Unambiguous Salvation

Isaiah 43 and the Courtroom Scene Against Idols

Please turn your Bible to Isaiah chapter 43 that can be found on page 604. If you're using the pew Bible in front of you Isaiah chapter 43. Go ahead and stand when you have that I'll begin reading in verse 8.

Bring out the people who are blind yet have eyes. Who are deaf yet have ears. All the nations gather together. And the people's symbol 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.

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 am the Lord and Besides me.

There is no Savior I declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you and you are my witnesses declares the Lord and I am God and Also henceforth I am he. There is none who can deliver from my hand.

I work and who can turn it back. Amen.

You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father. We ask for your blessing upon the proclamation of your word you are the only true God and we ask that the Implications of that would be made known to us. We pray that the fullness of that would be made known to us and that our souls would embrace it as a wondrous truth Jesus name.

Amen. So we have been going through here in this return to the courtroom scene that began Earlier and Isaiah chapter 41 where he said let them approach let them speak. Let us draw near for judgment and Isaiah 41 1 and now here He says bring out the people who are blind yet of eyes who are deaf yet of ears all the nations.

Gather all the people's symbol. This is a return to that courtroom scene. God is going to try the idols of the world. The nations of the world and their idols show that there is no other Savior. There's no other God, but him he is the only true God.

This is what we've saw in verse 10. There is no God formed before him. There's no God after him. The Greatest verses in the whole Bible very directly proclaiming monotheism. Secondly, we looked last week the statement that there is no other Savior.

So not only is he the only God he is the only Savior. And if Jesus Christ is our Savior, that means that Jesus Christ himself is God. And if and beyond that today We are looking at the fact that he has saved he is declared and saved and proclaimed when there was no strange God among you.

In particular the way that God has manifested the fact that he is the only God that he is. The only Savior is by saving when none other can take credit by saving in such a way that none other can take credit so he speaks here says he declared and saved and proclaimed you can think of this as the Various parts of salvation.

There's the part that comes before there's the salvation itself. There's the part that comes after so before salvation comes he declares that it's coming. Then he saves and then afterwards he proclaims and interprets all that came before.

Salvation Declared Beforehand and Interpreted Afterward

Isaiah 42 verse 9 Says behold the former things have come to pass and new things. I now declare before they spring forth. I tell you of them. Now in part this is talking about the salvation that they will have from Babylon.

They have not even gone to Babylon yet God has prophesied that they will go into Babylon and moreover that he will take them out of Babylon by miraculous measure in this section of Isaiah. He ends up even naming the king that will take them out of Babylon one of the most precise prophecies that we have in all of Scripture that Cyrus one who is not yet born will take them out of the land of Babylon and Then after the fact he interprets it in fact in part he interprets it through the mouth of Cyrus himself.

Who God speaks to? But this likewise applies to the salvation that we have in Jesus Christ. Before it happens. He prophesies the virgin birth the incarnation. People do not understand what it means. We are witnesses that are blind yet have eyes.

We are deaf yet have ears. He says these things we understand the statements. But do not process them. Jesus's disciples. Likewise on the earth when he spoke to them and told them repeatedly that he was going to die and be resurrected three days later.

They did not understand though. He spoke to him very plainly and then After having done that he interprets all the things that he had said before so that their eyes are open and they understand. This is how Salvation happens in a way where he can demonstrate.

She's the only true God he declares a Salvation that is unlike any can Anticipate then he does that salvation and then he shows that he is the one who has done that salvation. And he does this when there is no strange God among them.

No other idol that can take credit for such things and we are his witnesses. We are the ones who are supposed to observe this and supposed to be able to even though beforehand We were not bought or we were blind not able to understand.

Having seen these truths being saved are supposed to declare such truths to others. He has saved. There's no God among us Jesus Christ as it said in the previous passage, it's the only true Savior.

So it is.

That he has saved when there is no other that could take credit for such things. He is the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through him says in John 14 6. God saves when there is no idol that can take credit in order to demonstrate the greatness of his salvation.

