Turn with me, if you will, to Isaiah chapter 43. We'll start in verse 8. Let's pray and ask the Lord's blessings on the reading and the exposition of the Word. Our dear Heavenly Father, we do thank You. We praise You. We adore You. And we pray that tonight, as we end out this wonderful Lord's Day that you have given to us as we rest in your keeping that you oh Lord will continue to teach us from your word cause us to be attentive do special things to our ears in order that we may hear and understand in order that we may say it is true And we pray, O Lord, that you would attend to us in it in order that we might be better and more righteous servants to you. We lift all these things up in the name of Jesus. Amen. Isaiah 43, verse 8. Bring out the people who are blind, even though they have eyes, and the deaf, even though they have ears. All the nations have gathered together so that the peoples may be assembled. Who among them can declare this and proclaim to us the former thing? Let them present their witnesses that they may be justified or let them hear and say it is true. You are my witnesses declares the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me there was no God formed, and there will be none after me. I, even I, am the Lord, and there is no Savior besides me. It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, and there was no strange God among you, so you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God. Even from eternity I am He, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. I act, and who can reverse it? Remember that this passage right here is a part of a section and that section started back in chapter 40. Comfort ye, comfort ye my people." From then God begins to address Israel's idolatry, begins to put himself up against their idolatry, begins to call them to repentance from that and to his salvation in order that he may show them his deliverance, that he may show them that he truly is God And there is no other. This theme continues for several chapters. We're in chapter 43 right now. Isaiah 42, 18 through 20. He seems to me to be reflecting in Isaiah 43 off of Verse 18, hear you deaf and look you blind that you may see. Who is blind but my servant, or so deaf as my messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with me, or so blind as the servant of the Lord? You have seen many things, but you do not observe them. Your eyes are open, but none hears. The messenger, the servant who is blind, the servant of the Lord who is blind here is Israel. Israel Jacob is that servant. God put Israel in place for a whole lot of reasons. But one of the reasons that comes up time and time again in the Old Testament is that they may be a testimony to the world, that the things that God does in them may be a testimony to the world, that they may be witnesses in the world of His law, of His grace, of the things that He has done with them, that all of the things that God does in grace for Israel are to be done in the sight of the whole world. Just because God chose Israel among all of the nations does not mean that he has forgotten all of the nations, does not mean that he has forgotten the world that he has made, does not mean that he has forgotten mankind as a whole and has retreated into some small place in Palestine and given over the rest of the world to the devil because he's lost the battle. This is not the picture of the Old Testament, it's not the picture of Scripture, it isn't the picture of God. God always has in mind all of his people throughout all times who he knows and are his own people those whom he has elected those whom he has decreed for salvation in verse 8 he is making witnesses making witnesses and what's he making them out of he's making them out of blind and deaf people blind and deaf people. That is our condition outside of salvation. There isn't any way that we can get around that. In our sinful condition, we are blind and we are deaf. And so we must be given sight and we must be given hearing in order that we might fulfill what he has for us to do. He says to Israel, bring out the people who are blind. Who are the blind? He's already said in 42, 18 through 20 who the blind are. They're his own people. He says, bring out the blind, the people who are blind and they have eyes and the deaf and they have ears. Bring out. This term right here is not an imperative, all right? It's either in the perfect tense or it's an infinitive construct. Not really sure which, but it calls to attention those who once were blind and deaf to the truth being brought out of captivity to the darkness into light again. So bringing out, if it is a perfect tense, bringing out the people who are blind, or to bring out the people who are blind, is basically what he's saying here. And they have eyes and ears. Now this could be causative. And basically what that means is that it probably refers to their former state of blindness and deafness. Now they see and hear because they have been brought out and are going to need their eyes and ears for what's going to follow here. God has brought them out of the captivity of the slavery of blindness and deafness. Their natural functions are not working. They can see. They have eyes. They can hear. They have ears, but they do not see. They do not hear. Spiritually, they are unable to comprehend God in any way. Their senses do them no good whatsoever. Even though God may speak to them through his prophets, he may proclaim his word to them, They have no understanding. They don't even have a desire to understand it. The extent of the blindness, the extent of the deafness in those who God is not blessed with grace is total. It is total. There are many