Isaiah 9:1-10:4, Pardon the Interruption

Hear the word of the Lord But there will be no gloom for her who was in anguish in the former time

He brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the

Jordan the Galilee of the nations The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them

Has light shined you have multiplied the nation you have increased its joy

They rejoice before you as with joy at the harvest as they are glad when they divide the spoil

For the yoke of his burden and the staff of it for his shoulder the rod of his oppressor

You have broken as on the day of Midian For every boot of the trampling warrior in battle tumult and every garment rolled in blood will be burned as fuel for the fire for to us a

Child is born to us a son is given and the government shall be upon his shoulder and his name shall be called wonderful counselor mighty

God everlasting father Prince of peace of the increase of his government and of peace

There will be no end on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with Righteousness from this time forth and forevermore the zeal of the

Lord of hosts will do this The Lord has sent a word against Jacob and it will fall on Israel and All the people will know

Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria who say in pride and in arrogance of heart The bricks have fallen but we will rebuild with dress stones.

The sycamores have been cut down, but we will put cedars in their place But the Lord raises the adversaries of resin against him

This and stirs up his enemies the Syrians on the east and the Philistines on the west devour

Israel with open mouth For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still

The people did not turn to him who struck them nor inquire of the Lord of hosts So the

Lord cut off from Israel Head and tail palm branch and read and one day the elder and honored man is the head the prophet who teaches lies

Is the tale for those who guide this people have been leading them astray and those who are guided by them are swallowed up Therefore the

Lord does not rejoice over their young men and has no compassion on their fatherless and widows For everyone is godless and an evildoer and every mouth speaks folly for all this

His anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still

For wickedness burns like a fire it consumes briars and thorns it kindles the thickets of the forest and they roll upward in a column of smoke through the wrath of the

Lord of hosts the Land is scorched and the people are like fuel for the fire. No one spares another they slice meat on the right

But are still hungry and they devour on the left but are not satisfied each devours the flesh of his own arm

Manasseh devours Ephraim and Ephraim devours Manasseh together. They are against Judah For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still

Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees and the writers who keep writing oppression

To turn aside the needy from justice and to rob the poor of my people of their right

That widows may be their spoil and they may and that they may make their fatherless their prey

What will you do on the day of punishment and the ruin that will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help and where will you leave your wealth?

Nothing remains but to crouch among the prisoners or fall among the slain For all this his anger has not turned away and his hand is stretched out still

Well, are you looking forward to a Christmas break? especially you teachers and students

Probably all of us are you know, sometimes sometimes interruptions breaks are rude and unwelcome

So a polite person will say pardon the interruption, but sometimes they are we welcome an interruption

I'm part of the appeal of Christmas. I think is the break. It's an interruption In the daily grind the normal routine that's been wearing us down now near the end of the year

Another part of the appeal of Christmas, of course are the gifts, but unless you're children

You have to reciprocate, you know, you know, we can't expect just to get gifts.

We have to give them right and so you know, so pardon the interruption and all the happy Christmas talk we might want to break from the grind of Christmas shopping because it can be hard to know what to get for someone the gift -giving routine itself

Becomes a grind doesn't it? Maybe not for you. I don't know but So it seems seems to me though.

I just kind of sense it that by December 26 There's a sense and maybe no one wants to say it out loud, but there's this kind of a feeling

That we're looking forward to a break from Christmas You know to New Year's you can kind of eat out and spend some of that extra money

Maybe we got for Christmas and then we might and then we might not want to admit it But there's been all this

Christmas talk and all this New Year's stuff and everything's been so uncertain We're secretly looking forward to getting back to the routine back to that, you know comfortable familiar daily life

You might not think it's coming now, but wait until that last week of the year, you know, you've had your break

Oh, let's get back to normal Of course, that's if normal Is nice this fairly is fairly pleasant.

What if normal was this horrendous and torturous captivity of affliction? perhaps one of my favorite

Christmas movies if you want to call it that sort of a Christmas movie is one Yeah, I don't

I don't seem like it. It seemed like you see it as much as you used to but It's Stalag 17 anyone seen

Stalag 17. Yeah Yes, it's about American prisoners of war and World War two in Germany around Christmastime What do you think

Christmas was like for American prisoners in in 1944? Well, it was a break sort of as illustrated by this movie.

