Please be turning to Isaiah chapter
45, Isaiah chapter 45. I want to read you an ad that
came out of the local newspaper out of Fayetteville, North Carolina.
Pretty good-sized ad, pretty large type. Here's what it said. Will you come back to church
if we promise not to throw the book at you? In other words, there are some
things in this book we don't want you to know. And then they go on to say, in
our church, we believe in a loving and forgiving God. Well, how
about a holy and just God? How about, how can God be just
and still justify the ungodly? That, my friends, is the begging
question of the hour. And it ain't being addressed
in almost every place in this land. You know that, and I know
it. We just promise that there's
some stuff in this book that you'll never hear from that pulpit.
That was a major, one of the big churches in downtown Fayetteville,
and all the rest of them are just like it. All right, Isaiah
chapter 45. You might take note of verse
28, which introduces this man by the name of Cyrus. And if
I understand the chronology correctly, when Isaiah makes this prophecy,
it is roughly 200 years before this fellow named Cyrus is even
born, and yet these statements about him are made absolutely
just as bold as they could possibly be. So we're going to read about
this guy, but here is what we need to remember. Now, you fellows
can correct me afterwards if this is not right, but this man
is the only Gentile type of Christ in all the Bible. The point being this. Let's not
take our eyes off Christ, looking at this fellow too much. I mean, he's still a pagan king.
He doesn't even know God. And yet God moved him like checkers
on a checkerboard. All right, I'm going to read you the whole
chapter, so at home, when I promise the folks that I'm not going
to comment, they don't believe a word of what I say. So I just
ain't going to say it. That says of Cyrus, I'm going
back to verse 28, and shall perform all my pleasure."
Remember, still talking about Christ. Even saying to Jerusalem,
you shall be built, and to the temple your foundation shall
be laid. Shucks, the Lord Jesus said he'd
raise that temple up in three days, and he did, in his own
resurrected body. All right, chapter 45, verse
1. Thus says the Lord, is that too loud? It sounds like it to
me. Thus says the Lord to his anointed,
to Cyrus, whose right hand I have held, putting it in the past
tense, and it ain't even occurred yet, to subdue nations before
him, and I'll loose the loins of kings to open before him the
two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. And people
say, won't you let Jesus come into your heart? I mean, the Old Testament knows
better than that. I will go before you and make
the crooked places straight. I'll break in pieces the gates
of brass and cut in sunder the bars of iron. And I'll give you
the treasures of darkness. and hidden riches of secret places,
that you may know that I am the Lord, who calls you by your name. I am the God of Israel. For Jacob my servant's sake,
and Israel mine elect, I have even called you by your name,
Cyrus. I have I have even surnamed you
by your name. I have, I'm getting it mixed
up. I have even called you by your
name. I have surnamed you, though you have not known me." Can God
use people that aren't believers? Absolutely. No question about
it. Now, here's a statement that's
going to reappear six times, and if you count the two times
that it's doubled in one statement, then it's eight times in this
one chapter of Scripture. Here's the first one. I am the
Lord, and there is none else. There is no God beside me. I girded you, though you have
not known me. Second time is in verse 6, 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. There's one of those double statements.
Drop down, you heavens from above, and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth and let them bring
forth salvation, and let righteousness spring up together. The Lord
has created it. Woe unto him that strives with
his Maker. Let the potter strive with the
potters of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
formed it, What make you? for to your work he has no hands. unto him that saith unto his
father, What beget you? Or to the woman, what have you
brought forth? Thus saith the Lord, the Holy
One of Israel." Now, it's hard for me in this chapter to distinguish
when it's God the Father, God the Son, or God the Holy Spirit,
so I'm more partial to Christ in most places, but I'm, you
know, don't take me, don't believe that because I told you. 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 you thee." Now, that's a scary word right
there, that we're to command God. Mr. Hawker gives two conditions for
that, that is, the honor and glory of God, and our own eternal
welfare of our souls. Those two ends must be served
before we tell God to do anything. And I ain't started telling Him
yet. I have made the earth, and created
man upon it. I, even I, even my hands have
stretched out the heavens, and their host have I commanded.
And He still does. I'm so sick of hearing preachers,
every time there's a hurricane or a tornado or some kind of
natural disaster, they're trying to disassociate their God from
what happened and say, if He could, He would have changed
it. That ain't the God we're reading about. Verse 13, I have raised him up,
that is Cyrus, in righteousness, and I'll direct all of his ways.
