The God Who Redeems You

The Danger of Knowledge Without Love

Last week, a very good sermon for Thanksgiving. All right, I thought that would get more of a response than it did, but you know, you gotta try these things every once in a while. So last week, actually after the sermon, Josh and I were talking about a lot of conflicts that we're seeing in the Reformed camp among church leaders, those leading voices who have the big social media platforms who call themselves Reformed.

And if you don't know who I'm talking about, talk to Cooper, he'll let you know what's going on and all that kind of stuff. But during our discussion, Josh made a comment that is this, he said, we as Reformed Baptists tend to emphasize a knowledge of theology and a knowledge of the word of God or a knowledge of God's word.

That's where we emphasize, that's where we focus. And he said, you know what, that's good. It really is good. We enjoy thinking deeply about the things of God and how they apply to living our lives. Again, it's good, that's why I am Reformed.

However, there is a danger that we might make that knowledge almost gnostic, where it becomes some type of secret or hidden knowledge. It becomes this thing that we kind of draw lines, kind of tribal lines.

It's like, if you don't think like I think, if you don't see the scriptures like I see the scriptures, then I can almost cast you aside. I can push you away and I can slander you. And then for those who believe like we do, we just kind of huddle together into our little camps.

I think that's exactly what we're seeing on the social media squabbles that are going on. And it's easy to see beyond the disagreements that they put out there and to see really a lack of love. It's really easy to see because the fighting reveals that perhaps there's jealousy, even though they wouldn't really even say that that's what's driving them.

It becomes clear that that's what it is. It's just a lack of love. And it is, and then Josh brought up this one scripture as we were talking together from 1 Corinthians 8, chapter one, where it says, knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

And I think that true, that is true. And that knowledge can lead to pride. It can lead to arrogance and a boasting in our own intelligence. We see it also in 1 Corinthians 13, verses one and two. And I think that this is something that Paul was speaking specifically to the Corinthians when he said, if I speak in tongues of men and of angels, but I have not love, I'm a noisy gong, I'm a clanging cymbal.

And if I have prophetic powers and I understand all the mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith as to remove mountains, but I have not love, I am nothing. And Paul is saying that if you leave out love, all of these things, all of these great things are simply an exercise in missing the point.

They're simply an exercise in proving our own irrelevance. Our pursuit of theology and a greater knowledge of God's word should lead us to love, which can build up. And I believe our failure to do so takes the good news, or takes the good out of the good news.

And the gospel merely becomes informational. If we fail to communicate our love for the gospel, if we only focus on the precision of saying the right words, I really wonder if we're even able to communicate the gospel.

The God Who Redeems His People

Now, look at me. We have to be able to communicate with hearts that have been captured by the message of salvation and forgiveness of sin. And I'm sure we've all had that experience. Maybe you've, hopefully not at this church, but visiting another church where you're listening to the pastor and you can't disagree with anything that he says.

Everything seems to be right on, but in your mind and in your heart, you're asking the question, do you really believe this? And we don't question, again, we don't question his knowledge. What we question is if he really believes it.

So, all that to say, my heart as a pastor is for the people of God to love the word of God. Not just to know it, but to love it. So when we have a topical Sunday sermon, I'm writing something to preach on a one-off sermon or for a different church or at a retreat.

The easiest topic for me to preach on are the scriptures that I absolutely love. And why? Because I want you to love it just like I love it. Why do I love them? Why do I love the passage that we are going to look at this morning?

Because when I recount this scripture before I go to sleep at night, there is something about it that just takes my soul and my heart and just shreds it. And I go, who is this God? And why would he do this for me?

And my eyes fill with tears, and I just sit there and just let them run because it's dark and I'm trying to go to sleep. And that, having a taste of that and having that kind of affection for God's scripture that leads us to have a view of God that is something beyond anything that we can find, and the sweetness of that is what I desire for you to taste today.

If I could just move your hearts from neutral this morning, just a little bit in that positive direction, I'm gonna call this sermon a win. Our passage today, just if you looked in this bulletin, you know it already, but to end the suspense, our passage today that we're gonna look at is Isaiah 43, which describes the heart of God towards his people, his heart to redeem them, his heart for them to be a witness of his grace and to call on him in worship.

This chapter 43 is, just to give a little background, comes after 42, which is an announcement of God's chosen servant. Listen to what it says in 42 at the very beginning of that passage. Behold my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.

I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the nations, verse six, and I will give you as a covenant for the people. I will give my servant as a covenant for the people, a light for the nations to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, or from the prison, those who sit in darkness.

