Isaiah Lesson 25

Well, welcome, everybody. We're in Isaiah 14. So we're going to be spending time talking about three different nations, if you would, and words that the Lord has for those nations, trying to put a hook on how this fits together.

Pastor Jeff and I were talking. There's an individual that perhaps everything that this individual preaches or teaches isn't necessarily the best. But his approach is, when he preaches, he preaches one topic and preaches it from different angles.

And so when you leave, you know what you've heard. And that's a good thing to do, to have a focus. And so I was going through these three oracles that we have here in chapter 14. And I kind of feel like I know what they're doing, but what do I do with it?

And I ended up thinking about one of my top favorite books of all times, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities.

Was it the best of times, or was it the worst of times?

Absolutely, it was. In fact, that kind of works for these nations as well. It was the best of times. It will be the worst of times. But in that book, you have Dr. Manet. And he's a French doctor, been wrongly imprisoned in the Bastille for 18 years.

And he's due for the guillotine. And I can't remember the guy from London. I don't remember his name. But the story of the intersection of what's going on is a story that is cemented together by unconditional love.

And I love the way that that story works its way out. It's a far greater thing I do than I've ever done before, as the book draws to a conclusion. We have a story. We have an account of three nations.

And they're slightly different in what they represent. But at the end of it, we're going to see how, in all cases, God has his sovereign will. And his will supersedes everything else. We're going to look at Babylon.

And how Babylon, probably more than any other nation in history, represents the presence and the work of Satan. And it starts from the very beginning at the Tower of Babel. And it will go all the way through the Book of Revelation.

And then we have the Assyrians, one of the most powerful nations. And specifically, and we're going to read this, specifically used by God for his purposes. Now, having said that, they're still held accountable for the wickedness that they do.

Pastor Jeff spoke about this, I think it was chapter 10, when we talked about compatibilism. But how even when there's this apparent purpose for God, there is still accountability in God's sovereignty.

And then you have Philistia, who is this nation that probably presented some of the greatest threats to the nation of Israel. And probably the greatest threat that Philistia presented to the nation of Israel was compromise.

And as they come out of captivity, one of the biggest threats was intermarriage, and almost accepting these influences that could come upon them. But Philistia was a pretty self-secured nation. They stood up against Assyria for a long time.

They had fortified cities. And they felt really secure in and of themselves until. And we see in all three of these stories, the designs and the expectations of these three nations is completely overridden when you present it to the sovereign will of God.

So that's kind of the hook that's going to draw these three pericopes together into one story. And so that's kind of the overlook as to where we're going today. So that's my one thing. And we'll see how that works out.

Pastor Jeff, open us, please.

The Sovereign Will of God Over Babylon, Assyria, and Philistia

All right. Father, it makes me think of the Apostle Paul, who was in danger from without and from within, from false brothers within, and from robbers, and those who would do him harm from without Lord God.

And yet he knew that in all these things, he was more than a conqueror. He knew that he could be perplexed, but not crushed, persecuted, but not abandoned. And Lord, in the same way, we look to you as our strength and our shield, our rock that we can run into, our fortress.

Lord, help us to trust in your sovereignty, even where there are enemies. And of course, that chief enemy of our soul, the roaring lion, Satan. We trust, Lord, that you would protect us from him, that you would guard us from temptation, lead us not into temptation, deliver us from the evil one.

God, as we look to your word today, we pray that you would strengthen our resolve, you would help us, you would teach us by your scripture in Jesus' name we pray, amen.

As we go through the pages of scripture and as we experience life, we are confronted with the reality of trials, temptations, and testing. And throughout the scriptures, it's really clear that our battle is not against flesh and blood.

Somebody finish that. Absolutely. We struggle against the principality of the spiritual forces. We battle. Yeah, the flesh has its problems, but the battle is against, let's call it what it is. It's Satan and his design.

I will make myself like the most high. And his need, his absolute compulsion to dethrone God and to put himself in its place. We talked about this pretty significantly last week. I wanted to review one of the sections.

There are people in my life that have impacted me in ways that God has used them. A man by the name of John Bishop. It was in January of 1972. I was a believer, but had never had anybody disciple me for over two years.

And so I really was floundering. I ended up going on what I thought was a ski trip. It was God's design that I would go on that ski trip so that I would meet Sandy. Yes, I am. And it was also God's design that I would sit under the teaching of John Bishop because it was the first time anybody had spoken to me about surrendering my life to the Lordship and the sovereignty of God.

And that launched my life 49 years ago into a passion for this. There's an individual who right now I would probably call my mentor, who observed last week that I spent 23 minutes in my first paragraph.

And there was a reason for that, but as it worked out, because there was so much I wanted to say in the opening sections that we studied Ezekiel and Isaiah. But really getting into today's lesson, because I said that we have these three nations.

They have their own back story, and they have their own position and place in God's history, but God's sovereignty reigns over all. Because God's sovereignty reigns over all, we have to acknowledge that Satan is on the attack and has his designs for how this should be.

I wanted to spend just a minute, and it would probably be three, going over a section that I had called The Limits on Satan. You probably don't have your papers with you. That's fine. I'm going to talk to a couple of the passages, but I want Sandy.

No, I'm going to go on this side. Ralph, get me James 4 .7, please, ready. And Revelations 12, verses 7 to 9. Little Ricky, if you would have that ready. My thoughts on that paragraph, although Satan is the prince of the power of the air, that's not thinks he is, he is the prince of the power of the air.

His destiny is established. He cannot stand against the name of Jesus. When attacked, the name of Jesus is a powerful weapon that we have. He cannot defeat the forces of God. His authority is limited by God.

In his sovereignty, God ordains what Satan can do and cannot do. And so when we're talking about these three nations, they have their place in history, but they cannot exceed. Satan cannot take them where God, in his sovereign plan, hasn't allowed.

James 4 .7, please.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

And this is our, man, this is the best weapon we had. Resist Satan, and call on the name of God. And Satan cannot stay there. He will flee. These are promises. In Job 1, we do know the story about how Satan went in front of God, accusing.

And God says, have you considered my servant, Job? And Satan says, yeah, but let me at him. And God says, you can go this far, but no farther. And so whatever Satan wanted to do, it was because God said, OK, but you can't go any farther.

In Daniel 10, and I think, Barb, you were the one that asked the question last week, do the angels and the demons ever fight each other? Well, there it is. It's in Daniel 10. The messenger angel coming to give Daniel a message was opposed by demons, and he couldn't defeat them until Michael came.

But you see, as strong as the demons are, they may be able to defeat some of the angels, but God is still sovereign. In this case, he sent Michael, and everything was taken care of. And in fact, James 2 .19, it proclaims that the devil believes that if you were to look at the story of the Gadarene and Demoniac, the legion that was in that Gadarene and Demoniac, maybe there were two of them.

It depends on which passage you're reading. Anyway, they recognized this Jesus. They knew who he was, but you see, it was still God's authority that they had to submit to. Revelation 12 .7 through 9, as we get into the end of time.

Go ahead, Rick.

And there was war. Michael and Prevail did not.

The battles that go on, our ordained God is sovereign. He knows the end from the beginning, and we do know that God will prevail. Satan will not stand up against him. And so now the first nation we look at is this nation of Babylon.

We've already been here a couple of times. In verses 4 through 15, there was the Lord's word against the nation of Babylon. It's called the taunt against the king of Babylon. God expresses in that section his judgment against Babylon, against the godless nation.

They're proclaimed to be an oppressor in verse 4. Babylon is. But under the judgment and the punishment of God, they're no longer able to oppress because God steps up. If you were to take a look at the timeline of Babylon, there are various phases to Babylon.

It starts, and Pastor Jeff, you taught about this. I'm going to highlight it, fill in the blanks as you need to. At the Tower of Babel, it begins, OK? And then eventually, they become a power. Then they go under the authority of Assyria.

