The End Of Fury

Our scripture for today is found in Isaiah 10.

Isaiah 10, supposedly we can get reading in verse 20, although we

don't at the end of the chapter.

The preaching text is written in verse 24.

When you have that please scan the reading guide, you are able to scan it.

And then you can look in the Bible again.

How convenient.

In that day, the remnant of Israel and the survivors of the house of Jacob.

Will no more lean on him who struck them,.

But will lean on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.

A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.

For though your people issue against the land of the sea, only a remnant of the Lord will return.

Destruction is decreed, overflowing with righteousness.

For the Lord God of hosts will make a full end as decreed in the midst of all the earth.

Therefore, says the Lord God of hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion, be not afraid against

Israel when they strike at the rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

For in a very little while my fury will come to an end and my anger will be direct to their destruction.

The Lord of hosts will wield against them a whip as when he struck me at the rod of the Lord.

And his staff will be over the sea and he will lift it as he did in Egypt.

And in that day his burden will depart from your shoulder and his yoke from your neck.

And the yoke will be broken because of the bath.

He has come to Ayah.

He has passed through Micron.

At Micbash he stores his baggage.

They have crossed over the pass.

At Givat they watched the night.

Raman trembled.

Gibeah saw and fled.

Cry aloud to God, O God.

Give attention to Moriah.

O poor Anakkah.

Madmenna is in flight.

The inhabitants of Givat flee for safety.

This very day will cut it up.

He will shake his fist at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerusalem.

Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lock the bowels with terrifying power.

The great and the height will be hewn down and the lofting will be brought low.

He will cut down the bits of the forest with an axe and leave it alone.

The fall and the death will come.

You may be seated.

Dear Holy Father, I pray that you would consider this passage, that you would show us the truth that you have

for us here.

I pray that you would be with all the hearers of this word in your open heart and that you would receive your truth, joy, and I

pray that you would be with me and that you would give me words that clearly

expose that you have a body for us here.

In Jesus' name, amen.

In

the mid to late 1800s,.

There was a Spanish friar in the Philippines.

His name was Alonso de la Jave.

Alonso de la Jave was a fairly typical Spanish friar.

He would mount on his Spanish friar duties, praying his Spanish friar prayers.

And then one day, that all changed when he received a very valuable gift.

A captain of a ship that had come in the port of Manila gave him a Bible.

Now, there's little doubt in my mind that de la Jave had seen a Bible before.

However, this was a special Bible because it was actually in Spanish.

You see, at the time in the Philippines, because of Roman Catholic rule, they were not allowed to read the

Bible in any language other than Latin.

So Alonso de la Jave had never read the Bible before himself.

And so as he read the Bible, and he began to see the true Gospel, and he realized that

salvation came by grace through faith, not the verse, he began to teach this to the people of the Philippines, a little

north of Manila.

But as other friars found out, they told him to stop, and he refused to

stop, and he continued preaching the true Gospel.

And so they arrested him, and sent him to Spain, and he tried and executed it.

Now, I've often wondered what that voyage would be like on the ship going to Spain,

going to a certain death.

I don't know exactly how long the trip took back then, between the Philippines and Spain.

I imagine it was at least weeks, if not months.

And so there he is on the ship, headed to a certain death.

Now, what is he doing?

He must be praying to God asking for someone to help.

Now, anyone that's coming gets closer and closer and closer to Spain, but this trial doesn't

let up.

The oppression of those who he was seeking to execute for reading the Bible, for

preaching the Gospel, none of that is letting up.

But then, finally, when he made it to Spain, he received wonderful news.

Spain had become a republic, and so the wedding between the monarchy and the Roman

Catholic papacy had dissolved, and that power to execute him no longer was there in Spain.

So he was a free man, freer than we would have been if he had remained in the Philippines.

And then he used that freedom to begin translating the Bible into one of the native Philippine dialects.

I feel that this voyage that he was on is a good analogy for a lot of the trials

that we go through.

We're in this trial for a long period of time, we may pray, and yet there's no letting up until the last

moment.

I've gone through many trials in my life over the last few months, even years, and I don't know if I can bear it.

But God always provides a way of escape for his children.

