In his sermon 'Forgetting His Sovereign Control,' Scott Brown reflects on Isaiah 40:21-24, emphasizing the majesty and sovereignty of God. He highlights the passage's rhetorical questions as a reminder of God's supreme authority and urges the congregation to refresh their understanding of His grandeur. The sermon contrasts God's incomprehensible immensity with His intimate care for His people, portraying Him as both a high and mighty ruler and a personal shepherd. Brown also underscores God's control over earthly rulers and judges, emphasizing that they are ultimately insignificant compared to His power. The sermon ties these themes to the gospel of Jesus Christ, encouraging believers to behold God and recognize His sovereignty as the foundation of their faith. Brown concludes with a call for the church to embrace the majesty of God in their lives, seeing it as their only hope and salvation.

Our text is Isaiah 40, 21 through 24. Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?

It is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. He brings the princes to nothing. He makes the judges of the earth useless. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth, when he also will blow on them and they will wither and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble. Let's pray.

Father, we come with great expectation this morning upon singing and praying and hearing your word. Father, I pray that you do, as the word says, cause our ears to be open, cause our hearts to love you more, Father, as we hear your word. I pray, Lord, that you would pour out your spirit upon Mr. Brown as he comes and he teaches us. We pray, Lord, that you would be merciful upon us this morning.

In your name we pray. Amen. It's absolutely true that the needs of any church are always met in the Word of God. The needs of any church are always have they always have their answers in the Word of God and and as we've been going through Isaiah 40, it's occurred to me many times how what must be true about our church now at this moment at this very time in the history of this church that it is it is in great need of a vision of the majesty of God As we've been working through Isaiah 40, you know with every line is a disclosure of the beauty and the majesty of God, somehow God must know that we need this now in our lives. And I would like for us to just consider that carefully.

Why is it that God would have us in a section that so powerfully and graphically declares the majesty of God? Why is it that we're here at this time? Why for you, each of you individually, why are you here now hearing words like this at this time, at this very juncture of your life, in the midst of all the things that you're thinking about and experiencing, the troubles, the joys, the relationships, the things that are happening in your business, why is it that week after week you have been inoculated with words and theological principles and images that really declare the majesty of God. Well, this chapter of scripture has its center in this one proposition, behold your God. This really sums up everything.

It ties the whole chapter together because Isaiah is calling the people to behold their God. In fact, the actual vision here is of people who are saying to one another behold your God. And that's what I've been doing every Sunday is been saying the same thing over and over again. Behold your God. And why is it that you would have to be subjected to that week after week?

Well, there absolutely is a reason. And I would just suggest that it's God's will for this church to have a refreshment in the knowledge of the majesty of God. We need a refresher on this matter. As we were going through the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, which are really about the judgment and the mercy of God that somehow we needed to grasp the doctrine of the judgment and the mercy of God. And now here in Isaiah chapter 40 at the beginning of this new section that spans from 40 all the way to the end of the prophecy of Isaiah has its focus on the beauty of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

And that gospel is founded in the absolute majesty and sovereignty of God. And so that's the logic of this whole thing. And as we move into this passage of scripture and say again, behold your God, we're going to do what Isaiah does over and over again. He brings before us these graphic images. Here in this passage, he takes us above the circle of the earth.

And he takes us to be with God above the circle of the earth to see the way that God sees absolutely everything. You know, how refreshing and invigorating it is to have a view of your life from the circle of the earth and that's exactly what you get here and These questions are posed have you not known have you not heard has it not been told you from the beginning?" It's as if Isaiah is saying, have you forgotten this? You know this. You've always known this. And now you need to be reminded, have you not known this already?

And so In some ways, as I'm standing here before you today, I really want to say, you know this. You've always known this. Why are you in such a funk? Why have you fallen into such a strange understanding of everything going on around you? Why are you so obsessed with your own needs?

Why are you so obsessed with your own needs? Why are you so obsessed with your own problems? Have you not known this already? Have you not seen it? Hasn't it been told you before that God is almighty?

