Isaiah chapter 45, looking at verse 20 to verse
22. I would like to look through verse
25, but you know that I just don't see it possible. So we're
going to try to get to verse 20, and I may glean something
from the other three verses. Surely we can. But we'll try
to stick to these. The title of the message is,
Our God Saves. Our God. Very much emphasis on
that word, Our God Saves. Read these together, verse 20,
"...assemble yourselves, and come. Draw near together you
that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up wood of their graven image. And pray unto," listen, "...a
God, that cannot save. Remember, our God saves. They prayed to a God that cannot
save. Tell ye, and bring them near,
yea, 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, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. Look
unto me, and be ye saved, O the ends of the earth. For I am God,
and there is none else." Our God saves. Our God saves. All other gods are no gods at
all that cannot save. This is the whole purpose of
my message this evening, is to make this distinction. The gods
of men and the God, our God, there is a distinction and is
this, salvation. Their God cannot save and our
God is a just God and a Savior. Now in these verses of Isaiah
45, no less than five times, God declares a truth concerning
Himself, concerning the solitariness of His person, the singleness
of His person. He says this five times, verse
5, I am the Lord, and listen, there is none else. There is
no God beside me. Verse 6, I am the Lord and there
is none else. Verse 14, at the end, surely
God is in thee and there is none else. There is no God. Verse 18, I am the Lord and there
is none else. Verse 22, I am God and there
is none else. You get the point? There is no
other God but the living God. And he proves this in many places
in this text, one of which is the calling of Cyrus, that man
of Persia. In verse 1, he's telling them,
I'm going to call Cyrus. Cyrus, whose right hand I have
hold and subdue the nations before him, and I will loose the loins
of king, I will open up before him the two-leaved gates, and
the gates shall not be shut." And we notice that he does this.
Verse 4, "...for Jacob my servant's sake, for Israel mine elect."
This is what he's done it for. He said, I'm going to call this
man Cyrus, and he named him by name hundreds of years before
his birth. And so when we read in our text,
he's saying, look, what other god has done this before? What
other god has called out a man by name hundreds of years before
he was born and told you exactly what he's going to do? Who else
has done that? He said, I alone have done that. I've showed you that I am God. I'm going to take this man who
doesn't even know me, and I'm going to use him for my people's
purpose. To save my people. And this is
the God that created all things. This is the God who swears to
raise up one that is righteous. And he's talking about then in
this text, Christ. He says, I'm going to raise up
one righteous. Verse 23, I've sworn by myself,
and the word's gone out of my mouth in righteousness. Verse 24, "...Surely shall one
say in the Lord, I have righteousness and strength, to him shall men
come." He's talking about Christ. He said, I'm going to send Christ.
I'm going to send my Messiah in righteousness. "...And all
men will bow to him, all will come to him, and by him shall
men be saved." And so then, with this in mind,
that there is no other God, that God purposes what He willed before
it happens, tells you it's going to happen, and when it happens,
you know this, there is only one God. Jehovah is God. Now with this in mind, let's
look at our text and see here that God calls His people to
pay attention. Look at this in verse 20, He
said, Assemble yourselves and come. draw near together you
that have escaped the nations." Listen, he's calling his elect,
those that have escaped, those who have escaped what Paul says,
or Peter says this, he says, "...whereby are given unto us,
exceeding great and precious promises, that by these you might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world." You see, he's calling you, believer. You
are believers in Christ. God is saying, come here. Draw
near to me. I want to tell you something.
I want you to be instructed. I want you to learn. I want you
to understand. You that have escaped, you that
have come near to me, you that have drawn near by Christ, pay
attention and listen to my words. And I'm going to comfort you
by them. I'm going to comfort you. Come near, let us reason together,
saith the Lord, that though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as wool. Isn't that comforting? Isn't
it comforting that our God calls you to draw near to Him? Often times I feel like I'm pursuing
after God to come to me. Often times I feel like He's
left me and I am pursuing Him. That's not the case. My God is
always pursuing after His people. He is always coming to me and
calling me. And He calls you tonight. He
says, come here. I want to reason with you. I
want to talk to you because I know you're troubled. I know your
difficulties, I know your trials, I know your troubles, and I want
to give you such comfort that you would know everything's well.
