Isaiah Lesson 45

Heavenly Father, thank you so much for the opportunity to come to this place, gather together as your people, to open your holy word and hear from you. God, here are we on earth, you are in heaven, so we'll let our words be few.

Let your words be many to us, Lord God, that we would hear your word and be changed by it. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Recall when Jesus went to the synagogue in his hometown. He was asked to speak and he turned to Isaiah chapter 61, and he began to read from that text.

However, if we turn to Isaiah 61, we can go there now, verses one to three, as he was reading, he abruptly stops halfway through the passage. Rich, would you read for us Isaiah 61? Oh, I'll read it while you find it.

Oh, you got it, all right, go ahead.

One to what?

One through four.

One through four, okay. The spirit of the Lord God is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to captives and freedom to prisoners, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, to grant those who mourn in Zion, giving them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of the spirit of fainting.

So they will be called Oaks of Righteousness, the planning of the Lord that he may be glorified. Then they will rebuild the ancient ruins, they will raise up the former devastations, and they will repair the ruined cities, the desolations of many generations.

Very good. So when Jesus goes to read this, he stops rather abruptly at a particular point. Why do you think he did that or stopped where he did?

He stopped at the first one.

The next part is regarding the second one.

Very good. Rich, you're on point, brother. You know it. This is where I'm going with this. Jesus understood that in his first advent, there were certain things that he would accomplish. In his second advent, there were other things that he would accomplish.

And so in his first appearing, he did open blind eyes and heal deaf people, but not all deaf people, not all blind eyes. When he came to the man who was by the pool of Siloam, there were many there who needed healing, and yet he went to that one and brought healing to him and left many others.

So question, is the kingdom of God already here or not yet here?

Not yet.

We've got a not yet. Not yet. Not yet, not yet.

Kingdom of heaven is here.

Ah, so you'll turn from here, if you will, to Luke 11 .20. Bob, can you turn to Luke 11 .20? Carol, if you could get Luke 17 .21. Bob, if you wouldn't mind getting Matthew 13 .33. So the first, Bob, could you read Luke 11 .20 for us?

11 .20, but if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.

Okay, so Jesus says, if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you. So don't be so quick to say not yet.

Carol?

I know, I just heard the verse. You won't be able to say, here it is, or it's over there, for the kingdom of God is already among you.

Already among you.

Okay, and Bob?

I'm sorry, Matthew 13.

You're Matthew 13 .33.

And he told them yet another parable. The kingdom of heaven is like yeast that a woman took and mixed with a bushel of flour. And waited until the whole batch of dough grows.

Ah, so it's like yeast in dough that will work its way through the dough until the whole thing has risen. And so we see the kingdom of God growing among men in this time. Okay, let's counterbalance that with the other side of the equation.

Revelation 20, we know, is the thousand years, the thousand year reign of Christ, the millennium, which is yet future. John, totally, could you read Isaiah 9 .7? And Barb, would you mind getting Zechariah 8 .3?

So John, when you're ready, yeah.

Of the increase of his government and of peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom, to establish it and uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth.

And forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

On the throne of David and over his kingdom. The throne of David will be established in physical Jerusalem with Christ himself reigning as king over Israel and over the whole earth. That's yet future.

He's not yet seated on the throne of David. Okay, and we need next Zechariah 8 .3.

This is what the Lord says. I will return to Zion and dwell in Jerusalem. Then Jerusalem will be called the city of truth and the mountain of the Lord Almighty will be called the holy mountain.

The city of truth, the holy mountain, which is now not a city of truth. Most of the people there do not believe the good news and it's not a holy mountain. It's very much in opposition to many of the things of God.

She said, I will return to Zion.

And I will return to Zion. So it refers to the second coming. So the answer to the question, is the kingdom of God already or not yet is yes. It is already in one sense and not yet in another. The kingdom of God can be pictured kind of like a telescope which can fold within itself.

