Doug McMasters: Jesse Livermore was born in 1877.
Doug McMasters: He was known as a very gifted child, reportedly able to read and write by the age of three and a half, and by the time he was five, he was reading the financial sections of the newspaper.
Doug McMasters: Strange child, he was nicknamed.
Doug McMasters: At the age of 14, he ran away from home and moved to Boston and put himself at work under a brokerage firm.
Doug McMasters: He was nicknamed the Boy Plunger.
Doug McMasters: He made a million dollars in one day in 1907, the equivalent of nearly $20 million in our day.
Doug McMasters: At the age of 29,.
Doug McMasters: By shorting the market, his lifestyle began to match his success.
Doug McMasters: He bought yachts and private rail cars and mansions.
Doug McMasters: He joined elite clubs.
Doug McMasters: He was in the top of society.
Doug McMasters: He was a celebrity.
Doug McMasters: He was a speculator that was admired and envied by all those who worked around and invested in the stock market.
Doug McMasters: In 1924 and 1925, he made another $10 million trading wheat and corn, the equivalent of close to $200 million.
Doug McMasters: In 1929, when the stock market crashed, while others were losing their life savings, livermore earned $100 million, nearly $2 billion.
Doug McMasters: But the very system that he trusted, his instincts, his strategies, his brilliance would soon betray him.
Doug McMasters: After the stock market crashed, new government regulations came in and shifted market dynamics, and all of that began to chip away at his confidence.
Doug McMasters: He tried to adapt, but the foundation that he had built his fortune on, his financial acumen, became a source of instability.
Doug McMasters: Once worshipped by the press, once envied by peers, Livermore spiraled into bankruptcy, depression and loneliness.
Doug McMasters: And in 1940, at the age of 63, in Manhattan, he died by suicide.
Doug McMasters: And he left a note behind that whispers some of his heartbreak my life has gone wrong, I am tired of fighting".
Doug McMasters: And he died.
Doug McMasters: Livermore trusted in something that dazzled him and dazzled the world, but ultimately it proved unable to bear the weight of his soul.
Doug McMasters: A question for us to ponder.
Doug McMasters: Where are we putting our trust today?
Doug McMasters: Where are we investing ourselves in?
Doug McMasters: Are we, like Livermore, trusting our instincts, trusting our intellect?
Doug McMasters: Or are we trusting deeply in a relationship, a career, a routine, our possessions, those things that promise to us security or identity or happiness?
Doug McMasters: Are they leaving you searching?
Doug McMasters: Still Too often, we chase after things that speak loudly for a moment, but they don't sustain us over the long term.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah, chapter 44, meets us at the crossroads.
Doug McMasters: It speaks to us not only about a sobering critique of idolatry, but also about a stunning promise of grace that comes to God, from God, to weary people, instead of casting us off in our folly, god in this chapter speaks tenderly and he says remember these things you are my servant, I have made you, I will not forget you.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah unveils for us God who doesn't compete for our attention with charm, but one who lays claim to our hearts with covenant love and with relentless intention to redeem and to forgive undeserving people.
Doug McMasters: As we go through Isaiah, chapter 44, we're going to consider four movements in this section of scripture, beginning in verse 6, going down to verse 23.
Doug McMasters: These invitations and these movements from God draw us in to remember that God made us.
Doug McMasters: God knows us and God refuses to settle with us worshiping others.
Doug McMasters: He desires for us to come to him, that we might find the fullness of his redemption and his forgiveness.
Doug McMasters: In verses 6 to 8, we're going to discover that God will declare his unrivaled identity.
Doug McMasters: I'm the first and the last he says there.
Doug McMasters: Verses 9 to 20, he's going to expose the foolishness and the folly of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: Verse 21, he's going to affirm his covenant love.
Doug McMasters: And then the last two verses we'll look at verses 22 and 23,.
Doug McMasters: God invites us to a response of worship and praise.
Doug McMasters: Let's begin in verse 6.
Doug McMasters: We're going to see God declaring here his unrivaled identity as we step into this chapter that speaks a lot about idolatry.
Doug McMasters: It doesn't start with critique, it starts with proclamation.
