SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Again, please take your Bible if you have one and open it to Isaiah, Isaiah chapter 60.
SPEAKER_01: And I can really encourage you this morning, if you don't have a Bible, to take the pew Bible that's there in the seat back in front of you and open it to page 619.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to be looking together this morning at the entirety of two chapters of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: And I promise I will get you out of here before lunch.
SPEAKER_01: But because we're looking at so much, to really be able to follow along, I think it will be helpful for you to have the text in front of your eyes as we look at it together.
SPEAKER_01: So I invite you again to take your Bible and make your way to Isaiah's Gospel, also known as Isaiah the Prophet, and make your way to Isaiah 60.
SPEAKER_01: We heard Isaiah's gospel voices in chapter 40, and we listened to the good news brought by the gospel feet in Isaiah 52.
SPEAKER_01: For the next few moments, I trust the good news will form us together to offer gospel praises to the Redeemer who has come.
SPEAKER_01: We spent our time together this December looking at the moments in Isaiah where we encounter the term that we know as gospel, the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: This morning we look at the third passage in which it's which it's found, and that's Isaiah chapter 60 verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: It says at the end of Isaiah 60, verse 6, they shall bring gold and frankincense and shall bring good news, the praises of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Now, at first glance, we might wonder if the use of this term gospel here is general or specific.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, is Isaiah referring to everyday good news that comes to all of us, just in the course of life?
SPEAKER_01: Good news about a bonus, good news about the health of a loved one, good news about a job, whatever it might be.
SPEAKER_01: Is it referring to general good news or is he referring here to the good news, the gospel of Jesus, our Redeemer?
SPEAKER_01: You see, when we read the Bible, we want to be careful not to make it say something that it's actually not saying.
SPEAKER_01: And just because a particular word was used in the translation of ancient Hebrew text doesn't require it to have an explicit meaning that we want to put into it.
SPEAKER_01: So we need to do a little investigation to see what is really going on here.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to help us think through this this morning by imagining a bullseye image.
SPEAKER_01: You can all imagine a bullseye, right?
SPEAKER_01: You have a dot in the middle and concentric circles around that dot.
SPEAKER_01: As we move outward from the center of that kind of image, we will encounter other lines that tell us about this good news.
SPEAKER_01: So we want to understand that our bullseye this morning is that gospel, that good news in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: And we're going to start there and work our way out to see if we can come to an understanding of what Isaiah means when he refers to this good news being given through Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So the bullseye is the last half of verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: The outermost circle that we're going to look at encloses all of chapter 59 and 60.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very large parameter.
SPEAKER_01: But let's begin this morning by looking at the bullseye, which is all about bringing praise.
SPEAKER_01: They shall bring gold and frankincense, they shall bring good news, the praises of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: Now there are some minor variations among the translations we have present this morning, but all of them will in one way or another define the good news here as the praises of Yahweh, the praises of the Lord, the praises of God.
SPEAKER_01: Now it might seem a little strange to consider praises that are given to someone else as good news.
SPEAKER_01: Good news for me.
SPEAKER_01: But if you think about it a little bit, I think it makes sense.
SPEAKER_01: We might positively praise other people.
SPEAKER_01: For example, we might praise our children or our grandchildren for their obedience or maybe for the improvement of a skill that they've been working on.
SPEAKER_01: We might praise them for fulfilling a task efficiently or in some kind of spectacular way.
SPEAKER_01: We might praise someone else for their character or maybe for their appearance.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes our praises of other people don't mean anything to anyone but me and the person to whom I'm giving praise.
SPEAKER_01: I know of someone who loves to collect rifles and take them to the shooting range and target shoot.
SPEAKER_01: So if I praise that person for his marksmanship, that won't mean anything to you.
SPEAKER_01: But if I praise one of our church staff, on the other hand, for something that is done very well, that might be good news for you.
SPEAKER_01: Now take that a step further.
SPEAKER_01: And consider giving praise to the one who gives you life.
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm not speaking about your mother.
SPEAKER_01: I'm speaking about the God who gives life.
SPEAKER_01: Let's say that I praise God for something that he has done.
SPEAKER_01: Or let's say on looking, thinking about it differently, that I praise God for something that He is, His character, His His kindness, His graciousness, His love to His people, His provision to His people.
SPEAKER_01: When we give praise to God, we think about who He is and what He's done.
