Tape 2 - Desolation to Restoration (Isa. 52:13-55)

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Dr. Irwin "Rocky" Freeman

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Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, we can appreciate you coming on this beauty the
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Lord's provided some lovely sunshine and The birds are chirping and everything is greening up and it's just a gorgeous day outside And I appreciate you taking time to come and be with us to study
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God's Word I pray that these studies will be a blessing to you. They certainly have been to me
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I appreciate your gracious comments and the kindness and The thoughts and the response that you have and by the crowd that we have we know that the
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Lord is speaking to our hearts and giving us encouragement in these days and Again, we're going to be studying this morning
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The thought of and we'll try to close it down and maybe change to something else that I have on my heart
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But we've been talking about desolation to restoration how the wilderness of life can become the great garden of God and There's so many applications to this and so many
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Illustrations from the Word of the Lord and from what we call secular life that would illustrate this but today we as we've come through a chapter 35 of Isaiah, you recall that we said that chapter 35 of the book of Isaiah and chapter 40 verses 1 through 7 and Isaiah 53 and 55 are the four great chapters if one would say
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Try to pick out a few chapters would be the four great chapters giving the Supreme value of the book of Isaiah now everything in the book is important and they all tie together and they all must be studied
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I would not suggest to you that you could just study these four chapters and have everything that Isaiah would say what
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I am saying is the supreme value of the book the major theme of the book and The important thoughts do tie together in these particular chapters 35 and in chapter 40 verses 1 through 7 and then
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Chapter 53 chapter 55. So today we're going to be looking at chapter 53 to 55 and thinking along the line
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Desolation to restoration and then we will draw this together Now a very careful reading of the prophecy of Isaiah shows that when you examine chapter 53
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You actually have to begin in chapter 52 Actually, it begins in chapter 52 verse 13
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Well, you and I know that again. We have to remember that there were no chapter divisions In fact the Dead Sea Scrolls and they found the great scroll of Isaiah which was such a tremendous help to biblical scholarship and confirming exactly what we knew it to be and Confirming it exactly as we have and yet giving us a manuscript that was a thousand years older than anything that we had in our possession well, we know it's just one continuous scroll and Yet for a breakdown the translators have come and they've added chapters and so forth and there's nothing wrong with that I'm just saying that the logical thought pattern and process begins in chapter 52 verse 13
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Where it says behold my servant shall deal prudently. I'm reading from the King James Version of the scripture
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He shall be exalted and shall be extolled and be very high
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And so we have to begin with the words Behold my servant and they introduced the great unveiling that is going to follow
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Now any approach to this particular section of Holy Scripture has to be characterized of course by a reticence that amounts almost to reluctance because the reluctance that I would feel and sense is born of a sense of the almost
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Overwhelming nature of what we're going to find in these passages of Scripture if one would just sit and contemplate and meditate upon it
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The truths of them in the profundity of it and and the beauty and majesty of it will almost overwhelm you
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There is nothing either in the old or the New Testament That is more gripping than this portrayal of the servant of the
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Lord in which you and I are conscious of an appalling gloom Which nevertheless burns and shines at the same time with an effable glory
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And so there is some reluctance on my part to try to develop this but because we need to study the word
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We're going to do so now the opening words Behold my servant reveal the nature of the vision and they demand the utmost attention in the movement of the prophecy
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This passage is climactic the movement actually began in the 40th chapter you call we talked about chapter 35 and in chapter 40 and We said the prologue to this particular movement.
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We were talking about a great oratorio Great symphony written about the servant of the
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Lord. And so the prologue began in chapter 35 and this particular movement of the oratorio began in Chapter 40 now the prophet was lifted high above the gloom in the midst of which he lived and saw a day of glorious restoration
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You recall it says the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad and the desert shall rejoice and blossom
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As the rose now beginning at the 40th chapter of Isaiah. He said well,
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I thought we were in chapter 52 and 53. Well, we are but we have to bring ourselves back up Obviously to tie this together
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I don't want any loose ends in our minds as we go through this and obviously there are some who are here this morning who
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Have not been with us before but in chapter 40 As We we talked about the great prophet of the
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Lord. He talks about comfort He comfort you my people Then he tells us that things will turn about and the desolation that he saw on the gloom that he saw
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Would be removed and so it's going to be Exactly what
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God has declared that it would be there would be complete restoration So the prophet proceeds to show us how that day of restoration will come you recall the wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad and the desert shall rejoice and Blossom as the rose a voice in the wilderness is heard calling upon men to prepare the way of Jehovah Because it's through the action of God that the desolation can be
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Transmuted or transformed into the glory of a complete realization Now following on the prophet shows that this proclamation of an activity of the
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Lord Constitutes the gospel of comfort in chapter 40 verse 1 comfort me comfort me my people and It's to be proclaimed to other people
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So it's a very stately passage showing the majesty of the Lord as creating the certainty that these things will be so So to the prophet all the things in the midst of which he lived there was darkness that was gloom.
