Podcasts about so isaiah

https://wels2.blob.core.windows.net/family-devotions/20251222fam.mp3 Listen to Devotion The LORD spoke to Ahaz again. He said, “Ask for a sign from the LORD your God. Ask for it either in the depths below or in the heights above.” But Ahaz responded, “I will not ask. I will not test the LORD.” So Isaiah said: Listen now, you house of David. Is it not enough for you to test the patience of men? Will you test the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord himself will give a sign for all of you. Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel. Isaiah 7:10-14 (EHV) God With Us: The Greatest Mission In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Have you ever seen a Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise? There are eight of them! They have crazy stunts—people hanging from planes, jumping between buildings, and doing things that seem totally impossible. But by the end, all the good guys make it through safely, and the day is saved. A long time ago, over 700 years before Jesus was born, there was a king named Ahaz. Life looked really hard for the people of Judah. They were sad and worried because it seemed like everything was going wrong. But God promised to help them—even when it seemed impossible. God wanted Ahaz to ask for a sign to show that he would keep his promise, but Ahaz didn't want to. So God gave a special sign anyway—the promise of the Savior, Jesus! Jesus would be born from a virgin, and his name would be Immanuel, which means “God with us.” That's amazing, isn't it? God promised to be with his people, and he kept that promise by sending Jesus. Jesus did the most impossible mission ever. He was born as a baby in Bethlehem. He lived a perfect life, died on the cross for us, and promised that everyone who believes in him will be with God forever in heaven. That's the true miracle of Christmas—God with us, Jesus for us, forever! Prayer: Dear Jesus, you are Immanuel, “God with us.” What a beautiful name! Thank you for coming to us, even when it seemed impossible. Help us remember that you are always with us and that “with you,” all things are possible. Lift up our spirits in joy this week as we welcome your deliverance. Amen. The questions below are to help families discuss this devotion. The questions are divided by age group as suggestions, but anyone could reflect on any of the questions as they desire. Questions for Younger Children Do you know anyone named Immanuel? How long before Jesus was born did God give King Ahaz the promise of a Savior? Questions for Elementary Age Children What does the name “Immanuel” mean? Can you think of a time when it was comforting to know that God was with you? Questions for Middle School and Above Why did Jesus get the name, “Immanuel”? What humanly impossible mission did Jesus do for us? Download Family Devotions Family Devotions are brought to you by WELS Discipleship. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

Sermon Summary Speaker: Andy Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7, Matthew 4:12, Judges 6-8 The Context of Advent: The sermon opens by acknowledging the difficulty of looking past the commercial "tinsel and glitter" of Christmas to find the uncomfortable reality of a baby born in a manger. The Prophecy (Isaiah 9): Andy explores the prophecy written 700 years before Jesus, promising that "there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress". He connects this Old Testament prophecy directly to Jesus' ministry in Galilee (Zebulun and Naphtali) as recorded in Matthew 4. Historical Parallel (The Midianites): The sermon draws a parallel between the "gloom" of Isaiah's time and the story of Gideon (Judges 6). Israel was oppressed by the Midianites, hiding in caves and starving. Andy notes that just as Gideon—a "nobody" with a tiny army of 300—defeated a massive army of 135,000, God uses the small to defeat the massive. Modern Application: Andy connects the historical "gloom" to the modern struggles of the council estate and inner-city life: mental health issues, abusive relationships, crippling debt, addiction, and fear. He acknowledges that life often feels like being "hemmed in" with no respite. The Paradox and Hope: The central message is that God breaks this massive oppression not with a giant army, but through a child. The "light dawning" is Jesus. Andy emphasizes that our confidence should not be in our own strength or government strategies, but in the "zeal of the Lord Almighty" and the child who is "Mighty God" and "Prince of Peace". Transcript Speaker: Andy (00:00) Thanks, Steve. Good morning, everybody. So we are at the second in our little Advent series. I don't know about you, but sometimes it feels to me that, you know, with all the… what we're trying to do here is get past all the tinsel and glitter and commercialization and busyness and all that stuff, and actually discover actually there's a baby being born. There's a baby that's got a message behind all of that. And sometimes it just feels so uncomfortable and awkward. Just sat there looking at this angel, you know, and it feels like we're just sat on a load of prickly things through the Christmas period, right? And it's really uncomfortable. And it shouldn't be like that, right? And it's kind of strange. (00:54) So this morning we're going to be looking at a few verses in Isaiah chapter 9. If you've got a Bible, you might want to turn to that. If this is kind of new to you, then Isaiah is a book that's kind of roughly in the middle. If this isn't new to you, you're going to tell me off now for what I'm about to say. But so if you open your Bible up, you probably land somewhere in the book of Psalms. If you go forwards a bit, you find the book of Isaiah. (01:17) And Isaiah is one of those books in the Old Testament that we call one of the prophetic books. Because him and a number of other writers—in the same section of the Old Testament—are writing things that God has spoken to them about that are going to happen in the future. So Isaiah is one of these. And these verses that we're going to read, he's actually talking about something that's going to happen 700 years in the future. So we're going to read this… We're dipping around a few other verses because I want to try and help us get the context of what he's saying first of all. (01:54) So Isaiah chapter 9, I'm going to start in verse 1. "Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress." If you take home nothing else from this morning, take home that sentence. Pray about it. Meditate on it. Ask God what does it mean in your life? What does it mean in the lives of those that you rub shoulders with? Just think about that. Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those in distress. Anybody want that? Yes. Absolutely. So take that home and pray about it. That doesn't mean switch off for everything else I say! But if you take nothing else, take that home. (02:45) And Isaiah goes on: "In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali..." Now, Israel as a geographic area was carved up into the twelve tribes, and Zebulun and Naphtali are two of those tribes. And their land was actually on the border with the next country. And every time Israel got invaded, these two tribes were the first to cop it, right? And they took all of the onslaught of enemies invading them. (03:13) So he says: "In the past he humbled those lands, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan. The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." (03:34) Now just bear with me for a minute, we're going to flip forward into the New Testament. And I'm going to turn to Matthew chapter 4, and I'm going to read a few verses here. Matthew is one of those Gospel writers who's telling us about the story of Jesus as he was on this earth. And as Jesus begins his ministry, begins to teach and preach about what the Kingdom of God is, Matthew says this in chapter 4, verse 12: (04:02) "When Jesus heard that John the Baptist had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali—aha—to fulfill what was said through the prophet Isaiah: Land of Zebulun and land of Naphtali, the way to the sea, along the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles—the people living in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned." From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." (04:47) So Matthew for us is straight away saying this passage in Isaiah is about Jesus. What Isaiah is talking about here 700 years earlier is a statement about Jesus coming into this world, and what that means for mankind, and what that means for you and for I. (05:07) We carry on in verse 3 of Isaiah 9. "You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy." So he's talking about the change Jesus is going to bring to the nation and to people's lives, "…but once were in distress. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat"—and we'll come back to that—"you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." (06:33) Amen, indeed. So let's just go back to verse 4. Because Isaiah pulls right into the middle of this word about Jesus, he references something, he calls it "for as in the day of Midian's defeat." And he's talking about an event that happened 400 years earlier. So he's prophesying something that's going to happen 700 years in the future, but in doing that, he calls on something that happened 400 years in his past. We get the idea... "with the Lord a day is a thousand years and a thousand years is one day," right? (07:09) So it's a... and you can read about this event in Judges chapter 6 to chapter 8. That's about the sixth book of the Bible... sixth, yeah I think that's about right. So you can read about this event in Judges 6 to 8. We might better know it as the story of Gideon. Okay? But the... and actually what we're going to do, I'm just going to read the opening verses because it sets the scene. And I just think this is really important because it ties into why Isaiah is... something powerful about the message of Isaiah about Jesus coming and what it means. And also for the first time ever, I thought Gideon has something to do with Christmas. So, here we go. (07:54) So in Judges chapter 6, we read this. I'm just going to read six verses. "Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord, and for seven years he gave them into the hands of the Midianites. Because the power of Midian was so oppressive, the Israelites prepared shelters for themselves in mountain clefts, in caves and strongholds. Whenever the Israelites planted their crops, the Midianites, Amalekites and other eastern peoples invaded the country. They camped on the land and ruined the crops all the way to Gaza and did not spare a living thing for Israel, neither sheep nor cattle nor donkeys. They came up with their livestock and their tents like swarms of locusts. It was impossible to count the men and their camels. They invaded the land to ravage it. Midian so impoverished the Israelites that they cried out to the Lord for help."1 (08:52) It was a desperate time for the nation of Israel. This powerful army overran them completely. They oppressed them as2 a nation. You know, every... the men of Israel and the families of Israel had to go, leave their homes and hide in caves and in cleft3s in the rocks in order to escape the oppression of this enemy that was all over them. And, you know, when they went out and planted crops, then the Midianites would turn up and take those crops and kill the livestock. And at the end of that section I read, it says Israel was impoverished. It's a strong word. (09:37) And you get this sense of huge oppression on the nation at that time. It was desperate for them. They were reduced, as I say, to living in caves and fending for their lives. Their world had shrunk. They were hemmed in. They were struggling for food, not knowing where the next meal was coming from. Always watching their back because of this invader. No respite and no end in sight. (10:07) And I just wonder this morning, for some of us, does it ever feel a little bit like that at all? The challenges of this life? I think for some of the people we rub shoulders with, does it feel like that in this life? You know, when we're here on a Thursday morning with Edge and we're chatting to people and just discovering some of the circumstances they're going through. There's elements of this. Sure, we're not overrun by a foreign army in that sense, but there are other things that are hemming us in, making us feel oppressed. And no matter what we do, we always seem to be knocked back down. That life is a struggle. That you do feel hemmed in by life's circumstances. And, you know, um, that we're facing something beyond us, something too powerful. (11:03) But the story is the story of God acting to change that. Because it is the story of Gideon and how he chose Gideon. And the interesting thing about Gideon is, because we haven't got time to go into it, but Gideon was the least of the least, right? He was a nobody. In fact when God comes to him and says "I've called you to lead my nation and to conquer the Midianites," he s4ays "Why me? I'm the least of my family. My family is the least of the clan that we're in. I'm the last person you should be choosing. I'm just a nobody." In fact what he actually says to God is: "If God is with us, why has all this happened?" Ever said th5at? Good bit of honesty, isn't it? Absolutely. What a great prayer. "God, if you're with us, why has all this ha6ppened?"78 (11:51) But he is the least of the least. Not only is he a nobody who sees himself as the least of 9the least, when God tells him to get an army, God whittl10es his army down to just 300 people. And that's it. So here you've got a man who regards himself as the least of the least with a tiny, tiny army. And yet when we get to Judges chapter 8 and the end of the story, what we see is this man with his 300 men defeats an army of 135,000 soldiers. And you think, what's going on? He captures their kings. And he routs them. And he brings freedom to Israel. And he ends the oppression of the Midianites. (12:35) And you think, how can something so small—this guy who was the least of the least with his tiny little force—how can something so small defeat something so huge? That is so daunting, that is so scary. To human eyes, you would need something bigger and stronger to throw off the oppressor. If you've got an army of 135,000, give me an army of 200,000 to at least have a chance, you would think, right? (13:06) So the question is, why does Isaiah reference this story in the middle of this prophetic word about Jesus coming and being born into our world? Why does he pull in this event 400 years earlier? And it seems to me there's probably several reasons, but two that I just pull out of this that I think help us understand and kind of earth what Isaiah is talking about. (13:30) First of all, Isaiah says "You have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor." You can see just from the glimpse of that story and my summary of it, it is well understood how the Midianites had oppressed the Israelites and how God had broken that oppression. But when we read that, we need to think carefully about, okay, how does that apply to us today in 2025? How does that apply to me and my life? How does that apply to this community where we live, this culture that we're in, this society that we're in when we read this? (14:09) Because like I say, there's not an army invading this land. Although actually probably for some of us here that might have been an experience at one point in our lives. But there are other things that squeeze in. There are other forms of oppression that stop people flourishing and blooming into all that God has called them to be and wants them to be. You know, we are overrun with mental health challenges in society today. The number of abusive relationships and control and manipulation that takes place is awful. And the effect of that on people's lives is like an oppression. (14:48) The grip of addiction and addictive behaviors is something that is so controlling that people struggle to break free of it. People spiraling into debt—which again we see on a Thursday morning so often—and not knowing how to get out and struggling how to get out and feeling like they're drowning in what is happening around them. A poverty not just of finance, but a poverty of hope and choice in people's lives becomes something that is so destructive in them. And stuck thinking that just this is their lot. (15:23) People full of fears and anxieties. You know, sure we're not running off to hide in caves, but so many people not able to get out of their own homes simply because of fear or because of anxiety. And so there are many things around us that we can equate and connect with what Isaiah is talking about here and make that connection. And all of these lead to a sense of oppression, of there's nowhere to go, of having to accept that this is our lot. (15:58) But not only is this a story about how the oppression of the Midianites was broken, it's a story of how that occurred. For as in Midian's day, this Gideon who was the least of the least, who was a nobody with his tiny little force... it just makes no human sense. How can that defeat this huge thing? How can that make any difference to this that seems so massive and so unable to overcome? How can Gideon with his tiny group bring freedom for the whole of Israel? As we look at it with human eyes, we think, huh? How's that gonna change? How is that ever gonna change? (16:47) So Isaiah tells us this breaking of oppression, this light shining in the darkness, this dawning of a light, is this child being born in 700 years time. That is what is going to make the difference. That is what is going to bring about a change. But again, it makes no sense! If you look at it with human eyes, how can that event—how can a tiny baby that is just totally dependent on Mum and Dad for its food, for its clothes, for its protection, for a roof over its head—how can a tiny baby be the thing that is going to make such a difference that it will break oppression in people's lives? That it will break the yoke on their shoulders and the rod of oppression on their backs? (17:34) What are... what are the baby's qualifications? You know, when we were doing... talking to builders about [Project] 146, that was a key question for us. What are the qualifications of this builder? So we interviewed five of them. You know, and we asked them questions like, "Have you done churches before? Do you work with charities?" Because that's different from working with commercial organizations. We wanted to see pictures of their work. We wanted to talk to other clients they'd had and get a conversation about how they found them and understand and make sure we were clear about the qualifications of the builder before we said "Yeah, we'll take you on and engage you." We need to know what their qualifications were. (18:16) When we look at Gideon, we see this man who is the least of the least with his tiny force. But what we also see is God said: "I will be with you." And so it's Gideon the nobody, tiny little force, but God with him. And that is what brought... broke the oppression for Israel. That's what brought freedom to those men and women and enabled them to step out of those caves, enabled them to plant crops, enabled them to go and, as Isaiah says here, "enlarge their nation and increase their joy." (18:55) So with Gideon, it's God is with him. But when we look at this child being born, this is God himself coming to this earth. This isn't somebody with God, this is God himself being born. All authority and power is his. He is the Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of his government and peace. He will be establishing and upholding his Kingdom of justice and righteousness. (19:30) Paul, when he was writing to the church in Philippi, he put it this way. He says: "Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but he made himself nothing" ...became a baby, totally dependent on Mum and Dad. "Made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore... Therefore God has exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 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 the Father." (20:25) See, that's his qualifications. That's why he is well able to bring about freedom from oppression. That's why he is well able to tackle the things that we've just talked about that so grip society today and grip our culture and grip our own lives. That is his qualifications. That's why he is the one able to shatter whatever yoke is on our lives, whatever bar is across our shoulders, and whatever type of oppression we are under. Our confidence is not in our abilities. It's not in our self-control. It's not in our self-discipline. Our confidence is not in government strategies. It's not even in church programs. But our confidence is in Jesus Christ and him alone. And that's why we can challenge the principalities and powers of this world—because of Him. (21:20) And there's two other things I just want to pull out quickly before we finish. In verse 6, Isaiah says to us: "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given." You see, what has been done to bring this light that Isaiah starts his message with... this great light, or to see that this light slowly dawning—what's been done to bring that has been given to us. (21:49) You see, when we read about Jesus in the Gospels, like in Matthew earlier, and we read about his three-year ministry, we don't see a man who was going around just doing his own thing. We don't see Jesus just doing what he wanted to do and that was it. No, we see him doing what the Father told him to do, but we see them doing that for us. He came to tell... teach us about the Kingdom of God. He came to teach us about what it is to repent and have our sins forgiven. He came to teach us what it is to live in a way that he calls us to. He came to... he demonstrated that with signs and wonders raising the dead, healing the sick, casting out demons, and bringing freedom to men and women's lives. (22:31) You see, when you were born, you were born into your family. You came to your family, in that sense. But this child has been given to us. That's good news! This Jesus has been born to us, for us. He's given to all of us. You see, God has reached down and come to us. That means he's come to you. And he's come to me. He has not remained distant. Nor has he sent somebody else in his place. You know, like if King Charles were going to write you a letter, it would be a postman that delivers it. He wouldn't come personally and give it to you. Yeah? That's not the way God works. He's come to us personally through his son Jesus. He's sent his one and only son Jesus to us that we may walk in light and that the hold of oppression on our lives may be broken. (23:25) But in coming to us... it demands a response, right? If you come to us—literally to me and Ange to our house—and ring the doorbell, it demands a response from us. We might think, "Uhh..." Shut the curtains? No, no, no, we wouldn't do that. We would open the door and welcome you in. But it demands a response; we have to respond. And in the same way, Jesus... [knocks on pulpit] ...comes to us, right? And it demands a response. Every time. (24:00) And we can reject him. And then we'll remain under the yoke that Isaiah is talking about. We'll remain seduced by the world around us and we'll succumb to the oppression that that world puts in our lives. Or... we can embrace this child. We can embrace this son. And surrender all to him and bow the knee. (24:26) And you might think, "Well does that matter?" Does that matter? Well Isaiah goes on in verse 7 and he says "Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end." In other words, it will grow, and grow, and grow. The government and peace of Jesus will grow and grow and grow. You see, Jesus did not remain a baby born in a stable. He did not remain even the man that walked this earth for three years preaching and teaching the Kingdom of God. He did not remain the man who laid down his life for you and for me on a cross. He did not even remain the man that God raised from the dead three days later and appeared to his disciples. But he is now seated at the right hand of God the Father. And all authority and all power has been given to him. And all things are under his feet. And countless millions have found that to be true ever since that day. (25:27) This Jesus has come to you, and to me. What is our response? And finally, Isaiah finishes this passage by saying "The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this." And you know what it is when you want to change something in your own life? And in your own circumstances? And how we can try harder? And we want to do things better? And we want to be more careful? And we want to work smarter? And in just two or three weeks some of us will be duped into making resolutions... and all that kind of stuff, right? But we tire. And we get lazy. And we lose our way. Or something unexpected happens and comes from stage left and thwarts us with what we're doing and we're all of a tailspin again. And we thought we were making progress, but so often it can feel like one step forward, ten steps back. (26:15) You see, this breaking of the oppression... this son coming... this increase of his government and peace and the growth of his justice and kingdom isn't like that. This light of dawn breaking upon our lives isn't like that. God isn't going to start this and then decide it's too hard. It's not that he looks at you or he looks at me and thinks, "Can't really help with that bit." It's not that he looks at you or I and thinks... and starts working in us but then gives up because he gets bored, like we might. Or because actually he's busier with some more important people. Doesn't do that. (26:50) Why? Because the zeal, the passion of the Lord for you and for I will accomplish this. It's not dependent on our efforts. It's dependent on him. The Creator and Sustainer of the universe. The one who lives in unapproachable light. Who knew your name before you were born. And who ordained all the days of your life before one of them came to pass. His zeal, his passion for you will accomplish this in your life and in my life. His zeal will see it through. (27:30) I'd like us just to spend a little bit more time in worship and just come before this Jesus. There's a couple of things that strike me about this passage that are interesting in terms of, you know... we're very keen to try and encourage engagement in terms of prayer and asking Jesus to bring about change in our lives, right? And apply that. But there's a theme here that God seems to use what on the surface appears insignificant, possibly even weak. When we talk about Gideon and his little force. We talk about a child being born in a stable. And in fact if you take that further and you talk about a man willingly letting himself be crucified on a cross. (28:20) There's a theme that in God bringing freedom for you and me, he uses what seems weak and insignificant. And lays down their lives. And it seems to me that in responding to him, to know that freedom, there's something about that that you and I need to do as well. We need to, in a sense, admit before Jesus that we are weak, actually. And that we want to lay down our lives. And that actually, before Jesus, we are insignificant. (28:55) And let's be honest, that's quite hard because we like to think, you know... we're not... we like to think we've got some strength and some oomph. But in responding to Jesus, it's about laying down our own lives. And coming to him in full surrender. But the second thing about this passage Isaiah says is that this is about a light that is dawning. You see we can read a passage like this and there's a danger of triumphalism. Of thinking "Yeah! Jesus is going to change everything! Right now! Boom, boom, boom!" And I know it's not like that. Life is hard for a lot of people. Even in this room this morning, life is hard. But the promise that is here... the hope... is that there is light dawning. There's not a promise of when the full day comes, right? But there is a promise of hope, of light dawning. And that is Jesus. (30:04) And so we come to him. I wonder if we could have the worship band back please? And if we're going to worship again... but I just want to encourage you to respond to Jesus. You know, he's knocking. You might have been a Christian for donkeys' years. Guess what? He's still knocking. He's still looking and wanting to break things in our lives that we would know his freedom and walk in the goodness of all that he has for us. Thanks, Steve.

April 26, 2025 - Equipped 2025 - Day 3 - 9:00AM Session   Richard leads a bible study Isaiah 3, 13, 53 and other passages which point as what an effective shepherd would look like. From a foundation of believes to actions, Richard explains and provides examples of shepherds.   2 Kings 15-21 - Azariah Reigns in Judah 15 In the twenty-seventh year of Jeroboam king of Israel, Azariah the son of Amaziah, king of Judah, became king. 2 He was sixteen years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jecholiah of Jerusalem. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father Amaziah had done, 4 except that the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. 5 Then the Lord struck the king, so that he was a leper until the day of his death; so he dwelt in an isolated house. And Jotham the king's son was over the royal house, judging the people of the land. 6 Now the rest of the acts of Azariah, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 7 So Azariah rested with his fathers, and they buried him with his fathers in the City of David. Then Jotham his son reigned in his place. Zechariah Reigns in Israel 8 In the thirty-eighth year of Azariah king of Judah, Zechariah the son of Jeroboam reigned over Israel in Samaria six months. 9 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his fathers had done; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 10 Then Shallum the son of Jabesh conspired against him, and struck and killed him in front of the people; and he reigned in his place. 11 Now the rest of the acts of Zechariah, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 12 This was the word of the Lord which He spoke to Jehu, saying, “Your sons shall sit on the throne of Israel to the fourth generation.” And so it was. Shallum Reigns in Israel 13 Shallum the son of Jabesh became king in the thirty-ninth year of Uzziah king of Judah; and he reigned a full month in Samaria. 14 For Menahem the son of Gadi went up from Tirzah, came to Samaria, and struck Shallum the son of Jabesh in Samaria and killed him; and he reigned in his place. 15 Now the rest of the acts of Shallum, and the conspiracy which he led, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. 16 Then from Tirzah, Menahem attacked Tiphsah, all who were there, and its territory. Because they did not surrender, therefore he attacked it. All the women there who were with child he ripped open. Menahem Reigns in Israel 17 In the thirty-ninth year of Azariah king of Judah, Menahem the son of Gadi became king over Israel, and reigned ten years in Samaria. 18 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart all his days from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 19 Pul king of Assyria came against the land; and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to strengthen the kingdom under his control. 20 And Menahem exacted the money from Israel, from all the very wealthy, from each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria turned back, and did not stay there in the land. 21 Now the rest of the acts of Menahem, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel? 22 So Menahem rested with his fathers. Then Pekahiah his son reigned in his place. Pekahiah Reigns in Israel 23 In the fiftieth year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekahiah the son of Menahem became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned two years. 24 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 25 Then Pekah the son of Remaliah, an officer of his, conspired against him and killed him in Samaria, in the citadel of the king's house, along with Argob and Arieh; and with him were fifty men of Gilead. He killed him and reigned in his place. 26 Now the rest of the acts of Pekahiah, and all that he did, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Pekah Reigns in Israel 27 In the fifty-second year of Azariah king of Judah, Pekah the son of Remaliah became king over Israel in Samaria, and reigned twenty years. 28 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord; he did not depart from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who had made Israel sin. 29 In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria came and took Ijon, Abel Beth Maachah, Janoah, Kedesh, Hazor, Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali; and he carried them captive to Assyria. 30 Then Hoshea the son of Elah led a conspiracy against Pekah the son of Remaliah, and struck and killed him; so he reigned in his place in the twentieth year of Jotham the son of Uzziah. 31 Now the rest of the acts of Pekah, and all that he did, indeed they are written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Israel. Jotham Reigns in Judah 32 In the second year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, Jotham the son of Uzziah, king of Judah, began to reign. 33 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Jerusha the daughter of Zadok. 34 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord; he did according to all that his father Uzziah had done. 35 However the high places were not removed; the people still sacrificed and burned incense on the high places. He built the Upper Gate of the house of the Lord. 36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 37 In those days the Lord began to send Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah against Judah. 38 So Jotham rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David his father. Then Ahaz his son reigned in his place. Ahaz Reigns in Judah 16 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah, Ahaz the son of Jotham, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 Ahaz was twenty years old when he became king, and he reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem; and he did not do what was right in the sight of the Lord his God, as his father David had done. 3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel; indeed he made his son pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel. 4 And he sacrificed and burned incense on the high places, on the hills, and under every green tree. 5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria captured Elath for Syria, and drove the men of Judah from Elath. Then the Edomites went to Elath, and dwell there to this day. 7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, saying, “I am your servant and your son. Come up and save me from the hand of the king of Syria and from the hand of the king of Israel, who rise up against me.” 8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the Lord, and in the treasuries of the king's house, and sent it as a present to the king of Assyria. 9 So the king of Assyria heeded him; for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus and took it, carried its people captive to Kir, and killed Rezin. 10 Now King Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglath-Pileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus; and King Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the design of the altar and its pattern, according to all its workmanship. 11 Then Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that King Ahaz had sent from Damascus. So Urijah the priest made it before King Ahaz came back from Damascus. 12 And when the king came back from Damascus, the king saw the altar; and the king approached the altar and made offerings on it. 13 So he burned his burnt offering and his grain offering; and he poured his drink offering and sprinkled the blood of his peace offerings on the altar. 14 He also brought the bronze altar which was before the Lord, from the front of the temple—from between the new altar and the house of the Lord—and put it on the north side of the new altar. 15 Then King Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, “On the great new altar burn the morning burnt offering, the evening grain offering, the king's burnt sacrifice, and his grain offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, their grain offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle on it all the blood of the burnt offering and all the blood of the sacrifice. And the bronze altar shall be for me to inquire by.” 16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that King Ahaz commanded. 17 And King Ahaz cut off the panels of the carts, and removed the lavers from them; and he took down the Sea from the bronze oxen that were under it, and put it on a pavement of stones. 18 Also he removed the Sabbath pavilion which they had built in the temple, and he removed the king's outer entrance from the house of the Lord, on account of the king of Assyria. 19 Now the rest of the acts of Ahaz which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 20 So Ahaz rested with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the City of David. Then Hezekiah his son reigned in his place. Hoshea Reigns in Israel 17 In the twelfth year of Ahaz king of Judah, Hoshea the son of Elah became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years. 2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, but not as the kings of Israel who were before him. 3 Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against him; and Hoshea became his vassal, and paid him tribute money. 4 And the king of Assyria uncovered a conspiracy by Hoshea; for he had sent messengers to So, king of Egypt, and brought no tribute to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year. Therefore the king of Assyria shut him up, and bound him in prison. Israel Carried Captive to Assyria 5 Now the king of Assyria went throughout all the land, and went up to Samaria and besieged it for three years. 6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria and carried Israel away to Assyria, and placed them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes. 7 For so it was that the children of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods, 8 and had walked in the statutes of the nations whom the Lord had cast out from before the children of Israel, and of the kings of Israel, which they had made. 9 Also the children of Israel secretly did against the Lord their God things that were not right, and they built for themselves high places in all their cities, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 They set up for themselves sacred pillars and wooden images on every high hill and under every green tree. 11 There they burned incense on all the high places, like the nations whom the Lord had carried away before them; and they did wicked things to provoke the Lord to anger, 12 for they served idols, of which the Lord had said to them, “You shall not do this thing.” 13 Yet the Lord testified against Israel and against Judah, by all of His prophets, every seer, saying, “Turn from your evil ways, and keep My commandments and My statutes, according to all the law which I commanded your fathers, and which I sent to you by My servants the prophets.” 14 Nevertheless they would not hear, but stiffened their necks, like the necks of their fathers, who did not believe in the Lord their God. 15 And they rejected His statutes and His covenant that He had made with their fathers, and His testimonies which He had testified against them; they followed idols, became idolaters, and went after the nations who were all around them, concerning whom the Lord had charged them that they should not do like them. 16 So they left all the commandments of the Lord their God, made for themselves a molded image and two calves, made a wooden image and worshiped all the host of heaven, and served Baal. 17 And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 18 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them from His sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah alone. 19 Also Judah did not keep the commandments of the Lord their God, but walked in the statutes of Israel which they made. 20 And the Lord rejected all the descendants of Israel, afflicted them, and delivered them into the hand of plunderers, until He had cast them from His sight. 21 For He tore Israel from the house of David, and they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel from following the Lord, and made them commit a great sin. 22 For the children of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them, 23 until the Lord removed Israel out of His sight, as He had said by all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away from their own land to Assyria, as it is to this day. Assyria Resettles Samaria 24 Then the king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and from Sepharvaim, and placed them in the cities of Samaria instead of the children of Israel; and they took possession of Samaria and dwelt in its cities. 25 And it was so, at the beginning of their dwelling there, that they did not fear the Lord; therefore the Lord sent lions among them, which killed some of them. 26 So they spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, “The nations whom you have removed and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the rituals of the God of the land; therefore He has sent lions among them, and indeed, they are killing them because they do not know the rituals of the God of the land.” 27 Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, “Send there one of the priests whom you brought from there; let him go and dwell there, and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land.” 28 Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the Lord. 29 However every nation continued to make gods of its own, and put them in the shrines on the high places which the Samaritans had made, every nation in the cities where they dwelt. 30 The men of Babylon made Succoth Benoth, the men of Cuth made Nergal, the men of Hamath made Ashima, 31 and the Avites made Nibhaz and Tartak; and the Sepharvites burned their children in fire to Adrammelech and Anammelech, the gods of Sepharvaim. 32 So they feared the Lord, and from every class they appointed for themselves priests of the high places, who sacrificed for them in the shrines of the high places. 33 They feared the Lord, yet served their own gods—according to the rituals of the nations from among whom they were carried away. 34 To this day they continue practicing the former rituals; they do not fear the Lord, nor do they follow their statutes or their ordinances, or the law and commandment which the Lord had commanded the children of Jacob, whom He named Israel, 35 with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying: “You shall not fear other gods, nor bow down to them nor serve them nor sacrifice to them; 36 but the Lord, who brought you up from the land of Egypt with great power and an outstretched arm, Him you shall fear, Him you shall worship, and to Him you shall offer sacrifice. 37 And the statutes, the ordinances, the law, and the commandment which He wrote for you, you shall be careful to observe forever; you shall not fear other gods. 38 And the covenant that I have made with you, you shall not forget, nor shall you fear other gods. 39 But the Lord your God you shall fear; and He will deliver you from the hand of all your enemies.” 40 However they did not obey, but they followed their former rituals. 41 So these nations feared the Lord, yet served their carved images; also their children and their children's children have continued doing as their fathers did, even to this day. Hezekiah Reigns in Judah 18 Now it came to pass in the third year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, began to reign. 2 He was twenty-five years old when he became king, and he reigned twenty-nine years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Abi the daughter of Zechariah. 3 And he did what was right in the sight of the Lord, according to all that his father David had done. 4 He removed the high places and broke the sacred pillars, cut down the wooden image and broke in pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made; for until those days the children of Israel burned incense to it, and called it Nehushtan. 5 He trusted in the Lord God of Israel, so that after him was none like him among all the kings of Judah, nor who were before him. 6 For he held fast to the Lord; he did not depart from following Him, but kept His commandments, which the Lord had commanded Moses. 7 The Lord was with him; he prospered wherever he went. And he rebelled against the king of Assyria and did not serve him. 8 He subdued the Philistines, as far as Gaza and its territory, from watchtower to fortified city. 9 Now it came to pass in the fourth year of King Hezekiah, which was the seventh year of Hoshea the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria and besieged it. 10 And at the end of three years they took it. In the sixth year of Hezekiah, that is, the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 11 Then the king of Assyria carried Israel away captive to Assyria, and put them in Halah and by the Habor, the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes, 12 because they did not obey the voice of the Lord their God, but transgressed His covenant and all that Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded; and they would neither hear nor do them. 13 And in the fourteenth year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria came up against all the fortified cities of Judah and took them. 14 Then Hezekiah king of Judah sent to the king of Assyria at Lachish, saying, “I have done wrong; turn away from me; whatever you impose on me I will pay.” And the king of Assyria assessed Hezekiah king of Judah three hundred talents of silver and thirty talents of gold. 15 So Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the Lord and in the treasuries of the king's house. 16 At that time Hezekiah stripped the gold from the doors of the temple of the Lord, and from the pillars which Hezekiah king of Judah had overlaid, and gave it to the king of Assyria. Sennacherib Boasts Against the Lord 17 Then the king of Assyria sent the Tartan, the Rabsaris, and the Rabshakeh from Lachish, with a great army against Jerusalem, to King Hezekiah. And they went up and came to Jerusalem. When they had come up, they went and stood by the aqueduct from the upper pool, which was on the highway to the Fuller's Field. 18 And when they had called to the king, Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came out to them. 19 Then the Rabshakeh said to them, “Say now to Hezekiah, ‘Thus says the great king, the king of Assyria: “What confidence is this in which you trust? 20 You speak of having plans and power for war; but they are mere words. And in whom do you trust, that you rebel against me? 21 Now look! You are trusting in the staff of this broken reed, Egypt, on which if a man leans, it will go into his hand and pierce it. So is Pharaoh king of Egypt to all who trust in him. 22 But if you say to me, ‘We trust in the Lord our God,' is it not He whose high places and whose altars Hezekiah has taken away, and said to Judah and Jerusalem, ‘You shall worship before this altar in Jerusalem'?” ' 23 Now therefore, I urge you, give a pledge to my master the king of Assyria, and I will give you two thousand horses—if you are able on your part to put riders on them! 24 How then will you repel one captain of the least of my master's servants, and put your trust in Egypt for chariots and horsemen? 25 Have I now come up without the Lord against this place to destroy it? The Lord said to me, ‘Go up against this land, and destroy it.' ” 26 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, Shebna, and Joah said to the Rabshakeh, “Please speak to your servants in Aramaic, for we understand it; and do not speak to us in Hebrew in the hearing of the people who are on the wall.” 27 But the Rabshakeh said to them, “Has my master sent me to your master and to you to speak these words, and not to the men who sit on the wall, who will eat and drink their own waste with you?” 28 Then the Rabshakeh stood and called out with a loud voice in Hebrew, and spoke, saying, “Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria! 29 Thus says the king: ‘Do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he shall not be able to deliver you from his hand; 30 nor let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord, saying, “The Lord will surely deliver us; this city shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” ' 31 Do not listen to Hezekiah; for thus says the king of Assyria: ‘Make peace with me by a present and come out to me; and every one of you eat from his own vine and every one from his own fig tree, and every one of you drink the waters of his own cistern; 32 until I come and take you away to a land like your own land, a land of grain and new wine, a land of bread and vineyards, a land of olive groves and honey, that you may live and not die. But do not listen to Hezekiah, lest he persuade you, saying, “The Lord will deliver us.” 33 Has any of the gods of the nations at all delivered its land from the hand of the king of Assyria? 34 Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim and Hena and Ivah? Indeed, have they delivered Samaria from my hand? 35 Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their countries from my hand, that the Lord should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?' ” 36 But the people held their peace and answered him not a word; for the king's commandment was, “Do not answer him.” 37 Then Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and Joah the son of Asaph, the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn, and told him the words of the Rabshakeh. Isaiah Assures Deliverance 19 And so it was, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he tore his clothes, covered himself with sackcloth, and went into the house of the Lord. 2 Then he sent Eliakim, who was over the household, Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. 3 And they said to him, “Thus says Hezekiah: ‘This day is a day of trouble, and rebuke, and blasphemy; for the children have come to birth, but there is no strength to bring them forth. 4 It may be that the Lord your God will hear all the words of the Rabshakeh, whom his master the king of Assyria has sent to reproach the living God, and will rebuke the words which the Lord your God has heard. Therefore lift up your prayer for the remnant that is left.' ” 5 So the servants of King Hezekiah came to Isaiah. 6 And Isaiah said to them, “Thus you shall say to your master, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Do not be afraid of the words which you have heard, with which the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed Me. 7 Surely I will send a spirit upon him, and he shall hear a rumor and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.” ' ” Sennacherib's Threat and Hezekiah's Prayer 8 Then the Rabshakeh returned and found the king of Assyria warring against Libnah, for he heard that he had departed from Lachish. 9 And the king heard concerning Tirhakah king of Ethiopia, “Look, he has come out to make war with you.” So he again sent messengers to Hezekiah, saying, 10 “Thus you shall speak to Hezekiah king of Judah, saying: ‘Do not let your God in whom you trust deceive you, saying, “Jerusalem shall not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.” 11 Look! You have heard what the kings of Assyria have done to all lands by utterly destroying them; and shall you be delivered? 12 Have the gods of the nations delivered those whom my fathers have destroyed, Gozan and Haran and Rezeph, and the people of Eden who were in Telassar? 13 Where is the king of Hamath, the king of Arpad, and the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivah?' ” 14 And Hezekiah received the letter from the hand of the messengers, and read it; and Hezekiah went up to the house of the Lord, and spread it before the Lord. 15 Then Hezekiah prayed before the Lord, and said: “O Lord God of Israel, the One who dwells between the cherubim, You are God, You alone, of all the kingdoms of the earth. You have made heaven and earth. 16 Incline Your ear, O Lord, and hear; open Your eyes, O Lord, and see; and hear the words of Sennacherib, which he has sent to reproach the living God. 17 Truly, Lord, the kings of Assyria have laid waste the nations and their lands, 18 and have cast their gods into the fire; for they were not gods, but the work of men's hands—wood and stone. Therefore they destroyed them. 19 Now therefore, O Lord our God, I pray, save us from his hand, that all the kingdoms of the earth may know that You are the Lord God, You alone.” The Word of the Lord Concerning Sennacherib 20 Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah, saying, “Thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Because you have prayed to Me against Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard.' 21 This is the word which the Lord has spoken concerning him: ‘The virgin, the daughter of Zion, Has despised you, laughed you to scorn; The daughter of Jerusalem Has shaken her head behind your back! 22 ‘Whom have you reproached and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice, And lifted up your eyes on high? Against the Holy One of Israel. 23 By your messengers you have reproached the Lord, And said: “By the multitude of my chariots I have come up to the height of the mountains, To the limits of Lebanon; I will cut down its tall cedars And its choice cypress trees; I will enter the extremity of its borders, To its fruitful forest. 24 I have dug and drunk strange water, And with the soles of my feet I have dried up All the brooks of defense.” 25 ‘Did you not hear long ago How I made it, From ancient times that I formed it? Now I have brought it to pass, That you should be For crushing fortified cities into heaps of ruins. 26 Therefore their inhabitants had little power; They were dismayed and confounded; They were as the grass of the field And the green herb, As the grass on the housetops And grain blighted before it is grown. 27 ‘But I know your dwelling place, Your going out and your coming in, And your rage against Me. 28 Because your rage against Me and your tumult Have come up to My ears, Therefore I will put My hook in your nose And My bridle in your lips, And I will turn you back By the way which you came. 29 ‘This shall be a sign to you: ‘You shall eat this year such as grows of itself, And in the second year what springs from the same; Also in the third year sow and reap, Plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. 30 And the remnant who have escaped of the house of Judah Shall again take root downward, And bear fruit upward. 31 For out of Jerusalem shall go a remnant, And those who escape from Mount Zion. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.' 32 “Therefore thus says the Lord concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He shall not come into this city, Nor shoot an arrow there, Nor come before it with shield, Nor build a siege mound against it. 33 By the way that he came, By the same shall he return; And he shall not come into this city,' Says the Lord. 34 ‘For I will defend this city, to save it For My own sake and for My servant David's sake.' ” Sennacherib's Defeat and Death 35 And it came to pass on a certain night that the angel of the Lord went out, and killed in the camp of the Assyrians one hundred and eighty-five thousand; and when people arose early in the morning, there were the corpses—all dead. 36 So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed and went away, returned home, and remained at Nineveh. 37 Now it came to pass, as he was worshiping in the temple of Nisroch his god, that his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer struck him down with the sword; and they escaped into the land of Ararat. Then Esarhaddon his son reigned in his place. Hezekiah's Life Extended 20 In those days Hezekiah was sick and near death. And Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, went to him and said to him, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Set your house in order, for you shall die, and not live.' ” 2 Then he turned his face toward the wall, and prayed to the Lord, saying, 3 “Remember now, O Lord, I pray, how I have walked before You in truth and with a loyal heart, and have done what was good in Your sight.” And Hezekiah wept bitterly. 4 And it happened, before Isaiah had gone out into the middle court, that the word of the Lord came to him, saying, 5 “Return and tell Hezekiah the leader of My people, ‘Thus says the Lord, the God of David your father: “I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; surely I will heal you. On the third day you shall go up to the house of the Lord. 6 And I will add to your days fifteen years. I will deliver you and this city from the hand of the king of Assyria; and I will defend this city for My own sake, and for the sake of My servant David.” ' ” 7 Then Isaiah said, “Take a lump of figs.” So they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered. 8 And Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me, and that I shall go up to the house of the Lord the third day?” 9 Then Isaiah said, “This is the sign to you from the Lord, that the Lord will do the thing which He has spoken: shall the shadow go forward ten degrees or go backward ten degrees?” 10 And Hezekiah answered, “It is an easy thing for the shadow to go down ten degrees; no, but let the shadow go backward ten degrees.” 11 So Isaiah the prophet cried out to the Lord, and He brought the shadow ten degrees backward, by which it had gone down on the sundial of Ahaz. The Babylonian Envoys 12 At that time Berodach-Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah, for he heard that Hezekiah had been sick. 13 And Hezekiah was attentive to them, and showed them all the house of his treasures—the silver and gold, the spices and precious ointment, and all his armory—all that was found among his treasures. There was nothing in his house or in all his dominion that Hezekiah did not show them. 14 Then Isaiah the prophet went to King Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say, and from where did they come to you?” So Hezekiah said, “They came from a far country, from Babylon.” 15 And he said, “What have they seen in your house?” So Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house; there is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.” 16 Then Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of the Lord: 17 ‘Behold, the days are coming when all that is in your house, and what your fathers have accumulated until this day, shall be carried to Babylon; nothing shall be left,' says the Lord. 18 ‘And they shall take away some of your sons who will descend from you, whom you will beget; and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon.' ” 19 So Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord which you have spoken is good!” For he said, “Will there not be peace and truth at least in my days?” Death of Hezekiah 20 Now the rest of the acts of Hezekiah—all his might, and how he made a pool and a tunnel and brought water into the city—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 21 So Hezekiah rested with his fathers. Then Manasseh his son reigned in his place. Manasseh Reigns in Judah 21 Manasseh was twelve years old when he became king, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Hephzibah. 2 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, according to the abominations of the nations whom the Lord had cast out before the children of Israel. 3 For he rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had destroyed; he raised up altars for Baal, and made a wooden image, as Ahab king of Israel had done; and he worshiped all the host of heaven and served them. 4 He also built altars in the house of the Lord, of which the Lord had said, “In Jerusalem I will put My name.” 5 And he built altars for all the host of heaven in the two courts of the house of the Lord. 6 Also he made his son pass through the fire, practiced soothsaying, used witchcraft, and consulted spiritists and mediums. He did much evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger. 7 He even set a carved image of Asherah that he had made, in the house of which the Lord had said to David and to Solomon his son, “In this house and in Jerusalem, which I have chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, I will put My name forever; 8 and I will not make the feet of Israel wander anymore from the land which I gave their fathers—only if they are careful to do according to all that I have commanded them, and according to all the law that My servant Moses commanded them.” 9 But they paid no attention, and Manasseh seduced them to do more evil than the nations whom the Lord had destroyed before the children of Israel. 10 And the Lord spoke by His servants the prophets, saying, 11 “Because Manasseh king of Judah has done these abominations (he has acted more wickedly than all the Amorites who were before him, and has also made Judah sin with his idols), 12 therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel: ‘Behold, I am bringing such calamity upon Jerusalem and Judah, that whoever hears of it, both his ears will tingle. 13 And I will stretch over Jerusalem the measuring line of Samaria and the plummet of the house of Ahab; I will wipe Jerusalem as one wipes a dish, wiping it and turning it upside down. 14 So I will forsake the remnant of My inheritance and deliver them into the hand of their enemies; and they shall become victims of plunder to all their enemies, 15 because they have done evil in My sight, and have provoked Me to anger since the day their fathers came out of Egypt, even to this day.' ” 16 Moreover Manasseh shed very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem from one end to another, besides his sin by which he made Judah sin, in doing evil in the sight of the Lord. 17 Now the rest of the acts of Manasseh—all that he did, and the sin that he committed—are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 18 So Manasseh rested with his fathers, and was buried in the garden of his own house, in the garden of Uzza. Then his son Amon reigned in his place. Amon's Reign and Death 19 Amon was twenty-two years old when he became king, and he reigned two years in Jerusalem. His mother's name was Meshullemeth the daughter of Haruz of Jotbah. 20 And he did evil in the sight of the Lord, as his father Manasseh had done. 21 So he walked in all the ways that his father had walked; and he served the idols that his father had served, and worshiped them. 22 He forsook the Lord God of his fathers, and did not walk in the way of the Lord. 23 Then the servants of Amon conspired against him, and killed the king in his own house. 24 But the people of the land executed all those who had conspired against King Amon. Then the people of the land made his son Josiah king in his place. 25 Now the rest of the acts of Amon which he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 26 And he was buried in his tomb in the garden of Uzza. Then Josiah his son reigned in his place.       Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KYpEm7AL4fU   Duration 40:15

4. Messiah's Encouragement Isaiah 51:9 - 52:12 Please do read Isaiah 51:9 to 52:12 Be Encouraged People of God! In the first few verses of Isaiah 51, we see that faith is nurtured by listening and hearing. People are encouraged to look back and see what God has done with just one man, Abraham! How from him came an entire nation! This bodes well for the future when all history is consummated - have faith in your God who will lead you into the next world! But for now, don't be afraid of what other people will do - stay close to God, have faith in Him, trust Him patiently and live obedient and righteous lives. For as verse 6 states "my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." Then we come to a mounting anticipation with baited breath. Quickly the phrase "awake awake" is repeated, as if to give a sense of urgency. The exodus from Egypt, an event remembered well by the nation of Israel and alluded to in verses 9 & 10 of chapter 51, will be surpassed by a new age of righteousness at the end of time. All those "ransomed by the Lord", those set free by God will enter the city of God with joyous singing which will be their crown! Sorrow and sadness will no longer exist! Gladness and joy will be triumphant! Alleluia! Despite many obstacles in the way, the Lord God will reign triumphant. His Messiah, His Servant will deliver you. His Servant will be triumphant. Wake up! Note that the people themselves are to wake up, not the Lord God or His Servant! All that will be fulfilled is not waiting for God, but waiting for people and their spiritual inertia! It's their unwillingness to be obedient to God that is stopping the fulfillment of history! While Isaiah is clearly eager, it seems the nation of Israel is not - they have forgotten about their awesome and Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth! So Isaiah shouts out "Wake up!!" I am your God and you are my people is to remind Israel of the covenant that exists between themselves and God! It is a covenant that signifies relationship, care and commitment! Israel may have forgotten this, but God had not! God is in the relationship, He is trustworthy and faithful, so therefore there is no need to fear! God's commitment is faultless and worthy of obedience! This commitment deserves active obedience on the part of the people of Israel and not their overwhelming spiritual laziness. While overwhelming fear inhibits and destructs, the love of God frees. Isaiah urges them to live an active and obedient life worthy of their freedom and not a life of spiritual inertia and rebellion. One last time, Isaiah urges action when crying "Awake! Awake!" in 52:1. Salvation is nearing and coming quickly, are you ready? Be alert, people of Israel and live as if you are the freed people of God and not as if you are rebellious captors. Be ready, just as your ancestors were the night before the Exodus from Egypt commenced. Be expectant and ready. One difference to note. With the exodus, the Israelites took what they could from the Egyptians - gold, silver, jewelry and clothing. This time, everything will be left behind. All this bears in the mind the Servant. The Servant, who as a King dispenses justice and as a Prophet speaks for God, will usher in this new period. When Isaiah writes in 52:11 "Depart, depart, go out from there", he must be urging people to respond to the Servant. Respond by living a holy and righteous life of obedience to God as one who is on a lifelong pilgrimage. Stop rebelling against Him and love Him who first loved them. Where is Jesus in this? Jesus during his earthly ministry always urged people to be active in obedience to God. Jesus comforted the lonely, oppressed, the weak and the poor. He urged people to come back into relationship with God. With a sense of urgency, He told people to be ready and alert for the day when history will end. Jesus urged his listeners to be spiritually awake. Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." Jesus who remarkably stated in John 8:34-36 "Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed." When Jesus Christ the Servant King comes back, He will come back like a thief in the night - with surprise! But for those who love and trust in Him, it will be a day of gladness and joy because their King will have returned to gather them. This Jesus who in Mark1:15 issued these words ""The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!" Truly we concur with Isaiah when he wrote in Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!"" Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, through whom is salvation alone. Right mouse click or tap here to save this Podcast as a MP3.

This week on Breaking Battlegrounds, Chuck and Sam are joined by friend of the show, Chris Wilson. Later in the program, Maya MacGuineas of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget calls in to talk about Bidenomics and our growing national debt.-Prior to starting WPA Intelligence in 2004, Chris Wilson was Global Director of Research for Weber Shandwick International, the world's largest public relations firm at the time.In 2021 Chris was named Pollster of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants for his work directing survey research and predictive analytics on the Glenn Youngkin for Governor of Virginia campaign. In 2019 he was named Technology Leader of the year by Campaigns & Elections magazine.In 2016, as the Director of Research, Analytics and Digital Strategy for the Cruz for President campaign, Chris is credited for playing a key role in Cruz's triumph in Iowa and helping the Texas Senator finish with the most delegates earned by a 2nd place finisher since Ronald Reagan in 1976. Wilson and WPAi work with organizations like the Club for Growth, Freedom Works, Family Research Council, the Republican National Committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee and the National Republican Congressional Committee providing data and polling.WPAi's data management platform, Bonfire, has become the dominant desktop as a service tool for conservative candidates and organizations from US Senate down to school board. Bonfire has leveled the playing field with the progressive left when it comes to the important use of predictive analytics by those on the right.Perhaps most importantly, for six consecutive cycles, WPAi clients have outperformed the partisan average win ratio in both their primary and general election contests by double digits.An Oklahoma native, Chris is a graduate of University of Oklahoma and remains an avid Sooner fan. In the rare instances that Chris isn't working, he enjoys watching OU and Cornell College, where his son Denver is the starting quarterback, football, spending time with his five children, reading, and racking up impressive amounts of frequent flyer miles.Chris is a regular political analyst on Fox News.-Maya MacGuineas is the president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Her areas of expertise include budget, tax, and economic policy. As a leading budget expert and a political independent, she has worked closely with members of both parties and serves as a trusted resource on Capitol Hill. MacGuineas testifies regularly before Congress and has published broadly, including regularly in The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, The Financial Times, The Atlantic, and numerous other outlets. She also appears regularly as a commentator on television.MacGuineas oversees a number of the Committee's projects including the grassroots coalition Fix the Debt; the Committee's Fiscal Institute; and FixUS, a project seeking to better understand the root causes of our nation's growing divisions and deteriorating political system, and to work with others to bring attention to these issues and the need to fix them. Her most recent area of focus is on the future of the economy, technology, and capitalism.Previously, MacGuineas worked at the Brookings Institution and on Wall Street, and in the spring of 2009 she did a stint on The Washington Post editorial board, covering economic and fiscal policy. MacGuineas serves on a number of boards and is a native Washingtonian.-Connect with us:www.breakingbattlegrounds.voteTwitter: www.twitter.com/Breaking_BattleFacebook: www.facebook.com/breakingbattlegroundsInstagram: www.instagram.com/breakingbattlegroundsLinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/breakingbattlegrounds-TranscriptionSam Stone: [00:00:11] Welcome to another episode of Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Our first guest up today, Chris Wilson, founder and CEO of WPA Intelligence. Prior to starting WPA in 2004, Chris was global director of research for Weber Shandwick International, the world's largest public relations firm. At the time, in 2021, he was named Pollster of the Year by the American Association of Political Consultants for his work directing, survey, research and predictive analysis. Analytics. Can't speak this morning on the Glenn Youngkin for Governor of Virginia campaign. In 2019, he was named Technology Leader of the Year by campaigns and elections. Awfully impressive resume. Chris, thank you again for joining us and welcome back to the program.Chris Wilson: [00:00:55] Well, thanks. I made it all up and sent it to you. You know, that's actually real. So wannabes out there, that's okay. That's okay. It's 2023. You can do whatever you want. Now, this is radio.Sam Stone: [00:01:01] We're good with fluff. So.Chris Wilson: [00:01:03] Exactly. Before we get to before we get talking some politics, tell us a little bit. Your son's playing at University of Oklahoma and playing quarterback, right? Well, no, they actually moved him to tight end. So really appreciate you asking. Yeah, I actually played quarterback his whole life. I was recruited out of high school to a small college in Iowa as a quarterback, but decided he wanted to come home. And it was a long story, actually. I ran into former Oklahoma coach Bob Stoops at a fundraiser for Kevin Stitt, who's a client of mine, the governor of Oklahoma. And they got to talking. And one thing led to another. You know, Stoops is a walk on wide receiver. Stoops, the son, is a walk on wide receiver at Oklahoma. And he was they were talking about that. And so. Denver yeah, he moved back and and walked on in the in the spring and you got to play about probably two thirds of the snaps in the spring game and we'll see. I have high hopes for him. The kid works his tail off and he's really a proud dad.Sam Stone: [00:01:56] Quarterback move into any kind of receiver position You just up your chance to get drafted by Bill Belichick. That's right. That's all there is to it.Chris Wilson: [00:02:02] That's right yeah that's Yeah. Six three about £210 tight end. You can get out there and rumble a little bit. Yeah. There you go. Um.Chuck Warren: [00:02:10] What a wonderful experience. I know you're a big University of Oklahoma fan, so that's probably extra pleasure for you seeing your boy out there.Chris Wilson: [00:02:16] Yeah, it's. Yeah, it's very cool. I'm pretty excited.Chuck Warren: [00:02:18] That's very cool.Chris Wilson: [00:02:19] And, you know, they'll be out playing at BYU this year.Chuck Warren: [00:02:20] That's right. We're going to see you out there for dinner. Looking forward to it. You'll you'll enjoy the Provo experience. All right. We're going to play a clip real quick. We'll click here real quick here. We'll click on Kamala Harris's word salad yesterday about culture. Jeremy, go ahead.Kamala Harris: [00:02:33] Well, I think culture is it is a reflection of our moment and our time. Right. And and and present culture is the way we express how we're feeling about the moment. And and we should always find times to express how we feel about the moment. That is a reflection of joy because, you know, it comes in the morning. We have we have to find ways to also express the way we feel about the moment in terms of just having language and a connection to how people are experiencing life. And I think about it in that way, too.Chuck Warren: [00:03:14] So Kamala reminds me a lot of your either Sam in elementary school asked to give a book report in front of the class, and we had not read the book. I mean, that's basically what she talks like, right? It's just many words as possible. So my question for you is, and you've done so much polling for so many years, does the vice presidency even matter anymore in regarding how we view the presidency? I mean, because who no one takes her serious. I mean, polling shows that.Sam Stone: [00:03:41] Kamala Harris brought to you by White Claw. Yeah, yeah.Chris Wilson: [00:03:44] Yeah. It's a word salad against word. Salad is a bad name. And she doesn't she clearly has no idea what she's talking about. And anytime she starts ripping on time or moments, you know, it's going to get good fast. Right. And it's also it's it's cringe worthy in the sense that even if you disagree with her and are are sort of watching sitting back going, okay this is now people are going to realize who she is. You're also thinking how embarrassing for the United States of America that this woman is in the second highest office. I guess it's arguable, but one of the highest offices in the land. And she can't deliver a simple sentence without a without embarrassing herself. And then the in the morning and then she does that cackle thing. It's really embarrassing and it's embarrassing for the administration. And somebody's got to just cut her off. They need to travel around like one of those big hooks that they used to have on game shows back in the 50s and 60s and just kind of pull her off stage before she goes so far that the dollar starts losing value.Chuck Warren: [00:04:47] But so my question. Yeah, I mean, so does she prove that who we So you're working for the superPAC for Ron DeSantis, correct? I am. That's correct. So you've you've I'm sure this is not the primary object of your research, but I'm sure you've thought about who's the best fix for him. Right. Do you think unless you get a real popular governor in a battleground state who actually has a. Political organization. Do they really matter at all?Chris Wilson: [00:05:14] Well, you kind of you kind of answered the question with your preamble to the question is, yes, it can matter a lot. Did it matter for Joe Biden? No, because it was an affirmative action pick, sort of like his Supreme Court pick was. He made it very clear that he was looking for an African-American woman and he just wanted somebody to fill that role. And so does it matter? Let's go back a step, though, is remember, whenever Joe Biden was rolling very damaged into South Carolina and he got the endorsement of a very important member of Congress by committing to that member of Congress that he would appoint a black woman as BP and or as to the Supreme Court. And things turned around for him there, because that vote constituency matters in the Democratic primary in South Carolina. So he went from someone who was in danger, grave danger of coming in distant in the primaries, as he had in Iowa and New Hampshire, to moving back into the frontrunner status. So it mattered to him in the primary. And did it matter in the general for him? No, it didn't. But I think you could argue that you can look at past picks that did have a strong impact. And I think about Lloyd Bentsen, even though he lost, but for Michael Dukakis had a big impact for him in 88, probably made a pretty significant difference. I think Al Gore had a big impact for Bill Clinton. He was able to deliver Tennessee. It's the last time, you know, Tennessee went for a Democrat.Sam Stone: [00:06:43] And and there are certainly been picks that that had impact. Kamala, though, Chris, I have to ask, I mean, I don't remember her being this incoherent previously. And it's not age like Joe Biden. So what the heck is going on? Or did we all just miss it? And she actually was this this absolutely this big a mess?Chris Wilson: [00:07:07] Well, I don't think many people paid attention to her as a senator from California or an attorney general from California. And the good thing about being a prosecutor is you're one. You don't really do much prosecuting in those roles. You have people who do it for you to your lines are pretty scripted before you walk out there. And when she's on script, she's not bad. I mean, she can deliver a good speech, but it's just whenever she starts riffing and I think she's developed a little bit too much confidence in her ability to do so. And so that's how you end up with this sort of common the sort of ongoing, embarrassing moments that you saw. I think it was yesterday when she gave the cringe speech.Sam Stone: [00:07:41] How does someone not pull her aside on her staff and be like, this is terrible, you need to fix this?Chris Wilson: [00:07:48] Well, have you read much about the situation with their staff? I mean, every time they do a camera angle, they all are just sitting there staring at you want to blink if they need help. And it's I feel like there is there's probably not anyone who can deal with her in that way. That's on her staff. She just seems to be one of those horrible bosses that just runs through people on an ongoing basis. And it's a it's an unfortunate story. And, you know, it's I often joke around that being a Democrat press secretary has got to be the easiest job on the planet. And this is certainly a representation of that because you think through what if we had if you were working for someone like that, Chuck, and you're doing political campaigns on a major level, or if I was today, there's no way you could survive that kind of situation. So you have one misstep word or, you know, you think back to whenever. Whenever Dan Quayle put an extra two E on potato because that was on the card in front of him. And it was a story that went on for weeks, if not months. And she's able to just roll right through this stuff as if it's we're being unfair or overly critical by by analyzing the fact that she can't put together a simple sentence about what culture is or what time is or what moments are.Chuck Warren: [00:08:58] All right. Let's go. Let's talk. Let's talk presidency. What issues do you feel are the winning issues for whoever the Republican candidate will be to defeat Joe Biden?Chris Wilson: [00:09:12] I think that starts and almost ends with the economy. You've got to understand that, that Americans are hurting. The price of everything has gone up substantially under Joe Biden, that the price is almost cost prohibitive for people to be able to commute to work on an ongoing basis. And that's by design, frankly, by the Biden administration. And so those are the those are the contrasts that have to be drawn and that and they're important. It's really just the overall significance, the overall ability of America to continue to succeed is is incumbent is dependent on that. And so I'd say that's number one. And if you were to go to a second point, I think there is a little bit of building, not a little bit, but there's a lot of rebuilding America's stature in the world after the withdrawal in Afghanistan, the way China has acted toward us, the way that Russia has acted toward us, there is just a complete dismissal of the United States as a foreign power at this point. I think that's an that is an important aspect, someone who can reclaim that. And I think there is another important aspect is just the overall important issue is the ability of parents to raise their own children. It is a a stunning development the way that Democrats have tried to get between parents and their kids. And I'll tell you, it's one of the reasons why you mentioned at the beginning that I worked for Glenn Youngkin. It's one of the reasons why Glenn Youngkin beat Terry McAuliffe, because Terry McAuliffe said made the famous gaffe that he didn't want parents telling teachers what they should teach their kids.Chris Wilson: [00:10:53] And moms and dads in Virginia rose up and said, no, I disagree with that. And I really think that and to be clear, I'm on the super PAC side of the partisan super PAC side. So let me compliment the campaign. They put out a video yesterday for moms for DeSantis, which Casey DeSantis talked about the role that Governor DeSantis has played in the state of Florida of protecting the rights of parents to raise their kids in the way they want to and to stop any woke teachers or woke systems from being able to intervene in the right of a parent to make decisions for their children or their children's education, their children's, the way their children are raised, whether or not their children are able to go and mutilate themselves with a doctor or have themselves mutilated by a doctor. It's just the overall the decisions that or the process that's going on right now. Those of us who have kids have kids. And, you know, I have five that the attempt of the left to get between a parent and their children and inject themselves into everything from the education to the raising to even the mutilation of that child is stunning to me that they believe that that is okay. And so I think that is also going to become it's a major issue that's going to come to light, particularly if Governor DeSantis is the nominee because of what he's been able to do to protect the parents rights in Florida. And I think that is could be the difference between a Republican winning and a losing right again, like we did in 2000.Chuck Warren: [00:12:28] Great. Well, we're going to take a quick break. We're with Chris Wilson. You can find him on Twitter at Wilson, WPA. You can also find him on Instagram at Wilson, WPA. Follow Chris. He has great insights. You'll stay up to date on what's going on on country. This is Chuck Warren Sam Stone at breaking battlegrounds, vote. We'll be right back.Sam Stone: [00:13:05] Welcome back to Breaking battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone. Folks, it's been another crazy week on the stock market. And if you need a opportunity to make a very high fixed rate of return, if you're looking for a fantastic return, that's not coupled to the stock market where you'll know what each monthly statement will look like with no surprises. You need to check out our friends at invest y Refy.com invest y refy is connecting student loan borrowers to to investors and they are just doing great for people on both sides. It's a fantastic opportunity. We highly encourage you to check it out. Go to their website at invest y refy.com or give them a call at 88yrefy 24 and tell them Chuck and Sam sent you. All right. Continuing on with Chris Wilson of WPA Intelligence. Chris, you are working in the primaries right now. One of the things I think there's obviously a lot of noise with Trump and DeSantis and some of the other candidates out there. But in terms of the issues, what issues should Republican voters be focusing on or Republican candidates be focusing on first to win the primary, but second, and more importantly, set themselves up to win the general election?Chris Wilson: [00:14:19] You know, I think from an issue standpoint, kind of what we covered in the last segment is, is what matters. I mean, all of those issues matter for Republican primary voters to the economy, parents right to raise their own children, a strong education, things like that. But I'll tell you what, if I were advising candidates directly, and particularly if I was advising this kind of gets into you move down from the presidential campaign because I still work with and WPA intelligence, we work with dozens, sometimes even hundreds of candidates around the country. And one of the things I can tell you I hear from them to a person is a concern about who is at the top of the ticket in 2024. And I'll tell you, this is not to nerd out too much on you guys, but there have been a lot of academic research that's been done about the impact that Donald Trump has had since he emerged on the political scene on elections and everything. Be careful what you wish for. Impact of President Trump endorsed in the midterms by Ballard and others, Comparing the impact of Joe Biden on popular attitudes to the parties. By Jacobson. 22 elections by also by Jacobson. But the most recent one, which is really interesting one by experimental evidence on public perceptions of Trump endorsements by Barron, McLaughlin and others all quantify the impact that Trump has had going back to 2018 on close elections. And the reason why this matters is if Democrats take a majority in the Senate, they're going to stack the Supreme Court. They're going to get rid of the filibuster. They're going to make D.C. and Puerto Rico states these aren't these aren't like pie in the sky speculations. These are things they say they want to do, they would do today if it wasn't.Sam Stone: [00:16:00] They've been very clear they want to do everything you just said.Chris Wilson: [00:16:04] So the study I just mentioned by Barron McLaughlin and Bloom on experimental evidence on public perception of Trump endorsements is that when Trump gets involved in a race, it actually costs that candidate seven points. It goes a high from nine to a low of five in a competitive general election. So I want you to think back to last cycle. You know, obviously in Utah, Mike Lee got into a close race. He was able to pull it out at the end, but there were some close races we didn't pull out in Arizona and Georgia and Pennsylvania. We almost I mean, think about how far behind Governor DeWine, JD Vance ran in Ohio. All of those are states are races where Trump had an impact. And so you can quantify that number at 79%. So we as Republicans, I think, should really care about what happens if we have somebody at the top of the ticket that takes 7 to 9 points off of every single candidate who's running in a competitive race. That's a and you can real quickly run down the numbers and think about how many House and Senate seats we would ultimately lose.Sam Stone: [00:17:03] Yeah, I mean, that's a bloodbath that that you're describing. And one of the things, Chris, that I don't think I haven't really seen polling that quantifies this more so just dealing with anecdotal evidence from independent voters or soft voters, whatever you want to call them, they are completely hardened against Trump, rightly or wrongly. And this is one of the things I tell a lot of Trump supporters.Chris Wilson: [00:17:29] And moving more against him, by the way.Sam Stone: [00:17:31] Yeah. And moving more against him.Chris Wilson: [00:17:32] Surveys, they continue to move more against him. Yes.Sam Stone: [00:17:35] And so I mean, for him to if he's going to be at the top of the ticket, he and his team have to address that. There's no evidence they're doing so. I mean, they're doubling and tripling down on all the things that are driving that cohort away.Chris Wilson: [00:17:48] No, I agree. And it's it is a real problem because there is nothing that's been done since 2020 to change the face of the election. If you believe that that weird things went on in Georgia and Arizona last time or there's there's nothing that's being done by their campaign to guard against that. And I'll tell you, there are weird things that happen in elections, no question about it. We had as many people, as many lawyers in Virginia at the Youngkin headquarters as we did staffers, because we wanted to guard against that. And that's how you have to do it in any close election. It's that has been the case since I've been involved in politics, which is over 20 years. And so you've got to guard against that. You've got to understand the rules and play against it. You know, I grew up playing basketball and I was there when the three point line came out. My coach hated the three point line. I said, Well, we still have to use it. Well, the same thing is true with with with ballot harvesting. I may hate that as a rule, but I can't leave that to the Democrats to do all by themselves. And so we will compete at that level and we have to be able to compete at that level. And I think that's the challenges that exist is if Donald Trump is the nominee, Republicans lose in 24 and they probably are 24 and they probably lose the House and the Senate by by historical numbers. And it puts us in a situation where America in 2025 and 26 is a very different place than we live in today. I don't mean to end on a down down note, but since you asked, I think that is the most important thing that every voter should take into account when they cast their ballot for in any primary in 2024.Sam Stone: [00:19:10] And Chuck, if the things that Chris just said listed at the start of this segment come true, in other words, Court-packing, Puerto Rico, DC. There's no recovery for Republicans.Chuck Warren: [00:19:21] No, that's right. No, no, there is not. Chris, what is something we've talked about these main issues, the economy. You know, we have we now have out today that they did a poll of 2500 US adults and they said they need to earn $233,000 a year to feel financially secure. Then you have America's role in the world. And I think one big thing about that's always been is our role as the preeminent power have made us feel safe. But I also think Americans like being number one. I mean, just look at Olympic sports, right? When we win. Right. And then we have the parents, you know, being able to, you know, decide what their children do. What are other issues with your crystal ball and research that you think lawmakers need to start paying more attention to? That can be that could really turn quickly against conservatives.Chris Wilson: [00:20:12] Well, another one that I think is has really come to the top is, is the wokeness of corporations. And I think the the the sort of forcing their values on Americans. And we've seen a lot of backfire on that. We've certainly seen a backfire with target Bud Light and it's even Ben and Jerry's over the weekend where they said you know every every company built on a tribe should give that land back. Everyone should give it a try. And then it turns out their their corporate headquarters on the tribe, they've lost $2.5 billion in corporate value since that happened. So because from people from people selling the stock and and the collapse of the company. So I think those are other aspects of it that where you look at someone who has been willing to take on woke the woke corporate left and stand up to them and take away things like tax incentives they asked for, which really I would argue that tax incentives are a conservative way of approaching work on corporations from a from a local government standpoint. And so I think those are aspects that matter, too. And it's an important thing for us to be paying attention to.Chuck Warren: [00:21:18] Well, Chris, we sure appreciate you joining us today and wish you the best of luck this cycle. We hope to have you on again before the Christmas season. Folks, please follow Chris Wilson at Wilson WP at Twitter, same thing on Instagram. Wilson. Wp There you can learn you can follow University of Oklahoma football quite well and you can also you can also you can also stay in touch with the research that's going on in our country. Chris, we sure appreciate your time and we hope you have a fantastic weekend, my friend.Chris Wilson: [00:21:46] Thank you. Good to talk to you.Chuck Warren: [00:21:47] Thanks. Bye bye. This is breaking battlegrounds. You can follow us at breaking battlegrounds. Vote and listen to us anywhere you get your podcasts. We'll be right back.Sam Stone: [00:22:05] Welcome back to Breaking battlegrounds with your host, Chuck Warren. I'm Sam Stone, continuing on with our fantastic guests for today, we have Maya MacGuineas, president of the bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. Boy, is that something we have needed for a long time. She is an expert in budget, tax and economic policy and has worked closely with members of both parties and serves as a trusted source on Capitol Hill. Maya, thank you and for joining us and welcome to the program.Maya MacGuineas: [00:22:32] Yeah, happy to join.Chuck Warren: [00:22:34] So both the left and right seem to be like Keystone cops on the national debt and budget deficit. They both think this is the one way or highway and that's the only way that works. So let's take, for example, let's start first with the belief that you can just tax your way out of this by taxing everybody who has money in the country. Is that possible?Maya MacGuineas: [00:22:51] There's not a chance. This is a problem that, quite frankly, you're going to have to put everything on the table in order to get where we need to fiscally. But the notion that you can just do this by raising revenues and you'll hear people who make that case saying, listen, what are the lowest tax countries in the world? We can certainly have higher taxes. True. We can have higher taxes. True. We're going to have to have higher taxes. But absolutely not the case that you can fix this problem entirely. On the revenue side of the budget, the biggest growth in our budget imbalances comes from growing health care costs, growing retirement costs, most of those fueled by the aging of the population and growing interest costs. Because we've borrowed so much interest payments on the debt are the fastest growing part of the budget. So no matter how much you bring your revenues up, the fact that spending is still going to be going, growing faster than your economy means it won't be able to keep pace. And you're going to have to bring some of those spending levels back under control.Chuck Warren: [00:23:50] All right. So now let's go to the argument the right likes to make. We can just cut all these programs and we can do this all in budget. Everything, balance it in ten years. Is that reality? Yeah.Maya MacGuineas: [00:24:01] That also not true and not even close. One of the things during the debt ceiling fight that I was really worried about was that people who thought you could do this on the spending side and wanted to be aggressive and are fiscally focused, which I am, and I share those beliefs. But I was worried they would overshoot and that they would say we have to balance the in ten years and do so by spending cuts. We're not going to be able to come anywhere close to balancing the budget in ten years. To do so would take saving about $16 trillion over that ten year period. The last time we saved $16 trillion was easily never, not not even close. Right. So this is not even in the realm of the possible. Now, a fiscal metric that I think is aggressive but doable would be what if we just stabilized our debt so that it's not growing faster? That doesn't grow up to above where it is right now, which is almost 100% of GDP, just doing that over ten years so that we keep it at the same level of debt to GDP that would require $8 trillion in savings. That is an aggressive amount. It is doable, but it is not doable. On just the spending cuts side of the budget. There's no way that no matter how much you pull back these programs, no realistic way that you could cut spending enough to save $8 trillion. The trajectory we're mythbusting here, which is good because everybody's out there making promises we don't make.Chuck Warren: [00:25:27] I mean, I'm convinced, you know, with our show, we have people I mean, we're conservative, but I don't think people understand math anymore. That's my concern. I mean, this is this is yellow pad, pencil in hand, math. And no one wants to seem to admit it. And we all created this problem. So we're all going to have to work together to get out of the problem.Maya MacGuineas: [00:25:48] Boy, do I agree with that one. And let me talk about that fuzzy math, because basically what you have on both sides of the aisle now is kind of made up fairy tale economics. So on the Republican side, you'll hear time and time again we're going to cut taxes. It's going to generate so much growth, it's going to pay for itself. Just nowhere close to reality. If you cut taxes, it is going to help grow the economy and it will do so so that it generates about $0.20 for every dollar you spend on tax cuts. So you still have to offset the bulk of those tax cuts by cutting spending or raising other taxes. And then on the left, you hear things like this policy is so important, we shouldn't have to pay for it, just not true. Like if something's important, the whole point of budgeting is you should pay for it. And if it's not important, you shouldn't do it. But the other thing that we've been hearing is people for the past year are saying, don't worry, we can just print more money. That is so fundamentally wrong. And we've seen that it's wrong because we've just had a huge bout and are still in the midst of of high inflation kicked off because we we put too much money in the economy. Borrowing for Covid was the right thing to do. But the last bill that we did put way too much money in the economy and created this inflationary problem that has only gotten worse with with additional factors exacerbating it. So there's a lot of made up economics out there. There's a lot of made up mathematics. This basically comes down to the basic issue of budgets and trade offs. We shouldn't be borrowing as much money as we are, and I can talk about that more.Sam Stone: [00:27:17] Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Maya, we're going to come back with more from Maya macGuineas here in just a minute, folks. Continuing on. She is the president of the Bipartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. And frankly, Maya, we really appreciate having you on this program. We love having these kind of honest discussions that I don't think are out there enough. And we're going to be continuing on with that. More in just a moment. Welcome back to Breaking Battlegrounds with your host, Sam Stone and Chuck Warren. Folks, are you concerned with stock market volatility? What if you could invest in a portfolio with a high fixed rate of return that's not correlated to the stock market or portfolio? Well, you know what each monthly statement would look like, but no surprises. You can turn your monthly income on or off, compound it, whatever you choose. There's no loss of principle. If you need your money back at any time, your interest is compounded daily, you're paid monthly and there are no fees. The secure collateralized portfolio that delivers a high fixed interest rate and by investing, you can do well for yourself by doing good for others. So check out our friends at Invest by Refy.com. That's invest the letter Y, then refy.com or give them a call at 88 y refy 24 and see how you can earn up to a 10.25% fixed rate of return.Chuck Warren: [00:28:50] Maya So I think one thing that gets lost when we talk budgets and deficits and debt is it becomes sort of an Excel spreadsheet. It's numbers and I think the numbers seem like monopoly numbers to a lot of people, right? So, for example, we want to talk here about, look, we need to have entitlement reform. There's no if butts ands it's, you know, two thirds of our budget Congress doesn't even control. It's just mandatory. And Sam and myself and you, we have loved ones who need Social Security. They're in it or they're expecting it real soon. Right. But I think one thing that doesn't get talked about enough is I'm a father. You have children based on Wikipedia. And Wikipedia never lies. Yeah. How does this when you look at these things, does that concern you for their future? What you have so much debt where you're paying interest more, you're paying spending more than money in the federal budget on interest debts than you are things that matter that it will create inflation, higher interest rates. Does this concern you as a mother?Maya MacGuineas: [00:29:48] Yeah. I mean, it's right. It's both systemic and personal, this issue. And so first, you know, we are actually spending this year more on interest payments to finance the debt of the fast pass than the entire federal budget spends on programs for children. That's how backwards this is. But absolutely, I mean, there are many reasons that I worry about the effects of the national debt. They're economic. They're leaving us vulnerable for future emergencies, their foreign policy and national security, where we're increasingly vulnerable and dependent on other countries. But one of the bottom line issues here is we are spending a lot of money because we want to we like those things and we are refusing to pay for it because none of us like paying taxes. And so the other option is we are then saying we will borrow this money and we will push those bills onto the future, onto our kids. And I will say, my kids refuse to listen to my deficit speeches at the dinner table. So shame on them for not caring. But no, but it is. And it's hard to get younger people to care about it because they think, as we all did when we were in our teens and 20s you're like, the world is great. Everything's going to be fine. I don't need to worry about future. But the truth and it's discouraging truth right now is we are leaving a country and frankly, a world that is much riskier, much more difficult to navigate, much more filled with potential risk to the next generation than we've ever seen before. And this goes well beyond the debt. It goes to national security, to the effects of technology, to all sorts of things that they need a strong budget to be able to respond to. And instead, we are giving them tens of trillions of dollars in debt that they owe just because we were unwilling to pay for these things ourselves, even though we are the beneficiaries of them.Sam Stone: [00:31:32] Yeah, one of the things that I find interesting, Maya, is that the the media and academia or whatever has sold kids on the idea that we are facing an existential crisis, potentially the death of the planet within 20 years from environmental issues. That's not particularly realistic. But we are facing a financial cliff that would affect them far, far more than anything the environment ever will in their lifetimes coming up very soon.Maya MacGuineas: [00:31:59] Well, I think it's interesting. I actually think the environment and the fiscal challenges have something in common, which is there's no immediate moment where it turns into the problem if you default. That happened on a certain day. If there's a government shutdown, that happens on a certain day. But when it comes to these issues, they slowly compound if we don't do anything about them. But there's no one moment where you say we can't return. And so you have members of Congress constantly saying we can punt this off until another day. But there should be no disagreement on the severity of having the amount of debt we have. We're not only are we spending more on interest than we are kids today, five years from now, we'll be spending more on interest payments than we are on national defense. This is an increasingly risky world. And so I don't know how you get kids to take this issue on and make it their own. Again, I think there's this eternal optimism that comes with youth. That means people can't believe it's really that big a problem. And numbers like trillion are so hard to follow. It's very difficult to personalize this. And lastly, the solutions, they're not fun. Here's the truth. We have to raise taxes, cut spending, fix our entitlement programs. Nobody thinks that's going to be fun, but you have to do that for the sustainability of our economic health. And so it's hard to get people to rally and march in the streets calling for fiscal reforms. But really, it's one of the most important things that we could do that also affects all the other issues that people do worry about.Sam Stone: [00:33:22] My I don't know if you saw the piece that was in the Hill on the fourth by Andrew Hale said China is in default on $1 trillion in debt to US bondholders. Will the US force repayment? This is debt that was created by the previous government prior to the Maoist takeover. But in international norms that doesn't erase the debt. China is the only country on earth not paying that. He actually suggested. Simply, we essentially nationalize that debt and wipe it off our books, take, you know, balance it against $1 trillion in in our treasuries that China holds, which would free up $95 Billion a month in interest payments. Is something like that practical or possible? And how much would that trillion dollars actually make a difference to our overall financial situation?Maya MacGuineas: [00:34:10] Yeah, I saw that.Maya MacGuineas: [00:34:11] Piece and I did think that was interesting. And I definitely think that a lot of this is interconnected with the tensions that we have with China and the fact that we are dependent on them, that they own almost $1 trillion of our treasuries. But I don't think unilaterally sort of nationalizing that debt or declaring that we're not going to repay what we owe China would be good because markets are beyond just the bilateral agreements. If we were to do that with China, there would be growing concerns through other countries, and I think that would hasten the effort that there already is to move away from the dollar as a reserve currency. And that is something that benefits us tremendously. So I think it's actually very important that the US not make changes that risk its status right now, something that we benefit from of being the safe haven and the reserve currency. I think what we really have to focus on is balancing our own books, spending only as much as we're willing to pay in taxes, borrowing only when there's economic emergencies and a real reason to do so. And we can't find any shortcuts around those those hard truths.Chuck Warren: [00:35:12] So let's talk entitlements for a minute, a little more detail on it. So like we said, there are people who are on Social Security now. We'll just use Social Security example, but there's Medicare, too, and you've got people who are close to retirement age. What do you think is the type of retirement reform we really should be talking about without affecting those who really count on this right now for day to day living?Maya MacGuineas: [00:35:33] Yeah, and I think that's the right question because I think we need to fix these programs in a way that strengthens and preserves them for the people who most need them, but understands that both of them are headed towards insolvency. Social Security and just over a decade, if we do nothing, there will be across the board 23% benefit cuts. And yet you have politicians of all stripes making promises not to touch Social Security or Medicare. Medicare also will have across the board 10% provider cuts if we don't make changes. So these folks are promising you not to touch your entitlements, are promising you that you will have provider and benefit cuts that will affect everybody. Instead, what we should be doing is. This isn't thought out. Policy solutions and Social Security. This is about 4 or 5 options. You can raise payroll taxes or the payroll tax cap. You can raise the retirement age, which makes sense because we're living longer. And you could start it now, but have it kick in very, very gradually over time for people under 55, 50, whatever. You can slow the growth of benefits. And I would do that on the high end, not across the board. And you can fix the way we calculate inflation, which overstates it right now. There are a lot of fixes we could put in for Social Security, but the longer we wait and we've already waited too long, the more difficult they will be.Sam Stone: [00:36:44] Maya.Maya MacGuineas: [00:36:45] Oh.Sam Stone: [00:36:46] I'm sorry. You talked about slowing benefits on the high end of the scale. This is something that's come up a lot on both sides is means testing for Social Security. I've fought this battle with Republicans for years and just said, look, we're just going to have to do this. This is going to come. There's one objection coming from the right. There's another from the left. It's from the left, though I don't understand their objection because it seems like that falls in line with everything else that they talk about.Chuck Warren: [00:37:13] Make the rich pay their fair share.Sam Stone: [00:37:14] Tax the rich. Why do we need to be, from their perspective, giving wealthy people this benefit rather than means testing it and directing it at the people that need it?Maya MacGuineas: [00:37:25] It's just a great question because it's honestly a policy I have never understood. If you support progressive policies on the tax side, you should also support progressive policies on the spending side. And right now we have actually very we have regressive Social Security benefits where the well-off, their benefits are more reflecting that they paid in more in taxes. And so the concern is, oh, if you if you reduce the benefits for rich people in Social Security, there won't be a strong constituency of support. They won't fight to save Social Security. That's just not true. The biggest growth we've seen in government benefits in past years have been like an Eitc and Medicaid programs that were directed towards the poor. So there are support. There is support for smart programs that help people who need them the most. And when I go out and I talk to people in town halls, they always say means test my benefit. If I don't need it, no problem. I just want it there if I do. So when I hear Democrats saying you can't touch benefits for rich people or having someone like Bernie Sanders actually suggesting increasing benefits for everybody, including rich people, it means it's more money getting spent on those who don't need it and less money for things that you might really worry about, like education, investment in children or at risk youth, things like that. So I think it's an internally very inconsistent argument. And I think means testing is one of the areas that makes the most sense given the situation we're in with Social Security and Medicare.Chuck Warren: [00:38:48] Well, I think I think the left's argument on this is based upon union loyalties, because they get good pensions and they don't want to see it cut for their members. But that's that's a red meat conversation for another day. All right. So let's talk about this. What do you think? I think it's really important that the US stay the economic superpower in the world. We have certain benefits that most countries do not have, nor will they ever have. My question for you is, what do you think we need to do realistically to make sure we keep and maintain that position for the next couple of decades?Maya MacGuineas: [00:39:18] I think there's a few things. One, we need to start paying for all the policies that we do instead of borrowing to we need to switch our budget priorities. Right now, about 85% of our budget is consumption. 15% is investment. We need to turn that on its head. We need to be making investments in human capital, basic R&D. We just put a lot of money into infrastructure. So I think that that should be fine for a while and we need to reduce overall spending so that more of that money can be in the private sector and making private sector investments. And finally, we need to switch our spending priorities, which are all focused on the old into investments in the next generation, because just the same reason it's damaging to borrowed so much and pushed that into the future and to kids not failing to invest in them, but giving very comfortable benefits to my father who doesn't necessarily need them. Those priorities do not keep us strong as an economic superpower. We also want to deregulate and a lot of ways and smart trade policy, all of those things which are going to recognize the importance of our being an economic superpower in this highly integrated global economy.Sam Stone: [00:40:22] You know, one of the discussions, Maya, that never comes up that I mean, and this may be a little bit outside your specific area of expertise is the cost of government programs has gone up dramatically, far more than the delivery of services from those programs. You're seeing a huge bureaucratic bloat. And it would seem at some point like one part or the other needs to start getting serious about leaning down government to actually deliver the dollars where they're intended to go.Maya MacGuineas: [00:40:51] 100%. 100%. If you talk to anybody in agencies right now, they are feeling the bloat. There's been so much money that has been a big run up in funding agencies in the past years, that there are situations where people are traveling because they don't know what to do with their budgets. There are people who are absolutely underworked and it's well known and that undermines the morale in place. So, listen, I don't want to take away from the main point, which is we have to fix our entitlement programs. We're not going to be able to do this without revenues. But there are savings to be had throughout the government, in the Defense Department, in the health care industries, in every one of our programs that's out there and in the government bureaucracy itself. And this should be something in order to help regain trust in government that we are able to really go through with a fine tooth comb and revamp a lot of these programs, free them of some of the bureaucratic constraints so that people can have more trust that if they are paying tax dollars, that those tax dollars are going to be used.Sam Stone: [00:41:48] Well, yeah, absolutely. I think all of that is critical. Maya macGuineas, thank you so much for joining us today. We really, really appreciate having you on the program. Folks, You can follow her on Twitter at Maya macGuineas, Mac McGinnis at Budget Hawks at Fix USA. Org and Crfb. Org. Maya, again, thank you so much for joining us on the program. We love having you on and look forward to having you on again in the near future.Maya MacGuineas: [00:42:17] Great. Nice to talk with you.Chuck Warren: [00:42:18] Thank you. This is breaking battlegrounds. Join us next for our podcast segment. We'll be honored to have Kylie Kipper straight from Houston talking crime and baseball. We're very excited about this.Sam Stone: [00:42:29] It's been a long time since we had Kylie.Chuck Warren: [00:42:31] She's got she's got a doozy. So folks, follow us at Breaking Battlegrounds Vote, share the podcast, and we'll talk to you here briefly on the podcast episode by.Sam Stone: [00:42:51] Welcome to the podcast, only segment of breaking battlegrounds. Up next, it's been a long time. It's been a very long time since we had a kyli true crime update. Kylie Kipper, our producer, hates being on the microphone today. She's been forced to be better at it. You know, you're great at it.Kylie Kipper: [00:43:10] That's the I'm getting more comfortable. I meant.Sam Stone: [00:43:12] Okay.Chuck Warren: [00:43:12] Two years will do that to you. Two years will do that to you.Sam Stone: [00:43:14] It's been a while, huh? So.Chuck Warren: [00:43:16] Kylie, you're actually in a state where there's been sort of this mystery. This young man was missing seven years ago, and then he showed up. And, you know, look, Americans love a kid being recovered. Story. All people do. If you don't, you don't have a heart. Right?Sam Stone: [00:43:29] So this is a strange one, though.Chuck Warren: [00:43:30] Chuck, So we're all excited about it then. Come to find out there's a little bit more to the story, which sadly seems to be a lot to these stories now. There always seems to be a little bit more to the story, right? So you've done some digging on it. Tell us about it. What's what's the true story here?Kylie Kipper: [00:43:44] Yeah, So there's a few pieces of this investigation which it's still ongoing. They have another press conference tonight, but they had one yesterday which has caused a lot of feathers to be ruffled. So Rudy Farias was 17 years old when his mom reported him missing after he took the dogs for a walk. It turns out that he had just run away and his mom had told him that police are looking for him and we'll put him in jail if he does not come home. So at that time, he went home two days later, but his mom never reported him of coming home. She just kept the investigation saying he's still missing. So he was discovered this week unconscious outside of a church in Houston where the police, when they reported to it to the scene, had just ended up calling his mom, saying, we found your son. And she was like, oh, this is amazing. She posted photos. I'm putting in air quotes of him in the hospital, which people, family members, his aunts, cousins have come out to say that those photos were taken in 2012. And they're not recent photos in which he did not, after being discovered at this church, did not go to the hospital to get any of the help that he may have needed. Um, the yesterday and the investigation. Police chief had said that they had many run ins with their family and that the entire time his mom would just say he is still missing if they would ask who he is in the house, because at this point he's gotten older, she would say, this is my nephew and give him a fake name.Sam Stone: [00:45:17] So So he was around. They they like set him up with a fake ID or something and were telling people he wasn't him.Kylie Kipper: [00:45:25] Yeah. Yeah. Um, and so the weird part about it is, is when they did the investigation with him and his mom, Rudy obviously would not speak about any wrongdoing of his mom the past eight years. So he would just say, you know, yeah, I was living at home. She just wanted me to keep it private. X, Y, z, until he got separated from his mom, which then he was doing an interview with a detective and this community activist named Quanell X. So this is where it gets like, all kind of. Different sides of the story. So the police chief in the interview yesterday said Rudy did not report any sexual assault charges by his. Or sexual assault wrongdoing by his mom. However, this Cornell gentleman who came out and was speaking and seemed very passionate about it was crying in the interviews. He was in the interview with the detective, and he clearly stated many times of sexual encounters with his mom that ultimately led him to run away after eight years, which is how he ended up at the church. So he had stolen his mom's car to get away from his mom. And some of these can be a bit disturbing, but you know, many things. So a little backtrack, a little history about his parents is his dad was also a part of the Houston Police Department until he committed suicide in around 2011, I believe, after they were investigating him for being corrupt. So people think that that has something to do with why the police chief is saying that there was that Rudy did not report any of this. However, Quanell has come out and done a bunch of interviews on Newsnation and Fox and is just saying he's reported that his mom would make him play daddy and would sleep naked in bed together.Chuck Warren: [00:47:19] And oh my gosh.Kylie Kipper: [00:47:21] Can use that kind of imagination, which ultimately would lead him to try to escape his mom again. After eight years. He would take she would take Rudy to work and make her or make him do her job.Sam Stone: [00:47:35] Um, she what was her job, do we know?Kylie Kipper: [00:47:38] It just seemed like some, like, low level.Chuck Warren: [00:47:41] Clerical type job.Kylie Kipper: [00:47:42] Yeah. Um.Sam Stone: [00:47:44] Was there any, like, financial incentive? I mean, was she, like, raising money for the search for him or something? What's the.Kylie Kipper: [00:47:50] Yes, she did have, um, a fundraiser online, which her goal was 75,000. I have not been able to find if she actually raised that money. But something else that came up was in Texas. If you have a child that goes missing after three years, you get a basically like a life insurance payout. So that's another thing that their goodness to see if she got that money. Um, but an ex-husband came out and said this is a little background about his mom now is an ex-husband came out and said that she was a bigamist. And what I could find is in 1997, she married some she married a guy. Then again in 1998, she married another guy in that same year. She wanted a annulment on the basis that she was already married to the previous guy, which neither of these is the police detective. In 2007. She then marries the detective for the Houston Police Department. And then in 1999 to 2010, there's another marriage that's been found and then a fourth marriage from 2009 to 2012 that has also been found.Chuck Warren: [00:48:56] Boy, some kid sure draw the short end of the stick who they get stuck with, parents and folks for you if you don't know, bigamy is when the crime of marrying someone while you're still married to someone else. In case you don't know that term, I hope it doesn't come up a lot in your conversations at home, but nonetheless, that's what it means. So what do you think happens now? What are the police saying? Or I guess we'll know more tonight, right? I mean, that's really the key.Kylie Kipper: [00:49:16] So everyone so after this investigation between his mom and his and Rudy, the detective that sat there with Quanell X, this community activist, left the room and Quanell, said, I'm going to do interviews on this. Is there anything you don't want me to say? And he said, No, you can say whatever you want. The detective then went into the next room and arrested or put handcuffs, not arrested, put handcuffs on the mom, which indicated that Quanell says this detective thought his mom had committed a crime. However, at the end of the day, they ended up just walking both of them out and they left together. So now no one is 100% positive where Rudy or his mom are located today.Chuck Warren: [00:49:54] Well, how old was he when he disappeared?Kylie Kipper: [00:49:56] He was 17 and.Chuck Warren: [00:49:58] He's been missing. They may say he was of sound mind to be in a relationship. I bet. I bet that's part of it. So we're going to have you talking about this again next week. You'll keep us up to date when you're back in the studio now, folks, so you don't understand. Kylie is in Houston today, not because she loves the summer weather of Houston, but nobody.Sam Stone: [00:50:16] Nobody loves the summer weather or the smell of Houston in the.Chuck Warren: [00:50:19] Summer. Her fiance, Isaiah Campbell, who's been playing Double A for the Seattle Mariners affiliate in Little Rock, was called up to the big league club, the Mariners, yesterday. And Kylie hopped on a plane and flew out there. And Kylie, just what was that experience like? What were your feelings? I mean, it's you know, look, a lot of people don't get to do this. So how was it for you?Kylie Kipper: [00:50:41] I mean, sometimes still to this moment, it doesn't feel real. Um, I think I did an interview yesterday with an MLB TV reporter, and it was very hard to articulate how I was feeling. And, you know, just like the emotions that go into it because he has just had this dream For him since he was little. And it's finally coming true. He is. Yesterday he was not in the game yet, so we're still waiting for his. Actual official debut. But he is on the roster and we're hoping it's. Tonight or tomorrow.Chuck Warren: [00:51:10] Well, folks, as you know, Sam and I adore Kylie and the great work she does on the show and Jamie. And so I was last night watching two teams. I could care less about the Astros and Mariners waiting for her to pitch. And apparently Isaiah's good teammate was the starter last night and decided like, let me pitch like a Cy Young Award winner this year. It's what he did. So Isaiah did not get in the game. So this weekend, if he can pull up the Mariners and Houston Astros and look for Isaiah Campbell to come in late innings to help the team out.Kylie Kipper: [00:51:39] Yeah.Sam Stone: [00:51:40] Can we just get Kylie to post a clip of his appearance so I don't have to watch a mariners Astros game?Chuck Warren: [00:51:45] Chuck Yeah, no, I agree. I agree. So before you get Kylie off and end the podcast, we just want to give a congratulations. And since Kylie is engaged, she'll appreciate this. Jimmy, Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter today are celebrating their 77th anniversary. Now, folks, let me let me talk about this for a minute here. The US census says 6% of married couples in the United States make the 50th wedding anniversary, one tenth of a percent make their seventh of those 75 years or more. They don't even keep the statistic. So that's that's how rare that is. And Sam makes a good point. You know, it's the longevity. The lifespan of.Sam Stone: [00:52:23] A man is like 79.Chuck Warren: [00:52:24] Years. There's a lot to this, but there's a lot of people who just don't want to be together 77 years. So there's something to this, right?Sam Stone: [00:52:30] It's an amazing it's an amazing thing. And congratulations to both of them, without a doubt. And it speaks to great character on both.Chuck Warren: [00:52:37] It really does. It really does. And it speaks to a great partnership. Yeah. So happy anniversary to the Carters. Kylie, We're very excited for you and we're excited for his first pitch to Major League Baseball this weekend. And so we'll keep in touch with you on that, folks. This is breaking battlegrounds. You can follow us on breaking battlegrounds vote. Besides the radio stations we're on, you can also catch us on podcasts wherever you listen to a podcast, please share. Please rate. Thanks a million. We'll be back next week. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit breakingbattlegrounds.substack.com

