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Isaiah: Prophet of the Suffering Servant Lesson 54: Isaiah 43:1-7 Pastors Jeff Kliewer and John Lasken
Don, would you open us in prayer?
Dear Lord God, as we come back together and we open up your word in the book of Isaiah, being able to see the words, but God, but now, is always such a great hope because mankind falls short, but you are faithful forever.
Our Jesus is the same today, yesterday, and forever. We pray, Lord, that you would open up your word to us. Speak through Pastor Jeff and allow us to grow to you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Amen. News out of Afghanistan. At least 25 people were killed and more than a dozen were wounded during an attack by the Islamic State on a military hospital in the Afghan capital of Kabul on Tuesday.
Just yesterday, 25 people killed. Suicide bomber goes into a hospital, blows himself up and kills 25 people in the process. In Afghanistan, the Taliban is the more moderate, believe it or not, of the parties there.
ISIS-K is the more extreme and they claimed responsibility for blowing up this hospital. Now, what kind of ideology leads to that? Is it the religion, the pure religion of Islam, or is it some aberration of it?
Well, when you believe in 70 versions awaiting you after death and glory, so.
Yeah, believe it or not, and our culture would not agree with this, but it's absolutely true, the more you study the actual words of Muhammad, not only in the Quran, but the traditions of the Hadith and the Summa, his example of the prophet, what ISIS-K does is in keeping with Muhammad and the original foundations of Islam.
The more pure fundamentalist Islam is murderous and it does seek to impose a caliphate over everyone and to, according to Surah 9, 29, to impose the jizya and those who will not pay it are to be killed.
Converts out of Islam to another religion are to be killed. All of the things that ISIS-K stands for is actually in keeping with the prophet. Very different religion. One of the things about a Muslim who is a fundamentalist and keeps that strictly to the original teachings of Muhammad is that if anybody characterizes Muhammad himself in a negative way, that person is dead.
Remember the Charlie Hebdo attacks in France a few years back? It was because they made cartoons. Cartoons of the prophet. So why would they be so devoted? It's almost as if they worship a man.
They do.
And they do. They elevate Muhammad to the level of a god. And yet, one of the reasons they would seek to kill Christians is because they say that we elevate a mere man, in their view, to the level of a god.
They think that in worshiping Jesus, we are idolaters. And they're the pure, true worshipers of this one god. So there's clearly a clash. If you were to talk to a Mormon in Utah, they would be very conciliatory because their movement nowadays is ecumenical.
But if you pressed into their theology, they would not hold that there even is one god. Opposite the extreme of Islam, where it's a Unitarianism that's very strict to the point where there's no diversity within that unity, in Mormonism, there actually are multiple gods.
The son of God is regarded as a different god altogether. And before the father Elohim, there were gods. Elohim had parents, according to Mormons. And he exalted to become the god over this world. And then there's grandparents and great-grandparents.
And so there's a whole polytheism in that system. A very different view of God. These things matter because the truth of the gospel, first of all, hangs in the Baptist. Those who come to confess that Jesus is Lord, meaning that he is Yahweh, that he is God, will be saved.
And those who deny Christ will be lost and remain in their sins. So today we come to one of the most important passages for this conversation, and that is in Isaiah 43. We are in a section that we've called the trial of false gods.
Because again and again, Isaiah will press a case against the idols of the nations. They can't talk, they can't do anything. They're just blocks of wood. But the idolaters that make these idols are going to be condemned.
And yet Yahweh is known because he can tell the future and he can tell the past and why the things of the past happened the way they did. Meaning that God always has a purpose. And you know him because he's able to prophetically tell the things that are yet future.
So the trial of false gods sets up the true God versus all the gods of the nations. Whether it be Allah or the false gods of Mormonism or any other false god in the world, we turn to Isaiah 43. So John, did you already pray?
I already asked you to open and pray, yes. But you can read. So would you begin for us in verses one and two?
But now, thus says the Lord your creator, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, do not fear for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
And through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.
