Sermon Prep: Isaiah 40:25-28

0:02 Looking at our world from a theological perspective. This is the Theology Central podcast making Theology Central. Good morning everyone. It is Saturday, January the eleventh, twenty twenty five. It is currently ten thirty seven am Central Time, and I am coming to you live from the Theology Central studio located right here in Abilene, Texas. Now, the last ten or fifteen minutes, I've been looking at podcasts, analytics, looking at statistics, and I was a little concerned. I was a little bothered, right because I opened everything up because I was going to fill out the metadata for this episode.

0:46 Right because we broadcast live on the Sermon's two point zero app, the Sermon Audio platform, So before we go live, I always type out the metadata, the title, a description, all of that so people looking at the Sermonadio website they'll see it and go, oh, okay, that's that's what he's talking about today, all right. So I was filling all of that out and then doing so, I clicked on the analytics and I was like, wait, what that cannot be true. That cannot be true because the analytics indicated that we've only had three downloads and streams from January, the first to January the eleventh, which is today. I'm like three, I'm like, that's it. I give up. I'm I'm done.

1:27 I was. I was just like, there's there, They're that's that's horrible. So I kept looking around and I'm like, okay, well, let's just move on. And as I was getting everything ready to go live, I realized there's something going wrong behind the scenes. Because all the information that I typically look look at on my iPad when I'm broadcasting, I typically can see I see a map of the United States. It will show me where people are tuning in. It'll get me numbers, right, not no numbers are showing up. The map is blank. So clearly there's something wrong behind the scenes. But things may be wrong behind the scenes, but hopefully, here behind this microphone, I can you know, I can hopefully accomplish something and maybe things will not go wrong during this broadcast. We're going to hope and see.

2:16 But if things are going wrong like that, I always get nervous that well, is something going to happen to the live feed? Is everything going to drop out? Is the site the website going to crash, or the app's going to crash? What's going to happen, but I'm not going to worry about that. And what I'm going to try to do is, well, it's Saturday, right, so I'm gonna do some sermon prep and I'm gonna do my sermon prep right here live on the air, as I tend to do, because what I like to do on Saturdays. Even if I've done sermon prep throughout the week, which typically you know I have, and rarely do I get to a Saturday and haven't done any sermon prep. I mean, there may be one or two times where that's happened, but those are rare. But Saturday is where I really earn my attention. I'm like, Okay, all the work I've done, now I got to put it all together, and Saturday is where I really try to turn my focus onto everything that's going to happen on Sunday. That's where everything any other studies I've been working on, any of the discussions we've had on the podcast, I try to put them aside. I'm like, Okay, now we have to turn our attention to what I'm going to be talking about tomorrow. Well, tomorrow we return to Isaiah chapter forty. Specifically, tomorrow we're gonna be looking at verses nine through eleven Isaiah forty nine through eleven. Let me read it to you. I'll be reading from the King James Isaiah chapter forty nine through eleven. Oh Zion, that bring us good tidings, Get thee up in the high mountain, Oh Jerusalem, that bring us good tidings. Lift up thy voice with strength, lift

3:50 it up. Be not afraid say into the cities of Judah, behold your God. Verse ten. Behold the Lord God will come with strong hand, and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him, and his work before him. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with his arm and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those who are with young. That's Isaiah forty nine through eleven. Right, So, I have been working on Isaiah forty nine through eleven. I'd already worked on it, probably well over a week ago, done a lot of work on it. Then I did a lot of work this week, and then this morning I really started turning my attention to Isaiah forty nine through eleven, really digging in a little bit more, because well, that's what we're going to be talking about tomorrow at Victory Baptist Church. And I found myself this morning and about a forty five minute you can almost refer to it as an argument, as kind of a back and forth debate with artificial intelligence about Isaiah forty nine through eleven.

4:59 I was putting for some ideas. AI did not like my ideas, kept pushing back. I kept pushing back. We went back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. And then finally kind of in the midst of this back and forth, an idea came to my mind about Isaiah forty nine through eleven, an idea that I'm going to focus on tomorrow. I'm going to change my entire Everything that I was going to preach tomorrow is going to get put aside. And I've changed everything probably in the last forty five minutes to an hour, because in fact, for those who are going to be listening to the sermons tomorrow, I want you to write down a couple of things. Right, if you have a piece of paper, I want you to write down number one, ordinary means, ordinary means. I want you to write that down ordinary means. And number two you write down supernatural means, ordinary means means supernatural means, because I believe Isaiah forty nine through eleven is really about maybe how to perceive ordinary means. Now, I'm not gonna give anything away because I don't want to start preaching and teaching it now, but that's where we're gonna be heading tomorrow. My approach is going to be looking at this concept of ordinary means versus supernatural means because I think Isaiah forty nine to eleven, at least in my mind at least, leads to this discussion. And there's

6:33 a reason why. There's a lot of things we could discuss. We won't get into any of that now, but that's what we're gonna be doing. But after I got that already, I organized it. I'm like, okay, here we go, and I got I really have like three I probably have four specific messages all for tomorrow, even though I only have two hours, so I'm gonna have to really focus. I think we're gonna go with the ordinary versus supernatural means tomorrow. That's where the focus is going to be. Hopefully that turns out to be a good thing. But in the midst of all of that. So I've got all the analytical problems behind the scenes going on. Okay, I got all of that going on. I'm arguing with artificial intelligence. I'm redoing all of my sermons. Well, in the midst of all of that, I'm like, well, you know what I need to do right to really just kind of you know, really dig in and get my mind focused on Isaiah forty, Isaiah forty, Isaiah forty, because that's what I want to do. I want, I want, I always want to arrive at church with just my mind, you know, kind of swimming in whatever text we are going to be discussing, whatever, whatever we're going to be covering.

7:42 And the way to do that in many cases is listen to, you know, countless sermons on a particular passage or read countless commentaries on a particular passage. Because the more information I have, the more information I'm bringing in, the more I can I can see things and structure things and maybe challenge interpretations, and it just leads me to being better prepared to engage in leading the people through a tech. So tomorrow it's Isaiah forty nine through eleven. I think it's going to be all about ordinary versus supernatural means. But in order to continue to keep my mind focused on Isaiah forty nine through eleven for sermon prep, let's review a sermon on Isaiah forty nine through eleven.

