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The Saving King – part 4
Isaiah 11:1-16 (10)
June 4, 2023

We are now on to our 4th look
At this Saving King which Isaiah wanted to show us.

You really do get the feeling that from the day Isaiah saw Him
He could not wait to sit down and reveal to us His wonderful glory.

We started with:
#1 HIS REPUTATION
Isaiah 11:1-2

And we simply point out again that
He is the most qualified King to ever sit on the throne.
• He is qualified in both pedigree and ability.
• He is David’s descendant
• He is anointed by God
• He is filled with more wisdom than any King before Him

#2 HIS RULE
Isaiah 11:3-5

Very simply put, He will rule with righteousness.
• He is incorruptible
• He judges justly
• He crushes the wicked
• He defends the lowly

He will rule perfectly

This morning we looked at:
#3 HIS RESULT
Isaiah 11:6-9

And to state it plainly His reign results in peace.
• Because He deals with sin…
• Because He reveals the knowledge of God to the world…

The world will walk in righteousness and therefore will walk in peace.

As we said this morning, I would remind you again tonight that

If you really want world peace, that is not achieved through tolerance
It is achieved through the righteousness which only comes in Jesus.

• Only Jesus can produce peace between a bear and a cow.
• Only Jesus can produce peace between and infant and a cobra.
• Only Jesus can produce peace with God.
• Only Jesus can produce peace between men.

He is the Prince of Peace and the result of His righteous reign is peace.

Tonight, let’s look at the 4th reality of this Saving King
#4 HIS REST
Isaiah 11:10

Here we find the response of the world to Him.

And we read some remarkable truths.

“Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples;”

There is a lot of imagery to that statement.
FOR EXAMPLE:

We have already seen the imagery used once.
Isaiah 5:26 “He will also lift up a standard to the distant nation, And will whistle for it from the ends of the earth; And behold, it will come with speed swiftly.”

There we had God lifting up a sign or a flagstaff
In order to signal the nation which would come to attack Israel.

There God’s standard was a symbol and a call for judgment.

But here, it is a call for salvation.
And the STANDARD is none other than THE LORD HIMSELF.

And that is also reminiscent of other events in Scripture.

For example:
Numbers 21:8 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Make a fiery serpent, and set it on a standard; and it shall come about, that everyone who is bitten, when he looks at it, he will live.”

• You remember the people grumbled at God and He caused serpents to come out of the sand and bite them.
• Then if they looked upon that serpent on the pole He would spare their life.

Jesus referenced that as well.
John 3:14-15 “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up; so that whoever believes will in Him have eternal life.

And again:
John 12:32 “And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”

Jesus spoke of Himself as the sign of salvation
That would be lifted up and thus would draw men to Himself.

This was fulfilled when He was crucified and lifted up before sinners
That He might purchase their pardon.

And that sacrifice is the honor of the nations in the millennium.
“The nations will resort to the root of Jesse, who will stand as a signal for the peoples;”

• As righteousness begins to reign and wickedness is destroyed…
• As peace becomes the new normal…

Men will look to worship the One who brought about such a reality
And as they look, they will see the One who was lifted up.

It is the day when all the world worships Jesus!

Philippians 2:10-11 “so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

• There will be no rebels…
• There will be no refusers…
• There will be no objectors…

Every man will look to Him and come to worship Him.

Zechariah 14:16-19 “Then it will come about that any who are left of all the nations that went against Jerusalem will go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths. And it will be that whichever of the families of the earth does not go up to Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, there will be no rain on them. If the family of Egypt does not go up or enter, then no rain will fall on them; it will be the plague with which the LORD smites the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths. This will be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all the nations who do not go up to celebrate the Feast of Booths.”

The Feast of Booths was the time when every Jewish male went to Jerusalem to live in tents or booths to remember their forefathers who lived in tents in the wilderness.

But it was also a prophetic picture of the day
When God finally brought all of His people home.

In the millennial kingdom they will not be commemorating the Exodus,
They will be commemorating the cross
And the return of Jesus Christ to reign on the earth.

You’ll actually see it next week:
(11-12) “Then it will happen on that day that the Lord Will again recover the second time with His hand The remnant of His people, who will remain, From Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, And from the islands of the sea. And He will lift up a standard for the nations And assemble the banished ones of Israel, And will gather the dispersed of Judah From the four corners of the earth.”

This is the event they will be celebrating.
That Jesus has returned and saved His scattered people (Israel) and brought them home from all over the earth.

And all the nations will join in this celebration.
Every nation will participate.
Jesus will be the main attraction for all the world.

And then we come to the phrase I want us to consider most this evening.
“And His resting place will be glorious.”

This morning we looked at the world which He will govern
And we celebrated HIS PEACE.

TONIGHT we ponder His salvation and we celebrate HIS REST.

In all honesty tonight I’m going to borrow a bit from one of the finest preachers the world has ever known.
• I’m going to borrow from Charles Spurgeon.
• He gave a list of sorts of Christ’s glorious rest
• And I don’t see any need to try and improve upon it.

I want us to consider tonight this rest which Christ brings to the world.

And thanks to Mr. Spurgeon
I want us to consider that rest from two perspectives.

1) CHRIST’S REST

We consider first Christ’s rest because
That is most certainly what He is now able to enjoy.

• Every foe is vanquished
• Every enemy is crushed
• Every son is rescued
• Every child is safely home

When Spurgeon spoke of Christ’s rest he spoke of it in 4 AREAS
1. His Rest in the Church
2. His Rest in the Grave
3. His Rest in Glory
4. His Rest in Latter Days

When Spurgeon spoke of: HIS REST IN THE CHURCH

What he was referring to is the satisfaction of Christ
In the understanding that He had successfully redeemed His church
And that the wrath of God on her was satisfied.

We think of the famous 53rd chapter of Isaiah.
Isaiah 53:10-11 “But the LORD was pleased To crush Him, putting Him to grief; If He would render Himself as a guilt offering, He will see His offspring, He will prolong His days, And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand. As a result of the anguish of His soul, He will see it and be satisfied; By His knowledge the Righteous One, My Servant, will justify the many, As He will bear their iniquities.”

We are talking about the satisfaction which the crucifixion produced.
That the holiness of God was able to finally rest.

Generations of saints now finally atoned for
And God’s holiness now propitiated.

We see this rest or satisfaction most clearly
On the day when Christ was crucified.

Matthew 27:51 “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split.”

• The people of God were finally an acceptable people.
• The people of God could finally go boldly before the throne of grace.
• The people of God could finally confidently draw near.

God was now satisfied with His people.
And Chris is able to rest in a job completed.

On the cross Jesus expresses this rest as He lets out His final cry saying:
“It is finished!”

His rest in His church is a rest in the satisfaction of His work
And that now He has purified a people for Himself.

That is certainly a rest which Christ has enjoyed.

That led secondly to: HIS REST IN THE GRAVE

When we see people die we often speak over the casket,
Or engrave on the headstone, “Rest In Peace”

This tradition stems from:
Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

It is a rest which signifies a completed task.
There is no more work to do.

When Christ said, “It is finished!”
He had squeezed all that He needed to squeeze out of that earthly body.

We think of His earthly ministry.
On one hand it was a tireless barrage of needy crowds and demanded healings.

Mark 6:31 “And He said to them, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a while.” (For there were many people coming and going, and they did not even have time to eat.)”

He was constantly approached with the burdens of humanity.
• Someone always crying out to Him…
• Someone always touching Him…
• Someone always wanting Him to come with them…

It was tireless preaching and debating against sinners.
• How many arguments with the religious leaders?
• How many sermons to the skeptical crowds?

Always seeming to have to argue with sinners about who He was,
Who God was, and what salvation was.

BUT AFTER He completed His mission of atoning for His elect,
He then “yielded up His spirit and breathed His last”

AND HIS BODY RESTED.

3 days later He would rise from the dead,
• No longer to satisfy the crowds
• No longer to argue with sinners,
• But to reveal Himself to His disciples and then He would ascend to the heavens.

And the writer of Hebrews tells us again what He did:
Hebrews 1:3-4 “And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.”

Christ took His seat next to the Father.
Something no earthly priest would have ever dreamed of doing.

• But Jesus was finished.
• Jesus had completed His work.
• Jesus now “sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high”

He rested from His saving work.
He rested from His days on earth.
He rested from His toils with humanity.
HIS WORK WAS FINISHED.

And all of those are rest which Christ HAS enjoyed and IS enjoying.

But there is a fourth type of rest, and it is the rest that we see here.
It is: HIS REST IN THE LATTER DAYS

This is His coming rest.

• It is the rest of a parent when all their children have made it home and now sleep securely in their beds…

• It is the rest of a soldier when the final battle has been fought and the enemy has surrendered…

• It is the rest of an athlete when the championship game has been won and all that remains are the spoils of victory…

Zephaniah 3:17 “The LORD your God is in your midst, A victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy, He will be quiet in His love, He will rejoice over you with shouts of joy.”

• Every warriors boot has been burned…
• Every sword has been melted down…
• Every chariot has been repurposed…

The war is over and Christ has won!
All His children are home and He reigns!

It is the rest of a champion.

TURN TO: PSALMS 118

We have read this many times and studied it about a year and a half ago.

It is the PSALM OF A CHAMPION.
It is easy to read the Psalm and see the life of David, specifically his battle with Goliath.

But it is really a Psalm about Jesus and His battle against sin and death.

I remind you of Gethsemane in verses 5-7 where we saw our Savior agonizing and calling out to the LORD, while sweating drops of blood.

I remind you of Gabbatha in verses 8-9 where He stood before Pilate yet chose to trust in God.

I remind you of Golgotha in verses 10-14 where He was surrounded by sinners and mocked and scorned as He looked to the Father for help.

I remind you of the Graveside in verses 15-18 where God did not give Him over to death and He rose from the grave.

But the scene we look to tonight is the scene of Glory in verses 19-29 where we see Him in glory.

• Now finished with the battle.
• No more scorned.
• No more rejected.
• No reigning in victory and loved by all those He has redeemed.

This is the rest which Christ will soon enjoy.

“His resting place will be glorious.”

What a day for Him to sit upon His throne
And be loved and worshiped and sought and adored
By every people and tribe and tongue.

Zechariah 8:20-23 “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘It will yet be that peoples will come, even the inhabitants of many cities. ‘The inhabitants of one will go to another, saying, “Let us go at once to entreat the favor of the LORD, and to seek the LORD of hosts; I will also go.” ‘So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the LORD of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the LORD.’ “Thus says the LORD of hosts, ‘In those days ten men from all the nations will grasp the garment of a Jew, saying, “Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you.”’”

What a day that will be!
• He will be the desire of the entire world!
• And He has certainly earned it.
• That is Christ’s rest.

But just as we share in His peace which we saw this morning,
So also do WE SHARE IN HIS REST.

We saw Christ’s rest
2) THE CHURCH’S REST

He is at rest and He grants rest to His people.

The Church’s one foundation
Is Jesus Christ her Lord;
She is His new creation
By water and the Word:
From heav’n He came and sought her
To be His holy Bride;
With His own blood He bought her,
And for her life He died.

Elect from every nation,
Yet one o’er all the earth,
Her charter of salvation,
One Lord, one faith, one birth;
One holy Name she blesses,
Partakes one holy food,
And to one hope she presses,
With every grace endued.

’Mid toil and tribulation,
And tumult of her war,
She waits the consummation
Of peace for evermore;
Till, with the vision glorious,
Her longing eyes are blest,
And the great Church victorious
Shall be the Church at rest.

Spurgeon spoke of this rest as well.

REST FROM WORKS

Certainly we understand this one.
Revelation 14:13 “And I heard a voice from heaven, saying, “Write, ‘Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on!’ ” “Yes,” says the Spirit, “so that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow with them.”

But really and truly it is NOT JUST a rest which we enjoy upon death.

You remember the words of Jesus:
Matthew 11:28-29 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.

• Rest was that ever-allusive promise that came from the lips of Moses.
• Come to a land of rest and land flowing with milk and honey.
• But the people never found rest due to their inability to uphold the righteous requirement of God.

Jesus however came to fulfill that burden for us and thus give us rest.

TURN TO: HEBREWS 4

(READ 3-5)

Here the writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalms 95 and the promise of God that the people who lived in the wilderness would NOT ENTER HIS REST.

But the writer also notices that David takes that same message
And preaches it to the people of his day.

(READ 6-7)

Obviously to David entering God’s rest
Was NOT ABOUT entering the promised land,
For he was already in the land when he preached this to the people.

• He told his contemporaries not to harden their hearts…
• He told his contemporaries to fear that they might fail to enter rest…
• And they were already in the land.

And this was the point of the writer of Hebrews.
(READ 8-10)

There is a rest today!
• A rest that you may or may not enter.
• And it is a rest that is only entered by faith.

This rest is not land.
• This rest is the assurance of salvation
• That Christ has done for you what you can not do on your own.

This is the rest which the church has found.

