1. "Without ever having seen God with your own eyes before, how would you describe what he's like? It is imperative for us as Christians to get a right vision of who God is."

2. "In our day, similar to the imagination of a Renaissance artist, many people are seeking to create their own portrait of God according to their own personal misconceptions or imaginations with just a scant little thumbnail sketch of an understanding of who God truly is."

3. "Anxiety exposes what we most fear, and what we most fear exposes that which we most worship."

4. "If you think little of God, you will ask little of God. If you think much of God, you will ask much of him. Nothing will increase your estimation of who God is in a greater and grander vision and in response, nothing will increase your trust in him more than through sincere and dependent expression to him in prayer."

5. "Fear is always an expression of worship. It animates and expresses our awe. Our anxieties show us what we worship and they expose what's going on in the deepest recesses of our hearts. We will always fear that which we worship and we will always worship that which we fear."

6. "The goal in our lives is not to remove fear but rather to possess the right kind of fear. We need to resolve to possess the kind of fear that fears rightly, this kind of fear that leads to trust in God alone."

7. "Your work, your effort, your turning to false saviors, it can't save you. The only thing that can save you is trusting in and turning to a God that comes down to save in and through the person of Jesus Christ."

8. "Repentance is an internal reorientation of my mind that's demonstrated by an external redirection of my actions."

9. "The counterintuitive nature of idols is that we think we can control them but they actually turn around and they control us. The more we try and manipulate outcomes through an idol, the more we must realize that we are being manipulated by that same idol."

10. "All of humanity will meet the Lord either as the destroyer or as the deliverer."

Observation Questions

1. According to Isaiah 31:1, what specific things did Judah rely on when they "went down to Egypt for help," and what did they fail to do in contrast?

2. In Isaiah 31:3, how does God describe the Egyptians and their horses, and what does He say will happen when He stretches out His hand?

3. What two illustrations does God use in Isaiah 31:4-5 to describe how He will act toward Mount Zion and Jerusalem, and what four actions does He promise to take in verse 5?

4. What command does God give to the children of Israel in Isaiah 31:6, and how does He describe their prior relationship with Him?

5. According to Isaiah 31:7, what will everyone do "in that day," and how does the text describe the origin of these objects?

6. In Isaiah 31:8-9, by what kind of sword will the Assyrian fall, and what does God declare about His presence in Zion and Jerusalem at the end of the chapter?

Interpretation Questions

1. Why is it significant that God reminds Judah in verse 3 that "the Egyptians are man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit"? How does this connect to Judah's history with Egypt during the Exodus?

2. The sermon emphasized that "anxiety exposes what we fear, and what we fear exposes what we worship." How do verses 1-3 illustrate this principle in Judah's decision to ally with Egypt rather than trust God?

3. What do the images of the lion (verse 4) and the hovering birds (verse 5) reveal about God's character and His posture toward His people, and why might Isaiah use both a fierce and a nurturing image together?

4. How does the call to "turn" in verse 6 relate to the command to "cast away" idols in verse 7? What does this connection teach us about the nature of true repentance?

5. The sermon pointed out that God's victory over Assyria would come "by a sword, not of man" (verse 8). Why is it important that God emphasizes this distinction, and how does this reinforce the main message of the chapter about trust?

Application Questions

1. The sermon asked: "In your circumstances, where are you most likely to experience visual distortion that leads you to a wrong value decision about God?" What specific "mighty multitudes" (resources, relationships, or strategies) are you currently tempted to trust more than God's singular sufficiency?

2. Using the three-step framework from the sermon—Identify, Inquire, Entrust—think of a current anxiety in your life. How can you identify the root fear, inquire into what it reveals about your heart, and practically entrust that situation to Christ this week?

3. The sermon defined repentance as "an internal reorientation of my mind demonstrated by an external redirection of my actions." What is one specific idol—something absorbing your heart and imagination more than God—that you need to "cast away," and what concrete action would demonstrate that turning?

4. God's plea in verse 6 came from a "soft heart" despite being hard words about deep revolt. How does understanding God's mercy as the motivation for repentance change the way you approach confessing sin to Him, and how might this affect your willingness to turn to Him this week?

5. The sermon emphasized that "if you think little of God, you will ask little of God." How would a bigger vision of God as protector, deliverer, and rescuer (as described in verses 4-5) change the way you pray about a current challenge or fear in your life?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Exodus 14:10-31 — This passage recounts God's deliverance of Israel through the Red Sea and the destruction of Egypt's horses and chariots, the very imagery God uses in Isaiah 31:3 to remind Judah of His power over Egypt.

2. Deuteronomy 17:14-20 — This passage contains God's original command that Israel's king must not acquire many horses or cause the people to return to Egypt, which Judah violated by their alliance.