He shall build my city. He shall let go my captives,
not for price nor reward," says the Lord of Hosts. And I'm naive
enough to think if you asked Cyrus why he was doing this,
he would not have a clue. He doesn't know God, it cannot
be for the glory of God. I almost think at night, he said,
well, why did I do what I did today? Verse 14, Thus says the Lord,
The labor of Egypt, and merchandise of Ethiopia, and of the Sabeans,
men of stature, shall come over unto you. This is true both of
Christ and of Cyrus. They'll come over unto you. In
chains they'll come over, like that old king, that king of Syria,
if I remember right. put a noose around his neck and surrendered. That's what
this means. They shall make supplication
unto you, saying, Surely God is in you. And here's the third
one. There is none else. There is
no God that is else. You don't have to put the else.
It's already in there one time for us. Verily, truly, amen,
you're a God that hides yourself. O God of Israel, the Savior,
they shall be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They
shall go to confusion together that are makers of idols. But
Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation."
Here's the third one. I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself.
We've already done three, did we not, back in verse 14? I forgot
to point it out to you. All right. But Israel shall be
saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
nor confounded, world without end. For thus says 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. Here's the fourth one. I am the
Lord, and there is none else. There ain't but one God. I probably
told you about the time I had a funeral about a hundred years
ago now, probably. It was back in 82, I think, and
I've been just where I am now for about three months, and I'm
just an interim pastor or Sunday-to-Sunday preacher, whatever you want to
call it. Had a funeral to do, and the
man that died, his wife, wanted their former pastor. They had
moved to that community and wanted their former pastor out of Fayetteville
to come and have a part in the funeral service. So I gave him
the most innocent part I could give anybody, read New Testament
scripture and lead in prayer. But before he got to do that,
I had to make a few opening remarks, one of which came out of the
book of Job. The Lord gave, the Lord takes away. Blessed be the
name of the Lord. The first words out of that turkey's
mouth, my God doesn't take, he only gives. Now you think, I
wanted to cut the floor out from under him and just get rid of
him. But I'm glad I was there, and I'm glad that I learned something
from that. I had suspected this for a long
time. that we don't have the same God. I mean, that's a tacit acknowledgment
of that if there ever has been one. If the Bible says God gives
as well as takes, and you say He only gives, you're not talking
about the same God. I have not spoken it in secret
in a dark place of the earth. I said not, catch the knot, I
said not unto the seed of Jacob. Seek you me in vain. I the Lord
speak righteousness. I declare things that are right." assemble yourselves, and come,
draw near together you that are escaped of the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood, or the metal, or the
plastic, or whatever it's made out of is immaterial, of their
graven image, and pray unto a God that can not save." That's the
God that ain't no God at all. If God can't save without our
helping Him, He ain't God. Verse 21, "...tell you, and bring
them near. Yea, let them take counsel together."
Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told it from that
time? Have not I the Lord? Is this
book not consistent in what it says about the God of the Bible?
Indeed it is. Here it is again, number five,
and there is no God else beside me. Oh, and this glorious statement,
a just God and a Savior. Just God and a Savior. There is none. This is another
double one beside me. Now verse 22, this is my text
this morning, ìLook unto me, and be you saved, all the ends
of the earth. For I am God, and there is none
else.î None. Well, what are all these
other gods? Theyíre just idols. And you can
have one in your mind just as easily as you can in your hand. It's the character of the God. It's the attributes of the God
that are to distinguish between the true and the false. Verse 23, 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 And if Paul doesn't write that in the New Testament, I
don't know what it is. Verse 24, Surely shall one say,
In the Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed.
In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel. Old Testament and
New Testament. Don't forget. We're talking here
about Christ, and now we're talking about spiritual Israel. Spiritual Israel, the body and
bride of our precious Lord Jesus. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified, and shall glory. All right, we go back
to verse 22. I'm probably not a preacher in
here that ain't preached on this more than once, much probably,
but that don't help me this morning. Look unto me, and be you saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I'm God, and there is none else. Now, what does this word, look,
mean? Todd covered another word last
night pretty good. faith mean? Well, this is, what
does looking mean? Let's see if we can find out.
First of all, it means that there is a God who reveals Himself
to us through His precious Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. And if
we think we can know God and not know Christ, we have missed
the entire message of the Holy Bible. And this repetition, counting
six times or eight times, whichever suits your fancy, it is that
there is none else. There is but One who reveals
Himself in three Persons, who is today ruling this world, this
whole universe. In all things, nothing except
Him. If there's an exception, then
He ain't God. None. Well, I don't believe God
will do anything to me that I don't ask Him to do first. Well, I'll
tell you what you're asking. You don't want me to say this,
but you're asking to go to hell, and He'll certainly grant your
wish in the end. But this notion that we have
to do something in order for God to do something is just utter,
utter stupidity. And I'm talking about myself.
