And stranger, you can be your closest friend. And you'll always sit next to me when you get far away. Be the one after me by you. You can't stand there all alone. And you'll find your peace when you're sad and you're weak. When you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you're sad and you're weak. And you when your glory is made to stand, when your death is out to stand, God will be your helper. Amen. Praise the Lord. We can trust His Word. Alright, we're going to skip a little while to go to class, but this is sure. And we can set our pencils aside, and take out our Bibles again, open up to Isaiah, And chapter 40 is page 760 in the Church Bible, page 760. Or Isaiah chapter 40. And we're going to go through a lot of scripture today. We're actually going to begin with Bible stories. It's a story, it seems like recently, we've referred to it quite often. It's a story of Peter walking in the water. You think about what an amazing that would be if he had water lately and seen a lot or see and looked at that, and imagined that in a storm, and then imagined seeing somebody walk on the water. What would you think? Well, the disciples seeing somebody walk on the water, the Lord Jesus Christ looked at that and thought it was the Spirit, and they were afraid. And Jesus cried out to them and said, you have to cheer. It is I, do not afraid. And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou bid me come unto thee on the water." And this is interesting because he's going to take a step of faith. But if he's going to take a step of faith, he's going to do so in obedience to the Lord. So if Disney comes and at your command, I'll come. And so he said, come. And when Peter was coming down out of the ship, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. What a grace. He walked on the water. And we can We know what's going to happen here in the story, we can look critically at Peter, but none of us have ever walked on water, and nobody that I know of other than the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the Word of God, has ever walked on water. So he's one out of the billions of people on this planet that have done that, and he steps out by faith onto a surface that is very unstable. He walked on the water to go to Jesus, but when he saw the wind voice, Chris, he was afraid. Can you see wind? You can only feel the wind, it's not as you see it. You see it basically the way it's crashing about his feet. It's not a calm sea that he is walking on. It's his first time walking on water. And there's a storm. And so he sees that. He was afraid. And beginning to think, he cried saying, Lord save me. And immediately Jesus stretched forth his hand and caught him and said unto him, O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt? And when they were come into the ship, the wind speaked. The day they were in the ship, Cain worshipped and sang of the true power of the Son of God. See, he could have trusted God's word, couldn't he have? I mean, God said, come. Jesus said, come. And as long as he kept his faith in that word that Jesus gave, come, and kept his eyes on the Word of Jesus Christ, he was fine. But when he looked around at his circumstances, he got his eyes off of Christ, what happens to him as he begins to sing? What he needed, again, to do was to keep his eyes on the Word. And you can say, well, the problem for Peter, the problem wasn't circumstances. But no, the problem wasn't the circumstances because those circumstances exist when he stepped on the water, didn't they? The circumstances didn't change. The circumstances were there. What changed was Peter's focus. He got his eyes up on Christ and then his faith was faltering and he started to sing. Isn't that the way it is with us? We go through life and we say, oh, but it's my circumstances. It's my circumstances. It's what's taking place around me. That's the problem with my life. The problem is my circumstances. If I had a different set of circumstances, my life would be fine. I'd be stable and I could do what God wanted me to do. But the answer is not that, is it? The answer for us is just a step back and see our eyes on Christ. Let's listen to the fact that Jesus Christ is the one that said, come. Jesus Christ is the one that gave us what God has graciously given us to do in our life and at His command. we can step out by faith, we just need to keep our eyes on Him. As we come to Isaiah chapter 40, what it is, and I like to look at it this way, it's a very simple Bible lesson given by a teacher, a great teacher, Isaiah, to Israel to say, and to Judah, to say, keep your eyes set on God. And just look at God, behold God. He does say, it says in Isaiah, and if you look at your scripture here, chapter 40, verse 9, it says, Those lions that bring us good tidings get thee up into the high mountains. O Jerusalem, that bringeth good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift it up and be not afraid. Say unto the cities of Judah what? Those last three words. Behold your God. Just look at God. See, I mean, you've got everything going on, and just