Let us turn again to God's Word
in the portion of Scripture we read and I'll read again the
portion we were considering this morning from Isaiah 45 and reading
verse 8 through 11. Isaiah 45 and reading from verse
8 through to verse 11. Drop down your heavens from above,
and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open, and let them
bring forth salvation, and let righteousness bring up together.
I, the Lord, have created it. Woe unto him that striveth with
his Maker. Let the potsherds strive with
the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, What Maker's thou, or thy work? He hath no hands. Woe unto him that saith unto
his father, What begettest thou? Or to the woman, what hast thou
brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel and His Maker, ask me of things to come concerning
my sons and concerning the works of my hands, command ye me. This morning we concentrated
really on the opening verse of this passage And I remarked then,
it's his verse that I suppose I have to acknowledge to be a
great favorite with me. And we thought then of that righteousness
that is poured down from heaven. And it is that righteousness
that justifies the sinner. The end of the chapter, surely
shall one say in the Lord, am I righteousness? And then again
in verse 25, in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified
and shall glory. And we thought then of the work
of God. I the Lord have created it. It
is that that has been wrought by God incarnate, the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's His righteousness. It's
His salvation that is poured down from heaven. And I want us really tonight
simply to move to the end of the verses that I read, the 11th
verse. Thus saith the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel and His Maker, ask me of things to come concerning
my sons and concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. Here we read a prayer as God
pours down righteousness so God's people in Christ are to pour
out their hearts in prayers and to do it with all boldness. In
whom we have boldness has poured and access with confidence by
the faith of Him. And the theme really that stands
before us in this 11th verse is quite remarkable. Here we
see that by their prayers God's people are commanding their gods. That is the boldness of prayer.
As God says it here at the end of the verse, concerning the
work of my hands command ye me. How remarkable! I remember some years ago reading
a sermon of Ralph Erskine on this verse and it really must
have made an impression because I record it to this very day
in fact just the other day I thought well where is that sermon and
I have the six volumes of Erskine's works and I did find it there
in volume four and I looked again just at the title that he gives
to the sermon and he entitles it Faith's Freedom with God Faith's
Freedom with God's God being commanded, as it were, by His
people. Thus saith the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel and His Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning
my sons and concerning the works of my hands. Command ye me. What a gracious invitation. This is a God with whom we have
to do. This is a God that we come to worship. He is the great
God. He is the only God. He's the
creator of all things, the sustainer of all things. And you remember
the context. We read through much of chapter 4 and into chapter
45. This morning we've now read the
45th and the 46th chapters, and in all of these chapters we see
how God is exposing the folly of those who would make idols,
those who would take a piece of wood and use the timber to
make a fire to warm themselves or make a fire that they might
prepare some food for themselves and then take the rest of that
piece of timber and fashion it into the image of a man and worship
it as their gods. The folly of idolatry. Men don't make those sort of
idols now, I suppose. Some do, maybe. I'm sure they
do but People have their idols, whether they're made of wood,
or stone, or iron, or not, they have idols that they still worship. Their football club, I suppose, is
one that immediately springs to mind, how they're fanatics,
how they worship. And how the stadiums in which
the teams perform are treated as places of worship. It's awful. It's idolatry. And it's folly. It's sin. And yet the God, the
only living and true God, is so gracious a God. And as we
come to consider what the Lord says here to his people, I want
to deal with some three points this evening. Here we have the
Covenant God, Here we have the condescending God, and here we
have the compassionate God. Three Cs, as it were. The Covenant
God, the Condescending God, the Compassionate God. First of all,
it is the God of the Covenant. And we see it in the opening
statement, Who is it that speaks through the Prophet? Thus saith
the Lord. Oh, it's the Lord. It's Jehovah. It's that blessed name, the covenant
name, derived from what the Lord God says concerning Himself. I am that I am. The faithful God of the covenant
that He made with Abraham and Isaac and with Jacob. And that
covenant that ultimately is sealed in the precious blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. What does He say here? Thus said
the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and His Maker. He's the Holy
One of Israel, His Maker. Now, when we read of Him as the
Maker here, we're not to think so much in terms of God's works
of creation. He is that, of course. He is
the Creator, the Maker of all things. As He says in the following
verse, verse 12, I have made the earth and created man upon
it. I, even my hands, have stretched
