Isaiah, Chapter 44

Greetings and good morning. We're going to be looking at this set of verses that Gene read for us here. And it's just a few, but I think there's some potent truths in there we want to draw out of it. Isaiah 44.6 here is, of course, where we'll start. And we have the Hebrew poetry pattern. Thus says the Lord. And notice we have the Lord here and then a turning point portion of the verse, and then the Lord again, the Lord of hosts, and then a repeated section here, I am the first, and then the opposite with repetition, I am the last. There is none beside me. As we look at this, this set of verses here is spoken from God.

Scripture repeatedly conveys that God is three personages, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, known as the Trinity, three personal beings, one essence. We present it that way recognizing that the idea of having three personal beings and one essence kind of blows our mental circuits, doesn't it? We're used to thinking of one person, one essence. That's the way we're accustomed to thinking of because that's the way human beings are. But Scripture repeatedly and clearly reveals, to our benefit by the way, that God is three personal beings, one essence.

You have this diagram which was given a couple of weeks ago in a handout. If you want to try to draw back on that, either take it out of your files and look at that or get a hold of one. So that represents, and by the way, I want to answer a question. There's an is not there. Somebody appropriately says, what is not? The Son is not the Father. That's what that's intended to convey. The Father is not the Holy Spirit, and the Son is not the Holy Spirit. But they are all three personages of God. Alright, that's the message.

Isaiah 44.6 here is spelling out, this is about God, but the identities given as we check through Scripture are all about the Son of God, Jesus Christ.

And we'll see that here as we proceed here this morning. This first name to look at, first title, is the Lord. The Hebrew word here is Yahweh. Sometimes you'll hear it pronounced Jehovah, which is okay, I guess. I prefer not to because it's actually an error introduced a few centuries back, but Yahweh. It's the covenant name of God with Israel.

You'll find it in the account where Moses is talking to the Lord who presents himself through the burning bush, Exodus 3.14. As God says, I am, he presents himself as the one who is self-existing. He is the one who dwells in eternity, who dwells in the eternal present. In the Greek Old Testament, now the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, but in the Greek Old Testament, the claim of God to be the one who dwells in the eternal present, to be the one who is self-existing, is ego eimi, which literally means I am.

Now last week I tried and I found your Greek scholarship was superb, so I'd like to have us try it again. And you say ego. Ego. Eimi. Ego eimi. Oh, Greek scholars, everyone. Okay, good. Good deal. All right. Remember last week, we were in chapter 43, verse 25, and we touched on just that one single verse. I, even I, is the way it's translated. I, even I am, in the English. In the Greek Old Testament, that's ego, me, ego, me, twice. Isn't that amazing? I am, I am. Isaiah does this several times in the book, he uses double statements to emphasize things.

Remember several chapters back, maybe more than several, Isaiah 26.3, peace, peace is translated perfect peace, but the Hebrew is actually double peace, peace, peace. We start at Isaiah 40. First verse, comfort, O comfort, is the way the English carries it across. It's actually just two words. Comfort, comfort is an imperative, a double to emphasize.

Here we see the same thing God is conveying to the people by emphasis, doubling. I am, I am. I am singularly the one who is self-existing. I am singularly and uniquely, God says, the one who dwells in the eternal present. We've kind of represented it this way, as we as human beings live in time and we're in a time mode. We look at what's the next time ahead holding for us.

God looks at it all as outside, seeing it all as one singular set of events. For Him, it's all at one time. Does He have any problem? looking at things from that way, applying your sins to Jesus Christ on the cross. None whatsoever. To Him, it's all in the eternal present. He sees it all as happening at one time. In the Gospel of John, Jesus made repeated statements, seven by count. I am. I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the gate. This is the ego, a me. It's carried over repeatedly. Jesus claimed deity throughout the Gospel of John.

