Our Unseen Friend (Part C)

When the angel of the Lord stood by Paul and said, Paul, no, there'll be no loss of life this night. He still had to get wet. He still had to end up in the sea.

He was bitten by a serpent. So this is reality. And we shouldn't back down from it. We should trust God in the face of reality. Enjoy the good times under your vine and under your tree.

Enjoy the good times. But if the times, if it gets rocky, then we have to just pick our faith up to the next level. Today, he'll conclude this study. He'll be teaching in Isaiah chapter 41.

Just blocked it out. And it's almost like, I guess on a smaller scale, as though he's a prophet in present-day Ukraine. With all of that madness, he's just focused on God. And when the dust clears, he's the one standing, not the Assyrians. Verse 9, you whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called from its farthest regions and said to you, you are my servant.

I have chosen you and have not cast you away. He's speaking about, of course, the Jewish people. Abraham out of Mesopotamia, which from Canaan was the far side of the world. Israel out of Egypt. The application is more than one.

It's multiple. And called from its farthest regions and said to you, you are my servant. I have chosen you and have not cast you away. Well, they've been disciplined so much, even in Isaiah's time. The church has not replaced the nation of Israel.

It cannot do it. Just a simple, basic doctrine. Romans 10, verse 1.

Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved. Well, if the church is Israel, according to that verse, the church is lost and needs to be saved. See the madness of such a theology?

It's a broken theology. And some people lap it up. Well, you know, the first one to get to you can make a deep impression. The only defense is whose image is pressed upon you. And Jesus said, go grab a coin and tell me whose image is on it. We like to say, well, I can tell you Caesar's image is on the coin, Lord, but I want your image pressed upon me.

We call it Christ's likeness, that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship of his suffering, if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. That's commitment. So, incidentally, Isaiah nowhere calls Cyrus God's servant. Even though he is used by God, he's not a cupsie.

That's the part. He's not a believer. He's still an outsider. And he was kind to other religions, too. And so his kindness to Israel, though called by God, is no indication that he became a believer, where it's a little different with Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar looks like in the end, he did become a believer.

Anyway, verse 10, the believer in Yahweh, that is. Fear not, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you.

Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. How many times have you used that verse when you were going through bad times and it didn't seem to be working? So, it's not like, you know, there's some stories about people out by grizzly bears and using the bear spray and then getting eaten. And it's like, and they know that because when they find the remains, it's pepper spray everywhere.

Anyway, they find out. And, you know, you say we should have used something other than a bear spray, like a lead spray. But anyhow, my point is, you know, he used the wrong thing. For us, we don't want to use the wrong thing.

We're subjects to the king. And God loves to tell his people fear not, but his definition is higher than ours, not different, it's higher. He tells us do not fear, not so much to calm our fears, but to keep us focused because there we can be strong. And you know, if you've ever felt panic sweeping up, you're getting weak very quickly. Fear is not a hollow encouragement and we're not to use it that way. I mean, you're not in an airplane crashing and saying, oh, don't worry, fear not.

That's probably not the right thing to say to your fellow passengers. Well, let's use the scripture to tell you what I'm thinking. Revelation chapter 2, to the church at Smyrna. This is a suffering church. It's one of two churches of the seven that received no rebuke. But unlike Philadelphia, that church was promised to be spared. Tribulation, that's coming on the whole earth, that's one of the reasons why we believe in a raptured church.

But here, this church wasn't going to be spared. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Lord, you just contradicted yourself.

No, I did not. Suffer them, but keep your faith intact. Go out in glory.

Unbelievers can do this. I expect my people to do this. Do your duty, complete your mission, do your job, bring glory. How do I bring glory? Remain the witness of Christ. Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

There's nothing in that that's hollow. Don't worry about it. It's going to be okay. He's saying to them, it's not going to be okay, but you be okay in the midst of it. That's Christianity at its highest level. You know, I would love to go out that way, but I'm afraid to go out that way. And so when we say, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? That's what he's talking about. Fear not.

