Introduction to Isaiah | Isaiah 1:1

[Music] this coming Wednesday night we're starting a brand-new book we've just finished the Song of Solomon last week and as we do we go right through the Bible verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book and so we're opening up Isaiah starting right now are you guys ready for this let's do it yeah turn with me to the Book of Isaiah now the Bible is divided into different kind of sections of course most people know there's an Old Testament and a New Testament which is great to know that but there's actually even more divisions than than even that that you should know about of course we have been going verse by verse through the Bible so when we started in Genesis we went through those those first five books called the Pentateuch or the Torah the law which is Genesis Exodus Leviticus numbers and Deuteronomy and so those were the ones authored by Moses himself and then after that you go into more the in the Bible here the books of history which you know it starts telling the story a little more of the Jews you know from Joshua judges Ruth first as I said on first second Kings first like Chronicles you know and all the way even through Azra nehemiah to the book of Esther those are the books of history and we looked at all of those and some of those will come into play in the Book of Isaiah because Isaiah was in you know service to the Lord during some of the reigns of those kings we'll talk about that in a bit but the books in history then that third section of the Old Testament is the books of poetry and it starts with the book of Job and goes through Psalms and proverbs Ecclesiastes and then the Song of Solomon of course we just finished so that brings us to the new section of the Bible and it's the prophets now you could just say it's the prophets and then that's the end of the Old Testament but but you might break that down into the major prophets and the Minor Prophets and the major prophets versus the minor prophets one thing that people misunderstand is it's not like the baseball major league and minor league it's not like the prophets or you know better than or worse than you got your varsity which is I say Ezekiel and Jeremiah and then the JV you know with Obadiah and Amos and those guys know there they're all prophets of the Lord and some of those minor prophets carry a powerful punch they're like little hand grenades ready to go off boom and don't don't mistake those minor prophets are not minor in the sense that they're not important but they are minor in the sense they're shorter in length than the long prophets that we call major prophets now because we're entering into the section called the prophets there's a question I want to rhetorically ask you and that is do you do prophets exist today that's the question I want to have you think about for a second are there prophets today the answer is yes and no well Brett that sounds wishy-washy oh it's not but let me explain see the thing is that I do have a prophet of the Old Testament to have prophets that move and operate in the same way as the Old Testament prophets the answer is no we do not have prophets like the Old Testament and Jesus is the one who taught us that does anybody remember who can tell me who was the last of the prophets of the Old Testament Jamie John the Baptist that's right and we we learned that remember when they were asking Jesus about John the Baptist and you know it's it's interesting to me because you know poor John the Baptist he was was wondering you know about boy is this is this the one or should we look for another you know and all that stuff but listen to what Jesus said about John the Baptist here in Matthew 11:11 it says verily I say to you Jesus said among them that are born among women there have not risen a greater than John the Baptist that's that's pretty amazing for Jesus to say no one has ever been born among women that's humanity then John the Baptist and then later he goes on it says for all the prophets and the law prophesied until John and if you'll receive it this is Elias was for to come he's enough ear to hear let him hear boy that's a long discussion was john the baptist's Elijah John the Baptist said no but Jesus said yes kind of what do you mean well it seems as we study the life of John the Baptist the spirit of Elijah was upon John the Baptist that's what Jesus said and that really concluded the Old Testament prophets as they were in the Old Testament so what do you do with the guy that walks around today saying I am a prophet of the Lord what do you do with that guy well I'd say beware and and sometimes it's just a matter of syntax or maybe a wrong use of language or understanding of what the Bible teaches so let me ask this question does the word of prophecy exist today and does the Lord work through a person to do give a word of prophecy yes good thank you has a little little tumbleweeds here blowing through the sink sir I was a little worried yes see this is important to understand the Holy Spirit moves through his church and there's a list of things I love first Corinthians chapter 12 it says the the now concerning spiritual now some people say spiritual gifts the word gifts there's an italics in first Corinthians 12 which means it's not in the original text but concerning things of the Spirit the Holy Spirit he then lists a bunch of manifestations of the Holy Spirit that the church gets to enjoy in the New Testament church now there are some people who say the Holy Spirit doesn't do those things anymore I don't think you can really take an honest look in the New Testament and believe that they're called cessationists that the miracles the speaking in tongues and prophecy and those healings and stuff that was for just the early early early church but not for the rest of church I just can't get a bore with that there's a whole reason why many years later Paul came and explained to the church how to let the Holy Spirit's manifestations be exercised in the church among those spiritual movements of oil spirit is the word of prophecy so when a person speaks a word of prophecy does that make him or her a prophet or a prophetess the answer is no here's what the differences in the Old Testament prophets those were guys that spoke words of encouragement they spoke on behalf of God to man and God used them to speak words of power and blessing and curses and also those Old Testament prophets could foretell the future much of the prophets even Isaiah we're gonna find he speaks a lot about what's gonna happen how things are gonna come down in the future foretelling the future that's the Old Testament prophet the New Testament prophet doesn't do the foretelling as much as they do what I would call forth telling what's that what's the difference well if you read what a prophet word that the word of prophecy given through a person in the New Testament it's very clear read 1st Corinthians chapter 14 it says this that the person who speaks a word of prophecy by the spirit in the church and them in their church age that we're in now