Isaiah 41:21-29

0:01 All right, Isaiah chapter forty one. Today we finish Isaiah chapter forty one. Then we'll do kind of a study on the transition between forty one and forty two. Then next week we begin forty two. On the way here, I was listening to a sermon on Isaiah forty two, and well, I got to stop listening to sermons. That's all I can say, because it was bad and it's supposedly a sermon on Isaiah forty two. It's actually a sermon about John chapter nine. But man, alive. I thought about just driving the car off the road and just ending it because I'm like, I can't, man, the things people do with the text of scripture some just crazy statements.

0:47 So I will probably review that maybe today because man, I know what the person was trying to say probably was a positive thing, but man, you can't say that to people, so so I'll probably be looking at that. But once again, whenever we're in Isaiah forty to fifty five, Acts twenty seven's become the big focus now on the podcast. We just constantly see pastor after pastor take these passages of scripture and doing crazy things with them. So we're doing our best to try to make it through Isaiah forty through fifty five as carefully as we can using approaching it exogetically so that we're trying to understand what it says by the words that it means. We're not trying to read into the text. We're not trying to do is Jesus. We're trying to pull from the text Exajesus.

1:37 And that's what we're going to try to do. And this hour is finished, and the section that we are on as Isaiah forty one, does anybody know? Twenty one through twenty nine? That's what we have left, twenty one through twenty nine. Right, we're going to kind of refer to this. I think if we kind of go with her observational outline, we refer to this something about the powerlessness of idols and the sovereignty of God, something along those lines. This final section of Isaiah forty one, does anyone remember? It kind of provides us like a dramatic courtroom scene. Right. We could almost kind of turn this into a narrative if we wanted to, but I'm not going to approach it that way. But if I was doing on the podcast, I may this is a dramatic courtroom scene in which God challenges the idols and false gods of the nations primarily and again, I cannot stress this enough. Over and over we talk about this. Why is God so concerned with challenging those in Babylonian captivity about the idols? Why we talked about this. We spend an entire what hour maybe two hours talking about the idolatry of Babylon. That's the reason why, right, because they are there and what do they see around them? Idols?

2:58 What in their mind would they connect those idols with the destruction of Jerusalem, the destruction of the temple, and their captivity, which from a practical standpoint, would make it look like who's the most powerful? The gods of Babylon, not the God of Israel? All right, And not only that, because they've been there for how many years? They're going to be there totally for seventy years. Many of these people are kind of born and raised within this religious structure. So when they come out, what does God not want them to bring with them the idolatry of Babylon Because we know Israel has a problem with idolatry. We go through the entire bubble because all humans have a problem with idolatry, right, So he's challenging the idols and the false gods of the nations. Throughout Isaiah forty one, God has demonstrated his sovereignty over history, the raising up of a deliverer, which we identify. Ask Cyrus, everybody remember that, Okay, strengthening his people Israel and providing for their needs. Now he's going to put the idols on trial to prove that they are powerless, contrasting his omniscience, his omnipotence, with their absolute and ability to control history. Right now, On one hand, this makes sense. On the other hand, it should lead anyone who's there and anyone sitting in the

4:30 pew that this is someone at times difficult to process. Right, Well, if God is omniscient, if God is omnipotent, then how did Israel ever end up in this situation in the first place? Because God knew what was going to happen. He is omnipotent. He could stop it, he could prevent it, but he does not, all right, So that's always and the Christian answer. It's very difficult because on one hand we have to say this, on the other hand, it doesn't make any sense. Right, when we look at the world and we see this tragedy and this horrible thing, and this horrible thing, and this horrible thing and this horrible thing, we still confess and we still profess that God is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent, right, even when we see everything around us that would seem to indicate, well, if God is omniscient, God is omnipotent, and God is omnipresent, then why doesn't he do something about it? So Christianity is always in this weird position of trying to tell everyone that there's an all powerful, all knowing, all present God.

5:40 Yet murder, rape, child molestation, child abuse, starvation, disease, plague, theft, backbindying, gossip, slander, false accusations, on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on and on. Yet when so everyone sees all of that, and we still tell everyone there was a God, he is loving, he's all powerful, and at times it seems contradictory, and we have to acknowledge that. If we don't acknowledge that, then there and even right here, people just say, well, okay, God, you're telling me. God is omniscient and omnipotent. But guess what, his temple got destroyed, his city got destroyed by these gods.

6:23 So it'd be very difficult to try to convince the people of that, right, So that's why this is occurring, all right, So I'm going to read Isaiah forty one twenty one through twenty nine. I'm going to read. I'll read it from the ESV to start with. Obviously I'll be referencing to the King James through most of it, but I want you to hear it from a different translation. Most of you have the King James, so they be referencing that there, but I will be. I mean, I use the King James to teach, but just that I have the ESV text copied here. Right, So are you ready Isaiah forty one twenty one through twenty nine. Set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proof, says the King of Jacob. Right, so you see how that already sets up to come to the courtroom drama. Right, if I go to the King James, produce your cause, say it the Lord, bring forth your strong reasons, say it the King of Jacob, or set forth your case, or bring your proofs. So it's being called to lack a court case. That's where we get this idea, that is a courtroom setting. What happens in twenty two. Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen.

