I don't know, if I was speaking to me before I was saved, what would I say to these things? I think that the salvation of a soul is such an incredible experience.
Would I have responded to the logic, or was I in such darkness that like a black hole that is said to have so much gravity that light can't get out of it? And of course, where that leaves me is I think sober-minded. This is Cross-Reference Radio with our pastor and teacher Rick Gaston. Rick is the pastor of Calvary Chapel Mechanicsville. Pastor Rick is currently teaching through the book of Isaiah.
Please stay with us after today's message to hear more information about Cross-Reference Radio, specifically how you can get a free copy of this teaching. Now here's Pastor Rick as he concludes his message called Our Awesome God as he teaches in Isaiah chapter 40. They imagined that the invisible God can be made with visible stuff, these idolaters. Now people imagine that God can be shaped by their imagination or forced out of existence in their imagination.
They just decide that they're going to be atheists. Colossians 1, speaking of Jesus, he is the image of the invisible God. Even if we had pictures of Jesus, he's not going to look, when we see him, he's not going to look like he looked when he walked the earth. He is in a glorified state in that context of his coming from the Father to earth or whether it's Christophany before the virgin birth or his maturity after the virgin birth. The apostles didn't recognize him.
On the road to Emmaus, they didn't recognize him. It would be foolish just on that level, but it is a prohibited period, even if you could see what Christ now looked like, we are forbidden from making any image of him. First Timothy 1, 17, now to the king eternal, immortal, invisible, to God who alone is wise, be honor and glory forever and ever, amen. Now the king eternal is Christ. It's the deity of Christ that Paul writes about. And so the workman is trying to make an image of the invisible God.
How do you do that? You've not seen him. Yeah, well I just, this is how I think he looks.
And then the next guy, well I think he looks this way. And as you know from many of the existing pieces of junk that the world calls artwork, these clumsy manifestations of gods, many of them are grotesque. Like man, if I saw something like that, I don't think I'd want to worship it.
I might want to shoot it. I mean, you know, the multiple heads and just all sorts of weird, and then it even gets to be immoral. And they're on their, still have temples, in Tibet they have temples with these acts that are just unspeakable. Anyway, after rejecting the truth, what remains? What do you have left?
Just make stuff up. Verse 20. I don't know, if I was speaking to me before I was saved, what would I say to these things? I think that the salvation of a soul is such an incredible experience. Would I have responded to the logic, or was I in such darkness that the, like a black hole that is said to have so much gravity that light can't get out of it? And of course, where that leaves me is, I think sober-minded on this subject of praying for lost souls that they are blind, and they are spiritual fools.
I was once there. It took God to get me out of there, and it's going to take God to get them out, but he invites me to pray without ceasing. That's actually the second, well in the Greek it's the shortest verse in the Bible. Pray without ceasing. If you count the letters, Jesus wept, pray without ceasing.
So if you can't, what happens if you can't afford a golden idol? Well, Satan is not going to be stopped by that. Verse 20. Whoever is too impoverished for such a contribution chooses a tree that will not rot. He seeks for himself a skillful workman to prepare a carved image that will not totter. He's got to have a craftsman to keep his God from falling over, and that won't work. So the devil is interested in damning the poor also.
If you cannot afford an extravagant idol, then a common idol will do just as well. Verse 21. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning?
Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? So now he goes into this question format. He'll provide the answers of course.
Paul does that with Romans. In many sections he goes to question-answer format, but these are the components of understanding. He's saying humans are expected to know better. Have you not known, heard?
Have you not been told, understood? Well that's what Paul said, because Romans chapter 1, what may be known of God is manifest. It is told in them. For God has shown it to them.
For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. So Paul says just look at creation. Even a kid, a child shoots down evolution. You say well we came from, you know, I don't know what they even say anymore. We came from chimps and we came from fish or whatever. Well a little child can say well where did that one come from? And then you say we came from the fish. Well where did that come from? We came from the shrimp. Well where did that one come from?