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There was desolation everything was destroyed the captivity was there the
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Nations were coming against them and they had all sorts of sin and degradation Nothing seemed to be right in his day and yet in the midst of all of this
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He saw a radiance in the light of things which were to be and they historically of course were far away from him
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But prophetically he saw That which was coming about as Simon Peter said he spake from God being caught up and born along by the
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Holy Spirit You recall when Peter says these the scriptures were written by the prophets holy men of God Born along by the
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Holy Spirit and he saw this wilderness Isaiah He saw the parched land, but yet he sees it made glad and he sees the desert rejoicing and blossoming with roses in chapter 35
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Verse 2 it tells us it shall blossom Abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it the excellency of Carmel and Sharon They shall see the glory of the
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Lord and the excellency of our God and so Isaiah sees all of these things transpiring and coming about in the great prologue of the oratorio of the great symphony
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Concerning the servant of the Lord and he shows us that the Lord will move to the accomplishment of this great and glorious consummation through an individual through one
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Described as the servant of Jehovah as the word Continually is used throughout the prophetic book now in the course of this entire section twice
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We find these words that grab my heart and grip our soul and challenge our mind behold my servant
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Excuse me in chapter 42 in verse 1 it begins
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Behold my servant whom I uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth.
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I have put my spirit upon him He shall bring forth justice to the nations and then we have it in 52 verse 13 where we are presently
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So twice he uses this these words behold My servant and as we follow through we find that the title is applied to the nation
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And now this is important point because you and I know that in Speaking to the children of Israel and speaking to Jewish people
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We find that we can use Isaiah chapter 53 as it does describe for us the crucifixion of our
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Lord And it's a great witnessing to however when you speak to Jewish people Most of them have the concept that Isaiah 53 those who know anything about it most don't study it
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It is not taught in the synagogues. It's not discussed by them and yet there are those who might have Some idea about Isaiah 53 if they do they would tell you that the suffering servant is the nation of Israel And we also know that it is true
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That it is applied Not in that particular chapter necessarily But the word behold my servant does apply that title has been applied to the nation
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But also we say it is applied to a personalist a personality who is arising to life
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In in and up in the life of the nation the nation fails in the accomplishment of the divine purpose
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There's no question one would see that but the person that arises out of the life of that nation Carries out that purpose to complete realization
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And so we would not be disagreeable to someone who says the behold my servant that applies to the nation of Israel But we would say yes it does
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But it also applies to a personality coming out of the nation of Israel now Let's glance momentarily at the two occurrences of those words behold my servant
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Which in each case refers to the person we find that the first of those was quoted by our
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Lord in the synagogue in Nazareth when he claimed their fulfillment in himself as he said you recall this day
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Hath this scripture been fulfilled in your ears as he stood and read before the learned rabbis of his day now the second one introduces the section that we now have under our consideration which self -evidently has
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Application to the travail and triumph through which the servant the Lord accomplishes the divine purpose of making the wilderness blossom as A role now in order for us to understand this passage.
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I want us to examine it in its natural divisions. We'll not place anything Artificial upon it it just naturally divides and it consists first of all of an inclusive exordium in chapter 52
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Versus 50 excuse me verses 13 to 15 and then the second section
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Describes the travail of the servant of the Lord of course that's chapter 53 verses 1 through 9 and then third
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Finally the section announces his triumph in chapter 53 verses 10 to 12
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So let's look at the exordium is and see that it is complete in itself we notice that it is a complete section and By exordium
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I notice that some of you looking me kind of straight. It's a a portion or a section or Something that is
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Exhorting it's a complete exhortation and we just call it an exordium and But it is that which is a section that exhorts towards something or it is exhorting towards something so just like a a complete little book or It could be a section that is placed there for the exhortation and it's complete within itself and all that follows after it serves as An interpretation of the declarations that it makes so let's look the first statement is simply this
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In verse 13 of chapter 52 behold my servant shall deal prudently or shall deal wisely
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It reads in the King James prudently it could be wisely of course and an Alternative reading is found in some
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Interpretations of those who deal with the Hebrew language which makes the declaration behold My servant shall prosper and we find that used
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In this passage and without any doubt that is the true actual literal meaning of the
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Hebrew word That he shall prosper now It is so that at the very base of the
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Hebrew word There is an idea of wisdom and prudence and dealing wisely, but the use of the words always
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Was suggestive at that time of success or prosperity that results from that wisdom or prudence?
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So it is not a disagreement with what the translators have come up with what I'm saying is behold my servant shall prosper
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And be successful because he deals wisely Because he deals prudently and that's the meaning of it and the statement is immediately followed by the declaration
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He shall be exalted. He shall be lifted up. He shall be exalted and extolled and Be very high the exaltation of it.
