All right, and appreciate Allison helping out there as well. So we'll just miss the young ones to go to class. And please turn in your Bibles again to Isaiah chapter 44, and same verses, 21 through 28, and it's page 764. And really 765, I guess, for those verses. 765 in the church Bible. And last week, we hit on one of the Ten Commandments. It was the last one. It was thou shalt not covet. We're gonna start this morning with the first commandments that God gave, and they were commandments about idolatry, forbidding idolatry. And so Exodus 20 in verse 31, It says, and God spake all these words, Exodus chapter 20 and verse 1, God spake all these words saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that's in heaven above, or that's in the earth beneath, or that's in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. For I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, and showing mercy unto thousands of them that love me and keep my commandments. And God's saying, love me, okay? Choose me, and he forbids choosing anything else. And it is the law. God does not want us to follow the law out of duty. God wants us to follow the law out of love. Indeed, man cannot follow the law out of duty. By the works of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. So it has to be that hard thing. But no other gods besides me, thou shalt not make unto thee any image. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them. So nothing was to take God's place and nothing else was to be worshipped. Moses, when he received the Ten Commandments, remember, he was on Mount Sinai. And he's up there, he's in the presence of God. The children of Israel are down below, and they are sensing that Moses is meeting with God, and yet, down below, there is, all of a sudden, a turn in their heart, quickly, away from God, and guess what? they turn to the sin of idolatry." So here Moses is going to come down with those 10 commandments. He's going to break them because man had rebelled against God so quickly. And so Exodus 32 verse 1, when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron and said unto him, up, make us gods which shall go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we want not what is become of him." And again, it's just sad, isn't it? I mean, you look at it, the people of God, they've seen God do amazing things, the 10 plagues and crossing over of the Red Sea and have seen God provide manna and all those things and yet so quickly they turn away from God. to serve a stupid idol that's nothing, and the first commandment, we understand why God gave it, not to worship idols. Webster says about idolatry, it's a worship of idols or excessive devotion to or reverence for some person or thing. And let me just say, an idol is anything that replaces God. And rightly so, our world says sports idol. I was witnessing to a young man last night, and I said, who's the most famous person in human history? And he says, Ronaldo. And I'm looking at him like, come on, we don't celebrate his birthday every year, we don't date our calendar by him, I'm trying to give him some clues. Okay, Ronaldo, a sports idol. There are people that worship him. It's not wrongly stated. Music idols. You know, I had a show in the United States that started American Idol. It's an idea and it's not a wrong idea, it's very accurate. In fact, I find so many times that sinners are more quick to identify things correctly than believers. They call it pride, the pride movement. It's aptly named. In Ezekiel 16, verse 49, it says, behold, there was the iniquity, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, Sodomites, that was God's wrath came against Sodom and Gomorrah because of the homosexuality in that sin being there. Thy sister Sodom, first thing mentioned, pride. Fullness of bread, abundance of idleness was in her heart and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Okay, so what was her sin? It was pride. Jesus said, Mark 7, 21, for within, out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these things come from within. and defile the man. Okay, so our world at times can be more honest than we are and identify something for what it is. They say sports idol. They say music idol. And that's a very accurate description of the people that they bow down to and that they indeed worship. You know what kind of idols can be in our life this morning? You know, it could be money. Just that pound and getting the pence. It's all about that. If we were to say, what is the motivating factor of my life? Guess what? It's money. That's the main thing. It could be a person, maybe a romance, or just somebody that is a distraction and somebody that is pulling away from God. It could be people. There's plenty of people, again, pulling people away. It could be family. You know, Jesus said, if you're gonna come after me, you cannot, well, he said, you cannot love father or mother or sister or these, you cannot love them more than me if you wanna be my disciple. Why? Because that is stepping in between God and man, his creation. Hobbies? Go to the golf course this morning, all right? It's not hard this morning to say, hobbies are a God. I mean, you just go all over Scotland today. It's a beautiful day. Guess what? There's a lot of people that they're worshiping that instead of worshiping God on the Lord's day. It could be pleasure. I really want that. And it may not even be sinful pleasure, but it could just be pleasure. I wanna go this, I wanna go there, I wanna go this, I wanna go that. Or it could be sinful pleasure that has come in and like, I want that sin. And so in that case, I don't really want God. Whatever it is, it turns our heart away from God. We love the idol and live for it instead of loving God and living for him. We give to the idol instead of giving to God and honoring God with the first fruits of our increase. Instead, we're invested so much in other things that we can't invest in God. We obey the idol and disobey God. God said, look, you don't get any other gods besides me. Don't bow down to them, don't worship them. I am God, I am God alone. It's really, and let me just say, when you deal with the first commandment, everything else stems from that. The great commandment is thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul, mind, and strength. Romans 6.16, know ye not that to whom ye yield yourselves, servants to obey? His servants ye are to whom ye obey, whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness. And so again, the idol is anything that takes us away from God's word, God's day, God's house, or God's people. It's coming in between us and God. Okay, now in our text, and let me point some things out very quickly as we get going this morning, so you can see the context of what Isaiah is writing. So we're in chapter 44, and our text is verses 21 through 28, but before Isaiah got to what he's gonna tell us in our text, he's speaking about idolatry and how empty it is. And so verse eight, God is God alone. Okay, fear ye not, neither be afraid, have I not told thee? From that time have not I declared it? Ye are even my witnesses. Here's the question. Is there a God beside me? Yea, there is no God, I know not any. Okay, so God's just letting us know that all-knowing, all-powerful, all-wise God says, look, there's no other God. Okay? Secondly, idolatry is empty. Look at verse 10. It says, who hath formed a God or a molten, a graven image that is profitable for what? Nothing. And idol does nothing. I mean, they have nothing to offer us. And so he's saying that it's vain, it's empty. And then creating an idol takes a lot of work, verses 10 through 14. He's speaking about the actual gods that you'd bow down to, little statues, who have formed a god or molten a graven image that is profitable for nothing. Behold, all his fellows shall be ashamed, and the workmen, they are of men. Let them all be gathered together, let them stand up, yea, yet they shall fear, and they shall be ashamed together. The smith, with the tongs, both worketh in the coals, and fashioneth with the hammers, and worketh with the strength of his arms. Yea, he is hungry, and his strength faileth. He drinketh no water, he is faint. And it's just to say, he's working so hard at that idol. Let me just say, do people work hard at sin? Absolutely. Do they work hard at their idols? Absolutely. They are giving themselves to that, but to what point? Verse 13, the carpenter stretcheth out his rule, he maketh it out with a line, he fitteth it with planes, and he maketh it out with a compass, and maketh it after the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He heweth them down cedars, and taketh the cypress and the oak, which he strengtheneth for himself among the trees of the forest. He planteth in ash, and the rain does nourish it. And so he takes something that he has helped nourish and grow, and then he bows down to it and says, it's my God. Idols are in feeling. Look ahead at verse 18. In other words, somebody that's bowing down to an idol, it's typical that they have no recognition that this is the case, that it's just so empty, it's vain, it's worthless. They wouldn't get that. And then those who worship idols can't see their own folly, verse 19. So they work so hard, For that which they have created, that they have made, and they bow down to that, instead of recognizing that there is a God in heaven that is to be worshiped. And so despite all that vain, empty nothingness, men still worship idols. And I can say to us this morning, very sadly, there's also believers that, though they had God, and though they got God, they're not following God. Instead, they're bowing down to that which is not. It's vain, it's worthless, it's empty, and it has become their small g, And so what I want to give us this morning is truths to remember when you are tempted to turn away from God. Because Satan's going to seek to do it. We just understand this morning as our church grows and as God works in the hearts of God's people that Satan is constantly seeking to pick apart at that and seeking to lead us away from God. And so truth to remember when you're tempted to turn away from God. And so two questions as we get started this morning, have you turned aside to idolatry? In other words, God no longer has first place. God is not anymore the main thing that is in your life, that something else has crept into that place. Or this morning, are you in danger of turning aside because you are not steadfast with God? because you haven't kept your focus on God is first, God is my priority, that you're in danger of turning aside. And so let's pray. Ask God to help us with these truths this morning. Father, we're grateful for the word of God. Thank you for the opportunity that Again, we have to sit as a congregation and as a church in the house of God. And Father, I rejoice this morning that Christ, you are the head of this assembly, that this is a body. And Father, that you are building this body. And Father, as people get saved and they're baptized, they're added as members into this church, then they become functioning parts of this body, hands and feet that are doing something for God. And Father, that they have a place to serve you. And Father, it is our prayer right now as a church that God, you would not let us go astray. We look at the children of Israel, we look at so many New Testament passages with warnings, like what we're looking at in 1 Corinthians tonight, that Paul even there is warning the church, look, you are turning aside to other things, and there's that constant pull away from God. And Father, I just pray, anchor the first commandment in our hearts, thou shalt have no other gods before me. So that we can honestly say, I'm serving God, I'm obeying God, I'm worshiping God, God is my priority. And it's not because I have to, but it's because I truly love God. And so, Father, would you work these truths in our heart this morning? I pray that the Spirit of God would both defend us and strengthen us. And Father, for any that maybe have turned aside in their heart, though maybe not in their body, Lord, would be able to recognize that, and by the grace of God, get back to God is first today. And Father, we thank you for your help in this service. I pray, would you bless Allison, I believe, as she shares the Bible story in this hour. In that class, may the Spirit of God give her liberty to do so. Touch the hearts of those children. And Father, I pray as I speak, I cannot without your enablement. So I do ask that the Spirit of God