WEBVTT 00:00:03.283 --> 00:00:14.336 Well, it is a joy to be with you and just thank you for receiving us and receiving me for this Sunday and the next. 00:00:14.336 --> 00:00:16.047 It is an immense privilege. 00:00:16.047 --> 00:00:20.210 I am overjoyed by this opportunity. 00:00:20.210 --> 00:00:44.365 I want to thank you all and, of course, thank your pastor, doug, who is just a model of faithfulness in pastoral ministry and a mentor to me, and so I just want to express that beforehand my love for Doug, our love for Doug and Royal and the family and what they mean to us. 00:00:44.365 --> 00:00:45.709 I know what they mean to you. 00:00:45.709 --> 00:00:52.310 Thank you for Micah as well, for just how you love upon him. 00:00:52.310 --> 00:01:03.671 We're privileged to be in his home and just graced with his hospitality and just privileged to be in this wonderful study of Isaiah. 00:01:03.671 --> 00:01:25.156 I know I have big shoes to fill, but I'm glad that I can simply be faithful to this wonderful word in this study that you are now in, and so my hope would be to encourage you as way of reminder of wonderful truths of God and Christ through Isaiah. 00:01:25.156 --> 00:01:34.989 It is a privilege for me as well to be here, as Banu said, with my wife and my children two of our children right now in this journey. 00:01:34.989 --> 00:01:53.653 We're in thankful to be for a period of time in the US, we actually are celebrating our 23rd wedding anniversary today, so there's no better way to do it than to preach his word. 00:01:53.653 --> 00:01:57.584 And yes, I did come for the pizza as well. 00:01:57.584 --> 00:02:05.266 For tomorrow or for next Sunday night, I did come for that. 00:02:05.266 --> 00:02:06.349 So, thank you, bono. 00:02:06.349 --> 00:02:12.771 Please open your Bibles in Isaiah, chapters 24 and 25. 00:02:14.635 --> 00:02:17.580 Our study this morning will focus on chapter 24. 00:02:17.580 --> 00:02:24.707 And the next Sunday morning we will be looking at chapter 25 to conclude this two-part series. 00:02:24.707 --> 00:02:41.760 I know your series is entitled and looked at from the perspective of Yahweh or God, the Lord, god reigns, and that is exactly the title for such a study. 00:02:41.760 --> 00:03:06.085 In my own particular study, if you will, in the next two Sundays, looking in to Isaiah, chapter 24-25, I have added or provided a title specific to 24-25, which I've called From Curse to Consolation God's glory in the last days. 00:03:06.085 --> 00:03:12.080 From curse to consolation God's glory in the last days. 00:03:12.121 --> 00:03:32.225 Our time together in Isaiah will be mapped out then according to two stages, two stages in God's redemptive plan, also understood as God's glory, and redemption in the last days, or time of the end, or end time, end of days. 00:03:32.225 --> 00:03:39.961 These two stages are curse, curse which we will see throughout chapter 24,. 00:03:39.961 --> 00:03:43.167 Chapter 24, verses 1 to 23,. 00:03:43.167 --> 00:03:52.965 And consolation, consolation, which we will see in chapter 25, chapter 25, verses 1 through 12. 00:03:52.965 --> 00:04:05.271 Curse and consolation serve to magnify God's glory in salvation through Christ in our passage, chapters 24 and 25. 00:04:05.271 --> 00:04:19.211 If you're taking notes, these will then be your two, two essential markers or points curse 24, one to 23, and consolation 25, one to 12. 00:04:19.211 --> 00:04:24.326 We will cover the curse this Sunday morning, but don't run away. 00:04:24.326 --> 00:04:28.045 Cover the curse this Sunday morning, but don't run away. 00:04:28.045 --> 00:04:32.754 We will cover the consolation next Sunday morning. 00:04:32.754 --> 00:04:49.384 So if you run out this morning, please come back for next Sunday, because you will want to hear about God's consolation and you will want to hear about God's curse this morning leading into consolation, curse and consolation. 00:04:49.684 --> 00:04:52.952 That is what Isaiah 24 and 25 are about. 00:04:52.952 --> 00:05:02.610 God will magnify himself before all people through his curse and consolation in Christ at the last days of time. 00:05:02.610 --> 00:05:06.175 Our passage, then, will project us forward. 00:05:06.175 --> 00:05:17.295 We will be projected forward to the time of the end and we will get a glimpse of how God will bring our world to its end. 00:05:17.295 --> 00:05:34.805 The message Isaiah intends to herald universally through chapters 24 and 25 is please listen, god, that God will triumph in glory over the universe and over sin. 00:05:34.805 --> 00:05:50.963 We will be hearing about God's triumphant glory, triumphant glory especially in the end time, in Isaiah 24 and 25. 00:05:50.963 --> 00:05:54.490 God, father, son and Spirit will be exalted through our learning from Isaiah 24 and 25. 00:05:54.490 --> 00:06:02.706 So, with that said, please read along as I read the first portion of our passage, that is, isaiah 24. 00:06:02.706 --> 00:06:03.709 Isaiah 24. 00:06:03.728 --> 00:06:05.170 Our passage, that is Isaiah 24, isaiah 24. 00:06:05.170 --> 00:06:19.427 Behold, yahweh empties the earth to destruction, eviscerates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. 00:06:19.427 --> 00:06:27.310 And the people will be like the priest, the male slave like his master, the female slave like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor. 00:06:27.310 --> 00:06:35.028 The earth will be completely empty to destruction and completely plundered, for Yahweh has spoken this word. 00:06:35.028 --> 00:06:37.427 The earth mourns and withers. 