Behold Your God - [Isaiah 40:12-31]

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Pastor Steve preaches Behold Your God - [Isaiah 40:12-31]

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Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.
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No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the
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Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.
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In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.
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By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her
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King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. I don't know about you all, but I find myself, you're not supposed to do this.
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I find myself looking up medical information on the internet. You are really not supposed to do that.
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That's what my doctor tells me all the time. And then he can't answer my questions, so I go to the internet. So I looked up the other day, what do doctors suggest that I do about anger?
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How do I manage my anger? What are some things that would be helpful in managing my anger? And I thought, well, the
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Mayo Clinic is a good source of medical information. Went to their website. Here are some of their tips here.
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Tend tips to tame your temper. Now that sounds like it could be a sermon at a lot of churches.
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Let me give you these 10 tips to tame your temper. In fact, that's probably a three -part series. 10 tips.
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It's a lot. Number one, think before you speak. Now is there anything wrong with that?
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I tell people to do that all the time, and it doesn't just have to do with temper. It has to do with if you want to live peaceably with your wife or your husband, think before you speak, right?
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Number two, I like this one. Once you're calm, express your anger.
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I don't get that. Number three is helpful. Get some exercise. I mean, there's motivation for you.
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One more set because I'm mad. Number four, take a timeout. It's not just for kids anymore.
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Give yourself a timeout. Go stand in the corner. I don't know how you do that exactly. Number five, identify possible solutions.
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Okay. Number six, stick with I statements.
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You don't want to criticize or place blame, which might only increase tension.
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So you say things like, I'm upset that you left the table without offering to help with the dishes instead of you never do any housework.
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I don't know if that helps. Number seven, don't hold a grudge. I think that's also helpful.
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I mean, I'm thinking about Ephesians 432, right? You want to forgive even as God and Christ Jesus has forgiven you.
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Number eight, use humor to release tension.
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Number nine, practice relaxation skills. I'm mad, so I'm going to, you know, meditate or something.
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I don't know. Number 10, know when to seek help. Well, that's why I came here in the first place.
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A lot of help you guys are. We're going to be looking though at this topic in a different respect.
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You know what happens? Have you ever heard this? And we'll get to the sermon proper in a moment.
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But if you ever heard something like this, I'm angry with God. I've heard that from Christians.
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I mean, when I hear it from unbelievers, I'm not surprised because I'm like, well, if you only knew how angry he is with you, you wouldn't really worry about how angry you are with him.
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Believers say that sometimes, pastor, can you help me? I'm angry with God.
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Oh, I can help you. And we're going to get some help this morning. I hope Isaiah chapter 40 verses 12 to 31 long passage, long sermon, buckle in.
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That's all I can say. Isaiah 40 verses 12 to 31 who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span enclosed the death of the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance who has measured the spirit of the
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Lord or what man shows him counts his counsel whom did he consult and who made him understand who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust
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Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering all the nations are as nothing before him they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness to whom then will you like in God or what likeness compare with him an idol a craftsman cassette and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for it 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 do you not know do you not hear has it not been told you from the beginning have you not understood from the foundations of the earth it is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them like a tent to dwell in who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness scarcely are they planted scarcely sewn scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither and the tempest carries them off like stubble to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him says the
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Holy One lift up your eyes on high and see who created these who brings out their host by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might because he is strong and power not one is missing why do you say
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Oh Jacob and speak Oh Israel my way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my
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God have you not known have you not heard the
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Lord is the everlasting God the creator of the ends of the earth he does not faint or grow weary his understanding is unsearchable he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength even youths shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted but they who wait for the
