Isaiah Lesson 63

Actions and Consequences in Isaiah 48

Chapter 48 of Isaiah today. Last week we started it and we were having so much fun, we only got halfway through. One of the feedbacks that I got from my spouse was you spent too much time in your preamble.

If you hadn't spent so.

Much time in your preamble. I gave two scenarios as examples to get us into.

The topic last week which was actions have consequences. What were my two topics? The vine that took over the South. The vine that took over the South, otherwise known as Kudzu. And it was initially brought into the country as an ornamental shade protection for the rich to protect their porches.

What was the other one? Damming up the lake, the rivers. Well that kind of came up but there were two examples that I really gave. Oh prayer in school? Yes, prayer in school, yes. My notes. In an attempt to protect people from the evil of religion and the results results were bad.

So we did talk about last week actions and consequences. God has called his people by name but in hypocrisy. They did not respect him. If we looked at some of the verses that are interspersed in the first half of the chapter we have things like, they confessed who they were but not in truth or right.

So how they responded to God was really hypocritical. And then that he gave them words but then in verse 4 he says, but I knew you were obstinate and that your neck was an iron sinew. You were stiff-necked and you wouldn't hear it.

And so he says, now I'm going to give you new words so I want you to proclaim it. And then he says, but I knew you would deal treacherously because before birth you were called a rebel and the reality of who they were.

And then he talked about, I need to refine you. I'm not going to destroy you but I need to refine you, not as silver. I have tried you in the furnace of affliction for my own sake, for my own sake, I do it.

How God chooses to take the people who are being obstinate and their actions are going to have consequences and he seeks to have them brought back onto the right path. And eventually he says, it's not for your sake but it's for my sake.

And at the end of verse 11 he says, my glory I will not give to another. As we get into the last half of this chapter we have things like a call to listen and if only you would listen. And these are the things that would happen if you would listen.

And I promise to not abandon you. I want to look at a couple of verses in opening this section up and I'm going to ask Carol if you would get to Joshua 1 8 please and Barb if you would get James 2 verses 17 to 19.

We're going to have phrases in this section here from 12 to the end of the chapter like, I am he. And these are the proclamations of God. I am he. In verse 14, assemble and listen. And then this plea in verse 18, I just wish that you would listen to my commandment.

The reality of God's word and the authority of God's word, the authority of God as Yahweh, as the creator should put us in a desire to be steadfastly following him. Joshua 1 8, the nation is finished their 40 years of punishment wandering.

They had the chance to go to the promised land, Kadesh Barnea, the spies. They said no and so God punished them. That generation would pass away in the wilderness. And so now in Joshua 1 they're at camp.

Joshua and Caleb, the two spies that said yes, they're going to get to go in. Even Moses doesn't get to go in. But now the nation is going to be moving into the land. How are they going to prepare themselves?

How are their minds going to be prepared for what's coming up? Joshua 1 8. Study this book of.

The law continually. Meditate on it day and night so you may be sure to obey all.

That is written in it. Only then will you succeed. This is a really, this is a direction. This is a one-size-fits-all direction. Meditate on his word. Listen to what he has to say and then God will guard your, guard your paths.

The rest of Joshua beginning has lots of, I will be with you, I will go before you, and all this other kind of stuff. Your call, meditate on his word, listen to what he has to say. Now we believe that our identity is what's important when it comes to the end of times.

Last night we were talking about what's going to happen at the end of times. And there are a couple of reckonings. There's the books and then there is the book. Okay, the book is the book of life. And if your name is written on the book of life, then your actions are not judged.

What's they've been covered by the blood. Your name is in the book of life. If your name is not in the book of life, if you have not become a child of God, if you have not been saved, then you go in front of the great white throne of judgment and all of the actions, and by the way, these are not going to be, it's not going to be a pleasant time to have a life's worth of things laid out in front of you.

And the judgment will be given and there will be eternal damnation. So who we are is of primary importance. James has a way of looking at it that has a proof of the pudding. If you would give me James 2, 17 to 19, please Barbara.

In the same way,.

Faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. But someone will say, you have faith, I have deeds. Show me your faith without deeds and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God?

