Isaiah 45:14-25 - Every Knee Will Bow and Every Tongue Confess

Good morning, brothers and sisters.

It's a blessing to be with you this morning.

We'll be in Isaiah, chapter 45, verses 14 through 25.

Isaiah 45:14–25

Before we begin, let's go to the Lord again in prayer.

Heavenly Father, thank you that you are good and you love us.

Thank you for being here with us this morning, that your spirit is with us.

Please open our eyes to see your truth, open our ears to hear your word.

Please give me the words to speak that your children would be edified and be challenged and become more like Christ.

Thank you that your word will not return to you void but will accomplish all that you desire.

Now we can.

We can trust and believe that we pray these things in Jesus name, amen.

Five years ago, as I was beginning to make plans to go overseas, I began to.

I went to an orientation with a company and they they told me that instead of going overseas, I should receive some training before I went.

This was a change in plans and I didn't really wasn't the biggest fan of it.

I wanted to go, I had a desire to go, but the training that I did receive was good and beneficial and I saw God's work in that end of of preparing me to better understand God's word and better be able to communicate who he is, and probably the best benefit was that I met a lovely young lady there named Emily, who has made me a better man.

But in our lives we see our plans are changed and directed and the Lord is in control of all of those.

Last week we learned about Cyrus, a pagan king, who God would use to establish his people, to bring them back from captivity and to rebuild the temple.

And today we continue in that and the Lord moves from Cyrus to his plans for the whole world and we begin to see all that God will do.

And God's plan for the whole world is that all will know that the Lord is God.

We will see that there is no other God, that he alone is God.

We will see that there is no other hope, that God alone brings salvation, that there is no other end, that God's plan will come about.

Our passage begins in verse 14.

This is what the Lord says the products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush and the Sabians, men of statue, will come over to you and will be yours.

They will follow you.

They will come over to you in chains and bow.

They will follow you.

They will come over to you in chains and bow down to you.

They will confess to you.

God indeed is with you and there is no other.

There is no other God.

Our first point today is there is no other God.

The Lord alone is God.

Just a quick note when I say the Lord in this passage, when it comes up, it's referring to the name of Yahweh, the personal name of God, the God of the Bible, whom we know and who has revealed himself.

So keep that in mind as we as we speak.

But the Lord is God, there is no other God.

First, 14 begins with the Lord for claiming that the products of Egypt, the merchandise of Cush and the Sabaeans, men of stature, these were pagan people, people who did not know the Lord, who did not worship him, who instead bowed down to idols, who worship idols.

But the Lord says their wealth, their goods, their precious things and the people of renown would come and bow before the people of God and declare that God indeed is with them and there is no other God, that the people of the nations would come to a place and come to a realization that the Lord alone is God.

And we see this continue on in the passages from verse 18.

We have a court-like proceeding, that the Lord is calling the nations and telling them to present their case.

For who is God?

And we know the Lord will be seen to be God in verse 18 through 21.

For this is what the Lord says the creator of the heavens and the God who formed the earth and made it, the one who established it.

He did not create it to be a wasteland, but formed it to be inhabited.

He says I am the Lord and there is no other.

I have not spoken in secret somewhere in a land of darkness.

I did not say to the descendants of Jacob seek me in a wasteland.

I am the Lord, who speaks righteously, who declares what is right.

Come, gather together and approach you.

Fugitives of the nations, those who carry their wooden idols and pray to a God who cannot save, have no knowledge, speak up, present your case.

Yes, let them consult each other.

Who predicted this long ago?

Who announced it from ancient times?

Was it not I, the Lord?

There is no other God but me, a righteous Savior and God.

There is no other except me.

Now, in this court proceeding, the nations are called to come and present their case, but they have nothing they can say, there is nothing that they can present that would show that they are in the right, because the Lord alone is God.

He is the one who has created the world and he created it to be inhabited, giving blessings to the people.

We see this courtroom proceeding, mirrored in Revelation, chapter 20.

