https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNC8Ox3wHUY&feature=youtu.be
Sunday, August 30, 2020
"Sovereign Redemption" Sermon: Isaiah 43:14-21 (manuscript)
“Sovereign
Redemption”
[Isaiah
43:14-21]
August
30, 2020 YouTube
Having shut down the idols again, the God Who acts,
saves, and is Supreme speaks to Jerusalem about her salvation.
And we see:
First, the Father loves His children.
Notice how Isaiah introduces God speaking:
“Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of
Israel:”
Let’s unpack that – “thus,” since God has just shown that
idols do not act and cannot save and are not supreme – here is what God says –
and Who is God?
“The LORD” – He is YHWH – the I Am – the One Who speaks
to Moses out of the burning bush. He is
Being itself and brings all being into being – without Him nothing exists.
“Your Redeemer” – God is the One Who saves you from the
Wrath of God. You and I can’t do what is
necessary to reconcile us to God. God
chooses to redeem His people – to save us. He is intimately involved with each
one of us.
“The Holy One” – the God Who is completely other and nothing
like us – Who is Other from us – but in Jesus know everything there is to know
about being a human – including our temptations, but not sin.
The
Almighty God Who is beyond and above us in every way, and the One Who loves His
people and is intimately involved in their lives and saves them from their debt
to Him by Himself. Isn’t that
amazing? Bizarre?
He
is the God Who is able and provides for the needs of all His people. And looking forward some 170 years, God tells
Jerusalem what He will do.
“For
your sake I send to Babylon and bring them all down as fugitives, even the Chaldeans,
in the ships in which they rejoice.”
While
Jerusalem is in captivity in Babylon, God is going to send someone – Isaiah
names him as Cyrus – though he hasn’t been born yet – and Cyrus and the
Medo-Persian army will conquer Babylon and enslave the Babylonians and destroy
their ships in which they take so much pride and assume they cannot be defeated
in. And Cyrus will free Jerusalem.
God
says He is Sovereign over the nations – He will send Cyrus – who hasn’t been
born yet and won’t be for over a hundred years – God will send Cyrus and his
army to crush the Babylonians, and in this way, God will set Jerusalem free and
send her home.
Some
people may look at this and wonder where God is now as we see various tensions
in our country – rioting and looting – starkly different narratives about what
is really going on and why. And the
answer from Scripture is that God is right here, and everything is going
according to His Plan. Everything we
need is happening. We may not understand
that right now. We may be in a time of
discipline or be entering one, but it doesn’t change the fact that God is
Sovereign over this nation and every nation that is and will ever be.
And
then God confirms – reassures Jerusalem – and us – of Who He is:
“I
am the LORD, your Holy One, the Creator of Israel, your King.”
Again,
“I Am” – the Almighty God Who is self-existent, needing of nothing.
“Your
Holy One” – the God Who is separate and distinct and unlike His creation.
“The
Creator of Israel” – and here we have something new. God is the One Who brough Israel into
existence – not just the creation of the individual people, not just the
choosing of Abraham to father the nation, but God, Himself, chose to create a
nation for Himself through whom He would give the Law and the Prophets and the
Only Way to salvation through His Incarnate Son.
“Your
King.” Notice two things here: first,
God is the Ruler of His people. All
believers live under a monarchy first, and then whatever kind of human
government we live under. God is our
King, our Sovereign, to Whom we owe first and ultimate allegiance. Second, the King was also known as the father
of his people. God is in a personal and
loving relationship with everyone who ever believes. Out of love, He gave His Son to make every
believer right with Himself.
The
Father loves His people and is doing all things according to the counsel of His
Will, for His Glory, and for the good of all those who love Him.
If
we know and truly believe that this amazing, all-powerful, different Being –
God – is also our Father Who loves us, saves us through His Son, and is
bringing us through to where God knows it is best for us to be, does that not
give us a security and a peace an assurance as we go through troubled times?
We
have been going through an especially tumultuous time since March – with Covid –
and with the rioting and looting around the country – should our well-being be
affected by knowing that our Father loves us?
The
Father loves His people.
Second,
God is Sovereign in the redemption of His people.
“Thus says the LORD, who makes a way in the sea, a path
in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior; they
lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick:”
Do we recognize what Isaiah is referring to?
Last week we noted that THE thing that God had done for
His people up to that point was to deliver them from their slavery in
Egypt. Isaiah is continuing the theme and
the reference with these words.
