If you'll take your Bibles and turn to Isaiah chapter 64. Isaiah 64. We are right in the middle of a very moving request or petition. One of the possibly, not to measure it, but possibly one of the longest intercessions in the Bible. And it's just real. It's just down to earth. It's shoe leather type stuff. And so we read in verse 1, O that you would rend the heavens and come down. that the mountains might quake at your presence. As fire kindles the brushwood, as fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, that the nations may tremble at your presence. When you did awesome things which we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence. For from days of old they have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you who acts in behalf of the one who waits for him. You meet him who rejoices in doing righteousness, who remembers you in your ways. Behold, you were angry, for we sinned. We continued in them a long time, and shall we be saved? For all of us have become like one who's unclean, and all of our righteous deeds are like a filthy garment, and all of us wither like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away. There is no one who calls on your name, who arouses himself to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us and have delivered us into the power of our iniquities." In this passage, Isaiah is pleading for God to come down for God to come and to intervene and to revive and to awaken. And he asks that such a visitation would be so powerful and would be such a demonstration of God's revealed raw power that it would be absolutely unmistakable that it was God who was doing the work. In the passage, Isaiah prays that God would tear the heavens and would come down in such a way that the very mountains would quake. It's a prayer for revival, it's a prayer for awakening, it's a prayer for the visitation of God to a sin-sick people. And in the passage that we're going to look at tonight, verses 3 and 4 and maybe verse 5, Isaiah now uses redemptive history as a part of his petition. He looks back very specifically on what God has done in the past and begins to use it in his petition. Matthew Henry puts it like this, the plea is that God had appeared wonderfully for his people formerly, and thou hast, therefore thou wilt." And this is good arguing at the throne of grace. In verses three and four, we have this wonderful principle that Isaiah draws on in his prayer, basically that God works for those who wait on him. Now in verse three, he talks about these awesome and unexpected events or deeds. You did awesome things. Now, if you just keep your finger there on Isaiah, just turn back to Exodus. We see this expression used on a number of occasions, Exodus chapter 15. We see this expression or a similar expression, and it gives us a clue as to what Isaiah is talking about. Exodus chapter 15 and verse 11. Who is like you among the gods, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises? And then this little expression, working wonders. And the idea of wonders there, you could almost paraphrase it like this, working terrifying deeds. It's the same concept that we have in the Isaiah passage. Chapter 34 of Exodus, in verse 10. This is after God replaces the two tablets that Moses broke. And in verse 10, we have, then God said, behold, I am going to make a covenant before all your people. I will perform miracles which have not been produced in all the earth, nor among any of the nations. This is an important verse for our text. And all the people among you who live will see the working of the Lord, for it is a fearful thing that I am going to perform with you. Now in this passage, we actually see some of the parallel themes from the Isaiah passage. God says he's going to perform these miracles, these mighty deeds. Notice that nobody's ever seen before. It's going to be a new thing, but it's also going to be a terrifying thing, a dreadful thing. Deuteronomy chapter 10. Deuteronomy chapter 10. In verse 21, one of the richest chapters in the book of Deuteronomy, in verse 21, starting in verse 20, you shall fear the Lord your God, you shall serve Him and cling to Him and you shall swear by His name. He is your praise and He is your God who has done these, here's our term, these great and awesome terrible things for you, which your eyes have seen." As we go back to Isaiah, Isaiah is recollecting, he's recalling the fact that there was a time in which God did these awful, terrible deeds. Now, of course, we don't like the word awful or terrible, but actually they're fairly good descriptive terms for what we're talking about here. New American Standard says awesome, and of course, that may be good if you see it in the same way as the word awful, that is full of awe, terrifying, causing one to tremble, but if you think of it as awesome just in terms of the contemporary use, then you missed the point. Isaiah is recollecting the fact that there was a time at the Exodus when God's dealing with Egypt, when God brought his people out of Egypt through the Red Sea, and then also God's dealing with his people in the wilderness, that God did awesome terrifying deeds at that time. And of course, we have to ask ourselves, well, I