John Gravino: I speak on behalf of all my family, of course, to just say what an incredible time it has been with you.
John Gravino: We have simply been incredibly blessed by your hospitality, your fellowship, just time with you, and so the privilege to preach the word is in addition to the overwhelming abundance of living in your midst as a congregation.
John Gravino: You are such a precious church.
John Gravino: I know your pastor knows this, your pastors know this, but I just wish to say it to the glory of Christ, for what a blessing it is to be in your midst, having fellowshiped with you again all of this week.
John Gravino: You are truly precious saints, and Banu is making it incredibly hard for us to leave tonight with pizza night, so I think I'll send Alex and the kids home and I will remain.
John Gravino: Please open your Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 25.
John Gravino: Isaiah, chapter 25.
John Gravino: We have had the blessing of looking at Isaiah, chapters 24 and 25 that we have entitled, that I have entitled, from Curse to Consolation.
John Gravino: God's Glory in the Last Days, god's Glory Through Christ.
John Gravino: Christ will be displayed at the center of Isaiah, as I pray.
John Gravino: We saw together last week, even amidst the curse, we were able to see visibly before us exalted the cursed one who was cursed on our behalf, as the introduction to the sermon this morning and to your service has said so wonderfully, through song and prayer.
John Gravino: And so please follow along as I read our text this morning Isaiah, chapter 25, verses 1 through 12, chapter 25, the whole of it, isaiah speaks oh Yahweh, you are my God.
John Gravino: I will exalt you, I will give thanks to your name, for you have worked wonders.
John Gravino: Councils formed long ago with perfect faithfulness For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified town into a ruin.
John Gravino: A palace of strangers is a city no more.
John Gravino: It will never be rebuilt.
John Gravino: Therefore, a strong people will glorify you.
John Gravino: Towns of ruthless nations will fear you, for you have been a strong defense for the poor, a strong defense for the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the breath of the ruthless is like a rainstorm against a wall, like heat in a dry land.
John Gravino: You subdue the rumbling of the strangers.
John Gravino: Like heat in a dry land.
John Gravino: You subdue the rumbling of the strangers Like heat by the shadow of a cloud.
John Gravino: The song of the ruthless is silenced and Yahweh of hosts will prepare a lavish banquet for all peoples on this mountain, a banquet of aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine.
John Gravino: And on this mountain he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations.
John Gravino: He will swallow up death for all time, and Lord Yahweh will wipe tears away from all faces and he will remove the reproach of his people from all the earth.
John Gravino: For Yahweh has spoken, and it will be said in that day Behold, this is our God, in whom we have hoped that he would save us.
John Gravino: This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped.
John Gravino: Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation, for the hand of Yahweh will rest on this mountain and Moab will be trodden down in his place.
John Gravino: A straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile.
John Gravino: He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.
John Gravino: But Yahweh will lay low his lofty pride, together with the trickery of his hands, the unassailable fortifications of your walls, he will bring down, lay low and cast to the ground, even to the dust, and cast to the ground, even to the dust.
John Gravino: Isaiah, chapter 25 is about consolation.
John Gravino: Therefore, after God's curse in redemption comes God's consolation.
John Gravino: As a part of that same plan of redemption, there is judgment, just judgment.
John Gravino: That is a part of God's work, wonderful works, as we heard from Isaiah in our passage.
John Gravino: But that justice never comes without joy, the joy of deliverance, the joy of deliverance, the joy of deliverance from the injustice lived out prior.
John Gravino: The faithful remnant.
John Gravino: Rejoice, therefore, and this morning we rejoice with our passage.
John Gravino: Along with our passage and with Isaiah, we rejoice.
John Gravino: The righteous sing songs to the righteous one whose glory is displayed through righteousness, righteousness reigns.
John Gravino: The voices of his people thereby cry out from the east to the west.
John Gravino: The faithful lift up their voices, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ.
John Gravino: The tears shed for the sufferings of the present time are incomparable to the hope realized when his glory is revealed in that day.
John Gravino: And so we rejoice as we simply review what we've seen thus far and what we're about to be, about to be being blessed with, if you will, in chapter 25, the cry of the redeemed and the joy of salvation all lifted up in Christ.
John Gravino: Lifting up Christ, lifting up Christ.
John Gravino: Let's look more closely at our text with those words in mind Consolation to the one who has been faithful, Consolation as expressed from the individual's praise.
John Gravino: Isaiah 25, as we said, is about consolation.
John Gravino: The consolation will be explained through the following flow of thought, through the following flow of thought.
John Gravino: I've just shared that first flow of thought Isaiah expresses in lifting up the consolation.
John Gravino: God's consolation will be seen through the eyes of those who persevere, who persevere through the curse, through the judgment, the persevering.
John Gravino: These are the faithful, these are the overcomers, these are the remnant In our passage in chapter 25, we'll be speaking directly to them through and in Christ, as we'll see in the prophecy.
John Gravino: They are the beneficiaries of the joy of salvation, they are the beneficiaries of God's consolation.