other ways of expressing that. And one of the most potent ways is, they're dead. They're spiritually dead. They're unable to comprehend or to apprehend God, nor do they even care. They don't even have a will to do so. No one seeks after God, says the psalmist. And so he said, and so they must be delivered. They are in a captivity of blindness and deafness, and they must be delivered from this into the light. So in the broadest sense of the word, this verse predicts The salvation of the Gentiles. There is no Israel Judah that's being used in this passage of scripture. It's open here. This is the condition of mankind. And so who are these people who are to be brought out? They are the people of God to be brought out anywhere in the world. There's no definition of where these are to come from. We see this more clearly in the next passage in verse nine. And here we see the assembly of the adversaries of God and the presentation of their case before them. And also he extends to them the opportunity not only of giving their case, but also of turning from their way of thinking towards his. All the nations have gathered together. Now it doesn't say that the nations have caused themselves to gather together or that they have initiated this gathering. It says they have gathered together, and this gathering is a divine gathering. God, as it were, is gathering all of the nations together. They have gathered together so that the peoples may be assembled. This portion of the verse starts out strong. All the nations have gathered together. It's as if a mass movement is taking place, and this is on a spiritual level, and then it falls off at the end in order to say, so that the peoples may be assembled. It is not a complete gathering. A gathering is taking place, but this gathering is not complete. There are some who are missing among the nations here. Who among them can declare this and proclaim to us the former things? So this harks back to Isaiah chapter 41, 1 where God says, Coastlands, listen to me in silence and let the peoples gain new strength. Let them come forward, then let them speak. Let us come together for judgment. All the way back in Isaiah chapter 1, he says, come, let us reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God is not saying to the nations nor to the peoples, come and let's talk and I'll hear your case and consider it. He's saying to them, come and let's talk. I want to hear from you what I have been saying to you all these years. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow." Let's talk to each other, God says to the nations. God says to the wicked. Let's talk to each other because you have sin and you need to be cleansed. Now, can they say, well, we don't believe that we have sin? No, sorry, that's not a part of the argument. Part of the argument is you have sinned. It needs to be cleansed away. Can you tell me how you're going to cleanse it away? We don't know. We've been beaten to a pulp and we still are sinning. And so God is going to be the one who affects this conversation, so to speak. This is the way it's been all the way since the beginning of Isaiah, and it's the way it is now. Listen to me in silence, he says, as he calls them to him. And let the people gain new strength. Let them come forward, then let them speak. And let us come together for judgment. Isaiah 41, 4 says, Who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning? I, the Lord, am the first, and with the last I am He. We see here, He has called the assembly of the nations together. Who among them can declare this and proclaim to us the former things? The nations are so blind and so deaf, they don't even know the former things, much less to be able to say, why are we gathered together here? Why are we coming together in an assembly before God? What's going to be the object of this meeting with Him? They don't know because they can't even give a clear idea of what's happened in the past. They're blind, they're deaf, they don't know. who has performed and accomplished it, calling forth the generations from the beginning. In Isaiah 41, God has proven to them who the true God is by His ability to tell the future, to know the past, to know what things that He began in order that they might accomplish this in the future, and to say to them, this is happening now because of that, and this is going to happen because of this. Why? Because He's God. And so he says to their idols, now let me see you do that. Let me see you predict the future. Let me see you tell us what the meaning of the past is as it passes on through history. No, you cannot do that. Why? Because you are vanities. You are not gods at all. But I who am God can do these things. Isaiah 42, 9, behold, the former things have come to pass. Now I declare new things before they spring forth. I proclaim them to you. I have the ability to do this, says God. Why? Because God is the one who defines time. God defines history. God defines all events. He is the one who has, who has, well let's put it this way, He is the one who foresees it because He has decreed it. God doesn't foresee things because He's just a really good, you know, He's got a really good trend chart. He foresees things because He is the decreer of things. They take place because of His purposes. Therefore He knows them because He affects them to take place. Who among them, who among the nations can declare this? What is this? What is this? This is this gathering. He says the nations have gathered together. Who among the nations can declare this gathering together? Who knows what this is all about? The nations are unaware of the gathering of nations. Cannot even speak of the things in the past, much