We remember that after the tenth plague – the death of
the first-born, Pharaoh let Israel go, but after a short time, Pharaoh changed
his mind and went after Moses and the people of Israel with his army, and they
got closer and closer until they reached the Red Sea. Now, Moses saw that they were coming and
called upon God, Who instructed Moses to lift up his staff and the waters of
the Red Sea divided and stood up as great walls on either side of a path of dry
land through the Sea, and Moses told the people to walk to the Sinai Peninsula
– 600,000 men, plus their wives and children – perhaps as many as four million
people walked down onto the dry land and crossed the Sea (http://www.prophecysociety.org/?p=8983).
Then we read:
“Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over
the sea, that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots,
and upon their horsemen.’ So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the
sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the
Egyptians fled into it, the LORD threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.
The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen; of all the host
of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea, not one of them remained. But
the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea, the waters being a
wall to them on their right hand and on their left.
“Thus
the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw
the Egyptians dead on the seashore. Israel saw the great power that the LORD
used against the Egyptians, so the people feared the LORD, and they believed in
the LORD and in his servant Moses” (Exodus 14:26-31, ESV).
As
we have seen, though the Exodus truly happened historically, it is also used as
a parallel for other images of salvation that occur. Here we see it being used regarding God using
Cyrus to deliver Jerusalem. God
delivered out of Egypt and will one day deliver out of Babylon by His servant,
Cyrus.
And
yet there is another parallel, as we know that Jesus Christ has delivered us
from our slavery to sin and brought us into His Kingdom – and will, one day, throw
the devil and his angels and all those who never believe into the lake of fire,
and it will close over them and they will be drown and tortured forever.
Of
Jesus’ deliverance of us, we read:
“giving
thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the
saints in light. He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and
transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption,
the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:12-14, ESV).
And
God speaks:
“Remember not the former things, nor consider the things
of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not
perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert.”
God tells Jerusalem that there will come a time when their
reference point for THE thing that God does for His people will no longer be
(merely) His deliverance of them out of the land of Egypt, but His deliverance
of them out of the land of Babylon. Even
before the captivity occurs, God tells them that the day will come when God
does something new – He delivers them out of their captivity when their
discipline is through – and they will be restored – God will bring them through
the wilderness and provide them with
water – and all their needs – from Babylon to Jerusalem – just as He provided
for them for the forty years in the wilderness of Sinai. As Nehemiah reminds us, “Forty years you
sustained them in the wilderness, and they lacked nothing. Their clothes did
not wear out and their feet did not swell” (Nehemiah 9:21, ESV).
The return from Babylon is not only a parallel to the
deliverance from Egypt and a new deliverance, it is also the beginning of the
coming of the Messiah, Jesus, because the deliverance that Jesus brings is a
parallel to the deliverance from Egypt and Babylon. These are real historical happenings, but
they were given as examples and parallels to what Jesus does spiritually in
delivering us from the kingdom of Satan.
Babylon is the name given in the book of Revelation to the
personification of all sin and evil.
Jeremiah prophecies: “Therefore, behold, the days are
coming, declares the LORD, when they shall no longer say, ‘As the LORD lives
who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,’ but ‘As the LORD
lives who brought up and led the offspring of the house of Israel out of the
north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.’ Then they
shall dwell in their own land” (Jeremiah 23:7-8, ESV).
God continues by hinting at the restoration of the
Creation as well as deliverance from slavery to sin and Satan as He says, “The
wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches,” The wild beats of the wilderness were often considered
to be demon-possessed, so the fact that they honor God is a sign of their
deliverance from Satan as well – Satan will no longer have control over any
part of the Creation once it is totally free from the effects of sin and the
rule of Satan. Every animal will bow
before their Lord and Maker – as we believers do and will – honoring and
glorifying Him for Who He is.
Paul writes of all we who believe that we were chosen and
saved by God to praise Him – to glorify Him: “even as he chose us in him before
the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him.
In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ,
according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, with
which he has blessed us in the Beloved” (Ephesians 1:4-6, ESV).
God continues His promise of provision: “for I give water
in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people,” And we remember that God did give Israel
water in the wilderness – Moses hit the rock and water was given to the
people. But, again, this not all that we
should see here, because the water imagery is brought over into the final act
of deliverance. We remember Jesus speaking to the woman of Samaria:
“A
woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, ‘Give me a drink.’
