The Faithfulness of the Lord and the Futility of Babylon

I would invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the

Old Testament book of Isaiah, specifically Isaiah chapters 46

Isaiah 46 · chapter mention

and 47. If you're using the red Bibles

and the chairs around, you can find the page printed for you

and the bulletin for where you can find chapters 46 and 47.

So we continue on in our study of the book of Isaiah.

We have been reminding ourselves that we've moved into kind of

the last section of the book, chapters 40 through 66.

And as we are reading in these final chapters of Isaiah, you

should really be thinking about 3 separate time frames.

The first time frame is the time in which Isaiah ministered as he

spoke, as he wrote down these wonderful words, it was about

7:40 to 700 BC. But a second time frame that you

should have in your mind is who is he addressing in this

particular part of Isaiah? And we've talked about the fact

that as we've moved in to this last section, Isaiah's words are

focused not so much on the people in his day, but the

people about 150 years in the future, the people who would be

in exile in Babylon. But the third time frame you

should have in your mind is today, God's people today.

What does God's Word have to say for the people in all three of

those time frames? Let's look and see what God's

Word says today from Isaiah chapters 46 and 47.

Isaiah 46 · chapter mention

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 and

the scales hire a Goldsmith, and he makes it into a God.

Then they fall down and 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 is 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 council 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 my righteousness.

It is not far off, and my salvation will not delay.

I will put salvation in Zion for Israel.

My glory. Come, come down and sit in the

dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon.

Sit on the ground without a throne, O daughter of the

Chaldeans. For you shall no more be called

tender and delicate. Take the millstones and grind

flour. Put off your veil, strip off

your robe, uncover your legs. Pass through the waters, through

the rivers. Your nakedness shall be

uncovered, and your disgrace shall be seen.

I will take vengeance and I will spare no one.

Our Redeemer, the Lord of hosts, is His name, is the Holy One of

Israel. Sit in silence and go Into

Darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans, for you shall no more

be called the mistress of kingdoms.

I was angry with my people. I profaned MyHeritage.

I gave them into your hand. You showed them no mercy on the

aged. You made your yoke exceedingly

heavy. You said I shall be mistress

forever, so that you did not lay these things to heart or

remember their end. Now therefore hear this, you

lover of pleasures, who sits securely, who say in your heart

I am, and there is no one besides me.

I shall not sit as a widow or know the loss of children.

These two things shall come to you in a moment.

In one day the loss of children in widowhood shall come upon you

in full measure. In spite of your many sorceries

and great power of your enchantments, you felt secure in

your wickedness. You said, No one sees me.

Your wisdom and your knowledge LED you astray.

And you said in your heart, I am, and there is no one besides

me. But evil shall come upon you

which you will not know how to charm away.

Disaster shall fall upon you for which you will not be able to

atone, and ruin shall come upon you suddenly, of which you know

nothing. Stand fast in your enchantments

and and your many sorceries with which you have labored from your

youth. Perhaps you may be able to

succeed, perhaps you may inspire terror.

You are weary with your many councils.

Let them stand forth and save you.

Those who divide the heavens, who gaze at the stars, who at

the new moons, make known what shall come upon you.

Behold, they are like stubble. The fire consumes them.

They cannot deliver themselves from the power of the flame.

No coal for warming oneself is this.

No fire to sit before such to you are those with whom you have

labored, who have done business with you from your youth.

They wander about, each in his own direction.

There is no one to save you. Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for giving it to us.

We thank you for this portion of your word that we're looking at

today. As we read it, as we think about

it, as we meditate upon it. We pray you would open our eyes

and our hearts to see what You want us to see, to teach us what

we need to be taught, to grow us in our understanding of who you

are. And above all, Father, help us

to see Jesus, for we ask this in his name, Amen.

We've already seen at least a couple times in the book of

Isaiah that Isaiah addresses the the nation and the city of

Babylon, and he comes back to them one last time.

