WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:03.439 Stick our Bibles and go to the book of Isaiah, chapter one. 00:00:03.439 --> 00:00:07.519 For those of you that are visiting, there's a Bible in front of you in a pew. 00:00:07.519 --> 00:00:10.000 And you can turn to page 601. 00:00:10.000 --> 00:00:12.960 601, you'll find it there for you. 00:00:12.960 --> 00:00:18.559 And if you don't have a Bible, we just want to make this clear. 00:00:18.559 --> 00:00:24.559 If you don't have a Bible and would like to have one, the Bible that's in front of you, won't you just take it home? 00:00:24.559 --> 00:00:27.519 And just take it as a gift from us to you. 00:00:27.519 --> 00:00:29.359 We'd like you to have it. 00:00:29.359 --> 00:00:32.399 So Isaiah chapter one. 00:00:32.399 --> 00:00:38.399 You know, we live in a world that's flooded with the river of words. 00:00:38.399 --> 00:00:45.359 Researchers tell us that the average human speaks about 7,000 words a day. 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:59.920 And if we can estimate that there's roughly 7 billion people in the world, you do the math, you realize that uttered into the airspace are about 50 trillion words every single day. 00:00:59.920 --> 00:01:10.400 The explosion of all of our mass media through the internet and other means. 00:01:10.400 --> 00:01:14.400 We find ourselves drowning in words. 00:01:14.400 --> 00:01:26.799 And occasionally I go back and I look at my watch history of my YouTube viewing, and I go back and I go, I watched those that many videos this morning. 00:01:26.799 --> 00:01:30.000 I don't even remember a single one of them. 00:01:30.000 --> 00:01:34.879 Just flooding yourself with words and information. 00:01:34.879 --> 00:01:41.200 God doesn't have a podcast. 00:01:41.200 --> 00:01:57.760 But he does speak. 00:01:57.760 --> 00:02:03.359 And he speaks here in the Word of God, and He's got a lot to say. 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:20.319 We've introduced ourselves to the book of Isaiah, and we find that at the very beginning, God calls heaven and earth into the room and says, Listen, I've got something to say about my people. 00:02:20.319 --> 00:02:23.759 Look in verse two. 00:02:23.759 --> 00:02:27.919 The significance of the verb tenses is important there. 00:02:27.919 --> 00:02:30.800 Listen now, heavens. 00:02:30.800 --> 00:02:36.080 Pay attention, now, earth, for God has spoken. 00:02:36.080 --> 00:02:46.800 And here we are, thousands of years later, in a country far removed in a language that's different from Isaiah's day. 00:02:46.800 --> 00:02:50.800 And it's a message that God wants us to hear now. 00:02:50.800 --> 00:03:03.439 Because there are situations in our life and situations in our society that are no different than what Israel and Jerusalem was going through in its day and time. 00:03:03.439 --> 00:03:09.360 We as individuals are every bit as sinful as the people that lived there were. 00:03:09.360 --> 00:05:37.120 Or we've seen him come alongside Jerusalem at a table of conciliation and saying, let's talk this over. 00:05:37.120 --> 00:05:43.040 He's come to them with words of encouragement. 00:05:43.040 --> 00:05:49.360 Your sins, though they're red, can be turned to be as white as snow. 00:05:49.360 --> 00:06:01.040 And now in verses 21 and into verse 26, God takes up another way of describing the situation. 00:06:01.040 --> 00:06:06.160 And he enters into the realm of lament. 00:06:06.160 --> 00:06:09.680 Lament's not a common word for us. 00:06:09.680 --> 00:06:18.160 It's a verbal expression of sorrow, our pain, our loss, our confusion. 00:06:18.160 --> 00:06:25.759 This is a cry with tears over something that's broken. 00:06:25.759 --> 00:06:30.800 It's a broken heart looking at a broken situation. 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:32.319 Have you ever done that? 00:06:32.319 --> 00:06:34.079 I know I have. 00:06:34.079 --> 00:06:35.920 It's a lament. 00:06:35.920 --> 00:06:49.120 And these hard-hearted people who are just carrying on callously with their lives might be awakened with a lament. 00:06:49.120 --> 00:06:57.519 To hear someone sobbing is an emotional pull to our hearts. 00:06:57.519 --> 00:07:17.279 One of the things I did last week was listen to a 911 call of this young girl sobbing over a horrific family situation to the 911 line on the 911 line. 00:07:17.279 --> 00:07:36.000 And it just gripped my heart wrenchingly as I listened to the sobs of this young girl begging for help to come immediately to a situation that was so, so desperate and dangerous. 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:48.319 So here we have God through his prophet weeping, sobbing, crying, a lament. 00:07:48.319 --> 00:07:54.240 And the people of Israel are going, What's up with Isaiah? 00:07:54.240 --> 00:07:57.040 Why is he crying? 