Let's open our Bibles again to
Isaiah chapter 45. The title of the message is, I am
the Lord and there is none else. That phrase is repeated a couple
of times in our text. I thought it good for us to look
at that. Now it's been a few weeks since we've continued our
study in Isaiah. You'll recall that God has promised
Israel that he will, in his time, eventually call Cyrus to deliver
Israel from their captivity. We looked at this, how Cyrus
is a type of Christ. Cyrus is going to come and win
a great victory and set the nation of Israel free. Christ is going
to come and set his people free by a great victory over sin.
And you know, that had to be. Very good news to these Jews
who were getting ready to go into captivity. And as they spent
those years in captivity, they hung on to this promise. It was
good news to them. God sending a deliverer. You
know, they look forward to that day, how they longed for that
day. Well, how did they know Cyrus
would come? How did they know Cyrus is going
to actually set them free? Well, they knew Cyrus would come
because of who promised he'd come. They knew Cyrus would come
because God promised it. The Lord promised it. And beside
him, there is none else. No one's going to be able to
stop his purpose. They could be confident because
the Lord promised it. None else would make such a gracious
promise to a sinful, rebellious people. None but the Lord. None
else has the power to keep such a wonderful promise to his people.
There's no God beside him. And I want us to look at this
promise and look at it in light of spirit, because this is what
it really is pertaining to, spiritual deliverance in Christ. And I
pray the Lord will enable us to leave here rejoicing that
God is God. He's the Lord and there is none
else. Here's my first point. God's
God. He's the Lord. None else would
promise to save sinners from all over the world. Look at verse
five in our text of Isaiah 45. I am the Lord, and there's none
else. There's no God beside me. I girded
thee, though thou hast not known me, that they may know from the
rising of the sun from the west, that there's none beside me.
I am the Lord, and there's none else. Now the word girded, he
uses in verse five. I girded thee, though thou hast
not known me. It means strengthen. God strengthened
Cyrus to be able to go out and conquer the whole world. God
did that, and he did that to accomplish his purpose, to set
Israel free. And he did that even though Cyrus
didn't know God. Cyrus didn't know God. Cyrus
didn't worship God. He's a heathen, but God used
him anyway for his glory. Cyrus didn't know God, but God
knew Cyrus, and he used him for his glory. And you know, that's
how God calls all of his people. God saves sinners. God doesn't
save anybody who already knows Him. God saves sinners who don't
know Him, but He knows them. He's always known them. He's
always known them in His purpose. He's always known them in love
and grace. He's always known them in His
Son. Salvation, the salvation of our
soul, is not in what we know. I know people, they put a lot
of stock in that, How can the salvation of your soul be what
you know in your peanut mind? It doesn't make a connection
there. Salvation is God knowing us. Salvation is God revealing
himself to us in mercy and grace. And this salvation God's promising
here. I know he's promising it to his
nation Israel, but it's a picture. This salvation, this great deliverance
in Christ is not just for the Jews. It's for sinners that God
chose from all over the world. He talks here about from the
rising of the sun to the west. That's all the way from the east
to the west, from where the sun rises to where the sun sets and
everywhere in between, God has a people that he chose to save
and he's going to send his son to save them. They will be delivered
by the power of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's what our Lord
is saying here. He says, I'm the Lord. Now you
know when you see that word Lord in all capital letters, it means
Jehovah. I am Jehovah. I am God, your
Savior. I promised to save you. I chose
to save you. I'm going to save you by my will
and by my power. There's none else. No idol would
save sinners like that. An idol would never save a sinner
who can't do anything to contribute to the idol. That's not the way
idols work. An idol doesn't save sinners
from all over the world. Idols tend to be kind of a regional
thing. You know, this little group's
got their idol and this little group's got their idol, but not
God. The Lord Jehovah is so great. He's so powerful, He's so gracious,
He's so merciful. He saves real sinners who not
only can't do anything for themselves, they can't do anything for Him.
But in His mercy and grace, He saves them anyway for His glory.
He's the Lord, there's none else. Second, He's the Lord. Our God
is God, He's the Lord, and there's none else who does everything
in creation. Look at verse seven. He said,
I form the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil.
I, the Lord, do all these things. Now God created everything from
nothing. He's the Lord. There's none else.
