Look unto me and be ye saved

COLERAINE EVANGELICAL CHURCH

SERMON NOTES SUNDAY 22 FEBRUARY 2026 PM - MR CRAIG DENNISON

ISAIAH 45 

In this portion of God's word, God makes many wonderful promises. In chapter 44, Cyrus is selected to be God's shepherd. We maybe think that a strange thing that our God would call a heathen king to be a shepherd of his people. But Cyrus was a chosen vessel of the Lord. God used him to release the Jews from their captivity. So in many ways we could say that Cyrus was a redeemer. He was one who saw people redeemed and brought out of bondage and set at liberty. And of course that is what Christ does for his people. He takes us out of the bondage of sin and brings us into his glorious kingdom. Now Cyrus himself we could say is a type that is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was a Saviour of God's people. He brought them out of bondage. He restored them back to Zion. and he enabled the true worship of God in Jerusalem again. So Cyrus himself was not a true Saviour. He couldn't get men to heaven, but he was a little foreshadowing of the Saviour that God would send. Now in verses 1 to 4 of chapter 45, we are told the great things that God will do for Cyrus to enable him to release God's people. Verse one, we're told that he will subdue nations, loose the lines of kings, and open gates. We're told in verse two that God himself would go before Cyrus to prepare the way. In verses 5-7, we have the proof, the evidence of God's eternal power and his sovereignty over all creation. In verses 5-6, God declares himself to be the only God. Verse 7, God lists his power in creation. He tells us that he is a peacemaker and that he even permits evil to happen. He doesn't ordain evil, but he allows it to happen. Some people take verse 8 to be a prayer, and it's certainly something that the Lord's people can pray if it's in it is in accordance with his will. But I agree with the commentators who believe that this is this is God revealing his precept. What God has planned will always happen. And in verse eight here we have God revealing what is certainly going to happen. “Drop down ye heavens from above and let the skies pour down righteousness. Let the earth open and let them bring forth salvation and let righteousness spring up together. I the Lord have created it.” So this is the Lord revealing what he is going to do and pouring out his spirit upon the earth, turning men and women to faith in his son. But dear congregation, notice something amazing about this passage here tonight. Isaiah is not prophesying directly into the ear of Cyrus because Isaiah was a prophet before Judah went into captivity. In the days of Isaiah, he ministered to the kings of Judah - Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah. So Isaiah lived long before Cyrus. And God is not speaking directly to Cyrus either because Cyrus is not even born when these words are recorded. Isaiah preached this message 210 years before they came to pass. So God gave Isaiah a message about Cyrus to preach 210 years before it would be fulfilled. Because God in his foreknowledge, in his sovereign predestination knew that Cyrus would be born. He knew that Cyrus would come to power. God knew the Jews would be in captivity and he ordered Cyrus to release the Jews and he gave the order before Cyrus was even born. He also ordered Cyrus for the temples to be rebuilt again and they were we read of that in 2 Chronicles chapter 36. But as we come down tonight to our verse 20, God here makes an offer and it's an offer not just to the Jews but to all the nations which Cyrus is going to release from captivity. Verse 20, “ye that are escaped off the nations.” So God here is speaking to the nations of the world. And he has an offer for them. And he tells them in verse 22, "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else." God makes an offer of salvation. And it's not just an offer to the Jews. It's an offer to all the nations of the world, to sinners from every different type of nation. The offer is the gospel offer. It's the same offer that God gave to Adam in the Garden of Eden. God, after Adam and Eve had sinned, God promised that the seed of the woman will bruise the serpent's head. So, he promised a Saviour. And of course, Christ is the seed of the woman. He bruised the serpent's head at the cross of Calvary. But the Lord in the garden, he also showed Adam and Eve how the Savior was to come and how the Savior or was to be the sacrifice for sin. You'll remember in Genesis it says that God made Adam and Eve coats of skin. But where did he get the skin from? He got it from an animal. How did their son Abel know the right sacrifice to bring to God of a lamb? They were taught it by their parents, Adam and Eve, who taught it to Adam and Eve. God taught it to Adam and Eve in the garden. Whenever he took an animal and made a sacrifice and took the skin and made coats for them, that is what I believe. And to be more specific, I believe it was the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ, who made that sacrifice in the garden and showed Adam and Eve, "This is what I'm going to do. I'm going to be the lamb of God. I'm going to be the one that bears your sin upon the cross of Calvary." So, it's the same offer that was given to Adam. It's the same offer that was made to Noah. Come into the ark and you'll be saved. And Noah and his family were in the ark. they were saved. And it's the same offer that God has given down through the generations. Look unto me and be ye saved. Well, let's look tonight at the subject of the gospel offer. Four things I want to leave with you in a very simple message as we think of the gospel offer.

