Verse 5, To whom will you liken me, and
make me equal, and compare me that we may be like? They lavish gold out of the bag,
and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith, and he
maketh it a god. They fall down, yea, they worship. They bear him upon the shoulder.
They carry him and set him in his place. And he standeth. From his place shall he not remove. Yea, one shall cry unto him,
yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble. Remember
this and show yourselves men. bring it again to mind, oh, you
transgressors. Remember the former things of
old, for I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there
is none like me. Declaring the end from the beginning,
and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying
my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Calling a
ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel
from a far country. Yea, I have spoken it. I will
also bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Hearken unto me, ye stout-hearted
that are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness.
Isn't that beautiful? Are you far from righteousness? And it seems like there's no
way you're gonna get there. You're not. But he may just bring
it to you. He may just do that. I'd sure
cry for it. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry. And I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. Let's pray together. Gracious
Father, thank you for the beautiful promise of your gospel, Lord,
that your salvation is not something that we must attain unto, but
that you freely give it, Lord, to sinners such as we, your righteousness,
the forgiveness of sin. Thank you for coming right where
we are and bringing salvation to us. Bless your word tonight,
Lord. Don't let this just be another
church service. I pray that it would be a precious
time of blessing from you, Lord, that we gather as your family
here and fellowship together in you and
that you would open your word up to us, Lord, and open our
hearts up to you. and teach us, Lord, of our Savior.
May we see Him high and lifted up, and see His grace and love in the words of your book. May we remember our Savior tonight,
and may it be as health to our very
bones. In His precious name, amen. In the first four verses of this
chapter, our Lord shows that while the godless carry their
idols, God is carrying his people. A very clear and beautiful contrast
is made there. And this is a great spiritual
truth. The idolatrous religion of free will puts the burden
upon men to perform for God. They all do. That's one thing
all religions have in common. It's all works, isn't it? Except
for true religion and undefiled. The gospel of our Savior. It
puts the burden upon man to perform for God what we cannot. Because
of sin, because of our depravity, we're unable to please God. We're
unable to make satisfaction for our sin. And so, the picture
is clear, isn't it? We carry in these idols and they're
a burden to us. The true gospel of Christ reveals
that the Savior carries the burden for us. And we are the burden. We're the burden. It's us in
our wretched sinfulness that must be carried to God. He died
the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God. You're
not getting there any other way. And I'm not either. He leaves
the 99 and he goes and finds his lost sheep and brings it
home, rejoicing. Lays it on his shoulder. It's
not getting home any other way. He goes and gets it because he
knows it ain't coming home without him. He says, come unto me all
you that labor or heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Now in verse
5, the Lord, as He has often done in the book of Isaiah, declares
Himself to be the one and only true God. Holy God. None like Him. Separate. Unique. That's what the word holy literally
means. Separate. Unlike any other. There's no
God beside Him. A just God and a Savior. No other
God can save you. Praying to a God, I believe in
the previous chapter it says that can't save. Why would you
do that? Why pray to a God that can't save you? There's only
one that can and this is why it's blasphemy to make an idol,
to imagine a likeness of God in your imagination and fashion
it whether into a physical image or just an image of your imagination.
God is to be understood and believed and known by revelation. There's just two ways. for you to have a God, for you
to know God, to know and comprehend a God by revelation or by your
imagination. When God reveals himself to a
sinner, we know him. And when we lean to our own understanding
and imagination and out of our self-righteousness and hatred
for the true God, we fashion one that suits us, we have an
idol. It's just that simple. If God reveals himself, we know
him. He doesn't do that in vain. He doesn't try. He either turns
the light on or he don't. If he don't, then all we have
is our imagination. And the question in verse 5 is
asked with those first four verses in mind, that he carries his
people. He asked this, what other God
can save you? What other God can save you?
What other God can carry you as opposed to needing to be carried
by you? To whom will you liken the God
of the Bible? The God of the Bible is holy.