And a telescope can show you a picture of something that's near and something that's far. But looking from a distance, you sometimes can't tell a distinction between the two. For example, if you're looking at a distant mountain peak, one over the other, as you see it from far away, look like they're right on top of each other.

But as you climb that first mountain, you can see that way off in the distance is that second mountain peak. So they're collapsed together when you see them from far away. That's what we have in Isaiah 35.

So let's go there. This is a picture of the coming kingdom, but you see pictures of Christ's first advent as well. In Christ's first advent, you see the blind eyes open, deaf people hearing, the lame walking, all of these miracles that are associated with the coming of Christ.

It's just that the first advent and the second advent are not distinguished in this chapter. By future revelation, as we progressively learn more, in time, when Christ comes in his first appearing, we learn that he doesn't immediately establish his kingdom reign over the earth.

He comes to save individual sinners, to plant the kingdom among us and in us. Now, in that verse that we read, I think it was Carol that read it, the kingdom of God is among you, is the right translation.

Some have translated, I think the NIV, within you, but recognize in that passage, he is speaking to the adversaries, the Pharisees. So he's not telling them that the kingdom is in them. He's saying it's among them.

It's in the Christians who are becoming believers. The kingdom is established in our hearts and we're planted in this world like leaven to spread out throughout the earth and in some sense, be salt and light in this world, even as it gets worse and worse near the end.

And then the future coming kingdom establishes righteousness. This 35th chapter of Isaiah is like the climax of the first half of the book. All of the judgments that began with the table of judgments back in Isaiah 14, the coming Assyrian onslaught, all of the horrible promises of the coming tribulation that we just read about in chapter 34, all of these reach their resolution in the coming kingdom.

This is a picture of the millennium with parts of that established in the first coming of Christ. So let's actually just today read through the 10 verses to get the big picture. It's a beautiful, climactic, joyful picture of salvation and the millennial kingdom.

Who would like to read the whole 35th chapter? Nice and loud.

I will.

Do it, Rich.

The wilderness and wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice. Even with joy and singing, the glory of Lebanon shall be given, shall be given the excellence of Carmel and Sharon.

They shall see the glory of the Lord,.

The excellency of our God.

Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who are fearful-hearted, be strong and do not fear. Behold, your God will come with vengeance. With a recompense of God, he will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer and the tongue of the dumb shall sing. For water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert.

The parched ground shall become a pool and the thirsty land springs of water. In the habitation of jackals, where each lay, there shall be grass with weeds and rust.

A highway shall be there and a road.

And it shall be called the highway of holiness. The unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for others. Whoever walks the road, although a fool, shall not go astray. No lion shall be there, nor shall any ravenous beast.

Go up on it.

It shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransom of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing, with everlasting joy on their heads. They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sigh shall flee away.

When I was reading that this week, I thought, you know what? The next time I preach a funeral, I think I'll use some of this passage here. This is just beautiful. It's like Revelation 21, where he wipes away every tear and just makes all things new.

The beautiful picture of the coming millennial reign of Christ. Let's look at the first verse. The wilderness and the dry land shall be glad. The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing.

The glory of Lebanon shall be given to it. The majesty of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. So here in the millennial kingdom, we will see even the desert wastelands bursting with life.

It's like the whole world will become the garden of Eden. It's returning to that original design that God had in his creation. Lebanon, anybody familiar with the cedars of Lebanon? There's much reference to them in the Old Testament.

Weren't they used to build Solomon's temple?

Used to build Solomon's temple, yes. Even to this day, some of the trees of Lebanon can reach 200 feet tall. Those are some big trees. There are trees in Lebanon today that were growing at the time of Christ.

Now over 2 ,000 years old, the cedars of Lebanon. These glorious giant trees now in the desert wasteland. Now, if any of you grew up in the wilderness, maybe the wilderness of Pennsylvania, you think of the wilderness as being, you know, trees and just undeveloped.