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He's going to be raised up very high and Lifted up now to read that merely as a statement
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Would be to realize that it's a prediction of course of a complete victory and yet the introduction of the phrase lifted up seems to say more to us it seems to have a
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Deeper meaning and has a far wider range than we would necessarily want to give it by just a superficial reading of a statement in General terms the whole declaration is that his prosperity his success is going to be gained by his exaltation and that exaltation will come by a lifting up and that such
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Exaltation by lifting up will put him into the place of full and final authority that is he will be very high it notice
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He's going to be extolled Raised high is the meaning here, and he's going to be very very high
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So when we follow on then we find startling light upon that entire statement in the words
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Notice what it says as many as were and the King James says astounded astounded at thee and His many go and talks about his visit like as many as were stunted at thee
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Which is followed by that pair of statement his visage was so marred more than any man And his form more than the sons of men now in those words of course there's a recognition of suffering of sorrow and of course indeed agony a
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Visage marred and a form marred speak of a spalling of the personality As well as the physical the visage the countenance
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You could see it from all that he was and the whole statement Is mysterious as it has a mystery about it and you and I are driven to ask well
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What is that that the Prophet means? What is he actually saying to us and so let's bring these two statements together like this like as many as were astonished
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Astounded at thee so shall he sprinkle many nations kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them shall
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They see and that which they had not heard shall they understand so such a marring of visage and form
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Creates astonishment so that it is by that method that the victory is going to be It's going to be attained it by the marring of it notice as many were astonished as many were startled
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The Hebrew word there shaman means startled to be astounded his business was so marred
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The words are that more than any man and his form more than the sons of men so that the people
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Become confused and startled about it and yet his visits so marred. That's it's paralyzing in the shocking abuse
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That would come to this individual soul Shall he sprinkle many nations the
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Kings shall shut their mouths at him for that which had not been told them shall they see?
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And that which they had not heard shall they consider. It's a startling message They are startled and it's a startling message that they hear so we may say then that the lifting up referred to in this opening declaration is
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Interpreted by these statements that follow and the lifting up is the elevation of conspicuous sorrow when he's lifted up It is a sorrow that it leads to the elevation of conspicuous sovereignty
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So the lifting up is in sorrow, but it leads him to sovereignty It leads him to that victory and the way to sovereignty
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Always and ever is the way of suffering now You know I could pause and you and I could sit and discuss for great length of time
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Concerning this matter all the television program not all but most of the television evangelist and and a lot of the books out now that you see and hear and read about all the things that are going on around us tell us that a
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Christian should not have suffering and that there's always and ever total healing for every Christian and should not have any sickness in the life
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And problems or difficulties or crises or trials in the life and if you do it's because you don't have faith or you aren't right with the
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Lord and yet when we go to the Scriptures we find Not only the life of our Lord that we find in the people of the
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Lord And it's totally the opposite the way to sovereignty the way to ruling the way to victory is is always through suffering
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There is always the cross before the crown Now from these great prophetic words our minds travel on to some of the final hours in the life of our
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Lord And you know we find this double consciousness of sorrow and of sovereignty and of sorrow leading to sovereignty
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Finds expression in the words that fell from his lips you recall that as he approached the cross He said now is my soul troubled and almost immediately afterwards
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He says now is the judgment of this world now shall the prince of this world be cast out and I if I be lifted up Out of the earth will draw men unto myself and so the historic utterances of Jesus harmonized perfectly
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With a prophetic foretelling of Isaiah. He shall be exalted and lifted up and shall be very high
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Lifted up by conspicuous sorrows, but by them lifted into the place of conspicuous sovereignty
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So that the kings of the earth shall shut their mouths because of him so this exhortation the exhort him leads to the prophetic foretelling of the
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Sorrows of this person that leads to the sovereignty and the rule in the rain and the travail that issues into triumph and so the account of this travail is
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One that has to be read I suppose with wondering awe and most appropriately in solemn silence
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Merely to aid us in doing this I want to venture to reverently break up this section into at least three parts
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We have presented to us first of all the rejected persons in verses 1 to 3
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Then we have the vicarious sufferer verses 4 to 6 and finally we see the atoning lamb in verses 7 to 9 now in presenting the
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Rejected person the Prophet very clearly shows him as seen by God and then as seen by men
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The divine vision of the servant of the Lord is contained in one simple and yet sublime declaration
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He starts by saying who has believed our report and to whom is the arm of the
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Lord revealed? For he shall grow up before him like a tender plant and like a root out of a dry ground
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He hath no form nor commonness and when we shall see him there is no beauty that we should desire him
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He is despised and rejected of me and a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and we hit as it were our faces from him he was despised and We esteem him not so he grew up before him as a tender plant such a sublime declaration and this poetic
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Description refers to him in all the beauty that is suggested by eternal youth
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That is how God saw his son You know you called it three times during the period of his earthly life the silence of eternity was broken by these divine attestations and each case the
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Attestation of God was that of the satisfaction of God in him in his son and it was very perfect full and clear
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This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased and that was the divine vision of the servant of the
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Lord That was however not how men saw him and it's not how the world sees him even today
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Of course in immediate and striking contrast to all that suggested by that phrase a tender plant
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That's how God sees the servant of the Lord his son tender plant
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Eternal youthfulness, so to speak the words follow and as a root out of a dry ground
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He has no form nor commonness and when we see him, there's no beauty that we should desire him
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These verses have caused some confusions in the minds of many beloved believers who wanted to study the word and and to look at it and what
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I've done is I've Changed the punctuation of these sentences in order to show the contrast of vision between the divine and the human
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Viewpoint as we read it in the scripture. It says and like a root out of a dry ground He has no form nor commonness and when we shall see him
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There's no beauty that we should desire him. And so that's the human viewpoint of it.
