Isaiah 45

6/02/24

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Sermon Transcript

Good morning. Always thankful when I’m asked to preach a sermon here. And yes, that’s even true when I’m asked on Saturday afternoon.

Please open your Bibles to Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. We’re going to be spending our morning in that chapter of Isaiah.

By any measure, Isaiah is a towering figure in the Bible. Isaiah is the major prophet of the major prophets, and Isaiah is the most quoted prophet in the New Testament. Through Isaiah, God told his people more about the wonderful blessings that were in store for them with the Messiah than he did through any other Old Testament prophet. And a major theme of the book of Isaiah is that God controls history. And in fact, I think Isaiah goes a step further because I think Isaiah also shows us how God controls history. Yes, God controls the world, we know that, but God’s control of the world allows us to have free will. And our free will very often works toward frustrating the plans of God. And yet God’s plans continue. God controls history. God’s control of history allows some to thrust the word aside and to judge themselves unworthy of eternal life, Acts 13:46. And yet God’s plan continues despite the disobedience of some and of many. Isaiah proclaimed that God was going to bless the entire world through the coming Messiah. And that was going to happen even if the entire world worked against that plan of God.

Now in Isaiah chapter 45, we have a wonderful example of how God controls history. And we see that in Isaiah 45 through a message from God to three different groups. A message from God to three different groups. The first group is really not a group, it’s a single person, King Cyrus of Persia. The second group we’re going to see is his own people, Israel. And the third group is everybody else, the nations of this world. So let’s look at each of those three messages from God in Isaiah chapter 45 and see what we can learn from them.

First, in verses one through eight, we see God’s word to Cyrus, King Cyrus. What can we learn from God’s word to Cyrus? Well, first, we can learn something very important about the timing of this message, the timing of this prophecy. Verse one, “Thus saith the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, to Cyrus.” That prophecy in verse 1 of Isaiah 45 is one of the most remarkable prophecies found anywhere in the Bible. And why is that? It’s because Cyrus was not even born yet when that prophecy was proclaimed. Cyrus had not even been named by his parents yet. The God had already named him. Isaiah had already given his name Cyrus. Now if you were in one of our recent Sunday morning Bible classes on Daniel or on Ezra, then you already know all about King Cyrus. He was the Persian emperor who took over Babylon after the Chaldeans were defeated. You may recall the handwriting on the wall in the book of Daniel. That’s when Cyrus took over. And Cyrus then released the Jews from their 70 years of captivity and allowed them to go back to Jerusalem to rebuild the temple. Now, did all that happen by accident? Hardly. We know it did not happen by accident. God had planned it down to the smallest detail, even including the name of Cyrus, the name of the king who would do it, Cyrus. And that was planned and given and proclaimed by Isaiah long before Cyrus was born. If we’re looking for an example of how God controls history, we couldn’t do much better than to start with King Cyrus.

Second, we can learn something important from the nationality of Cyrus. The nationality of Cyrus. Yes, it’s very amazing that God chose and named Cyrus before he was born, but it’s also very amazing that Cyrus was not a Jew. Cyrus was a foreigner. Cyrus was a Persian. God accomplished his plans using this foreigner, using this Persian just as God had earlier accomplished his plans using Pharaoh an Egyptian Romans 9:17. When God needed someone here to accomplish his plans God did not look among his own people instead God raised up a foreign despot he raised up Cyrus to accomplish his plans here. Well why didn’t God choose a great king from among his own people? The answer is because there were no great kings among his own people at this time his people have been carried off kings had been killed, their city had been destroyed. Why? Because of their disobedience. When Cyrus came on the scene, there were no kings of Israel and of Judah. Why? Because the people had been disobedient. Well, did their disobedience thwart the plans of God? The answer is no, not at all. God simply looked elsewhere. If his people were not going to be there to help him accomplish his plans, God looked elsewhere. And this time he looked Cyrus. Now later, the greatest king of all would come from among his own people, born in Bethlehem. That’s not what happened here. It’s very important to note something here about Cyrus. God knew Cyrus, but Cyrus did not know God. Verse four, I have surnamed thee though thou has not known me. Verse five, I girded thee though thou has not known me. Did Cyrus ever come to know God? Almost certainly no. Even though Cyrus certainly learned much about God from the people he conquered. But we we have inscriptions from the days of Cyrus where we see Cyrus thanking the false Persian gods for his military victories. Why is that important? It’s important because in verse 1 God refers to Cyrus as his anointed, his anointed. God chose Cyrus before he was born for a special mission. He was anointed for that special mission before he was born. God named him and anointed him. But that election of Cyrus did not save Cyrus. God used Cyrus, but Cyrus retained his free will. Likewise, God’s chosen people retained their free will. and most of them chose to rebel. Yet God used them even in their disobedience to further his plans on this earth.