00:06:37.427 --> 00:06:39.807 The world languishes and withers. 00:06:39.807 --> 00:06:42.850 The exalted of the people of the earth languish. 00:06:42.850 --> 00:06:53.187 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they trespassed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 00:06:53.187 --> 00:06:59.509 Therefore, a curse devours the earth and those who inhabit it are held guilty. 00:06:59.509 --> 00:07:05.065 Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men remain. 00:07:05.399 --> 00:07:10.384 The new wine mourns, the vine languishes, all the glad of heart sigh. 00:07:10.384 --> 00:07:12.569 The joy of tambourines ceases. 00:07:12.569 --> 00:07:15.725 The rumbling of those exulting stops. 00:07:15.725 --> 00:07:18.211 The joy of the harp ceases. 00:07:18.211 --> 00:07:20.303 They do not drink wine with song. 00:07:20.303 --> 00:07:22.449 Strong drink is bitter to those who drink it. 00:07:22.449 --> 00:07:25.327 The city of chaos is broken down. 00:07:25.327 --> 00:07:28.949 Every house is shut up so that none may enter. 00:07:28.949 --> 00:07:32.428 There is an outcry in the streets concerning the wine. 00:07:32.428 --> 00:07:34.225 All gladness turns to gloom. 00:07:34.225 --> 00:07:37.189 The joy of the earth is taken away into exile. 00:07:37.189 --> 00:07:42.230 Desolation remains in the city and the gate is struck down to ruins. 00:07:43.459 --> 00:07:52.569 For thus it will be in the midst of the earth, among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when the grape harvest is over. 00:07:52.569 --> 00:08:00.230 They lift up their voices, they shout for joy, they cry out from the west concerning the majesty of Yahweh. 00:08:00.230 --> 00:08:07.971 They glorify, therefore glorify Yahweh in the east, the name of Yahweh, the God of Israel, in the coastlands of the sea. 00:08:07.971 --> 00:08:15.747 From the ends of the earth, we hear songs, glory to the righteous one, but I say I waste away, I waste away. 00:08:15.747 --> 00:08:16.951 Woe is me. 00:08:18.079 --> 00:08:22.451 The treacherous deal treacherously and the treacherous deal very treacherously. 00:08:22.451 --> 00:08:27.206 Panic and pit and pitfall are upon you, o inhabitant of the earth. 00:08:27.206 --> 00:08:42.268 Then it will be that he who flees the sound of panic will fall into the pit and he who climbs out of the pit will be caught in the pitfall, for the windows above are opened and the foundations of the earth quake. 00:08:42.268 --> 00:08:44.267 The earth is broken asunder. 00:08:44.267 --> 00:08:45.307 The earth is split through. 00:08:45.307 --> 00:08:46.114 The earth is broken asunder. 00:08:46.114 --> 00:08:46.299 The earth is split through. 00:08:46.299 --> 00:08:48.168 The earth is shaken violently. 00:08:48.168 --> 00:08:59.190 The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard and it totters like a shack, for its transgression is heavy upon it and it will fall, never to rise again. 00:08:59.190 --> 00:09:01.684 So it will be. 00:09:01.684 --> 00:09:08.528 In that day, the Yahweh will punish the host of heights on high and the kings of the earth on earth. 00:09:08.528 --> 00:09:17.899 They will be gathered together like prisoners in the pit and it will be confined in prison and after many days they will be punished. 00:09:17.899 --> 00:09:48.133 Then the moon will be humiliated and the sun ashamed For Yahweh, god of glory in the last days, the book of Isaiah focuses in in this particular section on the curse. 00:09:48.874 --> 00:10:09.553 As we read, curse, chapter 24, verses 21 to 23, resounds abundantly in our passage, and so we begin then by looking at our first stage of God's glory, god's glory in salvation through judgment in Christ in the end time. 00:10:09.553 --> 00:10:11.683 This is the stage of curse. 00:10:11.683 --> 00:10:13.990 The curse, god's curse. 00:10:13.990 --> 00:10:19.653 Verse six of our passage will highlight this explicitly, as we heard in the reading. 00:10:19.653 --> 00:10:25.413 Therefore, a curse devours the earth and those who inhabit it are guilty. 00:10:25.413 --> 00:10:37.650 We all live in subjection to the curse, currently, as we live and breathe and have our being. 00:10:37.650 --> 00:10:50.049 This truth, though ancient, is still today present in our midst, and so our text is not far from us in its truth, in its reach, in its warning. 00:10:50.049 --> 00:10:56.428 This means that the earth is cursed and destined to be cursed soon to be. 00:10:57.520 --> 00:10:59.126 The curse, then, is not new. 00:10:59.126 --> 00:11:12.692 In other words, according to Isaiah 24, the vision describes a storing up of wrath, divine rage in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God. 00:11:12.692 --> 00:11:24.975 Borrowing from Romans 2, verse 5, there is a reckoning, a payment for deeds done by the peoples of the globe. 00:11:24.975 --> 00:11:27.225 This is a universal judgment. 00:11:27.225 --> 00:11:33.129 We're hearing about Payment expected by God to God. 00:11:33.129 --> 00:11:41.033 Thus we can say we have an already, already, we have the curse. 00:11:41.033 --> 00:11:52.753 We are in the presence of the curse that is already, and yet it awaits the finish line, a curse that will be unleashed to its full, to exhaustion and full. 00:11:55.221 --> 00:11:56.443 I hope you understand. 00:11:56.443 --> 00:12:05.285 I hope you understand, and it is striking for me, even going through our passage for the purposes of study. 00:12:05.285 --> 00:12:08.822 My own heart is struck and so I share with you. 00:12:08.822 --> 00:12:14.636 I hope you understand the peril the world is in Our loved ones and neighbors. 