Everything's well and nothing's wrong. All is well with you. And so as God draws us and assembles
those that have escaped the corruption of this world through Jesus Christ
by faith in Him, there are three divisions then I want to divide
our thoughts into as God calls us together tonight and speaks
to us. Speaks to us. The first thing
I want us to see is He gives a description of the lost, unregenerate
man. So that you, believer, might
understand and know there are a group of people who profess
to believe God, profess to be believers in Christ, but are
liars. Liars. so that you're not astounded,
so that you're not confounded when you find them. They are
there. They are scattered among even
the saints of God, among the churches. And so, he gives a
description of the lost and their God. The lost and their God. Second, He gives a revelation
of Himself. So that you know your God is
God, He describes Himself for you. So that when He is described,
you will say, yes, that's my God. You will know your God when
He reveals Himself to you. You'll say, yes, that's who I
worship. That's my God. And my God's not like their God. And the third thing is the salvation
that our God alone can perform. The salvation our God alone can
perform. So first let's look at the description
of those that are lost. The unregenerate religionist
and his God. Now look what God says. Come
here. Come here and sit down and let me speak to you about
those nations you've escaped from. Listen. They have no knowledge. They have no knowledge. Now, pay attention. Man is very
religious. By nature, man is very religious. I remember reading this article
one time of an archaeologist. He said, you would sooner find
a civilization without an alphabet as you would find one without
a temple. Why? Because man, by nature,
is religious. Man by nature knows there is
a God. He knows there is a God. And
he's very religious, he's moral, he's zealous. But this is no
evidence of his salvation. Morality and zeal is no evidence
of knowledge. The knowledge of God. Remember
the Apostle said of his brethren, which were very zealous, he said,
I bear them record. They have a zeal, God, but not
according to knowledge. They don't understand. They go
about to establish their own righteousness. And so many of
those around us make a profession of faith in God. They believe,
they say they believe on Jesus Christ. Yet they are those that
the Lord describes who enter in at the wide gate. And these are they that walk
in a broad way that leads unto destruction. And the first description
that God gives of the lost religious man is this, he has no knowledge.
The lost religionist is totally and absolutely ignorant of all
spiritual knowledge. It's very important that word
spiritual knowledge. It's not that they're ignorant
people. It's not that they don't have an education. It's not that
they're not college graduates. It's not that they're not rocket
scientists or brain surgeons. They have carnal knowledge. But when it comes to spiritual
matters, they lose their mind, they're crazy. You have a man,
he's a brain surgeon, during the day he's very orderly, very
fast, he goes to his religion, he acts like a maniac. He doesn't
have understanding spiritually. And you can tell this when they
open their mouth. Can you not? When you hear how they speak
about God, you can right away see there's no knowledge here.
There's no understanding of who God is. These people are very
versed in scriptural passages and they may even have an understanding
of true doctrine, a knowledge, an intellectual understanding
of sovereign grace. But true spiritual knowledge
comes only to those who are born again of God. It's not natural. Spiritual knowledge is something
that God works in a man. It's something God gives and
reveals to a man. It's not something man has or
can attain by academic measures. In 2 Corinthians 1 Corinthians
chapter 2, verse 14, it says this, "...but the natural man
receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God." They are foolishness to him.
Neither can he, listen, know them. Why, Paul? Because they
are spiritually discerned. They are spiritually condemned.
