FBC Adult Sunday Bible Study

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Isaiah: Book of Good News!

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Where do you turn for security? I know the answer that we're supposed to give.
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The answer we're supposed to give is, well, we go to the Lord for security. But what about when it seems that the
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Lord isn't doing anything? He's not working. You think you know what
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He ought to be doing to give you security. You think you know what He should be doing.
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You think you know what needs to be done to give you the security that you long for. And yet it seems like He's not doing anything.
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He's not working. And it goes on and on and on. So where do you turn?
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Where do you turn for security, for refuge, for help? People turning all kinds of places in these days, and it's proving a little futile.
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If your security for the future is in the stock market, you're in trouble.
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Or if your security for the future is in some place that you call home.
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You don't know what can happen there. I mean, where do we go for security? Where do we turn? How about for our physical health?
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Where do we turn when it seems that the Lord isn't doing anything? Well, this was the case with Judah in Isaiah 28 to 35, a passage we're going to look at today.
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Judah is facing some very real threats from Assyria. And the irony is that in the past,
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Judah had gone to Assyria for help against Syria, not
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Assyria, Syria and Ephraim or Israel. Remember that? Years before, these two other nations or people were threatening
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Judah. And they didn't feel like they had the answer. So Judah went to Assyria and said, would you come and help us?
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And now it's Assyria that is threatening Judah. So what are they going to do?
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What are they going to do? Where are they going to turn for security? Because after all, it seems
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God isn't doing anything. God isn't working to help us. He's not doing anything to give us security.
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So what are they going to do? Their answer is to go to Egypt, to go to Egypt for help, go to Egypt for security.
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But Isaiah calls this, look at chapter 28, if you're there already, turn your Bibles, Isaiah 28.
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And in verse 15, Isaiah calls this a covenant of death, making with Egypt a covenant of death.
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Now, why does he call it a covenant of death? Well, because they're leaving God out of their plans.
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In chapter 30, verse one, he says, Woe to the rebellious children who take counsel, says the
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Lord, who take counsel, but not of me, who devise plans, but not of my spirit, that they may add sin to sin, who walk to go down to Egypt.
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And in chapter 31, verse one says the same idea. Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help and rely on horses who trust in chariots because they are many and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who but who do not look to the holy one of Israel nor seek the
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Lord. So the people aren't seeking the Lord. They're leaving the Lord out of this plan for security.
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This is why I asked what I did at the beginning. Where do you go for security when it seems that the
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Lord isn't doing anything? But another reason for this being called a covenant of death is because Egypt's help is useless.
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Chapter 30, verse seven, Isaiah says, The Egyptians shall help in vain and to no purpose.
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That help is useless. It's a covenant of death. God's people,
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Judah, want God to work in a particular way and to defeat the Assyrians and to defeat them once and for all.
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But he doesn't seem to be working at all. Ah, but he is.
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He is. Let's do a quick overview of these chapters, 28 to 35. And one thing to note is that it includes a series of chapters, 28 to 33 include a series of woeful sermons.
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I know you've heard a lot of woeful sermons before in your life, but these are woeful.
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And what I mean by that is what you see in verse one of chapter 28, where it says,
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Woe to the crown of pride in chapter 29, verse one. Woe to Ariel.
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Ariel is a name for Jerusalem, to Ariel, where the city of David dwelt in verse 15, he says,
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Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the Lord. Chapter 30, verse one.
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Woe to the rebellious children, says the Lord, who take counsel, but not of me. Chapter 31, verse one.
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Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help. And chapter 33, verse one. Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered.
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So this is a series of woeful, woeful messages. That Isaiah is delivering to Judah.
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Chapter 28 is the first of those, and we're going to look at chapter 28 in more detail in just a few minutes.
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It seems as the chapter opens that the sermon is for Ephraim or Israel.
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Just remember, Ephraim is another name for the northern tribes of the divided kingdom of Israel.
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There once was a kingdom of Israel. It divided. And then then there were tribes in the north.
