In the sermon 'God Mocks the Idolater' by Scott Brown, the focus is on Isaiah 44:9-28, where God exposes the futility and absurdity of idolatry. The passage emphasizes the uselessness of idols, crafted by human hands, and contrasts them with God's unmatched power and love. God uses mockery to highlight the foolishness of worshiping idols, which only lead to spiritual desolation, referred to as 'feeding on ashes.' The sermon outlines the manufacturing process of idols, illustrating how they are a reflection of human pride and self-interest. Despite the allure of idols, they ultimately leave individuals unfulfilled and disconnected from God. In contrast, the sermon underscores God's sovereignty, His promise to redeem and restore those who turn to Him, and His ability to blot out sins like clouds disappearing from the sky. The call is to reject idolatry, embrace God's living water, and participate in the rebuilding of a spiritually vibrant life. The sermon also links modern issues, such as the LGBT debate, to the theme of idolatry, suggesting that societal deviations from divine principles are forms of idolatry.

Isaiah 44, starting in verse 9 through the end of the chapter. Those who make an image, all of them are useless, and their precious things shall not profit. They are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. Who would form a god or mold an image that profits him nothing?

Surely all his companions would be ashamed, and the workmen, they are mere men. Let them all be gathered together. Let them stand up, yet they shall fear. They shall be ashamed together. The blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals, fashions it with hammers, and works it with the strength of his arms.

Even so he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. The craftsman stretches out his rule. He marks one out with chalk. He fashions it with a plane.

He marks it out with a compass and makes it like the figure of a man, according to the beauty of a man, that it may remain in the house. He cuts down cedars for himself. He takes the cypress and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a pine, and the rain nourishes it.

Then it shall be for a man to burn, for he will take some of it and warm himself. Yes, he kindles it and bakes bread. Indeed, he makes a god and worships it. He makes it a carved image and falls down to it. He burns half of it in the fire.

With this half he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied. He even warms himself and says, Ah, I am warm. I have seen the fire. And the rest of it he makes into a God, his carved image.

He falls down before it and worships it, prays to it and says, Deliver me, for you are my God. They do not know nor understand, for he has shut their eyes, so that they cannot see, and their hearts, so they cannot understand. And no one considers in his heart, nor is their knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned half of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals. I have roasted meat and eaten it.

And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood? He feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside, and he cannot deliver his soul, nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Remember these, O Jacob, in Israel, for you are my servant.

I have formed you. You are my servant. O Israel, you will not be forgotten by me. I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you.

Sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it. Shout, you lower parts of the earth. Break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it. For the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb, I am the LORD who makes all things, who stretches out the heavens all alone, who spreads abroad the earth by myself, who frustrates the signs of the babblers and drives diviners mad, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolishness, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers, who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited, to the cities of Judah you shall be built, and I will raise up her waist places Who says to the deep be dry and I will dry up your rivers Who says of Cyrus he is my shepherd and he shall perform all my pleasure Saying to Jerusalem you shall be built into the temple your foundation shall be laid Heavenly Father Lord God we come before you as a as a people who seeks to hear your word Lord Father, please bless Scott as he speaks to us today.

Let your spirit resonate through him and resonate with our spirits, conforming us to your will. Help us to be obedient. Help us to hear and to lay aside any of these idols that we might have built up ourselves and worship only you, the true and living God. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

In the scene that we've been walking through over the last several weeks you have God, he's in a courtroom and he's been calling witnesses. He calls the poor, he calls the blind, he calls the nations in to testify. And then he mounts the witness stand himself, and he begins to declare his glory in the courtroom, to prove really how good he is, to prove how he prefers his people with his love. And as this chapter continues on in this scene, the heart of it really is that God is, he's declaring the absolute stupidity of idolatry and the stupidity of loving the creature more than the creator and so in this in this chapter we find God mocking our idols so that we would turn aside from them, that we wouldn't end our lives with regret, that we held onto our idols, we held onto that idol in our hand. We just held onto it so tightly.

We petted it, we nurtured it, we kept it with us our whole life long. And God is saying, you have a lie in your hand. So God is mocking the idols so that in order to relieve us, to keep us from feeding on the ashes as he speaks of it here, but instead the living water which he spoke of in the previous section, verses one through eight. And what we find here in this passage is that God uses many means, different means, to turn us to Christ. He tells us of his loving kindness.

He shows us how kind and how beneficial he is. He shows us his goodness and his glory and his love. That's one way that he declares his glory to us. Another way is that he belittles our idols. He comes to us and he tells us what for.

He tells us what's really going on in our lives. So, and why? So that we would be weaned from everything that's not satisfying to our souls and we'd find all of our satisfaction in him that we would we would we would displace our longings for the unprofitable things of the creature and that we would replace our longings with longings for the Creator. That there would be an exchange that would go on. And that's why in this whole section, over and over again, God says, I am God and there is no other." And now he's looking at your idol in your hand and he wants to pull it from you.

He wants to hold it up before you and show you how stupid we are to hold on to our idols. And he's arguing with us in this first section here in verses 9 through 20. And he's mocking the idols. But then In the final section in verses 21 to the end, he says, no, come turn to me. I'll blot out your sins and you will be built.

You will be restored. You let go of that idol and you'll find the healing waters flow. You'll find the restoration of your soul. And so this whole passage is about replacement gods and they are everywhere. The replacement gods show up all around us.

Just pick up the newspaper. Just pick up the meditations of your own heart. Pick up the streams and the hot trends in our culture, and you'll find the idols there. And the idols are everywhere. They are the reason for the cults and for all immorality for all unlawful governments for all abuse all of them are founded on one single thing and that is another God seeking a different God the world does not want God as he's proclaimed himself to be in his word.

The world wants a God that's different. And so they manufacture idols in their own image. But God here is proclaiming, no, I am God and there is no other. Today's gods are masked. They're masked in political theories and pseudoscience and entertainment and false religions.

They are felt in the heart through its affections. They're seen in the images that we are attracted to. It's the whole tendency of man to be autonomous, to be on his own, to create a different life, a better life than the life that's described here. It's autonomous man, existentialist man who desires his own desires. He only wants to feed what he thinks will feed him.

But here God says you're only feeding on ashes. Don't feed on ashes anymore. That's the message that's here. You know interestingly enough in the midst of what is perhaps the greatest threat to the whole proposition that Jesus Christ is Lord, the entire LGBT marriage debate hinges on this one matter. It hinges on idolatry.

It hinges on wanting a God that is different than the God of the Bible. A different sexuality, a different life. This is idolatry and I think we have to absolutely understand that in this whole debate. We're really talking about a replacement God. We're talking about idolatry, which is addressed right here in this passage.

Now, the whole context here in the chapter, I think we should be reminded of it before we move into the text itself. In verse 2, God declares that he formed his people. And now he speaks of men who form idols after their own image. And that's the whole subject here. And God is arguing with his people about the unprofitability of their idols.

And in the last section, he speaks of the blessings of living water, how he would pour out water, and that his people would grow up in the midst of the tender shoots and the lush grass. God is just continuing to argue with his people saying, my grass is better grass, my water is better water. So he's making this contrast, you know, behold your God. In this passage he says, behold the block of wood. But he goes further than that.

He says, behold the blockhead who makes the block of wood. He's belittling the blockhead who pets and hangs onto his idols. Don't you see you have a lie in your hand? That block of wood is just like your brain. It has gone dead, everything that's true and beautiful.

And so God is bringing the idol makers and their idols to the witness stand. And here he doesn't allow them to speak. He speaks for them and to them. And he's been challenging the idolater to explain why he's doing what he is. In verse 8 he says, Do not fear nor be afraid.

Have I not told you from that time, you are my witnesses. You're my witnesses. Now speak, tell me how good your idol is. Tell me what profit you have in your idol. Tell me how good your idol has been to you." And he says, no, but I'm good.

I'm the fountain of life. I'm the fountain of living waters. So now God, I think before we move into the passage, we should just recognize that God has a method for making the contrast. And it's mockery. He's using mockery.

He's using sarcasm. Now sarcasm can be holy sarcasm or it can be evil sarcasm and mockery. Here's an example in the Bible of holy sarcasm, holy mockery. And so you hear his mocking voice through this whole thing. You know, some Christians feel like it's ungodly to use sarcasm or mockery.

Charles Spurgeon spoke of the soul-destroying politeness that you find from time to time. He said, you cannot be too disrespectful to objects of idolatrous worship. They may be esteemed by others, but do not show any kind respect to them yourself. But if there be a name that you can give them that is full of sarcasm, let them have it. And that's exactly what God does here in this passage.

He lets the idolater and the idol itself have it and he's just saying that they are both worthless. You know the whole Bible really is a testimony of the goodness of God and the stupidity of idolatry. You can sum up the entire corpus of scripture that way and what we find here, there is a redeemer for the idolater. Now one more One last thing before we get to the passage. Turning from idols always precedes awakening.

Turning from idols always precedes awakening. We need an awakening. We need an awakening in our hearts. We need to cry out for awakening every day, but we need an awakening in our land. Right now the trajectories of the forces of evil are absolutely obliterating major categories of life that have been a blessing in America.

And we need an awakening. We need a people who will hate their idols. We need a people who will see the lie that is in their own hand. And to recognize that what they think they'll miss from that idol is nothing. It's nothing.

They will only gain in the loss of their idol. Okay, so you can see the outline here. You have the stupidity of the idolater in verses 9 through 20 and then and then secondly you have the superiority of the Redeemer in verses 21 through 28 and So the first thing that we see here is that there are various value judgments that God makes. The first is that the idolater is useless. There are two primary value judgments that he makes in these verses.

And The first is that the idolater is useless. God's not very flattering to the idolater. I mean, he's actually speaking about individuals. It's as if he's saying, you are worthless when you hold down to your idol. You know, people want to have a significant life.

They cannot have it with idols. And your significance eludes you. This uselessness is rooted in what he centers his life around. He feels that they're precious. He says, and their precious things shall not profit.

This is the truth about all idols. Particularly before you're a Christian, you think your idols are so good for you. You don't want to let them go they're holding you back from turning to God And you think oh if I just only could have a little bit more of this And God is saying you just want a little bit more of a lie you want a little bit more of a poison Just a little bit more for you. Is that really what you want? But they seem so precious and he says that they are, that they shall not profit, they're delicious, they're the delectable things, but they're not what we think they are.

We're placing our affections on worthlessness and disregarding the treasure. You know, Jeremiah spoke of this. He used a really remarkable language in Jeremiah 3.13. He says, you have scattered your charms to alien deities. You've scattered your charms and it's proven by what he says, you have not obeyed my voice, says the Lord.

Idolatry and disobedience are the same thing pretty much and these precious things we scatter our charms to the alien deities. And then there are... As he makes this statement about idols, I think we should just just pause for a moment and speak of idolatry and A few weeks ago. We were in a passage very much like this and I said there's seven marks of idolatry I'm gonna give them to you in really quick form again just so that we understand what idolatry is in the Bible. We would make a great mistake to think that this is some third world problem with a you know worshipping a rock or a tree.

It's far deeper than that. So here are seven. Number one, idolatry comes through deceptive images of God, Exodus 20, verse 4. Number two, rebellion and stubbornness are expressions of idolatry. That's 1 Samuel 15.

Whenever you see rebellion, you see idolatry. Number 3, the works of the flesh are all idolatry. That's Galatians 5 verses 19. Any work of the flesh is idolatry. Number 4, sexual immorality is connected with idolatry.

Hosea 4, 13-15. Number five, embracing false ideas is idolatry. Zechariah 10, 2. Covetousness is idolatry. Colossians 3, 5.

Your vision of God can be idolatry. Your own designer God. Your God who does not judge. Your God that loves everyone. Which the Bible actually contradicts that.

He said this whole section is a testimony that God doesn't love everyone. That he prefers his people, he loves his people. And he will cast those who reject him into outer darkness. So God does things differently than we might think. Martin Luther said, whatever your heart clings to or relies on, that is your God.

A.W. Tozer said, let us beware, lest in our pride we accept the erroneous notion that idolatry consists only in kneeling before physical objects of adoration, and that civilized people are therefore free from it. The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of him. It begins in the mind and may be present where no overt act of worship has taken place. So what Isaiah is doing out of the mouth of the Lord here is he is speaking of the stupidity of the idolater.

And the first value judgment is that they are totally unprofitable. And then the second value judgment is that the idolater's life bears witness to his uselessness. In verse 9 he says, they are their own witnesses. They neither see nor know that they may be ashamed. Their own lot, you know, in other words he's saying you can witness to how unprofitable your idols are.

Your own life is a witness to it. You can see it in your own life. And he says that they will be ashamed of them. And this is a theme in Isaiah. He says, there will be a day when you will be ashamed of your idols.

You'll throw them down to the bats. You'll want to throw them into the hole. You'll be embarrassed of your idols. And so here God wants us to be embarrassed of our idols and to tell us how unprofitable they are and how unprofitable we are. That's not very...

God is not flattering us here. They can do you no good. They are nothing, he says. This is the word for chaos. The same word we have in Genesis 1 the where the earth was formless in void It's it's chaos.

There's there's nothing there until God comes and creates it into a profitable world. So God is mocking our idols so that we would throw them aside now, so that we wouldn't get to the end of our lives and regret how much got burned up as wood, hay, and stubble, and to flee, to identify the idol, to expose the idol, to mock the idol, and finally to replace the idol. This is Isaiah's argument here. And then you see the manufacturing process after he makes these value judgments. The Lord takes us into the workshop of the idol maker, into the heart of the factory of idols, because the heart is a factory idol, an idol factory, And here's a picture of it here.

And we see its materials and how the idol is limited by its materials. And because of that, your idol can only take you so far. It's limited. It's limited to man. And in that sense, it's so underperforming.

You make an idol with the same tools here in this passage that you make an ox cart or a plow or a shed. And God just continues mocking the absurdity of it. It's like, if you read this, it's amazing how God speaks of it. Here, the idolatry, he makes a fire, and he goes over, and it keeps him warm, and it cooks his food, and he makes this and that. It's kind of like he makes a cutting board out of the same wood or a toilet seat.

He makes whatever and then he worships it. He's lost his mind. That's what God is saying. God is wanting his people to see their idols in their hand, the lie that's there, and to throw them now. Throw them now!

Throw them early in life! You know, often young people keep on their idols and they keep them until their 30s and 40s and 50s and 60s. I can bear witness to that. I still see idols in my hands. How I wish I would have thrown them away years ago.

But maybe God has you now, you're a young person, and you see the idols. Throw them away now so that they don't continue to make you unprofitable your whole life long because that's exactly what they'll do. They'll make you useless and they'll steal from you every good thing. God is arguing. Now then, there are six elements to the manufacturing process and I don't know why God goes into such detail about this but we're going to just walk through it as best we can.

First of all, he fashions it. Verse 12, the blacksmith with the tongs works one in the coals and he fashions it with hammers. Now this is kind of a high-end idol. Everybody doesn't get a high-end idol. You know, some are just blocks of wood, others have gold and silver.

You know, Everybody has idols. Some of your idols are cheap, and some of them are expensive. Sometimes people have a lot of money, and they buy big, fancy idols. But they're no different than the little ones. Often poor people think, oh, look at that car.

That is such an idol. But they don't understand that they have the same kind of idol, it just doesn't cost that much money. But here he goes in and he's, you know, idolatry just knows no social or economic status. And here, this seems to me to be a picture of the higher end idol, the person who has the gold or the silver to beat down and to have it inert in his house, to have it just sit there not doing anything for him. The second element of the manufacturing process of these six elements that I'm going to identify is that it wears him out, verse 12.

And he works it with the strength of his arms, even so he is hungry and his strength fails. He drinks no water and is faint. Here's the deal, idolatry wears you out. You get weaker and weaker. On the other hand, God is never tired.

God gives strength to those who turn to Him. So you have, when you hold on to your idol it impoverishes you it wears you out It makes you tired. You know the world will wear you out Have you ever seen somebody you look at them and you say boy that person has been worn by the world Ever seen that it happens the world will wear you out And this is what he's speaking of here. One commentator said, they are their own executioners. They toil for their own destruction.

But the Lord, what does he do? He restores your soul. He leads you in the paths of righteousness. What does the devil do? He destroys your soul.

God takes you back to Eden. The devil takes you back to Egypt. That's the whole idea. And you know, there's no rest in Egypt. Remember Pharaoh didn't give the children of Israel their Sabbath.

They worked seven days a week. Just more, less, more bricks, less hay. God is mocking our idols so that we'd throw them down now, so that we wouldn't get to the end of our lives and regret how much was burned up as wood hay and stubble. The third element of the manufacturing process is his meticulousness. And you see his method.

Verse 13, The craftsman stretches out his rule. Now just get your mind here in a minute. Here's Isaiah, he's doing it again. He's taking you into this scene, this moment in the idol factory. So He stretches out his rule, he's measuring it, and then he marks it with chalk, you know, and then he fashions it with a plane, he's shaping it, and then he marks it out with a compass, he draws a circle, and out pops the figure of a man.

Something that reflects himself, it's an expression of himself. Here's the truth, idols, your idols are just an expression of yourself. That's why you like them so much. You have your designer self in mind. You have a look that you want to create.

It's your idol. You want to create an idol that is flattering to you. And so you take the rule and the compass and you try to set everything in order so that your outward appearance and everything is so designer. It's a result of your creativity. You have all these different tools.

How do you get these idols? There are various tools that are used in the manufacturing of idols. Pride, covetousness, lust, selfishness, self-righteousness. These are the tools of idolatry does that sound far-fetched to you? Well, well, it isn't far-fetched at all.

It's it's absolutely thoroughly biblical in Romans chapter 1 We learned that those who did not retain God in their knowledge, in other words, they wanted a different kind of God. They did not want the God of the universe. God gave them over to a debased mind to do those things that are not fitting. They rejected God. And then he speaks of what it was that created their idolatry.

In verse 29 in Romans 1, unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, whispering, backbiting, hating God, violence, pride, boasting, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. These are all the things that you, these are the tools for idol making. You can trace your idol to probably one of these things that Paul mentions in Romans 1. Why do you hold on to that idol? Go look at the list in Romans 1.

That's why. And what does he do with the idol? Well, he it says he makes it according to the beauty of a man That it may remain in his house And there it is these dumb idols sitting useless in his house And God is just mocking it mocking the adult there. It's useless. It's just sitting in your house And then the third element of the manufacturing process, I'm sorry, the fourth element of the manufacturing process is he makes a self-congratulatory idol.