read that passage. I've watched Cecil B. DeMille, and I've seen it on the big screen, and it looked kind of neat to me. And I read the stories, and I think they're sort of captivating. It would have been sort of great to be there. Well, not really. I mean, in some ways, it would have been great to be a part of the exodus. But in other ways, if we take the passage seriously, These deeds of God revealed God's incredibly raw power. I mean, stop and think about what he did to the Egyptians. Stop and think about what he did when he actually brought his people out of the house of bondage and then drowned the entire army of Pharaoh. You and I have absolutely no way to conceive of in our minds, no matter if we've seen Burt Lancaster as Moses a thousand times, it doesn't make any difference. Or Charlton Heston. But maybe both of them were Moses, I don't know. But the fact is you just see it on the screen and there's no way to really put yourself in the situation of seeing the bloated bodies of thousands of Egyptian soldiers floating up on the beach. Stop and consider the events that take place in Exodus chapters 19 and 20. We got a taste of that a couple Sunday nights ago at the Lord's Supper from Hebrews chapter 12. The thunder, the lightning, the blazing fire, the darkness, the gloom, the tempest, the blaring trumpet, the command that even if a beast touches the mountain, the beast needs to die. All of these things fall under the description of God's terrible or awful or awesome deeds or His wonders. And what they do is they reveal that God is a God of raw power. They demonstrated His sovereign will, His sovereign power. And in doing that, no matter who you were, remember Hebrews 12 says, even Moses said, I'm afraid and tremble. The fact is, is that when God demonstrates his raw power, there is a natural response in the heart of a human being, and that is with the revelation of raw, omnipotent, divine power, also comes the revelation of our smallness, our weakness, our helplessness in light of such power. People don't have a sense of this today. What do you think, in God's world, a hurricane is designed to do? What do you think, in God's world, an earthquake is designed to do? We call them natural disasters. The insurance companies still call them acts of God. And that's indeed what they are. And all they are is a very small reflection of the raw power of God. And here Isaiah is praying. He says, we want you to come down. And don't you remember when you did those awesome, terrifying things of old? And then he says this next little line, which we did not expect. And you see what Isaiah is doing actually, he's putting himself in corporate solidarity with the people of God so that the we is the people of God even connected back to those who are alive at the exodus. We didn't expect those things. And this is an interesting phrase because at that point in redemptive history, the Israelites didn't know enough about God to know what to expect. Here Isaiah stands with centuries, five, six centuries after the fact. And of course, five, six, 700 years of the works of God, you kind of get to know who God is a little bit better, the revelation of scripture. But stop and put yourself in the Israelites' shoes or their sandals at the time of the Exodus. What did they know about God? They didn't know a lot about God, did they? They had 430 years of bondage, 430 years of at least relative spiritual darkness. No doubt the traditions of the patriarchs had been passed down. No doubt that's how Moses learned them, even from his mother probably. But the fact is, is that it was 430 years of bondage in a foreign land, under foreign powers, surrounded by foreign gods. What did they know about God? Not a whole lot. In fact, turn back. We saw that sort of in the Exodus 34 passage, but turn to Deuteronomy chapter 4. You can actually see from a number of these texts that we're looking at how Isaiah is drawing from the Pentateuch itself. Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 32. And notice the parallel in this passage. Indeed, ask now concerning the former days which were before you, since the day that God created man on the earth, and inquire from one end of the heavens to the other, has anything been done like this great thing, or has anything been heard like it? Has any people heard the voice of God speaking from the midst of the fire as you have heard it and survived? And so when Isaiah recollects these awesome, terrifying deeds of old, things that they didn't expect, all he's saying is, God, when you intervened, when you broke in, when you demonstrated your power back in the days of our forefathers, it was a terrifying thing. They were awful deeds, but also they were things that we never expected. We could have never anticipated. But when you broke in, you revealed something about yourself that was absolutely unmistakable, and that is that you are a God of power. And when you bear your arm, it is absolutely unmistakable. This is the work of God. Now, look at the language very carefully back in Isaiah. This is three words. You came down. What's the prayer of verse one? rend the heavens and come down. You see what Isaiah is doing, don't you? In the course of this prayer, he