back to index2019-29-12 A Simple Truth: God is God
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Okay, so that main point is that God is God, there are no other gods. 00:00:09.860 |
We're not going to stray from that main point at all. 00:00:16.040 |
For those of you who need everything kind of planned out in front of you, out of those 00:00:18.920 |
five points, the first one is going to be the longest. 00:00:21.580 |
So halfway through the sermon, if you're kind of getting nervous that we're going a long 00:00:26.960 |
The first one we're going to be spending a lot of time in there. 00:00:29.360 |
And so that first point is this though, that He is sovereign over kingdoms. 00:00:38.440 |
Now as we look at the text in Isaiah, what we see is that there's a lot of historical 00:00:45.760 |
And so there's Israel, and Israel has been at this point in history separated from North 00:00:51.720 |
So the Northern Kingdom is called Israel and the Southern Kingdom is called Judah. 00:00:55.240 |
There's 10 tribes up North, 2 tribes down South. 00:00:59.240 |
As you see this, we can see through the unfurling message of scripture that God has been sovereignly 00:01:09.960 |
He's been moving them, He's been kind of taking them in and out, and a lot of it had to do 00:01:16.160 |
with their obedience to Him, their obedience to His covenant promises. 00:01:21.120 |
So if you're familiar with Leviticus chapter 26 or Deuteronomy chapter 28, we see a lot 00:01:26.720 |
He says, "If you obey my commands, if you love me, if you follow after me, then I'll 00:01:34.200 |
He says, "However, if you disobey, if you are not faithful to me, if you are adulterous 00:01:44.880 |
He's been sovereignly working in His people, in His nation. 00:01:49.920 |
So specifically in this time of Isaiah, we find that the tribes have already split. 00:01:55.640 |
Now in this split, what we see, yes, is Israel's unfaithfulness. 00:02:01.120 |
That's why there's a split with the 10 and the 2. 00:02:04.400 |
What we also see in the midst of this historical fact, though, is that God's preserving, gracious, 00:02:13.760 |
From the time man falls, God has been promising over and over again that a Messiah is going 00:02:18.640 |
to come, that He is going to send the anointed, chosen one to save His people. 00:02:31.940 |
And in the middle of this preaching that Isaiah does, because it does encompass a few decades, 00:02:39.160 |
in the middle of his preaching, what he's saying is, "The northern kingdom is going 00:02:45.280 |
"A foreign nation is going to come and take you over, and that foreign nation is going 00:02:51.880 |
And the northern kingdom was meant to be a case study to the southern kingdom. 00:02:55.720 |
That the southern kingdom is going to see the northern kingdom fall, see God's sovereign 00:03:00.200 |
hand at work, that if we are unfaithful to God's covenant promise, then He will do, 00:03:09.360 |
Now the reason why we're talking about this is because we see God's sovereignty clearly 00:03:16.920 |
But in many of the pages of Isaiah, we also see God's sovereignty, God's sovereign 00:03:25.120 |
In 722 BC, so Isaiah was probably written somewhere around 740, and it spans through 00:03:32.920 |
But in 722 BC, the northern kingdom finally falls to Assyria. 00:03:40.560 |
Assyria becomes one of the many foreign nations that God uses to sovereignly bring justice, 00:03:49.280 |
But after Assyria, there comes another country, another nation called Babylon. 00:03:52.760 |
And after Babylon, another one called Persia. 00:03:57.960 |
There's Assyria and Babylon are used to enact God's judgment and justice against Israel 00:04:05.680 |
But Persia comes in and does something very differently. 00:04:08.760 |
God uses Persia to bring Israel back into the promised land, that He might continue 00:04:16.160 |
Well, if you look at Isaiah chapter 45 verses one through three, there's a man that comes 00:04:22.680 |
It says this in verse one, "Thus says the Lord to Cyrus, his anointed," that's a very 00:04:27.520 |
interesting word used there, "whom I have taken by the right hand to subdue nations 00:04:31.780 |
before him and to loose the loins of kings, to open doors before him so that gates will 00:04:37.720 |
I will go before you and make the rough places smooth. 00:04:40.720 |
I will shatter the doors of bronze and cut through their iron bars. 00:04:44.160 |
I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden wealth of secret places so that 00:04:48.480 |
you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who calls you by your name." 00:04:53.800 |
Again, putting ourselves in the position of during the time of Isaiah, the southern kingdom, 00:05:00.760 |