Good. Even the demons.

Believe that and shudder. I want to say that to say that I have faith can be proved by how it shows up in your life. And if your life has no evidence of reality, then perhaps the faith is nothing more than Satan who believes and shudders.

He has total knowledge, but he doesn't have real faith. And faith has not been manifested by works. Jeff and I were talking this morning, I believe it was Paul Tripp, I think it was, who after years of preaching and being a perception, perceptually, a great man of God says, after all these years I found out I really wasn't preaching the real gospel.

Okay, the works are not proven, his faith is not proven. It's proven to be false. And I think there's another individual that just this week, same type of a thing, found out everything I've been saying before is a bunch of ooey.

It's not to believe. To hear the words, I am, and I am the Lord, and to acknowledge those words, I am, I am the Lord, is going to be proven by, is your life changed by those words, I am, I am the Lord?

Because if it's not, there's a danger that those words were only information and not our transformation. We're going to go into Joshua 48, verses 12 to 22. Isaiah, thank you. Also Isaiah, thank you. Lord God, I do thank you that people are listening when I say the wrong word.

But Lord, seriously, we do praise you that these words are given by you and are given for instruction, for correction, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness that we may be thoroughly equipped.

There are messages in this section in Isaiah, accepting the authority and being protected under the authority of God. We pray, Father, that your Spirit would prepare us to hear and would teach us in Jesus' name.

Amen. Sandy, if you would give me Isaiah 48, verses 12 to 16, and Ezekiel 21. Bob, I'm going to ask if you would have Ezekiel 21 ready. But give me 12 to 16, please.

Listen to me, O Jacob, even Israel, whom I call. I am he, I am the first, I am also the last. True in my hand founded the earth, and my right hand spread out the heavens. When I call to them, they stand together.

Assemble all of you and listen. Who among them has the play of these things? The Lord loves him. He will carry out his good pleasure on Babylon, and his arm will be against the Chaldeans. I, even I, have spoken.

Indeed, I have called him. I have brought him, and he will make his way successful. Come near to me. Listen to this. From the first, I have not spoken in secret. From the time it took place, I was there.

And now the Lord God has sent me.

And his Holy Spirit. Listen to me, Jacob and Israel. Listen to the one whom I, you are the ones whom I have called. I am he. You are the ones that I have called. I am he, I am the first, and I am the last.

And I am the one who created all things, and I hold all things together in heaven and in earth. So assemble and listen. Ask yourself a question. Who among you can perform these things? Why is it significant?

What is the significance of God speaking through Jacob and saying, listen, when he calls his people? There are different ways that you could be here this morning. You could be Sunday morning. You can be hearing the word that is being proclaimed, or you can be listening.

To the word that, what's the difference? The sounds go into your ear, but listening is you're thinking what it means that's being said, what you're hearing.

Yeah, one can be passive, and the other really does require.

Involvement. Like James says, you don't just want to hear, you want to.

Act on the word. And that's the next step beyond listening. So you're absolutely right. So if the words that are spoken and maybe you can even recite them, but you haven't really listened to them, you haven't made them significant, they haven't allowed them to get into the depths so that action comes out of them.

And he's calling to this nation, and he's asking them, listen, listen, you whom I have called, listen, why is it important to them to actually tend to, to pay attention to the word of God? To Israel specifically, they've been so negligent in the past.

Good point. They have been negligent. Their track record isn't really good. What gets in the way of listening to the word of God? Distractions. Distractions, John? Yeah, I know you say the same thing, everything.

Distractions, yes. Our mind wanders, trips.

And the worries and anxieties of living in this world. Problems, yeah.

Yeah, problems. I don't know if you've ever done this, but let your mind wander while you're listening to a sermon, and then you hear a phrase, and you go, that sounds good, I wonder what he meant. Yeah, I wish I'd been listening, you know, or being in a classroom, and the professor says, Mr. Laskin, what do you think about what I just said?

And you go, what did you just say?

I was thinking I'm hungry, and I'm going to stop on the way home.

Anything, anything that's going to distract you. Yeah, absolutely. You see, here's the thing, he says, I created everything, and I hold everything together. And what better, what better source or what better, you know, piece of information than the one who actually created it all.

