FBC Adult Sunday Bible Study

give her grace as well. So, Lord, meet with us in this hour and teach us, we pray, and we ask these things in Jesus' name, amen.

Well, when it comes to the matter of justice, we live in a world of great contradiction, don't we?

On the one hand, for example, the human heart, oh, all of us, everybody, has an intrinsic desire for justice to be done.

I was just driving the other day, came up to a stoplight, and the car in front of me had a bumper sticker on the back that said, justice for so -and -so and so -and -so.

I have no idea who the people were, I have no idea what the issue is. But clearly, the person driving that vehicle was concerned that these two individuals, probably one of which, at least, was a loved one, had suffered some kind of injustice, and that person wanted to see justice.

But then I came across some articles this week that remind us of that desire that we have within us for justice.

I saw one article where a 15 -year -old girl died on the bathroom floor of her high school, and a couple of other kids were also seriously injured and hospitalized because of fentanyl overdoses, being afflicted by the fentanyl crisis that's going on in our country, because of the open borders, right?

And so we long for justice to be inflicted upon those who are purveyors of this fentanyl stuff.

Another article I read pointed out that a large number of the accused January 6th rioters languish in prison, they have no opportunity for bail, in contrast to what we're doing in our state beginning

January 1st, eliminating cash bail, so that people can just walk away after they've been accused of something.

But these people are still in prison, some of them being treated very brutally by their captors, and in contrast to that, we all watched nightly as people were rioting and burning buildings and inflicting harm on other people, and looting, hurting, and even attacking police officers, and they just went home after that, or went back to their little encampment in the middle of Seattle or whatever, receiving no punishment at all.

Where's the justice in that? See, we see those things and we say, where is the justice?

We want justice, on the one hand. On the other hand, to bring up the idea that God is a

God of justice, and that God will judge the world, and that he has, and that he has judged nations, and he brought a cataclysmic judgment upon this creation, and that he will do so again, and that he brings judgment even on individuals.

You just mentioned those ideas, and you're going to be met from some people with an angry retort.

What kind of God is that? What kind of God would be so mean as to treat people in such a way?

And of course, the answer to that question, what kind of God is a God who loves justice?

So today, we're in Isaiah chapters 24 through 27 in our study, and this is another few chapters that deal with the matter of God's judgment.

So what I'm going to do, first of all, just give an overview of these chapters, then we're going to come back and zero in on a couple of them.

So chapter 24, just some summary ideas.

Chapter 24 describes universal judgment that will extend even to the land itself, universal judgment that extends to the land itself.

Chapter 24 also highlights the way that the judgments from the past, the judgments that are recorded for us in history, are pointers to the final judgment that is yet to come at the end of time, chapter 24.

Chapter 25 tells us that at the end of time, God will vindicate

His people, and His people will enjoy an eternal feast in God's presence, and in that eternal feast in the presence of God, there will be no threat of death whatsoever.

Chapter 26, look with me at this chapter. Chapter 26, verse one, celebrates the refuge that God provides for His people.

Verse one of chapter 26 says, in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah.

We have a strong city. God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks.

But in verse nine, notice how it expresses a longing for God to come and vindicate

His reputation. Verse nine says, with my soul, I have desired you in the night.

Yes, by my spirit within me, I will seek you early, for when your judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

A longing for God to come and vindicate His name, and vindicate His reputation.

This chapter ends in verses 20 and 21 with an allusion to the

Passover of Israel's departure from Egypt.

So verse 20 says, come, my people, enter your chambers and shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation is passed.

See how that is an allusion to that Passover night. For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity.

The earth also will disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain.

We'll say more about the last of that verse in a little bit. But then chapter 27.

Chapter 27 begins with the defeat of Leviathan. It says, in that day, the

Lord, with His severe sword, great and strong, will punish Leviathan, the fleeing serpent. Leviathan, that twisted serpent.

And he will slay the reptile that is in the sea. Well, this obviously is not speaking literally of some kind of a sea creature that the

Lord is going to destroy, but Leviathan is representative of the forces of chaos.

He symbolizes the forces of chaos, and God is going to defeat those forces of chaos.

And then in verses two to six, God is going to renew the vineyard that earlier had proved fruitless.

