Isaiah’s Passion – Part 6
Isaiah 61-62 (62:6-9)
November 17, 2024
You know we are in a segment examining the heart and ministry
Of this prophet we know as Isaiah.
#1 THE PROPHET’S COMMISSIONING
Isaiah 61
Where we saw his commitment to preach.
• The Gospel of Salvation
• The Glory of Salvation
#2 THE PROPHET’S COMMITMENT
Isaiah 62
We are seeking to understand his commitment
To preach the gospel for nearly 60 years
Even though his congregation was blind, deaf, and stubborn.
LAST SUNDAY we looked at the first explanation.
1) HIS VISION (1-5)
We simply realized that Isaiah was
Incredibly fueled by the promises of God.
HE KNEW God had promised to:
1. Make Israel righteous
2. To make Israel the light of the world
3. To restore Israel’s glory
4. To return and restore His marriage relationship to Israel
5. To once again make Israel a nation God rejoiced over
Isaiah knew that was where God was taking the nation.
HE ALSO KNEW
That God would use his preaching as the method in which that marvelous future would be brought about.
So Isaiah’s vision of God’s fulfilled promises
Was a great means to fueling his commitment.
We said that we need to fuel our commitments in the same way.
We need to understand things like:
• God’s elect will all come, and Christ will lose none
• That the day of the Lord will come
• That once the gospel is preached to all nations the end will come
• That Christ will save Israel
• That Christ will return to reign on His glorious throne in Jerusalem
Those are the types of promises that can fuel our ministries as well.
When we know that our efforts will succeed and not fail
It is so much easier to persevere in an “out of season” type culture.
1 Corinthians 15:58 “Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord.”
Well, still on the topic of Isaiah’s commitment,
Let’s look at another thing that fueled that commitment.
His vision
2) HIS PASSION (6-9)
(6-9) “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves; And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth. The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm, “I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.” But those who garner it will eat it and praise the LORD; And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.”
I realize the overarching theme of these chapters is the passion of Isaiah,
But here we get to take a more detailed look at it.
I think I would begin here by simply making sure we understand
The difference between PASSION and OBLIGATION.
Or maybe we should say, the difference between ZEAL and DUTY.
Certainly we understand the Christian duty; the Christian obligation.
We’ve read:
Matthew 28:18-20 “And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
I think of Paul telling the Romans:
Romans 1:14 “I am under obligation both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish.”
Or what he told the Corinthians:
1 Corinthians 9:16 “For if I preach the gospel, I have nothing to boast of, for I am under compulsion; for woe is me if I do not preach the gospel.”
Those types of statements would definitely fall under
The “duty” or “obligation” category.
We know the command. We know the mandate. We know what we’ve been told to do.
And as those who have surrendered our lives to the service of Jesus Christ, such a mandate should be enough.
I am not minimizing at all the fact that
Our Lord has clearly articulated for us the work we are to be doing.
But at the same time we do understand that
We can at times disregard mandates and commands.
The Lord has commanded all believers to the mission,
But we know that not all believers are obedient to that command.
• They have the knowledge, but they lack the passion.
• They have the mandate, but they lack the zeal to carry it out.
Isaiah had both, and it is his zeal that we want to better understand.
There is obviously a difference between duty and zeal.
Paul, for example, clearly had an obligation,
But it was his zeal that caused him to carry out that duty.
We remember him telling the Romans:
Romans 9:1-3 “I am telling the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit, that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh,”
He told the Corinthians
2 Corinthians 12:15 “I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?”
He told the Philippians
Philippians 1:8 “For God is my witness, how I long for you all with the affection of Christ Jesus.”
Those aren’t just statements of obligation or duty,
That is passion, that is zeal.
He told Timothy:
2 Timothy 2:8-10 “Remember Jesus Christ, risen from the dead, descendant of David, according to my gospel, for which I suffer hardship even to imprisonment as a criminal; but the word of God is not imprisoned. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of those who are chosen, so that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus and with it eternal glory.”
