A Message of Love
I John 3:16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.
Many people heard the words on Valentine’s Day, “I love you.” They are beautiful word, but what they truly, truly mean is what is important.
“I love you” means I will die for you. I will lay down my life for you. I will give up every thing I have for you. I will be patience with you. I will be kind and gentle with you. I will be tolerant of you.”
“I love you” means spit in my face and I won’t spit back. Slap me and I will turn the other cheek. Take a dagger and thrust it through my hand and I will stretch out the other hand. Hang me on a cross and you will hear me cry, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”
Too many people who say, “I love you,” truly, truly don’t understand the meaning. What “I love you,” means too many is: You please me. You meet my needs. You give me what I want. You satisfy me. You keep me from being lonely. You are always there when I need you. You pay the bills. You take care of my wants.
In Ephesians 5:25, God’s word talks about a husbands love this way: Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
A husband’s love should be spiritual love and leadership love. A husband should set the tone for love in his home. The wife who is under God’s authority will reciprocate that love.
The love God showed man was agape love. He gave expecting nothing in return. He served and went the extra mile. He loved and loved to please the Father.
His love was so powerful that it turned the world upside down and it shook up a man by the name of Nicodemus.
AN EXPOSITION OF JOHN 3:1-21
[OUTLINE: THE CONNECTION / THE CONVERSATION / THE CONVERSION]
I – THE CONNECTION 1-2A
3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2 The same came to Jesus by night,
Nicodemus was a consecrated Pharisee.
• A Pharisee was a very religious and pious man.
• He fasted twice a week.
• He gave his tithes and more to God’s work.
• He memorized Scriptures.
• He had great knowledge of the Word of God.
• He wasn’t just a Pharisee but a ruler of the Jews.
• He was not just religious but political.
Nicodemus today would have been a renowned religious figure. He might have been a mixture of Baptist and Methodist, Presbyterian and Lutheran, Catholic and Protestant. Plus, he had a little bit of a republican and democratic alike in him.
Some say he was one of the wealthiest and maybe highest respected men in Israel.
Nicodemus was a curious person. What stirred his curiosity?
• He heard of a man that some said was virgin born.
• He heard that the Messiah of Israel had come into the world.
• He heard of many miracles that this man from Galilee performed.
• He heard that Jesus had fed 5,000.
• He had healed the sick and made the blind to see.
• One night when most people were at home with their families, Nicodemus just had to personally, one on one, talk with Jesus, so he sought Him out.
II -THE CONVERSATION – 2B –
Nicodemus Speaks - 2b …said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
• Nicodemus immediately acknowledges that there was something miraculous about Jesus Christ.
• He knew that God was instrumental in everything that Jesus did.
• He acknowledges that He was a great teacher.
• He admits that he believes in miracles the miracles of Jesus.
Jesus Speaks - He discerns Nicodemus spiritual need and gets right to the point:
3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Jesus gives a physical analogy to a great spiritual truth.
• He compares the new birth to a physical birth:
• For a baby to be born there must be a love relationship.
• During that love relationship, seeds are sown.
• Those seeds take root and grow over a period of time.
• Through travail and labor and pain, new life comes forth.
The spiritual birth comes to pass the same way.
• Seeds of scripture are sown in one’s heart and life.
• A love relationship must form.
• A desire to know God and to please God fills one’s heart.
• For some people it takes weeks, for others maybe years.
• Then through prayer and travail, a person rejects the comfort womb of the world he/she is living in and is birth into the kingdom of God by God’s spirit.
This analogy was too deep for one of the most spiritual men of Israel to understand.
Nicodemus’ question: 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?
That seems like a silly question, but Nicodemus understood Jesus to say a man had to be born twice. But, he did not understand the spiritual birth.
Today, many folks think just like Nicodemus. They hear words like you need to be saved, born again or you need to believe and they say what does all of that mean?
• Some believe if they join the church and have their name put on the church role they will go to heaven. The Bible never teaches this.
• Some believe if they are baptized they will go to heaven. Even though a person should follow the Lord in Baptism, water baptism does not wash away a person’s sins.
• Some believe if they turn over a good life, they will make it to the other side.
I’ve known alcoholics to quit drinking and drug users to give up drugs, but the question is have they been born again?
• The false teaching the past man years has been, pray the sinners prayer and you will go to heaven. I believe a person should pray the sinner’s prayer, but outside the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the travail of repentance and one’s belief or commitment to Christ, a prayer is only words.
Jesus’ Quote: Now, Jesus continues the conversation:
5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
• Water: Is Jesus talking about physical water here? Of course not! The voice of God is compared to mighty waters.
In Revelation 1:15 John tells us that the voice of Jesus is like the sound of many waters.
Jesus was the living Word, the Bible is God’s written word.
The “water” represents the word of God.
Paul wrote in Romans 10:17, “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”
The water is God’s Word. Seeds are sown from God’s Word. Those seeds must reveal truth.
-God’s Word reveals to man the sinfulness of his heart.
-God’s Word reveals to man the lovingness of God.
-God’s Word reveals the only way of Salvation.
• Spirit: The Spirit of God brings conviction, sorrow, travail and repentance.
Jesus says in verse 6 and 7: That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Jesus gives another analogy in dealing with the Spirit.
As the flesh of a mother and father produces their fleshly offspring with fleshly desires, so the Holy Spirit of God produces spiritual off spring with spiritual desires. As you were born physically, so you must be born spiritually.
Key to salvation: Now notice the work of God’s Spirit. He is mysterious. He comes into a person’s life when God’s word is preached. Notice verse 8.
8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
• Pneuma: The analogy is wind. The Greek word is pneuma. It is interpreted not only wind I the Bible but also spirit.
As wind just blows and you can’t tell if it comes from the sea or the mountains at times, so God’s spirit in God’s time blows into your life. So, a man can’t get saved when he chooses, but when God’s spirit convicts and draws.
• Pentecost: On the day of Pentecost, the spirit of God blew into the upper room. He worked, moved and convicted men of sin.
-After the seeds of God’s word were sown, the spirit of God brought conviction.
-Under the conviction of the Spirit the people on the day of Pentecost cried, “What must we do?”
The same wind blew into the Roman jail cell one night in Philippi, and the Philippian Jailer cried, “What must I do to be saved?”
Thus, when a person comes to Christ it is a willing desire to do so.
It is under the mighty working of God’s Spirit that a person’s eyes are open and it is at this time, they cry out to God for salvation and their life is made new.
Romans 10:13, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Next we see an honest question: 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
Nicodemus was honest with Jesus. He said, I don’t understand.
-A lot of people go to hell because they will not be honest with God.
-They can not remember the conviction of the Lord.
-They cannot remember a conversion.
-They still live today, as they lived 20 years ago or 5 years ago.
-They are too proud to stay on their knees until they have truly surrendered their lives to God.
Jesus gives Nicodemus a humble quote in verse 10:
10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
-Most people would be offended by this statement.
-Most people would not admit that they were lost.
-They would hold onto their church membership, their religion, their water baptism or their good works.
-But, Nicodemus had something good going for him. He was humble and meek and wanted to know absolutely for sure the way to heaven.
JESUS’S SERMON
Look at Jesus’ sermon to Nicodemus. It was not just for Nicodemus but for every person who would read the Bible.
11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.
Jesus told Nicodemus, you lack understanding:
Jesus, in using the word “we” was referring to the nation of Israel. The Jews said, “We have the answer, we know the scriptures, we are God chosen people, but then Jesus shocks Nicodemus by saying, “You won’t receive our witness.
Why did Jesus say, “our witness?” He was the Messiah that was prophesied about and promised by Moses and David and Isaiah and all the prophets of the Old Testament.
Nicodemus, like most of the religious Pharisees of that day, were religious and lost.
Jesus continues to tell Nicodemus of his lack of knowledge.
12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?
Jesus says, I used a physical birth analogy, to reveal to you what it means to go to heaven, but you don’t believe it.
Seeds must be sown, love must develop and conviction or travail must take place. You must repent and be converted. Then you will be born into God’s kingdom.
Jesus was saying, If I give you three or four steps to follow, you will try to enter heaven intellectually.
Salvation is not an intellectual decision. It is a spiritual conversion. It is a change heart, mind and life.
III – CONVERSION:
Now Jesus reveals His resurrection:
13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.
Jesus reveals to Nicodemus that he would die and rise again.
He then reveals the cross.
14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:
The story of the serpent was a shadow of the cross of Jesus Christ.
The nation of Israel was guilty of many sins. On one occasion they were complaining about how bad things were, but that wasn’t new, they did that all the time. God sent deadly serpents into their camp. Many were bitten and many died.
Moses implored God what to do to stop the poison from killing the people. God said make a brass serpent and lift it up on a pole and whoever looks at the serpent by faith will be healed or delivered from the poison of the serpents.
• That story pictures man’s natural ungrateful and selfish heart.
• Man has been bitten with the poison of the serpent, Satan.
• We are all filled with sin.
• The brass serpent pictured judgment. Rather than God, putting us on the cross, God put His Son on that cross.
• The brass represents the judgment God put on His son.
• Jesus died in our place.
• When a person by faith and I mean sincere dedicatory faith looks to Jesus and puts his trust and faith in him, he is close to Salvation.
-Jesus revealed to Nicodemus that his religion wasn’t good enough.
-He revealed to Nicodemus the conviction of the spirit.
-Now, He reveals faith, trust and belief.
Commitment:
15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
Jesus said whosoever believeth in Him. The word “believe” in Jesus’ day is equivalent with commitment today.
Belief in Jesus is not a simple head knowledge that Jesus died was buried and rose again.
If you remember, Agrippa believed all Paul preached about the resurrection Christ and Agrippa said, “Almost thou persuadeth me to be a Christian.” But he would not commit his life to Jesus Christ. He would not repent. He would not unashamedly stand for Christ.