out the heavens, and all the hosts have I commanded." Again
at verse 18, I said the Lord that created the heavens, God
Himself that formed the earth and made it. He has established
it, He created it not in vain, He formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord, and there is none else. He declares the truth of
His creation. How He made all things out of
nothing by the word of His mouth. And how He was pleased to do
that in a matter of six days. But it's not that particular
creation that is being spoken of here at the beginning of this
11th verse. it's not that at all he is speaking
here of that people that he made and that he created and it was
for himself look at what he says at the beginning of chapter 44
yet now hear O Jacob my servant and Israel whom I have chosen
thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the
womb which will help thee Fear not, O Jacob, my servant, and
thou Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. He has created for himself a
people, a covenant people, and they are very much his own creation. And how he speaks of them, doesn't
he, as he brings them forth out of the bondage that was Egypt. They were bond slaves, but the
Lord God calls them out He is faithful to what He has said
to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and He will bring them
into the possession of that land that He had spoken of, that He
had promised. In chapter 7 of Deuteronomy, in verse 6, Thou
art an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto Himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his
love upon you, nor choose you, because you were more in number
than any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But,
ah, here it is, but, because the Lord loved you, and because
he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto your fathers,
that the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed
you out of the house of bondmen, from the hand of Pharaoh king
of Egypt it is God faithful to his oath it's the God of the
Covenant who is speaking here how God saves his people how
he forms them and fashions them for himself Dr. Gill says first men are the
sons of God by adoption and then they are his workmanship In regeneration,
that's how God works now, isn't it? He has adopted a people from
all eternity. They are His sons. In time He
regenerates them. Regenerating them, He then sanctifies
them. By grace are you saved through
faith that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast, for we are His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk
in them. Oh, it's the covenant God who is speaking here. It's
the God of the covenants. And how God so graciously condescends
to His covenant people. He says, ask of me. of things to come concerning
my sons and concerning the works of my hands command ye me. This is how God speaks. He's
the great God. He's the one who is really the
sovereign over all things. Verse 5 he says I am the Lord
and there is none else. There is no God beside me. Again we see it in verse 9. Woe
unto him that striveth with his maker! Let the potsherds strive
with the potsherds of the earth! Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, What makers they are, or thy work? He hath no
hands. And then again at the end of
the chapter, or towards the end, verse 20, it says, Assemble yourselves,
and come, draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations,
they have no knowledge, that set up the wood of their graven
image, and proud to a God that cannot save, tell you, and bring
them near, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this
from ancient time, who hath told it from that time, have not I
the Lord, and there is no God else beside me, but just God
and the Saviour, there is none beside me. How the Lord God plainly
declares in the truth of himself, of his absolute sovereignty. And yet, in the text that we're
considering, he invites his people to come and speak to him, to
consult as it were. Ask me, he says. Ask me of things
to come concerning my sons. and the work of my hands, he
says, command ye me. This is the God, you see, that
has revealed himself in the covenants. Amos the prophet says, surely
the Lord God will do nothing but revealeth his secrets unto
his servants the prophets. That's a remarkable statement
of the prophet, isn't it? Amos 3,7 surely the Lord God
will do nothing but He revealeth His secret unto His servants
the prophets He declares Himself we have that verse in Psalm 25
the secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him He will show
them His covenant He reveals things to His people but more
than that here, God invites his people, as it were, to come and
to question him. He says, ask me, ask me. He allows these various questions. Come now, let us reason together,
he says. Though thy sins be as scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. God will have his people come
and ask and reason with him. He says concerning his friend
Abram, shall I hide from Abram the thing that I shall do? What
a condescending God is this that he would speak to men in this
fashion. And he would have men to come
and put their questions to him. You know there's a remarkable
portion in the beginning of the 13th Psalm. Such a comforting
portion of scripture really. Four times, four times, David
says, How long? How long wilt thou forget me,
O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face
from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
mine enemy be exalted over me? What an invitation is this, and
we have in the text, it speaks of prayer, we can come to God,
we can ask. Ask of me, he says. And David is so bold. How long?
