Waiting Patiently and Humbly

25, we'll be closing off this chapter this afternoon. Isaiah 25 has been in this section where Isaiah is summarizing all the oracles that have come before, talking about both the salvation and the judgment that God will bring, talking about how

God will save those who trust in him. We've seen the the joy that he gives to his servants.

Today, I would like us to particularly consider what does it actually mean to trust God? What characterizes trusting in God and waiting on him?

This is a passage that addresses that in a number of ways, so I'd like to consider that this afternoon.

Please stand for the reading of God's word. I'll begin in verse 6 of Isaiah 25.

On this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well -aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.

He will swallow up death forever, and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth.

For the Lord has spoken, it will be said on that day, behold, this is our

God. We have waited for him that he might save us. This is the Lord, we have waited for him.

Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in its place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.

And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim. But the

Lord will lay low his pompous pride, together with the skill of his hands, and the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

You may be seated. Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word, the call it gives us to trust in Christ, and the great promise it gives us that that in trusting in him we will find great riches.

I pray that you would help us to trust in him today, that we would trust wholly and fully, and that you would grow that that trust that has been planted by the

Holy Spirit. In Jesus' name, amen. So, as I've said, this is a passage about trusting in the

Lord. In particular, it says that there will come a day where people will say that they have waited for him.

We have waited, and this is what we have received, we have waited, and this is what has happened. So what does it mean to wait for the

Lord? And I think two takeaways from this passage are that waiting, is that waiting for the Lord is characterized by humility and patience, or patience and humility.

That to wait for the Lord, to trust in God, is characterized by patience and humility.

So just consider what that waiting for the Lord looks like in this first verse.

It will be said, on that day, behold, this is our God. We have waited for him that he might save us.

This is the Lord. We have waited for him. Let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation. So what day does this speak of?

Well, we've looked at a lot of on that day in this passage, and as I have said many times, this refers both to the first coming of Christ and to the second coming of Christ.

We've seen that some of the verses that are here in Isaiah, in this section of Isaiah, have been cited in the

New Testament or alluded to in the New Testament to refer both to Christ's first coming and to his second coming.

So this addresses both of these things in turn. So there are people who had to wait for Christ in his first coming.

We sit in a very privileged position where we do not have to wait for this. The end of Hebrews 11 talks about how privileged of a position that is, but as it describes in Luke 2 for Simeon that he was one who waited for the consolation of Israel.

See, Israel was ruled by many different nations, and it was awaiting consolation. It was waiting for the the giving of the king that would deliver it, and they did not know what shape this king would take, whether he would deliver it exactly in the way they expected or something different.

They didn't know what exactly to anticipate, but the difference between those who are truly sons of Abraham by faith and those who are only sons by the flesh that Jesus said were of their father the devil, the difference between the two is that one was waiting for the consolation of Israel and the other was not.

The other was satisfied with what they had and was not awaiting the Lord. They were not patient.

They were not looking for something more. Now we live in a time where we are anticipating the return of Christ once again, and as such, we must wait patiently for the

Lord. We must look forward to his coming, and one day we will behold.

But the fact of the matter is that since Christ has already come, there is a sense in which we can behold him even though we don't see him face to faith as we one day will.

We can rejoice that we have already received this great salvation given at the hands of Jesus Christ who has purchased it for us, and so we are able to with them declare, behold, this is our

God, and yet at the same time await the day when we will declare once again, behold, this is our

God. We have waited. Now this is a, this is a wonderful thing to draw people into, to want to share with others.

Imagine Yosemite. You know, you can tell somebody about Yosemite all you want, but can they really understand the grandeur until they either at least see a picture or go there and experience it in person?

Maybe something like that, but I would say in general the answer is no. Now this is so much more the case with God and with his salvation.

You can tell somebody about the salvation of Jesus Christ, but it is through the working of the

Holy Spirit and the Word that allows them to experience that salvation, to truly behold the face of Jesus Christ, and this is what we are likewise awaiting.