Here on the Isle of Patmos, I want to take a look at a verse here, and so I want to bring us here. This is from a place that is very close to a cave, which is by tradition, St. John's Cave. where John, according to the tradition, had been held on a penal colony here and dwelt in this cave that he looked out at this viewpoint that you see about here. Some of the houses and ships weren't there, but you get the idea. John writes there in Revelation chapter 1 about the Isle of Patmos.

I, John, your brother and fellow partaker, Isn't it interesting? Very much one with you, even though an apostle. On the isle called Patmos, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet, saying, Write in a book what you see and send it to the seven churches.

Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me, and having turned, I saw seven golden lampstands. We went through this in the Revelation series, It's online if you want to catch up with it. In the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man clothed in a robe reaching to his feet and girded across his chest with a golden sash.

And his head and his hair were white like wool, like snow, and his eyes were like a flame of fire. His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been made to glow in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of many waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and out of his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And his face was like the sun, shining in strength.

How about that for something to turn around to? This is the passage we'll want to take a look at a few times here this morning. When I saw him, I fell at his feet like a dead man, overwhelmed. And he placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid.

I am the first and the last. and the living one, and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and Hades. This I am in the Greek text is ego eimi, the same words used in the Greek Old Testament of the Lord in responding to Moses. Who should I say has sent me? I am, ego eimi, the one who is self-existing, the one who dwells in the eternal present.

So we'll return to this verse a couple more times. to see, do not be afraid, and I am the first and the last, because those are also in this passage. So now, the King of Israel, this title is one we see later used of Christ in the Gospels, along with one that's parallel, the King of the Jews, and one actually used more commonly. It was used both in a sense of mocking for those on the cross who said, come down from the cross. If you're the King of the Jews, pull it off. and then those who in honest recognition of who Christ was, who He was and is and will be, with regards to the people and nation of Israel.

The prophet Zephaniah, Zephaniah 3.15, paired these same words, only reversed the sequence, the King of Israel, the Lord.

Now, here it is in the title of mocking, Matthew 27. Here are those in front of Christ on the cross. The Romans used the crucifixion as a billboard for, don't mess with Rome. And the opportunity for the people there to belittle and to shame and to mock and to abuse in any other way they wished was made available, and people did it. And so they called Christ the King of Israel mockingly. Do it, then will belief. Come down from that cross. Similarly, Recorded in Mark 15 32, let this Christ, the King of Israel, now come down from the cross, so that we may see him and believe. Those who are crucified with him, also insulting.

Here is one Nathaniel, one of the twelve, one of the twelve called quite early. Seeing the Lord answer him, Rabbi, which means teacher, you are the Son of God, as we saw in the first Peter class this morning, the one having the nature and character of God. You are the King of Israel. He acknowledged honestly and recognized and reckoned with who he was.

Here is the Lord was coming over the Mount of Olives on the event that is commonly called, and I would say it's a bit of a misnomer, the triumphal entry, coming over that mount. And during that time, the large crowd gathered and they came for the feast. When they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, they took the branches of the palm trees, hence the name Palm Sunday, and went out to meet Him and began to shout, Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.

This, by the way, is the Eastern Gate here in front of you. This is likely the route that the Lord took as he came over the Mount of Olives. It appears to be an ancient pathway that comes over from Bethphage and Bethany. That Eastern Gate there is one that is now walled up. In the 1400s, a Muslim authority heard that the Messiah might come through that gate, so he had it walled up with bricks.

I don't think that's going to stop the Lord. The King of Israel or the King of the Jews, either way the title came across. He was called and received both of these titles in his first coming, as we've seen here this morning. He will be seated on David's throne as the fulfillment of a prophecy given now 3,000 years ago, 1 Chronicles 17. The prophecy was repeated in brief by the angel Gabriel to Mary about 2,000 years ago. It will be fulfilled in Christ's coming, second coming, when He reigns upon the entire earth from Jerusalem. It will come to pass.

Here is the next title that shows up in Isaiah 44.6.

