WEBVTT 00:00:00.441 --> 00:00:05.713 I invite you to take your Bible and go over to the book of Isaiah, chapter 8, isaiah, chapter 8. 00:00:05.713 --> 00:00:18.911 If you'll allow me to introduce this message with a little bit of a, maybe a strange analogy at first, but I think there is a connecting point. 00:00:18.911 --> 00:00:23.266 Just recently I had a unique experience in my backyard. 00:00:23.266 --> 00:00:54.076 I have a bird feeder, a couple bird feeders, in my backyard, and I enjoy a regular visit from birds that we're used to seeing a lot there Sparrows and finches and morning doves and pesky pigeons, and occasionally we'll see cardinals coming in and out on a fairly regular basis and blue jays and once in a while woodpeckers and sometimes even hawks who have a real love for pigeon meat. 00:00:54.076 --> 00:01:04.085 We've come back there and there looks like someone has torn a pillow apart and realized that one of the pigeons had been dispatched in our backyard. 00:01:04.085 --> 00:01:06.868 Realized that one of the pigeons had been dispatched in our backyard. 00:01:06.868 --> 00:01:13.694 But a few weeks ago, as I was looking at our bird feeders, I was amazed to see something that was completely out of place. 00:01:13.694 --> 00:01:26.950 There were seven parakeets bright, brilliant green parakeets eating bird seed on my bird feeder and my immediate thought was where did you guys come from? 00:01:26.950 --> 00:01:34.941 Because you don't belong here. 00:01:34.941 --> 00:01:39.010 And I just sat and marveled in watching them and for the past few weeks they've actually come back and revisited our bird feeder a few times. 00:01:39.010 --> 00:01:41.983 They're hungry, so they come back. 00:01:41.983 --> 00:01:43.968 I don't know if they'll survive the winter. 00:01:43.968 --> 00:01:44.588 They must be. 00:01:44.588 --> 00:01:48.689 There's seven of them, so they've obviously look healthy and thriving somehow. 00:01:48.689 --> 00:01:59.894 But it was odd to see them, because those big green birds just really don't fit in with the rest of the birds that come by. 00:01:59.894 --> 00:02:02.890 They're just not natural to our place. 00:02:02.890 --> 00:02:04.540 They're just not natural to our place. 00:02:04.561 --> 00:02:15.385 Well, we, as believers in Jesus Christ, are in a world, and the way we behave, I think, causes them to look at us much like I did the first time I saw those parakeets. 00:02:15.385 --> 00:02:19.207 What are you doing here and who are you? 00:02:19.207 --> 00:02:24.389 We are a peculiar people, unique in the way we operate. 00:02:24.389 --> 00:02:26.711 Now just think about it for a minute. 00:02:26.711 --> 00:02:29.592 We stand apart in this world in several different ways. 00:02:29.592 --> 00:02:35.514 We proclaim God's presence in a secular society. 00:02:35.514 --> 00:02:42.157 We exercise generosity and simplicity in a consumer world. 00:02:42.157 --> 00:02:48.909 We encourage one another to live selflessly in a world that's dominated by selfishness. 00:02:48.909 --> 00:02:54.451 We hold out hope in a world that's lost hope for the future. 00:02:54.451 --> 00:03:00.929 We express praise and joy and thanksgiving in a world that's convinced of its own entitlement. 00:03:00.929 --> 00:03:04.248 I have no one else to thank but me for what I've gotten. 00:03:04.248 --> 00:03:18.989 Some of these practices cause us to be welcomed, because they're attractive, of course, but some of the things that we do as believers cause others to look at us and say who are you? 00:03:18.989 --> 00:03:21.234 You're not like the rest of us. 00:03:21.234 --> 00:03:32.573 Some of these things even make us a bit odious to our society today, because we stand as bold witnesses to the truth of Jesus Christ in a world of relativism. 00:03:34.320 --> 00:03:42.924 Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life, and no one could come to the Father but by him. 00:03:42.924 --> 00:03:54.229 And the apostolic message of that gospel of Jesus Christ was that there was no name given among humans by which we must be saved. 00:03:54.229 --> 00:04:02.486 It's an exclusive message singularly focused upon one person, jesus Christ. 00:04:02.486 --> 00:04:15.181 And the whole world is being told that only through Jesus Christ can you have an assurance of your sins forgiven and an entrance into the presence of God without condemnation. 00:04:15.181 --> 00:04:22.692 Now that message rubs a lot of people the wrong way. 00:04:22.692 --> 00:04:34.773 Why, well, we can't join them in this era of tolerance that we're being told we must do in our Western society? 00:04:34.773 --> 00:04:41.988 We can't agree that all truth claims have to be shuffled aside into the private sector. 00:04:41.988 --> 00:04:53.353 We can't do that and we understand that our mission in this world is going to prove to be increasingly costly to us, and it might even include suffering. 00:04:53.353 --> 00:05:01.233 In fact, paul said that everyone who lives godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. 00:05:01.233 --> 00:05:07.591 You see, suffering is a result of being God-centered and gospel-focused. 00:05:07.591 --> 00:05:15.514 It is a result of standing for the absolute truth that Jesus is the way, the truth and the life. 00:05:18.901 --> 00:05:32.454 It's becoming increasingly difficult to live our lives in this society because the modern American pluralistic story is seeking not only to be a story in America, not only a dominant story in America. 00:05:32.454 --> 00:05:38.853 This pluralistic idea is seeking to be the exclusive story in America. 00:05:38.853 --> 00:06:11.803 And as we desire to be faithful to the gospel, we're going to be faced with a choice Do we accommodate ourselves, do we just relegate ourselves to some minor community in our culture and mute or modify the comprehensive and exclusive claims of the gospel, or do we remain faithful to that message and thus experience some degree of conflict and suffering? 