It was an interruption in their daily grind of Deprivation they got some gifts from outside Even if they were just ping -pong balls

But they came in handy by the way They had some extra rations and they were even able to throw a party

Even if it's just the same old guys, you know, you live with and your barracks the prisoners barracks But they could sing

Christmas carols and get a break even for two prisoners a breakout

Well here in Isaiah 9. I didn't give away anything if you see what if you haven't seen the movie I really haven't given it away because you'll never guess who the two prisoners are who break out

Anyway here in Isaiah 2 and into chapter 10 We see a break an interruption in the normal torturous grind and then it is breaks usually do

They come to an end this inner this interruption and all this talk about judgment this interruption ends and we're back to the grind of judgment and we see that here in two major parts first the interruption and then the

Determination first of all, there's the interruption and we looked at that in some depth last week It flows out of the gloom that was before it chapter 8 was a gloomy chapter and it just flows right into chapter 9

But chapter 8 filled with predictions of afflictions and the misery This is gonna be a flood compares it to like a river and flood stage a flood of distresses

That will sweep many of them away and it will come right up to the necks of the remnant that will return

Even they though come almost swept away. There's hunger. There's rage. There's contempt. There's deep darkness.

There's the gloom of anguish But that's chapter 8, but then comes chapter 9 verses 1 to 7 in interruption

Interruption that doesn't need to be pardoned. So it's a marvelous light gloom is

Replaced by glory all because of the Sun who was given Well part of Israel remember the context here part of Israel Galilee up there by the

Lake of Galilee is suffering Degradation contempt because now at this time as a is writing it is occupied by the

Gentiles The Assyrian Empire has basically sent their army in there and they have annexed it.

So they are walking in darkness But he says they have seen a past tense perfect tense to be technical

It but it's as if it's already done a great light the Lord has already made them glorious Glory for gloom, even though it really hasn't happened in their experience yet So far they haven't really seen it yet But Isaiah speaks of it as if they had but the certainty of that coming interruption that the glory for gloom relies not

You know kind of on the unpredictable Free will of people to understand a big little distraction here but there's this theological debate going on out there that since people have free will and since there's so many of us and we're all

Complex and it's like, you know It's kind of like the weather if I have butterfly flaps its wings and the Amazon that throws off all the weather predictions

And so it's just so complex. No one by the way speaking of weather just yesterday, you know Friday. I was driving

Down up to Danville and the weather was on Friday morning and saying We might have some snow it should maybe a little bit of accumulation just on the grassy areas, but it won't touch anything else

Okay Totally and they were and then on the way back from here that evening

Where there was I'd going 10 miles an hour on 86 because there was snow on the road and people were just you know

There was a couple cars in the ditch had gone off They were playing the same weather prediction even though we were basically in the middle of blizzard

But that just because the weather is so complex People can't predict it and there's this theological debate going out there that it's the same way with the choices people make people and themselves

Are complex and then there's so many of us and we interact with each other It's just so complex and God has to allow free will and so even

God can't know what's coming in the future because this He has to allow us the free will to do what people want to do

And that's called open theism. I like to call it mini theism It's because it's like makes a mini

God, but there's that out there. It's just so calm, but he can't know But here you see

He he you could say predict. He doesn't even just predict doesn't he what's gonna happen?

Isaiah writing about the year 700 BC. He doesn't just predict it he

He decrees it will happen. He talks of it as if it has already happened

So it's not just a prediction based on expected trends, you know for another example.

Well, I will skip that example, but I Imagine then the complexity of being able to predict how history would unfold with all the competing empires all the individuals all their own internal politics and all the way they interact with each other and then the

Battles got to be fought and predict how things would come out in about 700 years from an

Isaiah's writing but but this that there would be an interruption in the gloom is so certain it's spoken of as if already done

Because this isn't just a prediction of how things gonna might turn out if trends continue

It's not like a long -range weather forecast. This is the decree of the

Lord for whom history is His story so the decree issued in eternity past is

So ironclad it means that what he declares is spoken of as if already done

Even before it comes out as displayed in history and that decree is that the land that is currently as Isaiah writes in darkness

Galilee occupied by these Gentiles That that nation the nation of it well

Well that Galilee will see a great light that Israel at this time, which is just diminishing

It's being besieged from all sides attacked seems to be shrinking literally It is shrinking because enemies are taking land away from it it

It's spoken of in earlier chapters chapter 7 It'll it'll dwindle so small that you could feed the whole thing with one cow and a couple of sheep

But he says here that it is now Increasing although it's not yet in their experience increasing but it's going to be increasing

