John Meade: This podium is quite a bit shorter than yesterday, isn't it?
John Meade: Well, thank you, uh Pastors Doug, Micah, um, and honestly, I I don't even the host of you that uh came together to help us pull that conference off yesterday, uh, I'm deeply grateful.
John Meade: Um and I know my colleague Peter uh is as well that um we were able to come and and give those talks and really to quite an eager audience.
John Meade: So just a great uh time yesterday.
John Meade: And um I know some of you after yesterday's talk, and if you were even in Sunday school, some of you were like, okay, can the textual critic preach?
John Meade: I'm wise to this.
John Meade: Um, but I asked Pastor Micah um what I should preach on, and he said, Well, maybe just do something on um on the uh the power of God's word or or something like this, the effectiveness of God's word.
John Meade: I said, Well, I think I'm gonna illustrate that anyway, from no matter what, because here's the textual critic who preaches confidently from God's word, because it is preserved for us, it is secure.
John Meade: Okay.
John Meade: And so I felt like no matter what I preached, I would hopefully model and illustrate that for you here this morning.
John Meade: As someone who wades through differences, uh, again, for breakfast, um uh I am confident that what I'm preaching to you this morning is from God.
John Meade: Okay.
John Meade: So uh without any further ado, well, okay, I wanted to say one other thing.
John Meade: I want to say one other thing.
John Meade: I knew this was gonna be a rich experience.
John Meade: I knew it.
John Meade: Um, I just I I've known Micah for years.
John Meade: We go all the way back to Louisville.
John Meade: We were fellow church members at a Baptist church there.
John Meade: Uh what I didn't know was how much more rich this would be when other friends from Louisville showed up uh last night.
John Meade: And I have just I I'm here to bless you, but I have been so blessed uh by this trip.
John Meade: And so thank you, brother.
John Meade: And and uh you all know who you are uh heckling me in the back probably already.
John Meade: But um, I'm just so grateful uh and blessed to be here.
John Meade: Well, the sermon is from Isaiah 54.
John Meade: I have entitled this message Yahweh, the covenant keeping God.
John Meade: Uh, for those of you who don't know, Yahweh is the personal name of God in the Old Testament.
John Meade: So everywhere I read Lord here uh in small caps is a translation for the divine name Yahweh.
John Meade: Sorry, it's it's just the Old Testament student in me.
John Meade: I have to use the name Yahweh.
John Meade: So uh don't be thrown off by that, I hope.
John Meade: Uh I know I have a fellow Yahweh um supporter here in the front row uh in Ethan, so I'm very happy about that.
John Meade: So feel free to amen every time I use that word.
John Meade: Okay, Isaiah 54.
John Meade: This is on page 651 in your pew Bible.
John Meade: I'm gonna read the whole chapter.
John Meade: Rejoice, childless one who did not give birth.
John Meade: Burst into song and shout, you who have not been in labor.
John Meade: For the children of the desolate one will be more than the children of the married woman, says the Lord.
John Meade: Enlarge the sight of your tent, and let your tent curtains be stretched out.
John Meade: Do not hold back, lengthen your ropes and drive your pegs deep, for you will spread out to the right and to the left, and your descendants will dispossess nations and inhabit the desolate cities.
John Meade: Do not be afraid, for you will not be put to shame.
John Meade: Don't be humiliated, for you will not be disgraced, for you will forget the shame of your youth, and you will no longer remember the disgrace of your widowhood.
John Meade: Indeed, your husband is your maker, his name is Yahweh of armies, and the Holy One of Israel is your redeemer.
John Meade: He is called the God of the whole earth.
John Meade: For the Lord has called you like a wife deserted and wounded in spirit, a wife of one's youth when she is rejected, says your God.
John Meade: I deserted you for a brief moment, but I will take you back with abundant compassion.
John Meade: In a surge of anger I hid my face from you for a moment, but I will have compassion on you with everlasting love, says the Lord your Redeemer.
John Meade: For this is like the days of Noah to me, when I swore that the water of Noah would never flood the earth again, so I have sworn that I will not be angry with you or rebuke you.
John Meade: Though the mountains move and the hills shake, my love will not be removed from you, and my covenant of peace will not be shaken, says your compassionate Lord.
John Meade: Poor Jerusalem, storm-tossed and not comforted, I will set your stones in black mortar, and lay your foundations in lapis lazuli.
John Meade: I will make your fortifications out of rubies, your gates out of sparkling stones, and all your walls out of precious stones.
John Meade: Then all your children will be taught by the Lord.
John Meade: Their prosperity will be great, and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness.
John Meade: You will be far from oppression, you will certainly not be afraid, you will be far from terror, it will certainly not come near you.
John Meade: If anyone attacks you, it is not from me.
John Meade: Whoever attacks you will fall before you.
John Meade: Look, I have created the craftsman who blows on the charcoal fire and produces a weapon suitable for its task, and I have created the destroyer to cause havoc.
John Meade: No weapon formed against you will succeed, and you will refute any accusation raised against you in court.
