Elijah is very clear about that in speaking
to Job, you remember, when he says that
God will not lay upon man more than
his right.
He will deal with each man according to
his light and knowledge and the actual sins
he has committed, but he will not punish
anyone more than his sins deserve.
Of this expression she has received of the
Lord's hand the double for all her sins
is a kind of a commercial expression.
When one entered into a certain transaction, as
for instance, if a Jew were in financial
difficulties and he turned his home or his
farm over to a creditor in order to
meet his debt, a paper would be made
out giving this full information, and one copy
of it would be kept by the more
the one who had placed the mortgage on
the property, and the other would be nailed
up on the doorpost so that anyone would
understand that this property was now at least
temporarily transferred to another.
When finally the account was settled and everything
was paid, then the notice from the doorpost
would be doubled and packed up and doubled,
covered over, and that indicated it was all
settled.
So, when it says here she has received
of the Lord's hand the double for all
her sins, it is as though it said
the account has been fully paid.
There'll be nothing more now to suffer because
the Lord will have forgiven her iniquity.
That's put before us in the very beginning
of this section.
That's the goal toward which the people are
to look, and then in other chapters we're
told how they reach that goal, and so
in the first place now we have a
prophecy that relates to the coming of John
the Baptist, the voice of one crying in
the wilderness Prepare ye the way of the
Lord, make his path straight.
John applies this, you remember, to himself.
When certain of the Pharisees came and said,
Art thou Messiah?
He said, I am not.
Art thou that prophet?
That is the one spoken of by Moses
who said, A prophet to the Lord your
God raised up like unto me.
Him shall ye hear in all things.
He said, I am not.
Well, then they said, If thou art not
Messiah, and thou art not that prophet, who
art thou, and why baptizest thou?
He said, I am the voice of one
crying in the wilderness.
Prepare ye the way of the Lord.
Thus he applied to himself these words of
Isaiah.
Well now, as we go on in the
chapter we read, the voice said, cry.
God is sending his messenger, and he says
to his messenger, now cry.
Cry aloud, give out my message.
And then the question comes back, what shall
I cry?
And the answer is, all flesh is grass,
and all the glory of man is the
flower of grass.
The grass withereth, the flowers thereof falleth away,
but the word of our God shall stand
forever.
Well now, what is there comforting about that?
Comfort ye my people.
And the voice said, cry.
And I said, what will I cry?
What will I cry to comfort the people
of God?
I said, tell them that all flesh is
grass.
Tell them they're good for nothing.
Tell them they're just a lot of poor,
helpless sinners.
All flesh is grass, and tell them there's
nothing to glory, and all the glory of
man is the flower of the grass, and
the grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth
away.
Tell them that.
Well, is there anything comforting about that?
Well, it's the first thing I need to
know.
If I do not learn the lesson of
my utter helplessness, I'll never turn to God
for salvation.
If I think that I can save myself,
I'm not going to avail myself of the
provision that God has made for my salvation.
And so he says, tell them that all
flesh is grass, but tell them that the
word of the Lord endureth forever.
And the apostle Peter, you remember, quotes this
in the first chapter of 1 Peter, and
he gives this comment on it.
This is the word which by the gospel
is preached unto you.
And so, after all, it's the gospel message
that comes before us.
The word of the Lord that endures forever
is the good tidings of the gospel.
I want to my wife to take up
from here, and give me a few verses
to get a new start.
The beginning was mine.
O Zion, that bringeth good tidings, lift thee
up into the high mountains.
O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up
thy voice with strength.
Lift it up.
Be not afraid.
Pray unto the cities of Judah, behold your
God.
Behold, the Lord God will come with strong
hands, and his arms shall be for him.
For all his reward is with him, and
his voice is for 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 that are with him.
And, immediately following this word, the word of
the Lord endureth forever, with which Peter links
the message of the gospel.
You have the message...how does that start again,
just a hundred meters?
O Zion, that bringeth good tidings.
Good tidings?
Well, that is the gospel, you see.
But, it's not the gospel exactly as we
know it today.