would give me liberty to express the truth of the Word of God that I preach biblically, practically, lovingly, and powerfully, the truth of God. And Father, that you just encourage our hearts in you. It's in Christ's name I pray, amen. All right, I'm gonna grab a drink before I get started. Okay, truths to remember when you're tempted to turn away from God. First of all, remember that you are privileged, okay? Remember the privilege that God has given. So verse 21, remember these, O Jacob in Israel, for thou art my servant, I have formed thee, thou art my servant, O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. Okay, so this morning I want to remind you as a believer of the privilege that God has given to you. First of all, God has employed you. He's employed you. He says, my servant, thou art my servant. You know, it's exciting to get a job and to You know, beginning to grow up as a young person, that first job, my first job was working at a rod and gun club. Mom saw it in the newspaper and thought, oh, this would be good for Benjamin. He likes the woods and likes fishing and hunting and those things. So I got a job there. My job was to get down into a skeet shooting... thing that would throw discs, okay, the clay discs that the people would shoot out of the air. And so I had guys with guns behind me shooting, and I was down in this cement thing and loading this skeet. Not that great of a job, okay? And I got paid out of the till in the bar. Mom heard about that, and she thought, nope, you're not doing that anymore. And so I got a job at McDonald's, the Golden Arches. And how many of you have worked at McDonald's? Any others of you out there? No, none? Oh, that's sad. OK. But anyway, I worked at McDonald's. And so from 14 years old, it stretched me. And I'll just tell you, McDonald's was great for me back then. and just get me engaging with people, and I've talked about, you know, I was kinda shy, and so I've gotta stand there, I have to register, and I've gotta talk, you know, and that was good for me, and so I worked there from about 14 to 21, and we were a good McDonald's, and I'll tell you, I'm just not ashamed to say it, this morning, I was proud to work at McDonald's. In fact, my mom had us dress up, and this wasn't my idea, it's my mom's, but we dressed up in our McDonald's uniforms, my brother, myself, and my best friend, and we still have that picture, professionally made, of us working at McDonald's. I'll just say one more thing about my McDonald's. We had an arched drink machine. It would pour drinks, you know, as itself. You know, you didn't pour them yourself. It would come through this tray thing. It would fill them up. This was back in the 1990s, mid-1990s. We had the arch fry machine. It had this hopper that would pour the fries into the thing. It would bring it over, drop it down, pick it up, and dump it out. It was all mechanical. Okay, I still watch it. It must not have taken off because other McDonald's should be envious of us for that. But anyway, I was proud to be a McDonald's employee. Now, I know it's a very bad illustration in comparison with what I want to say, and that is this. Are you proud of the fact that you're a servant of God? There ought to be something in your heart that says, I am proud of the fact that God is my God and that I can say, look, I am a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's something that, okay, other people might be embarrassed about in our world, that they would mock that and laugh at that. But I understand the privilege. I understand the honor. I am God's servant. What a privilege if God has brought you into his family and you've gotten saved and you're made a servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. Wednesday night, we were looking at Amaz, that runner that outran Cushai, the other runner, to get back to King David. And when he got there, King David looked out at him and said, he is a good man. And for us to hear those words from our Lord, well done, thou good and faithful servant. We ought to understand this morning that privilege. I'll tell you this, if we have a church that understands that, we've got a church that's on fire for God. Because the greatest among you will be your what? Servant. That's what Jesus said, he said, you wanna be great in God's economy, then get in there and do for God, serve others, because it's not like this world where you get a position and you look down, it's where you get in there for God and do something for God. And so Matthew 23, 11, he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. We ought to be proud of that this morning and say, I'm not going after idolatry, I am God's servant. Secondly, God made you. He said, I have formed thee. Okay? I have formed the, and I see that, and I see it two ways, physically and spiritually. We understand that physically God made us, you know, and God is the designer. Sadly, there's atheists today, and they write that off, and I'll preach on the streets of Edinburgh, and I'll say, you know, an atheist is the greatest ingrate. You know, we think atheism, oh, no big deal, I'm just an atheist. An atheist is someone that never thanks God for his family, never thanks God for his food, never thanks God for his things, takes the credit for everything that has ever happened in his life. But we're believers this morning, praise God, right? We look at it and say, God, you're the creator. Therefore, we acknowledge that God, everything that we have is given to us by you. Psalm 104, 27 says, these all wait upon thee, that thou givest them their meat in due season, that thou givest them they gather. Thou openest thy hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled. Thou take away their breath, they die and return to their dust. Everything that everybody has outside these walls, it doesn't matter whether they're in here or they're out there, every single thing that they have was given to them by who? God. And it's amazing to me, because again, I witness the people and I realize there's a bias. It's not just that I don't believe in God, like I don't believe in Santa Claus. I don't believe in God and I hate God. And I listened to them, blasphemed God. And I listened to them mock God, and I think this thought, you know, the breath that