[MUSIC PLAYING] The Bible from 30,000 Feet,
soaring through the Scripture from Genesis to Revelation. So turn in your Bibles to the
Book of Isaiah or we should say Yesha'yahu. Can you try to say that with me? Yesha'yahu. Yesha'yahu is how
you say his name. He wasn't born in
Rochester, New York or in California or New Mexico. He was born in Israel. And so his original
pronunciation was Yesha'yahu . And Yesha'yahu, a.k.a. anglicized Isaiah, was a
prophet during four kings-- actually, five. The last one may have
actually killed him, according to tradition. But Isaiah is like
the prophets' prophet. He's like the most
influential of the prophets. Sometimes God calls people
to obscure ministries. Other times, He calls them to
very influential ministries. And Isaiah would fall
in the latter category. He really had entrance
into the palace. Some Jewish traditions
hold that he was actually part of the royal family, if
not at least an aristocratic family in Jerusalem. So well-known, well-connected,
probably his pockets well-lined originally. But he got a call
from God in his life. You'll see that
call in chapter 6. As we begin-- and,
again, this is a survey of half of the book. The Bible has how
many books in it? 66. 66 books in the Bible,
Old and New Testament. The Book of Isaiah has
interestingly 66 chapters. If you look at the Bible, the
Old Testament has 39 books. The New Testament has 27 books. If you look at the
Book of Isaiah, once again, it's fascinating
that of those 66 chapters, the first 39
chapters are markedly different from the second
part of the book, the last 27. In fact, the style is
completely different. The subject is
completely different. The focus is
completely different. First part is
mostly condemnation. The second part is
mostly salvation, as the Old Testament has a theme
of God's sovereignty, God's majesty, God's work
through the nations but condemning a world
apart from the good news of salvation introduced
in the New Testament. So there are similarities
between the Book of Isaiah and the Bible itself. Now, I don't think
that's necessarily-- well, let me put it this way. We got chapters and
verses in the year 1227. So Isaiah wasn't writing
chapter 1, verse 1. He was just writing. And it wasn't until 1227
that Stephen Langton, the then archbishop
of Canterbury, decided to make it
easy and put numbers for chapters and versus. But it's just interesting
how they coincide-- 66 chapters, 66
books of the Bible. The first part is
chapter 1 through 39. And these are prophecies
of condemnation. Let's just call it
that, prophecies of-- not all of the material
is condemning material. There's some lighter
moments and some highlights. But generally, they are
prophecies of condemnation. Judgment is proclaimed. Strong pronouncements
are made from God through the prophet Isaiah. Then chapters 40 through 66,
that second part of the book, are prophecies of consolation. It's a different
style altogether. So prominently in
the first section of Isaiah, chapter 1 through
39, it's government and law. Those are the grand
themes, government and law, both God's government and legal
government, government and law. The second part of the book-- grace and love. You'll see it. You'll see it when we
go through it next time. Now, Isaiah the
prophet happens to be the most frequently
quoted Old Testament book prophet quoted from the Old
Testament in the New Testament. It's very obvious that
the New Testament authors knew the prophecies of Isaiah,
especially in reference to the Messiah. It's interesting that
John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus who came
and announced the Messiah-- when he first
comes on the scene, he quotes out of
the Book of Isaiah. "A voice of one crying in
the wilderness," he says. "Make straight the
way of the Lord." Right out of the Book
of Isaiah, chapter 40. Jesus quoted from
the Book of Isaiah when He started His ministry. He went into Nazareth. Remember when He went
into the synagogue? And He was the speaker who
walked up to the podium. He opened up the scroll
to Isaiah chapter 61. And He began, "The
Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me because He
has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor." And He worked His way
through the prophecy, closed the scroll, and He said,
"Today, this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing." I'm here to fulfill
what Isaiah predicted, quoting Isaiah chapter 61. 21 times Isaiah is quoted
in the New Testament. He is called the
messianic prophet. He is the only
prophet in Scripture to specifically predict
the Messiah will be born of a virgin. There are other allusions to it. But the specific
reference comes out of Isaiah chapter 7, that
the woman, the virgin will conceive-- the Lord
will give you a sign. A virgin will conceive
and bear a son. And she'll call
His name Immanuel, Matthew says, which is
translated God with us. It is the messianic
prophecy that specifically mentions the virgin birth. Also, Isaiah is the only prophet
that calls Satan Lucifer. We understand one
of his names because of the prophecy of Isaiah. Now, he's not the only
one to speak about Satan. There are two Old
Testament prophets that speak about
Lucifer, Satan, the devil and give a little
more description. One is Isaiah. The other is Ezekiel. But in Isaiah chapter 14,
we get the name Lucifer. "How are you fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning." O you who did weaken the
nations, you're cut down to the ground, for you
said in your heart, I will ascend above
the throne of God. I will rise up to
the stars of God. I will be like the most high. So his name is given
in the Book of Isaiah. Now, Isaiah-- Yesha'yahu
is a Hebrew word that means salvation is of the Lord or
the salvation of the Lord, the salvation of God. Now, that's an interesting
name because the word salvation shows up 31 times in the
66 chapters of Isaiah. OK, now we haven't even
started in verse 1 yet, and we have 39 chapters to go. I know. Again, 30,000 feet. So hold on. [LAUGHTER] Some people-- Dr. Collins
was mentioning that Isaiah was written by Isaiah. He said that. And I agree with him. But not everybody
would agree with him. There are some scholars who are
