download here

Drunkards, Scoffers, & Tough Nuts – Part 2
Isaiah 28:1-29 (9-13)
October 1, 2023

To say that Israel is a stubborn nation is a bit of an understatement.
• No sooner did they really take shape as a nation
• And did God deliver them from Egypt
• Than do we find God’s evaluation of them.

David recounted it in the 95th Psalm.
Psalms 95:10 “For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart, And they do not know My ways.”

We saw it in God’s commissioning to Isaiah when He told him that he was going to people with ears but who couldn’t hear.
Isaiah 6:9 “He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’”

When God commissioned Jeremiah to the people of Israel He first informed him:
Jeremiah 1:19 “They will fight against you, but they will not overcome you, for I am with you to deliver you,” declares the LORD.”

When God commissioned Ezekiel to the people of Israel He said:
Ezekiel 3:5-7 “For you are not being sent to a people of unintelligible speech or difficult language, but to the house of Israel, nor to many peoples of unintelligible speech or difficult language, whose words you cannot understand. But I have sent you to them who should listen to you; yet the house of Israel will not be willing to listen to you, since they are not willing to listen to Me. Surely the whole house of Israel is stubborn and obstinate.”

Jesus noted it:
Luke 7:31-35 “To what then shall I compare the men of this generation, and what are they like? “They are like children who sit in the market place and call to one another, and they say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not weep.’ “For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon!’ “The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ “Yet wisdom is vindicated by all her children.”

When Stephen confronted them he noted:
Acts 7:51-53 “You men who are stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears are always resisting the Holy Spirit; you are doing just as your fathers did. “Which one of the prophets did your fathers not persecute? They killed those who had previously announced the coming of the Righteous One, whose betrayers and murderers you have now become; you who received the law as ordained by angels, and yet did not keep it.”

When Paul tried to witness to Israel he said:
Acts 13:45-46 “But when the Jews saw the crowds, they were filled with jealousy and began contradicting the things spoken by Paul, and were blaspheming. Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly and said, “It was necessary that the word of God be spoken to you first; since you repudiate it and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we are turning to the Gentiles.”

Later Paul testified of them:
Romans 10:21 “But as for Israel He says, “ALL THE DAY LONG I HAVE STRETCHED OUT MY HANDS TO A DISOBEDIENT AND OBSTINATE PEOPLE.”

SURELY YOU GET THE POINT.
We are dealing with a stiff-necked and stubborn people.

Isaiah 28 is a chapter meant to appeal to Israel
That they not be so stubborn.

We’ve already seen
The great lengths God is willing to go to in order to break that stubbornness,

Isaiah is now pointing out the folly of forcing God to such an end.

Here in chapter 28 Isaiah is characterizing their stubbornness
Through 3 types of people.

In reality Israel was all 3.
He reveals their stubbornness by talking about
Drunkards, Scoffers, and Tough Nuts.

We saw the first one this morning.
#1 DRUNKARDS
Isaiah 28:1-8

Certainly the first part was about literal drunkards in the northern kingdom of Israel, but that was really just a set-up.

Isaiah spoke of those
• Who everyone in Judah would agree deserved judgment
• Certainly their were some faint grins on their faces as Isaiah spoke of their coming destruction.

But the weight of the sermon fell in verse 7
When Isaiah turned and pointed at the priests and the prophets
In his congregation and said, “You’re just as bad as them.”

You may not be literal drunks but YOU ARE SPIRITUAL DRUNKS.
WHAT DO YOU MEAN?

Well you vacillate and wobble when handling the word of God
And the content of your messages is as valuable
As the vomit a drunk leaves on the table.

AND SO WE LEARNED the first leg of being stubborn had to do with the way we handle and view the word of God.

• It is a stubborn man who insists on his own opinions over God’s.
• It is a stubborn man who follows his own logic instead of God’s decrees.
• It is a stubborn man who listens to the culture instead of God.

That is one of the worst forms of stubbornness
And it has not suited Israel well.

The teaching they have received from their priests and prophets
Has only suited them for the extreme discipline
That God must bring to shake them out of it.

But we saw the first analogy.
Their stubbornness can be compared to drunkards.

Let’s move on to the second analogy tonight.
#2 SCOFFERS
Isaiah 28:9-22

This is a longer segment and I had considered breaking it down even further,
But in reality I don’t think it is necessary
Because it really just flows linear from one verse to the next.

So let’s just start working our way down the passage.

Isaiah just punched the priests and the prophets in the mouth.
• He has called them out and publicly.
• He has humiliated them.
• He has exposed them.

And in verses 9-10 we see their rebuttal.
They could have listened to Isaiah and repented
But their pride would not allow it.

So their only other option is to try and ruin Isaiah.

(9-10) “To whom would He teach knowledge, And to whom would He interpret the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast? “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there.’”

So they first answer with a statement that SEEMS TO READ like, “Who does he think he’s talking to?”

Does he think he’s talking to a bunch of babies?
Does he think he’s preaching in a nursery?
“Those just weaned from milk? Those just taken from the breast?”

And at first it sounds like they are defending themselves as if to say,
“We’re not a bunch of kids that you can talk to us like that.”

But that’s NOT really what they are saying.

They ask if Isaiah is talking to kids
Because they’re accusing him of SPEAKING NONSENSE.

(10) “For He says, ‘Order on order, order on order, Line on line, A little here, a little there.”

I am by no means a Hebrew scholar so reading it to you in the Hebrew is difficult.

But the words here are:
• “order” translates (SAV) which is the word for “command” or “oracle”
• “line” translates (KAV) which is the word for like a plum line.

So what these leaders do, after Isaiah finishes confronting them
Is basically just mock him like he’s speaking to little babies.

“sav lasav sav lasav kav lakav kav lakav”

They look at him and say, “You’re talking nonsense. You’re talking gibberish. Why don’t you go down to the nursery and talk to the babies, that’s how they talk.”

And you know exactly what that feels like.
• If you’ve ever worked a VBS
• Or maybe even with your own kids
• And they act up and you correct them,
• And the kid makes that mocking face or sticks out their tongue and mocks what you’re saying.

It is total disdain.
It is total disrespect.

It is their way of saying, “We’re not going to listen to a word you’re saying.”

1. Isaiah says their preaching is the equivalent of vomit on the table
2. And they rebuttal by saying, “Well you’re preaching sounds like baby gibberish.”

So not only do these men lean upon
Their own logic and wisdom instead of the word of God,
When God does speak into their lives they mock it and tune it out.

THAT IS WHAT YOU CALL STUBBORN.

AND LET’S TALK ON THIS IDEA FOR A MOMENT.

I know we’ve looked at it several times before
But it cannot be addressed enough.

TURN TO: JAMES 1:19-25

Most people like to quote James 1:19-20 as a verse that deals with anger and temper tantrums.
• And certainly we understand that a man of God is not pugnacious
• And that fits of rage are an attitude of the flesh,
• But that is NOT what James 1 is primarily about.

James 1 is all about how you handle the word of God,
Especially when God’s word
Contradicts your behavior or your own personal wisdom.

James gives 3 basic warnings.
1. “be quick to hear” – that is to say, you ought to always want to know what God thinks about anything.

• There should be a desire to read God’s word, to hear God’s word, and to know what God says.
• Not hearing what God has to say is terrible arrogance.

2. “slow to speak” – James is talking about those who argue with what God has to say or who make excuses around what God is saying.

• It’s the proverbial, “I see what the Bible says, but don’t you think…”
• Don’t, “Yeah, but” the Bible.

If God says it is black there is no need for you to analyze it any further
IT’S BLACK.

And finally James says
3. “and slow to anger” – this refers to the person who knows what God says, knows God is right, but who doesn’t like it and gets angry.

• They don’t like what God has to day.
• They don’t want to hear it.
• They are offended and they are angry.

And that warning comes with its own listed consequence,
“for the anger of man does not achieve the righteousness of God.”

In other words, you are never going to walk in the righteousness God expects if you get angry every time God corrects your behavior.

SEE HOW YOU RECEIVE THE WORD OF GOD MATTERS.
That is something those in Isaiah’s day were not willing to do.

SO JAMES SAYS: (21) “Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls.”

You need to “receive the word…which is able to save your souls”

But James doesn’t stop there.
• It’s NOT JUST about receiving God’s word well,
• IT ALSO MATTERS what you do with it after you receive it.

(22-25) “But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. But one who looks intently at the perfect law, the law of liberty, and abides by it, not having become a forgetful hearer but an effectual doer, this man will be blessed in what he does.”

LISTEN VERY CAREFULLY.

While it is important that you receive God’s word,
You must know that receiving God’s word is NOT the goal.

Many people
• Receive and even acknowledge the Bible as the word of God.
• Many read it, study it, they may even apply it.

But none of those are the final goal.
THE GOAL IS THAT YOU OBEY IT.

Matthew 21:28-32 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go work today in the vineyard.’ “And he answered, ‘I will not’; but afterward he regretted it and went. “The man came to the second and said the same thing; and he answered, ‘I will, sir’; but he did not go. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. “For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

You see the difference.

In Isaiah’s day they did neither.
• They WOULD NOT RECEIVE God’s word – they mocked Isaiah.
• And they certainly WOULD NOT OBEY God’s word.

This is terrible stubbornness.
They were “scoffers”.

And GOD HAS AN ANSWER for those scoffers.

(11-13) “Indeed, He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue, He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And, “Here is repose,” but they would not listen. So the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there,” That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.”

Isaiah’s response is, “Indeed”

If you think God’s word is nothing but gibberish baby talk
Then the next time God speaks to you, that’s how it will sound.

“He will speak to this people Through stammering lips and a foreign tongue”

“the word of the LORD to them will be, “Order on order, order on order, Line on line, line on line, A little here, a little there”

I hope you understand the point.

God is going to hide His word from you
And make it an unintelligible word that you can’t understand.

He will speak the truth to you sure enough,
But He will speak it in a way that you cannot understand it.

And if you can’t understand God’s word
THE END RESULT IS ALWAYS JUDGMENT.

“That they may go and stumble backward, be broken, snared and taken captive.”

Paul is very clear to us when he tells us:
Romans 1:16 “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.”

Romans 10:17 “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.”

In short the only shot at any human has at salvation is to hear the gospel.
• If they never hear it
• Or if they never hear it in a language they can understand
• Then they cannot be saved.

1. For if you don’t hear the gospel how can you believe it?
2. And if you don’t believe the gospel how can you confess Christ?
3. And if you don’t confess Christ you cannot be saved
4. For there is salvation in no one else.

Do you see the danger of not comprehending the word of God?
IT IS A TERRIBLE JUDGMENT!

WHY WOULD GOD DO SUCH A THING?
Because they are stubborn!

“He who said to them, “Here is rest, give rest to the weary,” And “Here is repose,” but they would not listen.”

• God offered them peace.
• God offered them rest.
• God offered them salvation.

All they had to do was hear and receive and obey His word,
But instead they supplanted God’s word with their own
And scoffed at His when they heard it.

God said, “Fine, you’ll never understand it again.”

I know to many that just sounds so un-Jesus like.

• Would God really stop warning people?
• Would God really stop telling them the good news?
• Would God really confuse the language so that they couldn’t comprehend it?

TURN TO: MATTHEW 13
This is actually the story we’re going to cover with the youth this year at D-Now.

But it is that all-familiar parable of the soils or parable of the sower.

(READ 1-9)
• It is just a farming story, and not really all that enlightening of a story.
• You throw seed and it lands all over the place and not all of it comes up.

And then Jesus closes the sermon, “He who has ears, let him hear.”

In other words, Jesus gave a sort of basic synopsis of farming percentages and then said, “Do you hear what I’m saying?”
And He dismissed the crowd.

