WEBVTT 00:00:06.166 --> 00:00:13.615 I speak on behalf of all my family, of course, to just say what an incredible time it has been with you. 00:00:13.615 --> 00:00:36.673 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. 00:00:36.673 --> 00:00:38.963 You are such a precious church. 00:00:38.963 --> 00:00:54.353 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. 00:00:54.353 --> 00:01:08.721 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. 00:01:08.721 --> 00:01:17.412 Please open your Bibles to Isaiah, chapter 25. 00:01:17.412 --> 00:01:19.775 Isaiah, chapter 25. 00:01:19.775 --> 00:01:34.924 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. 00:01:34.924 --> 00:01:41.167 God's Glory in the Last Days, god's Glory Through Christ. 00:01:41.167 --> 00:01:50.438 Christ will be displayed at the center of Isaiah, as I pray. 00:01:50.438 --> 00:02:11.531 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. 00:02:11.531 --> 00:02:37.520 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. 00:02:37.520 --> 00:02:40.306 I will exalt you, I will give thanks to your name, for you have worked wonders. 00:02:40.306 --> 00:02:49.187 Councils formed long ago with perfect faithfulness For you have made a city into a heap, a fortified town into a ruin. 00:02:49.187 --> 00:02:52.429 A palace of strangers is a city no more. 00:02:52.429 --> 00:02:54.806 It will never be rebuilt. 00:02:54.806 --> 00:02:59.229 Therefore, a strong people will glorify you. 00:02:59.229 --> 00:03:21.788 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. 00:03:21.788 --> 00:03:24.419 You subdue the rumbling of the strangers. 00:03:24.419 --> 00:03:27.212 Like heat in a dry land. 00:03:27.212 --> 00:03:32.080 You subdue the rumbling of the strangers Like heat by the shadow of a cloud. 00:03:32.080 --> 00:03:45.411 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. 00:03:45.411 --> 00:03:54.157 And on this mountain he will swallow up the covering which is over all peoples, even the veil which is stretched over all nations. 00:03:54.157 --> 00:04:07.586 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. 00:04:07.586 --> 00:04:18.245 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. 00:04:18.245 --> 00:04:21.088 This is Yahweh in whom we have hoped. 00:04:21.088 --> 00:04:32.411 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. 00:04:32.411 --> 00:04:37.560 A straw is trodden down in the water of a manure pile. 00:04:37.560 --> 00:04:43.389 He will spread out his hands in the middle of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. 00:04:43.389 --> 00:05:07.206 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. 00:05:07.225 --> 00:05:10.952 Isaiah, chapter 25 is about consolation. 00:05:10.952 --> 00:05:23.603 Therefore, after God's curse in redemption comes God's consolation. 00:05:23.603 --> 00:05:27.586 As a part of that same plan of redemption, there is judgment, just judgment. 00:05:27.586 --> 00:05:35.209 That is a part of God's work, wonderful works, as we heard from Isaiah in our passage. 00:05:35.209 --> 00:05:50.553 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. 00:05:51.541 --> 00:05:52.663 The faithful remnant. 00:05:52.663 --> 00:05:57.194 Rejoice, therefore, and this morning we rejoice with our passage. 00:05:57.194 --> 00:06:01.471 Along with our passage and with Isaiah, we rejoice. 00:06:01.471 --> 00:06:11.545 The righteous sing songs to the righteous one whose glory is displayed through righteousness, righteousness reigns. 00:06:11.545 --> 00:06:17.331 The voices of his people thereby cry out from the east to the west. 00:06:17.331 --> 00:06:26.716 The faithful lift up their voices, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ, magnifying God for his salvation, magnifying Christ. 00:06:26.716 --> 00:06:36.605 The tears shed for the sufferings of the present time are incomparable to the hope realized when his glory is revealed in that day. 00:06:36.605 --> 00:07:00.255 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. 00:07:00.255 --> 00:07:05.024 Lifting up Christ, lifting up Christ. 00:07:05.086 --> 00:07:18.028 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. 00:07:18.028 --> 00:07:21.713 Isaiah 25, as we said, is about consolation. 00:07:21.713 --> 00:07:29.588 The consolation will be explained through the following flow of thought, through the following flow of thought. 00:07:29.588 --> 00:07:37.666 I've just shared that first flow of thought Isaiah expresses in lifting up the consolation. 