will speak one of three things an edification word exhortation word or word of comfort that's what it says and then it talks about how to speak in tongues in the church and that speeds to be decent and in order and some churches don't get that part either that people should just jump up and speak in tongues without order in the church and there's there's a very clear writing that Paul gives to us about all of these manifestations of the Holy Spirit the Word of prophecy is one of my favorites I love that that's a manifestation of the Spirit and some of you have done it without even knowing it what do you mean Brett you saying I'm a prophet nope I'm saying the Lord may have given you a word of prophecy to give to someone whether you know it or not let me give you an example have you ever been in a situation where you were talking with someone and maybe it was an intense conversation or maybe it was something you didn't you were way out of your wheelhouse not knowing what to say and then suddenly you just kind of have something stir in your heart and you say something you're like wow I didn't know how to did me you're like man I just said something that was kind of profound did I say that Wow have you ever noticed that sometimes you say something and you're like wow that really didn't come from my brain and you sort of give a very specific word into a person's life that is a word of obviously where the Holy Spirit comes upon you and gives you a word of an efficacious exhortation or comfort it's something that's I think a beautiful blessing as the Holy Spirit moves through his church I get to be a part of that from time to time when I'm teaching right up here there's things where I'll be teaching through a Bible section and as I'm going you know some of those tangents I go on and you guys are like Oh Brett's on another tangent it's some of your like no I didn't never noticed that no I'm just kidding yeah but those tangents those are the ones that more often than not I'll be going off on some tangent and I feel like the Lord's leading me to talk about this and I won't talking about at the other services but maybe at that specific service I'll go off on a tangent and talk about that inevitably someone will come up to me after the Thursday okay who told you who called you before the service and told me that I was going through this thing and you spoke exactly about what I was going through and there's a true story by the way I didn't tell the other services this one so this may be a word of fraud I was at the remember that when we were at the school the middle school I was at the there and I taught a sermon and this guy came up Panicking say Brett you have to come and help me and I said what are you talking about he said you know what you preached your sermon this morning my wife is furious with me and you and I said what are you talking about and she said he said she thought that I called you before the service to have you preach on the thing that you preached and she's convinced well where is she she's sitting up the car locked in the car and she won't come out come out so I literally had to go out of the parking lot she rolled down her window like a half-inch and I said I said man your husband didn't call me I said could it be that the Holy Spirit was speaking to you this morning it took a while but but she actually she actually realized that it really was a word that she needed to hear then it was like very much about the topic that he and she were arguing about I had no idea moving in that role of the prophetic utterance through his church man that's important to know that now I'm glad we're not prophets I'll tell you why prophets in the Old Testament I'm tough gag man if you were a prophet of the Old Testament and you said something that didn't come to pass what would they do with you stone you to death can you imagine that you get it a little wrong and suddenly they're taking down stone you enough I mean think of all the prognosticators we have people that are supposed to kind of help us to know what's gonna happen in the future think about what they're pretty weather men left or what about the pollsters you know of the elections they've proven themselves to not know anything the pollsters you know the Psychic Friends Network you guys remember that back in the day when they were always on the TV commercials why are they no longer in business because they didn't know what they were doing and they couldn't do it even the best we've had to put forward you remember George Orwell's book 1984 I graduated from high school in 1984 so it was a big deal and our teachers made us read you know 1984 and Orwell goes down as one of the real accurate prognosticators of the future so 100 years earlier he wrote 1984 and he said here's what its gonna look like basically in 1984 and he wrote it in 1884 and as it turns out he did a pretty good job he got 35% of it right as it turns out thirty-five percent in prophecy terms he should be taken out and stoned to death because he only got 35 percent when we speak of the prophets of the Old Testament they had to be 100% accurate and that's one of the unique things about the Bible about the prophets prophets of the Old Testament Isaiah was in that situation he spoke words of the future and he had to get it right 100% of the time or else they would have taken him out and stone him to death now sad to say a lot of people will stoned or beat up the prophets because they didn't like him because they were always speaking the Word of God and some people don't like that either what I want to do is introduce you today to the Book of Isaiah to the prophet Isaiah just just an introduction we'll head it verse by verse on Wednesday night but if you'd allow me just to kind of meander a little bit through what this book is about and what Isaiah is about I think that'd be good for us to start our whole study with that so I've got four things that I want to talk about number one Isaiah the person number two Isaiah the passages of the Bible number three Isaiah's a profound and then fourthly Isaiah the problem so first of all Isaiah the person who was Isaiah well let's just read verse 1 chapter 1 and that gets us started Isaiah chapter 1 verse 1 there says the vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz which saw which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of uzziah jotham ahaz Hezekiah kings of Judah here we read that Isaiah was the son of Amos and we'll talk a little more about that and who he was and his relations and what have you Wednesday night but but we know what time period he he served as a prophet during the reign of these kings now by the way 1 Kings left out the last King that he served under and I'll tell you about that in a second but remember when we were studying in the books of the kings and chronicles how there were good kings and bad Kings and most of the kings were evil do you remember that as we were studying those of you that were with us in those books well it was during Isaiah's time of ministry that there were mostly good kings