Where Is This Salvation You Speak Of? – part 6
Isaiah 59:1 – 60:22 (60:10-22)
October 20, 2024
We’ve been in this segment now for quite some time
And you are familiar with the premise.
God has been offering salvation.
• It is a salvation that will come through the repentance and return of Israel to Jesus Christ.
But Israel has repeatedly balked at the notion of repentance.
• They have instead doubled down on their empty religious ceremony.
So the reality is obvious.
Israel won’t repent and so God hasn’t saved.
But it has sparked a frustration in Israel
Who wants to know where this promised salvation is?
We heard them in chapter 58:3 ask, “Why have we humbled ourselves and You do not notice?”
They want to know: “Where is this salvation You speak of?”
Well God has been answering that question.
1. It is not due to a lack of ability on His part.
Isaiah 59:1 “Behold, the LORD’S hand is not so short That it cannot save; Nor is His ear so dull That it cannot hear.”
2. Nor is it because of a lack of faithfulness.
Isaiah 59:21 “As for Me, this is My covenant with them,” says the LORD: “My Spirit which is upon you, and My words which I have put in your mouth shall not depart from your mouth, nor from the mouth of your offspring, nor from the mouth of your offspring’s offspring,” says the LORD, “from now and forever.”
The issue is that Israel has yet to repent.
Her sins have caused a separation between her and God
The delay in salvation is her fault, not God’s.
All she will have is more of the empty groaning and darkness
That Isaiah lamented in chapter 59.
But as we learned the last couple of weeks,
GOD IS GOING TO SAVE THEM.
• He is a God who is faithful to His covenant.
• He is a God who is compassionate to their suffering.
• He is a God who is aware of their inability and depravity.
And so what Israel can not and will not do for themselves,
God has promised to do for them.
We read in Zechariah 12
• How God will pour out His Spirit upon Israel
• And they will all look on Him whom they have pierced,
• And they will mourn for Him.
• And God will open the fountain of salvation.
Let me give you another reference to that same event.
In Zechariah 3 we get that famous story of Satan accusing Joshua the High Priest.
• Satan is accusing Joshua of being wicked and sinful
• And sure enough we find out that Joshua is wearing filthy garments.
• But it is at that moment that the LORD intervenes to save this wicked man
from judgment.
Zechariah 3:4-5 “He spoke and said to those who were standing before him, saying, “Remove the filthy garments from him.” Again he said to him, “See, I have taken your iniquity away from you and will clothe you with festal robes.” Then I said, “Let them put a clean turban on his head.” So they put a clean turban on his head and clothed him with garments, while the angel of the LORD was standing by.”
And that is a nice story to be sure.
Certainly it reminds us of the type of High Priest we have who daily intercedes on our behalf before the Father even amidst the accusations of Satan against us.
But that story is about more than just Joshua.
That story is a precursor to God’s coming salvation for the nation.
Joshua represents the people of Israel.
Zechariah 3:8-10 ‘Now listen, Joshua the high priest, you and your friends who are sitting in front of you—indeed they are men who are a symbol, for behold, I am going to bring in My servant the Branch. ‘For behold, the stone that I have set before Joshua; on one stone are seven eyes. Behold, I will engrave an inscription on it,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day. ‘In that day,’ declares the LORD of hosts, ‘every one of you will invite his neighbor to sit under his vine and under his fig tree.’”
• You see there that Joshua is “a symbol”.
• God says that He is going to bring in “My servant the Branch” (that’s Christ)
• And God says, “I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day”
That is another reference to the day of Israel’s coming salvation.
It will be a revival like you’ve never seen.
When God pours forth His Spirit they’re all coming.
• Certainly they will walk through the attacks of the enemy.
• Certainly they will suffer persecution, in fact Zechariah later alludes that 2/3
of them will be cut off during that time.
• But Christ is coming for them and when He does He will destroy their
enemies, He will reign among them, and He will restore them to glory.
That is the promise, and that is what we are looking at here.
Israel wanted to know, “Where is this salvation You speak of?”
God is responding by showing them it is coming.
Currently we are in the segment
That describes for us the glory of that day.
Isaiah 60 is a glimpse of the restored glory of Israel
After Christ returns to save and deliver them from their enemies.