8:26 So I went to the sermon, I think, I went to the sermonadio website, did a search for Isaiah forty nine through eleven. Now, the first one that jumped out at me was Isaiah forty nine through eleven, and then in parentheses it said baptism. And I'm like, what, someone took Isaiah forty nine through eleven and this is a sermon referring to baptism or about baptism or for a baptismal service. I'm like, what is going on? So I wanted to listen to that one, but I knew that that I would allay already be going in pretty much thinking, oh, this is going to be another example of someone misapplying, misinterpreting, twisting the scripture to make it about us, us us us us, and forget the people whom it is about.

9:13 I mean, Isaiah, chapter forty, Oh Zion that bring us good timings, get the up in the high mountains, Oh Jerusalem. All right, say onto the Cities of Judah. I mean, I don't know, how how can you just read a text like that and like, hey, ladies and gentlemen, this is about us and about baptism. I don't know. I want to listen to that one just to see if it's going to be as bad as I am perceiving. My perception may be completely wrong. So but I knew I would go into that when probably expecting it to be bad. And if it was bad, is that really going to help me with my sermon prep Because we've already established in our series Isaiah forty through Isaiah chapter forty through Isaiah chapter fifty five, as early as we are.

10:02 I mean, in some ways we're not that early into the series. But considering we're still in chapter forty, we just made it to verse nine, we're still early in the series. From that perspective we've already talked about it feels like a hundred times how sermons constantly misapply, misinterpret this section of scripture. That's why we're doing the series in the first place. So I didn't want to necessarily go to a sermon that I already knew is going to possibly do that. So I chose another one. This one is entitled the Wonder of God Part one. Now I'm like, okay, that's the Wonder of God. Well, the text says behold your God. Now immediately when it says the wonder of God, is it going to refer to the wonder of God or behold your God as it relates to the people who this text is actually about and two and four or is it once again going to push them out and push it and bring us in. Well, well, we we're going to see, but we're gonna review this now.

10:58 The good thing about this one short The entire sermon is thirty minutes and forty nine seconds. Well, when you now, the only thing is I did fast forward through all the scripture reading the prayer because I wanted to. You know, we can't do a lot with that. I mean, I could do my typical review of an opening prayer, but you know what I'm going to say. And so we know with the so from the beginning of this sermon to the end, you know, there's gonna be like an introductory section to the sermon and then then the summarizing at the end. So probably the sermon total, it's probably about twenty five minutes So I don't know how in the world you can handle Isaiah forty nine through eleven in about twenty five minutes. This is gonna be a this is gonna be crazy. I'm already thinking we're gonna spend two hours tomorrow on Isaiah forty nine through eleven, and we're not even going to finish nine through eleven.

11:54 We're gonna it's probably gonna take us maybe two three Sundays to finish Isaiah forty ninth. So I don't know how you can do this, but gonna I'm gonna definitely be curious to see. So are you ready? So for sermon prep now for you? You need it. Write down ordinary means, supernatural means, because that's what we're gonna be talking about tomorrow. But for now, I'm gonna try not to start preaching tomorrow's message. What I want to do is just kind of just immerse myself into discussion about this section of scripture so that I'll be more prepared for tomorrow. So here we go. You're ready, Let's listen. I have no idea what's about to happen. Let's hope it's going to be something beneficial.

12:39 Well beloved Congregation, of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Think about it, the wonder. Of God. Scripture reveals God to us, or maybe we would more precisely say, God reveals himself in scripture to us as one who is a rock, as one who is a refuge, as one who is a shield and buckler, as one who is a high tower, and as one who is all of those things and so much more, as he comes to us in grace and in mercy, promising in his word that as we look to him for care and keeping, he will surely provide it.

13:30 Okay, well, we're off to a wonderful start. Okay, immediately, do you notice what happened Isaiah forty nine through eleven is the text It's not about us in any way, shape or form. It's about Jude. It's about the cities of Judah. It's about their captivity. It's about their deliverance. That's what it's about. We've established that like nine hundred times already in our series in Isaiah forty through fifty five. And immediately, did you see it reveals to us, to us, to us, to us, us, to us, to us, and then say all of those things. He's a rock, He's a shield. He's a refuge, and he will provide that for us, us us. Oh, that drives me so crazy.

14:15 It's maddening. I I've almost reached the point I have so much struggle with listening to sermons anymore. How did we end up in this text? How did we end up anywhere? And what do you do when you tell people, Hey, God is a rock, he's a protector, he's a defender, he's your shield. He's gonna do all of this for you. Now, I'm sorry that you're you know, you were molested for five years. I'm sorry that you were raped. I'm sorry that you died, this and this, and well, so how do we understand that? Now? When we look at these passages in the Old Testament, and many of them they make perfect sense, especially when we understand the context, because many of these things are spoken to is ry L, a nation whom God had made a covenant with, and he made covenants with them that he would protect, that he would provide, So it fits perfect It makes perfect sense within its historical context. But we take these things and say, it's about us, It's about us, it's about us.

15:16 How do we just started? He just started as sermon on Isaiah forty nine to eleven, and immediately, it's not about them. It's not about they all of a sudden, now it's about me, you, us. I know I say this all the time Christians because of culture wars and because of all the issues going on within our culture, Christians are constantly griping and complaining about people's misuse of pronouns. And you've got to use the right pronouns. And I'm not going to use your preferred pronouns because pronouns, it's about reality, it's about truth. Well, then we come to the Bible, and when the text is about them, them, they all of a sudden, it's about me, you, we us.

15:58 I'm more worried about the wrong pronouns when it comes to interpreting scripture. How did we end up here? How did it become about us? That's about them? Don't we start with them? But okay, he's already talked how God reveals to us. God will provide. He's a buckler, a shield, a refuge, a rock for us. It's all become about us. Now I'm assuming he's going to get back to them. But man, it always just makes me nervous, especially in a sermon. It's already less than thirty minutes left of the sermon. It's down to about twenty something minutes, and already we've started off with us. I don't know why we always start with us when we're dealing with a text that's about them.

