Isaiah 27

In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea. 2 In that day, “A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! 3 I, the Lord, am its keeper; every moment I water it. Lest anyone punish it, I keep it night and day; 4 I have no wrath. Would that I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together. 5 Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.” 6 In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit. 7 Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? 8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind. 9 Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing. 10 For the fortified city is solitary, a habitation deserted and forsaken, like the wilderness; there the calf grazes; there it lies down and strips its branches. 11 When its boughs are dry, they are broken; women come and make a fire of them. For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor. 12 In that day from the river Euphrates to the Brook of Egypt the Lord will thresh out the grain, and you will be gleaned one by one, O people of Israel. 13 And in that day a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost in the land of Assyria and those who were driven out to the land of Egypt will come and worship the Lord on the holy mountain at Jerusalem.

Target Date: Sunday, 4 August 2024

Thoughts on the Passage:

Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; hide yourselves for a little while until the fury has passed by. 21 For behold, the Lord is coming out from his place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity, and the earth will disclose the blood shed on it, and will no more cover its slain. - Isaiah 26:20-21

4 – The ESV is a bit misleading in the translation: it is not a wish that there were things to battle, but the subjunctive “if there would be”. It is a difficult formulation that KJV, Geneva, and NASB all seem to do well with; the implication is clearly that “in that day” there will be none of these remnants of the curse.

5 - Peace would be possible for any enemies of God’s people. In the Hebrew text the emphasis is on “with Me” in the first “Let him make peace with Me” and on “peace” in the second.

5 – It is not for God to make peace with His enemies – it is for them to seek peace with Him.

God does not negotiate with sin nor with sinners.

He has not reduced the power of His Law, the requirements of holiness, so you or anyone else could achieve them.

God’s Love is never at odds with His holiness, righteousness, justice, or majesty.

6 – What does God want ME to do as a believer? To blossom, grow, and fill the world with fruit.

7 – We remain, even diminished and chastened, so that we can grow as He intends.

Pruning is up to the wisdom of the keeper, not to the vine, who would never lose any branches at all.

But even in God’s severe pruning of our dead limbs, we are not uprooted, but established under His favorable eye – we have not been struck as His enemies have been.

8 – The judgments of God, the chastisements He made, are all spoken of in the past tense – they were done, and that judgment has had its full effect.

9 – The full effect of God’s sanctification of His people is that they shatter and grind to dust all the idols of this world.

They will no longer yearn for the blessings but for the One who blesses.

10 – The great artifacts of this world are abandoned in their hearts.

“If I were hungry, I would not tell you, for the world and its fullness are mine. 13 Do I eat the flesh of bulls or drink the blood of goats? 14 Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving, and perform your vows to the Most High, 15 and call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me.” – Psalm 50:12-15

Note that God’s deliverance is what glorifies them. This is not saying they will “praise” Him (although they might and should), but that they, in their delivered state, will, in themselves, not their words, glorify God.

Applications:

For the Christian:

What does God want for you?

To remove the diseased branches.

To attach you to the healthy Root.

To nurture you into bearing great fruit.

For the Backslidden:

For the Unconverted:

What does God want for you?

Make peace with Him.

No one who comes to Him on the terms of Jesus Christ alone will be cast out.

Sermon Text:

[Read Isaiah 26:20-27:13]

What does God want FOR you?

That’s not the question we often hear Christians asking in our day.

We are surrounded by people who would raise the question “What does God want FROM you?”

And it leads us into a litany of answers where people will suggest to us what we can do to please God:

He wants you to obey His Law.

He wants you to spread the gospel.

He wants you to change your culture.

And the ever popular: He wants you to be wealthy and healthy.

And the underlying assumption is that somehow, in some way, our efforts GIVE God something.

If you are a success, then people will glorify God more.

Put into a sports metaphor, you may see a quarterback point to the sky and give God the glory when he throws a touchdown pass,

But I don’t know if I have ever seen one give God the glory right after a 15-yard sack or an interception.

The problem is that we feel like God is COUNTING on us to succeed, to give Him a good name.

That our success is His success.

And perhaps even worse, we let ourselves think He NEEDS us to accomplish His work.

Many of us can quote Ephesians 2:8-10 by heart:

For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

It may just be me, but my eyes and ears go right to the “good works” – my brain saying “It says ‘good works’!”

