WWUTT 2099 Righteousness Will Endure Forever (Isaiah 51:1-23)

There is punishment for sin. For those who don't know Jesus, their punishment will be everlasting condemnation.

But for those of us who do know Christ, Jesus took that punishment upon himself on our behalf.

When we understand the text. This is

When we understand the text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, an Old Testament book on Thursday, and a

Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's Pastor Gabe. Thank you,

Becky. And greetings, everyone. In our study of the book of Isaiah, we are up to chapter 51 this week.

This is a little bit longer than last week's chapter, but we read about the righteousness of Yahweh that endures forever.

So let's come to Isaiah 51. And I'm going to begin by reading the first eight verses out of the

Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. All her waste places and her wilderness, he will make like Eden and her desert like the

Garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in her thanksgiving and sound of a melody.

Pay attention to me, oh, my people and give ear to me, oh, my nation, for a law will go forth from me and I will set my justice for a light of the peoples.

My righteousness is near. My salvation has gone forth and my arms will judge the peoples.

The coastlands will hope in me and for my arm, they will wait expectantly.

Lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath for the sky will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants will die in like manner.

But my salvation will be forever and my righteousness will not be dismayed.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is my law.

Do not fear the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings, for the moth will eat them like a garment and the grub will eat them like wool.

But my righteousness will be forever and my salvation to all generations.

Now at the end of this particular chapter, God talks about saving those who love righteousness and though his judgment was poured out on those who had done wickedly, they said they loved

God, but then they worshiped false gods. God disciplined them. He dealt with them harshly.

He punished them. But the punishment that they have received, he will take away from them. He will save them and it will never be in their hand again to have to drink of the cup of God's wrath.

And that's a reference to Christ who would take God's wrath upon himself with his death on the cross, the promise of the savior who would be to come.

And we see that come up over and over again in Isaiah, the promise of the righteous one who will come and take away the sin of his people.

So here, God appeals to those who are righteous at the beginning of Isaiah 51. Once again, remember that all this that we are reading about, this is a hundred years before the

Jews are going to be exiled into the hands of Babylonian captivity. And then from the

Babylonians, then they'll go into the captivity of the means in the Persians. And so it's while they're in that place that their hearts will be drawn back to God.

And this was even spoken about through the prophet Isaiah. You will seek me and you will find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Not you will find me if you seek me with all your heart. This was prophetically being said to the children of Israel that they will, a day will come when their hearts will turn from their wickedness to the

Lord because they will, they will recognize we've been punished because we had done so much evil.

So in that day, you will seek me and you will find me because you will seek me with all of your heart.

And so here is this appeal to the righteous made over a hundred years before those who love

God will turn back to the righteousness of God. So God says through the prophet

Isaiah, listen to me, you who pursue righteousness, those of you who love righteousness will hear the word of Yahweh and desire to follow it.

You who seek Yahweh, it says here, look to the rock from which you were hewn and to the quarry from which you were dug.

Look to Abraham, your father. Remember it is said in both Romans four and in James two that Abraham believed

God and it was credited to him as righteousness. We read in Galatians chapter three that we are all children of Abraham.

If we believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, it is those who are of faith who are the children of Abraham.

So look to Abraham, your father. That's a word that of course is spoken to the

Jews who were descended from Abraham. It could be spoken to us as well. Remembering that it is by faith that Abraham was declared righteous.

So look to Abraham, your father, and to Sarah, who brought you forth through labor pains.

It's in first Peter chapter three, beginning, oh, I'm going to go ahead and start in verse one here.

I think putting this in context will make the most sense. So Peter says here to wives, be subject to your own husband so that even if some of you, even if some husbands do not obey the word, they may be one without a word by the conduct of their wives.

When they see your respectful and pure conduct, do not let your adorning be external, the braiding of hair and the putting on of gold jewelry or the clothing you wear, but let your adorning be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.

For this is how the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves by submitting to their own husbands as Sarah obeyed

Abraham, calling him Lord. And you are her children. Remember, this is Peter talking to wives once again.

You are her children. If you do good and do not fear anything that is frightening, doing good according to what

God has said is good. And so look to your father Abraham and to Sarah who brought you forth through labor pains when he was but one,

I called him, then I blessed him and multiplied him. And so as Abraham was faithful to the

Lord, so you must be turned from your wickedness back to God. Abraham did sinful things and yet he came to the

Lord and was forgiven those things. And Sarah, likewise, she labored for you.

Look to her. How was she? She believed in God and the same for her. It was credited to her also as righteous righteousness.

And this is how the holy women of God who hoped in God used to adorn themselves, submitting to their own husbands.

And remember, as said in Ephesians five, that a wife submitting to her husband is a picture of how the whole church is to submit to Christ.

So even through this, we look at how we are to submit to the Lord in everything we yield to his authority is what that means.

Indeed, Yahweh will comfort Zion. He will comfort all her waste places and her wilderness.