Remember back in chapter five, we looked at this several weeks ago, God's people were represented by a vineyard that God had planted and He had done everything to care for it and expected that they would bring forth grapes, of course, but they brought forth wild grapes that were worthless and so forth.

So God destroyed that vineyard. It was a fruitless vineyard. But now in verses two to six of chapter 27,

God is going to renew that vineyard that had proved earlier to be fruitless.

And this, of course, points to Jesus, right? Jesus says, I am the vine, you are the branches, and in me you will bear much fruit.

And then finally, chapter 27 describes God's judgment in verses seven through 11 against Judah but in verse 13,

He promises that God will gather His people back to His holy mountain.

Look at verse 13, it shall be in that day, the great trumpet will be blown, they will come who are about to perish in the land of Assyria, they who are outcasts in the land of Egypt and shall worship the

Lord in the holy mount at Jerusalem. So God will bring His people back to His holy mountain.

All right, so let's go back to chapter 24 and look at chapter 24 in a little more detail.

In chapter 24, Isaiah prophesies that God is going to bring a universal judgment.

This is one of those truths of Scripture that is absolutely mocked and decried in our contemporary society, as if we are a bunch of chicken littles going around claiming the sky is falling, the sky is falling to say that God is eventually going to bring a universal judgment.

Now last week, we looked at chapters 13 to 23. In those 11 chapters, the prophet delivered a series of prophecies of judgment against individual nations that were surrounding

Israel. All right, so we read about judgments against Babylon, Assyria, Philistia, Moab, Aram, or Syria, Cush, Egypt, Edom, Arabia, Tyre, and just one by one, the prophet spoke these prophecies of judgment against these different nations.

But now in chapters 24 through 27, Isaiah's vision of God's coming judgment expands to the devastation of the whole earth.

All right, so look at some of these contrasts. The judgments in chapters 13 to 23, they are pointers to the global judgment that is yet to come.

Look at verse one of chapter 24. It says, behold, the

Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste. This is some of the same kind of language that was used of these individual nations.

Now he says, the Lord makes the earth empty and makes it waste. He distorts its surface and scatters abroad its inhabitants.

This is speaking of the whole earth. The judgments in chapters 13 to 23 were localized.

As I said, they focused on individual nations. The judgments to come are universal and are going to affect everyone.

Look at verse two. He says, it shall be as with the people, so with the priest.

The religious pious are not going to be excluded from this coming judgment.

As with the servant, so with his master. Those who have power and authority are not going to escape.

It's not going to affect just the little people. As with the maid, so with her mistress.

As with the buyer, so with the seller. As with the lender, so with the borrower.

As with the creditor, so with the debtor. You see what Isaiah's doing.

You see what the Lord is communicating through Isaiah, his prophet. By using these polar opposites, these ends of the spectrum, it includes everybody.

It is an all -inclusive, universal judgment that will not only affect everyone.

Look at verse three. It will affect everything. The land shall be entirely emptied and utterly plundered for the

Lord has spoken his word. In other words, creation itself is going to be affected by this universal coming judgment.

Look at verses four through six. The earth mourns and fades away.

The world languishes and fades away. The haughty people of the earth languish.

The earth is also defiled under its inhabitants. Sometimes the

Bible speaks of the earth as standing for all of the people in it. But here, clearly, there's a separation.

There's a distinction. The earth is defiled under its inhabitants because they, the inhabitants, have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant, devoured the curse.

Therefore, the curse has devoured the earth and those who dwell in it are desolate. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men are left.

Creation itself is affected. Look at verse 19. The earth is violently broken.

The earth is split open. The earth is shaken exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard and shall totter like a hut.

Its transgressions shall be heavy upon it and it will fall and not rise again.

Creation itself will be affected. So God's judgment, verse 18 tells us, is a relentless judgment.

Look at verse 18. It shall be, and it shall be, that he who flees from the noise of the fear, thinking he can escape, shall fall into the pit.

And he who comes up from the midst of the pit, as if he can escape from, you know, destruction in the pit, he who escapes from the pit shall be caught in the snare, for the windows from on high are open and the foundations of the earth are shaken.

This judgment is relentless. It is indeed terrible to behold this judgment that God is going to inflict upon all of creation.

