Through the Bible | Isaiah 42-43

[Music] why don't you grab your bible and turn with me to the book of isaiah isaiah chapter 42 as we continue verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book through the scriptures isaiah 42 last week we got to dive into the kind of the fun uh more joyous section if you would of isaiah and um and i say fun or joyous because the first part is pretty heavy whoa under the rebellious children of israel isaiah the prophet says um and um and that's what they were and that's what we are by the way we're rebellious children of israel uh just like they were rebellious children remember we've been as gentiles the church grafted into the vine romans chapter 11 tells us and so we have to take these blessings and the curses with you know israel i always find it interesting how some people they read the old testament and all the curses they like to apply to the jews but all the blessings they like to apply to the church in fact some of your bibles like mine an old you know king james cameo from cambridge and you know the titles on the pages you know you'll see curses for the children of israel blessings for the church like in the old testament you'll see that in their little writing those aren't inspired by the way those are just little titles given to us by the translator but misguided and so we have to understand the blessings and the curses kind of go hand in hand but we're going to see how these blessings that we're going to read about here in chapter 42 really do point us to the person and the work of jesus christ in fact this little chapter chapter 42 breaks down nicely into four main sections we have the coming messiah uh right here in verses one through four we have the confirmation by god versus five uh really through uh nine and then we have the command to worship uh given to us here just in in verses 10 through 12 and then the catastrophic destruction uh in verses 13 to the end and so we'll kind of see that tonight first of all the coming messiah we looked at that really on sunday uh we saw all these attributes of jesus eight that we looked at on sunday let's read that once again isaiah chapter 42 verse one behold my servant whom i uphold mine elect in whom my soul delighteth i have put my spirit upon him he shall bring forth judgment to the gentiles he shall not cry nor lift up nor cause his voice to be heard in the street a bruised reed shall he not break and the smoking flax shall he not quench he shall bring forth judgment unto truth he shall not fail nor be discouraged till they have set judgment in the earth and the isles shall wait for his law so number one the coming messiah and those eight attributes if you missed that on sunday you can you know catch up online uh the teaching there isaiah chapter 42 verses 1 through four and that's the first section of this chapter just a description of the attributes of jesus that we are to behold and remember when we behold jesus when we look at jesus we go from glory to greater glory as we look upon him we are changed and that's a good bit of news for you and me because we need to be changed we don't want to stay the way we are and we want to become more like him and so that's why it's beneficial to look at jesus and so we saw that on sunday and then that brings us to the second section the confirmation by god confirmation of who god is and and the messiah that he would send would all be confirmed and we're going to see that here we pick it up in verse 5. it says and thus saith god the lord that created the heavens and stretched them out he that spread forth the earth and that which cometh out of it he that giveth breath unto the people upon it and spirit to them that walk therein first of all you know isaiah is reminding us of the mighty creative ability of god and i love that because man when you look at creation you just can't help but to stand in awe of the lord you know and um and that's kind of where we begin this you know he's the creator and he gave all humanity breath and spirit it all came from god you know when you can consider the power and greatness of the one who created the universe and all the inhabitants every square inch of this planet i mean what an amazing thing to think that god just spoke the sun into existence you know if you even think about our own solar system um you know uh if you if you consider just the dynamics of our solar system and our galaxy and the the context of all that you know at the speed of light 186 000 miles per second that's pretty fast um sunlight takes eight minutes to reach the earth from the time the light of the sun burns it takes eight minutes that's how far we are if you do the math eight minutes to research that same light from our sun takes five more hours to reach our furthest planet which is pluto most of the time uh you say most of them yeah the two outer planets tend to crisscross uh every several decades or whatever so some people think it's pluto but it's actually not always pluto but forget that for a second five hours for our sunlight to reach the furthest out planet which is pluto that's a long long time 100 186 000 miles per spec per second that's that's uh that's something after the light of the sun leaves our solar system however that same sunlight must travel for four years and four months to reach the next star in the universe that that's a distance of 40 trillion kilometers um that's just mere shouting distance in the universe do you understand that uh 40 trillion kilometers is just a stone's throw because you know the sun our sun resides in in our galaxy which is called the milky way galaxy and and it's shaped like a flying saucer you know the bulge in the middle and kind of flat out on the outside um and that's the shape of our galaxy and we're somewhere our sun is roughly three-quarters of the way out uh to the edge of the galaxy that's where we're positioned in the milky way galaxy to get a feel for that distance of of where our sun sits if our solar system were one inch across just one if our whole solar system you know from the sun uh out to the furthest planet you know pluto or whatever if that was all this our little solar system was one inch in distance the distance from there to the center of the milky way galaxy would be 379 miles if it was just represented by one one inch you'd have to go like up to bc vancouver uh british columbia to reach with one inch that's the size of our you know sources you'd have to go all the way out to get to the to vancouver bc that's a that's just a sense of the the distance and the space yet the milky way is um but one of roughly one trillion galaxies in the universe one one trillion galaxies uh and ours is when you think about how big our galaxy is that that's something um you know uh the astronomer alan sandedge says galaxy rs to astronomy what atoms are to physics kind of puts it in perspective there are 20 galaxies in what is called our local group of galaxies then the next sort of grouping is the universe of the universe is called a super cluster of galaxies within our supercluster the nearest cluster of galaxies is called virgo and it's 50 million light years away a light year is the distance light travels in one year to get a feel for the distance of one light year uh if you drove your car at 55 miles per hour it would take you 12.12 12.2 million years to travel one light year that's pretty long time 12.2 million years to travel that distance at 55 miles an hour astronomers estimate that the distance across the universe is roughly 40 billion