Gary Hamrick - The One True God (01/22/2026)
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In Isaiah 44-46, God repeatedly declares Himself as the one true God with no equal, contrasting His power with the futility of idols, and Pastor Gary urges the church to reject modern idolatry and boldly proclaim that salvation is found only in the God who created the universe, predicts the future, and saves through Jesus Christ.
Opening and Invitation to Ministry Room
Let’s take your Bibles and go to Isaiah chapter 44, if you would with me, please. Isaiah chapter 44. We have one or two Bibles, and if we can still hand them out if you need one; otherwise, your electronic device is probably going to be your best friend right now as we go through the Bible together. And I will tell you in advance—not that I’m really apologizing because it’s all good; it’s all God’s Word—but you are going to be turning a lot to see different passages with me because there’s a concentrated subject between chapters 44 and 46 of Isaiah. And so just get ready to have your fingers do the turning of the pages or the sliding of the pages on your electronic devices. We’ve got a lot to cover this morning.
While you’re finding your place there in Isaiah 44, I wanted to mention to you: I will be in the ministry room today. Once in a while, I stop by there just so that I can meet those of you who are new to the church. So if you’re new to the church in the last couple of weeks or a couple of months, I’d love the opportunity to meet you. The ministry room is through the exits to my left, and as soon as you get through the exit, the ministry room is right there on your right. And I love the chance just to say hi, give you some donuts or coffee, send you on your way. So if you’re interested in stopping by, please do so after the service today. I’d love the chance to meet you.
Scripture Readings from Isaiah 44-46
For this morning, though, we’re here in Isaiah 44, and I’m going to read verses from chapters 44, 45, and 46. So again, get ready to do some turning with me. I’m going to start in chapter 44, verse 8. And I think you’ll see pretty quickly the common repeated theme in the verses that we’re going to read here.
Isaiah 44, verse 8 says, «Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other Rock; I know not one.»
Now go to chapter 45. Chapter 45, verse 5: «I am the Lord, and there is no other; apart from me there is no God. I will strengthen you, though you have not acknowledged me, so that from the rising of the sun to the place of its setting men may know there is none besides me. I am the Lord, and there is no other.»
Further down here, chapter 45, verse 18: «For this is what the Lord says—he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited—he says: I am the Lord, and there is no other.»
Now, you’re an intelligent crowd—do you get the theme by now? Still a few more verses. Still further down, chapter 45, verse 21: «Declare what is to be, present it—let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.»
One last verse—chapter 46 and verse 9: «Remember the former things, those of long ago; I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.»
Message Title and Prayer
The title of my message today: The One True God.
Let’s pray together. Father, we thank you as we open up our Bibles that we can be reminded that you alone are unique and superior and majestic and unequaled in all the universe. And we thank you, Lord, that we have the opportunity to gather here, that we can call you our Father, that you loved us so much you sent your Son Jesus to die for our sins. So we just stand in awe of you, and we just worship you, Lord. And we trust that you will not only be glorified through our singing but also now glorified as we study your Word and as we apply it to our lives. We do love you, Lord, and we praise you together, giving thanks. We remember our team to Haiti, and we pray for their safety while there. We pray for their safety when they return. Keep them healthy, and we just look forward to hearing great reports of how you were glorified among the Haitian people, that you would use our team as they just share the love of Jesus. We look forward to hearing how you have worked in the hearts and lives of many people. Bring them back safely to us, Lord. And we just give you thanks together in Jesus' name, and everybody said amen.
The Repetition of God’s Uniqueness
Well, as you no doubt noticed between chapters 44 and 46, there is this repetition over and over again of how the Lord is unique in all the universe—that there is no god like Him, that He is unmatched and unequaled compared to other gods (small g), and that all other gods are fabrications or imitations or deceptions. Only the God of the Bible is the true God—exclusive, distinct, and without equal in the universe.
