Good evening we're in Isaiah chapter 41 and the Bible reads keep silence before
me oh islands and let the people renew their strength let them come near then
let them speak let us come near together to judgment who raised up the
righteous man from the east called him to his foot gave the nations before him
and made him rule over kings he gave them as a dust to his sword and as
driven stubble to his bow
He pursued them and passed safely even by the way that he had not gone with his feet.
Who hath wrought and done it, calling the generations from the beginning.
I the Lord the first and with the last, I am he.
The Isle saw it and feared. The ends of the earth were afraid, junior and came.
They helped everyone his neighbor and everyone said to his brother be of good courage.
So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith.
And he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil saying it is ready for the soldering and he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved
But thou Israel art my servant Jacob whom I have chosen the seat of Abraham my friend
That whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief men thereof and said unto thee thou art my servant
I have chosen thee and not cast thee away
I fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God.
I will strengthen thee, yea, I will help thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded.
They shall be as nothing, and they that strive with thee shall perish.
Thou shalt seek them, and shall not find them, even them that contended with thee.
They that were against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of naught.
For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand saying unto thee fear not I will help thee
Fear not thou warm Jacob any men of Israel I will help thee saith the Lord and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel
Behold I'll make thee a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth
Thou shalt thrush the mountains and beat them small and shalt make them as hills as chaff
Thou shalt fan them and the wind shall carry them away and the whirlwind shall scatter them and thou shalt rejoice in the Lord
Thou shalt glory in the holy one of Israel
When the poor are needy seek water, and there is none, and the tongue faileth for thirst,
I of the Lord will hear them.
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers in high places, and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water, and a dry land springs of water."
I will plant in the wilderness the cedar, the shittah tree, the myrtle, and the oil tree,
and I will set in the desert the fir tree and the pine and the bog tree together, that
they may see and know and consider and understand together that the hand of the Lord hath done
this, and the holy one of Israel hath created it.
Produce your cause, saith the Lord, bring forth your strong reason, saith the king of
Jacob.
Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen.
Let them show the former things that they be,
that we may consider them and know the latter end of them,
declare us things for to come.
Show the things that are to come hereafter
that we may know that you are God's yea.
Do good or do evil that we may be dismayed
and behold it together.
Behold, you are of nothing and your work of not.
And abomination is he that chews with you.
I have raised up one from the north and he shall come.
From the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name,
and shall come upon princes, as upon mortar, and as a potter,
Tretith Clay, who hath declared from the beginning
that we may know.
And before time, that we may see, he is righteous.
Yea, there is none that showeth, yea, there is none that declareeth, yea,
there is none that heareth your words.
The first shall say to Zion, Behold, behold them.
And I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings for I beheld and there was no man even among them
And there was no counselor that when I asked of them could answer a word
Behold they are all vanity their works are nothing their molten images are wind and confusion
Let's pray father God. We thank you dear Lord for the King James Bible
We thank you for our church dear Lord. We thank you for our pastor
Please bless him tonight as he preaches your word in Jesus name we pray
Amen. Okay, we're in chapter 41 of the book of Isaiah, and let me just give you a little
bit of review from last week. In chapter 40, we began the section of the book of Isaiah
that deals primarily with comfort, consolation. The first two sections, chapters 1-35, really
focus on condemnation. There's a lot of preaching against the nations, a lot of judgment against
and then there's an interlude between chapter 36 and 39 where the focus is on King Hezekiah
and the confiscation of the land, how Babylon is going to take them over and of course we see that
there but now from chapters 40 all the way to the end of the book of Isaiah we have a lot of
preaching on consolation, a lot of encouragement, a lot of comfort not to say that there's no judgment
but the majority of the content in these particular passages
are positive. They're more so about consoling God's people, giving them hope and encouragement.
Now tonight, in chapter 41, we're going to look at three things. We're going to see
that God is addressing the islands. He's going to encourage Israel, and then He's going
to confront the idols of these particular...
Islands now the major thing that's being addressed here is really when it comes to that consolation that comfort is the fact
That God is consoling his people about his omniscience and his omnipotence knowing full
Well that God is almighty. He's powerful. He's capable. He knows all things
He knows the beginning from the end that should offer us some consolation
You know, in a world where a lot of things are uncertain, we don't know what's going to happen.
You know, our might is limited, our power is limited, our resources are limited,
our knowledge of future events, whether personally or worldwide is limited.
It's not limited to God. God knows all things.
And so that should create a sense of comfort within us that because he's our God,
assured that God will take care of us through uncertain times and so this is
what this is this chapter is going to address here first and foremost let's
look at the addressing of the islands and we're going to look at the summons to
the nations for trial look here the Lord takes on the role
of a judge that is cross examining the nations and issuing a sentence against them. So a lot of
the wording that we see in the first couple chapters, it's like God sitting on the throne
judging the nations and basically causing them to come forth. He's going to essentially accuse them
but he's also going to give them room to defend themselves to see if they can, you know, essentially
the major accusation is the fact that they're idolatrous.
So he issues this declaration against them.
He allows them to defend themselves,
and then ultimately, he begins to judge them.
Verse one says, keep silence before meal islands,
and let the people renew their strength.
Let them come near, then let them speak.
Let us come near together to judgment.
So the idea here is that even if the nations were given
the opportunity, so to speak, to defend themselves,
It'd be in vain since all have sin and come short of the glory of God.
So he's basically calling out to these islands, these nations, and he's saying, hey, keep
silence, I'm going to declare unto you, and then it says there, then let them speak, referring
to the fact that they have a chance to defend themselves, and then a judgment is going to
pursue thereafter, and we're going to see, of course, that the nations fall short of
the glory of God.
Whenever a person tries to vindicate themselves before God, someone who's not saved, someone
tries to say, well you know we should be loud into heaven, I will go to heaven because of
my good deeds, because I've repented of my sin.
At the end of the day that person is going to be found in the balances wanting, right?
They're going to fall short of the glory of God, there's none that do with good, no not
one.
And in fact the Bible says in Romans 319, now we know that what thinks so ever the law
It's said to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God.