(For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) The Samaritan
woman said to him, ‘How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman
of Samaria?’ (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Jesus answered her, ‘If
you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, “Give me a
drink,” you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.’
The woman said to him, ‘Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well
is deep. Where do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father
Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his
livestock.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water will be
thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never
be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of
water welling up to eternal life.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, give me this
water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water’” (John
4:7-15, ESV).
Water
symbolizes the salvation that Jesus gives us – a deliverance that never ends or
wanes, but continues to well up in us to eternal life where we will experience
the fulness of salvation – no longer able to sin, but fully obedient and filled
with the joy of our salvation in Jesus.
This section ends as God again confirms that He made His
people into His people and created us that we would praise Him:
“the people whom I formed for myself that they might
declare my praise.”
We are not accidents.
We are not individuals with no connections. We are not lost without hope if we have
believed. No, we were formed by God –
not just in the womb, but to be His people – those for Who He sent Jesus to
live and die and rise, and we are formed to praise God for Who He is and what
He has done.
Peter tells us, “But you are a chosen race, a royal
priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may
proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once
you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Peter 2:9-10, ESV).
God the Father loves His people. He delivered them from Egypt. He delivered them from Babylon. And He delivers all who believe from sin and
the kingdom of Satan through the gift of His Son, Who He gave in love to be our
Savior.
And the Triune God is our Sovereign Redeemer. We could not save ourselves from sin and the
Wrath of God any more than Israel could free herself from Egypt or
Babylon. Salvation is the work of God –
and the salvation given to us in Jesus continues until all sin and evil are thrown
into the lake of fire and we are forever
received into the Kingdom of God and the restored Creation.
So, let us praise God and give Him thanks. Even though we endure “light sufferings” at
this time for our sin and due to the sin in the world. Let us see the new thing that God has done in
Jesus and be prepared; He is coming soon.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for loving us so much You sent
Your Son to deliver us by Yourself and for Your praise. Help us to be faithful and obedient in all
things as we look forward to the completion of our deliverance in the return of
Christ, and may Your praise ever be on our mouths. For it is in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Review: "More Miracle Than Bird" (manuscript)
In 1911, Georgie Hyde-Lees briefly met W. B. Yeats. They were to meet again and marry soon after.
More Miracle Than Bird is a “reimagining” (as one
reviewer on the cover states) of the courtship and first year of marriage
between Georgie Hyde-Lees and W. B. Yeats.
The novel begins in 1916 as war is breaking out, but spends most of its
time in 1917, during which their courtship and marriage mostly occurred. She was twenty-five and he was fifty-two.
Georgie was working in a hospital caring for wounded
soldiers and even found herself feeling affection for one of them. W. B. was still pining over his one great
love lost, Maud Gonne. But the two of
them come together and become enthralled with each other as members of The
Order – an occult group that held seances and practiced the reception of
spirits into their bodies. Georgie was
possessed and received messages from “Thomas,” among others.
They have two children together. Also during their marriage, as the editor
points out, Yeats writes his best work – the work that he is now remembered
for – thanks in no little part to his being married to Georgie.
I like historical novels, and this one is engaging and
flows nicely. The characters are real
and one gets a sense of who they are and what they are thinking.
My one qualm with the novel is knowing that it is a
reimagining of the story. My own
googling seems to support the basic storyline, but I am concerned not knowing
how much reimagining the author did. It
would be helpful if she included a list of recommended resources that she
consulted to put together the facts of this history.
[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel,
Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Review: "7 Women and the Secret of Their Greatness" (manuscript)
Eric Metaxas is a biographer I have read several times
now. He is readable and he tells the story
of the people in such a way that you really get to know who they are and what
they are about. They are not mere caricatures,
but they are real people with worldviews that can be identified and examined.
I just read his book, 7 Women and the Secret to Their
Greatness. In this book, Metaxas tells
the stories of Joan of Arc, Susanna Wesley, Hannah More, St. Marie of Paris,
Corrie ten Boom, Rosa Parks, and Mother Teresa.
Each biography is roughly thirty pages.
The book ends with notes and an index.
What can you know in thirty pages? More than you would think. This book has inspired me to find out more
about these women – some of whom I had never heard of.
Biographies challenge us to adopt the good we find in
others and avoid the errors and evils of their lives. This book is a great primer on the lives of
these seven women – a great place to start.
[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel,
Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]
Review: "Overture to Death" (manuscript)
Overture to Death, the 8th Detective Alleyn novel, is the book for which Ngaio Marsh was knighted as a Dame of the British Empire, and she does not disappoint.
