WWUTT 1969 The Perfect Peace of Yahweh (Isaiah 26:1-10)

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In the midst of the judgments that Isaiah has prophesied, he also prophesies peace.

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God will destroy death. He will establish peace in the land. And that should be a comfort to our souls when we understand the text.

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This is When We Understand The Text, teaching through a New Testament book on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, an

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Old Testament book on Thursday, and a Q &A on Friday. With our Old Testament study today, here's

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Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. In our Old Testament study, we're in the book of Isaiah. It's been a little while since we've been in Isaiah.

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We had just finished up all of those oracles, the warnings concerning those kingdoms that were against God and the judgment that God was going to bring upon them.

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And then we had just entered into the section where Isaiah was prophesying about God's victory over all the earth.

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He will empty the earth. It was said in chapter 24, even death itself will be swallowed up.

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That's where we finished up by reading in chapter 25. So now we're on to chapter 26, where we're reading about how

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Yahweh will establish peace. So he will empty the earth. He will destroy death.

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He will establish peace. This is Isaiah chapter 26, and I'm going to read through verses 1 through 10 out of the

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Legacy Standard Bible. Hear the word of the Lord. In that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah.

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We have a strong city. He sets up walls and ramparts for salvation.

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Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter. The one that keeps faithfulness.

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The steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you.

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Trust in Yahweh forever. For Yah, Yahweh himself, we have an everlasting rock.

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For he has laid low those who settle on high, the exalted city. He brings it low.

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He brings it low to the ground. He casts it to the dust. The foot will trample it.

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The feet of the afflicted, the steps of the poor. The way of the righteous is upright.

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Oh, upright one, make the path of the righteous level. Indeed, while following the way of your judgments, oh

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Yahweh, we have hoped for you eagerly. Your name, the memory of you, is the desire of our souls.

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At night, my soul longs for you. Indeed, my spirit within me seeks you earnestly.

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For when the earth experiences your judgments, the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness.

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Though the wicked is shown favor, he does not learn righteousness. He deals unjustly in the land of uprightness and does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh.

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Now you might think this reads a lot like a psalm, and indeed it does. These prophecies surely inspired by psalms, in addition to the fact that this is the word of the

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Lord that has been given to Isaiah. It's the word of the Lord in the psalms as well, of course.

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So we read about how Yahweh is going to establish peace, and this prophecy so fills the heart of Isaiah that he rejoices in God in knowing the steadfastness of the

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Lord and the favor that he shows to the righteous, to his people.

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We've read about here how the judgment of God is coming against Judah even, but this statement said at the very beginning of this particular prophecy, in that day, the song will be sung in the land of Judah.

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We have a strong city. So though God's judgments are coming against the city, though the city itself will be destroyed, talking about Jerusalem, yet God's favor will still be with his people.

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And knowing this, having been shown this, fills Isaiah with immense joy, especially considering all the chaos that's going on all around him, anticipating the judgment that's going to come against Judah because of their sin against God, God bringing the

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Assyrians against them, God bringing Babylon against them, and so on. But yet we still have this promise of peace.

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God is still making peace. His favor is still with his people. Though they have transgressed the covenant,

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God will remain steadfast. So here we go, Isaiah 26, beginning in verse 1.

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And this chapter, by the way, is set up, is broken up into four different pieces. We have 1 through 6, 7 through 10, 11 to 19, and then we have this final sort of a beckoning, a call to the people in verses 20 and 21.

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Come and enter your rooms and close your doors behind you. Hide for a little while until indignation passes by.

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It's this benediction. It's this assurance. Yes, judgment is coming upon us, but God's favor is still with us.

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So in verse 1, in that day, this song will be sung in the land of Judah. We have a strong city.

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He sets up walls and ramparts for salvation. Walls being those things that protect, ramparts being areas that you not only look out from, like you're looking for the enemy from, but even places that you attack from.

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If you think of like the battlements on the top of a castle, you know, those jagged lines up there, the soldiers looking through the battlements and firing their arrows or launching catapults from a catapult or whatever else.

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So that's the ramparts. He sets up walls for protection, ramparts for salvation, that he is even coming against our enemies for us.

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Open the gates that the righteous nation may enter, the one that keeps faithfulness.

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Now remember, God's bringing judgment against Judah. So who is this righteous nation that keeps faithfulness?

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It's true Israel. It's the people who truly trust in God and have kept their way right, even in the midst of all the evil that has been going on in Judah.

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The idol worship, the pagan ways that they have adopted, and yet there is a remnant that continues to worship

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God. There will also be a people who have repented. So this people who is righteous to enter the city are also going to be those who have recognized their ways, have mourned over their sin and repented against God.

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There's something about that coming up here as well, as Isaiah mentions. So verse three, the steadfast of mind, you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you.

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The person who trusts God has a steadfast mind and the peace of God, the peace of God filling his heart because he trusts in you.

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Would that describe you? Even though things that are going on around you that are crazy and chaotic and out of control and you don't see the end of it, you don't know what the resolution of this is going to be.