That's really the logic of here. It's almost as if Isaiah's calling people out of their memory laps. Well, here's a question. How many times has it been refreshing to your soul to be reminded that God is sovereign? Innumerable times for me and so here we are again.

I think we're just like the people that Isaiah is speaking of. Have you have you forgotten? Have you lost consciousness of what you have heard, have you had a memory lapse of what you know is true. And so God always in His kindness brings us back to the things that are true. And what we find here is the immeasurable king of everything sits in quiet sovereignty over all things.

He rules in independent sovereign authority. He observes all the activities of the earth and instantly grasps everything and controls it all. He exists in incomprehensible, immeasurable immensity. This is what we've seen in Isaiah so far. And now we see this picture of it, but it's a picture from from the circle of the earth.

So I pray that somehow God would give us this experience, that he would take us now, as a whole congregation, lift us up above the circle of the earth somehow to see his great sovereignty as he exists in his incomprehensible, immeasurable immensity, governing everything in his undisturbed serenity. And this is what we find here in this text in Isaiah 40. At the same time, and excuse me for taking such a long time to introduce this passage. But at the same time that Isaiah is declaring the absolute incomprehensible immensity of God, at the same time He's telling us how intensely personal and small in some ways God is. He feeds His flock like a shepherd.

He feeds them with His hand. While He's high and lifted up, He carries His people in His bosom. How do you even grasp that? That He measures all of heavens like in the hollow of His hand, where He puts all the water in the hollow of His hand. He's so great, but at the same time, he's also very personal and very small in that sense and we've seen that here in this passage and look with me at verse 1 and I just want us to somehow grasp the contrast between the immensity of God and his very personal nature.

And verse 1, while he's so incomprehensibly immense, we learn that he comforts his people comfort yes comfort my people he has a people they are they belong to him And he comforts them in verse 2 it says that he ends there the warfare of their souls against him That he ends it he he takes enemies, and he makes friends out of them He's very personal and he looks down on the earth and he is making many enemies his friends. Are you an enemy today? God can make you his friend by his power. In verse 3, we see this picture of these people who have been so affected by their comfort that they are crying out and they are saying, prepare the way of the Lord. These are the small people of God scattered throughout the earth who've been affected by the power of the gospel.

In verse 4, He takes care of the slightest detail of their lives and he brings down the mountains. He brings up the valleys. He makes the rough places smooth and the crooked places straight. He takes care of everything for his people. In verse 6, his people are crying out, all flashes grasp at the word of our God stands forever.

They know something in their heart. And in verse 9, they know it so well and they love it so much that they get up on a high mountain and they're bringing good tidings and they're saying Behold your God and in verse 10 They're declaring that the Lord comes with a strong hand and he brings a reward to his people It's a picture of a people who can see how God has rewarded them, that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. He's very personal while he's absolutely incomprehensibly immense. At the same time, he comes to sinners who've repented and he brings his reward to them. And then in verse 11 we learn that he feeds his flock like a shepherd.

Remember he feeds like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and he carries them in his bosom and he gently leads those who are with young. This immeasurably immense God is so personal and so tender with his people. And in verse 12 we see a vision of this immensity. In verses 13 and 14 we see he's absolutely independent of all counsel and all knowledge.

In verse 15 we see that all the nations are but a drop in the bucket and that they are counted, they're just like small dust on the scales compared to him. In verse 18 we learn that he is incomparable and this question to whom will you liken God or what likeness will you compare to him? And then he speaks of how how stupid it is that man would worship his little idols, his stupid little idols. And Isaiah, as we covered last week, goes into mocking the idol maker and the idol idolater and the idol itself. And then after mocking the idols in contrast to this, he speaks of his absolute mastery over creation and that brings us to verse 21, where we are today.

And so before us is this wonderful opportunity to teach one another about God, to behold our God. And in verse 21, there are four questions, and these questions are designed to shake us up and to give us a memory jog so that we would remember something that we have forgotten. And it is designed to set our thinking straight and to remove our dullness and to bring us out of our amnesia about the majesty of God. And so these four questions speak of the majesty of God. Now, first of all, there is this call to remember the majesty of God in verse 21.