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They went under the name of Israel, and sometimes they're referred to as Ephraim. And the other the rest of the former single nation of Israel is
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Judah. All right. So you got the divided kingdom. So it looks in verse one like this sermon is for Ephraim or Israel.
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Woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim. But you look at verse 14 and the real intended audience here is
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Judah. Therefore, hear the word of the Lord, you scornful men who rule this people who are in Jerusalem.
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OK, so this is really the audience is really Judah, the intended audience.
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Chapter 29 proclaims a woe on Jerusalem or Ariel, as that name is given.
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And in this chapter, the people, the people who are receiving God's word refuse to listen to the prophet
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Isaiah verses nine through 12. They're they're blind in their disobedience and they they will not listen to Isaiah.
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They refuse to see. Verse 13 says in as much as these people draw near to me with their mouths, honor me with their lips, but have removed their hearts far from me and their fear toward me is taught by the commandment of men.
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They refuse to see. And verses 15 and 16, they think they think the clay can manipulate the potter.
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Look at those two verses. Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel far from the
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Lord and their works are in the dark. They say, who sees us? Who knows us?
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Surely you have things turned around. Shall the potter be esteemed as the clay for shall the thing made say of him who made it?
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He did not make me flip that around. So they think they can manipulate the potter.
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But in spite of the woes that are being pronounced here, verses 17 to 24, God promises to give sight to the blind.
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Notice especially verse 18. In that day, the deaf shall hear the words of the book and the eyes of the blind shall see out of obscurity and out of darkness.
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It's chapter twenty nine. Chapter 30, Isaiah tells Judah that any treaty with Egypt is useless.
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Verses one to seven. Nevertheless, the people won't listen. They won't listen.
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Why? Because they want to hear pleasant things. Say more about that later. Verse 15 of chapter 30.
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Isaiah points out that true refuge is found in God alone who longs to be gracious to his people.
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Thus says the Lord God, the holy one of Israel in returning and rest, you shall be saved in quietness and confidence shall be your strength.
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But you would not. But you would not. Chapter thirty one.
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Again, Judah is turning to Egypt for help. That theme keeps coming up in the in this section of Isaiah.
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Judah keeps this and it has this intention of going to Egypt to get help for against the
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Assyrians. But the Lord points out in verses one to three of chapter thirty one that Judah is is really just simply going to mere mortals.
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Just they're just men. Look at what he says. Verses one to three. What are those who go down to Egypt for help?
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We read that they verse verse two. Yet he also is wise and will bring disaster and will not call back his words, but will rise against the house of evildoers and against the help of those who work iniquity.
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Now, the Egyptians are men and not God. And their horses are flesh and not spirit.
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When the Lord stretches out his hands, both he who helps will fall and he who is helped will fall down.
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These Egyptians you're going to for help. They're just men. And the Lord is going to stretch out, stretch his hand in judgment.
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And he's going to defeat your helpers and you who think you're being helped by them.
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Nevertheless, in verses twenty three through thirty three. Whoops, I'm looking at the wrong thing in verse eight.
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Assyria will fall, but it won't be by a human sword again.
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Judah thinks if we go to Egypt, we'll get help from Egypt and this human help from Egypt and their swords will defeat the
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Assyrians. But the Lord says in verse eight, the Assyria shall fall by a sword, not of man and a sword, not of mankind shall devour him.
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It'll be a divine work. In chapter thirty two, verse one, the
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Lord promises a king who will reign in righteousness. He says in verse one, behold, a king will reign in righteousness and princes will rule with justice.
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That's not what they have right now. But the time is coming before that time comes, though.
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Verses nine to 14 say that God will devastate the land of Judah.
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Notice particularly verse 14. Says because the palaces will be forsaken, the bustling city will be deserted.
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The forts and towers will become lairs forever. A joy of wild donkeys, a pasture of flocks.
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That's not that's not a productive, prosperous city that's being referred to there.
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And then in verse 15, the Lord says after that, I will renew the city by pouring out my spirit.
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This is going to happen until the spirit is poured upon us from on high and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field.
