There is that witness of the Holy Spirit in the midst of unanswered prayer, where God says, I know what I'm doing and you don't.
I just need you to abide. And we, yes, Lord. So Christianity is not mere religion. It is life in God because of the life of Christ. And mere religion is looking for God. Christianity is God looking for man.
And that's one of the distinctives. 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. The Old Testament book of Isaiah is where Pastor Rick will be teaching today, specifically chapter 45, on this edition of Cross-Reference Radio. Verse 3, where he says, Listen to me, O Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been upheld by me from birth. He's talking to the apostates and the faithful. The faithful need to hear these things too, that God carried his people in contrast to people carrying idols. Exodus 19, we read, You have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself. Now, it doesn't mean he had them on his wings, because eagles don't do that, put their little chicks in their wings and fly them around.
That would be impressive. And if you've seen anything like that, I'd like to know about it. But I think the idea is, you know, you have this eagle, they're incredibly strong for how much they weigh. They can pick up some pretty big things and fly away with them. One time I saw an eagle flying with a Yugo.
Oh, that would, he wouldn't do that. Anyway, the idea, of course, in a time when such large birds were everywhere, they would get the understanding that God had taken them up in his talons of love and carried them out of Egypt. And so Isaiah is going back to their roots.
Now, the remnant also applies to those not born yet, 100 and some 30 years away from this prophecy that are going to come back to Judah. And it's all documented now. It has happened as the, so accurate. Of course, the naysayers, well, somebody, it's an interpolation. Somebody came and wrote that on top of the, no. How come you just can't accept it? Because you mean, because you know, then you have to be accountable and you do not want that. Do not want to be accountable to the God of Israel who is the Christ because you want to do your own thing. And that is idolatry.
This sets a precedence. So when Isaiah wrote this, future generations would read this and say, that's us. We are living out what the prophet said.
We are the people he was talking about. This sets the precedence for great tribulation saints, converts, and us. So during the great tribulation, which hasn't happened yet, they're going to be people coming to Christ. They're going to be reading the revelation of Christ, seeing that, you know what, we're going to die for our faith. And the righteous Jews are going to say, well, we're not going to die. So we're going to make the most out of this. And we're not going to waste this protection. We're going to preach.
And that's what's going to happen. We can look at the scripture and see ourselves in it. One place, one of my favorites is Daniel 12. God said to Daniel, but you, Daniel, shut up the words. He doesn't just say shut up. Shut up the words. I would have translated that differently. And seal the book until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall increase.
This is emphatic. This isn't just people traveling on carts. This would include, looking back at that now, we can see this is air travel. At any time, there are probably, I think what's the number, 300,000 people in the sky. That number might be a little bit lower. I know it's higher than 60,000, but if you count all the planes that are in, just get the plane app. I don't know what it's called. I have it on my phone. I like to look at that.
And the shipping one too is pretty much fun. Look at all the places I don't want to go to. Anyway, you can see, man, there's a lot of stuff on the sea and in the air. Well, Daniel says, and knowledge shall increase. Now you tell me, for how many centuries have human beings been relatively the same before real indoor plumbing, HVAC?
The modernization has just left most of history behind. And you can go online and there's so many experts. You can find 10 people that are experts on pencil erasers. None of them agreeing with themselves. All of them with data. And they just say, man, there's too much information for humans to process.
Do one on dieting. Oh, man, it's just, you end up saying, well, I know this about food, that a napkin does a pretty good job. Other than that, it's a free for all.
This one hates that one. Well, knowledge has increased. But will you know what to do with this knowledge?
That's the catch. And so the humble fisherman just said, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has given us the aptitude to do many things. Whatever that aptitude you have discovered that you have, you work it to the glory of God. Some are very good in mathematics. Others are good in athletics. Whatever it is, some are just physically strong.
Some are just very creative. Whatever it is, you find out what it is as a Christian. You outdo as many people in the workplace as you can without getting in the flesh.
