Nobody Is Like Our God!

Nobody Is Like Our God!

Isaiah 46:1-13

Sermon by Rick Crandall

(Prepared September 15, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

Church: Nobody is like our God! One great way we can see this truth is by the over 300 Old Testament prophecies that have already been fulfilled by God, especially the prophecies about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

*The prophet Isaiah has been called the evangelistic or messianic prophet because his book focuses so much on the coming of Christ. God gave these prophecies to Isaiah about 700 years before Jesus was born in Bethlehem. That's why Isaiah 7:14 says, "Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel." That means "God With Us." "Isaiah's" name also refers to our Savior because it means "The LORD Is Salvation" or "The LORD Has Saved."

*But today we are going to focus on another amazing prophecy that God gave to Isaiah. It was about the Persian emperor Cyrus the Great who would conquer the Babylonian empire, and set the Children of Israel free to return home after 70 years of captivity. In Isaiah 44 and 45, the LORD called Cyrus by name about 200 years before the emperor was born!

*Then in Isaiah 45:5-6 God said this to the future emperor: "I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me. I will gird you, though you have not known Me, that they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other." (1)

*Today in Isaiah 46, God's Word will show us how to respond to the only true and living God. Let's get started by reading the Scripture.

MESSAGE:

*Church: Nobody is like our God! The Lord makes this truth clear in Isaiah 46. In vs. 5 the Lord asks, "To whom will you liken Me, and make Me equal and compare Me, that we should be alike?" Then down in vs. 9 the Lord tells us to "Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me."

*Nobody is like our God the Father, God the Son, Jesus Christ, and God the Holy Spirit! Think for example about the countless miracles Jesus worked during His earthly ministry. In John 20:30-31, God's Word tells us that, "truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name." John 21:25 tells us that "there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."

*Jesus worked an astounding number of miracles while He was here on earth. But counting His birth, resurrection and return to Heaven, only 40 of these miracles are detailed in the four Gospels. (2)

*Nobody is like our God! But what does this mean for us in today's Scripture?

1. FIRST, IT MEANS WE SHOULD LET THE LORD CARRY US.

*Nobody can carry us like Almighty God! In vs. 1-2 God helped us understand this truth by comparing Himself to the false gods Bel and Nebo:

1. Bel bows down, Nebo stoops; their idols were on the beasts and on the cattle. Your carriages were heavily loaded, a burden to the weary beast.

2. They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but have themselves gone into captivity.

*"Bel" was the false sun god of the Babylonians. And "Bel" was the first part of King Belshazzar's name. He was the king in Daniel 5 who saw God's judgment against him written on the wall in an unknown language by supernatural fingers sent from God. No one in the Kingdom could interpret the message until the prophet Daniel was summoned, and here is part of Daniel's explanation to King Belshazzar. From Daniel 5:23-30.

23. . . "You have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified.

24. Then the fingers of the hand were sent from Him, and this writing was written.