First of all, the gospel offer is a great offer. It is a great offer. And I don't mean it's a great offer like you would maybe get on a car coming up to the end of the tax year. It's not a great offer like there might be on Black Friday. It is far greater than that. It is a great offer for a number of reasons. First of all, it's a great offer because of the reason we're having this offer. And the reason God is making an offer to you and me is because we need this offer. Our sin has separated us from God. The sin of Adam had him kicked out of the garden. And we have been sitting against God ever since. Our sin is piled up like a massive mountain of debt. And it doesn't matter how hard we work, how much we try, we can never clear this mountain of debt against God. It just keeps piling higher and higher and higher. And God comes to us in the gospel and he offers to  remove our mountain of debt against him. He promises to remove our sins against him. He even tells us that he will cast our sins into the into the depths of the sea that he will remember them no more. This is the great offer that God is making to us. We who have sinned against God and offended him with our law breaking and our idolatry, God is offering to forgive and to pardon that sin. If you ran up a big debt in your credit card, a big massive, imagine your credit card company forgot to put a limit on your credit card and they just let you spend and spend and spend and you racked up debt into the tens of millions of pounds. Well, there's no way that I'm sure most of us, if not all of us, could ever pay that back in our lifetime. Doesn't matter how hard we worked. We worked 24 hours a day, we wouldn't be able to earn enough money to pay back the credit card company. Let me say there is nothing you and I can do to pay off our debt of sin. Our debt of sin is too great. And yet, God makes us an offer. An offer. So, think of the one who makes the offer. He says, "Look unto me. Look to me. The one who made you, the one who is your creator. Look to me, the one who gives you life, the one who sustains you, the one who holds your very breath in his hands. Look to me. He doesn't say to look to anybody else. God says to look directly to him. We don't need to look to a priest or a bishop. We don't need to look to dead men's bones. We only need to look to God directly ourself. the one who is our creator, but also the one that the Bible says is our judge. Because the scriptures are very clear, God has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man, the Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has appointed, heir of all things. So the one who is telling us to look to him is our judge. The judge tells us to come to him and look to him for forgiveness and pardon. Again, I venture to say if you racked up a hundred penalty points in your car license and you were told to go and see the judge, you'll be pretty fearful knowing that the judge has the power to suspend you from driving, take away your license, and ban you from the road. But if the judge sent you a message saying, "Come to me. Come and see me and I will and seek forgiveness and I will forget about all your transgressions." I venture to say he would rush to the judge. You would probably be banging on his door at 6:00 in the morning saying, "Judge, I'm here. I'm here. Wipe away the penalty points for my license. Give me a clean license again so I can drive.” Well, here the judge of all the earth tells us to come to him, tells us to look to him. It's a great offer because of the one who makes the offer. And what is the offering? Well, he's offering you pardon for your sin. All your sins against God, he is willing to pardon. He is willing to give you peace with himself. Because the truth is, our sin sets us at war with God. That's what our sin is. God has no fellowship with darkness. God has no fellowship with sin. Yet God says, "I want you. I want fellowship with you." But first of all, we have to deal with this problem of your sin. And God says that he will deal with it. And it's a great offer because it's not just an offer for this life, dear friends. It's an offer for all eternity. There's some offers you get in this life and they expire the moment you die. There's a man I was reading the paper many years ago. He bought a lifetime airline ticket and it allowed him to fly with a certain airline as many times as he wanted. And that man has made sure he's got his money's worth out of that airline ticket flying all over the world. But that airline ticket will one day expire. Whenever that man dies, that airline ticket will cease to exist. He can't pass it on to his relatives. He can't take it with him where he's going. It has a limitation. But whenever God offers you salvation in the gospel, it's not limited to this world alone. It's for the next life as well. Because there's coming a day, whenever you and I, and perhaps we don't like to think about it, but there's coming a day when we'll breathe our last breath. There will be that time we'll go to bed for the last time. We'll put on our socks for the last time. We'll kiss our loved ones for the last time. And then the Bible says there's eternity. But God has given us an offer. But this offer can only be seized upon during this life. One second after death, it is too late. “Behold, now is the day of salvation. Behold, now is the accepted time.” The scripture says, "Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, and call ye upon him while he is near." We are told in scripture, it is time to seek the Lord. And it's time now. Oh, there's many a second after death are full of regret for not having taken Christ up on this gospel offer. It's a great offer, everlasting life with God in heaven. But think of the alternative. The alternative to having the gospel and having salvation for all eternity. The alternative is not to have the gospel and not to have salvation, not to have heaven, not to have God, not to have Christ, not to have peace, but rather the alternative, is to face the wrath of God for sin, to have the anger of God, to have the fury of God. The Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. We're told of the rich man in Luke 16 that he opened up his eyes in hell being in torments. We are told that those who reject Christ will hear these awful words, "Depart from me, ye cursed. I never knew ye." So, the alternative to accepting this great offer is to reject it, and it's not to be saved, but it is to be lost. So that is why we say that the gospel offer is a great offer. There's no better offer for you and I to have.