You just do such a good job. And you let the Lord use that witness to lead people to Christ. Look, if you're, I don't know, if you're stacking boxes and you're the worst box stacker in the warehouse, nobody's going to be interested in your savior. But if you're like, man, that guy's dependable.
He may not be the best, but he's dependable. That's going to help your witness and that will, God can use that kind of stuff. And like, we saw the precedents there. God's saying to the Jews, you're going to benefit from my words when you're being brought back from the captivity in Babylon and which they did.
They read these things and say, Hey, that's us. And the temple was rebuilt. Verse four, even to your old age, I am he. And even to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made and I will bear.
Even I will carry and will deliver you. So Isaiah continues to harass the pseudo brilliance of idolatry. Deservedly he's lampooning man's quest to be the God maker and he's using these words that the true God is doing, which the false gods cannot do.
Carry, made, bear, deliver. Yahweh does that. Their gods do not.
We'll contrast this a little bit more without exception. Every false religion, every manmade religion, which what makes a false religion? It's manmade. It's not from the revelation of God is from the imagination of men is speculation or revelation.
Which one are you going to pick? Well, each one of them, they're blind, drunk, crippled, and crazy. Well, let's look at that. And don't let someone give you that. Well, why can't others be right too?
For the same reason, wheels are round, not square or rectangular. It doesn't work. That's why, that's why they can't be in the club. It just, you know, if they don't like it, change sides.
It's not like God says, well, it's too late for you. Unless you're Calvinist. But anyway, don't pick on them. They love God too.
Let me pick on them. No, no, they do love the Lord. No, I'm not questioning that at all. We just disagree on that point. Anyway, I said it was blind because it can't see the truth because its eyes, they have chosen to close their eyes.
We covered that last chapter. It is drunk. That is, it has an altered mental state because of an outside influence. And in this case, it is evil.
An evil influence. It is crippled in that it is defective. It cannot walk with God because it refuses to walk, to walk together unless they are agreed.
No, they cannot. Enoch walked with God because he was submitted to God. And it is absolutely crazy because it is absolutely irrational. So when I say false religions are blind, drunk, crippled and crazy, which you can't say today because everybody's so, you can't say crazy.
Some people are really, I know some people are really crazy. Anyway, Deuteronomy 28, the Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. That's what he told his own people. If you forsake me, if you start worshiping your imaginations, this is what's going to happen to you. And it has happened.
And unfortunately, it's not the end of the story. All Israel will be saved. But much of Israel falls into the category now of a false religion because they have not followed through. It doesn't matter if you are 10 feet from safety and you die there. You didn't make it.
You need to get all the way. Anyway, to be led by God is to be carried by God for the Christian. Romans 8, for as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. Being led will offend immature Christians or Christians in the flesh, especially if you're in a position of decision making. And you say, oh, the Lord's not leading me there. Oh, brother.
Speaking of diets, I've been looking at this, just watching a lot of them, learning a lot of stuff, not planning to do anything with it, but not much. But I'm not a big, if I'm going to eat, my favorite meat is sacred cow. And Christianity has got a lot of them.
Anyway, I'm so glad I don't have any hangups. I'm glad you laugh at that. The eyes of God are here in this verse. If we count the personal pronouns, five times we read the Lord say that on behalf of them, I am He. I will carry you. I have made. I will bear.
I will carry and deliver you. This is still alive for New Testament Christians. This is blessed assurance of the presence of God.
No Christian that loves the Lord should worry about their salvation. Any more than you are afraid of screwdrivers because you might grab one and stick it in an outlet. Ooh, I don't want to go near that. I might just grab it and go out of control.
Look at me. Look, you come to Christ, you're not going anywhere unless you plan to eject. I mean, it's your call.
I believe in free will to the end, but I also believe that Christians are kept by the power of God as long as they want to be. There's never going to be a hostage situation, right? You can't get out of here. Too late. You made a confession. You're not going anywhere.
Sit down. That's not, to me, that's not right. Anyway, God is as sure as there's people.
Psalm 71. You know, because as you age, you know, you start, you start losing a lot of things, but you gain some stuff too. You can see stupid from miles away.
