Isaiah Lesson 59

With excitement because we are in your presence. We're with brothers and sisters of the Lord. We're in front of your word, and we know that the Holy Spirit will teach us. We pray, Father, that the Spirit just speaks through Pastor Jeff.

The Trial of False Gods and Isaiah 45:22

We know that we're in this section, this trial of false gods, and the message from the world would drive us into bad confusion, but the truth of Scripture, turn to me and be saved, all ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is no other, verse 22.

Give us that vision today as we consider the folly of false and the promises of true. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

He was absolutely miserable. His father was a pastor. His grandfather was a pastor, but this 16-year-old boy was miserable. Although he had read much of the Puritan literature, although he had heard the truth of the gospel growing up his whole life, he was miserable because to him, it just felt like a weight, commands that he couldn't keep, the burden of trying to please a God that he could never live up to, and the Christian faith to him was condemnation.

So one snowy morning in 1850, he went for a walk, aware of his sin, burdened by guilt, and the snowstorm that was about kept him from going as far as he intended, so he decided just to turn into a little Methodist, a primitive Methodist church along his walk.

Normally, he would never have visited that particular church. That morning, there was just a group of this size, not a huge, yeah, not a huge group gathered, but he sat down and the preacher began to speak, and he said, my text has but few words today, but if you will heed it, you will be saved, and he turned to Isaiah 45.

Turn with me to Isaiah 45, and the preacher turned to that young man in the middle of his sermon, and said, you look miserable, pointed him out, and he went on to say, and you will always be miserable unless you obey my text, and reading from Isaiah 45 .22, he said.

That was amazing.

I chose that.

Oh, what's that? In my prayer.

You chose Isaiah 45 .22?

Yes, I did. When?

Just now?

Just now.

He wasn't listening. I was thinking about what I was going to say.

That's funny.

I admit it.

So, the text said, look to me and be saved, all you nations of the earth, and that primitive Methodist preacher, who himself was actually filling in for the pastor, said to Charles Spurgeon, you will always be miserable until you look, and it doesn't take much to look.

It doesn't take any effort.

You just look. You don't have to lift a hand or a finger. You just look, and then he pointed him to Christ on the cross, and that morning, Charles Spurgeon felt the weight of his sin lifted off his shoulders.

At age 16, shortly thereafter, he began to teach the Sunday school in his church, a Reformed Baptist church, and then he began to preach. He was invited to local gatherings of believers, and wherever he went, the blessing of God was on him, and people began to come.

That first, I think it was called Watertown or Waterford or something like that, where he first taught, and the whole town started to come, and the whole town was transformed by the power of the gospel, so he received a call to go to London, New Park Street Baptist Church, and there, the crowds came.

Every time he preached, the place swelled, thousands upon thousands, to Surrey Gardens, the biggest outfit in all of London, filled to capacity as they built the new metropolitan tabernacle, and for 40 years, he would preach that way, and his ministry, even since his death, has not stopped increasing in terms of the amount of his sermons going to the ends of the earth.

Look to me and be saved, all you nations of the earth. That passage was the power of God unto salvation for Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Let's read where we left off last week, which is, we left off at verse 13, and we'll pick up at verse 14 on our way to 22.

So, Laurie, would you mind reading for us verse 14, and before you do, let me just set up kind of the main thing that we're seeing here. Again, it's the trial of false gods, Isaiah 40 to 48. Again and again, we say, it's the trial of false gods.

Yahweh holds himself up against the gods of the nations and any other idols that people make, and demonstrates himself to be the one true God. Beside him, there is no other.

He stretches out the heavens alone.

He is God, and there is no other. So, in the trial of false gods, he upholds his word as evidence of who he is, and that's what we'll get to today. His word is what sets him apart from the gods of the nations.

He can tell the past and the future, and he speaks those things through the mouths of prophets. So, Laurie, would you read for us verse 14?

This says the Lord, the labor of Egypt and merchandise of Cush, and of the Sabians, men of stature, shall come over to you, and they shall be yours. They shall walk behind you. They shall come over in chains, and they shall bow down to you.

They will make supplication to you, saying, surely God is in you, and there is no other. There is no other God.

Okay, from where is Isaiah prophesying these words? Physically, where is he? Jerusalem. He's a southern prophet to the kings of Judah, and he's speaking in Jerusalem, often in the king's court, sometimes just on the streets.