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Lord shall renew their strength they shall mound up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not faint several weeks ago we looked at the first 11 verses of chapter 40 and then we had a
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COVID intermission the first 11 verses answer this question does
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God care enough about his people to act on their behalf of course the answer is yes and we saw that because of King Hezekiah's disobedience because he showed all of his treasures open up the vault as it were to the representatives of the king of Babylon the prophet
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Isaiah in chapter 40 is told to write by God of comfort comfort my people why things were going great in Israel except for this little thing here in Judah I should say why do they need comfort because this talks about a future time when
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Judah would be carried away would be conquered and then taken off into captivity by Babylon it's called the
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Babylonian captivity if you recall we broke it up this way the first two verses the promise of forgiveness verses 3 to 5 the promise of redemption to be ultimately redeemed by Christ verses 6 to 8 the power behind the promises we talked about the transitory nature of mankind and the eternal nature of God and then finally 9 through 11 the person behind the promises again does
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God care enough about his people to act on their behalf the answer is emphatically yes verses 12 to 31 answer this question if he cares enough about his people and he does to act on their behalf the second question is is
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God able to act on their behalf does God have the capacity to act on their behalf so this morning we have four truths from our text that will help us focus on Christ in times of anxiousness and stress in times of even anger at our circumstances just as Yahweh is presented in this passage the way he's presented in this passage would run against the understanding of what
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God was in the ancient world or what a God was in the ancient world so what does today what do people think about Jesus when they think about him he is only loving and kind and nice and all these kind of things but he's not powerful this passage shows the power of the eternal
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God our first truth Yahweh is sovereign the covenant keeping
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God of Israel that's what Yahweh is the tetragrammaton which is the four letters in Hebrew that represent the name of God Yahweh Yahweh is sovereign over the cosmos he's sovereign over the universe he's sovereign over space in other words and we have a few omnis here in fact if I had a word
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I don't have one for justice I'd have four omnis here but we have three omnis they're kind of sub points first he's omnipresent omnipresent verse 12 who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span
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Isaiah wants us to understand here if we consider the vast vastness of the ocean if we consider the vastness of space what is that to God God literally measures the oceans he measures the heavens how do we know that it says that right there it says he measures the waters in the hollow of his hand how much water can you put in the hollow of your hand not very much
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I mean the hollow of your hand is just when you cup it what's there and I don't know what is that an ounce two ounces three ounces it isn't very much but the question here is who has measured the waters the seas the oceans all of it in his hand how much water can you put that's
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God what is a span span is from your the tip of your small finger here your pinky finger to the tip of your thumb so it's you know
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I mean if you're who is like Dr. J somebody like that is probably like 15 inches
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I mean for me you know for most for most of us is probably seven or eight inches or or a little bit less how would you measure off the universe by the span of your hand well for God that's easy he's vast he's beyond measure and he's able to do that with ease there is nothing so vast or great as to exceed the presence of Yahweh he knows it intimately because he created it all he set it out there and he fills all of space there's no place that we can go to free or to free to flee from the presence of God there is nowhere you can be and here's the comforting part there's nowhere you can be that God cannot help you he's everywhere he's also omnipotent again look at verse 12 who has enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance the impression we have here is of his strength of his power of his omnipotence as I say here the idea that he can gather all the dirt of the earth put it all together and weigh it that he can put all the mountains or the hills on a scale and weigh them
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I mean I'm mindful when I read this of the
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New Testament where it says if God is for us who can be against us that kind of power but it doesn't stop there
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Isaiah goes on says he's omniscient he knows everything and these truths just overlap they're all true and they sort of play upon one another how can he do this if he doesn't do this and he has to know everything he has to be all -powerful to know everything he has to be etc he has to be everywhere so that he can know everything so that he can but listen to verse 13 who has measured the spirit of the
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Lord or what man shows him his counsel in other words this gets into who can know the mind of God right this is first Corinthians 12 territory who knows the mind of God other than the spirit of God and the answer is no one who can plumb the depths of the knowledge of God and the answer is no one and I love this part or what man shows him counsel who shows up and teaches
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God the answer is no one and obviously these are rhetorical questions questions that are asked and then the response is just known we know the answer to this who can do these things well only
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God can and if I had a word for it and I'm sure there is one somebody will tell me they'll send me an email tell me about it the fourth one would be he's all just he's omni just look at verse 14 whom did he consult and who made him understand who taught him the path of justice and taught him knowledge and showed him the way of understanding again more rhetorical questions but I mean