But the reason for this very graphic and awful to behold description of this coming judgment, the reason for it is just to shake us from our complacency.

And we are a complacent people. I'm speaking universally here when it comes to the idea of the judgment of God.

We don't look at anything as if it is God's hand against us.

Whether it's a war or some kind of natural disaster, some kind of cataclysmic event, we don't look at anything.

You know, the chaos in the land, the division of peoples and the hostility and the anger and all of the rest of it, we don't look at anything as if it is judgment from the

Almighty. We are very complacent about such a notion. And one of the reasons that God uses the language that he does is to shake us from that complacency, to confront us with the reality of it.

But we should also notice that this relentless judgment is not, it's not on a whim, it's not indiscriminate, it's not arbitrary.

God's judgment on the planet and all its inhabitants is the reaction of his holiness to our sin.

It's the reaction of his holiness to our sin. Look at verse five here of chapter 24.

Again, we read it a minute ago. He says, the earth is defiled under its inhabitants because they, the inhabitants, have transgressed the laws.

What laws? Not the laws of men, but the laws of God. They changed the ordinance.

What ordinance? The ordinance of God. They have broken the everlasting covenant.

What is that? What is this everlasting covenant? This is the covenant that God established with man at creation.

It's the covenant that is written in the tables of our heart that we know exists.

It's the one that Paul speaks of in Romans chapter two, in verse 14 and 15, when he talks about people that don't even know

God, don't have any interest whatsoever in yielding to him or listening to him or accepting

Christ, but he speaks in verse 14 of the Gentiles who do not have the law.

They don't have the Old Testament law, but they by nature do the things in the law.

These, although not having a law, are a law unto themselves. Okay, so for example, you ever get into a conversation like this with somebody where you're trying to argue the existence of the

God of the Bible and the legitimacy of his word, and you argue with them to the point where you say something like this.

Okay, look, if there is no God, then there are no moral absolutes, and if there are no moral absolutes, then the idea of writing laws in this world, it's ridiculous because it's all up to the arbitrary whim of people, and such a person will respond, proving the point of the existence of the creator without knowing it and say, well, no, we just as a people, as a humanity, we have a certain intrinsic understanding that some things are just heinous.

Some things are just wrong. Murder is just wrong. Well, how do we know it's wrong?

I mean, God's word says thou shalt not murder, but you throw that out, you don't have it, then do we throw out our moral absolutes of God's law, therefore it's all the wild west?

Anything goes? No, no, no, no, no, they argue. We don't need God, we don't need the Bible, we just know intrinsically as a race that certain things are just wrong.

Rape is wrong, murder is wrong. Why is it that we as a human race have such a understanding?

That's the everlasting covenant. That's the everlasting covenant. God has put within the human heart a consciousness of what is right and wrong.

And not in certainly in all the details that are to come in God's revelation of the moral law, but nevertheless, there is the basics.

And the point of this judgment in Isaiah 24 verse five is that that everlasting covenant has been broken.

Man knows within his own heart that certain things are wrong, certain things are right, and yet he breaks it anyway.

Indeed, what does the scripture tell us? All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

The reason for a universal judgment is universal sin.

And as I mentioned earlier, this relentless judgment of God affects even the earth itself.

Verse six says, the curse has devoured the earth, and those who dwell in it are desolate.

The curse has devoured the earth. Tim Chester writes this, he says, it is as if, especially looking at verse 21, is it?

No, chapter 26, I think it is verse 20, yeah, chapter 621, where it says, the earth will also disclose her blood.

Chester writes this, it is as if the blood of human violence has drained into the soil and the earth bears it like a scar.

The dead have been buried in the ground, but they cry out from the grave like the blood of Abel crying out for justice.

So one day, the prophet tells us, here in chapter 26 verse 21, one day the earth is going to turn on us.

The earth will also disclose her blood and will no more cover her slain.

All right, now, I mean, I'm thinking about, for example, some of these bodies that have been discovered in barrels in the bottom of, is it

Lake Mead or Lake Powell? You know, where the drought has drained so much of that water. Barrels are showing up, and they look in those barrels and they find bones buried in that lake for years, decades, some 50 years or more, maybe, and have said nothing, but there's somebody who committed murder.

The earth knows, this is the imagery here, the earth knows, and the earth will disclose her blood.