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Do you yet have peace in your heart because you trust in God?

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Psalm 13 is always a psalm that I come back to regarding these things. How long, oh

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Yahweh, will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me? How long shall

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I take counsel in my soul, having sorrow in my heart all the day?

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How long will my enemy be exalted over me? Look and answer me, oh

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Yahweh, my God, give light to my eyes, lest I sleep the sleep of death, lest my enemy says

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I have overcome him and my adversaries rejoice that I am shaken.

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And then consider the resolve here in verses 5 and 6, but I have trusted in your loving kindness.

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My heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to Yahweh because he has dealt bountifully with me.

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So even in a moment where David is distressed and he even has trouble seeing

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God, yet he still rejoices, you still hear the peace of David's heart being expressed here because he trusts in God.

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He remembers God's faithfulness to him in the past, and that is even sustaining him in his present.

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And so Isaiah says here, the steadfast of mine, you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you.

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Steadfast in the Lord in all his ways, knowing that he is sovereign, he is in control, and you have peace in your heart, a peace that isn't because you've just decided that I'm going to grin and bear it.

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It's a peace that the Lord has blessed you with because you trust in God.

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And so it is said in verse 4, trust in Yahweh forever.

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Forever. For in Yah, which if you were reading this in the

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Hebrew, remember the word Yahweh is the tetragrammaton, YHWH, it's

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Yahweh without vowels in it. And so wherever there's the shortened version of that,

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YH, that would be Yah. For in Yah, and then you have the whole name, Yahweh himself, that name is such a comfort to Isaiah, and you can see that here in how often he uses it, especially in light of the fact that I have peace in my soul comfort rest even in the midst of all this chaos because I trust in Yahweh and everything that is bound up in that name when you hear the name

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Yahweh you are comforted because you know that you are secure in his hands we have an everlasting rock the verse finishes up for in Yah Yahweh himself we have an everlasting rock verse 5 for he has laid low those who settle on high the exalted city he brings it low he brings it low to the ground he cast it to the dust those cities that are set up high on hills are set up on on mountaintops are strong rocks they're considered to be virtually impenetrable fortresses but God will bring down even those cities when

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Obadiah prophesied against Edom that's in the book of Obadiah a very short book but it's a prophecy against Edom this was a city that thought they were invincible nobody was ever going to come against us but Obadiah says in that prophecy

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God is going to bring you down doesn't matter that you have this great fortified city that's up there on that hilltop the

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Lord is going to destroy it and you will be brought low verse 6 the foot will trample it the feet of the afflicted the steps of the poor so even those who are afflicted and poor they will have victory over even the most impenetrable enemy so that finishes

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Isaiah's consideration of God's establishment of peace verses 7 through 10 describe the righteous the upright and contrast the righteous with the wicked so in verse 7 the way of the upright

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I'm sorry that it's the other way around the way of the righteous is upright I was gonna say the upright is righteous it goes either way the way of the righteous is upright and then this statement in the parallelism

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Oh upright one make the path of the righteous level so the way of the righteous is upright but who ultimately is upright the

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Lord so Isaiah says Oh upright one calling upon God make the path of the righteous level take out any obstacles remove any enemies level the path that is in front of him and who is the upright by the way what does it mean to be upright it's synonymous with righteous hence why

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I said those terms could have been interchangeable so the person who is walking in the way of God is the person who is considered upright and we see that word used continually in the

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Psalms the upright man is the one who follows God's statutes verse 8 indeed while following the way of your judgments

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Oh Yahweh we have hoped for you eagerly your name the memory of you is the desire of our souls going back to Psalm 13 again even though I'm in distress and everything around me seems to be coming down yet I trust in God it is the desire of my heart

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I remember how God is dealt bountifully with me in the past he is doing well for me now and he is going he is going to give me prosperity in my future and of course with the prosperity gospel out there always feel like I have to qualify that prosperity is we're talking about here is not earthly material wealth it is rather the promise of eternal life that we have in Christ the forgiveness of sins now fellowship with God that we're promised even now and a dwelling place with him forever as we've been made fellow heirs of the kingdom of Christ so knowing these things seeing that in our future gives us comfort now and makes him our ultimate desire not the things that are here on this earth but those things that are in heaven above in glory verse 9 at night my soul longs for you indeed my spirit within me seeks you earnestly for when the earth experiences your judgments the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness what a great line let me come back to that here in a minute so verse 10 though the wicked is shown fight favor so we have the contrast between the righteous and the wicked the wicked is shown favor and this is talking about God's common grace that he has on all people so the fact that you're breathing air today it's because God has given you air to breathe just as Jesus said in Matthew chapter 5

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God causes his son to rise on the just and the unjust his reign to fall on the righteous and the unrighteous so though the wicked is shown favor he does not learn righteousness the one whose heart is set against God he has even been shown the kindness of God yet he does not learn righteousness he doesn't go the way of God he deals unjustly in the land of uprightness and does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh the fool has said in his heart there is no