John Gravino: And so our passage will thus be explained through the flow of thought, through Isaiah's logic.
John Gravino: First, we have consolation as expressed from the individual's praise.
John Gravino: We will see the individual's praise, chapter 25, verses 1 through 5.
John Gravino: And second, we have consolation as expressed through the community's praise.
John Gravino: The community's praise, chapter 25, verses 6 through 12.
John Gravino: Closing off our passage and chapter, consolation will thus be explained through Isaiah's flow of thought in looking at praise coming up to God, lifted up to God, thanksgiving being given to God for his consolation, from the individual believer to the whole community, to the whole community, to all of his people, in other words, to all of his people.
John Gravino: And so let's look more closely at our text, beginning with consolation as expressed from the individuals, as I stated and said earlier.
John Gravino: Consolation to the one who has been faithful.
John Gravino: Consolation as expressed from the individual's praise Chapter 25, verses 1 through 5.
John Gravino: Please observe how verse 1 of chapter 25 begins.
John Gravino: We have a very, very strong commitment to the praise of Yahweh.
John Gravino: Yahweh, god, emphasis, emphasis on the you, emphasis on the you.
John Gravino: Notice verse one you are my God.
John Gravino: I will exalt you, emphasis on the you of my God.
John Gravino: At the beginning of verse one.
John Gravino: I will give thanks to your name.
John Gravino: This, in other words, this consolation, this rejoicing, this hope after the curse, is about God.
John Gravino: So was the curse.
John Gravino: It's all to God's glory.
John Gravino: This is about God.
John Gravino: Trials and tribulation are more about God than they are about us.
John Gravino: They give us this God-centered vision.
John Gravino: We look up.
John Gravino: Life is about God.
John Gravino: All of our experiences in a sin-cursed world hence afflictions and tears, reproach for sin, our sin and that of others is all, all, everything about God, about knowing God, even amidst the incomparable tribulation faced on that day, on the final of days, judgment day, it will be about possessing a deeper understanding of the holiness of God and that the whole earth is full of his glory.
John Gravino: Isaiah 6, 3, isaiah's vision.
John Gravino: The believer will be brought to that, to that greater understanding.
John Gravino: He will be brought to him, to a greater knowledge of God, of who God is.
John Gravino: And for this, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the trials or the cost, we praise him, we praise him.
John Gravino: We praise him.
John Gravino: The righteous, the remnant, those who faithfully persevere, clinging to the word of God and the testimony of the Lamb.
John Gravino: The persevering know this, know this, they mature through this and they praise God for this, for the sufferings they face.
John Gravino: They are brought further, closer, deeper to the mercies of God.
John Gravino: Through the worship of God, they exalt rather than lament, they confess rather than complain.
John Gravino: They bring themselves to humble adoration of the only God, only Christ and Messiah.
John Gravino: The exaltation, moreover, is very striking in its expression.
John Gravino: Again, verse 1, I will exalt you, I will exalt you is in the passive, whereas right beside it is the following action as you can see from your Bibles, I will give thanks to your name, which is in the active voice, if we were just to bring out the grammar briefly placed back to back, in other words, to enhance the all-around thrust of the worshiper's praise on that day, to Yahweh, to his God.
John Gravino: In other words, body and soul.
John Gravino: Body and soul are moved and moved upon as stirred to and fro, back and forth, lifting up praise to God.
John Gravino: This is the affection of the redeemed, after redemption has been delivered.
John Gravino: The saved, in other words, worship this way, said differently, they worship this way for their salvation, for their Savior and Lord, the one who has rescued them from the finality of his curse upon the wicked and the earth.
John Gravino: He who is consoled from God's consolation responds, praises Yahweh through such devoted worship.
John Gravino: That is all he wants.
John Gravino: Is Christ at the end of the day.
John Gravino: How different, how different, how different.
John Gravino: Please notice and recall this is from those cursed.
John Gravino: How different this is of the day.
John Gravino: How different, how different, how different.
John Gravino: Please notice and recall this is from those cursed.
John Gravino: How different this is from the curse.
John Gravino: Do you remember?
John Gravino: The curse evokes no consolation.
John Gravino: Those cursed, rather than rejoice, cry out, cry out.
John Gravino: I waste away, I waste away.
John Gravino: Woe is me.
John Gravino: Chapter 24, verse 16, says just that.
John Gravino: We looked at it last week Under the curse.
John Gravino: You are anxious and cannot be helped from your anxiety.
John Gravino: And we just recall here, in similar fashion, christ Jesus as he prays in Gethsemane before his hour, the hour of his suffering, perfect without sinning, and yet experiences the heaviness, the grief, the distress that death brings upon all men.
John Gravino: As he tastes death for all men, on all men.
John Gravino: As he tastes death for all men Under the curse, then you have no deliverance.
John Gravino: These words, the cry of those who waste away and call woe upon themselves, come from Isaiah as he identifies with the horrors of the unrighteous, all the more Christ, as we've just said, in his own passion.