God is so powerful. He just spoke this world into
existence out of nothing. No idol claims to do that. Our
God's the Lord. There's none else. There's none
beside him. He created everything and He rules everything in His
creation too. It's comforting. It's not just
doctrine. It's comforting for the believer
to know that everything that happens, everything that happens,
happens because God ordained for it to happen. God decreed
that it would happen before He created anything. God said, this
is what's going to happen. It's his purpose. It's his will.
Everything that happens is the will of our father. My daughter Holly's here. You've
never one time feared my will. I'm a sinful man. Child of God, listen to me. Everything
that happens is the will of your father. You don't have to fear
it. Every event in God's creation
is working together to accomplish his eternal will and purpose.
That includes things we call good, things we call bad. Something
good happens, we say, well, that was providential, wasn't it?
Something what we call bad happens, it was just as providential,
wasn't it? God said he makes the light, he creates light.
God created the sun to light the earth, didn't he? God creates
the light of conscience, it's in every man. God puts the light
of wisdom in men. Men are dead spiritually, but
you can't say they're not smart. God put the light of wisdom in
men, men are brilliant. And God creates spiritual light
too. Remember the story of creation? Darkness was upon the face of
the deep, and God said, let there be light. God saw the light,
it was good. We looked at that in our study
in Genesis. That light is Christ, that's
spiritual light. The sun wasn't created until
three days later. This light is Christ, it's spiritual light.
And God sent his son into the world as a man to be the light
of the world, to be the spiritual light of his people. In the light
of Christ, the man Christ Jesus, we see our sin. In the light
of Christ Jesus, we see our need of a savior. In the light of
Christ Jesus is the only way we'll ever know our sin can only
be forgiven in His sacrifice, in His blood. We can't see that
by the light of nature. We can't see that by the light
of our wisdom. We can only see that in the light
of Christ. In the light of Christ Jesus, in His light, we see the
only way we can ever be made righteous is by being made righteous
in him. God creates that light, spiritual
light. He creates it in his people in
the new birth. And God says here, he creates
darkness too. He creates physical darkness.
You know, God created the earth to revolve around the sun. The
earth spinning in space, revolving around the sun so that some part
of the earth is always dark. It gives us a time to sleep,
a time to rest at night in the dark. God created that. And God creates spiritual darkness,
too. Now, God's not the author of
sin. Don't get me wrong. He's not
the author of sin. Well, then how does God create
darkness, spiritual darkness? Just by withholding light. How
would you make this room dark? Just by shutting out the lights.
Withholding light. That's how you make things dark.
Christ is the light of the world. Men reject Christ, the light
of the world. God creates darkness by leaving
us in our darkness. Just leaving us in our unbelief,
in our sin, leaving us in our darkness. And then God says he
makes peace. He makes light, he makes darkness,
and he makes peace. Well, it's a good thing. Peace
doesn't come naturally to me. We're too selfish, we're too
wicked to ever have peace. And anytime we enjoy, time of
peace, however short or however long it is, whatever time of
peace we had, you can rest assured God gave it. He overrode our
selfish warlike nature and gave us a time of peace. And God creates
spiritual peace too. This is lasting peace, eternal
peace, peace that's in the heart. And he does it by revealing Christ
to us. Now, I'll tell you why we need
peace. Because man and Adam declared
war on God. We sinned against God, we continue
to sin, we continue to rebel against Him. We've declared war
on God, and Scripture says God's angry with the wicked. He's at
war with the wicked, and God's gonna destroy every enemy who's
opposed to Him. But God, there's none else. There's none beside Him. No one
can threaten His rule, His reign. He's the one who ended the war.
He's the one who brought peace to his people. And God brought
peace to his people first by satisfying himself. There are
two parties of war. Well, God first satisfied himself.
He satisfied himself by removing the sin of his people that made
him angry. And God removed that sin and
justice. God charged the sin of his elect to his son. And
then he fully punished the Lord Jesus for the sin of his people.
Now the message of the gospel, the apostle Paul said is this,
God is reconciled. God's reconciled to his people
in his son, in Christ, through his sacrifice. Now you be reconciled
to God in Christ. God's reconciled to his people
in Christ. Now you be reconciled to God
in Christ. That's how God makes spiritual
peace. And our text says God creates
evil too. Again, God's not the author of
sin. But God is the one who allows man to do what they want to do.
