The Joy of Salvation in the Death of Death
Notes
Transcript
Intro
Intro
Where we were, in the midst of judgement.
Like moses on the shore of the Red Sea, we must be ready to rejoice at God’s judgement and his deliverance
Our passage today is in part that rejoicing.
Exalting God in his Judgement
Exalting God in his Judgement
v1-5
When things go well for us we generally start to take things for granted.
First time we buy a nice car, we are so thankful and rejoicing in what we have received.
Next time, we’re looking at the defects and wishing we had got the other model.
It is important that with God we always take a position of humility and praise. We ought not take his deliverance and judgment for granted.
Even if you’ve been hearing this message all your life, continually pursue humility before the LORD.
When we understand God’s judgment, and grow to long for it, then we will be primed to rejoice when God brings it.
We’re now in ch 25 of Isaiah, and we have been in a cycle of judgments since Ch 14. It culminated in ch 24 where God “decreated” the world.
God is going to bring judgement on all, from the highest heaven to the earth. God will punish the wicked.
Right off the back of that, Isaiah starts parising god in a kind of Psalm:
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.
In the midst of judgement, Is want to claim the LORD as his own - “my Elohim”
Talk more about Elohim tonight, but the ancient mindset says those people over there have their elohim, their gods, and we over here have mine.
Isaiah claims the elohim who is over the whole world as his own. He belongs to the God of Gods.
Exalt = lift up. make high. He will confess the name of the LORD and lift it up.
Why? Because of the wonderful things God has done!
He is unfolding plans across history, and they are wonderful. They are great, they are good.
Even if we see the trial and the brokenness, God’s plan is still ongoing.
Like a construction site. We want to look at the mess and chaos and say “that doesn’t look good at all, infact it is a bit off-putting.
Yet the mess and chaos is part of the plan. The egg is broken to bake the cake. The rose is cut to bring forth the bloom. The scaffold is erected to restore the building.
God's plans are faithful and sure, and they are wonderful, even if we can;t see the finished product yet.
If you want to see the culmination of God’s plans, you have to be with him, and not under judgment.
Is the LORD “your Elohim”? Is he your God?
Isaiah continues his psalm, naming some of the wonderful things God has done:
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. Therefore strong peoples will glorify you; cities of ruthless nations will fear you.
The bad cities, the wicked cities of the earth have been overthrown.
Fortified cities are symbols of strength, and God has utterly destroyed them.
The reference to foreigners here is about prideful people who are not God’s people. The wicked other nations will have their pride cut out from under them, such as having their architectural masterpieces destroyed.
The arson attack a few years ago on Nortre Dame was like this. An Attack on Christianity, on beauty, on France.
It’s been renewed and restored.
If it had not been, it would have been the triumph of the attackers.
But the final judgment of God is such that
They have been humbled, and so others will look on in awe and they will fear God!
But the thing is that while God is a terror to the wicked and to the rebellious, he is a refuge to the poor an vulnerable:
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,
God is a refuge, he is safe for the weak and needy.
Like shade (we know the need for shade!)
God protects his weakest people, and he stands in the way like a wall against the storm. There is protection inside.
In fact God’s law is designed to protect the vulnerable (the truly vulnerable)
God looks out for his people, by judging his enemies:
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.
They won’t be singing for joy, because God overthrows them.
One of our greatest enemies is Death. An death too shall be overthrown.
Rejoicing in the Death of Death
Rejoicing in the Death of Death
v6-9
Isaiah sings as he prophesies of a great feast after judgment day
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.
In the wake of victory, there is celebration
“This mountain” God’s mountain.
Feast of the best food
Good drink and good food. The best!
Imageine such a setting, i God’s presence, eating the best food and drink!
In the last chapter wine lost it’s taste, here it is in it’s proper place once more.
This is a place of joy, of celebration, of feasting in the presence of the LORD.
It is celebration in the wake of Death’s destruction. Death is one of our greatest enemies, and it will be overthrown:
And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations. 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.
Death is cast like a veil over the whole world, but God will deal with it.
Death was a reward for sin. First brought on by Adam, then flows to others.
Everyone is affected by it, but God will take it away.
How will God take it away?
Jesus!
He came to deal with God’s enemies, Satan, Sin & Death.
Jesus lived the perfect life and then dies in our place, he atoned for our sin that causes death.
But then he also defeated death. Death could not hold him. He rose from the dead.
Now all who trust in Him will receive eternal life. They will not die the second death.
The LORD swallowed up death on this mountain!
Because of what Jesus has done, we can be right with God and escape judgment.
With the overthrow of death, the world can be set right, and suffering taken away. Pain will be removed, every tear wiped away from your eyes.
What pain are you looking forward to having removed?
Our sin is our reproach, the lord takes away the sin of his people, he has declared it.
We rejoice in response to this! Like Isaiah does:
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.”
This promise of God is Outlined again in Revelation:
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. 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.”
The Lord lays low the prideful
The Lord lays low the prideful
v10-12
But the text turns once again to the judgment of the proud, and Moab is specifically named here.
The contrast is clear - God’s people on his holy mountain enjoy paradise, those who pridefully stand against God will be laid low.
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.
The Lord reigns from his mountain, but prideful nations will be overthrown.
Moab will be trampled down.
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.
Moab will come to nothing when they try and work against God’s judgment.
And the high fortifications of his walls he will bring down, lay low, and cast to the ground, to the dust.
So What?
So What?
Exalt God in his judgment,
Rejoice in the death of death
Remember God lays low the prideful.