If that is all you ever heard of that parable
You wouldn’t have a clue what the spiritual reality behind it was.
You wouldn’t have a clue what in the world He meant.

You’d walk away scratching your head saying,
“What was that guy talking about?”

Well the disciples picked up on that, and while the crowd left they stayed to find out exactly what Jesus meant.
(They hungered, they wanted to receive God’s word)

(READ 10-16)

Do you see what Jesus said?
I hid it from them on purpose!
“to them it has not been granted”
WOW!

WHY?
• Because they don’t listen.
• They see but they don’t see.
• They hear but they don’t hear.

But the disciples hear, the disciples see.

WHY?
• Because they stayed to ask.
• And anyone could have stayed to ask.

The disciples weren’t content to hear and not understand.

Think about that now the next time you are reading God’s word
And something comes up you don’t understand.

Do you dig and search deeper?
Do you seek out Jesus to ask what He meant?
Are you content to hear and not understand?

Proverbs 2:1-5 “My son, if you will receive my words And treasure my commandments within you, Make your ear attentive to wisdom, Incline your heart to understanding; For if you cry for discernment, Lift your voice for understanding; If you seek her as silver And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will discern the fear of the LORD And discover the knowledge of God.”

1 Corinthians 2:11-12 “For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may know the things freely given to us by God,”

God has made it so that we may understand His word.
• It may require work.
• It may require digging.
• It may require seeking and prayer.
• But the intension is comprehension.

But you see here even from Jesus that
THOSE WHO WON’T HEAR ARE MADE WHERE THEY CAN’T HEAR.

That is why in Luke’s version of the parable of the soils
He includes the warning of Jesus, which is our theme for D-Now.

Luke 8:18 “So take care how you listen; for whoever has, to him more shall be given; and whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has shall be taken away from him.”

But there is one more warning on this I want you to see.

TURN TO: 1 CORINTHIANS 14:20-25

This is of course in the middle of Paul’s segment to the Corinthians concerning spiritual gifts and even more specifically with Paul’s dealing with the gift of tongues.

There is no spiritual gift more misunderstood than the gift of tongues.
• Today it has become a non-intelligible gibberish
• Often referred to as “a private prayer language”
• Or “a heavenly language”.

There is zero biblical basis for that.
• The tongues that occurred in Scripture (even the Greek word for tongues) are known human languages.
• You see that at Pentecost where certain people from certain regions recognized the disciples supernaturally speaking these known human languages.

But at Corinth it was being abused and manipulated,
Much like we see today and Paul not only seeks to put it in context
But also to explain it’s purpose.

If you ask several today what is the purpose of the gift of tongues?
Many, as we noted, we say it is for a personal prayer language.
• At best that would be for self-edification,
• Though not really because even the prayers don’t know what they are saying.

That is bogus on a number of levels.
• For one, all spiritual gifts are for the edification of the body,
• Not for the edification of the person.
• A private prayer language misses on that mark badly.

To speak a language even you don’t understand is of zero spiritual benefit
Which is what Paul points out early in the chapter,
But we don’t have time to get into all of that.

BUT IF YOU ASK OTHERS (not the private prayer language crowd)
What is the purpose of tongues?
Most would likely say it is missions.
• It would be of use when God sends a missionary to a foreign land
• and supernaturally enables him or her to speak a language they have not learned.
• And indeed God could do something like that, and perhaps He has at times.

But what may surprise you here
Is what Paul says is the purpose of tongues.

Paul says in verse 22 that “tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers;”

Now think on that for a second.
If you’re in a church and someone starts breaking out speaking in tongues, what does that mean?

Paul says it is not a sign for believers but for unbelievers.

He goes on.
“but prophecy is for a sign, not to unbelievers but to those who believe.”

Let that settle in your mind for a second.

Now look up to verse 21, “In the Law it is written, “BY MEN OF STRANGE TONGUES AND BY THE LIPS OF STRANGERS I WILL SPEAK TO THIS PEOPLE, AND EVEN SO THEY WILL NOT LISTEN TO ME,” says the Lord.”

DO YOU RECOGNIZE THAT VERSE?
Of course you do, it is Isaiah 28:11-12.

And we already established that what God was doing in Isaiah’s day was a form of judgment on Israel.

WHY? Because they would not believe God’s word.

And Paul says the same.
• He is merely expositing Isaiah 28 when he tells you that tongues are a sign for unbelievers.

So what does that mean?
• If you are in a church and the legitimate gift of tongues were to break out
• And someone where to start speaking the words of God in a language you did
not understand,
• Do you know what that means?

It DOES NOT mean you are a spirit-filled congregation.
• It means you are a congregation that would not listen to God’s word in a known
language
• And God is now judging you by giving you His word in a language you can’t
understand.

It would be a sign to that church that
They are filled with people who do not believe God’s word.

OUCH!

In fact, Paul says that tongues ISN’T even evangelistic.
(READ 23-25)

DO YOU SEE THAT?
• True missions…
• True evangelism…
• Is speaking God’s word in a language that the hearer can understand.

If God intervenes and speaks in a language you don’t understand,
That is not God trying to save you, that is God judging you.

That is evidence that you are stubborn
And God has hidden His word from you.

How important is it to listen to God’s word when it is available?

Now…
TURN TO: ACTS 2:1-13

Do you see what was happening?
• It wasn’t gibberish, it was known languages,
• But it wasn’t the language of the Jews.

It was a form of judgment from God upon Israel.
Why?
Because the Word Incarnate had been in their midst
Teaching for 3 years and they would not listen.

THE JUDGMENT NOW IS THAT
God is speaking His word in a language that they do not understand.

DOES THAT MAKE SENSE?

See stubbornness before God is not acceptable.
• Do not be like a DRUNKARD WHO SWAYS on the word of God and spews out his own ideas.
• Do not be a SCOFFER WHO MOCKS God’s word and refuses to listen to it.

God will judge both.
That is stubbornness.

We’re actually going to stop there tonight as well, I know that’s a lot to chew on.
We’ll pick back up with Isaiah’s application to these scoffers next week.

download here

Drunkards, Scoffers, & Tough Nuts – Part 1
Isaiah 28:1-29 (1-8)
October 1, 2023

For the last 4 messages we have been in Isaiah 27 & 28
And we have talked about the unique relationship
Between sin and suffering and sanctification.

We have learned that sin is worse than suffering
And that God often uses suffering to separate us from our sin.

In fact Isaiah even saw
• That there is coming the Great Tribulation
• As that final period of intense suffering on Israel
• Which will effectively get them to repent of their sin and run to Jesus.

We learned that God will do whatever it takes to save His own.

Following that thought we now come to Isaiah 28.

And the train of thought here is obvious.

If God is willing to do whatever it takes
To separate His people from their sin,
Just how much are you going to force Him to do?

We read it last week:
Psalms 32:9 “Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you.”

HOW STUBBORN ARE YOU GOING TO BE?

You’ll see this specific warning from Isaiah down in verse 22.

(22) “And now do not carry on as scoffers, Or your fetters will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts Of decisive destruction on all the earth.”

There again Isaiah reminds that he has seen what God is going to one day
And the advice is “do not carry on as scoffers”.

Don’t force God to make you cry uncle, because He can.

And that is really the thrust of this chapter.
Isaiah is about to confront the stubborn and tell them to yield.

And we can categorize these stubborn people in 3 ways.
Drunkards, Scoffers, and Tough Nuts

• That doesn’t mean we are talking about 3 different groups of people
• Isaiah describes the same people with 3 different analogies.

Perhaps we will learn from Isaiah’s warning to them.

So let’s begin discussing these groups.

#1 DRUNKARDS
Isaiah 28:1-8

As we look at these 8 verses you need to understand what Isaiah is doing here.

He’s actually going to talk about 2 different kinds of drunks here.
• Typical drunkards
• Spiritual or Symbolic drunkards

His objective is to set up his audience by talking about the first
And then lower the boom when he talks about the second.

You’ve actually seen this type of approach before in Scripture.

If you’ve read Romans 1
• You know that there Paul lays out God’s current judgment on what we might call the godless pagan.
• That is the chapter where we read three times the infamous phrase, “God gave them over”
• And Paul talks about idolators and homosexuals and the depraved thinkers.

He talks about those whom we might consider as easy targets.

If you’re in the church at all…
If you read the Bible at all…

It’s obvious that idolatry and homosexuality and depraved thinking
Are contrary to God’s revealed will and are under the judgment of God.

Even today we know these are sins.
And in Romans 1 Paul boldly pronounces judgment on all of them.

But in Romans 2
• Paul makes an almost unexpected shift in his focus.
• He goes from talking about “them” to talking about “you”.

Romans 2:1-6 “Therefore you have no excuse, everyone of you who passes judgment, for in that which you judge another, you condemn yourself; for you who judge practice the same things. And we know that the judgment of God rightly falls upon those who practice such things. But do you suppose this, O man, when you pass judgment on those who practice such things and do the same yourself, that you will escape the judgment of God? Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”

You see how Paul set up his audience
And then hit them right between the eyes.

One can almost imagine
• The “Amens” from his congregation as he spoke of the sinfulness of idolatry
and homosexuality and deprave thinking.
• The congregation would have felt great about themselves as they
condemned those sins.

But in chapter 2 we found out that they WEREN’T PAUL’S ONLY TARGET.
Paul wanted to talk about “all” sinners, not just the obvious ones.

And the reality is that the religious community
Was also full of sinners who “practice the same things”.

They were actually worse than the pagans of chapter 1 because they knew better.
• They knew it was wrong and did it anyway.
• They just assumed they were ok because they covered it with their religious
involvement.

And Paul set out to expose their stubbornness saying:
“But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who WILL RENDER TO EACH PERSON ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS:”

So while everything Paul said in Romans 1 about the godless pagan being judged is certainly true…

You almost get the feeling that Paul’s real focus was on the religious pagan who knew better but stubbornly sinned anyway.

I bring that up because Isaiah is doing the SAME THING here.

• He starts by talking about the literal drunkards of the Northern Kingdom who
everyone in the south knew deserved judgment.

• But then Isaiah will jump to the spiritual drunkards of the Southern Kingdom
to point out that they are in just as much trouble before God.

SO LET’S LOOK AT IT.
LET’S START WITH THOSE OBVIOUS SINNERS;
Those literal drunkards up north.

(1) “Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine!”

Isaiah starts with that familiar “Woe” that he uses so effectively.
OY in the Hebrew, that gut-wrenching cry of one under judgment.

And here his “Woe” is pronounced on “the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim”

WHAT IS THAT?
“And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty,”

AGAIN, WHAT IS THAT?
“Which is at the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with wine!”

Isaiah is NOT pronouncing woe specifically on the drunkards,
But rather he is pronouncing woe
On the place they love and treasure and value.

Isaiah is talking about Samaria,
• The capital city of the Northern Kingdom.
• He speaks of it like a vineyard that is ruined.

It was their glory and their pride and their crown.
It is described as a place loved by drunkards.

We are talking about worldly men who love all the night life
And partying and celebrating of a pagan and immoral city scene.

It was a den of revelry and the people loved it.

Isaiah pronounces woe because God is about to judge it.
(2) “Behold, the Lord has a strong and mighty agent; As a storm of hail, a tempest of destruction, Like a storm of mighty overflowing waters, He has cast it down to the earth with His hand.”

The fall of Samariah is described like a shed in a tornado.
• A violent storm is coming.
• “a storm of hail”
• “a tempest of destruction”
• “a storm of mighty overflowing waters”
• It’s like a tsunami going to come and wipe this city out.

That is symbolic language for the nation of Assyria would actually do
To the capitol of the northern kingdom.

