Doug McMasters: Alright, let's take our Bible and turn over to the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Or for those of you who are from England, the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: And if you're looking for Isaiah chapter 1 in the Pew Bible, which you'll find in front of you, you can find it there on page 600.
Doug McMasters: 600.
Doug McMasters: We're beginning today a study through the book of Isaiah, which I think will take us about a year and a half to go through totally.
Doug McMasters: Less time than it took us to go through Matthew, even though it's a longer book.
Doug McMasters: Many, many Christians and non-Christians alike have some familiarity with the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The hymn that we sang just a little bit ago, holy, holy, holy, is derived from words found in Isaiah chapter 6, where it says just that: Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of armies.
Doug McMasters: His glory fills the whole earth.
Doug McMasters: And anyone who's attended, say, Handel's Messiah, or heard a Christmas cantata, or even listened closely to some Christmas carols, or joined in a Christmas evening, a Christmas Eve service, or Christmas Day service, would have come into contact with Isaiah 7, for instance, or Isaiah 9, and those passages that figure prominently in the birth of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: And then there's Good Friday services and communion Sunday services, where you probably would have heard something out of Isaiah chapter 53, but he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our iniquities.
Doug McMasters: The punishment of our peace was upon him, and we're healed by his wounds.
Doug McMasters: Now, those passages are very important passages, but they're only snapshots of this glorious book that deserves more attention than we often give it.
Doug McMasters: To limit our exposure to the book of Isaiah to those few verses, chapter 7 and 9, and 53 and chapter 6, would be like turning away the invitation from Charles III to spend a whole week with him as he gives you a personal tour of Windsor Castle or Buckingham Palace or one of his other residences.
Doug McMasters: And forgoing all of that in order to read a couple paragraphs from a wiki article on Windsor Castle.
Doug McMasters: You could certainly learn some things from by scanning a wiki article, but you'd grab no sense of the wonder, the splendor, the majesty, the expanse of the palaces unless you were there.
Doug McMasters: Perhaps you've read the book of Isaiah and you've gotten into it a little ways, eager at the early stage, but then all of a sudden swamped and wondering, where am I?
Doug McMasters: Don't feel bad.
Doug McMasters: A lot of people have exactly that kind of experience.
Doug McMasters: Listen to John Calvin.
Doug McMasters: He said, Nobody will be so raw and ignorant as not to get some benefit out of reading Isaiah, yet perhaps you will understand one out of every ten verses.
Doug McMasters: He said we ought to accept eagerly and readily those things that are clear in which God has revealed his mind.
Doug McMasters: And interestingly, he says this, and it's proper to pass by those things which are still obscure to us until a clear light shines.
Doug McMasters: But then he goes on to say this.
Doug McMasters: But if we are not wearied by reading, the final result will be that that constant use will make us familiar with Isaiah, and then we'll learn more and more about it.
Doug McMasters: Perhaps you've resonated with the one out of ten understanding of Isaiah that Calvin first talked about.
Doug McMasters: Well, I welcome you into this journey.
Doug McMasters: Welcome into the journey that we're going to go through here, the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: And don't just be satisfied to show up on Sunday morning saying, What's going to be in Isaiah this morning?
Doug McMasters: Open it up when you go home.
Doug McMasters: Read it and reread it.
Doug McMasters: As we go through it week by week, pray that God would give you an understanding of his word.
Doug McMasters: The parts of Scripture that aren't yet open to you, those nine out of the ten you don't yet know.
Doug McMasters: Pray that God would give you an understanding so that you might grasp the full revelation of his word.
Doug McMasters: And it's my prayer that you will gain the splendor and the majesty and the wonder and the expanse that is found in the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is a great book.
Doug McMasters: Its theology is sweeping.
Doug McMasters: It takes us from creation to the new creation.
Doug McMasters: It takes us into the wonder of all that God has done and his great plan of redemption.
Doug McMasters: Brings us from the utter ruin of sinful humanity to the glorious splendor of the new heavens and the new earth.
Doug McMasters: Listen to what someone said about it.