The youth need a new piano – they have played and played
with the piano to the point of it being in disrepair. Seven of the locals have an idea of putting
on a play to raise money for a new piano, so they begin planning and practicing. They decide it will be a whole program with
introductory piano music – therein lies the rub.
Idris Campanula and Eleanor Prentice have many things in common
– they are both spinsters in their fifties, both interested in the attentions
of the local vicar, and both piano players who believe they should get priority
in playing at any event.
After much haggling, the actors decide to allow Miss
Prentice the honor of playing, but in the week before the event, she severely
injures one of her fingers and can’t play.
Good for her, for as Miss Campanula begins to play, a gun goes off
ripping through her skull.
Who would have so much hate?
[This review appears on my blog, my YouTube channel,
Amazon.com, and Goodreads.com.]
Sunday, August 23, 2020
"The Exclusivity of God" Sermon: Isaiah 43:8-13 (manuscript)
“The
Exclusivity of God”
[Isaiah
43:8-13]
August
23, 2020 YouTube
In the first seven verses of chapter 43, God comforts
Jerusalem – and all believers – that we are created and saved by God, brought
through our trials, and all of this is done to the Glory of God.
From here, we move to another courtroom scene – because,
as much as God comforts Jerusalem and us – in exile, in Covid, in times of
stress with no good answers – many will turn to idolatry and the attempt to justify
and worship God as one god among many.
And we see, first, God acts; idols don’t.
“Bring
out the people who are blind, yet have eyes, who are deaf, yet have ears!”
God
calls out His witnesses – the people of Jerusalem. But, as we saw not long ago, the people of
Jerusalem are blind – even though they have eyes that work, and they are deaf –
even though they have ears that work.
Through their sin – their despising of the Law of God, they have made
themselves spiritually deaf and blind.
What
good is the testimony of the blind as to what they saw? Or the deaf as to what
they heard? Nothing.
The
nations – the Gentiles – the non-Jews – are called to testify about their idols. And they are asked if they can declare or
show the former things – and if so, to provide witnesses in the form of the
idols who can do so.
“All
the nations gather together, and the peoples 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.”
God
gathers all the people – the nations and Jerusalem – God and the idols – and He
asks which of the idols can declare that God did “this” and the “former things”
that God did. God challenges them to
come forward and show that their idols have also done something as incredible
as what God did.
And
the question for the twenty-first century reader is “What in the world is God
referring to? What event or things is
God holding up as His prime example of acting on behalf of His people?”
In
700 B. C., Jerusalem would understand that THE thing that God did was deliver
them from 400 years of slavery in Egypt:
“I
am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the
house of slavery.
“You
shall have no other gods before me.
“You
shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is
in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under
the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the LORD your
God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to
the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing steadfast
love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments” (Exodus 20:2-6,
ESV).
And
what did God accomplish for the deliverance of His people:
God
turned the Nile River to blood.
God
sent frogs to overrun the unbelievers.
God
sent gnats to overrun the unbelievers.
God
sent flies to overrun the unbelievers.
God
killed the unbeliever’s livestock.
God
caused the unbelievers to be covered with boils.
God
sent hail to destroy the unbeliever’s crops.
God
sent locusts to eat the unbeliever’s crops.
God
covered the land in darkness.
God
killed the first-born son of the unbelievers.
“What
has your god done that compares with the work that God has done for His
people?”
There
is no answer because God acts, idols don’t.
We
know that as modern believers: God so
loved the world that He sent His only Son to save His people. No idol has ever saved anyone. No idol has ever sent his son to live and die
for his people. Only God acts – He is
alive and involved in our history – our lives.
Idols are impotent.
Second,
God is the Only Savior.
“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.”
God
tells Jerusalem that she is His witness.
But they are blind and deaf! God
chose a people for Himself – God chose them – and us – and made us His servants
– we are to represent our God to the world, but when we get involved in
idolatry, we are blind and deaf and do nothing to advance the cause and glory
of our God.
God
tells Jerusalem that He chose them – and us – so we would know God, so we would
believe in God, and so we would understand God.
God wants us to know Him as He knows us, because that is our joy – to
know God, to enjoy Him, and to glorify Him – to show Who He is and what He has
done in the world.
Our
sin – and our idolatry – cloud people from seeing Who God is in us. We fail to glorify God when we do not obey
the moral law of God – when we commit idolatry. So, there is a disjoint between
what God wants and intends for us and who we are now – and that should not
surprise us – though it should shame us.