Here is a picture of God’s commitment to man:
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That is LOVE!
• Salvation is not just a belief.
• The whole story reveals one must humbly seek the Lord.
• One must understand salvation.
• One must be convicted or drawn by God’s Holy Spirit.
• Then finally, one must believe or commit their life to Christ.
2 – Concern:
God not only shows His Commitment, but, His Concern.
Here is God’s great concern for mankind: Here is God’s promise to those who will believe. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.
God never wanted anyone to miss heaven. God does not want to condemn anyone to hell. God wants people to be saved from their sin. God wants the whole world to go to heaven. That is God’s concern.
3 - Condemnation
Know the truth about a person being condemned.
Some folks have said, won’t God let anybody into heaven?
Doesn’t God love enough to just forgive us even if we don’t ask?
Won’t he just take everybody to heaven whether they believe or not?
Verse 18 reads, He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
Why doesn’t everyone trust Jesus Christ?
Jacob Mesier, 5 years old, came to me last week after a service and said to be with great compassion, “Preacher, I don’t understand it. God holds the world in this hand and he holds the sun in the other hand and he loves everybody… and I don’t understand why everybody doesn’t love Him? Well, Jacob, the answer is found in the next verse.
John 3:19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.
Sadly, many folks have chosen to live a life for themselves. They love the world. They enjoy being with unsaved people more that believers. They love the lights of the world of the light of God.
They simply don’t realize who God is, what God has done or why they are here. And therefore they are blinded to where they are going.
21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.
When a person comes to Christ, he sees his deeds of sin and then comes to the light where God then fashions us to be like Him.
A believer isn’t perfect, but he has a hunger and desire to please the Lord. He knows he should be walking in the light.
Have you been born again!
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Sunday, February 8, 2009
The Gifts of the Church
THE GIFT OF THE CHURCH
In Romans 12 Paul reveals 7 gifts. Every believer has one of God’s special seven gifts.
I - PERSONAL GIFTS: Romans 12:4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
According to verse 4 each person has a Personal gift. God has given you a special gift that can only be fulfilled and give glory to Him, if it is used as part of the body of Christ.
Now, you may sing, but that isn’t your gift. You may teach but that isn’t your gift. You may serve but that may not be your gift.
-There is a difference in the motivational gifts which is one of the seven mentioned in Romans 12, and the ministry gifts.
-The ministry gifts deal with how you use your motivational gift.
-Then there are the manifestations of your gift.
When you practice and perfect your gift, it is manifested to others. Then, you bring encouragement, enlightenment and even healing to others. And ultimately when these gifts are used properly, you bring glory to God.
II – PERFORMANCE GIFTS: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another
According to verse 5 each person is responsible for the Performance of that gift. I am responsible to practice and perfect my gift will be manifested and minister to my family and church.
III – POWER OF THE GIFTS: 6 Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
According to verse six God gives us Power to use our gift. That power is called grace. Grace comes from humility.
Saving grace is different from daily grace. Daily grace is the power and desire God gives us to do His will and to do it well, but we must abide in Him.
Recognize that every gift is different and God has given each person in His body one main gift even though we are admonished to learn all of the gifts.
AUTOMOBILE
What is most important part of a car? Is it the key, the motor, the wheels, the transmission, the oil, the water or the gasoline? Do you think it would matter if we took a few bolts out of the motor or took off a belt or removed a hose on the engine?
Would it hurt the way the car drove if we took one spark plug out and left it at home? If you know anything about an automobile, you would say, “It won’t work long or at all if you start removing things.”
Understand that the Church is a body of believers and each member has a different gift.
If those gifts is understood and used properly, the church will bring glory to God and the body of believers. If it is not pursued, perfected and practiced, the body of Christ will hurt.
Here are the seven gifts God gives to the Church.
Romans 12: 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
I) THE PROPHET: (Romans 12:6, 9, I Corinthians 14:1,3)
There are many good character traits of the prophet, but the five best character traits are found in the following verses:
Romans 12: 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I Cor 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1. The prophet is called of God to follow Christ’s example of love (1). He is to know the will of the Father. He is to know the word of God and he is to deliver it to the people in love, even if it cost him, his life.
2. His words are to edify (3). Words that edify enlighten or open people’s eyes to truth. They inform and educate people to the “truth” of God’s word and the “times” in which they live.
3. He is to exhort (3). He urges and encourages others to live for God. It may seem to others as if he is pressuring them to live a better life, but the prophet sees and senses God’s holiness and His judgment.
4. He is to comfort by giving truth. For example, in the third century under the rule of Diocletian, many Christians were being slaughtered like cattle. What comfort could a prophet give?
He could give the words of Christ when He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Our comfort is the fact that this world is not our home. This is our work station. This is where we serve. Our place of son-ship is yet future. Christians set your sights on that which is eternal.
5. He is to patience and principled. In 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Paul says to proclaim the word by reproving, rebuking and exhorting, but doing so with longsuffering and doctrine.
A prophet must be patience and tolerant in presenting truth even though many within the church and especially in the last days will not listen or obey.
Many will chose the worldly, entertaining churches rather than those churches that still believe in holy worship and the preaching of all the council of God.
**Many who have the gift of a prophet misuse the gift because they are not abiding in Christ. Here is a list of five misuses.
1. A misuse is when a prophet exposes sin without restoring the offender. They tell someone what they are doing wrong, but lack the longsuffering and doctrine to encourage them to do right.
2. They jump to conclusions without getting all the facts.
3. He has a tendency to overkill when one sins. He wants nothing to do with one who has fallen. The prophet has a hard time separating the sin from the sinner. He tends to reject them both, losing the ability to help that person in the future.
4. Another misuse is the prophet expects immediate results when he reveals truth. He expects immediate repentance.
5. If not careful he can be harsh and condemning.
These character traits hinder the work of Christ. If you are a prophet, meditate on the positive traits of love and longsuffering.
If you have hurt someone with your words, humble your heart before God. Ask forgiveness and go and apology.
II. SERVANT: Romans 12:7a, 10, 11,
7a Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering…
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
There are five good traits for a server who abides in Christ:
1. (7a) The servant is patient. He waits on the right opportunity to serve. Many folks get saved and want to teach, work or serve in some capacity. Paul in his wisdom says, “wait.” Why? A servant needs to learn and grow and discipline his life, less he become discouraged and fall.
2. (10a) A servant is kind, gentle, thoughtful and compassionate towards others, but needs to hear a thank you.
3. (10b) He will sacrifice his own needs to serve others.
4. (11a) He is full of energy. He is willing to help others though weary.
5. (11b) He is fervent or passionate to help others for he knows in serving others, he is serving the Lord.
If a servant fails to spend proper time abiding with the Lord he can misuse this gift. Here are five ways he can do so:
1. He can volunteer to often, to the hurt of his own mate and family.
2. He can overwork himself to the point of physical exhaustion and thereby suffer spiritually.
3. He may serve so much that he neglects God-given priorities like devotionals, family, church.
4. He may become upset with others who will not serve.
5. He may interfere with God’s discipline. A server may want to meet the needs of a person, when God is disciplining that person.
The prophet can see God’s discipline when a servant may not. The servant may continue to reach out to help when God was disciplining.
The servant is admonished to serve others. He feels that in serving others, he is serving Christ. The key to a good server is waiting on the Lord and being under God given authority,
My wife is a server. Over the years she has wanted to do help others outside of the home and she always has.
She wanted to do things for the church and the Lord and she did.
She helped me with the youth groups and ran bus routes and helped me every service in junior church in Florida when our children were young but they were always right there with us.
Then when our children got older, (3,6,7) we began teaching our kids at home. She said, “I feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord?”
I told her, your ministry is first your family and your children. In time you can serve in other ways. She quit teaching piano for 15 years to give her life to teaching her children and completing her husband.
After many years, she went back to teaching piano, which she loved and God allowed her to go back and get her college degree.
In wisdom, she put her service for God first and she was under proper authority. He priority was her husband, her children and her Church.”
Learn what God’s priorities are for you in the Scripture then serve.
III - Teacher: (Romans 12:7b, Ephesians 4:11-16).
“…or he that teacheth, on teaching;”
Listed below are five positive character traits for teachers:
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; The gravile rule applies to the Greek words, pastors and teachers. That rule means that a pastor must be a teacher.
1. The teacher is the interpreter of truth. When he brings a message, he has thoroughly studied every aspect and knows exactly what is right and wrong. (Ephesians 4:12) 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
2. He normally presents truth systematically to unify the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
3. He gathers many facts to prove his point. He compares scripture with scripture so men will not be deceived (Ephesians 4:14). 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
4. He wants statements validated. If he hears something he has never heard before, he wants it to be proved. That is good. He wants spiritual growth (Ephesians 4:15). 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
5. He teaches with love. He senses that, if each person will just learn what he knows, the whole church will function perfectly for God’s glory (Ephesians 4:16). 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
When a teacher buys any item He will see which is the best for the money. If he buys a car, he will check out all the facts of that car. He’ll find out which one will last the longest, which has the best resale value. Then he will examine his family and see if it will be best for them.
Five misuses of this gift come from lack of study and meditation. Those uses are:
1. A teacher can become proud of their knowledge and become puffed up. (1 Cor 8:1)
2. He can miss the spiritual application by looking only at factual evidence and not seeing the spirit’s work.
3. The salvation of a soul and the work of God are spiritual. The teacher can tend to depend on intellectual evidence more than the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. The teacher can get caught up on arguing over minor points, because something hasn’t been sufficiently proved to him.