says, God, rip the heavens, rend the heavens and come down. And then he says, as I look back at redemptive history and the way that you act and it worked, you did come down back then. You did in the past what we are asking you to do now. I hope you start to see the critical role that begins to play in the petition, in the intercession. You did in the past what we are asking you to do now. You showed up in the plagues, you showed up at the Red Sea, you showed up at Sinai, your presence guided us through the wilderness, you came down and you did it all back then. Notice the next line. The mountains quaked at your presence. Again, what's the petition of verse one? Rend the heavens and come down that the mountains might quake at your presence. The same thing. You did in the past what we're asking you to do now. You've literally shaken the mountains. You've literally overthrown rulers and kingdoms. You've moved the immovable. You did it all back then. You did back then what we're asking you to do now. You see why Matthew Henry says that this is good arguing at the throne of grace. You did it then. We're asking you to do it now. In fact, all we're asking you to do now is what you did back then. Then we get to verse four. For from days of old, They have not heard or perceived by ear, nor has the eye seen a God besides you who acts in behalf of the one who waits for him. I think Isaiah 64.4 has got to be one of the great faith building verses in all of the Bible. I mean, stop and think about what he just says. For from days of old they've not heard or perceived by ear, nor has an eye seen a God beside you who does what? Who works, who acts on behalf of the one who waits for him. Now consider the context. This verse in Isaiah 64, 4 is not coming in the midst of Isaiah chapter 40 or in the midst of one of the servant songs. It's not coming in the midst of Isaiah 35 where there's joy and rejoicing and exultation and all of that. This verse comes right in the midst of the pain, the cries, the distress, the apparent fading hope. Remember from a couple weeks ago, you've held back your compassion from us. There's this sense of encroaching darkness and fading hope, but then there are these little tiny glimmers of faith that come out, you are our father, we're your servants, we're your heritage. But what we have in verse 4 in this chapter is really a very bold declaration of faith and confidence in God. We know what you've done back then. And all we're asking you to do is to do it now. That's all. That's all. And it may seem bleak, and things may seem dark, and chaos may seem to be expanding by the second, but here's the reality. There's no God like you. And there's no God who works on behalf of those who will wait for Him. And so right in the midst of this most painful intercessory prayer, not only do you have these little flickers of faith, now all of the sudden, here is this bold declaration of what Isaiah believes about God. It's a bold declaration of faith. It is an affirmation of utter confidence in God. Let's pick it apart. First of all, we see the uniqueness of God among the gods. From of old, throughout the history of humanity, Isaiah is saying, there's never been a God like God. You have to appreciate this. In fact, this is probably some pretty good apologetic material. Take the made-up gods of the Canaanites, the made-up gods of the Babylonians, the made-up gods of the Assyrians, the made-up gods of whatever culture, whatever country, whatever people, whatever age, and here's the reality, from of old, throughout all of the history of humanity, which, by the way, is the history of religion. Man is irrepressibly religious. You'll never find a culture, you'll never find an age where the history of religion and the history of humanity don't run side by side together. And Isaiah is saying, just think back, go through history, compare world religions, go back to the beginning, and here's the reality. There has never ever been a God like our God. Notice the terminology, have heard nor perceived by the ear, neither seen with the eye. We might conclude that what Isaiah is saying is that, in fact, in all human perception, there's never been a God like you. I mean, stop and think about it. Think about the gods that have been made up. Think about the gods that come from man's own vain imaginations. What is the remarkable thing about all deities? through across the board in all religions. Here's the amazing thing. All deities have a remarkable resemblance to their worshipers. Whether it's the gods of Greece or the gods of Rome or the gods of the Canaanites, they're basically just overgrown children who manifest all of the lusts and desires and the crankiness and the fits of children. They're just really big and bad things happen when they don't get their way. But the reality is, is that throughout human history, all deities, all gods have this remarkable resemblance to their worshipers. And all of the sudden, you come to the God of the Bible, you know what you find? The worshipers bear a dim resemblance to their creator. What you also find is you find a God revealed in scripture that goes so far beyond human imagination that no one could have ever perceived of this. And let's