Paul
writes of his holiness – of his completion of all that God requires of him, “Not
that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make
it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not
consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies
behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for
the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are
mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal
that also to you. Only let us hold true
to what we have attained” (Philippians 3:12-16, ESV).
So,
who will witness for God? The Only One
Who can: God.
“Before
me no god was formed, nor shall there be any after me. I, 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.”
God
testifies that there is no god before God and there is no god after Him. Before anything else was, God is, and nothing
will ever become a god or a true competitor to God because He alone is
God. God brought everything into
existence, even the thing that we make into an idol. Only God always exists even before anything
existed.
God
says, “I, I am.” And we should recognize
that – when Moses meets God in the burning bush, Moses asks God Who he should
tell the people God is, and God says to tell them, “I Am Who I Am.” It can also be translated as “I Was Who I
Was” or “I Will Be Who I Will Be.” The
point being that God is the Eternal. God
is and always is. Before the creation
God is, now, God is, and in the restoration, God is. God is always and never changing.
We
are familiar with this as we see it given to us in the New Testament: “Jesus
Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Hebrews 13:8, ESV).
“I
declared and saved and proclaimed.”
God
is the One Who called all things into existence – God declared that things
would be, and they are. No idol has ever
spoken anything into existence.
God
is the Only Savior. Due to our sin and
the sin of our first parents, no one is able to be made right with God except
through God – the Incarnate God in the Person of Jesus of Nazareth. No idol can
save a person from anything.
God
is the Only One Who has proclaimed His Word and the One Way of salvation in it.
God
testifies of Himself that He is, and He is It!
Before a single strange god – before any idol existed –
they are a product of sin – God is and no one and nothing was with Him or
before Him.
And God tells the deaf and the blind – God tells all of
His chosen people – including you and me – He has chosen us and appointed us to
be His witnesses to the world – including being witnesses before those who
would follow idols and ascribe to them powers that they do not have.
God is the Eternal Creator Who lives before time and
space existed, so Only He is able to be the Savior of His people. No one else is equipped, because they are
sinners or non-entities.
If our hope is in another mere human, or in our 401k or
our home or the government – know that they can all fall away and all of them
are pitiable and small and impotent before God the Savior.
God says, when everything else and everyone else falls
away – when we recognize how finite and small everything else is – how
temporary – God is, and He is our Savior Alone.
Third, God is Supreme.
And, so, the case in concluded with this pronouncement:
“Also henceforth I am he;”
I Am – YHWH – is THE God, the Only God, the Exclusive
God. He is Supreme. There is no other
God, but God, so the worship of an idol is an affront to God and utter
foolishness. Idols cannot help or do anything
– as we saw in an earlier sermon – idols cannot speak or foresee the future –
only God, the One God, can.
The Son of God, Jesus, says that He is the Exclusive God,
and His Salvation is an exclusive salvation:
“Jesus said to him, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the
life. No one comes to the Father except through me’” (John 14:6, ESV).
“And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no
other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12, ESV).
“And this is eternal life, that they know you, the only
true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3, ESV).
And the One Salvation from the One God cannot be lost:
“there
is none who can deliver from my hand;”
Jesus
says, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will
snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater
than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the
Father are one” (John 10:28-30, ESV).
“all
the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and he does according to
his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and
none can stay his hand or say to him, ‘What have you done?’” (Daniel 4:35, ESV).
In
holding His people and never letting them go or doing whatever pleases God among
the peoples of the earth, no one can be delivered in either sense from the Hand
of God. He is Supreme in His Love and
His Wrath, and no one can teach Him or correct Him that He would do other than
what He has chosen to do.
“I work, and who can turn it back?”
“Consider
the work of God: who can make straight what he has made crooked?” (Ecclesiastes
7:13, ESV).
What
God does, no one can undo – neither human nor idol. God does it and it is so.
So, God tells Jerusalem – and us – it is blasphemous and
stupid to trust in idols and to worship them.
Why?
Because God acts, and idols don’t – they are impotent – they
cannot do anything.
Because God is the Only Savior – the only way to become
right with God is by God through God’s Savior, and Him Alone. No one can become right with God and escape
His Wrath except through Jesus. No idol
has any power to save.
Because God is Supreme.
God does all things in accordance with His Holy Will. Nothing can occur, nothing can be changed, no
one can ascend to the throne of God – God is the Exclusive Savior and the God
Who is active in history bringing all things together for the good of His
people and to His Glory.