Now think about it now. I know we talk about the God
of religion. Some of you are more familiar
with him than others. He goes by many names, but he's
the same. among all of the so-called religions of this world. But
there's no God like me, our God says. In what way? Well, He's
holy. He's holy. No other God is. The God of religion
is okay, you know, with your good outweighing your bad, as
if that could even be true. He's fine with that, but not
the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible has a higher
standard than that. That's to say the least. That's
an understatement. The God of religion, now you
go, yeah, we do some bad things, but we do some good things, you
know. As long as our good outweighs our bad, you know, we got an
understanding with the man upstairs. Our God's not like that. He's
holy. You can't have ever sinned. It's not going to be good for
you if you've ever sinned. And the only way that can be
true, that I've never sinned, is in Christ. God's love and
favor and blessing is in Christ alone. The God of the Bible is holy.
There is none good in his sight. The God of religion recognizes
good people and bad people. The God of this book just sees
sinners. There are the sinners that he
loves and sinners he don't love. They're all sinners. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. None good in Him. He demands perfect righteousness. And He provides perfect righteousness. The two gods don't match up,
do they? Who are you going to liken? You can't liken that god
to this god. They don't add up. The God of
the Bible is sovereign. Clearly, He saves who He wants
to save. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. He saves whom he will. The God of free will religion
leaves salvation up to sinners. He does the best he can, you
know. But he can only go so far without violating the free will
of man. They don't match up, do they? Who are you going to
liken to the God of the Bible? There's only one like that. There's
only one like that. Why doesn't religion come up
with a God that's at least sovereign? You ever wonder that? Why don't
they come? Because they hate God and he's sovereign. That's
why they come up with other gods. Because they don't like this
one. That's why there ain't another one that at least is God, at
least can do what He wants to do. The reason there's not is
because there's an idol because they hate God. They hate the
God who does as He pleases. And so the idols they come up
with, all of them, fall short of that. Very simple. The God of the Bible is almighty
and irresistible in His power and in His will. The God of free
will religion is weak and impotent. He can't carry out his purposes
without men's coordination, cooperation, and consent. There's just no
comparison, is there? There's no God like our God. There's just one. In verse six,
they lavish gold out of the bag and they weigh silver in the
balance and they hire a goldsmith. and he maketh it a God. They
fall down, yea, they worship. And this now, remember what our
Lord said that the ones who make these their gods are just like
they are. They're impotent. They can't
do anything. They set them in their place and that's where
they are. They don't ever move. And we see that, we see another
truth in the way that these gods are fashioned. The way that they
make them tells us a lot about who those gods are and who the
people are that make them. Where did that gold and silver
come from? They lavish gold out of the bag and waste silver in
the bag. Where did that come from? Well they earned it. They
bring the gold to the goldsmith and say here's some gold that
I have that I worked for. You see the picture? Here's some
money, here's what I have, what I've produced, what I've been
able to earn. And they bring it to that goldsmith.
Why does that goldsmith make it for them? They hired him.
You see that? They hired him. They're paying
him to do it. It's not just the gold for the idol. They pay him
to make it for the labor of making it too. With money that they
earned from their own labor. So man's God physically here,
in the case of a tangible idol, but always spiritually. Man's
God is a product of his own work and his own will. Not only did
he imagine him, but he earned him. He's the one that produces
him. Just as Cain offered that which
he labored to produce, rather than just simply as God had clearly
taught, taking a spotless lamb from among the flock and shedding
its innocent blood to picture the precious blood of the Son
of God, the Lamb of God, which takes away sin. He produced produce, that's why
they call it produce, and imagined that he had actually produced
it himself. You know, he put in some sweat
and some hours and some time some effort, even though everything comes
from God. We can at least fool ourselves into thinking we produce
certain things. And Cain of course was rejected
by God because atonement can only be made by the shedding
of blood. Without the shedding of blood
there's no remission of sins. By the shedding of innocent blood,
all of man's idols and false religion are a product of man's
producing. Not only do they themselves produce
the idol itself, but in the worship of that idol, all of their blessing
depends upon them producing. Just listen to them. If we, if
we, If you will, God will. The if