How long? How long? How long? He comes and he repeats the question
over and over and over and over again. And what do we read in
another psalm, Psalm 107? and verse 9 we have the answer
to those four questions he satisfies the longing soul are you a longing
soul? or God satisfies longing souls? and we can come to him you see
and speak with him in this fashion he will have his people then
come he invites them to come and speak with him they're invited
to to book questions to him he doesn't hide anything from them
really but the amazing thing is they can command him concerning
the work of my hands he says command ye me or they can come you see in response
to such a word as that they can call upon the Lord They can call
upon God, He shall answer them. They can cry to Him and He'll
say, here I am. They're responding, you see,
to what He Himself has spoken and the way in which He's invited
them. They can come then with confidence.
They can come with all confidence. He says, concerning the work
of my hands, command ye me. Let us therefore come boldly
to the throne of Christ. says the Apostle you know that
word boldly it's one of those Greek words it's a combination
of two words really married together and the two
words are simply all words we are to come with all words take
with you words and turn to the Lord that's what we are to do
or we can come and we can speak with him and speak with boldness
and command him and in that sense by commanding
him we can constrain him we can constrain him remember those
two on the road to Emmaus how we're told that they constrained
the Lord Jesus there they were they were so downcast they're
coming away from Jerusalem They thought that Jesus of Nazareth
was really the promised Messiah, but he'd been crucified, and
then they were hearing these strange tales from some of his
followers that he was risen again from the dead, and they seemed
to be utterly confused. And as they walk, they're talking,
and this stranger comes and begins talking with them. It's the Lord
Jesus, but they don't recognize him. Their eyes are holden. he could do that, he was a miracle,
they didn't recognize his person yet they'd been amongst his followers
and as they talk they don't realize he's opening up the scriptures
to them and then what do we read? you can see here in chapter 24
of Luke we're told they drew nigh unto the village whither
they went and he made as though he would have gone further and
they constrained him, saying, Abide with us, for it is toward
evening, and the day is far spent. And he went in to tarry with
them." Oh, can't we use that language, you see? The Lord God
says, concerning the work of my hands, command ye me. Can
we not take his word here? They constrained him. The evening. The day is far spent,
isn't that us tonight you see? Can't we say to the Lord, abide
with us? They constrained him saying abide
with us for it is toward evening and the day is far spent and
he went in to tarry with them. Or we can be bold you see, we
have these things left on record in scripture that we might be
able to plead them. His people can't constrain him,
they do constrain him in scripture. Wasn't that the case with Jacob
at Peniel? The Lord is there, that's the
angel of the Lord, that's Christ appearing in the Old Testament
as a man. He wrestles with a man, you read
the accounts. The person whom Jacob wrestles
with is a man. It's the angel of the Lord, yes.
It's anticipating Christ's manifestation in the flesh in the fullness
of the time. And he says, let me go. And Jacob, he's so bold,
I will not let thee go, except thou bless me. And what did the
Lord do? He blessed him there. Or the
Lord blessed him. He did what Jacob commanded,
we might say. I will not let thee go except
thou bless me. And the Lord was constrained
by the patriarch. And we see it again in the case
of Moses when he's pleading with the Lord concerning the children
of Israel when the Lord would disinherit them because of the
matter of the golden calf. How they had sinned, you see.
and of course these verses that we looked at today they are in
this context of gross idolatry but there in Exodus 32 we're
told concerning the way in which Moses constrains
God not to disinherit his people. He's so bold is Moses God says in verse 10, Now therefore
let me alone, that my wrath may wax hot against them, and that
I may consume them, and I will make of thee a great nation.