16:49 Wow, the wonder of God. Indeed, we approach this sermon as we should all sermons. But when the wonder of God is before us, we approach a servant or a subject like this, not perched high on the seat of judgment, but bowed low in reference, with shoes off of our feet, so to speak, knowing without doubt that we stand on holy ground. The burden of Isaiah chapter forty, verse twenty five, and as I mentioned verse eighteen, very similar, is that God wants his people to know that He will not permit himself to be likened by them to the idols and false gods of the nations. And the problem in Israel during Isaiah's day is that the people were doing just that. Isaiah addressing the nation as captives, calling them God, calling them by his prophet to this repentance and mindfulness.

17:54 The people had come to the point where where they seem to have forgotten the greatness of God and seem to be focused on comparing the Lord with the idols and superstitions all around them. Instead, it's what John Calvin said was vanity joined with pride, and what God is saying here in verse twenty five is essentially this will you rob me of my majesty by such foolish comparisons as these? So let's keep that in mind. The wonder of God here in Isaiah. You can see the Pew Bible has that heading for us at the beginning of verse nine. The Greatness of God well known passage here in Isaiah chapter forty, verses nine to thirty one, looking at verse twenty five for the text if you will, but tonight just looking at verses twenty six to twenty eight with this theme, Our God challenges us by asking who is like me?

18:58 Okay, well, I don't know what we're gonna get actually nine through eleven. Okay, So God challenges us. Note even the way he's going. God challenges us us us us us us, we we me me you all right, So I don't think we're gonna actually get nine to eleven. When I looked up Isaiah forty nine through eleven, this this is the sermon it gave me. Pastors, when you fill out your metadata, if you're not going to cover a passage of scripture when it asked you to include the scripture, just don't put that section, right. That would be great for those of us who search out sermons on a particular text. Okay, please help us out. All right, So we're gonna go with this. All right, we're gonna go with this. So we're gonna be in Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one. It looks like we'll read this Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one. Hey, this is the fun part of going into these sermon reviews blind right, This is the fun part. Sometimes it can be maddening and frustrated. I'm gonna have to pivot because I was ready to talk about Isaiah forty nine to eleven.

20:04 I'm ready to go. I've spent hours and hours and hours with it. So but we're gonna pivot Isaiah forty twenty five To whom then, will ye yee like in me? Or shall I be equal saith the Holy One? To whom will you liking me? That you there is referencing to a specific people. He did briefly mention them all right, lift up your eyes. That's that's that's them right, And behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number? He calleth them all by names, by the greatness of his mind. For that he is strong.

20:48 He is strong and power, not one faileth Now look carefully so we know exactly who's being spoken of. In case there's any confusion, or just in case this pastor decides not to really deal with the reality of this text. Look at verse twenty seven. What sayest thou, oh, Jacob? Right, So the text constantly returns back to making sure we know exactly who this is about. Let's see if how this would apply to the people in its context, if it's going to be discussed. Here we go. We only have about twenty minutes left of this sermon, so he's going to have to move fast.

21:32 And the first thing then that we'll ask ourselves as we consider his question to us is why does God challenge us like this? It's not God's question to us. It's not God challenging us. It's God asking a question to them. He is challenging them. It's not a question to us it's not him challenging us, it's them. Why is this so complicated? And preaching the text says it's them? I mean, what do I have to do to demonstrate this over and over and over?

22:12 Why is it so complicated in Isaiah forty through fifty five? Can anyone answer this question? Why is it so difficult for a pastor simply to open up Isaiah forty through fifty five and refer to them them them them. Now I'm not saying we can't learn anything from it, but don't we have to? Why are we rephrasing this is God's challenge to us? No, I'm not in Babylonian captivity. You're not in Babylonian captivity at this time, So don't we have to understand it? I just don't get it. I don't get it. I don't get it. All right, let's see, he's got to have to go back to them. He's got to go back to them, right, that can't be forgotten.

22:53 So as things open up then Verses twenty six to twenty eight, if you have your Bible open, you can see him there on the bottom of that right hand page. Maybe we could summarize things here by talking about the people having lost sight remember of the majesty, justice, and power of God. In answer to the question that God asks in verse twenty five, it's as though a dullness and a sluggishness has come upon the people, and all of us are prone to this. Now, wait, let's put this in its historical context, right, Isaiah forty through fifty five. I don't know if he's going to even establish this is God's message to those in Babylonian captivity. Now they are in Babylon. Let's go with that. Okay, Now is Babylon. What do we know about the Babylonians and idolatry? Are the Babylonians and their gods?

23:55 What do you know anything about that? What do we know about the Babylonians and their religion? The religion of Babylon? What do we know? What do we know? So let's let's since he's not going to be because he's seeing these people, we got to put this section. If God is speaking to them about to whom, then will ye those in Babylonian captive Babylonian captivity like in me too? Maybe this is specifically that maybe they're dull, Maybe they're going through some of these issues. I don't know because they've been in captivity for seventy years. I mean, do we do we not at least consider the historical context even slightly. So let's do a little bit of work here.

24:37 Let's do a little bit of work here. Oh, this is gonna I'm gonna. I'm telling you, I'm gonna lose my mind. Okay, remember how twenty twenty four ended. Twenty twenty four ended with me slowly but surely losing my mind because of summone reviews. I tried to make it positive at the end, but this is where I get so frustrated. All right, So what I'm going to do is, I'm gonna go to hang on. I'm gonna I'm going to go to let me look down here, I'm going to outline I'm going to outline the uh outline the religious beliefs of the Babylonians hang on during the time of Judah's Judah's captivity. What Okay? Did they have many false God and idol? Sorry, here we go. Let's just do a little brief work here, all right. So the

26:08 Babylonian Empire six twenty six to five thirty nine BC, during the time of Judas captivity was deeply polytheistic, with a pantheon of gods and religious practices that were central to their cultural and daily life. Their religion was closely tied to their political and social structures and heavily influenced their worldview. Below was an outline of their beliefs, practices, and the role of false gods and idols. Now, ladies and gentlemen, what is happening right now? This was not my intent. My intent was to do sermon prep. But what is this turning into? This is turning into what twenty twenty five is about ai versus sermons. We're listening to a sermon that went to Isaiah forty starting in verse twenty five to thirty one immediately made it about us forgot them. And then it's now kind of saying, hey, these people were dull, These people were, you know, being blinded by idols. Well wait a minute, do we want to at least try to understand possibly, why do you realize that they were in captivity for seventy years? That means there's people who were born and raised in captivity.