• The rest that though I am a sinful man, I am clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
• The rest that though I deserve hell, God has promised to give me an eternal inheritance in heaven because of what Christ has done for me.

• It is the rest which comes from the realization that I no longer have to work to earn God’s favor, but Christ has earned it for me.

That is the rest the church now enjoys, it is a rest from works.

It is not that we don’t serve the Lord, or work in the ministry, for we do.
But while we work, we know our salvation does not depend upon it.
Jesus did it for us and we rest.

But that is not the only rest the church enjoys.
Spurgeon called it: REST FROM COVETING

He wasn’t speaking so much about the 10th commandment
As He was about that unfillable hole in the heart of the lost.

The world has no satisfaction.
They are always seeking more of the world
To try and fill that bottomless pit.

But we who have found Christ have found our soul’s desire.

We can say with Asaph:
Psalms 73:25-28 “Whom have I in heaven but You? And besides You, I desire nothing on earth. My flesh and my heart may fail, But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For, behold, those who are far from You will perish; You have destroyed all those who are unfaithful to You. But as for me, the nearness of God is my good; I have made the Lord GOD my refuge, That I may tell of all Your works.”

We can sing: “Take the world, but give me Jesus!”
We can sing: “I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold…”

We have found treasure in the field.
We have found the pearl of great value.

We’re not consigned to futility as the Ecclesiastical preacher said
For we have found our Beloved, the One our soul desires.

Like Paul we can suffer the loss of all things and count them but rubbish, for we have gained Christ.

• It is the rest which only the church enjoys.
• It is the rest of having found our purpose…
• It is the rest of understanding our destiny…
• It is the rest of knowing why we are here…

The church has this rest.

Spurgeon also spoke of: REST FROM OUR BURDENS

• For what trial do we endure that Christ does not endure with us?
• What pain do we face that He does not face with us?

We walk through many tribulations in this world,
But we do not walk through any of them alone.

We walk with the promise:
1 Peter 5:6-7 “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you.”

We have heard from Paul:
Philippians 4:6-9 “Be anxious for nothing, 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 comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things. The things you have learned and received and heard and seen in me, practice these things, and the God of peace will be with you.”

We have been TOLD
We no longer have to worry about what we will eat or what we will wear.

We have been ASSURED
That all our days have been ordained for us before one of them came into being.

That is a rest which we now enjoy as the church.

But again, here in Isaiah 11 we are NOT simply talking about
The rest which is already ours.

We are talking about the rest which is yet to come in that day.

And in that day the rest which we see is: REST IN EXPERIENCING THE PERFECTION OF OUR JOY

It is the rest which we will only enjoy
When we are with our Lord and when He is rightly exalted.

Paul said:
Philippians 1:23 “But I am hard-pressed from both directions, having the desire to depart and be with Christ, for that is very much better;”

In the upper room the disciples grieved
When Jesus told them that He was going away.

He responded by saying:
John 14:1-3 “Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. “If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.”

But until that day comes their remains a lack of rest.

We are a bride, trapped in a distant land filled with those who hate our husband and we long to escape and be with Him.

And on that day when we see Him and we fall into His arms
There will be a rest of perfection of joy like we have never known.

“On that day, we will see You, shining brighter than the sun. On that day, we will know You, as we lift our voice as one. ‘Till that day, we will praise You, for Your never-ending grace, and we will keep on singing on that glorious day.”

We will finally be done with sin forever.
We will finally be with the One who satisfies our soul like no other.
We will finally have our joy made full and made complete.

This world will finally honor Him as He deserves.
This world will finally worship Him as He deserves.

• No more the antagonist…
• No more the anti-christ…
• No more skeptic…

But from the rising of the sun to the setting of the same,
The name of the LORD will be praised.

And we will be with Him.
• The heartache over…
• The absence behind us…

We’ll have nothing left but an eternity
With the One who has satisfied us like no other.

Psalms 98 “O sing to the LORD a new song, For He has done wonderful things, His right hand and His holy arm have gained the victory for Him. The LORD has made known His salvation; He has revealed His righteousness in the sight of the nations. He has remembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel; All the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. Shout joyfully to the LORD, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. Sing praises to the LORD with the lyre, With the lyre and the sound of melody. With trumpets and the sound of the horn Shout joyfully before the King, the LORD. Let the sea roar and all it contains, The world and those who dwell in it. Let the rivers clap their hands, Let the mountains sing together for joy Before the LORD, for He is coming to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness And the peoples with equity.”

Or perhaps the passage you are more familiar with:
Revelation 21:1-7 “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth passed away, and there is no longer any sea. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, “Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away.” And He who sits on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” And He said, “Write, for these words are faithful and true.” Then He said to me, “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to the one who thirsts from the spring of the water of life without cost. “He who overcomes will inherit these things, and I will be his God and he will be My son.”

We wait for this day!

When our Saving King sits upon the throne
As the adored of all the nations
And we get to sit at His feet in full satisfaction.

“And His resting place will be glorious.”

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The Saving King – part 2
Isaiah 11:1-16 (2b-5)
May 28, 2023

Tonight we want to jump right back into where we left off this morning.
• We are looking at Isaiah’s Holy One.
• We are looking at the King who came to Save Israel.
• We are looking at the One they formerly despised and abandoned.

And we are seeing why He is the ONLY certified and competent Savior.

Right now we are looking at the first point about Him.

#1 HIS REPUTATION
Isaiah 11:1-2

This is where we find who He is.
We find His character here.

WE SAW that He fits the divine requirement because He comes from David’s line.
• He is “a shoot…from the stem of Jesse”
• He is “a branch…from his roots”

HE IS ALSO the provider of the righteousness we need.
• He is “a shoot”
• He is “a branch”
• He bears “much fruit”
• Through Him we also bear the fruit of righteousness.

We also saw that He holds divine approval.
“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him”
• He is God’s anointed.
• He is God’s selected Savior King.

And we are currently looking at what that means in His life.
Since the Spirit of the LORD rests on Him, what does that mean for Him?

1) COMPETENCE

“The spirit of wisdom” – He has skill and ability to accomplish what He sets out to accomplish.

2) COMPREHENSION

“The spirit of…understanding” – He knows what to do. He gets it.

3) COUNSEL

“The spirit of counsel” – His advice and direction is flawless.

We have here a King who knows what to do,
Knows how to do it, and knows how to instruct you too.

THAT’S WHERE WE LEFT OFF THIS MORNING.
THERE’S MORE.

Competence, Comprehension, Counsel
4) CONFIDENCE

“The spirit of…strength”

The Hebrew word here is (GHEB-OO-RAW)
It can mean “valor” or “might” or “bravery”

In the book of the kings you read this phrase over and over and over.
1 Kings 15:23 “Now the rest of all the acts of Asa and all his might and all that he did and the cities which he built, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah? But in the time of his old age he was diseased in his feet.”

1 Kings 16:5 “Now the rest of the acts of Baasha and what he did and his might, are they not written in the Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel?”

Over and over with the kings we read,
“what he did and his might”

It speaks of a king’s GREAT ACCOMPLISHMENTS
And the strength with which he did them.

When God addressed Job, He asked:
Job 39:19 “Do you give the horse his might? Do you clothe his neck with a mane?”

It just speaks of the strength and power of the King.

AND WE THINK OF THE “might” OF THIS KING.
• How He spoke to a storm “peace be still” and it obeyed.
• How He repeatedly cast out demons, one time even facing an entire legion of demons and still overcoming.
• How he took on disease and sickness and death yet still overcame.
• How He silenced rulers and all His enemies.
• He satisfied the wrath of God on the cross.
• He conquered sin and the grave.

Perhaps John summed up His might better than anyone when he wrote:
John 21:25 “And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.”

HE COULD DO ANYTHING.
• There was no foe He could not handle.
• No problem He could not solve.
• No dilemma too big…

I personally like this story:
Matthew 14:15-18 “When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”

Can’t you just picture the disciple’s faces when Jesus said, “you give them something to eat!”

Talk about an insurmountable problem.

And then this King says, “Bring them here to Me.”
And that is all that was needed.

Of course no story will ever top this one.
Colossians 2:13-15 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

• On the cross Jesus fully satisfied the wrath of God for all who will believe.
• He totally fulfilled God’s righteous requirements on their behalf.
• He then engaged in a full-blown frontal assault on death in which He arose victorious.
• He ascended to heaven where He would secure the salvation of His bride by daily interceding on her behalf.
• And eventually He will return to judge the living and the dead.

And we might say:
“Now the rest of His deeds and His might, are they not written in the gospel accounts.”

Throughout all of human history,
No man has come close to His accomplishments.

This King can do anything!
He faces every threat and the threat fades away.

Competence, Comprehension, Counsel, Confidence
5) CAPACITY

“The spirit of knowledge…”

It is the Hebrew word (DAH-ATH)
It speaks of perception and discernment.

And it is very important for the King to possess this trait
Based on what we read back in Isaiah 5.
Isaiah 5:13 “Therefore My people go into exile for their lack of knowledge; And their honorable men are famished, And their multitude is parched with thirst.”

God’s people go into exile for a failure to have this knowledge.
• Their rulers had been totally void of it.
• They knew nothing.
• They perceived nothing.

They were under the wrath of God and couldn’t tell.
God was sick of their sacrifices and they didn’t know it.

Job was rebuked by God for daring to question Him without having this:
Job 38:2 “Who is this that darkens counsel By words without knowledge?

It was foolish for Job to assume he knew what God knew.

But this king has “knowledge”
He knows what is going on.

He perceives the mind of God and He knows the heart of man.

John 2:23-25 “Now when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed in His name, observing His signs which He was doing. But Jesus, on His part, was not entrusting Himself to them, for He knew all men, and because He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man.”

• How many other times do we read of Jesus “knowing their thoughts”?

THIS KING KNOWS.

Think about Him IN THE GARDEN.
• The soldiers come…
• Judas betrays…
• They go to arrest Jesus…
• And Peter pulls the sword to buy Jesus time to escape…

And Jesus stops him.
Matthew 26:53-54 “Or do you think that I cannot appeal to My Father, and He will at once put at My disposal more than twelve legions of angels? “How then will the Scriptures be fulfilled, which say that it must happen this way?”

Jesus knew what was going on.
He had a handle on the entire situation.

And this is the King who has come to save.
THIS IS THE HOLY ONE

You want a taste of His knowledge?

Isaiah 55:8-9 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts.”

Romans 11:33-35 “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, OR WHO BECAME HIS COUNSELOR? Or WHO HAS FIRST GIVEN TO HIM THAT IT MIGHT BE PAID BACK TO HIM AGAIN?”

Listen to Jesus speak to the fact that HE ALONE KNOWS these things.
Luke 10:21-22 “At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise You, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, for this way was well-pleasing in Your sight. “All things have been handed over to Me by My Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, and who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.”

No earthly King ever knew what Jesus knows.
• He is set apart.
• There is none like Him.

His capacity for knowledge exceeds all.

Competence, Comprehension, Counsel, Confidence, Capacity
6) CONSIDERATION

“The spirit of…the fear of the LORD”

This Hebrew word is (YIV-AW)
It is “fear” or “respect”

The most famous:
Psalms 111:10 “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments; His praise endures forever.”

In Psalms 2 it is translated “reverence”
Psalms 2:11 “Worship the LORD with reverence And rejoice with trembling.”

In Ezekiel 1 it is translated “awesome”
Ezekiel 1:18 “As for their rims they were lofty and awesome, and the rims of all four of them were full of eyes round about.”

And it speaks not only to His wisdom, but also to HIS MOTIVE.
All that He does He does for the glory of God.
He stands perfectly in awe of God.

John 5:19 “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner.”

John 12:27-28 “Now My soul has become troubled; and what shall I say, ‘Father, save Me from this hour’? But for this purpose I came to this hour. “Father, glorify Your name.” Then a voice came out of heaven: “I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again.”

Or the famous:
Matthew 26:39 “And He went a little beyond them, and fell on His face and prayed, saying, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; yet not as I will, but as You will.”

THIS IS SO IMPORTANT.
How many kings in Israel’s history had such a disregard for God that they actually led their nations into judgment?

• Ahaz is the one who actually called Assyria.
• Later we find that because of Manasseh God refused to forgive Judah.
• How often we read “did not depart from the sin of Jeroboam son of Nebat”

We had kings who had no fear of God
And therefore they led their nations into sin and judgment.
How wonderful to have a king who fears God.

NOW YOU PUT ALL THOSE TOGETHER and the picture emerges
Of exactly who this Saving King is.

• He is God’s prophesied King.
• He is the One who provides righteousness for His people.
• He can accomplish anything He desires.
• He knows what is going on and His intuition is spot on.
• His counsel is always right and true and timely.
• He has a resume of mighty things longer than you can read.
• His knowledge of God and man is deeper than any other person.
• He leads the nation into blessing because He fears the LORD.

THAT IS THE SAVING KING.
It seems so absurd that the nation had rejected Him.

But Isaiah has only just begun.
That was just His REPUTATION or His character or nature.

