Turn with me now, if you would,
to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45. I have a word of instruction,
a word of encouragement, a word of comfort, a word of love, a word of salvation, and the word is from our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. Look with me, if you would, at
Isaiah 45, verse 22. He said, Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. That's good, isn't it? That is
wonderful. There are a few things that I
want to point out about this. The first one being, This is
the word of the Lord to his people, to his particular people. And
this has been the word of the Lord from the beginning of his
book, all the way to the end of his book cover to cover his word to his particular people
has not changed. Never changed. Our God has been
the savior of sinners. He's been the healer for the
sick, the rest for the weary, the refuge for the guilty. from
eternity to eternity. He has been, he is, he will forever
be. This has always been his word
to his people. He said, look unto me and be
ye saved. Look unto me and be ye saved. That's what he said to Adam and
Eve after they sinned against him. They sinned against him.
And this is what he said to them. When he slew an animal and covered
them in the innocence of that animal, this is what he was saying
to them. Look unto me and be ye saved. Look unto me and be ye saved. In the days of Noah, when God
flooded this earth, Every stroke of Noah's hammer cried, look
unto me and be saved. Every soul that saw that arc
standing witnessed the commanding message. Noah was a preacher
of righteousness. And every soul who saw that arc
standing saw the commanding message of God. Look unto me and be saved. Look unto me and be saved. There
was no other salvation in the day that God's judgment literally
rained down on this earth. No other, there's no other, none
else. He said, look unto me, look unto
me and be you saved. In the days of Moses, when all
those people were dying from the bites of those deadly serpents,
when God told Moses to lift up a serpent of brass on a pole, all of those people were told
to look at that serpent of brass. And what that was saying to all
those dying people was, Look unto me and be ye saved. I'll never forget. It was Cody
Groover who came, he was coming through the States and he preached
on the serpent of brass. And for the first time, God opened
my, I always wondered why a snake? For the first time I saw he was
made to be the very thing that was killing his people. He was, sin is killing us. He was made to be the very thing
that was killing us and lifted up before the judgment throne
of God and God dealt with it and it's gone. Look unto me and
be ye saved. In Matthew 11, he said, come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give
you rest. In John 7, he said, if any man
thirst, let him come unto me and drink. In Revelation 22, he said, the
Spirit and the bride say, come. And let him that heareth say,
come. And let him that is a thirst
Come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely.
This has been the message of our Lord from the beginning. This is the message of our Lord
right now. And this will forever be, I'm
so glad to know this. This will forever be the message
of the Lord to his people. Look unto me and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God and there is none else. That's the first thing I want
us to see in this. That glorious message from him will never change. It will never change. Here's
the second thing. If we are going to do this, He
is going to have to cause us to do this. The first thing that
I want us to say is, that's His message to His people and it'll
never change. And the second thing I want us
to say is, if we do look unto Him, truly look unto Him, then
He's gonna have to cause us to look unto Him. He said, look
unto me and be ye saved. If we need to be saved, sometimes
we skip over words. If we need to be saved, it means
we're in a terrible condition. If we're not in a terrible condition,
we don't need to be saved. The fact that he said, look unto
me and be ye saved. That means we're in a terrible
condition. What condition is it? Scripture says we are dead
in trespasses and sins. And this is the thing to know
about our condition. A dead man can't look. This is the critical message
that men and women need to hear. A dead man can't look. All you
have to do is look. That's all you have to do is
look. A dead man can't look. Life has to be given before a
dead man can look. Looking is so easy. You think
about how hard is it to look? When somebody says, you can tell
anybody, you can tell a child, look at that, look. Looking is
so simple and it's so easy as long as you're alive and have
eyes to see. Those are the two conditions. If God does not give us that
life. And if he does not give us those
eyes, then we'll never be able to look the eyes of faith. We'll
never be able to look. That's an impossible command
for centers until God performs a work on them and in them. That's
an impossible command. If we're going to do this, he's
going to have to cause us to do this. Look at verse one, right
here in Isaiah 45. The Lord, it says, thus sayeth
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. The Lord said, I have done this
and I will do this. I will do it. Verse two, 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 I will give thee the treasures of darkness and hidden
riches of secret places that thou mayest know that I, the
Lord, which call thee by thy name and the God of Israel. For Jacob, my servant's sake,
and Israel, mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name.
I love this line right here. He said, I have surnamed thee. That means I've given you a last
name. You know, when a man and a woman get married, the bride
gets a new last name. He said, I have surnamed thee,
though thou hast not known me. I am the Lord and there is none
else. There is no God beside me. I girded thee though thou has
not known me that they may know from the rising of the sun and
from the West that there is none beside me. I am the Lord and
there is none else. I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. The Lord said, I have done all
these things for you. I must do all these things for
you. I will do all these things for
you. He's going to have to do it.