of the more liberal persuasion in scholarship. They do not regard any
miraculous occurrences in the Scripture. They don't believe
that God orchestrated the writing of the text. So they have come up with
an interesting theory called the Deutero-Isaiah theory that
there wasn't one Isaiah, one author, but two authors,
that chapters 1 through 39 was written by Isaiah. but chapters 40 through 66
was written around 540 BC after the captivity and by
either a student of Isaiah or just by somebody else. So they come up
with the two author or Deutero-Isaiah theory. Now, there's another
theory called the Trito-- T-R-I-T-O-- Isaiah theory,
that the last 11 chapters were penned by yet another author. So these crazy things
get spun, and people get fascinated by them. And they get shaken by them
when the college professor says that. And they come and ask
us, well, I heard this. And then they're all
weirded out in their faith. All you have to do is look
at the New Testament authors who were Jewish who were closer
to the time they were uttered or penned than we are. So you have John who quotes
both sections of Isaiah, the first part and
the second part, what they were called
Deutero-Isaiah written by somebody other than Isaiah. And when he quotes
the first part and when he quotes the
second part, he says, "As was spoken by
Isaiah the prophet." Even Jesus Himself quotes out
of the second part of Isaiah, saying that it was
Isaiah who said it. So that's good enough for me-- the authors of the Scripture,
Jewish in their orientation, much closer to the events
that happened than we are. It wasn't really
until the last century that people started disputing
the idea of Isaiah writing it. So those are the theories
of the authorship of Isaiah. You're going to see
that Isaiah ministered during the reign of four kings. That's verse 1 of chapter 1. The four kings are mentioned. Actually, there is
another king that is not mentioned
where Isaiah ended his ministry during this king. And that is one of the most
wicked men in all of the Bible called King Manesseh. Now, I bring him up because
tradition says that Isaiah died by King Manesseh murdering him. And the tradition is they
took the prophet Isaiah, took a hollowed-out
log, put Isaiah in that hollowed-out log in a
very uncomfortable position, then took a huge saw, and
sawed the log in half, cutting him in two. That's the tradition. I'm bringing that up
because in the New Testament Book of Hebrews, in that
hall of fame, of faith-- remember that
section-- it says, "Who through faith subdued
kingdoms, worked righteousness,
obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,
quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the
sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant
in battle, turned to flight the armies of aliens." Not from outer space
but foreigners. "Women received their
dead raised to life again. And others were tortured,
not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain
a better resurrection. Still others had trial
of mockings and scourges, yes, of chains
and imprisonments. They were stoned." Again, literally. Not-- [LAUGHTER] --the other way. "They were stoned. They were sawn in two." The writer of Hebrews
says, "Sawn in two. They were tempted,
slain by the sword. They wandered about in
sheep skins and goat skins," et cetera. It's believed that
the author of Hebrews was alluding to that
tradition and thus, perhaps because if he's
referring to Isaiah, the fact that it was Manesseh who killed
him by sawing him in two. Now, something else
I got to tell you. In 1946, a great discovery was
made just south of the Dead Sea in these little rocky, sandy
hills in the ancient Essene community. They're called the
Dead Sea Scrolls. The scroll of Isaiah
itself was found-- 24 feet long, a
single huge scroll. What we had in the
Dead Sea Scrolls when we discovered that-- when they discovered that-- I wasn't around, 1946. But when they discovered
that in 1946, now what they had in their
hands was not only Isaiah but all these
other Old Testament books. We had an Old Testament
manuscript 1,100 years older than the earliest manuscript
we had until that date. You follow me? Up till that date, the oldest
Old Testament manuscript in existence was called the
Ben Asher codex discovered in Egypt, which is the basis
for what we call the Masoretic Text, which your Old Testament
is based off of the Masoretic Text. So the Masoretic Text
is around 1895 AD. That was the oldest text we had. Now, in finding the
Dead Sea Scrolls, scholarship has a text
of the Old Testament 1,100 years earlier. OK, stop right there. There must be lots of
mistakes and discrepancies if you have something 1,100
years earlier than that. Let's see what it really said,
and let's see how different it is with that passage of time. You would expect
enormous differences. When they examined
the scroll of Isaiah, the only thing they discovered
was the absence of mistakes. Only nine Hebrew
letters were different. Just variant spellings is all. Nine letters difference
from the Ben Asher codex, Masoretic Text,
and the Dead Sea Scrolls 1,100 years later. Shows you the meticulous nature
of the copying and recopying of the scribes in
their discipline. Amazing. Wanted to bring that up. I get stoked at that stuff. OK, so part 1, yeah, the Book of
Isaiah, we got to get to this. OK, so the first part,
first 39 chapters all about condemnation,
proclamations of judgment, announcements of
judgment on Judah, on surrounding
nations, on Babylon, on Assyria, and on
Israel as well as Israel and Judah together. And then there's a little
interesting section. I'm just giving you
a little prelude to where we're going tonight. There's this little intermission
that is four chapters long, chapters 24 through
27, which I'm just going to whet your
appetite with now, and I'll explain
it as we get to it. One of the notable
features of all prophecy, and it's seen in Isaiah, though
we're not going to be able to really uncover this-- we
have done it in the past-- is the near/far fulfillment. Are you familiar with that? So the prophets--
picture it this way. They wore bifocals. I'm doing that because
I have to do that. I have a progressive