7:34 Tell us the former things what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome, or declare to us the things to come. If I read from the King James, let them bring forth them forth and show us what shall happen. Let them show the former things what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter in of them, or declare us things for to come. Basically, come forth and do what tell us the past and tell us the future. Kind of idea, Yes, all right, Verse twenty three. Tell us what is to come hereafter that we may know things that you are gods do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Or the King James says, show the things that are to come hereafter that we may know that you are God, may do good or do evil, that we may be dismayed and behold it together.

8:29 So basically, these idols are being called to do what show their omniscience or showing their knowledge and show their action. Do something that's kind of the concept here verse twenty four. Behold what okay, you are less nothing, or you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing, as the esp says, an abomination is he who chooses you? Hey, these idols are nothing, and it's an abomination if you choose nothing or less than nothing. I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun.

9:20 He shall call upon my name. He shall trample on rulers as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. Now right there, twenty five. This is God now saying he's done? What what has God done? In twenty five? Yeah, Cyrus, Yes, this is Cyrus. Once again Cyrus is being mentioned here. This is Cyrus. Okay, Cyrus is coming from the north. And what is he going to do? He shall trample on rulers as on mortar, and as the porter treads clay. He's gonna just take over. He's going to be the conqueror.

10:01 He's the coming conqueror. Right verse twenty six. Who declared it from the beginning that we might know, and beforehand that we might say he is right? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words it was I was the first to say to Zion, behold here they are, and I give to Jerusalem a herald of good news. But when I look, there is no one among these, There is no counselor who, when I ask, gives an answer. Behold, they are all a delusion, and their works are nothing. Their metal images are empty wind. So he calls them. I mean, it's pretty straightforward. This is It's not difficult. The only thing someone may have a little bit of difficulty with is the one he's raising up from the north. Someone may have a little bit of difficulty there. Everything else here is very simple and very straightforward. Even if you can't identify the one coming from the north, the one coming from the north, it is very clear in the text. What is the one from the north going to do? Conquer? Trample right right, tread over right. So clearly whoever this is is a conqueror.

11:08 And in their context, all we need to do is a little bit of history. We know, Cyrus comes, and Cyrus is from whom, what nation? Persia? And they defeat or conquer or take over the Babylonians. All right, so we did. All you got to know is a little history, and then there's nothing complicated here. It's very simple. It's very straightforward. All right, So let's now focus on the context and the structure. We've been following the same format. We'll look at the immediate context, then we'll look at a structural breakdown. All right, we just read it. I just kind of explained it. You already understand this. We've already talked about this in the observational outline. By this point, you guys should be experts on these chapters because we cover each thing about five different ways. Okay, So here's the immediate context Isaiah. Will we'll just look at all in Isaiah forty one. Forty one one through seven was the first section. What was that about? We've now covered e like seventy five times, God sovereignty over nations and raising up Cyrus as a deliverer. Please note the first section talks about raising Cyrus up as a deliverer. Where is Cyrus mentioned in the first section of forty one one through seven, who raised up the righteous man from the east, called him to his foot, gave the nations before him, and made him rule over kings. All right, So, and it interesting he's in the first section and he's now mentioned in the last section. Just keep that in mind, all right. So we have Cyrus. Then the second section

12:41 that's God's sovereignty over nations, and his sovereignty is demonstrating and raising up Cyrus. All right. Number two or the second part of this immediate context is the second section, which is forty one eight through thirteen. What was the focus here forty one eight through thirteen, God's assurance to Israel. Yeah, we gave this in the observational outline, God's assurance to Israel, promising his protection and presence. What is the main thing we need to remember verses eight through thirteen that this is promises to Israel. This promises to is You can't go in there instill any of these promises. You can't apply it to the church. In fact, it's very clear verse eight. But thou Israel, arn't my servant, Jacob, whom I have chosen the seed of Abraham, my friend. Please note my servant in forty one to eight is whom No.

13:46 Forty one eight Israel. Please note that Israel is my servant. Keep that in mind, all right, because this servant thing becomes a major part of Isaiah forty through fifty five right, keep that in mind. Okay, so we've already identified one. Clearly, there's no question who the servant is in forty one eight. Who is it Israel? Everyone should know that, right, Just keep that in mind. It's gonna be a big deal as we go through this. Okay, we're gonna have to take a lot of time because we're gonna get into some controversial situations here as we move forward. But there it's clear. Now hermoneutically, what does that mean? Well, if my servant is identified in forty one eight, what does that tell you moving forward? If we save the phrase again, what should you do? Well, you identified as Israel? And unless what unless the text tells you something others because it was just identified in forty one eight. Correct, that's a basic hermoneutical role. That's not even hermeneutics, Say, I guess it's hermaeneutics. It's just basic reading comprehension. Right. If something is identified later but it was identified than the earlier identification carries on unless something is redefined later on.

