verses 17 through 19, If only God's people had obeyed His Word, "This is what the Lord says, Your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, 'I am the Lord your God, who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea, your descendants would have been like the sand, your children like its numberless grains. Their name would never be cut off nor destroyed from before me.'" Well, this is coming right from the heart of God, God stands over our messy sinful, broken, rebellious lives and says, these words. If only you had done it my way, none of this would be happening. If only you had listened to my word. My word is a lamp to your feet, my word is a light to your path. Psalm 19 says, "The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart, the commandments of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever, the ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold. They're sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb. By them is your servant warned. In keeping them there is great reward."

So this is before the exile even happened. If only you'd obeyed me, there wouldn't have been an exile, He laments. And you see the grief in His heart. Do you have a sense of that? If only, Oh, that you had done this. I get the picture of Jesus weeping over Jerusalem and saying, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem!" Tears coming down His face. "How often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is left you desolate." How miserable are our lives when we don't obey God's word. Thank God He sent someone who did, Amen. Who took God's law perfectly seriously and obeyed it perfectly, and won for us a righteousness that He just gives us as a gift. Thank God for Jesus because these words sum up Jesus' life, He heeded God's law and obey it and fulfilled it. And so He is the redeemer and He leads His people to flee Babylon.

He says, "Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians. Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth, say, 'The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.' They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts, He made water flow from them. From the rock, He split the rock and water gushed out. 'There is no peace,' says the Lord, 'For the wicked.'" So, He's predicted the fall of Babylon, it's coming, Bel is destroyed in Chapter 46, Babylon falls in Chapter 47, now He tells His people to leave Babylon and go home. Leave Babylon now and rejoice that Babylon is falling. And you're going to get ushered back, you're going to get protected on your journey home, but then the final word as I've said, Verse 22, "There is no peace…for the wicked." If you go back Oh Jews and you start doing those same things again, judgment will come.

Alright, so that's the chapter. What applications? Well first, just plead with God to change your heart and rearrange your priority structure so it becomes like His. Say, "God, would you please change my heart so that I esteem your glory above everything else in my life? Just change me, O Lord. Change me. Help me to understand. Help me to understand your glory. Change my priority structure. Help me to love your glory and live for your glory and delight in your glory above everything else."

And as part of that, I'm just am pleading with any of you that are here on the outside looking in, you know you're not redeemed. We sang a song earlier today. How can I know that I've been forgiven? How can I know that I'm going to go to heaven? Maybe you're asking that. You don't know that you've been redeemed, you don't know that you're going to heaven when you die. God brought you here today, I believe, to hear this Gospel. You've heard enough this morning to know how to be saved. God sent His Son to die for sinners like you. Trust in Him, flee to Him, look to Him, let Him save you. He will never let you go until at last you're in heaven. Flee to Christ.

Thirdly, if I can just urge you folks, this is the last time Babylon will be openly mentioned in Isaiah, in the book of Isaiah, although it's referred to in other places. We're told here to leave Babylon, okay? And it says in other places to other places, so they we'll not share in her plagues and her judgments. So again, I warn you to flee the worldliness that is summed up by Babylon, flee worldliness, flee the corruptions of this life. "Come out from her and be separate," says the Lord, "So you won't share in her plagues." It says in James 4:4, "You adulterous people. Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God. Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God." So don't live for the merchandise, and the pleasures, and the food, and the drink, and the fun, and the hobbies, and the money, and the power. Don't live for those things. Thank God for them, the things that God gives you, but don't live with them.

Fourthly, ask God to soften your head and your heart, okay. [chuckle] It's like, "Well, I thank God that I don't have a bronze forehead. I thank God that I don't have a stiff neck. I'm so yielded to God and I understand immediately all the things He says to me." Is that really true of you? Are you really wanting to say that to God? "Thank you Lord, that I don't have a forehead of bronze and a neck of iron." Oh, don't say that dear friends. Say, "God, I have a forehead of bronze and I have a neck of iron. I've been proving it for years. Would you please soften? Soften me? Soften my heart? Help me to yield to your word."

And focus, just take a minute and look again at Verse 17 and 18. "This is what the Lord says, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God who teaches you what is best for you, who directs you in the way you should go. If only you had paid attention to my commands." Do you not hear that oh Christians? Don't you hear God saying something to you that? Are you in the Word every day? Seriously, are you, do you get up every day and open up the Scripture and listen to God? He's saying, "If only you'd listened to me then you wouldn't be having the troubles you're having right now. If only you obeyed my commands you wouldn't be having the afflictions you're experiencing. You wouldn't have had to go through all this." So much misery in our lives comes from not listening to God's word. And then realize how patiently God is putting up with your sins and mine, Amen. Don't you sense it?

Remember how I talked about a bruised reed, He will not break, a smoldering wick, He'll not snuff out. Do you know how much smolder you're putting out every day? It's bad [chuckle] And we're just smoke in God's eyes, but He is so patient with us. Thank God for His patience with you. Confess your sins regularly to Him and thank Him saying, "Thank you for being patient with me." And finally, just looked forward to the day. He says, "I'm not going to share my glory with another, but I'm going to save you in such a way that you will be just swimming in a sea of my glory." Isn't that wonderful? We're looking ahead to the New Jerusalem that's going to come down radiantly bright shiny, you're going to be in a new Jerusalem, a new heaven, a new earth, and you yourself are going to shine like the sun in the kingdom of your Father. If you're a Christian, you're going to shine radiantly. And the light you'll see in that place, it will all be the glory of God through Christ. Every ray of light you'll see in the new heaven, the new earth will be God's glory. And then you'll realize, I was saved in such a way that He was glorified and I humbled, to God be the glory alone. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 47:1-15. The main subject of the sermon is God's power over the wicked and His desire to seek justice through judgment.

We're looking today at Isaiah 47, and as we do, we look at the account again of the fall of Babylon in prophetic perspective. And as we do, we need to look at all of these things with the eye of faith, faith is the eyesight of the soul by which we can see into invisible realms, realms that cannot be proven or described in any way by scientific endeavor. There's nothing about the spiritual realm that can be discerned in the laboratories at MIT or in the RTP here. But there is around us all the time a spiritual realm that exerts a tremendous force, a magnetic force on our souls all the time.

And we can only perceive it by faith, by the ministry of the Word of God, by the reading of the scripture we have our eyes open to see it and to know it, that we are under this gravitational pull all the time. We cannot see into the invisible realm apart by faith, but by faith we know that there is a God who sits on a throne of light who I just prayed to a moment ago, a God who dwells in unapproachable light. But beyond God and beyond the holy angels that I alluded to, and they cover their faces as they serve Him and cry, "Holy, holy, holy…"

Beyond these invisible spiritual beings, there are dark evil forces, there are fallen angels called demons or devils, who are organized into a system of evil, and who are... That system of evil is ruled by Satan called the devil or that ancient serpent. And together they make up this dark kingdom, which in some places in scripture is spoken of in these words, rulers, authorities, powers of this present darkness. In mysterious and immeasurable ways the devil and his angels run this world. They orchestrate this world system that surrounds us all the time. And they draw each person on earth into patterns of rebellion against Almighty God. Satan is called "the god of this age, the ruler of the power of the air." During the temptation of Jesus Christ, he took Him to a high mountain and showed Him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said, "I will give you all their authority and splendor, for it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. So if you worship me, it will all be yours." Jesus refused of course saying, "Away from me Satan, for it is written worship the Lord your God and serve Him only." But Satan makes lesser forms of that same offer to the great leaders of this present age, to the movers and shakers of our era. "Bow down to me, worship me and I will give you sections of this world to rule."

The world system is completely under Satan's invisible domination and it is a bitter enemy to Christ. Spoken of in 1 John 2:15-17, we are warned there, "Do not love the world or anything in the world, if anyone loves the world the love of the Father is not in him. For everything that is in the world, the lust of the eyes, the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away but the one who does the will of God lives forever." We are warned there of the magnetic pull in the word lust, the magnetic pull toward evil.

Now in Scripture sometimes this organized system of a lure and enticement and power called the world in some of these scriptures that we've already looked at is called Babylon. Babylon. Mysterious name, because Babylon was a literal city that was built in space and time back in history alongside the mighty Euphrates River in what is today called Iraq. In Genesis 10, it was founded by a man named Nimrod who was a mighty hunter or warrior, who also founded and established Nineveh which became the capital city of the Assyrian Empire.

Babylon was built on great farm land and therefore it produced... This region produced for its people economic prosperity, they eventually became powerful traders that made lots and lots of money. In Genesis 11, the Tower of Babel was built there at Babylon, which was a symbol of human rebellion against Almighty God. They said, "Come let us build a tower that reaches from earth up to heaven so that we may make a name for ourselves and not be over the face of the whole the Earth." At the core of this effort was human pride, rebellion, arrogance, self-worship.

And God descended there and humbled them, by confusing the languages. Babylon eventually in time was conquered by the Assyrians who came down from Nineveh, down the Fertile Crescent and conquered Babylon and they became a subject city and a subject people under the mighty Assyrian empire. But they chafed against that yoke of the Assyrians and they were looking for allies and one of those allies was Hezekiah the godly king of Judah, you remember that story in Isaiah 39 which we already covered a number of months ago, but they sent emissaries to Hezekiah, the Babylonians did. And said in effect, "Come let's make a pact between us, we have a common enemy, the Assyrians, and let's be friends."

Hezekiah welcomed them warmly, they also probably puffed up his ego, his pride, because God had used him in an amazing way to lead a deliverance, supernatural deliverance from the Assyrians when 185,000 Assyrian troops were killed in one night by an angel of the Lord. And then he also was miraculously healed from a fatal illness and so he was puffed up with pride and God left him to test him to know what was in his heart. And what he did, was he took these Babylonian emissaries and he showed them all of his wealth and power and everything like they were just bosom buddies, showed them everything.

And Isaiah the prophet came and warned him in Isaiah 39, "what did those men say, and where did they come from?" Hezekiah told him, "From a distant land…they came to be from Babylon." So of course Isaiah asked him, "What did they see in your palace?" And Hezekiah had to confess, "They saw everything in my palace…There is nothing among my treasures that I did not show them." Isaiah then said to him, "Hear now the word of the Lord Almighty..." By the way whenever Isaiah says that to you and you're the king, be afraid.  "Hear now the word of the Lord Almighty, the time will surely come when everything in your palace, and all that your fathers have stored up until this day, will be carried off to Babylon. Nothing will be left...And some of your own descendants, your own flesh and blood who will be born to you, will be taken away, and they will become eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon."

The clear prophecy of the exile the Babylon which happened century and a quarter later under King Nebuchadnezzar, the mighty king of the Babylonians 586BC. And God fulfilled it and they destroyed the city, they burned the temple to the ground, they slaughtered all but a small, very small remnant Jews. And they were exiled, that small remnant was exiled to Babylon and there they were in effect enslaved by the Babylonians for 70 years. While they were there, the Jews settled down and lived their lives, some of them prospered, life under the Babylonians was not miserable but there was some oppression and some wickedness that happened to them there.