In the scheme of the entire segment this is the FIFTH POINT.
1. The LORD’S Reproach (59:1-8)
2. The Prophet’s Response (59:9-15a)
3. The Messiah’s Redemption (59:15b-20)
4. The LORD’S Reasoning (59:21)
#5 THE NATIONS RESTORATION
Isaiah 60:1-22
You are certainly aware that this is not the first time
That Isaiah has referenced the coming Millennial kingdom.
He spoke of it in chapter 11 as he reference the COMING PEACE
Isaiah 11:6 “And the wolf will dwell with the lamb, And the leopard will lie down with the young goat, And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; And a little boy will lead them.”
He spoke of it in chapter 35 as a DAY OF RESTORATION
Isaiah 35:5-6 “Then the eyes of the blind will be opened And the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, And the tongue of the mute will shout for joy. For waters will break forth in the wilderness And streams in the Arabah.”
And here Isaiah speaks of it as a DAY OF GLORY
(1-2) “Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. “For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you.”
We read in Ezekiel how God’s glory departed from Israel.
When Israel repents the glory will return!
Peter said it:
Acts 3:19-20 “Therefore repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord; and that He may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you,”
And in the remainder of the chapter
We are see the consequences of
Having the glory of the Lord in their midst.
• (1) “the glory of the LORD has risen upon you”
• (2) “His glory will appear upon you.”
• (7) “I shall glorify My glorious house.”
• (9) “because He has glorified you.”
• (13) “I shall make the place of My feet glorious.”
• (19) “You will have the LORD for an everlasting light, and your God for your glory.”
• (21) “That I may be glorified.”
The return of glory to the house of Israel is clearly the theme.
What a difference it makes for a people when God is among them.
What a difference it makes in a nation when God is among them.
We see those differences spelled out here. There’s 4 of them.
We saw the first one last Sunday night.
1) NATIONS WILL HONOR YOU (3-9)
We won’t go all back through this one again, but you see in these 7 verses the repeated reference to nations flocking to Israel.
1. They are coming to return their sons to them.
2. They are coming to bring gifts and offerings.
3. They are coming to offer sacrifices of tribute to Christ.
And the point is that this once despised nation
Will be the center attraction of all the earth.
But it certainly won’t be because of tourism.
People won’t be going to marvel at historical references or natural views.
They will be flocking to that place to see Christ!
He is the attraction!
And I’ll just remind you again that this should be the churches mindset.
We have nothing to offer this world apart from Christ.
• He is our sole attraction.
• He is our sole benefit that we offer to the world.
Do you remember the failure of the church at Ephesus?
• They had solid doctrine.
• They participated in church discipline.
• They were very discerning regarding truth and error.
But…
Revelation 2:1-6 “To the angel of the church in Ephesus write: The One who holds the seven stars in His right hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this: ‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My name’s sake, and have not grown weary. ‘But I have this against you, that you have left your first love. ‘Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent. ‘Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.”
They left their first love.
And that offense was of such magnitude
That Christ threatened to close the doors to that place.
Christ is what we have.
Christ is what we offer.
“Hallelujah! All I have is Christ!”
And Christ is enough!
The nations are flocking to Israel because He is there.
The next two points we see I split into two points because there is a distinction, but I want to look at them together.
2) FOREIGNERS WILL SERVE YOU (10-13)
3) ENEMIES WILL BOW TO YOU (17-22)
What we see described here is
A total reversal in how Israel will be treated in the world.
The Psalmist lamented antisemitism even in his day.
Psalms 44:22 “But for Your sake we are killed all day long; We are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”
HISTORY BEARS OUT
All the hatred that Israel has received and endured from the world.
It really goes all the way back to the days of Abraham
When we saw Abimelech tried to marry Sarah
And ruin the promised blessing of God.
AND IT HAS NEVER ENDED.
• We saw them oppressed in Egypt.
• We are confronted with Philistines and Moabites and Ammonites and
Edomites and all other types of enemies.
• We know about Assyria conquering the northern 10 tribes.
• We know about Babylon conquering Judah.
• We know about the Persians seeking a holocaust under Haman.
• We know about Antiochus Epiphanes the Greek seeking to annihilate the
Jews.
• We know Rome burned the temple and their city.