He's going to have to do it. I have always loved music. I've always loved music. I've
always been drawn to powerful melodies in songs. You know, songs like, I was thinking
about this and the first one that came to my mind was Victory
in Jesus. I have always loved, we don't
sing that song because the words are not really that good. But
every time I've ever sung it, I always think, oh, I want to
sing this, because I just love the music of it. You know, victory. That song says, I won the victory. That's what the song is saying.
I repented of my sins, and I won the victory. I didn't win anything. He won the victory. Thanks be
unto God, which giveth us the victory. The victory was his. But the reason I bring up songs
like this is because another song that I've always loved singing,
and I do wanna say that if we cut out every song that had wrong
words in it, we wouldn't sing anything, and we'd lose all of
our rhyme. I would go through and change
all the words, but it messes everything up. I just sing it
rightly in my heart. But another song that I've always
loved singing is Look and Live. My brother, Liv, look to Jesus
Christ, That's what I say in my heart, look to Jesus Christ
and live. Um, I love singing that song. Unfortunately, verse three says
life is offered unto you. Hallelujah. Eternal life thy soul shall have
if you'll only look to him, hallelujah, look to Jesus who alone can save.
Look and live, my brother, live. Look to Jesus now and live. It
is recorded in his word, hallelujah. It is only that you look and
live. Well, that's not right. That's
not right. If we sing that song again, I'll
sing it at the top of my lungs. And maybe we'll skip verse three.
But that's not right. That's not right. That's not
how it works. That's not what he's saying right
here. A better song to sing is, open my eyes that I may see. Would you open my eyes that I
may see? Glimpses of truth thou hast for
me. place in my hand the wonderful
key that shall unclasp and set me free. Silently now, I wait
for thee. Ready, my God, thy will to see. So would you please open my eyes
and would you illumine me, spirit divine? Looking and living is
in the hands of God. It is in the hands of God. If
we are going to look to him, he is gonna have to give us life
to look, and he's gonna have to give us eyes of faith to see.
And that's exactly what he does for every soul that he has purpose
to save, every single soul. This always has been, this is,
and this will forever be his word to his people. And this
always has been, this is, and this will forever be his work
in his people. If he's given us this word, and
if he's given us this work, if he's done this work in us, then
we will look to him. With the command, he will give
the ability to obey the command. He will perform the work and
we will do it. And this is how we will look
if He causes us to truly look to Him. And not look to ourselves, not look
to our flesh, not look to our works, not look to anybody else. If we truly look to Him, this
is how we're gonna look, okay? And you'll notice this. You'll
notice this in yourself. Our look will be back to the
beginning. When we, with our heart, eyes
of faith, look to Christ, our look will go all the way back
to before the foundation of the world. We will look all the way
back. Our look will go all the way
back to our election in Him. Our look will go all the way
back to the love of God the Father for us in Him. Every time we truly look to him,
not only will our look go back to the cross, the saving cross,
his work on the cross, the accusation, the agony, the bloodshed, the
death, the payment, the satisfaction, the finished work of the cross.
Not only will our look go back to the cross, but it'll go all
the way back to the lamb slain from before the foundation of
the world. all the way back. That's where the eyes of faith
of a believer, that's where they go, all the way back. Our look
will go all the way back to the will of God. That's what we see
when we look all the way back there to before the foundation
of the world, we see the will of God, what God purpose to do,
willed to do. We see the purpose of God for
us through and in Christ our Savior. That look is so far reaching
back, all right? But that's not the only direction
of our look. When we look to Christ our Savior, our look is
also a very present look. And this is what I want to emphasize.
Our look is a very present look. We look to Him right now. I want to encourage all of us
to look to Him right now, right now. We have a past look, but
it doesn't stay in the past. It does not stay in the past.
We look to Him right now. And here's why I wanna emphasize
this, okay? The foundation of our hope and
our doctrine and our gospel begins before the foundation of the
world. And the end of our hope and the end of our faith, it
ends in eternity with him. But here we are right now. And
we're looking back that way and we're looking this way, but our
look is to him right now. We need him right now. to get us through this moment.
We need him to get us through today. I need him to get me through
this week. I need him to get me through
this year. I need him to get me through this life all the way to the end. He saved
us way back then, but here's the thing. I need him to save
me right now. You ever feel like you're drowning?
Do you ever feel like you're You know, the old writers, and
they talk about the miry clay, and they talk about, Bunyan talked
about the slough of despond, and I need him to pull me out
of that right now. Today, I need him to save me
today. Our look is right now. It is a current, active, fervent
look right now. Look to him right now. Everybody
has something that they need delivering from. Look to him
right now. Look to him right now. This is
what he said. What he's saying is find rest. Put a period at the end of this.