He will make like Eden. We worship a God who saves and restores. And even those places that had become like waste places, remember for Judea, that was all their land surrounding

Jerusalem. The Assyrians came through, then the Babylonians, and they destroyed everything and they laid it waste.

But even those waste places which had previously in Isaiah been referred to as a haunt of jackals, like that's who could live in the land.

The ostrich, the owl, those desert dwelling animals, the hyenas or the jackals, only they could dwell in those waste places.

Nobody else would dare dwell in the place that hyenas or jackals inhabited.

But even those places, the waste places, God will make like Eden again.

He has the power and the ability to restore it back to its former glory and even greater than it was before.

Because you know, the new heavens and new earth that we will inherit will be even better than Eden was. We're not looking toward just a restoration of Eden.

It will be better than Eden. And we will dwell in that place forever with God forever.

Her desert will be like the garden of Yahweh. Joy and gladness will be found in her.

Thanksgiving and a sound of a melody, singing will be heard in that land again. Verse four, pay attention to me, oh my people, and give ear to me, oh my nation, for a law will go forth from me and I will set my justice for a light of the peoples.

This is a reference to being justified by faith. It is by faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ that we are forgiven our sins and we are justified before God. Consider Romans 8, 1 and 2, there is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, for the law of the spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death.

It's that very law that's being prophesied about here in Isaiah 51, 4, going on, my righteousness is near, my salvation has gone forth and my arms will judge the peoples.

The coastlands will hope in me and for my arm, they will wait expectantly.

So talking about the coastlands is like from one edge of the land to the other edge of the land.

Everywhere there will be people who are hoping in God. Verse 6, lift up your eyes to the sky, then look to the earth beneath, for the sky will vanish like smoke and the earth will wear out like a garment and its inhabitants will die in like manner.

But my salvation will be forever and my righteousness will not be dismayed.

What the Lord has decreed will happen, even though heaven and earth will pass away.

The word of God will never pass away, as Jesus says in Mark 13, 31. And we read this also in 1

Peter 1, beginning of verse 22. You have in obedience to the truth, purified your souls for a love of the brothers without hypocrisy, fervently love one another from the heart.

For you have been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. That is through the living and enduring word of God.

For all flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass.

The grass withers and the flower falls off, but the word of the Lord endures forever.

And this is the word which was proclaimed to you as good news.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, God says through Isaiah, a people in whose heart is my law.

I happen to think that's a reference to Jeremiah 31, 31. Behold, the days are coming, declares the

Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Not like the covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, declares the

Lord. For this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel in those days. I will put my law within them and I will write it on their hearts and I will be their

God and they shall be my people. It's also through Ezekiel 36 where it is said,

I will cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules through Jeremiah, through Ezekiel, and even here through Isaiah.

Listen to me, you who know righteousness, a people in whose heart is my law.

Do not fear the reproach of man, nor be dismayed at their revilings. And it's there even in Romans eight, where we also read.

The Lord is on my side. What can man do to me? That's in Hebrews. It's in Romans eight where it says, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies who is to condemn Christ. Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us.

So in verse eight, for the moth will eat them like a garment and the grub will eat them like wool, but my righteousness will be forever and my salvation to all generations.

As Becky and I have been reflecting upon when we read the Psalms on the Friday Q and A, the wicked will have a day in which it's going to look like wicked is winning.

The wicked are winning. What's going to become of me who loves righteousness? It might look like the wicked will have their day, but as said in Proverbs 16, for the

Lord has made everything for its purpose, even the wicked for the day of trouble. They have a day too, in which they will be destroyed.

And so going on in this next section, verses nine through 11, awake, awake, put on strength,

O arm of Yahweh, awake as in the days of old. The generations of long ago, was it not you who chopped

Rahab in pieces, who pierced the dragon? Was it not you who dried up the sea, the waters of the great deep, who made the depths of the sea a pathway for the redeemed to cross over?

So the ransomed of Yahweh will return and come with joyful shouting to Zion and everlasting gladness will be on their heads.

They will obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

As God has destroyed his enemies, he knows how to save his people. Peter makes this point also in 2

Peter 2 and so does Jude in his letter. God knows how to protect the righteous and even to reserve the wicked for the day of judgment.

Beginning in verse 12, I, even I am he who comforts you.

Who are you that you are afraid of man who dies and of the son of man who was made like grass that you have forgotten

Yahweh your maker who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth that you tremble in dread continually all day long because of the wrath of the one who brings distress as he makes ready to bring ruin.

But where is the wrath of the one who brings distress? In other words, you've begun to fear man so much that you've turned away from God.

And how easy it is for any one of us, though you may not have a public platform of some kind, you're not trying to please a whole lot of people and get a lot of people to like you.

But you you still have even in your small circle, perhaps this timidness of I don't

I don't want to make anybody mad. I don't want to disappoint anybody. I don't want anybody to hate me for anything.