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I like that idea of maybe even of God hiring consultants you know church consultants are a big deal these days you pay consultants to tell you what to do but like Judah we often find ourselves thinking that life isn't fair and for us maybe we haven't been captured hauled off to Babylon but that doesn't stop us from time to time if we're feeling sorry for ourselves and the core of this verse is this
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God brings about justice it may not be in a time frame that we like it may not be delivered to us in a way that we like it may not be up to our standard it may not give us satisfaction in this lifetime but Yahweh will give his people justice says that right there who's taught him the path of justice in other words who was it that instructed
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God about what is right and what is wrong and the answer is nobody now there are a lot of discussions these days about justice particularly about social justice well who sets the standards for that who decides what is fair and I can promise you this it won't resemble anything like divine justice it won't be colorblind it won't be impartial it won't be apolitical in other words it won't be justice but we can trust
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God God always does exactly what is right and exactly what is right at the right time so first of all
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Yahweh is sovereign over the cosmos he's sovereign over the entire universe he has the knowledge the power and he'll do what's right secondly second truth
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Yahweh is sovereign over the nations sovereign over the nations because all the nations of the world their power is insignificant look at verse 15 behold the nations are like a drop from a bucket and are accounted as the dust on the scales behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust now if you're carrying a bucket of water you've just gone to a well and you threw that bucket down in there and you hold it up and you're taking it back to the house you know like back in the old days now we just turn on the tap but you're carrying that bucket and as you're walking a drop comes out one drop do you go oh
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I gotta go back to the well you probably don't even notice it and that's the picture here the nations are like a drop from a bucket
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God's got all the nations in a bucket and as it were actually he's got everything in a bucket but a drop comes out that is like the nations in other words they're insignificant to him if all the armies of all the nations were lined up against God and they might be one day it would be as much of a threat to him it would be as much of a concern to him as if you were carrying that bucket and a drop of water fell out
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God is able to pick up entire nations entire continents with ease in fact that's what the text says here it says are accounted as dust on the scales in other words that that's just the leftover after you measure something but look what it says there behold he takes up the coastlands like fine dust that is to say the coastlands which would the picture here is he can go from the center of a continent to the very edge of the continent and just pick it up like it's nothing again talking about his power his sovereignty we look at the world situation sometimes and I do too we fret about it
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God is sovereign over the nations he's completely in control he sets up kings he takes them down he installs presidents he takes them down talking about the nations their resources are insignificant look at verse 16
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Lebanon would not suffice for fuel nor are its beast enough for a burnt offering we read that and we go what in the world what does that mean unless you have you know some of the authorized notes or you have the reformation study
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Bible either one and you would understand this that Lebanon was renowned for its trees right so if you were to light all of Lebanon on fire that's the picture it says would not suffice for fuel wouldn't be enough of an offering nor are its beast if you could take all the animals throughout
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Lebanon and sacrifice them that wouldn't be a sufficient burnt offering for God in other words it would be insignificant to him the picture is this that God's sense of justice his wrath could not be appeased by burning all the cedars of Lebanon or offering all its animals no religious offering by pagan nations or by false religions can ever please the
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Holy One one commentator says this he says there is no way in which the earth can provide the kind of worship
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Yahweh truly deserves if he is to be appeased for the sins of men in other words if his wrath is to be assuaged he himself will have to provide the means that's a foreshadowing all the things of the earth all the things of creation are not enough to pay for sin the only thing that can is
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God himself back to the nations their existence is insignificant verse 17 all the nations are as nothing to him you get the idea that they're not very important they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness that goes back to the kind of emptiness and void creation language of Genesis 1 the earth was formless and void that's the same kind of idea here compared to the eternal creator compared to Yahweh compared to the
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Lord Jesus Christ they are null and void he is able to destroy them our hope cannot be in our nation even our hope cannot be in our leaders this idea back then was very radical why because it wasn't just it's hard for us to completely wrap our heads around it we see it a little bit more in the
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Middle East where Islam has such a hold but all the nations have their own gods and so you prove the might of your
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God by doing what by conquering other nations that's how you show that your
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God was greater than their God think about it this way if we just put it in modern terms how many religions are there today
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I looked it up because it's fun to look things up there are more than 4 ,000 religions and if you just take
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Hinduism into account there's a lot more than 4 ,000 gods it means there are 3 ,999 religions in the world plus false religions and one true religion and there are probably tens of thousands if not more of false gods and I hate it
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I don't know about you but I hate it when people it's usually politicians when they get together and they start talking about the great religions of the world right there are several great religions of the world the