2 Kings 17:21-23 “When He had torn Israel from the house of David, they made Jeroboam the son of Nebat king. Then Jeroboam drove Israel away from following the LORD and made them commit a great sin. The sons of Israel walked in all the sins of Jeroboam which he did; they did not depart from them until the LORD removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through all His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their own land to Assyria until this day.”

AND THE RESULT of God’s judgment through Assyria is seen in verse 3.
(3) “The proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim is trodden under foot.”

It’s spoken of like an abandoned vineyard.
• No one cares about it.
• No one is protecting it.
• It is ruined.

(4) “And the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley, Will be like the first-ripe fig prior to summer, Which one sees, And as soon as it is in his hand, He swallows it.”

“first-ripe” figs were considered delicacies.
If you saw one you grabbed it and ate it.

Samaria would be overthrown, trampled and gobbled up.

So what you have from Isaiah (and remember he is not preaching to the northern kingdom, he is preaching to the southern kingdom)…

What you have from Isaiah is an announcement that
The immoral drunkards of the north, who love their sin
Are about to be judged by God.

AND I HAVE TO TELL YOU, this is NOT a message that would have BOTHERED anyone in the south.

• In fact, it’s the kind of message that might have solicited several shouts of “Amen!” from the congregation.
• “It’s about time those godless drunkards up there got what was coming to them!”

And you see that in verses 5-6
(5-6) “In that day the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown And a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people; A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.”

You see a literal time of worship occurring after God hands out judgment.

But we also see a contrast here.
• In verse 1 Samaria was called “the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim”
• After the judgment of God we see that “the LORD of hosts will become a beautiful crown”

It is the very thing Isaiah has spoken of in the last few chapters.
When God arises to judge sinners He will do away with sin
And He will be the only One glorified.

It’s that same point.

He will be “a glorious diadem to the remnant of His people; A spirit of justice for him who sits in judgment, A strength to those who repel the onslaught at the gate.”

In other words, on the day that God judges sinners and puts an end to their corruption, the righteous remnant are going to love it!

• The righteous remnant are those who have been “sitting in judgment”.
• The righteous remnant are those who have been repelling “the onslaught at the gate”.

That is to say they are the ones
Who have been tirelessly battling against the spread of sin.

• They have been outnumbered…
• They have been bullied…
• They have been persecuted…
• They have been a constant voice of righteousness in a world that loves sin
• And they must have felt overwhelmed by the battle.

But on the day when God arises to put an end to sin
THEY WILL SHOUT WITH JOY AND PRAISE that God has dealt with sin.

• They will glory in Him!
• They will praise Him!
• They will overflow with gratitude and worship!

And none of that is new information.
We’ve talked about it over the last few weeks.

Isaiah 26:1-6 “In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah: “We have a strong city; He sets up walls and ramparts for security. “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, The one that remains faithful. “The steadfast of mind You will keep in perfect peace, Because he trusts in You. “Trust in the LORD forever, For in GOD the LORD, we have an everlasting Rock. “For He has brought low those who dwell on high, the unassailable city; He lays it low, He lays it low to the ground, He casts it to the dust. “The foot will trample it, The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the helpless.”

On the day when God judges sinners
The righteous remnant will rejoice in what God has done.

We’ve seen that and Isaiah reiterates it here.

BUT HERE ISAIAH IS ABOUT TO MAKE A DIFFERENT POINT

• While the congregation in Judah is rejoicing that those drunken sinners are finally getting what they deserve,
• Isaiah is about to do what Paul did in Romans and tell them, “not so fast…”

Look at verses 7-8
(7-8) “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; They reel while having visions, They totter when rendering judgment. For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.”

Isaiah does the same thing Paul did.
• He goes from talking about those who live way up north
• To talking about those who are sitting right in front of him.

He points at the priests…
He points at the prophets…

And he says, “And these also reel with wine and stagger from strong drink: The priest and the prophet reel with strong drink”

You think you’re going to rejoice as God judges the pagan of Samaria? I’m telling you that you do the same things.

And it may have very well been that they were also literal drunkards.
That is not beyond the scope of possibility.

BUT IT SEEMS HERE THAT
More than condemning them as literal drunkards Isaiah is comparing their ministries to a drunk.

• Their preaching is wobbly
• Their counsel is crooked
• Their messages are of no value

“They are confused by wine, they stagger from strong drink; they reel while having visions, they totter when rendering judgment.”

That is to say they have no stability, no backbone, no convictions,
And do not offer any helpful truth.

“stagger” – “reel” – “totter”
Those are NOT flattering words
For one who is called to proclaim the truth of God.

It’s as though Isaiah says, “In your preaching you’re not any steadier than a drunk wobbling down the street. Your convictions aren’t any firmer than someone who is too drunk to stand.”

You sway all over the place.
No one can figure out what the truth is by listening to you.

And if that doesn’t make the point strong enough…
(8) “For all the tables are full of filthy vomit, without a single clean place.”

Here Isaiah compares their preaching;
Their sermons are compared to buckets full of vomit.

AND YOU GET THIS IMAGERY.
• I actually see it in my wife most often.
• Just let her read a Facebook post by a preacher that is obvious heresy
• Or play a Joel Olsteen sermon in the background where she can hear it.
• She’ll stick her finger down her throat as if she’s gagging.

She’s saying the same thing Isaiah is saying.
This is garbage. This is vomit. This won’t help anyone.

AND I WOULD IMAGINE
• As Isaiah turned to the crowd
• And called out the religious leaders of his day
All the amening abruptly stopped.

They may be literal drunkards who deserve judgment,
But you are spiritual drunkards
Who provide no benefit for the people either.

SO WHAT IS ISAIAH ACTUALLY SAYING?

Just like the drunkards of Ephraim who value the wrong thing, so do you.
• You put no value on the glory of God.
• You put no value on the truth of His word.
• The crown you delight in is the wrong crown.

You glory in that which is loved by men.
You glory in the esteem and prestige that men give you.

Because you don’t love the word of God
You are no more benefit to your people
Than the town drunk who sits on the sidewalk
And throws up all over himself.

(That’s a feel-good message huh?)

But does it not give us quite a picture of what God thinks of those who do not value His word?

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 23:9-32

Can you see the disdain God has for those who ignore His word?
• Those who put words in God’s mouth…
• Those who value their own advice as equal to God’s word…

They provide no benefit for His people, in fact, they are a hindrance.

Hosea 4:6 “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being My priest. Since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.”

Jeremiah 10:21 “For the shepherds have become stupid And have not sought the LORD; Therefore they have not prospered, And all their flock is scattered.”

Priests and prophets who ignore God’s word
And substitute it with their own
Do no benefit to God’s people, in fact they hinder them.

WE ARE LEARNING THE IMPORTANCE OF
SEEKING AND YIELDING TO GOD’S WORD AS OUR SOLE AUTHORITY.

TURN TO: 1 TIMOTHY 1
• You are familiar with the book of 1 Timothy.
• Paul wrote it to Timothy to give instruction so that we would know “how one ought to conduct himself in the church”.

It is full of practical wisdom.
• Qualifications and expectations of overseers
• Qualifications and expectations of deacons
• Qualifications and expectations of widows

But what you also find when you read this letter is that
At the heart of it is a reoccurring emphasis
That God’s word must be honored and it must take center stage.

(READ: 1:3-7)

Paul wastes no time getting to the point.
• There teachers there teaching “strange doctrines”
• Paul said their teaching was “fruitless discussion”

Their teaching didn’t produce what God’s word was meant to produce.
• See verse 5, “the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith.”

Teaching God’s word should produce a genuine love for God
With righteous living and true faith.

But their teaching didn’t produce that.

Paul knows that central to fixing the church is fixing their view on God’s Word.

In chapter 2 Paul points out that “women” should not be teaching men.
In chapter 3 he points out that the overseers must be “able to teach”
And the deacons must “hold to the mystery of the faith with a clear conscience”.

In chapter 4 he talks about some of the heresies being taught,
• Namely that men were forbidding certain foods and marriage
• And Paul tells Timothy to point out the flaws in such bad preaching.

And then Paul gives Timothy another pointed encouragement.
(READ: 4:11-16)
• There must be a commitment to preaching truth because this is what ensures salvation for the congregation.
• You’ve got to read it, preach it, apply it, live it, and then do it all again.
• Pay close attention to it and take it seriously.

Paul hits it again in chapter 5:17 when he says that elders are worth double honor if they “work hard at preaching and teaching.”

You can see the importance of this for God’s people.

And then I love how Paul closes the letter.

(READ 6:20-21)
• “guard what has been entrusted to you” – that is very simply the gospel, the word of God.
• “avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called knowledge”

What is that?
• That’s the jargon of this world.
• That’s worldly philosophy.
• That’s pop-psychology.
• That’s scientific theory.
• That’s personal experience.

Those are all things that can saturate preaching and teaching.

Paul says that stuff is worthless.
It is empty, it is false.

Isaiah would say, it’s like vomit all over the table.

• And thus, “some have professed [it] and thus gone astray from the faith.”

I simply want to point out to you this morning that
It is NOT OK with God for men
To neglect or reject or altar or ignore His word.

Isaiah puts such a crime on the same level as a drunk
Who only lives immorally in the world.

He says they both deserve God’s punishment
And they will both receive it.
They put too much value on the wrong things
And not enough value on the right things.

And that is QUESTION NUMBER ONE for us to evaluate in our own lives.

WHAT DO I VALUE?
What is my proud crown?

Do I value the logic and advice and the secular wisdom of this world
Or do I value the word of God?

Furthermore, what do I offer to the word?

Do I offer logic and advice and the secular wisdom of this world
Or do I offer the word of God?

I fear that the American church today does a great job giving lip-service to the authority of Scripture but a really bad job actually obeying it.

But what you see from Isaiah here in chapter 28 is that

He is outlining those who are walking in stubbornness before God
• And he starts his list with those who stubbornly supplant God’s word for their own wisdom.

He throws the preacher in the pulpit
Into the exact same category as the drunk in the gutter.

• Neither are stable…
• Neither are dependable…
• Neither are beneficial…
• Neither value the right thing…

We must hold the conviction in our lives
That we are going to obey and proclaim God’s word
Even if it totally contradicts THE CULTURE.

If the culture says it’s right but God says it’s wrong,
Where are you going to stand?

If the culture says it’s wrong but God says it’s right,
Where are you going to stand?

Will you stand with the apostles in the New Testament who said:
Acts 5:29 “But Peter and the apostles answered, “We must obey God rather than men.”

We must hold to the conviction in our lives
That we are going to obey God’s word
Even if it totally contradicts OUR LOGIC.

If it seems right to you, but God says it’s wrong,
What are you going to do?

If it seems wrong to you, but God says it’s right,
What are you going to do?

Proverbs 14:12 “There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.”

The entire period of the Judges was a chaotic and sinful period because of one basic reality.
Judges 21:25 “In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”

Are you willing to choose God’s word over your own reasoning?
Or will you stubbornly stick to what you think is best?

We must hold to the conviction in our lives
That we are going to obey God’s word
Even if it totally contradicts OUR DESIRES.

What if there is something you want to do but the Bible says not to,
Will you still do it?

What if there is something you don’t want to do but the Bible says you must,
Will you do it?

We are talking about properly valuing God’s word.

Isaiah is pronouncing judgment upon those who don’t.
• They follow their own impulses.
• They follow their own logic.
• They preach their own wisdom.

And before God it is nothing but vomit on the table.

This is where stubbornness begins when we value our own wisdom over God’s.

We must glory in God’s word over our own.

Isaiah 55:8-11 “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. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”

LET’S NOT BE STUBBORN.

For as Isaiah says:
Isaiah 28:22 “And now do not carry on as scoffers, Or your fetters will be made stronger; For I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts Of decisive destruction on all the earth.”

download here

Desiring Heaven – Part 4
Isaiah 26:7 – 27:13 (27:7-13)
September 24, 2023

This morning we started the home stretch of Isaiah’s message
Regarding how to get stubborn people into heaven.

• Isaiah has looked at history.
• Isaiah has looked at his own life.
• Isaiah has come to two conclusions.

1. Sin is worse than suffering
2. Discipline is better than apathy

Because of that he has petitioned God to do what is necessary
To once again bring about revival or salvation in Israel.

We won’t rehash those first 3 points again,
We’ve seen them now several times.

This morning we finally got to the message that Isaiah came to preach.

Those first points were just to prepare Israel for a major time of suffering
That God has promised to bring their way.

God had shown Isaiah what was coming.

#4 ISAIAH’S PROPHECY
Isaiah 26:20 – 27:13

And we broke that prophecy down into 4 points.

1) THE COMING PUNISHMENT (26:20 – 27:1)

In short, Isaiah saw what you and I know as “The Great Tribulation”

It is the time when God unleashes His punishment on the world.
• We know about the seals…
• We know about the trumpets…
• We know about the bowls…

We’ve studied all of those plagues and agents of extreme suffering.
Those are all God’s fury being unleashed upon the earth because of sin.

And specifically the sin mentioned was THE SHEDDING OF BLOOD.

But there is a terrible time of punishment coming,
Even upon the dragon who has deceived the world.

2) THE COMING PRODUCTIVITY (2-6)

Here we learned how this time of punishment
Is specifically meant to affect Israel.

In short, this time of global punishment for sinners
Will be a time of revival for Israel.

God will use this time to make this vineyard fruitful.
• He will use this time to drive Israel to Christ
• And when they begin to abide in Him they will then produce the fruit
• Which God has long demanded.

So, as we have learned, God’s time of extreme discipline
Is meant to have a redemptive purpose.

Let’s move on tonight with the conclusion of Isaiah’s prophetic sermon.

3) THE COMING PURIFICATION (7-11)

These 5 verses serve to answer
Anyone who feels that God is a tad bit extreme
In using something as severe at the tribulation to make Israel productive.

Let’s be honest, we know people.
• When we suffer we love to cry, “That’s not fair”
• Very rarely have we ever suffered and truly thought it was just.
• Most of the time we think God to have been a little too harsh.

And that is the type of mindset that Isaiah is dealing with here.

We already saw that God is using this time to make a once worthless vineyard fruitful.

Now we begin to talk about WHY God used the method that He used.

I really think that passage in Hebrews here walks step and step with the issue Isaiah is addressing.

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 what we’re going to see.

Let’s take a look at THE DEGREE of the discipline which God is going to use.

(7) “Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?”

I know that’s kind of a wordy passage that can leave the reader a little confused, but let’s untangle it.

Isaiah asks a question, and he uses the word “them” twice.

What will help you understand the passage
• Is when you understand that he is talking about two different people.
• “Them” is not the same people both times.

The FIRST “them” is a reference to Israel’s enemies.
• It is a reference to the pagan sinners that God is judging and destroying in the tribulation.
• It is the people who are being attacked by the locusts and afflicted by the demons.
• God has judged “them”

The SECOND “them” is the Jews who are alive and who go through the tribulation.
• And if you’ll remember, just as we read this morning, God is protecting them.
• They are suffering certainly, but God is also protecting them.

Revelation 12:13-17 “And when the dragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male child. But the two wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly into the wilderness to her place, where she was nourished for a time and times and half a time, from the presence of the serpent. And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”

If you’ve studied Revelation 12
• You know that the dragon is Satan and the woman is Israel, from whom came the Messiah.
• Satan sought to destroy Israel, but God supernaturally protected her from his destructive power.

So what we are aware of is that in the tribulation,
While it is horrible for everyone,
God is doing two different things for two different groups.

1. He has those who are NOT His people who are wicked and sinful and God is judging them.
2. And He has those who ARE His people who are being purified through God’s discipline.

And in verse 7 Isaiah is pointing that out.

(7) “Like the striking of Him who has struck them, has He struck them? Or like the slaughter of His slain, have they been slain?”

Let me read it while filling in the blanks.

“Like the striking of Him who has struck [sinners], has He struck [His people]? Or like the slaughter of [sinners], has [Israel] be slain?”

And if we ask it like that, what is the answer? NO

• While God has certainly brought discipline and hardship upon His people…
• While God’s discipline has certainly be severe…
• While it “has not been joyful but sorrowful” for Israel…

We must also acknowledge that it has been far worse for sinners.

God disciplined us, but He slew them.
God punished us, but He destroyed them.

And there we are forced to recognize that even in our suffering,
Though it may seem severe to us,
It is not nearly as severe as what God will do to sinners.

We call it PERSPECTIVE.

Job had it in gobs.
Job 2:9-10 “Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God and not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.”

That is good perspective.

James called for us to have it.
Not only tell us to count it pure joy, but also:
James 5:7-11 “Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it, until it gets the early and late rains. You too be patient; strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. Do not complain, brethren, against one another, so that you yourselves may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door. As an example, brethren, of suffering and patience, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.”

But again, the writer of Hebrews wanted us to see it too.
Hebrews 12:3-4 “For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You have not yet resisted to the point of shedding blood in your striving against sin;”

I know that often times when we suffer
It is the worst thing that every happened to anyone in the history of the world. (That’s how I see it)

But we do ourselves a favor
When we view all things through the lens of God’s sovereign providence
And when we consider what He is actually doing.

Most of you have probably heard the Q&A with R.C. Sproul by now where the man asked him why God was so severe in punishing Adam for eating the forbidden fruit.

Sproul responded by saying, “This creature raised up from the dirt defied the everlasting Holy God. After that God had said, “The day you shall eat of it, you shall surely die.” And instead of dying that day, he lived another day and was clothed in his nakedness by pure grace. And had the consequences applied for quite some time, but the worst curse would come upon the one who seduced him, whose head would be crushed by the seed of the woman. And the punishment was too severe? What’s wrong with you people?”

Sproul was calling for some perspective.
• Men think Adam got a bad wrap or his sin.
• In reality Adam was treated far better than he deserved.
• As are we all.

And Isaiah is calling for that type of perspective.

Why would God put His people through such a great tribulation?
Why would God allow His people to suffer at the hands of Anti-Christ?
Why would God suscept them to cosmic horrors and global trials?

AND THE ANSWER IS because He loved them and would not let them go.
• He chose them.
• They were His.
• And He will have the reward of His suffering.
• And even if He has to put His children through the ringer to bring them home, then He will do it.

And that may sound severe, but it is not nearly as severe as what God does for the unredeemed.
• Them He just kills.
• Then He judges them.
• Then He casts them into the lake of fire where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched.

So we have a little perspective in our suffering.
We consider the degree of it and realize that
It could always be worse…much worse.

Isaiah wants his people to grasp that.

He also wants his people to give some thought to THE DESCRIPTION of this coming discipline.

(8) “You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away. With His fierce wind He has expelled them on the day of the east wind.”

Isaiah says this is what God did to His people.
“You contended with them by banishing them, by driving them away.”

In reality God did this MORE THAN ONCE.
• He did it to the northern kingdom of Israel in Isaiah’s day.
• In Jeremiah’s day He did it to the southern kingdom of Judah.

But neither of those is what is referred to here.

Isaiah is talking about the banishment before the tribulation
And this banishment occurred during the apostle’s day.

Paul laid it out very clearly.

Romans 11:7-12 “What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened; just as it is written, “GOD GAVE THEM A SPIRIT OF STUPOR, EYES TO SEE NOT AND EARS TO HEAR NOT, DOWN TO THIS VERY DAY.” And David says, “LET THEIR TABLE BECOME A SNARE AND A TRAP, AND A STUMBLING BLOCK AND A RETRIBUTION TO THEM. “LET THEIR EYES BE DARKENED TO SEE NOT, AND BEND THEIR BACKS FOREVER.” I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!”

We commonly say it like this: Israel was broken off and the Gentiles were grafted in.

• You see that throughout the book of Acts.
• Jew after Jew rejecting the gospel and Gentile after Gentile being saved.

That was a divine judgment of God.
Tongues was actually a sign of that judgment as you will see here in a few weeks in Isaiah.

God broke Israel off.
God sent Israel away.
He put them in spiritual captivity.

Isaiah 50:1-3 “Thus says the LORD, “Where is the certificate of divorce By which I have sent your mother away? Or to whom of My creditors did I sell you? Behold, you were sold for your iniquities, And for your transgressions your mother was sent away. “Why was there no man when I came? When I called, why was there none to answer? Is My hand so short that it cannot ransom? Or have I no power to deliver? Behold, I dry up the sea with My rebuke, I make the rivers a wilderness; Their fish stink for lack of water And die of thirst. “I clothe the heavens with blackness And make sackcloth their covering.”

But while He DID send them away, He DID NOT destroy them.
Israel has remained a nation to this day.

How peculiar is that?
• Where is Edom today?
• Where is Philistia today?
• Where is Moab today?
• Where is Ammon?
• But Israel remains.

They are currently cut off from the gospel and the blessings of God,
But they have not been destroyed.

They are prodigals, but God has also promised to bring them back.

Romans 11:25-32 “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. For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience, so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy. For God has shut up all in disobedience so that He may show mercy to all.”

And this is also ISAIAH’S POINT.

Before cry foul to how God has disciplined Israel
You first need to recognize that God has not treated you like sinners.

• God has disciplined you but He has not destroyed you.
• God has exiled you, but He has not eliminated you.
• The wicked He destroyed, but you He has disciplined.

Think about what God did and how it could have been so much worse.

Isaiah would also have them consider THE DESIGN of God’s discipline.

(9) “Therefore through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven; And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones; When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.”

So we find out in verse 8 that God “expelled them”

And then in verse 9 Isaiah says, “through this Jacob’s iniquity will be forgiven”

In other words, this exile of God; this discipline of God
Is done because that is what it takes to lead Israel to repentance.

What if you had a 2 year old that was bound and determined to jump into a swimming pool?

How severe would you be in your discipline to keep that from happening?
• Would you spank them?
• Would you scold them?
• Would you send them away from the pool?

SURE, WITHOUT HESITATION.

The point is that you’d do whatever it takes
Because THE OBJECTIVE is not to make them comfortable or like you. THE OBJECTIVE is to keep them from dying.

WELL ISRAEL WAS STEEPED IN IDOLATRY
And Isaiah already taught us the problem with idols.

They can’t save anyone.
Isaiah 26:13-14 “O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we confess Your name. The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.”

People who die trusting in idols don’t experience a resurrection to life.
False gods can’t save.

So in order for Israel to go to heaven
God is going to have to break their idolatrous tendencies.

How does He do that?
Through exile.

Incidentally, He already did that once.
• When God sent Judah into Babylon they went in polytheistic.
• They had tons of idols and high places everywhere.

But when they came out of Babylon, though they still had flaws,
They were at least monotheistic.

By the time we come to the New Testament, Israel has many problems
But worshiping false gods isn’t one of them.

God used exile to cure them of their idolatry.

The problem of the New Testament
Is a failure to worship the right God (Jesus).
For that God has exiled them again
That He might break that false worship again.

There is a phrase in verse 9 that needs a little translation help.

Isaiah says, “And this will be the full price of the pardoning of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones;”

That is a confusing statement.

IT MAKES IT SOUND LIKE in order to be forgiven of their idolatry then Israel needs to grind up their idols.