00:12:14.636 --> 00:12:20.292 Punishment awaits our globe. 00:12:20.292 --> 00:12:25.825 I'll say it again Punishment awaits our globe, it's people and it's earth. 00:12:26.769 --> 00:12:32.613 This is this is not meant to be said with the intent of dramatically raising our fears. 00:12:32.613 --> 00:12:35.570 I am not here to scare you this morning. 00:12:35.570 --> 00:12:38.707 This is not a scare tactic. 00:12:38.707 --> 00:13:13.751 All of creation creation, you will recall that Paul depicts in Romans 8, as anxious, having been subjected to futility, now a slave of corruption, groaning and suffering the pains of childbirth, awaiting its freedom from the evil that has overtaken it in hope, eagerly longing for its recreation or the fullness of its new creation, the arrival of the end, that is to say glory, the coming and consummation of God's glory in creating all things new. 00:13:13.751 --> 00:13:25.568 All of this, all of our created world, in other words, is headed to a finality of judgment, a final judgment day. 00:13:25.568 --> 00:13:29.068 That is what Isaiah 24 highlights. 00:13:29.068 --> 00:13:44.953 The condemnation that currently characterizes it, that prevails within it, the sin and death that pervades throughout it will all be cursed through a curse that is finally and physically fulfilled. 00:13:44.953 --> 00:13:58.884 Again, this is not Hollywood, but the result of sin entering the world and death through sin, and so death spreading to all men Because all sinned. 00:13:59.004 --> 00:14:00.669 Romans 5.12. 00:14:00.669 --> 00:14:07.984 This is a curse upon those cursed. 00:14:07.984 --> 00:14:15.683 It is the cursed them that still continue in a stubborn and unrepentant heart to refuse to find their refuge in the cursed one. 00:14:15.683 --> 00:14:19.113 Please hear me out the cursed one that is Jesus Christ. 00:14:19.113 --> 00:14:22.384 Hear me out the cursed one that is Jesus Christ. 00:14:22.384 --> 00:14:24.827 They await impending doom. 00:14:24.827 --> 00:14:30.215 He Christ was cursed, as we know, so that those cursed could live in him. 00:14:30.215 --> 00:14:43.423 His righteousness, as we even heard in our singing and prayers, his righteousness imputed, accredited to us, imputed, accredited to us. 00:14:43.423 --> 00:14:56.611 His righteousness accredited to those of us who were unrighteous, to our unrighteousness, justifying the cursed. 00:14:56.611 --> 00:15:00.696 And yet the many persist in darkness and will not come to the light. 00:15:00.696 --> 00:15:13.422 Hence live today, tomorrow, and have lived as the cursed, expecting final curse. 00:15:13.422 --> 00:15:21.653 And hence this message of judgment this morning is a message for us as the church, as those once cursed but now blessed, to proclaim Christ. 00:15:21.653 --> 00:15:23.275 To proclaim Christ. 00:15:23.275 --> 00:15:28.169 The curse will be broken down in three phases. 00:15:28.169 --> 00:15:36.086 We will break down this curse in three phases just for the purposes of capturing the flow of thought and for our own clarity. 00:15:36.086 --> 00:15:40.010 We'll break it down into motivation, manner and moment. 00:15:40.010 --> 00:15:44.630 The motivation for the curse, beginning in verse 1. 00:15:44.630 --> 00:15:49.192 The motivation for the curse will extend from verses 1 to 5. 00:15:49.192 --> 00:15:51.589 We will see the motivation for the curse. 00:15:51.940 --> 00:15:55.830 Verse 1 of Isaiah 24 captures the curse in progress. 00:15:55.830 --> 00:15:56.751 Look at verse 1. 00:15:56.751 --> 00:16:02.773 It is as though we are parachuted down into an apocalyptic scene. 00:16:02.773 --> 00:16:10.347 Never before imagery is viewed whereby God, yahweh God, is attacking the earth. 00:16:10.347 --> 00:16:19.087 Divine wrath has descended upon its surface and its inhabitants with unimaginable violence. 00:16:19.087 --> 00:16:22.855 Notice the language immediately out of the gate of the prophet's mouth. 00:16:22.855 --> 00:16:25.950 Yahweh empties the earth to destruction. 00:16:25.950 --> 00:16:27.985 He eviscerates it. 00:16:27.985 --> 00:16:28.649 Verse 1. 00:16:29.759 --> 00:16:38.306 We have two continuous action words, two continuous action words Empties and eviscerates, eviscerates and empties. 00:16:38.306 --> 00:16:48.770 God is attacking, god is attacking, god is attacking, he is acting out against his own creation. 00:16:48.770 --> 00:17:07.570 The actions themselves, along with the initial behold, behold, which could also be translated as see see that begins chapter 24, verse one, this, this combination resounds with an immediacy. 00:17:07.570 --> 00:17:12.796 In other words, this judgment is immediate, imminent. 00:17:12.796 --> 00:17:23.147 There is an immediacy to God's attack, though in progress, the aggression has not actually taken place. 00:17:23.147 --> 00:17:26.933 Rather, the sense is of a nightmare about to happen. 00:17:26.933 --> 00:17:38.766 This is a horrible scenario and this horrible scenario is immediate, immediately, immediately, on the horizon, from Isaiah's day. 00:17:38.766 --> 00:17:56.921 Hence, in the progress, the in-progress expression, the in-progress expression beginning verse 1, and that in-progress violence communicated by the two action words empties and eviscerates adds greater impact to the terror about to be unleashed on the earth from heaven. 00:17:56.921 --> 00:17:59.102 In other words, this is shocking. 00:17:59.102 --> 00:18:00.222 It is meant to shock. 