Isaiah 2:1-5 - The Light of the Lord

1 The word that Isaiah the son of Amoz saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem. 2 It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it, 3 and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. 4 He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. 5 O house of Jacob, come, let us walk in the light of the Lord.

Target Date: Sunday, 10 September 2023

Thoughts on the Passage:

This passage reveals the future, the end result, from Isaiah’s day, but it is our past, present, and future:

It speaks of the advent of the Messiah (the mountain) – past.

It speaks of the peace of the church – present.

It speaks of the final judgment and the abolition of strife – future.

The fact that these are presented in the same passage does not guarantee that they will all happen simultaneously.

Their relationship here is simply that the last events will flow inevitably from the first.

2 – Latter days – We are in the latter days now. The description of the “latter days” describes the days of the Messiah.

Many peoples will come – not just the Jews

The nations will be held to account.

The good news of God’s salvation will go forth.

This will lead ultimately to peace, first within the church, then in all creation.

5 – Let us walk in the light of the Lord – The call is to be on the Lord’s side, not to maintain the arrogance to think He is on yours.

Sermon Text:

Today we look at the beginning of the second chapter of Isaiah.

I would remind you that the first six chapters serve as an introduction to this great book of prophecy.

All the prophecies that follow are set into their place and perspective by the introduction we find at the beginning.

In the passage we will be looking at today, Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, does not simply talk about the situations of his own day.

He does much of that later, but here we are led to the end of the story.

It is important that we know where we are going – what the promises of God are.

Because the Bible is not simply a rulebook to tell you how to live your life.

That is what many unbelievers think.

They think that Christianity and the Bible are just a set of moral rules, heavenly values, that must be obeyed.

If you obey them, you are living a good life and God is pleased with you.

And if you disobey them, God is displeased with you.

And so people who do not know the good news of Jesus Christ, what is called the gospel, have this kind of moral arithmetic,

Where they think that all they have to do is more good things than bad.

Like God is as simple and mindless as a scale, placing all your good deeds on one side of the scale, and all your sins on the other.

Entire religions of man are dedicated to that idea.

Dedicated to the gradual improvement of man.

Incrementally making him better and better, some hoping for multiple reincarnated lifetimes, until a man reaches perfection.

How hopeless is that, to believe a person can perfect themself?

How ridiculous is that, to hope that someone, somewhere, will give you a thousand lifetimes, but no aid, to accomplish that perfection?

How godless is that hellish belief that tells a fallen man that he can make a difference before the REAL God?

Because the Bible, the word of the ONE TRUE GOD, reveals the lie that the world’s entire godless system is built upon.

From start to finish, Genesis to the Revelation, this book proclaims the glory of the ONE TRUE GOD, His complete holiness,

His undiluted righteousness,

His perfect justice,

And His eternal majesty over all His creation.

There are rules, laws of God, as we see in our passage today – that is true, but the Bible is so much more than that.

It is about man who was created good and fell through his own guilt and sin into unconquerable evil.

And in that sin and evil, came to trust himself rather than the God who created Him.

You and I are the product of that legacy, so much so that we are born into that same selfishness and self-reliance.

And there are multitudes of people in the world who consider selfishness and self-reliance absolutely good things.

We are born into that sin, and the righteous and holy God is perfectly just to condemn that sin and to condemn us for it.

Why do we start with this review today?

Because that is the primary message of the first chapter of Isaiah.

God’s judgment on every single person is based on where we have ignored, disobeyed, or otherwise broken His perfect law.

But here at the beginning of the second chapter, we get a glimpse of where God’s plan culminates.

And it ends where it should end – with God’s glory.

And it is in that glory that we find God’s grace poured out through Jesus Christ.

It shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills; and all the nations shall flow to it…

In the latter days…

Isaiah, led by the Holy Spirit is seeing things that are in his future.

What he calls “latter days”.

All through this book of Isaiah, we see reference to the latter days, and they all point to the same thing – the time of the Messiah, the Christ.

It will be the time following Isaiah’s time where God’s glory will be revealed to every nation, not just to His chosen among the Jews.

For Isaiah, he was speaking of a future time;

For us, he speaks of a time that began in our past with the advent of the Messiah of God – Jesus Christ.

We live in the latter days.