Spiritually judged. But he that is spiritual discerneth,
judgeth all things. Yet he himself is discerned of
no man. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of
Christ. See, it's one thing, let's use
an illustration, it's one thing for a blind man to describe a
rose. You have a man born blind, never
seen a rose in all of his life. He goes to a man and he says,
teach me what a rose is. And he begins to tell him the
color and the vividness and he begins to describe the texture
and so forth. And he can regurgitate what he
has learned. But he has never experienced
the beauty of it with his own eyes because he's blind. Now
you take the same man, if he was born blind and he is given
sight, then he is capable from his very experience to describe
what he has seen himself. And so it is with understanding
of spiritual things. of spiritual things. Paul said
this, I know whom I have believed. Does that sound like he learned
that in academic school? No, he said, I know that man.
I know him. I know whom I have believed.
And so every believer, we say the same thing. I know whom I
have believed and am persuaded that he is able to keep that
which I have committed unto him against that day. The Spirit
testifies, the Scripture says, with our spirit that we are the
sons of God. Does the Spirit of God testify
with your spirit? Do you know whom you have believed? Jesus Christ, the righteous? And so if you are born again,
what does Paul say? You know all things. You know
all things. Spiritual things. spiritual things. You know all things. But the
lost, you listen. How much do the lost know? They
know nothing. Do not expect the lost to know
anything. They know nothing. You expect them to. Why? Because
it's simple to you. You understand. You perceive
that salvation is of the Lord. You know! You know that God hath
from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit and belief of the truth. And you have believed
by our Gospel. You know these things by experience. God gave you these things in
your heart, and every day you experience them by looking and
believing on Christ. But the lost know nothing about
themselves. That's the first thing they don't
know anything about is themselves. The lost still perceive themselves
to have something left to give. They perceive that God still
desires something from them. that they have some spark of
life in them, that they are able with that spark so as to please
God by their works. They know nothing about themselves.
Why they? Because the scriptures are clear
that there's none righteous, no not one. There's none that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They are all together become unprofitable. There's none that
doeth good, no not one. The scripture says that all die
in Adam. All die. Wherefore, as by one
man sin entered in the world, and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men. For all have sinned." They have
no clue of that. They have no understanding of that. Now I'll tell you this, some
men have an understanding of total depravity up here. And
so they walk around and say, yeah, everybody's depraved. But
they neglect to know that they are depraved. And if you've never experienced
total depravity yourself, you will never come to Christ. The second thing is they have
no knowledge of God. Paul said this in Romans 1, he
says, See, everyone who thinks God to be much like
themselves is very ignorant of who God is. If you want to know who God is,
think of yourself and think that there is nothing
like that in God. That God is altogether different
than yourself and you're coming close. God is nothing like us,
nothing like man. They think God to be such a forgiving God that
he would overlook his justice. They perceive God can be pleased
by their best efforts. Any of you come across anyone
like this? Have you found anyone like this? You have found an
ignorant man. who knows nothing of God, who
knows nothing of himself. Listen, and they know nothing
of sin. Man by nature is ignorant of sin. He thinks sin to be nothing
more than a mistake, an accident, instead of a high crime of treason
that it is against the living God. They don't think sin is
worthy of damnation. They think God to be too harsh.
Well, sin, you know, sin is nothing. Surely God doesn't send a man
to hell for a lie. Oh yes, He does. And He will. He will punish sin eternally.
They know nothing of righteousness. They perceive righteousness to
be nothing more than a man's best efforts to obey the law. or rather to be openly moral
and good. They say, oh, that man was a good man. He must have
been righteous. They think that salvation is
within the grasp of man, that it's obtainable, that man could
do something, that grace is nothing more than something floating
above their heads and all they have to do is reach out and grab
it. They still think that there's
something that they can do themselves to obtain salvation, that it's
within their reach, that Christ came and died on the cross to
make it possible, and that all they have to do is make some
decision in themselves. These people are absolutely and
utterly ignorant of God and His salvation. Such men are ignorant. And what does this ignorance
do? It leads man to form a god of his own making. That's what
it does. Such depravity moves every one
of us to form a god. Maybe not in this civilized world
we don't form them out of wood and stone and things like that. But I tell you this, you do in
your mind. You do in your mind. Man does
this in their mind. We live in such a vile religious
age that most people don't bow down to statues of wood or gold. Now some still do. In the Roman Catholic Church,
we know that they're full of idolatry. They're full of bowing
down to statues and Things like that. But you ask even some Roman
Catholics, they don't believe that they're actually worshipping
idols. They just think it's a symbol.