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No contrast can be more Arresting to the mind than that between a tender plant and a root out of a dry ground
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If we read it, so as a root out of a dry ground He has no form nor commonness and when we see him there's no beauty that we should desire him three separate thoughts that we see there and When we think about a root out of a dry ground a root lying on the pathway not in the ground
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Something that men spurn perhaps kick out of the way as they walk a root out of a dry ground
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Not necessarily a root growing up It just perhaps lying there and in him men saw neither form nor commonness and no beauty that made him
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Desirable and the Prophet certainly does not mean I believe that the servant of the Lord lacked either form or commonness nor beauty
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That there was nothing physically attractive about him or that he was some kind of a hideous looking creature that God had so made his son or his son had so taken a body and that body was in such a form that it would
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Repulse people it would repel people. I do not believe that at all What I do believe it means is that man was blind to the beauty that was in his person
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This was true and it remains true. The ideals of beauty were false then and they still are false today
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It was not and it is not that there is no beauty in the Lord Jesus But rather that man is blind to that beauty
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If you consult the world of art at the time when our Lord lived it's to discover the truth of that affirmation
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The art was decadent and it may be truthfully said that through his admin art had its renaissance
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But even yet much more of the conception of beauty is entirely false today It's all aerobics and it's all physical and and on we go and if you just get the physical right and everything and all that inner beauty will come forth and Although the physical ought to be right and it ought to be taken care of it
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Certainly is not the truth about true beauty all concerning. The person is
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Summarized in those words then he was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief
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His sorrows and his grief made him unacceptable to that world of art which refused to look upon anything in his day
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Which in its estimation was ugly or mutilated It just would not tolerate it And so having thus revealed the servant of the
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Lord as personally rejected then the great prophet Isaiah Proceeded to show that his sorrows were vicarious that is they were not for himself in the eyes of God a tender plant and the eyes of men a root out of a dry ground devoid of all beauty a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief it tells us a man of sorrows and Acquainted with grief in verse 3.
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Well, what was he doing? The answer is found in those words surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows
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Here again men were blind to the facts and the Prophet simply says we did a steam him stricken smitten of God and Afflicted we did a stream him stricken smitten of God and afflicted and we were wrong
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His griefs were not his own. His sorrows were not personal. They were all vicarious
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So art was at fault unable to detect his beauty So theology and philosophy were at fault
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They were unable to interpret his sorrows and the outlook of the thinkers upon his sorrows was that he was smitten stricken of God and afflicted so art was at fault in the consideration of his person and Philosophy was at fault in the presence of his sorrows
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So we reached then this final movement this final portion in the presentation of the travail of the servant of the
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Lord He was oppressed yet. He humbled himself and opened not his mouth look at the next verse in Verse 4 surely hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows yet We did a steam him stricken smitten of God and afflicted but he was wounded for our transgressions he was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement for our peace was upon him and With his stripes we are healed
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He was oppressed verse 7 and he was afflicted yet. He opened not his mouth
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He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter and as a sheep before shears is dumb. So he openeth not his mouth
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He was taken from prison and from judgment and who shall declare his generation Well, he was cut off out of the land of the living for the transgression of my people was he stricken and he made his grave
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With the wicked and with the rich in his death because he had done no violence neither was any deceit in his mouth so He is seen silent in the presence of the wrong that was done to him and it was the silence of one in perfect agreement
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With God the silence of eternity that is interpreted by love and in that presentation the personal sufferer the vicarious sufferer the silent sufferer is
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Revealed as an atoning lamb for it says it was for the transgression of my people
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Was he stricken so now Then we see the note changes and we reach the setting forth of the triumph of the servant of the
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Lord It begins with a statement yet Notice yet it pleased the
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Lord verse 10 to bruise him He has put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin.
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He shall see a seed He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand
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He shall seal the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many for he shall bear their iniquities
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Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great and he shall divide the spoil with the strong Because he has poured out his soul unto death and he was numbered with the transgressors
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And he bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors yet It pleased the
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Lord to bruise him now It is true that that word yet does not occur in there in the actual literal
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Hebrew But it is absolutely necessary in our language in order to draw attention to that intended contrast
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So that's why it's been inserted yet In the story of the travail. We've seen the servant of the
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Lord in the midst of the wrong done to him by men Silently bearing the sins of those very men.
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We are now told that all of this was encompassed Within the divine will it pleased the
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Lord it pleased Jehovah to bruise him He has put him to grief So the prophetic word harmonizes with the apostolic word does it not that was uttered on the day of Pentecost?
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the first reference to the cross in the language of a man filled with the Holy Spirit was made in those words in Acts chapter 2
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Verse 23 him being delivered by the determinant counsel and foreknowledge of God Ye by the hands of men without the law by the hands of lawless men did crucify and slay so the prophet begins with a prediction of the wrong done by men and ends with the affirmation of the divine overruling the
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Apostle begins with the declaration of the divine determination and overruling and ends with the affirmation of the sin
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That caused the suffering of a servant of the Lord So it was in view of this consciousness of the relation of the sin of man and the good pleasure of God That the prophet
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Isaiah broke out into those words when thou shall make his soul an offering for sin He shall see his seed.