00:07:57.040 --> 00:08:01.920 He's crying over you, Jerusalem. 00:08:01.920 --> 00:08:06.240 Their hearts might not be broken. 00:08:06.240 --> 00:08:11.519 But if I can put it in human terms, God's heart is broken. 00:08:11.519 --> 00:08:15.439 And he's expressing this sorrow. 00:08:15.439 --> 00:08:18.399 And you take a look at verse 21. 00:08:18.399 --> 00:08:27.279 It's couched in language that just seems, well, we could just read it and not pay attention to it. 00:08:27.279 --> 00:08:31.519 The faithful town, what an adulteress she's become. 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:34.240 There's that force of a woe. 00:08:34.240 --> 00:08:40.960 Other translations even put other words in there to try to give us a sense of what we're looking at. 00:08:40.960 --> 00:08:43.279 But we're looking at a lament. 00:08:43.279 --> 00:08:55.200 And in these first verses, this cry of agony and pain over loss and corruption goes into three different directions. 00:08:55.200 --> 00:08:59.039 It cries over Jerusalem and Judah, the people. 00:08:59.039 --> 00:09:06.639 It incorporates their possessions, and then it talks about their princes in these verses. 00:09:06.639 --> 00:09:09.679 First, the people in verses 21. 00:09:09.679 --> 00:09:15.039 The faithful town, what an adulteress she's become. 00:09:15.039 --> 00:09:20.000 She was once full of justice, righteousness once dwelt in her. 00:09:20.000 --> 00:09:25.120 But now murderers. 00:09:25.120 --> 00:09:47.279 And he begins by fondly remembering what they were. 00:09:47.279 --> 00:09:51.039 They were the faithful town. 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:54.159 They were once full of justice. 00:09:54.159 --> 00:09:59.440 But that past is not the present anymore. 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:04.480 Now they're characterized by adultery and murder. 00:10:04.480 --> 00:10:18.240 Jerusalem, the place that was once the place of welcome, of God's justice and righteousness, is now being mourned over because of her adultery. 00:10:18.240 --> 00:10:27.440 And we're introduced to what Isaiah will give us many, many times through the rest of the book: this idea of Jerusalem being Lady Zion. 00:10:27.440 --> 00:10:38.720 Now, the Semitic languages would use the feminine to describe cities, and so they were often described as her, but the metaphor here goes beyond just linguistic use. 00:10:38.720 --> 00:10:48.639 This is a metaphor of God being married to a people as he's given them commitments of his faithfulness. 00:10:48.639 --> 00:10:57.039 And in that bonding together, he has also received from them commitments of faithfulness. 00:10:57.039 --> 00:11:07.519 And so they were meant to live together as husband and wife in this mutual love and fidelity. 00:11:07.519 --> 00:11:13.200 But now Zion has turned her back on her husband. 00:11:13.200 --> 00:11:18.639 And she's now sold herself into adultery. 00:11:18.639 --> 00:11:25.039 Instead of trusting the living God, she's gone into alliances with the nations around her. 00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:36.320 Instead of trusting God alone and worshiping him purely, they've encountered these other gods and have bent the knee to them in worship. 00:11:36.320 --> 00:11:40.480 And God mourns. 00:11:40.480 --> 00:11:42.799 He laments. 00:11:42.799 --> 00:11:46.399 He talks about their possessions in verse 22. 00:11:46.399 --> 00:11:50.000 Your silver has become dross to be discarded. 00:11:50.000 --> 00:11:53.120 Your beer is diluted with water. 00:11:53.120 --> 00:12:03.200 These things that were pure are now degraded, and they've degenerated into wasteless, wasteful, worthless things. 00:12:03.200 --> 00:12:10.320 What was once beautiful, valuable silver has now just become worthless waste metal. 00:12:10.320 --> 00:12:17.759 What was once the finest brew has now been watered down and is nothing but worth throwing away. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:24.399 The quality of these things has deteriorated because of the impurities that have diluted them. 00:12:24.399 --> 00:12:27.039 And so is Jerusalem. 00:12:27.039 --> 00:12:38.639 It's nothing but dissipation and loss because it's been degraded from what it ought to have been and what it once was. 00:12:38.639 --> 00:12:45.039 And this is exactly what sin and Satan do to us. 00:12:45.039 --> 00:12:56.480 When we follow him and it, we find our lives moving into dissipation, a word that the Bible uses to describe iniquity. 00:12:56.480 --> 00:13:02.000 Sin promises so much to us and delivers so little to us. 00:13:02.000 --> 00:13:12.159 There's nothing so beautiful, there's nothing so fresh, there's nothing so sweet than the ecstasy of the good. 00:13:12.159 --> 00:13:18.879 And there's nothing so bad and boring as evil. 00:13:18.879 --> 00:13:24.080 But that's not how our ears are often hearing the message. 