Here in the chapters that we've read for today, it'd be good to

remember some details about Babylon.

It was an empire that included much of what we think of as the

Middle East today, even including some of western Asia.

The capital city was Babylon, and that was located about 50

miles South of the current day Baghdad in Iraq.

Now, the ruins of the city still exist today.

It's considered a World Heritage site by UNESCO.

The Tower of Babel that we read about in Genesis 11 was thought

to have been built in Babylon. It also contained the famous

hanging gardens that the king of Babylon created had created for

his queen. It's considered one of the seven

wonders of the world. Now in Isaiah's day, the nation

of Assyria was the great world power, but they had begun to

wane and Babylon began to grow and become strong.

Eventually Babylon became the dominant world power, and around

586 BC, Babylon invaded and conquered the southern Kingdom

of Judah, taking them into exile.

But as is usually the case with dominant world powers,

eventually Babylon itself was conquered and destroyed.

The pride and the arrogance of the Babylonians was devastated

in a single day. It was 2611 years ago last

month, in October of 539 BC, Cyrus, who was the king of the

Medes and the Persians, conquered Babylon.

The accounts that we have explained that Cyrus's army

diverted the Euphrates River which ran next to the city of

Babylon and that allowed Cyrus's army to March on the dry

riverbed and enter the city bypassing the city walls.

They arrived undetected and they entered the city, surprising the

Babylonian king and the inhabitants of the city.

In fact, the king and his his court were in the midst of a

great celebration and feast when Cyrus's army entered the city.

Cyrus and his army took over the entire city almost without a

fight. The great and powerful and

arrogant nation and city of Babylon taken down in a single

day. Oh, how the mighty fall.

Now back in Isaiah 46 and 47, Isaiah tells us about that day

that was to come, the day when God would raise up Cyrus, he who

would guide and direct his army into the great city to conquer

it and take it over. But Isaiah goes even further.

He talks about the Absolute and the utter destruction of Babylon

such that it would no longer exist.

It doesn't. Today.

You can't go to the city of Babylon today.

Well, you can, but all you'll see are ruins in the dirt.

Now, why is this important for God's people to see and to know?

It's because as we see this and we understand what God said and

what God has done, it shows us once again the absolute

faithfulness and sovereignty of the one true God.

It shows us how He is at work accomplishing His purposes and

His plans and nothing can thwart Him.

It shows us that God is about the business of redeeming his

people, saving them and keeping them and preserving them.

It shows us that our God, the one true God, is a God to be

trusted, to be believed in, to be followed and obeyed and

loved. So let's look at the passage

today and let's see several things.

First of all, let's, let's look and see the, the contrast and

the comparison between these, these idols of Babylon that were

burdens and see that contrasted and compared to the one true God

who bears the burdens of his people.

And then secondly, let's look and see what we hear about the

destruction of Babylon. Then third, the wonderful

message to God's people about God's salvation.

And then lastly, we'll ask, So what, what difference does all

of this make for us today? First of all, notice the

contrast and the comparison here between the idols of Babylon and

how they were such a burden and the burden bearing God, the true

God. You can see right here at the

start of chapter 46 Isaiah draws this stark contrast.

Verses 1 and 2 bell bows down Nebo, Stoops.

Those were two of the the main Babylonian gods, and far from

acting and living and working, they are lame and inactive and

they are burdens. They have to be LED around on,

on beasts, weary beasts. They can't even move themselves.

They certainly can't save anyone or save anything.

They themselves, we are told here, have to bow down and

stoop. In contrast and verses 3 and 4,

God says listen my people, listen the people of God, I am

the one who has created you. I knew you before you were even

born. I am the one who carries you

from the womb and I will continue carrying and caring for

you until you are old with Gray hair, even to the very end.

He says, I am the one who makes, who bears, who carries, and who

saves. God continues by making a

comparison in verses 5 through 11.

He says, to whom or to what can you compare the Lord who, who is

like me? He says, who is my equal?