He is there in Jerusalem. What are the circumstances facing Jerusalem in these days? The Assyrian threat, which will then be put down by the angel, which has been, at this point, the angel of the Lord rode out and eliminated that threat, but then the Babylonian threat comes just shortly thereafter.

And who is the king at this point?

It should be still Hezekiah, yeah, I would think. I'm not sure that Isaiah functions chronologically from 1 to 66. It's possible that it's more arranged thematically at times. So if you look at Isaiah 1 .1, you'll see there are four kings during this prophecy, and I don't think we should be too dogmatic that it's moving chronologically all the time, because it seems like it's more thematically arranged, especially like in 40 to 48, so there could have been, doesn't necessarily mean that it's Hezekiah, but throughout his prophesying, it's Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, yeah.

So, yeah. So here we have, in verse 14, a promise, and it's not the experience of Jerusalem, at least since the days of Solomon, right? In the days of Solomon, the heyday of Israel's kingdom, he received that kingdom from his father David, and the kingdom enjoyed peace under Solomon, whose name means peace, right?

And in that time, the kingdom expanded, there were no threats from the outside. In fact, the faraway nations came and paid tribute to Yahweh to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and most famously, where did the queen come from?

Ethiopia. Ethiopia, the queen of Sheba came as far away as Ethiopia to pay tribute to Solomon and to listen to his wisdom, and she even brought gifts, all kinds, as many nations did, as we learn in that passage.

So look at verse 14. This actually is the inheritance of Jerusalem. Although they haven't experienced it since, it's now a promise for the future. The wealth of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, Ethiopia, and the Sabaeans, men of stature, shall come over to you and be yours.

They shall follow you. Here, Jerusalem is the leading city in the world, and other cities would come and pay tribute. Of course, we won't see that finally fulfilled until our king is in Jerusalem, and he rules and reigns the world during, reigns over the world in the millennium.

Yeah?

I was going to say that Jerusalem is the first king of Ethiopia, Menelik. I was the son of Solomon, the queen.

Oh, interesting.

That's a tradition, yeah.

Oh, wow, yeah. Well, Solomon had many wives, so he probably had princes in many countries.

Only 700.

Only 700 wives, it's a problem. So, surely God is in you, and there is no other.

It is kind of funny.

One is a problem.

Yeah, one is a blessing, two is a problem. Yeah, there you go, well said, sir. So, they're recognizing at the end of verse 14, surely God is in you, and there comes a day when that is literally fulfilled in the incarnated Christ, God, with us in Jerusalem.

There is no other, no God besides. Now, verses 15 to 17 show that this eschatological hope is sometimes clouded from our sight. So, Kristen, would you mind reading verses 15 to 17?

No problem. Verse 15, surely you are a God who hides himself. Oh, God of Israel, a savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded. The makers of idols go in confusion together, but Israel is saved by the Lord with everlasting salvation.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity.

So, here our perspective is broadened to the eternal because in the near term, it sometimes doesn't look like God is confounding the enemies, especially when Israel is being trampled underfoot by foreign nations, and the idolaters often seem to prosper.

Remember Habakkuk's complaint? Somebody wanna read that for me? Habakkuk 1, two to four, it's in your notes. Barbara, would you like to read that?

Oh, Lord, how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear? Or cry to you, violence, and you will not say? Why do you make me see inequity? And why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me.

Strife and contention arise. So, the law is paralyzed and justice never goes forth. For the wicked surround the righteous. So, justice goes forth to prove her burden.

This complaint of Habakkuk, he can't understand what he sees with his eyes. And if you look back at Isaiah in verse 15, I think the answer is there. Truly, you are a God who hides himself. In this world, you will have trouble.

But take heart, I have overcome the world. You see, in our experience, as we look at the circumstances around us, sometimes it doesn't look like God is winning or that he will always win. He hides himself.

Anybody here ever had a vision and seen the Father? No, no man has seen the Father. Now, Jesus has come in the flesh and made himself visible and walked among us, but we serve a God that we cannot see.

He hides himself. And yet, the teaching here in verses 15 to 17 is he, in fact, is the Savior. All of them are put to shame and confounded, the gods, the idols of the nations. But Israel is saved by the Lord.

Do you see the certainty in that sentence? Israel is saved by the Lord. It's done. God is saving his people. The remnant that is true Israel, with everlasting salvation. The word everlasting there indicates an eternal timeframe, something that doesn't end.

You shall not be put to shame or confounded to all eternity. So though it look to the outward eye that Israel, and here Jerusalem, is confounded and overcome by enemies, in fact, God will save his people, and he is saving them.