It's not the gospel of the grace of
God in its fullness that is now proclaimed,
but it's the gospel of the kingdom.
It's identical with that which will be proclaimed
in the coming day, just before the king
himself appears.
And, of course, it was also applicable to
the days when John the Baptist came, because
he came proclaiming the good news of the
king who was coming.
And, when the Lord Jesus actually came, he
took the very place spoken of here by
Isaiah.
He comes as a shepherd.
Jesus says, I am the good shepherd, the
good shepherd that layeth down his life for
the sheep.
And so, as the shepherd, he's pictured here
in the good news that God brings to
Israel, and the shepherd carrying the lambs in
his bosom, and gently leading the flock, gently
leading those with young.
I've no doubt that some of you have
used this passage at times when it was
very helpful.
I've often found it helpful if used carefully
when I was officiating at the funeral service
of a little child, particularly a little child
whose parents hadn't perhaps yet come to a
definite confession of Christ.
Of course, one has to be very, very
careful at such a time, because hearts are
torn and bleeding, and you don't want to
add to their pain and sorrow by saying
things that are harsh or anything like that.
I remember a friend of mine who thought
he had to be terribly faithful, and because
he was asked to conduct the funeral of
a young man who had led a very
difficult, wicked life, and died in a drunken
spree, he stood over the coffin with a
poor, broken-hearted father and mother there.
He said, my friends, we're looking down today
on the body of a young man whose
soul is now in hell, in torment.
And he went on to enlarge and enlarge,
so one day the poor mother didn't drop
to the ground in a faint, and almost
a wonder that the father didn't get up
and try to give him a beating for
talking like that at the funeral time.
That's no time for that kind of thing.
How does anybody know?
How does anybody know that the Lord hadn't
spoken to that young man even in his
very last moment, and that he may not
have looked up to God and said, we
can't pronounce on people.
Only God can do that.
It's not for us to do it.
But I've known times when this passage I've
found very helpful.
I think even now, the time when a
dear little one had been taken away, the
father and mother had not come out for
Christ, and I just told the simple little
story at the funeral.
I said, you know, it's hard for us
to understand why God would take a little
one like this, why he would entrust these
dear parents with this precious little treasure for
just a few years, and then take her
away.
But it reminds me of the story of
the shepherd who was leading his flock down
through the pasture, and they came to a
fordable creek, and he wanted to lead them
across to the other side.
He stepped down into the water and called
them, but they came to the edge of
the water, and they wouldn't come in.
They just remained.
They refused to come any farther, and so
then the shepherd turned back, and he picked
up one little lamb and another little lamb,
and he took them in his arms, and
then he stepped down into the water, and
the mother sheep came behind bleating for the
little ones, and as he walked out into
the water with these little lambs in his
arms, the mother sheep, both of them, followed
him, and then in a moment the whole
flock followed.
They all went through the water to the
other side, and so I just tried to
point out to these dear friends, as kindly
and tenderly as I could, that perhaps the
Lord has taken this starving little one to
draw your hearts out to himself, to give
you to know him as the good shepherd.
And God used that message that day for
the salvation of both the father and the
mother, and I think that's a beautiful picture
we have here.
He'll carry the lambs in his arms, and
he'll gently lead those who have gone, and
yet this one who comes to us so
tenderly as the shepherd, a real man, a
man in absolute holiness, tender, compassionate, loving, is
the Omnipotent God, the creator of the ends
of the earth.
And so, as we go on into the
chapter, we hear God himself speaking in power
and majesty, putting himself in contrast as we
follow the connection with the idols of the
heathen, to whom many of the people of
Israel had turned.
Hast thou not known, hast thou not heard,
that the everlasting God is in God, the
creator of the ends of the earth?
Saint is not, neither is weary.
There is no searching of his understanding.
He gives his power to the saint, and
to them that have no might he increases
strength.
