GOD’S GREAT CREATIVE POWER

                              By Pastor Max Solbrekken, D.D.

     “Therefore My people shall know My name: therefore shall they know in that day that I am He that doth speak: behold it is I… Behold, My servant shall deal prudently, He shall be exalted and extolled, and be very high.

      The Lord hath made bare His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations: and all the ends of the earth shall see the salvation of our God. As many were astonished at thee; His visage was so marred more than any man, and His form more than the sons of men.”  (Is.52:6,10,14)

                            WHY THIS RIGHTEOUS MAN?

     A missionary had reached a new tribe which not before heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ. In a small gathering, the chief sat on the first bench. As the missionary was describing in detail the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, the Chief leapt to feet, sobbing shouted, “Stop, stop. Take Him down from the Cross. I belong there. I belong there!”  The entire village embraced the Gospel because of the awesome preaching of the shed blood of Jesus Christ for the sins of the entire world!

     Seeing the pure, righteous and holy Jesus of Nazareth – sinless in His conception, birth, life and death – dying as a common criminal on the garbage dump called Golgotha, outside Jerusalem’s city walls should have astonished everyone! The united cry should have been, “Why This Man? Why not Barabbas?”

    “Behold, the Lord God will come with strong hand, and His arm shall rule for Him: behold, His reward is with Him, and His work before Him. He shall feed His flock like a shepherd. He shall gather the lambs with His arms, and carry them in his bosom, and shall gently lead those that are young.” (Is.40:10)

    In this prophecy, God introduces His plan of salvation for the human race. He would come to earth, bare His mighty arm to bring deliverance and salvation. The reward He brings is Eternal Life and His work is His vicarious death on the Cross to purchase our salvation from sin, fear, sickness, death, and Satan!

      Baring His arm, not in judgment, but in MERCY! Giving His only begotten Son to die the most gruesome, cruel, degrading death known certainly speaks to us as baring His powerful arm in Kindness and Grace!

      The Bible says: “How that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and Power who went about, who went about doing Good, and Healing all that were oppressed of the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10: 38); “… For this purpose the Son of God was manifested. That He might destroy the works of the devil.” (1 John 3: 8)

     Jesus of Nazareth is the Good Shepherd that cares for His sheep, gathering them up in His arms. He is the founder and Head of the Church which He purchased by His own blood!

     Through the Prophet Isaiah, our Lord revealed the plans and purpose of God which was formulated in Heaven before the foundation of the world: “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a Virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and she call His name Immanuel.” (Is. 7: 14)

     “For unto you a child is born, unto a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.” (Is. 9: 6)

      “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. For God sent not His Son to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.” (John 3:16, 17)

JESUS THE GOOD SHEPHERD!

      Prophet Isaiah saw the Son that would come as the Good Shepherd and would give His life for the sheep: The Bible says: “Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten if God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon Him; and with His stripes we are healed.

    “All we like SHEEP have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid in Him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed and He was afflicted, yet He opened not His mouth: He us brought as a Lamb to the slaughter, and a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not His mouth.

     “He was taken from prison and judgment: and who shall declare His generation? For He was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of My people was He was Stricken. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him: He hath put Him to grief: when thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin, He shall see His Seed, He shall prolong His days, and the pleasure of  the Lord shall prosper in His hand.

     “He shall see of the travail of His soul, and shall be satisfied: By His knowledge shall My righteous Servant JUSTIFY many; for He shall bear their iniquities… because He hath poured out His soul unto death: and He was numbered with the transgressors; and He bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” (Is. 53: 4-12)

                          GOSPEL OF THE OLD TESTAMENT!

     Now, you will know why the Book of Isaiah the Prophet is called the ‘Gospel of the Old Testament’! Anyone reading this great Book will be wanting to know more about the Jewish Messiah and the Gospels and Epistles of the New Testament and end up reading the Revelation of Jesus Christ!

      “Have ye not known: He shall gather the lambs in His arms? Have ye not heard? Hath it not been told from the beginning? Have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? It is He that sitteth upon the CIRCLE of the earth. And the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in.” (Is. 40:22)

     More than seven hundred years before Christ was born in Bethlehem, the prophet Isaiah declared that the earth was round or spherical. For years scientists, explorers and others believed that the earth was flat. If they would have read Isaiah 40: 22, they would have not been that ignorant! Incidentally, the ancient Greeks had proved the sphericity of the earth.

     Jesus of Nazareth also taught that the earth is round. Concerning His return, He stated: “I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed: the one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; (day) the one shall be taken.” (Luke 34: 35,36)

       It will be night on one side of the earth with people in bed, while on the other side of the earth, it is day and with people working in the fields.

      Almighty God stated: “To whom will ye liken Me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. Hast thou not known? Hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of His understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might He increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary; but they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.” (Is. 40: 21-31)

                                  GOD HATH CHOSEN US IN CHRIST!

      “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Heavenly places in Christ: According as He hath Chosen us  in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love:

    “Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will. To the praise of the glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved.

    “In whom have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace, wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and prudence. Having made known unto us the Mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure which He hath purposed in Himself.

    “That in the dispensation of the fulness of times, He might gather together in one all things in Christ, both which are in Heaven, and which are in earth; even in Him. In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.

    “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the Word of Truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of Promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance unto the praise of His glory.

     “That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of Glory, may give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened: that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints.

     “And what is the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places.

    “Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every Name that is named, not only in this world, but also in the world to come. And hath put all things under His feet and gave Him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is His Body, the fullness of Him that filleth all in all.” (Eph. 1: 3- 23)

    May the Lord richly bless you, fill you with His precious Holy Spirit and heal your body, in Jesus’ name Amen and Amen.