and you could make the argument it was due to Isaiah's good influence on those kings Isaiah had a real relationship with each of these kings and and in this list here Uzziah he was a good king Jotham good king ahaz bad king and Hezekiah a good king and those good Kings would listen to the prophet Isaiah and maybe that's part of the reason their reign as kings were so profitable and good but of those of those kings the last one that not listed here is the king named Manasseh what is Manasseh the king of Israel what was he most famous for anybody he was the most wicked evil king in Israel's history it's a little bit of a troubling story because Manasseh was so wicked and evil but do you remember what happened in the last like 10 seconds of his life he repented and turned to the Lord I think we're gonna see him in heaven that's amazing the most wicked King in Israel's history is gonna probably be in heaven gives me hope gives you hope to God's grace it's amazing that saved a wretch like him Manasseh means that he can save a wretch like you and me but but Manasseh was evil and and Isaiah the prophet was martyred or killed during Manasses reign Justin Martyr is an ancient guy who wrote history of Israel he wrote about how Manasseh killed Isaiah it's kind of a gruesome story but I'll just give you the Reader's Digest version he took Isaiah out and sawed him in half but he did it with a unique saw that he made out of wood it was a wooden saw the sod Isaiah now if you can only picture that it would have been a horrible brutal death but that was the point that's what Manasseh wanted to do to kill Isaiah the prophet so most of these Old Testament prophets were hated because they spoke God's Word don't be shocked when you tell people even in our culture about the Word of God if people will hate you for that don't be shocked about that but that was the case here that Isaiah was martyred by Manasseh well excuse me he was also married Isiah was married and he had at least two sons two of the sons by the way are named in Isaiah chapter 7 verse 3 and Isaiah chapter 8 verse 3 both places tell us the name of Isaiah's at least two sons but being a prophet was was tough not only because if you were wrong you'd get you know stoned to death but some of the stuff that God made these guys do was kind of brutal you think you had a tough day at the office last week Isaiah you want to know I was like let me let me tell you what we're gonna read in Isaiah chapter 20 the Lord says Isaiah I want to speak through you okay Lord here am I send me and so he's ready to go in or something but I want I want you to sort of do an object lesson okay great what key note power note PowerPoint what do you what do you want Lord well actually you're gonna be the object lesson yourself what you want me to do well first of all take off your shoes okay shoes all right take off all the rest of your clothes - what yep all your clothes naked there's Isaiah standing before God naked he says okay now I want you to walk around Israel for three whole years totally naked that's your assignment that's a tough day at the office right there that's Isaiah the prophet and he's gonna do it he's gonna walk around for three years naked in Israel why Bret I'll tell you when we get Ty's day at chapter 20 it's actually an important thing that I say let's do it there but all that to say tough job being a prophet of the Lord in the Old Testament whether you're Jeremiah Isaiah Ezekiel all these guys had it pretty tough as prophets of the Lord I'm really glad we're not prophets in the New Testament I'm glad we get to give a word of prophecy but we're not doing the same role as these guys well Isaiah the person was a committed follower of God was was the guy who spoke on behalf of God to the people and was a powerful prophet of the Lord that's Isaiah the person number two Isaiah the passage well the passage of Scripture well Isaiah is an amazing book it's a real high point in many ways of the Old Testament I kind of tend to say that about all the books but but when I'm in a book I always love to appreciate what that book does The Book of Isaiah is profound in so many ways one is as the use of the Hebrew language those of you that are New Testament students you know that the the use of the Greek language by Paul the Apostle the second to none secular biblical otherwise no one uses the Greek language as proficiently and beautifully as Paul the Apostle well Isaiah is that guy in the Old Testament nobody uses the Hebrew language as eloquently or as beautifully as Isaiah the prophet so it's it's an artful academic work and it's beautiful and that's something that we non-hebrew readers we can miss that it's the Hebrew scholars and say yeah Isaiah was the man another thing that Isaiah the book itself the passage of scripture gives us is it's it's um it's like a little miniature Bible in and of itself 66 different chapters here in Isaiah and I think it's interesting because a lot of scholars believe that each of the 66 chapters correspond with the 66 books of the whole Bible from Genesis to Revelation and that's kind of cool like to me you can see a little bit of everything in the Book of Isaiah all those New Testament truths are sort of foretold and foreshadowed in the Book of Isaiah and not only is it says 66 chapters that sort of mimic the 66 books of the rest of the Bible but there's also two chunks remember I told you about the Old Testament in the New Testament and the Book of Isaiah kind of has that same division from chapters 1 through 39 of Isaiah it has a very different personality and demeanor than chapters 40 through 66 most people divide Isaiah at least into two major chunks now keep that in mind because I got something to say about that here in a few minutes the two personalities of the book of Isaiah but the first personality is kind of this whoa what do you mean Bret whoa are you riding a horse are you a surfer like not anyway nope not that the word whoa in Isaiah's time was one to you bummer on you curses on you whoa whoa whoa and he says this over and over and over chapters 1 through 39 it's a part of the book and by the way a lot of people look at the Old Testament that way it's blood and guts doom and gloom and you know all this warfare and all this wrath and righteousness of God be careful Christian you know we call it the Old Testament and it's a little bit like the major and minor prophets it's the same idea some people think the Old Testaments the old has been washed away done with Old Testament so forget that and we got the New Testament new and improved that's the wrong way to think about it there's a famous pastor who said in recent times we need to unhitch ourselves from the Old Testament and I believe that pastor should never be allowed to preach again for saying such a horrible thing the New Testament and the Old Testament go hand and hand coupled together the Old Testaments not done away with has been it makes the New Testament come alive and unless you have a healthy understanding of the Old Testament you'll never be able to appreciate the beauty of the new very important and so we read this and we're gonna feel that dark heavy feeling in chapters 1 through 39 then suddenly there's a change of demeanor in chapters 40 through 66 it's Comfort eat comfort you my people say it Ford you know of Hosts it's it's this amazing blessing and comfort and peace and joy and petunias what happened did Isaiah you know take his meds and now suddenly he's all happy and feeling good about himself what happened to Isaiah we'll see I believe that God is using Isaiah to do what the whole Bible does before you can see the beauty of the New Testament you have to see the the the judgment the RAF the righteousness of the old and The Book of Isaiah does both of those things quite well and it does change gears right in the middle of the book we'll see that as we go through this so you've got this this the passage Isaiah the passage which is kind of amazing how it sort of mimics the Bible some people call it the miniature Bible which is kind of cool so you got Isaiah the person Isaiah the passage the passage of Scripture but then we think of Isaiah the profound the book that we're going to be studying here is in fact profound for so many reasons the book that we're gonna read here pictures Jesus Christ like no other book of the Old Testament maybe the Psalms comes close you know there's certain chapters in Psalms that are so messianic you can't miss it you see that it's about Jesus but in the Book of Isaiah there's chapters chapter 53 Egypt in Chapter 55 there's some chapters that man it's just all about Jesus Christ long before he ever came and it's profound and you see an Old Testament prophet talking about Jesus who had yet hood hundred years later will come and fulfill these prophecies perfectly and by the way it wasn't just about Jesus there's prophecies about other people as well do you remember studying in history Cyrus the Great most of you probably had to study that because well Cyrus he was the kind of the Conqueror of the known world before how exam to the great did that Cyrus the Great did it and there's kind of a story that's interesting that the Book of Daniel talks about and it's it's if you recall the story well Nebuchadnezzar was long gone his grandson was ruling Belshazzar this guy who was kind of a lightweight sort of King in place of Nebuchadnezzar but he was sort of the king of Babylon and and and and the reason he was doing okay is because they had the Babylonian security the wall talked about a wall building a wall the Babylonians they built the biggest baddest wall you can ever imagine when when when Nebuchadnezzar had left the kingdom to his grandson first Nevada this and then and then and then built jazzer the wall around the city was up to 250 feet tall do you realize how tall that wall is this wall around our sanctuary here is about 40 feet walk it's a 40-foot wall so picture 250 foot wall all the way around and so thick was the wall around Babylon you could race six chariots on the top of the wall of Babel this thing mondo wall and then every you know 100 feet or so there was a turret that would even go up from there where the guys could scope out and spy out and spill oil on people's heads and drop rocks and arrows and all that stuff it was like considered to be the perfect wall but not only was the wall around Babylon but outside of the wall wasn't just a little moat you know the little river that they put around castles and kingdoms the the city of Babylon had the Euphrates River split into two and go around the city so it was a massive river so you have the river then that the wall but not only that they had the river but outside on the other side of the river was a second wall the normal sized walls of most cities was like that size so you had first of all normal wall then you had the river Euphrates River and then you had this massive wall and so Babylon at that time was thought to have been impenetrable there's no way you could take it so what would you do by the way in Bible times when you wanted to take a city like that you do what they call besiege the city but nobody even tried it you want to know why because Babylon they boasted there's actual writings on those prisms and stuff about how Bab the Babylonians could exist under siege without leaving the gates of their big city with their big walls in the river they could they could stay under siege for more than 20 years and be perfectly fine there their style of life wouldn't change at all and being under siege that's that's how things rolled that's why belts Shazzer he was a lightweight he didn't have to do anything so he was partying down in his city one night and they're getting all drunk in this drunken orgies you know this horrible party and he says hey let's bring the Jewish vessels that we stole from the Temple in Jerusalem bring those in and so they brought in the golden vessels and they start drinking and they're partying and there they are partying down and if it's just going when suddenly this hand shows up a big hand and starts riding on the wall and everybody freaked out especially Belshazzar so freaked out was he well the Bible says the joints of his loins were loosed what does that mean I don't know how to say this on a Sunday morning but pass the Pampers if you know what I'm saying so this King messed himself and he ooh and and they say what does it mean and nobody can tell him what the words what did the words say well it said meanie meanie miney moe no I didn't say that sorry it actually said meanie meanie chuckle you Farson what does that mean well they were there scratching their heads trying to figure it out when suddenly the grandmother came in who remembered a dude that helped Nebuchadnezzar interpret dreams and stuff like that says she said there's a sky named Daniel one of the Jewish captives who knows how to talk with will go get him so they brought Daniel into this big party where the handwriting was on the wall and belt DeShazer had messed himself and Daniel comes in and they say tell us what it means and he says if you could tell me what this means I'll make you second-in-command I'll give you the robe and put a necklace on your neck and you'll be like right under me a second ago Daniel says okay here's what this means it means Belshazzar you have been weighed in the balances and you're a lightweight you you were found wanting or lacking you're not much of a man is basically said he should have been but you're not and this very night the Medes and the Persians are coming to take your kingdom from you and you will be not the king after tonight well Belshazzar in a stupidity says that's great thanks Daniel and here's the robe and here's the necklace do you think Daniel really cared about a robe and a necklace at that point this he's about to Belshazzar is about to die well meanwhile while Daniels telling them all this stuff guess what's happening well guess what's been happening for a long time the Medes of the Persians led by Cyrus the Great and Darius the Mede these two you know kingdoms come together to go against Babylon