3. 2 Kings 18:13–19:37 — This historical account describes King Hezekiah's prayer and God's miraculous destruction of 185,000 Assyrian soldiers, fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah 31:8-9.

4. Psalm 20:1-9 — This psalm contrasts those who trust in chariots and horses with those who trust in the name of the Lord, directly echoing the theme of Isaiah 31:1.

5. Matthew 6:25-34 — Jesus teaches His disciples not to be anxious but to seek first God's kingdom, providing New Testament instruction on the same trust versus fear dynamic addressed in Isaiah 31.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Albrecht Dürer's Rhinoceros: The Danger of Creating God in Our Own Image

II. Historical Context: Judah's Fear of Assyria and Alliance with Egypt

III. Point One: When I'm Tempted to Fear, I Must Choose to Trust (Isaiah 31:1-5)

IV. Point Two: When I'm Tempted to Fix Through Idolatry, I Must Choose to Turn (Isaiah 31:6-9)

V. God's Promised Rescue and Victory Over Assyria

Detailed Sermon Outline

Albrecht Dürer never saw a rhinoceros before in his life. In fact, no one ever in Europe saw a rhinoceros before in their life, which was to be expected because it was the year 1515. And in the year 1515, Emmanuel I, the king of Portugal, sent an Indian rhinoceros as a gift to curry favor with the sitting pope, Pope Leo X. But sadly, that rhino never made it across the Mediterranean from Lisbon to Rome, sadly, because that ship sank in the Mediterranean. And despite never having laid eyes on a rhinoceros before, Durer, who was an artist of the German Renaissance, created an incredibly detailed and somewhat distorted portrait of this seemingly mythical animal.

How did he do it? Without ever having laid eyes on a rhinoceros before. Well, using only his imagination, a simple thumbnail sketch, and a written eyewitness description, what resulted was an embellished and somewhat grotesque depiction of a rhinoceros that was created in Durer, the artist's own image.

Without ever having seen God with your own eyes before, How would you describe what he's like? It is imperative for us as Christians to get a right vision of who God is. As A.W. Tozer once noted, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. In our day, similar to the imagination of a Renaissance artist, many people are seeking to create in their own portrait, their own portrait of God.

They're seeking to create a God according to their own personal misconceptions or imaginations with just a scant little thumbnail sketch of an understanding of who God truly is. And the result of that kind of portrait is similar to that of the rhinoceros, a distorted depiction of God that is embellished and misunderstood, sometimes grotesque. And not entirely accurate. But for those of us who are Christians, we gather around God's word again this morning as a primary source to see God with our own eyes, to hear his words spoken to us and to understand rightly how he chooses to reveal himself to us all. Over the next few Sundays, we're gonna be answering the question, what is God like?

In the next three chapters of Isaiah, chapter 31, 32, and 33. This morning in 31, which is found on page 592 of your Pew Bible, we'll see in this eyewitness description from the prophet Isaiah that our God, he's a rescuing God. And since we're picking up this section of scripture, not having looked at it for some time, by way of introduction, let me set the scene historically for us to get us to where God's people were at at this point in time in their history. Centuries before, in the book of Genesis, God marks out a people for himself through a covenant with Abraham. And through this family line, God spared his people from famine and he saved his people by harboring them in Egypt.

Yet over the course of time, the Hebrew people were eventually enslaved by the Egyptians. God provides Moses then to lead the Hebrews out of Egyptian slavery and into the land that God had promised. And he did this in crazy, miraculous, amazing sort of ways. God told them then if they were to obey, they would be blessed, but if they disobeyed, they would be cursed. And sadly, somewhat unsurprisingly, those 12 tribes of Israel rebelled against God again and again and again.

The persistent rebellion led to the eventual split of the nation, 10 tribes in the north named Israel, two tribes to the south named Judah, and despite this rebellion against God and each other, God stayed faithful to them throughout as their covenant Lord. Over time, here comes the Assyrian empire. They're growing more powerful on the global stage and they begin to dominate entire nations. Then in 722 BC, the northern kingdom of Israel, the kingdom that the great kings David and Solomon once led, they're overthrown by Assyria and then these ten tribes were scattered never to be seen ever again. Meanwhile, in the southern kingdom, Isaiah and Judah hear of this destruction in the northern kingdom and around 20 years later, the people of Judah in the capital city of Jerusalem, they begin to fear.

They begin to fear their own destruction by these same Assyrians and they knew that that destruction was impending. Surely they thought, if Assyria wiped out the 10 tribes in the north, they're just going to wipe through us two little tribes. Here in the south. And in their fear of Assyria coming from the east, Judah makes a really stubborn and surprising move. They turn their back on God and look to the west to make a military alliance with Egypt of all nations.

And they did this for the sake of their protection and they did this for the sake of their self preservation. And as we were well reminded a few months ago from Isaiah 30, Judah had an Assyria problem.