It'll it will finally become that company of peoples that Isaac blessed the original

Israel Jacob to be Gathering of people from all nations. It will no longer be gloomy but glad in verse 3

Yeah, no longer gloomy but glad and they'll have spoil that they will divide notice that the given spoil

There will be what's the Christmas carol? joyful and triumphant that they

They are declared that they are that already even before they become that so now no longer will they be conquered spoil taken from them remember earlier one of us the second son is

You got to love that name may hair shall I'll hash bass Spoil hastens, how's the rest go, but they are they are gonna be spoiled by enemies

But now no longer that now they're gonna be no longer conquered but more than conquerors dividing the spoil because as Paul says in first Corinthians 3 all things are yours and this is because of the interruption in Judgment because as in chapter 8 we were in gloom we mourned in lonely exile here and tell the

Son of God up here, but then There's the interruption. You don't need you don't need to pardon

This interruption. Well, it's very welcome the Messiah who fulfills this promise. He has set us free

In verse like in verse 4 chapter 9 verse 4. He's broken the yoke of our former bondage

Broken the slavery of our sins Jesus said in John chapter 8 verse 34 that everyone who commits sin and That's everyone.

Okay is a slave of sin So that's the that's the captivity. We're under sin had a yoke on us

It controlled us even if we wanted to do good which left to ourselves. We don't really do that Well, even if we did we couldn't do it because our master sin wouldn't allow us it had power over us

But there was an interruption There was a welcome break The Sun set us free and he said if the

Sun sets you free You will be free indeed So in verse 5 the weapons formed against us the military hardware literally serious

It's not gonna work The lies the pornography on the internet that tempts us the bad relationships the greed for stuff

That tries to consume our Christmas the sin that clings so closely all the all the enemies

Against us will eventually be burned up and God's judging fire and all this in verse 6 because To us a child is born to us a son who will set us free is

Given Again Again a son, you know, there's been a lot about sons and in these first nine chapters of Isaiah Isaiah had two sons who were signs one son is a sign that Emmanuel to say in Hebrew God is with us.

Remember Isaiah tells the king of Judah a has When they were threatened remember that they were so seized with fear says their hearts shook like a trees shaking the storm

He tells them, you know a has asked for a sign God will give you a sign

No matter how supernatural whatever you ask for a son could stand still whatever you want and he declines.

He says no things He doesn't want a sign. And so God provides the sign of his choosing a son

Will be born of a virgin and he will be Emmanuel literally

God with us now, it's significant To whom this sign was was offered

To a has King a has he's not a big character in the Bible, but there's one interesting thing about a has a has of all people is is given a a son as a sign

You see a has Burned his own son in the fire as a human sacrifice

That's a yes Second Kings chapter 16 verse 3 it just sounds appalled you can listen to this verse.

He he that's hey a has Even how can you he was this bad?

It says he's one of the he was one of the bad Kings He did not go the way of David and he even Burned his son as an offering according to the despicable practices of the nations whom the

Lord drove out before the people of Israel Otherwise, he's with those Canaanites. He's like them We don't know now when he did this

I would guess he did it after this time after Isaiah talks to him because Isaiah doesn't rebuke him for it

You would think he would but a has was the kind of father think about who a has was That he was given a son as a sign.

He was the kind of father Who would kill his own son if he thought it would help him give him an advantage

That's why These people But a has is their King they deserve the distress and the hunger and the rage and the darkness and the gloom that they get in chapter 8

But there is an interruption for to us a child is born to us a son is

It's given Do you notice that? The son is given He's not earned.

He's not he's not a Christmas gift. You know, we get if we've been nice. He's checking his list

And not naughty He's not the Lord's part in the kind of reciprocal relationship.

We have you know, we get him what he wants. Maybe that iPhone 10 Well, maybe he didn't want that.

Maybe once our ties Maybe once saw us to be baptized. Maybe once our church attendance And he returns the favor after we've given him what he wants by getting us a son.

No, that's not what happens That's not the kind of relationship we have with him. He's Given he's been given already.

He did it first That's the basis of our relationship with the Lord our covenant with God begins by him giving the son to interrupt our

Bondage to sin to break through the thick darkness that we were in In the interruption, we have marvelous light to bring us from gloom to glory.