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The fruitful field is counted as a forest. Chapter 32 in chapter 33.
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Once again, Isaiah proclaims the futility of any kind of a treaty with Egypt.
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Verse one chapter 33, verse one. Woe to you who plunder, though you have not been plundered and you who deal treacherously, though you have not dealt.
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They have not dealt treacherously with you. When you cease plundering, you will be plundered. When you make an end of dealing treacherously, they will deal treacherously with you.
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He's talking about Egypt and comes out further in verses seven through 14.
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And again, God promises to renew his people. Look at verse 17.
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Your eyes will see the king and his beauty. They will see the land that is very far off in verses 20 and 21.
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Look upon Zion, the city of our appointed feasts. Your eyes will see Jerusalem, a quiet home, a tabernacle that will not be taken down.
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Not one of its stakes will ever be removed, nor will any of its cords be broken.
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But there the majestic Lord will be for us a place of broad rivers and streams in which no galley with oars will sail, nor majestic ships pass by.
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This is a very picturesque way of the Lord promising to renew his people.
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Chapter 34, Isaiah uses some rather gruesome imagery to proclaim
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God's final judgment on all nations. Look especially at verses one and two. Come near you nations to hear and heed you people.
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Let the earth hear and all that is in it, the world and all things that come forth from it. For the indignation of the
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Lord is against all nations and his fury against all their armies. He has utterly destroyed them.
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He has given them over to the slaughter. This is a international, global calamity that the
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Lord is going to bring. In verse five, the prophet zeroes in on Edom, the devastation of Edom.
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But he's doing so to suggest that Edom's destruction will be a sign that what
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Isaiah says about the future will come to pass. Edom's destruction had been prophesied, will be prophesied.
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And it will come to pass. And that's just a sign that this fuller devastation and judgment upon all the nations will also come to pass.
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So notice verses 16 and 17. Search from the book of the Lord and read.
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Not one of these shall fail. Not one shall lack her mate. For my mouth has commanded it and his spirit has gathered them.
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He has cast the lot for them and his hand has divided it among them with a measuring line. They shall possess it forever from generation to generation.
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They shall dwell in it. What God says about Israel's future will come to pass as well.
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And then in chapter thirty five, there is a contrast between chapter thirty four and thirty five and chapter thirty four.
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God turns the world into a desert, into a desert in chapter thirty five.
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God promises that the desert will bloom again. Verse one, the wilderness and the wasteland shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom as the rose.
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It shall blossom abundantly and rejoice even with joy and singing and so forth.
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And then in as the chapter ends, chapter thirty five ends, Isaiah prophesies and promises that God will renew creation and will gather his people together.
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Verses one through seven talk about the renewal of creation. Verse verses eight through ten.
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God gathering his people home. Notice especially verse ten. And the ransom of the
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Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing with everlasting joy on their heads.
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They shall obtain joy and gladness and sorrow and sighing will flee away.
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All right. So that's just a quick, quick flyover of these chapters. Let's go back to chapter twenty eight.
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Because chapter twenty eight, we want to focus on and see see what God is doing in the work that he doesn't seem to be doing.
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All right. God's work. Notice, first of all, that seems to be non work highlights several things.
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First of all, it highlights the futility of human strength, the futility of human strength.
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And that strength is illustrated by a contrasting couple of crowns or wreaths.
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Verse one begins, woe to the crown of pride, to the drunkards of Ephraim, whose glorious beauty is a fading flower, which is at the head of the verdant valleys to those who are overcome with wine.
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So one of the crowns is the crown of Ephraim. Remember, Ephraim stands for all of the northern tribes of Israel.
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Ephraim has become full of pride, national pride and self -confidence, thinking that, you know, we are
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Israel. You know, nothing is going to defeat us. We're, you know, we're secure in the promises to Israel.
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And that has also given them a sense of self -confidence. You see that in their drunkenness.
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That's what he's talking about, those who are overcome with wine. It's a picture of, yeah, self -confidence.
