Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 this evening. Let me read the last part of
verse 21. Isaiah 45. The last part of verse
21 and verse 22. Our Lord plainly says more than
one time that He is God alone. There is no God else beside me.
A just God and Savior. He has no rival. No competitor. He's a just God and Savior. There
is none else. There's none beside me. Salvation
and no other. And then the Lord commands us
to look. To look unto Him and be saved. Now, what is it about the word
look you don't understand? L-O-O-K. Look. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
That is, behold Him. Come to Him. Trust Him, rest
in Him, and you'll find all salvation and be saved. Be saved. So, the
title for the message is taken from those words, A Just God
and Savior. I'm the only just God and Savior. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is
the just one. He's called that in the book
of Acts, the just one. And He's the just God, and He
is our Savior. He is our sovereign God and sovereign
Savior. At least six times in this chapter
I counted that phrase repeated where the Lord said, I am the
Lord, I am Jehovah, God our Savior, there is none else, there is
none beside me, I'm God. Don't look anywhere else. We
can be assured then by the record of Holy Scripture that there
is only one Savior, one Lord, one way of salvation in Christ. There's only one gospel. It is the gospel of God concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord said, I am the way. The truth, the life. No man come
to the Father but by and through me. Christ is the only way of
salvation. There's just one way. There's
just one way. I like what the little grandson
said to his grandfather. When he was traveling down the
road, he saw a sign that said, one way. And he said to his grandfather,
there's the gospel. And his grandfather said, what
do you mean? See that sign? One way. Next time you see a
road sign that says one way, Christ. He's the one way. Now this chapter, the Lord our
God declares unto us that God is God alone. the absolute sovereign
over all things. He's the sovereign creator of
all things, the sovereign creator of everything. Verse 12, he said,
I have made the earth, created man upon it. I, even my hands
have stretched out. Verse 12, stretched out the heavens
and all the host of them have I commanded. He's the Sovereign. Created all things by the Word
of His power. Look at verse 18. Thus saith the Lord that created
the heavens, God Himself that formed the earth and made it.
He established it. He created it. Not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord, there is none else. God made all things. All things are made by Him and
all things consist. You remember Colossians chapter
1? And all things are for Him, for His glory, for His purpose.
So He's a sovereign creator of all things. He's a sovereign
ruler of all things. He says that I am the Lord, verse
5. There is none else. There is
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 is none. From the rising of the sun, that's
the east to the west, there is none beside me. I am the Lord.
There is none else. I form the light. I create darkness. I make peace. I create evil. I, the Lord, do all these things. He's a sovereign creator, a sovereign
ruler. He's a sovereign savior of his
people. Verse 17 says, but Israel shall
be saved in the Lord. With what kind of salvation does
the Lord have? Everlasting salvation. Everlasting
salvation. You shall not be ashamed nor
confounded, world without end. Those who Look to their idols,
they shall all come to confusion. They are makers of idols, but
Israel shall be saved. Israel shall be justified. Verse
25 said, In the Lord shall all the seed of Israel. That's His
elect, His chosen, His people. He is the sovereign Savior of
all His covenant people. There's also in this chapter,
as in all the Word of God, a strong warning against idols. A strong
warning given to those who are makers of idols. Makers of idols. Woe, they shall be ashamed. Verse
16. And confounded all them that
are makers of idols. Look down at verse 20. Assemble
yourselves and come draw near together. You that are escaped
of the nations. talking about those who were
delivered from Babylonian captivity, which was nothing but a place
of rampant idolatry. They had no knowledge that set
up wood of their graven image. They pray unto a God that cannot
save. Now I don't need a God like that,
do you? I need a God who is able to save
to the uttermost all that comes to God by Him. To preach an impotent
God, impotent, weak, helpless. To preach an impotent God and
trust an impotent God, impotent God is nothing short of idolatry. Our God is the Omnipotent One,
Almighty, Powerful. To trust a Savior that is not
God Almighty and Sovereign is also nothing but idolatry. Idolatry, wouldn't you say, is
a useless religion? Useless religion! I don't need
a God who wants to and can't, who's tried and failed. I need
God who is Almighty. Idolatry is useless religion,
inspired and promoted by Satan and his ministers who parade
as angels of light. who preach morality, human morality
as righteousness, and go about to declare things that are not
so. An idol, we know, is nothing.
But to us, there is one God, the Father, of whom are all things,
and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ, by whom are all things,
and we by Him. We know, because we've been taught
of God, an idol is nothing. Our God is everything. Christ,
you remember the scripture Colossians 3.11? Christ is all and in all. In Him dwells all the fullness
of the Godhead bodily and we stand complete in the Lord Jesus
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Almighty God and Savior and eternal life is knowing the true and
living God. who is mighty to save. Our Lord
prayed in John 17, Father, you've given me power over all flesh,
that I should give eternal life to as many as thou has given
me. And this is eternal life, that they might know thee the
only true God, Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. You see,
eternal life is knowing the only true God. If you have a lesser
God or another God, you don't have eternal life. Eternal life
is knowing the true and living God. You remember our study from
1 Thessalonians chapter 1, how he has caused us to turn to him
from our idols. We are turned to him by his grace,
his power, from our idol to serve who? The living and true God. That's our hope, is it not? He
is able to save to the uttermost all that come to God by Him.
Now, let's take a brief look at the last part of verse 21. A just God and Savior, there
is none else. And verse 22, look unto me, the
Lord says, and be saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. The gospel of God is the ancient
gospel. You see that in verse 21. Tell
ye and bring them near, yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
times? Now ancient times is old times. Ancient times is history past,
eternity past. Who hath declared it from ancient
times? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? God knows all things from all
eternity. Flip one page, and it reminded
me of this in Isaiah 46 verse 9. Remember the former things
of old? I am God, there is none else. Well, he says the same thing
again. He just keeps repeating himself, doesn't he? That's a
good thing when you're telling the truth. Remember the former
things of old, Isaiah 46, 9. For I am God, there is none else. I'm God, there is none like me,
declaring the end from the beginning, from ancient time to things that
are not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand. I'll do all my pleasure,
calling a ravenous bird from the east, a man that executes
my counsel from a far country. I've spoken it. I will also purpose
it. I'll bring it to pass, I'll purpose
it, I will do it. From ancient times, He declared
the end for the beginning. You remember what we studied
in Revelation? He's the Alpha, the Omega, He is the beginning,
and He is the end. The gospel of God is the ancient
gospel. It's the everlasting gospel.
It has been ordained from the foundation of the world. It's
older than the fall of Adam. It's older than sin. It's older
than creation itself. As they often say, before Adam
sinned, the Lord Jesus Christ stood as a surety, savior of
his people. We read in the Revelation, we're
going to study Later on, Revelation 13, that the Lord Jesus Christ
is a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. In Matthew 25,
when He separates the sheep from the goats, He'll say to those
sheep on His right hand, Come ye, enter into the kingdom of
God prepared for you from the foundation of the world. God's
always loved His people and chose them in the Lord Jesus Christ
and determined to redeem them by His precious blood as a Lamb
without blemish and without spot, the Lord Jesus Christ, who was
barely four-day, 1 Peter 1.20, before the foundation of the
world. But here's the key of the gospel and the eternal theme
of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
just and holy one. You see that in the last part
of verse 21. There is no God else beside me,
a just God and Savior. That's a good description of
our Lord. He is just and holy, and He is
our Savior. He is our Savior. The Lord Jesus
Christ is both just, holy, righteous, and yet He's merciful. He's long-suffering
to us. He is a holy, just God. You remember
Isaiah 6. Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty. He's a just and holy God whose
will cannot be frustrated, whose will cannot be compromised, His
holy character cannot be diminished, His holy law cannot be compromised. God will not bend the rule of
His holiness and His righteous justice is set to guilty free.
He must be honorable unto his own law, and satisfy his own
justice, in order that he might be a just God and Savior, that
he might be just and the justifier. Now that's the key to the gospel
right there. How God can remain holy, just, and righteous, and
yet save rotten, guilty, wretched sinners, and not compromise his
holy character. That can only be done through
Christ in Him crucified. That's why Paul said, I'm determined
not to know anything among you save Jesus Christ in Him crucified.
He is a just and righteous God and yet He's our only Savior. Call His name Jesus. He shall
save His people from their sin. He is the Savior of His people.
For sure He is. Turn to Isaiah 43, 11. Isaiah
43, 11. Look at this, I, Isaiah 43, 11,
I even I am the Lord, besides me there is no other Savior. You remember what Peter said
before that council? Neither is there salvation in
any other. There is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. This is why
the Lord Jesus Christ had to be manifest in the flesh. God
sent Him forth to be the propitiation for our sin. God foreordained
Him. Remember, we're studying the
book of Acts. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and foreknowledge of God. This is God's Lamb, a Son
of God, to take away the sin of God's people. He's the only
Savior. He's the only one who can save
sinners from their sin. This is demonstrated all through
the scripture how God is a just God and Savior. Let me give you
these examples. Adam sinned and was punished
in the garden, right? Why was Adam punished in the
garden? God is just, God is holy. But
before Adam was put out of the garden, God gave him a promise
concerning the Messiah, the seed of the woman that would bruise
the serpent's head. And before God put Adam out of
the garden, you remember what he did? He killed an animal and
clothed them with skins. And that's saying that God is
just and holy and yet he is a savior. We are clothed, and that's a
picture of substitution. He killed that animal and provided
a covering. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
our sin and God provided us a covering. He clothed us with the garments
of salvation with a robe of righteousness. Remember from Isaiah 61 10. That's
one example. Another example is this. How
God is just and the justifier. How He's a just God and Savior.
In Noah's day, the world was flooded. Why? Because God will
punish sin. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. God said, a
flood! God is holy! God is just! But also, He's a Savior. Look yonder, floating on those
floodwaters, there's an ark. Inside that ark, seven souls
saved. Why? God is a merciful God and
a Savior. Noah and his family were saved.
God is just and holy and God is merciful. That ark is a picture
of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ. Another example, the holy law
of God was given. It thundered from Sinai's mountains.
Why? God is holy. God demands holiness. He's just. He's a just God. But
also, even in that law that thunders, the guilty must die, the guilty
must die. On the Day of Atonement, the
priest went in with the blood sacrifice and he put the blood
on the mercy seat. covering the law of God, the
broken law inside that mercy seat. Isn't that a picture of
the Lord Jesus Christ? He is our mercy seat. He is our atonement. He is our
sacrifice for sin. God is holy and just, and yet
He's merciful. Demonstrate that all the way
through the Old Testament. He's a just God and Savior. Moses
asked the Lord, Lord, show me Your glory. After all he'd seen
in Egypt, all the miracles and the power of Almighty God, and
Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. Remember what he said?
I'll be merciful to whom I will be merciful. How did God deliver
them from Egyptian bondage? Through the blood of the lamb
put on the door. God said, when I see the blood,
I'll pass over you. There's a just God and a Savior. But the supreme example of God
being a just God and Savior is demonstrated at Calvary when
the Lord Jesus Christ is dying for our sin according to the
Scripture. Why does He suffer the holy wrath
of God? God is holy. He cannot look upon
sin with favor. God punished the Lord Jesus Christ. It pleased Him to do so because
He was made sin for us. Why did God do that? He's holy.
He's holy and just God. But in that, the Lord Jesus Christ
dying in a room in our stead and putting away our sin, there
God can be just and the justifier through the Lord Jesus Christ
fully paying our sin debt. That's the good news of the gospel.
Christ once suffered for our sins, the just for the unjust,
that He might bring us unto God. God made Him to be sin for us,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. You remember from Psalm 85 verse
10, mercy and truth are met together, righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. That's at the cross. That's just
a cross. There's no other sacrifice for
sin because there's no other Savior than the Lord Jesus Christ. God has provided the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself for us. You remember when Abraham and
Isaac, when God told Abraham to go to Mount Moriah and sacrifice
his son, and they traveled three days, and finally they got to
the place, and Isaac said to Abraham, his father, The fire,
the wood, where is the lamb? Isaac knew that he couldn't worship
and approach God without a blood sacrifice, without a lamb. Remember
what Abraham said? My son, God, will provide himself
a lamb. And he provided himself as the
Lamb of God for himself. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away our sin. Thank God, He is a just and holy
God. But He's also, don't forget this,
He's a Savior. The only Savior of sinners. And
there is no other. There is no other Savior. No
other gospel. No other name under heaven. Given
among men, whereby we must be saved. Now, all that being so,
look at the next word. Look. Look. Look to Him. Our Lord said, come
to Me, all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest.
Our Lord said, oh, everyone that's thirsty, you remember Isaiah
55? Oh, everyone that's thirsty, He said, come to Me and drink.
Look unto Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth. For I
am God, just and holy, righteous, There is none else. He's the
only just God and Savior. The Lord declares and commands
His people to look to Him. When you look to Him, you're
not looking in here. When you look to Him, you're
not looking anywhere else. Well, I'm going to look to my
baptism. Well, I'm going to look to my experience. Well, I'm going
to look to my feeling. He didn't say, go look to your
experience. He didn't say, go look at your feeling. He said,
look at me. and be saved." That's so clear,
isn't it? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
It seems like there's only one just God and Savior. And the
Lord said, look, look, look away from self, forgetting those things
which are behind and reaching forth under those things which
are before. Look away from self. Look to Him and be saved. be saved. He doesn't say labor
for me and be saved. He doesn't say serve me and be
saved. He said look to me and be saved. This is what gospel faith does. It looks to the victorious Lord
Jesus Christ for all of our salvation. You remember Hebrews chapter
2 Where it says, the Lord Jesus Christ, He's the author and finisher
of our faith. And then it said, looking unto
Him. You see, this look here is a
continual look. It's not that I looked one time,
or that I'll look sometime in the future. It's like repentance. And faith, it's always repenting,
it's always believing, it's always coming to the Lord Jesus Christ,
it's always looking to Him constantly. We don't look anywhere else for
forgiveness of sin, do we? but the Lord Jesus Christ. We
don't look anywhere else for righteousness but to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Surely, verse 24 says, surely
shall one say to the Lord, I have righteousness and strength. We
don't look anywhere else for hope of forgiveness and strength,
pardon, salvation, righteousness. That's why Paul said, I count
everything else lost, dung, and ruined. I may win Christ and
be found in Him. That's saying the same thing,
the same message. He said, look to me. "...to whom coming as
unto a living stone, the Lord Jesus Christ." Look to Christ. Don't look back. Look to Him now. He's the bread
of life. Now, what's the hope and the
blessing of truly, by faith, looking to the Lord Jesus Christ?
Look what it says. Verse 22. "...Look unto me,"
He says, "...and be saved." Be justified. What's the hope
and blessing of looking by faith to the Lord Jesus Christ? It's
to be saved. He that heareth my word and believeth
on me hath everlasting life. Who may look? Well, who's supposed
to look? Who may look? All the ends of
the earth. Boy, that's a whole lot of people,
isn't it? Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall
be saved. Who may look? All the ends of the earth. All
who are in need, look to Him. All who are guilty, look to Him.
All who need a Savior and righteousness, look to the Lord Jesus Christ.
All the ends of the earth. Jew, Gentile, rich, poor, every
sinner that's in need, look to Christ. Look to the Lord Jesus
Christ. Remember the story? Israel wandered
in the wilderness for 40 years. Remember? The whole generation
died out but two men, Joshua and Caleb. The people started
complaining and murmuring against God. Remember what happened?
He sent fiery serpents. Everyone who was bitten with
a fiery serpent died. Well, the people cried unto Moses,
Moses help us. And the Lord told Moses, make
a brazen serpent, like unto that serpent, that fiery serpent that
bit the people. Take that serpent, make it out
of brass, and put it on a pole. Remember what he said next? Look, everyone that looks at
that brazen serpent lifted up shall be healed. I guarantee
you everyone that was bitten with a fiery serpent, they looked.
They looked to the Lord Jesus Christ. Now don't turn, let me
just read this to you. Remember what our Lord said in
John chapter three? As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
You see, that's a picture of Christ being lifted up as a sacrifice
for our sin. That whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish, but have eternal life. You see, it's the same
message. Look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and be saved. Who says there's salvation in
a look? Well, the Lord God Himself, He said, look, come to me and
I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. When should
we look to Him? Right now. He said, look. He said, don't
wait. Don't wait and then look. Don't
wait till the time. Well, I'm gonna wait till the
time is right, then I'll look. No, look right now. Today's the
day of salvation. You don't have tomorrow. When in the dark, when should
we look to Him? When in the dark, He's our light.
When we are sick, He's our healing. When we are weak, He's our strength. When in sorrow, He's our joy. When in trouble, He's our help.
When in sin, He is our redeemer from sin. When in need of a justifying
righteousness, Christ has made unto us wisdom, righteousness,
sanctification, and redemption, all things in Him. I am God,
and there is none else. Let's read these next verses,
and I'll let you go. I've sworn by myself. He could
swear by no greater. You know, the lesser swears by
the greater, but there's none greater than he swears by himself.
There's none greater than him. The word's gone out of his mouth
in righteousness, won't return to him void, shall not return
to him void. Every knee's going to bow and
every tongue's going to swear when it's all done and over.
At the great white throne, judgment, every knee will bow, every tongue
will confess, Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the
Father. I want to bow now. I want to confess now that He's
my righteous. And surely shall one say in the
Lord, verse 24, in the Lord, surely shall one say in the Lord,
I'm of righteousness and strength in the Lord. Even to Him shall
men come, and all that are incensed against Him. All that rebel against
Him, oh, they're going to be ashamed. And that day, they'll
be ashamed. In the Lord, verse 25, all believers,
in the Lord shall all the seed of Israel be justified. Justified forever. Justified
freely by His grace. And what do we do? We glory. with glory only in the Lord. Now, God created all things to
one end, to one purpose. Of him and through him and to
him are all things to whom be glory both now and forever. That's the bottom line. Who gets
the glory?