That is man who is not only commanded to preach,
But who will burst if he doesn’t get to.
We think of Jeremiah
Jeremiah 20:9 “But if I say, “I will not remember Him Or speak anymore in His name,” Then in my heart it becomes like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; And I am weary of holding it in, And I cannot endure it.”
And as we have said, this same passion was evident in Isaiah.
Isaiah 62:1 “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, And her salvation like a torch that is burning.”
So I hope we understanding the point here.
• It is one thing to have the mandate.
• It is one thing to have the command.
• Anyone can read the Great Commission.
• Anyone can read Acts 1:8 about going to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and
the world.
• Anyone can be told that they cannot hear without a preacher.
But what is it that causes those commands to penetrate the heart of a person and consume them with the mission?
THAT IS PRODUCED BY THE HOLY SPIRIT.
Remember, (61:1) “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me…”
It was the Spirit of God writing the words of God on Isaiah’s heart
That produced in him the passion that was necessary.
THAT PASSION IN ISAIAH WAS CLEAR.
For nearly 60 years he hasn’t stopped.
And what we have here in verses 6-9 of chapter 62
Is Isaiah seeking to stir up that passion in you.
• He is going to preach to you this morning.
• He is going to challenge you.
• He is going to exhort you.
It is his hope that the Spirit of God will also fill you and embolden you
To be zealous for the things of God.
He is going to show you what passion looks like.
AND THIS IS NEEDED.
For no one could argue that the American church
Has a wealth of Bible knowledge.
We have more access to more resources than anyone in the world.
We are heavy on knowledge, what we need is zeal.
I had great conversations with Brother Stephen Muigai this past weekend.
We spoke of all the benefits that we have as the American church.
• We can read books on anything, it’s all available.
• Swahili on the other hand, which represents over 200 million people, have nearly none.
They have no resources, but they have zeal; they have passion.
I’ve told you about Brother Charles Masanja in Tanzania:
I can still hear Charle’s voice in my ears saying “We will go from village to village and town to town and we will not stop until we spread the gospel everywhere.”
That is zeal.
That is a fire in the bones.
This is what Isaiah has; this is what he wants to see in each of us.
And I dare say, this is what the American church needs.
C.H. Spurgeon, “If you never have sleepless hours, if you never have weeping eyes, if your hearts never swell as if they would burst, you need not anticipate that you will be called zealous. You do not know the beginning of true zeal, for the foundation of Christian zeal lies in the heart. The heart must be heavy with grief and yet must beat high with holy ardor. The heart must be vehement in desire, panting continually for God’s glory, or else we shall never attain to anything like the zeal which God would have us know.”
SO LET’S TALK ABOUT ZEAL.
Let Isaiah show us what true zeal looks like.
By this we can discern whether or not we have it.
There are 3 things we learn here as we listen to Isaiah speak about passion.
The first two are commands, the third is an encouragement.
PREACH WITHOUT RESTING (6)
(6) “On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent. You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves;”
In that verse we first recognize a spiritual reality.
“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen”
Certainly we are going to make a spiritual application out of this,
But just in a simple sense we understand what a “watchman” is.
This is a man who has been appointed to stand on the wall of the city,
And he has one job.
• He is to watch for approaching danger.
• He is to identify any pending threats to the city.
People down in the city are protected by the wall, but the wall limits visibility,
So someone has to stand on the wall and watch what’s going on outside the city.
There is only one main requirement for a good watchman,
THAT IS VIGILANCE.
They have to care enough about the people to stay awake and stay alert.
• Their task isn’t overly complicated.
• They don’t have to fight off an enemy.
• They don’t have to devise the plan of defense.
• They don’t have to rally the troops.
Their one job is simply to recognize the threat and report it.
That is the basic job of a watchman.
And this job became ILLUSTRATIVE of a faithful prophet of God.