He has accomplished wonderful things and he does so in a way where none other can take credit. Many of the Jews interpreted this passage in particular as referring to Abraham and It would not be wrong to apply it in some measure to Abraham.

God took Abraham away from his father away from his father's idols made a covenant with him and told him of a salvation. That would happen many generations later. He said that they would go into Egypt and that he would save them out of Egypt.

He said in Genesis 15 16 and they will come back in the fourth generation for the iniquity of the Amorite is not yet complete. So he prophesied there just like he's prophesying about Babylon. Your people will go into Egypt I will bring them out of Egypt.

Just like now he's saying they will go into Babylon I will take them out of Babylon and moreover. He is describing the salvation that will come especially through Jesus Christ this prophecy implying not just the immediate salvation, but likewise that greater salvation that is to come if you're Joining us more recently and you have not seen this before in Isaiah this happens repeatedly throughout Isaiah one of the most well-known ones that you may not be aware of as Having a double fulfillment is in Isaiah 7 when he talks about the Immanuel.

He talks about this prophecy of a child being born being born who would be named Immanuel meaning God with us and he describes what will happen that the Conspiracy that is forming against Judah will be defeated.

By the time one is born who will not grow very old. And he speaks of a virgin which in Hebrew can also be interpreted simply as young woman. Isaiah's wife gives birth to a son before that son is very old in the very next chapter.

Those nations are defeated. So there is this very immediate prophecy and yet we know from the interpretation given to us by the New Testament that ultimately that was pointing Forward to Jesus Christ the one who is Immanuel the one who is God with us in a greater way who in his time Defeated the ultimate enemy not just the enemy that was directly before the people in the moment.

But the ultimate one Satan the accuser himself. So this is repeatedly what you see through Isaiah that there's a prophecy of something immediate that ultimately points forward to what is accomplished in Christ here the prophecy of Salvation from Babylon and that will happen more immediately as the people go into Babylon and are taken out of it.

But ultimately these things point forward to Jesus. Now beyond Abraham you can look at other times in Israel's history. Where God chose to save them after they had put away idols. Jacob puts away all his idols when he travels from Shechem to Bethel.

Puts away all the idols and then it says that no one bothered him because he had put away all the idols and so if There's no other idols in his life. It is clear that God is the one that's supposed to receive credit for protecting him from Shechem to Bethel.

Right if he had kept around the other idols that he had had if there had been other gods around him. They could take credit for such things. He could say well, maybe it was Yahweh. Maybe it was the true God or maybe it was one of these other gods that I also have Samuel Led the people to get rid of all their idols and then they were able to defeat the Philistines.

Same thing because the other idols are gone. God is showing that he is the only Savior by the absence of any other that could take credit. Later on in the passage that we're studying on Wednesday nights Asa leads the people to put away all their idols and they're able to defeat Ethiopian armies that come against them.

Hezekiah later on when he first goes against Assyria. The way that he's able to have victory is by putting away all the idols so that none other can take victory. God particularly saves when none other can claim that and how much more true is That with Jesus.

Jesus has as we have said here prophesied to his disciples. How he would die then he would be resurrected that he would be in the grave three days. He was very specific about these things and he has accomplished this and he has done it in a way such that none other can Take credit such that there would be none other That could say that they were responsible for such a thing and as I've been meditating on this passage.

Something that has always struck me as a little odd sort of came more clear to me. If you notice in the New Testament Israel just looks very different than it does it all the other times now in part. That's because the nation really has changed as they ended up coming out of Babylon.

They are a People that has been whittled down to just Judah no longer. Is it all the northern kingdoms right the northern kingdoms get taken away by the kingdom gets taken away by Assyria and only? Some of the people are left.

You know Benjamin And and Simeon are more or less merged in with Judah and then there's Levi which is kind of merged in with Judah as well. So that they're all called Jews at this point Jews meaning the people of Judah.

It's not The whole of Israel anymore in that way so there is some difference in the people in that but the thing that strikes me as I read the New Testament and I see The people is they do not seem to have the same spiritual struggles.