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I don't I don't need to be alert. I don't need to be attentive. I don't need to be on guard. I don't need to be sober minded.
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I can be I can be drunken, overcome with wine. And it's
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OK, because after all, we are Ephraim. The contrasting crown in verses five and six is the crown of the
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Lord of hosts. Verse five says, in that day, the Lord of hosts will be for a crown of glory and a diadem of beauty to the remnant of his people.
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The Lord will be a crown of glory, a crown of beauty to the remnant.
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And who are the remnant? The remnant are those who trust in God, look to God for security.
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And only those who trust in God for security and refuge, verse six indicates, will stand in the midst of battle.
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For a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment and for strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
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Those who trust in God will have the strength to turn back the battle at the gate.
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What's the point? The point of these contrasting crowns? The point is that true strength is found with God.
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It is not found in oneself. It's not found in us as a collective. It's found in God.
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So this chapter highlights God's work that seems to be non -work is highlighting the futility of human strength.
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OK, God doesn't seem to be doing anything. So what do we do? We take matters into our own hands. We're strong, we're powerful, we can deal with this, we can do it.
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But it proves to be futile. It also shows this work of God that is seems to be a non -work shows the highlight or the futility of human wisdom, the futility of human wisdom.
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In verses nine and ten, the people react to the preaching of God's word, to the prophetic word.
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And Isaiah is quoting what the people are saying in my copy of the
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Bible. Verse nine begins with a quotation mark and verse 10 ends with quotation marks.
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So this is a quote. Isaiah is quoting what the people say. So what are the people saying? Who will he teach knowledge?
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Speaking of Isaiah. Or the Lord through Isaiah, whom will he teach knowledge and whom will he make to understand the message?
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Those just weaned from milk, those just drawn from the breasts for precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line here a little there a little.
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Now, that's not a positive thing that they're talking about here. It's not it's not referring to the idea of, you know, a methodic, systematic teaching of children so that they understand and all that kind of thing.
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What what really is going on here is the people are responding to Isaiah's message by considering it to be a juvenile thing.
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They think they're so smart and sophisticated that they don't need it. This message is a juvenile thing, as he says in verse nine.
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Who's going to understand this? Those just weaned from milk. This is this is just kid talk.
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And verse ten, really, they consider it worthless. It's just precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line here a little there a little.
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Another way to translate that is this. For it is do this, do that a rule for this, a rule for that.
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A little here, a little there. Tim Chester in his book,
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Isaiah for you. He paraphrases it this way. He says, who's he talking to?
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Speaking of Isaiah, who's he talking to? This is just for children. This prophecy of Isaiah is just for children.
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On and on he goes. Blah, blah, blah. This is the way we would say it in our day. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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It's meaningless. This is the arrogance of human wisdom that thinks we don't need
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God's God's word. We don't need his prophetic word. Not at all. In fact, they go further than that and prefer in verses seven and eight.
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They prefer the visions of drunkards as opposed to the vision of Isaiah, the man of God.
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Look at verse seven. Says they also have erred through wine and through intoxicating drink are out of the way.
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The priest and the prophet have erred through intoxicating drink. They are swallowed up by wine.
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They are out of the way through intoxicating drink. They are in vision. They stumble in judgment.
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This is the this is the case of the ones that the people are looking to, the the priest and the prophet not sent by God.
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They are they are filled with intoxicating drink. They are drunkards.
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Now, this may actually be figurative and not literal. And the idea simply would be this, that the prophet and the priest don't see reality clearly, which is the case when one is drunk.
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As I understand. I would know by personal experience there, but you don't see reality clearly.
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And and that's the case of the priest and the prophet that God haven't sent, hasn't sent the the people prefer these manmade ideas that come through the priest and the prophet who don't see reality clearly.
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They prefer their ideas to that which God has offered to them. Trust in me.
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Trust in me. They don't want to listen to God's word. It's as if they have closed their eyes and they put their fingers in their ears.
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But for example, look at Chapter 30, verses 10 and 11, Chapter 30, verse 10, they say to the seers.