Doug McMasters: Said it was the most theologically significant book in the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: Another one said, of all the books of the Old Testament, Isaiah is the richest.
Doug McMasters: Someone said, from ancient times, Isaiah has been considered the greatest of the Old Testament prophets.
Doug McMasters: But it's not just narrowed to the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: 66 direct quotations of Isaiah are found in the New Testament.
Doug McMasters: And if you were to count the illusions to say nothing to the echoes, you would find nearly a hundred references to Isaiah in the New Testament.
Doug McMasters: Twenty of the 27 books of the New Testament quote Isaiah directly.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah is woven like this gold fabric into the glorious dress of the New Testament.
Doug McMasters: One of the main contributions of the book of Isaiah is to enforce and enlarge upon us the understanding of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: As we are well aware, the New Testament presents the Lord Jesus Christ as its theme, and Isaiah presents the Lord Jesus Christ as its ultimate theme.
Doug McMasters: Just for a moment, it's here in Isaiah where the glories of the Davidic Messiah and the shame of the suffering servant are woven together to help us understand who Jesus Christ is.
Doug McMasters: So much so that Isaiah has been declared to be the fifth evangelist, and Isaiah the book declared to be the fifth gospel.
Doug McMasters: That's how much it speaks of Jesus Christ.
Doug McMasters: So this morning, as we get an introduction to it, I want to introduce it to us by way of what we might call in some investigative ways our five friends who, what, when, where, why, and how, right?
Doug McMasters: So we're going to skip off one of those and double up on one of those.
Doug McMasters: But that will be our form as we go through this and introduce ourselves to this book that will be our friend for the next several months.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah, what is it?
Doug McMasters: What?
Doug McMasters: Well, it's a prophecy.
Doug McMasters: And the way our English Old Testament is structured, Isaiah introduces us into a grouping of books that are called the prophets, the major and the minor prophets.
Doug McMasters: And it runs all the way to the end of the Old Testament to the book of Malachi.
Doug McMasters: It doesn't mean that prophecy begins with Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: There are prophecies earlier than this, as far back as Moses and even before then.
Doug McMasters: That predictive element is all over the scriptures.
Doug McMasters: But these books are grouped together in major and minor prophets.
Doug McMasters: Well, these prophets, what do they do?
Doug McMasters: Well, the prophets are people who speak for God.
Doug McMasters: They speak for God.
Doug McMasters: They're his messengers, God's mouthpieces.
Doug McMasters: They speak his word directly into the ears and minds and hearts of people over the ages.
Doug McMasters: They say what God once said.
Doug McMasters: And the major reason you see that, or the major way you see that, is they often preface their remarks by saying, Thus says the Lord.
Doug McMasters: They're speaking on his behalf.
Doug McMasters: They're telling the people of Israel exactly what God wants them to know.
Doug McMasters: A lot of times when you think of prophets, you think of people who are sort of foretelling the future also, but that's not the main focus of the prophets.
Doug McMasters: The main focus of the prophets are to speak to their present generation about situations that they're going through, so that they might think and act and relate differently about God and their life and their situation.
Doug McMasters: And when they do talk about the future, it's not so you can just simply sit back and muse over what might be, but rather that you would see something about that that changes the way you live your life today.
Doug McMasters: It's not to leave us gazing off into the future, but to be ordered a different way according to God's word now.
Doug McMasters: Well, the prophets also had ears.
Doug McMasters: They listened to God's word before they could speak it.
Doug McMasters: They were instruments and agents of Him.
Doug McMasters: And when we talk about the prophets being inspired, we speak about that inspiration as something different than maybe an inspired musician or an inspired poet or an inspired communicator in some way with eloquence and choice of words.
Doug McMasters: We don't think of them like great painters.
Doug McMasters: They're not inspired in that way.
Doug McMasters: What we're talking about is that God has communicated to them exactly what he once said.
Doug McMasters: So they have ears to hear that.
Doug McMasters: Peter says that.
Doug McMasters: He said, Know this, no prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet's private interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by the will of man.