15:06 I mean, it's just a basic rule. I don't know why churches can't follow that, but it's not that complicated. Okay, So keep that in mind. So forty. The second section forty one eight through thirteen is God's assurance to Israel, promising his protection and presence. What it's the third section We covered it all last week now fourteen through twenty God's transformation of Israel, turning their weakness into strength. And once again we know it's about Israel. How do we know it's about Israel? Look at verse fourteen, worm Jacob and you men of Israel. I will help Thee Saith, the Lord and thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel. Behold.

15:48 I will make THEE who is the Thee Israel. I will make THEE a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth. He's going to do that to Israel, not Church, not you. It has nothing to do with you. It has everything to do with Israel. We've identified that, correct. So that brings us now to today. Isaiah forty one, twenty one through twenty nine is going to be about the trial of the Idols, proving they are powerless. Everybody got that, all right? We should know that by heart. At this point we've covered it and literally I don't even know how many times we've covered this now a lot. Okay, So we when we did. Remember, we did an entire observational outline of forty all the way through fifty five.

16:32 Then we did an observational outline of forty We did an observational outline of forty one. We'll do the same thing with forty two. The reason we do the observational outlines is even if you don't remember all the details, you should at least remember the sections. So that Yeah, that's why we're covering it that way. All right, Now that's the immediate context. How about the structural breakdown. Now we're going to do the structural breakdown of the last section, which is twenty one through twenty nine. And once I give you the structural breakdown, we could just go home because we're done. Because really I'm already going to explain it, and then I'm just going to explain it again. I'm just I'm using every system of repetition I can so that we get this down. All right, structural breakdown the first twenty one through twenty four. Look at twenty one through twenty four. What do we see basically twenty one through twenty four, this is the legal challenge. We saw that in twenty one. Do we not hey, produce your cause, bring forth your reasons, bring forth your proofs. Right, this is the legal challenge. And basically, can idols predict or control history? And what's the answer? No, they cannot predict or control history. God can. Now the minute I say God can, what should you do? You should raise your hand and go Well, if God controls history, he's obviously not very good at its job. Everyone then charge should say that. I know you're not allowed to say that in church, but in churches where you should say it

18:04 because you don't want to say it in church, But you walk out the door and guess what the people out there will say that your God is in control of history. Well, let me tell you the story of human history, right, I mean we can just where do you want to go? Hitler nine to eleven Spanish flu I mean I can just go on where do you want to go? Right? I mean I can go through wars, I can go through plagues, I can go through disease, I can go through disaster, I can go through horrible tragedy. I can go through horrible horrible things being done, torture, war, murder, right, people's lands being taken from them, slavery. I mean where do you want? The human history is filled with what abject horror and evil. So the minute we say well, who's in control? If we say God, God, does I not raise about nine hundred philosophical questions. It does. And even if we take it, that's kind of abstract. If we just look to our own lives, Well, if God is in control of history, is he control of my history? Well?

19:15 If he's in control of my history, I got a lot of questions. Again, depending on any church you have some people sitting in church going, Yes, God's been in control of my history, and it's been a wonderful life. Had a good mother, good father, life was wonderful, great, had all that I needed. And then someone else is going to be sitting two pews behind you going and I was molested for fifteen years. That makes it difficult. So it's one thing for to stand behind the pulp put and tell everyone God is in control. Everyone in church will say amen, But we don't think of the practical implications of that. The practical implications are staggering. And I don't have good answers for it. I don't have good answer. Nobody has good answers. I've heard all the answers Christians tried to give you, but they're all, what is the what is the the number one go to answer whenever I point out all of that evil when Christians constantly will say, if you if you bring this up at the dinner table and you're you're having dinner with other Christians, what are they going to immediately put the blame on? There's only two answers. There's only two ways that they're going to put the blame. Okay, They're gonna say, well, God gave man free will, right, that's the Does that fix the problem? No? Because because the one who gave free will is also what what's the attribute omniscient? Meaning he knew what free will would do and yet he did it? Okay, that's it? So who's

20:48 still responsible? God? And not only that? What else is the second? Go to Satan? Well, who made Satan? Who can? Who could get rid of sating at any moment in time? God? Who did not? And at least he can very do his tie him up and put him away from everyone? Right? Did not? Yeah? And you know I say, was it before he created it? It is the most all you can't just wrap your mind around. And what bothers me is, and I'll make it very clear what ticks me off about Christians is the arrogance not to acknowledge the philosophical dilemma that Christianity persists. The arrogance that like we've got it all figured out and we've got the end stopping.