It begins by him giving the son He loved us first Not our earning the

Sun not our exchanging gifts We are given the Sun that we might get a break and be set free and be free indeed

That's not to say if some teach today that now that we're free We're free to sin

You know, we had the yoke of sin on us and that's been broken and now We don't got to take his yoke, you know, he's kind of give it's an option take my yoke on you

But we can say no thing. We don't we want that in. No, we're some say we're free to indulge the flesh

We're free to watch all the porn we want free to slander anyone We want you know slander without bothering and check facts free to blow off Church free to chase dollars or skirts

And claim that we're well, I'm saved by grace. I'm going to heaven because the this I have this

You know that having the Sun is my king as my lord That's just an optional extra that I'm choosing not to do right now

But the Sun that we are given is the one who has who is he in this passage he has the government

On his shoulder. Otherwise if he's been given to us, he's been given to us to rule over us to sit on the throne of our heart and Extend his rule over our lives forever

He is a wonderful counselor He's unlike the kinds of counselors, you know, the people were chasing after here

In chapter 8 remember the the necromancers the psychics the mediums the dead

They're having seances and seeing what the old dear departed grandpa has to say about this

Whatever they need today seeking the people seeking the counsel of the stars astrology

Reports are that astrology is becoming more popular That this is you know, they say this is a time of uncertainty.

Everything looks on Unstable people are perplexed. They're confused. And so they're looking to astrology for counsel

What an amazing thing that is, you know with all our scientific knowledge, you know, we know now we known this for a while but we

Astrology didn't know it when it came about that the soak that the so -called stars that astrology Used to think where the wine you know, why do some of those stars move and some most of the rest of them mistake

Well, because we know their planets. They're not stars at all It's just a basic kind of you know, that's you learn that elementary school.

It's a basic fact. Well our advanced knowledge Yet people are still turning to superstitions that are based on complete ignorance of the cosmos instead of turning to the

Lord Who created the stars? But the Sun will be a He'll be a wonderful counselor.

He is and he is that to us now He is that to us through his word gives us counsel through the

Bible He gives that through his church through through his body through the Holy Spirit Jesus called him the

Holy Spirit the other counselor of the same kind That he promised to leave us He is also the mighty

God That's interesting Christ Jesus he is The mighty

God you wouldn't say that about any person of an Isaiah's day, but that's what he says about the one who interrupted

The judgment he's the mighty God. He's not just a man He's not like the world that People like King Ahaz were impressed by Ahaz was so impressed by the pagan altars of the

Assyrians You know He didn't think the whole temple thing in Jerusalem that the Lord set up that didn't look as good as what the world had the

Assyrians had and so he He sent a description of one with Assyrian altars to his people back in Jerusalem said build one like that You know

He was impressed by that not by the mighty God like people today are so impressed by what the world can do with the right music with the lighting with The videos with the crowd manipulation and so they designed a church around that what we should be impressed by a mighty

God By the power of salvation That's in his gospel

And the son won't be a mighty God and the Everlasting Father he'll be a father very much unlike Ahaz who gives he'll be a father this

Wonderful counselor this mighty God several lasting father who gives himself for his children rather than a

Selfish father like Ahaz who sacrificed their children for themselves He has literally sacrifices son in the fire maybe today

Parents sacrifice their children on the altars of their careers because they got to make more money. That's what matters to them so they'll let the let the

TV raise the kids or on the Sacrifice their kids on the altar of their own lust because they got to have that they got to have that new honey

She just looks too good rather than being faithful to the wife and the children that he had with her

So this son is a father who lasts forever He's everlasting and he is the

Prince of Peace Unlike a has whose decisions brought war you know a has thought it was a good idea to bring the

Assyrians in to that area to get rid of Israel and Of course the long -term result of that was the

Assyrians brought oppression and eventually attacked Judah. It was war desolation this son

Who was given? Will bring peace. He'll bring restoration tranquility

Reconciliation first with God as he appeases the wrath of God by taking the punishments that our sins deserve and then

Peace with other people as he shall from you know, remember chapter 2 talking about Will there were the

Lord or arbitrate our disputes the resolve it says the conflicts for many people So that you know, we'll be able to turn our our weapons into gardening tools.