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Those are kind of profit. Do not see. And to the prophets do not prophesy to us right things, speak to us smooth things, prophesy deceits.
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It's not that people literally wanted them to prophesy deceits. Remember, Isaiah's Isaiah is saying you're you're wanting the people to.
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You're wanting the prophets to prophesy something to you that isn't true. So you're telling them to prophesy deceits.
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Get out of the way. Turn aside from the path. Cause the holy one of Israel to cease from before us, they say.
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Again, Tim Chester says this. Christians tell the world Jesus is the only way we are responsible for our behavior.
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Just a series of quotations. We must give account to God. This is what we tell people, right?
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Those outside of Christ will be eternally judged. And what do the people say?
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Tell us pleasant things, prophesy illusions. It's about as logical,
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Chester says, as standing on the Titanic saying, don't tell me the ship is sinking. Drowning is such an unpleasant subject.
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This is the way it is. In chapter 30, verses 12 and 13. He says it's like it's like seeing a collapsing wall and taking refuge under it.
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Sheer folly. Look at verse 12. Therefore, that says the holy one of Israel, because you despise this word and trust in oppression and perversity and rely on them.
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Therefore, this iniquity shall be to you like a breach ready to fall. A bulge in a high wall whose breaking comes suddenly in an instant.
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Let's not describe the world in which we live and describe our culture. We don't want to hear.
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We don't want to hear these hard things. We don't want to hear the idea that there will be a judgment day coming.
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We don't want to hear that. We don't want to hear that there is supposedly salvation or refuge only and exclusively in this
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Jesus. We don't want to hear that. Tell us something pleasant. Tell us something that we want to hear.
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And so because people don't want to hear anything that's hard, they constantly fill the space with noise, right?
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We live in a world where it's just noise. It's just all noise. You try to go to you try to go to some restaurant and you can't even hardly talk to each other because there's so much noise.
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In some cases, people just fill their world, their life with noise, constant distractions, earbuds, get in the car.
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You got to have the radio going, social media, all of these things to distract us so we don't have to think about or hear the word of God.
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Much has changed. People think they're so wise. Well, God, back in Chapter 28, verses 11 to 13,
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God gives them what they want. The people say this is just blah, blah, blah, blah. OK.
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Verses 11 to 13, God says, all right, that's what you're going to get. The whole vision has become to you like the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one who is literate, saying, read this, please.
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And he says, I cannot, for it is sealed. Then the book is delivered to one who is illiterate, saying, read this, please.
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And he says, I'm not literate. Therefore, the Lord said in as much as these people draw near me with their mouths and honor me,
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I'm I'm in the wrong chapter. All that after all that in Chapter 29, go to 28.
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Chapter 28, I didn't think that sounded right. Verse 11. OK, so you're saying blah, blah, blah, blah.
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This is what this is. All right. That's what you're going to get. For with stammering lips and another tongue, he will speak to this people to whom he said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.
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And this is the refreshing. Yet they would not hear. But the word of the Lord was to them, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
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You're going to get that. You're going to get that. It was to them that way. The end of verse 13, that they might go and fall backward and be broken and snared and caught.
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How is that going to happen? It's going to come to a foreign army. To a foreign army, people are going to come into the land and attack the land, and they can't understand what they're saying.
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The foreigners, it's all. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Truly, well, this non work of God, what seems to be a non work of God also highlights the futility of non application.
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Here's what I mean in verse 14. The challenge is apply the lesson. Therefore, hear the word of the
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Lord, you scornful men who rule this people who are in Jerusalem. Hear the word of the Lord. Listen to what has happened.
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Look at what's happened to Israel in the past and learn the lesson.
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What's happened to Israel in the past? They trusted in their own strength. This is now see how we remember he's shifting here to Judah.
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In the first 13 verses, he's talking about Israel, Ephraim. Now he's shifting to Judah. Learn the lesson,
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Judah. Israel, Israel trusted in their own strength and wisdom and ended up being wiped out by Assyria.
