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.