27:14 So are they not going to be Possibly? I don't know the gods they're going to be hearing about are going to be the false gods. The gods they are going to be seeing is going to be the false gods. And well, they may hear stories about their god, but they know that their God hasn't gotten them out of Babylonian captivity. Don't you think the allure and the and the pull to another god could not? Could that not possibly explain it? Should we not at least discuss this? Are the core beliefs of the Babylonians system polytheism. The Babylonians worshiped many gods, each with specific roles and attributes. Their gods were often associated with natural forces the sun, the moon, the water, and societal function justice, war, and fertility. Well, if they have god gods dealing with their social functions or societal functions, guess what they're the They are the captive, they are the captors, They are the conquerors. They have conquered Israel. So in some sense, if you're in this system, you may say, well, maybe there God is greater than our god. Maybe we should look to their gods because their gods captured us, destroyed our temple, destroyed our city.

28:27 The cosmic order Marduk, the chief god of Babylon was considered the king of the gods according to the Babylonian mythology, and then it goes through and talks about everything that happened here. Anthropomorphic gods. Babylonian gods were depicted as having human traits, emotions, and weaknesses. They were thought to interact with humanity, requiring worship, sacrifices, and rituals to maintain favor. The king, seen as chosen by the gods to rule on their behalf. Babylonian rulers like Nebaconezer oft the often credited their victories and accomplishments to the favor of the gods. See if everyone in Babylon would have been like, we defeated Israel. Our gods are greater than their gods, and then it names a number of their false gods, mark Duke, Ishatar, Nabu sin or Nana, shamesh adad Tamat. They had idols.

29:28 The Babylonians created idols to represent their gods, believing these physical objects housed divine presence. Temples were constructed as places where gods could descend to interact with humans. Idols were made of precious materials and treated as sacred, receiving food, drink, and care, widespread idolatry. I mean, come on, now, we can understand now when you come to a text here in Isaiah forty, verses twenty five through thirty one, if you're going to in any way shape or form, say, okay, why is God speaking to Judah, who's and Babylonian captivity about idolatry? Because they are in Babylon. There is idols everywhere, there's false gods everywhere. It makes perfect sense to why maybe these things are happening. Now? Is this sermon going to place this in any form of historical context, cultural context, textual context, or is it just going to become about you and me? Well, let's find.

30:27 Out so that when God asks this question, it's a way then of arousing us, of exciting us, of awakening us. Did you notice, especially early on in that reading of Isaiah forty, how often that word behold is used by the prophet as God speaks through him, not only too ancient Israel, but to us as well. That's a way of snapping the fingers, that's the way of getting the attention, that's the way of arresting the mind and of grabbing the heart, be whole your God, just like verse nine mentions to us. But verse twenty six, where we're at tonight.

31:08 Us us us us us us us, he briefly mentions them, and again he's is he even going to explain when he says the prop the prophet wrote this. But the prophet Isaiah was dead during this time, all right. Remember he put these words together maybe about some with some sources say one hundred and thirty years, but about one hundred years before they even go into captivity. So we have to at least keep that in mind. Are we gonna Are we gonna put this in any accurate perspective? So let's see where this is going to go. I mean, we don't have a lot of time left with this sermon, and in fact, we may not even listen to all of it because I think this is going completely the opposite direction. I wanted Isaiah forty nine to eleven, so but okay, I got no problem dealing with twenty five through thirty one.

31:54 It's kind of sermon prep way into the future. You're gonna know where we're gonna go when we get there, because obviously, when we get there, we're going to talk about Babylon and well idolatry, so that we understand the context, right, I mean, wouldn't that be important? I don't know. Possibly. Knight is a call that God gives to the people. It's as though he's saying, come on outside, look up at the sky, so that you might see beyond the stars and the planets, and behold me, the one who has fashioned and created and distributed all of them across the span of the heavens. It's a skillful ordering of the universe that God wants his people to see, using that then as a mirror, a reflection by which they might then behold his surpassing majesty and greatness. Because even as we confessed there in the Belgian Confession, God, as scripture teaches, is in his own nature invisible. And yet God, who is invisible, has given a visible reflection of himself in the glory and grandeur of creation. And that's what God is calling the people to remember here. It's a sort of summons that's well suited to us as human beings, isn't it. After all? Think about it. Among all of the earthly creatures, man included, Man is the only one that laughs and weeps, and man is the only one

33:26 who struck with the difference between the way things are and the way things ought to be. We are reflective on creation as image bearers of God in a way that the brute beasts, much less the birds and the insects and the creepy crawleys never can or will be. And that was brought home to me at one point, probably two thousand and six, maybe two thousand and seven. Karen and the kids at that point had gone out to Washington already, and I was coming down by myself from Winnipeg, driving all alone the long trip from Winnipeg to Portchard, Washington. But I had our dog with us, and he was in the front seat as my trusting companion for that trip. And I remember we were just west of Fargo on Interstate ninety four, and it must have been around the fourth of July, because they had this huge fireworks display. It looked like off in the distance over some rodeo, and I'm driving down the road looking over there and keeping my eye here and enjoying the light show. And I tried to get the dog's attention to have him look at the fireworks and to see if he would notice them, but he had no clue about what I was trying to do, much less of any of the brightness and the brilliance that was out there for anybody to see. It doesn't work to draw a dumb animal's attention to the glory of fireworks, much less to the glory of God displayed in creation.

34:54 And so in a nutshell, these words here in verse twenty six, there their rebus to Israel, because they are tempted to liken the idle gods of the nations, which were associated with the stars and the planets and the creaturely elements of the heavenly bodies, and compare them to the one who upholds all of what he himself has fashioned. Now I'm glad he at least mentions Israel. He at least at least we've gotten back to Israel being mentioned here. But is he not going to explain why they may be in this position because they are in Babylonian captivity.

