God Is For God

Almighty God, The one who rules and reigns who providentially cares for this world and all that is in it we praise you today for who you are. we thank you today for your great love for us. We thank you today that you have seen fit to give us your word which reveals things to us things that are great and wonderful. Thank you for teaching us, I pray that we would be found as good soil this morning. that we would gladly hear and rightly apply your words to us this morning. Teach us We pray. I pray that you would speak through your servant. Be with us in this time. In Jesus name we pray. AMEN

Introduction/FCF: Opening to “What if I stumble” - The greatest single cause of Atheism today is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips but deny him by their actions, this is what the unbelieving world simply finds, unbelievable.

We’ve all heard the objection, “Christianity can’t be true. Look at the people in the church. the’re sinners like everyone else.” and it is true, the shoddy lives of Christians can sometimes cast doubt on the gospel message. the prophet Nathan told David “you have given great occasion for the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme” in 1 Samuel 12.14. But Isaiah 48 will dive much deeper. That may be how the world thinks, but How SHOULD we think? it is the opposite. “Christianity MUST be true. Look at the people in the church. They are sinners like everyone else”

Let me explain by delineating between these two lines of reasoning. The logic of each is the problem. On one hand we have the skeptic. their logic is right if we are looking for a works based righteousness. If we work and we strive and WE make our lives better, well then, the fact that sometimes Christians fall, and the fact that we are NOT YET perfected, well, it might be a problem. But the second logic forces us to look not to works but to grace. We look past the Person to the God. It is a grace based righteousness where we say, Christianity must be true because only God can, and only God WOULD save sinners. the question we should be then asking is WHY?

And so we should begin with wondering who we are. this is the most important step in breaking down a works based righteousness type of thinking. And if you were to talk to the average person out there, they would say: yeah, I'm a good person. They might justify it. I … [insert “righteous deed” here] or [insert “lack of evil deed here]. but the question is, just because we say we are a good person, does that make it true? the answer: NO! we are not Good, we are REBELLIOUS

Though we are REBELLIOUS ...

Our passage opens on calling out the supposed people of God for their lack of actually being the people of God. The people who thought that they were good people were in fact not that at all.

Isaiah 48:1 ESV

Hear this, O house of Jacob, who are called by the name of Israel, and who came from the waters of Judah, who swear by the name of the Lord and confess the God of Israel, but not in truth or right.

and here is the problem. we THINK we are good people, we say some of the right things, and even do MAYBE SOME of the right things. but God who sees all, and God who knows all knows the truth

Isaiah 48:8 ESV

You have never heard, you have never known, from of old your ear has not been opened. For I knew that you would surely deal treacherously, and that from before birth you were called a rebel.

Just because we say we are good people, just because someone claims to be some sort of self righteous person, doesn't mean that they are true or right.

Romans 3:10 ESV

as it is written: “None is righteous, no, not one;

all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God. and here is the point and the title of today's sermon, GOD IS FOR GOD. and when I say that we are rebellious I mean that we are often NOT for God. God deserves, and demands, all glory honor and praise, and we fail to give him his due praise all the time. In fact, the very thought that we are dealing with here, that “I MAY BE A GOOD PERSON” shows that we are rebellious. For only God is good, only God is worthy, and every time we proclaim that we are good we are stealing some of his glory like rebels.

then we reject the teaching of God. We hardheadedly think we can d it our own way, we think: I can figure it out. God calls that person out here too.

Isaiah 48:4 ESV

Because I know that you are obstinate, and your neck is an iron sinew and your forehead brass,

if ever we start from a position of self, or works based righteousness, we are left with nothing. Because we are rebels, who deserve nothing, who can earn nothing. We could put it this way, we as men being for men trying to go against God who is for God will never be able to accomplish anything. I don’t even have a picture to illustrate the futility here. It is one ant going against the will of a man, but worse. If God wants the sun to rise tomorrow, guess what, it will, and there is nothing I can ever do to stop that from happening.

but what hope then do we have. We are rebels, We can’t do anything, heres the hope, that in spite of our rebelliousness, in spite of this fact, THOUGH WE ARE REBELLIOUS..

… God WORKS ...

Isaiah then breaks the moments, the works, of God in two different thoughts.

One: HE IS THE GOD WHO HAS WORKED IN THE PAST.

Isaiah 48:3 ESV

“The former things I declared of old; they went out from my mouth, and I announced them; then suddenly I did them, and they came to pass.

he is the God who has worked and has declared. he declared the former things of old. and if we look to the things God has done there is hope. He has saved, he has delivers, he has proclaimed, he has redeemed. looking back we see that He has worked to deliver.

he saved his people out of slavery in Egypt.

he led them through the wilderness

He fought for them as they took the promised land

he blessed them with David the king.

He spoke to them through the Prophets.

he has set his redeeming love upon them. He called Abraham. even if we look at this passage there are overtones of this happening. why are these people called in verse 1: “the house of Jacob” why can they take the name Isreal? because of God’s works.

but also Isaiah tells us that he is not just the God who HAS WORKED. Part two is that he is also doing a NEW THING.