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He shall prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hands So the whole movement opens with the words behold my servant shall prosper and then it was followed by the story of the travail and the prediction of the triumph and all of that is seen as being within the grasp of the divine government carrying out the divine purpose and the
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Result is inevitable when his soul that is his entire personality was made an offering for sin
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The purposes of God were assured of accomplishment through travail. Then he came to triumph through sorrow
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He came to sovereignty and in that connection we read that great and glorious declaration
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He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied So here we are in the presence of mysteries that cannot be finally explained but which are radiant with the glory of eternal grace and the
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Satisfaction following that travail will be that of the right of the servant of the Lord to justify many as he has borne their iniquities
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It may we will to remind ourselves of the marvel of it all that a foretelling That a foretelling so clear and definite was given to the sons of men hundreds of years before its historic fulfillment
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This whole passage looks as if it might have been written While someone was sitting beneath the cross on Golgotha in the light of that historic fulfillment of prophecy of apostolic interpretation and all the witness through the centuries of time you and I gather everything in the prophetic word and Express it in that wonderful sentence of Paul and which nothing could possibly be more complete or final
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God was in Christ God was in Messiah Reconciling the world unto himself
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Surely such a meditation appeals to us in the very words that Paul used in connection with that statement
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I beseech you therefore be reconciled to God now Let's turn quickly to chapter 55 before our time escapes us this morning
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This chapter is complete in itself as a prophetic call and appeal But there is a sense in which it is by no means complete within itself
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It demands all that is preceded in the chapters before and it finds its reason in the 53rd chapter
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So I make a passing reference again to these focal points That we have been considering chapter 35
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Confronted the desert and foretold the garden chapter 40 announced a gospel or a good news or proclamation
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Consequent upon the activity of Jehovah the Lord chapter 53 unveils to us the servant of the
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Lord the servant of Jehovah Passing through the wilderness of travail and so preparing for the song of the garden now chapter 55 is the prophetic call that is consequent upon all that has gone before so this chapter opens in the wilderness
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Turn with me, please it opens in the wilderness Where there are thirsty hungry and restless people it closes in the garden
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Where the hills are singing in the trees of the field are clapping their hands through it out the whole passage it employs figurative language to describe spiritual experiences and the prophetic word is addressed to the deepest spiritual necessities of human nature and it calls me into those attitudes and activities wherein those necessities will be perfectly met and Satisfied now, that's a general concept of this chapter, but its structure is it sets forth the conditions
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That are there. Let's look first of all the conditions of the wilderness or the desert Verses 1 & 2 whole everyone that thirsteth come to the waters and he that hath no money
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Come by and eat ye come by wine and milk without money and without price
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Why do you spend money for that which is not bread and your labor for that which satisfies not?
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Hearken diligently unto me and eat that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness
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So we have the condition and it finally describes the conditions in the garden of God verse 10
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For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven and returneth not there But what if the earth and makes that bring forth and bud that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater
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So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth It shall not return unto me void
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But it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to I sent it
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For you shall go out with joy and be led forth with peace the mountains and the hills Shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands
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Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir tree and instead of the briar Shall come up the myrtle tree and it shall be the
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Lord for a name for an everlasting sign That shall not be cut off so you have the
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Conditions of the wilderness or the desert and then you are finally describing the conditions in the garden of God and in between that There's found an argued appeal and it sets forth the way out of the desert and into the garden and that's verses 3 through 9
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Incline your ear and come unto me here and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you
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Even the sure mercies of David. This is a reference to the Davidic Covenant the covenant God made with David in 2nd
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Samuel 7 It's the dynasty of David verse 4 behold I have given him for witness to the people a leader and commander to the people
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Behold I shall call a nation that thou knowest not and nations that knew not thee Shall run unto thee because of the
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Lord thy God and for the Holy One of Israel for he hath glorified thee Seek ye the
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Lord while he may be found Call ye upon him while he is near let the wicked forsake his way in the righteous
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Excuse me And the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our
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God for he Will abundantly pardon for my thoughts are not your thoughts Neither are your ways my ways sayeth the
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Lord for as the heavens are higher than the earth So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts
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So we have the wilderness or the garden that are the desert Described for us and then we have the conditions in the
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Garden of God and in between those we have the way out of the desert Into the garden now, that's the order that I want us to consider this chapter
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This morning in our closing time together in the first two verses Let's take merely that the phrases that describe the conditions everyone that thirsts
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You spend money for that which is not bread your labor for that which satisfies not so the conditions then are those of thirst hunger
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Disappointment and that leads to restlessness So the prophetic word was addressed to human beings and at the very first calls them to waters though They had no money and it's evident that the
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Prophet did not mean that these people were literally without money because he immediately added Wherefore do you spend money for that which is not bread?
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So they had money certainly they did as a matter of fact We know that during the period of captivity
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They were so materially successful when they were in Babylon that in the case of multitudes of them
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They had no desire to return to the beloved city Jerusalem and the records show that only a small minority
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Did return of course, there were some out of every tribe that did come back but only a small minority came back
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They had money and were spending money. But here they were still thirsty They had no money that was current in the realm
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Capable of providing the water that would quench the thirst of which they were conscious The people were choked with the dust of material things while yet conscious of a spiritual thirst for which they could find no water
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So the Prophet changes the figure the end and he asked them why they spent money for that which is not bread
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Materially, there was fullness of bread. They were satiated with it They had all they needed but there was no satisfying of that deep hunger of the spirit and yet again
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He recognized their energy and their output of strength. They were laboring but they were not satisfied there was neither rest nor sense of peace or poise but rather that our feverishness in their life and That is a description.