They have their own kind of hypocrisy with the Pharisees. They have their own spiritual struggles, but they are are very different in their outward Manifestation throughout all of Israel even with the patriarchs even with Jacob having idols and putting them away and throughout Israel's history in the Old Testament you see that they constantly have idols and the need to put them away constantly have idols and they need to put them away yet somehow By God's providence he arranged it so that the New Testament in Christ's arrival would come after the Maccabean revolt which is happening between the Pages of the Old Testament the New Testament in that 400 years in between and The people have really put away idols at this point.

There just aren't there's no one that could take credit for anything amazing that God would do. It's really the only time in Israel's history from Old Testament to New Testament where you see such a long term or such a clear Riddance of outward Idolatry and I find that I find that very fascinating.

I think it is providentially pointing to What God is saying here that he says when there is no other idol around and the greatest salvation the one that happens through Jesus Christ happens when there is in a greater way a complete riddance of All idolatry that none other would be able to take credit.

For such things that God would do in Jesus Christ, and this is true in our personal lives as well. Maybe you know upon your salvation that he saved in such a way where none other could take credit all other Avenues of salvation are removed often.

That is how he saves everything else that you would lean on fails you until you are left to abandon such things and turn to him and then you know, it is him alone who saves and Even throughout the Christian life repeatedly just like the people in Israel having to get having to get rid of their idols.

He will call you to Leave behind the things that you are dependent on so that he can show that he is the only one who saves. Now the enemy will repeatedly try to Try to reject this right the enemy will contradict this the enemy will try to say that no.

There were these other things in your life. There was these there other reasons why you had this particular salvation where whether it be something very providential. The enemy tells you that's just randomness.

That's just chance. That wasn't God's particular care for you whether it be Truth that you receive from God's world or word that the enemy says no. That's just wisdom that anyone could have picked up on and not particularly from God.

Are all kinds of ways the enemy try to reject these truths and this is what atheists do for example. I mean, there's all kinds of false belief but atheism. It's just a good example of the kind of just bare skepticism that rejects everything you could come up with all kinds of evidences of God's work and the atheist with just Idiotic skepticism and I say that in the gentlest and most loving way that I can Will read will reject all those things and say that no it could have just been something else.

It could have just been something else. There were other things around that can take credit. But God has done it in such a way that none other can take credit that no man has any excuse. That's what it says in Romans 1 that none has any excuse man will go to his idols.

Describes in that passage. He exchanges the glory of God with the glory of things made in the image of men and creeping things, etc.

But.

None other can truly take credit and men are just without excuse and. Yet those same atheists will say other absurd things that they Where they are not. Exercising the skepticism that they would exercise towards God.

It's very clear. There's a bias going on. It's very clear that special pleading that happens. Some of you maybe saw the article that Richard Dawkins published this past week. Richard Dawkins very famous atheist, you know, one of the most notable atheist spokesmen.

He was playing around with a particular AI tool that some of you may might know called Claude and. He was trying to convince himself that it was not sentient and he decided that he was wrong. It was conscious it was conscious.

And so here he is a man who has dedicated his life to proclaiming that there is no sentient powerful being up in the cloud. Now he believes there's a sentient powerful being that lives in the cloud. It it really is an incredible Foolishness that happens that that Satan will tempt people into.

You might have heard the saying that correlation does not equal causation and while that is true correlation often does. Refer to some kind of causation now what that means if you don't understand that what that means is when things happen together.

That implies that they are related. But sometimes they aren't related. Okay, so for example a common one that people will point to is Whenever ice cream sales go up up deaths by drowning also go up and.

And this is very surprising people when you hear that the reason is both happen in summer. Okay, it's not anything too incredible, but there actually is some kind of relation there there. You can find all sorts of examples of these where it's not clear whether there's any kind of causation at all.

And maybe just absolutely none. One of my favorites is this chart that shows Honeybee populations versus juvenile arrests for marijuana possession and they are like perfectly inversely correlated. Over you know some number of decades.

It's just not clear why that would be but if you have enough data. You can mine it for any kind of interesting thing and so the enemy could say look that was just random. That was just chance. You know some of these things happen where you know they just kind of happen.

But.

