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March 7, 2021
59 Plays4 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction and Fields of Faith Recap
00:00:02
Speaker
Yeah, so you guys could be seated now. I don't know if you guys heard me, but she actually said, stand right there at the beginning. Anyway, it's fine. Yeah, I got your back, girl. Got your back. Well, good morning, everyone. It's good to see you all here this morning. For those of you guys who do not know me, my name is Josh. For those of you guys who do know me, it's good to see you guys. So.
00:00:21
Speaker
But yes, this morning I have the opportunity of bringing the word to you guys and I'm very excited about what we're going to be looking at today. But first, I just want to say thank you guys for all of you who prayed this past week and also who participated in the Fields of Faith event that happened on Wednesday night. We had a really good turnout for the very first Fields of Faith that we had here in Columbus, which is pretty crazy to think about.
00:00:46
Speaker
But it was a really sweet time. We had two of our very own students, Evan Vega and Presley Stockman, share their testimonies. And man, it was incredible. Talk about two students sharing their faith and sharing the gospel. It was incredible.
00:01:02
Speaker
If you guys missed it, don't worry, there will be another one. I'll keep you guys posted. Probably won't be until the fall, but there will be another one. So anyway, so yeah, so thank you guys for all the prayers because you guys know more than ever our students need all of our prayers during this time.
Study on Isaiah: God's Redemptive Love
00:01:17
Speaker
So, but if you guys want to get your Bibles out, we're going to be looking at the book of Isaiah once again. So we're going to be continuing our series through the book of Isaiah.
00:01:27
Speaker
And we're gonna be looking at the continual theme here in the second half of the book of Isaiah of God's redemptive love and promise for his people. But before we go any further, I'm gonna just stop and I'm gonna pray for the service. So if you guys would like to pray with me, let's pray. God, we just come before you this morning and we are just so thankful.
00:01:52
Speaker
We're so thankful for the fact that we get to gather together as a congregation in freedom and that we get to do it as the body of Christ. God, I pray that as we study your word this morning that we will just fully be attentive and alert to what you are telling us in your word.
00:02:11
Speaker
God, your word is living and it is active. It is sharp than any two-edged sword. So it doesn't matter if we are a new believer or an old believer, a mature believer, or if we're not even a believer at all. We don't even have a relationship with Jesus' Father. Your word
00:02:28
Speaker
it penetrates the hearts of man. And so God, I pray that you'll prepare our hearts for what you have for us this morning. And ultimately, Father, you'll just let me get out of the way and allow your word to speak to our hearts. God, we love you. We thank you for this time. It's in Christ's name. Amen.
00:02:45
Speaker
As I said, as you guys can remember, we've been going through the second half of the Book of Isaiah, and today we're going to be in Isaiah chapter 46. And what we're going to be looking at, like I said, is God's continual redemptive love and promise that he has for his people in face of the certain captivity in which we'll be taking place. Because if you remember with me,
00:03:06
Speaker
A few weeks ago, we had talked about how the first 39 chapters of this book was dedicated to the sole purpose of Isaiah, bringing this vision to the people of their coming judgment from the nation of Babylon, and how God's going to bring the nation of Babylon. He's going to place them into captivity because of their idolatrous waves.
00:03:25
Speaker
They have turned from the Lord, and now God is going to hold them accountable for their sins. So they're going to be put under captivity by the nation of Babylon. And we also saw, though, from the first 39 chapters is about God's coming judgment. But now, as we look into the second half of this book, we're going to be not only seeing that God's judgment is coming, but he's also going to be preparing a way to save his people.
00:03:53
Speaker
We're gonna see God's redemptive plan playing out throughout the second half of this book and ultimately today. And I'm so excited. You guys better be glad that the mic is right here and I can't walk around because you can't hear me over here. Of course, if I get really excited, you can still hear me. So just give you a heads up. I'm gonna get really excited today.
Personal Testimony: Struggles with Idolatry
00:04:10
Speaker
Okay? So, because this chapter is so full of God's love and redemption for us and is just so incredibly powerful. But before we get to the meat of this though, I just want to say, if you guys haven't caught on, the topic of discussion today is on idolatry. And that's been kind of a consistent theme throughout this book. So if you haven't heard of idolatry,
00:04:32
Speaker
Just keep coming back. You'll just keep hearing it as we go throughout the rest of the book. Y'all feeling me? Cool. And for anybody who's in this room and feels like they don't struggle with idolatry, let me just tell you now, I'm just going to be quite frank with you. You're a liar. We all struggle with idolatry in our life.