Doug McMasters: Instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
Doug McMasters: There's also another aspect about these prophets, as we consider what we're about to look at, is that they also felt what God feels, if I can put it that way.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Isaiah in chapter 40, and we read from that chapter, but a little deeper into it.
Doug McMasters: Listen to the emotion that's found in these verses.
Doug McMasters: Do you not know, Isaiah says?
Doug McMasters: Have you not heard?
Doug McMasters: The Lord is the everlasting God, the creator of the whole earth.
Doug McMasters: He never becomes faint or weary.
Doug McMasters: There's no limit to his understanding.
Doug McMasters: He gives strength to the faint.
Doug McMasters: He strengthens the powerless.
Doug McMasters: But those who trust in the Lord will renew their strength.
Doug McMasters: They will soar on wings like eagles.
Doug McMasters: They will run and not become weary.
Doug McMasters: They will walk and not faint.
Doug McMasters: Can you feel the encouragement of those verses?
Doug McMasters: The emotion that fuels those words?
Doug McMasters: That's Isaiah speaking with emotion and delight about a God who brings solace and assurance in a time of trouble.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's hope stood as a beacon to people in despair and darkness, to let them know that the despair in the darkness wasn't the end of their life, that there was a future in God if they trusted him.
Doug McMasters: And it brings us the same sort of understanding that we can have comfort and encouragement and be reminded that God's promises are going to be fulfilled no matter how dark or difficult or despairing our moments are.
Doug McMasters: So these prophets didn't just speak a message.
Doug McMasters: They didn't just listen to a message, they felt it, and so shall we.
Doug McMasters: These prophets help us through their emotions to understand more of our God, a God who loves and longs for people, a God who is angry at sin and evil, a God who will stand against injustice and cruelty, a God who is compassionate and cares for the poor, the needy, and the vulnerable, a God who is grieved when he's rejected, a God who is filled with joy when people and his creation turn to him.
Doug McMasters: These are all emotional words that help us understand him better.
Doug McMasters: Everything that's part of who we are gives us a way to connect with the God who has made us.
Doug McMasters: These prophets also saw things from God's point of view.
Doug McMasters: We call them seers sometimes in the Old Testament.
Doug McMasters: They're given that term.
Doug McMasters: And sometimes they could actually see things that other people couldn't see.
Doug McMasters: But it means more than that.
Doug McMasters: It means that these men were able to also interpret events from God's point of view.
Doug McMasters: And boy, don't we need that sometimes, right?
Doug McMasters: We look at things and we've got our understanding, we've got our perspectives, but to be able to have someone interject who sees the whole scope of it all from beginning to end in every detail, that's our God.
Doug McMasters: And He's giving us an understanding of life and eternity in ways that we, in our little narrowedness and blindness and even sinfulness, don't know.
Doug McMasters: This is the what?
Doug McMasters: The book of Isaiah is a prophecy.
Doug McMasters: Now, who?
Doug McMasters: Who is Isaiah?
Doug McMasters: Well, Isaiah is called the Prince of the Prophets.
Doug McMasters: And not simply because of the grandeur of his writings, some rabbis actually thought that he was the brother of King Amaziah.
Doug McMasters: So he was literally perhaps a prince.
Doug McMasters: We don't know that.
Doug McMasters: That's conjecture, but that's some of the thinking that people have.
Doug McMasters: He's mentioned seven times as a son of Amos.
Doug McMasters: We know that he was married and his wife was called a prophetess, and they had two sons.
Doug McMasters: We don't know a whole lot more about him.
Doug McMasters: His name, Yesha Yahu, means Yahweh's salvation, or it could be interpreted as Yahweh is salvation, or the salvation of Yahweh.
Doug McMasters: And we should hear in Yesha Yahu some similarities to someone whose name was Yeshua, God saves.
Doug McMasters: So when did he write?
Doug McMasters: When you think of Isaiah and the rest of the prophets that run all the way to Malachi, in relationship to the history of the people of Israel, you realize that they only spoke into a slim little bit of time.
Doug McMasters: If you go from the beginning of the people of Israel to, say, Malachi, you're looking at about 1,500 years of expanse.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah and the rest of the prophets spoke into about 300 years of time.