John Gravino: These will perish as the curse rains down from heaven upon them.
John Gravino: The treacherous who deal treacherously are overcome by panic.
John Gravino: They run from the judgment only to find themselves falling into a pit and if able to get out of the pit, the pitfall captures them.
John Gravino: They are forever entrapped.
John Gravino: Again, we saw this in chapter 24 last week.
John Gravino: Amos, amos, just by way of help and illustration, amos the prophet illustrates the dreaded fate of the unrighteous on that judgment day.
John Gravino: In Amos 5, in chapter 5 of his prophecy he explains as a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him.
John Gravino: Or he goes home, leans his handes from a lion and a bear meets him, or he goes home, leans his hand against the wall and a snake bites him.
John Gravino: Amos 5.19.
John Gravino: There will be no hope for the unrighteous on that day, no immediate relief, but constant and growing distress.
John Gravino: They will never be consoled.
John Gravino: In other words, in the words of Amos once again, the Lord will set his eyes against them for evil and not for good.
John Gravino: Not so, not so the faithful remnant, not so the persevering, the faithful that hold fast to the word and the testimony, again of the lamb.
John Gravino: Verse one of our passage continues giving us the reason for the believers praise on that day.
John Gravino: God is exalted because please look at verse one he has worked wonders.
John Gravino: He has worked wonders and his counsels, formed long ago with perfect faithfulness, have have been fulfilled.
John Gravino: Fulfilled.
John Gravino: The expression carries with it a completion, a satisfaction, a perfect peace that the steadfast experience at the end of it all because of God's faithful faithfulness.
John Gravino: That's exactly the way the term is said Faithful faithfulness, the meaning of perfect faithfulness at the end of verse one, faithful faithfulness to it all, to the whole plan.
John Gravino: Conjured up is a scene mixed with dread and splendor isaiah 2.
John Gravino: Isaiah 2, if we were to go back as cited in chapter 24, is back as cited in chapter 24, isaiah 2, as cited in chapter 24 last Sunday and hence just reading it for you.
John Gravino: In Isaiah 24, speaks this way, as the prophecy begins to unfold In that day, men will cast away to the moles and the baths their idols of silver, their idols of gold, which they made for themselves to worship, in order to go into the caverns of the rocks and the clefts of the cliffs, before the dread of Yahweh and the splendor of his majesty when he arises to make the earth tremble.
John Gravino: This is from Isaiah 2, verses 20 through 21, but expressed in chapter 24, as we looked at last week in our in our study of the curse.
John Gravino: Yahweh is worthy to be praised for.
John Gravino: He has worked wonders.
John Gravino: The work first off notice is depicted as something overall.
John Gravino: Overall, then as a grand, as a grand opera through the unity heard, through the unity heard through the unity of all its voices, in a majestic crescendo that spans time.
John Gravino: This is how the faithful and remnant will see salvation.
John Gravino: There is awe in fixing one's sight on its finish.
John Gravino: The blueprint of salvation before the ages is now a finished work.
John Gravino: Wonders, wonders.
John Gravino: Furthermore, speaks of the miraculous Before every one of the living, those that have survived the wrath of God, there is astonishment at something that is too wonderful to be explained by human hands, done or performed by human hands.
John Gravino: That which is wonderful is simply the work of God revealed.
John Gravino: That is what salvation is.
John Gravino: In other words, we take a step back and Isaiah pictures that day when the redeemed sing and see God's purposes all along.
John Gravino: What we did not understand fully, we see now clearly.
John Gravino: Those witnessing it from the earth see the wonderful display of divine condescension in history and time.
John Gravino: A sheer mercies, the mercies of God to them, overflowing.
John Gravino: We will not get there that day if you will and complain with God and say please explain this to me.
John Gravino: Why did you do that?
John Gravino: I was really disappointed with that.
John Gravino: No, we will be before God simply praising him for his mercies and wanting more mercy, thanking him for his over abundant mercy.
John Gravino: It is all mercy.
John Gravino: The instinctive impulse is to tell of it, speak of it and cry it out in praise.
John Gravino: The Psalms frequently express this attitude, in Psalm 9, for example.
John Gravino: Psalm 9, david erupts in praise, proclaiming I will be glad and exalting you.
John Gravino: I will sing praise to your name, o Most High, verse 2, psalm 9, verse 2.
John Gravino: Later he adds sing praises to Yahweh who abides in Zion.
John Gravino: Declare among the peoples his acts, for he who requires blood remembers them.
John Gravino: He does not forget get the cry of the afflicted.
John Gravino: This is good news, good news In fact.
John Gravino: In fact, this is messianic news in the context of Isaiah Wonders recalls.
John Gravino: Wonders recalls exactly what you hear it from the sound of the word.
John Gravino: Wonders recalls the wonderful counselor.
John Gravino: Counselor for a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us and the government will rest on his shoulders and his name will be called wonderful counselor.