But God predicted very plainly through the prophet Isaiah and through Jeremiah and other prophets that someday Babylon would be destroyed and a remnant of Jews would go back to the promised land and rebuild the city of Jerusalem. We already saw this in Isaiah 13:19-22, Isaiah the Prophet said there, "Babylon, the jewel of kingdoms, the glory of the Babylonians' pride, will be overthrown by God like Sodom and Gomorrah. She will never be inhabited or lived in through all generations; no Arab will pitch his tent there, no shepherd will rest his flocks there. But desert creatures will lie there, jackals will fill her houses; there the owls will dwell, and there the wild goats will leap about. Hyenas will howl in her strongholds, jackals in her luxurious palaces."

So total desolation, total destruction of Babylon already predicted, we've already seen it in Isaiah 13. The fall of Babylon to Cyrus the Great, and the Medes and the Persians is clearly told in Daniel 5, it happened just as God said it would. And Babylon was eventually over a number of decades leading to centuries completely destroyed, didn't happen right away but eventually ground down into the dust. But from that dust where jackals and hyenas were to live would rise and move to another place, what I would call the spirit of Babylon.

The Spirit of Babylon

The spirit of Babylon. And it moves and settles down like a malevolent force, a wicked force settles down and dominates whatever nation is the most powerful and the most economically prosperous, and influences its leaders and pulls it toward wickedness and toward rebellion. Why would I say that? Because we're not done with Babylon after Babylon falls, it keeps cropping up in the Bible. And so in 1 Peter 5:13, the Apostle Peter wrote some mysterious words to the Christians there scattered throughout the Mediterranean Sea. And he wrote these words 1 Peter 5:13, "She who is in Babylon chosen together with you, sends you her greetings, and so does my son Mark." Who is she who is in Babylon? Well most scholars believe that we're talking about the church, and the city in which Peter religious tradition has him was at, at the time when he wrote that letter, Rome. And he calls Rome, "Babylon", and he says, "She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you," namely the church in Babylon, says hello and greets you.

If that were all I had then I wouldn't be so sure about this idea of the spirit of Babylon, but we see again at the end of the Bible, in the Book of Revelation, Babylon comes up huge in that prophetic book. And so in Revelation 17 we have Babylon, the city of Babylon, pictured as a scarlet woman, a prostitute, a whore dressed in scarlet clothes. And she is drunk with the blood of the saints and she is a woman of luxury, a woman of pleasure and a woman of viciousness and interpreted at the end of that in Revelation 17:18, the woman you saw Babylon, is the great city that rules over the kings of the earth.

At that time Rome, but it just continues and then in Revelation 18, we have again there, predicted the fall of Babylon, the very thing that's in front of us in Isaiah 47. There in Revelation 18:2-3, A mighty angel shouts, "Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great, she has become a home for demons, and a haunt for every evil spirit, a haunt for every unclean and detectable bird, for all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries.'" That chapter depicts Babylon as powerful, but also alluring and enticing especially economically, how she was involved in trade with every commodity that could be traded with, Revelation 18:12-13.

Also Babylon is portrayed as having mysterious and even a occultic powers over the hearts and minds of people. And so in Revelation 18:23 it says, "Your merchants were the world's great men and by your magic spell, they led the whole world astray, all nations were led astray." But her time of wealth and prosperity, a wicked prosperity come to an end and God specifically judges Babylon at the end of the world for one thing above all else, her treatment of God's people, the effect that Babylon had on God's people.

And as I said, there are two aspects to Babylon, there's the military/political side, which has to do with brute force. And then there's the economic side which has to do with luxury and prosperity and the enticements of the world. And in these two ways Babylon comes at the people of God all around the world, through persecution and martyrdom, and imprisonment, and the harder side of what the world does to God's people, shedding her blood. The blood of the saints versus the economic allure and the enticement of the world. So this is the true story of Babylon, the story of a corrupt world system that Satan runs alluring people by economic prosperity, dominating people by military might, slaughtering the people of God who will not bow the knee to her.

Now as we come to Isaiah 47, it's really a partner to Isaiah 46, 46 and 47 go together. Last week we saw how God predicted the fall of Bel and Nebo, the patron Gods of Babylon. And with the judgment of the gods of Babylon comes very naturally the next chapter, the fall of Babylon, and they go together.

Isaiah 47 portrays the city of Babylon as first a pampered princess with a wicked heart, sitting enthroned on a lofty perch in the world, comfortable, luxurious, arrogant, complacent. Living in the luxury that the conquests of her father have brought her, feeding on those conquests. She's a spoiled virgin daughter drinking in luxury on the backs of the people Babylon's armies have conquered. Later in the chapter, she's portrayed as a wicked king. Again, complacent, wicked, arrogant sitting on a throne secure in the protection of her husband's power boasting that that's going to go on forever, and nothing's going to change him.

Isaiah 47 says this pampered virgin daughter will be thrown down from her lofty throne, stripped of her luxury and made to do the work of common slaves. Isaiah 47 says this arrogant, wealthy, secure Queen will lose her husband and her children in a single day, she'll become a widow with no children and no future. Now, not only does Isaiah 47 predict the fall of Babylon in world history, to take on the menial roles of enslaved exiles, it explains why this happened, because of the harsh way she treated God's people.

Because of that, God is going to take vengeance on her and crush her for what she did to God's people. Now, the fall of Babylon, as I said, the big picture is far more significant than just a moment that happened a long, long time ago. And so what I want to do is I want to speak to you as the people of God, a word of warning about the spirit of Babylon the world, and a word of great encouragement that some day, that alluring force will be over forever and we'll be free. So I want to speak a word of warning, leading to a word of great encouragement and blessing.

So let's look at it verse by verse now, beginning in the first section verses 1-4, humiliated Babylon is commanded to vacate her throne. There it says, "Go down and sit in the dust virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground without a throne, daughter of the Babylonians. No more will you be called tender or delicate. Take millstones and grind flour, take off your veil, lift up your skirts, bare your legs, and wade through the streams, your nakedness will be exposed and your shame uncovered, I will take vengeance. I will spare no one."

So the virgin daughter of Babylon is the pampered, enthroned daughter of the King, so to speak. A virgin daughter image is used frequently in the Bible to refer to what's most delicate and precious in that culture, the young girls, who frequently are portrayed in various prophecies is taking tambourines or other pieces of musical instruments and going out and celebrating military victories. Like when the Philistines win or something, the daughters of the Philistines go out and celebrate. Same thing for the daughter of Zion, who does the same thing celebrating when the Jews win a victory, this kind of thing.

So here, the virgin daughter of Babylon, is pictured as pampered, enthroned, she's sitting on the top of the world. I remember I was at a vacation spot and there's this embroidered pillow in pink, it's a very girly pillow, and it says "Princess of Quite a Lot." Well Babylon was Princess of Quite a Lot. And she's arrogant and she's pampered and she's protected, but suddenly, suddenly that time comes to an end. It's done. And she loses her position of power and she's thrown down from her throne of luxury. And she's commanded to sit in the dust, that's humiliating. She's never going to be called tender or delicate again, she's going to develop calluses on her hands.

Because she's going to do menial labor, she's going to grind flour, she's going to go out to get water, she's going to have to lift up her skirts to wade through the streams and get water. She's enslaved. She's going to be humiliated, enslaved to hard labor. Stripped and humiliated all of the glorious clothing and nice ring and all of that's gone, instead her nakedness will be exposed to the nations. And God says very plainly, "I will take vengeance, I will spare no one." So he's very meticulous in his judgment here, Verse 3.

Now, verse 4 is a hinge between verses one to three, which speak about what's going to happen to the virgin daughter of Babylon, and verses 5 and 6 which describe why it's going to happen. So in the middle of that we have this beautiful statement, "Our redeemer," verse 4, "our redeemer, the Lord Almighty is His name, is the Holy One of Israel." So just... If you can just stop there and gaze at Verse 4, and say, "Hallelujah, I can't wait to be redeemed from Babylon." Amen? I can't wait to be set free, forever, from this alluring force.

And we have a redeemer and his name is Jesus Christ and He has the power to rescue us from Babylon, so we can shake the dust of this place of our feet and longer be defiled by it. And He bought the right to do that at the price of His own blood, by the shedding of His own blood He can rescue his people from Babylon, He is our Redeemer, praise God.

So in verses 5 and 6, we have God taking vengeance on Babylon for Israel's sake. It says, "Sit in silence, go into darkness, daughter of the Babylonians, no more will you be called Queen of kingdoms. I was angry with my people and desecrated my inheritance, I gave them into your hand and you showed them no mercy. Even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke."

So... Babylon's sentence of judgment here is an act of vengeance by a sovereign God. This is not a twist of fate. This is not the wheel of fortune turning against Babylon now, and now it's the turn for the Medes and the Persians. Not at all. It's a direct act of vengeance by Almighty God, the God of Israel, the God of the Jews. It's not an accident. And God's purpose concerning the whole Babylonian exile, He says, was to punish his people for their sins. They had sinned, they had violated the covenant, they had gone after other gods and so God used Babylon to punish them. For a very specific reason, for their rebellion and their idolatry, God brought Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonians in. He was angry with His people. And they came in and it says, desecrated His inheritance. They came to the city of God, Jerusalem, called Zion so often in the Old Testament. And they destroyed it, they destroyed the wall and even more they went to the heart, the religious heart of the City, the temple, Solomon's temple. And they destroyed it completely, they took whatever is valuable and destroyed, burned the rest. In Psalm 74, the Psalmist pictures the Babylonians doing this very thing to the temple.

It says, "Your foes roared in the place where you met with us. They set up their standards as signs. They behaved like men wielding axes to cut through a thicket of trees. They smashed all the carved paneling with their axes, and hatchets. They burned your sanctuary to the ground, they defiled the dwelling place of your name." So they went through and just destroyed God's inheritance, desecrated it. Yes, but they went too far, went too far. Now, how did they go too far? They were doing the very thing that God sent them to do. Yes, but they made two great errors. First of all, they didn't do it for the glory of God and for the honor of His name. They were pagans, who Habakkuk says worshipped and sacrificed their own military prowess. So they had no zeal for the glory of God at all.

Secondly, they went too far in terms of oppression and harshness on the people of God. Look at verse six, "You showed them no mercy, even on the aged you laid a very heavy yoke." This, by the way, is the very thing that the Prophet Daniel confronted Nebuchadnezzar about. In Daniel Chapter 4, when Nebuchadnezzar had a terrifying dream, and he thought the dream was about him, and it was, and that God was going to judge him.

And so, Daniel, who I believe loved Nebuchadnezzar said, "Therefore, O King, be pleased to accept my advice, renounce your wickedness by doing what is just and right, and renounce your evil intent by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that then your prosperity will continue." So this is the very thing that Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian system was doing, they were crushing the people of God, grinding them to a powder.