look at God, just being God for who He is. It's a very basic lesson, and again, I'm gonna look at this, and maybe you could say, you can call it this, you know, Behold Your God Tutorial by Isaiah. It's just a simple class that he's gonna teach. He's gonna have first-year Bible students come in, and Isaiah, the great teacher, is saying, hey, this lesson is just all about beholding God. It's just about knowing who God is. Tonight, it's my prayer, and it's what Isaiah intended this morning. that God would help us to see Him for who He is. We have to take our eyes off our servants and put them back on God, and that's where they need to be if we're going to succeed in following the Lord and what He wants us to do. So may God help that to be the case this morning. Let's pray and ask Him to help us to that end. Father, we're thankful for Scripture. Father, we're thankful that the Spirit of God is the great instructor, and He's given us the Word of God is true. Lord, we've just sung about it. Trust His Word. Trust His Word. All God's promises are true. Trust His Word. Father, everything that we struggle with in life is because of taking our eyes off of the absolute truth. Jesus, you are true. And I pray that we be told you today. And I pray that the Spirit of God will come upon us next week. I pray that our hearts be tender. I pray that Jesus will be lifted up and that He be magnified in our hearts. and give us grace, but we all struggle with problems. There's something probably in every one of our lives today that we look at and say, you know, that's a problem. That's something that's frustrating. Something I struggle with is when I create a day that we get our eyes off the waves and the wind, and then we get our eyes back on the Lord Jesus Christ, thanking Jesus that even with Peter, he was taken by the hand, and he walked with him back into the boat, and then the storm stopped. And I pray that you be the case in our hearts today. Take us by the hand, remind us to keep our eyes on you. And we pray the storm of peace as we know the peace of being involved with the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for the help that you give now. In Christ's name we pray, amen. So Isaiah's lesson, again, behold your God. And so five aspects or attributes of God or ideas about God that he's gonna begin with here. And the first one is he's the ruler of all. God is over everything. It says in verse 10 in your scripture here, Isaiah chapter 40, verse 10. Behold, or look, the Lord God will come with strong hands and his arms shall rule for him. Behold, his reward is with him in his work before him. If you are here on Thursday night and you're in the Bible study, if you looked at Revelation, you'll remember that we looked at the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in Revelation chapter 11 or chapter 12, I think it was, where he were. It speaks about the Lord Jesus Christ, that Son that was born to the woman, to Israel, that Son that would rule all nations, the Bible says, with a rod of iron. And if that sounds familiar from this passage, it's the same idea that Jesus Christ is going to reign, that He is over everything. The Lord God will come with strong hands, and His arms shall rule for Him. We can be anxious this morning. I don't know if you follow politics at all, or what's happening in the world. We can be anxious as we look at ISIS. We can be anxious as we look at Russia. We can be anxious as we look at China. We could be anxious as we see these nations rising up, and it's certainly in our hearts this morning to understand that we are living in the end times. Everything is shaping up just like the Word of God said. The Word of God in our study of Revelation speaks about, on the Temple Mount, there's going to be part that's owned by the Jews, part that's owned by the Gentiles, and what are we seeing on the Temple Mount? Part is the Jews, part is the Gentiles. It's there. Just like the Word of God said 2,000 years ago. It speaks about a great army coming over the Euphrates River, and on the other side of the Euphrates, well, through the Euphrates, you've got Isis, north of that you've got Russia, and east of that you've got China. And so again, you can see these things taking place. In fact, I read this yesterday, I think it was two days ago, from the Wall Street Journal, the 22nd of July. It's about a bombing that took place by Russia, but it wasn't, they're not just bombing Syria, and listen to this story. When Russian aircraft bombed a rebuilt garrison in southeastern Syria last month, alarm bells sounded at the Pentagon and the Ministry of Defense in London. The Russians weren't bombarding a run-of-the-mill rebel outpost, according to U.S. officials. Their target was a secret base of operations for elite American and British forces. In fact, a contingent of about 20 British special forces had pulled out of the barracks 24 hours earlier. British officials declined to comment. U.S. military and intelligence officials stated a previously unreported close call to Western forces on June 16, and a subsequent Russian strike on a