5. A teacher can begin to separate doctrines and present imbalanced truths.
IV - Exhorter: Romans 12:8a, 12
8a “Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation…”
12 ‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
1. Exhorters seem to always have an encouraging word. They are optimistic about life. They are visionaries. They see that anything is possible and God can take care of everything.
2. The exhorter rejoices in the spiritual growth of others. He desires to give admonition so other will grow for God’s glory (Col 1:28).
3. He sees how to turn problems into benefits (II Cor 1:1-7). When things go wrong, he often sees the profit or advantage.
4. An exhorter seeks to reach everyone. He sees hope in believers with different and difficult problems.
5. An exhorter enjoys sharing truth face to face. He senses that his words can give help and positive response.
The misuses of an exhorter are as followed:
1. An exhorter can start new projects without finishing the last one.
2. He enjoys giving steps of action, but can expect the steps alone to bring about the results. If the person doesn’t respond to those steps he can get upset or disillusioned in people.
3. An exhorter can set goals that are very difficult to reach. Being a visionary, he may suggest that someone do this and that until that person becomes discouraged with to much to do.
4. An exhorter has the tendency to give up on people who won’t respond quickly to his steps of actions.
5. An exhorter has a tendency to keep others waiting, including his wife and family.
We all need to be exhorters and give a kind word… a gentle word… a loving word… a joyful word… an encouraging word to the brethren.
Many evangelists are exhorters. Dr. Walter Burrell is an exhorter. He is a studier of the Bible and has Bible knowledge, but he exhorts you when he teaches and preaches.
V - GIVER: Romans 12:8b, 13
…he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; 13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
1. To give, one must have resources. The giver normally knows how to handle money. He saves and seeks to invest wisely.
2. He is frugal in his own life style. He realizes that God gave him everything he owns and he is willing to share that with others.
3. His giving is simple and his living is simple. He could have much more, but he enjoys giving to others.
4. The giver sees the needs of the saints. He will give what is needed. The giver does not want to be recognizes. He likes to stay in the background.
5. He is very friendly and warm person generally. He likes to give to those in need but does not want to be pressured to do so.
A giver can misuse his gifts these ways:
1. A giver can be so consumed in giving to others that he neglects the needs in his family.
2. A giver can give, wanting people to look to him verses God.
3. A giver, not in fellowship with the Lord, may not recognize God’s prompting and wait to long to help in a need.
4. A giver out of fellowship may begin to store up more and more for himself.
5. A giver may cease giving to people and begin giving only to projects.
A pastor was trying to get his church to give and build so they would not have to borrow money. Many in the church said the only way was to borrow. An old farmer in the church was a giver and was waiting to see if the church would by faith raise the money by the giving of the people or if they would put their faith in the bank. The church had a lengthy discussion and decided to borrow the money. The old farmer sent $250,000 to the IBYC, a Christian organization reaching out to many in the world. The church lost out. Was the giver in fellowship or not? Selah!
VI - Ruler or Organize: Romans 12:8c, 14
…he that ruleth, with diligence; 14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Five good traits of a ruler:
1. A ruler is a ruler or an organizer because of his diligence. He is a go getter. He is industrious. He is a hard worker and diligent. He sees what needs to be done and does it before he is asked.
2. An organizer sees the need in organizing his own personal life first. His house, his shed, his business is arranged properly.
3. He knows that time can be saved and goals reached quicker if everything is organized.
4. (v 14) He blesses with his words as he delegates projects. People feel as if they too are doing a blessed work with the project given them, because of the direction of the organizer.
5. An organizer completes his task quickly. Nehemiah was an organizer. He rebuilt the fallen walls and restored the gates of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.
An organizer is neat and clean. They can greatly serve the Lord. In the Lord’s work, they set days to call people, visit people and help people. He is very neat and organized. A lot of people have organizers in their pockets such as calendars and phones, but that doesn’t make them organized.
The misuses of an organizer are as followed:
1. Viewing people wrongly. He may see them only as a means to accomplish a task, and neglect to bless them by only giving orders.
2. He can show favoritism. If someone else is diligent, he can become more dependent and show favoritism towards that one. Then that person feels overloaded and pressured.
3. When an organizer is not in charge, when asked to do something, they have the tendency to delegate their work to another rather than serve.
4. If things are not done his way, he has the tendency to not get involved at all.
5. An organizer can concentrate so much on a project that he forgets to explain in details or give proper praise when the project is completed.
VII - Mercy: Romans 12:8d, 15
8d …he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
As a mercy spends time in God’s word, he will discover these character traits:
1. A mercy is deeply loyal to a friend and has needs of friendships.
2. A mercy empathizes with hurting people. They are very forgiving, no matter what has happened.
3. A mercy can show great joy when they see another person rejoice or have victory over a problem or issue.
4. A mercy will also show great compassion towards a sinner or one in need.
5. A mercy is very sensitive to loved ones, especially a mate and children.
The mercy sees those with physical needs. They want to reach out to those who are hurting physically, mentally, materially and spiritually.
The misuses of one not in God’s word are as followed:
1. A mercy can hold a grudge if he thinks someone has hurt a friend.
2. A mercy out of fellowship overlooks the sinful lives of those he cares for.
3. A mercy’s misuse is the inability to be firm when discipline is needed.
4. A mercy has a tendency to let her emotions rather than God’s principles control him.
5. A mercy may cut off those they feel are insensitive to people living in sin.
Scenario One: What do Christians do or not do that causes you disappointment? If you say…
1 – …They compromise with the world. You may be a prophet.
2 – …They fail to prove their life to others by how they live. You may be a server.
3 – …They substitute experience for sound doctrine. You may be a teacher.
4 – …They are not growing to spiritual maturity. You may be a exhorter.
5 – …They are not trusting God for their finances. You may be a giver.
6 – …They are not setting any major goals. You may be a organizer.
7 – …They do not show genuine love for each other. You may be a mercy.
Scenario Two: If at a family meal someone dropped a plate of food, what would your response be? What would you say?
1 – “Don’t feel badly. It could have happened to anyone.” (Mercy) His motivation was to relieve your embarrassment.
2 – “Jim, you get the mop. Sue, you pick it up. Mary, you help me fix another desert.” (Organizer) His motivation is to achieve the immediate goal of the group.
3 – “I’ll be happy to buy a new dessert.” (Giver) His motivation is to give to a tangible need.
4 – “Next time, let’s serve the desert with the meal.” (Exhorter) His motivation is to make correction for the future.
5 – “The reason that it fell is that it was too heavy on one side.” (Teacher) His motivation was to examine and discover why it happened.
6 – “Oh, let me help you clean it up.” (Server) His motivation is to fulfill a need.
7 – “That’s what happens when you’re not careful.” (Prophet) His motivation is to correct the problem.
Scenario Three: Each person with one of these gifts visited a sick person in the hospital. This is what they said:
1 – “How can we use what you’re learning here to help others in the future?” (Exhorter)
2 – “Do you have insurance to cover this kind of illness?” (Giver)
3 – “I did some research on your illness and I believe I can explain what’s happening. (Teacher)
4 – “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve assigned your job to four others in the office. (Organizer)
5 – “I can’t begin to tell you how I felt when I learned you were so sick. How do you feel now?” (Mercy)
6 – “Here is a little gift! Now, I brought your mail in, fed your dog, watered your plants and washed your dishes. (Organizer)
7 – “What is God trying to say to you through this illness? Is there some sin you haven’t confessed yet?” (Prophet)
Learn your gift and your mate’s gift. Learn all the gifts and you will be able to detect your children’s gift. Then when you deal with your children you will understand them and they will understand you.
Live your gift and your relationship with your mate will become sweeter than ever.
Learn all these gifts and you will understand the Church.
Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers. He preached to thousands in London each Lord’s Day.
Yet he started his ministry by passing out tracts and teaching a Sunday school class as a teenager. When he began to give short addresses to the Sunday school, God blessed his ministry of the Word.
He was invited to preach in obscure places in the country side, and he used every opportunity to honor the Lord. He was faithful in the small things, and God trusted him with the greater things.
He said, “I am perfectly sure, that, if I had not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands of men and women in large buildings all over the land.
Remember our Lord’s rule, “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
In Romans 12 Paul reveals 7 gifts. Every believer has one of God’s special seven gifts.
I - PERSONAL GIFTS: Romans 12:4For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office:
According to verse 4 each person has a Personal gift. God has given you a special gift that can only be fulfilled and give glory to Him, if it is used as part of the body of Christ.
Now, you may sing, but that isn’t your gift. You may teach but that isn’t your gift. You may serve but that may not be your gift.
-There is a difference in the motivational gifts which is one of the seven mentioned in Romans 12, and the ministry gifts.
-The ministry gifts deal with how you use your motivational gift.
-Then there are the manifestations of your gift.
When you practice and perfect your gift, it is manifested to others. Then, you bring encouragement, enlightenment and even healing to others. And ultimately when these gifts are used properly, you bring glory to God.
II – PERFORMANCE GIFTS: 5 So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another
According to verse 5 each person is responsible for the Performance of that gift. I am responsible to practice and perfect my gift will be manifested and minister to my family and church.
III – POWER OF THE GIFTS: 6 Having then gifts differing
according to the grace that is given to us, whether prophecy, let us prophesy according to the proportion of faith;
According to verse six God gives us Power to use our gift. That power is called grace. Grace comes from humility.
Saving grace is different from daily grace. Daily grace is the power and desire God gives us to do His will and to do it well, but we must abide in Him.
Recognize that every gift is different and God has given each person in His body one main gift even though we are admonished to learn all of the gifts.
AUTOMOBILE
What is most important part of a car? Is it the key, the motor, the wheels, the transmission, the oil, the water or the gasoline? Do you think it would matter if we took a few bolts out of the motor or took off a belt or removed a hose on the engine?
