Because Of Who God Is

Because of Who God Is (Slide 1)

November 11, 2012- David Tack

In our text this morning we see the nation of Israel is in great distress. (1) Northern Israel had been taken away by the Gentile world-power Assyria; while (2) Southern Israel was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. Perhaps, some of these ideas could be applied in a spiritual sense to America. Many who love our country have watched her slip down the slippery slope of debauchery and immorality, VOID of God and His commandments.

The THEME of this text is to FEAR NOT! WHY, because of just who GOD is!

We find in Isaiah 42: 1-4 the promise of a future coming Messiah (for the national Israel of that time; and ultimately in the consummation of the end times). This Messiah (Jesus Christ) will deliver God’s people. So, THEN and NOW we have COMFORT! WHY, because of just who God is!

Today, you may feel as if you have been taken away from the things you love: family, friends, and even God. My friend, Be of good cheer: WHY, because of who God is!

LET US LOOK AT WHO GOD IS: (Slide 2)

Isaiah 40:28: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting [indefinite and un-ending] God, the LORD, the Creator [only God is the subject of this verb- bara] of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

GOD IS: everlastingly God, LORD (the self-existing One), Creator. One who never faints, is weary, or lacks understanding! Here, Israel is being reminded that Babylon is not beyond God’s range; this is a good point for today’s American Christian believers. FOLKS, God is able; don’t lose heart, just TRUST GOD!

Slide 3

Isaiah 42:5: Thus saith God the LORD, he that created the heavens, and stretched them out; he that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh out of it; he that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and spirit to them that walk therein:

Isaiah 40:28: Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

NOTE: We are speaking of a God who has. . .

(1) Created the heavens, and stretched them out. . .

(2) That giveth breath unto the people upon it. . .

(3) AND spirit to them that walk therein. . .

LET US HEAR WHAT GOD HAS SAID: (Slide 4)

Isaiah 42:8-9- “(8) I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images. (9) Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things do I declare: before they spring forth I tell you of them.”

FIRST, understand this morning that God will not give His glory to anyone else!

SECOND, know this, God will not allow graven images to be praised

THIRD, realize, God ultimately controls the future

FOURTH, Rest assured that God is behind all true prophecy

Slide 5

ISRAEL’S MISSION: Isaiah 42:6- “I the LORD have called thee in righteousness, and will hold thine hand, and will keep thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, for a light of the Gentiles.”

FOLKS, God has chosen and blessed Israel for several reasons. One primary reason was to be a mouthpiece and historical scribe for God which serves today as a LIGHT for all nations. IT IS NOTEWORTHY that God will: (1) hold our hands (2) and will keep us. What a promise from an Omni-dimensional God; that He holds our frail hands and preserves us till the end! ---- Here is not some ever-changing end: NOOOO, it is eternally established to BE!

LET’S MAKE A 2012 APPLICATION

Slide 6

In Isaiah 42:7 the Bible says Jesus came, “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

TODAY

MANY (or maybe you) are IN DARKNESS

When Paul was writing to the Ephesians, he reminded them “For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light” (Ephesians 5:8)

YOU SEE, SIN SEPARATES unregenerate mankind from a holy God (Note: Skip Red)

Romans 6:23a-b “(a) For the wages of sin is death” (separation). “(b) but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

YOU WERE ALIENATED FROM GOD

Colossians 1:21: “And you, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works . . . yet now hath he reconciled.”

BUT I HAVE GREAT NEWS THIS MORNING: GOD HAS MADE A WAY- HOW?

Colossians 1:19-20: “For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell; (20) And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself; by him . . .” Recap Romans 6:23b (Note: Go Back and Read Red)