Isaiah 40:12-31

Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand and marked off the heavens with a span, enclosed the dust of the earth in a measure and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance? 13 Who has measured the Spirit of the Lord, or what man shows him his counsel? 14 Whom did he consult, and who made him understand? Who taught him the path of justice, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding? 15 Behold, the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales; behold, he takes up the coastlands like fine dust. 16 Lebanon would not suffice for fuel, nor are its beasts enough for a burnt offering. 17 All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness. 18 To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? 19 An idol! A craftsman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold and casts for it silver chains. 20 He who is too impoverished for an offering chooses wood that will not rot; he seeks out a skillful craftsman to set up an idol that will not move. 21 Do you not know? Do you not hear? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; 23 who brings princes to nothing, and makes the rulers of the earth as emptiness. 24 Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows on them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble. 25 To whom then will you compare me, that I should be like him? says the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high and see: who created these? He who brings out their host by number, calling them all by name; by the greatness of his might and because he is strong in power, not one is missing. 27 Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? 28 Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. 30 Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; 31 but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

Sermon Text:

What is the greatest sin a man can commit?

There is no end of candidates for that dishonorable title.

We see sin of every kind paraded in front of us every day, and I fear our hearts are almost insensitive to the living destruction people live in.

You might think from our text in Isaiah today that I would mark idolatry as the greatest sin.

But as evil as idolatry is, it is a symptom of a greater, a more fundamental sin.

A sin that is much more subtle, and much more dangerous for its subtlety.

No one, not one person I have ever known, including myself, is innocent of this most foundational sin.

And even great men and women of faith, years into a solid Christian life, continue to stumble over this great protruding root of sin.

This stumbling-block that catches us even when we thought we were running well.

Even when we thought the path was smooth.

Even when we thought we were being careful guarding our hearts.

What is this most basic sin – the one that enables every other sinful thought, word, and deed?

It is the sin of minimizing God.

It is the sin of not recognizing the majesty of God.

Of not giving Him the honor He deserves in our hearts and thoughts.

It is the sin of saying, “If I were God, I would…”

Or asking the question “Why would God do …?”

“Why have You made me thus?”

“Why did He plant the forbidden tree in the Garden?”

It is the sin of thinking of God as someone just a little more glorious or powerful than we are.

As Someone wise, but with a wisdom we might attain someday.

It is the sin of considering God smaller than He is, as Someone who could stand here before us.

Or Someone who could be understood by our theologies and held to our understanding.

Thousands of other sins, all that I could think of, come from THIS root.

Before Adam ate the fruit in the Garden, he had to consider God less than perfect and right.

That was the serpent’s attack.

Before Moses struck the rock, he had to doubt God’s word.

Before every violation of every commandment God gave, every person had to ignore the All-Seeing God Who is Just.

Every doubt is borne by our failure to recognize God’s glory.

Every fear is a confession that we don’t trust God’s power or love.

In Romans 3:23, Paul proclaims:

All have sinned and fall short of God’s glory.

And I would argue that this falling short is not just the RESULT of our sin, but the basis and cause for our sin.

And I would argue it is impossible for anyone to come by faith to Christ who does not first recognize, to some extent, the great glory of God.

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. - Hebrews 11:6

Isaiah 40:12-17 talk about the bigness of God.

Not just the greatness of God – we might have men or women we think great.

God’s sheer size.

These verses are like a perfectly clear night when you look up in the sky and see the heavens stretched out before you.

And you consider the light from all but a handful of those lights in the sky has travelled years, centuries, millennia to get to you.

It is not a bad thing to feel insignificant under the shining heavens.

But the massive heavens above are but a drape to God:

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to dwell in; - Isaiah 40:22

It’s not surprising, but we so often forget or ignore that the Creator of everything would necessarily be greater than everything in His creation.

God is not “the Man upstairs” or “the Ancient One”.

He is the Lord of all Creation, the Sovereign King above all kings.

He is the One who knows every single detail of every single atom in this universe – and determines its path and fate.

There are microcellular processes in your body right now that God controls.

And there are the perturbations of giant stars He also controls.

There are things God knows that we will never learn in all eternity.

Most of us were raised, even indoctrinated, with the idea of evolution, so that somewhere in the back of our minds, we might think that given an infinite amount of time, we might one day know what God knows.

The false Mormon cult is BUILT on that idea.

But God is so great that in an infinite amount of time, He will still be infinitely greater in knowledge and wisdom than we are.