less what the purpose of God will be in calling them all together. This is a part of the new things that God has already gathered them together to declare unto him. The mission of the Messiah, the mission of the Messiah, and we never get him out of mind as long as we're in these passages. He's always there in the background ever since chapter 40. The mission of the Messiah is to gather God's people together into the church. That is who he is calling out of the nations. And he's not just calling them in space, he's calling them in time. Not only in that time, but in times to come. He's gathering his people together. This is what the servant of the Lord does. The new things include the salvation of the nations, the salvation of the Gentiles. So he's going to call his people from all over the world. They do not know that this is what he is doing. They cannot know that this is what he is doing. They are blind and they are deaf. but He is going to make them to where they will be able to see and to hear. They must be able to see and hear. Why? Because they are to be His witnesses. And what do witnesses do? They see and they hear. And when they see and hear the acts and the ways of God, they are His witnesses to those who do not see. They are the ones who will carry these truths on to others. Let them present their witnesses first. The worst word for witnesses in Hebrew is Ed. And it answers to the same word in the Greek because of the crossover of passages of scripture into the Greek as Martus. Martus is the word for witness in the New Testament. And it means a witness in a court situation. It is a forensic term. It has to do with the courts. And God is saying to them, present your witnesses that they may be justified. In other words, He's saying to the nations in their idolatry, bring witnesses. Now, He's already told them, bring your idols and let your idols speak. And what do the idols do? Well, they just sit there. Why? Because they're idols. They're made out of stone and wood and metals and things of that sort. They can't do anything. They have eyes, but they can't see. They have ears, but they can't hear. They have noses, but they can't smell. And those who have made them are likened to them. They are deaf. They are blind. They cannot comprehend God. Remember how John starts out, the Gospel of John? Jesus came into the world, but the world did not comprehend Him. That word in the Greek means was not able to grasp Him. And we actually use that idiom now having to do with understanding. He's not able to grasp it, okay? I explained it to him, but he just couldn't grasp it. This is the same idea here. Jesus came into the world and the world could not comprehend him. The world could not grasp him because it was in the darkness and the depths of sin, in blindness and death, all right? And so he calls to the nations, bring witnesses. Your idols have not spoken. Do you have witnesses who can attest to the validity of your religion, of your idolatry? let them come that they may be justified or and this or turns completely from the judgments of God and is an extension of grace to them or if you can't bring witnesses that can justify your religion your claim to other gods besides me or let them hear And when he says, let them hear, this justive that he's using here is a commandment to the ear to open up. Just like Jesus says, he who has ears to hear, let him hear. Well, if that person has ears for spiritual things by God's decree, then when Jesus blesses the ear of that person, it opens up and begins to believe and to understand the things that God says. And so he says, or if they cannot justify themselves, then let them hear and say it is true. Let them hear me, let them hear my prophets, let them hear my law, let them hear these things, understand them in faith and embrace them as truth and confess it. That's what he's saying here, okay? And so what he's doing is effectually calling his people out of the world. And he's effectually calling them by the blessing of the ear so that the ear can be opened to hear his word by his spirit. And that effectual calling engenders in them a saving faith. And that saving faith is the opening of the eyes, being brought out of the captivity of the darkness of blindness and deafness. He, by regeneration, has brought them out and brought them to salvation. If the nations would justify their former blindness and deafness and idolatry, they should bring forth witnesses to prove themselves. If not, then they must hear what God has to say and confess it as true, as true. So who are the witnesses? Now he turns from the nations as a whole to Israel. He turns to Israel. Because in this verse he calls them, my servant. And so that clues us in that he's now speaking to Israel in particular. And he says, you, and you could insert in there as something that's implied in here, you, O Israel, are my witnesses. You are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and my servant. singular it goes over against the plurality of the witnesses you are my witnesses that is you spreading the the word out all over the world are my witnesses you are my servant in the singular uh... which you know is going to find its complete focus in the servant of the lord himself christ out of them comes this messiah Similar terminology to the seed of the woman and the seeds of the woman. The seed of Abraham and the seeds of Abraham. The seed of the woman, that could be Israel. The seed of the woman, more particularly though, is going to be Christ himself, the victor over Satan. The seed of Abraham, Could be all of Israel. Or the seed of Abraham in the singular as we see in Galatians chapter 3 is Jesus. He is the seed