Don't be separated. Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or sword? Yet in all these things we're more than conquerors. That's what it means to say, fear not. That's what it means when the martyrs went to their stakes, praising and singing hymns as the fires were burning around them until they died of suffocation and then burned to death. Or died from whatever else, other causes such a horrific thing. You know, this was just a few hundred years ago, right in England, where they speak.

They don't speak American over there. Anyway, anyhow, I will strengthen you. Yes, I will help you. I will uphold you. Will he help me? And will I be satisfied with the measure of his help?

Or will I want more? That's the flesh talking. The flesh doesn't shut up. I am with you. I am your God. I will uphold you. I am present.

I have a relationship with you and I will act in some form. It may not be the way you want. When the angel of the Lord stood by Paul and said, Paul, there'll be no loss of life this night, he still had to get wet. He still had to end up in the sea.

He was bitten by a serpent. So this is reality and we shouldn't back down from it. We should trust God in the face of reality. Enjoy the good times under your vine and under your, you know, trees.

Enjoy it. But if the times, if it gets rocky, then we have to just pick our faith up to the next level. With my righteous right hand, God's character and ability, that's what that speaks of. Now verse 11, behold, all those who were incensed against you shall be ashamed and disgraced.

They shall be as nothing and those who strive with you shall perish. Incentive to not be against the nation of Israel. Now, I mean, it doesn't mean that we hold Jewish people as individuals as some sort of super being. But as a people, we understand the only rational explanation for anti-Semitism is Satan.

There is no, why do you hate these people? I heard one guy, I won't say with religion, he wasn't a Christian, and he said, yeah, Jews, they just kill the neighborhood. They go into it and they just kill it. How do they do that? Far as I can see working in these bad neighborhoods, they're bringing stores for people to buy things. And you're hating them?

If that shop closed up, where would the mother with all the kids go to get milk and all the other stuff that she needs? Where's that coming from? What country has Israel invaded? I mean, not one. And when they do go into another country, it's a counter strike because their philosophy of war is, if you're going to attack us, we're going to fight over your territory as much as we can. We're going to drop bombs on you, not us. And it works for them. So anyhow, just the insanity of anti-Semitism. It doesn't mean I have to like what a Jewish individual does or is about because there are many of them on a, Judas Iscariot, you know, he's not in heaven because he's Jewish.

So it's a very sane approach. But now think of this, they're going to perish, the ones who were incensed against Israel. Add up all those years, those 3,000 years since Isaiah spoke these words, and what number of people would you come up with through history that have been against Israel? Heads of state.

I mean, just the whole armies. And it's not going to stop until God comes and puts an end to it personally. The Armageddon will be the gathering, we don't have time, I was going to read from Zechariah, just the world trying to heave Israel away. For what? I've got other countries I'd like to throw away before I even begin to get to Israel.

But why don't you, you know, anyway, coming back to this. So, I mean, it doesn't mean we don't hate Israel, but you can hate these guys, I'm not saying that. Shall be ashamed and disgraced, and since 1948, how many times has Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and the Arab League and foreign fighters with them been ashamed when Israel cleaned their clocks? Just, you know, they don't even attack them anymore.

It's like, you know, those guys have a pretty good army. They shall be as nothing. These cross-references are all over the scripture for this. And those who strive against Israel will perish. So you could say you pity the fool who seeks Israel's harm just because. John's gospel, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son, and he gets to the part about that whosoever should believe in him shall not, and there's that big word, perish.

And sometimes the world needs us to help them explain that word to them. Verse 12, you shall seek them, not find them. Those who contend with you, those who go to war against you shall be as nothing, as non-existent thing.

That is perished. Verse 13, for I, Yahweh, your God, will hold your right hand, saying to you, fear not, I will help you. The right hand, of course, is the emblem of our strength, but this is compounded and made stronger by the hand of God. Anyway, verse 14, fear not, there it comes again. There are quite a few of these repetitive, the whos, the I wills, the fear nots.

There are several others in this one chapter. Just a very wonderful way the prophet expresses himself. Verse 14, fear not, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel, I will help you, says Yahweh, and your redeemer, the holy one of Israel.