Thus says the Lord the King of Israel and His Redeemer. Thus the Lord the King of Israel was also Israel's Redeemer, having brought her out of bondage in Egypt, And also remember what the angel Gabriel told Mary. You are going to bear the Christ child who will be the one who will save and redeem Israel. So he is twice the Redeemer, having brought Israel out of bondage and then bringing Israel out of bondage to sin.

Redeemer and Savior are often looked at in scripture as parallel words, words that are nearly synonymous. And Isaiah has here and other passages where that's in view. Here's Isaiah 49 and 60 that we'll be getting to. All flesh will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob. And very similarly, starting off with, then you will know. And so what's the emphasis here in these two passages? The first one is everybody, all of humanity, all the Gentiles, everybody else besides you and you included, will know that I, the Lord, am your Savior and your Redeemer. And finally here, you will know. They'll know. You'll know. Everybody will know.

The Lord says that I am your Redeemer. In Titus 2, It's made clear that the Lord is our Savior and our Redeemer, the One who redeems us. Looking particularly at verses 13 and the first part of 14, we're looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself to redeem us. He gave Himself to redeem us. He is our Redeemer. He is also Israel's Redeemer, but having redeemed us in a different sense here.

Galatians 4, 4-6 also points to the coming of Christ, the Incarnation and His first coming. When the fullness of time came, and as we pointed out in the Church History class and the Bible Backgrounds class, when the fullness of time came, when the Roman roads were in place to carry the Gospel, when the Roman Empire was in place to provide some stability of government over a wide area, when the Greek language had been spread around so that people all over could speak in that one language. When the right time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, so that what? So that He might redeem those under the law. Notice also in this verse, Father, Son, and Spirit, the Trinity in that one verse there.

Now, the Lord of Hosts, the next title that we see coming forward in this passage, This could also be translated the Lord of Armies, that same Hebrew word that's translated Hos, is in other contexts, there's a couple in Numbers 1.52 and 10.28, but there are others, where it is Lord of Armies.

The Lord is head of and has with Him a vast army, a great many who carry out His wishes. Does He need them in terms of being insufficient without them? No. But He chooses to use them. He is the Lord of armies, the Lord of multitudes who are with Him. This Lord is the same Hebrew word as it was the first time in the verse. Thus says the Lord. Same one, Yahweh.

We'll see that Jesus Christ will also come. as Lord of Armies. John starts in Revelation 19, 11, And I saw heaven open, and behold, a white horse, and he who sat on it is called faithful and true, and in righteousness he judges and wages war. Moving down to verse 14, And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following him on white horses. The Lord indeed is the Lord of Armies, Jesus Christ.

Now, as if that were not enough to identify this as Jesus Christ, the Son of God, let's look at the next one. I am the first and the last. This is the same title we've seen once before, and we'll see a little bit more in Isaiah as we go through it, and used several times in the book of Revelation. I am the Lord, the first and the last. What does that convey?

It conveys, as we saw in Isaiah 41.4, God was there at the very start, and He'll be there when it's all said and done.

Human beings will come and go. The great and the powerful, the impressive will come and go. But He was there at the beginning when all was created and the means by which everything was created. He will be there at the end when this present world all vaporizes and the new heavens and the new earth are brought about. The Lord is there at the very beginning and the very end. He is the first and the last. He doesn't come and go. He is always the one who is there. He is the one who dwells in the eternal present. He watches the beginning and watches the end as if they were happening at the same time.

Unlike us, who look forward and look back at events in history. When it comes to the course of things on this planet, and all the details, he's the first and the last, he's the beginning and the end, the Alpha and the Omega, or as the Rabbis used to put it, the Aleph and the Toph. We say in English, the A to Z, for all eternity. He's not just a part of our lives. A part of our lives?