Would it hurt the way the car drove if we took one spark plug out and left it at home? If you know anything about an automobile, you would say, “It won’t work long or at all if you start removing things.”
Understand that the Church is a body of believers and each member has a different gift.
If those gifts is understood and used properly, the church will bring glory to God and the body of believers. If it is not pursued, perfected and practiced, the body of Christ will hurt.
Here are the seven gifts God gives to the Church.
Romans 12: 7 Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering: or he that teacheth, on teaching;
8 Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that showeth mercy, with cheerfulness.
I) THE PROPHET: (Romans 12:6, 9, I Corinthians 14:1,3)
There are many good character traits of the prophet, but the five best character traits are found in the following verses:
Romans 12: 9 Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.
I Cor 14:1 Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy.
3 But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort.
1. The prophet is called of God to follow Christ’s example of love (1). He is to know the will of the Father. He is to know the word of God and he is to deliver it to the people in love, even if it cost him, his life.
2. His words are to edify (3). Words that edify enlighten or open people’s eyes to truth. They inform and educate people to the “truth” of God’s word and the “times” in which they live.
3. He is to exhort (3). He urges and encourages others to live for God. It may seem to others as if he is pressuring them to live a better life, but the prophet sees and senses God’s holiness and His judgment.
4. He is to comfort by giving truth. For example, in the third century under the rule of Diocletian, many Christians were being slaughtered like cattle. What comfort could a prophet give?
He could give the words of Christ when He told Pilate, “My kingdom is not of this world.” Our comfort is the fact that this world is not our home. This is our work station. This is where we serve. Our place of son-ship is yet future. Christians set your sights on that which is eternal.
5. He is to patience and principled. In 2 Timothy 4:2-3, Paul says to proclaim the word by reproving, rebuking and exhorting, but doing so with longsuffering and doctrine.
A prophet must be patience and tolerant in presenting truth even though many within the church and especially in the last days will not listen or obey.
Many will chose the worldly, entertaining churches rather than those churches that still believe in holy worship and the preaching of all the council of God.
**Many who have the gift of a prophet misuse the gift because they are not abiding in Christ. Here is a list of five misuses.
1. A misuse is when a prophet exposes sin without restoring the offender. They tell someone what they are doing wrong, but lack the longsuffering and doctrine to encourage them to do right.
2. They jump to conclusions without getting all the facts.
3. He has a tendency to overkill when one sins. He wants nothing to do with one who has fallen. The prophet has a hard time separating the sin from the sinner. He tends to reject them both, losing the ability to help that person in the future.
4. Another misuse is the prophet expects immediate results when he reveals truth. He expects immediate repentance.
5. If not careful he can be harsh and condemning.
These character traits hinder the work of Christ. If you are a prophet, meditate on the positive traits of love and longsuffering.
If you have hurt someone with your words, humble your heart before God. Ask forgiveness and go and apology.
II. SERVANT: Romans 12:7a, 10, 11,
7a Or ministry, let us wait on our ministering…
10 Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly love; in honour preferring one another; 11 Not slothful in business; fervent in spirit; serving the Lord;
There are five good traits for a server who abides in Christ:
1. (7a) The servant is patient. He waits on the right opportunity to serve. Many folks get saved and want to teach, work or serve in some capacity. Paul in his wisdom says, “wait.” Why? A servant needs to learn and grow and discipline his life, less he become discouraged and fall.
2. (10a) A servant is kind, gentle, thoughtful and compassionate towards others, but needs to hear a thank you.
3. (10b) He will sacrifice his own needs to serve others.
4. (11a) He is full of energy. He is willing to help others though weary.
5. (11b) He is fervent or passionate to help others for he knows in serving others, he is serving the Lord.
If a servant fails to spend proper time abiding with the Lord he can misuse this gift. Here are five ways he can do so:
1. He can volunteer to often, to the hurt of his own mate and family.
2. He can overwork himself to the point of physical exhaustion and thereby suffer spiritually.
3. He may serve so much that he neglects God-given priorities like devotionals, family, church.
4. He may become upset with others who will not serve.
5. He may interfere with God’s discipline. A server may want to meet the needs of a person, when God is disciplining that person.
The prophet can see God’s discipline when a servant may not. The servant may continue to reach out to help when God was disciplining.
The servant is admonished to serve others. He feels that in serving others, he is serving Christ. The key to a good server is waiting on the Lord and being under God given authority,
My wife is a server. Over the years she has wanted to do help others outside of the home and she always has.
She wanted to do things for the church and the Lord and she did.
She helped me with the youth groups and ran bus routes and helped me every service in junior church in Florida when our children were young but they were always right there with us.
Then when our children got older, (3,6,7) we began teaching our kids at home. She said, “I feel like I’m not doing enough for the Lord?”
I told her, your ministry is first your family and your children. In time you can serve in other ways. She quit teaching piano for 15 years to give her life to teaching her children and completing her husband.
After many years, she went back to teaching piano, which she loved and God allowed her to go back and get her college degree.
In wisdom, she put her service for God first and she was under proper authority. He priority was her husband, her children and her Church.”
Learn what God’s priorities are for you in the Scripture then serve.
III - Teacher: (Romans 12:7b, Ephesians 4:11-16).
“…or he that teacheth, on teaching;”
Listed below are five positive character traits for teachers:
Ephesians 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; The gravile rule applies to the Greek words, pastors and teachers. That rule means that a pastor must be a teacher.
1. The teacher is the interpreter of truth. When he brings a message, he has thoroughly studied every aspect and knows exactly what is right and wrong. (Ephesians 4:12) 12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
2. He normally presents truth systematically to unify the body of Christ (Ephesians 4:13). 13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
3. He gathers many facts to prove his point. He compares scripture with scripture so men will not be deceived (Ephesians 4:14). 14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
4. He wants statements validated. If he hears something he has never heard before, he wants it to be proved. That is good. He wants spiritual growth (Ephesians 4:15). 15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
5. He teaches with love. He senses that, if each person will just learn what he knows, the whole church will function perfectly for God’s glory (Ephesians 4:16). 16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.
When a teacher buys any item He will see which is the best for the money. If he buys a car, he will check out all the facts of that car. He’ll find out which one will last the longest, which has the best resale value. Then he will examine his family and see if it will be best for them.
Five misuses of this gift come from lack of study and meditation. Those uses are:
1. A teacher can become proud of their knowledge and become puffed up. (1 Cor 8:1)
2. He can miss the spiritual application by looking only at factual evidence and not seeing the spirit’s work.
3. The salvation of a soul and the work of God are spiritual. The teacher can tend to depend on intellectual evidence more than the work of the Holy Spirit.
4. The teacher can get caught up on arguing over minor points, because something hasn’t been sufficiently proved to him.
5. A teacher can begin to separate doctrines and present imbalanced truths.
IV - Exhorter: Romans 12:8a, 12
8a “Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation…”
12 ‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
1. Exhorters seem to always have an encouraging word. They are optimistic about life. They are visionaries. They see that anything is possible and God can take care of everything.
2. The exhorter rejoices in the spiritual growth of others. He desires to give admonition so other will grow for God’s glory (Col 1:28).
3. He sees how to turn problems into benefits (II Cor 1:1-7). When things go wrong, he often sees the profit or advantage.
4. An exhorter seeks to reach everyone. He sees hope in believers with different and difficult problems.
5. An exhorter enjoys sharing truth face to face. He senses that his words can give help and positive response.
The misuses of an exhorter are as followed:
1. An exhorter can start new projects without finishing the last one.
2. He enjoys giving steps of action, but can expect the steps alone to bring about the results. If the person doesn’t respond to those steps he can get upset or disillusioned in people.
3. An exhorter can set goals that are very difficult to reach. Being a visionary, he may suggest that someone do this and that until that person becomes discouraged with to much to do.
4. An exhorter has the tendency to give up on people who won’t respond quickly to his steps of actions.
5. An exhorter has a tendency to keep others waiting, including his wife and family.
We all need to be exhorters and give a kind word… a gentle word… a loving word… a joyful word… an encouraging word to the brethren.
Many evangelists are exhorters. Dr. Walter Burrell is an exhorter. He is a studier of the Bible and has Bible knowledge, but he exhorts you when he teaches and preaches.
V - GIVER: Romans 12:8b, 13
…he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; 13 Distributing to the necessity of saints; given to hospitality.
1. To give, one must have resources. The giver normally knows how to handle money. He saves and seeks to invest wisely.
2. He is frugal in his own life style. He realizes that God gave him everything he owns and he is willing to share that with others.
3. His giving is simple and his living is simple. He could have much more, but he enjoys giving to others.
4. The giver sees the needs of the saints. He will give what is needed. The giver does not want to be recognizes. He likes to stay in the background.
5. He is very friendly and warm person generally. He likes to give to those in need but does not want to be pressured to do so.
A giver can misuse his gifts these ways:
1. A giver can be so consumed in giving to others that he neglects the needs in his family.
2. A giver can give, wanting people to look to him verses God.
3. A giver, not in fellowship with the Lord, may not recognize God’s prompting and wait to long to help in a need.
4. A giver out of fellowship may begin to store up more and more for himself.
5. A giver may cease giving to people and begin giving only to projects.
A pastor was trying to get his church to give and build so they would not have to borrow money. Many in the church said the only way was to borrow. An old farmer in the church was a giver and was waiting to see if the church would by faith raise the money by the giving of the people or if they would put their faith in the bank. The church had a lengthy discussion and decided to borrow the money. The old farmer sent $250,000 to the IBYC, a Christian organization reaching out to many in the world. The church lost out. Was the giver in fellowship or not? Selah!
VI - Ruler or Organize: Romans 12:8c, 14
…he that ruleth, with diligence; 14 Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.