00:18:01.963 --> 00:18:08.929 The initial combination used by the prophet is also known as oracular oracular in style. 00:18:08.929 --> 00:18:13.772 This could also be expressed otherwise as an Oracle against the earth. 00:18:13.772 --> 00:18:15.453 An Oracle against the earth. 00:18:15.453 --> 00:18:17.336 Whoa to humanity. 00:18:17.336 --> 00:18:19.076 Whoa to humanity. 00:18:19.076 --> 00:18:23.527 Whoa to you If you're listening to this this morning and you are not in Christ. 00:18:23.527 --> 00:18:30.730 In other words, cosmic best captures the nature of the horror about to hit the earth. 00:18:30.730 --> 00:18:30.980 Again. 00:18:30.980 --> 00:18:33.128 The earth is so emphasized here. 00:18:33.128 --> 00:18:35.449 In other words, this judgment is global. 00:18:35.449 --> 00:18:43.789 No one is out of its reach, as they say in the world of hurricane. 00:18:43.789 --> 00:18:44.171 Watch. 00:18:44.171 --> 00:18:54.190 We live in North Carolina now and we're accustomed to hearing about hurricanes, as I'm sure they reach you in some sense as well. 00:18:54.190 --> 00:18:55.244 And what do they say? 00:18:55.244 --> 00:18:56.784 This is a big one. 00:18:56.784 --> 00:18:58.108 This is a big one. 00:18:59.079 --> 00:19:07.131 The Oracle brings to bear on its hearersers the weight of judgment, of coming disaster, coming from a distance, but now in sight, now close. 00:19:07.131 --> 00:19:09.106 It is so close we see it. 00:19:09.106 --> 00:19:17.445 Listen to the same expressive force said by the prophet a little further, a little beyond our passage. 00:19:17.445 --> 00:19:22.188 I'll read it for us Isaiah 30, verse 27,. 00:19:22.188 --> 00:19:27.025 The prophet writes behold, the name of Yahweh comes from afar. 00:19:27.025 --> 00:19:31.413 Burning is his anger and heavy is his smoke. 00:19:31.413 --> 00:19:36.670 His lips are filled with indignation and his tongue is like a consuming fire. 00:19:36.670 --> 00:19:38.513 Isaiah 30, 27. 00:19:40.281 --> 00:19:46.567 The nations are also in sight here in the citation just cited in chapter 30, just as in our own passage as well. 00:19:46.567 --> 00:19:57.683 In Isaiah 24 specifically, it is the nations that are on, that are focused in on God's judgment radar. 00:19:57.683 --> 00:20:17.192 They, the peoples of the globe, will be shaken back and forth to ruin, as raging anger and a torrent of brimstone further portray God descending to destroy All of this imagery additionally designates again a time of woe, tribulation that is on the horizon. 00:20:17.192 --> 00:20:20.730 The woe, or state of alarm is very serious. 00:20:20.730 --> 00:20:21.493 Emphasis is on the horizon. 00:20:21.493 --> 00:20:22.579 The woe or state of alarm is very serious. 00:20:22.579 --> 00:20:25.749 Emphasis is on the destruction planned. 00:20:25.749 --> 00:20:26.730 The destruction planned. 00:20:26.730 --> 00:20:28.184 Notice how total it is. 00:20:28.184 --> 00:20:28.928 How total it is. 00:20:28.928 --> 00:20:32.891 We will see this more as our passage goes along. 00:20:34.019 --> 00:20:39.460 The words that capture the repeated aggression Yahweh God commits against the earth are very telling. 00:20:39.460 --> 00:20:46.388 Again, empties speaks of laying waste, making void, leaving the earth a wasteland after being done with it. 00:20:46.388 --> 00:20:50.529 Observe how the emptying is to destruction. 00:20:50.529 --> 00:20:54.550 Always in verse one, complete devastation is in mind. 00:20:54.550 --> 00:21:00.352 Eviscerates describes the additional stripping away of the land to devastation. 00:21:00.352 --> 00:21:03.328 The prophet continues, however, at the end of verse one. 00:21:03.640 --> 00:21:14.413 God's emptying and eviscerating are detailed in much more painful description, almost as an open wound, an open wound to be poked and prodded. 00:21:14.413 --> 00:21:19.356 God distorts its surface, the action here being very intensive. 00:21:19.356 --> 00:21:24.376 It distorts its surface, the action here being very intensive. 00:21:24.376 --> 00:21:28.243 God intentionally scatters the inhabitants of the earth, distorts. 00:21:28.243 --> 00:21:37.025 Distorts speaks to bending and twisting, of perverting, something Similar to committing an evil. 00:21:37.025 --> 00:21:47.973 God is not evil, nor does he commit iniquity, but the intensity of the action, along with its unorthodox nature, carries the nuance. 00:21:47.973 --> 00:21:51.209 What is God doing to his creation? 00:21:51.209 --> 00:21:56.807 This is horrible, we could say, humanly speaking, this is de-creation. 00:21:56.807 --> 00:22:05.744 God, who created the earth good, is now destroying it in an unexplainable, if not humanly reprehensible act. 00:22:05.744 --> 00:22:12.194 Scatters as well is of interest as an act perpetrated by God. 00:22:12.194 --> 00:22:15.967 It focuses in on cause, cause. 00:22:15.967 --> 00:22:24.609 The inhabitants, that is to say the peoples of the world, are made to scatter, caused to scatter by God himself. 00:22:25.921 --> 00:22:30.772 You, you will recall this imagery in Genesis 11, genesis 11. 00:22:30.772 --> 00:22:33.267 Do you remember the tower? 00:22:33.267 --> 00:22:34.830 The tower of Babel? 00:22:34.830 --> 00:22:50.404 At the tower of Babel, god scattered the peoples over the earth and therefore its name was called Babel, because there God confused the language of the whole earth and from there God scattered them over the face of the whole earth Genesis 11, 9. 00:22:50.404 --> 00:22:56.971 It's just a remarkable scene to see how the scattering at Babel is in response. 