The Path to Redemption
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
The LORD Chooses His People (v1-5)
The LORD Chooses His People (v1-5)
“But now hear, O Jacob my servant, Israel whom I have chosen! Thus says the Lord who made you, who formed you from the womb and will help you: Fear not, O Jacob my servant, Jeshurun whom I have chosen.
This is a comfort and a blessing
Being chosen people is a top-down act, but it also leads to our response:
This one will say, ‘I am the Lord’s,’ another will call on the name of Jacob, and another will write on his hand, ‘The Lord’s,’ and name himself by the name of Israel.”
the chosen ones idetify themselves and mark themselves as belonging to God.
They commit themsleves to God and call on his name.
People fear that election makes god a monster. Am i a monster for brithing my children and loving them and caring for them? Is a pet owner a monster for selecting one puppy and giving them life and happieness?
Is God a monster for chosing Abraham and bringing him up to the Land a nd promising to give it to him?
Election is a comfort to God’s people. Being chosen is a good thing!
Being chosen ought not to lead God’s people to pride, because they’re just as bad as others.
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.
The LORD Alone is God (v6-8)
The LORD Alone is God (v6-8)
The Lord reminds His people that he is uniquely God and there’s no one like him. They need not fear the gods of the other nations.
Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.
There are other spiritual beings. Sometimes they are called gods in the Bible, sometimes sons of God. Satan is even called a god.
Yet there exists such a distinction between these other spiritual beings and the Lord that it is as though they do not exist in any meanigful way on the same platform.
the LORD is distinctly God - the creator of all life, inclusing the little g “gods”.
Who is like me? Let him proclaim it. Let him declare and set it before me, since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come, and what will happen.
One of the greatest rehtorical tools for exposing foolish assertions is to say “where’s the evidence”? for gossip and heresay.
Online right now theres people like Candace Owens who do a lot of talking and making assertions and talking very bodly about all kinds of things. But you know what exposes the lies, asking for evidence. And I don’t mean interesting circumstanstial facts or strage coincidences, I mean hard facts. Candace and people like her are opperating in a world that is removed from reality.
In the spiritual world, there was alot of talk about the gods and whether or not the LORD is legit. So the ivitation is sent out, lets see the facts, lay it all out.
Come and front up, let them tell me the future.
God’s people can be assured becasue God is who he says he is, and so they need not be afraid:
Fear not, nor be afraid; have I not told you from of old and declared it? And you are my witnesses! Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.”
Idolatry is Stupid (v9-20)
Idolatry is Stupid (v9-20)
In our pluralistic age we’re used to everyone having their “thing”, but we should feel free to mock the ridiculousness of the silly devotions.
If you devote your life to something that is empty, you will be like your devotion, empty yourself.
All who fashion idols are nothing, and the things they delight in do not profit. Their witnesses neither see nor know, that they may be put to shame.
The idol is empty
The silliness of a man being able to “make” a god. If your god is so great, why did he need you to “make” him?
The Lord stands alone from his people. He is self-sufficient and self-existant. He acted independantly of his people, but for His people.
He speaks, where idols are silent. He acts where idols are inanimate.
People devoted to idols should be ashamed. They will be put to shame - either in the failure of their gods, or in the judgment of the True and Living God.
They know not, nor do they discern, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so that they cannot understand. No one considers, nor is there knowledge or discernment to say, “Half of it I burned in the fire; I also baked bread on its coals; I roasted meat and have eaten. And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?”
Part of the judgement for pursuing this stupidity, it to be blinded by it and stupified by it.
God shuts their eyes and hardedns their hearts.
As in Roamsn 1 - one of God’s judments against sin is to give us over to it.
Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
We see this pattern in our life, of people who will refuse to give up their sin until they are lost in it. They are consumed by it.
Broadly speaking we’re seeing this as a nation. As we turn our back on God we see a prolifiration of wickedness. There has always been sin, and sinners, but when a people refuse to treat it as sin God’s judgment is to give us up to the sin.
How is this a judgment? Because it is terrible - sin cannot create it only mangles Good things God made and twists them. Sin destroys and deceives, but it is empty.
If you will not give up your sin, God will shut your eyes, blinding you and harded your heart.
What hope is there? The only hope is that the Spirit of the living God come and soften your heart and open your eyes! The only home is that one might come and die in your place and free you from the power of sin.
Aside
And just a little reminder that the idols aren’t “tainted”. Objects used to sin do not become imbued with sin. Some people have a mystical view, a talismanic view that something used by the occult or false worship is some how tianted. Paul points out in the NT that meat sacrificed to idols is nothing - it’s just good meat. The issue is how other people think about it.
Idols should be destroyed, not because there’s a spirit in there, but because it is an implement of false worship.
Sinful humanity tends toward idolatry - we need to worship, so if we will not worship the true God, we will worship falsley.
The reason you might think idolatry is stupid, is because you are the product of Christian thought and culture.
The LORD Redeems His People (v21-28)
The LORD Redeems His People (v21-28)
To a people going into exile - God will redeem them.
Remember these things, O Jacob, and Israel, for you are my servant; I formed you; you are my servant; O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like mist; return to me, for I have redeemed you.
The Lrod won’t forget his people - he will bring them back and he will deal with the sin that has caused the division.
This is a foreshadow of Christ. The people would come back but sin would remain, until Jesus came to take it away.
Jesus was sent to redeem God’s people from the grave, to free them from slavery to sin, to snatch them from the devil’s maw.
It is only through Jesus Christ that your sins may be blotted out.
Return to the LORD for he has redeemed your life by blotting out your sins.
The Lord assures his people that he will rescue them, and restore them. He does this by fleshing out his power and stregth.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb: “I am the Lord, who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
When you go looking to engage the services of professional for an important job - you want the one who has the track record and the ability to be able to get the job done.
No-one wants a builder who’s houses fall down. Noone want a lawyer who never wins cases, everyone wants an accounant who can account.
And so, even though God is not one who needs to deign to “advertise” to his people, he does remind them of his credentials - I’m your maker, your redeemer, I put the stars in the sky. I am able to do it all.
In fact he is capable of so much that he can even use a foreign emperor for his own purposes.
who says of Cyrus, ‘He is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose’; saying of Jerusalem, ‘She shall be built,’ and of the temple, ‘Your foundation shall be laid.’ ”
Written long before Cyrus, but Cyrus mentioned by name. Either Isaiah is appended/fraudulent or God is prophetic.
Cyrus would be used by God to return God’s people to the land. He would send them home to rebuild.
So What?
So What?