It's where the developers haven't yet chopped everything down, right? But in Israel, the wilderness is a barren wasteland. It's sand. It's, there's no life there. And here it's saying, even the wilderness, the dry land, shall be glad.

The desert shall rejoice and blossom like the crocus. It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice with joy and singing. Is this a promise for today or for the yet future kingdom?

Well, we know that when Israel came in, they changed these malarial wastelands into gardens.

Don't you love this guy? Everything I'm about to say, he just says it. He always jump a little ahead of me, which is great because we're on the same wavelength here. It is, of course, a picture of the millennial kingdom, but even as a first fruit taste of that, since 1948, when Israel got back the land, there are wastelands that they did nothing to fix that are now blossoming with vineyards.

I watched a documentary with one of my really good friends, Bill Lubkeman, and he loves this documentary. He shows it to everybody. It's really like a tourism video for Israel, but it also interviews Israelis about their lives and everything.

And my friend, Bill, just, he loves Israel so much that when he watches this, every single time he cries. So I'm watching with one, I look over there to see if he's crying yet.

Yeah, oh yeah, he's crying.

He loves Israel. But one of the guys they interview in this documentary is a vineyard operator. And what he's done, he says, when we inherited this land, we came back, we did nothing to change it. We didn't change the soil.

No one believed that this soil could ever produce fruit. And yet it began to blossom. And then they began to seed it more and to cultivate and till and do what they could to it. But what was seemingly impossible took place.

Now, this paragraph here, I'd like to read you from the Times of Israel. Dangling off vines at the Har Baraka settlement in the West Bank, which is that disputed territory where the Palestinians still think that they have ownership over it despite the war of 1967 and all the things of that nature, the grapes are plump and ready to pick.

This year, evangelical Christians are volunteering for the job. Missouri-based Hayovo organizes faith-based volunteering for Christian backers of Israel. Our mission is to take an active role in and educate people about the prophetic restoration of the land of Israel that is happening today, it says.

So Christians take mission trips from America and go to this vineyard and provide the free labor to pick these plump grapes from this vineyard and bring in the harvest. That is a picture of the coming kingdom.

Yeah.

One of the main importers of fruits in the world.

Exporters.

Exporters, yeah. Yeah, they're exporting these grapes around the world. It's true. So the promise of Isaiah 35 is not yet.

Okay?

We're not yet seeing Garden of Eden-like conditions, but we're seeing, in a positive sense, kind of the opposite of the birth pangs. You know the birth pangs like the Braxton Hicks contractions that you begin to feel, a woman would begin to feel prior to going into labor?

In the same way, before the coming of Christ, there will be birth pangs. Even before the seven seals are broken, we'll begin to see the signs of the times and all of these terrible things happening in the world.

But on the flip side of that, we see Israel restored in her land and the land itself is transforming right before their eyes to be one of the great exporters of fruits. This is Isaiah 35 in foretaste, just a foretaste of the coming kingdom.

Okay?

It's happening. The wilderness, the dry land, blossoming abundantly. The glory of Lebanon, the majesty of Carmel and Sharon, the roses of Sharon that were so famous, the lush vegetation of Mount Carmel where Elijah went.

They shall see the glory of the Lord, the majesty of our God. So the first thing here is topographical change, where the ground itself now is returning to Garden of Eden-like conditions. Next, verses three and four.

What are we to do with this promise? Well, we're to hold onto it as an encouragement to the soul. Strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees. You might recognize that from Hebrews 12, 12, when the Christian is getting beat down in this world and sometimes has erred.

We all stumble and we all fall into sin. And when we do that, what does our loving father do for us? Not first. In Hebrews 12, he punished, well, he disciplines us, not punishes us, because that's all accomplished in Christ, but he'll discipline us for our good.

A loving father chastises the son whom he loves. But after that discipline, he doesn't crush us under it. He lifts us up and he strengthens our weak knees and our feeble hands and he encourages us. And so this is seen in Isaiah 35, 3.