John Meade: This is the heritage of the servants of Yahweh, and their vindication is from me.
John Meade: This is Yahweh's declaration.
John Meade: On December 7th, 1941, a date that will forever live in infamy, President Franklin D.
John Meade: Roosevelt said, What happened so uh what happened so that a world leader would make such a statement?
John Meade: Well, of course, we know the history.
John Meade: The Japanese were in the midst of negotiations with the U.S.
John Meade: and on December 7th launched the greatest attack on U.S.
John Meade: soil without declaration of war or any warning.
John Meade: But what made this attack so awful was the prior treachery that happened between men in suits in civil contexts.
John Meade: The Japanese had agreed with the U.S.
John Meade: to demilitarize in Southeast Asia and to call off its aggression towards China on November 20th.
John Meade: But they sent their fleet towards Pearl Harbor on November 25th.
John Meade: When they broke their word and trust on November 20th, December 7th was the natural consequence to such betrayal and distrust.
John Meade: But such examples of breaking trust or covenant are not limited to the international scene.
John Meade: We have examples, don't we, of our own domestic politicians breaking their promises many times.
John Meade: When these politicians prove to be unfaithful or unreliable, that is, their yes is not yes and their no is not no, we become more skeptical and cynical of their leadership capabilities.
John Meade: We have experienced, many of us, probably, up close and personally, the brokenness that infidelity or breaking covenant and trust brings.
John Meade: Whether we have been divorced ourselves or the children of parents who have been divorced, we have seen the consequences of the sin of distrust and of breaking one's word.
John Meade: All of us have been let down, so to speak, by a friend not following through on what he or she said they would do.
John Meade: In short, the Bible teaches that humanity, apart from Christ and his wonderful redemption, are not truth tellers, and they're not faithful and loyal people who keep their word.
John Meade: We disappoint.
John Meade: We are unfaithful to one another and to God.
John Meade: We are weak, our yes is not yes, and our no is not no.
John Meade: But now enter the gospel of Isaiah.
John Meade: There is a God who is faithful and not like other gods, who are as treacherous as the pagans who worshiped them.
John Meade: We read that in Deuteronomy 7.9 this morning.
John Meade: I don't know if you guys knew that.
John Meade: That was providential, maybe.
John Meade: I don't know.
John Meade: I mean, but but clearly, Deuteronomy 7.9, a clear declaration that Israel's God is not like other gods.
John Meade: He is not capricious, but rather he is faithful and steadfast, keeping covenant with those who love him.
John Meade: His name is Yahweh, isn't it?
John Meade: And our God is in the business of repairing brokenness and redeeming traitors and transforming them into faithful members of his new covenant.
John Meade: In fact, God reveals this plan in the scriptures in many, many passages, so that we can see just how faithful he is.
John Meade: And in one of these passages is what we just read this morning in Isaiah 54.
John Meade: I don't know if you picked up on this.
John Meade: I'm just going to scan that from a big picture standpoint.
John Meade: There are three women in distress in Isaiah 54.
John Meade: Did you catch that?
John Meade: Three women that are in distress in Isaiah 54.
John Meade: The first one is referred to as the childless one or the barren woman in verses 1 to 3.
John Meade: Then in verses 4 to 10, there's another woman, and we can call her the deserted woman.
John Meade: She's abandoned, isn't she?
John Meade: And then in verses 11 to 17, there's another woman whom we could call the afflicted or the storm-tossed woman.
John Meade: In each of these sections of Isaiah 54, God's covenant ensures that each woman will be lifted out of their distress and put into far better estate.
John Meade: These women probably refer, okay, to Abraham, Israel, and Zion or Jerusalem, and the covenants that were made with each.
John Meade: These three sections describe, right, the exponential growth of Abraham's family, God's punishment of old Israel, and the reconstitution of the new Israel under the new covenant when they return from exile.
John Meade: And lastly, the rebuilding of the city of God.
John Meade: Undergirding these unlikely reversals in this passage is our covenant-keeping God, who promises to fulfill his promises to Abraham, Israel, and David by making a new covenant, which will include the nations and transform the people into a covenantally faithful and righteous city of God.
John Meade: So let's let's dive into that first section then, verses one to three of Isaiah 54.
John Meade: In verses one to three, Isaiah addresses the barren woman or this childless woman with otherworldly language.
John Meade: This is really important to grasp here, right?
John Meade: This barren woman is instructed to rejoice with three different words, right?
John Meade: And then instructed to enlarge the place of her tent with all the necessary entailments in verse 2.
John Meade: Now, again, barrenness, right, back then, like today, right, this is not usually a positive characteristic.
John Meade: It's not a positive trait.
John Meade: Barrenness was a serious economic problem in the ancient world in society where labor-intensive agriculture, right, placed a high demand on finding sufficient helpers.
John Meade: Where descendants, right, are always considered a blessing.
John Meade: Their lack was a problem.
John Meade: No one was childless by choice.
John Meade: Indeed, an old ancient Near Eastern myth includes barrenness among other infirmities, such as blindness, crippling, and incontinence.