And what's interesting about this is that a lot of people out there who claim to be Christians will often claim that they're saved because they keep the law, right?
That they're a good person and they may even say, well, we don't believe that you're saved by keeping the law.
We just believe that you have to repent of sin to be saved.
But that's literally saying the exact same thing.
because the Bible says that sin is the transgression of the law therefore
repenting of sin by nature literally means that you're keeping the law because
when you keep the law you don't sin you don't commit those things that God tells
you not to do so thereby if someone says that they were repenting of their sins
for salvation that basically means that's translated to there but they
believe that the keeping of the law can justify them before God but the Bible
was very clear
that the law is our school master to bring us unto Christ not because it can provide salvation
through Christ but it's supposed to show us our condition before holy God, it's supposed
to show us that we are guilty before him and that we cannot save ourselves, okay?
make no mistake about it you know when people stand before God they will
probably say something to this effect that they kept the law they've done
good we have the example of Matthew chapter 7 where the man says you know
have not I prophesied in thy name and in thy name have cast out devils and in
thy name have done many wonderful works but then the Lord is going to profess
it to them depart from me that work iniquity I never knew you
Why because the one thing that person did not say is have not I believed on the Lord Jesus Christ to be saved
He's listening his works his you know the things that he's accomplished the things that he's done in the name of Christ and
This is a common theme with people who think they're Christians and in fact, you know this last Tuesday. We're all so winning
Now I was out with Brother Hernandez and we're not gonna door and and he gets the witness to this person gets the girl saved
Praise God, and then it's my turn. So then you know, I knock on a door and this lady comes out
and you know she's very bubbly and you know just kind of happy and she's just
like oh I'm a Christian you know and and I'm like okay great you know what do you
have to do to be saved and you probably experienced this where it's like they
give a right answer but then they just keep answering. You know what I'm talking
about? It's like they give you the right answer and you're just like yes and then
they're like and
It's just like no, you know, they're just like oh you have to believe on Jesus Christ to be saved and you have to repent of your sins
Right, and you know, I'm just like oh
Man it's just that my countenance drops after that
That's what this lady said. She's like, you know you have to repent of your sins to be saved
and you know I try not to be rude at the door you know I don't like to get into
arguments with people and and you know rebuke people I want to approach them
with meekness and with fear and so as kindly as I could I was just basically
telling her well you know the Bible actually doesn't say you have to repent
of your sins to be saved it's only exclusively by believing on Jesus Christ
and she's like oh yeah it's not by works
But you do have to repent of your sins, you know
And I said you would you consider keeping God's commandments as it works and she says yes
I was like well since
Sin is the transgression of the law. I'm you saying you have to repent of your sins to be saved
You're basically saying you have to keep God's law to be saved. She goes no, no, no, we're saying the same thing
We're saying the same thing
And I was like, you know, we're not saying the same thing actually, you know, and you know
She's just like you do you definitely have to repent of your sins because you know, people are super wicked out there
They're very sinful and I think it's just wrong to say you just have to believe on Jesus Christ to be saved
You have to tell them they have to repent of their sins because if not sin is not being preached against and I said
I do believe you have to preach against sin, but not in the context of salvation, right?
And she's like, no, I think you're doing people a disservice
if you're not saying you have to repent.
If you don't say you have to repent of your sins
to be saved in conjunction with believing on Jesus Christ.
So after a while, you know, I'm just trying
to give her some verses and I'm quoting verses to her.
And I'm explaining to her that repentance of sin is not necessary for salvation. It's not a phrase in the Bible
It's it's synonymous with works
Can't be saved by it and then she's like everyone in the Bible preach repentance of sin for salvation
Jesus preached it John the Baptist preached it Paul preached it and then I quoted every single one of them
right
And I was like actually they did not say you have to repent of sins to be saved
This is what they said, you know, I quoted John 3 36 various scriptures Romans 4 5
You know just just give her every example of what she said
That's what this person says in order to be saved get to repent of your sins
And she's just not she's just trying to you know justify herself before the Lord
You know and then you know after a while, you know, she became argumentative and
At the end she says you know what you're really just wasting your time because there's people out there who are lost and
They need the message more than I do because I'm saved and
We're saying the same thing and so there's people out there that are lost and I just kindly told I said I know that's why I'm here
Because you're one of them
You know, and I wasn't trying to be rude. I was being I was trying to be as genuine as possible
And I just said you're one of them. That's why I'm the why do you think I'm spending all this time trying to explain this to you
And she's just her jaw dropped and she was just felt super disrespected
Not sure why you know and then she's like I can't believe you just said that to me
And I said I'm saying it out of love because I'm just trying to show you what the Bible says because you know
You think that you're saved, but you're not and this is the reason why
And she's just like, I just can't believe.
And I'm thinking to myself, I know you can't believe.
You just can't believe.
And then, by the way, she said that she went to Calvary Chapel.
And here's the problem with Calvary Chapel.
Sometimes you run into Calvary Chapel people,
and they're saved.
Most of the time, it's like the old heads that are saved
who got saved at a Baptist church, though.
She was not an old head.
And so it's like a mixed bag there where you find people who are saved but then you find people who are just not saved.
And so, you know, she was really offended and she started like rebuking me and I said alright, well I'm out of here but at least you know that a prophet was among you.
You know, a prophet that has been among you. And she looked at me and she said, what?
You know, that Bible verse is just completely foreign to her, she's probably never heard that verse in her life, you know.
And I said, at least you know the truth.
At least you know what the Bible says about this.
And I walked away and I just thought to myself,
so many people out there who are literally just trying
to justify themselves before God based upon their works
or how well they're able to keep God's commandments.
But at the end of the day, if I were to take that person
through every single commandment, every single law,
every single statement in the Bible
that commands this person to do something,
at the end of the day, she wouldn't
Because we've broken all of God's commandments.
You know, whosoever keepeth the whole law,
ye get offended at one point is guilty of all.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law.
And so, in like manner, all these nations, they can come up with whatever defense they
can of why they can be saved and why they deserve God, why they marry God's grace and
why they marry salvation, but at the end of the day, the world will become guilty before
God.