SPEAKER_01: And because of who He is, those kinds of praises naturally mean good news to everyone of His children.
SPEAKER_01: If I give praise to God for His grace and His mercy, because He is always gracious and always merciful, that means it's good news for you.
SPEAKER_01: If I give praise to God for His power in all of creation, that's good news for His children.
SPEAKER_01: Doesn't matter who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Because of who God is, any praise given to Him is by its very nature good news for His children.
SPEAKER_01: Because He does not change but is the same yesterday, today, and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Any praise given to Him is good news, is gospel for His children.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, that's why we we read Scripture together on Sunday mornings?
SPEAKER_01: That's why we we pray together.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we sing together.
SPEAKER_01: It's the reason, in fact, for all of the one another's that we find in the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: When we praise God in those kinds of ways, God's good news is communicated to all of us.
SPEAKER_01: That's the bullseye.
SPEAKER_01: The good news is praise given to God.
SPEAKER_01: We are highlighting some positive character, some positive action of God, and we are communicating it in a positive, praiseworthy kind of way.
SPEAKER_01: Now, Isaiah, Isaiah was written about 2,600 years ago to a particular people in a specific time and a specific place.
SPEAKER_01: So that helps explain some of the names and locations that we see in the circle just out from the bullseye.
SPEAKER_01: Let's call this ring praising people.
SPEAKER_01: The praising people.
SPEAKER_01: Notice what he says in verse 6: a multitude of camels shall cover you, the young camels of Midian and Epha and all those from Sheba shall come.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, we have flocks of Kedar, the rams of Nabiot.
SPEAKER_01: We go on and we keep reading about the ships of Tarshish in verse 9, same place that Jonah wanted to flee to, right?
SPEAKER_01: We have the glory of Lebanon in verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 12, there's nations and kingdoms.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as we think about those, Sheba was the, what was it, was a realm to the south of Israel, to the south of Palestine, toward Arabia and Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: It would have reminded Isaiah's people of the queen of Sheba, who came with great wealth to visit Solomon.
SPEAKER_01: She heard about the wisdom that God had given him, and she came to visit him and to give him rich gifts.
SPEAKER_01: Midian and Epha were descendants of Abraham through Ishmael, but they were often enemies of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Along with Kedar and Nabioth, these peoples and locations could also be prominent trade partners.
SPEAKER_01: Tarshish was known as a distant location of wealth and trade.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, we see in verse 10 that these people are called foreigners from Isaiah's vantage point.
SPEAKER_01: Foreigners shall build up your walls, their kings shall minister to you.
SPEAKER_01: These people were foreigners from close neighbors, we might say right across the border, to peoples in faraway lands.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 3 and verse 12 refer to them as other nations and other peoples and other kingdoms.
SPEAKER_01: And it's a fantastic picture that is painted for us that foretells a time when non-Jewish peoples will come to give praise to Israel's God.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, he says they're going to bring the wealth that they possess to Jerusalem to bring beauty to Jerusalem, the city itself and God's temple.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh will be known to them, and they will desire to come, bringing their wealth with them to share in the good news of God's praises.
SPEAKER_01: This imagery is all directed to God, who's in Jerusalem and in Zion, the holy city, and it points to a significant change of events.
SPEAKER_01: Look at chapter 60, verse 12.
SPEAKER_01: For the nation and kingdom that will not serve you will perish.
SPEAKER_01: Those nations shall be utterly laid waste.
SPEAKER_01: But the glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plain, and the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary, and I will make the place of my feet glorious.
SPEAKER_01: The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despised you shall bow down at your feet.
SPEAKER_01: They shall call you the city of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Enemies and foreigners are now coming to Israel and bowing down to worship God and to give Him praise.
SPEAKER_01: That is good news.
SPEAKER_01: How interesting is it that we read in verse 6 that part of this gospel of good news is bringing gold and frankincense and bowing down at the feet of God in verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: This is bringing good news, the praises of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: So there's a change that's taking place.
SPEAKER_01: God anticipates that his own people are going to give him praise.
SPEAKER_01: But he also anticipates that there's going to be something drastic that happens.
SPEAKER_01: Israel's neighbors, Israel's enemies, even to the far reaches of the world, are going to make their way to come and worship God, to give him praise.
SPEAKER_01: And that is good news.
SPEAKER_01: Well, that makes us wonder about the reason for that change of events.