That's my old religion. I know all about it. Born into it. Secondly, this looking means
to address ourselves to this God. not to a preacher, not to a priest,
not to something—I don't think this one was ever called an altar,
was it, Brother Bell? But there was plenty of them
in Tennessee, and there's plenty of them in North Carolina as
well. Not even look to the Bible. It's look to the God of the Bible. Thirdly, this looking. is not
something that we can do on our own. It requires eyes that are
not physical, but spiritual. And we don't have spiritual sight
until when? We're born again. Right? We're born again. That's
when our eyes are opened. Before that, we can't see. It's
like that old guy in John chapter 9 that was born blind. Pauper
says that means he didn't have any eye sockets. It was just
a hole in his head, two of them. And our Lord heals him. And then
he has that conflict, you know, with the Sanhedrin, and he gets
bolder every question they ask, and every time they bring him
back before them. And then our Lord put this question to him
after he found out which he knew all the time anyway, but it appears
that he just found out, you know, that they kicked him out of the
Jewish religion. And so he found him, our Lord found him, and
that's how we're found, if we're ever to be found, he finds us.
And he said to this man, upon whom he had performed such a
marvelous miracle, he said to him, do you believe on the Son
of God? And the man said, Who is he,
Lord, that I might believe on him? And the Lord Jesus said, It is
he that talks with you. And he said, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief. This is some kind of looking. It is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. Alright, the second point. What
part of salvation are we to look to God for? How much of it? You know the answer. All of it.
From beginning to end, and all in between. If God doesn't sustain
the work begun in our souls, it will die. And so will we. How about turning to I can't
do much of this this morning, because I know I'm going to John
chapter 1, so if you'll head in that direction, I'll try to
illustrate this. There's another statement to
which we'll not turn if my brain still works long enough for me
to tell you what it says. If any man be in Christ, 2 Corinthians
5, 17, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things
are passed away, behold, all things are become new." Then this statement in John chapter
1, verses 11, 12, and 13, that you've heard a million times,
I'm sure, but there may be one person here who's not heard it,
and you could have heard it a dozen times, but that doesn't mean
God has sent these words to your soul, and He might do that this
morning. Because of the soreness of this
preacher, he just might fool you. Verse 11, John chapter 1,
he came unto his own. I take this to be the Jewish
nation. There might be other answers
that answer to that statement as well, but I'm sure that's
one of them. He came unto his own, and his own received him
not. I mean, everywhere you went in Palestine, whatever synagogue
it was, thumbs down on this man. ain't the Messiah we had in mind.
And yet the Old Testament plainly taught that Christ came to suffer
and bleed and die. But they wanted a king that would
deliver them from the Roman control of their nation. Ah, how come we believe on him, so
we'll have a better time in this life? He came unto his and his own
received him not. And yet, here are some who did. Thank God there are exceptions
to this rule. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power or authority to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name." Now, here's the secret. How did
these people come to believe when all the rest of them didn't?
And comparatively, it was a few against the many. Here's the
answer in verse 13. You know, strangely enough, my
Bible used to didn't have verse 13 in John chapter 1. I mean,
it might as well not have been there, because I sure didn't
know what it meant, and I didn't like what it said. Who or which were born? Not of
blood. It ain't got a thing to do with
who your grandma and granddaddy are. It's not got anything to
do with human heredity. Now, there's plenty of stuff
we've got that came that way, and some of it I'd like to get
rid of. It's not spiritual. "...nor of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh." The preacher says, if you're willing, God
will save you. No, He won't. And if you go to him and take
his hand, he'll tell you, you're saved, and you're stupid enough,
like I was, and still would be, to believe it. But there's no
truth in it. "...who were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." The
general practice in religion is, the more people you've got
praying, the more you can get God to do. I don't think that's
what this says. There might be some other places
that might imply such a thing, but I don't offhand know where
that is. And here's the final one. Not of the will of man,
but of God. Of God. Of God. In 1 Corinthians, you don't need
to turn. Chapter 1, verse 30 and 31, it
says, Of God are you in Christ Jesus? How does a man get in
Christ? God puts us in Christ through
the precious Spirit of His grace, the Holy Spirit. Of God are you
in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us everything under
the sun from A to Z. Wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. All right, we'll go back to Isaiah.