Why?
Because at the end of the day, all nations shall be turned into hell and all nations
The Bible says in Romans 3 also in verse 4 it says God forbid yet let God be true
But every man a liar as it is written that thou might as be justified in thy sayings
It might as overcome when thou are judged
So he calls the islands to come before him and he says renew your strength in other words
It's like when he's talking to Job and he says girl up thy loins like a man
Because you're going to stand before the judge, so renew your strength, come near, then let
them speak, you know, make your case, and then we're going to come together for judgment,
okay?
Look at verse 2.
We're going to see that he gives a prophecy of Cyrus, king of Persia.
Called him to his foot gave the nations before him and made him rule over kings
He gave them as the dust of his sword and as driven stubble to his bow
He pursued them and passed safely even by the way that he had not gone with his feet
So he switches to this kind of these these questions that he gives the islands and the nations and he's basically saying
You know, who's the one who raised up?
Cyrus King of Persia, which is who he's referring to here.
And what is this?
This is a declaration of his omnipotence.
Because Cyrus King of Persia was a very powerful king
who ended up destroying the Babylonian Empire, right?
He destroyed the Babylonian Empire.
Ultimately, he took over after them as a world superpower.
And then he basically, you know, sanctioned for the Jews to return back to their land and sanctioned the
Reconstruction of the temple once again. I mean he was greatly used of God and we would look at someone like Cyrus and say that was a
Powerful man, but hold on a second. Who's more powerful him or the man who sent him?
It's obviously God right this is why he's asking who you think Cyrus is powerful well
Who raised up the righteous man from the east who's the one who moved his heart to accomplish all these things to take
Over the Babylonians to destroy them to save you to be the anointed
He's declaring his own omnipotence by saying I'm the one who gave you who brought Cyrus king of Persia
This is referring to one of the most notable kings
not just in the Bible, but just in history, period.
You know, Cyrus the Great was greatly used of God
to decimate the Babylonian Empire
and did a lot of great exploits.
But what's interesting about this is the fact that,
you know, Cyrus is being prophesied here in Isaiah 41
and then we'll see him also named in Isaiah 45
at least a century before he's born.
So he's very notable king because of the fact of his exploits
But also because of the fact that he's literally named by God at least a century before now
You can think to yourself well, wouldn't that be a self-fulfilling prophecy though?
You know someone in the future can say oh, you know
They read this prophecy and they want to fulfill it and you know just kind of take advantage of that
Well, you know someone can rise up a hundred years later and claim to be Cyrus King of Persia
But who's actually going to be able to do?
What Cyrus the great actually did right unless God allowed that person to do it because he was he did a lot of great exploits
Let me read to you go to go to Isaiah chapter 45
Isaiah 45 just a couple pages to the right there
Isaiah 45 verse number one
Says does say the Lord to his anointed
By the way, this is why I believe that Cyrus was actually saved.
Saved man.
You know, sometimes there's debate whether Nebuchadnezzar was saved or not.
I believe he was saved.
But I don't think there's any doubt in my mind that Cyrus the Great was actually saved.
Called him the Anointed, meaning that he's like the savior of the Jewish people, of those
of Judah, like a physical savior, because he's essentially delivering them from the
to subdue nations before him, and I will loose the loins of kings, to open before him the
two-leaved gates, and the gates shall not be shut. I will go before thee, and make the
crooked places straight. I will break in pieces the gates of brass, and cut in son of the
bars of iron." Go back to chapter 41, if you would, chapter 41.
But even greater, obviously, was the person that raised him up to do so.
And the reason this is a declaration of God's omnipotence
is because it really shows that God is able to raise one leader up
and abase another, right?
He's able to essentially dictate the agenda of the world to a certain degree.
He's able to move hearts.
against people or for people he's able to raise up leaders raise up delivers we see that over and over again the book of
Judges where he will raise up a deliverer to essentially rescue and save God's people
From the oppressor the Bible tells us in Daniel 221 and he changed at the times in the seasons
He removed with Kings and set us up Kings
He giveth wisdom unto the wise and knowledge to them that know understanding Psalm 75
And verse 6 says, for promotion comeeth neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from
the south, but God is the judge, he put down one and seteth up another.
And I believe this is referring to the fact that, you know, whatever king, magistrate,
Prime Minister exists, God allowed that person to have that position for a particular purpose.
And even Trump, yes, you know, Trump, though, you know, there might be some...
Something happened in the background with the rules of the darkness of this world at the end of the day
They need to get permission from God to set up that person, right?
And you know, obviously to what degree and to what extent and for what purpose we don't know exactly
You know the the Prime Minister of Canada is
Resigning right and hallelujah for that
You know and then you know president Trump is or who's about to be president?
I'll just call him president Trump, you know, he's like, you know, maybe we should integrate, you know, Canada into America
You know, but but no, it's I don't think that's a good idea because a bunch of liberals over there, you know, and so
It'll just but at the end of the day, you know
You look at all these world leaders that are being taken down others that are taking a position of leadership
Becoming president no longer becoming president, you know, obviously there's forces behind the scenes who are orchestrating a lot of this
But at the end of the day, it's not without God's allowing
right? It's not without God's permission. It's not like God's like, well, you know,
they're just kind of doing their own thing. And, you know, I'm not involved in it whatsoever.
God is obviously involved to a certain degree where he's allowing those things to take place.
And if you wanted to, he could allow Kamala to be the president, right? If he had wanted to.
If you'd wanted to, he would allow Trudeau to remain the prime minister in Canada for another
whatever years. You know, if that's his will, if that's what he wanted for a specific purpose,
because according to the Bible, he has the power to do so.
And look at verse 4.
He says who hath wrought wrought means to work is the past tense of work
Who hath wrought and done it calling the generations from the beginning I the Lord the first and with the last I?
Am he so we saw the declaration of his omnipotence
By raising up a strong leader, but we also see here a declaration of his omniscience
Why because it says here that he calls the generations from the beginning
I, the Lord, the first with the last.
And the Lord is the only one who is omniscient and capable of calling the generations from the beginning.
You know, He knows all things.