We won't need weapons anymore We're not there yet okay, we're not there yet, but The Sun has already been given and that's what

Christmas is about that. The edict was declared an eternity past and it came into history about 2 ,000 years ago and It and now the one with the government on his shoulders

Now he must reign until he puts all his enemies In other words all the reasons that we still don't need guns and police and armies he puts all the temptations all the sins that cling so closely and He will put finally even death itself under his feet and We can be sure of that because he has decreed it from eternity past and he says in verse 7

He is zealous He's passionately Committed he is absolutely determined to bring it about So that's what he interrupted the gloomy dark record of history with on that first Christmas a

Son was given To us who were slaves in darkness. He gave us a break and to break out from that and That's what he's zealous to do

Well now some people don't universalist imagine that everyone gets a break you know a permanent break, you know, there's there's peace and goodwill toward men a

Misquoting, you know the angels who appeared to the shepherds on that first Christmas The angels actually said in Luke chapter 2 verse 14 glory to God in the highest and on earth peace

Among those with whom he God is pleased But what about for the others?

What about for those? He's not pleased And we've seen in verse 1 here back in Isaiah 9 that that some who were past tense in anguish in the former times

Who experienced in those former times contempt and degradation, you know, like the prodigal son who has to eat with the pigs?

Some get a break they get a permanent break an interruption in the judgment and they go from gloom to glory some but not all

For others now they might get they might get a short break. They might get an interruption in their gloom

This world and Maybe all the interruption they ever get the pleasures that it has

They might get they might get Ping -pong balls a little extra meat maybe in their rations a

Little cheer as they hear the good news that a son was born for someone but then sadly

For some of those For the unrepentant for those who won't receive the gift of the son who was given

It's back to the grind of judgment There was an interruption

Now there's a determination and we see that determination expressed in four sections from chapter 9 verse 8 to chapter 10 verse 4

God is determined to continue the gloom of four kinds of people first the arrogant

Second the godless and even the respectable kind of godless You have a form of religion and third the wicked and finally the unjust

Now first the Lord has it says in chapter in verse 8 the Lord has sent a word

Notice that he sent the word already He has past tense issued it It is against He says against Jacob and it will future fall on Israel so Isaiah as he writes this is now between the time the order the word the decree has been issued and The time that it will fall on them.

It will manifest itself It will come out in there in life and it is against he says against Jacob against the

Israel That is it? really Israel The Prophet Hosea said about the same time that Isaiah was alive

Hosea up in the north of Israel He said that this

Israel is Not my people. He too had He too had a son who was a sign and he too gave him a name

To show what he was and then he named the son Not my people Now Paul wrote in Romans 2 that no one is a

Jew who is one that merely merely outwardly based on the words on natural descent on On birth in Romans chapter 9 verse 6.

He wrote that not everyone who is of Israel is of Israel the true Israel by faith now some are

Not being anti -semitic here because still today there are believing Jews who who received the son as the father's gift to them and they are our brothers and sisters but but here in Isaiah the word the decree the

Determination to continue judgment is is against this physical this merely outward

Israel that doesn't believe and it will fall on them and it did

When the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC taking away those ten tribes who have disappeared

I mean, they're gone. They've been gone for a long time And then that word fell in 586

BC when the Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem and took Judah into exile but there was an interruption and That judgment in their captivity.

They were allowed to come back to Judah and the interruption was so that The Sun could be given

Now for those who rejected the Sun The word fell on them in AD 70

When the Romans destroyed Jerusalem slaughtered thousands and many others were just scattered all over the world now here

Back in Isaiah 9 they are between the issuing of the decree

The word has gone out and the falling of it on them But rather being humbled by the the judgment

They've already experienced all that stuff in chapter 8 that the gloom and the anguish rather being humbled by that They're arrogant notice how defiant they sound in verse 10, you know, sure the bricks have fallen

Those foreign armies have come in they've broken down our walls and our buildings, but they say we will rebuild with dress stones

I'm it was what it's going to rebuild better than ever The invaders have cut down our sycamore trees not to worry

We will read we will put cedars in their place Replant and they'll be better trees than ever.

We're not worried. We'll rebuild better than ever. We're resilient We're unbowed.

We're unbroken and everybody cheers They chant we are Israel. We are

Israel. We'll tough it out. We can withstand anything It's bravado and it's exactly the kind of motivational talk

We hear a lot of in our culture particular in this country, you know a mass shooting a terrorist attack a disaster

Oh, it's not because we're being afflicted. It's not because there's anything that we need to repent of. We're just this great Pure terrific nation.

God loves us. And so we just chant we are stronger. We are America We will rebuild will build better than ever even as our families and our society falls apart.

