may it please almighty God to
bless us together this evening as we meditate in his word let
us turn to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 45 and we'll read verse
17 the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 45 and reading verse 17 but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation ye shall
not be ashamed nor confounded world without end. There are many very wonderful
words in the prophecy of Isaiah and of course we should be very
thankful for it and this chapter we read of course was a prophetic
one, especially with regards to Cyrus the king. It would not
appear was in actual fact a godly king, but he was raised up by
gods to win great battles and also to send Judah and Israel
back to Jerusalem to once again build the temple Quite amazing,
really. There they were in Babylon, and
we can read in Ezra, the first chapter of Ezra, and the second
verse, the truth of these words where we're told, thus saith
Cyrus, king of Persia, the Lord God of heaven hath given me all
the kingdoms of the earth, which God had greatly blessed Cyrus
in many, many victories. And he has charged me to build
him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah. And so it was a
wonderful blessing to have this king behind them to support them
and to give them materials to actually rebuild the temple. Well, that's how this chapter
begins. And we're told that he says,
the Lord says, I will go before thee. and make the crooked places
straight. I will break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And so we see how
God indeed was in a natural way with Cyrus and granted this wonderful
favour to Israel who of course naturally would never have expected
a king in Babylon to encourage them in this work, especially
when we think how Israel had turned their back upon God so
terribly. Hence the reason why the Lord
had allowed Nebuchadnezzar to come and conquer Jerusalem and
to take the people captive and drag them all the way to Babylon
to live for those 70 years which had been prophesied and which
came to pass. But the time came then when the
70 years expired and God is very faithful to his promise and therefore
he graciously brought Israel or Judah back to Jerusalem and
with this wonderful encouragement from this King, the King of Babylon. So that's just a little introduction
to this chapter and introduction for us to realize that God uses
all manner of people in his glorious plan to bring to pass his promises
and bring to pass his work. Well we come down really to these
verses, perhaps verse 15 we might read, Verily thou art a God,
that hidest thyself, O God of Israel, the Saviour. You see
the Lord is there at all times but we're not always evident
we don't always evidently see and know but God is always there
he is always ready to hear and to answer prayer and sometimes
it seems as though God hides himself from us that God is not
listening that God has turned the deaf ear but the truth is
God does hear but perhaps the Lord does not answer Perhaps
the Lord does not answer in the way that we expect him to, but
nonetheless we have a God who is a God who hears and answers. And then in the 16th verse we
read, they shall be ashamed and also confound in all of them,
they shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. So that's a very solemn statement,
really, to people that make idols. Now, you might think, well, of
course, we don't make idols in the day and age in which we live.
Well, it's possible that we may worship things. We may worship
idols, and perhaps especially in the day and age in which we
live, there is many things which are worshiped. We worship, perhaps,
we worship music, You can worship sport. You can worship all things
like that. And the effect is they become
idols. And they won't do us any real
permanent good. They might just tickle our fancy
for a short time, but they'll fade away. And they form part
of that raft of things that Solomon speaks of when he says, all is
vanity and vanity. and vexation of spirit. It's a good thing if you and
I are alert to that great truth and are conscious of it. And
he says therefore in this verse they shall go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. It's a very solemn statement
to think that all those who follow this pattern will be confused
confused indeed when they come to the day of their death, confused
as they pass out of time, realizing that they've been listening not
to God but to the devil. They have not been obeying the
word of God, but they've been obeying the devil. And as I say
very often, the devil is a very crafty foe and he knows exactly
what to tempt us with individually in our individual lives we're
different we're humans we all have our own life to lead and
to live and there are temptations perhaps which are peculiar to
us well other people may not know the devil does and we should
be very conscious of that so we're not left to be found at
last in this state of confusion. When we come to die, we come
then to be face to face with Almighty God. What a solemn position,
what a solemn condition that is to realise that our religion
is non-existent. And if it is, it's a false religion. We've been worshipping a false
God We sit and ponder for a while, we shall realize that in the
world today, the majority are worshiping false gods. You can think of Islam, you can
think of Hinduism, you can think of Buddhism, and we can think
of many other isms, all false religions, all will come to confusion. when they come to die. You can
think of that occasion, recording the Word of God in the days of
Elisha, when people were worshipping Baal. And Elijah thought he was
the only one who didn't worship Baal, but he was wrong, because
God told him there were 7,000, but nonetheless that's how it
appeared to him. And there was therefore that
test as to who was the true God. And the test was a very straightforward
one and Elijah named it and the prophets of Baal agreed to go
along with it. And that was to build an altar,
to slay a bullock, to place it on the altar, to pour water upon
the altar and then pray that God, their God or the God would
send down fire to consume the sacrifice. Well, Elijah suggested
that Baal did it first because they were many, many priests,
and they were willing to do so, and of course they utterly failed.