Because they had a sin problem. Judah wrongly thought that their obedience before God was opposed to their self preservation. But as God reminds them over and over and as he does again here in chapter 31, Judah's obedience to him and him alone is their only hope of preservation and self protection and even rescue as we'll see this morning. So that brings us to Isaiah chapter 31. Let's not just talk about the chapter without reading it together ourselves.

41:1 says this, Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or consult the Lord! And yet He is wise and brings disaster; He does not call back His words, but will arise against the house of the evildoers, and against the helpers of those who work iniquity. The Egyptians are man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. When the Lord stretches out his hand, the helper will stumble, and he who is helped will fall, and they will all perish together.

For thus says the Lord to me, as a lion or a young lion growls over his prey, and when a band of shepherds is called out against him, is not terrified by their shouting or daunted at their noise, so the Lord of hosts will come down to fight on Mount Zion and on its hill, like birds hovering, so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem. He will protect and deliver it. He will spare and rescue it. Turn to him. From whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel.

For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. And the Assyrian shall fall by the sword, not of man, and a sword, not of man, shall devour him. And he shall flee from the sword, and his young men shall be put to forced labor. His rock shall pass away in terror, and his officers desert the standard in panic, declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem.

The big question that God is challenging his people to hear in chapter 31 is simple. Who will you trust to rescue you? Will you be allied with Egypt or will you rely solely on me. So here's a spoiler alert for Isaiah 31 and effectively it's the most basic outline of this entire chapter. God consistently calls his people to do two things, to trust in him and to turn to him.

To trust in him and to turn to him. We'll apply this text to our lives in two main points this morning and here they are. Point one, when I'm tempted to fear, I must choose to trust. And point two, what I'm tempted to fix, I must choose to turn. Point one is gonna be from verses one to five and point two will be from verses six to nine.

So first let's look at what it means to trust in God in verses one to five. As you look back at the very first word of this chapter, you'll notice that word woe. This is actually the fifth of six woes in this section from 28 to 35. These woes are not a California woe, right? It's not like, Whoa, bro.

It's not like that kind of woe, okay? This is like a divine woe of judgment here. This is coming from the mind of God through the mouth of Isaiah. And, biblically speaking, a woe is kind of like a warning sign that you'd see on the highway, like caution, danger ahead. And who is this woe for?

Well, it's for Judah as a whole, but more specifically, it's for King Hezekiah, who's the reigning king of Judah. And really it's for any Hebrew who seeks to, as the text says, go down to Egypt for help, to rely on horses or to rely on chariots. This kind of warning was not new for Judah at all. In fact, God had been crystal clear about these things in the past in at least three major ways: Judah's recent family history, secondly, the proclamation of God's prior prophets, and then of course, his command to Israel right after the exodus. Let's look at those three real briefly.

King Hezekiah's father before him, Ahaz, he was an evil leader who did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord. 2 Chronicles 28:16 tells us that Ahaz's actions just a generation before, chapter 31 here, he sinfully leads Judah into receiving help from this same enemy, Assyria. Rather than entrusting the Lord. And prior to this, of course, we mentioned the northern kingdom did not look to the Lord for help. God sent prophets like Elijah, Elisha, Amos, Hosea.

He sent all of them to warn them, but Israel was still destroyed because of the lack of faith. But then also, they failed to remember God's initial command to the Hebrews in Deuteronomy 17. God clearly says this, you may not put a foreigner over you who is not your brother. He must not acquire many horses for himself or cause the people to return to Egypt in order to acquire many horses. Since the Lord God has said to you, you shall never turn that way again.

So just here in a single word that warns of woe, we see God peel back the layers of their collective heart to reveal the ways that Judah's sinful confidence added to their disobedient rebelliousness. Now, in reading just this first verse, what do you think were some of the main motivators that drove Isaiah's rebellion to turn away from God's help? If you were to pin down Judah's main issues that might explain exactly why they're leaning and deceived into making this alliance with Egypt in the first place, what would you say they would be?

Let me just cut to the chase here and submit to you these two suggestions straight from verse 1. Judah struggled with a sinful issue of vision but also a sinful issue of value. First, a sinful issue of vision. Note the word look there in verse 1. It's important to note Judah rightly ascertained that they needed help.

They realized they needed someone they could rely on. They needed someone that they could trust in for their safety. But they were deceived by appearances, right? What were they deceived by? Well, two very visual things.

Egypt's multitude, but also their might. You can see that there in verse one. Egypt had a multitude of many chariots and the might of horsemen who were, quote, very strong. Judah was so deceived by this misplaced vision that they actually believed that God was not strong enough to save them. So first, this issue of vision, but also an issue of value.