This is the third fear not, you worm Jacob. That's not a way to compliment somebody. Well, it's not meant to be a compliment nor an insult. It may be pointing to what people were saying about the Jews, what they were, you know, they're just worms. It could be a little sarcasm there or reverse, I guess, but what does a worm do? Well, it hugs the bottom, and it represents the lowest of the low, and they're destructive. You get a hold in your wool jacket, and some larvae from the moth has gotten to it. That's a worm in biblical language.

Do not lay up your good where moth and rust will get. Well, because of the Lord, Israel was held in contempt by other nations, and God is going to empower them. And this worm, as so presented, will be flattening mountains.

We'll get to that. And then he puts right on the heels of that, you men of Israel. So God does not see them as worms, but as the men of Israel. I will help you, says Yahweh, and your redeemer, the holy one of Israel. Isaiah uses this phrase more than anyone in scripture. 23 times he uses it.

The other 13 go to other writers. The redeemer, the Hebrew word there, goel, Boaz was the goel to Ruth. He redeemed Ruth. He was the one that came and saved her from poverty. And blessed are the poor in spirit. Theirs is the kingdom of heaven, and Ruth was in the poor of spirit category. Spiritually, her spirit was not poor. Your God will be my God. I mean, she just laid out one of the best speeches in all the scripture.

But materialistically, they were not doing too well. And Boaz comes along and everything changes. Christ is our goel. From the incarnation, the coming of Christ, to the resurrection, he is our redeemer. And so again, here in verse 14, the word redeemer in English is goel in the Hebrew.

And there are many illustrations in scripture of how profound a role Jesus fulfilled in being our goel. Verse 15, Behold, I will make you into a new threshing sledge with sharp teeth. You shall thrash the mountains and beat them small and make the hills like chaff you will. Verse 16, winnow them, the wind shall carry them away, and the whirlwind shall scatter them. You shall rejoice in Yahweh and glory in the Holy One of Israel. So they're not the worm.

They're now this instrument of destruction against those who would destroy them, pulverizing their enemies. God is giving them, as I mentioned in the beginning, Isaiah's prophecy extends to the coming of Christ. Verse 17, the poor and the needy shall seek water, but there is none. Their tongues shall fail for thirst. I, Yahweh, will hear them. I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.

So troublesome times, but ultimately, victory for the nation. Verse 18, I will open rivers in desolate heights and fountains in the midst of the valleys. I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water. I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the acacia, the myrtle, the oil tree.

I will set in the desert the cypress tree and the pine and the box tree together. Verse 20, that they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of Yahweh has done this and the Holy One of Israel has created it. So, of course, this goes through this period of time, past the tribulation, into the millennial reign where God begins to rebuild Israel and the world. Incidentally, not just Israel, the capital will be there, but the whole world will benefit from the Jewish Messiah who becomes the Messiah of everyone. And that's why the significance of calling him the Christ is actually profound. He's moved on from being the Jewish Redeemer, Savior, to a global Savior.

And that's how it will be in the millennial reign. Anyway, today Israel is a major exporter of not only fruits and vegetables and flowers, but also of technology. They hold the bulk of the world's Nobel Peace Prizes. And I would add, in Israel, all the fruit gets there the same day. I mean, the land is not that big. They're growing bananas, which they use to throw at the enemy when attacked. And they slip and they eat them and they die.

If you like bananas, you should stop. Anyway, verse 21. Present your case, says Yahweh, bring forth your strong reasons, says the king. And so now he's going to go, I know we're running close to out of time here.

We got a little bit left, almost done. Now he's going to deal with the idols again. So he started out with the Gentile nations, using a Gentile, Cyrus. He then addresses his people again in this section. And then he sums up this, what we call the 41st chapter, with addressing the idolaters.

And so the tone returns. And he knows, Isaiah, the religions of the world are the religions of men, and therefore have nothing to offer men. Part of a thing cannot be greater than itself. And that's a basic law that, when it comes to religion, evidently doesn't count. This is why we became Christians. Because we know the alternatives are false.