Third, we can learn something important here in looking at Cyrus about how God does that, about how God does further his plans on this earth. Verse four, God called Cyrus, I have even called thee by thy name. And later in verse 13, God tells his people what it is that Cyrus was called to do. Verse 13, “I have raised him up in righteousness. I will direct all his ways. He shall build my city. He shall let go of my captives, not for price or reward,” said the Lord of Hosts. Well, why did the city need to be rebuilt? Why did the people need to return to Jerusalem? The answer is because God had promised through Isaiah that the Messiah was coming, Isaiah chapter seven. And God had promised through Isaiah that the word, the kingdom would be established. The word would be proclaimed first from Jerusalem, Isaiah chapter two. These things had been promised and prophesied by God. And so for that to happen, faithful people of God had to be living in Jerusalem. And that meant they had to return and rebuild the temple and follow the word of God. Those things had to happen and God was going to see that they did happen. And God is here using Cyrus to see that those things happen. That’s what he tells us in verse 13. And those things were going to happen no matter who or what stood in God’s way. They were gonna happen. And God was going to use whatever tool he needed to make them happen, even if it was some pagan king named Cyrus. You know what that tells me? You know what that tells us? That when God’s train is coming, We’d better get on board or get off the track because that train is coming through. God will accomplish his plans on this earth with me or without me. And if I tell God to just do it without me, then God will look elsewhere. God will find someone else to accomplish his plans on this earth. In fact, God may use me in my disobedience to accomplish his plans on this earth. We see both of those things happening in scripture. And as the people of God, we must always strive to be a help to God, not a hindrance to God. We must say the same prayer that Isaiah will give us later in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 64:8. “But now, O Lord, thou art our father. We are the clay, thou art the potter. We are the work of thy hand.” Each of us is being molded by something or by someone, and we need to make sure that we’re being molded by the word and not by the world. God puts his people in the right place at the right time. And if we allow ourselves to be molded by God, then we’ll be ready when the time comes. That’s what we learn from God’s word to Cyrus.

Well, next in verses nine through 19, we see God’s word to his own skeptical people. What can we learn from that? Well, first we learned that we must not question God’s plans. We must trust in God. I don’t think Israel liked to hear that God was gonna use some pagan king to accomplish his purposes. I don’t think this was a message from Isaiah that they wanted to hear, and even that God was going to anoint this pagan king. I suspect they wanted to give God an earful for that. How could this be God’s plan? Why is God doing things this way and not that way? Don’t we get a right to vote? Don’t we have a say? Well, God has a very simple answer to those complaints. But God’s answer comes in the form of a question. Who created whom? Who begat whom? Verses nine and 10. “Woe unto him that striveth with his maker. Let the potsherds strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashions it, what makest thou? Or thy work, he hath no hand. Woe unto him that saith unto his father, what begetteth thou? Or to the woman, what is thou brought forth?” In short, the pot does not get the question the potter. Child does not get the question the parent. Our role instead, as the song says, is to trust and obey. Proverbs 3:5, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not into thine own understanding.” Psalm 91:4, “he shall cover thee with his feathers, under his wings shalt thou trust. His truth shall be thy shield and thy buckler.” We must always trust in God. The primary problem with God’s people in the days of Isaiah is that they did not trust in God. They were not trusting in God. Instead, they were questioning God. They were accusing God. They didn’t believe God had their best interest in mind. And you know what? That’s a problem with every generation. That’s not just a problem with Isaiah’s generation. Why do people reject God’s plan for the church today? Why do people today create their own plan of salvation and demand that God follow it? Why do people disbelieve today what the Bible has to say about how we got here and how this universe was created? The answer is they do not trust in God. Isaiah 26:4, “Trust in the Lord forever, for our God is an everlasting rock.” Faithful, remnant, trusts God. And that trust leads to obedience. What is faith but trusting obedience? Isn’t that what we see in the great roll call of faith in Hebrews 11? People who trusted what God said and then obeyed what God said. That’s faith. That’s faith.