and what they did was brilliant they went up the Euphrates River a few miles up and they diverted the river with a great feat of Engineering the waters of the afraid were diverted which left the moat around on dry and some of the river water would be led in these two little tunnels there were two gates one wall the first wall and the second wall and there were like little archway gates that had brass and iron bars covering them sort of like a filter and they didn't have scuba gear in those days so it's not like use to send the SEAL team in to go in and swim under these gates with the brass bars and cut them underwater and then swim back up that's why they thought nobody could ever take Babylon but by diverting the river they marched up to those gates cut the bars of iron and brass and came into the city through those two gates and took over the city that night and wiped out the Babylonians never to be world leaders ever again the medo-persian empire would be taken over at that point just like daniel the prophet said by the way but even more impressive you're like right okay that's great and everything nice little story what does that have to do with anything would you turn to Isaiah chapter 44 I'm wanting to show you just a sneak preview of what what Isaiah does here with his book and this is very typical of Isaiah in Isaiah 44 Isaiah prophesize and says this it's Isaiah 4427 he says there in Isaiah 44 27 he says that saith to the deep be dry and I will dry up thy rivers that saith of Cyrus he is my shepherd and shall perform all my pleasure even saying to Jerusalem thou shalt be built and to the temple thy foundation shall be laid thus saith the Lord to his anointed to Cyrus whose right hand I have Holden to subdue nations before him and I will loose the loins of kings to open before him the two leaved gates and the gates shall not be shut I will go before thee and make the crooked places straight and I will break in pieces the gates gates of brass and cut and sunder the bars of iron and I will give thee the treasures of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places that thou may know that I the LORD which called thee by thy name and the God of Israel for Jacob my servants sake for Israel might elect I have even called thee by thy name and I've surnamed thee though thou has not known me well Brett that sounds like the story you just talked about yeah but what's amazing about the Book of Isaiah it was written 150 years before that event happened before Cyrus the Great - that yep you see Isaiah through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit says there's guy coming in future named Cyrus and the Lord says I declare you by your name before you're even born Cyrus that you're gonna come and wipe out Babylon and you're gonna dry up the river you're gonna loose the loins of kings you're gonna cut the bars of the gates and you're gonna take the city and there's other things about blessing Jerusalem saying go and rebuild Jerusalem in the temple by the way Cyrus was considered one of the greatest friends the Jews in history the Jews still have a love in their heart for Cyrus the Great which is interesting for those of you that are interested in current politics one of the things that's funny whether your love them or hate them doesn't really matter as much but did you know that the Jews today in Jerusalem called Donald Trump Cyrus the second and the reason why is he's like one of the few guys in the world that has really supported Israel and stood by Jerusalem and the Jews and so they calm Cyrus the second that's what they do but that's because this guy in history helped rescue the Jews and bless the Jews now there wasn't really a Cyrus the second this was the Cyrus the Great that we're talking about here and Isaiah foretold 150 years before that ever happened Isaiah prophesied that now that's just one massive prophecy that Isaiah got perfect but he gives us tons of prophecies like this the most that he talks about is about Jesus the Messiah that's what makes Isaiah so great and it comes to life because we're gonna read more and more about Jesus did you know you could arguably say that there at least 121 specific prophecies that Isaiah speaks of of Jesus several hundred years later that would come born in a manger in Bethlehem Isaiah's spoke about those events that would come with great precision and I love this one of the guys that was a scientist you know a while back wrote an amazing book called science speaks a guy dr. Peter stoner he was this guy who talked about probabilities and and laws and stuff like that and I love this where you know he using the modern science of probability talked about what are the odds of people being able to guessed guesstimate when things are gonna happen and how they're gonna happen and and there's so much that's so improbable it's kind of funny but the idea of Isaiah the prophet being able to exacting ly speak of Jesus well he starts off his argument saying well what if what if just eight prophecies concerning Jesus came to pass exactly what are the odds of some dude a couple hundred years earlier predicting things that Jesus did like for example let me just give you eight prophecies that Isaiah talks about Isaiah would number one talk about that he'd be born of a virgin Isaiah 7:14 he mentions in Isaiah 65 to number two that I'm aasaiya would be rejected by his own people the Jews in Isaiah 53 for the Messiah would bear the sins of the world on his shoulders number four the Isaiah talks about how the Messiah's back would be whipped with a whip like a flagellum Isaiah 50 verse six number five Messiah would be counted with criminals hung between two thieves isaiah 53:12 number six the Messiah would be killed isaiah 53:8 number seven the Messiah would be buried in a borrowed rich man's tomb that's very specific isaiah 53:9 and number eight the Messiah would be resurrected by God himself Isaiah 55 3 that's just 8 there's 121 I just gave you eight but dr. stoner says what are the odds of an Old Testament guy like Isaiah just whimsically coming up with these prophecies what are the odds of them coming to pass eight of them well he said it's 1 in 10 to the 17th power the problem is most of us if you're like me I'm not a math person that's - those are just numbers that mean nothing and I love it the dr. stoner brought the hay down from the loft for us not math people he said what is the number 1 in 10 to the 17th power looks like he says here's what it looks like the odds are the same of a guy predicting eight prophecies concerning Jesus is the same as if you took silver dollars so many silver dollars that you fill up the state of Texas 3 feet deep in silver dollars and then you take the silver dollars and you walk out with a red permanent marker you put an X on one of those silver dollars and then you hide it somewhere in Texas nobody knows did you go to Laredo or Austin Dallas where did you go we don't know but we fly all over Texas in an airplane and we jumped out any time we feel like it and we float safely to the ground reach down and