And the reason why God is saying this over and over again through Isaiah the prophet is because at this particular time in Jewish history, the Jews have replaced the worship of the true and only God with the worship of idols made of wood and metal. And so in the book of Isaiah, you won’t find any chapters more concentrated than these—44 to 46—about the emphasis on knowing these other gods of wood and metal are fake gods; they’re false gods. And the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is the only true God, and He is distinct from all other gods.
You see it emphasized here because at this time in Israel’s history, they have begun to worship idols, and they have stopped worshiping the true and living God. This is in part why Isaiah is prophesying to the people of Judah—the southern portion of Israel—because he’s warning them: you people are serving and worshiping false gods. They can’t help you; they don’t walk; they can’t talk; they don’t love you; they can’t save you. And so this is so foolish. And there’s the futility of idolatry. This is what Isaiah is warning them about. Because if they don’t turn from their idols and start worshiping the true and living God, Isaiah tells them in advance the Babylonians are going to come. They’re going to sweep down on you, and they’re going to take you captive; they’re going to haul you back to Babylon. Life’s not going to go well for you. So you ought to turn.
And so in these chapters, God is just trying to emphasize: listen, I’m the true and living God; there is none like me; I’m the only one. Stop following these foolish, senseless gods—don’t have arms, don’t have legs, don’t have eyes, don’t have mouths. They can’t help you; they can’t speak. You pray to them; they can’t answer your prayers. They can’t save you; they won’t rescue you. And so He just continues to remind them of His legitimacy and their illegitimacy, of His reality and their unreality.
The Foolishness of Idols
And part of what God does here in these chapters through Isaiah is to just kind of dismantle all of their thinking relative to idols. And so if you’ll go back to chapter 44 with me, I’m going to read through some verses where God is basically saying to them: are you kidding me? I mean, do you really think that your idols can help you? And actually, when I read through these verses, I find them humorous because I think God is being a bit sarcastic in the way that He’s trying to get them to see, in their foolishness, how ridiculous these idols are.
So God starts to point out just the foolishness of these idols. So in chapter 44, for example, in verse 12: «The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint.»
Okay, so God’s painting a picture, and He’s basically saying: do you really want a god that you can shape with a hammer? All right, is this the kind of God you think is going to really show up in your time of need? A blacksmith has to fashion this god with a hammer. Oh, and by the way, I hope that the blacksmith has been eating some food and drinking, because otherwise he’s going to get faint. And there’s nothing worse than your god not being able to be fashioned because of a faint blacksmith.
Okay, now a little group participation here today, because I’m going to be reading these verses, and then I’m going to pose the ridiculous question that kind of highlights the foolishness of the idols. And then I’m going to point to you. When I point to you, I want you in unison to say: «What kind of God is that?» All right? Say it—it’ll just be fun. Just relax; it’s going to be fun. So let’s just try it. You’re going to say: «What kind of God is that?» Because, you know, you’re pointing out the ridiculousness of these idols. So I’m going to point to you; you’re going to say: «What kind of God is that?» Go ahead. Ready? Okay, good. Now perfect. Now keep that up.
So here we go. So do you really want a God that you can shape with a hammer?
Exactly, exactly. And you know, by the way, the blacksmith is singing a song while he’s fashioning this idol: «Can’t touch this"—because it’s hammer time. Anyway.
Verse 13—some of you have no idea; those over—you’re young. Like hammer time.
Verse 13: the carpenter now. We go from a blacksmith to the carpenter. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker. He’ll use—drawing a face on a piece of wood here—and he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He wants to make sure the thing’s due north, right? And he shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine.
Okay, so the question is: do you really want a god that a carpenter can shape with a chisel?
Exactly. And you know, now what song the carpenters are singing: «Rainy days and Mondays always get me down.» «We’ve only just begun, ” friends. We’ve only just begun. I’m having flashbacks of the 70s and 80s; that’s what’s happening right now. The Carpenters. All right, anyway.