35:38 They're going to be there for seventy years at this point when this is meant, when this message is supposed to really be applicable to them, Maybe they're getting they're getting close to the end of those seventy years, so whenever this message is ultimately I mean, in some ways the message was given to them before they even get there, because Isaiah, you know, put it together over one hundred years before. But the point is this message would if if you put this in its context. They're in Babylonian captivity. Now, let's take a minute step back look at the religion of Babylon, and we could see why they would be possibly drawn to it. What could possibly lead them to be drawn to it? What could it be? I don't know. They're in captivity, their God doesn't appear to be anywhere, and the gods of Babylon are everywhere, and the gods of Babylon well has destroyed Jerusalem in their temple and put them in captivity. So you could see why there may be, especially in this culture, there could be some thought, hmm, where is our God? Our God was obviously defeated by their god. There would be you could see why they would be drawn to that. Do we not at least discuss that, do we not at least place it in any context? Or do we just simply throw our condemnation upon them?

36:58 Do you see. The minimizing of God that takes place in that the heavenly bodies are creaturely elements, and the nations worshiped them rather than the one who had made them. And even among. Ancient Near Eastern cosmogonies, the ancient Near Eastern stories of the origin and development or birth of the world, even among those ancient Near Eastern stories, there was nothing comparable to the elegance and the grandeur of what we know as Genesis Chapter one. Typically, the ancient Near Eastern. Stories of how the universe began were it was the sort of collateral damage from a battle taking place between the gods, or even gods would have their bodily fluids cast into the heavens, and that's where the stars and the planets came from. It's very pagan, very crass, very much beneath the dignity of the true and living God, who is the author and maker and framer of all things, to be associated with that kind of Haagen pornography in religion.

38:04 And so while verse twenty six simultaneously destroys the folly of comparing false gods to the living and true God, the one who is sovereign overall, it also makes a solid defense of Yahweh's lordship over heaven and earth, just like we sing right in number three hundred and two from oursalter Hymnal. Our Lord is great, he calls by name and counts the stars of night. His wisdom is unsearchable, and wondrous is his might verses twenty seven and twenty eight two verses finishing off our preaching passage per se tonight basically a word, an extended word of admonishment and correction that God brings to the people, addressing them formally as Jacob as Israel, chiding them for thinking that somehow they're their sinful ways can be hidden from God, from God, and that the judgment the right, which is what that means, the judgment they deserve, would be somehow disregarded from God.

39:09 And we need to remember that too. Right if we are, if we are trapped in hypocrisy, or if we go astray in disobedience, or if we come to a point where we no longer care in our hearts to serve the Lord, even though formerly and outwardly things might look good, Are we so foolish in that state to think that such can be hidden from God and to think that He won't be aware of what is in the recesses of our hearts. Now the idols of the nations, Sure things can look good on the outside for those who serve them, because the idols of the nations, like we sang this morning in Saw one fifteen. They might have eyes, but they can't see. They might have ears, but they can't hear. They might have a mouth, but they can't speak.

39:58 What a contrast they are like my dog, dumb animals and idols to the Living and True God, who not only has eyes, if you will, but who is the only searcher of hearts, and who knows and sees and hears all things. For that reason, God reproves the people for forgetting what they had known and what they should know. In verse twenty eight, the He alone is the everlasting God, the creator. Of all things. Look at the language at the top of the page there in seven sixty four, the creator of the ends of the earth. Perhaps in all of the Old Testament, perhaps that's very close to the distinguishing mark of Israel's God in comparison to the idols and false gods of the nations, is that He, the Holy One, is the creator of all things.

41:10 This is just so bizarre this approach. I it's almost as if like he makes little callbacks to the original recipients, but he's not in any way putting these words together and addressing the people whom they were addressed too. So if we do a little bit of work here when we get to Isaiah forty, make sure we remember it marks a significant shift in the Book of Isaiah. We've talked about this like a thousand times because Isaiah one through thirty nine is the message of judgment, and then we get a message of comfort and hope Isaiah forty. You could go all the way to sixty six, but Isaiah forty through fifty five we referred to as the Book of Comfort or the Book of consolation. Isaiah forty specifically addresses the exiles and Babylon. In fact, the entire section does, assuring them, though specifically in chapter forty, of God's ability and intention to deliver them. This section emphasizes God's greatness, his sovereignty, and his faithfulness and contrast to the weakness of human rulers and idols. Now, again this is going to be very important because the people in this situation, what are they going to see? They see the greatness of Babylon. They see the greatness of their gods, they see the greatness of their idols, because they're the conquerors, and they are the ones who have been conquered, all right.

42:32 They understand their situation looks hopeless, helpless, It looks depressing, discouraging. People have come into Babylonian captivity. People have died within that captivity. Others have been born. That's all they know. Their situation would be very difficult. Now God brings comfort to them, but He's got to remind them of very specific things Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one. As a part of a larger argument about God's in comparable power and care, the prophet confronts the doubts of the exiled Israelites who may have felt abandoned by God, and he reminds them of his sovereignty as creator and sustainer.

43:13 We've talked about this. These people, even though they theoretically may believe in a God, they believe in a God in whom they cannot see. Yet they live in a situation surrounded by idols and gods who appear and seem to be the conqueror. The ones that are providing for these people. These people, their whole everything around them would scream, where is your God? Everything around them would scream, Your God is dead, Your God is not there, your God has abandoned you, or maybe your God doesn't even exist. That's the power of this passage. To remove it from its original recipients, destroys its real You can try to make it powerful about us, but it's really about them forty twenty five through twenty six. To whom, then, will you compare me that I should be like him? Says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see who created these He who brings out their host by numbers, calling them all by name, by the greatness of his mind, and because he is strong and power, not one is missing. This seems to be referring to the heavens to the stars to look up. God challenges Israel to consider his uniqueness and greatness. Unlike idols are human rulers, He is the creator of the universe. They're going to need to have to. He wants them to know.