00:22:56.971 --> 00:23:00.250 Do you remember why God acted in this way? 00:23:00.250 --> 00:23:05.681 Is in response. 00:23:05.681 --> 00:23:08.587 Do you remember why God acted in this way? 00:23:08.587 --> 00:23:10.972 It was in response to human gathering in rebellion against God. 00:23:10.972 --> 00:23:20.211 They gather to be like God, building a tower to reach heaven, and God himself acknowledges that in so doing, nothing afterwards will be impossible to them. 00:23:20.211 --> 00:23:36.587 In Genesis 11, four and six the serpent in the garden Do you remember temps the first couple peoples and inhabitants of the earth to do the same, to eat from the tree of the garden, so that the woman and her husband will be like God. 00:23:36.587 --> 00:23:39.203 Genesis three, one in five. 00:23:39.565 --> 00:23:43.252 All of the prophecy thus unfolds. 00:23:43.252 --> 00:23:57.432 We have this explanation, this unfolding of a future confrontation between God and the globe's inhabitants, a distant but drawing closer rebellion that God will crush. 00:23:57.432 --> 00:23:59.287 No one is neutral here. 00:23:59.287 --> 00:24:00.926 No one is neutral here. 00:24:00.926 --> 00:24:01.692 No one is neutral. 00:24:01.692 --> 00:24:20.385 That does not mean we don't love them and share the love of Christ, but the reality is that everyone who is not in Christ Is opposed to Christ and the opposition will simply grow as the time draws near. 00:24:20.385 --> 00:24:26.145 Hence the warning do not go there, do not be them. 00:24:26.145 --> 00:24:32.380 The people are clearly culpable, as our own passage will shortly mention. 00:24:32.380 --> 00:24:39.003 That said, they are driven by an even greater evil spurring them forward In chapter 27,. 00:24:39.044 --> 00:24:48.369 Just looking ahead briefly, verse 1, isaiah envisions another enemy God will punish in the latter days, chapter 27, verse 1. 00:24:48.369 --> 00:25:01.188 I'll read it for us In that day, yahweh will punish Leviathan the fleeting serpent with his fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent. 00:25:01.188 --> 00:25:06.405 He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea, chapter 27, verse 1. 00:25:06.405 --> 00:25:21.923 We hear the resistance as a greater diabolical, spiritual resistance that is fueling the world, its people ever so more against God and his Christ, people ever so more against God and his Christ. 00:25:21.923 --> 00:25:31.624 The dragon is a diabolical figure who makes war against God, christ and his angels and people, in revelation 12 and 13. 00:25:31.624 --> 00:25:35.333 He is assisted by a beast that comes out of the sea Revelation 13 one. 00:25:35.333 --> 00:25:38.125 The more profound figure, however, is that of Leviathan. 00:25:39.844 --> 00:25:46.550 There are many personifications of Leviathan throughout the Old Testament and Old Testament history, both cultural and mythological. 00:25:46.550 --> 00:25:50.951 These images, however, lead back to the Leviathan. 00:25:50.951 --> 00:25:52.175 Who is the Leviathan? 00:25:52.175 --> 00:25:53.299 The fleeting serpent. 00:25:53.299 --> 00:25:55.604 That is the image of Satan himself. 00:25:55.604 --> 00:26:01.295 He is that crafty beast who spurs on the inhabitants. 00:26:01.295 --> 00:26:10.539 The curse, please observe, involves a war, from the fall onwards, between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. 00:26:10.539 --> 00:26:33.144 The serpent and his antichrists throughout the future will make war against the Christ, the seed of the woman and the elect seeds in Christ, that is, his people, his church, his seed, the seeds of Christ, all those justified by faith through the righteousness of Christ. 00:26:33.183 --> 00:26:43.262 More can be said here through the wording, though the wording is not the same as that in the original curse of the serpent and the first couple, adam and Eve. 00:26:43.262 --> 00:26:51.673 We know that later in Isaiah 53, the suffering servant will be pierced through for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities. 00:26:51.673 --> 00:26:53.425 We know this passage well. 00:26:53.425 --> 00:26:58.590 Yahweh, god, will chastise and crush his son, the servant. 00:26:58.590 --> 00:27:03.030 The iniquity leading to the original curse will fall upon him. 00:27:03.030 --> 00:27:06.929 Isaiah 53, verses 4 through 6. 00:27:06.929 --> 00:27:18.747 Paul will add later in Galatians 3, that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law having become a curse for us, for it is written, curse it is everyone who hangs on a tree. 00:27:18.747 --> 00:27:19.871 Galatians 3.13. 00:27:20.160 --> 00:27:22.367 Notice the reach of our truth. 00:27:22.367 --> 00:27:27.446 This means that for the inhabitants of the earth. 00:27:27.446 --> 00:27:31.605 Even at this end time, latter days, tribulation, please listen. 00:27:31.605 --> 00:27:35.701 There is hope, there is hope and that's why you need to listen. 00:27:35.701 --> 00:27:47.887 We need to listen to the curse because the curse provides a way of escape, all the more to this day as it draws heavier and heavier toward us. 00:27:47.887 --> 00:28:01.686 Upon us, the curse, god's curse, provides hope through God's son, cursed on behalf of all those who, by faith, believe in him. 00:28:01.686 --> 00:28:22.299 There is hope and Isaiah, as Isaiah will say in chapter 25, that we will see next Sunday, he will swallow up death for all time and Lord Yahweh will wipe tears away from all faces and he will remove death for all time. 00:28:22.299 --> 00:28:32.050 He will remove the reproach, condemnation or, in the language of Galatians 3, as we just noted, he will remove the curse from his people from in the language of Galatians 3, as we just noted, he will remove the curse from his people from all the earth. 