And then they take over. And then they are the authority. And then they eventually get defeated. And right now, we don't really hear much of Babylon. But they're coming back. And we get into the book of Revelation.

And we do see, again, their resurgence. But here's the thing about them. Although they do, they won't, because God does. Yeah, Rick?

Saddam Hussein had spent a billion dollars.

Yeah, the city of Babylon. And there is an understanding that, as we get into the time of Revelation, that there will be a center of authority and power under the dragon, under the Antichrist. And so Babylon is going to try to muster the forces of evil.

We spent last week in verses 12 through 15, I guess it was. And as we looked at it last week, we looked at it from the perspective that this is part of the discussion and description of Satan. And it is.

It's part of the discussion and description of Satan. But it is part of the discussion and the description of Babylon. It's part of this greater narrative about it. And so if we looked at it last week as if we were perceiving Lucifer, this created angel, who was, in the very presence, probably one of the highest lofted angels.

And he eventually says, I will ascend to heaven. I will set my throne on high. I will sit on the mount of the ascent. I will ascend. This is also true of the nation of Babylon. And the arrogance of the nation of Babylon, it's exposed for who they are and what their process, who they think they are.

It's exposed because it is in the middle of this narrative of Babylon. But it's also expressed as we look at verse 15. But you are brought down. I love it because in the midst of all of this, I will is God saying no.

No, you won't. And in fact, as we get to the end of this discussion of Babylon in verses 22 and 23, that little phrase, I will, is going to show up again with perhaps a different force behind it. Verse 16 to 21, John de Tolly, if you would read verses 16 to 21 for us, please.

Isaiah 14?

Correct.

Those who see you will stare at you. You are cast out, away from your grave, clothed with the slain, those pierced by the sword, who go down to the stones of the pit, like a dead body trampled underfoot.

When do I go to 23?

No, to 21.

You will not be joined with them in burial, because you have destroyed your land. You have slain your people. May the offspring of evildoers nevermore be named. Prepare slaughter for his sons because of the guilt of their fathers, lest they rise and possess the earth, and fill the face of the world with cities.

OK, stop there. What we have here is, this is now Babylon exposed. For who they are, where God is going to be taken them. It's clear from that that Babylon's reign made the earth tremble. Babylon was a nasty, attacking, they were a nasty people.

They made the kingdoms shake. Everything in their path was basically destroyed. They made the world like a desert and overthrew its cities. Now, we do remember, again, that Babylon had periods of time where they were in force, perhaps when they weren't in force.

And we know from the account in Habakkuk that God had intentions to use them. The question is, how did Babylon become so powerful? And they were. How did they become so powerful? Ricky, let somebody else answer.

How did Babylon become so powerful? This is a Sunday school class. What's the right answer in every question in Sunday school class? Thank you, God. That's how they became so powerful, is God. He rises kings.

He establishes kings. He sets authorities in place. Babylon didn't become all of this on their own. They became all of this because there is God. This passage, it paints a really bleak picture. Those who stare at you and ponder over you, they're going to ask, is this the guy?

The implication there is this powerful kingdom that had so much splendor. And oh, by the way, I will ascend to the heavens. I will set my throne on high. They did all of this. And in their mind, I will make myself like the most high.

They did all of this in their own mind. They really didn't do it, but they did it in their own mind. And it finally gets to the point in this oracle where the people will look at him and say, is this the guy?

Why are they asking that question?

These statues.

What's a squirk?

OK, what happened to Babylon. From a, yes,.

From a historical, geopolitical, historical perspective, they were conquered by the Medes. Correct. What happened to Babylon?

And this might even refer to the fall to the Assyrians before the fall to the Medes.

Absolutely.

How did that all happen? It's a Sunday school class. What's the right answer? Thank you. Don't think that this one's too hard. In reality, we're in this oracle where Isaiah is given this message, the beginning from the end.

This is knowledge. Daniel is such an amazing book, especially the first five chapters, to follow the history of Babylon. And I'm going to use some of these just to highlight it. It starts out in Daniel 1, verse 1.