John Meade: Okay.
John Meade: Now, given this context, right, I think that's important.
John Meade: It's absolutely astonishing, right, that Isaiah instructs this barren woman to rejoice.
John Meade: Normally, right, this condition would be one that would call for panic, sorrow, shame, and rejection.
John Meade: However, Isaiah is not proclaiming the message of this world, is he?
John Meade: Why does Isaiah instruct this barren woman to rejoice?
John Meade: Well, in verse 3, we have our answer, right?
John Meade: For you will burst out on the right and on the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and they will inhabit deserted cities.
John Meade: Now, this verse could mean, right, that Israel will rise up someday and conquer and subdue the nations by force.
John Meade: But verse one makes this interpretation kind of improbable.
John Meade: In verse 1, the married woman is the Israel of the old covenant, as Isaiah will make plain in verses 4 to 10.
John Meade: So who then is this desolate woman whose children will be far more in number than the married woman?
John Meade: The desolate woman, the barren woman, appears to be the battered and tattered Israel who returns from exile.
John Meade: It is this desolate woman who comes back more numerous than when she went into exile.
John Meade: From the standpoint of the New Testament, in Galatians 4, the interpretation of Israel's possessing the nations is quite clear.
John Meade: Israel inherits the nations because the nations become part of the family of God.
John Meade: Not by warfare, as we'll learn much later, right?
John Meade: But by faith, by the faith of Abraham himself.
John Meade: The chief barren woman in Israel's history, of course, is Abraham's wife Sarah.
John Meade: And the imagery of living intents and the mention of descendants also appear to be allusions to this covenant with Abraham.
John Meade: The language recalls the Abrahamic covenant, whose purpose in part, right, was to bless the nations.
John Meade: According to Genesis 12, 1 to 3, Israel, as the married woman, failed to fulfill the covenant made with Abraham.
John Meade: But the barren woman will miraculously fulfill the covenant by inheriting the nations and including them within the family of God.
John Meade: Just based on these few verses.
John Meade: Some of us have probably thought that Christian identity simply means I believed in Jesus as Lord, and I confessed my sin and rebellion to him, and I'm following him today by believing the same gospel of grace.
John Meade: And if you're there, amen.
John Meade: Amen.
John Meade: This is, of course, true, but I think it's a little incomplete.
John Meade: With passages such as Isaiah 54, 1 to 3, I think they teach us that when we trusted in Jesus, we became part of Abraham's family.
John Meade: At that point in time, right, Abraham's story became our story.
John Meade: Abraham's faith, right, credited to him as righteousness before God, became our faith, credited to us as righteousness before God.
John Meade: Abraham's mission, though, this is the interesting part, of being a blessing to the nations, Genesis 12, 2 and 3, also has become our mission.
John Meade: Believers in Jesus should seek to be a blessing to the nations by proclaiming the gospel of Christ to them and also by seeking justice and righteousness in all of our relationships.
John Meade: No matter what one's vocation is, Christian, as members of Abraham's family, we should seek to be a blessing to those around us.
John Meade: Their tent, the tent has been widened, enlarged, and we have entered in.
John Meade: And as such, we have become part of that family, which is uh a distinct identity uh that I don't think we always quite grasp.
John Meade: All right, moving on.
John Meade: Israel, the deserted woman, okay, in verses four through 10.
John Meade: This is a comp this is kind of a complex section.
John Meade: There are three little sections.
John Meade: If you have your Bible open, verses four to six is gonna be the section on Israel's husband, okay, a reconstituted marriage.
John Meade: Verses seven to eight rehearses Israel being forsaken, where the exile is explained.
John Meade: And then in verses nine to ten, we come face to face with the permanence of the new covenant with the new Israel.
John Meade: In verses four to ten, Isaiah describes Israel as the deserted woman and her relationship to Yahweh.
John Meade: In verses four to six, Yahweh is called Israel's husband, exhorting her not to fear.
John Meade: In verses seven to eight, again, the exile is explained.
John Meade: So let's look at verses four to six together.
John Meade: Isaiah once again addresses a woman in these verses.
John Meade: Since in Hebrew, all the second persons, right?
John Meade: All the you's and yours in this passage, they're all feminine.
John Meade: Hebrew has gendered pronouns, right?
John Meade: You can be feminine or masculine.
John Meade: And in this whole chapter, they're all feminine.
John Meade: Isn't that interesting?
John Meade: They're all feminine.
John Meade: They're all addressing a woman.
John Meade: And so here in these texts or in these verses, Yahweh is addressing Israel as his wife.
John Meade: Yahweh is Israel's maker, husband, and redeemer, according to verse 5.
John Meade: These terms in these verses make clear that Isaiah is recalling Israel's relationship with Yahweh, which began, right, when Yahweh brought Israel out of Egypt as their redeemer, right?
John Meade: By great signs and wonders.
John Meade: He brings them out of Egypt.
John Meade: And then he brings them through the wilderness and enters into a covenant with them at Mount Sinai, according to Exodus 19 and 20.