So chapter 42, God is announcing his Messiah who is coming, and now we will look at chapter 43 as he reveals himself as the God who redeems his people. And so it is very seasonal as we approach Christmas to remember the incarnation of Christ, God coming in as a man, condescending to us, bringing salvation to prisoners on death row, weighting their penalty in darkness, filled with guilt, filled with sin, condemned, shamed, and judged.

This passage serves us this morning to get us ready for Christmas, to get us ready for the, get our hearts ready for the message of Christ's arrival. And this is one of those Old Testament passages that is clearly pointing us to the gospel and to the future message of redemption in Jesus Christ.

So let's not tarry any longer, let's move on to this great passage. And it begins with, but now, but now. In fact, there's a series of sermons that Isaiah is preaching here that begin with, but now. And this is very similar, and should call us back to the New Testament, to thoughts of Paul in Ephesians chapter two, where Paul describes our hopeless condition, and then he pivots with, but God, but God, describing all the blessings that God is bringing, describing this total reversal of our cursed condition.

And Isaiah's sermon is going out to a people who are currently in captivity in Babylon. And these sermons prophesy their release and the return back to their home. So he says, but now, but now, you're in captivity, but now, thus saith the Lord who created you, O Jacob, who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I have called you by name, you are mine. Let me just say that again, in case you missed it. But now, thus saith the Lord, this is what God says, he who created you, O Jacob, who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you.

I've called you by name, you are mine. The word for redeemed is closely related to the word kinsman, redeemer. And when he says he calls, he's proclaiming, he's inviting you by name. And when he says you are mine, the Hebrew is emphatic.

It is saying that you belong to God alone. So the beginnings of this chapter mark a change. The previous chapter 42 really is, ends in a really harsh way. I mean, if you look, you have your Bibles open to it, and you look at verse 24, it says, who gave up Jacob to the looter, and Israel to the plunders?

Was it not the Lord against whom we have sinned, in whose ways they would not walk, and whose law they would not obey? So he, God, poured out on him, Israel, the heat of his anger, and the might of battle.

And it set him on fire all around, but he did not understand it. It burned him up, but he did not take heart. And now he says, but now. But now God's not gonna respond to his people any longer with this strange work of judgment.

And it really is a strange work when you understand the heart of God, in his mercy, in his grace. It kind of baffles the mind to think of God full of wrath. And yet so many people do. They look at the Old Testament, and they go, oh, well, he's just so angry there.

And that's why, one of the reasons why this is so beautiful. We also see this in Romans 9, 25, and 26, God calling to his people. And this is Paul referring back to the prophet Hosea, those who are not my people, I will call my people.

And her who is not beloved, I will call beloved. Even Jesus says this in John 10, the sheep hear his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name, and he leads them out. And when he has brought out all who are his own, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice.

But now Yahweh calls his people. He calls them by name. He calls them out of captivity. But now we see the steadfast love of the Lord that we talked about two weeks ago in Psalm 108, right? It's from everlasting to everlasting.

But now we see that his anger, as David talked about, is but for a moment. That anger has subsided. This is good news. Verse two, when you pass through the waters, I will be with you. Through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you.

When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. This statement of God's redeeming love is, of course, to comfort those who he has claimed, those who he knows.

He's saying, you are mine, and he's telling them, don't be afraid. Even though you have to pass through waters, just like in the Exodus, it should make your mind go back there. Exodus from Egypt, as you walked through the waters.

Or it should make your mind go back to the raging fires that Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah had to walk in. He tells them, you won't run. You'll walk through them. Because I will be with you. John Calvin wrote, saying, the Lord has not redeemed you so that you might enjoy the pleasures and luxuries, but that you should be prepared for enduring all kinds of evil.

But what a comfort to know that when we inevitably suffer pain and ask the question of God as to why, his answer is, I'm with you. Even this morning, as we prayed together, praying for families that are going through difficulty and sorrow, and praying for them, and knowing that God is with them, and that is the greatest comfort, that is the greatest need that they have.

Thinking about my dear friend who lost his dad, knowing that that is the greatest thing that he can experience right now, is for God to be with him as he walks through that. Why should you love this passage, Isaiah 43?

Well, first of all, because of what it tells us about our God. He is the one who created us. He's the one who forms us. He is now the one who is redeeming us. Just like Boaz, the kinsman redeemer in Ruth.

And that kinsman redeemer was a relative who could rescue and restore the rights of another family member who was in trouble, who was in debt. He, that family member, had a claim to provide rescue and help.