Doug McMasters: The Lord draws a line in the sand of time itself and he declares himself as the first and the last.
Doug McMasters: Declares himself as the first and the last Before we get into the section where he confronts the idols.
Doug McMasters: He declares for us that he is the one and only true God and in rapid fire succession he describes himself in several ways.
Doug McMasters: Let's take a look at this in verses six to eight.
Doug McMasters: In verse six, he says that he is the only God.
Doug McMasters: He says there there is no God but me.
Doug McMasters: God declares that he's not one among many, maybe better than the others, but rather he is solitary.
Doug McMasters: He is the only God.
Doug McMasters: He is the singular, unshared, unbounded God.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't compete with powers.
Doug McMasters: In fact, he defines reality itself and he exists alone, without origin, without rival and without any dependency.
Doug McMasters: And everything that we see and everything that is unseen depends on him, because by him and for him was it created and is it sustained, and to whom it is subjected.
Doug McMasters: Because he is the sovereign Lord.
Doug McMasters: He stands outside of time, and yet he's the one that made it and acts within it.
Doug McMasters: He is infinite and yet intimately present.
Doug McMasters: But that's not all he says.
Doug McMasters: Like I said, in very rapid, bullet, firing succession, he offers these statements.
Doug McMasters: He also tells us, in verse six, that he is the king and redeemer of Israel, his chosen people, and redeemer of Israel, his chosen people.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't just define himself in this altogether otherly way, as the one and only God who is above all things.
Doug McMasters: He also brings himself right down into the very lives of these people and says that he is their king and their redeemer.
Doug McMasters: This infinite God, as I said a moment ago, is intimately related to people.
Doug McMasters: He is personal.
Doug McMasters: He also is, in verse 6, declared to be the Lord of hosts, the Lord of hosts.
Doug McMasters: Here, in this translation, it says the Lord of armies, and it declares himself to be the commander of all things seen and unseen, every single power that exists, whether it is in human form or unshapen spirits.
Doug McMasters: He is the Lord and master of them all.
Doug McMasters: He reigns over every dominion.
Doug McMasters: Also in verse six, he is called the beginning and the end.
Doug McMasters: Also in verse 6, he is called the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Doug McMasters: And here he declares his eternal nature and his exclusive divinity.
Doug McMasters: God was in the beginning Genesis 1-1, and God will be at the end of time as well as he ushers the new heavens and the new earth into that eternity and he controls every single day between the two.
Doug McMasters: A number of religions in this day of Isaiah's and a number of religions in our day envision history as recurring cycles, just moving from one cycle to another, and some people even see their own personal existence as going through one phase of a cycle to another.
Doug McMasters: And some people even see their own personal existence as going through one phase of a cycle into another cycle of existence.
Doug McMasters: But here, by this statement, the Lord says that he's the beginning and the end, the first and the last.
Doug McMasters: He is abolishing that perspective and telling us that existence is linear, it has a beginning and it will have an end.
Doug McMasters: It's not just an endless cycle that goes over and over and over again.
Doug McMasters: And then, if you look at verse eight, you'll see one more statement that he makes about himself.
Doug McMasters: He says is there any other God beside me?
Doug McMasters: There is no rock.
Doug McMasters: I know not one.
Doug McMasters: And God uses this metaphor of a rock to portray himself as matchlessly reliable, as faithful beyond any other thing, who upholds by his strength those who depend upon him.
Doug McMasters: That's what we mean when we say God is our rock Reliable, faithful, dependable and strong.
Doug McMasters: There's no other foundation that can bear the weight of eternity for us than Him.
Doug McMasters: This is how God introduces the subject of idolatry by pointing to Himself first, by giving these bullet markers for the people of Israel to remember who he is.
Doug McMasters: And it calls to us to ask ourselves are the things that I'm trusting, the things that I've invested my life in, the things that I've hoped would bring me to places of security and safety and satisfaction, do they in any way compare to Him?
Doug McMasters: My belief system, my identity, my achievements—are they hung on something more secure than this, than the living God?
Doug McMasters: And if not, why are we trusting those things rather than Him?