lens, they call it. It's progressive in
that it's just sort of-- you can see up close, but
then as you work your way up to the top of the lens,
you can see at a distance. And I find that I need
that or I need the contacts I have in my head right now,
one to focus on up close, one to focus at a distance. That's how the
prophets often wrote. With one part of their
meaning, part of their vision, they were focusing
up close on something that would happen in
the very near future, given the circumstances
around them at the time. And at the same time, like
a variable focal length on a camera, they could
zoom out to the future. So in one breath, they
might say something's going to happen in a
few years, and it did. But then that becomes a template
of a greater fulfillment. And it's obvious by the context
that it is far reaching, sometimes worldwide, et cetera. So there is a
near/far fulfillment. The prophets did this a lot. It's one of the particular
aspects of Hebrew prophecy. So Isaiah chapter 1, verse 1,
we begin with the denunciation against Judah. Do you know what I
mean when I say Judah? Do you know what I
mean when I say Israel? Once again, let me give
you the delineation. Judah is the name not
of just the tribe. But now when I say
it in Isaiah, I'm speaking of the Southern
kingdom of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. When I say Israel, I don't
mean all the 12 tribes. I mean 10 tribes
that are up north, the rest of the 12 tribes. So 2 and 10-- Israel is the 10 tribes. Judah are the two
southern tribes. Judah is the southern kingdom. Isaiah is a prophet to the
southern kingdom, those two tribes. And this is a
denunciation of Judah for their failure to trust God. Verse 1-- "The vision of
Yesha'yahu," or Isaiah, "the son of Amoz,"
not the son of Amos. Amos was a prophet. By the way, he was a prophet
concurrent to Isaiah. He was a contemporary of Isaiah. But he was preaching to
the northern kingdom, so he's not around. Amoz is somebody different. We don't know anything about
him other than his name. So Isaiah was the
son of Amoz, "which he saw concerning
Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah,
Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah." And it describes them
as kings of Judah. Why is that important? It tells us how long this
dude's ministry was-- 50 years in the pulpit. Isaiah preached
for about 50 years. He influenced the
nation for 50 years. I know I've only made
it through one verse. [LAUGHTER] Bear with me. You were hoping
that I would do it in three weeks instead of two. You might get your wish. Yeah. When you think of a
prophet, you think of them foretelling the future, right? That's only part of prophecy. The other part of prophecy is
forthtelling, speaking forth at the circumstance,
at the time of need the nation was going through. It would be a message of God
speaking forth to the nation about what they
were going through. Isaiah isn't just
foretelling their future, but he is forthtelling
their failure, their failure to obey God. Now, what do I mean,
failure to obey God? One of the problems Judah
had, same temptation that Israel up
north had, and that is making alliances with
other nations for protection rather than just trusting God. It's hard to do, trusting
God for your well-being, for your future. After all, the Assyrians
had already captured and occupied the northern
kingdom in 722 BC. I know you know
that date already. We've gone through it. 722 BC, the Assyrians
took over and occupied the northern kingdom. 150 years later, the southern
kingdom is still a free nation. They're not under the
Assyrian occupation. But the Assyrians are
marching toward them. So they are facing
the temptation to go make an alliance
with a big superpower down south called Egypt. If you'll be our friends,
we'll sign a treaty. We'll give you a bunch of money. And then if the
big bad Babylonians come and start
wanting to beat us up, you be the big brother
who beats them up. Deal? Deal. That's the alliance. The northern kingdom
tried that and failed. They did make an
alliance with Egypt. 722 BC came along. The Assyrians still
took them over. Isaiah is speaking to
the south, telling them, don't make the same mistake. Verse 2-- "Hear, O heaven. Give ear, O earth, for
the Lord has spoken-- 'I have nourished and
brought up children, and they have
rebelled against Me. The ox knows its owner, the
donkey its master's crib. But Israel does not know. My people do not consider. Alas, sinful nation, a
people laden with iniquity, a brood of evil doers,
children who are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked to anger
the Holy One of Israel. They have turned away backward." Verse 12-- "When
you come to appear before Me, who has required
this from your hand to trample My courts? Bring no more futile sacrifices. Incense is an abomination to Me. The new moons, the Sabbaths,
the calling of assemblies-- I cannot endure iniquity
and the sacred meeting. Your new moons and your
appointed feasts My soul hates. They are a trouble to Me. I am weary of bearing them." What's all this about? What is God referring
to through Isaiah? He's speaking about
all the prayers, all the religious feasts,
all the sacrifices that God established. Do you get that? God told him to do it. Now God says, oh, when
you do it, it stinks. Well, wait a minute. You're the one that told
us to do that stuff, to make those sacrifices,
make these prayers, go to the temple courts,
bring the animals. Now You're saying, don't
trouble Me with that stuff. You know why? Because God never
separates the worship you bring and the
worshipper who brings it. We separate that. We try to compartmentalize that. This is who I am when
I come to church. This is who I am really
in the real world. God says, I see
you all the time. I don't separate your worship
from you the worshipper. I know how you're living. But then you're being religious
when you come to the temple. And God says, I've had enough. "When you spread"-- verse
15-- "out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you. Even though you make many
prayers, I will not hear. Your hands are full of blood." Verse 18, here's the
answer. "'Come now, let us reason together,'