you're using to curse God is breath that was given to you by whom? God. Wow, you know, they're the ones that, if they were God, they said, if I were God, you know, and they wanna stand in judgment upon God, but if they were God and somebody treated them like they treat God, guess what? Off with your head. They'd be thankful that God isn't like that. God's such a gracious God. He's a good God. But we acknowledge that as believers. We understand, look, everything that I have was given to me by God. And so this whole idolatry thing, why would I go there? Because I recognize the source of everything as God. But secondly, not only physical life, but spiritual life, the new man. Ephesians 2, verse 10. It says, At some point in our life, the Spirit of God worked in our heart, we understood our sin, we understood the judgment against our sin, and at that point, we turned in faith, looked at Jesus Christ and said, dear God, forgive me and save me, and God took our sin away, God gave us everlasting life. He made us anew. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. You know, is it better or worse this morning to be born again by faith in Christ Jesus? That shouldn't be a difficult question for believers, but an atheist or an unbeliever would say, it's worse. And they'd say, you can't, you can't, you can't. And listen, somebody that's been born again says, I don't want to, I don't want to, I don't want to. I thank God by the grace that he gave that I've been set free from sin. And God's made my life anew. And it's good. John 10, 10, the thief cometh not for to steal and to kill and to destroy. I am come that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. If somebody could say today, well, you know, no, no, no, Pastor, real living is rich living. If I had that money, I'd have that big house, I'd have all those things. Well, you know, it's kind of interesting to think about, you know, but the Bible says this, Matthew 16, 26, for what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? Do you know this morning, would you agree to be locked in a prison as long as the bolts that lock the door were solid gold, and they were yours. I mean, you could have them. Would you say, oh, that's great, man, I'd be so rich, you know, I'd have my gold, and I'd be so wealthy, but it's locking you in. You know what riches are for most people in this world? They're just the bolts that are damning them to eternity in hell. The Bible says it's very difficult for a rich man to get saved. Why? Because they trust in that instead of trusting in God. They live for that instead of living for God. They bow down to that instead of bowing down to God. And so it's not worth it, but as a believer, we look at it and say, God made me. Everything that I have is given to me by God. I worship God because it's all from God, physically and spiritually. And so remember this morning, you attempted to turn away from God, that you are privileged to be a servant of God. You are made by God. But then thirdly, God remembers you. It says again in our text, O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. At times in life, we might feel like, I've just forgotten. It's like, I thought that was gonna happen, but that person that I was counting on, they just forgot about me. I'm reminded of Joseph in the Bible that he's languishing in prison because he'd been lied about, and he's been put into prison, and just in that place, he finally interprets a dream for a man that's a butler, a pharaoh, and this man's gonna be spared, he's gonna go before the king, and he says to him, look, as you go before the king, please, please, think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness. I pray thee unto me, make mention of me unto Pharaoh, bring me out of this house. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. And it could be that way in life. Sometimes it's like, I just feel forgotten. But can I say about Joseph that God remembered Joseph? that God didn't forget about Joseph, that God had a great plan for Joseph, and God was gonna bring him out of that place into that position of great power within the kingdom because God remembered Joseph. Look, Israel felt like God had forgotten them. They felt like, you know, it turned to idolatry because God, where is God? Where is this man Moses, okay? And there's that sense that because God forgot me, therefore I will, but the thing was God had not forgotten them, though they felt like it. Isaiah 49 verse 14, but Zion says, Jerusalem says, the Lord hath forsaken me. My Lord hath forgotten me. Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? Yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. In a very rare instance, maybe a mother, you wonder, how could you treat your baby like that? You read about a mom that murders her child and you think, oh, how could that be? But God says, just like a woman has compassion upon her children, I will not forget you. They might forget, but not me. Can I just remind you this morning, God hasn't forgotten about you. Don't think, oh, I gotta turn aside, I gotta go away because God has forgotten me. God has promised in his word he will not forget us. And he says to Israel, look, remember this, and don't go after idolatry. I remember you, I made you, you're my servant. And so truth's to remember, as we're tempted to turn away, remember our privilege that we are God's. But then remember you are purified. You're purified. You know, as parents, we try to introduce our children to spiritual truths at a young age. And so it might be as a parent that something happens in the house and you sit down with a child and you're like, okay, this is a great illustration, so we're gonna use this. We had a time like that. I came back to the house and we'd put in new carpet and things. And as I walked into the house, Katie is there. We've got, at that time, either two or three kids. I think Logan might've been born, it's just before we were moving out of our house. We're prepping it to sell it as we're gonna travel, raise support, come over here. But there were at least two children there, and it was Kaylee, she was three, and Benson was two. And Benson was always clever, always working with his hands. If you know Benson, you know that he's still that way. He just had