John Meade: Awesome.
John Meade: Why is that lost on us?
John Meade: What the text calls signs and wonders, these plagues that we often call them, right?
John Meade: The signs and wonders of God on full display, bringing out his bride from Egypt, from the bondage of Egypt, safely through the wilderness, right?
John Meade: Cared for with manna and quail and led by pillars of fire and smoke.
John Meade: And in Exodus 19, it's not that Yahweh brings him, brings Israel to the mountain.
John Meade: It's fascinating.
John Meade: We read closely.
John Meade: Israel is brought to himself.
John Meade: I brought you to myself.
John Meade: As a husband takes and extends the hand to his bride.
John Meade: Do you see that?
John Meade: It is a marriage ceremony at Mount Sinai in Exodus 19.
John Meade: Indeed, a marriage metaphor, then, in these verses in Isaiah, is entirely appropriate, since Yahweh entered into a covenant relationship with Israel at that time.
John Meade: The woman in verses four and six is widowed and forsaken.
John Meade: The imagery conjures up a woman in the ancient world who would be filled with shame and would be uncared for in the state of widowhood.
John Meade: She would be pushed to the margins of society.
John Meade: One proverb from ancient Sumer puts it this way: poverty is the widow's lot.
John Meade: Do you see that?
John Meade: This person in this state is automatically assigned to poverty.
John Meade: The state of abandonment describes Israel in exile here.
John Meade: According to verse 6, Yahweh called Israel as a forsaken woman and grieved of spirit, and as a woman of youth when spurned.
John Meade: She was impoverished, dejected, and rejected by Yahweh when she went into exile.
John Meade: It's impossible for us to imagine this, frankly.
John Meade: We can try.
John Meade: I think we have lim I think we have small, maybe micro examples in our own lives.
John Meade: But it's impossible for us to imagine that the God who delivered us out of Egypt, brought us to Mount Sinai, also disciplined us in exile in Babylon.
John Meade: And the reason why that's impossible for us to imagine is because of this next section on the New Covenant.
John Meade: Because the New Covenant doesn't work this way, as we'll see here in a moment.
John Meade: So verses seven to eight, all I want to all I want to highlight here is that the exile is being explained.
John Meade: Note the glorious contrasts in verses seven and eight.
John Meade: In verse seven, the forsaking of Yahweh is but for a little while.
John Meade: But the compassions with which Yahweh will gather Israel will be great.
John Meade: The opening of verse eight, the streaming or flowing anger of Yahweh as he judges and punishes his people in exile for their idolatry, for their sin, still contains a contrast.
John Meade: For a little while, the text says, Yahweh hid his face from Israel, but with eternal steadfast love, he will have compassion on them.
John Meade: Live in the contrast today, right?
John Meade: Let's live in the contrasts.
John Meade: We may experience for a little while the discipline of the Lord, right?
John Meade: But he only disciplines those children whom he loves.
John Meade: But for a little while, for his eternal steadfast love, will have compassion on us.
John Meade: The separation here, even with old Israel, is only for a little while, while compared to the eternity of the steadfast love or covenant love with which they will experience when Yahweh brings them back from exile.
John Meade: How can Isaiah be so certain?
John Meade: How can Isaiah know these things?
John Meade: How is he to communicate this permanence, the eternity of this covenant love in the life of God?
John Meade: What could he possibly point to?
John Meade: Well, maybe unexpected, but he has another covenant by which to compare this constancy of the new covenant in verses 9 and 10.
John Meade: He talks about the covenant that God made with Noah and creation.
John Meade: That's just not maybe, it's not predictable in some ways, is it?
John Meade: Because we forget, we forget the Bible, don't we?
John Meade: We forget key moments in the Bible's uh narrative.
John Meade: But verse 9 says, This is like the days of Noah to me.
John Meade: Just as Yahweh judged the world in the form of a flood, and then promised not to do so again, so Yahweh judged Israel in exile and has sworn not to be angry with her again.
John Meade: In verse 10, he appeals to creation, right?
John Meade: The cosmic pillars, the mountains, may withdraw, and the hills may totter.
John Meade: But Yahweh's loyal covenant love will not be withdrawn from her, and his covenant of peace will not be shaken.
John Meade: That is, total chaos and upheaval may occur, but the new covenant relationship between Yahweh and his people will be completely stable.
John Meade: This relationship, this covenant is described by the Hebrew word shalom or peace.
John Meade: All will be set right.
John Meade: Everything will be made right.
John Meade: These three women in distress will all be lifted from their low estate to a better estate.
John Meade: Does that make sense?
John Meade: This is our God.
John Meade: This is the gospel of Isaiah.
John Meade: In order to appreciate this covenant of peace and its comparison with the Noahic covenant, I think it's helpful again to reflect on the history of human rulers.
John Meade: How many times have rulers or governments made promises that they have not kept?
John Meade: I mean, from day to day, week to week, year to year.
John Meade: They can't keep their word for very long.
John Meade: And yet it's absolutely amazing that Yahweh promised not to destroy the earth again with a flood thousands and thousands of years ago.