00:07:37.666 --> 00:07:48.161 God's consolation will be seen through the eyes of those who persevere, who persevere through the curse, through the judgment, the persevering. 00:07:48.161 --> 00:08:04.569 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. 00:08:06.290 --> 00:08:16.362 They are the beneficiaries of the joy of salvation, they are the beneficiaries of God's consolation. 00:08:16.362 --> 00:08:23.194 And so our passage will thus be explained through the flow of thought, through Isaiah's logic. 00:08:23.194 --> 00:08:29.333 First, we have consolation as expressed from the individual's praise. 00:08:29.333 --> 00:08:34.928 We will see the individual's praise, chapter 25, verses 1 through 5. 00:08:34.928 --> 00:08:39.672 And second, we have consolation as expressed through the community's praise. 00:08:39.672 --> 00:08:44.950 The community's praise, chapter 25, verses 6 through 12. 00:08:44.950 --> 00:09:12.451 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. 00:09:12.451 --> 00:09:22.964 And so let's look more closely at our text, beginning with consolation as expressed from the individuals, as I stated and said earlier. 00:09:23.024 --> 00:09:25.871 Consolation to the one who has been faithful. 00:09:25.871 --> 00:09:32.490 Consolation as expressed from the individual's praise Chapter 25, verses 1 through 5. 00:09:32.490 --> 00:09:36.390 Please observe how verse 1 of chapter 25 begins. 00:09:36.390 --> 00:09:41.789 We have a very, very strong commitment to the praise of Yahweh. 00:09:41.789 --> 00:09:47.139 Yahweh, god, emphasis, emphasis on the you, emphasis on the you. 00:09:47.139 --> 00:09:51.366 Notice verse one you are my God. 00:09:51.366 --> 00:09:56.735 I will exalt you, emphasis on the you of my God. 00:09:56.735 --> 00:09:58.381 At the beginning of verse one. 00:09:58.381 --> 00:10:00.524 I will give thanks to your name. 00:10:00.524 --> 00:10:08.115 This, in other words, this consolation, this rejoicing, this hope after the curse, is about God. 00:10:08.115 --> 00:10:10.923 So was the curse. 00:10:10.923 --> 00:10:13.870 It's all to God's glory. 00:10:13.870 --> 00:10:15.735 This is about God. 00:10:15.975 --> 00:10:21.447 Trials and tribulation are more about God than they are about us. 00:10:21.447 --> 00:10:24.452 They give us this God-centered vision. 00:10:24.452 --> 00:10:25.234 We look up. 00:10:25.234 --> 00:10:29.947 Life is about God. 00:10:29.947 --> 00:11:07.597 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. 00:11:07.758 --> 00:11:09.763 Isaiah 6, 3, isaiah's vision. 00:11:09.763 --> 00:11:15.833 The believer will be brought to that, to that greater understanding. 00:11:15.833 --> 00:11:22.886 He will be brought to him, to a greater knowledge of God, of who God is. 00:11:22.886 --> 00:11:32.297 And for this, no matter what the circumstances, no matter what the trials or the cost, we praise him, we praise him. 00:11:32.297 --> 00:11:34.066 We praise him. 00:11:35.340 --> 00:11:42.870 The righteous, the remnant, those who faithfully persevere, clinging to the word of God and the testimony of the Lamb. 00:11:45.282 --> 00:11:54.765 The persevering know this, know this, they mature through this and they praise God for this, for the sufferings they face. 00:11:54.765 --> 00:11:59.711 They are brought further, closer, deeper to the mercies of God. 00:11:59.711 --> 00:12:10.427 Through the worship of God, they exalt rather than lament, they confess rather than complain. 00:12:10.427 --> 00:12:20.745 They bring themselves to humble adoration of the only God, only Christ and Messiah. 00:12:20.745 --> 00:12:25.881 The exaltation, moreover, is very striking in its expression. 00:12:25.881 --> 00:13:03.480 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. 00:13:03.480 --> 00:13:05.942 In other words, body and soul. 00:13:05.942 --> 00:13:18.567 Body and soul are moved and moved upon as stirred to and fro, back and forth, lifting up praise to God. 00:13:18.567 --> 00:13:24.538 This is the affection of the redeemed, after redemption has been delivered. 00:13:24.538 --> 00:13:39.515 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. 00:13:39.515 --> 00:13:48.837 He who is consoled from God's consolation responds, praises Yahweh through such devoted worship. 00:13:48.837 --> 00:13:50.816 That is all he wants. 00:13:50.816 --> 00:13:52.937 Is Christ at the end of the day. 00:13:54.091 --> 00:13:56.038 How different, how different, how different. 00:13:56.038 --> 00:13:57.203 Please notice and recall this is from those cursed. 00:13:57.203 --> 00:13:57.513 How different this is of the day. 00:13:57.513 --> 00:13:58.076 How different, how different, how different. 