starts with you in religion, in false religion. You've got
to keep the law. There are ways that the yoke
of the law, that's why Paul so vehemently wrote and spoke against
that. Don't put that yoke of the law
on us. Nobody has ever been able to
bear it. You can't bear it. I can't bear it. Our children
are not going to bear it. We believe that we are saved
by the grace of God, just like everybody else has been that's
ever been saved. But we're not going to be saved
without the deeds of the law. God never gave the law for you
to keep it. I know it seems logical, but
why did God give the law? Because He wanted us to not do
those things and to do those things. No, that's not it. The law was a schoolmaster to
bring His people to Christ. If we lean to our own understanding
now we would think well God gave a law because he expected it
to be kept. Not by you he didn't. He's not a fool. He gave his law for the reason
he said he gave it. That every mouth may be stopped
and all the world become guilty before God and his sheep be driven
to Christ. Christ is the goal of the law
for righteousness. to everyone that believes on
Him. You've got to decide, you've
got to make a decision, you know. The Bible says that salvation
is by God's will and not yours. Not of the will of man, nor of
the will of the flesh, but of God. You've got to live the Christian
life. Really? How's that going for
you? How's that going for the religion
of this world? Paul said, I'm crucified with
Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. Live in the Christian life. You
gotta be kidding. Paul said, it's not me, the life
which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son
of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. That's my hope,
not me living anything. He loved me and he gave himself
for me. That's how I live in this world. By the grace of God. They worship themselves in honoring
the work of their own hands. We worship God in spirit and
in truth. Scripture says he seeketh such
to worship him. That's why there are some. Because
he sought some out. and made them worshipers of him.
Look at verse 7 back in our text. They bear him upon the shoulder. They carry him. As we're reading
this verse 7 now. Think about this. Imagine for
a second that this is talking about what Christ does for us.
Think about it. This is Christ doing. They bear
him upon the shoulder. They carry him. They set him
in his place, and he standeth. From his place shall he not remove."
Didn't David say, the Lord is my rock, I'll not be moved? Everything that they have to
do for their God, our God does for us. What a difference. No God like ours. Isn't that
wonderful? He's not going to be moved. Not only are idols that man produces
a burden to man, but those idols are manipulated by the ones that
made them. They whittle them down to exactly
the way they want them to look. And the spiritual equivalent
of that is God can only go so far now. He can't violate our
free will. Why not? Who's God then in this
thing? And who's not? Because that's
the way they want their God. That's why. They manipulate Him.
They carry Him. They move Him. They put Him where
they want Him. They put Him in His place. You
know that saying, she put Him in His place. That's what they
do with their God. They put Him in His place. You
can't go beyond that. But our God bears us on His shoulder. He sets us in our place. And
that phrase goes, that makes sense too in this sense, doesn't
it? He puts us in our place, doesn't it? Real quick, I found
out where I stand. I found out one day who God was
and it wasn't me. Paul said the law, I heard the
law, I thought I kept the law before, but when the commandment
came to my heart and spiritual understanding, sin revived and
it killed me. I died. The old self-righteous me died. Our God bears us. He bears us. And you think about that. When
he bears us, he's bearing sin, isn't he? He bore our sins in
his own body on the tree. That's bearing me. He bore what
I am. The wrath of God was poured out
upon him because he did. Our God carries us. We don't
carry him. He brought us home. Aren't you
glad? We were far from God. We won't
get that far in our text tonight, but I love that last part of
the chapter where it says, you who are far from righteousness.
That's okay. I'll bring it to you. Isn't that
what He said? I'll bring it to you. You talk
about comforting. There's no God like that. He brought us home. They put
their God in His place physically and spiritually. They put Him
in His place in the sense that they don't let Him dictate to
them the terms of salvation. My God will. He does. And there's no salvation any
other way? They dictate to their God. They
decide what's fair and what's not. Not so with my God. He tells me what's fair. And
I say, yes sir. Amen. Truth, Lord. Truth. Their God can't do anything without
them. Isn't that the picture painted in the verse we just
read there? He can't do anything without them. They put him there
and there he stands. He's not going anywhere until they move
him again. He is a puppet of man's will. Every idol is a puppet of man's
will. You know it's kind of the other
way around with the true God. We've been accused of that, you
know. Your God, that makes people puppets. That's okay with me.