John Meade: And his commitment to this promise has not wavered or totered.
John Meade: The promises of the new covenant, you see, work similarly.
John Meade: Yahweh has committed to being with his people forever.
John Meade: And in Christ Jesus, this promise is fulfilled and is being fulfilled.
John Meade: Before ascending into heaven, right?
John Meade: Christ promised his disciples that he would be with them until the end of the age.
John Meade: As God is faithful to his word, you see, let us be faithful and truthful in all of our dealings with one another.
John Meade: Let us be faithful in the home, in the church, and in the workplace.
John Meade: Let us imitate our God, who has kept his promises to Noah for thousands of years, by just doing what Jesus instructs.
John Meade: Letting our yes be yes and our no be no.
John Meade: Right?
John Meade: Anything beyond that is from the evil one, he says, right?
John Meade: But man, just to get to that point, to speak truth to one another.
John Meade: This brings us to the final point from this text.
John Meade: Zion is rebuilt and safe, according to verses 11 and 17.
John Meade: Now, again, things are getting a bit more obscure here.
John Meade: There's not an obvious woman in this text, is there?
John Meade: Like there were in this section, like there was in verses 1 to 3 and verses 4 to 10.
John Meade: But again, we have these feminine pronouns in Hebrew used all the way through.
John Meade: All the you's, all the yours are about Zion.
John Meade: The CSB I noticed puts the word Jerusalem right there in the text.
John Meade: Poor Jerusalem, storm tossed and not comforted.
John Meade: I will set your stones in black mortar and lay your foundations in Lapis Lazuli.
John Meade: This text is about a wretched and poor woman who is now the destroyed city of Zion.
John Meade: By the way, cities is feminine.
John Meade: This is not, uh this should not surprise us too much.
John Meade: Uh, we like to speak of America, the beautiful, yes, and how many feminine pronouns are in our patriotic songs about this country.
John Meade: The ancient Romans referred to the capital city as Mother Rome.
John Meade: Okay.
John Meade: And if you read Psalm 87, Zion is presented as the mother in which the nations are born.
John Meade: Zion was the place where God had established his name and where the temple was built.
John Meade: It was where David set up the capital of God's kingdom.
John Meade: Indeed, Psalm 48, verse 8 sings of Zion as the city of our God, which God will establish forever.
John Meade: Now, some of you are like, but wait, this text is talking about Zion as storm-tossed and not comforted.
John Meade: How does that work with Psalm 48?
John Meade: How does that work?
John Meade: Well, not as straightforwardly as we tend to think, but it does work in God's grand plan of redemption.
John Meade: In our passage this morning, the focus is not on the physical city.
John Meade: In other passages in Isaiah, the focus is also not on the place or the bricks and mortar, but the city's citizens.
John Meade: Okay, I want to say that again.
John Meade: In our passage, the focus here is not on the place or the bricks and mortar, but the city's citizens.
John Meade: For example, if you have your Bible, turn back to Isaiah chapter 1, verses 26, 21 to 26.
John Meade: In this passage, we're told Zion, the faithful city, had become a harlot.
John Meade: Originally, Isaiah says, Zion was filled with justice and righteousness lodged in her.
John Meade: But now murderers.
John Meade: Only after punishment and exile consumes Zion's dross, Isaiah says, will she be called, quote, the city of righteousness, the faithful city once again.
John Meade: There's a in that short section there, there's a crazy reversal, isn't there?
John Meade: He is describing her in all of her wretchedness and filth in Isaiah 1, 21 to 23, but by the end she will be called the faithful city and the city of righteousness again.
John Meade: These are not, of course, descriptions of the bricks and the mortar and the and the buildings.
John Meade: I know we're in New York City here.
John Meade: We tend to reduce, right, a city to its skyline and these kinds of things, but that's not what Isaiah cares about.
John Meade: Isaiah cares about the characterizations of the people of the city, the citizens that inhabit her, so to speak.
John Meade: So in verses 11 to 12, Isaiah describes the rebuilding of the city.
John Meade: Surely it will be the most beautiful city ever seen.
John Meade: All of the precious stones used for the building materials point to the costliness, preciousness, and permanence of the city.
John Meade: I'm gonna have to skip over all the gemstones and things that he mentions, but man, glorious, glorious description.
John Meade: But at the end of verse 12, all of Zion's surrounding wall will be set as stones of delight or precious stones.
John Meade: Clearly, the city will be beautiful.
John Meade: But what makes the city beautiful, right?
John Meade: That's that's what I'm kind of kind of wanting to draw you into here.
John Meade: What makes this city beautiful?
John Meade: What makes it stand out?
John Meade: Uh the end of verse 11 uh or 12 captures this really well when it talks about, yeah, I will make your fortifications uh out of rubies.
John Meade: And the fortifications there are literally suns, according to the footnote in the CSB.
John Meade: These are suns or shields that reflect the sun.
John Meade: They're so bright, okay, that they were that that Isaiah calls them little suns on the on the walls.