Is it? Is it the ones who who take

silver and gold and and use that to make an idol to make up their

God and then they fall down and worship the very thing that

they've made? Those idols, he says, have to be

lifted up and put on shoulders of people.

They have to be moved and carried around.

The people put the idols in a place and then the idol just

sits there. It can't move on its own.

It can't respond to the cries, the cries of need, the cries of

help, the cries of trouble. It certainly can't bring

salvation to anyone. The Lord goes on in verses 8 to

11 to make his point. Those fake gods, those false

idols, they can't compare with the Lord.

He says remember, recall to mind, remember the things in the

days of old. Remember the one true God.

There is no other, there is none that compares with Him.

Our God knows and declares the end from the beginning, from

ancient times, the future. It is our God who told Adam and

Eve in the garden that a Messiah would come in Genesis chapter 3.

Genesis 3 · chapter mention

It's our God who will be the one to raise up Cyrus, the the bird

of prey, as he's referred to here, the man of the Lord's

counsel, who would bring the destruction to Babylon.

It is our God, the one true God, not the false, ineffective

inanimate idols that will bring to pass the purposes of the

Lord. So the Lord is speaking to his

people here. He's saying, listen the listen

to me, my people, remember, know that I am the Lord, the only

God. The false idols of Babylon are

just a burden, but I am the true God who bears the burdens of my

people. Then as we move into chapter 47,

the focus shifts from this contrast and comparison between

God and the idols to an announcement, a declaration of

the destruction of Babylon. You can see that as we move into

chapter 47, the 1st 5 verses, we read about the utter humiliation

of Babylon. Babylon here is personified as

as a woman, as a lady. And what are we told about her?

That she will sit in the dust of the ground rather than on a

royal throne. She'll no longer be tender and

delicate. She'll live like a slave.

That's the reference there to the millstone grinding flower.

Her veil will be removed, her robe will be stripped off.

She'll have to hike up her dress and walk through rivers on her

own rather than being carried. Her nakedness will be uncovered

and she will be disgraced. She will sit in darkness and

silence and no longer have the titles that she once had.

And notice he says that of all, all of this will happen because

it's the Lord's doing. It is the Lord who will bring

vengeance. It is the Lord of hosts, the

Holy One of Israel, our Redeemer, who will accomplish

this. And he gives them reasons.

He he explains to them the causes of why this vengeance is

coming to them. The first is in verses 6:00 and

7:00. The Lord said that to judge his

people He was going to send them into exile.

And he he gave the people to Babylon.

He used Babylon for his own purposes.

But even though he was using Babylon for his own plan, it

didn't mean that Babylon wasn't going to be judged too.

Babylon was the means by which the Lord would discipline and

judge His people. But the Babylonians went even

further than what was needed. Notice what it says.

They showed no mercy even on the aged and elderly vulnerable

people in the society in the midst of them.

They made their yoke exceedingly heavy.

They didn't care for the vulnerable in their midst, but

they brought harm to them. We're cruel to them.

But another reason why the vengeance is coming is at the

beginning of verse 8. He calls them lovers of

pleasure. Now there's nothing wrong with

pleasure in and of itself, but the sense here is that the

Babylonians were being driven by pleasure.

Pleasure was the end to be achieved at whatever cost.

Pleasure was more important than trusting and serving the one

true God. Another reason the vengeance is

coming and you can see it in verses 8 through 11.

It's the pride of the Babylonians.

Their pride and their arrogance was extreme.

Look, look at what is said here, the end of verse 8.

They sit securely and they say to themselves, I am and there is

no one besides me. Do you see the level of

hypocrisy? Who is I am?

That is the special name that God gave to His people for

Himself. There is only one I AM.

There is only one Yahweh, and it is not the Babylonians.

It is the one true God. Notice also at the end of verse

8. They boast that they will never

have to experience the loss of a spouse or the death of a child,

but the Lord goes on at the beginning of verse 9 to tell

them that both of those things would brick come to pass.