00:04:47
Speaker
So, just going to make that very clear. But before we get into this meet though, I just want to stop and I want to share with you a little bit more about my testimony. I know many of you guys have probably heard my testimony before, but I just want to share a little more about it because there's so much that God has done within me. And I know that He has done within many of us when it comes to the idols in our lives. But for me, this was something that the Lord really had to work in me on. When I was a freshman in high school, that's when I came to know the Lord.
00:05:17
Speaker
It took the death of my grandfather for the Lord to finally open my eyes to the reality that I did not have a relationship with Jesus. It took the time for me to look at my grandfather on his deathbed to see the joy that he had, the surpassing joy that I did not have in the face of death that made me finally realize that I did not know Jesus like I thought I did because I grew up in a Christian family. I grew up in, well, what I would call a cultural Christian family.
00:05:45
Speaker
We went to church, we did all the right things according to the Christian culture. So by me living that lifestyle, I thought I was a Christian. But until that day when I looked at my grandfather and saw the assurance of hope that he had in face of death, I realized quickly that I did not have Jesus.
00:06:03
Speaker
And it was that night that I asked God to come into my life. And I asked Jesus to be my personal Lord and savior. And I wish that I could say that from that point forward, that it was an easy road. That in that moment, my life transformed. I went from a guy who was once dead to a guy who is full of joy and that you see up here today. No, I'm just kidding. But that's not how it happened. And many of you guys can attest to that. That's not how this process of salvation and sanctification works. It's a process.
00:06:31
Speaker
When I was in high school, guys, I followed after the ways of the world. Even the moment after I accepted Jesus, I still followed after them. I was worried about my identity. I was worried about my appearance. Guys, if y'all could only ask Hannah, my wife, I was like, can I show a picture of me from when I was in high school? She's like, no, don't do that.
00:06:50
Speaker
Because when I was in high school, I was so worried about my appearance. I was a part of the skater crew, and you guys were probably like, oh, he was one of those guys. Yeah, I was one of those guys, okay? And I had the long hair and swoop it over, all that nonsense, okay? That's who I was. And I was so worried about my identity and my appearance. I was so worried about my relationship with my friends and with girls. Guys, if y'all are young in here, don't worry about girls right now.
00:07:18
Speaker
Even if you're in college, he asked for you, Thomas. Don't worry about girls right now. It's not worth it right now, okay? The Lord will bring the right girl into your life when the time is right. And praise God, because he gave me Hannah. But I share all this because these were my idols in my life and I allowed them to control everything that was a part of me.
00:07:43
Speaker
the decisions I make, the clothes I wore, the hairstyle I had, good Lord. All these things, I allowed them to control me because I thought in those moments that they were going to bring me satisfaction, that I was gonna be able to be at peace with it, that I was gonna be able to find joy in it, that they were going to, those things were gonna give me the things that I needed in this life to be able to have a good, happy, and wholesome life, right?
Overcoming Idolatry and Embracing God's Love
00:08:08
Speaker
That is so far from the truth.
00:08:11
Speaker
I learned quickly that these idols in my life only became burdens, and they weighed me down. I was one person in front of my friends, I was another person in front of my friends at church, and I was another person at home. I was the most inconsistent guy.
00:08:32
Speaker
because I was trying to please everybody. I was trying to worship these idols in my life thinking that if I just did what was right before them, then I would be satisfied and I was never truly satisfied. But thankfully, I had some very godly men and women in my life that took me by the pants and they said, hey dude, it's time for you to wake up.
00:08:55
Speaker
You need to get rid of these idols in your life, and you need to follow after the one true God who is worthy of all of your praise, all of your attention, and all of your worship. And praise God that he brought those people in my life, because I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for them. So God works in mysterious ways. But I say all that to say this, because what we're gonna be looking at today in chapter 46 is very much this idea of the burdensome nature of our idols in our lives.
00:09:22
Speaker
And we're gonna do like a compare, we're gonna do a compare and contrast here as we look at these verses because we are gonna see, whoa, we're gonna see very clearly the burdensome nature of our idols in our lives versus the relentless pursuit and love of God in our lives and how He is gonna be there to sustain us and how He's gonna be there to protect us and how He's gonna be there to ultimately carry us all throughout the days of our lives.
00:09:51
Speaker
So, let's read this together, picking up here in verse one, in chapter 46, and yes, we're reading through the entire chapter, people, so buckle up, okay? If y'all would like to stand with me in honor of God's word, that would be also great. Picking up here in verse one, it says, Belle bows down, Nebo stoops,
00:10:14
Speaker
Their idols are on beasts and livestock. These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop, they bow down together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity.