Even the youth shall faint and be weary,
and the young men shall err as foals,
but they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
The connection, the verses omitted, which you of
course will read, show clearly that it's the
same blessed one, the shepherd of Israel, who
is speaking here as the creator of the
heavens, as the one of omnipotent power and
omniscient wisdom, and he has a tender interest
in everyone, and we find our blessing as
we learn to wait upon him.
They that wait upon the Lord shall renew
their strength.
Natural strength may fail, the youth will faint
and grow weary, but you young fellows, with
all your vigor and strength, how easily your
strength can fail if you just depended on
yourself when it came to the hour of
trial and temptation.
But they that wait upon the Lord shall
renew their strength.
They shall mount up with wings as eagles.
They shall run and not be weary.
They shall walk and not faint.
An old Puritan commentator suggested on this that
you have three kinds of Christians here.
Well, of course, in the Old Testament, you
don't have Christians in the proper sense at
all, but he meant children of God.
He said the young believers are pictured as
mounting up on wings as eagles.
They're great high flyers.
These young folks have just recently been converted,
and then those who've gone on a while,
they run and don't faint, and then the
old Christians, they've got down to where they
walk.
They don't do any high flying or running,
but they walk quietly with God.
Well, there may be a suggestion there, but
the point, of course, the prophet is bringing
out is this, that our strength is renewed
as we learn to wait upon the Lord.
And now, as we come into chapter two,
we find the Lord presenting Messiah as the
God is still put in contrast with man's
weakness.
I can't go into the whole chapter, because
time won't permit, but my wife will just
read us a lecture or two from it.
It'll help us get the gist of it.
I will help you.
Behold, I will make thee a new sharp
-threshing instrument, having teeth, thou shalt thresh the
mountains, and heap them small, and shall make
the hills a sack.
See, all these are promises made to Israel
when they're restored to him, but they follow
the account of the majesty of God, and
it's man in his weakness depending on the
infinitely strong one.
This all, this comes in as a kind
of a preface before Jehovah points out the
folly of turning to senseless idols who are
absolutely unable to help.
You notice the expression here, Abraham, my friend.
That's the passage referred to in the New
Testament, where we read that Abraham is called
the friend of God.
What a wonderful thing for God to say
of any man, my friend.
And the Lord Jesus, you remember, said to
his disciples, henceforth I've not called you servants,
I've called you friends.
For the servant knoweth not what his Lord
doeth.
The servant is to do what he's told.
It's not for him to ask, why do
I do this?
But just because he's told to do it.
But to the friend one unburdens his heart,
and the Lord speaks of Abraham, my friend.
You remember, God took him into his confidence
in regard to sovereign's judgments, and so on.
And so, all the way through, God delights
to open up his mind to his friends,
and the prophetic scriptures are just that.
They're opening up of God's truth that his
friends may enter into and understand that which
he is about to do.
This expression concerning Israel, that God is going
to make them as sharp, threshing instruments with
teeth, points on to the great harvest of
the last days when Israel, a remnant of
Israel, restored to the Lord, will be used
of him to bring many down before him
in repentance, and lead them to put faith
in the message that they proclaim.
And you and I, surely, as servants of
Christ, we need to be sharp, threshing instruments
with teeth.
I think, you know, a lot of preaching
hasn't much teeth to it.
It wouldn't hurt anybody.
Now, don't misunderstand.
I said a moment ago we need to
be careful about people's feelings, but on the
other hand, what I'm trying to say now
is that we should be faithful in pointing
out the wickedness of mankind and the exceeding
sinfulness of sin, that men may realize where
they stand before God.
So, we need to have teeth in our
preaching.
A lot of preaching is just absolutely powerless
and colorless, and saved or unsaved can sit
and listen to it and enjoy it.
I think I've mentioned before the young man
who came to his pastor who was resigning
to accept another church.
He had been called to a sphere of
greater usefulness, that is a church with a
bigger salary, and so he left the one
where he was serving him.
When he was saying goodbye to his flock,
one young man came up to him and
he said, well pastor, I'm awfully sorry that
you're leaving us.
When you came here three years ago, I
was a young man who didn't care for
God, man, or the devil, but now since
I've listened to your beautiful sermons, I've learned
to love them all.
