May it please Almighty God to
bless us together this morning as we meditate in his holy word. Let's turn to the prophecy of
Isaiah chapter 45 and we'll read verse 22. The prophecy of Isaiah
chapter 45 and reading verse 22. Look unto me and be saved. all the ends of the earth for
I am God and there is none else. This 45th chapter in Isaiah is
a very interesting chapter. It speaks about Cyrus and as
you may or may not know Cyrus of course was a king in Babylon
where of course Israel had been taken captive and we read in
this chapter how the Lord saw fit to amazingly prosper this
king of Babylon, Cyrus. And of course later on we are
told that it was Cyrus that God used to encourage Israel to return
to Jerusalem from their captivity. and to rebuild the temple and
to make provision for the building of it. So we see that God's ways
are higher than our ways because naturally speaking no one would
have thought that would have been likely and yet you see the
Lord ordained that it should be so. and how thankful we should
be to realize that we have a God who is in complete power of the
whole universe. And this chapter also in particular
speaks to us on a number of occasions about the greatness of God. And it is good. I love to think
about the greatness of God. and then to think about the compassion
of that great God towards unworthy sinners. And in the fifth verse
here we're told, I am the Lord and there is none else, there
is no God beside me. girded thee though thou hast
not known me that they may know that from the rising of the Sun
that's in the east and from the west there is none beside me
I am the Lord and there is none else and he says I form the light
and create darkness I make peace and create evil I the Lord's
do all these things and What a wonderful truth it is to realise
that that's the God that we have and that's the God who still
remains and He tells us as we move on in the 12th verse, I
have made the earth and created man upon it. I, even my hands,
have stretched out the heavens and all their hosts have I commanded. You know, we read that, don't
we, very simply. And yet, when we have some appreciation of
what the heavens are, and I was reading only recently, in our
situation where the earth is part of that area, there are
over, I think, a million other stars, and that's just one small
area of the whole universe. And that's how great our God
is. And what a blessing, therefore,
to realize we have this great God. And then he goes on very,
very, Thou art a God. that hidest thyself, O God of
Israel, the Saviour. They shall be ashamed, and also,
confounding all of them, they shall go to confusion together,
that are makers of idols. But Israel, and that of course
applies to natural Israel in those days, but also to spiritual
Israel, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord, with an everlasting
salvation. He shall not be ashamed, nor
confounded, world without end. And we have that illustration,
therefore, that Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an
everlasting salvation. And therefore, as we look at
this 22nd verse and realise how it marries in with it, look unto
me, that's Almighty God, that's the Blessed Saviour, and be ye
saved. all the ends of the earth, wherever
God's people are, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and
there is none else. What a wonderful blessing it
is for us to realise that we have such a God, compassionate
God, a merciful God, who does hear and answer prayer. And therefore we have this statement,
to look unto me and be saved. Saved from what? Saved from all
our sin. Yes, how we need to be saved
from all our sin. Delivered from our sinful self. And we cannot do that ourselves. We have no ability. But there
is a God who can and a God who does. A God who is able to do
far more exceeding abundantly. we can ask or even think. And
what a wonderful blessing it is if you and I are blessed with
faith. There are two things really,
look unto me and be saved. Faith to believe. the truth of
Almighty God and then to pray for that faith and to pray that
God will have mercy upon us and real religion is of course personal
between each one of us, each one of our souls and Almighty
God and we need to have that personal evidence that God is
mindful of us, God is looking upon us and therefore as we hear
this great and wonderful encouraging statement, look unto me and be
saved. No one else, no one else can
save our soul and all of us has an eternal soul which will live
forever and how we need to be right with God Doesn't matter
about many things in this world, but it does matter that you and
I are right with God. That God looks upon us and is
merciful to us. And that God forgives all our
sin, all our shortcoming, and we're able to look to Him. And really we have a wonderful
picture of this truth in the book of Numbers and in the book
of Numbers and in the 21st chapter in this book we have the situation
where Israel had sinned Israel had sinned greatly and they needed
to be recovered they needed to receive mercy from Almighty God. And they turned their back upon
God. They'd gone away from the Lord.