that gift. But that gift as a two-year-old would mean that he'd take the keys out of the iPad, or not the iPad, the computer, the MacBook, and he would put them in the bin or something like that. This time he got into the inkjet printer. And our carpet was kind of light colored. But this was the blue ink cartridge that Benson chose. And so I come in. There's kind of like two Smurfs sitting there, and hands blue, face blue, you know? And I said to him after Katie gave me that look, like, do not say anything to me, OK? She's now cleaned the carpet and everything, right? And so I looked at them. I said, oh, you guys, I said, you know what? Sin's like that. It stains you. It doesn't wash off, look at that. You could wash your little hands there, and it's still there. I did eventually go away, praise God. But it's just like sin, and sin is like that, isn't it? Sin's an indelible stain, it is there. We could wish it away and say, oh, I wish that I was clean, I wish that I didn't have the burden, this guilt that is there in my heart. But wishing does nothing, but praise God, we have a God that is able to take our sin away. The hymn, Grace Greater Than Our Sin, says, dark is the stain that we cannot hide. What can avail to wash it away? Look, there is flowing a crimson tide, red tide, from the side of Christ, as we've sung about this morning. Whiter than snow you may be today. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord, grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt. Yonder on Calvary's mount outpoured, there where the blood of the lamb was spilled. If you've never been cleansed by the Lord Jesus Christ, that sin stain is there right now. And it's what will condemn you if you stand before God in your sin. It's what will condemn you to be put away from God for all eternity. And praise God for the crimson tie that we've just read about that has the power to cleanse us from the inside out. Without Jesus, we can't remove it. Jeremiah 2.22. For though thou wash thee with niter and take thee much soap, yet thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord God. So I can clean up the outside, I can say, well, I'm gonna be religious, I'm gonna go to church, I'm gonna be baptized, I'm gonna be christened, I'm gonna do all these things, and that's gonna clean my heart. No, it does nothing to cleanse the heart. It's only the blood of Christ that has the power to wash away our sin without the shedding of blood. There is no forgiveness of sin. So what God is speaking to them about, look, the idol did nothing for you, but remember, I did something for you. I can blot out your sin. And I blotted it out, verse 22. I blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions and as a cloud thy sins. You know, this time of year, it's not unusual in the spring, especially, I mean, this weather's been amazing, but you get weather like this, and what you often get is sea fog, right? Somebody goes, oh, it's a great day, I'm gonna go to the beach. Well, it might be a bad idea, because if that sea fog comes in, it's just like that cloud, and it's dark, isn't it? because of the contrast in the temperature over the land and over the sea, it just makes that, and if the winds are right, it just blows it in. We all, in a situation like that, we're just longing like, oh, please, Lord, burn the cloud away. Make it sunny and nice, and again, we've enjoyed feeling that sun on our skin, and that's a blessing, that clarity, and that cloud is gone. God says just like that. I'm gonna take away your sin as a thick cloud. as a cloud. It's speaking about the dissipation of that cloud that God is just gonna go, and it's gone. The hymn writer put it this way, what a wondrous message in God's word. My sins are blotted out, I know. If I trust in his redeeming blood, my sins are blotted out, I know. Once my heart was black, but now what joy, my sins are blotted out, I know. I have peace that nothing can destroy, my sins are blotted out, I know. Can you sing that from your heart this morning? And if we had it here, my sins are blotted out, I know. They're buried in the depths of the deepest sea, praise God, as the Bible speaks about. Is that your testimony this morning? If it is, why would you turn aside from the God that did that? you what a blessing right to have our heart made pure and obviously we understand that that impacts our eternity and that's why God reconciled us to himself because our sin kept us from him but when he dealt with that he brought us to himself he redeemed us and so he says in our text return unto me for I've redeemed thee and Israel, come back. I'm the Redeemer. I blotted out your sins, and I purchased you. Remember, God sent Moses, the deliverer, into Egypt. God sent the plagues. God parted the sea, and they walked through the Red Sea, and God had shown himself mighty for his people, delivering them from Egypt. Egypt is a picture of the world. And just like that, when you got saved, God reached down and he took you out of the world and he brought you to Christ. He is your God. And so again, God just goes, hey, return unto me. Why are you going away? Why are you going to idolatry? Come back to me. Again, that sin is what separated us from God, but God took care of that in Christ. Isaiah 59 verse two, but your iniquities have separated between you and your God, and your sins have hid his face from you that he will not hear. And very sadly, we could go back into our sin and walk away from God, and though we don't lose our salvation, we lose our fellowship because that fellowship is broken with God by sin. Like the prodigal son's father, God just stands out there on the porch looking, just hoping. that he's gonna see on the horizon, his son, his daughter, coming over that hill, coming back to himself, restoring them. There's a man, Adonai Judson. Judson was a bit of a prodigal in the sense that though he wasn't saved, he grew up in a Christian home, but he turned away from God. Despite the fact that his father was a congregational preacher, in spite of his mother's tears and pleadings, Judson was not saved until he was 20 years of age. He had become a confirmed deist, due largely to the influence of a brilliant unbeliever in college, who set out to win Judson to his deistic faith, and he succeeded. But