GOD’S ULTIMATE PLAN
By Pastor Jim May
This morning I want to read to you and expound upon one of the most beautiful passages in the Bible, found in Isaiah chapter 45. In this chapter we can sense the power, majesty, glory and love of God, expressed from his own lips, to those who are his own chosen people. Though the message from God is given directly to a heathen king named Cyrus, King of Persia, it is a message that also speaks directly into the heart of each of us who are called by his name and chosen to be a part of his kingdom and family.
Let me begin by noting that God is in control of all things and let us never forget that. In a world where our daily newspapers are filled with one catastrophe after another, and each day bring new and greater tragedies around the world, it is easy for us to get caught up in the events of these last days and to wonder if the world has gone completely mad and out of control.
The answer of course is that sin reigns in the hearts of men and that sin, coupled with the hatred of Satan toward all of mankind, drives sinful men ever deeper in the depths of depravity. As we draw nearer and nearer to the coming of the Lord, we must expect that the deeds of sinners will only become darker and more sinister. With each passing day, mankind attempts to cast off any vestige of a Holy God, and to forget that he has a Maker, and to discredit the fact that one day, each of us must stand before our Creator to give an answer for the things we have done while we walked this earth.
But in the midst of all that chaos and uncertainty, we must rest assured in the immutable fact that God has the “chaos” under control.
I’m certain that most of the Children of Israel would have wondered if things were out of control when they were slaves in Babylon and Persia. Had God left them to there destruction at the hand of their enemies? Had God turned his back on them and forgotten that they were his chosen people? How could any good thing come of this captivity? The worship of the true God of Israel had nearly been forgotten as a whole generation passed while in captivity. I wonder how many days that they would wake up, or how many times they would lay their head upon the pillow at night, and wonder, “God, have you lost control? Do you really care? Are you really going to bring this all about for good?”
What most of Israel didn’t understand, and what much of the church world today has forgotten, is that God hasn’t forgotten his promises, and that he still has all things in his hand. Though the world seems to be falling apart at the seams, it is still well in his hand. He is bringing about a master plan that will fulfill every word that he has spoken and not one word will fail!
In the very first verse of Isaiah chapter 45 we see that God is the one who has anointed this heathen king to be used as an instrument to bring about the will of God. It is God who appointed Babylon, and now Persia, to be the both the rod of correction upon the backs of God’s wayward children, and to the source of their deliverance as well. God put Cyrus in the right place, at the right moment in history, and upon the throne of the most powerful nation on earth, just to bring about God’s plan for his chosen people and bring them home again. (We have been studying about the return of Israel from Persian in our Sunday evening study of the Book of Nehemiah.)
The first 17 verses of this chapter are devoted to giving a message to Cyrus, reminding him that it is the God of Israel who has given him the power to rule and reign, and that it is also God who will not forget his people.
After all of that, we come to the 18th verse where we will begin reading.
Isaiah 45:18-19, "For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else. I have not spoken in secret, in a dark place of the earth: I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the LORD speak righteousness, I declare things that are right."
What a word this is to the people of God! God speaks and the world trembles! God speaks and love bursts forth upon his people! God speaks and every rock, every tree, every star in the heavens, every planet in the universe, every insect upon the ground, and every heart that strains to hear his voice, comes to attention, waiting upon his every word!
We know the power of God’s words! We know the sound of his voice! We know that he is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Our God knows all, is all, has all power, and is everywhere at the same time. Nothing is hidden from him.
Though men may try to hide their deeds done in the darkness as they slink through the shadows of the midnight, God sees what they are doing. Though men may not voice, or perhaps only whisper, their plans of evil that are drawn against God and other men, God hears their voice as though they spoke through a loudspeaker or shouted from the housetop. He knows their every thought, their every desire and nothing is hidden from him. We can’t keep secrets from God Almighty.
God did not speak the world into existence, create all things including man, whom he created in his own image, then give the breath of life, only to allow the devil to steal it all, and to kill every man’s soul in hell. That was never God’s plan or intent, and it still isn’t! God has not sold out all that he created to be utterly destroyed, but he has a plan of redemption, to buy back with a ransom price that which the devil has taken by deception.
God wants you to remember that! He is the God of Life! He is the God of wonder! He is the God of Love, Mercy and Grace!
James 1:17-18, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures."
God didn’t do all of that in vain. He didn’t give creation a perfect order out of chaos only to allow it to revert to chaos again under the influence of Satan. God’s perfect order is still there and it won’t be long before it is restored once again and forever.
God continues to speak out in Isaiah 45:20-21, speaking to his own people, "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save. Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Savior; there is none beside me."
Israel – come forth! Come out of your captivity! Come forth from your place of slavery to sin and death! Come forth – and experience the salvation of your God! Those whom you serve don’t have what you have. They may pray to their gods of earth, wood, stone and brass, but those are no gods at all and they cannot hear nor answer. But you have a living God who can answer and will answer!
That’s the Word of the Lord to every sinner on the face of the earth right now! Come now and join yourself to the only living God, the only God who can hear your prayer and give you an answer; the only God who cares; the only God capable of love, mercy and grace; and the only God who reigns over the affairs of man and demons!
Where else is there hope for your lost soul, or hope for your sickness and pain, or hope for a better tomorrow? There is no hope in this world. The sinful heart of man is ever driving this world deeper into the pits of despair. The economy now in place, designed to steal from the poor and fill the pockets of those who are already rich and powerful, is never going to allow you turn from your financial difficulties unless you sell your soul to make it happen.