at 700 BC-ish, they are told that Assyria is going to come and conquer, that God will 00:05:08.480 |
use Assyria in His sovereignty to conquer the northern kingdom. 00:05:13.200 |
And then in the midst of Isaiah, they're also shown that Babylon will come in and take over 00:05:17.960 |
the southern kingdom if they continue to remain unfaithful. 00:05:21.140 |
But here, Persia is 200 years in the future, and by name, this man by the name of King 00:05:27.840 |
Cyrus is mentioned here, that the Lord is going to use Cyrus as His anointed one, that 00:05:34.040 |
He is going to sovereignly use Cyrus and this country of Persia to enact His sovereign purpose 00:05:46.280 |
The reason why we're talking about all this is to show that God is ultimately sovereign 00:05:57.280 |
We understand that God is sovereign over Israel. 00:06:03.760 |
He causes Israel to succeed, He causes Israel to fail. 00:06:08.400 |
We see kings come up and they buck against the Lord and they rebel against Him and He 00:06:15.360 |
So over and over and over, we can see God just rising and lowering, rising and lowering. 00:06:20.720 |
But also, what I want to mention is that God is sovereign over all these other kingdoms. 00:06:26.200 |
God is sovereign over every kingdom in the world, every nation. 00:06:31.920 |
Not a single country is outside of God's sovereign hand, rule and control. 00:06:39.020 |
God is the one who causes nations to succeed. 00:06:45.580 |
I'm sure that Assyria and all her kings, and if you think about kind of just the short 00:06:49.860 |
timeline Babylon and all her kings, and Persia and all her kings, they all had their own 00:06:56.420 |
They all had their own desires and ambitions, their goals for where they wanted their country 00:07:01.860 |
to go, that they wanted power, they wanted land, they wanted rule and prestige and fame. 00:07:13.340 |
What they don't realize is that none of it comes to fruition outside of God's sovereign 00:07:18.900 |
Israel, yes, is under God's sovereign control, but every other nation works under His power, 00:07:26.900 |
His control, His will, and His timing, and all of this is in accordance to His perfect 00:07:38.380 |
We throw around that term a lot, and I think many times we throw it around very lightly, 00:07:45.740 |
We believe it, we say amen to that, we will mention it all the time. 00:07:52.740 |
As an adjective, sovereign is to possess supreme or ultimate power. 00:07:59.580 |
It could also be used as a noun, that the sovereign, He is the sovereign. 00:08:13.140 |
He will do and He can do according to His will, and nothing falls outside of His will. 00:08:24.700 |
When we see kings in power, when we see presidents and prime ministers and governments and authorities, 00:08:37.580 |
The one who uses all things to His purposes, goals, and will, every single king, every 00:08:46.660 |
single nation bends to His sovereign control. 00:08:54.140 |
These kings, these nations might have their own ambitions. 00:08:56.900 |
They might think that they're bucking against God's sovereign will, but they're not. 00:09:06.660 |
It says that Jesus, He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 00:09:14.220 |
For by Him, all things were created in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. 00:09:19.340 |
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities, all things were created through 00:09:35.620 |
Whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities were created through Him and for 00:09:44.180 |
In Ephesians 1.20, that He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated 00:09:49.660 |
Him at His right hand in the heavenly places. 00:09:55.500 |
Far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and above every name that is 00:10:00.460 |
named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 00:10:05.180 |
And He put all things under His feet and gave Him as head over all things to the church, 00:10:10.340 |
which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. 00:10:23.100 |
All rule, all authority, power, dominion falls under the feet of Christ. 00:10:36.900 |
Psalms 2, Psalm 2, verse 1-6 says, "Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? 00:10:47.900 |
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together." 00:10:52.580 |
See this is an image of all these kings and rulers coming together and they're like counseling 00:11:00.900 |
And they're setting themselves together, combining together to rebel against the Lord. 00:11:06.780 |
To me it kind of sounds like Babel, the Tower of Babel. 00:11:09.900 |
But in verse 2, continuing, "And the rulers take counsel together against the Lord, against 00:11:25.700 |