John Gravino: Mighty god, eternal father, prince of peace, there will be no end to the increase of his government or of peace on the throne of david and over his kingdom, to establish it and to uphold it with justice and righteousness.
John Gravino: From then on and forevermore, the zeal of yahweh of hosts will accomplish this.
John Gravino: Isaiah 9, 6, 7.
John Gravino: Again, there is a seeming play on words in verse 1, always of our passage.
John Gravino: There's a seeming play of words in our text that is followed by counsels, so that we have praise for the counselor and his counsel.
John Gravino: The plan we could say formed long ago, a time remote and distant from that of Isaiah, way before the prophet and his prophecy, and from the day in the future, isaiah's prophecy points to the senses of an eternal plan, worked, planned and counseled long ago.
John Gravino: Much more can be said here about God's work, coupled with God's counsel In the immediate context of the prophecy.
John Gravino: Notice verse 23 of chapter 24, just above in our previous passage, and study study.
John Gravino: Verse 23 of chapter 24 concludes the section on curse with the triumph of God's reign, do you remember?
John Gravino: Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed, for Yahweh of hosts will reign on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, and his glory will be before his elders.
John Gravino: 24, 23.
John Gravino: Together we have the plan devised for the coming kingdom of God through the King Christ, the Lord.
John Gravino: Consider for a moment, consider for a moment how profound God's plan is, his wondrous works and counsel.
John Gravino: In the greater context of our passage, that is to say early on in the book of Isaiah, we are told of the sign.
John Gravino: The sign, the sign of Emmanuel, isaiah 7.
John Gravino: The sign speaks to something miraculous that God will do for his people as a part of God's future deliverance of them.
John Gravino: All of this, the two expressions wonderful works and counsels at the beginning of verse one in our passage, along with, furthermore, the idea of God's coming reign and kingdom in the immediate context 24-23, seem all of this, all of this I hope you can follow along, seem to lift up the sign of Emmanuel, the coming of Messiah and the Lord Jesus as God's future consolation after the curse.
John Gravino: In other words, jesus as God's future consolation after the curse.
John Gravino: In other words, as we await to hear about consolation, we are awaiting to hear about who or whom.
John Gravino: Christ, christ.
John Gravino: Again, this is not about us.
John Gravino: Isaiah is lifting up Christ so that we can all look to him.
John Gravino: The consolation we're talking about in our passage in chapter 25, said differently, is Emmanuel, christ himself.
John Gravino: Christ is the answer to joy everlasting.
John Gravino: God curses him and God consoles those who find their refuge in him because Christ has been cursed on their, our behalf.
John Gravino: To render it very simply you want peace away from the distress, grief and anxiety.
John Gravino: You turn to Christ in repentance and faith.
John Gravino: Believe Isaiah's message.
John Gravino: Simply put Believe in the future as you believe in the promise now from his time.
John Gravino: Therefore, he, the Lord Jesus, is God's wonderful work, counsel before time and salvation to the joy of the redeemed to the ends of the earth.
John Gravino: Last week, in coming to grips again, just by way of review, in coming to grips with the curse of God upon the earth.
John Gravino: In chapter 24, we asked how the end of days will end.
John Gravino: We said Isaiah gives us that picture through his prophecy, I pray.
John Gravino: We responded to that then through our study of chapter 24.
John Gravino: That said, 24 provides a partial answer.
John Gravino: That is answered more fully and clearly in chapter 25.
John Gravino: Our chapter today, 24 through 27, provides the full answer and picture.
John Gravino: How will our world come to an end?
John Gravino: Behold, from what we have seen in verse 1 of 25, simply at the beginning of our chapter, as soon as you prick the chapter, so to speak, it bleeds Christ.
John Gravino: Here is the answer envisioned in Isaiah 25, is the kingdom of God and of his Christ, their reign.
John Gravino: That is how the world will come to an end.
John Gravino: Our world will end with the establishment of the kingdom of God, of Christ, which is the revelation of God's salvation, the accomplishment of his plan of redemption.
John Gravino: From Isaiah, therefore, the end means the coming of Emmanuel, which means the coming of his kingdom and the coming of salvation.
John Gravino: Please notice before we jump immediately to revelation Isaiah will see Christ's coming as one, as one, coming to reign and redeem, no distinction, though the New Testament will unfold this into two comings Christ's first and second coming.
John Gravino: Isaiah again expresses it as one magnificent arrival bringing both salvation and an end to sin and death.
John Gravino: The latter days of Isaiah, chapter 2, then the beginning of the prophecy project forward to include the present days, our days to the end of days climactically leading into the new heavens and the new earth spoken of in Isaiah 60 through 66 and Revelation 21 and 22.
John Gravino: For behold, I am creating a new heavens and a new earth, and the former things will not be remembered or come upon the heart, but be joyful and rejoice forever in what I create.
John Gravino: For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for joy.
John Gravino: Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 18.
John Gravino: This is why the consolation in chapter 25 is call, is a call for rejoicing among the faithful.
John Gravino: God's consolation is forever.