light years and that there are roughly 100 billion billion trillion stars um and the lord almighty is the creator of all that that we just talked about not a bad day's work uh let there be light the sun pops out there that that's the god that isaiah is talking about um you know you feel pretty puny when you start thinking about god and his ability of creation and by the way that's why i think the secularist uh you know ground zero or the front you know trenches of that battle is creation there's a reason why you know a lot of the secularists and atheists what have you they desperately want to defend evolution because apart from evolution there's no real um you know i would say that even with evolution there's no real honest uh guess about how things really began you know origins you know darwin darwinian evolution and stuff is something that people have settled in to sort of think that it's all right but it's total fantasy that in billions and billions of years i went from basically prebiotic goo to you you know and all the beauty and structure and intellect and sequence and order uh just shook up after billions of years and by accidental set of circumstances it suddenly went to total intricacy and technology and all that stuff that that's just far-fetched to think you could put a bunch of stuff in a big box shake it up and open the box you got a rolex watch um that that's pretty much what they say happened uh it'd be more likely by the way for you to put up just a giant box a little shoebox of watch parts uh and you throw it in a box and you shake it for a billion years how long would it take for you to shake that box and have the rolex watch you open up wow it just kind of came together well the odds of that happening are way better than for what happened according to evolution so that's ground zero that's why we as christians i should say you know there are some goofy christians i have to say my brothers who are saying theistic evolution god created and they're trying to acquiesce to the secularist world saying god created the world through an evolutionary process stupid don't believe that you're you're believing in a fantasy the shaking of the box thing nope just take the bible i've always found the bible very rewarding if you just take it at face value i take the bible literally when it's meant to be taken literally there are times where the bible leaves us the indication this is a figurative you know picture or stuff like that but whenever the bible is speaking literally of things we should take them literally like creation so it says that god the lord jehovah is the word there stretched them out and we talked about this how the universe is expanding and tensor calculus how they've been able to calculate how there is kind of an uncurling or an unfolding of the universe that seems to be happening happening the same language of the bible which i think is interesting the stretching out and the unrolling of the universe that isaiah speaks of and so we we first see the impressiveness of god as a creator here but then he goes on in verse six he says i the lord that's jehovah have called thee in righteousness and will hold thine hand and keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the gentiles he's speaking now to the jews here isaiah is saying the lord has called thee the jews in righteousness and will hold their hand man you know when you think about the jews and their history um the lord has held their hand through thick and thin uh you know it's amazing that they're even still a nation um the fact that they still exist is incredible because there's been so many times in history where evil demonic people have tried to exterminate the whole you know jewish people um you know it's interesting because some people talk about racism today and and they'll talk about you know slavery and racism african-american uh racism and stuff and it's real and it's something that we need to fight against for sure but it's interesting to me that the jews are sort of being there's a lot of racism against the jews today in america too we're seeing that around the whole world racism against the jews but what's the difference between you know racism against like say the african-american versus the racism that we're seeing as the jew um we've never really seen a movement in the world to entirely exterminate the entire black population thank the lord for that but i have to tell you just to take things as seriously as we can and understand there's a real demonic thing going out there with racism against you is you know the whole anti-semitic movement that's out there today there's been several moves to try to wipe out the entire race you know and enslaving a nation of people is bad enough but the jews have been the target not just to make them slaves but to say we're going to wipe them out entirely and that was you know the final solution of adolf hitler is to totally wipe out that's why he killed six million jews in gas chambers of the concentration camps um you know so before we get too you know um divided over what's happening in racism in america we we need to kind of see that god's chosen people the jews are also very subject to some real racism around the world i i find it interesting that we get sort of fixated on one problem and we forget some of the other problems around the world too and sometimes those problems can be worse than the ones we're fixating on um and i think that it's all about the narrative it's who's controlling the microphone who's got the voice who's the who's the ones controlling the media and it just becomes this big thing but man know your history know what happened to the jews throughout the ages if it wasn't hitler it was antiques epiphanies and 170s you know bc if it wasn't antiques it was pharaoh who tried to exterminate jews or herod the great during the time of jesus where they you know he killed jewish babies like who does that just goes and slaughters all the male jewish babies herod the great did that um you know we could talk about um you know the emperor hadrian and the roman empire and the persecution of the jews we could talk about all the way back you know um to the time of esther where haman was the guy who tried to exterminate the jews as an entire race this has happened many many times in our world's history and yet today we see this anti-semitism on the rise again with no apparent reason why like why is there anti-semitism i'll tell you the answer they're god's chosen people and and the lord says to them here in isaiah this if i were a jewish person i'd be hanging on to this verse the lord says listen i will hold your hand through all the things you're basically going through he says that the lord i have called thee in righteousness i will hold thine hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people and and for a light of the gentiles aren't you glad about that gentile people that the lord used how did the jews become alike you know they're in genesis 12 when abraham was called by god and he said i will make a v abraham a mighty nation and you will be a blessing to all the people of the world all the nations will be blessed by you and your seed abraham and you know there's so many ways the jews have blessed the world even though they're hated by the world what's amazing they've brought more science and medical technology and health and all kinds of invention and creativity to the world it's not even funny when you look at the arts and and comedians and the things the jews have offered to the world is