There’s more.
#2 HIS RULE
Isaiah 11:3-5

We know what makes Him tick, we saw that in verse 2.
Now let’s examine what His rule will look like.

If you want to sum up His rule in one word
That word has to be RIGHTEOUSNESS
And that is refreshing!

We have seen so much in our day of corruption and deception.
• We live in a time where politicians enter office with average income and leave as millionaires.
• We know about lobbyists and special interest groups.
• We have learn to live with campaign promises that candidates have no intention of honoring.

It is a broken and corrupt system
And we just sort have to make the most of it.

BUT THE DAY IS COMING!
The day when the righteous and wise King will take the throne.

(3) And He will delight in the fear of the LORD”

There will be no lip-service given to God.
It won’t just be religious jargon meant to appease the religious right.

This King will have tunnel vision.
• His chief concern and only focus will be honor God.
• He stands in awe of God.
• He loves God.
• He cares only about pleasing Him in all things.

John 8:29 “And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.”

God’s way is not a burden to Him.
He loves it and He lives it.

“And He will not judge by what His eyes see”

If you’ve heard the story of William Tyndale,
• He is the Englishman whose ambition was to translate the Bible from Greek
into English.
• He was hated, condemned, and hotly pursued for this effort.
• When he was finally caught, they sentenced him to death and they strangled
him, burned him, and blew him up with gun powder.
• And his last words before death were, “Lord, open the King of England’s
eyes.”

Men with no spiritual discernment make terrible rulers.

It reminds of the story in the Kings
• When Aram kept trying to attack the nation of Israel
• But Elisha kept foiling him by supernaturally revealing his plans to Israel.

When Aram decided to take out Elisha
He sent horses and armies to surround the city where Elisha was staying.
Elisha’s servant saw the armies and was terrified.

In response Elisha said:
2 Kings 6:16-17 “So he answered, “Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them.” Then Elisha prayed and said, “O LORD, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.” And the LORD opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.”

That answer reflects the heart of our coming King as well.
He is not intimidated or overwhelmed by visible problems,
He walks by faith, not by sight
He delights in the fear of the LORD.

Others see a storm and say, “help us Lord, we are perishing”.
• He calms the storm and asks, “Why were you afraid, you men of little faith?”

Others see 5 loaves and 2 fish,
• He says, “bring them to Me, and have the people sit down.”

Others see a man dead in a tomb for 4 days,
• He says, “did I not say to you that if you believe you will see the glory of God?”

He is the type of King who can stand before accuser after accuser
He can take their scorn and submit to their flogging
Because He looks beyond the present hardship.
He sees what eyes cannot see.

Hebrews 12:2 “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.”

1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously;”

And that is the type of King we see coming to us.
The kind who “will not judge by what His eyes see”

It is He who said:
John 7:24 “Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

He told the religious elite:
John 8:15-16 “You judge according to the flesh; I am not judging anyone. “But even if I do judge, My judgment is true; for I am not alone in it, but I and the Father who sent Me.”

And all this stems from His fear of the LORD.

John 5:30 “I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.”

He isn’t corrupt and He isn’t influenced by what He sees.
HE IS GUIDED BY HOLY CONVICTION.

“Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;”

He is not a King whose policy is dictated by some polling group.
• He does not fear men.
• He does not concern Himself with offending the masses.
• He is not fighting for reelection.
• Social media has no hold on Him.
• It does not matter if it is “in season” or “out of season”

He is not guided by public opinion or majority rule.

What we are talking about here is a man of CONVICTION.
• He fears God and He does God’s will.
• No matter the circumstance…
• No matter the chatter…
• He stands in truth.

How refreshing is a King like that!

(4) “But with righteousness He will judge the poor, And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth.”

• He makes decisions based upon righteousness.
• He does not favor the wealthy…
• He does not show favoritism to the one who can help Him in return…

When He throws a banquet
He invites the poor, the blind, the cripple, and the lame.
He honors those who honor God.

James described a reality that He learned from Him:
James 2:1-7 “My brethren, do not hold your faith in our glorious Lord Jesus Christ with an attitude of personal favoritism. For if a man comes into your assembly with a gold ring and dressed in fine clothes, and there also comes in a poor man in dirty clothes, and you pay special attention to the one who is wearing the fine clothes, and say, “You sit here in a good place,” and you say to the poor man, “You stand over there, or sit down by my footstool,” have you not made distinctions among yourselves, and become judges with evil motives? Listen, my beloved brethren: did not God choose the poor of this world to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who love Him? But you have dishonored the poor man. Is it not the rich who oppress you and personally drag you into court? Do they not blaspheme the fair name by which you have been called?”

We see that type of corruption everywhere today.
But not with this King.

From the time He started preaching
• He reminded us that it was the “poor in spirit” who were blessed.
• He praised “the meek”
• He praised those “who hunger and thirst for righteousness”
• He called “the pure in heart” blessed

But He pronounced woe on those
Who love the world and who are loved by the world.

He is the type of King
• Who can show mercy to a woman caught in adultery.
• Who will deliver a woman with 7 demons.
• Who will defend an adulterous woman when she humbles herself.

And He doesn’t care what people think about it.

Remember when He was eating at the Pharisee’s house and that woman started crying on His feet and drying them with her hair?
• The Pharisee said that Jesus would not have allowed that if He had known what kind of woman she was.

But listen to our King!
Luke 7:40-50 “And Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And he replied, “Say it, Teacher.” “A moneylender had two debtors: one owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. “When they were unable to repay, he graciously forgave them both. So which of them will love him more?” Simon answered and said, “I suppose the one whom he forgave more.” And He said to him, “You have judged correctly.” Turning toward the woman, He said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? I entered your house; you gave Me no water for My feet, but she has wet My feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. “You gave Me no kiss; but she, since the time I came in, has not ceased to kiss My feet. “You did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. “For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven.” Those who were reclining at the table with Him began to say to themselves, “Who is this man who even forgives sins?” And He said to the woman, “Your faith has saved you; go in peace.”

Or lter when the religious elite thought healing on the Sabbath was sinful.
Luke 13:10-17 “And He was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who for eighteen years had had a sickness caused by a spirit; and she was bent double, and could not straighten up at all. When Jesus saw her, He called her over and said to her, “Woman, you are freed from your sickness.” And He laid His hands on her; and immediately she was made erect again and began glorifying God. But the synagogue official, indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, began saying to the crowd in response, “There are six days in which work should be done; so come during them and get healed, and not on the Sabbath day.” But the Lord answered him and said, “You hypocrites, does not each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or his donkey from the stall and lead him away to water him? “And this woman, a daughter of Abraham as she is, whom Satan has bound for eighteen long years, should she not have been released from this bond on the Sabbath day?” As He said this, all His opponents were being humiliated; and the entire crowd was rejoicing over all the glorious things being done by Him.”

He is the type of King who doesn’t care what the powerful think.
• He shows mercy to the afflicted and He pours judgment on the self-righteous wicked.

• He who will call out the religious elite for their hypocrisy, and He will travel with fishermen.
• He will humiliate the powerful for their broadened phylacteries, but He will eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners.
• He will expose the elite for their love of money and inward idolatry, but He will forgive a tax collector who repents.
• He will tell everyone that they are headed to hell and not heaven.

• He will call Herod a fox
• He will refuse to answer Pilate
• He won’t cater to the religious elite or the politically powerful.

HE ISN’T GOVERNED BY PUBLIC OPINION

He will rule by a completely different set of principles.
He will rule with righteousness.

“with righteousness He will judge the poor, and decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth; And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.”

Those that humble themselves and turn from their sin He will gently lead,
But the stubborn and wicked “He will slay”

Revelation 19:15-16 “From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”

Psalms 2:7-9 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession. ‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

And we have seen Him do it.
• Who can forget Matthew 23 with the continuous repetition of “Woe to you scribes and pharisees; hypocrites!”

He fears the LORD.
He is unmoved by other influences.
WHAT A KING HE IS!

(5) “And righteousness will be the belt about His loins, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.”

If you remember Paul’s gospel armor analogy
You remember that the belt is referred to as “the belt of truth”

The belt was used to “gird up your loins”.
That was to tuck all that long tunic in the belt
So you could move about quickly and freely.

The belt meant one was ready for conflict.
The belt spoke of one motivated to act.

And the point here is that “righteousness” and “faithfulness”
WILL GOVERN ALL THAT HE DOES.

• There will never be a scandal…
• There will never be a hint of corruption…

He is simply going to be a righteous King.
• Sin will not be tolerated…
• Sin will not be found…
• This Saving King is a righteous King.

And once again, as we did this morning, we stop and ponder
Why men would have ever rejected this One.

• Why would they have despised Him?
• Why would they have abandoned Him?
• Why would they have turned away from Him?

When Jesus came, He actually explained why.

John 3:19-20 “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed.”

John 7:7 “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”

John 15:18-25 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you. “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. “But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent Me. “If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. “He who hates Me hates My Father also. “If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. “But they have done this to fulfill the word that is written in their Law, ‘THEY HATED ME WITHOUT A CAUSE.’”

This King is clearly the most qualified and just King ever seen
AND YET His own people continually rejected Him.

There is still, to this day, only one reason why men reject Him.
THEY LOVE SIN.

They can give you all kinds of other excuses:
• That church wronged me…
• They’re all a bunch of hypocrites…
• I saw a phony Christian…

Those are all reasons why you may not like the church,
But we aren’t talking about accepting the church here.
We are talking about accepting Christ.

And there is only one reason why men reject Christ
And that is because they love sin.

If one thing resonates about this King it is that He is a righteous King.
• He is righteous
• He judges with righteousness
• He honors righteousness
• He condemns wickedness

And it is important for all, even in the church, to UNDERSTAND THIS.

Do you have thoughts of going to heaven?
Do you fancy yourself to live in His earthly kingdom?

Then you had better pursue righteousness,
Because there will be no sin in His kingdom.

What things do you enjoy today?
Do you love greed and sex and money and gossip and drunkenness and foul language and gambling and lewdness?

Do you suppose then that you will enjoy His kingdom?

• Are you supposing that you can buy lottery tickets in heaven?
• Are you supposing that you can view pornography in heaven?
• Are you supposing that you can gossip in heaven?
• Are you supposing that you curse and be selfish in heaven?
• Or add whatever other sin you can think of, do you suppose people will do it in heaven?

This King is the Holy King.
This King is the righteous King.
He will rule in righteousness.

And Israel won’t be saved
Until they learn to love the presence of this righteous King,
And neither will you.

Salvation is for those who “hunger and thirst for righteousness”
If you don’t, you won’t like this King.

He is the Saving King but He is the Righteous King.
His reputation and His rule show nothing but those things.

NEXT TIME, we’ll look at the RESULTS of having a righteous king and it only pushes us to want Him all the more.

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The Saving King – Part 1
Isaiah 11:1-16 (1-2a)
May 28, 2023

This morning we come to one of the finest chapters in the Old Testament.

I can’t help but imagine that this is information
That Isaiah could not wait to get to.

I WOULD REMIND YOU THAT Isaiah’s entire ministry was prompted by and focused on the Holy One that He saw that day in the temple.

• We of course remember that Isaiah was a self-professed hypocrite, he called
himself “a man of unclean lips”
• And we remember that Isaiah saw the same sin in all of his contemporaries
saying, “I dwell among a people of unclean lips”

Isaiah, like his culture, had totally disregarded God.

In fact, let me bring back to your mind one of the first statements Isaiah made as he began his public ministry.

Isaiah 1:4 “Alas, sinful nation, People weighed down with iniquity, Offspring of evildoers, Sons who act corruptly! They have abandoned the LORD, They have despised the Holy One of Israel, They have turned away from Him.”

Isaiah wasted no time in confronting the people with their terrible sin.
• “abandoned the LORD”
• “despised the Holy One of Israel”
• “turned away from Him”

IT WAS ACTUALLY UNTHINKABLE SIN,
That these people would seek to remove God from their lives.

Now again, that DID NOT mean that they had rejected religion
• They were still very devoted to all their religious traditions including sacrifices
and feasts and prayers.

THE PROBLEM, as you will remember, was that
Because they did them without any concern for God,
He was not pleased by them. In fact, they were repulsive to Him.

Isaiah 1:14 “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts, They have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.”

This was Israel, and this was Isaiah.
They were phonies and imposters who cared nothing for the LORD,
And therefore their religion was not pleasing to Him.

But something changed all that for Isaiah.
Isaiah said, “I saw the Lord”

He was holier than anything Isaiah could have ever imagined.
• Isaiah prepared himself for death
• But the LORD instead showed him mercy.

Isaiah learned two vitally important things on that day.
1) I am a great sinner
2) God is a greater Savior

That vision prompted Isaiah’s ministry.
• He would from then on out go to the people of Israel
• And not only tell them their sin,
• But also tell them to trust this great God who saves.

He would call them to return to God
And he would reveal God’s plan to draw His people back.

Initially all we knew is that God’s plan of drawing His people back to Himself included extreme discipline.