00:13:24.080 --> 00:13:33.279 Out there is always the idea, energized by Satan himself, that it's the other way around. 00:13:33.279 --> 00:13:47.360 That what is good is boring, and what is to be received is intriguing and attractive and charming. 00:13:47.360 --> 00:13:50.399 But it's a lie. 00:13:50.399 --> 00:13:56.879 Thomas Brooks, a Puritan, wrote a book, Precious Remedies Against Satan Devices. 00:13:56.879 --> 00:13:59.120 It's a great book to read if you can find it. 00:13:59.120 --> 00:14:01.759 And you can, it's still being published. 00:14:01.759 --> 00:14:07.840 And in it, he talks about the devices of Satan to try to persuade us to sin. 00:14:07.840 --> 00:14:12.480 And he gives precious remedies to those devices. 00:14:12.480 --> 00:14:19.200 And one of the devices that he talks about is that Satan presents the bait and hides the hook. 00:14:19.200 --> 00:14:21.440 That's exactly how he puts it. 00:14:21.440 --> 00:14:27.360 That he presents the golden cup and hides the poison in the cup. 00:14:27.360 --> 00:14:38.559 That he speaks to the soul about the profit that you'll receive by pursuing your pleasures, but hides the soul from the wrath that will come from pursuing your pleasures. 00:14:38.559 --> 00:14:50.559 Points us all the way back to the book of Genesis, where Satan speaks about things that are alluring but ruinous. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:54.000 And his devices haven't changed. 00:14:54.000 --> 00:15:03.519 He presents the bait, he presents the sweet, he presents the pleasure, he presents the prophet and hides the hook. 00:15:03.519 --> 00:15:10.960 He hides the shame, he hides the wrath, he hides the loss until you're ruined. 00:15:10.960 --> 00:15:20.559 And then he drives your soul and grinds it to nothing with the loss and with the shame and with the wrath. 00:15:20.559 --> 00:15:22.399 To ruin you. 00:15:22.399 --> 00:16:06.399 And they awoke to a fool's paradise. 00:16:06.399 --> 00:16:19.759 He promised them honor, he promised them pleasure, promised them profit, he promised them knowledge, and he paid them back with contempt and shame and loss and ruin. 00:16:19.759 --> 00:16:32.720 And here the Lord is lamenting that movement to ruin, that sin in the people here have been brought to. 00:16:32.720 --> 00:16:38.879 And then he goes on to speak about the princes in verse 23. 00:16:38.879 --> 00:16:44.320 Your rulers are rebels, friends of thieves. 00:16:44.320 --> 00:16:48.320 They all love graft and chase after bribes. 00:16:48.320 --> 00:16:54.240 They do not defend the rights of the fatherless, and the widow's case never comes before them. 00:16:54.240 --> 00:17:04.720 What they were there for, righteousness and justice and care has been replaced by murder and corruption and indifference. 00:17:04.720 --> 00:17:21.279 It's led them not only to steal, but to be partners with those who steal and to accept bribes, to curry favor from the powerful, to get gifts from them, and in so doing have turned away from the poor, the widows, and the orphans. 00:17:21.279 --> 00:17:35.759 In our generation, we have that same sort of awe of those who are in power, or that same awe of gaining power ourselves, or maintaining power if we have it. 00:17:35.759 --> 00:17:46.160 And there have been people throughout the ages who have used even good things as a means for their own selfish ends. 00:17:46.160 --> 00:18:01.440 They've used a cloak of patriotism or a veneer of Christianity in order to gain a footing by swaying gullible people to be supportive of them. 00:18:01.440 --> 00:18:07.119 Or have used those things as means for their own benefit. 00:18:07.119 --> 00:18:20.880 In the 1950s, Billy Graham preached in Los Angeles, and a newspaper publisher by the name of Hearst realized that there was something going on over there. 00:18:20.880 --> 00:18:24.319 Now, he didn't care what Graham had to say. 00:18:24.319 --> 00:18:26.960 He didn't care about the gospel at all. 00:18:26.960 --> 00:18:31.279 What he did care about was how many people would read his newspaper. 00:18:31.279 --> 00:18:38.799 And when he saw that there were people listening to what Billy Graham had to say, he said to his editorial team, push Graham. 00:18:38.799 --> 00:18:41.039 Push Graham. 00:18:41.039 --> 00:18:43.599 And so they did. 00:18:43.599 --> 00:18:51.039 Not because they cared about the gospel, not about caring about Billy Graham, even for that matter. 00:18:51.039 --> 00:18:58.400 What he cared about was how much money he could gain by putting Graham in the paper. 00:18:58.400 --> 00:19:03.039 And there are politicians that do the same thing. 00:19:03.039 --> 00:19:09.039 They will talk like a Christian, they will act like a patriot, but they really aren't. 00:19:09.039 --> 00:19:11.279 They're there for themselves. 00:19:11.279 --> 00:19:29.440 And when we move into that realm, we find ourselves degrading justice, degrading righteousness, degrading truth. 00:19:29.440 --> 00:19:36.880 And all of it is really just put on the auction block for sale. 00:19:36.880 --> 00:19:44.400 And the question is: at what price are you going to sell out for what can be gained there? 00:19:44.400 --> 00:20:05.200 And he's bemoaning this deterioration of righteousness and justice in places where it was meant to be upheld and honored, where integrity was important, because people's lives and livelihoods were at stake. 00:20:05.200 --> 00:20:11.440 And it was the very place where the worst corruption was happening. 00:20:11.440 --> 00:20:15.920 How does God think about this? 00:20:15.920 --> 00:20:19.680 He begins with a mourning cry. 00:20:19.680 --> 00:20:24.640 And I don't mean AM, I mean mourning over the loss. 00:20:24.640 --> 00:20:34.799 This faithful city, this beautiful silver, these righteous princes, they're gone. 00:20:34.799 --> 00:20:36.319 They're gone. 00:20:36.319 --> 00:20:39.279 Instead of faithfulness, there's infidelity. 00:20:39.279 --> 00:20:42.000 Instead of right living, there's murder. 00:20:42.000 --> 00:20:44.000 Instead of silver, there's dross. 00:20:44.000 --> 00:20:49.839 Instead of pure drink, there's this insipid, watered-down mess. 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:57.599 Instead of rulers who serve with honor and honesty, there's rebels grasping after power. 00:20:57.599 --> 00:21:07.119 Instead of advocates of the weak and defenders of the helpless, there's people selling their positions for influence to the highest bidder. 00:21:07.119 --> 00:21:22.640 What's amazing about this is God begins there with this emotive language to help us realize how significant this loss matters to him. 00:21:22.640 --> 00:21:31.839 But he moves from these words of loss to words of determination. 00:21:31.839 --> 00:21:36.000 Take a look at verses twenty-four through twenty six. 00:21:36.000 --> 00:21:50.720 Therefore, the Lord God of armies, the mighty one of Israel, declares, Ah, I will get even with my foes. 00:21:50.720 --> 00:21:54.880 I will take revenge against my enemies. 00:21:54.880 --> 00:21:57.839 And it goes on to talk about things God will do. 00:21:57.839 --> 00:22:05.519 You see, in the midst of all of this, God is not going to be silent, and God is not going to be inactive. 00:22:05.519 --> 00:22:08.160 And he's not helpless. 00:22:08.160 --> 00:22:18.480 He's not talking on one side of the table of conciliation. 00:22:18.480 --> 00:22:24.240 He's not the encourager with his arm wrapped around the sunken shoulder. 00:22:24.240 --> 00:22:32.480 This is the Lord God Almighty, the mighty one of Israel, talking here. 00:22:32.480 --> 00:22:39.039 We have just aroused the wrath of the general. 00:22:39.039 --> 00:22:44.319 And he's ready to take on the enemy. 00:22:44.319 --> 00:22:48.079 And he's got two determinations. 00:22:48.079 --> 00:22:52.000 His first determination is to oppose sin. 00:22:52.000 --> 00:22:58.400 And he's going to get active in this warfare and oppose sin. 00:22:58.400 --> 00:23:09.920 Now, this must have come as a shock to the people of Jerusalem because, well, they thought themselves to be on the right side of God, and that God was on the right side of them. 00:23:09.920 --> 00:23:14.160 He had chosen them, he had promised to bless them. 00:23:14.160 --> 00:23:19.279 They had come from Egypt as slaves and are now in their own lands. 00:23:19.279 --> 00:23:24.400 They become known as a significant player on the international stage. 00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:34.319 They had God's law, they had God's temple, they were in God's city, they were residing on God's land, they had God's commitment as a husband. 00:23:34.319 --> 00:23:36.559 Everything was good. 00:23:36.559 --> 00:23:42.079 God's got to keep up his side of the bargain. 00:23:42.079 --> 00:23:44.079 He's going to take care of us. 00:23:44.079 --> 00:23:53.200 And so they had removed from themselves any understanding that God might call them into account for their behavior. 00:23:53.200 --> 00:23:57.200 And they got lulled in this false sense of security. 00:23:57.200 --> 00:24:03.200 Blinded by their sin, they had this one-sided view of God. 00:24:03.200 --> 00:24:15.920 And just like a person who stares into a bright light, and I don't want to for very long, or stares into the sun for the length of time, the next thing you know, all you see is that light everywhere you turn. 00:24:15.920 --> 00:24:37.680 And what they've done is they've stared solely into the brightness of God's mercy, time and time and time and time and time again, realizing that God was not just merciful, that every time they looked around in life circumstances, all they saw was mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. 00:24:37.680 --> 00:24:38.880 Look at my sin. 00:24:38.880 --> 00:24:40.880 Mercy, mercy, mercy, mercy. 