This
week we are looking at the first statement that comprises our doctrinal
statement as a church. This statement summarizes the answer to the question “Is
there a God? And if, there is a God then who is God and how is God?” Yesterday,
we talked about the reality that there is only one God who created everything
that exists from nothing. There are not many gods. Instead there is only one
God who is the Creator who created all that has been created. When we say that
God is holy, this word holy literally means to be set apart. In other words, God
is distinctly different in His character and conduct from any other being. In
addition, when we say that God is infinitely perfect, we are saying that God
always has been and always will be perfect. There never has been, or never will
be, a flaw in God or a mistake made by God.
We then
tried to wrap our mind around the second part of this statement, which is the
phrase “and eternally existing in a loving unity of three equally divine
Persons: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.” This phrase is referred to
in church mumbo jumbo talk as the doctrine of the Trinity. Simply put, the
doctrine of the Trinity is the belief that God the Father is God, Jesus Christ
is God and the Holy Spirit is God. One way to describe the Triune nature of God
is “Three Who’s and One What”. In other words, God the Father, Jesus Christ,
and the Holy Spirit are distinct when it comes to their personhood, but
inseparably related when it comes to their nature or essence as God. The
distinction between members of the Trinity is based upon their roles, function,
and administration, not their nature or essence. One way to visualize this
would be to think of the following math equation:
1
x 1 x 1 = 1
We
talked about the reality that the reason why this really matters is because the
doctrine of the Trinity is the foundational doctrine on which all Christianity
is based and is the one doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from all other
religious systems in terms of its claims about God. The doctrine of the Trinity
reveals God’s character, His activity, and how we draw near and relate to Him.
And while
we see all of these aspects of God throughout the Bible, a passage that reveals
these aspects of God is found in a section of a letter in the Old Testament of
the Bible called the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was a prophet, or spokesperson for
God, who was sent by God with a message from God to the Jewish people, who were
living in rebellion against God. The Jewish people were rebelling against God
to instead worship false gods instead of the One True God. And it is in this
context that we see Isaiah write the following to the Jewish people in Isaiah
44:6:
"Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of
hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me. 'Who
is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in
order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare
to them the things that are coming And the events that are going to take place.
'Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is
there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'"
Here we see the Lord proclaim to the Jewish people a
challenge to the Jewish people: “Who is Like Me?” Who is like Me because I am
the first and the last, I have always existed and always will exist. Who is
like Me because there is no one else besides Me. I am the only God, there is no
other. If there is another god besides Me then let’s see this other god. If
there is another God besides Me I would like to meet Him."
"Who is like Me that caused all that exists to
exist. If there is another god besides Me, let that god explain how he created
the universe from nothing. And let that god proclaim what is going to happen in
the future. Because I have already announced to you what your future holds. I
have already made predictions in the past that have come true in the present.
Is there any other God beside Me? Is there any other God that is as trustworthy
as Me? Who is like Me because I know everything and what I know is that there
is no God but Me”.
Isaiah then records for the Jewish people how God viewed
their worship of false gods as God instead of worshipping the only True God as
God in verse 9:
Those who fashion a graven image are
all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own
witnesses fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame. Who has
fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit? Behold, all his companions will
be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all
assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be
put to shame.
Now when Isaiah uses the word futile here, this word
literally means to live in a form of chaos from the core of one’s being. Isaiah
here is revealing the reality that those who worship idols end up living lives
that are chaotic and meaningless. God, through Isaiah is calling out the Jewish
people for creating false gods that were causing chaos in their lives instead
of worshipping the One True God who had created them.
God is basically saying to the Jewish people “Does what
you are doing make any sense? Shouldn’t the created be worshipping the creator
instead of worshipping what they created? Your lack of sense will result in you
being put to shame.” Isaiah then further unpacks the idiocy and chaos that
idolatry was producing in the lives of the Jewish people in verse 12:
The man shapes iron into a cutting
tool and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers and working
it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks
no water and becomes weary. Another shapes
wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it
with planes and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a
man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house. Surely he cuts
cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak and raises it for himself among the trees of the
forest. He plants a fir, and the rain makes it grow. Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he
takes one of them and warms himself; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He
also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image and falls down
before it. Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast and is satisfied. He
also warms himself and says, "Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire."
But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before
it and worships; he also prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for you are my
god."
The Lord through Isaiah basically says to the Jewish
people, “So let Me get this straight. You spend all kinds of time and energy to
cut down a tree to kill it. Then you take half of the tree and make it into an
image to be worshipped, while taking the other half of the tree to create a
fire to keep you warm and make dinner. So you choose to worship and serve the
very same thing that ultimately serves you? You ask the very thing that could
not deliver itself from death to deliver you from death? Does that make any
sense? ” Isaiah continues in verse 18:
They do not know, nor do they
understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and
their hearts so that they cannot comprehend. No one recalls, nor is there
knowledge or understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire
and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into
an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!" He feeds on ashes; a
deceived heart has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say,
"Is there not a lie in my right hand?"
Isaiah then explains to the Jewish people that the reason
that they lack the sense to see that what they are doing by worshipping false
gods instead of the One True God does not make sense was due to the fact that He
has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that
they cannot comprehend. Now a natural objection that could arises here is “Well
Dave, If God has made it so that they cannot see or understand that what they
are doing makes no sense, then why is this not God’s fault?”