44:33 I am the Creator. I am greater than all of these. I know they look greater. I know, in your circumstances look more powerful, But I am the Creator. The host here refers to the stars, which are often deified in ancient Near Eastern cultures. God, however, is shown as the one who created and commands them, calling them each by name. This reminder of God's power over creation would reassure the exile that he is fully capable of orchestrating their deliverance From Babylon and verses twenty seven through twenty eight, we read why do you say, oh Jacob and speak O Israel? My way is hidden from the Lord. My right is disregarded by my God. Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is unsearchable. The exiles felt forgotten and abandoned, believing their plight was hidden from God, which makes perfect sense. That's what I've been saying, Israel. Where is God? They would have abandoned? So what does God resp How does he respond? He responds with basically some rhetorical questions. God reminds them of his eternal nature, his infinite understanding. He is not limited by human weakness like fatigue or ignorance. This rebuke is a gentle correction. It's correcting and trying to help their despair, trying to encourage them.

46:01 I like, whenhen you put it in context, that makes sense. Now once again, I want you to see what just happened. We're listening to a sermon. This takes a passage in Isaiah forty makes it about us, US US completely, not even really accurately speaking to the historical He's making reference to the situation, but he's not really painting a picture at all so that you can really understand it or grasp it. And so what did I do while listening? I immediately just started doing some basic questioning and asking things to an artificial intelligence. It went within five seconds five count them one, two, three, four five. AI broke down Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one and what it would have meitt to the original recipients within five seconds.

46:57 This is exactly why we're doing the entire series on artify official intelligence. I'm telling you we are yet defined. So far, artificial intelligence has beaten every single sermon that we have listened to. And this was not the goal here was not even to compare AI to this sermon. The goal here was supposed to be a sermon on Isaiah forty nine through eleven, And I was just doing a little sermon prep and wanted to hear some discussion on that section. Well, it turns out it's not a sermon on Isaiah forty nine through eleven. I don't even know why it's listed. It's really about twenty five through thirty one. But even the handling of Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one has, even though it's made brief references to the historical context, has kind completely abandoned the historical context, and right out of the gate was making it about me, me, me, me, me, you you you, and forgot about them and.

47:43 They, And unlike the idols of the nations, look at the verse. God won't grow faint, he won't grow weary. Even though the people at this point are strangers in a strange land, exiles, yet they remember God's faithfulness to chasten the ones that he loves. That's what Hebrews twelve reminds us. Even though chastening is unpleasant and none of us like to endure it, yet chastening is a sign of sonship and a reminder to those who are chastened by the Lord that he loves them, since God chastens those he loves, and he scourges all of his sons, because God has by no means cast the people off, even though they be strangers in a strange land. But according to his promise that he has spoken to them, he will bring to pass by his almighty power, that restoration under Cyrus. Yet at this point a yet future date.

48:43 Okay, that's awesome. He finally mentioned them, and he even mentioned Cyrus. I love that. Okay, so great, that's awesome that I'm gonna be I mean, hey, he actually even used them. He actually use the phrase instead of us. That's a good thing. So as we look at that kind of a survey of verses twenty six through twenty eight, how do we unfold things Because we're not in ancient Israel, we don't live in the same kind of culture that the ancient Near East had, and there's a certain distance that's created because of many factors between the world of the Old Testament and our own day and age. Right, let's pick up on a few things from these passages, from these verses to consider tonight.

49:40 Now immediately, so he's already done now going through the text, so there was very little connecting it to the original recipients. Did not even didn't even really explain why the idolatry could have even been important ignored about the religious culture of Babylon at the time, didn't. I. I mean, we worked through it just using AI and we already covered the text better than this has been covered. But immediately, now, where are we going to Let's make it about us? So basically it starts with us, it ends with us, and the original recipients just get bare just a little bit of mention. I am grateful he at least mentions them, but then it kind of messed up a message to people suffering. We reach in, knock it out of their hand and say that's for me. I'm not saying there aren't things we can learn from it, But let's see what things he gives us, because are we about to be given? Are they somehow? Are we going to take some of this as being about us, as somehow their promises for us? Here, let's see where this goes.

50:49 In the first place, God is our God, and that perhaps is the most wonderful of all of the wonders there are to consider. He has covenanted with us, which is a way of saying he has decided of his own will and purpose to enter into a relationship with us for the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ. Remember that promise, boys and girls, young people, I will be your God and you will be my people. Well, that's a big part of why he's addressing Israel at this point. I will be your God and you will be my people. Is that a reference to us or was that a reference to Israel? He is he referencing Jeremiah? Is he referencing Ezekiel? Now he is saying this is important Israel.

51:40 So he is going to return back to Israel. Okay, let's see where it goes. And that's why he still ministers to us by his word today. And God would have us to keep that in mind. Would you have us to keep it in heart? Because listen, even when or as we are disciplined, God has our good in view, doesn't he. If the Church comes to a time of loneliness, then the Church shouldn't give up and despair as if all is lost and there is no hope or help for the future. With God as the one covenanting with us, we are never alone, much less can we ever be abandoned.

52:23 Instead, when we. Endure times of trial or chastening from the Lord, he uses those to purify us. He uses trials and tribulations to solidify our standing on the solid rock of Christ when we entrust ourselves into His care. During the midst of them, he uses affliction to embitter us to this world that He might then use adversity in the reminder of his promises to endere the world to come and all of the treasure found for us in Christ to our hearts. And that's what we need to remember, perhaps most of all, when we consider the wonder of God, that he designs all things, that He is working out in our lives for our good, that on the end He might be glorified and praised.

53:14 In the second place, a lot of that was about us and not about them. And I think we could get into a really we could. Now we could put this down as a discussion question, because it's a common teaching within most evangelical fundamentalist non Catholic world. How Catholicism would I'd have to go verify some things. But in the non Catholic world and the Protestant evangelical fundamentalist Reformed world. It is a common teaching that God chastens us right in order to purify us right, so that God brings trial or difficulty or suffering. A lot of times it's view as it's happening because he is chasing, He's punishing us for some sin to purify us. But let's let's I think we have to really this is a very complicated question, and I know it's going to tick some people off. But does any of that really purify us?