00:10:28
Speaker
Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth. Carry from the womb, even to your old age, I am he. And to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made and I will bear, I will carry and I will save. To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me, that we may be alike.
00:10:53
Speaker
Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales, they hire a goldsmith and make it into a god. Then they fall down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders, they carry it, they set it in its place and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble.
00:11:16
Speaker
Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other like me. Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
00:11:41
Speaker
Calling a bird of prey from the east to the man of my counsel from afar country, I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness, and it is not far off, and my salvation will not delay. I will put my salvation in Zion, for Israel is my glory. Let us pray.
00:12:09
Speaker
Father, we thank you for this word. We thank you for this truth. And I pray, God, as I said before, that you will truly just do a work in our hearts today and that you will just allow our eyes to see the idols in our lives so that we may break them down and push them aside and ultimately praise you who is the only one worthy of our praise and of our worship and of every fiber in our life. So God, just be with us this morning as we continue to study your words in Christ's name, amen.
00:12:38
Speaker
You guys may be seated. So as I said, as we work through this passage this morning, we're gonna do a compare and contrast, okay? I love doing comparisons and contrasts. I don't know if that's the right way to say it, but it's fine. But I like comparing and contrasting things, because the first thing that we're gonna look at are the burdensome nature of the idols in our lives. And we're gonna see this in two separate verses, or two separate passages and verses here. We're gonna see it in verses one and two.
00:13:05
Speaker
that we're gonna see in verses six through seven. But before we go any further though, there's something I want to explain to us real quick. There's two names there at the very beginning of verse one.
00:13:16
Speaker
Bell and Nebo. For those of you guys who are not like me, who like to study the context of what's going on here, I'm just going to explain to you who these two guys are. So Bell, who's also often referred to as Marduk, was the chief god of the city of Babylon. And he's ultimately the national god of the nation of Babylonia. So he's the supreme god of which they all worship. He's the big guy.
00:13:43
Speaker
Now, don't get this confused, this is not the same bell as we see in the Canaanites, okay? So this is B-E-L, not B-A-A-L, okay? Y'all feeling me here? Okay, great. And then there's Nebo, or Nabu, and he is the son of Marduk, or the son of Bel, and he was the god of learning and writing and astronomy. And these were the two main gods in which they worshiped in the city of Babylon.
00:14:07
Speaker
But if you guys actually look at these two names, there's actually some irony here because when you look at the root of the name and you remember back in the book of Daniel, there's actually two kings that ruled in Babylon. One's name was Nebuchadnezzar and the other name was Belshazzar. You see the irony here?
00:14:29
Speaker
There's two gods that are named after these two kings. So you see already how these two kings and how the kings of the nation of Babylon viewed themselves in light of the people around them. They viewed themselves as gods. They viewed themselves as higher than any other being and that they deserved praise. So they created these gods in their own likeness so that they too can be worshipped in a sense.
00:14:57
Speaker
And not only, and there's this time of the year, at the beginning of every year, it's called the Babylonian New Year's Festival or the Akitu Festival, what these people would do and what the kings would do is that they would go and they would hoist these idols on their shoulders and they would parade them around the city and worship them.
00:15:19
Speaker
So you can only imagine how this would make the people feel, right? You have these guys who are carrying these statues, and guys, these are not just little statues that you see in the store. I'm sure these things were massive. They were made of wood, and they were oftentimes overlaid with gold and silver. So you can only imagine how heavy these idols were, these statues were. And so they would parade them around the city, and they would worship them every year.
00:15:46
Speaker
How many of you guys wake up every day? How many of us begin the new year praising and worshiping our God? It's pretty humbling, isn't it? But these guys, they would pick up these statues and they would carry them around the city. And this is a great picture of burden.
00:16:09
Speaker
Because it should be the other way around. It should be that these gods are sustaining the people, but what we're seeing is that the people are walking around sustaining their gods. They are the ones who have to carry their gods. And their gods are becoming a burden to the people. Whereas for us who walk in the newness of life, and who worship the one true God of Israel is the exact opposite. He sustains us.
00:16:38
Speaker
So the relationship that we're seeing here is one of the people having to carry and sustain their gods rather than them relying and sustaining on their gods. It's a burdensome relationship. But guys, we're not much different from this today. We make our own idols, we make our own gods, and guess what, we carry them.
00:17:06
Speaker
There's people in this room, and I'm myself included, who have idols in their lives and we like to carry them around. And they become burdensome. And until we cast them off, we will never experience true freedom.
00:17:26
Speaker
But ultimately though, back to verses one and two, what we are seeing here in this particular passage, now that we kind of know who Bela and Nebo are, what we're seeing here is a procession, a triumphal procession of a conquering nation coming in and carrying off these idols.