pretty amazing but not not any of those things are the light to the gentiles that's being talked about here when when the bible here in isaiah talks about the light and to the gentiles we're talking about the light of the world jesus christ who was a jew don't forget that jesus was a jew and he was the one who would be the light that would be that would shine jesus stood there on the temple mount on the festival of lights you know when they had hanukkah and they celebrated the lights jesus said on that celebration she says i am the light of the world um and he not was just not was only a light to the jews he was a light to us as well man i'll tell you we're living in dark days and if i weren't a believer if i didn't have jesus i'd be pretty depressed right now but because we walk not in the darkness but we walk in the light we have fellowship one with another as christians and we also know jesus and we have the hope of heaven we are children of the light we're not in the darkness and that's why i hope you're always keeping your light on i hope you're looking to the light jesus christ because otherwise you'll find yourself getting real depressed as you see you know explosions rocking lebanon did anybody see the news yesterday a giant explosion initially they came out saying fireworks you know i was a firework factory uh no that was it was a giant some have said it's the biggest explosion on the earth since hiroshima and nagasaki that actually destroyed much of beirut yesterday i'll be talking about that tomorrow or friday on our prophecy update what's the significance of the giant explosion in lebanon um i think it is important and we'll be talking about that and who where did it come from why did why was there almost a nuclear level explosion in the city of lebanon uh yesterday i think there's some reasons and there's definitely some blame and anger and people are trying to figure this stuff out i think it all has to do with bible prophecy by the way so we'll talk about that uh friday but man we're living in these dark days i'm so thankful that jesus is the light of the world and he's not just the light to the jews now by the way remember how i told you the jews in the new testament thought that gentiles were just fuel for the fire of hell i talked about that on sunday and the jews were sort of hated by the apparently the gentiles were hated by the jews in many ways in the new testament times but an insightful man who was sensitive to the holy spirit uh brought this little verse up that we just read this part about the jew the the jews would be a light for the gentiles and it's there in fact by the way in luke chapter 2 let me just read it to you it says in luke chapter 2 behold there was a man in jerusalem his name was simeon and the same man was a just and devout man waiting for the consolation of israel who is the consolation of israel jesus he's waiting for the messiah and the holy ghost was upon him again we talked about that last week when the holy spirit comes upon you that's an empowering well what did the holy spirit empower simeon to do well check this out the holy spirit was upon him and the holy spirit revealed unto him that he should not see death before he had seen the lord christ the messiah and so then he's just hanging out one day and the same holy spirit came to him and and and drew him to the temple so he just gets up one morning and he feels lord telling him to go to the temple there in jerusalem so he goes into the temple and when the parents of jesus brought in the baby jesus to do for him after the custom of the law then simeon took up the baby in his arms and blessed god and said lord now let thy servant depart in peace according to thy word for mine eyes have seen thy salvation which thou had prepared before the face of all people a light to lighten the gentiles and the glory of thy people israel and joseph his mother marveled at the things which simeon said of him mary's going huh what what did he just say that that this one would be the savior of the world and that that he'd be a light unto the gentiles where in the world did he get that isaiah chapter 42 simeon must have been a man of the scriptures um and also a man of the holy spirit he was a guy who was sensitive i love that old guy he says okay lord i can die now i've seen the you know you told me that i would not see death until i see the christ the messiah and he's just there in the temple and he holds this baby he's like okay check saw the baby jesus now i'm going to heaven like i just love this guy who knew the scriptures he said this is the light of the gentiles that isaiah was talking about there in isaiah chapter 42. so jesus would be the fulfillment of of what this chapter is saying and that's part of the confirmation of the messiah of who he would be through these old testament scriptures don't forget jesus would be fulfilling hundreds and hundreds of prophecies in the old testament and it should have been verified and confirmable by the jews when jesus came everything that he did born of a virgin writing on a cult of a donkey coming into jerusalem on the very day that he wrote in they should have known the day by daniel chapter 9. but they also should have known when simeon declares this is the light of the gentiles this is all fulfillment of prophecy jesus fulfilled more than 300 very specific prophecies of the old testament when he came and appeared as a man on the earth and this is one of those that he was the light of the gentiles and what else would he do we'd see confirmation of who the messiah is that he'd be light of the gentiles number verse number seven goes on and it says to open blind eyes did jesus heal the blind yes to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house um you remember the demoniac that was chained and jesus delivered this guy from demons and then the town people came out and saw him out of the chains and in his right mind and like delivered from prison like jesus did all of the things that the prophet said and he goes on in verse 8 says i am the lord capital lrd jehovah i am jehovah that is my name and my glory will i not give to another neither my praise to graven images so the lord's confirming everything that he's saying my messiah is going to come and he's going to do all these things and the lord says i am the lord i'm jehovah don't let anybody take glory for what i have done it is interesting the sadness of human nature you and i have this proclivity to try to take credit for stuff when really jesus is the one the lord the jehovah of heaven is the one who deserves all the glory and all the credit um how are you on that one ask yourself that question do you ever take credit for the giftings or the talents that you uh that you have i i i always kind of used to chuckle a little bit but the professional athletes on espn after a game i like to thank god for my wonderful talent you know like there was this there was a sort of thing that you had to say if you're a pro athlete but you kind of got the sense that it didn't really come from a place in their heart of total belief now once in a while an athlete would come along and they'd say it in a way you're like wait a minute i think that guy really believes that and those are the ones you're kind of like okay i love that there's a real humility and um and uh there's an acknowledging that i could do nothing apart from god um but you know there's an old saying there's no end to what a man or woman can do as long as he doesn't care who gets the credit some people are hung