face it, would you make up the God of the Bible? If you could get your little deity erector set and make the God that you wanna make, Would He look like the God of the Bible? Not at all. What would He look like? You or me? just bigger and more powerful and so forth. And here Isaiah is bringing out something about God that is absolutely wonderful. He really is beyond all imagining. Man is very, very limited in his ability to perceive and to create a God. And when you look at the God of the Bible, what you see is an absolutely unique, majestic, transcendent God. Just take that very thing for instance. What other God is both eminent and transcendent? Near, near. There is none. They are either so transcendent that they have barely any relation to earth whatsoever, or they're so eminent that they're just an overgrown human being. And here's the God of the Bible who is both transcendent and imminent. Here's the God of the Bible who's both holy and merciful. Even think of some of the cheap knockoff gods of the God of the Bible. Of course, the worst, of course, ends up being Allah. But stop and think about some of the derivative attributes that Allah has that is supposedly reflects the God of the Bible. At the end of the day, you know what you don't have with Allah? You don't have transcendence and eminence both, and you don't have holiness and mercy both. You have a God who's arbitrary. You have a God who ends up leading man into a fatalism. The God of the Bible. is wonderfully unique, and here's where Isaiah begins to anchor in his faith. You know, this is the bottom line for us, you know. When our faith starts to get weak, when we start to be overcome by fear or anxiety, or we start to feel the distress, or we start to have a sense of encroaching darkness or chaos, what is it that is an anchor to our soul again and again and again? Isn't it who God is? and what he is like. And here you can see that Isaiah just begins to lock in, begins to anchor his soul into this. There's never been a God like you. No one's ever perceived of one, no one's ever heard of one, no one's ever come up with one. You're absolutely unique. The God of the Bible is incomprehensible. Certainly that doesn't come from a human imagination. The God of the Bible can say, who is like me among the gods? The prophet Micah, or in Hebrew, Micaiah, who is like Yahweh? Implied answer, no one. Now, what makes him so unique? Well, of course, we could point to all of his marvelous attributes. All of those things make God unique, right? We could point to God's characteristics. We could point to a number of things that make God absolutely unique. But this is the most amazing thing. This is what makes God really unique. He acts in behalf of the one who waits for him. Now, the knowledge of God is a revealed knowledge that doesn't come by human perception, right? In fact, just turn over, this is an interesting use of the passage, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Paul is alluding here, 1 Corinthians chapter 2. Start at verse 6. The Apostle Paul says, yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature, a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away. But we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory, the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood. For if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." Now, just let me just stop there. Do you see the parallel theme here that we have back in Isaiah 64? No one's ever thought of this before, right? But just as it is written, things which eye has not seen and ears not heard. and which has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love Him." This is an allusion and a paraphrase of the passage. Notice verse 10 now, "'For to us God revealed them through the Spirit, for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.'" When Isaiah is talking about the fact that there's never been a God like God, that He's absolutely unique, that eyes not seen, nor ear has heard, nor has it even been perceived by man for a God like Him, what he is saying is, therefore, the knowledge of this God must be a revealed knowledge. This kind of knowledge cannot just come by thinking really hard or meditating for a long time. This kind of knowledge has to come by revelation. And that's what Paul's doing here in this passage, right? He's saying that the wisdom of God, which ultimately finds its culmination where? In the gospel, has to be revealed to us by the Spirit of God. God has to take the initiative to reveal these things to us because we would have never thought these things up and we would have never figured these things out. And that's what Isaiah is getting at here, is he's telling us that there's never been a God like you. And in order to know you, you have to reveal yourself. And here's what you reveal. God obviously reveals lots of things about himself, but here's what Isaiah is focusing on. Remember, Isaiah is in a particular situation, a particular context, so this is going to be his particular focus. So what is it about that no one has seen in any other God? Here it is, a God who works on his people's behalf. I use the word work instead of just act because the Hebrew word asah means to work or do