It's by default. Like, well, that can't be true. And in the Gospel you say, I know that's true. The one that can come up and tell me to my face that I'm a sinner and I can't fix this, is the one telling the truth. The one come up to me and says, you know what, you're really a sinner before God, a holy God. If you do this stuff, you can undo it.

Well, that's not true. Once you've sinned, you can't undo it. You got to get rid of it. The blood of Jesus Christ washes away the sin. Anyway, Revelation 9, verse 20. This idolatry going right up until the tribulation period. But the rest of mankind, who were not killed with these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands, but that they should not worship demons and idols of gold and silver, brass, stone, wood, which can neither see nor hear nor walk. There's no created thing that you can assign to God. That's the point of the wood, the hay, the stubble, the silver. There's more to it.

That's just one application. There's nothing, whether you create it in your head, or someone else created it and you joined on, it is an abomination to God. Verse 22, let them bring forth and show us what will happen. Let them show the former things, what they were, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them or declare to us things to come. Verse 23, show the things that ought to come hereafter, that we may know that you are God's. Yes, do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and see it together. So Isaiah says, all right, bring your little statues with you and do something.

Just do something. Show me something that would make me say, huh, you know, this is why Mohammed went to the Jewish people and he said, I'm a prophet, and they said, prove it. And he couldn't. They said, we don't want to believe you. And he didn't like him ever since. That's the truth.

That's the short story of what happened. This charge is that they cannot properly interpret past events and they can't tell future events. That's what he's saying in those verses that I just read. Let them bring forth and show us what will happen. Let them show us former things. They can't even tell you what history means in a consistent and reliable way. And so we have that proverb, he who doesn't know history is destined to repeat it or his others to. Anyhow, coming back to this, man has tried foretelling the future by reading the stars, whatever that means.

The only way I could read a star is if they were shaped in letters. Okay, talking to the dead, witchcraft, channeling, all in vain instead of coming to the Lord. Peter says we have the more sure word confirmed. Alright, well, verse 42, indeed you are, speaking of the idols, you are nothing and your work is nothing. He who chooses you is an abomination. God taunts, God's taunts are deadly. That's what's happening in the scripture when he mocks this unbelief. God's taunts are deadly serious and it carries a judgment with it.

It's not a joke. Verse 25, I have raised up one from the north and he shall come from the rising of the sun. He shall call on my name and he shall come against the princes and through mortar as the potter treads the clay. And now he's back to Cyrus.

Cyrus will invoke the name of Yahweh, but he did it also of Marduk of Babylon and of Sin the moon god of Ur of the Chaldeans. So it's not that he became a believer. Whatever historical writings we have or evidences, there's nothing that indicates he was a believer.

Could he have eventually become? Of course, but we have just no record of that. I think it's important. We're going to stay true to the reality and not just, well, we really want him to be a believer. I do too, but there's no proof. Who has declared from the beginning that we may know and former times that we may say he is righteous? Surely there is no one who shows. Surely there is no one who declares.

Surely there is no one who hears your words. You catch the surely's there. Verse 27, the first time I said to Zion, look, they are here and I will give Jerusalem one who brings good tidings. So the time is going to come where Yahweh claims credit for his prophecies and that's just a short answer to that. An alternate translation, I first will give to Zion and to Jerusalem the messenger of good tidings. Behold, behold them. So there the prophet is saying when the time comes they're going to see the fulfillment of this prophecy. Verse 28, for I looked and there was no man.

I looked among them, but there was no counselor who when I asked of them could answer a word. So the idols couldn't produce. Verse 29, indeed they are all worthless. Their works are nothing. Their molded images are wind and confusion.

That would get him into a fist fight if he said that in the wrong place, but that is the truth. Let's pray. Our father, your word, a lamp to our feet. The warnings are so clear to those who have the spirit and it's very difficult to share this with unbelievers. Lord, may you help us, use us to save souls. Get us home safely tonight. We ask you in Jesus name.

Amen. 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.