Your Redeemer Carries You

Good morning, church. Would you turn with me to Isaiah chapter 46?

Isaiah 46 · chapter mention

Isaiah 46, if you're feeling burdened and weary this morning, then I hope this passage is going

to be a comfort for you. That's page 568 in the Pew Bible. I believe we'll have it on the screens

as I read it in just a minute, but let me encourage you to have it open before you as we look at this

text together. Let me pray as you turn there, and then I'll read for us. There are gods before you,

no other loves. Lord, what freedom it would be for us and what joy it would be for us to

have an undivided heart that loves and fears you alone. So help us now through your word

to be sanctified in that way. Purify our hearts, God, we pray as we come to your word. Teach us,

instruct us, change us. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. All right, Isaiah 46. I'm going to read the

whole chapter for us, starting in verse 1. Bell bows down, Nebo stoops. Their idols are on beasts and

livestock. These things you carry are born as burdens on weary beasts. They stoop. They bow down

together. They cannot save the burden, but themselves go into captivity. Listen to me,

O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel who have been born by me from before your

birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age, I am he, and to gray hairs, I will carry you.

I have made, and I will bear, I will carry, and will save.

To whom will you liken me and make me equal and compare me that we may be alike?

Those who lavish gold from the purse and weigh out silver in the scales hire a goldsmith,

and he makes it into a god. Then they fall down in worship. They lift it to their shoulders. They

carry it. They set it in its place, and it stands there. It cannot move from its place. If one cries

to it, it does not answer or save him from his trouble. Remember this and stand firm. Recall it

to mind, you transgressors. Remember the former things of old, for I am God, and there is no other.

I am God, and there's none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times,

things not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,

calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country.

I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it. Listen to me,

you stubborn of heart, you who are far from righteousness. I bring near my righteousness.

It is not far off, and my salvation will not delay. I will put salvation in Zion for Israel, my glory.

Well, sometimes in order to really see something, it helps to see it by way of contrast.

Mount Everest is apparently over 29,000 feet high. Of course, that's incredibly high. It's hard to even

wrap our minds around how high that is, but contrast that with the tallest skyscraper in the world,

the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, which is like 2,700 feet tall. Has anyone here been to Dubai and seen

this thing? Oh, yes, the Daniels have. That's almost twice as high as the Empire State Building,

okay? That's how big that building is. Can you imagine a skyscraper nearly twice as tall as the

Empire State Building? That's really tall, but that tallest skyscraper in the world in Dubai,

that highest building that human ingenuity and skill can muster, it's not even one-tenth the height

of Mount Everest. Sometimes in order to really see something, it helps to see it by way of contrast,

contrast. And that's what Isaiah 46 is doing. Isaiah 46 is trying to help us see something

by way of contrast. Now, this whole section of Isaiah, chapters 40 through 55, God has been trying

Isaiah 40 · chapter mention

to speak a word of comfort to His people, comfort to them in their trials, comfort to them in their

failings. But to really see and receive this comfort, here the Lord's going to help them see it by way of

contrast. Contrast, that is, with the idols, with the other so-called gods prevalent in their day.

Here is a God who can do what no idol can do. The Empire State Building, the Burj Khalifa, yes,

they might look tall, impressive even, but they're no Mount Everest. Now, what is it that the Lord wants

us to see? What comfort is He trying to help us understand? Well, the key word here is burden.

Burden. The word comes up again and again in chapter 46. You see it right off the bat in the first two

verses. Burden, the idea of a heavy weight, a load to bear. The audience of Isaiah 40 through 55,

we're dealing with the exile as a burden, this burden of exile. Perhaps the darkest moment in

the history and the experience of Old Testament Israel. And the burden they were bearing, of course,

wasn't just the kind of material or financial or social turmoil of being cast out of their homes,

but it was the spiritual crisis, the spiritual burden of the exile. The people of Israel had plenty

of reason to question. Had we put ourselves beyond the realm of saving? Given how we've failed, are we now

too far gone? I wonder what burdens you this morning. What heavy weight are you bringing with you?

Perhaps the burden of some trial you're facing at home or at work. You're feeling stretched to your limit,

not sure if you'll hold up much longer. Or perhaps you carry with you the burden of some failure you've

experienced. You've not just let down a friend or a family member, but you know you've sinned against

God. You've not kept His law, His good law. You've not responded to His kindness and His glory with the love

and obedience He deserves. So you carry the burden of guilt and shame.