You know, who would want to trade that? You might not be able to run fast enough to get away from stupid, but you can see it. And everybody is scratching their head.
What, you don't like this? So, so anyway, you know, you go to the checkout and you can, this is true story. And I said to myself, young lady, you're going to end up in a sermon. So I go to get a shoe horn and I get to the checkout and she says, what's this? No, first it started, I said, well, they didn't have shoe banjos, so I had to get the shoe horn. And she was like, duh, what's that? She did, she says, what is it? I said, it's a shoe horn.
What is that? Look, I'll show you. So I explained it to her and she was not impressed. But I was. I said, you're going to be in a sermon, you just wait. Anyway, that happened about a month ago.
I've been suppressing it ever since. So, Psalm 71, now also when I am old and gray headed, oh God, do not forsake me until I declare your strength to this generation, your power to everyone who is to come. There is a saint writing saying, Lord, no matter how old I get, may I die preaching. May I die serving you. And if you can't line up for formation on the battlefield because you're too old, you can pray overlooking the battlefield.
They're both needed. Joshua would have lost with all of his muscle and swords had Moses not been up there praying for him over the battlefield, they would have lost. Don't sell yourself short. You know, if you have this wisdom that from over the years, guard it, learn how to apply it and God will bring people to it. You know, the older saints, you have a lot of stories. Maybe God will send people who are actually interested. And you younger Christians tap into some of the old timers and ask them, what did you do for a living? Or you know, make conversation.
You'd be amazed. War stories are transferable. You can benefit from learning about other people on the battlefield. Isaiah 40, the grass withers, the flowers fade but the word of God stands forever. And that does not have an age limit. It doesn't say, oh, up until, doesn't work that way. So anyway, lessons for our closer to home bound Christians. That was a joke. Anyway, come back to this. Verse 5, to whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we should be alike? Well, you've been driving this point home and of course, there's no comparison. The Jews just had too much going for them as we do as Christians.
I have never met someone that could put down the basics of the gospel. The fact that you are a sinner. You do evil things. You have evil thoughts. And if you tell me you don't, you just prove my point by lying to me. You have a conscience. Even if you have seared it with a hot iron, you still know right from wrong. And where does that come from? And you know, they try to have this respectable departure like well, you believe what you believe. Well, I believe you don't.
Not if I think you can beat me up. I won't say that. Anyway, verse 6, for you younger Christians, you wouldn't say that even if you could take them. That's the flesh. They lavish gold out of the bag and weigh silver on the scales. They hire a goldsmith and he makes it God.
They prostrate themselves. Yes, they worship. So, he's hoping to shock through satire those that may just still have a chance to renounce their sin, to repent. Man made opinions about God, the essence of idolatry, rather mental or material, people making gods are idolaters. Now, the respectable make-believe is let's be tolerant of religions that will send you to hell.
That's what the world does. Cain's fruit basket ignored the violence of sin. If you have any sense of sympathy towards suffering animals, you've got to understand that goes back to Eden where God killed two animals and lamented over that. Thus, the power of the blood sacrifice that Abel brought. Abel was saying, they died in my place. You know, it was bloody murder and I repent. Cain wanted to sidestep that. Well, any time a pastor steps into the pulpit and actively dodges addressing sin from the scripture, he is presenting a fruit basket to God. No blood on that one.
Everybody can feel very happy with pineapples and peaches. What about my sin? I can get all that stuff outside the church, but what I'm supposed to get in the house of God is a right relationship with God in spite of how messed up I am. And that's what Abel's sacrifice was.
God, this is a messed up deal. But you want us to keep this in front of you because when it gets behind us, we become idolaters. We become evil.
We become all the things you don't want us to be. And thus, the blood of Jesus Christ is such a big deal. It is everything. And this is serious stuff and every Christian should understand. When you look at the cross of Christ around someone's neck, it's got blood on it or its symbol has failed. Anyway, not the cross, but how the person perceives it. And you know there are a lot of people wearing crosses that have nothing to do with Christ.