• We know Hitler killed somewhere around 6 million Jews.
• And the fighting hasn’t stopped.
They have historically been the most hated people on the planet.
But what a difference you see when they finally embrace their Savior.
(10-13) “Foreigners will build up your walls, And their kings will minister to you; For in My wrath I struck you, And in My favor I have had compassion on you. “Your gates will be open continually; They will not be closed day or night, So that men may bring to you the wealth of the nations, With their kings led in procession. “For the nation and the kingdom which will not serve you will perish, And the nations will be utterly ruined. “The glory of Lebanon will come to you, The juniper, the box tree and the cypress together, To beautify the place of My sanctuary; And I shall make the place of My feet glorious.”
Everything here is opposite of what we have seen throughout history.
FIRST you need to see why.
(10b) “For in My wrath I struck you, And in My favor I have had compassion on you.”
It is important to understand this.
Israel’s punishments and judgments throughout her history have been nothing but a direct result of her disobedience to God.
• She entered into a covenant with Him at Sinai and promised Him that she
would obey His every command.
• She did not, and she brought upon herself the curses that are so clearly
outlined throughout the book of Deuteronomy.
• She sinned and God has repeatedly struck her in His wrath.
But on the day she repents and returns
That wrath will be replaced with compassion.
And the nations that God has used to afflict Israel
Will now be used to minister to her.
Instead of foreign armies coming to destroy Israel’s walls:
“Foreigners will build up your walls”
Instead of foreign kings oppressing Israel:
“their kings will minister to you;”
Instead of gates closed for security:
“Your gates will be open continually; They will not be closed day or night”
Instead of nations plundering Israel:
“men may bring to you the wealth of the nations”
Places like Lebanon will lumber and the other nations will bring wealth.
All for one purpose.
“To beautify the place of My sanctuary; And I shall make the place of My feet glorious.”
The goal and desire of the world will no longer be
To attack, destroy, or plunder Israel,
But rather to build her up and beautify her.
BECAUSE THE LORD IS THERE!
And it’s not just foreigners, it is also ENEMIES.
(14-15) “The sons of those who afflicted you will come bowing to you, And all those who despised you will bow themselves at the soles of your feet; And they will call you the city of the LORD, The Zion of the Holy One of Israel. “Whereas you have been forsaken and hated With no one passing through, I will make you an everlasting pride, A joy from generation to generation.”
You see the same reversal there don’t you.
• “those who afflicted you will come bowing to you”
• “those who despised you will bow”
• “you have been hated…[you will be] an everlasting pride, A joy”
It is just a complete 180 from where they have been.
Israel will no longer be the bottom of the barrel.
(16) “You will suck the milk of nations And suck the breast of kings;”
Instead of them milking you, you’re going to milk them.
Deuteronomy 28:7-14 “The LORD shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. “The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. “The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. “So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. “The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. “The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. “The LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.”
We are simply reading about a people
Who have jumped out from under the curses of God
And find themselves under the blessings of God.
They have been SAVED, they have been REDEEMED,
They have been DELIVERED.
The blessings the church currently enjoys in a spiritual sense,
For we have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ,
Israel will enjoy in a physical sense
For His physical presence will be among them.
And I love the culmination of verse 16.
(16b) “Then you will know that I, the LORD, am your Savior And your Redeemer, the Mighty One of Jacob.”
That is a great summarizing statement!
Think for a moment about Isaiah’s pleading throughout the book of Isaiah.
Isaiah 41:14 “and your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel.”
Isaiah 43:3 “For I am the LORD your God, The Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place.”
Isaiah 43:11 “I, even I, am the LORD, And there is no savior besides Me.”
Isaiah 44:6 “Thus says the LORD, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the LORD of hosts: ‘I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.”
Isaiah 44:8 “Do not tremble and do not be afraid; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.’”
Isaiah 45:21 “Declare and set forth your case; Indeed, let them consult together. Who has announced this from of old? Who has long since declared it? Is it not I, the LORD? And there is no other God besides Me, A righteous God and a Savior; There is none except Me.”
Isaiah has been preaching it over and over.
We might say, “Until he was blue in the face”
And Israel just hasn’t gotten it.
• They have had ears but they didn’t hear.