Doug McMasters: Only the Lord can speak with absolute clarity over time and in eternity, who can speak with absolute truth and purpose and design.
Doug McMasters: And with that as a backdrop, god now launches into the most extended portion of this section by exposing the foolishness and futility of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: Having established by these words his unmatched identity, he now turns the spotlight on the idols and claims our devotion.
Doug McMasters: And what unfolds in these next several verses is not just a critique, it's biting satire.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah peels back the illusion of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: It invites us to laugh but then invites us to mourn because we too have been caught up in it.
Doug McMasters: Let's see what he has to say about the foolishness of idolatry in verse 7.
Doug McMasters: Who is like me?
Doug McMasters: Who can announce the future?
Doug McMasters: Let him say so and make a case before me.
Doug McMasters: Since I've established an ancient people, let these gods declare the coming things and what will take place.
Doug McMasters: God throws down the gauntlet to these people who are serving idols and says Can any of them tell the future?
Doug McMasters: Can one singular one speak about what's going to occur with any kind of definitiveness?
Doug McMasters: And God puts up his ante with the challenge.
Doug McMasters: He said here's what I'm going to do for you.
Doug McMasters: And if you look at verse 28 at the end of this chapter, and if you look at verse 28 at the end of this chapter, the Lord says here well, let me back up just a verse.
Doug McMasters: Who says to the depths of the sea be dry and I will dry up your rivers.
Doug McMasters: Who says to Cyrus, my shepherd, he will fulfill all my pleasure.
Doug McMasters: And say to Jerusalem she shall be rebuilt into the temple, its foundation will be laid.
Doug McMasters: Verse one of the next chapter.
Doug McMasters: The Lord says this to Cyrus, his anointed, whose right hand I've grasped to subdue kingdoms before him, to disarm kings to open doors before him and even city gates will not be shut.
Doug McMasters: Kings to open doors before him and even city gates will not be shut.
Doug McMasters: God names stunningly and uniquely in this place, a prophecy about a person and mentions his name that this is the man that God is going to raise up to set the exiles free, to rebuild the towns of Judah, to restore Jerusalem and its temple worship.
Doug McMasters: This was a hundred years before Cyrus was even born.
Doug McMasters: Cyrus, the Medo-Persian, did rise and brought the Babylonian empire to nothing, and we can read historical accounts of his rise and of his permission to the people of Jerusalem to return from captivity, out of Babylon, to go back to the land and, with his investments, restore the city and the temple.
Doug McMasters: So the message is here is clear.
Doug McMasters: God looks at the idols and says can you name a person a hundred years from now who's going to rise and do the things that I tell him to do?
Doug McMasters: Of course not, and to drive home the foolishness of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah digs deeper by ushering us into a couple workshops, each exposing the empty spectacle of man-made worship.
Doug McMasters: And in verses 9 to 11, we see the first scene where an artisan is shaping a God in his own image.
Doug McMasters: And it isn't the worship of a divine being, it's self-worship wrapped up in the cloak of religious devotion.
Doug McMasters: In verses 9 to 11, we can see that All who make idols are nothing, and what they treasure benefits no one.
Doug McMasters: Their witnesses do not see or know anything, so they will be put to shame.
Doug McMasters: Who makes a god or cast a metal idol?
Doug McMasters: That benefits no one.
Doug McMasters: Look, all its worshipers will be put to shame.
Doug McMasters: The craftsmen are human.
Doug McMasters: They will all assemble and stand.
Doug McMasters: They'll all be startled and put to shame After they've made this idol.
Doug McMasters: Verse 11 speaks of the foolishness of this activity.
Doug McMasters: And if I could paraphrase verse 11, I would put it this way All the guildsmen have gathered and they stare in horror at this God that fails to even resemble them and, embarrassed, they hold a meeting, realizing that their creation is powerless it's nothing but a shapen hunk of metal.
Doug McMasters: In verses 12 and 13, the iron worker labors in heat and grows exhausted as he forges a God who can't even quench his thirst or restore his strength.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah's point is sharp here If a man grows weary, making his God, he is making something that can't even deal with the weakness that he's exerted, the strength that he's exerted in order to make that God.
