Sermon
#107 Series: Isaiah
Title: Who Did This?
Text: Isaiah 41:1-9
Scripture Reading: Ephesians
1:1-14;2:4
Subject: Salvation- The Work of
God's Hands
Date: Sunday Morning- March 8, 1992
Introduction:
Isaiah
40 is a prophecy of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to redeem and save his people. Isaiah 41 is a continuation of the same prophecy. Only here, the Lord God uses the redemption
and salvation of his people to demonstrate to all the world that he alone is
the supreme sovereign God of the universe.
Proposition: He is telling us that The God who
Saves is God Alone!
After
displaying what he had done in the calling of Abraham and
proclaiming what he would do through the Lord Jesus Christ the Lord God himself challenges the world to answer one
question. In verse 4, he says, “Who hath wrought and
done it? Answer that question and you
will find out who God is. That is the
question I put before you now to consider-Who Did It? To whom must the work of salvation be ascribed? That is the question God answers for us in
this passage.
This morning we are going to focus our
attention on verses 1-9. Then, tonight, I will try to expound verses 10-20. And, the Lord willing, Tuesday night, I will preach to you from verses 21-29. But, I really wanted
to preach one message covering the whole chapter. Had
I done so, I would have divided the message into three parts. In this chapter, the Lord God
is showing us three things:
1.
Though
the gods of men are helpless idols, the Lord our God is God
indeed, for
he is the Almighty, Sovereign Savior of His People, whose will and purpose can
never be defeated (vv. 1-9)
2. Those who bow before puny, helpless gods have reason to be afraid (Their gods are helpless!); but God’s elect need never to be afraid of anything, or anyone- The Lord our God is God indeed! (vv. 10-20).
3. The gods of man’s making are as contemptible as they are useless; only Christ, our Almighty, Sovereign God, can save (vv. 21-29).
Having carefully studied this chapter, I fully agree with Matthew Henry, who wrote, “The chapter may be
summed up in these words of Elijah- ‘If Jehovah be God, then follow him; but,
if Baal be God, then follow him’ and in the people acknowledgement, upon the
issue of the trial, ‘Jehovah, he is God!
Jehovah, he is God!’”
If the God that I preach to you this day is God, then
follow him: believe him, worship him,
obey him, and love him. If he is not
God, then do not follow him!
In these first nine verses the Lord God himself is speaking. It is his purpose in these verses to prove five things:
1.
That He Is God Alone- (v. 4).
He is declaring to us that he is the infinite,
eternal, unchangeable God, who is the Governor of the universe from
everlasting. He has reigned forever,
and will reign for evermore. He is God
alone. He has no
rival. He has no competition. This is God. Anything less cannot be thought of as God.
If your god is not this God, then your god is no God at
all!
God’s first object in this passage is to prove that he is
God. His second object is to prove…
2.
That Israel Is His Servant (v. 8).
“Israel” is his
church, the
people he has redeemed and saved whom he
owns, protects, and uses for the accomplishment of his purposes, the people in whom
he is and will be glorified. As there
is a God in heaven, so there is a church on earth; and that church is the
object of God’s constant, peculiar care.
Well might we pray, like Elijah, “Let it be known that thou art God, and
that I am thy servant” (I Kings 18:36);
for this is God’s own purpose.
Divisions: In our text the Lord God proves that he is God indeed
and that Israel is his servant in four ways:
I. The Lord God challenges the
universe to produce a rival to him (v. 1).
In chapter 40, God declared his supremacy and his
greatness. The God I am talking about
is that God who reveals himself in the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
our mighty Savior (40:10-11). Our
Savior!” is our God; and he is great!
“The Great God and our Savior!” He is Infinitely…
Having declared his greatness, our God new challenges those who worship and admire the idols of the world to produce one who can stand before him- (Compare v. 21). He calls for everyone to “Keep silence,” while the defenders of idolatry are given opportunity to say what they can in defence of their gods.
Note: This whole chapter is a sarcasm. God is mocking those who despise him and
mocking their helpless gods- (Ps. 2:4).
To all the gods of the world, we declare, “The daughter of Zion hath
despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn” (II Kings 19-21). As Elijah mocked Baal and his prophets (I
Kings 18: 27), so we mock the idolaters of our day and their helpless,
frustrated god.
IS NO GOD AT ALL.
Do I
need to be more specific and clear? The
god of modern freewill religion is not God.
He is but the idolatries figment of man’s imagination!
II. The God of the Bible proves
himself to be God, not by offering salvation, or providing men with an
opportunity to be saved, but by the accomplishment of his great work of
redeeming and saving his people (vv. 2-4).
Understand this: The glory of God as God is wrapped up in the
salvation of his people. In the end,
our God will prove himself to be God by the glorious display of his saving work
in his people (Eph. 2:7).
God
proves himself to be God by saving his people!
A.
Look what God did for Abraham (vv. 2-3).
We know that verses 2 and 3 refer to Abraham because he is mentioned by name in this chapter (v. 8), as an example of what God will do for all his elect. The Targum the Talmeed, and almost all the ancient Jewish and older Christian commentaries say that the “righteous man” referred to in verse 2 is Abraham. Here God uses the calling, conversion, and salvation of Abraham by his almighty grace as a proof of his own Godhead. He is saying, “Look what I did for Abraham, and know that I am God almighty.
1.