He is the first and the last. He's there before it started and at the very start. He's there at the very end and when the end has come and gone. Revelation speaks repeatedly of the I am, the beginning and the end. I am the first and the last. Revelation several times and we saw it in one passage there. And also the Alpha and the Omega or in the Hebrew, the Aleph and the Toph, the first and the last letters. In the English, A to Z. The claim of God to be the beginning and the end and the first and the last here shows up in Isaiah.

We see it in the second passage there in 44.6. I am in several of these verses is, the word you said earlier, so astute as you are, ego eimi, right? This is in the Greek Old Testament. Alright, this Revelation passage we've been pointing to, Revelation chapter 1.

I saw him as feet like a dead man, and he placed his right hand on me, saying, Do not be afraid. I am the first and the last. He is the beginning and the end. Who is this? This is Jesus Christ, the living one. He was dead and he is alive forevermore. He is the one.

There is no God besides me. Now God is emphatic when it comes to this. God does not have a plan B. He doesn't have an alternate for Himself. We talked about that in the 1 Peter elective here this morning. We mentioned, set your hope completely on Him. No plan B. We don't need a plan B. There is no plan B for God, and we don't need a plan B for Him. No plan B. Plan A isn't wadded up. No plan B. No plan B deity. There is no emergency backup, God.

Break glass, pray hard and pray fast. None of that. We don't have that in the hallway. Phil, I'm sure we don't, right? Okay, just checking. Not that. How about a spiritual emergency kit, just in case God just doesn't happen to follow through? Nah, don't need that either. Do Christians need to keep a spare God around? Not so much. Alright. And I'm not just joking around here with this stuff. Okay.

Then in verse 7, who is like me? The Lord asks there. Let him proclaim and declare it. Let's take a look at this verse, alright? Blink a little bit if you need to. Alright. If we look between the end of verse 6 and the beginning of verse 7, there's a similar message.

There is no God besides me, and besides that, who is even sort of like me? Who even comes close? What other God is there that's a sufficient backup? If you wanted to have an alternate, if you wanted to have an emergency supply of gods, there isn't any. Not only is there none besides me, not any that even come close.

Last week I warned you that since Nancy was out of town, and she is here this morning, she's just taking care of kids or something, that I was beside myself. Right? Alright. Nancy's back and so it's really good, but the Lord says, there is no God beside me. The Lord isn't beside himself. There is no God beside me, says the God of Scripture, and nobody and nothing else even comes close. Not even sort of. After God asks this question, who is like me?

He challenges the substitute deities. Remember they had idols. These substitute deities to come forward and demonstrate an equal to God's foreknowledge and His sovereignty and His absolute faithfulness. He made promises to them from the very beginning to the end of the universe. He will keep them. He is absolutely faithful. Totally and completely.

We shouldn't think of God's sovereignty as some machine that grinds on or some kind of robotic system that's carried out in the universe. No. Instead, God's foreknowledge and sovereignty and faithfulness are aspects of God's eternal character, and we can take comfort and assurance in those things. God's sovereignty is not ominous, is not dreadful. God's sovereignty is comforting. God's sovereignty is something that should assure us as believers. God's sovereignty means Even that when he directs the Jews to carry out the temple rituals that point to Christ, this is what the theme of Hebrews conveys substantially. When those sacrifices point to Christ, that when it comes time for God to give the ultimate sacrifice, that it actually happens. Ever had an instance where somebody said, well, gee, we tried to do this and it didn't work? God does not come to us hat in hand and say, well, I meant well, but it just didn't come off. I'm sorry. God doesn't do that.

When God says, I am going to send Christ, and as we'll see in Isaiah 53, He told seven centuries ahead of time lots of details about Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. He says, when I'm going to send Christ, and I'll tell through Isaiah seven centuries ahead of time, that happens. And it did happen. God does pull it off. He is sovereign, and that's a comforting thing. It's a good thing. When He determined to identify us with Christ in His death, it actually happened.