V. 15 - the nations are like a drop from a bucket, and are accounted as the dust on the scales

When he speaks of the “nations” here, he isn’t talking about political boundaries, like “countries”.

And he isn’t simply talking about the Gentile nations around them.

What he is saying is that ALL THE PEOPLE in every tribe (nation) in the ENTIRE WORLD are no more in relation to God’s bigness a single drop in a bucket.

But even that gives people too much credit, so he intensifies it:

ALL THE PEOPLE cannot even move the needle in weight in comparison with God.

A speck of dust on a scale.

When you step on your bathroom scale or your doctor’s scale, do you worry about the speck of dust that may have fallen on it – will it change the weight?

Do you make your doctor sterilize the scale before you step on to get your weight accurately?

I don’t want to alarm you, but right now everyone in this room has tiny little mites, called demodex, who live on your eyelashes.

They are fine and harmless – they consume dead skin cells.

But all the people in all the world are of less relative glory toward God than those mites are to you.

Men may try to build a tower to heaven, but the Lord in heaven laughs.

They may plot to use all their resources to thwart God’s will, and He sweeps them away with a breath.

They mock and challenge Him, but they will stand before God on that great and terrible day, and they will be undone by His wrath and judgment.

I assure you, Nietzche, Bertrand Russell, Voltaire, and Stephen Hawking are not atheists now.

Men may declare “God is dead”, but God’s word is always “I am!”

V. 17 - All the nations are as nothing before him, they are accounted by him as less than nothing and emptiness.

Then in verse 18, we see a sin that proceeds from minimizing God: idolatry.

It begins with a challenge:

To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him?

The ONLY God, the great Creator of the universe, what will you make to describe Him?

What picture or statue or thought can you have that contains ANY of His glory?

That is one of the problems with these fictional portrayals of our Lord.

Even though Jesus Christ is God incarnate, in the flesh, an actor cannot hope to portray Him with any accuracy that rises above idolatry.

I don’t care if it is an old movie, the Jesus movie, a passion play, a church musical, the Chosen, or the Passion of the Christ, every portrayal of our Lord is dangerous to the one who plays Him and the ones who watch.

That’s the problem with idols – they never can be what is important.

Aaron saw nothing wrong with forming a golden calf and calling it Yahweh.

Many people today see nothing wrong with praying to icons, statues, crucifixes, medals, relics, or some other picture to quote “focus their minds on God”.

Some hold their Bible, a cross, prayer beads, or some other object for the same purpose.

Even the temple was too small to contain Him;

The earth is His footstool.

How do we pray or worship properly if we shrink Him in our minds to someone we understand or can relate to.

Compared to the great God, to whom all nations are a speck of dust, how unbelievably tiny is an idol?

It is the creation OF A CREATION.

The immobile and mute statue made by a creature.

Gold, silver, or wood – it makes no difference.

If it is seen to have any value, it has to be chained to the floor to keep it from being stolen.

That lump of resources that some men may cherish cannot even protect itself.

And why do they cherish it?

Because it is a god made in their image.

If they want to be strong, they build a god who gives them strength.

If they want to be wise, they build a god to make them wise.

If they want to be wealthy, they build a god that will bring them wealth on demand.

And in ALL cases, the maker of the idol is disappointed by his god.

But what happens when people, coming in the name of Christ, try the same thing with the living and true God?

When they pray for strength, or wisdom, or wealth for themselves?

Well – they are disappointed by Him as well.

Because God doesn’t perform for your benefit.

How many times have I heard someone saying that if God performed a miracle, it would really make people follow Him?

But isn’t that what Satan told Jesus on the top of the temple?

And remember what Abraham told the rich man in the parable of Lazarus:

But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them hear them.’ 30 And he said, ‘No, father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ 31 He said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.’ ” - Luke 16:29-31

Miracles don’t make people believe – the Holy Spirit does.

And God doesn’t NEED people to believe – He graciously seeks His sheep from among the nations.

And they WILL believe because it is His will that they do.

If you have a need, by all means take it to our Lord in prayer.

And be absolutely assured He will answer you in His love and compassion.

But as you go, be sure the things you ask are for His will and His gospel, for the mission of finding and reaching His sheep, or you will probably be disappointed with His answer.

O my God, in you I trust; let me not be put to shame; let not my enemies exult over me. 3 Indeed, none who wait for you shall be put to shame - Psalm 25:2-3

Which brings us to the final question Isaiah answers in this passage:

If God is so much greater than all men, does He even know we are here?

Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, “My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God”? - Isaiah 40:27

We might ask this way:

Does God see my good and worthy works?

Does He care about my obedience?

Does He hear my prayers?

Or does it matter if I sin at all – does God really care if I do?

We may not have concern with the affairs of eyelash mites, but God even knows each of them by name.

And He knows every thought of every second of every day you have lived.

And I have lived.

You do not have to wave your arms and scream at the top of your lungs to get His attention;

You don’t have to wear yourself out trying to get Him to rescue you like a castaway on a desert island.

No one is more aware of the difference between God and you than God is.

That is why He didn’t leave your salvation up to you.

You could work yourself to fainting;

You could exhaust yourself with vain attempts at obedience.

You could bankrupt yourself with sacrifices.

You could deprive yourself of everything to challenge your flesh.

But salvation has nothing to do with your work – none at all.

Your work doesn’t begin it.

Your work doesn’t complete it.

V. 31 - they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.

It is not to those who STRIVE, but to those who BELIEVE that God’s salvation comes.

I have talked to many people in my life who were frustrated with their life as a Christian, and their complaint was almost always identical:

“I have TRIED and TRIED to be a good Christian.”

But I have not ever had anyone come to me frustrated with their Christian life who told me “I have TRUSTED and TRUSTED in Christ, and it’s not working out.”

We can try and try, and we can fail and fall, over and over again.

But those who trust, who wait for the Lord’s good work while they live by faith in Him, they will overcome.

Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you. - James 4:10

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. - 1 Peter 5:6–8

Beloved, we serve THE great God, the great King above all gods.

There is no rival for His majesty, no contender for His glory.

And there is not a single one of His people His eye ever leaves, not for a moment.

Target Date: Sunday, 26 January 2025

Word Study/ Translation Notes:

15ff – nations - gôy, go’-ee; appar. from the same root as 1465 (in the sense of massing); a foreign nation; hence, a Gentile; also (fig.) a troop of animals, or a flight of locusts:— Gentile, heathen, nation, people.

The root of the word is not “people” but “masses”. It is the picture of a swarm of insects or the amassing of all people on the earth.

This should not be taken as a political or even a religious division (i.e. Gentile vs. Jew). The word is sometimes used in that manner. But this usage is specific to the amassed population of humanity and how insignificant they are before God.

31 - wait – חָכָה châkâh, khaw-kaw’; a prim. root [appar. akin to 2707 through the idea of piercing]; prop. to adhere to; hence, to await:— long, tarry, wait.

The waiting here is not simply passing the time, but attaching to the LORD and being along for the ride in His time.

There is the feeling of tautness – a bowstring pulled tight in anticipation and readiness.

Thoughts on the Passage:

What shall we do in view of the surpassing greatness of God?

What should we feel at the knowledge of His infinite majesty?

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, 4 what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him? - Psalm 8:3–4

15 – the nations – this is not talking about political entities, but about all the people in all the tribes of the earth.

If every man, woman, and child who had ever lived stood in God’s presence, the mighty accumulation of their skills and knowledge would not demand God’s notice any more than a mite that lives on your eyelash (demodex). And man would not be nearly as beneficial.

25 – The greatest sin of man is not that he desires to be like God; the greater sin is when we want God to be like us.

When we form some ideal or virtue in our head and pass judgment on God that He doesn’t measure up to OUR standard.

Only an utter FOOL would declare that a God who is sovereign and sovereignly chooses the ones He will save is cruel or capricious.

Only a FOOL would declare that he will only believe in a God he can understand, who he can comprehend.

That is the very definition of an idol – a god YOU can understand or make in the image YOU choose.

This sin fosters every other sin, including our rebellion from the beginning.

We rebel when we consider we can teach God something or force Him to OUR will.

for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, - Romans 3:23

What is the Good News of this passage – Where is Jesus Christ? (if you can’t answer this question, are you finished?)

Teachings:

What do we learn about God/ Jesus/ Holy Spirit?

Applications:

For the Christian:

For the Backslidden:

For the Unconverted:

Primary Preaching Point:

Building Points:

[on even numbered page]

MORNING PRAYER:

Adoration:

Almighty God and everlasting King.

Confession:

Forgive us our pride, and the loathsome lengths to which we will go to support our fleshly vanity.

Thanksgiving:

In You we find our only hope, both in this life and in eternity joined with Christ Jesus.

Petition:

We beg that You subdue the power of our sins by Your Holy Spirit.

Intercession: (also beyond our local)

We pray that Your peace would reign anew on the earth: