The Teacher, Revealed

Amen.

We'll be continuing in Isaiah 30 this afternoon.

So please go ahead and turn to Isaiah 30,

Isaiah 30.

When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's word.

As I mentioned last week, verse 18 is transitional here in this passage.

So I'm going to start with verse 18.

Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you, and therefore he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

For the Lord is a God of justice.

Blessed are all those who wait for him.

For a people shall dwell in Zion and Jerusalem.

You shall weep no more.

He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.

As soon as he hears it, he answers you.

And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your teacher

will not hide himself anymore.

But your eyes shall see your teacher and your ears shall hear a word behind you saying,

this is the way, walk in it.

When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, then you will defile your carved idols

overlaid with silver and your gold plated metal images.

You will scatter them as unclean things.

You'll say to them, be gone.

You may be seated.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word.

We thank you for this promise that you've given us.

And we thank you for the great salvation that we have in Jesus Christ.

I ask that today as we examine this word, as we come to your word with humble hearts,

that you would keep our hearts open, that we would be receptive to your word.

In Jesus name.

Amen.

So today I'd like to talk to you about being near to God, being near to God.

This is the way many people describe their relationship with God.

Sometimes people say that they're far from God.

Sometimes people say that they're near God.

In the context of this passage in Isaiah, that has been a repeated concern is

about whether or not God is near, whether or not he is present.

And you've seen several times in this passage that people have rejected the idea that God is present, that he is watching.

In verse 11, it said, leave the way, turn aside from the path.

Let us hear no more about the Holy One of Israel.

They want God to be not present.

And in fact, earlier on in verse 15 of Isaiah 29, it said, ah,

you hide deep from the Lord, your counsel, whose deeds are in the dark and who say who sees us,

who knows us.

So you have agents who don't want God to be present, who claim that he's not present.

And then on top of that, you have in this passage, in this larger context of Isaiah, the repeated

concern about whether or not God is present.

Is he here?

Is he going to grant us his favor?

You know, in one sense, it's a very odd question to ask whether or not God is present,

because one of his attributes is that he is omnipresent.

He is omnipresent.

He is everywhere.

You can never ask whether or not God's present, because the answer is yes, definitely.

In fact, it's not just that he is omnipresent.

In fact, omnipresent is a little bit of an inaccurate term, because his real attribute is that he is immense.

Immense meaning without measure.

He is not contained by this world.

And so he transcends space altogether.

And he is equally present anywhere you might ask if he is here.

And so people concerned about the presence of God, asking whether or not God is

present, some denying that he is present.

People concerned about whether or not God is present with them.

And maybe this is something that you have asked in your own life.

Is God near you, that you want to draw near to the Lord?

You want to be close to him and you feel that you are far away from him.

What can one do?

What promise does one have from God if they want to be near to him when they feel far away

from him?

Well, I believe this passage has the answer for us here, that it speaks of how God is

brought near to his people, particularly through what he has accomplished in Jesus Christ.

We have seen repeatedly as we've looked through this text that the fulfillment of these things

are found in Jesus Christ.

And this passage is no different.

Following on the heels of all the other passages, we know that this is fulfilled in the gospel of Jesus Christ.

But even in this passage itself, we have sufficient hints to know that this is fulfilled

in Jesus Christ, that God's presence is found through him.

So he begins talking in this first verse, saying, For a people shall dwell in Zion in Jerusalem.

You shall weep no more.

Now, what is the concern about dwelling in Zion?

You see, the people are threatened by the nation of Assyria now.

Assyria has taken away people from their cities and captured them, taking them captive to

their land.

And it's the case that the people are threatened by Assyria.

They believe they'll be taken away.

Now, this claim that they will dwell in Zion means that they will get to remain in their land.

Now, this is while the people are spared from being taken away to Zion.

Eventually, they are taken away from Babylon.

And though they return from Babylon to their land, it is indeed the case that

they are scattered once again later in the history of human events.

So ultimately, this passage is not fulfilled in the people staying in

that mountain of Zion forever, not that physical people on that physical mountain.

And if you've been following along in this series in Isaiah, you know that frequently,

whenever this word Zion comes up, I always go back to Hebrews 12, 22, because I really believe that explains

the context of how we should understand Isaiah and his prophecy.

Hebrews 12, 22 says, For you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God,

heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels and festal gathering.

We have already come to Mount Zion through Jesus Christ.

Mount Zion, that place where the people of God gather to worship him, where they gather to be

in his house, where he dwells, that is not found in that temple anymore.

That Zion is meaningless while a temple is destroyed there.

Instead, that temple, that presence of God, the New Testament repeatedly claims, is

not found on that particular hill.

Rather, Zion is found in the gathered people of God.

It is through the church that Christ's presence is known by his spirit.

And it is through this that we can be near to God and enjoy his presence.

Now, that, that omnipresence that I was talking about, the fact that God is present everywhere.

And so why would someone ask whether or not God is present?

You see, he has a different kind of presence.

He has what is known as an ethical presence.

This ethical presence refers not to whether or not he's actually physically or in

time and space present somewhere, but it speaks about whether or not his favor

rests on a particular people.

His favor exists in a particular area of this time and space.

And so if you want this ethical presence of God, there is no place

it is more greater found than in his house in Zion.

And today, when the temple has been destroyed, there is no greater place for it to be found.

But in the gathering of God's people, the worship of the saints to the Lord.

Now, a lot of people feel that this is not something so profound.

When you read the way scripture speaks of it, when you read the way the New Testament speaks of the worship of God and the gathering of the saints,

you see that that's, that's very misguided.

People have all sorts of romanticism about other places and other times.

You see a lot of excitement about what God might be doing elsewhere.

See a lot of excitement about maybe some, something that they hear happen in the Middle East or in the

East.

And they think that that's, that's God's presence over there.

We can't have that presence here because God is doing something special over here that he just

can't do over here.

And you have people, rather than enjoying the presence of God as it exists,

right in the gathering of the people, right in the gathering of the saints, worshiping the Lord, you have them instead abandoning their

posts often and going elsewhere thinking that they will find that favor of God elsewhere.

Let me tell you, Zion is found right here.

Zion is found right where the people of God gather to worship him.

Now, cast aside that kind of romanticism that would say that this lives elsewhere and not here.

The grass is always greener.

It's not the case.

This is like people looking back on former times and thinking about how much better those times were, not

realizing all the inconveniences that existed at that time.

You know, Ecclesiastes say, do not ask why the former times are better than these because it is not from

wisdom that you ask this.

You know, it's not wise to romanticize about things that are not actually better because they aren't.

God has given us his presence in the gathering of his people.

It can be enjoyed right here and right now.

And if you struggle to enjoy it, then you must look at—

you must look to these promises of God in order to be able to recognize that reality, have those eyes of faith that

see it so you can enjoy it more fully.

The answer is not found in fleeing what God has called you to.

Rather, the answer is found in understanding what God has called you to.

And so it goes on to describe this ethical presence of God, to describe what it will be like to live in

Zion and to experience these joys.

It says,

What is the sound of the Lord's— what is the sound of their cry?

The people have been afflicted by Assyria.

They have been afflicted by multiple nations.

And they have cried out to God for help.

And he has not answered them.

Why has he not answered them?

Because—because as it said in the previous verse,.

And it is the case for us today.

There are many things that cause us to cry out to the Lord.

We feel the sting of death.

We feel the corruption and evil that exists in this world.

And we cry out to God.

And sometimes we don't feel like he answers, but he does.

And his answer is good.

You know, that sting of death, that sting of death, the Bible says, has been taken away by Jesus Christ.

So if someone feels that the corruption of this world, the evils that exist here, are

so awful, it's because they do not understand how temporary and how meaningless

they are in light of that eternity where we have been promised an everlasting life and a resurrection.

And though—excuse me— he will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry.

As soon as he hears it, he answers you.

Now, we have access to the Father through Jesus Christ.

This is something that was not guaranteed to all of God's people in the past.

And by the phrase, God's people, I mean those who live in the land of Israel.

Now, the Holy Spirit was operative at that time.

Jesus Christ, though he had not come and died for his people, was still acting as a

mediator for God's people.

But not all who were of God's people were truly of God's people.

There were many in the land of Israel who had not been transformed by the Spirit, who did

not have the Son as their mediator.

And so they were not able to, at all times, have their voices heard to God.

And so God illustrates this by this temple, where they need to come to it in order to have access to him to pray.

Or they need to face towards it in order for him to hear their cry.

But what he has given us in Jesus Christ is something so great that all of God's people,

all of those people that are part of this new covenant, may come to him with Christ as their mediator.

Now, no longer is there this lack of clarity, but Jesus Christ has come, died, established that

mediator— that status as a mediator for his people so that he

mediates their prayers.

He takes those imperfect prayers and carries them up to the Father where

they are heard.

And this is something that we get to enjoy as the New Testament people of God, not

wondering whether or not God will hear our prayers today, not worrying about the destruction of the temple, or

being taken away from Zion so that we might no more beseech the Lord, we might no more have our

voices heard.

Rather, we can know that our cries are heard immediately.

Now, we might not always see the response that we want immediately, but we know that these cries are

heard immediately.

As David prays in the Psalms, he cries out to God for some particular help, and then he

acknowledges at the end often that he knows that this prayer has already been answered, and he trusts in the Lord

knowing that it has been answered.

That's not just something that the king of Israel who lives in Zion might be able to say, but rather

all of us who are gathered together at this new Zion that God has created in his

church.

We may all have access to him in prayer.

A lot of times people don't feel like that.

They don't recognize it.

They don't see with eyes of faith that we do have such access to God.

They don't realize that when they cry, they're heard immediately.

And so because of that, because they don't see the effects immediately, they don't take advantage of prayer

immediately.

You know, if you have immediate feedback from something, you're far more likely to go use that

thing rather than if you don't.

Right?

You're going to, you're going to, if you don't believe that this thing is going to answer you, you're not going to go to it.

You're not going to use whatever tool it might be.

Prayer is something that has great effect.

And if you see these promises of God, if you meditate on them, if you know that you have direct access to

God, God hears you immediately through the mediatorship of Jesus Christ, and you will be

encouraged to go to him in prayer.

And do go to him in prayer frequently, knowing that he will answer.

How much, how much anxiety, how much whatever, do people carry in their lives

because they aren't taking it to the Lord in prayer?

There's just so much that people deal with because they do not seek the Lord in prayer.

They spend so little time in prayer, little time publicly, little time privately.

One has to go to the Lord in prayer.

He hears, and he hears immediately.

You know, has there ever been a time in your life where there's a tool to do something more easily, but you think you

can just do it fine without that tool?

You know, there have been times where I've been carrying firewood, and I think, oh, there's not much here.

I'm not going to go get out the wheelbarrow because that feels like a waste of time.

And so I start carrying the wood, and I realize, boy, there's a lot more here than I thought there was.

And then I'm halfway through, and I'm like, oh, well, now there's really no point in getting that wheelbarrow.

Right?

And so you carry more wood, and then you realize, boy, it's still taking a while.

You know, I'm three quarters of the way there.

Now there's really no point.

And by the time you're done, you really wish you had just gotten out the wheelbarrow.

Same thing with prayer.

And, you know, it's not a great analogy because at the end, the wood's all carried.

But there is no guarantee that your request will be answered if you do not seek the Lord in prayer.

Do not think to yourself, oh, this is not something that I need to bother the Lord about.

No, take more to the Lord in prayer.

Do not handle things yourself.

If it's weighing you down at all, if it is any level of anxiety to you, that's a problem.

Christ has said we do not need to be anxious.

We should take that immediately to God in prayer because He hears us when?

Immediately.

And then it continues on, and it says,.

Now this goes back to some of the things that Isaiah was saying earlier in this book and some of the

foundational introductory chapters.

In chapter 6, Isaiah receives his commission, and then you have some narrative in the chapters that follow.