You have an outline before you and you'll see this as the first point, a call to remember the majesty of God. These four questions, have you not known, number one, have you not heard, number two, has it not been told you from the beginning, number three, and have you not understood from the foundations of the earth? And he's really asking a rhetorical question. The answer is obvious. Well, yes, of course you have known.

Of course you have heard. Of course you have been told from the beginning. Of course you have under, it has been understood from the foundations of the earth. So it's a rhetorical question for which the answer is absolutely obvious. Of course you know this.

And the thrusts of the questions are designed to reveal the truth that we have heard it, that we are without excuse in this matter. And what Isaiah is saying is that everyone has always known this, and you have known it as well. And so why are you acting as if God is not immeasurably majestic? Why are you acting and thinking as if He is not there and He does not care? While you look and you see the stars in the heavens yet you've forgotten that he carries you in his bosom.

Now, he's saying that we have known from the beginning. You know, Adam was told on the first day of creation that God had rested. Job was told that God created everything there is in Job 38 verse 4. He says, God says, where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Moses knew of creation.

In the Ten Commandments He says that in six days God created. Adam knew, Moses knew, everyone knew that God ordained everything. You know, there's a narrative that you'll hear over and over again in the public schools all over America, that the whole idea of creation is a function of the creation myths that have been passed down verbally from one generation to the next. But here what Isaiah is saying is no, you've known, you've known, every single generation has known that God created the heavens of the earth and that he ordains everything, he originates everything, he orders everything, he observes everything. And from the witness of nature and also from the direct revelation of God, men have always known.

And it's an unavoidable knowledge that people deny and they exchange the truth of God for a lie as a result of it. And so you have this matter of both natural theology of the heavens declaring the glory of God and you also have the direct revelation of God that has come in scripture that declares that God is the creator. In other words, you've known from the very beginning there hasn't been a time when mankind hasn't known that God was the creator of everything that there is and everyone deep within their heart knows it. It was obvious from the beginning, this is what Romans 1 says, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because what may be known of God is manifest in them.

For God has shown it to them, for since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things." This is the matter that Isaiah wants to remind everyone that you that we do know. We have heard it, we've seen it, we've known it. You know, David made this so clear in Psalm 19 where he said that the heavens declare the glory of the God.

The heavens are actually speaking of the glory of God. Whenever you look up into the heavens, they are talking to you about God. And that's why we read in Psalm 19, the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament shows his handiwork. Day unto day utter speech, night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.

Their line has gone out to the ends of the earth. This is the natural world speaking to man to declare that there is God and he is glorious. David spoke of it as well in Psalm 24 when he said, The earth is the Lord's and its fullness, the world and those who dwell therein. For he has founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the waters, who may ascend into the hill of the Lord, or who may stand in his holy place. This is just a disclosure of the majesty of God.

You can find this all over the Bible. In Psalm 33 verses 6 through 9 you'll find it. In Psalm 89, 11 you'll know that Ethan the Ezraite knew about the glory of God. In creation, he said, the heavens are yours, and the earth is yours, the world in all its fullness. You have founded them.

Luke knew it in Acts chapter 14. He said that God did not leave us himself without a witness, but He gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness. When you get to Revelation chapter 4 at the end of the Bible, you learn that the elders, the 24 elders falling down before God at the end of the age, before his throne, they worship him forever and they're casting their crowns before his throne and they're saying, you are worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created. So Isaiah is declaring a truth about mankind from the very beginning until the very end, from Genesis to Revelation, from Eden until the new heavens and the new earth. Everyone has known.

Have you not known? Have you not heard? That's the whole proposition that he's making here. Let's make some applications about this. You know, this is just one thing that God has disclosed to his people.