Isaiah 1:7-9 “Your land is desolate, Your cities are burned with fire, Your fields—strangers are devouring them in your presence; It is desolation, as overthrown by strangers. The daughter of Zion is left like a shelter in a vineyard, Like a watchman’s hut in a cucumber field, like a besieged city. Unless the LORD of hosts Had left us a few survivors, We would be like Sodom, We would be like Gomorrah.”

Isaiah 1:24-26 “Therefore the Lord GOD of hosts, The Mighty One of Israel, declares, “Ah, I will be relieved of My adversaries And avenge Myself on My foes. “I will also turn My hand against you, And will smelt away your dross as with lye And will remove all your alloy. “Then I will restore your judges as at the first, And your counselors as at the beginning; After that you will be called the city of righteousness, A faithful city.”

We knew God’s plan included discipline.

RECENTLY WE HAVE SEEN THAT PLAN.
God used the Assyrian Rod to punish the wicked and save the remnant.
• We saw how Aram and Israel made and alliance that terrified Judah.
• We saw Isaiah beg Ahaz to trust God
• We saw how Ahaz refused and instead called on Assyria for salvation
• We saw how that backfired as Assyria eventually invaded Judah too
• We saw how God used Assyria to draw the remnant back to Himself
• We saw the remnant repenting and returning to the LORD
• We saw how just before Assyria dealt the death blow to Judah God intervened to save His remnant.

Isaiah 10:33-34 “Behold, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”

• Jerusalem was on the brink of destruction,
• They had been severely disciplined by the LORD.
• But at the last minute God intervened and stepped in to save them.

And the question now must be:
WHO IS THIS SAVIOR?

AND THE ANSWER IS, it is THE HOLY ONE whom Isaiah saw!

If you fast-forward to the end of this section, after the Savior is revealed.

In chapter 12 we see the response of the remnant to the salvation they have just experienced.

You get strong statements of praise like:
Isaiah 12:2 “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; For the LORD GOD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation.”

They see God as their salvation, but again, who is He?
Isaiah 12:6 “Cry aloud and shout for joy, O inhabitant of Zion, For great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel.”

DO YOU SEE THE FULL CIRCLE?

• In Isaiah 1:4 Isaiah announced that they had “despised the Holy One of Israel”
• In Isaiah 12:6 their tune has changed and they rejoice for “great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel”

They learned that the One they had despised
Was in fact the only One who could save.
(Surely you see the gospel ramifications here)

“The stone the builders rejected; He has become the chief corner stone”

WE ARE LEARNING:
Isaiah’s Holy One is not a God to reject, He is a God to trust.
• Yes He is Holy
• Yes He will expose your sin
• But He is also a Savior of sinners

And I would remind you also, as we saw, that this Holy One Isaiah saw was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ.

John 12:41 “These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory, and he spoke of Him.”

I just want you to see THE JOURNEY WE ARE ON.
• It is a journey to move sinners from rejection to trust.
• It is a journey of God saving His remnant.

• Isaiah was an offensive sinner who was shown mercy by the Holy One
• Now Isaiah is preaching to offensive sinners that they might trust the Holy One too.

Well THIS MORNING Isaiah finally gets to show us this Savior!
It must have been the most anticipated message he ever preached.

• FINALLY, let me describe to you the Savior that I saw!
• FINALLY, let me describe to you the effect He can have on your life!
• FINALLY, let me describe to you what a wonderful Savior He is!

You wouldn’t listen before, but now, having seen His deliverance
You are ready to hear about THE SAVING KING.

So let’s begin looking at Isaiah 11
And see this Saving King that Isaiah has so longed for us to see.

We’re going to break this chapter down into 5 points.

#1 HIS REPUTATION
Isaiah 11:1-2

Really, the word reputation here is not a complete word.
• This is not just who we say He is, THIS IS WHO HE IS.
• This is His character, His essence, His nature.

Isaiah is giving you a complete description of who this Saving King is.

It is really quite remarkable and one of the most enlightening passages in Scripture on THE QUALITY OF the Messiah.

Let’s start by looking simply at HIS PROPHESIED LINEAGE.

(1) “Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.”

This qualification is really first a technical one.
This is a criteria which had to be fulfilled.

If the Messiah doesn’t fit this characteristic
It doesn’t matter how qualified or competent He is.

This is a monarchy and blood lines matter.
• The Messiah must be “from the stem of Jesse”
• You know who “Jesse” is, it is David’s father.

This Messiah has to be from David’s line.
God had promised David that his line would never end.

2 Samuel 7:12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom.”

2 Samuel 7:16 “Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’”

Psalms 89:35-37 “Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David. “His descendants shall endure forever And his throne as the sun before Me. “It shall be established forever like the moon, And the witness in the sky is faithful.” Selah.

We understand that any would-be Savior King must be from David’s line.
• This is a deal-breaker.
• This is a non-negotiable.

And certainly you know that we are speaking here of Jesus Christ
Who did indeed fit this bill perfectly.

The very opening of the New Testament starts with these words:
Matthew 1:1 “The record of the genealogy of Jesus the Messiah, the son of David, the son of Abraham:”

WE UNDERSTAND THE NECESSITY OF THE KING BEING DAVID’S SON.

BUT THIS IS MORE THAN JUST A LINEAGE.
We already knew He would be a son of David.
We had already seen that

Isaiah 9:6-7 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. There will be no end to the increase of His government or of peace, On the throne of David and over his kingdom, To establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness From then on and forevermore. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will accomplish this.”

We already knew He would be a child, a son,
Who would reign forever on David’s throne.

But Isaiah doesn’t use the word “child” or “son” here.
Here Isaiah calls Him “a shoot” and “a branch”

This is somewhat familiar language to us.

Later in Isaiah:
Isaiah 53:2 “For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot, And like a root out of parched ground; He has no stately form or majesty That we should look upon Him, Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.”

There also Isaiah refers to the coming Savior King as
“a tender shoot” or “like a root out of parched ground”

He was a “shoot”
He was a “root”

Certainly a disregarded and disrespected “shoot” but one none the less.

And we have learned that it would be the discipline of the LORD
That would cause the disregarded and rejected Branch
To finally become beautiful to the people.

Isaiah 4:2 “In that day the Branch of the LORD will be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth will be the pride and the adornment of the survivors of Israel.”

BUT WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE?
It is MORE than just saying, “Jesus is from David’s family tree”

Jeremiah 23:5-6 “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the LORD, “When I will raise up for David a righteous Branch; And He will reign as king and act wisely And do justice and righteousness in the land. “In His days Judah will be saved, And Israel will dwell securely; And this is His name by which He will be called, ‘The LORD our righteousness.’”

Jeremiah 33:15-16 “‘In those days and at that time I will cause a righteous Branch of David to spring forth; and He shall execute justice and righteousness on the earth. ‘In those days Judah will be saved and Jerusalem will dwell in safety; and this is the name by which she will be called: the LORD is our righteousness.’”

The term “branch” has more weight to it
Than just to identify what tree He is from.

IT ALSO SPEAKS OF SOMETHING HE SUPPLIES.

It’s not just that the branch is from the right tree,
It is that the Branch also produces the right fruit.

We gain something from this Branch.
We receive something from this Branch.
Jeremiah said that we will gain righteousness from Him.

HE IS A PROVIDER.
HE IS THE SOURCE.

Satan assured Eve that if she ate from that tree in the garden
• That she would be like God and that was a lie.

But when one eats from this Branch
• We do receive the righteousness of God.

JESUS IS GOD’S BRANCH AND THE ONE WHO SUPPLIES
THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF GOD TO SINNERS.

John 15:1-4 “I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. “You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in Me.”

THIS IS THE ONE ISAIAH SPEAKS OF.

“Then a shoot will spring forth from the stem of Jesse, And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.”

The Savior King is not only One who holds the proper pedigree,
He is the One who comes to produce the fruit which God requires.

Do you remember what fruit is in the book of Isaiah?
Do you remember that parable of the vineyard?

Isaiah 5:7 “For the vineyard of the LORD of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”

You remember: The fruit God demands is “justice” and “righteousness”.
THIS KING PRODUCES IT.
THIS KING ALSO SUPPLIES IT.

He is not just “a child” He is also “a root”
He is not just “a son” He is also “a branch”

He is perfect in all His ways
And He supplies perfection to those who abide in Him.

• He is NOT JUST a role-model King.
• He is NOT JUST an example King whose behavior is meant to inspire us.

He is the SOURCE, He is the BRANCH, He is the FOUNTAIN
That provides justice and righteousness to all who trust in Him.

Isaiah experienced this first hand that day in the temple
When his own iniquity was atoned for and his own sin was taken away.

He had been despised by Isaiah.
He had been rejected by Isaiah.
But when Isaiah was at his most desperate point
He proved to be the only One who could save.

Isaiah couldn’t wait to tell you about Him.

BUT THERE’S MORE!

Verse 2 is one of the most comprehensive verses in Scripture
Regarding the overall qualifications of this coming Saving King.

(2) “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him, The spirit of wisdom and understanding, The spirit of counsel and strength, The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD.”

Let’s start with that first statement.

“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him”

What does this mean?
IT MEANS that He has the LORD’S anointing and thus His APPROVAL.

DO YOU REMEMBER when Saul fell out of favor with the LORD?
• It is when Saul disobeyed God’s command to kill Agag.
1 Samuel 15:22-23 “Samuel said, “Has the LORD as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices As in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, And to heed than the fat of rams. “For rebellion is as the sin of divination, And insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the LORD, He has also rejected you from being king.”

And then we read:
1 Samuel 16:14 “Now the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD terrorized him.”

It was the ultimate picture of God’s displeasure.
• God repealed His anointing of Saul.
• Saul no longer operated with God’s favor.

In that same understanding, DO YOU REMEMBER when David sinned with Bathsheba?
• In David’s prayer of repentance in Psalms 51 do you remember what he
prayed?

Psalms 51:11 “Do not cast me away from Your presence And do not take Your Holy Spirit from me.”

• David wasn’t talking about losing his salvation.
• David was talking about losing God’s favor as King.
• He feared that God would remove His anointing as He had done to Saul.

When we read here that “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him”
We are talking about God’s DIVINE APPROVAL of this King.

And we think about:
Psalms 2:7-8 “I will surely tell of the decree of the LORD: He said to Me, ‘You are My Son, Today I have begotten You. ‘Ask of Me, and I will surely give the nations as Your inheritance, And the very ends of the earth as Your possession.”

Or
Matthew 3:16-17 “After being baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove and lighting on Him, and behold, a voice out of the heavens said, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.”

Or
Matthew 17:5 “While he was still speaking, a bright cloud overshadowed them, and behold, a voice out of the cloud said, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well-pleased; listen to Him!”

Or
Romans 1:3-4 “concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord,”

We are talking here about the King who has God’s divine approval.
He has been anointed and coronated as God’s king.
He is total acceptable to the Father.
AND THIS IS SO IMPORTANT SINCE
He is the One who will plead with the Father on our behalf.

If He does not have God’s approval, He cannot be the Saving King.

That is a very important reality.

And then we begin to see something of HIS QUALITY
Isaiah speaks actually of 6 unique qualities He possesses.

Each of these are fruit of being anointed with God’s Spirit.
It is as though Isaiah speaks of this Saving King
Who is anointed with God’s Spirit and then says,
“And here is what that means”

Because “The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him” you can expect this from Him:

We notice that at least 4 of the 6 seem to deal with INTELLECT.
“wisdom” – “understanding” – “counsel” – “knowledge”

Clearly we are dealing with an intelligent King.
But let’s look at them each a little deeper and see if we can’t
Fill in the picture even more about what we can expect from this King.

1) COMPETENCE

“The spirit of wisdom”

The Hebrew word for “wisdom” here is: (KHOK-MAW)
It can speak of wisdom or skill in war.
It can speak of shrewdness.

It is the very thing that Solomon prayed for:
1 Kings 4:29-30 “Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore. Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the sons of the east and all the wisdom of Egypt.”

When we speak of this “wisdom”,
We are NOT talking about simple knowledge or education here.

It is very much related to one’s COMPETENCE.

For example, this same word (KHOK-MAW) is also translated as “skill”

When God was giving Moses the specifications for building the altars and the tent of meeting and things like that:
Exodus 31:1-6 “Now the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, “See, I have called by name Bezalel, the son of Uri, the son of Hur, of the tribe of Judah. “I have filled him with the Spirit of God in wisdom, in understanding, in knowledge, and in all kinds of craftsmanship, to make artistic designs for work in gold, in silver, and in bronze, and in the cutting of stones for settings, and in the carving of wood, that he may work in all kinds of craftsmanship. “And behold, I Myself have appointed with him Oholiab, the son of Ahisamach, of the tribe of Dan; and in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you:”

God told Moses, “in the hearts of all who are skillful I have put skill, that they may make all that I have commanded you:”

That word “skill” is (KHOK-MAW)
It is not just “know how”, it is ABILITY.

