Well, church, would you turn with me to the book of Isaiah, chapter 44.
We're picking up in verse 24.
That's page 567 in the Pew Bible.
And then we're going to look at the rest of chapter 45 this morning.
So, end of 44, beginning of 45, page 567 in the Pew Bible.
Let me pray, and then I'll read the first part of this for us.
Father in heaven, as we come now to your word, we pray that you would give us eyes by your spirit to see Christ in his glory.
We know that all of the prophets testified to him, and it is him that we need to see.
So, come and do that work, we pray, God.
And we ask this in the name of Jesus, our Savior.
Amen.
All right, Isaiah 44, verse 24.
Let me read for us.
Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb.
I am the Lord who made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,
who frustrates the signs of liars and makes fools of diviners,
who turns wise men back and makes their knowledge foolish,
who confirms the word of his servant and fulfills the counsel of his messengers,
who says of Jerusalem, she shall be inhabited,
and of the cities of Judah they shall be built, and I will raise up their ruins.
Who says to the deep, be dry, I will dry up your rivers.
Who says of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and he shall fulfill all my purpose,
saying of Jerusalem, she shall be built,
and of the temple your foundation shall be laid.
Continuing in chapter 45.
Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped,
to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings,
to open doors before him that gates may not be closed.
I will go before you to level the exalted places.
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hordes and secret places,
that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by name.
For the sake of my servant Jacob and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name.
I name you, though you do not know me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
Beside me there is no God.
I equip you, though you do not know me,
that people may know from the rising of the sun and from the west
that there is none besides me.
I am the Lord, and there is no other.
I form light and create darkness.
I make well-being and create calamity.
I am the Lord.
Who does all these things?
We will end our reading there and pick up in a little bit.
So there is an old parable that goes something like this.
There is a group of blind men standing around an elephant,
and each one is trying to give a description of what this elephant is like.
One man touches its trunk and says that it is a snake.
Another feels its ear and says, oh, it is like a fan.
A third man holds the tail and finds it rope-like.
And the last man feels the tusk and declares that the elephant is like a spear.
Now, this parable is supposed to illustrate the idea that all religions are equal but limited paths to God.
According to this parable, every religion is sort of like a blind man only feeling one part of the elephant.
And so, according to the parable, no one can say that there is only one true religion.
No one can say that there is only one true God.
Now, on the surface, that parable can seem appealing, right?
After all, isn't it sort of arrogant to say that your God is the only true God?
Isn't it better, we sometimes think, isn't it more humble to say that we're all just blind men grasping our part of the elephant?
And so, when we come up against a text like Isaiah 44 and 45, it can really rub us the wrong way.
Because the big idea of this section in Isaiah, not just the part I read, but the whole chapter that we'll get to a little later,
the big idea here is that the Lord, Yahweh, the God of Israel, is the only true God.
If you look with me down at the passage, if you have it open, you'll see this affirmed again and again in our text.
In Isaiah 45, 5, we read,
I am the Lord and there is no other.
Beside me there is no God.
45, 6, I am the Lord and there is no other.
45, 14, the nations say,
Surely God is in you and there is no other God, no God besides Him.
45, 18, I am the Lord and there is no other.
45, 21, and there is no other God beside me, a righteous God and a Savior.
There's none beside me.
45, 22, for I am God and there is no other.
The Lord, the God of Israel, the God of Jesus Christ, alone is God.
In other words, the Bible makes the exclusive claim to being the one true version of spiritual reality.
The Lord, the God of Israel, alone is God.
There is no other.
But how can we believe something like that in our incredibly pluralistic age?
I mean, after all, aren't we just blind men around the elephant?
How can anyone make an exclusive claim about the one true version of spiritual reality?
But here's the thing.
This parable about how all religions are relative, did you know it's actually doing the exact same thing?
That that parable is making an exclusive claim to be the one true version of spiritual reality?
I mean, think about it.
After all, the narrator of that parable, the one supposedly telling that story,
they aren't one of the blind men, right?
They see the whole thing.
They see the whole elephant.
Telling that story, believing that version of reality is presuming to see the whole thing and to see it truly.
You see, to say that all religions are just blind men feeling an elephant is to assume that you can see the whole reality,
even though other people might not.