How about you? Who do you want pulling the strings?
You want that job? And this is exactly the way free
will religion speaks of their God. All the time, every day.
They did it today. While we were meeting here. They
were talking about Him not having any hands but our hands. Unless,
you know, you put your hand in there and move him around, he
don't have any hands but your hands. You ever heard that one
before? Yeah, me too. I've heard it a
lot. No feet except their feet. They
put him in his place and there he stands, God said. Not my God. His Holy Spirit blows where he
listeth. Aren't you glad? We can hear the sound there,
but we can't tell where he's come from or where he'll go.
But I know this, wherever he goes, he makes sinners real happy.
He doeth all things well. Our God puts us in our place
both in the sense, in both senses of the phrase. Now He puts us
in the dust before Him. He puts us where we belong. He causes us to see our inability. We're the ones that aren't going
to move unless He does something. Can these bones live? The only
one that knows the answer to that is the one that can give
them life. Man says their God can't do anything
unless we let Him. We can't do anything unless our
God lets us. No God like our God. Aren't you
glad? Isn't there a certain pride in
that? We're not proud. Paul said, God forbid that I
should glory. You know what that word means?
Boast. Save and Christ crucified. I'm proud of Him. Aren't you?
I love to tell sinners about Him. They don't much like to
hear about him usually, but boy we can glory in him, can't we?
What a mighty God we have, what a wonderful, gracious, powerful
God we serve. We can't come to him unless he
draws us, isn't that what he said? We can't stay with him unless
he keeps us. Without Him, as He clearly said
in John 15, I believe it is. Without Him, we can do nothing. Just the opposite of what we
saw in the text there. Their God, without them, He can
do nothing. Without our God, without our
Lord Jesus Christ, we can do nothing. And this is what our Lord is
teaching. How can you call man's false God a God? He has none
of the attributes or personality of the God of the Bible. To whom
are you going to liken the God of the Bible? You name a God
and there's no comparison. And most vital of all is that
last phrase of verse 7. That last part of verse 7 there,
the man-made God. He can't save anybody. That's
the worst of it. He can't save you. He wants to. Man's God wants
to save a lot of people. He wants to save everybody. But here's the promise of our
God, the God revealed in this book. Listen to this now. Thus saith the Lord, the maker
thereof, the Lord that formed it to establish it. The Lord
is his name. Call unto me and I'll answer
you. Do you remember what it said in our text there? They
call, one shall call. It's phrased the same way as
in the last part of chapter 45 where it says one shall say in
the Lord have I righteousness. Somebody is going to say that.
Somebody else is going to call on a false God and he's not going
to be able to answer them. Our God says you call on me,
I'll answer you. And show you great and mighty
things which thou knowest not. God's shown me a few things I
didn't know about you. He still is. He still is. I still don't have much idea
who He is, but He's still showing me. He's still showing me. One shall call upon the God that
they imagine, and He can't answer. He's not going to answer them.
Here's the promise of our God. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord, He'll save you. He'll save you. Verse 7 again, he can't answer,
he can't save. He cannot answer nor save him
out of his trouble. But my God can. And he's promised
to do it. He said, I'll save you, you call
on me. You understand this now quite
clear in the text. You can't call on an idol and
have God save you. you get to call on God. Isn't
that right? You can't call on an idol and
have God save you. He's not going to save you if
you're not calling on Him. You must call upon the name of the
Lord, the God of Scripture, the God of the Bible, and He'll save
you. In fact, and I say this without hesitation, if you call
on Him, He's already saved you. He's already saved you, and He
will save you. But He's already saved you. In the context there
of Romans chapter 10, where I read that verse, for whosoever shall
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved, this question
is asked. How shall they call on Him in whom they've not believed? Now get the pictures, get the
picture in your mind. We're calling on God, and He said, you call
on Me, I'll save you. But you can't call on Him unless
you've believed on Him. How did you believe on Him? Faith is
His gift. Faith is the fruit of His Spirit.