So look at verses 18 to 19, and Bob, would you mind reading that for us? Notice here that where circumstances hide him, there is one thing that he always leaves for us that is visible, something that we have.

So though we can't see him, he's the invisible God. He has not left us here without testimony, and that is his word. Bob, would you read it?

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. He says, I am the Lord, and there is no other.

I have not spoken a 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.

This is the God who speaks. The expression that Tim heard from Bible Thumping Wingnut often uses is God exists, and he has spoken. Those twin realities are both visible here in verse 18 and 19. Though God hides himself, he says in verse 15, we can't see his form.

Yet, he exists, and he has spoken. In verse 18, he appeals to the creation. We're to notice the things that are made, and from that, understand his eternal power and divine nature, Romans 1, 20 and 21.

It says, for thus says the Lord, who created the heavens, he is God. When you look up at the heavens, you are to declare he is God. It testifies, he is God. Psalm 19, verse one and following, the heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the skies are pouring forth speech.

There is no place where their speech is not heard. Day after day, the same testimony is given from the heavens. It's preaching to us. The creation declares the glory of God. The sun runs its circuit like a bride, or is it a bridegroom?

In his chamber.

In his chamber.

Yeah.

And it's speaking. It's pouring forth speech, declaring he is God. That's what it says in verse 18. He is God, who formed the earth and made it. He established it. He did not create it empty. He formed it to be inhabited.

So though we serve a God who hides himself, he speaks through creation. Then in verse 19, I did not speak in secret. God exists, and he has spoken. He sends prophets, and all of Jerusalem knows who Isaiah is.

He stands and says, thus says the Lord. He speaks specific revelation in a land of darkness. So though darkness surround us, and the circumstances look bleak, his word is like a lamp. Somebody read for me Psalm 119, 105.

Rich, it's in your notes. You don't have to turn there. You probably already know.

A lamp unto my feet.

Oh, don't sing.

A lamp unto my feet, and a lamp unto my head.

Come on, you can sing. But if you're going to do it, you've got to do it right.

That was from an Amy Grant song.

That's right.

Or it was a lamp unto my feet, and a lamp unto my head.

See, the thing is, you're trying to half sing it and half sing it. It doesn't work like that. You've got to go one or the other. You either just belt it out.

When you put things to music, it helps your memory.

Yeah, it does. It cues your mind. But we love this verse, and it is a good reminder here.

Psalm 119, 105.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path. Be reminded, church, that as dark as the world gets, and as troubling as our circumstances get, you could be laid up in a hospital with COVID, and given, by the doctors, no chance to live.

Say someone has that. You have his word.

And they refuse to give you ivermectin.

Yeah, there's that. You have his word. You have the lamp to your feet, the light. You are not in darkness. You are not alone. The God who hides himself, you can't physically see him, has spoken. And here, what we hold is the very word of the living God.

How many saints have been suffering and opened to Psalm 119, or another psalm, and found comfort? Charles Spurgeon, when he was on his deathbed, turned to his wife and said, read me the shepherd's psalm.

And it was Psalm 23, just spoken over him in his dying, that just gave him comfort, right to his last breath. The psalm, the word, it sustained him for all those years, and it will do the same for us.

We have nothing to fear. Although we cannot see him, he speaks. That's what I love about this verse. Let's read it again. Verse 19. I did not speak in secret in the land of darkness. I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, seek me in vain.

I, the Lord, speak the truth. I declare what is right. Isn't that glorious?

It reminds me of Francis Schaeffer's book, The God Who Speaks.

Yes, The God Who Speaks. And that's where Tim Hurd got that from. That was the teaching there. He is not silent. He is the God who speaks.

Yeah.

All right, so whereas circumstances hide him, his word is not hidden. So here you have Isaiah preaching in Jerusalem a people that have been trampled, and they're no longer in their heyday. They're promised that, again, there will be the nation streaming to Jerusalem, and they will be victorious.

But they don't see it with their eyes, and yet they have his word. One thing is certain. For all of those thousands of years of Israel's history, with all the changing circumstances, one thing never changed, his word.

They always had the Torah. And after the prophets with Elijah began to come, they always had prophets. Now, there were 400 silent years before the coming of the Christ, but even then, they had his word.

And that's why they would hide it in places like the Dead Sea Scrolls that we discovered. These were believers who were holding onto his word, and they were never without it. He always protects his word.