“On your walls, O Jerusalem, I have appointed watchmen; All day and all night they will never keep silent.”
Here God speaks of a watchman,
And it is obviously one who has seen a threat
For “All day and all night they will never keep silent.”
• A watchman has no need to report unless he has seen a threat,
• But in that case he is responsible to make sure that his report is heard.
This was the chief analogy God used in his calling of Ezekiel.
TURN TO: EZEKIEL 3:16-21
• Ezekiel came roughly 100 years after Isaiah
• Where Isaiah saw this danger from a distance, Ezekiel saw it with his own eyes.
• And he was called to operate as a spiritual watchman.
• God reiterated that same message to Ezekiel again in chapter 33.
But you understand the role of a watchman.
And we see then WHAT they do,
And HOW they are measured.
A good watchman – “all day and all night they will never keep silent.”
We realize that Isaiah was also a watchman, and a good one.
For he said:
Isaiah 62:1 “For Zion’s sake I will not keep silent, And for Jerusalem’s sake I will not keep quiet, Until her righteousness goes forth like brightness, And her salvation like a torch that is burning.”
A good watchman announces the danger until the people listen.
They never stop ringing that bell until the people respond.
Isaiah understood the call.
And as we have said, he was passionate about the call.
And what Isaiah wants is that same passion from you and me.
He says, “You who remind the LORD, take no rest for yourselves.”
I think that is a little bit of a misleading translation there.
“remind” translates (ZAW-KHAIR)
And it can be to remind, but it is also translated “make mention of”
As in:
Isaiah 63:7 “I shall make mention of the lovingkindnesses of the LORD, the praises of the LORD, According to all that the LORD has granted us, And the great goodness toward the house of Israel, Which He has granted them according to His compassion And according to the abundance of His lovingkindnesses.”
The ESV translates this verse:
“You who put the LORD in remembrance…”
The KJV translates it:
“ye that make mention of the LORD…”
And this seems to be the idea here.
God has placed watchmen
Not to remind Him of the coming judgment,
But rather, as those who know God, to remind everyone else.
It follows the question we have asked the last couple of weeks.
At what point do you give up proclaiming the gospel?
At what point do you stop warning the wicked?
• When do you give up on the salvation of your children?
• When do you give up on the salvation of your coworker?
The message here of Isaiah is “take no rest for yourselves;”
Do not grow tired or weary.
Do not stop out of frustration or exhaustion.
As John was told in the Revelation, “prophesy again…”
Paul told Timothy
2 Timothy 4:1-2 “I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction.”
This was the zeal of Isaiah
And he now bids that this become your zeal too.
He is asking those who have seen the coming danger
And who know the truth of the coming judgment, to sleep later.
Wake up!
Get up!
And go warn the people.
IT SPEAKS OF URGENCY.
It speaks of SELF-SACRIFICE.
• When was Jesus ever too tired to minister to the people?
• When did He ever send them away for a time of self-care?
He was passionate.
He was zealous.
And it is not a good look on the American church
When we do not share that zeal.
BUT WHAT DO YOU DO if you don’t have that kind of passion?
What do you do if it’s just not in you to have that kind of zeal?
Well, where did Isaiah’s zeal come from?
Isaiah 61:1 “The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, Because the LORD has anointed me To bring good news to the afflicted; He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to captives And freedom to prisoners;”
Zeal comes from the Spirit.
SO WHAT ARE YOU SAYING PREACHER?
Are you saying that if I’m not zealous to share the gospel that I don’t have the Holy Spirit?
THAT COULD DEFINITELY BE IT.
• We know the Holy Spirit is a missionary,
• And one of the reasons you don’t share could very well be that you have never yielded your life to Christ
• And been indwelt by the Holy Spirit.
If that is you, then you need to repent and yield your life to Jesus Christ,
Believing in His work on your behalf,
So that you will receive the promise of the Holy Spirit.