They still think it's a symbol of some sort. But it's nothing
but idolatry. But you talk to Baptists or Presbyterians
and other denominations that don't use those things, they'll
say, we don't worship idols. But yet you look at their God
and He is nothing more than a figment of their imagination. He has
been carved out by their opinions and by their thoughts and feelings
and emotions, rather than the God as He describes Himself in
Scripture. They're ignorant. And they ignorantly
worship this God. How can you tell a false God
from a true one? God tells you, listen, look at
your text. They had no knowledge. They set
up a wood, the wood of their graven image and pray unto a
God that cannot save. Any God, now pay attention, any
God that cannot save is no God. Any God that needs your assistance
to save is no God. He is nothing more than an idol.
A false God. A false God that cannot save. Now they may call him Jehovah,
and they may call him Jesus. But if their God, named Jehovah,
and their God, named Jesus, cannot save, then it is not the true
and living God, and it is not the true Christ. Whatever they
call God, this is what God says about them. He cannot save. The
Apostle writes this in 2 Timothy 3 and verse 5. He says, these
people, who have no knowledge, who bow down and worship a God
they cannot save, he says this, they have a form of godliness.
They do, don't they? Can you not deny that? Paul said,
I know my people have a zeal for God. You can't deny it. You
can't deny their morality. You can't deny their good works.
They do a lot of good things. They have a form of godliness. But what makes their godliness
of none effect is this, but denying the power thereof." Denying the
power thereof. Paul said, "...these men are
lovers of their own self, covetous, boasters, high-minded, lovers
of pleasure more than lovers of God, and yet they have a form
of godliness." A form of godliness, but the trouble is they deny
the power of salvation. This is exactly what is wrong
with freewill works religion. These people have a form, a show
of godliness outwardly, but their God and their gospel have no
power to save. No power to save. Brother Henry
Mahan wrote this and I thought it was good for this. He said, a form of godliness. Talking about free will works
religious, he said they have a form of godliness and it says,
God wills to save all men. Denying the power adds this,
but he cannot unless a man opens his heart. A form of godliness says that
God has a wonderful plan for you, but denying the power adds,
but you must allow Him to have His will and way. A form of godliness
says Christ died for all the sins of all men to make salvation
possible, but denying the power thereof adds, but unless man,
by the power of his free will, receives it, the blood has no
effect, has no effect on man. A form of godliness says the
Holy Spirit is knocking at the door, denying the power thereof,
adds, but you must open the door for him. You see, salvation then
becomes the power of man and not the power of God. You see
then, their God cannot save. except you allow him. Now you pay attention. That God
that cannot save is no God. How do I know that? Am I being
too harsh? No! God says it! He said they
pray to a God that cannot save. Cannot save. All who follow such
a God as this, a God that wants to save men but cannot, A God
that is opposed by the will of man, a Christ who died for sin
but cannot redeem anyone, is a God to be mocked, is a God
to be rejected, and not a God to be worshipped. You remember Elijah when he came
to the false prophets of Baal. What did he do to their gods?
He mocked them, didn't he? He mocked them. He said, ah,
you need to cry louder. Your God, He must need a hearing
aid. He can't hear you. Cry louder.
He said, ah, maybe your God's gone to the bathroom. You need
to go fetch Him. He's in the bathroom. Ah, your
God's taking a vacation. He mocked their God. You pay
attention. God mocked their God. Back over
in another portion of Isaiah, he said this. He said, let them
do good, let them do evil, let them do something. Let them prove something that
we may be astounded. God said that. That I may be
astounded. Let them do something. They can't
do anything. They're not a god at all. And
all who worship a God, you know what God says is? God says, if
you worship a God like that, you are an abomination. It is
an abomination, you that chooseth this God, it is an abomination. A God that cannot save. God that
cannot save. That God is not God, for God
says, all who worship such, or an abomination that chews at
them. The Apostle tells us who worship the true and living God
that we should turn away from such. You know what he said?