site linked to the Central Intelligence Agency were part of a campaign by Moscow to pressure the Obama administration to agree to closer cooperation in the skies over Syria. The risk that U.S. and British forces could have been killed at the border garrison hardened opposition at the Pentagon and the CIA to accommodating the Russians, but White House and State Department officials, wary of an escalation of U.S. military involvement in Syria, decided to pursue a compromise. You look at what's being placed and you got China and the South China Sea, is that what it is? Or that sea that's there. They're building up that island. And they've got work, you know, they put in an airport that's there, you know, for their planes, their military planes. And you can look at that this morning and we can begin to be anxious about that. But what Isaiah is reminding us this morning is God's in control. God's over all of that. He's over everything. And so the Lord God will come with a strong hand and His arms shall rule for Him. So He's the ruler of all, first of all. Secondly, He's the Good Shepherd. And the Good Shepherd feeds His sheep, verse 11. And it says, He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. I enjoy walking in the morning. Then I walk out towards Roslyn Institute, and I saw the sheep out there this morning. There's something very peaceful about seeing the sheep, and they're laying on the hillside, and they're laying up under the trees, and just very content. There's something wonderful about the picture of the shepherd. Jesus said to Jerusalem, as the mother hen gathered her chicks under a wing, you know, I would have gathered you. It's the same idea as the grace of God, the love of God, and the fear of God. He shall feed his flock, verse 11, like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs with his arms, and carry them in his bosom. You think about God's care for children, or God's care for youth. As our church, we get ready for a holiday Bible club, and it's kids' time. God loves kids. Jesus said, "...suffer the little children in some eyes of thee, and forbid them not, for such is the kingdom of God." And that God has a great interest in children. But he doesn't just watch over the kids, he watches over the parents as well. And it says, "...ye shall gently lead those that are with young." There's parents that, as a parent, sometimes you're wondering, how do I care for my kids? How do I meet my kids' needs, right? One of the burdens that we carry as parents is, boy, we really want the world to be great for our kids, even, or we want things to be great for our kids, and we carry that burden for our children, but he gently leads those that are with young. What a precious picture. I mean, who doesn't love to see that picture that shows the shepherd with the lamb on his shoulders in that verse that reminds us of God's care for the sheep. The verse that's found in Luke 15 as Jesus tells the story. He says, what man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he lose one of them, does not leave the ninety and nine in the wilderness and go after that which is lost until he finds it? What he has found is He lays it on his shoulders rejoicing. And when he comes home he calls together his friends and neighbors saying, unto them rejoice with me for I have found my sheep which was lost. I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repented more than over ninety and nine just persons which need no repentance. It's a precious picture of the Savior going out and just looking and saying, you know what, I'm going to restore you to myself. You're my sheaf. I want to care for you. I want to provide for you. I'm interested in you. The Son of God came to seek and save out of His law. If you're here this morning and you're not saved, that's the picture that you ought to see of God as far as His desire for you. He's reaching out in love, desiring to draw you to Himself in repentance. As we look at that, we can understand this morning and think about God and think about our problem. God's not impersonal. It's not, God's not distant today. He's not ignorant of what's taking place in our lives. But we just need to not stray from Him. Or if it's salvation we need, we need to come to Him and be His sheep. He's willing, He's able to care for us. And so Isaiah says, Behold your God. First of all, He's ruler over everything. Secondly, He's a good shepherd. I love that this morning. You know, I look at the church. They're saying, God burdens us now. You know, continuously God creates us and builds us and strengthens us. You know, God's lovingly caring for us as a church. He's lovingly caring for us as a family. And so he's meeting our needs. And so Isaiah points that out. The third thing, he says to, you could say his class, he points out that God is the almighty creator. He's the almighty creator. In the poem of God's hand, he holds incredible feet. Now, in the palm of my hand, if you look at the palm of your hand, there's not an incredibly deep system. I mean, the amount of water that I could put in my hand would be very