Now, that's the kind of thing you get
in many places.
That's preaching without teeth, but God would have
his servants as sharp, threshing instruments with teeth.
Well, now we come into chapter 42, and
we have Messiah.
Now God carries his people on for the
time.
We've already spoken of the forerunner, the voice
crying in the wilderness.
Now we have Messiah himself presented.
He's going to take this up fuller in
the next section, but he comes here in
order that Israel may have the program of
God before them and realize what folly it
is to turn away from the living and
true God to their senseless idols.
This passage is definitely referred to in the
New Testament as prophetic of our Lord.
Once, for behold my servant whom I uphold,
mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.
I have put my spirit upon him.
He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.
He shall not cry, nor lift up, nor
cause his voice to be heard in the
street.
A bruised wreath shall he not break, and
smoking flax shall he not quench.
He shall bring forth judgment unto truth.
He shall not fail, nor be discouraged, till
he has set judgment in the earth, and
the isles shall wait for his law.
You remember how this is definitely referred to
in the New Testament.
He shall not break the bruised wreath, nor
quench the smoking flax.
Wherever there's the least evidence of the heart's
desire to turn to God, he quickens it,
and encourages it, and leads people on into
full assurance of faith at last.
The characteristics of the Lord's ministry here are
worth our consideration.
You know, I think that we're apt sometimes
to go to extremes.
Well, anybody about their souls.
We don't do any personal work.
We don't pay any attention, no matter what
people may say or do, except to preach
from the platform.
Or else, on the other hand, we're inclined
to be very obtrusive, and very self-assertive,
and call people down ruthlessly, and do many
things that are hardly in keeping with that
Christian culture which we ought to manifest.
But this passage did a lot for me
when I was a young man.
You see, I began my ministry as a
Salvation Army officer, and 60 years ago the
Salvation Army was a mighty power for good
in this country.
It just dwindled down, and down, and down.
We used to march the streets of San
Francisco in processions of over a thousand with
two or three big brass bands, and we
were winning hundreds of souls to Christ.
But, little by little, the organization got away
from all that.
Now, it's almost just a great charitable organization.
But we were inclined, perhaps, to go to
two great extremes in our intense earnestness.
Do things that possibly were not wise, and
maybe instead of impressing people for God, impressed
them with our own, well, what shall I
say, made us think, made them think we
were a lot of crazy folk, or something
like that.
I'll just mention myself, you know.
I was so under the power of legality
that I felt guilty if I ever rode
in a street car, and I didn't immediately
get up and begin to give my testimony.
I'd just get to my feet as soon
as left the corner and say, friends, I
want to give my testimony for Jesus Christ,
and I want to tell you how God
saved me, and so on.
I'd have the conductor coming after me, here,
sit down.
We didn't, we didn't ask you to come
in here to conduct a church service, and
all sorts of things.
Then I sometimes, I'm afraid, I was rather
rude to him.
I'd say, well, I'd sit down, and I'll
sit down if you say so, but you'll
have to answer the judgment bar of God
for trying to keep these people from hearing
the gospel.
I'd just do the same thing in a
railroad train if I traveled in a railroad
train.
As soon as he got away from the
station, I'd get up and turn around, face
the people, and begin to give them a
test, and I thought I had to do
it.
I thought if I didn't do it that
I'd be responsible for the loss of their
souls, and I used to do a lot
of things like that that were rude, and
I didn't realize it.
I remember the last time I ever got
up in a railroad train like that to
give my testimony.
I just got well started when a big
fat Roman Catholic priest, and I don't like
fat men, a big fat Roman Catholic priest
jumped to his feet, and he says, What's
this?
What's this?
Have I got to be insulted?
Have I paid my ticket for a seat
here in a railroad train?
Have I got to sit in a Protestant
service?
Where's the conductor?
And the conductor said, young man, you can't
do this.
You have no right to interfere with other
people's religion when you're riding in a railroad
train, and so I had to sit down.
I felt properly squelched.