00:06:11.803 --> 00:06:22.047 As we engage the structures of our society today, we're going to face the pressures to play that cultural game. 00:06:22.047 --> 00:06:34.694 We're going to face the pressures that cause us, or seek to cause us, to compromise to round off the rough edges, to be silent when words need to be spoken. 00:06:36.581 --> 00:06:43.862 This morning, I believe Isaiah chapter 8 gives us the equipment that we need to be able to live in society without compromise. 00:06:43.862 --> 00:06:56.846 Let's dig into it, let's take a look at it, and as we dig into it, I want to bring back the setting that we set up last week as we looked through Isaiah chapter 7 and the first part of chapter 8. 00:06:56.846 --> 00:07:22.930 And last week we discovered that, after Isaiah was called to prophetic ministry, one of his first assignments was to meet King Ahaz in Jerusalem, and Isaiah came across Ahaz there, likely inspecting the water supply of the city, in advance of what seemed to be an imminent siege by the two northern nations of Aram and the 10 tribes of Israel. 00:07:22.930 --> 00:07:39.723 These two kings of those two nations threatened Ahaz with death and destruction if he did not comply with their building of an alliance against the strengthening muscle of Assyria in the region. 00:07:39.723 --> 00:07:44.994 If they didn't join him, they would die by him. 00:07:44.994 --> 00:07:55.995 And so he was in no place to make an agreement with them because, as the truth be told, he had already made an alliance with Assyria himself. 00:07:55.995 --> 00:08:06.101 So there's no way he's going to fight the very people he had already made a pact with the very people he had already made a pact with. 00:08:06.141 --> 00:08:17.656 God instructs Isaiah to meet Ahaz and to inform him of some things, to inform him that the living God would be with him and remain faithful to the house of David. 00:08:17.656 --> 00:08:32.807 In chapter 7 and verse 4, isaiah was instructed to tell King Ahaz to be calm and to be quiet and not to be afraid or cowardly because of the threats of these two kings. 00:08:32.807 --> 00:08:47.135 But along with those comforting words, isaiah was told to exhort Ahaz that in order to come through this crisis successfully, he needed to trust God and not himself. 00:08:47.135 --> 00:08:53.192 And in verse 9 of chapter 7, if you don't stand firm in faith, you won't stand at all. 00:08:53.192 --> 00:08:59.423 If Ahaz leaned on the Lord, he would see God at work on his behalf. 00:08:59.423 --> 00:09:12.312 And in a wonderfully accommodating way, god told Isaiah to give Ahaz the opportunity to ask God for a sign. 00:09:12.312 --> 00:09:16.475 Anyone he chose, as high as the heavens are, as low as the grave. 00:09:16.475 --> 00:09:31.259 Pick what you want, present it to God as a test, so that God might demonstrate to Ahaz that he truly was there to help him out. 00:09:35.460 --> 00:09:40.700 Ahaz demurred and, in a mock demonstration of piety, said that he wouldn't do such a thing. 00:09:40.700 --> 00:09:45.203 He wouldn't look to the Lord for assurance and he wouldn't look to the Lord for help. 00:09:45.203 --> 00:09:54.572 And so the Lord instructed Isaiah to speak to Ahaz and inform him that God was still going to be faithful to the house of David. 00:09:54.572 --> 00:10:04.371 But Ahaz and the disobedient people in Judah were not going to enter into the good things that God had prepared for those who trust him. 00:10:04.371 --> 00:10:13.773 And in chapter 7, verse 17, he said the Lord will bring on you and on your people and on your father's house. 00:10:13.773 --> 00:10:18.150 Such a time has never been since Ephraim separated from Judah. 00:10:18.150 --> 00:10:21.690 He will bring the king of Assyria. 00:10:23.880 --> 00:10:36.519 Isaiah was told to tell Ahaz and the people of Judah, who had already submitted themselves to the king of Assyria in an alliance, that he wasn't going to come to them as a refuge. 00:10:36.519 --> 00:10:39.764 He was going to come to them as their ruin. 00:10:39.764 --> 00:10:48.096 And in chapter eight he said said the Lord spoke to me again in verse 5. 00:10:48.096 --> 00:11:00.909 And because the people rejected the slowly flowing waters of Shiloah, the Lord will certainly bring against them the mighty rushing water of the Euphrates river, the king of Assyria and all his glory. 00:11:00.909 --> 00:11:04.509 It will overflow its channels and spill all of its banks. 00:11:04.509 --> 00:11:19.273 It will pour into Judah, it will flood it over, it will sweep through, reaching up to the neck and the flooded banks will fill your entire land, emmanuel. 00:11:19.273 --> 00:11:28.874 Certainly God had every right to utterly refuse these people and leave them to their fate. 00:11:28.874 --> 00:11:50.190 But that last word in that passage, emmanuel, that God was still the God who was going to be good and he was going to be gracious, and he was going to stand by his promises to David, there's a whisper of hope, even in the rebuke. 00:11:50.190 --> 00:12:07.842 Their failure to take into account the presence of God on their behalf would soon turn to the swift plundering of the land of Judah, but it wouldn't be able to change the fact that there were people there who could say God was with them. 00:12:11.068 --> 00:12:33.019 Despite the fact that most, all of Judah had turned away, there was a little band of people who were continuing to trust the living God, continuing to rest upon the promises that God had made to David, and we call those people the remnant people. 00:12:33.019 --> 00:12:47.960 They're just a small little bit of the populace, a residue, a vestige of the people, but they were the people who trusted God in the midst of a society that was refusing him, in the midst of a society that was refusing him. 00:12:47.960 --> 00:13:00.332 And to those people God promises to be Emmanuel, god, with them While he was going to move as judge and bring judgment upon a nation. 