This is a peak at one of the most disruptive stories in the Old Testament and we'll see what God showed to people who were fearful, worried and uncertain about the future. And you might be surprised to discover what God shows to people who are fearful with really good reasons to fear the future. God’s Glory, Our Service-Isaiah 6:1-10 Isaiah 6:1–13 (NIV) Isaiah’s Commission 6 In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” 6 Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. 7 With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” 8 Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” And I said, “Here am I. Send me!”   So why is it significant that Isaiah’s call occurs in the year King Uzziah dies? I believe it is because it is with Uzziah’s death that Judah’s truly hopeless situation emerges. The date is approximately 740 B.C. By this time the Assyrian emperor Tiglath-Pileser III has clearly established himself as a military conqueror to be feared. But it seems likely that for Judah, as long as the powerful Uzziah was on the throne (even with his son Jotham acting as the front man), the immediacy of the threat was blurred. But when Uzziah was removed from the scene, the danger could no longer be ignored. Jotham was no strong man, and possibly Jotham’s son Ahaz was already under the control of a pro-Assyrian party in the government. What could possibly be done? Isaiah’s vision, at least for him, was a reorienting of his moral compass. The king was dead? Who is the king in this world anyway? “My eyes have seen the King, the LORD Almighty!” (6:5). – John Oswold   Our problem is not the size or difficulty of the things we face. No, our problem is [being blind to God’s GLORY] and the havoc it wreaks on our daily living. [Not seeing how big God is] will cause you to fear things that you need to defeat. [It] will cause you to deny reality because you are afraid to face what is true. [Thinking that God is small] will cause you to fret over people and situations. [It] will cause you to attempt to control what you cannot control because you think it is out of control. Being blind to God’s glory will never lead you anywhere good. – Paul David Tripp     But note the surprising nature of the commission. Does God truly not want his people to be healed? Has he predestined them for destruction? That would surely be a misreading of the book as a whole. God clearly does want to heal his people and promises to do so. If nothing else, the promises of chapters 2 and 4 make that clear. But those promises are not alone. They are representative of many other promises throughout the book. So what could Isaiah 6:9–10 possibly mean? Perhaps the point is this: Suppose Isaiah had chosen to be among the false prophets; suppose he had preached a message of affirmation and encouragement that did not address the people’s sin directly. It is possible he could have gained a large number of followers, people who were “healed” and convinced that they ought to make more of a place for “God” in their lives. But would this superficial healing have any long-term effects on the destiny of the nation? Only detrimental ones! And we can be sure we would never have heard of that Isaiah. Rather, Isaiah is called upon to preach a message that, given the already-hardened hearts of his generation and several of the following, will only push them farther away from God. But some will turn, among them faithful followers of Isaiah, who will preserve his words until the day when the cauterizing fires of the Exile fall and there will finally be a generation willing to listen. Then real healing will result, and the stage will be set for the promised Messiah to come. So Isaiah’s calling is not to success as the world counts success, but to faithfulness. – John Oswold Speaker: Pastor Sam Sutter

In 1857 there were some archaeologists in Rome who made a fascinating discovery. They were investigating a building in Rome that had first been part of the imperial palace of Caligula. By the end of the First Century the building had been turned into a boys boarding school — so it was basically a First Century Roman high school — and these archaeologists discovered in this building the oldest known pictorial representation of Jesus's crucifixion. It was carved into one of the plaster walls; dates back to around the 100s. It's a drawing of a man on a cross with a donkey's head, and there's a young man looking up at him, and then under the drawing, these words in all caps: “Ᾰλεξᾰ́μενος σέβεται θεόν” — Alexamenos is a young man's name, call him Alex, and the phrase says — Alex worships his God. Going by the historical evidence we can say that Alex is the first Christian who we know was bullied in high school. This drawing was graffitied on a wall in this school to mock Alex because he was a Christian — which meant that he worshiped a God who was crucified…and that was considered absurd. Getting to the Big QuestionWe know from the apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians that the reality of the cross was nearly impossible for people to accept. The idea that the Messiah would be crucified was something that Jewish people stumbled over, and it was something that Greeks — or Greco-Roman boys like Alex and his peers — would have thought was foolish. Paul tells us this in 1 Corinthians 1:23, “[The cross was] a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles” It made no sense to people that a Savior would die; and it especially made no sense that a Savior who claimed to be God would suffer and die. People thought that was absurd, and that's a really big deal. Because think about this:The central claim of the gospel — the good news of Christianity — is that Jesus, the Son of God, suffered and died on a cross to save sinners. And that claim, the heart of our faith, was nonsense to most people when the Book of Hebrews was written. Which means, part of the pressure on these first readers to abandon Jesus was this popular mindset. It was that, first off, there's no way that God would become a man. And then secondly, even if such a thing were so, there's certainly no way that God would become a man and suffer. That was the thinking in the air. And so Hebrews Chapter 1 says, “Oh, Jesus absolutely is God become man.” And now Chapter 2 is going to say, “And Jesus suffered.” That's the focus of verses 10–18, and like Pastor Kenny said last Sunday, this passage is wonderfully dense. There are several of single words and phrases worth our time and meditation, and we could spend weeks on this, but for today, I want us to look at this passage as a whole and I want us to see that Chapter 2 is mainly answering one big question. And that's the question: Why did Jesus suffer?That's the main question behind these verses, and I wonder if it's something you've thought about before. Have you ever wondered why the cross? Couldn't God have saved us another way? Did Jesus have to die? Why did Jesus suffer?Well this passage answers that question. We're going to see at least three reasons. Here's the first.Jesus suffered …1) Because it was by God's design.The first time suffering is mentioned in the Book of Hebrews is in Chapter 2, verse 9: “[Jesus, who humbled himself to become a man, was] crowned with glory and honor because of the suffering of death.” And right away those are not two ideas we're used to seeing together — being “crowned with glory and honor” and then “the suffering of death.” Those sound like the exact opposites and yet the writer of Hebrews says that the crowning came through the suffering. It was crown through cross. Look at the end of verse 9, Jesus suffered so that: “by the grace of God he [Jesus] might taste death for everyone.” And if we just stopped here at verse 9 we would know something very important. We'd know that the suffering of Jesus was the path to his glory and it was intentional. Those little words there in verse 9 “because” and “so that” imply purpose. God was doing something at the cross. We need to start here. Does everyone see that in verse 9? The cross was not an accident.Now in verse 10, the writer of Hebrews is gonna drive this point home. In verse 10 he starts to build the case that the suffering of Jesus was not only intentional, but it was right. He says this plainly in verse 10. “For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist, in bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” Look at those first four words: “for it was fitting.” Or, in other words, it was appropriate. It was right. That's what the word means. It does not mean tragedy or mistake or fiasco or accident. As horrible as the suffering of Jesus was, the writer of Hebrews wants to be clear that it was the way it had to be. And to emphasize this point, look how he refers to God. He says, verse 10, “he, for whom and by whom all things exist.” We know he's talking about God here and he could have just said “God,” why does he describe God with this phrase? Well, when you hear that phrase, what do you think? He for whom and by whom all things exist.I don't know about you, but when I hear He for whom and by whom all things exist I'm thinking about Somebody who can do whatever they want, right?God is the origin and the end of everything that is, which means he has the authority to do whatever he pleases. Remember who we're talking about! This is God! He is sovereign over all. The writer of Hebrews wants us to know that in his sovereignty God was pleased to save sons and daughters through a Savior who suffered. The cross was by God's design. It was fitting. It was right. The cross was the right way for God to save his people.That's the first answer to the main question here: Jesus suffered because it was by God's design. And now the writer is going to elaborate this point even more. Jesus suffered because…2) Because we suffer.And this is really the main answer to the question of why Jesus suffered. The writer of Hebrews spends most of his time here and belabors this point. I want us to see this.Verse 10, “It was fitting that God, for whom and by whom all things exist, in brining many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering.” “Perfect through suffering” What does that mean? Well, that word for perfect is not talking about moral perfection, but it's the idea of completeness, and in particular this is completeness as the founder of their salvation. Another way to say it is that this is about the completeness of Jesus's vocational role as founder. That word founder is important. It could also be translated “pioneer” or “leader.” The word is used four other times in the New Testament, twice by Luke in the book of Acts and twice in Hebrews, and the word is always in reference to Jesus. And commentators say that here in verse 10 it's 100% an allusion to Moses (who gets mentioned just a few verses away at the beginning of Chapter 3). The idea is that just like Moses was the founder/leader of God's people in the first exodus-salvation, Jesus is the founder/leader of God's people in the final exodus-salvation — and part of what it means for Jesus to fulfill that role of founder/leader is suffering. The Job DescriptionOne way to think about it is that when God wrote the job description for the founder/leader of his people's salvation, that job description included suffering. Suffering completes the founder job description.Imagine this for a minute.Imagine there's a job description for Jesus as the founder of our salvation. It's a one-page document, and there's a handful of bullet points that list out the responsibilities and duties of the role, and suffering is one of those bullet points.But, it's actually a sub-point to a larger bullet point.The suffering of Jesus is by God's design — it's a bullet point on his job description as the founder of our salvation — but the suffering is actually included under the larger bullet point that Jesus became a man. Part of becoming a man, part of truly sharing in real humanity, meant that Jesus had to experience suffering. That is the main argument the writer of Hebrews is going to make here. He is going to say this over and over again. And so get ready. I'm telling you now. The focus of this passage is that Jesus really did became human and he really did experience a humanity like ours — and because as humans we suffer, Jesus experienced suffering.And it's amazing in that the way the writer continues to argue that Jesus suffered is by saying that Jesus was really human. The writer of Hebrews makes the argument for why Jesus suffered by showing that Jesus was really like us. Look at verse 11. Jesus is fully God and fully human, and he really does know what it was like to be human.All of OneVerse 11 says: "For he who sanctifies [that's Jesus] and those who are sanctified [that's us, those who trust in Jesus] [Jesus and us, we] all have one source." In English translations we add that word “source” but it literally just says “all of one.” The idea is that Jesus and us are together. We're the “same family.” We are all of one. Which means we have true solidarity. And that is why, end of verse 11, he (Jesus) is not ashamed to call them (us) his brothers. We're going to come back to that sentence, but for now, just see that Jesus affirms our solidarity. He says, Yes, we're of the same, we're together. And this is such an important point for the writer of Hebrews that he gives us three Old Testament quotations to support it. And we have to look at these quotations. This is gonna take a minute, but I have to show you this. If you appreciate the Bible, this is for you. If you don't really care about the Bible yet, just hang on, okay. Old Testament SupportWith each of these quotes in verses 12–13, the writer of Hebrews has in view their original context. I think he wants us to hear the quote and then remember what's going on in the places where the quote comes from. Verse 12: “I will tell of your name to my brothers;in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise.” This quote is Psalm 22, verse 22.Psalm 22 is one of the most widely quoted Messianic psalms in the New Testament. This is the psalm that Jesus quoted while he was on the cross. You've heard this before. The psalm begins, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” That's Psalm 22, verse 1.The psalm is mainly about the Messiah's suffering, but it also points to the Messiah's future exaltation. Those are the two parts to the psalm, and the turning point in the psalm, where it goes from suffering to exaltation, happens in verse 22 — which is the verse that Hebrews is quoting here.In Psalm 22, David, the psalmist, says that on the other side of the Messiah's suffering, the Messiah will testify of God's name to his brothers, who are then called in the next line “the congregation” (which is the word for church). So Psalm 22 shows that the Messiah suffers; he endures through suffering; and he has brothers. And the writer of Hebrews is like “See!”Then in verse 13 both of these quotes are from Isaiah 8, verses 17 and 18. The context of Isaiah 8 is that the people of Judah are under threat. The Assyrian army is going to attack them, and the people are terrified. They're in a panic. But God says to Isaiah, Hey, don't be afraid like everyone else. I know this is hard. I know there is suffering, but I'm going to bring you through the suffering. And so Isaiah, in response to God, in Isaiah 8, verse 17 he says, Okay, I will wait for Yahweh. “I will hope in him.” And the writer of Hebrews quotes that verse. It's a verse about hoping in God in the midst of suffering — but then listen to the next verse.In Isaiah 8, verse 18, the very next verse, Isaiah says, “Behold, I and the children whom Yahweh has given me are signs and portents in Israel from Yahweh of hosts.” What does that mean? Well, in the context, a little earlier in the Book of Isaiah, in chapter 7 and the beginning of 8, Isaiah has two sons, and God gives them both special names to symbolize the faithful remnant of God's people who trust God and endure through suffering. So in verse 17, Isaiah speaks of his own faith. He says, “I will put my trust in him [in God].” Then in verse 18 he says that it's not just his faith, but it's a faith he shares with the children God gave him. So Isaiah is saying: I have a shared hope through suffering with these children from God. And the writer of Hebrews wants us to know that Jesus says that about us.In verse 14 the word “children” is used again and what's implied here is that we are the children of God that God gave to Jesus as his brothers.The write of Hebrew is saying again that we're with Jesus together. We're all of one. Familial ReferencesAnd I want to make sure we get the familial references clear. I was having a conversation about this with a kindergartner just this past week. I was driving down the road and he casually mentioned that God and Jesus were brothers, and I was like hold up. It led to a good conversation about the Trinity and how we relate to the Father and Son, and this passage actually shows us.The metaphor of family is important here, and we are called two different titles. We who are saved, those of us who trust in Jesus, in this passage we are called “sons” and “children” in verses 10 and 14. And we're called “brothers” in verses 11, 12, and 17. Each of those mentions are about us. And just to be clear:When we're called sons or children, that's in relation to God the Father. We are the children of God. We are the sons and daughters of God the Father. When we're called brothers (which implies brothers and sisters) that's us in relation to Jesus. We are the brothers and sisters of Jesus. God is our Father. Jesus is our brother. That's important if we're going to understand this passage.Verse 14 tells us that Jesus, therefore — because we are God's children and Jesus is our brother — because we share in flesh and blood, Jesus partook of the same things. The Same ThingsSo, see, it comes back to this solidarity. It's simple. Jesus was really like us, which means he experienced the same things we do. Because we, his fellow brothers and sisters, because we are flesh and blood and sweat and snot and fingernails — because we are that, Jesus experienced that. He partook of the same things, verse 14, and the “same things” includes suffering. The rest of verse 14 and 15 then focus on our mortality. We could spend a whole sermon just on this point, but for now I just want to highlight that our mortality and suffering go together. Death is a result of suffering. Remember back in verse 9 the phrase is the “suffering of death.” Death is a threat that hangs over us all. It reminds us that we are not invincible, but we're bound and confined and lower. And if Jesus really became a human then he must experience that. And he did. That's what verse 16 is saying. Jesus didn't come to save angels; he came to save humans. Mortals. He helps the offspring of Abraham. People like us.And because of that, verse 17 — because Jesus came to save real people, his brothers — “Therefore he had to be made like his brothers in every respect…” I told you it was the same argument over and over again. This is the same thing we saw in verse 10. The suffering of Jesus was fitting. It was right. Here we see it was necessary. It had to be that Jesus became like us in every respect, even suffering. Jesus has such solidarity with us, he became so actually human like us, that when you experience hurt, he knows what that is like. He gets us. He gets you. And that's what makes him a merciful and faithful high priest, which is how he made atonement for our sins and intercedes for us. And there's a whole sermon on that, but for now let's come back to the main question here: Why did Jesus suffer?Jesus suffered because we suffer. Jesus really did became human and he really did experience a humanity like ours — and because as humans we suffer, Jesus experienced suffering. Jesus suffered because it was by God's design. Jesus suffered because we suffer. Now the final point.Jesus suffered…3) Because now he is able to help us. This is verse 18. And it follows the same train of thought we've been looking at. You can see that verse 18 begins with the word “for.” That tells us that what the writer is about to say is serving as a grounding to what he's said previously. And I think it makes the most sense to understand verse 18 as a grounding statement to this entire section. Verse 18 sorta summarizes the entire argument.For because he himself has suffered when tempted, he is able to help those who are being tempted. Because Jesus has experienced real humanity, even suffering, he is able help us in our humanity.A couple key words here are “tempted” and “help” — and how we understand “tempted” is going to guide us on how to understand “help.” What kind of help is he talking about? At one level, we could keep this very general. It could be a very general kind of temptation, and therefore a very general kind of help.But, consider this: in light of what we've seen in these verses, and because we know the main exhortation of this book is about endurance, I think the writer of Hebrews is thinking about temptation more narrowly. Jesus was tempted in general, in all kinds of ways, but he was especially tempted to abandon God, to neglect his calling, to shrink back because of the pressure. We know this from Jesus's temptation in the wilderness and his agony in Gethsemane. And instead of abandoning, neglecting, and shrinking back — what Jesus experienced, because he withstood those temptations, was suffering. And he suffered all the way through to the other side of faithfulness. He never gave into sin, including the sin of apostasy, which means, he can help you. When you're pressured to abandon God, when you are tempted to to forsake faith, Jesus can help you there because he's been there. And — here it is, get this: because Jesus can help you in that big, most serious of temptations, he can help you anywhere.Several years ago when our oldest daughter was a toddler, I remember she was just at the age where she could change her clothes and dress herself. One day I heard her screaming from her room, in a panic, “Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me! Jesus, help me!” So I go and run and open the door, and apparently she had been taking her pajamas off and somehow got twisted up and her shirt was stuck over her head. She wanted Jesus's help.And because Jesus can help her endure in faith, he can help her with pajamas. And he did. I was there, found both sleeves, and pulled it over her head. I think Jesus answered her prayer. He helped her. I love that word “help.” It's so earthy. So practical. It can be so particular or general. I need help with the transmission in my van, and I need help as a pastor, and as a husband and a dad. I need help all over the place. I need Jesus's help all over the place. And so do you. We need his help everywhere, to believe, and to live, and to do anything.And have you ever wondered what Jesus thinks about that? What does he think about us needing his help all the time?There's something wonderful here. Jesus can help us as humans because he knows what it's like to be human, but unlike humans, because Jesus is also God, he doesn't get weary of helping us. There's never a moment when we cry to him for help and he thinks “Not again.” In fact, it's the opposite. We cry to Jesus for help and he thinks, Oh, I get it. I know. I've been there. We're together.And of that togetherness, verse 11 says that Jesus is “not ashamed to call us brothers.”I think this is a little theme we're going to see in Hebrews. In a few different places we read what God our Father and what Jesus our brother thinks of us. How does he view us? Jesus has been here. He's seen it. He's experienced it. He knows what we're up against. He's been tempted like us, and he knows we've failed a thousand times where he never did. What does he think of us? Ask that question about yourself: What does Jesus think of me?Hebrews 2:11 says he's not ashamed to call you his brother. He's not ashamed to call you his sister. He claims you, openly, in front of everyone, no matter the pressure or the popular mindset or what someone might graffiti on the wall, whatever it is you're going through, Jesus is not ashamed of you. He claims you.He hears your prayers and thinks: “My brother!” “My sister!” I can help you.That is why he suffered.And that's what brings us to the Table. The TableThis morning as we receive the bread and the cup, I want to invite you to ask Jesus for help. In a room like this, with all the souls in here, only God knows what we have going on. There are hard things, heavy things. There's hurt and confusion and doubts. There are particular things and general things. And whatever they might be, whatever you're going through, ask Jesus to help you. Because of who Jesus is, because of what he's done, because he's been there, would you ask him for help?Let's just take a minute and do that now.Lord Jesus, because of who you are, because of what you've done, because of what you tell us in your word, help us. Amen.And now at this Table, we remember the death of Jesus for us and give him thanks. He has saved us. He claims us. Let us revel in his salvation.

Rev. Shawn Stafford was preacher for this service. Isaiah 7: 10-14 EHV: The Lord spoke to Ahaz again. He said, “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God. Ask for it either in the depths below or in the heights above.” But Ahaz responded, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” So Isaiah said, “Listen now, you house of David. Is it not enough for you to test the patience of men? Will you test the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord himself will give a sign for all of you. Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel.”

Order of Service: - Prelude - Hymn 123 - From Heav'n Above To Earth I Come: vv. 1-5 - Isaiah 7: 10-14 EHV: The Lord spoke to Ahaz again. He said, “Ask for a sign from the Lord your God. Ask for it either in the depths below or in the heights above.” But Ahaz responded, “I will not ask. I will not test the Lord.” So Isaiah said, “Listen now, you house of David. Is it not enough for you to test the patience of men? Will you test the patience of my God as well? Therefore the Lord himself will give a sign for all of you. Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son and name him Immanuel.” - Devotion - Prayer - Hymn 123 - From Heav'n Above To Earth I Come: vv. 8, 13-15 - Blessing - Postlude Service Participants: Rev. Shawn Stafford (Preacher), Kaleb Schmidt (Organist)

2 Kings 20:1-11. Isaiah the prophet gave God's word to King Hezekiah.King Hezekiah got ill and Isaiah had said he would get better. The King asked for proof. Isaiah said King Hezekiah do you want the shadow of the sun to go forward ten steps or back ten steps. King Hezekiah replied to the prophet Isaiah for the shadow go back the ten steps it had gone down on the stairway of Ahaz.Hezekiah's Illness2 Kings 20:1 During this time, Hezekiah became sick with a fatal illness, so Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz, approached him and told him, “This is what the LORD says: ‘Put your household in order, because you are dying. You will not survive.'” …Now Hezekiah had asked Isaiah, “What is to be the sign that the LORD is healing me and that I'll be going up to the LORD's Temple three days from now?”So Isaiah replied, “This will be your sign from the LORD that the LORD will do what he has promised. Shall the shadow go forward ten steps or go back ten steps?”Hezekiah answered, “It's an easy thing for a shadow to lengthen ten steps. So let the shadow go backward ten steps.” So Isaiah cried out to the LORD, who brought the shadow back ten steps after it had gone down the stairway of Ahaz.The shadowI don't know what is causing the shadow. I don't think it matters too much. For this answer I will assume that the steps are literal, and the shadow is a building or some other structure.To move a shadow you must move either the light source, or the object blocking the light source (or both). The object making the shadow has the part of the top fall off, and this makes the shadow go back 10 steps. This, to me, is the simplest solution.This is an explanation for the phenomenon however what is important to note is not how it happened but that this was the word of the prophet and it confirmed the Word of God to the King.Prophetic confirmationThere were likely a number of false prophets around at this time (e.g. Isaiah 44:25). Perhaps in asking for a sign Hezekiah was trying to ensure the truthfulness of the prophecy (and prophet).2 Peter 1:19a: Moreover, we possess the prophetic word as an altogether reliable thing.We surely need confirmation for every prophetic word we receive. If the word comes through a prophecy or whether you hear God's voice directly you will need confirmation. How to Respond to a Prophecy? You've just heard a prophecy. It could have been a personal prophecy, or a word from the Lord delivered corporately, or to a group of people. Either way, you are now in possession of a message from God. So, what do you do now?1. Identify the prophets (true or false)2. Words that come through prophetic utterance are not to be taken lightly.“Do not scoff at prophecies!” (1 Thessalonians 5:21)When you hear a prophecy, you can't sit back and wait for it to happen. There is something you need to contribute to keep it moving along—praying, declaring and standing in faith for that word to come to pass. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myeveningdevotional.substack.com

Who is He?- Messiah's Encouragement 51:9 Awake, awake, put on strength, arm of Yahweh; awake, as in the days of old, the generations of ancient times. Isn't it you who cut Rahab in pieces, who pierced the monster? 51:10 Isn't it you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep; who made the depths of the sea a way for the redeemed to pass over? 51:11 The ransomed of Yahweh shall return, and come with singing to Zion; and everlasting joy shall be on their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy. Sorrow and sighing shall flee away. 51:12 "I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass; 51:13 and have forgotten Yahweh your Maker, who stretched forth the heavens, and laid the foundations of the earth; and fear continually all the day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he makes ready to destroy? and where is the fury of the oppressor? 51:14 The captive exile shall speedily be freed; and he shall not die and go down into the pit, neither shall his bread fail. 51:15 For I am Yahweh your God, who stirs up the sea, so that its waves roar: Yahweh of Armies is his name. 51:16 I have put my words in your mouth, and have covered you in the shadow of my hand, that I may plant the heavens, and lay the foundations of the earth, and tell Zion, ‘You are my people.'" 51:17 Awake, awake, stand up, Jerusalem, that have drunk at the hand of Yahweh the cup of his wrath; you have drunken the bowl of the cup of staggering, and drained it. 51:18 There is none to guide her among all the sons whom she has brought forth; neither is there any who takes her by the hand among all the sons who she has brought up. 51:19 These two things have happened to you. Who will bemoan you? Desolation and destruction, and the famine and the sword; how shall I comfort you? 51:20 Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your God. 51:21 Therefore hear now this, you afflicted, and drunken, but not with wine: 51:22 Thus says your Lord Yahweh, and your God who pleads the cause of his people, "Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of staggering, even the bowl of the cup of my wrath; you shall no more drink it again: 51:23 and I will put it into the hand of those who afflict you, who have said to your soul, ‘Bow down, that we may walk over you;' and you have laid your back as the ground, and as the street, to those who walk over." 52:1 Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean. 52:2 Shake yourself from the dust! Arise, sit up, Jerusalem! Release yourself from the bonds of your neck, captive daughter of Zion! 52:3 For thus says Yahweh, "You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money." 52:4 For thus says the Lord Yahweh, "My people went down at the first into Egypt to live there: and the Assyrian has oppressed them without cause. 52:5 "Now therefore, what do I do here," says Yahweh, "seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock," says Yahweh, "and my name continually all the day is blasphemed. 52:6 Therefore my people shall know my name. Therefore they shall know in that day that I am he who speaks; behold, it is I." 52:7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!" 52:8 The voice of your watchmen! they lift up the voice, together do they sing; for they shall see eye to eye, when Yahweh returns to Zion. 52:9 Break forth into joy, sing together, you waste places of Jerusalem; for Yahweh has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. 52:10 Yahweh has made bare his holy arm in the eyes of all the nations; and all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. 52:11 Depart, depart, go out from there, touch no unclean thing! Go out of the midst of her! Cleanse yourselves, you who bear the vessels of Yahweh. 52:12 For you shall not go out in haste, neither shall you go by flight: for Yahweh will go before you; and the God of Israel will be your rear guard. (Isaiah 51:9-52:12) Be Encouraged People of God! In the first few verses of chapter 51 that I didn't read, we see that faith is nurtured by listening and hearing.  People are encouraged to look back and see what God has done with just one man, Abraham! How from him came an entire nation!  This bodes well for the future when all history is consummated - have faith in your God who will lead you into the next world! But for now, don't be afraid of what other people will do - stay close to God, have faith in Him, trust Him patiently and live obedient and righteous lives. For as verse 6 states "my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished." Then we come to a mounting anticipation with baited breath.  Quickly the phrase "awake awake" is repeated, as if to give a sense of urgency.  The exodus from Egypt, an event remembered well by the nation of Israel and alluded to in verses 9 & 10 of chapter 51, will be surpassed by a new age of righteousness at the end of time.  All those "ransomed by the Lord", those set free by God will enter the city of God with joyous singing which will be their crown! Sorrow and sadness will no longer exist! Gladness and joy will be triumphant! Alleluia! Despite many obstacles in the way, the Lord God will reign triumphant. His Messiah, His Servant will deliver you.  His Servant will be triumphant. Wake up! Note that the people themselves are to wake up, not the Lord God or His Servant!  All that will be fulfilled is not waiting for God, but waiting for people and their spiritual inertia!  It's their unwillingness to be obedient to God that is stopping the fulfillment of history! While Isaiah is clearly eager, it seems the nation of Israel is not - they have forgotten about their awesome and Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth! So Isaiah shouts out "Wake up!!"  I am your God and you are my people is to remind Israel of the covenant that exists between themselves and God!  It is a covenant that signifies relationship, care and commitment! Israel may have forgotten this, but God had not!  God is in the relationship, He is trustworthy and faithful, so therefore there is no need to fear!  God's commitment is faultless and worthy of obedience! This commitment deserves active obedience on the part of the people of Israel and not their overwhelming spiritual laziness.  While overwhelming fear inhibits and destructs, the love of God frees.  Isaiah urges them to live an active and obedient life worthy of their freedom and not a life of spiritual inertia and rebellion. One last time, Isaiah urges action when crying "Awake! Awake!" in Isaiah 52:1.  Salvation is nearing and coming quickly, are you ready?  Be alert, people of Israel and live as if you are the freed people of God and not as if you are rebellious captors. Be ready, just as your ancestors were the night before the Exodus from Egypt commenced. Be expectant and ready.  One difference to note.  With the exodus, the Israelites took what they could from the Egyptians - gold, silver, jewelry and clothing.  This time, everything will be left behind. All this bears in the mind the Servant.  The Servant, who as a King dispenses justice and as a Prophet speaks for God, will usher in this new period.  When Isaiah writes in 52:11 "Depart, depart, go out from there", he must be urging people to respond to the Servant. Respond by living a holy and righteous life of obedience to God as one who is on a lifelong pilgrimage. Stop rebelling against Him and love Him who first loved them. Where is Jesus in this? Jesus during his earthly ministry always urged people to be active in obedience to God.  Jesus comforted the lonely, oppressed, the weak and the poor.  He urged people to come back into relationship with God.  With a sense of urgency, He told people to be ready and alert for the day when history will end.  Jesus urged his listeners to be spiritually awake. Jesus said in Matthew 11:30 "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."  Jesus who remarkably stated in John 8:34-36 "Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.". When Jesus Christ the Servant King comes back, He will come back like a thief in the night - with surprise!  But for those who love and trust in Him, it will be a day of gladness and joy because their King will have returned to gather them.  This Jesus who in Mark1:15 issued these words ""The time has come," he said. "The kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news!"  Truly we concur with Isaiah when he wrote in Isaiah 52:7 "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, who publishes peace, who brings good news of good, who publishes salvation, who says to Zion, "Your God reigns!""  Jesus Christ, the Prince of Peace, through whom is salvation alone. Right mouse click to save/download this Podcast as a MP3 file

How did God prove to be with Judah? How is Jesus our Immanuel? Immanuel | Isaiah 7:10-25 | Isaiah's Prophetic Hope | Outline | Conversation YHWH again spoke to Ahaz: "Ask for a confirming sign from YHWH your God. You can even ask for something miraculous." But Ahaz responded, "I don't want to ask; I don't want to put YHWH to a test." So Isaiah replied, "Pay attention, family of David. Do you consider it too insignificant to try the patience of men? Is that why you are also trying the patience of my God? For this reason the Lord himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is about to conceive and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel. He will eat sour milk and honey, which will help him know how to reject evil and choose what is right. Here is why this will be so: Before the child knows how to reject evil and choose what is right, the land whose two kings you fear will be desolate. YHWH will bring on you, your people, and your father's family a time unlike any since Ephraim departed from Judah - the king of Assyria!" At that time YHWH will whistle for flies from the distant streams of Egypt and for bees from the land of Assyria. All of them will come and make their home in the ravines between the cliffs, and in the crevices of the cliffs, in all the thorn bushes, and in all the watering holes. At that time the Lord will use a razor hired from the banks of the Euphrates River, the king of Assyria, to shave the hair off the head and private parts; it will also shave off the beard. At that time a man will keep alive a young cow from the herd and a couple of goats. From the abundance of milk they produce, he will have sour milk for his meals. Indeed, everyone left in the heart of the land will eat sour milk and honey. At that time every place where there had been a thousand vines worth a thousand shekels will be overrun with thorns and briers. With bow and arrow men will hunt there, for the whole land will be covered with thorns and briers. They will stay away from all the hills that were cultivated, for fear of the thorns and briers. Cattle will graze there and sheep will trample on them (Isaiah 7:10-25)

Encounters with God is a sermon series about the theophanies or divine appearances and how they reveal the stunning character of God and his heart for a world that is lost without him. Isaiah has a vision of God, high and lifted up, and is confronted by the holiness of God. A supremely holy God can seem like a threat to people who struggle with sin. But surprisingly, holiness is both the reason God is able to save us and is the future for all people in Christ. Recorded on Dec 12, 2021, on Isaiah 6, by Pastor David Parks. Sermon Transcript All year, we're talking about The Greatness of God. And today, we're continuing a sermon series called Encounters with God. In the Bible, when God appears to someone it's known as a theophany or divine appearing. And these encounters are wild stories, God never seems to act how we would expect. But these appearances reveal the stunning character of God, and his heart to save a world that is lost without him. Well today, we'll consider the surprising encounter with God and the prophet Isaiah. In this theophany, at first, the vision of God as high and lifted up is quite terrifying because of the holiness of God. But then we realize, with Isaiah, that the holiness of God is not only wonderful but is also tied directly to the very purpose of the church, to our purpose/mission today. It's a story of surprisingly good news. If you have a Bible/app, please open to Isaiah 6:1. Isaiah 6:1-5 (NIV), “In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple. 2 Above him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. 3 And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of his glory.” 4 At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. 5 “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.”” Let's pause here. So Isaiah goes into the temple and who should he find there, but the Almighty God himself, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, the Lord of hosts. Have you ever been surprised at church by the presence of God? Sometimes during worship, I just get this sense of awe and power at the presence of God. But probably not exactly to this degree. Isaiah finds himself transported into the throne room of heaven where the Lord is seated on a throne like a king, high and lifted up. Now, sometimes dates are difficult to determine in the Bible, but we actually know that it was the year 742 BC when King Uzziah died. Isaiah lived during a time of extreme uncertainty with the threat of war/violence all around the nation of Judah. [Map slide] During this time, the northern kingdom of Israel had fallen to the Assyrian Empire, so the most powerful empire in the world was literally on its doorstep. This would've been terrifying because the Assyrians were the first civilization in history to have a professional army, not just a collection of local militia's. As a result, for about 300 years, the Assyrians conquered everybody. Because this was a time of exile for the people of ancient Israel and Judah, there were many prophets at work during this time. Similar to the time of the Exodus, God was speaking a lot during the time of the exile so that his people wouldn't miss why all this was happening. Other prophets who were active at this time include Jonah and Hosea in the northern kingdom of Israel and Micah and Isaiah in the southern kingdom of Judah. One more history nerd fact: the ancient Greek poet, Homer, author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, was 8 years old when Isaiah had his theophany in the temple. So there was a lot going on in the world at this time.  Ok, let's jump back into the throne room of heaven.

Well, you have your Bible, please open up with me to Isaiah. We're going to be in Isaiah 9:1-7. Over the last couple of weeks or so leading up to Christmas, Pastor Jacob has been working through the story of Christ's birth in the Gospel of Matthew, one of the most popular text. I think we would all agree in the Bible and yet the events that we read about in that passage and Mark or in Matthew Chapters one and two and in the corresponding infancy narrative in Luke's Gospel are stories and events that didn't arise out of the blue. In other words, the event of Christ's birth were events that were planned before the foundation of the world and events that were anticipated in the Old Testament. Today we're going to look at just one of those prophecies that looks forward to Christ's birth. It looks forward to Christ's incarnation some seven hundred years before it actually took place. So hear now the word of the Lord from Isaiah 9:1-7, I will be reading out of the English Standard Version. "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations. 2 The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone. 3 You have multiplied the nation; you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest, as they are glad when they divide the spoil. 4 For the yoke of his burden, and the staff for his shoulder, the rod of his oppressor, you have broken as on the day of Midian. 5 For every boot of the tramping warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire. 6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. 7 Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. Isaiah 9:1-7, ESV This is the word of the Lord. In the year sixty-nine A.D., about two thousand years ago or so, a year that's been called the so-called "Long Year" by historians. The Roman Empire went through something of a tense period of conflict and civil war. It actually all started the previous year back in sixty-eight A.D., when one of the most deranged emperors to ever govern Rome died. His name was Nero, and in 68 A.D., Nero killed himself. His successor, a guy named Galba, Emperor Galba, became emperor. Now, when word of this event, this transition of power, reached the eastern boundaries of the empire, where two generals named Vespasian and his son, Titus, were busy leveling Jerusalem and the surrounding area because of a large scale Jewish revolt that was underway. The younger of the two generals, whose name was General Titus dropped everything to go back to Rome and congratulate the new emperor who had ascended to the throne. You see, if you were among the first to greet the new guy and to make sure that he likes you, well, in the end, that would work out on your behalf. So that was Titus' plan, get the new guy to like me. So he began his long journey back to Rome to greet Emperor Galba. On his long, way back, a few things happened. First, long before Titus even got to Rome, Emperor Galba was assassinated a few months after he took control in January of 69 A.D. A new emperor named Otho took power of the empire in Rome. Right when that happened, something else happened. Another general and another area of the empire whose name was Vitellius decided that now was his opportunity to become emperor, and so he declared himself emperor and decided to march upon Rome and against Otho and his supporters. A few months later, Vitellius successfully overthrew the second guy named Otho as emperor. Given all of this upheaval that was going on in Rome, what was Titus, the first general who was going back to Rome to congratulate the first guy who had now died, what was he going to do? In the midst of all of this upheaval, he was kind of stuck in the middle and wondering, who should he get behind? You see, if you tied yourself to the wrong guy. That wasn't good because their downfall would eventually be your downfall. Well, in the end, here's what Titus did. He decided that with all of this turmoil unfolding, he'd go back and make sure that his dad Vespasian became emperor, and a few months later, Vespasian and marched on Rome, and he became emperor, too. Now, if you found that whole historical synopsis to be somewhat dizzying and confusing, that's because it is. Un the history of the Roman Empire sixty-nine A.D. was a dark and tumultuous year of political upheaval. It saw, if you were counting four different emperors in the course of a year, it was a year of backbiting and civil war. If, like General Titus, you were caught in the middle of all that, well, your next move would seal your own fate as well. You see, your future was bound up in who you supported. Support the wrong guy and you're not going to have much of a future. When you think about it, even if you support the winner and this is the kind of environment you call home, how long do you think you really have until somebody comes for you next? Now, on the one hand, the events of that story of sixty-nine A.D. and the tumultuous time of the Roman Empire are far removed in a variety of ways from our own context. On the other hand, you and I are always faced, we're always faced with decisions in life like Titus about who or what to support who or what to hitch our future ambitions to. Whether we're talking about the world of politics or our own future ambitions, or even something that's inconsequential as the world of sports. We're always trying to navigate this world and hopefully come out on top by supporting the right causes and the right people. Be that as it may, the Bible tells us that whatever we decide to get behind in this world, whatever alliances we gravitate towards and however shrewd we are in navigating this environment of competing forces, no amount of skillful maneuvering in the present can give us the kind of triumph that we look for or the satisfaction that we long for. You see, the Bible tells us that there are many good things and right things to get behind in this world, spiritually speaking, we live in a world of sin and unbelief and darkness. This world could never and will never yield a solution to its own problems. Our only hope then, while we live in this world, is to get behind somebody who is not of this world, but who nevertheless came into this world some two thousand years ago to triumph over the present darkness. So our big idea this morning is this walk in the light of the Son. Now we'll talk about the historical setting of our passage, Isaiah chapter nine, in just a moment. For now, keep in mind that when Isaiah writes what he writes here in Isaiah nine, some seven hundred years before Christ's birth and incarnation, Isaiah is speaking into a bleak and dark situation that's unfolding in his own day. He sees God's people descending into a time of darkness and gloom. Yet, in the context of that, he also looks forward to a future day where he sees a dramatic reversal on the horizon, a reversal that subverts expectations. So as we look at our passage, we'll see first how Isaiah describes this reversal as glory that overcomes gloom and then how he explains this reversal as deliverance that overcomes bondage. First, a description of how glory overcomes gloom and versus one through three and then an explanation deliverance, overcoming bondage and verses four through seven. Most commentators break this passage down and those two parts, and so I'm following accordingly. 1. How Glory Overcomes Gloom 2. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage How Glory Overcomes Gloom So let's begin with seeing how glory overcomes gloom. Now throughout this passage, again, keep in mind that Isaiah is looking forward. He's looking forward to a future day. He's standing in about the seven hundred B.C., and yet he's looking to a future day on the horizon. To appreciate the descriptions that Isaiah provides of that coming day, we have to first appreciate when he says what he says. In other words, we have to appreciate something about the historical context in which Isaiah is prophesying. As we'll see, it's a context of doom and gloom and darkness. Understand that in the lead up to what Isaiah tells us here in Isaiah chapter nine, the prophet has been speaking from Isaiah seven through Isaiah eight, and now into Isaiah, nine, into a particular situation that was transpiring in Judah during the reign of King Ahaz around seven hundred thirty-four B.C. You see at that time, King Ahaz and the kingdom he led, known as Judah, were faced with a kind of international turmoil of their own. You see immediately to their north and alliance was forming. Actually, an alliance had already formed between two nations between Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel. This new alliance that had formed just north of Ahaz decided to put Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah in their crosshairs. In fact, they were intent with overthrowing Ahaz and the Kingdom of Judah. As Isaiah is writing what he's writing, those armies from the North are already on the move. They're already pressing down southward, taking over city after city in Judah intent on overthrowing Ahaz and his kingdom. So Ahaz is faced with the potential loss of the kingdom he governs. He has a choice to make. Would he get behind the Israel-Syria alliance so that they would stop attacking him? Perhaps he could surrender to them while he still has time left and promised to pay them tribute so that they wouldn't attack him any longer? Kind of like paying the mafia for protection. Or on the other hand, maybe Ahaz would rather than align himself with that alliance to turn to the real superpower of the day a nation known as Assyria and get behind them so that they would offer him protection from this alliance forming in the north. In short, Ahaz is faced with a decision about what alliances to form, about who to get behind so that perhaps his kingdom that was under attack would be spared. Before he makes that decision, the prophet Isaiah comes to him in Isaiah chapter seven, and he pleads with Ahaz not to get behind anyone. Rather, he tells him to forsake all of these worldly alliances and the geopolitical wheeling and dealing that's going on in the day and instead look to the Lord. To trust that the Lord is going to deliver Judah from international threats near and far, just like he's always done throughout their history. Does Ahaz listen to Isaiah's advice? Well, no, he doesn't. Instead, and we would find this out if we were looking at Isaiah seven, he proceeds with forming an alliance with Assyria and though it saves Judah in the short term, ultimately, it's the decision that would lead to the devastation of his kingdom. First, after he makes that decision, Syria and the 10 northern tribes of Israel would be devastated by Assyria, the superpower of the day. That might have been good news for someone like Ahaz, who was only living in the short term by what he could see. After Ahaz is gone later, in history after he dies, Judah would suffer at the hands of that superpower too. Throughout Isaiah chapter seven and eight in the lead up to Isaiah nine, the prophet Isaiah looks forward to the future, and he outlines the consequences for rejecting the way of faith that he held out for Ahaz. Isaiah announces that because many in Judah, including the king himself, have rejected the way of faith and have chosen instead to live in the short term by what their eyes could see, the nation as a whole would be plunged into deep darkness and gloom. Even in that darkness, here's the good news. God would preserve a faithful remnant, a portion of his people who still trusted in him. Who were marked not merely by their national identity as Israelite or Judahites, but by their spiritual identity as a people who hunger and thirst for the Lord and for his promises. For people like that, here's where we come to the burst of light in Isaiah 9:1, the day of salvation would eventually dawn. Look again at verse one where we read, "But there will be no gloom for her, who was in anguish." There will be gloom after Ahaz, gloom will set in for the nation of Judah. Isaiah is looking beyond that at this point, and he says, "But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations." Back in the early 1990s, and some of you might remember this, one of the most dangerous cities in the world was Medellin, Colombia. In fact, at the time, I think it was labeled the most dangerous city in the world. During the heights of Pablo Escobar's drug cartel, which was based in Medellin. The city had something like a murder rate of nearly 400 murders per 100,000 people. It was by far the highest in the world. To give you a comparison, the highest murder rate in the United States today is St. Louis, which is about 64 murders per 100,000 people. So that was, you know, doing the math something like eight fold what St. Louis is today. Moreover, the poverty rate in Medellin in the early 1990s was something like 50 percent. The infrastructure of the city left much to be desired. After Escobar's death that the city underwent this incredible transformation, the homicide rate plummeted, the poverty rate fell too. Over the course of the next few decades, Medellin has been transformed into what one publication calls it one of the smartest cities in the world. Now, of course, all cities have issues Medellin included, but the transformation that city has undergone in three decades is truly remarkable. Well, when our text opens in verse one, we hear Isaiah announce an even more remarkable transformation than that. He tells us that the lands to the north of Judah and Jerusalem, the lands of Zebulon and Neftali would be transformed. Now this was land that was originally settled by God's people all the way back in the book of Joshua. The people of God who lived there, the Israelites who lived there under King David and under King Solomon, they flourished in that place. After Solomon died, well, that land quickly became a land of idolatry. False worship sprang up on the mountains of Zebulon and Neftali and the surrounding regions, and the land became a setting for international conflict. It was eventually land that was devastated by Assyria, in Ahaz's own day. We learn in the Bible that after a Syria devastated the land of Zebulon and Neftali, the carried away the Jewish population that lived there and then repopulated it again with pagan gentiles who didn't worship the Lord instead. In God's providence Assyria turned this land into a place of deep darkness and gloom in more ways than one. Yet, Isaiah looks forward to a day when that depleted and dark territory would be the first to be transformed. Of course, the kind of transformation that Isaiah envisions and Isaiah 9:1 has nothing to do with the implementation of any social or technological program. It has nothing to do with any kind of earthly glory whatsoever. Rather, Isaiah sees transformation of this territory because God himself is on the move. Understand that whenever we hear about light breaking into darkness in the Bible, it's nearly always associated with the presence of the glory of God. For example, the psalmist proclaims in Psalm 104:1-2, "You are clothed with splendor and majesty, covering yourself with light, as with a garment." The advent of light into the world, then, is nothing more and nothing less than the emergence of God's presence into the world, to dwell with his people. And to deal with the dominance of spiritual darkness that had overtaken not only the land but also the world. As Isaiah looks forward to this day, the advent of God's glorious presence, well, he tells us in verse three that this really has nothing to do at all with a geographical plot of land. Rather, it has everything to do with what this will mean for God's people. Look at verse three, where the prophet Isaiah proclaims quote, "You have multiplied the nation, you have increased its joy; they rejoice before you, as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil." Again, Isaiah is peering forward to a future day just like he was in versus one through two. As an aside, what's interesting is that throughout these verses, these first three verses in Isaiah, he sees these events of the future as so certain that he actually speaks about them in the past tense. He did that when he spoke of God's presence back in the land, and now he does that again when he talks about the effects that this has on God's people. So what is the effect that God's presence has on God's people? Well, first he talks about the multiplication of God's people. Remember, in Isaiah's own day as he's writing this prophecy, those who were actually looking to God by faith were few. It was maybe a small remnant among the people of Judah and Israel who actually believed in the Lord and love the Lord. In the future, Isaiah tells us when light breaks through the darkness, he sees a dramatic increase in numbers. Not only Jews, but also pagans from the nations would soak in the light of God's presence. Remember, because of Assyria, those northern regions became a mixture of gentiles and Jews, which is why Isaiah calls them here Galilee of the Nations. When light arrives, when God's presence breaks into human history, he paints this picture where even a remnant of the Gentiles will be transformed from a people of unbelief to a people of faith. God's people, then we learn when God's presence arrives would swell numerically. They would spread out geographically, and we only need to read through the book of Acts to see how that takes shape and in their growth. We also learn that their joy would increase, too. If you're looking at the imagery of verse three Isaiah likens the joy of God's people when God's presence arrives to that of a farmer after a bountiful harvest. Much of you farmers are joyful right now, that's the kind of joy that's envisioned here. Then he pictures that likewise as joy of a victorious army dividing up plunder after a battle that they won. But that leads to the question why? Why are they so joyful? Why are they filled with such joy? Well, very simply, the joy of God's people is conditioned by nothing other than the fact that with the advent of this light, they now dwell secure in the presence of God. When I was a kid, my parents were kind enough. Year in and year out to take my sister and I on a number of great vacations. Often one of the places we would go to was the happiest place on Earth, Walt Disney World. Now, as a kid who was spoiled and got to go to Walt Disney World fairly often, you would think that I would appreciate the thoughtfulness of my parents and the sacrifice that it was to take me there year in and year out and that as a kid, I would have simply just appreciated being at Walt Disney World, but that that would have been enough for me. But if that's what you're assuming, then you've never vacationed with kids. You see, without fail, every time we went on one of these extravagant vacations as a kid, even to Disney, it was never enough just to be on vacation. I always wanted something more. I remember one year in particular as a kid, that there was this toy Davy Crockett rifle that I saw in one of the gift shops, the gift shop that Disney strategically locates just to drive every parent crazy. I had to have it. For days in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth, all I thought about was this toy rifle asking my parents for every five minutes and unable to find any semblance of joy in the so-called Happiest Place on Earth until I held this overpriced faux wooden rifle in my hands. Talk about needing to shift my priorities. If we're all honest with ourselves, I think this also captures how we too often live in God's world, too. You see, when we become Christians, I think many of us can attest to the fact that God was enough. To be in his presence, to be in his church and to study his word might have felt like drinking water from a fire hose. It was a lot, but it was also a satisfying place to be. At some point we settle in and we often begin to obsess over comparatively insignificant things. Remember, in verse three of our passage, God's people are rejoicing with exceedingly exceeding joy simply because they're in God's presence. Their joy isn't conditioned by anything else other than God is in their midst. Friends, that's a game changer for God's people. That's everything in dictating our joy in the Christian life, too. But is that enough for you? Does that reality by itself produce joy in your life, or is your joy conditioned by a host of far more insignificant factors? If you profess Christ, let me ask you this, do people know you by your joy? You see, one of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is joy, and we're called to be known as God's people for our joy. So do people know you as someone who professes steadfast joy in Christ? Or are you on the flip side, known more is a critical curmudgeon, as a bitter killjoy, always upset about something and always with an axe to grind. Now, of course, that's not to say we need to fake it when we walk through real suffering in life and when the world feels like a two ton elephant on our back. But even in suffering, the Bible tells us that there is a profound, not superficial, but substantive joy in knowing God and being in his presence. Joy in trusting that our identity as Sons of God is rooted and secured through the work of Christ. Friends, it's true that we live in an angry and scared and delusional world, but we're a people who don't belong to this world. We don't think like this world. We don't relate with each other in the back biting and exhausting way that citizens of this world relate with each other. Our joy is not and cannot be conditioned by anything in this world because if it is, it's understandable why we would be a miserable kind of people. We have what the world does not. So let me exhort you with this don't so obsess over the scraps of life that you fail to appreciate the feast that's laid before us in the gospel of Jesus Christ. Find your joy, real joy, substantive joy in Jesus Christ. So Isaiah describes this future day when God's glorious presence would powerfully break into the world and his people would flourish in quantity and quality as a result. When we turn to verses four through seven, Isaiah puts meat on the bones, as it were, by describing for us more about the character of God's presence in the world and more reason that we have to be a joyful people as we pilgrim in this world. Deliverance that Overcomes Bondage So this leads to the second point deliverance that overcomes bondage. Now, when we turn to verses four through seven, if you're looking at your Bible, you may notice that in verses four or five and six, Isaiah begins at least in the English translation. With this word for the idea here is that in each of these verses, Isaiah is explaining both the nature of God's advent and the reasons we have to be a people of joy. In doing this, he gives us three what we call vignettes, three pictures to explain God's advent as our deliverance out of bondage, the bondage of darkness. So let's take a look at these three vignettes. First look at verse four, where Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's glorious presence, God's people are delivered from bondage. They're pictured here as a people who were once pressed down with a wooden bar on their necks. That's this idea of a yoke with a rod in the hands of a taskmaster used against them. This symbolism pictures God's people living under an oppressive burden, a burden that that clearly goes beyond merely physical things. When the light arrives, what happens? Well, this burden is dramatically broken. Notice that the relief they experience is also likened in our passage to the relief that was brought about by Gideon in the book of Judges. That's what this reference at the final line of verse for when we hear about Midian, that's what that calls to mind. If you don't know the story in the book of judges. When God's people, particularly in the north of Israel, the land of Zebulon and Naftali were oppressed by the Midianites, God raised up Gideon to deliver them. If you were to look at the book of Judges and read about that deliverance, you would find that Gideon's triumph over the Midianites was, by all accounts, unexpected. It subverted expectations because the Lord called Gideon to go up against Midian with only 300 men. Yet, through that unexpected band of men led by Gideon, God saved his people. In the same way, I say, tells us that the deliverance that God's advent brings will come about in an equally, actually an even more unexpected way. A way that subverts expectations. We'll have to wait until verse six to hear more about that. In verse five Isaiah tells us that through the advent of God's presence, it's as if a war has also been won. The imagery is that of a military equipment being burned by fire. What's important in this imagery is that at no point in Isaiah's forward looking future picture that he gives; do we hear anything about God's people actually fighting a battle or winning a battle. In fact, the only picture we have is that of God's people enjoying the end of a battle that's already been won. As Alec Motera puts it, "They have entered the battlefield only after the fighting is done." They win a victory without actually fighting a war on their own. Now these two vignettes the one in verse four and the one in verse five are both helpful for us in explaining God's advent. They explain the character of God's presence and what it means, what he breaks into human history. They explain the reasons that we have to be a people of joy. When we come to verses six and seven, the final two verses in our passage, we also come to the vignette, the picture that holds everything else together, this is the one in verses six through seven that explains the victory. This is the one that explains the nature of the burdens lifted, and this is the one that puts flesh and blood to the coming of God's presence into the world. Unexpectedly, at least for those hearing and reading this and Isaiah's own day, the climax of deliverance is a child. Talk about deliverance through unexpected means. Yet in this child, we find that God himself has come. Notice in verse six that there are four names that are ascribed to this child. This is a famous passage; it was read for us earlier. Most of us probably all know what these titles are, we read Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Now, each of these four names, when you really get down to it, would simply be inappropriate to give to any ordinary child, even a child who's born into royalty because each one of these titles are packed with notions of divinity. Let's just look at two of these. First, the title wonderful counselor may seem tame on the surface of things. It may seem as if this is simply somebody who doles out pious and positive advice, and that's about it. Kind of like a motivational speaker of sorts. That's not at all with this title suggests. In fact, one commentator named Paul House opts for a translation "wonderful planner", because this title points to one who plans supernatural things and then carries them out. It has nothing to do with somebody who just sits on high and doles out positive advice that you can take or leave. In short, the language here suggests that this child is vested with the knowledge to plan redemption and then the authority to carry it out. The next title, Mighty God, suggests even more clearly that than the first the divinity of this child. This is a child who embodies the power of God in his person. Who defeats the enemies of God, and then, like God himself, is the rightful object of worship for the people of God. Understand, then, that the descriptions and the titles that are given to this son point to a ruler that the world could never produce on its own. This is one who represents perfectly God's people before God and who in turn perfectly rules over God's people as God's true king. It's no surprise, then, that Isaiah nine, this passage that we've been reading and studying and preaching on is cited in Matthew chapter four at the outset of Jesus's public ministry in Galilee of the Gentiles and applied to Jesus. It's no surprise that Jesus, in his incarnation, is described in John one as light that had broken into the world. John 1:09 tells us of Jesus, the true light which gives light to everyone, has come. The future hope that Isaiah declares then for the small and faithful remnant in his own day, living in darkness, living in gloom has nothing to do with political deliverance from an international enemy. It has nothing to do with anything earthly whatsoever. It has nothing to do with getting behind the right earthly power or the right earthly king or the right earthly kingdom. Rather, the ultimate hope that Isaiah holds out to them and us is Jesus Christ. The one who has dealt with our greatest enemies of sin and death and the devil and the only one through whom, to paraphrase the Apostle Paul in Colossians one, transfers us his people from the domain of darkness to his own glorious kingdom of light. Application Friends, the gospel tells us that the things this world values, things that may have a veneer of wisdom and power, of things that we might be really tempted in our own lives to invest all of our capital into are ultimately things that are powerless to do what we really need from them. So often the world pulls us into thinking that our ultimate hope depends on what we get behind in this world. You see these metaphors of light and darkness, metaphors that we find all over the scriptures, are also commonplace elsewhere in life. Typically, when the world wants to baptize something as good, even if it's not good, it's associated with light. Any time the world wants to identify something as evil, it cloaks it in the metaphor of darkness. For example, the Philadelphia Eagles are a team of light, and the Dallas Cowboys are a team of deep, deep darkness. That's true. Yet the Bible tells us that the true light, the true light that has come into this world has nothing to do with this world. The true light is not found in what looks powerful in this world. Rather, it's found in what the world considers lowly and despised. It found in the one who is born to a teenage girl from a backwater town in Galilee of the nations, on the fringes of the most powerful empire in the first century A.D. By all accounts, the light that dawns in the first century A.D. in Jesus Christ subverts expectations in a plethora of ways. Yet in this child lies the power of God. Friends like General Titus and Ahaz before him, we're often driven by angst about being on the winning team. After all, nobody wants to be on the "wrong side of history". The Bible pleads with us to vest our hope not in anything that this world values, but in this child, Jesus Chris. The one who stands at the center of human history and the one who stands at the end of human history. So if you're not a Christian this morning, let me ask you this. What alliances in this world are you banking on right now? How's that working out for you? You see, the Bible pleads with us, as do I, to ally yourself above everything else with God's king, Jesus Christ through faith alone. That is our only hope in this ruthless and dark, dark world. At the same time, this passage calls all of us, whether you're a Christian or not, to check our allegiances and to align ourselves or realign ourselves with the true light and the true king. This is what I want to leave us with. That is just as we do not seek salvation from anything that this world offers, so too do not despair, the apparent dominance of darkness in this world. You see, there's much in this world that could distress us if we let it. I don't think I need to say that, but I'll say it when we look out into our neighborhoods and into our worlds, we see that the darkness of sin and unbelief hangs over everything. Then we turn inward and then we examine our own hearts and we see our own sin. When we do that, how many of us have cried out with the Apostle Paul, "wretched man that I am, who will save me from this body of death?" While there will always, always be much to pray for, and there's always much that could drive us to despair, understand the light of the glory of God's presence has already broken into this world. The church has already spread abroad all across the world and continues to do so to this very day, even in places that we would identify as places of deep darkness and persecution for the church. The Spirit, we know is also actively at work in the church, actively at work, even in our own local church, in our ministries, at work in our members. All of us are learning day by day what it means to walk in the light of the glory of God. The Bible tells us that the light has already dawned and far from disappearing or fading into the night sky, the Bible looks forward to the day when Jesus Christ will come again in a second advent and the light of the glory of God will be so bright that sun and moon will no longer have a purpose in the new heavens and the new Earth. Revelation 21 has something to say about that. Again, there's much we could despair over in this world, but brothers and sisters, the first advent that we celebrate has already come. The second, I promise you, is on its way. In the meantime, the Lord, our God, through his Spirit, is in our midst. What alliance could be any more consequential than that one? Pray with me. Father, we thank you for what Isaiah looked forward to, that we look back upon. That is the advent and appearing of your glory and your Son. Lord, we thank you for Jesus Christ. We thank you that Jesus Christ was and did everything that Isaiah looked forward to in his own day. Lord, I pray that as we walk, as sojourners and exiles in this often dark world that you would help us remember who we are and whose we are. That you would help us correct any battle allegiances that we have with this world. That you would instead realign us day by day with what is true and what is right and what is good. What we ask this in Christ name. Amen.

It is never easy to get across a message of impending judgment (Isa. 5) to people who are convinced they are not all that bad, especially when the ruling elite are enjoying good times. So Isaiah resorts to an attention-grabbing song. He picks up the ancient equivalent of a guitar and begins to sing a simple ballad about his true love. His audience is hooked—and then they cannot help but feel the hammer-blows.In the ballad Isaiah begins by referring to God as “the one I love.… My loved one” (Isa. 5:1). Because God has not yet been identified, doubtless the language instantly captures the audience. But it also reflects what Isaiah feels: he is not a dispassionate observer but a prophet deeply in love with the being and ways of the living God. Not to love him wholly is already part of the problem, whether under the old covenant or the new (cf. Rev. 2:1–7). Israel is often pictured as the Lord’s vine, so it will not be long before Isaiah’s hearers begin to get the point. Isaiah does not restrict himself to subtle allusions, however; he delivers both God’s threatening speech and his own explanation of his ballad-parable.The people have produced only useless wild grapes, bad fruit. The nature of that fruit is described in the string of woes (Isa. 5:8–25). In a nutshell, the social justice demanded by the covenant has been observed in the breach. Against the specific covenantal insistence that the land is the Lord’s and is to be parceled out fairly, land-grabbing has become the norm, squeezing out the little people (Isa. 5:8–11). The wealth among the elite in Uzziah’s day has fueled wanton arrogance and drunkenness (Isa. 5:11–12) and sneering defiance of God (Isa. 5:18–19). Ultimately the land has overflowed with moral relativism and confusion, doubtless pitched as sophisticated thought, but actually nothing more than a commitment “to call evil good and good evil” (Isa. 5:20). At bottom there is arrogance (Isa. 5:21) and corruption in the administration and the courts (Isa. 5:22–23). The Lord’s judgment is implacable (Isa. 5:24–25).None of this means that God is checkmated. In the final section of the chapter (Isa. 5:26–30), God says what he will do. Punishment, the destruction of God’s “vineyard,” will come by foreign invasion—the metaphorical language of these verses is frankly terrifying. But the foreign invaders are not merely fortunate opportunists with a powerful army. God himself whistles them up, like someone calling for a dog. Despite the ruinous guilt of the people, Isaiah never doubts that God is sovereign over history and can dispose of nations in judgment as well as in mercy. That theme will grow stronger in this book. This podcast is designed to be used alongside TGC's Read The Bible initiative (TGC.org/readthebible). The podcast features devotional commentaries from D.A. Carson’s book For the Love of God (vol. 2) that follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan.

