Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, Pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. 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 other God. That's Isaiah 44, verse 6. And in today's sermon we focus on how the living God, eternal and reigning over all, is an invitational God. We see His love in that He initiated our restoration through Christ and invested in us, giving us Himself. Let's listen in to this message from Isaiah 44. This is the second part of a message which was first preached on April 28, 2013. It's part of a series in Isaiah titled, Behold Your God. There is no other rock.
I know not one. Now this word rock that he's referring to, he is the rock of truth. And he's not referring to a rock, let's say a boulder the size of that monitor on the road that you can trip over. When he's referring to a rock, he's referring to a massive ledge, something similar that you might see at the top of Pilate Mountain. Things that harbors life.
It is a shelter. It is inescapable. And he says, I know no other rock. And why is he saying that?
What are the attributes of a rock, the characteristics of a rock? He is the rock of truth as he has informed them. He says, I am telling you truth.
Why is he calling himself a rock? Because he is totally reliable. His truth is totally reliable.
You can count on it. It is trustworthy. Once again, you look at the prophetic record of God in the scriptures and it is absolutely reliable. What God has said will happen has happened.
It is inescapable. Not only is he the rock of truth, totally reliable, but he is also the source of rescue and refuge. The source of rescue and refuge. It was Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the God-man, the incarnate God who said, you will know the truth and the truth will do what? Set you free. Because truth rescues.
And it saves from the onslaught and the destructive power of error. And God says, I know no other rock. I am your rock.
I am totally reliable. I am the source of your rescue and refuge in my truth. Truth has a name.
It is not just a concept. Now, as we come to this, as we come to the end of verse 8, we are introduced then to verse 9. In verse 9 through verse 20 is a magnificent satire by the prophet. God speaking through the prophet. And verses 9 through 20 shows us the idolatrous power of self-deception. The idolatrous power of self-deception, something that we are particularly good at as created beings. That we as created beings would find another created thing as my object of trust. What we have in verses 9 through 20, he talks about these fine, beautiful, magnificent trees and a man will go and he will chop one down and he will cut it in half.
Half of it he will chop up for firewood and the other half he will carve and craft and overlay it with gold and bow down and worship it. Now don't laugh because we do the same thing. We have a tendency to trust created things for our source and our satisfaction. It's the same thing. And many, many people around the world in religions today do exactly the same thing. Remember that the physical idols themselves are manifestations, they are personifications of the system.
But here's the thing. God created the system. So instead of worshipping the creator, we have such a real propensity to venerate and trust the created.
Why would you trust the created instead of the creator? That's what Isaiah is pointing out. That's what God is teaching them here. Alfred Martin says the relevancy of the magnificent satire verses 9 to 20 is that it is always a source of astonishment that men would attribute supernatural powers to something they had fashioned with their own hands. Look what he says in verse 20. And here is the idolatrous power of self-deception.
He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot deliver his soul nor say, is there not a lie in my right hand? We abandon reason when we abandon the creator and we become self-deluded. I like what G.K. Beale says in We Become What We Worship. Listen to this.
You can read along here. We, what we revere, we resemble either for ruin or restoration. To commit ourselves to some part of the creation more than the creator is idolatry. And when we worship something in creation, we become like it as spiritually lifeless and insensitive to God as a piece of wood, rock or stone. And this is particularly challenging for us as Westerners because we are so trusting of things.
We amass things as our objects of trust and we become as lifeless as the things that we trust. And we wonder why we have no sense of need for God. That is the problem of the American Western Church. We don't have a sense of need for God.
God help us. We must know God in the way that he has revealed himself. And when we do, we will understand ourselves and we will understand our propensity for idolatry to trust a created thing rather than the creator. You know, I like what happens here because this satire is a wonderful thing. Our family watches some movies and one of our favorite movies is The Avengers. Now, it's kind of like a cartoon in real life.
You know, so it doesn't really correspond with reality, but it has some important messages in it. And let me tell you one of them right here, because this is what Isaiah is doing to the false gods that are worshipped by even the people of Israel. And there is one scene where Loki, of course, he's the nemesis, you know, and he's a god and the Hulk barges in a window. And Loki says something like, I am not going to be intimidated by you, you dull creature.
Enough. And at that moment, the Hulk grabs him by the ankles and he goes, bam, bam, bam, bam, bam. And then he walks away and Loki is sitting there in a daze like this. Remember, he's a god, OK? And the Hulk walks away and says, puny god.
That's what he's doing right here. Trusting a created thing is a puny god. And God says, why don't you trust me? Place your confidence in me.
I am your source. I am your satisfaction. Fourthly, he is the living God because he invites. Look with me at verse 21. Verse 21, remember these, O Jacob and Israel, for you are my servant. I have formed you. You are my servant.
Verse 22, I have blotted out like thick cloud your transgressions and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. And then the next word is what?
Sing. He invites us to do three things. The living God invites us to do three things.
Number one, to remember. He says, remember these things. Now, I've said before, God is like what God has done. But what he is calling us to remember is not so much all the magnificent things that God has done, but to remember the attributes of God that caused those things to happen. As Oswald says, life is to be lived on the basis of reflection on the character of God as revealed.
That's a good statement. What is this? This is the stuff of meditation. These are the indicative of scripture. This is who God is. Life is to be lived on the basis of reflection on the character of God. The Bible is not just a massive list of commands.
It is a book of truth about who God is. And life is to be lived on the basis of reflection of the character of that God. You see, that's why when we meet tonight at the Lord's table, the main command at the Lord's table is to do what? To remember. God invites us to remember. And it's not just recalling to mind. There's much more involved in it than that.
And we are going to discuss that some tonight. But we are called to remember because remembering for us is so important because we are so prone to forget. If you have any question about that, read the Old Testament.
If you have any question about that, look at your life. We have testimony of it this morning and every one of us can relate to that. We are called to remember and remembering is so important. And the living God invites us to remember. Not only does he invite us to remember, but the living God invites us to return. He invites us to return.
Why? Because we have walked away from him. We have set our sights low. We have settled for the dumpster when he offers us a banquet table. And we think we know better. But we are invited to return to him.
Why? Because we have looked for satisfaction somewhere else. The Bible frequently describes God as a jealous spouse. And I like what Paul Copan in his book entitled Is God a Moral Monster says. He asked this question. When can jealousy be a good thing? Because God is described as a jealous God, isn't he?
In God's case, it's when we're running around the garbage piles of life and avoiding the source of satisfaction. See, he thinks like I do. That was a joke. Lighten up. Because he wrote that.
A wife, listen to this, a wife who doesn't get jealous and angry when another woman is flirting with her husband isn't really committed to the marriage relationship. Outrage, pain, anguish, these are the appropriate responses to such deep violation. God isn't some abstract entity or impersonal principle. We should be amazed that the creator of the universe would so deeply connect himself to human beings that he would open himself to sorrow and anguish in the face of human rejection and betrayal.
Wow. You see, he is the living God. He's not just an object.
He's not a thing. Thanks for joining us here at Delight in Grace. You've been listening to Rich Powell, the lead pastor at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. The Delight in Grace mission is to help you know that God designed you to realize your highest good and your deepest satisfaction in him, the one who is infinitely good. We hope you'll join us again on weekdays at 10 a.m.