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Bible is from front to back a refutation of the idea that there are great religions there is one true religion and many many false religions but you can't really say that greetings today
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I'm here to talk about the true religion and all the false religions if a politician said that he'd be smoked talking about the nations and how
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God is sovereign over them and he's also sovereign over their gods look at verses 18 to 20 ultimately there is no other
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God and that's the point he's making here listen to 18 through 20 to whom then will you liken
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God or what likeness compare with him an idol a craftsman cast it and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and cast for it 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 when
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Scott was reading earlier he read about Ashtaroth and I don't care if it's Baal or Ashtaroth or Buddha or any idol including any image listen of God of Jesus of Mary of Joseph or any so called
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I like this term because if you've ever taken a class with me and I get up on the whiteboard I like to draw something and then
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I just go artists rendering because I can't draw a lick people make these renderings of gods and then they worship them and I don't care what it is we ought not to do it let me just read
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I mean let me just read from the Ten Commandments here God says this in the
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Exodus 20 verses 3 and 4 and verse 5 and verse 4 you shall have no other gods before me what does that mean it means don't worship any other
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God verse 4 you shall not make for yourself I mean listen to this and then think about the passage we're sitting a carved image or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above or that is in the earth beneath or that is in the water under the earth you shall not bow down to them or serve them for I the
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Lord your God am a jealous God in Romans one what does he say he says they worship the creation rather than their creator this is what mankind does sadly people say well you know what
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I I just want that picture or that little statue to remind me to pray to God okay over and over again don't do that don't do that don't do that well why not because that's not who
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God is but back in our text it would be funny if it weren't blasphemous he talks
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Isaiah talks about this whole process of making a God if you've got some kind of money then you go to a craftsman and you say make me something out of metal and then you take it to another craftsman you know an image of some
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God and then you go to another craftsman and he overlays it with gold so you've you've got a fine gold statue and for some reason
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I keep thinking of Indiana Jones and wanting to you know grab it and take it off the thing but if you don't have that much money what do you do you pick out a really nice piece of wood for yourself something that won't rot
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I don't know what that would be right at the top of my head because I don't know that much about wood but pick yourself a really nice piece of wood and then you go to a carpenter and you say you know craft me such and such an image but it's interesting right here in verse 20 he says he who is too impoverished if you're too poor to get a really nice one then you seek up a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not move and the idea is not just will not move but will not fall over right you can't have a
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God that's really powerful and everything and then just falls over all the time it's got to be rightly balanced so maybe even fix chains on it to keep it upright
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I mean that was the big shame for the Philistines when
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Dagon their God just winds up face down and then he gets you know his limbs and everything cut off the first sign of weakness was falling down the point is how can any
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God anything made out of stone or metal or wood be equal to the
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God who has no beginning and no end it's absurd here take this piece of wood that the eternal
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God created and make me a God to worship out of it here take this stone and carve out a
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God for me to worship take this piece of metal and fashion it into a
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God it's it's bizarre you know in sports there's this idea you know people people like to talk trash in sports
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I don't know if you know that and here in New England sometimes we do that at least we used to till Brady moved but but you know people could say whatever they wanted about the
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Patriots right and what did we say scoreboard check out the championships right that's all that counts scoreboard
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I just kind of I've been thinking about this and I think you know some people that the big buzzword now is
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I I love those hate those bumper stickers they say coexist and I'm like here
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I have one that I'd like to see how about this one self -exist right what
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God self -exists there's one there's one God who has always existed all the others are creations it's like Romans 1 again we make these things that represent creation and we fall down to worship them it's it's folly self -exist
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Yahweh is sovereign over the cosmos secondly he's sovereign over the nations thirdly
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Yahweh is the sovereign creator I mean that truth runs throughout all this but he's the sovereign creator
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God is universally known at least to all the Jews all the
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Judah yet Judah aids that's hard to say I want to say all the Israelites but it's just the southern half of the kingdom but God is universally known look at verse 21 do you not know do you not hear has it not been told you from the beginning have you not understood from the foundations of the earth as a