1 Chronicles 12:32 “Of the sons of Issachar, men who understood the times, with knowledge of what Israel should do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their kinsmen were at their command.”

There (KHOK-MAW) is translated as “understood the times”.

And this is the word that is applied here to the Savior King.
• He is a man of wisdom.
• He is a man of skill.
• He is a man who understands the times.

You put it all together and we call Him competent.

Anyone who has ever languished under an incompetent ruler certainly understands the value of this.

• Just because a man has an education…
• Just because a man has a degree…
• Just because a man had a position…
DOES NOT MAKE HIM COMPETENT.

That does not mean he is able to do the job and do it well.

But this King is competent.
He can rule and rule well.

AND WE THINK OF JESUS.

Remember Him feeding the 5,000?
The people were so enamored with His competent ability that they immediately tried to make Him king.

John 6:15 “So Jesus, perceiving that they were intending to come and take Him by force to make Him king, withdrew again to the mountain by Himself alone.”

The Pharisees certainly recognized His competence and how appealing He was to the people.

John 11:47-48 “Therefore the chief priests and the Pharisees convened a council, and were saying, “What are we doing? For this man is performing many signs. “If we let Him go on like this, all men will believe in Him, and the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.”

John 12:19 “So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

Or perhaps you remember when John the Baptist had his doubts about Jesus because he didn’t expect to be in prison.
• He sent word to Jesus to see if He was really the Expected One.
• Jesus’ answer:

Matthew 11:4-6 “Jesus answered and said to them, “Go and report to John what you hear and see: the BLIND RECEIVE SIGHT and the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, and the POOR HAVE THE GOSPEL PREACHED TO THEM. “And blessed is he who does not take offense at Me.”

WHAT DO WE MAKE OF ALL THIS?
He is a man of wisdom, skill, and understanding of the times.

He is a competent King.
He can do what He sets out to do.

We never find Him seeking to do something, but unable to accomplish it.
• There is never a sickness He can’t heal.
• There is never a hunger He can’t satisfy.
• There is never a debate He can’t win.
• There is never a demon He can’t dominate.
• There is never a problem He can’t solve.

The Spirit of the LORD rests upon Him and He can do anything.

He has “The spirit of wisdom”

Competency
2) COMPREHENSION

“The spirit of…understanding”

In a lot of ways “understanding” sounds like “wisdom”

WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE?

“understanding” is the Hebrew word (BEE-NAW)
And it speaks on sort of that inner guide
By which you intuitively know what to do.

Your most familiar use of the word comes in:
Proverbs 3:5 “Trust in the LORD with all your heart And do not lean on your own understanding.”

Your “understanding” there would be that which seems right to you.

We learn from that verse that our “understanding” is fallen and flawed
And we should never trust it, especially when it contradicts God’s word.

BUT THIS KING’S “understanding” IS FLAWLESS.
• He always thinks right.
• He intuitively knows what to do.

This always blows my mind in regard to how Jesus knew how to handle every situation.
• He knew when someone needed a rebuke…
• He knew when someone needed encouragement…
• He knew when someone needed consolation…
• He knew when someone needed instruction…

HE ALWAYS KNEW WHAT TO DO IN EVERY SITUATION.

I sometimes think I know what to say, but then I end up regretting it.
But Jesus always spoke and responded perfectly to every situation.

And this even from childhood.
Luke 2:47 “And all who heard Him were amazed at His understanding and His answers.”

THAT IS OUR KING.
That is Isaiah’s Holy One

Psalms 147:5 “Great is our Lord and abundant in strength; His understanding is infinite.”

Jeremiah 10:12 “It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens.”

And because our King has “The Spirit of the LORD”
His understanding is infinite as well.

He always knows what to do.
His instincts are flawless.

Competency, Comprehension
3) COUNSEL

“The spirit of counsel…”

This is the Hebrew word (AY-TSAW)
And it speaks of counsel or advice

Psalms 20:4 “May He grant you your heart’s desire And fulfill all your counsel!”

Psalms 53:11 “The counsel of the LORD stands forever, The plans of His heart from generation to generation.”

It is even translated “strategy”

We think of how Solomon excelled in this area
How kings and peoples came from all over the world to hear his counsel.

But not even Solomon compared to this King.

FOR THIS KING NEVER GIVES BAD COUNSEL.

We marvel in the Sermon on the Mount
• When He puts His counsel as equal to the very words of God.
• For He says repeatedly, “You have heard that it was said…but I say unto you.”

And certainly the crowds picked up on this.
Matthew 7:28-39 “When Jesus had finished these words, the crowds were amazed at His teaching; for He was teaching them as one having authority, and not as their scribes.”

JESUS COUNSEL IS SECOND TO NONE.

Listen to Him counsel Peter about forgiveness.
Matthew 18:21-22 “Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”

Listen to Him counsel the man about money.
Luke 12:13-15 “Someone in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the family inheritance with me.” But He said to him, “Man, who appointed Me a judge or arbitrator over you?” Then He said to them, “Beware, and be on your guard against every form of greed; for not even when one has an abundance does his life consist of his possessions.”

Listen to Him counsel the religious leaders about paying taxes.
Matthew 22:17-22 “Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?” But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, “Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites? “Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax.” And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” They said to Him, “Caesar’s.” Then He said to them, “Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s; and to God the things that are God’s.” And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.”

And we haven’t even gotten into the realm of His parables
OR OTHER SERMONS
• Like the Olivet Discourse
• Or the Upper Room Discourse
• Or all the debates He had with the religious leaders in the temple.

HIS COUNSEL IS SECOND TO NONE.

Now there are 3 more listed here, which we’ll come back to tonight,
But let’s just stop here and think on this for a moment.

We have a King here who had been widely rejected by the people.
• They despised Him and turned away from Him and abandoned Him.
• They didn’t like Him because He was too holy.

And instead of trusting in this competent King
Who comprehended all things and whose counsel never failed
They decided it would be better to go and trust the king of Assyria.

They ignored this King to trust that one.

And it turned out exactly as you’d think it would turn out…TERRIBLY.

When you look at it from the benefit of history we can see that it was an incredibly foolish thing for them to reject this King in favor of Assyria.

But look at it through the lens of your life.
HOW NEAR DO WE DRAW TO THIS KING?
• When we are in need of a Savior…
• When we are in need of counsel…
• When we want to talk to someone who comprehends…
• When we look to follow someone who is competent…

WHERE DO YOU GO?

Do you know any other man who compares to Him?
Do you know any other Savior who has His credentials?
OF COURSE NOT!

And this is Isaiah’s point.
• You went through a period of life where you trusted the wrong saviors.
• You actually rejected the Holy One because you loved sin.

But can you not see that He is the Only Savior?
• Can you not see that He is the One you need?
• Can you not see that He knows?
• Can you not see that He understands?
• Can you not see that He can fix it?

DON’T REJECT HIM, HE IS THE SAVING KING!

Isaiah 45:20-25 “Gather yourselves and come; Draw near together, you fugitives of the nations; They have no knowledge, Who carry about their wooden idol And pray to a god who cannot save. “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; For I am God, and there is no other. “I have sworn by Myself, The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness And will not turn back, That to Me every knee will bow, every tongue will swear allegiance. “They will say of Me, ‘Only in the LORD are righteousness and strength.’ Men will come to Him, And all who were angry at Him will be put to shame. “In the LORD all the offspring of Israel Will be justified and will glory.”

And I would just leave you with that this morning.
I WOULD REMIND YOU THAT
• Only Jesus Christ is a competent Savior.
• Only Jesus Christ comprehends the problem.
• Only Jesus Christ can give you the counsel that will lead to life.

If you are listening to any other Savior you won’t like how this plays out.
This is the Holy One.
This is the Savior.
Trust Him.

download here

The Assyrian Rod – Part 2
Isaiah 10:5-34 (20-23)
May 21, 2023

You are well aware that we are in this section of Isaiah (ch 7-12)
In which we are discussing the salvation of the remnant.

We have seen CONTRASTS between the remnant and the rabble

And we are CURRENTLY looking at
The means by which God is saving the remnant.

And that means is through what we call “The Assyrian Rod”

Isaiah 10:5 “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hands is My indignation,”

Assyria is very simply the “rod” which God is using
Both to punish the rabble and to save the remnant.

The term “rod” shouldn’t be unfamiliar, it is used often in Scripture.
It is perhaps most famous in our understanding of disciplining children.

We have all heard the saying, “Spare the rod, spoil the child”

Proverbs 22:15 “Foolishness is bound up in the heart of a child; The rod of discipline will remove it far from him.”

Proverbs 23:13 “Do not hold back discipline from the child, Although you strike him with the rod, he will not die.”

Proverbs 29:15 “The rod and reproof give wisdom, But a child who gets his own way brings shame to his mother.”

Certainly such wisdom is increasingly absent from our culture,
But as in all things the word of God certainly knows best.

Mankind, born as a descendant of Adam,
Is born with foolishness within them.

That DOESN’T MEAN they are born dumb.
That ISN’T even speaking about ignorance, though they don’t know anything at birth.

“Foolishness” speaks of rebellion.
A child is born with Adam’s rebellion deeply seated in their heart.

• A child isn’t born naturally compliant or submissive.
• They don’t come out of the womb respecting authority
• They aren’t born doing what they are told.

Infants exit the wound with the idea that they are in charge
And that their surroundings are meant to satisfy their desires.

And if you don’t notice it in an infant, you will certainly see it in a TODDLER.
They are dripping with insubordination and rebellion,
Which the bible refers to as “foolishness”.
(“a fool has said in his heart that there is no God”)

Fortunately God has taught us the means of extracting such foolishness and it is “the rod of discipline”

We are told as parents, not to hold back such discipline
And that even if you strike your son with the rod, he won’t die.

Proverbs 10:13 “On the lips of the discerning, wisdom is found, But a rod is for the back of him who lacks understanding.”

When your child doesn’t understand how to live,
The rod is meant to help him learn.

IN FACT, that rod will help impart to that child the wisdom (submission to authority) that he needs in order to live this life according to the will of God.

THE ROD IS A GOOD THING.
Proverbs 13:24 “He who withholds his rod hates his son, But he who loves him disciplines him diligently.”

It is not hard to see how the neglect of the rod in our culture
Has produced a generation of rebellion.

This is just basic understanding of how to deal with sinful man.
They must be taught submission to authority
And they are often taught it
Through the pain that is associated with the rod.

What is more, we rest assured that
The God who taught us to use the rod
Most certainly uses it as well.

He uses it to punish sin.
Psalms 89:32 “Then I will punish their transgression with the rod And their iniquity with stripes.”

Psalms 2:9 “‘You shall break them with a rod of iron, You shall shatter them like earthenware.’”

And it can be a SEVERE tool to say the least.
Job 9:34 “Let Him remove His rod from me, And let not dread of Him terrify me.”

In all the times I have had to use the rod on my children,
• No one was harder to restrain than Hannah,
• But no one wanted to debate more than Zech.

Often times he would say, “But it’s gonna hurt!”
And I would say, “If everything goes according to plan it will.”

And this is also how God operates.
The writer of Hebrews taught this to his people quite thoroughly.

Hebrews 12:5-7 “and you have forgotten the exhortation which is addressed to you as sons, “MY SON, DO NOT REGARD LIGHTLY THE DISCIPLINE OF THE LORD, NOR FAINT WHEN YOU ARE REPROVED BY HIM; FOR THOSE WHOM THE LORD LOVES HE DISCIPLINES, AND HE SCOURGES EVERY SON WHOM HE RECEIVES.” It is for discipline that you endure; God deals with you as with sons; for what son is there whom his father does not discipline?”

“discipline” – “reproved” – “scourges”

God at times uses the rod, not only to judge the wicked
But even to discipline the remnant.

And that is most certainly the purpose behind His sending Assyria.

LAST SUNDAY NIGHT we started looking at this Assyrian rod.

We talked about how by this point Assyria had already wiped out the Northern Kingdom.
• You can read about that in 2 Kings 17:1-23

And we talked about how Assyria has now invaded the Southern Kingdom and has reached even to Jerusalem and is threatening her.
• You can read about that in 2 Kings 18:13-37

Assyria is a ruthless nation.
One commentator referred to them as “The Nazis of the Ancient East”

Our study of Jonah should remind you that they were so ruthless
That Jonah thought them to be beyond deserving redemption.

• They used to behead their enemies and pile their heads up at the city gates.
• They would skin their enemies, sometimes alive and drape their skins over the
city walls.
• They were vile and evil people who were ruthless in their judgments.

And now they were afflicting Israel.

And we looked LAST TIME at 4 realities of this Assyrian Rod.
Let me refresh your memory real quickly.

1) HIS PRESENCE (5-6)

• Assyria is called “the rod of My anger”
• He is called “the staff in whose hands is My indignation.”

In short, the reason he is here is because God has put him here.
He is doing the Lord’s work.

God said, “I send it against a godless nation”

And of course He was referring to Israel.

