Isaiah (Part 2)
F-260 2019 • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 36:30
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Jesus and the other New Testament Apostles and saints quoted Isaiah often. One that I often quote is when Paul wrote to the Roman believers about how only the gospel message has the power to bring salvation to those who have never heard about Christ and so it is imperative that we take that message to them. They can be saved no other way, Paul says.
8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. 14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
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Here, Paul is quoting Isaiah when teaching on how someone can come to faith and be saved, and that is where we have come today in our journey through the OT.
7 How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of the herald, who proclaims peace, who brings news of good things, who proclaims salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!”
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Isaiah describes Israel’s salvation, God as warrior will fight for them and save them,
8 The voices of your watchmen— they lift up their voices, shouting for joy together; for every eye will see when the Lord returns to Zion. 9 Be joyful, rejoice together, you ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord has comforted his people; he has redeemed Jerusalem. 10 The Lord has displayed his holy arm in the sight of all the nations; all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God. 11 Leave, leave, go out from there! Do not touch anything unclean; go out from her, purify yourselves, you who carry the vessels of the Lord. 12 For you will not leave in a hurry, and you will not have to take flight; because the Lord is going before you, and the God of Israel is your rear guard.
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And this is how the Great Warrior (the Messiah) will save them...
13 See, my servant will be successful; he will be raised and lifted up and greatly exalted. 14 Just as many were appalled at you— his appearance was so disfigured that he did not look like a man, and his form did not resemble a human being— 15 so he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths because of him, for they will see what had not been told them, and they will understand what they had not heard. 1 Who has believed what we have heard? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? 2 He grew up before him like a young plant and like a root out of dry ground. He didn’t have an impressive form or majesty that we should look at him, no appearance that we should desire him. 3 He was despised and rejected by men, a man of suffering who knew what sickness was. He was like someone people turned away from; he was despised, and we didn’t value him. 4 Yet he himself bore our sicknesses, and he carried our pains; but we in turn regarded him stricken, struck down by God, and afflicted. 5 But he was pierced because of our rebellion, crushed because of our iniquities; punishment for our peace was on him, and we are healed by his wounds. 6 We all went astray like sheep; we all have turned to our own way; and the Lord has punished him for the iniquity of us all. 7 He was oppressed and afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not open his mouth. 8 He was taken away because of oppression and judgment; and who considered his fate? For he was cut off from the land of the living; he was struck because of my people’s rebellion. 9 He was assigned a grave with the wicked, but he was with a rich man at his death, because he had done no violence and had not spoken deceitfully. 10 Yet the Lord was pleased to crush him severely. When you make him a guilt offering, he will see his seed, he will prolong his days, and by his hand, the Lord’s pleasure will be accomplished. 11 After his anguish, he will see light and be satisfied. By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will carry their iniquities. 12 Therefore I will give him the many as a portion, and he will receive the mighty as spoil, because he willingly submitted to death, and was counted among the rebels; yet he bore the sin of many and interceded for the rebels.
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Isaiah prophesied 700 years before Christ that the Messiah would suffer and die and would bear our sin and intercede for us. And after his death he would receive the many as a portion and the mighty as spoil.
Jesus died and rose again for us, bearing our sins and interceding for us, and will rescue us as his own, or will bring death to those who reject him. We only have this life to choose.
Jump over to the last couple chapters of Isaiah, chapters 65-66 and as Isaiah is coming to a close we see him prophesying about a new creation
17 “For I will create a new heaven and a new earth; the past events will not be remembered or come to mind. 18 Then be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I will create Jerusalem to be a joy and its people to be a delight. 19 I will rejoice in Jerusalem and be glad in my people. The sound of weeping and crying will no longer be heard in her. 20 In her, a nursing infant will no longer live only a few days, or an old man not live out his days. Indeed, the one who dies at a hundred years old will be mourned as a young man, and the one who misses a hundred years will be considered cursed. 21 People will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22 They will not build and others live in them; they will not plant and others eat. For my people’s lives will be like the lifetime of a tree. My chosen ones will fully enjoy the work of their hands. 23 They will not labor without success or bear children destined for disaster, for they will be a people blessed by the Lord along with their descendants. 24 Even before they call, I will answer; while they are still speaking, I will hear. 25 The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like cattle, but the serpent’s food will be dust! They will not do what is evil or destroy on my entire holy mountain,” says the Lord. 1 This is what the Lord says: Heaven is my throne, and earth is my footstool. Where could you possibly build a house for me? And where would my resting place be? 2 My hand made all these things, and so they all came into being. This is the Lord’s declaration. I will look favorably on this kind of person: one who is humble, submissive in spirit, and trembles at my word.
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God looks favorably on this kind of person. We want to be this kind of person
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He goes on to describe people within the nation have chosen, some to follow Him, some who follow false gods.
3 One person slaughters an ox, another kills a person; one person sacrifices a lamb, another breaks a dog’s neck; one person offers a grain offering, another offers pig’s blood; one person offers incense, another praises an idol— all these have chosen their ways and delight in their abhorrent practices. 4 So I will choose their punishment, and I will bring on them what they dread because I called and no one answered; I spoke and they did not listen; they did what was evil in my sight and chose what I did not delight in.
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God looks favorable on those who are humble, submissive in spirit, and tremble at His word. He then listed people who chose to serve Him and people who chose to serve false gods and live lawless lives. God lets us choose to worship Him or reject Him, but God chooses punishment and reward.
It is up to us to decide if we will worship God or not. It is not up to us to choose the consequences of our decision. We are loved by God, but we will also stand before Him when we die. Don’t forsake His love. Don’t reject Him.
We must all choose to worship the God who actually exists, and made us, or to reject Him. Everyone must choose. It’s too important not to address. He goes on to talk about how He will punish and execute judgment against all those who reject Him, and that brings us to the last three verses of Isaiah.
22 “For just as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, will remain before me”— this is the Lord’s declaration— “so your offspring and your name will remain. 23 All mankind will come to worship me from one New Moon to another and from one Sabbath to another,” says the Lord. 24 “As they leave, they will see the dead bodies of those who have rebelled against me; for their worm will never die, their fire will never go out, and they will be a horror to all mankind.”
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Three things --
Verse 22 — The Messiah has come and ushered in the new kingdom, but not completely yet. What no one realized was that the kingdom would come in two stages. Jesus came, died for our sins and redeemed us, and brought the kingdom into our midst. The kingdom of God is now among us, but He did not fulfill everything that He has promised to fulfill YET. He said he would come a second time to finish establishing the kingdom, which will include judgment of all sin, and death, and the creation of a new heavens and earth and a complete establishment of the kingdom. But for now, he is being patient, allowing more and more people the opportunity to come into existence and have an eternal relationship with the Father.
Verse 23 — He desires His kingdom and family to be made up of all people on the earth, not just the Israelites. He told the Israelites that they were a chosen people set apart for the purpose of showing the rest of the nations how to enter the kingdom of God and be saved.
Verse 24 — But God gives us free will to choose to submit to Him as our king or to reject His rule over us. And we have one life to choose. One life, where no one is promised a certain number of years. We never know how long we will be here so we must decide. The scripture says, Today is the day of salvation
19 That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and he has committed the message of reconciliation to us. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf: “Be reconciled to God.” 21 He made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. 1 Working together with him, we also appeal to you, “Don’t receive the grace of God in vain.” 2 For he says: At an acceptable time I listened to you, and in the day of salvation I helped you. See, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!
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Father, we love You. We don’t deserve Your love, but are eternally grateful for it. We love You, Father. Help us to be faithful to the mission that You have given us.