Five good traits of a ruler:
1. A ruler is a ruler or an organizer because of his diligence. He is a go getter. He is industrious. He is a hard worker and diligent. He sees what needs to be done and does it before he is asked.
2. An organizer sees the need in organizing his own personal life first. His house, his shed, his business is arranged properly.
3. He knows that time can be saved and goals reached quicker if everything is organized.
4. (v 14) He blesses with his words as he delegates projects. People feel as if they too are doing a blessed work with the project given them, because of the direction of the organizer.
5. An organizer completes his task quickly. Nehemiah was an organizer. He rebuilt the fallen walls and restored the gates of Jerusalem in fifty-two days.
An organizer is neat and clean. They can greatly serve the Lord. In the Lord’s work, they set days to call people, visit people and help people. He is very neat and organized. A lot of people have organizers in their pockets such as calendars and phones, but that doesn’t make them organized.
The misuses of an organizer are as followed:
1. Viewing people wrongly. He may see them only as a means to accomplish a task, and neglect to bless them by only giving orders.
2. He can show favoritism. If someone else is diligent, he can become more dependent and show favoritism towards that one. Then that person feels overloaded and pressured.
3. When an organizer is not in charge, when asked to do something, they have the tendency to delegate their work to another rather than serve.
4. If things are not done his way, he has the tendency to not get involved at all.
5. An organizer can concentrate so much on a project that he forgets to explain in details or give proper praise when the project is completed.
VII - Mercy: Romans 12:8d, 15
8d …he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness. 15 Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.
As a mercy spends time in God’s word, he will discover these character traits:
1. A mercy is deeply loyal to a friend and has needs of friendships.
2. A mercy empathizes with hurting people. They are very forgiving, no matter what has happened.
3. A mercy can show great joy when they see another person rejoice or have victory over a problem or issue.
4. A mercy will also show great compassion towards a sinner or one in need.
5. A mercy is very sensitive to loved ones, especially a mate and children.
The mercy sees those with physical needs. They want to reach out to those who are hurting physically, mentally, materially and spiritually.
The misuses of one not in God’s word are as followed:
1. A mercy can hold a grudge if he thinks someone has hurt a friend.
2. A mercy out of fellowship overlooks the sinful lives of those he cares for.
3. A mercy’s misuse is the inability to be firm when discipline is needed.
4. A mercy has a tendency to let her emotions rather than God’s principles control him.
5. A mercy may cut off those they feel are insensitive to people living in sin.
Scenario One: What do Christians do or not do that causes you disappointment? If you say…
1 – …They compromise with the world. You may be a prophet.
2 – …They fail to prove their life to others by how they live. You may be a server.
3 – …They substitute experience for sound doctrine. You may be a teacher.
4 – …They are not growing to spiritual maturity. You may be a exhorter.
5 – …They are not trusting God for their finances. You may be a giver.
6 – …They are not setting any major goals. You may be a organizer.
7 – …They do not show genuine love for each other. You may be a mercy.
Scenario Two: If at a family meal someone dropped a plate of food, what would your response be? What would you say?
1 – “Don’t feel badly. It could have happened to anyone.” (Mercy) His motivation was to relieve your embarrassment.
2 – “Jim, you get the mop. Sue, you pick it up. Mary, you help me fix another desert.” (Organizer) His motivation is to achieve the immediate goal of the group.
3 – “I’ll be happy to buy a new dessert.” (Giver) His motivation is to give to a tangible need.
4 – “Next time, let’s serve the desert with the meal.” (Exhorter) His motivation is to make correction for the future.
5 – “The reason that it fell is that it was too heavy on one side.” (Teacher) His motivation was to examine and discover why it happened.
6 – “Oh, let me help you clean it up.” (Server) His motivation is to fulfill a need.
7 – “That’s what happens when you’re not careful.” (Prophet) His motivation is to correct the problem.
Scenario Three: Each person with one of these gifts visited a sick person in the hospital. This is what they said:
1 – “How can we use what you’re learning here to help others in the future?” (Exhorter)
2 – “Do you have insurance to cover this kind of illness?” (Giver)
3 – “I did some research on your illness and I believe I can explain what’s happening. (Teacher)
4 – “Don’t worry about a thing. I’ve assigned your job to four others in the office. (Organizer)
5 – “I can’t begin to tell you how I felt when I learned you were so sick. How do you feel now?” (Mercy)
6 – “Here is a little gift! Now, I brought your mail in, fed your dog, watered your plants and washed your dishes. (Organizer)
7 – “What is God trying to say to you through this illness? Is there some sin you haven’t confessed yet?” (Prophet)
Learn your gift and your mate’s gift. Learn all the gifts and you will be able to detect your children’s gift. Then when you deal with your children you will understand them and they will understand you.
Live your gift and your relationship with your mate will become sweeter than ever.
Learn all these gifts and you will understand the Church.
Charles Spurgeon was known as the prince of preachers. He preached to thousands in London each Lord’s Day.
Yet he started his ministry by passing out tracts and teaching a Sunday school class as a teenager. When he began to give short addresses to the Sunday school, God blessed his ministry of the Word.
He was invited to preach in obscure places in the country side, and he used every opportunity to honor the Lord. He was faithful in the small things, and God trusted him with the greater things.
He said, “I am perfectly sure, that, if I had not been willing to preach to those small gatherings of people in obscure country places, I should never have had the privilege of preaching to thousands of men and women in large buildings all over the land.
Remember our Lord’s rule, “whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.”
Sunday, February 1, 2009
GOD'S GREAT LOVE
GOD’S GREAT LOVE FOR HIS CHILDREN
Introduction: As we begin in Isaiah 45 remember that Israel had already been taken into captivity. Inevitably, Judah would fall. Isaiah had been preaching message after message in an attempt to awaken the spirit of the people and to bring them back into fellowship with God.
He preached gloom and doom and in contrast, he preached about the magnificent millennial kingdom.
He told them of God’s love and he told them of their failing heart.
He spoke of true worship and false worship, hoping that some how and someway; there would be some ambers under all the ash of the cold hearth; and these ambers would ignite the seasoned wood of Isaiah’s sermons, and rekindled a fire for God in the hearts of His children.
In chapter 45 Isaiah again reveals many great truths with hopes that God’s people would rebuilt a beautiful relationship with Him.
Know that God will first show a people His great love. He will give them great promises and great blessings.
He will ask for obedience and surrender from those He has so greatly blessed. The obedience is minute compared to the freedom, liberty, might and power and blessings He gives to those who know Him.
God did that to Israel and He did that to America and He does that to every individual that surrender and submit to Him.
Know also that when those people forget the God who created them and saved them, God will call and cry out to them to return.
If they do not, he will have to send chastening. God sent chastening to Israel and He is doing this to America today.
Notice several acts of God’s love and concern He gives to His people and how it relates to us today, but remember this:
Great love can only be appreciated by great faith.
I – God loved Israel and promised them a coming DELIVERER.”
Isaiah 44:28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
1 - The fact that Isaiah says, Cyrus will rebuilt the city is pretty awesome. Why? Because Cyrus had not born yet. He would not be born for 150 years.
Nebuchadnezzar had not been born yet either. Babylon, the nation that would conquer Judah was not even a mighty power when Isaiah wrote these words.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, it was the Assyrians that gave Judah trouble. But, God gave Isaiah these prophetic thoughts. Why? He gave them for two reasons:
a) So, in the future, those who would read and listened to God’s word would know that the prophet Isaiah was a man of God who foretold the future. They would know that the Bible was a book of miracles, yea the inspired book of God.
b) So, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel over 100 years after Isaiah’s writing, the people would know to reverenced and obey, God’s holy Word.
2 --Another interesting fact we find in verse 28 is God calls Cyrus, His shepherd.
God used the Assyrians to destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel and Babylon to destroy the Southern kingdom, Judah, because of their idolatry.
God now, in his love and mercy would raise up Cyrus to be His shepherd, so Israel might begin again.
When Cyrus conquered the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty empire, Babylon, he was considered a great conqueror.
But, within the walls of Babylon, Cyrus would meet a man that conquered him. His name was Daniel.
I believe the testimony of Daniel brought Cyrus to trust in God as the true God and his Savior. Cyrus would do all he could, now, to lead Israel back to Jerusalem, the City of God.
Application: As God took away Israel and Judah’s freedom and prosperity, so they would turn to Him and trust in Him and by faith walk with Him; God is in the process of taking away America’s wealth and freedom, so we will turn back to Him.
Did Israel and Judah turn back to God? About 10% of the people went back to serve the Lord in Jerusalem after Cyrus set them free.
Will America turn back to God after its moral, political and financial collapse? Maybe about 10% will turn back, but the majority of American’s including Christians, I am afraid are trusting in our government, or a religion, or a man, to do for them, what only a relationship with God is capable of doing.
I know what some of you may think. “Give us encouragement, preacher, give us hope for America.” I wish I could, but I see according to the Scriptures what Isaiah saw and Ezekiel saw and Daniel saw. Why?
1) America has thrown God out of their government.
2) America has removed God from the walls of their educational institutions.
3) Most churches today have so much of the world in them, you can’t tell the world from the church and the church from the world.
4) God, Jesus Christ and the truths of the Bible are not longer the center of most Christian’s homes.
5) The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life has consumed the lives of most people. And whenever that happens, God must move for evil and not for good. (You’ll understand that quote later.)
3 - Cyrus was more than a believer. Why would I say that? Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon performed God’s will in taking Israel and Judah into captivity.
But, Cyrus performed God’s pleasure (44:28).
I have a question for you to consider? Do you do God’s will, or do you do God’s pleasure?
What is the difference? To do God’s will is to be an obedient servant. To do God’s pleasure is to be a loving son.
