WEBVTT 00:00:00.260 --> 00:00:03.846 All right, let's go to Psalm Isaiah 26 with me. 00:00:03.846 --> 00:00:08.595 Isaiah 26, isaiah 26. 00:00:08.595 --> 00:00:36.765 So for those of you who've lived the greater part of your life and I know some of you are in denial about having done that we had for a time a group called New Image, and I was talking to someone who was in their 70s and they said they were excited about spending some time with the older people. 00:00:36.765 --> 00:00:43.645 So obviously, the truth of how old that person was hadn't quite sunk in. 00:00:43.645 --> 00:00:54.091 But for those of you who have spent more than half of your life expectancy, what would you say to your younger self, given what you know now? 00:00:54.091 --> 00:01:13.209 As you reflect back on your younger self, you would probably go to those moments of decision where perhaps you've made some mistakes and you would encourage yourself to go a different direction. 00:01:13.209 --> 00:01:39.787 Or perhaps you would look to your younger self and realize that you were filled with anxieties and cares about things that actually never materialized to your harm, and you might tell yourself not to worry so much or not to fret or not to be in a state of confusion or just inanimate, but actually to step forward. 00:01:39.787 --> 00:01:41.906 What would you say to yourself? 00:01:41.906 --> 00:01:46.707 What would you say to yourself In 2012,? 00:01:46.727 --> 00:01:50.554 Oprah Winfrey, at the time 58 years old wrote to her younger self. 00:01:50.554 --> 00:01:59.272 She wrote to a 19-year-old self who had just gotten a job as a news anchor at a TV station in Nashville, tennessee. 00:01:59.272 --> 00:02:04.632 She was the youngest and the first black news anchor in that city. 00:02:04.632 --> 00:02:06.614 She was still in college. 00:02:06.614 --> 00:02:07.507 She was excited about and the first black news anchor in that city. 00:02:07.507 --> 00:02:07.650 She was still in college. 00:02:07.650 --> 00:02:14.292 She was excited about the new job, but she was most concerned about her relationship with her then boyfriend. 00:02:14.292 --> 00:02:27.360 And so she decided to write as a 58-year-old to her 19-year-old self and she talked about being proud about getting the job self. 00:02:27.360 --> 00:02:31.068 And she talked about being proud about getting the job, about being concerned about juggling work and school and all of that. 00:02:31.068 --> 00:02:35.662 But she said, your biggest concern is how you manage your life with your boyfriend Bubba. 00:02:35.662 --> 00:02:39.167 Yes, you're dating someone named Bubba. 00:02:39.167 --> 00:02:48.783 And she told herself on that day that you brought him to the station to see where you work, hoping he'd be proud. 00:02:48.783 --> 00:02:51.211 He seemed less than impressed. 00:02:51.211 --> 00:02:54.588 The truth is he's intimidated. 00:02:54.588 --> 00:02:59.872 You don't know this because you can only see yourself through his eyes. 00:02:59.872 --> 00:03:11.086 A lesson you'll have to learn again and again is to see yourself with your own eyes, to love yourself from your own heart. 00:03:11.086 --> 00:03:32.189 You spent too many days trying to please others and to be what they wanted you to be, and you'll have to learn that the wounds of your past the rape, the molestation, the whippings for stepping out of place, not being allowed to show anger or even cry afterwards have damaged you. 00:03:32.189 --> 00:03:46.790 Yet through it all, you held to a belief in God and God's belief in you, and that will be your single greatest gift knowing that there's a power greater than yourself and trusting him to guide you. 00:03:48.080 --> 00:03:51.090 The trajectory of your life changed the day you took that job. 00:03:51.090 --> 00:03:56.852 Your response was ignited by the words of your then favorite Bible verse Philippians 3.14. 00:03:56.852 --> 00:04:06.560 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus, and knowing that there is a higher calling is what will sustain and fulfill you. 00:04:06.560 --> 00:04:13.231 From where I sit now, viewing your journey, there are few regrets. 00:04:13.231 --> 00:04:17.990 Only months before this picture was taken, you wrote a poem about a woman becoming. 00:04:17.990 --> 00:04:26.240 Even then, you understood that success was a process and that moving with the flow of life and not against it will be your greatest achievement. 00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.726 Love you deeply, oprah. 00:04:29.726 --> 00:04:44.011 What a gift that might have been to a 19-year-old self if she was able to receive it, to be able to know what lies ahead and how to maneuver through that life with the knowledge of the future. 00:04:45.774 --> 00:04:52.348 Well, we're in Isaiah, chapter 26, and Isaiah, chapter 26 does something like that for us. 00:04:52.348 --> 00:04:59.165 It's one of a series of what I call prophecy songs that speaks about the future. 