So one day, the earth is going to turn on us. Now, as it is right now, we understand this, creation already endures

God's curse. From Genesis chapter three, man now has to do his work under the sweat of the brow, dealing with the curse of thorns and thistles and so forth.

And Romans 8 tells us that the whole earth groans, waiting for its liberation from that curse.

Interestingly, Israel, in the Old Testament Israelite, Israel was supposed to be a picture of the liberation of the earth from its curse, right?

Israel was supposed to be inheriting a land flowing with milk and honey as it enjoyed the blessing of God.

As God's people lived in harmony with God, they were to experience the blessing of God in a land that flows with milk and honey, a picture of the curse being reversed.

But that didn't last very long, did it? It didn't last any longer than the city of Jericho.

No sooner were they in there and the walls came down than already sin is affecting the land.

And it just spiraled from there. To the extent that, and to the point that, eventually

Israel's sin would be so great that whether you're talking about the nation as a whole, all the tribes, or you divide it up between Israel to the north,

Judah to the south, that sin of Israel's so great, the idolatry, the turning from God and everything else, that her judgment and land were devastated.

Judgments that were accomplished by the Assyrians and the Babylonians. Of which we've already looked at earlier.

Now all of this that Isaiah is prophesying is pointing forward to a final judgment that we even read about in 2

Peter. We're gonna get to this in a few weeks in our study in Peter. But in 2 Peter 3, verse 10, it says, "'The day of the

Lord will come as a thief in the night, "'in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, "'and the elements will melt with fervent heat.

"'Both the earth and the works that are in it "'will be burned up.'" Or literally, they'll be laid bare.

It's like Isaiah said, the earth will disclose her blood. The earth and everything in it is going to be laid bare.

Therefore, verse 11 says, "'Since all these things will be dissolved, "'what manner of persons ought you to be?'

So this prophecy of Isaiah is pointing forward to a final judgment that even in the

New Testament, the prophets, Peter here in this case, look forward to, look forward to.

But that's not the end of the story because 2 Peter 3, verse 13 says, "'Nevertheless, we who are

God's people, "'according to his promise, look for new heavens "'and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.'"

When God gathers all of his people together on that holy mountain, if you will.

So it's not the end of the story. All right, so how should we respond to the prospect of God's punishing the people of the earth?

How should we respond to that? Answer, in song, in song.

In Isaiah 24, 24 through 27, these four chapters are interspersed with songs.

So look at verses one, well, look at verse 14 of chapter 24. Verse 14 says, "'They shall lift up their voice, they shall sing.

"'For the majesty of the Lord, "'they shall cry aloud from the sea.'" Lift up their voice and sing.

Chapter 25 that we're gonna look at here in more detail in a moment, the entire chapter is a song.

In chapter 26, verses one to 18, it's a song, look at verse one.

It says, "'In that day this song will be sung in the land of Judah.'" So how do we respond to the prospect of God bringing judgment upon the people of the world, of the earth?

We sing, we sing to God. Chapter 25, let's look at chapter 25 in a little greater detail.

Do you remember what a chiasm is in the scripture? It's a structure, it's a literary structure.

It's the way the words are written. The sentences are structured or formed.

A chiasm basically takes a set of verses, in this case, chapter 25, it's 12 verses.

And the first set and the last set are parallel. Then the second set and the next to the last set are parallel.

And then there's a set or a verse in the middle that serves as the focal point of that particular song or that particular chapter or that particular group of verses.

So here in chapter 25, verses one to three, parallel verses 10 to 12.

Verses four and five, parallel verse nine. And verses six through eight are central.

They contain the heart of the message of this song. So let's look at this chiasm.

The first part of the chiasm, we sing praise to God for the great reversal, for the great reversal.

In chapter 24, God warns of judgment to come. And therefore, in chapter 25,

God's people sing his praise. They sing his praise. Now listen, why would we sing his praise when we see destruction?

Because it is a deeply intuitive and instinctive response.

You don't get what I'm saying? All right, think of it like this. How do you respond when you see a bad guy get off the hook?

Maybe on some technicality or whatever. How do you respond? Don't you get, what in the world?

How in the world, right? On the other hand, how do you respond when the good guy in some story or a movie, when a good guy wins and the bad guy is defeated or punished or even executed?