says the Lord. 'Though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be white as snow. Though they are
red like crimson, they shall be as wool.'" Isaiah from here onward
launches into a series of sermons denouncing
the sins of the people and the sins of their leaders. I want you to go to chapter
5 to a familiar passage. Verse 1-- "Now let me
sing to my Well-beloved a song of my Beloved
regarding His vineyard. My Well-beloved had a vineyard
on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, cleared
out its stones, and planted it with
the choicest vine. He built a tower in its midst. He also made a wine press in it. So He expected it to
bring forth good grapes, but it brought
forth wild grapes. 'And now, O inhabitants of
Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge please between
Me and My vineyard.'" Here's a picture of God
planting a vineyard, giving every opportunity to
the ground to produce fruit. But it is fruitless. So He's not going to
continue to work it. And He asked the people
listening to this, judge between Me and My vineyard. What should be done? This should ring a bell. It should ring a
bell because Jesus gave a parable called the
Parable of the Vinedressers. Do you remember that
parable in Matthew 21? He said to the crowd one
day, let Me tell you a story. There's a guy who
owned a vineyard. And he put a hedge
around the vineyard. And he planted it with
the choicest vine. And he built a wine press in it. And he even put a tower
on it as a lookout tower. So he just dolled the place up. Then he rented it out
to tenant farmers. And about vintage
time, he decided, I want to see how
that vineyard is doing and take some of its fruit. That was his prerogative. So he sent servants to go
gather some of the product. And Jesus said, when they
came, those servants were beaten up, stoned, and killed. So he sent more, and
they did the same. Finally, the owner said,
I know what I'll do. I'll send my own son. Surely they'll respect him. As soon, Jesus said,
as they saw the son, they said, that's the heir. Let's kill him. And the inheritance
will be ours. And Jesus asked them to
judge what God should do. And they all say, got
to destroy those people and give it to others. And Jesus basically said,
OK, you'll get your wish. He's going to take
it from you, Israel, and give it to the Gentiles,
which caused quite a reaction. The Scripture says they
perceived that He spoke this parable against them. They knew this parable. That's why they perceived
it was against them. He is using the
very words of Isaiah to give that parable
in Matthew 21. So Isaiah is painting
a very bleak picture but not a hopeless one because
in the midst of the mess comes a messenger. I like that about God. We say, oh, the world's so dark. What a mess. Awesome time, great opportunity,
perfect timing for a messenger. Send a messenger in the
midst of the mess who brings the message of light. And so the messenger
is Isaiah the prophet. Chapter 6, his
calling comes to us as God gives him a
vision of His majesty to prepare him, the prophet
Isaiah, and to prosecute them, the people of the land. Verse 1-- "In the year
that King Uzziah's died"-- very significant little phrase. Now we can date this prophecy. 739 BC is when King
Uzziah, good king who had reigned for about 51, 52
years, brought great reforms. But the good king is dead. And when you have a good
leader who's been a good leader and brought economic stability
and righteousness for 52 years, when that
leader dies, people have a tendency to
go, oh, no, now what? Now we're lost. Now we're toast. The throne is empty. And probably Isaiah
was thinking, oh, man, the throne is empty. So God gives him a
vision of His own throne. "In the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a
throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His
robe filled the temple. Above it stood seraphim,"
angelic beings. "Each one had six wings. With two, he covered his face." So they couldn't
look directly at God. "With two, he covered his feet,"
acknowledging the lowliness of their position before God. "And with two, he flew." How fun would that be? "And one cried to another
and said, 'Holy, holy, holy.'" He's not just holy. And he's not just holy, holy. He's holy, holy, holy. This is called the Trisagion
or the thrice repetition of the word holy, acknowledging
his supreme holiness. "'Holy, holy, holy
is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is
full of His glory.' And the posts of the door were
shaken by the voice of him who cried out. And the house was
filled with smoke. And so I said, 'woe is me.'"
Now, Isaiah was influential. Isaiah perhaps was even royalty. Certainly he was upper echelon,
upper crust, blue blood. So it would be easy for a guy
like Isaiah to go, wow is me. I just saw a vision of God. Wow is me. I've heard people
on television-- I had a vision, a dream of God. And they write books about it. And it's like, wow is me. Not Isaiah. He saw god and
said, "Woe is me." [LAUGHTER] And that's important. "Woe is me, for I am
undone because I'm a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of
a people of unclean lips, for my eyes have seen the
King, the Lord of hosts." You see, when you get
a true vision of God, you see yourself in the
light of who God is. And it's never wow is me. It's wow is God, but
woe is me because I see myself next to him. Peter, when he recognized it
was Jesus who calmed the sea and could walk on water and
that He is the Son of God, he realized he was in the boat
with Him, Peter just said this. "Depart from me, Lord. I'm a sinful man." Not get a picture
with me and Jesus. I'm going to post it. [LAUGHTER] It's like I'm not even
fit to be seen with you. "Then one of the seraphim
flew to me, having in his hand a live coal which he had taken
with the tongs from the altar." Speaks of cleansing from sin. "And he touched my mouth with
it, and he said, 'Behold, this has touched your lips. Your iniquity is taken away. Your sin is purged.'" Special
cleansing for special service. He's called to be
a great prophet. "So I heard the voice of
the Lord saying, 'Whom shall I send? Who will go for us?' Then I said, 'Here am I.