How many things has God declared to you that maybe you have forgotten? You need to remember them. Well this is one of them here to remember that God is absolutely majestic. You know how easy is it for us to have our thoughts so earthbound, so temporal, so focused on our petty concerns, so fearful of potential outcomes that we become blind to the glory of God. And in the midst of life, we go blind to the majesty of God.

Somehow it must be that this church needs a fresh vision of God in the midst of her her doings. So these questions, these four questions may be exactly what you need today to bring you back to reality. It might be that we have forgotten what we've known. We've lost a consciousness of what we've heard. We've had a memory lapse of what we have seen with our eyes.

Forgetting God's absolute authority, worrying about office politics, obsessing unnecessarily, fretting about our future, parents over concerned about their children finding spouses. We might be distracted, you know, by the power brokers of the day and the dangers that we see in the political movements and the judicial activities that are taking place to threaten our liberties and compromise the truth of God and poison the moral lives of those we love. But maybe we've forgotten that God is almighty in the midst of it. And we need those questions. Have you forgotten this?

And something needs to break in and shake us back to our senses to behold our God and his glory again. It's a sinful thing to turn your eyes from heaven to earth. And so perhaps we need to repent of just thinking a little bit too much about this earth, esteeming it too much, esteeming our place in it too much. And we need somehow to be lifted up above the circle of the earth to see Him. Or Perhaps even it might be here for something even deeper than that, because I want to suggest that this is most likely an illusion to the comprehensive beauty and glory of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Listen to the language in 1 John 1, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and our hands have handled concerning the word of life." He's talking about Jesus Christ. The life was manifested and we have seen and bear witness and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us, that which we have seen and heard we declare to you that you also may have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. And these things we write that your joy may be full, and this message which we have heard from him and declare to you that God is light and in him there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.

But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar." And here, this very same language, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, How many times have you heard the gospel? How many times has it been put before you that Jesus Christ is the Son of God?

How many times has it been laid before you that He is the sovereign King and He will judge sinners with a vanquishing fire for all eternity, but He will save sinners who repent and believe in the gospel. How many times have you heard that? And Isaiah, I think, is bringing us back to this recognition that yes, we have heard the gospel, and yes, Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and we have heard of Him, and He calls us to repent and to believe in the gospel. Maybe that's who you are. You may be that person who has just become inebriated by this world, you are a Christian and you need to be brought back to a vision of God.

You may also be a person who has never repented of his sins. And God is here to say, have you not heard? Have you not known? Have you not seen it with your eyes? Haven't you seen the beauty of Jesus Christ?

Haven't you observed his power and his goodness? Look up into the heavens. Look into the church and see how God is healing a people. Look at these people who are here. Look at how God is healing them by degrees.

Look at his mercy. Have you not heard? Have you not seen with your eyes that Jesus Christ is Lord? And then after these four questions, as if to answer the questions, Isaiah gives us four visions of the majesty of God. And here now, picture a congregation being lifted up into the circle of the earth to see the earth from God's perspective.

And the first vision of the majesty of God is that he sits above the circle of the earth. Verse 22, it is he who sits above the circle of the earth and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain and spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. And here in verse 22 we see a disclosure of God's absolute authority over man and of nature. And we also see, I think, we see the mercy and the kindness of God. Have you noticed all of the illustrations that are here?

All of the graphic and fascinating things that you can see and feel in this. You know, God doesn't just give us facts. He illuminates the facts with beautiful imagery, And that's what we find here. You can hear them, you can taste them, you can experience them. And here Isaiah is, he wants to take you above the circle of the earth.

And it's there where The glory of his position is seen. He sits above the circle of the earth. This term sitting, he is sitting. It's figurative language that reflects an undisturbed God, observing, upholding, and governing everything. He's sitting in heaven, and He's ordered all things according to the counsel of His will.

He's high, He's lifted up, He's exalted above the earth. And it's interesting that this is the image right after he speaks of the idolater. The idolater, on the other hand, in order to satisfy himself, he goes out into the woods and he cuts down a tree and he over spreads it with gold and he has to hire a contractor to build it and then he has to hire someone to make sure that his little God won't fall over and totter. In contrast, there's God. And I can't help but think that Isaiah is continuing to belittle our little dinky idols.

