Welcome to Delight in Grace, the teaching ministry of Rich Powell, pastor of Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. In Isaiah 47-8, God speaks to Babylon, saying, Hear this now, you who are given to pleasures, who dwell securely, who say in your heart, I am, and there is no other besides me. Throughout the chapter, God has severe warnings for Babylon, a nation often symbolic in Scripture of organized rebellion against God through self-exaltation. Humanity is greatly drawn to self-preeminence, but it is God who rules in the kingdom of man.
Without Him, we're lost. Every other object of trust, including a trust in our own selves, will leave us utterly unsatisfied. This is part 3 of a message from the Isaiah series titled Behold Your God.
It was first preached on May 19, 2013 at Grace Bible Church in Winston-Salem. To hear the entire message, check out www.delightingrace.com. That's what they're trusting.
Very common, very easy to do, a very natural thing to do. The Phoenix Wealth Management Survey presents this. They surveyed some senior corporate executives and they presented these results that 99% of them credit their current status to hard work. Hard work is a good thing, but think of that. They credit their current status to hard work, and that may be a part of it as long as they recognize it as stewardship. 97% of them credit their current status to intelligence and good sense. 83% credit their current status to higher than average IQ. Think about that. Most people think they have a higher than average IQ. That means that leaves nobody for the lower than average IQ. Just think about that for a while, okay? Deal with our hubris here.
62% of them credit their current status to being the best in every situation. You see, what they are judging is their current status. But you know what? That current status comes to an end. And then what? This is something that Babylon didn't consider because as far as she was concerned, we're good to go.
We're around for the long haul. She did not consider her end. And God says, what are you trusting? Your spirituality? Are you trusting your own ability to self-perpetuate and sustain yourself?
Thirdly, are you trusting your individuality? Verse 10, no one sees me. At the end of the verse, I am and there is no one else beside me.
No one sees me. You know what that is? That is the voice of moral relativity. That is the voice, the self-affirmation of self-reference.
Whatever I want is good for me. There is no accountability for me outside of myself. And that's what they were trusting. They were the final judges of themselves. This brings us then in the context of this chapter to verse four. Verse four just doesn't seem to fit in to the rest of the context. But it stands out like a diamond against the black background. Verse four, as for our Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.
What is that? That is the specific name of the only one who can rescue. The specific name of the only one who is worthy of exaltation and trust. There is in Isaiah, chapter forty seven, verse four, an exclusive theology.
And it is a false and destructive theology if you are not trusting this specific object of trust that has a name, the Holy One of Israel. He is the Creator Redeemer, the uniqueness of God. He stands alone. He has no rivals, no competitors, no equals. Especially not myself.
Especially not myself. This brings us to the third, the final question then. So if you're serving your purpose, he says to Baba, if you're serving your purpose and you are trusting these objects of trust that are not your Creator Redeemer, then how's that working for you? If you think you're living your purpose and your object of trust is something other than your Creator Redeemer, how's that working for you? Remember, the Lord speaks prophetically here.
These historic events have not even happened yet. God is omniscient and he sees everything right here, right now, simultaneously, completely, perfectly. And so he's giving us a preview. He does this in other places in Scripture as well.
Let me just give you a couple of examples. Luke's Gospel, there's a couple of them. Luke chapter 12. There was a man who was a successful businessman and he goes to bed thinking, you know, I am so successful, I don't even have enough room to store all my stuff. So he goes and he starts a self storage unit.
You thought it all started around here this century, right? He builds more self storage units and he fills them up and he goes to bed one night sleeping comfortable in his current status. And he says, take your ease.
You've got it made. And what did God call him that night? You fool. You're living your purpose, trusting all of these things that are not your creator redeemer.
How's that working for you? He discovered that there is no hearse dragging a U-Haul. There's another one in Luke chapter 16. There's only one name given in and it's Lazarus. The other man was just a rich man and it wasn't the riches, it was his objects of trust. But he fared sumptuously every day. And the Lord gives us a glimpse of the hereafter.
He takes us beyond the current status. Lazarus dies and he goes to the side of Abraham. The rich man dies not because he's rich, but because his riches were his object of trust. He did not acknowledge God and he goes to a place of torment. And God's question to him was, you lived for yourself, you lived for your own purpose, you trusted objects that were not your creator redeemer.
How's that working for you now? And his basic answer was, this is awful, this isn't working. And I'm so concerned for my brothers, please go back and have somebody tell them it doesn't work. And God says they have the scriptures. You see, God gives us a preview. If you're living your own purpose and you are trusting objects that are not your creator redeemer, how's that working for you?
He gives us what it looks like. Verse 9. These two things shall come to you in a moment in one day, the loss of children and widowhood. She will be destitute. She will be in despair.
She will have nothing else to live for and keep her going. And secondly, we find in verse 11 and also in verses one to four, the Lord says, verse 11, therefore, evil shall come upon you. You shall not know from where it arises and trouble shall fall upon you.
You will not be able to put it off and desolation shall come upon you suddenly, which you shall not know. And that's the picture that we have in the first three verses of this chapter. She is a luxurious princess, comfortable, full of pleasure and satisfaction in her current status. But then she is diminished to a humiliated slave.
And in her desolation, there's nothing left to satisfy her. Verse 15. Thus, they shall be to you with whom you have labored your merchants from your youth.
They shall wander each one to his quarter. No one shall save you. There is nothing or no one to sustain you or to rescue you from the despair of nothing to live for.
All your objects of trust have abandoned you. Aren't you glad that the Lord in his sovereignty, the Lord in his omniscience and his kindness and his graciousness gives us this preview? Listen, having known this, having read this, having understood this, it makes no sense to live for your own purpose and trust something other than the creator redeemer because it doesn't work.
It will not work for you. There will come a day when you will regret it. The Lord gives us a glimpse of this also in the 73rd Psalm. In Psalm 73, the psalmist is lamenting to a degree. He's looking at all the prosperous and the comfortable people, the people who are making it in life. And he says, Lord, all these people that are making it, so many of them that are making it, they don't acknowledge you. They think they're living for their purpose. They're not trusting you at all. And look it, they're okay.
They're really happy with life. And the psalmist about had a crisis of faith, thinking it's really not worth it to trust God. They're making it, I'm not, and I'm trusting God. And then he says, in verse 17, until I went into the sanctuary of God.
What does that mean? He got into the quiet place and he beheld God as God has manifested himself. And as he recognized God and the uniqueness of God, the omniscience of God and the sovereignty of God and the goodness of God. Then he saw the big picture and his crisis of faith ended when he recognized, then I understood their end. 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 10am.