Doug McMasters: A small sliver of the whole history of the people of Israel.
Doug McMasters: And if you wonder why so many prophets were sort of pushed into this little time frame, it's because they were turbulent years.
Doug McMasters: David the king, Solomon his son, coming into Rehoboam, who failed to listen to the wiser men and listen to the more foolish men.
Doug McMasters: And because of that, ten of the tribes of the twelve rebelled and started their own breakaway group of Israel, and leaving two of them behind.
Doug McMasters: And the battles between those two and the degradation of their society and of their worship of God are detailed in some of the historical books and are spoken about throughout these prophecies.
Doug McMasters: They spoke into that time frame.
Doug McMasters: Some of them speaking to the northern tribes, those ten breakaway tribes of which they called Israel and sometimes Ephraim.
Doug McMasters: They spoke in and talked to them that if they didn't turn to the Lord in faithful trust, that there would be a coming day of judgment.
Doug McMasters: And it eventually happened in 721 when those ten tribes were taken away by Assyria.
Doug McMasters: To the southern two, some of the other prophets spoke: Micah and Zephaniah and Habakkuk and Isaiah and Jeremiah.
Doug McMasters: And they spoke to Judah and told them that they too were facing judgment and condemnation that would end in exile had they did not turn to the Lord in trust.
Doug McMasters: And just like the northern tribes in 721 and 587 BC, as a culmination of other small movements, Jerusalem was captured, and the people were carried off in exile to Babylon.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah speaks into that time frame before the exile happens.
Doug McMasters: He speaks at the pinnacle of the time of the Assyrians.
Doug McMasters: And in Isaiah chapter 1 and verse 1, just have a look at it for a second, we learn this.
Doug McMasters: We just read four.
Doug McMasters: Well, there's one more, Manasseh.
Doug McMasters: His name's not mentioned here in the first verse, but we know that in the book of Isaiah, Sennacherib's assassination is mentioned.
Doug McMasters: And so that assassination happened during the reign of Manasseh.
Doug McMasters: So we know that he ministered into the reign of Manasseh.
Doug McMasters: And that brings us to the end of Isaiah's life.
Doug McMasters: Jewish tradition tells us that Isaiah was martyred during the time of Manasseh the king by being stuffed into a hollow log and then sawn in half.
Doug McMasters: That's how his life ended.
Doug McMasters: The writer of the book of Hebrews alludes to that.
Doug McMasters: When it talks about in that hall of faith we call Isaiah 11, in verse 37 it says, They were stoned, they were sawn asunder.
Doug McMasters: Perhaps alluding to Isaiah and his martyrdom.
Doug McMasters: They died by the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins, goatskins, destitute, afflicted, mistreated.
Doug McMasters: The world was not worthy of them.
Doug McMasters: Why?
Doug McMasters: We talked about the what and the who and the when.
Doug McMasters: Now let's talk about the why.
Doug McMasters: When Isaiah began his ministry, Judah is his focus, as you can see here.
Doug McMasters: He talks about Judah and Jerusalem in verse 1.
Doug McMasters: He talks about the kings of Judah here.
Doug McMasters: That's his major focus.
Doug McMasters: Judah, when Isaiah begins his ministry, during the end of the time of Uzziah's reign, it was a sad shadow itself back when David and Solomon were reigning.
Doug McMasters: But it still had had a season of prosperity and peace under Uzziah.
Doug McMasters: It was a refreshing breathe, breath of fresh air.
Doug McMasters: But the good times were almost gone.
Doug McMasters: And the people could tell that there was impending doom around them.
Doug McMasters: Judah in the late eighth century was crumbling.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah spoke into a people who were teetering on the edge economically.
Doug McMasters: They were being bullied by geopolitical powers all around them.
Doug McMasters: And they were rotting from the inside out by their syncretism, their injustice, and their formalistic religion.
Doug McMasters: Is that you, John?
Doug McMasters: No?
Doug McMasters: We got it.
Doug McMasters: There we go.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah spoke to those people in trouble.
Doug McMasters: He spoke to people that were facing all kinds of peril in every way they could look.