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Jew what's the answer to all these questions it's yes yes yes yes and yes yes they know all these things from the time of Moses everyone's been taught about Adam everyone's been taught about how
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God created everything and then breathed life into Adam but when trials come when the pressures on do they turn to him do you turn to him what's the way that we handle things is it
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Christ reliance or is it self -reliance or self -pity is it complaining everybody knows about God we all know about God do we turn to him
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God is also transcendent verses 22 to 24 it is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like listen to the way he describes us like grasshoppers we are tiny little insignificant beings down here who stretches out the heavens like a curtain space all of space imagine just that those curtains right there
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God just goes yeah I'll close out I'll open that that's the picture spreads them out like a tent to dwell in who brings princes to nothing and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness scarcely are they planted scarcely sewn scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth when he blows on them and they wither this is like Psalm one language stubble just blown away these rulers of the earth they seem impressive but they're like plants they just have a short lifespan they're planted they're sewn and they just barely take root when he
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God blows on them they wither they dry up they die and they blow away in the wind the contrast between God who treats the heavens as a fabric to be arranged as he desires and even the most powerful men is stark our lives are a vapor a mist a puff of smoke compared to God who has no end and no beginning
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God is also I call it the shepherd of the stars because this is a fascinating picture here in verses 25 and 26 to whom then will you compare me again there's no one like God to whom then will you compare me that I should be like him says the
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Holy One I mean Holy One constant theme throughout
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Isaiah but look at verse 26 lift your eyes on high and see who created these he says look up at the stars look up at those things look up at those glorious stars up in the heavens he who brings out their host by number calling them all by name by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power not one is missing listen in the ancient world and by the way some today worship the stars
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Isaiah says the stars are created by God right this is always the case worship the creation not the
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Creator that everybody's got it backwards but he mocks that idea of worshiping them it's it's like the way he talks about these stars they're like I mean
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I want to say a pack of dogs because I like dogs but it really is more like a herd of sheep he knows them intimately he names them and maybe more like dogs than sheep he can put them in place and keep them in place
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I don't know if she would really do that I just like dogs but stars are not powerful the shepherd of the stars the keeper of the stars he is powerful they depend on him he depends on nothing
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Yahweh is sovereign over the cosmos Yahweh is sovereign over the nations third
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Yahweh is the sovereign creator and fourth Yahweh is the sovereign deliverer the sovereign deliverer in verse 27 to 31
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Isaiah anticipates the complaints of Judah they're in Babylon they're not happy about it they want delivery and the
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Prophet refutes their complaint their first complaint is that Yahweh does not care verse 27 why do you say
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Oh Jacob and speak Oh Israel my way is hidden from the Lord and my right is disregarded by my
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God now the tenses of say and speak indicate that Judah's accusations are not a one -time sin but that they are uttering over and over and over again these complaints again in the text it says why do you say
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Oh Jacob and speak Oh Israel well this is Judah that's captured the southern kingdom so why does he use those terms it's to remind this is the
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Prophet speaking of people and really chastising them is to remind them of the covenant relationship they have with Yahweh right the covenant was made with Abraham Abraham and through him to Jacob and through him to all of Israel so why do my covenant people speak about me this way and they make some very specific accusations number one just a couple of them my way is hidden my way you know
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I thought I used to think this way that it referred to the path or whatever and it has nothing to do with that it's just that God is not noticing their plight he's not noticing that the difficulty that they're in as if he's indifferent to it so that's charge number one charge number two my right is being disregarded and notice also by my
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God in other words he's blaming the covenant -keeping God for not delivering him them the people of Judah are charging
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Yahweh with failing to live up to his promises which is a little bit ironic because why are they in Babylon in the first place because they didn't keep their end of the bargain and again you know as I said in the beginning if we think about I just I I have to like I probably have extra wrinkles when
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I hear people say I'm angry with God or even I'm a little bit angry with God right now pastor can you help me in light of what you deserve hey in light of what we all deserve we deserve hell and when we run into difficulty in this life we go
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I've been thinking a lot about this life here lately and I think if we understood fully
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I said this at the service the graveside service the other day if we understood how temporary how momentary this life is there are a lot of verses that that give us the idea of the idea that we are already in some sense in heaven well why is that because when scripture says this life is a vapor it means this what we think is just interminable it just goes on forever you know
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I can remember being a kid in school years you know just seemed like they lasted like 30 years right in light of eternity this is the snap of a finger this is nothing and look at how the prophet addresses them they're suppressing the truth and unrighteousness when they complain about God verse 28 have you not known have you not heard the