And if he's got something to say to you, that's going to be a whole lot more important. So Pastor Jeff, this morning, or Sunday morning, spoke about this CR4. And if I were to go to a church up in Canada, and for expediency purposes, CR4 was accepted as the guidelines for what I want to do.

I'm not going to hear the truth. I'm not going to hear the truth. And he's basically saying, what I've got to tell you comes from authority, because I'm the one who created everything, and I'm the one who's holding everything together.

I was using CR4.

That's a bill in Canada that, if preachers try to advocate that you can change your sexual orientation, you can be thrown in jail. So, or gender identity, if somebody, yeah, speaks that way. Not just the counselor who does, like, conversion therapy, but even someone who says that this is possible.

Say, a preacher. Jail time. Up to two years in prison.

In Canada. In Canada, yep. And so the direct impact on that to churches is we believe that, number one, sexual deviancy is a sin. Right. All right. Number two, God has the power, the sovereign power, to heal from all sin.

Yep. And three, we are mandated to teach the full counsel of scripture. Amen. And so if a preacher chooses to teach the full counsel of scripture, that God can take care of sin, and homosexuality is a sin, you're breaking CR4.

You can't say that. Right. That's the point. So, if you want to hear things that are expedient, you're only going to go, but if you want to hear the word of God, he says, listen to me, because I am. And I am the one who called you.

And I am the one who created all things. And I am the one who holds all things together, heaven and earth. And so our calling is to not only listen, don't just hear it, but listen to it, but to take what he has to say seriously.

I gave somebody,.

Judgment on Babylon and the Call to Listen

Ezekiel. Ezekiel, yeah. Yeah, 21. Chapter 21, verse 24. And then 31, yeah. Okay. All right, 21, 24. Therefore, this is what the sovereign Lord says, because your people have brought to mind your guilt by your open rebellion, revealing your sins and all that you do, because you have done this, you will be taken captive.

And verse 31, I will pour out my wrath upon you and breathe out my fiery anger against you. I will hand you over to brutal men, men.

Skilled in destruction. He's going to.

Judge the people for not doing what he's asking them to do. He's commanding them to assemble and to listen. By the way, there's another section that we should not forsake the assembly. Oh, yeah. Together, one with another.

1025. Absolutely. So assemble and listen. And he does talk about, he's going to use Babylon and his arm against Scalbion. What is going to happen is the people, having disobeyed, are going to fall into the bad part of Deuteronomy 28.

If you don't do these things, then all these curses are going to come upon you. He says, draw near to me. From the beginning have I not spoken in secret, and from the time it came I have been there. Now the Lord God has sent me.

What I have told you is going to come to be. I'm calling you to come and to listen. But when you don't, be ready to understand what is going to happen. But he's calling them to come and listen. Isaiah 13 .19 has already referred to Babylon and that at the end, Babylon is going to get their comeuppance.

And he said Babylon will become like Sodom and Gomorrah. So it's not going to be Babylon doing what they do by their own volition. This is all God, and eventually Babylon, having gone too far, they are going to be judged also.

So I'm going to ask John Natoli, give me 17 to 19, if you would. Back in 48? Yes, please. Okay, I was in 13. That's okay. I was waiting for you to give me that one. Isaiah 48 .17, Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God, who teaches you to profit, who leads you in the way you should go.

Oh, that you had paid attention to my commands. Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea. Your offspring would have been like the sand, and your descendants like the grains.

Their names would never be cut off or destroyed. Oh man, if you had listened to me. The last two weeks I've been spending my morning devotion in Psalm 100. I typically, as I'm getting into a week, I will print out the next Psalm off of gospelcom .net, and I have it on a piece of paper, and as I read it and I see a phrase, I see a statement that just hits my heart, I underline it, and then I meditate on it.

And typically, a Psalm might be 15 verses long or whatever, and within the span of a week, I have a line here and a line there and a line there. Psalm 100 is five verses long, and I'm in my second week.

Make me joyful, and I'll listen to the Lord, all he, all he plans.