The problem with that is it runs contrary to the gospel.
• For we know that forgiveness only comes through Christ.
• Only Christ pays the full price for the pardoning of sin.
• Only Christ can say, “It is finished!” (paid in full)

So what is Isaiah saying?
A more literal translation of verse 9 would be, “And this will be all the fruit of the removing of his sin: When he makes all the altar stones like pulverized chalk stones; When Asherim and incense altars will not stand.”

There we understand that the crushing of his idols
Was not the means of the atonement of his sin,
But rather it is the fruit of the removal of his sin.

How will you know when Israel has experienced salvation?
How will you know when their sin has been atoned for?
How will you know when they have been forgiven?

It will be evident in the fact that they will crush all their idols
And abandon all their false gods and run to Jesus.

And here we see again
The intended purpose of God’s discipline in the tribulation.

WE READ IT THIS MORNING, how all of what God does to them culminates in them looking upon Him whom they pierced.

• This is why you have 144,000 Jewish evangelists running around the world.
• This is why you have 2 witnesses doing the same things Moses and Elijah did.

God is disciplining His people,
But He is at the same time calling them
To leave their idols and run to Jesus.

And the tribulation will finally be effective at that.
God designed it to pull them out of idolatry and it will work.

Remember how Isaiah gave this testimony in his own life:
Isaiah 26:9 “At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”

This again is WHY God’s discipline is SO SEVERE.
• As I also told you this morning, it had to be severe.
• If even the holocaust could not make Israel run to Christ,
• Then the tribulation must be something really intense.

It is not designed to destroy Israel.
It is designed to save them.

But if that is still not enough to convince you
• That God is more than just and more than fair
• And even gracious in His work on Israel through the tribulation

Well let Isaiah lend you one more piece of perspective.

Isaiah would talk to you about IT’S DESERVEDNESS.

(10-11) “For the fortified city is isolated, A homestead forlorn and forsaken like the desert; There the calf will graze, And there it will lie down and feed on its branches. When its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and make a fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment, Therefore their Maker will not have compassion on them. And their Creator will not be gracious to them.”

Here Isaiah begins to talk about the Israel of his day.
“the fortified city is isolated”
• He sees it as a barren wilderness.
• Has not Assyria caused this?

And the reason is because “its limbs are dry, they are broken off; Women come and make fire with them, For they are not a people of discernment,”

AND THERE IS THE KEY.
God is bringing all this upon them because – THEY DON’T GET IT.
“they are not a people of discernment”

Paul said:
2 Corinthians 3:12-16 “Therefore having such a hope, we use great boldness in our speech, and are not like Moses, who used to put a veil over his face so that the sons of Israel would not look intently at the end of what was fading away. But their minds were hardened; for until this very day at the reading of the old covenant the same veil remains unlifted, because it is removed in Christ. But to this day whenever Moses is read, a veil lies over their heart; but whenever a person turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.”

They don’t get it.

Isaiah already said, and it was reiterated over and over by Jesus and the apostles.
Isaiah 6:9-10 “He said, “Go, and tell this people: ‘Keep on listening, but do not perceive; Keep on looking, but do not understand.’ “Render the hearts of this people insensitive, Their ears dull, And their eyes dim, Otherwise they might see with their eyes, Hear with their ears, Understand with their hearts, And return and be healed.”

They aren’t a people who “get it” very easily.
• They are slow to learn.
• They don’t see.
• They don’t hear.
• They don’t discern.

Luke 19:41-44 “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it, saying, “If you had known in this day, even you, the things which make for peace! But now they have been hidden from your eyes. “For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you, and they will not leave in you one stone upon another, because you did not recognize the time of your visitation.”

And like dry limbs they had to be broken off.

IT IS TRUE THAT
• God is bringing and intense time of tribulation upon Israel.
• There won’t be anything fun about it.

But God is doing it because a people so stubborn
Won’t listen to anything less.

BUT WE LEARN:
1. His purifying work is not as severe as what He is doing to sinners.
2. He is only exiling them, but He is destroying sinners.
3. His work is merely meant to purify them, not destroy them.
4. And it has to be this hard otherwise Israel will never learn.

That’s a great perspective on suffering isn’t it.

We learn and are reminded here that
There is nothing noble about being stubborn or hard-headed.

Psalms 32:8-11 “I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.”

It’s just not wise to make God force you to repent.
BELIEVE ME HE CAN.

And it is a good thing that He will otherwise we would perish completely.

And so you see it again.
1. Sin is worse than suffering
2. Discipline is better than apathy

Well there is one more leg here in Isaiah’s prophetic sermon
The Coming Punishment
The Coming Productivity
The Coming Purification

4) THE COMING PILGRIMAGE (12-13)

(12-13) “In that day the LORD will start His threshing from the flowing stream of the Euphrates to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered up one by one, O sons of Israel. It will come about also in that day that a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were perishing in the land of Assyria and who were scattered in the land of Egypt will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”

Do you see the end promise?
• After the discipline…
• After the scattering…
• After the purification…
I’M BRINGING YOU HOME!

• God says, “you will be gathered up one by one”
• God says, “a great trumpet will be blown”
• Those perishing and those scattered “will come and worship the LORD in the holy mountain at Jerusalem.”

The end result of this peril is that God will have saved His people.
They will be brought Home.

And one can only imagine that on that day…
• When they enter a city where pain and death and tears are gone…
• When they enter a city where reproach is no more…
• When they have been purified and now enter a city where sin does not dwell…

That on that day they will fall on their face and thank God
That He did whatever it took to bring them home.

• He would not stop.
• He would not relent.
• He did whatever was necessary to save His children.

AND CHURCH, SOME DAY YOU WILL TOO.

I’ve told people often times in their suffering.
We don’t understand it now, but I promise you one day
When we go to be with Him we will see that it has all been perfect.

Very few people get their “Aha!” moment in this life.
• (Joseph was shown)
• Most go through this life thinking their suffering to be extreme and unfair.

But let me remind you one more verse the writer of Hebrews spoke regarding our suffering.

Hebrews 12:14 “Pursue peace with all men, and the sanctification without which no one will see the Lord.”

What did the writer of Hebrews say would happen if you never get sanctified?
– You’ll never see the Lord.

Do you remember the story of Jesus washing the disciples’ feet?
That is a picture of sanctification.

What did Jesus say to Peter when Peter refused to be washed?
John 13:8 “Peter said to Him, “Never shall You wash my feet!” Jesus answered him, “If I do not wash you, you have no part with Me.”

Do you remember the work which Christ has promised to do on your behalf?
Ephesians 5:25-27 “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless.”

Because Christ loves His bride He has committed to
Removing every spot and wrinkle and every such thing.

Because if you aren’t “holy and blameless” you don’t get to see Him.

And while His washing practices may at times feel
Like He’s running through a carwash on top of the vehicle
Just know there is coming a day
When it will all make sense and it will all be worth it.

And that day is the day you see Him.

ON THE DAY
• You escape the lake of fire
• And walk through the gates of the city where only righteousness dwells
• You will be so thankful that God stopped at nothing to separate you from your sin.

You will say with Isaiah.
Indeed! Sin is worse than suffering and discipline is better than apathy.

We praise God that He is willing to do for us
What we often times are unwilling to do for ourselves.

download here

Desiring Heaven – Part 3
Isaiah 26:7 – 27:13 (26:20-27:6)
September 24, 2023

If you weren’t with us last week for the first two legs of this sermon,
The recap is pretty simple.

In chapter 24 Isaiah saw that God was going to judge the earth because of the sin that is upon it.

In chapter 25 Isaiah saw the heaven that is awaiting those whom God has redeemed.

And of all the great realities Isaiah recognized about heaven
There is one reality that rose quickly to the top
And that is that it is ONLY FOR THE RIGHTEOUS.

Isaiah 26:2 “Open the gates, that the righteous nation may enter, The one that remains faithful.”

And this reality brought Isaiah to a great dilemma.

• Certainly Isaiah desires heaven for all those God has called him to.
• We even saw him grieving over the prospect of sinners in judgment.
• But Isaiah dwells among a sinful and idolatrous people.
• The only means of righteousness for them is if they will repent of their sin and seek God.
• We know that only Jesus Christ can provide the righteousness which is necessary for salvation.
• But the people of Isaiah’s day aren’t interested in seeking God.

So what is the plan for taking the obstinate sinners of Isaiah’s day and causing them to start seeking God that they might receive the righteousness which is necessary for entrance into heaven?

And the answer is: DISCIPLINE

God’s discipline is the means
Through which He will draw His people back to Himself.

And that is what Isaiah 26:6 – 27:13 is all about.

As we have talked about this text over the last 2 sermons
I GAVE YOU TWO STATEMENTS TO PONDER.

I told you that they are convictions that Isaiah clearly holds.
I’ll give them to you again this morning.

1) Sin is worse than suffering.
2) Discipline is better than apathy.

What we have seen over the first 3 points of this sermon is that
Isaiah has endeavored to change our perspective on sin and suffering.

We’ve seen the first 3 points.
#1 ISAIAH’S PETITION
Isaiah 26:7-11

• Isaiah recognized that the path of the righteous ends smooth.
• It may not be easy today, but it definitely ends well.

And so Isaiah boldly asked the LORD
To do whatever it takes to put His people on that path.
And most notably Isaiah spoke of suffering.

He could see the benefit in his own life.

(9) “At night my soul longs for You, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks You diligently; For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.”

Isaiah had become keenly aware that
His intense desire to seek and know God
Was the direct result of having walked through God’s judgments.

We can only wonder
• What Isaiah’s life might have been like if he had never entered the temple,
• Been confronted with the holiness of God,
• And become terrified at the reality of his own condemnation.

It was a terrifying scene in his life, but how valuable it turned out to be.

And now Isaiah is asking for nothing less than that for his people.

#2 ISAIAH’S PERCEPTION
Isaiah 26:12-16

Here Isaiah took us on a walk through history
Were he reminded us that all the greatness which Israel has achieved:
• Becoming a people
• Possessing the land
• Increasing the borders

All of that is merely because God has done it.
(15) “You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.”

In fact Isaiah reminded (13) “through You alone we confess Your name”.

The only reason they were a people
Who trusted God and lived in the land with enlarged borders
Is because God accomplished it for them and through them.

AND HOW DID GOD TO THAT?

THROUGH DISCIPLINE.
(Even extreme discipline)

(16) “O LORD, they sought You in distress; They could only whisper a prayer, Your chastening was upon them.”

When we discuss Isaiah’s perception we see what Isaiah recognized.

He saw that the greatest advances in Israel’s history,
And the greatest revivals they experienced
Were typically during times of their greatest discipline.

ONE OFTEN CAME WITH THE OTHER.
That is perceptive.

#3 ISAIAH’S PERSPECTIVE
Isaiah 26:17-19

Having recognized that God often brings revival out of times of suffering Isaiah now lifts up Israel’s current dilemma.

He compared them to a woman in labor
Who had not enjoyed the joy of childbirth.

Isaiah said that “We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind.”
• In other words, we have are still in the middle of our trial.
• We have yet to see anything good come out of it.

But that is where faith comes in.
Isaiah believes that God will use this time of distress
Just as He has used every other time of distress.

(19) “Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”

We ran out of time before we could fully discuss this last week,
But if you’ll notice Isaiah has just MADE A COMPARISON.

Back up in verse 13 Isaiah confessed that Israel served other masters.
“O LORD, our God, other masters besides You have ruled us…”

• And Isaiah recognized that the END RESULT of serving them was only death with NO HOPE.
• (14) “The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise;”

But now Isaiah speaks of serving God.
And even though the present seems bleak, when you serve God
It does not end in death, it ends in resurrection.

(19) “Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise.”

You see the comparison and the contrast.