of Abraham. The very seed of Abraham. You are my witnesses, my servant. whom I have chosen I have elected I have elected you as my servant so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he he is not talking to every individual person in Israel here There are many in Israel in this generation and the next and the next and the next and the next who never believed in Him, never understood Him. He is not talking to them. They do not know Him. He is talking to those who know Him. He is talking to those who believe in Him. He is talking to those who understand that He is the Lord, that He is the covenant Lord, that He truly is the covenant Lord in an unmixed manner. Not that we're Yahwistic, but at the same time we've got some pagan gods who kind of embellish our religion and give us some kind of contact with the outside world. No, they are truly, truly His witnesses. Acts 1, 7 through 8, at the beginning of Acts, He, Jesus, comes to his disciples and he says to them, it is not for you to know the times or the epics, in verse 7, it is not for you to know the times or epics which the Father has fixed by his own authority, but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. And you shall be my witnesses, martus is the word here, both in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria and even to the remotest part of the earth. More than likely, whether consciously or in the background of his thinking, Luke has got the prophets in mind here when he speaks. Acts 3, 12 through 26, turn with me to that. This takes place after the healing of the lame beggar. And Peter stands up and he replies to the people who are wondering about this healing that is taking place and gives them an explanation for it. And in his explanation here, we see him drawing, I believe, so much from the prophets and particularly from Isaiah, maybe even from this very chapter. When Peter saw this, he replied to the people, men of Israel, why are you amazed at this, or why do you gaze at us as if by our own power or piety we made this man to walk? The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of our fathers, has glorified, notice what he calls Jesus here, has glorified his servant, Jesus. His servant, Jesus. The one whom you delivered and disowned in the presence of Pilate when he, Pilate, had decided to release him. But you disowned the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you. But put to death the Prince of Life, the one whom God raised from the dead, a fact to which we are witnesses. Here we see the beginning of the fulfillment of this prophecy taking place where the apostles and the disciples of that time embrace the idea that they have been made witnesses. Why? Because they have been redeemed. They have been set free of their blindness. Look at the life of Peter before this. Back up with Peter into the Gospels and what do you see? A man who hardly ever understands anything. Every now and then a glimmering of light comes on just to be put out almost immediately thereafter to the point to where Jesus actually has to point to him and say, get thee behind me, Satan. It isn't until the coming of the Holy Spirit takes place that their eyes are truly opened up, their ears are completely opened up, and then they begin to understand the words of Jesus and the words of God through the prophets in times past before this. And now they are witnesses. They are qualified to be witnesses. Verse 16 in Acts chapter 3, and on the basis of faith in his name, it is the name of Jesus which has strengthened this man whom you see and know. And the faith which comes through him has given him this perfect health in the presence of you all. And now, brethren, I know that you acted in ignorance just as your rulers did also. But the things which God announced beforehand by the mouth of all the prophets that His Christ would suffer, He has thus fulfilled. Therefore, repent and return so that your sins may be wiped away in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Does that sound like Isaiah 40, 29 through 31, where he says, he gives strength to the weary and to him who lacks might, he increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired and vigorous young men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength. They will be refreshed. They will mount up with wings like eagles. They will run and not get tired. They will walk and not become weary. You know there is in this times of refreshing here also something eschatological. He's saying the time of weariness is over. The night is long spent now. The day is close at hand. Now times of refreshing are taking place. The world is now about to see a renewal through the gospel that is to be delivered concerning the coming of Jesus Christ and the salvation that has come upon the earth. Back to Acts chapter 3 verse 20. And that he may send Jesus the Christ appointed for you whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from ancient times took place. Moses said the Lord God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brethren to him you shall give heed. In other words and in the law it says you hear him. You know, you may not listen to any other prophet, he basically says to Israel. You may not listen to any other prophet, but when this prophet comes, you will hear him. His voice, you will hear. Now you may hear that to your salvation, or you may hear it to your condemnation, but you will hear him. Jesus was a man to be reckoned with in his day. People either bowed before him when they heard his words, Or they were put to silence. And how many did he put to silence who were not able to open their mouths against the things that he had to say? Out of his mouth came a two-edged sword. He was slaying people as he was going along. Verse 24 in Acts chapter 3. And likewise, all the prophets who have spoken from Samuel and his successors onward also announce these days. Did God not give a witness of the coming of Christ? Did He not give a witness of who He would be? He says all of the prophets spoke of him and from Samuel through all of his successors even up to this day. Remember Luke 24, 25 through 27? Jesus is on the road to Emmaus and he meets the disciples who were on the road to Emmaus and they begin to explain to him the things that happened to Jesus. They don't recognize him and they begin to explain those things to him. And in verse 25, Jesus says, And he, Jesus, said to them, O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into his glory? Hold on to that phraseology. Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer? Was it not necessary for Christ to suffer? We'll get back to that in just a minute. Because this is the teaching of the prophets. It is necessary for Christ to suffer. and to enter into his glory. Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, he explained to them the things concerning himself in all the scriptures." This is Jesus' exposition of himself from all of scripture to these disciples on the road to Emmaus. After which, when he had broken the bread, they said, did not our hearts burn within us as he walked with us by the way, and has he opened to us the scriptures? And then continuing on in Acts chapter three, verse 25, it is you who are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant which God made with your father, saying to Abraham, and in your seed, all the families of the earth shall be blessed. For you first, God raised up his servant, Jesus, and sent him to bless you by turning every one of you from your wicked ways. All right, so who is the witness? Who is the witness? Well, this is why we see in the New Testament over and over again, to the Jew first, then to the Greek. All right? Israel is to be his witness. And who is Israel of Israel? Israel of Israel is those who have been called and chosen by Him, who have been brought out of the captivity of their blindness and of their deafness in order that by faith they may be able to understand Him and declare that all that He says is truth. They are His witnesses. And openly and freely they set forth His testimony before the world. And what is that testimony? In the latter part of verse 10 in our text, he says, before me there was not formed a God and there will be none after me. God is not saying here there was a before and after in his life. He's simply speaking to them, basically arguing with their own way of thinking about their gods. Our gods are primal. You know, God's had all kinds of ranks and our gods are primal. And God is basically saying to them, Take the best God you can find. Take the most almighty God you can think of. He was not there before me. He was not formed before me. And He will not be there after me. And God basically is arguing it. There was no time when I was not. And there will be no time when I will not be. But you're God's. have come out of your imagination. Now he uses the word El for God here when he says has not formed a God. And this reveals in this text deep sarcasm. Deep sarcasm on God's part against their gods. Because basically what he's saying to them is, as Alexander says, bringing into the most revolting contrast the pretended divinity of idols and their impotence, as if he had said, none of these almighty gods were made before I had been. Because the very word El almost presupposes the next word, Gebor, God Almighty. And so he says, pick out anything that you imagine to be a God that comes as close to being a God as it can possibly be. It is not. It is not an anything. It is a vanity. There is nothing behind the name. And then he goes on to say in verse 11, I, even I, that emphatic I, I, I am the Lord. I am the Lord. He drives it into us when he presents himself as a person over against the vanity of the idols, which are nothings, nothings at all. And there is no savior beside me. He couples these two concepts together. I am and I am the only one who exists. The word El, the word God, can only be applied to me and to nothing else. Nothing. Alright? We can even take the German word God, which is our word for divinity. And it only applies to God himself. It doesn't matter what the Germans thought about that word in the ancient times when they applied it to Vodun or any of their other gods. That doesn't make any difference. Those gods didn't exist. They still don't exist. They never existed. They were only in the human imagination. But that term for divinity belonged to God and only to God. It was His Word, His name, it was only His. He is the only God there is, the only God there has ever been. It's very important to understand that, to understand the connection between that and the next phrase, which is, there is no Savior besides me. What is it that the idolaters are trying to do with their gods? They're trying to save themselves from these vanity nothings of their imagination. It won't happen. There is no salvation there. To seek salvation it must be sought from one who owns the name El. And there is only one who owns that name. And it's God. And so God says exclusively, I am God, there is no other. Now, you know, people can say, well, you know, Allah comes from the word El, so therefore, you know, the God of the Muslims, the God of the Christians, same God. No, the God of the Muslims is no God at all. The Muslims robbed God of a word, perhaps, because I'm not totally convinced of that cognition anyway. But if they