Assyria was the rod that God would use
To strike the back of the nation of Israel.

Assyria was a mad dog, but they were a mad dog on a chain.
God would not let them do all that they desired.

2) HIS PLAN (7-11)

Clearly God sent Assyria to punish.
Assyria however wanted to totally destroy.

They fancied themselves to be unstoppable.
• They had no idea that God was the One using them.
• They thought they were acting according to their own will.

Such is always true of evil men.
• The Pharisees and Chief Priests thought the crucifixion was their idea.
• They thought they pulled it off.
• And the reality is that God had planned it from the foundation of the world.

Sometimes God allows evil men to do evil things
But He allows it to the accomplishment of His own purposes.
Evil world rulers should recognize this, but they never do.

3) HIS PRIDE (12-15)

The sheer repetition of the words “I” and “my” there
Tell us everything we need to know.

The king of Assyria thinks it is his might and his power
That has brought about all his victories.
The reality however is that God was doing by His strength.

2 Kings 19:25-26 “‘Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From ancient times I planned it. Now I have brought it to pass, That you should turn fortified cities into ruinous heaps. ‘Therefore their inhabitants were short of strength, They were dismayed and put to shame; They were as the vegetation of the field and as the green herb, As grass on the housetops is scorched before it is grown up.”

The king of Assyria was full of pride.
Nothing more than a tool in the hands of God.

4) HIS PUNISHMENT (16-19)

God promised to bring this arrogant wild dog to the ground.
And indeed He did.

• In the middle of the night God would enter his camp and kill 185,000 of his men.
• The king would retreat to Assyria where he would be assassinated in the temple of his false god.

God never intended to just let this boastful Assyrian
Do heinous crimes without punishment.
HE WAS PUNISHED.

In fact, he ended up in hell.
Isaiah 10:18 “And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick man wastes away.”

Isaiah spoke of the destruction of “both soul and body”
And Jesus taught us there is only One who can do that.

Matthew 10:28 “Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”

Isaiah gave us a great explanation as to why the king of Assyria was here.

God brought him, God used him,
And when God is finished with him, God will take him out.

But it left us with a question:
WHY DID GOD BRING HIM?

And that is in reality the 5th truth that Isaiah reveals.
5) HIS PURPOSE (20-23)

“Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them, but will truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel. A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God. For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, Only a remnant within them will return; A destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness. For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.”

The truth we learn is that
God was using Assyria to save the remnant.

• He was using Assyria as a rod to extract the foolishness of those whom He was saving.
• He was using Assyria to impart wisdom to those He was planning to save.

AND THIS MORNING I want us to discuss this reality a little bit.

We actually learn here that
There were 3 reasons why God swung the Assyrian rod.

Let’s look at them this morning.
#1 TO CONFRONT THE RELIANCE OF THE REMNANT
Isaiah 10:20

We see how Isaiah TIES the transformation that will occur in the remnant
DIRECTLY TO the invasion of Assyria.

IMAGINE having a child that is totally out of control,
And then the next day he is respectful and behaving properly.

And someone wants to know WHAT HAPPENED to make such a change.
And the parent says, “He got a whipping last night”

You would say, “Last night his entire perspective changed”
“in that day” his entire perspective changed.

SO IT IS HERE.
Assyria was the rod.

“Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them”

Now you see the bad behavior that was in need of correction.
Israel, and Judah had both sought to rely on Assyria for salvation.

Hosea spoke of the northern kingdom’s reliance.
Hosea 5:13 “When Ephraim saw his sickness, And Judah his wound, Then Ephraim went to Assyria And sent to King Jareb. But he is unable to heal you, Or to cure you of your wound.”

Hosea 7:11 “So Ephraim has become like a silly dove, without sense; They call to Egypt, they go to Assyria.”

Certainly you are aware of King Ahaz
• How when Aram and Israel made an alliance and threated to invade Judah, how he reached out also to the king of Assyria for deliverance.
• How he even visited Assyria and copied their altar and replaced God’s altar with it.

In a time when both nations should have trusted God,
They decided to place their trust in this foreign king.

Enamored with his military might…
Enamored with his strength…
They saw him to be the savior they needed.

The word “rely” in the Hebrew is SHAW-AN
It means “to rest on or lean on or to trust in”

When Abraham greeted the angelic messengers who were going to destroy Sodom:
Genesis 18:4 “Please let a little water be brought and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree;”

“rest” there is SHAW-AN

When Samson sought to get his revenge on the Philistines:
Judges 16:26 “Then Samson said to the boy who was holding his hand, “Let me feel the pillars on which the house rests, that I may lean against them.”

“lean” there is SHAW-AN

When Zera the Ethiopian brought his million-man army up to battle against King Asa, Asa prayed:
2 Chronicles 14:11 “Then Asa called to the LORD his God and said, “LORD, there is no one besides You to help in the battle between the powerful and those who have no strength; so help us, O LORD our God, for we trust in You, and in Your name have come against this multitude. O LORD, You are our God; let not man prevail against You.”

“trust” there is SHAW-AN

• It spoke of resting under someone’s protection.
• It spoke of leaning upon someone’s strength.
• It spoke of trusting in someone’s deliverance.

Israel should have been doing all of those things with God,
But instead they were doing all that with Assyria.
It was Assyria they sought to trust and lean on and rest in.

AND IT INFURIATED GOD.

So in a work of irony, God used Assyria (their hope)
To be the one he used to punish them.

And the EFFECT of the Assyrian punishment
Was that the people would stop relying on the Assyrian for help.

“Now in that day the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one who struck them.”

Have you ever trusted in something that proved to be a bad decision?
• The shame or humiliation or even outright pain of such a mistake will cause
you not to trust in those things again.

THAT IS WHAT GOD WAS DOING.
Israel relied on the wrong thing and God used Assyria
To confront their idolatrous reliance on Assyria.

But that was ONLY PART of the reason for the discipline.

Isaiah goes on to say, “but will truly rely upon the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.”

Certainly we recognize there “the Holy One” that Isaiah saw.
• Remember how Isaiah had pronounced himself to be “a man of unclean lips”
• And how he said, “I live among a people of unclean lips”?

Remember what that meant?
It was Isaiah’s confession that he was a hypocrite.
It was Isaiah’s confession that he had been a phony.

Isaiah 29:13 “Then the Lord said, “Because this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, But they remove their hearts far from Me, And their reverence for Me consists of tradition learned by rote,”

Isaiah had his lips cleansed that day.
• Remember the angel took a burning coal from the altar and touched his lips and purified them.

Isaiah’s lips were clean, but the people’s weren’t.
To purify their lips or to cleanse their heart God was sending Assyria.

And after Assyria they “will truly rely upon the LORD”

That word “truly” is the one that catches our attention.
• Up until now it had all been lip service.
• Up until now it had all been empty religion.

Who could forget chapter 1 and how God addressed their worthless religion?
• “What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?”
• “I have had enough of burnt offerings”
• “Who requires of you this trampling of My courts?”
• “Bring your worthless offerings no longer”
• “I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts”

These people had a very religious outward involvement.
• They looked like people who relied on the Lord.
• They looked like people who trusted Him for provision and deliverance and forgiveness and salvation.

But it was all a show.
It was all phony.

“this people draw near with their words And honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me”

THEY DIDN’T “truly rely upon the LORD”

And that became evident on the day when hardship arose.
As soon as it got tough they showed who they really trusted.
And it infuriated God.

• That was an offense!
• That was blatant rebellion!
• That was insubordination of the highest order!

WHY? Exodus 20:3 “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

It is clear violation of the FIRST COMMANDMENT.

It is also a clear violation of the GREATEST COMMANDMENT.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.”

Israel had rebelled.
• They didn’t really trust Him.
• They didn’t totally rely on Him.

So God punished them with the very thing they trusted instead of Him.

I had a friend several years ago who brought a brand new silver belly hat. He was proud of it. And then his new golden retriever chewed it to pieces. So my friend whipped that dog with that chewed up hat.

THAT IS WHAT GOD IS DOING HERE.
You are relying on the wrong thing.
GOD IS CONFRONTING THAT FALSE RELIANCE.

To confront the reliance of the remnant
#2 TO COERCE THE RETURN OF THE REMNANT
Isaiah 10:21-22a

• NOT ONLY did the remnant need to see the error of their ways in having trusted in the king of Assyria,

• BUT THEY ALSO needed to see the necessity of returning to the One they had dishonored.

(21) “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”

In a simple sense the verse is clear.
• After God whips them with Assyria they will come running to Him.

But I also hope you see how Isaiah is tying all this together.

Do you remember when Aram and Israel first made that alliance and first threated Judah? (It was way back in chapter 7.)

And you remember
• How Ahaz went out to the upper conduit to check the city water supply
• And Isaiah met him there to tell him to trust God.
• And when Isaiah went he took his son with him.

Do you remember that boy’s name? “Shear-Jashub”

And his name meant: “A remnant will return”

Through Isaiah God stated at the very beginning
What the goal of this whole situation was.

From the beginning God was at work to turn His people around.

But you notice also the direction of their return.
They were return to Him; “to the mighty God”

And I hope that rings a bell with you too.
For when Isaiah spoke of this coming King who would reign on David’s throne he told us His name.

Isaiah 9:6 “For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us; And the government will rest on His shoulders; And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.”

One of the names He will be called is “Mighty God” (El Gibhor)

The whole purpose of what God is doing through Assyria
Is to first break Israel’s reliance on that false savior
And then to send them running to the true Savior.

God IS NOT JUST revealing His remnant through the Assyrian rod,
God is saving His remnant through the Assyrian rod.

That chastisement was meant to produce an awareness and a repentance.
They were to feel the sting of their failure and then run to the true Savior.

This, incidentally, is the very thing Peter preached in Jerusalem.
Acts 3:19 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord;”

Peter said, “You’ve trusted the wrong savior long enough, why don’t you repent and run to the true one?”

What was the wrong savior they had trusted in Peter’s day?
• It was the Law.
• It was their own ability to keep the Law.
• It was their own religion and good works.
• They trusted in their own goodness.

And I might add, that God did the same thing with them
To break their reliance and send them to Christ.

Do you remember Romans 7?
• Do you remember how God used the Law to first crush Paul and then to drive him to Jesus?

Paul trusted in the Law as his means of salvation
So God used the Law to beat him.

God did it with one command: “Thou shalt not covet”
The command destroyed Paul.
Romans 7:9-11 “I was once alive apart from the Law; but when the commandment came, sin became alive and I died; and this commandment, which was to result in life, proved to result in death for me; for sin, taking an opportunity through the commandment, deceived me and through it killed me.”

Remember how Paul then tried his best to use the Law to save himself?
Romans 7:14-15 “For we know that the Law is spiritual, but I am of flesh, sold into bondage to sin. For what I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”

He could read that command about coveting every night
But it never helped him overcome his sin. It just continually beat him.

He could no longer rely on that which struck him.
And so Paul repented and turned to Christ.

Romans 7:24-25 “Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin.”

THAT IS WHAT GOD DID HERE.
He used their phony savior to beat them
Until they would finally see the error of their ways
And repent and return and run to Him.

“A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”

But as we have also said, NOT ALL of them returned.
ONLY THE REMNANT.

(22a) “For though your people, O Israel, may be like the sand of the sea, only a remnant within them will return;”

• Not everyone learned the lesson.
• Not everyone quit depending on Assyria.
• Not everyone returned to the LORD.

GOD DIDN’T SAVE EVERYONE.
• He saved the remnant.
• And the remnant was those who repented and returned to Him.

Those who saw that no salvation could be found in Assyria, (or the Law),
Salvation was in the LORD alone; salvation is in Christ alone;
Salvation is in “the mighty God”

INCIDENTALLY Paul seized upon this very truth
When explaining why NOT ALL ISRAEL is saved today.

When Paul opened Romans 9
He opened it with a statement that startled most Jews.

Romans 9:1-3 “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,”

Paul revealed that many in Israel are lost and that he prays for their salvation.

This was peculiar to most Jews who assumed that if you were a descendant of Abraham you were automatically saved because of the promises to Abraham.

So when Paul says that some of them are lost, the question is:
Did God lie? Did God not keep His promise?

Romans 9:6-8 “But it is not as though the word of God has failed. For they are not all Israel who are descended from Israel; nor are they all children because they are Abraham’s descendants, but: “THROUGH ISAAC YOUR DESCENDANTS WILL BE NAMED.” That is, it is not the children of the flesh who are children of God, but the children of the promise are regarded as descendants.”

Paul revealed that not everyone who can trace their lineage back to Abraham is being saved.
• Only those who come through Isaac,
• But that wasn’t a genetic point either for we know that Esau’s line comes from Isaac and they aren’t saved.

When Paul says it comes through Isaac
He means it comes on the basis of faith not works.

Which is what Paul speaks about when he quotes Isaiah.