He has knowledge of everything. He can see the hearts of man.
He knows what's going to happen to our nation.
He knows your end.
He knows the decisions that we're going to make.
And so in light of that, we as God's people should rest assured that everything was going to be okay.
You know, the Bible says, I know the thoughts that I think of you.
Thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you an expected end and obviously that's a promise given to Israel or Judah
But it's a promise that we can inherit as well, right because he knows our end as well
All things work together for good to those that love God to them who are the called according to his purpose and
So we should rest in the fact that God is an omniscient God who calls the generations from the beginning
The Bible also says in Isaiah 46 verse 9
Remember the former things of old for I am God and there is none else. I am God and there is none like me
Declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times the things that are not yet done saying my counsel shall stand
And I want you to notice this and I will do all my pleasure
It's very powerful statement here showing us that you know at the end of the day things can seem out of control in your personal life
It can seem out of control in this world
Things can be going awry in our nation or in your community
You think about these fires that have been taking place and people are just kind of losing their minds
They're like oh man so many houses have burned down so many areas that burned down what's gonna happen
Well first of all God allow those fires to take place
You know, I don't I don't believe someone just brother Adam was telling me that people are like spreading these
There's always some conspiracy out there, right?
Or some blue beam is being shot down and you know, that's where the fire comes from the government sending something from space to
Create these fires
Just stupid nonsense, right?
But but here's the thing is that you know who cares how the fire started, you know who brought the winds?
to spread those fires fires are happening all the time by the way always
happening and you know to have a hundred mile an hour winds to spread those fires
obviously that comes from God you never want to take God out of the equation
when there are catastrophic catastrophic events such as fires right
earthquakes fires floods these are all the Lord's doing
God is allowing these things to happen and you know sometimes when they happen
I try to think of events that might have taken place that have provoked the Lord in doing so
But you know at the end of the day we kind of don't even need to do that
Because the nation is just wicked. It's just always a good time to like judge
California it's always a good time to judge America
It's just always a good time sometimes it doesn't even need to be provoked by a specific event although. I'm sure something probably happened
At the end of the day, God doesn't need a reason,
because we already gave him a ton of reasons as a nation,
a ton of reasons as California, why it deserves to be burned.
And in fact, God burns California every single year,
every year.
California literally burns every single year.
Now, given not in Los Angeles or Pacific Palisades,
the way it is now, but that's still in California, though.
You know and don't buy into like all of the AI images to by the way
Or people like oh man Hollywood's burning down even the Hollywood sign is burning down. That's AI generated
The fire is not even there
And people are just like oh, yeah, I saw the Hollywood sign burning that for sure
You know God's doing that well God is burning stuff
But the Hollywood sign is not on fire though. Okay, the fire is actually away from that area
But the point that I'm making here is that, you know, the Lord, as chaotic as it is right now,
you know, God knows the end from the beginning, and so we shouldn't worry and fret and be full of care
when we have things like that happen in our state or in our nation.
And I feel like as a Christian and as a pastor, I'm just constantly trying to help people to not freak out.
You know, because we have so much access to the news, to social media,
there's all kinds of fake news out there, there's all kinds of nonsense being promoted,
and there's even Christians out there who just love being negative about everything,
just doom and gloom about everything, and it's just like at the end of the day,
you know, if you're saved, you're walking with God, you're reading the Bible,
you're winning souls to Christ, you're serving the Lord, you have nothing to worry about.
Why because he calls the generations from the beginning God knows the beginning from the end and if we're serving God
Then we all will experience that expected and just as that expected beginning. We're gonna be safe. Everything's gonna be okay
He said what if what if the fires come here? Well, then they let them come
You know we can be in Goshen still
If God allows our houses to burn down
and our resources to burn down,
that just means he's gonna give us other houses
under the resources because God takes care of his people.
You know here, he's obviously calling the birth of the anointed king
By name a century before it happens. He's kind of you know, letting us know that he knows all information
There's nothing that can be hidden from him. He knows how things are going to turn out the Bible says in Ecclesiastes 311
He has made everything beautiful in his time
Also, he had set the world in their heart so that man, so that no man can find out the work that God make it from the beginning
to the end. Revelation 111 says this saying,
I am Alpha and Omega the first and the last and what thou see is right in a book and sent it into the seven churches
which are in Asia.
You know, God has a panoramic view.
of all of history. He has a panoramic view of your life.
He has a panoramic view of the lifespan of our church.
And so, you know, instead of being full of care
and worrying what's going to happen and what's going to be the result of this,
well, if you want to come out winning, just keep serving God.
Keep walking with the Lord. You know, there's such a spike in anxiety
and such a spike in panic attacks and all these things,
Just doing it to themselves
Right with the information overload and allowing themselves to view all this information
Rather than just putting your face in the scripture get your face out of Facebook
And put your face in this book amen
Your face needs to be in this book more that it's on Facebook
You know get the get the instant word more than the Instagram
You know, what's another one? What's another social media platform?
Take talk
I don't have one for that one.
That's a hard one, actually.
Tick-tock, tick-tock.
No, I don't got anything.
Spend more time.
Oh, X. Instead of, I don't have anything for that one either.
Sorry.
Instead of spending so much time on social media,
getting your news from there, and just inducing your anxiety,
your depression, your worry.
Because the rulers of the darkness of this world
are constantly doing wicked stuff.
And you know if you're constantly looking for that and constantly listening to that of course you're gonna be anxious
You're gonna be worried and you're just like why I have to know about these things
No, you have to know what the will of the Lord is
You know
The Bible talks about understanding what the will of the Lord is.
You know, see that you walk circumspectly not as fools but as wise the Bible says.
And so how do we do that by reading the Word of God?
You know, staying out of the news.
And you're like, well, I have to know what's going on with the fires.
Well, if you're in it, then yes.
Please know what's going on, right?
But if it doesn't affect you then you know pray for those who are in the fire pray for those who are experiencing it pray for brother
Rick for example, right?
And just realize that God knows God knew that this was gonna happen in beginning of 2025 and
He knows what's gonna happen throughout 2025. He knows all the catastrophic events that are gonna take place during this time
And you know, I don't think it's our job and I don't think it's even productive to figure out
What is the nefarious agenda behind the fire so?