It’s almost like the beginning of that sentence is “blah, blah, blah…good works!”

We are HIS workmanship.

We are HIS project.

We are HIS masterpiece.

We are HIS plan, HIS loving effort, HIS glorious result.

Or, as Isaiah puts it in our passage today, HIS vine.

Vv. 2-3 - A pleasant vineyard, sing of it! 3 I, the Lord, am its keeper…

This song is about a vineyard that God planned, created, built, and tends.

Everything in our passage today is about God’s work.

And we will see in it what God wants FOR you.

Notice first when this song is being sung. The song itself begins in the second verse of chapter 27, but here is the running start at it:

The closing verses of chapter 26 are anticipating the Lord’s final judgment.

But there is no denying the first verse of 27 is speaking of that great day:

In that day the Lord with his hard and great and strong sword will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, Leviathan the twisting serpent, and he will slay the dragon that is in the sea.

It is very similar to the vision John has of that same great day that we read in Revelation 20 this morning:

And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan - Revelation 20:2

So just like we saw the song of chapter 26 is the song of the church anticipating God’s promises, so chapter 27 is the song of the church in God’s paradise, God’s garden.

We aren’t told how long after the defeat of the enemies of God, including death, this song is being sung, and I don’t think it matters.

A day in the glorious presence of our Lord or a million years into our eternal home, the song will be the same, although it may indeed grow more rich for us each day.

When verse 2 begins, the scene changes to God’s vineyard, now not the ruined vineyard of chapter 5, but the glorious dwelling of eternity in God’s presence and care.

Verse 4 has God Himself proclaim: I have no wrath.

Why is there no wrath?

Because there is no sin, no curse remaining on all creation.

[If it were that] I had thorns and briers to battle! I would march against them, I would burn them up together.

If those remnants of the curse of sin remained, He would still be a terror to them.

But the great work of God is complete in His creation.

And even in the memory of His wrath, His fury, against sin, we see the remembrance of His mercy to His enemies:

V. 5 - Or let them lay hold of my protection, let them make peace with me, let them make peace with me.”

None of the curse gets into God’s restored garden, so the only hope anyone has is to lay hold of the only way He has provided to be admitted: to be found in Jesus Christ.

And the repeat of “let them make peace with me” is not simply a repeat for effect.

You could read it this way:

Let them make peace WITH ME; Let them make PEACE with me.

However you read this, know for certain: God is not NEGOTIATING for your salvation.

He is not telling you: if you do this much, I will save you.

He is not simplifying His holy requirements, dumbing down His perfect Law, so that some people can follow it.

He doesn’t agree to accept your sin because “you were born that way.”

Of course you were – you, everyone, is born sinful and alienated from God.

He isn’t declaring your sin is acceptable; He is declaring He will take your sin away from you and take you from your sin through Jesus Christ.

He declares to you and to everyone: I have given you Jesus Christ to be your salvation; repent and trust Him.

And if you have an unbelieving friend (or enemy) or if you have not followed Jesus Christ yourself, we are still living right now in the days of His mercy, the days when his enemies may come and lay hold of His salvation.

And anyone – anyone – who comes to Him, repenting of their old life and trusting in Jesus Christ for their new life will be saved.

For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.” - John 6:40

If you come to Him, trusting Him alone, He will bring you in.

There is no negotiation: “God, I will follow You if…”

This is surrender, pure and simple: “God, I plead for the mercy You have given through Jesus Christ…”

So, unbeliever, what does God want to do FOR you?

He wants to save you from the curse and terror of His terrifying judgment.

And if you will hear and come to that call, He will save you.

Otherwise, if you will hold on to your own control, your old life, there remains only judgment and everlasting fire:

V. 11 - For this is a people without discernment; therefore he who made them will not have compassion on them; he who formed them will show them no favor.

I assure you: you have never lived a single moment with “no favor” from God.

Even on your worst days, you breathed all the way through your sleep;

Your heart beat, your body worked.

Even on painful days, you had some blessing from God.

Even on dark days, there was some light from His mercy shining on you.

Perhaps in your self-pity, you cried out that God had abandoned you, but even that was not true.

He gave you the breath and the voice you used to curse Him.

But if you will not come to Him on His terms of peace, you will surely know years and decades uncountable that are entirely devoid of ANY of God’s mercy, any of His grace.