With this phrase, Isaiah is revealing for us the reality
that as the Jewish people had already chosen to worship the creation instead of
the creator, God had responded to that decision by maintaining the state of
selfishness and rebellion that already characterized their lives. God was not
and does not take good people and make them bad. Instead what God chose to do
and can choose to do is to choose to confirm and set into place the selfishness
and rebellion that is already present in those who selfishly and rebelliously
choose to ignore the evidence of God’s existence to instead worship false gods
instead of the One True God.
And the reason that God can choose to confirm and set
into place the selfishness and rebellion that is already present in those who
selfishly rebel against Him is because of the next phrase in the doctrinal
statement, which is that God has limitless
knowledge and sovereign power. Limitless knowledge simply means that God’s
knowledge cannot be exhausted.
Not
only does limitless knowledge mean that God always has known and always will
know more than you; limitless knowledge means that God knows absolutely
everything that there is to know. There is nothing that God does not know. The
phrase sovereign power simply means that God has the power to be large and in
charge and is in fact is large and in charge. Sovereign power means that God
rules and reigns.
Sovereign
power means that God is large and in charge of every circumstance and every
situation. Sovereign power means that God not only rules over history.
Sovereign power means that it is God who charts forth history. We see the
prophet Isaiah reveal this reality for us just a few verses later in Isaiah
44:24:
Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the
womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens
by Myself And spreading out the earth all alone, Causing the omens of boasters
to fail, Making fools out of diviners, Causing wise men to draw back And
turning their knowledge into foolishness,
In these verses, Isaiah reveals
for us the reality that not only is God the Creator of the universe and the One
who gives us life. In addition, God is the One who controls and forms the future, not astrologers, fortune
tellers or anyone else who worship false gods.
Isaiah’s
point is that while other predictions are based on the assumption of the past
predicting the future, God causes entirely new things to occur that have never
happened before. God is not an interpreter of the future; God is the shaper of
the future. We see Isaiah reveal this reality in a powerful way in the verse
that follow, beginning in verse 26:
Confirming the word of His servant
And performing the purpose of His messengers. It is I who says of Jerusalem, 'She shall be inhabited!' And of
the cities of Judah, 'They shall be built.' And I will raise up her ruins again. "It is I who says to the depth of the sea, 'Be dried up!' And I
will make your rivers dry. "It is
I who says of Cyrus, 'He is My
shepherd! And he will perform all My desire.' And he declares of Jerusalem,
'She will be built,' And of the temple, 'Your foundation will be
laid.'"Thus says the LORD to Cyrus His anointed, Whom I have taken by the
right hand, To subdue nations before him And to loose the loins of kings; To
open doors before him so that gates will not be shut: "I will go before
you and make the rough places smooth; I will shatter the doors of bronze and
cut through their iron bars.
Here
we see God proclaim through Isaiah what the future would hold for the Jewish
people. Isaiah, who had proclaimed to the Jewish people in chapters 28-31 that
they would be conquered and carried into captivity by the Babylonian Empire as
a result of their worship of false gods instead of the One True God, here is
proclaiming that the Jewish people would return to Jerusalem through the
leadership of a man named Cyrus.
However,
to fully understand and appreciate what Isaiah is communicating here, we first
need to understand when Isaiah wrote this letter. You see, Isaiah made this
prediction in 688 B.C. when the Assyrian Empire was the dominant military and
political power in the world. Previously in this letter, Isaiah had proclaimed that God would overthrow the
Assyrian Empire with the Babylonian Empire. Here, Isaiah is proclaiming that
God would overthrow the Babylonian Empire with the Media-Persian Empire. In
addition, Isaiah names the Emperor who would allow the Jewish people to return
to Israel, an emperor named Cyrus.
After
writing this letter in 688 B.C., in 586 B.C., the Lord fulfilled the
promise that He had made to the Jewish people when it came to what would happen
if they turned from following the Lord to instead follow false gods. The Lord
removed the Jewish people from the Promised Land and destroyed the Temple through
the Babylonian Empire. And from 586 to 538 B.C., the Jewish people lived as a
conquered people in that nation of Babylon. Then, in 538 B.C., the Persian
Emperor Cyrus, after conquering the Babylonian Empire, began to allow the
Jewish people to return to Jerusalem.
What
is so interesting is how the Persian Empire was able to conquer the Babylonian
Empire. On October 7th 540 B.C. the Persian Army was able to capture
the seemingly impenetrable fortress of Babylon, using a basin dug earlier by the Babylonians to protect
Babylon against attack, diverted the Euphrates river into a canal so that the
water level dropped "to the height of the middle of a man's thigh",
which allowed the invading forces to march directly through the river bed to
enter at night.
So not only
did Isaiah proclaim who would defeat the Babylonian Empire; Isaiah also
proclaimed how the Babylonian Empire would be defeated almost 150 years before
they were actually defeated. In 535 B.C., the
foundation of the Temple was rebuilt. You see, God is not an interpreter of the future; God is the sovereign
shaper of the future.
And as the
sovereign shaper of the future, as a church we believe that God
has graciously purposed from eternity to redeem a people for Himself and to
make all things new for His own glory. In other words, from before there was
time, God had a purpose and plan. And that purpose and plan was to rescue
people whom He had created to worship Him but had rejected Him from their
selfishness and rebellion. A purpose and plan designed to bring rebellious
humanity back to relationship with Him in a way that would bring Him maximum
glory. A plan that we will see on Friday...
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