Isaiah 43:11

So let's pray. Father in heaven, we are thankful for the opportunity to be here after enjoying your word for this day here. And we are also looking forward to keeping listening to your word tomorrow.

And now we want to read from the scripture and appreciate the Lord's work in the cross and present himself as the only unique Savior that any person needs. And we think if there's anybody among us who is still living in their sins, who still doesn't have a Savior, we ask for the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit working in their hearts and minds. We commit it to you in the name of the Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Amen. So great joy to be here tonight. Today it's our, it's not our birthday, but six months since we came from Chile, from South America.

For those who maybe are wondering who is this guy, Pablo Seguel, this is me. I'm from Chile. And I'm Uncle Bruce.

I can say Uncle Bruce because he is my wife's uncle. And my wife and I, Cheryl, we are commanded workers. We are from Chile, but we are living in the States for a while.

And we came here to this nice country, I have to say, six months ago. So time goes fast. And I hope that I can express myself better than six months ago with my English.

So I want to read only one verse in the book of Isaiah chapter 43. The book of Isaiah chapter 43 and verse 11. I'm going to read from the New King James Version.

If you notice something different, it's only for a little bit more simple English for me. Verse 11. I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me, apart from me, there is no Savior.

I, even I, am the Lord, and besides me, there is no Savior. This is a great, great statement in this great, great chapter on this great, great book. And for those who are acquainted with the Old Testament, you should know, or maybe you will remember that from chapter 40 on, the prophet is addressing the people with words of comfort.

As other prophets did, Isaiah is also conveying a message of judgment to a people that has been unfaithful to God. So chapter 39 finishes with the visit of those people from Babylon to the King Isaaciah. And there's when Isaiah told him that, yeah, you see these guys? These people will come in the future and will take everything from here.

But you know the story. But in this chapter, in chapter 43, the prophet, the Lord, through the prophet, is talking to his people and he is announcing them that he will save them. And God wants to make several points in this chapter.

For instance, he wants to make very clear that he and he only can save. Nobody else can save. And this is, maybe you're thinking, yeah, I know this.

I know that only God can save. But if we look into the context, we will notice why God is saying this. God is saying, God is reminding, God is addressing to a nation, his nation, that has been accused of being blind and deaf.

For example, in verse 8, bring out the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. And this is, you know, this kind of expression. Having eyes, they don't see.

Having ears, they don't hear. It's in a way to express that people became so insensitive to the identity of God. They have become so hardened, so hard in their hearts, that they are not able to recognize that God is the only God who can save.

We also, we should know and we should have in mind that this book was written about when? Last year? No, almost 3,000 years ago. And the people of Israel, probably 7th century BC. Yeah, BC.

And the people of Israel have become so influenced by the surrounded cultures, by other cultures, pagans, heathens. And if we compare with other scripture, and I know that you probably know the stories, you will remember the stories in the book of Judges, for instance, or even the days of Elijah when the people were worshiping a false god as Baal. And this is interesting because the ancient Near culture, how they saw, I'm not talking about Israel, but the cultures that surrounded them, how they saw their gods, it's very interesting to know.

They really believed in those gods. They really trusted in them. These people, these nations, these pagans surrounded Israel, and Israel started to receive all this influence from them.

They saw their gods, because they had a lot of gods. They saw their gods are the beings able to save them, able to deliver them. They saw their gods are able to give them a good harvest, for example.

And they had all this kind of weird, for us in our culture today, all these weird kind of rituals and acts, so weird actions toward these gods. The problem was that Israel was influenced by this. They started to put the god of Israel aside, and they were trusting in these gods.

They were trusting in them. One of the things that the culture had was a ritual called the washing of the mouth. Do you remember this? Actually Isaiah speaks about this, that he's mocking about that people who takes a piece of wood, and then the craftsman designed a beautiful sculpture, and with the leftovers, he makes fire.

Remember, I don't remember the chapter right now. This is close to this chapter. And Isaiah is mocking of that.

But these people, they had a ritual called the washing of the mouth. And after the craftsman finished the sculpture, they throw the craftsman's tools into the river and proclaim that that sculpture had been born in heaven. They acknowledged by that ritual that that sculpture was not made by human hands, but that has been born in heaven.