00:24:40.880 --> 00:24:44.480 Nothing but mercy. 00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:47.839 Until verse 24. 00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:53.279 Jerusalem, you are my enemy. 00:24:53.279 --> 00:25:12.160 Just think about it. 00:25:12.160 --> 00:25:20.400 If God didn't act in justice, how horrible would this world be? 00:25:20.400 --> 00:25:27.920 There's screams within us, a call for justice. 00:25:27.920 --> 00:25:32.000 It's innate within us, isn't it? 00:25:32.000 --> 00:25:41.039 Besides data, I think the first sentence my sons learned was, that's not fair. 00:25:41.039 --> 00:25:42.720 Yeah? 00:25:42.720 --> 00:25:47.680 And boy, we memorize that one quick. 00:25:47.680 --> 00:25:50.160 We say it the rest of our lives. 00:25:50.160 --> 00:25:52.559 We cry for justice. 00:25:52.559 --> 00:25:54.240 We cry for fairness. 00:25:54.240 --> 00:25:57.359 We cry for these sorts of things innately. 00:25:57.359 --> 00:26:00.880 What if there never was any fairness? 00:26:00.880 --> 00:26:04.319 What if there never was any justice? 00:26:04.319 --> 00:26:09.440 What if there never was any retribution of wrongs? 00:26:09.440 --> 00:26:22.079 This whole world would be driven to atheism in a mad striving for being on the upper side of everybody's weaknesses. 00:26:22.079 --> 00:26:34.079 But when we realize God is a God of justice, we can realize that maybe that justice isn't meted out now, but it will be meted out one day. 00:26:34.079 --> 00:26:36.400 Then we can live. 00:26:36.400 --> 00:27:18.160 This is the Lord in heaven speaking here. 00:27:18.160 --> 00:27:25.519 And he cares about his own justice that's been offended. 00:27:25.519 --> 00:27:32.240 And he will get relief against his enemies, and he will avenge himself against his foes. 00:27:32.240 --> 00:27:36.000 This God is not changed. 00:27:36.000 --> 00:27:38.640 He still searches the hearts. 00:27:38.640 --> 00:27:41.119 He still hates hypocrisy. 00:27:41.119 --> 00:27:44.720 He still threatens the unrepentant with destruction. 00:27:44.720 --> 00:27:48.400 He still brings severe judgment on people for their sin. 00:27:48.400 --> 00:27:54.640 He still summons senseless rebels to the settlement of the issue. 00:27:54.640 --> 00:27:58.799 There's more to say. 00:27:58.799 --> 00:28:03.279 But let that just weigh upon our hearts. 00:28:03.279 --> 00:28:22.000 This is not the resolve of some feeble, toothless grandfather who's lost his voice and sees the rebel grandchildren around him and just meekly says, Guys, could you just settle down a little bit? 00:28:22.000 --> 00:28:32.319 This is the mighty one of Israel. 00:28:32.319 --> 00:28:37.920 He rises up with the banner of warfare against this. 00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:47.680 And it is with him, the God of the Bible, not the God of our own sentimental fantasies that we'll have to deal with. 00:28:47.680 --> 00:28:57.519 Ask yourself, if you're disregarding him, do you want to meet this God like that? 00:28:57.519 --> 00:29:00.319 I certainly don't. 00:29:00.319 --> 00:29:07.519 He's described as a consuming fire in another place. 00:29:07.519 --> 00:29:12.240 And none of us are going to go into heaven with a spestus suit song. 00:29:12.240 --> 00:29:14.160 Not one of us. 00:29:14.160 --> 00:29:19.920 But let's keep reading. 00:29:19.920 --> 00:29:29.519 Therefore, the Lord God of armies, the mighty one of Israel, declares, I will get even with my foes. 00:29:29.519 --> 00:29:32.079 I will take revenge against my enemies. 00:29:32.079 --> 00:29:37.200 I will turn my head against you and burn away your draws completely. 00:29:37.200 --> 00:29:39.279 I will remove all your impurities. 00:29:39.279 --> 00:29:40.000 I what? 00:29:40.000 --> 00:29:46.880 I will restore your judges to what they were at first, and your advisors to what they were at the start? 00:29:46.880 --> 00:29:47.759 What? 00:29:47.759 --> 00:29:50.240 Afterward you'll be called the righteous city? 00:29:50.240 --> 00:29:50.720 What? 00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:52.480 A faithful town? 00:29:52.480 --> 00:29:53.519 What? 00:29:53.519 --> 00:29:58.400 Wait wait wait a second here. 00:29:58.400 --> 00:30:04.400 Something's changed in the plot line here. 00:30:04.400 --> 00:30:08.559 There's a twist in the story here, isn't there? 00:30:08.559 --> 00:30:12.160 This removal. 00:30:12.160 --> 00:30:15.599 And this is the second thing he's going to do. 00:30:15.599 --> 00:30:18.880 Not only does he oppose sin, but he's going to remove sin. 00:30:18.880 --> 00:30:26.640 This removal goes deeper than his determinations to turn against his enemies. 00:30:26.640 --> 00:30:30.480 There's something else involved here. 00:30:30.480 --> 00:30:32.960 There's a purifying process. 