Isaiah Lesson 21

Joy in the Midst of Judgment

All right, John, would you open us in a word of prayer?

Lord Father, we come to you with anticipation. Your word is teaching us so much, and we would be looking at the anticipation of things like the millennium and the eternal state to come. Your promises are true, always true.

Lord, I ask that as we read these, that we're not reading information to become aware and knowledgeable. Lord, your word should touch our hearts. So give us the tender hearts, give Pastor Jeff your spirit to speak to us, and we commit this time to you in Jesus' name, amen.

Amen.

I have promised in the past that I would share the story of my grandpa Cleaver, Paul Cleaver, who was in the gulags of the Soviet Union, and I will yet push that back to another time. One of these days I will tell that story, but today I wanted to open by just sharing a little bit about my other grandpa.

This was Grandpa Wagner, my mom's dad. What I wanna share about him is that he, in my early years of Christianity, had probably a bigger influence than anybody, save my parents, because of a single word, and that word is joy.

He was a minister of the gospel, and as he aged, of course, through aging in the latter years, you begin to suffer more because of physical ailments and things of that nature, but he seemed to have almost an inverse relationship between suffering and joy.

Instead of becoming dour and downcast, he just bubbled over with joy. It got to the point when he was an older gentleman that you could be watching a simple TV show and some joke on a Geico commercial or something like that.

He would be roaring, just on the ground almost, just cracking up at the jokes, and if you said something joyful, he would join right in. If you made a joke, he would be the first one in the room to cheer you on.

This was a Christian man who was marked by his joy. He came to faith when he was in World War II, so in the midst of that suffering, seeing people drop dead to his left and right, his faith was shaken from what he was raised with, but he turned to the Lord at that time, and the Lord revealed himself, and he came home and became a missionary, went to Guatemala for a number of years, and then became a pastor in Indiana.

In all of these things, the word that describes Bill Wagner for me is joy. He was looking for a coming kingdom, and it showed in how he lived his present life. He knew the joy of salvation, and that is what I see just bursting forth from the text that we have today.

Isaiah 12 in the Context of Judgment and Salvation

Let's go there now. Isaiah chapter 12. The exuberant joy of the millennium and the eternal state are just over the horizon, so let the rejoicing begin now. That's the big idea today. Now, to set the context again for where we are before we begin reading Isaiah 12, we have to remember the circumstances, the outward circumstances of the children of Israel, in this case, the southern kingdom, Judah.

Good times or bad times in a physical sense? Not good, John?

No.

No.

The times are very bad. In fact, they are facing the threat of Assyria coming in to wipe them out after they're being delivered by Assyria from enemies to the north. Things look very bad, and in fact, we do have much judgment in the oracles of the first 11 chapters of Isaiah.

We're gonna review that in just a moment, but let's just big picture here. Judah is about to be overrun by the enemy, and not much of Judah will remain. Some of the people will remain like a stump, and a shoot will burst forth from that, so they will survive, there will be a remnant, but it will come at great loss of life.

Terrible devastation is coming upon the southern kingdom, although Assyria will not completely conquer them. In the midst of this, you find reason for rejoicing. How many of you have heard a scheme of the book of Isaiah which presents the first 39 chapters as judgment, and the last 27 chapters as salvation?

I was always taught that. 39 chapters of judgment, and then 27 chapters of salvation. Okay, that I would agree with. I would say, by and large, the first 39 chapters, in a sense, mirror the Old Testament, and the 27 chapters to the end mirror the New Testament, by and large, but the point I'm trying to make is that even in the Old Testament, there is mercy, and there is compassion, and there is salvation.

It would be wrong for us to see a dichotomy between old and new, where the old is a book of judgment, and the new is a book of grace. It's often presented that way. In fact, that's how Marcion, the heretic, in the early centuries of the church, departed from the Old Testament, calling the Old Testament God a demiurge, and a dictator, and such things, an evil God, whereas the New Testament God is a God of compassion and grace.