THAT COULD DEFINITELY BE IT.
• I’ve been to many cemeteries in my life but I’ve never heard any of them having conversations.
• The dead don’t speak to one another.
• And that is true in evangelism.
Now, while it could be that you are unredeemed,
That is NOT NECESSARILY THE CASE.
It might not be that you don’t have the Holy Spirit,
It might be that He doesn’t have you.
YOU MIGHT BE WALKING IN THE FLESH
Do you remember Paul’s command?
Ephesians 5:18-21 “And do not get drunk with wine, for that is dissipation, but be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord; always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father; and be subject to one another in the fear of Christ.”
It might be that you need to be filled with the Spirit.
That DOES NOT MEAN that you don’t have the Holy Spirit, or that you don’t have all of Him.
What it means is that you have not given Him all of you.
You are walking in rebellion or idolatry or iniquity or laziness.
The issue might be that you need to repent of sin in your life,
Start letting the word of Christ dwell within you richly
And watch how the Holy Spirit turns your apathy into zeal.
THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE KEY,
A lack of zeal indicates a lack of His influence in a life.
Isaiah calls you to get up, you who know the LORD,
And “take no rest for yourselves.”
He wants you to preach without resting.
That is passion; that is zeal.
That’s not all he wants.
PRAY WITHOUT CEASING (7)
(7) “And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
First it was to take no rest for yourselves
And here it is a call to not let God rest either.
Jonathan Edwards wrote:
“It is very apparent from the Word of God that he often tries the Faith and patience of his people, when they are crying to him for some great and important mercy, by withholding the mercy sought for a season; and not only so, but at first he may cause an increase of dark appearances. And yet he, without fail, at last prospers those who continue urgently in prayer with all perseverance and “will not let him go except he blesses.”
Sited in: (Ortlund, Raymond, [Preaching The Word Commentary: ISAIAH; God saves sinners; Crossway Publishers; Wheaton, IL; 2005] pg. 416)
Raymond Ortlund told a story about a WWII concentration camp survivor:
“Otto Kristian Hallesby was a Norwegian theologian who resisted the Nazis during World War II and suffered for it in a concentration camp. He understood what it meant to pray all the way through until God answers. He said that prayer is like mining. Prayer is like boring holes deep into the rock of human hearts. It’s work. It tries our patience. We can’t see results. But in God’s time, he places the dynamite and lights the fuse, and the rocks crumble. God has called us to give him no rest until he makes a revived church the praise of the earth.”
(ibid. pg. 416)
I realize there is a sense in which badgering God can seem irreverent.
But what the saints of old have recognized is that
Often times God uses these lengthy times of prayer
To focus us and grow our faith.
The fact of the matter is that HIS WORD TELLS US to “give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
We think of the traveling friend:
Luke 11:5-8 “Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ “I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.”
Certainly we remember that persistent widow:
Luke 18:1-8 “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
The issue there is clear.
GOD IS TESTING OUR FAITH.
He’s looking for a Jacob
• Who will wrestle and refuse to let go until God grants the blessing.
He’s looking for the person who truly believes
• That when we ask God for a loaf He will not give a stone
• And when we ask God for a fish He will not give a snake.
He’s looking for the person who will latch on to what Jesus taught:
Matthew 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
Or again:
John 14:13-14 “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. “If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.”
Or again:
John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”
He’s looking for the person who believes what James said:
James 5:16b “The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.”
He’s looking for the person who believes what John said:
1 John 5:14 “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.”
AND THIS IS PASSION!
Could this be another area of lacking passion in the American church?
A lack of commitment to pray for revival?
A lack of commitment to pray for the lost?
• HAVE WE NOT LEARNED the doctrines of grace?
• HAVE WE NOT LEARNED about total depravity?
• HAVE WE NOT LEARNED that man is dead in sin and must be awakened
even to hear the gospel?