And I know many of you are going through difficult things right now, especially because of the pandemic.

It imposes all kinds of financial concerns, all kinds of job concerns.

And these, of course, are not the only sorts of trials of depression that get to us.

We as a church are going through a difficult time right now.

Difficult time in figuring out how to go about worshiping God as we ought to in the midst of a pandemic, in the midst of

governments deciding what kinds of restrictions will they place on us.

And sometimes I wonder, how are we going to make it through this?

And we know that if we are God's children, he will provide a way of escape.

If we are his children, these trials will end.

And there is a world of difference between being in a trial, knowing that it will eventually end, and being in a

trial, knowing that it will eventually end.

The former is unbearable.

It's invisible.

The latter is perfectly bearable.

And this is what is addressed in this passage here in Isaiah 10.

In Isaiah 10, and in the previous passages, if you can remember, Assyria is

coming toward the land of Judah.

They have destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, and now they are threatening Judah

itself.

And the people don't know whether or not they will be able to make it through.

As they see God refraining from protecting them,

handing them over to Assyria, it doesn't appear they will escape.

And then God assures them.

That for those who are his children, he will find a way to escape, that he

will end the trial.

So, as we look at this passage, I would like us to see that God's trial will have an

end, and that knowing that end is there makes the trial perfectly bearable.

So we're going to see God's fury, we're going to see an end, we're going to see it be reversed against the enemies of

God's people, and then we're going to see the freedom that results from that.

So let's go ahead and begin here in this first verse where we see Assyria

becoming more and more of a threat to Judah, and God is going to assure them of this whole end on the

basis of his character, on the basis of his sovereignty and his care for his children.

Therefore, thus says the Lord God of hosts, O my people who dwell in Zion,

be not afraid of the Assyrians, for they strike with their rod and lift up their staff against you as the Egyptians did.

For in a very little while, my fury will come to an end.

And this is my day of ten, once again, if you've lost the time.

That's day ten, twenty -four, and twenty -five.

So it speaks of God's fury.

God's fury is that power by which sin is redeemed, and in this world all the pain and suffering that

we endure is God's fury.

Now, it might not be God's fury against our particular sin, if we're experiencing something, it might be a fury against

someone else's particular sin.

However, anything in this world that is pain and suffering is God's fury against sin.

And so, what end can there be to this?

God assures the people that they are his children, and they will remember him.

He says, O my people, to keep God's people is to have his name

attached to you.

You see, at the time people imagine there are various different gods, and these different gods have their different people,

and so if the people is defeated, that means that God is defeated.

And so if God is assuring the people that you are my people, that means that I will not be defeated,

therefore you will not be defeated.

And though the people may experience great destruction, they will not be defeated because they are his children.

And he says, you do not want Zion.

Zion being a rough city in Jerusalem, but particularly referring to the temple, to God's house, not only is God's name with the

people, his house is with the people, and he would not see his house destroyed.

So he assures the people, because of the relationship with him, because of their status as children, as his people, they can be

assured that this trial will end.

But that's not how it all feels when we're experiencing God's fury.

When we're experiencing God's fury, it's very difficult to see that he still loves.

When you feel God's fury, and you imagine that as being anger directed directly towards you,

it does not seem like God loves you, it doesn't seem like he has a good plan with what he's doing.

But yet the Bible says that if we are his children, then God's fury ultimately works for our good,

and it's not ultimately directed against us, it will be reversed against the enemy, and it's not

ultimately a harm to us, but for our good.

He also appeals to his proven character.

He says, do not be afraid of the Syrians, when they strike the rod, they're stacked against you as the Egyptians did.

The Egyptians were one of the people's greatest enemies throughout their history.

The Egyptians had enslaved people, and it seemed impossible that they would ever be taken away from us.

And yet God, out of his love for his children, out of his commitment for them, delivered them from the

Egyptians to the United States.

Indeed he appeals beyond his character, and his proven character, he appeals, perhaps most importantly of all,

to his sovereignty, to his power over all things, to control all things.

Just at the very beginning, he says, he calls himself Lord God of hosts.

Now we've spoken about this many times throughout this area, but as a reminder, be the Lord of hosts.

Hosts refer to armies.

A host is an army.