incredibly, Judson's conversion to Christ was due in large measure to the same deist. After graduation, Judson left home to become a wanderlust, was walking away, finding his own things, living the world. One night in a country inn, his room was adjacent to the room of a dying man. The moaning and groaning of that man through the long night did not permit Judson to sleep. His thoughts troubled him. All night questions assailed his soul. Was a dying man prepared to die? Where would he spend eternity? Was he a Christian, calm and strong in the hope of life in heaven? Or was he a sinner shuddering in the dark brink of the lower region? Justin constantly chided himself for even entertaining such thoughts. And by the way, he had to get that room because there was only one room left. And the man asked him, there's a dying man in the next room. Are you OK with that? He said, I'm OK. But he listened to this all night long. He chided himself for entertaining these thoughts, contrary to his philosophy of life, beyond the grave, and thought how his brilliant college friend would rebuke him if he learned of these childish worries. But the next morning, when Judson inquired of the proprietor as to the identity of the dead man, he was shocked by the most staggering statement he had ever heard. He was a brilliant young person from Providence College. That was his college. E was the first letter, was his name. E was the unbeliever who had destroyed Judson's face. Now he was dead and was lost, was lost, was lost, lost, lost. Those words raced through his brain, rang in his ears, roared in his soul, was lost, lost, lost. There and then Judson realized he was lost too. He ended his traveling, returned home, entered Andover Theological Seminary, and soon sought God for the pardon of his soul. He was saved and dedicated his life to the Master's service. You know, Judson thought, oh, this is it, away from God. It wasn't there. It was empty. On the deathbed, it was empty. And so he heard that and it, praise God, it turned him to Christ. He was redeemed. He went on to become a great missionary to Burma that would translate the Bible into Burmese. It's the same. Bible that's being in use today, modern-day Myanmar, and there in Myanmar is one of the greatest populations of Baptists that are in the world per capita because of his work as a soul winner because he understood that he was cleansed and that he was redeemed. Again, that ought to speak to our hearts this morning. If you're saved, an idol didn't clean me up. An idol didn't make me right with God. An idol doesn't offer me heaven. We ought to get right back to God and say, God, you got first place because you purified me. So remember, you're privileged, you're purified. Remember, you are to praise the Lord. You know, creation is not shy to shout glory to God for what He has done. Look at verse 23. It says, I love spring because creation sings. Have you heard it? As I was studying this message, I could hear, my window was shut in my office, I think, but I could hear the birds singing praise to God. As I studied yesterday up in our loft, I had the window open there. Again, I mean, the birds were just so loud and just singing their praises to God. And here's what, look at what the scripture says, he mountains, he hills. I mean, it's telling creation to shout glory to God and creation obeys God. You know, in fact, Jesus said, His triumphal entry, He's coming into Jerusalem, and the people cry out about Him being the Messiah, and the Pharisees say, no, no, no, don't say He's the Messiah. Jesus looks at them and says, if these people were quiet, the rocks would cry out. Now, I don't know if that meant verbally or there would be an earthquake. But He said, creation, if you're silent, is gonna shout about me. You know, each one of us ought to look at that and say, if God's creation ought to sing, how much more should we? How much more should it be in our heart this morning? I'm not gonna go waste my time praising idols, but I'm gonna go and I'm gonna worship God. How can we be silent as a church? Recently, I encouraged our church to come 15 minutes early for our services. And I said that because our service at a church is not a pre-service. When we have a song service, and we come into the service time, it is not something happening in the background, okay, we're gonna come up to announcements, and this is just kinda pre-preaching, and so preaching is when the service begins, no. The service begins at 11, this one. The service begins at 10, it begins at seven, it begins, or six on Sunday nights. Wednesday night it begins at seven, and we begin to sing, and we sing praise to who? God. And is that singing that we sing as much worship as the preaching and sitting under the preaching of the word of God? Yes, okay, and so that's an important part of what we do is what the scripture speaks about is that we vocalize our love for God. We vocalize our appreciation for God. We sing our praise to Him. Ephesians 5.19 says, speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. Colossians 3.16, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. And I'll tell you, read through the psalms and they sing, you know, God's mercy is great. And they get echoed from the other side, God's mercy is great. And it's a congregational singing and worshiping. of God? Does our world again, do they sing their praise to their idols? Yeah. Listen to them scream when that rock musician walks out. Go back and watch, I should hardly say this, but what's it called, Vatican Live TV. Watch the Pope come out. Watch the crowd go crazy over a guy. There ought to be something in our hearts this morning that says, I got to get to church, I want to sing praise to God. I want to vocalize my worship of God. And so remember this morning, you're privileged, you're purified, you're to praise God, and remember you're protected. You know, when you face a difficulty in life, does your idol care? Does it stop and go, oh, you know, you're in a bad situation, so I really wanna help you about that. You're on your deathbed, is it gonna comfort you to know your idol's nearby? Just imagine, you know, you're there, you're dying, and you're like, oh, oh, please, turn on my favorite show. Because I can't miss that. Dress me