John Meade: So they're reflecting this grand beauty and light of the sun.
John Meade: What draws, what or what, what then creates the beauty of this city?
John Meade: What is what is in it that that causes this effulgence of light to come out?
John Meade: Again, if it were a physical city like the one we are in right now, right, we might say it's the skyline or some such.
John Meade: But in perhaps a surprising twist in Isaiah 54, I think Isaiah interprets the metaphor of the precious stones in verses 13 and 14.
John Meade: And he tells us the beauty of the new city is found in its newly created and formed citizens.
John Meade: Look with me again at verse 13.
John Meade: Then all your children will be taught by Yahweh that their prosperity or their shalom, their peace, will be great, and you will be established on a foundation of righteousness.
John Meade: That's what's going to make this city beautiful.
John Meade: But what does it mean?
John Meade: What does it mean?
John Meade: It's not the actual precious stones that will make the city beautiful, for the beautiful stones actually symbolize the citizens themselves here.
John Meade: According to Isaiah, God will keep his covenants with Abraham and Israel by creating and forming a new people, the city of truth, the faithful city.
John Meade: And eventually that city, those citizens, will inhabit a new place, according to Isaiah.
John Meade: Right?
John Meade: Read all the way to the end of the book, 65 and 66, is about a new heavens and a new earth, that only God's people, his servants, will inhabit.
John Meade: God is creating the people now for the place later.
John Meade: That is what is happening here.
John Meade: The city of truth.
John Meade: In fact, 1 Peter 2, verses 4 and 5 picks up on the same theme, doesn't it?
John Meade: When Peter calls the members of Christ's church who are believers, living stones, and he calls Christ Jesus the living stone.
John Meade: God's people are God's building materials for his great city of truth.
John Meade: Now, at first, maybe the idea of God teaching people is lost on us.
John Meade: What would it mean for Yahweh to teach people?
John Meade: Have you thought about that?
John Meade: It's kind of interesting.
John Meade: Then we remember, though, that the one servant, the suffering servant himself, in Isaiah chapter 50, verse 4, he was said to be like the ones whom God taught.
John Meade: That is, he was perfectly formed and prepared to do the will of God, even to suffer and die for his people, as Isaiah 53 eventually predicts.
John Meade: That is taught, isn't it?
John Meade: To know how to sustain the weary with a word.
John Meade: He awakens me each morning, he awakens my ear to listen like those being instructed.
John Meade: That is, he's being prepared.
John Meade: Do you see this?
John Meade: And then prepared for what?
John Meade: Well, look at verse 5.
John Meade: The Lord God has o has opened my ear, and I was not rebellious, right?
John Meade: He's willing, he's ready to do the will of God.
John Meade: I was not rebellious, I did not turn back.
John Meade: Man, verse 6 describes some s some trouble, though.
John Meade: I gave my back to those who beat me, and my cheeks to those who tore out my beard, and I did not hide my face from scorn and spitting.
John Meade: The Lord God will help me.
John Meade: Therefore I have not been humiliated, therefore I have set my face like flint, and I know I will not be put to shame.
John Meade: The one who vindicates me is near, who will contend with me.
John Meade: Man, that's a glorious passage in its own right.
John Meade: But what's the point of being taught by God?
John Meade: You are pre you are formed and prepared to follow God's will, even into great suffering and persecution.
John Meade: Do you follow that?
John Meade: Yeah, that's something we need to wrestle with here even as we continue.
John Meade: Because now we're not talking about the suffering servant in 5413.
John Meade: We're talking about God's citizens of God's city being taught by him, which means that we are being perfectly formed and prepared to do his will also, even to suffer and die.
John Meade: Whatever the Lord has for us.
John Meade: Now, one thing I want to say, this is the only this is only the beginning, being taught by the Lord.
John Meade: Look at Isaiah 54, 17.
John Meade: Uh, that's actually on the other page there, yeah.
John Meade: 652.
John Meade: In Isaiah 54, 17, the ones Yahweh teaches are explicitly called the servants of Yahweh.
John Meade: And this is a title of honor.
John Meade: In verse 17, the city is the final resting place and inheritance for the servants of Yahweh who suffered because of their faithfulness to Yahweh.
John Meade: These servants are linked to the suffering servant of Isaiah 53.
John Meade: As the servant was taught by the Lord, right, as we just read in Isaiah 50, verse 4, so are his servants taught by the Lord, right, in Isaiah 54, 13.
John Meade: As the one servant suffered afflictions, Isaiah 53, verse 4, so did they in Isaiah 54, 11.
John Meade: Do you see this pattern?
John Meade: Right?
John Meade: Something about the student not being greater than his master.
John Meade: Yes.
John Meade: What he underwent, we will undergo.
John Meade: Okay?
John Meade: As he suffered afflictions, so did they.
John Meade: But as the servant will be vindicated in Isaiah 50, verse 8, and also 53.11, so will the servants be vindicated, right?
John Meade: In 54, 17, and their vindication is from me.