did, they robbed it of him and gave it over to their imagination. And this is the very thing that God is confronting right here. Behind the word God as it is applied to any other thing besides me or any nothing besides me. I am God. I and I alone. You will not find salvation in any other place. So when God begins to bring them to salvation, first he focuses them in on himself. That's the only place where you're going to find it. You look for it anywhere else and you will not find it. If you look for it by any other name, you will not find it. It's only to be found in me. Idols cannot save. Only the covenant God who lives can save. Only the God who has revealed himself in scripture as he is can save. Look for salvation nowhere else. It is not to be found. Verse 12, he emphatically gives us that pronoun again. And I, fixing attention upon himself. He is the one who foretold. He is the one who saved. He declared it and revealed it to the blind and to the deaf. Only he can do that. Idols can't take away your blindness and deafness. They add to it, making you more confused in your own imagination. God and God alone can break the bondage that brings us into deafness and blindness to Him. He says, and I... Let's see, where are we? Verse 12. And I, who have declared and saved and proclaimed, There was no stranger among you. The word there is stranger. And it means a stranger of God's. In other words, while I was saving you, while I was delivering you, while I was declaring these things to you, where was the stranger God? Where was some God moving around in the background doing things at the same time that I was delivering you from Egypt? That I was delivering you from the Canaanites? That I was delivering you throughout all of the times that I have saved you, Israel? Where was the stranger God? There was none. Oh, there were idols aplenty. God is not saying here that there was no idolatry that was going on in Israel. He knows there was idolatry going on in Israel, but there were no gods. There were no gods. You know it's mind boggling to me and I don't know why it is because I'm a sinner and if I just back up I can start to get an idea of how this works. But in grace it's mind boggling to me. How can we get to the place and we're not talking about a few human beings here we're talking about the whole world of human beings one generation after another for a period of two thousand three thousand years worshipping non gods vanities of the mind thinking that these non gods could actually save them and they had bought them up in their own minds You talk about self-deception. This is what we're capable of. And this is the blindness that he's talking about. This is the deafness that he's talking about. It is a captivity in sin. And we must be brought out of it. We must be unchained and saved from it. We cannot extricate ourselves from it. He must do so for us. There was no stranger of gods among you. He's not denying idolatry, but he's saying, while he was working on their behalf, there were no gods working among them other than himself. He was the one and only God who was saving. He says, and I, and then he says, and ye. in stark contrast to and I. Whatever Israel had thought about their idol worship he says to them and you are witnesses. You are witnesses. Now he doesn't say to them you will be witnesses. He says you are my witnesses. You have seen the acts of God. Now Israel did not fulfill this role very well at all. It was the purpose of God that they should go forth into the world letting everybody know salvation is here. Salvation is in Israel where God is, where the true God who really truly is the creator God, the sovereign, and the savior of men is. It's here. Israel did not do that well. They hardly did it at all. Some of the prophets did, but they basically failed on this very thing. He says to them, you are my witnesses, declares the Lord, and I am God. Rounds it out right there. I am God. I am God. I am El. I am. Okay? Now, is there any question about what God's getting across to them here? Idols are nothing. You're deaf and blind. I'm God. I'm the only one there is, I'm the only one there ever has been. Okay? Why? Why does he do that? Is it just to satisfy our curiosity about our origins? Or is it that God is like, I insist that you know that I exist? Well, it's more than that he insists that we know that he exists. It is absolutely necessary for our salvation that we know that He, the God revealed in Scripture, is the only God there is. Salvation is tied to that. It's tied to it. It is not tied to a perception of God. It is not tied to an impression of God. It is tied to the only God who truly is. Therefore, it is absolutely necessary that He first establish this in the minds of His people. I am God. And there is no other but Me. Even from eternity, verse 13, I am He. He's not temporal. There was no before or after. From eternity I am he and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. That's an interesting statement right there. Let's see. I told you to remember something. And I need to go back and find out what it was. I'd have to go back and reread all of Acts 3. But here's where it comes in. You can get the tape and find out. He says, and there is none who can deliver out of my hand. What does that mean? Deliver out of my hand. It means that he's caught something. God has caught something. And he's saying nothing can get it out of my hand. Nothing can deliver it from my hand. What's in his hand? Those whom he has saved. They are the ones who are in his hands. That phrase has to do with someone who has captured someone. And you could say, well, you know, so and so came along and delivered him out of his hand. Or you can say no one was able to deliver him out of his hand. Who's been captured? Those whom he has saved. Those whom he has brought out of the captivity of blindness and deafness, those are in his hands. No one can deliver them out of my hand. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound familiar? Who can take us out of the grasp of God? He has us. He has us. Can any idol that is a nothing hold us in salvation and preserve us eternally in salvation? No. Only the God who is God can do that. And so he makes this bold claim regarding himself. I am God. I save my people. And no one can deliver them out of my hand. I act, and who can reverse it? When I go forth to save my people, it is irreversible. Nothing can stop me once I have started on my way to deliverance of my people. Now let's wrap this up because we have him declaring that his people are going to be witnesses. And how do we see that first brought forth? In the book of Acts. We see his disciples, we see his apostles going forth as witnesses. What is the very definition of an apostle? An apostle is someone who witnessed his incarnation from the time of his baptism to the time of his ascension. What is it that John says in 1 John chapter 1? We, John being an apostle, says, we have seen, we have heard, we have handled Christ Himself, the Word of Life. We have handled these things. And we write these things to you, we witness these things to you, we testify them before you, in order that you may believe and that you may have fellowship with us in Him. This testimony, this witness is important. The witness of the prophets was important because by the promises of God which were sure because God is God And that was the surety of the promises. Because God is God, these promises are sure. Therefore, you can believe that they will happen as if they have already happened. Those people who believed in that manner, in that saving manner, were justified just as we are justified by believing what? In the witness that has been delivered to us by the apostles. And in this way, the church can be called the pillars and ground of truth. Why? Because the foundation of it is the prophets, the apostles, and Jesus Christ as the cornerstone, Ephesians 2. Now, one more thing, because remember, it's absolutely essential that we know the right God if there will be salvation, because salvation only comes from the God who is God. And why? Because salvation only comes in one way. In one way. That is to say, it is absolutely essential for God to be God. In order that He, through His Son, may bring salvation to us. Because there isn't any other way. Nothing in the imaginations, in the philosophy, in the mythology, in the idolatry of man We can be able to come up with any system of salvation that truly atones for sin. But for God to come into humanity and inhumanity to die for the sins of his people. And that's why Jesus came into the world in order that he might save his people from their sin. How does that work? It works because Jesus is God. He owns that name. He is El Gabor. He is Almighty God. He is the everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace, the wonderful Counselor. He is God. And only God can die for His people and bring them salvation. And so what God is doing in this passage is He's saying to His blind and His deaf servants, Arrest your attention on me. Because I am the only way you can be saved. I am the only way that you can be saved. This salvation must come through me and only through me. Unhitch that imagination and set it adrift. and cause all of your attention to come to the God who is, the God who reveals himself to be who he is. Remember he says, I, even I am the Lord. What does the Lord mean? I am that I am. I am in order that I may be. I am and therefore I am. However you want to put it. the self-sufficient God, I, even I, look to me and be saved. This is the message that he gives to us. That salvation only comes about by the God who reveals himself for who he is. This is what makes idolatry such a terrible, terrible thing. From a purely humanistic level, Idolatry is a futility. It's not good for humanism. Why? Because the humanist winds up in hell forever. And that's not very humanistic, okay? We think much better of ourselves than that. God came into this world to seek and to save those who are lost. That's what Jesus said of himself. And there's only one way that that can take place. There was not even a potential of another kind of salvation than that. And so for that reason, God very graciously comes to his people and says, pay attention. Get your mind off of these imaginations and inventions and look to me. Because I am the only way that you can be saved. Let's pray. Our dear Heavenly Father, we do thank you for Jesus who has come into this world to save his people from their sins. We thank you that you have revealed to us yourself as God. We thank you for the blessing to our eyes, for the blessing to our ears, for breaking the chains of the prison that we have been in and sin. Delivering us over in order that we may look up above the horizon, look into your face and know you. That we may hear the voice of the shepherd and may come because we know him and he knows us. Lord, thank you for revealing to us all of these things. And we thank you, O Lord, that you have called to us in salvation in order that we may know you. Cause us throughout our lives to live as those who are grateful, thankful to the one who has drawn us up out of our prison, out of our darkness into light, and has given us the freedom of sons to be able to worship our God as we were designed to do. And we lift all of these things up to you in the name of Jesus. it.