And that's always evil. Whatever it is man wants to do
by nature is always evil. God just allows them to do with
the evil that they want to do. And then God uses that evil. He overrules everything. He overrules
even that evil to accomplish His purpose. The cross is a perfect
illustration of that. When they tortured, they beat,
they plucked out the beard, they cast lots for his vesture, they
did everything that the scripture said they do, and then they nailed
him to a cross and made fun of him as he died. They weren't
thinking, you know, we're doing this to accomplish God's will
and salvation. This blood is being shed, all
this is being done to accomplish God's purpose, to save his people.
They weren't thinking that at all. They were doing what their
wicked heart wanted to do. But God used it. to accomplish
his purpose, to save his people from their sins. God's not the
author of the evil of sin, but God is the author of everything
that we call bad, or we might call evil. When we get a sickness
that causes us pain and suffering, we call it evil. I mean, let's
just call it, there's no point in sugarcoating it, that's what
we call it. When sickness comes, it ultimately brings us death.
We call that evil. But you know, God used that to
accomplish his will. Could be. Well, actually, any
time a believer dies, God used whatever means, a sickness, a
disease, a germ, whatever, to bring his child home, to be with
him, to take him out of this world of sin and misery and to
take them home to be with him. Well, that's not evil, is it?
That's God accomplishing his will for his people. When natural
disaster strikes, a tornado or flood, many people are killed. Many people suffer loss. You
know, people say the devil did it. No, he didn't. God did it. God created that to accomplish
his purpose in some way. See, there's no battle going
on here between God, who's trying to always do good, and Satan,
who's always trying to do evil. They battled out, you know, one's
trying to do good, one's trying to do evil. You know, that means
sometimes God wins, and sometimes Satan wins. You know, bad things
happen, Satan beat God, and he was able to do something bad. No! A thousand times, no. God always wins. There's none
else. There's none beside him. God
always accomplishes His purpose. And when these things we call
bad happen, we never understand what God's doing. But you take
comfort knowing this, whatever it is that God's doing, He's
doing it to accomplish His purpose, to bring Himself glory and for
the good of His church. Now third, God is God. He's the Lord and there is none
else. None else would bring salvation
to His people. Verse eight, drop down ye heavens
from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let
the earth open and let them bring forth salvation and let righteousness
spring up together. I the Lord have created it. Now
mankind is ruined in sin. Adam's sin has made it impossible
for us to do anything but sin. We're ruined in sin. Now that
means we're beyond fixing up. If something is ruined, it's
beyond repair. That's us. We're beyond repair. So God sent salvation to his
people. Now there's none else. None else
beside him. The false prophet tells you,
you gotta come to Jesus. You gotta take the first step.
You gotta do this. You gotta do that. You gotta
know this. You gotta know that. God doesn't wait on you to come
to him. He sends salvation to his people. And that salvation
is the man, Christ Jesus. God created him. God prepared
a human body for his son. You see, by man came ruin. Well,
by man's gonna come salvation. By man came sin. By man's gonna
come righteousness. By man came death, by man is
going to come life and regeneration. When Isaiah here talks about
righteousness that will spring up together, what he means is
righteousness is going to come through the obedience of a man,
through a man springing up from the earth. Look over a few pages
of Isaiah chapter 53. In verse 2, for he shall grow
up before him as a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground.
He hath no form nor comeliness. And when we shall see him, there's
no beauty that we should desire him. He's going to be just look
like a common, ordinary man. He's not that, but that's what
he looks like. And if you look back at Isaiah
chapter 11, not only is the savior going to be a man, God is going
to take on him human flesh, a human nature, but he'll be a man, but
he's going to be a specific man. He's going to be the son of David.
Isaiah 11 verse one. And there shall come forth a
rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of
his roots. See, this branch is going to
grow out of his roots. The plant that's going to come
up as a tender plant, a root out of a dry ground, is speaking
of the Savior. He's going to come as a man.
Christ the Savior came down. He came down from heaven to earth
and was born as a man. Grew up as a man to save sinful
men. I want to tell you, that was
a trip down. Halfgate said that's the longest
trip that's ever been made. God became a man. God's Son came
down. down. He came down to where His
people are to save them from their sins so they could be lifted
up and He could take them back to the Father and say, Father,
here they all are. I got them all, saved every one
of them. See, God brought salvation to His people. He brought forth
salvation to His people by sending His Son to them. Well, Christ
has already come to the earth, hasn't He? He's come to this
earth. He lived as a man. He established righteousness.
He was made sin for his people, he suffered, he died, he was
buried, he rose again, he ascended back to the Father. Then how
has God sent his son to his people today? Through the preaching
of the gospel, by faith. Look back at Psalm 111. God sends
salvation to his people. Psalm 111, verse nine. He has sent, he sent redemption
unto his people. He hath commanded his covenant
forever, holy and reverend is his name. He sent redemption
unto his people. And the reason he did is he's
commanding his covenant forever. When Simeon saw that child, Jesus,
eight day old boy, you know what he said? He said, mine eyes have
seen your salvation. You've sent salvation to this
earth. And you'll never see that baby,
Jesus, like Simeon did, but you'll see the same savior if you're
one of God's elect. He's gonna send him to you through
the preaching of the gospel and you'll see him with the eye of
faith just as clearly as Simeon did. Mine eyes have seen thy
salvation. And if God didn't send Christ
to us, if he didn't send that salvation to us, we'd be eternally
lost. There's none else. He sends salvation
to his people. And God makes his people righteous.
He makes his people righteous by pouring it upon them. That's
the way that Isaiah describes a pour down righteousness from
above. Now, when something is poured,
it always comes from above, doesn't it? When Jan put water in his
glass tonight, she got it from somewhere else and she lifted
up over top of it and she poured it down. That's the way grace
comes to us. That's the way righteousness
comes to us. God poured it down from above. He poured it down from above
in the person of His Son. Now we're not made righteous.
This is what this is teaching. We cannot be made righteous by
anything we do. The only way we can be made righteous
is in Christ. If God pours it down upon us
from above. Now that's the message. Salvation
and righteousness. These are things only the Lord
our God can do, none else. No idol can do that. Now, you
know idols. Idols will help those who can
help themselves. An idol will fix you up, but
an idol can't create a new man in you. I don't know yet of an
idol who ever claims to put a new heart of faith in somebody. Only
the Lord can do that. There's none else. There's salvation
in no other. There's righteousness in no other.
This is something only the Lord our God can do. No man can do
this for himself. We can't will it because our
will is ruined. We can't earn a righteousness
by the law because our spiritual nature is ruined. All the law
can do for us is reveal our sin. We cannot save ourselves by keeping
the law. All right. That's only in Christ. We're getting my fourth point.
What's your reaction to that message? What is your reaction
to that message of salvation in Christ alone and righteousness
in Christ alone? Well, I know what our reaction
is by nature. Our reaction by nature is to
rebel against it and say, I won't believe that. Isn't that exactly
what the Jews did when the Lord came to them? He came into his
own and what did his own do? received him not, they rebelled
against it. And that's just how you and I
will react too, unless God's merciful to us. And God has a
word of warning to those who would continue in their rebellion.
Look at verse nine, our text, Isaiah 45. Woe unto him that
striveth with his maker. Let the pot sherds strive with
the pot sherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that
fashioneth it, why makest thou, or thy work he hath no hands?
Woe unto him that saith unto his father, what begattest thou?
Or to the woman, what hast thou brought forth? Now the maker
here that Isaiah refers to is not our maker. That's not what
he's referring to. We shouldn't strive with our
maker. That's foolish, isn't it? To strive with the one who
made you? He can destroy you too. But that's not what he's
talking about here. The maker he's referring to here
is the maker of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, who's the maker
of the Lord Jesus? Well, it's the Father, isn't
it? God the Father. He prepared a body for His Son, so He's the
maker of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, remember the question is,
what's your reaction to this message? Salvation's in Christ
alone. Righteousness is in Christ alone.
How do we react to the message of that truth? Well, the reaction
of the flesh is to strive against it. The reaction of the flesh
is to strive against God and say, well, why did you make it
that way? Why did you take salvation out
of our hands? Why did you do that? Why did
you make salvation have to come through this representative instead
of me keeping the law myself? That's our reaction. And that's
striving against God. And God warns us, don't strive
against Him. Now, if that doesn't tell you
how darkened our understanding is by nature, then God has to
tell us, don't strive against Him. But He has to tell us that. You know, the Jews who lived
at the same time our Lord Jesus walked this earth gives you a
perfect example of how all human nature reacts to God's Savior. What did they say? Why would
God do it like this? God would not send a savior to
us like this. You mean I'm supposed to look
to this poor homeless man? We don't want a homeless man.
We want a king who's going to set us free from Rome. We're
not worried about the spiritual kingdom. We got that taken care
of. We want to be set free from Rome. They said, we don't want
a savior on a cross. We want a king on an earthly
throne like David had. We're not going to bow to this
man, Jesus. We know him. We know his father
and his mother. He can't be God. And they rejected
him, didn't they? And in return, God rejected them.
To this day, God sent judicial blindness. There's another way
God creates darkness. Judicial blindness. So God warns
us, don't you strive against God. Now, you can strive against
a man if you want to. You know, men are nothing more
than broken clay pitchers. That's this potsherd that Isaiah
refers to. You know, God's the potter. We're
the clay. He makes us into whatever kind
of vessel he wants to make us. So, you know, when one man strives
with another man, all that is, is one piece of broken pottery
striving against another piece of broken pottery. And there's
going to be no eternal consequence come of it. You know, and I see
people do this. You hear about these people on
these internet blogs, you know, arguing back and forth about
all these, you know, they think they all think they're great
theologians and argue with each other. All that is, just don't
ever look at it. Just don't even look at it. It's
one pot shirt striving against another pot shirt. There's no
eternal consequence coming of it. I promise you that. But if
you strive against God, now you've got a problem on your There are
eternal consequences of striving against Him. You've entered into
a battle you can't win. Now, you can strive against me.
You can choose not to believe the gospel that I preach to you.
You can strive against me all you want. But if I'm preaching
the gospel of Christ, you're not striving against me. You're
striving against the message. You're striving against the Savior.
And God said, don't strive against Him now. Your soul will be damned
for it. Unless God does something for
you. So that's what our reaction by nature is when we hear the
gospel. We hear this message, the Lord is the Lord alone. There's
none else. Well, what should our reaction
to the message of salvation in Christ be? How should we react
to the message of righteousness in Christ alone? Well, don't
strive against God. Surrender to him. Surrender to
him and beg him for terms of peace. Don't strive against God,
strive to know God. Don't strive against Him, ask
to know Him. That's what God tells us to do,
look at verse 11. 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. Ask
God to reveal His Son in you. Ask God to reveal His Son to
you. Ask God to reveal his work of salvation to you and in you.
God says, call on him. Then call. God says, seek him. Then seek him. God says, in the
day that you seek him with all of your heart, you'll find him. Then strive to find him. God
says, you'll find him. God says, ask me. He says to
his children, he's talking about the things concerning my sons.
He's talking to his children. He says his children are allowed
to ask him anything. Are your children allowed to
ask you anything? Sure they are. I can promise you God's a better
father than we are. And if we ask God, what are you
doing? You know what God's going to
tell us? Everything he's done, he's done for the glory of his
son. Ask God, how do you save sinners? God will tell you, in
my son. There's nothing else. Ask God,
how can you save somebody like me? That's a good question. How can God save somebody like
me? You know what his answer is? Only in his son. Christ Jesus is the savior and
there's none else. So seek him, surrender to him.
Look at here verse 12. God says, I made the earth and
create a man upon it. I, even my hands have stretched
out to heavens and all their host have I commanded. I've raised
him up in righteousness, and I'll direct all his ways. He
shall build my city, and he shall let go my captives, not for price
nor reward, saith the Lord of hosts. Now God made everything
in creation. He made the dry land, he made
the sun, the moon, the stars, put them all in their place,
and he put man on the earth. And he did it for this reason.
This was God's purpose in creating everything, so that his son,
would get the glory in saving fallen sinners. When Adam fell,
he plunged his whole race into sin. Now we'd call that evil,
wouldn't we? But you know why God allowed
that to happen? So that he could send his son in righteousness,
to establish righteousness for his people. So his son would
get the glory in putting away the sin of his people. And the
Lord Jesus came and he built the city of God. He built the
church of God in righteousness. He's the chief cornerstone and
all the living stones are built upon him. And that building is
built eternally in righteousness. And he's not going to come do
this to get a reward. He's doing it for the glory of
God. Now you trust him. That's our
reaction to hearing the message, salvation's in Christ alone.
Righteousness is in Christ alone. Now you trust him. In closing,
I want you to look over to Ephesians chapter one. You trust him. Did you know that the father
trusted him first? You know, if the father's trusted
Christ, it looks to me like it'd be wise if we would. Look here,
Ephesians one verse 12, that we should be to the praise of
his glory who first trusted in Christ. Now the one who first
trusted in Christ is the Father. Now God created Adam, put him
in the garden, gave Adam everything. Adam sinned. He rebelled against
God and he fell. And when Adam fell, the whole
human race fell. When Adam sinned, he died and
all of us died in him. What a horrible, horrible day. Why didn't the father throw up
his hands in frustration and say, what are we going to do
now? Because he already trusted in Christ to save his elect. After a little while, God looked
down from heaven and he saw every imagination of the thoughts of
man's heart was only evil continually. And he repented, God, he made
a man on the earth. Why didn't God throw up his hands
in frustration and say, why didn't anybody listen to me? Why didn't
anybody do the way I wanted to do? Why didn't God wonder what's
going on with his hands in frustration? Because he already trusted Christ
to save his elect. And he told Noah, build you an
ark, I'm going to give you a picture of salvation in Christ. I trusted
him first to save my people from their sin. All through man's history on
earth, men rejected Christ. They rejected him in type and
picture. They loved darkness rather than
light. God sent His Son and they rejected Him. And when God allowed
man to put his hands on God's precious Son, what did they do
to Him? They tortured Him and put Him
to death. Our Lord said, I could call twelve
legions of angels, come wipe this place out. You know those
angels were on their tiptoes waiting to come. But the word
never came. God saw man's hatred of His Son.
Why didn't he throw up his hands in frustration and say, what
are we going to do now? They've rejected my son. Because
he already trusted in Christ to save his people from their
sins through this very sacrifice. And men today have the completed
word of God. They ignore it and they hate
it. They do everything they can do to change it and make it say
what it doesn't say. We've got the gospel. We, we, we can look
back on the finished work of Christ. You, you can almost understand
somebody seeing all those types and ceremonies and not understanding. This is a picture of what's to
come, but we got to finish the story. We've got the gospel of
salvation in Christ. It's not in the law. It's not
in the ceremonies. It's not in your obedience. It's
in him. Nobody believes it. Just a remnant,
just a very, very few. After all these years of preaching
the gospel in this town, just a remnant. Well, why doesn't
God throw up his hands in frustration and say, I'm losing here. Nobody's
believing me. Because he already trusted Christ
to save his elect and he's going to do it. The father trusted
him. Well, of course we should, shouldn't
we? Well, when will we? When will you and I trust Christ?
not until the Holy Spirit comes and enables us to hear this gospel
with the ear of faith. Look at verse 13, now we get
to us, in whom you also trusted, after when you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also, after
that you believed, you were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. So the next time something happens,
it makes us wanna panic. Just hold on, just hold on and
trust Christ. He's the Lord. God is God. He's the Lord and there is none
else. There's none beside him. God
give us the grace and the faith to trust him. Let's bow in prayer. Our father, we're thankful for
your word. And we pray that you'd bless it to the hearts of your
people. Cause us to rejoice that our Savior is the Lord and there
is none else. We have no other hope, we have
no other plea than the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that you'd see
us only, hear our prayers, hear our praise and thanksgiving only
in him. That you'd see us only in him,
washed in his blood, clothed in His righteousness. He is our
only hope, our only plea and our only desire. I pray that
you'd cause your gospel to be heard with your faith. Believe
in the heart of faith that we take these truths of our Savior
with us. Rejoice on them, feed upon them
and meditate on them and rejoice. Christ our Savior, there is none
else. In His name we give thanks and
ask these blessings. Amen.