• They have had eyes but they didn’t see.
• They have had hearts, but they didn’t understand.
But on this day they will get it.
When Edomites are bowing to them instead of bombing them
It will finally sink in to Israel that Jesus Christ is their Savior.
Nations will honor you
Foreigners will serve you
Enemies bow to you
4) PROSPERITY WILL FIND YOU (17-22)
And what a list we have here.
(17) “Instead of bronze I will bring gold, And instead of iron I will bring silver, And instead of wood, bronze, And instead of stones, iron. And I will make peace your administrators And righteousness your overseers.”
That is what you call trading up.
Someone will say, “I need a piece of bronze, I’m making a door hinge.”
And the neighbor will respond, “Could you just use gold instead?”
Someone will say, “I need of piece of iron, I’m making a door stop.”
And the neighbor will respond, “Here, just take this silver.”
YOU GET THE IDEA.
There will be no lack of any good thing.
God will more than amply supply for all His people.
(18) “Violence will not be heard again in your land, Nor devastation or destruction within your borders; But you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.”
In light of the Middle East today that verse seems downright impossible.
• No violence at all?
• No devastation?
• No destruction?
We are talking about a place with absolutely no danger at all.
I like the statement:
“you will call your walls salvation, and your gates praise.”
What does that mean?
It’s not just a plague that hangs on the wall.
WHAT HE IS SAYING IS THAT
Your security is that you’ve been saved by the Lord.
And you enter that salvation through the exaltation of the Lord.
Christ is the Good Shepherd protecting His sheep.
Christ is the door through which you enter.
No wall and no gate could ever produce the peace and safety that the redemption of Christ can accomplish.
No one is coming in this city who doesn’t love and exalt Christ.
• It is a saved city.
• It is a city full of the redeemed.
There will be no violence in this place at all.
He goes on:
(19-20) “No longer will you have the sun for light by day, Nor for brightness will the moon give you light; But you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And your God for your glory. “Your sun will no longer set, Nor will your moon wane; For you will have the LORD for an everlasting light, And the days of your mourning will be over.”
We’re certainly familiar with this analogy from reading Revelation.
Revelation 22:5 “And there will no longer be any night; and they will not have need of the light of a lamp nor the light of the sun, because the Lord God will illumine them; and they will reign forever and ever.”
It is the same thing we see here.
The presence of glory outshines them all.
It will never be dark, there will be no more night.
And that is not just a natural reality it is also a metaphor.
There will be NO MORE MOURNING.
Crying and pain and violence and adversity
And grief and despair will all be gone.
The curse is reversed.
• Enmity and toil and pain are gone.
• There is no cause for mourning in that city.
And still there is more.
(21) “Then all your people will be righteous; They will possess the land forever, The branch of My planting, The work of My hands, That I may be glorified.”
There is a great statement!
“Then all your people will be righteous”
WHY?
• Because by faith they have been clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
• They washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb.
And because they are righteous
There is no more punishment or discipline.
“They will posses the land forever”
They are referred to here as the branch which God planted.
They are referred to here as the work of God’s hands.
And the END RESULT in all of this is the GLORY OF THE LORD.
• He will save them.
• He will sanctify them.
• He will glorify them.
He will do it so that He is glorified.
When God takes a people like that
And turns them into a righteous people
There will be nothing left but to glorify the LORD.
1 Corinthians 1:27-31 “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.”
THIS IS ALL FOR HIS GLORY.
(22) “The smallest one will become a clan, And the least one a mighty nation. I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”
And God will most certainly do it.
• It doesn’t matter how small they become.
• It doesn’t matter how far you scatter them.
• It doesn’t matter how insignificant they appear.
God will do it because He said He would do it.
It also doesn’t matter if you think it’s been too long.
God says, “I, the LORD, will hasten it in its time.”
When it’s time God will do it.
But He will most certainly do it.
Now that is A QUICK TRIP
Through the realities of the coming Millennial kingdom of Christ.
And I don’t mean to pass over them quickly,
But rather to show them to you in bulk
So that you can see the glory of that day.
• A day with no deficit.
• A day with no danger.
• A day with no darkness.
• A day with no departure.
• A day with no doubt.
Where is this salvation You speak of?
Well, this is it.