Everything in that Psalm is just so filled with, if only you would have listened to me, I am your God, I am your Redeemer, I am the one who teaches you, I am the one who leads you. I'm going to read the last part of verse three of Psalm 100.

We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. This is our identity and who we are called by God. You guys got that one. I'm going to actually, I'm going to choose to memorize an entire Psalm. It's only five verses long, but it's a great one.

Here's the idea of a sheep in his pasture, and that's who we are. First of all, as a sheep, if you are in the pasture, what benefits do you get? Fed, praised.

What else do we get? Protection. From what? Wild animals and people who want to steal the sheep away.

That's really well said, because it's said that in Scripture, I know my sheep and my sheep know my voice. And so if you've got somebody who is God's child, we are sheep and we are in the pasture, there will be those who want to do harm, who want to lead you astray.

And if you are really God's person, you're in his shepherd, you know the difference from one voice to another. I don't know this, but I've heard it said that sheep will only listen to their master's voice.

That somebody else can't lead them astray because they know their master's voice and they follow his master's voice.

Jeff has shown a really good video here on that, and I looked some more up on YouTube. There's a ton of videos out there about that. It's amazing to see. They'll have different people standing there calling the sheep, saying the same words that the shepherd would say, and then finally the real shepherd calls and they all come running.

Yeah, it's amazing. Amazing to see.

We are his people, and we are the sheep of his pasture. That's, Sandy and I enjoy a show called Heartland. It's not perfect, but it's pretty good. And then this one scene, it's up in Canada near Calgary, and it's a ranch, a cattle ranch with horses, and they eventually got sheep.

That's another whole story. But there's this one scene at the end of one of the episodes panning out, and there's the pen with all the sheep inside of it. And there's one sheep outside the pen, and he just wants to get into the pen.

There's some really good imagery there. We are his sheep in his pasture. I am your God. I am your Redeemer. I am the Holy One of Israel. I am the one who teaches you. I am the one who leads you. Now, if only you had paid attention.

And it says in verse 18, the I ams, what makes these I ams so important to our having a life that's led abundantly? I am your God. I am your Redeemer. I am the Holy One of Israel. I am the one who teaches.

I am the one who leads you. What makes those so important to us? Okay, now you just brought up two biggies. One is that there are false teachers. Mm-hmm. What makes a false teacher appealing, even to the Christian?

They have an element, a speck of truth. That's good. I didn't hear what he said.

He said there's even a speck of truth, so that we can listen to what he said and said, yeah, that's good, but then the rest of the story isn't.

It can be the way they presented it.

You know, how they presented it. So we like to look at the charisma. Right. And the appeal. And what do false teachers often, to what do they often appeal? Pride. Okay, pride. Emotion. Emotion. They'll play on your emotions and get you going.

Absolutely. What else? Success. There are churches that, whether they're doing this intentionally or not, the fruit is that when you leave church on Sunday, you always feel good about yourself.

That's dangerous. That's really dangerous. It's like glorifying God by giving him everything.

The film that Jeff hosted for us a few weeks back, The Enemy Within the Church, I don't remember who was the main moderator, the guy with the beard, Kerry Gordon, I believe you. He made a comment of how often in Scripture you see the teaching, God is love, as opposed to the teaching in Scripture to follow him or to be corrected or to let the Holy Spirit.

It's, the teaching of God is love is there, it is, but that's not the gospel message. The gospel message is that I have sinned, Christ died for my sin, and I need to confess, repent, and repent. And allow him to be life in my life.

That puts a downer on people.

Right. I mean, it destroys their whole, you know, they want to be happy. They want to see God as this wonderful man with a little beard, with arms held down, comforting them, uplifting them. They don't see that God is still a just God.

Right. Amen.

And holiness is a preliminary action, it's not love. The Bible says I am holy, holy, holy, not I am love, love, love.

Oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments. Then, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the waves of the sea. The way to experience agape love is through God. The way to experience life more abundant is through God.

The way to have peace in your heart is through, oh, that you have paid attention to my commandments. Deuteronomy 28. Chris, if you would get Deuteronomy 28, just verses one and two, please.

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God.

