God is in control of everything. That has been particularly pressed upon me lately. God is interested in your life at this time. He is careful to organise things, so that He can prove His love for us.
Isaiah is often referred to as a fifth Gospel and I will be particularly concentrating on the following verse.
Isaiah 45:22
At that point in time, Jerusalem was in ruins, and various prophets had foretold that worship would resume at Jerusalem, and the temple would be rebuilt.
Isaiah 45:1 - 4
Cyrus, the king of Persia, would outwork the purposes that God wanted for His people, the children of Israel. God knows the affairs of man. History is about God building His church at this time, in His way, worldwide. There are situations in your life, perhaps, where you’ve thought that you just don’t know the way forward. Your God is in control of your situation. He’s heard you. He’s not caused you to be washed up on a beach somewhere, stranded.
Isaiah 45:5 - 8
God is in complete control. Some of you have been wondering in your heart about the way forward in your life, and God, by His Holy Spirit will quicken to you that now is the time to just realise what Christ did for you on Calvary, and what the resurrection from the dead is going to mean to you personally at this time. What does it mean for me to be a Christian?
Isaiah 45:9 - 12
He’s the creator God. He gave you life and formed you in the womb.
Isaiah 45:13 – 15
It doesn’t matter what the situation is with the people around you. God specialises in changing things where the impossible to your mind becomes possible in Him. He specialises in that. When He was hanging on the cross, and everyone had written Him off, it was the end... and yet it was the beginning. He endured the cross for your sin and my sin.
Isaiah 45:15-17
If that isn’t clear, I don’t know what is. Through Isaiah the prophet, God is saying, this is what I am. This is who I am.
Isaiah 45:18 - 21
I am your Saviour. Look to me.
What is it that you’ve tried to put into your life to plug that gap? God is saying to you, I am your Saviour. Look to me.
Isaiah 45:22
Look unto me. There’s not some weird formula or some weird experience that you must have. Look unto me, He says. That’s all. All He wants us to do is to look. You don’t have to prove yourself or be somebody, you don’t have to do this or that so I can bless you. Look unto me, God says. Forget everything else you’re trying to fill your life with. Look unto me, and be ye saved.
This was the verse that converted Spurgeon. He was so conscious of his sin and his need of a saviour, and he realised it was so simple. He thought, I can do that. I can look. You can do that. There’s nobody that is of a different caste. There’s nobody that isn’t of the elite.
Who is He? He’s God. Who is like Him? No one. What can you somehow have as a replacement for God? Nothing. Would you want a replacement? I don’t think so. Why would you want a replacement? All that’s needed is for you to realise that you can’t do it on your own.
I was looking through various phrases that Jesus said in the Gospel of John.
John 8:12
John 10:11
John 12:32
John 14:6
He knows what He’s doing, and He loves you. He knows your inside, and He wants your inside to propel your outside. He’s the only one who can get hold of the inside of you and change everything. No one else can do that.
Isaiah 45:23 - 25
Philippians 2:5 – 11
Romans 14:11 – 12
It all ends there. There is a direct quote of Isaiah 45 in Romans 14. We will all give account of ourselves to God. There are some here today, who know in their hearts, right now, God is saying, Come on, look unto me and be ye saved. He loves you.
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