A host is multiple armies.

He is a great power of God, the full God, with many armies.

Armies of angels, greater than any human army that might be threatened, greater than this army of the Syrians.

And we've also seen God's sovereignty, in his definition of the rod and stack.

It says, when they strike with the rod, they lift up their stack against you.

Now, someone, for coming to this passage, might say, well, that doesn't sound like God's sovereignty.

That sounds like Assyrian sovereignty.

That sounds like Assyrian's power.

Isn't that paranoid?

Assyrian has power to conflict with people.

Yet, in context, Isaiah has already explained that that is not properly Assyrian's power.

That is God's power.

If you look back at verse 5, we covered this several weeks ago.

Verse 5, it says, Woe to Assyria!

The rod is in my hand.

The stack in their hands is in my fury.

Think about that for a minute.

This is not Assyria's power, the power by which they assault and threaten.

That is not their power, probably.

That is God's power that he has given on loan to them.

If you think of this as Assyria's power proper, that is perhaps less than God's power, but

on an equal playing, contending, competing with God's power, you might be

inclined to fear.

However, if you understand correctly that this is not a distinct

power outside of God that contends with him, but is instead his own power that is on

loan, well, that could be a great comfort.

That could be a great comfort to you.

Consider this.

In the 23rd Psalm, David was willing to say, Yea, though I go through the valley of the shadow of death,

I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rod and your stack, they comfort me.

But what rod and what stack was David experiencing in the valley of the shadow of death?

In the valley of the shadow of death, you're not experiencing a wonderful blessing before God, like he describes later in the psalm.

You are experiencing power in the hands of the enemies.

He is describing being afflicted in the valley of the shadow of death.

The way David experiences that rod and that stack is indirectly from

God, through his enemies, yet he finds it a comfort, knowing that all power is ultimately

God's.

Just like in this passage, the same rod and the same stack being healed by Assyria is ultimately God's.

And that can go from being something that puts us in great anxiety to something that assures us

great comfort because every time we see great power used against us, we see some oppression used

against God's people, we can be assured that is just a taste of God's own power because it is His

power, on loan to the enemy.

Whatever trials you have in your life, you might look at relationships, it seems so difficult, so impossible

because you can't do anything about it, the other person who needs to change, but yet,

whatever powers are in play in that relationship keep, the key things are being

amended, the key things are being harmonized.

These are not powers that are outside of God's control, these are His powers on loan.

Whatever oppression you may be going through, financially or work -wise because of the

current crisis, any of those things are not ultimately

powers outside of God, but His powers on loan, understood rightly, understood from God's perspective

where you are seeing His sovereignty at work, trusting in Him, knowing that He has some

purpose behind it.

Those powers can go from being a great consoler in anxiety to great comfort.

You can say to David, God wants to give value to you, to help you, your God, your staff,

your country.

God's fury has an end for His children, and if you know that and embrace it,

you make your child perfectly bearable.

Not only does God have fury at the end, but His fury will also be universally at the end and it will

turn away from the people, toward His enemies,

continually virtually together.

For a very little while, my fury will come to an end, and my anger will be directed to their destruction.

And when the war goes, we will only live against them a minute.

As a nation, we are meeting on the road of war, and instead of having to go to the sea, the sea will lift it,

as it did in Egypt.

When the fury will come to an end, and anger will be directed to their destruction, when we turn out of

Assyria's land, and then back on Assyria itself.

And then he describes, he offers a couple of examples, explaining what it will be like.

He says it will be like the Indian, it will be like Egypt.

I just spoke of Egypt, the people who were enslaved, the Egyptians, were led to safety by the Red Sea.

This is not just talking about the people being led to safety, this is talking about the destruction of the

enemies.

Remember, Moses lifted his hand twice, right?

Moses lifted his hand once, so that the sea would part, but then when we were on the other

side, Moses lifted his hand again.

And God, working through that sign, swallowed the Egyptians up into the sea to

feed their armies.

And with Gideon, this refers to Gideon's army of 300 men that defeated the

Midianites.

If you're not familiar with this story, what happened is, Gideon had a large

army, which he was going to fight the Midianites with, and God, through various means, told Gideon to whittle

down his army just to 300 men.