Romans 9:27-33 “Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, “THOUGH THE NUMBER OF THE SONS OF ISRAEL BE LIKE THE SAND OF THE SEA, IT IS THE REMNANT THAT WILL BE SAVED; FOR THE LORD WILL EXECUTE HIS WORD ON THE EARTH, THOROUGHLY AND QUICKLY.” And just as Isaiah foretold, “UNLESS THE LORD OF SABAOTH HAD LEFT TO US A POSTERITY, WE WOULD HAVE BECOME LIKE SODOM, AND WOULD HAVE RESEMBLED GOMORRAH.” What shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, attained righteousness, even the righteousness which is by faith; but Israel, pursuing a law of righteousness, did not arrive at that law. Why? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as though it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone, just as it is written, “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.”

What was Paul’s point?
• Gentiles were saved because they fully relied upon Christ.
• Jews were lost because they did not truly rely upon Him.
• They relied upon the Law.

Now, do you see the imagery here that Paul is seizing upon?

Yes Assyria was a real nation that really afflicted Israel
And God used them to punish the Israel and bring them back to Him.

But Paul saw Assyria here as a picture of the Law which afflicted Israel,
And those who learned from it and ran to Christ were saved,
But those who refused to return to Christ were lost.

DO YOU SEE THAT?

God used Assyria to not only confront false reliance
But also to force a return to Himself
And in so doing He would save a remnant. (HE STILL DOES THAT)

He used the Assyrian rod to confront the reliance of the remnant.
He used the Assyrian rod to coerce the return of the remnant.
#3 TO CAUSE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS OF THE REMNANT
Isaiah 10:22b-23

You see again the punishment God brought about.
• (22b) “a destruction is determined”
• (23) “For a complete destruction, one that is decreed, the Lord GOD of hosts will execute in the midst of the whole land.”

Once again you see a reference to that Assyrian rod.
God used them to mightily afflict Israel.

BUT WHY?
(22b) “a destruction is determined, overflowing with righteousness.”

Hebrews 12:11 “All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have been trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”

THAT IS WHY GOD DISCIPLINES.

But let’s make sure we clearly understand what He is doing.

This is NOT behavior modification,
Though it should certainly change your behavior.

When we think of punishing a child
• We think of changing their behavior from bad to good.
• They lie or disobey so we punish them
• And the objective is that they won’t lie anymore or disobey anymore.

But this is NOT the full purpose of God’s discipline.

For even if you change your behavior are we to assume that your behavior
Will become so spectacular that you will actually become righteous?

NO, GOD DISCIPLINES YOU
• To break your false reliance.
• To cause you to return to Him.

Because in Him alone is found the righteousness you need.

No among of punishment will ever cause you
To finally live holy enough to earn God’s favor.

On the contrary, the only way we become righteous is by the gift of God.
God freely imputes righteousness.

Who does God impute righteousness to?

You find that answer in the 15th chapter of the Bible.
Genesis 15:6 “Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.”

Righteousness is given to us from God when we trust Him.
Romans 3:21-24 “But now apart from the Law the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe; for there is no distinction; for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus;”

Righteousness is given to us when we trust or rely on Him.
• It comes when we rest in Jesus.
• It comes when we lean on Jesus.
• It comes when we trust in Jesus.
• It comes when we “truly rely on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel.”

God did not use the Assyrian rod to cause Israel to live better.
God used the Assyrian rod to cause Israel to run to Him.
For only in Him is true righteousness found.

GOD USED THE ASSYRIAN ROD TO SAVE THE REMNANT.

Does that cause you to look a little differently on your trials and hardships?
Does that cause you to look a little differently at your discipline?

Charles Spurgeon said, “I have learned to kiss the wave that slams me against the Rock of Ages.”

It also helps you understand what God desires from you in your affliction.
Many times we go through discipline and we wonder,
“What do You want from me? What do You want me to do?”

And the answer is “RETURN…TO THE MIGHTY GOD”
Come to Him. Seek Him.

This is the point of discipline,
That we may run to Him and “share in His holiness”.

That is how He saved the remnant of Israel,
That is how He continues to save the remnant even today.

• He uses the rod to teach us not to rely on faulty saviors.
• He uses the rod to teach us to return to Him.
• He uses the rod to drive us to His righteousness.

DON’T REJECT THE ROD, LEARN FROM IT.

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The Assyrian Rod – Part 3
Isaiah 10:5-34 (24-34)
May 21, 2023

As you know we have been looking at
THE MEANS through which God is saving His remnant.
He is saving them by using “The Assyrian Rod”

Much like when a father extracts foolishness from a child
By using the rod of discipline
The LORD is using Assyria as a rod to punish Israel
And call the remnant back to Himself.

We just looked at this in the morning service so we’re not going to rehash it,
But I am going to put up the outline that we’ve covered
For those of you who are outline type people.

I. THE REVELATION (5-23)
A. His Presence (5-6)
B. His Plan (7-11)
C. His Pride (12-15)
D. His Punishment (16-19)
E. His Purpose (20-23)
1. To Confront the Reliance of the Remnant (20)
2. To Coerce the Return of the Remnant (21-22a)
3. To Cause the Righteousness of the Remnant (22b-23)

What we have learned then over the past couple of sermons
Is that God is in total sovereign control of all things.

This event drips of His sovereignty.

Assyria is an evil and ruthless nation,
But they have not done a single thing
Outside of the sovereign hand and providential control of God.

GOD IS DOING THIS.
Assyria is merely the tool that He is using.

Knowing this BRINGS TREMENDOUS COMFORT
To the heart that trusts in the LORD.

It really serves to solidify in our heart a promise like:
Romans 8:28 “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

We clearly see in a story like this that there is no rogue leader,
Nor hostile situation which is beyond the scope of God’s control.

He can use anyone and anything to work for good to those who love Him.

We are reminded of His sovereign hand even in governmental affairs.

Isaiah 40:23-24 “He it is who reduces rulers to nothing, Who makes the judges of the earth meaningless. Scarcely have they been planted, Scarcely have they been sown, Scarcely has their stock taken root in the earth, But He merely blows on them, and they wither, And the storm carries them away like stubble.”

Sometimes we are confronted with the illusion
That world leaders are beyond the scope of God’s Law.

• They seem corrupt, they seem rogue, they seem to answer to no one.
• At times, even in our nation, we wonder if they were even legitimately elected.

And it’s easy to assume that we are at the mercy of these rogue rulers
And we wonder what can be done. It can feel helpless.

I’m reminded of the 11th Psalm
When David’s friends looked at the trouble he was in and asked:
Psalms 11:3 “If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?”

We can kind of feel that way sometimes.
• If elections are corrupt…
• If politicians are bought and paid for…
• If they own the media…
• If the rich and powerful control them…
• What can we do?

But David reminded his friends
Of the very truths that we have seen here in Isaiah.

Psalms 11:4-7 “The LORD is in His holy temple; the LORD’S throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the LORD is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face.”

David knew that God was sovereign
Even over the most wicked and powerful men in the world.
AND THAT IS A COMFORT TO US.

Isaiah 43:11-13 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me. “It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed, And there was no strange god among you; So you are My witnesses,” declares the LORD, “And I am God. “Even from eternity I am He, And there is none who can deliver out of My hand; I act and who can reverse it?”

God does whatever He pleases and He sits in total control of all things.

• That was true of Pharaoh whom He brought to power simply to demonstrate His power in the plagues and the Exodus.

• That is true of Sennacherib whom He allowed to invade and destroy nations simply that He might draw His remnant back to Himself.

• That will be true of Nebuchadnezzar whom He will allow to destroy Jerusalem and take Judah into captivity simply so that He might sanctify His people and teach them to call upon Him.

• That will be true of Pilate whom He will use to crucify His own Son to thus make Him a propitiation for the remnant He is saving.

• And that is true of every ruler in every age, regardless of their level of wickedness.

GOD SITS IN TOTAL SOVEREIGN CONTROL.
And He works all things for His glory and for the salvation of His remnant.

All these events, even though they may have felt like punishment,
Were in reality demonstrations of grace
Whereby God was choosing to save you.

TONIGHT we want to take one more look at this Assyrian Rod.
And here we get the application to the sermon.
• We saw the first point: THE REVELATION
• Here tonight is the second point

#2 THE APPLICATION
Isaiah 10:24-34

The first thing you have to see is the word “Therefore”

THIS MORNING,
God announced the completion of His usage of the king of Assyria.

• He was raised up for the purpose of pushing the remnant to God.
• And in verse 21 we saw the completion of his mission.
• “A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.”

That is what we call: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
(God’s mission, not Sennacherib’s)

But since God has now used him to accomplish His purposes,
God is finished with him and he will face judgment.

That is why we see the word “Therefore…”

This text represents the FINAL FATE OF EVIL MEN,
Even those who have been used by God for the salvation of the remnant.

Let’s break these verses down into 4 points.
1) EXHORTATION (24)

“Therefore thus says the Lord GOD of hosts, “O My people who dwell in Zion, do not fear the Assyrian who strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you, the way Egypt did.”

The simple message is “do not fear the Assyrian”

AS WE HAVE NOTED,
• That’s easier said than done.
• These were vile and ruthless people.

And up until now they had been extremely successful
In their campaign to rule the region.
From earthly eyes a person would have every reason to fear them.

But God here says that is no longer necessary.
• I know he “strikes you with the rod and lifts up his staff against you”
• I know this reminds of what “Egypt did”
• I know it feels like you are totally helpless against such a mighty power.
• But his time is over, there is no need to fear any longer.

Perhaps you remember what we saw last Sunday night as Hezekiah took the letter from the king of Assyria and spread it out before the LORD.

GOD ANSWERED THAT PRAYER.

2 Kings 19:20 “Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent to Hezekiah saying, “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel, ‘Because you have prayed to Me about Sennacherib king of Assyria, I have heard you.’”

FOLLOWING WAS ISAIAH’S TAUNT to the king of Assyria about his foolish pride and failure to recognize that God was merely using him like a puppet.

• He was nothing more than the dummy that sets on the lap of the ventriloquist.
• He had no power…
• He had no wisdom…
• He was only able to do what he did because God had His hand up his shirt and guided his every move.

AND AFTER THAT TAUNT Isaiah turned to encourage Hezekiah that there was no need to fear Assyria any longer.

2 Kings 19:29-34 “‘Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit. ‘The surviving remnant of the house of Judah will again take root downward and bear fruit upward. ‘For out of Jerusalem will go forth a remnant, and out of Mount Zion survivors. The zeal of the LORD will perform this. ‘Therefore thus says the LORD concerning the king of Assyria, “He will not come to this city or shoot an arrow there; and he will not come before it with a shield or throw up a siege ramp against it. “By the way that he came, by the same he will return, and he shall not come to this city,” ’ declares the LORD. ‘For I will defend this city to save it for My own sake and for My servant David’s sake.’”

The overall message is that the days of Assyrian threat are over.
You don’t have to fear him, God will deal with him.

BUT YOU ALSO HAVE TO RECOGNIZE
The familiar way in which God makes the promise.

“Then this shall be the sign for you: you will eat this year what grows of itself, in the second year what springs from the same, and in the third year sow, reap, plant vineyards, and eat their fruit.”

GOD LOVES TO GIVE SIGNS LIKE THIS.

You may remember when He gave Moses a sign to prove that He would indeed lead Israel out of Egypt He said:
Exodus 3:12 “And He said, “Certainly I will be with you, and this shall be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall worship God at this mountain.”

We’ve often noted how that wasn’t much of a sign…before.
But it would have been tremendous confirmation after the fact and cause for tremendous worship.

Well that is the same type of sign God offered Hezekiah.
Assyria is finished and HERE’S THE SIGN.
• You’ll eat this year from volunteer crops (Assyria likely destroyed their fields)
• Next year you’ll do this again
• And the third year you’ll plant reap and eat.

That doesn’t sound like much of a sign does it?
Not today, but in 3 years it will be quite a time of worship.

God gives signs like this because He wants faith from His people.
According to God all Hezekiah had to do was…NOTHING.

You may see Assyrian soldiers outside your wall,
BUT TRUST ME, the threat is over, go about your life.

Even as we said earlier with Ahaz, sometimes faith in God
Is nothing more than doing nothing and resting in His mighty power.

God simply wants His people to WALK BY FAITH
And that includes LETTING GO OF THEIR FEAR.

Fear is the enemy of faith.
• Satan loves to use fear to control and manipulate us.
• The man of faith overcomes fear and trusts the promises of God.

• The man of faith sees the massive Assyrian army, but he has more faith in what God has said.

So the simple exhortation to the remnant is “do not fear”.
(Do not fear the rod)

2) EXPLANATION (25-27)

Here God explains why fear is not necessary.
“For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent and My anger will be directed to their destruction.”

NOW WAIT JUST A SECOND…
This seems to be a contradiction of that which we just studied a few verses ago.

Didn’t we just read in chapter 9 and the first 4 verses of chapter 10
That God’s wrath would not and could not be satisfied?

I mean we saw the exact same phrase in (9:12, 9:17, 9:21, 10:4)
• “In spite of all this, His anger does not turn away And His hand is still
stretched out.”

