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.”