He always sends his word to the ends of the earth. So 20 through 21, Ivan, would you like to read that? There is no other God who speaks.

Gather yourselves and come, draw near together, you fugitives of the nation. They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idols and pray to a God who cannot say. Declare and set forth your case, indeed.

Let them consult together who has announced this from of old, who has long since declared it. Is it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a Savior. There is none except me.

Amen.

So here again, we recognize we're in the trial of false gods, and so look at verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you survivors of the nations. They have no knowledge, who carry about their wooden idols and keep on praying to a God that cannot save.

There are false gods among the nations. Allah, Buddha, the fake God of Joseph Smith. All of the gods of the nations are, they have no knowledge, they're false. But how do we know that? How do we know that our God is true and theirs are liars?

Mainly for full promise.

Yes, and that more broadly, his word. He holds his word beside his name. And it says in verse 21, declare and present your case. Let them take counsel together. I was out witnessing in front of the Planned Parenthood in Philly this last week, and a guy named Hassan came walking by, and I just said, hey, hey, would you have one minute to take this track, and can I share something with you for one minute?

Give me 60 seconds. And I shared the gospel with him in 60 seconds, and that provoked conversation. So we ended up talking for 40 minutes. His choice, I didn't have him strong, I'm. He was a Muslim and very devout.

With a name like Hassan?

Yeah, 20-year-old kid. Oh, okay. But we began to discuss his scripture. And I said, your scripture says in Surah 4, 157, it is supposed that Jesus was crucified, but really he was crucified not, it only appeared that way to them.

Your scripture says that Jesus was not crucified. Your prophet also claims that Jesus is a prophet. But Jesus prophesied that he would be crucified.

So you've got a conflict there.

So we have a conflict. And I said, he said, well, I respect everybody's holy book. I respect you for your holy book. I just have my holy book. But what about when one supposedly holy book repudiates what was already written in the prophets before?

And so we began to go through the prophets. Isaiah and David and the whole Torah, just prophecies of how the Christ must suffer and rise from the dead as he foretold. And I showed him scripturally how prophet after prophet foretold these things.

Psalm 22, Isaiah 53. And Jesus himself, giving the analogy of Jonah, who for three days was in the belly of the fish. So the son of man must be three days in the heart of the earth. And he recognized, although he wasn't ready to repent, he said he needed more time and needed to think, he recognized that what I was saying was true.

The seed was planted.

The seed was planted. But he was confounded by the word. He could not argue that Isaiah, even in the Quran, they say Isaiah is a prophet. But what does Isaiah prophesy? The Christ who would suffer and rise after the anguish of his soul would see the light of life and be satisfied.

He couldn't argue with the words of the prophet. And so it is, we have a light to our feet and here it's a sword to the idols. You see that? In verse 21, he is challenging them, present your case. Let them take counsel together.

Who told this long ago? Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a righteous God and a savior. He is a savior. He comes to save. Allah never came to save his people.

Allah has never described his love in the Quran. No other God is a savior. There is no other savior besides Jesus. There is none besides me. Isn't that beautiful? It is his word that he holds as evidence of who he is.

In Romans 3, 21, who hasn't read that would like to? Karen, would you want to read?

But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

Okay, there is again a verse that declares that the Old Testament, the law and the prophets are fulfilled in Christ. Although it says the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness that is by faith.

This righteousness that is by faith was foretold by the law and the prophets. Prophesying of Christ and the things that we now know on this side of the cross. Declare and present your case. Who told this long ago?

Who declared it of old? Was it not I, the Lord? This is a reminder, church, that the prophecies of Christ are the grounding of faith. In Romans 3, 21, in 1 Corinthians 15, three and four, again and again, you see the ground for our belief.

1 Corinthians 15, three and four, I want to remind you of the gospel. What is it? That Christ died for our sins according to the scripture. That he was buried, that he rose from the dead according to the scripture.

And then he appeared to Cephas and all of the 500. The ground that he died and that he rose is according to the scripture. It's the word that forms the foundation. Here in Romans 3, 21, it's as the law and the prophets had foretold, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

When Jesus is on the road to Emmaus in Luke 22, he opens the scripture to them and their hearts burn as he's walking along the road. He's showing them, and this, I talked about it on Sunday, this is the epistemology, the way to know that what we believe is actually true.

Sadly, we live in a generation that's so, it's postmodern, it's just so touchy-feely that whatever a person feels to be true is what they say is true. If you say it out loud, it's my truth. That's my truth, right.