Then Moses besought the Lord his God and said, Lord, why doth
thy wrath wax hot against thy people? which thou hast brought
forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty
hand wherefore should the Egyptians speak and say for mischief did
he bring them out to slay them in the mountains and to consume
them from the face of the earth turn from thy fierce wrath and
repent of this evil against thy people and the Lord repented
of the evil which he thought to do unto his people. Oh the
boldness, the boldness of of the man Moses commanding the Lord God as it
were we see it in the New Testament don't we the woman of Canaan
the Syrophoenician woman Canaanite woman and she comes to the Lord
and he doesn't answer her words and she keeps coming and the
disciples say send her away she's troubling us and then the Lord
does speak and says he sends to the lost sheep of the house
of Israel and it's not me to cast their bread to the dogs
and she says Lord the dogs eat of the crumbs that fall from
the table and what does the Lord say? great is thy faith or she
constrained him God is such a God so condescending that His people
can come with all confidence before Him with great boldness
and they can speak to Him and command Him and we have the invitation,
we have the word here you see the freedom that His people have
when they come to pray with Him He's the God of the covenant
is a God who is very condescending to his people. And why so? Because he is a compassionate
God. He is a compassionate God. Now
observe the context here. We did remark on this this morning. It's Cyrus, isn't it, that's
spoken of by name. I said this morning this is a
hundred years before the Babylonian exile and then now in exile 70
years so this is I suppose really a hundred and seventy years we
might say or getting on for that length of time before this man
Cyrus would appear he was the great emperor of the Persian
Empire And here He is named. He's named. At the end of chapter 44, remember,
that saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, He shall perform all
my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built, and to the
temple thy foundation shall be laid. Thus saith the Lord to
His anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, to
subdue nations before Him. and I will loose the loins of
kings to open before him the two-leaved gates, and the gates
shall not be shut. They're quite remarkable words
that we read concerning this man. Verse 13 of this 45th chapter,
I have raised him up in righteousness, I will direct all his ways, he
shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not full
price nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Again, where we finished our
reading tonight, in chapter 46, we read of God calling a ravenous
bird from the east, the man that executes of 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. Who is this Cyrus? Well, he's the man who issues
that decree. I don't want to go back to the opening words
of Ezra. We looked at them this morning
briefly, but you can read those words again. It was Ezra, the
scribe who responded. And under the decree of Cyrus,
he goes and the temple is rebuilt in the days of Ezra. But this
man is really a typical character. Ralf Erskine, the Scots minister,
back in the 18th century, says of him, he is a type of Christ,
our great and our glorious Deliverer. A type of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we read then concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ? Here in the text, I saith the
Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his Maker, ask of me things
to come concerning my sons and concerning the works the work
of my hand command ye me command ye me says the Lord God he will have us come and tell
him and we see it when we read the Gospels of the Lord Jesus
Christ how does the Lord speak to blind Bartimaeus begging there
at the gate of Jericho What wilt thou that I should do unto thee?
he says. What wilt thou that I should
do unto thy? Oh, he will have the blind man
to tell him, and he'll do just as the blind man says, that I
may receive my sight. But you know the account, he
does more than that, doesn't he? Thy faith has saved thee,
he says. and more than the healing of his physical sight,
he had spiritual sight. He saw Christ as the Saviour. Jesus, our son of David, have
mercy on me was his cry. What a contrast we see time and
again concerning that man. We're told how many charged him
that he should hold his peace but he cried out the more a great
deal thou son of David have mercy on me and Jesus stood still and
commanded that they bring him to him and then he utters those
words what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? tell me command
me what you want me to do so different, so different to the
multitudes oh they were wearied with the with the blind man that
is constant calling hold thy peace I want him to stop but
the Lord you see will have his people to come and to command
him and we see it so many times the disciples when they bring
the little children to the Lord Jesus the disciples want to forbid
the women from doing this forbid them not he says suffer the little
children to come unto me he will have his people come He will
have them come again and again. There's a contrast between the
Lord, you know, and His disciples. We see it many times in the Gospels
when we think of that Samaritan woman in John chapter 4. Remember
how the Lord must need to go through Samaria. He must need
to go through Samaria. He must meet that woman. He must
tell her everything she has ever done. She must come to know him
as that one who is the promised Messiah. Come see a man who told
me everything that ever I did. He's not this, the Christ, she
says. And when the disciples return
and they discover he's been speaking with the Samaritan woman, they
seem to be horrified really. They marveled, it says. They marveled that he talked
with the woman. what was he doing having dealings with the Samaritan
but the Lord you see he's so compassionate he's so compassionate
again and again or when they would have that
Canaanite woman sent away he wouldn't have that at all,
he will hear her, he will answer her She cries after him and she doesn't
cry in vain. The disciples so many times misjudge
the situation. The man born blind in John 9. They ask Christ who did sin,
this man or his parents that he was born blind? Or they want
to apportion the blind somewhere. No, this is for the glory of
God. Oh, this is for the glory of God. And the glory of God,
you see, is the gracious way in which He hears and answers
the pleas, the prayers of His people. Do we believe it, though?