They're tottering. They are nothing but God. God is great and He is highly exalted. And it's this idea that God sees everything. He has this perspective over all things.

This relates to one of the names of God, El Roy, the God who sees. This is one of the characteristics of God. He sees absolutely everything. David declared this in Psalm 33 verse 13. He said, He considers all their works.

No king is saved by the multitude of an army. A mighty man is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a vain hope for safety. Neither shall it deliver any by its great strength. Behold the eye of the Lord is on those who fear him, on those who hope in his mercy to deliver their soul from death and to keep them alive in the famine." Here we notice that God sees two kinds of people.

He sees those who are trusting in their own strength. This world is their portion, and All they care about is building up their little horses and their stupid little mechanisms to sustain them. And yet there are also those who have their eyes on the Lord who fear Him, people who hope in His mercy. It's a picture of God looking down and He sees all the various categories of men, some who hope in His mercy and some who do not see Him as merciful at all, who see Him as harsh and they're not thankful. In Proverbs chapter 15 we see that we learn that God doesn't just see the various categories of people in the world he actually sees into every single heart of every person in the world.

In Proverbs 15-11, we read, Hell and destruction are before the Lord, so how much more the hearts of the sons of men. We know that the Bible teaches that humans judge from appearances, but God looks on the heart. This is why when the Lord Jesus Christ was with the woman at the well and He was interviewing her and she interviewing him and she told him about her life. And then after he told her that she had had five husbands, she went back to her city. She left her water pot and she gathered men in the city, and she said, come and see a man who told me all the things I ever did.

He told me everything I ever did. Because God not only sees the categories of the heart, He sees everything that has ever existed in your heart. And he is above the circle of the earth and he has his gaze upon everything at every time of our lives Nothing is hidden from his sight Jeremiah 23 verses 23 through 24 says that that God always knows where you are and nothing is done in secret. He says, I am God near at hand, says the Lord, not a God far off. Can anyone hide himself in the secret places?

So I shall not see him, says the Lord. Do I not fill heaven and earth, says the Lord. In Job chapter 34 verse 21, we learn that even our footsteps are seen for his eyes are on the ways of man and he sees all his steps. There is no darkness nor shadow of death where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves." In Psalm 139, David expands it to some of the most remarkable details of our lives that he sees and he knows as he sits above the circle of the earth. David says, Oh Lord, you have searched me and known me.

You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. And listen to this, there is not a word on my tongue, but behold, O Lord, you know it together. You have hedged me in behind and before.

You've laid your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful me. It is high. I cannot attain it. Where can I go from your spirit or where can I flee from your presence?

Do we need to hear more? Do we need to hear that God sees all of our hypocrisy? In Jeremiah 7, verse 10, he speaks of those who steal and murder and commit adultery and swear falsely and who maintain their idols and they walk after other gods and then they come into the house of God and they stand in the house of God and he says don't you know that I saw you don't you know that I know who you are and so this is this is God's position He sits high above the circle of the earth and he observes all things. And then his perspective is very interesting. He uses terminology that is fascinating and gripping.

He says that the inhabitants that he sees down there are like grasshoppers. He looks down and he's looking on the grasshoppers, the mass of humanity. You know, children, does this mean that God looks down and he sees people like grasshoppers hopping around the earth, you know, flicking their legs and hopping from one place to another? This is this dramatic imagery that Isaiah brings it's it's beautiful imagery that the people of the earth are just like Grasshoppers, you know the next time you see a grasshopper Think about how God sees all the people of the earth there They are they are they are small and they're just they're flicking their legs you know and they're hopping from here and there and the problem with the grasshoppers you never really know where he's gonna go but God does you know if you ever tried to catch grasshoppers you know my my children I would would try to catch them and we'd throw them into our ponds to see how long it would take for fish to gobble them down. And catching them can be very difficult, because you'd never know which way they're going to jump.