54:16 Is there any true purifying now? If it, I think it, They're there, I think it. If if if it works this way, if chastening makes us come to the realization of our sin, this is important. We see it, we acknowledge it, and then we are driven to the cross to confess it, and then we are cleaned by the blood of Jesus Christ. Then yes, if we confess our sins, He's faithful and just forgive us our sins and he cleanses us of all unrighteousness. If it works that way, then okay, But most preachers don't teach it that way. It's like the chastening purifies me in a practical way. But how pure can God? How pure can chastening actually make me. It may make me frame from an outward action or an outward behavior, but it's never truly going to purify me because all of my problems originate from my sinful nature. All the chasening in the world, all the beating, the pain, the suffering, is never going to change my sinful nature. My sinful nature will remain intact until glorification. So therefore chasening never changes the nature of where sin originates from. It may cause behavioral modification because I'm tired of being suffering. But even in Israel's case, did all of this seventy years of chasening did it actually fix them? Because we know it's not long that they're right back under Roman control, they are delivered, and

55:49 God has to send profits to rebuke them, to say, hey, you need to finish the temple of those types of things, So did it really just chasing? When we think of chasening purifying, how does it really purify us? Now? If chastening makes me realize my sin and drives me to Christ to confess it that I am finding the cleansing that comes from the imputed righteousness, from the finished work of Jesus Christ, that's not a practical purifying That is my positional I'm already purified positionally, But is it is purifying me in a fellowship kind of way. I guess we could go along that line that way, but in a practical way. Let me just think about it, no matter how. Let's say I receive fifteen different times of chastisement in some form of punishment that God pours into my life, fifteen different times. Right, and let's say there it goes from minor to severe. Right, Let's say that my seizure disorder the reason I have seizures and neurological problems. Let's say it's a chastening from God, that God is punishing me for my sin. Well, I don't even know how many seizures I've had. I've lost count Okay, the number is some steam green, crazy number. Okay, but let's let's take that and each one of those are impacting my brain. And you know, well, sooner a letter, it's gonna it's gonna be the thing that ends me. Okay, that's great, But let's say it's chastening. You know what, I could have fifteen seizures today, I could have thirty seizures. Today, I could find myself laying in a pull of blood

57:22 just crying out to God that I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. You know what. All no matter how many seizures I have, you know what's not gonna change. I'm still not gonna love God with all my own body and soul because I'm incapable of doing that because of the sinful nature. I'm still not gonna be holy as God is holy, because I will never be holy as God is holy. So there is a limit to whatever purifying can even happen. Right Oh, I wasn't predicting that we would end up here. Now. See this is now, this right here, what we're doing right now, This is why listening to sermons is good. As frustrated as I've been in the sermon, because once again we go to Isaiah forty and immediately becomes about us. You see why we listen to sermons, because now we're having a very important conversation about chastisement and purifying. I don't know if that really is what Isaiah forty twenty five to thirty one is necessarily about, because I think it's more about encouragement. But okay, but that's all right. Now we can take this and we can do something with this.

58:27 We can have some very important conversations about this. Let's remember here as well, the God has made us to be in relationship with himself. He has fitted us uniquely as human beings, as his image bearers. Please note all these applications as usus us us us us us us us us us us us. Oh, the poor people of Israel, the poor people of Judah, how quickly we simply just make it about us? I mean, come on, here we go.

59:12 He has designed us to hear him. Now, granted, the fall into sin has thrown that. All out of whack. But as those who have the grace of God at work in their lives, whose eyes have been open and whose ears have been unstopped, we are now back into that position where we are able, not perfectly yet, but where we are able to hear God and to respond to Him, and to embrace all of what He sets before us in humility. The picture of verse twenty six is a picture especially especially framed for us. Isn't it?

59:53 Have you ever gone out? Is twenty six perfectly framed for us? Or is twenty six per perfectly framed for I don't know the original recipients, which the text mentions by name. Why sayest thou, oh Jacob, and speakest o Israel? It could it be perfectly designed for them living in that time? Or guess what you don't have? You don't have big cities where the night sky is wiped out because of all the light. They lived at a time in captivity where at night they could look up and see the heavenly host and all of their brilliance. Would it be perfectly designed for them?

1:00:44 I don't know. Sideboys and girls on a starry night, a clear, starry night, maybe not somewhere here in town where you have what do they call the light that destroys doesn't destroy, but it prevents seeing things as as clearly as you could, whatever that's called. You can't always see the light in the heavenly in the heavenly space. Exactly. So this is not perfectly designed for us. It's perfectly designed I don't know for the original recipients. Because of street lights or house lights down below. But if you're out in the fields or out in the countries at night and it's clear, you can see a whole host of stars scattered across the heavens. And think of what a unique position we are in, as those formed by God to consider something like the call of verse twenty six. He has made us to walk up rightly, hasn't he? Our natural posture is to see forward and to look outward and upward. And in the very design of how God has made us in that way, there's a reminder that we are all then to have our hearts and our minds lifted up not to the creation, but to Him who has made all things. Contrast that to my dog or your dog. A dog's world is

1:02:14 through its nose. I let my dog outside, and he can't look up to save his life. He's too busy sniffing all over the ground to find something interesting, either to mark or to roll in. What a difference there is between us and the animals. God has formed us to consider higher things and to have our hearts lifted up to Him. But that's not easy to do, is it? We heard this morning on the first commandment and the wholehearted devotion that God calls us to render. Sometimes that seems elusive. Sometimes that seems like something we can never reach. Sometimes that seems like something, quite frankly, that we don't even want to pursue.

1:02:57 Because guess why, the law is not something we can do. The law reveals what we cannot do, and the law drives us to the one who did, And then we are saved by imputed righteousness, not infused. We are saved by his lawkeeping. And that lawkeeping of his is imputed to my account, because I never will and never can keep the law. The law is simply there to reveal to me that I can't and drive me to the one who can. Why do we keep thinking that we can? We cannot? I don't unders. It's like basic Reformation teaching that the whole proper distinction between law and gospel. The law says do this, but and we cannot do it, and the Gospel says, but he did for on our behalf right.

1:03:49 But again, I don't know what any of this has to do with the people who this was originally given to, who are in Babylonian captivity. I don't understand. If we put it in its proper content, this passage is much more powerful. And what's the lesson that would then be deriven to us? Is seeing God right even when everything around us screams that our God is not present or there seeing God's glory, God's greatness, God's power, even when circumstances and situations, and even when other gods appear to be more powerful and greater than our God. That's the situation these people found themselves. If you'll just take a few minutes to study the religion of Babylon at this time.