You just take it until they're stuck. I don't know where the first one came from. It came from space.
Well where did space come from? This is just a logic. I'm just venting more than I am preaching, because we know that to believe in evolution, especially as a scientist, you have opted out of reason.
You can maybe understand it with somebody who just listens and says okay, sounds good to me, versus someone who owns a microscope, an electronic microscope, and know that these things aren't even possible, and yet they continue to beat that drum. Why should God save that person? Well why should God save any of us?
Because He is love. We still have our role. Anyway, I like how Isaiah puts it out there, haven't you known? Haven't you heard? Hasn't it been told? Don't you understand?
Don't you get it? Verse 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 out like a tent to dwell in. Well how else is He supposed to present the bigness of God to people who worship these old statues? Anyway, it is He, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
That's what He is saying. God has never abandoned mankind, even after it fell into sin. He still is very much presiding over His creation, even in the midst of the curse and all of the debauchery. Hebrews chapter 1, who being the brightness of His glory, that's Christ He's speaking of, the express image of His person, and upholding all things by the word of His power. Upholding all things, He's running the universe. Things aren't just, you know, randomly going through space.
Wherever they go, they go by permission. Ephesians adds this little note when he speaks about the body of Christ and Christ, and then he says of Christ, Him who fills all in all. Ephesians 1, 23. He has not abandoned creation. He did not abandon the first murderer, Cain. Cain abandoned God.
It is the story of mercy wasted, of love lost, because Cain wanted it, preferred it that way. The capacity for human beings to be spiritually insane. Who sits above the circle of the earth. Well, we know the earth is a circle and not a cookie sheet, a baking sheet, a flat. You just look at the moon.
It's okay. You look at everything I know that's out there, is round, and so are we. It's incredible how some commentators try to down side. Well, it's a dome. Well, a dome is half of a circle, is it not?
So is the earth like this dome going around the sun, but everybody else has got a full, the moon is rounding. Anyway, this echoes Job 26, 10, Proverbs 8, 27 also make this point, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers. Colorful language, of course, making the point that mankind is, creation is minuscule compared to God, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, like a canopy, and this is in Psalm 104 and again Job 9.
Job's theology and understanding of things was so good, and his accusers was just all mixed up, and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. This is meant as poetry, it is not science. Even when, you know, you speak of the believers in Revelation with harps and the clouds and all, it is symbolic. So much of Revelation is symbolic because it spans the ages, it's not meant to be taken.
Literally, it doesn't have to be meant to be taken. The point is what God is after, making the point. Verse 23, he brings the princes to nothing, he makes the judges of the earth useless. Verse 24, scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when he will also blow on them, and they will wither, and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. So God holds them accountability in the millennial reign.
This will have its literal application. It will be rare to find somebody who is up to evil and sowing that evil until we get to the very end of it. Verse 25, to whom then will you liken me, to whom shall I be equal, says the Holy One. Of course, Christ is referred to as the Holy One of God in the New Testament. This is a repeat of verse 18, largely a repeat for emphasis. Verse 26, lift up your eyes on high and see who has created these things, who brings out their host by number. He calls them all by name, by the greatness of his might and strength of his power, not one is missing.
Well, since the days of Darwin, there has been an eagerness to reject the idea of an omnipotent being, reject the idea of God, especially amongst the formally educated. Now Isaiah is formally educated, so it's not a shot against formal education. It's what man does with it that counts. Psalm 147, verse 4, he counts the number of stars. He calls them all by name. Well, if he's omnipotent and knows everything, then of course he's going to know where everything is, its identity, its nature.
He's going to have it all together. Jesus pointed this out about himself. He's the doorkeeper. To him, the doorkeeper opens and the sheep hear his voice and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. Early in ministry, God impressed upon me, know the names of the people because name is nature, name is identity.
It counts, it matters. Don't take that lightly. Do not ever look at people as like a salesman might look at somebody, you know, look at somebody like a purchase order. You've got to look at them.