We should give thanks to the Lord, we should praise him for his salvation, and we should behold him and call others to behold him as well.

Now as we see this and as we wait for the salvation, consider, consider the implications of what this means for delaying and having delayed gratification.

Okay, there is asceticism in the world. It's a common way that people address the apparent contradiction between hedonism, right?

What kind of things people really invest in that don't accomplish anything, and they go far off to another end, they impose a self -made religion.

That is not, that is not delayed gratification. That is not self -control that the

Bible speaks of. However, there are some who have spoken of a reformed asceticism, an asceticism that's not based on just arbitrary rules, but instead understanding that we must wait for Christ, that we must be engaged in delayed gratification, knowing that we will not have what we want until he returns.

So examples of this would be, one very good example would be prayer.

Is someone truly waiting on the Lord if they are not going to God in prayer?

Additionally, you see people fall into temptations because they are not willing to wait for God's answer. Rather, they want to gratify themselves at that moment.

They want to satisfy their own desires. This is why many turn to pornography, because it will satisfy them now, and they don't trust in the

Lord, that rather it is better for a man to be joined to his wife and not go to any other. We are, as people, depraved, fallen in Adam, like animals.

Animals who only do what their senses immediately tell them to do, and having no higher thought.

My kids have some mice. They're these snacks that they sell for the mice that they call cheese snacks, right?

And they're these little things that look like yellow Hershey kisses, and it turns out they're not really cheese snacks.

They're just pretty much straight sugar, right? And so the mice, if you give these things to them, of course they'll eat this and only this, and it's terrible for their health.

It's not actually improving their well -being, but yet they will go to this because their senses tell them this is what is best, and they don't have any higher thinking about it.

If Christ has set you free, if he has given you his revelation, if he has told you what to wait for, we should not be like animals following our basest senses, but rather should wait on the

Lord, knowing that what he has told us is far greater and far better, and that, yeah, there's no cause just to listen to our own senses, which are going to lie to us about what is best.

There's a common science experiment. I believe I've mentioned this before, but there's this common science experiment or psychology experiment with children, where they put a marshmallow in front of a child and then leave it there and say, if you don't eat this,

I'll give you a whole cup of marshmallows later, and it's supposed to be some kind of determiner whether or not this child will succeed in life if he is willing to wait for the big cup of marshmallows or if he just goes for the marshmallow immediately.

I have heard one person say that Christians are like the kid that goes for the marshmallow immediately, that they want to have all the answers right now.

They're not willing to figure out things through science, that they are just impatient.

Nothing could be further from the truth. It is rather the world that wants their senses gratified now, that is not willing to wait for the

Lord, that wants to believe that they understand things well enough now and that they have no need for another, but of course that is not the case.

We must recognize that God is higher than us, that he knows what is better for us, and that if he has called us to wait for him and to delay our own gratification, to reject the desires of our flesh and trust in him that we should do so, and it pays out.

It pays so well. It says, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

People are filled with a great joy when they receive the salvation from the Lord. Even one who has already been saved and as they trust in the

Lord and as they receive his deliverance from various trials, again and again they can say, let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is not something to be experienced once or in the past or once in the future, but something that we can experience again and again as we trust in the

Lord and wait for his salvation. This is continued, Isaiah continues to characterize this reward for trusting in the

Lord. In verse 10, for the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain and Moab shall be trampled down in his place.

The enemies of God are defeated and God's people are protected. His hand is over them.

It is on this mountain. Now we've talked about this mountain many times in this passage. It's kind of a repeating motif through here, speaking of Zion, which as the

New Testament says, represents the church of God. So the people of Israel, as they trusted in God, he protected their city.

For the church, as they trust in him, he protects them. God protects his people.

Trusting in him pays great, great dividends. So trusting in the

Lord is characterized by patience. It is also characterized by humility.

In fact, I would say that these two are different sides of the same coin.

They're more or less different aspects of the same thing. Why would someone, why would someone patiently wait?