00:28:32.050 --> 00:28:34.194 For Yahweh has spoken. 00:28:34.194 --> 00:28:44.560 This is already true, dear saints, as we know today, and we are encouraged all the more to proclaim Christ and the gospel. 00:28:45.803 --> 00:28:50.320 Isaiah moves forward in his description in verse 2, speaking of the inhabitants. 00:28:50.320 --> 00:28:53.659 Everyone notice in verse 2, is leveled. 00:28:53.659 --> 00:29:03.501 In other words, we could summarize verse 2 as there are no rich, there are no poor, there is no one again that can flee this judgment. 00:29:03.501 --> 00:29:09.942 Verse 3, notice the aim grounds itself all the more. 00:29:09.942 --> 00:29:17.585 God is clear this is destruction. 00:29:17.585 --> 00:29:22.010 He intends destruction, no salvation. 00:29:22.010 --> 00:29:23.476 In other words, for the unrighteous, everything and everyone is sentenced. 00:29:23.476 --> 00:29:25.722 Then the sentence will be applied in full retribution, with a capital. 00:29:25.722 --> 00:29:26.988 R has arrived. 00:29:27.229 --> 00:29:32.576 Incredible, incredible emphasis is placed on the words in verse 3, emptied and plundered. 00:29:32.576 --> 00:29:43.696 It's again emphasizing the intent of God complete destruction, completely emptied, completely plundered. 00:29:43.696 --> 00:30:07.901 There is nothing you can do on that day If you delay, in other words, there is nothing you can do on that day, there is nothing in you on that day that will rescue you, no one you can turn to and nothing inside of you that could help you. 00:30:07.901 --> 00:30:36.220 Just like Noah and the members of his household, you must go to the ark, you must turn to him that God made displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood, through faith, demonstrating Christ's righteousness as the only thing, only thing, only thing, able to placate and protect the unrighteous from the wrath curse of God. 00:30:36.461 --> 00:30:41.252 Verse three, notice, ends on the word of Yahweh, the spoken word of God. 00:30:41.252 --> 00:30:44.978 This has the sense of a sealing the deal. 00:30:44.978 --> 00:30:47.320 This seals the deal he has spoken. 00:30:47.320 --> 00:30:50.806 He will not be turning back. 00:30:50.806 --> 00:30:53.737 You cannot change his mind. 00:30:53.737 --> 00:30:58.419 God will be faithful to his word as always. 00:30:58.419 --> 00:31:02.320 And yet this word speaks so much more according to the verses that follow. 00:31:02.589 --> 00:31:05.480 Verses 4 and 5 continue to accentuate this. 00:31:05.480 --> 00:31:11.218 It is the word of God that is center, at center stage. 00:31:11.218 --> 00:31:17.932 Verse 5, particularly, will reach a climax in our passage. 00:31:17.932 --> 00:31:22.962 Both verses 4 and 5 reveal the consequences of disobedience to God's word. 00:31:22.962 --> 00:31:26.839 There is a mourning and a withering, languishing and withering. 00:31:26.839 --> 00:31:27.442 Verse 4. 00:31:27.442 --> 00:31:30.105 Languishing and withering. 00:31:30.105 --> 00:31:30.950 Verse 4, verse 5. 00:31:32.395 --> 00:31:47.038 We see that God descends and judges because of the weight of pollution that has defiled the peoples of the globe, as the contagion of sin sinks the inhabitants down to the earth. 00:31:47.038 --> 00:31:51.279 The reason given specifically is stated at the end of verse 5. 00:31:51.279 --> 00:31:52.487 For specifically is stated at the end of verse five. 00:31:52.487 --> 00:31:54.997 For they, the people, notice the end of verse five. 00:31:54.997 --> 00:32:03.317 For they, the people, trespass the laws, violated the statutes, broke the everlasting covenant. 00:32:03.317 --> 00:32:04.099 End of verse five. 00:32:04.099 --> 00:32:06.634 Heavy, heavy truth. 00:32:09.132 --> 00:32:19.140 The trespass, violation and breaking then brings God's destruction and violence done against his creation to a more profound understanding. 00:32:19.140 --> 00:32:29.174 It's almost like the prophet now going from the motive discussing the motive of the curse, gives it to us in full, discloses it to us. 00:32:29.174 --> 00:32:32.259 We have full disclosure for this curse. 00:32:32.259 --> 00:32:39.903 In other words, we could say at this point why is god truly cursing the earth? 00:32:39.903 --> 00:32:46.564 Why are you unbeliever this morning, subject to curse, divine cursing? 00:32:46.564 --> 00:32:54.035 Why should you believer witness to your neighbor warning him of the curse he is under? 00:32:54.035 --> 00:33:01.674 It is of utmost significance that we understand the importance of the reason for the chastisement of God. 00:33:01.674 --> 00:33:14.398 The motive will simply then drop down and we will quickly rush through or brush through the manner and the moment of the curse, but the motive is central. 00:33:15.710 --> 00:33:21.863 God is not acting capriciously like a pagan God. 00:33:21.863 --> 00:33:27.821 God is not behaving, in the end, in an unusual way. 00:33:27.821 --> 00:33:54.928 After all, god is not breaking out in irrational violence, almost as though His fury is unleashed rage, senseless rage, on the inhabitants of the earth, as though just wanting to punish them with cruelty, severe cruelty Observe the wording trespassing, violating and breaking to punish them with cruelty, severe cruelty. 00:33:54.928 --> 00:33:56.170 Observe the wording trespassing, violating and breaking. 