Nebuchadnezzar, the king of Babylon, took Jerusalem. And we know this, 586 BC. We know this. And in fact, that's when Daniel, what are the other names? Ricky, you can answer now.

Daniel, Hanani, Meshach, and Azariah.

Thank you. I know them as Shadrach, Meshach, and to bed we go. Daniel 2, now Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. He sees something in his dream. He tells his wise men, not only interpret it, but tell me what the dream was.

And they say, we can't do that unless you help us. Nobody can. Then you're all going to die, except Daniel is able to step forward. In chapter 2, 9 to 13, the king is angry. And 27 to 30, Daniel interprets the dream.

And he talks about the statue. And it's really cool. Daniel 2, Dave Reynolds, if you go to Daniel 2, give me 46 and 47, please. God gives Nebuchadnezzar an ability to perceive that this God for Daniel and his friends is different than all the other gods.

Well, he doesn't really get his lesson, because then he has an idol made. And there's a decree at the sound of the trumpet. Everybody's supposed to bow and make homage. And Daniel and his friends, they don't do it.

And there's a furnace. And there's the throwing of these folks into the furnace. And God protects them. And I'm sorry? He is in there with them. There's another image actually in the furnace. Furnace there with them.

So much so that at the end of Daniel 3, Nebuchadnezzar again recognizes this God of Daniel. So now we fast forward to Belshazzar, who takes over after Nebuchadnezzar. He holds a feast. He's really full of himself.

He holds a feast. But in the midst of a feast, there's a hand and fingers writing, menetekl ufarsan. I think that's how it was pronounced. And it really freaked this dude out. Daniel 5, 18 to 23. Louise, thank you.

All I could think of was Lorraine, and I knew that wasn't right. And again, I'm getting to the point. Remember, I don't watch reruns anymore. Lorraine, if you would. 18 to 23, chapter 5.

Was lifted up, and his spirit was hardened in pride. He was deposed from his kingly throne. And they took his glory from him. Then he was driven from the sons of men. His heart was made like the beast's.

And his dwelling was with the wild donkeys. They fed him with the grass like oxen. And his body was wet with the dew of heaven. So he knew that the most high God rules in the kingdom of death, and appoints over him whomever he chooses.

I wanted to get to this passage here, because this is the story of Babylon, in that Babylon was provided these blessings that God gave to this nation and to the king. But there was a reality that there is also a holy God, and then there also must be judgment and punishment.

Babylon is a king, is a nation, that had a lot, to the point where they made these powerful proclamations. I will, I will, I will. But eventually, it becomes to the point where those who looked at him said, is this the man who?

Because they're going to be brought down low. In verses 18 through 20, it talks about kings, after their death, lie in a state and are given recognition for who they were, but not you. You will not receive that kind of recognition.

You are going to be cut down. You will be cut, cast out, away from your grave like a loathed branch, it says in verse 19. The majestic awesomeness of Babylon will be eliminated, even to the point that in death, the king will not even be given the estate glory that a king would be given.

You will not be joined with them in burial, it says in verse 20, because you have destroyed your land and you have slain your people.

You have slain your people. Those evil dictators.

There are ramifications for the evil that Babylon has done. Pastor Jeff spoke strongly about compatibilism a few weeks ago. Yes, God calls them to do that, but the things that they do are only coming out of the evilness of their heart.

And so they are held accountable for the wickedness and evilness of their heart. And this is what the nation of Babylon represents. It represents the perception that we are all of that. And although God may be using us as a perception of all that, that is steeped in wickedness and in opposition to God.

And so there can only be judgment. It then says in the rest of 20 and 21, not only is a nation going to be taken away, not only when the king dies will there be no recognition and glory, but the offspring are going to be no more.

So there isn't even going to be a follow-on generation. It's just a pure, pure cut off. Neva, if you would read verses 22 and 23, please. Isaiah 14, 22, 23.

That's OK.