00:04:59.165 --> 00:05:18.843 You'll see, in chapters 24, 25, and 26, and even 27, a statement in that day or on that day said quite often, and it's talking about that day of completion of God's final mighty acts of bringing everything under his will and purposes. 00:05:18.843 --> 00:05:31.661 Last week we looked at chapter 25, and Johnny opened up that passage and there's that indication of God's triumphal future Isaiah 25,. 00:05:31.661 --> 00:05:39.973 When he has swallowed up death once and for all, the Lord, god, will wipe away the tears from every face and remove his people's disgrace from the whole earth. 00:05:39.973 --> 00:05:41.435 For the Lord has spoken. 00:05:41.435 --> 00:05:51.483 On that day it will be said look, this is our God, we have waited for him and he has saved us. 00:05:51.483 --> 00:05:53.305 This is the Lord. 00:05:53.305 --> 00:05:54.608 We have waited for him. 00:05:54.608 --> 00:05:59.002 Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation. 00:05:59.002 --> 00:06:16.454 So here, from this perspective, we can look through the tunnel of time and see something happening on that day, and it will be us in a position of absolute freedom from sin and its clutches. 00:06:16.454 --> 00:06:20.971 We'll be alive and death will be dead. 00:06:20.971 --> 00:06:24.810 What a wonderful way to look at the future. 00:06:27.699 --> 00:06:29.043 But Isaiah 26 does something different for us. 00:06:29.043 --> 00:06:32.675 Yes, it speaks about what we'll do on that day. 00:06:32.675 --> 00:06:36.742 So we, from this perspective, look forward and see what's ahead. 00:06:36.742 --> 00:06:48.396 But at the same time, isaiah 26 turns it all around and then takes the words from the future and speaks into the present. 00:06:48.396 --> 00:06:56.213 It helps us understand how to conduct our life in light of what's in front of us. 00:06:56.213 --> 00:07:06.839 So when we go through this chapter, I want you to see that, because this praise here is not just something we will do later. 00:07:06.839 --> 00:07:10.271 It's a praise that affects our present. 00:07:12.940 --> 00:07:35.004 Today we live in a world that's still filled with disobedience and sin, where wickedness abounds, where the consequences of the fall still affect us all, where the consequences of the fall still affect us all, where none of us live up to the fulfillment of what we were created for, where death will be our destiny. 00:07:35.004 --> 00:07:49.144 And sometimes, when we live life in this world, we can find ourselves discouraged, feeling fruitless, often despondent, just empty. 00:07:49.144 --> 00:08:08.000 We feel sometimes, like the imagery we'll look at in just a moment, a few verses down, like a woman who's been expecting a baby for nine months, only to give birth to nothing. 00:08:08.000 --> 00:08:14.951 But our life doesn't have to feel like that when we understand what the future holds and how the future affects our present. 00:08:14.951 --> 00:08:25.730 So when we look at this section of scripture, I want you to be encouraged by the praises we'll sing in the day to come, to delight in the wonder of God's complete victory over everything. 00:08:25.730 --> 00:08:29.970 But I also want us to be able to feel that future now. 00:08:29.970 --> 00:08:38.688 So it affects how we live today and tomorrow, and the next and the next and the next, and however many God gives us. 00:08:38.688 --> 00:08:47.500 So let's look at the particulars here and listen to the praises and also to the prompts to live in the light of them. 00:08:48.602 --> 00:09:00.942 In verses one to six, we're told about the security of our salvation, and because our salvation is secure, we can trust the Lord, who will bring us into perfect harmony with himself. 00:09:00.942 --> 00:09:03.086 Listen to these first six verses. 00:09:03.086 --> 00:09:06.653 On that day, this song will be sung. 00:09:06.653 --> 00:09:09.504 In the land of Judah we have a strong city. 00:09:09.504 --> 00:09:18.188 Salvation is established as walls and ramparts Open the gate so a righteous nation can come in, one that remains faithful. 00:09:18.188 --> 00:09:38.078 You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace, for it is trusting in you, trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord, the Lord himself is an everlasting rock, for he has humbled those who live in lofty places, an inaccessible city, he brings it down. 00:09:38.078 --> 00:09:41.366 He brings it down to the ground, he throws it to the dust. 00:09:41.366 --> 00:09:46.932 Feet, trample it, the feet of the humble, the steps of the poor. 00:09:46.932 --> 00:10:04.390 Isaiah here speaks about a better day that's coming, a day in which God's people will be so safe and so secure that the imagery of a citadel, a strong fortress, a castle with walls is there. 00:10:04.390 --> 00:10:19.070 Secure, not battered down, unbeaten, one in which, when the gates open, that only the righteous can come and go from it, that no enemy will penetrate the defenses. 