It is one thing to do for others because you know it is right to do right. However it is the act of love to do for others because you love to do right.
Some folks come to church because they know it is right. Some folks read the Bible because they know it is right. Others go to church and read the Bible because they love to do so.
Think: Is it an act of the will or is it an act of love, why I go to church and read the scriptures?
The key to Psalms 37:4 becoming a reality and a promise one can claim, a person’s living for the Lord, must be an act of love. “4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart..”
4 -Isaiah revealed something else in Isaiah 44:28. When Isaiah wrote, these words, the beautiful and magnificent temple of Solomon graced Jerusalem.
Isaiah revealed that the temple would be destroyed completely and it would have to be rebuilt from the foundation up. Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Judah could not believe that God would allow the beautiful Temple to be destroyed, yet He did. Today, people can’t believe that this mighty economic, political Babylonian system that has taken control of this world will be destroyed one day, but it will. John declared so in the book of Revelation.
You may think, Well preacher it seems like everything is doom and gloom. Yes, it is to a lost world. To a world that has thrown God out and chosen to live for self, it is doom and gloom.
But, for God’s children, we have a promise that we will live with Him for eternity. That is our joy and reason for rejoicing.
When the ways and wealth and wonder of this world is our reason for living, we have become the very thing God does not want us to be.
If I owned a book that could foretell the future, would you like a copy? “Well,” you say, “it just tells about nations.” No my friend, it foretells your future. It tells you and me what to do to be blessed of God and it tells those that are ignorance their future on earth and hereafter.
II – God loves His people and promises them FREEDOM.
45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, 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;
1 -Cyrus came out of Persia, which is modern day Iran. He was a humble man. Whereas most great rulers, the Caesars, the Pharaohs and the Herods all boasted of their greatness and dominance of the world, Cyrus wrote nothing about his accomplishments, thought he conquered the world.
2– He was called God’s anointed. That title is only given to the Lord. Why did God give it to Cyrus? Because, Cyrus would do partially, what the Lord would do one day completely.
Cyrus would do God’s will. He would deliver Israel from the captivity of Babylon and he would permit Israel to return to the Promise Land.
When Christ returns, He will deliver Israel from the Babylonian world and they will enter a thousand year reign with Christ.
3 – The two leaved gates (45:1) referred to the mighty iron gates of Babylon that imprisoned the people of Judah. Cyrus would open them wide and set God’s people free.
Application: That is what God does for all who surrender to Him. When we surrender to Him in Salvation, He sets us free from sin and death.
When we surrender to Him in life as believers, He sets us free from the sins that hold us on bondage.
He sets us free from the worldly Babylonian system.
He sets our sights for the Promise Land or Heaven.
We begin to build our lives on that which is eternal.
III God in His love, calls us to Himself. (4-5)
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Three amazing thoughts came out of this text.
#1) The omniscience, eternal God of heaven knows your name. He chose you before the foundation of the world. That is an honor and a privilege to think about.
#2) Isaiah foretold the future. God wanted Israel and you and I who are Gentles to think:
If God could foretell the birth of a king and name him Cyrus, and if God could foretell the destruction and rebuilding of His temple and the city of Jerusalem, would the world believe Him, when he foretells of the coming of His Son, and that he would be crucified and rejected?
#3) One day nearly 200 years in the future, Cyrus would read these words. He would stand amazed and he would trust the Lord as his savior.
That is why Ezra records the words of King Cyrus in Ezra 1:2, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
When Cyrus was converted and saw God’s will and He gave the will of God first priority in his life. Are you doing that?
IV – God loves the world and informs the Gentile and Jewish world that He is the light of the world and the ONE true God.
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Verse 21 and 22 God says again, “I am the Lord and there is none else.”
1 – First for all liberal ideology, that teaches the idea that all religions lead to heaven, is destroyed here.
2 – Verse 7, says, “I form the light.” Now, you think, “So what is the big deal?” Whoever ruled the world as king had a big impact on the beliefs of that people. When Nebuchadnezzar ruled, the god he served, the majority of the people served. When Alexander the Great ruled, the Greek gods he served, his people served.
The god of the people of Persia was Mazda. The religion was known as Zoroastrianism, named after its prophet, Zoroaster.
It taught that Mazda was the god of light. So, the Persian people believed in a false god and a false prophet.
Isaiah reveals to Cyrus, who would read this book yet in the future, that “God is Jehovah. He created the Sun and He created darkness.”
Now Cyrus had become a believer and the children of Israel were to be a light to the Persian people (Isa 42:6). Would they?
Had Israel and Judah become too much like Babylon to be the true light to these religious and unsaved people? Had they?
3 -The Zoroastrianism also worshipped the god of evil, Ahriman. That is why Isaiah wrote verse 7 “…I make peace and create evil…”
Evil does not refer to sin and wickedness but sorrow, difficulties or tragedies.
Job’s wife was upset with God over God’s dealings with Job, but God reminds her in Job 2:10 , “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Application: I want you to know that in this world today, there is good and evil.
I also want you to know that God sends or allows both. Don’t say, whenever something good happens it is from God and whenever something bad happens, it is from the devil. That is a false statement.
God sends good and God creates evil or sorrow and difficulties. Why? God is God!
The reason I tell you this is because so many folks believe that everything is relative.
That means that one’s culture dictates what is right and wrong.
For example if your culture accepts polygamy then it is OK.
If your culture accepts homosexuality then it is OK.
If your culture accepts sexual permissiveness, then it is OK.
Relativism mixed with humanism concludes that nothing is really right or wrong, only what you make right or wrong for you.
When Isaiah told Cyrus, “God is the light” he was telling Him right is what God says is right and wrong is what God says is wrong.
John wrote in First John one: 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
V - God says, I love you. Don’t fight against me (v 9).
9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Sadly in all of God’s blessings and promises to Israel and with all of God’s promises for the future, Israel had a tendency to fight against God.
Isaiah says, “Don’t fight with God.” So why did they? They had lost their love for God and shortly thereafter they lost the desire to do His will.
Notice that Isaiah uses an analogy with clay. Clay is different from most soils. Soils don’t have the plasticity that clay has.
You can take most soils and put water with it and form it, but when the water is gone, it simply falls apart, like a sand castle.
Clay has extra minerals added to it that when molded and heated it dries hard and never goes back to it’s original structure as soil will.
Now listen: When we come to Christ, we are compared to clay for God has mixed his Holy Spirit in our lives.
He takes us and molds us and makes us for His glory. If we go back to the original soil, it is obvious; we did not have the right ingredients.
John said it this way in First John 2: 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How many of you believe God knows what is best for you?
Sure, yet many of God’s children fight against Him, when He begins to form them and send evil (calamity and trials) into their lives.
Many folks, rather than surrender to God, they stiffen their necks.
Some say, “I don’t want to do that” or they simply ignore His Word.
Others turn a deft ear, hoping God will go away.
Then some folks say, ‘Well, I will just quit going to church all together.”
I want you to know something. If you are God’s child, God will still have His way with you. He will mold you. He will break you. And if he has to, he will take away everything you have in life to form you.
There is a Greek proverb that says, “The dice of the gods are loaded.” That means, “You are going to lose if you fight against God.”
You are going to lose if you think you can strive with God or ignore God.
I told you God is a God of love but we must trust Him by faith.
I heard a preacher tell a story about a friend. His friend and his wife grew apart. The man did everything he could to reconcile the marriage, but the woman simply did not want it to be reconciled. The preacher’s friend said to him, “When I go to sleep at night, I pray to God that I won’t wake up the next morning.”
You say, “Pastor, you said, God is love.” He is and I don’t understand why things happen to folks, but I know enough about the Bible and my God, to tell you that He loves you and what happens is for His glory.
He cares for you in the light and He cares for you in the night seasons.
Isaiah 44:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Years later, after this pastor’s friend went through the darkness of a broken marriage, his life was renewed. Today he is happy and faithfully serving the Lord.
Was God molding Him? Was God making Him?” I can only say, “God knows!” He is God whether He ever answers another one of my prayers.
A young man was going to a Bible study. He was a good kid. He was a moral kid. He was fifteen years old. On his way to the Bible study, he was killed. Why? Was God molding and making his family for something we can’t see? Was God doing a work in the life of his friends?
All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in life and death.
Sickness entered a family. A young mother of three was struck with cancer. The church prayed, the family prayed. She died. Why? Was God trying to mold and make the children and others? Was God getting the attention of a lost one? All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in sickness and in health.
Will you allow God to have His way with you?
VI – God loves you. That is why he created you.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Notice God said, “I have made the earth.”
I would like to have seen the earth in Genesis 1:1. This earth covered with beautiful green foliage with beautiful birds of all colors taking flight in the sky must have been a magnificent sight.
The blue waters filled with the mighty giants of the sea swimming and playing had to make Adam and Eve stand in awe.
The earth itself was covered in diamonds and rubies and emeralds of splendor and beauty, as grass covers the fields today.
Gold and silver cover the path ways as pavement covers the highways today. God made this earth for man, in His love.
Isaiah reminds man that God created the heavens and he said His hands “stretched out the heavens.”
I have said before that the Bible is as up to date as tomorrow morning’s newspaper and it is.
Here, Isaiah wrote 2700 years ago and he tells us what science would not prove until the twentieth century.
The great Albert Einstein did not even believe the universe expanded. He believed the world to be static.
It was Edward Hubble who proved that the universe was expanding, but how, even he did not know. Hubble changed Einstein’s belief.
If this universe is expanding that means there is no boundary, there is no edge, there is no shore line. There is no sunset. There is no end to the universe.
It is like its creator. As God is eternal so is His universe It will grow for eternity for it is infinite.
Not until the invention of the Hubble Telescope in the twentieth century did man discover that Nebula’s were like incubation centers for new stars. All of the gases within those nebulas produce new stars, and the universe grows and grows and grows by millions of miles a day.