And with 300 men, they were able to defeat a large army of Midianites, not even by attacking them

directly, but just by shouting lightning torches.

And the Midianites all attacked each other and killed each other.

You see, in either of these situations, either Egypt or Midian, both of them are

marked by God's action without man's action, with only man's

nominal participation.

You know, lightning torches, raising the hand.

What God is saying is that the period will be reversed and it will be entirely His work,

entirely something that He is doing.

You see, this victory will not be accomplished by us

trusting in ourselves, operating ourselves, defeating the oppressive

powers that are against us.

Those oppressive powers are great, I've already explained why they're great, because their powers come from God Himself.

They are great powers.

We must trust in God to deliver us from them.

What is your go -to when you are oppressed?

Is it to try to fight the situation itself?

Or is it most immediately to trust in the Lord and He may require things of us.

Yes, He may ask us to do things, but ultimately, the victory is His, the battle is

His.

We must be going to Him prayer and relying on Him.

This reversed fury, this could be, once again, a great cause for comfort to God's

children.

Have you ever seen one of those action movies where at the beginning of the movie, the good guy is getting humbled by the bad guy,

and the good guy's got a smile on his face because he knows something that the bad guy doesn't, and the

bad guy is becoming more and more unnerved by the fact that the good guy is smiling and laughing at the

pummeling?

This could be your situation.

You don't have to be anxious, you don't have to be strong about the pummeling, because you know

that God's fury will be reversed onto the enemy.

Every power that oppresses us now, it will be reversed.

Whatever power.

Perhaps it's sin.

Sometimes sin is in your life that you struggle with.

And Satan accuses himself of heaping guilt on you, letting you know about the sin,

how shameful it is.

Yet you know, if you were a child of God, that this has already been taken care of, that Jesus Christ has already

provided forgiveness, and that power of accusation that Satan wields is

ultimately the power of God, because God is the one that people have to answer to, not him.

And when that power is reversed, what happens?

We are no longer the subject of the accusation, because we don't have forgiveness of Christ.

Rather, it is the enemy on the last day who will be accused,

and who will have to suffer.

Now, I'm not saying we should be convicted of our sin in this life, but as we suffer from guilt, we can

rest assured, knowing that that guilt was borne by

Christ on the cross, and that that power of accusation will turn away from us

against the enemy.

And so we don't have to suffer guilt in this world because we know that it is already been taken care of.

Now, this fury ending, being reversed in the end,

it then results in freedom.

And he speaks in freedom.

And then this 26th verse.

And then that day, the burden on the part of your shoulder and the yoke on your neck.

And the yoke, when broken, you can't lift it back.

And on this whole passage, beginning in verse 24, began with the therefore, right?

It's coming out of this previous passage, this previous passage, that said that destruction is a creed

overflowing with righteousness.

Letting us know that God has a purpose, and this fury is dealing with that.

He has a purpose, and this affliction is often directed at his own people.

And that good thing that he has as a purpose is his righteousness.

And here, it is described as freedom.

He speaks of the burden, the oppression of Assyria among Jews.

He speaks of yoke, referring to slavery, right?

A yoke is something you can put on a mouse.

It's an act to keep him, to keep him honest with the plow.

It is what makes the mouse a slave to his master.

So this is talking about oppression and slavery.

These things will break off.

And what it says, because of the fact, and in some translations, you say it in a way, you know, oil, fat,

it kind of has a different word.

Some people aren't exactly sure what this means, but either it means the idea of God's blessing,

either God's blessing in anointing, God's blessing that it makes a compound, or possibly,

and quite likely even, inaction, because of the

ox sitting there, not doing anything, once again, only having nominal participation in the victory,

and God doing, God accomplishing victory himself.

This is the means by which people will be liberated from their oppression and set

free.

Now, this whole time, I have been speaking about slavery, having this

assurance that these trials will end and we'll resolve in freedom.

So it's important to understand what it means to be a child of God, and where the power comes to become a child

of God.

This is not something that we were naturally born children of God.

Not everyone is a child of God.

We have no guarantee, naturally, that the trial should end.

There is no reason why God should let us free against those who are sitting against him.