00:13:58.076 --> 00:13:59.913 Please notice and recall this is from those cursed. 00:13:59.913 --> 00:14:01.558 How different this is from the curse. 00:14:01.558 --> 00:14:02.160 Do you remember? 00:14:03.230 --> 00:14:05.475 The curse evokes no consolation. 00:14:05.475 --> 00:14:10.124 Those cursed, rather than rejoice, cry out, cry out. 00:14:10.124 --> 00:14:13.634 I waste away, I waste away. 00:14:13.634 --> 00:14:14.995 Woe is me. 00:14:14.995 --> 00:14:20.003 Chapter 24, verse 16, says just that. 00:14:20.123 --> 00:14:22.831 We looked at it last week Under the curse. 00:14:22.831 --> 00:14:28.922 You are anxious and cannot be helped from your anxiety. 00:14:28.922 --> 00:14:52.355 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. 00:14:52.355 --> 00:14:55.471 As he tastes death for all men, on all men. 00:14:55.471 --> 00:15:00.982 As he tastes death for all men Under the curse, then you have no deliverance. 00:15:00.982 --> 00:15:14.921 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. 00:15:14.921 --> 00:15:19.600 These will perish as the curse rains down from heaven upon them. 00:15:19.600 --> 00:15:23.260 The treacherous who deal treacherously are overcome by panic. 00:15:23.260 --> 00:15:33.600 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. 00:15:33.600 --> 00:15:35.275 They are forever entrapped. 00:15:35.275 --> 00:15:38.259 Again, we saw this in chapter 24 last week. 00:15:38.769 --> 00:15:48.942 Amos, amos, just by way of help and illustration, amos the prophet illustrates the dreaded fate of the unrighteous on that judgment day. 00:15:48.942 --> 00:15:56.378 In Amos 5, in chapter 5 of his prophecy he explains as a man flees from a lion and a bear meets him. 00:15:56.378 --> 00:16:07.432 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. 00:16:07.432 --> 00:16:07.831 Amos 5.19. 00:16:07.831 --> 00:16:13.038 There will be no hope for the unrighteous on that day, no immediate relief, but constant and growing distress. 00:16:13.038 --> 00:16:16.041 They will never be consoled. 00:16:16.041 --> 00:16:24.580 In other words, in the words of Amos once again, the Lord will set his eyes against them for evil and not for good. 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:37.143 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. 00:16:37.663 --> 00:16:42.443 Verse one of our passage continues giving us the reason for the believers praise on that day. 00:16:42.443 --> 00:16:47.999 God is exalted because please look at verse one he has worked wonders. 00:16:47.999 --> 00:16:55.878 He has worked wonders and his counsels, formed long ago with perfect faithfulness, have have been fulfilled. 00:16:55.878 --> 00:16:56.519 Fulfilled. 00:16:56.519 --> 00:17:10.020 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. 00:17:10.020 --> 00:17:22.236 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. 00:17:23.558 --> 00:17:30.717 Conjured up is a scene mixed with dread and splendor isaiah 2. 00:17:30.717 --> 00:17:41.674 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. 00:17:41.674 --> 00:18:08.721 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. 00:18:08.721 --> 00:18:19.945 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. 00:18:19.945 --> 00:18:22.515 Yahweh is worthy to be praised for. 00:18:22.515 --> 00:18:23.758 He has worked wonders. 00:18:24.118 --> 00:18:27.692 The work first off notice is depicted as something overall. 00:18:27.692 --> 00:18:40.012 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. 00:18:40.012 --> 00:18:44.599 This is how the faithful and remnant will see salvation. 00:18:44.599 --> 00:18:49.513 There is awe in fixing one's sight on its finish. 00:18:49.513 --> 00:18:54.544 The blueprint of salvation before the ages is now a finished work. 00:18:54.544 --> 00:18:56.333 Wonders, wonders. 00:18:56.413 --> 00:19:10.730 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. 00:19:10.730 --> 00:19:14.721 That which is wonderful is simply the work of God revealed. 00:19:14.721 --> 00:19:17.615 That is what salvation is. 00:19:17.615 --> 00:19:28.934 In other words, we take a step back and Isaiah pictures that day when the redeemed sing and see God's purposes all along. 00:19:28.934 --> 00:19:34.940 What we did not understand fully, we see now clearly. 00:19:34.940 --> 00:19:46.203 Those witnessing it from the earth see the wonderful display of divine condescension in history and time. 00:19:46.203 --> 00:19:51.624 A sheer mercies, the mercies of God to them, overflowing. 