Revelation 20 · chapter mention

Revelation, chapter 20, verse 11 and 12.

Revelation 20:11

Then I saw a great white throne and the one seated on it.

Earth and heaven fled from his presence and no place was found for them.

I saw also the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and the books were opened, and another book was open, which is the book of life, and the dead were judged according to the books that in this judgment, great and small come before them.

Every single person is brought before the throne.

A great white throne showing that God is above all and he is giving a pure judgment.

He alone judges rightly.

And what can the people say?

What can we bring?

Verses 16 and 17,.

We skipped over, uh, but we'll go back to now.

It speaks of the, of the idolaters and what awaits them.

Verse 16 all of them are put to shame, even humiliated, the makers of idols.

They go into humiliation together.

Israel will be saved by the Lord with an everlasting salvation.

You will not be put to shame or humiliated for all eternity.

And we must take pause here, because each and every one of us were the ones who belonged to the category of the idolaters.

We were without God that we deserve this judgment that awaits before the great white throne.

Every knee will bow and every tongue will swear allegiance to God, and some will do it unwillingly.

Many will do it unwillingly, coming to a place where they are revealed to be those who have not followed God.

And we too were like them.

We too were against God.

We rebelled against a good God who provided the world, who created the world for it to be inhabited.

And even in ourselves we still fight against this rebellion, this idolatry that we seek after money instead of seeking the Lord, desiring to accumulate wealth, or whether we are valuing family above following God, or whether work or pleasure is taking place before God.

We have we struggle with these things that we all belong to the category of people who were sinners.

We are all sinners before the Lord.

God that there is nothing we can bring, there is no good deed we can bring before the Lord.

That he would say you are justified by it.

We can only come humbly before him.

And thankfully, here is where we find hope.

Here is where we find that the Lord is God and we have no other hope but him, no other salvation.

Verse 22 says turn to me and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.

That God calls the people, even in this judgment that he is proclaiming that there will be a judgment to come.

He says come back to me, turn from your wicked ways, come back.

And he roots it in his character turn and be saved all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other God.

Root the salvation that God promises is rooted in his character, in who he is.

All throughout scripture this comes true that God is a loving and gracious and merciful God.

So here's a couple passages from Exodus and Nehemiah and Psalm who.

The Lord declares who he is.

He says God will have mercy.

On whom he will have mercy?

And the Lord, the Lord Yahweh, yahweh, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love For the Lord, your God is gracious and merciful and will not turn away his face from you, a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding instead, fast love.

This is the Lord God, the one who is above all things, that in the same breath that he says there is a judgment to come, he also says turn and come back to me.

Turn from your sin.

He knows they will not satisfy.

He knows that what awaits those who are in sin, those who bow down to idols, who do not follow after God, is humiliation, is the recognition, when all is laid bare, that they will be seen to have no hope.

But then he extends hope and says come, turn back to me.

That the Lord God can provide this, that the Father can provide reconciliation because through the Son, jesus Christ, the Messiah, who lived on earth and lived a perfect life, taking on our humiliation, shame and guilt upon the cross, so that we could come back to the Lord.

This is the hope that we have, not of anything that we have done or anything we can provide or give, but because of what God has done, because of what Jesus has done, we can have salvation.

That when that courtroom proceeding comes, then when we stand before the great white throne and the books are opened, that is not of anything we have done that we will say when the Lord says, present your case, we can say, not I, but what Jesus has done.

It is not anything I can bring that says I should be saved for this and this and this reason, but simply because of what Jesus has done for us his life, his death, his resurrection and to rest upon that In the day to day.

It is easy to forget this.

It is easy to strive and to act and to train To accomplish good deeds by our own tasks, but to remind ourselves when that day comes, it is only by what God has done.

He is our righteousness and strength.

Our passage ends with verse 25.

And it says all the descendants of Israel will be justified and boast in the Lord, and this has been extended to us.