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Lord is the everlasting God right no end to him no beginning to him he's outside of time altogether the creator of the ends of the earth he does not faint or grow weary his understanding is unsearchable and here's the idea we talk about the self -existence well what does that mean we're gonna see more of this here in a second the idea is that he lacks for nothing he cannot have less energy than he has he can't grow tired he can't run out of energy again
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I'll just say but the Judaites knew this they knew that he was eternal self -existing the
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Creator just like we know it does that stop us from complaining no why is that because blame -shifting comes naturally to us right we inherited it we could say it's not our fault that we complain it's thank you for understanding that it's
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Adam's fault right he blamed Eve it's Eve's fault she blamed the serpent the serpent didn't blame anybody it's pretty hard to wallow in self -pity when you're focused on the
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Almighty God when you're thinking about what Christ has done for you it's hard to wallow in self -pity because you'll immediately know that you deserve worse than the situation that you're in I'm sure that somebody was in Babylon saying well it could be worse and it could have been we need to acknowledge our reliance on the
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God who saves again back to the text verse 29 he gives power to the faint and to him who has no might he increases strength even youth shall faint and be weary and young men shall fall exhausted but they who wait for the
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Lord shall renew their strength they shall mount up with wings like eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint what does that mean what does that mean how about this how about if you acknowledge your weakness if you come to him in humility he will give you the grace that you need he will give you the strength if you just say to him
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I am weak and you are strong I'm a sinner help me it reminds me of Matthew 11 verses 28 to 30
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I could think of no better verse here to really exemplify that in terms of the
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Lord Jesus Christ come to me all who are heavy or who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you what rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light
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Jesus is sufficient and I think the closer that we get to death the more we realize the truths of this you know do our lives
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I mean when I say it goes like that do our lives matter absolutely because we have to believe in this lifetime but more than that we have
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God -given responsibilities to carry out but as we get close to glory those responsibilities are lifted from us and heaven beckons when our physical frame gives out our spiritual shape will be better than ever just thinking about you know pastor
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Bob in that hospital bed and I can promise you just like all the people that I've been near when they were near death if they left the
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Lord Jesus Christ the anticipation you know they could have been in pain and I'm sure many of them were certainly discomfort they knew their bodies were giving out if I could ask pastor
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Bob how you doing Bob and he you might have said not as good as I will be tomorrow what does it mean to wait for the
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Lord it means complete dependence on him complete trust in him we can't be swept up in the emotions of the moment or during a trial complain but we need to think about it and just understand even embrace it knowing that Jesus loves us and is working through this for our good and for his glory it's often hard for us to see that right if you are tempted to say my way is hidden from the
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Lord the justice do me is not happening right now my suggestion is think before you speak take a time out don't use humor but if you're angry with God if you're upset over your circumstances if you're disappointed by your circumstances here's what we need to always keep in mind and for today for tomorrow for every single moment of our lives our greatest problem is sin and that's been dealt with in Jesus Christ because he being the second person of the
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Trinity took on a body of flesh fully obeyed the law went to the cross an innocent sin bearer paid the full price for sin of all believers and then was raised on the third day every believer should have one response to their circumstances
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I don't know why this is happening but I trust the sovereign
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God of the universe who though I sin greatly against him has forgiven me all my sins and trespasses and has promised me eternity with Christ if we can think about that the remaining troubles in this life even though they're difficult even though they're painful they're really small and friends if you're here this morning and you don't know the
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Lord Jesus Christ if you've not trusted in him alone for salvation I would encourage you to talk to me to talk to an elder to talk to a deacon actually just talk to anybody here because anyone here who knows
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Christ should be able to tell you about him let's pray father in heaven we are as the songwriter said prone to wander prone to forget the blessings that are ours in Christ Jesus prone to think more of ourselves than we ought to forgive us those things time and time again let us go to passages like Isaiah chapter 40 and remind ourselves of who you are of what you are capable of of what you have promised us what you have secured for us in Christ Jesus let us not veer from little or to the left or the right but let us look fully straight on into glory and to the glory that awaits us not because of what we have done but because of Christ alone it's in Jesus name we pray amen no compromise radio with pastor
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Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston Bethlehem Bible Church is a
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Bible teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text please come and join us our service times are
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Sunday morning at 1015 and in the evening at 6 we're right on route 110 in West Boylston you can check us out online at bbcchurch .org