It is no more or less exclusive or presumptuous than a religion claiming to be the one true religion.
In fact, you might even say it's a bit more disrespectful, not to mention patronizing,
to people who see things differently than you.
Let me give you a somewhat trite example.
Imagine you're sort of stumbling upon a few friends,
and they're debating whether the Yankees or the Red Sox are the greatest baseball franchise in history.
Now, some of you might not give a rip about baseball.
I don't actually like baseball, but just go with the example, okay?
And you listen to your friends for a while, and eventually, you know, after hearing the sort of debate,
you say to them,
you know, friends, you're just both blind men grasping an elephant.
I mean, how patronizing of a thing to say, right?
To say that all religions are relative, to say that you cannot claim one religion to be the true religion,
is in essence to say that all religions are wrong, and you have finally gotten it right.
It might just be the most arrogant position of all.
Now, I say all that to say that we can't just dismiss out of hand this big idea of Isaiah 45,
that the Lord is God and there is no other.
Are you willing to entertain that that might actually be true?
Everyone makes a stake on what exclusive spiritual reality is like.
Why not consider that one too?
Now, how does Isaiah demonstrate this here,
and then what are the implications of believing something like that?
In other words, well, is that true?
And if so, so what?
Well, there are lots of ways that we could approach the claim
that the God of the Bible is the only true God,
and the Bible comes at that question from a lot of different angles,
but Isaiah's main demonstration here,
his main sort of proof, if you were,
that the Lord, the God of Israel, is the one true God is this.
And we see this again and again in Isaiah 40 through 55.
This people of Israel were in slavery in Egypt.
He said he would liberate them, and he did.
When the people were in exile in Babylon,
he said he would liberate them.
That's what Isaiah 40 through 55 is about, and he did.
And you know, those two great acts of redemption in the Old Testament,
they sort of unfurl like banners across the whole of the Old Testament,
saying, consider this God.
Look at what he's done.
Could any God do something so great?
And this great God says,
yes, it's true.
I am God, and there is no other.
Your Creator and your Redeemer.
And of course, as we go into the New Testament then,
that same pattern continues.
When Jesus arrives on the scene,
proclaiming the arrival of God's kingdom,
He tells the people that He will liberate them.
And He does.
He says, the Son of Man came not to be served, but to serve,
and to give His life as a ransom for many.
And then He says, I'm going to be handed over
to the chief priests and the scribes and the Pharisees
to be crucified.
But in three days I will rise.
This is what Jesus said to His disciples,
and that's what He did.
He was crucified, and three days later He was raised to life.
And it's this same Jesus who said,
I am the way and the truth and the life.
No one comes to the Father but through Me.
The unique work of Jesus, laying down His life,
doing what no one else has done,
then paves the way for this claim
that He is the one way to God.
The incarnation of the one true God.
This is the message of the New Testament.
There's only one true God,
and the Lord, Jesus, is His name.
Now, if you're here and you're exploring Christianity,
if you're kind of new to spiritual things
and you're trying to figure out what you believe,
you know, the best way you can do that
is by reading the historical accounts of Jesus for yourself.
Figure out for yourself if this Jesus is who He says He is,
who others say He is.
Read the accounts for yourself
and ask if He's worthy of your trust.
Consider the historical claim.
Did He really rise from the grave?
It might surprise you how plausible
and how life-giving the real Jesus really is.
In fact, every person should figure out for themselves
what to make of Jesus Christ.
You know, don't just go along with the herd
or the popular opinions on social media.
Be authentic.
Where do you stand?
What do you think of Him?
Christians believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Muslims believe that Jesus didn't actually die
but was sort of taken up to heaven.
Jews and atheists and agnostics for that matter
believe that Jesus died and remain dead.
You know, only one of those can actually be true.
Where do you stand?
Do you have the courage to figure it out for yourself?
Even if you've grown up in the church,
don't simply believe because your parents believe.
Seek Him out for yourself.
But what are the implications then?
What are the implications of believing
that the Lord alone is God?
Well, there are at least two implications here
in Isaiah 44 and 45.
And the first half of our passage that I read for us
shows us this,
that because the Lord alone is God,
we must honor Him for all common grace.
