Isaiah Lesson 51

Open us in prayer.

The Trial of False Gods and the True Christ

Lord God, we are in the presence of the most incredible, awesome God who sits above the circle of the earth and conforming to who he is and eschewing false gods. These are lessons we need to learn. Just thinking about in how Psalm 89, it talks about the righteousness and the justice and the love and the faithfulness of God.

This is who we serve. So today as we open your word, as Pastor Jeff teaches us out of your word, give us a way to grow closer to you with those thoughts. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

But who do you say that I am? To that, Peter answered, you are the Christ, the son of the living God. And this good confession is the most important thing that we can know and set to believe in the true Christ.

In our culture, the answer to that question.

Doesn't matter.

If a Muslim answers in one way, a Mormon, a Jehovah's Witness, and an Evangelical, the culture will say none of these things matter. All that matters is that you love each other. The command to be kind to one another and to never deride somebody else's personal, sincere beliefs is the value of the culture.

Who do the Mormons say that Jesus is?

Michael the Archangel? No. Prophet.

I'll come back to you on that. The Mormons say he is the brother of Lucifer.

Brother of Satan.

Brother of Satan. He is the physical offspring of Elohim and a heavenly mother. And prior to heavenly father and heavenly mother bringing Jesus into existence, there were great-grandparents as well.

And great-great-grandparents.

It is an infinite regression of gods. And they say that Jesus is the son of God in that sense. We ought to hold that view to scorn. Who do the Jehovah's Witnesses say that Jesus is?

Michael.

Michael the Archangel. A created being identified as Michael in the Old Testament and so-called God even though he's created. So a lesser God that the true Jehovah brings into being. We ought to hold that view in derision.

In scorn. In mockery even. Who do the Muslims say that Jesus is?

Prophet. Prophet. A prophet.

But only a prophet.

Say not Trinity, they say.

Not God.

And in fact, they would say that he didn't even die on the cross or rise from the dead. We ought to hold that view in scorn. In derision. Even to the point of mockery. As we come into the book, Appropriate Mockery, into the book of Isaiah chapter 40, we're gonna begin at verse 18 and I'm going to review some of the same material that John taught last week and then spend more time later on because we didn't get a video last week.

And we want our video series here to be complete for all 66 books of the Bible, of the 66 chapters of the book. Isn't that interesting that the 66 books of the Bible in a loose way correspond to the 66 chapters of Isaiah?

In chapter 40, we're sort of in the New Testament section of Isaiah. So the big idea here is going to be what I call the trial of false gods. This really continues from 40 to 48. So in these particular chapters, nine chapters of the Bible, we have the trial of false gods.

He will come back to this theme of putting every pretender to the throne on trial. The idols of the nations, the false gods of the nations, how do they compare to the true God? And we will see God himself lifted up high above every pretender and the false gods exposed for who they are.

So this is the trial of false gods. We're gonna pick up in verse 18 and see God hold these idols to derision and even scorn and even mockery to some level appropriate because they're contending against the one true God.

So let's read, John, would you mind reading 18 to 20?

To whom then will you liken God or what likeness compare with him an idol? A craftsman casts it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for its silver chains. He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot.

He seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move.

So here we have the picture of an idol maker and he finds the best wood that won't rot because wood by nature is not eternal. It's just gonna rot eventually. So he tries to find the best wood that he can and then he has to find a skilled craftsman who can carve an image out of that wood.

Then he has to find a goldsmith to overlay it, put some silver chains on it and he's putting all this work in to something that he sets up that will not move. It's just a block of wood that people have worked on and then once you're done doing the best you can with it, it just sits there.

There is an element of mockery here where the true God is speaking through Isaiah showing the folly, the utter folly of worshiping false gods of setting up idols. Yeah, there is a stupidity that goes with that.

So with an element of derision, the Lord puts the idol maker on trial. In our culture as we talked about in the introduction here, the greatest commandment is thou shall be nice. Nice. That's the great commandment of American culture.

Truth has been put to the wayside. There is no such thing as objective, absolute truth in our culture and especially over metaphysical realities, things that we cannot see and touch, right? So if a person has a belief about God, that's only from within themselves and so if it's just personal to them, then you can't criticize that or contend with it.

And that statement, there is no absolute truth is self-defeating because I claim to be absolute.

That is so true. The postmodern claim, Jacques Derrida and the whole postmodernism that there is no absolute truth is a self-defeating claim in and of itself because they're making an absolute claim that there is no absolute truth.

So it just descends into just complete folly. Stupidity.

It's actually now morphed into the anti-God is now the truth. They've gone past that because what is being taught to deny a God is now truth. It's not your relative truth, it's now truth.