up on this one they really desperately want to get the credit for things and when you are one who tries to get the credit you will be defeated it's disheartening you'll never get enough credit but the truth is you didn't deserve any credit to begin with and if you think you deserve credit you are misguided it's just the truth and and it's something that's within our human nature to want to get the pat on the back or get the credit for a job well done some of you you know are frustrated because at work maybe somebody else got the sort of accolades of others because of something you actually did you know and this happens all the time you know the manager that stumbles around not knowing what he's doing and the team under the manager is doing all the hard heavy lifting and then the boss comes and says to the manager you have done a wonderful job um and and you think well that wasn't him it was us if if he wasn't here we'd do better and you can get yourself real bitter but you got to remember that there's no stopping what you can do as long as you don't care who gets the credit but i would take it even a step further than that old saying as long as you care that god gets the credit that truly all glory for every good thing belongs to the lord um the lord says i'm not gonna share my glory with another and then he kind of puts on there neither my praise to graven images you know the jews have that proclivity to sort of create these false idols remember you know there when they were worshiping the golden calf in the old testament and they would say behold the gods that brought thee up out of the land of egypt that's exactly what god's saying or don't do don't give credit to other gods for the things that i have done you might say well bro we don't give credit to golden calves and gods but i think sometimes we're our own little gods in our minds look what i have done look what i've accomplished and the lord says i'm the one who gets all the credit all glory and honor and praise belongs to the lord nothing of that belongs to us oh lord make us a humble people you know humble yourself in the sight of the lord and he will lift you up but let him be the one lifting you up not you lifting yourself up uh that's a hard one but it's an important one the lord's not gonna give to another the glory that he deserves um so there you have it well verse nine behold the former things are come to pass and new things do i declare before they spring forth i tell you of them um isn't this interesting that the bible does this that god does this i love the way this said the former things have come to pass and the new things i will declare before they even happen i'll tell you about them that's what the lord's saying it's called biblical prophecy we're not very good at prophecy i like some there's a bunch of i've over the years made a huge list let me give you some of my favorites the world's worst predictions king george ii said in 1773 that the american colonies had little stomach for the revolution that was just three years before we actually uh you know went to battle and ultimately defeated the brits another one an official of the white star line speaking of the firm's newly built flagship the titanic launched in 1912 declared that the ship was unsinkable famous prediction that was totally wrong in 1939 the new york times said the problem of tv was that people had had to glue their eyes to a screen and that the average american would never have time for it bad prediction especially if they saw screen time today with our little mini screens and all that an english astronomy professor said in the early 19th century that air travel at high speed would be impossible because passengers would suffocate um that one's actually kind of true uh they make those airplanes so tight uh you feel like you're gonna suffocate now you gotta wear your mask so maybe he was right no i'm just kidding no the the predictions of humanity goofy wrong lame but the lord it's amazing that he declares the beginning from the end the bible says and here the lord says the the new things that i do declare i'll declare them before they even spring up that's prophecy and that's one of the reasons why it's so fun to do prophecy updates you know once a month because so much of what we're seeing in the world today are things the lord spoke of about the last days and so why not look at what the scriptures say as it relates to the end times churches that say oh we don't do bible prophecy because it's so divisive and it's it's you know confusing and we'll just kind of wait and see how it pans out that's the wrong attitude we're supposed to read the bible one-fourth of the bible is about prophecy and you've got to throw out the book of revelation daniel jeremiah isaiah ezekiel you've got to throw out all these books of the bible and and really pretty much almost every book has some bit of prophecy in it um you got to throw out one-fourth of the bible if you're not going to be into bible prophecy so be careful with that attitude i think that's a wrong attitude to diminish any bit of the word of god that's why we go verse by verse chapter by chapter book by book we don't want to skip over or diminish any section of the word but all that to say the lord is the one who knows the way things are going to go down and that's why we're going to talk about it friday night well then he goes on in verse 10. now this brings us to the third section by the way the first section is you know the coming messiah number one number two the confirmation by god he's creator he knows the beginning from the end the messiah would come and he he'd uh be the light to the gentiles open blind eyes set captives free jesus did all those things confirmed confirmed confirmed but number three on our list we have the command to worship because of all the things he's done we are given that command to worship in verse 10. it says sing unto the lord a new song and his praise from the end of the earth ye that go down to the sea and all that is in there that is therein the isles and the inhabitants thereof let the wilderness and the cities there have lift up their voice the villages that kid our death inhabit let the inhabitants of the rock sing and let them shout from the top of the mountains let them give glory unto the lord and declare his praise in the islands remember the islands we talked about last week that's the nations of the world um so all the nations now what's this thing about kedar and the rock is the alcatraz uh going to be singing praises to the lord well the the rock there is probably a place called petra or selah in the hebrew old testament and the reason they talk about the villages of kedar and the inhabitants of the rock or the rock city petra the reason that that would be is sort of the the mind of the jew listening in isaiah's time it'd be even the people way out there will be singing praises to god um out in tullyville out in no man's land uh because the those uh those kingdoms were way out there you know as far as the jew would think in that so it's it's kind of like i said man people are going to praise the lord even way out there in dundee uh you know or so or out there in welch's oregon you know like we we kind of think of those as more outlying areas that's that's kind of what he's saying here but it's a command to worship the lord you know he says sing in the lord a new song as praise from the ends of the earth are you a worshiper are you one who sings praises to the lord are you one that's a bump on a log during worship