Because the Lord alone is God,
we must honor Him for all common grace.
Let me briefly explain how we see this in our text.
What's going on in the end of Isaiah 44
and the beginning of Isaiah 45
is that the Lord is saying,
in my sovereignty,
I'm going to use Cyrus,
the pagan ruler of Persia,
to come and free my people
from their Babylonian exile
and rebuild Jerusalem.
I'm going to use Cyrus,
a pagan ruler,
to come and free my people
and bring them back home.
Now, that message, of course,
would have been a source of scandal
to some of God's people, right?
How could God use Him?
And it probably would have been
a source of doubt to others,
thinking, you know,
well, look, if Cyrus is the liberator,
perhaps Cyrus' gods are better than our God.
But no, says the Lord.
The good that Cyrus does
is because I, the Lord,
did it through him.
Look at verse 5.
Speaking to Cyrus, God says,
I am the Lord and there is no other.
Besides me, there is no God.
I equip you,
though you did not know me.
The good that Cyrus accomplished,
it wasn't ultimately Cyrus' doing.
It was the Lord's doing.
As the one true creator
and ruler of all,
God was the one
who was equipping Cyrus
to do what he did.
And friends,
that is true across the board.
And the theological term for that
or word for that
is common grace.
That God showers His gifts
on the just and the unjust.
He gives innumerable blessings
to both believers and unbelievers.
And in His sovereignty,
He brings about His good purposes.
We see common grace pretty clearly
in the physical realm, right?
God makes His sun to shine
on the evil and the good.
He makes the rain to fall
on the just and the unjust.
But we see it in the intellectual realm.
God gives gifts of reason
and learning.
He sheds them abroad
to all humans
that we might understand the world
and make something of it.
We see it in the creative realm.
God gives gifts of art and music.
We see it in the moral realm.
God gives a sense of justice
and compassion.
And He does all of this
to believers and unbelievers alike.
Every good and every perfect gift
is from above,
James says in the New Testament,
coming down from the Father of lights.
Or as God says here in Isaiah,
besides me, there is no God.
I equip you,
though you do not know me.
So don't be surprised,
God says to Old Testament Israel,
when Cyrus liberates you.
This is my doing.
It is my common grace,
working through Cyrus for your good.
And for us today,
don't be surprised
if you listen to a piece of music
composed by an unbeliever
and find yourself
in genuine wonder and joy.
Common grace.
Don't be surprised
if you find incredibly kind
and loving people
outside the church.
Common grace.
Don't be surprised
if social good
is at times advanced
by unbelieving people.
There is common grace.
But notice,
what's the point
of seeing this common grace?
Look at verse 6 of our text,
that people may know
from the rising of the sun
and from the west
that there's none beside me.
I am the Lord
and there is no other.
You see,
when Cyrus liberates the Jews
in exile
and sends them home,
who is meant to get the praise?
Cyrus?
Cyrus is God's?
No.
The Lord.
The sovereign giver
of all good gifts.
When we see
God's common grace,
we must give God
the honor for it.
Now, the doctrine
of common grace
helps us to avoid
two pitfalls
in the Christian life.
On the one hand,
you know,
the Israelites
could have rejected
the good
that Cyrus brought about
because Cyrus
did not worship
the Lord.
They could have viewed
everything he did
as evil, right?
They could have said,
I'm not going to
take any gifts from him.
I'm going to just
stay in Babylon.
You know,
Christians sometimes
fall into this same pitfall.
We must not reject
the good things
that unbelievers do
as totally evil
just because
they're unbelievers.
We can still
acknowledge the good
and give God
the praise for it.
On the other hand,
the other pitfall,
you know,
the Israelites
could have swung
in the opposite direction.
They could have viewed
what God did
through Cyrus
as proof
that all of Cyrus' actions
and even Cyrus' gods
were worthy of praise
and worthy of allegiance.
Now, Christians today,
I think,
have to be even more careful
of this pitfall.
When we see
some genuine good
in an unbeliever,
or in a social movement,
or in a political party,
we must not suddenly
give it
our wholesale allegiance.
We have to be
more discerning than that.