Don't you hear a lot of that, you know, what are the why did they not why did they drain the fire hydrants right before this happened?
You know, why is there no waters? Why is there no water to put out the fire? Why who cares?
Doesn't matter can you change that you're gonna write a letter
What are you gonna do to change that?
Nothing and again, you know, you just got to be careful with all the news that's out there because a lot of it's just fake news sometimes
You know rest in the fact that God is omniscient. He's omnipotent
You know rest in the depths of his of the riches of both the wisdom and knowledge of God, right?
The fact that his ways are
Unsearchable and his ways are past finding out and so he's declaring unto these nations. Hey, who's likened to me?
who knows the beginning from the end? Who can just call out a king who's going to come
and destroy the Babylonian Empire? Who can call him out by name a century before he's
even born? There's no God, there's no idol, there's no false deity that can do such a
thing as the Lord? Look at verse 5. Now he says all these things, right, to the islands
Man, God is powerful. Wow. Let's believe on the Lord. Let's just throw away all these idols
right
Look at verse 5 the Isle saw it and feared
The end of the earth were afraid
Junear and came so basically they're like whoa, and then they start fearing God
And they're just like oh man, this is true, and then they become afraid and you think to yourself, okay
This is this is good. This is progress. It's starting to recognize right?
who's in charge? Because in light of the terribleness of God, the nation should fear, but instead
of allowing that fear to move them to reverence God and submit to God, they dig their heels
further into idolatry. Crazy. Verse 6. So, you know, they saw it, they feared.
They were afraid verse 6 they helped everyone his neighbor and
Everyone said to his brother be of good courage now. Why is he saying be of good courage?
Are they saying strengthen yourself in the Lord? God is on our side if we're on his side
What is the message that they're bringing to their neighbor verse 7 so the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith?
And he that smootheth with the hammer,
him that smote the anvil, saying it is ready for the soldering.
And he fastened it with nails that it should not be moved.
What is he talking about?
Idols.
So they're afraid, and they're just like, oh,
we need to make more idols.
Yeah, you're still doing great, man. We're doing good. You know make another idol
We need to pray into the idol so in spite of the fact that God just declared his omniscience
He was his omnipotence the fact that he can just raise a boss king to just destroy the nations the fact that he knows the beginning from
The end the limitless power that God has access to because he is power the source of power and learn that they become afraid and they're just like
Hey, man, we need to like make more idols. We need to search into our God still and just kind of dig our heels deeper and
You know worship these false gods
Now you think to yourself, you know, really? Is that what they're doing? Well, isn't that what people do today? I
Mean logically speaking you would think that everyone at the Pacific Palisades at this moment will think to themselves God. I need you
Lord save me
I mean that's as close to hell as you're gonna get this side of eternity, right?
But I promise you a ton of people are not gonna be seeking after God I
Guarantee you the vast majority of the people in those areas
In spite of the fact that they just lost everything. I'm not gonna cry out to the Lord God
Cry out to the Lord Jesus Christ
Maybe not I guarantee you a lot of them won't even go to church on Sunday
Why because the sin nature of man is that despite beholding the terribleness of God and his power and his might
Some people just dig their heels even deeper into their idolatry and to their own beliefs and they reject God
And you know what they may say to their neighbor into the carpenter
They may encourage their neighbor and the people who are who are around them
to just further go into whatever their sin and their rejection of God.
But you know what? The hand joined in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished.
So yeah, this is going to create a whole lot of unity with the communities
where people are joining hand in hand and they're encouraging each other.
But how many of them are actually going to encourage each other to actually seek the Lord though?
Very little.
So why are the fires taking place? I'll tell you why.
So that it can wake them up.
And realize like I have nothing but God
You know God just removes everything in order for that person that individual to actually seek after the Lord their God
You know and here's the thing is is if those were those people were actually seeking God God would send some soul wonders over there
God will help him to see a video
Bring them to a gospel presentation. That is the purpose of the fires
How are you gonna bring God into this? Don't you know people are hurting out there?
We don't need religious talk right now. Where was God when all this happened? He was right there in the midst of it
He did it. What do you mean? Where was he? He's right there
He's doing it to you. He's the one to burn it down
Where was God and all this when I lost all these things. He's the one who made you lose it
So you can see God be saved
and that experience in eternal fire and hell.
But you know, despite the evident power of God,
the idolatrous nations still seek their false deities.
They'll help their idolatrous neighbor
and encourage each other into evil matter.
And I'm telling you, the Pacific Palisades
is just filled with people, I promise you,
that are probably not going to seek God
even after all this is said and done.
That when people would just waste trials
You know what you would think that after God sending fire after fire after fire after fire
Every single year on California that some people would just wake up
And say you know what?
It's time to seek the Lord. It's time to stir myself up to seek God
Lest some evil should fall upon me's less some evil should come upon
You know my resources and my house and my things, but you know what? This is this is what people do
In spite of all that they still reject it
They still reject the Lord and continuing their vices continuing their idolatrous worship
He goes on to say in verse 8
We're gonna look at now. He switches gears here
and then begins to encourage Israel. So throughout these verses we're going to look at right now.
We find a series of assurances and promises that
though directed towards the Old Testament Israel are also applicable to us as New Testament Christians.
And so God gives assurance to his people that they are his servants. He says in verse 8,
But thou Israel art my servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, the seed of Abraham my friend.
Thou whom I have taken from the ends of the earth and called thee from the chief mender of and said unto thee there on my
Servant I have chosen thee and have not cast thee away so obviously he's referring to Israel here and this is
Pre-New Testament right this is still Old Testament so they were not cast away
There's still his people there. They're part of that Old Covenant and the reality is this is that the way we could apply this in the
New Testament
is that as New Testament Christians, we are the servants of the Lord.
And he says there, in verse 9, towards the latter, he says,
Thou art my servant, I have chosen thee, and have not cast thee away.
Well, in like manner, we as God's people have been chosen, right?
He goes, I have chosen thee.