John Meade: You see, indeed, the many who are formed and taught by Yahweh are called servants of Yahweh, because they follow in the footsteps of the one servant.
John Meade: Their heart emulates his heart.
John Meade: They suffer as he suffered, and they will also share in his glory, as indeed he has already entered his glory.
John Meade: In other words, the citizens of the new city of truth will resemble the servant of Yahweh Himself, both inwardly and outwardly.
John Meade: The new city of truth's beauty is derivative at the end of the day.
John Meade: The beauty comes as they are as the servants imitate the servant.
John Meade: And more and more as the servants imitate the servant, the more beautiful that city will be.
John Meade: But Isaiah does not even stop there.
John Meade: Isaiah was a masterful communicator who really knew how to keep his audience on the hook.
John Meade: He does not give his audience everything at one time.
John Meade: Man, I'd love it if he did.
John Meade: That would make my job a whole lot easier.
John Meade: But he did not communicate everything at one time, but rather he proclaims these single truths over several contexts.
John Meade: Isaiah has revealed that the new covenant community will be servants who emulate the suffering servant.
John Meade: But he has not yet answered the question about who the people are.
John Meade: But since Abraham, right, was kind of alluded to in chapter 54, verse 2, Isaiah subtly reveals that this people will be an international people, doesn't he?
John Meade: And he gets to that point in Isaiah 56, 6 and 7, which say this.
John Meade: As for the foreigners, that's you and me.
John Meade: That's you and me.
John Meade: As for the foreigners who join themselves to the Lord to minister to him, to love the name of Yahweh, and to become his servants.
John Meade: There's that word again, servants.
John Meade: All who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and who hold firmly to my covenant, I will bring them to my holy mountain and let them rejoice in my house of prayer.
John Meade: Their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be acceptable on my altar.
John Meade: For my prayer will be for my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations.
John Meade: Note that these servants now are said to minister to Yahweh.
John Meade: This is priestly language in the Old Testament.
John Meade: And they are also called to be his servants.
John Meade: That is, not just Israel or the new Israel, but foreigners now are also citizens of this new city.
John Meade: Do you follow me?
John Meade: Citizens of this city of truth.
John Meade: The servants of Yahweh will be both Jew and Gentile.
John Meade: All the peoples will come to Yahweh's house of prayer.
John Meade: When it says that they'll offer their sacrifices and they'll be acceptable, that means they are bona fide, legitimate, genuine members of the city of truth.
John Meade: Foreigners in the Old Testament weren't even allowed in the temple.
John Meade: Isaiah is saying not only are they going to come into the temple, they're going to offer acceptable sacrifices, just like every bona fide member of Israel.
John Meade: Do you follow me?
John Meade: Okay, that is glorious.
John Meade: That is the gospel according to Isaiah.
John Meade: Now, the language of taught by God, I want to be maybe quick here, though this is going to be hard for me to resist.
John Meade: But Jesus quotes this exact verse in Isaiah 54, 13.
John Meade: He quotes it in John 6, 44 and 45.
John Meade: He says that no one, Jesus talking, no one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up on the last day.
John Meade: It is written in the prophets, and they will all be taught by God.
John Meade: Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.
John Meade: You see, clearly, Jesus believes that the new covenant is here and now.
John Meade: All who come to Jesus through what we sometimes or maybe normally refer to as regeneration have been taught by God.
John Meade: Once, right, we were ill-formed, sinners with hearts hostile to God's ways.
John Meade: But one day, God's Spirit enlivened our hearts to love Him and to love one another.
John Meade: This is called being taught in the Bible.
John Meade: God formed you, he taught you from the inside out to be his servants.
John Meade: So prominent was this idea that when Paul addresses the Thessalonian church in 1 Thessalonians 4, 9, and 10, he actually creates a new word.
John Meade: He says, Now concerning brotherly love, you Thessalonian believers, have no need for anyone to right you.
John Meade: For you yourselves have been taught by God to love one another.
John Meade: For that indeed is what you are doing to all the brothers throughout Macedonia.
John Meade: But we urge you, brothers, to do this more and more.
John Meade: That is, make the beauty greater.
John Meade: Continue to make the beauty greater by loving each other as God in Christ has loved you and as you have been taught by God to do so.
John Meade: The New Testament teaches that the New Covenant, including its members taught by Yahweh, is here and now.
John Meade: Paul employs this crucial truth here about the new covenant while exhorting the Thessalonian church to love one another.
John Meade: He's just saying, be more of what you already are.
John Meade: Now that's a beautiful city, isn't it?
John Meade: But there's even more reasons to admire its beauty.
John Meade: Last point here, hopefully.
John Meade: In verse 14a, we see that you, again, that is, the city of Zion, will be established in righteousness.
John Meade: Again, the verb is feminine, indicating that the city, consisting of its citizens, will be established in righteousness.
John Meade: Isaiah's prophecies of judgment are directed towards the national and religious spheres in Israel.
John Meade: But there's no question that Isaiah directs many judgment oracles towards the social spheres of the nation.