In verses seven through 11, we see Babylon's arrogant security coming to a shocking end. "You said, 'I will continue forever-- the eternal queen!' But you did not consider these things or reflect on what might happen. "Now then, listen, you wanton creature, lounging in your security and saying to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me. I will never be a widow or suffer the loss of children.' Both of these will overtake you in a moment, on a single day: loss of children and widowhood. They will come upon you in full measure, in spite of your many sorceries and all your potent spells. You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.' Your wisdom and knowledge mislead you when you say to yourself, 'I am, and there is none besides me.' Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you."

So we see Babylon's arrogant security here. The image shifts from the pampered virgin daughter image to that of a spoiled, arrogant, complacent queen, queen of the Babylonians. She boasted that she's going to continue forever, the eternal queen. How easy it is for us dear friends, to forget that we are dust, and to dust we will most certainly return. That someday we will die. It is appointed to each one of us to die once and after that to face judgment, Hebrews 9:27. And so this statement, I will continue forever. It's always going to go on, just like this. The prosperity and the ease and the luxury that we know would just keep going on and on and on forever. And we forget that some day we're going to die and it's all going back to dust.

And she makes two particularly offensive boasts. First, "No one sees me." You see that? Look at Verse 10, "You have trusted in your wickedness and have said, 'No one sees me.'" She's doing dark, secret wicked things, things at night, things in the hidden, things in her cellar, things in her bedchamber. We'll talk more in a moment about her occultic practices, she does occultic things. And because it seems that no human eye can see her, she thinks she's totally secure, and nobody knows what she's doing. But she forgets that there is a God who sees in darkness, even the darkness is as light to Him. And he said in Jeremiah 23:24, "Can anyone hide in secret places so that I cannot see him? Declares the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth? Declares the Lord."

Secondly, she boasts in effect that she is a goddess, that she's God. Look at Verse 8, "I am, and there is none beside me." This is God's special message to the human race. He said, when Moses said, "What is your name? What should we say is your name?" He said, "I am. I am that I am… this is my name…" He is the eternally self-existent God. Everything else, including you, derives its existence from God. You exist because God made you. And so, here's Babylon saying, "I am and there is none beside me." If you look back one chapter, look at Isaiah 46:9, there Almighty God says these words, "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me." Do you see how similar those two are? So here, Babylon is claiming to be God.

Which is amazing! That fanatical commitment we all have to ourself can get to megalomaniac levels in some hearts. Weird levels where you actually think this could really be true. I am and there is no other existence apart from me. I remember when I was a young kid, I had a morning paper route and it was very quiet and lonely, it was a terrible job, I hated that job, especially when it got to be winter and snowed up in Massachusetts and I was doing the Boston Sunday Globe, and I could carry 6 of them at a time, and I had 58 to deliver.

It was like working in the salt mines, I never worked in the salt mines, but it's what I imagine working in the salt mines would be like. But it was early, early morning and it was dark and I started flirting with some weird philosophies, like no one else in the world had existence except that I thought about them. As a matter of fact nothing behind me existed until I turn quickly to look and that would suddenly exist. I told these theories to my mother and she didn't think much of them, she wanted me to know that she had existence before I was born and wanted me to know about that.

But this is the kind of weirdness that that commitment to self can have like you're a god or goddess and everything exists around you. Babylon had reached that level. And sudden devastation is going to come. Widowhood and loss of children. She thinks she'll never be a widow or suffer the loss of children, but both of these would overtake her in a single moment. She feels secure behind her lofty walls of Babylon, she feels secure behind the might and power the Babylonian army. She's got a husband who's a warrior, metaphorically, and he wins every battle so she's secure. But widowhood will suddenly come on her. That's... Babylon is going to lose militarily. They're going to be defeated by the Medo-Persian army, and they're dead.

Her young men will die. And then lots of children will never come on me. The children referred to the Babylonian population. And they're secure and safe behind the army and behind the walls, no they're not, you're going to lose your children too. So Babylon will be slaughtered and whatever remnant is left will flee for their lives as refugees.

And Verse 12 through 15, Babylon's occultic powers failed to save her. Babylon is dabbling in the occult as they always did, verse 9, these terrors "will come upon you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries and potent spells."

These are the dark things she's doing when she thinks no one is watching. The Babylonians also called the Chaldeans are well known for their incantations and black arts and divination and all that, star gazing and predictions based on dreams. They studied omens, they uttered dark spells. And God mocks that false confidence. He says, " Disaster will come upon you, and you will not know how to conjure it away. A calamity will fall upon you that you cannot ward off with a ransom; a catastrophe you cannot foresee will suddenly come upon you. "Keep on, then, with your magic spells and with your many sorceries, which you have labored at since childhood. Perhaps you will succeed, perhaps you will cause terror." And Babylon's occultic powers in the end have no weight, no mass to them. The Bible portrays the glory of God, the Hebrew word for glory, 'kavod', means massiveness, He's weighty and what God does is massive.

But there occultic powers are like stubble, like dry grass in a bonfire. They have no mass to them, they're... You can't warm yourself by the fire, because there's nothing to them and when God's wrath comes, when God's rage comes, all of their pathetic powers will be burned up in an instant, that's what He's saying. And so therefore Babylon cannot save herself. Alright, so that's Isaiah 47.

What does that have to do with us today? Well, I've already told you from the beginning, I basically front-loaded the sermon and put applications right at the start. Understand this world by faith, see it by faith, don't see it as it merely appears, look around you and see what's happening by faith with eyes of faith, see it properly.

Understand the infinite power of God both to destroy and to save. As with every text in the Bible, the primary issue always is individual salvation through faith in Christ, all roads lead to that. You folks live in a world dominated by the spirit of Babylon. Judgment Day is coming. Your idolatries and your sins and the things you do in secret in all of the ways you have capitulated to the world system, all of those things, if you're not a Christian, have been storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. Flee to Christ. Christ, verse 4, is the redeemer, the Holy One of Israel is his name, the God of the universe, sent His son into the world, who lived a sinless life, never yielded to Satan's temptations, did not bow down and worship him, had nothing to do with the spirit of Babylon, in fact will be its destroyer, and has come to save you.

So flee to Him, trust in Him. Believe in Him for the forgiveness of your sins, and don't be complacent, don't be like the virgin daughter of Babylon, or the Queen of Babylon, thinking the way things are for me, is the way it's always going to be. I'm always going to be healthy, I'm always going to be successful, I'm always going to live in a country that is militarily powerful, and economically prosperous. Do you live right now in a country that's militarily powerful, and economically prosperous? Do you know that the United States spends what is it, $16.8 billion dollars a year on military, which equals the next nine nations put together? I think it's easy to say the United States is the most powerful military force on earth.

What about the economy? Do you know that the economy of the United States is something like $17 trillion. 17 trillion. By the way, I got the figure on military wrong. We spend three quarters of a trillion dollars on military, every year. 17 trillion, gross domestic product. A little more than double China's, which is number two. So that means you live in the nation that is the most powerful economic and military nation on earth. Any chance that Satan is interested in America and exerting in a magnetic pull in the spirit of Babylon on this nation. Don't be complacent, don't think things will always be the way they are now. Don't put your trust in military prowess. Don't be like the virgin daughter of Babylon or the queen thinking things like that will never come. Find your refuge in God and in God alone, and what Christ did on the cross. Don't be complacent.

And don't think that just because things are good now or whatever, they'll always be that way for you personally or for us nationally. Humble yourselves therefore under God's mighty hand that He may lift you up in due time. Ask God daily to deliver you from the world's allures. It's enticing, it's pulling on you, ask God to protect you and protect your heart. Very practically, give money away to the poor and needy, and to the spread of the Gospel. Give money away. Money is huge on the whole spirit of Babylon. Be generous with your money toward the poor and needy, be generous with your money toward the spread of the Gospel. Use your money wisely. Sever the tie the world Babylon has on you by doing that. I want to say a brief word about the magic and the occult of Babylon. Do you see an allure toward magic and occult in our culture?

I'm amazed, there's a movie out about the Ouija board now. Who's paying to go see that, my goodness, the Ouija board. There's an interest in that kind of thing, witchcraft and gods, pagan gods and demons and zombies and all that. And understand that these occultic things are evil and the God will judge all who practice them and that when the gospel came to Ephesus, there were some people so convicted by their involvement in the occult that they brought these magic scrolls and burned them, and their value was 50,000 silver pieces. They were converted away from that. Beware of these occultic things. And understand God's zeal to take vengeance on behalf of his suffering people, the Church around the world. The world is either going to show you luxury and enticement or the mailed fist of crushing persecution. Both are parts of Babylon, military power, economic power... So right now, there are brothers and sisters who are incarcerated for their faith, or being beheaded for their faith. Who are suffering, the persecuted Church is suffering and the blood is being shed. God sees it, He will take vengeance, He will spare no one. So let us be aware of the persecuted Church, let's pray for them, get ready for it, perhaps to come in our lifetime and plead with God.

And finally, if I can just leave you with a word of encouragement. "Some day this will all be done, amen?" Isn't that awesome? Someday we're going to come out forever from Babylon and it will have no magnetic pull on us at all. The God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet, amen? And it's going to be done. So be warned yes, but be greatly encouraged. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 46:1-13. The main subject of the sermon is the differences between the living God of scripture and worthless idols made by men.

So last week, my family was on vacation, and our church has a beautiful cottage in Ridgecrest, Rand Cottage, and over one of those beds, there is one of the most famous poems in the Christian experience. It's called "Footprints in the Sand." Have any of you ever seen that? All you have to do is walk into a Christian bookstore, and you'll see it. "Footprints in the Sand". It goes something like this, there are different versions, but it says this:

One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.”

Now, that image of the Lord carrying us through the hardest, the most bitter times of trial in our lives is extremely comforting and encouraging. And that, I think, explains the appeal of that poem and how much we yearn to have the Lord sustain us and carry us. I just don't think it goes far enough. I think there should just be one set of footprints all the time and they belong to Jesus, and He's carrying you all the time. Amen?

It's not like, "God, I got this now, I'm good. Uh-oh, I've got some trouble now, please pick me up. Okay, I'm fine, you can put me back down again." We heard from John 15, what Daniel read to us, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." We rely on Him for everything. As the Apostle Paul said in Acts 17, "In Him, we live and move and have our being." But yet the comforting aspect of that poem is taught in Isaiah 46. Isn't it marvelous? The idea of a God who carries you through life, who sustains you, who nourishes you, who protects you, who gives you everything you need, is taught in Isaiah 46. He is the God who carries us. As the hymn writer put it so beautifully, "I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord," not just some of the hours of my life, but I need Him. I think it's what happens during those trials, we are most aware of God carrying us, we're most aware. When we think we've got it, that's actually where we're probably in greatest danger of being tempted, because we can become arrogant and we think that we can have some kind of existence apart from Christ, and we really can't.