Back in that passage I just read in Timothy, he said this, "...who
have a form of godliness, denying the power thereof from such..."
Listen. Turn away. You know people like
that? What do you do? Turn away. You listen, if men have no problem
rending your God, what do you suppose they'll do
to you? If they have no fear of mocking the true and living
God, what do you think they'll do to you? Turn away. The blind lead the blind, they
both shall fall in the ditch. Leave them alone. Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers, for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness?
What communion hath light with darkness? What concord hath Christ
with Belial? What part believeth with the
infidel? And what agreement hath the temple
of God with idols? Friends, we're not to associate
with them so that we do not give credit to their God. You understand
that? If you associate with them, you
are giving credit to their God as being valid. If you... Won't you come and listen to
our... We're going to have a big music program at our church,
and man, they're going to have a lot of singing, a lot of things
going on, a lot of pizza parties, a lot of things, fun things.
What happens when you show up? You are giving credit to their
God. You are. You're putting their God on the
same equal ground as yours. From such, turn away. Turn away. You think you're going to be
liked when you do that? You think you're going to be loved by the
community? Embraced? No. You'll be mocked. You'll be hated. Christ said
you would. Now then, the character of the
true God. Now the true God in verse 21,
look at this. Tell ye, and bring them near. Yea, let them take counsel together,
who hath declared this from ancient time, who hath told it from that
time. Hath not I the Lord? There is
no God beside me, a just God and a Savior. Now God calls all to Kisbar,
bring all your dunghill gods before me and compare them now
to me. Take all the gods of false religion and you put them up
to me and here's the difference. I am a just God and a Savior. A just God and a Savior. Take all the gods of false religion
and put them together and they couldn't tell you anything. Why? They don't know anything. who among them had declared these
things from eternity, all things that were, all things that are,
and all things that shall be, God says, I've declared them.
I've told you before they take place, and when they come to
pass, you should know. Not one of the gods of men is
able to proclaim absolute supreme sovereignty over all time, beings,
providence, and circumstances, and the salvation of men, except
one, Thee, God. Only Thee, God, is sovereign. Only Thee, God, commands all
things and moves all things after the counsel of His own sovereign
will. That's God. That's God. The Lord of Hosts, Isaiah 14,
24, "...the Lord of Hosts sworn, and surely as I have thought,
so shall it come to pass, and as I have purposed, so shall
it stand." Now you see the difference between a God and the God? Agod is wringing his hands. Agod
has no clue what's going to happen. Agod begs men to do one thing,
and man thwarts his will every time he turns around. But THE
God, He is the one who ordered all things before the world began.
He said from the beginning, from ancient times, I have the things,
I've declared all that's to come to pass. My counsel shall stand
and I will do all my pleasure. That is the God. The only God. And he said this, there is none
else. There's none else. I like this, when God said there's
none beside me, it's like he looked to the right and to the
left and said, nope, there's nobody there. Nobody else but
me. I'm it. I'm the only one. Behold, our God is the one that
wills and decrees all things before the world began, and by
his power he accomplishes exactly what he purposes to do. Who shall
stay his hand or say unto him, What doest thou? Now, none, none can thwart his purpose or
turn him back. 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 when from the beginning.
I will do all my pleasure. Behold then the contrast of the
true and living God with all false gods. Our God shall not
fail to do what he pleases. Now the true God here declares
two things about himself. He says, I am a just God. a just God. God here is declaring to us His
holy nature. His holy nature. What does God
demand of man? What does God demand of us as
His creatures? If God is God and there is no
other God, what then does God require of us? God is very clear. He said, I am a just God. What
does this mean? It means that God Himself, according
to His own person, demands perfection of His creatures. He demands
absolute, holy perfection, righteousness without Sin. He is a holy, just,
and righteous God, and all He does is righteous, and all that
He accepts must be as holy as He is. Be ye holy even as I am
holy. And yet we know this, He is merciful. In Micah chapter 7 and verse
18 it says this, He delighteth in mercy. He delighteth in mercy. Who is it God likened to thee?