you know that's one of my biggest concerns i've got several big concerns during this lockdown of the church and um again i i gotta remind you we're praying we're praying about when the lord would have us open the doors here and we're not really waiting necessarily for green light uh from the governor or any of that truthfully we're waiting for for a green light from the lord and we've been praying about that but one of the things that concerns me during this time where you're not able to be in here and i'm also concerned about this when you're all here because some of you are great worshipers others of you it's almost like you come in and you sit down and you're sort of here during the worship time and you're just here to wait for the teaching okay let's see when they're down here we've got a couple songs then we're gonna get to the real stuff the bible study time and i'm glad that you're into bible study but i hope you're also into worship uh singing praises to the lord because the bible tells us that we're to sing in the lord and give praise and worship clap your hands all ye people shout unto god with the voice of triumph you know that's something god wants you to be as a worshiper and i have a hunch that the time we spend singing praises to god is time well spent when we get to heaven none of us will say i wish i spent more time playing video games or i wish i spent more time you know um uh you know watching sports i bet you when we get to heaven we're gonna be really glad for the invested time in worship and i wonder if it'll somehow play out in our ability to worship in the eternal kingdom man whenever you see the throne room of god in the bible you see these insightful extremely intelligent beasts or beings falling down before the throne of god saying holy holy holy is the lord god almighty who was it is it is to come they're like singing before the throne of the lord and it's just day and night for all eternity because god's glory is so beautiful that people are just worshipping with a passion for all of eternity so i'm just saying you better get used to it maybe maybe this life is just a little bit of a dress rehearsal uh for when you get to heaven and and hope hope you're not a tourist when you haven't what's going on here i wonder if some of you will chime in well brett i don't have a very good voice guess what when you get to heaven i think you're going to sound like pavarotti you're going to suddenly be able to sing maybe like johnny cash or somebody that's legit you'll be able to sing uh i'm looking forward to having a real voice when i get to heaven uh but until then i'm gonna squeak out whatever songs i can and uh work work on uh praise because it's a it's a good thing to do and here the bible commands us uh not only in the psalms do we read that but here in isaiah let uh let let's all sing unto the lord a new song and praise from the end of the earth you that go down to the nations is the idea thereof well the command to worship number three number four on our list here in this chapter the cataclysmic destruction now he's going to talk about when the lord comes in in the day of the lord when he intervenes in this christ-rejecting sinful world it says in verse 13 the lord shall go forth as a mighty man he shall stir up jealousy like the man of war he shall cry yea roar he shall prevail against his enemies what's this thing about a mighty man shall strip jealousy like a man of war he's going to have such warring skills that everybody will wish that they could be as mighty and powerful as him that's that's kind of the idea there nobody will even be close um he says in verse 14 i have long time holding my peace i have been still and refrained myself now will i cry like a travailing woman i will destroy the and devour at once now this is interesting um because he says i have refrained myself and have been still the lord has been patient and the big question is why is the lord patient have you ever found yourself just saying oh lord come quickly you know where you're just like why why is the lord coming why doesn't he just do it why does he rapture his church come on lord rapture today come on lord come quickly lord jesus and we do feel that but what is it that makes the lord delay why is he just being still is he lazy or you know that's that's when you hear people saying uh where is the promise of the lord's coming you bible prophecy guys have been talking about the rapture of the church for years you know when people criticize us that way you know what i like to say your fulfilling prophecy right now what prophecy well ii peter check this out it says this in second peter chapter 3 verse 3 it says knowing first that there shall come in the last days scoffers walking after their own lust and saying where is the promise of his coming for since the fathers fell asleep all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation nothing's changed you know nothing nothing's really different uh and and some people are saying that today and they're saying well sure we got the coronavirus and we got wars and rumors of wars and we got pestilence and disease and all that stuff we got issues but where's the promise of his coming and they said in the last days that's what peter says they'll say where is it and then he says for this they're willingly ignorant of that by the word of god the heavens were of old the earth standing out of the water and in the water whereby the world then was overflowed with water perish speaking of the days of noah but the heavens and the earth which are now by the same word are kept in store reserved to fire not a flood the next time the lord destroys the world it's not going to be the flood it's going to be fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men but peter goes on to say beloved be not ignorant of this one thing that one day is with the lord a thousand years or a thousand years is one day the lord is not slack concerning his promise as some men count slackness or laziness but he's long suffering now here's the answer this is why the lord delays and this is why he's being patient it says right here he says he's he's long suffering to us we're not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance but the day of the lord will come like a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and the works of therein shall be burned up you see peter tells us the answer of why the lord seems to delay his coming but it's not laziness it's it's patience long suffering and he would that none should perish the lord is waiting for those last people to be saved that are going to be saved sometimes i wonder if on a sunday morning when i'm inviting people to accept christ if that might be the last person on the planet and then right after we say amen boom rapture of the church wouldn't that be great never know but i do think there's a threshold where god's gonna say time's up and he knows that day uh you know when he's gonna do that the uh the father in heaven says you know says he knows that dave jesus said no man knows the day or the hour but my father which is heaven so that day is coming and the lord's being patient because he wants to see people come to know him because once that rapture the church happens that's not going to be easy it's going to be brutal and uh to be saved during that time well that's a whole nother story so here in our text we have this idea of um you know the lord he's reserving himself and he's refraining himself verse 14 and he's going to come and destroy look at verse 15. it goes on chapter 42 of isaiah verse 15 i will make waste mountains and hills and dry up all their herbs i will make the rivers islands and i will dry up the pools i will bring the blind by a way that they knew not i will lead them in paths that they have not known i will make darkness light before them and they and the crooked things straight these things will i do unto them and not forsake them who are the ones who are blind some of you already know the answer to that but let's read on verse 17 they shall be turned back they shall be greatly ashamed that trust in graven images that they say to molten images you are our gods hear ye deaf and look ye blind that you may see don't you love that what an oxymoron there in verse 18. you know hear ye deaf look you blind that's funny to me um the lord's saying you're blind you're you're deaf but the idea is he's gonna open up your sight he's gonna open up your ears and then he'll say in verse 19 who is blind but my servant or deaf as my messenger that i sent who is blind as he that is perfect and blind as the lord's servant seeing many things but thou observe us not opening the ears but he heareth not the lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake he will magnify the law and make it honorable but this this is a people robbed and spoiled there have all snared in holes they are hid in prison houses they are for a prey and none delivereth for a spoil and none saith restore who among you will give ear to this who will hearken and hear for the time to come who gave jacob for a spoil and israel to the robbers did not the lord he against whom we have sinned for they would not walk in his ways neither were they obedient unto his law therefore he hath poured upon him the fury of his anger and the strength of battle and it is has set him on fire round about yet he knew not and it burned him yet he laid it not to heart the jewish people were stubborn and rebellious this is something isaiah's theme is the rebellious children of israel he says that over and over again woe into the rebellious children of israel now the good news is the lord's not done with the jews even though they are rebellious even to this day they're rebellious and by the way before we as gentiles think ourselves all high and mighty we're rebellious too you know we don't have the gods and goddesses of stone that they did necessarily but we have the same evil and the same entities that are behind those gods and goddesses we worship those same things but the jews what happened to them well the lord caused blindness to happen that's what it says be not ignorant of this uh you know romans 11 25 area right there uh don't be ignorant that blindness in part has happened to israel the lord has blinded their eyes why because they were choosing to not see choosing to not hear so the lord says okay i'm going to blind you and even in the next chapter we're going to see that he scatters them all over the world the diaspora is what it's called but there's coming a day where he's going to lift the blindness off their eyes and open up their ears so that they will hear and see who god really is and there's hope for the jew and why did he do this because they they were sinning and they worshipped idols and were stubborn against the lord and that's isaiah pretty much in this last part calling him out calling out his own people for their rebellion and stubbornness now before we get too down on the jews man we we're the same people we also have that stubborn streak to do our own things and to sin against the lord so in chapter 43 we're going to see this discussion continue about the promise that the lord has for the jews it's in chapter 43 he's going to talk about correction correcting the jews but then also salvation and then destruction for others so he's going to kind of sort that out here in chapter 43. it says in verse 1 but now thus saith the lord that created thee o jacob another name for israel and he that formed the o israel fear not for i have redeemed thee i have called thee by thy name thou art mine this is for for the jews the lord says i've redeemed thee how would he redeem the jews the same way he redeems you and me by the blood of the lamb there's no redemption there's no salvation there's no remission of sins apart from the shedding of blood and jesus would be the lamb of god that would be slain for the sins of the world and that's what isaiah the prophet is talking to about the jews this yeah see how this is such good news you know really i love this so he says i've called you by name is there a time in the new testament where the lord says i call you the church by by his name yes john chapter 10. the good shepherd knows his sheep and he knows them by name that's something about god he knows his people and he knows them well i love that well verse 2 when thou passes through the waters i will be with thee and through the rivers they shall not overflow thee when they'll walk us through the fire thou shall not be burned neither shall the flame kindle upon thee um you know this is the lord saying i'm going to protect you even through those dark times some people might say well that's not very good production six million jews killed and outs in the you know concentration camps of hitler but you have to understand that the lord did preserve them and their people even though they were hanging by a thread the lord protected them you know it's interesting because all of this that has happened to the jews the scattering of the jews all over the world the re-gathering of the people into the land of israel today it's all evidence of god in fact one of the greatest arguments it was count von zinzendorf who a certain you know prussian king was uh you know asking for evidence of a of a god and count von zensendorf said two words the jews that's what he said and it's true that when you track what has happened to the jews um and you see how god has done exactly what he said he would do even to this very day we're seeing stuff the prophecy told us about about the jews there's no greater i think argument for god's existence perhaps than the way he has dealt with the jews he goes on in verse 3 for i am the lord that's jehovah thy god the holy one of israel thy savior i have i gave egypt for thy ransom ethiopia and sheba for thee um boy there's some interesting things about sheba or saudi arabia and egypt even in our prophecy update and how they're kind of standing with the jews right now we'll talk about that on prosperity there's so much happening right now that the bible talks about it's hard to contain myself tonight to not just go right into that but we'll dive in uh friday night he said you know i'm your your god i'm your savior i'm the holy one uh and he says in verse four since thou was precious in my sight that's been honorable and i have loved thee therefore will i give men for thee and people for thy life fear not for i am with thee i will bring thy seed from the east and gather thee from the west i will say to the north give up and to the south keep not back bring my sons from far and my daughters from the ends of the earth even everyone that is called by my name for i have created him for my glory i have formed him yea i have made him this is god's doing the amazing regathering of god's people the jews to the land of israel you know if you ever really want to see some of this you got to kind of dive in i feel like we're too short attention spanned as people um but um just seeing the zionist movement from the you know starting theodore herzl and