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But now Judah is failing in the same way. Remember how
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Judah had I mentioned this earlier, how Judah had. Um. Sought help from a
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Syria, a Syria when Ephraim and Syria threatened Judah. Remember that back in Isaiah seven and eight, we looked at that several weeks ago now.
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Well, they thought they were getting away with getting away with that because Syria just didn't didn't destroy them.
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Then I mean, Syria helped them and Israel and Syria didn't destroy Judah.
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So it seemed like it was a good move. Assyria helped us. But now here in Chapter 28,
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Assyria is threatening Judah. Assyria is threatening Judah, the ones who had helped them now threaten them.
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And yet and yet what is Judah doing? They're seeking help from another superpower from Egypt.
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And doing so, they ignore the Lord. Again, Chapter 30, verses one and two.
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Um. Chapter 30, verse one. This is a rebellious children who take counsel, but not of me who devise plans, but not of of my spirit.
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They may add sin to sin, who walk to go down to Egypt and have ignored me.
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Instead of going to the Lord and saying, what shall we do? How can we find refuge? Where is our security and our rest in this time of conflict?
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What can we do instead of going to the Lord? They walk down to Egypt.
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The folly in all of this is seen in verse eight, verse 15. I'm sorry of Chapter 28.
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And they're making a covenant of death. You have said we have made a covenant with death and with Sheol.
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We are in agreement. Now, this is again, they didn't put it that way.
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We made a covenant of life. They thought we made a covenant of security. But in reality, it's a covenant of death.
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They are making a lie, a refuge. Does that sound familiar?
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Is isn't that our isn't that our world? Making a lie, a refuge.
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To to what do people look for security in our world?
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You think of the people you work with, what are they looking for for security? Long term security.
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Eternal security. What are they looking at? Where are they going? They're making a lie, their refuge.
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And verses 17 and 18 demonstrate the futility of it all. The Lord says,
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I will make justice, the measuring line and righteousness, the plummet, the hail will sweep away the refuge of lies as the and the waters will overflow the hiding place.
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Your covenant with death, which you think is a covenant of life, will be annulled and your agreement with Sheol will not stand when the overflowing scourge passes through.
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Then you will be trampled down by it. Judah's false hopes are going to be swept away and God himself is going to do it.
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The work of God will come. Now, that work of God's judgment is
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God's strange work. We saw that phrase when we were looking at that series.
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Gentle and lowly. God's strange work. The judgment is going to come.
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His people, God's people are found wanting. Verse 17 tells us they are going to be swept away.
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Verses 17 to 19. And God will fight against his people. Verse 21. The Lord will rise up as at Mount Parazim.
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He will be angry as in the Valley of Gibeon. Now, the thing of it is those two references,
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Mount Parazim, the Valley of Gibeon are places where God's people won great victories by the hand and power of God.
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But now God says, I'm going to rise up as in those cases, but against you,
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Judah. Against you, I'm going to rise up against you. The judgment of God's strange work comes out in verse 21.
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The last part of the verse says that he may do his work, his awesome work and bring to pass his act, his unusual or his strange act, his strange work.
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This judgment that God is going to bring is a strange work. It's strange to us because we think
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God ought always to rescue people. We think,
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I'm talking about we as humanity. We think God exists for our security.
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We think God exists to rescue us. We think God exists to make life good for us.
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And so to the common average person on the street, when you talk about show the placard, the end is near, you know, judgment is coming.
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They they look at you as some kind of a wacko. To express the idea that that God's judgment has fallen upon this nation.
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Is a strange thing. We don't we can't even conceive of that.
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The average American couldn't conceive of that. But is that not the reality?
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It's strange to us. There's also a sense in which it is strange to God.
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And I mean that in the sense of his heart of mercy and gentleness.
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That is God's heart. Gentle and lowly, right? We had a whole series on that.
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So this is not the kind of work that God's heart wants to wants to dish out upon humanity and upon his his people, his professing people.
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But nevertheless, it it comes anyway. It's also strange in its purpose and outcome.