John Gravino: Forever.
John Gravino: It has come through Christ and it will not go away.
John Gravino: Isaiah's kingdom heralds days where death will be swallowed up, tears wiped away and the reproach sin of God's people removed.
John Gravino: All of these forever.
John Gravino: No turning back.
John Gravino: All of this future glory.
John Gravino: All of this future glory, then, is one coming kingdom vision.
John Gravino: Again, I stress, the one coming kingdom vision.
John Gravino: Though that future, through Isaiah's lens, may be painted in broad brushes, the point is that this future is Christ God's judgment of the world and salvation from that same judgment of his own within the world in Christ.
John Gravino: We should not see this exclusively as an end-time scenario.
John Gravino: So sadly, we rush to the end times and conjure up fantastic stories that terrorize people and miss the cross.
John Gravino: We should not see this as exclusively an end time scenario such that we immediately jump to the book of Revelation.
John Gravino: The end times apocalypse is there in the vision and we cannot exclude it.
John Gravino: We discussed some of it last week in Isaiah 24 and looking at the curse.
John Gravino: That said, that said, isaiah's judgment day and Isaiah's day of salvation, together part of the same coin, truly cover both comings of Christ and not just his final, second coming.
John Gravino: We cannot develop it here, but passages like Luke 10 in the Gospels and Colossians 2 acknowledge the cross, christ's sacrificial death, as God's kingdom triumph over Satan, evil and all earthly rulers and authorities.
John Gravino: Jesus even tells his disciples in Luke that many prophets and kings wish to see the things you see and hear the things you hear, which you hear Luke 10, 24.
John Gravino: But they did not hear them.
John Gravino: Hence the privilege of living today in the church.
John Gravino: Through the church we hear Christ.
John Gravino: We can proclaim Christ, things which in the past, prophets and peoples, the people, wanted to see but could not.
John Gravino: Paul tells the Colossians that Christ has taken the debt of sin we owed out of the way, nailing it to the cross, rescuing us from the authority of darkness to the kingdom of his son.
John Gravino: Colossians 2, 14.
John Gravino: Chapter 1, verse 13.
John Gravino: That day, in other words, is now.
John Gravino: Isaiah's day is now and in the future.
John Gravino: Just as much as today is the day of judgment, today is also, and more so, the day of salvation.
John Gravino: When you hear judgment and greater judgment approaching, as in the curse, you are also hearing salvation, a call to receive God's consolation, now more than other.
John Gravino: So you never leave discouraged, you leave heavy, but so be it, because the heaviness will crush you so that you don't rely on yourself and you turn to Christ.
John Gravino: Our passage moves on.
John Gravino: Isaiah notice picks up the theme of the city, once again in verse 2.
John Gravino: In verse 2.
John Gravino: In 2410, we heard about the city of chaos.
John Gravino: Chapter 24, verse 10.
John Gravino: It is mentioned in the context of the manner in which God's curse devours the earth.
John Gravino: We looked at this last week In other words, destruction of life and the dwelling places where life happens, such as in a city, is how the curse curses the earth and its inhabitants.
John Gravino: Whether it was already known as a city of chaos, signifying debauchery, whether it was already known as a city of chaos signifying debauchery, or whether it becomes chaos after the curse runs through, it is not clear.
John Gravino: Both ideas could be included in the main point, which is to say that, under the curse, cities return to the rubble they're made of.
John Gravino: God humbles the pride of the proud which the example of the city represents.
John Gravino: Do you recall the Tower of Babel?
John Gravino: At the Tower of Babel, the whole earth gathers and says come, let us build for ourselves a city and a tower whose top will reach into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name lest we be scattered over the face of the whole earth.
John Gravino: Genesis 11, 4.
John Gravino: Observe the level of destruction after God is through with the city.
John Gravino: Again, verse 2 in our passage.
John Gravino: Verse 2 speaks of a city being made into a heap rocks, a fortified town into a ruin, a palace that is no more Strangers, referring to peoples that oppose God, pagans estranged to a relationship with him.
John Gravino: A city, in the end, that will never be rebuilt.
John Gravino: In other words, when this judgment happens, the wicked Are cursed to eternity and the consoled rejoice because death has been forever removed.
John Gravino: The strong negation to never building again at the end of verse 2 speaks to how definite the desolation will be.
John Gravino: Just looking ahead for a moment to verses 7 and 8 of our passage, isaiah gives us a glimpse of what is intended here in verse 2.
John Gravino: By the definitive devastation God will unleash upon the city, death will be swallowed up forever.
John Gravino: In other words, where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever.
John Gravino: Where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever.
John Gravino: Consolation, as witnessed in the praise of the individual, is communicated through the metaphor of a city, of the city.
John Gravino: The once and for all destruction of the city means the once and for all destruction of death from the earth.
John Gravino: Verses three to five continue the humbling that is anticipated from the city.
John Gravino: The thought of the passage moves to the people.
John Gravino: Verses three through five the inhabitants of the city are brought low, just as the city itself.