and all the way you know to uh the you know the uh may 14th 1948 when israel becomes a nation um and the regathering this is what the bible says right here in isaiah and there's other passages as well in ezekiel that very clearly articulate the lord would scatter the jews all over the world and they'd be scattered for 2 000 years now you say well big deal so they regathered did you know that's never happened ever in the history of the world for a nation of people to be scattered all over for any real length of time only to be brought back 2000 years later with their same identity how do the jews keep their identity being scattered over the world it's interesting by trying to keep the jewish laws the laws that god gave the jews sort of kept them sort of as a nation even though they were scattered all over the world so when you go to israel today man you see russian jews and you see um you know uh jews from europe and and from new york and philadelphia and like it's it's an amazing thing to see these jews who were scattered you know did you know that even the hebrew language was lost there was nobody speaking hebrews like latin back you know um before this guy named ben yehuda he uh he there's a street in jerusalem named after him because he's the one that sat at his dinner table and said to his family tonight is the last night you will hear us speak in our native tongue we shall speak hebrew from this day forward and this was in the zionist movement when the jews were moving back to israel and they started speaking hebrew again and and largely led by ben yehuda this idea of bringing hebrew back and now when you walk into jerusalem you hear everybody speaking hebrew so you say well big deal they brought back their language the bible said that would happen that they'd be scattered that their language would be disappeared and it would be revived bibles predicted all this again you've got to be a little bit thick to not believe that god knows what he's talking about when it comes to the future especially when you look at the jews and israel well he says the north the south east and west is going to give up the jews and they'll come from all over and we've seen that there's jews that have piled in isn't it interesting that god's doing this while the world is saying the jews get out of here we don't want you here this is not your land even though it is on so many levels but it's god's doing well he says in verse 8 of chapter 43 bring forth the blind people that have eyes and the deaf that have ears let all the nations gathered be gathered together and let the people be assembled who among them can declare this and show us former things let them bring forth their witness that they may be justified or let them hear and say it is truth you are my witnesses saith the lord and my servant who i have chosen that you may know and believe me and understand that i am he before me there was no god formed neither shall there be after me i even i am the lord and beside me there is no savior not only is there no other god like isaiah 44 is going to talk about but here he says there's no savior this is what i was talking about not only did the exclusivity of jesus you know remember we were talking about the the narrow path to salvation that jesus is the only way and people get all upset about that well as it turns out that was foretold by isaiah the prophet it wasn't just jesus that said i am the way the truth of life no man comes to the father but by me but it was isaiah that said the the god of the jews israel said beside me there will be no savior why because god became a man became the lamb of god that was slain for the sins of the world and beside him there is no savior um you see all of the new testament truths that we know and love we're all foretold in the in the hebrew bible that's how peter james john would later defend what happened when jesus came they would say this is that which the prophet isaiah spoke of when jesus died on the cross for the sins of the world when john the baptist pointed out the lamb of god this was the old testament fulfillment and that's why many of the jews in that day started to believe because they saw in their own writing the gospel unfolding so there's only one savior the jews were called by god to say testify against us if you don't believe it that's what he's saying but believe it verse 12 i have declared and have saved i have showed when there was no strange god among you therefore you are my witnesses saith the lord that i am god yay before the day i was i was i am uh before the day was i am he and there is none that can deliver out of my hand i will work and who shall let it thus saith the lord your redeemer the holy one of israel for your sake i have sent to babylon and have brought down all their nobles and chaldeans whose cries in the ships i am the lord your holy one the creator of israel your king thus saith the lord which maketh a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters um pause here for a second so this is an interesting um mention isaiah's saying the lord's gonna you know be the downfall of babylon verse 14. this is a prophetic statement because the babylonians were pipsqueaks at this time they really weren't much of a world power but remember hezekiah was uh tricked by the babylonians that whole story but the babylonians they they were they were going to be later isaiah wrote this around 701 bc um but the babylonians would attack in 586 well that would be the final wave where they'd be destroyed the jews would be destroyed in 586 but ultimately the lord would be the one to do away with the babylonians as well and he says i am the lord the holy one of israel the creator your king so kings will come and go the babylonians the beads of the persians alexander the great the greeks all those kingdoms would come and go but the lord is reminding them i'm your king the jews king verse 15. by the way have you noticed the descriptions of of who god is in this chapter so far we see him as the holy one in verse three i am the lord thy god the holy one look at verse 15. i am the lord your god you're the holy one we see him number one is the holy one number two is the at the savior verse three he says i am thy savior uh verse 11. i even i am the lord beside me there is no savior so we see him as the holy one the savior number three the redeemer we see him as redeemer uh verses 14 where it says uh thus says lord your redeemer and also verse one i have redeemed thee and i have called thee by name so holy one savior redeemer but also creator all these attributes look verse one uh i have um uh i but now thus saith the lord that created thee verse 15 i am the holy one you're the creator of israel and um we see that as his attribute and then also the king verse 15 i'm the the holy one the creator of israel your king all of these attributes and just these first 15 verses of uh chapter 43 holy one savior redeemer creator king isaiah is just laying it out for the jews to say he's god you're not being pressed because he does all of these things so he says thus they have lord verse 16 which makes a way in the sea and a path in the mighty waters which brings forth the chariot and the horse the army and the and the power they shall lie down together and shall not rise they are extinct they are quenched as toe of course speaking of the jews when they were trapped between pile high roth and migdal there as they were departing egypt and they the lord made a way into the sea and they crossed over the chariots and the pharaoh's