Doug McMasters: How can this thing that was created exert any other power if it can't even take care of the craftsman himself?
Doug McMasters: And then it takes us into another workshop the woodmaker, the woodworker.
Doug McMasters: In this scene he speaks and talks about a person spending a lot of time and effort, gathering a lot of intelligence and knowledge in order to acquire the best materials possible in order to form another idol.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 13.
Doug McMasters: The woodworker stretches out a measuring line, he outlines it with a stylus, he shapes it with chisels, he outlines it with a compass, he makes it according to human form, like a beautiful person to dwell in a temple.
Doug McMasters: He cuts down cedars for his use.
Doug McMasters: Or takes a cypress or an oak, he lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest.
Doug McMasters: He plants a laurel and the rain makes it grow.
Doug McMasters: So here's a person with skill and precision, carefully selecting the right materials, fashioning it with acquired artistry.
Doug McMasters: And what does he do?
Doug McMasters: He takes this piece of wood and he cuts it up into different sections.
Doug McMasters: Part of it he burns in a fire to warm his body, part of it he sticks under his food to cook his meal, and then part of it he fashions and then bows down to it as if it possessed some divine presence.
Doug McMasters: The same wood that would sustain their life by way of food and warmth is now bowed down to as if it were divine.
Doug McMasters: And the irony of Isaiah here is biting and chilling this man rising up and exerting his strength to bow down to something that's connected to the things that simply cooked his food and warmed his flesh.
Doug McMasters: You see, idolatry is not just irrational, it's an inversion of God's created design.
Doug McMasters: In the book of Genesis, in chapter one, in verse 27, it said that God formed Adam and Eve in his own image, and so the living God endued humanity with all the dignity of his person and secured humanity to live in reflection of his glorious person as we lived out our life here on earth.
Doug McMasters: And it's so degraded in this position that there's a man who's created in the very image of God is now taking a hunk of wood and fashioning it out so that it might look like His person, and it's not dignity at all.
Doug McMasters: It's disturbing, and it's not dignity at all.
Doug McMasters: It's disturbing and it's degrading.
Doug McMasters: Here was once a mind that was designed to pursue the truth.
Doug McMasters: Who is God?
Doug McMasters: Who's now been dulled by iniquity and repetition and religious habit until it comes to the place of absolute assertivity, and its devotion is nothing but a degrading step downward, and downward, and downward.
Doug McMasters: But Isaiah isn't here just to condemn idolatry.
Doug McMasters: He demolishes its logic, invites us to see its shame, but he wants us to remember who he is, who God is, the one true God who never grows weary, who never needs refreshment, who never springs from the leftovers of the wood that we use to cook our food with.
Doug McMasters: And so, in verses 18 to 20, he moves to the futility of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: He moves to the futility of idolatry.
Doug McMasters: The tone changes here.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah started with vivid satire and he stripped idolatry of any pretense that it's not divine, it's actually absurd.
Doug McMasters: But now the tone sobers and Isaiah's voice softens.
Doug McMasters: God is not laughing here anymore, he's grieving, and the idolater, who was once the subject of satire, is now the object of sorrow.
Doug McMasters: And the prophet invites us to stop whatever laughter we might have had witnessing the foolishness of idolatry and begin to start weeping ourselves over the tragedy that this is Because the reason why people are caught up in idolatry has nothing to do with a lack of intelligence.
Doug McMasters: It has nothing to do with being caught up in superstition.
Doug McMasters: It's all about spiritual bondage and darkness.
Doug McMasters: Superstition, it's all about spiritual bondage and darkness.
Doug McMasters: The soul is lost in a fog so thick that even the light seems foreign to them.
Doug McMasters: Take a look at verse 18.
Doug McMasters: Such people do not comprehend and cannot understand.
Doug McMasters: You see, this person is more than just uninformed.
Doug McMasters: They're spiritually blind.
Doug McMasters: Their ability to reason has been judged.
Doug McMasters: Their eyes don't see and their ears don't stir.
Doug McMasters: And they can't even look at what they're doing and capture the absurdity of it all.
Doug McMasters: They can't even recognize the emptiness of it.