Just because we see
a threat of common grace good
doesn't mean
we should give
our wholesale allegiance
and agree with everything
that particular person
or party
or movement
stands for.
Rather than rejecting
everything
and accepting everything,
we need to honor God
for the good
of common grace
but think and act
with integrity
as God's people.
The Israelites
were meant to go home
but they weren't meant
to start worshiping
the Persian gods.
Now, that's the first
implication of Isaiah 45
because the Lord alone
is God.
We must honor Him
for all the common grace
that we see
and experience.
But at this point,
Isaiah has to make
an important clarification.
God has just said
that He's going to use Cyrus,
a pagan ruler,
to liberate His people.
What does that mean
about Cyrus?
What does that mean
about all those nations,
all those people
who, like Cyrus,
don't worship the Lord?
Well, the second half
of Isaiah 45
tells us this.
Because the Lord alone
is God,
we must turn to Him
for all saving grace.
Because the Lord alone
is God,
we must turn to Him
for all saving grace.
Now, let's skip down
to verse 18
in chapter 45.
We're going to read
a little more
of our text.
Picking up in verse 18
of chapter 45.
For thus says the Lord
who created the heavens,
He is God
who formed the earth
and made it.
He established it.
He did not create it empty.
He formed it to be inhabited.
I am the Lord
and there is no other.
I did not speak in secret
in a land of darkness.
I did not say
to the offspring of Jacob,
seek me in vain.
I, the Lord,
speak the truth.
I declare what is right.
Assemble yourselves
and come.
Draw near together,
you survivors
of the nations.
They have no knowledge
who carry about
their wooden idols
and keep on praying
to a God
that cannot save.
Declare and present
your case.
Let them take counsel
together.
Who told this long ago?
Who declared it of old?
Was it not I,
the Lord?
And there is no other
God beside me,
a righteous God
and a Savior.
There is none beside me.
Turn to me
and be saved.
All the ends
of the earth
for I am God
and there is no other.
By myself,
I have sworn
from my mouth
has gone out
in righteousness
a word
that shall not return,
that is return void,
return empty.
To me,
every knee shall bow.
Now,
every tongue
shall swear allegiance.
Only in the Lord
it shall be said of me,
our righteousness
and strength.
To him shall come
and be ashamed
all who are incensed
against him.
In the Lord,
all the offspring
of Israel
shall be justified
and shall glory.
Now,
the key verse here
is verse 22.
Turn to me
and be saved,
all the ends
of the earth,
for I am God
and there is no other.
Friends,
you see,
common grace,
those gifts
that God sheds abroad,
common grace
is not saving grace.
You can be
highly intelligent,
very creative,
incredibly moral
and all these
are gifts of God.
You didn't earn them,
they were gifts to you.
But even an abundance
of these gifts
of common grace,
they aren't saving.
They don't put you
in a right relationship
with God,
with your Creator.
They don't take away
your guilt.
They don't take away
your shame.
We need saving grace.
And what do we see here?
We see that this one
true God,
who yes,
covenanted with Israel
to bring about
his plans of redemption,
who sent Jesus Christ,
we see that this one God,
what does this God do?
He extends
not just common grace
to the nations,
but he extends
his saving grace as well.
Turn to me
and be saved
all the ends of the earth.
Here is an invitation,
a summons
for everyone.
Every nation,
every culture,
every language,
everyone
is summoned
to receive
God's saving grace.
That was true
in Isaiah's day
and it's true today,
friends.
He is summoning us,
he's summoning you
today
to come
and receive
his saving grace.
But to receive
this saving grace,
what must we do?
We must turn,
Isaiah says,
we must turn
and embrace
the Lord alone
as God.
because ultimately
this is the God,
as verse 23 says
in our text,
to whom
every knee shall bow
and every tongue
shall swear allegiance.
There is coming a day,
God says,
when everyone
will recognize
my unique
and utterly
exclusive
claim
to be the one
true God.
Everyone will
acknowledge it.
God is inviting us,
he's summoning us
to acknowledge it now.
And that phrase,
you know,
every knee shall bow
and every tongue
shall swear allegiance,
I hope that phrase
sounds a little
familiar to you
because earlier
in our service,
Dave actually read
for us from
Philippians chapter 2
and in that chapter
from the New Testament,
Paul identifies
none other
than the risen Jesus
as this Lord.