That's a great point. So we may be moving beyond postmodernism, which is the only way that they'll be able to bring in a totalitarian worldwide government that enforces itself on everybody because they don't want to ultimately leave Christians alone.

Ultimately, we'll go past that stage of, you know, everybody has their private truth to say, no, this is the truth. Government is the truth. And our way of seeing the world must be enforced. And you Christians will comply.

Otherwise, you will be killed. That's what the Antichrist does in the book of Revelation. So I think you're right. You almost see that coming in already.

Yeah.

Eventually, the one world religion is a movement of tolerance, which the Antichrist then changes into the worship of him and him alone.

And him alone.

Yeah. Wow.

That's a good point. And that could be just around the corner. So this is a truth war is the point. We don't live by thou shalt not be nice. We live by thou shalt be nice. We live by truth. And what you say about Jesus Christ, when Jesus said, who do you say that I am?

The answer to that question absolutely matters. Eternity hangs in the balance in answering that question. The truth is he is the Christ, the son of the living God, the eternal son, not created, begotten, not made.

He has always been the eternal one at the right hand of his father. Existing with the Holy Spirit in a perfect unity, one being, one essence, and yet distinct in personhood from one another. So the father is not the son.

The son is not the spirit. The spirit is not the father. Each person is distinct, yet one in being. One in essence. There is only one God. That's the Trinity, clearly taught throughout the scripture. As hard as it is for us to understand, God presents himself as he is, even if there's no likeness to him in the world.

And that is really one of the big ideas that we say, look at verse 18, to whom will you liken God? What in all creation is like him? Many people object, well, the Trinity doesn't make sense to us. What's like that in the world?

That's kind of the point. God is bigger and greater than anything else that you'll see. So don't settle for any earthly analogy to the Trinity. It will fall short. Water and vapor and ice, well those are just three states of the same substance.

That's not an analogy to the Trinity. God doesn't morph from one to another and exist in different modes based on conditions. That would be modalism, Sassanianism, which you see in the Oneness Pentecostals, like how I've challenged Geno Jennings for that teaching.

It's a lie, and we can contend against it the way God contends for the truth here. Okay, 21 through 24, let's get some readers. Bob, would you mind reading that?

Sure, yeah. Do you not know, have you not heard, has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood since the earth was founded? He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and his people are like grasshoppers.

He stretches out the heavens like a canopy and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. One more, okay.

You can read 24.

No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground than he blows on them and they wither and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff.

Right, and Rich has rightly pointed out that that word in the Hebrew, from which we see translated circle, does refer to a compass or a circuit or a circle. It is presenting the world as being round in an age that pictured the earth as flat.

Now, sadly, there are still some flat earthers in the world today trying to reimpose that ridiculous understanding of the globe. And I saw one meme that they posted on Facebook that said the Flat Earth Society has members all over the globe.

It's true. Not aware of what they were implying by the word globe. But the earth is not flat, and God knew this scientifically because he's the creator of everything.

Yeah.

It says the heavens are being stretched out like a curtain. We didn't just discover the expansion of the universe or the fact that the galaxies are all moving out. Yeah, the stretching, yeah.

Yeah, it's been in full, yeah, it is still.

How did he know that back then, right?

Right.

He just discovered it.

Yeah, yeah, it's a beautiful thing. But the big idea here is that God is above it all. Here we are on earth, these little specks on a blue dot in the universe, and here is God over it all. He spoke this world into existence.

He is unthreatened by these tiny little fleas that exist in the world that he made. And yet, mankind shakes their fist. How does God stand in relation to the mocker?

In derision.

Psalm chapter two, he holds them into derision. He laughs at their threats, and then he terrifies them in his wrath, and he shatters them to pieces with a rod of iron, and he makes his son to rule over all the universe.

And he says, kiss the son, lest he be angry with you. So he provides a way to be saved, to turn to the son, kiss the son, and he'll be friendly to you, but shake your fist in derision against him, and you'll be dashed to pieces like pottery.

He's a big God. He's not this little idea in the minds of men, as this world would present him to be, and marginal on the side of things. No, he is the center of everything. He is God, and he's above the circle of the earth.

Okay, let's read 25 and 26. Barbara, would you mind?

Sure.

To whom will you compare me, or who is my equal, says the Holy One. Lift your eyes and look to the heavens. What created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name.

Because of his great power and mighty strength, no one of them is missing.

So you see the same theme reoccurring, and that is the comparison between the true God, who is above the circle of the earth, and every pretender to the throne. To whom then will you compare me? It's the trial of false gods.