And in chapter 8, he talks about waiting while God hides his face, that he is

one who will wait along with his disciples while God hides his face from them.

And what did we see in the previous verse?

Therefore, the Lord waits to be gracious to you because they had not waited in verse 15.

Therefore, he exalts himself to show mercy to you.

And now it speaks of God ceasing to hide himself and revealing.

And so Isaiah, having said this at the beginning of the book, that he will wait upon the Lord and the Lord will

reveal him, now we see when the Lord reveals himself.

And the Lord reveals himself, though he gives, the bread of adversity and the

water of affliction.

Now this bread of adversity and the water of affliction are a way of speaking of adversity

and affliction themselves.

You know, of in English, just like in Hebrew or in

Greek, the equivalence of these things, they don't actually have the word of.

But sometimes it can mean all sorts of different things.

Sometimes it can refer to contents, sometimes it can refer to material, sometimes it can refer to

possession.

So what does it mean if I talk about a bucket of iron?

You know, is it a bucket full of iron?

Is it a guy named Iron who owns this bucket?

Is the bucket itself made of iron?

Right, in this case here, I believe, that when it speaks of the bread of

adversity and the water of affliction, it is speaking of adversity and affliction itself.

And these things are called bread and water because they are things that God is giving to his people

to consume and bear with.

So he gives them, and though he gives them to his people, he says, yet your teacher will not hide himself anymore.

Who is the teacher?

Now, I don't know what other translations you might be working with, but some

translations translate this as plural because, interestingly, the word teacher here is plural.

But the verb attached to it is singular.

When it says, yet your teacher will not hide, hide is singular.

And so, most have recognized that this should be

translated singularly, and what may be going on here is some sort of allusion to the

Trinity or some statement about the glory of God speaking in plural, as scripture does

elsewhere.

For example, God being Elohim, being the plural of gods.

And so, the teacher will not hide himself.

So before, the people received all this bread of adversity, this water of affliction,

and God had hidden himself.

They did not know whether or not these things were for their good.

They did not know what God was accomplishing.

And yet, we have the revelation of God in Jesus Christ.

We have Christ who has descended down, become man, and revealed

the Father to us.

And he has revealed himself to us.

Now, you might think to yourself, you know, my eyes have not seen Jesus Christ.

Well, first of all, I'd say that humanity has seen Jesus Christ, and that is a wonderful, profound thing that the teacher has

been seen.

Secondly, I would say that the way scripture speaks in the New Testament, it speaks fairly

often of us seeing Christ as though it is something that has happened even for

those who lived after his resurrection.

For example, Galatians 3 .1 says that Christ has been put before your eyes, publicly

displayed as crucified.

Now, there are passages that tell us that even we, because we get to look back,

and I'm even using that analogous word, look, which refers to eyes, even though we look back by reading,

right, we look back at what Jesus did in his earthly ministry,

as both God and man.

And there's something very visible, not in the sense of our own optic

experience, but there's something very visible in that it's intangible in the sense that God having

become man in a way where we can understand and think of

him as communicated through Jesus Christ.

No one has ever seen God, but the only begotten God who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

Jesus Christ has made the Father known.

And so, consider these things together.

The bread of adversity, the water of affliction, these things we still have to bear with in this life.

Even though we have gathered here in Zion, we still have adversity, we still have affliction, yet that

teacher has been revealed to us so that now we understand that we are being taught.

We understand the purpose of this affliction in a way that they were not privy to

originally.

Jesus Christ said that he calls his disciples friends.

Why?

Because the servant does not know what the master is doing, but a friend knows what the friend

is doing.

You know, we know what the teacher is up to.

We have an understanding of why there are adversities and afflictions in our life.

The New Testament is replete with explaining the purposes of such things.

And so, as we experience these things, how should we bear with them?

We should bear with them by looking to the teacher, by looking to Jesus Christ and understanding

what he is doing in our lives.

He is doing something incredible in our lives as he is forming in us,

through discipline, holiness.

And so we should look to him for that holiness, for that

endurance to pass the test that we might be able to see God.