That is not biblical thinking. Here's what I wanna do. Before we read the, it's just six verses today, but it's six verses of rejoicing, salvation. I want us to see that that's embedded right here in the first 39 chapters of Isaiah, as it is in the entire Old Testament, okay?

So what I wanted to do is just spend a few minutes kind of reviewing how this has been the case all along. So I need some readers. We'll begin, I'll just call on a couple of verses, and set those in context of judgment.

So when you begin to read the book of Isaiah, you see, yeah, it is a book about judgment. There is a coming judgment in the first, so flip back to the first few verses of Isaiah, and then my first reader is going to be Isaiah 1, 18 and 19.

I am gonna have you guys, readers, read the mercy section, the compassion, the salvation, but notice how it's interspersed as rays of hope, rays of light in the midst of judgment. So the first part, from the very beginning, where Isaiah has these visions, from chapter one, verse one, all the way to the 17th verse, you have a rebellious people who are under judgment, a sinful nation under iniquity, loaded down with sin, set to be burned with fire, compared to Sodom, not even esteemed for their good things, which are their sacrifices, because those are even tainted, but now, Kimberly, would you read for me Isaiah chapter one, verses 18 and 19?

How beautiful is that? One of the most beautiful promises of salvation that we have in all of the Bible, though your sins are like scarlet. Remember that picture of our sin just being a stain on us that you just can't wash it out?

If you have this scarlet stain in a white cloth, there's just no getting rid of it. Though it be that stark and ugly, it will be white as snow. It's a good promise of salvation. Then you have another judgment section from chapter one, verse 19, all the way through 25, but someone read for me, Bob, verses 26 and 27 of that first chapter.

So right there, just those two verses. Again, another ray of hope, a picture of salvation, an introduction of God's saving grace. For those who repent, there will be salvation. The city will be called the city of righteousness, the faithful city.

Then again, you have a period of judgment where you see from verse 28 to 31, you see again the fire, none to quench them, but who will read for me chapter two, verses one to five? Barb, you like reading out loud?

Chapter two, verses one to five. There you go, that's good for right there. So beautiful, thank you. A picture of salvation where the mountain of the Lord is raised up as chief among the mountains and they're no longer at war.

There is peace now. Again, you see judgment coming as an oracle against them. And now my next reader, if you will read chapter four, verses two to six. Carol, would you like to read that for us? Chapter five then is the parable of the vineyard.

God plants the vineyard Israel, but they don't bear the fruit, only the wrong kind of grapes that look good, but they're not truly good grapes. And then we have another beautiful passage in chapter six.

I have that marked aside as a passage of mercy, but remember what this is. God calls Isaiah to be a prophet for him. He shows Isaiah a vision of himself in the temple. And the train of God's robe fills the temple with glory.

And the angels are crying, holy, holy, holy. And what is Isaiah's response? I am undone for I am a man of unclean lips and I live among a people of unclean lips and my eyes have seen the king. But the king sends an angel to take a coal from the altar and use that coal to touch Isaiah's lips.

And he says, behold, your cleanse, this has touched you. It's made atonement for you. Again, picturing the atonement of Christ. Isaiah is not righteous to be a prophet. He's called and shown mercy and made righteous by the atoning work of God and imputed righteousness.

So he then will go out and preach. Now he is to preach a judgment oracle to make the people's heart hard, that they would not respond. And so the judgment would come. But even in the midst of this coming judgment, God remembers mercy.

So what you have after Isaiah is called in the sixth chapter. Chapters seven to 11 are really a unit.

They're a unit.

And the issue that's taking place in chapter seven to 11 is that you have the Syrians to the north and the northern kingdom of Israel in alliance against the south. And there's a conspiracy for them to come down and wipe out Judah.