Amen.
And to appreciate the weight of what we just read, turn to the verse preceding 43 .1. We left off last week as John had the privilege of teaching on the wrath of God. This week at the good news. Verse 25 said, so he poured on him the heat of his anger and the might of battle.
It set him on fire all around, but he did not understand. It burned him up, but he did not take it to heart. This was a picture of the wrath of God. And then we move into chapter 43 with the first verse and the first words.
But.
But now.
Or but God.
These two expressions, but now, but God, are a transition to good news. And really, our gospel hinges on those words because it begins with the bad news of the truth of the matter that we are all sinners and we're all condemned, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
And if this story ended there, we all go to that fire that we just read about in chapter 42, verse 15, verse 25.
That expression sets up the good news, which is that we have a God who saves us. But now is the expression in Romans 3 .21. Would somebody read that for me? We'll just kind of go around the room, left to right here.
We'll start with John Detoli. It's also in your notes if you have the paper.
Romans 3 .21. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.
Right.
And of course, in the book of Romans, we know that that is such good news because the previous chapters have set up how desperate is the situation for man. We've exchanged the glory of God for lies and nobody can judge one another because all of us are the same way.
Beginning of chapter two. And then in chapter three, it describes all people in this condition. Their throats are an open tomb or an open grave. The poison of wasps is on our tongues. There's no one who seeks God.
No, not one.
Together they have become useless.
We're all under the wrath of God, 118. But now, that's the introduction in chapter three, verse 21 to the good news in the book of Romans, which is that righteousness given from God, a salvation that comes from him, not from us, is given in Christ, a propitiation is made, and justification is by faith in Christ.
A good news that only God can give. So let's look at the actual words of Isaiah 43, one and two because what follows here is just absolutely beautiful. But now, thus says the Lord, he who created you.
So remember, this is the one who made us in the first place. He who formed you. Now he's referring to Israel, but we'll learn in the New Testament that Gentiles like us can also be grafted in to this promise of salvation.
It's revealed in the New Testament. In the Old Testament, all they know is that the chosen people, Israel, Jacob, will be saved. They don't know that God would then have a wider mercy for those who would come in to that and be grafted in.
But here's what he says. Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by name. You are mine. You are mine, says the God of the universe who made us, who is just to condemn us, but instead redeems us.
Now this is a Trinitarian work and it was planned from the beginning of time. The father chose before the foundation of the world to redeem a people for himself. The son then came and interposed his precious blood on behalf of those same ones.
And the spirit then comes in time and applies that redemption. The redeemer has done the work, the spirit now applies it, gives you the new birth, gives you faith, repentance, you come alive. He's applying the work of the son.
It's a Trinitarian work of redemption. I have called you by name. You are mine. He knew your name before he formed you in the womb. He's known you from before the foundation of the world. And he called your name unto salvation.
He's speaking to Israel, but he's speaking directly to us now.
Yes, and that's the mystery revealed in Ephesians three, that that dividing wall of hostility is torn down and we're included in that. Those who believe, those who have faith in Christ are named here.
Awesome.
Verse two, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. When you walk through fire, you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.
Now, three times in verse two, we see the word through. Whether the trial is water or river or fire, in each case, he's carrying us through. So then, is that implied that we will be rescued from having to endure suffering in this life?
No.
Rather, he will be with us in it. That's the promise. Look at verse two, the first part. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. When that water is a cancer diagnosis, when that water is the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, when all of a sudden, the river or the fire is the threat that unless you take this mandatory vaccine, you lose your job.
What if somebody doesn't want that? It's not their conviction to get it. They're gonna lose their job. But how do I support my family if I lose my job? It's a fire, and when you go through that fire, know this, he's with you.
The one who formed you and redeemed you will walk with you through it. In other words, this is not the end of the story. When you go through a trial, sometimes it's that initial fear when you first hear the diagnosis, when you first see what's coming, that fear, that anxiety, because you've never been through that fire before.