Well, you know, it bothers me.
The devil just, he either tries to keep
you quiet, or else he tries to just
run you ragged with the legality, making you
think you've got to do things all the
time that are unreasonable, and you know the
thing that delivered me at last, and that
showed me that there was a golden mean
between indifference and rudeness, was this very passage.
What does it say of the Lord Jesus?
He shall not strive, nor cry, neither shall
his voice be heard in the streets.
He went through his service here for God
in such a restful, quiet way.
If people came to him and wanted to
know how to get eternal life, or how
to get saved, he was always ready to
meet them, and he sought out the lost
as the woman at the well, and so
on, but you never find him doing anything
that's rude, or that's boisterous, or that's uncouth.
He was truly God's gentle man.
I was rather shocked when I first heard
that expression applied to him.
I picked up an old history of the
world, a little volume in black letter in
the city of London some years ago, that
was published way back in 1600 and something,
and it was most interesting to read it,
and when it came down to the days
of the Roman Empire, and Augustus Caesar, and
so on, it said, in his days there
was born in Bethlehem of Judea that goodly
gentleman, Jesus Christ.
I was so surprised to see the Lord
referred to in that way.
There was born that goodly gentleman, Jesus Christ,
and then as I meditated on it, I
thought, well, why shouldn't that epithet be applied
to him?
What is a gentleman?
A gentle man, a gracious man, and Jesus
was all of that, always gentle, gracious, and
then even when rebuking sins sternly, still he
never did anything that was boisterous, or that
made him seem uncouth.
You know, people have different ideas of gentlemen,
of course.
In our country, we think of any gracious
man as a gentle man, gentleman, but over
in Great Britain, they have funny ideas.
When the Moody Church was still in debt,
I was over there, and the lady said
to me when I was at the dinner
party one day, she said, Doctor, how much
are you still owing on the church?
I said, $175,000.
She said, well, how much was owing when
you came in?
I said, $375,000, and you've got $2
,000 paid off.
Yes, well, now she said, I wish you
could see Mr. So-and-so.
I think he'd give you a good donation
for that.
Otherwise, I wouldn't think of expecting a man
over here in England to pay for a
church in America.
We get plenty of money there if I
can only think it out of him.
Well, but she said, I think he'd be
glad to do it.
He has a lot of money, and I
noticed the other day he gave £50,000
to the China Inland Mission.
Well, I said, what does he do?
She said, what do you mean, what does
he do?
Well, how does he earn his money?
What does he work at?
Work?
Oh, she said, he doesn't work.
He's a jackhammer.
Oh, I said, is that what you call
them here?
I said, we have a lot of people
in America who don't work.
We call them hobos.
Well, there's a difference of opinion, you know,
as to what is meant by working.
Well, here, I'm getting off the track.
Come on.
Now, in 43, we have the Lord's gracious
care of Israel continued.
See how wonderfully he enters into their sorrows.
They'll think back to this.
And thou dost sayeth the Lord hath created
thee, O Jacob, and he that forms thee,
O Israel.
Fear not, for I have redeemed thee.
I have called thee by thy name, thou
art mine.
When thou passest through the waters, I will
be with thee.
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow
thee.
When thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt
not be burned.
Neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.
For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior.
And so, as we go on into this
chapter, we find the Lord expressing his gracious
care of his people.
And then, it's right here that he brings
Israel before us as his witnesses, is it?
Yes.
Now, just before my wife reads that, let
me say this word.
We have a group of people today who
call themselves Jehovah's Witnesses.
Where did they get that idea of calling
themselves Jehovah's Witnesses?
Well, right from this chapter.
Right from this chapter, when Jehovah said to
Israel, Ye are my witnesses.
Just get the connection here.
Ye are my witnesses, saith the Lord, and
my servant whom I have chosen, that ye
may know and believe me, and understand that
I am he.
That for me there was no God formed,
neither shall that there be after me.
For thirteen days before the day was, I
am he.
You see, the Lord turns to Israel, and
he says, You are my witnesses.