Since only God can awaken the dead,
It seems we should be more consistently asking Him to do it.
Someone would then respond and say, “Well if God is sovereign and He is choosing who to save then it doesn’t make sense that I should pray. He’s already decided what He’s going to do.”
“WHY PRAY IF GOD IS SOVEREIGN?”
But as R.C. Sproul once answered, “Well it certainly doesn’t make much sense to pray if He’s not!”
WE SERVE A GOD WHO IS SOVEREIGN.
• We serve a God who can in fact do whatever He desires.
• There is no request we can present to God that is too big for Him.
• There is no sinner we can lift to Him that is beyond His reach.
THAT IS NOT THE ISSUE.
It has never been about God’s ability or God’s willingness.
Jesus highlighted for us what the problem is
Regarding our commitment to pray.
In that story about the persistent widow Jesus asked,
“However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
• The issue is a lack of faith.
• The issue is a lack of belief.
• The issue is a lack of passion and zeal.
Isaiah said, “give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
Don’t stop until God does what He promised to do.
Don’t fall asleep…
Don’t get lazy…
Be focused, be vigilant, keep watch and pray!
And again we have to ask ourselves
Does my passion show up in my preaching?
Does my passion show up in my praying?
If it is absent, I must ask God to work repentance in my heart and fill my heart with the word of God that I might be filled with the Spirit.
These are the secrets to Isaiah’s longevity and commitment.
He was filled with the Spirit and the Spirit provided passion.
That passion allowed him to preach with resting.
That passion allowed him to pray without ceasing.
PROCEED WITHOUT WAVERING (8-9)
(8-9) “The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm, “I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored.” But those who garner it will eat it and praise the LORD; And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.”
Here we come back again to Isaiah’s view of the promises of God.
What happens when I preach and preach and preach and no one listens?
What happens when I pray and pray and pray and nothing happens?
Do I just give up?
Do I determine that it’s just never going to happen?
No, you remember something.
“The LORD has sworn by His right hand and by His strong arm…”
Who is at God’s right hand?
Who is the mighty army of the Lord?
• That is Christ.
What did God swear?
What did God promise?
“I will never again give your grain as food for your enemies; Nor will foreigners drink your new wine for which you have labored. But those who garner it will eat it and praise the LORD; And those who gather it will drink it in the courts of My sanctuary.”
And we are back again to those wonderful Millennial promises of God.
• It was the day Isaiah greatly anticipated.
• It was the day when Israel was dwelling securely with her Messiah.
No longer is Israel raided and plundered by her enemies.
In that day Israel will be restored and Israel will be blessed.
GOD SAID HE WOULD DO IT.
GOD SWORE HE WOULD DO IT.
So you go and tell the people that He is going to do it.
“Take no rest for yourselves” as you go and announce His promise.”
And you go to God in prayer and give Him no rest until He does it.
“And give Him no rest until He establishes And makes Jerusalem a praise in the earth.”
Hold Him to His promises and proclaim them everywhere.
2 Timothy 1:8-12 “Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord or of me His prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was granted us in Christ Jesus from all eternity, but now has been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Christ Jesus, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel, for which I was appointed a preacher and an apostle and a teacher. For this reason I also suffer these things, but I am not ashamed; for I know whom I have believed and I am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”
This is why Isaiah was able to be committed.
• This is why he did not burn out in ministry.
• This is why he did not retire and give up his post.
• This is why he did not fade out and disappear.
He was faithful for nearly 60 years to the ministry God called him to
AND IT WAS BECAUSE
He was armed with God’s promises.
He was filled with God’s Holy Spirit
And the Spirit filled him with zeal to see those promises fulfilled.
• He would preach without rest.
• He would pray without ceasing.
• He would proceed without wavering.
The American church needs this passion restored.
We need this commitment renewed in us.
We need to feast on God’s Word
Until we are filled with the Spirit
And dripping with His passion and zeal for the lost world around us.
