Isaiah 25

O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure. 2 For you have made the city a heap, the fortified city a ruin; the foreigners’ palace is a city no more; it will never be rebuilt. 3 Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you. 4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat; for the breath of the ruthless is like a storm against a wall, 5 like heat in a dry place. You subdue the noise of the foreigners; as heat by the shade of a cloud, so the song of the ruthless is put down. 6 On this mountain the Lord of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined. 7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken. 9 It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” 10 For the hand of the Lord will rest on this mountain, and Moab shall be trampled down in his place, as straw is trampled down in a dunghill. 11 And he will spread out his hands in the midst of it as a swimmer spreads his hands out to swim, but the Lord will lay low his pompous pride together with the skill of his hands. 12 And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.

Target Date: Sunday, 21 July 2024

Thoughts on the Passage:

Verse structures:

1 – God’s plans were formed before the beginning.

2 – God’s judgment

3 – Praise is due from everyone, especially the mighty.

4 – He is Keeper of the lowly, Shelter of the weak and vulnerable.

5 – The presence of the Lord is peace. He effortlessly suppresses strife.

6 – God prepares His great victory feast for His people.

7 – God will rend the separation, the blindfold, from the eyes of His people.

8 – God will swallow up death, break the curse.

9 – The Lord’s salvation is the hope – the only hope – of His people.

10 – The favor of the Lord is with His people.

11-12 – The Lord will triumph over our greatest enemy, the devil.

One of the great misconceptions of the Bible is that it is only spiritual, that is does not speak to real life. This is untrue not because the Bible is not spiritual, but because the complaint holds at its foundation the belief that the spiritual is NOT real life.

We find in the Bible truth for people who are elbow-deep in the muck of this world, not for those who present a squeaky-clean façade to everyone. The teachings of the Scriptures are for real people with real problems.

And God, although untouched by sin, is not unsympathetic to our plight and our great need.

While we are, and should be, grateful for all our Father’s good gifts, it should not come as a surprise to anyone that believers are the most dissatisfied in this world.

We live in the period of the down-payment, in the promise of the final glory, in the time before the purchase is finalized.

We live in the time of the betrothal, awaiting the consummation.

We remain here in the shadow, longing and straining forward to become the promised substance God has planned for us.

As U2 once sang: “We still haven’t found what we’re looking for.”

We have Jesus through His Spirit, but we will have Him face-to-face.

All our tears are not yet dry.

All our pain is not gone.

All we desire is not yet Christ alone because our fleshly tent still drags us to the dust.

What does the gospel, the good news – say to these things?

Have faith in your Lover – He will come to get you.

Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. – John 14:1-3

Set your hope on the things above, where Christ is.

If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. - Colossians 3:1-4

The word “seek” in v.1 is very strong – indicating an obsessive desire to obtain the object of the search. In this context, it would not overstate the meaning to say “CRAVE the things that are above”

Look to the Scriptures: what was the greatest hope and desire of the disciples of Jesus Christ after His ascension? To be with Him again.

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, 20 but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. 21 For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. - Matthew 6:19-21

He will tear away the veil.

He gives sight to the blind.

He removes the veil of separation for us.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

He will swallow death.

For this perishable body must put on the imperishable, and this mortal body must put on immortality. 54 When the perishable puts on the imperishable, and the mortal puts on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 55 “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” 56 The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. 57 But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. - 1 Corinthians 15:53 – 57

He will wipe every tear from our eyes.

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. 4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” 5 And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” 6 And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. 7 The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. - Revelation 21:3-7

Re: “conquers”: For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. 5 Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? - 1 John 5:4-5

He will come for you, His beloved.

What possibly can prevent this?

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? 33 Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. 35 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? 36 As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” 37 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. 38 For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. - Romans 8:31-39

From the moment of our conversion, we have been made alive in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Our remaining time on this world, in this body, is as a traveler heading toward our true home.

We have been freed from this world that held us captive:

To sin

To death

To God’s curse

To be victims of evil

To be servants of evil

So now, even among those who remain captive to these things, we stand free in Christ, commissioned and commanded to preach the gospel of our Lord:

From Isaiah 61: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, 19 to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” - Luke 4:18-19

Sermon Text:

As we open our Bibles this morning again to the 25th chapter of Isaiah, I would like to begin looking at this chapter from the perspective of a few difficult verses in chapter 24 – verses 14-16:

They lift up their voices, they sing for joy; over the majesty of the Lord they shout from the west. 15 Therefore in the east give glory to the Lord; in the coastlands of the sea, give glory to the name of the Lord, the God of Israel. 16 From the ends of the earth we hear songs of praise, of glory to the Righteous One. But I say, “I waste away, I waste away. Woe is me! For the traitors have betrayed, with betrayal the traitors have betrayed.”