It just seems overwhelming. But what's the promise here? When you go through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you. Isn't that good? That's how he treats us as his children. We will go through these waters, these fires, but he's with us, and they will not overwhelm us, even though it looks like they might.
It's scary that way. They will not overwhelm you. He'll take you through, and you'll pass through the fire. You shall not be burned. Now, that's an eternal promise. That fire of his wrath that we saw back in the previous verse, verse 25, that will never touch the child of God.
It shall not burn you. Now, there will be heat in this life, and there will be pain, but it's a passing through with him in it, and so his children are safe.
Let's read, yes. It just makes me think of some examples that have already happened to the Israelite people, and maybe it speaks to them at that point, like when you pass through the waters,.
The Cardinal Seas,.
When you pass through the rivers, the Jordan River, they pass through that, and then the fire. I think of the three that were in the fire in Babylon, and God saved them, and Christ came in, and was with them.
And I just think, so for the Israelite people, wow, he's kind of reminding them at the same time, this has already happened, and it's gonna continue to happen.
Well, that last example hadn't happened yet, so they haven't been taken, but they've been through a fire in the sense that they saw Assyria coming up to their necks, and there they are in Jerusalem, and then God sends an angel and 185 ,000 dead bodies for them to bury.
Wow.
Yeah, one angel. So they've been through the fire, and there's more fire coming, as you say, because they will be wrecked.
Jeff, doesn't this verse also tell us now that we must go through these things?
Yes.
We don't get to go around them, we don't get to do without them, we have to go through, but God will be with us as we go through.
Amen, that's such a good, because that word through is repeated three times here, and it underscores that point, yeah.
Unlike the Pentecostal naming and claiming people.
Right, such a deceit, and such a false expectation. The worst of it is when the person who's going through something is being taught by these teachers that it's their fault, they don't have enough faith.
No, this is actually what is to be expected,.
And it's sad when that is the case, and you know what? Sometimes the Lord takes somebody through the trial, and in this life, heals them. Someone that you thought, oh, they have no chance to live through this, the Lord can speak the word, and the servant is healed.
He can do that, absolutely, but even if not.
Or screams to dross off the gold.
Yeah, that's right, he is refining. Even if not, he is with us through it, and we know where that passes, because all of us have to face death. That's inevitable, unless Christ comes before. So, but we pass through the veil of death, directly into his presence forever, so it's a wonderful promise.
Next, Rich, would you like to read, we're going to take three to seven.
That's John 10, 11.
Oh, I've got you, Isaiah 43, three to seven, and I'm going to correlate that to John 10.
43, next verse is what?
Three. Three.
For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.
I gave Egypt for your ransom,.
Ethiopia and Seba, in your place.
Through seven.
Through seven, okay. Since you were precious, precious in my sight, you have been honored, and I have loved you. Therefore, I will give men for you, and people for your life. Fear not, I am with you. I will bring your descendants from the east, and gather you from the west.
I will say to the north, give them up, and to the south, do not keep them back. Bring my sons from afar, and my daughters from the ends of the earth. Everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory, I have formed, and yes, I have made you.
This is a statement of God's particular love. If I were to say, God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, what would we know about God's disposition towards the world? That he's loving towards people.
But even within John 3, 16, there's particularity that he gave his son that whoever believes in him shall not perish, but have eternal life. Now, in fact, because the King James translated that, that whosoever will, will not perish, but have eternal life, many people have seized upon that whosoever, and Adrian Rogers will so stress, whosoever will, to outlaw from God the right to have a particular kind of love for his chosen.
And so the Arminian theologian will say that God loves everybody equally in every way, shape, and form. It has to be equal, this strong egalitarianism. But John 3, 16 in the Greek reads, pas ha pastua, not whosoever will, but pas, every, ha, the rough breathing mark, which is a definite article, pastua, believing ones.
Every believing one. The more literal translation, and the point isn't to say that there can't be distinction between people, whosoever. The idea is that God has a loving disposition toward the world.