pick up a silver dollar what are the odds of you picking the one with a red X on it 1 in 10 to the 17th kind of impossible but then he goes on and I I'm sorry if I'm belaboring this point but I think it's the probability is really interesting because that's kind of impossible but even worse he says what if you took 48 of the 121 prophecies that Jesus was prophesied about from Isaiah the prophet what if you took 48 of them well that's one in ten to the hundred and fifty seventh power that number is beyond even our ability to think they dr. stoner tried to explain it to us and let me let me try to explain it to you how big is an electron see a silver dollar is too big for our illustration so we have to go tiny on this one so let's go to an electron how big is an electron it's smaller than you think if you took the number for example two and a half times 10 to the 15th power what would that number of electrons look like if you were to get your electron microscope out and if you could move electrons around and you started to line them up in a single line if you took a single line of electrons two and a half times 10 to the 15th power which is almost twice what we were just talking about silver dollars you would have a line of electrons that would go from here to about here one inch long that's how many electrons can fit in just one inch single-file what does that look like well again it's it's mined life if you were with your electron microscope counting those electrons let's say you just went and let's say you could count 230 of them per minute one electron 2 3 4 and you did that 230 per minute how long would it take you to count that one inch line of electrons if you did it at 230 electrons per minute it would take you 19 million years to count that one inch electrons are tiny very tiny but here's where it starts to get crazy by the way if you had a one inch cube of electrons perfectly smashed together how long would it take you to count electrons 19 million times 19 million times 19 million years that's that's amazing mind-blowing but here's the thing we're not even taught what is 1 in 10 to the 157th power look like okay so we take those tiny little Ektron let's just say we make a blob I'm not gonna tell how big the blob is but let's say we make a blob of electrons and we put a red X with a microscopic laser thing and we put a red X on an electron and hide it how big would the blob be that we hide it in not just everything in this room not just everything on and in this planet you'd have to have all the mass of the all of the known universe every Sun star every planet everything that's mass and material and all of those things composed of electrons you would have to have more than that to hide your little red next electron good luck finding that in the known universe that's the odds of one in ten to the hundred fifty seventh power does anybody's brain start to short-circuit when you think about that stuff that's pretty much the definition of impossible pretty much like winning the Oregon lottery sorry just kidding those of you that well all that to say the plague is it's it's impossible unless you have God on your side for with God what all things are possible Isaiah the prophet doesn't just nail down 48 he doesn't just nail down 8 he nails down 121 specific prophecies about Jesus hundreds of years before he ever came and every single one of those those requirements were met perfectly by Isaiah the prophet I love that and that's what we're gonna see in the Book of Isaiah now here's the thing about this some of you might say well Brad I don't know about all that but but here's the thing that kind of brings us to not only number one Isaiah the perfect person not only number two Isaiah the passage and number three Isaiah the profound but it brings us the number four Isaiah the problem what's the problem well that's just it the skeptics the cynics the atheists they really have a problem with the Book of Isaiah and Daniel and others as well but Isaiah's one of their great great problems and they some hate the Book of Isaiah and the reason why is because of what I just explained the idea of some guy predicting with total precision and perfection the prophecies concerning Jesus or even concerning Cyrus the Great or all the other prophecies given in the Book of Isaiah the skeptic the cynic says impossible it's amazing to me by the way that that same skeptic and cynic often believes in evolution which the probabilities of evolution of you know going from GU to you the probability of that happening is even more profoundly impossible so you almost have to exchange one impossibility for the other except the one who possibly has no cause or no origin whereas we say at least God pre-existed and did all this stuff but all that to say they hate the Book of Isaiah because they say it's impossible so here's what they've done throughout the ages the skeptic the cynic the hater of the Bible they say Isaiah this was the big one Isaiah is a forgery there's no way a guy could have written that during the time of Isaiah during the reign of Jotham and a has on Uzziah there's no way that a prophet could have written those things with such an exact precision before those events happens so it's a forgery and from really ancient history they've been talking about that how Isaiah's a forgery now here's what's great about this by the way pour fiery was one of these ancient critics that he said you know the Book of Isaiah was actually written in AD 50 by a forger ER who claimed to be Isiah and this is the narrative that went on for years and by the way some kooky professors and colleges and universities still use this argument and it's so pathetic that they would even use this I mean there's better other arguments you could use if you wanted but they just haven't done their homework they're saying yeah Isaiah's a forgery and the reason why is because Isaiah had to exist after ad 50 because he knew all the end of the story how did he know it it was a forgery that's what they say the reason we know that that's impossible is a little thing called the Septuagint does anybody know what the sub - agent is it's it's a translation of the Hebrew Bible the Old Testament a translation into Greek and it was first translated into the Greek language in 285 BC the Septuagint and lo and behold that's not a debatable thing everybody knows even the most ardent of atheist has to admit the Septuagint been around for a long time if that's not a debatable arguable thing the Septuagint the Greek translation of the Old Testament that's that's what Jesus would have been quoting when he was quoting the scriptures in Jesus's day he would have been quoting from that Septuagint Bible if you would but all that to say the Septuagint was written in 285 BC so we know that Isaiah at least dates back to 285 BC not 50 ad like pro fiery and others have said so it's an impossible thing for people that make that claim that it was a forgery now there there's some people who say well Bret I believe that you know all those things were written after everything