In their fear, Judah trusted in what they could see compared to the God whom they should have seen. In doing so, Judah was making a comparative value judgment in that moment. They were placing their confidence in Egypt and displacing their confidence in God. Note here the contrast between the many horses and chariots of Egypt and then the singularity of the Holy One of Israel. In their visual distortion, they made a value decision and Judah appraised their circumstances and again they were deceived into thinking that the many horses of Egypt were more valued in help than the singular holiness of Almighty God.

So let me ask you, In your circumstances, where are you most likely to experience the type of visual distortion that leads you to a wrong value of decision about God and His character and His nature? What mighty multitudes from a distance seem more trustworthy than your singular God's nearness? Like Judah, in your deepest anxieties, what alliances are you most likely to look for in order to find rest and security or self-preservation? Here's an important reality to note from the outset: anxiety exposes what we most fear, and what we most fear exposes that which we most worship. Now again, just to restate the first of those two main points, when we're tempted to fear, we must choose to trust.

We then, like Judah, when we're stuck there in our fears and our anxieties, how might we express our trust in God? What are some spiritual disciplines that could counter a sinful issue of vision or a sinful issue of value? Well, the answer is a proper perspective of God and proper prayer to God. Look at the end of verse 1. What Judah didn't pursue is the thing that we exactly should do.

They did not look to the Holy One of Israel. That's a lack of perspective. They didn't consult the Lord. That's a lack of our prayer to God and trusting him for our help. This was Judah's major downfall.

Their distant distrust led to a passivity in prayer. And because they lacked perspective on the Lord's character, they didn't even seek to consult him at all. If you think little of God, you will ask little of God. If you think much of God, you will ask much of him. Nothing will increase your estimation of who God is in a greater and grander vision and in response, nothing will increase your trust in him more than through sincere and dependent expression to him in prayer.

Big vision, big prayers. Small vision of who God is, small dependence in prayer. A big God can handle big issues. So question for you, when you find yourself in this place, why would you go down to an Egypt when you can just go up to God in prayer? Much fear and anxiety in our lives can be averted if we would simply look to God alone as our helper and do the thing that we often sing, Oh, what peace we forfeit.

Oh, what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.

Now again, the big idea of these first five verses is that when I'm tempted to fear and anxiety, I must choose to trust. Think about the most recent circumstance in your life that caused you significant anxiety. As Ken led us this morning, he shared many of them as he was praying. But think about these things. Was it a recent job loss for you?

Conflict in your marriage, perhaps? A significant health issue for yourself or a loved one? A broken relationship that you had plans for and promised? Financial uncertainty? Pain for past experiences, perhaps as a child?

All of those sorts of things. If you happen to be walking through fear and anxiety and a life circumstance perhaps like that, please know that we as pastors and elders, we would love to walk alongside of you and even be invited in as a guest into that fear and into that anxiety. We have a great group of men and of women here in our church who would love to biblically counsel you and help to point you to Christ in the midst of all of this. And so it's as simple as sending an email to one of our pastors or elders or send me an email for that matter. We would love to be able to connect with you and help you to persevere well in the midst of fear and anxiety.

And in all of these hard circumstances and hard situations, our fear can force us into really crazy sort of faulty fixations, can it? We're all tempted to act in regrettable ways when fear becomes the pervasive attitude that drives our actions. So before we go any further, let's just consider for these few moments, just the concepts of fear and anxiety. As Christians, how can we get a biblical vision, a biblical perspective on fear and anxiety? Well, fear can be understood in two different ways.

Fear that is sinful and fear that is not sinful. And many times in the Bible we are called to fear God. In fact, just last week in this pulpit, we were reminded that a biblical kind of fear of God is a reverential awe of Almighty God. But sinful fear, the kind of fear that we're looking at here in chapter 31, that kind of sinful fear could be defined as the dread of a perceived danger that causes you to distrust God. Anxiety then can be defined as your experience of this fearful perception of danger.

Here's a simple way to understand it. If fear is at the root, then anxiety will be its fruit. When we find ourselves in the midst of hard circumstances of life, our fears and anxieties actually are really very helpful. They're a very, very valuable diagnostic tool. And why is this?

Well, because again, fear, excuse me, anxiety exposes what we fear and what we fear exposes that which we worship. A biblical counselor by the name of John Henderson has said it like this: Fear is always an expression of worship. It animates and expresses our awe. Our anxieties show us what we worship and they expose what's going on in the deepest recesses of our hearts. We will always fear that which we worship and we will always worship that which we fear.

So then the goal in our lives is not to remove fear but rather to possess the right kind of fear. We need to resolve to possess the kind of fear that fears rightly, this kind of fear that leads to trust in God alone. Judah had a trust deficit with God, not because he was untrustworthy, but because their sinful fears consumed them. Now, if it was possible somehow, some way, for you to sit down with Judah, like a whole nation, and kind of biblically counsel them through these fears and these anxieties that they have, what would you say to them? Perhaps you have a friend or a spouse or you yourself need to get some perspective.