But to those of us with heavy burdens, God here speaks a word of comfort. Twice in this passage,

He says, listen. In verse 3 and in verse 12, listen. Listen to what God has to say to your burdened heart.

And in the first four verses, God says to our burdened hearts, our hearts burdened with trials,

He says, I will carry you. And then in the rest of the chapter, verses 5 through 13, God says to our

burdened hearts, burdened with sin and with failure, He says, I will save you.

Here is the God who carries the burdened. Here is the God who saves the burdened.

And as we said, God helps us to see this by way of contrast. So let's take a look at that first.

Let's look at verses 1 through 4 where God says, I will carry you. Now the passage opens with two

Babylonian gods, Bel and Nebo. Bel was the chief god of Babylon and Nebo was the Babylonian god of

wisdom. And remember, the Babylonians were the ones who conquered Judah in the sixth century

and sent them into exile. But here, in Isaiah's sort of vision, these supposedly conquering gods are

pictured as collapsing and crumbling. Bel bows down, Nebo stoops. And the graven images of these gods

that were once so terrifying and so awe-inspiring are now being carried by beasts of burden, sort of

trudged along, themselves being taken off into exile. The idols that once promised so much, the idols

that carried such weight and importance are now just themselves a burdensome weight. Even the pack

animals are buckling under their heavy load. Idolatry is always like that, you know.

In the beginning, we turn to a substitute god for relief or for freedom. We invest our significance

in some created thing. We place our identity or our hope in some created thing because we desire

some kind of relief, some kind of freedom from our burdens. Now I hope you realize that idolatry

wasn't just a problem in the ancient world. It's a problem in every world. The human heart's always

taking good things and turning them into ultimate things. We take something like family or work or

community and we build our whole identity and significance and happiness around it. And we

say, this is my thing. This is my identity. And what we're really saying is, this is my God.

And we do that oftentimes because we're looking for relief. We're looking for freedom.

Instead of centering our lives around God, we center it around work or relationship or our self-image.

And for a little while, it seems to work, right? The work pays off and we feel some relief. We feel

some freedom, etc., etc. But here's the problem. The more we give, the more it asks.

We wanted that thing to hold us up, but in the end, we have to hold it up. And it becomes a burden we

cannot bear. A lot of addiction works this way, you know. In response to hurt or pain or disappointment,

we turn to something for relief. And at first, maybe that thing seems relieving,

but then it grows. And suddenly, we find we can't stop doing that thing. We're trapped. We're burdened.

We want to stop drinking, but we drink nonetheless. We want to stop using, but we use nonetheless.

We want to take a break from working, but we keep working nonetheless. And suddenly,

the thing we thought would carry us and give us some relief is now a burden that crushes us.

By way of contrast, though, listen to what the Lord says.

Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel,

who have been born by me from before your birth, carried from the womb. Even to your old age,

I am he, and to gray hairs, I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear. I will carry and will save.

In contrast to the idols who need to be carried, God says, you don't have to carry me. I carry you.

After all, God made you. Before you could think or speak, God was bearing you up, putting breath in

your lungs, sustaining you minute by minute, hour by hour. And God promises to keep doing so,

even to your old age, he says. He will carry you.

What good news this is for the weary and for the burdened, the promise of the almighty creator of

heaven and earth that he sees his people and he will carry them. No matter how dark the skies,

no matter how deep the storm, the Lord will carry you. Now, sometimes in the Christian life,

you can really get a sense of this. I remember a number of years ago, this was quite a while ago,

a friend asked me to do the funeral for her husband who had died after a long battle with

cancer. And I knew that nearly everyone there at the funeral was going to be an unbeliever.

And quite honestly, I was really nervous. I wasn't quite sure how I would approach it,

what I would say, what I would do. But in those stressful weeks leading up to that memorial service,

it was one of those times in my life when I could really feel the Lord's presence sustaining me.

God felt very near, very present. It was still a very challenging and stressful experience, no doubt.

But I could sense very evidently what Isaiah 46 was saying here, the Lord will carry you.

Sometimes we can really feel the truth of that promise.

But that's not always the case. Sometimes we go through trials, sometimes we bear burdens,

and we can't feel the Lord's presence. Sometimes it feels like we're on our own.

But you know, that doesn't make God's promise any less true.

It may not feel like the Lord is carrying us, but He is nonetheless.

You know the old poem that goes something like this? At the end of his life, a man looks back and

sees how all along the Lord had walked beside him in his life, and look, there's proof.