Here's the third thing. Talking about verse twenty-two,
is there anything in this verse that would lead a poor sinner
to be encouraged to look to Christ? Look to God in Christ. That's where He is. God reveals
Himself in His Son. It says, look unto me, we've
already covered that, and be you saved. Saving comes by a
look. It's just like the healing from
the fiery bite of the serpent when Moses and the children of
Israel were in the desert. Those that looked were healed,
and those that refused to look were buried. And it's the same
now in regard to the gospel. God commands us to look, look
unto me and be saved. It is the promise of God in that
same statement in verse 22. But here is a little something
that we must never, ever depart from, and that's in verse 21.
So I want you to read 22. through the eyes of this phrase
in verse 21, a just God, a righteous God, a holy God, and a Savior. God can be holy and save undeserving,
hell-deserving sinners. Boy, this ain't how I learned
it to start with. Oh, I'm so glad I don't believe that stuff
anymore. Yes. Not only God's command, it is
God's promise. Look unto me and be you saved.
And it is God's Godhood, for I'm God. And it is God's character
of just God and the Savior, the same God. is just and yet justifies
the ungodly. All right, the fourth thing,
when is the best time to look? It's always right now. It's not tomorrow, it's not next
week, it's now. What makes you think things will
be any different tomorrow than they are today? Now, I'm finished with Isaiah
45, but we're in the Old Testament, so I want you to go to Proverbs.
I want to leave you with some thoughts. Well, they're not even
my thoughts, they're just quotes out of the Scripture, and since
I can't quote them, I've got to look them up. So, chapter
16, there are many more statements than this in the Proverbs, but
here are 1, 2, 3, 4. three Proverbs and one other
reference in the Old Testament that are just absolutely wonderful. The first one is chapter sixteen
in Proverbs, and verse one, the preparations in the heart,
of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue is from
the Lord. If you ever truly fall on your
knees and cry, Lord Jesus Christ, save me, there's where it came
from. All right, look over to chapter
20. This is even more specific. What causes one person to hear
and not another? Or what causes one person to
see and not another? Here it is. Did I give you the
verse? Good, I didn't mean to. But I do now. Verse 12, Proverbs
chapter 20. The hearing ear, now this ain't
talking about physical hearing. This is spiritual hearing. The
hearing ear and the seeing eye. Well, for that matter, the other
kind of hearing is of the Lord, too, for that matter. The Lord
has made even both of them. Both of them. One more. Chapter 21. It's right across
the page from me. Chapter 21, verse 1. The king's heart. We just read
Isaiah 45. We ought to know this is a heart.
The king's heart. That includes yours and mine.
is in the hand of the Lord, as the rivers of water, he turns
it whithersoever he will." And now my conclusion is in,
let me see which way, Isaiah chapter 53. You probably know this, but I
don't know that you know it, and I need to remind you of it
if you do know it. So, chapter 53. Do you remember when Isaiah was
called to be God's prophet and preacher? It's recorded in our
Bibles in Isaiah chapter 6. And the Lord told him to go with
this message that he had just discovered upon the revelation
that God made of himself, and he said to him, he said, now,
they're not going to hear you, but you've got to go anyway.
You've got to preach, whether people believe it or not. That's
not it. Now, he gets ready to write Isaiah
53. I'm telling you, this is a level
of prophecy to my knowledge, unrivaled anywhere in the scripture.
This man, something like 750 years before Christ came, he
describes the crucifixion in such detail that it is just absolutely
beyond our ability to comprehend. And before he starts, he might
have learned a little bit of this back in chapter 6, when
he had that encounter with the Lord and His idol, who was King
Uzziah, died because of leprosy, because he intruded into the
priest's office. He wasn't satisfied with being
king, he had to be a priest as well. And God gave him leprosy
on the spot. Well, this man finally dies,
and Isaiah says, and I saw the Lord. High and lifted up. Now he's getting ready to write
this statement about the crucifixion of the coming Redeemer, the Lord
Jesus. And he asks two questions, two
of them. They're very instructive. Who
has believed our report? We would say, who has believed
the gospel? That's a good question. I bet
you I know some preachers in here that's scratched their head
a few times over that. Preach it and preach it and preach
it. It ain't like the old religion. You can get them down. If you
just get their emotions all teed up and get them crying, you know,
oh gosh, they just flop down at the front. But this is God's
business. So who believes the gospel, Old
Testament or New? The second question answers the
first one, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Who believes the report? Everyone
to whom God reveals himself. Well, preacher, that doesn't
give us much detail. My soul, we don't need any. We're
not talking about a man, we're talking about God. Who has believed our report, and
to whom is the arm, the saving arm, the right arm, the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord revealed. God reveals Himself in Christ. Thank you very much.