It's because they humbly acknowledge that another knows better. Right?

Why is it that someone would impatiently do something? It's because they think that they know better.

So it says in verse 10, And Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill.

And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it, as a swimmer spreads out his hands out to swim.

But the Lord will lay low his pompous pride, together with the skill of his hands. And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

Why is Moab in particular mentioned here? Why not any of the other nations? Well, as it says right here, it is his pride.

Now, many of the other nations were proud, of course, as well. But Moab is particularly characterized by his pride.

In fact, several of the things that are said here were said earlier in the oracle against Moab in chapter 7.

Isaiah 6, excuse me, 16 .6 says, We have heard of the pride of Moab, how proud he is of his arrogance, his pride, and his insolence.

In his idle boasting, he is not right. Moab is an especially proud people.

And so God, in showing and contrasting a people who would trust in him patiently, humbly, and a people who is proud, who think they have no need for the

Lord, he chooses the people of Israel, the people of Moab, to compare to each other and shows that God will defeat one, he will raise up the other, he will protect

Israel from the pride of Moab. And he does this in particular with another motif, a very centralized one right here.

He speaks of hands. Notice he had just spoken of the hand of the Lord. But then he says, talks about him spreading out his hands,

Moab spreading out his hands. He talks about the skill of his hands. What is the skill of Moab's hands?

Well, for one, it's talking about his great fortifications, all the various walls that he builds around his city.

Moab trusts in those, that those will keep him safe, that his spears and his shields, that they will be able to conquer the enemy, nothing else will defeat them.

That's what many people think. They think that they can build structures in their own lives that will protect them. They think they can have stability, whether it be through their career, whether it be through some kind of relationship that they have.

Every last thing someone tries to put their trust in, if it is not eternal and unchanging, it is incredibly, incredibly fragile.

You know, I generally trust my own body to do the things it's supposed to do, but I am always surprised every time

I get some kind of ankle injury or something and I'm out for, out of commission for six weeks.

It's just incredible how fragile even something you trust in every day, like your own body, is.

And so God, in humbling Moab, takes these works of his hands and casts them down.

One of those other works, not just the walls, but the idols. These are another thing that Moab has created. Moab has created idols to trust in.

Now, today there are still idols. Many different cultures worship idols.

We're in an international area where there are idols, but most of people's idols today are simply the things that they trust in, right?

They are, once again, career or something else. They are the work of their hands.

See, people want something they can see. This is why God outlawed idolatry. He wants the people to truly trust in him, apart from seeing him directly.

He wants them to have eyes of faith that truly appreciate him and not just, not just being able to see physically what he has done.

Once again, why do people, why do people forgo prayer? They don't see anything come out of prayer, right?

Prayer takes time. You don't get immediate results. Why don't people spend time in the Word of God? Well, they don't see it immediately changing their heart.

They want to go to things that they do see immediately change something. They want to go mow their lawn because it's the lawn that, once they mow the lawn, they can see that something's been done.

It's very easy to go to tasks where you can see that something has been accomplished. The things that the

Lord has given us, they're things where we have to trust by faith, leaning on the promises of God to know that he actually is accomplishing something through it.

You know, I come up here every week and I preach, not knowing what God is doing through it, but trusting that he has said his

Word will not return void, that it will accomplish its purposes. I would only be willing to do this if I, if I did not know that that was true.

I don't know if I would be willing, but I come up here every week knowing that God will accomplish something through his Word. Now, God takes those hands of Moab, that he has put his pride in, and God humbles them, and he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim, as a swimmer spreads out his hands to swim.

Do you know what's being pictured there? A swimmer, or maybe not even a swimmer, someone treading water, kind of flailing around.

He seems to be being mocked. This is describing prayer. Moab is praying to his gods.

First Timothy 2 talks about men spreading out holy hands to God, lifting holy hands to God in prayer.

This is Moab calling out to his gods, flailing around, hoping that their gods will do something, but their gods will do nothing.