00:13:00.332 --> 00:13:16.113 These people were still able to trust the living God in the middle of that confusion and conflict and catastrophe, and know that God was there with them in the turmoil. 00:13:16.113 --> 00:13:35.931 To say that God was with them sounds wonderful, but keep in mind that they were going to be living in the very land where God was going to bring the judgment of the Assyrian people over every inch of that place. 00:13:35.931 --> 00:13:38.907 Their lives were going to be disrupted. 00:13:38.907 --> 00:13:43.309 Their whole world was going to be turned upside down. 00:13:43.309 --> 00:13:54.153 Their whole world was going to be turned upside down but even though things were unstable and dangerous, they could still rest in the knowledge of Emmanuel, that God was with them. 00:13:54.153 --> 00:13:59.812 How were they to navigate this dangerous situation? 00:13:59.812 --> 00:14:17.412 How were they able to continue to trust in the midst of all of this conflict, the conflict between their belief and the other people's unbelief, the conflict of warring nations at their doorstep? 00:14:17.412 --> 00:14:21.147 How were they to navigate it? 00:14:21.147 --> 00:14:24.489 Well, that's what Isaiah chapter 8 is all about. 00:14:24.489 --> 00:14:36.974 It's here to give them hope as they navigate these troubling waters, as the remnant looks to God while the rest of the nation is being judged. 00:14:38.861 --> 00:14:46.519 We live in a similar situation Ever since the gospel of Jesus Christ came into this world situation. 00:14:46.519 --> 00:14:52.590 Ever since the gospel of Jesus Christ came into this world, christians have found themselves in conflict with the society that they were in and are in. 00:14:52.590 --> 00:15:04.384 In fact, the Apostle John said we know that we're of God and the whole world lies in the sway of the evil one lies in the sway of the evil one. 00:15:04.384 --> 00:15:19.620 We are on a side that is in conflict with another side and we are in, if you number us, a serious minority. 00:15:19.620 --> 00:15:27.429 But he also said we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding that we know the true one and we are in the true one. 00:15:29.280 --> 00:15:47.533 So in our day, we too live with the kind of complexities, maybe not the imminent physical danger of life like the people in Judah did, but with the same construct of light versus dark, of one versus the other. 00:15:47.533 --> 00:16:05.270 And as our world is experiencing this sort of degradation, full of disobedience and the disintegration of those things that are truly right and just and righteous in our society, how do we stand up against those aligned forces of evil? 00:16:05.270 --> 00:16:22.870 The same way that the remnant did in Isaiah's day, they and we need to be strengthened in the confidence in God-shaped resolve that will help us to walk forward despite what we're watching around us. 00:16:22.870 --> 00:16:37.312 We need God's spirit and we need the truth to fill us, to fill us with holiness and justice and righteousness, when holiness and justice and righteousness are scorned and mocked in our society. 00:16:37.312 --> 00:16:44.371 So the details of this passage will help us to discover how to navigate these troubling waters. 00:16:44.371 --> 00:16:53.764 Of this passage will help us to discover how to navigate these troubling waters, and the first thing I want us to notice here is that the remnant possesses a distinguishing resource. 00:16:53.764 --> 00:16:54.427 A distinguishing resource. 00:16:54.447 --> 00:16:57.774 Take a look at verses 9 and 10 of chapter 8. 00:16:57.774 --> 00:17:02.164 Band together peoples and be broken. 00:17:02.164 --> 00:17:05.093 Pay attention all you distant lands. 00:17:05.093 --> 00:17:07.586 Prepare for war and be broken. 00:17:07.586 --> 00:17:09.748 Prepare for war and be broken. 00:17:09.748 --> 00:17:11.903 Devise a plan. 00:17:11.903 --> 00:17:13.409 It will fail. 00:17:13.409 --> 00:17:21.280 Make a prediction it will not happen, for God is with us Now. 00:17:21.320 --> 00:17:46.394 When Ahaz was told that there was going to be this alliance of Aram and Ephraim coming down against him, his heart shook, as it says in chapter 7, like the trees of the forest are shaken by the wind, and he's scrambling about trying to muster every bit of military might that he can find to be able to stand up against what was coming his way. 00:17:46.394 --> 00:17:55.034 But the remnant could be confident and not frantic and fearful. 00:17:55.034 --> 00:18:11.128 They could stand as a solid force in the middle of a troubled society because they have this unique characteristic, this distinguishing resource of God's presence with them. 00:18:11.128 --> 00:18:13.933 God is with us. 00:18:13.933 --> 00:18:18.286 These verses are so confident. 00:18:18.286 --> 00:18:21.232 They carry a sarcastic tone about them. 00:18:21.232 --> 00:18:32.829 Tone about them Band together people. 00:18:32.849 --> 00:18:33.634 Go ahead, make your alliances. 00:18:33.634 --> 00:18:34.498 Prepare for your war. 00:18:34.498 --> 00:18:39.800 Empty out all of your resources. 00:18:39.800 --> 00:18:41.365 Go to all of your armories and pass them out among all your strongest men. 00:18:41.365 --> 00:18:42.126 Devise your plans. 00:18:42.126 --> 00:18:43.650 Get your strategies in place. 00:18:43.650 --> 00:18:44.751 Talk to your generals. 00:18:44.751 --> 00:18:46.993 Make your alliances with other nations. 00:18:47.855 --> 00:18:49.256 It's all going to fail. 00:18:49.256 --> 00:18:51.119 Why? 00:18:51.119 --> 00:19:00.679 Because God is with us. 00:19:00.679 --> 00:19:21.536 To the unbelieving people of Judah and King Ahaz, the people who really trusted the Lord could be confident in contrast to their fear, and they could be clear in demarking the differences of their responses. 00:19:21.536 --> 00:19:23.162 Divide your plans. 00:19:23.162 --> 00:19:24.506 They're going to fail. 00:19:24.506 --> 00:19:26.711 We don't need to devise plans. 00:19:26.711 --> 00:19:28.324 We don't need to run to alliances. 