00:30:32.960 --> 00:30:43.119 There's a restoring process that's part of his opposition to sin and his determination to remove sin. 00:30:43.119 --> 00:30:48.559 This is not at all what we might expect. 00:30:48.559 --> 00:31:06.559 We would expect him to follow on with words of annihilation and utter destruction, and just sort of taking the metaphor of warfare and just driving it all the way to ultimate victory and the crushing of the rebels. 00:31:06.559 --> 00:31:12.079 But his aim is not that here. 00:31:12.079 --> 00:31:15.599 His aim is restoration. 00:31:15.599 --> 00:31:23.680 And all of us should weep with joy over these words. 00:31:23.680 --> 00:31:33.519 Because we all deserve the first part of this, and none of us deserve the last part of this. 00:31:33.519 --> 00:31:52.240 Here's a God who speaks now that there are people who are going to find forgiveness, who are going to find cleansing, that are going to find renewal by his determination to oppose their sin. 00:31:52.240 --> 00:32:03.599 He's not going to crush them under the weight of his wrath, he's going to crush and heal them under the weight of his grace. 00:32:03.599 --> 00:32:20.720 And he predicts the day is going to come when Zion, the faithful city, the unfaithful wife, is going to one day be again the faithful city. 00:32:20.720 --> 00:32:33.519 His determination is to renew and to save and to deliver. 00:32:33.519 --> 00:32:40.319 And this is where he wants to take us. 00:32:40.319 --> 00:33:13.440 You see, that feeling of guilt and shame that God brings upon us is not meant to grind us to dust and leave us there, but to drive us back to the God we've offended with godly sorrow that ushers into repentance, that leads to forgiveness and reconciliation and restoration and cleansing. 00:33:13.440 --> 00:33:22.960 It's exactly what Brian was talking about when before we read that passage in Second Corinthians. 00:33:22.960 --> 00:33:24.880 Godly sorrow. 00:33:24.880 --> 00:33:32.160 What a wonderful full circle this is, right? 00:33:32.160 --> 00:33:42.000 Humanity, created by a holy God, to be in utter union with Him. 00:33:42.000 --> 00:33:47.599 Where the song we sang before the message, Beulah Land, would be our reality forever. 00:33:47.599 --> 00:34:06.240 We'd never talk about longing for it because we would have lived in it forever, has ruinously left and gone down the way of dissipation and degradation by deepening our love for things that are ruinous. 00:34:06.240 --> 00:34:17.440 And instead of being left there, God has brought life to light through the glorious good news of Jesus Christ. 00:34:17.440 --> 00:34:27.440 And he says, I'm bringing you back, and I'm giving you promises to be with me forever. 00:34:27.440 --> 00:34:31.599 Welcome without condemnation. 00:34:31.599 --> 00:34:34.559 This is the story. 00:34:34.559 --> 00:34:41.519 And here in Isaiah chapter one, we've got these promises of a redemption. 00:34:41.519 --> 00:34:56.000 We've got the terms of the promises that talk about repentance and a purging away of iniquity and a restoration of all that is lost, to give us an understanding of what God means to do in us when he redeems us. 00:34:56.000 --> 00:35:05.760 You see, his redemption is more than just releasing us of the consequences of our sin. 00:35:05.760 --> 00:35:11.599 It means that he wants to cleanse us from all the defilement of our sin as well. 00:35:11.599 --> 00:36:08.000 And he wants to restore us to that ultimate idea of what he had made us to be, so that the very fullness of our persons can be expressed to the glory of God within the context of the beauty of holiness, and that we can let our imaginations fly and our hands unfold an activity that will always be to his glory and will always be full of the love and benefit and sharing of the rest of the redeemed, without any loss, without any tiredness, without any regrets, without any shame, without any shadows, to restore us, to grant us a dignity and an honor that he meant the human race to possess when he breathed life into the dust of Adam. 00:36:08.000 --> 00:36:15.360 The question that's provoked here. 00:36:15.360 --> 00:36:18.559 How? 00:36:18.559 --> 00:36:21.199 How is this going to happen? 00:36:21.199 --> 00:36:24.239 We've got the promise, but not the pathway. 00:36:24.239 --> 00:36:30.719 All we see now is justice stands against the city. 00:36:30.719 --> 00:36:39.440 And yet, a prediction of a promise of God to do something different than crush them. 00:36:39.440 --> 00:36:53.119 How is this going to happen? 00:36:53.119 --> 00:36:55.119 How are we going to be redeemed? 00:36:55.119 --> 00:36:58.800 How is this perfect righteousness in God's sight going to be found? 00:36:58.800 --> 00:37:02.800 How are we going to be once again made a faithful city? 00:37:02.800 --> 00:37:04.320 How? 00:37:04.320 --> 00:37:16.320 Written seven centuries before Jesus Christ, this chapter, this book is yearning for a deliverer to come. 00:37:16.320 --> 00:37:18.000 Come. 00:37:18.000 --> 00:37:20.079 We can't do it. 00:37:20.079 --> 00:37:24.960 And the Bible's answer is clear. 