John Gravino: Like the city, the people who dwell in it are humbled.
John Gravino: These city dwellers are the strong and ruthless.
John Gravino: Verse 3.
John Gravino: Therefore, a strong people will glorify you.
John Gravino: Ruthless nations will fear you.
John Gravino: Their knees will be bent.
John Gravino: Please observe the depth of the consolation expected, the depth of the consolation you who today suffer at the hands of unrighteousness, injustice, will not be forgotten.
John Gravino: Though the proud are brought down, god does not forget the weak who are subject to the evil committed against them by the strong.
John Gravino: Verses four and five close off this first section of consolation with images of persecutors brought to glorifying and fearing God, while their victims are given refuge in shade.
John Gravino: All will be righted on that day.
John Gravino: The consolation will right.
John Gravino: It, make it right.
John Gravino: Paul tells the Romans remember, in chapter 12, do not seek your own vengeance, beloved.
John Gravino: What is the point of that?
John Gravino: Seek your own vengeance, beloved.
John Gravino: What is the point of that?
John Gravino: This, this, there will be a right established on that day like never before.
John Gravino: In that day, many will be lowered, in other words, and the remaining will be lifted up.
John Gravino: Simeon's prophecy do you recall Simeon's prophecy before the child Jesus, as Luke recounts in his gospel?
John Gravino: Luke, chapter 2, verse 34,?
John Gravino: Simeon declares Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed.
John Gravino: This prospect and current reality, already realized, but awaiting its final consummation, again helps us love our enemies and bless those who curse us today.
John Gravino: Verse 5, quickly, simply in passing, mentions the song of the ruthless, the song of the ruthless.
John Gravino: End of verse five.
John Gravino: Please notice that the song of the ruthless God subdues the rumbling of strangers and the song of the ruthless is silenced again.
John Gravino: End of verse five.
John Gravino: This is once again a metaphor for the humbling of the proud of those cursed under the curse.
John Gravino: The song, however, the song is very striking.
John Gravino: Striking in its connotation, in its significance to Old Testament victory songs.
John Gravino: Old Testament victory songs.
John Gravino: Interesting wording In Exodus 15, for instance, moses and the sons of Israel sing songs to Yahweh.
John Gravino: The song, interestingly enough for us, given our passage, begins with the words I will sing to Yahweh, for he is highly exalted.
John Gravino: Exodus 15.1,.
John Gravino: Yahweh is a warrior, god is his name.
John Gravino: Exodus 15.3,.
John Gravino: The Egyptians thought they could pursue and overtake the Israelites and divide their spoil, but they sank like lead in the mighty waters of the sea.
John Gravino: Yahweh is thereby praised for being fearsome in praises, working wonders, working wonders.
John Gravino: In Deuteronomy 32, moses sings once again a song before all Israel exalting God.
John Gravino: He is the God who will avenge his people from the injustices brought on by their enemies.
John Gravino: The people, his people, are to shout for joy, for Yahweh will atone for his land and his people.
John Gravino: Notice the sense of the cleansing here.
John Gravino: The joys of the people are based on the salvation of the people through the atonement of their Christ.
John Gravino: Your joy is so linked to Christ and your salvation Absolutely linked.
John Gravino: Consolation to the individual moves then to consolation to the community of the faithful, consolation as expressed from the community's praise.
John Gravino: Chapter 25, verses 6 through 12, as we move our way towards the close of our passage.
John Gravino: Verses 6 through 12 conclude our passage, chapter 25.
John Gravino: Notice, from the individual eye, exalting eye in God, as we saw in verses 1 through 5, to now the plural we, we.
John Gravino: This movement comes throughout.
John Gravino: This last section Emphasis on the community rather than the individual.
John Gravino: We move from the individual to the community.
John Gravino: In other words, praise to greater praise, praise to greater praise.
John Gravino: Beginning in verse 6, god prepares a banquet for all peoples.
John Gravino: In verse 7, the covering will be swallowed up, that is, over all peoples and veils stretched out over all nations, peoples and nations.
John Gravino: In verse 8, his people are mentioned once more.
John Gravino: Verse 9 brings out multiple we's and us's.
John Gravino: We have hoped that he would save us.
John Gravino: Let us rejoice.
John Gravino: Verses 10 through 12.
John Gravino: Finally, though no longer mentioning the community, do focus on a people, moab.
John Gravino: Moab, who is moab, representative of the pagan peoples, of all the pagan peoples opposed to God, that God will crush on that day.
John Gravino: Bringing Moab down because of its pride still leaves the focus on the plural rather than the singular individual, the point being that, though God has in mind the individual, it is to the universal, the universal please listen that God's judgments and promises of salvation go to.
John Gravino: It is always about the people's plural than the people's singular, though the people's singular are also special.
John Gravino: It is to the nations that we're called, and the rejoicing, in other words, even brings upon us a joy to tell it to the nations, a responsibility to tell it to the nations.
John Gravino: The community praises God for his consolation.