00:19:51.624 --> 00:20:00.365 We will not get there that day if you will and complain with God and say please explain this to me. 00:20:00.365 --> 00:20:02.355 Why did you do that? 00:20:02.355 --> 00:20:04.376 I was really disappointed with that. 00:20:04.376 --> 00:20:16.838 No, we will be before God simply praising him for his mercies and wanting more mercy, thanking him for his over abundant mercy. 00:20:16.838 --> 00:20:19.673 It is all mercy. 00:20:20.375 --> 00:20:25.163 The instinctive impulse is to tell of it, speak of it and cry it out in praise. 00:20:25.163 --> 00:20:29.940 The Psalms frequently express this attitude, in Psalm 9, for example. 00:20:29.940 --> 00:20:34.596 Psalm 9, david erupts in praise, proclaiming I will be glad and exalting you. 00:20:34.596 --> 00:20:41.997 I will sing praise to your name, o Most High, verse 2, psalm 9, verse 2. 00:20:41.997 --> 00:20:45.584 Later he adds sing praises to Yahweh who abides in Zion. 00:20:45.584 --> 00:20:50.474 Declare among the peoples his acts, for he who requires blood remembers them. 00:20:50.474 --> 00:20:53.798 He does not forget get the cry of the afflicted. 00:20:53.798 --> 00:20:59.104 This is good news, good news In fact. 00:20:59.104 --> 00:21:06.217 In fact, this is messianic news in the context of Isaiah Wonders recalls. 00:21:06.217 --> 00:21:12.673 Wonders recalls exactly what you hear it from the sound of the word. 00:21:12.673 --> 00:21:15.157 Wonders recalls the wonderful counselor. 00:21:15.157 --> 00:21:23.792 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. 00:21:23.792 --> 00:21:35.537 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. 00:21:35.537 --> 00:21:41.518 From then on and forevermore, the zeal of yahweh of hosts will accomplish this. 00:21:41.518 --> 00:21:43.521 Isaiah 9, 6, 7. 00:21:43.882 --> 00:21:49.259 Again, there is a seeming play on words in verse 1, always of our passage. 00:21:49.259 --> 00:21:58.263 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. 00:21:58.263 --> 00:22:16.561 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. 00:22:16.561 --> 00:22:25.813 Much more can be said here about God's work, coupled with God's counsel In the immediate context of the prophecy. 00:22:25.813 --> 00:22:33.740 Notice verse 23 of chapter 24, just above in our previous passage, and study study. 00:22:33.740 --> 00:22:48.090 Verse 23 of chapter 24 concludes the section on curse with the triumph of God's reign, do you remember? 00:22:48.090 --> 00:22:52.038 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. 00:22:52.038 --> 00:22:53.342 24, 23. 00:22:53.342 --> 00:22:59.731 Together we have the plan devised for the coming kingdom of God through the King Christ, the Lord. 00:23:01.234 --> 00:23:08.335 Consider for a moment, consider for a moment how profound God's plan is, his wondrous works and counsel. 00:23:08.335 --> 00:23:16.098 In the greater context of our passage, that is to say early on in the book of Isaiah, we are told of the sign. 00:23:16.098 --> 00:23:19.151 The sign, the sign of Emmanuel, isaiah 7. 00:23:19.151 --> 00:23:27.313 The sign speaks to something miraculous that God will do for his people as a part of God's future deliverance of them. 00:23:27.313 --> 00:23:55.240 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. 00:23:55.240 --> 00:24:00.192 In other words, jesus as God's future consolation after the curse. 00:24:00.192 --> 00:24:05.038 In other words, as we await to hear about consolation, we are awaiting to hear about who or whom. 00:24:05.038 --> 00:24:06.862 Christ, christ. 00:24:06.862 --> 00:24:09.465 Again, this is not about us. 00:24:09.465 --> 00:24:15.701 Isaiah is lifting up Christ so that we can all look to him. 00:24:15.701 --> 00:24:20.256 Isaiah is lifting up Christ so that we can all look to him. 00:24:20.316 --> 00:24:26.545 The consolation we're talking about in our passage in chapter 25, said differently, is Emmanuel, christ himself. 00:24:26.545 --> 00:24:33.150 Christ is the answer to joy everlasting. 00:24:33.150 --> 00:24:42.854 God curses him and God consoles those who find their refuge in him because Christ has been cursed on their, our behalf. 00:24:42.854 --> 00:24:50.204 To render it very simply you want peace away from the distress, grief and anxiety. 00:24:50.204 --> 00:24:58.722 You turn to Christ in repentance and faith. 00:24:58.722 --> 00:25:02.143 Believe Isaiah's message. 00:25:02.143 --> 00:25:07.057 Simply put Believe in the future as you believe in the promise now from his time. 00:25:07.057 --> 00:25:18.685 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. 