21:41 You don't have any answers, you don't even have the right questions. Okay, stop it. Christianity does not provide any comfort to anyone. It provides you nothing but a never ending series of questions with no good answers. At least Job had the decency at the end of basically say what I'm gonna stop talking. And that's what many Christians need to do. Stop talking, because we don't have any good ants. We think we do, but man, it is. It is. When you say God is in control of everything, the implications of that are staggering. It's troubling. It may not be troubling when you're sitting in the pew and you're just a church like I don't care, I'm just gonna go home and have lunch, But man, just go I don't know. Take five minutes to read the news, take five minutes to go to the Roy's Report or the Christian Post. Just look at article after article about this child was molested in church, or this child was sexually abused and this child was sexually abused and this child was sexually abused, and that's inside the church. You think God could at least control what goes on inside the church, right, And it is weird. On one hand, we act as if as Christians constantly act like God is constantly intervening. Is that a common thing amongst Christians?

23:10 God intervenes here? God, That's why we pray, right, because most people pray as if God will intervene. But if God is intervening, well, then that just raises a million other questions. So just that last part that you know, the idea or this part, first part of the structural breakdown, verses twenty one through twenty four. Can idols predict or control history? The obvious answer is they can't. But the answer is that God can, and that just only raises more questions. All right, what happens in verse twenty five, So we have the legal challenge in twenty one through twenty four twenty five we have evidence what's God? Yeah, God raises up or a ruler from the north Cyrus.

23:54 Cyrus is proof or evidence of what God. God is in control. God is in control. God is in control. Now. If God can intervene and bring forth Cyrus, then that means God can intervene and do what fix and solve problems? Okay, that becomes issue. What happens in verses twenty six through twenty seven, well six through twenty seven? Who hath declared the beginning that we may know and before time that you may say he is righteous? Yay? There is none that showeth. Yeah, there is none that declareth. This is really the failure of idols to foretell events. The idols can't do it. They fell, all right, So we have the legal challenge. We have the evidence, we have the failure in the what do we have in twenty eight through twenty nine? We have basically the final verdict? And what is the final verdict? Idols are worthless delusions. They're worthless delusions. So idols are worth fluss delusions. But God is knowledgeable, God is powerful. But that I want to make it very clear that truth of God is true.

25:10 You're regardless of everything around us that would say opposite to that. Okay, there's the structural breakdown. Right, we got that. You are you already understand the chap. You don't even really need my help to do anything else. All right, Well, let's now break it down. We'll now do in exegetical analysis. All we're gonna do is repeat really that structural breakdown, all right. What's the first section in the structural breakdown? Twenty one through twenty four? Right, and this is the legal challenge, correct? All right? And what is the legal challenge against the idols? Set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proof, says the King of Jacob. This is the courtroom scene. Right. Basically, it's gonna be can idols predict or control history? So I'm gonna break this part down into I'll just break it into three parts, no, four parts, No, okay, we'll just we'll just go through twenty one through twenty four and we'll just see how we want to handle this. All right, So set forth your case, says the Lord. Bring your proofs says the King of Jacob. We have the courtroom scene. We can all agree there. Set forth your case. God summons the idols and their worshippers to defend themselves. Bring your proof.

26:21 It is a challenge to prove their divinity by demonstrating knowledge and power over history. So God sends out the summons, bring your proof, very simple, very straightforward. All right. Then he gives them a challenge, basically, to foretell the future. Let them bring them and tell us what is to happen. Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know the outcome, or declare to us the things to come. Idols cannot reveal history or prophecy. God controls time itself, whereas idols are powerless to declare past or future events. It's pretty simple, pretty simple, pretty straightforward. There's the courtroom scene, there's the challenge to foretell the future. Right. What is the basic idea here? Is that the ability to predict and control history is a divine attribute, something that God possesses, only God possesses. Look at Isaiah forty six and tell me what you find in verses nine to ten. Forty six Isaiah forty six nine through ten. Tell me what you find there? Is it relevant or is it not relevant?

27:37 You tell me forty six nine through ten. What do we see? Forty six nine through ten? I will read it forty six verse nine. Remember the former things of old. For I am God, and there is no one else. I am God. There is none like me. And then what makes God so different than everyone else? Look at verse ten? What does God do? He declares the end from the beginning and from ancient times to the things that are not yet done, saying my coustle shall stand and I will do all my pleasure. That's basically forty six nine through ten is the whole thing idols. He's asking the idols to do these things. They cannot do them because only God can do them. God controls history.

28:49 It is a divine attribute. He can predict and control. It is something that only God possesses, and we see that in Isaiah forty six nine through ten. All right, so basically we have the courtroom scene, we have the challenge to foretell the future, and then number three we have the call for idols to act. Tell us what is to come hereafter that we may know what you what you that you are God's do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. God is sarcastically inviting idols to do anything, do something good or bad because it will prove your power. And then, in contrast, God is actively evolved in world affairs, while idols remain lifeless. Now, on one hand, we like that, right, idols do something, But I'm gonna be very honest with you, that can be flipped around. Can it not? God do something? So just note that this, this argument given against the idols can be turned against God. If we can't acknowledge that, then there's no point coming to church, right if you just want to come to church to pretend something that the real world doesn't exist. But the real world exists.