Doug McMasters: They're driven to do it because their delusion runs deep into them.
Doug McMasters: And in verse 19, the idolater can't even ask a question.
Doug McMasters: No one comes to his senses.
Doug McMasters: Idolater can't even ask a question.
Doug McMasters: No one comes to his senses.
Doug McMasters: No one has the perception or the insight to say I burned half of it in the fire.
Doug McMasters: I also baked it on its coals, I roasted meat and ate.
Doug McMasters: Should I make something detestable with the rest of it?
Doug McMasters: Should I bow down to a block of wood?
Doug McMasters: This soul has been reshaped by its blindness, so much so that its reasoning is silenced, its reflection is impossible and its repentance is out of reach.
Doug McMasters: In verse 20, he feeds on ashes.
Doug McMasters: His deceived mind has led him astray and he cannot rescue himself or say isn't there a lie in my right hand?
Doug McMasters: You see, this deception is not just strong, it's total.
Doug McMasters: The worshiper isn't just holding on to a lie, the lie is holding on to the idolater.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah laments over this.
Doug McMasters: This is not laughter and mockery, this is weeping.
Doug McMasters: What about the degradation of the human race?
Doug McMasters: To chase after empty things like this and think that they might be able to sustain us or help us or give us hope?
Doug McMasters: But this isn't about ancient idols, is it?
Doug McMasters: This is a human story that plays out every day, even in our day.
Doug McMasters: We don't craft our idols out of wood.
Doug McMasters: We curate them.
Doug McMasters: On Instagram, celebrities and influencers become the objects of our near religious devotion and we pour out our time, our emotion and money to become one of them, or to get close to one of them, and our proximity, thinking that our proximity to that sort of fame might offer some identity or worth to us, but there's no deliverance there, there's no power there, or perhaps it's the pursuit of a career, and Americans, we are bad about this.
Doug McMasters: One of the first questions you meet somebody that's new to you what do you do?
Doug McMasters: Why is it that one of the first things we ask about a person is what their job is, instead of learning about where they were born, what kind of family they grew up in, what kind of things they like to be or to do?
Doug McMasters: We ask this question what do you do?
Doug McMasters: Because our identities are wrapped up in our careers.
Doug McMasters: As Americans, we build our entire lives around that achievement, believing it's going to satisfy our soul.
Doug McMasters: But once you get into the day-to-day work of a job, burnout, layoffs and retirement are in your future.
Doug McMasters: It's an idol that proves to be nothing but a bitter taste in the mouth at the end, and a lot of people die shortly after they retire because they've invested themselves so much in their identity at work that they're cut off, adrift from any kind of life of satisfaction afterwards, and within six months, most people who retire are gone.
Doug McMasters: Materialism, designer brands, new tech, luxury comforts Boy, if I just get the next iPhone, not remembering?
Doug McMasters: A year ago you were saying the same thing about the previous generation that you're just happy to turn in now?
Doug McMasters: What about those belief systems that we hear raging around in newspapers and social media?
Doug McMasters: Customized ideologies that are meant to justify our choices, to reinforce our desires, to affirm our self-image the way we would want it to be crafted, the way we would want it to be crafted, and they all work until they don't, until they crash in, until it exposes the cracks.
Doug McMasters: It can no longer hold us up.
Doug McMasters: Addiction and escapism, whether it's substances or pornography or binging entertainment.
Doug McMasters: The promise is relief, but the results are chains.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's language here is fitting feeding on ashes.
Doug McMasters: What about a spirituality that's divorced from God's truth?
Doug McMasters: When people chase peace, they like to have a good vibe, energy, they'd like to have the favor of the universe, and so they develop an ideology or a religion in which all of it might come into some sort of harmony with them and the universe, but the orbit is themselves and not the Savior.
Doug McMasters: The things that they believe offer transcendence, but they leave them also empty, because they're not built upon the truth of who God is.
Doug McMasters: And like the people that worship the golden calf, when Moses was on Mount Sinai making an idol, they gave up their treasures, they melted them down, they shaped an idol with trembling hands.
Doug McMasters: So we too melt our time, we melt our talents and we melt our treasures down and invest them in things that can never satisfy us.