00:25:20.760 --> 00:25:28.249 Last week, in coming to grips again, just by way of review, in coming to grips with the curse of God upon the earth. 00:25:28.249 --> 00:25:34.050 In chapter 24, we asked how the end of days will end. 00:25:34.050 --> 00:25:39.041 We said Isaiah gives us that picture through his prophecy, I pray. 00:25:39.041 --> 00:25:43.653 We responded to that then through our study of chapter 24. 00:25:43.653 --> 00:25:49.373 That said, 24 provides a partial answer. 00:25:49.373 --> 00:25:50.882 That is answered more fully and clearly in chapter 25. 00:25:50.882 --> 00:25:54.186 That is answered more fully and clearly in chapter 25. 00:25:54.508 --> 00:25:59.535 Our chapter today, 24 through 27, provides the full answer and picture. 00:25:59.535 --> 00:26:05.263 How will our world come to an end? 00:26:05.263 --> 00:26:16.582 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. 00:26:16.582 --> 00:26:23.070 Here is the answer envisioned in Isaiah 25, is the kingdom of God and of his Christ, their reign. 00:26:23.070 --> 00:26:26.016 That is how the world will come to an end. 00:26:26.016 --> 00:26:35.101 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. 00:26:35.101 --> 00:26:45.404 From Isaiah, therefore, the end means the coming of Emmanuel, which means the coming of his kingdom and the coming of salvation. 00:26:45.404 --> 00:27:06.153 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. 00:27:06.153 --> 00:27:14.213 Isaiah again expresses it as one magnificent arrival bringing both salvation and an end to sin and death. 00:27:15.821 --> 00:27:35.232 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. 00:27:35.232 --> 00:27:48.212 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. 00:27:48.212 --> 00:27:52.151 For behold, I create Jerusalem for rejoicing and her people for joy. 00:27:52.151 --> 00:27:54.940 Isaiah 65, verses 17 through 18. 00:27:54.940 --> 00:28:02.450 This is why the consolation in chapter 25 is call, is a call for rejoicing among the faithful. 00:28:02.450 --> 00:28:07.229 God's consolation is forever. 00:28:07.229 --> 00:28:08.853 Forever. 00:28:08.853 --> 00:28:13.931 It has come through Christ and it will not go away. 00:28:15.560 --> 00:28:24.051 Isaiah's kingdom heralds days where death will be swallowed up, tears wiped away and the reproach sin of God's people removed. 00:28:24.051 --> 00:28:26.809 All of these forever. 00:28:26.809 --> 00:28:28.704 No turning back. 00:28:28.704 --> 00:28:32.584 All of this future glory. 00:28:32.584 --> 00:28:37.193 All of this future glory, then, is one coming kingdom vision. 00:28:37.193 --> 00:28:40.410 Again, I stress, the one coming kingdom vision. 00:28:43.381 --> 00:28:57.563 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. 00:28:57.563 --> 00:29:03.452 We should not see this exclusively as an end-time scenario. 00:29:03.452 --> 00:29:14.214 So sadly, we rush to the end times and conjure up fantastic stories that terrorize people and miss the cross. 00:29:14.214 --> 00:29:25.631 We should not see this as exclusively an end time scenario such that we immediately jump to the book of Revelation. 00:29:25.631 --> 00:29:30.967 The end times apocalypse is there in the vision and we cannot exclude it. 00:29:30.967 --> 00:29:35.325 We discussed some of it last week in Isaiah 24 and looking at the curse. 00:29:36.259 --> 00:29:49.449 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. 00:29:49.449 --> 00:30:04.183 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. 00:30:04.183 --> 00:30:16.885 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. 00:30:16.885 --> 00:30:19.047 But they did not hear them. 00:30:19.047 --> 00:30:24.528 Hence the privilege of living today in the church. 00:30:24.528 --> 00:30:26.113 Through the church we hear Christ. 00:30:26.113 --> 00:30:45.095 We can proclaim Christ, things which in the past, prophets and peoples, the people, wanted to see but could not. 00:30:45.095 --> 00:30:53.230 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. 00:30:53.289 --> 00:30:55.054 Colossians 2, 14. 00:30:55.054 --> 00:30:57.646 Chapter 1, verse 13. 00:30:57.646 --> 00:30:59.626 That day, in other words, is now. 00:30:59.626 --> 00:31:02.808 Isaiah's day is now and in the future. 00:31:02.808 --> 00:31:08.519 Just as much as today is the day of judgment, today is also, and more so, the day of salvation. 00:31:08.519 --> 00:31:20.151 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. 