Two footprints side by side. But then the man gets upset because at some of the most challenging

moments in his life, there aren't two sets of footprints walking side by side. There's only one.

And he says, Lord, where were you in the dark times? When I lost everything. When I went through the

valley of shadow. When I couldn't go on. Where were you then? And the Lord says to him, you only see

one set of prints because those were the times when I carried you. So when you and I are feeling

burdened, feeling weary, you know, the temptation will be for us to turn, to turn to some idol for

comfort or for relief. But Isaiah is showing us here that substitute gods will only end up making

the burden worse. The Lord promises something totally different. The idols will burden you,

but the Lord will carry you. So trust Him. Walk with Him. He will carry you.

But there's more. Not only does the Lord promise to carry us, He promises to save us.

To save us. And in verses 5 through 13, the second part of our passage, God strikes up another contrast

with the idols. And notice in verses 5 through 7 how devout and how faithful these worshipers of

idols are. They lavish gold from the purse. They weigh out silver in the scales. They're sacrificial in

their giving. And notice how hard they work for their false gods. In verse 7, they lift it and they

carry it and they set it in place, performing all the duties and all the rights that they should.

And what is the result? If we give all of our money and resources, all our energy and gifts to the

idols of our choosing, what comes of it? Look at the end of verse 7. The idols do not answer when we cry

out and they cannot save. Have you wondered why so many people who seemingly have everything

are so riddled still with insecurity and guilt and shame, just like everybody else?

Because the gods that we serve, money, success, power, fame,

they can't really save us from what's really wrong. We need to be rescued, reconciled, forgiven by the

God who made us. The world needs to be put right. Imagine I had a bicycle and everything on the bicycle

was pristine. The chain, the seat, the frame, the handlebars, the brakes. Some of you here I know are

cyclists. I am not, so you'll probably correct me after the service about how I'm getting all this

mechanics wrong. But imagine you had this beautiful bicycle and it was all just perfect and well

sort of designed and well engineered and well kept, except for one thing.

The tires were kind of bent, a little twisted.

And every time you tried to get on this bike to ride, it just wobbled and shook until eventually

you'd fall off. Well, imagine you took that bike with the bent tires and you oiled the chain and you

checked the brakes and you polished the frame and you tightened the seat and then jumped back on and went for a ride.

What would happen?

The same exact thing. The bent tires would still send you spinning and falling and flailing.

The only way the bike is going to ride, the way it's meant to ride,

is if the wheels are put right.

Our lives are just like that. You know, we spend so much time polishing the frame and tightening the seat.

But all we need are our wheels. We need our hearts to be put right.

But the idols that we worship,

they can't do it.

They can't save us.

Verses 5-7 show us that

idols will take your best

and give you nothing in return.

But verses 9-13

show us how the Lord is

completely different.

Idols take your best and give you

nothing in return, but look at the contrast.

The Lord will take

your worst and give

you heaven in return.

Do you see in verse 8 and verse 12

how He calls us

transgressors?

Stubborn of heart.

Far from righteousness.

That's a big difference from verses

5-7, right?

There the worshipers were generous

and devout, sacrificial.

But in verses 8-12

were fallen

and flawed

and bent.

And yet

that's the point.

the Lord

takes us

not at our best

but at our worst.

He receives us

at our worst

and what does He give?

He gives us everything.

Unlike the idols

who cannot save

in verses 8-11

God says

I'll accomplish

all my purpose.

Verse 11

speaks of Cyrus

this Persian general

this bird of prey

from the east

who will come

and through the Lord's

sovereign hand

will defeat Babylon

and send the Jews home

ending their exile.

Unlike all those

false gods

this God

can save

but you know

it's not just about

a change in geography.

It's not just about

rearranging their

political situation

or location.

Verse 12

drives even deeper

because remember

we need more than

a new set of brakes

and a polished frame.

We need to be put right

with God.

We need our hearts

to be put right.

So the Lord says

you who are far

from righteousness

from being right

listen

I'll bring near

my righteousness

what you lack

I will provide.

You are far

from righteousness

far from what's right

but that won't stop God.

He'll bring near

His righteousness

righteousness

and He will put you right.

Why?

Because of our devotion

or generosity

or hard work?

No.

Because of His grace.

Because He loves us.

And because He wants us

to share His glory.

Idols take your best

and give you nothing

in return

but the Lord

will take your worst

and give you heaven

in earth.

