Today’ title is from verse 22. “Turn to me and be saved.” If we “turn to” (22) God, we will be saved. That is because the Lord is God. “there is no other god.” (14) Today I would like to talk about three things concerning this.

I. God who has been hiding himself (Vs. 14-17)
First please look at verses 14 to 17. First I will read verse 14.
Verse 14
In the passage before this the prophecy that the Lord will anoint Cyrus and the Israelites will be set free from Babylon is spoken. That was so that all people will know that the Lord is God. When they see such a great act before their eyes, the Gentiles and all the people on the earth will see these great acts, and they will recognize that “there is no other god.” (14) and they will bow to the God of Israel. Egyptians, Ethiopians, and also the “tall Sabeans“(14) will become the Lord’s people. They will recognize the Lord’s authority. They will say that the Lord is God and “there is no other, there is no other god. “ (17)
Please look at verse 15. Here it says, “Truly you are a God who has been hiding himself, the God and Savor of Israel.” This is an interesting expression. God does more than humans can ever comprehend. Who would ever think that God would use King Cyrus, a pagan, to set Israel free from Babylon! However, God like this works far above what we think. God doesn’t just use Christians. God uses people who aren’t Christians, and people who still don’t believe in God. God might even use people who are hostile towards God to perform his own acts. Really God “has been hiding himself.” God uses everything for his purpose and to fulfill plans.
Therefore, as it says in verses 16 and 17,　“All the makers of idols will be put to shame and disgraced.” However, Israel is not like this. Israel “will never be put to shame or disgraced, to ages everlasting.” “Israel will be saved by the LORD, with an everlasting salvation.” (17) will definitely never be shamed. That is promised to us too. If we look at the intertwined conditions that are full of intricacy that we can see with our eyes, at times we may become discouraged. We may have no hope feeling helpless so we lose desire to do things. However, if we know that in our background God is always working more than we ever thought and if you “turn to” (22) God, we can have victory.
A father gave his child who had just entered elementary school a difficult problem. “If you can put this world map that was torn into little pieces together within 10 minutes, I’ll buy you some delicious snacks.” Since the map was torn into little pieces

the father thought that even if he had an hour it was beyond his child’s ability. Besides the child had just entered elementary school so he hadn’t memorized the entire world map so from the beginning it was an impossible problem.
However, in less than 5 minutes his child with a triumphant air brought the map with all the pieces together. How was he able to put all the pieces together?
When the father asked him how he did it, the child answered, ”It was very easy! On the back of the map was a face. I just looked at that and put it together. Therefore, buy me some snacks!”
Our lives are at times like this torn up world map. Our life is like a tangled cobweb. We don’t know what to do. However, God is “a God who has been hiding himself.” (15) In our background God rules over everything and leads. If we look to Him, depend upon Him, we can find hope in the midst of a tangled cobweb life.

II. A righteous God and a Savior (Vs. 18-21)
Please pay attention to verses 18 to 21. Verse 18 says, “For this is what the LORD says-he who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth, he founded it; he did not create it to be empty, but formed it to be inhabited-he says: “I am the LORD, and there is no other.”
God who works in hidden places “created the heavens…and made the earth, he founded it…formed it to be inhabited.” (18) “Empty” (18) is the same word that is used in Genesis 1:2. “The earth was formless and empty.” The word means being in chaos or confusion. Therefore, God with intention made it into good order. God’s intention was that it “be inhabited”. (18)
God “fashioned and made the earth…to be inhabited.” (18) God “did not create it to be empty” (18) or purposeless. God made it so man could live there so he made it into good order. If you look at the order of the creation of the heavens and earth, you can see this too.
First of all God made light and divided the light and darkness. Then he made the skies. He made the heavens. Then he made the land and the seas. God gathered the waters below the heavens into one place and made dry places. That was the earth. Then there God planted plants and fruit trees that bear fruit each according to its kind. That was the third day. Then God on the fourth day made the sun, moon, and stars. Then God made the animals that live in the ocean and the birds that fly in the sky. That was on the fifth day. Then on the sixth day God made the creatures on the earth. God made the domestic animals, “all the creatures that move along the ground,” (Genesis 1:25) and the wild animals. Then after that God made man. God made man to be like God, in the image of God.

Looking at this the world that God made is in good order and logical. God made the heavens and earth in this way so that man could live there. Soon my daughter will have a baby. I heard her say that so whenever the baby is born it will be o.k. she changed the curtains, redecorated the room, prepared a crib, prepared diapers, etc. So that the baby can be born at any time they prepared everything that the new born baby will need for living. In the same way God before he made man, God made and prepared everything that is necessary for man to live. God had that special purpose when he made the heavens and earth and definitely didn’t make them by chance. Moreover man didn’t evolve from monkeys. Also man didn’t evolve from a very small microbe 38 billion years age either. Man was made by God for a specific purpose. God is “the LORD, and there is no other.” (18) “He who created the heavens, he is God; he who fashioned and made the earth…formed it to be inhabited” (18) is the real God.
Please look at verse 19, “I have not spoken in secret,
from somewhere in a land of darkness;
I have not said to Jacob’s descendants,
‘Seek me in vain.’
I, the LORD, speak the truth;
I declare what is right.”
This is interesting. In verse 15 God is “a God who has been hiding himself,” and here God says, “I have not spoken in secret, from somewhere in a land of darkness.” (19) “A God who has been hiding himself”(15) has not hidden his plans and has clearly revealed them. God doesn’t use a method that can’t be understood like fortune telling or spiritualism to talk. God uses clear and definite word, the Bible, to tell us His will. The Lord says just as the Bible reveals to seek Him. God is really a God of truth. He declares “what is right.” (19) Also what God speaks without not even one exception everything he says happens as He says. This proves that he is really God.
Next please look at verses 20 and 21. “You fugitives from the nations” (20) are　not only the people of the Jews, but those of other nations that were by Cyrus released out of captivity in Babylon．God says to these people, “Gather together and come; assemble.” (20) They are to assemble to debate about who is the real God. They have put their expectations in idols who cannot save them who cannot help them. God is telling such idol worshipers to show their evidence. Who can “declare what is to be”? (21) Who foretold about King Cyrus “long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD?” (21)

I have talked about this many times, but Isaiah prophesized this 150 years before this happened. God “foretold this long ago.” (21) God declared and foretold what was going to happen. Moreover, God foretold concretely and precisely. Even though God prophesized it, there were no mistakes. What God says is a real prophecy and will be fulfilled 100%. The God who like this can precisely declare is the real God. “There is no God apart from” (21) the Lord. The Lord is “a righteous God and a Savior;　there is none but” (21) but the Lord.

III. Turn to me and be saved. (Vs. 22-25)
As a conclusion God says this in verse 22, “Turn to me and be saved,
all you ends of the earth;
for I am God, and there is no other.”
This is calling not only the peoples of the nations that were by Cyrus released out of captivity in Babylon, but to all the people at all “ends of the earth”. (22) This is God, himself’s invitation of salvation. “Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth.”(22) How are you responding to God’s invitation of salvation?
In the 19th century the biggest church in the world, the Metropolitan Tabernacle Church, was pastured by Charles Haddon Spurgeon who was converted by this passage. Later in a message that he gave, he testified about his conversion saying,
“ For years, as a child, I tried to learn the way of salvation; and either I did not hear it set forth, which I think cannot quite have been the case, or else I was spiritually blind and deaf, and could not see it and could not hear it; but the good news that I was, as a sinner, to look away from myself to Christ, as much startled me, and came as fresh to me, as any news I ever heard in my life. Had I never read my Bible? Yes, and I read it earnestly. Had I never been taught by Christian people? Yes, I had, by mother, and father, and others. Had I not heard the gospel? Yes, I think I had; and yet, somehow, it was like a new revelation to me that I was to ”believe and live.” I confess to have been tutored in piety, put into my cradle by prayerful hands, and lulled to sleep by songs concerning Jesus; but after having heard the gospel continually, with line upon line, precept upon precept, here much and there much, yet, when the Word of the Lord came to me with power, it was as new.
When, for the first time, I received the gospel to my soul’s salvation, I thought that I had never really heard it before, and I began to think that the preachers to whom I had listened had not truly preached it. But, on looking back, I am inclined to believe that I had heard the gospel fully preached many hundreds of times before, and that this was the difference,–that I then heard it as though I heard it not; and when I did hear it, the message may not have been any more clear in itself than it had been at former times, but the power of the Holy Spirit was present to open my ear, and to guide the message to my heart….