00:31:20.151 --> 00:31:33.727 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. 00:31:33.727 --> 00:31:37.540 Our passage moves on. 00:31:37.540 --> 00:31:38.001 Our passage moves on. 00:31:38.001 --> 00:31:41.851 Isaiah notice picks up the theme of the city, once again in verse 2. 00:31:42.412 --> 00:31:43.012 In verse 2. 00:31:43.012 --> 00:31:47.945 In 2410, we heard about the city of chaos. 00:31:47.945 --> 00:31:49.669 Chapter 24, verse 10. 00:31:49.669 --> 00:31:54.950 It is mentioned in the context of the manner in which God's curse devours the earth. 00:31:54.950 --> 00:32:09.411 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. 00:32:09.411 --> 00:32:20.429 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. 00:32:20.429 --> 00:32:29.596 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. 00:32:29.596 --> 00:32:41.203 God humbles the pride of the proud which the example of the city represents. 00:32:41.203 --> 00:32:41.865 Do you recall the Tower of Babel? 00:32:41.865 --> 00:32:52.747 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. 00:32:52.826 --> 00:32:53.930 Genesis 11, 4. 00:32:53.930 --> 00:32:58.026 Observe the level of destruction after God is through with the city. 00:32:58.026 --> 00:32:59.769 Again, verse 2 in our passage. 00:32:59.769 --> 00:33:15.092 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. 00:33:15.092 --> 00:33:18.730 A city, in the end, that will never be rebuilt. 00:33:18.730 --> 00:33:40.273 In other words, when this judgment happens, the wicked Are cursed to eternity and the consoled rejoice because death has been forever removed. 00:33:40.273 --> 00:33:51.843 The strong negation to never building again at the end of verse 2 speaks to how definite the desolation will be. 00:33:52.083 --> 00:33:58.769 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. 00:33:58.769 --> 00:34:05.209 By the definitive devastation God will unleash upon the city, death will be swallowed up forever. 00:34:05.209 --> 00:34:11.773 In other words, where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever. 00:34:11.773 --> 00:34:16.077 Where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever. 00:34:16.077 --> 00:34:18.782 Where there is Christ, death will be swallowed up forever. 00:34:18.782 --> 00:34:26.155 Consolation, as witnessed in the praise of the individual, is communicated through the metaphor of a city, of the city. 00:34:26.155 --> 00:34:32.025 The once and for all destruction of the city means the once and for all destruction of death from the earth. 00:34:33.161 --> 00:34:38.188 Verses three to five continue the humbling that is anticipated from the city. 00:34:38.188 --> 00:34:40.733 The thought of the passage moves to the people. 00:34:40.733 --> 00:34:47.159 Verses three through five the inhabitants of the city are brought low, just as the city itself. 00:34:47.159 --> 00:34:50.309 Like the city, the people who dwell in it are humbled. 00:34:50.309 --> 00:34:54.070 These city dwellers are the strong and ruthless. 00:34:54.070 --> 00:34:54.713 Verse 3. 00:34:54.713 --> 00:34:57.342 Therefore, a strong people will glorify you. 00:34:57.342 --> 00:34:59.867 Ruthless nations will fear you. 00:34:59.867 --> 00:35:02.574 Their knees will be bent. 00:35:02.574 --> 00:35:16.253 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. 00:35:16.253 --> 00:35:23.943 Though the proud are brought down, god does not forget the weak who are subject to the evil committed against them by the strong. 00:35:24.184 --> 00:35:35.275 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. 00:35:35.275 --> 00:35:37.407 All will be righted on that day. 00:35:37.407 --> 00:35:39.786 The consolation will right. 00:35:39.786 --> 00:35:41.630 It, make it right. 00:35:41.630 --> 00:35:52.211 Paul tells the Romans remember, in chapter 12, do not seek your own vengeance, beloved. 00:35:52.211 --> 00:35:53.789 What is the point of that? 00:35:53.789 --> 00:35:54.456 Seek your own vengeance, beloved. 00:35:54.456 --> 00:35:54.980 What is the point of that? 00:35:54.980 --> 00:36:11.168 This, this, there will be a right established on that day like never before. 00:36:11.168 --> 00:36:16.355 In that day, many will be lowered, in other words, and the remaining will be lifted up. 00:36:16.355 --> 00:36:24.385 Simeon's prophecy do you recall Simeon's prophecy before the child Jesus, as Luke recounts in his gospel? 00:36:24.385 --> 00:36:26.451 Luke, chapter 2, verse 34,? 00:36:26.451 --> 00:36:34.873 Simeon declares Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel and for a sign to be opposed. 