It's sheer defiant arrogance Here the northern kingdom of Israel will ally they are allying with they have allied with the

Syrians and they think that that Will be their insurance policy against the

Assyrians Who live current -day Israel, but I our Iraq I should say but Isaiah says that the

Lord is raising up adversaries against resin That's the king of Syria whom they've allied with he's raising up adversaries against them.

So he's going to be replaced This man they put so much trust in this foreign King The Lord the

Prince of Peace is stirring up his enemies he's provoking war against resin against Syria so they're gonna be overturned because and he is doing it because Israel trusted in them in Syria instead of the

Lord and they'll find that what they trusted in in place of the Lord is destroyed by the

Lord's decree and Then they'll have Syrians on the east of them and Philistines on the west of them enemies on all sides

Devouring them taking their land their cities one by one and yet Even as they dwindle even they're being assaulted besieged from all sides

That still won't be enough to exhaust the Lord's wrath at them.

So he stretches out his hand As a sign of a military commander to attack

As long as the generals arm is stretched out his army knows to continue the charge

To not let up no break in the assault no interruption in the hostilities the signal is to strike them down and then when they're in bait being invaded from all sides

Syrians at east Philistines to the west then Is he finally satisfied

As he exhausted his anger as he vented at all. It's his justice now

Finally after all the destruction and the punishment and death Has it finally been appeased?

No, he says for all this His anger has not turned away and his hand it's stretched out

Still There's no break No interruption from the punishment.

The Lord is ordering for them to experience Well next are the godless now despite the

Lord issuing the order punishment to follow them despite being surrounded on all sides by enemies Despite the money

God not delivering the perfect life Despite the romance the V relationship not protecting us from divorce

Despite science not being able to keep us alive forever Despite the government not being able to give us everything we want or our favorite politician not being able to be

Being able to deliver on all his promises the godless They still won't repent.

They'll still trust in those things They still won't turn to the Lord that they still don't seek

God for answers They still aren't willing to live for him.

Oh They may be respectable and even religious They may be the leaders of the religion They may be prophets like these people here

They may be the head or the tail of Israel. The Lord said he's cutting off the head and the tail

The head is the elders the leaders of the people and was other was the government the esteemed people on TV who tell us

How to live what to believe the tail of the prophets the preachers

Those called prophets who claim to have words from God say thus say of the Lord And are really just telling people what they want to hear

They are the tail is being wagged by the dog of public opinion cheery men

With nice hair and a big smile telling everything you need to know about how to have your best life now

Assuring you that you're saved Because you went down an aisle way back when you were in kindergarten

Even if you bear no fruit, even if you won't submit to his government, you're all right.

They'll tell you They're being wagged by what people demand.

They tell them even as everything is falling apart Now they should be guiding the people with the

Word of God But they teach the lies of motivational speaking about how the cross

Shows how much you're worth it's all about you. Don't you know you're worth dying for that's what it's about It's all about us and our happiness rather than the glory of God Where we'll find our happiness

So he says in verse 17 The Lord doesn't rejoice over their young men

He's a care for their poor and helpless They're all godless. They're all chattering about nonsense

Positive mental attitude slogans to distract them from the reality of what the true God is doing to them

So he lets their young men die in battle. He lets the homeless freeze to death in winter

He lets the sexually immoral be consumed by AIDS The families keep falling apart and creating angry children who go shoot up schools while we respond with meaningless chance

For all this this unrelenting judgment. His anger is not turned away

He's still Furious his hand is stretched out

Still he's still signaling attack no break no interruption third that we could burn and are burned

Wickedness burns like fire. He says, you know, like one of those massive wildfires if you've seen the news this past week

It's consuming parts of Southern California This arid land covered with dry brush set on fire and then stoked

Higher and higher by the scorching Santa Ana winds that come blowing in off the desert here wickedness is like that It's like sin and particularly sexual sin the fire of lust that burns in people's hearts

This stoked by pornography or by a philosophy that if it feels good do it do it now that self -restraint

Disciplined at marriage. Oh, that's just the wet blanket of old -fashioned primitive bigoted people

So we so they they they throw themselves into that searching for satisfaction

In in those things and then they they don't find it and when they don't find it they get consumed with anger

It must be someone's fault for maybe it's those people who are telling me. I'm immoral. It's their fault

So they're angry at them. So it burns and it burns in verse 19. Notice there verse 18

It burns because of wickedness in verse 19. It burns through the wrath of the

Lord of Hosts You say well, which is it? Is it the wickedness that's causing this burning or is it the

Lord of Hosts that's causing this burning? Well, it's both it's because God it's because of God's anger at their sins that the land is he says is scorched

It's because of his anger and notice that is precisely because of God's wrath that the fire of wickedness is

Consuming that much hotter. He's not Restraining their sin.