SPEAKER_01: What would make enemies and foreigners into fellow worshippers who give praise to God?
SPEAKER_01: Well, that's the next circle out, and that is identifying for us the hope that comes from a certain kind of light.
SPEAKER_01: The hope of light.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 9 makes an interesting claim.
SPEAKER_01: The ships of Tarshish first, to bring your children from afar, their silver and gold with them, for the name of Yahweh your God and for the Holy One of Israel, because he has made you beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: Notice that coastlands, that's that's a way of saying, all of the peoples that live all along the coast, probably speaking first of the Mediterranean Sea, he says, think about the coastlands, as far as you can go, they are going to find their hope in me.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of Yahweh your God and the Holy One of Israel, because he's made you beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: God said in verse 7 that he would beautify his beautiful house.
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: By using foreigners, bringing their treasures and resources to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Now, whatever that might imply, it tells us that foreigners will find Jerusalem and her God as beautiful and full of hope for them.
SPEAKER_01: Now that requires that they understand they can't find hope in themselves.
SPEAKER_01: It requires that they understand they can't find hope in their own countries and their own peoples.
SPEAKER_01: But somehow they find their hope in the God who makes his home in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And all of that takes place because of what God will do.
SPEAKER_01: What will God do?
SPEAKER_01: Look back at verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: Arise, shine, for your light is come.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of Yahweh has risen upon you, for behold, darkness shall cover the earth, thick darkness the peoples.
SPEAKER_01: But Yahweh will arise upon you, and his glory will be seen upon you, and nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your rising.
SPEAKER_01: Now, do you see the your in those verses?
SPEAKER_01: Your light, your rising, and then all the you's that are there.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah is writing here about Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Even more, he's writing to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: He's describing a point that is in the future for them.
SPEAKER_01: Disaster is on their doorstep.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah is looking beyond that disaster and saying, there's going to come a time when darkness is going to be turned to light.
SPEAKER_01: But something would change, something would occur that would transform Israel into a nation and a people and a place that somehow would provide hope for nearby perennial enemies and faraway countries.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah describes this kind of transformation like a magnet, that Israel would be a hope-filled draw that draws in people from all over the world.
SPEAKER_01: But that hope wasn't found in Israel herself.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, he says, nations shall come to your light and kings to the brightness of your rising.
SPEAKER_01: There will be a light in the dark, a hope-filled dawning in Israel.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not because they have that light and that hope in themselves personally, naturally, inherently.
SPEAKER_01: And if you know, if you know the biblical storyline, you can pick up on some of the echoes that are found in the rest of Scripture, like Israel still enslaved in Egypt and God bringing darkness, a darkness that could be felt upon all the land of Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: But in Israel, there was light.
SPEAKER_01: Where Israel was, there was light.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe even better, you might pick up on the echoes of Genesis and the creation account, where the whole world is described as being in darkness and in chaos and this weird kind of unformed place, and all of a sudden God speaks and says, Let there be light, and boom, there's light scattering the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: An explosion of light.
SPEAKER_01: And so we see this circle around the bullseye drawing us to the command to arise and shine because your light has come.
SPEAKER_01: The glory of Yahweh has risen upon you.
SPEAKER_01: The light of hope does not come from within Israel, it comes upon Israel from God.
SPEAKER_01: Similarly, my friends, you don't have this light within you.
SPEAKER_01: Because within you is darkness.
SPEAKER_01: The light of Christ has to come upon you.
SPEAKER_01: If the light of Christ shines within you, it is not because you are light, but because the light of Christ has risen within you.
SPEAKER_01: On our image of a target, the bullseye is the good news of praise of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: And that praise is driven by a worldwide hope, a spreading light, a hope that dawns with the glory of God giving light to a dark world.
SPEAKER_01: But that dark world contained nothing hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: That's why there is a third ring where we see God's promise to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: As we look forward to chapter 60, verse 13, we see God's promise to act.
SPEAKER_01: He says, The glory of Lebanon shall come to you, the cypress, the plain, the pine, to beautify the place of my sanctuary.
SPEAKER_01: Now look what God's going to do.
SPEAKER_01: There are several I wills five times in these verses.
SPEAKER_01: I will make the place of my feet glorious.
SPEAKER_01: The sons of those who afflicted you shall come bending low to you, and all who despise you shall bow down at your feet.