30:12 So there we go. So what do we have here. We have a courtroom seeing, we have the challenge to foretell the future. We have a call for idols to act, and then we'll go with the verdict. Idols are nothing. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing. And abomination is he who chooses you. You are nothing. It's a declaration of total worthlessness and abomination. It is a strong term used for detestable idolatry. Look at Deuteronomy seven. Look at Deuteronomy seven. I think verse twenty five. So I ended up did breaking it down into four parts.

30:56 But that's okay. I'll put it all back together here in a second. It makes sense from an outline format. Deuteronomy seven twenty five. What do you find in Deuteronomy seven twenty five? Deuteronomy seven twenty five, everybody see it? The graven images of their gods show you burn with fire. They shall not desire the silver or the gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee lest they'll be snared therein, for it is an abomination to the Lord, thy God. God has been warning them against idolatry all the way back there. You're to destroy them. It's detestable, it's it's an abomination. All right? So how do we break down this first section and our structural breakdown? This is twenty one through twenty four. This is a legal challenge.

31:54 What do we have? We have the courtroom set, the courtroom scene, courtroom scene set, if I could speak correctly, all right, we see that. Then we have the challenges to foretell the future. Then we saw the call for the idols to act, and then we have the verdict that idols are nothing right. That gets us through twenty one through twenty four. Now we come to verse twenty five. What do we have in verse twenty five Isaiah forty one twenty five what happens in verse twenty five. Yes, we have the evidence of God's sovereign control. And what is that evidence? In twenty five he stirs up from one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun. And he shall call upon my name.

32:39 He shall trample on rulers, as on mortar, as the potter treads clay. Right, So let's break this down. We'll break this down into two major parts. Who is the one from the north. Most scholars agree this refers to Cyrus the Great, who would conquer Babylon and free Israel. Look at Isaiah four twenty eight, Isaiah forty four to twenty eight. What do you have in Isaiah forty four twenty eight? Very important passage that saith of Cyrus, he is my what is he my shepherd? He shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou should be built, and the temple thy foundation shall be laid. Why does he refer to in forty five to one? Thus says the Lord to his anointed right to you, that's even a stronger word than servant to his anointed. To Cyrus, whose right hand I have holding subdue nations before him, I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. There's the opening of the gates that Sarah pointed out in history about how that he just walks in.

34:06 They opened the gates for him. He's God's anointed, he is god shepherd. So he is the proof. He is the evidence of God's sovereign control over history. Who is the one from the north. He is Cyrus, from the north, from the rising of the Sun. Persia was east of Babylon, but It's military campaigns came from the north. Did everyone hear that Persia was what east of Babylon, but It's military campaigns came from the north. That's how we get the east and the north. That's how we get both there. Okay, right, we talked about that before. Okay, everybody got that. So what is the evidence of God's sovereign control and history?

34:54 What is God's evidence? Cyrus? Cyrus is God's evidence. Cyrus is God's evidence. Okay. He asks basically for the idols to produce something they can't God's like, here's my he gives. So what kind of evidence does God give them? Something tangible? Something can be seen Cyrus, Sorry, but which means God's intervention through And then this is very important. The evidence God provides is it supernatural, it's basically ordinary means. God's evidence he gives them is God working through ordinary means.

35:34 And we remember ordinary means are complicated. Why are ordinary means complicated because they look ordinary? Oh yeah, yeah, Now the fact it's all predicted, Yes, that's very very powerful, very powerful. Right, So it does demonstrate for there's a supernatural element of being predicted beforehand. So that's true. But it's gonna happen through an ordinary means. So unless you know the prediction, it looks just very ordinary. So I think that's very important to see. Right, So we have forty one twenty five is the evidence of God's sovereignty. So we have first who is the one from the north. Second, he shall call upon my name. Sarrius was not a worshiper of the God of Israel, but he acknowledged Yahway's role or God's role in his victories. Look at Ezra chapter one, verse two, Ezra chapter one, verse two. What happens in Ezra chapter one, verse two, Ezra chapter one. Yes, everyone should be half everyone should be super familiar with Ezra chapter one. All right, look at verse one of Ezra chapter one, just so that there's no confusion. Now,

37:09 in the first year of Ezra chapter one, verse one, and that first year of Cyrus, king of Persia, that the word of the Lord Maya by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled. The Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus, the king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and put it in writing, saying, thus saith Cyrus, king of Persia. The Lord God of Heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he hath charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Now, why is this important?