He's letting them have it To the fall his judgment is you want this sin?

There it is Have it all He's giving them over to it

Romans 1 says the wrath of God is revealed when God gives people up to their lust

To their impurity God gives them over to their dishonorable passions and they then are consumed by them

They're not just judged for their sins The sin they choose

Becomes its own judgment the sin itself Becomes the punishment for choosing the sin as it devours us.

I Once entered I once interviewed a man a handsome young man a model from Southern, California Who had been saved out of the homosexual lifestyle and he told me how he once went to a homosexual party and he could feel

The other men they are wanting to devour him. He said he felt like he was meat in a market the fiction that the so -called

LBGT Quote community is this mutually supportive caring?

community about all about helping each other or the fiction that Homosexual relationships are just as loving and nurturing and faithful as natural ones.

That is all Propaganda by people who are suppressing the truth because they love themselves.

They love their own pleasure They love or maybe they love the approval They get for being one of the cool people who supports the right cause if you really love people

You don't want to see them devoured by their self -destructive behavior here in Isaiah 9 they devour each other and there's this fire of lust because they only care about themselves and How they can use each other for themselves and that kind of life then becomes

Self -devouring. It's like eating your own arm. I Mean if you're gonna imagine such a thing so so that devouring

What it brings the diseases the loneliness of broken superficial relationships

The victimization is you're used by one person after another with no real thought ever for you that becomes its own punishment and For all the destroyed lives all the suicides all the drug addictions all the diseases all the consuming bitterness

You know what those bigots who won't let go of their intolerance and accept me as I am

All the gloomy loneliness is caused by all that for at all

God's anger is still Not turned away He determined to continue it forever

There's no break. His hand is stretched out still

Finally, there's no break no interruption in the judgment on the unjust Whoa, Isaiah begins in chapter 10 verse 1.

Remember the woes of chapter 5 The funeral like laments. Whoa, you're about to be you're about to be killed for this.

You're about to die for this You might as well start your funeral now Woe to those who decree iniquitous decrees

No, it's Kings judges lawmakers Who make their decisions based on selfishness and what they can get out of it depriving the needy of justice

Like the Supreme Court in the Dred Scott case that even if a slave did run away to the north to freedom They would have to be returned to slavery

No wonder Abraham Lincoln said that the war that came soon after that Iniquitous decree and killed 600 ,000

Americans was God's decree to pay back one drop of blood for every drop of sweat stolen from the slaves

Here the poor and the widows are robbed of their rights because they have no advantage to give a judge

They have no bribe to offer. They have no vote that they can promise So the judge doesn't care

He decides what's in it for him. So the unborn are our prey

Isn't what do they offer us? What can they do? their sacrifice on the altar of our sexual convenience because they can't offer any politician a

Benefit in exchange for protecting their lives So there will be he says in verse 3 a day of punishment ruin is coming

It came literally for the northern kingdom of Israel very soon They were wiped out

They had no place to flee their wealth was taken away all these judges that took bribes

Didn't care about the impact of their verdicts on poor helpless people all that money

They hoarded through that injustice that was hauled off. They didn't get to enjoy it. Enjoy it anymore

Nothing remained for them and they had only two options either take their place among the prisoners and get hauled off or get killed that's it and Yet as bad as that is

Still God's anger was not satisfied. It wasn't finished. He didn't vent it all

He didn't exhaust his rage. He kind of settled down after a while. He didn't get over it

Still his hand is stretched out the order continues. God is determined to forever attack

So For all the judgment God could pour out on us His righteous anger will not be interrupted.

He is determined to continue that grind Forever no matter how many centuries how many years?

Thousands millions billions that God could rightly punish us for our sins

He could still say for all this his anger is not turned away and his hand is stretched out still

Yet Though he's determined to punish sin still

That's not what he's zealous to do He's zealous passionately committed

To give us a son The son was given because God's anger is rightly never turned away from sin.

He doesn't just get over it Sin is an eternal crime against an eternal King and so deserves an eternal punishment, but eternally

Punishing is not what this King is zealous to do

Zealously he determined and issued the decree in eternity past to give us a son and his hand

The son's hand was stretched out or to cross

So that we could have a break from that eternal wrath so that we could have peace