Doug McMasters: They couldn't look to the religious leaders and find help.
Doug McMasters: They couldn't look to their kings and find help.
Doug McMasters: They couldn't look to their um economic power bases and find help.
Doug McMasters: They couldn't look to other nations and find help.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah spoke to them and talked about trusting the living God, looking to them in their dependence, and he would care for them.
Doug McMasters: Judah and Uzziah never again, after Uzziah never begin became an independent state.
Doug McMasters: For the rest of the reigns of the kings that you read about in verse 1, they were all subservient vassals to overdominating powers outside of them.
Doug McMasters: They were serving at the pleasure of the Assyrian overlords all the way through Isaiah's ministry.
Doug McMasters: And when Babylon put them to an end, it seemed like the end of the Davidic dynasty until Matthew's gospel opens up and speaks about a Jesus who is the son of David.
Doug McMasters: And so these people lived in a pivotal time.
Doug McMasters: They lived in a threatening world.
Doug McMasters: Do we not live in a pivotal time in a threatening world?
Doug McMasters: Of course we do.
Doug McMasters: The crisis that they were facing was the rise of the Assyrian Empire to the east.
Doug McMasters: And these four kings show just how mixed their responses were.
Doug McMasters: As Isaiah called them to trust in the living God, they began to show a deeper trust in themselves and their allies.
Doug McMasters: You can read about it in 2 Kings.
Doug McMasters: But this Assyrian threat was real and it was dangerous.
Doug McMasters: And the people had to decide: would they trust a God to save them, or would they trust themselves and their own strategies to be their deliverance?
Doug McMasters: You'll hear a lot about that as we go through the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Now, how does Isaiah pan out?
Doug McMasters: We've talked about the what, the who, the when, and the why.
Doug McMasters: Now, we're going to talk about the how and skip the where.
Doug McMasters: I think we can understand where that is.
Doug McMasters: Let's just scan the 66 chapters that are the book of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: The first 39 chapters primarily have us in view of this pre-exile time during Assyria's strength.
Doug McMasters: The first 39 chapters of Isaiah, Assyria is the dominant world power.
Doug McMasters: And that crisis in Judah and Jerusalem is centers upon two of the kings.
Doug McMasters: Chapters 7 to 12, you have Ahaz, who is tested but fails, and begins to trust human schemes and ill-advised alliances with other nations instead of trusting the living God.
Doug McMasters: And then in chapters 36 to 39, we learn of another king, Hezekiah, who is also in a time of crisis with a different emperor over Assyria.
Doug McMasters: But the same question: would he trust God or would he try to find a way forward through his own scheming?
Doug McMasters: Hezekiah almost yields to the counsel of his cabinet, but in his despair turns to the living God.
Doug McMasters: And we find an example of one with failing heart but trusting soul.
Doug McMasters: And in between these two sections of chapter 7 to 12 and this 36 to 39, inside of it are oracles to the nations as God speaks to the peoples around about their behavior and their impending doom.
Doug McMasters: But as a lesson to the kings and to the people, will you trust God or will you fall under the same condemnation as the other nations that are falling?
Doug McMasters: In the middle of all of that, God peppers into the book of Isaiah these statements that there is going to be a rising king out of the line of David that's not like these kings of David, who's actually going to be just and trusting, who's going to be bringing forth victory.
Doug McMasters: And we read, Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government will be upon his shoulders, and his reign is not going to end.
Doug McMasters: These words are thrown in there to help us see that the present scene is not all there is to know about.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah projects his voice into the future and doesn't speak about the future, but does something no other book in the Old Testament does, or New Testament for that matter.
Doug McMasters: He doesn't just speak about the future, he speaks to the future.
Doug McMasters: He speaks to the people of God as if they were already torn from the land of promise and already put into exile in Babylon.
Doug McMasters: This is what chapters 40 and 45 to 55 do.
Doug McMasters: No other book of the Bible does this.
Doug McMasters: And what will God tell these future people who have sinned so dramatically that they've been ripped from the land of promise and are called not my people?
Doug McMasters: How can they, these persistently sinful people, hear anything other than judgment or expect anything but other than abandonment from God?