God didn't say, you know, I tried to identify all of you who believed, and for some of you it took, but for the rest, I'm sorry. No. Every single one, every believer, it's true because of God's sovereignty. God's sovereignty means that when He says He'll resurrect Christ from the grave, our hope, Christ's life, that it actually comes to pass. When He says through Isaiah seven centuries in advance, it would bring Him to life. It came to pass. And that we were identified with Christ in that event, God can do that, and He does it completely for every single one who believes.

God made promises to Abraham about Land, seed, and blessing. And guess what? He has been fulfilling that and is going to fulfill that on into the future. On into time that we haven't even seen yet. He is faithful to do that. And he's able to do that because he's sovereign.

God made promises to David that his descent would reign over the house and throne and kingdom, specifically, be of the house, sit on David's throne, and rule over the kingdom that David had. David, Isaiah, Micah, and others prophesied about Christ's first coming. They came to pass. About 300 points of prophecy came to pass. Think of the birth of the Son of God to Mary and Joseph. The angel Gabriel didn't come to Mary and say, you know, we were going to have you give birth to the Christ child, but we just weren't able to make this experiment come out quite right.

No, he didn't do that. Instead said, this is what will happen. And it did. God is sovereign. The death of Christ on the cross for our sins is something He said would take place. Even Christ repeatedly told the disciples right in front of Him, this is what's going to happen. I am going to be delivered up. He knew and He told them. The resurrection of Christ from the grave. He could tell them, I will rise up on the third day. And it came to pass.

These are all because God is truly sovereign. These all came into reality. God's sovereignty and foreknowledge, His faithfulness, means that these things really do come to pass. Because of God's sovereignty, we can count on the eternal position we have in Christ. Isn't that a good thing?

Ephesians 1.3, you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing.

God doesn't say, oh, I need to talk to a couple of you. It just didn't happen. No. You have been, all of you, blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places. Done deal. One hundred percent. Every single one. The abiding presence and life of the Lord with us. That's something that is phenomenally comforting. No matter where we are, or what we do, or where we go, or what happens. We are in Christ. The Lord is with us. And that is a wonderful thing. The life of the Lord with us. Christ is our life. Not just sort of. Not sometimes. All the time. Our resurrection in bodies like the Lord's own body. For real. For real. That we be conformed to the image of Christ. The promise we have at the end of Romans.

That really is going to happen. Because God's sovereign. It's not God's best guess. God doesn't say, No, He is able to pull it off. That we'll see our Lord, the Lord of Glory, face to face. We can count on that because of the Lord's sovereignty. Because of God's sovereignty in His character, we can count on Him for right now, for this moment. For whatever it is we're going through, or will be going through, we can count on Him because He's sovereign. He's faithful to all these things. His character remains the same. He has a purpose for all the things that are happening to you and me.

Some of those things might be difficult, mightn't they? Some of them might be tough. But He has purpose for it all, and that makes a big difference. Imagine thinking, well, I'm going through this and that and this other difficulty, and it's really just quite senseless.

No. The Lord says He has purpose in it all. All of it. We don't necessarily know the complete ins and outs in every case. We may not know until we pass heaven's gates, but the Lord has purpose in it all and we can trust Him for that. He can and does work all things together for the ultimate good, no exceptions. No exceptions, no oopses. God's sovereignty is carried out in our lives consistent with His character, including His love and His grace.

Christ told His disciples what was to take place ahead of time for a specific purpose. And that's true of the things when the Lord spells something out ahead of time in His Word that is going to happen. He doesn't do it just to say, this is a really cool game, can we play this game? No. He does it for a purpose and for a reason.

Look at what the Lord says. He tells His disciples, John 13, 19, from now on, I am telling you before it comes to pass, so that when it does occur, you may believe that I am He. You believe who I am. Now that I have told you before, it happens, so that when it happens, you may believe. If the Lord tells us something in advance, He has a purpose for it. And He wants us to believe Him.