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Is it not of life without God thirsty? hungry Restless here men are living today in that exact position thirsty hungry and restless perhaps those who are most conscious of these conditions are those who have a
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Replacement of material things an abundance of things about them and yet Inward they are thirsty hungry and their lives are restless
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Now let's turn to the conditions described at the end of the chapter as I said
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We want to look at the conditions And then we want to look at the conditions at the last they will come back to this to the middle portion
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When we look that we first find a revelation notice are the secret of those conditions For as the rain cometh down in the snow from the heaven and returneth not thither but waters the earth and makes it bring forth and bud and give a seed to the sower and bread to the eater now here the ministry of rain and snow in Cooperation with the force of the earth are quickly recognized as bringing forth a harvest and then the figure is immediately applied
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So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth It shall not return unto me void
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But it shall accomplish that which I please and it shall prosper in the thing where to I send it is the reading there
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So the fructifying power in human life is declared to be the Word of God This has its application to the sacred scriptures
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But it means finally God's making known of himself to the human soul the cooperation between rain and snow and earth produces harvest and the cooperation between divine revelation the
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Word of God and Human obedience brings forth all the things of the fruitfulness in life
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So the realness is made glad and the desert blossoms as the rose So the conception that is presented to us is that which
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Moses had uttered long before by divine inspiration Which Jesus repeated in an hour of fierce temptation when he said man shall not live by bread alone
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But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God to live by bread alone
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Then is to live in the desert to have only material things and to to subsist on material things is to actually live in the desert and to live by bread and the
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Word of God is to Find life in all fullness and beauty. So the Prophet then sets forth once more with a tremendously poetic beauty
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He begins by saying ye shall go out with joy The indefiniteness of this is in itself illuminating ye shall go out
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But where do you go out to where you shall go out anywhere everywhere the thought is that of progress and expansion
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Moving on and moving out and that's to be forevermore with joy wherever you go It does not matter and ever how far you travel
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Straight far wide. It'll always be with joy He shall go out with joy and then he says you shall be led forth and that phrase itself suggests a mission to guidance
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Some guidance is there and he indicates progress as you go. You shall be led
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Someone guides you as you go So you should go out with joy and you shall be led forth and that is ever to be with peace
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Into going out there is joy and upon that March of life There is peace men living in right relationship with God or evermore always going out to something larger
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Something deeper something grander and therefore always with joy while in the going they are being led forth
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Conducted along and so with peace but still further the Prophet describes the experience of such people under such conditions
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Notice he says the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into singing and all the trees of the field
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Shall clap their hands on the way along the way Life will be seen to be transmuted and expresses itself at its very highest no longer are the thorns
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Curses no longer that but the fir tree full of life and beauty no longer the briar that would hinder you
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But the beautiful myrtle tree full of exquisite loveliness That's the glory of the garden of the
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Lord the wilderness becomes glad the desert blossoms as the rose and there seems to be music everywhere
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Someone might be inclined to say but well that sounds nice, but all this is poetry is it not well, that's certainly true
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It is poetry But poetry is simply the interpretation of prose and the whole picture that is suggested to us is that of a godly life?
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Life when fertilized by the Word of God and lived in communion with him is just like that There are multitudes of those who know nothing experimentally of this kind of life
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They would say we've never heard the mountains sing or the trees clap their hands. Oh, they are conscious of the mountains
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They've seen them They've even traveled through them But all the while they were wondering perchance if coal was there to mine it was there copper there is it a ours or gold
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There or whatever Mountains to them are mounds out of which they may gain something or had to cross over get around to get over They've not heard the mountains sing
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All the thought of the trees of the field clapping their hands almost filled in with amusement When the evening wind and breeze breaks across the trees or the hurricane sweeps through the forest and all the leaves are clapping their
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Hands they hear nothing they see the trees They call them lumber in some places timber in other places.
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They can build houses with them They can build buildings with them But they've lost the capacity for the poetry of life because they live immersed in the things of the dust
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You know, there's both pathos and tragedy in Tom Hood's familiar lines
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He wrote I remember I remember the house where I was born the little window where the
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Sun came peeping in at morn He never came a week too soon or brought too long a day
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But now I often wish the night had borne my breath away. I remember I remember the fir trees dark and high
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I used to think their slender tops were close against the sky It was a childish ignorance, but now it is little joy to know
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I'm further off from heaven than when I was a boy Beloved there are people you and I know and those that we don't know who hear all this music and some of them may be
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Living in the slums and tenement houses where there are no trees or perchance in the more blighting and blasting sections where wealth abounds
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Such people are in tune with nature because they are right with nature's God you find people everywhere
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Beloved believers in the Word of God those who walk with God There are those who have and those who have not but they hear the singing of the trees and they hear
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The mountains singing forth and so you and I close with a central section in which the
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Prophet tells the way then To get from the desert to the garden. How do I get from one to the other if I don't know this kind of life?