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Here's what I mean. Quoting Chester, he says, God may destroy, but when he is dealing with his people right now, get this.
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He destroys only so he can bring life. Like verse 17, a builder demolishing a site.
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You know, just look out the front door. All right, look over in the yard, you see a bunch of stuff that got pulled out of the ground as some destruction took place.
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Why did that destruction on the building in the front of the building here? Why did that take place? Because we want to ruin building?
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No, because the builder is demolishing a site or a section of the building so that it can be rebuilt in a better and more productive way.
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Or in verses 23 to 28, we don't have time to read all of that. Like a farmer plowing the ground and threshing the grain.
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Why does a farmer plow the ground? To destroy the ground?
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No, to prepare it for, prepare it for harvest. The conclusion of it all in verse 29.
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Says this also comes from the Lord of hosts who is wonderful and in counsel and excellent in guidance.
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And again, Chester says this, he says, God is like a builder demolishing a site so he can build something much better.
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Or God is like a farmer plowing so he can plant. God's aim is to bring life.
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God's aim is always to produce a harvest. God's strange work is specific and tailored.
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And that work of God also finally provides a sure foundation. Earlier in this chapter, we saw in verses one and one through six that we should not take refuge in human strength.
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It's futile. In verses seven to 13, we should not take refuge in human wisdom. It also is futile.
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Verse 16 tells us God provides the only place of refuge. Chapter 28, verse 16.
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Therefore, thus says the Lord God, behold, I lay in Zion a stone for a foundation, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation.
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And who is that class? Jesus, right?
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Isn't that what we saw in 1 Peter chapter two? Peter speaks of this. He quotes this passage and he applies it to Jesus.
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Jesus is that cornerstone. So what do you do when it seems that God isn't at work?
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When it seems that God isn't at work, what do you do? Go to the cross. Why? Because the cross.
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Watch this. The cross was an act of judgment. That brought about forgiveness.
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It was a it was an act of abandonment that brought about reconciliation. It was an act of shame that brought about glory.
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It was a act of defeat that brought about victory. What do you do when it seems that God isn't at work?
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You look at the cross because the fact of the matter is God is at work and he was at work. He was at work in laying the foundation, laying the cornerstone, the only place of refuge, your savior, the cornerstone.
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The cross. And the last part of verse 16 tells us that God secures those who seek his refuge.
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He secures those who seek his refuge. He says whoever believes will not act hastily.
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What does that mean? What do you do when you're panicking?
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What do you do? You're in a panic. You're trying to get out of this situation.
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But the one who believes will not act hastily. The one who believes will never be hurried, or it could be translated this way.
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He will not be stricken with panic. Now, the invitation is given in verse 12 to do that very thing.
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To whom he said, this is the rest with which you may cause the weary to rest.
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This is the rest. This is the place of refuge where you may cause the weary to rest.
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And this is the refreshing. They would not hear. The question is, will will we say, will we rest?
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Comes to those who accept the word and trust in the cornerstone.
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Let me close with this quote from Charles Spurgeon. He says,
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God's people will not be in a hurry to run away, for they shall not be overcome with the fear which causes panic when others are flying here and there as if their wits had failed them.
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Believers will be quiet, calm and deliberate. And so they will be able to act wisely in the hour of testing.
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They will not be in a hurry with their expectations, craving their good things at once and on the spot.
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Instead, they will wait God's time. They will not be in a hurry to plunge into wrong or questionable actions.
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Unbelief must be doing something, and thus it works its own undoing.
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But faith makes no more haste than good speed. What about me,
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Spurgeon asks? Am I believing? And am I therefore keeping to the believers pace, which is walking with God?
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Be at peace, fluttering spirit. Oh, rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him.
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So, Heavenly Father, I pray that we would indeed do that very thing. When it seems that you're not working, may we rest in you.
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May we look to the cross. The cornerstone has been laid. We can rest secure in what you have done and what you are doing.
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Even when it seems like you're not doing anything. Help us so to rest. We pray in Jesus name.