John Meade: In chapter 1, 26, 21 to 26, which we looked at already, again, Isaiah describes how the faithful city became a harlot.
John Meade: Only after the judgment of God and the exile consumes Judah's dross will she be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city once again.
John Meade: In Isaiah 54, 14, the promise is that Zion will be established in righteousness.
John Meade: That is, the citizens will treat one another with justice and righteousness and covenant faithfulness.
John Meade: And this covenant love for one another will shine as brightly as a jeweled and sparkling city in the sunlight.
John Meade: It is not the bricks and mortar that are in view here, it is the citizens of the city of God who by their righteous and covenantally faithful deeds, they will shine in a ruined and dying world.
John Meade: And how attractive will that city be?
John Meade: Now, just in case some in here are not entirely persuaded that I should be applying this promise of the new Zion to us in Isaiah 54 to the church, I want us to look briefly at Ephesians 4.25 together.
John Meade: Just in case, Ephesians 4.25.
John Meade: We won't exposit all of this, but I don't think we need to.
John Meade: Because when Paul says in that verse, speak truth each with his neighbor, Paul is quoting from Zechariah 8.16.
John Meade: And all of Zechariah 8, that whole chapter, is about the new Zion and speaking truth, that is, living faithfully with each other, letting our yes be yes and our no no with each other is the chief virtue of the citizens of God's city of truth.
John Meade: And Paul is now conveying to the church at Ephesus that they are the city of truth, that Isaiah and Zachariah were anticipating.
John Meade: And of course, Isaiah and Zachariah's visions were dependent on grand promises to Abraham, that he would make him into a great nation or a great city.
John Meade: God had promised to build a city of truth, bring about a new creation, which would be characterized by faithfulness and covenant love.
John Meade: And Paul says that we are that city today.
John Meade: Do you follow?
John Meade: We are the city of truth because we are the citizens of the new Zion.
John Meade: This is an international city, not located in any one region or place.
John Meade: It's spreading across the entire world.
John Meade: Since we have been taught by Yahweh, our hearts have been transformed to worship Him and to love each other.
John Meade: We fail to treat one another with loyal covenant love.
John Meade: Yes.
John Meade: We're not always faithful in our speech and actions towards one another and towards others in our wider communities.
John Meade: Let us aim for greater authenticity and transparency within the new covenant relationship, which binds us to God and to one another.
John Meade: And of course, we'll still struggle to treat one another with the righteousness of God, which should characterize again all of our relationships.
John Meade: Sometimes, indeed, we do become abusive towards others with our speech and actions, instead of using our speech and actions, right, for the edification of the body.
John Meade: Without knowing it, oftentimes we oppress others when we should be working for their joy and liberty in Christ.
John Meade: As the living stones which are being built into the city of God, we must be conscientious about the righteousness which should characterize the people of the city.
John Meade: The church has the unique responsibility to demonstrate this righteousness to the rest of the world.
John Meade: And may we be that sparkling and dazzling sight that Isaiah envisions here.
John Meade: One last point from the rest of the chapter.
John Meade: We're not going to say much about it.
John Meade: Zion will be safe.
John Meade: I take that to mean no longer is Yahweh going to send us into exile.
John Meade: That's done.
John Meade: That's not going to happen.
John Meade: Any weapon formed or any hostile action against is not from him directly, though he has formed and created all, and all, and there will be some who will come against us for sure.
John Meade: But we're not to look at God as our direct primary agent of hostility ever again.
John Meade: Zion will be safe.
John Meade: That is, Zion will be free to live righteous lives.
John Meade: For the worst that can happen to us is what?
John Meade: Death.
John Meade: Death is the worst that can happen to us.
John Meade: You know why?
John Meade: Because we are safe with God.
John Meade: I take it that Paul in Romans 8 seems to actually be alluding to these verses.
John Meade: Who can bring any charge against God's elect?
John Meade: If God is for us, who can be against us?
John Meade: The city will be the final inheritance of the servants of Yahweh, and it will be their vindication and righteousness as well.
John Meade: So may we rest in the gospel and in God's righteousness procured for us by Christ Jesus on the cross and in his resurrection.
John Meade: And in light of that, may we seek to outshine each other in loyalty and in love and in righteousness as we relate to each other.
John Meade: May we outshine one another.
John Meade: May the city of truth shine brightly here in New York City and elsewhere.
John Meade: Shall I pray?
John Meade: Let me pray.
John Meade: Our Father and our God, we come before you as oftentimes these women depicted here in this chapter.
John Meade: We don't show up with perfect lives.
John Meade: We're oftentimes storm-tossed.
John Meade: We're oftentimes deserted by others.
John Meade: I just pray that this chapter, this text, would impress upon our minds and hearts that because of the new covenant, you are with us.
John Meade: You are for us.
John Meade: We are safe in your everlasting, steadfast love.
John Meade: And because we are safe, we are free to live righteous lives before you and with and before each other.
John Meade: Bless our efforts.
John Meade: May the city of truth grow here in New York City and elsewhere.
John Meade: In Christ's name.
John Meade: Amen.