And if he acted on their behalf, if he purchased them, if he bought them back, if he paid their debt, they would experience freedom. And God is saying, I'm just like that. So this nation of Israel that God had sold into slavery to Babylon, he says, but now I'm intervening to purchase your freedom from the one to whom you owe a debt, which is himself, right?

He is satisfying his own wrath against their disobedience. And so he claims them twice, once as their creator, and now also as their redeemer. Maybe this is to remind them that they are not their own, which is something that plagues all of us, that forgetfulness that makes us think that we belong to ourselves, that we can call the shots.

But the reality is, if we really let it sink in, that we belong to God. If you are among his chosen ones, if you're made and redeemed for him, you are favored of God, you're his possession, and he calls you by name.

He says, fear not. He says, you are mine. And this has been an important passage for me in times that have been painful, in times when my heart has been heavy, when these words have been incredible and meaningful.

In fact, when I have faced suffering, these are the words that I needed to hear. These are the words that I must hear. But these are also words that I must hear when things are going good. These are also words that I need to hear when I think I know what they mean, because I'm very prone to take them for granted.

And we'll see later that this is the problem of Israel as well. Verse three, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. I give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Sheba, in exchange for you.

This is, again, calling the people of Israel, his people, to remember their history. And this recalls a former event when the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, was at the gates of Jerusalem during Hezekiah's reign.

And God causes Sennacherib to be called away to battle against the Cushites, and Jerusalem is spared. Also, historically, I think it's significant that he names these southern nations because these are the nations that provided Israel with alliances when they got in trouble on a foreign, in kind of their relations with other foreign nations.

When war was coming, they looked to these nations to bail them out. So it could be that God sees these alliances as the faithlessness of his people because they provide an alternative to trusting in God alone for their deliverance.

He may be redeeming them by removing them from the playing field, removing them as a temptation for his people. Either way, these nations suffer in Israel's place. Verse four, because you are precious in my eyes and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.

God is saying, I'm exchanging, I'm redeeming you, I'm ransoming you at a great price, and that great price is the cost of men. And my question is, how many men? How many men does it take to redeem a nation, to satisfy the wrath of God?

And yet, as we in here look forward to the New Testament, Matthew 20, verse 28 says that Christ, the Son of God, gave his life as a ransom for many. And it just blows my mind at how precious that life was.

But let's not stop there, let's continue. He says again, again, fear not, for I am with you. I will bring your offspring, your seed, your sons and daughters from the east and from the west, I will gather you.

And this, not only is the great news that they're gonna get set free and that they're gonna get to return home, but he's also saying to them, you will be reunited with your sons and your daughters that have been scattered.

You don't even know where they are, but I'm gonna bring them back. I'm bringing them all back. Can you imagine the reunion and the hope of fathers and mothers to see their children again? And then he says, I will say to the north, give up, and to the south, do not withhold.

Bring my sons from afar, my daughters from the ends of the earth. God has this same desire for his family to be reunited here. And this brings a fulfillment that was prophesied in Deuteronomy chapter 30, when Moses spoke to the people and he said, and when all these things come upon you, the blessings and the curse, which I have set before you, and I call them to mind among all the, and I call, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice, in which, in all that I have commanded you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will restore the fortunes and have mercy on you.

He will gather you again from all the peoples to where the Lord your God has scattered you. Everyone is coming back. This is good news. He says, everyone who is called by my name, everyone who is called by my name, who I created for my glory, whom I formed and made, and listen to how God pursues his people.

Again, like I said, there are those who look at the Old Testament and say, it describes a very angry God, but this is not what I see here. And you may think that the prophets are always just bringing this angry warning to Israel because of their sin, telling them, hey, return to me or else.

I'm angry, I'm bringing judgment. This is your last chance. Kind of like a parent counting down from three, two, one, okay, now you really deserve it, right? And you would be right in thinking that about the message from the prophets because that's often what it was.

And so how different and how unexpected is to hear you are precious in my eyes and honored and I love you. I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life. This is, for me, this is very personal, right?

And I know that this is written to Israel. I know this is written to a people, this is plural, but it becomes very personal and very individual for me. I know the passage in John 3, 16, that God says that he loves the world.

And we get from that this idea that he loves everybody. But if you've ever wondered where in the scriptures it says that he knows you by name and that he loves you, I think here it is. Those who are redeemed by God are loved by God and precious in his eyes.

