Isaiah 45:22 “Look to Me, and be saved”.
What does it mean to be saved?
Random house Webster’s College Dictionary describes Saved as:
1. (v.t.) to rescue from danger or possible harm or loss.
2. to keep safe, intact, or unhurt; safeguard:
God save the United States.
3. to keep from being lost:
tried to save the game.
4. to avoid the spending, consumption, or waste of:
to save fuel.
5. to set aside, reserve, or lay by:
to save money.
6. to treat carefully in order to reduce wear, fatigue, etc.
Category: Sport to save your energy.
7. to prevent the occurrence, use, or necessity of;
8. to deliver from the power and consequences of sin.
Category: Religion
9. to copy (computer data) onto a hard or floppy disk, a tape, etc.
Category: Computers
10. to stop (a ball or puck) from entering one’s goal:
Category: Sport
11. to lay up money as the result of economy or thrift.
12. to be economical in expenditure.
13. to preserve something from harm, loss, etc.
14. a goalkeeper’s act of preventing a goal.
15. (in baseball) a statistical credit given a relief pitcher for preserving a team’s victory by holding its lead.
• So there is many definitions and meanings for saved by the account of man and our definitions. But what does the word here in Isaiah 45 mean when God says saved?
Hebrew word for saved -Yasa – to be open, , wide or free (by implication)to be safe; causatively, to free or succor;-at all, avenging, defend, deliverer, help, preserve, rescue, be safe, bring or (having) salvation, savior, get victory.
• When we put the Lord into the word it brings much more meaning!
I like that it says I get the victory! I like that it says I’m safe and He brings Salvation! I like that it means the sky is the limits and its wide open and free!! I comforted by knowing this means He will defend me and He is my deliver!!! With God He is “a present help in a time of need.” With God I am rescued out of my danger and He then preserves me and sets me apart because He loves me!!!!
Matt 6;25 says “Take no thought for your life”. The Lord says we should be careful of one thing only “that’s our relationship to Him.”
Common sense says “that’s crazy, I have to be concerned and consider how I’m going to live, and I have to consider what I’m going to eat or drink.” But Jesus says you don’t have to worry.”
Whenever there might be competition, we have to be sure that we always put our relationship with God before anything else. Know that He is the author and finisher of our faith.”
Matt.19:16 -26 the author talks of a Rich Man and the Kingdom of God
16 Just then a man came up to Jesus and asked, “Teacher, what good thing must I do to get eternal life?”
17 “Why do you ask me about what is good?” Jesus replied. “There is only One who is good. If you want to enter life, keep the commandments.”
18 “Which ones?” he inquired.
Jesus replied, “‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, 19 honor your father and mother,’[c] and ‘love your neighbor as yourself.’[d]”
20 “All these I have kept,” the young man said. “What do I still lack?”
21 Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this, he went away sad, because he had great wealth.
23 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly I tell you, it is hard for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. 24 Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
25 When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, “Who then can be saved?”
26 Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
• So, do we expect God to come to us with His blessings and Save Us? God says – here in Isaiah that we are to – “look to Him , and be saved”.
You see, but most of the time our problem is that our thoughts are not concentrated on God but everything except Him!
The great difficulty most of the time is we get spiritually full of ourselves. And only concentrate on God, when we are in need of something we want outside of His will. Sometimes in our lives we favor the going good which places us in reliance upon self and everyone else around us…
• Now finding contentment is in just knowing that He has our best interest at hand ALWAYS if we are in Him and obedient to His will!!! If not Troubles nearly always finds us and that becomes the reason why we look to God!
• The Teaching of Christ on the Sermon on the Mount in (Matthew 5) is that we should focus or concentrate our mind or will and all our emotions, our heart and body on Him. That we should confine and focus our eyes, and our interest none other than that of an Almighty God himself. so we will never be the same as we were in our life before HE came into our hearts and SAVED US, from death and an everlasting damnation from hell but loved us and said, now you are my sons and daughters, and when you call on me I will be your SALVATION!!