Toward the end of our look at chapter 24 last week, I mentioned that this is surprising because people from the west were rejoicing in the Lord, and people to the east were giving glory to the Lord,

But here in the middle of the wasteland, in the middle of the destruction, Isaiah was screaming out “I waste away!”

I think if we are honest, anyone who has been a follower of Christ for any length of time would confess that there have been times when they came into the gathered church, sang the hymns, prayed the prayers, read the confessions and the Scriptures, and wondered in their hearts, “What is everyone so happy about?”

You look around and see people singing praise to God, and you just want to bawl your eyes out.

You hear the call to worship God, but you just want to scream out “I waste away!”

You smile and joke before the service, but everything is not ok.

You worry about yourself because hearing truth from the Scriptures is not something you even want right now.

You can’t measure up to those great commands.

You can’t do all those things you know you should do.

And you are afraid that in the course of hearing from the Scriptures, there will be something else that will make you feel even more inadequate.

An even bigger spiritual failure.

An even weaker “overcomer”.

And to make it worse, you feel like such a hypocrite, acting like everything is going great when you feel like you are falling apart.

When you feel like you don’t have the strength to keep fighting.

When you think that if one more worry is piled on to your heart, you will be crushed under the weight.

And you feel almost terrified that someone might find out that you are struggling, that you are in pain, that you are not as strong as you want to be.

They might find out you have shameful sin, sin no one would suspect you of.

And down deep inside you think if anyone found out, they would shun you or kick you out of the church.

Even though you have repented time and again, truly and deeply, and still you struggle and fall.

“I waste away! I waste away! Woe is me!”

This is the cry of desperate need.

It is the cry of someone who has only a single hope.

It is the cry of someone with nowhere else to turn.

It is the cry of Rachel to Jacob:

when Rachel saw that she bore Jacob no children, … she said to Jacob, “Give me children, or else I die.”– Genesis 30:1

It is the cry of the blind beggar Bar-Timaeus in all three of the synoptic gospels:

And as [Jesus] was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a great crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind beggar, the son of Timaeus, was sitting by the roadside. 47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me!” 48 And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he cried out all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!” 49 And Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” – Mark 10:46-49

Beloved child of God, if that is how you are feeling today, like a bruised reed or a smoldering wick, hear the testimony of our Lord:

a bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not quench, - Matthew 12:20

Our great and loving Lord has not come to break you in half or to snuff you out;

He cares for you.

And He knows what you are going through.

This is the Son of God who WEPT at the tomb of Lazarus even though He KNEW He would call him back to life.

The curse we were born under and dwell in to this day is not something that gives God pleasure;

It is the very thing He sent His Son to die to free us from.

He didn’t remain in heaven, detached from our sorrow, separate from our pain;

Sitting in shining robes at a sanitary distance.

He came in a body descended from dust,

In all the tears, and sweat, and mud, and filth, and healing disease, and touching lepers, and enduring hatreds,

In rejections, and exhaustion,

And blood, pain, torture, and death.

Our Lord began His adult life as someone who worked with wood, and died by being nailed to it, stripped and beaten.

And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. – Philippians 2:8

The gospel of the Bible is not clean and whitewashed;

It is grimy, muddy, bloody, and absolutely real;

Able to reach and save real people like you who are too grimy and muddy and bloody and hopeless to save themselves.

And this very truth, dear friend, is what Isaiah is telling us in chapter 25.

As he looks around and sees the wasteland of the curse and judgment of God, he finds the faithful and true God behind it all.

And this chapter is a great declaration of faith.

Not faith in the smoothness of the path.

Not faith in the easiness of following.

Not faith even in his own ability to follow.

No, his faith is in God alone, and we find in the writings of Paul and John in the New Testament that this faith is in no one else but Jesus Christ.

We see it in his declaration of faith in verse 1: O Lord, you are my God; I will exalt you; I will praise your name, for you have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure.

He recognizes the truth about the things that had been causing him so much distress:

They are wonders from God.

They are planned from ancient times – before the world began.

But then see what else: faithful and sure.

Faithful – God hasn’t broken faith with His people. His judgment isn’t a whim. It is to bring about God’s good, which is infinitely better than our opinion or comfort.