This week, a dear woman of prayer and service, Joan
McBride, died. She was a person of love
and self-sacrifice who showed her faith mightily and cared for me and my work
in Christ. She died suddenly and left us
all shocked. Joan has been received into
the Presence and the Glory of Jesus.
We know that her death – though it takes us off guard –
was according to the Plan of God. God
was not surprised to see her, though we mourn the surprise to us. God set the day and time that she would die.
She was a woman of faith – a great woman of prayer. She longed to know her Savior more and
understand His Word better. Her longing
is now being satisfied because she believed in the One Savior. The Exclusive God of Salvation.
There was nothing we could have been done to prevent her
death. God from all of eternity planned
this to be the time of her death and to be received as His daughter into
Paradise.
As we mourn her death and being away from us for now, let
us rejoice that she knows God the Only God, her Savior, the Exclusive God, the
Supreme and Only God, the Sovereign God before Whom she is now and forever.
Let us turn from our idols, confess our sin, and keep our
focus on the God Who says “I Am” and no other – the God welcomes each one who
believes into His Kingdom forever and ever to His Glory and our eternal joy.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, we thank You for this testimony of Your
Exclusiveness in action, salvation, and sovereignty and supremacy in history.
Help us to never turn away from You, but to trust You wholeheartedly and be
received into Your Glory at the right time.
In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
Sunday, August 16, 2020
"God's Magnificence in His Purposed People" Sermon: Isaiah 43:1-7 (manuscript)
“God’s Magnificence in His Purposed People”
(Isaiah
43:1-7)
August
16, 2020 YouTube
Chapter 42 of Isaiah ends with God explaining to
Jerusalem that His Law is glorious – something to be loved because of Who gave
it and what it tells us about Him – such that we desire to keep God’s Law and
please Him. Also, that Jerusalem is
blind to God’s Law and sinned against God, so she will be disciplined. In discipline, they ought to address the
question of Who is bringing discipline upon them – because it sheds more light
than the question of why and guides towards reconciliation and growth towards
Who God has called His people to be.
But – and so we come to this morning’s text – and there
is something more to say. The discipline
of Jerusalem is not the end of the matter – as we discussed. Discipline is never the end, so Isaiah
introduces God’s speaking – “But.”
And we see that the people of God exist and are redeemed
by God.
“But
now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O
Israel:”
The
Hebrew text of this verse begins, “But now says YHWH.” Isaiah uses that most personal and holy Name
of God that God gives to Moses at the burning bush. Isaiah wants Israel to focus on this being
the God of Moses – the Deliverer – Who is in an intimate relationship with
Israel – with all those who believe.
Then,
in part of reemphasis, Isaiah notes that YHWH created and formed Jacob and
Israel – the people of God.
The
words Isaiah takes are from the creation history we find in Genesis. When he says that YHWH created Jacob and
Israel, he uses the same word that is used in Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning,
God created the heavens and the earth” (ESV).
Isaiah
wants them to reflect upon that fact that – just as God spoke everything that
is into existence out of nothing – so God spoke Judah and Israel into existence
out of nothing. They were not a nation
and then God chose them – no – they did not exist – and then God chose a man,
Abraham, and called him to be the father of the nation that is Israel and
Judah. Israel and Judah exist by the
pure Grace of God. They were totally
God’s creation out of nothing to be His people.
Likewise,
Peter describes all believers in this way – as a nation – as a people – as those
called out of nothing to be God’s:
“But
you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own
possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of
darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are
God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy”
(1 Peter 2:9-10, ESV). Genesis 2:7
Then
Isaiah again turns to Genesis in saying that God formed Israel and Judah:
“then
the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature” (Genesis
2:7, ESV).
The
creation of humans in the beginning was an intimate creation. God did not merely speak and it was, but God reached
into the dirt and formed the human body and then God breathed life into the man,
and Adam became a living creature.
The
existence of humans to begin with – not to mention our continued existence –
even as we are created in the womb – is an intimate, caring, grace-filled
action from God. God chose – for His own
reasons – to become involved with the physical creation to form some of it into
the first human being. It is through the
loving touch of God that Adam came into being.
Similarly,
all the people of Israel and Judah were formed by God – they were made by God
through Abraham to be the people of God.
As we look at the Bible – God is intimately involved with the people of
Israel and Judah from the beginning. God
is not an absentee God, but God Who is involved in history and even gives His
Word for all people to know and believe and follow.