He tells him in John chapter 15 that you should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit
should remain.
So, the principle that we can learn here is that, you know, if we don't want to be destroyed
along with this nation or whatever evil befalls the nation or our community, we need to keep
being the servants of the Lord.
We need to serve a purpose, right?
And how do we serve that purpose in the New Testament?
Being a useful servant of the Lord doing God's will serving the purpose here in this earth look at verse 10
We see God's promise that he will protect them as well
He says fear thou not for I am with thee be not dismayed for I am thy God. I will strengthen thee
Yeah, I will help thee. Yeah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness
Behold all they that were incensed
Incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded
They shall be as nothing and they that strive with thee shall perish thou shall seek them shall not find them even them
That contended with thee they that war against thee shall be as nothing
And as the thing of not for I the lord thy god will will hold thy right hand saying unto thee fear not
I will help thee so obviously he's literally referring to the the Babylonian nation
Who are against the Israelites the Assyrian nations who are against them?
And he's telling them, you know, they're going to be ashamed.
They're going to be confounded.
Everyone who is against you, they're going to eat crow.
They're going to be destroyed.
I'm going to defend you.
Now, obviously, we don't necessarily
have a nation as an enemy, the way the Israelites
and the way Judah did.
But you know, we do have enemies, though, right?
And maybe those enemies have come from within.
Maybe it's your own family members.
Maybe there were parents.
Maybe there were, you know, your sons, daughters,
neighbors, someone who has put a considerable effort
into fighting you and discourage you
and to keep you from doing God's will, right?
Maybe it's a spouse.
Maybe it's someone who's close to you.
Maybe it was someone who's a far off.
But, the truth is, if you've been a Christian for any length of time, you have gotten at
least one enemy.
If you've done things right.
Right?
Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.
And all of us to a certain degree, you know, we've accumulated some enemies.
And obviously some of these enemies, we should pray for them, right?
We should love our enemies and pray for them, but there are certain enemies that are the
And to them, the Lord says that they shall be as nothing.
In other words, God is saying, I'm gonna vindicate you.
I'm gonna protect you from them to the point
where even if you were to look for your enemies,
you're not gonna be able to find them
because he's gonna scatter them.
And so this is his promise to protect his people look at verse 14
It says fear not thou warm Jacob and ye men of Israel
I will help thee say at the Lord and thy redeemer the holy one of Israel behold
I will make thee I like what he says here a new sharp threshing instrument having teeth
Thou shalt thresh the mountains and beat them small and shall make the hills as
Chaff what is he saying here? He's basically to tell in Israel
You know you're gonna serve a purpose in the future to actually execute justice upon the nations upon the mountains
But the way we can apply this to us as new test new testament Christians is that we ourselves also
Can be as a sharp threshing instrument. It's an agricultural instrument, right?
that separates the wheat from the chaff and as we serve God obviously in the New Testament we're not
fighting battles with other nations we're not involved in conquests you know overcoming other
nations and trying to subject them or whatever you know the the battle of the New Testament is a
spiritual battle and it's a battle for the souls of men right and so we want to be that sharp
That is able to separate the wheat from the chaff. How so? You know, we make a distinction between that which is evil and that which is good
Through the preaching of God's word, right?
You know, I'm just thinking of that lady that I preached through on on Tuesday and she's just like I can't say people aren't saved
You know, I'm just saying it's a mystery
And I thought I said you said you're saved. I said so are you saying salvation is a mystery?
And she kind of caught her so she's like, well, I'm just saying that, you know, I just can't I'm not gonna say people are not saved
I can't really say that and I'm thinking myself. I can say that
Because I'm like a sharp threshing instrument that separates the wheat from the chaff
You know by thy words that shall be justified by thy words that shall be condemned
Various instances in the New Testament where the apostle Paul for example says I'm afraid of you
Let's say I bestowed upon you labor and vain, meaning I don't think you're saved.
What is he doing? He's separating the wheat from the chaff basically saying,
you know, you're probably not saved because of what you're saying this person is saved.
And so, you know, as Christians, you know, we can't be these types of Christians that churches are producing nowadays or they're just afraid to offend people.
They're afraid to say that people aren't saved. They're afraid to say, oh, man, you know, that's kind of offensive. That's kind of personal.
I can't really say that for sure. I know that, you know, he believes in God, but, you know, well, just ask him when he believes about salvation.
He's not saved.
How can you say that?
I'll tell you how, because I'm a sharp threshing instrument
that separates the wheat from the chaff.
And so we do that through soul winning.
I mean, literally, when we're out there soul winning,
we're like a sharp threshing instrument going door to door,
making a distinction of who's saved and who's not.
And you know there's times I'm not going to door,
and I'm like that sharp threshing instrument,
and I'm like, oh, this person's saved.
What do you have to do to be saved and they're like, you know, they may give like a watered-down answer like
Except Jesus into my heart. I did that a couple years ago, and it's just like oh
I wouldn't necessarily worded like that, but you know so would you say you have to do anything else to be saved?
They're like no just accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior can you ever lose your salvation?
No, you can't lose your salvation. It's not by repenting of your sin. No, that's a work. Okay. This is weak
Separate the week go to the next door find myself a chaff
Try to convert them to be in a week
That's literally what we're doing. We're all preaching the gospel, right?
We're a sharp threshing instrument going door-to-door seeing who's saved seeing who's not it's not like well, you know
I'm going to door-to-door. I can't really judge though
Why are you out there?
Why are you we're literally going out there to judge people whether they're saved or not? I
Don't think that's my place. Yeah, because you're not a sharp threshing instrument
That's why it's not your place. You don't know what you're doing
I just don't think it's right and what's so hypocritical about what this lady was saying to by the way is
That in one instance she's saying I can't judge people and say that they're not saved
But in the other instance she's saying if you don't repent of your sins, you're not saved
So it's like so which one is it?
But the truth is is that she just wasn't saved she's a chaff who thinks she's weak
And so we as the Christians in the New Testament were to operate as that sharp threshing instrument and soul winning
You know, we also do it through just preaching to distinguish the truth from the lie and fake Christians from real Christians
Just because someone says that they're a Christian doesn't mean that they're wheat
Because someone says that they're saved doesn't mean that they're saved now
I would hope that if a person says I'm saved, you know when I knock on the door and someone says I'm saved
I hope 100% that that's true.