And yet, you see, we realize that the Lord spoke and said,
the Lord hearkened to the voice of Israel and delivered up the
Canaanites and utterly destroyed them and their cities. And he
called the name of the place Hormah. And they journeyed from
Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to compass the land of Edom. And the soul of the people was
much discouraged because of the way. Sometimes today, we are
discouraged because of the hardness of the way, because of the difficulty
of our journey on this earth. And we may be discouraged. We
can understand, therefore, what Israel were like. What happened
was they spake against God and against Moses. Well, when you
think what God had done for them, and just because things didn't
appear to be going as they wanted, they then spake against God. Wherefore have ye brought us
up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? There is no bread,
neither is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light
bread. You see, they complained. And
we need to be very careful in our lives not to complain about
the way that God is leading and directing us. We must recognise
that our life on this earth will not be an easy life. And often
we are foolish enough to think it will be. The Lord Jesus himself,
when he came to the end of that address to his disciples in the
upper room, he tells them it is through much tribulation that
we shall enter the kingdom. But be of good joy, I have overcome
the world. And we should recognise therefore
that our life is not an easy life. No, this is not our home. This earth is not our home. We're
travelling to our home, our home in glory. So when things seem
to be against us, we should not complain. We should recognise
it is the design of Almighty God. And so we have here in this
statement, they spake against God and against Moses, Wherefore
have you brought us up out of Egypt, to die in the wilderness? For there is no bread, neither
is there any water, and our soul loatheth this light bread. So what happened? The Lord sent
fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people, and
much people of Israel died. the Lord noted their rebellion. And my friends, he knows our
hearts and whether we are rebellious against the way that God is leading
us, well, we should recognise that God never makes any mistakes.
And as we read, and as I often speak and quote that 107th Psalm,
he led them forth by the right way that they might go to a city
of habitation. Our life on this earth is a pilgrimage,
right? We're strangers and pilgrims
on this earth. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people, and they bit the people, and much people of
Israel died. Therefore the people came to
Moses and said, We have sinned. We have spoken against the Lord
and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole that was a
brazen serpent, a brass serpent and it shall come to pass that
every one that is bitten when he looketh upon it shall live
you see there was that command to look at the serpent and live
and there we have this statement here look unto me and be ye saved. It was a type and it was a direction
to look unto that serpent and that was all that was required.
And Moses made a serpent of brass and put it upon a pole and it
came to pass that if the serpent had bitten any man when he beheld
the serpent of brass he lived. see how simple it was wasn't
it and they were bitten with this these poisonous serpents
and if they did not look to that brazen serpent the result was
they died Well, it's a very clear picture for us, isn't it? And
it's a very wonderful illustration for us. And so here we have this
statement then, this morning, look unto me and be saved. There's no other way. We are
to look to Jesus. We are to look to him for salvation. And we have been bitten. not
by a physical serpent, but by the devil. And there's poison,
the poison of sin. And we're under that condemnation. And we need to be delivered. We need to be freed from it.