happened or maybe those things never happened maybe they wrote about the story of Jesus that's one of the arguments now the story of Jesus never really happened they just took Isaiah's prophecy and then wrote a story based on that but Jesus and his existence Jesus died on the cross and raising up from the grave I would say is one of the most easily defended things in all of history the whole world was turned upside down when Jesus came we changed our whole dating system Jesus changed the world when he came he the disciples were told that they were turning the world upside down and that's exactly what happened if you're interested I've defended on the whole story of Jesus it's the most historically defendable thing that ever happened on the earth more eyewitness accounts than any other historical story in the universe is the story of Jesus it's an amazing thing easily defended meanwhile all these college professors are getting away with murder with these 18 year old kids coming from there their their public schools and hearing these profs say oh Isaiah's a forgery like my prophet prophet Southern Oregon University used to say Isaiah's just a forgery when I told them of the septuagint problem he said well actually it's not a forgery but I believe there were actually two Isaiah's that's what he started to argue there's - Isaiah's and and by the way they called that the deutero I say sounds very academic - an 18 year old wow the deutero Isaiah what's the deuteron well then they even talk about a treat Oh Isaiah there's three Isaiah's Wow Isaiah's are popping out like whack-a-mole now wait what about this well here's the thing about the deutero Isaiah I love it when people bring that up they say well there was actually - Isaiah's one wrote the first part the other wrote the second part in that way they they do this fancy little finagling to sort of make a work out where the second Isaiah wrote it much later than the first Isaiah so it wasn't a forgery but it was a different Isaiah altogether and what I love about that one is I have them turn you know right to the Gospel of John where let me just read it to you because this is kind of great I actually enjoy this talking to people about this because in John's Gospel he writes now some people believe the Bible's inspired others don't I believe that every word of the Bible is inspired by God so in that John the Apostle says in John chapter 12 verse 37 but though he had done so many miracles before them yet they believed not on him not the saying listen of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spake Lord whoever believed our report he's quoting from Isaiah 53 1 the last part of the Book of Isaiah and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed therefore they could not believe because that Isaiah said again which I said that one the same one John says the same Isaiah said he have blinded their eyes and hardened art that they should not see what their eyes don't understand with their heart and be converted as I should heal them these things said Isaiah when he saw his glory and spoke of him he's quoting there from Isaiah chapter 6 verse 1 and Isaiah chapter 6 verse 10 so John quotes from both of the controversial sections of Isaiah and John says and by the way it was the same Isaiah said that so what you can do it's kind of fun is you talk to your professor professor you say there's a Deuter Isaiah - Isaiah's one from the old times one from newer times but mister professor do you understand the Bible better than John the Apostle because John the Apostle said there's one Isaiah the same Isaiah said the same things and and and maybe even more importantly who taught John about this stuff a guy named Jesus you want to know something about Jesus turn to Luke chapter 4 real quick Jesus talks about the Book of Isaiah in Luke Matthew Mark Luke Luke chapter 4 I want you to see this one because this is kind of fun Jesus's first sermon that he preached was from the book of Isaiah I love this Jesus was doing something that was customary right now that during the Sabbath day a rabbi would come in and they'd unfurl the the scroll of the Scriptures and then the the rabbi would read a section and he was required to read a whole section not to leave any part of it out so Jesus gets up there in Nazareth of the synagogue I've been there before I've been to this very synagogue from the first century in Nazareth where Jesus preached the sermon but there in Isaiah for me Luke chapter 4 it says in verse 16 and he Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day stood up for to read and there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah by the way that different spelling and some of your Bibles don't be freaked out by that it's the Greek New Testament spelling of the same word it's like you know when you start going with different translations and centuries of difference it's like you know what we might say is you know James or Jim or maybe like it like I'm trying to think of an example of when a language barrier you know like I remember when James and I went to Africa the the french-speaking population we said his name is James and they're like what James and one guy goes Jacques oh yeah oh we know jacque so jacque is James it's just different language so don't be freaked out when it says Isaiah's here in the Greek New Testament it's Isaiah from the old Hebrew notes okay with that that's important you'll see that a bunch names after hundreds of years in different languages so he reads from the book of Isaiah middle of verse 17 and when he opened the book he found the place where it was written and here's what Jesus read the Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor he has sent me to heal the brokenhearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind to set at liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord now this is interesting he finished there but did you know if you read Isaiah the passages comes from did you know that he didn't finish a sentence to preach the acceptable year of our Lord and there's a whole other part of a sentence that he left out he closes the book half sentence and sits down look at verse 20 he closed the book and gave it again to the minister and sat down and the eyes of all of them that were in the synagogue were fastened on him and he began to say unto them this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears can you imagine that why were their eyes fastened on him because he did something that was totally taboo you don't just read half a scripture and that's exactly what he did he read half a scripture and then closed the book and said and sat down and they're all looking at him and Jesus sitting there and he says today all of these words that I just read are fulfilled fulfilled that God's gonna send one to set the captives free to heal heal the blind and to open wide the prison doors all this stuff to preach the gospel he was claiming to be the Messiah in that sermon and that's why everybody was there listening to what he said it was kind of freaked out well