The end of verse 9 we're told that they relied on their

sorceries and their enchantments to try to dictate and understand

and know the future. Verse 10 They felt secure in

their wickedness. They thought no one could see

them, no one could measure up to them.

And again they boast, I am, and there is no one besides me.

Verse 11. The Lord would send evil and

disaster and ruin to come upon Babylon, and no charms, no magic

would be able to help them. That's actually another reason

why the vengeance of the Lord is coming.

It's their sorcery. You can see it in verses 12

through 15 enchantments, sorceries, people who would gaze

into the sky and look at the stars and the moons and try to

understand and know the future. And he says all of it is is

futile. All of it will be like stubble

in a fire. It will be consumed, not in any

way able to deliver you. And then he tells them the

hardest stark words at the end. No one is coming to save them,

not even people that they've known since their youth.

No one, no one is coming to save them.

But I want you to notice that is not what is said to God's

people. Look back at chapter 46, verses

12 and 13 and notice these incredible words of God to His

people. The Babylonians had no one, no

one coming to save them. But what does God tell His

people in chapter 46, verses 12 and 13?

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.

God's people had stubborn hearts.

They were far from righteousness.

They could never earn God's acceptance with their own

righteousness. But the Lord calls on his people

to listen. Listen, he says, because

although no one is going to come and rescue and redeem and save

the Babylonians, the Lord promised He would bring

salvation for His people. Even though the righteousness of

God's people is far off, the Lord would bring His own

righteousness, which was not far off.

He would bring salvation to Zion for Israel, which was His glory.

So what? What do we do with all of this

today? Four things. 4 hours Receive.

Remember, root out and restore. First of all, receive.

Receive what? Receive the righteousness of

God. Isn't this remarkable?

Isn't this amazing? The gospel of God's grace and

mercy is so clearly proclaimed in the book of Isaiah, 700 years

before Jesus arrived. Do you see what is being said

here? The people aren't righteous in

themselves. They are stubborn hearted

sinners. But the Lord declares them

righteous. Through His righteousness He

redeems them. The Apostle Paul unfolds and

unpacks this for us and even more clarity in Romans chapter,

excuse me, Romans chapter 3 and verse 21.

Romans 3 · chapter mention

He says, but now the righteousness of God has been

manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the

prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through

faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no

distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of

God, and are justified by His grace as a gift through the

redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a

propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

This was to show God's righteousness because in His

divine forbearance He had passed over former sins.

It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He

might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in

Jesus. Do you see what Isaiah is

proclaiming, what God is proclaiming through Isaiah to

his people, that we see Paul unpacking for us that the

righteousness of God has been manifested, that the law and the

prophets, the Old Testament tells us about it.

All have sins, all have stubborn hearts.

Everyone falls short of the glory of God, of obeying God's

word. But through faith in Jesus, we

are justified by the gift of God's grace.

We are declared righteous in God's sight because of the work

of Jesus on the cross. Jesus came to be the

propitiation for us. That's a a big word.

That means that through his blood, through his sacrifice on

the cross, God's wrath and judgment is turned away from us

and it is put on Christ. And now we get the righteousness

of God credited to us simply by faith, by believing and trusting

in Jesus. Have you received the

righteousness of God? It's the only way to be accepted

by God. It's the only way to go to

heaven. You get it by putting your faith

in the Lord Jesus Christ and believing in who he who he is

and all that he accomplished receive the righteousness of

God. Secondly, remember, Remember

what the Lord regularly tells His people, like in verses 8

through 10 of chapter 46. Here, like in Psalm 143 that we

read earlier in the service, the the Lord regularly tells these

people, remember, recall, remember what?