army sank down into the sea all of what the lord did verse 18 remember ye not the former things which neither consider the old the things of old behold i will do a new thing now it shall spring forth ye shall not know it i will even make a way in the wilderness and the rivers in the desert the beasts of the field shall honor me the dragons and owls because i give waters in the wilderness and the rivers in the desert to drink to my people my chosen this people have i formed for myself they shall for so show forth thy praise um just the lord and his goodness providing streams in the desert rivers in the desert that sounds pretty good to me by the way verse 18 is great remember ye not the former things neither consider the things of old does the lord want us to forget about the past and move forward i think the answer is largely yes it's interesting how sometimes some versions of psychology demand to dig up and dredge up your past and revisit all those painful things and sins that have been committed against you but um but the bible kind of teaches us something a little different and you can jot this down in your notes but in philippians chapter 3 verse 13 it says brethren i count not myself to have apprehended but this one thing i do listen for getting those things which are behind and reaching forth to those things which are before i press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of god in christ jesus too many christians sit around spinning their wheels looking at the past failures mistakes sins sins that were committed against them bitternesses frustration because they were wronged by some group of people or hurt by someone's things that they said or dead to you and people just get bogged down in that stuff the lord says man i want you to move forward run the race nobody running a race will stop and go hey you you hurt me you you no the person who's really in the race is going to keep running forget what's behind you move on toward the front go move advance don't get bogged down too many people get bogged down in their past and the things that have hurt them get up and run that's what the lord would say and that's what he's saying both here in our text but also in philippians 3 13 same kind of notion remember not the former things neither consider the things of old but let's go let's go that's what he's saying verse 22 but thou has not called upon me o jacob but thou hast been weary of me o israel thou hast not brought me the small cattle by thy burn offerings neither hast thou honored me with the sacrifices i have not caused thee to serve thee with an offering nor weary thee with incense thou hast brought me no sweet cane with uh money neither hast thou filled me with the fat of thy sacrifices but thou hast made me to serve with thy sins thou hast wearied me with thine iniquities the people you know stopped worshiping on the temple stopped making sacrifices and started worshiping other gods and so the lord says man you're still in your sins so verse 25 i even i am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not remember thy sins put me in remembrance let us plead together declare thou that thou mayest be justified boy what a prophetic great strength that is that the lord says i'm the one who will blot out your transgressions and not only does he blot him out he does something you and i could never do and that is he says i will blot out your transgressions and i will not remember your sins the bible says he puts your sins as far as the east is from the west and he remembers your sins no more you know when i sin against you or you against me we have this horrible thing where we just remember stuff isn't it crazy how your brain works you remember the things you don't want to remember that remember that goofy song that's in your head like oh get that out of my head i don't want to sing that again but it's just your brain just keeps going with that what is that about our brain but when somebody wrongs you man it's amazing how vivid you're remembering remembrance of that thing that happened to you that hurts you uh and and then you have something you want to remember a good bible verse or something that was kind that somebody did for you or something good that happened and you forget all that you only forget about the grouchy things the evil things the sinful things that's human nature praise be to the lord god who takes your sins and wipes them out blots them out and remembers them no more that's how he looks at you and says i love you look at all my sin lord what sin i put it away and i remember them no more and he declared you as righteous and the word is justification that's the final word in verse 26 he says declare thou that thou mayest be justified that's the doctrine of the new testament justification verse 27 thy first father hath sinned and thy teachers have transgressed against me therefore i have profaned the princes of the sanctuary and have given jacob to the curse and israel to reproaches now fortunately the lord's not going to leave israel in the place of curse and reproach but the lord has a plan and a purpose for the jews still and that we're going to see even more of that when the lord says i have not given up on you israel he's never given up on the jews good news he won't give up on you uh if you hold the doctrine of you know where the jews are done god's finished with the jews we call that replacement theology if you come from that view what what keeps the lord from bailing out on you are you better than the jews if you look at the jews in their history i'm going to say probably not the jews gave it a good shot at following the lord and being faithful but they failed and i don't knock them for it but man they're in trouble because of that but guess what the lord is faithful to them and if the lord bails on the jew why wouldn't he bail on you the idea of replacement theology makes no sense whatsoever you and i would be in big trouble if we believe that god got frustrated with a person and said i'm not going to keep my promise i'm not going to keep my everlasting covenant with you because you've you've crossed the line you and i we crossed the line a long time ago but good news the lord takes our sins because of jesus and the cross died on the cross for those sins rose from the grave and because of that we have forgiveness of sin he blots out our transgressions and he remembers our sins no more he's going to do that with the jews and he's doing that with his church right now praise be to the lord for his mercy endures forever let's pray lord these two chapters are just great reminders of fundamental truths from your word and i pray lord for uh those that tuned in tonight or will listen to this teaching maybe later i pray that you just let your word penetrate our hearts and our minds and the things that we should rejoice in may we rejoice the things that we need correction about lord correct may the word just take root and i pray that you do a good work so bless your people tonight as we go our way and do whatever we're going to do the rest of the night may your word just linger in our hearts may we meditate on your word day and night lord we pray in jesus name amen you

Channel: Athey Creek

Views: 794

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Brett Meador, Bible, Church, Teaching, Study, Christian, Jesus, Oregon, Through the Bible, Athey Creek, Athey Creek Church, Athey Creek Christian Fellowship

Id: -NrhhI7aBas

Length: 65min 25sec (3925 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 04 2020