minimal. I mean, it would not be a great amount. Nobody would think, like, I'm going to go get a lot of water from the well. What are you going to use? I'm going to use the palm of my hand. But God is so big, the Bible says in verse 12, who hath measured the waters of the earth in the hollow of his hand? You might think, well, it's a big deal. I mean, that's just, no. It is a big deal because God's word says that. This isn't a make-believe book this morning. I just kind of took a grand statement to kind of help us understand. God holds the water of this world in the palm of his hand. You know, we recently had the hot tub set up for a bathroom spree, and you know, that much water, as I was draining it, was incredibly heavy, just a couple of inches. But God, holds all the waters of all the seas and waters and it's incredibly heavy. God holds it in his hand. That's an incredible God. The span of his hand, from your, tip of your thumbs, tip of your pinky finger, the span of his hand holds the vast universe. So he measures the waters, the Bible says, in the hollow of his hand. He meted out heaven with a span. Okay, he said it's not simple. I mean, he meted out, he put heaven out in the span of his hand. Well, you might think, well, okay. The Hubble telescope shows images, they say, that are 13.2 billion light years away. Okay, now, this might hurt your head, it hurts my head to think about, but 13.2, not just billion years away, traveling at 60 miles an hour, or 70 miles an hour. That's a long way, because then if I said, you know, the universe is 13.2 billion years away, traveling at 70 miles an hour, you know, I mean, that's big. But it's 13.2 billion light years away. What's that mean? What's light years mean? That means traveling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second for 13.2 billion years. Okay, if you can get an understanding here, it's pretty big. Now, I want to ask evolutionists, okay, we can see that far away, which is incredible, and there's no lights anywhere else. So how come you keep saying the sky's less than round? Come on, I mean, let's just get over it. We're not one and, you know, yes, we're unique. We're unique because God is telling us. But if this thing really happens like you said, sure, it's happening somewhere else, and it's not there. I mean, you keep hoping, huh? It looks like there's water on the planet. 13.2 billion light years away, traveling at the speed of light. I can't even imagine that. But God holds that in the span of the span. You know, are you still worried about your own problems? I like going up in an airplane. You get up in an airplane and you look down at, you know, things in life. And you get small quick, doesn't it? I mean, you just go up a little ways, even climb Arthur's Seat or London Hills here, you're looking down and people are getting small. We're not. Not in comparison to the Earth, not in comparison to the, I mean, our little area here of the universe. What is that? It makes us big. What the Bible says, Psalm 144, 3, Lord, what is man if thou takest knowledge of him? For the Son of man, that thou mayest account of him. See, God can do anything. We got these big problems, oh, I can't, I mean, we're just struggling with it, we're trying to figure out, oh, we do have this big problem, wait a second. Are we really, you know, we got a God that holds the universe in the palm of His hand, in the span of His hand, you know, or stretches it out, and He's got the waters of the earth in the palm of His hand. You have a big God this morning. He deals with the earth's balance as nothing. He comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure. He weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance. I know, speaking about God's cousins, I mean, it's just explaining how simple it was. It's just like my kids, they like to play with Legos. They've been playing a lot with Legos recently and doing different things, man. It's no big deal for them to pick up a little Lego part. It's nothing. And God, We look at these hills, and it speaks about the dust of the earth. Can you imagine how many grains of sand are in the world? It's incredible. The Bible says even without the grains of the sand, Genesis 32, verse 12, God's gonna make Israel like the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. We got deserts, we got the seas. I mean, sand is just incredible. And the dust of the earth, God just no big deal weighed that out. We looked at yellow cray a couple weeks ago. stood there at the beach looking out at the island out there. And you look up the other way, you've got Bass Rock. It's beautiful. And I look at the Academy of that. They can't do something natural and beautiful like that. John designed that. And they're in Yaltrait, whatever that island is out there. Is that Yaltrait? I don't know. No, Bass Rock's up north there to the right. But there's a hole through it. I mean, it's like a tunnel into it. You can see right through it. It's incredible. It is, but that's nothing compared to Pentland Hill. That's nothing compared to the Free Sisters on the way up to