So as we come to Isaiah 46, we're coming to a contrast between the true and living God of the Bible and how He has promised to carry us through our lives, versus the gods of the nations who must be carried. We have the gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, we're going to get introduced to them and get to know them briefly. You don't need to study much about Bel and Nebo because they're obsolete. We're going to talk about that, but they represent the gods of the nations, the idols of the nations who must be carried, and they are burdensome. They have to be carried. And so God is continuing here in this chapter, through Isaiah, His assault on the foolish wickedness of idols and idolatry. He directly contrast gods that you must carry, you've got to put them on a cart and they are burdensome to the oxen that dragged the cart, and they are burdensome to those that seek to carry them in their hearts, versus the God of the Bible who carries Israel and carries individuals, even to their old age and gray hairs.

So, in Isaiah 46, just to get a bit of a context here, Isaiah the prophet lived about seven centuries before Christ was born. And he was a prophet, which means he had a special gift from God to be able to hear the Word of God and the messages of God, and those messages could cover any topic. They could cover things in the past, things in the present, things in the future. But it's especially God's ability to predict the future that he has been highlighting again and again, and again in this chapter too. He's the God who declares the end from the beginning. This God raised up in history, in space and time, a nation, the Jews. And He focused His redemptive plan on that nation. He called them out of a barren couple, Abraham and Sarah. Abraham 100 years old when the miracle baby was born, Isaac, and Sarah, who was barren her whole life and well beyond the years of bearing children, God gave them a miracle baby, and from that miracle baby, Isaac, came Jacob, and from Jacob came the 12 patriarchs, and from them, came the nation of Israel. And God raised up that nation and worked through them in a very powerful and sovereign way. He brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm out of Egypt, out of bondage and slavery.

He endured their conduct for 40 years in the desert and brought them across the Jordan River through Joshua, to conquer the Promised Land and Canaan, in the very land He had told Abraham He was going to give to his descendants. But God warned them as they crossed that Jordan River that they were going there on condition that they keep His covenant. And if they didn't keep His covenant, if they especially worshipped the gods of the nations, if they followed the idols of the Canaanites, if they went after those false gods, God was going to evict them from the Promised Land. And sadly, they disobeyed. Though God warned them again and again through the prophets, they disobeyed. And so God had to evict the northern kingdom of the Jews, the 10 tribes, under the Assyrians and then a century-and-a-quarter later did the same with the rest of the Jews under Babylon. And so the Babylonians came in under Nebuchadnezzar, and they destroyed the temple, razed it and slaughtered just about everybody and a tiny group, a tiny remnant of Jews, about 4600 according to Jeremiah, went, a small remnant, went off into exile into Babylon. The rest died by the sword, famine, and plague.

And so a large number of the Jewish nation were slaughtered at a time by the Babylonians. Now, Isaiah the prophet is writing Isaiah 46, before that has happened before the Babylonian invasion has even happened, it's far off, a century away. And so, he's warning them but not only that, he's saying beyond the Babylonian invasion, God is going to work out a retribution and a judgment on Babylon and he's going to destroy Babylon by Cyrus the Great, leading the Medo-Persian army. They're going to come in and they're going to destroy Babylon and a small remnant of Jews is going to be permitted to go back to the promised land and resume Jewish history there, rebuild the city of Jerusalem, rebuild the temple and continue redemptive history which eventually led to the coming of Christ, our Savior.

And so God is working out this vast, this amazing plan, but He stops in the middle, here in Isaiah 46, to talk about the gods of the nations, and specifically the Babylonian gods. Now the way it worked back then in the ancient Near East, the way an invading army would think, is that they came in the power of their gods and they really did believe in this, they were polytheists and they thought that their gods would prove themselves to be more powerful than the gods of the nation they were defeating. And so Sennacherib, when he came with the Assyrians said that, "Who of all the gods of any of the nations that we've defeated has been able to stop us?" And so, they think this way. And so the military battle on earth, shows a greater battle in the heavens and it shows proof that their gods were more powerful than the other gods. Well that's true, I guess in the polytheistic way of thinking, if you believe in that, you just look at what's happening on the earth.

But we know there is only one God, and God is orchestrating His purpose. And when Israel was defeated it wasn't because God was defeated by Bel and Nebo, the Babylonian gods. And so before any of that even happens, God says, there's going to come a time that Bel and Nebo, the gods of the Babylonians, are going to be destroyed. They themselves are going to go off into exile. Now, the word "Bel" is related to Baal, there's a similar mythology between Bel of the Babylonians and Baal of the Canaanites, they're similar. He's also called Marduk, sometimes, his son is Nebo in the mythology. You get "Bel" in the names like Belshazzar, and Belteshazzar in the Book of Daniel, you get Nebo in Nebuchadnezzar, his father Nabopolassar, these are the gods of the Babylonians.

And so what God is saying here is that He is more powerful than any of the gods of the Babylonians, He's going to prove that in space and time, by orchestrating their defeat and their destruction. That's what He's saying, and He predicts it ahead of time, so that when it comes, they will say, "Okay this is the very thing you said was going to happen. But beyond that, He's looking at Bel and Nebo, these idols, these gods, as crushing burdens. Idols that crush us. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about that. I've already mentioned it in space and time, how the Babylonians worship these things, but I'm going to go and apply it to us as we've been doing to talk about our idols and our struggle with idolatry. And how Christ alone can set us free, so that's where we're going.

So let's look, verse by verse, and start up at this section here in Isaiah 46:1,2. The gods of Babylon are a crushing burden, and they are themselves crushed in the end. Look at verse 1 and 2, "Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low. Their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, they are burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together, unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity." So Bel and Nebo, these gods represented by their idols made of stone, probably covered with silver or gold, are depicted as crushing burdens for their weary worshipers. I think Isaiah sees a kind of procession here, maybe a religious procession or maybe it's just the Babylonians, fleeing for their lives, like refugees.

And so they're going to put Bel and Nebo on a cart and that cart becomes very heavy with these idols. They're covered with very heavy, precious metals. Silver and gold are dense, they're heavy. And the idols are big and it's heavy, and so there's this procession. They're called burdensome, they're called a burden for the weary. And the weight of these idols is wearying to the beasts of burden, perhaps the oxen or other beasts of burden that are carrying these things out of Babylon. It's wearying work and isn't it amazing that their gods, the gods of Babylon, need to be carried at all?

Our God is omnipresent. Wherever you go, He's already there and has been there since the beginning of time. There is no place where God is more than He is in another place, that's what the doctrine is of omnipresence. He is everywhere. I've likened it to... And He's not like an AM radio station. You guys probably, many of you don't even know what that is. When was the last time any of you listened to AM? But you know the signal's strong or weak, or you go under a bridge and it's gone, and then you come back out, forget it. But that's what AM used to be like, that's what it still is like. But the idea is, there's a stronger, weaker sense of the signal. That's not what God is like, God is equally strong everywhere, He is fully everywhere in the universe. And so He doesn't need to be transported, and so a number of these images, prophetic images of God show Him as, in Daniel 7, having a chariot with wheels. A chariot with fire, with wheels. Ezekiel even has wheels within wheels going in every direction, He moves, He is everywhere, and their gods need to be carried and even worse for their worshippers, their gods Bel and Nebo can't do anything to help them.

They're completely discredited by this military defeat, by the crushing defeat of the Babylonian army and by the defeat of the walls of Babylon. Bel and Nebo are exposed as unable to save their people from Cyrus the Great and the Medo-Persian army, and so off they go into captivity, verse 2, whatever remnant is left of the Babylonians, will carry whatever idols of Bel and Nebo that are left after the conquest into captivity. Bel and Nebo could not save their people in the end. They couldn't save them at all, and like all idols in the end they fail their worshippers. Like all idols in the end they fail their worshippers.

The next section in verses 3-5, the incomparable God carries His people from birth, even to their old age. Look at verses 3-5, "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the House of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth, even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He, I am He who will sustain you, I have made you, and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will rescue you. To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared?"

So the prophet Isaiah here is calling across a century and a half, to the remnant of the Jews that will be alive at the time of Cyrus the Great's invasion. And he's calling to that remnant what's left of the house of Jacob, what remains of the House of Israel, He's calling to that remnant. The Jews, as I said, had been sent into exile by the punishment of God because they had worshipped idols, because they had followed the gods of the nations and they violated God's covenant, so He punished them and sent them. But this remnant was sent and He protected them, and He would not allow them to be assimilated into Babylonian culture, they maintained a Jewish identity like Daniel himself and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, we know as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They maintained their Jewish identity, protected them as a Jewish nation there. And He says that He is the God who upheld them since they were conceived, who carried them since their birth and who promises to continue to do this for them even to their old age and gray hairs. And so it was God that conceived the Jewish nation through Abraham and Sarah.

When Abraham's body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was dead, and God created a miracle baby Isaac and he raised up out of nothing a Jewish nation, He conceived them and He has been watching over the nation as a whole every day, and not only the big picture of the nation, but every individual member of it, every individual Jew, and we can extend that to us. It was God that knit you together in your mother's womb, that carefully put you together. And in Him, you live and move and have your being, it was God, it is God who has sustained your existence every day, you have no existence apart from God, whether you believe in Jesus or not, you have no existence apart from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, apart from the God and Father of Jesus Christ. No existence apart from, He has been sustaining your existence.

And He promises to continue to do that even to your old age and gray hairs. And for us, as believers in Christ, how precious is it to know that the same God who has not only caused you to be born but now through the gospel has caused you to be born again and He has given you a faith, and He will sustain that faith through all of your trials, even to your old age and gray hairs, He's going to watch over you and how marvelous is that? And He will rescue you even to the very end. So who then is like God? Who can you compare this God to? Certainly no idol, certainly not to Bel or Nebo, not at all.

There is no one like him. Verses 6 and 7, The idols cannot move, neither can they save, it says there in verse 6-7. "Some pour out gold from their bags, they weigh out silver on the scales, they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it, they lift it to their shoulders and carry it, they set it up in its place, and there it stands. And from that spot, it cannot move. And though one cries out to it, it does not answer. It cannot save him from his troubles."

So Isaiah 44, we've already seen the trip into the idol maker's shop, the workshop, you remember that guy, the guy who took the chunk of wood cut it in half; and half of it he used to cook his dinner and the other half he used to make a god and bowed down and said, "Save me, you're my god." So we get just a very brief trip into the craftsman's shop this time. Maybe a wealthy individual comes and says, "I'd like you to make me an idol," and some gold and silver are weighed out. And so, the idol maker crafts it. What's amazing to us in all of this is the Bible teaches it was God that crafted the craftsman. It was God that made that man, it was God that made the men and women that are worshipping these idols, and this god that has been contracted to be constructed, this god is a motionless god. Wherever you put him that's where he stays.