God is still in control and is still working. When we look to the works of god it is not just a historical study, but we can look at his providential rule now, and in the future and see that he is still working. He promises now in verse 6

Isaiah 48:6 ESV

“You have heard; now see all this; and will you not declare it? From this time forth I announce to you new things, hidden things that you have not known.

He knows what is happening, even when we don’t. and he is working. we are not promised to ever know why he does “new things” but we see that he does. WHY? and here is the beauty. He might not tell us all the things he is doing (because we could never hope to understand 1, but also because we don't have the right to demand that 2)

so here is the truth: THOUGH WE ARE REBELLIOUS GOD STILL WORKS...

… for HIS GLORY !

and here is why it is so important that God is for God, and why we can ever have hope. It why we proclaim that God saves sinners!. It is NOT because I am awesome and I am righteous. He does not save so that we can be puffed up, he does not save so I feel good about myself. HE DOESN'T SAVE ME FOR THE SAKE OF ME - PRAISE BE TO GOD.

Why did god work of old, and why does God do a new thing?

for his glory.

Isaiah 48:9–11 ESV

“For my name’s sake I defer my anger; for the sake of my praise I restrain it for you, that I may not cut you off. Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction. For my own sake, for my own sake, I do it, for how should my name be profaned? My glory I will not give to another.

why does he see fit to withhold his wrath and anger, for his own sake. Why does he refine and save? ITS NOT FOR YOU, it is for his own sake, this is so important he repeated it. . So he can receive glory, because he does not share his glory.

but this then is our hope. Because if it required ME to do anything I would mess it up. If i had to be good enough or smart enough or talented enough or WORTH some amount to God because of ME then I would be hopeless. But if my salvation does not rest on me, my goodness or anything in me but instead rests in the perfect sovereign God, well then My hope is secure.

There is a temptation, when People say things like: God didn;t save you for you (which is true…) . God didn’t save you for your happiness (also true…) , God did not save you so that YOU would feel better (also also true…) to immediately think that this lessens salvation. But to the contrary I believe that it magnifies all that God does.

to get a little philosophical for a second, philosophers have long made a distinction between ultimate causes, and proximate causes.

what we are talking about here (that this is all for God’s glory) would be what we would call an ultimate cause. But our fulfillment, our joy, these things could be listed as proximate causes.

heres a way of example.

Lets say you asked me: David, why did you go to Walgreens. And I said: to get some claritin. Getting claritin would be a proximate cause. Because we could ask: why did you need claritin: and I could answer: because we were out. Here is another proximate cause, because we could ask: why did you run out. and we could continue. because willow takes it every night, because it helps her sleep, because… and this goes on and on an trail of proximate causes. But ultimately our goal should be to get to an ultimate cause.

So why did god save you, because he loved you, why did he love you, because he wanted to, why did he want to: FOR THIS REASON: the ultimate cause, for his glory.

then our joy, our happiness sometimes even, our meaning, our hope all this is a proximate cause, they are a part of it, but not the whole answer. But having these things couched inside of God’s glory gives them even more weight and beauty because they are secure. We know this because God is for God. Which leads us to the next portion of Isaiah 48:

Because GOD IS FOR GOD...

immediately God again describes who he is. who is the God who is for himself?

Isaiah 48:12–13 ESV

“Listen to me, O Jacob, and Israel, whom I called! I am he; I am the first, and I am the last. My hand laid the foundation of the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens; when I call to them, they stand forth together.

he is the creator, the upholder, h is first and last. God eternal;. there before the beginning of time and the one who always will be, even when time ends. Time begins and ends in God he created the world spreading out all the high heavens, from one corner of the universe to the other he does these things, he is almighty omnipotent, omniscient, God.

and he rules. When he calls all of creation must answer. he is powerful. He is God. again, giving us assurance that the God who is for God is strong enough to do all that he has said he will do.

it is interesting, we are taught that we must be our own advocates. but often times this does not end the way we want it. We can plead with those in authority over us, and sometimes they might hear our cries, and sometimes they may ignore it, at which point we have to decide, how much will I allow these people to offer authority over me, will I keep working this job, will I keep.. whatever situation we find yourself in.

Well god, who advocates (for lack of a better word) for himself is the almighty. therefore his will cannot be trumped, his desires will come to fruition and...

… his works are SURE...

even when it does not make sense (Cyrus pt 2)

and when it is for us (listening to his commands, is for our good, ALWAYS)

he will bless (verses 17-19)

… and we are SAVED!

Isaiah 48:20–22 ESV

Go out from Babylon, flee from Chaldea, declare this with a shout of joy, proclaim it, send it out to the end of the earth; say, “The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob!” They did not thirst when he led them through the deserts; he made water flow for them from the rock; he split the rock and the water gushed out. “There is no peace,” says the Lord, “for the wicked.”

Related Media

Related Sermons