37:54 You need to know Ezra because in Isaiah forty one it's the idea. And when we read it again, I stirred up the one. This is Isaiah forty one twenty five. I stirred up one from the north, and he has come from the rising of the sun, and he shall call upon my name. Well, it doesn't mean that he's a true worshiper of God. However, he acknowledges God absolutely is involved in the situation. Does he not? Where do you see that? Ezra Chapter one, verse two. God directs even a pagan ruler for his purpose, and that pagan ruler even knows it's the God of Israel that is directing and is calling him to do something right. Unlike the idols, God actively controls history, using human rulers to fulfill his will. But once again we are once again confronted with what reality. God controls history that is not a comforting reality. I cannot state that again. Cover you find in it. I can find you a million things uncomfortable about it, but it's still the thing that's being proclaimed here. Right, So we were just going through the structural breakdown. Right, We've looked at the legal challenge, right, the legal challenge against idols. We broke that down into four parts, a courtroom scene, the challenge to foretell the future, a call for idols to act, and the verdict that they are nothing. Then we came to the next section

39:26 and our structural breakdown Isaiah forty one to twenty five, the evidence of God's sovereign control over history. We broke it down into two parts. Who is the one from the north? He shall call upon my name? Then we come to number three Isaiah forty one, twenty six through twenty seven. The failure of idols to foretel future events or to foretel events. Remember the verses twenty six through twenty seven. Who declared it from the beginning that we might know and beforehand that we might say he is right? There was none who declared it, none who proclaimed, none who heard your words. We break this down into two parts, the idol silence and God's prophetic role. The idol silence is pretty simple. No false gods had foretold the rise of Cyrus or controlled world events. The failure to predict it, predict predict events proves that idols are powerless. The false gods did not foretell. First, false gods did not see it, did not understand it. Their failure prediction, our failure to predict proves that they are powerless. God's prophetic role. I was first to say to Zion, behold here they are, and I give your Jerusalem a herald of good news.

40:45 God alone had declared Israel's deliverance beforehand. The idols are silent. God had spoken. I mean, it's pretty simple, it's pretty straightforward. The idols fail for to foretell these events the idols fail to do that. That's what we see. In twenty six through twenty seven. The idols were silent, but God spoke. God had revealed. So the divinity is proven by foreknowledge and fulfillment of prophecy. And only God has this ability. God proves himself by his ability to know what's going to happen, predict what's going to happen, control what's going to happen, and ensure prophecy is fulfilled. Right, everybody, God.

41:30 That brings us to the last section, which is twenty eight through twenty nine. We already gave you the structural breakdown, now about fifty times the final verdict. Right, twenty eight through twenty nine, the final verdict. But when I look, there is no one among these. There is no counselor whom I ask give an answer. No idol can provide wisdom or direction. Behold, they are all a delusion. Their works are nothing, their mental image are an empty win. Right, So a delusion, meaningless chaotic nothingness, empty win. Idols have no power, no wisdom, no ability to act. Idolatry is not just misguided, it's entirely empty and futile. So don't look to the idols, look to God now for Judah, for those in Babylonian captivity, this is a little bit easier to grasp. Why why is this going to be easier for Juda to grasp than for us to grasp. Well, God's literally doing something, right, Okay, Right, They've been in Babylonian captivity for almost seventy years or ever how long you know, they're going to be there for seventy years, and God is now getting ready to do what He's going to intervene in a tangible way. Correct, The idols

43:04 aren't going to do anything. Cyrus is going to do something. When Cyrus comes walking through the gate, they should all know immediately God is doing something. It's tangible. It's not theoretical. It's not a lesson in church, it's not a seminary course. It's literal, actually going to happen in literal real time, that a literal man by the name of Cyrus is literally going to come take over Babylon and literally going to let the people go gather everything that they need so that they can go back and rebuild the Temple and rebuild Jerusalem. Everything is material, it's literal, it's physical, it's not theoretical, so it's much easier to grasp. Do we have that same assurance that God is literally physically materially going to intervene in your situation and fix it and make it better? No, we do not. And if you tell anyone that you are a liar and you should be knocked upside the head for giving people fraugilent information, there is no tangible proof for that in this life.

44:15 Now we hold to that God will materially physically intervene and the future and glorification, right, but not hearing now, I don't have any guarantee that God's going to intervene to fix my situation, which makes it complicated right now. In some ways we can relate because they were in captivity for how long seventy years? That's a pretty normal lifespan for people at that time, right, Remember, the long ages are long over at this point, right, that's long done with gon So now people the Bible talks about living what seventy seventy five by strength is kind of like the Biblical God. Now we can say what that's referring to. We get into hold the Hermonuda discussion there, But that's seventy. I mean, even if you look at the life expectancy in the world today seventy you know, once you get to seventy the end is near. Can we agree? When you get into it now, some may live to be eighty, some may live to be ninety, some may live to be one hundred. But I'm saying, if you take the majority, once you get into the seventies, between seventy and seventy nine, for most the end is coming, right.

45:26 So if they're there for seventy years, many of them are already olderver time they get there, so they're going to be gone by the end of that seventy And many are born in there, so that the time is coming to an end. So in many cases they live their life without seeing what God's intervention. I don't see Cyrus because many of them are dead before Cyrus comes on the scene. Right, So we can relate to that. We live our life professing and claiming what that are. God is in control. God, our God is all powerful, Our God is all knowing. Yet we live life that over and over and over circumstances seem to indicate what that God is not in control, that God is not all knowing we have to acknowledge that. Watch the news, it does not look like God is in control of anything, pain, suffering, death, It's just never ending tragedy after tragedy after tragedy, mass shootings, this happens, This happens. For some point you're like, forget it.