Elijah mocked them and said, well, perhaps your God's asleep,
or perhaps he's out hunting, and it doesn't hear he needs
a waking. But you see, there was no answer. was no answer. And then we're told that at the
time of the evening sacrifice and in the history of Israel
there was a morning and the evening sacrifice offered up to God and
at the time of the evening sacrifice Elijah arose and built an altar,
put the bullock on, poured on water, dug a trench around the
altar, filled it with water and then he prayed to his God. The
result was fire descended from heaven and consumed the sacrifice
and the water and the stones which were part of the altar.
There was obviously no doubt who was the God and therefore
the people were able to say the Lord he is the God. What a wonderful evidence of
the true God. Well it was no different really
in the days now of Isaiah when he wrote the prophecy and also
the days when Israel would deliver out of Babylon. The prophets of Baal had been
idle worshippers. There was no life. There was
no true God. They were false gods and what
a a picture it was, what a tragedy, but what a wonderful blessing
to know that the true God was alive then, and that true God
is alive for evermore, as we read in this 17th verse. But
having then dealt with those who were not true believers,
the Lord then comes and says, but Israel, and that means of
course principally today's spiritual Israel, spiritual Israel. But
Israel shall be saved in the Lord, neither way. With an everlasting
salvation, ye shall not be ashamed, nor confounded, world without
end. Well, it will be a great blessing
tonight if you and I come indeed like Elijah and in like like
the people of God recorded in the Word of God who come to God
with a true and humble confidence believing they're coming to the
God who hears and answers prayer and that God who can say and
of course this directs us not to just our natural life and
that we are saved from some evil in this life, but we are saved
from what the Bible describes as the wrath to come. That means that eternal wrath
of God to all those who are unbelievers. What a tragic, tragic scene it
is. And yet here we have this great
and glorious word of encouragement to those who are blessed with
true living faith to believe the Word of God. And our great
blessing today is this. In our nation, we can freely
read the Word of God. And what a blessing that is,
because there the Word of God contains everything that we need
to observe the mercy and the grace and the love of God. and to pray earnestly that we
may be partakers of those eternal blessings, because what it is,
it is an everlasting salvation. It's not something which just
is granted for a day or a week or a month or a year, but it's
an eternal salvation. That means that our souls, which
all of us have, All of us have a natural body and all of us
have a never-dying soul. And how vitally important it
is that we have the wonderful favour that we are saved in the
Lord, indeed with this everlasting salvation. And that really means
that you and I need the blessing of God to come upon us so that
we know the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour. We cannot save ourselves. However hard we may try, however
good we may try to be, we will fail again and again. You only have to be honest to
try and do that perhaps for a day and you will find that there
are those thoughts which nobody else knows about, which are not
good thoughts, they're wrong thoughts and they're evil thoughts
and therefore they're sinful thoughts and therefore we have
to prove that our efforts of proving ourselves to be suitable
for salvation totally untenable. There is no ability in ourselves. And how then are we to be saved? And all of us need to be saved. It's that great desperate need
we have. If we're not saved, what does
it mean? It means we're lost. What does
that mean? It means very solemnly that we
shall spend eternity. The everlasting situation which
is before us, it's not an everlasting time because there is no time.