All the nations will flow to it…

People from every people and tribe and nation and territory will be drawn to God in those days.

We see that, don’t we.

It is not merely the Jew, or the American, or the European, or the African – people from every part of the world have been drawn to God through Jesus Christ.

It will be irresistible – in the poetic language of this great prophet – the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be established as the highest of the mountains…

He is not saying that Mount Zion, the small mountain on which the temple of God sat, would suddenly grow to be taller than Mt. Everest;

He is saying that the worship of God is the highest calling you have if you are human.

To give Him the proper honor He deserves,

To love Him as He should be loved by His creatures.

There is no higher calling on anyone.

And in the day when Jesus Christ comes, He will exalt the name of God to the highest possible level.

We see this idea in the book of Hebrews, chapter 9, the writer describes the worship of God even in the temple in Jerusalem.

He describes the glory of God reflected in the construction of the temple or tabernacle,

The fixtures,

The Ark of the Covenant,

And the atonement made by the high priest for the people’s sins.

It was an annual event, where every year the priest would be required to take a blood offering into the Holy of Holies and offer two sacrifices –

One for himself and one for the people.

But then the writer says this in verses 11-12:

But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation; 12 and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption.

The good things to come are the things God had promised in the latter days.

They are the good news of the gospel.

It is grace and mercy.

It is forgiveness of sins through the blood of Jesus Christ.

It is the righteousness of Jesus Christ put onto all who repent and trust Him for salvation.

That greater and more perfect temple is in heaven;

A temple not made by human hands.

And our High Priest, Jesus Christ the Risen Lord, has brought us a salvation that does not need to be repeated or renewed.

Jesus obtained it through His own blood once and for all.

It is ETERNAL REDEMPTION.

That is what Isaiah is describing in our passage today – the days where the true temple is not in Jerusalem but on high.

Where our sin is not merely covered by a promise,

But is forgiven by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Then we read: and many peoples shall come, and say: “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

What Isaiah introduces here, he will elaborate many times in the teachings of this book.

Notice what these many peoples say:

They do not say “We are compelled to go to the mountain of the Lord against our will.”

They do not say “Let’s go worship the Lord if we don’t have anything else going on.”

Those nations, those chosen peoples from every tribe and tongue, have been captured by love for God.

They want to come to Him because their hearts have been turned to Him.

They want to learn from Him because they love Him.

They want to walk in His paths because they know it will honor and glorify God.

They love to hear His word; they long for correction to the way they are living because they have come to know and love the Lord God.

The love His law because they love God. They come to Him because they love Him.

And they love Him because He first loved us.

Too many people think, as I said at the outset, that Christianity is just a new, stricter rulebook of God.

No, no, no – Christianity is about God announcing to you that your sins are paid for through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

It is about trusting Him for salvation, not your own best efforts toward being good.

It is about receiving His free gift of eternal life in exchange for your slavery to the sin and empty desires of this world.

Jesus Christ didn’t come to condemn you – He came to free you.

In His compassion, He knows the emptiness of your life apart from Him, and He came to bring you to Himself.

He knows that everything apart from Him that you are living for is a vapor, disappearing and leaving you none the richer.

He sees the harsh taskmaster that sin is, enslaving you, stealing your life, robbing you of everyone you love, and destroying you in the end.

And He came to set you free.

Apart from Him, you are held bound by your sin.

Perhaps you have brief times where you get a rest from it, but you return to it again.

Or perhaps you have traded one sin for another, proceeding from one sin to a more devastating one.

Left on your own, apart from God, you will squander this life.

Even if you die the richest person in the world, or the most famous, or the most respected, make no mistake:

You WILL DIE.

And after that, it doesn’t matter how powerful you were on earth,

How many people you commanded.

How much you owned.

Or how good you were.

You will face the Eternal Creator of Everything, the God Who allows no sin, and you will be condemned forever with no parole, reprieve, or appeal.

Unless you have accepted the one Gift God has offered – salvation through Jesus Christ, His only Son.

Unless you have trusted Him and followed Him, you will stand before the angry God of the universe and know His wrath on you – permanently.

But if your life is in Christ, if your trust is in Him, when you stand before God, you will stand before Him as a beloved child before your loving Father.

And that is just as permanent.