Send me.'" So this important vision-- in a leaderless kingdom, God is
still in charge on the throne, sending a messenger
with a message in the midst of the mess. Now, in chapter 7 and 9, even
in this midst of condemnation and negative proclamation, in
the early ministry of Isaiah, there are predictions of
the Messiah, his birth and his reign. But it is going to be
fulfilled in the future. But it's couched in
the local prophecies about the king on the throne
at the time, King Ahaz. So for example,
chapter 7, verse 14, that famous prophetic passage-- "The Lord Himself
will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a Son and call his name Immanuel." That's chapter 7. That's the famous prophecy. Followed by chapter
8, where we have the birth of Isaiah's own son,
his second son with the longest name of any kid ever-- Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz. Poor kid. You know Johnny Cash used to
sing that song, "A Boy Named Sue"? How about a boy named
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz? You think he would
be made fun of? Yeah, I bet he was. It's an odd name. And if you're looking
for biblical names, please skip that one. It would be an odd
baby dedication. But the name
Maher-Shalal-Hash-Bar means speed the spoil,
hasten the booty. And the name of the
son was a prophecy of the coming
judgment, that they're going to despoil the surrounding
region of Jerusalem and Judea. Judgment is coming
soon, in other words. Followed by chapter 9. So you got 7, 8, and 9--
another messianic prophecy. Chapter 6-- "For unto
us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. The government will be
upon his shoulders." And it's over the house
of David, et cetera. So you have this
kind of mix of local and far off, hopeless,
hopeful prophecies all in one. John Phillips, who
wrote commentaries, his comments on this book--
he said this one moment, his book is black with
the thunder and darkness of the storm, the next the
rainbow shines through, and he sweeps readers on
to the golden age that still lies ahead. Get used to that
near and far stuff. Isaiah does it a lot. Again, we see in
chapter 11, verse 1, great prediction of Jesus. "There shall come forth a Rod." My Bible has a
capital R. Does yours? R, Rod, because the
translators are saying, we believe this refers to a
person, the Messiah, Jesus. "There shall come forth a
Rod from the stem of Jesse. A branch shall grow
out of his roots." Jesse, the Father
of David, David whose dynasty God promised
blessing and eternal kingdom to. David, the tree of David
almost cut down, right? Because the kingdom was
divided, split, two down south, 10 up north. Now there's a
threat of captivity. The 10 northern tribes are
already gone into captivity. Now Judah is threatened
with captivity and will indeed
go into captivity. So if you were to look
at the lineage of David and the promises God made
to King David as a tree, man, that tree got chopped down. But go down to that stump. And look really
closely at that stuff. And you'll see this
little stem just poking up through that dead wood, it
would seem, but not dead-- a little stem, a
little rod coming up. What's that? There's still life in it. And that life will
blossom one day. There's going to be a branch. And that branch is the
Messiah, the son of David, the offspring of King David. And you say, well, how do you
know it speaks of a person? Maybe it speaks of the nation. Because of Verse 2-- "The Spirit of the Lord
shall rest upon Him," singular, "the Spirit of
wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and
might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord." So here is Isaiah predicting
a future restoration under this branch
under the Messiah. Chapters 13 through 23
are a bunch of burdens, they're called in the
Scripture, burdens-- the burden against this nation,
the burden against that nation. A burden is a pronouncement. It is an oracle. Isaiah got a message from God. It weighed on him. It was a burden to him. And he unbore, unleashed
his burden on the people. He was faithful to
give it to them. So there's nine nations. I'm just going to
read through them, just brush through them, nine
burdens with nine nations. Here's the deal
about these nations. All of the nations
mentioned are nations that had some contact with
the nation of the Jews, Israel and Judah. Let's just call it Israel here. They touched Israel
usually negatively. They hassled the Jews. So God said, I'm
going to hassle you. You hassle Israel, I'm
going to hassle you. So chapter 13, verse 1-- "The burden against Babylon,
which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw." Followed by Assyria and
Philistia, chapter 14. Followed by chapter 16, Moab,
eastern side of the Jordan River. Followed by Damascus
up in Syria, a superpower, chapter 17. Followed by Ethiopia
in chapter 18. The burden against
Egypt in chapter 19. The burden against Babylon
again and Edom in chapter 21. And then chapter 23,
the city of Tyre. As I go through this list, you
know what comes to my mind? What we read in the
Book of Ecclesiastes. There is nothing
new under the sun. These are the nations
still hassling the Jews. To this day, many
of them would love to see Israel
annihilated completely, calling Israel the great
Satan and the United States the little Satan. Not all of them,
but many of them. They're occupied by people who
deny the legitimacy of Israel to exist. Now, why are these
burdens given? Answer-- probably to
reassure the Jewish people in the midst of conflict, later
on in the midst of captivity that God still is on the throne,
that God still has a plan. He's reassuring them
of that great promise in Genesis chapter 12-- "Whoever blesses
Israel I will bless. Whoever curses
Israel I will curse." So he's saying, don't despair. I'm going to punish Israel
and Judah, the Jews. I'm going to punish them. But then I'm going
to punish the people I used to punish them because
they are still responsible. They are the ones saying,
let's get rid of those Jews. Let's mount siege
engines against them, and let's annihilate