I'm not like, yeah, I'm about to find out right now.
It's probably not even saved.
In my mind, I'm like, oh, cool.
This person's possibly saved.
And then I have to ask them just to make sure, right?
And then it's just like, you know, you know,
what do you have to do to be saved?
Well, you don't have to talk to me about that.
I serve in my church.
I'm part of the worship team of my church.
You know, I'm there all the time.
You know, I'm at Saddleback.
I've been there for years.
You know, I've done many wonderful works.
I've cast out devils in his name.
You know, I prophesied in his name,
done many wonderful works, you know,
and I'm just like, oh, okay, we got a chap here.
He's a fake Christian.
You know how offensive that would be if you actually told people in those churches that they're just not saved?
Super offensive why because they hate the sharp threshing and instruments
They rather just mix the wheat with the tares and just keep them together
Right and obviously some wheat do grow with the tares in this world
But when it comes to a church though
You know, we're constantly putting that sharp, threshing instrument of the preaching of God's Word
to kind of sift through the church, right?
We're constantly dragging it through the aisles, talking about salvation,
talking about the specifics of believing on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and calling upon the name of the Lord.
Why? Because we want to make sure that everyone's wheat here.
And obviously as the church continues to grow where you're gonna have chaff. I mean, you know, we have chaff in our church
Let me just be honest with you. It's just people who just come to church and they're not even saved, you know
That's a fact. That's just as the church grows. That's what happens and you're like, well, what are you doing about it?
Well, I'm just bringing that threshing instrument. I'm just constantly talking about the gospel talking about you know
And not every sermon is about the gospel, but you know, I plug it in
through sermons plug-in salvation by grace to faith that's calling upon the name of the Lord believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
You know talking about heaven talking about eternal life talking about hell
Just constantly bringing that threshing instrument so that this person knows you know when they walk out that door
I know what that pastor believes about salvation
But just in truth in general, you know, we want to make sure that we make a distinction between false doctrine and
God's doctrine
Heresy we never want to take this middle line with the fundamentals of the faith and just be like well, who am I to judge?
You know
Who am I to judge about the deity of Jesus Christ the humanity of Jesus Christ, you know
Who am I to judge about the Trinity, you know, some people explain it differently or something like that, you know
You're not a sharp threshing instrument. You're pretty dull there
And so that's important look at verse 17
Now we're gonna see God's provision for their needs
He says when the poor and needy seek water and there is none and their tongue faileth for thirst I the Lord will hear them
I, the God of Israel, will not forsake them.
I will open rivers and high places and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water and the dry land springs of water."
What is he basically saying here?
He's saying, hey, you know, you're going to be a threshing instrument.
You're going to be my servant.
And what is the result of serving God God provides for you?
One of the greatest insurances that you will ever have as a Christian for your health,
For, you know, the bills to be paid for you to remain in good health is keep serving God
And obviously there's other list of things like, you know, just don't drink alcohol
You know, I want to preach a sermon called living longer and how what the Bible says how we can live longer
And obviously there's various things that we can do but one of the things that would just keep you here as a servant
The Lord just keeps serving God
And one of the best things to do to keep, to have God provide for your needs is keep serving Him, right?
Seeking the Kingdom of God, His righteousness, putting the things of God first, putting church first,
putting reading your Bible first, putting souls first.
Doing those things will cause God to provide for your needs, especially in times of trouble.
We're almost done here. Look at verse 21.
Now he switches gears into confronting the idols here the Lord almost in a mocking way
Begins to tempt the false gods of land and challenges them to match his power
And when you kind of read this is kind of reminiscent of Elijah
You know mocking the prophets of Baal and first Kings chapter 18 and he's like, you know, go call Bell
Maybe he's in a journey. Maybe maybe he's sleeping needs someone to wake him up
It's kind of mocking him and it's kind of what the Lord does with the idols of these islands of verse 21.
He wants evidence of their power. He says, produce your cause, say, at the Lord.
Bring forth your strong reason say at the king of Jacob. So after he's done just kind of showing his power his omnipotence
His omniscience his capabilities how he's able to provide how is he he's gonna be able to you know?
Deliver Jacob how he's gonna raise up King Cyrus and all these things that he's doing now
He turns to the idols and he says all right. Let's see what you can do
Now let's see what you got
Bring your strong reason say the king of Jacob produce your cause
You know, he's basically spent the majority of the chapter flexing on these idols in these nations
Who are producing these idols right and then he turns on his other right now? What can you guys do? I?
love that I
Can prophesy of a king that's not even born yet who's gonna accomplish all these things he's gonna be my servant
What do you got?
lame, verse 22, so he wants evidence of their power, but he also wants evidence of their
omniscience, verse 22, let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen.
Let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the
latter end of them, or declare us things for, for to come.
All right, bring forth these idols and let's see what you can tell me of the past
You know talk about the former things you know because God can speak of creation
He was there
Right. He can speak of the creation period. He can speak of former things. He's like you tell me of the former things
So we can consider it tell me of the latter end or just declare to us things for to come in other words
Okay, then if you can't tell me what happened in the past go ahead and prophesy the future for me
What is he asking for he wants evidence of the omniscience of these idols like do you know more than me?
right
evidence of their power evidence of their omniscience
He also wants evidence of their omnipotence.
Verse 23, show the things that are to come here after
that we may know that ye are gods.
I like that.
Now let's see what happens.
Just show me that you're a god if you're able to do these.
But look what he says, yay, do good or do evil
that we may be dismayed and beholded together.
He's like, do some good deed or do a bad, do something.
Get something done
So that we can be dismayed
Right, and we could be hold everyone could just be hold it together. I mean he's calling them out hard
Because here's the thing God can do evil and he can do good right not evil as insinful
But he can bring the evil day upon people and in fact the Bible says and Isaiah 45 verse 7
I formed the light and create darkness. I make peace and create evil
I, the Lord, do all these things.