And if you're running from your life as a Babylonian and you're going into exile, you better bring him with you because he's not coming unless you get him. He's a burden. Wherever he goes, he's a crushing burden, he's weighing you down. You got to carry him wherever you go. And though you cry out to Bel or Nebo they cannot save you, that's what he's saying.

Now, in verses 8-10, God calls on His people to remember Him. He says, "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say, My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.

Praise God. So this is a call on God's people. Not just that generation but every generation to remember God. To remember Him, and to repent. He calls on these rebels, He calls them rebels there in verse in verse 8, "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart you rebels." Remember and repent. Our God is a God who has acted in history. Remember how He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, remember how He gave him that baby, that miracle baby when he was 100 years old. Remember how he gave to Isaac, Jacob when his wife was also barren, Jacob and Esau, and He chose Jacob and remember how He gave Jacob the 12 patriarchs and remember how God caused the nation of the Jews to be greatly multiplied, even in bondage in Egypt to the point where there were several million people, they were as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as countless as the sand in the seashore, as God had promised Abraham they would be. And remember how God intervened through Moses, to bring them out of that nation with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm. Remember the plague on the Nile River, remember how God turned all the freshwater in Egypt into blood, even the water that was in the pitcher on the table, turned it into blood.

And remember how He brought the plague of the frogs and the gnats and the flies, and all of that, the plague of hail and boils and darkness and all of these plagues, God brought, judging the gods of Egypt and working on Pharaoh's heart, so that God would do all 10 plagues, including the dreadful final plague, the plague on the firstborn, which the firstborn of the Jews were only spared by the blood of the Passover lamb, which had been painted on the doorpost. Remember all of that, don't you remember what God has done for you? And then how God led you by a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and how He brought you to the edge of the Red Sea and how Pharaoh came in his chariots and his soldiers, the most powerful military force on earth at the time, and how they trapped you against the Red Sea, and you cried out to the Lord; and the Lord said, "You don't need to do anything, just stand still, and see the salvation of your God."

And so God went between the Pharaoh and his mighty army and these defenseless Jews with a pillar of cloud and fire and He gave light to the one side to the Jews, and darkness to the other all night; and they crossed and He opened up a way in the Red Sea, and they crossed as on dry ground. But when Pharaoh tried to follow, they couldn't, and they were destroyed by the same waters. Remember all of that, and remember how God endured your rebellion in the desert and remember how God descended in fire on Mount Sinai and God spoke to you, and you heard Him speak, you heard the voice of God. Not through a prophet, directly you heard Him speak the 10 Commandments and God gave you His covenant. And remember how 40 years later, after your rebellion God opened a way through the Jordan River and remember how you crossed that river, remember Jericho and the walls fell down, and God gave you the promised land. Remember that and all the things God's done since then. Remember these things. Fix it in your minds and hearts.

Our God is a God who does these great works in history, the lifeless idols Bel and Nebo haven't done any of those things. But the Jews were rebels, he says, Who are lured by these idols, who are bowing down to them. God is the God who alone declares the end from the beginning, He's the one who predicts the future, He says what's going to happen. And He says in verse 10, "My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." This dear friends is one of the greatest clearest statements of the sovereignty of God in the Bible. Look at it again, look at verse 10, at the end. "I say 'My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.'" The sovereignty of God is a doctrine that God rules like a king over everything that happens on the face of the earth, He is sovereign over everything that happens on the face of the earth, and that's precisely why He can predict the future because He's ordained it from before the foundation of the world, and He is omnipotent, no one can stop Him from doing what He wants to do.

And so what God pleases, what He thinks is best, what He thinks is wise, that He will do, and no one can stop Him. And what He pleases, is He pleases to save a remnant of people from every tribe and language and people and nation, out of their wickedness and their idolatry and their sin through the shed blood of his son Jesus Christ and through the resurrection of Christ and by the gift of the Holy Spirit to save them out of their wickedness and their rebellion into an eternal state of glory where they'll be in resurrection bodies in a beautiful, perfect world, worshipping Him clearly forever. That's what He pleases to do. And all of these details of history, they're just part of that grand overarching plan. God is going to achieve every detail. Look at Verse 10 again. I say my purpose will stand and I will do 70% of what I please. Is that what it says? I will do... I'm working up toward 90%, I'm hoping to get 90% down of my plans today. No, God does all that He pleases, 100% of it. And nothing can stop it.

And so in verse 11-13, we have God's wise plan, and that is bringing salvation near to those who are far away. Verse 11, He says, "From the East, I summon a bird of prey from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about. What I have planned that will I do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my salvation near, it is not far away. My salvation will not be delayed, I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel." Now we look at that through the narrow lens of the immediate historical context. The bird of prey that's coming is Cyrus the Great. We've already met him earlier, he's coming from a distant land, and he's going to destroy Bel and Nebo, he's going to destroy Babylon. But look what He says, "From that distant land, from the East, I will summon this bird of prey."

So you think about someone who trains a hawk or a falcon. You see them wearing like a leather glove. I've read about this, I've never seen it, but they take this bird of prey, and they put a hood on it. And they keep it from seeing and they feed it little bits of meat and they've got a leash on its talons and it's got its sharp talons and it's digging into the leather glove, not into the wrist of the falconer. And he's training it how to come back to him and what to do, and train little by little, and he is in charge of this bird of prey. And God is doing that with this great military conqueror the Cyrus the Great, He raises him up from nothing, trains and prepares him within his own nation and brings him against Babylon. You're like, "Can God do that?" Yes, He can, that's what He can do. He is the sovereign King of every nation. And from these, verse 11, He's going to summon this bird of prey to do His will, what He has purposed, that will He bring about, He says it very plainly. But the purpose of all of this isn't ultimately to do these little tricks in history, that's not it.

What is He doing here? What is the purpose of all of this? It is salvation. He says it again and again, My purpose is to bring salvation. "Listen to me," He says, "You stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness." Now just stop there just for a moment and understand what's being said that, you're far from Me, God is saying. I'm a righteous God and if you're far from righteousness, you're far from Me, and you're stubborn-hearted and you're rebellious and you're idolaters. So listen to Me, faith comes by hearing, I'm communicating to you. And you're far from righteousness, so I'm going to bring righteousness near to you. The Bible says in Romans 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." We were all naturally far from righteousness. And so what God is doing in history is bringing salvation near to us, who are far away, not just the Gentiles, but the Jews also, who are far from righteousness.

And so by the birth of Jesus Christ and by the life of Christ and the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, He is bringing righteousness near to us, who are rebels. Righteousness close to us who are far away, and for what? So that He can shine, radiantly in Zion, that's what it says at the very end. Zion as that city where God will dwell together with His people. Physically Jerusalem over and over in the Old Testament, Zion equals Jerusalem. But bigger picture, it's the new Jerusalem, the city where God will dwell with His people forever.

Alright, so that's the chapter. What applications can we take from this? Well, first I just want to ask, as you walked in here today, what did you drag in here with you? What idols are dragging behind you? What are you chained to that is dragging you down? And we've been looking at this for weeks now and I think it's still something each of us underestimates. What Bel and Nebo are you chained to? Now, you're like, Bel and Nebo who worships them? Nobody does. That's the point. All of the idols are going to be discredited in the end, all of them. Everything you live for. Any created thing, anything that captures your heart, that becomes the focus of your life, that isn't the God of the Bible is an idol. So it could be gods, could be the gods of the Hindus or the Buddhists, which are crafted from human imagination induced by satanic influences. The gods of the Hindus or the Buddhists, Allah of the Muslims. It's not the God of the Bible, it's not the true God, but it's more than that. We have our heart idols as we've been talking about.

So, what's yours, what did you struggle in here with? Perhaps it's money, perhaps you're living for money. So it's a very powerful idol. You're living for a greater income, a more comfortable lifestyle? Staggering under the weight. I want you to picture yourself, you who struggle with the idolatry of money, swimming from a sinking ship, trying to make it to shore. And you've got a small box of gold coins. It's not huge, so it's manageable, so you think. And it's under one arm and you're swimming with one arm. But you're not making it, and you're getting tired and you're getting sunk by the weight of this idol. That's what it's like, it sinks you, these idols drown your soul.

Paul specifically warned against the love of money. Says in 1 Timothy 6, "…godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs."

So because of a love of money, some of you may be working far too many hours in your job seeking to please your supervisor. Because you're not content with a simple lifestyle perhaps you have a high credit card debt and you're paying a good chunk of your money in interest to Chase Manhattan or to Discover, so you're working on their plantation, you're indentured servant to them and they're getting wealthy on you. And why? Because you couldn't be content with a simple lifestyle.

Because you're not content with a simple house, you're tempted to overreach yourself on a mortgage and you're paying too much every month on a mortgage, it's weighing you down. Because you're not content with simple meals, you eat out too much and the root at the root of all of this discontent is idolatry. Perhaps your idol is work, it's achievement and accomplishment. You're a beast of burden to relentless ambition to achieve things. Maybe you're a workaholic you're a driven person and you're addicted to the good feeling that comes from the checklist, and getting all of those things checked off. Or maybe it's society's checklist or it's an institution, a university's checklist, and you get that checked off, you feel good about yourself. Maybe you're just a neat freak and you just like to have everything in perfect order. I'm not that way, I'm not totally the other way, but... But to some people, it just... Everything has to be perfect. And so, you derive your sense of worth from achievements and accomplishments. These are idols on a cart that you're dragging behind you. But there are others of you that are exactly the opposite way, you don't actually achieve a lot in your life.

Your idol is pleasure, comfort, ease and perhaps sleep. The Bible describes the sluggard in the Book of Proverbs, and you just live for that, you live for ease and pleasure and comfort and you just enjoy that kind of lifestyle. You're the sluggard who can never sleep enough, you need to have somebody move your hand from the dish up to your mouth and help you eat like your mama did, it's held you back all your life because you love ease and comfort, the taking the path of least resistance. You're an under-achiever and you fail to meet the normal expectations of life because of this idolatry that in which you're preferring yourself and comfort and ease. A subset of that is just the love that we Americans have for food, it's just amazing how many restaurants there are in any city or any within... How many are there within five miles of this place? And they're growing popping up all the time. Now, again, there's nothing wrong with loving food or loving good food, the issue is, is it what you live for? Overeating, over-indulging.

Perhaps your idol is power and control, you just enjoy dominating the people around you, or perhaps you live for the approval of other people, you just every day someone else has the keys of your heart and you have to please them and make them happy and you live for approval and you're frustrated when you don't get it. You'll do things, serving things, whatever, and if the people don't notice it, you get frustrated and angry and irritable, and prickly about it. Some people make an idol of their bodies, they live for physical fitness, alright, they go to the workout gym and achieve personal goals all the time. They have mirrors up on the walls. Have you seen it? The mirrors and people pose in front of them, I've been told. I've not been to a gym, I don't, I don't do the... I do more cardio stuff, but you can tell... Just never mind, I'm not going into all of that, but... "Yes, pastor, we know you're not into physical fitness."

