“A God Who Speaks” – FBC Morning Light (9/19/23)

Well, a good Tuesday morning to you. Hope your week got off to a good start yesterday and you're charging into the day ready to serve our

Lord. Today we're reading in his word in Isaiah chapters 45 and 46, 1

Thessalonians 5 and Proverbs 16. I want to look at a couple of things in Isaiah chapter 45.

You know, the Lord asks a series of questions in verse 18. He says, He answers his own questions.

He says, The Lord is affirming the fact that he has been, he has created this world and all that is in it, and he created this world to be inhabited.

But he goes on to point out that he did not do so and then depart, you know, leave it and leave us to ourselves and, you know, as if he doesn't going to have anything more to do with it.

No, he goes on to point out the fact that he is a God, not only created all of this, but a

God who has spoken. He has revealed himself to us. He's revealed to us what he's like, and he's also revealed what he likes.

The next verse says, So our

God who created all things is not like some distant, uninvolved clockmaker who started the clock and let it run.

He is a God who cares, who's a God who is involved. He's a God who has spoken, and he has spoken through the word that he has given to us.

And in that spoken word, he reveals himself to us. He reveals his plans, his purposes, and his plans include salvation.

One of the things he says later on in this chapter, in just a few verses, in verse 22, is this.

He says, And sandwiched in between those verses, he contrasts,

God contrasts himself with the gods of our hands, the gods of our making.

We form our gods out of the stuff of this world, and we look to them as if those things are going to give us satisfaction, as if they can somehow answer the deepest longings of our hearts, and so on and so forth.

And they are utterly silent. They are the creation of our hands, and they don't speak.

But he is the one who has created us, and he speaks.

And what he says to us is, Look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth.

Salvation is found in none other than in the God of the Bible, and in the

Lord Jesus Christ. He also goes on to speak of his purposes. He says what's going to take place, he says what his purposes and intentions are, and then he brings them to pass.

We see this in the next chapter, in chapter 46, in a very clear way, when the

Lord says in verse 9, he says, The Lord, who speaks, has spoken his purposes and intentions and his plans, and those purposes will be fulfilled.

Those plans will be accomplished. There is nothing that any, there's nothing, there's nothing that anybody or any group of people or any nation of people can possibly do to thwart the plans and purposes of God.

What he has spoken shall come to pass. He goes on in verse 11, and he says,

I'll call a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country.

And here he's talking about how he is going to bring an enemy force against his people, against the nation, and that enemy force is going to accomplish the purpose of judgment and chastisement for which he calls this bird of prey.

Then he says this, Indeed, I have spoken it. Remember, the

God who created all this world is the God who speaks. He says, Indeed, I have spoken it.

I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also do it.

That was true a couple thousand years ago. It's just as true today. God has revealed in his words some of the plans and the purposes and intentions for yet what is yet to come.

Specifically, for example, Jesus has said, I am coming again. This is his plan.

This is his purpose. And there is nothing, there is nothing that will keep that from occurring.

He will bring this world into judgment. He will bring people into judgment. And there is nothing anybody can do to thwart that.

The Lord says, I have spoken. I will bring it to pass. I have purposed.

I also will do it. We don't serve a dead

God. We don't serve a God who is distant and uninvolved.

We serve a God who hears, who knows, who speaks, who plans, who purposes, and acts to bring those purposes to pass.

What a great God we serve. So, our God and our Father, we thank you for who you are.

We thank you for your power and for your plans and for your purposes. And we rejoice and relish in the fact of who you are.

And this we pray in Jesus' name. All right, listen, have a great rest of your