Verse 14—keep looking. Verse 14: „He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak"—talking about the man making an idol—"and he let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it.»
All right, so then from these verses, the question becomes: do you really want a God made from a tree—made from the same firewood used to cook your meal and to warm you when you’re cold?
Exactly. I mean, what kind of a God do you want to worship where you take half of the tree and you make fire with it, and the other half: oh, that’s my god. That’s my god. This doesn’t make sense.
Further down in verse 19, He kind of spells it out. He says, «No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, 'Half of it I used for fuel; I even baked bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a detestable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood? '»
So God is just pointing all this out: listen, this is ridiculous. You’re not going to be helped. Why are you worshiping these things?
Go to chapter 46—couple more verses just to highlight the foolishness and the futility of idolatry. In chapter 46, I’m going to read verses 5, 6, and 7: «To whom will you compare me or count me equal? To whom will you liken me that we may be compared?» This is God speaking. «Some pour out gold from their bags and weigh out silver on the scales; they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it. They lift it to their shoulders and carry it; they set it up in its place, and there it stands. From that spot it cannot move. Though one cries out to it, it does not answer; it cannot save him from his troubles.»
So you look at these verses here, and basically God’s asking: do you really want a god that you have to melt to make? I mean, people are holding gold and silver and to a goldsmith: melt this down; make me a nice god so that I can worship. Or do you want a god you can hoist on your shoulder and carry? I mean, really—I think I want a bigger God than a god I can carry around, right? Or do you want a God really that you can prop up in a corner—just put him in a corner: just stay there? Or a god that cannot answer you or save you? Do you really want all that?
What kind of a God is that?
That’s no God at all.
Illustration with «God Lemon»
Now, this whole concept of idolatry—it really is foreign to us, isn’t it? Because, you know, nobody that I know is making a little idol out of wood or metal or some material and then bowing down and worshiping it. So when we think about the way that the Jewish people were doing this, you know, 2700 years ago, it is so foreign to our thinking. But people actually made things and worshiped them.
And because it’s so foreign to our thinking, I thought I would just illustrate it for us and have a little conversation with you. I want to introduce you to my god lemon. This is my god lemon. I call him John Lemon. And every time I pray to him, all I hear him say is: «Imagine there’s no heaven.» It’s a very depressing song, actually. Keeps asking: imagine that there’s no heaven—that it’s easy if you try; no hell below us, above us only sky. Imagine all the people just living for today. It’s a very sad song, isn’t it? That’s what my god came up with.
You know, in all seriousness, that song by John Lennon—that song is all about just the here and now. There’s no heaven; there’s no hell; there’s no God; there’s no reality other than just what you make it. Now, it really is a depressing song. The problem is, however, that it’s become so a part of Americana that people are singing it like «Imagine» with a smile on their face. «Imagine there’s no heaven"—wait, what? Some of the songs we sing, we got to stop and listen to them, folks, once in a while. Like even the nursery rhymes: «Rock-a-bye baby in the treetops"—somebody call social services. Why is the baby in the tree? Anyway, I digress.
But I keep praying to this—to my Lemon god—and he doesn’t answer me. I keep worshiping him; I keep trying to make him feel like he’s important in my life, and he just—he doesn’t do a thing for me. Now, this is so silly; I feel silly just even illustrating this. But this is what they would do: so they’d make something; they’d fashion it; they’d worship it, and they would think that this could help them.
The Innate Need to Worship
Now, the one thing I want us to recognize in the foolishness—and how primitive it seems to us, and it is—to worship something that you make or draw or fashion is: it does highlight something very important. And that’s this: that mankind has been created with an innate need to worship something. Mankind has been created by God with an innate need to worship something.
And if you are not worshiping the one true God, I guarantee you, you are worshiping some fabrication, imitation, or deception. Everybody worships. It’s not a question of whether you do or don’t—everybody worships. And if you’re not worshiping the one true God, you are worshiping some fabrication, imitation, or deception.