We are the people of God through Jesus, the true descendant of Israel, the offspring of Abraham.

In him we are justified.

He has allowed us a way to come back to him and we will be justified In the eyes of the judge.

We will be declared without wrong that God will look at us and he will see Jesus' perfect record and we will be declared just.

He will see Jesus' perfect record and we will be declared just, and in this we can boast in the Lord, knowing it is not us, but it is him.

He is the one who has done it.

Now, which leads us to our third point, that there is no other end, and we'll spend some time on this point.

Throughout our passage, there comes up again and again future tense the people will come, they will follow, they will bow down.

We hear this talk of eternity.

They will come before you.

Every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance that all the descendants of Israel will be justified 12 different times.

There is this future tense that comes up, that this, these things have not yet come about.

We still await the fulfillment.

Um, as we've been overseas learning language, uh, the language that we've learning has two different future tenses um, which can lead things to be complicated, but I found a beauty in it.

Um, one of the future tenses which can lead things to be complicated, but I found a beauty in it.

One of the future tenses is a maybe something that will come up, that will probably come about, and use it when making plans and things that you aren't sure will happen.

And the other future tense is a definite 100%.

This will happen.

And when we speak of that tense, we don't actually know what will come tomorrow.

We don't actually know.

Even if we strive with all our power, we don't know what will come about.

But when the Lord says this will come about, he is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end, the one who knows all that will happen, the one who has planned it from the very beginning, before time.

He knows the end, he brings it about.

So when we see these promises, the things that will come about, it's not a maybe, it's a for sure, it's a definite.

And we live in that.

We live in the unknown, we don't live.

We don't live in the unknown, we live in the not.

Yet we live in a world in which those who do what is wrong, they have not faced all of their punishment yet it seems like those who are doing what is wrong, who steal, who cheat, who hurt others to get their own way, who seek to put themselves up and trick others.

They are not doing what is wrong, they still succeed, they still have things that go well in life.

And it seems like those who do what is right don't have things go well for them.

It seems like those who are, who seek to do what is right and seek to trust in the Lord don't have aren't justified.

They instead are punished or don't know how things go well for us.

Romans 8 puts it beautifully that as we wait in this, this, not yet Romans 8, 22 through 24, for we know that the whole creation has been groaning together with labor pains until now, not only that, but we ourselves, who have the spirit as first fruits, also grown within ourselves, eagerly waiting for adoption, the redemption of our bodies.

Now, in this hope we were saved.

But hope that is seen is not hope, because hope who hopes for what he has seen?

Now, if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it, with patience, that we have hope for what will come about, that this judgment and when all will be made right, which all will know that the Lord is God and there is no other.

But we wait, not, not yet.

My wife, right now, is pregnant with our second son and she's due in another month.

But a day doesn't go by, much less a couple hours, in which she doesn't mention that she longs for the baby to be born, that she feels the pains and the difficulties of having a child, and she waits.

And what a picture that is.

That groaning that desire that we know things are not yet right, that groaning that desire that we know things are not yet right.

We know that there are not right but we can wait in that, with confidence, knowing that it will come about, that people will come and seek the Lord.

They will come and bow down when, right now, it seems like all they care about is propping themselves up.

They don't come to listen to God's word.

They want to listen to the latest podcast about making money or becoming popular or listening to the latest music.

But a time will come, and we know this is purposeful.

The Lord could reveal himself, but verse 15 says yes, you are a God who hides.

God of Israel, savior, that God has hidden himself.

God has chosen to not reveal all things in immediately, at this time that his true nature is veiled yes, in creation he has displayed himself and that his nature and his great power is clearly seen.

But he has allowed for people's sin to blind them to that God has not spoken in secret, but has clearly revealed his truth to his people from Israel and now his church.

That God has declared his truth and yet he has blinded the world for a time, and this is purposeful, for God has chosen to work through his people, through his church.

In this passage in verse 14 and 15, 17, 19, and 25, this thread comes out that God is working through Israel, through his people.