00:36:34.873 --> 00:36:47.112 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. 00:36:48.000 --> 00:36:54.206 Verse 5, quickly, simply in passing, mentions the song of the ruthless, the song of the ruthless. 00:36:54.206 --> 00:36:55.389 End of verse five. 00:36:55.389 --> 00:37:10.233 Please notice that the song of the ruthless God subdues the rumbling of strangers and the song of the ruthless is silenced again. 00:37:10.233 --> 00:37:11.485 End of verse five. 00:37:11.485 --> 00:37:19.065 This is once again a metaphor for the humbling of the proud of those cursed under the curse. 00:37:19.065 --> 00:37:22.492 The song, however, the song is very striking. 00:37:22.492 --> 00:37:29.398 Striking in its connotation, in its significance to Old Testament victory songs. 00:37:29.398 --> 00:37:31.001 Old Testament victory songs. 00:37:31.001 --> 00:37:39.235 Interesting wording In Exodus 15, for instance, moses and the sons of Israel sing songs to Yahweh. 00:37:40.623 --> 00:37:48.730 The song, interestingly enough for us, given our passage, begins with the words I will sing to Yahweh, for he is highly exalted. 00:37:48.730 --> 00:37:50.782 Exodus 15.1,. 00:37:50.782 --> 00:37:53.786 Yahweh is a warrior, god is his name. 00:37:53.786 --> 00:37:54.519 Exodus 15.3,. 00:37:54.519 --> 00:38:02.304 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. 00:38:02.304 --> 00:38:13.411 Yahweh is thereby praised for being fearsome in praises, working wonders, working wonders. 00:38:13.431 --> 00:38:18.074 In Deuteronomy 32, moses sings once again a song before all Israel exalting God. 00:38:18.074 --> 00:38:23.038 He is the God who will avenge his people from the injustices brought on by their enemies. 00:38:23.038 --> 00:38:39.822 The people, his people, are to shout for joy, for Yahweh will atone for his land and his people. 00:38:39.822 --> 00:38:40.804 Notice the sense of the cleansing here. 00:38:40.804 --> 00:38:43.528 The joys of the people are based on the salvation of the people through the atonement of their Christ. 00:38:43.528 --> 00:38:49.483 Your joy is so linked to Christ and your salvation Absolutely linked. 00:38:49.483 --> 00:39:01.900 Consolation to the individual moves then to consolation to the community of the faithful, consolation as expressed from the community's praise. 00:39:01.900 --> 00:39:09.474 Chapter 25, verses 6 through 12, as we move our way towards the close of our passage. 00:39:09.474 --> 00:39:12.851 Verses 6 through 12 conclude our passage, chapter 25. 00:39:12.851 --> 00:39:21.614 Notice, from the individual eye, exalting eye in God, as we saw in verses 1 through 5, to now the plural we, we. 00:39:21.614 --> 00:39:24.788 This movement comes throughout. 00:39:24.867 --> 00:39:29.650 This last section Emphasis on the community rather than the individual. 00:39:29.650 --> 00:39:31.568 We move from the individual to the community. 00:39:31.568 --> 00:39:36.206 In other words, praise to greater praise, praise to greater praise. 00:39:36.206 --> 00:39:42.130 Beginning in verse 6, god prepares a banquet for all peoples. 00:39:42.130 --> 00:39:50.672 In verse 7, the covering will be swallowed up, that is, over all peoples and veils stretched out over all nations, peoples and nations. 00:39:50.672 --> 00:39:54.148 In verse 8, his people are mentioned once more. 00:39:54.148 --> 00:39:57.784 Verse 9 brings out multiple we's and us's. 00:39:57.784 --> 00:40:01.110 We have hoped that he would save us. 00:40:01.110 --> 00:40:03.135 Let us rejoice. 00:40:03.135 --> 00:40:04.639 Verses 10 through 12. 00:40:04.739 --> 00:40:09.690 Finally, though no longer mentioning the community, do focus on a people, moab. 00:40:09.690 --> 00:40:19.791 Moab, who is moab, representative of the pagan peoples, of all the pagan peoples opposed to God, that God will crush on that day. 00:40:19.791 --> 00:40:38.545 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. 00:40:38.545 --> 00:40:47.166 It is always about the people's plural than the people's singular, though the people's singular are also special. 00:40:47.166 --> 00:40:59.668 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. 00:40:59.668 --> 00:41:03.141 The community praises God for his consolation. 00:41:03.442 --> 00:41:07.168 Notice from the mountain, the mountain, verse six. 00:41:07.168 --> 00:41:13.025 On the mountain of victory, god prepares a banquet, a lavish one. 00:41:13.025 --> 00:41:22.534 This is a lavish banquet aged wine, choice pieces with marrow and refined aged wine, evidence of how incredibly rich this feast will be. 00:41:22.534 --> 00:41:29.431 So much more can be said here, because the imagery is simply monumental. 