OK, now I'm going to have you reread that. And this time, emphasize those I wills. And oh, by the way, and we'll cut off the Babylon. You can put an I in front of that because it belongs there. So give me the I wills this time.

I will. I really enjoy taking these two verses and putting them right alongside 13 and 14. There is this perception for the nation of Babylon that they're all that and they can proclaim, I will. Because then you get into truth in verses 22 and 23, where you have I am proclaiming I will.

Now that's the first of the nations. The nations that think they are all of that, that are absolutely being driven and motivated by Satan's, I will make myself like the most high perception and proclaiming the I wills, I wills.

And at the end of it all is God, I am, saying, I will.

That's good.

So that's the nation of Babylon. Now we move on to Assyria. Bob, if you would give us 24 to 27, please. To 27.

This is the program planned for all the earth. This is the hand stretched out over. He has stretched out his hand. Who can turn it back?

There's two, there's an opening and a closing. 24, the Lord of hosts has sworn as I have planned, so shall it be. And then in 27, for the Lord of hosts has purposed who will annul it or who can stand against it.

The sovereignty of God. Now let's remember who Assyria is. OK, who is Assyria? Very good. He's going all the way back, son of Asher. And in fact, who built the first city of Assyria, which would have been Nineveh?

Nimrod. There you go, there you go. We go all the way back into Genesis. In fact, here's just a little interesting tidbit. I didn't know this until I was studying this. When you go into Genesis chapter 2, Assyria is mentioned.

It talks about the river that extends by Assyria. I did not know that. Talk about God who knows the beginning from the end, who's not caught off guard by anything. All right, in 2 Kings 15 to 17, we're going to see that Assyria is a nation that's going to be used by God, but will eventually be punished by God.

And Christina, I'm going to ask you to get to 2 Kings 17, verses 1 to 6. This nation of Assyria is a tool, is a weapon that God uses for his purposes. But if we go into Isaiah 10, and this is where Pastor Jeff was, and we talk about how God purposed to use them, yet their wickedness, they're still accountable for what they did for their own wickedness.

2 Kings 17, 1 to 6, you have it?

Yeah.

OK, hang on.

Hang on just a second. I want you to hold that spot. So let's set the scene. We're talking in the northern kingdom. We're talking about Israel. What were the kings like in Israel? All wicked, evil. The southern kingdom, we had this curve, up and down, up and down.

Evil, evil, evil, evil. And what we're getting where Christina's reading, it's really bad. It's really bad right now. So go ahead.

Against him came up Shem and Assyria, and on the table.

So Assyria had a purpose. There was a purpose for Assyria, because the northern kingdoms had totally walked away from God. They had totally gone in a bad direction. And God had warned them way back in Deuteronomy, if you obey my commandments, there are these blessings.

If you don't obey my commandments, there are these curses. And in fact, when the nation comes into the promised land after the battle at Jericho and after first, second Ai, they go up to the two mountains.

And they sit on one, and they proclaim the blessings. And on the other, they proclaim the curses, the Ark of the Covenant in between. The people of Israel knew better. They should have known better, but they rebelled.

They set up their own places of worship, and they basically walked away from God. And so God calls Assyria and uses them as his holy and just arm of punishment against the people. We can read these things in 1 Chronicles 5.

We can read in Ezekiel 31. There's so much beauty in Ezekiel 31. Barbara, I'm going to ask if you could go to Ezekiel 31, and we're going to read some selected. Here's the thing about Assyria is that they are bolstered and built up by God.

They have a purpose, but yet they are going to be held accountable. It says in Isaiah 14, the Lord of hosts has sworn, as I have planned, so it will be. And further on down, for the Lord of hosts has purposed, who will annul it?

And in the middle of it is going to be indictment against Assyria. The same Assyria that Christine just wrote, he raised them up as his arm to punish Israel. But there is accountability for purposes. If you have that chapter, give me verse 3.

What a beautiful picture, their majestic majesty. And then give me verse 9. See, who made it? God made it beautiful. This isn't Assyria's own doing. This is still God's hand. And then 10 and 11, please.