Dave preached from Isaiah 58.At the beginning of the lockdown I was always opening the bible at Philippians, Galatians and Revelations. But for the last month or more I have been reflecting on Isaiah 58. It is titled True Fasting. I prefer the NLT True worship. But in trying to prepare to speak on this I felt uncomfortable. As if I was missing the point. So as usual I comeback to the context of the passage. People also say Oh the Old Testament is full of an angry God and the New Testament is a loving God. This is completely wrong. Don’t let people go unchallenged. We can see that in Deuteronomy, Jonah, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Amos a God of love and kindness and in many other stories. I’ve always loved the book of Isaiah. It sums up the old and new Testaments. Chapter 40 starts with the passage about John the Baptist “make a way in the desert for the Lord”. So Isaiah 58 the introduction is about looking religious but Gods hatred of this self righteousness. But verse 6 it changes and we see the true heart of what God wants for us but to guard our hearts against self righteousness. ““No, this is the kind of fasting I want: Free those who are wrongly imprisoned; lighten the burden of those who work for you. Let the oppressed go free, and remove the chains that bind people. Share your food with the hungry, and give shelter to the homeless. Give clothes to those who need them, and do not hide from relatives who need your help. “Then your salvation will come like the dawn, and your wounds will quickly heal. Your godliness will lead you forward, and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind. Then when you call, the Lord will answer. ‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply. “Remove the heavy yoke of oppression. Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors! Feed the hungry, and help those in trouble. Then your light will shine out from the darkness, and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon. The Lord will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring. Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities. Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls and a restorer of homes.”Isaiah 58:6-12 NLT What I was drawn to was Isaiah 53 as a reminder that our focus should always be for the love of Christ and this means reordering our priorities. Pick of the popsStraight in at number 1 a new entry in from no where. Love of ChristNone mover at number 2 love of familyStraight in at number 3. Love of peopleDown from number 1 Love of careerDown from number 3 -Love of golf God gave me a picture of mist being warmed by the rising sun. I felt that it meant that we can’t work up a love for God without Him first loving us. 1 John 4:19-21 NLTThe motivation of our ministry is a great and daily challenge. But we should be aware that it is on Gods heart for us all. Please look at the comparison between Isaiah 58 v 6 and 7 and Matthew 25 verse 31 to 46. Look at the parallels and see how sobering the Matthew text is to us as Christians. Be honest about your priorities. These will change over time. But we must ask the Holy Spirit to help us wrestle to put Him at number 1. Don’t be upset if when you examine your heart He is somewhere down the list.The point of church preaching is to bring these issues to the surface and then deal with them together with accountability.Don’t forget to read the end of Isaiah 52 and the whole of 53.

Last week we talked about the restoration of Israel. And that's a concept that we find in a lot of Old Testament passages. For instance, Amos 9:11-15, where God talks about a day when he “will restore the fallen tent of David.” He says, “I will repair its gaps, restore its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old.” And again, language like this is all through the prophets. And I want to suggest that the restoration of Israel is linked to Jesus' announcement that the Kingdom of God has come. On today's episode, we're going to look at Luke 4:16ff, when Jesus comes to his hometown (Nazareth) and begins his public ministry. And I want us to look at this passage, because this is a passage that is often held up as a classic passage announcing Jesus' Kingdom vision. So Jesus goes into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, they give him a scroll of Isaiah, and he unrolls it to the place he wants to read from, which as it turns out is Isa. 61:1-2, and he begins to read. And when he finishes reading from Isa. 61, we're told that “He closed the book, gave it back to the attendant and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on Him. And He began to say to them, ‘Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.'” And the people respond, we're told, by speaking well of him "and wondering at the gracious words which were falling from His lips; and they were saying, ‘Is this not Joseph's son?” Now, Isaiah is writing in his day about the future return from Babylon and a rebuilding of the ancient ruins of the cities that had been destroyed. And from Israel's perspective, they were being held as prisoners in a foreign land by people the psalmist refers to as “captors” and “tormenters” (Ps. 137:3). So Isaiah speaks in Isaiah 61 to these downcast, captive people, and he says everything we just heard Jesus quote in Luke 4. Now here's the important part here: In the context of Isa. 61 that Jesus quotes, who are the captives? The captives are the Israelites, and the promise is that they're gonna return from Babylon and the Lord's gonna rebuild. The Lord is once again going to show favor on Israel. He'll “give them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, festive oil instead of mourning, and splendid clothes instead of despair. And they will be called righteous trees, planted by the LORD to glorify him. They will rebuild the ancient ruins; they will restore the former devastations; they will renew the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations” (Isa. 61:3). Now, in Luke 4, as Jesus stands in the synagogue and reads this passage, the message that anyone present that day would have heard Jesus saying is that God's finally gonna restore Israel and things are gonna be good again. Okay? And part of what they'd be thinking — probably — is that Rome will be overthrown. So when Jesus says, “Today as you listen, this Scripture has been fulfilled,” they're pretty excited about this. And they're saying good things about him and about “the gracious words that are falling from his lips.” But Jesus isn't done talking. And what he's about to say isn't going to be nearly as well received. In vv. 23-27 of Luke 4, Jesus is going to shift focus and talk about God's interest in the Gentiles (which hearkens back to Genesis 12). But this is not new stuff. This is in the Bible, according to Jesus. And he reminds them of two stories from the Old Testament that show God's interest in outsiders: The story of Elijah & the widow of Zerephath (1 Kings 17:8-24); and the story of Elisha & Naaman the Syrian (2 Kings 5:1-19). So the point Jesus is making in Luke 4 is that God has always been interested in non-Jews. BUT in making that point, Jesus implies that when God was helping the non-elect, He was ignoring the elect. And that is what they can't tolerate. When you're in the elect (and this is sadly sometimes true of Christians also), one of the strange ideas that pop into your head sometimes is that God is only involved with you. But see, election is not about you having a claim on God, which is what we sometimes think, but about God having a claim on you! Anyway, in Luke 4, Jesus says, “The restoration of Israel is here, but it's going to include the Gentiles. And at this, they want to kill Him. We cannot forget what God's doing here. So in the restoration of Israel, God is re-creating Israel as she was always supposed to be — a kingdom that is all-inclusive. Those already in Israel who want to stay with God's program and accept Jesus as their King are welcome, but he's inviting Gentiles in as well. And they will all collectively be called Israel. The restored Israel. The new Israel. Think of it this way: Israel is being given a new King. Now, some Jews will accept and follow this new King Jesus. But some Jews will not accept the new King. And those Israelites who do not accept Israel's new King don't get to be part of Israel anymore.  And of course, that makes sense, right? This new King is chosen by God himself. And in fact, this new King IS GOD HIMSELF! And if you're unwilling to submit to the rule of Israel's King, you don't get be part of Israel anymore. Because again, God is trying to build this beautiful, loving, holy community through which he can share his love with people. But in order for that to work, everyone's got to be on the same page. You can't build a community of peace and love when the folks in the community don't accept the one in charge. And so going forward, all those who call themselves Israel are the ones who agree with and align themselves with what God is doing in Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the new King of Israel. It's no longer based on DNA. And in fact, it never was, as we talked about last time. And Paul will say in Rom. 9:6 that “not all who are descended from Israel are Israel.” And Jesus will call this people The Kingdom of God. So to bring all this together, when Jesus arrives, the Jews are expecting a messiah and a messianic kingdom that would restore Israel to what she was supposed to be. Now, to some extent, they had lost sight of what Israel was supposed to be, which is in part why they didn't recognize Jesus as the Messiah. In the person of Jesus, God will reveal himself to earth. The Law instructed Israel about God, and about what loving God and loving neighbor was. Jesus demonstrated God to Israel, and he showed them how to love God and love others. And here's the thing — God had never given up on the idea of blessing the nations and bringing all mankind into his fold. Because remember, that's why he created us all in the first place! AND, he had never given up on Israel. Israel was always part of God's plan. They were always going to be “the apple of his eye” (Zech. 2:8). They were always going to be “a people for his own possession” (Deut. 7:6; 14:2; Ex. 19:5). They were always going to be a “kingdom of priests” (Ex. 19:6). But in the New Testament Kingdom of Jesus, some of those people would be ethnic Jews who accept and swear allegiance to Jesus as Israel's Messiah, but some would also be Gentiles, who also accept and swear allegiance to Israel's Messiah. And together they comprise the Israel of God (Gal. 6:16). And that's you, and that's me. The children of Jesus, the Messiah King are the continuation, the fulfillment of Israel — God's chosen people, a royal priesthood, a people for God's own possession (1 Pet. 2:9). Okay, so, what is this Kingdom of God as envisioned by Jesus. What's it supposed to look like? Why is this declaration such good news? Because it affects people in the here and now. See — and we really need to come to grips with this — Jesus didn't just come so we could all go to heaven when we die. He cares very much about what's going on in the world today! Jesus' prayer in Matt. 6 that we call “The Lord's Prayer” is significant in that it grounds his hopes on the earth — “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Jesus really sees the Kingdom as a new society in the land. A Jesus Society!! And this new kingdom society will be marked by the way its citizens are to live and interact with one another and with the world. And see, this is what God has always wanted — a people for his own possession that will finally function as agents of blessing and compassion and redemption in the world. So the Kingdom of God is God's dream for this world come true! So in Luke chapter 7, John the Baptist is in prison; Jesus is free. And John sends two disciples basically to ask Jesus if he really is the One they were all expecting. Was he really the Messiah? Jesus doesn't answer his question directly, but what he says is revealing, particularly the last line. Jesus says to John's disciples in Luke 7:22-23, “(22) Go and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, those with leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor are told the good news, (23) and blessed is the one who isn't offended by me.” So again, the things he points out that he wants John to see as proof that he is the one he claimed to be are the very things he announced in Luke 4: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf here, and the poor hear the good news. So when Jesus said “kingdom” he envisioned a society characterized by a people who would live with God and with others in a way that embodied the will of God in a new kind of society. And one of the places where the rubber met the road was in how we treat one another and how we care for one another, especially the most vulnerable among us. And that's why, in Matt. 25:31-46, when Jesus talks about his return, he'll talk about separating the sheep from the goats. He'll put the sheep on his right and the goats on the left. And Jesus' litmus test in this passage for who will inherit the Kingdom and who won't are things like feeding the hungry, quenching the thirst of the thirsty, taking care of strangers, clothing the naked, tending the sick, and visiting those in prison. So what is the Kingdom of God? Kingdom, in Jesus' view, is a society empowered by love. It is a society that cares for others. It is a society shaped by justice. It is a society dwelling in peace. It is a society flowing with wisdom. And it is a society that follows its King (Jesus). In the Kingdom, we build relationships that create family — God's family. We teach virtues that prevent poverty and heartache. We provide care and relief for the world. We rescue those in trouble. We provide soul care — healing and hope for fractured souls and fractured relationships. Everywhere God's people go, things are supposed to get better. More peace. More hope. More love. More freedom. THAT is the Jesus Society!

The silly season is in full swing isn’t it? I always find the lead up to Christmas one of the most exhausting, stressful and overwhelming times of the year. School is wrapping up, shops are ramping up and I’m barely holding up under the incessant pressure. Our time is stretched, our budgets are stretched and our patience is stretched to the limit, and there’s still 31 sleeps till Christmas.   That’s 744 hours, 44,640 minutes or 2,678,400 seconds, don’t get stressed! And in the middle of this silly season where we rush too much, we spend too much and we eat too much, you can buy a Christmas card that says, “Peace on earth.” Is that some kind of sad joke? I find it hard to get 2 minutes peace, let alone experiencing peace on earth.   We live in a world crying out for peace, yet unable to attain it, even at Christmas.   Luke 2:9-14 (ESV Strong's) And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear. And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”   PEACE ON EARTH?   Peace on earth? According to the NY Times, in the past 3,400 years, humans have been entirely at peace for 268 of them, or just 8 percent of recorded history. In the US, they have had only 17 years of peace in their history, meaning 93% of the time it has existed the US has been at war.   Peace is something often spoken of but rarely if ever achieved.  The peace we wish for one another at Christmas is almost entirely absent from human history. Thus phrase “Peace on earth” bears looking at. Let’s look at the text.   GLORY TO GOD   Luke 2:14 starts with the phrase, glory to God in the highest, and this is the first step towards peace… Give glory to God! The Greek word for glory is doxa, which means to give dignity, honour, glory or praise that is due. It means to hold in high praise or estimation of, and this is where so many today go wrong.   You can have pesos, prestige, power, possessions, but no peace, because you didn’t start with the Prince of peace! If you want peace in your life this Christmas, you need to start by putting God in His rightful place.   God created the universe, the stars, the galaxies and this planet, and He created you. He has a plan and a destiny for your life, and He opened the way for you to be reconciled to Him, but the last thing the world wants for you this Christmas is to put God in the place He deserves and give Him the glory and honour that is due to Him.   PEACE AMONG THOSE WITH WHOM HE IS PLEASED   The Bible never promised peace on earth to all men. We conveniently overlook the end phrase, among those with whom He is pleased. And who is He well pleased with? Those who trust Him, that’s who!   This Christmas more than ever we need to totally yield our lives to Jesus, the Prince of Peace, because then, and only then, will we know true peace.   PEACE IN OUR TIME   In 1938, Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain was much celebrated for brokering a peace agreement with Adolf Hitler, appeasing the dictator by giving in to his territorial demands. He produced a signed agreement, called it peace in our time, but while the world celebrated his effort, this same Adolf Hitler shortly after plunged the world into its darkest and most evil conflict ever.   Mankind speaks much about peace, governments claim they will bring it, people wish it for each other, but none of them can produce it! It’s even an integral part of many languages… Jews greet one another with the word “shalom”, Arabs with “Salam” and in Malaysia they say “Salamat”. These phrases mean peace be with you, but it never happens.   Perhaps the greatest paradox of all in the 21st century is that a religion calling itself peace is responsible for almost all of the 828 armed conflicts currently raging in 69 countries around the world. I could call myself His royal highness the king of Nambour, but the reality doesn’t match the words.  Don’t be fooled by the media, Islam has nothing to do with peace in our modern world.   But true peace actually transcends circumstances. If your peace is dependent on you having money, or success, or anything else, it in not true peace, it’s a fragile substitute. True peace should be independent of whatever is happening around you, because it is deep within you, if you are among those with whom God is pleased.   2 Thessalonians 3:16 (ESV Strong's) Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.   THE MISSING PEACE OF THE PUZZLE   The missing piece in true, lasting peace is the presence of God. Isaiah says   Isaiah 26:3 (ESV Strong's) You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.   The  Hebrew word for peace is of course shalom, which means peace, prosperity, security, completeness, soundness, health, tranquillity. The Hebrew word for stayed is samak, and it means to lean upon. So Isaiah is telling us that this Christmas, peace is not about gifts or family or pudding, it is about leaning on the very presence fo God. That’s why Jesus could say, John 16:33 (ESV Strong's) I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”   TRUE PEACE   What is this true peace? It is an inner sense of contentment and quietness, regardless of life’s circumstances. It is steadfast confidence in our ever-faithful, immutable heavenly Father. It is the presence of faith in the midst of faithlessness, a smile in the midst of pain, and joy in the midst of unhappiness.   Habakkuk 3:17-18 (ESV Strong's) Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.   True peace does not merely dull our pain. A person who has genuine, godly peace can endure an avalanche of hardship and difficulty and still enjoy an inner peace that surpasses all human understanding. When we pray with Paul, Philippians 4:7 (ESV Strong's) And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   Why is this true peace so powerful? Because this peace does not come from pleasant circumstances, nice events, or good things others may do for us. Instead, it is based on the fact that the Spirit of our holy, omnipotent, and never-changing God lives within us.   Does enjoying God’s perfect peace mean that you’ll never feel the effects of the storms raging around you? Hardly. But His peace is complete, adequate, and sufficient for anything you face.   Lets look at three keys to experiencing sustained, true peace in your life:   1.      FOCUS ON GOD   Perfect peace comes when you fix your mind on God, or as we saw before, lean on Him. You must discipline yourself to concentrate on or meditate on God’s presence and work in your life, not the problems you face. When you spend time concentrating on a problem, doesn’t it seem to grow bigger? In the same way, you will have a bigger sense of God’s presence and provision as you fix your mind on Him. Hebrews 12:1-2 (ESV Strong's) Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith,   The Greek word for looking to Jesus is aphoreo, which means to turn your eyes away from other things and fix them, focus them on one thing… Jesus. And when we turnout eyes upon Jesus, when we look full in His wonderful face, the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and Grace.   DEMONSTRATION   2.      TRUST IN GOD   You never have to worry about God acting too late or providing insufficient help. His timing and purposes are perfect; In fact, He uses your tribulations to reveal more of Himself to you.   Can you trust Him, no matter how hard it is, however huge the mountain you seem to face right now, can you trust Him to come through?   I remember facing a vicious and very public attack from another person. A letter, full of lies and venom had been sent about me, and forwarded to me. It wasn’t fair, it wasn’t even accurate, but I was angry, deeply distressed and fearful. But I faced a choice…   I couldn’t reply, I couldn't defend myself without looking guilty, I just had to keep quiet and trust God. I remember laying the letter out before the Lord  one night, (like Hezekiah did) praying over it and giving it totally to God. And over time He vindicated me. I had no choice, I couldn’t fix it, or control what people thought, I just had to trust God, but He is faithful!   His Word is full of rock-solid promises, many of which involve granting you peace in the midst of trials. Know that He will always honor His promises!   Romans 15:13 (NIV-WS) May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.   3.      HIDE GOD’S WORD IN YOUR HEART   New Age gurus will tell you that peace comes from meditating, and I have to admit, they’re onto something.   Thinking about, dwelling on, chewing over truths can drive them deep into your spirit, but while New Agers are contemplating their naval or a single syllable, we have the greatest tool of all upon which to meditate…the Word of God!   Psalms 119:165 (ESV Strong's) Great peace have those who love your law; nothing can make them stumble.   So, if you’re in a fix, remember Philippians 4:6, and 7.   Philippians 4:6-7 (ESV Strong's) do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.   The Greek for the word for surpasses is hyperecho, which means to transcend, to be superior to, to rise up and overcome all understanding or knowledge.   All the knowledge in the world can’t give you true inner peace this Christmas. All the wisdom of the ages, all governments, all media, all presents or family times cannot help you find peace. You don’t need more Christmas hype, you need hyperecho, you need the peace that transcends all understanding, and you can only find this peace in Jesus Christ!   WE WILL HAVE PEACE ONE DAY   And this same Jesus is coming again! But He’s not coming as a baby in a manger this time, He’s coming back for His beloved people as a king, as he King of kings and Lord of Lords, and when He come He will usher in 1,000 years of incredible peace such as the world has never known…   You can learn more about this in Revelation 20 and Isaiah 65. At that time men will be at peace and dwell together in harmony, the Wolf and the lamb will graze together, and God will be near to His people…   Isaiah 65:24 (ESV Strong's) Before they call I will answer; while they are yet speaking I will hear.   (Isaiah 9:6)   But God us with us now, we don’t have to wait until He returns!   This world is crying out for peace, but it will never know peace until it knows the prince of peace … and neither will you!   ACCEPT THE PRINCE OF PEACE   In the hustle and bustle and insane pressure at the end of the year, the enemy wants to bring up your past, he wants to fill you with fear for the future, he wants to see you in conflict with people around you this Christmas… in short, he wants you to never truly know peace.   Some of you here are lonely, some are stressed, some of you are angry at your family, some are facing Christmas not with joy but with dread. It’s because you lack true peace, because remember peace can be in your life and your heart, no matter what others are saying or doing, and no matter what pressure you face.   Romans 5:1 (ESV Strong's) Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.   We can have peace with God and in our lives. It’s not about your situation, it’s not about your circumstances, it’s about your heart. So, as we face this Christmas silly season, if you are stressed right now, I want to ask you to open your heart to the Holy Spirit right now.   No Jesus, No Peace… Know Jesus, Know Peace   You can know peace by allowing the peace of God to flood your soul in the person of the Holy Spirit.   In the OT, the shekinah glory of God was seen as a cloud  filling the temple, as a pillar of fire, in a vision of a prophecy, but today you can have the glory of God manifest in your life all the time because the Holy Spirit, the presence of God lives in you.   

Seismic shifts occur in the spaces and the cracks. Same with God. So Isaiah's Servant edges us away from the noisy center and toward toward the margins. Just like Jesus.

Seismic shifts occur in the spaces and the cracks. Same with God. So Isaiah's Servant edges us away from the noisy center and toward toward the margins. Just like Jesus.

2019 Cade Prize runner-ups Joe Sleppy and Isaiah Oladeji have invented a wire-shaped supercapacitor. Unlike batteries, capacitors are not used to store energy, but to deliver it quickly and in dense amounts. Using wires instead of plates or boxes greatly reduces the space needed on things like circuit boards. Isaiah, raised in Nigeria, said he was “a very bad student.” His parents received no schooling at all, but Isaiah eventually got a PhD in the U.S. Joe progressively lost his hearing by third grade and had to get cochlear impacts to hear again. At age 16, he won a $10,000 business plan competition and started his own company. TRANSCRIPT: Intro: 0:01 Inventors and their inventions. Welcome to Radio Cade and podcast from the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention in Gainesville, Florida, the museum is named after James Robert Cade, who invented Gatorade in 1965. My name is Richard Miles. We’ll introduce you to inventors and the things that motivate them, we’ll learn about their personal stories, how their inventions work, and how their ideas get from the laboratory to the marketplace. Richard Miles: 0:39 According to philosophers, we’re all hungry for power. That may be debatable, but what’s not in question, is it the machines we build are hungry for power of the ACDC variety. I’m your host Richard Miles. My guests today are Joe Sleppy, and Isaiah Oladeji of CapaciTech, which has a wire-shaped supercapacitor. Joe and Isaiah welcome to Radio Cade. Joe Sleppy: 0:58 Thanks for having us. Richard Miles: 0:59 I’m deficient in actually many things, but probably a more so in anything to do with electricity. So the first thing let’s start out, walk me through and our listeners, what is a capacitor and what is a supercapacitor. Isaiah Oladeji: 1:10 Capacitors and supercapacitors actually doing the same things, storing energy. You can store energy in them fast and you can get those energy out faster. So supercapacitor probably has a more storing capacity than the actual capacitor. Richard Miles: 1:27 Got it. Isaiah Oladeji: 1:27 And that’s the simple difference between the capacitor and the supercapacitor. At the end of the day, they store less energy compared to standard battery . Richard Miles: 1:36 Got it. Okay. And capacitors have been around in one form or another for a while . I mean the ability to store energy, right? Isaiah Oladeji: 1:43 Yes. Joe Sleppy: 1:43 Right. Well, the one thing I want to point out the difference between s uper apacitors and a normal capacitor is in a normal capacitor. You have two electric plates, there’s an electric field between them. And that’s what storing the energy wi th t h e s upercapacitor. You add an energy storage material between those electric plates to further enhance that energy storage ability. So it’s not a battery, st ores, less energy than a battery, but it can deliver that energy really, really quickly, which means it has a high power density, which is what makes it the difference between a capacitor, a su percapacitor a nd a battery. Richard Miles: 2:10 Okay. So what you have is a wire shaped supercapacitor and again, for listeners who are not familiar with, at all with any of this, what is the current standard configuration of capacitors and why is a wire supercapacitor such a big deal? Joe Sleppy: 2:23 The standard configuration for capacitors is you typically have two parallel plates. Richard Miles: 2:27 Got it. Joe Sleppy: 2:28 And what they’ll do is they’ll wrap those parallel plates to make what looks like a little soda can, or they will compact it into a little box and these little soda cans and these little boxes all always get installed on circuit boards. A lot of times actually a third of the circuit board will have nothing but capacitors installed on it. So a lot of space on a circuit boards being wasted by these capacitors. And what we noticed is a lot of times the capacitors are connected to the input or the output of the circuit board. What we’re doing is we’re manufacturing, a wire shaped capacitor. So instead of it being soda can, it’s a long and skinny and flexible wire. And we’re going to take this wire and embedded inside the wires that are going into the circuit instead of on the circuit board itself. Richard Miles: 3:10 In a way you’re talking about a size or a space savings right? Isaiah Oladeji: 3:13 So even if you decide to put them on the circuit board, you have a lot of free space at the end of the day, which means that you can either shrink your circuit board or you add more functionality. Richard Miles: 3:26 I’m tempted to tell our listeners to go to the nearest desktop, take off the back and then look at the circuit board. But then I’m afraid Radio Cade gets sued by all these people who couldn’t put their computers back together. But I think I get the concept. So Isaiah, you touched upon this a little bit in terms of space savings. And then Joe , you talk about power, but why is this such a big deal? Where do you see this going in terms of potential applications? Obviously the computer industry would be using this, but are there other things beyond computers in which a wire shaped supercapacitor , it’s going to make a big difference? Joe Sleppy: 3:56 So the deal here is that traditional capacitors all have to be installed on a circuit board. And as I’ve mentioned to you before, that is going to take up a lot of space on set circuit board. Maybe a third of the circuit board will be taken up by all these capacitors. And so with our innovation here, putting the capacitor in a different form factor, having the capacitor shaped as a wire, we can now install our capacitor inside DC power cords, connecting to circuits rather than on the circuit itself. Now there’s a lot of applications in that system. Okay. Might be for solar power systems. It might be for electric vehicles. It could be for wind turbines, everything has wires connecting it in one way or another. The bigger idea here is instead of being able to install more and more capacitors, and s upercapacitors on a circuit board, which makes the circuit itself far larger, far more expensive, we can offset those capacitors in the connecting infrastructure o f the connecting wiring, which then keeps the circuit small, keeps the infrastructure small a nd l imited while you’re also getting the advantages of having more capacitance in the system, which typically will improve the performance as well. Isaiah Oladeji: 4:54 In short, it means that if you have an off-grid solar powered house, our capacitor could be part of that system. It could be part of an electric car. It could be part of a drone wherever you have a battery, as a matter of fact, where you want to extend the life of the battery, these capacitors can readily go into it and extend the life of the battery. Richard Miles: 5:18 Whenever a battery is involved, particularly a large battery or large power requirements . Seems to me, that is the value proposition of your company. Let’s talk a little bit about that. And I know you’re still very early stage and you’re still doing a lot of your due diligence on the technology itself, but in terms of potential markets, you listed at least three that I heard solar power, electric vehicles and things like drones. Is there an obvious advantage in picking one of those three? Where would you go first where you think t hat this would make a bigger difference as opposed to the other ones? Joe Sleppy: 5:51 Right, so I will say that as a capacitor there’s hundreds of applications, every electronic circuit has a capacitor or capacitance in one way or another. That h as actually been a challenge for the company as an entrepreneurship company t o decide which one do we want to do first? Now it’s not just about which one is the coolest. It’s not just about which one does the entrepreneur like myself and Dr. Oladeji here. It’s not just about what we want to do. I think that we would both love to g o put this into an electric vehicle and start working with Tesla today. But the feasibility of that is not so great. So what we’ve done is we’ve spent about a year or t wo years and a lot of customer discovery trying to figure out what value our technology can really add. And our first focus is going to be on the solar power market. And specifically within that solar power market is residential solar power homes. We’re going to be able to do two things for them. One, if they have a battery, we can connect our cable capacitor into the DC power cords to ma ke that battery last l onge r and have better performance. That’s going to save the homeowner money because they don’t have to replace that battery every five years, seven years, whatever it is, the second thing that we can do for solar power systems, as we can connect our cable- based capac itor again, inside the DC power cords, you don’t need any other ugly boxes hanging off your roof. You don’t need to make your garage cluttered, none of that, but we can connect our cable based capac itors into the DC power cords, connecting everything together, and we’ll be able to compliment the solar panels to have more power. The way that we do that has actually nothing to do with the power itself. But when you have a shadow, for example, go over your panels, there’s been a sha r p drop in the power output. Our capacitor will m ake sure that that drop is filled in so that the power going to the home is as constant as possible. Having constant power, at lea st a hig h e r efficiencies to the inverter. And it means that t he m aximum power point tracking devices will have a higher efficiency and be able to get more power out of the panels. Richard Miles: 7:36 So you’re in this really interesting inflection point, I guess, the development of your idea and that the energy market is one of those markets. It’s like, it’s g ot a l ot o f big players. There’s a lot at stake and I’m sure you’re probably getting a lot of advice. Free advice, wanted advice, unwanted advice. I forgot to mention. I forget every single time dimension, t he, you are actually finalists in the 2019 C ade Prize. So congratulations to that reason. We have you on the show this morning, you are already doing well and you’ve already done well in other pitch competitions, but you’re now moving beyond that. Like how do we develop this idea? Tell me what the next year looks like. What are your near term milestones in terms of developing the commercialization of this idea? Joe Sleppy: 8:15 The thing I’d say is I started getting very, very focused and very, very specific about what we were doing over the last six months or so. And what I did specifically, as I started going to a customer and saying, I have this product, what do you need to see to buy it from me? Tell me exactly what specification you want. Tell me exactly what certifications I need. Tell me exactly what kind of fill in the blank you need to see in order to actually fulfill an order. I noticed that as a startup, a lot of people want to watch you and customers that watch you don’t necessarily buy from you. And that doesn’t help the company that much. It just makes it sound like a theoretical potential sale in the future. And so I started going to our customers in the solar industry and saying, I have solution. We think it’ll do that. What do you need to see? And that laid out our most immediate milestones, which are, we need to scale our manufacturing right now. Dr. Oladeji is making them by hand in his lab. It’s not very scalable in that sense. And so we just recently invested in some equipment to scale o ur manufacturing line up to 50 units a week. So that’s a big deal so that we can actually on a regular basis, put out samples, put out p roduct fulfill orders. The second thing that they’ve all told us is you need to have this be certified under a UL listing, which is kind of like FDA approval. But for electronic components, those two things have become the very clear milestones that if you do those two things, we will be able to fulfill orders and generate revenue. And so that’s what the media focus is. Richard Miles: 9:38 So most young companies, one of the things they really need the most is money, right? Because as you d escribe going into a manufacturing process, even an initial manufacturing run doing the other things y ou’ve described, somebody’s got to do them and turns out a lot of people don’t work for free, right? So you’ve already pitched this idea. I know in competitions, but tell me what it’s like sitting in front of a potential investor. And w hat’s some of the feedback you get and what kind of experiences that like, d o you come out of there walking on a cloud or is it kind of terrifying? Joe Sleppy: 10:08 Use to be terrified when I was 19 and asking for money for the first time? And I realized now that I was terrified about it because I was totally not ready to be raising money, but the good thing out of that, as I started getting a little bit of insight, talking to investors and learning how they thought, and I actually didn’t ask for money for the first year and a half, two years, the company was alive. I was in pitch competitions. I was awarded a grant. I was in different programs. I was in different accelerators, but when it came to talking to investors, for example, the Florida angel nexus i n Orlando, I would go and I ‘d never specifically asked for money. I would just pitch what I’m doing and listen to their feedback so that I could actually understand where they thought all the flaws were so that I could address them. One of the biggest flaws I needed to address was the initial pitch was w e’re a capacitor and we c ould be used in everything. And that didn’t go over very well. Right? I had to pick something and that kind of spurred on more focused, more specific customer discovery so that we can put together a more clarified business plan and a business case from there. I went out and I did the same exact thing over again. And I started realizing t here w as this sense of, okay, sounds good. Why should I believe you? And from there I realized that we really needed to get those customers to start writing letters saying, we’re willing to do this, but you need to do A and B t here’s a mentor of mine named Dr. Pape. He works at the University of Central Florida, part of the UCF Blackstone Launch Pad Program. And what he kept telling me i s Joe, what are your value generating milestones? And he is a former investor. And what he would always say is I would look at what money the company is raising. And I would look at what things they want to accomplish with that money. And my question to myself was always does accomplishing those milestones add value to the company? If the answer is yes. Okay. I can consider it. If the answer is yes, significant value, t hen I’d really consider it. And so that I was able to go get a letter of support from a customer saying, Joe, you need t hem, you owe this thing and you need a s caled manufacturing facility. Great. Now that I have those two milestones, I could go ask for money to accomplish them. And now I had letters of support saying, do those two things, and we can fulfill potentially millions of dollars worth of orders. Richard Miles: 12:09 Right? Cause it’s not just two things that you picked at random, like, Oh, these are nice to have t hey’re measures of value added. Joe Sleppy: 12:16 Value generating milestones. That’s Dr. Pape’s favorite term. Richard Miles: 12:19 I say, obviously you all are confident in the technical merits of the idea. Is this the sort of thing that you’re going to continue to make iterations, not just on the manufacturing end, but are there things you want to do to it to improve it, that you’re going to iterate your way to a better wire supercapacitor say in a year or five years from now? Isaiah Oladeji: 12:35 Yes, certainly because right now the operating voltage of ourselves now is around 1.6 volt . The desire is to raise it to maybe three volts, maybe even more than that. So as we are trying to market this in the other research that we’ll be doing in the background is trying to raise the voltage, the operation voltage of the cell. Richard Miles: 12:56 So what you have now is sort of like an iPhone, but one day you can have an iPhone four and five and six. Joe Sleppy: 13:01 You know, one thing I’d add to that is the specifications that we have right now. They’re good enough for our customers. If we make them better, the customers are only more excited, right? Right. On the 1.6 v olts cell, we connect multiple cells together in series or in parallel to meet different specifications. But if we were able to raise the voltage rating or increase the temperature rating or increase the capacitance of the cell, of course, we’re going to continue improving that product. But if we’re able to do that, it allows us to deliver the same value at a lower price, which potentially opens up the market more. So we’re going to continue iterating. We’re going to continue increasing the voltage rating most likely by using a different types of materials inside. And that w ill accomplish different specifications that open up new markets, potentially DOD markets, potentially automotive markets. But right now we’re staying very, very focused on residential solar power. And if we increase those specifications, we can only sell to those customers even better and open up new markets in the process. Richard Miles: 13:53 And increasing the voltage ratings. Is that a function of just time and effort, or is more research involved? Do you have a clear path on how to do that? Isaiah Oladeji: 14:01 Surely that part doesn’t actually involve too much research in the sense that what dictates the operational voltage of a capacitor most of the time is the electrolyte that you’re using inside , which means that by simply changing the electrolyte, it changes everything. It just is simple thing that we need to do that, that doesn’t even involve research that much, just okay . Finding an electrode that could be more compatible with our electrodes . Joe Sleppy: 14:25 Dr. Oladeji is awesome. And I like him because together we tend to avoid a friend of mine actually just said this word, an Edisonian approach to the way that we’re dealing with this. We’re not just trying different materials and seeing what might happen. We’re not rubbing sticks together and hoping for the best. He does have a list of very specific materials that we’re targeting, that we know that you add this material and it will increase the voltage rating. So it’s a matter of having Dr. Oladeji have the time to do that because right now he’s manufacturing these cells by hand. So once we implement that manufacturing process, his time is freed up to go improve the products that we’re manufacturing. Richard Miles: 14:58 But the only downside to that is then you don’t have a great quote like Thomas Edison’s, I found 10,000 ways to fail, right ? Your post will say, well, we found three ways to fail. Joe Sleppy: 15:05 We found three ways to fail, but I would tell my investors, we found a faster path to revenue. Richard Miles: 15:10 Okay. So behind every invention, there’s an advantage behind every business plan. There’s an entrepreneur let’s hear about sort of your personal stories of how you arrived, where you are today. And I’m not so much interested in the last year or two, but let’s go further back t han that. A nd let’s start with you Isaiah. Sort of, how did you end up here? What were you like as a kid? Were you a great student in school? Did you have great mentors and teachers tell us a little bit about t hat. Isaiah Oladeji: 15:31 I was actually a very, very bad student somehow. And my father especially has been so hard of me at that time, because I was really about saying , I just go to school for the sake of going to school. Okay. I have , I mean, I go to school. I hardly pay any attention to what the teacher was saying in the class. Richard Miles: 15:53 So that you weren’t thinking about capacitor? Isaiah Oladeji: 15:56 No , no, no, no, no, no. So I did not start to get my beer in until probably I was in elementary in the U.S. that would be around grade five. Richard Miles: 16:06 Wow. And where were you raised? Isaiah Oladeji: 16:07 I was raised in Nigeria. Richard Miles: 16:09 And when did you, or when did your family move to the United States? Isaiah Oladeji: 16:11 It was not until I finished my master’s degree in Nigeria teaching the university because I was best man in my class when I was completing my master’s degree. So the university decided to retain me and turned me into an assistant professor or assistant lecturer. So, and the requirement to stay in the university was me , you for me to get a PhD. So actually I got the Fulbright scholarship to come to U.S. To come and do my PhD. And my interest at that time was to be in solar cells to develop solar cells . So I came to do my PhD to get my specialization in solar cell. Richard Miles: 16:46 Now, Nigeria, did that have a British school system or what is sort of that? Isaiah Oladeji: 16:51 Well, the system is British, but a corrupted British system by the American system. Richard Miles: 16:59 The reason I asked that is that we lived in Barbados for a few years. And our son, when he was young, went to a British system school there. And the one thing I remember is that unlike American schools, the teachers give the parents unvarnished feedback about their child. They don’t sugar coat a thing. So they will say your child. And f rom an American perspective your shocked, like what do you mean? And I d on’t k now. They tell you how it is sometimes a little bit too much. Anyway. So t hat’s interesting t his, any of this run in the family Isaiah? Did, w here your parents in business, were they in science at all? Isaiah Oladeji: 17:31 No, actually my mom never went to school. My dad did grade one or grade two and then stopped going to school. Yeah. So basically my parents did not go to school, but my dad has a big drive to have all these kids educated. Richard Miles: 17:46 Are you the only of your siblings that became an academic? Isaiah Oladeji: 17:49 Well, actually I have three of my siblings that have PhD too. And I’ll do, none of us are in academia. Richard Miles: 17:57 I think your dad needs to write a parenting book, Joe, let’s turn to you. Where are you from? What were you like as a kid? Were you always an entrepreneur or did you have an entrepreneurial bent? Joe Sleppy: 18:05 I was born in St. Petersburg, Florida. I was born in 1996, so I got to grow up living and watching the greatest parts of the Yankees in modern history. So that was great, but my childhood was a little different than other people’s in the sense that I was actually a deaf kid. And so I progressively lost my hearing from age two, three. And by the time I was in kindergarten, my right ear was all pretty much shot. And so second grade I got cochlear implants installed and that was really exciting because now I potentially could h ear, but second grade didn’t really go. I was h omeschooled during that time, third grade I went, but I wasn’t hearing very well. So I would leave every third day to get basically physical therapy for how to talk and how to hear and around the time I was in fifth grade, I was back. My math was okay a nd things were all right, but I couldn’t really spell i t b ecause I couldn’t hear so not a fantastic elementary school student, but when I got to middle school a nd I got to high school, i t seemed like every year I started to progress and be closer to the top of my class. When I was in high school, I had awesome opportunity to be taught by fantastic teachers. My English teacher had a PhD, all my math teachers and physics teachers all had a m aster’s degree. That was really exciting because I actually learned from people who loved what they were doing rather than just teaching it. And so I did AP calculus and I did AP physics and I took classes and it was all great. But to be honest, I did not care about school because it was really boring to me when I was 16, in fact, I got so bored that I j ust s tarted to start my first business. And I competed in this competition put on by the Pinellas Education Foundation where the winner would get $10,000. So I won the $10,000 and they approached me and they said, so, J oe, what college do you want us to send this to? And I was like, you told me I could use this money for my business. And they were like, you could also use it for college. I’ll get Bright Futures. I’m not worried about college. I want it for my business. And so they gave me $10,000. I used it to start Slepp Solutions, which was a hands-free fitness equipment for amputees sold a few products here and there and made a couple of thousand dollars in reoccurring revenue. It was pretty great, but come freshman year in college, t here’s not very much money. And so I knew when I came into college, I really had three options. One was to get a PhD. One was to go work for somebody. And one was to start another business that could potentially scale and generate revenue to support a lifestyle. So on the working for som ebody fr ont that wasn’t going to happen. I worked for Publix for a couple of ye ars and working for Publix was really great. But I do remember this one moment where I sold $500 of groceries and made $2.50. I was just on the wrong side of the register. And then I was looking at my dad and my dad worked 35 years to get towards the top of his company. And I didn’t really feel like waiting 35 years to get to the top of the company. And I was imagining it like a chain. And I kept saying the fastest way to the top of the chain is to just start your own chain. Great reincarnate. All the entrepreneurial spirit I had when I was 16. And I started a bu s iness beca use I w anted to help people and cau s e I w as bored with school honestly. And so in college I realized, wanted to either get a PhD or start a business. I started doing that by getting involved in undergraduate research. The lab I did undergraduate research in is the lab that invented our technology here, the cabl e bas e d cap acitor while I was still in high school. And the professor said, Hey, I would really love to see this be a real thing one day, but I don’t have the entrepreneurial skill set to d o that. I hear you started a business when you were 16. What can we do? And that pretty much set off the story for capacity tech. We joined the ICorps Program. We joined the local level, the national level. I got involved with Firespring Fund and Starter Studio. I got involved with venture scale -up and the catalyst program. I got involved with UCF Blackstone Launchpad. I won the UCF Joust. I mean, I got every entrepreneur resource I could find in Orlando and I used it and I used it hard. And so that’s really what ended up spear ing off CapaciTech, becau se I al so realized that I go t my name on a few academic papers and that was great. And I actually used them on my resume and I was proud of them, but I didn’t have the same fulfillment that I got when I was starting my business. And I generated revenue and I created wealth and I helped spur on jobs. And now with CapaciTech, we’re doing all of th at same exact thing while I’m also getting to be involved with really cool technology, potentially completely world chan g ing tech nology. And that’ s real ly excites me and it really gets me going. And that’s why I do this becau se I lo ve it. Richard Miles: 22:03 And those are both really great stories. Before I forget Joe, one thing we always advise is go back and tell that teacher what an inspiration they were to you. Teachers love hearing that if you haven’t done it already highly advise it. Joe Sleppy: 22:13 I won’t say any specific details, but one of my high school teachers actually invested in CapaciTech. I absolutely am grateful. My high school was a special type of high school, r ight. It was called a fundamental system. So they did things a little differently, but the academic success was very, very high on their list of priorities. And that distilled into me. And when I got to college, I felt like my first year of college was just another year of high school because my high school was so intense with the way that they were teaching us in terms of calculus and physics. A nd when I got to the college version there was some new things introduced, but the underlying structure was already there b ecause I had such great passionate teachers in high s chool. Richard Miles: 22:48 So this is a part of the show where we offer the guests the opportunity to dispense wisdom to other entrepreneurs, other inventors. I’m sure you’ve already been asked probably for advice from other companies are getting started because they’ve seen you and in the work that you’ve done. So Isaiah, let’s start with you, as you’re trying to move a great idea out of the laboratory into the marketplace, one a re t he sort of things that you would avoid if you had to do it over. And what are some of the things that you think have been instrumental to your success so far, if you were giving advice to say someone a few years behind you in terms of their development. Isaiah Oladeji: 23:16 Well, if I have to use my own experience, I realized that so the experience that I had in the big companies that I worked for in the past, I probably contributed a lot to the success we are currently having in capacity. So if I have to do it again, I’ll probably prefer to do it that way. That is how I’ve experienced work with bigger company to get those essential experience that could come really, really handy because this is not my first company. I started several companies in the past and most of their field after I left working for places like Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies, Surpass Semiconductor in Singapore, Richard Miles: 23:55 Not insignificant companies. Isaiah Oladeji: 23:57 Corporation, the United Kingdom. So I worked for all of these big companies. And then after that I started my own company and then my technology got bought up by other companies and I was a big part of the company, but anyway it feel , and then somebody referred me to Joe and that was towards the end of 2017. And then we finally got together at the beginning of 2018. And I can say that the experience that I had in all those previous company that are actually coming together to help propel this company. Richard Miles: 24:29 So in a nutshell, worked for a bunch of big companies until you get just smart enough to start your own. Isaiah Oladeji: 24:33 Exactly. Richard Miles: 24:34 Joe, how about you? You’re a pretty young guy, but it sounds like you’ve already had a lifetime of experience here. What sort of lessons would you impart to others who are looking to do the same thing or something similar? Joe Sleppy: 24:42 I guess I have a few quick thoughts. I mean, one of them would be look at who you’re spending t he most of your time with n o, that when I was in high school, I was not just spending time with other students. I was spending a lot of time with this guy named K urt Long. K urt long, founded a company called F airWarning and they basically do cybersecurity for hospitals. W ell, Kurt long is who funded the $ 10,000 grant t hat started my business. So we would meet regularly maybe once a month and he would impart his wisdom into me. And that aged me up pretty quickly. And I remember this actually funny story after the fact, but I’m 18 and I go into his office and I’m like, Kurt, I made my first sale and he gave me a bottle of champagne. I’m like Kurt, I’m 18. He’s like, give it to your mom, this is so great. And so develop a relationship with somebody like Kurt, get involved in programs and just start doing something. So that was one thing surround yourself with people that are really champagne, you might get a free bottle of champagne. But then the other thing I would say is don’t be scared and just do it. My friends when I was 16, 17, 18, and they all had great ideas. Why didn’t any of them do it? Remember that program that I won in high school, I was the only kid in my class that submitted an application. There was something like 60 applications to this program and they were taking the top 10. So yo u h a d p retty good odds compared to like getting an SBI grant or getting a scholarship lik e yo u . Y ea h, p retty good odds. I had friends that were bullish enough to say all me n to ap ply to Harvard, but weren’t bullish enough to try and get an extra $10,000 grant. So what I always try to point out to people is, H ey, if you’re 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, you can start something and fail. And you’re right where everybody else is. So just try to do something. And I can tell you, there’s a g u y on Jeopardy named James right now. And he publicly said, the reason he’s doing so well on je opardy is because he takes all the bigger risks in the beginning of the game, bec ause he has time to recover. College high school. That is the beginning of the game. Go take some risks, go try to start something crazy. Surround yourself with people like for me, Richard Fox, Mike Pape, Cameron For d, K urt long. These guys will mature your brain to act a little bit further beyond your years. And then they also might connect you to people like Isaiah who hel ped yo u actually execute on your vision. Right? Don’t just be scared to do it because you’re just putting yourself closer and closer to having to take a job. Because now you have a mortgage. Now you have a car payment. Now you have whatever, if yo u’re 16 and it fails, you’re still a kid. Richard Miles: 26:53 No morgage, no champagne either. But yeah , these are both great stories and you’re obviously a great team. And uh , I think you’ll do well, but I want to wish you the best of luck. Thank you for coming on Radio Cade. Again, congratulations for making it the final stage of the Cade Prize and look forward to having you on the show again. Isaiah Oladeji: 27:09 Thank you very much. Richard Miles: 27:10 I’m Richard Miles. Outro: 27:12 Radio Cade would like to thank the following people for their help and support Liz Gist of the Cade Museum for coordinating and vendor interviews . Bob McPeak of Heartwood Soundstage in downtown Gainesville, Florida for recording, editing and production of the podcast and music theme, Tracy Collins for the composition and performance of the Radio Cade theme song featuring violinist Jacob Lawson and special thanks to the Cade Museum for Creativity and Invention located in Gainesville, Florida.

A Flyover of Isaiah Amen. So this morning, just right before worship, I was talking to a young man and he looked at where I usually put the sermon outline, and he said, "Are you preaching about nothing today?" So, I'm not preaching about nothing, there's going to be a lot. I just couldn't give an outline for the Book of Isaiah. About six years ago, I was invited by Danny Aikin and David Platt to do a commentary on the Book of Isaiah. And they said two things, they said you can have five years to do it and that it's not supposed to be a verse-by-verse commentary. Well, I knew right away I was going to take the whole five years, that was a given. But the thing that was an agony to me was that I wouldn't be able to go into every verse like I love and to celebrate the truth and wring the truth out of each verse. But sometimes I think it's valuable to do that. For us, the saying of an individual, you can't see the forest for the trees. They're so focused on details, they can't see the big picture. But the beauty of the word of God is that both the trees, the individual details and the whole glorious forest are radiant with truth and that the tiniest details can bear the closest scrutiny and investigation but so also the big overarching story is worth studying as well. So this morning we're going to go through the whole Book of Isaiah, as Chris said, a kind of a flyover. Some years ago I was at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC, and I saw an IMAX movie which was a kind of a flyover of the continental US, and it was really cool. They timed it so that the length of the movie, I think an hour. They began in New York Harbor looking at the Statue of Liberty and then went across, and you're just moving it at just the right pace to get across the entire span of the continental US, and you're seeing the hills of Pennsylvania, the farms of Pennsylvania and then the coal mining district of Western Pennsylvania, then on and you know, the cities like Cincinnati and then as you kept going across the corn fields of Indiana and then across the... You know, swung down to the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, the gateway to the west and then you're moving across all the wheat fields of Kansas, it was just beautiful, the deserts of Nevada and Utah. And then, Yosemite, the Half Dome and finally the sparkling sea, the Pacific and the Pacific Northwest, and how beautiful that was along that coast, and I'll never forget it. And I thought it might... It's just an amazing thing to be able to figure out how to do that, what height to fly at, how high, how low, and what you could see, when to go faster, when to slow down. And it was really cool. So I want to try to do some of that with the Book of Isaiah today, the most visionary of all prophets. That's how Isaiah begins. The word of the Lord that Isaiah, son of Amoz, saw. So he's just a visionary prophet. Toward the beginning of my Christian life, I heard one of the best sermons I ever heard from John McArthur and he's been a role model and a mentor for me in terms of verse-by-verse exposition and sequential exposition which I believe in. But this sermon was entitled, A Jet Tour Through the Book of Revelation. And it was really cool because he went through the whole book of Revelation in one hour. It's ironic because that's where we're going, God willing, next. And I'm not doing any jet tour next week. We're going to begin to go through those chapters. But I love the way he gave a fascinating overview of the entire book in one hour. Now if anything, the Book of Isaiah would repay even more that kind of handling and special handling as we study through the themes that are so rich and so full. And I have less than one hour with you today. Now there are lots of ways that I could do this, this overview of the whole Book of Isaiah but it seems best for me to focus on how the prophecy of Isaiah unfolds salvation, or foretells really, salvation in Christ. That's going to be the center piece of what I'm looking for. Now, I could go topically and logically through the book in a theologically and a logically organized manner, letting the topics dictate what verses I would bring out. But that would result in a confusing jump around through the book from this chapter up ahead to this one, and then back again to this and then zeroing on this and then... It's like, it'd be jumping all around. And I thought it might be better to go in consecutive order, honoring the way that the Holy Spirit has given us the book, beginning at chapter 1 through chapter 66. My goal is to present or see how the book presents the amazing grace of God in Christ as the savior of the world. Now, what I'm going to do is I'm going to project on the screen these cross references so that you don't have to jump around. We're going to be going fast and I want you to be able to see it so that you're free from having to jump ahead in the book and just look and read or just listen as you do it. But I know that Mark is happy to try to stick with me. You're ready, brother? But the first verse that I wanted to share is actually from Revelation 19:10, and it says there, "The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. In other words, the essence, the spirit of prophecy is to give witness to Jesus. So the central purpose of the majestic sprawling complex vision of the Book of Isaiah is to give testimony of Jesus. Now, John says this incredible thing about Isaiah in the Gospel of John, in John 12:41, that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him. Now essential to that is the ability that God alone possesses to predict the future and this sets Christianity apart from every other world religion. God challenged the idols of Isaiah’s day You heard Chris focus on this just a few minutes ago, but these are some amazing verses. God challenged the idols of Isaiah's day with this challenge. Isaiah 41:22-23, it says, "Bring in your idols to tell us what is going to happen. Tell us what the former things were so that we may consider them and know their final outcome or declare to us the things to come. Tell us what the future holds so that we may know that you are gods. Do something, whether good or bad, so that we will be dismayed and filled with fear." The idols can't do it. There's no way the idols can predict the future, only God can. And again, Isaiah 41:26-27, "Who told of this from the beginning, so that we could know or beforehand, so we could say, he was right. No one told of this. No one foretold it, no one heard any words from you. I was the first to tell Zion." And then skipping ahead to Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things those of long ago, 'I am God and there is no other, I am God and there is none like me, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.'" So God in the Book of Isaiah makes plain that he is the only one that can predict the future. He's the only one that has that power. God alone can predict the future because he alone is sovereign over the unfolding events of human history. He decrees what comes to pass and then he makes it happen. What makes Isaiah so amazing and so challenging is how God weaves together events from planet Earth, things that were current in that day and things that were unfolding in at that time, including the rise and fall of nations at that time, together with his spiritual plans for the redeemed of all nations, of all time, he weaves that together. So the coming of Christ was predicted and unfolded in great detail in the Book of Isaiah. Now, when I first went through Isaiah in its entirety with the idea of doing this sermon, I zeroed in on 36 passages to highlight, and I just started to do the math, and I said, "Okay, that's less than a minute for each one." I'd barely have enough time to read them so I reduced it somewhat, but as I was going over this sermon this morning, I realized I barely have enough time to talk about each of them. So this is definitely a jet tour flyover. However, this is my 80th sermon in the Book of Isaiah, and I think all of them are online. So if you want to go back and dive into some of the more details I think they're available online. The Sinfulness of the Human Race and God’s Call to Repent We're going to begin in Isaiah 1:2-4 with the sinfulness of the human race and God's call to repent. The prophecy begins with these words, "Hear O heavens, listen O Earth, for the Lord has spoken. I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. The ox knows his master, the donkey his owner's manger. But Israel does not know, my people do not understand. Ah, sinful nation, a people loaded with guilt, a brood of evildoers, children given to corruption. They have forsaken the Lord. They have spurned the Holy One of Israel, and turned their backs on him." God called a nation, the Jews, Israel to represent the entire human race. God gave them many blessings, but they refused to trust him, they refused to obey him, so God had to bring judgments on them. Now, the depravity of the entire human race is taught with great clarity throughout the book. But the focus is first and foremost on the Jews on Israel, and their sinfulness. So God calls on the people to repent of their sins and to reason with him. Right there in that first chapter, Isaiah 1:16-20, there he calls on the people, "Wash and make yourselves clean, take your evil deeds out of my sight. Stop doing wrong, learn to do right. Seek justice, encourage the oppressed, defend the cause of the fatherless. Plead the case of the widow. Come now, let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow, though they are red as crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you'll eat the best from the land, but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." Now, this sets the stage of the whole book really. The people actually cannot obey those commands, they cannot. They cannot wash and make themselves clean. They cannot take their evil deeds out of God's sight, they cannot stop doing wrong, they cannot learn to do right. But Christ can do all of those things for us. Indeed, he has done all of those things for us. Christ can change our rebellious ways. Christ has the power to remove the heart of stone and give the heart of flesh. He has the power through his shed blood to atone for our sins, and to give us a new nature, and enable us to walk in God's ways. The Vision of the Entire World Streaming to Salvation in Christ Now, the next is the vision of the entire world streaming to God in Christ. In Isaiah 2:2-4, it says, "In the last days, the mountain of the Lord's temple will be established as chief among the mountains, will be raised above the hills and all nations will stream to it. Many peoples will come and say, 'Come let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways so that we may walk in His paths. The law will go out from Zion, the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, He will judge between the nations and settle disputes for many peoples, they will beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war anymore.'" Now, this is one of many verses in Isaiah that speak of the gospel spreading to the ends of the Earth, beginning in Jerusalem. It's going to spread to all nations and in this text, it says they're going to stream up Mount Zion effectively. You have this incredible image of a supernatural streaming of the nations uphill, counter to all laws of physics and gravity. And they're going to stream to Mount Zion by faith in Christ. And they will both come and they will say, "Come." In other words the spiritual pilgrimage that we are on as we follow Christ who is the way and the truth and the life, and we come to the Father through Him, as we're streaming to the heavenly Jerusalem, we are also evangelists and missionaries, we're not only coming but we are saying, "Come," to the nations, and we have both of those roles to play. The Vision of the Preincarnate Christ on His Throne Next, we have already the vision that's been read for us this morning by Jason. The vision of Isaiah's call and the pre-incarnate Christ on his throne. When the Apostle John said that Isaiah saw Jesus' glory and spoke about him, we can think first and foremost of Isaiah 6. In verse 1-4 it says, "In the year of the King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted. And the train of his robe filled the temple, and above him were seraphs, each with six wings. And with two wings, they covered their faces, and with two, they covered their feet, and with two, they were flying and they were calling to one another, 'Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty, the whole Earth is full of his glory.' And at the sound of their voices, the doorposts and thresholds shook, and the temple was filled with smoke." This is a vision of the pre-incarnate Christ, seated on his throne, worshiped by angels and by spiritual beings, holy angels and they're crying out. And this brings a tremendous sense of guilt in Isaiah himself, verses 5-7, he says, "'Woe is me, I am ruined, for I am a man of unclean lips. And I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king, the Lord Almighty.' And then one of the seraphs flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar, and with it, he touched my mouth and said, 'See this has touched your lips, your guilt is taken away. Your sin is atoned for.'" Now, this is Isaiah's calling to be a prophet to the nations. But he's told right away that the people wouldn't listen to him. Verses 8-10, "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?' And he said, 'Here am I, send me.' And he said, 'Go and tell this people, be ever-hearing but never understanding, be ever-seeing but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull, close their eyes, otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed.'" Isaiah would take in and absorb the vision of the holiness of Christ, Almighty God and of the people's sinfulness, he that lived in a land of people of unclean lips, and he would take that message also of Christ's atonement how sin can be atoned for and removed. And he'd take it out to his own people, but they wouldn't accept it, they wouldn't believe it, they would reject it. The Promise of the Birth of a Son Called Immanuel Next, in the very next chapter, we have the promise of the birth of the savior, of a son called Immanuel. Isaiah 7:14, "The Lord himself will give you a sign, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel." This is the mystery of the virgin birth of Christ, how he had a human mother, but no human father that God, Almighty God was his father. Fully God, fully human. That foreshadowed here in this prophecy, not just the assertion, the virgin will be with child, but the very word Immanuel, which means God with us. That he came to Earth to live with us in a physical human body. This is even more heightened by the next famous passage in Isaiah 9:1-7, there it says, "In the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan-- The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of the shadow of death a light has dawned. You have enlarged the nation and increased their joy; they rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest, as men rejoice when dividing the plunder. For as in the day of Midian's defeat, you have shattered the yoke that burdens them, the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor. Every warrior's boot used in battle and every garment rolled in blood will be destined for burning, will be fuel for the fire. For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish this." This is the prediction of a great light that's shining in a land, not just a land but a world of darkness. People walking in darkness who have no hope. Of a great victory won and of plunder of spoils from that victory, given to us. Why? Because to us a child is born. And so the birth of a child speaks to the humanist. But the titles, Wonderful Counselor, literally miracle counselor, Mighty God. A child that's born who is called Mighty God in a fiercely monotheistic setting, this is the incarnation of Christ, the God Man, the deity of Christ, established centuries before Jesus was even born. And it satisfies our yearning for a righteous government, a government that's perfect and upright that will last forever. And the increase of his government and peace there will be no end, it will go on for eternity. The Picture of the Greatness of Christ’s Kingdom Next, in Isaiah 11:1-9 we have a picture of Christ's kingdom and of that government, it says there, " A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit. The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him-- the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD-- and he will delight in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears with his ears;but with righteousness he will judge the needy, with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth. He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth; with the breath of his lips he will slay the wickd. Righteousness will be his belt and faithfulness the sash around his waist. The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child put his hand into the viper's nest. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea." This predicts the future, perfect righteousness of Christ's reign. The removal forever of the curse from nature. Animals will no longer be red in tooth and claw, ripping and shredding each other, living for death. And there will be a perfect peace, a peaceful Earth on which he will reign. Now, in that same chapter, we have the prediction of missions, which is a theme again and again in the Book of Isaiah. This message has to be taken to the ends of the Earth. And Isaiah predicts it again and again. Isaiah 11:10-12, "In that day, the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his place of rest will be glorious. In that day, the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea. He will raise a banner for the nations and he will gather the exiles of Israel, and he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the Earth." Now, next comes a regular theme in Isaiah, and that is the wrath and judgment of God on all the nations. There is continually woven together God's saving purpose for his people, and his wrath and judgment on his enemies. And we see this again and again. Isaiah 13:9-13 focuses on this wrath, his judgment. In those chapters, Isaiah focuses on Babylon first and Assyria next, but the implication is all the godless nations of the Earth will come under God's judgement. Isaiah 13:9-13 says, "Behold, the day of the LORD is coming--a cruel day, with wrath and fierce anger-- to make the land desolate and destroy the sinners within it. The stars of heaven and their constellations will not show their light. The rising sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light. I will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. I will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless. I will make man scarcer than pure gold, more rare than the gold of Ophir. Therefore I will make the heavens tremble; and the earth will shake from its place at the wrath of the LORD Almighty, in the day of his burning anger." It is because of this terrifying wrath to come that we must flee to Christ. There is no other refuge, there's no other place. God Controls the Unfolding Plan of Human History So, we see how God unfolds and controls his unfolding plan of human history. Again, Chris quoted this in his prayer, Isaiah 14:26-27. "This is the plan determined for the whole world; this is the hand stretched out over all nations. For the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back?" This is the plan, this is the hand. The plan is God's sovereign plan crafted before the creation of the world for all nations, all people established before the foundation of the world. And then his hand is his sovereign power, the right hand of omnipotence, moving out over the nations, moving out over human history. He is the Alpha, he is the Omega, he will make it happen. This is the plan, this is the hand. Isaiah 14:26 and 27. Now, in Isaiah 13-26 there are many oracles of nations, and these nations were these small nations that lived around Israel and Judah at that time, but it becomes representative of God's sovereign control over all the nations, over all the surface of the Earth throughout all of human history. And it culminates in this vision in Isaiah 24:1-6, it says, "Behold, the LORD is going to lay waste the earth and devastate it; he will ruin its face and scatter its inhabitants-- it will be the same for priest as for people, for master as for servant, for mistress as for maid, for seller as for buyer, for borrower as for lender, for debtor as for creditor. The earth will be completely laid waste and totally plundered. The LORD has spoken this word. The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the statutes and broken the everlasting covenant. Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt. Therefore earth's inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left. So, God is going to destroy all his enemies and the enemies of his chosen people. But the last enemy to be destroyed is death. Death itself. And that is clearly predicted in Isaiah 25:6-9, one of my favorite oracles, it's also not well-known. Isaiah 25:6-9, it says there, "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations; he will swallow up death forever; he will remove the disgrace of his people from all the Earth. The Lord has spoken. In that day, they will say, 'Surely this is our God, we trusted in him, and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him; let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.'" Isn't that marvelous? There'll come a day in which death will be swallowed up forever, and that began to be revealed at Christ's crucifixion and resurrection, the destruction of death in the death of Christ. Hope of the Resurrection of the Dead! And by simple faith in Jesus, we have access to that banquet, that feast that's spread for all nations. By just simple faith in Christ, we trusted in him, it says, and he delivered us. And so, Jesus' resurrection is our great hope that someday death itself will die. So Isaiah 26:19, it says, this is speaking of the general resurrection, "Your dead will live, their bodies will rise, you who dwell in the dust, wake up and shout for joy. Your dew is like the dew of the morning; the Earth will give birth to her dead." Now, one theme we see again and again in Isaiah is how often the Jewish people resorted to religious machinery to try to save themselves. We see it right in the first chapter when they're bringing this trampling of God's courts and this bringing of animals and bulls and sheep and all that, and God was sick of it. But then in Isaiah 29:13, he talks about what God, what his problem was with it. And Jesus quotes this concerning the Jews of his own time, Isaiah 29:13, the Lord says, "These people come near me with their mouth, and they honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is only made up of rules taught by men." This is a great danger for religious people around the world, even for us who have heard the gospel of Jesus, for us churchgoing Christians as well, to trust in the religious machinery rather than trusting in Christ, to trust in our own religious works and to have no genuine heart after Christ. Instead, God tells us what true salvation is, Isaiah 30:15, This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: 'In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.'" That's justification by faith alone apart from works, that's what that is. In repentance and rest and trust and quietness, that's salvation in Jesus. But the people didn't want it, they weren't interested in it, they rejected it. Terrifying Predictions of the Coming Wrath Now, of all the predictions of wrath that's going to come on the Earth, perhaps none is more graphic and terrifying than Isaiah 34:1-10. It's hard to read these words and not tremble inwardly if we believe they're really going to happen. Isaiah 34 says, "Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it! The LORD is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree. My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; see, it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the LORD is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat-- the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the LORD has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. Their land will be drenched with blood, and the dust will be soaked with fat. For the LORD has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause. Edom's streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever." Now, God is fully able to carry out this wrath, but he gives us dress rehearsals throughout history to see what it might look like. I think about what Europe look like in May of 1945, what Germany looked like, Berlin. I think about what Tokyo looked like in August of 1945. Just completely leveled, totally destroyed. We get images of this again and again throughout history. One of the clearest indications of God's power to do this is when the Assyrian surrounded Jerusalem and threatened to wipe out the Jews from the face of the Earth and extinguish the lineage of David that would trace down to Jesus. And God will that it would not take place, it would not happen, and he dispatched the angel of the Lord, who many commentators, including me, believe it was pre-incarnate Christ, and Jesus went out and killed 185,000 troops. Look at Isaiah 37:36, " Then the angel of the LORD went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand men in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning-- there were all the dead bodies!" When the people got up the next morning there were all the dead bodies, this was not difficult for Jesus to do, it was easy to do, it did not cause him any physical difficulty. He can put to death people without any effort at all, by speaking with the sword that comes from his mouth, we'll talk about it, God willing, next week. The Turning Point: Isaiah 40 Now, Isaiah 40 marks kind of a turning in the Book of Isaiah, I believe Isaiah 40 is along with Isaiah 53, the two greatest chapters in the Book of Isaiah, maybe two of the greatest chapters in the entire Bible. And Isaiah 40 begins with a message of comfort to sinners, look at Isaiah 40:1-2, "'Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." A word of comfort to broken-hearted sinners like us, that atonement, full atonement is possible in Jesus. And it speaks of the coming messenger of the Lord, fulfilled by John the Baptist. In verses 3 through 5, "A voice of one calling in the desert, Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up, every mountain and hill made low, the rough ground shall become level, the rugged places, a plain. And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken." And speaks of the transient nature of all humanity. Kind of like the central message of Scripture to us as human beings. Verse 6-8, "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'" The Proclamation of the Glory of the Lord It speaks of the proclamation of the glory of the Lord. And what's so beautiful about Isaiah 40 is you get infinite majesty in that chapter, and infinite condescension and humility and meekness. Look at verses 9-11, "You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout. Lift it up. Do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God.' See the sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See his reward is with him and his recompense accompanies him." I love verse 11, "He tends his flock like a shepherd, he gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young." Do you not feel as a Christian the tenderness and the gentleness of Jesus in caring for you? He is your good shepherd. He holds you close to his heart. But this is the same one that it said in that same chapter, in verse 12-15, is infinite in majesty. "Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding? Surely the nations are like a drop in a bucket; they are regarded as dust on the scales; he weighs the islands as though they were fine dust." This infinitely majestic God who marks the heavens with the span of his hand. Verses 22-24, " He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, and its people are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to naught and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground, than he blows on them and they wither, and a whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." This is the immense, infinitely wise, infinitely powerful, omniscient God, God the creator, God the ruler, God the judge who has come to Earth in the person of his Son, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. The Unveiling of Christ, the Savior of the World! In the chapters that follow Isaiah 40, we have multiple visions of the coming Christ, they're called the suffering servant passages, and they begin in Isaiah 42:1-4, "Here is my servant, whom I uphold, my chosen one in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him and he will bring justice to the nations. He will not shout or cry out, or raise his voice in the streets. A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out. In faithfulness he will bring forth justice; he will not falter or be discouraged till he establishes justice on earth. In his law the islands will put their hope." Don't you love that picture of Jesus? A bruised reed, fragile, he doesn't break it, he binds it back up and it gets healthy again. A smoldering wick, he doesn't snuff it out, he ignites it until it's a blazing bonfire of righteousness, that's Jesus. He's gentle with broken sinners like you and me, and he builds an empire not by crying out in the streets, but by gentleness, the proclamation of peace and forgiveness through faith in his name. And then Isaiah 49:5-6, this servant of the Lord will not merely be the Savior of Israel, but of all the Earth. Look at verse 5 and 6, "And now the Lord says, he who formed me in the womb to be his servant to bring back Jacob to him and to gather Israel to himself, for I am honored in the eyes of the Lord and my God has been my strength. He says, 'It is too small a thing for you to be my servant, to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the Earth.'" It's too small a thing for Jesus just to save the Jews, too small a thing. Now he is the Savior of the ends of the Earth. He's the Savior of Gentiles like you and me. He is the light of the Gentiles, he is the light of our lives and it was predicted long before he was born. But the price tag for that salvation would be high for Jesus, infinitely high. And so in Isaiah 50:4-10, this is Jesus speaking, I think, through the prophet; predicting what it would be like for him to suffer and die for us. Think of this as Jesus speaking, "The Sovereign LORD has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign LORD has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious; I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard; I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting. Because the Sovereign LORD helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore have I set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other! Who is my accuser? Let him confront me! It is the Sovereign LORD who helps me. Who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment; the moths will eat them up. 10 Who among you fears the LORD and obeys the word of his servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the LORD and rely on his God." Again and again justification by faith, trust in this Jesus who offered his back to those who beat him; trust in this Jesus who didn't hide his face from mocking and spitting and from his beard being plucked out, who willingly laid down his life. Now the greatest single chapter in Isaiah generally called Isaiah 53 actually begins in Isaiah 52 and it portrays, I think it really is the theological center of the whole Bible, actually. Not just of Isaiah, the whole Bible. Begins Isaiah 52:13-15, "Behold my servant will act wisely. He'll be raised and lifted up and highly exalted. Just as there were many who were appalled at him. His appearance was so disfigured beyond that of any man and his form marred beyond human likeness, so will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of him, for what they were not told they will see and what they have not heard they will understand." Jesus's form was disfigured beyond any human likeness on the cross. As he suffered and died on the cross it would be hard to imagine that there was depicted the wisdom and the love and the mercy of God, but there it was. And by his death, he, it says, "will sprinkle many nations." That Levitical sprinkling of the blood brought cleansing, and even more infinitely more the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus brings cleansing to the nations. The Greatest Chapter on Substitutionary Atonement Then Isaiah 53:1-6. Now, I think this is the greatest single chapter on the topic of substitutionary atonement. It's the idea of a substitute who is sinless, who is innocent, who died in the place of sinners to remove judgment from them. It's taught again and again in these verses, and I would say it's taught no more clearly anywhere else in the whole Bible than here in Isaiah 53:1-6. Listen to this. "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed? He grew up before him like a tender shoot, and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all." This is the clear prediction of substitutionary atonement, of a Savior who was sinless in and of himself, but took on our iniquities and died under the wrath of God. We have no other hope than this. What other hope is there that sinners like us that can stand before an infinitely wise, holy God and survive Judgment Day. This is our only hope. And it's a sure and certain hope because God sent him for this very purpose. This is the clear prediction seven centuries before Jesus was born of his death on the cross and of the transfer of guilt from sinners to a substitute, and there's no hope apart from that. This is how we are forgiven and healed by his bloody death. Isaiah 53:7-12, "He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth; he was led like a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is silent, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away. And who can speak of his descendants? For he was cut off from the land of the living; for the transgression of my people he was stricken. He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the LORD's will to crush him and cause him to suffer, and though the LORD makes his life a guilt offering, he will see his offspring and prolong his days, and the will of the LORD will prosper in his hand. After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be satisfied; by his knowledge my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, and he will divide the spoils with the strong, because he poured out his life unto death, and was numbered with the transgressors. For he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors." This is the gospel, this is the centerpiece of the gospel of Jesus Christ. We sinners have no other hope, but this is a sure and certain hope, isn't it? This is a message and it begins in 53:1, "Lord, who has believed our message?" And so, just by believing this message is our forgiveness. The Open Gospel Call and Missionary Success So you have an invitation, an invitation, but it's right from Isaiah 55:1-3, "Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat, come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend your money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fair. Give ear and come to me, hear me that your soul may live." That is a gospel invitation right in Isaiah 55, pleading with us to stop living our lives for things that don't satisfy, that will leave us empty and will condemn us on judgment day. Come to Christ, feed on Christ, drink and eat of Christ. But God also tells us this opportunity will not last forever. We have an opportunity now, today. Isaiah 55:6-7 says, "Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will freely pardon him." This is the gospel that's been going out, beginning at Jerusalem through Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the Earth and God promises that his word will most certainly succeed. It's going to bring in a great multitude from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Isaiah 55:10-11 says, "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return without watering the Earth, making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth, it will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." So the missionaries that bring the message of Christ to the ends of the Earth will most certainly succeed, verses 12-13 of Isaiah 55, "You will go out in joy and be led forth with peace; the mountains and the hills will burst into song before you, and all the trees of the field will clap their hands, instead of the thornbush will grow the pine tree, instead of briers the myrtle will grow, this will be for the Lord's renown for an everlasting sign, which will not be destroyed." This week I'm going to Richmond, I'm a trustee at the International Mission Board and I wanna just go and talk to the missionary candidates that we're going to appoint and give them verses 12-13 for hope. You're going to go out with joy, and be led forth with peace, and you will go in the name of the Lord whose word never comes back empty and you will lead people to Christ, Amen, hallelujah. Now, this gospel comes as an invitation from the high and holy God, Isaiah 57:15. This is what the high and lofty one says, "He who lives forever, whose name is Holy. I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and revive the heart of the contrite, isn't that a great verse? It's like if you can memorize this one verse, I don't think this would be it, but it would be a great verse to memorize. It's a marvelous verse. The high and holy God of Isaiah 6, the one that the seraphim are covering their face, he's inviting you to his high and holy place to live with him forever if you'll just be humble and broken and ask for his salvation in Christ. The Glory of Zion, the New Jerusalem, Will Be Made Up of People All Over the World And this is going to happen, people from around the Earth are going to stream like we saw in Isaiah 2, they're going to stream into Zion, and Zion's going to become more and more and more and more glorious; bigger and bigger, more and more glorious. Isaiah 60:1-7, "Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the LORD rises upon you. See, darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples, but the LORD rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn. "Lift up your eyes and look about you: All assemble and come to you; your sons come from afar, and your daughters are carried on the arm. Then you will look and be radiant, your heart will throb and swell with joy; the wealth on the seas will be brought to you, to you the riches of the nations will come. Herds of camels will cover your land, young camels of Midian and Ephah. And all from Sheba will come, bearing gold and incense and proclaiming the praise of the LORD. All Kedar's flocks will be gathered to you, the rams of Nebaioth will serve you; they will be accepted as offerings on my altar, and I will adorn my glorious temple." Some of those missionaries go out to the Arab-speaking world. Isaiah 60 tells them that they're going to be successful, there's going to be some elected that are going to come from those tribes and languages and peoples and nations and they will bring offerings forever in the heavenly Zion. Jesus was anointed to bring this message. He is our Messiah, he is the Savior and he said so in Isaiah 61:1-3, this is how he began his preaching ministry, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor, he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion." And he rolled up the scroll of Isaiah and he sat down and he opened his mouth in his hometown and said, "Today, in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." This Jesus will never stop speaking until his bride, the heavenly Zion, is finished, beautiful, radiant. Isaiah 62:1-3, "For Zion's sake... " think of Jesus saying this, "For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake, I will not remain quiet till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch. The nations will see your righteousness, and all kings your glory, and you will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow. You'll be a crown of spender in the Lord's hand, a royal diadem in the hand of your God." That's the bride of Christ, that's the new Jerusalem. That's the heavenly glory that Jesus is going to keep on speaking until it's done. So the Book of Isaiah ends with a clear depiction of the new heavens and the new Earth and of hell, that's how the book ends. First, the new heavens and the new Earth, Isaiah 65:17-19, "Behold I will create new heavens and a new Earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create, for I will create Jerusalem to be a delight and its people a joy. I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take delight in my people. The sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." No more death, mourning, crying or pain, gone forever. The new heavens and the new Earth, that's where you in Christ are going, rejoice and be glad forever. Isaiah 65:25, you've heard this before, "The wolf and the lamb will feed together, the lion will eat straw like the ox, the dust will be the serpent's food, they will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain." Now, this beautiful new Jerusalem is not going to get built by human skill, human architects, human construction companies, human efforts will not build this. Isaiah 66:1-2, this is what the Lord said, "Heaven is my throne, the Earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Or where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things and so they came into being?" We can't build the new Jerusalem, we can't build the new universe that's coming, only God can do that. Then he says in verse 2, "This is the one I esteem, he who is humble and contrite in spirit, and who trembles at my word." Again, justification by faith alone in Christ. Only humble believers in Christ will enter it and so the gospel will spread to the ends of the Earth to claim them, to bring them in. Isaiah 66:19-20, "I will set a sign among them, I will send some of those who survive to the nations, to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians, famous as archers, to Tubal and Greece and to the distant islands, who have not heard of my fame or seen my glory and they will bring your brothers from all the nations to my holy mountain in Jerusalem as an offering to the Lord." The elect from every nation will spend eternity in God's presence, worshipping Him. 66:22-23 says, "As the new heavens, and the new Earth that I make will endure before me declares the Lord, so will your name and descendants endure from one new moon to another and from one Sabbath to another, all mankind will come and bow down before me," says the Lord. But the rebels will be destroyed forever. Verse 24: "And they will go out and look on the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me, their worm will not die nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." Close with me in prayer.