John Gravino: Notice from the mountain, the mountain, verse six.
John Gravino: On the mountain of victory, god prepares a banquet, a lavish one.
John Gravino: This is a lavish banquet aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine, evidence of how incredibly rich this feast will be.
John Gravino: So much more can be said here, because the imagery is simply monumental.
John Gravino: The old covenant with Moses and Israel was confirmed with a banquet.
John Gravino: Exodus 24, 11.
John Gravino: Exodus 24, 11 tells of how Moses, aaron, nadab and Abihu and the 70 elders of Israel went up to the mountain of God to worship, beholding God and eating and drinking Exodus 24, 11.
John Gravino: And yet, do you remember what was different about that group with respect to us as a community?
John Gravino: That group was to remain at a distance, with the exception of Moses.
John Gravino: Yahweh promised to come down to the mountain in the sight of all people below, but, as you recall, the people were not allowed to go up to the mountain, not allowed to touch the mountain.
John Gravino: Should they touch it, they would surely die.
John Gravino: Exodus 19, 11 through 13,.
John Gravino: Bounds were placed all around to prevent them from touching it lest they die.
John Gravino: The author, the author of Hebrews in the New Testament, contrasts the Sinai mountain with the new covenant mountain.
John Gravino: The new covenant mountain of God.
John Gravino: Behold, behold, the new Mount Zion in heavily.
John Gravino: Jerusalem is the city of the living God, the present location for a festal gathering of all the righteous both in heaven and on earth, with God and Jesus, the mediator of this new promise, whose blood is better than the blood sprinkled, the sprinkled blood of the old covenant.
John Gravino: Hebrews 12, 18 through 24,.
John Gravino: Verse 7 continues this theme, notice building up to Christ, and the better promise in Christ, the better and grander joy.
John Gravino: More of the meaning of the mountain is given to us in verse 7.
John Gravino: What does the mountain stand for?
John Gravino: What will take place on this mountain besides the rich banquet?
John Gravino: Well, verse 7 emphasizes notice, swallow up.
John Gravino: Swallow up is emphasized with much intensity.
John Gravino: God will devour, in other words destroy, the covering which is over all peoples.
John Gravino: The covering is a veil stretched out over the nations.
John Gravino: It is all the same word.
John Gravino: It all means covering.
John Gravino: In Hebrew, repeated four times in the verse, covering speaks to weeping because of the reproach and shame over one's head.
John Gravino: It is to bear the weight or the contempt of the curse, in other words, divine curse for divine disobedience and sin.
John Gravino: This is law.
John Gravino: This is law Implied here.
John Gravino: There is a heavy burden on the peoples of the world.
John Gravino: To this day, they live bent over, if you will metaphorically, they walk as hunchbacks.
John Gravino: Life is burdensome because of the curse, living under the curse of God.
John Gravino: The curse, in the form of covering, is so thick the fourfold repetition in verse 7, that no human can remove it.
John Gravino: In other words, it is a covering so solid that by yourself you cannot, please, listen, deliver yourself.
John Gravino: You cannot deliver yourself.
John Gravino: No good works, no self-improvement, no, nothing, no, nothing.
John Gravino: No human can remove nor eliminate it.
John Gravino: You are simply cursed.
John Gravino: Herein, however, lies the gospel.
John Gravino: From the law we move to the gospel.
John Gravino: God, from Isaiah's point of view, will not only remove it but here again, he will destroy it.
John Gravino: He will destroy it.
John Gravino: We read passages so beautifully this morning from the resurrection and the victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15.
John Gravino: Verse 8, what will he destroy?
John Gravino: We've just said it.
John Gravino: Verse 8, god will destroy death.
John Gravino: God will destroy death, amen.
John Gravino: Verse 8 brings incredible consolation and comfort.
John Gravino: Notice again the same expression as in verse 7, swallow up.
John Gravino: Just in case you did not get it the first time.
John Gravino: It is said.
John Gravino: Again the same expression as in verse 7.
John Gravino: Swallow up, just in case you did not get it the first time.
John Gravino: It is said with the same intense manner.
John Gravino: This time, however, it is more explicit than in verse 7.
John Gravino: Covering and veil is actually death.
John Gravino: What is the curse?
John Gravino: It is death.
John Gravino: If you are under the curse, you are dead, actually dead, and on your way to eternal death, both spiritually and physically, forever.
John Gravino: Notice the absolute promise for all time, god will destroy death.
John Gravino: For all time For the consoled, for those who have been removed from the curse because of their refuge in the Messiah, the cursed one.
John Gravino: God tells them, just like he tells the prophet Daniel Do you remember what he tells Daniel?
John Gravino: Go to, for we'll see you again at the end of days.
John Gravino: You will rise again.
John Gravino: There is hope, there is victory.
John Gravino: Oh death, where is your sting Now?
John Gravino: The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is the law.
John Gravino: But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
John Gravino: Consolation means resurrection For those who were previously cursed but now consoled.