No one has any excuse you must believe the Lord that he has Done things in magnificent ways When there is no one around to take credit in order to show you that it's him. And so if you take those situations, and you just read you just claim it was chance.

You know you just claim that well the Roman guards fell asleep, and who knows what happened there. Etc etc you know Jesus's disciples. They must have just all had mass delusion Etc. You can come up with all sorts of reasons, but God has saved in a way that none other can take credit.

There is no excuse for rejecting the salvation that he provides in Jesus Christ. There's no excuse for for denying what Christ has done. And it is important to recognize this because there is a very practical utility to it.

This lack of idolatry is Necessary. It is a prerequisite for God to work not because he can't work otherwise. But because he chooses not to work otherwise in order that none can take credit. This is not I'm not saying that one needs to merit the salvation right so I'm not saying that you have to get rid of your idols in Order to be right before God because having gotten rid of your idols makes you right before God so that he would save you.

I'm also not saying although there is some truth to this that in Serving the Lord by by ridding yourself of idols that there is a reward that comes from that. What I am saying is that God in particular chooses to save when there is no one around who can take credit and?

Because of that is important to rid yourself of any worldly. Hope that you might have because it is Cluttering the scene for God to work not that he isn't all-powerful but what he would do in order to exercise that power is to remove anything that can take credit and if you understand that and You live your life in a way that removes all other things that could take credit not relying on anything other than the Lord.

You will see him work in your life more frequently because he will be glorified more frequently in that work. How can you prepare yourself for the salvation of God when I say salvation I'm talking about just all the various ways.

He would save throughout the Christian life. I'm not talking about preparing yourself for Justification you know God does that through his power? But as you live the Christian life. And you would make yourself one who is ready to receive God's work and give glory for it.

How can you prepare for that? Destroy all idols in your life. It doesn't matter what they are any kind of thing that you rely on for your hope. Whether you have an improper relationship with wealth whether you have an improper relationship with a particular relationship that you have with someone where that is where your your sense of worth or or identity or sense of salvation comes from your peace right anything that you rely on for peace as An ultimate source of peace rather than just a means that God has graciously provided where you can say the Lord gives and the Lord Takes away.

Anything where you're okay with the Lord giving and you're not okay with him taking away that means to go. You need to have a right heart before the Lord. Otherwise in your life if he continues to uphold you if you continue to receive.

His.

His sustenance him sustaining you through life you can attribute credit to that thing that you are relying on whatever it may be in your life and He would not be able to take credit for sustaining you for salvation because you can say well I did this myself through my own wealth.

I did this through my own. Through my own figuring things out. If you live a prayerless life You could say oh, well, I wasn't relying on the Lord. I was relying on myself and so all these times that things worked out.

Well for me that was because I was relying on myself and I wasn't relying on the Lord go to him in prayer. Why is it that he has us pray? It's not because he needs us to pray. He could answer whatever thing He wanted to without us asking.

He knows what is best for us. He is a good father. He could give that thing. Why does he not apart from prayer typically the answer is because he is a good father. He knows it is best for us as we come to him a prayer so that our hearts are prepared.

To give him glory after the fact knowing that it is coming from him. Because in prayer what you are doing is you are ridding yourself of those other things that you would trust in instead of spending your time doing the things that would give you peace and give you comfort and a feeling of security you are instead Saying I'm not going to trust in those.

I'm going to spend this time pleading with the Lord as my source of security and You are preparing your heart to be able to say it was him who saved it was not anything else. It was him who saved. This is why God answers prayer.

It's not because he needs your prayers not because you're accomplishing something for him. But rather you are preparing your heart to give him glory and he would answer those prayer requests that will glorify him the most.

This requires humility. Humility before the Lord that that is what you are accomplishing in prayer. You are you are ridding yourself of any pride in any kind of arrogance that would grasp on to something else and say that you have security in that.

Proverbs 3 34 says towards the scorners. He is scornful, but to the humble he gives favor, right? What is the scorner the scorners. The one who is skeptical about the work that the Lord is doing and scorn such things?

You can get rid of such skepticism even the Christian form of skepticism. That is not thinking too much about what the Lord is doing by being prayerful. This requires faith dwelling on the words The Lord's Word in order to get these truths into your heart so that you would really believe them.