46:31 So what we have to hold to is just like they had to hold on to because remember these words a comfort are given to them about one hundred years even before they go into captivity. So this would have made like, well, you know, how do you even process this? Well, we have these words about there's coming a new heaven and a new earth, no more pain, no more suffering, no more death, a glorified body. But for the meantime we live in a sense our seventy years kind of going Where's God? The truth of God is true, irregardless of circumstances. Now, from a philosophical standpoint, that we kind of rig the debate, I mean I don't like it from that standpoint, right, Like, if we're truly having an intellectual debate, Christians don't really function well in an intellectual capacity because we kind of just simply say, well, God is God and it doesn't matter what the proof says right.

47:23 But that's that's the problem with that's the difficulty of theism. We claim a truth about a God that seems that everything around it defies that very concept, but we still believe it. So we have to wait to see the fulfillment just as well. Many of them never got to see the fulfillment, like many of us will never. Truly, we're not going to see Christ's return in our lifetime. We're going to be dead. And that's that's happened over and over and over again. Right, So what are the theological themes? What do you think the theological themes? And I usually don't give these, I skip these every single time. What stillological themes of Isaiah forty one? Okay, God's sovereignty over history is clearly there, right, God controls world events unlike powerless idols. Again, I love saying God controls. I mean I've been I mean obviously all my degrees in theology, so I've been told this a million times. God controls world events. God is in control of everything. God is in control of everything. God is in control of everything.

48:24 It preaches. It sounds so good sitting in a Saturday, sitting in seminary. Yeah, an all day class and seminary. God is in control of everything, and everybody's like amen. But the minute I say God is in control of everything, okay, well just make it more personal than your own life. I want God to be control of everything because I because God is in control of everything I do. Then the what would that then mean? Have God? I mean if we say God is in control of everything, that includes everything, right, I mean, okay, well then you would think we would never sin. But because we sin raises some serious theological issues, right, because that means if God is in control, but he doesn't stop me. Put it this way, God is in control. What is one fact that every Christian has to acknowledge that Nobody in any church wants to acknowledge God is in control. Yet he did not get rid of our sinful nature? That's a fact. Right. Well, if he didn't get rid of our sinful nature, what is the implication? I know nobody wants to say it.

49:49 What is the implication he obviously then wants and to continue. I mean, if you if you keep the verything, what's the thing that causes us to sin? Said nature? God knows it's there, he doesn't get rid of it. That's that's a that's the ramifications of that are not pretty Right, Sarah commits a sin. Sarah's doing what you're doing, what is natural to you. Right, I'll borrow a phrase used in the LGBT community. You were born that way? Right?

50:40 Christians don't like to hear that that homosexual could be born that way. I don't know why we have such a problem with that. We're born a sinner, right, okay? Right? You know what I say? If I'm born a center. Oh no, no, you can't be born gay. Oh you can't be born gay, but I can be born a center. Okay, right, Like come on now, right, like say the same. Why do I sin because I'm born this way? All right? It's so ridiculous, Christians, I said from the beginning in the nineties, stop arguing that they're not born that way. That's the dumbest argument in the world. Since we walk around and claim we're born sinners, we are born sinners, what do sinners who are born sinners do say? And in fact, what we say it all the time. We sin because we are sinners. We don't become sinners by sinning, but we sin because that's what we are from conception. Well, if God doesn't get rid of the very thing causing the problem, then you can't tell me he wants the problem to stop, because if He wanted the problem to stop, we wouldn't have a sinful nature. Therefore, I have to approach it in a radically different way. And that causes problems in the church because churches don't know how to approach this because the church typically approaches it this way.

51:56 You can't you should not sin, You cannot sin, and you don't have to sin. Well, churches, that's what churches say, you don't have to sin. That is not true. I have no choice but to sin. I will sind today, I will send tonight, I will send tomorrow, I will send the next day. I will sin until I am dead or Christ comes back. It's inevitable. So then how do we So what has church done for two thousand years to trying to fix this problem? Well, you can commit these sins and what happens nothing, Nobody gets in trouble.

52:43 But you cannot commit the sins now church discipline, now public shame, now disqualification. Well, why is it that these sins are okay? But these sins are not okay, because we don't know how to process the fact that we're all still going to sin. So when we say God is in control, that raises so many problems and nobody wants to process that, all right. Second, the futility of idle idolatry is the theological theme. Idols cannot predict, act, or save right no problem. Number three, God's fore knowledge prophecy proves that God is God alone is God. I have discussion questions, we won't get into that, and then we'll just do this. Isaiah forty one one through twenty nine declares the total futility of idols and contrast to God's sovereign power over history. The passage calls us to trust God alone, recognize that He alone can declare and fulfill his will. That's Isaiah forty one. Any questions we broke the section down. Remember our structural breakdown Verses twenty one through twenty four, the legal challenge, twenty five, the evidence twenty six to two, twenty seventh of failure, and twenty eight through twenty nine. The final verdict. Idols are worthless.