God raised up Abraham and
called him “the righteous man. Abraham was not naturally
righteous. He was a sinner, like
us. But God made him
“the righteous man” by a marvelous work of grace.
a. Abraham believed God and it was imputed to him for
righteousness (Gen. 15:6). Abraham was
robed in the righteousness of Christ, while he was yet uncircumcised! (Rev. 4:1).
b. Being made righteous by grace, Abraham performed works of righteousness in his life.
Grace made such a radical change in his life that he was in character and conduct a just and righteous man who ever required his children and his servants to walk in the way of righteousness. (Gen. 18: 19).
2.
God
raised Abraham up “from the east,” out of an idolatrous family
(Jos. 24:2).
3.
The
Lord “called him to his foot.”
That is to say, He called Abraham to
follow him, he called him to a life of obedience. You can mark it
down. God’s call produces faith, and
faith produces obedience (Heb. 11: 8).
4.
He gave Abraham the nations of
the world.
God
made Abraham “the father of many nations,” the father of all
believers in
all the nations of the world (Gen. 15: 18-21; 17: 4-6, Rom. 4: 11-16). We who believe are the children of Abraham
(Gal. 3: 6-7).
5.
God made Abraham the
conqueror, the ruler, of the kings of the world.
He conquered the kings of the plain to rescue his nephew Lot from their hands. (Gen. 14).
6.
Though
he walked in a strange land, he passed through the land safely, under God’s
protection. God kept him as the apple
of his eye.
7.
Then, when he returned from
the slaughter of the kings, Melchisedec met him to celebrate his victory! Who could do so much for and with such a man, other
than the Lord God himself? Abraham
stands before us as a great monument to God’s grace; indeed, he is a
monument? God’s very Being as God! But a greater than Abraham is
here!
B.
Abraham here stands before us
as a prophetic picture and type of the Lord Jesus Christ, whom God raised up
for the redemption and salvation of his people.
1.
Christ
is “the righteous man,”
“the Lord our Righteousness.”
2.
God
raised him up from the east, out of Bethlehem (Rev. 7: 2).
3.
God
called his Son to be his Servant. For the saving of his people (Heb. 10: 5-14).
4.
God
gave his Son the nations of the world and made him
ruler over them, because of his obedience (Ps. 2:8).
5.
As
Abraham ruled over the kings of the plain to save Lot, so Christ rules over all the earth to save his people (John 17:
1).
6.
And
our Lord Jesus pursues his end with ease and safety “None can stay his hand,
or say unto him, what does thou?
The Lord God is talking about the great work of salvation.
The salvation of Abraham and the salvation of all God’s elect by Christ,
Abraham’s great Son. And Christ is that
great priest, Melchisedec who met Abraham.
He says, “I am God alone. My Godhood is demonstrated in the salvation of my people.” Let all the world keep silence before the great God (Zech. 2: 13).
1.
He
called the generations of his people from the beginning even from eternity (II
Tim. 1:9).
2.
He
is the LORD, the first-The Beginning and Source of All things.
3.
And
He shall be with the lost, with all his people,
to the very last, even as he was with Abraham and with his Son.
4.
This
is God our Savior--“I am He!” There is
no other!
III. God then shows himself to be
God alone by showing the utter foolishness of idolatry (vv. 5-7).
When
the gospel is preached, when God makes himself known through the preaching of
the gospel, declaring the accomplishment of salvation by Christ alone, you
would think men and women would immediately give up their idols and worship
Christ. Wouldn’t you? But it is not so. Fearing for their gods, they encourage one another to
cling to their idols and do everything they can to keep them secure. (Acts 19: 20, 23-28).
But,
as Dagon fell before the ark of God, so shall the gods of the heathen fall
before the gospel of Christ.
In the light of God’s revelation of himself, you who despise him and cling to your idols are the most foolish of all men! Idolatry is the most foolish and abominably wicked thing in the world.
But
enough of that. Idolatry is a
contemptible thing. But only God the
Holy Spirit can break a man from his gods.
IV. In verses 8 and 9-- The Lord God describes his people and demonstrates that
faith in him is a most reasonable thing.
Look at what he says--“But thou, Israel, art my servant.” They do not know me; but you know me. You know better than to worship the impotent gods of your neighbors. Those who make such gods are like the gods they make, for they make gods like themselves. But you have a God who is worthy of your faith. You have been turned from idols to serve the living God.
I am
talking now to you who trust the Lord Jesus Christ, God of Israel, to you who
are washed in his blood, robed in his righteousness, and saved by his
grace. Your God is worthy of absolute
implicit confidence and faith. Hear what God has to say about you…
a.
You are God’s Servant. What a title for man!
That means three things:
1.
You
put your trust in him.
2.
You
seek to do his will.
3.
You
are under his care and protection.
b.
God himself has chosen you.
Your faith in Christ is both the result of God’s election and the proof of it. (John 15:16; II Thess. 2: 13-14)).
c.
You are the seed of Abraham,
God’s friend.
As your father Abraham was the friend of God, you too are the friend of God. (John 15: 15).
d.
God has graciously called you
out of the nations of the world.
I know that I am called of God because I trust Christ. My faith is the fruit and the proof of my calling.
e.
The Lord God has not and will
not ever cast you away. (Heb. 13:5).
You are kept by the power of
God through faith.
1.
He’s
purpose to save you cannot be defeated.
2.
Christ’s
blood, by which you were purchased, can never lose its power.
3.
The
seal of the Spirit, by which you are preserved cannot be broken.
Application:
Who Did It? Salvation is the work of God alone (Eccles. 3:14; Ps.
115:1) I bid you now, come to Christ.
Trust this great God, who is our Savior!