He's loving towards people, so much so that anyone, any individual one who believes will not perish, but have eternal life. And so actually, John 3, 16 does teach distinction. There will be a people that are his own possession, Titus 2, 11 to 14, and there will be people that will be lost.
There is a distinction then in the kind of love that he has for people. Now that sounds heretical, but think about this. Is it right for me to love all women?
Yes it is. Thank you, thank you.
It is right for me to love all women, right?
Agape.
Agape, we should love everyone.
Even, you know, the Samaritan, good Samaritan.
Not Eros.
Right, right, not Eros, right.
So now you're getting to where I'm going. But would it be right for me to have the same kind of love for all women as for my wife? No, there's a particular kind of love,.
And so it is with Christ, okay?
We're gonna look at this at John 10. First I wanna see it in Isaiah 43, and then John 10. The groom has a special love for the bride, okay? So we're gonna see in John 10 that the groom, the shepherd, lays down his life for the sheep.
A special love for the sheep. That the groom, Ephesians 5, dies for the church, his bride. The bride and groom love is a special kind of love. I want you to see it in Isaiah 43, verse three, and follow me.
For I am Yahweh your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Sheba in exchange for you. Now stop there. The picture here is Egypt holding Israel captive, and then Cush is Ethiopia.
These distant nations. God is saying, I have a particular love for you. I ransom you, I take you as my own,.
And redeem you from the nations,.
And it even means the casting off of Egypt, drowning them in the sea. And Cush is not the chosen people. The chosen people, the apple of God's eye, is Israel. That's what he's saying here.
A particular love, I am your God.
There's particularity to his love. Now look what he says in verse four. Because you are precious in my eyes. Is it okay, does God have the freedom to love Israel in a particular and special way?
Absolutely, he's sovereign.
Is he not loving and just towards all people?
Yes, he is.
He loves the world, and he is righteous.
In all of his dealings with all of his people on earth. But he is God, and if I'm capable of having a particular love for my wife, and still being loving towards all women, how much more do you think God can have a particularity to his love for his chosen people over against Egypt and Cush and Seba?
See that?
Israel is his bride.
Yes, and then of course we are getting to the point where he will in fact graft into people from all nations, but it's still a particular people. It's not every Mount Laurel resident that will belong to the bride of Christ.
It's every believing one. Okay, so we go on in verse four. I give men in return for you.
You see the choice there?
He's actually making a distinction. Passed over, chosen. You see, men in exchange. People in exchange for your life. He's telling them how particularly he loves his people. Fear not, for I am with you.
I will bring your offspring from the east, and from the west I will gather you. I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.
Now by this time, the northern kingdom has been scattered by Assyria, never to be regathered to this point in history. But those lost northern tribes, those 10 tribes, will one day be gathered. Romans 11.
And many Jewish background people will come to saving faith. Now of course, what we know in the new covenant is that he in fact will send missionaries to the ends of the earth and gather people to belong to this bride from all nations.
So coming from the north, pictures beyond this geographic location, which is Israel, going all over to gather in a people. It says, I will say to the north, give up. To the south, do not withhold. Bring my sons from afar and my daughters from the end of the earth.
He will have his bride. He will have his people. Everyone who is called by my name. Now not everybody who is made, but everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.
It is from the fall lot of Adam, the human race, there will be this people that he will gather to be his own special possession. Titus 2, 11 to 14. People for his own possession.
Amen?
And of course, Israel in particular, he's still gathering them now.
Yes, he is. Yeah, he's brought them back from the north and here they are again in the promised land. Amazing. So there you see a fulfillment of that prophecy in the return from the north. In fact, where did so many of the Jewish people settle?
Russia. In Russia.
And they're being brought back on the wings of eagles. There's a whole ministry to bring Jewish people back to the promised land. Okay, I want to look at this in the New Testament sense as well because the misunderstanding in much of evangelical theology is that we choose him and he leaves that choice up to us.
So evangelical theology, most of evangelical, well, nowadays it's like half and half almost because there's been a resurgence of Calvinism. The idea that the free will in the universe belongs to the individual human and not to God.