00:41:29.431 --> 00:41:34.871 The old covenant with Moses and Israel was confirmed with a banquet. 00:41:35.961 --> 00:41:37.523 Exodus 24, 11. 00:41:37.523 --> 00:41:49.630 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. 00:41:49.630 --> 00:41:58.673 And yet, do you remember what was different about that group with respect to us as a community? 00:41:58.673 --> 00:42:05.809 That group was to remain at a distance, with the exception of Moses. 00:42:05.809 --> 00:42:15.581 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. 00:42:15.581 --> 00:42:19.608 Should they touch it, they would surely die. 00:42:19.608 --> 00:42:23.094 Exodus 19, 11 through 13,. 00:42:23.094 --> 00:42:27.090 Bounds were placed all around to prevent them from touching it lest they die. 00:42:27.329 --> 00:42:34.224 The author, the author of Hebrews in the New Testament, contrasts the Sinai mountain with the new covenant mountain. 00:42:34.224 --> 00:42:36.507 The new covenant mountain of God. 00:42:36.507 --> 00:42:41.050 Behold, behold, the new Mount Zion in heavily. 00:42:41.050 --> 00:42:56.742 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. 00:42:56.742 --> 00:42:59.668 Hebrews 12, 18 through 24,. 00:42:59.929 --> 00:43:10.614 Verse 7 continues this theme, notice building up to Christ, and the better promise in Christ, the better and grander joy. 00:43:10.614 --> 00:43:14.728 More of the meaning of the mountain is given to us in verse 7. 00:43:14.728 --> 00:43:16.623 What does the mountain stand for? 00:43:16.623 --> 00:43:20.672 What will take place on this mountain besides the rich banquet? 00:43:20.672 --> 00:43:25.387 Well, verse 7 emphasizes notice, swallow up. 00:43:25.387 --> 00:43:28.492 Swallow up is emphasized with much intensity. 00:43:28.492 --> 00:43:33.927 God will devour, in other words destroy, the covering which is over all peoples. 00:43:33.927 --> 00:43:36.992 The covering is a veil stretched out over the nations. 00:43:36.992 --> 00:43:38.795 It is all the same word. 00:43:38.795 --> 00:43:46.239 It all means covering. 00:43:46.280 --> 00:43:50.751 In Hebrew, repeated four times in the verse, covering speaks to weeping because of the reproach and shame over one's head. 00:43:50.751 --> 00:43:58.226 It is to bear the weight or the contempt of the curse, in other words, divine curse for divine disobedience and sin. 00:43:58.226 --> 00:43:59.007 This is law. 00:43:59.007 --> 00:44:01.813 This is law Implied here. 00:44:01.813 --> 00:44:05.445 There is a heavy burden on the peoples of the world. 00:44:05.445 --> 00:44:14.889 To this day, they live bent over, if you will metaphorically, they walk as hunchbacks. 00:44:14.889 --> 00:44:20.085 Life is burdensome because of the curse, living under the curse of God. 00:44:20.380 --> 00:44:27.867 The curse, in the form of covering, is so thick the fourfold repetition in verse 7, that no human can remove it. 00:44:27.867 --> 00:44:36.371 In other words, it is a covering so solid that by yourself you cannot, please, listen, deliver yourself. 00:44:36.371 --> 00:44:38.507 You cannot deliver yourself. 00:44:38.507 --> 00:44:47.445 No good works, no self-improvement, no, nothing, no, nothing. 00:44:47.445 --> 00:44:51.369 No human can remove nor eliminate it. 00:44:51.369 --> 00:44:52.786 You are simply cursed. 00:44:53.159 --> 00:44:55.409 Herein, however, lies the gospel. 00:44:55.409 --> 00:44:58.369 From the law we move to the gospel. 00:44:58.369 --> 00:45:06.471 God, from Isaiah's point of view, will not only remove it but here again, he will destroy it. 00:45:06.471 --> 00:45:08.266 He will destroy it. 00:45:08.266 --> 00:45:18.150 We read passages so beautifully this morning from the resurrection and the victory over death in 1 Corinthians 15. 00:45:18.150 --> 00:45:22.045 Verse 8, what will he destroy? 00:45:22.045 --> 00:45:23.409 We've just said it. 00:45:23.409 --> 00:45:25.206 Verse 8, god will destroy death. 00:45:25.206 --> 00:45:27.166 God will destroy death, amen. 00:45:27.166 --> 00:45:30.369 Verse 8 brings incredible consolation and comfort. 00:45:30.659 --> 00:45:33.769 Notice again the same expression as in verse 7, swallow up. 00:45:33.769 --> 00:45:34.952 Just in case you did not get it the first time. 00:45:34.952 --> 00:45:34.989 It is said. 00:45:34.989 --> 00:45:35.224 Again the same expression as in verse 7. 00:45:35.224 --> 00:45:36.284 Swallow up, just in case you did not get it the first time. 00:45:36.284 --> 00:45:38.525