I sometimes think I might have been in darkness and despair until now had it not been for the goodness of God in sending a snowstorm, one Sunday morning, while I was going to a certain place of worship. When I could go no further, I turned down a side street, and came to a little Primitive Methodist Chapel. In that chapel there may have been a dozen or fifteen people. I had heard of the Primitive Methodists, how they sang so loudly that they made people’s heads ache; but that did not matter to me. I wanted to know how I might be saved, and if they could tell me that, I did not care how much they made my head ache. The minister did not come that morning; he was snowed up, I suppose. At last, a very thin-looking man, a shoemaker, or tailor, or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach. Now, it is well that preachers should be instructed; but this man was really stupid. He was obliged to stick to his text, for the simple reason that he had little else to say. The text was,–‘
LOOK UNTO ME, AND BE YE SAVED,
ALL THE ENDS OF THE EARTH.
Isaiah 45:22KJV
He did not even pronounce the words rightly, but that did not matter. There was, I thought, a glimpse of hope for me in that text. The preacher began thus:–‘
‘My dear friends, this is a very simple text indeed. It says, ‘Look.’ Now lookin’ don’t take a deal of pains. It ain’t liftin’ your foot or your finger; it is just, ‘Look.’ Well, a man needn’t go to College to learn to look. You may be the biggest fool, and yet you can look. A man needn’t be worth a thousand a year to be able to look. Anyone can look; even a child can look. But then the text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Ay!” said he, in broad Essex, ”Many on ye are lookin’ to yourselves, but it’s no use lookin’ there. You’ll never find any comfort in yourselves. Some look to God the Father. No, look to Him by-and-by. Jesus Christ says, ‘Look unto Me.’ Some on ye say, ‘We must wait for the Spirit’s workin’.’ You have no business with that just now. Look to Christ. The text says, ‘Look unto Me.’ ”
Then the good man followed up his text in this way:–
do ”Look unto Me; I am sweatin’ great drops of blood. Look unto Me; I am hangin’ on the cross. Look unto Me; I am dead and buried. Look unto Me; I rise again. Look unto Me; I ascend to Heaven. Look unto Me; I am sittin’ at the Father’s right hand. O poor sinner, look unto Me! Look unto Me!”
When he had gone to about that length, and managed to spin out ten minutes or so, he was at the end of his tether. Then he looked at me under the gallery, and I daresay, with so few present, he knew me to be a stranger. Just fixing his eyes on me, as if he knew all my heart, he said,
”Young man, you look very miserable.”
Well, I did; but I had not been accustomed to have remarks made from the pulpit on my personal appearance before. However, it was a good blow, struck right home. He continued,
”and you always will be miserable–miserable in life, and miserable in death,–if you don’t obey my text; but if you obey now, this moment, you will be saved.”
Then, lifting up his hands, he shouted, as only a Primitive Methodist could do,
”You man, look to Jesus Christ. Look! Look! Look! You have nothin’ to do but to look and live.”
I saw at once the way of salvation. I know not what else he said,–I did not take much notice of it — I was so possessed with that one thought.. There and then the cloud was gone, the darkness had rolled away, and that moment I saw the sun; and I could have risen that instant, and sung with the most enthusiastic of them, of the precious blood of Christ, and simple faith which looks alone to Him. Oh, that somebody had told me this before, ”Trust Christ, and you shall be saved.”…
This happened when Spurgeon was 16 years old. He clearly understood how a miserable sinner is saved and was converted. That is by looking (turning) to Christ. Looking to Christ is believing. Those who believe in Jesus are all saved. Those who look to (turn to)Jesus on the cross are saved. All you have to do is look to Jesus. All you have to do is believe. Then you will be saved. This is the Gospel. This is the good news. This was declared by God as the way for us to be saved “from the distant past” (21) ever since the first man Adam fell to sin.
Therefore, when Israel complained and grumbled in the desert and when they complained to Moses, the event occurred where God sent venomous snakes and many of the people were bitten by them and died. What they needed to do to be saved was to make a bronze “snake and put it on a pole; anyone who is bitten can look at it and live.” (Numbers 21:8) In the Bible bronze is a symbol of judgment. The snake is a symbol of sin. Therefore for the bronze snake to be put on a pole expresses sin being judged. This symbolizes Jesus Christ being hung on the cross. . In John 3 Jesus himself said that referred to him. “Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life.” (John 3:15)
In order to be saved from sin, we must look at (turn to) Jesus. This is the good news. Jesus bore your sins in your place. He has already died on the cross. Then to show that this is really true, Jesus rose from the dead. If you believe this, you too will be saved from sin, and receive eternal life. That is because “if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)
Spurgeon lived a miserable live. It was an empty life. No matter how hard a person works in life, no matter how interesting it is, no　matter　how　crazy a life he lives, it will someday be finished by death. Then that is a completely an empty life. However, there is a life that doesn’t end when you die. That is eternal life. If you have that life, there is no fear of death.
Lastly let’s look at the end of verse 23 to verse 25. “Before me every knee will bow; by me every tongue will swear. They will say of me, ‘In the LORD alone are righteousness and strength. All who have raged against him will come to him and be put to shame. But in the LORD all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.”
“Christ Jesus; who, being in very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, He “made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being formed in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross!” (Phil. 2:6-8) That is so “that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God.” (Phil. 2:10,11)
This is not only the descendants of Israel. Here it says, “All who have raged against him.” (24) “All who have raged” (24) are those who don’t believe in Jesus at all. They are the people who think that there is no God. It says that such people too will all some day come before God, and bow down to him and “confess the Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Phil. 2:11)
However, there is a difference in the manner. Those who believe in Jesus and are saved of their sins will with joy and exultation will confess, “Jesus, you are our Lord”, but the people who aren’t like that, those people who don’t believe in Jesus “will come to him and be put to shame” while they say “that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Phil. 2:11)Even those who die not believing in Christ will end the too confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord.” (Phil. 2:11) What type or kind of person are you? Do you believe in Jesus and with joy and exultation confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord”? (Phil 2:11) Or while raging against Jesus, “will come to him and be put to shame” while you say “that Jesus Christ is Lord”? (Phil. 2:11)
“Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth.” (22) If you turn to Jesus, at that moment you too will “be saved.” (22) “Now is the time of God’s favor, now is the day salvation.” (II Cor. 6:2) When you die, it is too late. Now, believe and be saved. Then in the course of time when you bow before God, you will with joy and thankfulness confess “that Jesus Christ is Lord”? (Phil 2:11)