Doug McMasters: We craft idols that look like our longings but can never fill them.
Doug McMasters: And once we've shaped them, we bow down to them, but we can't rise the same, because every time we bow down to those idols, we are drawn deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper into the deception that will trap our soul.
Doug McMasters: So much so that, he says, the deceived mind has been led astray and he cannot rescue himself.
Doug McMasters: And we've forgotten how to ask.
Doug McMasters: Isn't there a lie in my right hand?
Doug McMasters: Like Gollum with the ring, that object that we desire warps our souls.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is making a plea here.
Doug McMasters: He is telling us don't wait until you start eating the ashes of your false hopes.
Doug McMasters: Awaken now, before you get so entrapped by the things that you're pursuing that you won't even be able to see a way out, or perhaps even want one until it's too late.
Doug McMasters: Ask yourself now is there not a lie in my hand?
Doug McMasters: Why am I trusting this?
Doug McMasters: But God doesn't stop there.
Doug McMasters: Wonderfully, he started by speaking about who he is by revealing His unrivaled identity to us and exposing the foolishness and folly of this idolatry.
Doug McMasters: But then he affirms His covenant love, in verse 21.
Doug McMasters: Remarkable again.
Doug McMasters: Remember these things, jacob, in Israel, for you are my servant.
Doug McMasters: I formed you.
Doug McMasters: You are my servant, israel, you will never be forgotten by me.
Doug McMasters: Just as the satire exposed the folly and foolishness of idolatry and moved us into the morning shame of recognition that we too have bowed down to things that can't satisfy, god now interrupts with tenderness and His tone warms to us.
Doug McMasters: Remember these things you are my servant, I will not forget you are my servant, I will not forget you.
Doug McMasters: Even though Israel had gone after these false gods of iron and wood, god's final word to them is not rejection, but a call to remember him and to return to him.
Doug McMasters: And he calls to them not because God has forgotten them, but they've forgotten him.
Doug McMasters: And here he makes this covenant affirmation that, as we see as we go through the rest of this part of Isaiah, finds its fulfillment in the one who will never forget us but bears our iniquity, and that is the servant, jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: You see, christ is the servant that Israel failed to be.
Doug McMasters: He's not just recalling the covenant, but fulfilling it on our behalf.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah will speak in foreshadowing songs, in chapters 49 to 53, about a Messiah who will carry the forgotten and restore the exile and redeem the weary, and he will be able to say about that one true servant, I will never forget you.
Doug McMasters: And these words are prophecies speaking forward, about a Christ and his ministry who seeks the lost and welcomes the outcasts and carries the cross to those who are spiritually forgetful.
Doug McMasters: Jesus is the rock the idols cannot imitate, and Jesus is the servant that Israel never did become, and he is the Redeemer who will never forget.
Doug McMasters: And so he ends with an invitation in verses 22 and 23.
Doug McMasters: I've swept away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like a mist.
Doug McMasters: Return to me, for I've redeemed you.
Doug McMasters: Rejoice heavens, for the Lord has acted.
Doug McMasters: Shout depths of earth break out into singing mountains, forests and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorifies himself through Israel.
Doug McMasters: Like I said, there are four movements to this section of scripture and it moves again into a place of jubilant praise and song, and it's as if creation cannot hold back its voice.
Doug McMasters: Sing for joy, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob.
Doug McMasters: We find here an eruption of hearts, set free in creation unshackled.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: Because God is a redeeming God who forgives iniquity In verse 22.
Doug McMasters: This isn't a call back to just being a monotheistic Jew.
Doug McMasters: This isn't a call back to faithful idol worship.
Doug McMasters: This is not a call back to giving away all the other idols that they might possess.
Doug McMasters: This is a call to praise in the recognition that God forgives sinful people.
Doug McMasters: His forgiveness is emphasized here and it's put in such a picturesque way.
Doug McMasters: It talks about His forgiveness as if it's lifting off like a cloud in a mist that's rising, and when the heat of the day rises in these valleys and that mist evaporates and it's not seen again for the rest of the day, the Lord is saying that is how your sins are going to be.