00:19:28.324 --> 00:19:30.690 We don't need to count the number of our men. 00:19:30.690 --> 00:19:39.007 We don't have to wonder how erudite and strategically astute our generals are. 00:19:39.007 --> 00:19:39.567 Why? 00:19:39.567 --> 00:19:40.307 Because God is on our side. 00:19:40.307 --> 00:19:41.509 God is on our side. 00:19:41.509 --> 00:19:49.116 That's why, now this might sound arrogant, but it's not arrogance. 00:19:49.116 --> 00:19:57.482 It's actually humble confidence that God is on our side. 00:19:57.502 --> 00:20:04.290 Just think about this for a minute Apart from Jesus Christ, what resources do any of us actually have? 00:20:04.290 --> 00:20:09.416 Right, none. 00:20:09.416 --> 00:20:17.614 Do we really think that we have the power to be conquerors in this world? 00:20:17.614 --> 00:20:22.348 Can we stop a tornado? 00:20:22.348 --> 00:20:25.488 Can we slow down a hurricane? 00:20:25.488 --> 00:20:28.105 Can we still an earthquake? 00:20:28.105 --> 00:20:28.968 Any of us? 00:20:28.968 --> 00:20:31.946 Not one of us, not even all of us together. 00:20:33.500 --> 00:20:38.051 There's no fail-safe that any of us have against the potential of fiscal ruin. 00:20:38.051 --> 00:20:44.429 The markets could crash, climates can change, famine can happen. 00:20:44.429 --> 00:20:46.223 It's outside of our control. 00:20:46.223 --> 00:20:53.643 I love to work out, but I know this body's going to fail. 00:20:53.643 --> 00:20:58.942 I don't have the wherewithal to protect myself against disease and aging. 00:20:58.942 --> 00:21:07.580 I don't, none of us do and we certainly have no power to face down death, do we? 00:21:07.580 --> 00:21:11.376 How powerful are we, then? 00:21:11.376 --> 00:21:14.056 Really Not a single one of us. 00:21:14.056 --> 00:21:26.134 I was at dinner with someone last night and he talked about a friend of his who is approaching death simply because he fell down a couple stairs and hit his head. 00:21:26.134 --> 00:21:37.662 One little momentary decision to go down the steps slipped and fell and is now on the brink of eternity. 00:21:39.652 --> 00:21:43.201 None of us have the ability or power to protect ourselves like we think we do. 00:21:43.201 --> 00:21:56.549 You see, safety true safety is not found in avoiding danger completely, is not found in avoiding danger completely. 00:21:56.549 --> 00:22:03.522 True safety is found that you can go into the danger and come out of it without full evil effect harming you. 00:22:03.522 --> 00:22:23.640 And while others are frantic and fearful and clutching at solutions and trying to paper the facade of their lives with the pretense that they can have it all under their control, god's people can simply say God's with us. 00:22:23.640 --> 00:22:34.060 It's like one pastor said if you feel like you're alone in the world, just know this. 00:22:34.060 --> 00:22:39.861 You and God make a majority. 00:22:39.861 --> 00:22:41.815 That's all you need. 00:22:41.815 --> 00:22:44.637 You don't need anything beside Him. 00:22:47.851 --> 00:22:58.900 In the book of Romans, in chapter 8, paul raises a few questions to get us to consider these things and he says there who can bring an accusation against God's elect? 00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:03.153 It's God who justifies. 00:23:03.153 --> 00:23:05.478 It's God who declares people righteous. 00:23:05.478 --> 00:23:10.371 Who is the one who condemns Christ? 00:23:10.371 --> 00:23:11.855 Jesus is the one who died. 00:23:11.855 --> 00:23:17.398 Even more has been raised and he's also at the right hand of God interceding for us. 00:23:17.398 --> 00:23:44.219 These questions are causing us to think and he's telling us that if we're a believer in Jesus Christ, our sins are forgiven and we're declared righteous before a holy God, that there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus and that we could say about ourselves blessed are those whose lawless acts are forgiven and whose sins are covered. 00:23:44.219 --> 00:23:51.077 Blessed is the one in whom the Lord will not impute their sin against them. 00:23:51.077 --> 00:24:03.732 We're declared righteous in the eyes of God, not because of anything that we've done, but because of his mercy. 00:24:03.772 --> 00:24:04.693 But Paul doesn't end there. 00:24:04.693 --> 00:24:14.603 He said not only did Christ die for us, he rose from the grave and he presents us to the Father on our behalf. 00:24:14.603 --> 00:24:17.326 He's at the right hand of the throne of God. 00:24:17.326 --> 00:24:18.567 Why is he there? 00:24:18.567 --> 00:24:30.902 To represent us, to speak on our behalf, to defend us, to love us, to enter into relationship with us, so that nothing might separate us from God's eternal love. 00:24:33.951 --> 00:24:41.636 And to make sure we get the point, paul continues the questioning who can separate us from the love of Christ? 00:24:41.636 --> 00:24:51.395 He says Can affliction or distress or persecution, or famine or nakedness or danger? 00:24:51.395 --> 00:24:56.482 Danger, our sword, and we might experience some of those, because it's written. 00:24:56.482 --> 00:24:57.703 Because of you. 00:24:57.703 --> 00:24:59.125 We're being put to death all day long. 00:24:59.125 --> 00:25:02.089 We're counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 00:25:02.089 --> 00:25:08.849 Hmm, safety's not escape from the trouble. 00:25:08.849 --> 00:25:14.025 Safety's being able to go through the trouble? 00:25:14.025 --> 00:25:22.890 No, he says no, no, no. 00:25:22.890 --> 00:25:23.730 What can separate me from the love of God? 00:25:23.730 --> 00:25:24.112 My persecutors, no. 00:25:24.112 --> 00:25:26.314 My unbelieving family members, no. 00:25:26.314 --> 00:25:29.258 Satan no. 00:25:29.258 --> 00:25:32.741 Death, no, can't. 00:25:34.483 --> 00:25:41.798 Even if we experience all those things, what can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus? 00:25:41.798 --> 00:25:46.750 Nothing, nothing, in fact. 00:25:46.750 --> 00:26:00.580 He says in all these things, whether we experience famine or nakedness or peril or sword or persecution or death, whatever it might be, in all these things we're more than conquerors. 