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God Psalm 14 1 so let me come back to that statement in verse 9 we see here that the wicked have the favor of God but they don't learn anything yet we have this statement in verse 9 when the earth experiences your judgments the inhabitants of the earth learn righteousness but yet in verse 10 it says that the wicked does not learn righteousness so what do we mean here by the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness well there's certainly some who do so like I said earlier there's also an expression here in Isaiah 26 of those seeing the judgment of God coming against the land and repenting they repent of their sin they turn to the

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Lord they ask for forgiveness he cleanses them of all unrighteousness and now there's this promise of them to come into into the city even they will have access to the city open the gates that the righteous nation may enter the one that keeps faithfulness so I mentioned that that's the remnant those are those that hit that had not turned aside to go after an evil way but it remains steadfast and fixed on the

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Lord this would also include those who repent in a day of judgment the

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Lord will include them in the righteous they have been made righteous by the grace of God and so these people have learned righteousness when the earth experiences your judgments the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness

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I was listening to another Christian podcast recently where the hosts were talking about how in 2020 when everything started getting locked down and the government really came against the people you could even go to church you couldn't be found congregating in groups of people of more than 10 and all this kind of thing there were people during that time in 2020 who got saved and part of the thing that opened their eyes was recognizing just how wicked the government is they're not going to help us they don't even care about you they're imposing all these rules rather haphazardly even when the science doesn't dictate that these measures are needed there's this experimental drug that's being pushed out do we even know what the efficacy of it is and all this other kind of thing and all of this was being rolled out and being impressed upon the people and there was such oppression during those days and not just in the

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United States but you could see it elsewhere and probably worse in other parts of the world and there were people who observed this people who were not believers they were not followers of Christ and they recognized the government's not going to save us they're not going to come for us our best life now is not going to be because the government granted it to us it seems like they every time they step in they're taking something away from us rather than giving us something and so there were people in that year in 2020 who saw all of this going on and they came to faith in Christ they recognized this isn't enough

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I need to be finding something else and so their ears were open to hear those

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Christians who were continually faithful to preach the gospel even in a time such as that when there were so many other facilities and bars and gathering places and whatnot that were shut down there were still churches that were open and people knew that they could go there just to be with other people and they heard the gospel proclaimed or there were

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Christians still going out into the public square and preaching though most other things were locked down and they heard the gospel and so there was a time of repentance that happened even in 2020 where there were folks that were turning from their sin and turning to the

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Lord they saw the wickedness that was coming on the land in the riots and people overreacting to things that were they were they were even reading the situation wrong and burning their cities down as a result there was new philosophies that were coming about like critical race theory and intersectionality that really became more oppressive to the people rather than liberating they promised liberation but that's not what they were delivering and so just observing all of this which is the judgment of God upon a blind and hardened people that he would give them a strong delusion that they go after that is talked about in 2nd

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Thessalonians chapter 2 there were yet other people that were able to discern the times and see something really messed up is going on and none of this stuff is ever going to save me

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I need something else and they turn to the Lord Christ the land experienced God's judgments and we're seeing

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God's judgments coming upon the land even now and when that happens the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness they're looking out there and they're seeing there is a right and there is a wrong this is wrong so where do

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I turn to find out the truth and we find the truth in Christ of course John 14 6

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Jesus saying I am the way the truth and the life no one comes to the father but by me and so may even in these days the gospel of Christ be proclaimed and there be inhabitants of this land that learn righteousness even in the midst of God's judgments that are pouring out yet we know as said here in verse 10 the wicked are shown the favor of God but they do not learn righteousness he deals unjustly the the unrighteous man deals unjustly in the in the land of uprightness and he does not perceive the majesty of Yahweh but if you know the majesty of God turn to him turn from sin to the

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Lord Jesus Christ and live continue to trust in him the expression of Isaiah's heart here in Isaiah 26 3 the steadfast of mind you will keep in perfect peace because he trusts in you trust in Yahweh forever for in Yahweh we have an everlasting rock let that truth be a comfort to you today heavenly father we thank you for what we've read here in Isaiah 26 verses 1 through 10 and may these words be kept near to us that we would continue in the way of uprightness continue in the way of righteousness sin is never okay there is never a season in which well

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I well I can dabble in sin right now and it's just fine we must always be upright in heart not bent low to the earth but standing tall on this path of righteousness knowing that the

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Lord has leveled it for us and has directed our steps may we be comforted as we walk this way knowing that we are going the right way and we know where this road ends the glory that awaits us in Christ Jesus if we endure continue to remain with us and help us on our way trusting in God as we go bring others into your kingdom those others that are along this way as we walk if we find them to pull them on to the path of righteousness and say we're walking to Zion the beautiful city of God so that the inhabitants of the world learn righteousness that they may know

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Christ and reach that glorious reward it's in the name of Christ that we pray amen this has been when we understand the text of pastor

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Gabriel Hughes for all of our podcasts episodes videos books and more visit our website at www .utt

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.com if you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment email when we understand the text at gmail .com