00:17:43
Speaker
Because what we see here is that Isaiah, God reveals to Isaiah that though Babylon's going to come in and take captive the nation of Judah and put his people in captivity, he's going to raise up another country called Neo-Persia or the Persian nation. And they're going to come in and they're going to take captive the city of Babylon. And so what we're seeing here is the final defeat of the nation of Babylon and how Cyrus, the king of Persia, is going to come in and he is going to conquer the Babylonians. And now we see here that he's going to carry off these gods.
00:18:13
Speaker
these things in which were born as a burden. He is now carrying them away. And it says there in verse two, it says, as they are carrying away, they cannot save, but themselves go into captivity. So for any of us who are in this room today who have these idols in our lives, these burdens, who think that they're gonna sustain us and that they're gonna protect us and that they're gonna be there for us, guess what?
00:18:39
Speaker
they're all gonna just fall away. They can't save you. They're gonna be carried off in the end, unable to save you. So why carry them? Why follow after them? And guys, this should hit home for all of us, because like I said, we all have idols in our lives, whether it's money,
00:19:09
Speaker
Materialism, sex, social media, Lord forbid. I feel for our students in this current generation because the social media platform is the greatest it's ever been. And man, what a burden that is. If anything, we need to be praying for our students. We need to be praying for this next generation because they have a long road ahead of them.
God's Sovereignty and Call to Righteousness
00:19:39
Speaker
And then like I said, if we're truly honest with ourselves, each and every one of us struggles with idols in our lives. And it is not until we turn away from these or turn them off or push them aside that we can truly begin to experience the freedom and peace that we can have apart from them in the presence of God. We can go from the one who's carrying the weight and the burdens of our idols to the ones who are being lifted up and carried into sanctuary, into peace in the comfort and presence of the one true and living God.
00:20:08
Speaker
But we can't experience this peace. We can't experience this sanctuary until we cast them off. Every last one of them.
00:20:19
Speaker
And we see how the Lord is our comforter and how He comes and He protects us all throughout the book of Psalms. And I love the book of Psalms, people. If you have not ever read the book of Psalms, I need to go saturate yourselves in it because it is so rich of God's steadfast love and His protection for His people. And I'm just gonna read a couple chapters, well, not a couple chapters, sorry, a couple verses for you guys. And the first one's in Psalm 9. I want you to hear these verses. It says, Be gracious to me, O Lord.
00:20:44
Speaker
"'See my affliction from those who hate me. "'O you who lift me from the gates of death, "'that I may recount all of your praises.'" And in Psalm 18 verses 16 through 19 it says, "'He sent from on high. "'He took me. "'He drew me out of many waters. "'He rescued me from my strong enemy "'and from those who hated me. "'For they were too mighty for me. "'They confronted me in the day of calamity. "'But the Lord, but the Lord was my support.'"
00:21:13
Speaker
He brought me out into a broad place. He rescued me and he delighted in me. One last chapter here, Psalm 27 verses 1 and ultimately 5 and 6 says, The Lord is my light and my salvation. Who shall I fear?
00:21:31
Speaker
The Lord is the stronghold of my life, of who shall I be afraid? For he will hide me in his shelter in the day of trouble. He will conceal me under the cover of his tent. He will lift me high upon a rock, and now my head shall be lifted above my enemies all around me, and I will offer in his tent sacrifices with shouts of joy. I will sing and make a melody to the Lord."
00:21:59
Speaker
Guys, this is who our God is. He is our shelter. He is our comforter. He is the very one who comes and carries us in the time of trouble. When we feel most burden, He is there to rescue us.
00:22:17
Speaker
And I got one more verse here to read you, and this is out of the New Testament, and these are the very words of Jesus. Many of you can probably quote this from memory, but it's Matthew 11 verses 28 through 30. It says, come to me all who labor in our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
00:22:45
Speaker
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." Wow. What a stark distinction between the idols of our lives versus the one and true and mighty God in our life.
00:23:04
Speaker
The idols in which make us carry their burdens and the ones who cause so much affliction and pain in our own lives because we try to appease them and we try to be what we can for them, thinking that they're gonna sustain us, but they will never do that. Versus a God who says, take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle, gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls. My yoke is easy, my burden is light.
00:23:34
Speaker
So we must recognize that if we have idols in our lives, all they're going to do is they're just going to crush us. And that's exactly what we see here in these first two verses when it talks about how the beast and the livestock are having to carry these idols and how these things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts.
00:23:58
Speaker
And if you jump ahead with me though, we're gonna go to the next point. We're gonna be looking at verses six through seven. So the first point was that we are crushed by our idols. And the second point is this, is that our idols are crafted from our conceit.