00:33:56.170 --> 00:33:59.029 With each accusation, there is a heavier condemnation cast upon the inhabitants of the earth. 00:33:59.029 --> 00:34:01.337 Trespassing refers to disobeying. 00:34:01.337 --> 00:34:08.380 Violating refers to altering or changing so that one thing is replaced by another, hence perverting. 00:34:08.380 --> 00:34:36.590 And finally, breaking refers to the breaking of a relationship to the annulment or nullifying of a bond, in this case a sacred bond involving all of life, life now and forever with God and because of God and because of His word of promise, his covenant Yahweh God. 00:34:36.590 --> 00:34:41.791 This is incredibly covenantal, if you will. 00:34:41.811 --> 00:34:42.791 Language here of a faithful relationship. 00:34:42.791 --> 00:34:51.679 His covenant Yahweh God, whose name Yahweh exalts the attribute that highlights covenant magnifies him as the covenant making God, the faithful God. 00:34:51.679 --> 00:35:06.514 To his words and his promise he is responding not in rage, irrational rage, unleashing, as we said, senseless fury on the earth and its people. 00:35:06.514 --> 00:35:10.364 Rather, rather, he is enacting his word of covenant promised in his relationship to his people and all men universally. 00:35:10.364 --> 00:35:12.577 He is being faithful to himself. 00:35:12.577 --> 00:35:24.021 In other words, when he curses the earth and its people, the unrighteous, he is being faithful to himself, his word of promise to his people, by cursing or fulfilling the curse on all the earth. 00:35:24.021 --> 00:35:33.534 What the people are doing and have done until judgment day instead, is to be unfaithful to the same word and promise of his. 00:35:33.534 --> 00:35:40.492 The inhabitants of the globe have thus disobeyed, corrupted and annulled the covenant they have made with God. 00:35:40.771 --> 00:35:43.635 You say this morning what covenant is that? 00:35:43.635 --> 00:35:57.958 I don't recall making a commitment with God and I don't recall the past that is, israel particularly, making a commitment other than the commitment we know about. 00:35:57.958 --> 00:36:01.510 That is the law of Moses and the law of God. 00:36:01.510 --> 00:36:17.414 And I say you are right in part because notice, this is not speaking specifically to Israel alone, but this judgment is on all the nations. 00:36:17.414 --> 00:36:43.282 In fact, going back chapters 13 through 23 that you heard through Pastor Micah explain this so wonderfully, there is a reason why God judges pagan nations that do not know of his law, never have received his written revelation, as Israel had received through the Ten Commandments, summary of the law. 00:36:43.282 --> 00:37:20.882 They are judged by virtue of the fact that they, like all men, including Israel itself, were made in the image of God in Adam, and so what we have here is a pre-existing relationship, a commitment that all men have been born into by virtue of the fact that they have been made in the image of God and by virtue of the fact that in Adam, all of us have sinned. 00:37:24.751 --> 00:37:31.664 Hence we have verse 5 as the capstone that explains the curse in chapter 24 of Isaiah. 00:37:31.664 --> 00:38:03.943 It's initial progress, as we've seen, beginning with God's devastation of the earth and reaching the climax as the reason or the motive for this devastation you have sinned by breaking God's law, god's moral, god's eternal, god's creation law, by rebelling in your relationship against him and living life without him in spite of him. 00:38:03.943 --> 00:38:12.905 Notice how this is again provides no justification for anyone, no alibi. 00:38:12.905 --> 00:38:18.576 Just think of the agnostic who believes he does not have enough evidence here. 00:38:18.576 --> 00:38:23.730 He is cursed nonetheless is all from the motive. 00:38:23.730 --> 00:38:25.492 We move quickly to the manner. 00:38:25.492 --> 00:38:26.954 Verses 6 through 20. 00:38:26.954 --> 00:38:30.659 Notice this is a grand sweep. 00:38:30.659 --> 00:38:34.625 The curse will devour, verse 6. 00:38:34.625 --> 00:38:36.492 The curse will devour. 00:38:36.492 --> 00:38:38.838 The curse is definitive. 00:38:38.838 --> 00:38:42.909 Notice in verse 6 how it devours the guilty Devours. 00:38:43.208 --> 00:38:49.079 Speaks of eating, as though a flesh-eating virus cuts through the body without stopping. 00:38:49.079 --> 00:38:51.565 This is the consequence. 00:38:51.565 --> 00:38:53.536 These are the results of the curse. 00:38:53.536 --> 00:38:57.420 The consequences reach us and beyond us to the end. 00:38:57.420 --> 00:39:00.056 The action is comprehensive. 00:39:00.056 --> 00:39:08.909 In other words, the curse completely overwhelms the earth and its people as cancer spreads, ultimately to shut the body down. 00:39:08.909 --> 00:39:09.954 This is the method. 00:39:09.954 --> 00:39:15.300 In other words, from the motive the flesh-eating virus appears. 00:39:15.300 --> 00:39:16.934 This is not God's fault. 00:39:17.396 --> 00:39:18.298 Our text is clear. 00:39:18.298 --> 00:39:21.940 Those who inhabited the earth are guilty, verse 6. 00:39:21.940 --> 00:39:26.041 The guilt is emphasized and looked at based on the way Isaiah words. 00:39:26.041 --> 00:39:36.739 It Notice those who inhabit the earth individually, such that each person on the globe is affected by this cancerous and deadly virus, because each one is guilty. 00:39:36.739 --> 00:39:44.021 At the end of verse six we read therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men remain. 