00:26:00.580 --> 00:26:16.420 Through him, who loved us and he said I'm persuaded that neither death or life, angels or rulers, things present, things to come, powers, height, depth, any other created thing will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. 00:26:16.420 --> 00:26:35.358 Paul's trying to help us understand that we can say to the rest of the world prepare for war, make your alliances Frantically, search for an answer for the security you know you don't have. 00:26:35.358 --> 00:26:42.714 But know this there's one place God is with us. 00:26:42.714 --> 00:26:44.797 That's it. 00:26:44.797 --> 00:26:47.900 God is with us. 00:26:51.183 --> 00:27:01.838 To the people in Isaiah's day, the promise of the presence of God in the prophesied Emmanuel would give them hope. 00:27:01.838 --> 00:27:15.560 And this month, as we do every December, we celebrate Jesus Christ, who is the Emmanuel, and he gives us the same comfort and hope. 00:27:15.560 --> 00:27:20.976 We have a distinguishing resource that makes us unique. 00:27:20.976 --> 00:27:24.343 This is why we can stand in the middle of the storm. 00:27:24.343 --> 00:27:34.724 This is why John would say and this is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith, our dependence on God. 00:27:34.724 --> 00:27:37.732 And so we sing. 00:27:37.732 --> 00:27:42.103 We sing with delight and joy that God is with us. 00:27:43.487 --> 00:27:52.374 From the squalor of a borrowed stable by the spirit and a virgin's faith, to the anguish and the shame of scandal, came the Savior of the human race. 00:27:52.374 --> 00:27:55.521 But the skies were filled with the praise of heaven. 00:27:55.521 --> 00:27:58.017 Shepherds, listen as the angels sing. 00:27:58.017 --> 00:28:03.261 The gift of God come down to man at the dawning of Emmanuel. 00:28:03.261 --> 00:28:09.780 Through the kisses of a friend's betrayal, he was lifted on a cruel cross. 00:28:09.780 --> 00:28:12.817 He was punished for a world's transgressions. 00:28:12.817 --> 00:28:15.798 He was suffering to save the lost. 00:28:15.798 --> 00:28:17.712 He fights for breath. 00:28:17.712 --> 00:28:22.163 He fights for me, loosing sinners from the claims of hell. 00:28:22.163 --> 00:28:25.336 And with a shout our souls are free. 00:28:25.336 --> 00:28:28.483 Death defeated by Emmanuel. 00:28:28.483 --> 00:28:32.193 How do we navigate this world? 00:28:32.193 --> 00:28:37.642 We remember that we have a distinguishing resource. 00:28:37.642 --> 00:28:39.065 God is with us. 00:28:41.750 --> 00:28:47.464 God's directives here also lead us into something we need to know and to practice. 00:28:47.464 --> 00:29:07.491 In verses 11 through 13, we're given some directed responses in this world not just distinguishing resource of God with us, but some directed responses Verse 11, for this is what the Lord said to me with great power, to keep me from going the way of this people. 00:29:07.491 --> 00:29:09.615 Here we go. 00:29:09.615 --> 00:29:13.584 Do not call everything a conspiracy that these people say is a conspiracy. 00:29:13.584 --> 00:29:14.590 Here we go. 00:29:14.590 --> 00:29:16.175 Do not call everything a conspiracy that these people say is a conspiracy. 00:29:16.175 --> 00:29:16.718 Do not fear what they fear. 00:29:16.718 --> 00:29:17.118 Do not be terrified. 00:29:17.118 --> 00:29:19.807 You're to regard only the Lord of armies as holy. 00:29:19.807 --> 00:29:24.580 Only he should be feared, only he should be held in awe. 00:29:24.580 --> 00:29:32.663 And there's four rapid fire commands given here in this little section, these directed responses in the middle of difficulty. 00:29:33.605 --> 00:29:37.815 First of all, don't regard alliances with paganism as valid or useful. 00:29:37.815 --> 00:29:42.044 Ahaz and the people were very happy to make their alliances. 00:29:42.044 --> 00:29:44.074 It was the only way they could get stronger. 00:29:44.074 --> 00:29:47.122 But God tells the remnant people and tell us. 00:29:47.122 --> 00:29:49.518 He tells us don't put your trust in man. 00:29:49.518 --> 00:29:56.623 Don't think that you can build a protection around the worldly ways of alliances like that. 00:29:56.623 --> 00:30:02.560 The second thing he tells them is that God's people are not to live in fear. 00:30:02.560 --> 00:30:07.381 Ahaz and Judah were wringing their hands over the threat that hung over their head. 00:30:09.574 --> 00:30:11.069 But we're supposed to live life differently. 00:30:11.069 --> 00:30:16.630 But we're supposed to live life differently. 00:30:16.630 --> 00:30:22.595 God is telling us that our orientation should be radically different than theirs. 00:30:22.595 --> 00:30:29.457 Because we put God into every equation of life, we don't need to fear. 00:30:29.457 --> 00:30:43.144 We dare not overlook God or ignore God, and because he is in every area of our life, it stabilizes us, it secures us and it can keep us from fear. 00:30:43.144 --> 00:30:58.465 Because the third thing that we're to do is regard the Lord of armies as holy, as set apart in our life, as the one that means the most to us. 00:30:58.465 --> 00:31:06.362 And if he is, it means we can live our life in a completely different kind of way. 00:31:08.550 --> 00:31:24.084 And a great example of that comes from an encounter that a young John Wesley had with a group of German believers called Moravians, and when he first encountered them, wesley was a very religious man, but he was an unconverted man. 00:31:24.084 --> 00:31:33.753 He was trying to establish his standing before a holy God by making himself as holy as he could be and through his own self-effort. 00:31:33.753 --> 00:31:38.203 Perhaps, just perhaps, god would accept him. 00:31:38.203 --> 00:31:49.883 He was so fervent in this endeavor he decided to become a missionary from England to the colony of Georgia, just south of here a few hundred miles. 