them and destroy them. So that is in their
heart to do that. I'm going to hold them
responsible for their choice. But in their choice, because
I'm God and I'm sovereign, I'm going to actually
use them as a chastening rod for my people. Do you understand? So if you don't, let me
reinforce that with-- the prophet Habakkuk
complained to God that his own people,
the children of Israel, were sinful and bad
and doing wrong things. And, God, you ought
to punish them. So God says, well, Habakkuk,
since you're bringing it up, I want you to know that I'm
going to do something that's going to cause your ears to
tingle and everybody else who hears about it. I'm actually bringing
the Babylonians as my chastening rod to
take your people captive. I am going to do
something about it. Then Habakkuk gets
all mad again at God. God, I know we're bad,
but they're worse. Why would you use somebody
worse to get at somebody bad? Because it's going to work. [LAUGHTER] It's going to work. It's going to cause repentance. And I'm going to bring
you back into the land. And for their sin of wanting
to destroy you, don't worry. I'll get them. It's an amazing display
of God's sovereignty. So it's sort of like this. Let's say I break
into your house. I never would. [LAUGHTER] But for the sake of
analogy, you see, hey, Pastor Skip is breaking
into our house. [LAUGHTER] And so you call the
police, rightly so. You call them to
protect yourself. But when the police come to
arrest me to protect you, they discover in your
house a meth lab. [LAUGHTER] Now it's different. And they notice
above your fireplace the original Mona Lisa that
you've stolen from the Louvre in Paris. And so now you're
really in trouble. They've come to
arrest me, and they're going to get me for what I did. But you're also guilty of crime. So guess what? You're going to probably
be in longer than I am. So God is using all
of that this way. Chapter 23, verse 1-- "The burden"--
there it is again. "The burden against Tyre." You know Tyre. It's right up on
the Mediterranean coast, north of Israel, modern
day Lebanon, ancient Venetia. "The burden against Tyre. Wail"-- now listen
carefully to this prophecy. "Wail, you ships of Tarshish. For it is laid waste so that
there is no house, no harbor. From the land of Cyprus,
it is revealed to them. Be still, you
inhabitants of the coast land, you merchants of Sidon"-- that city next to Tyre-- "whom those who cross
the sea have filled." Stop there. After this prediction was
made, Tyre, the city of Tyre was besieged five times. The last time it
was besieged, it was destroyed by a
guy named Alexander. Yes, that Alexander,
Alexander the Great. Now, it says here
in verse 2, "whom those who crossed the
sea have filled," right? So you got that before you. Now listen to this. This is another prophecy to
the same city out of Ezekiel chapter 26. God says, "I will
scrape her dust from her and make her like
the top of the rock." OK, hold those thoughts. Philip of Macedon,
ruler of Macedonia, had a boy named Alexander. He didn't think
he'd amount to much. He thought Alex was a good
kid, but he's not going to really be much of anything. He's a bookworm. He's kind of an indoor kid. That's how Alexander
was at first. So Philip decides to
hire a tutor for him by the name of Aristotle
to be the personal tutor to Alexander. Well, in the midst of his
education, Philip of Macedon is murdered. The murder is blamed on-- oh, who came after Babylon? The Persians. The Persians. Persians, but-- Medes
and the Persians. Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry. It happens at my age. [LAUGHTER] The Medo-Persian
Empire is blamed for Philip of Macdeon's death. Something comes over Alexander. He decides to take up his
father's cause and march against the Medo-Persians. He comes to Tyre. It's a very swift amassment of
troops to meet for the battle, and this battle has
been made into movies. But he comes to Tyre
and asks for supplies. They reject the request. So Alexander wants to
lay siege to the city. Well, here's the problem. The city at one time
that was on the coast had been almost annihilated at
one time by the Babylonians. So the people who were
left moved the whole city to an island a half
mile off the coast. So the city of Tyre is now
an island off the coast. By the time Alexander
the Great gets there and he sees the kind of city
he's up against, an island, he says, I can't defeat them. The Phoenicians are
masters at warfare by sea. I'm not. So what does he do? He builds a causeway. He builds a jetty using the
materials from that city that had been destroyed. He essentially scrapes the
dust and all the materials off of the city, piles it in
the sea, makes a jetty, and attacks and destroys
the city of Tyre. So, again, "you
merchants of Sidon, whom those who cross
the sea have filled." And then Ezekiel 26, "I will
scrape her dust from her and make her like
the top of the rock." I'm going into this
detail for this reason. It should make you
think logically that if events predicted in
the past have been fulfilled to that degree of
accuracy, whenever you read future predictions
yet unfulfilled, you should sober up
and take them to heart. It's the word of God. And if God can do that and speak
of these things in advance, then the rest of it you
can take to the bank. Amen. And this is God's calling card. Isaiah 46-- God says, "I am God. There is no other. I am God. There is none like Me, declaring
the end from the beginning and from ancient times things
that are not yet done." That's the awesome
nature of prophecy. Well, in the midst of the
prophecies of condemnation comes this little
section I told you about, this intermission, the
next four chapters, chapters 24 through 27. It's a parenthetical
set of chapters. Think of it as a pause. Think of it as an
intermission in a movie so you can get up
and get popcorn, OK? And come back. It's an intermission
scholars call Isaiah's little apocalypse. The language now becomes
more vague, more worldwide, more all encompassing than
the previous chapters. And they interface with-- they parallel with what