THE POINT Isaiah is making is that when God brings discipline
It is not for the purpose of destruction it is for SALVATION.

Consider Job for a moment.
TURN TO: JOB 19

(READ 1-22)
• Without even seeking to really exposit what Job says there
• It is clear that Job is suffering greatly under the hand of God.
• Sometimes God’s discipline can feel just that severe.

But with God’s discipline there is always hope.
(READ 23-29)

You see the same mindset here in Isaiah.
• We may be suffering at the hand of God today,
• But it is only that God may save us tomorrow
• For God uses suffering for the salvation of His people.

And these are the points Isaiah has been driving home to us.

SIN IS WORSE THAN SUFFERING.
• I mean Jesus told you to cut of your hand or gouge out your eye.
• Sin sends you to hell, but God often uses suffering to save you from hell.

Isaiah shifted our focus.
Every one of us, if given the choice between sin or suffering
Should choose suffering every single time.

Isaiah was working to shift our doctrine of sin.

DISCIPLINE IS BETTER THAN APATHY
• It is far better to have a heavenly Father who will discipline us in our sin than one who will turn a blind eye to it.
• A father who withholds discipline from his son does not love his son and does not care how he turns out in life.
• God loves us and He disciplines us so that we may share in His holiness.

That is the point Isaiah has been driving home to us.
He shifted our doctrine on suffering.

But all of that was MERELY THE INTRODUCTION to Isaiah’s sermon.

Why has he been so adamant to make sure we see that sin is worse than suffering?

Why has he been so adamant to make sure we see that discipline is better than apathy?

Well, it’s because Isaiah has seen what is coming.
God has shown Isaiah what He is about to do
And Isaiah wants his people to be ready for it.

1. He wants them to view it rightly.
2. He wants them to understand God’s purpose.
3. He wants them to respond correctly.

What did Isaiah see?
Isaiah saw the discipline that God has in store for His people
In order to cleanse them from sin and draw them back to Himself.

#4 ISAIAH’S PROPHECY
Isaiah 26:20 – 27:13

Obviously this is now a longer segment than the previous 3
So we’re going to break this prophecy down a little further to make it easier to handle.

We can divide this prophecy up into 4 points.

1) THE COMING PUNISHMENT (20-1)

Isaiah reveals a coming day and it is NOT initially a vision of COMFORT.

(20) “Come, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you; hide for a little while until indignation runs its course.”

Isaiah tells his people that there is a day coming
In which they are going to want to run and hide.

Incidentally, as Jesus spoke of this coming day His advice was very similar.
Matthew 24:15-22 “Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.”

What both of them revealed to us is that
There is coming a day on the earth of such great tribulation
That the only real response is to run and hide.

WHAT IS GOING ON?

(21) “For behold, the LORD is about to come out from His place To punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; And the earth will reveal her bloodshed And will no longer cover her slain.”

In short, there is coming a day when the patience of God will end.
There is coming a day when the age of mercy & grace will come to a close.

God will no longer restrain His fury,
But will rise up from His place
And descend upon this earth in furious wrath.

Now that’s NOT NEW information.
Isaiah already told us:

Isaiah 24:1-3 “Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. The earth will be completely laid waste and completely despoiled, for the LORD has spoken this word.”

• Isaiah went on to tell that mankind had polluted the earth with their sin and God was going to judge it.

Here Isaiah spells out specifically what that pollution is.
“the earth will reveal her bloodshed and will no longer cover her slain.”

When Cain murdered Abel God said:
Genesis 4:9-10 “Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” And he said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to Me from the ground.”

When Noah exited the ark God told him:
Genesis 9:5-6 “Surely I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man’s brother I will require the life of man. “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed, For in the image of God He made man.”

Numbers 35:33 “So you shall not pollute the land in which you are; for blood pollutes the land and no expiation can be made for the land for the blood that is shed on it, except by the blood of him who shed it.”

Psalm 106:37-38 “They even sacrificed their sons and their daughters to the demons, And shed innocent blood, The blood of their sons and their daughters, Whom they sacrificed to the idols of Canaan; And the land was polluted with the blood.”

There was even a special ritual God commanded in Israel.
If you were walking out in the country and found a dead body
And there was no explanation for how the person died.

Deuteronomy 21:1-9 “If a slain person is found lying in the open country in the land which the LORD your God gives you to possess, and it is not known who has struck him, then your elders and your judges shall go out and measure the distance to the cities which are around the slain one. “It shall be that the city which is nearest to the slain man, that is, the elders of that city, shall take a heifer of the herd, which has not been worked and which has not pulled in a yoke; and the elders of that city shall bring the heifer down to a valley with running water, which has not been plowed or sown, and shall break the heifer’s neck there in the valley. “Then the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near, for the LORD your God has chosen them to serve Him and to bless in the name of the LORD; and every dispute and every assault shall be settled by them. “All the elders of that city which is nearest to the slain man shall wash their hands over the heifer whose neck was broken in the valley; and they shall answer and say, ‘Our hands did not shed this blood, nor did our eyes see it. ‘Forgive Your people Israel whom You have redeemed, O LORD, and do not place the guilt of innocent blood in the midst of Your people Israel.’ And the bloodguiltiness shall be forgiven them. “So you shall remove the guilt of innocent blood from your midst, when you do what is right in the eyes of the LORD.”

I just read those to you to point out to you that
The shedding of innocent blood is a big deal to God.

And there is coming a day when God will force the earth
To give an account for all the innocent blood that has been shed.

Revelation 18:21-24 “Then a strong angel took up a stone like a great millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “So will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down with violence, and will not be found any longer. “And the sound of harpists and musicians and flute-players and trumpeters will not be heard in you any longer; and no craftsman of any craft will be found in you any longer; and the sound of a mill will not be heard in you any longer; and the light of a lamp will not shine in you any longer; and the voice of the bridegroom and bride will not be heard in you any longer; for your merchants were the great men of the earth, because all the nations were deceived by your sorcery. “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

THERE IS A COMING PUNISHMENT ON SINNERS.
You and I know this time as: THE GREAT TRIBULATION

And we certainly don’t have time to go through all the realities of that day, but a brief description will help.

There is coming upon this earth a 7 year tribulation period.
(Read Revelation and Daniel)

The last 3 ½ years of that period is known as “The Great Tribulation”
It comes following the rise of a man known as Anti-Christ.

Anti-Christ is also called “the man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians.
• He is a Satan empowered evil man
• Whose one objective will be to destroy God’s people
• And keep the Lord from ever reigning upon the earth.
• You’ve read all about his “mark of the beast”
• And the way he beheads those who hold to their faith in Jesus.

But the reality is that despite his wickedness, it is God who lets him loose
It is God who allows him to come to power and terrorize the earth.

WHY?
As a punishment for sin.

And you are familiar with the Revelation.
You’ve seen all the SEALS being opened
• False peace, world war, famine, plague, death, rage.

You’ve seen the TRUMPETS blowing
1/3 of the earth burned, 1/3 of the water turned to blood, 1/3 of fresh water turned bitter, 1/3 of the sun darkened, Locusts and demonic armies

You’ve seen the BOWLS poured out
Malignant sores, the sea dies, all water turned to blood, the sun scorching men, intense pain, the battle Armageddon, the Second Coming

God has a day in which He will pour out His wrath on sinners
Who have polluted the earth by shedding innocent blood.

IT IS PUNISHMENT ON SINNERS.

But it is NOT ONLY sinners which God will judge.
(1) “In that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

I don’t think it’s necessary to get mythological here.
• I don’t think it’s necessary to even see Isaiah’s reference to some sort of imagery of his day.
• The Bible started talking about a serpent in the 3rd chapter of Genesis
• And the serpent or dragon has always been about the same one: SATAN.

God will not only judge sinners he will judge the author of their sin.
This is what we call a total house cleaning.

Even the reference to the dragon living “in the sea” is not hard to understand.
Revelation 13:1-2 “And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten diadems, and on his heads were blasphemous names. And the beast which I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne and great authority.”

1. God is going to put an end to sin.
2. God is going to put an end to sinners.
3. God is going to put an end to their father, the dragon and serpent of old.

It is a coming day of peril and judgment.
And Isaiah sees that God will bring it upon the whole earth.

There is a coming punishment.
But let’s discuss Why.

2) THE COMING PRODUCTIVITY (2-6)

Isaiah now begins to reveal
What the effect of that day will be on God’s people.

And if you’re familiar with Isaiah so far THIS IS REMARKABLE.
(2) “In that day, “A vineyard of wine, sing of it!”

What in the world is he talking about?
Do you remember the song of the vineyard?

TURN TO: ISAIAH 5:1-7

• Do you remember that song about this vineyard that God had done everything
possible for but it still produced bad grapes?
• You remember how He plowed it and planted it and protected it, but it just
wouldn’t produce.
• And you remember what the fruit He wanted was:

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.”

So there was a song of a vineyard but it was a sad song.

But as a result of this horrible day of punishment on the earth,
Isaiah says THAT SONG WILL CHANGE.

“In that day, “A vineyard of wine, sing of it!”

FINALLY!
• Finally that vineyard starts producing!
• Finally that vineyard starts yielding grapes!
• Finally that vineyard produces righteousness and justice!

And God isn’t abandoning it anymore, now God is taking care of it.

(3-4a) “I, the LORD, am its keeper; I water it every moment. So that no one will damage it, I guard it night and day. I have no wrath.”

• He’s no longer angry at the vineyard.
• He’s no longer laying it waste.
• He is now protecting it.

IN FACT, even when someone offers him a barrier to put around His vineyard He doesn’t want it.

(4-5) “Should someone give Me briars and thorns in battle, Then I would step on them, I would burn them completely. “Or let him rely on My protection, Let him make peace with Me, Let him make peace with Me.”

Those “briars and thorns” are a type of fence that you built around your vineyard to keep out thieves and foxes and other things that would destroy it.

But God says, No, I don’t want it!
• Just let men “rely on My protection”
• Just let Israel “make peace with Me”

I’m not leaving them, I will protect them.

This vineyard is FINALLY the vineyard that I’ve always wanted.
(6) “In the days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will blossom and sprout, And they will fill the whole world with fruit.”

So all of a sudden, this once worthless vineyard
Has suddenly started producing fruit.

WHAT HAPPENED?

Stay within your GOSPEL PERSPECTIVE and it’s easy to see.

When we got to the New Testament Israel was still that worthless vine Isaiah spoke of.

But we heard a promise.
John 15:1-5 “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. “I am the vine, you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

Jesus told us that He was “the true vine”
• He was everything God ever wanted Israel to be.
• And we were told that the only way to produce the fruit God desired was to be
“in Him”.

So what has occurred now in Isaiah’s vision is that Israel,
This once worthless vineyard has obviously been driven to Christ.

He’s the only way to produce fruit.
They have run to Jesus.

And we see now that the purpose of that great day of punishment
• Was NOT ONLY to destroy sinners,
• But that IT IS ALSO a day of severe punishment on Israel to force them to run to Jesus.

This is the best way for you to understand the tribulation.

I know there are a lot of views regarding the tribulation and the timing of the rapture and all of that stuff.

But if you study what the Old Testament has to say about it,
it’s really not all that confusing.

The tribulation is a period of God’s punishment toward His people Israel.
It is a period in which God will discipline them severely
So as to bring them to repentance.

Daniel spoke of it as Jacob’s 70th week.

Daniel 9:24-27 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place. “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. “And he will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

Daniel was shown that God had allowed 70 – 7’s for His people.