Glencoe. That's nothing compared to Ben Nevis. That's nothing compared to the Rocky Mountains. And that's nothing compared to Mount Everest. And God did all that without difficulty as He created this beautiful world that we live in. You know, Isaiah would just remind us this morning, God's the Almighty Creator. Again, how big is your problem with God is so much greater? How big is your problem when you've got a loving God, like the loving shepherd that cares for you? You know, what about the fact that he's over everything? He is sovereign over this world. All nations are under his power. And so he's reminding us about our God. He goes on to say about God, he's the all-wise one. Verse 13 and 14. Says, who has directed the spirit of the Lord, or being his counselor, hath caught near? with whom took he counsel, and who instructed him, and taught him in the path of judgment, and taught him knowledge, and showed him the way of understanding." You know, you and I, especially the kids right now, we go to school, don't we? We get educated. And kids, let me ask you, is school easy? It's not. It's hard. You know, we're not born with a, you know, a cool, a data processor. We've got to put it in there. We've got to strive to, you know, read and understand and listen to teachers and apply ourselves to get knowledge. And it's worked. I didn't, personally, I didn't want to go to college when I got done with high school. I mean, for me, I was fine, but my mom and dad said, you're going to college, so off to college you go. When I got done with college, I didn't want to go to grad school, but my mom and dad thought I should go to grad school. I'm great about it, so God wanted me to go to grad school, so I went to school and got a master's degree. But I can understand what Solomon was saying in Ecclesiastes 12, 12. He says, of making many books, there is no end, and much study is the weariness of the flesh, isn't it? We strive for knowledge, but here's what Isaiah and Tips hold on to. Nobody truthers God. Nobody taught God. God didn't have to strive to get education. He didn't have to strive to get knowledge. You know one of the proofs that evolution is false is where does information come from? See evolution, creation has the answer. Information came from, greater information came from God. Where did DNA come from? It came from God. Where did the laws come from? It came from God. Where did institutions like church, family, and A government, where did they come from? They came from God. See, where did intelligence come from? It came from God. Why? Because that makes sense. Information comes from greater information, but it stops with God. That makes sense. Evolution says it just happened. Well, how did it just happen? It came from God. And see, if you think about God, God is all life. We're frustrated. Maybe we've got a decision that we need to make. What am I going to do? I don't know what I'm going to do. How is this going to work out? I've got something in my life. I don't know the answer to that. Even the Bible says in James, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God to give it to all men liberally, and afraid it's not, he shall be given it. Just ask. God is a very gracious God. He's a loving God. He gives us information that we need when we need it. We don't have to worry this morning and think, ah, you know, my problem's too big. I can't figure it out OVLP. I can't figure it out. But God can. And God can give me the wisdom that I need because He is all-wise. And so He reminds us. Isaiah reminds us. He's all-wise. He's the Almighty Creator. He's the Creator. He's the ruler of all. And then He's a God of immensity. I look up this definition. I thought that was the right word. You know, I'm studying and I'm writing my notes. And I read these verses and I thought, God is immensity. But I want to look it up. I want to see if that's the right word, immensity. Here's what it means. Immensity is hugeness. Does anyone like that? It's kind of fun to say, hugeness. When something is so large or numerous, you can hardly believe it. It has the quality of immensity. Something enormous is immense. And the quality of being immense is immensity. This is a strong word for truly gigantic things. and creation. Immensity. You know, I've talked to that before, probably in the same context, but I have a CEO at my house that I like. It's Amethyst, you know, it's beautiful. And it's about to stay. That's not immense. Now, if you go to the National Museum, you see the Amethyst that they have there. It's big enough, you know, to make a nice coffin. You could stand inside of it, right? And probably somewhere in the world, maybe crafting an unbounded commandment, or something even greater than that. He just gave us this amethyst circle. And if you look at that, did that convince you? If you feel like this morning, that you have an idea about how great God is, you just talked about it, the span of His hand falls in His hands. It's like we don't even begin to comprehend how big God is. Or how great God is. The Bible says in verses 15 and 16 of Isaiah verse 