And this is true of Israel, whether they're
obedient to him or disobedient, whether they're in
the land or out of the land, whether
they're keeping the law or breaking the law.
Because God has given his testimony through Moses
and other prophets, showing just how he was
going to deal with this people of Israel
down through the centuries.
The blessings that would be theirs if they
walked in obedience, the curses and judgments that
would come upon them if they were disobedient.
History shows the truth of what God has
declared, and therefore Israel is God's witness to
the truth of his word.
You've often heard the familiar story of the
instance where Frederick the Great, who had been
listening to Voltaire and was all tangled up
with agnostic ideas, turned to one of his
court chaplains and said, Chaplain, if your Bible
is true, it ought to be capable of
very clear and succinct witness proof.
Generally, when I ask for proof that the
Bible is true, I'm handed some great big
dry scholarly volume which I have neither the
time nor the patience to read.
If your Bible is true, give me the
proof of it in one word.
And the chaplain answered, Sire, Israel.
And Frederick acknowledged that that, indeed, was the
proof that the Bible was true.
Israel, ye are my witnesses.
And now, from this time on, you'll find
Jehovah challenging the priests of the heathen, the
priests of the idolaters.
He says, give us some evidence, give us
some evidence that any spirit of prophecy is
working in you.
Tell us things to come, or go back
and tell us things that have been.
Explain the past, explain the origin of the
world.
They couldn't do it, but God has done
all these things.
The spirit of prophecy is the proof that
the Bible is actually the word of the
living God.
So, he says, ye are my witnesses, sayeth
the Lord.
Now, in the last part, chapter 44, did
you want something more in there?
I'm depending a good deal on my wife's
judgment, because we talk this whole before we
come in, and I forget things.
The promise of the spirit.
Oh yes.
Where at last Messiah, just a minute, when
Messiah's day comes, then the spirit is going
to be poured out upon Israel from an
eye.
That has not taken place yet.
As we saw yesterday, that's not to be
confounded what took place in Pentecost, but the
prophecy of Jerald links with what we have
here.
For I will pour water upon him that
is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground.
I will pour my spirit upon thy seed,
and my blessing upon my fine offspring.
And in the eighth verse repeated, ye are
even my witnesses.
Is there a God beside me?
Yea, there is no God, I know not
any.
I guess our time.
Then it's in the last verse of this
chapter that we have the prophecy of King
Cyrus.
And this is this, of course, as I've
said in the beginning, that has raised the
question in the minds of some as to
whether this could have been written way back
in the days of Hezekiah or some of
the other kings.
But, when we take the Holy Spirit into
consideration, we don't have any difficulty about that.
Now, in chapter 44, we have God continuing
this theme in a very precious and wonderful
way in the early part of the chapter.
And then, in the beginning about the third
down of the chapter, you have Jehovah's direct
word in regard to idolatry.
I haven't time to read the passage, but
you read it carefully.
It's the most interesting portion, and it's really
quite amusing and satirical, as Isaiah depicts a
man going out into the forest, for instance,
and looking out and finding a noble tree.
And, he cuts it down, and he lops
off all the branches, and then he begins
to fashion it with his tools.
And, by and by, he has the figure
of a man.
And, the chicks as they fly, he gathers
up, and the extra parts that are not
wanted to make the image, and he uses
them as fuel.
And, he cooks his food, and he says,
Mar, this is fine.
I've warmed myself with the fire, and I've
got a God to worship all of the
same tree.
And, Isaiah just hires on the satire and
the ridicule in a most remarkable way.
It shows the folly of idolatry.
This comes in also, if you'll remember, in
the book of the prophet Jeremiah.
He uses very similar language in dealing with
the idolatry of the people.
Now, this has been cursory.
I know maybe I've wasted a little bit
of time telling you a few stories, but,
you know, I have to wake you up
once in a while to keep you from
going to sleep.
And, this afternoon, we'll go into the next
section.
I hope we'll be able to cover it.
Of one section, embracing chapters 40 through 48,
in which we have Jehovah's controversies with idols.