We must never forget that time is only that which you and I
have to deal with in this world while it exists. My friends,
once time is ended, There is no time, there is just an eternal
sleep. And unless we are saved, we shall
spend that eternal sleep in that terrible place of agony, where
we're told the worm dieth not, where the fire forever burns,
where it's darkness forever. It's something that you and I
cannot really appreciate, and of course the devil's very active
to tell us well of course that's not true you need not believe
that you need not think that that happens because in actual
fact what will occur is you'll just be annihilated you won't
know anything more everything will finish well that is not
so the lord god has granted us his word which speaks about everlasting
glory in heaven but also everlasting terror in hell. And we should
not therefore think that one is true and one is false. The word of God is very true
and the word of God is very solemn. And therefore let us realize
that this word, this blessed word is true. And may we be found
within what this word describes, but Israel shall be saved in
the Lord for the everlasting salvation. That means there is
no salvation outside of the Lord. That means there's no salvation
outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that means there's no salvation
outside of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who has saved
our souls. And how are we to be saved? How are we saved? We're only
saved by the Lord Jesus Christ. And how has he saved us? He saved
us through paying the price of our freedom. Because we are slaves
by nature to the devil. We are enslaved to him. We cannot
free ourselves. We're captive in the devil's
clutches. And you and I need to be saved. And we can only be saved by the
Lord Jesus Christ. And the blessed Saviour has paid
the price required to save us. It's a miracle. It's an amazing
wonder. And you and I, we have the evidence
that we are saved. Surely we can praise God, can
bless God, and desire truly to honor and glorify his great and
holy name because the cost to save our souls was his death. That was of the divine way required
the death of the Saviour and that was evidenced by the shed
blood and that pattern follows right through the Word of God. It wasn't something just dreamt
up at the last minute, it was the divine almighty plan of God
which was evidenced right back in the Garden of Eden when Adam
and Eve so tragically disobeyed the word of God and partook of
that fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and
they therefore sinned. Any disobedience to God is sin. Any sin condemns us eternally
and therefore we are all eternally condemned. What a blessing, therefore,
to realize there is a Savior and that Savior does indeed save. Israel shall be saved. Every
true child of God for whom the Lord Jesus Christ has died, for
whom the Lord Jesus Christ shed his blood upon that cross at
Calvary, shall be saved. There are no failures in the
plan of salvation. Isn't that wonderful? Isn't that
glorious to think of? There are no failures. Everyone
comes to the knowledge of this great truth that they are saved
in the Lord, that it's what the Lord Jesus Christ has accomplished
when he gave his life. He gave his life, wasn't taken
from him, our lives are taken from us the lord jesus gave his
life he gave his life as the word of god describes it an acceptable
sacrifice it was a sacrifice which was acceptable to god and
why was this acceptable it was because it was a perfect sacrifice
There was no sin, because the Lord Jesus lived a perfect life. He never sinned, a spotless life. There were temptations, there
were many temptations. We should not underestimate the
wonder of the Saviour living those 33 years without sin. But so it was, the Lord Jesus
Christ therefore He conquered sin. What a mercy for us today. He stood in our place. He received the punishment due
to us. He was our substitute to wonderful,
wonderful truth. And so tonight, may we inquire
of God and may we have the evidence from God that he has indeed stood
in our place and has saved our souls, has redeemed our souls,
has paid the price of our salvation. And so we are saved in the Lord. an everlasting salvation that
means that our salvation cannot be taken away sometimes people
suggest that we can lose our salvation well that is not possible
because the salvation once given is everlasting it does not fail
it does not fade away it is not taken from us once in Him, we
are eternally safe. Now that doesn't mean to say
that you and I will be given over to licentiousness. That means the freedom to sin and the conscience
desire to carry on sinning. No, we shall desire not to sin. We shall pray to be delivered
from sin. the evidence of God's grace,
that free unmerited favour which he indeed gives to all his church. Well what a truth this is, an
everlasting salvation and as the Lord graciously says, we shall not be ashamed, we shall
not be ashamed in our people today are sadly ashamed of the
Lord Jesus Christ. They don't want to confess him. They don't want to believe in
him. And the reason is quite simple.
They don't want to suffer the consequences. They don't want
to pay the price. They don't want to be ostracized
by perhaps their friends. by their companions. They don't
want to be described as someone who is rather strange, and someone
who is rather weird, and someone who is missing out on the so-called
joys of this life. Well, such will not be ashamed. He shall not be ashamed, nor
confounded, world without end. He read in that previous verse
of those who will be confounded. And now we come to those who
will not be confounded. Just think of that. When you
and I come to the day of our death, to realize that when we
stand before our God, we shall not be confounded because the
Savior was stand between, and garments dyed in blood. And we shall be accepted through
him, through his glorious sin-atoning death. Yes, we shall not be confounded. Indeed, the hymn writer says,
bold shall I stand in that great day, for whom who to me my charge
shall lay. You see, no one will be able
to charge us because Christ has died to take away our sin. That's why we shall not be confounded. What a mercy then it is to stand
before him. You know, when Moses addressed
the Israelites shortly before he was taken to glory. And we have an account in Deuteronomy
33 of the blessings that he was able to give to all the 12 tribes. As it comes down to the very
last verse in that 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy, this is what
it says. Who is like unto thee? O people, saved by the Lord,
the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency? And thine enemies shall be found
lies unto thee, and thou shalt tread them upon their high places. This was the words of Moses,
that man of God, before he was taken from his earth, his final
blessing to Israel that he led for those many years. Happy art
thou O Israel. And today that is still true
to the Church of God. We should indeed rejoice in what
Christ has done in saving our souls and to realize, therefore,
that we will not be confused, and we shall not be ashamed,
and we shall not be confounded. These are great truths, aren't
they? They are things to strengthen
us, to support us as we journey on through this world. There
are many things to perplex us. There are many things to cast
us down. But you know, when we are tempted,
when we are tried, we can always come and say to the devil, Christ
has died. He rather is risen again. And he is that one who has redeemed
my soul. Yes, what a blessing it is. And in a later chapter in Isaiah,
Isaiah tells us why we shall not be ashamed this is what he
tells us in the 49th chapter of Isaiah verse 23 he says and
kings shall be thy nursing fathers and their queens thy nursing
mothers they shall bow down to thee with their face toward the
earth and lick up the dust of thy feet and they shall know
that i am the lord for they shall not be ashamed that wait for
me. See that we will not be ashamed.