And we know now that God is continuing to work through his church, that Isaiah tells us that Israel was meant to be a light to the nations, a light to the Gentiles, and Jesus continues that and tells his disciples that they are the light of the world, that they are displaying the truth of God to the people, that God's glory is displayed through his people, that they are to tell of his truth and to be a light to the nations.

And we can have confidence and purpose in this truth, in this end, we will know it will come about.

God roots that.

It will come about in himself.

Verse 23,.

By myself, I have sworn.

Truth has gone out from my mouth a word that will not be revoked.

Every knee will bow to me, every tongue will swear allegiance that the spread of the gospel and the and the truth that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that the Lord is God is rooted in his character.

He has sworn by himself.

God, the one who does not change, has sworn, and we can take confidence in that this will come about.

God is spreading his gospel to the ends of the world, and we also find our purpose in this.

Each and every one of us looks for purpose in our life, and if you are here today wondering what God's plan is for your life, I have an encouragement for you.

One thing that we can we can hang our hat on that we know is true is God's plan for his people to spread his gospel to those who do not know, to tell others, to show the world his love so that all the nations will know.

Every single one of us is given this task.

It is not for some or for others.

It's not for some and not for others.

It is for each and every one of the people of God to take part in this task, and it can be easy to not realize the opportunities that we have.

Two years ago, when I was doing an internship, life was busy.

I'm sure it is for many of you.

There are many things to do and many, many activities or studies, and I'm thankful for all of those things, but in that, in that busyness, it was easy for me to to make excuses or to think I don't have the opportunities to share Um, and there are good opportunities like like um I'm sorry I'm creating the name Um the the day in new Hyde park where everyone comes out um, street fair, street fair or VBS.

Everyone comes out Street fair, street fair or VBS.

There are many other good opportunities that we should take, but moving overseas helped show me a shrewdness that we need to have with regard to sharing the gospel.

When we moved overseas, we started with zero language.

We could say hello, which gets you about two seconds into a conversation and then you can't do anything else, and so we had to begin to try and make friends with very little language and start to build these relationships and to realize you have to get shrewd about it To think, okay, how can I see the same people over and over again so that they recognize me and I can begin to talk with them and progress a little bit further, whether it be going to the same bakery week after week, learning the people's names, asking them about their lives and oftentimes making a fool of myself Going to the same grocery stores trying to find the same cashier and talking to them, even if it's just a short interaction.

But week by week they stack up and people begin to recognize you, whether it means going to parks and talking to the other moms that are there, being intentional about the ways that the Lord has provided with our time and our ways.

We have to interact with people and but to see those not as as just daily life things but as opportunities to build relationships, to share the gospel, and coming back to realize that when we, when you have language, talking to the cashier, talking to the waiter when you're getting your food, is much, much easier and you can build those relationships a lot, lot faster.

And to and just the to realize that we have those opportunities to be shrewd with our time, not for ourselves and say how good at I am in sharing the gospel, but for the sake of the kingdom of God, knowing that God is spreading his good news to the world, that people will confess, people will come to know him, they will bow down before him, and to take opportunities to spread that gospel.

And I am always encouraged coming back to hear of the different people who are sharing with their family members, who, week after week, month after month, year after year are praying for their family members and sharing with them, and sharing with their coworkers and their friends.

Continue on in that task.

Continue to see who you can share with, whom the Lord has given you a relationship with, and seek to build new relationships to share with them.

It's not about the results.

The Lord never promises that every task we do will bring about a result or that every person we share with will come to know the Lord.

Praise God, it's not about results.

Praise God that.

It's about what he will do, that he is the one in control.

He is the one that turns people's hearts to him, that opens their eyes to see, and he has given us a place in that work and he gives us an opportunity to be willing to say yes, lord, I'm willing to take this time, I'm willing to take the time out of my schedule, I'm willing to be a little bit more awkward to talk to someone.