or make, and that's the word that's used here. Now, you've got to stop and just think about, why does that make God unique? All other gods, lower G, lowercase, need servants. Two critical words, need servants, right? All other gods need people. If you want to use Isaiah's former imagery and other passages, the other gods actually need people to carry them. The other gods need people to prop them up. The other gods need people to secure them so they don't totter. The other gods need people to bring them food and to serve them. Here's the irony of idolatry. And this is the irony that Isaiah brings out and the psalmist in Psalm 135. Here you have a God that's made in your own likeness, in your own image. And you think that you're going to get from this God what you want. divine vending machine, but in reality what ends up happening is you end up becoming a slave and a servant to this God. And in the end, this God does absolutely nothing for you. Nothing. Except wear you out as you carry Him around. The God of the Bible does not need you or me. That makes God unique. Here's the Apostle Paul, he's going through Athens. You've got to appreciate Paul. The book of Acts tells us on a number of occasions Paul gets irritated. And on this occasion he gets irritated. He's waiting for Titus and he's walking through the Parthenon of the Greeks there in Athens and he's seeing all of these statues and all of these idols, right? And Luke tells us that he's getting vexed, that he's getting irritated. And finally he sees the statue to the unknown God goes up to the Areopagus on Mars Hill, and begins to engage the Athenian philosophers. And of course, what marked the Athenian philosophers, or you could actually just say Athenian theologians, right? What was it that they really enjoyed? Hearing new stuff. They loved the religiously novel. The Athenians would have had a field day in 20th century America, and they loved to hear things new. And so the Apostle Paul begins to tell them about the living and true God. And of course, you know where Paul ends up on that, don't you? With the resurrection and final judgment. But one of the things that Paul says in his sermon on Mars Hill, is something that we need to hear over and over and over again. He says in Acts chapter 17 and verse 25, God is not a God who is served with human hands as if he needed anything. God is self-existent God is truly and absolutely independent in a way that you and I have no, we can't even perceive of the kind of independence that God has. And Paul is telling these Athenians something that Isaiah is getting to, had gotten to seven centuries earlier, and that is this. God is not a god to be served with human hands as if he needed anything. You can't contribute to God. You can't serve God. Now, I know what you're thinking already. Well, of course, we're supposed to be servants and we're supposed to serve God. Do you know that there's a way in which you can serve God and go to heaven, and there's a way in which you can serve God and go to hell? You think you better figure out the difference? If you're going to serve the God of the Bible, you better not serve Him with human hands as if He needed anything. What's Paul's conclusion? For in Him, we live and move and have our being. In other words, Paul's saying, look, we are the real dependent ones, utterly dependent upon this God who doesn't need us. You have to admire God's sense of humor to the Israelites. If I were hungry, would I tell you? I own the cattle on a thousand hills. A thousand, by the way, doesn't just mean actually a thousand, it means the fullness of the earth. The earth is the Lord, the fullness thereof. If I was hungry, I wouldn't tell you. If I was tired, I wouldn't tell you. And by the way, I don't get hungry or tired, but what you need to know is that I don't depend on you for anything. And yet there are people who continually, who constantly believe that what Christianity is all about or what religion is all about is us somehow serving God like the slaves would serve their plantation master. And if the slaves don't do the work, then the cotton doesn't get out and the master goes broke. And you and I never ever serve God that way, ever. So why the servant imagery? How about letting the psalmist tell us? Psalm 123. You want to be a servant? Don't think that being a servant means you're going to go out and work really, really hard for God and contribute to His cause. I want to show you how to be a servant. Psalm 123, verse 2. Behold, as the eyes of servants look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid to the hand of her mistress, So our eyes look to the Lord our God and tell He's gracious to us. You want to be a servant? Here's what it is to be a servant of God. You're utterly and completely dependent upon Him to provide everything you need. If you want to know where the parallel is to servanthood in this life, I guess you could say it like this. The master on the plantation did what? Provided food, shelter, clothing. In that sense, the servant was then dependent upon the master, and that's the only parallel that we have. Do you know that we could all drop dead tomorrow and God's kingdom would still go on, and he wouldn't need our help at all? Do you realize that to serve the Lord, To be graced by God to be able to do something for the good of others is simply a privilege that God allows us to enter into and to enjoy and He doesn't need us to do it. He doesn't need us. Period. End of story. When the famous evangelist Jimmy Swaggart was caught with a prostitute for the second time and the denomination that he served kicked him out and defrocked him and he continued preaching, his spokesman said in a press conference, Brother Swaggart cannot stop preaching because if Brother Swaggart stops serving the Lord, millions of people will perish. Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't realize that God was so utterly dependent upon the labors of Jimmy Swaggart to usher in his elect. Do you see that there's a way of looking at serving God that can be absolutely demeaning to God and exalting to us? There's another way where we say, Lord, we're utterly dependent on you. You work for us. Doesn't that sound almost audacious? You work for us. But what does the text say? Who acts, who works in behalf of the one who waits for him. We're not making this up. And this, by the way, is not turning God into some genie in a bottle or a heavenly vending machine. That's not the point because you can't have that if you believe in a sovereign God. Do you know what this line is telling us? It's telling us that we're the ones who need help and that we need to get it from God. John Piper says, what is God looking for in the world? Assistance? No. The gospel's not a help-wanted ad. It's a help-available ad. Nor is the call to Christian service a help-wanted ad. God's not looking for people to work for Him, but for people who let Him work mightily in and through them. But isn't there something that we can give God that won't belittle Him? Yes, our anxieties. The difference between Uncle Sam and Jesus Christ is that Uncle Sam won't enlist you in his service unless you're healthy, and Jesus won't enlist you unless you're sick. Christianity is fundamentally convalescence. Remember that. Patients do not serve their physicians. They trust them for good prescriptions. I was watching a cowboy show the other night with my boys, and there's the macho cowboy, and he's trying to save a little baby. And he goes to pray, and he prays like this, Lord, you know I've never asked you for anything before. You know what that conveys? You know, Lord, I've kind of done it myself. I've kind of pulled myself up by my own bootstraps. I've made my own way. Now I'm in a pinch. Now, almost as if you kind of owe me because I've never asked you for anything before. That's so contrary to the spirit of the Bible, isn't it? If Christianity is convalescence and God works on behalf of those who wait for Him, then all that we need to say day in and day out is, Lord, I need you. I need you. I need you today for everything. I need you to carry me. I need you to forgive me. I need you to work through me. And even in what I'm called to do in the service of your people, I need the strength that you supply. Isn't that what Peter even says in 1 Peter chapter 4? Let him who speaks the oracles of God speak with the strength that God supplies. Let him who serves, serves with the strength that God supplies, so that in all things, what? Jesus Christ would be exalted and glorified. You get it, don't you? The one who has the strength and gives the strength is the one who gets the glory. And what's God determined to get in this world and the world to come? All of the glory. And so do you really think he's gonna say, you know, I've been thinking about this partnership and I've been looking for some worthy partners that I could bring in and utilize your brilliance. Utilize your wisdom. Utilize your gifts and your talents because after all, you are such sterling people. And I'm going to put my part in, and I'm going to have you put your part in, and then we can really accomplish something together. That's not the God of the Bible. That may be the God of other religions, but that's not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible says, no, I actually will work for you, in you, through you, for you. I'll give you all the strength you need. Turn back to Isaiah 46. This is another one of those Isaiah passages. It's certainly worth remembering. Isaiah 46, four, even to your old age, I will be the same. And even to your graying years, I will bear you. I've done it, and I will carry you, and I will bear you, and I will deliver you." What's the issue? We're weak, he's strong. We're anemic, he's got strength. And he supplies everything that we need. He works on behalf of those who wait for him. So don't try to serve God as if he needs your help. Don't try to serve God as if he's on welfare. Don't try to serve God as if you think you can contribute to his purpose or cause. Don't try to serve God so that you can somehow increase his glory. All that's very demeaning to the omnipotent God of the Bible. Come to this God and say, carry me, strengthen me. Help me." And when you do that, He gets the glory. You know, there's a vital connection in Peter with this theme. Everybody knows 1 Peter 5, 7, either a scripture song or maybe you memorize it, cast all your cares on Him for He cares for you, right? But do you know what verse actually precedes that? Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God. that he may exalt you in due time, casting all of your cares on him because he cares for you. And there is a grammatical relationship that is absolutely significant. Humble yourself by casting your anxieties on him. He carries your anxieties, you get relief, he gets the glory. That's how it works. Call on me in the day of trouble. I will answer you. You shall glorify me." That's how it works. We're the ones in trouble. We're the ones with needs. We're the ones who are weak. God is the one who is all-sufficient. And the one who supplies the strength gets the glory. Now, the last expression here in 64 for who works in behalf of the one who, what? Waits for Him. Just out of curiosity, quick poll. How many of you like waiting? Waiting. I don't know about you, but I don't like waiting for anything. anytime, anywhere. I don't like it. It's what makes me a terrible fisherman. I don't like waiting. There's just something in us. We don't like to wait, right? But yet, here's what the Bible says. God works on behalf of those who wait for Him. What does it mean to wait on God? It means at least these things. to believe in Him even when it doesn't look hopeful? Isn't that the time you need to wait on the Lord when things don't look hopeful? There's not a whole lot of compulsion to wait on God when you have all these opportunities in front of you, is there? Waiting on God must mean at least to believe on Him even when it doesn't look hopeful. Waiting on God means to trust Him for the duration, for the distance. In fact, turn over to Romans and you see these two themes. I didn't just make them up. I got them from Romans 4. Romans 4, talking about Abraham, verse 18. How's this? Now, did Abraham wait for the Lord? Yeah, I mean, Abraham ends up being somewhat the classic example, right? Verse 18, look at this. In hope against hope, he believed. Believe on Him even when it doesn't look hopeful. so that he might become a father of many nations, according to that which had been spoken, so shall your descendants be." Look, this is amazing, isn't it? Without becoming weak in faith, he contemplated his own body. In other words, it wasn't this Pollyanna idea that Abraham had. He considered his own body, now as good as dead, since he was about 100 years old, and the deadness of Sarah's womb. Hopeless situation, right? Humanly speaking, absolutely hopeless. He was old. She was old. I mean, like really old. And on top of that, she'd never even had a child before. Now, verse 20. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. And look, being fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. And so to wait on God certainly means that you wait on Him, you believe in Him, even when things don't look hopeful. I mean, Abraham could have went to an OBGYN and said, hey, would you check Sarah out just to make sure? And he'd have said, nope, the womb's dead. Can you check me out just to make sure?" Maybe he wouldn't go to an OBGYN for that, but he'd go to someone else. And, nope, you're past the age of being able to produce children. And Abraham could have said, you know, I know what God has said, but I know what I see. I know what God has said, but I know what I observe. I know what God has said, but I know what the circumstances are, and therefore what I need to do is I need to be really analytical, use my human powers of observation, and come to an autonomous decision about what I think is going to happen. Remember Professor Frame's lectures on autonomy. Do you see how this works? What does faith look like? Faith does not look like autonomy. Faith does not look like rationalism or empiricism. What does faith look like? There's the word of God and that's all I need to know. And if the word of God says that I'm gonna have a child and circumstances say it's impossible, I'm not gonna waver. I'm gonna hang on to the promise. Because at the end of the day, the God who made the promise rules the world. The God who made the promise opens up dead wounds. The God that made the promise can raise the dead. And that's where Abraham's faith will take him later, won't it? Won't it? The faith that laid hold of God can open the womb and give me a child would be the faith that matured years later and said, if I slay this boy on God's command, God will raise him up from the dead because God has promised. So to wait on God means to believe in him even when things don't look hopeful, even when things look just flat out hopeless. Has it ever occurred to us that God actually delights in acting in our behalf when things look more hopeless than hopeful. Why do you think he does that? Haven't you just noticed that to be true in your Christian life? Why do you think he does that? Because he doesn't want there to be any mistakes about who did what. Let's let him get right up to the Red Sea. Let's let Pharaoh's army just come right up to him. Let them start wetting their pants and shaking in their sandals, thinking, what are we going to do? And then we'll just have one little simple promise. Stand still. Well, that's not hard to do, right? Stand still and