If you obey the Lord your God. Now, this has to have a, you gotta put this into proper, proper perspective. The Pharisees in one of their attempts to trip up the Lord said, teacher, what is the greatest command?

What did he say? The first is love the Lord your God with all your heart, heart and soul. The second is like unto it,.

Love your neighbor as yourself. And then these two hang all the commandments and laws. Now, what Chris just read is if you obey all the laws, if you keep all the laws, then there will be blessings. And when Jesus said, I didn't come to abolish the law, I came to fulfill it.

Until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of pen will by any means disappear from the law until everything is accomplished. All right, the objective here isn't to have spent time studying and putting a to-do list of all the commandments.

If you want to get the blessings that are out of Deuteronomy 28, that's not the way to do it. The way to do it is to get the heart involved. Oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments. Then you would have had peace.

What God is calling on the people, going back into verse 14, assemble yourselves and listen. And I like the way Barb gave us a definition of listen. It's bringing it into your mind and letting it happen in your mind, not just letting the words come in and go out.

And then Rich backed that up by saying, then taking the action, we go back into James. If you had paid attention to my commands, that all of these things would be good and all of these bad things would not occur.

Deuteronomy 28, three, they are called a blessed city, a city that is blessed, that is his people, they've been called. Jacob, Israel, whom I've called, and it says in verses nine to 10 that they're established as a holy people.

Their ability, their calling, their gift, everything is there now. Oh, that you would have paid attention to my commands. We need to understand God's authority. Go back into Joshua 1. I meditate and do it and go back into James 2.

17, don't be trapped like verse 19. Satan believes and shuts. We need to be going out and doing. What is going to happen now because of their disobedience is they are going to be taken captive into Babylon.

And we know that Daniel 9, it talks about there will be 70 years. And I think, Jeff, you recently preached that those 70 years represent the 70 times that they did not let the land go foul, as was commanded.

So the land was going to be given its 70 years of peace that they should have had. And as they go into captivity, we know that Daniel reads the scroll and he says, oh my goodness, it's been 70 years. So what do I got to do now?

I gots to pray. Now taken slightly out of context, I understand it, but I believe that the concept is true in 2 Chronicles 7, if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray that I will heal their land.

And so he prayed and he called them. Now Babylon, if you remember the history of what takes place, the people are under siege through Assyria. The northern kingdom is gone and Assyria is going after Jerusalem.

But God intervenes. An angel kills 185 ,000 in one night. That attack fails. And according to God's prophecy, they end up going back because there's trouble at home and the king is killed and then Babylon takes over.

Israel eventually goes so far down, they go apostate, that the Shekinah glory leaves Jerusalem. They're left without protection and they're taken into captivity under God's provident call. You go into Habakkuk verse chapter one.

I see that you guys are bad and I know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna send, I'm going to send Babylon. And so they're going to go there. But Babylon, Jeff, as you said, they go too far. And because they go too far, they're going to be judged.

And so Rich, give me verses 20 to 22, if you would.

Go forth from Babylon, flee from the Chaldeans. With a voice of sin declared, proclaim this, utter it to the end of the earth. Say, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob and they did not thirst when he led them through the deserts.

He caused the waters to flow from the rock for them. He also split the rock and the waters gushed out. There is no peace in the Lord for the wicked. All right, so there's gonna be two things,.

Three things going on here. One is that God is going to redeem his people. He is going to redeem his servant Jacob, that although Babylon has doing what they're doing, and although you can argue reading in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah that the people have actually gotten comfortable there.

Because although the opportunity is given to go back, they don't all go back. And so perhaps there are those who say, life is okay, I don't need, I don't need to go any, oh, that you had paid attention to my commandments.

Back to that phrase. But Babylon is defeated and it is going to be to God's glory. And he's gonna say, get out, flee, declare this with a shout of joy, send it, the Lord has redeemed his servant Jacob.

I would love to know what the sermon was that John MacArthur preached after that lawsuit gave, was it $800 ,000 back to his church? I wonder what he preached on. I don't know. The sovereignty of God had to be within that because although man does what he does, it's not outside the bounds of God.