But no, they just live for being able to see their ribs or the washboard, the six-pack, something like that, or on the other side, just looking for, looking at physical beauty, the hair, the face, the makeup, the jewelry, the look, the fashion, all of that, and that's an idol, and you're dragging it behind you like a heavy weight all the time. And it gets even worse as you age, and some people will fight with cosmetic surgery or Botox or all that, but they're fighting the aging. The Scripture says, "Even to your old age and gray hairs… I will sustain you." But they're fighting that. Or perhaps your idol is something more secret, more shameful, something you haven't told anyone else about. There could be people here that are struggling with addictions to pornography or to alcohol or to drugs and these idols are like 100-pound weights and they're dragging your soul down, perhaps even toward hell. And you don't know how to be free from all these burdens that you dragged in here today.

Christ can set you free. Praise God. Jesus says, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin… But if the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed." Hallelujah. Christ came to take the guilt for all of your idolatries, up to this very moment, and to the end of your life on Himself. He isn't a burden, He carries your burdens. He takes all of your guilt and your sin and your disease and suffering on Himself and He went to the cross, and He died in your place that you might have eternal life. So trust in Him. Put your trust fully in Christ. And for you who are already Christians, continue to trust in Christ crucified and resurrected for the severing of the chains of these idols you've been dragging your whole life, your whole life, trust in Him. And trust in Him for the rest of your lives.

Look again at Verse 4, "Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He. I am He who will sustain you, I have made you, and I will carry you, I will sustain you, and I will rescue you." Do not fear the future. God will carry you every day of your life, until at last, He takes you into glory. He's going to save you and rescue you. And when you are the most burdensome, when you are the most dead weight, when your corpse is in the grave, He will come to your grave and He will call you from the grave and you will come to life in a resurrection body and you will live forever. He will lift you up out of death and give you eternal life. As He said very, very plainly, and I love this, "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day."

This past week Brittany Maynard took her life, you know that story about her, public suicide, and she was doing it in the name of death with dignity. Can I just submit to you that Christians alone know how to die with dignity. Because Jesus showed us how. The grave isn't the end, it is appointed to each one of us to die once and after that, to face judgment. We are freed from wrath and judgment. Amen, hallelujah. We're freed from that, and God is going to raise us up. We can get old age, gray hair, all of that with dignity because God is going to raise us up in a resurrection body so glorious we're going to shine like the sun forever and ever. Close with me in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 45:1-25. The main subject of the sermon is God's mysterious plan to gather His people from a wicked world.

The current issue of World magazine, you may have seen it recently, (World magazine is a Christian form of Time magazine) has as the cover article Is the World Falling Apart? Thankfully, the magazine answers no, praise God, but we get a strong answer to that question right from Isaiah 45 this morning. Now, the issues that are on the minds of the authors of the article there and of the editors of World have to do with events going on in the Ukraine and events going on in the Near East, events going on in Syria and Iraq and in Israel. It doesn't mention Ebola, but you could extend that as well, as that's reaching a crisis level in parts of the world that are hard to even imagine. I read an article this week, Seven Rational Reasons to Panic About Ebola; it was a very depressing article.

Well, I thought throughout history, you could say seven rational reasons to panic about the rise of communism, or before that the invasion of Hitler and Poland, or seven rational reasons to panic about the beginning of World War I, or seven rational reasons to panic about Genghis Khan. Again and again throughout history there have been, it seems, rational reasons to panic. And again and again, God stands in the pages of Scripture and testifies that he is sovereign over all of this. The nations are churning like a roiling sea, and there's all of this discontent, and there's all of this disorder and this sin. But God rules over all of it for his glory. And this morning, we're going to look at how God raises up a temporary empire under Cyrus the Great to serve his purposes in raising up an eternal empire in Jesus Christ.

And we need to train ourselves to look at world events, look at world history, the things that are happening, whether crises of a biological nature like Ebola, or a crisis of a political, geopolitical nature like ISIS, or what's going on in Ukraine, or even crisis of weather, like Hurricane Katrina or other things like that, and look at it differently through the eyes of the sovereignty of God over all of these things. And Isaiah 45 is going to give us some significant insights into all of that. The amazing message of this chapter, and indeed of the whole Bible, is that God actively rules over every single event on the surface of the Earth; everything. He actively rules over the rise and fall of nations in particular, and that's something we need to keep in mind. God raises up empires, he raises up emperors and he brings them back down again. And as a matter of fact, no one can be a king, no one can be a ruler, no one can raise up an empire without the power of the sovereign power of God, whether that individual acknowledges God or not.

As in this text, it said several times that Cyrus doesn't acknowledge God. And it is very helpful and encouraging and strengthening to our faith to know that God does this, that God is the one that raises up empires and nations. He's the one that determines how long they'll last and when they will sink back down into the dust of history, as the Medo-Persian Empire has done. How do we know that? Well, there are number of places. Isaiah 45, that we're going to look at today, I think teaches it. But for me, probably the number one verse in the Bible that teaches this in a very succinct way is Acts 17:26. This is where the Apostle Paul, speaking at Mars Hill, talked about human history in this way: "From one man he made every nation of men that they should inhabit the whole Earth. And he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live."

Now, I'll tell you, if you meditate on that long enough, you'll understand how significant that statement is. God determines how long people live, where they live, what is going to be the extent of their domain. God rules over all of these things. It's amazing, in Deuteronomy 2:20-22, he talks there about some various people; this is where Moses is getting the Jewish nation ready to invade the Promised Land and take from it those Canaanite nations, to take it militarily, and God's going to go before them and give them military success. But God actually says, "I've been doing that with other nations, too, not just your own." He talks, for example, about the Ammonites, who drove out a people called the Zamzummites. And you're like, "Huh.  What in the world do the Ammonites and the Zamzummites have to do with me?" Well nothing, they have sunk, as I said, back into the dust heap of history. But this is what Deuteronomy 2:21 says concerning the Zamzummites: "They were a people strong and numerous, as tall as the Anakites." Listen, "The Lord destroyed them from before the Ammonites, who drove them out, and settled in their place." Do you not realize the significance of that statement? That God was going before the Ammonites and driving out the Zamzummites. He's been doing that ever since. God rules over all of these things.

And so here in this chapter, Isaiah 45, God is saying that he gives to Cyrus a kingdom, that he's going to go ahead of Cyrus. That image is powerful, like the pillar of cloud and pillar of fire before the Jews. He's going to go ahead of Cyrus and go before Cyrus and give him a kingdom. He's going to give him military victories. And he's going to do it and he's going to speak of him... God is going to speak of Cyrus as his servant and his shepherd, even his anointed one, his Christ in the Greek translation. Though he does not acknowledge him.

And why is he doing all this? I say we step back and look big picture, God is doing this so that his elect people will know him and worship him and come to him for salvation and be saved even to the ends of the earth. That's what God is doing. He's ruling over history for the salvation of his chosen people. That's what this chapter's about.

So now let's dig in and look verses one through eight, God grants to Cyrus an empire for the salvation of his elect. Now, who is this individual Cyrus? For the second time, we have Cyrus the Great specifically identified by name. We've been looking at this for weeks now. These are the two chapters Isaiah 44 verse 28, "The Lord says of Cyrus," Koresh in the Hebrew, "he is my shepherd, and will accomplish all that I please. He will say of Jerusalem, "Let it be rebuilt and of the temple let its foundations be laid." And then again, we have Cyrus mentioned in 45 and verse one.

Who was Cyrus the Great?

So we have this individual mentioned by name, Cyrus, called in history, Cyrus the Great. Notice he's not called Cyrus the Great in the pages of scripture, because he is not great compared to the true king, who is coming, Christ, Christ is great. But Cyrus was a, according to the ancient historian, Herodotus, the grandson of a Median king named Astyages, ruler of the Median empire. Astyages had a dream about his baby grandson that one day he would overthrow him. So similar to King Herod, he sought to kill Cyrus the Great. But he officially delegated the task to an official but he couldn't do it, he couldn't kill this baby, and he gave him, he hit him with a shepherd instead. Wasn't until Cyrus was 10 years old, that king Astyages learned about this deception. But by then Cyrus' qualities had become known and he didn't want to kill him, Astyages didn't.

And so he let him and his mother live in exile. Well, in 554 BC, Cyrus led a revolt against his grandfather Astyages in fulfillment of the dream, and we would say in fulfill of the prophecies here in this chapter. He led a revolt and overthrew Astyages and effectively ended the Median empire. He then consolidated the Persians, and the Medes together into one world empire, the first of its kind in world history. And so it's called the Medo-Persian empire. He drew these officials together and they set out to begin conquest. He moved out to control the Mediterranean coastline, smaller kingdoms like the kingdom of Lydia ruled by the fabulously wealthy king Croesus who is one of the... Said to be one of the wealthiest kings in history, conquered all of them, one after the other.

They allied themselves to try to stop the Medo-Persian onslaught, but they couldn't do it. On October 12, 539 BC, Cyrus annexed the Chaldean or Babylonian empire, and on October 29th, he entered Babylon and arrested the king and assumed the title, their king of Babylon, king of Sumer and Akkad, king of the four corners of the world. I believe that put it all together that's the story told in Daniel 5. That very night, Belshazzar died in direct fulfillment of prophecy. Almost immediately then Cyrus the Great extended his control over the Arabian Peninsula, and over the middle east. They all submitted to Persian rule. Although Cyrus did not conquer Egypt by 535 BC, all the lands right up to the Egyptian border had submitted to him, and they began giving tribute to him. So that's who Cyrus the Great was in history.

Cyrus also had some enlightened policies for ruling his empire. He was the first empire to realize that it was in his own best interest to make everybody under his rule as absolutely happy and autonomous as possible. He wanted them to be content under Persian rule. The Romans would perfect that with the Pax Romana. It was a combination of their overpowering military strength, so if you revolt you're going to get crushed. Plus, "Hey life, isn't so bad. Things are going well. We have our own rulers really under the Caesars etcetera." And it was really Cyrus that saw the wisdom of doing that and that extended especially to religion.

He wanted the people to be able to worship their own gods and goddesses in their own way, and so he sent money from the treasury to allow temples of gods and goddesses to be rebuilt, and for religions to be established. Now, it was part of this policy that extended to the Jews and enabled them to go back to Palestine and re-build the temple of Yahweh, of Jehovah God. And this is directly recorded for us in Second Chronicles 36:22-23. It says there, "In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, in order to fulfill the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah," we would add and Isaiah, "The Lord moved the heart of Cyrus king of Persia to make a proclamation throughout his realm and to put it in writing." Verse 23, "This is what Cyrus king of Persia says, 'The Lord, the God of Heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and he has appointed me to build a temple for him at Jerusalem in Judah. Anyone of his people among you may, the Lord his God be with him, and let him go up, let him go up."