Interesting. So they really believed that the god inhabited in that sculpture. That is the context of this chapter.

God is saying, God is expressing that he is the only one that can save, that there is no other god. For example, in verse 7, everyone who's called by my name, whom I have created for my glory. This is totally opposite of what the heathens believed.

Their gods, for instance, their god were always fighting each other. This is, if you can read this, it's a lot of literature. Maybe it's gonna be boring for you, but it's very interesting to see how these gods were fighting all the time.

They made mistakes. And the gods, they could procreate other gods as well. And again, we think, how the people of Israel could believe that? How the people of Israel could believe that kind of religion? Well, God is saying in verse 7, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory.

This is what I wanted to say. In one of the accounts of the creation, because the other cultures, the ancient cultures, they had their own creation accounts. I don't know.

One of the most famous is called the Enuma Elish. And that account tells us how the gods created the world. And do you know why the gods created humans? Because they were tired.

So they wanted the humans to do their jobs. That's why they created humans. That's how they saw the gods.

What is God saying here? No, it's not that way. I am the God. I am the only God.

I, I myself, verse 11, I, even I am the Lord. And in verse 7, he says, everyone who is called by my name, whom I have created for my glory. So God created you.

God created me. And he created us for his glory. Not to be a, not, not to, not with the purpose to do the hard job that the gods didn't want to do.

God created us with a high purpose, which is to live for him, to honor his name, to have a relationship with them. And if anyone here is not saved yet, it's not yet saved. I'm trying to enhance my grammar.

You have to know this. If you are not a believer, if you have not believed in the Lord Jesus Christ yet as your personal savior, you are wasting, you are losing your life. You won't find any purposes apart from Christ because God created you for his glory.

And when you are a true believer, when you believe in Jesus Christ as your savior, you started a relationship with God, which, which will fulfill the purposes for which he created you. You can have success in every area of your life. And at the end of your life, if you are able to live 100 years without Christ, you will look behind and you will see, I was, I lost my life.

So this is the God in whom we believe, the God who created us, the God who formed us, who made us. And in verse 8, he says, bring out the blind people who have eyes and the deaf who have ears. Let all the nations be gathered together and let the people be assembled.

What's the reason? Who among them can declare this? I'm their witnesses that they might, that they may be justified or let them hear and say, it is truth. You are my witnesses, say the Lord. I am and my servant whom I have chosen that you may know and believe me.

What is the Lord saying here? He's gathering an assembly. He's, he's saying, bring a lot of witnesses, bring everyone, especially those who believes in other gods. Can they be witnesses of their gods? Can they talk about their gods? Can they speak? Can there be witnesses of the great miracles of the great performances of their gods? Of course not.

They don't have nothing to witness about because of course, those, of course, those gods doesn't exist. Those gods, as explained before, they, they were, they, they fail all the time. They were not, um, a sour god who doesn't fail.

They, they couldn't say, they couldn't deliver the people. Of course, there's no witnesses because those gods had performed, had performed nothing. But the people of God, those who are believers, those who are the people of God, who belong to the people of God, they can testify about the great things that God has made.

We are his witnesses. And I think it was, I don't know, it was a brother, uh, Higgins or Uncle Bruce, who said that people is not listening to us, but they are watching us. They are not, they don't want to hear anymore.

But they are seeing us. We are God's witnesses. We are those who can present it, the great, the greatest God's performance in history, which is the cross.

Well, you are my witnesses. And look at the end of verse 10. Before me, there was no God formed, nor shall there be after me.

The Hebrew text is very emphatic here. There's a lot of instances where God is using the personal pronoun. I'm so glad when brother Higgins was talking about grammar because I love grammar.

Yeah, words are important. Yeah, prepositions, participles, verbs, nouns are important, are fundamental. So thank you very much.

But there's a lot of personal pronouns here. Hebrew has two kinds of personal pronouns in the first person. I, yo in Spanish, but Hebrew has ani and anochi.

And many times God uses the longest pronoun, probably with the idea of emphasis. God is saying anochi, anochi Yahweh. I, I am the Lord.