Hebrews 12, 12 is a quote. Strengthen the weak hands, make firm the feeble knees. Say to those who have an anxious heart,.

Be strong, fear not.

Now, if we stop there, it would almost be like, well, okay, I'm anxious and you're just telling me, don't be anxious. Yeah, be strong, don't fear. But the verse doesn't end there. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.

So this is toward the wicked people and what the sinfulness that makes the world the way it is. But look at what else it says.

He will come and save you.

He will come and save you. So the exhortation is be strong. Don't be afraid. He's coming. He's coming on the clouds and all the world will see him. He's coming to establish a kingdom in righteousness and all of the sin and pain will be no more.

You have nothing to fear. This weeping is only short-lived. It endures for the night. Joy comes in the morning. Nowadays, we live in a society that is really paralyzed with fear. Anxiety disorders are diagnosed every day by the thousands.

And the solution to all of these anxiety disorders from mild OCD to extreme debilitating OCD and forms of anxiety and fear is cognitive behavioral therapy and exposure response therapy. Little by little, exposing people to the things they're afraid of, working with people to think differently, and then medication.

Taking the edge off the fear by prescribing something that will suppress the dopamine or produce chemicals in the brain that just make, kind of take the edge off of a person.

Right, the pharmaceuticals gotta get their cut.

Yeah, maybe, yeah. Sometimes there's profit motives in that. The world clamors for solutions to the anxiety of the people of this country. Not so with the Christians. We have an answer that the world doesn't have.

We can say, by the authority of God's word, see, look at verse four. It doesn't just say, to the anxious heart. It says, say to the anxious heart. So you who are hearing the book of Isaiah this morning, you've taken your time to be here.

Do you know that God is equipping you to encourage the brethren? You have a word to say. I've used this since I studied it this morning. I've used it this week, I think three times. With anxious people that have come into my office, anxious about the government overreach and how things are getting so bad in the world and this theory and all kinds of conspiracy theories.

Some of them are actually conspiracy realities. They are happening. Some of them are not. And people get carried away with fears and anxieties. But I've used this verse.

I've said, be strong, fear not.

And then I quote this verse. Behold, your God will come with vengeance, with the recompense of God.

He will come and save you.

We have to turn people's minds away from the fearful things and to the God who's coming. Back to Christ, who's coming on the clouds.

Along with that.

Yes.

What you're saying, Philippians 4 says.

Yes.

Be anxious for nothing, but everything. Prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, by the request of being known to God and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds.

Yes. Amen.

And that also is one I go to a lot, Philippians 4. Brothers, do that for each other. Sisters, we have anxiety in this church and in your families. And so many people struggling with anxiety. Did you know that the Bible gives the command, do not fear, 366 times.

And what's with that? I'll be with you.

The promise that goes with that, I will be with you.

Yeah.

But listen, that's one command, do not fear, for every day of the year, plus one for leap year. 366 times. So there's a command for every day. Do not fear. Do not be afraid. Again and again, we're commanded, we're not to fear.

Because when we're fearing, we're looking at the external circumstances, the horizontal. But when we begin to look at God and listen to his word, remember that he's coming, that's what takes the edge off.

We don't need to run to medicine. Now, I'm not saying that there's not a place for medicine in certain cases, but as Christians, we run to the word and we let the word be our comfort.

Okay?

So, yeah.

You're talking about that we can be encouraging.

One another. Yeah.

But we can also speak to ourselves, right?

Yes.

According to the saying, it said, don't listen to your heart, speak to your heart, preach to your heart. So we can remind ourselves of this in certain times.

That's a great word, yeah. Speak it to yourself first, yeah. My point is only to say it doesn't just stop with you. Like, take this as the exhortation to go say it to people. But the first person you need to preach to in all of life is yourself.

That is so true.

I find myself saying, when I get like, look up, look up, look up.

Yeah. Yep.

Preach the gospel to yourself.