Who can stand before this God? That I should be like him, says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see. And now he presents to us general revelation. Now, in Romans chapter one, we learn that general revelation, just by seeing the things that are made, we can know some things about God.

But I think sometimes we stop short of what that actually shows us. We in creation can know his eternal power and divine nature. Meaning we can know there is a God, but we can also know that he's all-powerful and has been from all eternity.

His eternality and his divine nature.

Ed Taylor told a cute little story yesterday. Have somebody who's from not in this country come visiting, perhaps an exchange student or whatever, but somebody who has absolutely no idea what Mount Rushmore is all about.

Okay?

And then go to South Dakota and let them have that view of the four presidents and they're 30 feet high. And now try to convince that individual that it was a pure chance of millions and millions of years of erosion.

Where's the nearest clubhouse?

So we know that there's a God by the things that are made. And how much more complicated and intricate is the creation than even Mount Rushmore? So there must be a designer.

Of course.

And God uses that as a way to reveal his greatness. Not just that he exists, but how great he is, and even how good he is. So much of his goodness is displayed in the beauty of the things that he made.

All right, so 27 through 31, please. How about, Karen, would you like to read?

Okay.

Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest thou of Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord, and the justice due me is passed away from my God. Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth, made not, neither is weary?

Is there no searching of his understanding? He giveth power to the faint, and to those who have no might, he increase strength. Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall.

But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk and not faint.

One of the most beautiful passages in the Bible. We think of it from Hebrews 12. We have a race to run, and then we get weary in the race, but when we look to Christ, when we look to God, the creator of all, he renews our strength.

He mounts us up with wings like eagles that we could run and not be weary. Walk and not faint. When we consider God, we're comforted. There are those who reject God and turn away and create gods of their own making, idols, and so they fall under his derision, and they find themselves trampled and smashed to pieces.

Psalm chapter two. But to those who will look to God and consider him and uphold him and worship him as he's due, there's comfort. The more that we think about the bigness of God, the less the problems of this life can overwhelm us.

We get weary because the problems and the obstacles on the road, they just look so insurmountable. But when we think who it is that's carrying us,.

The strength and the might of our God,.

What shall we fear? There's nothing to fear. God is with us, and he is our strength, and he is gonna see us through day by day, no matter what trial comes. If we have a big God, which we do, and we can see him for who he is, as we look at the God who made everything.

By the word of his power,.

And we take him at his promises of his goodness toward us, we are renewed and strengthened, and we fly like the eagle,.

And we run, we're not weary.

We walk, we don't faint. This is how the Christian approaches a big God.

Amen.

So let's keep reading. Verses one to seven. Anybody feel like reading?

Rich?

Keep silence before me, O coastlands, and let the people renew their strength. Let them come near, and let them speak. Let us come near together for judgment. Who raised up one from the east? Who in righteousness called him to his feet?

Who gave the nations before him, and made him rule over the heathens? Who gave them as the dust to his sword, as dirt and stuff to his bow? Who pursued them and passed safely by the way that he had not gone with his feet?

Who has performed and done it, calling the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last, I am he. The coastmen sought and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid. They drew near in pain.

Everyone helped his neighbor, and said to his brother, be of good courage. So the craftsman encouraged the goldsmith. He who smooths with a hammer, inspired him who strikes the anvil, saying, it is ready for the sovereign.

Then he fastened it with pegs, that it might not totter.

So again, we have the trial of false gods. Now, think of the historical context of what's happening here. Who is the nation from the northeast, north of Jerusalem, east of Jerusalem, that's overrunning?

Not yet, Babylon comes later. This is the Assyrian onslaught. Now, you're a coastal people. You're tired or sighted. You're looking out at this advancing army, and they look so strong. But what is God saying?

Something he's repeated again and again from Isaiah 10, and then again in Isaiah 37 and 38.

There is not.

Well, there's a specific, compatibilism is the term. There's a specific term for what they should be thinking about. That's compatibilism. Have you not heard? It was I who decreed it long ago that they would turn fortified cities into piles of ruin.

The idea here is you should not fear Assyria, as powerful as they look to your natural eyes. To God, they're little fleas. But it was God who sent them. Look back at verses one and follow me. Listen to me in silence, O coastlands.

Let the people renew their strength. Let them approach, then let them speak. Let us together draw near for judgment. Who stirred up from the east whom victory meets at every step? Okay, you see what that means?

From the east, you have this Assyrian army that meets with victory everywhere it goes. It conquered Babylon. It's conquered every nation, Moab, even as far down as Egypt and down to Ethiopia, who then rebelled.