behold the salvation of the Lord. That's all you got to do. And then God came through. I mean, why didn't God give him like a three-day lead and then let him watch from a high mountain somewhere and, you know, like spectators, look at all the Egyptians, they're drowning way, way down there. No, it's not how God works. He acts, he works on behalf of those who wait on him. And sometimes waiting on him just simply means believing him even though things look absolutely hopeless. but it also means just trusting Him for the duration. You know where we get that in Romans 4, don't you? He didn't waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God. Abraham wasn't perfect, but do you know what? Each passing day didn't diminish his faith in the promise. Each passing day saw His faith increase in the promise. But that doesn't make any sense. I mean, let's face it, biologically speaking, with each passing day, you know, time's pretty precious here, and it's wasting away. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter. Because the God who is the God of each passing day is the God of the promise. It means to submit to His time and not to our own. Haven't you found this to be a lesson that we have to learn over and over and over again? I mean, let's face it. God's watch works differently than ours. And God's calendar is different than ours. And the fact is, to wait on the Lord simply means, I submit to God's timing and not my own. The fact is, is that we don't have enough knowledge or information to be able to determine what would actually make good time. Could you imagine if God let us write the calendar? That would be a mess. So waiting on God is submitting to His time, not our own. John Oswalt in his commentary says, this is just a wonderful statement. He says, waiting for God is in many ways what Isaiah is all about. The book is about waiting for a God whose face is hidden to reveal himself to his people. It's a book waiting for the restoration of a people from long before they were exiled. Think about that statement. Isaiah is a book about waiting for a restoration of a people who were yet to be exiled. It's a book about waiting for a servant to deal a death blow to sin. It's a book about waiting for a Messiah to establish His kingdom forever. And so you have Isaiah 25-9 and Isaiah 30-18. Maybe we'll look at these next week. Isaiah 33-2, Isaiah 40-31, Isaiah 49-23. And do you know what is expounded again and again and again and what the people of God are exhorted to do again and again and again? Wait on God. Wait on God. Now the good news, here's the promise. Here's the promise. If you wait on him, he will work for you. Do you see the implications of this? This has implications. If you're unmarried and you're looking for a spouse, wait on the God who will work for you. Anytime we run into circumstances that seem beyond our control and our first response is to enter into panic mode and try to manipulate the situation so that we can at least get something like the end that we want, here's what God says, no, you wait on me and I'll work for you. Maybe the issue is a failing body or bad health. God says, wait on me. Wait on me, and I'll work for you. That doesn't mean that God always does things, it doesn't mean God always works for us in exactly the way that we think He should work for us, but what does Romans 8, 28 assure us of? That He's working all things together for our good. And because God is wise, He knows what our good is better than we know what our good is. Could you imagine if I let Alex determine what was good for him? He'd never wear a bike helmet. He'd eat himself into oblivion. He would eat ice cream every meal. It'd be terrible. It'd be a disaster. Why? I'm smarter than Alex. I'm wiser than Alex." He may not think so, but we have ways of persuading him. But at the end of the day, I still know what's best for him. You see, it's the exact same thing with God. The fact of the matter is, is that we are all children in this life with a limited perspective Even those with the most gray hair have little experience compared to God. And so you wait because He knows what's best. And He knows how to do you good. Can you wait for a God like that? You better believe it. And that's what we're exhorted to do. What does this teach us? God's trustworthy. He's faithful. So wait, and He will work. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word, and we thank You for the way that You bring Your Word to us again and again to remind us of things that we already know but tend to forget. And we also thank you, Father, for the way that your word comes to us and strengthens our faith right when we need it. And so we pray tonight, Father, that you would help us to just glory in the fact that there's never been a God like you. And help us rest in the fact that we can wait for you because you promise to work for our good. Father, pry us away from our stupid idolatry that says somehow we have to serve you and contribute to you and teach us what it is to be carried by you. Father, we pray that you would help us in these things because we are so slow. Have mercy on us. Forgive us of our sins of unbelief. and help us just to be carried by you. In Jesus' name, amen.