Instead, that period is ending for a particular reason, because there is one who is

not a son of God, secondarily, or by some action, but naturally, a son of God.

And that one and only, special, primary son of God is Jesus Christ.

And when he came to earth, and became man, he suffered the same

trials and afflictions that we suffer.

He suffered the same things, and on the cross, he bore the ultimate fury

that was supposed to be directed towards sinners.

Now all those who are united with him are able to be a son of

God with Christ.

Not a son of God, he is the son of God.

But secondarily, we may be adopted into his kingdom and counted as sons of God, so

that that end of the fury that Christ purchased by living a sinless life

in suffering fury, whereas we would have otherwise lived a sinful life and then suffered fury forever.

But living a sinless life and suffering that fury, he purchased an end to it, he purchased a reversal of it, so that

that power of death, which is limited to him, is reversed.

So that death itself died, has no more power over him or over any who are

united with him, over any of his children.

This is what it means to be a child of God.

If you do not have that relationship with Christ where you have trusted in him, become united with him,

so that you can be a son of God, you can be a child of God.

If you do not have that, there is no assurance the trials will end.

They will go on and on and on, not just in this life, they will continue on for all

eternity.

But if you are found in Jesus Christ, trusting in his

sacrifice, as if you only need his salvation as a sufficient offering

to take away fury, you can have great assurance your trials will

end, that that fury will be reversed, that you will have a great,

great freedom.

And that freedom is something that you can begin experiencing now in this life as you are assured of the future that Christ already

accomplished.

And if you think about the way this often plays out in our own life, plays out in our lives,

what is God accomplishing through this fury?

What is he doing to us?

Even though, you know, we're talking about those of us who are not his children, right?

Before we were not his children, he was serving as a fury.

That makes sense why he would direct fury against us then.

Why does he direct fury against those of us who are already his children?

What is his purpose in doing these things?

He is walking on pride.

He is calling us to trust more and more in him so that we can fully enjoy and fully appreciate

the great salvation that he's given.

You know, if you think about it before we were saved, prior to salvation,

you go on in your life experiencing the effects of sin in this world

and it does those people more and more and you don't know how you wear your freedom.

That hasn't been.

God himself saves you.

That final last shred of the pride that you were ready to trust in him.

He is the one doing that.

Walking on every bit of pride so that you can appreciate his salvation.

You can enjoy his salvation.

That is his purpose.

And we see a picture of that here in the remainder of this passage where he's going to describe the pride of Judah

being immediately changed.

If I could interrupt real quick here.

The bag is a little on the top.

Sorry, I was thinking.

The pride being immediately, yes.

This next passage, 28, at the end of the chapter illustrates this by speaking of Assyria.

Now, Assyria goes toward the northeast of

Judah and they end up traveling down to the south of Egypt and assaulting it from the south.

And Isaiah reports that he's aware that they are assaulting it from the south.

However, in this passage, because the people don't know that yet, he describes them as assaulting from their own town.

From Assyria itself.

So he describes advancing from the north to the south.

This prophecy that he's about to give is not meant to be so historically precise because he's describing it in a

way that the people immediately recognize it.

So to consider this passage, he has come to Eilat.

He has passed.

Through the ground.

At the big bag, he stores his baggage.

Now, this is what an army does, right?

They've got a lot of bags that go long journey.

And at some point, they're not going to fight with the boat.

Roll on a suitcase in your hand, you know, so you have to store it somewhere.

And so this is what they do.

They find a big rock, they hide all their bags in it, and they keep going out ready to fight.

They have crossed over the pass and keep it in watch for the night.

Resting up, resting up for battle.

Rama trembles.

Give me a soft nestling.

Cry aloud with the warrior god.

Give attention, the lady shepherd.

But poor animal god, my menace is in flight.

The inhabitants of the boat keep him fleeting for safety.

This very day, he will halt at the mouth.

He will shake his fist at the mouth with the daughter of Asan.

The hill of Jerusalem is getting closer and closer and closer.

They're right there at the gate of Jerusalem, shaking the fist.

As you read this, you should be imagining something like the theme of Jaws, right?

Da da, da da, da da da da da da.

This is approaching this great climax.

They're getting closer and closer.