That God has abdicated his freedom of choice to make himself subject to the free will choice of man. That's Arminian, right? Calvinism says God is free, completely free, and he exercises his freedom to choose a people for his own sake, right?
So let's look at John chapter 10, verse 11. Kristen, would you read this one? You already read it, I already gave you a good one. You had a big section. You can if you want.
I mean, I thought you gave it to me, I'm sorry.
I didn't, but you can have it. Do you really want it? You can read it, because I have another one. I'm gonna give Kristen 26 and 27.
Okay, I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives his life for the sheep, but a hireling, did you just?
You can stop there.
Stop there.
So we underscore, for whom does Christ die?
His people's sheep, as he liked.
His sheep, those who belong to a sheep.
But somebody will say, well, wait a minute.
Maybe his sheep only refers to those who will choose him, and that's what makes them the sheep, right?
I mean, at face value, you're saying,.
Okay, he's laying down his life for sheep, not goats. Remember the sheep, goat, Matthew 25 thing? So the Arminian would say, well, no, no, no. You make yourself a sheep by choosing him. So now I'll go to Kristen.
Could you read for me verses 26 and 27 in that same chapter where he's now talking to some who don't believe? He'll give the reason for that, 26 and 27.
John 10, 26 says, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.
What's so significant about that is that he tells them not that they don't believe, but why they don't believe. Look at verse 26. You do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice.
That's the effectual call. When the gospel went to you, sister, brother, it was not because you were more humble than your next-door neighbor that you believed.
You believed because he drew you,.
And when you heard the voice of your shepherd, you hearkened to the call. You recognized it.
Your heart came alive. You followed.
That's what it says in verse 27. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. So there's a distinction here. There's a particular love, and there's a difference between what? Sheep and goats.
The sheep will hear the voice of the shepherd. And the gospel's to be offered to all, by the way. John and I as pastors, undershepherds, we look out at the church when we're preaching. We don't see a giant glowing E on the head of some to indicate who's elect and who's not.
We don't see what's going on with these things. Our job is to preach the gospel to all. That same gospel, we spread it to everyone. We don't know what God's gonna do, but here's what he tells us.
The sheep, they're gonna hear.
And it's the weirdest thing. When I'm preaching, sometimes there's a glaze over somebody's eyes the minute I open the word of God. It's almost like it just puts them into this catatonic state. They could be super engaged talking about football and what they're gonna do that day, but as soon as the word of God opens, it's like they just are dead and unable to hear.
You can almost see it on people's faces sometimes.
And then you'll look, and a 10-year-old boy is just following along, and they just have ears to hear,.
And they're like looking and paying attention. And a teenage girl isn't distracted with her phone.
She's just, her eyes, why is one hearing.
And a 50-year-old man unable to hear? This is a mystery that's beyond us. I'm not saying we've captured and understand it fully. I'm just saying that from the text, it's not just the outward call of the gospel, the words from the preacher.
It's an inward drawing of the Spirit. It has to be the Spirit's work to draw them.
And to make them alive, that they would have ears to hear.
And eyes to see, and that's what's happening.
So does the Argonian just say that the 50-year-old guy just hasn't chosen God yet, or how do they reconcile verse 26?
I don't think they've noticed it,.
Because I've listened to the debates, James White versus X, Y, and Z, where he brings these things up and they just skirt, and what they do is, instead of answering the text, they jump, they use it as a springboard to say, yeah, but, and then they jump over here and say, 2 Timothy 2, 4, or 2 Peter 3, 19, or 3, 9, whichever one they go to to try to argue, but it looks like this over here, taking that out of context, and so they twist, because ultimately, do we believe that the Bible has one consistent message, or is it set off against itself in argument?
There's actually one truth. God is communicating a rational, coherent truth through his work, and it actually all does fit together, but some people just don't believe it, because it so offends our conscience.
Philosophically, this is very hard for us to accept.
Isn't it?