00:24:13
Speaker
They are crafted from our own conceit, our own pride, our own selfishness. And I've already kind of hit on this a little bit, but I want to hit it again. Because what we're seeing here in these verses through six through seven, I'm just going to read it to you again. It says, those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales, hire a goldsmith.
00:24:31
Speaker
And he makes it into a God. Then they fall down and worship. They lift it to their shoulders. They carry it. They set it in its place and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. Guys, what we're seeing here is a short, dramatic film of us.
00:24:52
Speaker
What we're seeing is a man who brings his silver and gold to a goldsmith and they form it and fashion it into a God that is now worthy of their praise. What we're seeing here is a man who has something in his pocket that has no worshipful value whatsoever. He has no mind for it until he takes it to a goldsmith and he says, you know what, let's form it into this.
00:25:12
Speaker
Let's form it into this. Let's form it into this. And they create and form this idol out of their own mind that is now going for something that was not worshipful and valued, so now they are going to worship it. They're going to fall down and praise it because they bore it out of their own selfish desires. Our idols, guys, in our lives, all they are is the manifestation of our own pride and selfishness.
00:25:43
Speaker
That's all they are. We form and make these idols in our lives because we want to feel good. We want to feel like we have something in this life that is worthy of praise. And that's exactly what we see here in these verses. They take it to the goldsmith, they fall down and worship it.
00:26:03
Speaker
But get this in verse seven, what does it say? They have to lift it to their shoulders. They have to carry it. They have to set it in its place and make it stand there because it cannot move from its place. And when they cry out to it, it doesn't answer or save them because it is a mute, motionless idol. But yet they choose to worship it. How crazy is this?
00:26:34
Speaker
But like I said, we are not far from this. This is us. We take things that have no value of our praise and we turn them into things that we deem worthy of our praise. But praise God that our God who is in heaven is not like this. He doesn't need us. But rather, He chose us.
00:27:02
Speaker
He was from before time began. He was the one who created all things. This should bring peace to our minds because we don't have to do anything. He has already done everything. All we have to do is call upon Him and He is going to come down and swoop us up and carry us and that's it. We don't have to do anything else.
00:27:29
Speaker
There's nothing we have to do to sustain God because God is all sustaining. He is omnipotent. He is all powerful. He is all known. He is all loving. That is who our God is, people. And we make it so much more complicated than it needs to be. We feel like we need to come and do the checklist of things that we must do in order to gain his favor, to gain his purpose, to gain his pleasure. But guess what? That's not it. Sure, you came to church today. Well done.
00:28:00
Speaker
You pray, well done, many people pray. You do good deeds, guess what, there's a lot of other religions that revolve around good deeds. Guys, I pray that we, oh man, I pray that we do not turn our faith into an idol.
00:28:28
Speaker
that we don't turn our deeds, our works into an idol because then our faith is dead. But there's hope in all of this. And it leads me to the next point here.
00:28:54
Speaker
So we're gonna actually turn here. We're gonna go from looking at the burdensome nature of our idols to the relentless pursuit and love of our God. Because everything I just mentioned is heavy. It's real. It's things that we struggle with. But what we're gonna be looking at these next few verses outweighs anything that I just said.
00:29:22
Speaker
because our God is a relentless God. He is a reckless God who pursues us, who loves us, and he fights for us every single day despite how we treat him. So the third point here that I want us to look at is that we are carried by grace.
00:29:46
Speaker
We are carried by His grace, and we see this in verses three through five, and it says, Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age, I am he. And to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear, I will carry, and I will save.
00:30:11
Speaker
So what a distinct difference we see here between our idols in our lives and the gods of Babylon, which we just looked at, to the one true and living God of Israel that we see here in this passage. We go from a silent, motionless, impotent God who is unable to save his people from captivity to a living, loving, omnipotent God who has and is and always will be able to rescue his people in the day of trouble. You wanna know why? It's because he is the one who created you. He knew you before you were even born.
00:30:42
Speaker
And until your hair is gray, or if you have no hair like me, he will carry you, and he will be there for you. And we see this all throughout the Old Testament. We see it from the time of Israel coming out of Egypt and the Exodus, and how when they came out of Egypt, they got to the Red Sea, and when they got to the Red Sea, who was behind them? The Egyptians.
00:31:08
Speaker
coming to take them back. But what happens? God says, Moses, put your staff in the water and see what happens. And he sparks the Red Sea. And he allows them to walk on dry land across the Red Sea into sanctuary. And he destroys the Egyptian army.