And is not this

the very heart

of the gospel friends?

That the Lord Jesus Christ

came to earth

and we literally

gave Him our worst

and we hung Him

on a cross

and we called Him

a fraud

and what did He give us

in return?

Judgment?

Condemnation?

No.

He gave us

His righteousness

in return.

He took our curse

and gave us

His blessing.

And for all

who put their trust

in Christ

who turned

from these idols

that cannot save

and trust in the Lord Jesus

who is eager to save

for all who do that

we're put right,

we're justified

not by our righteousness

but by His.

So this is the great contrast.

These puny skyscrapers

that we build

they're nothing

to the Mount Everest

of the living God.

Here is a God

who needs

nothing from us.

He needs

nothing from us

because He's

the Creator.

Everything comes

from Him

but this God

who needs

nothing

gives

everything

and He promises

to carry

and to save.

Now in closing

what does it mean

to live then

in light of this

great contrast

between God

and the idols

this God

who carries

and saves?

Well first

we should give God

the glory

that He deserves.

Verse 5 says

who can you possibly

compare me to?

And that's right

we should be more

in the practice

of giving God

the credit

and praise

and worship

that are due Him.

You know sometimes

we can give God

the glory He deserves

by way of comparison

right?

If the sunset

is beautiful

how much more beautiful

must be the God

who created sunsets

in the first place

right?

But sometimes

we give God

the glory He deserves

by way of contrast.

we see sometimes

how short-sighted

and foolish

we humans can be

and we think

how much more

we can revel

in how much more

wise and good

our God is.

So we should get

in the practice

of giving God

the glory He deserves.

And second

we should live lives

that mirror

His glory.

Notice how the passage ends

I will put salvation

in Zion

that was sort of

the city of the people

right?

I'm going to put salvation

right in the midst

of my people

for Israel

for my people

who are what?

They're my glory.

God made us

to reflect His glory

to make His glory

visible through lives

of love

and holiness

and compassion

and mercy.

God carries us

so that we in turn

might help

carry others.

Paul says in Galatians

Galatians 6 · chapter mention

chapter 6

bear one another's burdens

and so fulfill

the law of Christ.

Has not Christ

borne our greatest

burden of all?

The burden of our sin

our guilt

our shame

and He's borne

our burden so well

that He's utterly

borne it away.

There's no condemnation

for those who are

in Christ Jesus.

So what do we do now

with this newfound freedom

this newfound lightness

of being

that we've been put right

with our Creator

and have nothing

to fear?

Well, we look at our

brothers and sisters

in need,

we look at our

neighbors in need,

and we say,

just as my burden

has been born,

bared,

what's the right tense

of that?

I should know, right?

Just as the Lord

has borne my burden,

I'm going to turn

and bear the burdens

of others.

Only Christ can bear

the burden of our sin,

but can we not come

alongside one another

to bear financial,

emotional,

relational burdens?

And in so doing,

we bear forth the image,

the glory of our Lord Jesus,

the great burden bearer.

Last, how do we live

in light of this contrast

in Isaiah 46?

Well, we live

with the encouragement.

We live with hope

that God will carry

and God will save.

Friend, if you've been

pulling hard

at the oars of your life,

if you feel like you've

been rowing against the tides,

let this promise

fill your sails

with fresh wind.

You're not alone

on the seas of your life.

The Creator of heaven

and earth will carry you.

He'll steer your ship

on the safest course,

and when He's carried you

through even to old age,

Isaiah says,

He'll carry you

and He'll bring you

safely home to harbor.

He will save.

And as we see

at the end of this chapter,

it's not far off,

brothers and sisters.

The Lord's salvation

will not delay.

So let's lift

our drooping hands

and strengthen

our weak knees

and make straight paths

for our feet,

as Hebrews says.

for our Lord

stands ready to save.

It's not far off.

It will not delay.

Amen.

Let's pray.

Lord Jesus,

we praise You

that You are not

like the false gods

we so readily worship.

They burden us,

but You carry us.

They exact

a grueling price,

but You give Your salvation

without cost

and without price.

increase our faith,

increase our trust in You,

great carrier of our souls.

For those who are weary,

remind them

that Your mighty arms

uphold them.

For those who are

under conviction of sin,

draw them near to You

to receive Your forgiving grace.

Lord, this week

when we're tempted

to forget

Your carrying

and rescuing grace,

remind us,

remind us,

and keep us, Lord,

we pray.

In Jesus' name,

Amen.