"Today… This Scripture is Fulfilled" So this morning as I was thinking about this text, I was closing my eyes and just trying to picture in redemptive history, when Jesus came to his hometown of Nazareth after having, it seems, already done some miracles, already done some healings, and the report had gotten back to his hometown, and he went to the synagogue there. And the town was abuzz with the reports, I'm sure, and they were wondering what was going on about Jesus. And the Sabbath day had come and everyone assembled in the synagogue and the time for the reading of the Scripture came in that worship service. And Jesus rose and went forward and the scroll of Isaiah was given to him. And he unrolled into the very place we're studying this morning, this very text of Scripture, Isaiah 61. And he read the ancient words powerfully and with spirit-endowed passion. And I think you probably could have heard a pin drop. Perhaps the tension was so thick you could cut it with a knife. It was a powerful moment as he read these words to the enthralled assembly there in the synagogue. "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted and to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for prisoners, and to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor." And after he finished reading most of verses 1 and 2, he rolled up the scroll and handed it back to the attendant and then he sat down, and the eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he opened his mouth and spoke these words. "Today in your hearing this Scripture is fulfilled." Fulfilled. I think if I had been an average neighbor of Jesus, I would have been stunned at that word. Fulfilled. That word "fulfilled" must have hit everyone there like a thunderbolt. After all, the passage that Jesus had read had been around for centuries, 700 years. And now this man, who they'd watched grow up from a little boy in their community, was saying that as they listened to him read that Scripture, the Scripture had been fulfilled, this prophecy. This was a Messianic prophecy. And he was claiming to be the fulfillment of that ancient prophecy. Now our faith, our Christian faith, is a supernatural faith. It's unlike any other religion in the world. It's different. And what sets it apart from every other religion in the world is just this, fulfilled prophecy, specifically fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. That's what makes Christianity different. No other religion has this. Through the prophets, God told the human race ahead of time what he would do. And then in Christ, he did it. He fulfilled those words. No other religion in the world has this element of fulfilled prophecy, just as no other religion in the world has Jesus. Isaiah has talked about this again and again, how God alone can do this, God alone has the power to do this. Isaiah 46:9 and 10. "I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is yet to come. And I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all that I desire." That's the God of the Bible. Or again, this, Isaiah 42:9. "Behold, the former things have taken place and new things I declare. Before they spring into being, I announce them to you." No prophecies in Scripture are as significant as those centered around the person and work of Jesus Christ, the savior of the world, the Anointed One, the Messiah. These prophecies set Jesus apart from every other religious leader. Mark that well. Use that to share the Gospel with people who think Christianity is like every other religion. It's not. They set Jesus apart from every king that's ever lived, every prophet or priest that's ever lived. They set him apart as the unique savior of the world sent from God on high to a world that desperately needs him, a world drowning in sin. Now, this morning, we get to look carefully at this prophecy, go word by word through it, verse by verse. This prophecy, written by Isaiah seven centuries before Jesus, 27 centuries before us. And we get to thrill at every word in this ancient scroll. We get to find light and life and health and peace and vigor and hope from considering the mission that Jesus has now accomplished, I want to say fulfilled, and that he is still fulfilling by the power of the Spirit of God. So let's look at it together. We're going to just unfold this line by line. I. The Messiah and His Mission (vs. 1-3) Look at the beginning at verse 1. "The spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor." So here, the Messiah, the Anointed One, is anointed with the Spirit. Now, for me as I was writing my commentary on Isaiah, I was thinking about, I had to deal with issues of interpretation all the time. It's possible that Isaiah himself is saying these words. He's talking about his own ministry. But I think, as a believer in all 66 books of the Bible, all of them equally inspired, Jesus has settled forever what this passage is about, amen. It's not about Isaiah. It's about Jesus. And so that settles it, and so Jesus is speaking to us, he's talking to us. And so the coming Savior, this text says, he said, was anointed by the Sovereign Lord. The title "Sovereign Lord" in some of the translations is literally "Adonai Yahweh," so it's a doubled-up expression. Adonai is "my Lord." Yahweh is the covenant name for God, the creator of the ends of the earth, the creator of the nation of Israel. So this, this God of the universe who is also my Lord, the personal King of all the redeemed the creator of the ends of the earth. This one is addressed in this text or spoken of in this text, the Spirit of this God, says the text, "is upon me." As I said, the text is written in the first person. Jesus, I believe, is speaking directly through the prophet Isaiah about His mission. And the Holy Spirit of God made plain this mission centuries before Jesus was born. This is the essence of predictive prophecy that I'm saying is completely unique in Christianity, there's no other religion like. It says in 1 Peter 1:10-11, "Concerning this salvation, the prophets who spoke of the grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ, in them, was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. So that's the essence of prophecy. A prophet has the Spirit of Christ in Him and He makes predictions about Christ, the predictions of the sufferings of Christ, and the glories that would follow. And again in 2 Peter 1:21, Peter writes this, "No prophecy ever had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." That's the essence of predictive prophecy. The Holy Spirit comes upon a prophet, and he writes down words about the future. Revelation 19:10, says the, "Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy." In other words, the point of it all, is to give a testimony about Jesus. So it was the glorious work of the Holy Spirit of God to put into the mind of Isaiah the prophet, the words that Jesus wanted to speak to the human race. To speak on behalf of our Savior, Jesus Christ. These words therefore are really Jesus's words spoken by the Holy Spirit seven centuries earlier. Now the prediction here is that the same Spirit of God that came upon the prophets, and wrote, that same Spirit has anointed Jesus. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me for the Lord has anointed me. So there's a link between the word anointing and the work of the Spirit. They go together. So what then is this anointing? Well, the verb anoint has to do with the pouring out of oil on a key individual in Jewish society, to set them apart for their office and it's a representation of the Spirit of God descending from heaven, to earth onto that individual. Equipping them supernaturally for the task they would fulfill. Prophets were anointed with oil, priests were anointed with oil, kings especially anointed with oil. So we have the story for example, of Saul who was anointed with the oil and the Holy Spirit came on him and made him a different man. Recently at the advice of a church member, I was watching a historical depiction of the monarchy of Britain, and the anointing ceremonies, the key of the coronation, the key holiest moment, when the Monarch is anointed with holy oil and the Archbishop of Canterbury, puts the oil on the head and on the chest representing the heart and on the hands of the monarch. It seems like a fervent prayer that the Holy Spirit would descend and enable the monarch, to think after the manner of the Holy Spirit and to love after the manner of the Holy Spirit and to act also after the manner and by the power of the Holy Spirit of God. Sadly, the monarchy of Britain has hardly ever lived up to that. I asked a friend of mine, "Do you think any of the kings or queens have been born again?" And he didn't know, he's an expert in monarchy and also a believer. Well, for them individually for all eternity, it will matter but the symbolism is powerful. Jesus is anointed with the Holy Spirit of God. Now, this is absolutely mind-boggling. You came here this morning to have your mind boggled, whatever that means, nobody hardly ever use that word boggles, except mind-boggling. But this stretches our minds and our imaginations to the breaking point, how do we understand the infinite mysteries of Christianity? It's a mysterious religion, we believe in the doctrine of the trinity, that one God has eternally existed in three persons: The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Each of the persons of the Trinity are co-equal, co-eternal, but each person of the Trinity has different offices to carry out in the plan of redemption. For example, God the Father came up with the plan of redemption, it was His plan, the Father makes the plan. The Son mysteriously takes on a human body, does mighty miracle speaks perfect words, lives a sinless life, dies an atoning death and rises from the dead. The redemption was planned by the Father, accomplished by the Son and then applied by the Spirit of God. So the Holy Spirit applies it but the Spirit we're finding here is intrinsic to Jesus's mission. The Holy Spirit enables Jesus to do all those things that he did. It is by the Spirit that Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary. It is by the Spirit that he was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil. It's by the Spirit that He conquered all of the temptations of the devil. It was by the Spirit that He did great signs and wonders and miracles, it was by the Spirit that He taught perfect teachings. It was by the Spirit that He was strengthened in the Garden of Gethsemane, against that final temptation to turn away from the cross, so therefore by the Spirit he went to the cross, and certainly by the Spirit he was raised from the dead. Peter says this in preaching to Cornelius the Roman Centurion. In Acts 10:38, these are just amazing words, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and power and he went around doing good and healing all who were under the power of the devil, because God was with him." So therefore Jesus did nothing apart from the Spirit's power. Just as he did nothing apart from the Father's plan. He says in John 5:19, "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself, He can only do what He sees His Father doing, because whatever the Father does, the Son also does." Now, what I'm saying is concerning this anointing with the spirit, the same is true of the spirit that Jesus could do nothing apart from the Spirit of God. Now that's where your mind gets boggled. I understand why we need the Spirit to come on us for us to do great things for God, but Jesus is God. And so go ahead, just let your mind be boggled I don't have an answer to this. But it seems that we are instructed here that only by the Spirit of Jesus do all of these great signs and wonders in this great preaching. It's by the Spirit that Jesus fulfilled his office to be the Savior of the world. And after Jesus rose from the dead, it is now by the Spirit of Christ that the gospel is spreading to the ends of the earth, only by the Spirit that this redemption is applied to people as Acts 1:8 says, "You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria and even to the ends of the earth." Now, specifically in verse 1, the Spirit anointed Jesus with power to preach, power for preaching power to preach the gospel, to preach the good news. That's the focus here to preach good news to the poor. Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time. And only by the power of the Spirit could he do it now, how great a preacher was Jesus? Do you remember the time when the rulers of the Jews, the chief priests and the Pharisees sent temple guards to arrest Jesus remember that? And some time later, the temple guards came back empty-handed, they said, "Why didn’t you bring him in?" And they said "No one ever spoke the way this man does." They were just totally captivated by Jesus the preacher or at the end of the Sermon of the Mount, arguably the greatest sermon that's ever been preached. It says when Jesus had finished saying all these things, the crowds were amazed at His teaching, because He taught them as one who had authority and not as their teachers of the law, Where did that sense of power that encounter with the living God, come from, but by the Spirit as Jesus spoke? And it says The spirit of the Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. Meaning those who are destitute, they're beggars: They have nothing to offer. And so, that great sermon, I just mentioned a moment ago, the Sermon on the Mount, begins with these words. Blessed, happy rich eternally rich blessed are the poor in spirit or a good translation, the spiritual beggars for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. You have nothing in your hands, you have nothing to offer nothing to give. And Jesus says You're blessed if you realize it and you bring that emptiness to God and He will give you a Kingdom. So that's who he's going to preach to the good news. The Messiah’s Mission to Poor Prisoners Now, look at the mission. By the way, before I go on to the mission do you not see therefore the eternal importance of preaching? I'm not in any way saying anything about myself, just the office and the function of preaching it is eternally significant. This is exactly what the spirit anointed Jesus to do is preach. And frankly, without the preaching none of the other things would have been effective later the Apostle Paul said, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved" And faith, the faith to call on the name of the Lord comes from hearing the message even the message of Christ. And so it's by the preaching of the message that souls are saved all over the world, is the most significant thing that happens at, on any given day is the preaching of the Gospel, it's more significant than all of the movements of the nations. And so, the significant of the preach now look at his mission, "The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives, and release from darkness for the prisoners to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and to provide for those who grieve in Zion. To be stolen them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and the garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair." This is the fullness of Jesus's mission. Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit first and foremost, to preach to proclaim the word of God, the word of the good news, the gospel to all people, Gospel of salvation a message in words. So it's a message of joy for the broken-hearted, it's a message to freedom for the captives. It's a message of release from those sitting in dungeons of darkness, a message of the recovery of sight to those who are blind, a message of the gracious forgiveness of Almighty God, to those who deserve vengeance. This is the essence of the gospel, freedom from slavery to sin, from the chains, the dungeons of sin. Jesus said in John 8 "you will know the truth and the truth will set you free." But then Jesus's Jewish enemies said, "We are Abraham's descendants, and have never been slaves of anyone How can you say that we shall be set free?" Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin". Now a slave has no permanent place in the family. But a son belongs to it, forever. So if the son sets you free, you'll be free, indeed truly free." This is the freedom that Jesus preached. Satan has enslaved the entire human race in invisible chains that we are powerless to break. We're held in chains of sin, bad habits that flow from corrupted hearts, evil actions that consummate, previous lusts, wicked lusts. This is the nature of Satan's dark realm, his evil kingdom. We all sat in the gloomy dungeons of sin, and we could not break out, couldn't break free. So, Jesus was sent to proclaim liberty, freedom for the captives, to lead us up and out of Satan's dark dungeons. Now that's incredible good news. That's what we Christians celebrate. Not just Christmas, but year-round, that we've been set free. We don't ever need to sin again, ever. We're set free. And we're free from the penalty and the vengeance that we deserve, God's vengeance against our breaking of his most holy laws; we are set free from all that by Jesus. Set free. Jesus said in John 5:24, "I tell you the truth, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed over from death to life." Isn't that a great verse? I think it deserves to be memorized along with John 3:16. Go ahead and memorize John 3:16. But John 5:24, "Crossed over from death to life." Beyond that, Jesus was anointed by the Holy Spirit to perform mighty works of healing. "He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted. This binding up is literally related to shattering. So picture a piece of pottery that's been thrown to the ground and shattered on the rocks, just shards everywhere. That's what sin does to people. So, it does it to their bodies, their bodies are racked with disease and pain and suffering and ultimately, death. Does it to our souls, we are shattered by sin. Jesus comes to bind up, to put the pottery back together so you can't even see that it was ever cracked. It's a miracle of binding up of the broken-hearted. And he did literal, physical miracles. The recovery of sight to the blind, to show that he could do the far greater work of the healing of our souls and the reconciliation of our status with God, our heavenly judge and our Heavenly Father. That's the greatest work. And so, he did miracles in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. He said to the paralyzed man, "Rise and walk." Or the same thing with the man born blind. No one ever heard in the history of the healing of a man born blind. Jesus did that. The recovery of sight to the blind, as a physical, real, actual display of power. He actually did it in space and time. Yes, I believe in the miracles. They really happen. But there are also symbols of a far greater spiritual healing that Jesus alone can do. Now, this message of healing and grace and power for sinful captives changes everything. We were mourning and we were powerless and now we are forgiven and rejoicing and we have been embraced and adopted. Verse 2-3, "To comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion." As Jesus said, "Blessed are those who mourn for they will be comforted." We get eternal comfort now. This message is as relevant today as it was in Jesus' day. Sin leaves people's lives shattered, our heart's breaking. Think about the incredible comfort that Jesus has brought to people trapped by chemical addictions, enslaved by pornography, struggling with emptiness and desperation, darkly allured towards suicide, and Jesus steps in with light and changes everything and brings joy where there was such grieving and sorrow and brokenness. Jesus alone can do that. And he can step in, even to a funeral and bring a ray of eternal glorious sunshine. Even at a Christian funeral. So, we don't grieve like those who have no hope. We actually ultimately walk out mocking death saying, "Where O death is your victory? Where O death is your sting? The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." So we don't grieve like those who have no hope, even at the face of the grave. So we can say goodbye to Christian spouses and Christian friends and all that, even at the grave and know we'll see them again in Christ. He provides for those who grieve and mourn in Zion. So Isaiah 61 predicts the comfort that Jesus will bring to a mourning world, a world ripped apart and ruined by sin and death. The Year of the Lord’s Favor Now, pretty dramatically and some have noted this, some have talked to me about it even this week. In Nazareth Jesus stopped the reading right in the middle. Just stopped. Didn't read the whole thing. What do I mean? Well, this is what he said, this is Luke 4:18-20, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners, recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor," and he stopped there. Rolled up the scroll and gave it to the attendant, sat down and began to speak. Today, this Scripture is fulfilled. Okay, so he ended at the proclamation of something called the year of the Lord's favor. I can't hear that except that I think about the year of jubilee, like in the Book of Leviticus, where you get pretty much once in your lifetime a year unlike any other year. I mean, somebody's like, no working. Alright? Slaves set free. All of them go back. It's like this huge massive Sabbath rest for the fields and vineyards. And people are released from slavery and bondage then they go back to their ancestral properties and it's the year of jubilee. Once in your lifetime. What an incredible picture. A whole year of that. So it's the year of the Lord's favor. The word favor would be like grace. The year of grace, an extended period of grace for all us sinners. A once in a lifetime opportunity because of its infinite value. But it goes on for a full year, so it's a very vast window of opportunity, but it is finite. It doesn't go on forever, this year of the Lord's grace. That time is now to quote an earlier passage from Isaiah, Isaiah 55:6-7, "Seek the Lord while he may be found. Call on him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let them turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God and he will freely pardon." That's the year of the Lord's favor. And He is near now or as Paul said in 2 Corinthians 6:2, "In the time of my favor, I heard you in the day of salvation, I helped you. I tell you now is the time of God's favor. Now is the day of salvation. This is the time. I can't help but stop and just wonder, and I prayed this morning that God would bring people here who needed to hear this message who are presently sitting in dark dungeons of sin and chains, and I'm just telling you that the door is thrown open if you just run through it through faith in Christ. And this is the time, now, you don't know that you'll ever hear this gospel message again. This might be the last time you hear the gospel, you don't know. But this is the year of the Lord's favor, this is the opportunity for amnesty for all sinners who hear this message to run into forgiveness and reconciliation with God and eternal life. I would grab it if I were you, I already did grab it back in 1982. I'm saying this is the gospel, Jesus died on the cross for sinners like you and me, but why did he die? Well, because of the next part that Jesus didn't read; to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and the day of vengeance of our God. Vengeance. God has a day of vengeance for those who will not receive the grace of this gospel. He has a day of vengeance for people all over the world who do not fulfill his holy law as written in their hearts and evidence in creation. He has a day of vengeance coming for sinners all over the world. That day is real and it is coming. Romans 2:5-8 says this, "But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you're storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath. When his righteous judgment will be revealed, God will give to each person according to what he has done. To those who by persistence in doing good, seek glory, honor and immortality, he will give eternal life. But, for those who are self-seeking, who reject the truth and follow evil, there'll be wrath and anger." That's The day of God's vengeance. It's spoken of in many places in Scripture. Honestly, without understanding The day of God's vengeance, you won't understand what you're being saved from. Salvation won't mean anything. You have every right to ask, "Saved from what?" Well, saved from the day of God's vengeance, saved from being punished for your law violation, punished for your sins. All of us, we're under that death sentence. Jesus regularly warned about the coming day of God's vengeance. He said, "I tell you that men will have to give an account on the Day of Judgment for every careless word they have spoken." Matthew 13, "The Son of Man will send out his angels and they will weed out of his kingdom everything that causes sin and all those who do evil. They will throw them into the fiery furnace where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Matthew 25, the sheep and the goats. "Then he will say to those on his left [the goats], 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.'" So, why did Jesus stop the reading at that point? Clearly, at other times he did preach and warn about the day of God's vengeance. Well, I think it has to do with the word "fulfilled," it has to do with what he was there in his first coming to do. He was there to fulfill salvation. He didn't need to come to earth to pour out vengeance. Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed from heaven down, there didn't need to be an incarnation to do that. But for salvation, he came from heaven to earth. The first coming was to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and salvation. But there will be a second coming. Now in John 3:17, Jesus said, "God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but so that the world will be saved through him." So he didn't come for vengeance in the first coming. But there will be a second coming. 2 Thessalonians 1:7-9 says, "When the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels, he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power." That's what the second coming will be like. That's why I think he stopped the reading. II. The Transformation of the Messiah’s People (vs. 3-9) Now, in verses 3-9, we see the transformation of Messiah's people, not only does Jesus proclaim and heal but he also transforms the people he saves. We become different, essentially changed, transformed. Look at verse 3, "To bestow on them... " And I love the NIV's translation here, so I'm going to stick with it. "To bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, for the display of his splendor." Now, this is really cool. It wasn't till I practiced this sermon this morning that I noticed this. So here, these three words are highlighted in my outline: Crown, oil, garment. What does that speak to you of, but a coronation? It's amazing. These are emblems of royalty. These are emblems of royalty, as though Jesus came to take wretched dungeon dwellers like us and make us into royalty, and put a crown on our heads, and anoint us with the oil of his spirit, and cover us with righteous robes to make us royalty, kings and queens under his ultimate kingship. He will be King of kings, and he will be Lord of lords, and we will reign with him forever. And so Peter calls us a royal priesthood. It's just amazing. And so the transformation is of our heads, so that we think differently through repentance and through the teaching of the Word of God, and our hearts, so that we love differently by the transforming work of the Spirit, and then our lives, so we live different kinds of lives, and look how he describes it, "A crown of beauty instead of ashes." We were ugly in God's sight, but through the imputed righteousness of Christ, we're now radiantly attractive to him, he actually likes looking at us in Christ. And then the oil of gladness, instead of mourning, Christ is everything. These exact words were spoken of Jesus's affections. In Hebrews 1:9, it says of Jesus, "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness, therefore God your God has exalted you or set you above your companions," listen, "by anointing you with the oil of joy." It's the exact same thing it says here. We are then in him transformed, loving righteousness, hating wickedness, anointed with the oil of joy instead of mourning. So Jesus changes our hearts and then a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair, apart from Christ, life was hopeless, it was bleak and empty and purposeless. We had nothing to look forward to except the just wrath of God in death. But now, in Christ, we have a joyful life in which we can do service to God that's worth doing. We can actually do good works, not to pay for sins, but to build up his kingdom and it says, "They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor." Isn’t that marvelous? Oh, I want to be an oak of righteousness, wouldn't that be marvelous? We were bruised reeds, weren't we? Swaying back and forth with public opinion, every temptation swayed by it, powerless to resist. Now, in Christ, we can become mighty oaks of righteousness, no longer double-minded but able to withstand all of Satan's attacks. After I graduated from college, I took a trip, a cross-country, with a friend of mine, probably one of most fun trips I ever made. We were two free guys. He was driving to a job in LA, I had one waiting for me back in Massachusetts, he paid for all of my expenses, which I thought was pretty cool, cause his company paid for his. And it was just, it was pretty amazing. We went to Yellowstone, we went to Grand Teton National Park, but one of the most memorable places was Pacific Coast 1, this highway that went along Northern California. Absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. But in Northern California, it's the Redwood Forest and these massive redwood trees, I'll never forget them. These trees can live as long as 18 centuries, we're told. 1800 years old. Their trunks can be as wide as 30 feet. You could drive a car through one of those tree trunks. They can reach 379 feet high, almost a 40-storey building. Massive. Wonder what the root system is like. And this road that you drive through is called the Avenue of the Giants, and you can just drive through it. To me, that's what church history is like. We can just drive for 20 centuries, through the Avenue of the Giants and think about brothers and sisters in Christ that led gigantic lives. They were oaks of righteousness, rooted in Christ, rooted in the truth of the Bible, not easily swayed by lust and temptations, and by the opinions of their age, they were rooted in Christ and in the Word of God, the unchanging Word of God, and they just grew up and bore fruit for God. It's a massive display of life and power and stature. Like in Ephesians 3, Paul prays that they would be rooted and established in love, and would have power together with all the saints to grasp that infinite dimensions of Christ's love. Rooted in Christ, or again in Colossians, "So then just as you receive Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him." The Root System for the "Oaks of Righteousness" So what's your root system like? Are you rooted in Christ? Are you rooted in the Bible? Rooted in the Word of God? Rooted in the work of grace in your life? Are you stable in Jesus? Stable? I love studying about this royal priesthood that is church history, these are brothers and sisters in Christ. Think about the Roman martyrs, the ones that had their blood shed in the sands of the Colosseum. They did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. Nero made some of them torches for his garden parties, and they would not shrink back. Think about the missionaries that went courageously in the centuries that followed to win the pagans of Germania or the Scottish forebears known as the pits or think about those that evangelized the Vikings. How would you like to evangelize Vikings and lead some of them to Christ before they killed you? I mean, think of the courage of these brothers and sisters that did these great things or think about the reformers like Luther that he took his life in his hand for doctrine justification by faith alone, he was willing to literally die at the stake, burn at the stake for that. They didn't get him, but they wanted to. Took his life in his hand, these oaks of righteousness. And think about the missionary movement of the 19th and 20th centuries, those that have taken the gospel to the inland regions of China and Africa, and to the jungles of the Amazon rainforest and Irian Jaya, they've gone as far as you can go to take the gospel. Work's not done yet, but they have done... Don't you want to be an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord, for the display of His splendor? Don't you want to live that kind of a life? I do. And the point of all of this is the display of His glory. Not for us, not to us, but to Your name be the glory. For the display of God's splendor, that they can see how great God is by looking at our lives. Verse 4, "They will rebuild the ancient ruins and restore places long devastated. They'll renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations." Obviously, the immediate context here is the rebuilding of the City of Jerusalem, but the words go far greater than that. Small city in Palestine rebuilt after the exile, it's bigger than that. The people of God in every generation have been involved in rebuilding ancient ruins. I think about Luther and Calvin, how they rebuilt the ruins of godly New Testament theology on the wreckage of centuries of false teaching by the Medieval Roman Catholic church. They rebuilt doctrinal buildings on wreckage. Or I think about even missionaries who elevated Paul's passion for the unreached, for those who have never heard in regions beyond. It's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ wasn't named. So I wouldn't be building on someone else's foundation, rather as it is written, those who have not heard will hear and those who have not seen will be told of Christ to the ends of the earth and missionaries in 19th and 20th century, they rebuilt the ancient ruins. The commitment to missions. Now Satan's a destroyer, and he ruins works that one sowed for the glory of God. Churches that were once really radiant and on fire for Christ become cold and lifeless and ruined. Colleges and seminaries established openly and clearly for the glory of God get taken over somewhere in there and become ruined by Satan's deceptions. Wreckage, those institutions lay in ruins. God calls on every generation to look at this wreckage, these ruins and say, "What can we rebuild by the power of God, to the glory of God? What can we rebuild?" Now obviously we Christians, we should go where there's literal physical destruction. We can go in the path of hurricanes with the Baptist men and go help rebuild houses, but you just must know that this is bigger than all that. The biggest, most glorious building projects say every week is the building of the church of Jesus Christ. This spiritual structure rising to become a temple in which God lives by his Spirit. That's the building project, and it's out of the ruins that Satan has left in the world. Enriched, Not Enslaved, by the Nations Verse 4, now very quickly, we're not going to go as carefully through all these verses, we'll just read them and look at them with me. "Aliens will shepherd your flocks and foreigners will work your fields and your vineyards and you will be called priests of the Lord." That's awesome. You'll be named ministers of our God. You'll feed on the wealth of nations and in their riches you will boast. Here's that royal priesthood, that holy nation, that people belonging to God called out of darkness into light so that we can declare his marvelous praises. We're priests for the Lord and we're going to feed on the wealth of the nations, not like that prosperity gospel stuff. We don't believe in that. The wealth of the nations here is definitely spiritual, people converted. People who are treasures and they are converted. You'll feed on that and they will become shepherds in the Lord's house. And look at the transformation, verses 7-9, "Instead of their shame, my people receive a double portion and instead of disgrace, they will rejoice in their inheritance and so they will inherit a double portion in their land. Everlasting joy will be theirs." You as a Christian can read those words and say, these are true of me. I'm not ashamed anymore. My shame has been covered by the blood of Christ. I've received a double portion for that. I'm not disgraced anymore. I'm now honored in Christ and I'm going to rejoice in my inheritance, God himself, and then the new heaven, the new earth. We're going to inherit the earth and that's my inheritance and I'm going to rejoice in that. Verse 8, "For I the Lord love justice. I hate robbery and inequity and in my faithfulness I will reward them and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, the new covenant. And their descendants will be known among the nations and their offspring among the peoples. All who see them will acknowledge that they are a people the Lord has blessed." Oh, that's powerful. Oh, I want to put that on display. I want everybody to see how God has blessed us, how richly we are forgiven and loved and secured and filled with hope and looking forward to eternity. We're a people the Lord has blessed. III. The Messiah’s Garments of Joy, Righteousness and Salvation (vs. 10-11) Finishes in verses 10 and 11, "I delight greatly in the Lord. My soul rejoices in my God for he has clothed me with garments of salvation and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels." Who is speaking here? Is it Jesus? Is it Isaiah on behalf of all the redeemed? How about yes and yes, why not? We step up into the radiant beauty of garments of righteousness and we get covered with Christ's righteousness that he won first for us and then gives to us. Verse 11, "For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations." V. Application Applications, first, just stand in awe of the amazing moment when Jesus stood up and said this has been fulfilled. Stand in awe of that. Just stand in awe of God's ability to predict the future. Just worship him, worship him. Just say, "Thank you God for being such a God to figure all this out before the foundation of the world, predicted centuries before it happened." And then Jesus steps into time and says, "Today in your hearing, this Scripture is fulfilled." Praise him. Secondly, meditate on the amazing grace that leads him to elevate degraded sinners like you and me from the dungeons, the satanic dungeons of darkness to be under him, kings and queens of glory, princes and princesses in his kingdom. That's incredible. Never get tired of thanking him for saving you from the day of vengeance. You deserved it. So did I. We were covered with stinking clothes, and instead we have this rich garment of praise now on us. Thirdly, we should yearn to become what the text says we will be, mighty oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his glory. Grow up in Christ. Don't be blown back and forth anymore by false teaching or by lusts and temptations. Don't be weak. Be an oak of righteousness to display God's splendor. Resolve in 2017 to be holier than you've ever been before by the power of the Spirit. Say, "I want to be an oak. I want to be a planting. I don't want to be weak anymore in this weak area. Give me strength to fight." Fourth, be energetic in the mission that this, like just about all of these last chapters Isaiah talks about, worldwide missions, nations coming to the light of the glory of Zion. Let's be energetic in it. Let's care about it.nI loved hearing Amanda's story. I was so excited, she was willing to share that story. You should ask her for details. The lives that were changed by her and her team. It's a great story. We're going to hear it in heaven, but it's great to hear it now. Let's love these stories. Let's send out more and more missionaries. Let's raise more money. Let's more than meet our goal. $150,000 to send out missionaries like that. Let's care about it. Let's pray for missions and be passionate and then let's make missions happen right here at home. We can do that with unreached people groups here in our area with the Gujarati, but we can also evangelize people who are just like us, same as us, same culture, same language but they need Christ, let's talk to them. And then finally, if you are struggling with depression and discouragement, Isaiah 61 is for you. God is able to comfort those who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion. He's able to bestow on you a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. Don't weep anymore. Rejoice in Christ, talk to other people. Get together. Don't be alone in your sorrow. Get together with other people and talk about Jesus. It's a great topic. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Dyan shares her vulnerability about working with very little children--until, ironically, a little gal, barely 2yrs. fixates on her...So Isaiah's reading today(chapter 11:1-10) ...is the prophecy that a new is coming when 'a little child shall lead them"...into a peaceable kingdom and God's favor. Reference to baby Jesus?

Living in Chains As I was thinking about Isaiah 58, thinking about this sermon, I'm going to be preaching two sermons on this chapter. There's just too much for me to be able to deal with here. But, I meditated and it became clear and clear as there's a phrase "the chains of injustice" and I thought about chains or bonds, or yokes of oppression, and it occurred to me we live in a world of invisible chains. For many, many months we had the privilege of studying in the Book of Ephesians, and how in Ephesians 2, we're told of a dark Satanic kingdom in which we all once lived. And we were held in the bondage, in the invisible chains of sin, and we couldn't see them. Satan has cleverly crafted a vast network of invisible chains that are effective in accomplishing his evil desires. Chains of injustice yokes of oppression, prisons of sin that we cannot see with the natural eye. They have to be spiritually discerned, we have to be able to see through what we can see with our eyes to see the injustice to see the chains, and to see them rightly the way God does. Now The gospel of Jesus Christ shines heavenly light into that, enables us to see with ever-increasing clarity, the more we grow in Christ, these chains. It enables us ourselves through faith in Christ, to rise up out of a prison of sin, rise up out of chains and walk in newness of life, and then we can be filled with joy and we can have purpose, in our lives. But you know, for all of that, I still feel strong chains satanic chains on my heart. Do you not feel it on yours? When we are called on in Verse 10 of this chapter, to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor or needy. I feel a reluctance, in my flesh to do that. I feel it all the time. I feel the same thing when I try to share the Gospel, I feel something holding me back. I want to share my faith. I want to be bold, I want to care about the lost around me, but I hold back, something's holding me back. I must feel there's some kind of invisible bondage or chain around my heart that's keeping me from living the kind of righteous life that God wants me to live. And so this text challenges me, friends, it gets in my grill, it bothers me. The phrase, "Spend yourself on behalf of the needy" bothers me, it challenges me because I know I'm not really doing it, not like I should. In the summer of 1986, I was on my first mission trip and I've told this story before, it has never left me of how for the first time, I saw poverty in another country. And poverty in America, is different than poverty in other countries. It's just not anywhere near as severe. And so now I've seen many, many such scenes but this was my first time. I was riding in an air-conditioned van through the streets of Mombasa, 15 passenger van with other members of my mission team and we were just driving around there and I couldn't believe the scenes that I was seeing. I couldn't believe the degradation of the homes. I couldn't believe the poverty. And Kenya is not really an incredibly poor African nation, but compared to us, it was just, there was just poverty, there. And we were just moving through in a bubble of air conditioned comfort and luxury. And just moving through and just like Julie was sharing her testimony a few minutes ago, I felt like, yeah, I mean there's this comfortable bubble around me, like she was talking about her sheets and all that. Well, that was the air condition van and how the principle of the Gospel, the incarnation principle, is to get out of the van and go be with the suffering people. I feel that there's something inside me that holds me back from doing that. It's a love of self, it's a love of fleshly comfort and ease that keeps me from living an openly righteous life. I think the only remedy must be the ministry of the Word of God, the Power of the Spirit in my life, for me to see the standard and say, "I'm not living up to this, I'm not living the kind of life that I want to live I'm not spending myself, on behalf of the poor and needy. I don't feel like our church is doing everything we could do in this community to do the same." And so what I really want is for you to have an encounter with God through the text here, this timeless text. So that we would understand mercy ministry. We'd understand the kind of life God's calling us to live and that we might be more righteous in His sight. But we have to understand it in the context of the Gospel that God's given us here, in the context of true religion, in the context of justification by faith alone, apart from religiosity. We're not going to be saved by our good works, we're not going to be saved by our ministry to the poor, or needy, that is false doctrine. We are saved by simple faith in Jesus Christ. I. Exposing Hypocrisy and Oppression (vs. 1-5) And so, right away, the prophet Isiah is calling to the people of Israel, because God is commanding him to do so, to expose their religious hypocrisy, and their wickedness, to expose how religious they are, and how displeasing the whole machine is to him. Look at verse 1 and following, it says there, "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the house of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; they seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them." So Isaiah here is exposing their hypocrisy, their religiosity here, the wickedness of the Jewish religionists of his day. He's commanding Isaiah to shout aloud and not hold back, to declare to Israel, their sins. He wants them declared and exposed the ministry of the Word of God. That's all. This is what you're doing. I want to speak these words to you. He's saying this to them. Now they were outwardly, obeying the laws of Moses, they were outwardly keeping the laws of religion. But they were actually rebelling against Him at the same time. Now I'm going to talk more about this next week, I'm going to just move ahead in the message. But in Isaiah 29 Verse 13, He says this, "These people come near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they worship me in vain. Their teachings are just rules taught by men." So their worship, their religion was not pleasing to God. Now, the NIV, I think does a better job than the other translations of giving a sense of how wrong this whole thing is by adding words like, "They seem eager to know my way, they seem like they want me to come." I think actually it's appropriate. That's the feeling here. And yes, it's more like they actually are righteous, they are coming, they are etcetera. But I don't think that's actually what's going on because later in the chapter, He's very negative toward them. So there seems to be a discrepancy between their religion and how they're living and then what's really going on in their hearts. Verse 2 and 3, "For day after day, they seek me out. They seem eager to know my ways, as if they were a nation, as if they were a nation, that does what is right, and is not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them. 'Why have we fasted?' they say, 'and you have not seen it?' Why have we humbled ourselves and you have not noticed?'" So they're going through this religious sham, really. This outward machine, they're just in a ritual, a pattern of animal sacrifice, coming to the temple, doing all these things, the Jewish religion of the old covenant, that's what they were doing. But it was just a sham, it was hypocrisy. They'd actually forsaken the commands of their God. Look at Verse 3-5, they're actually fasting, while sinning or sinning while fasting. I don't know which. But both were going on. "'Why have we fasted,' they say, 'and you have not seen it? Why have we humbled ourselves, and you have not noticed?' Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please and exploit all your workers. Your fasting ends in quarreling and strife, and in striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high. Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?" Well first notice their attitude, "Why have we fasted Oh God and you have not seen it? Why have we done this religion and you've not noticed?" They seem to think that depriving themselves of a little nourishment for 12 hours or something like that, puts God in some kind of debtor's position in reference to them, as if He owed them something. Clearly they have forgotten the exalted Holiness of God that their forefather, Abraham, clearly had in mind as he was interceding for Sodom and Gomorrah, remember that? In Genesis 18, and he approached and he said, "Oh, would you please just hear me though I am dust and ashes." There's that broken humility or even just the previous chapter, Isaiah 57:15 that we looked at last week in depth. God is Not a Vending Machine Isaiah 57:15, "This is what the high and lofty one says, He who lives forever and whose name is Holy, 'I live in a high and holy place but also with him who is humble and contrite in spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and revive the heart of the contrite.'" So, they've forgotten all that. That's not how they're coming, they're actually coming somewhat angry at God, they're uppity toward God, they feel like there's some injustice Heaven to Earth here. Also how did they know that God hadn't heard. They said, "Why have we fasted and you've not heard, why have we prayed, you've not answered." So there must be some specific measurable thing they were looking for. I don't know what this could be, but they just know that God's not heard, He has not answered them. So, I imagine in the old covenant era, there probably was some agricultural issue there. There probably was a drought leading to a famine of some sort. God said He would do this kind of thing. Maybe there was some kind of locust infestation or some other thing was going on, but there was something that was causing them trouble and making them come and fast and pray. But the problem had not been solved There was no rain, I think they figured 12 hours of fasting, check. Now, the rain should come, right? As though God is some kind of vending machine. Have you ever done that? Have you ever put coins in a vending machine and not got what you are looking for? I know you, it has happened right here, in this building, and I feel right down there. I feel a sense of injustice. I have put 50 cents in the machine and I should get my Coke out or Diet Coke, that's what I should get, but it has not happened now. There's injustice. I'm owed something here. I get that same feeling here. Do you not get that? This sense, I have put in the time now, on my religion stuff. There should be something coming back, that I could measure. I should know that you heard me. But can I tell you the God of Isaiah 57:15, the God who is high and lofty, whose name is holy, the God who inhabits eternity, will never be any man or woman's debtor ever. He will never owe you anything, never. Romans 11:35, "Who has ever given to God, that God should repay Him. For from him, and through him, and to him, are all things. To Him be the glory forever!" God's never going to owe you anything, ever. And actually God [chuckle] somewhat minimizes their piety her, do you see it? It's like kind of low level, it's like below average. Look at Verse 5, "Is this the kind of fast I have chosen, only a day for a man to humble himself? Is it only for bowing one's head like a reed and for lying on sackcloth and ashes? Is that what you call a fast, a day acceptable to the LORD?" Now, if we have sinned, we have done something that violates God's holy law, and God is disciplining us by sending us the equivalent of a drought, and a famine. He does not owe it to us to remove the drought and famine. He's never going to as anything, no matter what we do with fasting and prayer, He'll never be in our debt ever. It's just mercy, and grace. But actually even worse these people are actually adding sin upon sin in their religion. Look what He said about what their days of fasting and prayer were like. "Yet on the day of your fasting, you do as you please, and exploit all your workers, your fasting ends and quarreling and strife and striking each other with wicked fists. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high." So these are issues of social injustice. That's what's going on. God is clearly judging people of power and influence, people who have workers who are serving them. But there are also issues of just pe­rsonal godliness person-to-person. They would get a little hungry I think, and get irritable. I really think that's literally what's happening here. They would fast for a while, they would get irritable and they would start having fights, with each other and it might actually end up in a brawl. Like, "If I can just tell you", says the Lord, "this is not acceptable to me, this is not a fast, this is not piety, it's not godliness, you're actually beating each other up. You cannot fast as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high." Now, let me just bring it right here to us 21st century American Evangelical church. This is a clear and present danger for us as well. Every generation is tempted to trust in their own religiosity, their own acts of righteousness to put God in some kind of debtor's position that He should do what you think He should do. Everyone's tempted in that way. We Baptists, we think that because we've been baptized, we've joined a church, we attend pretty faithfully or even just occasionally, but we do attend, that God should be happy to have us. He's lucky to have me. I don't think we'd ever a voice it like that, but it feels that way. Oh, we think that because we bow in prayer for grace before a meal, or we even have a daily quiet time, or because we read through the Bible in a year, or memorize Scripture, or do some other acts of piety, that we have the same kind of attitude. We also might make a few sacrifices in our lives, we might give some money, might write a cheque to something, and we expect God instantly, to answer our prayers. And then we actually like me and the vending machine, I didn't get too angry, but I was irritated. Alright? But there's an irritation toward God. I have prayed and you've not answered my prayer. Beware, beware of this kind of trust in religion, beware of trusting in your habits and patterns and religious machinery, in your church attendance, and putting up with sermons once a week and sacrificing sleeping in on Sunday mornings. Remember the lesson of the Gospel. We have been trained in the Gospel. In the Book of Galatians, we are told that we are justified by faith in Christ Jesus alone, because by the works of the law shall no one be justified. We are not made right with God by our good works, we are made right, we sinners, we broken, unjust, wicked sinners, we are made right with God, simply by faith, in Jesus. Possibly you've come into this church building this morning looking for answers maybe after the election, may be a friend invited you, but you know you're outside of Christ, you're not claiming to be a Christian, you just here today. Can I just tell you the good news, of the gospel is that all of your sins can be forgiven by simple act of faith on your part, turning away from wickedness and sin, saying "I'm a sinner, I know I deserve condemnation, but Jesus died for me, He died on the cross for me, and He rose from the dead, that I might live a new life, I want Jesus." If you can say that to Him in your heart, trusting in Him, alone, then you will be forgiven, all of your sins will be wiped away. You need to know that before we get into the social justice issue that I'm about to talk about, because there's such a temptation for Americans, for people all over the world to feel good because they care for the poor and needy. You can't use your service to the poor and needy to pay for your sins, only by the Gospel. II. The True “Fast”: Generous Justice (vs. 6-12) Now I'm going to talk more about going through the motions in religion next week, but let's just dive in out at 6-12, Verses 6-12. What is the true fast? What is the true religion? God's calling on us to do? Look at Verses 6 and 7, "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke to set the oppressed free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer, with shelter, when you see the naked to clothe them and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood?" God is redefining religion here. He's causing them to turn away from their own selfishness to minister to their neighbors to the hurting among their communities in the name of their relationship with God, that's what He's calling that's true fasting, according to me. And He calls it a fast I think because they are learning to deny themselves. The reason I didn't want to get out of the air conditioned van is, because I didn't want to. The reason I don't want to care more for the poor and needy, is because it's costly to me. It affects my lifestyle. So the fast God's calling on us affluent people to make is to deny levels of comfort so we can care for others. That's the fast He's calling on us. It's an energetic thing, it's not bowing your head like a reed and lying on a mat, it's actually very energetic, it's bold and energetic and filled with activity, but it's a fast. And God says He's actually chosen this kind of fast to honor Him. He begins in verse 6 by talking about breaking the chains of oppression, to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke. Societal injustice is, as I said at the beginning of the message, difficult to discern. Like the old statement, "Does a fish know it's wet?" Do we unjust people know when we're being unjust? It's hard to know. So, we need to be able to get out of ourselves and say, "I accept the basic premise that I am a sinner, depraved, only saved by grace. Alright, show me my injustice, show me the ways." And not just me, but the ways other citizens here, people in this community are being unjust to their neighbors. Show it to me. Now, these hidden chains slip around people and they guarantee poverty. They guarantee a difficult life. Laborers are working and they're not receiving wages like they should, they're downtrodden, but they can't get a fair hearing from the judge, because the judge won't even entertain their case. Isaiah 1:23, "Your rulers are rebels, companions of thieves. They all love bribes and chase after gifts. They do not defend the cause of the fatherless, the widow's case doesn't even come before them." So, how is there social injustice in our day? Now, I have thought about this more and more over the last year or two. I preach sermons on racism, I've talked about issues that are really heavy on my heart. I thought about what kinds of institutional injustices are there right here in Durham? Show them to me. What's going on in my heart? How can we get involved in cycles of poverty and ignorance and sin, and see the truth of the gospel break all that apart? To see chains broken apart, to actually see that happen. That's what I want to see happen here in Durham, because we're here. I want the community to be different because first, Durham is a church here, in the name of Jesus. It's what I want to see happen. So I think about the police issues, been thinking about it and it's still on my mind. But I was at Logan Airport about a month ago, and there's an African-American young man there, had a hat on. He's a cool-looking guy and he was humming Jazz music as we're standing there in line, I was like, "I want to talk to this guy." I love sharing the gospel in airplanes and airports. I just love doing it because they're a captive audience, they need to stay near their gate and then when they're sitting next to me, that's even more true. That is so cool. This young guy, he was from New Orleans, turned out he was a believer. He comes from a Baptist background, his parents are involved in church leadership. But he's a jazz pianist. So I was talking about the police issues, the Colin Kaepernick, NFL thing, different things. He said, "Yeah, it bothers me." He said, "But you know what bothers me too, I grew up in the streets in New Orleans. It bothers me to see a black dude kill another black dude 'cause he stepped on his shoes." So I'm just telling you friends, there is injustice everywhere. It's in our hearts. There's no one group that's free from it, so that if that group were in charge, there would be no more injustice. We are all sons and daughters of Adam, and we need to be delivered. I think the greatest injustice in our country right now, I've said it before, I'll say it again, is abortion. I think it's wrong for the strong to not protect the weak. But before that, I think it's wrong for a young man to impregnate a woman and then walk away from his responsibilities, leaving her a very young single mother to fend for herself and her child in a low-paying job, just about guaranteeing a lifetime of poverty. I think that's wrong too. I feel like we could shed some light in that, the light of the gospel. I think we could get some young men early and teach them what it means to honor a woman, and what sexual purity looks like, and what the gospel calls on us to do, and what it looks like to be a husband and a father. And just the church can be the light of the gospel right here in this community. I've got friends that are planting a church in a very underprivileged hard area of Washington DC, and they've partnered with the government school right near their church to try to help it, and it's just a tragic scene. In the last 22 years, that government school has had 24 principals. Just think about that. Nobody wants that job. And the committee, the government committee there, they allot extra money to attract teachers to the school with promises that they'll pay your school loans as a teacher so that you'll even come and work there. They can't hold on to any good teachers. What would it be like to grow up as a child in that community and be educated at that school? What's that like? So that church wants to make a difference in that school and find a way to bring the light of the gospel there. For me, perhaps a leading evangelical thinker on issues of social justice is Tim Keller. He's written a book called Generous Justice. It's available out here in the North Tower Resource Center, you can order it. It's very helpful, very practical. I was thinking about the issue of justice, and I realized it wasn't helpful for me thinking about justice to think first and foremost vertically toward God. That would be a sinner saying to God, "I only want justice from you, give me what I truly deserve." Friends, none of us wants that, you know what I mean? We deserve hell. We deserve condemnation. That's not what the prophets mean by justice, I think. Horizontally we're not in a position of mediating or ministering hell to other people. I really think the best way to look at justice the way that the prophets meant is the second great command, "Love your neighbor as yourself." Whatever God means for you to do in any certain situation you are to do, that is the justice you owe to your neighbor there. But it's even more significant if you are in a position of authority and power and you're dealing with people who are vulnerable, people who need protection. So horizontally, justice for me, doing justice means to care for others, to love them as I love myself, but especially to protect and provide for those most vulnerable in society. There's four people that are mentioned again and again in the Old Testament prophets as vulnerable in society, they are widows, orphans, the aliens, and the poor; those four are the most vulnerable and they need therefore to be protected. So what that means is, for us we have to use whatever power we have, whatever influence we have, whatever positions we have in this community to protect those that are vulnerable, that's what we're called on to do. Those that don't have a voice. Now none of us finds this easy. These issues are complex. I don't know always what it means to loose the chains of injustice. I want to start with this. In 2013 I preached at the Cross Conference and we had a conference slogan that we, we Christians, care about all suffering, but especially eternal suffering. What would it profit someone if they should gain the whole world and lose their soul? So we want to be sure that we're going to break the chains of sin and eternal condemnation through a proclamation of the gospel. But what I believe is that the two are not in contradiction with each other, they actually are in great harmony. As we step out and spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy, we're going to find more and more opportunities to share the gospel. More and more opportunities to talk to people about what we really love, what we're living for, why we're doing this. To show generous justice in a lavish sort of way. Tim Keller gives a lot of examples in his book and I'll just pick a couple, one is a woman named Heather who's a highly-educated lawyer who gave up a lucrative position in a corporate law firm to become an assistant DA in New York where so many of the criminals she prosecutes have been exploiting the poor, particularly poor women, so she's able to use her legal acumen to come in there and break that chain of injustice legally. But she did it at sacrifice, she spent herself on behalf of the poor to do that, she could make a lot more money in a corporate law firm. Or another example Keller gives is of a young man he knew in seminary named Mark Gornik who moved with his wife years ago to Sandtown, one of the poorest and most dangerous neighborhoods in Baltimore, Maryland. For decades white people had been fleeing Sandtown, living at other places, he was the first to move back long before there was any gentrification or any appeal, it was just a dangerous place to live. Keller said this about Mark Gornik, Mark Gornik said, he said, "The police all thought I was a drug dealer and the drug dealers all thought I was a police officer. So for a long time I didn't know who was going to shoot me." But now, partnering with other church leaders and other people in the community they planted a church and they have a flourishing ministry with all kinds of creative ways of addressing the needs of the community in the name of Jesus. So Heather and Mark and others like them are willing to spend themselves on behalf of the needy. They lay it out for generous justice, feeding the hungry, housing the homeless. Look at verse 7, "Is it not to share your food with the hungry and provide the poor wanderer with shelter? When you see the naked to clothe them and," listen to this, "not to turn away from your own flesh and blood." That turning away, that's the enemy, that's what's going on. Remember the story of the good Samaritan and the road to Jericho and you got the priest and the Levite, we know they're the bad guys in the story. But they cross on the other side, they don't want to get involved, they don't want to look at it, they don't want to get close to this bleeding guy by the side of the road, the priest and the Levite, they're very religious, but they're just on the other side of the road. That's the turning away. Now the true sacrifice, as I've been saying, is verse 10, look at it again. It says, "If you spend yourself in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like noonday." This is the real challenge, isn't it? It's easy to write a check, it's easy to do little things. This text is calling on you to be all-in, to invest yourself in some pattern of ministry. I don't know what it is, because everybody's called in different directions, you're going to be called in different directions than somebody's sitting right next to you in the pew. But you have to do something. There has to be some pattern of sacrifice going on in your life or you're disobeying the spirit of the text. So, I think spend yourself on behalf of the poor looks exactly like Matthew 16:24 and 25, Jesus said, "If anyone would come after me, he must," What? "deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the gospel will find it for eternity." I think that's what it means to spend yourself. Like, lose yourself to find yourself. Now I think this becomes much more practical, much easier, if you start to get to know people on the fringe personally. If you actually draw close, get out of the air-conditioned van, draw close, there's this gap between us and the poor that affluence has set up. For us to cross that gap and actually make friends and make connections with people who are struggling. John Wesley did this, he went to a debtors' prison. And we don't have them now but there was a debtors' prison, and back in England in those days if you owed X amount, you're thrown in prison until you should repay the debt. Well, do you not see a practical problem there? I mean, they didn't have work release programs for which you got paid a salary back then, you were just in there. So there was no answer there. You might owe a couple of copper coins that were jangling in John Wesley's pocket as he walked in there. That idea hit him, "Wait a minute, I could set you free right now with this money I have in my pocket." Once that thought hit him he said, "I never looked on money the same way again the rest of my life." Because he got close to somebody who was hurting. He looked them in the eyes. William Ruffner, Pastor of Seventh Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, 1853, wrote these words: "To cast a contribution into the box brought to the hand or to attend committee meetings are very trifling exercises of Christian self-denial and devotion. Compared with what is demanded in long, weary walks through the street, the contact with filth and often with rude and repulsive people, the facing of disease and distress, and all manner of heart-rending and heart-frightening scenes. And all the trials of faith, patience and hope, which are incident to the duty we are urging." In other words, he didn't mean this, but get out of the air-conditioned van and go walk the streets. Get to know people and you will be more generous. I think that's what Keller is saying, I think that's what the text is saying, spend yourself means invest, connect, relate. If you say, "Look, I don't want to just give money because they're going to use it for drugs." Well, fine. Then don't just give money, give yourself, give something more, get to know people that you could find yourself partnering with and connecting with and helping. Now, Keller gives a theology that's called the theology of Shalom, a deep, rich, full relationship, and this is what he wrote. It's very powerful for me. I want you to follow this image. "The wedding together of God, humans and all creations in equity, fulfillment, and delight. This is what the Hebrew prophets called Shalom." We just translate it peace, but in the Bible, Shalom means a universal flourishing, a wholeness and delight. It describes a rich state of affairs in which natural needs are satisfied and natural gifts are faithfully and fruitfully employed all under the arch of God's love. Now here's an illustration of Shalom. If I threw a thousand different colored threads onto a table they wouldn't become a fabric, they would just be threads laying on top of each other. Threads become a fabric when each one has been woven in and under, around and through every other one. The more interdependent they are, the more beautiful they become; the more interwoven they are, the stronger and warmer they become. God made the world with billions of entities, but He didn't make them to be an aggregation, rather He made them to be in a beautiful, harmonious, knitted, webbed interdependent relationship with each other. So physically when your body's working properly, every part works with all the others, but if you have a cancerous tumor, it means that a part of your body's at odds with all the rest. You experience the unraveling of physical Shalom. Psychologically your inner psyche has various parts: Thoughts, feelings, and reason. When they're all working together, you experience inner Shalom, peace. But when your feelings crave something that troubles your conscience, then there's a dissonance; you experience guilt, which means you experience the unraveling of psychological Shalom. Financially when people, some people have money and resources and advantages, when they then plunge them into the human community, so the parks are great, the schools are great, the houses are great, you have a strong social fabric, you experience social Shalom. But when the wealthy ignore the less fortunate, when they hold on to everything, the social fabric unravels. Now, note in the text that justice is depicted as sharing food with the hungry. This literally means to wait on the hungry, that's literally what it says. Not just giving money so somebody else can serve the food, it's literally to serve the food for yourself. That's what it means to do justice. So it means "taking the threads of your life and weaving them up with the threads of other people's lives." So Keller talks about the educational system in New York and in cities like Washington DC and all that. Children are growing up in communities where given their family circumstances and their school situation, they are functionally illiterate. By the time they're 15, 16, 17 years old, they effectively can't read or write. When you get to that age and you can't read or write you're ruined for the market, you're ruined when it comes to economic and social flourishing, you're locked into poverty probably for the rest of your life, and that's happening to hundreds of thousands of people in New York City right now, says Keller. Why is it happening? Now, here's the thing. The liberal, politically liberal analysis says it's because of unjust social structures. The conservative, the political conservative analysis says it's because of the breakdown of the family, but neither side ever says it's the kids' fault. No one's blaming the 7 and 8-year-olds. Thank God. No one's saying the 7-year-old needs to say, "Hey, I need to move to a better school district." No 7 or 8-year-old's supposed to think, "My parents are guilty of injustice toward me and malpractice." They're not thinking that, they just go where they go and yet, "A child born into my family," says Tim Keller, "has a 300 to 400 times greater chance for economic and social flourishing than the kids in those neighborhoods." That's just one way in which the fabric of this world is tattered and torn and ripped. So the Lord, through this text, is calling on us to spend ourselves on behalf of the poor and needy. And if we do, we are going to have an amazing platform for the gospel. People are going to want to know, "What is it that motivates us? Why are you doing this?" And they're going to ask and we're going to say, "Hey, I want to alleviate this suffering that we're talking right now, but I want to alleviate far greater suffering than that. Can we talk about what Jesus came to do and how He came to save souls, like yours and mine?" It's going to happen, it's going to happen. The Lavish Rewards of Serving the Needy (vs. 8-12) Look at the rewards, and we'll finish with that before we go to Lord's supper. Verses 8 through 10, "Then your light will break forth like the dawn and your healing will quickly appear. Then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call and the Lord will answer. You will cry for help. And he will say, 'Here am I.' If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves on behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness and your night will become like the noon day." I just can't help but read that in light of the gospel. If we do this, we are going to be a light shining radiantly in a very dark place. People are going to say, "Tell me more about that light." Jesus is the light of the world. We're going to have opportunities to do that, and I'm looking forward to that. Look at the rich spiritual prosperity, verse 11 and 12, "The Lord will guide you always. He will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land, and He will strengthen your frame, your bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden like a spring whose waters never fail. And your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and raise up the age old foundations and you will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings." III. Applications Application first, come to Christ. I said at the beginning, I say it here at the end. This kind of mercy ministry will never save a single soul, never. You could do a thousand hours of community service and be even more sinful before because you didn't do it in the name of Christ for the glory of God. We can never use our good deeds to pay for sins. Come to Christ, come to Christ, trust in Him. Now, if you already were Christian before you came here, I guess I would start with just understand generous justice. What does it mean for you to live a life of justice? What does that mean to spend yourself on behalf of the needy? Ask yourself this question. This is just a one application question I want to press on you. Ask yourself this question, "How am I spending myself on behalf of the poor?" Just ask that, it's a simple question. "What principle of sacrifice is going on in my life for the poor?" There needs to be some answer. I would say definitely you don't all need to have the same answer, but there needs to be some answer in your life. Now, there are some people in our church that are moving to the community, like Mark Gornik did, and they're going to seek opportunities to do that. I think it would have been good for us to do that before gentrification and property values became $400,000 for this house or that house. But there may be still some bargains to be found or maybe some people are wealthy enough to do it, but there are other parts of our community we can be moving in and influence, but you don't have to move in to do it. There are folks that go out on Wednesdays and interact, as I said, with young African-American kids. Boys from our community, they play sports with them, they do Bible studies with them, and they talk to them about sexual purity, they talk to them about manhood. Praise God! Get involved in that. Our international connections ministry does ESL classes, English as second language classes. It's a tremendous ministry. Nathan Ma is doing ministry with refugees. We're talking right before worship today, he said, "Probably in light of this election it's going to be even harder for refugees in our country. You know what that means? Even greater opportunity for the gospel." Find out from Nathan Ma. If you want to get involved in refugee ministry, that is loosing the change of injustice. Find out ways that you can be involved in that. Find some way to be sacrificially involved. Now what I'm going to do is I'm going to close this time in prayer, and then we're going to go to the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is an ordinance that we do regularly. We're excited to do it. We expect, as believers in Christ, we should expect, to have an encounter with the living God through this ordinance. We do not believe that the bread and the juice become the actual literal body and blood of Christ, but we believe that by partaking, by eating and drinking, we are spiritually drawing close to Christ and we're mindful of his death for us, his resurrection. We're mindful of the future when he comes again. We're mindful of our accountability to him. Now, this is for those that have put their trust in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and testified to that by water baptism. If you have not yet done that, then first do that, and then next time we'd love you to partake. But we'd ask you to refrain if you've not yet done that, so close with me now in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse-by-verse expository sermon on Isaiah 52:13-53:3. The main subject of the sermon is the incredible suffering Christ endures for His people. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Introduction: The Great Metropolis of Scripture So I don't know that I've been as excited to preach a sermon as I am right now. I am just crackling with energy and joy. I don't know how to say that, I've been feeling that all day. We come to just one of the great, great passages of Scripture in the Bible as we come Isaiah 53, and I'm just so thrilled to be able to do that. I'm praying that God would be able to just unleash this chapter in our hearts line by line as we contemplate it. On March 15th, 1859, the greatest preacher in England during the 19th century, Charles Spurgeon, preached a sermon entitled Christ Precious to Sinners, and in that he told a story. The story went something like this: "A young man had been preaching in the presence of a venerable divine, and after he had done he went to the old minister, and said, "What do you think of my sermon?" "A very poor sermon indeed," said he. "A poor sermon?" said the young man, "it took me a long time to study it." "Ay, no doubt of it." "Why, did you not think my explanation of the text a very good one?" "Oh, yes," said the old preacher, "very good indeed." "Well, then, why do you say it is a poor sermon? Didn't you think the metaphors were appropriate and the arguments conclusive?" "Yes, they were very good as far as that goes, but still it was a very poor sermon." "Will you tell me why you think it a poor sermon?" "Because," said he, "there was no Christ in it." "Well," said the young man, "Christ was not in the text; we are not to be preaching Christ always, we must preach what is in the text." So the old man said, "Don't you know young man that from every town, and every village, and every little hamlet in England, wherever it may be, there is a road to London?" "Yes," said the young man. "Ah!" said the old divine "and so form every text in Scripture, there is a road to the metropolis of the Scriptures, that is Christ. And my dear brother, your business in when you get to a text, to say, 'Now what is the road to Christ?' and then preach a sermon, running along the road towards the great metropolis—Christ. And," said he, "I have never yet found a text that had not got a road to Christ in it, and if I ever do find one that has not a road to Christ in it, I will make one; I will go over hedge and ditch but I would get at my Master, for the sermon cannot do any good unless there is a savour of Christ in it." Well, I can testify, sometimes it actually is hard to find that road to Christ, but not today. Actually, I think there's an eight-lane super highway from Isaiah 53 to the great metropolis of Scripture that is Christ. There's not merely a savor of Christ, there is a Thanksgiving banquet from the kitchen, just the aromas are going to fill our hearts and our minds as we study this incredible chapter, Isaiah 53. 1 Corinthians 15 says that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures. It says there in verse 3 and 4, "For what I received, I passed on to you as of first importance. That Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he was raised from the dead on the third day according to the Scriptures." It is vital for us as Christians to embrace the centrality of prophecy in our faith, when it comes to the life and the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Our salvation is based on the unshakable rock of fulfilled prophecy. Now this should not surprise us, as we've been going carefully chapter by chapter through the Book of Isaiah. We've seen this again and again, that God proclaims his unique ability to foretell the future. He's the only one that can do it. We've seen this in Isaiah 46, in verse 10. There God says, "I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times, what is still to come. I say, 'My purpose will stand, and I will do all that I please." And then again in Isaiah 44, in verse 26, "The Lord carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers." No prophecy of Scripture is as important as this one. This was the central point of it all, this was why God raised up Abraham and from Abraham the Jewish nation. This was why God restored the Jewish nation back to the promised land after the exile to Babylon. This was the whole point of the Bible, this is it. Salvation for sinners to the ends of the earth. This is the whole point of it all. In Isaiah 53, we come to the most brilliantly shining star in the cosmos of the written Word of God, predictive prophecy, the clearest prophecy of the death and resurrection of Jesus, of his substitutionary atonement for our sins. Christ’s Forty-Day Seminary Now after Christ had died and rose from the dead on the third day, he had the equivalent of a 40-day seminary with his apostles, and with his disciples concerning Scriptures testimony to him. They talked about other things, but especially that. It began with those two disciples on the road to Emmaus. You remember that whole encounter? And Jesus was, in some way, incognito to people who knew him well, but there's just mysteries around his resurrection and he's walking falls and step along with these two disciples who are downcast, they're depressed, they're discouraged as they're walking with the resurrected Christ. Isn't that us? We're depressed and discouraged when we ought not to be, and they're moaning and groaning and saying, "We had hoped that he was going to be the one who was going to redeem Israel," all those kind of thing. "And now our women have confused us because there's some report of an empty tomb and we can't make sense of any of it." And Jesus says, "How foolish you are and how slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he showed them what was written in there about himself." Any chance you think he went to Isaiah 53? I think absolutely. Or, again, think about Philip and the Ethiopian eunuch where the Holy Spirit told Philip, to run up to a chariot where there's this Ethiopian official, and he is reading a scroll of prophecy, happened to be Isaiah 53 and he can't make sense of it. And the Holy Spirit told him to go and stand and come alongside that Chariot. And the eunuch invited him in and he was reading this passage of Scripture, "He was led like a sheep to the slaughter and as a lamb before it's shearer is silence, so He did not open his mouth, and his humiliation, his judgment was taken away. Who will relate to His generation, for his life was removed from the earth." The eunuch answered Philip and said, "Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?" Then Philip opened his mouth and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. Isaiah 53 is about Jesus and no one else. There's never been any other fulfillment of these words. There was never an immediate fulfillment and then a later fulfillment, it's only ever been about Jesus of Nazareth. Modern Tendency to Find Other Explanations Now there's a modern tendency to find other explanations. Some will tell you that Isaiah 53 is about the sufferings of the Jewish nation, how the Jewish nation plays the role of the suffering servant in history, human history. Others ascribe Isaiah 53 to some individual, Isaiah himself or Jeremiah or another of the prophets or even strangers, some mysterious unknown person. No one knows who this individual is, but despite the fact that the text says this person is going to be very famous and the whole world will know about him. It doesn't make any sense. First of all, can we just set aside, there is no way Isaiah 53 is talking about the Jewish nation. No way. Why would I say that? Well simply put, the chapter presents the suffering servant as clearly innocent, guiltless, blameless. Do you get the sense from Isaiah the prophet that he thinks the nation of Jews was innocent, guiltless and blameless? Not at all, from the very beginning of the book, chapter after chapter he's laying out the sins of his people. Even stranger, look at Isaiah 53:8, Isaiah 53:8 says, "For He," whoever we're talking about, the suffering servant, "Was cut off from the land of the living," he died, "For the transgression of my people, he was punished." Well, wait a minute, okay, who are Isaiah's people? When he says, "My people," who would you think he's talking about? That verse makes no sense of the suffering servant as Israel. How can Israel die for the sins of Israel except in judgment and punishment, certainly not redemptively. Israel was looking for a redeemer, one who would pay the price, to rescue Israel from sin and Isaiah 53 says who paid the price for Israel's sin, and it is Jesus. So here we come to the Mount Everest of predictive prophecy, what is our strategy going to be for scaling it? First of all, we're not doing it in one sermon. I hope you know that. There's no chance, unless you want to be here for hours, which you don't, neither do I. I'll run out of energy. But this week, what we're going to do is take a quick overview of the whole chapter. Division of the chapter into five sub-sections of three verses each. We're going to focus on the central doctrine of this chapter, which is the substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ, the son of God, for us, for our sins, and that by faith in him, we are forgiven, we are justified. That's the central message, it's the gospel. We're going to go carefully today through, God willing, the first two sub-sections, and we're going to seek to apply those verses to our lives. Then over the next two weeks, God willing, we're going to go through the rest of the sub-sections and seek to apply them. Now, if I can just say... And I'm not trying to throw anyone under the bus here, but Isaiah 52-53, is the worst chapter subdivision in the entire Bible. Okay, Isaiah 52 verses 13-15 should have been included in Isaiah 53. So I'm giving them the honorary status of Isaiah 53 today, is that okay? Can we just call them Isaiah 53, early version, something like that? Actually, John Calvin called it a dismemberment. I think that's pretty humorous. It's like you picture an arm lying on a sidewalk. So we're just going to roll right through from Isaiah 52 into 53 and treat it all as what it should have been, one chapter, agreed? Okay, we're going to do that. I. A Four Part Outline of the Chapter(s) Alright, now five sub-divisions of this section, first, Christ repulsive, but redemptive, then exalted. That's 52:13-15. Second sub-section will title this way, Christ the arm of the Lord, but human and despised," verses one through three. Third subsection, Christ rejected, but our atoning substitute, verses four through six. Fourth subsection, Christ innocent, but willing to be slaughtered, verses seven through nine. And then the final subsection, Christ crushed so we could be justified, verses 10 through 12. So those are just some titles we could give to those. The central doctrine of Isaiah 53 is the substitutionary atonement. The idea that someone could die in our place, that sinners like us might be justified by faith in him. That's the central doctrine, really, of the whole Bible. So, let's go briefly over the... All these sub-sections. First, Christ repulsive but redemptive then exiled, chapter 52:13-15. So Christ is presented as one who will be successful then raised up, lifted up, highly exalted, verse 13. Yet we're also told he's going to be appalling to look at, he's going to be so disfigured so badly that he will be barely recognizable as a human being. Verse 14, but this disfigurement of the servant and the Lord is the way by which he's actually going to sprinkle many nations. We're going to talk about that. The word sprinkle we're going to discuss, but it means cleansing them from sin, making them pure in God's sight. This is the very one who's going to be proclaimed even to kings and they're going to shut their mouths because of him, because they're suddenly going to hear about him, they're going to hear this message, and they're going to believe in him, first subsection. The second subsection, Christ the “Arm of the Lord,” But Human and Despised, verses 1-3. So the next two subsections trace out simply the biography of Jesus Christ, just trace out the events of his life. It begins with an assertion though, that the message must be believed, that the suffering servant must be revealed by God or you will never see him. I could preach a thousand sermons on Isaiah 53 and if God does not reveal Jesus to you, you'll never see him as glorious. You will not see him properly. "The message must be believed, that the suffering servant must be revealed by God or you will never see him. I could preach a thousand sermons on Isaiah 53 and if God does not reveal Jesus to you, you'll never see him as glorious." He is revealed here as the arm of the Lord, the mighty power of God for the salvation of sinners. He will work for the deliverance, and redemption and salvation of his people. But then he is portrayed as human, he grew up before the Lord out of dry ground, he's a root growing up in dry ground. So not only is he human, he is unimpressive, he is weak, he's unattractive, he has nothing in his appearance that would make people follow him, still less worship him as God. He is despised and rejected, despised means thought little of, and rejected effectively by the will of people, they will say, "No," to him. People will be horrified by his appearance, he'll be held in low esteem. Verses 4-6, Christ rejected but he is our atoning substitute, this is the theological center of the Bible, this idea of substitutionary atonement. Christ takes up our pain, he dies for our sins. He was pierced for our transgressions, he's crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed. Jesus thus gives health to diseased people, dying people. He gives health to them and life, and he gives peace to wicked rebels who are in rebellion against God, the King. And he does all of this at the cost of his own life. Verse six, "All we like sheep have gone astray," each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Fourth sub-section, Christ is innocent, but willing to be slaughtered. Verses seven through nine, Isaiah unfolds a shocking truth and that is the ultimate... The limitation and ultimate end of the animal sacrificial system. The essence of sin was willfulness. We willingly rebelled, we were not forced to sin, we chose to sin. An animal cannot atone for that willful sin, because it has no choice but to die. But Christ by his willingness to die in our place is able to atone for our sins. So this suffering man was exactly like a sheep led to the slaughter, in that he died. The killers led and Jesus meekly followed. But unlike the sheep that were led to the slaughter, Jesus knew exactly where he was going. It says in John's gospel, "Jesus knowing all things that were about to happen to him went forth." He's very well aware of what's happening, and he's willingly laying down his life. He's completely innocent, there's no violence in his actions, there's no wickedness in his speech, he was a perfect man, sinless, but dead in our place. The prophetic details here are significant. You have words like pierced, he dies by piercing. Not everyone has... Actually most people don't die by piercing, but Jesus did, he died by piercing. And it says he was buried in a rich man's tomb. That's not true of everyone. As a matter of fact, it's true of very few people in the world. Most people die as poor people because most people are poor. But Jesus was pierced, and buried in a rich man's tomb. Christ finally in the fifth sub-section was crushed so we could be justified, verses 10 through 12. It was God's will to crush Him and cause Him to suffer. All of this was done according to an amazing, and eternal plan crafted by Almighty God from before the foundation of the world. It was God's pleasure to do this. God delighted, in a mysterious way delighted to crush His son and cause Him to suffer? Not because he loved his son suffering. No, not at all. But for the joy that was set before both of them, he endured that. He was delighted in that suffering in terms of what it would produce. And His finished work, verse 11 says it all, Christ's resurrection completes our salvation and by his finished work many are justified, declared not guilty of their sins in God's sight. How amazing is all of this? That it was written seven centuries before Jesus was born. We're going to talk more next week about the miraculous aspect of this, so I'll just set that idea aside. We are the sheep constantly going astray are we not? We are the sheep. We are the wicked rebels, we are the ones made sick by our sin, and we are the ones at war with God. And before all nations, God lays bare His holy arm in the form amazingly of his frail, unimpressive-looking son, whom we as a race despised and rejected. This one carried our infinitely heavy load. He died under the infinitely fierce wrath of God, He was buried uniquely in a rich man's tomb, this same one rose from the dead, and now enjoys looking at his spiritual offspring for all eternity, from every nation on Earth. That's Isaiah 53. II. Christ Repulsive, But Redemptive, then Exalted (52:13-15) Alright, now let's look in details at the first two sub-sections. That's just an overview, we'll probably do it again next week. So Isaiah 52, as I've said is the beginning of 53, we'll start at verse 13 with the words, "Behold," most translations retain the word behold. And I love the word behold, "Behold my servant." So it's like Jesus just unveiled, like a curtain moving back, "Behold, my servant." This is the fourth of the servant songs in Isaiah. This is the fourth and last one. We've seen this idea, my servant before, this is the fourth. Isaiah 42:1-4 was the first one. It presented the servant and the Lord as one with a mission to the nations. You remember that was the "Bruised reed he will not break, a smoldering wick he'll not snuff out"? He's the gentle King, who's going to go advance from victory to victory through gentleness, he's going to build a kingdom through gentleness. The first servant song Isaiah 42. The second was Isaiah 49, where it is told to Jesus by the father, "It's too small a thing for you to be my servant, to save the people of Israel. I'll make you a light for the Gentiles that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 49 that was the second of the servant songs. The third... By the way, in that second one, he's presented as someone who's going to have difficulties in advancing but he's going to overcome. It's going to be somewhat discouraging but he's going to overcome that. Now Isaiah 50 versus four through nine, the third of the servant songs presents in great detail some of the sufferings this servant will have to go through. And there he speaks for himself, he speaks in the first person, and he speaks of his willingness to be abused for the will of the Lord, he didn't hide his face from mocking and spitting, he didn't stop people from shredding his back. Yet, in that text, no reason is given for this abuse. Now, when we get to the fourth servant song now we get the reason, it's substitutionary atonement. He's dying for our sins, he's dying that we might be justified. And so all of it comes together. This is the fourth of the servant song. So Jesus is the servant of the Lord, he's a servant of God, he came down not to do his own will, but to do the will of him who sent him. He was the servant of God. And we're told here right away in verse 13, "Behold, my Servant will prosper greatly; he shall rise, and be exalted, and be lifted up exceedingly." Just like Isaiah 42, this predicts the success of the servant. He's going to succeed, he's going to do very well. The Hebrew word translated prosper greatly here is often used of David or other heroes, whose success is in some way linked to their wisdom. So sometimes you get, "My servant will act wisely." You get sometimes that translation. It's prosperity through wisdom, success through wisdom, dealing prudently. Because of his wisdom, he's going to be exalted to exceeding heights. Isaiah uses three verbs to talk about how highly exalted Jesus will be, he will raised and lifted up and highly exalted. It's just not enough. Any one word is just isn't enough for how exalted he's going to be. The text will describe and we're about to get into it, the great humiliation of Jesus. As a matter of fact, that's going to be most of the journey the rest of the way. How degraded, how appalling was his appearance. But he will not stay humiliated. In the end, he's going to be exalted and raised and lifted up. I can't help but think of Philippians 2:9-11: "Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God, the father." I get that even in this, "My servant… will be raised and lifted up and highly exalted." No one is more highly exalted than Jesus Christ, and no one deserves it more. Because there was no one who was more humbled and humiliated, and degraded than Jesus. Jesus is at the right hand of Almighty God, right now with a 100 million angels worshipping him. With Seraphim, the burning ones covering their own faces, because he dwells in unapproachable light. That's how highly exalted Jesus is. The Stunning Degradation of the Servant of the Lord So, from this initial assertion of Jesus final victory and exaltation, the next many verses unlock, unfold, the lowliness, and degradation and humiliation of Jesus, and begins in verse 14. "Just as there were many who were astonished at you, his appearance was so marred beyond human semblance, and his form beyond that of the children of mankind." So it's interesting he puts in the second person there, not every translation picks it up, but he addresses the servant. Like Isaiah can't stay out of it, he wants to talk to him or maybe God the Father. And here we have the watching world looking on in horror. Many who are astonished at Jesus, astonished at his appearance, it's disgusting, it's degrading. As a matter of fact, his appearance will be so completely degraded that it will get to the point where he's barely recognizable even as a human being. The onlookers will not wonder, "Is this the servant?" They'll wonder, "Is this human? Is it even human?" Well, I think this is clearly fulfilled at the very end of Jesus' life when the flogging had shredded his back. The 39 lashes, and the beatings that he took around the face had puffed it up with horrible bruises and lacerations. What did his face look like? They smashed, they put that crown of thorns on him, and they smashed his head, the thorns into His scalp, and they beat him about the face and it must have been puffy and bruised and blood all over. It was repulsive. Barely recognizable as human at that point. And he had nails that were pulverizing his hands, and his feet, and on the cross, he's making this disgusting convulsive effort to breathe, as he pushes up on the nails in His feet, so he can just gulp for breath and then sinks back down, and pushes back up and gulps for breath and sinks back down. It's like you can't even look at it. It's hard to describe it. Total physical degradation, like one from whom men hide their faces, nobody wants to see that. In verse 15, we have the reason for this degradation and that is atonement. We're going to get it again and again. Isaiah is going to be so clear about all this. In verse 15, it says, "Even so" through that degradation, through the crushing of the servant, "Even so that is how he will sprinkle many nations." So there's a linking between verse 14 and 15. The crushing leads to the sprinkling, that's the way he will sprinkle the nations. Now, what does this word, "Sprinkle," mean? How do we understand it? Again these specific words can't be explained away. Sprinkled, pierced, rich man's tomb. These things just don't go away, they don't line up with the nation of Israel at all. So how does he sprinkle many nations? Well, this is an atoning word, very important in the animal sacrificial system, very important in the Levitical priesthood. All things were cleansed by the shedding of blood, it says in the Book of Hebrews, and so you've got this blood being sprinkled all over the tabernacle, and sprinkled on every... Sprinkled on Aaron when he's in his in priestly vestments. It's sprinkled everywhere, it's just used to cleanse from sin. The implication is everything we touched is defiled with sin, and the only way to be cleanses by the atoning blood of the sacrifice, that's the clear image of the animal sacrificial system. So in the book of Leviticus chapter 14 it talks about lepers, for example, how are they cleansed and made ceremonially clean? How does that happen? It says, "This shall be the law of the leprous person for the day of his cleansing. He shall be brought to the priest... and the priest shall sacrifice a bird and he shall sprinkle the blood seven times on the one to be cleansed of the leprous disease and he shall be pronounced clean." Same Hebrew word, sprinkled. We are spiritually lepers in the sight of God, repulsive, disgusting, defiled. But the good news of the Gospel is that we can... We are made clean by the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus. By this sprinkling we are made cleansed, by this sprinkling we are atoned for. And who does it say that he's going to sprinkle here? Many nations. This one event in Jewish history, this one Jewish man is not the savior for the Jews, alone, but for the Gentiles too to the ends of the earth, many nations. So, we have in Revelation 5:9, so beautifully that image from Heaven and they're praising the lamb who is slain. It says, "You were slain, and with your blood you purchased men for God, from every tribe and language and people and nation." So just putting it together, we could say the same thing. You were slain, and with your blood, you sprinkled men for God from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Next, it talks about the worship of kings. Kings are going to hear about this, they're going to hear about Jesus from missionaries and they will shut their mouth in astonishment about him. Look at verse 15, "Kings will shut their mouths because of him for what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand." Jesus is the glorious king of kings, even better, he's the savior of kings, Amen. He saves kings from their sins. Now, not many are wise, not many are influential, not many of noble birth, not many kings get saved, but some do. That's why in 1 Timothy 2, we should pray for kings and those in authority, because they actually might get saved. They actually might be saved. So I think about stories from missions history here I could just go on and on about the number of times messengers of the gospel, have come to a community and the first person they get dragged in front of is the king. And they have to make an account, they have to give a presentation to the king, and sometimes God gives grace to their king and they get saved, and with him the whole village, the whole community, it happens again and again. Look up the story of Columba with King Bridei of the Picts, great story. Columba, the king wouldn't let him in. He's forced to stay outside the city gates. So he sits there and prays for days and it's getting embarrassing. So finally, Bridei invites Columba in and he preaches the Gospel comes to faith in Christ. Awesome story. The Picts in Scotland. Again and again, kings are going to hear this thing, and they're going to see and understand through proclamation. III. Christ the “Arm of the Lord,” But Human and Despised (53:1-3) That brings us immediately to the next section verses one through three. Christ is the arm of the Lord, but he is human and despised. First of all, right away in verse one, we have this assertion that this message is hard to be believed but it must be believed. It's hard to believe this, it's hard to accept all this. Look at verse one, "Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Again, we've got the clear idea here of a message, a report, words being delivered by messengers even to the ends of the earth. So, some report's going to go out. And we know from Romans 10:17, it says that faith comes by hearing the report of Christ. That's one translation. So faith comes when you hear this message proclaimed if God gives you the grace of faith. Then justification comes when faith has come. When you hear this message proclaimed and then God gives you repentance and faith, God sees the very repentance of faith, he just gave you and then He justifies you, forgives you, declares you not guilty of all your sins. That's how sinners are saved. And notice it says, "Who has believed our message?" There's a plural there. Now, there are different ways to understand that plural. Let's start with a simple one. He's thinking about the nation of Israel. And so, the our would be God plus Isaiah. So it's almost like the prophet is saying back, "God who's going to believe this? Our message, the message you've entrusted to me, it's our message, who has believed our message?" And then after that the church is collective proclaim messages. This is our report, our message. Now this message is going to be very difficult to accept. Very difficult to believe. Only as Christ is revealed, by God the Father, through the Spirit will anyone believe this message, look again in verse 1, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Unveiled, unveiled. We all have this veil in front of us and someone comes and preaches if God doesn't sovereignly pull the veil back from the eyes of your heart, you will never ever believe this. God must work on you or you won't believe this. So there's a joint effort, a cooperation here between the prophet representing human messengers, so missionaries, pastors, friends, co-workers, evangelists, our message and God revealing the arm of the Lord. It's a complete cooperation, the message must be proclaimed by human messengers, plus revealed by the Spirit of God or you will not get saved. This is justification by faith alone, apart from works. Now, Christ is the arm of the Lord. This is the shocker. Christ is clearly human and we'll get into that more and more as we unfold the chapter, but he is called here the arm of the Lord. He is sent by God to save us in our wretchedness and sinfulness and disease and suffering in warfare and rebellion and death. He is the power of God for saving sinners like us, he's the arm of the Lord, the omnipotence of the Lord. He is it. Now, we already had a mention of the arm of the Lord in Isaiah 52:10. Look back maybe just a couple of verses, and it says, Isaiah 52:10, "The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." Well, the arm of the Lord is Jesus. He is God's power for salvation for sinners like us. And how delightful is that? But what we got was not some awesome display of omnipotence. You got Jesus, you got the one on... He's the lamb of God, what's a lamb like? You've got the Holy Spirit descending like a dove, and landing on him. This is a picture of a lamb with a dove on it. I'm thinking, gentleness. I'm thinking someone who sinners feel attracted to and they're willing to come and be with and talk to and they feel confident telling their sins to him because they know that he's a friend for sinners. Children, I get the picture of children just climbing all over him and sitting in his lap, and he's putting his hands on them and praying for them, and they just love being with him. You can't fool kids, kids get scared easily, and they weren't scared of Jesus. And so how was he, this human being, the arm of the Lord, for the power of God in the world? But he was, gentle with sinners, but claiming to be God in the flesh, and this was the very stumbling block of Christ. The arm of the Lord had to be revealed or no one would see it. He'll be human, definitely human, and that's something Jesus' enemies could not accept that he could be human and God. At one point, his enemies were picking up stones to kill him. And Jesus said, "I've shown you many good works from the Father, for which of these are you stoning me?" "We are not stoning you for any work, but for blasphemy because you a mere man, claim to be God." That's a stumbling block. How could a human be God? As a matter of fact, this is exactly what they nailed him on. And his trial before the Jews... Before the high priest, they weren't getting anywhere with their false witnesses, they didn't have enough time to throw it together and do it well, and they did it very badly in the middle of the night. And the stories weren't corroborating, it was bad. So finally the high priest breaking every rule of Jewish jurisprudence directly addressed the accused and says, "Tell us under oath by the living God are you the Son of God." And Jesus answered, "I am." And the high priest shouted, "Blasphemy," and he tore his robs. That's what convicted him, that's what... It was for blasphemy that he was killed because He claimed to be God. Now without the arm of the Lord being revealed, you'll never see Jesus as God. Only by the Father's will, through the Spirit does this happen, like it happened to Simon Peter, at Caesarea Philippi, he said, "What about you…who do you say that I am?" Peter said, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And then Jesus said, "Blessed are you, Simon, son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood but by my Father in Heaven." If the father doesn't reveal all this to you, you'll never see it, never. But you'll have to hear it like you're hearing it now and you've heard it now. I've said it probably seven times, I said the Gospel already probably seven times. I might say it seven more. You've heard though. Question is, has the arm on the Lord been revealed to you? That's the question. It says in 1 Corinthians 12:3, "No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit," that's the only way it's going to happen. Now, we have in verse 2, the unimpressive origin and appearance of Christ. Verse 2, "He grew up before Him like a tender shoot and like a root out of dry ground. He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him, nothing in His appearance that we should desire Him." So this brings us to the humanity of Christ. He sprang up out of the stump of the tree of Jesse, Isaiah 11. The Jewish nation was an enslaved people. They're dominated by Rome. No Davidic king had reined since the exile to Babylon. So it's just a sterile Jewish history, a sterile Jewish life at that point. No power, no strength, they're dominated enslaved people. The Davidic lineage is like an honorary title that meant nothing. Joseph was called "The Son of David," by the angel. It doesn't mean much he was a carpenter. It didn't get him much to be a son of David. So there's nothing there. He grew up like a tender shoot out of dry ground, nothing going on. He was conceived supernaturally with a human mother Mary, but he had no human Father. God was his father, but he was born in the ordinary way, a very normal ordinary appearance into the world. Now, it was an unusual circumstance he's there in a barn I guess, a cave maybe where some animals were. But other than some unusual things like the angel appearing and the star and all that, it just was a normal birth. He was fully human, he was born in the normal way. And if you'd been there it'd be like, "Yeah, this is God?" I'm sure Mary even wondered that. I mean, she knew what had happened in her body but just the wonder of it. It was just hard to accept because you just look like a normal baby. And then he grew up as babies do. And he was a toddler, Jesus, the toddler. It's hard to think of it but there he was. And it says in Luke 2:52, "And He grew in wisdom, and stature and favor with God and men." It means he just progressed in the normal way with one big difference. I know, you veteran parents, you know, the one big difference he never sinned. He never sinned. How would you like to be Jesus' younger brother? "Why can't you be like your older brother? He's never caused us any trouble except that one time when he was 12 and he was behind in his father's house, but other than that that wasn't really his fault, that was us." So no sin. But despite Gnostic Gospels and the weirdness there, he didn't do any miracles. His first miracle was the changing of the water into wine, wedding at Cana in Galilee. So you don't have... You just have a normal human growth and that's hard to accept that he was God. They struggled with this, "Isn't this the carpenter's son? Isn't his mother's name Mary? Aren't his brothers, James, Joseph, Simon and Judas?" They took offense at him. He had a human body, a true human body, all of its weakness. There was nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Now, on the mountain of transfiguration he pulled back the veil just briefly, so Peter, James, and John could see the heavenly glory flowing through Jesus, radiant glory, but then he shut it down again. Just in everyday life, he just looked like a normal human being. And I would say even within this humanity, there was nothing extraordinary about him. Like remember Saul, King Saul, he was a head taller than any of his other fellows. It was like, "Oh this guy he's going to be the king." There was nothing about that with Jesus, very average looking I think, like anybody else, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. If you lived back then, and you'd seen him even if you saw the miracles, even if you saw Lazarus raised from the dead, you wouldn't believe in him except that God revealed him to you, it's the only way. Scripture is clear about this. None of his miracles, or words, or deeds, or any of it would have converted you unless the Father had revealed Christ to your heart. Jesus was designed to be ordinary-looking. He was not especially handsome or tall or powerfully built, nothing in his appearance that we should desire him. Verse three, "He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. Like one from whom men hide their faces, he was despised and we held him in low-esteem." So far from being attracted to Jesus by looking at him, his own people, despised and rejected him. "None of [Jesus]his miracles, or words, or deeds, or any of it would have converted you unless the Father had revealed Christ to your heart" The Servant Despised and Rejected Now, the word despise does not mean so much hated here, he was hated, but it meant they thought little of him, they underestimated Jesus. They put him lower than he really was. But beyond that they rejected him, they listened to his words, they saw his works, and they rejected him, "Not this man, but Barabbas," they said. They rejected him. He's also called here, a man of sorrows, an amazing title for the Son of God, the Lord of glory. Do you realize that Jesus is redeeming us to bring us into the presence of a perfectly 100% all the time Happy God? Isn't that awesome? We're going to a perfectly happy place. Psalm 16 says, "In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." That's who God is, he's a pleasure being all the time. And yet his son is called the man of sorrows, and familiar with suffering. So he left all of that perfect joy behind to become a man of sorrows and well, well acquainted with pain. And by his perfect compassion, he felt acutely the miseries of the people he came to save. His heart's moved with compassion again, and again. He sucked miseries, out of life, the way a hiker sucks rattlesnake poison out of the bite in the leg of a friend who's dying. He sucked it out. People would come up and he would draw their misery and their sorrow and suffering and pain and grief and disease into himself, so that they could be healed and at peace and forgiven and restored. So he was a man of sorrows, and well-acquainted with suffering. His education in suffering, He learned obedience through what He suffered, his education in suffering reached its pinnacle at the cross, that's where he learned ultimate suffering there. He would die a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering like one from whom men hide their faces. IV. Applications So what application can we take of these first two sub-sections? Well, begin with this, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Have you believed this message? Have you believed that this Jesus of Nazareth really is God? He really is glorious, up at the right hand of God? Have you believed that you are a sinner, that you are broken and crushed by your sin, that you need a savior, and Jesus is the only one there is? There is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved. Can I just plead with you, call on the name of the Lord to be saved. Don't leave here unconverted. Don't leave here lost. Plead with God to reveal Christ to you. I've been praying for this, I've been praying for this moment that you would hear and believe, hear with faith. I have to believe there are people here listening to me, that are still on the outside looking in, they're lost, you're lost. And if you don't believe this report you will be condemned eternally, to hell. Jesus came to drink hell in for you so you wouldn't have to suffer it, trust in Jesus, please. Secondly, marvel at the miracle of Scripture. I'm going to talk more about this at the beginning of next week's sermon, but just marvel at this book, this book is a miracle. These words were 700 years, written 700 years before Jesus was born, marvel at it. Thirdly, exalt Christ higher than you do. I'm talking to Christians now. He's still too low in your estimation, you still think too little of Jesus. In that sense, you still despise him, you don't esteem him properly, even as a Christian. And so I don't think there's anything wrong, everything right with you going to God and say, "Pour out your spirit on me so I'd have a greater estimation of Jesus than I ever did before. I just want to see the greatness of Christ. I want to be able to worship him better than I ever have in my life. I want to labor on my worship, my life of worship, I don't worship him, like I should, I honestly don't. And I want to." Fourthly, meditate on Christ's immeasurable suffering for you in this chapter, meditate on it, think about his suffering. Think about what he went through for you. Never... If you're a Christian, or a child of God never, ever feel unloved again by God, ever, he has loved you with a perfect love by pouring out his wrath on his Son. He loves you. It's immeasurable. God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Meditate on the sufferings of Christ. Now, I'm not saying as a medieval mystic would meditate on the five wounds of Jesus, and they did weird things with... I'm not saying all that, but just go over the words of Isaiah 53, and think about what he did for you, think about his piercing, think about the blood he shed for you, cling to it. Meditate on that as a measurement of Christ's love for you. If you're going through suffering right now, whatever it may be, I don't know, there are all different types of suffering, but if you're going through suffering right now, and you're tempted to think God doesn't love you, see in the wounds of the cross, the way to stop that kind of thinking. Joseph Hart in his hymn, "Come ye sinners, poor and needy," put it in these words, "View him prostrate in the garden. On the ground your maker lies, on the bloody tree behold him. Sinner, will this not suffice? Isn't that enough for you?" Behold, him on the bloody tree by faith and ask... Hear Joseph Hart's question, "Sinner, will this not suffice? Is this enough?" Is it enough for you? Is it enough for your guilty conscience? Is it enough for your extreme trial and your misery, your diagnosis? Is it enough for your future? Enough for your financial troubles? Is it enough to satisfy you? God loves you, the Christ loves you with a love that cannot be measured. Keep in mind that the Apostle John saw Jesus in heaven looking like a lamb that was slain. Jesus maintained the emblems of his suffering, and he will have for all eternity. Let a healthy meditation on the sufferings of Christ in Isaiah 53 calm you and assure you of God's love for you. Fifth, Lord, who has believed our message? Feed your faith with this book. I'm speaking to Christians, feed on this. Be in the word every single day, don't miss a day. Feed your faith by... It doesn't just have to be Isaiah 53 but feed your faith with the word of God. If you are not seeing Christ in the eyes of your heart, like you should is because you're not in the Word. So get in the Word, feed on it. Six, do not judge the progress of Christ's Kingdom by mere appearance. It doesn't look like as glorious as it will be. Just like Jesus, you can't judge him by mere appearance, you can't judge the church by mere appearance either. The church is going to be awesome, it's going to be radiant and glorious. Right now, it looks down trodden, oppressed, small, insignificant, doesn't seem like much is happening, but don't be deceived just as Jesus cannot be seen by mere appearance, so also the work of Christ cannot. And so therefore, pastors, elders, church leaders need to trust the clear proclamation of Christ crucified and resurrected to do the work of the ministry. We don't need gimmicks, we don't need... We don't need to measure by externals and all that. Let's trust that the proclamation of this message will build the church and don't judge by mere appearance. Seventh, feel the ministry of Christ as a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering and imitate him. We just want to be safe and secure and protected. Jesus left security and protection and honor to become a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. We're like, "Well, I'm glad he did it for me," but are you willing to do it for others? Are you willing to get out of your comfort zone and go become more familiar with suffering, than you've ever become before? So that you can suck the poison of sin and suffering out of people's lives by a clear ministry of the Word of God. Close with me in prayer.