We even talked about how eternity in hell could not satisfy God’s wrath on sinful man, much less a few temporal judgments here on earth.

But now all of a sudden God says,
“For in a very little while My indignation against you will be spent…”

WHAT DO WE DO WITH THAT?
We understand that
• The first 4 statements were made before repentance or a return to the LORD.
• And if a man will not repent or turn to Christ then certainly he will never be able to satisfy God’s wrath on his sin.
• However, if that man repents and returns and trusts in Christ God will impute righteousness to him and His wrath does indeed turn away.

For the man that repents:
Romans 8:1 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

• That is the whole essence of Christ being our propitiation.
• He satisfies God’s wrath on our account.

AND THAT IS WHAT ISAIAH ANNOUNCES HERE.
• God most certainly afflicted you greatly…
• God beat you with the Assyrian rod…
• But you repented and you returned
• You obtained the righteousness which is by faith.

SO, MY ANGER TOWARD YOU IS MOVING ON.

IN FACT, it is turning around and is directed toward the one who afflicted you.

“My anger will be directed to their destruction.”

(26) “The LORD of hosts will arouse a scourge against him like the slaughter of Midian at the rock of Oreb; and His staff will be over the sea and He will lift it up the way He did in Egypt.”

God says, now that I finished using Him to save you,
It is time to turn and judge him for what he did.

And God likens it to two great judgments in Israel’s history.

THE FIRST is the defeat of the Midianites under Gideon.

Judges 7:19-25 “So Gideon and the hundred men who were with him came to the outskirts of the camp at the beginning of the middle watch, when they had just posted the watch; and they blew the trumpets and smashed the pitchers that were in their hands. When the three companies blew the trumpets and broke the pitchers, they held the torches in their left hands and the trumpets in their right hands for blowing, and cried, “A sword for the LORD and for Gideon!” Each stood in his place around the camp; and all the army ran, crying out as they fled. When they blew 300 trumpets, the LORD set the sword of one against another even throughout the whole army; and the army fled as far as Beth-shittah toward Zererah, as far as the edge of Abel-meholah, by Tabbath. The men of Israel were summoned from Naphtali and Asher and all Manasseh, and they pursued Midian. Gideon sent messengers throughout all the hill country of Ephraim, saying, “Come down against Midian and take the waters before them, as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan.” So all the men of Ephraim were summoned and they took the waters as far as Beth-barah and the Jordan. They captured the two leaders of Midian, Oreb and Zeeb, and they killed Oreb at the rock of Oreb, and they killed Zeeb at the wine press of Zeeb, while they pursued Midian; and they brought the heads of Oreb and Zeeb to Gideon from across the Jordan.”

• A battle against overwhelming odds.
• Gideon only had 300 men.
• But God intervened in an otherwise unwinnable battle and totally routed the Midianites.

THE OTHER reference is clearly to the overthrow of Pharaoh and his army in the sea.

Exodus 14:26-31 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.” So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the LORD overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea. The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, even Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained. But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.”

• Again a battle against unwinnable odds.
• These were slaves being led out of Egypt on foot.
• They were not soldiers, they had no chariots, they weren’t prepared for battle.
• But God intervened in an otherwise unwinnable battle and totally routed Pharaoh and the Egyptian army.

And here Hezekiah faces an unwinnable battle.
• The full force of the Assyrian army sits outside the gates of the city
• Jerusalem has no physical strength to withstand them.

But God has promised to do again what He has done before.
I’m going to turn My anger towards them and totally route them.

Which He did by killing 180,000 of their troops in one night.

To which Isaiah sums up:
(27) “So it will be in that day, that his burden will be removed from your shoulders and his yoke from your neck, and the yoke will be broken because of fatness.”

What a familiar analogy to us.
That God likens His salvation to the removal of our burden and our yoke.

Matthew 11:28-30 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. “Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS. “For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

• The people of Judah had been heavily taxed by the king of Assyria.
• They had felt the burden of paying him off so as to live in peace with him.
• But the king of Assyria now wanted more.
• It was a burden that the people could not bear.
• So God would remove that burden by abolishing their enemy.

This also reminds us of the salvation of God.

When Peter spoke of the Law. He said:
Acts 15:10 “Now therefore why do you put God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our fathers nor we have been able to bear?”

Peter referred to the Law and unbearable yoke.

But Jesus came to abolish this yoke for us.
Colossians 2:13-14 “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”

Christ conquered our foe.
God conquered Assyria.

And this promise is why there was no need for fear.
God had determined to enter the battle and fight for them
Just as Christ enters our battle and fights for us.

Romans 8:1-4 “Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

YOU SEE THE OBVIOUS PICTURE.

• Now we no longer fear judgment, for we have been saved.
• Isaiah told Hezekiah and all the remnant that they should no longer fear either.

God has taken up your cause.
God has entered your battle.
There is no reason for you to fear it any longer.

And friend, when God says you don’t have to fear, you don’t have to fear.

Exhortation, Explanation
3) EXPEDITION (28-32)

These verses remind us again of God’s sovereign control of all things.
These verses represent the exact path or trail that the king of Assyria would take in his efforts to descend upon Jerusalem and destroy it.

What he did not realize is that God had watched his every step.

Psalms 139:2-3 “You know when I sit down and when I rise up; You understand my thought from afar. You scrutinize my path and my lying down, And are intimately acquainted with all my ways.”

Such was true for the king of Assyria too.
He wasn’t calling the shots, he wasn’t moving undetected,
And he wasn’t getting away with anything.

GOD WAS WATCHING.
• He traveled down from “Aiath” to “Migron” then “Michmash”
• He went through the pass and lodged in “Geba” and terrified “Ramah” and “Gibeah” fled in fear.
• He traveled down through “Gallim” and “Laishah” and “Anathoth” and “Madmenah” and “Gebim” and he stopped in “Nob”

And there:
“He shakes his fist at the mountain of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.”

• He must feel so superior in his march.
• He must feel invincible in his attack.

WE READ HIS MIGHTY TAUNT BEFORE GOD
As he spoke to the people in the city wall.
2 Kings 18:32b-35 “But do not listen to Hezekiah when he misleads you, saying, “The LORD will deliver us.” ‘Has any one of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the hand of the king of Assyria? ‘Where are the gods of Hamath and Arpad? Where are the gods of Sepharvaim, Hena and Ivvah? Have they delivered Samaria from my hand? ‘Who among all the gods of the lands have delivered their land from my hand, that the LORD should deliver Jerusalem from my hand?’”

How superior he felt.
He just knew he was about to annihilate the city of the LORD.

Exhortation, Explanation, Epedition
4) EXECUTION (33-34)

The king of Assyria could lift his fist and raise a mighty boast,
But he had failed to recognize the sovereign hand of God.

“Behold, the Lord, the GOD of hosts, will lop off the boughs with a terrible crash; Those also who are tall in stature will be cut down And those who are lofty will be abased. He will cut down the thickets of the forest with an iron axe, And Lebanon will fall by the Mighty One.”

GOD INTERVENES!
The one once seen as an axe chopping down trees
Is now seen as the tree that gets chopped down himself.

WE SAY:
“Sometimes you’re the windshield, sometimes you’re the bug”
“What goes up, must come down”
“Be not deceived, God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows, that shall he reap.”

The remnant had been saved from sin
And now they are saved from Assyria.
God had finished using him for His purposes
And how He is judged.

EVEN THOUGH WE SEE THE NEED FOR IT…
MY HOW WE LOVE IT WHEN GOD PUTS THE ROD AWAY!

Isaiah 41:8-14 “But you, Israel, My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, Descendant of Abraham My friend, You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth, And called from its remotest parts And said to you, ‘You are My servant, I have chosen you and not rejected you. ‘Do not fear, for I am with you; Do not anxiously look about you, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, surely I will help you, Surely I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’ “Behold, all those who are angered at you will be shamed and dishonored; Those who contend with you will be as nothing and will perish. “You will seek those who quarrel with you, but will not find them, Those who war with you will be as nothing and non-existent. “For I am the LORD your God, who upholds your right hand, Who says to you, ‘Do not fear, I will help you.’ “Do not fear, you worm Jacob, you men of Israel; I will help you,” declares the LORD, “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”

THAT IS WHAT GOD DOES FOR HIS REMNANT.

WHEN WE SEE THE STORY NOW,
• God was never for Assyria.
• He was always for Israel.

He merely used evil men to save His remnant
And once they were saved He turned and destroyed the wicked.

That is such a refreshing lens to view even our current world through.

NOW IF YOU KEEP READING IN ISAIAH you see that THE NEXT STEP is for God to place His own King on the throne and usher in a time of total peace.

WELL,
• While history did see God annihilate the Assyrian army,
• We have yet to see this King reign on earth.

That is because there is MORE FULFILLMENT to come.

I TOLD YOU at the outset of this section that Isaiah often sees two fulfillments here and sometimes seems to have difficulty separating them.

• In chapter 9 we saw that prophecy about the child who reigns on David’s throne, but there is still a future fulfillment for much of that.

And the same is true here as well.

In fact, EVEN TODAY, we wait for the remnant of Israel
To repent and return so that our King may come and reign.

Peter preached this very thing in Jerusalem.
Acts 3:19-21 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you, whom heaven must receive until the period of restoration of all things about which God spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from ancient time.”

And what is the event that will ultimately bring this about?
The Assyrian Rod (the great tribulation)

There are many commentators who actually refer to the Anti-Christ as “The Assyrian”

Because they see even in Isaiah’s prophecy
A representation of the one who is to come.

JUST AS Antiochus Epiphanes in Daniel is a corrupt man who pictures the coming anti-Christ, SO DOES THE KING OF ASSYRIA.

Isaiah 9:5 through 10:34 tells the story of the coming tribulation
In which God will once again use an evil man to save His remnant.

Zechariah 11:15-17 “The LORD said to me, “Take again for yourself the equipment of a foolish shepherd. “For behold, I am going to raise up a shepherd in the land who will not care for the perishing, seek the scattered, heal the broken, or sustain the one standing, but will devour the flesh of the fat sheep and tear off their hoofs. “Woe to the worthless shepherd Who leaves the flock! A sword will be on his arm And on his right eye! His arm will be totally withered And his right eye will be blind.”

That is the coming rod with which God will strike Israel.
It is the Anti-Christ.

God will use that rod to drive Israel back to Himself.

Zechariah 12:10-14 “I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. “In that day there will be great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning of Hadadrimmon in the plain of Megiddo. “The land will mourn, every family by itself; the family of the house of David by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Levi by itself and their wives by themselves; the family of the Shimeites by itself and their wives by themselves; all the families that remain, every family by itself and their wives by themselves.”

And when Israel returns to God they receive mercy and righteousness.

Zechariah 13:1 “In that day a fountain will be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem, for sin and for impurity.”

That is the day in which God will save His people.
THE REMNANT WILL RETURN.

Romans 11:25-29 “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, “THE DELIVERER WILL COME FROM ZION, HE WILL REMOVE UNGODLINESS FROM JACOB.” “THIS IS MY COVENANT WITH THEM, WHEN I TAKE AWAY THEIR SINS.” From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”

We saw the Assyrian
• Descending on Jerusalem by a path that was guided by the LORD.
• He came and planned to wipe out God’s people.
• What he did not know is that God had ordained his steps.

SOUND FAMILIAR?

Revelation 16:12-14 “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up, so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.”

God will do the same thing again.
• He’ll gather that ruthless world leader to descend on Jerusalem.
• The nations to come and annihilate His people.

And just like with the king of Assyria,
Before he is able to give that final death blow:
Revelation 16:17-21 “Then the seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” And there were flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder; and there was a great earthquake, such as there had not been since man came to be upon the earth, so great an earthquake was it, and so mighty. The great city was split into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell. Babylon the great was remembered before God, to give her the cup of the wine of His fierce wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. And huge hailstones, about one hundred pounds each, came down from heaven upon men; and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, because its plague was extremely severe.”

GOD SAVES HIS REMNANT.

THAT IS THE POINT.
• The remnant did not save themselves.
• The remnant didn’t even really pursue salvation.

But by grace God awakened them and drew them
And saved them and will defend them.

Now do you understand why Isaiah said at the beginning?
Isaiah 1:9 “Unless the LORD of hosts Had left us a few survivors, We would be like Sodom, We would be like Gomorrah.”

The only way anyone is saved is by the sovereign prerogative of God.

HE WORKS TO SAVE HIS REMNANT
It is nothing short of pure grace that He chooses to do it
And nothing short of His majestic power that He brings it to pass.

He has done it before and we look forward to Him doing it again.

SO CHURCH:
• Do not fear the rod, your Father has never meant to destroy you with it.
• Let the rod drive you to Him.
• When God is finished performing His saving work on you.
• He will deliver you and destroy the rod that afflicted you.

This has been true so many times in Israel’s history
And it will be true yet again in Israel’s future.

“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD, nor faint when you are reproved by Him…”

“All discipline for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet afterward it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness.”