Look unto me and be ye saved. Come unto me and find your rest. We look back at what He has done
for us. Every time we open up this Word
together, we look back at what He has done for us. We look now
at what He does for us. And we can't help but find comfort
and hope in what He will very soon do for us in eternity future. The glory of what He did, the
glory of what He does, and the glory of what He very soon will
do. There's a verse of Scripture that says this exact thing. Turn
with me, if you would, to 2 Corinthians chapter 1. 2 Corinthians 1. Verse 10, 2 Corinthians 1 verse
10, it says, speaking of our Savior, it says,
who delivered us from so great a death and doth deliver in whom
we trust that he will yet Deliver us. This is what our hope looks to.
It looks to the fact that He delivered us from all of our
sin, all of our death, all of our condemnation, all of our
destruction. Our hope looks to the fact that
He has already delivered us. And our hope looks to the fact
that he is still right now delivering us. He delivers us from all of
our despair over our sin and despair over the absolute heartache
of this life. This life is full of trouble
and sorrow and heartache and fear and worry and misery. We need Him, this is what we
need for Him to do daily. We need for Him to reach down
His hand for us. To deliver us from everything
that we are. I need Him to deliver me from
me. Everything we are in this world,
everything we endure in this world, that's what we need and
that's what He does. He delivers us. from us every day. How does he deliver us daily?
How does he do that? He delivers us by causing us
to look to him. And we know that so. Every time
we look to him, every time his spirit, and this is, we pray
that moment when he gets a hold of us again. And He causes us
to turn our eyes upon Him and look to the Lamb of God again.
And every time we look to Him, He delivers us. That's all it
takes is a look. Just one look and we're delivered
again. I've told you this before. I've given this to you once before.
I don't know who wrote this. There's no one credited to this.
And I have not personally checked these calculations to see how
accurate they are. But this really puts into perspective
the comfort and the deliverance that comes from just looking
to Him. Just look to Him. This is His
Word. Just look unto Me and be ye saved. All right. This really
puts that into perspective, just what it is to really trust him
and just leave everything in his hands, our eternal salvation
in his hands, our daily salvation in his hands. This says Moses and the people
were in the desert. Okay. But what was Moses going to do
with all those people? They had to be fed. And feeding
two or three million people requires a lot of food. According to the
quartermaster general in the army, it is reported that Moses
would have to have had 1,500 tons of food each day. Do you know that to bring that
much food each day, two freight trains each a mile long would
be required? Besides, you must remember they
were out in the desert, so they would have to have wood to use
in cooking the food. This would take 4,000 tons of
wood and a few more freight trains each a mile long just for one
day And just think, they were 40 years in transit. And oh yes,
they would have had to have water. If they only had enough to drink
and wash a few dishes, it would take 11 million gallons each
day. And a freight train with tank
cars, 1,800 miles long just to bring water. And then another
thing, they had to get across the Red Sea at night. Now, if
they went on a narrow path, double file, the line would be 800 miles
long and would require 35 days and nights to get through. So
there had to be a space in the Red Sea three miles wide so that
they could walk 5,000 abreast to get over in one night. But
then there's another problem. Each time they camped at the
end of the day, a campground two-thirds the size of the state
of Rhode Island was required, or a total of 750 square miles
long. Think of it, this space just
for nightly camping. Do you think Moses figured all
this out before he left Egypt? I think not. Moses believed God. God took care of these things
for him. Now, do you think God has any
problem taking care of all your needs? Look to him and be saved. Whatever you're drowning in,
whatever troubles overtaking you, look unto him and be ye
saved. He is God and there is none else. Our hope truly does look to the
fact that He delivered us. He is going to deliver us. He delivers us. And then He will deliver us. One day, real soon, He is going
to deliver us from sin. He's going to deliver us from
self. He's going to deliver us from sorrow and pain and tears. He took care of everything before
the foundation of the world. What did we need to worry about
for the matters of before the foundation of the world? He will take care of everything
for all of eternity's heaven with Him. What will we have to
worry about for all of eternity future with
Him? What do we need to worry about
right now? What do we need to take care of right now? Look
unto Him and be ye saved. Every time we look to Him, oh,
what comfort it brings. Honestly, what comfort it brings.
I'm not gonna have you turn. I was gonna end with 1 Thessalonians
4, where the apostle Paul wrote, I don't want you to be ignorant
of this. He said, the Lord is going to come back. Trumpets
gonna resound he's gonna bring all of the brethren that have
gone before with him We're gonna rise to meet him in the air.
We're gonna forever be with the Lord And he said comfort one
another with these words that is going to happen That is going
to happen And all we need to do is look unto him and be saved. All the ends of the earth. What
he's saying is all my people who were scattered all over this
earth. I'm God. There's none else. I said it.
I'll do it. I have saved you. I do save you. I'm coming back to save you.
Rest. Let's do that. Let's look to
him and be saved. Right here.