And this is what they say, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from 00:11:34.540 |
They're saying, "Under the sovereign God, we will come together, we will take counsel 00:11:47.420 |
We will not follow under His rule any longer. 00:11:50.220 |
We will follow under our own rule, our own law, under our own desires, our own ambitions. 00:12:01.900 |
I am going to live in accordance to what I want to do." 00:12:04.700 |
And then in verse 4, you see all of these people coming together. 00:12:14.660 |
In verse 4, "There's God sitting in His throne. 00:12:25.500 |
Then He will speak to them in His wrath and terrify them in His fury, saying, 'As for 00:12:29.500 |
me, I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.'" 00:12:34.340 |
When I first read this, I think, "Man, it kind of sounds rude, you know? 00:12:42.580 |
I think that the picture that's being shown here is just like, it's just, you're like, 00:12:49.300 |
"God looking at all these kings coming together, like little ants coming together, saying, 00:13:00.340 |
It's just like, dude, you know, it's like, if you imagine like this little toddler walking 00:13:07.140 |
up to the side of a mountain and just endeavoring, "I am going to move this mountain." 00:13:12.580 |
And he pushes with all his might, and pushes and pushes. 00:13:14.940 |
You're sitting there, you're looking, and you're like, you laugh. 00:13:20.540 |
It says here that God sits in heaven and He laughs at these nations that are bucking under 00:13:32.300 |
It's not only kingdoms, but all that we see in the world, God is in complete and perfect 00:13:57.980 |
Everything in our sinful heart says, "I will not kneel before Him as my God." 00:14:04.860 |
As soon as we come alive, we say, "I am God." 00:14:12.020 |
And many times we take counsel together, and we come together, and we say, "Let's do this 00:14:28.620 |
In our own little minute lives, we buck against it, and we fight against it, and we rebel 00:14:39.820 |
The nations are just a ballooned example of what's going on in our individual little hearts. 00:14:51.480 |
The individual says that he will live what he wants to live for. 00:14:54.340 |
The individual says that he will live according to his own purposes. 00:14:57.060 |
The individual says, "I will erect my kingdom in my life. 00:15:10.860 |
James chapter four, verse 13 then says, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will 00:15:15.460 |
go to such and such a city and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.'" 00:15:25.180 |
Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. 00:15:31.220 |
You're just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanish away. 00:15:42.260 |
Do you have sovereign control over any decision that you make in your life? 00:15:52.540 |
Verse 15, "Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this 00:16:07.460 |
Saying I'm going to do this, I'm going to do that, I purpose this, I endeavor in this 00:16:16.300 |
It's evil because you are saying God is not God. 00:16:23.140 |
You are saying my purposes, my kingdoms do come. 00:16:31.820 |
What is it that we actually think we can accomplish with our hands? 00:16:37.380 |
In today's culture, they say you can make a difference. 00:16:50.160 |
We come to realize that all of it falls under the power and rule of the sovereign one's 00:17:02.300 |
Try as we might with all our technology, we can't stop a disease from killing us. 00:17:11.060 |
We can't make mother nature move in accordance to what we want. 00:17:27.100 |
We wake up, from the moment we wake up, we're planning and we're endeavoring. 00:17:34.220 |
The nation's raging is a ballooned up example of this, that all these individual hearts 00:17:38.900 |
that try to live out their own existence according to their terms, try to assert their own will 00:17:43.400 |
and sovereignty to accomplish what they desire. 00:17:47.340 |
It says in Psalm 127 verse 1 and 2, "Unless the Lord builds the house, unless the Lord 00:18:00.180 |
Unless the Lord guards the city, the watchman keeps awake in vain." 00:18:10.580 |
It is vain for you to eat the bread of painful labors. 00:18:13.520 |
It is vain for you, for he gives to his beloved even in his sleep. 00:18:20.060 |
He is the one who brings up and establishes and he brings everything down into calamity. 00:18:27.780 |
He's the only one and that's our first point. 00:18:32.860 |
Our second point is that he is the creator of the world and all that is in it. 00:18:44.060 |
So this point number two is, he is the creator of the world. 00:18:53.560 |
There was only one who created all things that we see and from everything that we see, 00:19:03.820 |
So Isaiah is continuing to speak to the southern kingdom and these are the ones, again, he's 00:19:09.020 |