Throughout this section, he is emphasizing his own
power and majesty.
It's strange the thoughts that run through people's
minds.
I remember reading a lecture of Colonel Robert
G.
Ingersoll some years ago, and he dwelt on
this.
He said, what a ghost, sir, this god
of the bible is.
How often he talks about himself, and what
he has done and can do.
Well, one should understand an ungodly man looking
at it that way, but who, in all
the universe, has a right about, say, the
god who created it?
And why does he set forth his own
glory, and his own majesty, and his own
power?
Why does he emphasize his own wisdom, and
his own strength and ability, in order that
men may realize the importance of living in
touch with him, and the folly of turning
to anyone else?
What folly for the people of Israel!
After all, God had dumb folly to turn
aside to dumb idols.
Yet, how senseless people are!
I would read of different occasions in the
Kings and Chronicles, even when the people of
Israel or Judah went out against some of
their foes, and they overcame them.
Then they brought back the gods of the
nations that they had overcome, and they proved
powerless to defend their own.
And yet, the people of Israel were so
foolish that they took them over.
Today, men do not worship the idols of
gold, and silver, and brass, and iron, but
every man who turns away from God sets
up some kind of an idol in his
heart.
He either worships himself, or he worships folly,
pleasure, faith, something of that kind.
I remember how aptly Dr. Philpott spoke when
he was being introduced on one occasion.
The speaker said to him, I'm happy now
to present to you Dr. Peter W.
Philpott, a self-made man.
And, Dr. Philpott said, I'm really sorry that
our brother has introduced me in the way
he has, so I appreciate his kind thoughts.
But, he said, you know, I've noticed that
these self-made men all seem to worship
their own creator.
And, that is very apt, I thought.
If men do not know the one living
and true God, then the first thing you
know is set up the great God Philp,
and worship him.
Well, we've already considered, then, the first part
of this section in which God is telling
Israel of what he has in store for
them, of the redeemer that's yet to come,
of the forerunner who will announce his coming,
of the comfort that he has for those
who believe his word, who put their trust
in him.
And then, just as we can, and of
the, and how he has foreseen the dangers
and the sorrows that Israel must pass through,
that deep waters through which they'll have to
go.
But, he has promised that where there's real
faith and their party of the wisdom, and
all their sorrows, and all their troubles, and
then in the very closing words of the
44th chapter, there's an abrupt change, and he
speaks of one who is yet to come
to be the deliverer of Israel from the
power of the Chaldeans, calls him by name,
though he's not known him, that is Cyrus
King of Persia.
Now, remember that Isaiah wrote about, well, I
suppose these words were written somewhere around the
end of the eighth century before Christ, about
710-720, somewhere in there, and the Babylonian
captivity was not until about 600, so that
over a century was to elapse before Cyrus.
Oh, more than that, the Babylonian captivity was
to go on for 70 years, so that
nearly two centuries would elapse before Cyrus himself
would appear, and yet God foretold to the
people of his day that this man would
arise, so that when he did come they
would know it was the hour of Jehovah's
deliverer.
I think I mentioned here, or was it
in some other place where I was preaching
lately?
I don't recall, but I mentioned that sometimes
the divisions into chapters and verses come in
the wrong places.
We all know that it wasn't a question
of inspiration dividing the bible into chapters and
verses, it's simply a matter of accommodation on
the part of human editors who thought it
would help us to separate the subjects and
to find certain passages, and I suppose it
has been very, very helpful to have our
bible divided in this way into chapters and
verses.
But, on the other hand, sometimes it's misleading.
Sometimes it keeps us from getting the full
content of a passage if the passage is
broken up in the middle, and it seems
as though at times the editors have used
poor judgment in making a break where they
have.
For instance, take the break between John 7
and 8.
The last words of John 7 are, and
every man went to his own house.
The opening words of John 8 are, Jesus
went to the mount of Olives.
They failed to translate one little word that
should have been read in this part, and
were broken a sentence right in two.
Every man went to his own house, but
Jesus went to the mount of Olives.