00:31:26
Speaker
Not only that, but we also see it while they're in the wilderness, you see time and time again, God providing for them in their provisions and throughout that 40 year time period, whether it was food, water, shelter, He is there for them. He is carrying them along the way by His grace and by His love.
00:31:46
Speaker
And we ultimately see it on display here in the book of Isaiah and how even though he is bringing judgment upon the sins of the nation of Judah and that he is gonna bring them into captivity by the Babylonians, what do we see here? He says, I'm going to rescue you. I'm going to save the remnant of Israel. I'm gonna bring this other country over and they're going to destroy the Babylonians and you are gonna be part of this country and they're gonna restore you.
00:32:17
Speaker
So we see it all throughout scripture of how God is a loving and compassionate God who carries us by His grace.
00:32:26
Speaker
I'm gonna read you guys another passage of scripture real quick. And this is out of the song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32 in verses 10 through 12. And it says this, it says, he found him in the desert land and in the howling waste of wilderness, he encircled him, he cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye, like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out his wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions.
00:32:54
Speaker
The Lord alone guided him. No foreign God was with him. What a picture. What a picture of a lost nation who is brought back together and they are protected by God. He never leaves nor forsakes his people. Because guys, our God is a very jealous God.
00:33:20
Speaker
He's a very jealous guy, and He is a mighty protector, and He will always be there for us. We also ultimately see this back in Isaiah 31, verses 4 through 7. You don't have to turn there, I'll read it for you. And it says this, as for thus said the Lord.
00:33:36
Speaker
As a lion or a young lion growls over his prey and when a band of shepherds is called out against him, he is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise. So the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill. Like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it.
00:34:01
Speaker
And hear these words, turn to him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day, everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and of his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. What a picture. And again, we see this all throughout scripture of how God comes and redeems and rescues and carries his people into sanctuary.
00:34:32
Speaker
So if there's anyone here who has an idol in their life and they can't seem to shake it, guess you can. Jesus, that's right. It's a mystical answer. God can take away your idols. He will break them down. He will cast them away. He will put them into exile. And not only that, He'll come in and He'll carry you away and bring you into sanctuary.
00:35:02
Speaker
He will bring you to His presence, to where you can rest, because His burden is easy and His yoke is light. Our God is not idle. He is not motionless or silent. He is not unreliable, but rather He is the most active and reliable thing this universe has ever seen.
00:35:28
Speaker
No one on this earth, even the most mature and wise Christian, yes, and there's a lot of those in this room, right? Even the most mature and wise Christian cannot comprehend how active and how involved God is in our own lives. So whether you're a new believer or you're one of the most wisest and mature Christians in here, or even a non-believer,
00:35:54
Speaker
None of us can comprehend how active and how loving our God is in our lives. So why shall we try to put barriers on him? Why should we think that we are not good enough for God? When God says, I created you. I know you by name. I know the amount of hairs on your head or the lack of hair. Okay. But he says, I know you. So why are you trying to put me in a box?
00:36:21
Speaker
I am doing things that you will never be able to comprehend. So cast your idols and your burdens aside and allow me to come in and to restore you. Nothing can compare to him. And that's exactly what we see in these next set of verses. And we're going to go into verses eight through 10 because God calls us to remembrance.
00:36:49
Speaker
calls us to remembrance. Let me get back to my verses here. And he says this, Remember this and stand firm. Recall it to mine, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. Once again, what a stark difference our God is from the idols in our lives.
00:37:19
Speaker
There is none like him. But what I want us to see here in these verses is that God once again is now declaring his sovereignty over his people and over all things in this world. He is displaying his credentials. Even though he doesn't need to, he is displaying them. Because we are a people who are absent-minded at times and we need to be recalled back to memory the things in which God has done. That's what he's saying. He says, remember the things I have done for you.
00:37:49
Speaker
He calls us to remember all the things that he's done, for he is from everlasting to everlasting. He has and is and always will be able to accomplish his purposes. As you see there in verse 10, where he says, my counsel shall stand and I will accomplish all my purpose.
00:38:10
Speaker
Now, some of your translations here may actually say, and I will accomplish my will. But this word purpose here can also be translated as pleasure. Pleasure. I will accomplish all my pleasure. This takes it to a whole other level for us because it goes from impersonal to being personal.
00:38:35
Speaker
Because if it wasn't his pleasure, he would not fulfill it. He wouldn't really care about it. Instead of having a pleasure about it, he was just saying, I'm losing my track of thought here, it's fine.
00:38:58
Speaker
It is his pleasure. He takes pleasure in his works for his children. It is not out of selfish gain or obligation or a sense of duty, but rather it's out of a sense of pure love that he has for us as his people. It becomes personal, it's not empty or distant.