And Isaiah wrote about this 2700 years ago.
Isaiah is saying this, “Can you not trust God?”
Will you not give God your life?
Will you not walk with Him and talk with Him?
Will you not surrender you very will, body, mind and soul to Him.
If you do, He will make you beautiful.
He will fill you with peace and purpose in life.
He will touch you with his love. He will give you abundant life.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden and I will give you rest.”
The master of the universe made you.
He who placed the colors in the rainbow, made you.
He who in creation covered the earth with rubies and diamonds and gems, created you.
He who hung the stars in space and He who created each mighty angelic being also made you.
In man’s original form He was righteous, innocent and glorious.
He was created in the very image of God.
But sin came and your heart and mind was darken by sin. God has made a way of forgiveness and salvation for the sinner. And God has made a way of purpose and peace for the Saint. Will you trust Him with your life? Not part of your life, but all your life. Trust Him!
The Host: God has created billions of angels. In time past, they praised the Lord. They served the Lord. They did the bidding of the Lord.
There was a war in heaven and 1/3 of those angels followed Lucifer in a rebellion against God.
Those fallen beings I believe are demons today. They, like their leader are at war with God. They hate God and they hate God’s creation.
They want you to be like them. You see Satan said, “I will.” That is what Satan’s wants you to say, “I will” not “thy will.”
If he can get us to pursue our will, seek our will, live for our self, then we become part of the collapse of a nation, the failure of a home, and the demise of a life.
God wants us to do His will. If we will let God be the potter and if we will be yielded clay in his hand, then God will be glorified.
The nation of Israel and Judah went down. America is going down. Maybe there is nothing we can do to turn that around, I don’t know!
But, your life can count for God. Your home can count for God. Your have to realizes he loves you and He wants all of you.
The choice is yours!
VII – God loves you and wants to save you.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else
Salvation, eternal life and real life is not found in the discovery of a religion or a country club or a social organization, it is found in looking to God. As you do, you will behold His Son who gave His life on Calvary. You will behold why you are here and what God’s will for your life is. You will find salvation and satisfaction as you come to know the great “I AM.”
Introduction: As we begin in Isaiah 45 remember that Israel had already been taken into captivity. Inevitably, Judah would fall. Isaiah had been preaching message after message in an attempt to awaken the spirit of the people and to bring them back into fellowship with God.
He preached gloom and doom and in contrast, he preached about the magnificent millennial kingdom.
He told them of God’s love and he told them of their failing heart.
He spoke of true worship and false worship, hoping that some how and someway; there would be some ambers under all the ash of the cold hearth; and these ambers would ignite the seasoned wood of Isaiah’s sermons, and rekindled a fire for God in the hearts of His children.
In chapter 45 Isaiah again reveals many great truths with hopes that God’s people would rebuilt a beautiful relationship with Him.
Know that God will first show a people His great love. He will give them great promises and great blessings.
He will ask for obedience and surrender from those He has so greatly blessed. The obedience is minute compared to the freedom, liberty, might and power and blessings He gives to those who know Him.
God did that to Israel and He did that to America and He does that to every individual that surrender and submit to Him.
Know also that when those people forget the God who created them and saved them, God will call and cry out to them to return.
If they do not, he will have to send chastening. God sent chastening to Israel and He is doing this to America today.
Notice several acts of God’s love and concern He gives to His people and how it relates to us today, but remember this:
Great love can only be appreciated by great faith.
I – God loved Israel and promised them a coming DELIVERER.”
Isaiah 44:28 That saith of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
1 - The fact that Isaiah says, Cyrus will rebuilt the city is pretty awesome. Why? Because Cyrus had not born yet. He would not be born for 150 years.
Nebuchadnezzar had not been born yet either. Babylon, the nation that would conquer Judah was not even a mighty power when Isaiah wrote these words.
At the time of Isaiah’s writing, it was the Assyrians that gave Judah trouble. But, God gave Isaiah these prophetic thoughts. Why? He gave them for two reasons:
a) So, in the future, those who would read and listened to God’s word would know that the prophet Isaiah was a man of God who foretold the future. They would know that the Bible was a book of miracles, yea the inspired book of God.
b) So, when Nebuchadnezzar conquered Israel over 100 years after Isaiah’s writing, the people would know to reverenced and obey, God’s holy Word.
2 --Another interesting fact we find in verse 28 is God calls Cyrus, His shepherd.
God used the Assyrians to destroy the Northern kingdom, Israel and Babylon to destroy the Southern kingdom, Judah, because of their idolatry.
God now, in his love and mercy would raise up Cyrus to be His shepherd, so Israel might begin again.
When Cyrus conquered the head of gold, Nebuchadnezzar’s mighty empire, Babylon, he was considered a great conqueror.
But, within the walls of Babylon, Cyrus would meet a man that conquered him. His name was Daniel.
I believe the testimony of Daniel brought Cyrus to trust in God as the true God and his Savior. Cyrus would do all he could, now, to lead Israel back to Jerusalem, the City of God.
Application: As God took away Israel and Judah’s freedom and prosperity, so they would turn to Him and trust in Him and by faith walk with Him; God is in the process of taking away America’s wealth and freedom, so we will turn back to Him.
Did Israel and Judah turn back to God? About 10% of the people went back to serve the Lord in Jerusalem after Cyrus set them free.
Will America turn back to God after its moral, political and financial collapse? Maybe about 10% will turn back, but the majority of American’s including Christians, I am afraid are trusting in our government, or a religion, or a man, to do for them, what only a relationship with God is capable of doing.
I know what some of you may think. “Give us encouragement, preacher, give us hope for America.” I wish I could, but I see according to the Scriptures what Isaiah saw and Ezekiel saw and Daniel saw. Why?
1) America has thrown God out of their government.
2) America has removed God from the walls of their educational institutions.
3) Most churches today have so much of the world in them, you can’t tell the world from the church and the church from the world.
4) God, Jesus Christ and the truths of the Bible are not longer the center of most Christian’s homes.
5) The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life has consumed the lives of most people. And whenever that happens, God must move for evil and not for good. (You’ll understand that quote later.)
3 - Cyrus was more than a believer. Why would I say that? Sennacherib, king of the Assyrians and Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon performed God’s will in taking Israel and Judah into captivity.
But, Cyrus performed God’s pleasure (44:28).
I have a question for you to consider? Do you do God’s will, or do you do God’s pleasure?
What is the difference? To do God’s will is to be an obedient servant. To do God’s pleasure is to be a loving son.
It is one thing to do for others because you know it is right to do right. However it is the act of love to do for others because you love to do right.
Some folks come to church because they know it is right. Some folks read the Bible because they know it is right. Others go to church and read the Bible because they love to do so.
Think: Is it an act of the will or is it an act of love, why I go to church and read the scriptures?
The key to Psalms 37:4 becoming a reality and a promise one can claim, a person’s living for the Lord, must be an act of love. “4 Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart..”
4 -Isaiah revealed something else in Isaiah 44:28. When Isaiah wrote, these words, the beautiful and magnificent temple of Solomon graced Jerusalem.
Isaiah revealed that the temple would be destroyed completely and it would have to be rebuilt from the foundation up. Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, Thy foundation shall be laid.
Judah could not believe that God would allow the beautiful Temple to be destroyed, yet He did. Today, people can’t believe that this mighty economic, political Babylonian system that has taken control of this world will be destroyed one day, but it will. John declared so in the book of Revelation.
You may think, Well preacher it seems like everything is doom and gloom. Yes, it is to a lost world. To a world that has thrown God out and chosen to live for self, it is doom and gloom.
But, for God’s children, we have a promise that we will live with Him for eternity. That is our joy and reason for rejoicing.
When the ways and wealth and wonder of this world is our reason for living, we have become the very thing God does not want us to be.
If I owned a book that could foretell the future, would you like a copy? “Well,” you say, “it just tells about nations.” No my friend, it foretells your future. It tells you and me what to do to be blessed of God and it tells those that are ignorance their future on earth and hereafter.
II – God loves His people and promises them FREEDOM.
45:1 Thus saith the LORD to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have holden, 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;
1 -Cyrus came out of Persia, which is modern day Iran. He was a humble man. Whereas most great rulers, the Caesars, the Pharaohs and the Herods all boasted of their greatness and dominance of the world, Cyrus wrote nothing about his accomplishments, thought he conquered the world.
2– He was called God’s anointed. That title is only given to the Lord. Why did God give it to Cyrus? Because, Cyrus would do partially, what the Lord would do one day completely.
Cyrus would do God’s will. He would deliver Israel from the captivity of Babylon and he would permit Israel to return to the Promise Land.
When Christ returns, He will deliver Israel from the Babylonian world and they will enter a thousand year reign with Christ.
3 – The two leaved gates (45:1) referred to the mighty iron gates of Babylon that imprisoned the people of Judah. Cyrus would open them wide and set God’s people free.
Application: That is what God does for all who surrender to Him. When we surrender to Him in Salvation, He sets us free from sin and death.
When we surrender to Him in life as believers, He sets us free from the sins that hold us on bondage.
He sets us free from the worldly Babylonian system.
He sets our sights for the Promise Land or Heaven.
We begin to build our lives on that which is eternal.
III God in His love, calls us to Himself. (4-5)
4 For Jacob my servant's sake, and Israel mine elect, I have even called thee by thy name: I have surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me.
5 I am the LORD, and there is none else, there is no God beside me: I girded thee, though thou hast not known me:
Three amazing thoughts came out of this text.
#1) The omniscience, eternal God of heaven knows your name. He chose you before the foundation of the world. That is an honor and a privilege to think about.