Now, Cyrus was a Pagan, he was a polytheist, he was a syncretist. He tried to mix as much religion together as possible. The idea of this is, "Who knows whatever gods or goddesses might be upset, let's appease them and make them happy." And you get this, I think, especially in something known as the Cyrus cylinder, which was discovered by an archaeologist in 1878. It's now in the British Museum in London. It's been translated and it shows how Cyrus seemed to believe in all the gods and goddesses. So while the Scripture does show Cyrus giving honor to the Jewish God, he seemed to do the same for every god. The Cyrus cylinder says something like the victorious Cyrus portrayed as having been chosen by the chief Babylonian god, Marduk, to restore peace and order to the Babylonians, that Cyrus was welcomed by the people of Babylon as their new ruler and it appeals to Marduk to protect and help Cyrus and his son Cambyses. The cylinder also says that, he repaired the ruin temples in the various cities that he conquered, restored their cults, their religions, and returned their sacred images as well as their former inhabitants, so that those gods and goddesses could be worshipped.

So, as Isaiah says plainly in our text, Cyrus did not acknowledge the true and only, the living God, but God still used it. Do you see? God ruled over this for his own sovereign purposes.

God Calls Cyrus His “Anointed” and Grants Him an Empire

Now, let's look very specifically at verses 1-3, there it says,  "This is what the LORD says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him and to strip kings of their armor, to open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron. I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name."

Well, right in verse 1, do you not see how amazing this is, "This is what the Lord says to his anointed"? This is language reserved for a Davidic king. For us as Christians, this is language we reserve for Christ, the Anointed One, the Messiah. But he says he's going to take his anointed, Cyrus, by the right hand. He's going to lead him and give him success, and he's going to enable Cyrus to subdue every nation that opposes him. He's going to be able to cut through bars of iron and break down gates of bronze. He's going to be militarily successful. And God, he says, is going to go ahead of Cyrus, he's going to go before him to guarantee these victories. Like I said, the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire leading the Jews, so God would lead Cyrus to victory, and he'll give him treasures hidden in darkness, maybe that's Croesus's gold down in some vault somewhere. He's going to give him all of the spoils of victory, everything that a pagan emperor could ever want, he's going to hand him the treasures of darkness. But he does this so that Cyrus and Israel and indeed all the earth may know that he alone is the true God.

God Does This So That Cyrus, Israel, and All the Earth May Know Him

So look at verses 3-6, he says, "I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the LORD, the God of Israel, who summons you by name. For the sake of Jacob my servant, of Israel my chosen, I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me. I am the LORD, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the LORD, and there is no other."

And Isn't it powerful how God is speaking directly to Cyrus, talking to him? "I am God and I'm talking to you so that you may know me," speaking very powerfully and directly. That's the goal of all of this, that we may know the only true and living God that there is in the world. "That you may know me, that I have summoned you by name."

We know that at the beginning of these conquests, and as he received all of this military victory, Cyrus did not know the Lord. But is it possible that once Daniel got to be the second highest ruler in the Persian kingdom, that he might have evangelized him? Wouldn't it be delightful to find Cyrus up in heaven? Wouldn't it be delightful that God's purpose stated here, "So that you may know me," actually comes true, and that Cyrus is worshipping the true and living God for all eternity? Wouldn't you love to be Daniel rolling open the Isaiah scroll and saying, "Hey here's your name. And it was written a century before you were born." I would think that would have evangelistic power. Amen?

Talk about using fulfilled prophecy to win a convert. I would think Cyrus would be easy at that point. Cyrus had not acknowledged him. But do you see the significance of this big picture? God uses the movers and shakers of world history, whether they know him or not, whether they acknowledge him or not, whether it's Julius Caesar or Attila the Hun or Genghis Khan or Tamerlane, or all the way up to the 20th century, all of the great movers and shakers of the terrible events of the 20th century, God ruled over every one of them, whether they knew him or acknowledged him or not, all of them.

God gives them power, and then holds them accountable for how they use it. God rules over all of these things. Again, this is taught so plainly. You remember in Daniel chapter 4, when one of those mighty rulers, those emperors, the king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, did not know God, did not acknowledge him. And so God gave him an education in that chapter. You remember the dream he had of the great tree that was cut down and all that? It led eventually to his mind being changed into that of an animal for seven years? Well, the point of the whole lesson in Daniel 4 was this, the angel said it, "So that you might know, that you might acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men, and gives them to anyone he wishes."

Well, he learned that lesson. And at the end, Nebuchadnezzar said these words of God, "His dominion is an eternal dominion; his kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him: "What have you done?" That is the sovereign God. So, no, the world is not falling apart. God is ruling over every single event.

God Alone Creates Success and Disaster (vs. 7)

And Verse 7 is one of those "meat" verses that you can take the rest of your life chewing on, and you'll never fully comprehend it. But we must embrace it, we must read it, and we must take in its truth. Verse 7, "I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster. I, the Lord, do all these things." This is one of the most difficult concepts in the Christian religion, it's under the heading of God's providence, God's sovereign rule over the events of everyday life.

And it goes right to the issue of light and darkness, prosperity and disaster, right to that issue. And it says directly that God does all these things. So, let's stick right with Cyrus's Medo-Persian conquests, and bring in the picture... Remember I said it's as though God were leading them as he was leading Israel with the pillar of cloud and the pillar of fire, you remember? You remember the night of the Red Sea crossing, how the pillar stood there and separated out God's people from the Egyptians, who wanted to kill them. You remember that? And how it said in that one night, the same pillar gave light to the one side and darkness to the other. You remember that? And so it is the same event in human history, can be light to the one and darkness to the other.

So let's just put it in simple terms. Let's say you were a soldier in the Medo-Persian army. Your conquest of Lydia or of the Scythians or of the Chaldeans, would have been light for you, and would have been prosperity for you. But if you were one of the Lydians or the Scythians or the Chaldeans, it would have been darkness and disaster. It's the same event, and God does it, and he knows exactly the impact it's going to have on your life. He's very well aware of that.

This destroys, I think, the immature, the doctrinally immature view of God that he only ever brings prosperity and light and sweetness and happiness to people. This is that "health and wealth" doctrine that we hear about, but I think it lurks in all of our minds. And if you think it doesn't, how do you act when you get what some call an adverse providence? Something comes that crosses you somewhat, that causes you inconvenience... Could be an illness, could be losing your job, a financial issue. It could be some major repair on the car, things that trivial really. Or it could be matters of life and death... And how it is that we are challenged by this statement. But look at it again, "I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster; I the Lord do all these things." Now, here we must be very careful what we're saying. It says in 1 John 1:5, "God is light, and in him, there is no darkness at all." So God never does evil, ever. But he brings disaster, he kills people, he takes possessions away from people. It's just not evil.

It's just a different way of thinking. We have to understand this. God never does evil. I think when Hurricane Katrina came in, all of the bad theology that flowed after that, I couldn't believe it, on all sides of the equation. Those that said that God did bring the hurricane, and those that God... Said God didn't bring it. I'm not sure which hurricanes God brings and which ones he doesn't, which winds he controls. As far as I'm concerned, in the Bible, God's sovereign over weather, over all things. But it's simplistic to say that, let's say because of the great wickedness, specifically of New Orleans, that he brought Hurricane Katrina, as some theologians and pastors said. It's just simplistic. On the same street there are flattened houses, and some of those people are godly people, and some of them are unbelievers, and some of them are nominal Christians, and everything. And they're all getting the same thing. It's just too simplistic. But to say, "God would never do anything, it's only the devil, let's say, that would ever do something like that." It just isn't true. So we have to grow up, and we have to read a verse like this verse 7, and say, "I understand it."

The Lord Rains Down Righteousness and Makes It Spring Up

Now, look at verse 8, how he couples it. He says basically that everything God does is righteous. It's never evil, it's always righteous. Look at Verse 8, "You heavens above, rain down righteousness. Let the clouds shower it down, let the earth open wide. Let salvation spring up, let righteousness grow with it. I the Lord have created it." So, God does all these things, the Medo-Persian invasion, Cyrus, all that, hurricanes, earthquakes, everything. Everything that God does, he does so that he can bring about righteous salvation for his elect. That's the ultimate end, that God would be glorified by raining down from heaven whatever is necessary to let righteous salvation spring up. Isn't that beautiful? So, keep verse 7 and verse 8 together. What God is doing, it's apparently light and darkness to us, apparently prosperity and disaster, but look more deeply. In the midst of it, God is working out his saving purposes. He's causing righteous salvation to spring up from the earth, verse 8.

Well, verses 9-13, God says, "Okay, now I know you're ready to argue with me. I know you're ready to argue with me because you don't like what I'm saying to you. " This is God saying it, this is not the pastor saying this right now. I'm just saying, this is where we're going in the text, because he's very well aware that a verse like verse 7 is troubling. The idea, to the Jews, that God is going to raise up a pagan and give him the promised land and everything else and go before him and give him all this military success, "God, if you're so mighty and do that, why don't you do it for a Davidic king, a Jewish king? If that's what you can do, then do it for one of us." And God says in verse 9 and 10, "Woe to him who quarrels with his maker. To him, it is but a potsherd among the potsherds of the ground. Does the clay say to the potter, 'What are you making?" Does your work say, 'He has no hands?' Woe to him who says to his father, 'What have you begotten?' Or to his mother, 'What have you brought to birth?'"

So I think the immediate context here would be Jews, shocked to hear that God is going to use this pagan man to do all this. It's just difficult for them to hear God say to Cyrus, a pagan, "My servant, my anointed one, my shepherd," to call him that? It's difficult. "I don't understand what you're doing, God." And so, they start to question it. Now, more broadly applicable, when we have verse 7 kind of come down on our heads, and God, it seems, is bringing calamity to us, he's bringing darkness into our lives, and we're going through hard times, it is so easy to quarrel with your maker, isn't it? And so God proclaims a woe on those who quarrel with God, argue with God.

He challenges us. He calls us "potsherds on the ground" of the workshop, the potter's workshop. What's a potsherd? It's a piece of broken pottery. How is that like us? We were formed from the clay, from the dust of the Earth. And a potsherd's like something broken on the ground. We've been shattered in many ways by sin. And so for us, as a broken piece of pottery on the ground, to argue up to the potter himself is arrogant. Now, the apostle Paul picks up on this exact verse in Romans chapter 9, when he talks about God's sovereignty and salvation. And you remember that passage where God's going through, "Why are some Jews believing and some Jews aren't believing?" and that very deep passage? Romans 9 stands like Mount Everest over the theological landscape, and it's just got so many challenging statements in there. But in Romans 9:18, it says that God has mercy on whom he wills to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wills to harden.

And then Paul, the great teacher, says, "Now, one of you will say to me, one of you is going to argue back with me, why does God still find fault? Why does anybody ever get judged, for who resists his will?" But Romans 9:20, "Who are you, oh man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?' Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes, and some for common use." Friends, that's grown-up theology. If we just take it simply at this point, don't argue with God. God is very patient, but in this text, he's saying, "Woe to you who does it." So don't argue, submit. And if you're going through a terrible trial, adverse circumstances, the quicker you bring yourself humbly and quietly under God's mighty hand, the quicker the healing will flow. The more you resist and fight and chafe and talk back to God, the longer that's going to take. You're just doing damage to your own soul.