00:10:19.070 --> 00:10:27.052 That's how safe and secure it is, and this is particularly meaningful to the people of God at this time. 00:10:27.620 --> 00:10:39.409 In a few chapters we'll read about the Assyrian Empire again and of their encroaching power against the people of Jerusalem, particularly under a new king, this time Hezekiah. 00:10:39.409 --> 00:11:10.576 When we read the chapters that we'll be looking at, at that time, assyria had literally conquered every fortified town and village in the land of Judah, every single one except Jerusalem, and they had surrounded Jerusalem and were about to crush Jerusalem when God intervened in a mighty way. 00:11:10.576 --> 00:11:36.328 But imagine that being the last remaining city and the enemy has not been in any way harmed by the force of warfare, and they are literally on the other side of the wall and taunting you to give up. 00:11:36.328 --> 00:11:40.134 That was their present circumstance. 00:11:40.134 --> 00:12:05.950 But here Isaiah takes the imagery of that city, that city with walls, that city that's fortified, that city that's safe, that city that's secure, that city that's keeping the enemies out, and says that that is salvation is like that, that the deliverance of God is that secure? 00:12:08.893 --> 00:12:27.514 Now I want you to notice how that imagery sort of unpacks itself with a lot of statements we have in this passage of scripture statements about a city, statements about walls, statements about gates, statements about the nation and statements about the faithful. 00:12:27.514 --> 00:12:44.005 Now, if you put all of those together city, walls, gates, nation, faithful there's another passage of scripture that decides to use all of the same words and it comes at the end of the book of Revelation. 00:12:44.005 --> 00:13:08.755 And in the book of Revelation, there John writes about one of the final visions that he receives, and it says there that an angel came to him to show him the bride, the wife of the lamb, and carried him away to a holy city to a holy city, jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, arrayed with God's glory. 00:13:08.755 --> 00:13:20.442 The city had massive, high walls with 12 gates. 00:13:20.442 --> 00:13:23.029 12 angels were at the gates and the names of the 12 tribes of Israel's sons were inscribed on the gates. 00:13:23.029 --> 00:13:30.446 And the city's walls had 12 foundations and 12 names of the 12 apostles of the Lamb were on the foundation. 00:13:31.347 --> 00:13:38.485 Again, you feel the reverberation, the echoes, of this passage in Isaiah 26 here in Revelation 22. 00:13:38.485 --> 00:13:45.027 The nations will walk by its light, the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it. 00:13:45.027 --> 00:13:50.051 Its gates will never close by day because there will never be night there. 00:13:50.051 --> 00:14:00.331 Nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb's book of life. 00:14:00.331 --> 00:14:15.082 John in Revelation, chapter 21 takes up the imagery of Isaiah, chapter 26, and describes the security and the glory of salvation that's found in Christ. 00:14:18.283 --> 00:14:19.865 Now let's stop for just a second. 00:14:19.865 --> 00:15:02.047 Imagine tomorrow when the postal worker brings a letter and drops it off in your mailbox and you go out and you grab the mail and you pick it up and you're leafing through all the stuff that just doesn't need to be and you throw it away and there's a letter and it's addressed from you to you, from 777 New Creation Avenue, new Jerusalem, and you open it up. 00:15:02.047 --> 00:15:10.616 And you open it up and there you are, speaking to yourself, and the first thing that you say to yourself is you're here. 00:15:10.616 --> 00:15:22.076 You are here, your salvation is secured, you're delivered, you're in the city of God, where the glory of God is. 00:15:22.076 --> 00:15:32.763 You're in the place of ultimate beauty and ultimate harmony and ultimate unity with him who made you and all of those who are his. 00:15:32.763 --> 00:15:36.717 This is that image. 00:15:36.717 --> 00:15:46.639 What is the encouragement from that Trust in the Lord forever? 00:15:47.691 --> 00:15:54.083 Verse four Because the Lord himself is an everlasting rock. 00:15:54.083 --> 00:16:12.216 Your security in God is an everlasting security and it lies in deep contrast to the self-reliance of the wicked, who have built their own city but is one day going to fall, as the verses five and six talk about. 00:16:12.216 --> 00:16:27.779 He's humbled those who live in lofty places, in places of their own self-actualized security, in the places where they think they could be free from trouble, they will find that trouble will hit them. 00:16:27.779 --> 00:16:33.359 Finally, at the end, god will truly humble the proud, but he will exalt the humble. 00:16:33.359 --> 00:16:47.745 And so here we're told, amidst all of this, amidst a present that's filled with the exaltation of the wicked and the humbling of the righteous in a place that's filled with dangers. 