He had no house to go to.
He was the homeless stranger in the world
of old Antony, and when others went off
to their comfortable homes that night, he went
out to the mountainside, I suppose to the
garden of Gethsemane, and spent the night there
lying upon the bare ground of the New
English Cross.
And, so, these provisions don't always follow right.
Now, it's very evident here that the last
verse of chapter 44 is introducing what you
have in chapter 45, and so I'm going
to ask my wife to read it together.
The last of chapter 44 and the beginning
of 45.
I will go before thee, and make the
crooked places straight.
I will break in pieces the gates of
grass, and cut in front of the guard
of thine, and I will give thee the
treasures of darkness, and give thee riches of
precious places, that thou mayest know that I,
the Lord, is called thee by thy name,
and the God of Israel.
For this is my service-place, and Israel
mine elect, and it is called thee by
thy name, and its full name is thee,
for thou hast not known me."
Now, this is the passage pre-eminently that
the critics take as proof that the Isaiah
who wrote the first part of the book
could not have written these words.
But, as we said this morning, that seems
to be taking a whole section of inspiration.
If we believe, as every Christian should, that
all scripture is given by inspiration of God,
that the prophecy came not in old time
by the will of man, but that holy
men of God say that they were moved
by the Holy Ghost, there's no more difficulty
in understanding that God could foretell the rise
of King Cyrus and what he would do
for his people than there was in that
he could foretell the coming of the Lord
Jesus into the world, and the redemption that
he would accomplish.
His first coming, and his second coming, and
the effects and results of his rejection, and
then the results of his final acceptance by
the people of Israel.
All this was foretold ahead of time, and
so in the same way God, through Isaiah,
foretold the rising up of Cyrus.
It's good for us to remember just who
this Cyrus was.
He was the nephew of Cyaxares, who at
this time was king of Media.
Media and Persia were two kingdoms that were,
as a rule, very closely related.
They sprang from the same thought, and it
was through these kingdoms, united together under the
leadership of Cyrus and Cyaxares, that eventually Chaldea
was conquered, and Babylon became one of the
chief cities of the Persian empire until its
eventual complete destruction.
It's interesting to turn aside to secular history
to get fuller information about some of these
things.
Eroticism has a lot to tell us about
it, and there are other ancient records that
have come down to it to tell us
how Cyrus and Cyaxares entered into a combine,
as we would say, and marched against Babylon,
and eventually took Babylon by turning aside the
waters of the Euphrates into another channel, and
so came in under the Tule's gates, under
the gates of the river itself.
That's what's indicated here.
So, God foresaw this.
He looks ahead and he tells us, he
says, he tells Cyrus himself, I've called you
to this.
You see, one thing we need to remember,
one reason why Cyrus and the Persians befriended
the people of Israel was this, that the
Persians, like the Israelites, were monotheists.
They did not believe in idolatry.
They did not worship idols.
They abhorred idols.
They worshipped God under the symbol of the
sun, and they also believed in a great
power they called Orimen.
Orimus was the name for God.
Orimen was the name for the power of
darkness, and some people think of them as
dualists.
So, they believed in two great gods, the
god of light and the god of darkness.
But, it seems more likely that what they
really believed was in one true and living
god, but with a great adversary, just as
we believe in faith of an adversary seeking
to impede in every possible way the carrying
out of God's counting.
So, then, naturally, a people believing in one
god who was symbolized by the sun, and
didn't actually worship the sun as some have
thought, but who was symbolized by the sun,
would look with favor upon Israel when they
found that they did not worship idols.
It was because of idolatry they were sent
down to Babylon, but Babylon cured them of
idolatry.
The 70 years that they dwelt in Babylon
gave them such a sickness of idolatry that,
no matter what other sin the Jewish people
had fallen into sin, they'd never, as a
people, been characterized by idolatry.
Undoubtedly, here and there, there have been Jews
who have been idolatrous because of ignorance, and
because of being brought up among an idolatrous
people.
But, the nation ourself learned to abhor idolatry
from what they saw in Babylon.