Christ is the author of faith. So let me say it again. You call
on Him, He's already saved you. And He will save you. He that
hath begun a good work in you, He'll perform it. He'll have
to, won't He? We're not going to. We're not
going to finish it. Faith is God's gift, not of works,
lest any man should boast. We can't call on Him whom we've
not believed. You can't call upon God until
you have that gift of faith from Him. In fact, as that whole passage
in Romans 10 teaches, He has to do it all. Remember what Romans
10 talks about? How are you going to believe
in Him of whom you've not heard? One day, He caused you to hear. Now think about this. He has
to call and send a preacher. Somebody with his word. Now there
are not a whole lot of those. You might have noticed that.
There are not that many of them. He's got to call and send a preacher
with his message. He's got to send somebody out
with his gospel. Talking about the Christ of the Bible who does
not fail. Who redeems everybody he died
to redeem. And then he's got to cross your
path with that preacher. Think about that for a second.
In this world, As few of them as there are? How'd you wind
up sitting down and hearing one of them? You talk about grace. You ever think about that? How
in the world did we ever end up here in Jack Shanks in New
Caney, Texas? Tell of the glories of the God
that there's not anybody like. The Savior that there's nobody
like. Just God and a Savior. How in the world did we end up
there? And then He has to give you, He's got to cross your path
and then you've got to come hear Him. How should they believe
on Him? Who have they not heard? You're going to have to sit down
and listen, aren't you? He's got to make that happen.
He's got to do all of it, doesn't He? And then as you hear, as
you hear, He's got to give you faith. They heard the same gospel we
did, but it didn't benefit them because it wasn't mixed with
faith in them that heard it. You've got to give you faith
in the Christ that His preacher proclaims. He preaches Christ
crucified. You've got to lay hold of the
Lamb of God, slain for sinners like you. And then by faith,
by that faith, by that heart of faith, you cry unto the Lord.
And He said, when you do, I'll hear you. and I'll save you."
From start to finish, you've got to lay hold on Him. He said,
I'll save you. It almost sounds like by the time you cry unto
Him, He's already done a lot of saving, hasn't He? To send a preacher out and to
send you and Him to meet together somewhere in this vast wilderness. How did that happen? And to give
you a desire to sit down and listen to Him. He done a lot of saving for a
long time, hadn't he? He's been saving me. I started
to say since the day I was born, but it goes back further than
that, doesn't it? He's been saving me for a long,
long time. He has saved and He's saving
and He shall save us if we're His. And until He does all that,
you'll pray to a God that can't save you. Because you'll have
to make one up, won't you? Until you know the true God.
Verse 8. Remember this and show yourselves
men. I want to concentrate on that
phrase in this. Let's read 8 and 9 together.
Show yourselves men, bring it again to mind, oh you transgressors. This is not the first time they've
heard this and this is not the first time you've heard it. He's
saying bring it to mind. That's what we're here for tonight,
isn't it? To remember. Remember our Savior and everything
that He said. His precious gospel. Remember
the former things of old, for I'm God and there's none else. I'm God and there is none like
me. Now that little phrase there, Show yourselves men. Of course that includes women
too, but it means something now. It shows what we've become in
our wretchedness, in our ignorance, in our willful and arrogant,
let's just say the way he says it, stupidity. We're not even men anymore. We're
not even men. It's really not, we're really
not. God created man in his image. How's that? How are you looking
now? People, you know, religious people
love to say that about how that, you know, to kind of promote
man a little bit. Well, we're made in his image.
Not now you're not. You were originally. But don't
claim that now. You're not anything like God
now. Not in any way. What kind of man worships an
inanimate object? A chunk of gold or silver that
he has to carry around with him. You remember where we saw that
part where he takes a chunk of wood and burns part of it in
the fire to keep his house warm and then makes a god out of the
rest of it. What kind of man does that? What
kind of human being does that you see why he says show yourselves
men show yourselves what kind of a man worships the
pathetic God of free will religion in spite of clear revelation
from God what kind of man reads the Bible now and then says God
loves everybody have you read the Bible yeah are you sure What kind of man reads the Bible
and then says Christ died trying to save everybody? You see what
he's saying there? Show yourselves men. What kind of man searches the
scriptures which testify start to finish of Christ and only
Christ and then won't come to Christ that they might have life?