But it will never happen. God is going to wipe them out using us, Syria, before that conspiracy can take place. So chapters seven to 11 are about this, okay? But even in the midst of this judgment that's coming, you have some of the most amazing promises.

In all the Bible.

Do you remember some of these? In chapter seven, you have the northern kingdom and the Assyrians in alliance. But God tells Isaiah to name his son, a remnant shall return. Shier Jeshu.

The virgin birth in verse 14.

Yes, and then after that, Mahershala Hashbaz. Quick to the spoil, swift to the plunder, which means it's gonna be so fast that the Assyrians will wipe out the northern kingdom before this little boy is even big enough to say mommy and daddy, right?

But in this chapter seven, you have a double meaning. You have the promise of an actual virgin who will give birth to a son and they shall call his name Emmanuel. In the midst of God's wrath and judgment against the sin of the nation, he will remember mercy.

He will send one who is called Emmanuel. He will draw near to be God with us to save us. And then we go to the eighth chapter. And this is where you have the Mahershala Hashbaz. But notice in the midst of this conspiracy that's coming down, the remnant is not to say conspiracy as they do or to fear what they fear, but there will be a remnant.

Look at chapter eight, verse 16. To this remnant that makes sanctuary in the rock, bind up the testimony, seal the teaching among my disciples. I will wait for the Lord who is hiding his face from the house of Jacob and I will hope in him.

Here you have a picture of Isaiah and his children and those who rally to the teaching and to the testimony. These are the disciples, the true remnant. They will be kept by God in his love, rescued in the day of trouble.

Now, by and large, Israel will not be rescued, right? They will fall and be trampled. But look at chapter nine, verse one. You guys seen the theme? Salvation just keeps springing up. It's like God can't help but save an unworthy people.

Look at chapter nine, verse one. But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish. In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali. But in the latter time, he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.

The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness, on them has light shown. Of course, this is a picture of Christ. The Messiah will come and he will be a light in Galilee, up to the north of Jerusalem, there in that forgotten territory.

Can anything good come from Nazareth? There he'll walk among them and he'll be a light to Zebulun and Naphtali. Then, of course, in chapter nine, verse six, we continue with this theme of the Messiah.

Remember this? For unto us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

Of the increase of his government and of his peace, there will be no end. On the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.

Am I wrong?

Is this a book, is Isaiah a book about salvation or just judgment? It's both. It's judgment, but it's salvation to those who look to God in faith, those who rally to the teaching, to the testimony. It's a book of salvation.

Here in the Old Testament, here in the Old Testament section of this Old Testament book, the first 39 chapters, it's chocked full with the promise of salvation. It's good, reflecting the nature of God.

He is a savior. Yahweh is salvation. This is where I'm going with it. 10th chapter, Assyria will be the rod of God's judgment, even though they do not so intend. That's that compatibilism we talked about at length.

Like the trees of Lebanon, they will be struck down. But in chapter 10, verse 20, 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, again, this is a picture of his salvation and his keeping. And now this is a people who trust them. And then pretty much all of chapter 11 is a beautiful picture of salvation. John taught us this the last couple of weeks.

The shoot that comes up from the stump of Jesse. Who's that?

David.

Well, David is the near-term fulfillment, but it's really referring to Jesus. David is the physical ancestor of Jesse, the son of Jesse, but this is actually referring to Jesus. Yeah, yeah, but even, I think this is directly pointing to Jesus because he's a branch that comes and the Spirit is given in full measure, right?

And do you remember the book of Revelation? How the Spirit of God is referred to the seven spirits of God? Or as some translators have it, the seven-fold Spirit of God. It's possible that there's a connection here to Isaiah's thinking because you have a seven-fold description of the Spirit of God as he rests upon Jesus.

Yeah, seven flames on a, yeah, that would be a good image. Yeah, the seven spirits of God, right, from Revelation, okay? And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him. Who is he? The Spirit, first, of the Lord.