We may have to wait sometimes for God's blessing. Sometimes
perhaps we may be impatient and we may have to prove what the
Lord says, your time is always, but my time is not yet. But if
the Lord grants us that true spirit of prayer, that true earnest
desire that we may have the wonderful evidence of divine life, the
wonderful evidence that we are indeed in the Lord, the wonderful
evidence therefore that Christ has gone to prepare a place for
us in glory. As he said when he preached to
his disciples in that upper room, I go to prepare a place for you. if I go to a prayer place for
you I will come again to receive you unto myself that where I
am there ye shall be also. What a wonderful blessing it
is therefore to know those were very words of Jesus
they were true of his disciples and they are equally true of
every believer. And so tonight, may you and I
have the wonderful evidence that we are in the Lord with this
everlasting salvation. If we have tasted that the Lord
is gracious, if we have tasted and known the Lord has looked
upon us then you see we are blessed with this everlasting salvation. What a mercy it is. What a favor
it is. What a blessing it is. The 119th
Psalm, as most of you know I'm sure, is a very long psalm. If we call it a chapter, it's
the longest chapter in the Bible. And on two occasions in that
psalm, psalmist speaks about not being ashamed first of all
in verse six he says then shall i not be ashamed when i have
respect unto all thy commandments that means that when by god's
grace his free and merited favor we obey the word of god we will
not be ashamed because god will be with us because we're doing
God's will and he is supporting us and encouraging us. And then
in verse 80 of that same psalm we read, let my heart be sound
in thy statutes, that means believing the great truth of God's word
that I be not ashamed. And then lastly regards to this
salvation The third psalm is what the psalmist says. Salvation
belongeth unto the Lord. It's God's gracious prerogative
to dispense this salvation. We shall not be able to say well
of course I've been a good person all my life and I deserve this
salvation. Under the work of the Holy Spirit
we will come to say I've been a sinner all my life and do not
deserve salvation and therefore to recognize that this salvation
belongeth unto the Lord and thy blessing is upon thy people. The Lord blesses his people,
the Lord remembers them. What a mercy tonight therefore
as we consider this great truth in this word that we can lay
hold of it as having a gracious application to our souls. And it leads us to repentance. You know, the Word of God has
a very wonderful statement in the Romans. It says this, the
goodness of God leadeth us to repentance. And as the Holy Spirit
may lead us to meditate on such a word as this, and to realize
the wonderful import of it, and to believe that it has a wonderful
reference to us, we shall desire to be granted that favor, a true
repentance toward our God, indeed a repentance that is not to be
repented of. It can sometimes be a false repentance,
repentance, which is just mere words. But if it emanates from
our heart, we can realize it's God given. It means we are truly
sorry for our sins. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with everlasting salvation. Well, tonight, may we be able
to trace out, I hope we can, in our spiritual life that we
do possess the gracious work of God. You know, it's not the
quantity of religion, it's the quality. And when I say that,
I mean this. If the Lord has spoken one word
to our souls and given us that good hope of eternal life, we
can believe it's well with our soul. My friends, God does not
waste words. God gives words. But you see,
God gives words when they're needed. And God gives words that
you and I can lay hold upon. Words that will be an anchor
to us as we travel through the storms of life and to realize
that anchor is cast indeed within the vial. indeed into glory itself,
and to realise that there our Saviour sits, and that one day,
by His grace, we shall join the heavenly throng to praise Him
from whom all blessings flow, and that forever we shall praise
redeeming love, the love of God to such unworthy sinners the
love of God to dine our place, the love of God to shed his precious
blood to atone for our sins. We will say it is all a grace,
it is all of God's free unmerited favour, and it will, I believe,
bring forth true thanksgiving and praise in our heart unto
such a kind, gracious and merciful God, who has looked down upon
us and remembered us in our lowest state. He remembered Israel in
their lowest state, in Babylon, all those years. He hadn't forgotten
them. He knew what was going to occur.
He knew that deliverance would come. And at the appointed time,
so it did. And may you and I prove it in
our lives for the honour and glory of our God. And so this
word is indeed true, but Israel shall be saved in the Lord with
everlasting salvation. He shall not be ashamed, nor
confounded, world without end. Amen.