At the name of Jesus,
Paul writes,
every knee should bow
in heaven and earth
and under the earth
and every tongue
confess,
that is,
swear allegiance
that Jesus Christ
is Lord
to the glory
of God the Father.
To turn to the Lord
and be saved
means turning
to the Lord Jesus.
But what do we see
about this Lord Jesus?
This sovereign Lord
who stretched out
the heavens,
who established
the earth,
this one true God
who rules the nations,
what do we see
about this God?
Well, we see
that this is a God
who emptied Himself
for us.
Listen again
to Philippians 2.
Christ Jesus,
though He was in the form
of God,
did not count
equality with God
a thing to be grasped,
but emptied Himself
by taking the form
of a servant.
Being born in the likeness
of men
and being found
in human form,
He humbled Himself
by becoming obedient
to the point of death,
even death on a cross.
I recently ran across
the story
of Praveen Setupati.
He's a genetics professor
at Cornell.
And when he was
a freshman in college,
a classmate asked him
what he believed
and he said
he was a Hindu.
But the question
kind of unsettled him.
Praveen's parents
had immigrated from India.
He had grown up
with Hindu culture,
but he had little knowledge
of Hindu beliefs,
so he started to explore.
He kind of dug into
ancient Hindu texts
and he appreciated
their richness.
But the process
made him aware
of the fact
that other world religions
made different truth claims.
Now, with the mindset
of a budding scientist,
he didn't want to assume
that the religion
he inherited
was right,
so he explored
other beliefs
and read other religious texts.
And in the Gospels,
as he tells his story,
Praveen found something
that surprised him.
He, here,
in the Gospels,
Jesus.
Jesus was the supposed
hero of the story.
But at the climax
of the tale,
this Jesus
was hung naked,
disfigured,
and pathetic
on a cross.
Very different
than the Hindu superhero,
Krishna.
But somehow,
the self-emptying
of this crucified man
attracted Praveen.
And after months
of reading
and questioning
and sifting through
the evidence,
he started following Jesus.
Now, as you might guess,
this was a little more,
was more than a little
disturbing, right,
for Praveen's family.
Living as members
of a racial
and religious minority
in America,
they feared that Praveen
was rejecting
his Indian heritage
and wondered whether
he would change his name
to something
Western-sounding
like Peter or John,
right?
But Praveen reassured them
that following Jesus
did not entail
rejecting the culture
he loved.
He writes,
becoming a Christian
had nothing to do
with rejecting
my Indian heritage
or being called
by a different name.
Rather,
it was about embracing
God's interwoven presence
in the history of mankind,
Christ's love
and sacrifice for us
and our desperate
need for Him.
Now, there were
certainly aspects
of his Hindu heritage
that he would need
to leave to follow Christ.
But Praveen was proud
to be Indian
and proud of the rich culture
which he came from.
And he was planning
to pass it on
to his children.
So, you see,
turning to the one
true God, Jesus,
means turning to the God
who emptied Himself
for us,
something that no
other religion claims.
And turning to Jesus
didn't mean sort of
erasing all the
common grace good
that's found in our culture
or in our heritage,
but rather bringing
all of that,
bringing all of those gifts
in worship of the God
who gave those gifts
in the first place.
How about you, friend?
Have you turned
to this God
to receive His offer
of saving grace?
And if you have,
are you using
all of your gifts
to bring Him praise?
The Lord alone
is God.
Honor Him.
Turn to Him.
Let's pray.
Try and God,
we thank You
for clearly revealing
Yourself to be
the one true God.
And we give You praise
for doing what no other
God claims to do,
taking on flesh for us,
laying down Your life
for us,
rising again
that we might know
new life.
Oh, Lord,
help us now
to turn to You
and help us
to honor You.
Help us not to see
the good gifts
that You've given us
as somehow
things we have earned
or things we have done
or things that might
puff up our own pride,
but help us to see them
as vehicles
for giving You praise
and displaying
Your manifold mercy
and wonder
here in this world
that You've made.
Help us by Your Spirit
to do that, we pray.
In Jesus' name, amen.