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Sunnyside Baptist Church Michael Dirrim, Pastor
We're going to read verses 24 -27 this evening, Isaiah chapter 1, verses 24 -27. Let's begin with a word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank You for the day. We thank You for the joy of receiving Your Word and being nourished by it.
I pray that You would bring the truth of Your Word home to our hearts in view of Your Son, Jesus Christ. And by Your Holy Spirit, I pray that You would make Your will known and realized in our lives. Please help us and change us according to Your Word.
We pray these things in Jesus' name, Amen. Isaiah chapter 1, beginning in verse 24. Therefore, the Lord says, the Lord of hosts, the mighty one of Israel, ah, I will rid myself of my adversaries and take vengeance on my enemies.
I will turn my hand against you and thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your.
Alloy.
I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward, you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city. Zion shall be redeemed with justice and her penitence with righteousness.
So we're thinking about the promises that God will restore Jerusalem. Things are very bad in Jerusalem, very bad in Judah. He's been detailing just how bad everything is. Ah, cataloging it, investigating it, surveying it, probing deeper, talking about it in its historical context, talking about Israel's covenant responsibilities, and just really laying everything out to show how bad everything is.
This is what the Jews were in denial concerning. They didn't even remember God as their Father. They didn't think that things were this bad.
So it takes the prophet.
It takes the prophet bringing up all of the covenant standards and the covenant truths and stories and laying it all out as it really is to the people of God using vivid illustration and stunning claims, really grabbing hold of their attention and saying, things are.
Bad.
Here's how bad they are. But here's your hope. And what hope is there for rebellious children is found in God. God is the one who redeems. God is the one who restores. And he describes how he's going to do it.
So in verse 24, the focus is on who God is. We have those names and titles of God that he is the Lord, the Lord of hosts. He is the mighty one of Israel. And there's a lament, there's a kind of sigh that God gives in that he's going to restore, he's going to redeem and save through judgment.
He's going to relieve himself of his adversaries. He's going to take vengeance on his enemies. And whereas this language was in the song of Moses concerning the enemies of Israel, such as Egypt and Ammon and the Amalekites and so on, now this language is directed at Jerusalem itself, where the covenant breakers are and the idolaters are.
That is where God will find his enemies. That is where he finds his adversaries. And so he will relieve himself through vengeance there. That leads us to verse 25, where God clearly identifies the adversaries and the enemies.
When he says, I will turn my hand against you. So he's speaking to Israel, he's speaking to Judah, he's speaking to Jerusalem. He says, I'm going to turn my hand against you. But notice that this is not in utter despair.
It isn't as if this is the end of the story. The purpose is stated clearly. And thoroughly purge away your dross and take away all your alloy. Now, here, Isaiah is pairing the previous metaphor in this very carefully constructed poem, verses 21 through 26.
So back in verse 22, he says, your silver has become dross and your wine mixed with.
Water.
So in perfect parity here, he says, I will thoroughly purge away your dross and take.
Away your alloy.
So here's the problem, but here's the solution. Here's what you've done. Here's what I will do. So God is promising, although through this severity of judgment, he's going to bring about the purification that is very needful.
The expression, I will turn my hand against you, that's an expression that is universally used in the Old Testament as a hostile action. When God says, I'm going to turn my hand against someone, it's because he is hostile to them.
Psalm 81, verse 14, God says, I would soon subdue their enemies and turn my hand against their adversaries. In Amos chapter 1, verse 8, he says, I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod. He's talking about the pagans, the Philistines.
I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod and the one who holds the scepter from Ashkelon. I will turn my hand against Ekron, and the remnant of the Philistines shall perish, says the Lord God. The Philistines had a handful of key cities on the southwestern coast of Israel, and here God is naming the cities that they still retain in the days of Amos, and he's saying, I'm turning my hand against them.