And if we're not, we should die in our sins. We should perish
in our sins. And therefore we're in a very
sad and solemn situation, but we have this very clear direction,
look unto me and be saved. and how wonderful the Bible is
and how so comprehensive it is really in so many places. And in the epistle of Paul to
the Hebrews, we can read about these times of deliverance, these
times blessing and in the 12th chapter and the first two verses
we're told, wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with
so great a cloud of witnesses recorded in the Word of God,
the many people who were converted, the many people who were saved,
the many people who looked to the Lord for that salvation,
wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great
a cloud of witnesses. Let us lay aside every weight
and the sin which does so easily beset us. We're in a sad state. the devil knows what our weaknesses
are and sometimes we refer to those weaknesses as besetting
sins and sometimes we almost make excuses to ourselves that
well that's a besetting sin and we can't do anything about it
well the Word of God doesn't agree with that and it's a let
us lay aside every weight All that which takes us away from
the things of God in our lives. There are those things which
weigh us down and turn us, not to God, but turn us away from
God. And if there are those things
in our lives, what are we to do? We're to lay them aside,
put them away from us. lay aside every weight and the
sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience
the race that is set before us. We're in a race. What a blessing
if we can run that race, not dawdle, not stop, but run that
race. And there is a wonderful secret. And this is the secret, looking
unto Jesus. You see, look unto me and be
saved. And it's spelled out here very
clearly for us. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith. That means the great God who
gives us Faith to believe. And if it gives you and me faith
to believe, it's not something which then disappears. No, we
will have faith to believe and faith to carry us safely through
our life. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of our faith, who, for the joy that was set
before him, endured the cross, It's a wonderful thought, isn't
it? This is how great the Lord Jesus is. To think that there
was joy set before him, joy that was set before him, endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand
of the throne of God. Now, to be with his church, his
people, everyone, who has received that grace, that favour, to look
unto Him, O my friends this morning, are we amongst those who by faith of look to Jesus,
look to Him, look unto me and be saved. There's no one else
that can deliver our souls from that terrible death of hell. But what a mercy it is to have
such a gracious and wonderful invitation. And then we're told
here about the Saviour, looking unto Jesus, the author and the
finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him
endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at
the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him. It's always good in our little
lives to consider the cost of our salvation. But think what
the Lord Jesus Christ came into this earth to endure, those 33
years of separation from his Father, and to endure all the
difficulties of this sinful world. We are therefore told to consider
him, If you and I think perhaps our path is hard, our life is
difficult, what are we to do? Consider Him. Consider the Lord
Jesus Christ. Consider Him that endured such
contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and
faint in your minds. We may think sometimes our path
is very difficult, our path is hard. Well, always when you and
I get into that kind of frame of mind to feel sorry for ourselves,
to look out of ourselves to what the Saviour endured to redeem
our souls, to save our souls and the Apostle goes on to say,
ye have not resisted unto blood striving against sin and ye have
forgotten that exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children,
my son despise not the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou
art rebuked of Him. The Lord deals with His children. He deals with His children to
bring them into line. He brings them into that line
to make them conformable unto His image, to make us more Christ-like
in our life. And the Lord knows how to do
that, and he does it in a right way and in a good way, a way
that you and I may not be very comfortable with. The Lord knows
what he's doing and the Lord does these things to bring us
at last safe home to glory. Well, what a mercy it is then
to have such a kind and gracious God who doesn't deal with us
as our sins deserve. And it's good when the Holy Spirit
shows to us what our sins are, or perhaps we ought to correct
that and say something of our sins. We never see really the
total of our sin, the enmity against God, the rebellion against
God, but what a mercy when the Lord brings us into that position
where we do realise, now we have offended God, we have disobeyed
his law, we turn our back upon the things of God, We fall on
our own way. And then the Lord comes and directs
us and touches our heart and shows us what we are and where
we are and what's the result of that. The result of that will
be very simply to cry, to pray unto God and to pray unto God
with that wonderfully short prayer of the publican God be merciful
to me a sinner. Well God knows our lives, He
knows our spiritual life, He knows whether we have indeed
prayed to Him like that, whether we have prayed, and if we prayed
from our heart, reality not just a form of words, but because
of the burden of our sin, the weight of it has brought us to
cry unto God from our heart, God be merciful to me a sinner,
the Lord will hear, the Lord will grant us that relief and
therefore here we have this great statement, look unto me, nowhere
else, because the Lord knows about us, the Lord understands
us, no one else understands your life, We may think perhaps sometimes
other people do. I don't really. But the Lord
understands everything about us because He it is that is leading
us. He it is that is teaching us. He it is that is making us conformable
unto His image. I like to refer to, probably
I'm sure aware because I do refer to it sometimes, is that case
of the Apostle Paul when he wrote to the Philippians and of course
Philippi was a place that he was blessed at and remembered
well and he comes and he speaks and in the third chapter the
Philippians He tells us, finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. What a good statement that is.