And if you reject Him, you will never know a happy, peaceful, or restful moment EVER again.

Because happiness and peace and rest are the fruits of God’s mercy.

Repent now, even in this moment, and cry out for His mercy through Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.

But what is it that God wants FOR the one who has turned to Him through Jesus Christ, who has found His grace and repentance?

We see it in verse 6:

In days to come Jacob shall take root, Israel shall blossom and put forth shoots and fill the whole world with fruit.

He wants to make you a healthy part of His great vineyard.

The first two verses of John 15 (and I would recommend reading the entire chapter this week):

“I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

In Romans 11, Paul talks of the former enemies of God being grafted in to the vine.

So Isaiah here also describes the work of God in making you, believer, into a branch that glorifies Him.

Verses 7-8 describe the work of God in making you a good vine:

Has he struck them as he struck those who struck them? Or have they been slain as their slayers were slain? 8 Measure by measure, by exile you contended with them; he removed them with his fierce breath in the day of the east wind.

Now you may think that sounds a LOT like God’s judgment:

Striking, slaying, exile, and removing.

Except the whole POINT of those verses is the fact that even though God has done those things, it has not completely destroyed them.

The great fire of God’s judgment on them did not consume them; it purified them. (if you will forgive the mixed metaphor)

God DESTROYS His enemies; He PRUNES His vines.

Notice that all those judgments are in the past tense: from the perspective of the song, they are done and finished.

He struck them – but not with the same fury by which He avenged them.

They were exiled, they were clipped.

They suffered loss, even great loss in this world’s measure.

But they were NEVER lost to God.

Believer, the work of God in your life will be painful at times.

Because His work FOR you is to remove those branches and shoots that are diseased from sin.

To cut off the things that tie you to this cursed world so you will be ready to thrive in His perfect world.

He will remove all the diseased parts so you can be attached to the healthy Root and thrive in Him eternally.

Verse 9 shows us more: Therefore by this the guilt of Jacob will be atoned for, and this will be the full fruit of the removal of his sin: when he makes all the stones of the altars like chalkstones crushed to pieces, no Asherim or incense altars will remain standing.

Notice that the obedience to God’s first commandment – to have no other gods – is a FRUIT of the removal of our sin.

And those idols we hold in our hearts – all of them will be crushed to dust.

But don’t miss this piece: it is WE who will be crushing our own idols because of God’s grace.

As God, through His Holy Spirit, works in our lives, lopping off the things of this world we love,

The things of this world that tempt us or cause us to desire to remain here,

We will, as a result, as a fruit of that sanctification, grind under our feet those very things we once lived for.

One by one, piece by piece, we are, if we are in Christ, being separated from this world.

All those tendrils and shoots, all those roots that we think we cannot live without, cut off so that we can be made complete in God’s vineyard.

My friend, my brother or sister, what do you fear losing from your life?

What, if some cataclysm destroyed everything in your life, would you most mourn?

What of those, if God came and told you He was removing it, would you plead with Him not to take away?

Job? Wealth? Treasures? Health? Reputation? Relationship?

Idolatry is real.

I am not saying we will not mourn in this life – of course we will.

But know that God’s loving care for you, even in the hardest times, is according to His perfect and eternal purpose that is shaping you by His loving and unfailing hand.

Everything that happens to you accomplishes by His providence either the removal of something ruined or the building of something redeemed.

Every single thing.

And it is all for His glory.

call upon me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. – Psalm 50:15

For years, I read that verse wrong. And it all had to do with misunderstanding what “glorify” means. And I don’t think I am alone in misunderstanding.

You see, I would read that and think it was saying this:

“I will deliver you, and you will praise Me, say good things about me, thank me.”

But that is not the promise here at all.

What God is saying is that when we have called on Him in the day of trouble, He will deliver you and YOU will glorify Him.

It’s not about what you say – it’s about what you ARE.

You – that delivered and perfected person who has been through the trial and have called out to God in faith – you are a glory TO Him.

You, that great work of God, shaped by joy and sorrow, triumph and loss, ARE glorifying Him because of what you are becoming, not solely on what you are declaring.

And He does this uniquely for EACH of His children, His people:

V. 12 - you will be gleaned one by one…

Individually, we are brought in to His great assembly, the church:

V. 13 - will come and worship the Lord…