Doug McMasters: The morning mist of your iniquity and sin that had locked you into the deep valleys of delusion I'm going to wipe away so you'll be able to see with clarity for the rest of your life.
Doug McMasters: And this is why, in verse 23, sing O heavens, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob.
Doug McMasters: This redemption is not just personal, it's cosmic.
Doug McMasters: The creation here is called to join the redemption song the heavens, the depths, the mountains, the trees, the exiles hearing this, recognizing that the skies are growing brighter and the trees are spared from idol worship, and the whole chaos of human life, and the effect of the fall on all creation is now dissipating, because the Lord has done it, not man.
Doug McMasters: And so here we have, again a prophecy of a day in which even creation itself will be able to sing of the redemption that God is bringing.
Doug McMasters: This is more than just an announcement about the people in Babylon being called back to Jerusalem.
Doug McMasters: This is more than just Cyrus freeing Israel from there.
Doug McMasters: This is about Jesus freeing the souls from sin.
Doug McMasters: This is about his cross as the true declaration of our forgiveness.
Doug McMasters: And the heavens are singing, not just because the exile in Babylon has ended, but because the servant has redeemed a new heaven and a new earth, and one day it'll be able to sing, just as Romans 8 tells us that the creation is groaning for this Redeemer.
Doug McMasters: And the creation eagerly awaits with anticipation for the sons of God to be revealed, so that it might be set free from the bondage to decay and into the glorious freedom of God's children.
Doug McMasters: On that day, creation will sing with unfettered voice.
Doug McMasters: On that day, sin will be no more.
Doug McMasters: On that day, the mist and fog of deception and deceit because of disobedience will be forever gone.
Doug McMasters: You see, isaiah 44 is not just some theological treatise, very coldly, very systematically, very matter-of-factly, simply telling us about who God is in distinction from the idols.
Doug McMasters: What he's doing is trying to reorient our soul, to turn away from those things that are not going to satisfy, that are not going to fulfill, that are not going to be able to cover our guilt, but to reorient ourself to a God who is, yes, grand and glorious, but also good and merciful, because the glory of God outshines every rival and idolatry is not just wrong, it's wearisome and tragic and incapable of saving.
Doug McMasters: But God doesn't leave us as the object of ridicule, he makes us the object of His redemption.
Doug McMasters: And he doesn't just redeem us, he also rejoices over us when we return, and so these words may they ring in our hearts, return to me, for I have redeemed you.
Doug McMasters: If you're here this morning and you don't know the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you don't need to serve those things that are exhausting you.
Doug McMasters: You don't need to give yourself any longer to those things that hold you to you no life, or eternal hope or help.
Doug McMasters: There's a Redeemer here who knows your name, like he knew jacob's name, and he invites you to return, to come to him, and he offers true peace, not just for life, but for eternity, through jesus christ.
Doug McMasters: You see, christ is the first and the last, the servant who carries our shame, the rock who bears our eternal soul and the Redeemer who will forgive us and restore us.
Doug McMasters: And if you're here this morning as a believer, may we be reminded of who our God is and may the seducing spirits that call for our allegiances in this world be shut out, so that we could always say I trust in the first and the last.
Doug McMasters: I trust in the one, the only one, who is.
Doug McMasters: I trust in him who holds time in his hand and me throughout eternity.
Doug McMasters: I trust in the one who is my rock, my defense, my shield, my security, my safety, my hope.
Doug McMasters: And may you not be caught up in those whispering words that the world offers, telling you that there's something better if you just turn away from him.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: Father, we're so grateful that you're a God who is, as you are, grand and glorious in your person and yet also gracious beyond our ability to describe.
Doug McMasters: Where we would look at ourselves and, in light of who you are, understand that there's no hope for us to be simply left the consequences of our darkness.
Doug McMasters: But you've not done that.
Doug McMasters: You have come to us and committed once again to undeserving people, that you're a God who restores, who receives, who redeems, father, I pray that this morning there'll be those who will come to you by faith in Christ and find you a receiving, redeeming Lord, and, for those of us who know you, that we might be more resolved in our commitment to you, who is the living God, and we pray this in Christ's name Amen.