How would you counsel a friend, a spouse, or even remind yourself when you're caught struggling with anxiety? This week I was thinking about this, meditating on the text, and I wrote these three things down. Three words that start with the letter I and they answer the question, how can I trust God in my anxiety? The three words are identify, inquire, and entrust. How can I trust God in my anxiety?

Identify. Identify. Like God communicating this woe, we must first identify the insidious nature of our sinful fear for what it really is. A refusal to rely on the Lord and to fearfully trust in Him alone. Our distrust in God's all sufficiency is at the bottom of all of our sinful departures from him.

So if you find yourself here this morning passively trusting in other sources of strength, be aware then you're actively rejecting Almighty God. Secondly, inquire. Like God inquiring Judah of why they are trusting in Egypt, we also must diagnose the heart to get to the root of our fears and identify the bad fruit of anxiety. Asking questions like, how is anxiety manifesting itself in my life? Or what specific areas of your life do you feel most hopeless?

Or where are you tempted to see a deficiency in God's divinity? Those are all great questions to ask to inquire of the motives of the heart. So identify, inquire, and then entrust. You're like, oh, wait a minute. I know this is supposed to be spelled with an E, but let's just roll with it for a second, okay?

We must entrust our lives to the submission of understanding God's character and the truth that he's revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. We're not just trying to point to a Bible verse to fix it, but we're lucky to point to a person. Ask yourself, how can my greatest anxieties be filled with the fullness of who Jesus has revealed himself to be. That's an excellent question to ask. Regardless of what your eyes see or your feelings perceive, true peace and security can only be found when we, capital E, entrust our anxieties to Christ.

So when I'm tempted to fear, I must choose to trust and to trust in Christ alone. But what if I don't? What if you don't trust in God alone in these moments? What if we, like Judah, do not heed this warning found here in verse one? Well, we can see God's responses in verses two and three.

Look back at verse two. Here God simply reveals his divine wisdom and he's asserting his divine power. Isaiah explains that when God acts, he does so decisively. He doesn't regret or call back his words. He doesn't relent or retract them in any way.

And in verse 2, because God's wise, this text says he will arise. Simply put, in his wisdom, God will act. God explains to his people that in his wisdom and justice, what he'll do in response to continued disobedience is that he's gonna take everybody down. You can see it there, that he will arise against the house of evildoers, that's Judah. And against the helpers of those who work iniquity, that's Egypt.

And he warns that the helper, Egypt, will stumble and he who helped is helped, Judah will fall. We asked earlier, what's God like? Well, verse 2 tells us he's wise and he's just. And because he's just, he's wise. And when his justice comes down, in his wisdom it falls on the just and the unjust alike, the righteous and the unrighteous alike.

Then after revealing himself here in verse two, God just flat out states the obvious there in verse three. Look at it again.

The Egyptians are man and not God, and their horses are flesh and not spirit. Just like the chapter before in chapter 30 verse seven where God simply states, Egypt's help is worthless and it's empty. Right here in verse three, this is a strong reminder that is filled with visual language from the book of Exodus. God's trying to help Judah to see just how toxic this relationship with Egypt actually is. He's like a good friend that sits you down and just says, okay, let me get this straight.

You're making an alliance with the same nation that once enslaved your forefathers. Do you really think that going back to Egypt is going to actually help you? No, going back to Egypt is going to hurt you. It's not going to help you. It's as if God is saying, let me remind you, Judah, where all those Egyptian horses and chariots are when I parted the Red Sea.

Did you forget by my divine wisdom and my divine power that those Egyptians, along with their horses and their chariots, were buried by me in an unexpected grave at the bottom of the sea? Where is Egypt's might then?

Where is their strength? They're still down there in their watery graves and God's saying, I'm still here. I'm still here waiting and willing for you to return to me. What a powerful reminder this is. Here also when the Lord says that he stretches out his hand, that phrase is reminiscent of language also from the Exodus, speaking of God's mighty hand and an outstretched arm.

Just like he did for his people in liberating them from Egypt, so he will save Judah now if they are willing to trust in him. When facing our fears, we need to be reminded of what God has said and what he's done in the past so that we might have confidence in him in the present. Because in the face of our greatest fears, we must have trust be our greatest choice. Now, normally, this is the time of the sermon where a preacher just like kind of shares an illustration or two, right, to explain what they're trying to communicate. And I don't feel much pressure to do that because if you look in verses four and five, there's two illustrations right there for us.

What's God like? Well, he's like these two things. He's like a lion and he's like an eagle. The first illustration that the Lord gives is this picture of a lion, a picture of fierce strength. When protecting something in its possession, this apex predator is not terrified, it's not daunted.