Yahweh identifies himself as the Holy One and as the Savior to his people. And he claims to be a Savior, not Egypt, not Cush, not Seba. And he tells his people, fear not, for I am with you. This is the second reason to love Isaiah 43, is this because this passage attributes true value and purpose.

And isn't that what we all long for? I mean, we desire to matter, to have our existence matter. Even when we meet one another, we ask each other the question, what do you do? And yet this right here, this defines more than what we do in our career, more than what we make with our hands.

This is why we are created and why we're formed, is to bring glory to God. Later he's gonna say that these are my people to declare my praise. That's who we are. And for me, I mean, there's something about singing God's praise and worshiping him that it's very deep within me.

It comes from a place that I really can't describe. I had a woman once who had just become a Christian and I was seeing her and her husband for marriage counseling, brand new Christian. And she said, hey, thanks for helping us this morning.

Stuff you said was helpful. I have a question for you. And I said, sure, ask me a question. And she said, why is it that when I come to church and we start singing songs, she said, I can't stop crying.

She says, I can't, it just comes out of my face. Why is that? What is happening to me? And the reason that she experienced that was because that's what she was made for. And she was experiencing that for the very first time as God's recreating her heart.

Her second question was harder to answer, which was, why aren't other people crying? That was a hard, hard question to answer. But here we see that God is saying, I'm the one who makes you matter. I'm offering you my favor.

I'm offering my love as your savior. And I'm telling you exactly why I made you. And we see that in the next section of verses that he makes his people a witness. Verse eight, he says, bring out the peoples who are blind yet have eyes, who are deaf yet have ears.

All the nations gather together in the people's assemble. Who among them can declare this and show us the former things? Let them bring their witnesses to prove them right. And let them hear and say it is true.

And then God says in 10, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

I, I am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. I declare and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you and you were my witnesses, declares the Lord. I am God. Also henceforth I am he.

There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can turn it back? Thus saith the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. For your sake I send back to Babylon and bring them down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans in the ships in which they rejoice.

So this section here just declares the sovereignty of God. I love verse 13, henceforth I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand. I work, and who can turn it back?

Do you hear that?

He said before, before me no God was formed. Not saying that he is formed, but he's saying there's not gonna be a God formed like me, nor shall there be any after me. And he's calling to the nations. He's assembling them together.

In some great courtroom. And why are his people called to be a witness for him? Previously in 42 he claims that his own people are blind. He's told them, you are blind. But now he's giving them a revelation.

He's opening their eyes and blessing them with sight. He is saying to them, but now, oh Jacob, but now, oh Israel, fear not, I have redeemed you. I've called you by name. Because the nations are blind, they are deaf.

They have no ears, they have no eyes to see or hear. Calvin actually says that you could translate this as the nations are blind, yet they shall have eyes, they shall have ears, and that this people shall be a blessing to the nations by revealing the message of Yahweh.

Just as God told Abraham, you shall be a blessing to all peoples. So God's painted this picture of the world as a courtroom. The nations gathered together in a great assembly. And he asked them to prove themselves right by their idols.

He says, no other God has been formed or ever will be. So bring your idols. Those idols that you claim are worth denying my authority and my reign. And they are told, who among you can declare this and show us the former things?

What he's saying is, can your idols declare what will be? Can they explain the former things? Because they were the ones who brought them to pass?

No.

No, Yahweh brings his people forward as a witness to the world to testify about the truth of God. And what is their testimony? He tells us, before me no God was formed, nor shall there be any after me.

I, I am the Lord, and beside me there is no savior. Now, a witness, if you go to court and you bring someone in as a witness for you, that witness needs to be to prove his reliability, right? And the defense is gonna try and prove his unreliability.

And Yahweh's defense here is powerful and it is twofold. In 12 he says, I declare and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you, and you are my witnesses, declared the Lord, and I am God.

First, the witness is God's own actions by declaring and saving and proclaiming. And secondly, is the fidelity of his people. And he wants them to be like a servant who knows God, who trusts and believes in God and understands that Yahweh is God.

And that's the third reason to love Isaiah 43 because as a Christian, this proclamation is a message that we love to tell, right? We need to love to tell it, right? Again, to get back to my introduction, it doesn't need to just be informational.

This has to be something that, that, that we love, that we believe in. It's not about saying, look at me, how smart I am. It's a message of transformation because God has revealed his love to us. In verse 14, God declares his power and actually proves himself.

As he says that he is gonna send the Persians and the Medes to overthrow the Babylon, leading Cyrus to release God's people to return home. The Babylonians and the Chaldeans are two different names for their captors who will become fugitives and their ships, which they're proud of, won't even help them in their escape.