Coming to Mount Zion The Bible gives us many different images for the church, the people of God that it called out. It does that because just as it gives us many different images of God, the whole picture is complex, and so not just one image will do for understanding what the church is. For example, the Bible reveals that the church is a family that God is our Father, and that we are all brothers and sisters, we have been adopted into a family, we are children of the living God. It develops that image, or the church is sometimes said to be a body that Christ is the head and we are all members of the body, and we are joined and held together by supporting ligaments and by a circulatory system and all that. We're like a body. Or the church is like the bride of Christ, the bride, and Jesus is the bridegroom, and we have adorned ourselves with beautiful garments and with jewels. We'll get that image later in Isaiah but, that we are to be in a marvelous and mysterious way wed to God through Christ. The Bible also reveals that we are a temple, a temple, a living temple and we are all living stones in that temple, and that we have in some amazing way, been quarried out, of Satan's dark kingdom and we have been moved over and put like living stones into the walls of this spiritual structure that's rising and getting bigger and bigger to be a place in which God dwells by His Spirit. Very similar to that image, is the image of a city. We are the city of the living God, and that there's this incredible, vast city with walls and with glorious buildings and with adornments and gates and all of that that just is getting bigger and bigger all the time. And as we come to Isaiah 52, we come to a word that links into that image across scripture and that's the word Zion. We come to the image of Zion and here we have the picture of a vast city of God. Now it's mentioned the word Zion is mentioned 158 times in the Old Testament, interestingly only seven times in the New. And four of those seven are direct quotations of Old Testament passages, like the one we're looking at today. Now, in the Old Testament, Zion is the city of Jerusalem, it's a city of David, literally the physical city of Jerusalem, which you could fly into by a jet plane today, that place. It was a Jebusite city that David conquered and established as the capital of his kingdom, the combined kingdom of Israel and Judah, it was all one in those days, and he was the king there in the city of David, in Zion, Jerusalem. And so, again and again in the Old Testament when you see Zion you can almost put the word Jerusalem right in there. It's just about equivalent. Occasionally in Psalms, it gives you a sense of something more lofty, something not just merely physical but generally speaking you just think Jerusalem when you see Zion, physical city. But when we come over into the New Testament, we have the fulfillment of that image, we have the flourishing and the perfection of the idea of Zion. And there are a lot of different verses but there's one in particular that I have in mind. In Hebrews Chapter 12, the author to Hebrews tells those Jewish Christians, "You have not come now to a mountain that can be touched and that is burning with fire," talking about Mount Sinai, "but you have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem…" So I want you, as we look in Isaiah 52 today, I want you to keep that image in mind. You have come to Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem. We're going to try to understand that and he goes on there, the author of Hebrews the church of the first born so he goes, Mount Zion, the heavenly Jerusalem, the church of the first born. Those are just images that he strings together there. The perfection therefore, in my opinion, the perfection of Zion is Revelation 21, and that is this beautiful city, this new Jerusalem, which has been being prepared now for 2000 years. It's a work in progress, it's under construction. And little by little, it's getting more and more glorious, and more and more finished and perfect with these living stones, same images, the sanctuary of temple image. It's getting built up, and it's almost ready. Dear friends, I don't know what almost means to you or to me, but Jesus says, "Behold, I'm coming quickly." And so he's in the process of building this glorious new Jerusalem that's heavenly Zion, and at some point, it's going to descend from heaven to earth and that's the consummation of all of the redemptive history of the Bible. And it's going to be a perfect place where he will dwell in direct face-to-face fellowship with his people and there'll be no more death, and mourning, or crying, or pain, for the old order of things will have passed away, and he has made everything new and he's going to dwell there and he's going to wipe every tear from our eyes, and will be there forever. So the Zion below is the physical city of Jerusalem. The Zion above is that heavenly work that God is doing through redeeming sinners by the gospel and putting them together, building them together into this vast amazing city. And in the end those images come together. Now as we're in Isaiah, as we're following the chapters of this very complex and beautiful book, we're coming to an amazing series of chapters, Isaiah 52, 53 and 54. Isaiah 52 and 54, the strong images will be Zion, the building of this incredible city of the living God. This holy bride that's going to be lifted up from the dust and the degradation of sin and to holy readiness for her wedding day. It's a powerful thing. We're going to come to it again in Isaiah 60 through 66, Zion made beautiful, made radiant, made ready, beautified by the streaming of the nations, the glory of the nations streaming into the city and making it beautiful. So we're going to get that image uploaded and we're going to think about it in Isaiah 52 and 54, in the middle, is Isaiah 53, the single greatest prophetic chapter in the Bible, concerning the atoning work of Jesus Christ. So, the way I put all that together as you get the beauty of Zion in Isaiah 52 and 54, and we get what it costs God to make it happen in Isaiah 53, the blood of Jesus Christ shed for his bride, shed for the city. That's where we're going. So, in Isaiah 52, the idea of Zion is a prophetic picture of the true Jerusalem being built. It's like the animal sacrificial system. It was real, physical, it really happened, but it pictured something higher, something more spiritual, and perfect. And some day the physical would pass away and be perfected in the spiritual, and that's why we don't do animal sacrifices anymore. In the same way, the idea of Zion as the earthly Jerusalem, gives way in the new covenant to the heavenly city that's being built by the Gospel. Now, in Isaiah, we still have a transition in the words, and so we're still concerned about the physical city, and the picture, the type or shadow, the prophetic picture, the actual city and the things that are going on there. But keep in mind, it's just a picture of the final work of redemption that God's doing in the church, and so here's Zion defiled, despised, rejected, sitting in the filth and degradation of sin, and the dusty rubble of wrath and judgment from God, being called on now to rise up out of that and be cleansed from all that and to be exalted by the grace and power of God, the time of judgment is over and the time of glory is at hand. And so the rising up and cleansing is a picture of the redemptive work of God in Christ, for all of us, that we're called on to get up out of the muck of sin, and the rubble of judgment, and to live a life glorifying to God. So that's where we're going. I. God Exalts Zion from the Dust of Exile (vs. 1-6) Now, let's look at the verses carefully verses 1 through 6, God, exalt Zion from the dust of exile. So Zion in verse 1 is awake and then clothed with holy garments. Look at the verse, "Awake, awake, Zion, clothe yourself with strength! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the holy city. The uncircumcised and the defiled will not enter you again." So Zion again, Jerusalem, the Holy City, is pictured here asleep or like it is dead perhaps in judgment, under the wrath of God and also having been defiled by unholy men. God calls on Zion, to awake, he says it, he repeats it "Awake, awake, O Zion." Similar to Jesus calling to Lazarus, "Lazarus come forth." So it's like a resurrection message here, "Wake up from your sleep of death." Defiled by uncircumcised unholy Babylonian soldiers who ran through the City of Jerusalem with tortures that took axes in the Holy of Holies, stripped it of all of its gold, and chopped its beautiful carved panels with axes and turned that precious aromatic wood into kindling fuel for the fire. Now, the time of that defilement is over. It's done. Zion, Jerusalem, the holy city, is called on to rise up out of that and clothe herself with strength and garments of splendor and God makes a fascinating promise here to Zion. The promise that the uncircumcised and defiled will never enter her again. Now, the immediate piece of Jerusalem, when it was being rebuilt after the exile was done under Cyrus the Great. And the decree that the city and the temple would be rebuilt was a mere foretaste in the beginning of the journey of the fulfillment of this prophecy. It's not the perfection of it. Frankly, that decree from the Persian kings was contested in court, just about every step of the way. When you read about this in Ezra and Nehemiah, they have to go send lawyers and advocates to go argue with these Persian kings to prove that the decree had even ever been given, they had to rummage through all dusty libraries, they didn't have the database search systems we have now. I can picture some guy with a candle down there going through like scrolls trying to find Cyrus's decree about the rebuilding of Jerusalem. It was contested every step of the way and Nehemiah had to rebuild the walls of the city out of rubble with a sword in one hand and a trowel on the other, it was contested every step of the way. Ezra rebuilt the temple, but its glory was greatly diminished and reduced from that of Solomon's temple it was completed under Haggai. And you read in Haggai that the sound of weeping couldn't be distinguished from the sound of joyful celebration. The old timers remembered what Solomon's temple looked like and this isn’t it. And they were grieved over it and they said, "Is this what we're down to now? It's all we can afford?" And so after the Greeks conquered the Persians, then later Greek rulers defiled the temple and the Holy of Holies with extreme defilements worse than any that have been measured up to that point. Antiochus Epiphanes, a Greek ruler that succeeded Alexander the Great, came a number of a century or two later, he defiled the Holy of Holies by sacrificing pigs in the Holy of Holies in the year 167 BC. Look at verse 1 again, "Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, the uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again." Huh? Question mark, how is that true? And given that six centuries later, the Roman army did finally and completely, what any of these other Gentile armies had only begun doing, they completely leveled the city of Jerusalem and it's been, the temple has never been rebuilt. Just see if it's recorded, just how bad it was and how many died and the blood bath there was then. It just leaves you wondering. Look at verse 1, "Put on your garments of spender, O Jerusalem, the Holy City, the uncircumcised and defiled will not enter you again." So what is this talking about? This is a prophecy that hasn't been fulfilled yet. It's not been perfected yet. And I think we have to jump ahead to the end of the Bible and don't turn there, but if you were to jump up to Revelation 21:25-27, and there it's talking as I said about the glorious new Jerusalem that's coming down. This beautiful city with these gates and walls and splendor and glory, it is just amazing and this is what it says about that city. Revelation 21:25-27, "On no day will its gates ever be shut." You don't need to shut the gates anymore. Why? No more enemies, "On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there. The glory and honor of the nations will be brought into it." Now, here's a key verse, Revelation 21:27, "Nothing impure will ever enter it nor will anyone who does what is shameful or deceitful but only those whose names are written in the Lamb's Book of Life." So that's the perfection of Isaiah 52:1, "The uncircumcised and defiled will never enter you again." That's what we're looking forward to. Isaiah is saying there's going to come a day when the city of Zion will be completely free from all enemies and completely glorious, radiant in holiness, that day has not come yet, but it is coming. The rebuilding of the literal city of Jerusalem under Ezra and Nehemiah was a mere foretaste of the future glory of the new Jerusalem. Now, let me ask you a question. What about you, dear friend? What about you? Created in the image of God, living a human life, you're here today, will you be able to stream into the nations with, into the gates at that point and bring your glory in the city, or will you be in the lake of fire? Those are the options. The uncircumcised and defiled, those who are the un-redeemed, those who are the outsiders, those who are the sinners, the rebels, those that hate God and his people, they'll be gone, they'll be in the lake of fire. What about you? If you repent, you trust with what Daniel was just saying, "If you trust in that gospel, you trust in Christ crucified and resurrected, you'll be allowed to enter in for your name will have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life." Zion Arises from Bondage and Sits Enthroned Now, in verse 2, Zion arises from bondage and sits on throne, "Shake off your dust; rise up, sit enthroned, O Jerusalem. Free yourself from the chains on your neck, O captive Daughter of Zion." Now Jerusalem is pictured here as dusty and enslaved, defiled, here God causing her to rise up gloriously and sit enthroned, free from all chains of captivity. Once again, the immediate fulfillment of the exiles leaving Babylon and re-populating Jerusalem is only a deemed prophecy. It's acted out, it's important, but it's not complete. For one thing, the captive daughter of Zion could not sit enthroned in Jerusalem, while it had to ask permission from Gentile kings for everything. It was the time of the Gentiles, Jesus called it. She had to go cap in hand to Gentile kings like Cyrus and Xerxes and Artaxerxes, and Alexander, and Antiochus, and Caesar, Augustus, and Tiberius. You have to go ask for things ask permission. So how is Zion sitting enthroned in that condition? No, no, the true final enthronement of Zion awaits. Think about this: Revelation 3:21, "To him who overcomes I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I [Jesus speaking] overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne." I heard one preacher say, "Lap in lap, in lap," so Jesus sitting in the Father's lap, we're in Jesus's lap, that's enthroned. We'll be on the throne of the universe at that point, or again, Revelation 4:4, we have a picture of these thrones surrounding the throne, the central throne, there's a main throne, the throne of God, and then there's 24 other thrones and seated on them are 24 elders and they're dressed in white and they have crowns of gold on their heads. Or again 2 Timothy 2:11 and 12, here's a trustworthy saying, "If we died with him, we will also live with him, if we endure, we will also reign with him." That's the fulfillment of this enthronement of Zion image. That's the future. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, someday you're going to sit on Jesus's throne, like Jesus is sitting on his Father's throne. Zion Redeemed to Know the Lord And then in verses 3 through 6, it speaks about the redemption of Zion. Zion is redeemed in order that they may know the Lord. Look at the verses, "For this is what the LORD says: 'You were sold for nothing, and without money you will be redeemed.' For this is what the Sovereign LORD says: 'At first my people went down to Egypt to live; lately, Assyria has oppressed them. And now what do I have here?' declares the LORD. 'For my people have been taken away for nothing, and those who rule them mock,' declares the LORD. 'And all day long my name is constantly blasphemed. Therefore my people will know my name; therefore in that day they will know that it is I who foretold it. Yes, it is I.'" So God here speaks to captive Zion in chains like a slave, he says, "Look at you, you are sold for nothing." She gave herself in enslavement to other gods and goddesses and to sin and wickedness. And what did she get back? She got nothing for it. Sold for nothing into their chain. So it is with us. Paul puts it this way in Romans, "What benefit did you reap at that time from those things you're now ashamed of?" What were your wages in serving sin? It's death. You're sold for nothing. So Isaiah here recounts Israel's history of bondage, at first bondage in Egypt, lately in exile the Assyria, he doesn't mention exile of Babylon, but it's the backdrop of all these chapters. This exile of God's chosen people has resulted in her captors mocking him, blaspheming his Holy Name. There's a lot of this. Even in the Psalms, I'll sing one of those songs of Zion here in Babylon, and the psalmist can't do it. By the rivers of Babylon, we wept. As they couldn't sing one of the songs of Zion there in a foreign land, and so there was mocking and blaspheming going on because God had lost the battle, so they thought. He's not very powerful after all. God's name is linked up with his people and he can't let his name be defamed, he can't let his name be blasphemed. And so he must redeem his people and he does so. Just as they were sold for nothing without money, they will be redeemed. Amen, isn't that sweet? Think about that, without money, redeem. God doesn't owe her new masters anything, he doesn't owe them anything but destruction. He's going to destroy those masters. And without money, God's going to redeem her. And we all know how don't we? I love 1 Peter 1, it says, "You know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you by your forefathers, but with the precious blood of Christ, the lamb without blemish or defect." That's what redeemed you. We're going to get to it in the next chapter in Isaiah 53. If you look just at the end of this chapter, look at verse 15, it says, "so will he sprinkle many nations." Sprinkle them with what? With his blood? And then in the next chapter, Isaiah 53:5, "He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed." Or we could say redeemed, but the blood of Jesus were bought back out of this, our slavery to sin, without money. In a couple of chapters in Isaiah 55, we're going to have this call. Ho! Was one of the translations. "Ho!" Or "Hey everyone! All you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come buy and eat…Without money and without cost." So you just come to Jesus, free, you don't need to bring anything, he doesn't want anything from you, he wants to give something to you. And so freely you receive forgiveness and salvation without money, without price, just as a gift from God. You couldn't afford it anyway and neither could I. And so don't try to pay for it. It's an insult. Accept it as a gift. And so the end result of this redemption without money will be that Zion will know that it is the Lord, that did it, we're going to get to heaven, and we'll have no doubt about the sovereignty of God, and salvation. There's all kinds of debates about it now. Oh, back and forth. The debates go on God's sovereignty and salvation. There'll be no debate in heaven. We will know it was the Lord that did it. Amen. From beginning to end, we'll give him the glory and the credit and the praise. We will know that God foretold it and he brought it about. II. Beautiful Feet Bring Joyful News: “Your God Reigns!” (vs. 7-12) Now, in verses 7-12, we have the missionary part of this. Do you notice how often we keep bumping into missionary themes? It keeps happening again and again. Look what he says in verse 7 of beautiful feet of messengers that are bringing this good news, he says, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, your God reigns." The image here I get is of messengers who have traveled a long distance and they are breathless, they are just out of breath. They did barely had enough strength to get to Zion and they're traveling to Zion, and they have an incredible message to give. They traveled over the mountains to bring the message. They're willing to travel over dangerous and difficult roads to get to Zion. They're going to Zion. Now, again that's the earthly image of the earthly city of Jerusalem, but ultimately the people of Zion, the elect who need to hear this message that you got to keep both of them in mind. So you could picture like some straggling small pathetic remnant of Jews that was left behind in Jeremiah's day to kind of scrape out a living, people of the land and all that, and they suddenly the messenger comes over the hill, and he says, "Babylon has fallen, has fallen all, the images of her gods are crushed in the dust and some exiles are coming back and they're going to rebuild this city. Oh, what good news. What good news." But if Zion is the spiritual city, the idea is of elect people scattered, chosen before the foundation of the world, but scattered all over the surface of the planet. They're all over the place, they're in distant mountains and valleys and villages and they're in major urban areas and cities, and they're everywhere, they're all over the place. And they're not converted yet and they're elect, and they're waiting for some messengers to go. The messengers come and they're so filled with energy, and they're so filled with joy, and they're here to tell the people, your God reigns. Salvation is for you. Paul actually quotes this to speak of the missionary endeavor. Any of you know Romans, you know you've heard this before. Isaiah 52:7, it's very familiar to you. And Paul picks it up right out of Isaiah 52. And he drops it into a defense for the whole missionary and enterprise of the church. Romans 10:12-15, he says, "There is no difference between Jew and Gentile-- the same Lord is Lord of all and richly blesses all who call on him, for, 'Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.' How, then, can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, 'How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!'" Paul is pulling straight from Isaiah 52:7. So Paul is defending the missionary enterprise that he himself was on. The apostle to the Gentiles, traveling on boats and across roads to bring the Gospel to gentiles so that they could hear it. So both Jew and Gentile are Zion here in Romans 10. If they hear the Gospel with faith, they are Zion and they're hearing that God reigns and he's going to save them from their slavery to sin, and he's going to release them and rebuild the city. And so, as missionaries travel over the sea and ships to the islands of the South Pacific or through lofty mountain passes to get to remote tribes in Nepal or Tibet, or even as a college student sees another student sitting alone in the cafeteria and uses his or her beautiful feet, okay, to walk 35 feet across the cafeteria and sit down and have a conversation with a total stranger, fulfillment of this verse, as you share the gospel. We must take the initiative, that's our job. We have the good news, we must go out with that good news. There are people in countries to the ends of the earth that need to hear this. Beautiful Feet? Now, what does it mean how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. You might say a bit odd. Why the focus on feet? Well, feet especially in the days of sandals are dirty and repulsive. You say, "Pastor, these are the days of sandals, didn't you know that?" I mean lots of people wear them, alright. Well, let me ask, "What's the condition of your toes?" How are they? Don't tell me, I don't want to know, alright. Dirty, repulsive. Slaves don't wash the feet of their masters, they provide bowl, basin, towel and water and soap and here you go master enjoy I'm going to leave now, let me know when you're done I'll clean up afterwards. But Jesus washed his own disciples feet and dried it with a towel that was around his waist, a picture of servanthood and John the Baptist said of Jesus, he said, "I'm not worthy to get down on the ground and untie his sandals," that's how much greater he is than me. Mary Magdalene showed her repentance by weeping and washing Jesus's feet with her tears and drying it with her hair, so the feet you could think about like the most repulsive part of someone's body. The point is if even their feet are beautiful, how much more their mind and their heart and everything that brought them to our village to preach the gospel. So beautiful, it's just beautiful knowing you, dear friend, that you brought me this Gospel message, how beautiful even your feet that you brought... That brought you here to me. The Good News: Peace, Goodness, Salvation Because God Reigns And look what it says. The good news, peace, salvation, the message it just flows. It brings good news, proclaims peace, brings good tidings, proclaims salvation and says to Zion, "Your God reigns." Now this is immediately fulfilled in the fall of Babylon and the decree of Cyrus that exiles should return, but even more the triumph of Jesus Christ over Satan, over sin and death, the grave and hell, that's the real fulfillment, that's the real victory that God has won. Rejoice, death has been defeated. Rejoice, sin has been paid for. Rejoice, you are liberated from your chains. Rejoice, you're adopted into the family of God and you'll live forever. That's what the good news is, the peace. And all it does is in verse 8 and 9 produce shouts of joy, "Listen! Your watchmen lift up their voices; together they shout for joy. [Good news.] When the Lord returns to Zion, they will see it with their own eyes. Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem." And so we get together every week to do this. And I mean Daniel and his team just do a great job and we sing songs together, and that's the fulfillment of this image. All we can and should be doing is just celebrating what Christ has done and God's goodness in saving us, but we're going to have the fullness of that in heaven, worshipping forever. And so verse 10, the salvation, this salvation displays God's power. Verse 10, "The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." The Gospel is a display of God's power. He's laying bare his holy arm here, power. Now, when you think of power, we think of two things: Position, the right to make a command. You're the emperor of all the earth, you can say how it's going to be, you're in charge. He has the power to do it, he has the power to declare wicked people not guilty of all their sins based on what Jesus had done. He has that power. And he has the power to take history and sovereignly orchestrate it to deliver the Gospel message to every elect person all over the earth. He has the power to do this, he's going to lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all nations and so the cross is a display of power. First Corinthians 1:23-25, "we preach Christ crucified: A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than man's wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength." This is a display of power, the cross is. Therefore: Depart in Holiness and Journey Safely to Zion Verse 11 and 12, therefore it's time to move out. Depart, leave, leave there, leave Babylon honestly, and make the pilgrimage, make the journey back to Zion now. That's what he's telling them to do, look at the verses, verses 11 and 12, "Depart, depart, go out from there! Touch no unclean thing! Come out from it and be pure, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. But you will not leave in haste or go in flight; for the Lord will go before you, and the God of Israel will be your rear guard." So here we have this image of the exiles, they're living in Babylon, and now the message has come, it's time to leave, time to get out of here. So depart from there, get out of Babylon, we've seen again and again, Babylon is a symbol of the world and all of its idolatries and wicked lusts and wicked passions and sins, all of the gods and goddesses, and it's defiled and filthy and nasty, and the call here is get out of there now, come out of there. And don't touch those unclean things anymore. And so he calls on the people of God to be pure and to begin a journey to go to Zion and rebuild it. So that's what he's calling them to do. And he says, "You who carry the vessels of the Lord." What is that talking about? Well, if you look at Daniel Chapter 1, don't do that, but you remember in Daniel 1:1 and 2, it talks about how at the time of the exile in the third year of the reign of King Jehoiakim of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar came to Babylon or king of Babylon, sorry, came to Jerusalem and besieged it. Listen to this, Daniel 1:2, "And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim King of Judah into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia, and put in the treasure house of his god." So here are these gold and silver, cups and plates, and candlesticks and different things that were used for worship. And they were carried off as a symbol of the triumph over Yahweh. And they are put in this treasure house of the God of Babylonia. Well, we meet up with them again in Daniel Chapter 5, you remember that Belshazzar's feast. And Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, who I think didn't have Nebuchadnezzar's conversion experience, a wicked man, is having a drunken feast with all of his nobles, and he gives word and they bring the vessels, the cups, the gold and silver cups from the temple and they drank from them, toast to the gods of bronze, iron, wood and stone, and they're defiling them. And God's holy anger is kindled, his zeal for his name is kindled and a hand, a disembodied hand shows up and starts to write on the plaster of the wall, "Belshazzar, your days are numbered, your kingdom is gone. You're dead, you're a dead man." And so that very night, Darius took over Babylon and the thing fell and the Babylonian Empire was over and soon after that Cyrus gave the edict including these gold and silver cups. Do you think Cyrus wanted them? Why don't you take them back to Jerusalem when you go, please? And so, take these gold and silver cups, and they're listed for us in Ezra 1. I won't describe the inventory, but it's kind of weird. There's this inventory of cups and plates and saucers, and you're like, "What is the Bible? I don't understand this. Why do we have this list of 5400 gold and silver articles?" They're a symbol of the worship of God on Earth, the holy worship that he set up. And they're being transported from Babylon back to Zion as a picture of the renewal and the perfection of true spiritual worship. It's physical, it's real stuff, but God wanted them re-established under the Old Covenant sacrificial system as a symbol of his restoration of worship there. And so, they carried them back. Now, they have a problem. If you're Ezra and you're going back along the Fertile Crescent along the road, you may get stopped by some oases and all that, and you've got 5400 very valuable gold and silver things. What are you worried about? Highway robbers. You're worried about other armies, you've got valuable stuff. And so, in Ezra 8, he says, "There, by the Ahava Canal, I proclaimed a fast, so that we might humble ourselves before God and ask him for a safe journey for us and our children, and all our possessions. I was ashamed to ask the king for soldiers and horsemen to protect us from enemies on the road because we had told the king, 'The gracious hand of our God is on everyone who looks to him, but his great anger is against all who forsake him.' So we fasted and petitioned God about this, and he answered our prayer." In the text we're looking at here, God has said, "I'm going to go before you like the pillar of cloud and fire and I'm going to be your rear guard, I will take care of you, I'll keep you safe." III. Applications Now you're like, "What does this have to do with us?" Well, it's a picture of the spiritual journey that we make out of sin in Babylon to heaven. And you are, in some ways, you are the sacred vessels, you are the valuables and the enemies, the highway robbers, is Satan and demons and wicked people who want to attack you every step of the way, you're in enemy territory. And God has promised, "You're not going to leave in haste, it's going to be a long journey for you, but I'm going to protect you and I'm going to tell you to come out from there and be pure, and be holy." Paul says this in 2 Corinthians 6. And God is saying, "Don't touch those things, and don't make covenants together and be unequally yoked because I'm calling in you to come out of Babylon and be pure. And I'm going to get you there. And I'm going to filter your temptations. And no temptation will seize you, except what is common to man, but God is faithful, and he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But with the temptation, he will make a way of escape, he's going to protect you and none of you will be lost. And so he's going to go ahead of us, and be our rear guard. So we've been weaving applications all the way through, but let me just say a few as we finish here. First and foremost, can I just urge you to delight in the future of Zion? It's glorious. Read about it in Revelation 21. That city is big. It's like from here to the Mississippi River and up to the Great Lakes. And apparently goes up into the stratosphere as high as it is wide, and long. It's like this perfect cube. You're like, "I don't get that. That's a really big city. It's going to throw the orbit of the Earth. I don't know, I don't know how that's going to work, but it's a really, really big glorious perfect city. Amazingly huge and glorious. And it's made up of people, living stones like us, who have heard the Gospel and being quarried out. Look forward to that, it's beautiful there. There's no more death, or mourning, or crying, or pain. And as a result of that, it's called the home of righteousness, nothing impure, unclean will ever enter into it. So we need to be pure and holy. Be very careful how you live. Be very careful what you look at on the internet, be very careful what captures your heart, what kinds of things you love, and what you eat and what your habits are. Be careful. Because we're under enemy attack all the time on this journey. And God, he's gone before us and he is our rear guard, but he wants us to fight and to put on the spiritual armor, and be holy. It says in 2 Peter 3, "Since everything would be destroyed like this, what kind of people ought you to be?" You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed, it's coming. So, that's the internal journey of holiness. Ask God to purify you from the Babylon of our age. Ask him to cleanse you from sins. Ask him to purify your perspective on the unbelievers of this age, don't be unequally yoked with them. For Christians not to marry non-Christians, but more than that, don't be in covenant relationship with non-Christians. Understand this world system, this setup, it's dominated by Satan, the God of this age, it is no friend to your faith, you're under enemy territory. And look forward with longing to the day when there'll be no more sin, no more temptations, yearn to be as holy as you can be. And then the external journey of missions, it's so clear. We are to yearn for this, we are to be a church that sends out missionaries, we are to be a church that supports those missionaries. We are, I think, we've either made or very close to making our Lottie Moon goal. Isn't that awesome? Praise God. It was a great December, financially. But it'd be great to have a great 11 months between now and the next December, amen. Let's be generous financially with missions year-round. Let's pray as we've never before prayed for missions. Let's be active in unreached people group missionary, missions. Let's send as many missionaries out as we can over the next 10 years, amen. And support them, and love them through emails and Skype and short-term mission trips. And let's have our beautiful feet really active here in the Durham area, amen. Let's go out into the city, out into the workplaces, workplace evangelism, evangelism on the college campuses, there are a lot of lost people, we love to see baptisms. More and more people brought to faith in Christ, yearn for that. Let's make this place a mission launching pad. Next time I preach in Isaiah, we're going to be looking at how God paid for all this. These are some of the greatest, these are some of the greatest chapters in the Bible, it begins in 52, but on into 53. Come ready to hear. Now, next week, I believe Sanctity of Human Life Sunday, but it maybe two weeks from now. So bring visitors in a couple of weeks to hear Isaiah 53. And I want to make one final appeal, if you are lost, if you're on the outside looking in, don't leave this place without trusting in Christ. Talk to me or anyone else that want to be on the inside. Close with me in prayer.

The Marvel of God’s Creation The scripture says, "I will praise you, O Lord, because I am fearfully and wonderfully made." And as I was thinking about Isaiah 50, I focused specifically on the capacity of hearing. The human ear is a stunning marvel of God's creation. It is just incredible what we can hear. The range of decibel levels of very quiet sounds like you could imagine a quiet whisper or the breathing of a newborn on the chest of a mother or a father, just those tiny sounds that you can hear all the way up to something deafening, like a jet airplane flying right overhead. My father grew up in a house in Miami, Florida, and somewhere in there they built Miami International Airport, about a mile from my father's childhood home. And I remember sleeping or trying to, in that house and the jets would be about 100 feet over that house. And the rattling of the windows and things falling off the walls. I guess they learned after a while not to put things that would fall off the walls on the walls, but just the deafening roar of the jet airplanes. And so, the range of human hearing is just astonishing. One of the most amazing aspects of the ear is its ability to selectively hear certain sounds. Like you could be in a crowded room with music playing and all kinds of conversations going on and you're able to zero in on one person and their conversation and hear specifically what they're saying to you. Or a mother at a crowded playground can hear her child crying over the din of all kinds of play and laughter, and all kinds of things. Even in the middle of a conversation she may be having with another mother, she's like, "Wait a minute." And she's listening and she can hear the child crying. And I find that amazing. We can zero in, or you could listen to a symphony orchestra, and there are just dozens and dozens, maybe even 100 instruments and you can focus on a specific instrument and listen to just that melodic line from the oboe or from a trumpet, or something like that, or the base and it's just beautiful. God made the ear to hear. And the wide range of the sounds that we can hear from the general rustling of leaves that a breeze makes, all the way up to the awesome power of a thunder, lightning storm, it's just incredible. Now, you heard Kurt say just a moment ago, this incredible verse, Romans 10:17, God has ordained hearing as the way by which the saving message of the Gospel enters our lives. "Faith comes by hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ." But we are able, sadly, to tune out God's word and not listen to it. It can come to us so powerfully and we're still able in some very tragic way, to turn a deaf ear to what God is saying. Now the unifying theme, I believe, the angle I'm going to take today from Isaiah 50 is that of hearing. We're going to see how God again and again, spoke to the nation of Israel but they didn't listen. He called out to them and they didn't listen. And because they would not listen, he sent them away into exile. And this is the very thing that God had told the prophet Isaiah would happen. You remember back in that famous chapter Isaiah 6, the year that King Uzziah died, he saw the Lord in that whole calling of Isaiah into ministry, "Whom shall I send and who will go for us?" "Here am I, send me." "Alright, well, what's the mission? What's the message?" He said, "Go and tell this people: 'be ever-hearing but never understanding, be ever-seeing, but never perceiving. Make the heart of this people callous, make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise, they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and be healed.'" Isaiah was told that the nation's refusal to listen to God, would result in the total destruction of their country. In Isaiah 6, 11 and 12, he said, "For how long, O Lord?" And he answered, "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant. Until the houses are left deserted, and the fields ruined and ravaged. Until the Lord has sent everyone far away." That's exile. So, their failure to listen to God's word would result in the destruction of their land and exile. Now we're going to see in Isaiah 50, this problem is addressed. Only now, God is speaking across 100 plus years to the remnant that's there in Babylon, explaining again and making very clear how they came to be there, why they were there. And he zeroes in on the fact that their ancestors refused to listen to God. But in the middle of this incredible chapter, someone pops up and the connection between verse 3 and 4 is not so clear. But out of nowhere, someone pops up and speaks to us directly in the first person. And this individual characterizes himself as one who perfectly listens to God, who listens to everything God says and obeys everything he tells him to do. And he's willing to listen even if it means terrible suffering for himself. Even being beaten on his back and having his beard plucked out. And he would do this to save a people from their own failure to listen to God. Those people would be saved out of their hardness of heart into a whole new pattern of obedience to God in the pattern that he displayed for us. Their hearts of stone would be removed, their hearts of submissive yielded-ness to God by His Spirit would be given to them and everything would change. Instead of spiritual deafness, they would be characterized as he was by perfect listening to God and perfect obedience to him. So Isaiah 50 is about listening, because it ends in the last two verses, with a challenge. The text brings us to a fork in the road and says, "Who are you going to listen to? Are you going to fear the Lord and listen to His servant, Christ, or are you going to walk by your own lights and by your own wisdom? And if you do, you will lie down in torment." That's the whole chapter. So now let's look at it in detail. And I pray and I already have prayed and I will continue to pray that God would give you ears, to hear. How many times did Jesus say that? He who has ears, let him hear, he wants you to listen today. So I pray that this would hit you in a way that would be memorable and would transform you. I. A Nation Who Refused to Listen Sent into Exile (vs. 1-3) So at the beginning in verses one through three, we have a nation who refused to listen sent into exile. And it begins with this question in verse 1, this is what the Lord says, "Where is your mother's certificate of divorce with which I sent her away or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Because of your sins, you were sold, because of your transgressions your mother was sent away." So God is speaking here, through Isaiah the prophet across 100 plus years to the exiles in Babylon, explaining how it came to be that they're there and not in their own promised land. And he uses this image of marriage and divorce which will be very familiar to those of you that have read a lot of the prophets, the Old Testament, the image of Israel as God's wife. And in some way, God had married Israel, but Israel was adulterous, Israel was unfaithful to her husband. He's using this image of marriage. In Jeremiah two, he says there, "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me in the desert." Israel was holy to the Lord. Many times in the prophets we have this image. But God is saying that Zion, her mother, Israel's mother, the ancestors, were sent away, put away, by her husband because of their wickedness and because of their sins. He also uses the image of slavery, "To which of my creditors did I sell you?" He says. So they are, as though they were a wife put away there, as though they were children that were sold into slavery to pay a debt. But it's interesting how he asks, "Can you rummage and go find the certificate of divorce? You're not going to be able to find it. And actually, I didn't sell you to anyone. You're still mine. I didn't owe anybody anything, and I can bring you back any time I want. And I can renew our love relationship, any time I choose." That's what he's saying, but what he's doing is he's cutting off a self-righteous, forgetfulness and a self-pity among these people saying, "Understand you are there because you sinned. You're in the trouble you're in because you sinned." You know There's a proverb that says, "A man's own folly ruins his life, but his heart rages against the Lord." Does ever characterize you? You do some really stupid or perhaps even immoral sinful things, you get into deep trouble because of it, and you're raged that God doesn't love you. It's not true, your own sins have caused this problem for you, that's why you're in the problem that you're in. And then God goes to say, "Look, it happened specifically because you refuse to listen to me." Israel Refused to Listen to the Sovereign God Look what he says in verse 2, "When I came, why was there no one? When I called why was there no one to answer?" God goes into the issue that Israel would not listen to Him, when He spoke to them. They refused to listen. "I called out to you, and you didn't answer me. Why were you so spiritually deaf? When I summoned you why didn't you come and obey me?" Now, how did God do that? Well, he spoke to His people through His servants, the prophets, and again and again, God sent prophets to Israel and again and again, they refused to listen. At the end of the whole history of this as Israel is about to be sent away, or was being sent away in the Babylonian exile in 2 Chronicles 36:16-17 it says that the Lord sent word to them through His messengers again and again because he had pity on them, but they mocked God's messengers, they despised His words and they scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the Lord was aroused, and there was no remedy. And so he brought against them, the king of Babylon. That's the message. And it's the very thing that Jesus taught about in Matthew 21, you remember? The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man who planted a vineyard and he built a watch tower in it, and a wine press and put a wall around it and then he rented the vineyard to some tenant farmers and he went away. And in due time, he sent some messengers to the tenant farmers to collect the fruit, but they seized the messengers, they beat them and killed them. So he said, "I called out to you, and you did not answer, you did not listen." But yet, even still, God is every bit as powerful as he ever was when he established them in the Promised Land. He hasn't lost his strength, he hasn't lost his power, he can still do all of the same things. Look at verses two and three, he says, "Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea. I turn rivers into a desert, their fish rot for lack of water, and die of thirst. I clothe the sky with darkness and make sackcloth its covering." God is omnipotent, he can do anything. He's bringing their minds back to how God made a way through the Red Sea, or how he made the fish die during the plague, you remember how he turned the water into blood and all the fish died there in Egypt? God can still do all of those same things. He can go to war on behalf of Israel and rescue them. God is every bit as powerful now as he ever was. And his arm is not too short to ransom us. That's an image. A number of years ago, I heard a black preacher back in the 19th century, whatever, said, "Your arm's too short to box with God." Think about that. You ever picture like a world-class heavyweight champion and there's some six-year-old who's really mad at him and he wants to get at him and he's got him like by the forehead just holding them there with a smile on his face. And here's this little kid trying to do this, trying to punch this big man and the man just smile and hold him off. Your arm is too short to box with God. What does that mean? You lack the power. God is omnipotent. How could you try to take God on? Well turn it around, He said, "My arm's not too short, I can do anything I want. My arm is not shortened at all," and is sovereign power. He can still do anything and everything that he willed to do. "So why is it you're not listening to me? Why is it you're not calling on me in the day of trouble?" That's what he's saying to them. II. A Servant Who Listened Perfectly Sent as Savior (vs. 4-9) Now, suddenly, right in the text, in verses 4 through 9, we have this suffering servant pop up. And it's kind of like that's the way it was in history, too. Jesus just popped up in history. In the fullness of time, when God said it was time, he just came. And so it is, I believe, Isaiah 54 through 9 is talking about Jesus. And actually it's not even talking about Jesus, it's Jesus talking to us. He's speaking in the first person. Now, I know it's possible you can read this as though this is Isaiah, the prophet, speaking and I know that Isaiah was faithful and listened to God, and all that, and all the prophets were and I accept that. But in that way, Isaiah was just a type and a shadow of Christ's perfect obedience to the Father. Jesus is the perfect prophet fulfilling all of those prophetic images. So ultimately, this is Jesus speaking to us. And he speaks in verse 4 of his perfect obedience. Look what he says here. "The sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me, morning by morning awakens my ear to listen like one being taught." So here we have a direct contrast between Israel that's hard of hearing, people of God, who aren't listening to God and this servant that's perfectly listening to him. Israel was sent into exile because they refused to listen to God. And when later, he would return them from the exile and bring them back to the promised land, they would still be characterized by the same hardness of hearing. So God must send a Savior, the suffering servant, to listen to him on their behalf, and to obey God on their behalf and to suffer on their behalf and die on their behalf. And at the center of the suffering servant's life is a listening ear and a submissive heart. That's the center of Christ saving work, a listening ear and a submissive heart. Jesus is speaking to us in verses 4 through 9, we hear his word centuries before he was born of the virgin Mary, and was wrapped up in swaddling clothes and laid in the manger. Centuries before any of that happened, before he was presented to Israel as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, centuries before any of the ministry of miracles, and incredible teachings, and before he died on the cross and before he rose again, before any of that, he's speaking to us. And these verses give us as no other verses do, you're not going to find anything like this, even in the Gospels, an amazing insight into the intimacy of Jesus' relationship with his Father, of his love relationship with his Father. Verse 4 says that God the Father has given him an instructed tongue. Jesus' words were a perfect medicine for a world sick with sin. Jesus said the Father taught him what to say. Specifically the word that would sustain the weary. Is that you today? Do you need a word from Jesus? Are you weary? Are you weary and heavy-laden? Are you weary and struggling? Jesus knows the word to sustain you. And he learned it from his Father, the Father taught him what to say to sustain the weary. And we go beyond this to look at the details of Jesus' private devotional life. He says the Father wakens him morning by morning, wakens his ear to listen like one being taught. And now we come to the infinite mystery of the incarnation. Here we have the perfect submission of God the Son to God the Father. In heaven, God the Son, neither slumbers nor sleeps, ever, doesn't need to sleep. On earth, he had to be wakened morning by morning. In heaven, Jesus knows everything, always has and always will. Like I said, a number of months ago in another sermon, I love this statement. Has it ever occurred to you that nothing's ever occurred to God? I love that statement. God doesn't have anything pop in his head. It was already there. That's what omniscience is all about. Jesus is omniscient, in heaven, he doesn't learn anything in heaven. But the infinite mystery of the incarnation is that Jesus learned things on earth. There were things he didn't know. So when he was an infant, he was what he appeared to be, an infant who couldn't say a word, wrapped in swaddling cloths laid in the manger completely powerless. And he had to learn things. It says in Luke 2:52, Jesus "grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and men." So he's just throughout his life, he's learning things, he's growing in his understanding. It says also in Hebrews 5 that although he was a Son, Jesus learned obedience from what he suffered. So that directly connects Jesus with the verb learn. He learned things. That should blow your mind, circuit breakers just popping off, that's the mind-blowing circuit breakers. Just I can't understand how can he be God which means omniscient and learn things? I don't know. But that's what we're celebrating at Christmas time, isn't it? The incarnation and the mystery? And so, he's learning things and this gets into the practicalities of even his daily quiet time. If you looked at Mark 1:35 later, but this is what it says, "Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place where he prayed." So that's his morning quiet time, very early he goes to a private place where he can listen to his father, and his father talked to him and shared things with him predominantly from Scripture, but also what he would face that day. And Jesus' enemies were astonished at His teaching, and at His learning. I remember how in John 7:15-16, Jesus' enemies were amazed and said, "How did this man get such learning?..." He never studied at our university? We looked through the enrollment records and he was never there. So how did he get all this advanced learning?" Jesus said these words, "My teaching is not my own. It came from Him who sent me." Do you hear that? The father taught me all the things that I know. In John 14:24, He said, "The word you hear is not mine but it is from the Father who sent me." No one in history ever spoke like this man, no one. Do you remember the time that the temple police went off to arrest Jesus? I love that story. And they come back empty-handed and dazed, amazed, right? I think they might have gotten his autograph if he gave it, I don't think he would give it, but they were just amazed. They said, "Where is he?" They said, "No one ever spoke like this man." In direct fulfillment of verse four of this chapter, his words were amazingly comforting to broken-hearted sinners. For example, he said to a paralyzed man who had faith, he said, "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." Isn't that comforting? How would you love to hear that from the judge of all the earth? "Take heart son, your sins are forgiven." In the same chapter, to a woman had been chronically ill with bleeding, he said, "Take heart daughter, your faith has healed you." He knew the word that sustained the weary, especially this one, most famously, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." So every morning, the father awaken Jesus is here to listen and he would be trained what to say to bring comfort and consolation to sinners. And so there's this beautiful summary statement of all this in John 12:49-50, he says this, "I did not speak of my own accord, but the Father who sent me, commanded me what to say and how to say it. I know that His command leads to eternal life, so whatever I say is just what the Father has told me to say." So Jesus literally was given his script by the Father, and He says in John 6:63, "The words that I speak are Spirit and they are life." So as we listen to Jesus speaking these words, they are spirit and life for us. And so Isaiah 50, verse four, ushers us into a secret chamber of Jesus' quiet times and how the father taught him what to say to broken-hearted sinners. But verse five and six talk about his obedience to that. The Servant Speaks of His Humble Submission to Abuse Look at it again, "The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears, and I have not been rebellious, I have not drawn back. I offered my back to those who beat me, my cheeks to those who pulled out my beard. I did not hide my face from mocking and spitting." Not only did the Father give Jesus' words to say but he also gave him works to do, and Jesus did all of them, all of them. So verse five shows Jesus' submission to obey the Father's will. "The Lord has opened my ears," that's an obedient heart. "I have not been rebellious, I've not drawn back." I did whatever the Father told me to do, that's what I did. He was a servant to the Father and he did the works the Father gave him to do. I love at the end of his ministry, before he goes to the cross, but in anticipation of his own obedience at the cross, he says in John 17:4 directly to the Father, "I have brought you glory on earth by completing all the work you gave me to do." Wouldn't you love to be able to say that to God for just one day? Just one day, "I have brought you glory today by doing everything you told me to do." I'm still looking for that one perfect day, maybe you are too. Jesus had a perfect life, he was obedient to everything the Father told him to do. He says in John 8:29, "The one who sent me is with me, he's not left me alone for I always do what pleases Him." Now, the ultimate degree of that was his willingness to suffer for us, to suffer in our place as our substitute. He was not rebellious, he did not draw back. And the perfect picture of this was Gethsemane. You remember how in Gethsemane Jesus is brought right to the brink of the cross and the Father metaphorically offering him the cup of wrath, the cup of judgment, the cup of death, he says, "Will you drink it?" "Going a little farther, He fell with His face to the ground and He prayed, 'My Father if it is possible, let this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.'" That's the spirit of this. "I was not rebellious. I didn't draw back. I drank the cup you gave to me." A couple verses later, it says he went away a second time and prayed, "My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away, unless I drink it, may your will be done." And so the prophecy here in verse six speaks plainly of the suffering that Christ would have to go through to save us from our sins. He didn't refuse the suffering, he offered his back to those who beat him, he offered his cheeks to those who plucked out his beard, he didn't hide his holy face from mocking and spitting. Here, we have the humble savior led like a lamb to the slaughter. All of this abuse would come to him and it was all part of his atoning work. Jesus took our sins on Himself, and with it came all of this abuse that sinners deserve, and he did not refuse it, but humbly submitted to it, and no one in history has ever been more obedient to Scripture than Jesus. Perfectly obedient. Do you remember how Peter tried to rescue him with his sword and he was going to fight and he says, "Put your sword away for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father and he would at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels?" Listen to the next word, though, "But how then would the Scripture be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?" "Scripture mandates that I die, and therefore I will die. I was not rebellious. I did not draw back. I went forward and died." And it says beautifully in Romans Chapter 5, "Just as through one man's disobedience, that many were made sinners, so also through the one man's obedience that many are made righteous." Find your salvation in Jesus' perfect obedience to what he heard from the Father to do. The Servant Speaks of His Vindication by God Now, verses seven through nine speak of Jesus' vindication by God, "Because the Sovereign Lord helps me, I will not be disgraced. Therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near who then will bring charges against me? Let us face each other. Who is my accuser? Let him confront me. It is the sovereign Lord, who helps me, who is he that will condemn me? They will all wear out like a garment, the moths will eat them up." So, the ultimate end of the suffering servant is not disgrace, but total complete absolute vindication by Almighty God. Isn't that awesome? Vindication, not shame or disgrace, absolute vindication. The circumstances described in verses six show an astonishing level of abuse which would sum up with abject degradation. People spitting at you, plucking out beard, stripping you, beating your back. But the servant refused to be ashamed. Think about Hebrews 12:2, "Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising its shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of Heaven." Now what does despise mean? Is that I thought little of it, it's nothing to me, the shame is nothing to me, I get to win a people for God, I get to save them from hell and therefore the shame is as nothing compared to that. And so he says, "I'm not going to be ashamed." He sets His face like flint and he goes to the cross and God totally vindicated Jesus by His glorious resurrection from the dead. The tomb was empty on the third day, that's his vindication by God. And He raises him up through the clouds, through the sky, through the heavenly realms, up to the very highest pinnacle of power, and sits Him down at the right hand of Almighty God. Now who is ready to accuse Him at that place? Who's going to stand in front of Him and bring any accusation against God, at that point? Who's going to accuse him? They're going to wear out like garment, the moth will eat them up. Now, isn't it amazing that the Apostle Paul borrows these exact same words and applies them not to Christ, but to us? He applies these same words to us, God's elect. Listen to what he says in Romans 8:33-34, he says, this should sound very familiar to you, this is Romans 8 now, not Isaiah 50, "Who will bring any charges against those whom God has chosen?" That's the elect. "It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus who died, more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us." All of this honor, and security and protection that we have in our forgiveness comes from Christ's atonement and resurrection because we are in His exaltation. We are in Christ, and therefore we are at the right hand of God in Him, and we are protected and no one can accuse us and therefore, there is now no condemnation for those of us who are in Christ Jesus, that's awesome. And so His resurrection is our vindication. It says in Romans 4:25, "He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification." It's an interesting verse because it links our justification to Christ's resurrection, not death there. And so, we are vindicated completely by Christ's resurrection, and that's awesome. So, to sum up verses four through nine, we have presented very clearly for the first time in Isaiah the suffering of the servant. He's perfectly obedient to His Father, He knows the word that sustains the weary and he doesn't hide his face from mocking and spitting or his back from beating. This is the suffering servant. III. A Key Question: Will You Listen to the Servant or to Yourself? (vs. 10-11) Now we are brought to a fork in the road in the text. The key question for you, who are you going to listen to? Are you going to listen to the servant of the Lord, as He speaks to you, or will you listen to yourself? Those are the options. So look what he says in verse 10, "Who among you fears the Lord, and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God." So it all comes down to this, do you fear the Lord and will you listen to his servant as he speaks to you? As his servant, Christ speaks the Gospel to you will you listen to that and be saved? Romans 10:17 says, "Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message and the message is heard through the word of Christ." Christ is speaking the kingdom to you, he's speaking forgiveness to you, he's telling you to repent and believe the gospel. Mark 1:15, "Will you fear the Lord and listen to his servant?" Apart from Him, we are walking in the dark. Apart from Him, we have no light, apart from Him, we're lost, we're in sin and we need a savior. Do you know this to be true of yourself? If so, God's already worked grace in you, he's already shown you who you are. Come out of darkness into the light of salvation. Jesus said in John 8:12, when Jesus spoke again to the people, He said, "I am the light of the world, whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but have the light of life." Colossians 1:13 says, "He has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us over into the Kingdom of the Beloved Son." Rescued from darkness. So listen to the word of the servant and come, or, you can do verse 11. And what does verse 11 say? "But now, all you who light fires and provide yourself with torches, flaming torches, go, walk in the light of the torches you have set ablaze." Go ahead and do that, go ahead, light your own fires, walk by your own lights, walk by your own wisdom, figure it out on your own, don't listen to the servant, don't walk in the light of Christ, just do your own thing, be confident in your own righteousness, say, "I don't need a savior." I saw a bumper sticker about two months ago, that said, "Born right the first time." Wow, immediately it was like a slap in the face, but not for me. Whoever put that on was slapping their own self in the face. You must be born again. But this person said, "No, I don't need that, I don't need that, I'm fine." So, this text is odd in that it's commanding you to go ahead and do that then. "I'm going to give you over to it, go ahead and walk in the light of your own torch. Go ahead and figure it out on your own, go ahead and save yourself. This is what you'll get from my hand. You will lie down in torment." That's the final word of Isaiah 50, it's a warning to us. I can't read this except to hear Proverbs 3:5-6, "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." IV. Applications So what should we do with this text? Well, can I urge you, be very, very careful how you listen to the Word of God. Jesus said that in Luke 8:18, "Consider carefully how you listen." Your soul depends on how you listen to God's Word. Remember the parable of The Seed and the Soils? Are you the rocky soil, the hard soil, are you the thorny soil, or you're the good soil, what are you? What do you do when you hear the word of God? Secondly, thank God that Jesus obeyed, listened to the Father on your behalf, thank him for that, worship him during this Christmas season, Oh, believer, Oh, Christian, just say, "Thank you for listening to the father for me, for my salvation. Thank you that in you, no one will bring any accusation against me. Thank you that I'm free from condemnation, I'm free from Satan standing to accuse me, I'm free from that. Your vindication has become my vindication. Thank you Jesus, thank you for that." Thirdly, have a quiet time, like Jesus did. Can I just use a how much more argument? If he needed a quiet time, how much more do you? He wasn't messed up, like we are, we're messed up. We could argue we needed even more than he did, but he had them even better than we did. So very early in the morning, a great while before dawn, am I pinching on you a bit here? A great while before dawn, what would that be about 5:00 AM? A great while before dawn? Okay, when it's quiet, when it's dark, when there's no one going to bother you, have a quiet time. Get the Scripture open and listen like one being taught, like Jesus did. And don't be merely a hearer of the word, but like Jesus in verse six, do what it says, even if it hurts you, even if it costs you something. And if I can just plead with you if you're here outside of faith in Christ, if you're lost, can I just plead with you not to walk in the light of your own intellect, in your own salvation, in your own righteousness? Can I plead with you to take that torch you lit that you consider your own guiding light and throw it down into a bucket of water or into the ocean and say, "I am lost. I'm lost. I don't know what I'm doing, I don't know where I'm going. I don't know what's going to happen to me when I die, I need a savior. Jesus, be for me the light of the world. I need your light." Call on Him and He will save you. Don't leave here in the darkness. And finally let's be willing as a church, to suffer, to not hide our face from mocking and spitting and beatings, for the sake of the gospel. Let's be willing to evangelize lost people. There are people surrounding us every day like the person who put that bumper sticker on the car, people surrounding us thinking these thoughts, they need a savior. And they are among the hardest to reach on earth, because they've heard it so many times. We are here to reach them. Let's be willing to suffer as Jesus did, lower level, but let's be willing to suffer. Let's be willing to suffer financially, what Kurt said, "Let's sacrifice financially, as never before, for the sake of missions." Let's not know that there are brothers and sisters fully-trained ready to go, but they're not going because of funding. That might actually be the clearest application of 2nd Peter 3, "Looking forward to the day of God, and speed it's coming," how? Give money because those folks will be unleashed and unreached people groups will hear. Let's walk in the light of the Lord, as He's given it to us in the scripture, close with me in prayer.