00:16:47.745 --> 00:17:01.135 Right outside the gates and over the wall, there is a future that speaks so securely to you that you can now trust the one who will bring you into that victory. 00:17:01.135 --> 00:17:03.097 Trust him. 00:17:03.097 --> 00:17:12.497 Trust him Because all the benefits of God are actually yours and you will receive them. 00:17:12.497 --> 00:17:18.519 Now notice how it describes that in verse 4. 00:17:18.519 --> 00:17:28.583 Trust in the Lord forever, because in the Lord, the Lord himself is an everlasting rock. 00:17:28.583 --> 00:17:34.013 Now take a look at verse three, because this is what that looks like. 00:17:34.013 --> 00:17:37.801 He will keep the mind that is dependent on you. 00:17:37.801 --> 00:17:42.815 You will keep the mind that is dependent on you in perfect peace. 00:17:44.617 --> 00:18:04.873 In our culture, when we think of peace, we often conjure up in our head some pastoral scene maybe a verdant field full of green, maybe a little bit of light fog lifting off of it, with some sheep smattered about, and possibly a tree blooming in spring and we go. 00:18:04.873 --> 00:18:05.836 Well, that's peace. 00:18:05.836 --> 00:18:14.171 Blooming in spring, and we go. 00:18:14.171 --> 00:18:14.770 Well, that's peace. 00:18:14.770 --> 00:18:16.772 That's not the imagery of peace that the Hebrews would have understood. 00:18:16.772 --> 00:18:20.336 Shalom is a much, much, much, much bigger word than that. 00:18:20.336 --> 00:18:30.846 Shalom embodies the idea of completeness, of absolute harmony with God's will. 00:18:30.846 --> 00:18:43.722 When somebody's at peace, it means that they are in every way in integral and in integrity, in alliance with God. 00:18:43.722 --> 00:18:45.433 That's peace. 00:18:47.932 --> 00:18:49.096 Think about that for a second. 00:18:49.096 --> 00:19:00.559 Total harmony with God, total harmony with other people, totally harmony with yourself Because of God's presence and God's gift to you. 00:19:00.559 --> 00:19:04.896 Do you experience that today? 00:19:04.896 --> 00:19:18.461 That's the kind of peace God is bringing you into and that's the kind of peace you can experience as you spend time relating to God in prayer. 00:19:18.461 --> 00:19:24.040 But that is going to be the full expression of your future. 00:19:24.040 --> 00:19:30.803 You are going to be one day in shalom, you're going to be one day in peace. 00:19:30.803 --> 00:19:35.758 But it's more than that, because look at verse three again. 00:19:35.758 --> 00:19:54.488 Our translation says perfect peace, but the Hebrew says shalom, shalom, multiplied peace, peace squared. 00:19:54.488 --> 00:19:56.152 So now let's take that again. 00:19:56.152 --> 00:20:10.333 Harmony with God, harmony with others, harmony with self, total well-being, total prosperity, total tranquility, total harmony times two. 00:20:10.333 --> 00:20:13.575 That's your future. 00:20:13.575 --> 00:20:42.401 And if this is what God is going to do to grant you that total completeness, that total harmony, that total well-being that leads to total tranquility forever, trust him, because all that he's doing and all that you're experiencing are not going to stop you from being there. 00:20:45.872 --> 00:20:47.557 Now let's move into the next section. 00:20:47.557 --> 00:20:57.016 Not only can we trust, but we can also learn Verses 7 to 11. 00:20:57.016 --> 00:21:00.417 Because the Lord's righteousness will prevail. 00:21:00.417 --> 00:21:07.117 We can learn to live in and long for his righteousness to make all things right. 00:21:07.117 --> 00:21:14.758 Verse 7 makes a statement which sounds very contradictory to our present, but it will be our future. 00:21:15.881 --> 00:21:17.750 The path of the righteous is level. 00:21:17.750 --> 00:21:20.696 You clear a straight path for the righteous. 00:21:20.696 --> 00:21:26.576 Yes, lord, we wait for you in the path of your judgments, our desires for your name and renown. 00:21:26.576 --> 00:21:28.582 I long for you in the night. 00:21:28.582 --> 00:21:35.877 Yes, my spirit within me diligently seeks you, For when your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 00:21:35.877 --> 00:21:40.696 But if the wicked man has shown favor, he does not learn righteousness. 00:21:40.696 --> 00:21:47.200 In a righteous land, he acts unjustly and does not see the majesty of the Lord. 00:21:47.200 --> 00:21:51.575 Lord, your hand is lifted up to take action, but they do not see it. 00:21:51.575 --> 00:21:55.090 Let them see your zeal for your people and to be put to shame. 00:21:55.090 --> 00:21:57.634 Let fire consume your adversaries. 00:21:57.634 --> 00:22:15.435 So, once again, the future speaks to us about a level path of righteousness, of smooth, free, unfettered, unencumbered, no barriers, no obstacles, no hardships at all, about living the right kind of life. 00:22:15.435 --> 00:22:26.623 Wow, I don't know about you, but at the end of every day, the one thing I pray is to thank God about all of his goodness and mercy to me. 00:22:26.623 --> 00:22:36.064 Pray is to thank God about all of his goodness and mercy to me, but also to remember with regret the many ways I didn't walk in a way with him that fully exemplified my Savior. 