Why would he do the miraculous around you if you are not going to give him credit for doing the miraculous? Now I'm not saying toss away all discernment this is often what people. You often see this in very hyper charismatic movements, right?

They They would identify Those who have biblically informed views of the miraculous works God would do as being too skeptical, right? No, that kind of discernment is good. You don't have to accept every kind of hat trick or every kind of a.

Thing.

That someone claims is miraculous.

But.

Exercising such discernment you ought to believe that God is capable of doing the miraculous and Understanding the kind of miraculous things that he does in order that you would be able to embrace those things when they happen.

Understanding how he glorifies himself so that you can rightly discern the matter when it happens and say this is the work of the Lord This is his providence. He has done it in Matthew 13 58 in Nazareth in Nazareth Jesus says or it says of Jesus and he did not do many white mighty works there because of their unbelief.

In Mark 6 5 same situation and he could do no mighty work there except that he laid his hands on A few sick people and healed them and he marveled because of their unbelief.

Now.

Maybe you've read that before and you thought he could do no mighty work there because of their unbelief.

Was Jesus?

Kind of limited and his power such that I don't know, you know the The the scene with Tinkerbell where you know, I believe I believe in fairies and that's what gives her. You know her power to live. Right.

Is that is that how Jesus works? So you just need everybody to believe and then he has power. No, Jesus is all-powerful. He was capable of doing whatever miracles there, but He could not not not having the power but could not because it would not be permitted.

It would not be right for him because God would not receive the right sort of glory. Given the skepticism of the people against him saying isn't this as Jesus. We already knew who grew up here is just a carpenter.

Etc. You know, can God really do that kind of thing? He chooses to not to not do the miraculous where he will not be glorified by the miraculous.

So you must.

Spend time with the Lord in order to be prepared for such things to understand his will to be humble before him in.

Prayer and then.

Committing yourself likewise to thanking him for it for such things before the fact. You see frequently throughout the Psalms a statement pay your vows to him. Right, or I will pay my vows to you now that you've saved me.

What that's saying is that beforehand in prayer David or whoever the psalmist is and whichever psalm has committed himself to the Lord saying? That I am going to acknowledge when I get receive this that this is coming from you.

And I'm so committing myself to that acknowledgement that I'm committing beforehand that I will give you this particular sacrifice. Now I think sometimes that is appropriate but always you should be committing yourself to thankfulness at least.

To thankfulness at least commit yourself to such things in prayer to thanking the Lord when you would receive such an answer such an answer to prayer prepare yourself For such things and record them when they happen, you know.

We've been going over we went over that book on Providence written by John Flavel. And that was one of his main points is to record Those works that God has done as it says in the Psalms forget not all his benefits.

Do not forget the things that the Lord has done for it for you. The Lord has done great things and he wants us to give thanks. Do not give thanks once and forget about them record these things. Even in writing.

I would encourage you to record it even in writing. But speak of these things to other speak of these things to yourself or to God and private so that you are thanking him. So that he is receiving glory.

This is how the Lord saves he says when there is no idol around no one else to take credit and That is how he is saved through Jesus Christ when none other can both in history in the first century. But likewise no doubt and the lives of those who trust him here if you are still trusting in anything other than Jesus Christ.

He will not he will not save you because he is the only Savior. He does not share credit. With another God other things must go away. He is the only one that you can put your trust in. Rid your life of all idolatry trust in the Lord Jesus Christ and him alone.

He will save and he will not share his glory with another little children. Keep yourselves from idols. Amen. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wonderful salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

We ask that this would be made known to us. We pray that you would make us a people who are able to receive your blessings that we would be people humble people of faith people who have Prayed trusting in you and not trusting in ourselves.

We ask that there would be no inhibition to you doing the miraculous the mighty among us and we ask for your wonderful Works of salvation. We pray for your salvation in our lives Individually as we need it and we pray likewise for our neighbors who need to know you.

We ask that you would save your souls that you would rid them of all their idols in order that you might save in a way That none could take credit in Jesus name. Amen.