Second, the Spirit of wisdom. Third, understanding. Fourth, counsel. Fifth, might. Spirit of knowledge. And that's sixth, and finally, seventh, the fear of the Lord. This is a seven-fold description of the Spirit of the Lord.

But I think it means completion. The idea is this is the fullness of the Holy Spirit and the one who comes as the shoot from Jesse is having the Spirit without measure because indeed he is one with the Spirit.

Ontologically, God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit forever. So Jesus has the Spirit in full measure because it's who he is. One God in three persons. Picture of Jesus coming and then, of course, as you see what the result of that will be when he first of all slays the wicked and lays down judgment.

Look at verses six to nine. It's a picture of whether it be the eternal state.

Or the millennium here,.

It is a picture of the glorious salvation of God's people. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb. The leopard shall lie down with the young goat. The calf and the lion and the fattened calf together and a little child shall lead them.

Verses 10 to 16 again is a picture of joyful worship of the true King. What does God do in this case? He raises a banner, a signal to the nations, and he opens the way for the nations to come. Even physically, what used to be water barriers are now dried up as the islands flee and rejoin this land mass and the rivers which used to isolate people.

You think of how the African, sub-Saharan African peoples were isolated from the rest of the world by the Saharan desert and they didn't have access. Now there's access to Jerusalem. The rivers that kept people apart now have walkways right through them, kind of the way he split the Nile, kind of the way he split the Jordan River.

Now people can flock to God in Jerusalem. So that's why I think it is a picture of the millennium because Christ is there in Jerusalem reigning. But it's a picture of peace and joy on earth, salvation.

Isaiah 12: Individual Salvation and the Wrath Turned Away

So we're ready now. You can only read chapter 12 exuberantly. You can't do it really just drab and sullen. You have to be joyful to read this chapter, okay? So I'm gonna call on Kristen because I've heard you read on a Thursday.

And if you're listening online and you can't hear this because the mic doesn't pick it up, you need to read it out loud to yourself. So Kristen, will you read Isaiah chapter 12, the six verses?

Yes.

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him. Joy is the flip side of worship in the sense that when we delight in God, we say that he's worthy of that delight. It's worshipful, it ascribes glory to his name when we delight in him, when we rejoice in him, when we recognize that he has done great things for us, we are filled with joy.

Psalm 126, verse three. Let's look at this kind of verse by verse. Isaiah 12, one. You will say in that day. The first question you need to ask when you encounter a pronoun in the text is to whom does this pronoun refer?

If it were a noun, you would know who it was. If I said John, you know I'm talking to John, that's his name, right? But if I look in this direction and I say you, am I pointing at John or am I pointing at Rich?

You're not quite sure, right? You need to look in the context and dig around. Now this is a little bit difficult because here is the key to understanding who the pronoun refers to, okay? And another quick aside, to rightly interpret scripture, you have to follow the pronouns.

I'll give you an example of this. In the book of 2 Peter, when it says that God is not willing that any should perish but that all of you should turn to repentance. Who is the you in 2 Peter 3 .9? It is the elect of God, those who have obtained a faith as precious as ours.

How do I know that? Am I just bringing my Calvinistic system and imposing that upon the text? No, follow the pronouns. Read the entire book of 2 Peter. Follow who the you is in the context of Peter's writing.

And you'll find from 2 Peter 1 .1 all the way to chapter three, verse nine, you is a pronoun that replaces the noun, which refers to the elect of God. That's a free sidebar there. It's just a little extra little piece because this is the concept here.

Follow the pronouns. Now here's the key to the first verse here. When you go into the Hebrew, that pronoun you is singular. It's a singular you. Therefore, it's not emphasizing the national promise. It's not speaking to you as a people group to all of Israel or the church.

It's a very individual you. It's singular. Now in the preceding context, we don't have a lot of clues. We don't have a you that Isaiah is addressing. So I think what the author is doing here, Isaiah being the author, is he's now taking all of this section that he's spoken to.