00:22:36.064 --> 00:22:40.954 One day, I won't have to pray that prayer anymore. 00:22:40.954 --> 00:22:48.486 One day, life will be fully smooth and level and righteous completely. 00:22:50.611 --> 00:22:56.182 The road right now, well, it's got a lot of ruts, a lot of bumps, a lot of potholes. 00:22:56.182 --> 00:23:00.141 It's kind of uphill, it's challenging. 00:23:00.141 --> 00:23:32.382 When Micah and I and Chad and one of his teammates went up into the Caucus Mountains, we were in a 15-passenger van that seemed like it needed shocks five years ago on a road that needed some real serious work, and our driver thought the best way to make it easier was to go faster, and so we popped from pothole to pothole to pothole and I was just checking every now and again to make sure my teeth were still in my head. 00:23:32.382 --> 00:23:44.374 That's what life feels like now Bumpy, uphill, jarring, difficult, but one day it won't be. 00:23:44.374 --> 00:23:46.359 One day it won't be. 00:23:46.359 --> 00:23:47.070 But one day it won't be. 00:23:47.070 --> 00:23:47.750 One day it won't be. 00:23:47.771 --> 00:24:14.289 And so here we're taught not only to trust the Lord, but to learn to align ourselves with the future that we're going to be in, to put ourselves in the path of righteousness and wait for him To learn to be righteous and to long for the day when we'll be fully there with him. 00:24:14.289 --> 00:24:31.069 So much so that we're willing to take on board even the judgments of God in the land Verse 9, for when your judgments are in the land, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness. 00:24:31.069 --> 00:24:52.140 You see, we're so confident of that future day that when trouble comes and challenges are facing this world and hardship endures, when it seems like God's judgment even has come to this world, we find ourselves being shaped by the hardship in humility and submission to our God. 00:24:52.140 --> 00:25:03.316 And this is in deep contrast to the wicked, who don't even acknowledge him when good happens to them. 00:25:03.316 --> 00:25:05.670 Take a look at verse 10. 00:25:06.905 --> 00:25:12.157 When the wicked man is shown favor, he does not learn righteousness. 00:25:12.157 --> 00:25:17.414 This is one of the distinguishing marks of a believer. 00:25:17.414 --> 00:25:40.057 When a believer is filled with trouble, yes, it's hard, yes, we cry, yes, we may buck, but eventually we yield and we say yes, lord, I understand that this trouble's for my good, even though it's not something I like, and it's not something I'm comfortable in. 00:25:40.057 --> 00:25:49.534 I find in it the grace to receive whatever you have for me, so it may shape and mold me to be something I'm not. 00:25:49.534 --> 00:25:50.015 Right now. 00:25:50.015 --> 00:25:58.531 When good hits an unbeliever's heart, they think my, what a wonderful person I am. 00:25:58.531 --> 00:26:02.646 Or how great the circumstances have come into my life. 00:26:02.646 --> 00:26:06.814 Do you think maybe God did this for you? 00:26:06.814 --> 00:26:08.616 Are you kidding me? 00:26:08.616 --> 00:26:12.868 I'm smart, I'm clever, I'm a good businessman. 00:26:12.868 --> 00:26:19.548 They don't learn righteousness even when favor comes and when trouble comes. 00:26:19.548 --> 00:26:22.616 God, how could you have done this to me? 00:26:22.616 --> 00:26:33.459 That is a huge demarcation between a heart that's regenerate and one that's not. 00:26:37.066 --> 00:26:50.957 When God disciplines his children, we know it's, but for a season, a season that will eventually end and will open up into an everlasting era of glory and peace and righteousness. 00:26:50.957 --> 00:26:55.693 This is why the writer of Hebrews tells us to endure. 00:26:55.693 --> 00:27:14.356 To endure suffering is discipline, to know that it yields the peaceable fruits of righteousness after it exercises us, that God blesses and guides us in the troubles to put us on a straight, direct and level path. 00:27:14.356 --> 00:27:22.199 So, in the midst of circumstances that are not ideal but real, we confess that we wait on him. 00:27:22.199 --> 00:27:33.298 We recognize that he's the key to the future and our only hope for an established, transformed life is to wait and long and to learn from him. 00:27:33.298 --> 00:27:40.398 And so we join with Paul in his affirmations in Romans 8. 00:27:40.398 --> 00:27:47.037 For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that will be revealed within us. 00:27:48.546 --> 00:27:50.132 Paul, how do you know that? 00:27:50.132 --> 00:27:56.637 We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose? 00:27:56.637 --> 00:27:59.212 What assurance that you have that that's true? 00:27:59.212 --> 00:28:03.471 He did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all. 00:28:03.471 --> 00:28:07.075 How shall he not also, with him, freely give us all things? 