Introduction:
When I first started preaching almost ten years ago, I had a bad habit of starting every message by telling the congregation, “this is one of my favorite passages in all of scripture.” Now I always meant it when I said it, but I didn’t realize just how often I said that phrase, until a church member pulled me aside after the service one Sunday and asked me “just how many favorite passages do you have?” The answer is that I have quite a few favorites, but after that conversation I tried to be a little more conservative with how many passages I refer to as “my favorite.” I only bring this up because the verse that I am preaching from this morning is truly my favorite verse in all of scripture. It is found in the Old Testament book of Isaiah. It reads:
“Turn to me and be saved, all the ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.”
Isaiah 45:22, ESV
In the original Hebrew language, the verse is only twelve words long but in those twelve words you have, what I believe to be, the heart of the Gospel. It is a message that is reiterated and restated countless times from Genesis to Revelation, but there is something about the simplicity of God’s Word through the prophet Isaiah that just moves my spirit.
This message of hope came to the people of Israel during a time of great sin and rebellion. Israel had fallen lower than they had ever fallen. It was a dark time known as the Babylonian Exile, where the sinfulness and idolatry of God’s people was so great that God temporarily removed His protection. He allowed a pagan empire to take the promised land captive. The book of Isaiah is full of both harsh condemnations of the wicked, and also hopeful glimpses into the future for those who repent of their sinful ways and return to the ways of righteousness.
The book of Isaiah primarily is a call to repentance, and over and over again in the book we see that there are only two responses to this call. Either the people would hear God’s call and double down on their pride against God, or the people would repent of their sin, turn to the Lord, and receive the blessing of His restored presence. Our context is different, but our message is still the same. “Turn to God and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for He is God and there is no other!” And just as it was in Isaiah’s day, there are only two responses to the call. Will we double down on our pride and refuse God’s gracious offer of salvation, or will we repent and turn to God.
The Command: “Turn To Me”
The verse begins with a command, “turn to me.” If you are using an older translation your bible might say “look to me.” Both are good and faithful translations of the Hebrew verb, and both are getting to the same point, that salvation can only be found in God. It doesn’t say look to your pastor, your church, or even to your own good works. The command is to turn, to look, unto God for salvation. I frequently have to remind myself that salvation is not secured by the strength of my faith, but by the strength of the one in whom I place my faith.
What are we placing our hope in this morning? When I am trying to share my faith with someone, one of my go to questions is “If you died in your sleep tonight and found yourself face to face with God, and he asked you why He should let you into Heaven, what would your answer be?” Now I haven’t kept count, but I have probably asked that question to at least fifty people over the last few years and to my recollection only one person has ever said what I believe to be the right answer.
I have gotten the answer, “I go to church” which means that person is looking to their church to save them. I have gotten the answer, “I try to be a good person” or “I read my bible and pray” or “I don’t do X, Y, or Z sins”, which means that person is looking to their good works or their lack of “serious sin” to be their salvation. To my recollection only one person ever said “Because of what Jesus did for me.”
Listen to how Jesus explains the reality of our situation:
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.”
John 3:14-18, ESV
Most of us know at least the middle part of that passage. John 3:16 is usually the first verse anyone memorizes, and yet how quickly we can forget what it teaches. When Jesus spoke those words, he was talking to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who devoted himself to living a righteous and God honoring life. Nicodemus was struggling to understand what many of us still struggle to understand today. Our righteousness (right living) does not make us worthy of salvation. Our righteousness doesn’t even make us worthy to approach Christ and receive salvation. The only qualification for salvation is for sinners to turn to Jesus. To help Nicodemus understand this, Jesus used an Old Testament story that would have been familiar to him. Let’s look again at John 3 and revisit the verses that come right before the famous John 3:16.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.
John 3:14-15, ESV
What is all this about Moses lifting up a serpent in the wilderness? It is not an account that most of us learned in Sunday School, but way back in Numbers 21 the people of Israel had grown tired of following Moses and eating Manna. They began to complain against God and even contemplated returning to life in Egypt, a return to slavery. God sent serpents into their camp to punish the ungrateful people, and some were bitten by snakes and some died.
And the people came to Moses and said, “We have sinned, for we have spoken against the Lord and against you. Pray to the Lord, that he take away the serpents from us.” So Moses prayed for the people. And the Lord said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent and set it on a pole, and everyone who is bitten, when he sees it, shall live.” So Moses made a bronze serpent and set it on a pole. And if a serpent bit anyone, he would look at the bronze serpent and live.
Numbers 21:7-9, ESV
In the days of Moses, the people accused God of being evil, not good, in the way he was leading them. They refused to be content with the Manna that God had provided for food. The penalty was severe, but serpent bites called back to what happened in the Garden of Eden when Adam and Eve were tempted by another serpent. They also rejected God’s goodness and all that He had provided for them. It was not that different from the sins that the people of Isaiah’s day had committed with their ungratefulness and idolatry, which lead them to be conquered and exiled. In every account, the sinfulness of man results in pain and death. But God would not leave his people exile from paradise, wandering in the wilderness, or exiled from the land of promise. He would come to us and, like the bronze serpent lifted up on the pole, he would carry our guilt and be lifted up on a cross.
In the days of Moses, those who were dying because of their rebellion needed only to turn to the symbol God had lifted to find healing and to have their curse removed. In the days of Isaiah, those who were in exile because of their sin and idolatry needed only to turn back to God to be saved. Even now, we who scripture says were spiritually dead in our sin and trespasses need only to turn to Christ who bore our sins upon the cross, who paid our debt, who earned our salvation, and who is now advocating for us at the right hand of God the father!
God’s message across all the ages has essentially been the same “Turn to me!” / “Look to me!”
One of my least favorite things I occasionally hear is, “I need to clean up my act before I come to church” or “I can’t make a commitment to Jesus until I get this sin habit under control.” That’s like saying I can’t go to the doctor until I am well. It is saying that I need to save myself before I come to the savior. Where did we get the idea that we have to clean ourselves up before we present ourselves to the Savior? Don’t turn to your good works. Don’t look to yourself to overcome sin. Turn to Jesus. What then will be the result?
The Result: “You Will Be Saved”
Notice that God’s promise is not “Turn to me and I will give you a twelve-step plan on how to be saved.” God does not say “Turn to me and I will strongly consider you as a candidate for salvation.” No, God says “turn to me and be saved.”
“And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Acts 2:21, ESV
Here is good news! No matter how sinful a person might be, the Lord can save them. Jesus Christ came to save sinners. When writing to his apprentice Timothy, Paul described the mission of Christ in the following way:
“The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.”
1 Timothy 1:15, ESV
Paul counted himself as the worst, the foremost, of sinners before encountering Christ, but thankfully for Paul, and for each and every one of us here today, Christ came to save sinners.
I have talked to some who think they are unworthy of salvation, and to them I say you are correct but God extends the gift of salvation nonetheless.
I have talked to some who think that they are too sinful to be saved, and to them I say that even the worst sinner who ever lived has not sinned enough to overpower the blood of Christ shed upon the cross for them. You cannot out-sin the saving power of the Son of God. It’s not possible.
I have talked to a few who think that, because of their sin, God wouldn’t want them or that if He extends salvation to them it is begrudgingly, done out of obligation to a promise He made. They struggle to believe Jesus when he tells them:
“I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.”
Luke 15:4-7, ESV
Now we know there is not one righteous person who does not need repentance. Don’t let that distract you because that’s not the point. The point is that there is not a sinner on earth today whose repentance, whose turning to God, wouldn’t be met with a celebration in heaven! God is not obligated to save, He delights in saving those who look to him in faith. This leads well into the next part of our verse.
The Audience: “All The Ends Of The Earth”
God’s promise is “turn to me and be saved” and the audience is “all the ends of the earth!” Remember that Isaiah was an Old Testament prophet writing to an audience of Israelites in exile. Some of those in Isaiah’s day who heard this teaching might have wrongly concluded that God was merely saying he would save Israelites who had been scattered to all corners of the earth, but that is not what we read here. The promise was certainly for God’s rebellious people, but it was not limited to Israel. It was for the entire world!
Centuries earlier, God had promised Abraham in Genesis 12 and 22, that his descendants would bring about a blessing for the entire world. Centuries later, when Abraham’s descendants had become a people and the people had inhabited the land that God had promised, The Lord made a covenant with King David that salvation would come through his lineage and that there would be a savior king whose rule would have no end. But when this word came to Isaiah, the descendants of Abraham had largely turned away from God. The line of David was no longer on the throne, the people had been conquered by a pagan power. It would have been easy for people to think that God had given up on His promises, that the people’s sinfulness had caused God to abandon His saving plan for humanity, but thank God this was not the case.