The second thing we learn here from God’s message to His own people is that we must not trust in the arm of man. We must not look to the arm of man for help and salvation. Verse 14, “Thus said the Lord, The labor of Egypt and merchandise of Ethiopia and of the Sabeans, men of stature, shall come over unto thee, and they shall be thine. They shall come after thee.” Well, how does that verse tell us not to trust in the arm of man? The answer is simple. It’s because that verse tells us the arm of man should be coming to us for help, not vice versa. That’s what’s shown in verse 14 and is shown elsewhere in Isaiah. I’ve mentioned several times the great prophecy about the church in Isaiah chapter two. What does it say in verse two? “All nations shall flow unto it.” They’re coming to us. We’re not going to them for help. They’re coming to us and we’re pointing them to Christ. Nations come to us. That’s the prophecy about the church in Isaiah 2. Politicians will not save us. For the simple reason they can’t even save themselves. We don’t go to the kingdoms of men. We don’t go to the armies of men for help. They come to us. We are the light of the world. We are the city set on the hill. We proclaim the gospel of peace, not them. Even while the people were being led out of Egypt, they kept looking back fondly, wanting to go back to Egypt, Egyptian bondage. After they arrived in the promised land, they repeatedly turned to Egypt for help instead of turning to God for help. Are we any different today if we turn to politics for our salvation? Are we any different today if we place our trust in the arm of man. Jeremiah 17:5, “thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man and maketh flesh his arm, whose heart departs from the Lord.” Look again here at verse 14. That verse does not show God’s people going to Egypt. That verse shows the Egyptians coming to God’s people. And those verses, that verse is a prophecy about the church just as Isaiah 2 is. We must never place our trust in the arm of man over the arm of God. Psalm 118:8-9, “It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in men. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.” Perhaps at no point in our history has the temptation ever, ever been greater than it is today to trust in the arm of man. But science will not save us. Medicine will not save us. The democrats will not save us. The republicans will not save us. The president will not save us. Supreme court will not save us. The flag will not save us. The military will not save us. Technology will not save us. Isaiah’s message to the people of his day is a message for our day as well. We must not trust in the arm of man. Why is that so important? Well, what did we just say about our trust in God? Our trust in God leads to what? Our obedience. We trust and obey. But if I’m trusting in the arm of man, if I’m trusting in this world, then who am I going to obey? We must trust in God, God alone.

Third, we can learn something here from God’s message to his own people. We can learn that God is not hidden. He is not hiding. His word is not hidden. That was the allegation from his own people. In verse 15, “Verily thou art a God that hideth thyself, O God of Israel.” Well, why did the people accuse God of hiding himself? Because they couldn’t understand how God would choose a pagan king to accomplish his purposes. And then God would anoint this pagan king. And they couldn’t understand how God would expect them to welcome the Egyptians and the Ethiopians and the Sabians here in verse 14. You know, it’s starting to sound to them a little bit like God was planning to bless the entire world. And of course, that’s exactly what God was planning to do. And was that hidden? Had God hidden that from them? Was that something they hadn’t been told? Of course it wasn’t. God had told them. God had promised that to Abraham. And that’s what God says in verse 19. “I have not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth.” Nothing about this was hidden from them. If Israel had known the word of God, they would have known that God was planning to bless not just Israel, but bless the entire world through the coming Messiah. They would have known that if they’d read Genesis 11, 18, because that was the promise to Abraham. God’s word is plain. God’s word is understandable. God’s word is not hidden. The problem then, the problem today is not a lack of clarity. It is a lack of obedience. God’s will is not hidden. God is not hidden. So far we’ve looked at God’s word to Cyrus. We’ve looked at God’s word to his own people.