Remember when I said that chapter seven to 11 is a unit? It's a unit about how God is going to rescue from the Northern Alliance, that conspiracy against them. He's gonna send a Syria to crush that alliance.

And that's gonna get really bad for a moment, but it's not gonna fully crush Israel. So Isaiah has been calling this out to the people. Now, whoever it is that's been listening to him, this is the you that he's talking to.

Individuals who would rally to the teaching and the testimony, to the teaching, to the testimony, bind it up among the disciples. This is for the individual who will believe what Isaiah has to say. Conversely, or I guess I could say, not conversely, but as a derivative of that, we the reader who have been entrusted with the testimony are addressed in that you.

This is an individual promise of salvation. You will say in that day. John, you will say it. Rich, you will say it. I will give thanks to you, O Lord. Now notice the emphasis on the I's and the you. It's a very individual personal relationship with God.

God is the you, and I will give thanks to you, O Lord. For though you were angry with me, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. You see the personal nature of that? One-on-one, you will comfort me.

God will be a comfort to those who turn to him. The ones for whom propitiation has been made are comforted and thankful. Remember Isaiah in chapter six, verses five to eight. He individually stood before the throne of God.

And what was his reaction? I said, woe is me, for I am lost, for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts. Then it goes on to say, your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.

In the context here, each individual must be like Isaiah. As Isaiah went and saw the throne of God, and found atonement through trust in God's atoning work, each of us must go to God and be born again.

Somebody read for me Romans 5, nine. Detoli, how about you? Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath to come. What's the problem that an individual sinner like me has?

It's my sin. What's the danger? I'm under God's wrath. Now this, of course, is the heart of the gospel. And I am amazed to see that there are so many so-called Christians in this country who deny substitutionary atonement.

If you guys ever saw the movie American Gospel, who saw that? American Gospel, you gotta go watch it. Beautiful, it really exposes some of the false teachings of the health and wealth movement. But the second part to American Gospel, American Gospel part two, is equally good.

And this one is out now, you can go watch it on your own time. This one exposes that there are many, many heretics in America today who are denying substitutionary atonement. Substitutionary atonement is the idea that there is a penalty for sin.

And that penalty is eternal hell, the wrath of God against the sinner. And Christ has stepped in and borne the wrath of God in his body on the tree. He's absorbed that wrath and taken it and satisfied it in full.

Christ paid it all. And it was, the problem wasn't just that the world is broken, or that we have guilt or a bad conscience or something like that. The problem is that God hates our sin and has wrath against it.

And Christ stood in as a substitute and took that wrath. That's what's being taught in verse one. That's the issue, where do I see that? I will give thanks to you, O Lord, for though you were angry with me.

Wait a minute, God can't have anger, right? He's all love. God is love. And if it weren't for sin in the world, there would be no wrath. Without sin in the world, he would have no wrath.

He's holy and he hates sin.

But because his holiness is part of who he is, it's part of his essential attributes. He has wrath because of that, because we sin.

Isaiah just said, holy, holy, holy. It's one of his premier attributes.

Yes.

Love is his essence.

Yeah, well, I don't know if you could separate. Yeah, I think holiness is like the sum of all the attributes, in a sense. And love, but he's defined as love by 1 John. Yeah, so it's not secondary. But in any case, you're right.

Verse two, well, sorry, the second part of verse one, your anger turned away that you might comfort me. That is gospel truth, individual salvation.

The turning away of wrath.

Praise God.

Amen.

His wrath is satisfied. It's turned away from me, this individual sinner, by the blood of Christ. Christ interposed his precious blood for each of us who would turn to him. And therefore, the wrath has now been turned away from that sinner.

That's gospel right there. Verse two, behold. How's this for a beautiful verse? God is my salvation. I will trust and I will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song. Note that for the end.