It's a hostile action. It's about judgment. He uses that expression here in reference to Israel and Jerusalem. But the nature of the hostile action is not a consuming and burning up, and so there's nothing left but ash.
But it's a hostile action where the heat and the temperature and the pressure are all applied for a productive purpose, that of refining. The fire and the stress of this process is about refining. It's actually aimed at increasing value, not doing away with something altogether.
It has the idea of purifying and thus making more glorious. You know, usually when you take things away, you make it lighter. You know, you ease your burden by taking some things out of the bag. In the purifying process, when you take away impurities, you actually make it heavier.
What you have left, given its constituent parts, is more heavy than it was prior, because you took the dross away. The gold is now more pure, therefore it is heavier as gold than it was before, given its relative size.
And so therefore, it's more glorious. Remember that the Hebrew word for glory is kibbutz, which has the idea of weight and also light and this in motion. So we have a lot of fire promised, a lot of smoke promised, but the fire and the smoke is for a restoration process, a refining process.
God is going to turn against the people for his promise. He's against the people for his promise. And the promise is refining. The promise is ultimately restoration and redemption. When we consider further what Isaiah has to say about this combination of God bringing the heat and bringing the fire for the good of the city, like, well, how does that work?
I mean, you don't burn a city for its good. Well, in the covenant context, it's true. So in Isaiah chapter 60, when you think about a lot of the same themes that we have in the book, but in a more mature reflection after all these chapters, in Isaiah chapter 60, there is a depiction of Jerusalem in the first 10 verses following really the whole chapter.
But there is a depiction of a Jerusalem that is new, that is glorious, that is not insular. It's not being attacked by the Gentiles, by the nations. It's actually reaching to the Gentiles and affecting them with the worship and the glory of God.
But we find that the Gentile, the new glorious Gentile reaching Jerusalem has come to pass through a judgment of God. So in verse 10, it says, the sons of foreigners shall build up your walls. You have the idea of the cities being built with more than just the Jews.
Now this new Jerusalem is including all the nations. But notice what he says, and their king shall minister to you for in my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you. Do you see that?
Both of those have been combined together. That they were struck down, that they may be raised up. Death preceded resurrection. And in this we find the only hope for rebellious children is a just God who saves.
A just God who saves through death and resurrection. In Isaiah 45, verse 20, it says, assemble yourselves and come, draw near together, you who have escaped from the nations. They have no knowledge who carry the wood of their carved image and pray to a God that cannot save.
Tell and bring forth your case, yes, let them take counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient time? Who has told this from that time? Have not I the Lord? And there is no other God besides me, a, listen, a just God and a Savior.
Now a just God punishes and condemns and brings wrath upon the transgressor and the sinner. And the God who saves forgives the sinner and welcomes him without merit to his table. And it's all at the same time.
This is who God is. He's a just God and a Savior. He says, there's no other God like me. There is none besides me. Verse 22, look to me and be saved, all you ends of the earth, for I am God and there is no other.
I have sworn by myself, which is the encouragement from Hebrews, having no greater to swear by, he swears by himself. The word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return, that to me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall take an oath, that sounds familiar, and he shall say, surely in the Lord, look, surely in the Lord, the one who prays to God, the one who looks to him to be saved, this one, he shall say, surely in the Lord I have righteousness and strength.
And to him men shall come and all shall be ashamed who are incensed against him. In the Lord all the descendants of Israel shall be justified and shall glory. Paul's point in Romans, not all of Israel are Israel, but those who are in the Lord and are righteous have all these promises.
So many, thinking about the plight, the situation, the trouble of rebellious children, what's the hope for them as we see in Isaiah 1? Many want the relief of guilt, many want the relief of guilt and the assurance of preservation just so long as their self-rule is being saved.
They want their autonomy saved. They want their freedom to choose their own path preserved. And they believe that this is what salvation is, that God, being such a big fan of theirs, is all about preserving their right to do that which they find is most appealing to their heart.
And he's so on board with them, he can't get enough of them, he thinks they're amazing. Now that's not salvation. The problem is that many who want heaven want all that with which heaven is at war. And if they were to actually go to heaven, they'd hate it.
Because it's about the glory of God and not their own affirmation. But salvation in the Scripture, salvation as Jesus preaches it, comes through death and resurrection. It comes through crucifixion, through taking up the cross and following Him in new life.
So it's through crucifixion, refining, and resurrection there's a radical change to the radix, to the root. A radical change all the way down to the very root of who we are. God turned His hand against Christ to bring about the good of His promises in this Jerusalem is but the shadow and Christ is the substance.
God turned His hand against Jerusalem to bring about His promises. Christ Himself is the fulfillment of it. So when we think about that, we recognize that the refining that we often experience in our lives today, as 1 Peter says, various necessary trials are used for our refinement.
That there is a refining going on, that God uses it for our good. That what we experience in our new birth and what we experience in our resurrected life and the refining process that God brings in our lives through sanctification, this is all grace in Christ.
We're not caught up in some covenant grind where we're trying to keep up the covenant and keep things spinning to keep God happy with us. God is pleased in Christ. Only one He said with whom He is well pleased, and that's Jesus.
And if we're in Him, then we have that approval of God. So we are to live both free and full in the new Jerusalem. The new Jerusalem is not kept by its citizens' upkeep. It is kept by Christ Himself and His righteousness.
For the city will be known by His righteousness. Speaking of righteousness, verse 26, I will restore your judges as at the first and your counselors as at the beginning. Afterward you shall be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.
So here's the outcome. Here's the direct impact of the refining process. This is what God is after. The judges and the counselors, they live for the bribe. They live for all of the unjust gain. They're corrupt and thoroughly corrupt.
But God's aim is that the judges and the counselors will be restored. In fact, the Hebrew word can be translated that the judges and counselors will be repented. They're going to be repented. They're going to be turned around.
They're going to be thoroughly changed from the inside out. And so well repented and so well restored that the promise is that they will be as at the first. Notice, as at the beginning. We're going to do a kind of reset, wherein everything is as originally intended.
We're going to get back to the original specs of what Jerusalem was supposed to be. Now, what was the beginning of Jerusalem? You know, Jerusalem wasn't always the capital, was it? Jerusalem became the capital under which king?
Right, under King David. And it was known then as the City of David. And it was David's desire to bring the Ark of the Covenant there. And he wanted to build a temple there. He'd even boughten the thresh floor of Arana for the place to build the temple.
In the very place where Abraham put Isaac on the altar. In the very same place is the threshing floor of Arana. There they wanted to put the temple. And it was the son of David who would build the temple.
But Jerusalem was not selected as a capital. It did not have that beginning of the importance to Israel in that sense until David. So we have some thinking to do here. What is it about the beginning? What is it about as at the first?
To do something for this city. To make it the faithful city, the righteous city as at the first. Somehow, returning it and repenting it as into the beginning will actually achieve God's desired end. It's only afterward, after this repentance takes place, that the city will then be called the City of Righteousness, the Faithful City.
Now, David, of course, is very important in the story of the Bible. David is the Lord's anointed and he leads the city of Jerusalem in the very beginning. And we can read about even as far back as the story of David and Goliath.
When the story is told about David killing Goliath, David made sure that he had the head. And so he used Goliath's sword, cut off Goliath's head, kept the head. And we're told in 1 Samuel 17, verse 54, that he took the head with him to Jerusalem.
This is many, many years before David became king. This is just the story about when he was the shepherd boy and had just caught the eye of everybody as the Lord's anointed, defeating the enemy in their place and in their stead.
But he had the head and he made sure he took it with him to Jerusalem. In 2 Samuel 5, 5 through 6 is where we begin to hear, okay, now David begins to reign from Jerusalem. So we think back at the beginning and we recognize that David is the Lord's anointed, that David is a man after God's own heart.
God had taken away the kingdom from Saul and had given it to another. But the hope of David for the redemption of Zion, the hope of David for the righteousness of Jerusalem, is a theme that grows very strong through Isaiah.
Remember that the hope is that there is someone coming from David. So the Christmas passages, Isaiah 11, verse 1, there shall come forth a rod from the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.
The branch of Jesse, who is David, and the word branch, again, speaking to Naseer or Nazareth. And not only is he the branch, but he's also the root, Isaiah 11, 10, and in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, who shall stand as a banner to the people.
So another little riddle in the scriptures that Jesus could have brought up for the Pharisees, as he did for Psalm 110. If the Messiah is David's son, how is it then that David refers to him as his Lord?
If the Messiah is the branch from Jesse, how is he the root of Jesse? So what beginning are we talking about? Oh, what is the beginning? Now, certainly the hope is fixed on David, and so much, in fact, that Jeremiah 30, verse 9, as God describes the new covenant, he says he's going to bring about the new covenant and the restoration of Jerusalem when he raises David from the dead.
When he raises David from the dead. And it goes on later on to talk about how David is going to reign, and he's going to have, he's the fulfillment of all these covenants, and he's going to be the descendants of David, that are as the stars of the sky.
I thought that was to Abraham. And David's going to have all these Levites offering sacrifices all the time, and David, David, David. And so there's this focus on David, which is why Peter, at the day of Pentecost, is preaching, and he's saying, David is still dead, and there's his grave.
He's still there. But this was to fulfill. The fulfillment of David was who? It was Jesus Christ. He's the Lord's anointed. And so Peter was saying all the expectation and the promises in the Old Testament that said David's going to be raised from the dead, and David's going to reign in the new Jerusalem, and all of these things.
He's saying Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of that. So that's the whole focus of it, which is another reason why Matthew, when he's writing his genealogy, focuses so much on David in the genealogy, leading up to who Christ is.
So when we think about Jerusalem and how important it is and how central David is to it, when we think about Jerusalem, the keeping of the law was centered there. Prophet, priest, and king were centered at Jerusalem.
The temple was in Jerusalem. The name of God was placed upon Jerusalem. The expectation of the royal seed, who had come from Judah, who was Shiloh, the descendant of David, that was centered in Jerusalem.
This Jerusalem, Eresh Shalem, city of peace, is the place of peace where God placed his shame or his name. So it's unsurprising that when we get to the New Testament that the city becomes the new covenant metaphor of the church.
The Jerusalem, the new covenant Jerusalem, is again and again described as the church. As the bride of Christ, as the Jerusalem above, that is in process, that is now and not yet. So the city of Christ, the bride of Christ, is known by his righteousness and known by his name.
So when you put all the story together, what you have here is the city of David, Jerusalem, that was destroyed under the wrath of God but then was raised anew in righteousness in Christ. That's why there's an old covenant Jerusalem that was important and there's a new covenant Jerusalem that is part of the resurrection life of Christ.
Furthermore, the Eresh Shalem, the city of Salem, you remember was maybe perhaps, this is the beginning to which Isaiah refers, was in the beginning ruled over by a king of righteousness long before David, long before Moses.
Eresh Shalem, the city of Salem, was ruled over by a king of righteousness named Melchizedek who was the priest of God Most High. I really like the Puritan theory that this was Shem who was still alive at this time during the days of Abraham according to the years that Shem lived.
He was still alive. We don't know if it was Shem or not but it makes sense since Shem's name means name. I think it would be a wonderful theological pun for God to say I place my name in Jerusalem. But whether it's the Noahic covenant, the days of Noah to the days of the Davidic covenant, no matter what's going on in the Old Testament, Jerusalem somehow, someway had a pivotal role.
And in the repentance that is brought about through Christ's saving work, we're promised here in Isaiah that the city will be filled with justice, filled with wisdom, and will be known by the righteousness of God himself.
So we're not making for ourselves or keeping for ourselves a city of righteousness and faithfulness here.
God does that.
God does that by His fire and according to His righteousness. We're not making for ourselves a city. We are a city amongst the cities. As Christ puts every enemy under His feet, He makes us His city in the midst of the cities.
The city that is a mountain, the city that is a mountain, which is Zion, spreads to all the earth according to Daniel 2. In Luke 17 verses 20 -21, when He was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God does not come with observation, nor, they say, see here or see there, for indeed the kingdom of God is among you, in your midst.
So don't look for some boundary on the ground. Say, here is the border of where the kingdom of God is. Here's the land border. He says, no, no, no, it's already in your midst because Jesus Christ had arrived.
So our moral governance and wisdom and righteousness are in Christ and we are governed by Him and we are His city amongst all of the cities. And very briefly in verse 27, we hear that Zion will be redeemed with justice and her penitents with righteousness.
So how is Zion or how is Jerusalem redeemed? Well, those who are redeemed are the penitents. Those are the repenters. Who's going to be redeemed? Who's going to be saved? Those who repent. Those are the ones who are saved.
Those are the ones who are redeemed. The penitents are, the repenters are. Salvation is for those who repent. Jesus says, if time is fulfilled, the kingdom of heaven is at hand, repent.
And believe in the gospel.
That's why the message in the New Testament is so clear, repent and be saved. Salvation is for the penitent. Salvation is for those who repent. And the redemption, the word redemption there is the same word that means to pay the ransom price that we have about the sin atoning sacrifices in Exodus 13, 13, Leviticus 27, 27 and talking about the atoning for sins.
How are we, who is redeemed? The repenters are redeemed. In what manner are they redeemed? The ransom price is paid. That's how they're redeemed. Notice it's in the future tense. Notice it's in the future tense.
Zion shall be redeemed with justice. As you read through the Old Testament from Deuteronomy 7 verse 8 to Nehemiah chapter 1 verse 10, doesn't matter what century you're in, the word of the scribes, the word of the teachers is time and again, the Lord redeemed you, past tense.
The Lord has redeemed you, Israel. He brought you up out of Egypt. So time and again in addressing Israel, they were redeemed past tense. There was something that happened way back in the past and that was them being brought up out of Egypt.
And of course, what did they celebrate as they left Egypt? Passover, right? Passover, where the blood price was paid, right? The lambs were killed. The blood was placed over the door mantles. So God said time and again, I redeemed you.
I have redeemed you past tense. I brought you up out of Egypt. Now here they're saying, no, Zion shall be redeemed. I thought they already were redeemed. Time and time and again, God says, I have rescued you, brought you up out of slavery.
I have redeemed you. I have redeemed you. What is this I will business? Because there was another Passover to come. There was another Passover in the future. There was a Passover to come that fulfilled all the Passovers previously where God's lamb, his blood was shed and he was on the cross dying for the sins of his people.
And Zion, from Isaiah's perspective, Zion shall be redeemed with righteousness. Zion shall be redeemed by the payment of the ransom price. And he is saying of something that is yet to come. Old covenant Jerusalem had already been redeemed in the sense of being brought up out of Egypt and made God's covenant people in the wilderness.
That had already happened. But that old covenant was a shadow and pointing to something else. A redemption yet to come where Christ, who is the lamb of God, would die upon the cross and redeem for himself that people who would then be known as the new covenant Jerusalem.
As he said, this is the new covenant in my blood. This is the new covenant in my blood. So, man's righteousness and justice so often attended with man's wrath does not redeem, cannot satisfy, cannot create the righteous and just city.
But we're not redeemed with corruptible things like silver or gold. But we are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 1 Peter 1 .19. So there's our attention.
There's our hope. There's our focus.
Okay.
Praise God. We've got three verses in. Keep praying for me. We may get four or five next time. Who knows? Let's close by singing the...