God’s promises had not changed. A blessing for the world would come from Israel, and a Messiah would come from the line of David, a King of Kings whose reign would never end. Five hundred years before the Son of God came to earth and took on flesh, Isaiah was preparing the way for Jesus. And again, lest we think the Messiah only came to save one people; to bear the sins of only one race, one nation, or one tribe, let us read the words of the Apostle Paul:
“If you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
Romans 10:9-13, ESV
A Messiah was coming from Israel, but he was not just a Messiah for Israel. He came to pay the price of sins for people of every nation, tongue, and tribe. He came to give salvation to all people’s everywhere. There is no dark corner of this world where the light of Jesus will not shine. I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to be in heaven and see the redeemed of every tribe and tongue shouting praises to the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!
Our mission, as the Church, is to make disciples in all nations. That begins here, but it continues onward and outward until there is no place remaining that has not heard the good news of salvation in Christ. There is no effort to great or expense too high when it comes to fulfilling this task. Which brings me to the last part of this verse.
The Reason: “I Am God, And There Is No Other”
“I am God, and there is no other.” The bluntness of this statement conveys the seriousness found within. Why do we have to turn to God to be saved? Why isn’t being a good person enough? Last week I had a discussion with someone who was trying to argue that, “If Jesus works for you then that’s fine, but it is wrong to say that everyone needs Jesus.” I tried to share with them the Gospel, but they insisted that the exclusionary claims made by Jesus were wrong. Surely God would save those who meant well even if they denied Jesus. Maybe without realizing it, this person was arguing that we could be saved by good intentions. God’s Word outright rejects this. I stand with Jesus when he says,
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.”
John 14:6, ESV
If we could clearly see God for who He is, and our sin for what it is, we wouldn’t be horrified by the thought that some will not be saved. No, if we could clearly see the Holiness of God and the ugliness of our sin, then we would be amazed at the mercy and grace of God. The Son of God bled and died to save sinners, and we have the audacity to imply that it is not enough? What fills my heart with wonder is the amazing patience of God.
“The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
2 Peter 3:9, ESV
That should be our goal. That all should reach repentance. I have had the great misfortune in my life of seeing people that I care deeply about, people who once claimed Jesus as their Savior and Lord, renouncing their faith and pursuing things that I know will never satisfy them. Like Israel in the days of Isaiah they have given themselves over to lesser things, and unless they return to their Lord then they will perish.
I hold out faith that God is not done with them yet, and I hope that these prodigal sons and daughters will return and realize that the love of the Father is greater than they ever knew. Their repentance and restoration is both my hope and my daily prayer, but I won’t let this hope allow me to cloud the gospel truth, and neither should we.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus answered:
And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:37-40, ESV
If we love God then we should desire to see Him be worshiped everywhere. It should bother us that there are so many places and people, many in our own communities, who do not know God and are denying Him the worship that He is due.
How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?
Romans 10:14, ESV
Why do we tell people about the good news? Because God is worthy of worship and praise! When we sing songs of worship we are declaring God’s goodness and celebrating His great and mighty works, but that shouldn’t be contained or limited to this sanctuary. We share the good news and call sinners to turn to God, first and foremost out of a heart of worship! One of the ways we obey the greatest commandment, to love God, is to share the good news of what God has done for sinners like us in and through Christ.
The second greatest commandment is like the first, we love our neighbors as ourselves. If we love people then we should desire to give them the greatest gift – the good news of salvation through Christ. If the roles were reversed, and you were lost and dying in your sin, wouldn’t you want the person who found salvation in Christ to share this news with you? As the scripture says “there is no other!” How can we claim to love those who we believe are perishing unless we point them to the only one who can save!
“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled… let not one person go there unwarned and unprayed for.”
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Conclusion:
The Son of God came to save sinners. He calls each and every one of us to trust in Him and repent, to turn away from sin and turn to Christ, to follow Him.
If this morning you find yourself questioning whether or not you have received the gift of salvation that is found only in Christ, know that I am more than happy to talk with you about that after the service, but I also encourage you to start a conversation with Pastor Ryan who will be able to take the conversation further than I will on this Sunday morning. May it be said of each of us hearing the sound of my voice that we turned to the Lord and found salvation!
Or perhaps this morning you find yourself with someone on your heart or mind that needs to hear again the good news of Jesus Christ. I would encourage you not to ignore that calling. This good news is a message for all the ends of the earth. There is no other God. There is no other savior. Pray for the wisdom to see opportunities to talk with that person about Jesus and pray for the courage to take those opportunities. Know that the Lord is with you and will bless your faithfulness.
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