SPEAKER_01: They shall call you the city of Yahweh, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Whereas you have been forsaken and hated, with no one passing through, I will make you a majestic place forever, a joy from age to age.
SPEAKER_01: You shall suck the milk of nations, nurse at the breasts of kings, and you shall know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior and your Redeemer, the mighty one of Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of bronze I will bring gold.
SPEAKER_01: Instead of iron I will bring silver, instead of wood, bronze, instead of stones, iron.
SPEAKER_01: I will make your overseers peace and your taskmasters righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders, and you shall call your walls salvation and your gates praise.
SPEAKER_01: That sounds like good news.
SPEAKER_01: Sounds like good news, and it's all because of God's promise.
SPEAKER_01: He says over and over again, I will do this, I will do this, I will do this five times.
SPEAKER_01: And God makes specific here promises to bring Israel out of the darkness and make her a place of hope and light in the midst of a dark world.
SPEAKER_01: We see something similar on the other side.
SPEAKER_01: Of the bullseye, but in a in a much different tone.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah wrote of Yahweh's looking looking on the earth in the time of Isaiah and seeing only darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So you can imagine this from the creator's perspective, the creator who spoke light into existence, dispelling the darkness, and now he looks on and he expresses it as though he's only seeing darkness.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: Look back at chapter 59, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 59, verse 16, God saw that there was there was no person, no human being.
SPEAKER_01: He wondered that there was no one to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: The world in darkness lay, unable to lift itself, to rouse even the light of day.
SPEAKER_01: Enslaved to sin, it could its master alone obey, that prince of darkness, whom only true light could slay.
SPEAKER_01: And so God, looking on this situation, took up the armor of a warrior.
SPEAKER_01: It says his own arm brought him salvation, and his righteousness upheld him.
SPEAKER_01: He put on righteousness like a breastplate, a helmet of salvation on his head.
SPEAKER_01: He put on garments of vengeance for clothing and wrapped himself in zeal as a cloak.
SPEAKER_01: Here is God as the divine warrior saying, Where is the intercessor?
SPEAKER_01: There's no one to dispel the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So God says, I will do it.
SPEAKER_01: I will dispel the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: So in verse 19, coming like a rushing, flooding stream, a torrent driven by divine might.
SPEAKER_01: He says, a redeemer will come to Zion to those in Jacob who turn from transgression, declares Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: The intercession of God would be like the brilliant dawning of the sun, dispelling the darkness in Israel, spreading like the light of a new day, until the hope of that light inspires the world to give praise.
SPEAKER_01: God promised to come.
SPEAKER_01: A Redeemer would come so that those who'd look to that light in repentance and humility would be moved to arise and shine in that light, declaring the praises of Yahweh, the Redeemer who has come.
SPEAKER_01: But there's one more thing that we have to look at.
SPEAKER_01: It's linked to that statement in verse 16 of chapter 59, where there was no human being to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: Why was intercession necessary?
SPEAKER_01: Why was the world in darkness?
SPEAKER_01: On Christmas Eve, we're going to look at the hope that is found in Isaiah chapter 9, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: But before that hope is given, the beginning of chapter 9, and even at the end of chapter 8, Isaiah painted a dire picture.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah looked out and saw a hopeless land that was void of the word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he wrote, They will look to the earth, but behold distress and darkness and the gloom of anguish, and they will be thrust out into utter darkness.
SPEAKER_01: He spoke of people dwelling in a deep darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Why does Isaiah speak of this?
SPEAKER_01: So that leads us to our fourth ring.
SPEAKER_01: The world.
SPEAKER_01: And sin and error, pining.
SPEAKER_01: Go back to the beginning of chapter 59.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 59 begins with a reminder of God's vastness.
SPEAKER_01: If you think you understand God, stop right there because you don't.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, Yahweh's hand is not shortened that it cannot save, or his ear dull that it cannot hear.
SPEAKER_01: If your world feels entirely enveloped in darkness, your world of God, your view of God is too small.
SPEAKER_01: If your view of life feels so crushing and overwhelming and full of despair that you can't see light, then your understanding of God is too small.
SPEAKER_01: But why is it that we look and we see darkness everywhere, darkness everywhere, oppressive felt darkness?
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that John tells us in the New Testament, God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.
SPEAKER_01: So if there is darkness between you and the light, then that means there is a separation of some kind.