Jeff, are you seeing people in our fellowship coming to you for support with the edicts that are coming out with having to get that vaccination or lose your job or be...

We have at least five people that I know about right now that they could lose their job because they're in nursing, they're in other kind of things where they're being told that they have to get it by a certain amount of time, but their conscience doesn't dictate for them to do it.

And so they're kind of in a difficult situation and an anxious spot. That's one of the many things. The masking with the schools with, is my kid gonna be able to go to school? Will he have to wear a mask the whole day?

And what does that do for the person over a long period of time like that? All of these kinds of things can create anxiety, very anxious heart. So we just have to keep pointing each other to the King and to the word of God.

It is happening, because I just stopped at Wawa and big sign, wear a mask if you wanna enter.

Really?

Well, my Wawa. Oh, Wawa's doing it.

Or a trot, and I'm already...

Yeah.

If I didn't, I walked in without one.

Yeah. Yeah.

That's what I do too.

Or Wawa, maybe it's the individual Wawa.

Maybe.

But I thought, wow, it's the first time I saw Wawa again.

Yeah.

So we just must not be anxious. All right, so let's go on to verses five to seven. We're seeing this, the joy and the removal of all anxiety. Now let's look at the physical. Because all of us are also trapped in physical bodies, which are deteriorating, right?

We're like in a tent that's gonna wear out. So, and all of us feel that to varying degrees. And as we age, that only increases. I know I just shot baskets for the first time. Like, wow, I just am not athletic at all anymore.

I can still shoot though. I got 12 threes in a row. I was like, I still got this. But there's nothing else there besides shooting. Anyway, back to the text. Five through seven. Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped.

Then shall the lame man leap like a deer and the tongue of the mute sing for joy. For waters break forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert. The burning sand shall become a pool and the thirsty ground springs of water.

In the haunt of jackals where they lie down, the grass shall become reeds and rushes. Let's read a couple of verses about the first advent of Christ. Who will read for me Matthew 9, 27 to 31? There's also many other examples of Jesus healing the blind.

Okay, Bob, would you read Matthew 9, 27 to 31? This is kind of the already aspect of the kingdom. When he was here in the person, the king was here. And so the kingdom with him, he could heal anybody he chose, but it was only individual healings as opposed to what's coming.

9, 27 to 31.

He was an apostle after he left.

Yes.

So he was able to heal.

Yep.

And those were signed gifts, apparently.

Yeah.

And I have. Acts 3, 8 is one of the ones we're gonna read. It was actually after Jesus ascended.

Yeah.

All right, 27. As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, have mercy on us, son of David. When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him and he asked them, do you believe that I am able to do this?

Yes, Lord, they replied. Then he touched their eyes and said, according to your faith, will it be done to you? And their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, see that no one knows about this.

But they went out and spread the news about it all over that region.

I wanted to read on to 30 and 31 because I love that. First of all, just the beauty of, he touches their eyes and they see.

The kingdom is among you.

Here's the king. He can touch eyes and they're open, but he commands them. This is the messianic secret because of the timing of his crucifixion. He knows the timing, he's orchestrating all that. And so he says, don't yet go out proclaiming.

And yet they're so filled with joy over what's happened to them that they can't help but speaking. They go out preaching. Now we're the opposite, right? We're commanded to go tell it on the mountains, go to the highways and byways and invite people to come in.

And how often we fall silent. We should be like the healed blind because indeed we were healed of even darker blindness, which is the darkness of sin, of not knowing God or seeing God, but our eyes have been opened.

We see the glory of the king, the beauty in the face of Christ. Second Corinthians 4 .6. And so we should go out preaching because we're commanded to. All right, Mark 7, 31 to 37. Who would like to read Mark 7?

Okay, thank you, Carol. 31 to 37.

Jesus left. Tyre, is it Ty-ran or Ty-ran?

Tyre.

And went to Sidon, then back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him. And the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on a man to heal him.