00:31:49.883 --> 00:31:59.236 He didn't understand the gospel at all and if you read a history of his life, he made a total mess of his time in Georgia. 00:31:59.236 --> 00:32:09.063 But trying to seek salvation through self-effort was taxing and draining on him, despite his religious discipline. 00:32:10.349 --> 00:32:16.651 And when he met these German believers called Moravians, he wrote this about them in his journal. 00:32:16.651 --> 00:32:32.957 He said I've observed the great seriousness of their behavior, their humility, where they've given a continual proof of it by performing servile offices for other passengers which no one else would undertake. 00:32:32.957 --> 00:32:35.403 Do you hear that? 00:32:35.403 --> 00:32:49.942 For they desired and would receive no pay, and said it's good for our proud hearts and their loving Savior has done more for them than they deserve. 00:32:49.942 --> 00:32:52.670 More for them than they deserve? 00:32:52.670 --> 00:32:54.952 Ah, interesting, right. 00:32:54.952 --> 00:33:00.059 And every day they gave occasion of showing a meekness which no injury could move. 00:33:00.059 --> 00:33:12.554 And if they were pushed or struck or thrown down, they rose again and went away, and no complaint was found in their mouth. 00:33:12.554 --> 00:33:13.756 Why could they live like that? 00:33:13.756 --> 00:33:18.804 Because they counted the Lord of armies as holy. 00:33:18.804 --> 00:33:33.400 That's why, because when God means more to you than anything else, you can let go of yourself. 00:33:33.400 --> 00:33:35.763 They regarded the Lord of armies as holy. 00:33:35.763 --> 00:33:50.230 And fourthly, they were and this sounds awkward, but it's not to fear only the Lord. 00:33:55.832 --> 00:34:10.324 Now, the word fear has a whole range of meanings, all the way from terror to worship in scriptural use and when we talk about God's people fearing the Lord, we're not on the terror and dread side as much as we are on the reverence and devotion and trust and worship side of that word. 00:34:10.324 --> 00:34:22.601 It is, for us, a reverent submission that leads to our obedience that is accompanied with reliance and trust and hope in the living God. 00:34:22.601 --> 00:34:33.940 Yes, we understand with clarity the knowledge that God is holy and we aren't, and that he is rightly and justly angry at sin. 00:34:33.940 --> 00:34:46.942 But we also know that he's a God of great forgiveness and mercy and grace, and toward us we know that he says I love you. 00:34:46.942 --> 00:34:53.661 And so we draw closer to this one, our Lord. 00:34:53.661 --> 00:34:58.340 We don't fear him in terror and run away. 00:35:02.052 --> 00:35:18.965 Wesley needed to learn this and he came across those Moravians again, and he discovered the difference between the fear that he possessed as a religious but lost man and what they possessed as humble believers in God. 00:35:18.965 --> 00:35:31.385 He was bound for the Georgian colony in 1736 on a ship that was caught up in a storm on the Atlantic Ocean. 00:35:31.385 --> 00:35:45.936 A ferocious storm had shredded the mainsail and the waters were about to flood the decks and he said during this storm, everybody's lives were threatened and he was scared. 00:35:45.936 --> 00:35:52.436 And this is what he wrote in his journal In the midst of the psalm wherewith the service began. 00:35:52.436 --> 00:35:57.882 So these Moravians were actually having a worship service when the storm was occurring, he said. 00:35:57.882 --> 00:36:20.409 The sea broke over, split the mainsail in pieces, covered the ship and poured in between the decks and, as if the great deep had already swallowed us up, and a terrible screaming began among the English up. 00:36:20.429 --> 00:36:22.474 And a terrible screaming began among the English, the Germans. 00:36:22.474 --> 00:36:25.579 They looked up and, without intermission, calmly sang on. 00:36:25.579 --> 00:36:26.862 And I asked one of them afterwards. 00:36:26.862 --> 00:36:28.684 He said were you not afraid? 00:36:28.684 --> 00:36:31.896 And he answered I thank God. 00:36:31.896 --> 00:36:41.108 But no, were not your women and your children afraid? 00:36:41.108 --> 00:36:46.840 He replied mildly. 00:36:46.840 --> 00:36:49.130 No, our women and children are not afraid to die. 00:36:49.130 --> 00:37:00.157 And then the German asked me a question of his own Do you have faith in Christ? 00:37:00.157 --> 00:37:04.135 These people were daring to treat God as God, even in the storm. 00:37:04.135 --> 00:37:10.556 And if God is God and God is their God, that's really all that matters. 00:37:10.556 --> 00:37:19.523 If you're welcomed into his presence without condemnation, without fear of judgment. 00:37:19.523 --> 00:37:24.641 Death is but a doorway into the presence of the living God. 00:37:28.791 --> 00:37:42.681 This passage of scripture tells us how to navigate these disturbing times that we're in With this distinguishing resource that is God's presence with us With these directed responses that show us how practically to put that into practice. 00:37:42.681 --> 00:37:51.876 But also he grants us an understanding of divine respite, of a place of rest, of sanctuary. 00:37:51.876 --> 00:37:54.157 Take a look at verses 14 and 15. 00:37:54.157 --> 00:38:08.880 He will be a sanctuary, but for the two houses of Israel he will be a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and a trap and a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem. 00:38:08.880 --> 00:38:11.056 Many will stumble over these. 00:38:11.056 --> 00:38:15.692 They will fall and be broken, they will be snared and captured. 00:38:18.115 --> 00:38:24.385 What a distinguishing difference the same God is To those who trust in him. 00:38:24.385 --> 00:38:27.112 He is their sanctuary. 