#2) Isaiah foretold the future. God wanted Israel and you and I who are Gentles to think:
If God could foretell the birth of a king and name him Cyrus, and if God could foretell the destruction and rebuilding of His temple and the city of Jerusalem, would the world believe Him, when he foretells of the coming of His Son, and that he would be crucified and rejected?
#3) One day nearly 200 years in the future, Cyrus would read these words. He would stand amazed and he would trust the Lord as his savior.
That is why Ezra records the words of King Cyrus in Ezra 1:2, Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, The LORD God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.
When Cyrus was converted and saw God’s will and He gave the will of God first priority in his life. Are you doing that?
IV – God loves the world and informs the Gentile and Jewish world that He is the light of the world and the ONE true God.
6 That they may know from the rising of the sun, and from the west, that there is none beside me. I am the LORD, and there is none else.
7 I form the light, and create darkness: I make peace, and create evil: I the LORD do all these things.
Verse 21 and 22 God says again, “I am the Lord and there is none else.”
1 – First for all liberal ideology, that teaches the idea that all religions lead to heaven, is destroyed here.
2 – Verse 7, says, “I form the light.” Now, you think, “So what is the big deal?” Whoever ruled the world as king had a big impact on the beliefs of that people. When Nebuchadnezzar ruled, the god he served, the majority of the people served. When Alexander the Great ruled, the Greek gods he served, his people served.
The god of the people of Persia was Mazda. The religion was known as Zoroastrianism, named after its prophet, Zoroaster.
It taught that Mazda was the god of light. So, the Persian people believed in a false god and a false prophet.
Isaiah reveals to Cyrus, who would read this book yet in the future, that “God is Jehovah. He created the Sun and He created darkness.”
Now Cyrus had become a believer and the children of Israel were to be a light to the Persian people (Isa 42:6). Would they?
Had Israel and Judah become too much like Babylon to be the true light to these religious and unsaved people? Had they?
3 -The Zoroastrianism also worshipped the god of evil, Ahriman. That is why Isaiah wrote verse 7 “…I make peace and create evil…”
Evil does not refer to sin and wickedness but sorrow, difficulties or tragedies.
Job’s wife was upset with God over God’s dealings with Job, but God reminds her in Job 2:10 , “…shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.
Application: I want you to know that in this world today, there is good and evil.
I also want you to know that God sends or allows both. Don’t say, whenever something good happens it is from God and whenever something bad happens, it is from the devil. That is a false statement.
God sends good and God creates evil or sorrow and difficulties. Why? God is God!
The reason I tell you this is because so many folks believe that everything is relative.
That means that one’s culture dictates what is right and wrong.
For example if your culture accepts polygamy then it is OK.
If your culture accepts homosexuality then it is OK.
If your culture accepts sexual permissiveness, then it is OK.
Relativism mixed with humanism concludes that nothing is really right or wrong, only what you make right or wrong for you.
When Isaiah told Cyrus, “God is the light” he was telling Him right is what God says is right and wrong is what God says is wrong.
John wrote in First John one: 5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
6 If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
V - God says, I love you. Don’t fight against me (v 9).
9 Woe unto him that striveth with his Maker! Let the potsherd strive with the potsherds of the earth. Shall the clay say to him that fashioneth it, What makest thou? or thy work, He hath no hands?
Sadly in all of God’s blessings and promises to Israel and with all of God’s promises for the future, Israel had a tendency to fight against God.
Isaiah says, “Don’t fight with God.” So why did they? They had lost their love for God and shortly thereafter they lost the desire to do His will.
Notice that Isaiah uses an analogy with clay. Clay is different from most soils. Soils don’t have the plasticity that clay has.
You can take most soils and put water with it and form it, but when the water is gone, it simply falls apart, like a sand castle.
Clay has extra minerals added to it that when molded and heated it dries hard and never goes back to it’s original structure as soil will.
Now listen: When we come to Christ, we are compared to clay for God has mixed his Holy Spirit in our lives.
He takes us and molds us and makes us for His glory. If we go back to the original soil, it is obvious; we did not have the right ingredients.
John said it this way in First John 2: 19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.
How many of you believe God knows what is best for you?
Sure, yet many of God’s children fight against Him, when He begins to form them and send evil (calamity and trials) into their lives.
Many folks, rather than surrender to God, they stiffen their necks.
Some say, “I don’t want to do that” or they simply ignore His Word.
Others turn a deft ear, hoping God will go away.
Then some folks say, ‘Well, I will just quit going to church all together.”
I want you to know something. If you are God’s child, God will still have His way with you. He will mold you. He will break you. And if he has to, he will take away everything you have in life to form you.
There is a Greek proverb that says, “The dice of the gods are loaded.” That means, “You are going to lose if you fight against God.”
You are going to lose if you think you can strive with God or ignore God.
I told you God is a God of love but we must trust Him by faith.
I heard a preacher tell a story about a friend. His friend and his wife grew apart. The man did everything he could to reconcile the marriage, but the woman simply did not want it to be reconciled. The preacher’s friend said to him, “When I go to sleep at night, I pray to God that I won’t wake up the next morning.”
You say, “Pastor, you said, God is love.” He is and I don’t understand why things happen to folks, but I know enough about the Bible and my God, to tell you that He loves you and what happens is for His glory.
He cares for you in the light and He cares for you in the night seasons.
Isaiah 44:3 And I will give thee the treasures of darkness, and hidden riches of secret places, that thou mayest know that I, the LORD, which call thee by thy name, am the God of Israel.
Years later, after this pastor’s friend went through the darkness of a broken marriage, his life was renewed. Today he is happy and faithfully serving the Lord.
Was God molding Him? Was God making Him?” I can only say, “God knows!” He is God whether He ever answers another one of my prayers.
A young man was going to a Bible study. He was a good kid. He was a moral kid. He was fifteen years old. On his way to the Bible study, he was killed. Why? Was God molding and making his family for something we can’t see? Was God doing a work in the life of his friends?
All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in life and death.
Sickness entered a family. A young mother of three was struck with cancer. The church prayed, the family prayed. She died. Why? Was God trying to mold and make the children and others? Was God getting the attention of a lost one? All I can say is “God knows!” He is God in sickness and in health.
Will you allow God to have His way with you?
VI – God loves you. That is why he created you.
12 I have made the earth, and created man upon it: I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens, and all their host have I commanded.
Notice God said, “I have made the earth.”
I would like to have seen the earth in Genesis 1:1. This earth covered with beautiful green foliage with beautiful birds of all colors taking flight in the sky must have been a magnificent sight.
The blue waters filled with the mighty giants of the sea swimming and playing had to make Adam and Eve stand in awe.
The earth itself was covered in diamonds and rubies and emeralds of splendor and beauty, as grass covers the fields today.
Gold and silver cover the path ways as pavement covers the highways today. God made this earth for man, in His love.
Isaiah reminds man that God created the heavens and he said His hands “stretched out the heavens.”
I have said before that the Bible is as up to date as tomorrow morning’s newspaper and it is.
Here, Isaiah wrote 2700 years ago and he tells us what science would not prove until the twentieth century.
The great Albert Einstein did not even believe the universe expanded. He believed the world to be static.
It was Edward Hubble who proved that the universe was expanding, but how, even he did not know. Hubble changed Einstein’s belief.
If this universe is expanding that means there is no boundary, there is no edge, there is no shore line. There is no sunset. There is no end to the universe.
It is like its creator. As God is eternal so is His universe It will grow for eternity for it is infinite.
Not until the invention of the Hubble Telescope in the twentieth century did man discover that Nebula’s were like incubation centers for new stars. All of the gases within those nebulas produce new stars, and the universe grows and grows and grows by millions of miles a day.
And Isaiah wrote about this 2700 years ago.
Isaiah is saying this, “Can you not trust God?”
Will you not give God your life?
Will you not walk with Him and talk with Him?
Will you not surrender you very will, body, mind and soul to Him.
If you do, He will make you beautiful.
He will fill you with peace and purpose in life.
He will touch you with his love. He will give you abundant life.
Jesus said, “Come unto me all ye that labor and are heaven laden and I will give you rest.”
The master of the universe made you.
He who placed the colors in the rainbow, made you.
He who in creation covered the earth with rubies and diamonds and gems, created you.
He who hung the stars in space and He who created each mighty angelic being also made you.
In man’s original form He was righteous, innocent and glorious.
He was created in the very image of God.
But sin came and your heart and mind was darken by sin. God has made a way of forgiveness and salvation for the sinner. And God has made a way of purpose and peace for the Saint. Will you trust Him with your life? Not part of your life, but all your life. Trust Him!
The Host: God has created billions of angels. In time past, they praised the Lord. They served the Lord. They did the bidding of the Lord.
There was a war in heaven and 1/3 of those angels followed Lucifer in a rebellion against God.
Those fallen beings I believe are demons today. They, like their leader are at war with God. They hate God and they hate God’s creation.
They want you to be like them. You see Satan said, “I will.” That is what Satan’s wants you to say, “I will” not “thy will.”
If he can get us to pursue our will, seek our will, live for our self, then we become part of the collapse of a nation, the failure of a home, and the demise of a life.
God wants us to do His will. If we will let God be the potter and if we will be yielded clay in his hand, then God will be glorified.
The nation of Israel and Judah went down. America is going down. Maybe there is nothing we can do to turn that around, I don’t know!
But, your life can count for God. Your home can count for God. Your have to realizes he loves you and He wants all of you.
The choice is yours!
VII – God loves you and wants to save you.
22 Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else
Salvation, eternal life and real life is not found in the discovery of a religion or a country club or a social organization, it is found in looking to God. As you do, you will behold His Son who gave His life on Calvary. You will behold why you are here and what God’s will for your life is. You will find salvation and satisfaction as you come to know the great “I AM.”
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