Now, some of you might take issue with that statement and say: no, wait a minute, you know, Pastor G—I was invited by some people here, and I don’t even profess to believe in God. I’m not—I don’t even believe in a Supreme Being, so I don’t worship anything.
But just the fact that you stated that way indicates to me that you are the center of your universe. And when you are the center of your universe, and you are accountable only to you, and there is no higher authority in your life, you have, by default, made you the center of your worship. Your theology—or your me-ology—is that self is God. You worship you.
Everybody worships something—even if you say I have no worship system. That means you are on the throne of your life, and you worship self.
And the reality is, again, that if we don’t worship the one true God, we end up worshiping some other fabrication, imitation, or deception.
The Call to Proclaim the One True God
And this is important for us to understand. How foolish would it have been for Isaiah in his day, in the midst of all this idolatry, to just simply say: well, you know what? I mean, if you want to worship wooden god or if you want to worship metal god or some other—you know what? If that works for you, that’s okay. I don’t want to really infringe on your right to freely worship whatever god you choose to worship. And frankly, even in having this conversation, I feel like I’m not being very tolerant of your ideas. And so I just want you to know: you can worship whatever god you want—if it’s wooden god or metal god or no god, that’s totally fine with me. And whatever you want to call God…
I mean, how foolish would it be for Isaiah to say that when, in the midst of the true living God, idolatry is so prevalent? Would Isaiah be doing a service or a disservice to the people of his day to just remain silent in the midst of all that idolatry?
No—Isaiah needs to proclaim the true and living God. He wants these people to be helped; he wants these people to be saved; he wants these people to know who the true and living God is and to be rescued from their idolatry and their foolishness.
So if it would be so foolish for Isaiah to be reluctant to ever interfere with somebody else’s idolatry, then why is it that we are passive when it comes to proclaiming the one true God in our culture?
Every time the Bible talks about idolatry—you know, most often how the subject is approached in church, and I’m admitting that I’ve done it this way too—I’m not saying it’s wrong, but we tend to look at ancient idols, and then we kind of translate it into modern idols. So we say: okay, they fashioned things, and they became a priority that superseded God. But now today, we have our own idols, and we’ve got to be really careful of things like, you know, materialism can become an idol; our career can become an idol; our iPhones could become an idol. And, you know, we just went—and so we often translate idol to idol.
I want to present this from a different angle. Instead of us looking at a modern transfer of what is the equivalent of an idol today, I submit that we have accepted cultural idolatry by remaining silent about the one true God—because there are a whole host of other gods that people are worshiping. And to remain silent is not only doing a disservice to them, but it’s an unloving thing. It’s the equivalent of Isaiah saying: I don’t really care if you’re worshiping these idols of wood and gold and silver. I know who the one true God is, but if that’s your system, then that can be your system.
I mean, if we really love people, do we not want them to know the one true God?
The passion of Isaiah should be the passion of ours in our generation, where we would want people to know: can I introduce you to the one true God? I know you’re worshiping a fabrication, imitation, or deception, but I just need you to know the one true God loves you, and the one true God sent His Son Jesus to die for you.
And if we remain silent, that is tolerance to a lethal level.
I know people who will take issue with what I’m saying because when Christianity presents itself as the one and only way, people get upset about that. And we don’t like hearing this: «Pastor, you know, and if you go around saying: listen, can I introduce my God? 'Cause your god can’t save you. Can I introduce you to my God because your god doesn’t love you. Can I introduce you to my God because your god cannot help you.» People go: don’t say that—we don’t want to offend people.
Listen—it’s not intolerant or unloving to want to introduce someone to the one true God who loves them and sent His Son Jesus to die for them. It is an unloving thing to remain silent about the most incredible gift that is given to mankind.
And we, as the extension of the church, have that opportunity to share that with people. And so, in effect, we put up with idolatry because we don’t want to offend people.