00:38:27.112 --> 00:38:40.295 He is a place where they can rest, where they have divine respite, security, regardless of what's happening all around them. 00:38:40.295 --> 00:38:45.384 They can have confidence that he is a safe place for them. 00:38:45.384 --> 00:38:58.440 But as much as the remnant enjoy the presence of God, for those who don't believe, he's a place of stumbling and falling. 00:38:58.440 --> 00:39:21.030 The rock upon which the people who trust in God can build their lives is the very rock upon which people trip and lose their lives, lose their lives. 00:39:21.030 --> 00:39:25.119 The very presence of God that some can enjoy is the very purity of God that causes others to fall into eternal terror. 00:39:27.865 --> 00:39:33.518 And this is exactly the passage of Scripture that Peter quotes in his first letter. 00:39:33.518 --> 00:39:57.320 In the second chapter he quotes this very statement again to a people trying to learn how to walk with God in the midst of an antagonistic culture, telling them that the Savior is a place of refuge, but he's also a touchstone of differentiation, because it will cause others to fall. 00:39:57.320 --> 00:40:08.621 The stone that the builders rejected, this one's become the cornerstone and a stone to stumble over and a rock to trip over. 00:40:08.621 --> 00:40:11.900 They stumble because they disobey the word. 00:40:11.900 --> 00:40:26.682 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his possession, so that you might proclaim the praises of the one who's called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 00:40:28.849 --> 00:40:36.621 See, peter is quoting Isaiah, chapter 8, because how you view Jesus Christ determines how you experience God. 00:40:36.621 --> 00:40:43.681 Can I repeat that how you view Jesus Christ determines how you experience God? 00:40:43.681 --> 00:40:50.923 God is either a refuge for your soul or a ruin of your eternal life. 00:40:50.923 --> 00:40:57.601 He becomes a sanctuary or a snare. 00:40:57.601 --> 00:41:02.760 And Jesus is the crux point of it all. 00:41:02.760 --> 00:41:17.643 If we take him into account as God and Savior, we enter into the sanctuary of his person and into the joy of his presence. 00:41:17.643 --> 00:41:34.643 But if we don't, we will trip over him and fall headlong into a Christless eternity that none of us should ever, ever enter into without fear. 00:41:34.643 --> 00:41:42.416 The one who falls on this stone, jesus said, will be broken into pieces. 00:41:42.416 --> 00:41:57.333 Society is today looking at this message as irrelevant, but I see it as the only significant relevance for humanity. 00:41:57.333 --> 00:42:01.250 I couldn't have a more opposite perspective. 00:42:01.250 --> 00:42:10.911 Every one of us are going to die and after death, go into the presence of God and there the judgment. 00:42:10.911 --> 00:42:17.250 And the question is are we prepared or do we have one who will stand on our behalf? 00:42:17.250 --> 00:42:22.190 Can we stand ourselves presented before the Holy God? 00:42:22.190 --> 00:42:24.018 No, we cannot. 00:42:24.018 --> 00:42:34.847 But when Christ steps forward and says this one's mine, I died for this one, then we have a rescue. 00:42:34.847 --> 00:42:40.110 There'll be no place for spiritual bravado there. 00:42:40.110 --> 00:42:47.851 None of us will be able to stand in it and, believe you me, there will be no parties in hell with all my friends. 00:42:53.021 --> 00:43:08.788 John Wesley was shaken by what he saw in these Moravians and after his failed attempt to be a missionary and after he started to feel the distaste of self-improvement, he headed back to London broken. 00:43:08.788 --> 00:43:16.260 Taste of self-improvement. 00:43:16.260 --> 00:43:18.425 He headed back to London broken and he decided to meet up once again with these Moravians. 00:43:18.425 --> 00:43:32.614 He had to talk to them one more time and he found out that they were meeting in a place in Aldersgate Street in London and he went in there and he was done with his rigid rules. 00:43:32.614 --> 00:43:35.905 He needed to hear something different. 00:43:37.108 --> 00:43:42.186 And the message that he heard was simple and direct believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. 00:43:42.186 --> 00:43:46.222 And he wondered at the thought could that be it all? 00:43:46.222 --> 00:43:47.931 Could it simply be that simple? 00:43:47.931 --> 00:43:50.501 Could I simply believe and trust? 00:43:50.501 --> 00:43:51.521 Is that all? 00:43:51.521 --> 00:44:10.360 And he said that's when God sung to his soul a message of life as he was reading the preface of Martin Luther's commentary on the book of Galatians Can you believe that? 00:44:10.360 --> 00:44:12.585 How many of you do that for nighttime reading? 00:44:12.585 --> 00:44:16.945 Right, the preface to a commentary on the book of Galatians? 00:44:16.945 --> 00:44:19.632 That's what he was being read and discussed there. 00:44:19.632 --> 00:44:32.114 And as it was being read and discussed, he said I felt my heart warmly, strangely warmed, strangely warmed, and I felt I did trust in Christ, christ alone for salvation. 00:44:32.114 --> 00:44:45.900 And an assurance was given to me that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me. 00:44:45.900 --> 00:44:56.791 The one who was the stumbling stone of offense to this man, this self-righteous, religiously experienced John Wesley, was now the sanctuary, the sanctuary of his soul. 00:45:01.840 --> 00:45:33.635 The passage goes on to give us two more points, but I don't have time to talk about them as much as I'd like to have time to talk about them as much as I'd like to this distinguishing resource of God with us, these directed responses of not trying to contrive our powers and alliances and not to sort of fear what others fear, but to set the Lord as holy before us and to give him the due regard of our lives, and then to realize that we have a divine respite in Christ. 00:45:33.635 --> 00:45:35.867 He is our place of sanctuary. 00:45:35.867 --> 00:45:40.610 And that leaves us with a determined resolve to continue to trust. 