Once again, in the oracle against Moab, in chapter 16, it says in verse 12, and when

Moab presents himself, when he wearies himself on the high place, the high place being where their temples are, when he has come to a sanctuary to pray, he will not prevail.

The works of his hands fail him, not only his fortresses, his shields, and his spears, but additionally, even his gods fail him.

And so God has taken the work of his hands, and he has taken these hands that were so proud, and turned them into humble hands that are flailing around, uncertain what to do, calling out to gods that won't avail anything.

And all this in comparison with the hand of the Lord that should have been trusted in, the hand of the

Lord that rests on Zion. So if you trust in your own hands, they are weak, they are so weak, but the hand of God holds the entire world.

God's hands are so much more powerful. We must trust in his hands rather than our own.

And so all these things are brought to the ground because Moab has trusted in them rather than in the

Lord. You see, you've got these two things of patience and pride, impatience and humility.

Impatience and humility are what characterize trusting in the Lord. Now as we consider our own lives and trusting in the

Lord, I want to assure you that what the Bible is describing is not that the one who truly trusts in the

Lord has a full trust that does not back down in any sense. Rather, Christ forgives us for even our lack of trust in him.

The one who trusts in the Lord at all has a saving trust. The one who trusts in God at all will be saved on that final day for Christ has died for even the sin of failing to trust, for the sin of pride, all kinds of things.

So we don't have to worry about not having perfectly trusted him.

Rather, we can come to him and we can say, I believe, help my unbelief. We can come to Christ and we can plead for him to give us more faith.

And what I want to call you to today is not to beat yourself up over not having enough trust in Christ, but rather to show you what characterizes trust so that you can engage in patience and humility and fully appreciate what

Christ has done and fully appreciate the blessings that come from that full, complete trust.

When I was in high school, my parents purchased a, trying to think,

I think the house was built in 1865, and this is in Virginia, so this is, that's like Civil War era, right?

And this was a Civil War, or a southern colonel's home that they had purchased, and we were renovating it, and I forget how old

I was, I guess I was probably 13 or 14, yeah, 14 year old, and we would have to break down the walls.

These are old horsehair plaster walls and stuff, and there was a lot of things that we were wrecking, and anyway, one of the things that needed to get taken down at some point was a fireplace, and the fireplace is made out of bricks, etc.

It was pretty cool because you could, a lot of times when we would break stuff down, we would find old treasures in it, like there was a

World War II medal, all kinds of really interesting things would be found in this house, and my father told me to wait until the, until he could figure out how to, what to do with this fireplace before knocking it down, and I didn't wait.

I thought, well, you know, this looks like fun, it seems easy enough, I can just do it myself, and so, you know, I'd knock out the bricks with hammers, and when he realized

I had done this, of course, he was upset, talked to me about it, and told me how much damage it could do if, it's unstable, right?

You could knock down the bottom ones, and the whole wall of bricks could fall down on you, and I've seen videos of this, of people knocking out bricks, and the whole wall crashes, and, you know, they're barely saved, if they're saved.

Anyway, this is, this is a good picture of pride, a good picture of impatience. I wanted that thing now.

I thought I knew best, but I didn't. My father knew what was better, and I should have patiently waited.

Same thing with Christ. All the temptations that we experience in this life, where our animal senses tell us that this is better right now, let's just go for this right now.

You know what's best. We do not know what's best. God is omniscient. He knows everything.

He is far above us. Do not give in to temptation, but wait on the

Lord. Trust in Him. He will bring you through every trial. Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for the wonderful sacrifice of Christ. We thank you for the mind that you have given us by your

Spirit. I pray that with that mind, we would be ones who trust, with patience, with humility, and that you would not give us over to animal senses, but that we would rather, with higher, with a higher mind, obey your will, and that we would be richly rewarded for these things.

Lord, we look forward to the reward that you give, knowing that you have called us to, that that is what real faith is, is knowing that you are a rewarder of those who seek you, as it says in Hebrews 11 6.