An Examination of Our Affections Today we want to learn from Isaiah 44:6-20. Read the passage. Isaiah 44 as Isaiah 40-51 were not taught publicly to the Israelites in Jerusalem but rather written by Isaiah and preserved by his disciples until Israel was ready to hear them. During the time when Isaiah first received them and recorded them the people were not teachable, their hearts were full of pride, arrogance and were given over to the cultic worship of the gods of the many nations that surrounded them. These words found their time after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Babylonians and the Israelites exiled to Babylon. They were timely for at least 2 reasons. 1. In the exile they were experiencing the full consequences of their rebellion against God and in their new humility were becoming teachable again. This morning God’s word to us through Isaiah will change us if we will be humble and teachable. 2. The Israelites were now living in Babylon the temptation would be to worship Babylonian’s many gods. The Babylonians would have attributed their defeat of Jerusalem to the strength of their gods. And you can imagine the Israelites thinking: “Hadn’t the Babylonian gods been stronger then the Lord? The Babylonians destroyed the temple of the Lord our God and the many temples to their gods yet stand. And so these words were timely for the Israelites and they are timely for us for as we live in our multi-cultural Canada we must have a right understanding of the God of the universe that leads not to bigotry against other religions but rather a pure worship of God and a desire to glorify Him in everything loving our neighbors and at the same time staying devoted to Him. In 1971 the Canadian government officially formed legislation and policy around the desire to be multi-cultural. The driving force behind multi-culturalism is the tolerance of people of different cultures, nationalities, languages etc. Of course within the parameters of this multi-culturalism is the tolerance of all religious beliefs to the point where we have annihilated the thought of absolute truth to the point it seems that tolerance itself is the one remaining absolute. In Isaiah 44 Isaiah is decidedly intolerant of the religious beliefs and practices of the nations surrounding Israel and especially of Babylon. Today in Canadian culture if Isaiah was to preach this in the market place he would be derided as an intolerant bigot and would be condemned as committing the most heinous crime of being intolerant. But what Isaiah says comes not out of hatred or arrogance but rather it finds its origin and justification in a right understanding of the God of the universe. And this is what we find in vv.6-8 These verses provide for us a right understanding of the God of the universe. This is the foundation on which Isaiah stands. V1. “I am the first and I am the last.” This statement is made by God in numerous other places in scripture: Isaiah 41:4; 43:10; 48:12; Revelation 1:8,17; 22:13. Wouldn’t it make more sense if God said “I was there in the beginning and I will also be there in the end.” But He says “I am the first and I am the last.” God is talking about His sovereignty, His power, His authority, His transcendence above time. There is history because God is. God did not have his beginning with the cosmos. God exists apart from the cosmos and apart from humanity. The first words of the Bible Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God…” God is self-existing. The world exists because God IS. There will be an end to the world because God IS. God is not boasting any more than for me to say when introducing myself “I am James Penner.” He is simply stating the truth. Lets keep going: Apart from me there is not God.” The Babylonians had a whole pantheon of Gods. As one Biblical encyclopedia tells us “The Babylonians, with all their wonderful gifts, were never able to conceive of one god, of one god alone, of one god whose very existence makes logically impossible the existence of any other deity.” When I am alone at home and someone comes to my door and asks if anyone else is at home I tell them the truth that apart from me there is no one home. And so God makes another simple and clear statement of fact, “apart from me there is no God.” There is not one big God and many lesser gods. “apart from me there is no God.” I am the only God. And so the Israelites stood out as different than all nations around them in that they had a rich heritage of faith in one God, and one God alone as was their creed in Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” “Who then is like me? Let him proclaim it.” Israel was the only nation that worshipped a God without any physical image representing their God. They did this in obedience to God’s commandment through Moses in Deuteronomy 4:15-18 “You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully, 16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman, 17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air, 18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.” I was given a book not long ago entitled “Only One Way?” with the sub-title “Reaffirming the Exclusive Truth Claims of Christianity.” Different authors write each separate chapter of the book. David Wells wrote the second chapter entitled “One God.” He writes, “There is no equal to God. This is why it is such an affront to make images of God. Nothing in the created order is like him. Idols don’t show people to be primitive savages so much as they prove them to be sophisticated worshipers of nature as divine. God is jealous, not because He is insecure, but because He insists that the true nature of things and of Himself be known.” “Who then is like me? There can be no image of God because God id incomparably unique. v.8 God is comforting His people in exile and then speaks directly to the question of the power of the Babylonians gods. “Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago?” I have allowed you to be taken into exile by the Babyonians. God prophesied this through Isaiah 85-100 years before it happened as They would have had recorded for them as we do in Isaiah 39 and then also in Jeremiah and other prophets. “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Moses says to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:32-35 “Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created man on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? 33 Has any other people heard the voice of God [a] speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? 