occurs in Revelation chapter 6 through 20, the great
tribulation period on into the millennial
kingdom, from the tribulation into the kingdom age. So it speaks here about
the day of the Lord. And the day of the Lord
is the eschatological day of the Lord, that future
ultimate day of the Lord in the tribulation period. Jesus said in Matthew
24, "Then there will be great tribulation
such as not been since the beginning of the
world until this time, no, nor ever shall be." In this little pericope,
this little set of verses, this
parenthetical statement is that little apocalypse. Chapter 24, verse 1-- "Behold, the Lord makes the
earth empty, makes it waste, distorts its surface, scatters
abroad its inhabitants." Verse 4-- "The earth
mourns and fades away. The world languishes
and fades away. The haughty people of
the earth languish." Earth is mentioned
in that passage that I just read three times. It's alluded to five times. In the whole set of chapters,
it's mentioned frequently. God is judging the Earth. There is today-- I'm going to call it an
environmental atheism-- Mother Earth. Respect your mother,
the bumper sticker says. And it has a picture
of the Earth on it. Ever since 1970, I think
April 22nd is Earth Day. Hey, you know what? I'm all for being a good steward
of what God put in our hands. I'm all for taking
care of the Earth because it's a stewardship. It's given by God. I believe in creation
care but not to the point where it becomes
idolatrous and we worship Mother Earth or Mother
Nature, as she is called. We're simply stewards. And I'm bringing
this up because you need to be forewarned if
you're an Earth bound, Earth worshiping whatever that, yes,
we have messed up the Earth. But let me just say, if you
think we've messed it up, wait till you see
what God does with it. [LAUGHTER] He will absolutely trash this
planet in the tribulation period. And it's his prerogative. You know why? The Earth is the
Lord's, the Bible says, and the fullness thereof. So there's going to be a point-- and it's fleshed out in detail,
more detail in Matthew 24 by Jesus but certainly the great
detail of Book of Revelation chapter 6 through 20
that day of the Lord. Verse 19-- "The earth
is utterly broken down. The earth is split open. The earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to
and fro like a drunkard. It shall be removed
like a cottage. The transgression thereof
shall be heavy upon it, and it shall fall
and not rise again." I don't want to belabor this. Some scholars see in this
a possible polar shift, which many scientists
say is a possibility. It's an interesting possibility. I don't know if I'm
going to go that far. But I do know that in
the tribulation period, the kind of cataclysms
that are described are, well, monumental, right? Where huge population
bases of the Earth are decimated because of the
natural phenomenon taking place on the Earth. If you were to look at the
moon through a telescope, you suddenly realize that
our universe is not docile. You look at the
surface of the moon, and you see the pockmarks from
all the activity of things slamming into and making
all those craters, right? When you see them on the
moon, they're pretty sizable. Now, the Earth has been
called the inhabitable zone, that in the universe,
there's just a strange thing about where
the Earth is positioned in the alignment of the planets. It's like it's been
protected from the kind of cosmic battering that
others, even our moon, have experienced. But if we just go a few
miles west over the border, there's the Barringer
Crater, which is a mile wide, 500 some feet deep. That is put there
by a single asteroid at some point in history past. That hitting of the Earth
caused such a devastation as can be seen. And I encourage you to
go see it at some point. It's amazing. The surface impact that created
that great Barringer Crater is or was 40 million tons of
TNT's worth of surface impact. In other words, when that
asteroid hit the Earth, it created the kind of
blast equal to a thousand-- 1,000 times greater
destructive power than the bombs that went off
at Hiroshima and Nagasaki put together. In Revelation, the
Book of Revelation, one of the judgments on the
Earth is great hail from heaven fell upon men, and each
hailstone will weigh a talent. A talent is 125 pounds. Some of you remember
those old ice houses. I used to work in one as a kid. You could get 25-pound blocks
of ice for a couple bucks. Anybody remember those? No? OK, so I do. [LAUGHTER] And was at Hugo's
Delicatessen where I worked. And I'd go out there and
chip off the ice blocks and sell it to a customer,
25-- and, man, they're like sizable chunks of ice. Imagine a block of ice
not 25 pounds, 125 pounds. They're going to strike the
Earth, causing real damage. You say now, why
would that happen? Well, did you know that
in the Old Testament, the punishment according to
the law of Moses for blasphemy was stoning? It's as if God is saying because
of the unrepentant blasphemy that will fill the Earth, God
is stoning the Earth for it. Now chapters 25 to 27
are happy chapters. After all of that messy ice
stuff, we get the kingdom age. It gets good. It's this little hint
of coming attractions. The king takes his
rightful place. It's filled with songs of
praise, songs of salvation. I want to bring you ahead
to chapter 26, verse 20. "Come, my people. Enter your chambers and
shut your doors behind you. Hide yourself, as it
were, for a little moment until the indignation is past." A possible-- I'm not saying
necessary-- but possible hint at the rapture. "For behold, the Lord comes
out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth"--
that is the tribulation-- "for their iniquity. The earth will also
disclose her blood and will no more
cover her slain." Go down to chapter 27, verse 6. "Those who come He shall
cause to take root in Jacob. Israel shall blossom and bud
and fill the face of the world with fruit." This is a prophecy
of the kingdom age, the millennial kingdom, the
thousand-year kingdom age that the Bible speaks about,