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How do I get there? Well, his first word is a call to attention and that combined with the promise of life
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With a listening soul God will make a covenant which are the sure mercies of David He says and then he refers to a person
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I have given him for a witness to the people's a leader and a commander to the people's
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So the call is a double one first of all to listen and then to look The person thus referred to is the servant of the
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Lord who through travail comes to triumph But listening and looking must lead us to endeavor
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Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call ye upon him while he is near then in what is the seventh verse of this chapter in clearest terms the way of seeking is
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Revealed it's unveiled Let the wicked forsake his way on the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the
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Lord And he will have mercy upon him and to our God for he will abundantly pardon
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Beloved in those instructions. We are first of all a declaration of human responsibility Secondly a declaration of divine activity in other words
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We are told that man must do and what God covenants to do with man when he is obedient to what
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God says What then are the words revealing man's responsibility? What is he to do let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the
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Lord That's all man can do but that he must do the term way Refers to the outward set of the life and the term thought to the weaving or the plan that lies behind that way of life the outward way is to be given up by the giving up of the inward thinking and in each case by A return to God is that not what the
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Apostle says in Romans be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind
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It is conceivable that someone may say why should I give up my own way and my way of thinking?
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Why should I give it the way I live and change my lifestyle or change my way of looking at it? Am I not capable of carving out my own destiny by doing my own thinking and the answer is no a thousand times
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No, that's the entire trouble with all the human life. That's where the Bible comes crashing across the pride of human life
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Still someone may come for the question Well, why should men give up their own way in their own thinking then and the answer is found in those sentences that immediately follow
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For my thoughts are not your thoughts. Neither are your ways my ways sayeth the
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Lord So once again, someone says well, what's the difference between God's thoughts and man's thoughts
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God's ways and man's ways? And so once more the answer is found in the following sentences for as the heavens are higher than the earth
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So are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts This is not a statement emphasizing a distance between God and man
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But it does show a difference of conception and conduct man's thoughts are for himself and they are conditioned on the earth level
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What shall we eat? What shall we drink? What shall we be clothed with where we're going to go and all of those things that's eat drink for tomorrow we die
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That thinking is the thinking of a man That wants to prove his capacity for himself and his pride in the ego and attempts to satisfy
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With a glitter straw among the muck of life and that's man's way for himself but God's thought for man is such as to give him the franchise of eternity to lift him to the infinity of the ages and Call upon him to walk in personal relationship and fellowship with Almighty God When a man becomes conscious of the desert and sees the glory of the garden and desires to pass from one to the other
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He may consent to give up his thoughts in his way and return to God and accept his thought and his way and the moment
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However that he does that he is conscious of something terrible in his life And that is seeing the very turning to God wakes within him a conviction as to the appalling failure of his life at that point
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The question then arises. What shall he do with that failure? My whole life has been a failure at the point that I am as far as God is concerned
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The answer is that he can do nothing. There's nothing that he can do No soul can cleanse itself of sin by telling someone else about it
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No one can confess it to another individual and have it removed. What then shall he do?
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That is the point at which the divine attitude and activity are revealed and declared and these are found in those words
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He will have mercy upon him. He will abundantly pardon Everything of redemption and renewal results from a divine attitude and a divine activity
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So as we would conclude our thoughts, it's impossible not to make some kind of an application of it
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That's immediate and personal to us It is conceivable that some entirely honest person would have difficult at this very point
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The difficulty of being able to accept this declaration as to the attitude of God this chapter in Isaiah In the seventh verse is all one needs to do to read it and to read it and to read it the first part of that Verse tells you what you must do and I must do and if we will do it
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The second half tells us what God will do Are we prepared to do the first part?
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I say yes, then if we are God will have mercy and he will abundantly pardon
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Someone says I don't believe it. I would say why not? Someone says do you mean to tell me he will forgive me and pardon me and receive me now after all the failure of my life up to this very point
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Yes, he certainly will someone says I don't believe it. That seems too easy.
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It's fairly cheap a soul conscious of need and in agony
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But there was another soul in agony, but he had no need There's the story of a pastor who was a great preacher who was speaking to a man and this man came to him realizing the need of his life and He was a deep thinking man
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And he came to this preacher and he said are you saying to me that God would pardon me and that God would give me?
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Just eternal life because I would ask him to if I was willing to give up my life to him He said it just seems to be too easy
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And it should cost more if it has value it has to cost something And this man worked in the coal mine and the pastor said have you been to work today and the man said yes
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I went down into the pit. So the pastor said how far down did you go? How far underground were you and the man said?
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Oh, I went about 800 yards deep The pastor said well, how did you get home the man said
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I walked Pastor says well How did you get to the surface in order to get home the man said well?
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I came to the bottom of the shaft and I got into the cage that was there and I was pulled up You know how they do it The pastor said how much did you pay to come up?