why didn't he keep going with either part of the sentence because if you read in Isaiah the rest of it it's talking about what he's gonna do in the Millennial Kingdom in the future that he still has yet to do he stopped and when it only was relating to the first coming of Christ not the second coming of Christ what a powerful powerful thing see I love this because Jesus spoke his first sermon as a fulfillment of the prophet Isaiah and in so doing Jesus signs his name of approval to Isaiah the book so if the professor says the Book of Isaiah is a forgery or the Book of Isaiah is - Isaiah's or a tree - Isaiah a deutero Isaiah you've got a problem you are claiming to know more about the Bible than Jesus knew and really that's the point if a professor saying yes I know more about the Bible than Jesus then most other people go okay well we at least we know where you stand you think you're smarter than Jesus okay got it you see that's the point is the Book of Isaiah is this powerful book that Jesus signs his name to and the book is all about him hello I come in the volume of the book it is written of me that's Jesus Jesus is the scarlet thread that is woven throughout the whole Bible and don't ever forget the Old Testament makes the New Testament come alive and that's what happened with Jesus he was referring to himself from the Book of Isaiah on his first sermon it's all about Jesus and what did Jesus come to do exactly what I said see Isaiah's gonna tell us the whole Gospel story before the gospel even unfolds he's gonna say though your sins be as scarlet they'll be as white as snow he's gonna say all we like sheep have gone astray we've turned everyone to his own way but then he's gonna talk about how he's gonna laid down his life like a sheep led off to the slaughter that's Jesus Isaiah talked about that that he'd be wounded for our transgressions he'd be beaten beyond recognition these are all things that Isaiah the prophet told that Jesus would do for you and for me and just like those professors and colleges that are claiming the Book of Isaiah is a forgery and our deutero Isaiah retreat to Isaiah the problem really gets down to what do you think of Jesus do you believe in Jesus or don't you do you believe he is the Messiah do you believe Isaiah knew what he was talking about or don't you that's the question you and I have to grapple with and I hope that one of the results of going through this book as we introduce it today is that you'll take a hard look at Jesus Christ for the believer the book of Isaiah is only a thing that makes us rejoice and it confirms our faith and it makes us glad but if you're not yet a believer it's gonna challenge you to say do I believe that Jesus is the Messiah that he came to die for the sins my sins that he rose from the grave just like Isaiah predicted do I believe this I think you'll find the book of Isaiah to be a powerful defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ may the Lord give his church and people that are not saved ears to hear what the Spirit would say through this powerful book amen amen Lord we are so thankful for the book of Isaiah the Gospel message Lord is so powerful so important Lord apart from you no one can be saved because of the work of the gospel Lord we were just blessed that we get to be a part of that and be part of your kingdom to be saved by grace through faith not of our works Lord that you did all the work and now I pray Lord this Sunday that you would cause each person in this room to know where they stand with their relationship with you Lord our sin separates us from you but for my brothers and sisters in this room may they know that their sins are forgiven I pray for the person who's yet to accept or believe that they had softened their heart and they would confess you as their zavier if there are any people in this room hearing this maybe you for whatever reason maybe you've not accepted Christ or you're not at a Christian man I'd love to pray with you I'd like to give you an opportunity to confess your faith what makes you a Christian you can't do anything to add to what Jesus already did he died on the cross for your sins if you thought hopefully your good outweighs your bad that that would save you that's a misnomer the Bible doesn't teach that the Bible teaches that we've all sinned there's no one righteous but if you want to you can be forgiven of your sins because of what Jesus did God became a man lived among us died on a cross brutally for us in place of us satisfying the debt you owe because of sin and me too so those of us who say Lord we accept that and we believe that that you died that she rose again and we repent of our sins doesn't mean we're perfect but it means we're perfectly forgiven we accept that that's what saves you you're saved by grace through faith the Bible says if you confess that with your mouth and believe it in your heart Romans 10:9 and 10 says you'll be saved why not be saved and forgiven if that's you and you've yet to do that I'd like to pray that I won't embarrass you but with heads bowed and everybody kind of respecting privacy if that's you would you look up at me and give me a quick wave and let me acknowledge you and say I'm gonna I'm gonna say that prayer you can pray it with me just between you and me and the Lord if that's you and you want to accept the grace of God it's forgiveness of sin would you acknowledge that right now let me look around just for a minute I don't want to miss anybody looking around just for a second cool okay see you right there anybody else right there yeah cool I'm gonna pray this prayer just out loud I'm gonna have the whole church let's all pray this out loud supporting these two this morning cuz what a powerful declaration we get to make right now let's stand with these two and confess Christ let's pray together dear father in heaven I believe in your son Jesus Christ that he died on the cross for my sins and that he rose up from the grave and then I'm forgiven help me to walk with you thank you for saving me in the name of Jesus Christ Lord what a great salvation you've given to us and I pray for these two that you just strengthened their faith Lord I pray that they know it's not about them or them being good enough it's about you and what you did Lord you're so good to us and I pray that you'd put these people just with the right people around them that they could be discipled and encouraged built up in faith Lord bless them I pray and for all of us as we go through the Book of Isaiah Lord I pray you'd speak powerfully into this church breathe life into us may your spirit move amongst us in this body and I pray that we'd see you glorified Lord as we go through Isaiah and this we ask praying with expectation because your good in Jesus name Amen you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 53,798

Rating: 4.8280993 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Micah DePaoli, Oregon, Through the Bible, s2-289

Id: iohhXG4Ov8I

Length: 62min 10sec (3730 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 23 2020