And he has become my salvation. What is the meaning of the name Jesus? Yahoshua, salvation. And that prefix, that first part of that Yahoshua in the Hebrew, it's really God, Yahweh, is my salvation. His name is God is my salvation.

So there's Jesus in Hebrews chapter 12, verse two. Behold, God is my salvation. The name Joshua, likewise, the same root. God is my salvation. I will trust and will not be afraid. For the Lord God is my strength and my song.

And he has become my salvation. Now, verse three through 4a. I said that the first U was a singular. Make note, the second U is a plural. With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you, again, plural, will say in that day.

What this does is it broadens the audience beyond individual salvation, like Isaiah before the throne of God or each one of us. It broadens it, I think, to the nation of Israel. Okay, and it's possible that it also includes the church because what do we know from the New Testament?

The redeemed community.

The church is grafted into that original olive branch, right? So it's probably all of the redeemed is pictured in this, but in this immediate context, we don't understand that a church age is coming and the Gentiles who believe will be grafted in.

The U here is referring to Israel, right? God is not done with his people. He has a good and glorious purpose for the plural U. With joy, you will draw water from the wells of salvation. And you, believing Israel, as a group, an ethnic people descended from Abraham who are also of the remnant because they're believing Israel so they're not just physical descendants, they're spiritual descendants as well, but they are Israel.

It's distinct from the church in a sense here. You will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds among the peoples, proclaim that his name is exalted. The chosen people, Israel, is a nation that God created to mediate blessing to the world.

When Abraham was called out of Ur of the Chaldees and called to go to a place that God would show, he was told that he would be a blessing and all of the families of the earth would be blessed through him, particularly through his seed, which turns out to be the Christ.

And those who bless you will be blessed and those who curse you will be cursed. Israel was created to be a light to the nations. And all the nations could come to Israel they're being drawn like a magnet and see that the true God is with Israel in order that all the earth could know him.

The families of the earth would be blessed through that people. That's what's in view here in verse four. You will say in that day, give thanks to the Lord, call upon his name, make known his deeds where?

Among the peoples or among the earth, the nations proclaim that his name is exalted. In the New Testament, of course, we are sent out. Here in the Old Testament, people are called in. There's not really missionary activity, except for Jonah for a short term, that's a type of the coming missionary activity.

But it's really that Israel's to be a magnet that draws the nations in like a lighthouse that they come to. In the New Testament, the commission is to go, proclaim his name to the ends of the earth. Acts 4 .12, for there is salvation in no other name.

No other name given under heaven by which we must be saved. The name of Jesus, we're to go take that name to the families of the earth. And finally, in five and six, this is how we're gonna close. It says, sing.

You know what I tend to do as kind of a Bible guy? My error is that when I read sing, I will stop at studying the word sing. And I'll get my commentary out and I'll look that up and sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously.

And I'll spend a lot of time doing the, I love the deep dive into the text and many of you have that same bent. What occurred to me this week was, if it says sing, I'm supposed to sing. Sing praises to the Lord for he has done gloriously.

It should be this overflowing joy that we're literally singing. Let this be known in all the earth.

Shout!

You can't read that word as a Bible scholar, right? You're supposed to read that word, shout! And sing for joy, oh inhabitant of Zion, for great in your midst is the Holy One of Israel. So we have five minutes left, the timing is perfect.

Here's what I have done. I'm gonna ask Bob, let's turn this off. We're gonna spare the audience. Me singing right into this microphone because we're gonna close in song. So let me close in prayer and then we're gonna close in song so then you can turn that off.

So Father, thank you for your word to us today from Isaiah 12. You remind us to be exuberantly joyful because you are the God who saves. You have saved us from your own wrath. We deserved wrath and yet you gave us mercy.

And you poured out that wrath on a substitutionary sacrifice who makes atonement for us. You poured your wrath on Jesus. God is my salvation, that is his name. And we look to Christ alone this morning and we sing for joy for what you have done for us in Jesus' name, amen.