Sure – it is true, trustworthy. God isn’t just showing off His power; He is dealing with man exactly as He has declared.

It doesn’t lessen the difficulty the prophet has in the midst of the destruction, but in his faith he can endure it.

God is faithful, and He will always do the right thing.

He will ALWAYS do the right thing.

And if you are His child, He is NEVER against you. He loves you.

He has saved you.

Yes, He knows how weak you are.

Yes, He is under no illusion of your strength.

The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners - 1 Timothy 1:15

Isaiah says it right here in verse 4: For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a shelter from the storm and a shade from the heat…

Our God, who brings nations down to their knees, is a fortress to the poor, to the needy, to the weak.

He who has the power with a single word to bring down the great gathered armies of the world uses that great power to protect His little ones.

The shepherd who would fight off a lion or a bear with his bare hands would use that strength to tenderly carry the tiny, injured lamb.

Dear believer, when things seem out of control, know that they are simply out of YOUR control.

They are NEVER out of the control of our loving Father.

Is that scary? Sure.

Is it humbling? Absolutely.

Does that worry wake you up in the middle of the night sometimes? Almost certainly.

But in the middle of our fear, the midst of our worry, our loving Father knows our weaknesses, and He gathers us to Himself in those moments.

Like when a young child is scared of the thunder of a midnight storm, our heavenly Father lets us come rest with Him,

Climbing into His great bed, and covering us with His unfailing arm.

And whispering gently to us: “Fear not. I am with you. I have you. You are safe in My arms.”

We call Him “Abba, Father”.

And nothing can separate us from His love or protection.

Maybe you have “grownup worries” – job worries, or family worries, or “really-big grownup sin worries”.

It doesn’t matter – if you have followed Christ, you are still a child of God.

And we all need to hear those words of comfort sometimes.

To know that we can talk to a brother or sister in Christ about what is really bothering us.

And to know that when someone comes to us and tell us, we can pray with them, taking them to our loving Father for His help in their distress.

Because we have an enemy, the devil, who wants to keep us in fear, keep us from seeing the truth of our Father’s love, and to destroy us if he can.

In verses 7 and 8, we see how God will free us from the malice of that enemy:

And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord God will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the Lord has spoken.

What Isaiah is picturing here is like a blindfold, a shroud, that is covering the eyes of everyone under the curse, keeping them blind to God.

And we see God ripping it away, utterly destroying that shroud, that veil.

How will He do it? Through faith in Jesus Christ, of course.

A faith that He Himself provides to those He has made alive.

Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, 13 not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. 14 But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. 15 Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. 16 But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. 18 And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit. - 2 Corinthians 3:12-18

And then the glorious promise: He will swallow up death forever.

We saw that this morning when we read Revelation 21 – death is gone, tears are no more.

Dear Christian, there will come a day when every fear, every grief, every pain you have will be no more.

There is a day, and it is not far off, when you will have no worry about tomorrow.

When you will not spend another restless night.

When you will abide with your loving Father, unseparated, face-to-face, forever.

Isaiah here is seeing the end of God’s redemption story, begun in Genesis, in the Garden, before the Fall of our first parents.

He is seeing here the point of EVERYTHING God has done in all His mysterious providence:

The salvation of His people.

Their rescue from the curse.

And see the declaration of His people on that day in verse 9:

It will be said on that day, “Behold, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.”

No longer “I waste away!”

Now it is “We have waited for Him!”

They are not complaining about the wait – nothing of the sort.

They are declaring the fulfillment of the hope that they have kept all along.

“We have waited in faith through the trials, the pain, the loss,

The thorns, the death, the mourning,

And we have waited for this very moment – the salvation of our God!”

This isn’t their complaint – it is their TESTIMONY.

God has fulfilled every promise in Christ Jesus.

For all the promises of God find their Yes in [Jesus Christ]. That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory. 21 And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, 22 and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.– 2 Corinthians 1:20-22

It is exactly right if you see God as your only hope – He IS your only hope.

It is ALWAYS He who saves, He who rescues you, He who loves you more than anyone else.

If you are in Christ, that IS your hope – not in momentary comforts now, but in eternal comforts that begin to be realized now.

But while you are still in this flesh, this tent we call a body, there will continue to be trials and difficulty and pain.

But NONE of it, not one second of it, is USELESS to God.

Not one bruise is unnoticed by your loving Father.

Not one moment of fear is ignored by your gracious and merciful lord.

And not one need you have is outside His great care.