Well, who’s left? Everybody else. And that’s the third message. Verses 20 through 25 we see God’s Word to the nations to the nations of this earth What can we learn from that? Well first we can learn that apart from God there is No, hope none verse 22 “Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth for I am God and there is none else.” I told us the same thing John 14:6 “I am the way truth and the light no man cometh unto the Father but by me” our modern world recoils in horror from that message our society encourages everybody to choose their own path and all paths are equally valid. That is not, not what the Bible teaches. The world tells us there are many gods. The Bible tells us there is only one God. The world tells us there are many paths to God, many ways to God. The Bible tells us there is one and only one. We know there’s only one way to God. But why? Why is there only one way to God? You know, the fact that there is only one way to God is explained by the price that was paid for that way. 1 Corinthians 6:20, “You are bought with a price.” 1 Peter 1:18-19, “You are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ.” No higher price could ever be imagined. 2 me to God for his unspeakable gift. What that means is that if there were a second way to God, then that second way must have come at a lower price because no higher price could ever be imagined. So the second way must have been a lower price. And if there is another way to God at a lower price, that Jesus died for no reason. The inescapable conclusion is that Jesus then died for no reason. Why pay such a price for something that could have been obtained at a lower price? If there is a second way to God, then Christ’s blood on that cross was wasted. That is unthinkable. It’s unthinkable. And what that means is that a second way to God, But a second way to eternal life is also unthinkable. We should recoil from such a suggestion. I fear that those today who try to fling open other doors to heaven do not realize what they are saying about the precious blood of Christ. Pluralism may seem loving to some, but in reality it is the most unloving thing imaginable. to those who were led astray and unloving to the mighty God who sent his son to die on that cross. Can we imagine anything more unloving than for God to send his son to die for no purpose? Yet that is what pluralism accuses God of having done. Without God, man has no hope, none. But thanks be to God that he provided a way to him through the blood of his son. That’s a message the nations need to hear.

Second, we can learn from God’s word to the nations that someday all will bend the knee to Christ Jesus. Verse 23, “I have sworn by myself the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear.” That verse is quoted twice in the New Testament. Romans 14:11, “For it is written, as I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, every tongue shall confess to God.” Philippians 2:10, "That at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow of things in heaven, things on earth, things under the earth. This world today is full of atheists. But you know what? There is not and will not be a single atheist in the next world. It’s been said there are no atheists in foxholes, but that is undeniably true of the grave. The atheist may shake his fist at the sky and may loudly proclaim that there is no God. The God’s word to that proclaimed atheist is the same as his word to the practical atheist in Luke 12:20. “Thou fool.” Psalm 14:1, “the fool has said in his heart, there is no God.” But those atheists will not persist forever in that foolishness. They will not persist forever in their unbelief. Someday they will know the truth of God’s word. Someday, they will know that God exists and that God is their judge What will they do on that day they will bend their knee and confess that God is Almighty Jesus Christ is his son They will confess the very thing they refuse to believe in this life. They will do it in the next that

Third, God tells the nations they must heed the preaching of the gospel. Verse 24, “Surely shall one say in the Lord have I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. All must heed the gospel of Christ.” That’s a reminder for us as well. Why? If we don’t proclaim it, how will they heed it? How will they know it? How will they hear it? If we don’t proclaim the gospel to the lost, how will they know where to go? How will they even know that they are lost? How will they find the mountain if the mountain is hiding? And Isaiah tells us in Isaiah 2 that we are that mountain. The church is that mountain. Isaiah 2:2. And Jesus tells us something about a mountain that I suspect we already knew, And that is they are easy to see, Matthew 5:14. “A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid.” God does not want his people to be a footnote in the history books. God wants his people to turn this world upside down, Acts 17:6. And God is telling the nations that they need to heed that preaching. They need to heed the preaching of the gospel. And that’s a message for us as well. We need to be out there preaching. Look at verse 24 again. “Surely shall one say, and the Lord have I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come.” We are the first half of that verse. We are the one saying in the Lord, I have righteousness, I have strength. And it is that message that lead to the second half of that verse. “Even to him shall men come.” We go, we proclaim the gospel of Christ and then men hear it and they come to God. That’s how it works. But it breaks down if we don’t do our part. Romans 10:14, “how shall they hear without a preacher?”

So what have we seen in Isaiah 45? We have seen how God controls history while still respecting man’s free will. When Isaiah proclaimed this message, God’s plan to bless the entire world was still just a plan. It was a sure and certain plan, but it had not yet come to pass. Today that’s different. It has come to pass. Christ has come to this world. He has given his life a perfect sacrifice. He has been raised from the dead with power. Today God’s plan has been realized. We today are enjoying that worldwide blessing that was promised to Abraham so long ago. But only in Christ Jesus. Only in Christ. He is the way. He is the only way to God. Now whatever your background today, whatever your nationality, whatever your race, whatever your educational level, whatever your bank account, God’s call is the same. “Common to me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” The gospel Christ is for all and the gospel of Christ is the same for all. All must hear, all must believe, all must repent, All must confess. All must be baptized in water for the forgiveness of sins. All must live faithful to God throughout their life, faithful unto death. There is no other way to God. If we can help any way this morning, please come while we stand, while we sing.