Again,
we who believe have been formed into believers – we did not come to faith and
believe of our own accord:
“and
made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion
forever and ever. Amen” (Revelation 1:6, ESV).
“For
by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it
is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are
his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them” (Ephesians 2:8-10, ESV).
As
God goes on to say, “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by
name, you are mine.”
God
tells Israel and Judah – yes, you are going into captivity for your sins – but
– you are My people that I brought into existence – that I made a people – that
I made for Myself – and though you are going off into captivity for now – I
have redeemed you – while you are yet sinners – I have paid the debt for you –
I have redeemed you. I have called you
by name – I chose a people and chose you
as individuals that I know – you are marked as Mine eternally – no one can
snatch you out of My hands – everyone who ever believes in Me will be Mine
forever.
Paul
writes, “For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the
ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a
righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to
die—but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us” (Romans 5:6-8, ESV).
Now,
the fear they have – we have – is not merely going off into captivity – the
fear is that God will not keep His promises – that, perhaps, God is so angry
that He will get rid of His people and no longer care for them but let them succumb
to the world and its devices.
“No,
in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I
am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present
nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all
creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our
Lord” (Romans 8:37-38, ESV).
God
is comforting Israel and Judah – and this should be a comfort to each one of us
who believes – each one of us who goes through trials and discipline – God
created us out of nothing – all by Himself.
He made us into the people He wants us to be – all by Himself. And He saves us by Himself by His Work
through Jesus of Nazareth, the Incarnate God.
God
has called each one of us by name who believes and no matter what happens – no
matter what we go through – we are God’s, and nothing will ever separate us
from the Love of God in Christ Jesus. He
made us and redeemed us by Himself and for Himself – that is what He is telling
Israel and Judah! Be comforted! I am God and I always keep My promises – I
caused you to exist and I have redeemed you for Myself. You are forever Mine.
Second,
our trials are nothing to be feared.
Jerusalem
is afraid because they don’t know if God has abandoned them for good for their
sin – so God comforts them that He will never abandon those who He has called
to be His. So, now the question is whether
to fear the actual discipline – the exile – the being taken away into captivity
in a foreign land.
God
tells them – and He tells us – not to fear the trials we go through.
“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.”
Trials
are not to be feared because God is with them – and us. If we are believers – God is with us as we go
through the trials and the discipline in life.
God does not abandon His people to their captors. No, He is with us always. He is our Father Who loves us.
The
first word of this sentence can be translated as “when” or “whenever” – the
idea is that there is not one trial and then everything is fine. No, there will be trials for Jerusalem and
you and me throughout our life on this earth.
And,
it is not a question of “if” these trials will happen but when – everyone suffers
trials – some more and some less. Yet,
God will be with us.
Some
will suffer in waters and rivers and fires and flames – this is shorthand for
every type of trial and suffering.
Whatever way in which you suffer as a believer – God is there with you. God is allowing or causing these trails for
the good of His people – that is the point of discipline.
James
writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds,
for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let
steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,
lacking in nothing” (James 1:2-4, ESV).
But
notice, God will not allow the water or the fire to consume us. We belong to God, and though we go through
trials now – we will come out of these trials one day. We will not be lost to
our trials.
And
we may wonder about that – as Jerusalem does – our trials may be light – or
severe – or they may even end in our death – it is possible that we will die in
our trials. In the seventy years of
exile, many of the captives do die. God
is not promising that we won’t suffer or be scarred or even die, but that we do
not need to fear the trials.
Why
not?
“For
I am the LORD your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”
Jerusalem
– and we – ought not fear the trials because YHWH is our God – the Sovereign
God of heaven and earth is our God – nothing occurs to us that is outside of
the plan and purpose of God.
And
our God is the Holy God. Nothing that
occurs to us is evil by the Hand of God.
Rather, it is all working together for the good of those who love God
(cf. Romans 8:28). God’s Will and actions are always and only pure and right –
no matter how much pain we may endure for numerous reasons.
And
our God is our Savior. The God Who
allows and causes our trials is the God Who saves His people. No matter what we endure – God has saved His
people and we are saved, and we will never lose our salvation but always and
forever be with Him in the Kingdom.
“I
give Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in exchange for you.”
We
ought not fear our trials because God gives the nations is exchange for
Jerusalem – in exchange for His people – you and me. The language here is the language of the
sacrificial system when God speaks of our being cleansed through the covering
of blood. God is willing to shed the
blood of the nations to save His people.