And we see THE PURPOSE OF ISAIAH more clearly now.
What is the point of him sharing all this?
It is to call Israel to run to Christ in repentance.
Can you not see what He will do for you?
Can you not see that He is the better option?
Can you not see that He is what you’ve been waiting for?
It reminds us of the preaching of Jesus.
John 4:10 “Jesus answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.”
John 6:35-40 “Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. “But I said to you that you have seen Me, and yet do not believe. “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. “For this is the will of My Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will have eternal life, and I Myself will raise him up on the last day.”
John 7:37-38 “Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’”
John 8:12 “Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
John 10:7-10 “So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.”
John 11:25-26 “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?”
Do you see all those same realities promised by Him there?
Jesus made many offers in exactly the same way.
• Turn to Me and be saved!
• Turn to Me and enjoy abundance!
That is what Isaiah is preaching.
It is nothing but foolishness
• That has caused you to reject your Savior.
• That has caused you to embrace ceremonial religion.
Repent and return and run to Christ
For all the good things He has in store for you.
What a message to Israel!
What a promise God has made if they will but turn to the Lord.
And certainly if any Jews were in this audience today
We’d be pleading with them to run to Christ.
THERE ARE ONLY GENTILES.
Most in here are believers, some still are not.
What does all of this have to do with Gentiles?
What are we supposed to do with all these Millennial promises to Israel?
Were are we going to be during all of this?
The answer: right there with them.
We’ve read some of it already in previous weeks,
But what did Paul say about us as Gentiles and salvation?
TURN TO: ROMANS 11
Look at verses 11-12.
Do you understand what Paul is saying?
It was all a part of God’s sovereign plan that Israel would reject the gospel.
• Their rejection of the gospel is what opened the door for the Gentiles to hear the gospel.
• That is what Paul means when he says, “their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles”
• Their rejection is what opened the door for us to hear it.
• And our acceptance is “to make them jealous”.
That’s one of the reasons Paul pushes his Gentile ministry so hard.
Read verses 13-16
Paul says
• I magnify my ministry because I want to make them jealous.
• Because when they run to Christ it will be “life from the dead” (i.e. the millennium)
And then Paul makes the famous statement
About how we though “being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became with them a partaker of the rich root of the olive tree.”
What is Paul’s point?
They aren’t joining our tree, we are joining theirs.
There has only ever been one faith, it is that which Abraham had.
• They have thus far rejected it.
• We have been grafted into it.
• Someday they will come back to it.
So what does that mean about the millennial reign of Christ for us?
WE ARE DWELLING WITH HIM!
We don’t become foreigners in the kingdom, we are sons of the kingdom.
1 Peter 2:6-10 “For this is contained in Scripture: “BEHOLD, I LAY IN ZION A CHOICE STONE, A PRECIOUS CORNER stone, AND HE WHO BELIEVES IN HIM WILL NOT BE DISAPPOINTED.” This precious value, then, is for you who believe; but for those who disbelieve, “THE STONE WHICH THE BUILDERS REJECTED, THIS BECAME THE VERY CORNER stone,” and, “A STONE OF STUMBLING AND A ROCK OF OFFENSE”; for they stumble because they are disobedient to the word, and to this doom they were also appointed. But you are A CHOSEN RACE, A royal PRIESTHOOD, A HOLY NATION, A PEOPLE FOR God’s OWN POSSESSION, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you once were NOT A PEOPLE, but now you are THE PEOPLE OF GOD; you had NOT RECEIVED MERCY, but now you have RECEIVED MERCY.”
While we discuss all that is coming for the future of Israel,
Know we are talking about our future as the church as well.
AND THAT MEANS
• When Isaiah is speaking to unbelieving Jews about all the glories of the kingdom of Christ in hope that they will repent and run to Christ,
• We are also speaking of that glorious kingdom to any lost Gentiles in hopes that they will do the same.
What we have here is the future of the church.
• One day, our enemies will be crushed, just as their enemies are crushed.
• One day, we will reign with Christ, just as they will reign with Christ.
• One day, the church will be glorious, and Israel will be glorious as part of the church.
And if you want to be a part of that day,
THEN YOU MUST REPENT AND RUN TO CHRIST.
But it will be so worth it!
What a day that will be!