Verse 13, and it makes, according to the beauty of a man, according to the beauty of a man, it's glory, translated glory, many other places in the Old Testament. It has to do with exalting man. Idolatry is image making. Images are always the center of idolatry. Man is making a god in his own image and he's making that image to flatter himself.

That's the whole proposition that's here. The self-made man makes the self-made God. Romans chapter one is I think an excellent reference point for how idolatry works in the heart of man. But then to further illustrate the absurdity of the idol maker and his idols, God reminds us where he has to go to get his materials. And this is the fifth element of the manufacturing process.

To get his idols, where does he go? He goes to God's creation. That's where he goes. And in verse 14 it says, he cuts down cedars for himself and takes the cypress and the oak. He secures it for himself among the trees of the forest.

He plants a pine and the rain nourishes it. You know, he goes out and he selects a tree, you know, just a designer tree, the kind of tree that you could really shine on you with some kind of respectability. He chooses the tree, but the irony out is he plants he plants a tree in the dirt that God made and then the rain that comes from God comes down and waters it. It's The irony is astonishing to me. He's making this long-term plan and he's mocking the idols God does so that we would throw them aside now.

Throw them aside early. And even if it's not early, throw them aside, lest you get to the end of your life and realize how much regret you have by the wood hand stubble, because you could not let go of that idol. The sixth element of the manufacturing process is that he uses the idol to serve himself. To me this is one of the funniest parts of the whole thing in terms of the mockery and the sarcasm, verse 15, then it shall be for a man to burn. He will take some of it to warm himself.

Yes, he kindles it and breaks bread. Indeed, he makes a god and worships it. He makes a carved image and falls down to it. It's absolutely absurd. He's cooking with it on one hand, and somehow it fits into the rest of his life.

This is what idols, you want to fit idols in. He says he burns half of it in the fire. With this half he eats meat. He roasts a roast and is satisfied and he warms himself and he says, ah I am warm. I've seen the fire.

The rest he makes into a god, his carved image. He falls down before it and worships it and he prays through and says deliver me for you are my God you know you you wouldn't want your idol to be completely useless you wouldn't want your eye to use your idol for something and And the idol here is used to serve himself. He uses it to bless himself. It's really all about him anyway. It's a self-help idol.

As long as his idol can help him, then it works for him. And then thirdly, the delusions. In this whole mockery, he speaks of the delusions, verses 18-20. First of all, we see that God has shut their eyes and their hearts. They do not know nor understand, verse 18, for He has shut their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot understand.

Do you see this idea? They cannot because God has shut their eyes. This is the sovereignty of God in salvation. Verse 19, and no one considers it in his heart, nor is there knowledge nor understanding to say, I have burned half of it in the fire. Yes, I have also baked bread on its coals, I have roasted it and eaten it, and I shall make the rest of it an abomination.

And shall I make the rest of it an abomination? Shall I fall down before a block of wood?" His eyes are so clouded, he ends up saying some of the most ridiculous things. He's congratulating himself for his pleasures, but he's not seeing what it really is. He just does not understand. This is why the apostle Paul said in Romans 1, their foolish heart was darkened.

In 2 Thessalonians 2, 11, it says, God will send them a strong delusion, and they should believe the lie. The idolater, he can't see how ridiculous he looks before God. He can't see how ridiculous and unprofitable the idol is. He just cannot see it. Since here that God shuts his eyes, God uses a word here in Isaiah to plaster, to just go over the eyes, to conceal, to smear, and overcoat over the eyes so they can't see how silly it is.

You know, they step back and they look at their sexual preference in their house, in their car, whatever it is, their image, whatever, their entertainment, their team, whatever it is, they just can't see it. And so they hold it. Their reasoning powers have been dulled, and they want something different than God. That's idolatry. Verse 19, it says that this word, abomination, shows up.

He says, if he was thinking right, he would say it's an abomination. It may be that God is just bearing witness to that he knows deep in his heart that it's an abomination. I'm not sure which one it is. If he was thinking right, he would say, here is an abomination. Or perhaps he really knows it's an abomination.

And then the idolater is blind to the lie, verse 20, he feeds on ashes. A deceived heart has turned him aside and he cannot deliver his soul nor say, Is there not a lie in my right hand? Two things in verse 20. He's feeding on ashes. You know, instead of the green pastures, it's ashes.

He nourishes himself on ashes. This is the problem for all who do not turn to Jesus Christ. They keep feeding on ashes. How unappetizing ashes are. They do not profit.

What he seeks to satisfy his life with is just the equivalent to ashes. They go down dry and bitter. They're hard to swallow. They're hard on your stomach. This is what feeding on ashes is like.

And the idolater just keeps on feeding on ashes. That's his pasture. And he doesn't know the difference. You know, it tastes just good enough for a little bit more, but it's ashes It's nothing like the bread of life. It's nothing like the clear waters It's nothing like the green pastures that Jesus Christ has for those who love him.