54:07 For them, it's going to be a little easier to process. They're going to see it, But at the same time, many of them won't see it. They're going to die, and we live in that same kind of dilemma, and it's very difficult sometimes to comprehend how it all works right now. That means what do we need to then figure out in the next hour? What do you think? What do you think our challenges? No, we've we've been doing this all through all of it. No, how it transitions. We did that between forty and forty one, that we're going to do between forty one and forty two. Why am I focusing on the transitions? Because I want us to see the flowing narrative, right, That's where we stop this nonsense of pastors coming in and taking these chapters and making it about us. One flows into the next.

55:07 What has all the chapters been about God speaking to Israel and their captivity? If we see the if we see how one chapter connects to the next, we cannot separate the chapter from the next and just do whatever we want because forty two, well, forty three really is where the problems are. So actually forty three is where things really, that's where we're gonna get That's where John Bunyan comes in and destroys how to understand the Bible. So yeah, again, as I talked about it. Three, wait, the unholy trinity of Biblical hermeneutics. If y'all didn't listen to the podcast, the Unholy Trinity, John Bunyan, Charles Hadden Spurgeon, Oswald Chambers. Those are the unholy trinity who destroyed hermaeutics and destroyed the church's ability to understand the Bible. John Bunyan, Charles Hadden Spurgeon, and Oswald Chambers. Okay, I say that I get myself kicked out almost any church, but I'm sorry.

56:02 Oswald Chambers or Bunyan gives us allegory. Okay, Charles ann Spurgeon gives us the one verse part of a verse and then a devotional thought. His morning and evening devotional is pure evil. It's trash, and it created the whole genre. Just give me a part of a verse and then say whatever you want about it. That Spurgeon, that verse has nothing to do. What are you doing that has nothing to do with that in any way, shape or form. It's not about me. And then Oswald Chambers is the whole kind of hearing from God in her voice because he comes along what nineteen twenty seven, and he brings in the charismatic concept, starts infiltrating yeah most very highest, one of the most famous devotionals in history. So Bunyan wrote Pilgrim's Progress, the most famous allegory which now and then Isaiah forty three, Isaiah forty three, when thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee, and through the rivers thou shall not overflow thee. Spur Bunyan turns that into part of his Pilgrim's Progress allegory. There has nothing to do with his allegory, has nothing to do with your journey to heaven. It has nothing to do with you, all right, So Bunyan's picks that Spurgeon takes well, he can take one little phrase from Isaiah forty forty one, forty two, forty three and make it up and to his little Morning and Evening devotional that sold a bazillion copies and everyone loves. And then Oswald Chambers does the

57:35 same kind of all of them, make it about us. Those three things change Christianity forever. In fact, ay I said those three books caused Christians to create the Christians the inability to read the Bible correctly. And it's still and again, whether you read those books, you've been influenced by those books. Your ignorance of those books does not negate their inlace. It's because pastor after pastor preach based off the concepts that they gave and they're the enemy. They are the enemy, straight up the enemy. And I'm I'm not supposed to say that, but I don't care whatever good you can find in those books. And I took it. I took a part of Spurgeon's mourning devotional for Yesterday Matthew twenty six thirty nine about Jesus praying in the garden. He turned it into a five point part and how we are to pray? That has nothing to do with us. When we see Jesus praying in the garden saying, not my will, but your will be done.

58:36 It's not teaching me to say God, your will, not my will. That's not about me. It's a gospel passage saying what Jesus did for me. It's not a passage telling me what I am to do, which would turn it into law. But what guess what if I say that, I would be thrown out of any church. But that's just basic Protestant history. I'm supposed to that is a gospel, not as law, because it's what Jesus did. It's not about what I do. But if you take a passage telling me what Jesus did and turn it into what I'm supposed to do, I've taken a gospel passage and turn it into a law passage, which is absolutely the corruption of the gospel. So I talked about that yesterday.

59:18 But this we're getting ready to get into forty three. When we get to forty three, we got to see how one chapter flows into the next. To stop this from happening, right, we got to see the continuing narrative started in forty Comfort, Comfort, Comfort, Who is being comforted? Israel and everything, and every chapter so far as mentioned Israel by name, making sure that we the reader knows it's about whom. We got to keep that going. So the next hour we'll focus on the transition, just so that we're ready to go, and that transition will only help us do what hopefully remember everything in forty two. So all right, that's what we'll do. All right, Lord God, we come before you, or we are grateful that we're in a church where we can show things, question things, and Lord, I'll just be I can't speak for anyone here or anyone listening online. Lord, I can acknowledge sometimes I do not understand. You're all powerful, you're all knowing, and I look around at my own life and the world around me, and sometimes it does not make sense.

1:00:22 You don't have to make it make sense, But Lord, we have to acknowledge the difficulty of sometimes understanding that we asked this in Jesus name, and God's people said