Is it really offensive? Is it really unloving to want someone to know the true and living God? Is it really unloving to want someone to be forgiven of their sin and free from the guilt associated with it? Is it really unloving to want people to come to salvation—to have a burden for souls?
Because we need to be burdened for souls around us.
One of the biggest lies, I think, that we have bought in our politically correct culture is that tolerance means silence.
I can be tolerant in the sense of respectful. I can be tolerant in the sense of appreciating someone’s where they’ve come from or what they believe. Nobody has to be abrasive; nobody has to be arrogant; nobody has to be proud or haughty in the way that they present. But to remain silent—to say nothing—when God is screaming in these chapters to the people of His day who were caught up in idolatry of a different kind—to remain silent, to not see the passion that God has: you’re saying, hey, listen, I’m the one true God. Listen, I’m the one true God.
You know what God does? He doesn’t get angry; He holds out His arms to His people. He’s like: don’t you see? Those gods can’t help you; those gods can’t save you; those gods can’t fix you; those gods won’t answer you. I will; I can.
And now we, as the extension of the body of Christ, have the opportunity to likewise present that good news in our culture. But we’re intimidated because of the idolatry in our own culture. We look at people worshiping other gods, and we think: well, maybe that’s okay.
It’s not okay.
If you truly believe Isaiah 46:9—we read it a moment ago—where God says, «I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.» If we really believe that, we will want as many people to know what we know: that there’s a God unequaled and incomparable in heaven who loves you and who sent His Son Jesus to die for you.
And we must tell others. We can’t remain silent, even in our own generation.
C.H. Spurgeon said: before you can become winners of souls, you must first be weepers for souls. You have a burden for people around you. Do you ache for their lives if they don’t know the one true God?
Because we can be, in a similar way like Isaiah, proclaiming who God is in our world.
That’s why Paul would say in Romans 1:16: «I’m not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation for all who believe.»
Let us not be ashamed, but let us continue to show Christ to people through the way we live and through what we say.
Three Ways God Distinguishes Himself
Real quickly—in Isaiah’s day, God distinguished Himself from the false gods in three particular ways. For you note-takers, I’m going to run through this list really quickly because our time is about escaping.
Number one: He talks about the creation of the universe—that the real God is the Creator of the universe, that all other gods don’t lay claim to that because they didn’t do that. Again, I’m going to read through verses very quickly—don’t bother to turn; let me highlight them for you.
Isaiah 44:24: «This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself.»
Isaiah 45:12: «It is I who made the earth and created mankind upon it. My own hands stretched out the heavens; I marshaled their starry hosts.» And on and on He goes. Isaiah 45:18 as well.
In other words, God says: creation testifies of me. That all you have to really do is examine carefully the intricate complexities of the cosmos, and you will see the handiwork of a divine Designer.
This is why David would write in Psalm 19:1 and 2 that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge.
Because David was saying that you cannot behold the grandeur of the universe and deny that there’s a God. Creation testifies to His existence. And it’s what separates the true God from all other false gods.
It’s why Paul would write in Romans chapter 1 that men are without excuse. You can’t say I don’t know God, because God has revealed Himself, making Himself clear from what can be observed through creation—in Romans 1:20.
But if you were to ask Stephen Hawking before he died, he would deny that God is the author of the universe. In Dr. Hawking’s book The Grand Design in 2010, he wrote this quote: «Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.»
One of the most brilliant men on the planet he was, and he actually is going to perpetrate this confusing statement upon the human race: that everything in our universe created itself from nothing.
He goes on in the book to say: «Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper"—which is basically a fuse—"and set the universe going.»
So Hawking in 2010 denied God as the divine Designer of the universe—which was in direct contradiction of his earlier work when he was younger and wiser. In 1988, he wrote a book A Brief History of Time, and in that book Dr. Stephen Hawking said this quote: «One can imagine that God created the universe at literally any time in the past. On the other hand, if the universe is expanding, there may be physical reasons why there had to be a beginning. One could still believe that God created the universe at the instant of the Big Bang. He could even have created it at a later time in just such a way as to make it look as though there had been a Big Bang.» End quote.