And the purpose of this period was to accomplish 6 realities.
• “to finish transgression”
• “to make an end of sin”
• “to make atonement for iniquity”
• “to bring in everlasting righteousness”
• “to seal up vision and prophecy”
• “to anoint the most holy place”

Those are God’s purposes in these 70 – 7’s

Daniel said there would be “seven weeks and sixty-two weeks”
• He was referencing the rebuilding of the temple after the exile
• And then he said, “after sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off”

If you want to see the math go find the sermon from that text on our website,
But Daniel predicted to the day when Jesus would be rejected by His people.

Those were the first 69 – 7’s

There is one “7” left and that is the coming tribulation.
God will use it to punish the earth and purify His people.

Jeremiah saw the same thing.

TURN TO: JEREMIAH 30:1-11

Jeremiah called it the time of “Jacob’s distress”

SO HERE’S SIMPLY MY POINT.
• There is coming a day in which God will judge sinners.
• On that day He will also bring severe discipline upon His people Israel.
• The purpose of that day is not to destroy His people, but to save them.
• It will be a day of terrible judgment and hardship.
• It will be a day in which Satan himself will seek to destroy them.

Jesus said if that period lasted any longer than no one would survive it.
It will be a terrible and painful day.

The purpose of that day is not only to destroy sinners
But also to save (through suffering) his people Israel.

TURN TO: ZECHARIAH 12:1-14

All of that is what Isaiah is talking about.

The reason Isaiah was so adamant to convince his people
1. That sin is worse than suffering
2. And discipline is better than apathy

Is because he saw the day coming when God would break out in fury.

It was important to him to alert Israel
Not to take lightly the discipline of the LORD
Nor to faint when they were reproved by Him.

He wanted them to UNDERSTAND that the terrible coming day
IS A DAY MEANT FOR THEIR SALVATION.

IS IT A TERRIBLE DAY?
ABSOLUTELY

WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO TERRIBLE?
THAT IS WHAT IT WILL TAKE

If I might give you just a brief amount of perspective here.
Israel didn’t even turn to Christ during the Holocaust.

As bad as that was, they still reject Jesus.

This day that is coming will be bad.
It apparently has to be.

• God is going to the full extent to break His people so that they will finally look on the One they pierced and mourn for Him as an only Son.

• God is going to break them so that they will run to Jesus and abide in Him and begin to produce the fruit that God intended all along.

No one is saying that discipline is a cake walk.
No one is saying that suffering is fun.
But clearly: Isaiah’s conviction is also God’s conviction.

God would rather put you in suffering than leave you in sin
God would rather discipline you severely than leave you in unbelief
AND PRAISE GOD FOR THAT!

He is working to produce fruit in you.
If you don’t produce fruit you are cut away and burned.

God is working to make you fruitful.

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.”

As for Israel that discipline must be extremely severe because they are extremely stubborn.

• I don’t want to jump too far ahead
• But in Isaiah 28 he’s actually going to tell them not to be such a tough nut to crack.
• He’s actually going to tell them, don’t make God beat you so hard before you come around…because He will.

We’re going to stop here this morning and we’ll finish up this text tonight.

But now you are aware that those two statements I gave you
Are not just Isaiah’s convictions, they are God’s convictions.

And I would encourage you
• Not only to change your view on sin (worse than suffering)
• Not only to change your view on suffering (a necessary tool)
• But also to stop and praise God that He will do whatever it takes to save
His people.

GOD WILL LOSE NONE OF THOSE HE HAS CHOSEN TO SAVE.

download here

Desiring Heaven – Part 2
Isaiah 26:7 – 27:13 (26:12-19)
September 17, 2023

We want to pick back up tonight with the text we began this morning.
It is the conclusion to Isaiah’s heavenly vision.

1. He has completely understood that heaven awaits God’s people.
2. It is a glorious place with no death or tears or sorrow or reproach.
3. He also knows that no unrighteous will enter that place.

And the burden of Isaiah’s heart is how to get
The unrighteous Israelites he lives with into a place like that.

How will God transform the unrighteous to fit them for heaven?
And as we introduced this morning, the answer is through DISCIPLINE.

I gave you two statements to ponder this morning:
1) Sin is worse than suffering
2) Discipline is better than apathy

And we saw how the message of Scripture bears this out.
• Jesus said it would be better for you to cut off a hand or gouge out an eye than
to go to hell.

Isaiah believes that,
And it is the driving force behind the final leg of this message.

We saw the first point this morning:
#1 ISAIAH’S PETITION
Isaiah 26:7-11

Here we saw Isaiah
• Recognizing that the path of the righteous ends better than the path of the wicked
• And asking God to produce that righteousness in His people.

“O Upright One, make the path of the righteous level”

• And we even saw Isaiah recognizing that God often does this through judgment.

(9b-10) “For when the earth experiences Your judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness. Though the wicked is shown favor, He does not learn righteousness; He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness, And does not perceive the majesty of the LORD.”

When God brings discipline the fruit is righteousness.
When God shows only favor and no discipline
Righteousness is very rarely the result.

It was just a fact of life and so Isaiah is petitioning for God
To do what is necessary to bring righteousness to His people.

We ended this morning contemplating this truth.

We challenged our doctrine of sin (our hamartiology)
• Do we see sin as that bad?
• Do we see sin as something that must be eradicated at all cost?
• Do we see suffering as a better condition than sin?

If sin isn’t allowed in heaven,
Just how much of it can we tolerate in our lives?
You’re getting the idea.

Well tonight we continue on in Isaiah’s closing message.

Isaiah’s Petition
#2 ISAIAH’S PERCEPTION
Isaiah 26:12-16

Isaiah is still building on his belief that suffering can be a good thing,
Especially if it produces the righteousness that God blesses.

And here Isaiah turns to A HISTORY LESSON.
• Isaiah is recounting what God has done in the past for Israel.

What you’ll eventually see from Isaiah is that
He wants God to do it again.

Let’s look at verse 12, “LORD, You will establish peace for us,”

Now this is Isaiah’s confidence going forward.
That God will produce peace for Israel.

And please understand when Isaiah speaks of peace
He is NOT focused on national peace or peace with other nations.

He is talking about PEACE WITH GOD.
The kind of peace that does not exist for the wicked.

Isaiah 48:22 “There is no peace for the wicked,” says the LORD.”

We heard the false prophets of Jeremiah’s day:
Jeremiah 6:14 “They have healed the brokenness of My people superficially, Saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ But there is no peace.”

But here Isaiah is CONFIDENT that God will do whatever is necessary to “establish peace for us”.

That is a good reminder that God, even in discipline is not working to harm us, but to bring us to a position of peace with Him.

WHY IS HE SO CONFIDENT that God will establish peace for them?

“Since You have also performed for us all our works.”

I love that statement.
• What an affirmation on Isaiah’s part.
• What a perception on Isaiah’s part.

Isaiah is well-aware that in the grand scheme of things
We have actually done nothing to help our cause.

Everything good about us
Is only that which God has accomplished for us.

ISN’T THAT TRUE?

There is such a GOSPEL recognition here.

WE BEING THOSE WHO
• Do not stand before God in our own works, but rather we stand clothed in the
righteous works of Jesus.
• Have not paid for our sin, but rather we stand justified in the payment of Christ
for our sin.
• Are too weak to secure our own salvation, but rather we stand secured in the
intercessory work of Jesus.
• Can’t even fully sanctify ourselves, but rather we are washed and cleansed
and sanctified by God’s Spirit in our lives.

The reality is that it is God who does His work in us and on us.

Even Isaiah recognized that.

The fruitful and peaceful times of Israel’s past
Are not a testimony to the greatness of a previous generation,
They are a testimony to God’s work on their behalf.

In fact, Isaiah gives a little HISTORY LESSON about the previous generations of Israel.

(13) “O LORD our God, other masters besides You have ruled us; But through You alone we confess Your name.”

Isaiah speaks of Israel’s history
And recounts that on numerous occasions Israel has been prone to defect and worship other gods.

Think back to the period of the Judges alone.
Psalms 78:54-58 “So He brought them to His holy land, To this hill country which His right hand had gained. He also drove out the nations before them And apportioned them for an inheritance by measurement, And made the tribes of Israel dwell in their tents. Yet they tempted and rebelled against the Most High God And did not keep His testimonies, But turned back and acted treacherously like their fathers; They turned aside like a treacherous bow. For they provoked Him with their high places And aroused His jealousy with their graven images.”

That entire period is one idolatrous defection after another.

So how did it happen that Israel settled on the God of creation and actually built Him a temple and started calling Him their God?

• Did a generation just decided that He was the best God and turn to Him?
• Was there a group of men just smarter than the rest?

No, God did it.
Psalms 78:59-72 “When God heard, He was filled with wrath And greatly abhorred Israel; So that He abandoned the dwelling place at Shiloh, The tent which He had pitched among men, And gave up His strength to captivity And His glory into the hand of the adversary. He also delivered His people to the sword, And was filled with wrath at His inheritance. Fire devoured His young men, And His virgins had no wedding songs. His priests fell by the sword, And His widows could not weep. Then the Lord awoke as if from sleep, Like a warrior overcome by wine. He drove His adversaries backward; He put on them an everlasting reproach. He also rejected the tent of Joseph, And did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, But chose the tribe of Judah, Mount Zion which He loved. And He built His sanctuary like the heights, Like the earth which He has founded forever. He also chose David His servant And took him from the sheepfolds; From the care of the ewes with suckling lambs He brought him To shepherd Jacob His people, And Israel His inheritance. So he shepherded them according to the integrity of his heart, And guided them with his skillful hands.”

• God intervened.
• He intervened with judgment.
• He worked a cleansing in Israel.

That whole segment is a testimony to what God did.
It’s all how God delivered them over to judgment
And then chose for Himself a people
And shepherded them to become His inheritance.

Isaiah recognized that.
“through You alone we confess Your name.”

The only reason we are Christians now
Is because You have intervened and caused us to be.

We would have loved other things,
But You intervened and crushed those idols.

(14) “The dead will not live, the departed spirits will not rise; Therefore You have punished and destroyed them, And You have wiped out all remembrance of them.”

It is the testimony to how God intervened in judgment
To purify the nation He chose from their idolatry.

Is that not God’s sovereign work?
To accomplish for us what we could not
And would not accomplish on our own.

And what was the end result of God’s work?
(15) “You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.”

The only reason we are a glorious nation today
Is because You have done it.

• It is You who chose us.
• It is You who saved us.
• It is You who called us back to You.
• It is You who gave us this land.
• It is You who increased our borders.
YOU HAVE DONE IT ALL

NOW WE KNOW ALL THAT.
We know that as believers today.

We all live under such a state of grace.
We love those DOCTRINES OF GRACE that we often refer to.

MAN’S TOTAL DEPRAVITY – we understand that we were dead in our sin and were therefore incapable of even responding to God.

But the truth is that even if we could have, we wouldn’t have.

Ephesians 2:1-3 “And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.”

We were dead.
We didn’t need to be persuaded to call on Jesus.
Lazarus couldn’t decide to come out of the tomb.

That was us.
In our sin we had no ability to recognize, seek, or obtain salvation.

We also love.
GOD’S UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION – that the only reason we are saved is because God chose for us to be saved.

Ephesians 1:3-6 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and blameless before Him. In love He predestined us to adoption as sons through Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the kind intention of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved.”

We didn’t choose God, He chose us.
• Lazarus didn’t volunteer to be raised, Jesus chose to raise him.

And God did that for us when we absolutely had no reason to deserve it.
We were sinful and foolish and chased after carnal things,
but God intervened by grace in our life.

HE CHOSE US.

GOD’S ABSOLUTE ATONEMENT – Not only did God choose to save us but He then sent Christ to pay the penalty for all our sin.

Ephesians 1:7 “In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace”

On that cross Jesus DIDN’T POTENTIALLY pay the penalty for sinners
Who may or may not choose to trust Him later.