But he's content with the ashes. You know, he might say, is that all there is? But he just keeps eating the ashes. You know, the soul is not meant to live on ashes. The soul is not nourished and cherished on ashes.

But there is the pure milk of the Word. There's the meat of maturity. In Psalm 37 we learn about feeding on his faithfulness. You know David said in Psalm 19, your word is the rejoicing of my heart. Not ashes, but rejoicing, but food.

It's medicine, it's food, not what the prodigal son kept on eating until he finally came to his senses. Job and Hosea talk about feeding on the wind. Isaiah 55 says, why do you spend your money on that which is not bread? The word of God doesn't return void, but ashes always return exactly what they are. It says that a deceived heart has turned aside.

Satan is a great deceiver and he does deceive. Notice the language. The deceived heart turns him aside. Everything comes from the heart. Out of the heart comes everything.

And this is why idolatry is always in the heart. It's not that thing necessarily It always begins in the heart the heart turns toward People who tell you to follow your heart are giving some of the most disastrous advice you'll ever hear. Don't follow your heart. Follow the living water and where it goes. God is mocking our idols so that we would throw them aside now.

And then there's the superiority of the Redeemer. God is never content to leave us in our sins. He always brings himself to cast a vision of his own glory so that we would be rescued, so that we would have a different vision, so that the ashes would no longer be ours. And that's what we find here in verses 21 through 28. We've been going through Isaiah for a long time.

Neither God nor Isaiah can keep from praising God in His mercy and to declare himself as the Savior to the idolater. And so, verse 21, we learn several things. I've listed them here. I listed, I didn't number them, but there are a whole bunch of them. I just wanted to get the force of the goodness of God and how he explains his own goodness.

So I listed them. The first thing is that he does not forget his people. He doesn't forget his people. Verse 21, remember these O Jacob and Israel for you are my servant. I have formed you.

You are my servant O Israel. You will not be forgotten by me this is the God who says I will never leave you or forsake you you know the idol The idol in your hand will leave you on the street in the gutter, but not God. He never leaves you and He never forsakes you. I think this is a call to remember and It's either a call to remember the bondage of the idols that he has just spoken of, or to remember that he is good and that they are his servants. It's one of those two.

Perhaps it's both. To remember these two things. To remember the unprofitability of the idols, but the profitability of God. And God is calling them to remember these wonderful things. You know, I think if he's saying, remember back to your idols.

You know, think about what your idolatry has done for you. Think of where did it get you, you know. This is kind of what the Apostle Paul says in Romans 621. He says, what fruit did you have then in the things which you are now ashamed? For the end of those things is death.

But now being set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness to the end, everlasting life, for the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. This is the whole argument of this section. The unprofitability of the idols and the beauty of the Lord, the goodness of holiness, the everlasting life. But Don't forget to ask this question. Don't forget to remember.

Remember what good your idols did for you. And of course, God is saying they do nothing good for you. Don't hold on to them anymore. And then he redeems. Not only does he not forget, he redeems by blotting out sins.

I have blotted out like a thick cloud your transgressions, and like a cloud your sins. Return to me, for I have redeemed you. God doesn't blot out everyone's sins. He only blots out those Who returned to him who he has redeemed? That's the idea here, But he redeems by blotting out sins.

There are different ways that you can think about this. We've already encountered in Isaiah the blotting out of sins, like blotting out of the stain, blotting out of handwriting against you. You know, he blots out your sins. We learned that in the previous chapter. You know, like the blotting out of an entry in the book, the blotting out of all the accusations against you.

The millions and millions of accusations because of your sins and your sin nature. The libraries that fill the books of all of your sins. All the meditations of your heart. All the unprofitable things that have come from your sin nature, the things that you did and the things that you are. So there's he blots out our sins that way.

We spoke of that a couple of weeks ago. But here, here, sin is compared to a cloud. The cloud is sin and it's blotted out. And it's as if the clouds, the clouds of sin just blow away They just removed as if you know they block out the Sun But the Sun comes out again and the clouds are gone Rapidly totally in an instant You don't have to work to get the cloud away. They are blotted out by the blood of Jesus Christ.

The Bible commentator E.J. Young says it so beautifully, I'll read it. God will blot out from his book Israel's transgressions and sins Just as the wind completely removes the clouds from sight in the sky The reference is to the ease with which the clouds are removed. This seems particularly to be true in the Near East. In Egypt, one August day, the sky is filled with clouds in the early morning, yet a long before mid-morning was entirely devoid of clouds.

It's the transitoriness of the cloud that is in view. To blot out the transgressions is no more difficult than to remove the clouds. He just sweeps away the clouds. That's salvation by grace alone. God is showing again how he redeems his people.