continuing to preserve and choose his people. 00:19:12.340 |
The ones who are not just chosen of God but now what they're doing is they are kind of, 00:19:21.500 |
even after the northern kingdom falls, the southern kingdom, if you're familiar with 00:19:25.540 |
the kings and the Samuels and the Chronicles, as you see it playing out, even the southern 00:19:35.660 |
These are the ones, he's talking to the ones here who continue to live out their own existence. 00:19:41.580 |
He's talking to the southern kingdom and he's saying, "Do you not understand that God is 00:19:48.140 |
Don't you see what's happening to the northern kingdom? 00:19:52.100 |
Don't you see what's going to happen to you?" 00:19:55.940 |
In this context, he reminds them, God is God, yes, he is sovereign, yes. 00:20:03.220 |
Verses seven through eight in chapter 45 says this, "The one forming light and creating 00:20:08.220 |
darkness, causing well-being and creating calamity, I am the Lord who does all these. 00:20:16.140 |
Drip down, O heavens, from above and let the clouds pour down righteousness. 00:20:20.300 |
Let the earth open up and salvation bear fruit and righteousness spring up with it. 00:20:27.700 |
Jumping to verse 11 and 12, "Thus says the Lord, the Holy One of Israel and his maker." 00:20:36.220 |
Every time titles are used, you have to just stop and look. 00:20:39.380 |
Verse 11 again, "Thus says the Lord, he is the Holy, set-apart One, the One unlike any 00:20:44.580 |
other of Israel and the Maker of Israel, the Creator. 00:20:49.660 |
He says, 'Ask me about the things to come concerning my sons and you shall commit to 00:20:56.620 |
It is I who made the earth and created man upon it. 00:21:00.220 |
I stretched out the heavens with my hands and I ordained all their hosts." 00:21:04.020 |
See, God made the world and he made the world with purpose. 00:21:12.840 |
The purpose is not to accomplish and pursue as creation. 00:21:17.540 |
God's created work is not to go off and live out according to their own purposes and wills. 00:21:27.620 |
When God looks at creation and says it's good, is that everything in creation understands 00:21:32.220 |
that there is creator and there is purpose in it and the purpose is in accordance to 00:21:39.220 |
Not for the creation to go out and live in accordance to their own purpose. 00:21:47.220 |
Our purpose as creation is not to accomplish and pursue our own little heart's desires. 00:21:53.580 |
To purchase the newest phones and cars, biggest houses, go after the best educations. 00:22:00.860 |
Only pursue our own kingdoms, our own wills, to build up our own name and our own prestige. 00:22:08.860 |
Very much like what happened at the Tower of Babel. 00:22:12.700 |
We were created by the creator with a purpose. 00:22:15.700 |
To worship God, to love him, to be loved by him, to be in a perfect relationship with him. 00:22:32.900 |
He is the creator of the world and all that is in it. 00:22:51.780 |
In Deuteronomy 6, there's this thing, it's called the Shema. 00:22:59.180 |
Every morning and every night, they would say the Shema. 00:23:03.860 |
This phrase went like this, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord is our God. 00:23:11.340 |
In the morning, they would wake up and say that. 00:23:29.820 |
Wake up the next morning, "The Lord is our God." 00:23:47.620 |
There is no Baal, there is no Moloch, there is no Ammon or Dagon. 00:24:02.280 |
There might be the collective idol that we set up as a culture, as a society. 00:24:08.500 |
All of creation bucking against the fact that he is God. 00:24:15.000 |
It's all perversion of what was meant for good. 00:24:21.220 |
When we look at idols, this is kind of a significant chunk of text. 00:24:26.020 |
I'm going to ask you, you do have to engage with this text. 00:24:29.220 |
It's a story and it's kind of satire-like, starting Isaiah 44. 00:24:37.220 |
In verse 12, if you can't see it, then you could listen. 00:24:41.420 |
"The man shapes iron into a cutting tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning 00:24:47.240 |
it with hammers and working it with a strong arm. 00:24:55.380 |
This is talking about this man who's making an idol. 00:25:06.320 |
He works it with planes and outlines it with a compass. 00:25:08.620 |
He makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. 00:25:14.340 |
Surely he cuts cedars for himself and he takes a cypress or an oak and he raises it for himself 00:25:25.420 |
Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself. 00:25:39.460 |
He makes it a graven image and falls down before it. 00:25:49.380 |
Over this half he eats meat as he roasts, roasts and is satisfied. 00:25:52.820 |