00:28:07.075 --> 00:28:11.153 Would the Lord do such a thing as that for us? 00:28:11.153 --> 00:28:15.590 Well, who can separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus? 00:28:15.590 --> 00:28:24.252 Can affliction or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger of sword? 00:28:24.252 --> 00:28:32.715 No, no, and all these things were more than conquerors. 00:28:32.715 --> 00:28:38.814 Through him, who loved us, let's continue to learn from the future, shall we? 00:28:38.814 --> 00:28:48.939 We learn to trust, we learn to lean and learn and long for the righteousness that we'll one day have. 00:28:48.939 --> 00:28:54.115 But in verses 12 to 16, we also learn to ascribe God glory for it all. 00:28:56.366 --> 00:28:57.792 Let's read verses 12 to 16. 00:28:57.792 --> 00:29:04.351 Lord, you will establish peace for us, for you've also done all our work for us. 00:29:04.351 --> 00:29:06.436 Lord, our Lord. 00:29:06.436 --> 00:29:12.952 Lords other than you have owned us, but we remember your name alone. 00:29:12.952 --> 00:29:15.371 The dead do not live. 00:29:15.371 --> 00:29:16.971 Departed spirits do not rise up. 00:29:16.971 --> 00:29:18.692 Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them. 00:29:18.692 --> 00:29:21.134 You have wiped out all memory of them. 00:29:21.134 --> 00:29:24.511 You've added to the nation, lord. 00:29:24.511 --> 00:29:25.849 You've added to the nation. 00:29:25.849 --> 00:29:26.733 You are honored. 00:29:26.733 --> 00:29:32.931 You have expanded all the borders of the land, lord. 00:29:32.931 --> 00:29:34.144 They went to you in their distress. 00:29:34.144 --> 00:29:37.996 They poured out whispered prayers because your discipline fell upon them. 00:29:37.996 --> 00:29:40.209 They poured out whispered prayers because your discipline fell upon them. 00:29:40.209 --> 00:29:51.468 Here, isaiah is showing us the future in which we'll acknowledge that God did it all and we'll ascribe to him the glory for it. 00:29:51.488 --> 00:30:21.236 Isaiah is speaking to a people that needed to learn this lesson Because, as a small nation among mighty empires, fixed within the middle of two significant powers of Assyria and Egypt, there was the tendency for them to either fearfully retreat and just hope that everything passed over them, or to try to make an alliance with the powers and get on the winning side, hopefully. 00:30:21.236 --> 00:30:33.276 And so they thought, either by their sort of cowering or by their cooperating, that they were going to endure and be successful. 00:30:33.276 --> 00:30:42.392 But here they acknowledge that actually it's God who will take care of them, god who will establish their peace. 00:30:42.392 --> 00:30:53.997 And they admit that they are not the ones to look for for the success, because other lords than our Lord have lorded over us. 00:30:53.997 --> 00:31:06.997 And here Isaiah speaks about their temporary dominion, that they'll go to the dust, just like every single person will, and they will not exert power there. 00:31:06.997 --> 00:31:09.904 They will be brought to nothing. 00:31:09.904 --> 00:31:16.679 The people that we feared, the people that we'd hoped upon, are actually no powers at all. 00:31:16.679 --> 00:31:20.195 The only enduring power is the power of God. 00:31:20.195 --> 00:31:24.035 The only enduring dominion is the dominion of God. 00:31:24.035 --> 00:31:27.494 The only enduring dynasty is the dynasty of God. 00:31:27.494 --> 00:31:38.375 And here the prophecy gives praise Because we don't need to fear the oppressor and we don't need to rely heavily upon the promiser. 00:31:38.375 --> 00:31:54.278 We need to rest in our Lord and the day will come when he will put us in that place or establish the time of shalom, of perfect harmony, and he will defeat all those things that disrupt that. 00:31:57.087 --> 00:31:59.325 Let's go to the next section in verses 17 to 19. 00:31:59.325 --> 00:32:01.509 Let's go to the next section in verses 17 to 19. 00:32:01.509 --> 00:32:04.574 So we learn to trust, because the future is secure. 00:32:04.574 --> 00:32:10.650 We learn righteousness, because we'll be put in level places of righteousness. 00:32:10.650 --> 00:32:17.933 We learn to ascribe glory, because at the end of the day we'll recognize that he was the only one we should have relied upon anyway. 00:32:17.933 --> 00:32:28.065 But we also will acknowledge our deep weaknesses. 00:32:28.664 --> 00:32:30.507 Verse 17 to 19. 00:32:30.507 --> 00:32:35.594 As a pregnant woman about to give birth rise and cries out in her pain. 00:32:35.594 --> 00:32:37.236 So we were before you, lord. 00:32:37.236 --> 00:32:46.338 We became pregnant, we writhed in pain, we gave birth to wind. 00:32:46.338 --> 00:32:49.974 We have won no victories on earth and the earth's inhabitants have not fallen. 00:32:49.974 --> 00:32:52.670 Your dead will live. 00:32:52.670 --> 00:32:54.847 Their bodies will rise, awake and sing. 00:32:54.847 --> 00:33:01.551 You who dwell in the dust for you will be covered with the morning dew and the earth will bring out the departed spirits. 