00:39:21
Speaker
We ultimately see this as well. I'm gonna go back to the book of Deuteronomy in chapter seven. We see this here in these verses in chapter seven, verses six through nine. It says, for you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you to be a people for his treasured possession out of all the peoples who are on the face of the earth. It's not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set his love, sorry,
00:39:51
Speaker
It is not because you were more in number than any other people that the Lord set His love on you and chose you, for you are the fewest of all peoples." But get this in verse 8 it says, "'But it's because the Lord loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.'"
00:40:17
Speaker
And it goes on in verse nine and it says this, know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. We are his chosen people. And that's why he comes is because he loves us.
00:40:45
Speaker
and he finds pleasure in us. Now, yes, he's speaking to the nation of Israel here in this chapter of Deuteronomy, but this also still applies to us today. You wanna know why? Because of the finished work of the cross. Because of the finished work of the cross, we now can be part of God's chosen people.
00:41:06
Speaker
And what a beautiful picture this is, because if you remember in John chapter 15 what Jesus illustrates for us when we talk about the vine and the branches, for he is the vine and we are the branches, and if we believe in him and abide in him, guess what? He abides in us. And if he abides in us, guess who also abides in us? The Father. We become his people. And because of that, we can bear much fruit.
00:41:36
Speaker
We also see a very similar thing in 1 Peter. For all of you women who've been studying 1 Peter, this is for you. But we see this in 1 Peter in chapter one, verses 17 through 21. And it says this, and if you call on him as father who judges impartially according to each one's deeds, conduct yourself with fear throughout the time of your exile, knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Ransomed.
00:42:05
Speaker
not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a land without blemish or spot. And it goes on verse 20, it says that he was foreknown before the foundation of the world, but was made manifest in the last times for your sake. Who through him are believers in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory so that your faith and hope are in God?
00:42:33
Speaker
And get this, Peter also continues in chapter 2 and verses 9 and 10, and he goes on and says this, it says, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people. Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
00:43:04
Speaker
You see, God, in his love for us, when he takes pleasure in us, he comes and he abides in us. We are now his chosen people. If you confess in the name of Jesus.
00:43:21
Speaker
We become sons and daughters, adopted into the family as coheirs with Christ, bearing the same name that is above all other names, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. We are His children and He is our God whom He is glad to dwell with and to love and to accomplish all His purposes. And Isaiah is reminding us of this in this chapter. We must always remember what God has done from the very beginning.
00:43:49
Speaker
And this is what separates Him from all other gods. He doesn't rely on us, but rather He sustains us. He sustains us. And all we have to do is press into Him. What hope and assurance this brings us as God's people, right? That even though we may face great suffering and hardship in this life, we can still face each day with great joy and peace because of His proven and finished love for us as His chosen people.
00:44:20
Speaker
We don't have to face each day in fear, because we know that everything has already been completed through the finished work of Jesus. That when we call upon the name of Jesus, our idols have no effect.
Conclusion: Embrace Faith and Spread the Gospel
00:44:38
Speaker
Which leads me to the last point, and we'll all start wrapping up. I know, it's 9.30.
00:44:46
Speaker
We see this in verses 11 through 13. So we go from seeing that our idols, we are crushed by our idols, and that not only are we crushed by them, but rather they are born out of our conceit, they are crafted out of our own conceit, to how we are carried by God's grace and called to remembrance by it, to now we are now commissioned through his righteousness.
00:45:13
Speaker
Now, some of y'all are probably going to read these verses and you're going to be like, all right, Josh, where are we going with this? Because what we see here in verses 11 through 13 is verse 11, we're actually seeing God talking about Cyrus and the Persian army coming in to destroy the nation of Babylon, and he's calling him his servant. He says, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from afar country I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed and I will do it.
00:45:38
Speaker
You see, this is something I want us to take note of. If God can use a man like Cyrus, a pagan king, to fulfill his purposes, how much more pleasure will he take in using us to fulfill his purposes for his kingdom? We are commissioned in righteousness.
00:45:59
Speaker
And that's what we see here in these last few verses. It says, listen to me, you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness and is not far off. My salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion for Israel is my glory. And who's that salvation? Jesus.
00:46:20
Speaker
And it is through Jesus that we are now commissioning people to go in righteousness to do the very thing that he's commanded us. One, to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. To love your neighbor as yourself. And what do we see in Matthew 28? Go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. People, we are now called into commission through his righteousness to go do the works at which he's called us to do.