We know this from the beginning of Job. You can do this, but you can't go any farther than that. You can do this, but you can't go any farther than that. And he says that you have not obeyed Babylon. You're gonna be in captivity, but then Babylon will be judged in Jeremiah 25, 8 through 12.

So people are going to be purged, but not destroyed. They are going to the furnace of cleansing, but not for destruction. The reality that he says, I am, I am, I am the first, I am the last, I am, he created all things, I am your God, I am your redeemer, I am, I am, Babylon is going to do this, and I will see what's going on, and I will call you out of Babylon.

Can I add a point of nuance to this? Please do. So in Genesis 50, verse 20, the wicked brothers had thrown Joseph into the pit and done all of these wicked things. God will say in Genesis 50, 20, what you meant for evil, I meant for good.

The idea of compatibilism here is that the intention of the heart is within God's view. So Babylon doesn't just go beyond what they have a right to do. In the earthly realm, they have no right over Jerusalem at all.

If they killed one man, that's going too far. Their intent in their heart is to go conquer as a warring people, and they're judged for being a warring people. But God did not intend. God had a certain intention which was different than their intention for the same activity under heaven.

So he is sending Babylon to accomplish his purposes while Babylon intends something in their own heart. So in Isaiah 10, the issue is Assyria, and the judgment comes on Assyria, and it says, he did not so intend in his heart.

So Genesis 50, 20, it's also seen in Acts 4, 27 and 28. You have dual intentions. You have people who are held responsible like Babylon is for their actions, but God did not so intend in his heart. God is not sinful.

They're sinful. He's using them to accomplish his purpose. So that's that idea of compatibilism. So even if they were only kill one Israeli soldier, they've gone too far. So you're right. They have gone too far.

Absolutely. But God is doing it, and he is the one who's judging them for their actions, even though God's sending them. So that's both things being true.

From the beginning of history, you can go into various books of ancient history and whatever. Kingdoms come and kingdoms go. Why did they go? What happened to Rome? They were evil. They were wicked, and life didn't last for them.

Did Nero really fiddle while Rome burned? I don't know. Assemble all of you and listen. The Lord loves it. He performs his purposes on Babylon. Just listen. Verse 18. I wish you would listen to my commands, and when I relieve you, shout with a shout of joy.

The nation of Israel, when they become a nation, they actually transition from a clan to a nation while they're in Egypt. They were a clan. But if you go back to the promise given to Abram, I will make you a great people.

All right? This promise was already given. And even though the world has attempted, Satan has attempted to eliminate, erase the existence of the Jewish people, we do know in the end of the story that the nation of Israel continues to remain their God.

The 12 tribes come back in the book of Revelation. We can't possibly see how the 12 tribes could come back because they're lost right now. But we do know that his people exist. But what happens to nations?

All right. So at the early onset, you had the Nimrod who was a great warrior. And out of him, we eventually get the Tower of Babel. And we start to see the beginnings of Babylon. Babylon comes and goes and comes and goes.

And whether it's literally or metaphorically, I think it's both. In the book of Revelation, Babylon shows up again. Shows up again. All right. But who survives until the very end? God's people. God's people.

Rich, give me verse 22 again, if you would. Verse 22.

There is no peace, says the Lord.

With all of the stuff that he has had to say in chapter 48, calling his people to understand there are consequences for the actions you take. And I do see, I do see the hypocrisy of your heart. And I am your God and I want you only to listen.

But I have a plan for you. But for the wicked, there is no peace. There could be temporary prosperity. But for the wicked, there is no peace. Only for his chosen people. Time to close in prayer, Pastor.

The Trinitarian Reading of Isaiah 48:16

Let me, indulge me one minute for another quick pity that I love from this passage. If you look at verse 16, it looks like there's a quotation mark halfway through and Yahweh stops speaking. But that's an interpretive decision by the ESV or any Bible.

There's not quotation marks. Um, another way to read it, which I think is preferred, is that actually God is still speaking at the end of the verse and the me is not Isaiah, but is Jesus Christ. And you have a Trinitarian reference in verse 16.

Now the Lord God has sent me and his spirit. It's still first person all throughout. The reason I prefer that interpretation is because in John 12, verse 41, Jesus is, is, uh, well, it's referred to in the third person.