In fact, a lion fights on behalf to defend that which it possesses. The second illustration of a bird of prey or an eagle is like a picture of passionate attachment, hovering and protecting with a watchful eye in the same way that a bird of prey cares for its young while they're still in the nest. So what is God like? Well, he's a protector, he's a provider, he's passionate in his attachment for me and for you. That's what your God is like both to you and for you.

And then again, harkening back to Judah's history with Egypt, there's more heavy Exodus imagery on the back half of verse 5 here. Isaiah clearly pronounces, he will protect. Do you see it there? He will deliver, he will spare, he will rescue. God will protect like a pillar of fire at night.

He will deliver like a pillar of cloud by day. He will spare as he did in the Passover and he will rescue just like he did in parting the Red Sea so his people could pass safely through. All of that in these verses to say this, even though fear and anxiety may creep in unaware, God's past deliverance is indicative of his future deliverance. Our God is a rescuing God. He rescued these Hebrews from Egypt.

He rescued Judah from the Assyrians. He rescued us in Christ and he will rescue us again when Christ returns a second time. Our God is the only one who truly can protect and deliver, spare and rescue and he does so most fully in Jesus Christ. Did you know that if you look close enough here in the Old Testament that you can clearly see Jesus even here in the Old Testament? If you look at verses four and five there again, that military term, the Lord of Hosts, is repeated twice.

This title for God as the kind of commander of angelic armies, Yahweh Sabaoth, is a title that's referenced over 260 times in the Old Testament. Later on in the second half of the book of Isaiah, where we see a much clearer and broader and bigger vision of the Messianic King that's to come in Jesus, we see here in chapter 44:6 we get a clear vision of who exactly that Lord of Hosts is. The text says, Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of Hosts. I am the first and I am the last. Besides me there is no God.

And as we know from the New Testament, Jesus himself is Yahweh in the flesh, right? He's the first and the last, the alpha and the omega. The Lord of hosts here in Isaiah 44 sounds a lot like Jesus in Revelation 1:8. He brings his army of angels along with him. Jesus Christ, our savior, is the one whom these verses specifically in Isaiah point to.

He's the one whom the whole book of Isaiah points to. He's the one that the law of Moses pointed to and the whole of the Old Testament points to. And so I think it would probably be appropriate for us to just point to Jesus one more time here this morning. Generally speaking, yes, we should hear a clarion call to hear the reality that we should be called to trust today. But more specifically, like on this side of the cross, We should be called more specifically to trust in Christ.

That is the greater calling. You can really only truly know God as a protector and deliverer and sparer and rescuer of your own soul if you negate your efforts to save yourself and instead allow Jesus's work alone to save you. And you're like, save you from what? Well, specifically to save you from your sin. And save you from who?

Well, truthfully, as we saw in these first few verses, to save you from a God who is a judge and who is wrathful against sin, right? And save you how and when? Well, the reality is that if you don't know Christ, you could be saved today through believing the gospel. What is the gospel? It's this.

The gospel is the good news that the only true God, the just and gracious creator of the universe, has looked down upon hopelessly sinful men and women. And has sent his son Jesus Christ because of it. God in the flesh to bear his wrath against sin, but also through Jesus's substitutionary atonement and death on the cross, he showed his power over sin as he was resurrected from the grave. Now, everyone who would be willing to turn from their sin and trust in Christ alone as their Lord and as their savior those people will be reconciled with God forever. That's the gospel.

How do you accept that gospel for yourself? You do so through faith and repentance or as Isaiah 31 suggests through turning and trusting. It's one action but it contains two movements. And if you're not a Christian here this morning, learn from Judah's misplaced trust. They chose in verse 1 they are to go down in hopes that their effort would save themselves.

They wrongly assumed that their salvation was about what they could do for themselves. It was their attempt to work out their own salvation. It was through the attempt of working out that salvation through a false savior of Egypt even. But contrast Judah's actions in verse 1 to going down to the Lord of hosts who promises there in verse 4 that he will come down to save all who would trust in him. And he's most fully done that in Jesus Christ who came down for us on our behalf.

Your work, your effort, your turning to false saviors, it can't save you. The only thing that can save you is trusting in and turning to a God that comes down to save in and through the person of Jesus Christ. So literally on behalf of hundreds of people here in this room, If you don't know Christ today, we would implore you on behalf of Almighty God, be reconciled to him by turning from your sin and embracing Jesus Christ by faith as the only basis of your forgiveness. If you have questions about that, you can literally turn to practically anyone here in this room and ask them or the pastors that are going to be here at the doors after the service would love to talk with you more about what that could look like. In your life.