John Gravino: The destruction of death means the end of tears wiped away by God from all faces and the removal of the reproach from all the earth.
John Gravino: Trials ended fully.
John Gravino: The emphasis on death and its removal, destruction, is so strong.
John Gravino: We must take this to heart.
John Gravino: This is the hope we have.
John Gravino: It is the hope we have.
John Gravino: It speaks to what Paul tells the Romans in Romans 8.
John Gravino: There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
John Gravino: Verses 9 through conclude our passage.
John Gravino: They look at the latter days.
John Gravino: In that day, verse 9, once again, the prophecy brings us to the big picture, the big picture set before us.
John Gravino: Salvation has come back to the forefront and there is great rejoicing.
John Gravino: The expressions of joy in verse 9 are hope that we would have, hope that he would save us, deliverance, hope again.
John Gravino: Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.
John Gravino: There is in the words, a sense of patient trust.
John Gravino: That is what you who have hope in Christ are now doing and living.
John Gravino: This is how you are living.
John Gravino: You are living patiently, trusting in the fulfillment of the hope you already have because of Christ, patiently trusting, waiting on the fulfillment of his promises.
John Gravino: This from the Old Testament perspective of Isaiah.
John Gravino: The New Testament magnifies this theme even more.
John Gravino: Hence, this patient trust is all the more magnified, raised up, it magnifies this theme of patient suffering.
John Gravino: Hebrews again speaks of the one who was made for a little while lower than angels, subjected to death, who, because of the suffering of death, was crowned with glory and honor so that, by the grace of God, he might taste death for everyone.
John Gravino: Hebrews 2.9,.
John Gravino: That again was read so wonderfully this morning to bring many sons to glory.
John Gravino: Notice what Isaiah is referring to in his exaltation of God.
John Gravino: Both the individual and the community are, in other words, exalting who.
John Gravino: They are exalting Christ.
John Gravino: It is Christ, in other words, who is representing the individual in the community, who is actually exalting God for having given him the privilege of being the author of salvation, the bearing and the patiently bearing we don't do alone, but in Christ, because all has been defeated.
John Gravino: Our hope of deliverance, in other words, has been realized in Jesus Christ, the deliverer.
John Gravino: He is the new and living way.
John Gravino: Notice the implications this has for our passage.
John Gravino: The community is rejoicing in Christ.
John Gravino: The people are not praising God, as though his salvation and deliverance has come solely between them and God.
John Gravino: Much to the contrary, the one truly praising God is the one sent to accomplish his salvation on behalf of the individual in the community.
John Gravino: Again, that is Jesus Christ.
John Gravino: Salvation on behalf of the individual in the community.
John Gravino: Again, that is Jesus Christ.
John Gravino: This allows them to know God as really their God.
John Gravino: You know God as you turn to Christ.
John Gravino: In other words, verse 10 provides a striking finality Verses 10 through 12.
John Gravino: It is gruesome in its presentation, though still focused on the mountain of God.
John Gravino: One commentator talks about God resting on his mountain and with his foot placed upon Moab.
John Gravino: Crushing.
John Gravino: Crushing the cursed Verse 10,.
John Gravino: The picture is apt and brutal, for the cursed Moab again standing for all the nations and people's curse will be laid low like the feet of those trotting manure.
John Gravino: Hence the disgusting part.
John Gravino: Notice how the debauchery of the cursed and the life of the cursed is described the feet of those trotting manure in a pool of manure and water.
John Gravino: The picture gets all the more pathetic, if not gruesome.
John Gravino: In spite of the desperate condition of the proud life in the manure pile, they will try to rescue themselves by stretching out their hands, symbolic of self-reliance, trying to swim in the manure pile reliance trying to swim in the manure pile.
John Gravino: No matter the desperation we see people in, they continue stubborn hearted and hard-headed to live in their desperation, thinking things will change.
John Gravino: In verse 11 and 12, the scene is but total dissent for the curse.
John Gravino: The phrase lay low is repeated.
John Gravino: God will do this.
John Gravino: Those under the curse will become dust dust After Adam and Eve sin.
John Gravino: The curse upon them will mean suffering, thorns and thistles in this life and dust.
John Gravino: They shall both return, suggesting eternal death for all.
John Gravino: We sing this morning because of Christ.
John Gravino: We rejoice in God's consolation in Christ.
John Gravino: If you are without Christ this morning, then our prayer is that you would turn to him in hope this is a message of hope and that in him you may find your curse destroyed and your joy fulfilled.
John Gravino: Curse destroyed and your joy fulfilled, and that those who know him and have this joy may be moved, moved to rejoicing and moved to bring that salvation here and to the ends of the earth.
John Gravino: Let's pray, father.
John Gravino: We thank you so much for your word.
John Gravino: We are overwhelmed with the joy of your salvation.
John Gravino: We are overwhelmed with Christ.
John Gravino: Our hearts burn, knowing that this is beyond us, and yet we come by your mercies, through grace, praising you and worshiping you In Jesus' name, amen.