Footprints in the Sand So last week, my family, we were on vacation and our church has a beautiful cottage in Ridgecrest, Rand Cottage, and over one of those beds, there is one of the most famous poems in the Christian experience. It's called "Footprints in the Sand." Have any of you ever seen that? All you have to do is walk into a Christian bookstore, and you'll see it. "Footprints in the Sand". It goes something like this, there are different versions, but it says this: One night I dreamed I was walking along the beach with the Lord. Many scenes from my life flashed across the sky. In each scene I noticed footprints in the sand. Sometimes there were two sets of footprints, other times there was one only. This bothered me because I noticed that during the low periods of my life, when I was suffering from anguish, sorrow or defeat, I could see only one set of footprints, so I said to the Lord, “You promised me Lord, that if I followed you, you would walk with me always. But I have noticed that during the most trying periods of my life there has only been one set of footprints in the sand. Why, when I needed you most, have you not been there for me?” The Lord replied, “The years when you have seen only one set of footprints, my child, is when I carried you.” Now, that image of the Lord carrying us through the hardest, the most bitter times of trial in our lives is extremely comforting and encouraging. And that, I think, explains the appeal of that poem and how much we yearn to have the Lord sustain us and carry us. I just don't think it goes far enough. I think there should just be one set of footprints all the time and they belong to Jesus, and He's carrying you all the time. Amen? It's not like, "God, I got this now, I'm good. Uh-oh, I've got some trouble now, please pick me up. Okay, I'm fine, you can put me back down again." We heard from John 15, what Daniel read to us, "I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." We rely on Him for everything. As the Apostle Paul said in Acts 17, "In Him, we live and move and have our being." But yet the comforting aspect of that poem is taught in Isaiah 46. Isn't it marvelous? The idea of a God who carries you through life, who sustains you, who nourishes you, who protects you, who gives you everything you need, is taught in Isaiah 46. He is the God who carries us. As the hymn writer put it so beautifully, "I need thee every hour, most gracious Lord," not just some of the hours of my life, but I need Him. I think it's what happens during those trials, we are most aware of God carrying us, we're most aware. When we think we've got it, that's actually where we're probably in greatest danger of being tempted, because we can become arrogant and we think that we can have some kind of existence apart from Christ, and we really can't. The Main Idea: Idols are Crushing Burdens, The True God Carries His People So as we come to Isaiah 46, we're coming to a contrast between the true and living God of the Bible and how He has promised to carry us through our lives, versus the gods of the nations who must be carried. We have the gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo, we're going to get introduced to them and get to know them briefly. You don't need to study much about Bel and Nebo because they're obsolete. We're going to talk about that, but they represent the gods of the nations, the idols of the nations who must be carried, and they are burdensome. They have to be carried. And so God is continuing here in this chapter, through Isaiah, His assault on the foolish wickedness of idols and idolatry. He directly contrast gods that you must carry, you've got to put them on a cart and they are burdensome to the oxen that dragged the cart, and they are burdensome to those that seek to carry them in their hearts, versus the God of the Bible who carries Israel and carries individuals, even to their old age and gray hairs. So, in Isaiah 46, just to get a bit of a context here, Isaiah the prophet lived about seven centuries before Christ was born. And he was a prophet, which means he had a special gift from God to be able to hear the Word of God and the messages of God, and those messages could cover any topic. They could cover things in the past, things in the present, things in the future. But it's especially God's ability to predict the future that he has been highlighting again and again, and again in this chapter too. He's the God who declares the end from the beginning. This God raised up in history, in space and time, a nation, the Jews. And He focused His redemptive plan on that nation. He called them out of a barren couple, Abraham and Sarah. Abraham 100 years old when the miracle baby was born, Isaac, and Sarah, who was barren her whole life and well beyond the years of bearing children, God gave them a miracle baby, and from that miracle baby, Isaac, came Jacob, and from Jacob came the 12 patriarchs, and from them, came the nation of Israel. And God raised up that nation and worked through them in a very powerful and sovereign way. He brought them out with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm out of Egypt, out of bondage and slavery. He endured their conduct for 40 years in the desert and brought them across the Jordan River through Joshua, to conquer the Promised Land and Canaan, in the very land He had told Abraham He was going to give to his descendants. But God warned them as they crossed that Jordan River that they were going there on condition that they keep His covenant. And if they didn't keep His covenant, if they especially worshipped the gods of the nations, if they followed the idols of the Canaanites, if they went after those false gods, God was going to evict them from the Promised Land. And sadly, they disobeyed. Though God warned them again and again through the prophets, they disobeyed. And so God had to evict the northern kingdom of the Jews, the 10 tribes, under the Assyrians and then a century-and-a-quarter later did the same with the rest of the Jews under Babylon. And so the Babylonians came in under Nebuchadnezzar, and they destroyed the temple, razed it and slaughtered just about everybody and a tiny group, a tiny remnant of Jews, about 4600 according to Jeremiah, went, a small remnant, went off into exile into Babylon. The rest died by the sword, famine, and plague. And so a large number of the Jewish nation were slaughtered at a time by the Babylonians. Now, Isaiah the prophet is writing Isaiah 46, before that has happened before the Babylonian invasion has even happened, it's far off, a century away. And so, he's warning them but not only that, he's saying beyond the Babylonian invasion, God is going to work out a retribution and a judgment on Babylon and he's going to destroy Babylon by Cyrus the Great, leading the Medo-Persian army. They're going to come in and they're going to destroy Babylon and a small remnant of Jews is going to be permitted to go back to the promised land and resume Jewish history there, rebuild the city of Jerusalem, rebuild the temple and continue redemptive history which eventually led to the coming of Christ, our Savior. And so God is working out this vast, this amazing plan, but He stops in the middle, here in Isaiah 46, to talk about the gods of the nations, and specifically the Babylonian gods. Now the way it worked back then in the ancient Near East, the way an invading army would think, is that they came in the power of their gods and they really did believe in this, they were polytheists and they thought that their gods would prove themselves to be more powerful than the gods of the nation they were defeating. And so Sennacherib, when he came with the Assyrians said that, "Who of all the gods of any of the nations that we've defeated has been able to stop us?" And so, they think this way. And so the military battle on earth, shows a greater battle in the heavens and it shows proof that their gods were more powerful than the other gods. Well that's true, I guess in the polytheistic way of thinking, if you believe in that, you just look at what's happening on the earth. But we know there is only one God, and God is orchestrating His purpose. And when Israel was defeated it wasn't because God was defeated by Bel and Nebo, the Babylonian gods. And so before any of that even happens, God says, there's going to come a time that Bel and Nebo, the gods of the Babylonians, are going to be destroyed. They themselves are going to go off into exile. Now, the word "Bel" is related to Baal, there's a similar mythology between Bel of the Babylonians and Baal of the Canaanites, they're similar. He's also called Marduk, sometimes, his son is Nebo in the mythology. You get "Bel" in the names like Belshazzar, and Belteshazzar in the Book of Daniel, you get Nebo in Nebuchadnezzar, his father Nabopolassar, these are the gods of the Babylonians. And so what God is saying here is that He is more powerful than any of the gods of the Babylonians, He's going to prove that in space and time, by orchestrating their defeat and their destruction. That's what He's saying, and He predicts it ahead of time, so that when it comes, they will say, "Okay this is the very thing you said was going to happen. But beyond that, He's looking at Bel and Nebo, these idols, these gods, as crushing burdens. Idols that crush us. And so what I'm going to do is I'm going to talk about that. I've already mentioned it in space and time, how the Babylonians worship these things, but I'm going to go and apply it to us as we've been doing to talk about our idols and our struggle with idolatry. And how Christ alone can set us free, so that's where we're going. I. The “gods” of Babylon a Crushing Burden, Crushed in the End (vs. 1-2) So let's look, verse by verse, and start up at this section here in Isaiah 46:1,2. The gods of Babylon are a crushing burden, and they are themselves crushed in the end. Look at verse 1 and 2, "Bel bows down, Nebo stoops low. Their idols are borne by beasts of burden. The images that are carried about are burdensome, they are burden for the weary. They stoop and bow down together, unable to rescue the burden, they themselves go off into captivity." So Bel and Nebo, these gods represented by their idols made of stone, probably covered with silver or gold, are depicted as crushing burdens for their weary worshipers. I think Isaiah sees a kind of procession here, maybe a religious procession or maybe it's just the Babylonians, fleeing for their lives, like refugees. And so they're going to put Bel and Nebo on a cart and that cart becomes very heavy with these idols. They're covered with very heavy, precious metals. Silver and gold are dense, they're heavy. And the idols are big and it's heavy, and so there's this procession. They're called burdensome, they're called a burden for the weary. And the weight of these idols is wearying to the beasts of burden, perhaps the oxen or other beasts of burden that are carrying these things out of Babylon. It's wearying work and isn't it amazing that their gods, the gods of Babylon, need to be carried at all? Our God is omnipresent. Wherever you go, He's already there and has been there since the beginning of time. There is no place where God is more than He is in another place, that's what the doctrine is of omnipresence. He is everywhere. I've likened it to... And He's not like an AM radio station. You guys probably, many of you don't even know what that is. When was the last time any of you listened to AM? But you know the signal's strong or weak, or you go under a bridge and it's gone, and then you come back out, forget it. But that's what AM used to be like, that's what it still is like. But the idea is, there's a stronger, weaker sense of the signal. That's not what God is like, God is equally strong everywhere, He is fully everywhere in the universe. And so He doesn't need to be transported, and so a number of these images, prophetic images of God show Him as, in Daniel 7, having a chariot with wheels. A chariot with fire, with wheels. Ezekiel even has wheels within wheels going in every direction, He moves, He is everywhere, and their gods need to be carried and even worse for their worshippers, their gods Bel and Nebo can't do anything to help them. They're completely discredited by this military defeat, by the crushing defeat of the Babylonian army and by the defeat of the walls of Babylon. Bel and Nebo are exposed as unable to save their people from Cyrus the Great and the Medo-Persian army, and so off they go into captivity, verse 2, whatever remnant is left of the Babylonians, will carry whatever idols of Bel and Nebo that are left after the conquest into captivity. Bel and Nebo could not save their people in the end. They couldn't save them at all, and like all idols in the end they fail their worshippers. Like all idols in the end they fail their worshippers. II. The Incomparable God Carries His People from Birth to Old Age (vs. 3- 5) The next section in verses 3-5, the incomparable God carries His people from birth, even to their old age. Look at verses 3-5, "Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all you who remain of the House of Israel, you whom I have upheld since you were conceived, and have carried since your birth, even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He, I am He who will sustain you, I have made you, and I will carry you, I will sustain you and I will rescue you. To whom will you compare Me or count Me equal? To whom will you liken Me that we may be compared?" So the prophet Isaiah here is calling across a century and a half, to the remnant of the Jews that will be alive at the time of Cyrus the Great's invasion. And he's calling to that remnant what's left of the house of Jacob, what remains of the House of Israel, He's calling to that remnant. The Jews, as I said, had been sent into exile by the punishment of God because they had worshipped idols, because they had followed the gods of the nations and they violated God's covenant, so He punished them and sent them. But this remnant was sent and He protected them, and He would not allow them to be assimilated into Babylonian culture, they maintained a Jewish identity like Daniel himself and Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, we know as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. They maintained their Jewish identity, protected them as a Jewish nation there. And He says that He is the God who upheld them since they were conceived, who carried them since their birth and who promises to continue to do this for them even to their old age and gray hairs. And so it was God that conceived the Jewish nation through Abraham and Sarah. When Abraham's body was as good as dead and Sarah's womb was dead, and God created a miracle baby Isaac and he raised up out of nothing a Jewish nation, He conceived them and He has been watching over the nation as a whole every day, and not only the big picture of the nation, but every individual member of it, every individual Jew, and we can extend that to us. It was God that knit you together in your mother's womb, that carefully put you together. And in Him, you live and move and have your being, it was God, it is God who has sustained your existence every day, you have no existence apart from God, whether you believe in Jesus or not, you have no existence apart from the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, apart from the God and Father of Jesus Christ. No existence apart from, He has been sustaining your existence. And He promises to continue to do that even to your old age and gray hairs. And for us, as believers in Christ, how precious is it to know that the same God who has not only caused you to be born but now through the gospel has caused you to be born again and He has given you a faith, and He will sustain that faith through all of your trials, even to your old age and gray hairs, He's going to watch over you and how marvelous is that? And He will rescue you even to the very end. So who then is like God? Who can you compare this God to? Certainly no idol, certainly not to Bel or Nebo, not at all. III. The Idols Cannot Move, Neither Can They Save (vs. 6-7) There is no one like him. Verses 6 and 7, The idols cannot move, neither can they save, it says there in verse 6-7. "Some pour out gold from their bags, they weigh out silver on the scales, they hire a goldsmith to make it into a god, and they bow down and worship it, they lift it to their shoulders and carry it, they set it up in its place, and there it stands. And from that spot, it cannot move. And though one cries out to it, it does not answer. It cannot save him from his troubles." So Isaiah 44, we've already seen the trip into the idol maker's shop, the workshop, you remember that guy, the guy who took the chunk of wood cut it in half; and half of it he used to cook his dinner and the other half he used to make a god and bowed down and said, "Save me, you're my god." So we get just a very brief trip into the craftsman's shop this time. Maybe a wealthy individual comes and says, "I'd like you to make me an idol," and some gold and silver are weighed out. And so, the idol maker crafts it. What's amazing to us in all of this is the Bible teaches it was God that crafted the craftsman. It was God that made that man, it was God that made the men and women that are worshipping these idols, and this god that has been contracted to be constructed, this god is a motionless god. Wherever you put him that's where he stays. And if you're running from your life as a Babylonian and you're going into exile, you better bring him with you because he's not coming unless you get him. He's a burden. Wherever he goes, he's a crushing burden, he's weighing you down. You got to carry him wherever you go. And though you cry out to Bel or Nebo they cannot save you, that's what he's saying. IV. Remember the God Who Plans and Orchestrates History (vs. 8-10) Now, in verses 8-10, God calls on His people to remember Him. He says, "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me, I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say, My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please. Praise God. So this is a call on God's people. Not just that generation but every generation to remember God. To remember Him, and to repent. He calls on these rebels, He calls them rebels there in verse in verse 8, "Remember this, fix it in mind, take it to heart you rebels." Remember and repent. Our God is a God who has acted in history. Remember how He called Abram out of Ur of the Chaldees, remember how He gave him that baby, that miracle baby when he was 100 years old. Remember how he gave to Isaac, Jacob when his wife was also barren, Jacob and Esau, and He chose Jacob and remember how He gave Jacob the 12 patriarchs and remember how God caused the nation of the Jews to be greatly multiplied, even in bondage in Egypt to the point where there were several million people, they were as numerous as the stars in the sky, and as countless as the sand in the seashore, as God had promised Abraham they would be. And remember how God intervened through Moses, to bring them out of that nation with a powerful hand and an outstretched arm. Remember the plague on the Nile River, remember how God turned all the freshwater in Egypt into blood, even the water that was in the pitcher on the table, turned it into blood. And remember how He brought the plague of the frogs and the gnats and the flies, and all of that, the plague of hail and boils and darkness and all of these plagues, God brought, judging the gods of Egypt and working on Pharaoh's heart, so that God would do all 10 plagues, including the dreadful final plague, the plague on the firstborn, which the firstborn of the Jews were only spared by the blood of the Passover lamb, which had been painted on the doorpost. Remember all of that, don't you remember what God has done for you? And then how God led you by a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud and how He brought you to the edge of the Red Sea and how Pharaoh came in his chariots and his soldiers, the most powerful military force on earth at the time, and how they trapped you against the Red Sea, and you cried out to the Lord; and the Lord said, "You don't need to do anything, just stand still, and see the salvation of your God." And so God went between the Pharaoh and his mighty army and these defenseless Jews with a pillar of cloud and fire and He gave light to the one side to the Jews, and darkness to the other all night; and they crossed and He opened up a way in the Red Sea, and they crossed as on dry ground. But when Pharaoh tried to follow, they couldn't, and they were destroyed by the same waters. Remember all of that, and remember how God endured your rebellion in the desert and remember how God descended in fire on Mount Sinai and God spoke to you, and you heard Him speak, you heard the voice of God. Not through a prophet, directly you heard Him speak the 10 Commandments and God gave you His covenant. And remember how 40 years later, after your rebellion God opened a way through the Jordan River and remember how you crossed that river, remember Jericho and the walls fell down, and God gave you the promised land. Remember that and all the things God's done since then. Remember these things. Fix it in your minds and hearts. Our God is a God who does these great works in history, the lifeless idols Bel and Nebo haven't done any of those things. But the Jews were rebels, he says, Who are lured by these idols, who are bowing down to them. God is the God who alone declares the end from the beginning, He's the one who predicts the future, He says what's going to happen. And He says in verse 10, "My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." This dear friends is one of the greatest clearest statements of the sovereignty of God in the Bible. Look at it again, look at verse 10, at the end. "I say 'My purpose will stand and I will do all that I please.'" The sovereignty of God is a doctrine that God rules like a king over everything that happens on the face of the earth, He is sovereign over everything that happens on the face of the earth, and that's precisely why He can predict the future because He's ordained it from before the foundation of the world, and He is omnipotent, no one can stop Him from doing what He wants to do. And so what God pleases, what He thinks is best, what He thinks is wise, that He will do, and no one can stop Him. And what He pleases, is He pleases to save a remnant of people from every tribe and language and people and nation, out of their wickedness and their idolatry and their sin through the shed blood of his son Jesus Christ and through the resurrection of Christ and by the gift of the Holy Spirit to save them out of their wickedness and their rebellion into an eternal state of glory where they'll be in resurrection bodies in a beautiful, perfect world, worshipping Him clearly forever. That's what He pleases to do. And all of these details of history, they're just part of that grand overarching plan. God is going to achieve every detail. Look at Verse 10 again. I say my purpose will stand and I will do 70% of what I please. Is that what it says? I will do... I'm working up toward 90%, I'm hoping to get 90% down of my plans today. No, God does all that He pleases, 100% of it. And nothing can stop it. V. God’s Plan: Bringing Salvation Near to Those Far Away (vs. 11-13) And so in verse 11-13, we have God's wise plan, and that is bringing salvation near to those who are far away. Verse 11, He says, "From the East, I summon a bird of prey from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about. What I have planned that will I do. Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness. I am bringing my salvation near, it is not far away. My salvation will not be delayed, I will grant salvation to Zion, my splendor to Israel." Now we look at that through the narrow lens of the immediate historical context. The bird of prey that's coming is Cyrus the Great. We've already met him earlier, he's coming from a distant land, and he's going to destroy Bel and Nebo, he's going to destroy Babylon. But look what He says, "From that distant land, from the East, I will summon this bird of prey." So you think about someone who trains a hawk or a falcon. You see them wearing like a leather glove. I've read about this, I've never seen it, but they take this bird of prey, and they put a hood on it. And they keep it from seeing and they feed it little bits of meat and they've got a leash on its talons and it's got its sharp talons and it's digging into the leather glove, not into the wrist of the falconer. And he's training it how to come back to him and what to do, and train little by little, and he is in charge of this bird of prey. And God is doing that with this great military conqueror the Cyrus the Great, He raises him up from nothing, trains and prepares him within his own nation and brings him against Babylon. You're like, "Can God do that?" Yes, He can, that's what He can do. He is the sovereign King of every nation. And from these, verse 11, He's going to summon this bird of prey to do His will, what He has purposed, that will He bring about, He says it very plainly. But the purpose of all of this isn't ultimately to do these little tricks in history, that's not it. What is He doing here? What is the purpose of all of this? It is salvation. He says it again and again, My purpose is to bring salvation. "Listen to me," He says, "You stubborn-hearted, you who are far from righteousness." Now just stop there just for a moment and understand what's being said that, you're far from Me, God is saying. I'm a righteous God and if you're far from righteousness, you're far from Me, and you're stubborn-hearted and you're rebellious and you're idolaters. So listen to Me, faith comes by hearing, I'm communicating to you. And you're far from righteousness, so I'm going to bring righteousness near to you. The Bible says in Romans 3, "There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have become worthless. There is no one who does good, not even one." We were all naturally far from righteousness. And so what God is doing in history is bringing salvation near to us, who are far away, not just the Gentiles, but the Jews also, who are far from righteousness. And so by the birth of Jesus Christ and by the life of Christ and the death of Jesus Christ and His resurrection, He is bringing righteousness near to us, who are rebels. Righteousness close to us who are far away, and for what? So that He can shine, radiantly in Zion, that's what it says at the very end. Zion as that city where God will dwell together with His people. Physically Jerusalem over and over in the Old Testament, Zion equals Jerusalem. But bigger picture, it's the new Jerusalem, the city where God will dwell with His people forever. VI. Applications Alright, so that's the chapter. What applications can we take from this? Well, first I just want to ask, as you walked in here today, what did you drag in here with you? What idols are dragging behind you? What are you chained to that is dragging you down? And we've been looking at this for weeks now and I think it's still something each of us underestimates. What Bel and Nebo are you chained to? Now, you're like, Bel and Nebo who worships them? Nobody does. That's the point. All of the idols are going to be discredited in the end, all of them. Everything you live for. Any created thing, anything that captures your heart, that becomes the focus of your life, that isn't the God of the Bible is an idol. So it could be gods, could be the gods of the Hindus or the Buddhists, which are crafted from human imagination induced by satanic influences. The gods of the Hindus or the Buddhists, Allah of the Muslims. It's not the God of the Bible, it's not the true God, but it's more than that. We have our heart idols as we've been talking about. So, what's yours, what did you struggle in here with? Perhaps it's money, perhaps you're living for money. So it's a very powerful idol. You're living for a greater income, a more comfortable lifestyle? Staggering under the weight. I want you to picture yourself, you who struggle with the idolatry of money, swimming from a sinking ship, trying to make it to shore. And you've got a small box of gold coins. It's not huge, so it's manageable, so you think. And it's under one arm and you're swimming with one arm. But you're not making it, and you're getting tired and you're getting sunk by the weight of this idol. That's what it's like, it sinks you, these idols drown your soul. Paul specifically warned against the love of money. Says in 1 Timothy 6, "…godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. People who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." So because of a love of money, some of you may be working far too many hours in your job seeking to please your supervisor. Because you're not content with a simple lifestyle perhaps you have a high credit card debt and you're paying a good chunk of your money in interest to Chase Manhattan or to Discover, so you're working on their plantation, you're indentured servant to them and they're getting wealthy on you. And why? Because you couldn't be content with a simple lifestyle. Because you're not content with a simple house, you're tempted to overreach yourself on a mortgage and you're paying too much every month on a mortgage, it's weighing you down. Because you're not content with simple meals, you eat out too much and the root at the root of all of this discontent is idolatry. Perhaps your idol is work, it's achievement and accomplishment. You're a beast of burden to relentless ambition to achieve things. Maybe you're a workaholic you're a driven person and you're addicted to the good feeling that comes from the checklist, and getting all of those things checked off. Or maybe it's society's checklist or it's an institution, a university's checklist, and you get that checked off, you feel good about yourself. Maybe you're just a neat freak and you just like to have everything in perfect order. I'm not that way, I'm not totally the other way, but... But to some people, it just... Everything has to be perfect. And so, you derive your sense of worth from achievements and accomplishments. These are idols on a cart that you're dragging behind you. But there are others of you that are exactly the opposite way, you don't actually achieve a lot in your life. Your idol is pleasure, comfort, ease and perhaps sleep. The Bible describes the sluggard in the Book of Proverbs, and you just live for that, you live for ease and pleasure and comfort and you just enjoy that kind of lifestyle. You're the sluggard who can never sleep enough, you need to have somebody move your hand from the dish up to your mouth and help you eat like your mama did, it's held you back all your life because you love ease and comfort, the taking the path of least resistance. You're an under-achiever and you fail to meet the normal expectations of life because of this idolatry that in which you're preferring yourself and comfort and ease. A subset of that is just the love that we Americans have for food, it's just amazing how many restaurants there are in any city or any within... How many are there within five miles of this place? And they're growing popping up all the time. Now, again, there's nothing wrong with loving food or loving good food, the issue is, is it what you live for? Overeating, over-indulging. Perhaps your idol is power and control, you just enjoy dominating the people around you, or perhaps you live for the approval of other people, you just every day someone else has the keys of your heart and you have to please them and make them happy and you live for approval and you're frustrated when you don't get it. You'll do things, serving things, whatever, and if the people don't notice it, you get frustrated and angry and irritable, and prickly about it. Some people make an idol of their bodies, they live for physical fitness, alright, they go to the workout gym and achieve personal goals all the time. They have mirrors up on the walls. Have you seen it? The mirrors and people pose in front of them, I've been told. I've not been to a gym, I don't, I don't do the... I do more cardio stuff, but you can tell... Just never mind, I'm not going into all of that, but... "Yes, pastor, we know you're not into physical fitness." But no, they just live for being able to see their ribs or the washboard, the six-pack, something like that, or on the other side, just looking for, looking at physical beauty, the hair, the face, the makeup, the jewelry, the look, the fashion, all of that, and that's an idol, and you're dragging it behind you like a heavy weight all the time. And it gets even worse as you age, and some people will fight with cosmetic surgery or Botox or all that, but they're fighting the aging. The Scripture says, "Even to your old age and gray hairs… I will sustain you." But they're fighting that. Or perhaps your idol is something more secret, more shameful, something you haven't told anyone else about. There could be people here that are struggling with addictions to pornography or to alcohol or to drugs and these idols are like 100-pound weights and they're dragging your soul down, perhaps even toward hell. And you don't know how to be free from all these burdens that you dragged in here today. Christ can set you free. Praise God. Jesus says, "Everyone who sins is a slave to sin… But if the Son sets you free, you'll be free indeed." Hallelujah. Christ came to take the guilt for all of your idolatries, up to this very moment, and to the end of your life on Himself. He isn't a burden, He carries your burdens. He takes all of your guilt and your sin and your disease and suffering on Himself and He went to the cross, and He died in your place that you might have eternal life. So trust in Him. Put your trust fully in Christ. And for you who are already Christians, continue to trust in Christ crucified and resurrected for the severing of the chains of these idols you've been dragging your whole life, your whole life, trust in Him. And trust in Him for the rest of your lives. Look again at Verse 4, "Even to your old age and gray hairs, I am He. I am He who will sustain you, I have made you, and I will carry you, I will sustain you, and I will rescue you." Do not fear the future. God will carry you every day of your life, until at last, He takes you into glory. He's going to save you and rescue you. And when you are the most burdensome, when you are the most dead weight, when your corpse is in the grave, He will come to your grave and He will call you from the grave and you will come to life in a resurrection body and you will live forever. He will lift you up out of death and give you eternal life. As He said very, very plainly, and I love this, "My Father's will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in Him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day." This past week Brittany Maynard took her life, you know that story about her, public suicide, and she was doing it in the name of death with dignity. Can I just submit to you that Christians alone know how to die with dignity. Because Jesus showed us how. The grave isn't the end, it is appointed to each one of us to die once and after that, to face judgment. We are freed from wrath and judgment. Amen, hallelujah. We're freed from that, and God is going to raise us up. We can get old age, gray hair, all of that with dignity because God is going to raise us up in a resurrection body so glorious we're going to shine like the sun forever and ever. Close with me in prayer.

The Mocking Laugh So the story I'm about to tell you is in no way commending a strategy for discipleship, but I'm just going to tell you something that happened to me, alright? Shortly after I came to faith in Christ, I was discipled very well by a guy at MIT. We met together really almost, I wouldn't say daily, but every couple of days we got together and he did a phenomenal job, Tim Shuman. And one day in particular though, I'll never forget this day. We were at the dining hall there on-campus, and it was Friday, and we were meeting together and having a meal. Now, like many Catholics growing up, I abstained from eating meat on Fridays. That put me into an immediate problem because I hate fish. So I was eating grilled cheeses especially during Lent, every Friday. So we were sitting down at the table and he got the usual, a cheeseburger and all that, and fries, and there I was with my grilled cheese, he said, "I thought you like cheeseburgers." I said, "I love them." He said, "Why didn't you get one?" I explained to him that I don't eat meat on Fridays. This is after I'd come to faith in Christ. He paused, and then he laughed in my face. He just laughed at me, and he actually had trouble composing himself. It took a while. I'm like, "What?" And he said, "Look, that's not in the Bible. You're free to eat whatever you want on Fridays." And it's only been in the recent years as I've studied church history and found out where all that came from, but that was a superstition, really, that was part of my upbringing, but was no part of the Bible. But what I want to tell you is, there was an impact to that laugh, that mocking laugh. I think it was a mocking laugh. And as we come to Isaiah 44, I think we're going to hear God, God's mocking laughter concerning idolatry. This is a humorous chapter about something that's actually not funny at all. And God's laughter is meant to get in our face, and make us realize how ridiculous it is to worship anything but the God of the Bible. How utterly foolish it is to think that we can concoct a god out of our own imagination and then our hands can skillfully shape and craft that god and then we can bow down and worship. The whole thing is ridiculous, and foolish. And yet, how many people do exactly that? We Americans may not struggle with shrines, and statues and altars, but I can assure you, millions of people around the world do precisely the things that are described in this chapter. They shape and craft idols and they bow down and worship them. But we Americans we have our idols too. And so today what we're going to do is we're going to follow the Prophet Isaiah into the workshop of the idol maker, and we're going to hear from Heaven, the laughter of our Sovereign God concerning all of it, the mocking laughter about idolatry. But we're not going to stop in the workshop, we're going to go from the workshop to the hospital, spiritual hospital. And we're going to have the spiritual physician, Christ, sit down with each of us and tell us what our idols are and how serious they are, and then we're going to go to the operating room God willing and have them addressed. So that's the journey that's in front of us today, in Isaiah 44. John Calvin said, "The human heart is an idol factory." And we're going to have a chance today to look at that factory, we're going to look in our own hearts. And as I've said again and again in Isaiah, it is dangerous for us to say, "Oh those sinners out there, how they do that," etcetera. We are meant to be humbled by this, we're meant to be convicted by it and we're meant to be transformed by it. Now, the idea of idolatry is going to hold this whole chapter together. Isaiah is a challenge because he goes it seems from one topic to the next, to the next. And finding a cohesive theme isn't always easy to do. But I think in this chapter, it's pretty easy to see that idolatry really holds the entire chapter together. The chapter begins in verses 1-5 with God's promise to pour out His spirit and create his children. The Context of Isaiah Now again, the immediate context of Isaiah the Prophet, 7th century BC, 700 BC. I think by then we can understand that the Assyrian threat was gone, Sennacherib had taken what was left of his army, and after 185,000 of his soldiers had been killed in one night, by the Angel of the Lord, he's gone, the Assyrian threat is gone, it's over. But now, he's facing the future and the new threat is the idolatry that's going to come in under Hezekiah's son Manasseh, and then God's inevitable judgment on Judah and on Jerusalem for that idolatry. He's going to bring the Babylonians and the Babylonians are going to come in and they're going to destroy Judah and Jerusalem. They're going to raze the temple, they're going to level it, and they are going to kill most of the people in the land and a small remnant of the Jews are going to be brought into exile into Babylon. But then in the providence of God beyond that 70-year exile to Babylon, God is going to raise up an individual whom he names, by name identifies a century and a half before it happens, more than that probably before it happens. Cyrus the Great, identified in this chapter by name as the one who would allow a small remnant of Jews to come back from exile to Babylon and rebuild Judah and Jerusalem, to lay the foundations of the temple. All of this in the future. And so, the idolatry that would cause this exile is yet in the future, and the remedy to it, yet in the future. And God's ability to predict the future so specifically sets him apart from the gods, all the counterfeit gods, as Tim Keller calls it, that there are. He's the only one who can do it. And so, as we look at his prophetic ability, we are going to see that only God can do this. I. God Promises to Pour Out His Spirit and Create His Children (vs. 1-5) Now, in verses 1-5, God promises to raise up that remnant of His children to be eventually a large nation who will populate the desolated Judah and Jerusalem. And God is going to do that by His Spirit. So that's the context here immediately, but I believe there's a larger context. And that these verses, in verse 1-5, speak also about God's sovereign ability to pour out His Spirit on Jews and gentiles alike who are dead in their transgressions and sins, and bring them to faith in Christ so that they can be the children of the living God. And God is able by His spirit to raise up eternal children, children of the living God, by his spirit. I think that's in view as well. So look at verses one and two, God softly calls Jacob to listen to him. He says, "But now, listen O Jacob, my servant. Israel, whom I have chosen, this is what the Lord says, He who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you. Do not be afraid O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun [that means my righteous one] whom I have chosen." So he's calling to His chosen people. And we know that faith comes by hearing, he says, "Listen to me, listen to what I'm saying, he wants you to hear God's word so that your faith can be strengthened." Then in verse three the Lord promises to pour out His Spirit on the dusty ground. He says, "For I will pour water on the thirsty land and I will pour streams on the dry ground, and I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants." Now, again and again in these 10 chapters of Isaiah 40 to 49, in this we get this image of a dry and thirsty land, a desert land that then suddenly flourishes and buds and blossoms and has rivers of water flowing through it. And I believe that we can take a physical side to that. There is a cursing that's happened on the earth because of Adam's sin, because of the Jews sin there was a cursing on the Promised Land and that's fine. And I believe in the new heaven and the new earth, we will see this world as it was meant to be. And how beautiful will that renewed almost resurrected earth be, the new Heavens and the new Earth. But in verse three, we have some Hebrew parallelism. You see Hebrew parallelism a lot in the prophets, in the Psalms, in Proverbs where the same thing is said twice in slightly different words so you get an idea they... The verse interprets itself. So Isaiah 44:3 is a very important verse for me that says this streams and the wasteland image really has to do with the spirit of God. It has to do with the spirit's work on his people. Look what it says, "I will pour water on the thirsty land and streams on the dry ground, I will pour out my spirit on your offspring and my blessings on your descendants." So the idea of the pouring of the spirit, as I've mentioned before, the Spirit frequently likened to water. Like rain flowing from... Flowing down from the clouds or springs that you can drink from or rivers. Again, and the verb frequently used with the Spirit is "pour." So the Spirit is poured out on us, we get this on the day of Pentecost. Remember when Peter quoting Joel two is explaining what's happened when the Holy Spirit has come on the church. And they are... They have just streamed out into the streets and he's trying to explain what's happening there and he quotes Joel two, in the last days he says, God says, "I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days." And in verse 21 there, in Acts 2:21, it says, "And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." That's Acts 2:21. But that image of pouring and when the Spirit is poured down from above, people cry out to God from below up. And we call on the name of the Lord and we are saved. And so I think not only is God promising to restore a remnant of Jews and populate biologically The Promised Land, so that there will be children running in the streets like Zechariah talks about, there will be people there. Yes, yes, yes. But more than that, that God is going to send forth His Spirit in every generation, and he's going to raise up children for the living God. And that's an awesome thing, isn't it? He's going to populate the New Jerusalem, he's going to populate heaven with his spirit and his children are going to spring up. Remember how John the Baptist said that God is able out of these stones to raise up children for Abraham. And we are, are we not the stones that were brought to life? Are we not children of Abraham, who have believed in Jesus? As it says in John 1:12-13, "As many as did receive Him, [Jesus] to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." And in that same book, in John 3, we find out we're born of the Spirit. Amen. So the Spirit comes, and He makes us children of the living God and I think that's what's going on here in verses 1-5. We are going to be in verse five among those Gentiles who say, "Hey I belong, I'm included. We'll, we'll like outdo each other to say how Jewish we are by we're honorary Jews." Look at verse five, "One will say 'I belong to the Lord.' Another will call himself by the name of Jacob, still another will write on his hand, the Lord's, and will take the name Israel." I think this is talking about outsiders who become spiritually children of Abraham, that's us. And so God is going to pour out His Spirit and He's going to raise up children. Now biologically yes, through the remnant and that's important but the bigger picture has to do with the spread of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. II. God Alone Can Explain the Past and Predict the Future (vs. 6-8) Now, in verses six through eight, God sets aside some verses to talk about his own greatness because he's about to address the issue of idolatry and he wants to say that he alone can explain life. He's the only one that can explain history. Look what he says in verse six, "This is what the Lord says, Israel's king and redeemer, the Lord Almighty. 'I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God.'" First and last, that language is that language of the sequence of events. He is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the first and the last, the beginning and the end of what really? Of all of human history, of redemptive history. You know, in the beginning, God created heavens and earth. So there's a beginning. God is the beginning, He is the first and he is the last. And there's a story unfolding here. He alone understands history, he alone controls history. He says, "I am the first and I am the last. Apart from me, there is no God. Who then is like me, let him proclaim it, let him declare and lay out before me. What has happened since I established my ancient people in the past and what is yet to come? Yes, let him foretell what will come." So he's saying, "Look, you don't even know the past. You don't know what's happened since I established my ancient people, from the very beginning. You don't even know the sequence of events that's led to the day you're at right now." Historians will tell you how hard it is to know the past. It's actually very difficult. Professional historians can spend years and years studying a single event, a battle, Battle of Waterloo or The Battle of Gettysburg or something like that, and understand all the forces that went into it and what actually happened. And even if there's an eyewitness, he only has a small slice of the truth. Historians talk about the fog of war, and it's hard to see really what's going on. So he says, "You don't even know the past, you don't know what's happened up to this point. But now let's talk about what you definitely don't know, what you definitely cannot do, O idols, O gods of the nations. Let your idols come in, let your gods come in and let them predict the future, let them do what I'm about to do in this chapter. Let them name some ruler who's going to come 150 years from now by name and let it happen, let's see if your god can do something like that." And so, He's setting Himself apart as the great God who alone can do these things. Now, look at verse eight. Here, he identifies his chosen people as his witnesses in this idolatrous world. In this god and goddess soldered world, we are the witnesses of the true God. Look at verse eight, he says, "Do not tremble, do not be afraid. Did I not proclaim this and foretell it long ago? You are my witnesses. Is there any God besides me? No, there is no other rock. I know not one." Now, you may ask, "What is he talking about?" At the end of the chapter, He's going to name Cyrus, by name. We've talked about this already for weeks. But this, and the next chapter, these are the two Cyrus chapters in which He is identified by name. Now we're going to do more with Cyrus God willing, next week. But it's at the very end that in Isaiah 44:28, he identifies Cyrus, and he says, he is the very one who's going to say, of the towns of Jew to let them be rebuilt. And of Jerusalem, let it be inhabited. And of the temple, that its foundations be laid. And so he does all of this. This is mind-boggling. He predicts the future and he says he's going to do this. Now again, you think about the perspective. By then, there weren't any threats. People were back in their towns and Judah and Jerusalem was doing well and thriving under Hezekiah and none of these things had even happened, yet. And you're hearing from Isaiah the Prophet, "Oh, don't worry, God's going to allow Judah to be rebuilt. And the cities, the ruin of Jerusalem will be restored and it will be repopulated" and this is the clincher "of the temple, its foundations will be laid and there'll be a new temple build so don't worry." It's like, "Whoa, wait a minute now, we have a good temple, we have a really good temple. Solomon built us a good temple. What are you saying?" "I'll tell you what I'm saying, it's going to be destroyed. It's going to be destroyed. And the towns of Judah are going to be leveled. And Jerusalem is going to be stripped of all people. But through Cyrus, through this man Cyrus, all of that is going to be reversed and I'm going to re-populate this land." It's staggering what God is doing in this chapter, it's amazing. 100 plus years before Cyrus would have been born, 150, 160 years or more before these things would be fulfilled. That's what he's saying, and God alone can do this. III. God Ridicules Idol-Makers (vs. 9-20) Now, in verses 9-20, he takes us into the workshop of the idol makers, the idolaters, the idol manufacturers, and he shows us this process by which idols are actually made. Look at verse 9-11, idol makers and idol worshippers alike will be shamed. He says there, "All who make idols are nothing, and the things they treasure are worthless. Those who would speak up for them are blind, they are ignorant to their own shame. Who shapes a God, who casts an idol which can profit him nothing? He and his kind will be put to shame. Craftsmen are nothing but men. Let them all come together and take their stand, they will be brought down to terror and infamy." So God here highlights the worthlessness of both the idols and the idolaters. "They're both worthless," He says. Now you may think that is harsh but here's the thing, there's a basic principle here at work. You become like what you worship. You become like what you worship. We have an old saying, "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery." Well, the greatest form of flattery there could be, would be worship. And so therefore, it makes perfect sense that what you worship is going to have an effect on who you are, it's going to shape who you are. Now, for us as Christians, we worship Jesus Christ as God and we are being transformed. We're being conformed to the image of Christ by that, do you see? We're being transformed by the Spirit, little by little, made more and more like Christ, we're being conformed to Christ by worshipping Him. But idolaters gradually become more and more like the idols they worship which means in this text, more and more worthless. More and more worthless. Idols are worthless and if you worship them, you become worthless too. That's what the text is saying. And the end result of that downward journey is wrath on the day of judgment, God's wrath against the idolaters on the day of judgment. He says they will be brought down to terror and infamy, they'll be stripped and shamed on that day for their idolatry. And so, in Verse 12-17, He ridicules the actual process by which idols are made. Look at verse 12 and follow me. It says, "The blacksmith takes a tool and works with it in the coals; he shapes an idol with hammers, he forges it with the might of his arm. He gets hungry and loses his strength; he drinks no water and grows faint. The carpenter measures with a line and makes an outline with a marker; he roughs it out with chisels and marks it with compasses. He shapes it in the form of man, of man in all his glory, that it may dwell in a shrine. He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak. He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow. It is man's fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, 'Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.' From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, 'Save me; you are my god.'" So, we're led here into the workshop of the idol maker. The first idol is made out of metal, so it's a metal worker. You get the picture of this blacksmith in a blacksmith shop, and he's pounding away on the anvil and heating the thing up and pounding it some more. And he's sweaty, this man and he's getting weak as he works, and that's kind of a big feature here in the ridicule. He gets weaker, and weaker, and maybe he forgets to drink some water. He doesn't have a lunch, and so he's getting weaker and weaker as he makes his god. And what a contrast that is from Isaiah 40, where we're told God never gets weary ever. God's like a raging fire that can ignite infinite numbers of logs or trees and burn them to ashes and he doesn't get diminished at all by that, he never gets tired. But here's this god-maker, and he gets weary in the heat as he goes on, as he's making this. And at the end of the day, you can see him mopping his brow and feeling satisfied he's made a good god that can now sell well. It'll sell. Or he himself, maybe he made it for himself, and he'll bow down and worship it. Or then we're led into the carpenter shop and we're given some different techniques some different tools, same thing though. He's working with... He's a wood worker, skilled craftsman. And it's funny, I read this once, I don't remember where it was or even who it was, but it was a famous sculptor and he was asked how he could make such a magnificent sculpture of a horse? And he said, "Well I choose a block of marble and then I carve away everything that doesn't look like a horse." Or it's like Bach saying, "Music is easy, you just hit the right note at the right time. What's so hard about that?" But here's this skilled craftsman and he just carves away everything. Now, here's the catch. That doesn't look like a god. What is it that? What do you mean? Oh, so you get an idea in your head first of a god or goddess and you think of it, and then your hands move out and execute your internal vision and thoughts. Do you not see the hubris, the arrogance to that? Scripture tells us that we are shaped and created by God in his image. But now we've got an idol maker who's getting an idea of a god in his mind, and he shapes and makes it. Who's in control of that process? He is, and he's making the god. Do you see the wickedness of it and the evil of it? And so that's what is going on here. The idol maker then makes this... And he ridicules the whole process. He says, he goes out, maybe he's got a grove of trees specially designed like you know chosen hardwoods. The hardwoods are harder to work, but they're going to be worth more money. And so you can make a better god or goddess out of it, sell a little bit better. So he's an expert at wood. And I love how it says he plants a tree and listen to this "the rain makes it grow." Do you love that? It's like, "Yeah, I made that grow," God's saying, "I give life to everything." But he's blind to that. And so, up comes this tree after some decades it gets big enough, round enough, and he says, "Okay, this is a good one," and chops it down. And he's got this log and I picture him having a hard time getting on the ox cart or whatever, rolling it somewhere. It's too big for the god he has in mind. The god he has in mind about that big, maybe. So I'm like, "How do you decide how big your god should be?" But that's about it. "So actually I have some extra wood left over, fine. I'll make a fire and eat from it and warm myself." God is ridiculing all this. And he's very detailed, he says, "Okay, let's go back over what we talked about. Remember, half of it he used for the fire, half of it he used to make his bread or roast his meat and warm himself." And he says, he even says, "I'm warm, I see the fire," he's saying. But from the other half, he made a god, which he says bow down... He bows down and says, "Save me, you're my god." Absolutely ridiculous. Half for the fire, which he sees and enjoys. Half for a god, which he bows down and trusts. You know what I wonder? Imagine he had a helper who'd come in and clean up the shop and he only got like half-way done carving the thing. And the guy accidentally threw it in the fire, the god in the fire. And he comes in, and he's like, "No, no!" And he runs and grabs it and beats the fire. He's like, "That's my god, he's burning. Don't do that." So what is he really worshipping? What's the difference between that and the log he did burn? His own skill, his own ingenuity, his own craftsmanship. That's what he's worshipping. God Exposes the Mindlessness of Idolatry And so in verses 18-20, God exposes the mindlessness of idolatry. "They know nothing, they understand nothing, their eyes are plastered over so they cannot see. Their minds closed, so they cannot understand." You don't really know who he's talking about here. Is he talking about the idol or the idolater? Dear friends, he's talking about both. Don't you see it? Both the idol and the idolater, they're the same, they're blind, they're dead, they're motionless, they don't see anything, they don't hear anything. Their minds are closed so they cannot understand. No one stops to think, no one has the knowledge or understanding to say, "Half of it I use for fuel. I even bake bread over its coals, I roasted meat and I ate. Shall I make a de-testable thing from what is left? Shall I bow down to a block of wood?" He feeds on ashes, a deluded heart misleads him. Now that's right there in that verse, in verse 20, that's the key for us Americans. The essence of idolatry is in a deluded heart that misleads us, and we're going to come back to that at the end of the message. He doesn't have the ability to save himself. Do you know that? No idolater can save him or herself. They can't, they're trapped, they're in prison. And only Jesus can save them. Only Christ crucified, resurrected can save them. Only the blood of Jesus applied by the sovereign Spirit of God can rescue people and turn idolaters into children of the living God. They can't save themselves, they are becoming like what they worship. IV. God Has Swept Away Our Sins Like a Mist, So Rejoice! (vs. 21-23) Now, in verses 21-23, we have the incredible good news of God sweeping away our sins like a mist so rejoice. Verse 21, "Remember these things O Jacob, for you are my servant. O Israel, I have made you, you are my servant. O Israel, I will not forget you." So he says, "Look I'm committed to remembering you, I'll never forget you, would you please remember me? Would you remember who I am? Remember that I am the living God, remember to worship me? Remember these things?" Again, Isiah, at that moment most of the wickedness and the idolatry was yet to come, it hadn't happened yet. "So as you're going through it, remember me. And then when you're in exile, remember me. When you're trapped in sin, remember me for I will never forget you." And in verse 22, he says, "I have swept away your offenses like a cloud, your sins like the morning mist. Return to me, for I have redeemed you." Oh, friends, what an incredibly gracious God we serve. Amen. He can take our sins, did you see? I thought it was interesting. We had a morning mist this morning. It was kind of out where we were in Bahama, it was kind of swirling around and kind of misty, nasty and all that. And I was like, I was thinking about this exact verse, and I was thinking how it was such a block between us and the sunshine of a bright pleasant day which we had yesterday. And how it's a picture of how our sins separate us from God. And you can't get at them, there's nothing... Suppose you said, "I don't like this mist, I'm going to get rid of it." What are you going to do, how are you going to get rid of your morning mist? You cannot do it. And we don't tend to think of our sins like that, our sins seem massive, like mountain ranges. But to God, through Christ, they're like a morning mist. And he can burn it off with the bright sunshine, the heat of the glory of Christ at the cross. He can burn off our sins and we are free at last from all of our idolatry. And so it seems reasonable for us that we should celebrate. Look at verse 23, "Sing for joy O heavens! For the Lord has done this. Shout aloud, O earth beneath. Burst into song you mountains, you forests and all you trees for the Lord has redeemed Jacob, he displays his glory, in Israel." We should celebrate and not only us, but all of creation is going to celebrate. What is... How is the Earth going to sing when at last, the sons and daughters of the living God are fully revealed in resurrection glory? How beautiful will the new Heaven and new Earth be. And how much will it sing in some mysterious way, under our feet as we walked on it, and we see the beauty of this world, we should yearn for it, it's going to be magnificent. So all of this is amazing. God's, cele... We should celebrate God's ability to take our idolatries and our sins and wickedness and move them away like the morning mist, that we can celebrate his grace and his glory forever. V. God Raises Up Cyrus to Rebuild Jerusalem (vs. 24-28) Now, in verses 24-28, we have this section. I've already touched on it, I'm not going to do much with it now. Next week, we'll talk more about Cyrus, but go ahead and look at it briefly. In Verse 24, God says, He alone created all things. "This is what the Lord says, your redeemer who formed you in the womb. 'I am the Lord who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the Earth by myself.'" So God is the alone creator and He is the alone savior. By the way, this is a great, great verse to parallel with the verses in the New Testament that teach that God created everything through Jesus. "Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made," John 1:3. Hebrews 1:2 says that God created all things through the Son. Colossians 1 teaches that it was Christ, who created all things. So if you get the fierce monotheism of this verse saying, "I am the only God there is, there is no one like me." And then Jesus comes in as the co-creator with the Father, you get the deity of Christ, the doctrine of the trinity very plainly from that. But God says, He's the only one who creates, the only one who can redeem. And in verse 25-26, He foils false prophecies and fulfills true ones. Who foils the signs of false prophets, who makes fools of diviners, who overthrows the learning of the wise and turns it into nonsense, who carries out the words of his servants and fulfills the predictions of his messengers, like Isaiah and Jeremiah, and Hosea, and Habakkuk and all of the true prophets, God fulfills what they said but the false prophets go away. And what is he specifically talking about? Well, Jerusalem shall be inhabited, the towns of Judah, shall be built, the ruins will be restored, he's going to have the foundation of the temple laid, that's what he says he's going to do. Verse 27, "He says of the watery deep, 'Be dry. And I will dry up your streams,' who says of Cyrus, 'he is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please.' He will say of Jerusalem, 'let it be rebuilt. And of the temple, let its foundations be laid.'" VI. Applications Alright, so as we look at this chapter, what applications can we take from this? Well, I want to go immediately now to the issue of idolatry. Now, I've been in nations in which the idolatry was open and obvious and visible. I've been to India for example, there is no nation that I've ever been to in which the gods and goddesses are so plainly on display. But I lived in Japan for two years, same thing, same kind of thing. So there are nations in which there are actual statues and statuettes and gods and things like that, the people bow down, they actually do bow down and worship. This goes on all over the world. But for us Americans, it's more the idols of the heart, and no one I think has thought so clearly and so well about idols of the heart as Tim Keller. He wrote a book called "Counterfeit Gods." He's a pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian in New York City, and wrote a book called "Counterfeit Gods." I would commend it to you. But you've already heard Daniel give this definition, what is an idol? It's anything more important to you than God, anything that absorbs your heart and imagination more than God, anything you seek to give you what only God can give. An idol is whatever you look at and say in your heart of hearts, "If I have that, then I will feel that my life has meaning. Then I'll know I have value, then I'll feel significant and secure." That's what an idol is. Well, how can you identify it? Sometimes when you have a splinter, have you ever felt that? And you're trying to find it, you take your fingernail and you drag it, it's like, "There it is, feel it. It's right there. I know it's there," you can feel it. And so I want you to do that now over the next couple of minutes, I want you to hear some of the things that Keller says and says, "Maybe I have that kind of an idol at work in my life." Can I just tell you a big picture? Remember I said we're going from the workshop to the hospital? We're in the hospital now, and the physician is going to talk to you about your aches and pains. He's going to ask you some questions and he's going to talk to you so he can find out. Now, is there anyone here who isn't laboring under idolatry? Do you think so? Do you think there's anybody here that isn't in some way being pulled by idolatry? I can't imagine that, I hope you know, this is something we all struggle with, all of us. It says in 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's a problem for all of us. So how do I identify it? Well, Keller recommends four ways. First of all, look at your imagination. "The true God of your heart," he says, "Is what your thoughts effortlessly go to when there's nothing else demanding your attention." When your mind's relaxed, what do you go to? What do you enjoy daydreaming about? What is it that occupies your mind when you have nothing else to think about? Do you develop potential scenarios about career advancement or material goods, like a dream home, or a relationship with a specific person maybe? Now, he says that one or two daydreams doesn't mean it's an idol, but it may be indicating some of that. Secondly, how about your money, how do you spend your money? I think the way the money goes can show what's got a hold on your heart. Jesus said, "Where your treasure is there, your heart will be also." Your money flows most effortlessly toward your heart's greatest love. In fact, the mark of an idol is that you spend too much money on it. So it could be a hobby, it could be vacations, it could be cars, it could be a home, as he said, or home improvement, it could be any one of those things, but just look at how you spend your money. Thirdly, he says, for the religious, what is it that frustrates you about God? What do you do when your prayers aren't answered. Frustrated hopes and unanswered prayers can show idols sometimes. Some of you if you don't get your prayers answered the way you want, you just go on, you trust God with that and you go on, it's not an idol. It's something you want, you desire, you're praying for, but it's not an idol, but others of you just can't move on and start to charge God with wrong-doing because he's not answering your prayer the way you want Him to. Its an indication of an idol, says Tim Keller. And how about fourthly, your uncontrollable emotions, uncontrollable emotions like anger. Is there something... As you get... If you lose your temper with a family member, a spouse, or with a co-worker, or road rage, or any of that, is there an idol down below that? He would say there probably is. What about feeling strong feelings of fear or despair or guilt? Those feelings can be indicators of idols. And then he gives a list, and this is really helpful. I'm not going to give them all to you, we're almost out of time. But he has this saying, "Life only has meaning or I only have worth if this is happening for me," that's a language of idolatry. For example, life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I have power and influence over other people. I'm in charge, I'm in control. "Well, you have a power idolatry," he would say. Or life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I'm loved and respected by this person or this group, that's approval idolatry in that way. Or life only has meaning or I only have worth, if I have this kind of pleasure experience, like your team winning the National Championship. "Don't touch that kind of thing." Hey, I'm touching everything. May everything be touched. Is it possible that some spectator sports in the US is idolatry? Is it even possible that there are 60,000, 70,000 idolaters gathering even this very day, in various places for whom, if their team doesn't win, they will display extreme negative emotions, thus revealing idolatry? Is it possible there are some Christians there too? Or any other pleasure experience? It could be a trip, again, it could be a lake home, it could be a vacation, it could be any... A pleasure experience, good gift of God, but so addictive you can't let it go. There are so many, he's listed 20 of them. I don't have time, look it up online. Tim Keller, 20 questions to probe idolatry. But it could be an individual, you could be single, struggling, not accepting that maybe there's an individual, but he or she hasn't... You haven't got their eye yet. And it's like the language of our songs, it's like, "If I don't have that person I can't live, I can't go on living if I don't have that person." You might even be married to that individual or they might be your son or daughter, they might be someone in your family. But, "If I lost my children, I couldn't go on living." That language is the language of idolatry. I think in general, if you're a Christian and you are characterized by irritability or anger, or frustration, or fear, or depression, there's got to be idolatry at the heart of it, something is amiss. Christ crucified and resurrected is not enough for you. And this is a question I've asked my kids for years and myself, "Is Christ crucified and resurrected enough for you to be joyful today, no matter what happens?" Should be. Alright, so we've been to the hospital, we've been diagnosed. Is there a cure? Yes, there is a cure. Is there a balm in Gilead? Yes, there is. The cross of Christ is the only remedy there is to idolatry. We can't save ourselves. Did you see that right in the text? He cannot save himself. We can't save ourselves, go to Christ crucified and resurrected. Trust in Jesus, and if you're a Christian, you have idolatries identified, take them to the cross, so he can kill them by the Spirit. Don't just accept these idols, don't just accept idolatry, let God by His Grace put it to death in your life, close with me in prayer.

I. “Comfort My People” (vs. 1-2) So I'm a man under authority today, I've been given a message from God, and my job, my task, is to deliver this feast to you without doing anything to mess it up. And that's my desire. I feel like a table waiter, and I've been told by the master chef, "This is the food, this is the meal, and I want you to bring it to the people." And when we come to the incredible words of Isaiah 40, I'm not the first table waiter to bring this message. As a matter of fact, the first was Isaiah himself. And the chapter begins with a direct command to him. The grammar of Isaiah 40:1,2 is interesting. It's a command coming from Almighty God to a single individual. It's a little clearer in the KJV. "Comfort ye," so that's imperative in that Old English style. The individual that was being addressed was Isaiah the prophet. He's being given a command by Almighty God to speak a word of comfort to the people of God. And it's strong, too, because He says it twice. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." And so, I have a commission, I'm in a long, long line, a numberless line of proclaimers of these truths, and I'm just taking my place in line and I get to do the very same thing. I get to speak to you who are in the Kingdom of God, to you who have been redeemed by the blood of Jesus. I get to speak to you a word of comfort from Almighty God. And what a privilege that is. What an incredible message Isaiah 40 is. It's so glorious. The poetry, the images that flow in this chapter are so rich and full. It's easy, perhaps, for someone who loves poetry or images or literary things to study it as a piece of literature, and therein lies some of the danger. This isn't a piece of literature, this is the Word of Almighty God. God is speaking this to us. And He commands Isaiah the prophet to comfort His people and He says, "Speak tenderly," in the NIV, "Speak tenderly to Jerusalem." The words in the original language is, "Speak to the heart of." Speak to the heart. Speak to her heart. Almost like feminine language here, like a suitor speaking to a woman. Tenderly, words of courtship, words of tender affection. "I want you to speak tenderly to Jerusalem, I want you to speak to her heart." Or perhaps, like a father speaking tenderly to a young child some words of instruction or correction or training. "Speak tenderly. Speak to the heart of." I think in the absolute sense, in the big picture, it's "Speak sovereignly, speak the word of transforming grace to people who without that word will have hearts of stone and continue living in rebellion. So speak to the heart of my people. Speak tenderly. Speak this word." It's poignant and powerful. What Is the Comfort? Three Things (vs. 2) What is this comfort? This dual comfort, "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God." In other words, Isaiah the prophet's saying, "You are the people of God. I want you to know what your God is telling me to tell you. I want you to know that God, your God, wants you to be comforted. He really wants you to feel comforted." Well, comforted about what? Well, he says three things. Jerusalem's "hard service" it says. Generally, the translation is "warfare." Warfare has been accomplished or finished. "Her sin has been paid for that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." So, the context here is warfare, the warfare of Zion, the warfare of Jerusalem, the warfare of the people of God, of the Jews. Context of the Comfort: Jerusalem’s Sin Now, there was an immediate context in Isaiah's day. But then, there was a timeless context to the people of God in every generation. In the immediate context, Isaiah the prophet, living there in 700 BC or so, after the Assyrians have been swept away by the sovereign hand of God and godly King Hezekiah's rebuilding what the Assyrians have destroyed and they're going on with their history, He's already predicted in Isaiah 39 that someday Judah and Jerusalem will go off into exile in Babylon for sins. But now, he is looking beyond that exile, amazingly, to the time when God will sovereignly allow a remnant to go back to Judah and Jerusalem and rebuild the city. So the immediate context is, all of that time of turbulence, that exile, that suffering, will come to an end and Judah will be able to return and rebuild Jerusalem, rebuild the temple. That's the immediate circumstance, but the words just tower above that, the concepts go far beyond that immediate situation. God is speaking through this chapter to every generation of His people. And so, the warfare mentioned here is bigger than merely the Babylonian conquest and the destruction of Jerusalem and things like that. No, I think the warfare is explained by the rest of the phrase. Her warfare has been accomplished, her sin has been paid for. The Bible reveals that, apart from Christ, naturally, every one of us is at war with God, and even more significantly, that the Holy God is at war with us. Now, if you're lost, if you're not a Christian, you may not feel that at all, you may not be aware of that, but the Bible says it's true. If you're outside of Christ, the wrath of God remains on you every day. You're under the judgment of God. God, in His holiness, is at war with you and you may say, "Why?" It's because of His holiness and your sin. And my sin. That's why the warfare is there. We are sinners, we have violated the laws of God, there's iniquity in us, unrighteousness in us. That's the warfare. But there will come a time when that warfare will come to an end. It will end forever at a certain point, because God is speaking to us a word of comfort in the Gospel. And that word of comfort is, ultimately, we know through Christ, through His shed blood on the cross, God is at peace with us. And we, through the work of the Spirit of God, are now at peace with Him. We are reconciled, we're in a good relationship with God. And that is comforting, isn't it? That is comforting. And it says that Jerusalem has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins. Now, this is a vital statement here. Salvation originates with Almighty God. "She has received from the Lord's hand, double for all her sins." We can't save ourselves, there's nothing we can do to change this status of warfare with God, nothing. All we can do is make it worse by continual sin. We can't change it, we can't reconcile God to us by any good works or any pious attitudes or turning over of new leaves or any of that, we can't do it. No, it must come from God. Salvation is from the Lord. And so, Jerusalem has received from the Lord's hand, it says, "Double for all her sins." Now, I have meditated on this. I've read the commentaries, I've tried to understand what does this mean? Some commentators say that Jerusalem has been punished far more, perhaps, than she expected, which is true, I think that's true. I think people just generally underestimate where the sin is going to lead, just how bad it's going to get. Vastly underestimate just all the things that sin brings into your life, and that you end up getting far worse, double what you thought it would be. But I actually don't think that's what this is talking about here. I actually think that what happened to Jerusalem, the invasion of the Babylonians, the destruction of the city, the destruction of the temple is far less than they deserved, actually. Far less. So I don't think that's what double means here. No, I think this has to do with the worth and value of the atoning work of Jesus Christ, that we have received from the Lord's hand, through Jesus Christ, infinitely more than we needed to be reconciled. That the worth of the blood of Jesus just towers above the weight of our sins. Now, our sins are weighty, because God is holy and our sins are more numerous than the hairs of our head, that is true. Our sins are like vast mountains and they're numerous. So I'm not minimizing sin, I'm just maximizing the worth of the atoning work of Jesus Christ. Jesus' blood is worth more than the impact, the weight, of all of my sins and all of yours and all of the sins of the whole world, and if there were a billion other worlds, just like this, it'd be more than all of that, too. That's the infinite worth and value of Jesus, and it comes right down to roost on us who are Christians, and we come to understand how sinfulness we are. You're getting educated on that. You know what I mean, brothers and sisters? You're being trained in sanctification, you're being led by the Spirit to find out how much you needed a Savior, how much you needed Jesus. You underestimated it when you first came to Christ. He's teaching you now, you know. And He's educating you on how hard your heart was, and still is, and how, as I mentioned a moment ago when I was up here talking about David Platt, how grievous it is the limits we'll put on what we'll do for God, how we'll give a certain amount of money and we'll give a certain amount of our time and our effort, but we're not going to sell out for this. And it's grievous and we see it and it's like, "Wow." The Spirit says, "In effect, you haven't seen anything yet, but I would just destroy you if I showed you the whole truth, but I want you to know this, dear child of God, where sin abounds, grace abounds all the more." Isn't that comforting? "Comfort, comfort, my people", says your God." It doesn't matter how great your sins are. The worth of the atoning blood of Jesus is infinitely greater. I've used this analogy before, I keep using it almost daily in my own life. My sin, your sin could be likened to a fire. Some days, my sin is like a match, some days it's like a torch, some days it's like a bonfire on a beach, some days it's like the World Trade Center on September 11th. God's grace is like the Pacific Ocean, can handle all of the above. All of it. His grace in Jesus is infinitely greater than my sin, and that is incredibly comforting for me. And this message needs to be spoken because we are sinners, all of us. From the very beginning of this book, this has been the theme of Isaiah, one of the great themes, not the greatest theme, but one of the great themes, the great wickedness, the sinfulness of the people of God and how much we need the saving work of Jesus. And so, from the very beginning of this incredible book, Isaiah 1, Verse 2, "Hear O heavens, listen O earth for the Lord has spoken. I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me." And then, he unfolds very plainly in chapter, after chapter, after chapter, how God's created people, human beings have specifically rebelled against Him. Their idolatries, in Isaiah chapter 2. Isaiah 5 has a litany of sins of Judah and Jerusalem, just one thing after another, luxury and immorality, and injustice, and drunkenness, and brutality, and all of these sins just flowing. And we know it's true of us too and we deserve, they deserve eternal condemnation, and God in His grace gave them exile instead. And so, God is speaking to us now a greater word of comfort than He spoke immediately to those Jews who were going to be restored at some point and go back to Jerusalem, and that greater word of comfort is the saving work of Jesus Christ. It's clear now, we've got the New Testament, we've got the gospels, we know what Christ has accomplished. It was just spoken in prophetic vision at that point, but now we know. Let me just stop and just apply this to you right now. Does this bring you comfort today? Does it? Does it bring you comfort every day? Are you comforted as a sinner, saved by grace? Now, I know that it's the task of a preacher to disturb the comfortable, so the Word of God can do that, but here, the word is, "Please comfort the disturbed. Comfort them, and encourage them." II. Prepare the Way of the Lord (vs. 3-5) Secondly, verse 3-5, Prepare the way for the Lord. "A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God. Every valley shall be raised up and every mountain and hill made low. The rough ground shall become level and the rugged places a plain, and the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.'" By the way. I hope you see why I'm preaching three sermons on Isaiah 40 here. How rich is this? How rich are these words, and how powerful. So relax, we're not going to get to all, even all of verse 14, these 14 verses. But look what it says here. "A voice of one calling in the desert." Let's just pause for a moment, and try to understand this desert. We're going to see this image again and again, this poetic image of the desert, the wilderness in Isaiah 40-49, especially. What is it? Well, it should be understood both literally and figuratively. Okay? Obviously a desert is a place where nothing is growing, where there's no water, there's no life, it's a sterile barren place, hostile place. It is, I believe, a picture of Judah and Jerusalem under judgment, from God for their sins, also. So, it's a literal thing because God did judge the Promised Land. Remember how it was said to be a land flowing with milk and honey, a land you didn't have to irrigate with a foot pump like you had to do back in Egypt. No, it drinks in the rain from heaven, and it's lush and there are these huge clusters of grapes that you need a huge pole to carry, and it's just a lush land. Yeah, but by the time the sinful Jewish nation got done with it, it was a land under judgment. Remember how in the time of Elijah there was this drought, three years, specifically predicted by the book of Deuteronomy, "If you turn from me, says the Lord, to idols, the gods of the nations that you're going to displace, if you do that, I will command the heavens to stop raining on you and the Earth will turn into powder and dust beneath your feet." So, it's literal, but it's also metaphorical or spiritual for the hearts and the lives of people apart from the grace of God, people in their sins. This desert. And we're going to see the desert turned into a garden of Eden again, in these chapters. We're going to see the sovereign grace of God pouring down the rain of the Spirit and causing the people of God to flourish under His grace. Now in the desert, in the midst of their rebellion in the midst of their sins, there is this voice, a voice of someone calling in the desert, "Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight in the wilderness a highway for our God." This Passage Fulfilled: John the Baptist Prepares the Way for Jesus Well, we know who this is. If there was some other immediate kind of fulfillment of this... Something, some individual or individuals before the New Testament era, I don't know, but all four Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, all four take these very words and apply them to John the Baptist. For example, Matthew 3:1-3, "In those days, John the Baptist came preaching in the desert of Judea, and saying, 'Repent for the kingdom of heaven is near.' This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah, 'A voice of one calling in the desert, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for Him.''" So who was this individual, this John the Baptist? He was, I think, the last old covenant or Old Testament prophet, even though he's written about in the New Testament era, he came in the spirit of Elijah as a direct fulfillment of that prophecy in Malachi. He came in the spirit of Elijah, he kind of dressed like Elijah, he wore camel's hair and a belt of leather, just like Elisha the Tishbite did. He ate locusts and wild honey. Now, the honey I get, but the locusts, look it up if you don't know what I mean. Can you imagine doing that? But that was clean food. You could do it under the Law of Moses. I don't know if you would have enjoyed it. I'm just going to move on right now. But that's what he ate. But what was really important was his ministry, he lived, he was born, I think six months before Jesus Christ and you have the story in Luke about how all that came about and he preached powerfully in the desert and he baptized repentant people for their sins. “Every Valley Raised” and “Every Mountain and Hill Levelled” And it says, "Every valley shall be raised up, and every mountain and hill shall be leveled." Now, what does this statement mean? Well, first of all, you must understand, John the Baptist was not a civil engineer. We're not looking for literal fulfillment of this leveling of mountains and raising up of valleys. That's not what he did. His work was the work of a preacher, a prophet, a proclaimer of truth and a baptizer of people. So, in that manner, he leveled mountains, in that manner, he raised up valleys. Now, a simple interpretation of this is everything has to be gotten ready for the coming of the Lord, and that's valid. So you don't want to look at details or spiritualize them, just simply say, things have to be made ready in sinners' hearts before Jesus can come. There has to be a preparatory work of grace in someone's heart before they're ready to come to Jesus. And so that preparatory work is frequently painful, it's difficult. They see their sinfulness, their wickedness, they're in misery, they understand they're lost. They feel it acutely. And they know they need a savior, but they don't have an answer, they don't know what to do, and then the gospel comes and brings good news to them, and so there has to be a preparatory work, a leveling work, a work of grace. So that's a simple way. And I think we could all sign off on that, but I'm going to go on, and I'm going to press some of the details here. Every mountain and hill will be leveled. The mountains and the hills here are obstacles to the coming of Jesus, they're obstacles. In Isaiah 2, we have this image of lofty things that represents the idolatrous hearts of human beings and especially the arrogance of human beings thinking they don't need Jesus, they don't need a Savior, they're fine in their religion, they're fine in everything that they could do. And so when John saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, this is what he said to them, "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me will come one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not fit to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." That I think is a leveling of every mountain and hill, leveling. These arrogant, self-righteous people needed to be leveled before the word of God, the word of Christ could come to them. Conversely, there are other people who feel so crushed by life, frankly, and so crushed by their sins, and so crushed by the justice and the wrath and the righteousness and holiness of God, that they just are utterly despairing of any hope of salvation for themselves. And they are too broken to even try, or even think there could be an answer for them. They are in this sense valleys that need to be lifted up, they need to be given hope that God could forgive them, that there could be grace for them, that there is an answer. And he did this by his baptism. And he was baptizing sinners who are coming to him and repenting and so there was a sense that they could be cleansed of their sins and restored and made new. And so John the Baptist came to do that. The Glory of the Lord Revealed... in Jesus Christ And then it says, "And the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it." Don't you see how beautiful that is, how John the Baptist had the privilege of pulling back the veil and saying, "Behold your God. Look at Him, behold Him, see Him." How do you do that? Well, one day Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus Christ, came to him to where he was baptizing, and wanted to be baptized and he said, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Now, John says in John chapter 1, I wouldn't have recognized Him except the Spirit told me that He was the one, He didn't look unusual, extraordinary, He just looked like anyone else. But John knew who He was. And he heard the testimony of God the Father from heaven. As soon as Jesus came up out of the water, a voice came, a dove came down, heaven was torn open, a dove came down representing the Holy Spirit and a voice came from heaven, saying, "This is my Son whom I love, with Him I am well pleased." John heard that voice himself in a special way as a prophet of God, and he said, "I have seen and I testify that this is the Son of God." And then the next day when he saw Jesus coming toward him, he said, "Behold the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." So, we have in verse 5 of our text the glory of the Lord is revealed in the incarnation of Jesus, His status as fully God, fully man. Who walked on the face of the earth, who lived a life, a sinless life, and then who at some point in God's purposes, at some point in the fullness of time, died on the cross, shed His blood under the wrath of God, as an atoning sacrifice for sinners like you and me. Behold the lamb. Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. And all mankind, all flesh, the KJV says, together will see it for the mouth of the Lord has spoken. How do we do that, how do we do that now, how do we see the glory of Jesus? Well, you almost sometimes you need to close your eyes and just listen to the Word of God, close your eyes and just have someone speak these words, "This is My Son, whom I love; with Him I am well pleased." Picture the heaven torn apart and the Dove descending on Jesus, and this voice coming, picture John the Baptist pointing to a man and saying, "Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world." You can see in your mind's eye, by faith through the hearing of the word of God, you can see the glory of Jesus. It's the only way, it's the only way. Everyone, it's available for everyone, all over the world, people from every tribe and language and people and nation can hear this message and see the glory of Jesus. And they do it by faith, by faith that comes from hearing the words about Jesus. Now there's going to come a day in the future, when the full glory of Jesus will be unveiled, revealed to the human race, and no one, no one will need any faith on that day. Jesus spoke of that day in Matthew 24. In verse 30, He says, "At that time the sign of the Son of Man... " That's His name for Himself. "Will appear in the sky and all nations will mourn. They will see the Son of Man," listen, "coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory." They'll see it with their own eyes, no faith needed. And it speaks of that also in Revelation 1:7 where it says, "Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him. Even those who pierced Him. And all nations on earth will mourn because of Him. So shall it be, Amen." So there's coming a day when everyone will see Jesus in the sky with great glory and no faith needed then, but understand, at that point the opportunity for justification by faith alone will be over, no one will be saved by that sight, those who were not saved the day before that, those who had not found Christ before that will be condemned for their sins. Today is the day of salvation, today's the day to trust in Christ. And so I appeal to you. I don't know you all, I don't know what's going on in your life, I don't know what's going on in your heart. But I'm pleading with you, to see Jesus' glory now in the gospel, the glory of Christ who died on the cross in your place for sins, under the wrath of God, see Him in your mind's eye. See Him on the third day, raised to life bodily and call on the name of the Lord, that your sins may be forgiven. Don't leave this place lost. See Him. The Glory of the Lord revealed in your heart. III. Human Glory Fades; God’s Word Stands (vs. 6-8) And do it while you still have time because verses 6-8 say, your glory, my glory, it's fading away. Look at verses 6-8, it says there, "A voice says, 'Cry out.' And I said, 'What shall I cry?' 'All men are like grass, and all their glory is like the flowers of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, because the breath of the LORD blows on them. Surely the people are grass. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of our God stands forever.'" So this section begins, A voice says, Cry out. This must be the voice of God. So Isaiah the prophet is saying, Someone's saying, Cry out, it must be God. But I don't know what to say. What should I say? What shall I cry out? What's the message? I'm a table waiter, I'm not going to write the message. "No prophecy of scripture ever had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along." So what do you want me to say? Alright, tell them this, tell the human race, these words, "All men, all humanity is grass and all of their glory is like the flowers of the field, the grass withers, and the flowers fall. Surely the people are grass." It's like Isaiah says, That's the message. I'm going to go preach it. But yeah, I agree, I see it, I see it happening, I see that people are grass, I see their glory fading and the word of our God standing forever. What does that mean? Well, this is very humbling for us but we need to face it. James says, when we look in the Scripture, you're looking in the mirror. Well, look at yourself now, look at yourself in the mirror of the Word of God and see grass, see a flower of the field. You may be in your prime, whatever that means, you may be in your prime. In our culture, that means young and athletic and attractive and all that. Okay. I could say a lot of things right now, but I'm just going to keep moving, alright? We are mortal. You know what that means? We're going to die. Actually more than that, it means we are dying. We're in the process right now of dying. We're mortal. What's happening? We are aging, our cells are replicating, but imperfectly. We are developing wrinkles, our eyesight isn't what it used to be. We're losing abilities. Now you say, "Well I'm not, I'm 16." Alright, you're reaching, you're ascending to the peak, but if you live long enough, if God lets you live long enough, you're going to crest and you're going to find the back side. Now, some of you are saying, "Pastor, you haven't seen anything yet. Don't talk to me about that. I already have a sense of how it's going to go, but I'd rather just... " At any rate, so that's it. And we have in our culture a big deception on this issue going on with cosmetic surgery and Botox and plastic surgery, and all kinds of techniques to stave off what's so obvious. All flesh is grass, we're dying, we're going to die. We age, and we can't do anymore the things we could do when we were younger. I read recently an optimistic article about how Michael Jordan can still dunk at age 51. I see the writing on the wall on that one. Alright, do you see it? I don't know if he sees it. But I see it. He's in a battle with age, he's in a battle with time, and time's going to win because all flesh is grass. Not just some. Everything, our awards, our accolades, our skills, all of them are like the grass of the field. People forget, no one cares anymore. Who won the Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1955? I hope none of you are taking your smartphones right now and seeking to answer the question. It is answerable. But if you go there, you'll probably find out you don't know the dude. Okay. I didn't know him, I'd never heard of him. That year On The Waterfront was the big movie and all that. So you probably heard of Marlon Brando, but you've not heard of this best supporting actor. Look it up later if you want. But the point stands, we don't know who this guy is. And maybe that was his moment of glory when he got that statuette and all that, but it's faded now, what does it mean? Isaiah the prophet is going to talk about Cyrus, just says Cyrus. Humans added the phrase, The Great, Cyrus the Great. He's going to win an empire, but then you know what's going to happen to him? He's going to die, and he was buried at some place in Iran, Pasargadae. I don't know how to pronounce it, but it may be so. And there's this windswept tomb there, and according to an ancient historian named Plutarch, the tomb was inscribed originally with these words, "Oh man, whoever you are, and wherever you come from, for I know you will come, I am Cyrus who won the Persians their empire. Do not, therefore, begrudge me this bit of earth that covers my bones." There's your glory, there's your empire there's all your power and your grandeur. You can't even read those words now, they're effaced by wind and time and sand, rain. You extend this to all the earthly glory that could ever be pursued, the glory of massive buildings. We know what happens to Twin Towers in an instant, we've seen it now. Maybe you couldn't have believed it before you saw it, but how those twin towers came down in a few minutes down to a pile of rubble. So it will be with all human glory, the glory of fame fades away. I tried to pursue on the internet famous people in the 19th century who now no one knows, hard to get at. Didn't know what to Google. So I'm just saying, there must have been some... Because I don't know who they are. That's the whole point, maybe a Shakespearian actor who was all the rage in New York City for about 12 years and now no one knows his name. I don't know, all flesh is grass. All glory is fading. Even ordinary people, not famous people, they ascend, they reach a peak and then they come down, throw a stick in the air, watch it, that trajectory, that's you. That you. And in the future generations, people won't even know who you were, probably, unless you're famous. But you have to be really famous that if five, six, seven generations go down that anybody would know your name. All Flesh Is Grass – Only Hope is Christ’s Resurrection And why is this? It's because we're all of us under the curse of Adam, we are all destined to return to the dust. We came from the dust, and we'll go back to the dust. There's your trajectory, you're up and down, you're a stick thrown in the air and comes back down. Some go higher, some lower, but they're all coming back down. It's all the same shape, because of Adam. Do you not see now the glory of these words spoken by our Savior, "I am the resurrection and the life, he who believes in Me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in Me will... " What? "Never die." Do you not see the value of that, the value of this gospel promise, that we will live forever? The contrast though to human flesh is God's Word that never fades, "Surely the people are grass," verse 8, "The grass withers, and the flowers fall. But the Word of our God stands forever." God's breath blows on people, and they fade, it's not an accident that we die. But God's breath also speaks out His word and He ordains that that lives forever. Jesus said "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away." He said in the Sermon on the Mount, "I tell you the truth, until Heaven and Earth pass away, not the smallest letter or least stroke of a pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is fulfilled." God's Word is eternal. 1 Peter says that this is the word that was preached to you, this gospel message was preached to you. How awesome is that? And it speaks of a life incorruptible, eternal life that God is offering to you through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. IV. Behold the Greatness of God: Gentleness and Majesty (vs. 9-14) Now verses 9-14, I'm only going to touch on lightly. Okay, lightly, really lightly. Next week we're going to talk more in depth about the majesty, the greatness, the infinite majesty of God in these verses. But I just want to make one simple point here, and behold the greatness of God in a conjunction, a combination of infinite majesty and gentleness with sinners like you and me. So look at these verses, 9-14, "You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain. You who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up, do not be afraid; say to the towns of Judah, 'Here is your God!' See, the Sovereign LORD comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flock like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Who has measured the waters in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket, or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance? Who has understood the mind of the LORD, or instructed him as his counselor? Whom did the LORD consult to enlighten him, and who taught him the right way? Who was it that taught him knowledge or showed him the path of understanding?" So, we messengers... So, pastors, preachers, evangelists, missionaries, fine, but all Christians, we messengers, we should go up on a high mountain and proclaim this good news. What is the good news? Here's the good news: Behold your God, God is at the center of the good news, the greatness of God, and we're going to see His glory. Verse 10 talks about His power, He's going to come with might and His arm rules for Him, He's going to bring His reward with Him, but also his recompense. So He's going to reward His servants and He's going to punish His wicked enemies, both of those are going to happen. He's going to come. But in the middle of all of this, this greatness, this incredible God who measures the waters in the hollow of His hand and with the breadth of His hand marks off the cosmos. We'll talk about all that next week. This incredible God is able to tend His flock like a shepherd and gather the lambs up in His arms and gently lead those that have young. Do you feel the need for that today? Have you ever felt the need for that? You feel shattered, you feel broken by sin, you feel discouraged, you feel downcast. Satan is working on you, and you feel so weak. Picture Jesus your good shepherd, scooping you up and holding you in His arms, that's the picture of this infinite majestic God, who takes His hand and marks off the cosmos, this same one picks you up and holds you tenderly and speaks comfort, comfort into your ears. How sweet is that? Like I said, next week we're going to talk more about the infinite majesty of God. V. Application Some quick applications, I've been making applications throughout the sermon, but I want to plead with you again to come to Christ, I want to plead with you, who even now you're still holding out, you're not sure if you need the Savior, you do. Trust in Him. Trust in Him. And understand how God has provided an end to the war between you and God, you can feel and know and experience the peace of God in your heart, you can know forgiveness, and ample provision is made for the forgiveness of your sins. Those of you that are Christians, I invite you to just drink in and feel around you, the comfort comfort of the first verse, and the fact that He has provided double, infinitely enough for all your sins, and that He is tending you now like a good shepherd, and leading you gently and wisely. Rejoice in that, feel the comfort for that. And if I can urge you, behold your God more than you do, behold Him more than you do, more clearly and more frequently. So I would just suggest read this more. Read it, it's the only way you're going to see this invisible God, by seeing Him by faith, we walk by faith, not by sight, pick up the scriptures, don't miss a day, don't miss a day. Feed on Him, Behold your God, see His glorious greatness, behold your God and look forward to the second coming of Christ, when all nations will see Him and be heartbroken over those that will mourn when He comes back. And urge yourself and others to do everything you can to look forward to the day of God, and speed its coming by evangelism and missions. If I can just give a simple application, if you have time to come minister to some internationals at tomorrow's picnic, there's an application. Pick up one of the parking things there and come and let's meet some internationals. And that's the cheapest simplest mission trip you've ever had. You get to sleep in your own bed, you even get to eat foods that you recognize. Alright, and have a good time and you also get to invite people to come to know Christ, invite them to church, get to know them. It's a fantastic time of sharing. next week get ready for some explosive things that we see the infinite majesty, the greatness of God in the rest of this section of Scripture. Close with me in prayer.