You think if you just put your hand in front of their heads, you'll always get them, not so. Because they may jump over, they may jump below, they may jump to the right, they may jump to the left. Because their legs have very precise abilities to move their bodies so that they don't get gobbled up by the bad guys. But here, the grasshoppers, you know, all the people of the earth are like grasshoppers. And I think the thrust of this is that they are little like grasshoppers, and that all flesh is grass, and all its glory is of the flower of the field.

Men are like grasshoppers. They're here today and they're gone tomorrow. And while there may be millions and billions of men and women, Compared to the immensity and the power of God, they're just like grasshoppers. They do not hold the world in their hands. God holds them in His hands.

They are nothing. They're not governing the courses of nature. They're not running the political machinery of the world. They are like grasshoppers. So whenever you have over-exalted someone in your mind, remember what they really are.

They are grasshoppers before God. You know, the best thing that can happen to a grasshopper is that he is born again and he's adopted into a family. Because we know that there's a vast difference between the grasshoppers, the mass of humanity and the people of God. Because the people of God are sheep with a shepherd. They are not like the grasshoppers of the earth that have no shepherd.

The Bible portrays the people of God with different images. They are sheep and they do have a shepherd. In Psalm 92, the people of God are compared with the cedars of Lebanon. They're compared with luxuriant palm trees. In Psalm 1, they're compared to people who are being watered by a river.

They are his precious possessions. They are his special chosen people. God as he sits above the circle of the earth, he sees all the categories of mankind. Who are you? Which one are you?

Are you one of the grasshoppers of the earth just flicking here and there? You don't know where you're going and no one knows where you're going either. You're driven by yourself, your own emotions, your own visions, your own picture of life. You're a self-driven man. You're a self-made man.

But there's something greater. There's something greater for you. And then we find his provision in verse 22, who stretches out the heavens like a curtain. The word for curtain that he uses is a word that indicates a thin veil, it's light. It's just so easily moved.

And the heavens are just like a curtain to him. Just the ease, the effortlessness of God in doing all of His marvelous works. He moves obstacles out of your way effortlessly in his own time. No one ever has to worry about any obstacles or any troubles out ahead. The God who spread out the heavens like a curtain, how would He not be able to deal with your little problems?

And then the tent, he spreads them out like a tent to dwell in. In other words, he's made the heavens as like a tent, you know, and like a curtain. You know, tents and curtains are blessings. They're protective. They hide things.

They give you shelter. You know, staying in a tent can be a real blessing if you don't have one. Picture the climbers on Mount Everest going up and they seek refuge in their tents sometimes for days, sometimes for weeks. That tent is a blessing. Well, what Isaiah is saying here is that God just stretches out the heavens like a curtain.

He stretches out a tent. It's easy for him to provide for his people, to provide shelter and protection for his people. It's the easiest thing for him. And this is why the Lord Jesus Christ said, don't worry about your life. What you shall eat or what you shall drink or your body, what you shall put on.

Are you not worth much more than the sparrows? And he says, I take care of the sparrows. Don't you think I can take care of you? Are you not worth much more than they? But here there's this picture of his effortless spreading out his protective dwelling places.

He's a provider. You know how refreshing and invigorating it can be to get above the circle of the earth and see how things really are. To be delivered from all of our confusion, brainiac, anticipations of things that never will be. But to get above the circle of the earth and have someone say, have you not known? Have you not heard?

Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you forgotten about me? Have you forgotten about my majesty? Have you lost a consciousness, a sense of grasp and awareness of my greatness? Have you lost that?

Well, you can get it back. You can get it back right now at the answering of these questions in your own heart. And so after giving us this vision of God sitting above the circle of the earth, then the second vision of His Majesty is His control over princes. He controls princes. This is another way that God is going to use to communicate to you His majesty.

And so in verse 23 it says, He brings the princes to nothing. And the word that He uses for princes is the word that connects us to the idea of something grave, something heavy or weighty, something of substance that you might fear. And What he's saying is that he brings the things that seem so heavy and weighty and grave and powerful and authoritative. He takes those things and he makes them nothing. He brings the princes to nothing.