He also warms himself in front of this fire and says, 'Aha, I am warm. 00:25:58.060 |
But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. 00:26:06.900 |
He also prays to it and says, 'Deliver me, for you are my god.' 00:26:12.260 |
They do not know, nor do they understand, for he has smeared over their eyes that they 00:26:15.940 |
cannot see and their hearts that they cannot comprehend. 00:26:18.900 |
No one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, 'I have burned half 00:26:22.340 |
of it in the fire and also have baked bread over its coals. 00:26:27.020 |
Then I make the rest of it into an abomination. 00:26:35.220 |
His deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot deliver himself, nor say, 'Is there 00:26:42.260 |
And yet, when we idolize things of this world, this is exactly what we're doing. 00:26:47.900 |
We are celebrating and worship something as God when they are but creation. 00:27:17.340 |
This was a story of a man worshiping an idol. 00:27:20.020 |
But a few chapters later in 47, Isaiah swings around and tells us the end of this. 00:27:29.460 |
It says, "Now then, hear this, you sensual one." 00:27:33.540 |
That's the ones who go after your own sensual lusts. 00:27:38.300 |
He says, "Who dwells securely, who says in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one besides 00:27:46.820 |
I will not sit as a widow, nor know loss of children." 00:27:58.980 |
Actually we're not going to go into it, but I'm sure that's triggering in you a memory 00:28:07.300 |
Verse 9, "But these two things will come on you suddenly in one day, loss of children 00:28:12.180 |
They will come on you in full measure in spite of your many sorceries, in spite of the great 00:28:17.960 |
You felt secure in your wickedness and said, 'No one sees me.' 00:28:21.260 |
Your wisdom and your knowledge, they have deluded you. 00:28:23.540 |
For you have said in your heart, 'I am, and there is no one besides me.' 00:28:28.460 |
Great evil will come on you, which you will not know how to charm away. 00:28:31.900 |
And disaster will fall on you, for which you cannot atone. 00:28:34.500 |
And destruction about which you do not know will come on you suddenly." 00:28:42.620 |
Our casting ourselves before idols, worshipping idols, is actually us worshipping ourselves, 00:28:57.540 |
And so we worship idols only because they promise to give us our desires. 00:29:03.300 |
We worship them as gods, but actually we are worshipping ourselves. 00:29:09.580 |
Back then, people worshipped false gods because they promised personal success. 00:29:13.580 |
That is to bring rain upon the crops, to increase the yield of their land, to end the famine 00:29:26.580 |
People would even create gods just so that they could live out their pleasures. 00:29:31.540 |
Their own sexual perversions and twisted desires was very common in the form of temple prostitutes 00:29:49.800 |
If I worship this god, will I ultimately get what I want? 00:29:55.540 |
See, we look at something called the prosperity gospel. 00:30:01.140 |
I will worship the god of the Bible, Yahweh, the same one, same Bible that we read. 00:30:07.020 |
I will worship if he promises me prosperity and wealth. 00:30:13.940 |
And so it looks like they're worshipping the god of the Bible, because they're using our 00:30:17.100 |
scripture, but they might as well be worshipping a golden calf. 00:30:30.260 |
The people of Israel are waiting for him, and now they're terrified. 00:30:34.380 |
And so they're like, what are we going to do? 00:30:37.820 |
So Aaron said to them, tear off the gold rings which are in the ears of your wives, your 00:30:41.740 |
sons and your daughters, and bring them to me. 00:30:43.900 |
And then all the people tore off the gold rings which were in their ears and brought 00:30:48.580 |
He took this from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it into a 00:30:52.900 |
Up to here, this is outrageous, but it makes sense. 00:31:03.780 |
And they said, this molten calf that they just created, they said, this is your god, 00:31:12.900 |
Heavenly Father, I pray that we truly would kneel before you. 00:31:25.860 |
You are the creator of all things, and you alone sustain all things. 00:31:49.660 |
And Father, I pray that we would be a church with such a simple truth, even when we start 00:31:55.340 |
our prayers, dear God, that everything in our prayers would align with that. 00:32:05.780 |
So Father, help us because our hearts are so fickle and prone to wander. 00:32:09.800 |
We need your help to be a church that does this. 00:32:12.900 |
We pray God for conviction and boldness to be able to live in accordance to what we proclaim