Seeing From the Karakoram Mountains So, in the summer of 1987, I went on my second mission trip, I had been the year before, in Kenya, but this time I went to Pakistan, and toward the end of that summer, we made an incredible trip across the Karakoram mountains along the Karakoram Highway, into China. And the part of that incredible journey was a trip through the Khunjerab Pass, which is the highest pass in the world, in terms of altitude, it's the highest I've ever been while standing on terra firma, almost 16,000 feet. And I remember distinctly that day, it was one of the most spectacular days of my life, because I took my life in my hands and rode on the luggage rack of the van, down the Karakoram Highway, for hours. The kind of thing I wouldn't do now, as a married man with children, but I'm glad I did it, at the time. And I can't even describe, I can't put into words the scenery that I saw from that lofty perch, from the Khunjerab Pass. You can see mountains as far as... It was a clear day, and just row upon row of mountain ridges, that were just going out before my eyes. It was just amazing, and I stood there and just soaked it all in, and I just thought about it. And then it occurred to me as I was standing there, that these mountains look like they're touching each other, but they're, really, probably 20-50 miles apart. Maybe even more. And this gives me, this morning, as I begin this overview of the last section of Isaiah 40 through 66, a kind of an analogy of what it was like for Isaiah, the prophet, touched by the supernatural power of almighty God, touched by the Spirit of God, to be able to stand at a certain point in history, 7th century BC and to describe, to write down, in timeless words on a scroll, things that wouldn't be fulfilled for centuries. And they're just, literally, side by side with each other, in the words of this scroll. You go from one chapter to the next and from one theme to the next, and they're just one chapter on top of each other, but these events are separated by centuries, even by millennia. And so, Isaiah, supernaturally endued by the sovereign Spirit of God is able to write about things that were only beginning to happen in his time, or that wouldn't even happen for a long time. He prophesied, for example, the return to idolatry of Judah and Jerusalem under Hezekiah's son, Manasseh, and how that idolatry would lead to the invasion of Judah by Babylon, and how Babylon would destroy Jerusalem and the Temple. The Temple of Jerusalem would be razed by the Babylonians, leading to a small remnant of Jews, exiled to Babylon for their sins. But then, subsequently, the destruction of Babylon, by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus the Great whom he names specifically by name, in two chapters, Isaiah 44 and 45, and how Cyrus the Great would issue a decree to rebuild the ruins of Judah and Jerusalem and let the foundations of the temple be laid. He named Cyrus the Great 100 years before his parents were born, Cyrus's parents. I've often wondered if they had free will in the naming of their son. Or if there was somebody whispering, "Cyrus would be a good name. Why don't you try Cyrus?" But how this specific prophecy had been written down a century before that. And then, how this small remnant of Jews 42,000 of them, he didn't say the number, but a small remnant of Jews would return to the rubble of Judea, the rubble of Jerusalem and rebuild it? And re-establish a Jewish presence in the Promised Land, leading to the greatest single event in redemptive history, and that's the life-death resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer, who's ministry, he saw more clearly than any other Old Testament prophet. Isaiah wrote, very, very plainly of the coming of the Messiah, and his bloody death on the cross, his piercing for our transgressions, and of his bodily resurrection from the dead. All of these things seen seven centuries before Christ was born. And then, the coming of the Holy Spirit, poured out in abundance like rain on the people of God, and how, as a result of the sovereign activity of the Spirit of God, the sons and daughters of God would spring up like plants from a field. And there are a lot of different ways to look at that prophecy, and we'll talk about them, about the coming of the Spirit, and how Jesus was going to be a light for the Gentiles, that he might bring the salvation of God to the ends of the earth. And how the Gospel would spread to the ends of the earth and be successful there and there would be Gentiles who would believe in this Jewish Savior. And they would repent of their sins and trust, and they would call on the name of the Lord while he was near and find salvation in Jesus, how this would happen even to the ends of the earth and to the ends of time. But how the final wrath of God would be poured out on the earth, for its wickedness and its sins, leading to the second coming of Jesus Christ. And debatably, we can talk about it, but possibly, the millennial kingdom. And if there's any Scripture that describes in detail the thousand years reign of Christ on earth, it would have to be Isaiah, although that's debated. But how people live to unnatural old age before they die, and how there's an astonishing flourishing of agriculture in the land, and all of these things. And then, what's not debatable is judgment day beyond all of that, and the separation of the entire world into believers and unbelievers and a clear depiction of the final place of condemnation, hell, in language that's right there to the very end of the book of Isaiah, but then also a depiction of the New Heavens and the New Earth, the home of righteousness is coming. All of these things, like those mountain ridges, one on top of the other, you just can reach out and touch them all as you read this book. But separated in actuality by dozens, hundreds, even thousands of years, and Isaiah saw it all. So I have a different image from another mission trip I made. A number of years later, I was preaching in Poland, and we were in a very beautiful area, rolling green hills, lakes, and I was in a hotel I was writing on the balcony of the hotel. And I looked out from where I was on the sixth floor, and just so pretty there, in Northern Poland, and there was this ultra light, you know those little planes that people fly they're like powered hang gliders? Those guys are maniacs. But I would love to have been that person. He was just barely missing the high tension power lines which I was grateful for, but he was just soaring out over this lake and just... And I'd like to kind of do that, but without any danger today and just move out over these mountain ridges of prophecy. And I want to draw out seven grand, glorious themes that are going to be recurring in these 27 chapters. Kyle said I'm going to be preaching for the next few weeks, is that what you said Kyle? Is that all I have? I better get going. I've got a few weeks. But just amazing journey that we're going to be on as we begin in Isaiah, and I want to draw out seven grand themes, that we could refer to again and again, I wonder if we need laminated cards in the pew back and as I preach chapter after chapter after chapter, in Isaiah 40 through 66. Setting the Context Okay, this morning we're going to be looking at themes one, four, six and seven. Alright, the next week will be themes two, five, and seven, next week, we're going to do one, two, three and five, it's just going to keep coming up again and again, these same seven themes. So that's the task in front of us. I want to set the context, I already done it briefly, but Isaiah is standing at this juncture, Isaiah 1 through 39, the central kind of drama there has been Assyria, and the Assyrian invasion of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and their deportation of the Jews in Israel, the Northern Kingdom. And then he goes on into the Southern Kingdom of Judah and is stopped right at the walls as we saw when I was preaching last time how the Lord sent the angel of the Lord and he killed 185,000 Assyrian troops in one night. And Sennacherib king of Assyria, turned and went back, God sovereignly led him back to his home city of Nineveh and there he died. And so you get a feeling that Assyria's done now. And though the Assyrian empire would continue for another hundred years or so, it was ever waning in power from that point on. And now we have the rise of the next great power in that region of the world, the ancient near east and that is Babylon. At the time that Isaiah lived, it was a city in the Assyrian Empire, a conquered little city state, but Isaiah saw with the eyes of prophecy, what was coming, and that was that Babylon would rise to be a mighty empire, reach its zenith, and then in a very short time, be toppled itself by the Medes and Persians under Cyrus the Great. He saw all of that. Now you may ask how does he see all this? How does he know what the future holds? How can he predict so clearly what is coming? Well, 2 Peter 1 said this, above all, you must understand this is about prophecy. This is what sets Christianity apart from every other world religion. Fulfilled prophecy specifically focused on the person and work of Christ. This is what separates Christianity apart. So those of you in the college campus, you're going to face this again and again, What makes Christianity different than Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism? Fulfilled Prophecy Start with this, "Fulfilled prophecy." Fulfilled prophecy. And so, 2 Peter 1:20-21, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of Scripture ever had its origin in the will of man." Prophecy never had it's origin in the will of man, "but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit." And so the Holy Spirit came into Isaiah the prophet, and he sat down and wrote on a scroll these timeless words about all of these things that were coming. And I want to draw out these themes now and make them plain. God is able to predict the future and no one else can because God is sovereign over the future that he predicts. He is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy or prophet. He says, in effect, "This is what I'm going to do and nothing can stop it." And He is the King of the universe, and so he can make predictions. And he challenges the idols and he has them come in again and again on this very issue, "Bring in your idols," he says in Isaiah 41. "Let's see what they can do. All right, idols, tell us the former things if you can, and what their final outcome would be, and then predict to us, the future things. Yes, tell us what the future holds. Do something, good or bad, so that we may know that you are gods." And so he does this again and again in Isaiah 41, Isaiah 44, Isaiah 45, Isaiah 46, 48. "I can predict the future and no one else can." And so he has this power to do this in detail. I. The Infinite Greatness of God And so, now let us bring forth these themes and let's begin with the first and greatest. And it's a central theme of the Bible, it's a central theme of the universe, it should be the central theme of your life and that is, The infinite majestic greatness of Almighty God. We're going to see a celebration of the attributes of God in these 27 chapters of Isaiah that will take your breath away, strengthen your faith, give you courage to face the trials that you will face in your lives. First and foremost, the infinite greatness of God over all creation. God is majestic and powerful and infinitely greater than the creation he made. We'll see this in Isaiah 40:12, where it says, "Who has measured the water in the hollow of his hand, or with the breadth of his hand marked off the heavens? Who has held the dust of the earth in a basket? Or weighed the mountains on the scales and the hills in a balance?" God is also infinitely majestic over all the idols and the gods. Isaiah 40:18, 20 says, "To whom then will you compare God? What image will you compare him to? As for an idol, a craftsman crafts it and the goldsmith overlays it with gold and fashions silver chains for it. A man too poor to present such an offering selects wood that will not rot. He looks for a skilled craftsman to set up an idol that will not topple." Well, our God isn't made of gold or silver or wood and He will never topple. He doesn't need to be nailed down, no chains need to be put on Him to support Him. He is an infinite and mighty God and all of the idols and gods of the nations are nothings. God is also infinite, and majestic over all the nations themselves including their kings and princes and rulers and all the mighty men and women of the earth. So he says in Isaiah 40:20-22, "He sits enthroned above the circle of the Earth, and its people before him are like grasshoppers. He stretches out the heavens like a canopy, and spreads them out like a tent to live in. He brings princes to nothing and reduces the rulers of this world to nothing. No sooner are they planted, no sooner are they sown, no sooner do they take root in the ground then he blows on them and they wither and the whirlwind sweeps them away like chaff." And so because of this God is infinitely great and majestic over all of time and history. He rules over history. In Isaiah 41:4, he says this, "Who has done this, and carried it through calling forth the generations from the beginning." Listen to this. "I the Lord with the first of them and with the last, I am He." God calls forth each generation by His sovereign power. He knits each generation of people together in their mother's wombs and he is with them as they rise to their, the zenith of their power and their strength and their energy, and then they fall off, age, and die. He's with every generation, he was with the first and he will be with the last. He rules over all of human history. He is omnipotent. He is absolutely immeasurable power. Again, Isaiah 40:26, "Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens, who created all these? He who brings out the starry hosts one by one and calls each of them by name. Because of his great power, and his mighty strength, not one of them is missing." He is also infinite in his wisdom and knowledge. Again, Isaiah 40:28, "Do you not know, have you not heard the Lord the everlasting God, is the creator of the ends of the Earth, he will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom." And yet how incredibly gentle and tender is this infinitely majestic God with sinners like you and me. How it says in Isaiah 40:11, "He tends His flock like a shepherd. He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart. He gently leads those that have young." So the scope of this God is immeasurable. The scope of Almighty God from his tenderness, all the way up to measuring out the Cosmos with the breadth of his hand. So Isaiah pictures a God who is both terrifyingly immense in His power and knowledge, but also meek and lowly and tender-hearted in dealing with sinners. The display of the glory of this great God is the center piece of Isaiah 40 through 66. And so it says in Isaiah 40:9, "You who bring good tidings to Zion, go up on a high mountain you who bring good tidings to Jerusalem, Lift up your voice with a shout, lift it up. Do not be afraid, say to the towns of Judah, behold your God." That is my privilege today, I get to do that. I get to just say to you the towns of Judah spiritually, Zion, spiritual Zion, "Open your eyes and behold your God. And there is no problem in your life that even comes close to his capacities and his power and his grace, and his love, for you. So just behold, your God." How are you going to do that? Listen to the Word. Because faith is the eyesight of the soul, and by hearing God's Word, we see our God who cannot be seen. First theme. II. The Sinfulness of the Idolatrous Human Race Second theme. The sinfulness of the idolatrous human race. The wickedness of idolatry is a major theme of Isaiah 40 through 66. He mentions it again and again. This great God of ours, this great God of Isaiah 40-66 is a jealous God. He created each of us to love him, to cherish him, to worship him, to live openly for him. That's why He created you and me. And so he says in Isaiah 42:8, "I am the Lord, that is My name. I will not give My glory to another or My praise to idols." He's jealous over his glory and over his place in your heart. But instead sadly, tragically the human race, all of the human race, not just the Jews, under Manasseh and not just the Babylonians, with Bel and Nebo and all that, not just them, not just those totem pole worshipping Aboriginal tribes or whatever, not just all people apart from his sovereign grace are idolaters. Here, I'm going to reach to Romans 1:25 for the best definition of idolatry. "They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things rather than the creator who's forever praised. Amen." That is idolatry. When you exchange the worship you should be giving to God and you're worshipping, living for, ultimately living for some created thing, you are an idolater. And all of us were idolaters apart from the saving grace of God. God is at war with the idols in Isaiah 40-66, at war with them. He hates them and he's fighting them. Idols are mentioned 19 times in these chapters. So again and again, he brings them up. And as I mentioned, he challenges them probably four or five times to a duel. He wants to take them on. I love that part that I already quoted to you where He says, "Do something. But you're nothing, you don't even exist." But our God is the living God and so he wants to challenge the idolatry that is rife in our culture, our time. And let's be specific. The idolatry that tempts your own hearts, too. It is dangerous to read about the idolatry of the Jews or the idolatry of the Babylonians and say, "What wicked people, they are, glad I'm not like that." So God through Isaiah the prophet mocks the idols, makes fun of them. We've already seen that some of it, how these idols have to be nailed down or they'll topple. You remember the memorable passage in Isaiah 44, where you've got this guy who goes out and selects a worthy piece of wood, drags it home, cuts it in half and uses half of it to cook his dinner, and warm himself in his workshop, and then uses the other half and carves it and makes it into an idol and he bows down and worships it and says, "Save me, you are my god." And in case you missed the details, he goes back over it. Half of it he used to cook his meal and the other half he bows down and prays to it. It's just mockery. So, idolatry is exposed. God's hatred for idolatry is revealed, but the idolatry of the entire human race is also clearly unfolded as well. You know that Hezekiah led the Jews of Judea in a revival of true religion, biblical religion. Got rid... Finally got rid of the high places. Had everyone worship in the pattern of the Law of Moses. But then he died and his son Manasseh took his place and vigorously led them all back into wicked idolatry, including to the point of sacrificing one of his own sons, a descendant of David, a son of David, in the fire to Molech. Well that brought about the exile to Babylon, it brought about the punishment of God. Judah indulges in idolatry, and this is the very reason why Judah will be sent into exile. Listen to Isaiah 42:17-19. "Those who trust in idols, who say to images, you are our gods will be turned back in utter shame. Hear you deaf, look you blind and see. Who is blind, but my servant, and deaf like the messenger I send? Who is blind like the one committed to me, blind like the servant of the Lord?" Well, that's Judah. But all the nations are doing the same thing. And Isaiah 46:1, the prophet exposes the gods of Babylon, Bel and Nebo. You know Bel from which you get the name Belshazzar, the final king of Babylon. Nebo from which you get the name Nebuchadnezzar. These were the two key gods of Babylon. And they are exposed as the false burdens that they are, they're heavy, made of gold and they have to be loaded on ox-carts and the oxen, they're stumbling under the weight of these things. And it's saying, the crushing idolatry of the world will destroy everyone who worships those idols. So this is a problem to the ends of the earth. III. The Wrath of God in the Judgment of Sins Theme number three. The wrath of God in the judgment of sins. This is a major theme throughout the Bible, but in Isaiah 40-66. God is actively involved in human history. He's not the absentee god of Dius who started the universe up like a complex clock mechanism, wound it up and let it run. That's not the God of the Bible, it sure isn't the God of Isaiah 40-66. No, he gets involved, he moves out and one of the number one things that God does in these chapters, is pours out his wrath on idolatrous, wicked, sinful, nations. His just judgments on them, for their sins. God will judge, first his own people and purify them of their sins by slaying the wicked. Isaiah 51:17-20 says this, "Rise up oh Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of the Lord, the cup of His wrath, you who have drained to its dregs, the goblet that makes men stagger. Of all the sons she bore there was none to guide her. Of all the sons she reared there was none to take her by the hand. These double calamities have come upon you. Who can comfort you? Ruin and destruction, famine and sword, who can console you? Your sons have fainted, they lie at the head of every street, like antelope caught in a net. They are filled with the wrath of the Lord, and the rebuke of your God." So God's judgment began with the house of God, with the Jews, as he pours out his wrath on them, who said that they were Jews, but they really weren't, only in name, only. But they were generally... They were genuinely idolaters and God poured out his wrath on them. And because of that, he destroyed Jerusalem and his temple, the place where he wanted his name to dwell forever but he destroyed it, God did, by the Babylonians. So it says in Isaiah 64:11, "Our holy and glorious temple where our fathers praised you has been burned with fire. All that we treasured lies in ruins." Why? Because of the judgment of God. But God in his grace, and in his mercy, restrained his wrath completely from the Jews and by his sovereign grace left them a remnant, chosen by grace, he didn't completely exterminate them. The sons and daughters of Abraham, still exist, and God reserved for himself a remnant. He left a remnant. Now, beyond the issue of the Jews, Judah and Jerusalem, we have the consistent activity of God in judging this nation, or that nation, or the other nation for their sins. He's not just a national tribal deity, just the God of the Jews, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but he is the God of the entire world. And he is just and righteous and will judge every nation on earth for their sins. This is the God of the whole world. Not just of the Jews. And so, in Isaiah 63:6 he says, "I trampled the nations in my anger. In my wrath, I made them drunk and poured their blood on the ground." And then 66:15-16, it says, "Behold the Lord is coming with fire and his chariots are like a whirlwind, he will bring down his anger with fury and his rebuke with flames of fire, for with fire and with his sword the Lord will execute judgment upon all men and many will be those slain by the Lord." So we have many cities devastated, many people slaughtered. And the culmination of the righteous judgment of God for sin is hell and that is also pictured in the words of Isaiah the prophet. If you were to go to the very last verse in the book of Isaiah, Isaiah 66:24, you don't have to turn there now, but just listen, this is the very last verse, this is the last word. Isaiah 66:24. "And they will go out and look upon the dead bodies of those who rebelled against me. Their worm will not die nor will their fire be quenched and they will be loathsome to all mankind." That's the end of the prophecy. Well, Jesus picked up on those same words and used them to describe hell. In Mark 9 he says, "If your eye cause you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell, where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched." Isaiah 66:24. IV. The Atonement of Sins by the Redeemer, the Suffering Servant—Jesus Christ Theme number four. The wonderful good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. The good news that there is a Savior from this just wrath of God and his name is Jesus. Jesus the atoner of sins, the Redeemer, the suffering servant, Jesus Christ. No one in the Old Testament saw the ministry of Jesus Christ more clearly than Isaiah the prophet. No one. It was Isaiah that saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of His robe filled the temple. John 12 tells us, Isaiah said this because he saw Jesus' glory and spoke about Him. But he saw most specifically the promise of a full payment for all of our sins. Now it's going to begin and I'm going to start with this next week. Isaiah 40:1-2. I'm going to preach three sermons on Isaiah 40. After that, I will try, not promising, but I'll try to keep to a chapter a week. We'll do our best. But I can't do that in Isaiah 40. And look how Isaiah 40:1-2 begins. "Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins." Well, there's only one way that sin gets paid for in the Bible and that's with the shed blood of Jesus Christ. There is no other atoning sacrifice, no other atoning sacrifice. So, how then did Jerusalem's sins get paid for? How then is there forgiveness? Well, the servant of the Lord, so called in the book of Isaiah, this is Jesus. And Isaiah 49:6 says that he is the light for the Gentiles. There's an Intra-Trinitarian conversation there in Isaiah 49:6. God the Father says to God the Son, what his mission is going to be. He says, "It is too small a thing for you to be my servant to restore the tribes of Jacob and bring back those of Israel I have kept. I will also make you a light for the Gentiles, that you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." That's Jesus' mission to be the light for the Gentiles that He may bring salvation to the ends of the earth. And so we have this term Redeemer, or redeem. The term redeem or Redeemer is used 22 times in these 27 chapters. Again and again, we have this idea of redemption or redeeming. The word means to buy a slave out of slavery by the payment of a price or to buy a captive out of captivity by the payment of a price. That's what redeeming is. Now Judah and Jerusalem, the Jews will be captives in Babylon, they have to be bought out from Babylon, they have to be redeemed. And so this is the language used in Isaiah 48:20. "Leave Babylon, flee from the Babylonians. Announce this with shouts of joy and proclaim it. Send it out to the ends of the earth; say, 'The Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.'" So when the remnant went back to the promised land, when they went back, they were redeemed. Yeah, but the payment hadn't been made yet. It's like a big, grand, glorious redemptive history IOU. An Intra-Trinitarian IOU. Jesus would shed his blood to pay the price of that redemption. That's the only payment there could ever be. And then Isaiah 52:9-10, it says, "Burst into songs of joy together, you ruins of Jerusalem, for the Lord has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem. The Lord will lay bare his holy arm in the sight of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God." The whole world is in slavery to idolatry and to sin. The whole world is under the righteous judgment and wrath of God. We all deserve it. And Jesus Christ is the Redeemer. Not just for the Jews, that's two small a thing, said God. But a Savior to the ends of the earth for every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, everyone. And so it says in Isaiah 59:20, "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins." So the Redeemer is coming. Now, Isaiah 53 is the clearest depiction of how that redemption would come about. Without the shedding of blood there's no forgiveness, the book of Hebrews tells us. And Isaiah 53 tells us who's going to shed his blood. And it says, in Isaiah 53:4-6 of this suffering servant who is Jesus. "Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet, we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him and afflicted, but He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds, we are healed. We all like sheep have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." But that's not enough there in Isaiah 53, you also have a clear depiction of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. He wouldn't merely die, he wouldn't merely be pierced for our transgressions on the cross and shed his blood, but on the third day, God would raise him from the dead. And so we have also in Isaiah 53:9, "He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in His mouth." Verse 11. "After the suffering of his soul he will see the light of life and be satisfied; and by his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many." He was put to death for our sins but raised to life for our justification. How awesome is that. V. The Spread of the Word and the Call of the Gospel to the Ends of the Earth Theme number five. The spread of the word of this gospel, and the call of the Gospel to the ends of the earth. this is the powerful Word of God. You've already heard it alluded to. "All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flower of the field." Isaiah 40:6-8. "The grass withers and the flowers fall when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely, the people are grass. The grass withers, and the flowers fall, but the Word of our God stands forever." And then you heard Damien read so beautifully Isaiah 55:10-11 "As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth. It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and will achieve the purpose for which I sent it." So God's going to unleash this powerful force in the world called his Word. What we know is the gospel of Jesus Christ, he's going to unleash it. And he's going to let it do it's powerful work and it will not come back empty, it's going to come back with what he intended to achieve having been done. And he has in mind the ends of the earth. What do we mean by that? Every tribe and language and people and nation. Isaiah is the prophet of the Gentiles. You could call him that. He's talking again and again about us. And he says, there in Isaiah 42:12, "Let them give glory to the Lord and proclaim his praise in the islands." What are the islands? Far away places. If you're living in Jerusalem, the islands means the ends of the earth. We've already seen that in Isaiah 49:6, "That you may bring my salvation to the ends of the earth." Isaiah 52:15 says, "So will he sprinkle many nations, and kings will shut their mouths because of Him. For what they were not told, they will see, and what they have not heard, they will understand." This is the spread of the Gospel predicted in the Book of Isaiah. It's going on right now. And so there are these messengers of good tidings. Isaiah 52:7, "How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, 'Your God reigns.'" How beautiful are the feet of those who bring that good news. And then listen to this Isaiah 66:19, "I will set a sign among them and I will send some of those who survive to the nations." I'm going to send them out to the nations, "to Tarshish," that's Spain, that's like Gibraltar. That's a long way away from Jerusalem when you don't have very good sailing vessels. "I'm going to send them "to Tarshish, to the Libyans and Lydians (famous as archers), to Tubal and Greece, and to the distant islands that have not heard of my fame or seen my glory. They will proclaim my glory among the nations." That's clear missions, friends, in Isaiah 66:19. And at the center of that message is a call to repentance and faith. Isaiah 45:22, "Turn to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth." That's repentance. Turn, turn away from your idolatries, turn away from your wickedness and away from your sin, turn unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth. Isaiah 45:22. Isaiah 53:1, "Who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" When God reveals his arm, people believe, that's what happens. They believe and in that belief they are saved from their sins. Simple justification by faith. Isaiah 59:20, "The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins." And so, we have going out to the ends of the earth this invitation to free grace which you heard again, read for us already. How beautiful is this? Isaiah 55:1-2, "Come to me all you who are thirsty, come to the waters. And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost. Why spend money on what is not bread and your labor on what does not satisfy? Listen, listen to me and eat what is good and your soul will delight in the richest of fare." And then later in that same chapter Isaiah 55:6-7, "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man, his thoughts. Let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy on him and to our God, and he will freely pardon." So I just want to stop right now, this ultra light flying over mountain ridges, and just stop for a moment and say, have you ever done this? Have you ever called on the name of the Lord for the salvation of your soul? Have you sought the Lord while he may be found? May I say more accurately, are you seeking the Lord while he may be found? It's not just once, that's just the first time when you come to Christ, then you'll be seeking him the rest of your life while he may be found, and you're finding him day after day, by the Spirit. But have you done that? Do you know for certain that your sins are forgiven you through repentance and faith in Christ? You're included in all of this, you're included in Isaiah 40 through 66. You're among those nations that are there to the ends of the earth. Have you repented, and trusted in him? VI. God’s Restoration of Israel and of the Promised Land Itself Number six. God's restoration of Israel and the Promised Land itself. Real quickly. God is going to restore Israel, He's going to rebuild Jerusalem. He says it very plainly in Isaiah 44. Cyrus is going to allow the remnant to go back, he's going to say to the rubble filled towns of Judah, "Let it be rebuilt," and to Jerusalem, "Let it be restored," and of the temple, he will say, "Let its foundations be laid." By the way, that must have been a shock in Isaiah's day. "Oh, any word from the Lord?" "Yes. Yeah. There is." This is Hezekiah's day now, everything's going well. Things are flourishing, things are going really well. Everybody's high places removed. He said, "The good news is, God is going to move Cyrus the Great to rebuild the temple." "Rebuild it?" "Well yeah, he's going to... Well, he's going to have the foundations laid after him then it'll get rebuilt." "Lay the foundations of the temple." "But we have a good temple. It's running real well." "Yeah, well let me tell you what's going to happen to that temple." Well, God ordained that that temple be destroyed but he also ordained that it be rebuilt and that a small remnant of Jews would come back to that pile of rubble that was Jerusalem and under Nehemiah, rebuild the walls and the city itself, and under Ezra and Haggai rebuild the temple even though it was smaller. And why did he want to do all that? Because he was excited about a small number of 40,000 Jews returning? No, to set the stage for Jesus, so that Jesus could say to the Samaritan woman, "Salvation is of the Jews," and that would mean something. And so, he's setting up a play... A set on a play with curtains, and with everything needed setting it up, so Jesus could come and die there. He would restore it, but bigger than all that, the language of restoration of a remnant streaming back to Jerusalem, it's spiritual language for the success of the Gospel. And God is going to pour out his Spirit and it's going to rain down like righteousness, it says in Isaiah 45, that the Spirit is going to rain down and his, God's, sons and daughters are going to spring up by the sovereign power of the Spirit. If you're a child of God today, you're included in that prophecy, you're one of the sons and daughters of Abraham, you sprung up by the sovereign power of the Spirit and you are now flourishing for the glory of God. That's the restoration of the Jewish nation. So yes, physical, but ultimately spiritual. And in the end, he's going to be restoring the land itself. Lots of environmental verses in Isaiah. God has a lot of interest in what's happening to planet Earth and he's going to be restoring all of it. VII. God’s Glory in the New Heavens and New Earth Ultimately, number six or seven, the theme, "the New Heavens and the New Earth". Ultimately He's going to build a new Jerusalem, Isaiah 60, and the light of this new Zion will shine, and the glory of Lebanon will come and all of the glory of the gentile nations will flow in, and all of the Gentile converts, let's put it in that language, will beautify the New Jerusalem with their faith in Christ. And they will live there forever and ever as Peter calls us, living stones in that eternal sanctuary, that eternal temple, we're going to be there and we're going to beautify that place, every tribe and language and people and nation. And it's going to be majestic. And it says in Isaiah 60, "No longer will violence be heard in your land, nor ruin or destruction within your borders but you will call your wall salvation and your gates praise. And the sun," listen to this, "The sun will no more be your light by day or the moon, your light by night." Does that sound familiar? Revelation 21 coming right from Isaiah. "For the Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your glory." And then finally, the New Heavens, and the New Earth, Isaiah 65, "Behold I will create New Heavens and a New Earth. The former things will not be remembered nor will they come to mind, but be glad and rejoice forever in what I will create. For I'll create Jerusalem to be a delight and it's people a joy, and I will rejoice over Jerusalem and take the light of my people, the sound of weeping and of crying will be heard in it no more." That's the new Jerusalem. Isaiah saw all of that? Yeah, and more besides. So come in the next number of weeks to hear some of these sermons from Isaiah because these themes are going to enrich us time and again. VIII. Applications Application number one, come to Christ, number two, stand in awe of fulfilled prophecy, stand in awe of it. Stand in awe of this Bible, this miracle that we carry around and underestimate all of it, stand in awe of what's in it, and be comforted that your God is such a mighty God that He can dwarf all of your problems. And so, as we sang earlier, when you pass through the fire you're going to make it all the way through, you're not going to be consumed. When you go through the waters you're not going to drown. The fire and the water are not for your destruction if you're a child of God, but for your purification, and he's going to strengthen you through all of that. So pray for me as I prepare for next week, I look forward to meeting you again on Isaiah 40 next week. Close with me in prayer.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches an expository sermon on Isaiah 34:1-17. The main subject of the sermon is God's guarantee that He will bring wrath on all the wicked to the ends of the earth. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Well, 2012 is over and we made it, especially past December 21st, 2012, 3:21 Pacific time, that Mayan experts told us was when the end was going to come. I don't even know what I was doing at that point. I guess it would have been like 6:20 or so in the evening. I think I was just doing whatever I was doing on that day. Wasn't too troubled by the Mayan apocalypse. I guess I was convinced that God had not communicated his will for the future to the Mayans and not to us. For God has spoken through the Prophets by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. And this church is built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. And about that day and hour, Jesus said, “No one knows what's coming, not the angels in heaven, nor even the Son, but only the Father,” he said in the days of his incarnation on Earth. But it brings up this question of just the tendency that we have for an interest in doomsday scenarios, an interest in the future, a deep seeded yearning to know where are we heading? What's to become of us? And even deeper is the fear that it's not going to be good, that we're heading towards something really, really terrifying, something that really will bring the human race to an end, called doomsday scenarios. Perhaps some monstrous meteorite is hurdling toward us, and there's nothing that we'll be able to do, to stop it, and it'll smash the surface of the Earth and change the climate so significantly that no human life will be able to survive. Or perhaps radiation blast from solar flares on the surface of the earth will heat up the core of the Earth so significantly that life on earth will be impossible. Or a gamma-ray burst somewhere in the galaxy, which cosmologists tell us is the most powerful event that there is in the cosmos, will make its way to the Earth and end at all. Or maybe the gradual destruction of the earth's ozone layer. Global warming will change the climate enough to make the human race become extinct. Or perhaps the eruption of a super volcano will do about the same thing, all those scenarios basically come from physicists and environmentalists and cosmologists. There are doomsday scenarios that come from the science of politics, as well, and military might. In my childhood, when I was growing up, it was the Cold War between the West and the Communist block, the Soviet Union, specifically United States and the Soviet Union. When I was an infant, I don't remember this, of course, but the terror of the Cuban Missile Crisis, and students were trained how to huddle under their desks or how to go to a fallout shelter. Sometimes you see in old urban areas, those fallout shelter signs. In 1983, when I was a junior in college, there was a TV program called The Day After, some of you may remember it, in which the story line runs...it was a TV movie. Tensions between NATO and Warsaw Pact escalated to the point where there was a full nuclear exchange, resulting in nuclear holocaust. And the TV movie focused on what would happen specifically to citizens of two communities in Lawrence, Kansas and in Kansas City, Missouri. With the fall of the Berlin Wall, those kinds of expectations shifted a bit and moved over to the possibility of terrorist groups, irresponsible terrorist groups, getting hold of thermonuclear weapons and bringing an end to the human race, or perhaps the threats of biological, like an airborne pathogen that could just spread like wildfire through our race and bring us to extinction. Amazingly, some movies even depict the threat of robots of artificial intelligence, which will rise up against their creators and take over the planet, winning that war and ending the human race. Now, all of these doomsday scenarios and many others have been the fodder for movies and other things like that, showing the tremendous interest that people have for that, shows that the human heart is fixed on the future in a dark sort of sense. What's interesting to me as I look at all of these things, I find that with all of these popular depictions of the end, they're leaving one thing out, and I think it's the greatest threat that there is to the human race, and that is the wrath of God. And frankly, the clearest, doomsday scenario that there is, is unfolded in the pages of the book you carried with you in here this morning, the Bible. There is a clear doomsday scenario unfolded for us in the pages of the book of Revelation, most specifically there. And that book is filled with the outpouring of the wrath of God on the sinful human race. Our dark fears about the future have their origins in the Garden of Eden, when Adam was told, as I prayed about a moment ago, that he must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and in the day that he ate of it, he would surely die. And Adam sinned, he ate from that fruit, and he heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and he was terrified, and he hid from God. And God cursed him and cursed the ground because of him, but he didn't kill him that day. Instead, God had a purpose, a plan for history to unfold, and God decided to defer the death penalty that Adam did experience later on. And so that's where it starts, the looking ahead with fear to a dark future and wondering when is it going to come? And so history is unfolded in the Book of Revelation, you have one judgment after another, one seal of the seven seals being broken after another, one trumpet or one bowl being poured out on the surface of the earth after another, and phenomenon, just appalling, startling, terrifying phenomenon. The sun dark and the moon not giving its light, the stars falling from the sky and the earth being removed, shaken and terror striking the entire human race. And judgments on the fresh water and on all the oceans and everything in the sea, dying and all of the water turning to bitterness to wormwood and people dying, just huge, huge numbers of people dying—a third of mankind dying in some of these plagues. Just think about that! Billions and billions of people, several billion people dying at the same time, you just... We can't even conceive what that's like. Chapter after chapter of this doomsday scenario, which is portrayed as prophecy, it's going to come. The Bible says it's going to happen. And as we come to Isaiah 34, we have in microcosm, some of the themes that are unfolded for us in the Book of Revelation. As a matter of fact, Revelation quotes Isaiah 34 for some of it. We see in miniature the themes of the terror of the wrath of God being poured out on all nations on the face of the earth, right here in Isaiah 34. Now, next week, God willing will have the chance to look at the other side of the equation, Isaiah 35, which talks about the joy and delights of the redeemed. Some pastors take the two together, but I've chosen to preach this week on Chapter 34, and next week on 35, so please come back next week. And I won't fail to give you the good news in Jesus this week as I desire to do every week. I. God Summons the Nations to Listen (vs. 1) But today we have the difficult business of looking at the wrath of God on all nations as depicted in Isaiah 34, and it begins in verse 1 with a summons, God gives a summons to all nations to hear him and to listen to him. Look at verse 1, “Come near, you nations, and listen; pay attention, you peoples! Let the earth hear, and all that is in it, the world, and all that comes out of it!” God is summoning the peoples of the world to listen to him and the pages of Scripture here, and he raises up people like me to proclaim it and to speak it so that you hear the sound of these words. And this is incredible, this is God's grace, his indescribable grace to his enemies. To say, “I want you to know what's going to happen. I wanna tell you what the future holds.” He's the only one that can do it. God doesn't have to warn us, doesn't owe it to us to warn us. He can merely wipe out the sinners as he chooses to in his own time and in his own way—he does not have to warn us. But here he does give a very clear warning. He's gracious and he summons the earth to listen to him. Just like at the very beginning of this book, in Isaiah 1:2, “Hear, O heavens; listen, O earth, for the Lord has spoken.” He wants people to hear him speak. "God doesn't have to warn us, doesn't owe it to us to warn us. He can merely wipe out the sinners as he chooses to in his own time and in his own way—he does not have to warn us. But here he does give a very clear warning. " We can also see in this word, the incredible patience of God toward his enemies, who are seething with hatred toward him, who are living in rebellion against him, and yet God so patient. This chapter written over 27 centuries ago, it's a long time for God to wait. He is very patient. Not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance, as it says in 2 Peter. Sadly, so many of the people are not mindful of the fact that God's kindness and tolerance and patience is meant to lead you to repentance. That's what it's for, God's grace. And the warning here of this chapter, what it's all about in the words of John the Baptist, as he called out to the sinners of his generation, “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?” That's what this is about, the coming wrath, the wrath to come. And he said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” We also see in this summons in verse 1, the power of the word of God to deliver our souls. It is by listening to God speak that you will be saved. If you will just here and believe his word, you will be saved. Faith comes by hearing God's word, and this scripture gives enough warning of what's to come. He's told us what's coming. And if we heed that warning, if we hear it and believe it. Remember how I said in Hebrews 11:1, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, but also the [rebuke] of things not seen.” To be brought up short to be convicted, to be convicted of sin by things not seen, to deal seriously with Judgment Day and the wrath to come, that's a gift of faith, and God gives it by hearing the Word. So Isaiah 34 has the power to lift up in your heart the themes you need to deal with, so that you don't go in for the satanic illusion that things are always gonna go on is they always have. It's a lie. There's going to come an end. God himself will be the one to bring it about. But the good news in the center of all of this, faith in the crucified and resurrected Lord, has the power to deliver you from the wrath to come. If you will flee to Christ, he will welcome you. “All [that] the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, I will never drive them away….[But] I will raise them up [on] the last day.” So you flee to Christ, and he will protect you from the wrath to come. You know why? 'Cause he is the wrath to come. He is the wrath to come, he is the wrath of God. And if you flee to him, he will deliver you. So that's a summons and he wants everyone to hear... And we're part of that, we're part of the world, we're part of the nations on earth. We who are living here in the United States of America, we here in North Carolina in Durham, we're part of the Earth. And God's summoning us to listen to him today in verse 1. What does he say? "There's going to come an end. God himself will be the one to bring it about. But the good news in the center of all of this, faith in the crucified and resurrected Lord, has the power to deliver you from the wrath to come." II. God’s Wrath is On All Nations and Their Armies (vs 2-4) Well, look at verse 2-4, “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter. Their slain will be thrown out, their dead bodies will send up a stench; the mountains will be soaked with their blood. All the stars of the heavens will be dissolved and the sky rolled up like a scroll; [and] all the starry host will fall like withered leaves from the vine, like shriveled figs from the fig tree.” That's the message. And so there are two shocking kind of themes or ideas in this chapter. First is that God is a God of overpowering wrath. He's a passionate being, and he is angry about sin. It's very disturbing to people. Secondly, the fact is that God is angry with all nations—not just some of them, but with every single nation on the face of the earth. His wrath is against all their armies. And why is this? Why? What's the cause of this? Well, the Bible's answer is very clear: God is angry about sin. It makes him angry when we sin, and “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Romans 3:23. And why are there no exceptions? Why are there no exceptions? Well, it's because there's not a single political nation on earth that exists solely and exclusively for the glory of God in Jesus Christ—not one. That's why. It's very black and white, very simple, Jesus made it black and white, “He who is not with me is against me, and [whoever] does not gather with me scatters.” It's really that simple. What does he mean? Whoever “does not gather with me scatters.” What is he gathering? Well, as I said before, sin had a scattering effect on the universe an explosive effect, like a fragmentation grenade just blowing up this beautiful, orderly, perfect world that God made, and God in Christ is bringing all of those pieces back together and making them one under one head, God himself. And so he is gathering together all the scattered children of God and making them one, he says in John chapter 11, and in Ephesians 1:10, he is bringing “all things in heaven and earth together under one head, even Christ.” Is there a political nation on earth that's interested in those things, that's exerting its time and treasure and talents and efforts toward doing that? There's not one. And therefore they're against him, you see? If you're not gathering with them, you're scattering. Now, this chapter also gives stark pictures of judgment and wrath, armies, armies given over to slaughter, literally dedicated to destruction, there's a Hebrew word that's very significant theologically, it's related to the word for harem in English. The giving over, almost in a sacred...a solemn sacred ceremony, a giving over to something, for a sacred purpose. In this case, it's for the purpose of destruction. And so God in his holiness wants the toxic waste in one place and he wants to destroy it, and so it's given over to destruction. He uses the same word with Joshua when they crossed the Jordan River and he put the harem, he put that devotion to destruction on the city of Jericho and everything in it. He said, “Don't take any of it, it's all devoted to destruction, all of it.” Or again, the command that God gave to Saul with the Amalekites, they were under the same thing. Well, here he's doing it to all nations and all their armies; they're all given over to destruction in his mind. Verse 3 is horrible, it's horrible. Dead bodies, giving up a stench, mountains soaked with blood. This is not metaphorical, this is talking about dead people, lots of them, and the stench that comes from them. In Verse 4, even the host in the heavens will in some sense come under the judgment. In the ESV in verse 4, it says, “All the host of [the] heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll. All their host shall fall as leaves fall from the vine, like leaves falling from the fig tree.” Part of this I think is just in some amazing way, the end of the cosmos, as we know it. Copernicus is right, the sun doesn't revolve around the earth, the other way around. But this doctrine teaches that the earth is still the center of God's attention, and when events on Earth come to their end, the stars will fall from the sky. Now, that may seem like mythology to atheistic cosmologists, but the Scripture says it multiple places, not one or two. And so the stars will come to an end, when events on Earth come to an end, when God decrees it. Perhaps, and by the way, it says they shall rot away or dissolve, John Newton picked up on this in one of the not as commonly sung verses of “Amazing Grace.” They'll dissolve like snow. The sense is that all the elements in 2 Peter will melt in the heat, they will come apart and cease their present existence, they'll dissolve. So the stars—but this could also in some way, and I think prophetic language can do double duty, that there's a physical side, but there's also a spiritual side. And the host in the heavens could also refer to Satan and his armies as well. Because it says in Ephesians 6:12, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” And so there are hosts in the heavenly realm, Satan and his demons and all that, and they're going to get judged, God has spiritual enemies in the heavenly realms, and he has been very tolerant of them to allow them to continue to roam about the Earth and cause trouble and to tempt, and to accuse and to do all kinds of wickedness and evil. The heavens themselves, both physical and spiritual, are coming to an end. Hebrews 1, “They will perish….they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed.” III. Edom Represents God’s Human Enemies (vs. 5-15) Now, in verses 5-15, we turn our attention to the nation of Edom, to the Edomites, and I believe that Edom represents not only an actual physical nation that lived near Israel, but also, spiritually, they represent all of the reprobate human beings. These are people who hate God, who rebel against him, who stumble over the stumbling stone, which is also what they were destined for, as it says in Peter, 1 Peter. These are the rebels seething with hatred against God and against Christ. So it's not just that God is gonna do all this punishing of Edom, it's that the language just soars above that, and Edom then represents sinful humanity on mass, all those nations. Edom is all the nations. Does that make sense? So it's representation here. So we go from universal talking about the universe, to have focused on not just all the nations and all their armies, but zeroing in on Edom. Look at verse 5, “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; [behold], it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have [devoted to destruction].” Do you see that? They're given over to destruction, the people of Edom. Again, in verse 6, “The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, [and] it is covered with fat—the blood of lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams. For the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom.” Bozrah is the capital, a city of Edom. Again, in verse 9, look at it, “Edom’s streams will be turned into pitch, [and] her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become a blazing pitch!” So Edom as I have said, is both a historical nation and they are a spiritually representative nation, both in the Bible. Edom was made up of the descendants of Esau, Jacob's brother. Esau was the twin brother of Jacob; in the Bible, he is a symbol of the reprobate man, the godless man who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew, who has no faith at all. No interest in redemptive history, no interest in a birth right, no interest in a blessing, except that it meant a good relationship with his dad. Loved meat, loved the good life, that's Esau. He's a representation of the reprobate, there are many prophecies of judgment against his descendants, the Edomites. Amos chapter 1 says, “For three sins of Edom, [and] even for four, I will not turn back my wrath. Because he pursued his brother with a sword, stifling all compassion because his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked, I will send fire upon Teman that will consume the fortresses of Bozrah [capital city].” The whole little book of Obadiah is given over to a prophecy of destruction of Edom, who set their city up on a high place and thought that they could never be destroyed. God said, “I'm gonna bring you down.” But the most significant Old Testament prophecy about Esau is in Malachi 1:2-4. There God says to the Jews, to the Jewish people, “I have loved [you].” He says to the descendants of Jacob, “I have loved [you].” And they answer back, as they do throughout the book of Malachi, they answer back, “How have you loved us?” So he's gonna give an answer to that question, “‘Was not Esau Jacob's brother?’ says the Lord. ‘Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated.’” So how have I loved you? Because I elected you, because I chose you and chose not to treat you the way I treated Esau. That's how I loved you. Not because you're so great, because you're not. But just because I chose you. So how have you loved us? Answer, I loved you in election, unconditionally. So to continue, “‘Was not Esau Jacob's brother?’ the Lord [said]. ‘Yet I loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated. And I have turned his mountains into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.’” Same language as Isaiah 34. Do you see it? The desolation language. Edom may say that we have been crushed, we will rebuild the cities. But this is what the Lord Almighty says, “They may build, but I will demolish. They will be called the Wicked Land, a people always under the wrath of the Lord.” Now, the Apostle Paul takes that quote and drops it right into Romans chapter 9 to talk about God's sovereignty and salvation. You're familiar with the quote in Romans chapter 9, he uses this quote to talk about reprobates, or non-elect people, whom God has devoted to destruction. Romans 9:10-13, he says, “Not only that, but [Rebekah,] Rebekah’s children had one and the same father, our father Isaac. Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God's purpose in election might stand: not by works, but by him who calls—she was told, ‘The older will serve the younger.’ Just as it is written: ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.’” Well, I'm not preaching through Romans 9, I've done that, you can listen on the internet, but basically, the lessons of that is unconditional election. God's purpose in election is that he would get the glory for human salvation, and that no one who ends up in heaven will boast against him for anything. And so he makes the election before they do anything or can boast about anything, good or bad. God's sovereign purpose, that's why that God alone would be glorified in salvation, that's the whole lesson of Edom of the descendants of Esau. So here in Isaiah 34, Edom is a real nation, they're facing real judgments from God, but they're also representative nation standing in the place of all of the reprobates mentioned in Romans chapter 9. "God's purpose in election is that he would get the glory for human salvation, and that no one who ends up in heaven will boast against him for anything. And so he makes the election before they do anything or can boast about anything, good or bad." In verse 5-7, it speaks of the sword of God's wrath. It says there, “My sword has drunk its fill in the heavens; [behold], it descends in judgment on Edom, the people I have totally destroyed. The sword of the Lord is bathed in blood, it is covered with fat—the blood of the lambs and goats, fat from the kidneys of rams, for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah and a great slaughter in Edom. And the wild oxen will fall with them, the bull calves and the great bulls. [And] their land will be drenched with blood and the dust will be soaked with fat.” So the sword of the Lord is his judgment against his enemies, and he does battle up in the heavenly realms and wins and then descends down to do battle on Earth with his human enemies. And the language here is very bloody, it's very sacrificial, there's a real sacrificial feel here, so I was meditating, what are the bulls and the oxen and the fat from the kidneys and all that. That's all sacrificial language. And I guess as I am meditating on this is how it works: basically, the whole purpose of animal sacrifice was to teach the lesson of substitution, right? The animal died, and the man or the woman didn't. You see? And all of that points to the cross. Don't you see that Jesus died and we don't. That's what animal sacrifice was to teach, but here, what's getting sacrificed, it's not animals. I know it's all talking about animals, but it's not animals. It's not the blood of animals, that's making the dust in the sand of Edom red with blood. These are people, because they would not follow him and they would not believe in him, and there was no substitution for them. It’s a great sacrifice, a terrible slaughter performed by the sword of God's wrath. In verse 8 it says there is a day of the Lord in which he will uphold Zion's cause. It says, “For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion's cause.” So here we come to the idea of the day of the Lord, deferred judgment. It's not here yet. And so for all the Edoms there are in the world, it's just not here yet. Just God's patient and he's bearing with great patience, it says, the objects of his wrath prepare for destruction. Same teaching in Romans 9, he's patiently bearing with them, but he does have a day of vengeance, he has a day of the Lord that is coming, and people think as it goes on and saying, “It's not coming, nothing's gonna come. Everything's gonna go on as it always has.” That's what they think, but it's not true, because God has a day in store for judgment and for wrath. And it says specifically he is gonna take vengeance on the enemies of his people to uphold Zion's cause he's going to beat up on those who have beat up on his people. He's going to kill or shed the blood of those who shed the blood of his people. I think that's the home base of understanding, verse 8, “The Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of retribution, to uphold Zion his people, to uphold their cause.” If you read about it in Daniel chapter 7, there are these four beasts that come up out of the sea, and they represent vast empires, human nations, organized and terrifying, and the fourth one, the terrible beast, not even described, we don't know what kind of beast it is, but it's worse than all the others. And there are these horns and there's this final horn, and it says that the saints were given over to the horn, he wages war on them and he conquered them, He shed their blood, he killed him, he was allowed to win for a while. Daniel says, “for a time, times and half a time.” Now, many scholars believe this is talking about the Antichrist, the final world ruler who will organize the world in one government and use all of that political power and military might against the people of God. And I think that's true, but I also think John says, “You've heard that there is an Antichrist coming, and many Antichrists have come,” so there's been lots of them. I think Hitler was one, I think he organized a nation, military power, and governmental structure against the people of God. He crushed them and killed them, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer for example. But when they die, when they get separated from their bodies and they go up, according to Revelation chapter 6, they go up and say, “OK, God, how long? How long until you avenge our blood?” Revelation 6, “When he opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who'd been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained. [And] they called out in a loud voice, ‘How long, Sovereign Lord, holy and true, until you judge the inhabitants of the Earth and avenge our blood?’ Then each of them was given a white robe, and they were told to wait a little longer until the full number of their fellow servants and brothers who would be killed as they had been was completed.” Patience, more people have to die. But there is a day of vengeance that will come later in Revelation, “The third angel poured out his bowl on the rivers and in the springs of water, and they [turned into] blood…. [And] the angel in charge of the waters [said]: ‘You are just in these judgments, you who are and who were. the holy One, because you have so judged,” that's enough, but there's a reason too, “‘for they shed the blood of your saints and prophets, and you have now given them blood to drink as they deserve.’ And I heard the altar respond: ‘Yes, Lord God Almighty, true and just are your judgments.’” Now, Edom's judgments are a foretaste of hell, look at verses 9-10. It says, “Edom streams will be turned into pitch, her dust into burning sulfur; her land will become blazing pitch! It will not be quenched night and day; its smoke will rise forever. From generation to generation it will lie desolate; no one will ever pass through it again.” If you know what to look for, this sounds a lot like hell, lot like hell. Revelation 14, it speaks of those that receive the mark of the beast and worship the image. And it says, if anyone does that “he, too, will drink the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of his wrath. He will be tormented with burning sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment rises forever and ever. There is no rest, day or night.” It's almost the exact same expression. And so, Edom's judgment, in Isaiah 34 is a foretaste, a picture of hell of eternal judgment, unquenched fire, smoke rising, burning sulfur, unresting aspect day and night, etcetera. And in Verses 11-15, The once flourishing land of Edom is turned into chaos and emptiness, a picture of complete desolation and rejection by the Lord. Look at the verses, it says, “The desert owl and screech owl will possess it; the great owl and the raven will nest there. God will stretch out over Edom the measuring line of chaos and the plumb line of desolation. Her nobles will have nothing there to be called a kingdom, all her princes will vanish away. Thorns will overrun her citadels, [and] nettles and brambles her strongholds. She'll become a haunt for jackals, [and] a home for owls. Desert creatures will meet with hyenas, and wild goats will bleat to each other; there the night creatures will also repose and find for themselves places of rest. The owl will nest there and lay eggs, she will hatch them, and care for her young under the shadow of her wings; [and] there also the falcons will gather, each with its mate.” Many times Isaiah speaks in this kind of language, natural language of desolation, desert life, etcetera, coming on the land as an active judgment from God. So I think in space and time in history, God judged the people of Esau, the Edomites and turned their land into this. But look at some of the details, it says, “[I'm going to measure] out over Edom, the plumb line of chaos and the measuring line of desolation.” These are the exact words that God uses to describe the creation after Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Verse 2, “Now the earth was formless and empty.” Same words used here, so what God's saying is, “I'm going to deconstruct what I have constructed. It's the opposite, I'm going to take my power and go the opposite direction, not building up into beauty and order, but breaking down into chaos and desolation.” And he says, “I'm gonna use a measuring line and a plumb line.” It's a very meticulous careful work. He knows what he's doing. It's not accident, he knows what he's doing. And he speaks in the language of thorns. Thorns is the language of God's curse. It's gonna overrun her citadels, and nettles and brambles her strongholds, and desert creatures will live there undisturbed from generation to generation. So summary, Edom represents not merely one nation of God's enemies, but all nations, ultimately. Nations that fought against the people of God and persecuted them and oppose God's glory in the world, God will judge them completely, in effect speaking them out of orderly created existence, not annihilation, but just the end of that beauty of creation that they have known, and their land will become desolate because all of them will be dead. IV. God’s “Book” Is Written, and Every Line Shall Be Fulfilled (vs. 16-17) Now finally, in verses 16-17, we have the book of the Lord referred to here, “Look in the scroll of the Lord and read: None of these will be missing, not one will lack her mate. For it is his mouth that has given the order, and his Spirit will gather them together. He allots their portions; his hand distributes them by measure. [And] they will possess it forever and dwell there from generation to generation.” So this is God's scroll, it refers to his sovereign plan. He has worked all this out, “All the days are ordained for [the world] were written in [God's] book before one of them came to be,” according to Psalm 139. And so you look in the scroll and it's all been figured out, all of it, and not only that, but we have his Spirit moving out to take what was written in the scroll to make it happen. So as you had early on Isaiah 14, you have God's plan and God's hand, as we've talked about before, God's plan and in his hand, God's plan plus his hand equals the future. Isaiah 14:26-27, “This is the plan determined for the whole world; [and] this is the hand stretched out over all nations.” See plan and hand. “For the Lord Almighty has purposed,” that's planned, “and who can thwart him? His hand is stretched out,” there's his power, “and who can turn it back?” So there's gonna be a lot of wild animals there, and desolation will be there, and judgment, and that really happened, I think, to the Edomites, it happened to their nation, and all of it according to the purpose of God. Paul had it right in Athens, when he said, speaking of all of human history, “From one man [God] made every nation of men…and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. [And] God did this so that [people] would seek him and…reach out for him and find him, though, he is not far from [each] one of us.” V. How Isaiah 34 Prepares Us for the Second Coming of Christ Now, how does this chapter prepare us for the second coming of Christ? Well, it's going to happen, these things are going to happen. Jesus quoted this in Matthew chapter 24. Matthew 24, he said, “Immediately after the distress of those days ‘“the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.” ‘[And] at that time the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and all nations…will mourn. They will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.” It's going to happen. It's not a metaphor, it's a prophecy. Revelation 6 picks up in the same language, “I watched as he opened the sixth seal. [And] there was a great earthquake. The sun turned black like sackcloth made of goat hair, the whole moon turned blood red…the stars in the sky fell to the earth, as late figs drop from a fig tree when shaken by a strong wind. The sky receded like a scroll rolling up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. [And] then the kings of the earth, the princes, the generals, the rich, the mighty, and every slave and every free man hid in caves and among the rocks and the mountains. [And] they called to the mountains and the rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! For the great day of that the their wrath has come, and who [is able] to stand?” They're gonna be looking for a refuge, like a cave at that point, there's no cave that will be a refuge. Oh, but there is a refuge. It’s right now today, it’s faith in Jesus is the refuge. Finally, at the end of the Book of Revelation, there is the the dragon, the great dragon, that gets thrown down in Revelation 12, because he's defeated in the heaven, comes down to the earth, and he calls forth this beast from the sea. As I've said the Antichrist, he comes forth, and in Revelation 17, sub-rulers, 10 Kings come together to give him their power and to make him chief among them. And it says in Revelation 17:14, “They will make war against the Lamb.” Think about that. They will war against Jesus. They'll have a war against Jesus. Can I just say bad idea, bad idea. They're gonna war against the Lamb and against his followers, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and with him will be his called, chosen, and faithful followers. And so Revelation 19 depicts that final battle, and that's the fulfillment of Isaiah 34, that's the sword of the Lord, that descends. Jesus is the sword of the Lord, he is the wrath of God descending in Revelation 19. He comes back, the heavens are open, and he comes down with the armies from heaven, and they descend on the Antichrist and on the dragon and the false prophet and all of the armies of people that are assembled there together against the Lord and against His followers. In Revelation 19:19 and following says, “I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered together to make war against the rider on the horse and his army. But the beast was captured, and with him the false prophet who had performed the miraculous signs in his behalf. [And] with these signs, he had deluded those who had received the mark of the beast and worshiped his image. The two of them were thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulfur. The rest of them were killed with the sword that came out of the mouth of the rider on the horse, and all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh.” Does that sound like Isaiah 34? It's exactly the same, Revelation 19. Now, that's the second coming, that's that final battle. But, friends, the deeper issue is deliverance from hell itself. It's just one day when the sword comes down and lots of people die, but the real danger is the second death. Now, I just wanna stop and say, I know for a fact, many people struggle with this doctrine, they struggle with the picture of God as a wrath-filled being. They do, it's repulsive to them. I even know some that have walked with the Lord for a while, very conspicuously and fruitful, who have recently turned away from evangelical Christianity because of a hatred of the doctrine of the wrath of God and hell, they just can't accept it, and other theologians and writers, people like Rob Bell and all that, try to come up with what they consider to be a better story than this. What arrogance to think that we can come up with a better end of human history than this one, we can't. God knows what he's doing, God knows what he's doing. And those people forget some things, they forget, for example, the very nature of God, that “God is light; [and] in him there is no darkness at all.” And he will have the darkness out of his universe, he will get rid of it, 'cause he hates it, and frankly, if he didn't hate the darkness, he wouldn't be good. "The deeper issue is deliverance from hell itself. It's just one day when the sword comes down and lots of people die, but the real danger is the second death." Secondly, all sin is an affront directly to his glory, and sin is proportional to the glory of the individual you sin against. It's weightier to spit in the face of your father than to spit in the face of your brother. It just is. It just has to do with the weight of glory and what is due, what honor is due to that individual. Well, how much honor is due to God? How much honor should he get from us? Therefore, sin against him is of infinite weight and value. Thirdly, and most significantly, Christ himself received the descending sword of God's wrath on our behalf, he took it inside himself, he died under the wrath of God as our substitute. He is the cave you'll be looking for when that sixth seal is broken, but you won't find any refuge then. Flee now. When I began, I prayed that God would give you faith. Now is the time. Believe that these things are coming. And flee to Jesus. Jesus died not for his own sin—he committed no sin, there was no deceit in his mouth—he died in our place, he bore, he himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live for righteousness. By his wounds, we have been healed. That's what Jesus has done. He is our refuge. This is the gospel, for “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. God presented him as [a propitiation,] a sacrifice of atonement, [in our place] through faith in his blood.” Trust in him, come to him. Flee the wrath to come. And if you've already fled the wrath to come, if you have already listened to that and your heart was moved with fear, and you know that you early, long time ago, perhaps even fled, the wrath to come, then know this, you have fled successfully. The wrath will not come on you, there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. But you are surrounded by people who haven't fled yet, you live among them every day, you work with them, they may be relatives, they may be neighbors, warn them to flee the wrath to come. Tell them about it. Understand this, understand the universality of God's wrath against all nations, all nations, and all their armies. Now, where does that leave? Patriotism and nationalism. Oh, now Pastor, don't go there. Don't touch that one. I mean, this sermon is already too long anyway, and you're gonna start patriotism and nationalism, I just wanna say this one thing, if Isaiah 34:2 is true, don't exempt the United States of America from it, don't. I do believe that there are incredibly powerful witnesses, godly men and women infiltrating—and that's a good word for it—the federal, state, and local governments of this country and are salts in a very corrupt place and light in a very dark world and are doing an awesome job. Like Daniel, they are messengers of the king, like Daniel said, “Therefore, O king, be pleased to accept my advice: Renounce your sins by doing what is right and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed. It may be that [God will let you] continue.” That's a great witness for a government official who loves Jesus, but I'm speaking of the political entity, the nation itself. I think there is a right place and a right scope for patriotism and love for your country, but idolatry usually takes a proper affection and pushes it beyond boundaries, you see what I'm saying? Don't go too far. Don't go too far. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we're waiting for our true king to come from heaven, and that's Jesus, and we're waiting for the city that he's building right now. The city that is to come with whose architect and builder is God? This end is coming. It's coming. All right, let's do the work that God's called us to do. Put sin to death by the power of the Spirit and share the gospel with lost people. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the warning that we've had in Isaiah 34 of what is to come. I pray that we would tremble with it, that we would take it seriously. I pray that it would bring us to tears as Jesus wept over Jerusalem. I pray that we would be deeply troubled by the concept of just the bloodshed that is coming, and Father, I pray that you would please give us power to put sin to death as Peter put it, “Since everything [is going to end] in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed it's coming.” O God, help us to be pure and holy and to speed the day of God by evangelism, by missions, by proclamation of the message. In Jesus' name, I pray, Amen.

Pastor Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Isaiah 25:1-12 and how God will eventually eliminate death and all pain. - Sermon Transcript - “Faith smells the fragrance, when as yet there is no rose.” I read that on a church sign this morning as I was driving to church, on the Free Will Baptist Church right up the road from us, they have a sign ministry, and some of the signs are good. Some of them. Some of them are just bad puns, I think. But some of them really do point to deeper things and are great encouragement, and this one was, and I thought, “What an incredible introduction even to the sermon that I wanna preach today.” Faith smells the fragrance when as yet there is no rose. Now, the Book of Isaiah, the prophet Isaiah is a visionary prophet. You just close your eyes, you have any section of Isaiah read and visions just come in your mind. The vision that Isaiah, son of Amos, saw, that's a visionary book. And there are visions that come from Isaiah 25, but for me it was... I think more of a fragrance wafting from this chapter. It was the fragrance of a feast that God is going to spread for us in heaven. And only by faith are we going to catch the full aroma of that feast that's wafting and feel the invitation to sit at banquet table with God in the Kingdom of Heaven and feast with him forever and ever. So if you have faith in Christ, you can smell that aroma coming from the text, from the banquet today, and that's what I want you to do. I want you to have that faith, to smell the fragrance of that banquet. I think of all the great banquets you've ever had. For me, I think about Thanksgiving when you eat it way too much, and I think about my mom and dad, they both work together, cooking. They're both good cooks, and my father there, he was a chemist, he would wear this white lab coat and working very seriously in the kitchen. I remember the look on his face and just doing an exquisite and very technical job cooking for us. And it was just really well done. And my mom too working and just the aromas of the pies and of the turkey was getting carefully basted and eventually the gravy and all of it just wafting from the kitchen, just makes your mouth water, and I want that to float from the text today because it speaks of a banquet that God is going to spread for us in the kingdom of heaven. And I want us to see that. This is just an incredible chapter. It's a chapter of celebration. A chapter of joy and celebration. There's lots of judgment chapters in Isaiah. Isaiah 23, the judgment on Tyre and Sidon. Isaiah 24 the judgment on the whole world, the destruction of all the earth, but here in chapter 25, we have rich, full celebration. Celebration, I think ultimately of the resurrection victory of Jesus Christ, and so that's what we get to celebrate today, and I've prayed that God would give me grace to explain how my own heart has been captivated by this text. How for years I have longed to preach Isaiah 25. Now I get one chance to do it. Oh God, give me grace to not mess it up, that I might speak with the joy, the energy, the life that's in my heart that reduced me to tears this morning, and that's gonna be of no use while I'm preaching. So it's gone, thank God for that, but the passion behind it of celebrating the resurrection, victory and the feast that we will have in heaven. That's my desire today. There are four awesome things that are celebrated in this chapter with incredible clarity. First God's sovereign plan, formed, fashioned before the creation of the world is celebrated in Isaiah 25. Formed in the mind of God, before the creation of the world. Second, God's astonishing power to convert and to transform ruthless nations of tyrants and oppressors, to transform them and convert them, so that they will praise him and submit to him and celebrate his glory. God's power to do that. Third, Jesus's marvelous victory over death and the grave. His power over death is celebrated in this chapter. Fourth, God's terrifying power to bring down nations and individuals who will not yield to his rule, to crush them down to the very dust. These are the great things that Isaiah 25 celebrates. So let's look right away at verses one through five. Praise God. I. Praise God for converting ruthless nations. Look at verses one through five. "Oh Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness, you have done marvelous things. Things planned long ago. You have made the city a heap of rubble, fortified town of ruin. The foreigners strong hold a city no more. It will never be rebuilt. Therefore, strong peoples will honor you, cities of ruthless nations will revere you. you have been a refuge for the poor, refuge for the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall, and like the heat of the desert. You silence the uproar of foreigners as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud. So the song of the ruthless is stilled." “God does everything for the praise of his glory. Everything he does, he does for the praise of his glory.” So I begin by just saying this, God does everything for the praise of his glory. Everything he does, he does for the praise of his glory. I love the beginning of Piper's book, 'Let the Nations Be Glad'. A great book on missions. And he says there, "Missions is not the ultimate goal of the church. Worship is. Missions exist because worship doesn't. Worship is ultimate, not missions, because God is ultimate, not man. And when this age is over and the countless millions of the redeemed fall on their faces before the throne of God, missions will be no more. It is a temporary necessity. But worship abides forever." So God does everything he does so that individual people will praise him for his glory. Ephesians 1 makes this very plain. In Ephesians 1, it says in verses 4-6, "In love, he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ in accordance with his pleasure and will". Listen to this, "To the praise of His glorious grace". So predestination is for praise. Again, in the same chapter, Ephesians 1 in verse 12, "In order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory". And then again in verse 14, speaking of converts, they also converted to the praise of his glory. So that's three times in 10 verses, it speaks of the reason why God does everything, and that is for the praise of his glory. And so Isaiah 25 has a marvelous tone of praise for almighty God, that's why my outline is praise God for this, praise God for that, and praise God for the other. Everything is just celebration in this chapter, just praise him, give him glory. But it must be done by individuals, it's done by people, by individual human beings, and so there's a very individualized personal aspect of praise right from the start here. Look at verse 1, "O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for imperfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago". Now, Isaiah chapters 13-39, as we've been saying, just shows the sovereign power of Almighty God. The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob over all the earth. He rules over all nations. Rules over Babylon all the way to Assyria. So Isaiah 13, God sovereignty over Babylon is a Isaiah 37, 38, 39, his victory over Syria and in between lots and lots of smaller nations and oracles against them, Arabia, Syria, Damascus, Ethiopia, Egypt, all of these God rules over all of them. Tyre and Sidon, God rules over mighty nations, and we proclaimed and will see in Isaiah 40, how God sits and throne above the circle of the earth, and all the nations before him are like grasshoppers, and the nations are just a drop from the bucket. So we have this infinite sense of the majesty of God, how great he is, how mighty and how powerful. But we should never lose sight of the fact that God does this so that he might be known individually and personally by people just like you and me. By individual people created in the image of God. That he might have a relationship with us individually. I think this is exactly why Jesus, for the most part, I think, sought to heal people through face-to-face contact though he literally could have cured the whole world of all of its diseases with one word. If he wanted to. But he wanted face-to-face contact like the woman who was bleeding and touched the hem of his garment, he stopped and says, "Okay, who touched me?", he wants that encounter with you, he wants a relationship with you. He wants an intimate relationship. And so it's very, very personal here. Isaiah makes his love for God personal. "O Lord, you are my God". Can you say that? Can you say that the God of the Bible is your God? Can you speak with that kind of intensity, that kind of personal love? That this God who sits enthroned above the circle of the earth, this one who cups his hand and scoops up the Pacific Ocean, that kind of thing, who weighs the mountains and it balances as though they were dust on the scales. This great God is your God. And you talk to him every day. And you live your life in front of him before him by faith. You get this in Psalm 139, don't you? Where the psalmist David said, "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know, when I sit and when I rise, you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my coming back in, you're familiar with all of my ways". And at the end of the Psalm, he says, "Do that, keep doing that. I want you to search me, I want you to know me, I wanna be intimate with you God". Or again, the apostle Paul in Galatians 2:20, who knew very well that there would be a countless multitude from every tribe and language and people and nation, for whom Jesus died, huge, huge, multitude of people, vast sea of humanity that Jesus shed his blood for. But he gets very, very personal in Galatians 2:20 when he says, "I have been crucified with Christ. And I no longer live but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me. And gave himself for me." Not loved us and gave himself for us. That's true, that's not what he said there. Loved me, and gave himself for me. Very, very personal. So Isaiah begins this incredible chapter intensely, personally, "Oh God, you are my God, and I will exalt you and I will praise your name". Well, why is he praising Him? What is the reason why Isaiah praises him? Well, he says, "I will exalt you and praise your name for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago". That's the topic of his praise, that's why he is intensely praising God here. In his wisdom God, before he said, "Let there be light", had worked out a detailed sovereign plan for the entire history of the human race. It was all worked out before God said, "Let there be light". I mean down to the tiniest detail, down to the sparrow falling to the ground, down to the dice being cast into the lap, and it's every decision coming up the way God wanted. He had it all absolutely, completely worked out. He had figured out what path would be, would tend for his ultimate end in creating the universe, and what was that, that we would all be for the praise of his glory. And so he worked out an ancient plan before the foundation of the world, and now Isaiah is praising God that he's working it out, he's actually doing it. I'm praising you because the plan you thought about before, you said let there be light, you're doing it now it's happening. It's going on. And so this sovereign plan, which is Isaiah 14, celebrate, Isaiah 14:26-27, this is the planned plan determined for the whole world. This is the hand stretched out over all nations, for the Lord Almighty has purposed and who can thwart him. His hand is stretched out and who can turn it back. Well, the center piece of that sovereign plan is the salvation of the elect from every tribe and language and people and nation. That's the centerpiece of God's plan. Ephesians 1:11, "In him, we were also chosen, having been predestined, according to the plan of Him, who works out everything, in conformity with the purpose of His will. In order that we who are the first and hope first to open Christ might be for the praise of His glory." So here, Isaiah is astonished by the marvelous things, the wonderful things that God's plan includes. They're like miracles to him. In this particular case, in these verses, he's celebrating the fact that God has the power to turn ruthless, oppressive, tyrannical, empire-building human beings, into meek, humble, lamb-like followers of Jesus. He actually has the power to do that. And that's marvelous, isn't it? It's marvelous. That God has that kind of power to do that. So he's working it out, it says, in perfect faithfulness, he's working out his plan. He knows what He's trying to do, and he is doing it in perfect faithfulness. He's not swerving to the left or to the right. "The Lord Almighty has sworn," Isaiah 14, "Surely as I have planned so it will be, and as I have purposed, so it will stand." Isn't that wonderful? Doesn't that just bring peace to your hearts? "As I have purposed so it will be.” And nothing can stop it. So he's marvelous. God's plan is marvelous. It's a miracle, salvation, former enemies, Gentile nations whose bloody boots tramped the surface of the earth and came down on the necks of cowering people. They are stripped of their pride. Their own walls crumble, and humbled, but still alive, they then turned to the God who struck them and find salvation in Him. It’s marvelous! “God has the power to turn ruthless, oppressive, tyrannical, empire-building human beings, into meek, humble, lamb-like followers of Jesus” Praise God for that. So we have here the crushing of the city of rebellion, the city of man, look at verse two, "You have made the city a heap of rubble. The fortified town, a ruin, the foreigners stronghold a city no more. It will never be rebuilt." So this is the crushing of the city of man. Now we come again and again to this concept of the city of man versus the city of God. We have city, city, city, almost every chapter mentions the city, and we're not sure what city it is, so it ends up just kind of floating above and just becoming a symbol for the city of man. What Augustine wrote about in the 5th century as Rome, what the pagans called the eternal city. Jerome thought with the fall of Rome came the end of the world. Well, Jerome, apparently has been wrong by about 16 centuries at least. But he thought, you know, with the fall of Rome, the end of the world was imminent. Augustine saw a little bit further. He said, "No, this is just another human city that's falling. It's been going on for a long time." Significant moment when Alaric and the Visigoths went running through the streets of Rome burning and looting and doing different things. It was a big moment, no doubt about that. But he wrote City of God at that point to say, "You know what's really going on? Is the advancement of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the building of the City of God, the Eternal City." Charted out before the foundation of the world to evangelism and missions, the advance of the gospel, that's the building of the City of God. City of Man rises and falls. So as human beings gathered together in one big metropolis and they put walls around them, and they think that those walls make them safe and secure, and they trust in those walls and they trust in their power, and then they do well and their harvests come in and all their needs are met, and they started developing military technology, and they start to move out like a river and conquer unwalled villages and take advantage of weaker peoples and start to build an empire. That's just the City of Man, friends, that's what it is. And in verse two, God brings it down, brings it down to the ground. He just turns the walls into a pile of rubble. He has the power to do that, and therefore, in this verse, in verse three, it results in conversion. It results in salvation for those tyrants. At the end of the chapter, for some represented by Moab, it's going to result in condemnation, destruction and judgment under the wrath of God, but here it results in salvation for some. Look at verse three, "Therefore, because you have turned the city into a heap of rubble because of that, therefore, people, strong peoples, will honor you. Cities of ruthless nations will revere you." Do you see that? That language is language of worship. These strong peoples will worship the God who did this to them. This is the story of the world, friends, is the story what God can do. It's a story of the Book of Daniel. It's a story of Belshazzar's feast and Babylon coming down that very night, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great. So God has the power to do that, but in the midst of it, he can save out a remnant even of Babylonian tyrant oppressors, like Nebuchadnezzar, before that, converted, saved. Turned into a humble... I remember how God dealt with him and how he turned his mind from sharp and clear and arrogant and pride filled to that of a beast grazing for seven years. I've often wondered who found him first in that condition, which of his counselors came. Said, "Now we've got some things for you to sign," and he mooed back. Said, "Okay." A year later, they had a cycle of who was going to feed him and water him. Okay, but at that early stage, I mean, just what has happened to the king? But God had a plan for him, he didn't kill him. He didn't kill him. He kept him alive for seven years, and at the end of the seven years, he converted him. He gave him back, not the mind he had before, a whole different attitude now. Daniel 4:34-35, "At the end of that time, I, Nebuchadnezzar, raised my eyes toward heaven and I praised the God of Heaven. My sanity was restored and I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him who lives forever. His dominion is an eternal dominion. His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as he pleases with the people, the powers of Heaven, and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back his hand or say to him, what have you done?" No, that's a conversion, friends. You can't write those words and not know the saving grace of God. Or again, think of the power of God and transforming a vicious, murderous man, a religious Zealot, like Saul of Tarsus, who's breathing out murderous threats against the Lord's disciples, and going from place to place and dragging off men and women. And throwing them in prison, hardening his heart to their cries. Then he's on the road to Damascus with letters from the high priest to arrest any that he might find there who are followers of Jesus. Then suddenly, suddenly a light, a blinding light, flashed from heaven, and he fell to the ground, and he heard a voice calling his name. Calling him by name, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?", "Who are you, Lord?" he called back, "You know who I am. [laughter] I am Jesus. I am Jesus, the very one you're persecuting. Now get up and go into the city, and you'll be told what you must do." That's a king giving him orders. And he says later, "I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision." He converted this man, this murderer, this evil man converted, and so examples from church history abound. He did it to the Romans, did it to the Romans, three centuries of the gospel, the gospel taking Rome on and winning. Amen. Winning by martyrdom, by the blood of the martyrs, the seed for the church. The Gospel won. At the end of Rome, the gospel was standing and Rome wasn't. Amen. And think about the barbarian tribes, think about the Tribes of Germania, think about Boniface the missionary to them. He goes up to the northern woods of Thuringian, and he preaches, and he finds there a sacred oak, the Jupiter Oak, that they're all bowing down in their worshipping, and he says, "Chop it down." Actually, he begins to chop it down himself. Now that's a bold mission work right there. And the people are like, "All right, should we kill him? No, no, let's let Thor kill him or let Jupiter kill him." Well, Thor didn't do it. Actually, what God did is send a mighty, miraculous wind that blew the tree down, that's what the story says. The tree gets knocked down mid-stroke. Takes a long time to chop down an oak tree with an ax, and then Boniface up on the stump and preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Amen. And then builds a church from the wood. I just love that. But these are violent, militaristic, conquering people that are subdued by the gospel. Think about the Vikings, who go from place to place, coming on their dragon ships, coming out of the mist, and just stealing from monasteries, stealing gold and silver and burning the books, the Bibles, burning them because they meant nothing to them. Give it another century or two, and they are also converted by the gospel. It's awesome, this story. And Isaiah found it awesome, didn't he in this chapter? He says, "I praise you, O God, 'cause you can do this. You can turn mighty conquering people into humble, meek, lowly converts, you can do that. In the meantime, you can also protect your people who are cowering under their oppressive boot." Look at verses four and five, "You have been a refuge for the poor. A refuge for the needy. In his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like a storm driving against a wall, and like the heat of the desert, you silence the uproar of foreigners as heat is reduced by the shadow of a cloud so the song of the ruthless is stilled." So while the oppressors are in their heyday, an awful lot of innocent people get killed, a lot of innocent people get crushed. And these verses give the promise of refuge and protection for God, for God's people, because for the most part, God's people have been the oppressed. They have been the minority in that society. They have been flotsam and jetsam on the wave of history. We've not been, for the most part, in charge of it, but actually carried along by it. And so the dominators, the animals, the beasts of the earth, have crushed, for the most part, God's people, and sent them to heaven. And many martyrs were made, but in the midst of that, God is a refuge for them, and he protects them from this onslaught, this storm of tyrannical oppression, like the breath, hot breath like a desert wind, beating against the wall, the wall of the city, pushing on it until it falls. And God was the refuge for that. It's like a storm coming down. I picture like a hailstorm. Last year, I was out in the western part of this state and I was riding my bicycle, a mountain bike, up switchback mountain, a dirt road, and going up. And suddenly the weather got very, very interesting, very interesting. Windy, cloudy, then it got electrical and lots of thunder, lots of lightning, and then came the hail. Now, that's when I got interested. The hail. Little marbles, marbles of ice pelting me. The arms were tough. On my arms, that was bad, but the worst part was the little chunks of ice that got in the cracks of my helmet and stayed there and gave me a brain freeze. You know what I'm saying? They just melted in these cracks and it was awful, but I'm getting pelted, so there's only one thing I wanted in that moment, one thing, I wanted refuge. I wanted refuge. I was looking, and I couldn't find it, actually, I couldn't find any place that wasn't getting pelted. Leaves, shredded leaves, were all over the place by this pelting hailstorm. So I said, "The best thing for me to just go down the mountain." I started riding, it was one of the hardest rides of my life looking for shelter. These verses, verses four and five, talk about how God is a shelter for his defenseless people in the midst of the onslaught of this tyranny. So, verses one through five, Isaiah celebrates God's sovereign power as ruthless, tyrannical, empire builders tromp on the earth, and how God eventually brings some of them low, and saves them, and converts them. But you know there's a more powerful enemy even than these tyrant oppressors. And verses six through nine deal with that one directly, and that's the enemy of death. What 1 Corinthians 15 calls the final enemy. There has been no enemy of God's people that has been as cold-hearted and ruthless as this enemy, death. Death cares nothing for human affections, cares nothing for the age of its victims, for the marital status of them, how long the couple's been married, cares nothing for that. Cold-hearted tyrant. That's death. Cold-hearted tyrant, and an enemy in 1 Corinthians 15. II. Praise God for Spreading a Feast by Swallowing Up Death Forever! In verses, six through nine celebrates, praise of God for death destruction. That's what it's all about. Praise God for death being swallowed up in victory. Look at verses six through nine, "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a banquet, or feast of rich foods, for all peoples, a banquet of aged wine, the best of meats and the finest of wines. On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples. The sheet that covers all nations. He will swallow up death forever. The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth. The Lord has spoken." In verse nine, "In that day, they will say, behold, this is our God, we trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord, we trusted in him, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." These are some of the sweetest verses in the Book of Isaiah for me. When I went through this book and was memorizing years ago, this chapter arrested me because I'd never seen it before, I never noticed these verses before. But the apostle Paul noticed them and took a phrase and put it over in 1 Corinthians 15. We'll talk about that in a minute. But let's talk about this banquet. Let's talk about this feast that the Lord Almighty will spread. How is it described? There's just lush language for this banquet, it's a feast of rich foods. It's a banquet of aged wine. The best of meats and the finest of wines, the NIV gives us. That's a good translation. It's just the highest quality experience you can ever have at a banquet, and this is where I desire that in some way, this message could be the aroma of life unto life for you. That you could just smell this banquet, the sweetness of the aroma wafting from God's table. It's a rich banquet. Now scripture portrays a number of rich feasts. Many people in the world never get to sit at a rich feast or banquet. They're poor and so they never have that experience, maybe. And so there are stories in the Bible of rich feasts that are spread and you can read about it at least... Or use your imagination to think about what that's like. For example, 1 Kings 10, King Solomon puts on a banquet for the Queen of Sheba. Remember that one? She came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon's wisdom. And when the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon, and the palace that he had built, and the food on his table, the seating of his officials, his attending servants in their robes, and his cupbearers and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, it says literally, there was no breath left in her. Her breath was taken away. Well, friends, this banquet will be better than Solomon's banquet, amen. As Jesus would say, "And now a banquet greater than Solomon's is here." Or again you get the same thing in Esther chapter 1, where King Xerxes opens up the splendor of the empire from Kush, that's Ethiopia, all the way to India, 120 provinces, for 180 days, and just shows the glory of his kingdom, and it culminates in a seven-day banquet described in Esther chapter 1. "The king gave a banquet lasting seven days in the enclosed garden of the king's palace for all the people, from the least to the greatest who are in the citadel of Susa." That's the picture of heaven, is the picture of the new Jerusalem. Everybody from the least of the greatest will sit at the King's table. "The garden had hangings of white and blue linen fastened with cords of white linen and purple material to silver rings on marble pillars. There were couches of gold and silver on a mosaic pavement of porphyry, marble, mother-of-pearl, and other costly stones. Wine was served in goblets of gold, and each one was different from the other, and the royal wine was abundant in keeping with the king's liberality. And by the king's command, each guest was allowed to drink in his own way, for the king instructed all the wine stewards to serve each man as he wished." It's just a foretaste of heaven, that language. So these are rich banquets, but this feast of Isaiah 25 is infinitely greater than any of those. All right, where is the location of the banquet? Where is God going to prepare it? Well, the text says, "On this mountain, he will do it." Well, what is this mountain? I think to go to the very end of chapter 24, the last verse, right before 25, and I think we get the mountain described. Isaiah 24:23, it says, "The moon will be abashed and the sun ashamed, for the Lord Almighty will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem and before its elders gloriously." So that's the end of the world, as I say, because chapter 24 is talking about the destruction of all the earth. And so Mount Zion... What is Mount Zion? I've thought a lot about Mount Zion over the last year. And I just continue to evolve in my understanding of it. The way I understand it is Mount Zion is the place where God dwells in the midst of his people. And the symbolic aspect of that is the Shekinah Glory of God, the glory cloud descending and staying in the tabernacle or the temple as a symbol of God dwelling in the midst of his people. It came to represent, for the most part, Jerusalem, the city of God, the city as he dwelt among men. It isn't just where God dwells like up in heaven, but it's where God dwells with people. And so it came to kind of be synonymous for Jerusalem. And so Mount Zion was the mountain on which Jerusalem was built. But ultimately, theologically, the place where God Almighty dwells amongst his people. And so on this mountain, I think, refers to Jerusalem, first and foremost. So on this mountain, what we know as Mount Zion, there he will spread a feast. Friends, it's the same mountain where Jesus died. It's the same mountain where God told Abraham to take his son, Isaac, and offer him as a burnt offering, Mount Moriah. The same place where David at the end of the plague, built the temple, wanted to build the temple on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite. On that mountain, on that place, death will be defeated. That's where it's going to happen. On this mountain, he will spread this banquet, this very same place. Okay, well, the feast is described. The one who spreads it is God Almighty. The location is Mount Zion and that will be fulfilled ultimately, when the new Jerusalem comes down, like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and it's all going to be together, the new Jerusalem there we will dwell, and that's where the feast ultimately will be. Well, who's invited? Who's going to come? Well, here we see the guests are all peoples. Do you see that? People from every nation and tribe are invited. This is very, very plain in the text, 25:6, it says, "On this mountain, the Lord Almighty will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples." Do you see that? Verse seven, "On this mountain, he will destroy the shroud that enfolds all peoples, the sheet that covers all nations." Verse eight, "The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people, his people, from all the earth." Friends, these are the elect from every tribe and language and people and nations who are invited to this banquet. That's who's coming. This is universal language. A wide reach; the wide reach of this feast. Jesus spoke of it in Matthew chapter 8, in verse 11, "I tell you that many will come from the east and the west and will take their places at the feast with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the Kingdom of Heaven”. Jesus spoke about it again, on the night before he was crucified. He said, "I tell you, I'll not drink this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink and drink it anew with you in my Father's Kingdom," when we sit down and we have that feast of the best of meats and the finest of wines. Now, I wrote in my outline here, the center of the banquet: "The swallowing up of death forever." I've changed, this morning I changed. Okay. An important feature of the banquet is the swallowing up of death forever. Center is another place. We'll get to that at verse nine. But an important feature of this banquet is the swallowing up of death forever. Death is portrayed as the enemy of all peoples of all nations. All of us descended from Adam are under the death penalty. In Adam, when Adam sinned at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil when he took that fruit and ate, we all sinned. Romans 5 says that. And in him, his death penalty came on us all, so every human infant born, is born seen to be a sinner in God's sight, and under the death penalty. It's universal. Sin reigns in death like a cold-hearted tyrant. It's personified there in Romans 5:21, "Sin reigns in death." And so there's this link between sin and death. And Isaiah depicts it as a shroud that covers all people, a sheet that enfolds all nations. You get the picture of a quiet, like a corpse laid out on a slab, like in a morgue. In a movie, when they're working, working, then they just pause and then they pull the sheet over the face. You know what that means. You know what that means. Person's dead. There's nothing more to do. Go by an accident, if you were to see somebody completely covered up, you know. They're not scrambling, they're not trying to get them to the hospital. There's nothing more to be done. So death is the shroud. It's the sheet. And it's universal. It's a universal threat. People in China, people in Indonesia, people in Australia, people in Africa, people here in North America, rich, poor, it's everywhere. It's a shroud that enfolds all peoples. And the sovereign Lord is going to destroy it. And it speaks specifically here of the sorrow of death and the disgrace of death. Look at verse eight, "The sovereign Lord will wipe away the tears from all faces. He will remove the disgrace of his people from all the earth." So death with its ability to destroy our bodies through aging and corruption and decay, and then when you die, when you stop breathing, then the microbes take over and the worms take over and the parasites take over. And it's disgusting. And so it was said to Jesus, if we open the door, there'll be a bad odor, for corruption has taken over. There is a dishonor in this. There is a disgrace in death, and you feel it when you go to the ICU and people are strapped to machines and they can't breathe, except with a machine. There's a disgrace, a dishonor to it. And so it says here in the verse, "He will remove the disgrace of His people." He'll take away their disgrace. So it says in 1 Corinthians 15, "The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable." It is sown in dishonor. No matter what you do at a funeral, no matter what you do at the grave side, there's still an inherent dishonor in it. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. How does God do this? He does it through Jesus. I wrote at the top of the sheet, preach Jesus right now. Don't preach Isaiah, preach Jesus. Through Jesus's shed blood on the cross, by him taking our penalty for our sins and by his death under the wrath of God, by his justifying work and by his mighty resurrection, he does this conquering, this conquest, this swallowing up of death. That's how it happens. “It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory...Through Jesus's shed blood on the cross, by him taking our penalty for our sins and by his death under the wrath of God, by his justifying work and by his mighty resurrection, he does this swallowing up of death.” To Jesus be the glory. And I love how it says he will swallow up death forever. Isn't that sweet? This isn't just a victory. There's some close victories, like eking out a victory by a one point. A buzzer beater. You know what I'm saying? Friends, this isn't a buzzer beater here. This is a trouncing. He is going to swallow up death forever. I picture here, Moses with his... remember his staff. And He says, "Throw it on the ground Moses," turns into a serpent. Right? Says, "Show that to Pharaoh." Remember what happened when he did that, you remember? So he throws it down and much to his chagrin, the magicians did the same thing. It's like, "Oh, I didn't know they could do that here in Egypt. God, what were you doing? I thought it was gonna be something impressive.", "Just be quiet and watch." So watch what happens, and Moses' snake swallowed up the wicked snakes of the oppressors. Swallowed it up. And so there was a little bit of mocking and it was silenced when that happened, and then he grabs the end of the tail and it turns into a staff again. Swallowed up. It's awesome. So death will be crushed. Final score, final score, millions from every tribe, language, people, and nation to zero per death. Millions to zero. Because death will not say anything final over you or me. Amen. Death itself is gonna be thrown into the lake of fire, and I will live. And I will eat with God, and I will see his new heaven, new earth, and death will be a distant memory. And so Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 15, and he says, "Then the saying that is written will come true, death has been swallowed up in victory. Where o death is your victory, where o death is your sting?" He starts to mock death. "What happened to you, o death? You were so powerful once. Look at you now. The sting of death is sin. And the power of sin is the law, but thanks be to God, he gives us the victory through Jesus Christ." And those words move me again, melted me, he gives us the victory. Jesus wins it, and then he says, here, you just sit down and eat my victory. Enjoy forever. So death is gonna get swallowed up in the lake of fire. I picture here, like the Lord of the Rings, you guys remember the ring of power? If you don't know this, just tune out for the next minute with this illustration and then read the books, okay? Or watch the movies. But this ring of power represents the power of wickedness and evil and sin in the world, and it's all kind of into this ring, and the whole quest of the whole thing, three books, hours and hours, nine, 10 hours of movie-ness, and there's this ring. And then finally it gets thrown into the cracks of doom and this molten lava at the bottom, and you remember what happens? It just melts. And the whole evil kingdom of Mordor just comes crumbling down, like at the end of this chapter, just crumbling down, just reduced to nothing. Death is gonna get melted and swallowed up in the lake of fire. And so in Revelation 20:14, then death and hades are thrown in the lake of fire. And this is all done by Jesus. Jesus gives us the victory. All you have to do is repent, believe, trust, and he will be for you your resurrection victory. He will call to you out of the grave and you'll come out in a resurrection body and you will live forever. And so Isaiah 25:6-9, is predicting the awesome victory celebration at the end of the world. And verse eight, the very end, it says, "This is as certain as the Word of God." What it was the final phrase there, a final thing in verse eight: "The Lord has spoken." That just brings goosebumps to me. God's gonna do this. He's gonna do it. And nothing's gonna stop it. And then what's gonna happen after that? Verse nine, then they're gonna praise. They're gonna praise and praise and praise forever. They will say, "Behold our God, behold our God. We trusted in him and he saved us. This is the Lord. We trusted in him, let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation." That is the center of the feast, and actually it's not even the center of the feast. Friends, it is the feast, every dish brought in and laid down is God. His attributes, his achievements in history, what he did for this brother and that sister, that man, and this little girl throughout history, what he has done will be the feast. God's creativity in the new heaven and the new earth, his gentleness, his power, his wisdom, that'll be the feast one dish after another, set before you and we will eat. God is the feast. God is the reward, God is the inheritance. He's what you get. "Come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world." Is it heresy to change it a little bit and say, "Come you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the king." He is the inheritance. He's what we get, we get Jesus, we get the greatness of God forever. And so, as Steve Green put it in God and God Alone, he said, "God and God alone will be the joy of our eternal home. He will be our one desire, our hearts will never tire of God and God alone, he will be the feast." III. Praise God for Condemning Arrogant Nations! In the meantime, brothers and sisters around the world, they're suffering, verses 10 through 12. It's not the way I would have ended the chapter, I put great stuff at the end, you know. Chapters 10 through 12 talk about the judgment of those who will not submit to this message, represented by Moab: "The hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, but Moab will be trampled under him as straw is trampled down in the manure. They will spread out their hands in it as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim and God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands. He will bring down your high fortified cities or walls and lay them down. He will bring them down to the ground to the very dust." This is God's wrath against arrogant unbelievers who will not submit. And at the beginning of the chapter, they get converted, these folks don't. The Bible doesn't teach universalism. Not everyone will sit at this banquet table. There are some rebels who will not yield, they will not bow the knee to King Jesus, represented by Moab here, but I think it's just all the reprobates, the ones who will not yield, who will not submit. And all of the language here is downward, they're gonna be trampled down, their pride is gonna be brought down, their walls are gonna be hurled down. It's all downward language. And no matter what they do with their clever schemes and their self-salvation schemes, they can't escape this judgment. And God will judge them. And so Jesus said, "Do not fear those who kill the body, and after that, there's nothing more they can do to you. I'll tell you who to fear: Fear the one who after the death of the body has power to destroy both soul and body in hell." The ultimate downward pressing under the judgment of God is in the lake of fire, it's in hell, and so the scripture warns us to flee the wrath to come, and to come to Christ. IV. Applications So for our application, can I just invite you to the banquet. Just come, alright? Matthew 22, the message is going out, the king's messengers are on the roads right now, they're out there and they're telling everyone in the world. The wedding banquet of the King and his son has come. The King has prepared the banquet, the oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the banquet. But in that parable, they paid no attention to, went off. One to his field, another to his business. Don't do that, come to Christ. Don't leave here unregenerate, don't leave here not sure if you're gonna sit at the table. All you have to do is look to Jesus and say, I'm a sinner, I need to be saved. Save me, you shed your blood for sinners like me, you rose again from the dead. Save me. It's all. And if you believed in Jesus years ago, you still believe in Him, but you're drifting, you're struggling, you're sorrowful, like in that song, there's misery and sadness, go to the empty tomb, look in it again, and feast. Say, Lord, would it be possible for a few extra morsels to fall from your eternal table down into my open mouth today? Can I get some foretaste of heavenly joy today? Ask him for a down payment. A deposit from the Holy Spirit. Give me some heavenly feasting joy right now. Banqueting joy, give it to me. I'm depressed, I'm discouraged, I'm downtrodden by my sins, I'm feeling guilty. Would you please give me a foretaste of your mercy and your grace? Come to the banquet. And just celebrate. Just go home happy. Go home happy. Just be happy in Jesus. No long faces. I'm looking at you now. No long faces. If you're a Christian you should be happy. It's like, “Well, I don't have to be happy in front of the pastor.” No, that's... But some time today be happy. Okay, sometime today. Smile. Alright, don't do it for me 'cause you don't wanna... Fine, I get it. Just out of pride, I'm like that. When preachers tell me to do things, I tend to not do them. I want you to raise your hands, I'm not raising my hands, I'm not doing that. I'm not gonna do what I'm told here. But I'm just urging you. Be happy. Just ask the question, “Has Jesus done enough at the cross and the empty tomb to make you happy today?” Be happy then. Praise Him, praise God for his ability to convert people. Pray for unconverted oppressors. We live in a perilous time in our nation when people are voting God in and out, in and out. Sharing, booing God. Its sickening. Don't get angry, pray for people, pray for people who do those kinds of things. Pray that God would convert them. Don't you want them there at the banquet table with you? Pray for them, for our president, pray for other leaders, pray for them that they would sit at the banquet with Jesus and just wait on the Lord, wait for him. It says, "Surely this is our God, we waited for him". There's a lot of waiting. It's not just Larry in Atlanta waiting for Andy to get healed. We're all waiting, doing a lot of waiting. We're not freed from death, that's the final enemy, so we're gonna have to go to some funerals, we're gonna have to go through some suffering. And we need to wait on Him, but in the midst of that, let's rejoice at this resurrection victory. Close with me in prayer. Father, thank you for the things we've studied today, thank you for the joy that comes from it. Thank you for the delight in this chapter 25, potent, potent verses. Thank you for destroying the shroud that covered my face, taking that shroud off my face and saying, “No, you'll live, you're not gonna die. You will live and not die.” Thank you for saving me. Thank you for saving these brothers and sisters that are sharing this joy with me today, and those that aren't... That are in this room, that aren't sharing the joy right now, because they're unconverted. Oh God, speak to them now. Save them, please. We pray this in Jesus name, amen.