They're God's people and you're going to have to answer to him about those people. So make sure you keep it where if there's anything goes wrong, bear the blame. It's not easy, but you can get better at it. People count is the point. Nickels and noses is not a good way for a pastor to go about being a pastor.
It really helps, of course. The nickels and the noses, you can't do without them, but that's not where the emphasis lie. He has to have a shepherd's heart, not an accountant's heart. Verse 27, pause there. What would happen if God, the Lord is my accountant? He shall add up. I mean, that doesn't fit. I prefer a shepherd.
Far better. And many pastors, or so-called pastors, they become accountants, they get mixed up in numbers and that's fatal. Verse 27, why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, my way is hidden from Yahweh and my just claim is passed over by God. So the prophet anticipates a comeback because people with low faith are ready to give you a reason why they're not going to believe. So he reminds them of their origins as God's people. You want to say to the Jew today, do you believe in your Bible? And if they say yes, or if they say no, you say, well, how did you get into that promised land?
Where'd you come from? How did you even come to be a Hebrew people? Why is it innate in you that you feel that you should be separate from the Gentiles?
Even though you fight it, why is it there? You try to get them to the source and that's what Isaiah is taking them back. Some felt abandoned as though God cared nothing for their troubles. Well, they had abandoned God and he warned them of these things. So in the next verse, Isaiah responds to this and it's more doctrine, it's more sound teaching. Verse 28, have you not known, have you not heard the everlasting God?
Yahweh, the creator of the ends of the earth, neither faints nor is weary. His understanding is unsearchable. You think God doesn't understand.
It's unsearchable. Everything that takes place in our life takes place in a defective setting. We have never breathed fresh air.
We have never been where there's no curse. This is all we know except by faith what has been revealed to us. We have physical senses and we have spiritual senses. And the spiritual are more real than the physical because they are eternal.
The physical, after a while, you know, you won't be touching these things. We have a glorified body. We'll live forever with Christ. Some felt abandoned as though, again, God did not care. He responds with verse 28 with the questions again and he says even in this damaged and corrupt world where all life is corrupted because all life dies in this world, which is going to be very interesting with this whole argument about UFO bodies. Wait a minute, death is peculiar to earth, the Garden of Eden, to human beings and those created on earth, animals, insects, viruses. Everything dies here.
I'm working on it. I'm working on a sermon. I shouldn't have said anything. But I want to address these things because the Bible does. And the Bible does not leave us scratching, you know, I don't know what's going on.
It doesn't do that to us. It says I'll give you some precedence for all of this. I'll give you the possibilities. I'll give you the solutions. I'll give you just enough. I'm not going to mess with your curiosity, but I am going to build up your doctrine so that you will have an answer to everyone who asks.
And there are multiple scenarios and I think all of them are rational. So if you remember, pray for me that I'm able to communicate these things thoroughly and effectively. Usually what do I do in my spare time? Think about things.
What do you do in your spare time? That's a good one, Lord. So anyway, coming back to this, verse 29, he gives power to the weak and to those who have no might, he increases strength. So God does not give more power to the people. That is quite communist and socialistic.
That's where it comes from. Back in the 60s and 70s, you give power to the people. They wanted, of course, that under the delusion that somehow communism is not a religion.
Communism is a religion and is a nasty one at that and it will not tolerate competitors. You are either part of the state church or you are persecuted and this is history. Well, anyway, he gives power to the weak. Weak Christians can become stronger.
That's just a fact. You may not, never be, none of us will ever be as strong as we want to be, but there are some Christians that tend to just always be a little bit more needy and always, you know, unstable, have an element of instability about them. Well, they can be stronger. God gives that. 2 Corinthians, we know this one. Paul was concerned about his own life and the Lord said to him, My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, most gladly, Paul adds, I would rather boast in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
If God gets to show his strength through weak vessels, then let me be that weak vessel so he can show his strength. That's what his logic is. God is too good, too great to not care.