How do you respond? Yes, the good guy wins. It's instinctive to us.

Again, Tim Chester writes this. He says, look across human history and across our world.

See the depth of human evil and the pain it has caused. A day is coming when

God will bring all of this to an end. God will declare, enough.

So at last, justice will be done. I just read yesterday about this mass grave that was uncovered in the

Ukraine where hundreds of bodies have been discovered in this mass grave.

And the article that I just, I didn't read the whole thing. I just saw a few highlights of it. Article pointed out that in this grave, there were the bodies of a family.

They found the bodies of a family, including a young child. You hear about that, you read about that kind of thing and you cry for justice.

And God says, the time is coming when I will say, enough, enough, and justice will be done.

Now regarding this great reversal that is coming, clearly God is behind it all.

So verse one says, oh Lord, you are my God. I will exalt you, I will praise your name for you have done wonderful things.

Your counsels of old are faithfulness and truth. And look at the first parallel, first part of verse 10.

For on this mountain, the hand of the Lord will rest.

The hand of the Lord will rest. The Lord is behind it all.

He is the one who is causing this great reversal. Verse two, you have made a city a ruin, a fortified city, a ruin, a palace of foreigners to be a city no more.

It will never be rebuilt. You have made this city a ruin. God causes the great reversal.

And the last part of verse 10 through verse 12. Moab shall be trampled down under him as straw is trampled down for the refuse heap.

He will spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim. He will bring down their pride together with the trickery of their hands.

The fortress of the high wall, high fort of your walls, he will bring down, lay low and bring to the ground down to the dust.

Notice the up and down language in this chiasm, in this section of the chiasm.

Moab will be trampled down. He will bring down their pride in verse 11.

Verse 12, he will bring down, bring to the ground, down to the dust. God will do this.

He will do this. Compare this with chapter 26, by the way, in verses five and six.

He, the Lord, brings down those who dwell on high. The lofty city, he lays it low.

He lays it low to the ground. He brings it down to the dust. The foot shall tread it down.

The feet of the poor and the steps of the needy. So note that up and down language.

Also notice in verse 11, the imagery of swimming. You see that? As a swimmer reaches out to swim, the whole first part of that verse, he will spread out his hands in their midst as a swimmer reaches out to swim.

What is the imagery of that? That just as a swimmer, think of an underwater swimmer, reaches out with his hands and pulls aside the water so that he can move himself forward.

The Lord will swipe away the pride and the arrogance as water is pushed away in a swimmer's stroke.

He causes the reversal. And how do we respond? Verse one, with praise.

I will exalt you. Literally, I will lift you up. So when

God brings down, we lift him up. We exalt him.

The people of the earth do not and will not exalt him.

So look at verse 11 of chapter 26. 26 says, Lord, when your hand is lifted up, they will not see.

So even when some of the prophecies of Isaiah's day were clearly being fulfilled, you know, the

Babylonian conquest and so forth, even when these things were clearly fulfilled,

God's people, the evil among those who claim to be the people of God, they would not see.

But we respond with praise. And we respond today in anticipation.

We respond with praise to our God, who is the God of judgment, in anticipation of what's coming.

So we praise God for the great reversal. The second part of this chiasm in verses four through five and then verse nine encourage us to trust

God to be our refuge, to trust God as our refuge.

So verse four speaks of him as a refuge. You have been a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress.

A refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat, for the blast of the terrible ones is a storm against the wall.

He is a refuge, a refuge from the desert storm. Those terrible sandstorms that rise up in the desert and engulf and swallow up everybody in its path.

A refuge from the brutal treatment of others, a shade from the heat.

He is a refuge from the pursuing enemy, the blast of the terrible ones.

He is a refuge. And verse five tells us that he is a refuge who delivers.

For you will reduce the noise of aliens as heat in a dry place, as heat in the shadow of a cloud.

The song of the terrible ones will be diminished. The Lord is a refuge who delivers.

In chapter 26, the prophet takes this theme up again of God our refuge as a safe city, a safe city.

Notice verses one and two. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city.

God will appoint salvation for walls and bulwarks. Open the gates that the righteous nation which keeps the truth may enter in.