No, on that cross Jesus said, “It is finished!”
On that cross Jesus paid the full price
For all the sin of all the elect for all time.

We didn’t do that, Christ did that.

GOD’S IRRESISTIBLE GRACE – that chose whom God chose and redeemed He called with a calling so effective that they came.

In short, not one of those whom He has chosen to be saved
Will reject that calling.

John 6:37-39 “All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will certainly not cast out. “For I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me. “This is the will of Him who sent Me, that of all that He has given Me I lose nothing, but raise it up on the last day.”

It is God who regenerated our heart.
• Why did you all of a sudden hate your sin?
• Why did you all of a sudden desire Christ?
• Why did you all of a sudden want to deny yourself and follow Him?

It is because you literally had a change of heart.
Only you didn’t change it, God did.
He effectively called you.

GOD’S ETERNAL PROTECTION OF THE SAINTS – that now God is eternally securing all those whom He has chosen, called, and atoned for.

No one can snatch them out of His hand.
We are His and His forever.

WE SEE THAT WORK IN OUR LIVES.
We recognize, as Jonathan Edwards said, “The only thing we contributed to our salvation was the sin that made it necessary.”

GOD DID IT ALL.
Isaiah recognized that for Israel.
God did it all.

“You have increased the nation, O LORD, You have increased the nation, You are glorified; You have extended all the borders of the land.”

IF YOU’LL THINK ABOUT IT,
That’s the same way Paul described our salvation.

1 Corinthians 1:26-31 “For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised God has chosen, the things that are not, so that He may nullify the things that are, so that no man may boast before God. But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, “LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD.”

That’s what Isaiah just said too.

Throughout Israel’s history all we have is a track record of treachery and defection and betrayal and denial.

And yet, in spite of our complete unfaithfulness,
You have managed to make a people out of us.

You have given us this land.
You have become our God.
You have established a temple.

You have taken us from a pagan idolatrous people
Into a people for Your own possession.
YOU DID THAT.

And we all recognize that in our lives.

But that is NOT ALL that Isaiah PERCEIVES.

Isaiah also perceives THE METHOD
By which God often times did this work in their lives.

(16) “O LORD, they sought You in distress; They could only whisper a prayer, Your chastening was upon them.”

What was the method that God often used in order to pull these people out of idolatry and into His service?

The answer: “distress”

“they sought You in distress”

Can any of you affirm that reality in your past?

Can you affirm or deny that if you were to look back over the course of your life the times where you most likely sought God the most were the times of distress?

I don’t have to wait for your answer because I know that is true.

It was times when God’s “chastening” was so heavy
That perhaps you “could only whisper a prayer”.

Can you see that God used that time in your life to cause you to draw near to Him and to seek Him?

Of course you can.

AND THAT IS WHY ISAIAH HAS PERCEIVED.

That throughout the ages God has used a tool that is so effective
That it can even cause pagan idolators to leave their idols
And come and seek Him for salvation.

That tool is “distress”.

Isaiah has perceived that in Israel’s history.
And now you understand why he is seeking it in her present.

Incidentally, Isaiah is not alone in this understanding.

A century later, when God will exile Judah into Babylon, God will actually explain why He is bringing such a horrible fate to the land.

Jeremiah 29:10-14 “For thus says the LORD, ‘When seventy years have been completed for Babylon, I will visit you and fulfill My good word to you, to bring you back to this place. ‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. ‘Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. ‘You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ‘I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will restore your fortunes and will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you,’ declares the LORD, ‘and I will bring you back to the place from where I sent you into exile.’”

It’s amazing how a little distress can suddenly turn sinners into seekers.

But it’s not just sinners.
That works even in the lives of the redeemed doesn’t it?

Listen to Paul
2 Corinthians 1:8-10 “For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us,”

• That is NOT TO SAY that Paul had not previously sought God.
• NOR IS THAT TO SAY that Paul had somehow denied the resurrection.

But it is amazing how strong our faith can become
And how clear our perception can become
Through the furnace of distress.

You may theologically know that God is a healer, but when you get sick that reality may take on a whole new precedent in your life.

You may theologically know that God is a provider, but when money is tight that reality may take on a whole new emphasis.

Distress has been a continual tool of God throughout the ages
To cause His people to seek Him.

It has worked on the vilest of sinners
And it has worked on the most seasoned of saints.
Isaiah has perceived that.

His Petition, His Perception
#3 ISAIAH’S PERSPECTIVE
Isaiah 26:17-19

It is interesting that Isaiah referenced a time in the past when God’s people were under such distress that they could only whisper a prayer.

Because Isaiah says that we are currently under that kind of distress.

(17) “As the pregnant women approaches the time to give birth, She writhes and cries out in her labor pains, Thus were we before You, O LORD.”

Isaiah wants to discuss their current suffering
And he immediately goes to the pinnacle of all suffering illustrations.

The Bible talks about suffering a lot,
• But when it wants to bring to you the greatest agony of all suffering it always goes to the same place: THE WOMAN IN LABOR.
• It is pain that originated at the fall and it is God’s perpetual example of intense pain.

And Isaiah says, that’s were we are.
WE ARE SUFFERING INTENSELY.

(18) “We were pregnant, we writhed in labor, We gave birth, as it seems, only to wind. We could not accomplish deliverance for the earth, Nor were inhabitants of the world born.”

Now it is true that Scripture does routinely go to a woman in labor
As the ultimate pain of suffering.

But Scripture also likes to immediately go to the follow up to a woman in labor and that is the immediate joy she feels when a child is born.

John 16:21 “Whenever a woman is in labor she has pain, because her hour has come; but when she gives birth to the child, she no longer remembers the anguish because of the joy that a child has been born into the world.”

And you understand that reality as well.

But here Isaiah says, we have experienced the first, but NOT the second.
• We have felt the labor pains.
• We have agonized in our suffering.
• What we have not experienced is the joy that comes after the suffering.

When we gave birth, “it seems only to wind”
• “We could not accomplish deliverance” –we never delivered a baby.
• “Nor were inhabitants of the world born” – we never received a child.

In short, we suffered, but so far it has been to no avail.

We’re like a woman who delivered a still-born child.
• Our pain has been followed with more pain.
• Our grief has been followed with more grief.

Our suffering has not resulted in a great deliverance.

And here is a VERY IMPORTANT POINT to recognize.

It is NOT suffering that is innately powerful to change lives.

There are some people who suffer their entire lives
And die just as sinful and bitter as when they started.

And in your suffering,
If your only objective is to survive it or to overcome it,
Then you run the risk of suffering for no benefit.

Wouldn’t that be terrible?
Wouldn’t it be terrible to go through all the labor pains of giving birth but not receive the benefit and joy of the newborn child?

Does that happen?
YES IT DOES.

There are people who do not have the proper perspective in suffering.
• Some end up blaming God.
• Some end up falling away from Him.

Remember the warning of the writer of Hebrews when he quoted Solomon in the passage we looked at this morning?

Hebrews 12:5-6 “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.”

Remember, “do not regard lightly the discipline of the LORD”

“regard lightly” is a compound word in the Greek
That means “to care little”

You go through it, but you don’t learn anything from it.

When a child gets disciplined,
One of the things the parent does is make sure they understand the purpose behind the discipline.

Often times I’d come home from work and Carrie would just say, “That one and that one need a spanking”.

And we’d go into the bedroom and get the paddle and that is when the appeals process would start.

No one tried to plead their case like Zech. He always wanted to lay out for the facts that Carrie had seemed to fail to understand which would explain why he did not deserve the spanking.

That is when I got to explain to him that I was not interested in the facts of the event that led to the spanking. I was not spanking him for that. I wasn’t spanking him for hitting Abigail or throwing a toy at Zek or whatever he did.

He was getting a spanking because he upset the peace of my home and offended my wife. And rather it was one event or 1,000 little events that eventually pushed her over the edge, he was getting a spanking for disrespecting my home.

And the point is that he needed to understand the root of the problem.
• He needed to learn something from this discipline.
• He needed to learn to respect his mother,
• Which is why after the spanking he had to go and apologize to her for pushing her to such a point that she would actually desire for her offspring to put in a place of extreme physical pain.

And the point of the writer of Hebrews is that you should do that.
When God places you in a point of pain
Do you consider what things you are to learn?

(NOT – what to do to get God to stop. “Job’s friends”) But what to learn.
Don’t think of your suffering as coincidence or unlucky.
• See it as providence from a Father who loves you
• And who is furthering your education.

But don’t go through the pains of labor and not receive the benefit from it.

The writer of Hebrews also gave the warning:
“nor faint when you are reproved by Him”

It is also not appropriate to receive God’s discipline
And fail to see the love and purpose behind it.

Don’t get a spanking from God and then run away from Him.
He loves you and He is working on your behalf.

Can it be severe? Yes
Can it be painful? Absolutely
But don’t regard it lightly and don’t faint.

Understand your suffering has a purpose
And it is God who is accomplishing that purpose.

And this is the NEXT PART of Isaiah’s PERSPECTIVE.
It comes by way of A CONFESSION.

(19) “Your dead will live; Their corpses will rise. You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy, For your dew is as the dew of the dawn, And the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”

What is Isaiah saying?
• You may have killed us, but “Your dead will live”
• You may have turned us into corpses, but “Their corpses will rise.”
• We may lie in the dust, but “You who lie in the dust, awake and shout for joy”

In short, the dead will rise.
“the earth will give birth to the departed spirits.”

What is his point there?
• We can trust God in our suffering.
• We can trust God in our discipline.
• We know that He is at work doing something on our behalf.

Where can you find a story where God ever disciplined His own and it ended up worse for them than before?
Never.

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.”

So do you see what Isaiah is doing now?
He is working on YOUR PERSPECTIVE.

This morning we wanted to change your view of sin and see it as a terrible thing that must be eradicated.

TONIGHT we want to change your view on the discipline of God and see it something redemptive and not destructive.

Don’t reject God’s discipline – it is good.
Reject sin – it brings death.

AND SO THE POINT IS
That when suffering occurs,
• It should drive you to God and not away from Him
• For just as He has always done, God will use it for your good.

• He will make you more righteous…
• He will give you life from the dead…
• He will draw you to Himself…

James said it very concisely a number or times.

James 1:2-4 “Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”

There James reminded that your suffering has a purpose.
• At the very least, if nothing else, it is teaching you endurance which is a necessary attribute if you are to be perfect.

James will say later:
James 1:12 “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

There we get the element of testing
• We learn that trials are necessary to prove perseverance
• And perseverance proves to us that our faith is real.

Paul said that too:
Romans 5:3-5 “And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”

But perhaps James’ best teaching on dealing with suffering
Comes in the final chapter of his letter.

James 5:13 “Is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray.”

What a great point!
• Don’t regard it lightly, don’t faint.
• Let your suffering drive you to God not away from Him.

And when we see suffering from that perspective
We understand what a good thing it can be in our lives.

So let me now return to our two statements.

1) SIN IS WORSE THAN SUFFERING.

• I hope you are being won over to that statement a little more now.
• Sin will send you to hell but suffering will produce in your sanctification.

2) DISCIPLINE IS BETTER THAN APATHY.

• And I hope you are being won over to that statement too.

Isaiah can see nothing but good
Coming from the disciplining hand of God
And he sees the definite need of it in the lives of Israel.

That is why he is even petitioning for God to bring it to Israel.

That is:
• Isaiah’s Petition
• Isaiah’s Perception
• Isaiah’s Perspective

Next Sunday morning now we are ready for the sermon.
We are ready for ISAIAH’S PROPHECY.
• He has shown us why discipline is necessary
• Next he’ll show us what God is going to do to this world
• In order that He might prepare His people for glory and heaven.