And so out of that fear of man. You would soften your faith, what it is you believe diminish your doctrines or the ethics that you're committed to ethics that have been shaped by scripture.

You would try to conform those to being a little bit more worldly, perhaps because you fear man instead of fearing

God. But if we fear God, which Proverbs 1 7 says is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge.

Then we don't have anything to fear of man. It was Charles Spurgeon who said, fear God and nothing else.

If we have that healthy reverent fear of God, then we desire to please God and not man.

And those who love righteousness, well, they will love what we stand for. But those who love wickedness will hate us as well.

However, we recognize from scripture that God knows how to punish the wicked. So don't be in despair when the wicked hate you,

Jesus said, they hated me. They're going to hate you, too. And when they hate you realize it's really me they hate.

They hated me first, Jesus said to his disciples. And so we go on here, don't don't look on.

Don't be afraid of the one who brings distress. Where is that person? He eventually will perish under the judgment of God.

So we go on to verse 14. The one in chains will soon be set free and will not die in the pit, nor will his bread be lacking.

For I am Yahweh your God who stirs up the sea and its waves roar Yahweh of hosts is his name.

I have put my words in your mouth and have covered you with the shadow of my hand to establish the heavens to found the earth and to say to Zion.

You are my people. Awaken yourself, awaken yourself, arise, oh,

Jerusalem, you who have drunk from the hand of Yahweh, the cup of his wrath, the chalice of reeling you have drained to the dregs is all talking about the punishment and the judgment that God had brought upon Jerusalem because they worshiped false gods instead of the true

God. Verse 18, there is none to guide her among all the sons she has born, nor is there one to take hold of her by the hand among all the sons she has reared.

These two things have befallen you. Who will console you? The devastation and destruction, famine and sword.

How shall I comfort you? Your sons have fainted. They lie helpless at the head of every street like an antelope in a net full of the wrath of Yahweh, the rebuke of your

God. It's being depicted here as if the children of Jerusalem or the people of Jerusalem have become drunk on the wrath of God.

He had so punished them with his judgment that they can't even get up from their place anymore.

I've been beaten down and I can't even move myself anymore. I am so intoxicated and overwhelmed by the judgment that God had poured out upon me.

But then hear these words of hope at the very conclusion of Isaiah 51.

These are the last three verses. Therefore now listen to this, you afflicted who are drunk, but not with wine.

OK, so he's talking about their judgment that has come upon them. They've been as though filled with drunkenness because of the judgment of God's wrath that has come upon them.

And again, this is being prophesied over 100 years before it happens. And yet the Lord promises them this, thus says your

Lord Yahweh, even your God who contends for his people. Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling, the chalice of my wrath.

You will never drink it again. This judgment has come upon you to chasten you, to test you and to purify you.

But this judgment won't come upon you again. Verse 23, I will set it into the hand of those who cause you grief.

Like I'll take the judgment that I poured out on you and it's going to be poured out upon them who oppress you, who have said to you, lie down that we may walk.

We may walk all over you. You have even set your back down like the ground and like the street for those who walk over it.

But here God is promising them he will lift them up. He will restore them.

And the judgment that was brought upon them will not be brought upon them again. And my friends, every one of us goes through that to some degree.

When we hear the law and we hear the gospel, we realize in the law that we have sinned against God and it causes a grief and a vexation in us when we see and we know

I have sinned against God and what I deserve is the wrath of God. And we mourn over our sin and what we deserve for that sin.

But then God takes that cup out of our hands and he fills us up with new wine that our hearts may be glad that we would not be faint from drunkenness, but our hearts would be glad and Mary being filled with the spirit of God and with his righteousness so that we will never have to taste that judgment again.

We will never have to experience or know the wrath of God if we are in Christ Jesus.

Because we have been delivered out of that and we are promised eternal life with him in glory away from the wrath of God and the judgment that he will pour out upon the wicked.

But the only way to be saved from that judgment that is coming is to turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and we have nothing to fear the wrath of God again.

We are not as Paul said to the church in Thessalonica, we are not children of wrath, but we are children of the day.

We've not been destined for wrath, but for glory in Christ Jesus. And so be not dismayed, though the world may come against you,

Christ is on your side and the biggest fear that you would have would be the judgment of God that would come upon you.

But that fear is taken away by faith in Jesus Christ who has taken the judgment of God upon himself on your behalf so that you will not perish in judgment, but you have everlasting life.

May that be a hope and encouragement to you today. Heavenly Father, we thank you for what we've read here in Isaiah 51, understanding not only words that have been spoken to Judah over a thousand years ago, but even to us today that we may recognize the judgment of God has been taken away from us by faith in Jesus Christ.

And may we walk in that righteousness, looking to Jesus, the author and the perfecter of our faith.

And it's in his precious name that we pray, Amen. This has been When We Understand the

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