To write the same things to you, to me indeed is not grievous,
but for you it is safe. And then he gives a list of those
things and he tells us about his own life, how he was indeed
a Hebrew of the Hebrews as touching the law a Pharisee concerning
zeal persecuting the church touching the righteousness which is in
the law blameless and then he says but what things were gained
to me those I counted loss for Christ you see he puts On one
side, the things of time, which were gained to him, and on the
other side, the benefit of knowing Christ. And that's why he says,
what things were gained to me, those I counted, loss for Christ,
yea, doubtless. There's no question about it,
doubtless. And I count all things but loss
for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for
whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and to count them
but done, that I may win Christ and be found in him, not having
mine own righteousness, which is of the Lord, but that which
is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection
and the fellowship of his sufferings be made conformable unto his
death if by any means I might attain unto the resurrection
of the dead. It's a very comprehensive statement,
it's a very full statement and there's great depth in it and
we see how the Apostle was so concerned to know Christ that
everything else was irrelevant by comparison to that. And it's a great picture given
to us to realise the relevance of it in our day and age, whether
it is truly our concern to be a true follower of our Lord and
Saviour, Jesus Christ, and to be found looking unto Him, look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God. and there is none else. How relevant
that is for us to realize there's no one else. We have to say what
think ye of Christ is the test. It is the test. What do you and
I think of Christ today? Try to write down what you thought
of Christ. What would you write? What would
you say? What would you say? There is all my hope. All my hope. Reminds me of an
occasion in my life I've no doubt told you before and you probably
remember it. I was doing a survey in a house and knocked at the
door and a lady answered the door and invited me in and showed
me into the front room of the house and left me there to examine
the building and I just looked around and on the mantelpiece
there was a text And it was interesting, because in the background there
was music going on, which I didn't think was very pleasant music.
But there it was in the background. And I looked, and there was this
wonderful text on the mantelpiece. And the text was, you find it
in the second chapter in the Epistle of Paul to Titus. In
the 13th verse, we're told, Looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ
well, that was the text and after a while the woman came into the
room and And I said to her That's a very wonderful text you got
there and she said she exclaimed the fullness of heart that's
where all my hope is and how important for us also to
realise that our hope is only in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there was that music in the
background and initially I would have cut the woman off and said,
well, she obviously is not a believer having that kind of music. But
I realised, well, it was just really something that she was
in the background, but her religion, was in these words, looking for
that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and
our Saviour Jesus Christ. So what a blessing for us today
if you and I are in those words that we're looking for that blessed
hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour
Jesus Christ. You know, such a statement is
really quite a test of the reality of our religion. You see, we
can often pretend to be religious, we can often pretend to be self-righteous,
but here is a statement that the Apostle spoke to encourage
Titus and to come to us as to whether you and I are indeed
looking looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing
of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ because it will
be a glorious appearing when the Saviour returns and we know
he will return there's no doubt about that and the great important
relevance is as to whether you and I will be ready when that
return comes. that we shall be amongst those,
if we are still on the earth, who will be caught up to meet
Him in the clouds, and thus shall we be forever with the Lord. Well, we have these statements
in the Word of God to encourage us and to direct us, and how
good it is that God has given us these statements in His Word
to strengthen us and to bless us. David knew what it was in
the Old Testament. These things are not just in
the New Testament, they're also in the Old Testament. And in
the 34th Psalm, we read what David tells us. He says, fourth verse, I sought
the Lord and He heard me. It's encouraging, isn't it? To pray on. You may think, well,
I pray, I don't hear, I don't get any answers. Pray on. The Lord has a time. He tells
us your time is always, but my time is not yet. God has a time
to bless us. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto Him and were
lightened and their faces were not ashamed. So they looked unto
Him. What a blessing if you and I
found this morning looking unto Jesus. They looked unto Him and
were lightened. You see when the Lord looks upon