And the purpose is so that we do believe. Verse 8, do not tremble and do not be afraid. Now there's different things we can be afraid of as human beings and different ways we express it. There are lots of different things that are easy for us human beings to get frightened of, scared, anxious, lots of things we can get pretty wound up about.

But we can trust God absolutely. In His infinite character, we can trust in His sovereignty. We can trust in who He is and the character that He has eternally. God doesn't put something in front of us just to play a game and say, ha, gotcha! God instead is one of consistent character eternally, unchangeable. We can count upon who He is and who He has set Himself to be.

Trust is the opposite of the fear and trembling you saw on the prior page, including the girl going down a slide that was a little more challenging than she thought. Fear and trembling are the opposite of that trust. God isn't just saying, stop being afraid. Why? Because I said so. No, we can trust him because of his character. We can trust Him because what He has happening in our lives are there purposefully, on purpose, for a purpose, for good reason.

Look at this Revelation 1, 17 and 18 that we'll see here for the last time. He says, as several phrases and words come out of that passage here that we've looked at in Isaiah, do not be afraid. It's a passage we see the Lord say a number of times. Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it, and you are my witnesses? When the Lord has said something is going to happen, or it's going to happen for a purpose, or this is the process that I'm going on, I'm conforming you to the image of Christ. In the world you will have tribulation. Rejoice when you encounter various trials. When the Lord has told us something is going to happen, it's because He knows what He's doing. He's sovereign. He says, you are my witnesses.

You know that I've told you things and they have come to pass. By going detail by detail in rough rules of thumb kind of figures, there are about 10,000 prophecies in the Bible. About 5,000 of those have been fulfilled. The other 5,000 are yet to come to pass.

God told Israel what He was going to do and the key things that were going to happen to them. God had told him, was about to tell Israel about what was going to happen to them, even how he was going to send them back from Babylon after they went there. I'm going to tell you who was going to send you back more than a century ahead of time. About a century and a half to be exact. I'm going to tell you a century and a half ahead of time the name of the one who's going to send you back. because I love you, because I care about you, because I've taken care of these things and everything that is happening is for a purpose.

What was going to happen was recorded in Scripture. What did happen and their return is recorded in Scripture. Read Ezra and Nehemiah. Fulfillment of those things, many of the things we've already seen, were fulfilled in Isaiah's own day. Is there any God beside me or any other rock? I know of none.

The Lord gave the application of this verse some chapters back in Isaiah 26, 3 and 4. This is the one where we said peace, peace is a double word in the Hebrew. The steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you. Trust in the Lord forever for in God the Lord you have an everlasting rock. Here in Isaiah 44, 6-8, we have the early revelation of Jesus Christ. Things that are found later in scripture and particularly in that first chapter of Revelation. Here it says, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel, his Redeemer, and the Lord of hosts. We saw that this referred to Jesus Christ multiple times over. I am the first and the last referring to Jesus Christ. Do not be afraid. Jesus himself said those words, and also as recorded in the Gospels. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid. Believe in God, believe also in me. Is there any other rock? None other. There is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. There is no other rock. None other. Only Him. Now, this is one I put the words in here. My intent was to sing it. I think I'll try, OK? If I somehow fall short, focus on the words, not my singing, OK?

The reason I wanted to present this here this morning is just the passage we looked at focused upon Jesus Christ. And I think one of the things that we want to encourage folks with here this morning, as Bob brought us the news about how was just a recognition that Hal just maybe beat us to a privilege here. There is one way that this thing could come out all good news, and that's if the Lord comes first. Okay?

Lord, what a marvelous hope we have. We shall behold Him. And Lord, one day, I hope it's soon, maybe today, I hope we will behold Him with Hal, right alongside. What a marvelous hope, what a comfort we have. And Lord, what absolute and certain hope we have because of Your sovereignty, because of Your faithfulness, because of who You are. What a tremendous and unfathomable hope that we have, certain in You. We thank You in Jesus' name, Amen.