in my team jersey. Come on, just put it on, put it on. I know I'm dying, but I gotta have that on, because I'm a fan. Man, give me my video games. Forget the morphine, right? It's kind of silly, isn't it? Do you know, is there a difference between that and the presence of God? Is there a difference between that and somebody that loves the Lord coming in and saying, let's sing some praise to God? Let's seek God. Do you get what I'm saying? I mean, an idol is nothing, but God is everything. And so it's important that we keep our understanding about God and who God is because he protects us. And our God is great. Verse 24. Let's say it, the Lord thy Redeemer, he that formed thee from the womb, I am the Lord that maketh all things, that stretcheth forth the heavens alone, that spreadeth abroad the earth by myself. And so, you gotta say, you know, you got the idols and then you got God, creator of everything. When Logan had his surgery, we had a doctor, Dr. Marasco, I told you about, and she had spina bifida, and she did the surgery, I said, bend over, and it was her passion. But before the surgery, we asked a neurosurgeon, a famous neurosurgeon at his house, because God gave us a phone number, and the lady said, call him, and we called him, and it was fine. And Katie talked with him, and she asked him about this Dr. Marasco, and he said, she's one of my students, she's one of the brightest in her field. Do you know that brought a lot of comfort? to know that the person that was best was there. Listen, it brings a lot of comfort today if you know God is watching over you and you know who God is. And so remember, don't turn to idols. Idols are nothing, but your God is great. Stay with God. His enemies as well are nothing. Verse 25, that frustrateth the tokens of the liars, and maketh diviners mad, that turneth wise men backward, and maketh their knowledge foolish. The occult, God's not bothered. The liars, God's not bothered. The wise men of this world, nothing. He's so not fazed by anything like that. But Satan is a liar, and he comes to us, he wants us to believe his lies, and he gets all his people out there saying his lies, but guess what? It is nothing. Gotta stay with God. Katie and I were married a year before I got my master's degree. She got her undergrad degree. So we're going through that year of school, and we're working some, but we can't work a ton, and so we're not making a lot of money, and the finances were going down, but we had a conviction that God wanted us to be debt-free. And so we're trusting God to meet our needs, and Bible college isn't cheap. And so as we got partway through that year, it was like the devil said, you're not gonna make it. You gotta get a loan. And so we went to the registrar's, or the financial aid office, and we went there, and the guy wasn't there, and I was embarrassed to be there, because the person that was there knew me and knew something about how God had worked in my life, and I was just ashamed to be there. And we walked out, and I said to Katie, I said, we just need to trust the Lord. And I don't have time to tell the story, except to say that it's an awesome story, where it came down to a matter of $25, and I had to have my dad wire me money. but it was only because I couldn't deposit my paycheck, because I couldn't get a driver's license, and without a driver's license, I couldn't open a bank account to deposit my paycheck, okay? And so, it just, God met the need. There's gonna be a lot of lies Satan will say, you're not gonna make it. He might say, you can't tithe. You're not gonna have enough money to pay your bills, so you gotta bow down to the God of work, and you gotta earn that money, instead of saying, put God first. He might lie and say, you can't go to church, or your kids aren't gonna get enough sleep. Can't go to church, your work's not gonna get done. You know, but God's our God. Doesn't he bless us when we obey him? He might say you can't win souls. You're too shy. Nobody's gonna listen. He lies, but isn't our God, again, great? He might say you can't stand against wickedness. because our world won't tolerate it. If you voice the truth, they're gonna get upset. See, he's a liar, and so he's gonna seek to take us away from God, but I just remind us this morning, God's enemies are nothing, and we stand with the living God, but we've gotta stand with him. What's Satan seeking to do? Turn our side to something else instead of trusting God. And so remember, you're privileged, you're purified, you're to praise the Lord, you're protected. I end with this this morning. You're providentially guided. You're providentially guided. In our day, we use sat naps, okay? Back in the day, they used something called MAPs. Maps, okay, all right. Satnav, so we have GPSes, and a GPS is our guide, and it's like a marriage-saving device that was provided for us, thankfully, early on in our marriage, and you no longer have your wife telling you your directions, and so you're not arguing about that, but you've got a machine saying, go here, go there, and you listen, and your faith builds, and you think, oh, this is great, and then it takes you on a wrong turn. And then your faith starts to waver a bit. You know, as believers, we have a God that's infallible in his guidance. Satan wants us to listen to other things and go other ways, but if we'll just stick with God, He is perfect in His guidance for us. We may trust Him fully, as the song says. All for us to do. They who trust Him wholly find Him wholly true. And so God fulfills His words, verse 26. It says that, confirmeth his word of his servant and performeth the counsel of his messenger. Okay? God said it, it's so. Don't, again, someone turning aside to idols, oh, I got to serve an idol because I don't anymore believe God. But when God says it happens because God is God. Numbers 23, verse 19. God is not a man that he should lie, neither the son of man that he should repent. Hath he said it and shall he not do it? Or hath he spoken it and shall he not make it good? Is God really gonna fail you? If you trust God and obey God and believe his word, is he gonna let you down? And God says, no. I perform the word of my servant. And then lastly, he performs his plan. Verses 26. through 28. That saith to Jerusalem, thou