Secondly, tonight the gospel offer is a free offer. It's a free offer. And the offer is to all the ends of the earth. It's not just limited to a couple of people there in the Middle East. It is an offer to all the ends of the earth. God makes this a free offer to all nationalities, to all religious groups. If you're trapped in the religion of Islam, God has an offer for you. If you've been brought up in a Roman Catholic home, brought to trust in the works of the flesh and to follow the teachings of the church, this offer is for you. It is an offer to the rich and an offer to the poor. It's an offer to those of all educations and to those of all social groups, regardless of your wealth or your job or your education. This is an offer for you. So no man can look at this text and say, "Well, it's not for me." No, it is for you. It's for all in Coleraine, all on this island, all on this planet. This is an offer for all the ends of the earth. And it's an offer without money and without price. In Isaiah 55 verse 1 the prophet says, "Ho, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. And he that hath no money, come ye, buy indeed, ye come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." And that's the sort of supermarket that you'd like to go to, isn't it? where you can just go and buy stuff without money and without price. That's a sort of supermarket that would be full with people going in day and night. Going in and taking stuff without having to pay for it, without having to give any money. That supermarket, well, wouldn't be a very good business plan, but it would certainly be very popular. And yet, the Lord is saying, "That's what I'm offering you. I'm offering you salvation. I'm offering you heaven. I'm offering you everlasting life. Come to me. You don't need money. You don't need to pay for anything. You don't need to do anything. Just come and freely receive my great salvation. That's what the Lord offers. Now, some people say, "Well, it can't be that simple. Surely there is something I would have to do." Well if there was something you could do, then there would be no need for Jesus to come into this world. No need for Jesus to go to the cross of Calvary. No need for Jesus to take the wrath of God for sin upon his own body on that cross. If there was something you could do, then Jesus didn't need to come and die on the cross. But because there's nothing that you can do, he had to come. He had to suffer. He had to take sin upon himself. He had to face the wrath of God and bear our punishment because there's nothing we could do. All we have to do is come without money and without price and receive. So dear friend, it's a free offer because there's nothing you can contribute. Jesus paid it all. Every sin paid for on the cross of Calvary. Sins past, present, and future have all been paid by Christ for those who come to him. So, it's a great offer. You'll not get a better offer. It's a free offer without money and without price. 