I like younger Stephen Hawking more than I do older Stephen Hawking. He was wiser in his younger days. He contradicted himself later in life; he removed God from the equation.
I prefer rather to quote the great mathematician, scientist, and father of modern physics, Isaac Newton, who wrote in Mathematica Principia: he said quote, «This most beautiful system of the sun, planets, and comets could only proceed from the counsel and dominion of an intelligent and powerful Being. This Being governs all things, not as the soul of the world, but as Lord over all; and on account of His dominion He is wont to be called Lord God, universal Ruler.» End quote.
God reveals Himself in creation. It distinguishes Him from all other gods.
Number two: also because of the prediction of the future.
If you turn in your Bibles to Isaiah 44, I’m going to point out to you one of the most incredible prophecies in all of the Bible—outside of the prophecies related specifically to Jesus Christ. There’s an incredible prophecy in Isaiah 44 about the king of Persia.
And in Isaiah 44, verse 24: «This is what the Lord says—your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself, who foils the signs of false prophets and makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, who says of Jerusalem"—notice this—"it shall be inhabited, ” it was already inhabited when Isaiah is prophesying this—I’ll explain—"of the towns of Judah, they shall be built, and of their ruins I will restore them; who says to the watery deep, 'Be dry, and I will dry up your streams'; who says of Cyrus"—underline that guy’s name—"he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please; he will say of Jerusalem, 'Let it be rebuilt, ' and of the temple, 'Let its foundations be laid.'»
Wait a minute—wait a minute. Isaiah, when you’re prophesying in 700 BC, the temple is already there; the city of Jerusalem is fine; it’s inhabited.
Yeah, but see, Isaiah is prophesying that there’s going to come a day—because of the Jewish people’s unfaithfulness to God—the Babylonians will come. Though they had been forewarned, the Babylonians will come, besiege Jerusalem, ransack the city, destroy it, take the Jews captive to Babylon for 70 years.
So God is saying to Isaiah: let the people know the city will be rebuilt.
Well, the city looks fine.
Yeah, but it’s going to be destroyed. It’s going to be destroyed, and then it’s going to be rebuilt. And a guy by the name of Cyrus that He mentions here is going to actually give an order to allow the Jewish people to return after 70 years of captivity in Babylon to Jerusalem and rebuild their city and rebuild their temple.
Okay, great. Well, what’s so spectacular about that prophecy?
Here’s why: Cyrus won’t even be born for another hundred and fifty years when Isaiah prophesies him by name. And he’s mentioned three times—here at the end of chapter 44, at the beginning of chapter 45 verse 1, and also in 45 verse 13. Cyrus hasn’t even been born, and a hundred and fifty years before he’s born, Isaiah, by the inspiration of God, is predicting the future.
Does that not kind of give street cred to God? Like, if God knows all things and can predict the future and even calls a guy by name—the next king of the Medo-Persian Empire who’s going to rise up and overthrow the Babylonians—kind of lends credibility to God being the true and living God.
You know, liberal theologians, when they read this, they are so amazed that 150 years before Cyrus is born, Cyrus is mentioned by name. Liberal theologians will try to tell you this—and this part is true: the first 39 chapters of Isaiah are distinctly different from the last 27 chapters, and there’s a different tone and there’s kind of a different angle and different perspective. And then this is where they go off: so they say, so what we believe is that Isaiah actually wrote the first 39 chapters, but the last 27 chapters were probably written by someone else—not Isaiah—long after Isaiah died. So that actually whoever wrote the last 27 chapters saw these things fulfilled and then wrote about it as if it were history.
Okay, well, here’s the problem with that. See, Jesus in the New Testament quotes from both sections of Isaiah, and Jesus attributes both sections—the first 39 chapters and the last 27 chapters—to Isaiah himself.