They are the opposite. Verse 7, they bear it on their shoulder, they carry it, set it in its place and it stands from its place, it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble. So he's been covering this. In chapter 40 in verses 18 through 20, just this one place, he's covered this.
It stands and its place has not moved. Though one cries to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble. Well, what about Christians? Well, Christ's disciples, we are trained from scripture through the Holy Spirit to distinguish unanswered prayer from the absence of God. We are taught in scripture to make these distinctions. Our Bible is full of character examples as to why our God has apparent inaction, but is not inactive.
He doesn't have a weakness. Luke 24, aside from the whole book of Job, Luke 24 is probably one of the best examples of understanding our God by not granting our request is still very active. Father, if this is your will, take this cup away from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done. And then there's that witness of the Holy Spirit in the midst of unanswered prayer where God says, I know what I'm doing and you don't.
I just need you to abide. And we, yes, Lord. So Christianity is not mere religion. It is life in God because of the life of Christ. And mere religion is looking for God. Christianity is God looking for man. And that's one of the distinctives. And so we know why God doesn't grant, well, we don't know the details, but we know enough about God to understand that he does not always say yes.
And he does not always say no. Whereas the idols, it was just a free for all. And it was just nothing to back it up. What if I make an idol that hated your idol?
How does that work? I mean, which one is right? Well, they did that stuff. And that's why you've got this hierarchy of gods fighting with each other in Greek mythology, for example. Verse eight, remember this and show yourselves men, recall to mine your transgressors. So God puts them and say, hey, remember that you're sinning. You've robbed me of my honor and you've given it to one that is not worthy. Verse nine, remember the former things of old, for I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me.
So the insistence of this is critical. Deuteronomy, God talks about him giving the land to the people, the promised land, taking them out of Egypt. Deuteronomy 35, we'll take this one. The preceding verse, verse 34, I won't read it, but it gives the context. To you, it was shown that you might know that Yahweh himself is God.
There is none other besides me. So Isaiah is repeating that. And the Jews in the days of Moses had tangible proofs of these things and they were to preserve them with the many monuments that Joshua and Moses had put up. David, in his prayer of gratitude, when God had forgiven him of horrible sins, David wrote, therefore you are great, O Lord Yahweh, for there is none like you, nor is there any gods beside you, according to all that we have heard without ears.
Bottom line is, Lord, you are real and there's no one else. Verse 10, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times, things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. And the many fulfilled prophecies, I think it's around 26, 28%. One scholar has calculated the Bible being prophecy. How many prophecies concerning the coming of Christ, 300 of them fulfilled?
It's just phenomenal. But if you don't want to hear it, then I think it's going to bounce off of you. So verse 10, of course, Eden, we learned that fulfillment of prophecy is often delayed. In the day that you eat of the tree, you will surely die. Well, she and Adam ate and they lived a long time before they died. Adam, almost a thousand years Adam lived, but he did die. And that whole Genesis 5 is, and he died.
They're all dead and gone with the exception of Enoch. Verse 11, calling a bird of prey from the east, the man who executes my counsel from a far country. Indeed, I have spoken it. I will also bring it to pass. I have purposed it.
I will do it. And this is Cyrus. He's coming from Persia, which is about a thousand travel miles from Persia to Jerusalem. And so it did not happen in Isaiah's lifetime. By faith, they accepted it. But that generation that did return to Judah, they lived through it. Verse 12, listen to me, you stubborn hearted who are far from righteousness. I don't like that church.
It's so negative. The prophets, man, they're pulling punches. They never let sinners forget that sin is not something to play with. Can a man take fire to his bosom and not be burned? Verse 13, I bring my righteousness near.
It shall not be far off. My salvation shall not linger. And I will place salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory. So the purpose behind all this Bible study is to cause obedience with action. James chapter two, I will show you my faith by my works. What good is a Bible study if you just get up and contradict everything you learn?
We see this quite a bit. So quite powerful things there in Isaiah. 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 additions 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.
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