00:37:24.960 --> 00:37:33.119 Christ alone is how sinners are washed. 00:37:33.119 --> 00:37:36.559 Christ alone is how sinners are transformed. 00:37:36.559 --> 00:37:40.079 Christ alone is how sinners are redeemed. 00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:44.960 Christ alone is how we stand righteous before a holy God. 00:37:44.960 --> 00:37:48.159 Listen to the word of God. 00:37:48.159 --> 00:38:10.800 It is from Him, from God, that you are in Christ Jesus, who has become for us our righteousness, our sanctification, our redemption, in order that it is written, let him who boast boast in the Lord and not ourselves. 00:38:10.800 --> 00:38:17.679 Nothing in my hands I bring, simply to the cross I cling. 00:38:17.679 --> 00:38:20.800 This is our hope. 00:38:20.800 --> 00:38:26.639 You see, Christ is the perfect sacrifice that actually cleanses our guilt. 00:38:26.639 --> 00:38:33.840 It is through Christ that our consciences become pure and made whole again. 00:38:33.840 --> 00:38:54.800 In Isaiah 53, which we'll get to later, speaks of this coming, suffering one who was, as he said in verse 5, pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities, punished so that we might have peace and healed by his wounds. 00:38:54.800 --> 00:39:04.400 And when Jesus arose, Isaiah 53 became flesh and blood reality. 00:39:04.400 --> 00:39:09.920 And it's by him that we're justified. 00:39:09.920 --> 00:39:12.559 It's by him that we're redeemed. 00:39:12.559 --> 00:39:17.280 In Christ alone our sins, though they're scarlet, shall be as white as snow. 00:39:17.280 --> 00:39:22.239 It's in Christ alone that wicked sinners become declared righteous in his sight. 00:39:22.239 --> 00:39:30.960 It's by Christ alone that those who repent of their sins are redeemed and justified. 00:39:30.960 --> 00:39:53.519 It's by Christ alone that we stop bringing meaningless worship into the presence of God and are filled with the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name, which is true worship. 00:39:53.519 --> 00:39:58.800 And it's in Christ alone that we learn to care for each other. 00:39:58.800 --> 00:40:06.400 Afterwards, afterwards, you'll be called the faithful city. 00:40:06.400 --> 00:40:16.960 How does God see us now? 00:40:16.960 --> 00:40:21.440 Cloaked in the righteousness of our Savior. 00:40:21.440 --> 00:40:28.880 God's not finished speaking, though. 00:40:28.880 --> 00:40:40.960 He's pronounced those descriptions of woe in his lament to the people and possessions and the princes of the city. 00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:47.280 He's given his determinations to oppose sin and to remove sin. 00:40:47.280 --> 00:40:54.239 But then he continues to speak about a day of decision. 00:40:54.239 --> 00:40:58.000 Verse 27. 00:40:58.000 --> 00:41:04.800 Zion will be redeemed by justice, those who repent by righteousness. 00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:12.239 At the same time, both rebels and sinners will be broken, and those who abandon the Lord will perish. 00:41:12.239 --> 00:41:23.440 Indeed, they will be ashamed of the sacred trees you desired, and you will be embarrassed because of the garden shrines you've chosen, and you will become like an oak whose leaves are withered and like a garden without water. 00:41:23.440 --> 00:41:27.440 The strong one will become tender and his work a spark. 00:41:27.440 --> 00:41:31.440 Both will burn together with no one to extinguish the flame. 00:41:31.440 --> 00:41:39.599 Yes, he put a surprising twist in the plot line. 00:41:39.599 --> 00:41:43.519 But let us not forget the first sight of that. 00:41:43.519 --> 00:41:48.960 Without repentance, there's nothing left but ruin. 00:41:48.960 --> 00:41:53.599 With repentance, there are promises of restoration. 00:41:53.599 --> 00:42:02.400 And God doesn't redeem us by casually sweeping aside all of our wrongs. 00:42:02.400 --> 00:42:08.800 God Himself paid the price demanded by his own justice and righteousness. 00:42:08.800 --> 00:42:12.320 Christ was wounded for our transgressions. 00:42:12.320 --> 00:42:14.320 He was bruised for our iniquities. 00:42:14.320 --> 00:42:19.360 The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. 00:42:19.360 --> 00:42:25.599 There is the reality of God crying out, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? 00:42:25.599 --> 00:42:35.519 As he was hung on a cross, and the scripture saying, Cursed is everyone who's hung on a tree. 00:42:35.519 --> 00:42:39.360 He became a curse for us. 00:42:39.360 --> 00:42:42.960 He that knew no sin became sin for us. 00:42:42.960 --> 00:42:49.760 This is a reality that God took upon himself our ruinous punishment. 00:42:49.760 --> 00:42:54.960 He doesn't just casually sweep it aside. 