34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by miraculous signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes? 35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.” “You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? Remember your history. And so Isaiah says in v. 9 &12 Now paganism is very complicated with its myths, legends, and systems of sacrifice and worship and Isaiah would not have been naďve to this but he intentionally reduces paganism down to its most basic practice of worshipping an image of wood, stone, or metal. What he is saying is that how can their beliefs, myths, legends, and worship practices amount to anything when the exertion of a human being to form and craft an image representative of their beliefs and the subsequent worship of this piece of metal or wood forms the center of their worship and their beliefs. V13 “The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.” In all of the myths, the legends, the worship ritual the figure created in the end is shape in the form of man, of man in all his glory because on our own we cannot think beyond ourselves. A rampant form of idolatry today is in our minds making God more like us and fashioning for ourselves God in our image. But God created us in His image and His goal is to make us more like Him. Listen to what Philip Yancey writes in his book “Reaching For The Invisible God” What we humans want out of a relationship may well run at cross-purposes with what God wants. We want God to be like us: tangible, material, perceptible [hence the long history of idolatry]…We want God to speak in audible words that we can clearly understand…Rather, God seeks from us correspondence in a spiritual realm and seems more interested in other kinds of growth: justice, mercy, peace, grace and love—spiritual qualities that can work themselves out in a material world. In short, God wants us to be more like Him.” Philip Yancey “An ancient Orthodox writer wrote, ‘God cannot be grasped by the mind. If he could be grasped, he would not be God.’ We are profoundly different, God and I, which explains why friendship is not the primary model used in the Bible to describe our relationship. Worship is.” Isaiah 44:15 “It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.” This needs to serve as a warning to us not to give ourselves to inanimate objects by chance. Because food happens to bring us comfort that is immediate, tangible, controllable we pursue it above comfort in God. Because money happens to bring with it power we fashion our lives around it and in essence we rely on it to save us. V.19 “No one stops to think” Pretty relevant in our culture. We need to stop and think. Some of you may be afraid of what you might find if you were to stop and think. Whether passively or aggressively, intentionally or unintentionally we are all devoted to something. We are always devoted to something always. Our devotion is reflected in the degree to which we are spending ourselves on something. An idolater doesn’t stop and think. We must stop and think: “Is what we are holding in our right hand a lie?” What most occupies our thought life? On what will we spend our money most readily? What do we always have time for? Personal story: Very recently there was a period of about 6 months when my devotion shifted. I was more devoted to cycling and mountain bike racing then I was to knowing and serving Jesus. We are we devoted to? Sports, a t.v. show? Reading novels? Internet or gaming? The idea of busyness? The idea of being financially successful? The idea of a perfect body? The idea of being obedient? The idea of serving God? Communion is an act of devotion. Our devotion to Jesus is reflected in the degree to which we are spending ourselves in an effort to know Him and draw close to Him. Do we love Jesus? Do you love Him? There was a time in our marriage when I told Trish every day that I loved her but my actions needed to catch up with my words. We might say yes, I love Jesus, but do our actions need to catch up to our words? In John 14:15 Jesus said, If you love me you will obey what I command. A strong desire for anything that replaces our desire for God is a form of idolatry. Anything that takes priority in our lives before God is an idol. As someone has said “That for which I would give anything and accept nothing in exchange is the most important thing in my life. Whatever that is is my God.” v.21 “Remember these things, O Jacob, for you are my servant, O Israel.” Isn’t it true we worship something because it serves us? It makes us feel good, it is sensually or sexually desirable? We are God’s chosen servants and we have the joy of being used by God to accomplish His purposes rather then needing to be served by the gods we fashion for ourselves. “Who shapes a god and casts an idol, which can profit him nothing.” The opposite of paganism that would have us fashioning for ourselves a god God says, “I have made you, you are my servant” “O Israel, I will not forget you.” Paganism says, worship material things, worship money, worship your body, worship the idea of success, we will not let you forget your gods. God is alive and says, “I will not forget you” which alone brings meaning and purpose to our lives. Conclusion As we move into communion. V.22 I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” The word “redeem” is primarily a legal term but it was understood, as someone has said “as neither a cold ‘third party’ business transaction nor an act of charity between friends. It was an outworking of a fundamental familial relationship, more profound than pity or charity, stemming from the deeper reaches of love.” In paganism deliverance comes through the proper worship but in Christianity we worship because we are redeemed. Romans 6:22 “But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves to God, the benefit you reap leads to holiness, and the result is eternal life.” Colossians 1:13 “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves,” 1 Peter 2:16 “Live as free men, but do not use your freedom as a cover-up for evil; live as servants of God.” Return to me, for I have redeemed you.” If knowing and serving Jesus is not the first priority in your life you need to return to Him. You need to rid yourselves of your idols. By taking the bread you are saying, “My food is to do the will of my Father in Heaven.I will worship Him alone with my life.” Hand out bread: Sing: “You’re Worthy of my Praise” Pray and eat. 1 Peter 1:18-19 “For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your forefathers, 19but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect.” Hand out the juice. Sing: “You’re Worthy of my Praise” Pray and drink. Pray into the song: “Just a Closer Walk with Thee.”