Doug McMasters: Well, that's the wonder of these chapters.
Doug McMasters: Because the words that come in sweep in with these words.
Doug McMasters: Comfort.
Doug McMasters: Comfort, my people.
Doug McMasters: Salvation of God will come.
Doug McMasters: His determinations of grace are not going to be thwarted by your sin.
Doug McMasters: He is going to fulfill his promises, and he's going to bring his people into the fullness of his mercies.
Doug McMasters: What a wonder this is.
Doug McMasters: Salvation would come through the suffering of a servant, that Isaiah 40 to 55 talk about.
Doug McMasters: That servant, though he suffers, will be victorious.
Doug McMasters: And his victory will not only save the people of Judah, his victory will be so grand and glorious that it will be the hope of all the nations.
Doug McMasters: And that word will spread everywhere.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah 52, 7 says, How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says, To Zion, your God reigns.
Doug McMasters: Now, if you know your New Testament, you know where that came from.
Doug McMasters: That is the very verse that talks about the gospel proclamation of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, found in the book of Romans.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 1 to 39, pre-exile.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah 40 to 55, projecting to a people in exile, in the future.
Doug McMasters: Chapters 56 to 66 have as their focus people settled back in the land after the exile.
Doug McMasters: People who are having their temple being rebuilt.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah's stretching into the future for sure.
Doug McMasters: Listen to Isaiah 66.
Doug McMasters: This is what the Lord says.
Doug McMasters: Heaven is my throne and earth is my footstool.
Doug McMasters: Where could you possibly build a house for me?
Doug McMasters: And where would my resting place be?
Doug McMasters: My hand made all these things, and so they came into being.
Doug McMasters: This is the Lord's declaration.
Doug McMasters: So where will God's temple be?
Doug McMasters: He tells us, I will look favorably on this kind of person, one who is humble and submissive in spirit and trembles at my word.
Doug McMasters: The projection of a temple of God that will reside not in stone in a place, but in people in their hearts, where the true worshipers will not worship on this mountain or that mountain, but will be the people who worship in spirit and in truth.
Doug McMasters: And they reach even beyond them.
Doug McMasters: And this message of this coming king, this international king who's going to bring judgment and salvation, and that this lead agent is going to be a messenger, that God is going to empower to declare the good news that he is breaking in and establishing his kingdom.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah speaks about this one who comes.
Doug McMasters: And this is how it begins.
Doug McMasters: The Spirit of the Lord God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor.
Doug McMasters: Those are the very words that Jesus spoke at the beginning of his public ministry.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah speaks to pre-exile Israel, in exile Israel, and post-exile Israel, and brings them warnings and comfort and promises of a better day.
Doug McMasters: Of a better day.
Doug McMasters: So let me double up on the how for a second.
Doug McMasters: We talked about Isaiah, what it was, who he is, we talked about when it was, we talked about how.
Doug McMasters: But I also want to talk about how we understand Isaiah a little better.
Doug McMasters: And I just want to give you a little insight that I think will help you and carry you through all of our study of Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: And the way to understand Isaiah is to scan the horizon.
Doug McMasters: The horizon is the farthest part that we can see as we open up our eyes to the very edges of what is out there.
Doug McMasters: For those of us in New York, that's like across the street.
Doug McMasters: But if you go to Montana, it's quite a far ways away.
Doug McMasters: The distance depends on how high we are from ground level, right?
Doug McMasters: You know, you're on the ground and you can see that far.
Doug McMasters: But if you went up in a hot air balloon, you could see further.
Doug McMasters: And if you went even way further up, you could prove to every flat earther that they're just wrong, because you can see the curvature of the earth.
Doug McMasters: Well, the distance depends on how high you go.
Doug McMasters: And so when we read Isaiah, we have to look to the horizons.
Doug McMasters: We have to see that Isaiah is speaking to those on the ground in their life experience.
Doug McMasters: He's speaking a little bit higher to talk about those in future days a little bit further, and yet he brings us up even a little higher and shows us even further yet of even a new day and a new creation.