Thirdly, it is a sincere offer. Now, there's some people maybe read in the newspaper an offer and it maybe sounds too good to be true. A holiday for £5 and then you read the small print and there's all these hoops that you have to jump through and taxes to pay. It's not really £5. It's more like 500 by the time you have met all the conditions. But dear friends, this is a sincere offer from God. He says, "Look unto me and be ye saved." That is the summary of the gospel. Look to me and be saved. We're not to look anywhere but God. We're not to look to men. We're not to look to the religions of this world, to institutions, to buildings. We don't look to our baptism. We don't look to the Lord's table. We don't look to any of these things. We look directly to God. Now yes, these things have their place, but in the fundamentals of salvation, those things do not save. Nobody has been saved by water or by taking wine and bread. Those elements do not save. We're to look directly to God. And can I say, that this is a sincere offer because God doesn't lie. Men lie, but God cannot lie. We can do something that God cannot do. We can tell lies. God cannot tell lies. It is impossible for God to tell a lie. So if God says, "Look to me and be you saved," that is the truth. That is a sincere, genuine offer from God. If we look to him, we will be saved. And there's also a promise. God promises to receive sinners. In John 6:37, the Lord Jesus said, "All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." So the Lord Jesus Christ has promised to save the sinner that seeks him. He doesn't say, "If you apply, I might receive you." No. Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. And a person might say, "Well, I've lived a terrible life, an awful, sinful life. I've done so many bad and wicked things. My debt of sin is 10 times higher than the chiefest of sinners. Surely he wouldn't receive me." No, dear friend, the promise is for the whosoever will. But he will receive you, but he will not cast you out. This is the great promise that Christ gives in the gospel. It is to the whosoever will. John 3:16, “for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.” God doesn't have an asterisk in his Bible with a long list of disclaimers. No, “that whosoever will believe will have everlasting life.” Peter preached in Acts 2 21, "And it shall come to pass that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved." And Paul said the same thing in Romans 10 verse 13. So there's the whosoever will seek God, whosoever will cry to God for mercy, whosoever will call upon the name of the Lord will be saved. In Revelation 22:17, John said, "And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely." So, dear friend, it is a sincere offer. But this sincere offer, if I can make it very simple for you tonight, is summed up in one word. And that word is come. That is the simplest word to understand. We say to a one-year-old, "Come." And they come, because they understand that word. Well, God says to the sinner, "Come to me." Matthew 11:28, "Come unto me and I will give you rest." Jesus cried, "If any man thirst, let him come to me." John 6:37, "Him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out." Revelation 22. And the spirit and the bride say, "Come." And he that heareth say, "Come." We can't make it any simpler. God says to fallen men and women, "Come. Come to me and be saved." So, it's a sincere offer with a promise to receive all those who come to him.

But let me finish tonight. We've thought of the great offer, a free offer, a sincere offer. But let me say, it's the only offer. It's the only offer you're getting. It's the only offer any of us are getting. Here in our passage tonight in Isaiah 45 verse 22, the Lord says, "Look unto me and be ye saved all the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else." He says, "I am God. I alone am God." He says, "There's none else. Nobody else can save you. Nobody else can forgive your sins. Nobody else will receive you into heaven. I alone will do it. So it's the only offer you're getting. The Apostle Peter preached, "For neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ himself preached, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." No man cometh to the father but by me. He said, "I am the door. By me. If any man enter in, he shall be saved." He doesn't say there's many doors or many ways. He made it very clear. He alone is the Saviour. So it's the only offer, the only offer that God is giving to us. But it is a great offer, a free offer, and a sincere offer, and it's one we would be fools to reject.

In closing tonight, why do men reject this offer? Well, some people say, "Oh, well, it's too good to be true. No way God would just forgive my sin like that." Well he didn't just forgive your sin like that. He sent his son to the cross and he unleashed hell upon his son so that you could be saved. God's divine wrath for sin was led upon Christ. It took an eternity of hell upon Christ so that you and I could be saved. It wasn't just that God casually decided to ignore and pardon your sin. He punished Christ in your place. Others will say, "Well, I don't need it. I'm good enough." Well, if you measure yourself against some of the great sinners of the world, you might be a little better than them, but you're still a sinner. You're still in need of salvation. You're still one who is going to stand before the judge of all the earth, who will list all of your sins, more than you even are possibly aware of. And how will thy fair on that day, standing before the judge as he lists all your crimes against him? And other people say, "Well, I'll find an alternative. I'll find my own way." Well that would be pinning your hopes on thin air because there is no other way. What will be the outcome of those who reject the offer? Well, the reality is those who reject Christ reject heaven. They reject God. They reject peace with God. And they choose for themselves eternal damnation. Tonight we implore you in the gospel, listen to the word of God.  He says, "Look unto me and be ye saved for I am God and there is none else." So tonight, if you haven't, look to him and come to him through the Lord Jesus Christ, believing that he is your Saviour, that he died on the cross to redeem you from your sin, and that he alone will grant you forgiveness and pardon and peace with God.