SPEAKER_01: God's hand is not shortened so that he cannot save.
SPEAKER_01: He does not need a hearing aid to hear his people's cries.
SPEAKER_01: God has a very clear and objective understanding of the state of his creation.
SPEAKER_01: This ring is important because without it, we don't see the beauty, the glory of the good news of the praises of Yahweh at the center.
SPEAKER_01: When the words of the song, the Christmas hymn that we sing describe the world pining away in sin and error, when those were translated into English, they accurately represented Isaiah's description of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: This reality even describes the world as a whole.
SPEAKER_01: So let your eyes and heart take in what Isaiah says.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 2.
SPEAKER_01: But your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.
SPEAKER_01: And your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.
SPEAKER_01: Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Your lips have spoken lies.
SPEAKER_01: Your tongue mutters wickedness.
SPEAKER_01: No one enters into suits righteously.
SPEAKER_01: No one goes to law honestly.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone relies on empty pleas.
SPEAKER_01: They speak lies, they conceive mischief, and give birth to iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: They give birth to snake's eggs.
SPEAKER_01: Adder's eggs.
SPEAKER_01: They weave the spider's web.
SPEAKER_01: He who eats their eggs dies, and from one that is crushed a viper is hatched.
SPEAKER_01: Their webs will not serve as clothing.
SPEAKER_01: Men will not cover themselves with what they make.
SPEAKER_01: Their works are works of iniquity, and deeds of violence are in their hands.
SPEAKER_01: Their feet run to evil.
SPEAKER_01: They are swift to shed innocent blood.
SPEAKER_01: Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity.
SPEAKER_01: Desolation and destruction are in their highways.
SPEAKER_01: The way of peace they do not know.
SPEAKER_01: There is no justice in their paths.
SPEAKER_01: They've made their roads crooked.
SPEAKER_01: No one who treads on them knows peace.
SPEAKER_01: Because of this, justice is far from us.
SPEAKER_01: Righteousness does not overtake us.
SPEAKER_01: We hope for light.
SPEAKER_01: And behold, darkness.
SPEAKER_01: We hope for brightness.
SPEAKER_01: But we walk in gloom.
SPEAKER_01: We grope for the wall like a blind person.
SPEAKER_01: We grope like those who have no eyes.
SPEAKER_01: We stumble at noon in full light as if it was twilight.
SPEAKER_01: Among those in full vigor, we are like dead men.
SPEAKER_01: We all growl like bears, we moan like doves, we hope for justice.
SPEAKER_01: There is none.
SPEAKER_01: We hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_01: It's far from us.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For our transgressions are multiplied before you.
SPEAKER_01: And our sins testify against us.
SPEAKER_01: For our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities.
SPEAKER_01: Transgressing, denying Yahweh, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah knows of what he writes.
SPEAKER_01: Remember in chapter six when he had the vision of the Lord high and lifted up.
SPEAKER_01: Holy, holy, holy, claimed the angels.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah said, Woe is me.
SPEAKER_01: I'm undone, I'm falling apart, I'm coming apart.
SPEAKER_01: The molecules in my body are disintegrating.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the king.
SPEAKER_01: Justice is turned back.
SPEAKER_01: Righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.
SPEAKER_01: Truth is lacking.
SPEAKER_01: She's gone, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.
SPEAKER_01: Yahweh saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.
SPEAKER_01: This depravity is what God sees in his creation, and it's what prompts him to say there is no one to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: No one.
SPEAKER_01: Or have seen in videos since September eleventh, two thousand one.
SPEAKER_01: When the World Trade Centers collapsed.
SPEAKER_01: We watched as first responders scurried to the scene.
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have images of the fire trucks racing across the bridge.
SPEAKER_01: Rushing to rescue people.
SPEAKER_01: Such a disaster.
SPEAKER_01: Such a doomed situation.
SPEAKER_01: And no one responding.
SPEAKER_01: No one reacting.
SPEAKER_01: No one seeking to save.
SPEAKER_01: That is what God saw.
SPEAKER_01: No one to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: Darkness and doom.
SPEAKER_01: Sin and error, and no one to intercede.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, this is about national Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah the prophet condemned a nation refusing to listen to God, condemning them for wallowing in their sin.
SPEAKER_01: It's written to them to give hope of God's intercession, to give them the hope of wrongs being righted, of bringing light and hope to them through God's redemption.