So who am I going to believe actually wrote the book of Isaiah? Let me see—let me see the liberal theologians, or I’m going to go with Jesus. I’m going to go with Jesus.
But that’s how amazing the prophecy is—that 150 years ahead of time…
Do you know Josephus, first-century historian—of this part we don’t know biblically, but historically—Josephus writes that Daniel the prophet, who was kept in Babylon as a part of the exiles taken captive, and he was retained by Cyrus when Cyrus became king of Persia—and we know that part is true 'cause in the book of Daniel, Daniel also prophesied to Cyrus. Josephus says that Daniel read Isaiah to Cyrus and said that, you know, 150 years before you were born, my God put your name in my book—that you are going to allow the Jewish people to go back to their homeland and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
And Cyrus went: wow, yeah, yeah—your list. Let me show you—three times your name is mentioned right here in the book of Isaiah. Really? Yeah. And you’re supposed to let the Jewish people— no kidding. Yeah.
And Ezra chapter 1, verse 1 in your Old Testaments—because it’s not in chronological order—Ezra chapter 1, verse 1 says: in the first year of the reign of King Cyrus, he issued a decree that all the Jews should go back and rebuild the city of Jerusalem.
And God foretold it a hundred and fifty years before Cyrus was even born.
That’s the God we serve. That’s the God we serve.
Salvation Through the One True God
The last one—and then we’ll pray and say goodbye—the salvation of humanity. There’s no other God that can save you except the true and living God.
In Isaiah chapter 45, verse 20—latter part of verse 20: «Ignorant are those who carry about idols of wood, who pray to gods that cannot save. Declare what is to be, present it—let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the Lord? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me. Turn to me"—this is verse 22 of chapter 45—"turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.»
We all need to be saved. We all need to be rescued. You may not understand your desperate condition, but one day you will—because we are all dying of the same terminal disease. It’s called sin. There’s none righteous, no, not one. And sin is killing us all. Sin is what destroys the human race. It entered the human race because of the sin of our forefather Adam, but it was dealt with on the cross by what the Bible refers to as the second Adam, who is Jesus—who died to forgive us of our sins so that we might be right with God.
We all need to be saved. And no other God can save you except the God of the Bible—because no other God is real; no other God is legitimate. No god is able to save you. Wooden god can’t save you; metal god can’t save you; Hindu god can’t save you; Muslim god can’t save you; Mormon god can’t save you; Jehovah’s Witness god can’t save you; Baha’i faith god can’t save you; Buddhist god can’t save you.
There’s only one God. And we either believe Isaiah 46:9 or we don’t—that «I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me.»
And that God—that one unique, unequaled, incomparable God—offered His Son Jesus on a cross. That’s why Acts 4, verse 12 says that salvation is found in no other name, for there is no other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. And that name is Jesus. Amen.
Closing Prayer
Father, we pray that you would give us a burden for souls—that we would be unashamed about the gospel because we know the life-eternal significance that Jesus means for all who would believe and receive. And if we remain silent, then we are just simply acknowledging the existence of idolatry in our culture. And how loving is that? How loving is that to allow people, in their ignorance, to be unhelped?
And we either believe Isaiah 46:9 or we don’t. And if we believe it, Lord—that you are the one true and only God who sent His Son Jesus to die for the sins of the world—if we believe that, then I pray that you would light a fire under us—that we would be bold in our proclamation of that truth. Lovingly—not abrasively, but lovingly—declaring your truth that others might know the unequaled, incomparable God of the universe who loves us and who died for us—that we might have forgiveness of sins, that we might be saved, that we might be able to go to heaven when we die, to spend eternity with you.
Lord, help us to stand strong in our faith and to be bold in our faith—that others might know the good news that we know. For your glory, Lord, we pray these things in Jesus' name, and all God’s people said amen.