They're shaking the fist at Jerusalem and then finally the climax.

Behold, the Lord God of hosts will lock off the bells with terrifying power.

The great in height will hew them down.

The longing will be brought low.

He will cut down the thickets of the forest with a mask and the Lebanon will fall at an injustice one.

God is cutting down the pride of people longing to be prideful.

The cedars of Lebanon, the tall trees of the fragrant land of Isaiah have risen in pride.

And they will all be cut off with his axe.

And he had said in verse 15, when he passed through the city.

But yet, this is done by the hand of the majestic one.

And the Lebanon will fall at an injustice one.

That is God of Solomon.

So he's cutting off all the pride of the people.

And he has just assured them.

This will end.

And it finally ends right when there's nothing left.

No pride left.

And people will just as Solomon.

And we are not going to give you too much emphasis on this path.

But I want you to take a look just a little further.

There shall come forth a sheep from the stomach of Jesse.

But the branch from his roots shall bear fruit.

Jesse being the father of David.

David being the great -grandfather of Jesus.

This is to describe salvation.

Once all other pride has been taken away.

Once all other branches.

Have been cut off.

The people will experience salvation.

God is humbling people so that they will be saved.

That is his work.

That is why he does this.

And it's not just a matter for those who do not yet know him.

As I said before, if you don't know him, there's no way to get in here.

But even for those who do.

Know him, you will experience pain and.

Suffering in this life.

And may apparently experience it because the reason why because God seeks

to come out of every last vestige of God the more and more you learn of him, the more and more

you will be able to experience true joy knowing the great salvation that

we have in Jesus Christ.

See, God is the creator.

We need to know him for everything.

If we thought that we ourselves were sufficient, we would not be able to know the truth

that we are not.

We would not be able to enjoy things as they are, things as they ought to be.

So God in his great wisdom, as far as he hasn't been, decides to draw men in this

way by humbling them, bringing them to repentance, and then saving them

in Jesus Christ.

And you can have assurance that that trial that the trial is likable and

even though you may experience many trials in your life, we will all each end up in one day, and we will

be with him.

We will be with Christ forever.

We will receive our body back in the grave, and we will have.

Perfect joy and peace forever.

I mentioned.

Before, a long time ago, the Spanish fire in the Philippines.

After he had made it to Spain, he was able to translate a part of the New Testament into

one of the Philippine dialects.

He decided he would come back and share it with the Philippines.

And so he did.

And he didn't get far at all.

His first week there, he was poisoned.

And then his body was left behind in the streets of Ibiza.

It ruined his death.

And then later he was buried.

Now, you might look at this and say, well, wasn't that just in the beginning of everything we're saying?

He was delivered from his trial while he was on the boat heading to Spain.

How come he wasn't delivered from that trial?

He was.

He is with the Lord.

And one day, his body will raise anew, perfect, incredible.

And the answer to what you're getting is the perfect peace and joy right now with Jesus Christ in heaven.

And that is something that if we know, if we have great assurance of it, if we know that this trial will

end, we can have great comfort and great anxiety.

You wonder how it is that he was able to go to the Philippines knowing that he would be persecuted, knowing that he would be pressured,

how was he willing to do it?

What gave him the assurance?

He knew that this trial would end.

Even if it was not in the guarantee of his continued existence on this earth

for the next however many years.

He knew that this trial would end.

And if you want that kind of courage, if you want that kind of peace, you must

know Jesus Christ as your Savior.

You must be united in him, in faith,.

That you can be a child of God and know that God.

Cares for you, and know that God's care will end and turn over your enemies.

If you do not have this, if you do not have this, you do not have

great salvation in Jesus Christ.

That's okay.

Dear Father, though it is difficult to do, we thank you for the trial that you put us through because we know

that you are sovereign.

We know that you are doing great things for freedom.

We ask that you would take away our pride, that you would grant us humility, that we might fully know

your love and care and your power.

And I ask that you would hasten the day that we would see you as one and be able to enjoy

a perfect, peaceful existence with him and all of God's children.

And I pray for those of you who do not know him, that you would grant them the answer, that you would show them the

truth, and the only way to be forgiven of sin and have eternal life.

It's in the name of Christ Jesus.

Amen.