Introduction This morning I am going to resume a sermon series in the Book of Isaiah, which I left about four years ago. Some of you were here at that time. We’re parachuting in, right in the middle of the book, to Chapter 22. As we come to Isaiah in general, as you heard a little bit in my prayer a moment ago, one of the challenges you have as you look at the Old Testament, as you look at Isaiah, is the question of relevance. How is this connecting to me, what’s happening in Isaiah and what’s happening in my life? Is there an unsurmountable gulf between the two? The answer is, of course not. All scripture is God-breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness, so we may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. This chapter in particular has a powerful message to us. It’s important for us to hear. You heard, as Blake was reading, this rather familiar phrase: “Let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die.” So the issue in Isaiah 22 has to do with a sinful, wicked happiness, a wicked feasting that seeks to avoid the real spiritual issues that are going on. It seeks instead to get quickly to the party, to get quickly to a frivolous joy that doesn’t address the deeper spiritual issues. There’s nothing wrong, and I say there’s everything right, with the God-given desire to be happy. There’s nothing wrong with that. To be happy, to celebrate, to eat and drink and be merry, these things are wired into us. Jesus did it a lot in His ministry, didn’t He? He seemed to go from one feast to the next, from one banquet to the next. Think about when Matthew turned from his sins and followed Jesus, leaving his tax-collecting booth. That evening he had a big party with all of his friends. They happened to be what were known as tax collectors and sinners. Jesus was there feasting with them. And the Pharisees and scribes were complaining about this, saying to His disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?” Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Luke 5:31-32) He did it in the context of a banquet. But they spoke wrongly about him. Jesus says this, “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners.’” (Mt 11:19) The first half is wrong. The second half (Amen), is true. Jesus is a friend of sinners. What a joy that is! There’s nothing wrong with desiring to feast. Jesus actually told a parable in which He described an aspect of our heavenly experience as a wedding banquet, a banquet spread by a king. “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.” (Mt 22:2) And then a few verses later, he sends out messengers, saying, “’Tell those who have been invited that I have prepared my dinner: my oxen and fattened cattle have been butchered and everything is ready. Come to the wedding banquet.’ But they paid no attention and went off...” (Mt 22:4-5) The great sin of the people in that parable is that they didn’t come to the banquet. They didn’t come to the feast. They had other things they wanted to do. So the desire to eat and drink and be merry, there’s nothing wrong with it. It’s perfectly fine if you seek it in the hands of God, by His holy means. Absolutely. But Jesus was also called a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering. The paradox, then, of the Christian faith is that it’s only by dealing properly with our sinfulness that we will be able to sit at the table with the perfect source of happiness, who is the Holy God. It’s only as we have our sins addressed and atoned for. Therefore, Jesus said, “Blessed [or happy, richly happy] are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.” (Mt 5:4) The yearning for happiness is built into the human soul. Blaise Pascal put it this way, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views of what will make them happy. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves.” We seek happiness all the time. This sermon, this text, is not against happiness. It’s not against eating and drinking and being merry. That’s not it. Rather, the whole message of scripture points to a higher banquet, a higher feast, an eternal banquet, a heavenly banquet of joy in the presence of a holy God. Because this God is holy, we must have our sins atoned for. We must be atoned for. Our sins must be covered. The scripture says that the atonement for sins is only worked by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross. God sent His Son into the world to atone for our sins, that His blood shed on the cross might be full atonement for our sins. But in order to access that atonement we must repent and believe the good news. Jesus said, in Mark 1:15, “The time is at hand. The kingdom of heaven is near. Repent and believe the good news!” Now, repentance always involves the true sight of sin as it really is. We see it by faith. We see at last, sin, as the grotesque, wicked thing it is. We see it in ourselves and genuine repentance always involves some sorrow for sin. Jesus’ blood is, in some mysterious way, mingled with our tears to produce our own salvation. We have that woman, of course, who was a harlot, a prostitute, who comes in when Jesus is at one of those banquets. I think it was at the home of Simon the Leper. She’s weeping over Jesus’ feet and rinsing His feet with her tears, drying them with her hair. That’s a picture of her brokenness over her sin, her weeping those tears. Now, they’re not equal value, those substances. Jesus’ blood, our tears, both equally important, I’m not saying that. What I am saying is that when the Holy Spirit works genuine repentance and faith, then sorrow for sin is going to be part of your life. It’s part of the healthy Christian life. At the very beginning, sometimes you have such an overwhelming sense of your own wickedness. That’s why you’re running to Jesus. In the same way that woman just couldn’t stop crying. She’s bathing Jesus’ feet with her tears. In Isaiah 22, we have pictured some people who want to feast and celebrate rather than weep and mourn over sin. They’re the ones that are saying, “Let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” I think the lesson that Isaiah the prophet gives us here in 21st century language is, “When God calls on you to mourn for sin, don’t party instead.” It’s not time for partying. It’s time for mourning. There is a time for that in Christian life. Jerusalem Besieged Like Any Other Sinful City (vs 1-8a) Context: God’s Sovereign Power Over All Nations Let’s look at these verses in an orderly way. First, in verses 1-8, we have revealed for us through the vision of Isaiah the prophet, that Jerusalem, the City of David, will be besieged. And it will be dealt with like any other wicked city. Now, the context here is that Isaiah is presenting a God who is sovereign over all nations. Later in Isaiah we will be told He sits enthroned above the circle of the earth and all its peoples before Him are like grasshoppers. The nations are like dust on the scales. They’re like a drop from the bucket. He is reigning on a heavenly throne over all of these things. Before Him, all the nations are as nothing. They’re regarded by Him as worthless and less than nothing. Later in Isaiah, in Chapter 34, it says, “The Lord is angry with all nations; his wrath is upon all their armies. He will totally destroy them, he will give them over to slaughter.” In Isaiah chapters 13 through 35, we have one chapter after another after another presenting God as the master of all nations, the ruler of all nations. He’s king over all the earth. There’s one oracle after another against all of these Gentile nations. They just come one after the other: Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Damascus (the capital of Syria), Ethiopia, and Egypt. Chapter after chapter in Isaiah, we see oracles of judgment against Gentile nations. In Chapter 21, as a matter of fact, three nations get it. Babylon gets it, as well as Edom and Arabia. God’s wrath is against these three different Gentile nations. Such a view of a single, all powerful God who rules over all the earth was in some ways, or at least to some people, new and foreign. They believed in national deities, the god of the Moabites, the god of the Assyrians, etcetera. They had national temples that would be set up. When one nation went to war against another, it would be their gods, god, or goddess against the other nation. They would see whose gods or goddesses were stronger. No, Isaiah has a whole different vision. It’s not like that at all. God rules over all the Earth, and He’s against sinners in every nation. Bitter Surprise: Judah and Jerusalem No Different than Gentile Sinners Such a view of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of the Jews, wrath-filled towards wicked pagans, bringing judgment on wicked pagan nations, would have brought delight to any patriotic Jewish heart. They would have looked at that and said, “Go get them, God! Go whip up on those wicked Gentile nations!” But we have a shock in Isaiah 22. Jerusalem is going to be destroyed like any other wicked city. God turns his oracle, through Isaiah, against the Jews of Jerusalem. In one sense, they’re no different than any Gentile. In another sense, they’re worse because they live in the Valley of Vision and they should have known better. They should have lived better. They had God’s word proclaimed to them in every generation. They should have lived at a higher level, and they didn’t. The Valley of Vision: Jerusalem More Accountable Because of Prophets So in one sense, it’s worse. Jerusalem is more accountable because of the prophets. Look at verse 1. It says, “An oracle concerning the Valley of Vision.” There’s a well-known book of Puritan prayers that takes its title from this chapter, “Valley of Vision.” “Valley” because Jerusalem is surrounded by three very significant valleys, and itself, in some sense, can be looked down upon from the Mount of Olives and some of the other immediately surrounding mountains. So it is a little bit lower. That’s the valley part. Valley of Vision. “Vision” because Isaiah had one vision after another. He’s not the only one. The fact is that God has communicated with Jerusalem in every generation, generation after generation, through the prophets. He gives them visions. He gives them the word. The word of the Lord comes to this or that prophet, and they proclaim God’s will, God’s words to the people. Valley of Vision. But they have not responded. They have not received the word. They have rejected it so much so that Jesus, looking back over the whole history of the city of Jerusalem, weeping over it, says, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is left to you desolate.” (Mt 23:37-38) Or again, look at Stephen when he was about to be killed. As he’s getting to the end of his incredible sermon in Acts, Chapter 7, he says, “You stiff-necked people, with uncircumcised hearts and ears! You are just like your fathers, you always resist the Holy Spirit! Was there ever a prophet your fathers did not persecute?” (Acts 7:51-52) The Siege Described Jerusalem is the Valley of Vision. God gave them the gift of visions, but they did not listen. They resisted the prophets in every generation. So Isaiah describes the siege. Look at verses 1-3. Speaking to Jerusalem, he says, “What troubles you now, that you have all gone up on the roofs, O town full of commotion, O city of tumult and revelry? Your slain were not killed by the sword, nor did they die in battle. All your leaders have fled together; they have been captured without using the bow. All you who were caught were taken prisoner together, having fled while the enemy was still far away.” The city, Jerusalem, is filled with tumult and revelry, a city of laughter and lust, of eating and drinking and making merry, a city of bloodshed, wickedness, covetousness, greed, and sexual immorality. It was a party city in some ways, but now no longer. Now it’s a city of the dead. Isaiah mentions, “Your dead were not slain in battle.” They have dead people there, but why are they dead? Because of the siege. They’re dead because of starvation. They’re dead because of plague, disease. A city in which the leaders of outlying towns and cities have fled to the final citadel of Judah, Jerusalem, to save their lives. They didn’t fight out there. They had no courage, no strength to face the invader. No, they run to Jerusalem for protection from Jerusalem’s walls. But there will be no protection there. The invaders have now come and surrounded Jerusalem and there will be no escape. This, in verse 5, is the Day of the Lord. It’s a theme that’s brought up again and again in the Old Testament, the Day of the Lord. The Lord Almighty has a day in store. Do you see it? It’s the Day of the Lord, it’s His day. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and crying out to the mountains.” (Is 22:5) This is a Day of Judgment, this day of wrath. There have been many of them in redemptive history. Again and again God brings a temporal judgment on a people. It’s a picture of the final Day of the Lord at the second coming of Christ, in which judgment will come finally in the end. It says in Romans 2:5-6, “But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God’s wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. God will give to each person according to what he has done.” So that’s the final Day of the Lord, what we call the day of judgment. But there are smaller Days of the Lord that happened along the way. Isaiah says, “This is a day of tumult and trampling and terror.” He says, “It’s a day of battering down walls.” Do you see that in the text? “Battering down walls and of crying out to the mountains,” looking for a place of refuge, calling or crying out to the hills, to the mountains. “Fall on us and cover us!” But there is no refuge. So what is this? What is Isaiah talking about? This is the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians. This is not the invasion under the Assyrians. He covers that in other places in his prophecy. There, God said plainly to Sennacherib and to the Assyrian army, “You will not even approach the walls, and you certainly won’t build a siege ramp against it, and you will not batter them down. You’ll die before you even get there.” One hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians died in one night. Well, that’s not what this passage is talking about. No, because godly King Hezekiah, when he heard the reports of the Assyrians coming and when he saw what was happening, he humbled himself in sackcloth and ashes, cried out, and grieved over his sin, as did the city of Jerusalem. They pleaded with God to forgive them. They asked for mercy and God granted it to them. But in this chapter, there’s none of that going on. No, at the time of Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian invasion, the king was Zedekiah, a wicked man. All he sought was escape. He actually went out with some of his nobles, through the openings in the wall, and ran at night, trying to escape. What a coward. That’s somewhat included in this chapter. “Your leaders have all fled. They didn’t fight. They didn’t have the strength to take up bow and arrow or shield. They didn’t do that. They ran for their lives. That’s the kind of leaders you have, O Jerusalem.” Well, those are the days of Zedekiah, the days of Babylon. That’s what Isaiah’s talking about. Isaiah’s Overpowering Reaction In verse 4, we have Isaiah’s overwhelming reaction to this prophecy. This is the prediction of the destruction of Jerusalem, the city of his own people. Look what he says in verse 4. “Therefore I said (this is Isaiah speaking) Turn away from me; let me weep bitterly. Do not try to console me over the destruction of my people.” Jeremiah is called the weeping prophet, but I think Isaiah did plenty of his own weeping too. Isaiah is overcome with grief for the destruction of Jerusalem, overcome with grief over his own people. It’s a grievous thing when God’s own people break the covenant, the holy covenant. When, through their wickedness and sin, God brings final judgment on them. God himself is highly emotional about sin. He’s an emotional being. You get your emotions from Him. You’re created in His image. God has emotional reactions to our sins. We’re told in Ephesians 4:30, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.” Grief is a serious sadness, a deep-rooted sadness that comes. Think about some of the tragedies that happen in life, even someone getting hit by a car and almost dying, or maybe a toddler that actually does get killed, and the grief that come over that. It’s frequently associated, I think, with death for the most part. The Holy Spirit is grieved when we sin. It’s an emotional reaction. Later, God will say in this text that He called on the people to grieve too. “I’m grieving,” God is saying, “You should grieve too. We should be in unity on this, because of the sin.” Isaiah’s already doing it. He’s grieving over the destruction of his people and over the sins that brought it about. He’s weeping over it, saying, “I can’t be consoled.” What’s really amazing about this is that this is a prophecy one hundred and fifty years before this even happens. Think about that. This is about a century and a half before this stuff will even happen, and God gives Isaiah this vision. Maybe he’s writing it down on a scroll and puts down his pen, and starts to weep over it. He’s already doing it. Elam and Kir: Distant Enemies, Well-Prepared for Conquest Now, he mentions Elam and Kir in verses 5-6. These are distant enemies, Gentile nations, who are going to come and do the job. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, has a day of tumult and trampling and terror in the Valley of Vision, a day of battering down walls and crying out to the mountains. Elam takes up the quiver, with her charioteers and horse; Kir uncovers the shield.” Isaiah is a stunning and amazing prophecy. It’s just incredible to me. He moves back and forth from section to section across centuries of time, without even stopping. I think of an eagle that’s on the peak of one mountain and wants to go to the peak of another mountain. It flies there in about three minutes. Whereas if we try to climb, we’d have to descend one slope and go up another. It would take us all day, or maybe two. But Isaiah, with the eagle eye of prophecy, can go from one century to the next and back again, no problem. Elam and Kir, they actually are the very people that God, in Chapter 21, is going to raise up to destroy the Babylonians. They are the Medes and Persians, ultimately. But before that ever happens He’s going to use them to destroy Jerusalem. They’re going to come with chariots and siege instruments and all that. They’re going to be victorious. They’re going to win. Jerusalem Stripped Verse 7 says, “Your choicest valleys are full of chariots, and horsemen are posted at the city gates.” Verse 8, “The defenses of Judah are stripped away.” They are defenseless. The walls are broken down. They have nothing left. They’re going to be destroyed. The siege is devastating. All of Judah’s protection is gone. Judah is stripped and laid bare, ready for the plundering. That’s verses 1-8. What Jerusalem Should Have Done: Faith and Repentance (vs 11-12) The Visions of the Prophets Had Warned Jerusalem of This for Centuries All right, now what should Jerusalem have done? None of this has happened yet, when Isaiah gives the word, when he gives the prophecy. He’s just predicting what’s going to happen. What should they have done? Well, they should have had faith toward God and repentance toward their sins. It’s a double vision. It’s two sides of the same coin. Toward God you look. You look toward God. It’s a look of faith. You’re going to look to God and trust in Him. You’re going to look towards your sins and grieve over them. It’s the same thing, really. That’s what they should have done. The visions of the prophets had warned the people of Jerusalem that this was coming. They knew it was coming. I already told you that this is one hundred and fifty years before the fall of Jerusalem. Plenty of warning. The Valley of Vision, one hundred and fifty years ahead of time. Isaiah himself had said, “God is not pleased with the Jews. He’s not pleased with your religious system, your animal sacrifices.” “What are they to me?” says the Lord. “I don’t care about this river of blood, animal after animal that you’re sacrificing. I’m sick of it, frankly. I have more than enough of the blood of fattened rams and lambs and all that.” “Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. ‘Come now, let us reason together,’ says the Lord Almighty. ‘Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall be like wool. If you are willing and obedient, you will eat the best from the land; but if you resist and rebel, you will be devoured by the sword. For the mouth of the Lord has spoken.’” Isaiah 1:16-20 I think that’s very clear. In Isaiah 5, he actually tells them a variety of their sins: their drunkenness, their social oppression, their taking of widows’ houses and adding house to house till no space is left in the land, and all of the wickedness. It’s very, very plain in Isaiah’s prophecy. They know exactly what God thinks about the way they’re living. So that was warning enough. Isaiah is enough. Major Warning: The Exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel to Assyria Then as time goes on, Assyria invades. The Northern Kingdom, the ten tribes, they get destroyed and swept away into exile. That’s a pretty strong warning, don’t you think? It’s warning to Judah, “This could happen to you.” Even Clearer: The Babylonians Were Coming It’s even clearer when these events actually start happening and you’re in the city of Jerusalem. Nebuchadnezzar starts conquering some of the little kingdoms north of you, one after the other after the other. Assyria falls to the Babylonians. Tyre falls to the Babylonians. Nebuchadnezzar is coming. And at that same time you have Jeremiah the prophet saying plainly what’s going to happen. He’s using exactly the same language as Isaiah did. You can read about it in Jeremiah 4:4-8. “Circumcise yourselves to the Lord; remove the foreskin of your hearts, O men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem; lest my wrath go forth like fire, and burn with none to quench it, because of the evil of your deeds. Declare in Judah, and proclaim in Jerusalem, and say, ‘Blow the trumpet through the land; cry aloud and say, ‘Assemble, and let us go into the fortified cities!’ Raise a standard toward Zion, flee for safety, stay not, for I bring disaster from the North, and great destruction. A lion has gone up from his thicket, a destroyer of nations has set out; he has gone out from his place to make your land a waste; your cities will be ruins without inhabitant.” Listen to this, this is Jeremiah 4:8. “For this put on sackcloth, (Do you hear that?) lament and wail, for the fierce anger of the Lord has not turned back from us.” It’s the same message, before it happens. Isaiah Spoke to them 150 Years Ahead of Time, Telling Them What to Do When, in our text, it says, “The Lord Almighty called you in that day,” that’s Jeremiah doing that. Do you see that? He’s going to send Jeremiah to go say, “Put on sackcloth and cry and wail.” God spoke to them. So what should they have done? First, they should have looked to the Lord. Verse 11 speaks of all the military preparations they make. More on that in a moment, but look at verse 11. “You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool, but you did not look (Do you see the word “look?”) to the One who made it, or have regard for the One who planned it long ago.” What’s that “look?” It’s faith, friends. It has to do with what you trust. You looked to this, but you should have looked to God. Does that make sense? As Isaiah 45:22 says, “Look unto me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is no other.” The KJV keeps the “look.” All the others say, “Turn to me,” but KJV has “look.” So it’s a look of faith, right? Look to God. Trouble is coming. Look to God with the eyes of your heart, which is faith. By faith, see Him who is invisible. Second, look to your sins and grieve over them. Look at verse 12. “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, called you on that day to weep and to wail, to tear out your hair and put on sackcloth.” This is an expression of great grief over sin. Grief! Grief! You look and you see your sins. They call you to cry out against yourself. I don’t know that it’s literally that you’re going to rip the hair out of your head, but there’s this sense of intensity. “God, how could I do this against you? How could I sin against such a God as you?” There’s a crying out against yourself. You put on sackcloth because it’s rough, and you’re like, “I don’t want comfort. I don’t want earthly consolations now. I don’t want an earthly party. I have sinned against God.” That’s what it’s calling on you to do. Take your sins seriously. Grieve over it. That’s what they should have done. The New Testament version is in James 4:8-10. “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn, and wail. Change your laughter to mourning, and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” That’s what they should have done, looked to the Lord, looked to their sins, and grieved over them. What did they do? Well, they made faithless military preparations and they had a party. That’s what they did. What Jerusalem Did: Faithless Preparations and Feasting (vs 8b-11,13) Avid Military Preparations I mean, they got ready for the Babylonians to come. They shored up their defenses as best they could. They made preparations, first described in verse 8. “You looked in that day to the weapons in the Palace of the Forest.” That was their armory. So they went and counted their weapons. “All right, we have X number of swords, X number of shields. We have bows and arrows. All right, good. We’re ready.” Look, there’s nothing wrong with making military preparations. The Old testament has a lot of examples of godly people who made military preparations. That’s not the issue. The issue is that they did that but did not look to the Lord. It’s a contrast. They were trusting in the weapons, trusting in the military. They were not trusting in God. You’ve heard the World War II saying, “Praise the Lord and pass the ammunition.” Well, this was just “pass the ammunition.” They skipped the Lord part. So they were trusting in the weapons. Verses 9-11 says, “You saw that the City of David had many breaches in its defenses, you stored up water (You’re going to need water) in the Lower Pool.” You need water for the siege. “You counted the buildings in Jerusalem and tore down houses to strengthen the wall.” You need some more building materials for the gaps in the walls, so you tore down the houses that weren’t needed. You took the rubble and the wood, and you shored up the defenses of the wall. “You built a reservoir between the two walls for the water of the Old Pool.” There’s nothing wrong with that. But they did not look to God while they were doing it. Fleshly Celebration Secondly, they had a fleshly celebration. They had a party. Look at Verse 13. “But behold, there is joy and revelry, slaughtering of cattle and killing of sheep, eating of meat and drinking of wine! ‘Let us eat and drink,’ you say, ‘for tomorrow we die.’” Having done their military preparations, they felt secure. It was time for a feast, time to have a party. It’s a bit odd when you’re about to go through a siege. You really should be conserving food when people are going to be on rations for a while, don’t you think? But it’s an arrogance, a confidence, a hubris. “Hey, we can have a feast.” It’s what they did in Daniel 5, remember? Babylon, the night they fell, they had a big banquet, a big feast. They were confident. Or maybe the deeper issue was they were revealing that their god was their stomach. This is what they lived for anyway. This is why they were in the problem they were in. Their god was their stomach, all the time. It’s how they lived. “Might as well just do it again, because we don’t have much more time to have a good party.” The apostle Paul quoted this exact verse in speaking of what life would be like if there were no resurrection. In 1 Corinthians 15, he said, “Suppose there were no resurrection from the dead. If there is no resurrection from the dead, then let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” So like they say, you only live once. I guess it’s YOLO these days. I’ve heard that before. Very trendy. I think what’s connected with it is, “You only live once, so do stuff on your bucket list. Go out and have a good time. Do stuff you want to do before you die. Have a party, whatever. That’s the mentality I’m sensing from my culture. Do you get that? You only live once, so have a party. Jerusalem Was Spiritually Bankrupt Well, I think you only live once. That’s true. So live for the glory of God. Amen? You only live once, so go on a mission trip. You only live once, so share the gospel with your neighbor. I think that’s the right answer to “you only live once.” Don’t go have a party. But that same spirit is alive today. Do you see it, friends? Do you see it in yourself? I’m so glad that Eric read that parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee. It’s like, “Oh, I’m glad I’m not like those Jews back then. I’m glad I don’t have a problem with not repenting of my sin.” Friends, don’t fall into that trap. Jerusalem was spiritually bankrupt. They were completely hardened in their sin, unaware of God’s passionate hatred for their sin. So they went over and they celebrated and had a feast. God’s Solemn Response: This Sin Will Never Be Forgiven (v 14) Is Feasting When You Should Be Grieving an Unforgiveable Sin? Now comes, in verse 14, God’s solemn response. Sometimes I have a hard time reading it without tears coming to my eyes. This is what God thought about that feast. He looks down and He sees this party going on. I mean, think about spiritual repulsion. It’s just disgusting to Him. And He said, “Isaiah, I want to tell you what I think about that feast.” “The Lord Almighty has revealed this in my hearing: (this is Isaiah speaking) ‘till your dying day this sin will not be atoned for,’ says the Lord, the Lord Almighty.” Is this the unforgiveable sin? Throwing a party when God calls on you to wail for your sins? Well, in some sense, the answer must be yes. How is it unforgiveable? Well, here’s the thing. God gives a means of grace. He gives an avenue of grace, the working of the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy against the Spirit was called unforgiveable. God does these things to bring hearts to repentance. What is happening here? Repentance and faith in Christ are the way by which sins are forgiven. What these people are doing is openly scorning repentance. They are mocking repentance. It reminds me of what HIV does to the body’s immune system. It goes after the helper T-cell and destroys it, so the body is defenseless against diseases. This sermon is going after that virus. This sermon is going after the thing that destroys the soul, so that godly repentance can stand and do its work. Does that make sense? I’m hunting it down right now, this spiritual virus that says, “Hey, mock repentance. Have a party if God’s calling on you to weep and wail.” There is a kind of godly sorrow in 2 Corinthians 7. Frankly, if you want to know, James 4:8-10 and 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 are the parallel verses in the New Testament. 2 Corinthians 7:10-11 says, “Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.” So there is a godly sorrow that I’m after today. I think the Spirit is after it in Isaiah 22. But worldly sorrow brings death. “See,” says Paul, “what this godly sorrow has produced in you; what earnestness, what eagerness to clear yourselves, what indignation, what alarm, what longing, what concern, what readiness to see justice done.” That’s what godly sorrow does. It brings about repentance and energy. Do you see? There’s a drive. It’s not emaciating and depressing. It causes you to say, “I have got to change. I want to bring about these changes in my life by God’s grace. I’m done with that sin.” That’s what it does. So when God calls for sorrow and mourning and repentance, and we feast and celebrate instead, there’s nothing left but judgment. Jesus Christ: Our Sovereign and Immovable Savior (vs 15-25) Shebna: Arrogant Official Seeking Worldly Security I’m not dealing equally with the rest of the verses as I’ve done with the first fourteen verses. Verses 15-25 are very interesting though. We go from this situation, the fall of Jerusalem, to this direct prophecy against an individual, Shebna the steward. I just want to mention in passing, as I compare these two passages: what’s going on? Who is Shebna? Well, he’s a wicked man who is living for himself and his own glory. And God tells him in verses 15-16, “The Lord, the Lord Almighty, says: ‘Go, say to this steward, to Shebna, who is in charge of the palace: ‘What are you doing here and who gave you permission to cut out a grave for yourself here, hewing your grave on the height and chiseling your resting place in the rock?’” He’s presumptuous and powerful, using his position of power to elevate and exalt himself and prepare for his death. He wants to have a mausoleum and be thought of as a wealthy, successful man. In verses 17-19, the Lord says, “The Lord is about to take firm hold of you and hurl you away, O you mighty man. He will roll you up tightly like a ball and throw you into a large country. There you will die and there your splendid chariots will remain – you disgrace to your master’s house!” Verse 19 says, “I will depose you from your office, and you will be ousted from your position.” So God’s going to take hold of this individual, this Shebna, and He’s going to throw him like a ball somewhere. He will not get to die where he hopes he’s going to die. Now, the weird thing is, Shebna was a contemporary of Isaiah. He’s not going to die in the siege of Jerusalem. But what’s going on, and the juxtaposition is, “We’re moving from a nation, a whole nation, to a single individual. I know you by name. This is what you think. This is what I’m going to do with you.” Do you not see the relevance of that? Don’t just step back and say, “God is looking at the whole earth and we’re all like grasshoppers to him.” He knows Shebna. He knows exactly what he’s thinking and what he’s doing. He’s going to do something exactly directed toward him. So, what that means is that the text comes right at me. Does that make sense? Verses 1-14 come and talk to me. And they tell me not to make my own preparations for the grave. Don’t make my own lifestyle, my own religion. Go to the Lord and allow Him to prepare me for death. Don’t live for my own glory. Don’t use my position to elevate myself, as Shebna was doing. Eliakim: Humble Servant Exalted by God He’s going to bring instead this Eliakim, a humble servant who’s going to take Shebna’s place. Look at verses 20-24. “In that day I will summon my servant, Eliakim son of Hilkiah. I will clothe him with your robe (Shebna) and fasten your sash around him and hand your authority over to him. He will be a father to those who live in Jerusalem and to the house of Judah.” Now listen to this, this is interesting. Verse 22: “I will place on his shoulder the key to the house of David; what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open. I will drive him like a peg into a firm place; he will be a seat of honor for the house of his father. All the glory of his family will hang on him: its offspring and offshoots – all its lesser vessels, from the bowls to all the jars.” Christ: The Fulfillment of the Promise Let’s cut to the chase. Eliakim was a real man who took Shebna’s place. He’s also a type, or picture, of Jesus Christ. It’s so strong that John the apostle, in writing the book of Revelation, picks up on these themes from Isaiah and he ascribes them to Jesus Christ. He says to the church at Philadelphia, in Revelation 3:7-8, “To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: ‘These are the words of him who is holy and true (Jesus) who holds the key of David.” Here’s the key of David. Jesus holds it. The key is power. I can open and shut locked doors. The one who holds the key of David, “what he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.” Then he speaks to the church at Philadelphia, “I know your deeds.” This is Jesus Christ. He has sovereign power over the nations. He’s the one in charge. He is likened to a firm peg driven in and everything hangs on Him. Nothing will fall. Do you see? It’s a picture of Christ. Ultimately, the key speaks of Jesus’ total power over death. Revelation 1:18 says, “And I hold the keys of death and Hades.” So the second half of the chapter points to Jesus Christ. Yes, God speaks to every individual, like Shebna, and accuses us of sin through scripture. But then He immediately points toward Christ as a firm foundation for your life. The one who holds the key of death and Hades, that’s Christ, the one who died on the cross and rose again on the third day. The one you can hang your whole life on. Some of you know that I built a tree house in my yard a couple of years ago. As I was doing the initial main boards that were going to hold up the whole tree house, I had to figure out what kind of hardware I was going to use to attach the 2x8 boards to the trees. So I chose 5/8 diameter steel lag screws that were six inches long. I looked it up and did the calculations, the last mechanical engineering I have done or perhaps will ever do. I found that they could hold 150,000 pounds each. Four of them, that’s 600,000 pounds. Friends, that thing’s not shearing down. It may come off another way, but I’ve had six, eight people in there. “Can it hold the weight?” I said, “Yes, it can hold the weight. It’s all right.” It might not survive a hurricane. It might not survive the trees falling down. But it’s not going to shear down like it’s made of butter. It’s going to hold. All right? It’s definitely over-designed. But that’s it. That’s who I am. The fundamental thing is, these lag screws are a picture of Jesus. You can hang your life on Him and He won’t shear off out of the wall. See what I’m saying? He’s the one that can face death on your behalf. He holds the keys of David, of death. And He can face it. Don’t be like Shebna, making your own provision, carving out your own grave, doing your own religion. That’s the second half of the chapter. Application Come to Christ Now, application. Simply, clearly, run to Jesus. Flee to Jesus. Look to Him and trust in Him. He shed His blood on the cross for sinners like you and me. He rose from the dead. He now has the key of death and Hades in His hand. Trust in Him. Learn to Mourn for Sin Secondly, and briefly, I want to teach you, please mourn for your sins. Take the time to be holy. Can I just say that? Slow down. When the Holy Spirit convicts you of sin, stop. Pull aside. Go into your room. Close the door, when you have the chance, and go over it with the Lord. Don’t go too quickly to the party. Do you see what I’m saying? Don’t go too quickly, “God forgives me, everything is fine.” And then you never dealt with it. There’s a healthy way to deal with it and an unhealthy way to deal with it. The healthy way is to take Jesus’ nail-scarred hand and walk down into the depths of your own wickedness with His blood. Understand that you’re forgiven the whole time, but see how much you need salvation still. That’s a healthy way. The unhealthy way is forgetting that Jesus died or thinking it’s insufficient or doesn’t count for you, getting depressed and stripped and emaciated spiritually. That’s the sorrow that leads to death. In the 17th century, a Puritan pastor named Thomas Watson wrote a book called “The Doctrine of Repentance.” He said that true repentance has six elements. I’m going to list them. One of them is sorrow for sin. He said it’s sight of sin, sorrow for sin, confession of sin, shame for sin, hatred of sin, and turning from sin. Those are the six elements of genuine repentance, according to Thomas Watson. One of them is sorrow for sin. And I think we’re too much in a hurry, friends. We want to turn K-Love back on and be positive, uplifting, or positively uplifted. Hey, look, I’m up for positive. I like uplifting. But I actually would rather be exalted than uplifted. Amen! God will exalt those who humble themselves. But I don’t think there’s anything wrong with uplifting one another. That’s good. And I’m not dinging on K-Love. Please, I’m not. But if all a church and a pulpit ever try to do is be positive and uplifting, that’s doing you no favors. I was watching a wartime movie recently in which the corpsman, a medical officer, got hit with shrapnel. He’s laying and he’s bleeding to death. He’s trying to determine the level of his wounds. He’s basically doing an examination on himself with his buddies around him. He’s laying there, bleeding out, bleeding to death. Finally, after having felt his own wound, getting a sense of it, he knows he’s going to die. No doubt about it. So after a pause, he says, “I’d like a little morphine please.” And with that statement, everyone around him knew that he knew he was dying. Well, the morphine is just for pain, right? To cover it over. That’s not why we’re here, friends, for a little morphine every week. We’re not here for a little morphine, we’re here for genuine healing. Amen! That healing is available through the blood of Jesus. Don’t short circuit. Don’t go quickly back to the party. Take time to be holy and grieve over sin. Close with me in prayer. Prayer Father, we thank You for this time we’ve had in Your word, Isaiah 22. There’s more here than we can handle in ten sermons. Lord, I thank You for the message. Lord, You have called on us to weep and wail over sin, when needed. It’s not going to be needed every day. Some days we’ve been faithful. Our conscience is clear. We’ve served the Lord faithfully. There’s nothing to say. We just praise You. But sometimes, Lord, we know we’ve violated our conscience and Your laws and we have sinned against You. Help us to take You, O Lord, by the hand and go down into the dark pit of our own wickedness, not to morosely linger on the past, but to understand who we are and what our weaknesses are, so that we don’t sin again. O Lord, help us to do that. Thank You for Jesus. I pray, O Lord, for any that are lost here that they would find Jesus as their savior today. In His name I pray.

Giants in the Land Just before Israel was to enter the Promised Land, Joshua is on the other side of the Jordan River and was thinking ahead to what faced them, what lay on the other side? There was the Jordan at flood stage. There was the walled citadel of Jericho. And beyond that lay all of their fears and concerns, the very things that had derailed them a generation before that, 40 years before that. And those people at that time, that generation before, were terrified of a specific race of men of warriors that waited for them on the other side, the Anakim, they're called. The descendants of the Rephaim, they were gigantic people, they were tall in stature, they were mighty warriors, and they were the object of terror and fear on the part of the Israelites. When they spys came back they said they looked like grasshoppers to them and they looked that way in their own eyes too. So think Goliath, think 9 feet tall, think throwing a spear that looked more like a small tree than a javelin, and they were terrified. These were the giants in the land. Now this morning as I come to Hebrews 13:4-6, we are going to face two of the greatest giants that face us in the conquest of the spiritual Promised Land that still awaits us. The sanctification of our own hearts. The battleground there is not the soil of the Promised Land, it is our own hearts and these giants are idols. And we're going to face this morning in the text, the two greatest idols I think that tempt hearts away from faith in Christ, sex and money. We're going to look at these two through the eyes of the Gospel, and we're going to try to understand how God has provided for us in each of these areas and how God's promise is enough for us that he will never leave us, and he will never forsake us, that he is, as we've already sung this morning, more than enough for us. And that we can be content with God's provision in these areas and not yearn for more or go beyond the boundaries that God has set up. I. The Battle for the Heart So I say with confidence, the Lord is our helper. What have we to fear? We can face these two great giants in the land, sex and money, and we can conquer them by faith. John Piper speaking of the heart, the human heart, said, "The heart is a desire factory. The human heart produces desires as fire produces heat. As surely as sparks fly upward, the heart pumps out desire after desire for a happier future. The condition of the heart is appraised by the kinds of desires that hold sway, or to put it another way, the state of the heart is shown by the things that satisfy its desires. If it is satisfied with mean and ugly things, it's a mean and ugly heart. If it is satisfied with God, then it is a Godly heart." We were designed by God to be satisfied in him. God crafted our hearts to find all of our satisfaction and joy and pleasure ultimately in God. And so, Eric had us read Psalm 63, please listen again to Psalm 63:1-3, we were made for this. We were made for God, and this Psalm, I think, better than any other Psalm, any other portion of the Scripture captures this for me personally. "O God, you are my God. Earnestly I seek you, my soul thirsts for you. My body longs for you in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I've seen you in the sanctuary and I've beheld your power and your glory, because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify you." Just meditate on that. God's love is better than life. I'd rather have God's love than be alive. That's what the psalmist is saying. I can't imagine life without God's love. It would be meaningless to me, it would be empty. We were designed for that. Our hearts were made for God. We were made to find our deep rich, full satisfaction in God. But for all of that, there's a great battle going on, it's going on in our hearts right now. The world, the flesh, and the Devil are assaulting that ground, that battleground of our hearts, trying to get us to yearn for and desire and be satisfied in something other than God. The Grave Danger of Idolatry Here we come to the grave danger of idolatry. Throughout the Old Testament, the Israelites wandered again and again into idolatry, the worship and service of false Gods. And frequently, they would shape and craft some kind of statute to represent their Gods and then they would fall down and worship them. So often, we in the 21st Century, we in the church see that act and say, "Well, we know that idolatry is not much of a problem anymore." Oh, don't fall into that trap. Idolatry is still alive and well. 1 John 5:21, "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." It's still there, whether we make statues or not. For me, the best verse in the Bible for describing what idolatry is Romans 1:25. "They exchange the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served created things more than the Creator who is forever praised. Amen." Oh, there's so much in that one Verse. But fundamentally, when someone gives themselves over to a created thing and puts ultimate value on that thing and worships and serves it, they have become an idolater. And it's in the face of the God, the eternal God, who they exchanged for that created thing that they do this, this God who should be praised for ever and ever, Amen. So, that's idolatry. So you don't have to make a physical idol to be an idolater. And in this text, I think we have two of the greatest idols that assault our hearts, the idol of sex and the idol of money or possessions. And both of them promise pleasure apart from God. Both of them burrow down to the root of our nature, like some kind of diseased worm, and they eat at the vitals of our spiritual walk with God, the vitals of our spiritual health, and they make us sick. The lusts of our lives primarily reside in these two, the yearning for sexual pleasure, and the yearning for material possessions. And they promise delight, they promise pleasure, they promise happiness, but apart from God and his righteous laws and his boundaries, they leave the idolater's worshipper of them crushed and spiritually dead, devastated and empty. And the shocking tragedy for us in the church is that we can so often imitate those that are spiritually dead because of idolatry. We can actually take in the concepts of the Gospel. We can take in the fact that we have been blessed in the spiritual realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ, and every good and perfect gift that's in our lives has come down to us directly from a heavenly Father who loves us and we can take all of that spiritual and material blessing, and we can turn away from it, unfulfilled to seek something else, to seek some idol. How tragic, how unnecessary is that to be dissatisfied with Christ and to go after an idol? And so, this is the battle and the author to the Hebrews is concerned about this congregation of Jewish people who had made a profession of faith in Christ, who are being pressed by the hard treatment of the world, the persecution of the world, pressed by persecution to turn away from Jesus and go back to Old Covenant Judaism. But the real lure in the trap, the real bait is pleasure, earthly pleasure of which sex and material possession's a big part. And so, to be lured away from Christ into idols, idol worship, that's really the temptation and the pull. And the author to Hebrews is giving them this warning. And so, here in this text, we have provision from God, everything we need to fight these two idols. We have the gift of marriage that God's given us. The gift of marriage, that God ordained means for sexual fulfillment, and we have the gift of possessions and within that contentment in what God has given us. But fundamentally, even before that, after in the text, but primary before it is God's promise. II. Central Promise: I Will Be With You! So look ahead, we're going to kind of skip to the end of this section we're looking at. I'm going to look at Verse 5-6, and I want to bring out the Central Promise in this text that should feed us and strengthen us in our battle against idolatry. It says in Verse 5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you.' And so, we say with confidence, the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?" Fundamentally, idolatry is what we do when we're not satisfied with Christ. We run to sex and we run to possessions when we're not satisfied with Christ. Scripture's battle plan to the defeat idolatry is faith in the Lord Jesus as our all sufficient supplier and refuge and friend, that would satisfy the deepest parts of our soul. And to give us that faith God gives us his word, the word feeds the faith, faith works on the word. The word of promise, specifically, and so, God gives us a promise. Faith rises as a gift from God, rises to meet that promise and fulfills us with confidence that you see right in the text. God's given us a promise. Faith rises to meet it. We are filled with confidence and we live a different kind of life, not an idolatrous life. And so, what's the promise here? "I will be with you," that's the promise. I will be with you. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. I am the satisfier of your soul. I will meet your deepest needs. I will protect you. I will uphold you with my sovereign right hand. I will feed you, I will love you, I will provide for you, I will filter all of the attacks, so that nothing will come on you accept what you are able to bear and in the middle of the battle, I will strengthen you and you will be victorious. I will be with you, trust in me, put your confidence fully in me. I will never leave you, I will never forsake you, no matter what you're going through, it could be a physical trial, it could be emotional, it could be a relational, it could be financial. Home base here is financial. You could be facing significant financial trials and God is saying directly to you from this text, "Do not be afraid. I will never leave you. I will never forsake you. Trust in me, I will be your helper. And no one will be able to fashion a weapon against you that will succeed. No weapon formed against you will prosper. What can man do to me?" That's what he's saying. Let me satisfy your soul, trust in this promise and don't run after the idols of the land, money, and sex, earthly, fleshly pleasures. Now, the origin of this promise was something said to Joshua, right before he entered the Promised Land. He's just there, as I said, on the other side of Jordan, at flood stage about to face the conquest of Jericho, and he had probably one of the hardest ministries ever. Just think about this one statement. I've often meditated on this in Joshua Chapter 1, "Moses, my servant is dead." Now then, you Joshua, take over. I mean, how would you like to follow Moses? This great figure, this incredible man who goes up a mountain of fire into the very presence of God and comes down with his face radiantly shining bright, how would like to follow him, be his successor? "Moses is dead, now then, you take over." It's terrifying. It would have been easy for Joshua looking ahead for his heart to quail and to fail, but God spoke this promise to him. Joshua 1:5-7, "No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life, as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will never leave you nor forsake you. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their forefathers to give them. Be strong and very courageous." So Jesus is now speaking those words to you, O believer in Christ. He's speaking directly to you those same words. Be strong and courageous, because never will I leave you, never will I forsake you. This is the promise of the incarnation, isn't it? What was said concerning Mary, the virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son and they will call him, Immanuel. What does that mean? It means God with us. And as Paul said in Romans 8, "If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things." And so here, I just want to speak to you, if you are outside of Christ, may this be your invitation to come in. Don't stand on the outside of this promise, this promise isn't for you if you're not a Christian. If you're not in Christ, God will be against you, he will condemn you to hell, but if you are in Christ, then God is for you. And what else matters than that? That's where it makes perfect sense. What can man do to me, if God is for me? How could Satan's accusations mean anything to me? And so, if you have up to this moment been outside of the Gospel, outside of Christ, don't let it be that way any longer. Come to Christ, God sent his son, his only begotten Son into the world, who lived a sinless life, who died on the cross in the place of sinners like you and me, idolaters like you and me, who have made idols of sex and idols of money, and he died for idolaters like you and me. And all you have to do is put your faith in Jesus, and he will forgive you of all of your sins, and he'll transform you. So let that happen right now, so you can listen to the rest of the sermon as a Christian, how is that? And for those of you who years ago were justified, you're still battling idolatry, aren't you? And Jesus is promising, because I have cleansed you of all of the... Forgiven all your sins, I've given you a new nature. Stop acting like you don't have a new nature. You don't need these idols. So just... I plead with you don't leave this place unregenerate. You don't know how much longer you have to live. Come to Christ. And wouldn't it be great if I were speaking to 100% nothing but regenerate people right now? Wouldn't that be awesome? You say, "Oh Pastor, then you wasted your talk." Not at all. Just you guys... You 100% regenerate people, you guys go take this same Gospel and go preach it in the workplaces and the neighborhoods, what do you say? Exact same thing. Never will I leave you. Never will I forsake you. And so, this is the central joy of our lives, God with us. Psalm 16:11, "You have made known to me the path of life, you will fill me with joy in your presence with eternal pleasures at your right hand." So that's it, that promise, your faith in that promise is the dynamo that enables you to have the power to conquer these two great giants in the land, the idol of sex and the idol of money. By this promise, God is enough for me and he'll never leave me, you can defeat him. So now let's look at them. III. Crushing the Idol of Sex by Purity in Marriage First, crushing the idol of sex by purity and marriage. Look at Verse 4. "Marriage should be honored by all, and the marriage bed kept pure, for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral." So we come now to the significance of marriage and when we come to marriage, we're coming to one of the truly vital issues in the Christian life. From the very beginning of redemptive history, marriage was at the center piece of what God intended to do with the human race. Other than personal conversion, there is no more important moment in someone's life than the moment they make that pledge saying "I do" in front of God. It's a vital, a vital moment. And therefore, because of its significance, it's hugely the focus of Satanic attack, hugely. The Godly healthy marriage can be an incredible pipeline of spiritual and material blessings. But a sinful un-Biblical disobedient marriage can be devastating for a lifetime. And there is no healthy society without healthy marriages, and there is no healthy church without healthy marriages. This is vital, this is no overstatement. These comments in this Verse are especially poignant for us who live in the state of North Carolina, in that we recently had an opportunity to consider the public view of marriage. And if you look again at the verse, marriage should be held in honor by all. Okay, well, it seems like it's the church's job as the pillar and foundation of the truth to work toward that end, that marriage will be held in honor by all. And the more I've looked at that problem of gay marriage, so call it, so the more you look at that issue and try to understand it, the more I am convinced that apart from the Bible we can have no lasting definition of marriage. Frankly, the definitions of marriage will get weirder and weirder. Can I marry myself? Can I marry my pet? I mean, why not? What's going to stop it? What ethic... What meant... What stops it? And so, we go back to the Scripture and say, God defines marriage, he did it from the beginning. And that's how we must argue. We must not be afraid to say, the Bible says. This is how marriage will be held in honor by all who listen to God. And so, we come to a positive view at the beginning of the Verse, marriage should be held in honor by all. The word honor here is related to the word frequently translated, precious or valuable, such as in 1 Corinthians 3:12, building with gold, silver, or costly stones, precious stones, same word. Or even better in 1 Peter 1, it talks about the precious blood of Christ that was shed for us, by which we are forgiven. So, marriage should be held in honor, it should be seen to be precious and valuable like the blood of Jesus is, should be esteem. So it has to do with an estimation. Held in honor, means how people think about it. Only as the society or the church esteems marriage properly, will husbands and wives understand their immense responsibilities to uphold it honorably, and primarily I think it's husbands and wives that need to esteem marriage properly, Amen. As we... As I as a husband esteem marriage properly, then I'll behave a certain way, as my wife esteems it, then it will be held in honor, that's how it is. But it doesn't mean that single people can't and shouldn't esteem marriage, they should. And why is marriage so honorable? Why is it so precious? Well, because the triune God has said so, how about that? God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. God the Father by creating marriage and being specifically involved in the first couple getting together, so pointedly involved, the Creator made them male and female. He crafted Adam out of the dust of the earth. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he created him alone. And for a time, he was alone to establish his headship in the relationship and Adam's headship over the whole human race. But though God said again and again, in terms of creation, it is good, it is good, it is good. The one time he says, it is not good is, it is not good for the man to be alone. I'll make a helper suitable for him. I tend to think putting the whole Biblical council together, it was not good for man to remain alone. It was clearly good for him to be alone for a little while, to establish headship and leadership, but it wasn't good for him to remain alone, because then he could not fill the Earth and subdue it and rule over it. He needed a wife. And so, God the Father was directly active in that. Animals were brought, helper suitable was not found, a deep sleep, God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam, he took a rib portion of Adam's bottom and he fa... Body and he fashioned a woman out of the rib. And out of that he brought her to the man. And I always think in terms of a distance travel, how God brought her to him, like she was made in a different place and they were brought together and Adam was delighted in her. This at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman for she was taken out of man. And then God the father made a statement about that saying, this is the norm forever, right there in Genesis 2. For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife. And the two will become one flesh. So, marriage is to be held in honor, because God the Father does. Marriage is to be held in honor because God the Son does as well. Jesus was born in the context of a marriage. Joseph was betrothed to be married to Mary, and though Joseph was not his biological father, God was his father, yet he grew up in a home in which Joseph took Mary as his wife, and had other children by her after he was born, and Jesus was submissive to both of them because of honoring marriage. Who is Joseph to Jesus, except his stepfather? I guess, an unusual relationship. But because of the significance of marriage, he honored him. And Joseph's genealogy given, I think they're in Matthew's Gospel. Secondly, by Jesus doing his first miracle at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, changing the water into high-quality wine, by doing that and by speaking of himself as the bridegroom. How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn when he is still with them? The time will come on the bridegroom will be taken from them. So, he honors marriage by using this language, and by his parables, the way he told parables, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a king who wanted to throw a wedding banquet for his son. And so, the consummation in Heaven is spoken to be like a wedding banquet and the king is God the Father and the Son is Jesus and the bride is the church. And by Jesus' teaching on divorce in Matthew 19. "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any and every reason?" "Haven't you read, that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female and said for this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. So they are no longer two but one. What God therefore has joined together, let man not separate." Jesus honored marriage in all of these ways. And God the Holy Spirit honored marriage in so many ways, but through the teaching of the Prophets and the Apostles. In the Old Testament, the Prophets, speak as though Israel... God's people is God's bride. Marry to God. So Isaiah 62:5, as a bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you. There's this analogy between God and Israel of marriage. So also with Hosea, when there was immorality, there was adultery, because of the idolatry. But God would restore in Hosea 2:16, "in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me my husband." Jeremiah 2, "I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown." And so, also through the Apostles. Paul's teaching on marriage in Ephesians Chapter 5. "For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh. This is a profound mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and the church. Revelation 21:9, the Holy Spirit speaks, "one of the seven angels said to me, 'come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the lamb.'" And so, in a very mysterious way, even the sexual union between a husband and wife is a picture of God's perfect spiritual union with his people. It's not something our minds can completely handle because we're corrupted, but we're still given this profound mystery as an analogy. And in heaven, when there will be no procreation, no physical union, no need for it, the consummation will be very much like the perfection of a marriage. So God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit have all set apart marriage and esteemed it as a high and holy thing. And this is true even if you are single, and even if you have the gift of singleness, 1 Corinthian 7 talks about the gift of singleness, where, there are going to be some brothers and sisters in Christ who have given... Been given this gift and they will never be married and they're set apart according of the Apostle Paul for the Gospel and for Jesus, and total focus on him. But even they should honor marriage and hold it in honor and esteem, that's what the Verse says. God has many purposes in marriage, procreation, because he desired Godly offspring, pleasure because he just loves us and wants us to enjoy things and marriage is pleasure. For purity, because this is the only way that we sexual beings can be sexual and not sin. Elizabeth Elliot was once asked to write a book, the title of which was "Sex And The Single Christian." She wrote back saying it's going to be a very short book. Really short. This is the only way we can be pure. For partnership, because two are better than one. For progress, because it's a workshop of sanctification and how, talk about that another time. But we just keep learning and growing in Christ. Those of you who are about to get married, you're not marrying a perfect person, you know that, and you know who you are, but I think you know that. It's for sanctification, for progress and for proclamation, because it's an incredible platform for the Gospel. Both to our children, as they are raised in our home, and we can share the Gospel with them, and then to the outside world. That's six Ps. I usually don't alliterate, some day that might be actually in a wedding. Procreation, pleasure, purity, partnership, progress, and proclamation. Satanic Attacks on Marriage Alright, if marriage is so important, then you can see why Satan is going to come after it hard. Satan's been hammering on human sexuality, organized satanic attacks. I've counted many of them. I think seven, maybe. And on the way here, we came up with three more, organized satanic attacks against marriage. Fornication Two in the text, fornication, pornos in the Greek and adultery. Fornication is sexual activity between unmarried people. Our world is filled with fornication these days, our culture is filled with it. It's just accepted a normal, it seems. Colleges are rife with it, it's just accepted and normal there. And then after college years it's just accepted to extend singleness as long as possible, because there's so much sexual immorality and there's no need. As one writer put it, "Why buy the cow when you can sneak in at night into the neighbor's pasture and steal his milk." You don't have to care for the cow or protect it. And so, single men and women are not making the sacrifice in the covenant of marriage, because they're getting whatever they want selfishly. And so also adultery. Adultery is sexual relating between two people when one or more of them are married to someone else. Adultery Again, adultery is down played, but I think we see more of the damage that that does. It could be somebody very famous, maybe even an athlete, doing incredibly well in his career, commits multiple acts of adultery, and his life spirals out of control. He loses basically everything that he valued in this life and can't even perform well in his sport any longer. Now, you think I'm talking about such and such, and I may actually be talking about somebody else. It's happened again and again. And these two are mentioned in the text. Prostitution, Polygamy, Legalistic Celibacy, Divorce But there are others, prostitution, polygamy, homosexuality, legalistic celibacy. Colossians 2, forbidding of marriage is a Satanic attack on marriage. Divorce and others, besides. Homosexuality I want to say briefly two specific things from this list. There are some that trouble us more than others. First about homosexuality. It's not directly addressed here, but we need to know the signs of our times and we need to know that out there, this is a huge issue. And we, the church having the Gospel, have the only remedy that there is for homosexuals. The only remedy. And you know what the remedy is? Ephesians captures it better than... This one phrase, speaking the truth in love. That's the remedy. We need to be willing to speak the truth, both to homosexual people and to our culture. The President of the United States said that gay marriage is a civil rights issue. We need to speak the truth about that, it's not. Scripturally homosexuality threatens people's souls with eternal damnation, just as much as the sin I'm about to talk about does, covetousness. So our church needs to be as welcoming toward people who are being saved out of homosexuality as we are welcoming to we who are being saved out of covetousness. Amen. Because they're all listed in those lists. And so, we need to speak the truth and not get swept along to the point, not just a tolerance, but of embracing and celebrating homosexuality. It cannot be. I cannot celebrate something that's going to destroy my neighbor. How could that be loving to the neighbor? I can't celebrate that. But what I can do is speak the truth and there has to be a demeanor, a tone of voice, a facial expression of love and sensitivity and humility and compassion that draws people into the discussion and helps them to see that at some point, like in 1 Corinthian 6, it can be said of homosexuals and such were some of you, but you were washed, you were redeemed, you were cleansed, you were saved by the blood of Jesus, so briefly. Pornography And secondly, I want to talk briefly about pornography. The word pornos is right in the text, and this is something that is assaulting the soul of churches like ours. Even our church. Frankly, one of the biggest attacks on the sacredness of the marriage bed that... And that's... The text, marriage... The marriage bed, koite is what it is in the Greek, that marriage bed, the sexual relationship between the husband and wife held sacred, held in honor. This is an assault and it's really accelerated in our lifetime to the point where people can without sacrificing their dignity, basically go to the wrong side of town and get whatever they want on the Internet. Staggering. While Christi and I were students at Southern Seminary, there was someone that lived in our block of apartments, we didn't know them well. But it was a student there and he basically threw it all the way for Internet pornography, threw it all away, his marriage, his parenting, his seminary career, everything, so he could sit and look on a computer. Al Mohler, speaking about pornography said, basically, what you have, picture a single guy alone in his room and he doesn't have to look after his hygiene, he doesn't have to look after his bad breath, he doesn't have to look after his appearance or his weight, he doesn't have to build a relationship with a woman, he doesn't have to sacrifice or in any way be a Christ-like head to her. He can have an array a smorgasbord of beautiful women who will do whatever he wants them to do and then he can dismiss them. It's wickedness. And there's no place for it in the church, and we have to fight everything that we have. Go back to the original promise with which I began. God is enough for you. He will never leave you, he'll never forsake you, that means he's with you always and it says right in our text, a serious warning. God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral. If your right hand... If your right eye caused you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell, and if your right hand caused you to sin, then cut it off and throw it away. It's better for you to lose one part of your body than your whole body to be thrown into hell. The Joys of Marriage Finally, on marriage, be delighted in what God has provided for you. Be delighted in it. Have a lifetime of marriage together. Grow old together. If you're a husband, be a Christ-like head to your wife. Love her as Christ loved the church, sacrifice for her. Train her up, wash her with water through the word, sanctify her in that way. Love her, lay you down your life for her. And as it says in Proverbs 5, be satisfied with her sexually. Don't read it, I've got it here, but I don't have time, but just read it. Let her body, let herself satisfy you, and don't want any more, be content with her, and develop that. And wives submit to your husbands, and love them and follow them as Ephesians commands. This church will be as healthy, in part as healthy as our marriages. IV. Crushing the Idol of Money by Contentment in God The second great idol that we have in this text is that of money. And as I've looked at this, I'm... Sometimes I'm not sure which of the two is bigger. Verse 5, "Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, 'Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you.'" We come here to the struggle that we all have with covetousness, with greed, material possessions. And in the New Testament several times greed is called idolatry, it's directly connected. The author is laying open our sin and giving us the remedy and the remedy is contentment based on the promises of God. What is Covetousness? So what is covetousness? The word used here is literally money love or the love of silver. But money itself is just a means to an end. What does the money buy? What is it that the money buys? Very few people are just straight Ebenezer Scrooge misers that just collect money for its own sake. It's like, if I could just have a huge box of silver coins on a desert island, I would be just in 7th heaven. Nobody thinks like that. You can't eat the silver, and after a while you're like, what I wouldn't give for a steady supply of bread and water, just to stay alive. So most people, I understand, it's not the money, it's what it can get for you. Well, what does it get for you? It gets you some kind of earthly pleasure. Whether by buying the clothes, the fancy suit, the fine house, the fast car, the lifestyle, it's the lifestyle of pleasure of self-seeking pleasure. That's what we're at here, earthly pleasure. And so, covetousness then is an over eager desire for the things of this world. It's a lusting after either what God has forbidden, that's just straight out sin or what God has not provided for you. I mean, do you really believe that everything you have has come to you as a gift from God? Well, that's what it says in James, right? Every gift has come to you from God, right? Well then, do you believe the corollary to that, that everything you don't have has come to you from God, or has not come to you because of God? God did not want you to have it up to that point. God is able to do anything. He can snap a finger and do anything for you. If he has not chosen to make you filthy rich, it's because he doesn't want you to be filthy. And so, God is putting a boundary around you and in Psalm 16 David says, "the boundary lines in have fallen for me in pleasant places." And so, you just are happy within what God has provided. But a covetous heart is constantly looking at his neighbor's house, his neighbor's wife, his neighbor's man servants or maid servants and all that, and violating the 10th Commandment, wanting something that God hasn't provided. Now, it's a requirement for elders that they not be covetous. 1 Timothy 3:3, not given to drunkenness, not violent, but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. Not a lover of money, same Greek. 1 Peter 5:2, "Be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers, not because you must, but because you are willing as God wants you to be, not greedy for money, but eager to serve." But it's also for all of us, that we would not be lovers of money. That you would keep your conversation, your daily life, the way you live your life free from consumption, free from idolatry, covetousness. And so, we have this warning to the rich, 1 Timothy 6:9-10 says, "People who want to get rich fall into temptation and into a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people eager for money have wandered away from the faith and have pierced themselves with many griefs." Now, you've probably heard a version of that before, right? Money is the root of all evil. You ever heard that? So, I want to correct two errors concerning that, alright? First and less significant is the exact phraseology. It is not money is the root of all evil, it is the love of money that is the root of all sorts or categories types of evil. That's the lesser error. The greater error is that it's not a problem for you, that you don't actually struggle with covetousness. It's not really a problem, it's for those other people, that's the greater error, and the more dangerous of the two. For you to say, "I have no love of money, it's not a problem for me, I'm completely free from that, I'm not a materialist. I don't live for possessions." Do not say that. But rather take seriously these warnings. Some time ago, I was in the house of a church leader, not our church, it was somebody that we had met and it was a very, very, very, nice home. And I was looking at through a stack of magazines and I came across one I had never seen before, Connoisseur Magazine. So I was interested in Connoisseur Magazine. Maybe some of you have a subscription, please don't come and tell me you have a subscription to Connoisseur Magazine. What is it? It's the best of the best of all the stuff there is in any category there is. So there were articles in this particular magazine, there were articles on kitchen cutlery. I mean, there was like an $825 knife, kitchen knife. I'm thinking, "Oh my goodness." First of all, I'm kind of used to a dull knife, anyway. I'd probably cut right through my hand with the first swipe. I'm holding a tomato and it's going on, swish, right through. It was made in Japan with the highest quality Japanese Samurai steel or something like that, $800 and whatever it was. I thought, "Oh my goodness." Then I flipped the pages, and there was article on Italian shoes, men shoes, or English bespoke suits that are of the best quality, the best vacation packages. Now, if you'd been in the home of a church leader and seen a Playboy, would it have bothered you? I would hope so. Should that magazines being there, bother me? Even worse, why was I so interested in it? Why was it so alluring to read it. I was interested in every article, all of them. There was an article on fine red sports cars. Captured my attention for a while. The fact of the matter is, this is a blind spot for the American church, it's dangerous. The ground of a certain man produced a rich harvest, because the harvest was too big for his existing barns, he said, "I don't know what I'm going to do. Oh, I have an idea, I'll tear down my barns and I'll build even bigger barns and then I'll have stuff for years to come, and I'll say to my soul, soul, you have stuff laid up for years to come." Then the Word comes down from Heaven, "you fool, this very night your soul will be required of you. Now, who's going to get all the stuff you've laid up for yourself?” what I have... The idea I have here, is not build bigger barns or build bigger vats, let's build bigger diameter pipes and let the stuff flow right through us. There's nothing wrong with earning lots of money, there's something wrong with it accumulating all in one place, does that make sense? And so, let's keep our lives free from the love of money and let's be content with what we have. Jeremiah Burroughs said that contentment is a sweet, quiet, settled inward disposition of the soul that rests in God's providence for the soul. It's a heart work, contentment is, and you're saying what God has given to me as the song says, is more than enough for me. I have enough, I have plenty, I don't need any more. And so, if you have enough to eat, and enough to wear and basic provisions and that plus contentment, you are rich, according to Scripture. Contentment's way better than money, isn't it? I mean, it travels easily, right? I mean, no one can steal it from you, it's secure. And so, therefore, we could just go right over into the statement. Because I'm content in Jesus and in the promises of God, "the Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid, what can man do to me?" Well, frankly, man can do a lot to me. I mean, really, he can. He can insult me, he can persecute me, he can take my possessions, he can beat my body, he can imprison me and take away my freedom and then he can kill me. So that's actually a lot. Do you think the author of Hebrews is not aware of all the things that man could do? Oh, he knew very well what man could do. What is he saying? He's saying, compared to the riches we have stored up in heaven, of forgiveness in Christ and rich abundance stored up treasure in Heaven, where moth and rust cannot destroy, and thieves cannot break in and steal, what can man do to take away my peace with God? What can man do to take away my justification and my forgiveness? What can man do to take away the indwelling Holy Spirit and what can man do to take away my contentment in the promises of God? If that's taken away, man didn't take it from me, I gave it away. And so, the Scripture just stands and defeats these two great idols, sex and money. How stands it with your soul? Are you battling these idols? Are you in Christ? And are you going to the promises of God and getting the strength you need to fight these battles and not live for sex and live for money? And be freed up to a whole radical different kind of lifestyle, where you are open to anything God calls you to do and serve him in radical ways. Like going on a mission trip. We're going to have a chance in a few moments to commission a mission trip. Just be free, open-handed with your money, be pure in your mind, be healthy in your marriage and be open-handed with your money. That's what the text is saying to us today. Close with me in prayer.