00:46:49
Speaker
But yet we choose to be distracted daily by our idols and allow them to weigh us down and to become a burden. Versus allowing God to come in, to take our idols off of us, to free us, to be able to go and do the very thing that he has called us to do as the believers in Jesus. As the church, to go and make disciples of all nations. Guys, he does not call us to come and sit here in the sanctuary.
00:47:19
Speaker
He doesn't call us to come here and to repent of our sins and to go out and continue our life. He says, cast your idols off, take my yoke upon you for it is easy to light and glow and make it to silence of all amazing people.
00:47:40
Speaker
That is what we're called to do. Yet we always find ourselves with, I am guilty of this. We find ourselves coming in here, doing the things on Sunday and go throughout our week, whether it's Wednesday night or whatever, going to prayer groups. Yeah, that's great, but go and make disciples. There is something missing in this current generation and that is the fact that we are not making disciples the way we need to.
00:48:09
Speaker
You wanna know why this generation has so much on their shoulders right now? It's because we have answered God's death. You're getting a little glimpse of what Winston and I looks like over in the youth house, by the way. People, we are called to do so much more for the gospel of Jesus. And it does not involve us sitting in this place
00:48:40
Speaker
Sunday after Sunday, it involves us being the hands in the feet of Jesus. You know what should be convicting for us when we read these verses? Is the fact that God called a pagan king to do his work and that pagan king fulfilled it. But yet he's called us to do one of the greatest things in history and we choose not to.
00:49:10
Speaker
because it's inconvenient. It doesn't fit in our schedule. I have, or it's, I can't speak. I don't know what to say. Guess what? It's not your words to begin with. It's the Holy Spirit, people. It's never about us. It's all about Him. It's about His finished work. It's about His promise in which we now cling to when we say we are believers in Jesus.
00:49:40
Speaker
And I'm pretty sure Jesus tells us this, hey, don't fret because you're not alone. I will be with you. Y'all feeling me? So as we go into this time of invitation, we want our students to come back. They're probably like, I ain't getting up there with this guy.
00:50:07
Speaker
But as we go into this time of invitation, I recognize and realize that there are people all throughout the spectrum in this building today. There are people who are truly struggling day by day with the idols in their lives, who are feeling the weight and the burden in which they are placing on themselves. Then you have people in here who feel like that they have no idols in their lives, but really their faith has become their idol.
00:50:36
Speaker
They're just checking things off as the wheat goes on saying, man, I'm good. But really, all you've done is turn your faith into an idol. You're not allowing this Holy Spirit to work in your life. Then there's people in here who don't even know Jesus.
00:50:57
Speaker
They don't even have a personal relationship with Jesus. They don't know the freedom that they can have in Jesus. When I talk about how the yoga's easy and the burden is light, they're like, what are you talking about, dude? This is weird. Wherever you're at today, I pray that you will do work with Jesus, that you will do business with Jesus, and that you will get it figured out.
00:51:21
Speaker
It's just casting out idols. Great, I pray that you go to war and that you defeat every idol in your life. If it's you who's here today and you don't know Jesus, I pray that you will come. That you'll come talk to me, you'll come talk to Pastor Victor, we're both gonna be down here in the front. Or if you know somebody that you know for a fact as a believer in Jesus, go talk to them. I get it, it's intimidating to come down to the front. I've said that in the last couple of weeks.
00:51:48
Speaker
But do not leave this place until you figure out where you stand in light of Jesus. Because He is the way, He is the truth, and He is the life. And no one, no one gets to the Father except through Him. There's no other way to God except through Jesus. And the world is telling us otherwise. Will you pray with me?
00:52:18
Speaker
God, we thank you for your word. And God, we thank you most importantly for your patience for us. God, time and time again, we turn from you and we fall after our own idols in our lives and we fall into our own sin. Choosing to neglect the relationship that we have with you.
00:52:45
Speaker
choosing to not recognize the fact that you are a relentless pursuing God after your people because you desire to have a relationship with us, not of anything that we have ever done, but God, because you love us. You created us. You created us for the sole purpose of being the image bearers of you. So God, again, I thank you for your patience.
00:53:13
Speaker
for your compassion, for your mercy on us, and not destroying us like you did in the days of old in the time of Noah. That you promised that you would never destroy the earth again. That God, just pray that if anyone's here and they do not know you, or if they have some unfinished business with you, that this morning will be the day that they will fix it. Because God, time is short.
00:53:41
Speaker
And there are so many people out there who are lost that need to know the gospel. And I pray that we will have the right heart and the right mind to be able to go and to share it. Lord, we love you, we praise you, we thank you so much for your love for us. It's in Christ's name, amen.