40, Behold, the nations are as a drop of a bucket, and are counted as a small dust of the balance. Behold, he taketh up the isles as a very little thing, and Lebanon is not sufficient to burn, nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a burnt offering." God said, I mean, the British Isles is pretty big, but God said, it's nothing. Just a drop of a bucket, just a small dust of the balance, just, you know, I take up the isles as a very little thing. Nothing. And then it says, if Lebanon, if you harvest all the forests of Lebanon, and you took all the beasts out of the forests of Lebanon, and you offered them to God for a sacrifice, it's not for you. One reason that God said there's a sacrifice in Israel is because of God's humility and his condescension to man. But that's nothing. Anything that we offer to God, I mean, the psalm says it probably more correctly than anything, we're the whole realm of nature, mind, effort, presence, far too small, left so in need, So divine, it demands my life, my soul, my all. The best that we give God is ourselves, but God is immense. God is so great, this form. And so Isaiah, he said, God is immense, God is all wise, he's almighty, he's the good shepherd, he's the ruler of all. And now it's like he's gonna stop in what he's sharing, to check with the class and say, you get it. And that's good, isn't it? If you're an educator, You're teaching something, it's good to have that point where you stop and say, now let me ask you some questions based upon what I've shared to see how we're doing. So here we go, we're gonna look at some questions that Isaiah's gonna ask his class. First one, can you make something like God? All right, I just heard God's men, God's almighty, God's the good shepherd, he's the ruler of all. Can you make something like God? You know, Israel was idolatrous at times, weren't they? Their heart often strayed from God, and when they did, they would set up these idols, and you think about, here they've got God, who we've just spoken about, and then they've got this idol. And so he's asking, can you make anything like God? Verse 18 to verse 20 says, to whom then will you liken God, or what likeness will you compare unto him? The workman melted the graven image of the goldsmith, spread it to the local people, and cast it over chains. He that is so impoverished that he hath no oblation, choose a tree that will not rot. He seeketh unto him a cunning workman to prepare a graven in it." And Isaiah is saying to Israel, is that good enough? Can you make something like God? I mean, I've just talked about who God is, but you go to this tree, or you go to this metal, and you shape something, and you bow down to it, and you say, that's my God. He's gonna speak about it more in Isaiah chapter 44. I like what Isaiah has to say. He speaks very frankly about idolatry. In chapter 44, speaking about an idol that can carve from a tree, verse 15. He says, then shall it be for a man to burn. Okay, we've got a lot of fireplaces here, a lot of what we burn is coal. But if you burn wood, I mean, you think about wood. Wood is for fuel, right? And so he burns it. He'll take care of it more than himself. Yea, he kindleth it and maketh bread. Yea, he maketh a god and worshipeth it. He maketh it a graven image and falleth down to it too. He burned his partner up in the fire, and with his partner up, he ate his flesh, he roasted his roast, and is satisfied. Yea, he warmeth himself and says, Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire. So he's just taken the wood, the same wood, made a fire, he's cooked food, he's provided for himself, and then he says that in the residues thereof, he maketh a god, even his graven image, He falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. They have not known nor understood, for he hath shut their eyes that they cannot see, and their hearts that they cannot understand. And none considereth in his heart, neither is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned part of it in the fire, being also I have baked bread upon the coals thereof, I have roasted flesh and eaten it, and shall I make the residue thereof in combination? Shall I fall down to the stalk of a tree? He feedeth on ashes a deceived heart that hath turned to the side, that he cannot deliver his soul nor save. Is there not a lie in my right hand? What's it saying? It's saying you've got God on this side, and Isaiah is spoken about, and on this side you have an idol, and an idol is nothing. And so he thanks them, you've got a need, are you going to God? And so can you make an idol like this? And then he asked them, if he said yes, then where have you been? Where have you been? He says in verse 21, he says, have you not known? Have you not heard? Hath it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? He says you're missing it. If you think idolatry is the answer when you have God, you're missing it. God is over mankind, verse 22 says, it is he that sent us upon the circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof are his grandson. It's like he's going back and he's