You know, Hebrews 12, if you look at that chapter, it speaks of discipline,

God's good intention in discipline, how it produces holiness, and then how, apart from holiness,

no one will see the Lord.

And so it's interesting, because you have this vision of Christ in this analogous sense,

where we get to look back at the ministry of Christ in the first century, and we get to see him as

publicly displayed, as crucified before our eyes in the Galatians 3 .1 sense.

And through that, understand what Christ is doing and bear with it in order that we might

see him in the very literal sense, and the sense of seeing him, indeed,

optically, with our own eyes.

You know, 1 John starts off by saying, that which was from the beginning, which we have heard,

which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands concerning the

word of life.

Speaking of Jesus Christ, John here is speaking of Jesus Christ being one that has been

seen by the apostles and the apostles are telling others about.

They want them to know this one who has been seen.

And then, in chapter 3, chapter 3, he says, Beloved, we

are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when he

appears, we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is.

So John had seen him, but one day we will see him.

And one day we will see him, not in the context of his earthly humility,

but rather in his ascended gloriousness that will transform us.

And so we have a vision of him, an analogous vision of him, that helps us understand our own

affliction.

As Hebrews says, he has suffered in the same ways that we have, yet

without sin.

He knows our weaknesses and our failings.

Through him, we can endure such things so that by that discipline, we are prepared in

holiness to see him and be utterly transformed by him, to be like him.

This is what God has prepared for us in Jesus Christ.

You know, and one takeaway from this is just how important the sight of God

is.

And this really explains why so many cultures have gravitated around idolatry.

And even this passage, you know, is going to talk about that idolatry.

Why do people have idols?

It's because they want to see God.

It's really that simple.

They want to see God.

They feel far from God.

They want their God near to them, so they make a God before them.

And what does it say at the beginning?

When we recognize that we have God, that we can see him, we will cast all these things aside.

If you see the Jesus Christ of the Bible in that analogous sense, you have no need for idols.

You have no need for idols of him.

You have no need of idols for God.

You have no need for any kind of imagery or symbols

to bring you close to God.

All the various pieces of mysticism and religious tooling that

some versions of Christianity are fraught with, there's no need for any of those things if you recognize that the teacher has been

revealed and he is near.

It continues on in verse 21.

Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, this is the way.

Walk in it.

When you turn to the right or when you turn to the left, when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left,

you shall hear this in your ears.

God is near.

He has revealed himself in Jesus Christ.

He has shown us his will.

And Jesus Christ has given us his spirit by whom we hear

God's guidance telling us which way we should walk in.

On the book of Acts, Christianity is referred to even as the way because

God had revealed what his will was for man and men can walk in that way with clarity

being led by the spirit.

And this is an allusion back to Deuteronomy 5 .32.

Deuteronomy 5 .32 said, You shall be careful, therefore, to do as the Lord your God has

commanded you.

You shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.

You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you that you may live and that it may go well with

you and that you may live long in the land that you shall possess.

No, we have that.

Did the people, were they able to live long in that land?

It didn't last forever.

It lasted centuries and that was all.

Because they moved to the left, they moved to the right, they went off the way.

There was not in total in the people the spirit of God that would keep them from going

to the left or to the right.

Rather, many of the people had not had such transformation by God.

They had not been regenerated.

No such guarantee existed among that old covenant people.

But here in this new covenant, those who are gathered together have that spirit of God so that they

will not depart to the left or to the right, but might walk in that way continually.

They might walk in that way continually.

You know, this is something that many people want.

It's just clear direction from God.

He has given it.

Clear direction.

You know, there's all kinds of people who want just easy answers to things.

You know, I saw something pretty recently.

I don't know how old the news article was, but I only saw this recently.

There was a medical student in India who had surgically implanted a Bluetooth device

into his ear because he had been failing the same medical test for 11 years, and this was his last -ditch attempt

to pass the test.

You know, he really wanted that voice in his ear telling him what he's supposed to do.

There's all kinds of examples of this.

You can find this everywhere.