And he's showing it again by this image of the clouds. You know, he's used many images to speak of the forgiveness of sin. You know, he puts your sins like in the bottom of the ocean. He separates your sins from you as far as the east is from the west. He blots out the handwriting.

And here, he sweeps away the clouds of your transgressions. All the clouds that have separated you from God. All the idols that are there. He blows them all away. Not only does he forget his people, not only does he blot out their sins, but he calls for singing, verse 23, sing, O heavens, for the Lord has done it.

Shout, you lower parts of the earth, break forth into singing, you mountains, O forest, and every tree in it, for the Lord has redeemed Jacob and glorified himself in Israel. Here you have a picture of a singing people. The people of God are always a singing people. Wherever you find Christianity, you find singing. And here, here there seems to be singing everywhere, and with everything, in the heavens, in the lower parts of the earth, in the mountains, in the forest, and even every tree.

Let everything that hath breath Praise the Lord. The trees and the mountains and the forest. This is the fact of all creation rejoicing. You know, the Bible says that that the whole creation groans for the revealing of the sons of God, but when the redeemed are redeemed, they sing and their groaning ends. There's an effect on the whole creation.

And then in verse 24, he stretches out the heavens. Again, God is trying to argue his people out of their idols to tell them how unprofitable they are. And he says to them, thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb I am the Lord who makes all things who stretches out the heavens all alone who spreads abroad the earth by myself and why should they be singing They should be singing because He's a Redeemer. And His fatherly kindness is shown everywhere as He stretches out the heavens, as the heavens declare the glory of God, as he makes plain his faithfulness and his truth as a result of what he has done and how he has formed his people from the womb. He stretches out the heavens and then he drives the idolaters mad, verse 25, who frustrates the signs of the babblers and drives diviners mad, who turns wise men backward and makes their knowledge foolishness.

This is a picture of all those who get their knowledge not from God. They get it from the spirits, they get it from the cultures of this world, they get it from the kingdom of the idols, they get their advice there, They create their governments as a result of that. They make their churches out of their own minds. They make their families out of their own thinking. They're the diviners.

They seek other spirits than God to create their life. But God says he will frustrate the signs of the babblers, and he drives the babblers mad. He says that they get reversals instead of progress. Who turns wisemen backward? In other words, they are behind.

They experience failure and disappointment and defeat. And then he exposes their knowledge as foolishness. He says it makes their knowledge foolishness. God doesn't really treat idolaters all that well. They don't see the blessing of God.

They can't relate to it. This is why I think this is related to Moses' prophecy in Deuteronomy 28. So much of Deuteronomy 28 and 32 are fulfilled in Isaiah. So many of the same words. And here in Deuteronomy 28, Moses speaks of those who turn away from him.

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart, and you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways. You shall only be oppressed and plundered continually and no one will save you." This is God driving the idolaters mad. And then he fulfills his word to a servant, verse 26, who confirms the word of his servant and performs the counsel of his messengers. This word he uses confirms, it's contrasted with this idea of being put behind.

It means to rise up, it means to set, to be put ahead rather than behind. He confirms the word of his servant. In other words, his word will run free in people's lives and performs the counsel of his messengers. The word messengers is also used of angels. It has to do with those who announce his will, who speak of his glory and his beauty and his righteousness.

That he will perform the counsel of those who really speak for him. And then verse 26, I love this one, he promises to rebuild. Who says to Jerusalem, you shall be inhabited. Now, By implication, it wasn't inhabited, but you shall be inhabited. To the cities of Judah, you shall be built, and I will raise up her waste places." So there's a dwelling place, there's a repair, there's a rebuilding, there's a restoration that's going on here.

This word built up is sometimes used as an idiom for increasing offspring and multiplying that way. But God cares for His house, and He promises to rebuild the lives of those who've lived in the kingdom of the idols, who've held their idols in their hands, and then they've thrown them away, and he rebuilds them. He replaces everything they think they lost, but he builds something of beauty, something of value. And this is what God does with sinners. He calls them to throw down their idols and then he rebuilds them.

He takes the waste places and he makes them places of fertility and productivity. He takes the house that's been deprived of love and he makes it into a real home. He takes a church and he makes it a place of love. This is what happens when a church or a family or an individual throws down his idols. He's restored.

He's built up. He's beautified. I love this phrase, I will raise up her waste places. Isaiah's full of this language, the desert, the dryness, the desolation. He takes the dry places and he pours water upon them.

Dryness is always a result of idolatry. This is why David prayed, restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. He'd gotten dry. But God desires to restore his church, And his Word is his tool to repair the broken down walls of its families and of its fellowship. You know, whenever you look at the church, you always see an institution that's in need of Reformation.

It's in need of living water. It's in need of the Word of God. It is the tool of Reformation. The throwing down of idols is always a precursor to revival and awakening in a church. And if anyone so longs to see awakening in this church or in this land, then he would first start with what is in his right hand, his idol.