SPEAKER_01: But we've already seen that it's not just about ethnic Israel, haven't we?
SPEAKER_01: Israel's Redeemer comes to her.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I will intercede, I will step in like the warrior, I will redeem, I will come like a rushing river as a warrior to redeem my people.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to be light to my people's darkness.
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to give them hope.
SPEAKER_01: But it's not just about her because that same Redeemer gives Israel's enemies hope.
SPEAKER_01: And people from faraway lands give praise to Yahweh for his light.
SPEAKER_01: You see, this is the essence of the good news of the praises of Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: It's not merely Israel who's pining in sin and error, groping around in the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: The entire creation groans under that burden.
SPEAKER_01: And God's promise extends not merely to Israel, but to all who will hope in him.
SPEAKER_01: And his light will dawn not merely on Israel, but on the world.
SPEAKER_01: How do you know that?
SPEAKER_01: Well, I know that because it's not the first time that God's redemption is spoken of in terms of light.
SPEAKER_01: We could point to several places in Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: But consider just Isaiah 49, verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 49.
SPEAKER_01: God is talking here, Isaiah is referencing God's promised servant, the one who's going to come and act in God's name as God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: In Isaiah 49, verse 6, God says of this servant, it is too small, too minor of a thing for you to be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: It's too little of a thing if I just give light to Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm going to make you as a light for the nations, so that my salvation might reach to the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_01: The world in darkness languished.
SPEAKER_01: And God said, I will intercede.
SPEAKER_01: I will bring salvation myself.
SPEAKER_01: Let there be light.
SPEAKER_01: And Isaiah, hearing God's promise, turned to Israel and to Israel's enemies and to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Arise, shine, for your light has come.
SPEAKER_01: But we're not quite done yet.
SPEAKER_01: Because we need to see the part of this circle that is on the other side of the image, because this ring circles around, and we see it at the end of chapter 60 of Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: We read of all of that darkness, all of that sinfulness, all of that pervasive iniquity at chapter 59.
SPEAKER_01: But look what it says at the other end of our picture in chapter 60, beginning in verse 19, we see the ultimate result of God choosing to act.
SPEAKER_01: He says, the sun shall be no more, and your light by day.
SPEAKER_01: What?
SPEAKER_01: You're going to plunge us into utter darkness?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Nor for brightness shall the moon give you light, but Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and your God will be your glory.
SPEAKER_01: Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon withdraw itself, for Yahweh will be your everlasting light, and your days of mourning shall be ended.
SPEAKER_01: Your people shall all be righteous.
SPEAKER_01: They shall possess the land forever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I might be glorified.
SPEAKER_01: See, the final and complete result of God's acting on Israel's behalf is no more darkness.
SPEAKER_01: It's total and all-encompassing.
SPEAKER_01: God's redemption is not partial.
SPEAKER_01: He does not partially save.
SPEAKER_01: When God promises to redeem, he fulfills that promise to its very end, and that is gospel.
SPEAKER_01: We see then that we're not reading about the darkness of night that comes every evening.
SPEAKER_01: We are reading about the darkness of the soul.
SPEAKER_01: We're reading about people who have no light of God, no hope of eternity bound to sin and to its temporary pleasures.
SPEAKER_01: So do you see then why the bullseye, why the good news of the praises of Yahweh is at the center.
SPEAKER_01: Look at the devastating effects of sin and the absence of any rescue from that disaster.
SPEAKER_01: No one to intercede, no rescue in sight, no dawning of light.
SPEAKER_01: And then consider that God Himself says, I will redeem.
SPEAKER_01: And he does so in such a way that it brings glorious light not just to Israel, but to the entire world.
SPEAKER_01: And that light dispels the darkness of sin and faithlessness.
SPEAKER_01: That is the good news for which people praise God.
SPEAKER_01: It is the gospel according to Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: I know we've said that we need to look at just one more thing.
SPEAKER_01: One more thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I promise this will be all.
SPEAKER_01: Let's take this one step further.
SPEAKER_01: And put it in the in the context of salvation history.
SPEAKER_01: Beginning in Isaiah chapter nine.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah chapter nine.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the passage that we referred to before at the end of chapter 8, where Isaiah says they people have no dawn.
SPEAKER_01: There's no light.