Doug McMasters: He takes us beyond the scope of the present.
Doug McMasters: He takes us even beyond the scope of human history.
Doug McMasters: He brings us into the eternities to show us our God and his glorious plan in the new heaven and the new earth.
Doug McMasters: And so when you read Isaiah, remember that there are three horizons to look at.
Doug McMasters: There's the first horizon of the people in Isaiah's day, things that would be accomplished in their lifetime, or perhaps in Old Testament history.
Doug McMasters: And then realize that there are things that Isaiah talks about that could never be fulfilled in their day that talk about something beyond that, that can be only found in Jesus Christ and the coming of the Son of God to this earth to deliver.
Doug McMasters: And so you see in horizon level two, you see messages of the coming of the Messiah and the entrance of the kingdom of the gospel.
Doug McMasters: But then there are other things that project even beyond that as you rise up to a third pinnacle and you see a third horizon, and you find out that there are statements of judgment not just for the nations, but for the whole heavens and the earth.
Doug McMasters: And not just judgment, but also statements of grace that bring us beyond human history into the eternal state.
Doug McMasters: And Isaiah talks about a day of overflowing joy when he says, There'll be nature in full abundance, and the earth rejoicing in its creator, and human life fully safe and fulfilling and free ultimately from violence and injustice and hunger and danger and war at an end, and people and animals living in perfect harmony.
Doug McMasters: People never turned away from God's presence ever.
Doug McMasters: What is this?
Doug McMasters: It's the third horizon.
Doug McMasters: It's the place where the new heavens and the new earth are breaking into our day and understanding to give us a hope that to trust God means not just a better life now, or maybe a get to heaven then, but a flourishing and the new heavens and the new earth in which existence will unfold with all that it was designed to be in all the fullness that God had created it to have.
Doug McMasters: That's Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: And so as we come into this place, remember, just like Calvin or me, you might understand only one verse and ten at first.
Doug McMasters: But the more we go in it, it'll be two out of ten, then three out of ten, and then hopefully eight, nine, maybe even ten out of ten in some places.
Doug McMasters: Isaiah wants to show us more of God, and in doing so will show us more of ourselves as well.
Doug McMasters: Some of it's going to be uncomfortable.
Doug McMasters: Some of it's going to be more exhilarating than we deserve.
Doug McMasters: He speaks to all of us.
Doug McMasters: If you're here this morning and you're not a Christian believer, Isaiah will speak to you.
Doug McMasters: It will talk to you, it will tell you who you are better than you know yourself.
Doug McMasters: Listen, I encourage you to do so.
Doug McMasters: Because it also speaks about mercy and grace that is beyond what any of us could ever hope for.
Doug McMasters: And to find that in his presence is not condemnation, but acceptance.
Doug McMasters: If you're a new believer, this is a great way to understand the promised purpose of God as we move from the Old Testament into the new, and you see your Savior spoken about in more ways than you might expect.
Doug McMasters: And if you're an experienced believer, God will speak to us, challenge us to trust Him, even in the hard times, beyond our wisdom, beyond the strength of our arms, which is pretty frail anyway.
Doug McMasters: In all of these ways, God will talk to us through Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: A book written so many years ago, but more important and more today than even the articles we read online.
Doug McMasters: Let's pray together.
Doug McMasters: Father, we thank you for the gospel.
Doug McMasters: I almost said it, the gospel of Matthew.
Doug McMasters: But thank you for Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Thank you for what we're going to learn about the gospel in Isaiah.
Doug McMasters: Thank you, Father, for giving us the scope of your purposes, giving us an indication of what you did and then designed to do in bringing Jesus Christ into this world.
Doug McMasters: Thank you, Father, for my beloved brothers and sisters here in their keen interest to know.
Doug McMasters: And Lord, I pray that you would use me and Micah and the others who will proclaim your word over these next several months as servants of your word and servants of your people to help them understand you better.
Doug McMasters: Lord, work through us, we pray, to grant a feast of your word to your yours so that they might fully receive and fully praise you.
Doug McMasters: And we ask this in Christ's name.
Doug McMasters: Amen.