Woe to Him Questions God About His Plans

And so, it's telling us not to argue with him, and not to question him about his plans. Look at verse 11 and 13, "This is what the Lord says, the Holy One of Israel, and its maker: Concerning things to come, do you question me about my children? Do you give me orders about the work of my hands?" Notice, verse 11 focuses on his children, his elect. God does everything for them. So he's saying, "Are you going to question me, what I'm doing with my children? Do you have the right to do that?"

And then Verse 13, "I will raise up Cyrus in my righteousness. I will make all his ways straight, he will rebuild my City." That's Jerusalem. Isn't that beautiful that God calls it "my city"? "He will rebuild my city and set my exiles free, but not for a price or reward, says the LORD Almighty." So, God does everything for the sake of his elect, for his children. He knows exactly what he's going to do.

In verse 12, he says, "Don't forget who I am, don't forget my power." Look at Verse 12. He says, "It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hand stretched out the heavens. I marshalled their starry hosts." So never forget who I am.

Now, in verses 14-17, God speaks of his mysterious plans for gentile salvation. Look at verse 14, "This is what the Lord says, 'The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, and those tall Sabeans, they will come over to you and will be yours. They will trudge behind you, coming over to you in chains. They will bow down before you and plead with you, saying, 'Surely God is with you, and there is no other. There is no other God.''" Now, this is not an easy verse. To a Jewish nationalist, let's say a Jewish zealot, they be like, "I love that verse. We've got the Gentiles trudging behind us in chains, and they're bringing us all their merchandise." Yes, but understand. God's purpose, his saving purpose has always been extending to the ends of the earth.

Remember the original call of Abram in Ur of the Chaldees? What does he say? He says, "I will bless those who, what? Bless you. And if one of these Egyptians or Cushites or tall Sabeans falls down in front of them, and says, "Truly God is with you, and there is no other, there's no other God," they're going to get blessed, friends. They're going to get blessed with salvation. Paul quotes this very thing in 1 Corinthians 14. You remember about the whole speaking-in-tongues thing? And if an outsider comes in, and they hear prophecy, they hear a clear proclamation of the Word of God, they're going to fall down in your midst and say, "Surely God is among you." he's quoting this exact passage. So ultimately, we're talking about gentile salvation, the Corinthians were Gentiles. And God in their midst, because they repent and believe in Christ.

God is a God Who Hides Himself

Now, your head may be swimming, saying, "This is just too complicated. This is too deep. God's ways are too high. I don't understand all the things he does. Well, look at the next verse, verse 15 is amazing, "Truly, you are a God who hides himself, oh God and Savior of Israel." So this is, I believe, Isaiah's editorial comment, saying, "Boy, I don't get it." [chuckle] Just like Paul in Romans 11, saying, "Your paths are beyond tracing out." "So you're doing all this stuff with Cyrus so that the people in Cush and the Sabeans can come to faith in Christ, and fall down and worship God?" "Yeah, that's exactly right." "Wow, your ways are difficult."

If you look at Verse 15 carefully, we're saying that God is a hidden God. He's a God that must reveal himself, or you will never know him. If God does not reveal himself... If you're, right now, a non-Christian, and God does not reveal himself to you, you'll walk out of here a non-Christian. But if God chooses to reveal his glory to you, in his Son crucified, and resurrection, you'll walk out of here saved. It's up to the sovereign plan of God. God is a hidden God who reveals himself in Scripture, and by the proclamation especially of the gospel. So this hidden God is mysterious.

And God's plan is shame for the idolaters and salvation for Israel. Verse 16 and 17, "All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgrace. They'll go off into disgrace together. But Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation you'll never be put to shame or disgrace to ages everlasting." Sheep and goats dear friends. It's just wheats and tares, wheat and weeds, good fish and bad fish. God is going to separate out the committed final idolaters and they'll go off into everlasting shame from those who are truly saved, his people, his Israel, whether Jews who have come to faith in Christ, or Gentiles who have been grafted into a Jewish olive tree come to faith in Christ we will be saved with an everlasting salvation to ages everlasting. And how beautiful is that?

And so there is a Gospel call to the ends of the earth, verses 18-25, God's purposes will be fulfilled and all the earth will be filled with worshippers, isn't that awesome? 18 and 19, "For this is what the Lord says. He who created the heavens, he is God, he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it. He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited." Do you hear that?

God didn't make this Earth with all of its beauty to be a howling wilderness. He didn't create all of the mountains and the valleys and the rivers and oceans, and all that to not be seen, he wanted the beauty to be seen by people who will immediately worship him for it. He didn't form it to be empty or desolate, he wanted it to be inhabited, inhabited with who? With people created in his image, to know him, to love him, and to worship him. And so he says, "I am the Lord and there is no other. I have not spoken in secret from somewhere in a land of darkness. I have not said to Jacob's descendants, seek me in vain. I the Lord speak the truth. I declare what is right." Now here, a moment ago in verse 15, we had a God who hides himself, but now he says to Jacob, "I've not said to you, seek me in vain." And I'm going to put the two of those together, in just a moment. But God hasn't spoken off here in secret, he has given us this incredible book, and he's very, very good at getting it out.

Do you realize what percentage of the Earth's population can understand the scripture in some language that they know? It may not be their heart language, Wycliffe will say, not their heart language, but what percentage of the world population can hear and understand the scripture? 98% of the earth's population. 98%, there's 180 million people left who can't right now hear it in any language and so, Wycliffe's working on that. But God has done a very good job getting this book out. How many Bibles do you think there are on earth? The internet doesn't know. I looked this morning. They have no idea. They're guessing six billion Bibles. How could we even know? The book sale tell you it's about 100 million a year in America. That's amazing.

So all over the world, just hundreds and hundreds of millions of these, God is getting this word out. And Isaiah 45 is included, isn't that cool? Right there, God says, "I've not spoken this off in secret. I've gotten the word out." As it says in Romans 10, "Their voice has gone out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world." People are hearing about this and God is saying, and he's saying, "Though I am a hidden God, if you seek me, you will find me, if you seek with all your heart." Isn't that beautiful, as Jeremiah talking to the exiles out in exile he said, "I'm going to send you to another land, and there you will bow down to foreign gods, but if in that land," Deuteronomy 4 says you seek me with all your heart, you will surely find me.

God’s Clear Challenge to Idolaters: God Alone Predicted These Things

So God gives a clear challenge to the idolaters. We've seen this before, so we don't have to spend much time on it. Verse 20 and 21, "Gather together and come; assemble, you fugitives from the nations. Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it-- let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me." So I would love to have been there when Daniel was evangelizing Cyrus and say, "Oh great king. It isn't Marduk, that predicted the future. It isn't Baal or Nebo or any of those false gods, it is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, he's the only God there is."

And we can say the same thing in the 21st century scene, it's not the god of the Buddhist or the god of the Hindus or the god of Islam, that's predicted the future, God is the only God who has done this, who has said the name Cyrus. He is throwing down the prophetic gauntlet and saying, "No one else can do this." And why does he do this? So that the ends of the earth will turn to him and be saved for there is no one else. Now, here in this I hear the language of Acts 4:12, don't you? Peter saying to the Sanhedrin, "Salvation is found in no one else. For there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." And so God sends this Gospel call to the ends of the Earth, and I'm going to say it quite plainly, "Turn to Jesus Christ and be saved all you ends of the earth." That's what he's saying.

The Exclusivity of Jesus Christ

In the fullness of time, we understand what this prophecy is saying. Look, 22 to 25, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself, I have sworn, my mouth has uttered in all integrity a word that will not be revoked. Before me every knee will bow, by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, 'In the Lord alone are righteousness, and strength, and all those who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame, but in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exalt." Well, in the language of American evangelicalism, friends, verse 22 is the altar call of this chapter.

Calling on people who have heard these things to turn to the true and living God and be saved, all the ends of the earth. Turn means repent of your idolatries, repent of your sins, and your wickedness. Be saved means saved from the coming judgment and wrath of God. "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth," and God makes a pledge. He swears it by himself, "Before me every knee will bow." And "By me every tongue will swear." Now we don't understand this in terms of universalism, "everyone's going to be saved." But there will come a time that every human being will recognize that the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God. Now, again, if you're a Christian, these verses will sound familiar. Have you ever heard this before? Speaking of, Jesus Christ, "who being in very nature, God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him the name that is above every name. That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the father."

Now, I believe Isaiah 40-49 is the most fiercely monotheistic section of scripture in the entire Bible. God is determined to say he's the only God, and there is no other. He says it again and again and again, multiple times in this chapter. Yahweh, Jehovah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, that God, the God of the Jews, is the only god there is. But along comes Paul, and takes that and ascribes it to Jesus. That would be blasphemy if Jesus weren't God.

And so here's the application of this chapter. Look to Christ, turn to Christ and be saved. He is the only savior there is. This is Charles Spurgeon's conversion verse, by the way. When you get to heaven, you can say, "What was your conversion verse?" And Charles Spurgeon will say it's Isaiah 45:22. It was a specific snowy Sunday morning, and a primitive Methodist was there, the ordinary preacher was laid up or couldn't go or something. So they got this guy, Spurgeon... You got to read it. It's one of the funniest accounts in church history.

And he just reads about how this thin guy gets up, without any training, and just says in the KJV, "Look unto me and be saved, all the ends of the earth." And he said, "You look with eyes of faith, you look to Christ, you turn to Christ and you'll be saved. And Spurgeon, at once he said, "Suddenly the scales were gone from my eyes. I looked and I looked, until I could look my eyes away." He finally saw Christ crucified and resurrected as the only savior there is. Now, I don't know what your spiritual condition is, what brought you here today, but I know this. This Gospel is still powerful today. Look to Christ, there is no other Savior. And then, for us as Christians, we have a responsibility to take this same message out to the ends of the earth, even to the college campus, to the workplace through this week.

Now, other applications we've seen along the way, I'll just mention them briefly. Learn not to argue with God when things are going badly. Don't question him. Don't argue with him. Quickly humble yourself under his Hand, trust in him no matter what's going on. Don't argue with him. He knows what he's doing and he loves you. And understand that God brings both prosperity and disaster. Let's not be juvenile or immature in our theology, saying foolish things like that at hurricane times or earthquake times or invasion times.

God forms the light and creates darkness. He brings prosperity and disaster. He does all these things. And then finally meditate on the hidden-ness of God. Understand if God doesn't want you to know him, you won't know him. If God doesn't reveal himself, you'll never know him. But God has revealed himself in the Scripture and in Christ. So, though God is a God who hides himself, we are told later in the chapter that he has not told us to seek him in vain. Seek him with all your heart. Make it the daily bent of your life to seek this hidden God and know him. Close with me in prayer.