The New Thing God Does for His People

And in the second section, or this last section that we're gonna look at, it says that God turns, or God is actually gonna turn his attention towards his people. And there is a turn in the sermon, a turn from God's redemptive love to a problem.

And that is that his witnesses, his people, made for his glory, fail to worship him. Listen to what he says here. He says in 15, I am the Lord, your Holy One, the creator of Israel, your King. And then he says, thus saith the Lord.

This is what the Lord says, who the one who makes a way in the sea and a path in mighty waters, who brings forth a chariot and a horse and an army and warrior, they lie down. They cannot rise. They're extinguished.

They're quenched like a wick. Again, remember my works from Egypt. And then he says, remember not the former things, nor consider the old things. Behold, I'm doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it?

I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches. Even the land is going to respond to God as God blesses his people. For I give a water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people, the people whom I formed for myself that they might declare my praise.

Hear that, created. We were formed. We were made for his glory to declare his praise, to be his witnesses. And God here, as he's approaching an indictment on his people, says, I'm gonna do a new thing.

I'm actually going to solve your problem before you even know about it. And here's the indictment, 22. Remember, I formed you. I created you to declare my praise. You're for my glory. You're to be my witnesses.

And in 22, he says, yet you did not call on me, O Jacob, but you have been weary of me, O Israel. You have not brought me your sheep for burnt offerings or honored me with your sacrifices. I have not burdened you with offerings or wearied you with frankincense.

Notice the use of weary and burdened here. He says, you have not brought me sweet cane, which they made incense with, or money, or satisfied me with the fat of your sacrifices. Okay, and this is why they're guilty, right?

But you have burdened me. Okay, I've not burdened you, but you have burdened me. And you have wearied me with your iniquities. I, I am he who blots out your transgressions. Literally, it says, I'm the one who erases it from the page.

I blotted out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. Now, there are several words in here that are used of God that are used for our sake. Certainly, God cannot be burdened because he has power beyond power.

He cannot be wearied, okay, because physically, that's just an impossibility with him, and he's not someone who forgets, okay? But this is to describe God's ability to forgive us completely. It's to help us to understand that.

And so, he's brought this indictment against his people, and then he reasons with them. Verse 26, put me in remembrance. Let us argue together. Set forth your case that you may be proved right. He is a reasonable God.

But before they can even bring their defense, he torpedoes their defense. He says in 27, your first father sinned, and I believe that's speaking of Abraham, and your mediators, and I believe that's talking about the priests.

We heard about Eli when we studied 1 Samuel, how he was a bad priest. He says, they transgressed against me. But even their best priests sinned, and even Abraham was not faultless before the Lord. And when I say God is torpedoing their defense, we see in the New Testament several places where Jesus confronts the Pharisees, and they lean on this defense, but we have Abraham as our father.

Matthew chapter three, verse nine, John 8, 39. And so God therefore says at the end, 28, therefore I will profane the princes of this sanctuary and deliver Jacob to utter destruction and Israel to reviling.

I think the last reason, and that for me kind of ends on a really sour note, especially if we just think back just 20 minutes, maybe 30 minutes to when I read the opening verses of how God is a redeeming God, and we find ourselves at the end in judgment.

I think I love this passage because it does point me and points my heart forward to the gospel, to realize and understand the revelation that I've been given, that we've been given in the book of Hebrews, where it says that God will provide for them an eternal mediator, that he offers to be a father to them.

And this mediator is without sin and designated by God to be a high priest for us in the order of Melchizedek. He says that this priest will bring complete redemption. He's able to save completely those who come to him through, come to God through him.

And he sacrificed for sins once for all when he offered himself because he always lives to intercede for them. This is the mediator that we know. Now, like I said before, we're not Israel, right? And we're not living during the time of Isaiah's prophetic ministry.

This is not written directly to us. However, however, we should recognize that this God who says this never changes. This is the kind of God that we serve who speaks this way to his people. And the church today is among the redeemed of God from every tribe and tongue and nation.

We also are claimed twice by God. Once as his creation and a second time in our redemption. And his designed purpose for us, for the church is to bring glory to God by displaying his message of dominion over all creation.

He means us to be his witnesses and to proclaim his message. And that message he told us is before me, there is no God who is formed, nor shall there be any after me. He says, I, I am the Lord. And besides me, there is no savior.

You are my witnesses and I am God. He is a God who has delivered in the past and he reveals that he's doing a new thing. He did a new thing in the present time for the people of Israel, redeeming them, pulling them out of captivity.