I, I myself, I'm the Lord. There's no other gods. How, how can you be so foolish in trusting in gods that they're not gods? They can't save you.

Can you notice how the chapter starts in verse, in verse one? Thus the Lord, thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob, and he who formed you, O Israel, fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And through the rivers, they shall not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you shall not be burned, nor shall be flame scorch you.

For I am the Lord. I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. This is the Savior we have.

I know this is a gospel message. The gospel is for everyone, not only for unbelievers. We believers, we also need the gospel, not to be saved again, but to appreciate how great is the salvation we have in Christ.

And the Lord is saying, we are, and you can pray for this, we are having tremendous fires in Chile right now. Tremendous fires through all the country. You know, Chile is a very, Chile is not the Mexican thing, just in case.

The country is very long, looks like a Chile, but it's a long country. It's so long that we don't have, we only have north and south. We don't have east and west.

And the fire is going kilometers, hundreds of kilometers. And we have seen images of animals that have been killed. Nobody could deliver them.

And many people is coming, the states, the people is sending, they rent a huge airplane, a jumbo, 747, a super tanker, they call it, super tanker to help with the fire. What I want to say is many people, many animals and some people have died because no one had the ability to save them, to deliver them. That is what a savior is.

A savior is someone who has the power and the authority to deliver someone from peril or danger. God, our God, our creator is the only one who can save, is the only one who can say, if you go through the waters, I have the power to protect you. If you go through the fire, I have the power to protect you.

You can ask, you know, Daniel, Daniel's friends. Oh, I wish we could have the power to save those from the flames of the fire, but we can't. We don't have that power.

God is the only one who can call himself a savior. I, I am the Lord. I, even I am the Lord.

And besides me, there is no savior. I have declared and saved. I have proclaimed and there was no foreign God among you.

Therefore, you are my witnesses, says the Lord that I, I am God. And you can read this phrase over and over in this chapter. I am God.

I am he. This is what he says in verse, um, in verse, uh, in verse 10 and understand that I am he. And again, in verse 13, indeed, before the days was, I am he.

So this God who can saves, he wasn't created. He is the creator. He doesn't need you.

You need him. He can save you. He's the only one who can save you because as the prophet Jonah said, salvation belongs to Yahweh.

Now, if you're not a believer, let me say it. Let me tell you that you are in worst, in a worst state that these guys here. If you are not a believer, you are worse than those heathens in the past.

If you are not a believer, it's because you are trusting in something else or someone else that makes you an idolater or a heathen or a pagan worse than these people 3,000 years ago. Did you know that? Did you wear, did you, uh, have, oh, sorry. Now, you know.

Now, you know, not trusting God. First of all, listen, there's something interesting here. God wants to save you.

He's the only one who wants to save you. If you are not a believer yet, that makes you an idolater, a heathen, a pagan because you are trusting. Maybe you're trusting that you're young.

Maybe you're trusting that you have good health. Maybe you are trusting that in all your family, everyone has died when they have 90 or 100 years old. So, you think, well, I will, I have like 80 years ahead of me.

So, I have plenty of time to do whatever I want to do, whatever I want to do in my life. I don't need God right now. But when I need God, I will recall, I will call on Him and He will save me.

I don't need God right now. You are acting, you are living as a pagan, as an idolater, as a, as a heathen because you are trusting in you, in your health, in your capacities, whatever, but not in God. And let me tell you, none of those things that you are trusting on will save you from condemnation.

Furthermore, and I'm finishing here now, verse God wants to save you. Yes, He is the Lord. Yes, He is the Lord that saves.

Yes, He protects and saves those who belong to Him. Yes, but this is a little bit scary in verse 13. And well, indeed, before the days was, I am He and there is no one.

There is no one can deliver out of my hand. I work and who will reverse it? No one can deliver out of my hand. That's the problem.

The problem is if you don't go to God, if you don't believe the gospel, if you don't believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, that's the very God who wants to save you. He says, there's no chance, no way. There's no chance that you can escape from my hand.

I hope that you can think tonight about our great God we have, our great Savior we have. And I hope that from tonight you can say, yes, before today, Jesus wasn't my Savior, but now He is my Savior. So may the Lord bless His work.