That delighteth in mercy. But listen, this God, this God
who is just and merciful, never has mercy at the expense of His
justice. He never has mercy at the expense
of His justice. See, God, in order to be satisfied
with the sinner, justice must first be satisfied. I am just. Before God can be
your Savior, He must be just. He must be just. He must be holy. Sin must be punished. And so then, what shall we offer
such a God? What can man offer such a God? The Scriptures are clear, we
have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. Look, we've
done missed the train. If you are trying to earn God's
favor by works, you have missed the train from birth. We all
were born sinners and therefore we could by no means of ourself
obtain or merit righteousness by the law. Therefore, because
there's none righteous, therefore Paul says by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. You've missed the
boat. No hope there. So then, the only hope for us
is an offering, right? We must make a sacrifice. We
must have an offering to appease God. But what does God require
for an offering? Listen. Leviticus 22 and verse
21, he says this, Whosoever offereth a sacrifice of a peace offering
unto the Lord, to accomplish his vow, or a freewill offering
of sheep, Listen, it shall be perfect to be accepted. So now then, you that cannot
merit righteousness, if you must make an offering, it's got to
be perfect. It's got to be a perfect offering. So, what can we do? What is the hope? What is the hope of such a ruined
race as we are? If God says I was a just God
and left it there, we'd have no hope. But God says this, I
am a just God and a Savior. And a Savior. How then is there
hope? Listen. Substitution. It's a beautiful word. Substitution. This is how God purposed to be
a just God and a Savior. By a representative. We all fell,
how? In a representative. When Adam
sinned, we fell in Him. We died in Him. So then, if we
are to be made righteous, it must also be by what? A representative. A representative. This is what
Christ Jesus is. He is the substitute and the
representative of all the elect of God, of all God's people. How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? There's only one answer to this.
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ. Look at verse 23, he said, I
have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow and every
tongue shall swear. Surely shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men
come. This is talking about Christ.
He said, I'm going to send one who is righteousness. One who
says, I'm righteous. One that says, I have made an
offering for sin, accepted of God, and all shall come to Him. This is how God is a just God
and a Savior, by taking the sins of His people, imputing them,
charging them to His Son, made Him to be sin for us who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him,
in Christ, by a substitute. A just God and a Savior. The eternal Son of God, who could not sin, has obtained
righteousness that you could not obtain. The Son of God suffered
under the justice of God that you and I could never appease. And His offering was perfect. And so what then does God say,
THE God say? Verse 22, here it is, the salvation
he shall perform, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends
of the earth. Look unto Christ and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. There's only one God. There's
only one Savior, Jesus Christ the righteous. Look unto Him
and listen what God will do. He will save you. Think of the brazen serpent.
They were all bitten, laying there dying. He raised up that brazen serpent
in the wilderness and here was the command, look and live. Jesus says, as the serpent was
lifted up in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life, should
be saved. Is it not simple to look? Is there anything in that language that you can misconstrue? Look only to Christ. Look always to Christ. And God will save you. Because he is a God that saves. He is not a God that cannot save. All other gods are no gods at
all. But our God. is a just god and
i'm thankful for that i'm thankful he's a just god because what
does that mean if my sins were punished in christ because god
is just he can never polish me adjust god cannot demand twice
payment that's cool That's good for us. Our God is just and a
Savior. Look unto me and be saved. I
pray God give us grace to continue to look, to be comforted to know
our God does what's right. You know, is your God's pleasure
to save you? If it wasn't His pleasure, He wouldn't have saved
you. But it's His pleasure to save you. So what do you think
He'll do? He'll save you. Who? All who look to Christ. Every
one of them. May God bless this. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer.