Let us turn in our Bibles this
evening to Isaiah chapter 45. And I'm thankful that we have
a Bible, that God has given us his word, and that we are able
to turn in the scripture. Isaiah chapter 45. And I'm going to begin my message
tonight by saying something that may sound somewhat strange, but this is what I'm going to
say, and that is that every one of us should be thankful for
the word and. A-N-D. Every one of us should
be thankful for the word and. You ever find you don't know
anything to give thanks for? Thank the Lord for the word,
and. And I'll show you what I mean
if you look down in verse 21. At the close of this verse, almost,
we read, and there's no God else beside me, a just God. What if there was a period there?
What if that was the end of the sentence? There's no God else
beside me, a just God. What if that was all the message
of the word of God? There's only one true and living
God, a just God, period. Thank God for the word and. There is no God else beside me,
a just God, and a Savior, a Savior. Now, I said last week that in
the Old Testament, we are told of the nation of Israel's deliverance
two times from bondage, from slavery. The first time is the
most well known, and that is when God delivered them from
bondage in Egypt. And it is the best known because
it speaks to us about the blood of the Passover lamb. How God
passed over the houses in Egypt where the blood of the lamb was
applied. And in all of the houses where
there was no blood, the firstborn in that house died. From the
Pharaoh on the throne to the housemaid, the firstborn in every
house where there was no blood applied, the firstborn died. And when that happened, Pharaoh
told Moses and the Israelites, be gone, be gone. All of the plagues that had come
upon Egypt up to this point had given Pharaoh a desire, pray
and ask the Lord that this pass, but he never said go. But when
God killed his firstborn, and not only his, but there was such
a cry in Egypt that night of all the houses in which the firstborn
died, not only of men, but also of animals. And Pharaoh said, leave, get
out. They were delivered. They were
set free. Deliverance by blood, and then
of course when they came to the Red Sea and Pharaoh had changed
his mind and they were entrapped, deliverance by power. And we
know these are pictures of salvation, that God's salvation of a sinner
is by blood and it is by power. But there's a second deliverance
that we read about for the nation of Israel, and that is their
deliverance from captivity in Babylon. And I also said last
time that if there was one sin more than any other sin for which
the nation of Israel were sent into Babylonian captivity, it
was the sin of idolatry. Let me show you, we've started
studying a few weeks ago, bringing messages from Isaiah chapter
40. Now we're in chapter 45, but let me just show you in these
chapters, the place of idolatry. If you look back to chapter 40, turn back to chapter 40 and verses
18 and 19. To whom then will you liken God,
or what likeness will you compare unto him? The workman melted
the graven image, and the goldsmith spreaded it over with gold, and
casteth silver chains. That's the first time we see
God speaking here about idolatry. And then if you look in the next
chapter, chapter 41, And verse 7, so the carpenter encouraged
the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer, him that smote
the anvil, saying, it is ready for the soldering, and he fastened
it with nails, that it should not be moved. There again, the
making of an idol. And then in chapter 44, and we're not reading all these
verses in these chapters, I just point out that idolatry is mentioned
over and over again in verse 9 of chapter 44. They that make
a graven image are all of them vanity, and their delectable
things shall not profit, and they are their own witnesses.
They see not, nor know that they may be ashamed. That is, the
idol doesn't see, doesn't hear, doesn't know, And those who make
these idols, or rather those who worship these idols, the
scripture says in Psalm 115, are like unto the idol. The idol's
dead. No matter how beautiful it may
be decorated, the idol is dead. And those who make the idols
and those who worship the idols are like unto the idol. They're
spiritually dead. They're worshiping something
they cannot see, cannot hear, cannot move, cannot help. What an affront it is to the
true and living God that men worship an idol. Of course, we
think of idols, but a man can make an idol of anything. Anything
that comes between us and God takes a priority. in our life
becomes an idol to us. And we saw last week that word
refuse, that word that just left residue rather, the residue.
A man cuts down a tree, cooks him some food, warms himself,
and then with what's left over, he makes himself an idol. And
that's the way so many people try to serve God and worship
God. with our time, with our talent,
with all that we are, whatever's left over, that's for God. But no, God demands first place. First place in our life. Now, in this chapter, chapter
45, idolaters with their idols are called to come together to
assemble and to take counsel together. Notice in verse 20,
Isaiah 45 in verse 20. Assemble yourselves and come,
that is, idolaters, and bring your idols with you. Draw near,
you that are escaped of the nations. They have no knowledge that set
up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a God that cannot
save. Tell you and bring them near. Let them take counsel together.
Let all of them join together, all the idols. Let them all join
together. And let one of them, let one
of them predict something that's going to take place in the future. Well, they're dead. They cannot
do that. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there
is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. Now, the picture here, the lesson
is the true and the living God As we see in the first part of
this chapter, chapter 45, he foretells something that would
take place approximately 200 years from the time that Isaiah
prophesies. And that is, he prophesies that
Israel shall be delivered from their captivity in Babylon and
even calls the man by name. who will be their deliverer. If you look in verse one, two,
and three of chapter 45, thus saith 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 leave gates and the gates shall not be shut. I will go
before thee and make the crooked places straight. I will break
in pieces the gates of brass and cut and 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, am the
God of Israel." Two hundred years before, God here tells of the
captivity of Babylon, that is, the destruction of Babylon by
this Persian monarch, Cyrus. Actually, what you have in verses
1 through 3, we just read it. We won't go into all the detail,
but it's a very interesting history if you'd like to study that out.
But what we see there is exactly how God delivered Babylon into
the hands of Cyrus that night. And what we have here is what
took place when Daniel, when Belshazzar was having, he's the
king of Babylon, the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, they had ransacked
Jerusalem, burned Jerusalem, carried the vessels that were
of any value back to Babylon. And he's having a big party,
remember? And he said, go get those vessels,
those golden and silver vessels that were used in the service
of God there in that temple in Jerusalem. Bring them in and
let's drink wine from these vessels and let's praise the gods of
wood and silver and gold. And that's when he saw that handwriting,
remember, on the wall. And they sent for Daniel because
nobody could read what those words meant. Mene, mene, tekel,
abharsin. And so they found Daniel and
brought him in. And he told him what those words
meant. Looking at the king, Belshazzar,
God hath numbered thy kingdom and finished it. It's over. It's over. Thou art weighed in
the balances and found wanting. Thy kingdom is divided and given
to the Medes and to the Persians. The Medes, of course, was Darius,
the uncle of Cyrus, the Persian. But thy kingdom is taken. And at that very night, remember
how Cyrus and his armies diverted the river, the course of the
river, so that they were able to come in through the gates
that are spoken of here. It's exactly what took place
that night. It's amazing, isn't it, that
this happened so many years before it took place. Now, God's calling
these idols and these idolaters to come together. And you show
something. You declare something. ahead
of time before it comes to pass. And, of course, they couldn't
do that. They were dumb. They were dead. Secular history
tells us that when Cyrus was showed this, actually showed
this prophecy here in the letter of Isaiah, you can imagine how
impressed he was that his name was written, like I said, almost
200 years before he came on the scene. Before his dad said, he's
going to be called Cyrus, God had said, he's going to be named
Cyrus. He's going to be my servant and
he's going to deliver my people Israel from Babylon. Look, keep
your place here, but look back to the book of Ezra. Ezra chapter
one. Ezra chapter 1 in verse 1. Now
in the first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the
Lord by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the prophet
stirred up the spirit of Cyrus. You say, what does that mean,
the word by the prophet Jeremiah? Jeremiah prophesied how long
they would be in captivity. Seventy years they would be captives
in Babylon. that the word of the Lord by
the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up
the spirit of Cyrus, king of Persia." I tell you, folks, when
we sing that little chorus, he's got the whole world in his hand. I hope we realize what we're
saying, the truth of what we're saying. that God is in control
of all things. And here's a pagan king, and
God stirs his heart up, so that he gives this proclamation throughout
all the kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith
Cyrus king of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all
the kingdoms of the earth. Notice he acknowledged this.
God had given him these kingdoms. I wish we could learn to thank
God and praise God for everything that he gives us, every day that
he gives us, every breath that he gives us, every success that
he gives us. You young people, you do good
in school, acknowledge God. God gave you a good mind and
good understanding, ability to learn, placed you in a family,
placed you in a country where you could learn to read. Every
blessing, every good and every perfect gift cometh down from
Him, the Father of lights, in whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. Let us not be atheists in our
hearts. Let us acknowledge God, believe
God, trust God, day by day. The Lord, God of heaven, hath
given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged
me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there
among you of all his people? Here's their deliverance. Now
you can go back. Anyone who wants to leave, you
can go back. His God be with him and let him
go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house
of the Lord God of Israel. He is the God which is in Jerusalem. Now, back in chapter 45 of Isaiah. There are several things, let
me mention this, there are several things recorded here about Cyrus,
beginning in chapter 44 and verse 28, which allows us to view Cyrus
as a type of the Lord Jesus, that he himself serves in many
ways as a type. There's some ways he doesn't,
of course. But if you just look in verse 28 of chapter 44, that
saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd. Who is God's shepherd? Who is the good shepherd that
giveth his life for the sheep? Who is the great shepherd that
sealed the everlasting covenant with his precious blood? Who
is the chief shepherd who's coming again to reward his people? Cyrus serves as a type of our
Savior. He is my shepherd, and notice,
and shall perform all my pleasure. Who is it that always only did
those things which pleased the Lord? Christ. This is my beloved son, in whom
I am well pleased. And then notice, even saying
to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple, thy foundation
shall be laid. He's the one who builds the church,
his church, not my church. It's not the Pope's church. It's
not some man's church or some organization's church. No, it's
Christ's church. He said, upon this rock, I will
build my church, my church. He's the foundation of the church. And the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it. My church. And there's some more
things we won't look at, but in chapter 45 also that we could
bring out about Cyrus being a type of Christ. But I want us to consider
the rest of the message. There's three statements in this
chapter which speak to us of God's work as a just God and
a Savior. First of all, I want you to look
in verse 17. And my statement here is, God's
Israel shall be saved in the Lord. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord. Now this doesn't refer to national
Israel, that is those descendants of Abraham after the flesh, but
it is speaking of spiritual Israel. Remember in Romans chapter two,
the apostle Paul said, he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly,
but he is a Jew, which is one inwardly. He's not a Jew, which
is one outwardly. It's not circumcision of the
flesh that makes a man a Jew is circumcision of the heart.
Circumcision of the flesh is a type of circumcision of the
heart, which is the new birth. being born again of the Spirit
of God. This is speaking about spiritual
Israel. The true Israel are the sons
of Abraham in Christ. Remember, Abraham was promised,
in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed. And
Paul tells us in the New Testament that Abraham is the father of
us all, that is, all believers. Notice these three truths in
this verse, verse 17, about the salvation of God's Israel. First
of all, they shall be saved. God purposed their salvation
from all eternity, choosing them in Christ before the foundation
of the world. They shall be saved. When God says they shall, it's
going to happen. They shall be saved. There's
no question about it. There's no doubt about it. There's
no and ifs and buts about it. They shall, all of God's spiritual
Israel shall be saved. Number two, they all shall be
saved in the Lord. In the Lord. There's no salvation
apart or separate from the Lord Jesus Christ. If you look down
to the The last verse in this chapter, we read, in the Lord
shall all the seed of Israel be justified and shall glory. So all the seed of Israel shall
be justified in Christ. The scriptures declare unto us
that those who are saved, those whom God saves, we're all justified
by the blood of Christ. We're all made accepted in the
Beloved, and we're all complete in Him. They shall be saved in
the Lord. There's no salvation apart from
Christ. There's one way to the Father,
and Jesus Christ is that way. You know, that's a testimony
all the way through the Scripture. And we're living in times, it's
never been any different, I suppose, but in times where people who
call themselves Christians, I'm talking about so-called Christian
leaders, Christian pastors, who somehow are ashamed of the truth
and try to accommodate what is clearly a lie, a lie out of hell
that there are various and different ways to God. No, there isn't. There's one way, and Christ is
that way. This scripture tells us very
clearly, Israel shall be saved and they shall be saved in the
Lord. There's no salvation outside
of Christ. And number three, this verse
tells us they shall be saved with an everlasting salvation. The salvation of the Lord is
not one that means you might be saved today and be lost tomorrow. That's not the salvation of the
Lord. The salvation in the Lord is
an everlasting salvation. Now, what is meant by that word
salvation? I don't want to skip over that.
What is meant by that word salvation? The word says, Israel shall be
saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation. What does salvation
mean? Well, in Matthew chapter one,
when the Lord Jesus Christ was born, we're told that the angel
told Matthew, or told Joseph rather, that the name of Mary's
son would be Jesus. Thou shalt call his name Jesus,
now listen, for he shall save his people from their sins. What is salvation? It is being
delivered from our sins. That's what salvation is. Our
sin brought spiritual death. He saves us from spiritual death
and gives us spiritual life. Our sin brought the curse of
the law upon us. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the book of the law, for to
do them he saves us from the curse of the law. And how did
he do that? By being made a curse for us. You know, when God gave his word,
the Old Testament, Moses, the first five books of the Bible, and God in that book of Deuteronomy,
the last of those books, said, you will not leave a man, a body
of a man, a criminal who's been executed, you will not leave
his body on the tree overnight. Why? Because cursed. is everyone that hangeth upon
a tree. Who would have thought, after
years and millenniums, that the Apostle Paul applies that to
Christ? When those Roman soldiers, with
their nails, nailed him to the cross, to the tree, he was being
made a curse, and he was being made a curse for us. We were
cursed because we had disobeyed God's law. He was made a curse
for us to deliver us, to save us from the curse. That's what salvation is. It's
being given new life, spiritual life. It's being delivered from
the curse of death, eternal death. He redeems us. Our sin caused
our condemnation. We come into this world and we're
under condemnation because of our sin. And He saves us from
that condemnation through His imputed righteousness. We're
no longer condemned, we're justified. Our sin alienated us from God. God is of purer eyes than to
behold iniquity. And He saves us from that alienation. He reconciles us unto God by
the blood of His cross. Someone said, You can't preach
the gospel from the Old Testament. Listen, if you can't preach the
gospel from the Old Testament, something's wrong with you because
it's here, my friend. The whole Bible speaks of Him,
of Christ, either in shadows or types or promises or in reality
when He came and the truth of the fact that He's coming again.
But this book is a book about Him. Now notice the second verse,
that was verse 17. Now notice down in verse 22. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else. The apostle said, for by grace
are you saved through faith. Look unto me and be you saved. For by grace are you saved through
faith, and that not of yourself, that is the faith is not of yourself,
it is the gift of God. One of the old worn out arguments
of false religion is, why preach the gospel? If God has elected
men to salvation, if God has chosen men to be saved, then
why preach the gospel? They're going to be saved. Well,
only a blind man will deny that the Bible teaches that God has
chosen men to salvation. Only a blind man will deny that
if he reads the word of God. I've told you this before, but
that man told Spurgeon, he said, I've, I've read through the Bible
three times on my knees and I've never seen the word election. Spurgeon advised him, well, get
up off your knees and get in an easy chair and start reading
the word of God. Oh yeah, it's there. It's here. According as he has chosen us
in him before the foundation of the world. Therefore, I endure
all things for the elect's sake that they may also obtain the
salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. But
we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved
of the Lord, because God hath chosen you to salvation through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. Why
preach the gospel? If God has chosen some to be
saved, then why preach the gospel? Well, do you see the answer to
false religion's question, why preach the gospel? If God has
elected men to salvation, God has ordained the end. The end
is salvation. And God has also ordained the
means to the end. And the means to the end is,
look unto me and be ye saved. All ye ends of the earth. You
say, well, I don't know if I'm one of the elect. Of course you
don't, until you believe. But you do know that you're part
of all the ends of the earth, don't you? You do know that. You're one of God's creatures.
Then look unto him. That's what he said. Look unto
me and be ye saved. Look has reference to faith,
doesn't it? God has ordained the end, he's
also ordained the means to the end. It doesn't say work, look
at the verse again, work and be you saved. Be baptized and
be you saved. Be faithful in every way and
be you saved. No, look, look unto me, just
like And our Lord Jesus used this example, didn't he, of the
serpent that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. When a man
was bitten by a poisonous stake, that serpent, that brazen serpent
that God told Moses to make and hang up on a pole, and then the
messengers went through the camp of Israel, and that was their
word. Look. Look. If you've been bitten, look.
And everyone that lived, lived. Even so, our Lord said, must
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life. Faith, we are told, in the New
Testament, faith comes by hearing. And it's not just hearing anything
and hearing everything, it's by hearing the gospel. By hearing
the truth, that salvation is of the Lord, and that men should
look to him and be saved. Faith cometh by hearing. And
we don't, we can't even explain how it comes. We just know faith
cometh. We didn't have it when we came
into this world. We were not born with faith. But by God's wonderful grace,
if we believe tonight, faith came by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Now the third thing, hurriedly,
in verse 23, all men, now listen to me, all
men, A-L-L, no exceptions, no exclusions, all men shall bow
and confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. I have sworn by myself,
now the reason God swears by himself is because there's none
greater. 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. Now look
in Philippians chapter two, and we'll close with this. Philippians
chapter two. The apostle Paul quotes this
passage, Philippians chapter two, and verse nine. Because Christ, the eternal son
of God, came into this world and gave his life Wherefore God
also hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
of things in heaven and things in earth and things under the
earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ
is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Men, you, you, me,
men will repent and believe and bow to Christ now as Lord and
be saved. Or men will bow to him in the
day of judgment and be damned. But all men will bow. Man may shake their fists, and
if there be a God, let Him strike me dead. Nothing happens, and
he thinks he's really proven something. Proven himself to
be a fool. The fool has said in his heart,
there is no God. No, all men, all of us here tonight,
we will bow to Him and confess Jesus Christ is Lord, in this
day of salvation, or we shall bow in that day of judgment and
be damned throughout eternity. I bow tonight, don't you? That's
my desire. That's my desire tonight, to
bow to him, to acknowledge him as my Lord and as my God, and
to confess his name, Jesus Christ. the Lord of glory. I pray that
God will bless his word to those of us here this evening. What a wonderful Savior is Jesus,
my Lord. What a wonderful Savior is he. I like that hymn. We've already
sung it, so we won't sing that. Let's sing number 453. He keeps
me singing. He keeps me singing. Number 453.