00:39:44.021 --> 00:39:46.574 We have a remnant here. 00:39:46.574 --> 00:39:48.177 Who are the few that remain? 00:39:48.177 --> 00:39:51.583 Well, they are the ones that seek out the ark. 00:39:51.583 --> 00:40:06.110 They are the ones that seek out refuge in Christ, the righteous notice declared righteous forgiven whose sins have been placed upon someone else. 00:40:06.110 --> 00:40:11.099 Live through this judgment almost as a source of witness. 00:40:11.099 --> 00:40:20.061 God leaves a remnant in order to plead and cry out to those perishing, just like we, the church, are today. 00:40:20.061 --> 00:40:22.273 You are that remnant, so to speak. 00:40:22.273 --> 00:40:36.108 We are called to be a light to those perishing in light of that coming judgment, to those perishing in light of that coming judgment. 00:40:36.108 --> 00:40:39.780 Verses 7 through 20 then captures the cancerous curse disintegrating the land and people. 00:40:39.780 --> 00:40:47.490 There is so much here, but the point is to draw out the devastation as it moves From the motive. 00:40:47.490 --> 00:40:49.992 We have the manner moving through. 00:40:49.992 --> 00:40:51.994 Notice the people's dwellings. 00:40:51.994 --> 00:40:52.755 We have the manner moving through. 00:40:52.755 --> 00:40:53.376 Notice the people's dwellings. 00:40:53.376 --> 00:40:53.996 Even the city is mentioned. 00:40:53.996 --> 00:40:57.659 We have, in verse 10, mention of the city of chaos. 00:40:57.659 --> 00:41:01.463 In other words, from a global perspective, isaiah goes down to the city. 00:41:01.463 --> 00:41:02.182 Why the city. 00:41:02.182 --> 00:41:04.465 It's an illustration of where life happens. 00:41:04.465 --> 00:41:11.271 Where life happens, isaiah says God will come and take away that life. 00:41:11.271 --> 00:41:18.543 You think money, you think human relationships, you think entertainment will distract you from this curse. 00:41:18.543 --> 00:41:23.827 Well, god will come down and turn the city upside down. 00:41:23.827 --> 00:41:35.672 Your favorite city, the pride of empires, their cities, capital cities, the pride of empires, their cities, capital cities. 00:41:35.672 --> 00:41:38.356 From the motivation, through the manner we get to the moment, the moment to the curse. 00:41:38.356 --> 00:41:47.034 This doesn't sound as well grammar wise, but the moment to the curse means it's that day. 00:41:47.034 --> 00:41:49.980 We have reached that moment, or projected. 00:41:49.980 --> 00:41:56.369 Here is the time of the curse proclaimed from Isaiah's day to the actual curse itself. 00:41:56.449 --> 00:42:07.001 Verses 21 and 23 close out chapter 24 and close out God's focus on the curse, the moment the curse is brought to a final climax. 00:42:07.001 --> 00:42:09.297 The climax lifts up the theme. 00:42:09.297 --> 00:42:10.677 It is a theophany, a the the theme. 00:42:10.677 --> 00:42:12.469 It is a theophany, a theophany. 00:42:12.469 --> 00:42:13.815 What is a theophany? 00:42:13.815 --> 00:42:17.916 It is the theme of theophany. 00:42:17.916 --> 00:42:19.219 As we close out our passage. 00:42:19.219 --> 00:42:25.721 This is the grand manifestation of God, the visible presence of God descending upon the earth. 00:42:25.721 --> 00:42:27.175 This is when God appears. 00:42:27.175 --> 00:42:32.800 There is both judgment and joy, defeat and triumph. 00:42:32.800 --> 00:42:35.936 In this His appearance, emphasized is the day. 00:42:36.356 --> 00:42:42.440 That day, that day particularly, you want to be aware of the expression that day. 00:42:42.440 --> 00:42:48.936 This is a recurring future day that Isaiah repeatedly points to, beginning from chapter 2. 00:42:48.936 --> 00:42:58.099 Chapter 2, beginning his prophecy early on in the book by his mention of the phrase in the last days, in the last days, isaiah 2.2. 00:42:58.099 --> 00:42:59.976 We are in the last days. 00:42:59.976 --> 00:43:02.615 This is the foreseen. 00:43:02.615 --> 00:43:07.329 This is foreseen as a day of reckoning and exaltation. 00:43:07.329 --> 00:43:28.681 In other words, the curse will also bring forth the consolation, and that's why we hear it this morning and rejoice in anticipation of coming back next Sunday to hear chapter 25, which will declare openly and exalt the triumph of the saved, god's salvation. 00:43:32.492 --> 00:43:39.239 The sense of that day, throughout the reference to that day by Isaiah, is that of an encounter with God, a visitation. 00:43:39.239 --> 00:43:44.889 Moreover, men will see him face to face as he dwells upon the earth, as he visits the earth. 00:43:44.889 --> 00:43:47.121 Note the character of this visitation, verse 21. 00:43:47.121 --> 00:43:47.623 Verse 21. 00:43:47.623 --> 00:43:48.730 Note the character of this visitation, verse 21. 00:43:48.730 --> 00:43:52.443 Verse 21. 00:43:52.443 --> 00:43:59.346 Verse 21 depicts punishment to the host of heights on high and the kings of the earth on earth Verse 21. 00:43:59.346 --> 00:44:22.181 Notice the curse is not limited to the material, to the earth and the human realm, but the curse condemns the spiritual as well the spiritual forces of darkness that currently reign or have the appearance or sense of freedom. 00:44:22.181 --> 00:44:35.271 Though they have been made captive by Christ's cross, they continue to tempt and taunt the church and encourage the unrighteous to rebel. 00:44:35.271 --> 00:44:46.606 Envisioned is a battle royale, a battle royale whereby both heaven and earth are judged. 00:44:46.889 --> 00:44:51.490 Verse 22 remarks on the timing or days, once again in light of that day. 00:44:51.490 --> 00:44:56.469