shalt be inhabited, and to the cities of Judah thou shalt be built, and I will raise up the decayed places thereof, that saith to the deep, be dry, and I will dry up the rivers. That saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure, even saying to Jerusalem, thou shalt be built, and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid. And again, I don't have time to express it this morning, but the truth is this. Israel was a hundred years away from the return, over a hundred years, after the Babylonian captivity. Cyrus would bring them out. God named Cyrus. before he was ever a king, before he ever existed, and said it would be through Cyrus that God's people would be set free. Again, glory to God. What a God. Sometimes in life, we can be lost without a GPS. Our son, Parker, was two years old when we arrived. We got here, Katie was sick, vomiting. We had 17 pieces of luggage. We found out one piece was not correct. And as we're working through that, trying to find what piece wasn't correct, Parker fell and split his lip open. And it was bad, and so we had to go to the Royal, and I hadn't driven on the other side of the road, and I hadn't driven a stick shift in five years, that's what we called them, manual here. And so I get in the opposite side of the car, I've got a manual, and thankfully we get there, we got through Sheriff Hall Roundabout, okay, the third roundabout I went through, and get there and find out we've gotta go to SickKids. And they go, it's not a big deal, it's easy to find. Yeah, not what I would say. The old sick kids. And so we had to go back the next day for surgery. And we get there, and he has surgery late, and that sea fog came in that night. You know, I praise God I had a GPS. Without the GPS, I would have never found S-Bank, I would have never gotten home. It got me where I needed to go. I'll just say, in life, there's a lot of sea fog. And you might think, oh, I'm okay, you know, because the sun is shining, and I'm away from God, and yeah, I'm in idolatry, but I don't really care, but you've forgotten that God is the guide. God is the one that directs. And so all of a sudden, the darkness comes in, and you're away from God, okay? Not a good place to be, because God is the one that directs us. He's the one that fulfills his word and his plan. You know, sadly, this morning, some people will turn aside to idols. And that's why God in his scripture has warning after warning saying, don't turn aside, don't turn aside. First commandment, thou shalt have no other gods beside me. And so I could challenge us this morning, by God's grace, let's not be that person, let's not be that family, let's not be that church that turns aside. But when you're tempted to, remember that you're privileged. God made you a servant. God created you physically and spiritually, and God remembers you. So in that time, just go, wait a second, God is thinking about me. I'm his child, it's a privilege. You're purified. He's cleansed you of your sin. He's redeemed you to himself. You're to praise the Lord. Creation does. Creation shouts the glory of God. Again, we ought to long to get to the house of God with our brothers and sisters in Christ and to sing praise to God. You're protected because God is great and your enemies are nothing, and you're providentially guided. God confirms his word, God fulfills his plan. And so I just asked this question this morning, why would you ever turn aside to idols? But I could also ask, why have you turned aside to idols? Because the fact is, an idol is anything that separates us from God, God's day, God's house, God's people, God's things. And so we gotta look at that and say, man, I don't want an idol in my life because God is everything. Let's bow our heads and we're gonna go to prayer. It might be this morning God is speaking to your heart and you need to come to God and get saved. You're not a child of God, you can't say God is my God. And this morning maybe the spirit of God's been speaking to your heart about that. And so if there's anybody like that this morning, just as we have our eyes closed and our heads bowed, is there anybody that would say this morning, Pastor, God's speaking to my heart, I know I need to get saved, I wanna get saved today. I know I'm not a child of God and I need to obey the Lord and receive Christ. Idols are nothing. and I've been living my life for that, but I need Christ. Anybody like that this morning? I need Jesus as my savior. And as a church, let me just ask you, has God put his finger on an idol this morning? Would anybody say, you know, Pastor, God spoke in my heart, there's something that is between me and God, and I've recognized that it's an idol, and I need to get it right with God this morning. Anybody like that, just wants to, by uplifted hands, say, Pastor, please pray for me, there's an idol. Amen, I see that. Anybody else this morning? Say, Pastor, there's an idol, something that God's just not first place. He's not got the priority in my life like he should, and I need to get that right. Anybody like that this morning? Amen. Anybody else this morning? Just wanted to say, Pastor, God speak in my heart. Things have come between me and God, and I gotta be honest about it. It's an idol. Anybody else like that this morning? Amen, you may put your hands down. Let's go to Lord in prayer. Father, I just pray that the Spirit of God would take the Word of God and put it deeply into our hearts this morning. It's sad to think about, but idols creep in so easily. The things that easily beset us and the weights and things that just take us away from God, you having the priority in our life. For these that have indicated by uplifted hand that there's something that you're speaking their heart about along those lines, I pray, Father, would you remove it? Would you give them grace to get victory and really to put you first? And Father, I know in my own heart that there's things that I've got to deal with before you. And so I just pray, Spirit of God, that we'd be honest about those things, that we can't make them less than they are. They're idols, no matter how precious they might be to us. And Father, I pray that the Spirit of God would help us put things in their proper place. It's in Christ's name we pray, amen.