saying, wait a second, God is so big. I know it's nothing, God is so great. God put all those stars into his heaven. Again, verse point two, please grab a Bible and follow along. Verse point two, that stretches out to heaven as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in. Okay, I think it's Ken Ham who told us when we were doing the creation science film, he speaks about this, if you've corrected that but haven't quite concurred, it's 11 times in the Old Testament. And we know now today that the universe, we expand it. And so Isaiah, again, gets us to look up and say, wow, you know, God is again and then. He's over all human authority, verse 23, that bringeth the princes to nothing. He maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. And so Parliament, or the Queen, or the President, God's over them. He's over the Supreme Court. All the judges of the earth are vanity and man in his very best state is temporary. Verse 24. Yea, they shall not be planted. Yea, they shall not be sown. Yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth. He shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stone. It's nothing, isn't it? But the Bible says that life's like a vapor, stir it for a little time, then vanish it away. So temporary, but God's eternal. And so he comes back again to the question he started with, and question number one, do you really believe you can make something like God? And so verse 25, he says, to whose end will you liken these, or shall I be equal, sayeth the Holy Spirit. Are you gonna try to, again, make an idol that is like me? And he says, look at the stars again, verse point six. Lift up your eyes on high and behold who hath created these things that bringeth out their host by number. See, all those stars that he's spoken about, God holds the universe in a span of a second. All those stars were created by God. And the Bible says in Genesis 1-16, God made two great lights, the greater light to rule the day and the lesser light to rule the night. And then what's it say? Do you remember the phrase? He made the stars also. It's just nothing to God. He made the stars also, but He didn't just make them, He named them. It says in our text again, verse 26, He calls them all by name by the greatness of His might. God called stars by name. Well, here's what I read online. According to what I found online, there's 10 billion galaxies in the observable universe. The number of stars in a galaxy varies, but assuming an average of 100 billion stars per galaxy, it means that there are about You put a number one, and then 21 zeros after it is the number of stars. One billion trillion stars in the observable universe. Again, does your brain hurt? Stars are massive. I mean, if you've ever seen one of the science things that show the size of the Earth in comparison to the sun, and then the sun in comparison with other bigger bodies that are out there, it's just incredible. And there's so many of them. And we can't even fathom that number, but God knows them today by name. God named these ones. And you know what else is out there? He didn't just make them. He sustained them. For that in His song and power appeared not one failure. That whole idea of the big bang, that's what, it's false. Not one failure. You know, it was Dr. Bob Senior who said, you write some of God's poems. Why does it never fall? God's not just named them, but He sustains each single star. You think about it, it's evolution history. Why are they colliding? Why are they, I mean, nothing's happening. Nothing's happening. What we see that we call a falling star is just pieces of dust or meteorites that are coming into the atmosphere of the Earth. It's just very fine particles. It's not actually a star that's falling. It's just something that we look at and we say it's a falling star. It looks like that to us, and that's not what he did. He got sustained, though, by his talent. So again, Isaiah is saying, all right, can you make anything like that? Okay, if you think yes, let's go back to this. And then he says, can you make anything like that? And you go like, man, you're just kind of continuing with this. But then he brings up the point now, which is actually the text that I wanted to get to this morning as far as why do we need to look at God? And it's because he asks us, really, this question. Since we have just looked at God, why don't you trust him to care for your needs? So you can't make anything like that. Why follow idols? Why fall down to falsehood and things that can't meet the need and can't satisfy, can't provide, and follow that? Why don't you follow God? And trust God. Verse 27. Why sayeth thou, O Jacob, and speaketh thou Israel? My way is hid from the Lord. And my judgment is passed over from one God. It's sort of complaining at God saying, I'm not getting justice here from God. God's not aware. God's overlooking my need this morning. At this point in my life. You know, is that in your heart this morning because Isaiah would say to us, you know, why are you saying this? Why are you frustrated with my needs and say, God doesn't know