In fact, there was a famous television evangelist who would confront people

about their problems, and it was amazing how he'd be able to do this because they didn't know how he knew all their problems, but what he was

doing was he just had somebody in the back reading off the

application form to come to this event or whatever it was, the survey.

He was just hearing these things in their ear.

Everyone always wants to cheat, you know, and to figure things out, to have a voice telling them which way to go.

Realize in Christianity, we have that.

We have not these fake evil forms of cheating, but we have God

through his spirit guiding and directing us in the way we ought to go.

And we can call out to God, and we can know that he gives wisdom to whoever asks.

We can call out to God, and we can ask him to show us in his word what we ought to do.

And this is not something the world has.

Psalm 119 .99 says, I am more wise than all my teachers, for your

testimonies are my meditation.

You know, we can be wiser than all our teachers.

All your superiors in the world, doesn't matter how intelligent they are otherwise,

you can be wiser than them if you are led by the word and they are not.

There is just an incredible wisdom that has been offered to us in God's word and through the

spirit who has written those words.

You see, the spirit wrote the words.

He inspired the Bible.

And he dwells in God's people so that when they read those words, they can fully comprehend them.

Not just understanding those meanings.

Even the natural man can understand the meaning in a raw sense.

But processing this so that it is applied to our lives and so that we love it and embrace it fully.

This is something that God has given us by his spirit that we might not turn to the left or to the right.

And then the result of all this, as I've already read in verse 22.

Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold -plated metal

images.

You will scatter them as unclean things.

You will say to them, be gone.

Images overlaid with silver and gold -plated metal images.

Just get rid of these things.

Some of you know I've been recently trying to learn more about gold and silver.

And these are precious metals.

The idea here is that if you're throwing these things away and they have the gold and silver on them,

you aren't even concerned about recuperating the scrap.

You're so disgusted by this idolatry, you don't even want that metal around.

And you toss it aside like it's nothing.

In fact, the phrase here, unclean things, the word that is used refers to minstrel impurity.

Some of you know that elsewhere in Scripture when the Bible talks about filthy rags, it's talking about minstrel rags.

It's describing something just utterly disgusting that you wouldn't want to keep around.

Something very unclean.

And they would take precious metals and just toss them aside because they'd be that disgusted by their form of rebellion.

And they will seek the Lord.

Why?

Because their teacher will no longer be hidden from them.

They will have his answer to their cries.

They will have sight of him.

They will hear his voice.

They will have all this.

And they won't have need for some kind of substitute because they will have the real deal.

And we can have all that through Jesus Christ and through his Spirit.

You know, consider these in turn.

Hearing his answer to our cry, who is it primarily that Scripture speaks of as answering

our prayers?

It is the Father.

Who is it primarily that Scripture speaks of as being the image of God, being visible

to man?

It is Jesus Christ.

Who is it primarily that Scripture speaks of as being the one who gives us guidance,

who keeps us from swerving to the left and to the right?

It is God's Holy Spirit.

You see, this whole passage here is talking about the presence of God in all three persons, Father,

Son, and Spirit.

Us enjoying those things in the New Testament Church so that

through these things we get rid of our idolatry, our sin we cast aside and we engage

in repentance because we have the presence of God through Jesus Christ and his Spirit.

We know that our prayers are answered.

We see him as we look to his Word and we see his ministry and we pray to him

knowing that Christ is mediating our prayers and we rely on the Spirit for

the guidance that we need.

And with this triune God who has been revealed most fully in the New

Testament, we have everything we need to cast aside every sin.

We have everything we need in order to no longer dwell with weeping and sadness

but even amidst adversity and affliction we can go on with joy,

weeping no more because we know that God is present and we know what he is doing

because our Teacher has been revealed to us.

Let's pray.

Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for revealing yourself to us in Jesus Christ

and by his Spirit.

We ask that today as we come to you in prayer that we would have a great assurance

that as soon as you hear these prayers they will be answered.

And I pray that we will come with just a great assurance, a great

sensibility to your work with eyes of faith that see these things and that you would

remove all doubts from our minds.

In Jesus' name, amen.