Whenever you think God does not care because the problem's not going away or it's getting worse, maybe it's even terminal, that doesn't mean God does not care. It might actually be quite the opposite. Well, he's going to get to that. Verse 30, Even the youth shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fail. Now, youth by definition are full of vigor and strength.
That's what I do not get. This generation's young people drinking energy drinks. I got more energy than they do? I mean, what are you kidding? What is up with that? I need an energy drink.
You're like 25 years old. We can plug an electric car into you and charge it. What is with that? Then you drink it and they're not doing nothing more. You would think they'd get a broom and sweep up.
No, this is crazy. And the manufacturers, some of them tell you on the label that it's a lie. It's Red Bull.
All have two. Anyway, so here, this is, Isaiah speaks as though he's not a young man anymore because he's like, even, you know, verse 30, even the youth, even the youths with an S, shall faint. And so he speaks as though a man who has felt his vigor fade a little bit. I don't know. I feel pretty good right now. I'm not one of those people, don't say it. I rebuke superstitions.
I don't know. I feel pretty good right now. I don't feel the vigor going. I'm enjoying aging. As long as I stay healthy. I mean, when I get sick, that's a different thing. But when I'm feeling pretty good, it's like, this isn't bad, you know. I'm smarter than I used to be. I'm more quiet, except when I'm up here. But, you know, I just watch things fall apart around me.
And just say, well, it's been doing that since the beginning. Anyway, natural strength fails. That's what the prophet is saying. All flesh eventually grows tired.
No exception. Verse 31, but those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strengths. There's a strong contrast. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint.
Well, of course, it's more poetic language. We're not going to get wings like eagles. I wouldn't even want those. I mean, how would you put a shirt on? Even if you cut holes.
Even with cutouts, it wouldn't work. In those days, eagles were quite prevalent. And, you know, eagles are fierce animals. If I lived around golden eagles, I think I would shoot them.
I'm afraid. Have you seen them pick up goats and just fly away with them and then drop them? What would you do if one of those things showed up in your backyard? You are mowing, and all of a sudden you're like, hey, I feel like I can look down on my house.
He's going to eat you. Anyway, in those days, they were very much more in touch with nature. And so, to mount up with wings like eagles is good language. And it indicates that their strength has been spent. But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. Well, their strength needs to be renewed because they are exhausted.
It has been spent. There will be heartache, and there will be heartbreak while we wait for Christ many times. Not waiting is worse. Waiting for God does not mean do nothing, Jude, but you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit.
There are things to do. One main thing to do while you're waiting for God is stay out of His way. That's not easy. But you can get better at it. You just keep, I'm going to keep my fingerprints off of this. He said, don't touch it.
I'm not going to touch it. They shall mount up with wings like eagles. Inspiration lifts the soul.
That is a fact. When we get charged up spiritually, we get stronger. They shall run and not be weary. Stamina and speed characterize inspiration from God. They shall walk and not faint. They're fit for the long haul.
They make it all the way. That's what it means to not drop out of the walk. Paul put it this way in Philippians, chapter 4, verse 11. Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am to be content. I know how to be abased.
I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things, I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. And I don't want to, I hesitate to read the next verse because I think it's, it's too often read without the context of verses 12 and 13, but here it goes. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And that's what's being said here by Isaiah. The Lord will renew your strength because he will strengthen you and you wait on the Lord.
And in that time, learn how to wait. Thanks for tuning in to Cross Reference Radio today. Cross Reference Radio is a ministry of Pastor Rick Gaston of Calvary Chapel mechanicsville in Virginia. If you'd like to learn more about this ministry, we invite you to visit our website, crossreferenceradio.com.
You'll find a number of teachings from Pastor Rick available there. We also encourage you to subscribe to our podcast. When you subscribe, you'll be notified of new editions of Cross Reference Radio. Just search for Cross Reference Radio on your favorite podcast app. You can also follow the links at crossreferenceradio.com. We're glad we were able to spend time with you today. Tune in next time to continue learning from the book of Isaiah with Pastor Rick right here on Cross Reference Radio.