Remember, the Ethiopians mounted a rebellion and that's why the Assyrian king had to retreat for a little bit of time. They're dominating everywhere. They're coming from the east. But what the question is in verse two, who stirred up one from the east?

It's not the Assyrian threat that should have you concerned. It's the one that sent them.

Who in righteousness called them to his feet.

Whom victory meets. He gives up nations before him. It's God that's handing these nations over to Assyria. He, so that he tramples kings underfoot. He makes them like dust with his sword, like driven stubble with his bow.

He pursues them. So it's God you should be worrying about. Now these nations, they don't have any fear of God. These coastland peoples beyond Israel, they worship false gods. So they're not looking at Yahweh as the concern.

Verse four, who has performed and done this? Calling the generations from the beginning. Then it climaxes at the end of verse four. I the Lord, the first and with the last.

I am he.

God is exerting his sovereign rule from above the circle of the earth. And the affairs of men on earth are like dust under his feet that he moves about as he pleases. The coastlands have seen and are afraid.

The ends of the earth tremble. They have drawn near and come. Who are they afraid of?

Assyria.

Who should they be afraid of?

God.

So what do they do in their fear? They make idols and everyone helps his neighbor and says to his brother, be strong. They just try to rally their internal strength. Strength comes from within, they say, right?

They should be looking to God. In verse seven, the craftsman strengthens the goldsmith. We saw this earlier in verses 18 to 20. The goldsmith is gonna overlay the idol with gold and the chains, the silver chains are what hold it in place so it doesn't fall over when the wind blows.

You see the folly here of the false God. He who smooths with the hammer, him who strikes the anvil, saying to the soldering,.

It is good.

Look how they encourage one another with this vain hope. And they strengthen it with nails so that it cannot be moved. They pound that wooden thing into the table because it keeps falling over when somebody shakes the table.

Yeah, dang it, yeah, it fell at the foot of the Ark of the Covenant. Let's keep reading verses eight to 13. Gene, would you like to read that? All right, 41, eight to 13.

But you, O Israel, my servant Jacob, whom I have chosen, whom I have chosen, you descendants of Abraham, my friend. I took from you the end's fear from its farthest corners. I called you. I said, you are my servant.

I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

All who rage against me, you will surely be ashamed and disgraced. Those who oppose you will be as nothing and perish. Though you search for your enemies, you will not find them. Those who wage war against you will be as nothing at all.

For I am your God, who takes hold of you, your right hand, and says to you, do not fear, I will help you.

Beautiful.

I teach my kids the A to Z Bible memory verses. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And you go on A to Z. Well, the F in the A to Z memory challenge is verse 10.

Fear not, for I am with you.

Be not afraid, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you. I will help you. I will uphold you in my righteous right hand. I would encourage everybody hearing this study to memorize that verse. You will quote it throughout your life. You'll quote it when you're scared of a car accident that maybe you just got in or some situation that comes or maybe a diagnosis or even in the dying moments, which none of us have experienced, but unless the Lord comes, well, I'll go through that.

Can we quote at that time, fear not, for I am with you. Be not afraid, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. Yea, I will help you. I will uphold you in my righteous right hand.

Learn that.

Be able to quote it, be able to call on it, because this is our inheritance. We are not those who live in fear. We have God with us. There is nothing to fear. He reiterates it at the end of verse 13. For I, the Lord, your God, hold your right hand.

Isn't that a beautiful image?

We're like little children and he's holding our hand. He's got us. It is I who say to you, fear not. Dad's telling their fearful children, don't be afraid.

You're okay.

God has this. He speaks that over each of us. I am the one who helps you.

What's that?

Thank you, Abba.

Yes, he is a good Abba, Father.

Amen.

All the way through this journey, and then we will be with him. Now, is that the case for all people on earth?

No.

No, do you see the dichotomy here, the separation between those who are his chosen and those who are not? In verse 11, behold, all who are incensed against you shall be put to shame and confounded. Those who strive against you shall be as nothing and shall perish.

The God who is above all is the Ishim. And those who trust in him find refuge in him and we are safe. And those who rebel against him and make war against his people because they can't get at that huge God.

And yet they're at war with him. And so what do they do? They attack the sheep. They attack Christians and persecute Christians.

All over the world.

And that will only intensify as we go into the end times that John was talking about. The Antichrist and his people will put Christians to death. And even in parts of the world today, we should pray for our brothers and sisters who are in Afghanistan and places like that.

They make war against us, but we look to our God and we will be delivered. And those who oppose God will be crushed. So let's read 14 through 16.

Ralph.

Do not be afraid of the world, Jacob, little Israel, for I myself will help you. There's the word. You're redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. See, I will make you into a thresh in the sledge, new and sharp with many teeth.

You will thresh the mountains and crush them, reduce the hills to chaff. You will win over them, the wind will pick them up and the gale will blow them away. But you will rejoice in the Lord in glory and the Holy One of Israel.

Wow.

I love this passage. It reminds me of 2 Corinthians 4, 7, where it says, but we have this power, this treasure in jars of clay to show that the all-surpassing power comes from God and not from us.

We are weak vessels.

We are broken and we're just jars of clay, but we hold the treasure in us to show that the all-surpassing power comes from God, not from us. Let's look at verse 14. God refers to Israel, his chosen people, with the derogatory term that Assyria would use against them.

Assyria, when Rapshaka stood around the walls and taunted Israel, we will trample you underfoot, you worm. That's who they are to them. We trample every nation underfoot. Israel, you're just a worm. And Israel for centuries has been kicked around and trampled by Assyrians and then Babylonians and then Medes and Persians and then the Greeks and then the Romans all the way to this day where they're surrounded and kicked and stepped on by a world that hates them.

Hitler tried to grind them into the dirt like a worm. And it's also true of Christians in the new covenant that we're grafted in with the true Israel, kicked around like a worm, but I am the one who helps you, declares the Lord.

Your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel. He loves to use the weak things to shame the strong. And he will take us, this little people in Mount Laurel, despised by the larger culture because we're such a group of bigots.

Who think that we know the truth and everybody else is wrong. An intolerant absolutist group. Maybe even domestic terrorists, they would say. Try to put us on some FBI, did you see that? The PTA parents, they want the FBI to investigate them as domestic terrorists because they fight against the indoctrination of their children.

It will come to that.

But what does God love to do? Look at verse 15. I make of you a threshing sledge. This is why I love it. Because this is just a little worm. What strength does a worm have? All a worm does is get stepped on by people.

It can't hurt a flea, right? It just hides in dirt and then gets trampled.

Or a fishing bait.

But he said, yeah, he becomes fishing bait, good one. But he says, behold, I will make of you a threshing sledge. New, sharp, and having teeth. Well, worms don't have teeth that you have to be concerned about.

But God will make you strong. When you are in the hand of Almighty God, you become a weapon. You can affect things. And look at this. You shall thresh the mountains and crush them. And you shall make the hills like chaff.

The despised Puritans of England threshed out a new world across an ocean and built a nation on the principles of God's word. The Reformation principles that came to Scotland and Ireland and England. These are people that were touched by gospel fire.

And they were despised and kicked around in the old world. But a new country was born from that Mayflower compact. And look what God has done through that nation that God raised up through these mere worms.

And look at what's possible for the kingdom of God moving forward. Can we drive back the wickedness at the PTA? I think we can. What do you think, John? Can we do that?

Well, it says here in Genesis 16, you shall rejoice in the Lord.

Amen.

This is victory. We shouldn't expect constantly to be trampled only as worms because our God, when he wants to, can wield us for victories. And we will rejoice and give him all the glory when we see the church growing and being established even in a pagan culture, to God be the glory.

It's him wielding these worms, these jars of clay, and the all-surpassing power comes from him, not from us. The wind shall carry them away. Well, we know where this ends, the millennial reign of Christ and then the eternal kingdom.

It's not like we're destined to lose, brothers and sisters. We've already won at the cross and at the resurrection of Jesus. And his kingdom, like a mustard seed, is growing to fill the whole earth. So yes, there will come a time of tribulation, that warrant of period.

Not for us.

But not for us. We'll be raptured out before that, the world will endure that, and then we'll see the king on his throne. And we'll be part of that kingdom. You shall rejoice in the Lord, in the Holy One of Israel, you shall glory.

All right, 17 through 20. Anybody feel like reading?

I got it.

Yeah, thanks, Bob.

The poor and needy search for water, but there is none. Their tongues are parched with thirst, but I, the Lord, will answer them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them. I will make rivers flow on barren heights and springs within the valleys.

I will turn the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into springs. I will put in the desert the cedar and the acacia, the myrtle and the olive. I will set pines in the wasteland, the fir and the cypress together, so that people may see and know, may consider and understand, that the hand of the Lord has done this, that the Holy One of Israel has created it.

Amen.

The Assyrian threat came up to the neck of Jerusalem before God sent that angel to destroy 185 ,000. In the same way, God often allows trials and tribulations to become very severe before He rescues. Often, He allows that.

We don't know His purpose in that, but God loves to rescue His people.

Amen.

God allows us to go to the brink of utter ruin only to rescue. Do you notice here? I will open rivers on the bare heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water.