He rules them with ease, the same ease that he spreads out the curtains and the tent for our protection. He brings them to nothing. He controls them. This is a disclosure of what God's perspective is on all the great political leaders of the world. What do political leaders need to know?

They need to understand this verse, that they are nothing, absolutely nothing. In Daniel chapter 2, we get language to describe this, explaining the political landscape in his own sovereign decree, Daniel 2, 21, and he changes the times and the seasons. He removes kings and raises up kings. In Psalm 75 verse 7 we learn that the exaltation and success in politics does not come from man, nor his schemes, nor his alliances. It says, do not lift up your horn on high, do not speak with a stiff neck, for exaltation comes neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south.

But God is the judge. He puts one down. He exalts another. In John chapter 19, We learn that only the authority of Jesus Christ gives power to political leaders. Pilate said to Jesus, are you speaking to me?

Don't you know that I have power to crucify you. I have the power to release you pilot says to Jesus and Jesus replies You could have no power at all against me unless it had been given you from above In Romans 13 1 through 3 we learned that all authorities are appointed by God. In Proverbs 21, verse 1, we learn that even the very decisions, the microcosmic decisions in the King's hearts are controlled by God. The King's heart is in the hand of the Lord like the rivers of water. He turns it wherever He wishes.

And it says, there are two words in here that give us even more detail on how God controls he says he brings and he makes you see that he brings and he makes two different words he brings indicates it's a word that it's a it's a motion word It indicates a trajectory. He brings the princes. He takes them. He moves them along a line. He determines and ordains their entire trajectory and career path.

It is he that is doing it. He brings them to nothing. He is micromanaging all of the various steps that they take in their political careers. You've seen the trajectories of various princes in the world. Guess who's behind it?

God. And then it says, he makes. And this word indicates a fixed reality. It's something that is done. He makes him what he wills to make him.

This is why David in Psalm 46 says, Come behold the works of the Lord, who has made desolations in the earth. He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two. He burns the chariot in the fire. Be still and know that I am God.

I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our refuge. This is why God would have a congregation rise and try to see the world from the circle of the earth so that they might recognize their refuge, that they might understand that God is with his people, and that they should be reminded, have you not heard?

Don't you know this? You know this, of course you know it. There's nothing more refreshing and invigorating than getting a view from the circle of the earth and to have our minds jog back to where they ought to be. So we're thinking rightly about this world. The song says, this is my father's world.

And he's saying, you've forgotten that. Remember he's speaking to his people. He's speaking to his remnant people. And somehow amnesia has set in. And he wants to bring them back to a sense of reality by taking them up to the circle of the earth to see it.

And then we see that God controls judges. This is the second part of verse 23. He makes the judges of the earth useless. In other words, he just brings them to a state of uselessness. Isaiah is using a word that's not limited to legal activity, but rather for leaders who establish order for his people.

Judges are people who are pronouncing judgment and exercising authority. They're making decisions and God is nullifying them at will. He makes them to nothing. You know, who knows, maybe there's someone who's involved in a lawsuit right now. Here's what you need to know about the judges.

They are nothing to God, nothing at all. He will bring them to nothing. And this word that he uses for useless, it's a word that we've encountered in Isaiah before, but its most popular place of use is in Genesis chapter 1, where God made the earth out of, it was formless and void, tohu and bohu, formless and void, chaos, nothingness, worthlessness. In other words, he makes the judges of the earth chaos, void, nothingness, worthlessness. He is using them in order to do his own work, to sanctify his people and to save the lost in the world and to damn those who will not return their praise to him.

And so this verse brings us this illustration of how the void and the uselessness of the princes and the judges of the earth. And that the kings of the earth are only doing what God ordained to declare his own glory. And then the fourth vision of the majesty of God is what he does with them. He blows them away at will. Verse 24, scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown, scarcely shall their stock take root in the earth when he will also blow on them and they will wither and the whirlwind will take them away like stubble." We've already heard this language in Isaiah 40.