us, if we look to Him and smiles upon us and shows to us that
although our way seems very difficult and perplexing sometimes, yet
to realise we are in the right way. We're not in the wrong way,
we're in the right way and the Lord is instructing us and the
Lord is teaching us. The Lord is preparing us for
our eternal home. I sought the Lord and he heard
me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him
and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This
poor man cried and the Lord heard him. Everybody comes to a situation,
they're brought to a situation where as a sinner They're a poor
man, a poor woman. This poor man cried. It brings
them to cry unto him, to plead for mercy. And the Lord heard
him and saved him out of all his troubles. Will you and I
have a prayer hearing? and a prayer answering God. What
a great blessing it is then to realise that's the God who we
worship, that's the God who we come to. Look unto me and be
ye saved. So if we have a burden, we need
to be saved. The secret is to cry unto Him,
to pray unto Him, to look unto Him. and be ye saved all the
ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. There's
no one else that can deliver us. There's no one else that
can save us. But what a blessing it is to
realize we have a kind and gracious and merciful Lord God, a compassionate
Lord God indeed, who is so gracious to us. And what a mercy it is,
therefore, to have such a kind and gracious God. Zachariah tells us there's a
lot of wonderful gospel truth in what we term the minor prophets
that means the smaller prophets after Jeremiah and Ezekiel there's
some small prophets Zachariah is one of them and we're told
and it shall come to pass in that day that I will seek to
destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem, and I
will pour upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem
the spirit of grace and of supplications, and they shall look upon me whom
they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him as one mourneth
for his only son, she'll be in bitterness for him as one that
is in bitterness for his firstborn. I know that is of course a prophecy
with regard to God's ancient people Israel but all the same
it has a reference indeed to a true believer to realize that
a normal Look upon us and the spirit of grace and supplication
will be poured upon us. That means we shall be blessed
with that liberty in prayer. The spirit of grace and supplications. And it's a wonderful privilege
when you and I are burdened with sin, we're able to come to our
God and to pour out our heart to Him. You don't have to tell
people. but we can tell our God because He understands and He
knows and He is that brings relief. Look unto me and be saved. And linked together, those who
by faith look to the Saviour for forgiveness, look to the
Saviour for salvation, will be saved. There is our hope. and it's an eternal hope and
it's a blessed hope and it's a good hope because it's based
upon a good foundation and therefore may we indeed recognize these
great truths that we have here look unto me and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else
this great God and it's good just to you might just go home
and read this chapter again because it speaks and I won't go through
it all but it speaks so often in it of the greatness of God
and how important it is that we have a right view of this
great God and to realize how merciful and kind and gracious
he is to look upon us we don't deserve it we don't deserve it
You could be cast off, cast out. But the Lord is a merciful God. He's a compassionate God. And
he does hear and answer prayer. And that's why we have here such
an encouraging statement as this. Look unto me. Don't look anywhere
else. Look to Jesus. Firm and strong. My friends, the Lord knows about
you and me. Every detail. He knows how burdened
we are, how sometimes we're upset because of our sin. Upset because
of our propensity to sin. That's why the sin which does
so easily beset us. But what a great blessing it
is if God gives us that desire The Lord will look upon us. The
Lord will have mercy upon us. The Lord will come and wash away
all our sins. And remember, there is mercy
with God. And remember what the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for us. What's he done? He's died upon
that cross. He's paid that enormous price
for all our sins. He's shed his most precious blood. to redeem us. We are redeemed
with the precious blood of Christ. The hymn writer says, invaluable
blood. You and I can't put a price on
it. But what a mercy it is to think
that Jesus hears our prayer. Jesus gives us that desire to
prayer. He gives us that prevailing prayer. And He answers that prevailing
prayer and frees us from that condemnation which is ours because
of our sin and brings us to that place like the Apostle says in
the 8th of Romans. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus. What a blessing my friends today. if we have the wonderful evidence
that we are in Christ and He's died for us, He's still in our
place, He's bore the punishment instead and therefore how profitable
it is to be found in these words this morning, look unto me, look
unto Jesus, look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the
earth, wherever we might be, For I am God, and there is none
else. Amen.