mentions in Revelation but really is detailed
in the book of Isaiah. I worked in Israel for
about six months on a farm. And I saw the kind
of fruit production that that country
was capable of. Now that was 40 years ago when
I lived there and worked there. That's a long time ago. So when Israel became
a nation, since 1948, the cultivation has increased
the cultivation of land from 408,000 acres to presently
over 1.07 million acres, so that Israel today-- not even the
millennial kingdom yet. Israel today is the
fourth largest exporter of fruit in the world. So I like reading this-- going
to fill the world with fruit. This is just now. This is just the beginning. Can't wait to see what
happens in the millennium under the reign of the Messiah
and the fruit of righteousness and peace with it. Now there's a series of woes
in the next few chapters. We're moving pretty well
here, speedily through this, although time's up. And-- [LAUGHTER] Woe is me if I keep going and
violate my promise to you. So I'm going to heed the
woe and go, whoa, slow down. And we'll pick up the
rest next time, shall we? Father, thank you. I know I get excited
about these things and maybe take too much
longer than I should. But nonetheless, we
thank you, Father, for the amazing
predictions of a man who lived when he
did and yet was able to see such clarity,
especially things concerning the Messiah, a virgin birth,
his name called God with us, a person who would
be born, a son who would be given who
is the Prince of Peace, and the mighty God,
the Everlasting Father. All of that could only be
fulfilled in one person. And then he saw-- Isaiah 53-- the
suffering servant, the crucifixion of Jesus. And it's just so unmistakable. [MUSIC PLAYING] Father, I'm wondering
if perhaps somebody is here who maybe
for the first time has considered the power
of prophetic Scripture. We're not dealing with another
holy book like so many others that are in this world. It is filled with very
detailed complex predictions that nobody could
ever know in advance and yet written in advance. So that when it happens-- and it has, so much of it-- we're blown away. And it draws us
to believe in You and to place our faith in
You for the rest of it. But some of you-- some people here
haven't even begun by trusting in the God who
created them and placed them here not by accident
but on purpose. They have a purpose. But, Lord, they're
wandering until they place their trust in You. I pray that some here would
just take a simple step of faith in saying yes to the
hero of the Bible, Jesus Himself, the one
who said come to Me, all you who labor
and are heavy laden. I will give you rest. I pray that some might
put their trust in Jesus right here tonight,
heads bowed, eyes closed. You're here tonight. You've never given
your life to Christ or perhaps raised in a religious
home, but you're not walking-- you're not obeying Him. Maybe you need to
rededicate your life. Maybe you just need to actually
dedicate your life where it's real and honest and truthful. If you've never
done that, I want to give you an
opportunity right now to invite Jesus into your
life, into your heart. If you want to do that, with our
heads bowed, our eyes closed, I want you to raise
your hand up in the air. Keep it up for just a moment. I'm going to keep my eyes
open so I can acknowledge you and I can pray for you. I need to know who
I'm praying for. God bless you and
you right there to my right in the middle
and right a few rows back and a couple of you on the right
again over here and up front. Anyone else? Raise that hand. Raise it up high. Our Father, we just thank
You for these and pray that You give them the
strength to live for You. We pray that You will change
these lives, forgiving of sin. We know you'll do that. Not counting it against
them, we know you'll do that. But then I pray they'll take
Your word and Your spirit to heart. And You will change
the behavior, change the pattern of thinking
and change these lives. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen. Let's all stand. I know it's over time. But as we sing this last
song, if you raise your hand, I'm going to ask you to
do something very quickly. Get up from where you're
standing right now. Find an aisle and
stand right up here. Come right up front. I'm going to lead you in a
prayer to receive Jesus Christ. I want you to know
that you know that you know that tonight was the
night you said yes to Jesus. You just get up and come. If you raised your hand in
the front, in the middle, on the side, I'm
going to wait for you. I'm going wait for
you till you come. But you get up here and
make that stand for Jesus. You can hear the encouragement
of those around you. [APPLAUSE] Yeah. (SINGING) Dry bones awaken. The Lord is in this place. Yeah. Awesome. (SINGING) The Lord
is in this place. Come on up. (SINGING) Not for a
minute was I forsaken. The Lord-- So glad you came. (SINGING) --is in this place. The Lord-- Come on over. (SINGING) --is in this place. Oh. Those of you who have
come, now's the moment. I'm going to lead you
in a prayer to say, Jesus, come into my life. Now this is you talking to God. So if it's possible,
tune all of us out and say these words from your
heart directly to your God. Say, Lord, I give you my life. Lord, I give you my life. I know I'm a sinner. I'm know I'm a sinner. Please forgive me. Please forgive me. I believe in Jesus. I believe in Jesus. That He came from heaven. That He came from heaven. That He died on a cross. That He died on a cross. That He shed His blood for me. That He shed His blood for me. That He rose again. That He rose again. I turn from my sin. I turn from my sin. I turn to Jesus the Savior. I turn to Jesus the Savior. And to live for Him as Lord. And to live For Him as Lord. It's in His name I pray. It's in His name I pray. Amen. Amen. Come on. That's so good. [APPLAUSE] [MUSIC PLAYING] We hope you enjoyed this message
from Skip Heitzig of Calvary Church. For more resources,
visit calvarynm.church. Thank you for joining us for
this teaching from The Bible from 30,000 Feet.