Man’s wisdom will try to tell you that “You are the Master of your Destiny”, and “Whatever you can conceive, you can achieve” and “visualize your dream and it will come to pass”. But let me tell you that the only way that can come true is if you sell out to the ways of the world, forget God days without number, and go chasing after the things that this world call “Success”. In the process, that success will become your god, that dream will become your god, and when it’s all said and done, what you have said and done will doom your soul to eternal death without God.
You can be the master of your destiny for sure, for which path you choose to follow, will certainly determine your eternal destiny. There is a shred of truth in “conceiving and achieving” as well. Sin begins in the mind and grows until it fills the heart. It is conceived in the mind and birthed in actions that bring it to fruition. And the seeds of conception that begin the whole process are created in the lusts of our heart for things that this world has to offer. But what have we really achieved when it’s in our hand? Have we obtained that which we really want, or have we sold out what we really want most of all, for what we can have right now?
In Mark 8:34-37 Jesus says, "… Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for my sake and the gospel’s, the same shall save it. For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?"
You can visualize whatever dream of this world you want to obtain and go for it! Whatever controls your thinking, whatever stays upon your mind, will find a way to express it’s existence in the things you do and the things you obtain, but will you have what you really want in the end?
Do you love sports? That’s great! Sports can be a wonderful thing! But is scoring one more run, one more touchdown, or one more field goal worth risking your soul?
Do you travel? So do I, but my friend, traveling around the world with the jet-set, won’t give you peace with God if you do so at the expense of having a relationship with him and forsaking the call of God to do a work for him.
Do you want more money, a better car, a bigger retirement or a better home? Those are worthy goals to be sure, but at what cost must we get them? Are the pleasures of this life and the lifestyle that money can bring worth the risk of losing out with God?
Do you like the parties and the social life where you hang out with friends? Mankind is a social creature. We all like to be around people and to interact with one another, but is it really a friend who will forget God, and forget the Call of God, and draw you away from serving the Lord to the loss of your soul eternally? Are you a friend who will do that to someone else? Remember that one day all of these “friends” will be bitter enemies in the eternal fires to come!
Name your dream, write down you goal, visualize your greatest desires, but don’t forget to include your relationship with Jesus Christ and the salvation of your eternal soul! Don’t forget to assemble your life with Jesus in the forefront of it all. Put him first, and his will for your life, and everything else will fall into it’s proper order, and you will find a life that is more fulfilling than anything you could have ever dreamed of before.
God has bigger dreams for you than you can imagine! God has a bigger vision and better goals set before you than you could ever visualize! God has conceived greater accomplishments and bigger successes for you than anything this world could ever offer. Some of it will be in this life, but much of it lies in the eternal realms. What we have here is very temporary and will one day burn away, but what waits on the other side will last forever!
God gave his Word, filled the Bible with promises, established the ways of righteousness and formed the path that man should walk in this life so that he may attain the life to come. The world doesn’t know that path, doesn’t understand it, and refuses to walk in it. Will we follow the voices that speak to us from the world, or will we hear the voice of an eternal God who holds the power of life and death in His hands?
God continues to speak in Isaiah 45:22-25 saying, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else. I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, That unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear. Surely, shall one say, in the LORD have I righteousness and strength: even to him shall men come; and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. In the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified, and shall glory."
Here is a loving and perfect God, begging the thing that he has created and loves so much; “Look to me, …there is no other… I AM GOD! I promise this upon my own honor for there is no higher than I to promise upon. What I have said, I will do and will not fail.”
Don’t ever forget that there will come a day when every knee shall bow to him as King of Kings, every tongue shall confess that he is Lord of Lords, every man, woman and child will bend their knee before him to say that he is right, and that he has all power, and all must confess that they are unworthy of him. Not one, with sin in their heart, will be able to look upon Jesus and say, “I defy your power!” Judgment shall come. Eternal sentencing will come to pass, and all who do not serve God, confess Jesus and accept his sacrifice for their sin, will face eternal death.
But that doesn’t have to happen if your will only assemble yourselves to God. It is not his will that any should perish. Jesus came to this world, died on the cross, giving his blood and his life as the price to redeem you from the powers of hell. Your price of salvation has been paid in full but you must accept that salvation willingly.
Those who serve self, or serve the world, or serve the devil, are locked in a prison from which there is no release or escape. There is no such thing as time off for good behavior for there is no good behavior there, only rebellion against God.
But Jesus paid the ransom for every man. He served your sentence for you. The doors to your cell, to your prison have been opened wide. Jesus stands at the last door to freedom with hands outstretched in love, begging you to come to him. Will you come? Have you come? Or will you choose to close the cell door and lock yourself in that prison forever?
What glory awaits those who will hear and heed God’s call upon their lives! Nothing can compare with the glory to come. For endless ages, world without end, we shall dwell in perfect peace, in the riches of Heaven’s wonders and in the presence of pure love. What a long, perfect, glorious day that will be! Everything we might have missed out on here won’t compare to even one moment in that wonderful place called Heaven. There we shall rule and reign with Christ forever!
Will you be in that number when the saints go marching in? Will you be there for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb? Will you walk those streets of gold? Will you sit by the River of Life and drink of its pure water? Will you eat of the Tree of Life?
Jesus is standing here this morning with his hands outstretched, calling, “Oh my son, my daughter; COME HOME.” Will you come to him?