I'm willing to be willing to be made a fool for the sake of people coming to know you, because the Lord can and does use it.

We may not see all that he does and we might be discouraged because it seems like the work is not coming about, but he is planting seeds, he is watering those seeds and he will bring about fruit in his time and we can trust and rest upon it, because he alone is Lord.

He alone promises that, and it is not just about what the Lord is doing around us here, but our passage speaks of God's word going out to all the nations and the same willingness we should have to consider how the Lord might be using us.

Maybe there is an opportunity for you to make a transfer, to move internationally with your work If you work at a larger company, to consider how you might serve overseas in that way, to live in a place where there are churches but be an encouragement to the believers there.

Maybe you're, as you're approaching retirement, the Lord is providing you an opportunity to step into service full time, instead of taking time as you, as you step back from work, instead of taking that time to do things that you find enjoyable, to jump into ministry full time and to seek to find how you might serve, or maybe to to take even to go, as Christ did, to give all, to move to a foreign land and to learn their language and to share the gospel with those who have not yet heard, to be a light to the nations, and it does not depend on us.

In this passage, we don't see anything about the people of God or what they should do.

All in this passage it's the Lord, god.

This is what he says, this is what will come about.

He swears upon himself.

He is the one who saves, he is the one who justifies, he is the one who brings about this work, and we take confidence in that that.

It does not depend on how capable or willing we are.

He uses those things, but also God, oftentimes throughout scripture, uses the weak to shame the strong, who uses the unwise to shame the wise, that we should not discount the power of God to use each and every one of us to accomplish his path, accomplish his work.

That we can take confidence.

God has freely given us so much.

God has freely given us Jesus, his own son, that we might be saved.

He's given us new life in him, son, that we might be saved.

He's given us new life in him.

He's given us opportunities to talk with other people.

He's given us an abundance of wealth to share with those, to help send out those Freely.

We have been given much.

Let us, then, freely give of ourselves, of our time of our prayers.

Let us fall on our knees, praying for those praying for the word of God to go out, that those who have not yet heard would hear the gospel.

Let us freely give of ourselves, not because our own power will bring it about, but because the Lord is God, is God.

Let us store up treasures in heaven, giving of our life, giving of our time, of our money, of our prayers to see the gospel go to the ends of the earth, because there is no other God.

The nations, many of the nations, the people do not know the Lord.

They do not know the truth of the Bible.

They have never heard that God alone is the truth of the Bible.

They have never heard that God alone is the God of the world and that they are sinners and need to be saved by his grace.

Let us be a part of that word going out so that some may know that some who had never had the opportunity to hear, that those who had not heard will believe in those who had not.

I'm I'm blanking, I'm sorry.

Everyone blank on the passage, but they need to hear the truth.

Let us be a part of sending and giving towards that end.

Praise God, it does not depend on us, that he alone is Lord and that we can rest upon his salvation.

He does that work.

He is good and he will bring it to the end, and we can take confidence and purpose in that truth.

Let's thank the Lord, heavenly Father.

Let's thank the Lord, heavenly Father.

Thank you for your truth.

Thank you that you alone are good, that you alone are mighty, that you alone are the creator of the world.

We know the final judgment will come and in that day every knee will bow, every tongue will confess.

And, lord, we know that many will do so unwillingly, that they will be at a place of rebellion and will not.

They will do so unwillingly and go to eternal judgment, lord, but we also know that you are at work and will bring about your will to save for yourself a people from every tribe, tongue and nation.

That many in that day will bow before you willingly, with joy, singing your praises, and we want to work towards that end.

Help us to know how we can do that, to work with shrewdness.

Thank you for those here in this room who are doing that on a daily basis, who are giving regularly, who are praying regularly for the saints both here and overseas.

Lord, encourage them, remind them that you are at work, even when they can't see it.

Thank you, lord, for your goodness that you have brought us here.

Help us to remember your word as we go out this week.

Teach us to be a light to the world.

Pray us in Jesus' name, amen.