Now, following God out of your fear and into faith is all about the choice to follow Christ. But it's not just a choice to trust Christ but it's a choice to turn to him. That's exactly what we're gonna see here in this final section from verses six to nine. Point one, when I'm tempted of fear I must choose to trust. The second point is this, when I'm tempted to fix through idolatry, I must choose to turn.

Verses 6 and 7 say this, Turn to Him from whom people have deeply revolted, O children of Israel. For in that day everyone shall cast away his idols of silver and his idols of gold, which your hands have sinfully made for you. Notice the emphatic nature of verse 6 right here. This is such a clear imperative, right? It's not a fast and hard interpretive rule, but if you would notice as you look in the text of Scripture, verses 6 and 7 are the only verses that are outlined there in prose and not in poetry.

So it's just there for emphasis, right? If verse 1 is a warning from God, then verse 6 is a plea. Verse six is a plea. These are hard words from him, but they come from a soft heart. God's not trying to lessen the blow of the awful effects of sin in these verses.

In fact, he's trying to hit Judah right between the eyes with deep conviction. In verse six, the charge against them is that they have deeply revolted against God by turning from him and spurning him. But in a way that only God can, he tells us the truth of the extent and the depth of our rebellion. And he calls it idolatry. But here's the amazing thing about this passage.

In his mercy, he provides us a way to return to him by turning to him in repentance. When was the last time you saw your own sin like it's described here in verse six as an act of deep revolt against a holy God? It could not be more clear to Judah or to us even as we read this. The call is to turn to him. In other words, repent.

What is repentance exactly? Here's a helpful definition if you'd like to take notes. Repentance is an internal reorientation of my mind that's demonstrated by an external redirection of my actions. Say it again. Repentance is an internal reorientation of my mind that demonstrates an external redirection of my actions.

You can see both of these things mirrored in verse 6. Verse 6, the recognition internally that Judah has revolted is causing them or calling them to do what verse 7 says, to cast away the idols that their sinful hands have made. So if this is the standard definition of repentance, here's a thought-provoking question for you. According to that definition, when was the last time you truly repented? When was the last time your mind was really changed by what God said and because of it, you changed your actions as a result?

The very orientation of a Christian is one who not only initially repents but habitually Repent. Repentance is how a person starts a relationship with Jesus and it's how that relationship is sustained. As Martin Luther famously said in the first of his 95 theses, when our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said repent, he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. Now in the face of a holy and just God whose wrath is poured out on our sin, Why would we turn to a God who is so severe against revolt, who's so severe against sin? Well, because God desires our repentance to be relational and not transactional.

His holy desire for us is to return and he calls us in mercy to come back to him. Remember, this is a plea here. One man said it like this, God does not wait until we have repented to act in mercy. Rather, his mercy becomes the impetus for us to repent. Thus, if we're invited to repent as a result of attraction to God, then rather than because of the avoidance of him.

And if you see here again in verse seven, God equates that sinful revolt to be on par with idolatry. You've probably never made an idol with your hands before, right?

I mean, not literally speaking, but in our day, we don't need to physically fashion an idol in order for us to build one up in our hearts, right? Tim Keller has written extensively on this in his book, Counterfeit Gods. He says, Anything can serve as a counterfeit God, especially the very best things in life. He goes on to describe an idol in this way: An idol is anything more important to you than God, or anything that absorbs your heart and your imagination more than God, and anything that you seek to give give you the things that only God can give. With that wide sweeping definition, then think about the things in your life that you have idolized lately.

Again, Ken was so helpful. David as well, just helping us understand exactly what it is that we idolize in our lives. Educational attainment, personal experiences, our occupation, other people's perceptions of us, respect for what you do as a living, your youth or your health or your 401k. Which seems to be dwindling down these days anyways, right? It's like, what outcomes of your life are you trying to fix in order to get what you most desire?

Our second main point, when I'm tempted to fix through idolatry, I must choose to turn. People in Isaiah's day, they fashioned idols because they wanted to fix their outcomes. People in that day tended to manufacture idols because they hoped to manipulate their circumstances. And truth be told, today we do the same thing. We so often use inanimate things in hopes that they would animate our desired outcome.

So let me ask you again, what idols in your life have you most recently fashioned for yourself in order to fix an outcome? What desire for power or control lies behind that idol that your hands have sinfully made for you? The counterintuitive nature of idols is that we think we can control them but they actually turn around and they control us. The more we try and manipulate outcomes through an idol, the more we must realize that we are being manipulated by that same idol. When we're tempted to fix, we must choose to turn and cast these idols away in repentance.

Even though these idols are crafted with the most valuable metals that we could possibly find here on earth, silver and gold, as the text says. Spiritually speaking, they're useless. And you're like, well, Troy, if something's valuable, wouldn't it just be crazy for me to just throw it away? Well, yeah, that's the whole point. It's the whole point of this passage, right?

Turning in repentance is always costly. It's always gonna cost you something. But the converse of this is also true. So long as a person is still asking whether they can afford a possible turning to God, that cost will always seem far too high. Recall the words of Jesus when he laid out the cost of discipleship.

He says, if anyone would come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross and follow me. So when it comes to turning in repentance, you can either assist God in what he's seeking for your holiness or you can resist God. The result for us today is that we would cast our idols away and turn back to to him. Now lastly, look at these final verses here in the chapter, verses eight and verses nine. Here's the amazing outcome in all of this.

In choosing to trust in turn, God responds through rescue. Again, we're asking, what's God like? He's a God who responds through rescue. A simple way to understand these last two verses is that in verse eight, God decrees his promise and then in verse nine, God declares his presence. In verse 8, he's like Babe Ruth.

He calls his shot and he decrees a promise of Assyria's destruction. He just points to it and just knocks it out of the park. Assyria will fall by a sword, but not a sword of man. This victory will all be of God's doing and none of Judah's. And then in verse 9, God declares his presence that his fire and his furnace will still burn on Zion's hill and in God's city of Jerusalem.

And those flames are representative of his presence among them. And note this last observation from these two texts. How many times can you count the word and there? Do you see it in verses eight and nine? I see it there six times.

And the Assyrian shall fall by a sword. Not of man and a sword, not of man shall devour him. And he shall flee from the sword. And his young men shall be put to forced labor. His rock shall pass away in terror.

And his offspring All of these officers desert the standard in panic, declares the Lord, whose fire is in Zion and whose furnace is in Jerusalem. All of these ands show us that when God wins, his victory is expansive. It's definitive. Here this prophecy was a promise and God's words were like a down payment on that future victory. This actually happened.

Historically speaking, it actually happened. We see it in the pages of Isaiah chapters 36 to 39 in this middle narrative section of the book of Isaiah. King Hezekiah seeks the Lord in prayer right while that Assyrian army is at the gate ready to destroy Jerusalem. And in chapter 37, the Lord tells Hezekiah that because the king turned to him in prayer, that God Almighty is going to take out the Assyrian enemy all out on his own. And no need for Egypt's horses or chariots, certainly no need for little metal statues or something.

All Judah needs to do is to turn to faith. To God and trust him in repentance and God will prove himself faithful to respond through his rescue. And the amazing account here in chapter 37 is just the stunning victory of God. In chapter 37 verses 33 to 37 it says this, therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, he shall not come up into this city or even shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield cast up a siege mound against it? By the way that he came, by the same he shall return, and he shall not come into this city, declares the Lord.

For I will defend this city to save it, for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David. And here's the amazing result. And the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when the people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Dead bodies.

Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria, departed and returned home and lived at Nineveh. And he was worshiping in the house of Nishras, his God, and his sons struck him down with his sword. Wow. God promised this and then he brought it to pass. He delivered, like literally delivered.

This supposed rock of the king of Assyria in verse 9. It passes away in terror and God declares his presence over Judah and her enemies. Kind of like a divine game of rock, paper, scissors. God's fire here in verse nine beats out Assyria's rock. And it's reminiscent of the book of Deuteronomy which says, Their rock is not like our rock.

The Lord your God is a consuming fire. And as the Lord passes over Judah in his merciful deliverance, also Assyria just passes away and they just pass away off the stage of human history. And as the final seed fades on this image of the king of Assyria, he's contrasted with this true king you see referenced there in chapter 32 verse 1. A king who reigns in righteousness, a king who now comes clear into view. So here's a little teaser for the next two weeks.

This promise of God's protection that we see here in chapter 31 is of his city of Jerusalem, that promise of protection establishes the foundation for the coming promise of the Messianic King in verse 32. And then when we behold the Messiah King who comes in verse, excuse me, chapter 32, he will bring with him a new Jerusalem, which we're gonna see really clearly in chapter 33. So as we close today, This is yet again an excellent reminder that all of humanity will meet the Lord either as the destroyer or as the deliverer. What's God like? Well, hopefully you have a better perspective to answer that question in our time together.

So hear the call again today to fear him, to revere him, to turn to him, to trust in him. For he is the only one in whom we can truly find rescue and rest. Let's pray.

Lord God Almighty, some trust in chariots, and some in horses, but we proclaim today that we trust in the name of our Lord our God. We praise you this morning as a God of rescue. We praise you as a God whose mighty deeds deserve the worshipful response of both our turning and our trusting. We thank you, God, for the many ways you've protected us and delivered us as your people, how you've spared us from sin, how you've rescued us in Christ, And we pray, Lord, that you would cause us to live in such a way that we would trust your presence and trust your promises. Help us to continually turn towards your mercy as we seek to cast away our idols in repentance.

So bless us, Lord, as we continue to bless you now in song. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.