I mean, we want it to be the other way, by our philosophical thinking of how fairness should be. Now, what is fair?
That just goes to show you the finite mind of man cannot understand the infinite mind of God.
Would God be just to send all of us to hell?
Yes, yes.
But that he has elected a people for his own possession is just an indication of just incredible grace. So, I'm seeing this in Isaiah 43. Are you guys seeing it there? Verses three to seven. Do you see particularity there?
He has a people, and here it's Israel. Think about that. In the Old Testament, who's getting saved?
Is it the Amorite high priest? Is it the Egyptian pharaoh? Read the Old Testament.
It's all particularity, a chosen people, and then the mystery revealed in the New Testament is that he is going to graft in a people from every nation, which is just mind-blowing, and that's why the Jewish people just couldn't accept the Gentile dog.
It just didn't make sense to them, but we're the chosen people. No, actually, chosenness, election, is from before the foundation of the world. It's the ethnic Jews in the Old Testament, and some came from Moab, you know, Ruth.
There were some that, very few, but the nation of Israel was chosen, and in the New Testament, this thing goes to the ends of the earth, and there's people from Pontic to ethnic, every ethnic group, Matthew 28, 19 and 20.
Isn't that amazing?
So he has elected whom he has, and we are part of that group. So let's, I wish I had more time. Are you teaching next week or tomorrow?
You can.
You're on a roll.
Let's do this, because this subject is great, and we only have five minutes left. I want to do justice to 8 to 13, so let me preview that, and tell you where we're going next week, and we'll close in prayer.
Is that a plan?
So who's going to read it for me, and then I'll tell you some amazing things from the text? Karen, are you up? Do you like reading out loud?
8 to 13?
Bring forth the blind people that have eyes, and the deaf that have ears, that all the nations be gathered together, and that the people be assembled. Who among them can declare this, and show us former things?
Let them bring forth their witnesses, that they may be justified, or let them hear, and say, it is true. You are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and my servant, whom I have chosen, that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he.
Before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. I have declared and have saved, and I have shown, when there was no stranger God among you, therefore ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God.
Yea, before the day was, I am he, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand. I will work, and who shall hinder it?
Wow, this is where the trial of false gods comes to a climax, and God identifies himself as the one true God over against every other God, and he says in verse 10, understand that I am he. Next week we're gonna learn that in the Hebrew that's any who, I am, which in the Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Old Testament is egoe me.
Along comes Jesus using the same language again and again, John 8, John 13, and John 18, using that same expression, but applying it to himself. So we'll look at that next week. It's just, when you have this piece of ammo, yes, you can refute any Mormon with Isaiah 43, 10 alone.
No God formed before him or after. Any Muslim who claims that Jesus is only a prophet,.
And never claimed to be God,.
And never claimed to be God. Yeah, John 8, 58. This is, ironically, the Jehovah's Witnesses life verse. They claim that this is Jehovah claiming himself as deity over against Jesus, but they don't know the grief behind it that actually Jesus quotes from this to apply it to himself in John 13, 19.
So this is just like the sharpest edge of the Christian sword in refuting the Muslim, the Mormon, the JW.
Yeah.
What do they say when you tell them why did the Pharisees pick up stones to stone them?
Yes, yeah. That's evidence in John 8. So we'll look at that next week. So John, would you mind closing us in prayer?
Lord God, we are gifted to be here. We know that the Father, before the foundation of the world, knowing my sinfulness, knowing our sinfulness, ordained that his Son, who came obediently to the cross, shed his blood for our sins, that the Spirit would apply it to those whom he has elected, and that we can see the dangers and the traps against the world, but now, but now, we know of God, and we understand where he says, ego ami, that our Lord Jesus Christ, he is God, before him, there is no other.
I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides him. Father, thank you for these words, and thank you for encouraging us with these words. And Lord, a world that is lost, desperately needs to hear.
Lord, you would encourage us to be that light that sheds this out into the world, we pray. In your name, amen.
Amen, amen.