SPEAKER_01: There's distress and darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 9, verse 2, Isaiah says, the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_01: Those who have dwelt in the land of deep darkness, on them a light has shined.
SPEAKER_01: It's in that context of darkness being dispelled by light that a child is born.
SPEAKER_01: That a son is given.
SPEAKER_01: Now look with me at Isaiah 42.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 42, just going to point out just some passages here.
SPEAKER_01: Just read scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Isaiah 42, behold, my servant whom I uphold, my chosen in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_01: I have put my spirit upon him.
SPEAKER_01: He will bring forth justice to the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Wait a minute.
SPEAKER_01: I thought God looked at the world and saw no justice.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, God's servant will bring justice.
SPEAKER_01: He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.
SPEAKER_01: A bruised reed he will not break.
SPEAKER_01: A faintly burning wick he will not quench.
SPEAKER_01: It's referring to Jesus in Matthew chapter 12.
SPEAKER_01: He will faithfully bring forth justice.
SPEAKER_01: He will not grow faint or be discouraged until he has established justice in the earth and the coastlands, hope for his law.
SPEAKER_01: Thus says God Yahweh, who created the heavens, who stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it.
SPEAKER_01: I am Yahweh.
SPEAKER_01: I have called you in righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: I will take you by the hand and keep you.
SPEAKER_01: I will give you as a covenant for the people and a light for the nations.
SPEAKER_01: To open eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon and from prison those who sit in darkness.
SPEAKER_01: And it's partly that passage that a man named Zechariah in Luke chapter 1 married to Elizabeth.
SPEAKER_01: It's partly that passage in Isaiah 42 that Zechariah was thinking of when he said at the birth of his son John that the tender mercies of our God have come, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, and to Guide our feet into the way of peace.
SPEAKER_01: Zechariah's son would prepare the way for the one who in his own voice said in John chapter 9, verse 5, I am the light of the world.
SPEAKER_01: One more place, go to the end of the book.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation 21, and just notice how your Bible is no mishmash of texts put together.
SPEAKER_01: It's sovereignly designed and put together.
SPEAKER_01: Revelation chapter 21.
SPEAKER_01: John is seeing a vision of the end, of time, as we might call it.
SPEAKER_01: Where there's a new heaven and a new earth and a new city, a new Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 21 of Revelation, verse 23.
SPEAKER_01: The city has no need of sun or moon to shine on it.
SPEAKER_01: For the glory of God gives it light, and its lamp is the lamb.
SPEAKER_01: By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, and its gates will never be shut by day, and there will be no night there.
SPEAKER_01: They will bring into it the glory and honor of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: But nothing unclean will ever enter it.
SPEAKER_01: Down in chapter 22, verse 5, it makes it complete.
SPEAKER_01: And night will be no more.
SPEAKER_01: They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light.
SPEAKER_01: You see, my friends, Isaiah 60 calls everyone who has received the light of Christ to arise and shine.
SPEAKER_01: Your light has come and it bids you, it moves you, it commands you to give praises to Yahweh, to proclaim the good news, but it also calls you to go forth with hope.
SPEAKER_01: Because God's promise is not yet complete.
SPEAKER_01: It remains for God to finally fulfill his word, whereby he forever banishes darkness from his world and from his people.
SPEAKER_01: And the coming of Jesus began that fulfillment.
SPEAKER_01: And the coming of Jesus will bring about its completion.
SPEAKER_01: That is gospel.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, we come before you and your power and your grace and your mercy.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask that you, Emmanuel, would come and ransom all who are captive to sin.
SPEAKER_01: We ask that in your grace and your mercy, that those who mourn in lonely exile here would look to you in hope until the Son of God appears again.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that the day spring from on high would come and cause his light to shine on us so that we might rise and give praise to you, that death's dark shadow would be put to flight, that the gloomy clouds of night would be dispersed forever from our world and from our spirits and our souls.
SPEAKER_01: Come.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort us, guide us, lead us to the Father's side.
SPEAKER_01: The one whose word dispels the darkness.
SPEAKER_01: Come, Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Come to rescue us.
SPEAKER_01: We who have put our faith and trust in you, and the one whose blood satisfies the Father's wrath.
SPEAKER_01: You, the one who came to say, I will intercede, I will redeem.
SPEAKER_01: May we arise and shine in that light, we your people, proclaiming that good news, that gospel has come to this dark world, and it brings joy to all who relish in it.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.