There is no one that God won’t destroy to save His people.
“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.”
Because
Jerusalem – all of those who ever believe savingly – are precious to God. He loves us with a love that sends His Son to
live and die horrifically that we would be saved.
Why?
“For
you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you to
be a people for his treasured possession, out of all the peoples who are on the
face of the earth. It was not because you were more in number than any other
people that the LORD set his love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest
of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath
that he swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty
hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king
of Egypt” (Deuteronomy 7:6-8, ESV).
Why
did God choose Jerusalem? Why did God
choose you or me? Not due to anything in
us, but because God is faithful and keeps His promises. God chooses and saves His people because God
is God – not due to anything in us or about us.
Paul
writes, “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth
comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us” (Romans 8:18, ESV).
Our
trials are nothing to be feared because the Holy God is our God and He has
chosen and saved us by Himself and for Himself because He is Faithful.
Third,
we were created to glorify God.
God
continues to comfort Jerusalem:
“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, everyone who is called by my name, whom I created
for my glory, whom I formed and made.”
The
exile is not coming for over a hundred years – but begin now – God says – begin
now to get it into your heads not to fear.
Don’t be afraid of being exiled – of being disciplined – as we have just
talked about – don’t fear what is coming, but prepare yourselves for it –
understanding this:
God
will forcibly command – that is what the language conveys in the text – God
will forcibly command the north and the south and the east and the west to
release everyone who is a member of the people of God – every believer –
everyone that God will bring into His Kingdom.
Jerusalem
would hear this and remember what Moses says:
“And
when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have
set before you, 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 all that I command you today, with all your
heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes
and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where
the LORD your God has scattered you. If your outcasts are in the uttermost
parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there
he will take you” (Deuteronomy 30:1-4, ESV).
The
same is true today, Jesus will gather His people at the end of the age to
Himself. Jesus says, “And people will
come from east and west, and from north and south, and recline at table in the
kingdom of God” (Luke 13:29, ESV).
“For
the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice
of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in
Christ will rise first. Then we who are
alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet
the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore
encourage one another with these words” (I Thessalonians 4:16-18, ESV).
God’s
people are dispersed throughout the world through exile and trial and free
movement, but on that day – whether we are alive or dead – not one of us will
be missed as Jesus gathers the people of Jerusalem after Babylon – and finally,
all believers at the end of the age, so don’t fear – be comforted. All of God’s people throughout time and space
will be gathered with Him.
Why?
The section ends with these words: “everyone who is
called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made.” And we come full circle in our text.
The reason that God keeps His Promises and saves His
people and gathers us all together is that we are created for His Glory. Humans – believers – and all of Creation – were
created by God so we – so everything – would glorify Him – so everything will
acknowledge and reveal the Character and Attributes of God.
God chose a nation for Himself – Israel, God chose a
people for Himself – God chose each believer throughout time and space – we are
created by Him through Adam and Eve and our parents – and He saves us from His
Wrath in love through Jesus, so we would let all Creation know Who God is – and
do so in awe and thanksgiving, and praise.
And let us notice the patterns – in the beginning of our
text, we saw that God created and formed us – looking back to the Genesis
history. Now here, we are created and
formed and made. And we are chosen to be
God’s.
Notices also the pattern of three – remember this is the
method of emphasis – who is called by My Name, who I created for My Glory, who
I formed and made – emphasizing both the initial Creation and the re-creation –
the restoration that is yet to come at the return of Jesus.
God is preparing Jerusalem for the exile which is to
come. He is giving them over a hundred
years to prepare for their discipline -- this trial. He makes it clear to them that God is the One
Who brought them into existence and redeems them through the Savior. He makes it clear that no matter what happens
in the trails, He is with His people, so we should not fear. And all of the Creation – including humans –
was created to glorify God – especially those that God will gather from the
four corners of Creation and bring into His Kingdom – all we who believe.
So, let us glorify God by trusting Him through discipline
and trial, through faith and obedience, and let our sure hope be in our God and
Savior Who will do everything He has promised.
Let us pray:
Almighty God, as we look at Covid and the other trials of
our lives – some even deserved discipline from the hand of our Loving Father,
we worry about ourselves and how we will come through this. Help us to trust, believing that You have a
purpose for each of us – as You do for Jerusalem – and You will be with us and
bring us to You. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
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