This is how you begin the Reformation, is you throw the idol down. And here in this passage God is arguing with his people to throw away their idols So that they would not get to the end of their life and regret so much God is so kind verse 27 He controls the waters who says to the deep be dry and I will dry up your rivers. This is an illusion to the children of Israel walking through the waters. Remember, he says, when you go through the fire, you will not be burnt. When you walk through the waters, they won't overtake you.

No, God doesn't protect you from trials. He sustains you in the midst of the trials he makes you walk on dry ground in the midst of the trial and the threat and the difficulty you walk through the trials but He does not remove them from you. And God is saying, I did this in the past, and I will continue to do it as you walk through the waters. And then in verse 28, it says He controls kings, who says of Cyrus, He is my shepherd, and he shall perform all my pleasure saying to Jerusalem you shall be built and to the temple your foundation shall be laid." And here God is proclaiming his sovereignty over all of history. The idol can't do anything, but God raises up and pulls down kings.

And he named Cyrus long before he was born. It would be over a hundred years before he was born. And Isaiah is prophesying this scene where King Cyrus, the King of the Persians, would come and he would be part of restoring Israel to their homeland after their 70 years of captivity. You can read about in Ezekiel 34, 26, and 27. God is going to raise up a pagan king.

He's comforting his people with a promise. He's telling them that they can trust him in everything, including the kingdoms of the world, including all of history, including a captivity. They can trust him in everything, because he is the one who is in control of all of history and He is going to take a pagan king Cyrus and make him his servant Everything is God's servant everything is God's servant Your affliction is God's servant in your life, but God is in control. Okay, So here is God in the courtroom and he's declaring the bankruptcy of the idolater. He's not flattering the idolater.

He's mocking them in order to bring the idolater to his senses. To show how foolish it is to hold on to that idol. That thing you think is bringing you pleasure, but it is only bringing you pain. Okay, Here's some applications real quickly. I think it's significant that the term abomination appears in this text.

Idols are an abomination. Don't think wrongly about your idols. Don't use different words for your idols. Don't make them your friends. They are an abomination.

Today everybody wants preachers to be moderate. They want them to be balanced and erudite. And to abominate anything today is an abomination. It's not tolerable to abominate. But God here is giving us language to help us think about our idols.

Abominate them. Think of them as abominations before God. Don't flatter yourself by telling yourself that they are something else. They are an abomination to God. You know, the new God of this age is toleration.

People want an accommodating God where there's no wrath. They want a God who's not offended, but he accepts all people. That's not what he says here. The second thing, the second application, We've talked about identifying idols, exposing idols, mocking idols, and replacing idols. That's really the process of dealing with our idols.

But here's a fact of human life. God uses our experiences to expose our idols. Sometimes God brings us a trial to show us an idol. Reversals wake us up to our idols. You're slandered.

God is revealing your idol of self-congratulation and how you want everyone to think so well of you. You have a financial disaster, and God is exposing your covetousness. You have a relationship that didn't go the way that you wanted to. God is showing you that He and He alone can satisfy you. He's exposing your idolatry of people and that you need to focus on God.

He is your only hope. He is God and there is no other. He is your only hope. He's your only steadiness. No person can bring you steadiness.

The main theme here is that God is majestic and superior. So there it is, the idol in my right hand. What will I do? What will you do with it? What will you do with it this morning?

You know what it is. You know, God is very kind. He reveals our idols to us, slowly. He takes a lifetime to show you your idols. Idols you didn't know you had 10 years ago, you know now you have.

God is so kind, He's so patient. But What is it? What is that in your hand? What is that that makes you eat ashes? What is it that you're holding onto?

Trust in God, the living God. He is God and there is no other. So God is so gracious to bring us to a place in his Word so that we could examine the idols and that he would he would plead with us to put them aside so that we wouldn't hold on to them all our life long, so that we wouldn't regret so much when we get to that final day, so that there wouldn't be so much wood, hay, and stubble because we love the pleasures of this world and we did not know the pleasures of God that were there for us. And there are really two parts of this. One is for the person who's not turned his heart toward Jesus Christ, the one who's just continuing to eat the ashes, and he thinks that he cannot come to Christ because he's going to lose something.

Jesus Christ says, I came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly. And then there's the Christian, the sinner that God saved, picked up off the street and has much baggage, still idols in the bag, you know. And there we are, His church. And God is continuing to expose our idols. What will we do?

What will you do? Let's pray. Oh Lord, I thank you for these marvelous words, these helpful, kind words to deliver us from the unprofitability of the kingdom of the idols, to send us into the place that you're rebuilding, into a new temple, the temple of the Holy Spirit, to be rebuilt, to be inhabited, to be cared for. Oh Lord, I thank you for your loving kindness. Amen.