00:42:54.960 --> 00:43:01.199 He is the just one and the justifier of the ungodly. 00:43:01.199 --> 00:43:07.440 He doesn't become unjust by delivering us. 00:43:07.440 --> 00:43:13.519 He satisfies his justice in himself through the death of Christ. 00:43:13.519 --> 00:43:19.440 This is not God's leniency just letting us go. 00:43:19.440 --> 00:43:21.679 Ah, I just I got more to do today. 00:43:21.679 --> 00:43:22.880 Get out of here. 00:43:22.880 --> 00:43:24.800 No, it's not that. 00:43:24.800 --> 00:43:31.280 Each and every one of us has been bought by the blood of Christ, who are delivered from sin. 00:43:31.280 --> 00:43:42.639 Every one of us have a high price tag that God put upon each and every one of us, the death of his own son for your life. 00:43:42.639 --> 00:43:52.480 But that good news is only available to those who repent. 00:43:52.480 --> 00:43:58.880 Part of the gift of life means going through the hard movement of repentance. 00:43:58.880 --> 00:44:05.760 There's no justification for continuation in rebellion here. 00:44:05.760 --> 00:44:13.199 Those who persist in rebellion, God wants this to be capped clear, crystal clear. 00:44:13.199 --> 00:44:14.480 Will continue. 00:44:14.480 --> 00:44:18.800 If you continue on in that, you will be destroyed. 00:44:18.800 --> 00:44:23.360 There's no way around repentance. 00:44:23.360 --> 00:44:39.519 You either repent and are delivered, no matter how painful that repentance is, or you continue on in disobedience and your ruin will be far greater than any cost demanded in your repentance. 00:44:39.519 --> 00:44:51.119 And so this warning at the very end calls us to a decision. 00:44:51.119 --> 00:45:03.360 It calls us to take heed to the words and to welcome the hope that's found there. 00:45:03.360 --> 00:45:12.800 To put ourselves in that place, and not just think that this might be good for someone else to hear. 00:45:12.800 --> 00:45:18.960 To realize that we too are at a place of decision. 00:45:18.960 --> 00:45:32.079 Am I going to persist in disobedience or am I going to submit to the mighty one of Israel, the Lord God, when he demands I bend the knee to him? 00:45:32.079 --> 00:45:42.480 Will I continue to hold stiff against him and bear whatever consequences may come? 00:45:42.480 --> 00:45:50.079 Or will I face the reality that I need a deliverance from the King of Heaven? 00:45:50.079 --> 00:45:52.960 This is the call. 00:45:52.960 --> 00:46:05.199 This is the call that Isaiah started with when he opened up these oracles, these words of prophecy to the people. 00:46:05.199 --> 00:46:11.199 See, God spoke to them then, and God's speaking to us now. 00:46:11.199 --> 00:46:14.480 Because the heart condition is no different. 00:46:14.480 --> 00:46:21.760 Our languages are different, our time frames different, our technology is different, our situations are different, but our hearts aren't. 00:46:21.760 --> 00:46:24.639 And we need to hear it. 00:46:24.639 --> 00:46:30.239 Hear the warning, hear the welcome. 00:46:30.239 --> 00:46:33.280 Run from the ruin. 00:46:33.280 --> 00:46:35.360 That's all I can tell you. 00:46:35.360 --> 00:46:39.840 Run to the one who will ruin you if you don't come back. 00:46:39.840 --> 00:46:42.079 Run to him. 00:46:42.079 --> 00:46:43.840 Run to him. 00:46:43.840 --> 00:46:50.000 And when you run to him, you'll find his arms open wider than you could ever imagine. 00:46:50.000 --> 00:47:01.760 With welcome and release and forgiveness and acceptance and restoration and renewal and honor and transformation. 00:47:01.760 --> 00:47:03.440 Run to him. 00:47:03.440 --> 00:47:05.599 Let's pray. 00:47:05.599 --> 00:47:10.000 Oh Father. 00:47:10.000 --> 00:47:26.559 Fifty trillion words spoken every day, added on top of one another, could never measure the significance of one sentence out of this. 00:47:26.559 --> 00:47:38.320 I will remove all your impurities. 00:47:38.320 --> 00:47:46.239 I will restore your judges to what they were at first, your advisors to what they were at the start. 00:47:46.239 --> 00:47:51.920 Afterward, you will be called the righteous city, a faithful town. 00:47:51.920 --> 00:47:57.519 There's nothing more important for us to hear than that. 00:47:57.519 --> 00:48:06.000 There's not a thing that will be said today, tomorrow, for the rest of human life, apart from this good news. 00:48:06.000 --> 00:48:19.920 That you're a God that promises life to the repentant and restoration to the broken and acceptance to those who have forsaken you. 00:48:19.920 --> 00:48:22.800 Father, help us to hear it. 00:48:22.800 --> 00:48:23.679 We pray. 00:48:23.679 --> 00:48:26.800 Give us the ears that we need to listen. 00:48:26.800 --> 00:48:34.320 Give us the transformation of heart that comes in your work of grace. 00:48:34.320 --> 00:48:36.800 And we pray this in Jesus' name. 00:48:36.800 --> 00:48:37.760 Amen.