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The man stared at the pastor and said nothing And he says wait a minute
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I didn't pay anything to come up But it cost the company to pay for the electricity it cost the company to pay for the man who's operating the cage
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He says oh my lord. That's it. Isn't it? You mean it's cheap for me, but it wasn't cheap for God It doesn't cost me anything
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But it cost God That man I say beloved had seen to the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ And that's what
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I tried to say at the beginning of chapter 55 as we begin to study it cannot be taken except as you link it to chapter 53
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He was wounded for our transgressions He was bruised for our iniquities the chastisement of our peace was upon him
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You know verse 7 could be described as a gate through which men pass from the desert to the garden
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It's so marvelously and simply hung that the weakest and most paralyzed hand that touches it
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It will swing open towards the garden, but the gate is hinged on Calvary's cross and that's where you find the gate to get from the desert to the garden
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Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him return unto the
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Lord And he will have mercy upon him and let him return to our God for he will abundantly pardoned so when you come from the desert of life and You come to the gate that is hinged upon the cross of Calvary no matter how weak no matter how frail
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No matter how decadent the life may have been no matter how far distance from the
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Lord one may have come If you could just reach out and touch that gate It will open and it will open to the slightest touch of the honest searching heart there are two old poems
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There's a marvelous poem written by Myra Brooks Welch And it's called the touch of the master's hand
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T 'was battered and scarred and the auctioneer thought it scarcely worth his while to waste much time on that old
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Violin, but held it up with a smile. What am I bidding good folks? He cried who'll start the bidding for me a dollar a dollar then two only two two dollars
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And we'll make it three three dollars once three dollars twice going for three But no from the room far back a gray -haired man came forward and picked up the bow
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Then wiping the dust from the old violin and tightening the loose strings He played a melody pure and sweet as a caroling angel sings
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The music ceased and the auctioneer with a voice that was quiet and low said what am
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I bid for the old violin and he held it up with the bow a $1 ,000 and who will make it to 2 ,000 who will make it three 3 ,000 once 3 ,000 twice and going and gone said he the people cheered but some of them cried
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We do not quite understand what changed its worth Swift came the reply the touch of a master's hand
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Many a person with life out of tune and battered and scarred with sin is auctioned cheap to the thoughtless crowd much like the old violin a mess of pottage a glass of wine a
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Game of cards he travels on he's going once and going twice He's going and almost gone, but the master comes and the foolish crowd never quite
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Understand the worth of a soul and the change that's wrought by the touch of the master's hand and They said the master is coming to honor the town today and no one can tell at whose house or home
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The master will choose to stay and I thought while my heart beat wildly What if he should come to mine how
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I would strive to entertain and honor the wonderful guest divine and straight
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I turned to toiling to make my home more neat I swept and polished and garnished and decked it with blossoms sweet I was troubled for fear the master might come near my task was done
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So I hastened and worked the faster and watched the hurrying Sun But right in the midst of my duties a woman came to my door
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She'd come to tell me her sorrows and my comfort and aid implore and I said
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I cannot listen nor help you any today I have greater things to tend to and the pleader turned away
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But soon there came another a cripple thin pale and gray and said let me stop and rest a while In your house,
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I pray. I've traveled far since morning I'm hungry faint and weak. My heart is full of misery and comfort and help
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I seek and I cried I'm grieved and sorry, but I cannot help you today
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I look for a great and noble guest and the cripple went away And the day wore swiftly onward my tasks were almost done and a prayer was every my heart that to me
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The master might come and I thought I would spring to meet him and serve him with utmost care
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When a little child stood by me with a face of sweet and fair sweet but with the marks of teardrops and his clothes were tattered and old a
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Finger was bruised and bleeding and his little bare feet Were cold and I said
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I'm sorry for you You are surely in need of care, but I cannot stop to give it you must hasten on go some
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Elsewhere and at the words a shadow swept over his blue vein brow Summer will feed and clothe you dear
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I said, but I'm too busy now At last the day was ended and my toil was over and done
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My house was swept and garnished and I watched in the dusk alone Watched but no footfall sounded no one paused at my gate.
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No one entered my cottage door I could only pray and wait. I waited till night had deepened and the master had not come
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He has entered some other door. I cried and gladdened some other home My labor has been for nothing and I bowed my head and wept my heart was sore with longing
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Yet in spite of it all I slept Good, then the master stood before me and his face was grave and fair three times today
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I stopped at your house and craved your pity and care Three times you sent me onward
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Unhelped and uncomforted and the blessing you might have had was lost and your chance to serve has fled.
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Oh Dear Lord Lord forgive me. How could I know it was thee? My soul was shamed and bowed in the depths of humility and he said thy sin is pardoned
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But the blessing is lost to thee for in comforting not the least of mine. You have failed to comfort me
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May God grant you and me sensitivity and opportunity to minister in his name to encourage many to come from the wilderness of life the desolation of life to Restoration with him and to the garden of God Here's a song by young lady
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Jan Linton of Baton Rouge, Louisiana that I believe will be a blessing to you for the time that we have left
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Not a sparrow, they don't care, nor soar
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But their proud battle master watches them well
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We have a heavenly father above Life's full of mercy and a heart full of love
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He really cares, we know that he's found love
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Fill up the lilies and then you will know
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May I introduce you to this friend of mine
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Hangs out the stars and tells us all wintertime
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And kisses the flowers each morning with you
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He's just too busy to care about you
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We have a heavenly
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Father Life's full of mercy and a heart full of love
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He really cares, we know that he's found love