Did you catch what is introduced here in reality? Pride, and then their wickedness. And because of that, God's judgment. So if the First Nation Babylon represents that, I will arrogance, and then God's ultimate sovereignty, the second one is even when God calls and uses somebody, when pride and wickedness come in to be, there must be.

There must be accountability for it. The third one, I'm going to head over here. Sandy, if you would give me verses 28 to 32 in Isaiah,.

Please.

Do not enjoy the smoke come that the Lord has found in Zion, and the afflicted of his people will seek refuge in it.

What we have here, again, is Philistia. Now, let's remember what I said at the beginning. A very strong nation, a very secure nation, very fortified cities. They actually stood up against the assaults of Assyria, successfully stood up against the assaults of Assyria.

What's interesting, if you go to verse 28, it says that in the year that King Ahaz died. That's an important clue to this section here. King Ahaz died, I have it written down here, 715 BC. That's going to be of significance.

Now, Philistia thought they were safe. They felt they were secure. They're fortified cities and everything. And although Assyria had attacked, they had rebuffed it. But now we have this oracle in the year King Ahaz died.

That's 715. That's when the word of the Lord comes as an oracle against Philistia. And he says, don't rejoice, O Philistia. Now, at this point in time, they are withholding and standing up against attack.

The attack doesn't happen for another four years. In 711 is when Assyria defeats Philistia. So this word is coming to a people who are feeling very secure about themselves. They're feeling that the opposition is no big deal.

We can do this. And the word is like, be careful what you're doing, guys. It isn't for four more years. But the word of the Lord does come through. And it says, wail, O gate. Cry out, O city. Melt in fear.

O Philistia, all of you. The smoke comes out of the north. The nation of Philistia is going to fall. And so that's our third look. It's the impression that I can stand, that I'm strong, that I have the ability, that I'm protected by myself.

No, you're not. No, you're not. Now, the battle is actually going to be fought by another one of these nations that God is going to call to do against them, who eventually will be judged for their wickedness.

But the reality is that although Philistia thought they were secure in their own power, God sees the beginning from the end. Four years before it happened, he said, watch out because you're gates, you're going to cry, you're going to melt in fear, and all of this is going to happen to you.

And I love the way he ends this little section. Sandy, give me 32 one more time.

How then did one answer the messenger?

I love this because at the end, who wins?

God.

Thank you. Finally, one of these Sunday school questions was answered. In the end, God wins. And according to this passage, who wins along with him?

His people.

His people.

His people.

His chosen people. My friends, we're in this point. We're in this gap between the 69th and 70th week of Daniel. The Church Age, it's got lots of names to it. And it doesn't appear that God's people are prevailing at this time.

And in fact, we were just praying, fervently praying that God would show mercy on our country. We are really ripe for his judgment and his purging. And it looks like it's maybe coming to be. But we're praying that there would be a revival.

God is sovereign. God is God. But I will tell you this. Whether you are a Babylon nation who is so empowered by Satan to do all these things, or whether you are an Assyrian nation who is being used in ways, but yet you are pride and error, or whether you're a Philistia nation who has all of this self-assurance to yourself, God will win.

And it says here that he has founded Zion. And he's going to watch out for his afflicted people. He is sovereign. Close in a prayer, please.

Our sovereign God, we are so grateful to know that you are God. And you sit on your throne, enthroned in heaven. And you hold the whole world in your hands. We have nothing to fear. We also know that you conquer enemies and you trample them underfoot.

And you even take up this taunt against them. For you are God, and you are all-powerful and all-worthy. And so we look to you without fear of the enemies, Lord. And we do see that we live in a wicked nation, Lord.

But we pray that you would send revival through this land, Lord, that you would bring many to saving faith. We pray that churches would turn back to you, the true and living God. We pray that we would not be like the wicked nations that have been judged God righteously.

But we pray that instead you would bring forth a people that love you, and that we could be salt and light in the culture enough to preserve it until Jesus comes. And we do look for that second coming.

In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Amen.