Remember the Lord. Remember and reflect on His

faithfulness in the past. The people back then had the

stories in the history of God's faithfulness to his covenant

promises to his people going all the way back to the Garden of

Eden. And he called on his people to

remember back to, to bring to mind, to, to recall all that God

had done and said in order that they might trust that he would

continue to be at work saving and securing and caring for his

people, the brothers and sisters in Christ.

How much more so is that true for God's people today?

We have the entire story. We have the beginning and the

end. And the Lord calls on us to

remember as well to, to look back and to recall all that God

has said and all that he has done, His faithfulness, His

goodness, His love, His care, His protection, his preservation

of his people. That helps us in various ways to

do that when we're doubting. Does God really love me?

Can God actually forgive me? Again, when we're doubting, when

without, we remember these things and it helps us to trust

the Lord when, when He's at work in our lives in ways that we

don't understand or we don't like it.

It helps us to trust and to rest in His purposes for us.

We know the faithfulness of our God.

We know the goodness of our God. We know the grace of our God.

We can trust Him even when we're doubting.

It also helps us when we are in seasons of discouragement being

down. We remember the work and the

words and the promises of the Lord, and it can fill us with

hope and comfort and peace. So the question is, how do we

remember the Lord? How do we reflect?

How do we recall on the Lord? Well, the Lord's given us some

very specific tools to do just that.

They're called the means of grace.

We can read his Word and meditate upon it.

We can spend time talking to the Lord in prayer.

We can come to corporate worship with God's people regularly,

hearing God's Word preached and participating in the sacraments

of the church. We can spend time with God's

people and be in fellowship with them.

These are all gracious and generous gifts the Lord has

given His people to help us to remember, to recall, to reflect.

We are to receive the Lord's righteousness.

We are to remember the Lord. Thirdly, root out.

Root out what? Well, the two big issues that

the Lord addressed for Babylon were their idols and their

pride. We need to root the idols of our

lives out. Our idols are obviously

different from the Babylonian idols or even the idols that

God's people used on occasion, but they are no less harmful and

they are no less damaging to us. As John Calvin said, our hearts

are idol factories. We have the ability to make

almost anything, even good things, into an idol that we

worship and trust more than God. We can do that with

relationships, whether that's with a spouse, a child, or a

parent. We can do that with our

vocational success and attainment, name recognition,

finances, political ideology. We can do it with our church, we

can do it with our theology, and those are all good things,

things that we can be tempted to turn into ultimate things, let

alone the negative things that we make into idols in our lives,

like addiction to alcohol, painkillers, pornography,

gambling. What are the idols of your

heart? What are the things that you

worship other than the Lord? What are the things that you

rest in more than the Lord? It's pretty clear in Isaiah what

the Lord thinks of idols. We must root them out of our

lives. But it's not just rooting out

idols. It's also rooting out pride.

Now maybe our pride hasn't risen to the level of the Babylonians.

I doubt very seriously anybody here in this room would proclaim

I am and there is no other God besides me.

But even lesser pride is deadly and can cause us to fall and can

form rot in our hearts. We say it regularly.

Of all people, God's people who understand and believe the

gospel of God's grace should be the most humble people of all.

How is your pride? How is the pride of your heart?

Don't let it linger, Don't let it fester, Don't let it grow.

Don't. Don't nurture it and think of it

as insignificance, but instead, with intention and ruthlessness,

root it out of your life. Root it out of your head and

your heart. Repent of it and turn away from

it and turn humbly back to the Lord and humbly love and serve

others. Receive, remember, root out.

Lastly, restore, restore what? Well, I needed another R, and

this is the one that the thesaurus gave me.

But the sense of what I mean here is this.

God's people are called to take care of the vulnerable, to

restore the vulnerable in our midst.

The Babylonians were cruel. They lacked mercy, and they took

advantage of and didn't care for the vulnerable in their midst.

And God's people are called to restore and to care for the

vulnerable and those in need around us.

As we close this morning, can I share with you just an example

of how that was happening this week and an example also of ways

that you could participate in in caring for the vulnerable?