my needs today. Or God doesn't care about my needs today. where God isn't using my new state. It's just pointing to the fact that who God is. God is there, he's all-wise, he's all-powerful. And so he says that, you know what, you can't possibly wear God out. Verse 28, hath thou not known, hath thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the creator of the entity earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? See, we can't say today, well, I've been to God, I've borne him down, God's weary of me. God doesn't get weary. Because God needs our needs. God doesn't say, well, my resources are limited today because you took so much of my grace yesterday, or so much of my mercy yesterday. There's so many needy people in the world, I just don't have enough. That's not wearying. And so, we can't wear more. And you can't find someone more aware of what's going on in your life than says verse 28. There's no searching of this understanding. Our slightest one, God knows exactly where you're at. You can say this morning, no one understands, but you can't stop there. You have to say what the psalm says, no one understands life's procedure. No one understands life's Jesus. If I could say this morning, you don't understand where I'm at in my life as much as Jesus does. And I don't know what your life is today as much as Jesus does, but Jesus knows your life intimately. He knows exactly where you're at. There's no searching in this understanding. You can depend upon him to give you what he has. Verse 29, he gives power to the faint, and to them that have no might, he increases strength. God's there to strengthen us. There's times where we feel like our heart's just all in, and that's it, man, I'm so tired, and I'm just wore out, and I just don't have it. But you know, if we understand our need this morning, we go to God and say, God, I've got this need for your strengthening, and Isaiah has told us, he gives power to the faint. And to them that have no mind, he increases strength. And then he reminds us this morning, look, weariness is a part of life. But those who go to God find amazing strength. Verse 30 and 31 says, even the youth shall think and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall. And we look at youth and we say, I mean, we've all said it, I wish I had that energy. I wish I had that excitement. Youth have strength, but the Bible tells us that even the youth are going to faint and be weary. Young men shall utterly fall, but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength. They shall mount up with names as eagles, they shall run and not be weary, and they shall walk in that day. You know, Peter, what happened to Peter? Peter was looking at Christ as Christ did come. He came by faith, but then a circumstance got him crowded. He's looking at what's taking place, and the waves, and the wind blowing them, and he takes his eyes up, he looks around, and what happens? He starts to sink. So the same thing is true for us this morning. If we're going to look at our life vertically, is that right? Horizontally. That's right. Horizontal. If we're looking at life and just viewing it from this angle, we're not going to get it until we look at life vertically. Our problem is big, so we understand. We've got to get much bigger. He's loving. He's over everything. He cares and He wants to be my meeting of the day. It might be this morning thinking about this message. You might have to go down and say, God, I've been frustrated. I've been anxious in my life. I've been worried in my life. I've been panicking and hitting the panic button. It's unstable. And I've been thinking because I haven't had my eyes on you. And God, I want you to re-focus and understand, you're a God that's able, you're a God that understands, you're a God that cares. It might be this morning, you may have to go to God and say, God, I've never reached out to take your hand, I've never put my trust in you as my Savior. No, today's the day to trust in a God that is immense. God's powerful, God's able to save you today, if you do that for Him. Let's pray next, God, and let's just work this onto our hearts. Father, we thank you that you're an incredibly loving, merciful, gracious God. And Father, you know our needs today. And Isaiah has put a good lesson in front of us to get our eyes back on to who our God is. Father, we could try to simplify it. I mean, we try in our lives to find things that we can worship and things that satisfy, things that meet our needs, but they're just nothing. They're just nothing. They're empty because They're as empty as those isles of wood and stone, and there's nothing to them. But Father, you're amazing. And Father, we've seen a bit about who our God is this morning. And Father, it's true that we looked at this morning, and I pray that you would stick with us the rest of our lives, that we'd remember how capable our God is. And Father, I just pray that the Spirit of God meet me and stir the masses this morning. Help us be tender to you through Christ in your grace. Hang on. In 251, near the cross. 251, near the cross.