Do we believe it? What compassion? Oh, concerning the blind man,
in Matthew's accounts, Matthew 20, 34, we're told Jesus had
compassion on them. The very word is used there.
He had compassion. and what an interesting word
is that it has regard to the inward parts of a man it's speaking
really of the seat of a man's feelings and you know compassion
is associated with the bowels as it were the lower stomach
it's where we feel a thing it's where we feel it we have not
a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. He feels. He's a feeling saviour. He's touched with the feeling
of our infirmities. He was tempted in all points,
like as we are, yet without sin. He knew what sore temptations
were. We sang it just now in the hymn.
It's easy to sing the word, but do we believe it? You know what sore temptations
are. If you're the Lord's, the devil won't be inactive. He'll
come with his temptations, his accusations. Oh, he's a great adversary of
Christ and his church. But Christ, you see, was touched
with the feeling of all our infirmities when he was tempted, but he was
without sin. Alas, so often, you see, we fall
because we have a sinful nature. But when the devil comes, how
he tempts him and, as it were, uses all his artillery against
the Lord. But all to no avail. Oh, he vanquished
Satan, he vanquished thee. And he says to us, ask me of
things to come. And concerning the work of my
hands, command ye me. Oh, the Lord says, doesn't he,
to that blind man Bartimaeus at the end of Mark's account,
what wilt thou that I should do unto thee? And I know a priest
on that passage and the contrast that we have in that chapter
earlier we have the rich young ruler and he comes to the Lord and what does he say to the Lord?
What shall I do that I may be saved? He is looking so much
to himself and he wants to do something. And we can do nothing
and he could do nothing. But men are so foolish, you see.
They look to their idols. They look to that biggest of
all our idols. Idol self. What shall I do What
shall I do? Even when men are awakened, I
think it's strange when we read in the actuacy of the preaching
of the apostles, the day of Pentecost. What must we do to be saved?
Men want to do something. The Lord says, what wilt thou
that I shall do unto you? And he invites us thus to come,
and not only to ask, but to command him, to command him. to command Him that He would
grant that best of all blessings to
us. What is that best of all blessings?
That we would be those who would seek that grace of submission
and know that His will is always best. His will is the best will. Maybe we don't see it, we think
that we know better. but we're wrong there the Lord
is the one who knows and his is a good perfect will and we're
to pray then that his will be done in earth as it is in heaven
and that that will might yet be done in our lives and accomplished
in our souls and that for our eternal good and that for the
glory of his name oh what a God is this, we can come we're not
to hold back, we're not to think well I can't really pray like
that because am I really submissive to God's
will? No, we can be particular, we can be specific we can ask,
we can command invites us, ask me of things to come concerning my sons and concerning
the works of my hand command you may, or that we might know
then what it is to respond to heaven's drop-down righteousness.
And what are we to do? We are to pour out our own souls
in response and to address that God who is in heaven, who is
able to do all things, with whom nothing is impossible. Oh the
Lord, help us then to know what it is to come in all that boldness
of faith. I do Again, remind you of that
title that Erskine gave to his sermon, Faith, Freedom with God. Oh God grant that we might know
that freedom of faith as we come with our petitions to the Lord.
Amen.