This past week, our Trinity Care Portal team did a couple of

deliveries. Now, if you don't remember, Care

Portal is a network of Christians.

They received legitimate, genuine needs of people that are

in our community. These are needs that are vetted

by social workers, law enforcement officers, nurses,

social services, and then those vetted needs are sent out to the

network of churches and the churches choose to take on

specific needs and to meet those needs.

On Tuesday, we earlier this week we found out about a need in our

community, a single mom with four kids.

The mom and the kids had fled domestic violence situation,

horrific domestic violence situation.

They had been living in various temporary places, even in a

hotel for months. Through the help of social

services, an apartment for the family was secured and they were

going to move in this week because they had fled the

domestic violence situation so quickly and because of some

other difficult circumstances in their life.

They had very, very little. No furniture, very little if any

kitchen supplies, kitchen utensils, plates, glasses, very

few toys for the kids. Our team met up with some other

Christians of another good church here in town and

delivered an entire truck full of furniture that had been

donated and then spent time helping to get everything set up

and put together. And as our team interacted with

the mom and the kids, we started to see some additional needs in

the family. So somebody on the team got went

and got some fresh fruit and brought it to the house.

Another person on the team donated the mom 4 pairs of shoes

and a bag of clothing and the mom said that's more shoes than

she's ever had. Someone heard that one of the

kids had a birthday yesterday, which back then was coming up.

So somebody on the team went and got a cake and bought some gifts

and some toys and it all got delivered Friday night before

the birthday on Saturday. Someone provided extra kitchen

supplies and utensils and plates and cups and cooking utensils.

Someone provided a a quilt they had made.

And along the way, the mom and the kids were hearing that all

of this was being done by Christians who love Jesus and

who believe that they're called to care for and restore the

vulnerable in those in need. Our team even got to pray with

the mom. Later last week, our team heard

about another need in the community.

It was a homeless family that was in need of some winter gear.

It's getting cold. This family didn't have the the

winter gear that they needed to have.

So one of our team on top of the fact that they are homeless,

three of the five family members have a neurological disorder

that causes embarrassing symptoms.

One of our team members took a bunch of winter things to the

nurse that was overseeing this family.

When the nurse, the nurse then told us that as she let the dad

know all the things that had been brought, the dad began to

weep. The nurse was so moved that she

handwrote a note back to our team thanking us for caring for

people in the community. These are these are easy and yet

meaningful ways for God's people to care for and restore the

vulnerable and those in need in our community.

Would you, would you consider joining our Care Portal team?

Would you consider thinking about donating some funds for

the team to use and meeting the needs in the community or even

donating things that we can put in our care portal storage unit

that we could use to give away in the future?

If you'd like to do any of that, speak with Ethan Calvert and he

can help you to understand how you can plug in.

Let me mention just one last way that we can be involved in

restoring and caring for the the vulnerable in our midst.

I'd encourage you to go on to our church website and to check

out our own Alongside Orphans page that's on our website.

There are all kinds of resources listed there, both local

resources and and global resources.

Organizations that like Together for Good here in Rochester

that's getting restarted that that are seeking to serve and

support what God is doing and ministering to the vulnerable in

our communities. At the very least, you can find

out what organizations are doing so you can be praying for them,

but maybe even supporting or getting involved with them.

Receive the righteousness of God.

Remember the Lord who He is, what He has said, what He has

done. Root out the idols and the pride

in your heart and restore care for the vulnerable and those in

need. Let's pray together.

Father, as we read your word in the book of Isaiah, at times it

can feel so distant from us. Distant in time, distant in

location, distant in culture, distant in how you were at work

with your people. And yet we see so many ways that

it applies to your people today. So Father, give us eyes to see.

We pray that you would use your word through the work of the

Holy Spirit to actually change us, to make us look and sound

and act more and more like our Savior as we seek to glorify you

and serve you and obey you and love you.

All this we ask in Jesus name, Amen.