00:45:40.610 --> 00:45:43.960 And I'll just read the passage Verse 17,. 00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:56.773 Isaiah says, after making these words, bind up the testimony, seal up the instruction among my disciples, I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob. 00:45:56.773 --> 00:45:58.735 I will wait for him. 00:45:58.735 --> 00:46:13.697 Here I am with the children the Lord has given me to be signs and wonders in Israel, from the Lord of armies who dwells in Zion. 00:46:13.697 --> 00:46:14.719 Life was going to get rough, isaiah said. 00:46:14.719 --> 00:46:26.148 But I'm going to hold on to the promises because one day, when the rough is over, the realization of God's promises are going to unfold and I'm going to be there for that. 00:46:26.148 --> 00:46:28.365 I'm going to be there for that. 00:46:28.365 --> 00:46:32.829 And so there is that resolve in his heart. 00:46:32.829 --> 00:46:40.447 And lastly, there's a dividing rescue In verses 19 to 22. 00:46:42.661 --> 00:46:48.007 When they say to you, inquire the mediums and spiritists to chirp and mutter, shouldn't people inquire their God? 00:46:48.007 --> 00:46:52.922 Should they inquire of the dead on behalf of the living? 00:46:52.922 --> 00:46:58.514 Go to God's word, go to his instructions and his testimonies. 00:46:58.514 --> 00:47:03.949 And if anybody speaks according, do not speak according to this word. 00:47:03.949 --> 00:47:06.583 It's because there's no dawn for them. 00:47:06.583 --> 00:47:17.132 They'll wander through the land dejected and hungry and when they're famished they will become enraged and, looking upward, will curse their king and their God. 00:47:17.132 --> 00:47:25.326 They will look toward the earth and see only distress, darkness and the gloom of affliction, and they will be driven into thick darkness. 00:47:25.326 --> 00:47:31.313 When life goes in a way they don't like, they're going to get angry. 00:47:31.313 --> 00:47:34.606 They're going to get angry at God, they're going to get angry at others. 00:47:34.606 --> 00:47:40.271 They're going to see nothing but ruin and it's just going to flavor every area of life. 00:47:43.521 --> 00:47:47.126 Isaiah is holding on to the promise. 00:47:47.126 --> 00:47:53.425 Life is hard, life is difficult, life is oppositional. 00:47:53.425 --> 00:47:56.387 Might even be my death. 00:47:56.387 --> 00:48:14.963 I'm living among a ruined people who are facing judgment, but I'm keeping the testimony for the day when it'll unfold and the dawn will come, but for them there will be no dawn. 00:48:14.963 --> 00:48:15.704 It's hopeless. 00:48:15.704 --> 00:48:30.510 So as we live our lives in this world, we're given what we need here for everything that will help us to live godly in this present generation. 00:48:30.510 --> 00:48:33.945 We've got a resource of God with us. 00:48:33.945 --> 00:48:37.052 We've got instruction on how to respond. 00:48:37.052 --> 00:48:40.588 We have a place of sanctuary that is God himself. 00:48:40.588 --> 00:48:55.032 We can have a determined resolve as we await patiently for the unfolding of our hope of Christ's return and we will live rescued one day. 00:48:57.320 --> 00:49:02.666 David Wells, in his book God in the Wilderness, closes it off with these words and this is our marching orders. 00:49:02.666 --> 00:49:17.963 He said the choice for the church is to begin to form ourselves by his grace and truth into an outcropping of counter-cultural spirituality. 00:49:17.963 --> 00:49:29.043 We need to recover the sense of antithesis between Christ and the culture and we need to find ways to sustain ourselves in that antithesis. 00:49:29.043 --> 00:49:31.684 What does he mean by that? 00:49:31.684 --> 00:49:39.307 He means that we need to give up self-cultivation and enter into self-surrender. 00:49:39.307 --> 00:49:44.371 We need to give up entertainment to enter into worship. 00:49:44.371 --> 00:49:47.813 We need to give up intuition to dedicate ourselves to truth. 00:49:47.813 --> 00:49:50.094 We need to give up intuition to dedicate ourselves to truth. 00:49:50.094 --> 00:49:57.217 We need to give up slick marketing for giving ourselves to authentic witness. 00:49:57.217 --> 00:50:09.019 We need to give up success-oriented work and focus on faithfulness. 00:50:09.019 --> 00:50:18.460 We need to let go of clutching for power and to move ourselves toward humility. 00:50:18.460 --> 00:50:28.945 We need to give up God bought on cheap terms and embrace the God who calls us to a costly obedience. 00:50:28.945 --> 00:50:36.083 And he said in short we must be willing to do God's business on God's terms. 00:50:36.083 --> 00:50:42.313 That's the only way we succeed in an oppositional society. 00:50:43.335 --> 00:50:47.722 Let's pray, father. 00:50:47.722 --> 00:50:53.528 We thank you for your wondrous word and, lord, we pray that you'd help us to hear it well. 00:50:53.528 --> 00:51:03.947 Just as you gave it as a resource to the people of God in the midst of Isaiah's challenging season, so we receive it now in ours. 00:51:03.947 --> 00:51:09.195 We pray that you would equip us with all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 00:51:09.195 --> 00:51:10.262 Help us to know, father, that you would equip us with all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Jesus Christ. 00:51:10.262 --> 00:51:13.307 Help us to know, father, that you're with us. 00:51:13.307 --> 00:51:18.411 Help us to recognize that there are certain ways that we can respond differently. 00:51:18.411 --> 00:51:29.931 Father, when we feel the weakness, may we run to you and, lord, shape our resolve. 00:51:29.931 --> 00:51:53.873 Help it to be determined, holding on to those very promises, because you're the God who does not lie, and Lord, we pray that you might help us to be proclaimers of a message, so that others might have a dawn rise on them and not be lost into the despair of hopelessness. 00:51:53.873 --> 00:51:58.407 And we ask this Father in Christ's name, amen.