Jesus led him to a private place away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears and then spinning onto his own fingers, he touched the man's tongue with the spittle. And looking up to heaven, he sighed and commanded,.

Be open.

Instantly the man could hear perfectly and speak plainly. Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news. For they were completely amazed again and again.

They said, everything he does is wonderful. He even heals those who are deaf and mute.

Isn't that a great visual? He goes to the deaf man with the speech impediment. And the first thing he does is he sticks his fingers in his ears.

Can you imagine?

He puts his fingers, and then he spits, which your translation says spits on his own fingers. We're not sure exactly if he spits and then touches, but in either case, he's not too concerned about a coronavirus, is he?

He's spitting and then touching the very tongue of the person. He has healing in himself. He touches the tongue of the man with the speech impediment. Doesn't your heart just go out to someone who, they're deaf, they can't speak because of this impediment, and all of a sudden their tongue is loose.

The tongue was made for praising God. Ears were made to hear his voice. Your eyes were made to see his glory. And now he's making that new and whole. And this man is released to preach. And what does he do?

Verse three, Jesus charged them to tell no one, but the more he charged them, the more zealously they proclaimed it. You just can't stop them from preaching. They were astonished beyond measure, saying he has done all things well.

He even makes the deaf hear and the mute speak. All right, let's look at Acts 3 .8. So, thank you, Barb. Acts 3 .8.

They're talking about a man who couldn't walk.

Right, a lame man.

He jumped to his feet and he had to walk. Then he went with them to the temple courts, walking and jumping and praising God.

Again, another one of the just incredible visuals that the Bible gives us. Jesus touching ears, spitting and touching a tongue to open it. Here, after the man is healed of being lame, he's walking and leaping and praising God.

You just picture him like a little kid, just bounding along, testing these new legs that he has. And for all those who have ever been paralyzed or had a son who was paralyzed, you just, your heart goes out to this person and you feel his joy.

The kingdom of God has come upon and now he's just leaping and walking and praising God. What a beautiful picture. And then lastly, Matthew 9 .32. Matthew 9 .32. Who would be willing to read that for us?

Thank you.

As they were going away, behold, the demon oppressed man who was mute was brought to him.

And do 33 as well, I'm sorry.

And when the demon had been cast out, the mute man spoke, and the crowds marveled, saying, never was anything like this seen in Israel.

Again, you have this comment. When the mute man speaks, he had a demon as well. So the demon is cast out, the mute man speaks, and what is the reaction? This is utterly unique. Never has anything like this been done in Israel before.

It is a token. It is a sign of the kingdom of God that this is more than a prophet. This is the king. Back to Isaiah 35. This is

Can I add one?

Yeah, add one.

In my understanding, there were four messianic miracles that only the Messiah could do.

Okay.

And one of those was this, healing a demon-possessed deaf mute. I think that was one thing I was reading that said that the way that they would cast out demons is they would ask the demon's name, and then the rabbis could cast it out by its name.

But when there was mute person, they didn't know the name, so they had no way to cast out the demon.

That's interesting.

So only the Messiah could put half an hour to do that.

And another one was Now, where was that tradition written that that was the case? Was that in the Talmud or

Joe Amaral's book.

Oh, okay.

The Christian roots, or the Jewish roots of Christianity.

So I don't know that that's spelled out in the Old Testament itself, but the tradition around the messianic expectation would have developed to be looking for that.

And that's why the Pharisees were there. Apparently, when something like this would happen, the Pharisees were also excited, because if this is truly a messianic miracle,.

We need to verify it.

And we want to know, is our Messiah here or not? So almost every time one of those was performed, the Pharisees also were on the scene to try to verify if this is really a messianic miracle.

And they were trying to trip him up.

Joe Amaral also wrote a book called The Story of the Stars. It's how the gospel is told in the constellations, that God planned the gospel centuries in advance. Like Virgo, the Virgin, and all that's depicted about Jesus in the gospels is in the heavens.