Basically, he's just like, when I say I'm going to do it,
I actually do it.
Let's see what you guys can do.
I mean, this is embarrassing.
It's calling him out to fight, and these idols
are not going to fight.
And so what does he want?
He's putting them on trial.
He's basically saying, I've declared what I can do.
I've shown you what I can do.
I'm prophesying of what I will do.
Now let's see what you can do, and what is he doing? He's essentially removing the confidence of the people on these idols
He's putting them to shame, right?
And
Finally we see his verdict on the idols because they're not gonna do anything. They can't do anything, you know
You can go to a Catholic church and mock those idols mock that idol of Jesus. It will literally do nothing
You can you know all but that's sacrilegious. It's not sacrilegious because that's not God
You can mock the Virgin Mary
That statute you can mock the statute of Joseph of Jesus and all their idols. They can't do anything
What are they gonna do bleed out of their eyes? Oh?
Wow, oh
Man, you have you you haven't seen this miracle. Well, you mean like the Virgin Mary on the tortilla. Oh, wow. Oh
Wow, you're able to put your face on a tortilla so powerful
What a magnificent capability that you put your image
on some Mexican ladies tortilla in Mexico.
So impressive.
Oh wow, you know, some statute is able to just,
you know, it's crying.
Wow.
In India, you know you guys heard of that story where the statue was like it was it had tears
And then they came and they're just like oh the status of miracles and then they realized it was bad plumbing
The toilet water was like
You know they're like drinking out of it. I mean that's God mocking them for their idolatry
They're eating literally eating their own dung drinking their own piss
But it's just like you go to these Catholic idols these icons you come up and they can pull out whatever miracle they want
It's not impressive
I'm not impressed with that
Blood out of the eyes even if that were true even if that was a legitimate miracle. I'm not impressed
What's so impressive about a statue bleeding out of the eyes or whatever there's nothing impressive about that
My God created the heavens and the earth
My God sent fires
My God sent floods and storms and earthquakes and destroyed nations
Yours bleeds out of the eyes
Look at he says the verse 24 behold you are of nothing
He's a calling out. He's just like you're nothing and your work of not an abomination is he that chooses you
So he's like addressing the idols themselves, right?
He's like, and obviously these idols,
they can't even speak, they can't hear, they can't see.
So he's addressing the idols, but really what he's doing,
he's addressing the people who believe in the idols.
It's like, if I'm talking to the idol here,
and Adrian's the one worshiping the idol,
he's just listening to all these disses that I'm saying.
Like these people are an abomination who trust in you.
It's embarrassing, just shaming them is what they're doing.
He doesn't worship idols, by the way.
So you're nothing, your work of nigh, you're in abomination.
Verse 25, I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun, shall he call upon my name.
He shall come upon princes, as upon mortar, and as the potter tread at the clay.
Who hath declared from the beginning that we may know, and before times that we may say he is righteous?
Yea, there is none that showeth. Yea, there is none that declareeth. Yea, there is none that heareth your words.
Has anyone's reading your Bible?
The first shall say design behold behold them, and I will give to Jerusalem one that bringeth good tidings for I be held
And there was no man even among them and there was no counselor that when I asked of them could answer a word
Basically, what is the same? You know after all this no one's defending themselves anymore
Because it's true
The prophets of Baal can just cut themselves and cut themselves and cry out the bell. Nothing happened
The God of Israel on the other hand brought fire down from heaven
No one can answer their word
Behold they're all vanity their works are nothing their molten images are wind and
confusion
You know basically the entire chapter is just to show the people who are trusting in idols your idols suck your deity suck
They're trashed or nothing and you're in abomination for worshiping this thing because you have to make it
I made you you have to make them
The deity the the God of the Bible makes people
These people make their idols make their deities. They have to bear them. They have to carry them
They have to do things for them and they they're they're incapable of saving. They're incapable of speaking
They're incapable of seeing the future calling back the former things. They can do no exploits
What are some closing thoughts here closing thoughts the nations
Often do not consider the power of the Lord
You know, they don't consider it
And if and when they do, they more often than not become obstinate and refuse the Lord anyways.
So it's part of the fact that God is powerful.
And they see the power of the Lord. They can be afraid and even fear God, but they still don't choose the Lord.
They still choose their idols. And you know, although some Christians may not worship literal idols of gold and silver,
you know, they sometimes worship other things that they believe can deliver them like gold and silver, meaning money, right?
So obviously this isn't applicable to Christians worshiping literal idols, but you know they can you know
I'd covet just this is idolatry according to the Bible
And so you know one thing that we can learn from this is that we need to make sure that we are dependent upon the Lord
And we need to make sure that we remember the fact that God is omnipotent
He is omniscient. He's all powerful. He's all-knowing and it's obviously easier said than done at certain times
But the truth, but it's still true though
You know and I as a pastor even there's times I have to remind myself like the Lord knows everything
He knows the inner recesses of the heart
He knows the beginning from the end and I need to make sure that I am
Confident and I'm satisfied with the fact that God has a panoramic view of all the events in my life
In the life of my family the life of our church and you know what because I'm on his side
I know that the end of my story
It's gonna be good no matter how it looks. It's always gonna be good because you know
I'm gonna continue to be that sharp threshing instrument
I want to continue to serve the Lord and that's it. Let's pray father
We thank you so much for your word and Lord help us as your people to rest upon the fact that you are almighty all powerful
I'm nishim and I'm nipotent and
That the idols of the islands Lord the idols of the nations are nothing
Help us never to
Idolize something or depend on something else other than you Lord to meet our needs
Whether that be our our physical needs Lord our spiritual needs our mental needs may we rest upon you and your word
We do pray for those in the fires Lord who are the righteous and even those who may not be saved Lord
And maybe this has caused them to be humbled
I pray that you'd work in their hearts, Lord, that they would seek the Lord out
and that they would come to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
And if there are righteous people there, Lord, who have suffered loss,
I pray that you'd help us to get in touch with them
and that you'd help us to help them, Lord,
and may you protect them and guide them and provide for them.
And we love you. We thank you. Pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.