We're animals, aren't we? We're brutes. The scriptures
are pretty clear about that now. We're brute idiots by nature.
Doesn't the scripture say that we're wild asses cults? Job 11-12,
for a vain man would be wise. He presents himself as wise.
He wants to be wise. He wants to be thought of as
wise. Though man be born like a wild asses cult. You see the
exhortation in our text here, quit being a donkey. And hear the God remember Think
about who I am and what you are. Consider. Didn't he say in Isaiah
1-3, the ox knoweth his owner, the ass knows his master's crib,
but Israel doth not know? Wait a minute, did he just say
that we're dumber than an ox? It kind of sounded like it, didn't
it? If I said that, it'd make you mad. If God says that, it
better not make you mad. It ought to make you think. Show yourselves men. You see
what he's saying? And then the writer of Psalm 73 stopped
leaning on his own understanding and went and heard the word of
God and worshipped God. You remember what he said about
himself? So foolish was I and ignorant. I was as a beast before
thee. Show yourselves, men. And our prayer is, O God, restore
unto us our basic manhood, our basic understanding. We don't
even have the good sense that God gave an ox anymore. And it's our own fault. We forfeited
it. We gave it up freely. Cause us to acknowledge you and
bow to you and worship you and cast off all of our idols and
foolish dreams. And trust the one God, the unique
God. There's no God like Him. Bow
to Him. Look always and only to Him.
And let's just read the last part. We'll look at this verse
by verse. Let's just read the last part
of this chapter now. Show yourselves men verse 8 and
then verse 10 declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient
times the things that are not yet done. Saying my counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. Now he declares from the start. What has he been declaring from
the start? The seed of woman. The serpent will bruise his heel,
but he's going to crush the serpent's head. He's been declaring the
glories of his son, the preeminence and power, the saving power of
his son from the very start. And then he says, not only have
I declared it, but it's going to come to pass exactly as I
declared it. My counsel shall stand. I will
do all my pleasure. You know what his pleasure is?
Bless his holy name, it pleased him to bruise his son. To crush
his son. Same thing that was prophesied
in Genesis chapter 3. It's one message. Bible says
the same thing a lot of times. A lot of ways. One message. And it's going to be exactly
as he said, my counsel shall stand. I will do all my pleasure.
I'll call a ravenous bird from the east. You know what that's
referring to? He fed his prophet. by causing
a bird to bring him something to eat. He said, I'll take care
of you. Whatever's needed, I'll provide it. I'll make that happen. I'll take care of it. The man
that executes my counsel from a far country, he manipulates
every animal and every man. He's in control of all. He's
sovereign over all. He moves them as pieces on a
chessboard. People don't like that. Some
people do. I kind of do, don't you? You
see how he's distinguishing himself from the idols that they move
around? He said, I move you around. I have spoken it. I will also
bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. Oh, the one who said that said
this, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. He told us what he was going
to do that he hadn't done yet. You reckon he'll do it? I go
to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for
you I'll come again and receive you unto myself that where I
am there you may be also. You know what he was saying when
he said I go to prepare a place for you? What's pictured by these
two little elements right here Because he gave himself and his
soul in offering for my sin, I have a place with God. Oh, hearken unto me, he said,
you stout-hearted. Stout-hearted we think we are,
aren't we? That are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness. That's the only way I'm going
to have any of it, isn't it? Is if the very righteousness of
God comes down from heaven right where I am. And He did. And He
is my righteousness. Well, we'll look at that in more
detail next time, Lord willing. If there is a next time. If there's
not, that'll be okay too. Because I just suspect if there's
not a next time, I think I might know why. Because I intend to
come back, don't you? But we may not be able to. That'll
be just fine. We'll worship Him somewhere,
won't we? If He's gracious to keep us, we'll worship Him somewhere.