• These Teaching of Christ here in Matthew 5 describe a different type of blessings other than a materialistic point of interest. Read from Bible Lexical aid – The word blessed means Makarios which is possessing the characteristics of deity; blessed on account of Christ to be indwelt by God and being fully satisfied…
God says “Look unto Me” and be Blessed even though your spirit is poor right now, I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed even if you are in mourning, for you shall be comforted.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed because those with a gentle Spirit , shall inherit the earth.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed for those who are hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed if you are merciful, for you shall receive mercy.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed if your pure in heart, you shall see God.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed for the peacemakers, shall be called sons of God.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed for those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
God says “Look unto Me” and be “Blessed when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Him. He says “ Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great; for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
• You see the very thing that we look for, we shall find IF our concentration is on HIM.
Many of us have this mental picture of what we a Christian should be, and the lives of the Saints become a hindrance to our concentration on God! There is no Salvation to those who put God in a box and make our own perceptions and base or lives around our own abilities and those who we look up too. God says “ Look unto ME” – and not “you will be saved but “ you are saved’! Glory to God!!! Halilouya. Can somebody give God a praise???
Oswald Chamber said that “a simple statement of Jesus is always a puzzle to us if we are not simple”.
How are we going to be simple with the simplicity of Jesus?
BY receiving His Spirit, recognizing and relying on Him, trusting in Him, depending on Him, surrendering to Him, obeying Him as He (Holly Spirit) brings the Word of God. And when we begin to do this, we find that life can become amazingly simple…. Consider says Jesus in :
Matthew 6:30 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field,…. which today is, shall He not much more clothe you’
Jesus said “consider the lilies of the fields” they grow where they are put!
• But most of us refuse to grow where we are put. Were constantly laboring to find something to please ourselves, or were all twisted up inside because we think we should have it a certain way. Sometime WE think certain things are right for us, and our families, we need this and that and were being tossed back and forth and our situation are never really changing to help us, and most of the time we never take root in anything!
Paul said it this way in James 1:6-8 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7 That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. 8 Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.
Jesus told us that if we obey the life that has been given us, and we become faithful over that life that God will give us “MUCH MORE” than we can even imagine.
And if we are not really experiencing the MUCH MORE then we need to refocus or lives and our eyes need to be “looking unto” HIM!
Look at your neighbor and say Look to Him! Look at you neighbor and say He want to give ya MUCH MORE…. Glory be to God.
• It’s the very thing we “look for” that we find.
Psalms 121;1-8 says I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
where does my help come from?
2 My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
4 indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
6 the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
7 The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
8 the LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.
• If we concentrate on God we seek Him we will find Him! We need to continually be in fellowship with Him and not just when we only need Him for a situation in our lives our there something we want from Him. Our relationship with Him should be as if we are His Children and we are looking up to Him in all things and that He is a “rewarded of those who diligently seek him”.
The difficulties of our lives and what we shall do this summer, or tomorrow, all vanish when we look to God. When our hope is built on nothing less but righteousness and faith in Him when we surrender all to Him we can find everything we ever hoped and dreamed for, and much more becomes our reward and promise is that we ARE SAVED!!!
Glory!!!
“Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.” How much evil has threatened you today? Is there suffering in your life that brings misery?
Billy Graham stated “Suffering gives us the greatest opportunity to change.”
Jesus says” Be anxious for nothing.” Look again and think! Keep your eyes on the Much More of your heavenly Father!!
There was an old man sitting on his porch watching the rain fall. Pretty soon the water was coming over the porch and into the house.
The old man was still sitting there when a rescue boat came and the people on board said, “You can’t stay here you have to come with us.”
The old man replied, “No, God will save me.” So the boat left. A little while later the water was up to the second floor, and another rescue boat came, and again told the old man he had to come with them.
The old man again replied, “God will save me.” So the boat left him again.
An hour later the water was up to the roof and a third rescue boat approached the old man, and tried to get him to come with them.
Again the old man refused to leave stating that, “God will save me.” So the boat left him again.
Soon after, the man drowns and goes to heaven, and when he sees God he asks him, “Why didn’t you save me?”
God replied, “I sent three boats after you!!”