00:33:01.551 --> 00:33:12.237 Here is an acknowledgement, in light of the resurrection, that we could never bring that about. 00:33:12.237 --> 00:33:24.976 And it uses the imagery of labor to a full term, full expectancy of life, and all that's given birth is emptiness. 00:33:24.976 --> 00:33:30.037 And then it looks at the grave, where no life is expected. 00:33:30.037 --> 00:33:35.877 But when the Spirit of God rests upon that place of death, it lives. 00:33:35.877 --> 00:33:41.545 It lives. 00:33:41.545 --> 00:34:00.156 And here we acknowledge the great contrast between God's abilities to bring life out of death and our feeble efforts bringing nothing where life should have been expected, humbling, confessing that we can do nothing but give birth to wind. 00:34:00.156 --> 00:34:11.954 And the word picture in verse 18 gets explained We've become pregnant and writhed in pain. 00:34:11.954 --> 00:34:13.291 We gave birth to the wind. 00:34:13.291 --> 00:34:20.576 We have won no victories on earth and the earth's inhabitants have not fallen. 00:34:22.157 --> 00:34:23.760 What is Israel confessing here? 00:34:23.760 --> 00:34:36.338 Israel is confessing here that by their own efforts they were not able to fulfill the purpose for which God had called them out. 00:34:36.338 --> 00:34:40.255 They were to be a light to the nations. 00:34:40.255 --> 00:34:49.853 They were to be the one place where the nations would say those are the people of God, let us learn about him. 00:34:49.853 --> 00:34:56.275 And here they are confessing we failed. 00:34:56.275 --> 00:34:59.994 We utterly failed to do that. 00:34:59.994 --> 00:35:07.552 We should have birthed people, but we birthed the wind. 00:35:07.552 --> 00:35:14.994 We should have brought the nations into the glory of God, but we didn't even bring ourselves there. 00:35:14.994 --> 00:35:36.431 On that day, there will be no self-exaltation On the day of revealing, there'll be no patting ourselves on the back because we did it. 00:35:36.451 --> 00:36:03.494 This is why the apostle Paul talked about the gospel ministry that he was engaged in and he said that he spoke the gospel to blind and deaf, spiritually blind and deaf people, and he knew that he couldn't bring sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf. 00:36:03.494 --> 00:36:18.891 But God, who made light shine out of darkness has shone the light to the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, and he says we have that treasure in earthen vessels so that the excellency might be of God and not of ourselves. 00:36:18.891 --> 00:36:26.856 There's no room for pride, there's no room for taking the credit. 00:36:26.856 --> 00:36:33.117 If anything good happens, it's because God is pleased to use us as an instrument. 00:36:33.117 --> 00:36:40.974 This morning I was refreshed by a cup of coffee. 00:36:40.974 --> 00:36:44.534 I loved it, especially after losing an hour of sleep. 00:36:44.534 --> 00:36:53.050 But I would have been freaked out if that cup said you're welcome. 00:36:53.050 --> 00:37:07.222 Never once is the vessel going to get the credit and that's all we are. 00:37:07.222 --> 00:37:17.527 We're just vessels, because what God can accomplish, no man can accomplish. 00:37:17.527 --> 00:37:31.664 He can bring life where nothing is, he can bring vigor where death reigns, and he can even put death to death. 00:37:31.664 --> 00:37:36.454 So remember the resurrection, remember the glory of God and his ability. 00:37:42.724 --> 00:37:47.032 When you are filled with the sense of your own inadequacies and your own failures, it's okay to admit them. 00:37:47.032 --> 00:37:54.213 In fact you should, because you don't need to try harder and do better. 00:37:54.213 --> 00:37:58.956 You need to rely more on the one who actually has the power. 00:37:58.956 --> 00:38:04.465 You need to rely more on the one who actually has the power. 00:38:04.465 --> 00:38:08.309 Let's look at the last one, verses 20 to 21. 00:38:08.309 --> 00:38:11.974 Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. 00:38:11.974 --> 00:38:15.079 Hide for a little while until the wrath has passed. 00:38:17.505 --> 00:38:19.909 For look, the Lord is coming from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity. 00:38:19.909 --> 00:38:25.378 The earth will reveal the blood shed on it and will no longer conceal her slain. 00:38:25.378 --> 00:38:36.396 So by looking into the future, we've come to trust a God who brings us into such a secure salvation that no wickedness will ever enter the gates of that glorious place. 00:38:36.396 --> 00:38:47.355 We've learned to long for and to live in the pathway of righteousness, because we'll be brought into it completely on a level plane. 