A strong city, a safe city. But in reality, notice that this safe city is the

God in whom we trust. Look at verses three and four. These are some of our favorite verses and I'm sure many of us have committed these verses to memory.

You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you.

In other words, Lord, you, God, are our safe city. Trust in the

Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord is everlasting strength.

So also notice that we trust in God to be our refuge with a patient faith.

Here's the parallel verse, verse nine. Parallel to verses four and five, speaking of our refuge, is verse nine.

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

This is the Lord. We have waited for him. We will be glad and rejoice in his salvation.

This is our testimony in the end that we have looked to him as our refuge and found him to be faithful.

Again, Tim Chester writes this. He says, one day we will say we felt the heat.

We lived through the storm and we waited for God. The heat grew hotter and still we waited for our

God. The storm raged on, but still we waited for our God. We waited for him.

We waited for him, but we did not wait forever, nor did we wait in vain.

The storm has passed and a new creation has dawned. Let us rejoice and be glad in his salvation.

That's the second part of the chiasm. What's at the center of the chiasm? Verses six through eight. The central emphasis of this song is looking forward to victory.

Looking forward to victory. And in that victory, we will enjoy a victory feast, verses six and seven tell us.

It says, in this mountain, the Lord of hosts will make for all people a feast of choice pieces, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of morrow, of well -refined wines on the lees.

And he will destroy on this mountain the surface of the covering cast over all people and the veil that is spread over all nations.

This is a description of our future in Christ, a feast. A feast.

Now back in chapter 24, interestingly, three times, God's judgment declared that the earth would produce no wine.

Look at verses seven, nine, and 11 in chapter 24. Verse seven, the new wine fails, the vine languishes.

Verse nine, they shall not drink wine with a song. Verse 11, there is a cry for wine in the streets, but there is none to be had, no wine.

But now, and consequently, there's no song. Verse eight, chapter 24, the mirth of the tambourine ceases, the noise of the jubilant ends, the joy of the harp ceases.

There is no joy. And that's what the wine is symbolic of, the joy.

But this is not so among God's people, not among God's people. On this mountain, in chapter 25, verses six and seven, on this mountain, there will be a flowing of the wine and the singing of the songs of praise and rejoicing in this feast.

What does a feast speak of? You think of a feast, what do you think of? Don't you think of satisfaction?

I mean, there's an abundance. A feast isn't just a snack. A feast means there's a table that's spread and it is just overflowing with bounty.

It speaks of abundance. And a feast is not something you go to by yourself, is it?

A feast is something that you enjoy with other people. So a feast not only speaks of satisfaction, it speaks of communion.

When people gather around the table, you think of your Thanksgiving feast, for example, just to put this in perspective.

People gather around the table, they're enjoying company with one another, having conversations around the table.

A feast is a time of communion. It's also a feast, a feast also speaks of celebration.

There's something to celebrate. That's why we're having this feast. In Old Testament Israel, they had a variety of feasts that they were to celebrate.

Feast of unleavened bread, the feast of Passover, and so forth. And each of these had their purpose and had their function, but they all commemorated something.

They were all times of joy and celebration of thanksgiving unto the

Lord. But here in chapter 25, verses six and seven tells us there is a victory feast coming for the people of God.

A day of great satisfaction, of wonderful communion among God's people, a day of celebration for the victory.

And verse eight, to round this out, tells us it's a victory that will last forever.

These words are extremely poignant to us this week, aren't they? He will swallow up death forever.

Saw an awful lot of shedding of tears in the last 10 days, but the Lord will wipe away tears from all faces.

We who are God's people are experiencing in our nation an unprecedented level, although not nearly as bad as other places in history and all the rest that I get that, but there's an unprecedented level of disdain for those who would hold to faithful understanding of what

God has said about himself, about what he is like and what he likes. But the rebuke of his people, he will take away from all the earth, for the

Lord has spoken. We look forward to victory in this song, a victory over death, a victory over sorrow, a victory over humiliation, opposition, consternation.

God will come bringing a universal judgment and a universal vindication of his people.

And for that, we wait. I thank you, our Father, for this wonderful, encouraging section of prophecy from the book of Isaiah.

Blessed to our hearts, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. All right, we have about a dozen minutes till the service begins this morning, so I encourage you to prepare your hearts for the morning service.