All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because the breath of the Lord blows upon it. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the word of our God stands forever." And so Isaiah returns to this terminology of the breath. Even the littleness of his breath blows them away.

And Isaiah uses an illustration to speak of how tenuous they are set in their positions. He uses planted and sown. Now, he uses this in the passive tense indicating that it is something that has happened to them. They were planted and they were sown. In other words, we're back to that element of divine sovereignty, that they were planted by God, but scarcely, hardly at all, not much.

They're not planted firmly, That's the idea. Scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown. And what does that mean? It means that when you think of the powerful rulers of the day, They have been planted. What that means is that President Barack Obama is nothing more than a plant.

He has been inserted into the landscape of history by the hand of God. He was actually planted there. They were put, he was put there by God. And however you think about any ruler of the world, whether it's Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, or Barack Obama of the United States, or Stephen Harper, the prime minister of Canada, or Enrique Nieto, the president of Mexico, they are plants. They are momentary plants.

God has, as the master gardener, looks over the face of the earth and he says, I'll plant one here, I'll plant him there. Scarcely shall he be planted, scarcely shall he be sown, and he will be blown away. This is God's perspective of the whole political landscape. You know, I know we're very disturbed about the Supreme Court. They're getting ready to pass down a disastrous, morally defiling, culture-destroying decision on same-sex marriage.

It will have more effect on the world than I believe any legislation that has ever come out of Washington. We'll see. Washington. We'll see. It'll make Roe versus Wade look like a song in a Sunday school class.

It will. And yet what we learned here is that scarcely shall they be planted, scarcely shall they be sown. In the grand scheme of things, they're nothing. God is going to take care of them. You don't need to fear what the Supreme Court is going to do.

That doesn't mean you shouldn't fight them. But you should not fear it for yourself because God is in control. Because God is glorifying Himself through the planting of the wicked and the landscapes of the nations. He raises them up. He has planted them.

He has sowed them. He's caused them to take root. He has positioned them in their place of power. But they are very shallowly inserted into the landscape of history. And so don't be overawed by the rulers of the world.

Don't let them terrify you with the possibilities of their terror and their oppression. They're nothing. You know how easy it is to overvalue the external forces, the powers that be, the attorneys, the rulers, the judges, the presidents, the civil magistrates. Don't fear them. There's no reason at all to fear them fear God While he blows away the rulers of the earth, for his own people They shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in season, whose leaf shall not wither, and whatever he does shall prosper.

The ungodly are not so, but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the ungodly shall perish." And this is this beautiful doctrine of God's care for his flock. He shall feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arms and carry them in his bosom and gently lead those who are with young.

And while the kings of the earth are scarcely planted and then blown away at the same time the people of God are grafted into the root of Jesse the everlasting root of fruit and truth and beauty and life grafted into a branch of life and the contrast is so vivid here in this passage so there you have it We've been transported to the circle of the earth for a moment to see how things really are so that our memories would be shaken. God would take us out of our amnesia and help us to remember again, to be reminded like we've needed to be reminded so many times that God is in control that he sits above the circle of the earth that God is the ruler of the kings of the earth and absolutely everything that happens And how what a comfort that is for the people of God who have a shepherd But how terrifying it should be to those who take him lightly Because he will not be taken lightly for long So here we are as a little church, and what is it that God would have for us? How is He leading this church?

He is leading this church to behold their God, to recognize that their vision of His majesty, His beauty, His holiness is their only hope in the world. To remind them that Jesus Christ, the root of Jesse, the one whom we have seen, the one whom we have heard, is our only salvation. And he is the one that we ought to look to all the days of our lives. And that we ought to completely rededicate ourselves to the majesty of God. Let's pray.

Lord we thank you for these beautiful words that you put before us, your words so helpful to take us to see things the way that you see them so that we might be holy as you are holy, that we might think like you think, that we might be conformed to the knowledge of your will. Amen.