1:04:32 What we need, then, by God's grace, is a perspective shift in the way we think. We need to be captivated by the wonder of God. We need to have our hearts enlarged by considering the greatness of our Creator. We need to be able to think away from short term focus to the long term focus. We need to be able to think away from the small picture to the big picture, away from things that are temporal and shortsighted to that which is eternal and unending. In short, we need to be able to turn away from self thoughts to having.

1:05:18 God word thoughts. That's the call that He gives to us in his word at any number of places. Isaiah forty twenty five to thirty one. Is not a call to us, It's a call to the people. I don't know what mentions them by name. I don't how many times I have to say this. I don't know why it's so complicated, but okay, all right. And by his grace, that's what he enables us to do. When we hear a passage like this, and he says, behold your God in a third place to consider in light of our passage tonight. God also treats us, and he addresses ancient Israel as he does us. If you look through the letters of the New Testament, for example, boys and girls, he treats us as those who are responsible for our behavior and for our actions. Right, there's no Flip Wilson theology. We can't say the devil made me do it.

1:06:22 Hey, Flip Wilson reference? What year was this sermon? Flip Wilson? I don't even remember? But when when did Flip Wilson live? Hang on? I got a Flip Wilson reference. Okay, I gotta look this up. Okay, this is a Flip Wilson reference in twenty twenty five. Hang on, let's when did he win? I gotta hang on, I gotta ask Google Flip Wilson. Okay, Flip Wilson. He uh he died in nineteen ninety eight. He was born in nineteen thirty three. He was a comedian, and I think I think he was famous for saying, the devil made me do it, the devil made me do it again. I don't know what any of this has to do with Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one, but a Flip Wilson reference.

1:07:09 I know the church is always behind about ten years. That's that's all. That's an old reference. Okay, all right, I had to look that up. That's a long time ago. All right, here we go. God has created us as those who are accountable before Him, and that's something worth keeping in mind. All human beings, wheresoever they might be found, are without excuse before God. No one compleat ignorance of any kind. We'll just stop there, because I mean, we're not. I mean, obviously, there's only a couple of minutes left, there's I mean, we're I don't know what happened. So I looked up the sermon on Isaiah forty nine through eleven. Now, this is one of the fun things about doing sermon reviews. Right, Because I go in blind, right, I go in blonde because I don't want to listen to them first, because then it's like, oh, you're picking a sermon you don't like, you're picking a sermon to criticize, or it comes across as overly produced, right, I like listening to it in a real time. I listened to sermons, So if I'm going to listen to them, why not listen to them online live so that we can all learn. Just take the sermon apart. But the goal here was Isaiah forty nine through eleven. That was the goal. Because I'm doing sermon prep, because that's why I'm going to be covering tomorrow right now, so I've been working and working and working on Isaiah forty nine through eleven. Is in our series Isaiah forty through fifty five. So we get here.

1:08:33 The sermon is not even about Isaiah forty nine through eleven. It's about Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one. All right, great, fine, we but it became about us, not about them. That's a problem. I think if you were to put it more about them and especially the context in which they find themselves, you can kind of understand their being drawn to idolatry. You can understand why this is happening. Especially if you just spend a few minutes staying the religion of Babylon at the time of Judas captivity, you would have understood polytheistic idols everywhere they built, these temples, these places where the gods would since interact with people, all the different things about it. We went through all of it briefly, and we looked all of that up. If you break the text down and apply it specifically to them first, there are some lessons that can be brought over to us, but those lessons have to be connected to what the text actually means. You just can't just reach in there and just pull anything out of it.

1:09:31 So the whole thing was maddening and frustrating. Inevitably, I didn't even realize this is going to happen. What we've been doing in twenty twenty five is comparing sermons to artificial intelligence. Once again, artificial intelligence clearly won. This artificial intelligence is handling of Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one is far superior than what we heard, far superior, more focused, put it in its context. Everything was well done. So I don't know what to say, but we did come up with an interesting discussion about chastisement and its purifying role. Exactly how does that work and how do we quantify that? How do we even qualify that? Have we missed the mark there completely? I think that's something we need to put a bookmark in and come back to at some point in time. We do need to discuss that, and again Isaiah forty twenty five through thirty one.

1:10:35 Though it is not really about chastisement. It's about encouragement to people in their situations. All right, And the neighborhood kids, do you hear that they're on their motorcycle. They have this little loop here in the neighborhood. They ride, comes right down to the side of the studio, goes right down to the alley behind. They go down the alley, they come out on the other side. Allie, come back down the street, turn right back here side of my house, right and they go into circle and they have a great time. It's it's wonderful when I'm not recording. When I'm recording, I want to, Oh, their motorcycle just died.

1:11:15 I don't know. Maybe I don't know what happened, so, but yes, that's what's currently going on outside. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go. I don't know what I'm gonna do. I'm going to go just well, I guess I guess I'll try to turn. I'll end it with a positive listening to a sermon that is frustrating as I got, and as irritating as it got, and I and just some of the things that was happening there, we still ended up in that conversation about chastisement. That that makes that all worth it, right, because we've gotten to this very important theological discussion that I think we could approach in a way far different than the way anyone else approaches it, and probably something that you've never even thought of.

1:11:58 That's why we listen to sermons, because we are confronted sometimes with an idea that that leads to important meditation and discussion. That's how we grow spiritually, even even in sermons that we may completely disagree with. It's being it's thinking them through, really taking them apart, And who cares whether you agree or disagree. Ultimately, now now at this point that sermon that we just listen to, it doesn't even matter anymore. Who cares? Now what we're I'm going to take with it is have we misunderstood chastisement and purification that comes from it? Have we have we misunderstood this? So now we have something to work on that. See, that's that's the good thing about a sermon. All right, thanks for listening, everyone, have a great Saturday. Yet Saturday and tomorrow. Remember ordinary means supernatural means. That's I think where we're going to focus on for our look at Isaiah forty nine through eleven, not so much. We're not going to do with the exegetical work on nine to eleven.

1:12:57 We're going to kind of take this little detour and then the following week will then start our exegetical work to nine to eleven because I think this will be beneficial. You'll see how it's all going to work, right, So God bless