But the Bible is actually grounded in objective truth, and that is God's word, that he spoke it before and then he brought it to pass. And we need to bring that back together in our preaching.

In Genesis 1, 1, it says in the beginning, God. And then in John 1, you have in the beginning was the word. The word was with God, the word was God. It goes back to the beginning. Every other religion, as I see it, seems to have dating as to when there was a revelation or, so what of those, quote, religions of the generations that went before that, were those individuals not included in, quote, this plan or this revelation?

Whereas with Christianity or God's word, the great I am, he says I am, I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end. He is all-inclusive of all of time and any individual soul that has ever lived.

Whereas everything else seems to have an arbitrary starting point somewhere in history.

Yeah, now the imposters would claim that they go back to Genesis 1, 1. So when Muhammad comes, he's calling himself the seal of the prophets. And he appeals to the earlier prophets, but it's this vague appeal.

I don't think that Muhammad ever read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. I don't believe he did. I think he had interaction with some of the Gnostic Gospels that were prevalent at that time. So you find in the Quran in Surah 19, the myth of Jesus as a baby making, playing in mud puddles by the, in a kind of like a slum.

And he makes a bird.

And he didn't fly away.

And he blows on the bird and it comes to life and flies away. Well, that comes from the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, which is hundreds of years after the true Gospels. But that's what Arabia had at the time of Muhammad.

So he's only familiar with the Gnostic, like, heresies. He didn't have the true knowledge. So he's claiming himself to be the final prophet. And he's appealing to the Injil, you know, the Gospel, and saying Jesus was a prophet.

But he doesn't know what Jesus actually prophesied. And he's never read Isaiah. And yet he says, oh, and Isaiah was a prophet. But he doesn't know what Isaiah prophesied. So he's just an ignorant camel trader who gets visions.

That's what he was, that's what he was. And he goes into a cave and he thinks he's being tormented by a demon until his wife, Khadijah, convinced him, no, this is Gabriel, the archangel, giving you revelations.

His wife sent him.

Yeah.

Oh, for sure. So he would appeal to our book without having knowledge of it. In the same way Joseph Smith sees himself as the restorer of the first century church, and he's still appealing to the Bible, but he now has this new revelation that then colors what you read in the Bible.

You know, it's sad to think that he thought it might be a demon, you know, deluding him. Yeah, you know, he was, he could have possibly gotten saved, you know.

Oh, sure, yeah.

Yeah.

But that's a great point because our, our Gospel starts in the beginning. And we have from the very, and a great witnessing verse is John 1, 1, to begin there with people.

Yeah.

And with reference to Genesis 1, 1. Okay, so let's move on finally to verses 22 to 25. Here's where Spurgeon got saved. Verse 22. Joyce, would you like to?

Sure. All right.

Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other. By myself I have sworn from my mouth has gone out in righteousness, a word that shall not return. To me, every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear allegiance.

Only in the Lord it shall be said of me, our righteousness and strength. To him shall come and be ashamed all who are incensed against him. In the Lord, all the offspring of Israel shall be justified and shall glory.

Amen.

Those last two phrases in verse 25, last two ideas, justification and glorification. Justification is a forensic declaration from God in a legal sense that guilt is no longer credited, but rather righteousness is credited.

So it's a fixed and final thing. Glorification is something that Christians await. So there is coming a day when we will be glorified.

But then you got the sanctification, middle part.

Sanctification is that process. And it's also this, yeah, it's also positional. We're set apart the moment we're saved. And then it's the process of growing. So there's that progressive sanctification as well as positional sanctification.

But here we see in the text, justification and glorification. Israel, as a nation, has a remnant within it that's justified. Isaiah is justified. Remember in chapter six, you kind of see a picture of his conversion experience with the cold to the tongue and it says your sin has been removed and now he's a prophet to the nations.

In the same way, every Israelite who has genuinely been convicted of sin, turned to Yahweh for salvation in hopes of the coming Messiah. They're looking to Christ. They don't have the perfect picture of what it's gonna be like.

They're looking to him. It's dim to them. But through the death of Jesus, imputed back through time to them, they're already justified. And yet they're not experiencing the glorification of Israel. It looks like everything, like they're losing.

Here in verses 22 to 25, you have this beautiful gospel call. It's what saved Spurgeon. Turn to me or otherwise translated look to me in the King James. Look, look, all you have to do is look. It reminds me of the serpent in the wilderness.