00:38:47.355 --> 00:38:52.487 We learn to ascribe glory because he's the one who's done it for us. 00:38:52.487 --> 00:38:58.215 We learn to acknowledge our weaknesses in the light of God's power to resurrect the dead. 00:38:58.215 --> 00:39:12.427 But we also learn to wait until the completion of God's final judgment, when all things will be put right and all wrongs will be put down. 00:39:15.250 --> 00:39:18.574 And in these two verses we're told where to wait. 00:39:18.574 --> 00:39:23.380 Go, my people, enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. 00:39:23.380 --> 00:39:26.994 There's a designated place to wait. 00:39:26.994 --> 00:39:34.318 That God will shake the earth with judgment, but he has a place of refuge for his people. 00:39:34.318 --> 00:39:41.777 They will not be swept away by the wicked, provided they go where God tells them to go. 00:39:41.777 --> 00:39:58.516 And here this invitation should bring echoes from earlier judgments and provisions of safety Noah and his family, in which God shut them in the ark and closed the door. 00:39:58.516 --> 00:40:11.755 Or the people of Israel on the day of the Passover, in which God passed over the people inside the house that had the blood of the lamb over the doorpost and lentils. 00:40:11.755 --> 00:40:29.938 And here inside the door, with the door shut to this place of safety is a secure place to wait for that ultimate day in which God's judgments will bring all wrongs right and all rights to the rightful place. 00:40:29.938 --> 00:40:33.467 Where is that place? 00:40:33.467 --> 00:40:44.061 It's no wonder, then, that Jesus himself said I am the door, and those who enter in through me shall live. 00:40:44.061 --> 00:40:52.679 The place that we remain is the place of eternal security in Christ and Christ alone. 00:40:54.085 --> 00:40:56.313 We don't drag in our works. 00:40:56.313 --> 00:40:58.192 We don't drag in our righteousness. 00:40:58.192 --> 00:40:59.498 We don't drag in anything that we do. 00:40:59.498 --> 00:41:00.007 We just simply go in our works. 00:41:00.007 --> 00:41:00.478 We don't drag in our righteousness. 00:41:00.478 --> 00:41:00.806 We don't drag in anything that we do. 00:41:00.806 --> 00:41:07.278 We just simply go in and wait until God accomplishes his final purposes. 00:41:09.545 --> 00:41:21.710 Here's a song, a song to look at and say isn't it going to be wonderful when we sing about deliverance, we sing about righteousness and we sing about God's ability to do all things and we ascribe praise to him. 00:41:21.710 --> 00:41:31.416 Isn't it wonderful that we're going to sing about the realization that he did it all and we couldn't, and we sing about the freedom from the judgment that we were able to face? 00:41:31.416 --> 00:41:43.972 Yeah, it's there, it's right here, but the song spins around on us and it sings to us now and says can you trust the God who's bringing you there? 00:41:43.972 --> 00:41:44.954 Yes, you can. 00:41:44.954 --> 00:41:51.201 Can you learn to align yourself with a God who's righteous? 00:41:51.201 --> 00:41:54.094 Yes, you can. 00:41:54.094 --> 00:42:00.722 Can you begin to ascribe to him praise for his power to do things? 00:42:00.722 --> 00:42:01.025 Yes, you can. 00:42:01.025 --> 00:42:07.233 Can you acknowledge your weaknesses now, when you realize then how fully it was all about him anyway? 00:42:07.233 --> 00:42:08.737 Yes, you can. 00:42:08.737 --> 00:42:19.521 And that means you can also wait, looking expectantly for the day when all that's wrong is going to be done away with. 00:42:20.664 --> 00:42:28.335 This is Isaiah 26, a beautiful song, but also one that really we need to sing every day to ourselves. 00:42:29.347 --> 00:42:34.237 As we continue for this day to become the day we sing. 00:42:34.958 --> 00:42:40.034 Let's pray, father, we thank you for your glorious word. 00:42:41.126 --> 00:42:44.074 We pray that it might have effect in all of our hearts deeply. 00:42:45.407 --> 00:43:03.295 And, lord, I want to pray particularly for those who might be among us, who are trusting their own works of righteousness for salvation, who are perhaps even indifferent about the day of judgment that's coming, who don't have a concern for their soul. 00:43:05.284 --> 00:43:12.670 And, lord, this passage says that you will act in their life, but it will not be for their good. 00:43:12.670 --> 00:43:20.536 It will be a day in which you will rain down your judgments upon those who ignore or resist you. 00:43:20.536 --> 00:43:38.195 And, father, I pray that this song, which speaks such comfort and encouragement and hope into our hearts, will alarm them and cause them to see the desperate state that they're in outside of you. 00:43:38.195 --> 00:44:06.829 And, lord, may they hear that final invitation come into the door, come in and shut that door and wait and escape the judgment to come, and may they find that that only secure place of safety is not to rely upon themselves but upon Jesus Christ, who is our righteousness, who is our wisdom, who is our deliverance. 00:44:06.829 --> 00:44:15.588 Lord, I pray you would work that work in their hearts, graciously to your glory, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen.